God of War Weapons List: the Name of Every Weapon Kratos Has Used

Kratos has gone through more weapons than almost any hero in games, and most of them came off the body of someone he'd just killed. This list covers every weapon he has held that exists as a real object in the story, across both of his lives: the Greek one told from God of War (2005) to God of War III, and the Norse one told in God of War (2018), Ragnarök and the Valhalla epilogue. Pure upgrades, skins and spells that are only gameplay are left out. Each entry links to the full article on that weapon and ends with the game or comic it comes from.

Greek era#

Kratos got most of his arsenal in Greece, and he got it the hard way. Few of these were gifts. The order below follows his life rather than the release order of the games, so Chains of Olympus comes before the first God of War and Ghost of Sparta comes before God of War II.

Arms of Sparta#

Before any god took an interest in him, Kratos fought as a mortal captain of Sparta with a red-tipped spear and a bronze shield marked with the lambda. Years later, when he went home looking for his brother Deimos, the Last Spartan handed the old spear and shield back to him. Kratos gave them to Deimos for the fight against Thanatos, and after Deimos died he left them on his brother's grave. See the full Arms of Sparta article. (God of War: Ghost of Sparta)

Blades of Chaos#

Ares gave Kratos the Blades of Chaos when the Spartan, facing death at the hands of a barbarian horde, offered his life in exchange for victory. They were forged in the Underworld, and their chains were burned into his forearms as a mark of his servitude. Ares later tricked Kratos into killing his wife and daughter with them, which is what made him the Ghost of Sparta. He kept the blades through his war on the Furies and his ten years in the service of the gods, until Ares tore them off his arms in their final fight. (God of War; God of War: Ascension)

Sun Shield#

During his years serving Olympus, Kratos took the Sun Shield, the personal shield of Helios, from the sun god's throne in his temple. It let him block and turn back attacks while he chased Helios's captor into the Underworld. Once Persephone was beaten and the sun was back in the sky, Helios took his shield back. Our shields overview covers it alongside his later ones. (God of War: Chains of Olympus)

Gauntlet of Zeus#

Hephaestus built this enormous gauntlet for Zeus, who used it to chain the Titans inside Tartarus. Kratos found it in the Temple of Zeus, and its blows could smash stone and iron and hurt even immortals. He used it to kill Persephone as she tried to bring down the Pillar of the World. Read more in the Gauntlet of Zeus article. (God of War: Chains of Olympus)

Blade of Artemis#

Artemis gave Kratos her own great curved sword, the blade she'd once used to kill a Titan, while he fought his way through Pandora's Temple to reach the box that could kill Ares. It was slow and heavy but hit far harder than the Blades of Chaos. It drops out of the story after he became the new God of War. The full story is in the Blade of Artemis article. (God of War)

Head of Medusa#

Kratos tore the head off the Gorgon Medusa in the ruins of Athens and kept it as a weapon. Its gaze still worked after her death, so he could hold it up and turn his enemies to stone. (God of War)

Blade of the Gods#

The Blade of the Gods was a colossal sword the gods had laid across the cliffs outside Athens, where it served as a bridge. In the final battle Ares had stripped Kratos of the Blades of Chaos, but the power of Pandora's Box had made Kratos as tall as a god, so he picked up the bridge and fought with it. He drove it through Ares and killed him, which made Kratos the new God of War. (God of War)

Blades of Athena#

As a reward for killing Ares, Athena gave Kratos the Blades of Athena, new chained blades without the bloody history of the old ones. They glowed with his godly power, then dulled to plain steel when Zeus drained that power at Rhodes. Kratos carried them for the rest of the Greek era until he fell into the River Styx, whose souls stripped them of their strength. (God of War; God of War II; God of War III)

Blade of Olympus#

Zeus created the Blade of Olympus to end the first Great War against the Titans. At Rhodes he tricked Kratos into pouring all his godly power into it, then killed him with it. Kratos escaped death, used the power of the Sisters of Fate to go back to that day, and won the sword back, though the blow he meant for Zeus killed Athena instead. In his last war he turned it on Cronos, Zeus and Gaia, then drove it into his own chest to release the power of Hope. Long after, in Valhalla, he summoned it again from his own memories. (God of War II; God of War III; God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla)

Typhon's Bane#

Kratos tore this bow out of the eye of the Titan Typhon after climbing through the giant's lair. It fired blasts of wind instead of arrows. He used it on his way to the Island of Creation and to free Prometheus from his torment. (God of War II)

Barbarian Hammer#

The Barbarian King, whom Kratos had beaten long ago with Ares's help, was sent back from the dead to face him again in the Bog of the Forgotten. Kratos beat him a second time, crushing his head with his own hammer, and took the Barbarian Hammer, a huge spiked maul that could call up souls from the Underworld to fight beside him. (God of War II)

Golden Fleece#

The Golden Fleece was the famous prize of the Argonaut Jason. Kratos found it in the Bog of the Forgotten on the Island of Creation, inside the Mole Cerberus that had eaten Jason's arm, and ripped it out of the beast's mouth. Worn on his arm, it could block attacks and throw them back, even a Gorgon's stare. He wore it right up to his final fight with Zeus, when it was lost with the rest of his gear. (God of War II; God of War III)

Head of Euryale#

Medusa's sister Euryale fought Kratos in her temple to avenge her sibling, and he cut her head off too. Like Medusa's, her head could turn enemies to stone, and unlike Medusa's it worked on other Gorgons too. (God of War II)

Spear of Destiny#

The Spear of Destiny belonged to the Fates and was carried by the Dark Rider, who attacked Kratos in the air on the way to the Island of Creation. Kratos wrenched it away, stabbed the rider and brought down his griffin, then later, after the fight with Euryale, found the spear in the beast's body in the Lowlands. It cut in wide arcs and fired explosive crystal shards. What happened to it after he went back in time is never told. (God of War II)

Blades of Exile#

After the River Styx ruined the Blades of Athena, the spirit of Athena appeared to Kratos in the Underworld and remade them into the Blades of Exile. They were fire-spitting chained blades in the same style as his earlier pairs, and they let him call up a phalanx of Spartan spirits. They were his main weapon for the rest of the war on Olympus and one of the few to survive it. (God of War III)

Bow of Apollo#

Kratos found the mortal Peirithous, lover of Persephone, locked in a cage of brambles by Hades. He killed the prisoner and took his fiery bow, the Bow of Apollo. Its burning arrows could clear brambles and hit enemies at range. (God of War III)

Claws of Hades#

Hades fought Kratos with the Claws of Hades, hooked chains that ripped souls out of their victims. Kratos turned the claws on their owner, tore the god's own soul from his body and kept the weapon. With it he could pull souls out of enemies and call up the spirits of beasts he'd beaten. (God of War III)

Head of Helios#

After bringing Helios down from the sky, Kratos pulled the wounded sun god's head off with his bare hands. The head still gave off light, so Kratos carried it as a lantern that lit dark places, showed hidden paths and blinded his enemies. (God of War III)

Nemean Cestus#

His half-brother Hercules wore the Nemean Cestus, lion-headed gauntlets, when he challenged Kratos for the title of God of War. Kratos tore them off him and beat him to death with them. They were the only weapons that could break onyx, which made them the key to several fights later in the war. (God of War III)

Nemesis Whip#

Hephaestus forged the Nemesis Whip after Kratos brought him the Omphalos Stone from inside Cronos. The smith god meant to use it to kill Kratos, but the Spartan turned it on him and killed him instead. Its bladed chains crackled with lightning. (God of War III)

Near the end of the war, the astral form of Zeus struck Kratos down in the ruins of Mount Olympus, and most of these weapons were destroyed or lost. Only a few, among them the Blades of Exile and the Blade of Olympus, made it to the last fight. So did the Boots of Hermes, the winged boots he had cut from the messenger god. (God of War III)

Norse era#

Kratos left Greece with nothing he wanted to keep. In Midgard his weapons came from his second wife and from two feuding dwarf smiths, and for the first time he held back from using all of them.

Leviathan Axe#

The dwarf brothers Brok and Sindri forged the Leviathan Axe to match Mjolnir, the hammer they'd made for Thor and come to regret. It belonged to Faye, and she left it to Kratos when she died. Its runes gave it frost magic and let it fly back to his hand when thrown. He carried it across the Nine Realms to scatter her ashes and through every fight that followed. (God of War (2018); God of War Ragnarök)

Guardian Shield#

The Guardian Shield was a round shield that folded down onto Kratos's left gauntlet. He used it to block, parry and bash. Mjolnir smashed it during his first fight with Thor in Ragnarök, and Sindri later returned it repaired. (God of War (2018); God of War Ragnarök)

Blades of Chaos (reclaimed)#

Kratos tried to be rid of the Blades of Chaos after Greece, but they kept coming back to him. He wrapped them in red cloth and hid them under the floor of his house in the Wildwoods. When Atreus fell ill and the cure lay in Helheim, where the axe's frost was useless, he dug them up and bound the chains to his arms again. They stayed with him through the war that followed, and Surtr drew on their primordial fire to become Ragnarök itself and burn Asgard. See the Blades of Chaos article for their full history. (God of War: Fallen God; God of War (2018); God of War Ragnarök)

Draupnir Spear#

To beat Heimdall, whose foresight let him read any attack, Brok came up with a plan built around Draupnir, a ring that made copies of itself. He and Kratos took the ring to the Lady of the Forge, who joined it to the head of a spear Brok had brought. The Draupnir Spear could be thrown again and again, each throw making a new copy, and the copies could be set off at once. Kratos used it to swamp Heimdall's senses and kill him, and it served him against Odin at the end. (God of War Ragnarök)