
Depending on what shield you equip, it’s easy to forget how powerful your shield bashing can get. Throwing your axe at twilight stones can stun foes, while poison flowers in Vanaheim can be triggered to spew toxins at nearby enemies. In different realms, you may notice certain hazards or objects in a fight that can be used against other enemies. With that being the case, don’t feel like you need to unlock all of his early skills at once if you would rather save it up. Atreus starts the game with a very small skill tree, but you should expect it to expand over time.
You should also plan to allocate some experience towards increasing the power of your Runic Skills and Runic Summons, and also improve the ability of Kratos’ Spartan Rage.
It’s easy to forget that experience you earn is not just used to purchase new skills. This allows you to get exp for doing various things enough times (Swinging Trees, Throwing Rocks, shattering frozen enemies, etc), so be sure to vary up your moves! As you progress through the game, more optional challenges will appear in the Labors tab of your goals menu. Poisoned enemies may sometimes become weakened enough that their unblockable attacks are now blockable (but can still stagger you if not perfectly timed). Poisoning enemies will cause their color to change - but also if you are poisoned! Orange health bars are enemies one level higher, purple are two levels higher, and red health bars are 3 or more levels (and should be avoided!). Green health bars are a bit lower than your level, while yellow is equal to you. Enemy Health bars will change color relative to your level - and while regular enemies display their power level number, bosses do not. However, you can use certain companion skills, gear, and hazards to do the same to enemies (including bosses), which will lower their level and their stats making it easier to kill them. Take enough damage, and the poison will weaken you and (temporarily) increase an enemy’s level compared to you. Poison in Ragnarok isn’t just about damage over time. If you no longer wish to perform them by accident, you can disable skills you don't like in the skills menu by pressing Triangle.
Certain skills allow you to perform new combos or attacks by spacing your button presses. Save often, and if you’re on a linear story mission and are feeling underpowered on higher difficulties, you may want to explore a bit more first. God of War: Ragnarok allows for 60 manual save files. The Blades of Chaos can be used to pull enemies towards you, but certain enemies like Nightmares and Exploding Wretches can be grabbed and thrown like bombs to damage other enemies.