God of War: Ragnarok embraces its RPG elements more than many other modern games of its kind, which means that you’ll want to constantly upgrade Kratos and Atreus as you progress in order to survive the adventure’s toughest encounters. So far as that goes, there are few better ways to upgrade your heroes than to find the best armor sets in the game.
The good news is that most Ragnarok players will be able to find a steady stream of armor upgrades as they progress through the game. However, those looking for the absolute best armor sets in Ragnarok will need to go a little further out of their way. In most cases, I can assure you that your efforts will be worth it.
Please note that players are still discovering some of Ragnarok‘s biggest secrets, and we’ll be updating this article if and when players find previously undiscovered armor sets worth talking about. For now, here are some of the best armor sets for the early, middle, and late parts of Ragnarok.
God of War Ragnarok: How to Find the Steinbjorn Armor Set
Considered to be one of the best armor sets in Ragnarok, the “secret” Steinbjorn Armor set is perfect for those who want to laugh off all damage.
In fact, this armor’s chest piece includes a ridiculously overpowered perk that allows you to restore small amounts of health with every attack whenever you take significant damage. Its gauntlets and wristguards also grant you a small chance to inflict AOE stun damage whenever you take damage. This set just offers a fantastic blend of offense and defense.
Here’s what you’ll need to do to find the Steinbjorn armor set:
- Unlock the Draupnir Spear.
- Go to The Lost Treasury found southwest of Tyr’s Temple. You’ll find an ice wall you can break with the Draupnir Spear. Break that wall. Inside, you’ll find the Mystical Heirloom.
- Equip the Mystical Heirloom in order to unlock sleeping Troll statues found throughout the game’s world. The statues can be found at the Derelict Outpost in Midgard, Naotun’s Garden in Vanaheim, and, The Forbidden Sands in Alfheim.
- When all trolls are awakened and defeated, you’ll have acquired all of the resources necessary to craft the Steinbjorn Armor set.
God of War Ragnarok: How to Find the Nidavellir Armor Set
The Nidavellir armor set is arguably the best early-game armor set available in Ragnarok.
This incredible set not only allows you to stun enemies more easily but receive a nice health restoration bonus whenever you Stun Grab an enemy. The synergy is amazing, and this armor’s basic stats are good enough to justify running this set for quite a while if you choose to do so.
Here’s what you need to do to find the Nidavellir Armor Set:
- Accept the “In Service of Asgard” favor/sidequest.
- As part of that quest, you’ll be asked to destroy a few mining rigs. Destroying each rig will reward you with a special resource called Nidavellir Ore.
- Take that Ore back to the Huldra Brothers. They’ll forge the Nidavellir armor for you.
God of War Ragnarok: How to Find the Guiding Light Armor Set
If you’re looking to stay on the offensive as much as possible in Ragnarok, the Guiding Light armor set is for you.
This incredible armor set grants a Luck-based chance to greatly increase the overall power of Kratos’ weapons on every single hit. That effect turns you into a whirling powerhouse of melee mayhem, and it procs surprisingly often for such a powerful damage boost.
Here’s what you need to do to find the Guiding Light Armor Set
- Locate one of the four Tyr’s Statue wreckage sites in Lake of Nine. They are all located to the North of Tyr’s Temple.
- Interacting with the sites will allow you to accept the “Guiding Light” favor.
- Near each wreckage site is a small “dig spot” that will grant you another piece of Guiding Light armor when interacted with.
- Technically, only the Tyr’s Right Bracer, Tyr’s Left Bracer, and Tyr’s Helmet wreckage sites contain the dig spots that yield armor pieces. The Tyr’s Spear dig site just grants you Jotunheim’s Essence. Definitely pick that up while you’re nearby, but it’s not needed to complete the set.
God of War Ragnarok: How to Find the Vidar’s Might Armor Set
While not flashy by any means, the Vidar’s Might Set offers two distinct advantages.
First off, it can be obtained very early in the game by completing a fairly easy main quest. Second, it offers some very nice base stats as well as some incredible combo perks that are especially useful for those relatively confident in their abilities to chain attacks together. It’s just a fantastic overall set that you’ll get a lot of mileage out of if you choose to upgrade it early on.
You’ll unlock the first piece of this set (Vidar’s Pauldron of Might) after completing the “Surviving Fimbulwinter” quest as part of the main story. As far as I know, you can’t really miss it. The other pieces (Vidar’s Bracers of Might and Vidar’s Belt of Might) can be crafted for 500 Hacksilver once the armor crafting option is available.
God of War Ragnarok: How to Find the Lunda’s Armor Set
This incredible armor set grants absurd damage bonuses whenever you poison enemies. While the poison abilities in Ragnarok tend to be kind of hit-and-miss in terms of their overall value, the fact that Lunda’s Lost Cuirass grants a high-proc chance to deal poison damage to enemies with every bare-handed attack means that you’ll actually be poisoning enemies far more often than you’re used to. Once those enemies are poisoned, this set’s other perks will help you melt through them.
Overall, this set is certainly worth upgrading if you’re comfortable utilizing bare-handed melee attacks. You may have to swap it out from time to time to deal with certain challenges, but it’s fantastic for most of the game’s basic encounters.
Here’s what you need to do to find Lunda’s Armor Set:
- Travel to Vanaheim
- Complete the Nidhogg boss fight
From there, you’ll need to locate a few pieces of “lost armor” that you’ll use to craft the actual armor pieces.
The first piece (Lunda’s Broken Belt) can be found in Noatun’s Garden in Vanaheim. There, you’ll find a chamber door that you can open with your Chisel. The piece is in a chest behind that door.
The second piece (Lunda’s Broken Bracers) can be found at the Cliffside Ruins in Vanaheim. There’s a red chest found in the Ruins that contains the item you’re looking for.
The final piece (Lunda’s Broken Cuirass) can be found at The Veiled Passage in Vanaheim. There, you’ll find a basic chest (it should be easily spotted on the map) that contains the final item.
When you have every piece, you’ll need to take them back to Lunda at the River Delta in Vanaheim. You’ll now be able to craft this powerful set.
God of War Ragnarok: How to Find the Raven Tears Armor Set
While some of the best armor in Ragnarok actually offers substantial offensive benefits, there will obviously be times when you’ll want pure defensive abilities from your best armor pieces. For those times, you may want to turn to the Raven Tears set.
So far as pure stats go, the Raven Tears armor set will allow you to survive a lot of incoming attacks with minimal upgrades and effort required. More importantly, the full set bonuses not only increase the effectiveness of your primary healing resources but actually grants a small “Healing Mist” proc chance that will grant you additional health restoration during most fights. This might be the best survivability armor in the game and is arguably essential for those playing on higher difficulty settings.
You’ll unlock individual pieces of this armor set as you find Odin’s ravens throughout the game’s world. Odin’s ravens are one of the game’s main collectible items, though you should be able to find quite a few of them through the relatively normal course of play. Specifically, here’s how many ravens you’ll need to find in order to unlock each armor piece:
Girdle of Raven Tears Armor – 6 Ravens
Bracers of Raven Tears Armor – 12 Ravens
Cuirass of Raven Tears Armor – 18 Ravens
The Girdle will be a nice early upgrade for a lot of players, though you’ll want to eventually get the full set if you’re looking to maximize the incredible full benefits that those items offer when combined.
God of War Ragnarok: How to Find the Radiance Armor Set
Ragnarok is filled with powerful special abilities (we’ll have more to say about those in a separate article), but fans of 2018’s God of War know that few skills are more powerful than the ability to (fairly) consistently slow down time. Thankfully, the Radiance armor set allows you to do just that.
This amazing armor rewards you for perfect dodges and evasions. While the full set actually grants several amazing buffs for playing defensively, the prize of the package is the ability to activate Realm Shift whenever you perform a last-second evasion. That effect not only slows down time but allows you to immediately take advantage of the other evasion perks you get with this set. Utilizing this armor requires you to master your evasion abilities, but the payoff is worth it.
Here’s how you unlock the Radiance Armor Set:
- Progress through the main story until you reach Alfheim.
- When given the option, choose to keep exploring Alfheim rather than proceed through the rest of the story.
Once you’re able to roam Alfheim, head north to the open area known as The Barrens. You’ll be able to find each piece of the Radiance Armor at the following locations in the Barrens.
- Gauntlets of Radiance Wrist Armor – Found at a temple at one of the northernmost points in the Barrens. Defeat the enemies at the temple to unlock a Legendary Chest containing this piece.
- Belt of Radiance Waist Armor – In the Barrens, you’ll find a massive skeleton laying out in the open. Head inside the skeleton and defeat the enemies that appear in this area. That will unlock another Legendary Chest containing this valuable piece.
- Shoulder Straps of Radiance Chest Armor – This piece is actually part of the “Secret of the Sands” favor that you get from Sindri. At the end of this very long quest, you’ll find a Legendary Chest that contains the Shoulder Straps of Radiance, as well as a Whispering Slab.