How Strong is Kratos?
Greetings! This document is not a typical character blog, but rather a short analysis of Kratos’ showings of strength, using his feats and feats from characters he scales to. I will not be using any social media posts (Twitter, Facebook, Etc.) for this short blog. Such posts usually open with leading VS-centric questions or can even be fabricated (looking at you Devil May Cry). I will be using the primary canon (Video Games), secondary canon (Novels and Comics) and interviews/developer blogs. Game Guides will also be used while keeping note if they were retconned or not.
View here for GOW1 and 2 PS2 Manuals, GOW1&2 Artbook, GOW1 Prima Guide, GOW2018 Artbook and Lore & Legends, GOW2018 Prima. GoW3 Game Guide. Comic for Fallen God. Novelization of GOW 1, 2, and 2018. The art of God of War 2018. Artbooks for Ragnarok and GOW 2 can be found on Youtube. Imgur collecting all item descriptions from Ragnarok here. God of War: The Lost Pages of Norse Myth linked here.
Credit to Kratos’ current respect thread for some gifs used in this blog. I will also be using portions of the prior Kratos G1 blog that I specifically wrote (part of the Q/A in that blog). Some calculations will be linked for support. Credit to Kepekley for some of them.
Cory Barlog on Kratos’ Strength
In a developer blog with Santa Monica Studio’s Denny Yeh it is mentioned the first boss fight with Baldur in God of War 2018 would have had Kratos breaking a mountain in half with a punch. This was removed due to better show that Kratos is currently rusty and not in top condition. The notion that Kratos at his peak can cause destruction on this level is supported by Cory Balrog in a Let’s play interview with Game Informer. In this Interview Cory goes over gameplay and story segregation and notes Kratos can lift the World with Atlas yet struggles with gates (the gameplay limitation). Cory also mentions the limitations with the available technology and staff in regard to large boss fights (6:28- 7:25).
So is a mountain busting, world lifting Kratos supported at all by any of the source material? Very much so:
Feats
Ascension Kratos (earliest and weakest iteration of Kratos) can lift and move city blocks built on the Hecatoncheires. This same Kratos stopped one of Alecto's tentacles which can throw ships and pull down large structures. Kratos (while rusty) made a canyon in his fight with Baldur and later he lifted Tyr’s temple (and put in the force to move a massive bridge via its mechanism). With his bare hands he can stop a strike from the massive Hippocampi. He can also throw the gigantic Colossus a distance away. Kratos can stop the massive Cronos (large enough to hold Pandora’s Temple on his back) from crushing him. Cronos is stated in Sony documents to be 500 meters tall and in game models have him at 604 meters tall. For support, Kratos can grapple equally with Hades, who with the same chains can hold down Cronos.
Ares and Zues are the staples for a “mountain buster” view on God of War. Ares can create massive spikes of earth the size of Mountains and cause earthquakes throughout Athens. Zeus is implied to have trapped Typhon under a mountain, like in actual myth. Zeus having this level of power is consistent with him being to affect the entire Mediterranean. The Fire Steeds crash into the world in Chains, creating a massive explosion in this range as well. The Steeds survive the impact.
More importantly, Kratos has enough strength to avoid being crushed by Atlas. Atlas has the strength to hold the world itself. Kratos is able to stop Atlas from killing him, albeit the novel does treat this as Kratos’ limit at the time. Kratos then gains Atlas’ magic, which after growing used to it, gives him the power to shake the world. This lines up with the God of War Ascension Multiplayer (which is canon, source: Ascension Artbook) having the Hammer of Atlas, which is described as having the weight of the World. The hammer can be wielded by the Redeemed Warrior of the game (a random champion of the Gods) who is weaker than Kratos.
But what does it mean to “hold the world”? Concept art for God of War 3 depicts Greece as a flat disk supported by the World Pillar, though now it is Atlas who holds up both the Greek Plate and Mount Olympus (bottom left of the image). Mount Olympus is stated in a game guide to take 3 days to fully fall from the top. Discrepancy can be argued based on game visuals, but novels do support the mountain being massive. Per this statement Olympus would be 14400 Kilometers tall.
Calculations can vary on validity, but for the sake of adding a number to the Atlas Hammer I will be using this calculation that uses the Earth’s Crust as a basis. This is technically a lowball since the Diameter of the Greek Disk in Gow is 42509 km, larger than the diameter of IRL Earth. This distance is at least valid novel-wise, as it takes 6 days of Pegasus traveling at fast speeds to reach the Isle of Creation, which is part of the edge of the Greek Disc. The result for swinging the hammer is 3.6 petatons of tnt (Continental levels of power). This lines up with numbers for Atlas lifting the Greek Disc and Atlas swinging his hammer. Let's talk about narrative consistency for a moment.
The World Pillar
A massive structure that connects the Underworld to the realms/dimensions above it, that being the Domain of Death and the Mortal World. The destruction of said pillar has the potential to destroy creation. Persephone herself says that all that came before would end and that the world would revert into Chaos if the pillar was gone. Kratos says in Ragnarok that all creation would have been destroyed if the Pillar was lost. There is even mythological precedent for this being this destructive:
Several Gods and Titans also have feats approaching this level of power:
-Helios is stated to be able to destroy the world itself and has the energy to destroy the World Pillar.
-Poseidon controls all the Oceans and his rage can create sea storms. Ascension establishes he controls all the Oceans in the World. He was also stated by Athena to be the ruler of "two thirds of all that is", which is a reference to the fact that 70% of the planet is covered in water.
-Hercules temporarily replaced Atlas in holding up the heavens so that he could retrieve the Apples of Hera. Kratos has outright bested Hercules, which adds further support to the Atlas argument.
-The death of the Gods affects the World and the Underworld. Poseidon’s death floods the Greek Plate (his death is stated to have flooded the lands), Helios death blocks out the sun via clouds across the sky, Zeus’ death generates storms across the World. (Calc for this if needed)
Support Feats:
- The Furies can warp reality with their illusions in order to create pocket dimensions, one of which has a massive storm (calc if needed). Furthermore, their death causes the collapse of their massive temple.
Novel 1 and 2 Feats:
- Zeus roars and shakes the foundations of the world (Novel 2)
- Zeus alters weather across the Mediterranean by breathing. (Novel 1)
- Poseidon controls multiple rivers and lakes across the world (Novel 2)
- Gaia breathes and creates continents. (Novel 2)
- Gaia is the world itself, and cracks entire continents (Novel 2)
There are also a few more novel statements which could be seen as hyperbolic. I will post them here for completion's sake:
- Ares roars and shakes the heavens and earth (Novel 1)
- Poseidon shakes the world by raising his fist. (Novel 1)
-Atreus thinks Kratos fighting Hraezlyr shook all of Midgard (Lore and Legends) (Might be true but impossible to verify)
God of War’s most powerful characters are capable of affecting several landmasses, supporting Cory’s comment about Kratos and Atlas being able to hold the World. You have Atlas and the imagery associated with him (he's holding up the Earth and his hammer strikes with the force of the world). Considering that Kratos can out muscle Baldur who knocked out the World Serpent, this checks out. For a moment I want to move into durability showings before we move into the much more controversial “cosmic” view on God of War.
Tough Spartan
Mortal Kratos has survived being launched out of a volcano during an eruption. Kratos survived close exposure to Ares’s death explosion, a detonation similar to nuclear blast. Speaking of nuclear blasts, at the end of the first novel Kratos sees the future and witnesses the detonation of a nuclear warhead. He comes to the conclusion that the blast would not harm him. Is this belief born from hubris? Much later in the timeline, Kratos survives Thamur’s frosty breath, which could previously freeze mountains for miles (statement). More directly, Kratos survived bites from Garm, who can consume entire mountain ranges. In God of War 3 he also survived a charged bolt from Zeus which ripped apart the massive Gaia. Kratos can certainly tank what he can dish out. But what about the pillar in God of War 1? To demonstrate it is not the anti-feat people think it is I will quote the G1 section I helped with:
“The pillar throw is described as being more powerful than anything Kratos had been hit with before (which would include the Furies, Persephone, etc.). Makes sense considering it's thrown by the God of War, whose own body is unharmed by his own death explosion (see his intact corpse in GOW 3) and can throw said pillar thousands of miles in mere seconds (or less).”
The attack is from Ares putting in all the strength he can to kill Kratos. Also, you can attribute this to piercing durability being separate from brunt force in God of War. It is however worth noting Kratos shows decent piercing durability in GOW 3 by blocking the Blade of Olympus with his own hands.
Cosmic Kratos?
The big one. The most infamous aspect of “Lore Kratos”. A cosmic view on Kratos has been argued for a few years now (the spike in its popularity likely in part due to Seth the programmer and Vs Battle Wiki.) Does a cosmic view check out? To start, let's see some direct mentions of this view present in the source material.
The Spear of Hyperion
A spear from the Ascension Multiplayer which was forged in the core of the Sun. It is noted to have the strength to bear the weight of the cosmos. The move called "Scars of Uranus" gives some validity to the 'weight of the cosmos' description since it has a special move that refers to the father of the cosmos. This weapon can be wielded by the Redeemed Warrior and is inferior to the strongest Greek Weapon, the Blade of Olympus.
Uranus
The “father of the cosmos”. Uranus has been said to have made the universe, which ascension shows to be “celestial bodies” leaving his body after Ceto punched him (thus the “Scars of Uranus”). This would be affirmed years later by Gyges (link to comic). Uranus is noted to be the Heavens itself in the artbook for Ascension. A debate can be made on if this is in real time, or if the stars are actually akin to IRL size. The Spear of Hyperion at least confirms there is both a Sun and a cosmos. A teaser trailer for Chains also shows the World and Olympus from space. A friend of mine has compiled a document that goes over different options for the size of the Greek Universe in God of War. Relevant for this is this device, called the Antikythera Mechanism, is stated in the description to be used to track "the heavens". It is based on a Greek invention of the same name, used to predict astronomical positions. To summarize the argument of the prior document:
The maximum that can be argued for the size of the “universe” released from Uranus’ body is about the size of the Milky Way galaxy. The fixed stars the Greek astronomers described qualify for the Milky Way galaxy based on the imagery shown with Uranus. On the flipside, Ptolemy's findings on the distance of the fixed stars/size of the Greek universe are considered definitive as well. His universe size was 20,000 Earth Radii. The Greek Universe in God of War cannot be argued any smaller than this. As mentioned, prior, it's also possible that the stars in the Uranus scene are smaller than IRL. If the timing in the Ascension opening is taken as literal, and not cinematic, then the arm of a Primordial during this fight is smaller than Earth. We see the Sun crash down into the Earth in the beginning of Chains of Olympus (called the Sun by Gaia). The Sun going by this scene is rather small, akin to stars from Elden Ring.
I believe any of the ends are fair. A universal end can also be argued if one argues the directors of God of War were going with a more modern view of the universe for the Uranus scene.
Almost forgot, but does Kratos even scale to Uranus/Ceto? Potentially. He has a scaling chain via beating Zeus, who beat Cronos. Cronos is also shown to struggle with Hades, who Kratos bested. Kratos killed Cronos, though Cronos had wasted away in Tartarus and was chained up. Cronos himself bested his father, though most sources reference him using a sickle. Some sources do imply a fight (I will not be using the “cosmic battle” tweets). Regardless, God of War treats each new generation as stronger than the prior so Zeus being stronger than Uranus, and in turn Kratos also being stronger is not that far-fetched at least narratively.
The World
The “World” in God of War is more like a planet with countries that are pocket dimensions but still attached together in a way that travel is possible across the planet. This was brought up in the Kratos vs Asura G1 blog.
In an interview that Kotaku did with Cory Barlog, he mentioned this:
“I’ve always looked at this universe like our world. The geography separates the cultural mythologies. The cultural mythologies are stories of the zero-point to present day. These are the birth and the origin of these cultures. So the Norse mythology exists in Scandinavia, and simultaneously, across the world, the Mayan mythology has its origins, right? These are cultural stories about how they explain the birth of their cultures. And I think, as I look at the whole world, that each of these gods had their own domains, right? The way that countries had their own domains…"
“Right [laughs]. But yeah, it is a consistent single universe. As we start to look at these things, there’s little bits, here and there, that let you know. Like, Tyr, had connections to a lot of other pantheons. And there is reference, in Norse mythology, of gods interacting with Roman gods. It’s very small, it’s very minimal, in their connections, but it shows that there was an awareness. And whether that awareness was post-the time where they were moving the pagans away from the pagan religion by having the mythology slightly modified, to kind of move towards Christian religion… I think it is fascinating to imagine that at all times, there [are] these connections to every one of these locations.”
At the E3 2016 Stage Show, Cory said:
Cory defines that all realms have their own creation stories that were meant to line up with the actual religions/mythologies. Greece has Uranus and Chaos, Nords have Ymir and Ginnungagap (in Norse and Germanic mythology, the void in which the world was created). All the realms have these cosmic events that occurred and led to their existence. Speaking of Nords… I will cover the Nordic cosmic arguments in a future blog.
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