Stunning enemies in God of War Ragnarök is a crucial combat skill you must learn and master. Every enemy in Ragnarök can be stunned, including giant beasts and bosses. Careful use of skills and attacks that focus on stun damage can help you chew through hardened enemies. Specific armor skills and runes will activate only when you perform a finisher attack on a stunned enemy. This guide will explain how to stun enemies in God of War Ragnarök.

How stunning enemies works in God of War Ragnarok

Every enemy in God of War Ragnarök has two health bars, so to speak. The top bar, the yellow bar, represents their overall health. Underneath that meter is a grey section that will slowly fill as you land strikes or use special skills against a combatant. To successfully stun an enemy, you must fill the bar up completely.

Once you fill the stun meter, you can press R3 to perform a finisher attack on an enemy. If it’s a mini-boss or a standard boss, it will trigger a quick time event that deals a lot of damage in a short time. Specific armor skills will activate a burst of healing or damage boosts when you successfully stun and finish an enemy.

The best method of stunning an enemy is to use Kratos’s bare hands and Atreus. Kratos can use his punches and slams to deal heavy stun damage, which can help you quickly defeat creatures with large amounts of health. You can also use Atreus and his arrows to deal large chunks of stun damage. Press Square to have Atreus fire a series of arrows that cause heavy stun damage.

Careful use of Kratos’s bare-handed attacks and Atreus’s volley of arrows will allow you to stun and finish every enemy you encounter in God of War Ragnarök.