How to get more health and increase Vitality in God of War: Ragnarok

No matter what difficulty level you’re playing God of War: Ragnarok on, you’re going to want to increase your health as quickly as possible. This will let you last longer in boss battles and not require you to pick up so many health crystals off the ground. Luckily, you can easily increase your health bar and your overall Vitality level in Ragnarok with a couple of concrete methods.

The methods are virtually the same as they were in God of War 2018. One of the methods is to collect a certain number of Idunn Apples, which permanently increases your health bar. The other method is to find the Yggdrasil Dew of Vitality, which permanently increases your Vitality level by +2. You can also equip some other items to give Kratos more health and boost your overall Vitality stat when you gain a level. However, if you want to truly boost your health, then Idunn Apples and the Yggdrasil Dew of Vitality are the ways to go.

Below, we explain how to get both of those items. As a warning, there are minor spoilers for God of War: Ragnarok in the guide below.

Getting Idunn Apples in God of War: Ragnarok

The most common way you’ll be increasing your health in Ragnarok is through Idunn Apples. These are only found in Nornir Chests, which are mythical chests that have three letters on them. Players must solve the puzzle of the chest to gain entry and hopefully acquire an Idunn Apple.

In order to solve the chest puzzle, players need to complete one of four challenges. The challenges are different depending on what puzzle the chest features. For example, the most common puzzle is to find three bells with letters on them that match the letters on the chest. These bells will be in close proximity to the chest itself. Players need to ring the bells in quick succession to open the chest. There’s also a puzzle with braziers, where players need to light them in any order, and another puzzle that simply requires players to break three seals in any allotted time.

Once players have opened a chest, they will either acquire an Idunn Apple or a Horn of Blood Mead, which increases your Rage Meter. The more chests players open, the more Idunn Apples they will need to increase their health bar.

Finding the Yggdrasil Dew of Vitality

The other method to quickly increase your health is to find the Yggdrasil Dew of Vitality. This item is located on low-hanging trees when traversing the Lake of Nine by boat. The dew is a bright blue bulb that hangs off of a branch close to the top of the lake’s water. The Yggdrasil Dew of Vitality is located near Freyr’s Camp Mystic Gateway. Head south from that gateway and you’ll see it.

Collecting this dew will give you a quick +2 boost to your Vitality, giving you more health.

The only other ways to increase health in God of War: Ragnarok are to give Kratos Vitality-boosting enhancements and increase your overall Vitality stat when you level up.