Note: If you have NOT played the games, DO NOT READ THIS BLOG POST. There are a lot of spoilers.
I just finished the entire God of War series. And it was a blast. I have multiple blog posts I’m planning, but I wanted to start here. I was absolutely stunned by how many people he killed, he even wiped out an entire pantheon.
Let’s start with a game-by-game breakdown first, with some of my own thoughts in between each one.
Greek-era prequels
| Game | Victims | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| God of War: Ascension | Aegaeon (the Hecatonchires), Megaera, Tisiphone, Alecto, Castor & Pollux, Orkos | Kratos slays the Titan Aegaeon while escaping the Prison of the Damned, eliminates all three Furies, kills the Oracle-usurping twins, and finally frees himself from Ares by granting Orkos the death he begs for. List of Deaths WikiGod of War WikiWikipedia |
| God of War: Chains of Olympus | Charon, Persephone | After twice besting the ferryman, Kratos bisects Charon with his own scythe and later batters Persephone to death with the Gauntlet of Zeus. List of Deaths WikiGameFAQs |
So, for all intents and purposes, this was before the iconic “Trilogy”. Two of them are PSP games, and then the original Ascension. This was before the proverbial shit hit the fan.
Greek-era trilogy & handhelds
| Game | Victims | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| God of War (2005) | Hydra King, Medusa, Pandora’s Guardian (Colossus-sized Minotaur), Ares | The inaugural rampage ends with Kratos impaling the God of War on the Blade of the Gods. List of Deaths WikiReddit |
| God of War: Betrayal | Ceryx (demigod son of Hermes) | Kratos strikes down the herald who tries to arrest him. Wikipedia |
| God of War: Ghost of Sparta | Erinys, Thanatos, Scylla, “Monster” Callisto, King Midas, Piraeus Lion | Erinys and her father Thanatos are the key divine kills; the others are notable mythic beings. List of Deaths WikiList of Deaths Wiki |
| God of War II | Colossus of Rhodes, Prometheus, Theseus, Euryale, the Barbarian King (Alrik), Perseus, Icarus, Kraken, Sisters of Fate (Lakhesis, Atropos, Clotho), Athena | Athena dies shielding Zeus from Kratos’ final blow. GameFAQsWikipedia |
| God of War III | Poseidon, Hades, Helios, Hermes, Hercules, Cronos, Hephaestus, Hera, Zeus, plus the Titan Gaia (collateral) | Kratos wipes out the Olympian order almost to the last deity. List of Deaths WikiGameFAQs |
This is his most brutal era. This is what most people know him for, and remember the most. He absolutely slaughtered almost an entire pantheon during this era. Absolutely brutalized the entire Greek pantheon, killing the fates and destroying almost all of Greek at the same time. At the end he slaughtered his own father in the end, in an act of deserved patricide, before disappearing out of the greek lands to go into the norse lands and getting intangled in norse mythology.
Norse-era
| Game | Victims | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| God of War (2018) | Magni, Hræzlyr (the Storm Dragon), Baldur | Modi is finished off by Atreus, so he’s not on Kratos’ personal tally. Devil in the DetailsWikipedia |
| God of War Ragnarök | Níðhögg, Heimdall | Heimdall’s strangulation with the Draupnir Spear triggers Ragnarök; Níðhögg is slain earlier to free Yggdrasil’s roots. Screen RantGod of War Wiki |
Despite the Greek era being what made him most famous, the Norse era was my favorite. He was an amazing character throughout both with so many amazing emotional moments. Watching him grow from the very first game (ascension) all the way to Ragnarok… it was absolutely amazing. Still had an impressive kill count in Norse era besides that.
Quick statistics
- Olympian gods: 9
- Other Greek deities (Furies, Persephone, etc.): 12
- Titans/Primordials: 5
- Demigods/Heroes: 11
- Norse gods/giants/dragons: 4
- Named mythic monsters & special bosses: 10 +
Total named kills by Kratos across all released games: ~50 (depending on whether one counts hybrid bosses like Scylla or collateral deaths such as Gaia).
What’s not included
- Re-kills (e.g., reanimated souls in later psyche sequences).
- Indirect deaths caused by environmental collapse.
- Generic soldiers, undead, trolls, draugr, etc.
Absolute powerhouse. I can’t wait to see what happens when a new game comes out, and what happens next. As a side note, there are a few characters that I actually felt a little bad for.
Titans: I don’t know why, but I can’t help but feel sorry for the Greek Titans. Almost all of them were imprisoned or tortured for centuries, and I just felt bad for them overall, especially as Kratos started wiping them out. I think he felt a lot of regret for some of those kills as well. Especially Kronos. He had no reason to do everything he did. he could have gotten what he came for, left and Kronos would have healed over time. Hell he could have “Freed” Kronos and gained an ally. So many alliances he could have forged for later if he’d not been as violent. I think this death bothered him as well because at one point he expressed regret in a flashback and you heard Kronos talking in his mind when he was feeling regret for some of the things he’d done in rage.
Hephaestus: This was another one that was not needed, and was more brutal than it needed to be. He was already in torment because of what Kratos had done, and he had no reason to be killed trying to protect his daughter. I think this is another one he might have regretted.
Overall… seeing him grow as a character from the FIRST one to the last one… was absolutely amazing. The pacing was perfect how he soften as a character because of his wife and son, just a bit at a time until he was almost a completely different person.
All the God of War games hit different.
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