God of War Ragnarok madlad player completes game on hard mode without using any XP

God of War Ragnarök poses some pretty formidable challenges even on lesser difficulties.

Overcoming the trials of Musphelheim, for example, or slaying the valkyrie queen Gna is no small feat.

You have to be a madlad to increase the difficulty to Give Me No Mercy or Give Me God of War.

To achieve 100% completion on Give Me No Mercy without spending a single scrap of XP is, well, unfathomable.

But that’s precisely what Reddit user Used-Conversation397 has done almost four years on from the game’s release.

“Completed Ragnarök without spending a single point of XP,” they wrote. “Everyone was saying that it’s such a terrible idea but seeing 349712XP ready for New Game Plus was worth every R1 input.”

As it’s perhaps been a while since you last played God of War Ragnarök, allow us to break that down for you.

Spending no XP means not acquiring a single Runic Attack upgrade. It also means ignoring all Spartan Rage upgrades as well as not enhancing Relic abilities.

That essentially means playing with Kratos being as under-powered as possible, having low-impact weapons, basic attacks, and no combos or potent skills to take advantage of.

In other words, it’s like working through the entirety of the game with Kratos being not all that too dissimilar to how you find him during the opening chapter.

It’s an incredibly impressive feat that very few could pull off, especially at the Give Me No Mercy difficulty.

READ MORE: God of War Remake Trilogy Has A Spanner Thrown In The Works That’ll Set It Apart From PS2 Original

Strangely, it’s an achievement that’s really split the fanbase with half of players being full of admiration and the other half asking the simple question of, “Why?”

“Sounds like you just ruined your first experience, you can’t get that back,” replied DanFarrell98.

“I will never understand some things people put themselves through,” added PoohTrailSnailCoach.

“Bruh, the amount of patience is crazy,” commented AdvancedShower545, while SoReal_FF said, “You’re a beast.”

God of War fans will find their next challenge in the upcoming God of War Laufey

It now awaits to be seen what challenges God of War Laufey has in store, with the game promising to have its own unique feel.

Running in parallel to the events of God of War and God of War Ragnarök, the game explores what happens when the late Faye - wife of Kratos and mother of Atreus - awakens in the afterlife of the gods, known as Everywhen.

Sony Interactive Entertainment

There, she uncovers a threat to the lives of her loved ones and will have to fight her way through several mythologies using a mystical sword and aided by a talking gelatinous cube called Phranque.

Already, it’s confirmed that the Egyptian goddess Sekhmet and Mongolian god Begtse will appear.

It’s also believed that the spin-off could answer one of God of War’s biggest mysteries, with fans already trying to work out precisely what Phranque is alongside this.

God of War Laufey hasn’t set a launch date but given it was revealed via a 20-minute gameplay drop, insiders say it’ll be here sooner rather than later with early 2027 looking very likely.