AKheon | God of War: Ragnarök (PS4) - Rage buffer glitch @AKheon | Uploaded April 2024 | Updated October 2024, 4 hours ago.
Similar to the Runic/Relic buffer glitch, you get glitchy results if you buffer a Rage-activation, then switch between Rages before it begins.
This tech is universal. You can set it up by buffering Rage during various navigation animations (like climbing a step), but there are also some moves in Kratos' move list that let you buffer Rage, such as a roll, which I'm using as set-up in this video.
The timing for buffering a Rage from roll is very tight, so I'm slowing Kratos down with Burden of Evasion to make accessing this input a bit easier.
0:00 - The results vary depending on which Rage you start from and which Rage you switch to. This first example shows switching from Fury to Valour. This makes Kratos enter Fury-rage without Fury moveset. He will instead use his regular move set, which mostly works like intended (although it does have some Rage-related limitations, like no weapon switching or a proper Recall). After Rage is over, Kratos has a wrong Rage-bar and it's not possible to re-activate Rage before you manually set it to something else from the menu.
(Not on the vid: Valour to Wrath or vice-versa seems to work quite normal? Although I think I didn't test this on enemies.)
(Not on the vid: Valour/Wrath to Fury/Legacy makes Kratos do the Rage seemingly like normal. Afterwards, he has a wrong Rage-bar. With Fury, this gets fixed when you use Rage the next time. With Legacy, Kratos will keep on doing Valour/Wrath instead even though he has Legacy equipped.)
(Not on the vid: Legacy to Fury gives the same result as described below, except when re-activating Rage, Kratos' Rage bar gets fixed and the lingering glitch result ends.)
0:39 - Legacy to Valour/Wrath gives the most interesting effect so far. Doing this gives Kratos a glitched Rage with a wrong (Legacy) Rage-bar.
The glitched Rage will turn off by itself within a second. This lets Kratos spam its activation repeatedly.
1:03 - If you hold Axe/Blades aim for a moment after activating, the glitched Rage won't turn off instantly and Kratos can instead run around while Rage stays on. Using the Spear's weapon special allows you to Rage sprint instead. But he doesn't have a Rage movelist, and the Rage will end after most actions anyway, so this doesn't seem obviously helpful.
1:27 - This state has a lot of small side effects. This video goes through all of the ones I discovered, but there might be more.
One of the first things I noticed is that Axe throw is buggy in this state. If you do a regular throw immediately after Rage activation, the Axe will auto-return to Kratos immediately after the glitched Rage turns itself off.
1:46 - Freezing Throw works especially strangely. It barely has any range before it auto-returns back to Kratos.
2:11 - You can manually adjust the timing for the Axe's return with f.e. an evade. With precise timing, you can hit a puzzle target and teleport the Axe back to Kratos simultaneously, allowing you to freeze something without losing the Axe. Might save time at some puzzle somewhere?
2:26 - After glitched Rage turns off, Kratos enters a "neutral Rage" state where he will stand in place while breathing heavily. Although this is a Rage-only animation, you'll end up in it post-Rage.
If you press L-stick, Kratos will do a belated "Rage shrug" (indicating Rage finally ends) and lose a small amount of his Rage-bar. Doing most actions will end the state without it.
You can use prompts while in neutral Rage. It's not fully compatible with some cutscenes and can cause mini-softlocks like seen in this clip. It seems some safety time-out kicks in after 30 seconds which prevents a full softlock, though.
3:12 - Using a generic prompt (like boats, etc.) shortly after glitched Rage-activation while armed forces Kratos to unsheathe after the prompt is used. In this clip, he tries to climb into the boat with Axe in his hands, which is apparently not allowed. But the game has another safety time-out in place which hits at around 5 seconds, allowing the prompt use to continue like normal.
3:30 - Another example: unsheathing Spear when entering a crawlspace. As a side note, Kratos is programmed to unsheathe when leaving the crawlspace, even though he should be unarmed at this time.
3:53 - The forced unsheathe allows giving input while entering a traversal prompt, which enables doing prompt glitches with non-Axe weapons. (This is only as useful as a prompt glitch with the Axe, but still something worth noting.)
4:11 - You can switch weapons or do a buggy Recall without interrupting neutral Rage. Overlapping these actions with Rage shrug and other actions can cause subtle mechanical oddities? For instance, in this clip I do a directionless evade. (I've also seen a glitched looking weapon sheathe a few times.)
4:21 - rarely, you can also cause a mini-softlock at the shop. I'm not sure how to do this consistently yet.
Similar to the Runic/Relic buffer glitch, you get glitchy results if you buffer a Rage-activation, then switch between Rages before it begins.
This tech is universal. You can set it up by buffering Rage during various navigation animations (like climbing a step), but there are also some moves in Kratos' move list that let you buffer Rage, such as a roll, which I'm using as set-up in this video.
The timing for buffering a Rage from roll is very tight, so I'm slowing Kratos down with Burden of Evasion to make accessing this input a bit easier.
0:00 - The results vary depending on which Rage you start from and which Rage you switch to. This first example shows switching from Fury to Valour. This makes Kratos enter Fury-rage without Fury moveset. He will instead use his regular move set, which mostly works like intended (although it does have some Rage-related limitations, like no weapon switching or a proper Recall). After Rage is over, Kratos has a wrong Rage-bar and it's not possible to re-activate Rage before you manually set it to something else from the menu.
(Not on the vid: Valour to Wrath or vice-versa seems to work quite normal? Although I think I didn't test this on enemies.)
(Not on the vid: Valour/Wrath to Fury/Legacy makes Kratos do the Rage seemingly like normal. Afterwards, he has a wrong Rage-bar. With Fury, this gets fixed when you use Rage the next time. With Legacy, Kratos will keep on doing Valour/Wrath instead even though he has Legacy equipped.)
(Not on the vid: Legacy to Fury gives the same result as described below, except when re-activating Rage, Kratos' Rage bar gets fixed and the lingering glitch result ends.)
0:39 - Legacy to Valour/Wrath gives the most interesting effect so far. Doing this gives Kratos a glitched Rage with a wrong (Legacy) Rage-bar.
The glitched Rage will turn off by itself within a second. This lets Kratos spam its activation repeatedly.
1:03 - If you hold Axe/Blades aim for a moment after activating, the glitched Rage won't turn off instantly and Kratos can instead run around while Rage stays on. Using the Spear's weapon special allows you to Rage sprint instead. But he doesn't have a Rage movelist, and the Rage will end after most actions anyway, so this doesn't seem obviously helpful.
1:27 - This state has a lot of small side effects. This video goes through all of the ones I discovered, but there might be more.
One of the first things I noticed is that Axe throw is buggy in this state. If you do a regular throw immediately after Rage activation, the Axe will auto-return to Kratos immediately after the glitched Rage turns itself off.
1:46 - Freezing Throw works especially strangely. It barely has any range before it auto-returns back to Kratos.
2:11 - You can manually adjust the timing for the Axe's return with f.e. an evade. With precise timing, you can hit a puzzle target and teleport the Axe back to Kratos simultaneously, allowing you to freeze something without losing the Axe. Might save time at some puzzle somewhere?
2:26 - After glitched Rage turns off, Kratos enters a "neutral Rage" state where he will stand in place while breathing heavily. Although this is a Rage-only animation, you'll end up in it post-Rage.
If you press L-stick, Kratos will do a belated "Rage shrug" (indicating Rage finally ends) and lose a small amount of his Rage-bar. Doing most actions will end the state without it.
You can use prompts while in neutral Rage. It's not fully compatible with some cutscenes and can cause mini-softlocks like seen in this clip. It seems some safety time-out kicks in after 30 seconds which prevents a full softlock, though.
3:12 - Using a generic prompt (like boats, etc.) shortly after glitched Rage-activation while armed forces Kratos to unsheathe after the prompt is used. In this clip, he tries to climb into the boat with Axe in his hands, which is apparently not allowed. But the game has another safety time-out in place which hits at around 5 seconds, allowing the prompt use to continue like normal.
3:30 - Another example: unsheathing Spear when entering a crawlspace. As a side note, Kratos is programmed to unsheathe when leaving the crawlspace, even though he should be unarmed at this time.
3:53 - The forced unsheathe allows giving input while entering a traversal prompt, which enables doing prompt glitches with non-Axe weapons. (This is only as useful as a prompt glitch with the Axe, but still something worth noting.)
4:11 - You can switch weapons or do a buggy Recall without interrupting neutral Rage. Overlapping these actions with Rage shrug and other actions can cause subtle mechanical oddities? For instance, in this clip I do a directionless evade. (I've also seen a glitched looking weapon sheathe a few times.)
4:21 - rarely, you can also cause a mini-softlock at the shop. I'm not sure how to do this consistently yet.
