God of War Ragnarok: How to Farm Hacksilver

Most video games include at least one form of digital currency. For most of its life, the God of War franchise utilized red orbs, and players had to collect as many as possible to upgrade Kratos’ weapons and spells. Ever since swapping game genres and settings, the God of War economy started running on Hacksilver.

Hacksilver, as the name suggests, are pieces of silver that had been hacked up and used as currency among the real world’s ancient Norse and Viking tribes. Quite fittingly, Hacksilver serves the same purpose in the God of War soft reboot and, most recently, God of War Ragnarok. Most transactions with the game’s resident blacksmiths Brok and Sindri involve Hacksilver. Want to upgrade armor and weapon pommels? You need Hacksilver in addition to specific upgrade materials. Need to buy a Resurrection Stone? That will cost a heap of Hacksilver. 

What we’re getting at is you won’t proceed far in God of War Ragnarok unless you pick up every sliver of Hacksilver you can find. Here are the best ways to line your pockets with the currency.

Kill Enemies

It is almost trite to suggest players kill enemies in a God of War game. That’s like 90% of the appeal of the series. Still, if you are looking for Hacksilver, you should kill as many enemies as you can.

In God of War Ragnarok, enemies drop all sorts of items (including stones that fill Kratos’ health and rage meters). Every now and then, you might find Hacksilver on an opponent’s corpse after a battle. These drops are by no means guaranteed, but the more and stronger enemies you fight, the more likely you will find Hacksilver in the aftermath. Because of how the game handles spawning, though, God of War Ragnarok doesn’t have any actual dedicated Hacksilver farming locations, but that shouldn’t discourage you. Just keep ridding the Nine Realms of monsters, and you will have no shortage of money.

Loot and Destroy Everything

Anyone who played a God of War game knows Kratos is a very violent man. He has waged wars against entire pantheons and has killed countless innocent people during his vengeance-fueled adventures. Kratos has mellowed in recent years, but he still tends to destroy everything around him, especially when he is strapped for cash.

One of the best ways to find Hacksilver in God of War Ragnarok is to destroy everything in your environment. After all, numerous in-game decorations (from abandoned barrels to decorative vases) can house some scraps of currency. As with enemies, there’s no guarantee you will find Hacksilver in these containers, but you won’t know unless you smash everything in sight. Plus it just feels good to hit stuff in the game.

While Hacksilver can hide in the most random of destructible God of War Ragnarok game assets, you can also find them in dedicated locations and containers. Treasure chests, corpses, and hanging buckets are scattered throughout the nine realms, and you can usually find Hacksilver in each of them (assuming you can find the pre-set items in the first place, that is).

Chests come in a variety of colors and sizes, and while the bigger and shiner ones hide powerful equipment, if you’re looking for Hacksilver, break open as many small chests as possible. You can also find plenty of NPC corpses just by wandering levels. If you see the telltale glint of an item on the ground near them, just walk up and pry the Hacksilver (or whatever else they hold) from their cold, dead hands. As for the buckets, keep an eye open and knock down as many as you can find to claim the Hacksilver within.

Complete Favors and Challenges

At its core, God of War Ragnarok is an action RPG. The game has plenty of skills to unlock and equipment to collect, and, like any self-respecting RPG, Ragnarok offers plenty of side missions to keep players busy. Not only do these alternative activities give players a break from the campaign; they also provide must-have rewards (including Hacksilver).

As you make your way through God of War Ragnarok, you can accept Favors that serve as miniature sidequests. One of the first Favors in the game is “In Service of Asgard,” which involves shutting down mining rigs across Svartalfheim. Completing this Favor only provides XP and crafting equipment, but it is a sample of the rewards Favors can dole out. You will find quite a few other favors that pay out Hacksilver for your troubles, and even the ones that don’t usually let you kill enemies and open treasure chests (which we’ve already established tend to hide Hacksilver).

Another reliable fountain of riches in God of War Ragnarok are the game’s various combat challenges. Better known as the Muspelheim Trials, these tasks bring Kratos and Atreus once again to the realm of fire, Muspelheim. You can’t visit the location without looting two Muspelheim Seed Pieces from chests in Svartalfheim, but once you do, you can start exploring the volcanic land and its trials. If you complete a challenge, you get to crack open a legendary chest and reap the rewards within, which includes a healthy helping of Hacksilver. The further you progress in Muspelheim, the tougher the fights, but the greater the rewards. The structure of those Muspelheim challenges makes them one of the most valuable sources of Hacksilver in the late game.

Sell Old Items

Odds are you will spend most of your Hacksilver buying and upgrading equipment, but what happens when you inevitably find or craft something better? Will all that Hacksilver you funneled into early armor and pommels go to waste? Not in God of War Ragnarok.

While Brok or Sindri primarily sell and upgrade Kratos’ equipment, you can also sell them old armor and pommels for a quick injection of Hacksilver. Not only does this clear your inventory of inferior equipment, but it also helps fund future upgrades.

Even if you don’t have any armor to sell, Brok and Sindri also accept Artifacts you picked up while exploring. These collectibles fetch a decent price, and even though they are tied to in-game achievements, once you pick one up, the game logs it. That means you can pawn it off without any repercussions. Besides, Kratos isn’t exactly known for his appreciation of the arts, so Artifacts are probably better off in the hands of a dwarf who does. 

Increase Your Luck

Many pieces of equipment in God of War Ragnarok have special effects tied to the Luck stat. The higher Kratos’ Luck, the more likely the item’s buff will activate. However, Luck does more than just give players a boost in combat.

According to Ragnarok’s in-game stat tooltip, Luck helps players “gain additional rewards.” In other words, Luck increases the number of resources you pick up from corpses and treasure chests, including crafting materials and Hacksilver. The higher your Luck, the more Hacksilver you will loot. You can increase this stat one of two ways. The first and most reliable method is by equipping and upgrading gear that increases Luck. These items might come at the cost of extra health or attack power, but the Luck boosts they provide even things out since they are easier to upgrade — they don’t cost less Hacksilver to improve, you will just have more. The second and harder method is by finding Yggdrasil Dew. While these items are rare and scattered throughout the game world, each one permanently increases a stat, including Luck.

So, while you can’t “farm “ Hacksilver in the traditional sense in Ragnarok, increasing your Luck stat as high as you can is the next best strategy. If you can’t find a place that provides a constant drip feed of Hacksilver, might as well maximize the amount you acquire each time you pick some up.