Kratos has an obvious connection to the Avengers, but there’s a more subtle one lurking in the new God of War: Turns out the game has its own Infinity Gauntlet.
Play through Sindri’s Family Business quest and you’ll get your hands on an accessory called the Shattered Gauntlet of Ages. It has three sockets and a vague description: “An ancient relic of Hel deemed too powerful to remain whole, fragments of its former strength lie scattered throughout the realms.”
As it turns out—spotted by Redditors like moxxxxxi—this is one wonderful reference to Thanos, the purple-headed antagonist of Avengers: Infinity War. There are six enchantments that correspond to the gauntlet, each one based on a different Infinity Stone:
- Andvari’s Soul - Soul Stone
- Njord’s Temporal Stone - Time Stone
- Eye of the Outer Realm - Space Stone
- Ivaldi’s Corrupted Mind - Mind Stone
- Asgard’s Shard of Existence - Reality Stone
- Muspelheim Eye of Power - Power Stone
Put three of these stones into the gauntlet and you’ll be able to truly cosplay as Thanos:
Given that God of War came out just a week before Infinity War—and given that Kratos’s core mechanic is borrowed from a certain blond Avenger—this is a fun little bit of cross-pollination. Now if only Thor would get an axe.