God of War Walkthrough

Hello, and welcome to my strategy guide for God of War Walkthrough! This guide contains a complete, beginning-to-end walkthrough for the game.

The Marked Trees

After choosing your difficulty, the game seamlessly segues to a short cutscene in which Kratos touches a tree. Eventually, your goal is to cut down the tree by pressing the R1 shoulder button. With each press, Kratos will swing his mighty Leviathan Axe. After chopping it down, you must walk as Kratos to the boat. Simply press the left joystick forward to walk toward the wooden dock in front of you.

The boy ties the tree to boat, and you are off to paddle your way down the river. Your main task here is to steer your way down the river, through the cave, and to the wooden at the end. With the boat docked and the tree in hand, follow the boy as he walks down a brown path to their house. Here, there will be a long scene. – God of War Walkthrough

Hunt with Atreus

Follow Atreus, who will find tracks on the ground. Continue following him, but before going up the stone steps, grab the Artifact in the snow on the ground to the left. Then, go up the stone steps to find more tracks. Soon, Atreus reaches a break in the bridge, and you must jump over the chasm by pressing O. On the other side, Atreus finds fresh deer tracks. Vault over the fallen tree by holding up on the joystick and pressing O, then you will find the deer, who runs off.

Tail Atreus as he chases the deer. Soon, you reach a wooden bridge which has broken, with pieces of the bridge blocking your path. For this part, you must destroy the bridge part in your way with the Leviathan Axe, which functions as both a melee weapon and a projectile weapon. First, equip the Leviathan Axe by pressing right on the d-pad. Then, hold L2 to aim. Move the reticle on the screen so that it is directly in the center of the bridge plants, then press R1 or R2 to throw the axe. With the obstacle now gone, recall the axe by pressing triangle, then jump over the chasm by pressing O. – God of War Walkthrough

After the botched attempt to shoot the deer by Atreus, you are again tasked with following Atreus. However, suddenly, a draugr jumps out at him, and it is your job to kill it. To do this, swipe at it a few times with light attacks. You can also use heavy attacks, but quick light attacks work better here because they’re faster. You will see the health bar of the enemy as a yellow line over it. When the health bar is fully depleted, the draugr dies, but his friend jumps out from the left side. Again, run up to it and hack away at it with your axe. A few light attacks in a row results in a combo that will make quick work of the draugr.

Two more draugrs leap into the fray. It may seem a little daunting that you are 2v1’ing them, but with your axe you can actually hit both enemies at the same time if they are close together. And when you hit them, it knocks them back, so it is easy to kill both draugrs by simply spamming light attacks. The game then prompts you to learn how to block — hold L1 to block attacks. You can also evade or dodge by pressing X while you are holding the left joystick in a direction.

This is important for the next two draugrs because one leaps at you from the side while you are attacking the other. Re-position yourself so that both draugrs are in front of you, then attack away with your axe. You may also consider throwing the axe at them in the same way that you threw the axe to break the bridge if you want. You then need to kill two more draugrs before the wave of their attacks finally ends. Just as with the other draugrs, simply hack away at them with your axe while dodging or blocking if they wind up an attack at you.

With the draugrs dead, follow Atreus and pick up the Healthstone on the ground to restore your health. Look up to find a bucket hanging by rope and a seal. Throw your axe at the seal to make the bucket fall, then collect the Hacksilver from it. There are four stairways you can go. Atreus goes left, but for now, go right. Atreus tells you that you are going in the wrong direction, but we need to collect some loot first. As you take the right path, you should hear a waterfall and see a frozen stream. Follow the frozen stream to find a corpse with some Hacksilver beside it. Go back to the waterfall now, and to the right of it, you should be able to climb up the levels to more Hacksilver. Follow the path to a gold chain. – God of War Walkthrough

Down it, you will encounter two wolves. Hack away at them with your axe, or freeze one by throwing your axe at it and fist fight the other. With both wolves dead, grab the Lost Toy on the ground near the chain and open the chest to get some Hacksilver. Head back to the four stairs area, and go right now. Destroy the wood obstacle with your axe, and you will find your first sealed chest. To open it, you must destroy three seals. One is on the ground to the right of the chest, one is in the coffin to the left of the chest, and the last is in the corner behind you to the left. With all sealed broken, open the chest to receive an Idunn Apple.

Go back to the four-way fork of stairs. Go left now, up the stairs, and follow Atreus across the bridge to find the deer again. Up more stairs, you reach the entrance to the temple. Kratos opens it, and the twosome get a good look at the deer. Atreus says that he needs to be closer to hit it. So, jump over the chasm to the left, then go down the stairs and to the left. Soon, Atreus brings you to a nest of draugrs.

You have the drop on them, so you can throw your axe at them to kill one before they start attacking you. You can also simply run up to them and hack away. Focus on killing one at a time, and make sure that they do not attack you from the back or the side. Atreus shouts at you when a draugr is about to attack you from behind, and if he does this, dodge out of the way so you do not get hit. Speaking of Atreus, you do not have to worry about him getting hurt in this game. Simply clean up the draugrs with your axe. If you run low on health, there is a Healthstone, glowing green, on the side of the room where you first entered. In this room with the chain and two gates, take the north doors, which are behind you, to reach a frozen pond area. Clear the enemies — there are three wolves and a draugr– and collect the Lost Toy on the ground. Also, open the chest and collect the Hacksilver that the enemies dropped. – God of War Walkthrough

Head back to the room where you killed the draugr. Walk up to the gate with the small hole on the bottom-right part of it. Atreus informs you that something must open the gate, and this becomes the game’s first puzzle! To solve it, you must use the objects in the center of the room. There will be two wooden posts. One of them has a chain on it which Kratos can pull down. When he does, the gate lifts open, but if you simply let go of the chain, the gate will slam back down. For this part, while Kratos has pulled the chains so the gate is open, aim with your axe at the circular object right above the gate. It is glowing blue. When you hit it with your axe, you will freeze the gate so that it stays open even if you aren’t holding on the chain.

Do not recall the axe right away, or the gate will unfreeze and go back down. Instead, walk over to the inside of the gate. You will find yet another gate blocking your path. To lift this one, you must recall your axe now, which will drop the gate behind you and lift the gate in front of you. Good work! Back outside, to the left you will find some Hacksilver on the ground, and if you keep going left, you will find a chest with some more Hacksilver. Also on this left side is a gold chain. Up it, immediately go right. If you throw your axe at the red pot, it will blow up. Do this for some practice, then throw your axe at the seal holding the bucket up in the room for it to drop some Hacksilver. Now, you must throw your axe at the red pot in the adjacent room, but it is covered by an iron gate. Look up to find a blue seal. Throw your axe at it, which will drop the fire pot and destroy the debris surrounding the gate. Open the gate now, and inside, collect the loot on the ground and open the chest for some more Hacksilver. Head back now and go up the steps. Destroy the wood obstacles with your axe, and open the double doors to find a Jotnar Shrine. Also, in the hallway before, you can find a chest on the left. – God of War Walkthrough

Go back down the gold chain and take the pathway right this time. Follow Atreus to the right in order to find the deer again. After a short scene, you must help Atreus aim at the deer. You do this in the same way you aim with the axe — hold L2 and use the right joystick to aim so that the reticle, when aligned, is on the body of the deer. Then, press square so that Atreus shoots the deer. Follow Atreus down to the deer, and after a scene, we have our first boss battle.

Boss Fight: Defeat Daudi Kaupmadr

Translated to “Death Merchant,” this huge troll is the very first boss in the game. Let us begin with Daudi Kaupmadr’s attacks. Primarily, it uses the huge stone pillar that it is wielding as a weapon. First, it can heave the stone pillar at you, which is essentially a jabbing attack. It can also slam the pillar down at you as well. For both of these attacks, Daudi Kaupmadr has a wind-up, so you can easily evade these attacks by dodging around it. Finally, when it gets low on health, the boss tends to wildly swing the pillar everywhere. When this happens, it is best to stay away or at least stay behind him. Also, Daudi Kaupmadr can slam its foot at you as well. – God of War Walkthrough

For this fight, your basic strategy is to dodge around to the back of Daudi Kaupmadr and hit it a few times with your axe. This is best done after you have just dodged one of its attacks so it is still in a swinging motion while you are attacking it. Keep in mind that sometimes Daudi Kaupmadr will quickly turn around and slam the ground with its pillar, so only give it a few attacks before evading away from it. Overall, this is your main strategy for the fight — evade so you are behind it and then get in a few hits on its back.

Atreus is also important in this fight. You can command him to fire arrows by press square. When you do this, Atreus not only fires an arrow which inflicts a small amount of damage to Daudi Kaupmadr, but he also distracts the Daudi Kaupmadr. Because of this, you can also use the arrow fire as a distraction so you can get behind the Daudi Kaupmadr and attack it with your axe. When the Daudi Kaupmadr gets low on health, it will become stunned. Run up to it and press R3 in order to perform a Stun Grab, which will finish it off in classic epic God of War action. – God of War Walkthrough

Return to the house

After the cutscene with Atreus and the dead Daudi Kaupmadr, your next task is to return back to the house. To leave the boss arena, go to the part of the wall that is brown with a glowing yellow sign on it. Here, Kratos will hoist Atreus up and then jump up himself. Up here, you can replenish your health by collecting the green Healthstone. It will probably be low after the fight with the troll. Then, continue following Atreus, who will kneel and then fire a shot at a draugr. This stuns the draugr, so run up to it and press R3 to kill it with a stun grab. – God of War Walkthrough

There are a few more draugr you must kill, and there is a Healthstone in the barrel near the Hidden Chamber (the door with the glowing light blue symbol) if you need health. As for the Hidden Chamber, Atreus says that Kratos hasn’t been able to open it, so note its location, but otherwise, follow Atreus up to another level by climbing near the wood wall with the yellow glowing sign. Up here, you will find more draugr!

Just as before, Atreus fires a shot, but you should simply rush in and melee each of them with light attacks. Just remember to not let any of the draugr hit you from the sides or behind. There is a green Healthstone on the ground if you need health, but only use it when you are low. After clearing the draugr, you encounter a new enemy, a Reaver. These blue enemies are resistant to your Leviathan Axe, so sheathe it by pressing right on the d-pad, and then take it down with your fists. Don’t worry — you do great damage with your bare-hands as well.

With the area clear, you need to proceed via the wooden surface near where Atreus went during the fight. At the end of the wooden area, you will find a block of wood suspended into the air with a rope. You need to move the block of wood, since it is in your way. To do this, aim with your axe at the circular object above the block of wood. It will glow orange when you aren’t aiming at it and glow light blue when you are aiming at it. After throwing your axe at it, the block of wood will fall. Recall your axe and jump down. Follow Atreus, who will quickly lead you back to the house. Before going inside the house, collect the last Lost Toy. To get it, go around to the front of the house, and look for an item with a blue glow near the rocks in front of the house to the left. If you’ve been following this guide, you now have all four Lost Toys, and as a reward, you will receive 360 XP. – God of War Walkthrough

With that out of the way, go inside the house now for a cutscene. After, walk over to Atreus and talk to him. After a long cutscene, we have another boss fight.

Boss Battle: The Stranger

Although he probably weighs about half that of Kratos, The Stranger is extremely strong and powerful. For the first half of the fight, both Kratos and The Stranger brawl in a tree-filled area outside Kratos’ house. The Stranger has a few key attacks. Mainly, he will attack with his fists, and he can perform combos just like Kratos. In addition, he can teleport forward and strike you. He can also hit the ground and cause a line attack at you, which will knock you back if it hits you. Finally, The Stranger has a special attack in which he glows red and then teleports back and forth across the screen until he finds and hits Kratos. All of these attacks can be evaded by simply dodging around when he starts to attack him.

Mainly, The Stranger likes to taunt Kratos in this phase. When he does this, you can freely melee attack him as many times as you can. If you perform a full melee combo, Kratos may launch him away from you, and if this happens, make sure to quickly close the gap so that The Stranger does not perform his teleportation attack. The Stranger can also dodge with a short teleport and attack you from the side, so be aware that he may do this when you attack him. Overall, this phase is not too difficult because The Stranger simply does not take it seriously and keeps taunting you.

At around half health, Kratos gets launched onto the house, and after The Stranger discovers something that Kratos does not want to see, Kratos becomes filled with rage. For the first part, you simply need to press R1 repeatedly to attack The Stranger while Kratos is on top of him. Then, after a short fighting cutscene, you need to press R1 again to throw the log at The Stranger. After a series of cutscenes, The Stranger regenerates all of his health, and you will need to press L3 and R3 at the same time to use Spartan Rage. This begins another cutscene, which ends in phase two of the fight.

In phase two, Kratos has his Spartan Rage activated, so combos have a flame animation and do more damage. The Stranger has many of the same attacks as before, but he does not taunt Kratos so much in this phase. Instead, he will sometimes just stand and tilt his head. This is the perfect time to launch a melee combo at him. Otherwise, in this phase, The Stranger is faster and employs more teleportation. To get around this, dodge around when you see him teleporting and attack. You can tell when he does this because he will glow blue. In this second phase, The Stranger is much quicker to dodge, so you may only be able to get one or two strikes before you have to dodge his attacks. The basic strategy of this phase is to hit him when he is just standing there and dodge everything when he starts to attack himself.

When you’ve depleted his health a second time, try to walk back to your house, but The Stranger comes back again. There will be another scene, and now, you must climb up the ravine. After climbing it, you enter the third phase of the fight.

Don’t worry, this is the last time you’ll have to deplete his health. The Stranger is all business in the third phase. He teleports often and can counter your attacks with punches of his own. For this phase, The Stranger can launch into the air and ground pound where you are standing. To get around this, simply run away when you see him jump in the air. He can also cause a ranged ground attack by punching the ground, but this will only cause damage if you are directly in front of him. Otherwise, this fight is basically the same as the first two phases, but he is a bit faster. He will still sometimes just stand there and let you hit him a few times. If you are having trouble, you can also try simply throwing your axe at him from a distance to cause damage, dodge his attacks, and repeat the process for an easier victory. When you’ve fully depleted his health bar a third time, a scene shows that The Stranger is finally and without a doubt out of your hair.

After the long fight, walk back to the house. Inside, Kratos will talk to Atreus, and after the twosome leave the house, the quest “The Marked Trees” is completed.

Path to the Mountain

Atreus comments on the destruction you and The Stranger just made around the house. Near him, there will be a rupture in the ground, which has made a gulley. Drop down into it and collect the Healthstone if you need it, then continue following the ruptured ground. You will need to press O to sidle across a ledge, and on the other side, you must jump over the chasm. On this side, you will find a climbable wall all the end, and it is indicated that it is climbable because it is glowing yellow. As you climb up, you will eventually need to jump across a water while climbing, and to do, you simply need to press O.

On the other side of the waterfall, jump up to reach a cave. In here, jump up a level, and you will encounter a small puzzle. First, help Atreus get up on the higher platform. Now go back and turn the wheel in the ground, which is near a large rock. When you turn it, the wheel will drop a bridge and allow Atreus to cross. After he does, instruct him to lower the chain. Then, throw your axe at the blue symbol next to the bridge to freeze it in place. Finally, go over to the chain and climb up.

Now that you are on the raised platform with Atreus, jump across two gaps to the left to reach a chest, which contains Hacksilver when you open it. Then, go the other way so you cross the bridge, which will be frozen in place because of your axe. Here, Atreus finds a bucket suspended in the air. Around that part of the raised platform, you will find a climbable wall. When you climb it, you will sometimes have to press O to jump over chasms and to the side over water falls. Soon, your climb will lead you going left, and eventually, you will need to jump down from the wall. After dropping down, you will find another climbable wall very near you, so climb up that one to reach a short scene with Atreus.

After the scene, jump up on the wooden pathway, then follow it to the wall. Here, you need to squeeze through a small gap to the other side, which will lead to a new area called Wildwood’s Edge. In this new area, Atreus quickly finds more draugr. Have him fire as his bow at them as you run into combat. You can also throw your axe at them to do a ranged attack as well. This fight functions exactly the same as the previous draugr fight, but the draugr can now shoot fireballs at you. The game then shows you the indicator function so that you know when you are being attacked.

For this fight, kill the draugr who shoot fireballs first, as they are more powerful than their simple melee counterparts. As far as the melee draugr, you can bunch them up in a herd and then hack away at them with your axe. There is even a draugr who will spawn on the hilltops above you, and for that one, throw your axe at it will you command Atreus to fire at it in order to kill it. After the fight, collect any fallen loot from the enemies. Near the cracked wall, you will find the Rune Giants! which Atreus reads. After collecting that, climb up the cracked wall.

Continue towards the mountain

Up the wall, you will encounter a blue enemy with a sword. It is just one enemy, and you can easily dispose of him with melee attacks. With the one enemy gone, open the huge chest in this area, which contains Hel’s Touch, a Light Runic Attack. You are then prompted to equip it on your axe in the menu. You can try out the runic attack by pressing L1 and then R2. When you are ready, follow the pathway in this area to a fallen pillar. Interact with it so that Kratos can lift it.

You then see the mountain off in the distance, but Atreus gets into trouble on the wooden bridge. Eventually, the twosome fall into a large room with many draugr. They appear frozen, but one wakes up. Kill it with your axe, and then more wake up. Thankfully, they do not wake up at the same time, so quickly melee attack each one with your axe. Some simply stay frozen and can be one-hit with the axe. Don’t be alarmed when a few draugr spitting fireballs come down to you. When they do this, immediately battle them, as they are more of a threat than their melee counterparts. In addition, there will be a few fire draugrs who stay on a raised platform and do not go down. For these ones, throw your axe at each one, and they should get priority because there ranged attacks can hit you from anywhere, whereas for the melee draugr, they can only hit you when they are close.

After the fight, collect the loot and heal by collecting the Healthstones on the ground near the wall. Then, interact with the tall stone pillar to find new Rune, this one Jotnar Marketplace. Afterward, Atreus shouts that draugr are breaking through the wall, and eventually, a draugr comes out to fight. These huskier draugrs take more hits to kill. For this first one, you can simply throw your axe at it to kill it. But then even more draugr come out. For this part, it is important to note that you can Stun Grab them when the lower red meter above them is full. You can also use your runic attack as well, and you can even use Spartan Rage if you are having trouble. Don’t worry about depleting it, as it replenishes quickly. Once the area is clear again, look up to find a Raven perched on some branches above you. Throw your axe at it to kill the first of Odin’s Ravens.

Climb up the wall near where the draugr came out. At the top, climb to the right, and then pull up to the top. Here, collect the Healthstone if you need health, then drop down the two levels and cross the wooden bridge. As you walk across the room, you will encounter a Revenant. This enemy is unlike the others you have faced because she will dodge all of Kratos’ attacks if you just spam attacks at her. Instead, you must instruct Atreus to fire his bow at her. These shots will hit her, and while she is stunned from Atreus’ fire, you can run up and melee attack her. That is the strategy of this fight: tell Atreus to fire at her, and then melee attack her while she is stunned from his shots. If you just try to swing or throw your axe at her without Atreus hitting her first, she will just teleport away from you. There is a Healthstone on the ground near the crates in this room if you run low on health, and stay away from the green substance she spews out, as it will temporarily poison you.

After the battle, continue further into the mountain. You will need to jump over a chasm to a grabbable wall. Once you’ve climbed up it, go right and open the chest, then turn around and jump over the chasm. Go left and clear the area of draugr. Inspect the scroll on the ground in the right part of the room to find your first scroll, Svartalfheim Sealed. Also in this room, you can find another shrine, Hrungnir. You will find one lone Draugr, which you can easily dispose of. Afterward, you might notice the large chest in the right part of the room. It is sealed by rune magic, and to open it, you need to find and solve the three seals.

The first seal is to the right of chest while looking at it. It is the small glowing object on the wall. Throw your axe at it to destroy it, and just like that, you will have destroyed one of the three seals. For the second seal, go opposite the chest to find a bridge. To the right of the bridge and off into the distance, you will find the blue seal perched up the wall. Again, throw your axe at it to break it. That’s two down. For the last one, you need to lower and cross the bridge.

The bridge has two parts, which are both behind held up by a rope and a breakable seal. The first part is easily lowered by throwing your axe at the seal hanging by the rope above the bridge. For the second part of the bridge, you need to go to the right of the bridge. There, you can aim and throw your axe at the other seal holding the bridge. With both bridge seals broken, you can jump across the bridge. On the other side, defeat the Reaver — remember, you can’t hurt it with your axe — and then break the last of the three seals by throwing your axe at the seal in the small room to the left. With all three seals broken, head back to the chest and open it to receive an Idunn Apple. When you collect three of them, your maximum Health will be increased.

Now that you’ve solved the chest puzzle, head back over the bridge to the room with the Reaver you just fought. A Revenant spawns now, and just as before, to defeat it, you need to have Atreus fires arrows at it. This will stun the Revenant, which will allow you to close in and attack it. Draugrs also appear here, but by now, you have a good idea of how to defeat them. There aren’t many here, and they tend to attack one at a time, but remember to defeat the fire ones first.

After clearing the area, go over to the bridge. To the left of the bridge, you will find a wheel, and just like with the other bridge, you need to move the wheel to lower the bridge. And just as before, the bridge will go back up if Kratos just walks away, so again, you need to freeze something so that the bridge stays lowered. This object is the seal on the chain under the bridge. It is covered by a metal guard, but if you move the wheel halfway, the seal will be in the open part of the guard. From there, you just need to throw your axe at the seal to cause it to freeze and permanently lower the bridge.

Across the bridge, collect the loot on the ground to the right, then walk over to the large dropdown door. If you interact with it, Kratos will pull it open, and after that, there is a small scene with some reavers.

Fight off the Reavers

For this fight, Kratos instructs Atreus to not help, so you cannot use his useful arrows in this fight. However, this fight is not all that difficult. Simply hack away at the Reavers with your axe, and do not let any of them flank you. They do tend to just stand around, so take them out one at a time. After you’ve cleared the room, Reavers will start shooting fireballs at you from the upper level which encompasses the room. To deal with these Reavers, throw your axe at them. They might take cover behind a piece of a wall, and if they do, you must re-position yourself so you can safely throw your axe right at them.

After the fight, you need to run over to Atreus and throw a body off of him. Then, after a scene, frost Reavers appear. Just as before, these enemies are not damaged when you use your axe on them, so you will have to fight them with your bare-hands. And again, Atreus is unavailable to attack, so you need to do this all on your own. Just as before, focus on one enemy at a time, and be sure to Stun Grab if the opportunity presents itself. You can also use Spartan Rage here if you are having trouble.

Escape the ruins

With all of the enemies dead, your next objective is to escape the ruin. In one corner of the room, you will see wood planks against the wall with a white sign on them. Go near them and Kratos will hoist Atreus up, telling him to get something to get Kratos up there too. Atreus looks around, and you need to press square a few times to command Atreus to drop down the chain. Up the chain, go up a few steps, then sidle across the ledge. Take the Healthstone on the ground here if you need it, then, walk to the right to escape the ruins. Go down the chain here, then follow the pathway past the fire, up the slope, to a corpse of a knight. Near him, you will find your first Mask. Head back up the chain.

Continue towards the mountain (2)

To the right, you will find a chest with an item inside. After grabbing it, walk towards the shouting sounds. Walk on the bridge to find a blue man who can’t get his animal to move. Turns out, it is because of the trees off in the distance. Throw your axe at them, and the animal will stand up. You then meet Brok, who tells you he can upgrade your axe for you. Eventually, this opens Brok’s Shop, in which he can upgrade weapons and armor for you. Follow the on-screen prompts to upgrade your Leviathan Axe.

If you’ve been following the guide, you will have a lot of Hacksilver and some artifacts. You can sell your Lost Toys and the mask you just found. None of these artifacts have any use in the game after you’ve collected them — it even says so on the sell screen. This will get you a nice tidy sum of money, which you can then use, if you wish, to upgrade your equipment. I recommend upgrading Kratos’ chest armor — pick the defense piece if you’ve been running low on health a lot, and the strength piece if you’ve been obliterating everything you’ve come across. You can also upgrade Atreus’ bow, which I also recommend that you do. Finally, because you’ve upgraded your weapons, you can purchase a new tier of skills, so pause the game, go to skills, and pick whichever skills seem most appropriate for your playstyle. The close combat skills with the axe are pretty much universally good, so I recommend those if you can’t decide.

Afterward, a Draugr runs up to fight. Swing away with your newly upgraded axe to kill it. Then, more Draugr appear, including one that shoots fireballs. Take him out first, and then the other Draugr. If you have trouble, remember that you can throw your axe to freeze enemies and still fight with your fists. After the battle, Kratos talks to Brok, who tells him that the gate leads to the mountain. But before we go through the gate, head to the right of Brok’s shop, drop down to the lower level, and grab another Mask. Now to the left of the gate, throw your axe at the seal above the bridge to lower it. Drop down, grab the chest, then go down the gold chain. Down here, you can open another chest for a Soft Svartalfheim Steel, an item used to upgrade your equipment. Go back up to the gate now.

Proceed through the gate to the mountain

So, there is that huge gate near Brok. To open it, you need to pull the chain to the left of it. After pulling it open the entire way, throw your axe at the seal above the gate to freeze it in place. Then, head through the gate and recall your axe. Inside, go down the steps, then crouch in the small opening, past all of the bones. There is a wall of spikes here, which if you touch will damage you. Throw your axe at the top-right part of the spike wall to push it open. This will reveal another spike wall, which you need to throw your axe at also to open.

With both open, hit the second one with another axe throw to reveal a secret area with a chest. Open it to grab a Soft Svartalfheim Steel. After opening the chest, go back to the previous room, which has a small puzzle. For this one, throw your axe at the wood with the yellow marks on it, which will open up the wall behind it. Throw your axe at the wood a few times to open it fully, then throw your axe on the blue seal below the wood in order to freeze the wall in place.

With the wall frozen and up, jump across to reach an area full of spikes. Do not recall your axe right now or the ceiling will fall on you. Instead, you will need to fight the Draugrs with your fists. There are two Draugrs, which you can hit at the same time if they are close together. Additionally, you can just melee attack one and listen for Atreus’ call that another is behind you. When he says that, dodge away so you do not get hit. And of course, remember to Stun Grab the enemies as soon as you can.

There will be another wave, and then two fire Draugr spawn from the previous area where Atreus is at. When you see fireballs being shot at you, immediately jump back over and kill both of these Draugrs. They really pack a punch and their fireballs can do a lot of damage to you if you just let them be because the fireballs do damage over time to you. There is a Healthstone in both areas, so use them if you run low on health. Also, if you want, for this portion of the fight, for the enemies in the room with the adjustable ceiling, you can crush them with the ceiling if you recall your axe. Remember that you should not be in the adjustable ceiling room when you do this, or you will get crushed as well.

Go into the room with the adjustable ceiling and obtain the chest in the corner to find some Hacksilver. On one side of the room, you will see a spike wall like before, which can be opened if you throw your axe at it. You need to open this spike wall with your axe before the ceiling falls on you, so make sure that the ceiling is up all the way before you start. You need to be relatively quick here, and you will need to throw your axe at the spike wall three times to open it. When it’s open, go in and jump up to the level to the right. Collect the Mask on the ground near the corpse. After that, the ceiling will fall completely in the previous room. Continue up to another level to reach the outside.

After the scene, go back inside the ruins again. Jump over to the top of the adjustable ceiling. In this room, you will find a chest to your left and a seal which, when you break, will show that you need to break two more to open the seal chest. One of the seals is on top of an adjacent adjustable ceiling. To get it, you need to throw your axe at the yellow wood to lower the ceiling, and then quickly recall the axe and throw it at the seal to break it. As for the last seal, it is up above you in a corner of the room. Look up and you will see it shining blue. With all three seals destroyed, open the seal chest to obtain a Horn of Blood Mead. When you get three of these, your maximum Rage will increase.

Head back outside now. Walk toward the edge of the cliff to the left, and at the end, you will find a Mask. Now follow Atreus to find what appears to be an entrance to more ruins. There are two large statues with a circle of rings between them. This is yet another puzzle. Go to the left, then jump up the levels to find a lever. Interact with it and the rings will begin to turn. Jump back down and go up to the rings.

There are three parts of the ring — an outer part, a middle part, and an inner part. Each part has a hole in it, and behind each part, there is a seal. When you throw your axe at the seal on each part, that part of the ring will stop. You goal is to align each three rings so that the symbols on them are all straight. It is best to look at the yellow words on the rings to figure out how to make them aligned. So, throw your axe at the outer ring’s seal until it aligns with the middle ring, and then do the same for the inner ring so that they are all aligned. To be clear, you are throwing your axe at the seal behind the broken part of each ring to freeze the ring and then you will unfreeze it when it is aligned with the rest of the ring.

With the ring aligned, there will be a scene, and the door will open. Inside, go down the pathway, then go left at fork. Up here, pick up the Mask on the ground. Return to the fork and go right this time. After dropping down, you will see an opening in front of you. If you look up, you will see a Raven perched at the very top. After killing it, continue following the tunnel until you reach some tracks. After the scene, you are tasked with hunting with Atreus again. Follow the pathway a little, and then you are thrust into another boss fight.

Boss Battle: Brenna Daudi

Overview

Brenna Daudi is very similar to the troll you faced earlier in the game. It has most of the same attacks and also wields a huge stone pillar as a weapon. However, this troll is tougher because it has fire attacks and because its pillar can sometimes burn the ground and cause flame damage if you walk over it. In addition, weak Draugr with ranged attacks will spawn throughout the fight. Overall, your job is to clear the adds, then work on Brenna Daudi by attacking it in its side or back after it swings at you. That is the basic strategy of this fight.

Attacks

• It can swing its pillar at you in a heaving motion. This is one of its quickest attacks, but is easily dodgeable if you simply evade away.
• It can slam the pillar down in front of it so the pillar lays flat. This attack doesn’t cause the ground to burn.
• It can slam the pillar down so that the head of the pillar slams into the ground. This causes the ground to burn — do not walk on the ground there or you will become burned yourself.
• It can throw flame attacks at you in a weak fan. The distance is not long and it takes a second to charge it up.
• It can summon weak Draugr to attack. These guys all have flame attacks, but they also drop Healthstones sometimes when you kill them.
• At low health, it will wildly swing the pillar around. To dodge this, stay away from it.

Strategy

For the most part, this fight is the same as your previous encounter with a troll. Essentially, you must hit the troll in its side or back after it swings at you with its pillar. You can also repeatedly throw your axe at the troll from a distance for a slower but easier victory. As far as the adds it spawns, they will infinitely respawn, so there is no point in killing them unless there are too many and they are damaging you too much. Also, if you kill one, it might drop a Healthstone, which you may need in this fight. Finally, remember to have Atreus fire his bow at the troll to distract it and lower its health as well. Of note here is that Atreus cannot be killed even if he is slammed directly by the pillar, so do not worry about him.

It is probably best to stay close to the troll, but try not to stay in front of him or he will quickly smack you with his pillar. Also keep in mind for when it causes the ground below him to burn. When that happens, you should roll away so you not get burned yourself. You will visibly see the ground turn red, and that’s your cue to run. I highly advise using your Spartan Rage in this fight to take down its health quickly. In addition, for the adds, you can throw your axe at one, then run up to it and melee attack it to kill it.

At low health, Brenna Daudi will start to wildy swing its pillar around everywhere. When it does this, you should stay back so you do not get hit. When it tires, run up and swing away at it with your axe. Soon, the Stun meter will fill, and you will be able to Stun Grab the troll. Quickly do this to effective end the fight. And that’s basically it — the fight becomes easier when he gets low on health. It will drop the rune Ivaldi’s Anvil as a reward.

Be sure to equip Ivaldi’s Anvil, as it is your first heavy runic attack. Essentially, it’s an area-of-effect frost attack that is good for groups of enemies. Anyway, after the fight, you will see a sealed chest near the edge of the screen, very near the beginning of a waterfall. To open this chest, you need to bang the three gongs in this area. Two are on either side of the chest, and the last is on the other side of the area. Throw your axe at the gong far away from the chest first, and throw it from as much of a distance as possible. Then, throw your axe at both of the gongs near the chest. When you open the chest, you will receive an Idunn Apple. Also in this area, you can find a chest with Hacksilver if you go up a few levels.

To the left of the chest, you will find another wood structure which you can hoist Atreus up. First, throw your axe at the top of it to destroy the wood blocking the way, and then hoist up Atreus. At the top, he will find a chain that, when he pushes down, you can climb up to get on the higher level. Up here, you will find a Lore, which Atreus will write down. Drop back down to the level with the water, then look up in the center of the area. There will a raven perched on a part of a statue there, and if you throw your axe at it, you can kill one of Odin’s Ravens.

Go through the small cave in this area and hop down for a hunting scene with a boar. Follow the game’s prompt — focus with L2 and then fire at the boar. After the short scene, follow the path down to some houses. Shoot the Raven on the rightmost house. In the house, you will find some Hacksilver. There is also a Reaver enemy, but he is alone and easily defeated. Behind the house with the fire, you will find another Mask. There is also a chest on the level with the campsite that is up a level. To get to it, you’ll need to jump up to the level. Now that you’ve gotten everything here, follow Atreus to the pillar and hoist it up for him. Then, you will find the boar again. After another hunt, Atreus runs off.

Find Atreus

It will suddenly get really foggy, and you’ll need to find Atreus. Keep walking down pathways, going back when you reach dead ends, and you will reach a cave. Inside the cave, run through the linear path to the other side, then go left. Follow the pathway to a scene with Kratos squeezing through two walls, and then you will find Atreus and the boar again, this time with the Witch of the Woods. Follow the witches commands to help the boar.

Follow the Witch

With the boar in hand, follow the witch to reach the Sanctuary Grove. Continue following Atreus and the witch as they talk about everything. Eventually, you will enter the witch’s house, and she has a task for you.

Collect the white-petaled flower

Go outside by interacting with the door. Out here, go to the right to find Atreus. You can talk to him for a bit of dialogue. Then, go back towards the house, but this time, follow the pathway to an area with flowers and a large stone. Collect one of the white flowers, then return to the house and talk to the witch. Now you need to help Atreus get a root. Go back over to him and press circle so that you give him a knife so that he can cut the root. Then, return to the witch for a scene which ends in you obtaining the witch’s compass, which adds to the top of your interface and makes it easier to travel.

Get to the boat

Walk down the wooden ramp to encounter a new enemy: Nightmare. These floating one-eyed creatures shoot poison at you, and it’s best to take them down by throwing your axe at them from a distance. After clearing them, go left from the wooden ramp, hop down, grab the Hacksilver, then move the cart to reveal a chest with a Soft Svartalfheim Steel. Kill the Draugr around the river. On the other side, you will find a sealed chest, but for now, go back up to where you fought the Nightmares.

Jump across the two chasms now and collect the Common Talisman — the Talisman of Concentrated Vitality — from the golden chest. After that, follow the pathway down to the boat. Get on, then paddle down the river. You see a statue of Thor, then the twosome talk about Baldur, and as you row, head toward the glow in the middle of the lake. This ends up being the statue in the middle of the lake. Row on the side with the yellow symbol and Kratos will dock the boat. Atreus reads what’s on the statue, which is, of course, a type of riddle. After the scene with the World Serpent, dock near the white flag.

Investigate the temple and bridge

Go up the steps, and you will find Brok, who shows you the inside of the temple. Talk to Brok, who has some important information about opening doors to get quickly back to him. Before continuing, talk to Brok and upgrade your equipment. I recommend upgrading the axe so you hit harder, especially if you are on easier difficulties. Most of the resources are tied to Hacksilver, which you have been collecting by opening chests and grabbing fallen loot.

Exit the shop area via the double doors. Outside, you will see a line of statues. Go past them to the center to find a lever in the middle of the bridge. Interact with the lever, and the entire platform will raise, but there isn’t anything here right now. Instead, continue down the bridge to find a new type of enemies. These guys have yellow masks and wield swords. They are a bit smarter and faster than Draugr, but you can clear them with melee attacks and the like.

At the end, use the lever on the right to lower the platform. Down here, you will find a new boat dock. Climb up the gold chain, then throw your axe at the red pot to clear the debris. Continue down the shore, killing all of the Nightmare enemies by throwing your axe at them. After clearing them, inspect the item on the ground to tell Atreus to look at it. This ends up being a Treasure Map.

In this area, there is also a sealed chest. To open it, you need to throw your axe at the three gongs nearby. Some of these gongs are covered with spikes, and to lower the spikes, you need to throw your axe at the wood switch above the sealed chest. When you’ve hit all the gongs, the chest unlocks. Open it to grab an Idunn Apple! There is an Artifact near the dead body on the ground near the chest.

Go back up to the bridge now. Interact with the big door at the end to open it. Inside, there will be more enemies, including a new serpent enemy that burrows underground. Focus on killing the enemies above the ground. You can use your Ivaldi’s Anvil rune here to freeze all of the enemies and make quick work of them. Destroy the wood debris, hop over the stone slab, and then walk over to the Shrine, which is Jormungandr. Hop over the debris to get to a room with a hallway of poison on the other side. For this part, throw your axe at the poison torches to freeze it, then walk across the hallway, and recall the axe once you are past it.

Drop down to the ground, and you will find more of the wurm-slayer monsters. Kill it, and use your axe on the torch to find a chest. This one contains a Muspelheim Cipher. After collecting it, climb the wooden part of the wall near the poison torch. Up the wall, go right and then drop down. Follow the steps to another door. After opening it, you will reach the Foothills. At the Foothills, you find Sindri, who is Brok’s brother. After a scene, Sindri offers to upgrade your axe. If you talk to Sindri again, you find out that you can now purchase Resurrection Stones if you like.

Continue towards the mountain (3)

Leave Sindri’s shop area and you’ll be ambushed by wurms and projectile draugr. By now, you know what to do — melee them and throw your axe at the ones that stand from atop the hills. After defeating them, go up the slope, and at the fork, go left to find a chest with Hacksilver. Now go right at the fork to find another sealed chest. To unlock this one, you must throw your axe at the spinners in this area with a certain combination. The first spinner is behind the sealed chest. For this one, throw your axe at it until the center symbol on the sealed chest disappears. Walk back down toward the shop now and you will find another spinner near the start of the dirt path. For this one, throw your axe at it until it shows the the symbol of a vertical line with a half triangle on the right side. For the last spinner, go right from the second spinner and you will find an area with poison gas beyond a fallen tree. If you throw your axe at the poison gas pole, it will reveal the spinner. For this one, throw your axe at the left panel on the spinner one time. This will fully unlock the chest. Go back to it and collect a Horn of Blood Mead for your work. There is also another chest in this area covered by poison gas. You can find the poison gas pole behind it. After freezing it, open the chest to find an Arcane Waist Guard.

With all of the items collected, follow your compass to a climbable wall. Up it, you will quickly find a Revenant. First, to traverse this area, you must freeze the poison gas poles. Do this for the one in front of you, then for the one to the left. The one ahead of that, after freezing the pole, you will find a chest with Arcane Bracers. Go back now and freeze the poison gas pole to the right. You will soon encounter the Revenant again. Remember, to defeat it, first Atreus must fire at it. After he does, the Revenant is temporarily stunned, and you are free to attack it yourself.

Once you’ve defeated the Revenant, it’s time to continue freezing poison gas poles and making your way through the area. If you go right at the fork here, you will soon encounter a Hidden Chamber which you can’t enter right now. So, go left. For the next poison gas pole, it is above you hanging from the top of the cave. Further down the path, you will reach a climbable wall. Up it, you encounter a new type of enemy: poisonous wolves. Along with poisonous draugrs, I recommend staying at range for this battle and throwing your axe at the fire pots to blow everyone up. When the area is clear, go to the left to find more fire pots. Throw your axe at all of them to clear the rock debris, then loot the coffin to find Arcane Shoulder Wraps. As for the chest in the two poison gas poles behind it, blow up one of the poison gas poles by throwing your axe at the fire pot near it. Then, simply freeze the other pole and collect the Charge of the White Bear Light Rune in the chest.

Head up the ramp to the red door and try to move the stone pillar near it when an ogre appears. Time for a boss fight!

Boss Battle: Ogre and Friends

Ogre Overview

This is more of a mini-boss than a proper boss, but he can be difficult one! The ogre is fairly adept at countering the back attacks that I have been instructing you to use. Basically, the ogre will attack behind him if you are attacking him from the back. Because of this and because of all of the Reavers, it can be a chaotic fight. Generally, you want to stay back and throw your axe at it on easier difficulties, and if you want to do melee combat, be prepared to evade his attacks.

Ogre Attacks

• The ogre can punch you with its fists. This is its basic attack.
• It can slam the ground, similar to previous boss enemies, can stun you a bit.
• It can quickly counterattack if you hit it from behind.
• It can slam the ground and cause a shockwave to you if you are at a distance.
• It summons many Reavers, which have poison attacks.

Ogre Strategy

To defeat the Ogre, it is all about being aggressive. Ignore the Reavers completely and focus on the beast. You can engage it in melee combat, but please note that it will counterattack if you attack it from behind too much. So, your best bet is to evade a slam attack and then melee attack it while it is recomposing itself. You can also throw your axe at it on easier difficulties because the thrown axe can hit it hard.

Do not forget about Atreus during this fight, and spam those arrows at the beast. Just as with previous bosses, Atreus can act as a distraction for you to get in some melee attacks while it is focused on him. In addition, there are several Reavers which spawn, but if you stick to attacking the ogre, it should go down fairly quickly. For the Reavers, stay away from them and their poison attacks, and if there are any left, destroy the fire pots to blow them up. Also, you can use your runic AoE attacks to kill crowds of them. Overall, the key to this fight is taking out the ogre first. When you do this fast, the battle becomes easier, and you can even stun grab the ogre, ride on it, and kill the Reavers that way as well.

After the fight, collect all of the loot, including the extremely valuable Frozen Flame which you can use to upgrade the Leviathan Axe again. Because this substantially increases the power of the axe, I recommend spending the two minutes and backtracking to Sendri, who is at the beginning of this area, and upgrading your axe. It will make the coming battles easier, and the only tedious part of the backtrack is freezing the poison poles. Also, if you aren’t upgrading your skills, now is a good time, as is after you complete the current quest.

When you’re ready, head through the red door that the ogre stopped you from going through. You reach the base of the mountain. Go left to find some wooden structures with rope. To the left of it, up on top of a small part of the mountain, you will find a Raven. That’s the only collectible here, so take the right pathway now, up the steps, up toward the mountain. You will find a black cloud, which starts a scene and ultimately ends this long quest. You receive 2000 XP for completing this quest, so please spend it in the Skills menu so you can be more powerful for what’s ahead. I recommend either axe or ranged skills, depending on your playstyle and difficulty level.

A Realm Beyond

Follow the witch to the wooden contraption down the mountain. She will clear the vines and allow you to take the tram back down to the bottom. You will go past Sendri’s Shop (he’s not there) and into the same tunnel as before. The witch makes a new path with her magic — go through it, then follow the witch to another door, which leads to the temple. Follow the witch across the bridge, then do as she instructs by going down the stairs and heading right. She will open another new pathway for you. Past it, you find a wheel off the track. Press Circle to interact with it, then mash Circle to pick it up. After that, mash Circle again to put it on the track. Then you’ll need to press up on the left joystick so Kratos pushes the entire temple while it’s on the tracks.

Go back up to the bridge, then open the doors and follow the witch, who opens another path. Open and go through these doors now to reach the realm room. Here, walk to the center and interact with the other side of the object in the middle. Essentially, this room will allow you to cross between realms. After the scene, use the table and move the bridge to Alfheim to complete the quest. Before another quest is given to you, you must go outside the same way you came, only now, you’re in a different realm, Alfheim. After a scene, you receive a new quest: The Light of Alfheim.

The Light of Alfheim

Head forward, down the bridge, to some white vines. You can destroy these with your axe, so throw your axe it to dispose of it and continue. Past the next set of vines, you find a Lore, The Eternal War, on the rocks near the right statue. You will also find a chest with some hacksilver near the Lore. Once you’ve gotten both of those things, continue down the bridge. You will encounter a new enemy: Dark Elves. These flying enemies have long spears, can fire projectiles at you, and love to evade you. To defeat them, you should rush in and melee them or throw your axe at them.

After clearing the Dark Elves, clear the white vines by throwing it at the center of both vines, and then continue forward. To your immediate right, you will find another Muspelheim Cipher in a chest. Now follow the compass to meet Sendri in this realm. Here, if you have not upgraded your Leviathan Axe with the Frozen Flame, do so right now. In addition, you may also consider buying some equipment if you haven’t bought anything at all yet. For easier difficulties, buy strength equipment, for harder difficulties, it’s your choice between strength or defense — whatever you think you need more help with.

Now that you’ve talked to Sendri, look around the area. Your compass is gold, which means that what you’re looking for is around here. It is none other than the boat wrapped in the vines. Go to the side of the boat so that you can line up all three centers of the vines, and then throw your axe through all three centers to free the boat. Back to God of Oar! Paddle forward and collect the dew hanging from the vine, which will permanently increase your Cooldown by 2. Neat! Continue paddling while using the compass as a directional guide. Paddle inside the cavern and Atreus will hear voices. Continue paddling down the river and eventually, you will reach a large lake with a dock where you can tie your boat. Get off the boat, then walk over to the podium of sand where Atreus is standing.

Get to the Ringed Temple

Head back to the boat, and paddle to the temple now. When you get off, it looks like an easy stroll inside, but the blue pathway disappears, and more Dark Elves come out to fight. Just as before, throw your axe at them or have Atreus fire at them to get them on the ground, and then melee them to death. After clearing them, move both of the wheels, which are on either side of the dock. When you’ve fully spun one wheel, another wave of Dark Elves spawns, so you’ll have to defeat them before you can fully spin the other wheel. With both pillars raised, get back on the boat and paddle back to the sand bowl. Atreus draws the rune in the sand, which opens up the entire lake and causes the platform with the sand bowl to descend.

When it reaches the bottom, you are again attacked by Dark Elves. Just as before, throw your axe and have Atreus fire his arrows to get them down, and then melee them to finish them. With the Dark Elves defeated, you must now reactivate the ringed temple bridge. There are prison cells behind you on either side. If you open the left ones with the lever, a Draugr attacks. After defeating it, loot the cells for hacksilver, and then enter the cell where the Draugr came out. If you look to the left, you will see a vine. Throw your axe at it, but do not recall it. Instead, exit the cell you’re currently in and stand in front of the center cell. If you recall the axe now, both vines will break on one axe throw, and the cell door will open. Inside, you will find a chest which contains Thiazi’s Talon.

Before continuing, look at the ceiling right outside both of the prison cell areas to find a hanging vine. If you throw your axe at the center, it will drop some hacksilver, similar to the buckets from previously in the game. Collect the loot, then go down the left side of the area. You will encounter a few Dark Elves and a Draugr. Take out the Dark Elves first, as they poise more of a threat with their projectile attacks, and then defeat the Draugr. Near where the Draugr spawned you will find another sealed chest.

For this sealed chest, you must break three seals. Opposite the chest, you will find a wheel. Interact with it, and press down on the joystick twice to move the center platform down two levels. On the right part of the platform, you will see the first seal — throw your axe to break it. For the second seal, lower the platforms as much as they can, and then throw your axe at the crank to freeze it in place. From there, behind the wheel, climb up a level, and you will find the second seal. You can break it with your fists. Stay on the same platform with the broken second seal and recall the axe. This will cause all of the platforms to rise, and you will reach an area with a coffin. Open it for equipment, then drop back down to the wheel. For the third seal, lower the platform twice, then drop down and look under the wheel to find it. Break it with your fists to destroy the last seal. Head back to the sealed chest now and open it to get an Idunn Apple!

Go back to the wheel again and turn it all the way, so that the platforms are at their lowest position. Throw your axe at the crank to freeze the platforms, then run ahead to the tunnel in front of you. When you are inside, you can safely recall the axe. Down the tunnel, you find another cell area with a wheel in the middle. Instead of turning it, simply go right to reach a new room. This one has two vines in it. Line up your axe throw so that you hit the center of both vines, which will destroy them. This reveals a wall that the two of you can climb up.

Things start to go downhill as Atreus gets held captive by the Dark Elves. Press R3 and L3 to cause Spartan Rage, and then melee attack everyone on the platform. For this part, simply spam light attacks as you punch your way around the platform and defeat all of the enemies. With all of them clear, punch the wall to the right — it will be to the right while you are looking at the platform with Atreus and the Dark Elves. You will need to repeatedly punch it, and then there will be a scene. After it, you must clear two more Dark Elves. Throw your axe and let Atreus rain down arrows, and then melee them to death. If they fire projectiles at you, dodge them because they can cause temporary blindness.

After the fight, go down the pathway on the left side of the area and open the door. Inside, you will find more prison cells. For now, all you can do is exit through the opposite door. Out here, line up your axe throw so that you slice throw the center of the two white vines to the right. This will turn on a blue pathway. Past it, climb up the wall to the left, and then you will be at the top of the platform. Here, a few Dark Elves decide to fight you. For this fight, dodge their charges at you and melee away. In addition, throw your axe at the Dark Elves in the sky. After clearing the Dark Elves, we have another boss fight!

Boss Battle: Stone Ancient

Overview

This fight is not too difficult. The Stone Ancient is slow and only has a few attacks. The best advice here is to use the stones in the center of the platform as cover. You can basically just circle around it so you are always in cover from the Stone Ancient. That keeps you safe, but how do you hurt it? The ONLY way to hurt the Stone Ancient is to throw your axe at its blue core when it does the beam attack. Other than the core, it is completely invulnerable to attack. It will stop and open its chest before it uses the beam attack, and that is your cue to throw your axe at it. You will do a significant amount of damage if you hit it.

Attacks

• The Stone Ancient can fire a beam attack at you. This damages you and inflicts the frost status effect, but it also opens up the core, which is the only place is is vulnerable. The best way to dodge this is to get behind the stone debris in the center.
• The Stone Ancient can cause a powerful AoE attack when it drops on all-fours. When it does this, run away so you do not get hit.
• Dark Elves spawn when the Stone Ancient gets low on health. Focus on defeating them first since the Stone Ancient is basically a non-threat if you use the center debris as cover.

Strategy

The basic strategy is to use the center debris as cover until the Stone Ancient reveals its core. When it does, throw your axe at the core as fast as you can to cause major damage to it. If you are slow, he will start the beam attack, but if you position yourself so that the debris is covering you, it won’t hurt you. The only way to hurt the Stone Ancient is to throw your axe at the core when it opens, so I highly advice simply staying at range for the entire fight. There is absolutely no need to get into melee range, and if you do, the Stone Ancient will do an AoE attack.

Essentially, stay at range, wait for it to open its core, and throw your axe at it. Other than that, evade all of its attacks and use the center stone debris to get out of its line of sight. When it gets low on health, a few Dark Elves spawn, and because the Stone Ancient is so slow walking around the debris, you can easily take out the Dark Elves while the Stone Ancient fumbles around your cover. So, for this fight, I actually recommend taking out the adds when you can because the Stone Ancient is easily fooled.

You can also use Spartan Rage in this fight if it is full. When you do, you will note that you still do not do any damage to the Stone Ancient, but you do full its stun meter. And when that meter becomes full, you can make quick work of the Stone Ancient with a Stun Grab. So, another easy path to victory is to fill the stun meter by bashing it in Spartan Rage and then Stun Grab it for massive damage.

Aftermath

After the fight, collect all of the loot that the Stone Ancient drops. He drops an Ancient’s Heart, Ancient’s Rubble, and an enchantment, the Fragmented Heart of Alfheim, which is useful if you are having trouble with the Dark Elves. Also on this platform is a chest which contains Njord’s Tempest, a useful Light Runic Attack. At any rate, you can now destroy the large red vine on this platform. After you hit it once, it will open, and you will then need to melee it so that Kratos’ freezes it. Then, he’ll fully break it, which will reactivate the Ringed Temple bridge.

Go back up to the Ringed Temple bridge

Atreus takes the right blue pathway, but first, go down the left one to find an Elven Artifact. Now head down the right pathway. Inside the cell block again, get on the center platform and turn the lever, which will raise the platform back up to where you started. Head to the blue door, but you find out that you can’t just open it.

Find another way in the temple

While facing the blue door, go down the left pathway. You will see a bell, which, as Kratos and Atreus also state, means there is a sealed chest nearby. To the right, you will find a door covered with vines. Aim your axe so that it goes through the center of the vine at the door and the vine inside the room. This will allow you to enter the room with the sealed chest. To open this one, you must hit the three bells quickly. There is the one that is outside, one right above the chest, and one outside, in the ledge up above to the left of the door. Hit the two outside first, then go inside and throw your axe at the third to unlock the chest. In it, you will find a Horn of Blood Mead. If you’ve been following the walkthrough, this will be your third, meaning that your maximum rage will permanently increase.

Backtrack to the blue door and go down the opposite ramp now. You will find Sendri, and this is a good time to upgrade your gear if you’ve been slacking. In addition, you may also want to upgrade Atreus’ equipment, as he will become more useful in a little bit. To the right of Sendri’s shop, you find another Shrine, Groa. With that, now continue with your journey by going through the crawlspace to the left of Sendri’s shop. You will reach the inside of the temple when you go all the way through this crawlspace.

Inside now, drop down, and you will need to battle more Dark Elves. One of them is armored, and as you may be thinking, that one is a little more difficult and especially more prone to block. For this fight, throw your axe at them and then charge them. In addition, command Atreus to fire at them. With the Dark Elves cleared, head down the hall. At the end, you will encounter Dark Elves and Nightmares together now. For this, I would stay back and ranged attack them. Focus on the Nightmares first, as their poison damage is deadly, and then take out the Dark Elves. With the coast clear, walk down the hall to the stone structure. To the left, you will find Lore — a Rune Read — up on the wall. Press Square so that Atreus reads it.

Now jump across the two chasms under the stone structure, then go left, climb up the wall, hop up to the next level, and jump over to the wall across the chasm. Here, you must go right while still climbing on the wall and jump to new ledges as Kratos and Atreus talk. Eventually, you will climb so that you are under the platform with the Dark Elves. Climb up, and then get ready to rumble. For this fight, take out the weaker Dark Elves first, as they go down quickly, and then kill the armored Dark Elves. Just remember to avoid the blind blast of the armored ones. After clearing the enemies, you have a new objective.

Find a way into the hive

First, you want to destroy the red vine on the platform here in the same way you destroyed the one on the platform with the Stone Ancient. So, melee it to open it, then mash circle for Kratos to freeze it, and finally, he will deliver the killing blow. This opens up some light paths for you. Walk on the light path now, then go left. You will encounter a few Nightmares — throw your axe at them to kill them, then continue following the walkways. You encounter a Dark Elf summoner now. Kill it first and then his spawns. With the area clear, destroy the red vine like you did the others. This restores another light pathway. Follow it and the adjacent pathway all the way to the hive.

Break into the hive

There are many vines here, and it is not entirely clear which ones to break. To begin, Atreus will walk over to the hive. Go over next to him, and then turn around. You will see many vines. Line up your axe throw so you cut the three vines that are the most to the right. This will clear one set of vines. For the second set, walk to the right of the vine on the right, and then throw your axe after lining up the right vine with the two on the left. This will clear another set. For the last, go behind the vine farthest from the hive. There are only two vines left, but the vine in the doorway also counts, so throw your axe so it hits the two vines outside and the vine on the doorway. This breaks all of the vines!

Investigate the hive

Follow Atreus inside the hive. Squeeze through the tunnel, and then go up to the climbable wall. Grab on and climb upward — about halfway up, there is a short scene with a Dark Elf — but continue up to the top. Up here, continue following the linear path, crouching when you need to, and then there will be a short scene which ends in the twosome tumbling down to the room with the light. Go up the ramp now to find another red vine. After destroying it, there will be a scene in which the whole hive is after you. Thankfully, these Dark Elves are all really weak and go down in a few hits (if that, depending on difficulty). Swing your way through them and over to the last red vine.

Enter the Light

Interact with the little in the center, and button mash Circle, to enter the light. In this dream-like sequence, your goal is to walk towards the light in each setting. It is fairly straightforward and Kratos can only walk for this part. At one point, you will need to climb a wall because the light is up it, so if you are stuck, always remember to look and see where the light is at. Eventually, Atreus pulls Kratos out of the light, and after a scene, Kratos imbues Atreus’ bow with the light. He can now fire light arrows, which can be used to open up the light pathways. Do this right now by firing a light arrow at the blue crystal off in the distance. When you hit it, you will spawn a light path. Finally, because Atreus now has light arrows, the Magic Combat tree in the Skills menu opens up. I would advise that you purchase Weaken Potency and Light Potency I so that his arrows mean more in combat.

Find a way out of the temple

Walk across the light path made by Atreus’ light arrow, then drop down to the left. You will see a crystal on the ground, and a crystal stand in the center. Pick up the crystal and put it on the stand, then aim at it with your axe and press square so Atreus hits it. This will cause a light path above it to appear. Climb up, and cross that light path, stopping in the middle to open the coffin, which contains a Fragmented Heart of Alfheim. Drop back down now, and take the crystal from the center stand and move it over to the stand near the edge of the level. Then, command Atreus to shoot it, and this will cause a light path to form above it. Climb up on the right side of this area, and then walk across the light path.

A few Nightmares spawn after crossing the light path. To kill them, just like before, throw your axe at them and keep your distance. After clearing them, go to the right side of the platform, and tell Atreus to shoot the light crystal across the chasm. After he does, cross the newly formed light path, and two Dark Elves come out to fight you. Throw your axe at them to kill them or at least get them on the ground so that you can melee them to death. When they’re gone, walk to the end of the pathway. Under you, there will be another light crystal. After Atreus fires at it and opens up another light pathway, walk on said pathway. It appears to be a dead end, but if you turn around you see three vines. Just as before, line up your axe throw so it hits all three vines in the center, which reveals another light crystal.

To get to this one, you must backtrack to the Light platform in the beginning. Here, more Dark Elves will fight you. Take out the weaker ones first and then the armored variety. For these, I recommend just throwing your axe at them from a distance. With the area clear, cross the new light path, then go up the stairs, then hop over the stone pillar, and then kill two more Dark Elves. In this area, there will be a chest with a Light Runic Attack, Strike of the Utgard. Opposite the chest, there is a door blocked by the light. Above the door hangs a crystal that is hanging by a seal. Break the seal above the crystal to make it so the crystal falls and the door opens. Pick up the crystal and put it on the stand in the next room. After Atreus fires at the crystal, the Lore in the room — a Lore Marker — is revealed. Read it to gain some experience and a collectible.

That’s it for the collectibles in this area, so go up the steps to the right to reach the blue door. Kratos comments on a sand bowl in this area. First, go back down the steps and grab the crystal that you just used to get the Lore. Bring it back up to the level with the blue door, and put it on the stand in the room here. Tell Atreus to fire at it to reveal a light pathway above it. Climb up the levels to the right of it, and then cross the light path. There will be some Hacksilver on the ground on the other side, and in the center, you will find another sealed chest.

To open this sealed chest, you need to hit the three bells in this area quickly. The first one is right next to the sealed chest, and the other two are on the areas on either side of the chest. On the left, the bell is past a window, and on the right, the bell is right where you climbed up. It’s not the location of the bells that’s tricky, it’s hitting them quick enough because this chest resets quickly. It’s all about the setup for this one. You should stand to the right of the chest, on the area to the right of it. If you look through the diamond window into the sealed chest are, you will see the bell right near the chest, and if you look to the left while looking through the diamond window, you will see the other bell off in the distance through a few windows. First, aim your axe so you hit the most distant bell — for this one, you’ll have to aim higher than the reticle. Immediately after, recall the axe and hit the bell inside the sealed chest area. And immediately after that, press down the d-pad to use the turn back feature of the game, and then throw your axe at the bell that was behind you. With this setup, you should be able to ring all three quick enough. Open the chest to receive a Horn of Blood Mead.

Now, to leave this place. Stand on the light path near the sealed chest and look down to the left of the door. You will see many vines, and from this vantage point, you can hit all of their centers if you align your aim from here. After destroying the vines, drop down and take the crystal from the stand it’s currently on and put it on the crystal stand that you just found by destroying the vines. Then, after Atreus shoots the crystal on the new stand, a light path above it appears. You now need to get Atreus to the sand bowl. For this, to the left of the crystal stand, you will see yellow glyphs with a small window above it. It looks almost like a keyhole. You can hoist up Atreus here, and he will interact with the sand bowl and open the blue door.

Return to the boat

Your next goal is, quite simply, to get back to your boat. Run down the light path, but it appears the only way to get back to your boat is to go back down to the prison area. To the right, you will find a lift. Use the lever on it to descend back down into the trenches of the temple.

Use the sand bowl lift

Back down in the prison cell area, the cells in the elevator area are now open, so loot them to find a chest with Hacksilver and an Elven Artifact! Now exit the prison cell area. The top of the trench closes, but you will still be fine — you’ll just have to deal with low-light now, but Kratos’ axe provides plenty light. As you walk down to the center of the area, two Revenants come out to fight you. Remember that Revenants will dodge all of your attacks, and that to hit them, you first need to have Atreus fire at them. After he does this, they will become temporarily stunned, and you are free to throw your axe or melee them.

With the Revenants cleared, go to the opposite side of this area. You will see a crystal under the steps to a doorway. Tell Atreus to fire at it to reveal a light path. Cross it to reach a prison cell area where all of the doors are blocked by light. In the center of the room, there is a crystal hanging by a chain. Hit the seal above the chain to make the crystal fall, which opens all of the cell doors and releases some Draugr. These enemies are not any different than what you’ve previously encountered, but because they all come at you at the same time, I recommend using an AoE runic attack or stepping back and defeating them. When they’re dead, look in the middle cell to find another Elven Artifact.

Pick up the crystal in the center of the room, and bring it back across the light path to the center area. Put it down and kill the Draugr that comes up from the left. It is the armored variety, so it takes a few more hits to kill. After that, pick up the crystal again and walk to the opposite side of the area. Have Atreus shoot at the crystal on this side to light a path, then cross it while holding your crystal. In this room, there will be another Draugr, so put down the crystal and kill it, then place the crystal on the stand in the center of the room and tell Atreus to activate it.

This present room has many spinners and is something of a puzzle. To solve it, you must match the symbols on the spinners with the symbols on the door, from left to right. You only have around 15 seconds before the puzzle resets, and you can see how much time you have left from the light circles on the wall. From left to right, the correct solution is B, F, E, and a horizontal line with two lines diagonally going to the right. So, to open the door, you need to throw your axe at the first spinner until it shows B, at the second until it shows F, at the third until it shows E, and at the fourth until it shows that distorted F. You must do this quickly, so it might take a few tries before you get it. I simply just hit the left spinner panel until it showed each one, but you might be faster if you hit the other panel.

When you’ve matched the spinner symbols with the symbols on the door, the door opens. Through it, you will find a chest with Runic Scaled Spaulders. Take the crystal back out to the center area now, and down a short ramp on the center platform, you will find another crystal stand. Place it, tell Atreus to fire at it, and cross the light path it activates. You will be back at the area with the wheel that lowered the entire platform. Use the wheel and lower it all the way, then freeze the platform by throwing your axe at the crank. With the platform frozen, head through the tunnel in front of you to find that all of the prison cells are open in this area too. In the center cell, you will find another Elven Artifact.

Head back to the center area and recall the axe. Now, go down the right side of the trench to reach the first area with the sand bowl. Before interacting with it, loot the right cell area to find some Hacksilver in the newly opened cells. Then, command Atreus to do his thing with the sand bowl. The boss of the Dark Elves flies down and grabs you — after mashing circle, you are thrust into a boss fight.

Boss Fight: Svartaljofurr

Svartaljofurr Overview

Svartaljofurr is your most difficult encounter yet. This flying Dark Elf has many punishing attacks and is not slow unlike the previous bosses. Overall, your main strategy here is dodging all of his attacks and melee attacking him after he charges at you with his spear. When he does this, he will be vulnerable to attacks after the charge. You should always be dodging around in this fight — blocking is worthless — to evade all of the attacks that Svartaljofurr throws at you. In addition, constantly command Atreus to fire his light arrows as every little bit of damage counts. When Svartaljofurr gets lower on health, he gets more attacks, but the fight stays pretty much the same.

Svartaljofurr Attacks

• Svartaljofurr can strike you with his spear. This is his most basic attack.
• Svartaljofurr can charge at you with his spear. You want to see this attack as it is easy to dodge away and because you can melee attack him after he’s charged past you.
• Svartaljofurr can perform a spin attack with his spear. Dodge out of the way of this one.
• Svartaljofurr can slam the ground with his spear, in the same fashion as the previous bosses.
• Svartaljofurr can summon two beams from his spear. He will do this when he flies in the air. For this, dodge backwards as the beams will go on either side of you. If they hit you, it causes blindness.

Svartaljofurr Strategy

For this fight, the general strategy is to evade (not block) all of his attacks by dodging backwards and getting out of the way of his melee attacks. When he charges at you with his spear, after he misses you, you will have a few seconds to hit him with your axe or fists. This is the main opportunity to deal damage in this fight. If you try to throw your axe at him, he will simply block it. Atreus, however, can inflict decent damage if you command him to fire his arrows at Svartaljofurr, so make sure you have him firing arrows as much as possible. Unlike previous boss fights, Svartaljofurr is smart enough to not become distracted by Atreus, so while his arrows are just damage, they are better than nothing.

Basically, you want to evade all of his attacks and attack him after he charges you. Most of his attacks can be evaded by simply dodge rolling to the side or behind you. At lower health, Svartaljofurr starts to use a double beam attack in which he flies in the air and shoots down two beams on either side of you. For this attack, you must roll backwards or you will get hit by the blast. You may be able to throw your axe at him when he’s using the beam attack, but it is better if you simply dodge the attack than worry about attacking him yourself.

Overall, if you focus on dodging his attacks and only attack him after he botches his charge attack, this fight should not be too difficult. It only becomes difficult if you decide to attack him while he is attacking you, as he can block many attacks and his own attacks inflict significant damage. Remember to dodge and to command Atreus to fire his arrows, and this battle should not be too tough. After the fight, collect the loot that it drops — the Etched Crest of Cunning and Wrath of the Wolf Runic Summon.

With the boss out of the way, head back to the sand bowl in the center and command Atreus to use it. This raises the platform, and your next objective is to return to Tyr’s Temple. However, there are two big places that you can explore here in Alfheim. You are slightly underpowered for them, so I only recommend going to them if you are experienced or if you are on a lower difficulty. You can even lower the difficulty for this part if you wish so you do not have to backtrack to Alfheim again. But, I will cover the two optional areas still left to explore in Alfheim right now.

Light Elf Sanctuary (Optional)

For the first optional area, paddle southeast of the dock and then paddle into a sandy beach. As soon as you step on land, two wurms and two projectile draugrs attack. Stay to the right of the beach so that you are out of the line of sight of the draugrs, then dispose of the wurms. Finally, throw your axe at the weak projectile draugrs to kill them. With the shore clear, enter into the sanctuary via the right side. You will see a lever and a chasm. Interact with the lever, then quickly jump over the chasm and sprint past the gate. You only have a few seconds before the gate closes, and if it does, you need to use the lever again. Past the gate, kill the two wurms, then go left to find a sealed chest surrounded by bells.

For this sealed chest, you must ring the correct three bells. While facing the front of the chest, I will direct you as to which ones are the correct bells. One of them is the left center bell. The next is the right bell. And the last is the bell directly behind you, above the way you entered the sealed chest area. When you’ve hit all three with your axe quickly, the sealed chest opens, and it contains an Idunn Apple for your troubles. If you’ve been following this guide, this apple will complete your second set, and your health will be upgraded again. Nice work!

Go back to the previous are and, on the other side, you will find a gate with some vines. This gate is a bit tricky, if I being entirely honest. To open it, you must clear both vines, but the lower vine keeps the gate from opening enough to reveal the upper vine. Use the lever to start to open the gate, then quickly throw your axe at the lower vine but do not recall it. The gate will go back down, but your axe is now on the other side, and when you recall it, it will destroy the lower vine. So basically, your axe is now in the right position. Turn the lever again, and then immediately recall your axe to destroy the lower vine. This causes the gate to open up enough so that you can throw your axe at the upper vine. When you do this correctly, both vines are destroyed and the gate opens. You will still need to run quickly through the gate as it will close after a few seconds. You can always turn the lever again to open it, however.

Past the gate, you will see a realm tear directly in front of you. Interact with it, and two high level draugr will appear, at least one of them being a level 4 Draugr with a purple health bar. If you’re going here directly after you got the Light, this battle may be a little hard. I recommend using Spartan Rage if you have it. If not, dodge around the area and flank the Draugr with attacks while also commanding Atreus to fire arrows at them. After they are defeated, go southeast from the realm tear (use your compass for direction) and destroy the vines by lining up your throw so that it hits both vines in the center. Past the vines, walk across the trees roots, and then to your left, you will find more vines. Throw your axe while standing to the left of the vines to hit all of the centers. After the vines are cleared, you will find an Elven Artifact directly on the ground to the right.

Jump down to the beach, and go through the doorway to the right. You will enter a room with a chest, but it is covered in vines. You need to destroy all of the vines in one throw to get access to the chest. To do this, you must use the wheel behind the chest. Spin the wheel all the way. This wheel controls the vines above you. When you’ve spun it completely, let go of the wheel then walk to your left, so you are facing the farthest vine. When the two vines on the wheel track align with the third vine, throw your axe to destroy all three, then open the chest to obtain an Amulet of Kvasir, an extremely useful talisman that causes slow motion when you do a last-second dodge. Return to your boat now. On the way, another Draugr appears to fight, but it is only one that was leftover from before. At your boat, set your course for the other optional area.

Light Elf Shore (Optional)

From the dock in the center of the lake, go north and then left to find the Light Elf Shore. It is not that far from the dock, and it is not a long ride like it was to the Light Elf Sanctuary. On the beach, kill the draugr patrolling to the right, and defeat the two Nightmares to the left, who are inside the cave. After clearing the enemies, go left into the small cave where the two Nightmares were, and instruct Atreus to fire at the three crystals on the ground. This opens a realm tear — it’s almost like Atreus and Elizabeth from BioShock Infinite are the same person! At any rate, when you interact with the realm tear, two Level 4 Draugr appear out of it. Just as before, these are tough enemies if you went here right after getting the Light. I recommend running back and throwing your axe repeatedly at them while you instruct Atreus to fire arrows at them. They can inflict massive damage if they hit you, so I advise simply staying away from them.

After defeating the draugr, head back to the center beach area. There are two more pathways you can go — straight ahead of the beach and to the right of the beach. Out of both passageways, you will need to defeat a few more wurms. Take the center passageway to find another Hidden Chamber — the third if you’ve been following this guide. Unfortunately, you cannot enter it until you have the Chisel, so you’ll need to come back and explore it later. Backtrack to the beach and take the right tunnel this time. You will find a chest covered in vines, with vines above you. Opposite the chest, you will see a vine over a chasm. Destroy the vine, then quickly jump over the chasm. Look back at the three vines now. They do not line up, but you can still clear them. To do this, stand to the left of the vines, then throw your axe at the farthest vine and quickly recall the axe. In the recall pathway, it will destroy the other two vines. In the chest, you can collect a large amount of Hacksilver and a few World Serpent Scale Fragments.

Jump back over the chasm and follow the tunnel to a chest, which contains the Heavy Runic Attack Frost Giant’s Frenzy. While still near the chest, look down at the lake in front of you. In a small cave-like structure to the east, you will see a vine you can destroy if you throw your axe at it. Do so, then hop down the level with the chest by jumping down to the right. Here, you can collect another Elven Artifact, which will be last one if you’ve been following the guide. If it’s the final one, you gain 600 XP as a reward. Nice job! One last item now. I told you to throw your axe at the vine in the cave-like structure in the lake. If you paddle into that structure now, you can search the water to find Aegir’s Gold.

Return to Tyr’s Temple

With both optional areas complete (or not, if you chose not to), it’s time to head back to Tyr’s Temple. Simply put, you just need to go the same way you came. So, paddle back through the river. Talk to Sendri to pick up a side quest, the Favor Fafnir’s Hoard. For now though, head back to the bridge and enter the realm travel room. Here, use the console in the middle to return to Midgard. Exit the realm travel room, and talk to Brok to get another Favor side quest, Second Hand Soul. Both of these quests will be covered in the Favors section. Exit the temple now.

Go back through the tower

As you cross the bridge, you will encounter a new enemy Draugr (Speed). As you might expect, these guys are fast. Basically, they rush at you and then melee you. Throwing your axe at them can slow them down. After clearing them, enter through the double doors to reach Vanaheim Tower. Backtrack through it — the witch has disabled the scorn poles — and drop down to an area with a crystal and a crystal stand. Pick up the crystal next to the scorn pole, and walk over to the stand and place it on it. Then, after Atreus fires a light arrow at it, the Lore Marker, Beware of Seidr, can be read by Atreus.

Climb the wooden wall near the Lore Marker, then jump to the rock wall to the right and finally jump down. Continue backtracking to reach Sendri’s shop. You can talk to him about the Stone Ancient you killed, which will give you XP and allow you to craft Ancient Armor. You can sell your Elven Artifacts here to get a ton of gold, which will allow you to craft some Ancient armor. I would craft it especially if you are feeling underpowered, although it is not required. Eventually, you will outgear the level 3 gear, so if you are interested in spending your Hacksilver most prudently, it is probably best to upgrade Atreus’ quiver, since at some point it will need to be upgraded anyway and it will never get outgeared.

When you are ready, exit the shop area and you will be attacked by wolves. After disposing of them, use the sky cart near Sendri’s shop to quickly get back closer to the mountain. Use the compass if you can’t find it. After riding the cart to the top, climb up the steps to the Black Breath, and interact with it so Kratos uses the Light to dispel the black cloud. You will need to continually walk forward while Kratos holds the Light so that you can push through the Black Breath. Eventually, you will reach the end of the steps, and the quest “The Light of Alfheim” ends. You receive 3000 XP for completing the quest, so be sure to buy some new skills.

Inside the Mountain

To begin, the pathway is blocked, so jump over to the climbable wall and climb up the side of the mountain. At the top, Kratos must use the Light again to combat the Black Breast, so again, you will need to walk through the dark clouds. Past them, open the door to find a large room with the statue of a deer. Have Atreus inspect the sand bowl. It appears this is a small puzzle. Tell Atreus to fire at the right crystal, and then pull the lever to find out that half the writing is missing. You need to find another crystal and it on the left stand to complete the writing. For that crystal, enter the hallway to your right and, after defeating the two draugr, if you look up at the ceiling by the door, you will find a crystal on the wooden rafters above. If you throw your axe at the wooden rafters, they will break, and the crystal falls. Pick it up, put it on the pedestal, command Atreus to fire at it, and then pull the lever with both crystals activated. Atreus finds the code for the sand bowl, which activates the deer statue, who then burns a line in the wall to the right. Walk over to the wall and interact with it for Kratos to pull it open.

Traverse the dark caves

In this new dark room, command Atreus to fire at the crystal to light up the room a little, then drop down to the caverns below. Here, go right, then follow the tunnel past the draugr corpses. Soon, you reach a room with a crystal — again, Atreus should fire at it to activate it, which will provide light for the room. Continue to the crawlspace and go under it to reach a large room with a bridge. Pick up the pillar, then you are attacked by a Revenant (Summoner). Just as with other Revenants, Atreus must hit it first before you can attack it yourself. Atreus’ attacks should be more powerful now since he has the Light Arrows and since you’ve probably been upgrading his skills and equipment.

With the Revenant dead, look behind you and above to find a crystal on the cavern ceiling. After Atreus lights it, you will see three buckets suspended in the air. Break the seals that they’re attached to, and they’ll drop plenty of Hacksilver. After collecting it, cross under the bridge to find a spinner. Before continuing further, look back and you will see a hole in the pathway. If you look down this hole, you will find a Raven. Throw your axe at it to kill it and collect it. Afterward, climb up the wall with the yellow glyph. You will now face three Draugr, two level 3 and one level 4. Even though they’re a higher level, they still aren’t as hard as those Draugr you faced at the optional areas of the lake. I advise staying back and firing projectiles at them — throw your axe and command Atreus to fire his bow — until you’ve cleared them.

Afterward, if you look to the right, you should see a coffin. To the right of it is a light crystal, so command Atreus to activate it, which will cause a light path to appear. Go back down, bash your way through the objects, and cross the light path to find a Solid Svartalfheim Steel in the coffin. Go back to where you were previously, and go left this time. Destroy the wood to the left with an axe throw, then tell Atreus to fire at the crystal to light a path. Up it, you will find another sealed chest. To open it, you need to change the spinners until they display B, N, and R. The code B, N, and R is in red letters behind the chest, and if you have Atreus light the crystal to the right of the chest, you will be able to see it. One of the spinners — the N spinner that you first past — is already in the correct place. For the spinner to the right of the light path, change it until it displays an R. Now, from the sealed chest, exit to the bridge to the left. You will see another spinner off to the left. Change that one until it shows a B, then go back to the chest to collect a Horn of Blood Mead!

Go back down the light path and pick up the crystal on the ground to the left of it behind the rock, then bring the crystal back up to the room with the sealed chest. Walk on the bridge to the left of it and enter the far room. Set down the crystal when Atreus informs you of a Draugr attacking — it’s in the room with the sealed chest — and then put the crystal on the stand and command Atreus to fire at it. From there, tell Atreus to read the Lore, which is the Lore Marker “The Great Mountain.” Head back across the bridge, down the light path, and light all of the torches in this cavern room with the waterfall. On the right side, you will see some breakable wood. Break it, then go inside. Break the wooden table that has been toppled, and behind it, you will find a new artifact set. This one is the Cup set a part of “Bottoms Up.”

Exit the room with the cup, and follow the path to the right. You will reach a crawlspace, and as the twosome crouch past all of the dead bodies, you will need to press circle twice to clear debris and a wood barrier. Eventually, you will reach the back of the deer statue. Tell Atreus to read the writing on the back of the statue to collect a Rune Read, this one Durapror the Stag. Now, smash through the wood wall directly behind the statue, and you will find the scroll The Serpent, which is more Lore. Also in this room, you will find a stone which changes colors: red (Rage), green (Health), and white (XP). Unless you are low on health, I would grab it while white to get the extra experience.

Head back to the room with the deer statue. To the right, you will find a door. Open it and kill the Draugr inside. He will launch a line attack at you, so make sure you are not directly in front of him. After that, go left to find a Lore Marker with a crystal stand. You won’t be able to get a crystal until you can dispose of the red vine wall. Just as a note, you can’t even bring the crystal from the previous Lore Marker, as the doors in the stag room slam shut. Anyway, at the fork, go right this time, and you will encounter three more Draugr. After taking care of them, light all of the torches with Atreus’ arrows, and then climb up the wall with the yellow glyphs. As you climb, instruct Atreus to read the Rune words facing downward to get more Lore, this one Mountain Terror. After reading it, continue climb up, then climb to the right and drop down.

Atreus finds something on the ground, but it is of no use. Go to the right to find a lit torch and interact with the gold chain to drop it down. However, go back up with Atreus. Follow the pathway until you see some wooden objects on the left. Smash them, then kick down the chain, and then slide down the chain. Down here, you will find a chest that contains Hacksilver. Back up the chain, follow the path to a gate. Use the lever to open the gate, and then go on through to reach the inside of the mountain.

Ascend the Cave Shaft

In this new area, immediately go right from the doorway and up the wood path to reach a wheel. Try to interact with it for a scene, and then some Draugr come out to fight. For these, throw your axe at the few that quickly charge you, then ranged attack the projectile draugrs that are on the higher levels, and finally take out the remaining few melee Draugrs. With the wave clear, you now have a new objective.

Free the chain

Before we free the chain, let’s explore this area for some collectibles. First, if you go right from where the Draugr ambushed you, you will find a Hidden Chamber. Just like the other ones, we cannot open it yet. In addition, in front of the Hidden Chamber, you will see a huge mining cart, obviously for the Giants. On one side of it, you will find a Lore, a Rune Read, this one Giants and Dwarves. Now, head through the tunnel to the right of the rune. It is the same tunnel that some of the draugr appeared from. As you go through it, you will find Brok’s shop again, and this is a good time to upgrade some of your equipment. There are a few boss battles up ahead, so if you are feeling underpowered, feel free to spend some of that Hacksilver and improve Kratos’ attributes. Just as before, I recommend Strength on easier difficulties and Defense on harder difficulties.

From Brok’s shop, climb up the yellow glyphed wooden wall, then walk over to the corpse and collect the Hacksilver. More important than that, if you look up at the sky, you will see a Raven flying around. Throw your axe at it to defeat another of Odin’s Ravens. Before dropping back down to Brok’s shop, destroy the wood on this platform to reveal a crawl space. Through it, loot the chest for some Hacksilver and the coffin for a Solid Svartalfheim Steel. If you’ve been following the guide, you will have at least two of these now, and with two of them and 10,000 Hacksilver, you can upgrade Atreus’ bow. This is a huge upgrade as you can then purchase more Skills for it in the skill trees. I highly recommend that you do this as soon as possible because Atreus can make the difference in many fights and because it is easy to simply spam square in combat.

Go back through that tiny tunnel which led to the coffin. If you look to the left, there will be an area where you can drop down. Do so, and you will see a tunnel of spikes with a spinner to the upper-right of it. Throw your axe at the spinner until it is fully spun, and then quickly run through half the tunnel. Wait until the spikes are far enough part on the far part of the tunnel, and run through the rest of it to meet up with Atreus again. In this area, there will be a spike door. Just as with the ones from before, throw your axe at the top-right corner of it to open it up. Past it, clear the draugr in the room. Stay at the entrance to the room because there is one above you.

With the area clear, try to push the mining cart. Turns out, it is still attached to the huge animal. Throw your axe at the seal to break the connection, then push the mining cart. Only push it about half way over, then let go of it. Look at the wall where the mining cart was, and you will see a spiked door. Throw your axe at the top-right corner twice to open it, and collect the Artifact — a cup — inside here. Go back out, and push the cart, but do not push it all the way against the door. Instead, push it so that it is one peg away from the door, which will be right past the drawbridge. Speaking of which, throw your axe at all of the seals connecting the drawbridges in the upper level of this area.

When you are ready, climb on top of the mining cart, then climb to the right to reach the upper level with the drawbridges. Here, cross the drawbridge to the right, then go left. Clear the draugr in front of you, light the torch with Atreus’ arrows, and you will see a raven perched near the torch. Kill it to collect another of Odin’s Ravens. Knock down the chain on this part of the level so that you are able to climb up and down at will. Continue following the drawbridges to the next area. Kill the draugr, then climb up the levels to find a coffin, which contains a Scaled Waist Guard, a Level 3 Blue armor piece that is probably an upgrade for you. Drop down next to it and take the right tunnel. Break the wood in your way and lift the pillar also in the way. You will reach the starting area, but now, you are on a platform above. Pull the gold chain to the left to open the door where the mining cart is at. In addition, kick the gold chain to the left so you can easily climb back up here from the first area. Finally, lift open the doorway to the left to return to the area with the mining cart.

Push the mining cart past the now-opened gate and into the first area. Just as before, do not push it all the way. Your goal is to push it so that you can jump on it and then jump on the platform to the left. The platform is clearly marked with yellow glyph. When the mining cart is in place, get on top of it, then jump over to the level to the left. Here, open the gold chest to find a Runic Summon, Falcons’ Dive. Continue on this level to reach the huge rock. Interact with it and button mash two separate times for Kratos to move the rock away.

Find a way to ascend

No, not super saiyan ascension. Instead, go back to the mining cart, and push it more inside the room. Soon, a boss appears!

Boss Battle: Jarn Fotr

Jarn Fotr Overview

This frost troll is not terribly difficult because he attacks in much the same way as the previous trolls that you’ve faced. The only difference is, as you might have guessed, that its attacks are imbued with the frost status, which will slow you down. The troll also summons high level draugr in the fight. Overall, the main strategy here is to stay away from the troll and throw your axe at it while Atreus fires his bow at it. The troll only has one ranged attack, and it is easily avoided. Ignore the adds and take out the troll first.

Jarn Fotr Attacks

• Jarn Fotr can attack with the pillar just like the other trolls. So, it can heave it at you and slam it at you, and when it gets low on health, it will swing the pillar around wildly. You won’t see too many melee attacks if you stick to the ranged strategy I have outlined.
• Jarn Fotr can stomp the ground, causing a shockwave line of frost attacks. Dodge backwards to avoid this one.
• Jarn Fotr summons high level draugr for this fight. I would ignore the draugr and focus on Jarn Fotr unless you are low on health.

Jarn Fotr Strategy

Ranged is the easiest path to victory in this fight. Stay at ranged distance and repeatedly throw your axe at Jarn Fotr while you repeatedly instruct Atreus to fire his bow at the beast. If you’ve been upgrading Atreus’ bow and abilities, his bow will actually do moderate damage. In addition, your axe will do decent damage as well, provided that you throw it at the torso or head of Jarn Fotr. As the troll nears you, evade to the side and don’t let yourself get cornered. Use the many places of cover in this area, including the mining carts, to get distance from the troll.

If the troll gets close, dodge roll out of the way. When he performs his frost shockwave attack, dodge backwards so it doesn’t hit you. If it does, you will get the slow effect, and if he’s close, he can do real damage while you are slowed, so be sure to constantly dodge away at all times. As his health lowers, he will summon Draugr to help him, but you should focus on Jarn Fotr unless you are low on health and need the Healthstone drops that the Draugr provide.

You can also trigger Spartan Rage and pound him to death, but the smart strategy is simply to ranged attack him to death with your axe throw and Atreus’ arrows. After defeating him, collect the loot he drops — the River of Knives runic attack and the Frozen Flame, in particular. The latter can be used to upgrade your axe.

Find a way to ascend (2)

After collecting the Frozen Flame, immediately return to Brok to upgrade your axe. He is just down the tunnel from the boss area, so there is little travel involved. When he upgrades your axe, it will also unlock more skills that you can purchase in the skill tree. With the upgraded axe, head back to the mining cart area. First, ensure that the mining cart has been pushed as much as it can be. Then, go over to the wheel that you spun when you first entered this area, and spin it all the way down. It will be several spins, but eventually, the claw will drop over the mining cart. Before letting go of the wheel, throw your axe on the gear shaft to the right of the wheel to freeze everything in place. Then, go over to the mining cart and climb on it. Recall the axe and the mining cart will function as an elevator for you to ascend up the mountain.

Reach the summit

After the scene, it’s time to reach the summit (not 1G). Follow Atreus up the pathway to a statue that spews out flame. Atreus takes the tunnel to the right, but you must run past these flame traps. To do this, simply sprint right after the flame dissipates. For the second flame trap, you must jump across a chasm with tree flame traps. Time your sprint and jump over so that you are jumping right after the first flame subsides. On the other side, follow the pathway to a second flame trap — this one is rotating statues which always shoot flame. For this, get in between the flame lines and walk around the statue while staying in between them. There are a few stone structures that you can hide behind as well. Finally, there are two Draugr who will throw projectiles at you from the left, so hide behind a stone pillar and throw your axe at them to take them out.

Past the rotating flame statues, you will find a wheel. Spin it right after the flames go past it, and it will lower the rotating flame statues. This will allow you to loot the coffin above the statues, and in it, you will find a Plated Pauldron, another Level 3 piece of armor. From here, go to the right to find a wooden level. At the end, push off the rock to make the mining lift ascend. The lift soon stops, but this is for your benefit, as you can jump off it and collect the chest and the Hacksilver near the corpse behind the table. Get back on the lift now and destroy the wooden object in front of the large stone. Then, push the stone off to ascend up even more.

After a short father son talk, a few draugr come onto the platform. They are not anything you have not dealt with before, but if you are having trouble, remember that Atreus is a viable character and can stun them with his bow. With the draugr clear, the lift ascends upward even more. But again, another wave of draugr come out to fight you. For this one, stay on the side farthest away from the wall as you fight them. Throw your axe at the two projectile draugrs on the wall when they appear because their flame attacks can deal decent damage to you. Otherwise, slice and dice everything on the platform, and remember that Atreus can stun draugr with his arrows.

With the fight over, interact with the wall in the prompted area, then button mash circle for Kratos to push the lift away from the wall. After more ascension, more enemies fight you. This time, an ogre even drops down onto the platform. Because you are much further in the game than your first ogre, this is almost a normal enemy now. For it, I advise staying away and simply having Atreus spam arrows into it. This will fill the stun meter, and when it’s full, Stun Grab the Ogre and ride it around the platform, running over the Draugr in the process. With the lift clear, collect the loot, heal if needed, and push the lift from the wall again. After another scene, you find the game’s next boss.

For now, you just need to evade Hraezlyr since you are extremely vulnerable on a little wooden lift. For this part, hack away at Hraezlyr’s right claw. When you’ve dealt enough damage, a short scene plays, and then you must mash circle so that Kratos rams the lift into the beast. After another scene, you are on the ground again. Move forward to find another World Tree Sap barrier. However, now there are Shattered Crystal near each barrier. Interact with the red crystals to take a part of it, and then throw it at the barriers to destroy them. Do this for the barrier up ahead, then sidle past the ledge, and then break another barrier with a red crystal. Run down the pathway, and you will hear Sendri screaming. Quickly run through the linear path to find Sendri hiding from Hraezlyr. After a scene, Aetrus goes right, and so you should go left. Run up the slope to the left and then press Circle while near the body of the dragon to jump onto it. This begins the boss fight with the dragon.

Boss Battle: Hraezlyr

Hraezlyr Overview

I would qualify this as the first truly epic fight of the game — a dragon! A huge dragon! This fight is more about understanding the mechanics of the fight than anything. The dragon a few distinct “phases,” which I will go over in detail. Overall, much of the fight is spent evading the dragons attacks. You should only go in to melee attack it after it has just done a shockwave attack or if it has fallen because of crystal explosions. You can block all of the dragon’s physical attacks, and his electric attacks are easily evaded by moving to the side. Overall, an epic fight, but it’s not too difficult when you know what to do in each phase.

Hraezlyr Attacks

• Hraezlyr will slam the ground, causing a shockwave. This shockwave can be blocked by your shield, so press L1. After he does a shockwave, he keeps his claws on the ground for a few seconds, which allows you to run up and get a few hits in. This is the primary way to deal damage without doing anything special.
• Hraezlyr will headbutt you if you’re attacking his head after it falls. You can attack his head for a few seconds before his eye opens and he smacks you with it. You can fully block this attack with your shield, too.
• Hraezlyr will summon lightning that will strike at your current location every few seconds. When he does this, you need to constantly move around the area so you do not get hit.
• Hraezlyr will blow a line of lightning. When he does this, evade to the left or to the right.
• Hraezlyr will summon lightning on his half of the arena. When he does this, evade backwards.
• Hraezlyr can also swipe you with his claw if you get too close. I would stay far away for this fight.

Phase One

For the first phase, Hraezlyr will summon lightning that will strike at your current location every few seconds. For this, always be moving to avoid it. He will also suck you in with his breath, but if you are staying far away from him, it won’t matter. For this phase, grab the red crystals on the side of the arena and throw them at Hraezlyr’s head before he casts his lightning strike attack. If you throw the crystal soon enough, it will explode when it reaches Hraezlyr’s face and cause significant damage. Sometimes, he will topple over after the blast, and you can run in and melee attack him for more damage. When he wakes up, press L1 to block his headbutt attack, and then repeat this process of throwing red crystals at him until he switches sides.

Phase Two

For the second phase, he will perform a ground pound which will send a shockwave to you. You can fully block the shockwave with L1, so do so. Then, rush up to his claws, which become stuck on the ground for a few seconds, and melee attack away at them. After a few rounds of this, he will start performing is lightning blast in a line. When he does this, grab a red crystal and throw it at him while he is charging it up. This will cause the crystal to explode and deal significant damage. Soon, he will topple over again, and you should again rush in and melee attack his face. Just as before also, you can block the headbutt he dishes after he wakes back up. If you are having trouble getting to the red crystals with the line of lightning, remember that you can sprint across the arena in this fight. That should make evading the lightning easier and make is simple to grab the crystals and throw them.

Phase Three

The dragon switches sides again. This phase is identical to the second phase, but he is a little closer on this side to you, so you have to move more quickly. Grab a red crystal and, when he is charging his lightning attack, throw it at his head. After a few tries, he will topple over again, and just as before, run in and hack away at him.

Phase Four

Eventually, there will be a scene in which the dragon goes after Atreus and Sindri on the wooden platform, which leads Kratos to strategize with Atreus about killing the dragon: lowering the crane onto the dragon. For now, you start this phase by blocking Hraezlyr’s physical attacks and then attacking his claws. After dealing enough damage, Hraezlyr goes berserk and performs the lightning strike and lightning line attacks at the same time. Be careful here, especially when you are grabbing the red crystals, so that the lightning strike does not strike on top of you. Wait until both attacks stop, and then grab the crystal, and then for the next wave of lightning attacks, throw the crystal before he charges fully. Eventually, when you throw the red crystal enough, it causes him to topple again. This time, press square to instruct Atreus to shoot the crane rope. There will be a scene in which you will have to mash circle, and then the boss will finally be defeated. After the fight, Sendri showers you with gifts, including a new arrow type.

Aftermath

After the fight, Sendri wants you to get a tooth, so walk over and follow the game’s prompts to swing the axe and break off a tooth. You get a Dragon Tooth, a Dragon Scale, and 2000 XP for defeating the dragon. Talk to Sendri at his shop, who will blow something on the dragon tooth. Then, Kratos imbues the bow with the shock arrow type. This allows you to destroy World Tree Sap obstacles, which have been blocking off some parts of the game already. Switch to the shock arrow type, then aim and fire at the Sap obstacle in front of you to make it explode. Remember that although the shock arrows are useful for getting into new areas, it is the Light Arrows with which all of the skills you might have purchased are for, so be sure to switch to Light for combat. You should also go to the Skill tree menu and purchase some of the earlier shock arrow skills so it is not so underpowered in combat compared to Light arrows. I also recommend that you upgrade Atreus’ bow at Sendri’s right now — you should be able to get to Level 4, provided you have enough Hacksilver and have been following the guide for the steel resource.

Enter the cave that Atreus’ shock arrows open, then follow the tunnel to a climbable wood structure. Up it, you will encounter a new enemy: Nightmare Parasites. These guys possess other creatures, but the ones here can easily be taken down with a good throw or a few shots of the bow. With the area clear, you will see a big pile of red crystals in the corner. Instruct Atreus to fire shock arrows at it to blow it up. The crystal in the bucket won’t blow up, but behind it in a nook, you will find another artifact — your third if you’ve been following the guide.

Go over to the wheel in this room and turn it so that it is at the same level as the red vines. Instruct Atreus to fire shock arrows at it, and the whole thing will blow up. A few more Nightmares spawn now — defeat them with axe throws and arrow shots. After clearing them, climb up the fallen stone blocks and then up the wall. Follow the passageway, and you are ambushed by more enemies. Stay back and ranged attack the Nightmares and the projectile draugr. With the enemies defeated, climb up and follow the tunnel to the Sap obstacle blocking a doorway. To the right of that, you will see a room full of what looks like Reavers but are actually a new enemy, a Hel-Viken. For this fight, I would start with a ranged axe throw, and try to keep your distance as you and Atreus take them down.

With the area clear, grab the red crystal to the right and go back to the previous hallway with the Sap barrier. Throw the red crystal on the barrier, then have Atreus fire at it to blow it up. In it, you will find the Ymir Shrine. Head back to the room with the red crystal. To the left, you will see a sealed chest. Before we can open it, we need to get control of the bridge. So, you need to lower the bridge now. To do this, grab the red crystal and throw it on the far side of the bridge, then instruct Atreus to fire shock arrows at it. This lowers the bridge halfway, and for the other half, you’ll need to throw a red crystal on the sap on the close side and then tell Atreus to shock away. Even though it is on the opposite side of the sap, it will still blow up the sap and lower the bridge fully.

On the other side of the bridge, you will encounter more Nightmares and Reavers. After clearing them, go back down and grab another red crystal, then cross back over the bridge and throw it at the sap that is covering the lore marker. After Atreus blows it up, you can instruct him to read the Lore Marker. Now, you need to go back to the bridge. To the right of it, you will find a wheel. Turn it all the way down, then freeze the gearshift to the right of it with your axe. Go up the bridge now and try to open the coffin. This one has a surprise — a Reaver. Kill it with your fists and collect the loot it drops — in particular, it drops the valuable Soft Svartalfheim Steel. Do not recall the axe.

While still on the higher area with the coffin, destroy the seal on the railway opposite the coffin. That’s one seal for the sealed chest. For the second, go back down to the mid-level, recall the axe, and look to the left of the bridge. Against the wall past the chasm, you will find another seal. For the third, go back to the room with the Ymir Shrine that you opened from the Sap barrier. While standing near the shrine, look to the right and up, and you will see the last seal. Break that one, then return to the sealed chest to collect your reward — this time, it’s an Idunn Apple. If you’ve been following the guide, this will be your first out of three of a new set. Cross the bridge and continue further into the mountain. Climb up the wall and open the door to reach the outside.

The Summit

There will be a short scene with Atreus in which Kratos fixes his quiver. Then, make your way toward the summit. As you walk in the snow, a few Reavers come up from the snow below. One of them is immune to your axe, so axe throw all of his friends and then fist fight the axe-immune enemy. You can also have Atreus spam arrows at them. Continue fighting your way up the snow path to the summit. You will find a tall stone structure. Go down the snow slope to the left of it and continue following the pathway until you find a coffin which you can’t open. Start to walk back and to the right you will find a corpse with an item next to it. That item is an extremely valuable Cup, so grab it and then go back up to the stone structure.

Climb on the wall to the right of the vines. As you climb, you will hear a familiar voice. Keep climbing up and to the right, and eventually, you see a tree above you with a few men. After they leave, climb to the right, then down, and then up to reach the level with the tree. There will be a long scene with Mimir, a new character, and this quest will finally be completed. You receive over 4000 XP for completing this quest, so be sure to pause, go to the Skills menu, and upgrade your abilities as you see fit.

A New Destination

Walk away from the tree and then go right, down the steps, to find a chest that contains a Muspelheim Cipher. Continue down the summit, going through a tunnel, and eventually, you will reach a clearing. After a short scene, open the Mystic Gateway to your right and travel to Brok’s shop. You need go open the Mystic Gateway door and then stay on the path to travel through it. If you go off the path with Atreus, you can fall off and die. After making it through the Mystic Gateway, you will have a conversation with Brok, who will upgrade your axe again. You can also upgrade and buy new gear now if you have a stockpile of money. And make sure that you spend your XP on skills after that big reward from the last quest.

Go outside now to the bridge, then go down the stairs to the right and get on the boat. Paddle to the left of the huge Thor statue to enter the river to the Witch’s cave. It is a long paddle back, but eventually, you reach the dock. Blow up the sap on the elevator, then ride it up to the top. Go up the wooden ramp now, but it appears the way is closed. However, this presents a nice opportunity, as with the lower water levels, you can fully explore this cavern and collect the loot. Let’s do that right now.

Cavern Loot (Optional)

Destroy the sap to the left of the elevator, then defeat the enemies that spawn afterward. Remember that you need to have Atreus shoot the Revenant before you can temporarily hit it with your weapons. Through the new pathway, you find a seal to the left above some water. Break it for the sealed chest later. Go right now, and then open the chest near the blue glowy circle to obtain a Muspelheim Cipher. If you’ve been following this guide, you will now have all four ciphers and can access Muspelheim from the realm travel room. Head back to the room with the elevator now. To the right of the wooden walkway, you will see two crystals below you. Command Atreus to fire arrows at both in order to create light pathways. Drop down to the right, then make a sharp left turn. In front of you, there is a coffin surrounded by sap, and to the right, there is the second seal.

Go down the other light path, toward the sealed chest, and to the left of it, you will find the red crystal. Take some, then throw it at the coffin near where the second seal was and have Atreus blow up the sap. Collect the Solid Svartalfheim Steel in the coffin. Now go back to the center platform between the two light pathways. You should see a huge cart with wood on it to the right. You can move that cart so it is not against the wall, and if you go to where the cart was, you will find a coffin containing Soft Svartalfheim Steel behind the wall. Go back to the huge cart now and push it all the way into the water. This will create a platform for you, so get on the cart and jump to the center area. Here, you will find a Mask on the ground next to the corpse.

Head back to the sealed chest now and grab some more red crystal from the tree to the right of it. With it, go past the sealed chest and to the top-right, you will see more sap above a climbable wall. Throw the red crystal, blow up the sap, then climb the wall. Up here, you will find a Hidden Chamber in front of you, the third seal on the wall to the left, a treasure map on the ground to the right, a coffin in the corner to the right, and a chest to the right of the Hidden Chamber. Collect all of the loot, then lift open the iron door to the left of the Hidden Chamber. Go back to the sealed chest and open it to receive a Horn of Blood Mead, which will be your third if you have been following the walkthrough since the beginning.

Go back to the Hidden Chamber door now and exit through the opened iron gate to the left. Here, kill both of the Revenants, then proceed to the far side of the room. You will see a sand bowl on a stone platform ahead of you. You need Atreus to get to it. To do this, throw your axe at wood plans to the right of it, then push the stone cart all the way to the right. After that, throw your axe at the wood barrier above the yellow glyphed wood wall, then hoist up Atreus. He will automatically jump on the stone cart, so push it back to the left side. Then, he will jump over and inspect the sand bowl. Directly in front of the sand bowl to the left, you will see yellow runic words hidden behind wood on the ceiling. Destroy the wood and instruct Atreus to read it. This will lower the sand bowl platform and enable you to jump over to it. To the right of the sand bowl, you will find a gold chest that contains the Runic Summon Murder of Crows.

Getting to the Witch’s House

Head back to the area with the wooden ramp leading up to nowhere. Take the same path that you took to get to the cipher — the pathway that was originally blocked by sap — and in the left corner of the first turn, you will find water on the ground. Climb up the wall here and then go left while climbing. You will find the Runic Read Lore “Keep Out” etched on the well wall. Continue to climb up and out of the well. Before you go see the witch, there is a Lore Marker near the well. It needs a crystal, which you can find from behind the stone well. Put it on the stand, activate it with Aetrius’ light arrows, and command him to read it. This Lore Marker is Prayer to Frigg. Now head down to the witch’s house. Before the fallen tree, pick up the Mask near the corpse on the right.

Now, continue to the turtle house. Before you can enter, you need to clear Draugr, but they are paper-weak by this point in the game. You can almost just spam Atreus’ arrows, along with a few axe throws, to decimate them. With the draugr dead, there are two more Lores in this area. Get on the path fork in front of the house. To the right, you find the Rune Reads “Down With Odin” and to the left “A Seidr Curse.” With both runes collected, go inside the house now for a long scene.

Speak to the Serpent

Afterward, you will be at the same cave area as before, but it is now named “Freya’s Cave.” Take the wooden lift down to the boat, and use the Mystic Gate to travel to Brok’s shop at the Lake of Nine. Here, exit the shop to the bridge, then walk halfway down the bridge to a platform with a lever. Turn the lever, then interact with the horn for Mimir to blow it. This triggers another cutscene which concludes the quest.

The Magic Chisel

Use the lever on the platform to lower it, then run towards the temple. Head down the stairs to the left of it — the stairs are different than the other place — and follow the stairs to the boat. Enter, and follow Mimir’s directions of paddling through the statues of the oarsmen to the north. Continue following the river until you reach a huge gate blocking the water. To the right of it, you can dock your boat. Here, go to the left to find a wheel. Spin it to lower the gate in the river, but this will also cause enemies to appear, including an ogre. Take out the ogre first — fire Atreus’ arrows and throw your axe it — until the stun meter is full. Then, grab it and ride it around, killing the Dark Elves in the process.

With the area clear, head back to the boat and go down the river through the ungated part now. You will have to paddle a long ways up the river, into a snowy area, before you can finally dock. And when you dock, look to the left and up at the top of the hill to see a raven perched up. Aim your axe reticle above the bird and throw to hit it — it’s too far away to just aim your reticle right at it. With the raven collected, go off the docks to find a new enemy: Wulver. These guys are very similar to Deathclaws from the Fallout series. They are fast wolves with claws. They can dodge your axe throw attack, but if you command Atreus to fire an arrow right before you throw your axe, both the arrow and the axe will hit. The best advice for defeating them is shocking them with Atreus’ shock arrows and then either throwing your axe at them or meleeing them to death. Another one appears after you kill the first, so be sure to stay on your guard.

To the left of the dock, you will find another Hidden Chamber that you cannot enter. If you’ve been following the guide, this will be the sixth chamber out of seven total in the game. At any rate, command Atreus to fire shock arrows at the red crystal on the statue. The statue will fall down, which allows you to push it around. First, push it to the right, then after Atreus blows up the crystal, you can look the coffin behind the icicles. Grab onto the large circular stone statue again, and push it to the left this time. After Atreus blows up the crystal, the icicles on the left side are destroyed and you can go through a tunnel. Past it, drop down. To your right, you will find a door that looks like a hidden chamber, but it’s actually just a locked door. To the left, climb up the wall, then follow the pathway to two frozen draugr. To the left of them, you will find a gold chain, but before going up it, loot the coffin to the right of it. This coffin contains a level 4 equipment piece. Equip it, then climb up the gold chain for a scene.

Retrieve a Piece of the Chisel

So, you need to get to the top of the gigantic statue chisel. Walk forward to find a Wulver. Just as before, use a combination of Atreus’ arrows and your axe to kill it. Immediately after it’s down, a Wulver from the left appears. With both taken care of, loot the coffin in the center to find another piece of equipment, which should be another level 4 piece that you will want to equip. South of the coffin, you will find runic words written on the wall. Command Atreus to read them to find a new Runic Read, Njord of the Vanir. Opposite the lore, you will find a short gate with runic words above it. You need to match those words with the spinners in the area to unlock the gate.

For the spinner to the left of the gate, you need to hit the panel twice. The first time, the panel will go behind the spinner, so you will need to reposition yourself to the right of it and hit it again. It will should a sideways “R.” For the second spinner, go back to the lore marker opposite the gate. To the right of the lore marker, you should find a rotating wood panel with spikes on one side. Just like previously in the game, when you throw your axe on the yellow part of it, it will rotate. When you do this, a spinner to the left ascends. You need to throw your axe at the wood panel, then quickly throw your axe at the right panel of the spinner. This will change the letter on the spinner to “E,” which is the correct placement. For the third spinner, go left of the lore marker to find a red crystal sap. Grab some of the crystal, then head northwest toa pile of rubble with red sap on it. Throw the red crystal at the pile of rubble and have Atreus blow it up with shock arrows. This reveals the spinner. Hit the left panel once to configure the correct combination. Grab the chest to the left, then return to the gate, which will open.

Inside here, grab the Hacksilver on the ground and open the coffin to acquire a legendary enchantment. Exit the coffin area, then grab some more red crystal. Throw it at the sap to the left of the lore marker. You should see a crystal behind the red sap. After Atreus blows it up, pick up the crystal and place it on the stand to the northeast. Once Atreus has activated it with a light arrow, a realm tear appears. Interact with it to obtain the Dust of Realms, a legendary enhancrment for talismans. That’s everything for this area, so exit this area via the northeast opening. There is a lot of blood on the ground near the opening. Walk down the path until a few Nightmares collapse a pillar and attack you. Dispose of them, then lift the pillar to find Thamur’s head. After a scene, we have a new objective, but then there is an attack.

Find a Way to Break the Ice

For this part, you must defeat all of the waves of enemies. It starts with draugr, but then two ogres also run out to fight. Use the draugrs to fill your rage, then use Spartan Rage to make quick work of the ogres. You can also stun grab one ogre and ride him around, killing the draugr in the process. As for damaging everything, it is easy if you simply stay at ranged and throw your axe at everything while Atreus fires his arrows. At this point in the game, you should have enough firepower at ranged to take everything down. So, either fight ranged or use Spartan’s Rage to clear the waves. Don’t forget to loot all of the items that drop after the fight.

Talk to Sindri

Climb up the gold chain to enter a scene with Sindri. You discover how he and Brok are able to be everywhere unseen, and he even upgrades your axe. While you’re here, you can upgrade your items and skills. He now has level 4 blue armor, and if anything is a big upgrade, I recommend that you purchase it because you should have a lot of extra Hacksilver. Especially if you are still wearing level 1 gear or if you are wearing gear with statistics opposite your playstyle, purchase some new gear from Sindri. You can also upgrade Atreus’ equipment too, especially his quiver, which must be upgraded as some point and won’t be outgeared like all of Kratos’ equipment. When you are ready, it’s time to find a way to the hammer.

Find a Way to the Hammer

To the right of Sendri’s shop, you may notice Thamur’s long beard has jewelry on it. On the gold rings of the beard, there are red crystals, which Atreus can blow up. There are three in all, and the one nearest and farthest are both visible and easily shot. For the center crystal, you need to throw your axe at the panel on the ring to make it rotate, which will then reveal the red crystal. For this part, you need to throw your axe and immediately command that Atreus fire a shock arrow at it because the gold ring will rotate all the way around. When you’ve blown up all three red crystals on the beard, the beard will fall, and you will then be able to jump to the right of Sendri’s shop. Follow the straightforward paths, collect the treasure in the chest, and eventually, you reach a door. Inside, you find a very difficult normal enemy.

Mini-Boss: Traveler Champion

He’s tough, so I thought it would be best for him to have his own dedicated subsection. For this fight, the Traveler Champion is completely invulnerable to all of your attacks while he is walking towards you. So, even though he walks slowly, you can’t do any damage to him — not even an axe throw or shock arrow. When Traveler Champion gets close, he will thrust his sword at you. He has a few sword motions — he can jab it like a lance, swing it like a sword, or perform a full combo. Your job is to dodge out of the way when he does this. After he’s swung his sword, he is temporarily vulnerable to attacks, so hack away with your axe or fists while Atreus sprays arrows into him.

The Traveler Champion has a lot of health for a normal enemy, so it will take a while. The key here is to dodge all of his attacks and do not try to attack him until after he’s swung his sword. In addition, adds appear during this fight in the form of weak draugr. They can be useful for collecting Healthstones if you need them, but you should focus on the Traveler Champion in this fight. However, you can always just run to the opposite side of the room and clear the draugr while the Traveler Champion slowly walks towards you. After the fight, be sure to collect all of the loot that he drops.

Find a Way to the Hammer (2)

Grab a hold of the large stone near Atreus and pull it all the way to the opposite side of the room. Climb on the stone and then jump to the left to find a chest with Hacksilver inside. Go back to the center room now and push the stone block so that it is just before the doorway but not in it. Climb on top of the stone again and lok southeast. You should see a piece of wood hanging from the ceiling with two seals on the top of either side of it. Throw your axe so it hits the right seal, which will rotate the piece of wood so that it is facing you. Then, jump on the piece of wood, climb up it, then jump off to the right. Here, you will find a gold chest which contains a runic attack, Blessings of the Frost.

Exit this room now and follow the walkway. Jump over the chasm and then grab hold of the top of the building in front of you. Climb to the right and then climb downward. Continue right, and then up, and then climb up. Here, you will see a red crystal hanging in the air by a huge black strap. Push the crystal on the black strap. It will swing back towards the ice behind it. When it does this, command Atreus to fire his shock arrow at the crystal. This will blow up part of the ice behind the red crystal. You need to do this twice to trigger a scene. Afterward, continue to the other strap. Before jumping on it, fire a shock arrow at it, which will destroy the icicles to the right on the platform. Past them, you will find a coffin with some more Svartalfheim Steel.

Jump on the strap and climb up it, then jump to the right and climb up until you reach an opening in the statue. Inside it, there will be a black crystal on the other side in the center with what appears to be a barricade. Interact with the black crystal to bash it off, then climb on the wall outside on this side. Up the wall again, you will be in another small tunnel, but this time, there is a red crystal on the other side. Fire a shock arrow at it to destroy the barricade, then climb on the wall again up to your destination.

Release the Strap

To the right, you will find the strap. Interact with it and then mash circle to release it. This triggers a short scene and begins a new objective.

Find a Way to the Hammer’s Head

Enter through the door in front of you and loot the coffin to the left to obtain another level 4 blue equipment piece. Afterward, walk to the center room to find another sand bowl, but you are unable to get to it. Instead, bash the wood to the right and command Atreus to go through the crawlspace to the sand bowl. For this puzzle, you must put the pictures on the wall in the correct order: Autumn (Leaf), Summer (Sun), Spring (Flower), Winter (Snowflake), from left to right. So, make sure the leftmost is a leaf picture, the left center is a sun picture, the right center is a flower picture, and the rightmost is a snowflake picture. After putting the pictures in the correct order, command Atreus, and the entire floor becomes repaired. Walk it and watch as it starts to ascend. Unfortunately, somehow three waves of enemies have found a way up here, and you must defeat each wave before the gold timer bar on the top of your screen fully depletes.

Wave One

As you may have guessed, this is the easiest way. Only mid-level draugr spawn, and you can easily melee them to death while spamming Atreus’ arrows. The only problem you may have is if you are not aggressive enough and let them overrun you. So, when you see a draugr, immediately run up to it and engage it in melee combat to quickly kill it. After you’ve cleared the wave, Atreus goes back to the sand bowl. You should walk around and collect Healthstones if you need health, but leave them be if you don’t because you might need them later.

Wave Two

This wave is not that much different than the first, but the draugr are slightly higher level and there is a high health level four draugr with an axe. Clear the weak ones first before you take out the higher health draugr. You can also hit the weak draugr off the platform if they are on the side. Just as with the other wave, after it’s cleared, collect the Healthstones if you need health and wait for the next wave.

Wave Three

This wave has more variety finally. It starts with Nightmares, which you should throw your axe at or have Atreus fire his arrows at. Then, a few draugr appear, but the highlight of this wave is the high health Revenant. Just as with the other Revenants, you need Atreus to shoot his arrows at it before you can temporarily hit it with your weapon. I have instructed you to level up Atreus’ gear several times in the walkthrough now, so hopefully his bow hits harder and recharges faster. You can always pass the game and upgrade the bow skills if you are having trouble with the Revenant. After the wave, Atreus goes back to the sand bowl, but two projectile draugr come out from above and rain fire down on you. The sand bowl goes, and you must throw your axe at the projectile draugr above to defeat both. Now, with the little time you have left, have Atreus fire shock arrows at the red crystals on the left and right side of the balcony where the draugr were. This will cause an explosion below and reveal a cracked wall that you need to climb onto before the timer depletes fully. If you die, you will restart right before the two projectile draugr, so it is not that much backtracking. Take out the two draugr quickly and then carefully aim so that Atreus’ shock arrows hit both of the crystals.

Push the Hammer

At the top, collect the Hacksilver next to the corpse on the right, and then climb on the wall in front of you. You will climb to the right and finally up to the hammer. Interact with the side of it, then button mash circle for a long scene.

Make Your Way to the Chisel

Walk to the right, then jump and grab onto the gold stone tiles on the wall in front of you. Climb to the left, going up and down as prompted, and do not be alarmed when the snow topples in front of you. Eventually, you’ll need to drop down. Here, the draugr are all frozen, so grab onto the gold tile to the right and climb up, then jump to the left. Cross the gap, then open the door to reach a banquet room. Here, command Atreus to fire a shock arrow at the chandelier that is stuck in the ice on the east side of the room. There is a red crystal on the chandelier, and when Atreus fires at it, it makes a big explosion and swings to the opposite side of the room. Repeat this again, and then a third time. The red crystal drops from the chandelier and you can grab a piece of it. Throw it at the cracked ice in the northwest corner of the room and have Atreus shoot it. An ogre appears.

Mini-Boss: Fierce Ogre

Fierce Ogre Overview

This is a stronger, faster version of a normal ogre. Keep your distance in the fight and throw your axe/fire your arrows at the beast to take it down. The ogre is not so good at long range and can only throw big rocks at you when you are at a distance from it. Because of this, you should keep your distance, take out the Nightmare adds, and then pick off the ogre from range.

Fierce Ogre Attacks

• The ogre has many melee attacks typical of ogres. It can swipe at you, punch you, slam you, and swing wildly at you. When the ogre blinks yellow, that means you can block the attack, and when it blinks red, that means you cannot block the attack and should doge instead.
• The ogre can throw big rocks at you from a distance, but you can easily evade these by dodging to the side.

Fierce Ogre Strategy

This ogre is a small “boss” fight. Stay at range, kill the Nightmare adds with axe throws and arrows, and then slowly chip away at the ogres health from a distance. You can also be a bit more courageous and melee the beast if you want, but this is a little more risky. To do this, block the attacks which can be blocked or simply dodge around to the side of it and get in a few swipes with your sword.

After the fight with the ogre, grab another piece of red crystal and throw it at the upper part of the west wall, near more cracked ice. After blowing it up, a real boss appears.

Boss Battle: Stonebeard King

Stonebeard King Overview

He attacks like the trolls you have previously encountered in the game, so you have a lot of practice with this enemy type. Just as before, he mostly attacks with his pillar, and he’s not very effective at ranged combat. He summons wolf adds, which you can defeat while fighting the troll if you simply stay at a distance from him. Otherwise, the normal troll strategy applies: ranged attack him to death or wait for him to swing and melee attack his sides.

Stonebeard King Attacks

• Stomp ground with frost. If you get close to him, he will stomp the ground in front of you with a frost effect, which will inflict the frost status if you are too close. Simply dodge away to avoid this — he will indicate he is going to stomp the ground because he will pick up his foot first.
• Stomp ground without frost. He can also just stomp the ground but with no frost effect.
• Slam ground with butt of pillar. He will lift up the pillar and slam the butt of it on the ground in front of him. Thankfully, if you aren’t in front of him, it won’t do any damage at all, and you can run to the side and melee away at him while he is picking up the pillar.
• Shockwave attack. He will slam the ground with his pillar after swinging it back. This does frost damage in a line sometimes, and in the area in front of him at other times.

Stonebeard King Strategy

This fight is similar to every other troll encounter in the game. Even though he has a cool name, he follows the same attacking patterns as the other trolls. So, he attacks with his pillar and is pretty much useless at long range combat. As such, a primary strategy is just to keep your distance and axe throw/light arrow him to death. If you’ve been upgrading your ranged attacks, they will do a moderate amount of damage, and this fight won’t last very long.

He also summons adds in the form of wolves. Because the troll is so incompetent at range, you can clear the wolves so long as you keep track of the distance you are away from the troll. The wolves also drop Healthstones, which you can use to heal if you are low on health.

Unlike your previous troll fights, this banquet room is rather small, so you will need to be constantly walking backwards if you partake in the ranged strategy. As for the melee strategy, wait for him to stomp/swing and miss, then attack his sides. This is a somewhat elementary fight at this point in the game.

Aftermath

First of all, remember to grab all of the loot from the fallen boss and mini-boss. Then, take another red crystal and throw it at the shattered ice in the southwest corner of the room. After blowing it up, Wulvers appear, including one of the Fierce Wulver variant. Just as with previous Wulvers in the game, you must have Atreus fire an arrow at it to stagger it, and then you are free to melee or axe throw it. It is a pack of three Wulvers, and I recommend that you take out the non-Fierce ones first and then the Fierce one. As for the Fierce Wulver, it is more powerful, so be sure to keep your distance at first as you thin the herd.

After the fights, grab some more red crystal and throw it at the coffin in the east corner. After Atreus blows it up with shock arrows, you will be able to open the coffin. Now, climb up the southwest wall, and follow the pathway as you collect the Hacksilver on the ground. You will find Sindri here, who opens up shop in the most curious places. If you do not have Level 4 gear, you may consider buying some. It will get outgeared pretty quickly, so perhaps fight the next boss and, if you are having trouble, reload to the save here and buy the level 4 gear. If you’ve been following the guide, you should be outfitted in level 4 pieces from opening coffins in the previous area. You may also consider upgrading Atreus’ quiver, which will never become outgeared and which you will need to do eventually anyway.

Open the chest to the left of Sindri and also the coffin that you just blew up. Then, follow the pathway to a wood platform. Jump on the stone tile on the wall across from you, then climb to the right and drop down twice. Now for a real, legitimate, take-no-prisoners boss fight.

Boss Battle: Magni and Modi

Magni and Modi Overview

Magni fights with his greatsword, and Modi a mace and shield. This fight may seem overwhelming at first as it is the first time in the game where you are fighting two bosses at once. The key to victory here is to focus on Magni first. Whereas Modi has a shield and often blocks, Magni is more vulnerable to getting hit, and he has more powerful attacks to boot. It just makes more sense to take out Magni first. Now, this fight has distinct phases, similar to The Stranger fight and the dragon fight, but you should always focus on Magni first. When his health is lowered, he will kneel to the ground, and then you just have to deal with Modi. For Modi, he blocks a lot, but a combination of Atreus’ arrows and your axe swings should take care of him. He is much more difficult if you do not take down Magni first.

Magni and Modi Attacks

• Magni uses many simple greatsword strikes, including swings and combos. The greatsword has a long reach, is powerful, and Magni is fast.
• Magni can also slam the ground with his greatsword and cause thunder AoE damage.
• At later phases, Magni will stick his sword into the ground and cause a lightning ranged attack.
• During the last phase, Magni can perform more lightning ranged attacks with his greatsword.
• Modi swings with his mace and has combo attacks with it as well.
• Modi can also fire a slow lightning bolt at you. When it hits the ground, it explodes.
• During the last phase, Modi can shoot lightning from his mace and do a lightning AoE attack after he hits his shield with his mace a few times.

Magni/Modi Phase One

For the first phase, put all your effort into damaging Magni. His greatsword does more damage and is more of a problem than Modi’s mace and board. Magni does not have the same defenses as Modi. You can almost think of it as Magni = Offense and Modi = Defense. You want to take out Magni first, as he is really like a glass cannon. So, evade his greatsword strikes, and then get in a few melee attacks, or simply throw your axe at him from a distance. For this fight, the easiest strategy is to simply ranged attack Magni to death, as he is entirely ineffective from long range. But you also have to worry about Modi, and it can get crowded in the room. Overall, the choice is up to you — duke it out with melee or axe/arrow Magni to damage him.

Soon, Magni will drop to the ground when you’ve taken down his health. When this happens, he no longer does anything in this phase, and you can switch to Modi. Modi is annoying if you are fighting him with Magni still up, but with Magni down, Modi is much easier. He loves to block with his shield, so arrow him and then attack him. You can also parry his attacks and respond with your own attacks. The key, though, is take out Magni first, as Modi is more defensive-oriented in this phase and a sitting duck with Magni down. After you’ve lowered both Magni and Modi’s health, the twosome create a thunderstorm, this beginning phase two of the fight.

Magni/Modi Phase Two

During the thunderstorm phase of this fight, you stand in the middle with Atreus, and you must block the charges of the brothers. Note that if you simply hold L1, you cannot rotate Kratos. As such, you need to rotate around until you see a red arrow on the bottom of your screen. Then, block so that Kratos can block one of the brothers. You need to repeat this process a few times to end the phase. A quick tip is to constantly rotate Kratos until you see an arrow, and then block. Do not just stand there and wait for them, but always swivel Kratos around until you see the red arrow.

Magni/Modi Phase Three

Magni and Modi are slightly more powerful in this phase because they now have viable lightning ranged attacks. So, simply axe throwing from a distance is not as effective as before. However, just like in the first phase, you still want to take down Magni first. It just makes more sense — the guy without the shield and the defensive behavior is more vulnerable to attack. For Magni, dodge or block his greatsword strikes and then melee at his side but quickly evade away so you do not get counterattacked. After Magni is down again, focus on Modi. For him, spam arrows at him when he taunts you, block or evade his mace attacks, and then attack yourself. He has a lightning strike that explodes like a bomb when it hits the ground, so run away when he casts it.

Magni/Modi Phase Four

This phase is the same as phase two — another thunderstorm. Nothing changes from phase two. Swivel around as Kratos until you see a red arrow on your screen, then block the attack. Do this a few times to complete the phase.

Magni/Modi Phase Five

For the last phase, Magni has more ranged attacks and will perform more lightning attacks in general. When he is doing this, I recommend just staying at ranged and trying to evade them. Soon, Magni’s behavior switches to the normal swing a greatsword and hope it hits, and when he does this, evade the strike and cut deep into his side. You can also freely axe throw at Magni throughout the fight since he does not care about defense at all. With Magni down, it’s just a matter of Modi again. He has more lightning attacks, the worst of which being that he will bang his shield and then cause AoE lightning around him. But because you’ve singled out Modi, you can easily just fire arrows at him from a distance. Eventually, he will charge you, and you can block this and then melee attack the remainder of his health.

After the five phases, there is a scene in which you must press R1 to perform an attack. Then, the battle ends. Collect all of the loot on the ground — the Leiptr Alloy and the Frozen Flame in particular.

Retrieve a Piece of the Chisel (2)

Walk up to the huge orange crystal in front of you and interact with it. When you do, you are prompted to press R1 so that Kratos breaks off a piece of the chisel. Mission accomplished!

Behind the Lock

With the Chisel now, you can open all of those locked doors that you’ve been finding. To begin, walk over to the locked door in this room. When you interact with it, you have a short mini-game of sorts in which you need to strike the chisel when the part of the door shows flame effects. So, move the chisel around the lock until you see the flames at their biggest, and then strike. You need to do this a few times to open the door. Past it, you will find a sealed runic door. To open it, you need to break the three seals in the immediate area. To begin, if you look behind you from the tunnel you just came through, and look above it, you will see a seal perched high up. Throw your axe it to break it. That’s one down.

Now, to the right of the sealed door, you will see a red crystal in a chandelier against the wall above you. After shock arrowing it, it will fall. Shock arrow it again to open the coffin, and collect the loot inside. To the right of the coffin, you will see some bronze stone pegs that jut out from the wall. You can grab on these and climb up the wall by jumping to each one. Eventually, you will drop on the ground to your left. On this balcony area, look back toward the room you were just in. You will see a fallen statue with a lot of rubble ahead of you. In the middle of this rubble, in between a circular opening, you will find the second seal.

You can kick down the chain in this area if you want, but before going down, drop down to the north of this high balcony to reach a lower one. Here, walk to the edge of the balcony, then look northwest to find the third seal halfway behind some ice. Break it, then drop down and loot the items inside the now-opened runic gate. Afterward, scale up the wall with the bronze squares, go down the chain, and talk to Sindri. Now that you have the fifth Frozen Flame, you can put the next upgrade on your axe and have access to purchasing the fifth tier of skills for it. Sindri still only has level 4, but it is essential that you upgrade your axe again as it raises Kratos’ overall strength.

Drop down to the banquet hall, and you will see a locked door on the other side. Just as before, find the Binding Points with your chisel and strike when the iron’s hot — or, when there is the most flame — and you will open the door. Head down the hall and you will find a crystal stand and a coffin covered in sap. Walk further down the hall, and to the left, you will find red crystal after you bash through some wood. With the crystal, look up and you will see a blue crystal surrounded by sap. Throw the red crystal at it, and after Atreus blows it up with his shock arrows, pick up the crystal and bring it to the stand. When Atreus uses Light Arrows on the blue crystal, a realm tear appears, and when Kratos puts his hand in it, he find another Dust of Realms.

Go back and grab some more red crystal, then return to the sapped coffin at the beginning of the hall. After blowing away the sap, collect the loot inside. Now, continue fully down the hall, and go through the doors at the end. You will reach the outside now, and there will be a lift above you. Throw your axe at the seal to the left of it that is holding it, and the lift will go down to the right. With the lift at the lower part, head to the north side of this room. You will go behind a stone wall, and to your left, you can boost Atreus up. He automatically goes onto the cart, so go back to the wheel and turn it so the lift goes all the way to the left. Atreus will kick down the gold chain, but do not go to it yet. Instead, freeze the gear above the axe, and then climb up the gold chain. When you are on the lift with Atreus, recall the axe so the lift goes back down.

Collect the Hacksilver in the chest to the east, then jump across the gap to the west. Go up the level to the right, and kick down the chain, then go back and go down to the left. You will find another locked door. After opening it with the chisel, climb up the gold chain, then follow the tunnel back to the lake. Here, go right and you will find the boat.

Return to the Lake of Nine

Paddle back to the Lake of Nine. It is the exact same way you paddled through earlier. If you hit the barrels in the river, you will gain Hacksilver, so hit every one as you paddle back.

Go to Tyr’s Vault

Paddle on the lake to the dock of Tyr’s Temple, which is straight ahead of you and which you’ve docked at before. After docking, go to the right to find Tyr’s Vault. Just like with the other locked doors, you need to find the right points. This one took a little bit for me. Remember to hit the chisel when the flames are at their hottest. Or, if you prefer a touch cue, when the controller rumbles the most.

Explore the Vault

After opening the lock, you will be inside the entrance to Tyr’s Vault. Walk down the hallway to find a large room with a sand bowl and half of a shrine. After looking around the room, go to the sand bowl and press Circle for a long scene. During this scene, you will need to activate Spartan Rage with L3 + R3. When the scene ends, this quest is completed.

The Sickness

Leave the temple, go left, and get on the boat. You won’t be able to walk during this part because you are holding your son. Paddle to the south, into the Witch’s Cavern. It is a little dark, so be sure that you use your compass to direct you. As you paddle through the cave, Mimir explains that the bad guys are onto you but that they cannot see at the witch’s place. At the end of the cave, dock the boat and walk over to the wooden lift. You witness the entire ascension, and then you must go up the wooden ramp to the door to Freya’s house. Just as before, you cannot sprint for this portion of the game. When you reach Freya, there is a long scene, and for the next stretch of the game, you must battle without Atreus. Leave the witch’s house.

Use Freya’s Boat to Return Home

Outside of Freya’s house, the boat is directly in front of you on the dock. The boat is covered in leaves, but you can still use it. There is nothing else in the area, so simply get on the boat. There is a long, highly cinematic scene on the boat. When it finally docks, go up the brown path to the right and you will reach your house. Before you can go inside, you need to clear the area of Reavers, and these are the ones that are resistant to your Leviathan axe. Thus, you need to melee all of them to death, and if you are having trouble, you can always use Spartan Rage. However, they should not prove too difficult as they only attack with melee. It is a little different without Atreus shocking and exploding everything.

Inside the house, there is another long scene which ends with Kratos finally wielding his trademark Blades of Chaos. This iconic weapon was used by Kratos in earlier games in the series. So, now you have two main weapons: the Leviathan Axe (Frost) and the Blades of Chaos (Flames). As Kratos exits the house, more Reavers show up to fight you. These guys were resistant to the frost of the Leviathan axe, but they are weak to the flames of the Blades of Chaos. This part of the game is basically a mini-tutorial fight that helps you get used to using the Blades of Chaos. You should immediately pause the game and purchase all tier 1 Blades of Chaos abilities before you fight. Then, as you kill the Reavers, test out this new weapon. Try out the light attack combo, heavy attack combo, and ranged attacks with it. The Reavers are basically target dummies for you.

Realm Travel to Helheim

With the area clear, open the mystic gate and choose Brok’s shop. After a conversation with Brok, you can again shop with him, but he does not have any new equipment and you do not have the item needed to upgrade the Blades of Chaos. Enter the realm travel room now and choose Helheim at the table in the center. After the realm travel room does its magic, leave through the same doors you entered. In the area with Brok’s shop, head through the doors in front of you.

Reach the Bridge Keeper

From the doorway of the temple, go right, under the outside pillars of the temple, and you will find a new type of artifact, a Family Heirloom, on the ground at the end. It is the yellow light. Go back to the door now, and head straight from it to get onto the bridge. Before you can even walk ten steps, you are attacked by more Reavers. I highly recommend using your Blades of Chaos in this area. Whereas the Reavers block axe attacks, they are weak to the Blades of Chaos. After clearing them, look up to find a raven perched on the gold structure above you. Head forward now, and loot the chest to the left of the bramble to find Spartan Charge, a Light Runic Attack for the Blades of Chaos. Be sure to equip it in the menu because you currently do not have any runes for the blades.

Melee the bramble to light it on fire and burn down the barrier, then continue forward to find more enemies. Again, they are extremely weak to your Blades of Chaos, so slice and dice right through them. In this area, you can burn the brambles on the right side to reveal a chest with Hacksilver. Continue up the bridge and you encounter the same type of enemy, but now they throw icicles at you. Dodge them and quickly destroy them with the Blades of Chaos. Further up the bridge, you will see several ghosts walking toward the gate. You cannot hit these ghosts, and they are not enemies. However, there are some enemies which spawn here, so defeat them, then walk up to the gate.

It appears to be locked, so burn down the brambles to the left of the gate and drop down. Burn the brambles down here, then sidle across the ledge past them. You will be on the other side of the gate now, but below, and there will be a few shielded enemies in front of you. These guys are extremely defensive and are invulnerable with their shields up. To defeat them, you must dodge around to the side of them, or block one of their attacks and then counterattack yourself. A few more enemies drop down, but you can clear them the same way. With the area clear, burn the brambles to the right to find a chest with Hacksilver, then burn the brambles to the left, under the dark stone wall, to find a climbable wall.

As you climb it, note that you can’t just climb on top of it completely. Rather, you need to climb to the left when you reach the top, and then jump on the other stone pillar, and finally, climb down. Here, defeat the enemies — they have projectiles, but if you rush them and melee attack with the Blades of Chaos, they go down quickly. After clearing the area, stand in the left corner of the area, near the rack of weapons. You will see a few black pillars around here, and one of them has some brambles on the top of it. After you burn them, another Family Heirloom artifact drops. Now, head to the right part of the room, near the brambles, and the wall rises. Then, a few enemies drop down to fight you.

The hardest of these enemies is a Hel-Viken that wields a mace. Thankfully, it is terrible at defending itself, so avoid the mace attacks and hack away at it with your Blades of Chaos. There are more enemies that appear, but most of them go down quickly with the Blades of Chaos. With the area clear, burn the brambles on the west wall and also the brambles on the wall in the northeast corner. For those, you want to burn the brambles so that the black pillar falls, and to reach them with your Blades of Chaos, hold L2 and then press L1. Get on the fallen black pillar and then climb up the wall behind it. Here, burn the brambles, and past them, you will be under a black bridge. Use your Blades of Chaos to destroy the brambles stuck underneath the bridge. After you burn them, another Family Heirloom drops.

Climb the north wall now. In this area, there will be a barrier to the south with sap, which you cannot open without Atreus. So, head north, go up the wall, and you will finally see the Bridge Keeper. Drop down to fight him.

Boss Battle: The Bridge Keeper

Bridge Keeper Overview

Even though The Bridge Keeper has a troll’s pillar weapon, this is a real troll fight. The Bridge Keeper has many attacks with its pillar, its blue orbs, and its ice. It is also mobile as it can teleport around the arena. In the end, The Bridge Keeper is still vulnerable to same strategy as the other trolls. That is, wait for it to miss an attack, and then run in and slice and dice it with your Blades of Chaos. There are several pots around the perimeter of the arena, and there are Healthstones in many of them if you need health. Otherwise, you essentially need to dodge The Bridge Keeper’s attacks and then melee attack yourself.

Bridge Keeper Attacks

• The Bridge Keeper heaves his pillar at you. This is usually a combo attack, followed by teleporting and heaving at you two more times, and then teleporting and slaming his pillar at you a last time. To evade this attack, dodge to the side.
• The Bridge Keeper can stomp the ground if you stay too close. This knocks you back.
• The Bridge Keeper spawns blue orbs when it swings its pillar. These orbs will explode if they hit you, but they disappear after a little bit.
• The Bridge Keeper can slam the butt of its pillar to the ground, causing a shockwave line attack.
• The Bridge Keeper can throw ice at you if you are far away from it.
• The Bridge Keeper can summon weak Hel-Brood to assist it.
• The Bridge Keeper, when low on health, can violently swing the pillar at you.
• The Bridge Keeper can blow wind at you, stopping you from moving towards it but causing no damage.

Bridge Keeper Strategy

This fight is the hardest troll battle yet because of The Bridge Keeper’s abilities to teleport and arsenal of attacks. Your first task should be dodging some of its attacking and recognizing its attacks. The most common attack that it will do is it will heave its pillar at you, teleport, heave again, teleport, heave again, teleport, and slam the pillar. You need to dodge to the side to avoid these combo attack. And, after he slams the pillar, you can safely melee attack his side for a few swipes. This is your main way to deal damage in the fight — dodge this common combo and then melee attack the side.

What makes matters worse is that every time The Bridge Keeper swings or heaves its pillar, a blue orb is released into the arena. This will slowly go towards you and explodes, causing moderate damage, if you hit it. So, you need to worry about not only dodging The Bridge Keeper’s attacks but also evading the blue orbs that it spawns. So, it is best not to dodge to one side for the teleportation combo or you will be next to an orb after the slam. Basically, you need to be dodging left and right in this fight so you do not get hit by the orbs.

The Bridge Keeper has a few ranged attacks, but you should stick to melee and the Blades of Chaos for this fight. The Bridge Keeper can throw ice at you. As the battle progresses, he will start to fan out the throw for a larger radius. You will only have to deal with this attack when you go to get Healthstones from the pots on the perimeter of the arena. Otherwise, you should stay close and dodge its pillar attacks.

The Bridge Keeper, when the fight progresses, spawns Hel-Reaver adds, but you should focus on the boss unless you need health and all of the Healthstone pots are gone. This boss is not a slow, lazy troll like before, and it is very mobile, so you do not have much opportunity to clear the waves of adds. The one exception is if The Bridge Keeper teleports to the side of the arena and starts its shockwave attack. When it does this, you have a little while to kill the adds before you should go over to The Bridge Keeper and melee attack him after the shockwaves end.

Overall, this is a much harder fight than any previous troll. The inclusion of teleportation and blue orbs makes it so he is more mobile and thus, you have many things to worry about in this fight. Stay at a moderate range, dodge the teleportation heaves, and then melee attack its sides to victory.

Return to the Realm Travel Room

After the fight, follow the on-screen prompts and press the shoulder buttons to cut out the heart of The Bridge Keeper. Before you leave, pick up the purple item that The Bridge Keeper drops. It is a Chaos Flame, which you can use to upgrade your Blades of Chaos. In addition, go to the north part of The Bridge Keeper arena and burn the brambles on the chest, then collect the Hacksilver inside the chest. Then, go to the southwest part of the arena and interact with the glowing pillar for a scene with Brok. He alters your Blades of Chaos so that they can capture Winds of Hel, which are the green orbs in the middle of the pillar in front of you. Aim, capture it, then run over to the huge door of the arena and target the green orb in the center. This will use the wind to unlock the door, but you only have ten seconds to use the Winds of Hel because it is unstable, and there is even a timer on the screen to let you know how much time you have left.

Enter through the door you just unlocked. Destroy the pots for Hacksilver and Healthstones, then target the green orb on the door you just went through. Take the Winds of Hel from the door by holding L2, targeting it, and pressing R1, and then, within ten seconds, go south and use the Winds of Hel on the doorway to the right. This opens it and allows you to further make your way back to the temple. In this new area, a few Nightmares and Hel-Brood spawn, but your blades can easily take care of them. With the area clear, go southeast to find another locked door. Take the Winds of Hel from behind you and transfer it to the door to unlock it. Clear the enemies past it — wildly spamming your Blades of Chaos seems to work for this small area, then burn the brambles covering a tunnel on the snow wall to the south. Crouch through the tunnel, and on the other side, open the chest to the right to collect more Hacksilver.

There is a big door to the south of you with a Winds of Hel on the left side, two triangles in the middle, and an empty Winds of Hel on the right. This is a small door puzzle. To solve it, take the Winds of Hel on the pillar to the northeast, to the right of the tunnel you just went through, and transmit it to the empty Winds of Hel vessel. This will unlock the door. Past it, run down the bridge to find a Hel-Traveler on the right. This is a very similar fight to the World Traveler you found near Thamur’s Corpse when you were getting the Chisel. To defeat the Hel-Traveler, block his attacks and counterattack with the Blades of Chaos. When he flashes red, that means the attack is unblockable, so dodge to the side and then melee into the Hel-Traveler’s side. After defeating it, grab the loot that it drops and continue down the bridge.

Break the pots around here for Healthstones, then go past the archway to find another pack of enemies — Nightmares and Hel-Reavers. Take out the Nightmares first by flinging Kratos’ Blades of Chaos at them, then kill the Hel-Reavers. As you continue to cross back over the bridge, you will need to face more of these enemies, but your Blades of Chaos are no match for them. When you reach the temple, upgrade your Blades of Chaos at Brok’s Shop and purchase all of the tier 2 skills with the experience you have. After that, enter the Realm Travel Room and interact with the console. To return to Midgard, you just need to press Triangle, so no need to fiddle with the table too much.

Deliver the Heart to Freya

Back at Midgard, exit the Realm Travel Room, but do not just rush past Brok. He states that he has altered the Mystic Gates so that you can teleport to any gate instead of just teleporting to the temple. So, instead of paddling back to the witch, use the mystic gate on the opposite side of the room as Brok. Select the Witch’s Cave, then go through the straightforward pathway in the mystic realm to the end door. At the witch’s cave, go up the wood ramp and enter through the door of her house for a long scene. After it, this quest ends and you have Atreus back.

The Black Rune

Exit the witch’s house, then use the lever on the lift to descend down to the boat. It’s on the shore behind you. Interact with it for an important reveal scene, then paddle all the way back to Tyr’s Temple — the same way you’ve paddled a few times in the game now. At the dock, go back into Tyr’s Vault, and then head back to the sand bowl. After you instruct Atreus to read it, go towards the northwest wall to find words written on it. Atreus then reads those words in the sand bowl, and this lowers the platform. After a lot of dialogue, exit this room via the north door. Walk over to the floating runes in the center of the room. It appears this vault has a defense system that we need to deactivate.

Deactivate the Vault’s Defenses

Go into the room to the east. Mimir talks about wind traps, and the Winds of Hel is important for deactivating the defenses. In this room, press square at the tables to the left of the Winds of Hel in the center for Atreus to take a knife. Then, notice the Winds of Hel vessel in the center is actually empty. You need to fill it. Head back to the previous room with the three rings surrounding the black runes. One of the rings has a Winds of Hel on it — you will see it because it will be a green orb. Use your Blades of Chaos to take the Winds of Hel from the ring in the center room, and within ten seconds, transfer it to the empty vessel in the east room. This causes a wheel to pop up in place of the Winds of Hel vessel.

Turn the wheel, which will open two doors in this room. Go into the east room now, which has a huge spinning blade blocking your way. Equip your Leviathan axe, then throw it at one of the two panels at the top of the blade. This will cause it to move and allow you to walk past it. Do this for the next blade, and then collect the loot in the coffin behind them. Return to the wheel room now and enter the northwest room here. This is another trap room with moving blades. For the first set of blades, simply sprint past them when they are retracted. For the second, stand on the left side of the hall and sprint past when there is an opening. For the third set, throw the Leviathan axe at the gear shaft on one of the rotating blades. Do not recall it until both of the blades are overlapping with one another, and then recall it. When you do this, it will change the blades so that they are both rotating in the same place, which will thus allow you to sprint around the side of them. Enter the room ahead for another scene.

After the scene, you can again instruct Atreus to look at the loot in the room. Afterwards, open the drop-down door in the south part of this room to create a shortcut back to the main room. However, when you enter the main room, all matter of Draugr and Nightmare spawn and attack you. Take out the Nightmares first — either command Atreus to shoot them down or throw your axe at them — then take down the Draugr with your Blades of Chaos. The Blades of Chaos has such incredible range and power that it makes melee attacking so easy. With the area clear, head back to the north to the room with the empty Winds of Hel vessel and clear the Nightmares here too. Now, return to the center room and grab the Winds of Hel on the middle ring with your Blades of Chaos, then go back to the empty Winds of Hel vessel and transfer the Winds of Hel to it. This will, just as with the first room, cause the vessel to disappear and a wheel to appear. Turn the wheel to open two doors in this room.

First, let us get another sealed chest. Go through the north doorway. There will be two blocks that rotate back and forth with spikes on them. Stand on the left side of the hall and throw your Leviathan axe at the gear shaft on the second block. This freezes the second block, so now go on the right side and sprint past the first block when there is an opening. Rush through to find the sealed chest, but just as with the other ones, you need to break three seals. The first seal is on the inner side of the first block — the one that is still moving. You will see it if you look back at the two blocks. Smash it with your fists — if you recall the Leviathan, it will be impossible to break the seal.

For the second seal, head back to the previous room with the wheel and recall your axe. If you look on the east wall, you should see the seal — with “R” in blue — on a shelf on the wall. For the third seal, go into the southwest room from the wheel room. In this room, there will be blocks smashing down. On the first block, you will see the seal on the right leg of the block when it is in the down position. With all three seals broken, head back to the sealed chest — get to it the same way you did before — and collect the loot inside, which will be an Idunn Apple!

Go to the southwest hall now, the one with the spike blocks that go up and down and that you haven’t been through yet. To get past this trap, throw your axe at the gear shaft on the first block when it is in the raised position. Go under it, and then when the second block is raised, run to the right to reach a small area lit in blue. Collect the Hacksilver on the ground, then go down the blue side room as much as you can. It will go until the third block, and you can easily get past it if you wait until it is in the raised position. Now, you are at the third room. Tell Atreus to read the rune words on the wall, then open the eastern door to reach back to the center room again.

When you try to grab the Winds of Hel from the inner ring, you discover that you simply can’t — the ring never rotated the Winds of Hel in the down position. So, climb up the west wall, then climb to the right until you can drop down on the balcony. When you drop down, more Draugr and Nightmares spawn. Just as before, melee the Draugr with your Blades of Chaos and instruct Atreus to fire at the Nightmares. With the area clear, instruct Atreus to read the rune words on the wall at the beginning of this balcony to find another piece of Lore, this one Rune Vault Clue.

Look at the rings from the rune words you just found. You will see that the inner ring with the Winds of Hel is now reachable, but how are you going to get it back to the chamber in ten seconds? Well, you won’t in one go. Grab the Winds of Hel from the inner circle and transfer it to the outer circle, which will also be facing you. Then, go to the other end of the balcony to find a silver chain. Kick it, then slide down. Run over to the west side of the center chamber so that you are at the doorway to the room with the third empty vessel. Grab the Winds of Hel from the outer ring and transfer it to the third Winds of Hel vessel. Just as with the other two, this causes a wheel to appear. When Kratos pulls it down, this triggers a trap.

Escape the Trap

To escape the trap, you need to instruct Atreus to pull the chains so the symbols are in the correct order of crescent, moon, and sun. To do this, follow these directions:

• Pull the middle chain.
• Pull the left chain.
• Pull the middle chain.
• Pull the right chain.
• Pull the left chain.
• Pull the right chain.

So, from the default position, instruct Atreus to do: middle, left, middle, right, left, and right. But the trap just continues, and after a scene, you will need to instruct Atreus to stick the knife into the wheel. This finally stops the deathtrap from consuming you.

Retrieve the Black Rune

Now that you’re out of the trap, kick open the door in front of you, then go left on the balcony to reach the silver chain. Down it, there is a long scene, and then we have another boss fight!

Boss Fight: Grendels of the Ashes and Frost

Grendels Overview

This fight is all about choosing the right weapon for the job. When attacking the Grendel of the Ashes, use the Leviathan axe to do more damage, and when attacking the Grendel of the Frost, use the Blades of Chaos for increased damage. Do not underestimate the increased damage from using the most effective weapon. Other than that, this battle is a bit chaotic because there are two Grendels. Just like in the battle with Magni and Modi, it is best to work on one Grendel exclusively. In this fight, when you deplete the health of one Grendel fully, it dies, and that makes it easier to fight the other. Overall, your main job here is to evade the Grendels’ pillar attacks and then attack them when they are recovering from using their pillar on you.

Grendels Attacks

• They can slam the butt of their pillars to the ground. This only affects the area directly in front of them.
• They can slam their pillars length-wise at you. This has more reach.
• They can also slam their pillars down and cause the ground near them to raise. The ground then explodes if you get close.
• They can lunge at you with their pillar. This is easy to dodge and it takes a few seconds for the Grendel to get back into fighting position.
• They can fling dirt at you if you are far away.
• At low health, they will use the pillar in a swinging motion at you.

Grendels Strategy

Two extremely important pieces of advice. One, use the Leviathan Axe on the Grendel of the Ashes and the Blades of Chaos on the Grendel of the Frost. You will do more damage that way. Two, take down the Grendels one at a time. Focus completely on one because one it’s defeated, it doesn’t come back. Those are the two most important bits of advice for this fight.

As for the fight itself, focus on the Grendel of the Ashes first, as you can stay back at ranged from both Grendels and happily fling your axe at the orange Grendel. This is probably the best plan of attack for not getting hit at all during the fight. You can also wait for the Grendel of the Ashes to miss a swing at you before hacking away at its side with your axe. Overall, the main strategies are to stay at range and slowly chip away at it, or dodge a pillar slam and attack its side.

When you have one Grendel down, the fight becomes easier simply because the room is much less crowded. For the Grendel of the Frost, switch to your Blades of Chaos when attacking it. For the frost one, since the Blades do not have the same range as the axe, you should just stick to the strategy of dodging pillar attacks and hitting into its side.

Don’t forget Atreus in this fight. His arrows can do moderate damage, especially if you’ve been upgrading his skills and equipment. For many fights in this game, especially on lower difficulties, you can just run around and spam Atreus’ arrows to beat everything. Also for this fight, don’t forget about Spartan Rage, especially if you are having trouble in the beginning. It can be just the jump start you need to begin the fight with a Spartan Rage which significantly lowers the health of one Grendel. Also, after the fight, remember to pick up ALL the loot that they drop — from both Grendels — including the Chaos Flame, which you can use to upgrade your Blades of Chaos even further.

After the fight, don’t forget to collect the drops — including the Chaos Flame — and also open the gold chest in the nook in the west part of the room. Now exit the Black Rune chamber to the south, through the door, and back to the sand bow room. Instruct Atreus to use the sand bowl for a scene. That is the end of this quest. Before continuing with the story, I recommend going inside Brock’s shop, upgrading your Blades of Chaos, and purchasing the skills in the newly opened tier. That way, you are at the correct power for what’s up ahead. You should also consider buying the last upgrade for the Talon Bow, or at least upgrading it to level 4. Finally, there is level 5 legendary equipment now available. If it is a big upgrade, I recommend buying a few pieces although, again, any equipment will become outgeared to epic and you will find similar gear in coffins later in the game.

Return to the Summit

Exit the temple and cross the bridge to reach Vanaheim Tower. Here, backtrack all the way through the tower. There are no enemies, and nothing has changed since the last time you were here. Past Vanaheim Tower, Atreus has an interesting conversation with Sindri — it appears there was good reason Kratos did not tell the boy. You can upgrade gear and buy new equipment from Sindri if you haven’t just done so already with Brok at Tyr’s Temple. Remember to upgrade the Blade of Chaos if you haven’t already, and consider the level 5 purple equipment if it is a big upgrade.

As you leave Sindri’s shop area, you are attacked by Nightmares, an Ogre, and a Wulver. The Ogre in particular may seem daunting, but at this point in the game, it has become almost just another normal enemy. Atreus can deal significant damage to everything if you simply spam square if you have been upgrading his equipment and skill. After clearing the area, go up the brown path, go left, and then climb up the wall, just like you did before. Follow the pathway now while keeping in mind that your compass will always point you in the right direction as you backtrack to the mountain. You will encounter Reavers, which are invulnerable to your axe, so get out your Blades and swipe away at them.

Up the wall, you will be at the area where you fought your first ogre. Here, there are a few realm tears, and hordes of enemies spawn from them. They are all rather weak, and if you just spam combos with the Blades of Chaos, you should be able to clear them. You can even wildly flail the blades next to a realm tear to kill the enemies before they even come out. With the area clear, go through the door to reach the pathway before the mountain. Go right to reach the steps up to the mountain. To the right of the steps, you will find a brambled chest, which you can now open after you burn the brambles with your Blades of Chaos. Grab the Hacksilver inside, then make your way up the steps to the mountain.

A boulder falls on the steps, but you can easily jump across the chasm it makes. Then, climb up the wall, and go left after climb up to reach the entrance to the mountain. Here, there will be a scene with Modi. And again, turns out there was a very good reason Kratos didn’t tell. At any rate, pick up one of the blue crystals in this room and follow Atreus down the hallway to the left. Command him to blow up the sap barrier, then drop the blue crystal. Kill the cursed wurms — the blades and Atreus’ arrows work well — then put the blue crystal on the stand near the lore marker to the left of where the sap barrier used to be. Have Atreus activate the Lore Marker by firing light arrows at the crystal, then tell him to read the lore marker. He doesn’t, but you still collect it for completionist purposes.

Down the hall, climb up the wall now. Soon, you will need to climb to the right, and finally jump off onto the ground. For the enemies here, Atreus does a decent job on his own, but for the second, it will charge you and then Atreus will get the better of him. Follow the compass marker up the tunnel to a huge wooden door. Just like before, you need to turn the lever and then go past the doorway. You now reach the mining area.

Find a New Path Up to the Summit

This area is exactly the same as before, but now there are harder enemies patrolling. Defeat the enemies in the immediate area. As you may notice, Atreus does not take arrow orders anymore and does whatever he wants during combat, which makes things a little tougher. Combos with the Blades of Chaos work well here to quickly kill everything. With the area clear, loot the chest near the stone slabs in the northeast part of the room, then tell Atreus to blow up the sap barrier to the left of it. Inside here, you will find another Cup! There is also a coffin in this secret room. Head to the southeast corner of the mining cavern room. Climb up the wood wall to reach an area blocked by bramble. Torch it with your Blades of Chaos to find a lift. Use the lever and up you go!

Continue Towards the Summit

After the lift takes you up, you disembark in an area full of frozen Draugr, some of which are alive. Atreus can sometimes be commanded to fire his arrows, and you should definitely have him take out the Nightmares that spawn. After clearing the enemies, destroy the brambles to the southeast of the lift. You will find a green glowing statue. Pick it up and bring it to the southwest part of this room, where there is a crawlspace, elevated ground, and a gold chain that hasn’t been kicked down. Put the glowing statue as closed to the raised platform as possible, then go east. Break through the wood to find a not-so-hidden room. Loot the chest, then take the Winds of Hel in the room and transfer it to the statue you just placed on the other side of the room.

Now hoist Atreus up to the crawl space to the right. He will go over and drop down the chain. Climb it, and command Atreus to read the writing on the huge wooden door. This is another piece of Lore. After reading it, a huge ogre appears. You have fought many of them before, and although it is higher level, the same strategies as always apply. Dodge its attacks and hit it from the side while it recovers from a missed strike. In addition, you should be spamming Atreus’ arrows as they do moderate damage if you’ve been upgrading his equipment/skills. There are also high level draugr, but you can easily dispose of them with a few Blades of Chaos combos.

After clearing the ogre, you will see a Winds of Hel door behind the wooden door that was just broken. This is why we brought over the Winds of Hel statue and put it close to the level. Take the Winds of Hel from the statue and transfer it to the door. Inside, you will find a gold chest which contains a heavy runic attack for your Blades of Chaos. Head back to the lift now and go east. Ignore the red crystals and follow the walkway. You will see a draugr on the platform to the left. You can actually pull him off the cliff with your Blades of Chaos if you aim and grab him. Neat! Take the Hacksilver near the corpse where he was at. At any rate, walk through the mining tunnel now, and be sure to have Atreus inspect the scroll on the ground. It is another Treasure Map!

Follow the cavern, crouch when needed, then climb up the wall. Atreus just charges forward into a Frost Ancient!

Boss Battle: Frost Ancient

Frost Ancient Overview

This boss has the same attacks and patterns as the ancient you fought much earlier in the game in Alfheim. He can stomp you with his foot, blast a beam at you from his chest, and drop on all fours and release an AoE attack. Just like with the previous ancient, you want to throw your axe at his chest when he opens it up and does the beam attack. Unlike the other ancient though, bits of his heart will blow off. Pick them and throw them at him to deal significant damage and stun him. Run in and attack when stunned, and repeat this process for victory.

Frost Ancient Attacks

• The Frost Ancient can fire a beam from his chest at you. This is what you want to see. A quick axe throw will cut off a few bits of his core. You need to throw these pieces at him to stun him and cause major damage.
• The Frost Ancient can stomp you with his foot. He only does this if you are right under him.
• The Frost Ancient can drop on all fours and release a frost AoE attack. When he does this, immediately run away. He gives you a little bit to run because of the motion of him dropping down.

Frost Ancient Strategy

For this fight, stay away from the Frost Ancient and wait until he does his beam attack from his chest. When he does this, throw your axe at his core, which will cut off bits of him. Pick up these bits and throw it at him for it to explode, cause major damage, and stun him. Run up to him when he is stunned and hack away for significant damage, then repeat this process for victory. That’s pretty much it. Other than that, he functions exactly like the Ancient you fought earlier.

Keep in mind two more things: one, you can use Spartan Rage to beat him into a Stun Grab, and two, when the Stun Grab is available, use it as soon as possible to finish him off quickly. After the fight, collect the Ancient’s Heart, Ancient’s Rubble, and Sigil that he drops.

After the boss battle, get some red crystal from the Yggdrasil root to the right, then throw it at the sap barrier in the northeast part of the room. This will reveal a mining cart. Pull the mining cart out as much as you can, then look inside the cave behind it to find Hacksilver near a corpse. Now climb on top of the mining cart and then climb up to the area next to it to find a coffin which contains a piece of purple level 5 equipment. Take some more red crystal, and go to the southeast corner of the room to find a coffin covered in sap in a little nook. Use the red crystal and shock arrows to destroy the sap, then collect the loot inside. Exit this area now via the south doorway to reach a room with a bunch of scrolls on the ground. Climb up to the right of the scrolls to reach a small area with two items on the ground. One is a piece of Lore, the scroll Asgard Sealed, which you must command Atreus to pick up. The other is a Cup near a corpse. If you’ve been following this guide, it will be your last Cup to complete the Artifact set, and you will receive an XP reward!

With both items collected, continue in the mountain by sidling across the wooden ledge here. On the other side, go to your immediate right to find a coffin covered in bramble in a nook. Burn the bramble with your Blades of Chaos, then loot the coffin for another level 5 purple equipment piece. Now, follow the passageway to meet Sindri again. He’s still a little sour, but it’s because of the boy, not you. You can upgrade or buy gear from him if you want to. If you have not upgraded Atreus’ equipment as much as you can, I recommend doing it now. Go outside the wood doors to the right, and you will see a Realm Tear in front of you. Defeat the enemies that come through it — of note is the level 7 enemy, but simply spamming Blades of Chaos combos does the trick well here. Collect the dust from the realm tear to close it, then open the cipher chest to collect another Cipher.

South of the cipher chest, you will find a climbable wall with brambles in front of it. Burn the brambles, then climb the wall. There will be another wall you need to climb, and you will reach the snowy path before the summit, just like before. Cross the snowy path, then destroy the brambles in front of the stone structure. Climb up the wall where the brambles were, and at the top, you will finally reach the summit. Here, Atreus instructs you to carve along where he carved, so interact with the lock. This is another chisel minigame, which you are familiar with by now.

After finding all of the binding points, there is a scene with a familiar stranger. During this scene, you must press R1 to punch him during one sequence. There is another sequence in which you must block with L1. And then there is a sequence where you must dodge to the side so he doesn’t hit you. This sequence is the hardest because it can be difficult to tell which way he is crashing down on you. The trick here is to stay in the default position and move to the side when he starts crashing down. Right after he misses you, hit him a few times, and repeat this until the sequence is over. Things start to get really dicey, and you end up in Helheim again. But this sequence also ends the quest. Be sure to use that XP you acquired!

Escape from Helheim

Pick up the rock to find Atreus, who gets a talking to from dad. After that, climb the pillar near them — you will need to go up, to the right, and up again. You see a ship off in the distance, which is your ticket out of here. Climb up, then kill the frost reaver with your Blades of Chaos. Destroy the brambles, then follow the outer pathway to a chest. Open the gate to get back in the center of the area, then head north to cross a bridge. The center of the bridge collapses, but you are still able to jump over it. Clear the enemies, then raise the gate. In this area, there will be a little scene with Helheim Atreus. Climb on the eastern pillar. The climbing path takes you around it and then down.

There will be a large gate with two Winds of Hel vessels. You can find one Winds of Hel behind the brambles. In addition, to the left of the Winds of Hel, you can climb down to find a coffin. After you loot it, a low level Reaver comes up from behind you. After killing it, climb back up to the door with the two Winds of Hel vessels. Put the Winds of Hel on the left vessel, then freeze the small seal on the door. After that, transfer the Winds of Hel from the left vessel to the right vessel, and the door will unlock. Open it to find a Hel-Traveler. This enemy is exactly the same as the first time you were in Helheim, but now you have Atreus. If he spams arrows enough, you can quickly fill the stun meter and do some major damage with a stun grab. After defeating him, pick up the Chaos Flame that he drops — you’ll need this to upgrade your Blades of Chaos when you see Sindri or Brok again.

Lift the gate, then follow the path to see Baldur on the next area. Jump on the outer wall of his platform, and climb around the platform as you see his cinematic story unfold. You may want to stop and watch until it ends. Then, continue climbing to the right and then climb up. You will then need to drop down two levels. Here, you will fdight two Hel-Vikens. Spam arrows and Blades of Chaos combos to defeat them. After clearing the area, go east to find a huge stone block. Push it all the way into the chasm, and then use the block as a platform to jump to the east to another sealed chest. Burn the brambles to the right of it, then pass through them. To the left, you will see a seal on the wall. Go back to the previous area and grab the stone block to the left. Pull it, but only a little, just so you can get around it to the right. Then, go around to the north side of the stone. You will see the seal inside the stone, so throw your axe at the opening on the north side of it to break it. For the last seal, pull the stone block as far as it can go, then climb on top of it, and climb up to the level to the right. Here, loot the chest, and to the right of the chest, you will see the seal on the broken pillar in the water. With all three seals broken, loot the chest to find a Horn of Blood Mead.

As you head back to the ship, you’ll need to clear some Nightmares and Reavers. After defeating them, walk to the ship, lift the pillar, then hop on board.

Use the Ship

You need to get this thing seaworthy. Begin by burning the bramble on the top level. This will give Atreus some heat and free the sail. Head to the back of the ship and turn the wheel so that the sails come up. The ship starts to sail but quickly gets stuck by an iceberg. To solve this, at the front of the ship, you will see a big piece of wood in the center that has the sail’s ropes attached to it. Interact with the piece of wood and then chop it down. Now go to the wheel in the back of the ship and turn it back. This will cause the ship to float up into the air. Unfortunately, the boat gets stuck under part of a bridge. Jump onto the bridge and loot the coffin at the southwest part of the platform, then use the wheel near the bridge. It breaks and two Revenant appear. Command Atreus to fire arrows down at them, then hack away with your Blades of Chaos.

You still need to get up to the boat. To the left of the wheel, you will find a room with a spinner. Get in the room with the spinner — you need to be close to it — and throw your axe at it. As it spins, the room ascends. You will need to throw your axe at the spinner a few times to get all the way up. When you can, exit via the top level and return to the ship. Interact with the bridge, and the father son combo will lift the bridge off the ship, with the help of button mashing circle on your part.

Escape Helheim

It’s not a peaceful ride. Soon, all matter of Hell arrives to stop you from floating away. It begins with Frost Reavers, who try to put out the fires on the boat and also attack you. Use your Blades of Chaos to hit several at the same time, and re-light the fires with your blades. You will need to do this for a few waves, but if you are comboing with the Blades of Chaos, you should not have much a problem. You can hit many enemies at the same time with the weapon. Do note that you will need to swap to the Leviathan Axe for when projectile enemies stand above from the sides of the ship. You need to repeatedly kill enemies at both fires for a few minutes. Atreus will tell you when a fire has gone out — if it does, immediately go over to the fire, kill the enemies around it, and light it up again. You need to have at least one fire going at all times, so make sure you quickly light the fire. That way, if the other fire goes out, you will have the one you are currently at lit up.

There are also big yellow anchors which attach to your ship and tear it up. When one is on the rail, you need to go push it off by interacting with it and then mashing circle. For a few minutes, you need to kill the waves of enemies, keep the fires lit, and push off the yellow anchors. As the waves progress, the enemies become more advanced. For the Revenants, make sure Atreus shoots first, and then melee them to death. For the Travelers, Atreus can fill up their stun meter quickly with his arrows. And for the ogre, take it out like any other ogre — evade or block its attacks and then cut it into it. Throughout all of this, you need to keep lighting the fires. The Sword of Blade light attack combo is incredible in this fight for keeping the fire lit and for defeating the hordes of enemies. After killing the ogre, go to the front of the ship and button mash to push it off. This button mash is a little longer than normal ones.

Eventually, there is a scene that ends in the twosome (and the head) crashing into the Secret Chamber of Odin.

Secret Chamber of Odin

From the start, ignore the locked door and go through the opposite door. Pick up the Scroll on the ground and open the coffin, which will contain an epic enchantment. Equip this in a socket right away. Now go back to the locked door, use the chisel on it, and watch a scene. That concludes this quest.

A Pathway to Jotunheim

Go through the door in front of you. Down the hall, you will find a lift. Use the lever to descend and watch a scene. At the bottom, you will be back at the Realm Travel Room. Use the table in the center to return to Midgard — simply press Triangle after interacting with the table. As you transport between realms, you learn that Mimir has been bewitched not to tell Baldur’s weakness. Exit the Realm Travel Room via the purple door, then talk to Brok at his shop for Kratos to ask him to make something. This triggers a scene in which Brok and Sindri reunite, and the twosome agree to make the item for Kratos. Kratos collects it, and you can shop with both brothers now. You should upgrade your Blades of Chaos with the Chaos Flame you just received in Helheim, and you should also consider upgrading Atreus’ bow. With both of those weapon upgrades, you will then be able to buy a tier of skills.

Locate Tyr’s Mysterious Door

Exit the shop area to the bridge. Go down the left set of stairs to find a Ship Head, another artifact set. Continue down the stairs on this side to reach the boat, but do not get on it. Instead, follow this outer pathway north, using your compass as a guide. Soon, you will reach a red and gold door. This is Tyr’s Hidden Chamber.

Explore Tyr’s Hidden Chamber

Go up the steps, shoot the crystal to create a light path, and enter the room above. Atreus comments you are in the room below the Realm Travel Room. Run around the room with Atreus, then press Square when he stops. A door then opens — head through and follow the hallway until you see a room on your right with a sand bowl. Instruct Atreus to look at the large gold symbol at the end of the room, then button mash Circle for Kratos to pick up the entire temple. You then get a new objective: flip the temple.

Break the Chains

To flip the temple, you first need to break the chains. Go back to the sand bowl and instruct Atreus to use it, then tell him to read the runic words on the two gold statues. A lever appears where the sand bowl was — turn it, and the platform will descend. Down here, open the Shrine to the west to find the Lore Bergelmir. Open the north door now to reach a hall with more death traps! In this one, there are several spinning blades on circular panels. To get past this, you must throw your axe at the seal in the middle of the panels to freeze it. Your goal is to freeze each panel and then align it with the one behind it. There are six panels in all, and you might need to start with the middle panels first. Just freeze until it is aligned with the other panels, and keep doing this until all the panels are aligned. When this happens, you can safely walk through on the left side if you wait until all of the panels are at their highest point.

Past the trap, you will be in a room with a locked door with two Winds of Hel vessels, and to the right of it, another tunnel with more blade traps. Take the Winds of Hel from the door and quickly transfer it to the empty vessel on the pillar in the next trap tunnel. This causes the first blade to rotate. Take out the Winds of Hel when the blade is horizontal. This will stop the blade and allow you to freely walk past one side of it. Take this Winds of Hel to the locked door and transfer it to one of the empty vessels. Go past the first blade to find three sets of blades. One of the blades starts from the top and goes down. Take the Winds of Hel from this blade when it is in the top position, and run over to the locked door and transfer the Winds of Hel to the other empty vessel. This unlocks the door, and inside, you will find a gold chest.

Take one of the Winds of Hel and transfer it to the right blade in the second set of blades. This will cause the right one to start moving. Then, capture the Winds of Hel in the left blade, and transfer it back to the blade when the other one is about to retract. This results in both blades retracting at the same time, which allows you to run through the center to the next room. Here, instruct Atreus to read the runic words on the wall to find a Lore, then have him open the cipher chest to find another Nilfheim Language Cipher. Now, go over to the chain and interact with it for Kratos to break it and throw it off. This causes a pillar to raise from the center of this room, and this pillar spews fires from two sides. To make matters worse, many enemies spawn now.

What’s unique about this fight is the fire pillar. It will spew fire from two sides, and it will also rotate sometimes. It will not constantly rotate however, but you still need to keep track of where it is going to spew fire as you kill the enemies. Atreus’ arrows work well here so that you can kill enemies that are on the other side of the fire. Beyond the two realm tears, enemies also come up from the ledge. It’s important to note that you can hit enemies off the ledge if you engage them near it, so try to stay near the ledge for this fight. In addition, an ogre appears — use the Blades of Chaos and Atreus’ arrows to quickly fill the stun meter and then kill it with a Stun Grab. There are pots with Healthstones in the north nook if you need it.

With the enemies defeated, the flame statue stops and you can return to the previous room. Here, another flame statue rises — this one has four spews of fire — and more realm tears appear. Defeat the enemies while standing in between the lines of fire. After clearing them, return to the center room now and go through the south door. This is another trap tunnel. This time, it is spike blocks that go up and down. Thankfully, this is a much easier puzzle. Freeze the first spike block by throwing your axe at the seal on the upper right corner of it. Freeze it while it is in the up position. Then, wait until the middle spike block is in the down position, and recall your axe. This causes the first and second spike blocks to be out of unison, which is what you want. Now, freeze the middle spike block when it is in the up position. Wait until the first block is in the up position, then run so you are under the middle block. Do not recall your axe. Instead, wait until the farthest block is in the up position, and then run into the room ahead of you.

Recall your axe and open the coffin in the west nook of this room to obtain a level 5 purple piece of gear. Now, go to the east side of the room to find another trap hallway. This one has more spike blocks, but they are lower than the first hall. Take the red crystal from the tree in the previous room, and throw it on the ground under the first spike block when it is in the raised position. Instruct Atreus to blow up the red crystal with his shock crystals, and this will destroy the ground below the spike block. This results in the spike block going lower when it is in the down position. You can stand on this first spike block. When you do this, you will see two more spike blocks in front of you. You need to sprint past them. The window to do this is right after the block you are on has just moved up. So, when the block you are on has just moved up — the second it does — sprint forward to get past the next two blocks.

In this second room, read the rune words on the wall for the Lore “Leave Them in Peace” and open the cipher chest for another Nilfheim Cipher. After collecting both the lore and the cipher, interact with the chains in this room for Kratos to break these as well. When he does, just as with the other wing, a flame statue rises and enemies spawn. This time, it is a two Travelers. The best way to defeat them is to attack with your Blades of Chaos while you spam Atreus’ arrows at them. this will cause the stun meter to full quickly, and from there, stun grab the traveler and then repeat the process while each is on the ground. The flames are just on one quadrant of the room for this fight, so they are not as dangerous as before.

With the Travelers defeated, make your way back to the center room. In the second spike block hall, you will need to freeze the blocks and make them go down in unison before you can run across. You will need to do this while facing projectile fire from the Reavers in the next room, but you can just spam Atreus’ arrows to defeat them. When you reach the next room, another flame statue rises and — you guessed it — more enemies appear. The flame statue spits fire in all four directions, but the Reavers here are somewhat weak. For the shield enemies, use Atreus to fire arrows from behind them, which will stagger them and allow you to melee them to death. The last of the wave is two Hel-Viken, and again, use Blades of Chaos combos while spamming Atreus’ arrows.

After the fight, return to the center area and turn the lever in the middle of the room to raise the platform. Up here, interact with the temple in front of you, and button mash Circle so that Kratos picks it up and throws it.

Return to the Realm Travel Room

Climb up the black wall to the left. You will need to press Circle while facing up a few times, and then you will need to climb to the right and finally up to the Realm Travel Room.

Collect Tyr’s Mysterious Object

Run to the other side of the Realm Travel Room and interact with the white orb to find the object: the Unity Stone. This will allow you to travel to Realm Between Realms. It also concludes this quest. Remember to spend your XP — you can level up the runic attacks that you like and also make sure you are fully upgraded on as much of Kratos’ weapons as possible.

Between the Realms

At Brok and Sindri’s shop, buy and upgrade as much as you can — both your gear and skills — because we are reaching the end of the game and the fights get much more tough. I highly recommend at least having a full set of Level 5 purple gear for Kratos that is socketed with level 5 gems or above. In addition, upgrade Atreus as much as you can — I know it is expensive, but it is worth it to just be able to spam Square during a fight because he is so powerful. You should also have purchased almost every skill in the weapon trees, and ensure Atreus’ skills are all purchased as well in the bow tree. Finally, by this point in the game, you will have gotten used to the many runic attacks, and you should also upgrade the ones that are your favorites.

Use the Mystic Gateway in the same room as Brok and Sindri’s shop. Travel to The Realm Between Realms. Here, follow Atreus off the pathway and press Circle to use the Unity Stone here. This triggers a scene which ends in you falling near Jotunheim Tower. Follow the linear path to the door. Open it, and interact with the pedestal on the far side of the room. This begins the gauntlet.

Survive the Gauntlet of Realms

Essentially, you need to survive four waves of attacks. The first wave is, as you might expect, the easiest. You simply need to kill all of the Brood that run out from the doors. Equip your Blades of Chaos and spam the light attack combo to clear them. The Blades of Chaos is particularly useful for this fight as you can hit multiple Brood at the same time with it. In the second wave, you must defeat two Dark Elf Lords and two Nightmares. The Dark Elf Lords have the same behavior as the Dark Elf Lord boss that you fought long ago in Alfheim. So, they like to fly in the air and blind you, and they can also attack with their spear. To defeat them, spam Atreus’ arrows to get them down, and then dig into them with the Blades of Chaos. Focus on one at a time here, and do not use your Spartan Rage as you will need it for future waves. After defeating both Dark Elf Lords, defeat both of the Nightmares — you can just use Atreus’ arrows to kill them.

Before the third wave, pick up the Healthstones on the ground if you need them. If you do not need them, then just leave them so that you can use them later. In the third wave, it’s Helheim, and there are Hel-Vikens and Hel-Reavers in this wave. Defeat the Hel-Reavers first — they do down quickly with your Blades of Chaos. The shielded ones can be troublesome, so get them facing away from Atreus and then spam arrows at them. As for the Hel-Vikens, with the Blades of Chaos, you can spam attacks at all of them at once. Make sure to play it safe here and try to take out one Hel-Viken at a time. For this part, I recommend using your runic strikes to deplete their health substantially, but still, you want to keep the Spartan Rage for the last wave.

Wave four is the last wave, and it features an ogre and a boss.

Boss Fight: Daudi Munr

Daudi Munr Overview

This Lava Troll is slightly more advanced than the previous trolls that you have defeated. The biggest difference is that its attacks have become more advanced. Instead of just stomping its foot at you, it will summon lava in the position where you dodged. Instead of just being a slow, dumb enemy, it will leap forward at you. So, it is slightly more mobile, but it is still vulnerable to the tried and true troll killing method of dodging attacks and then attacking its sides. What makes this battle interesting is the ogre and other adds, but if you quickly defeat them before the troll arrives, you won’t have to deal with them at all.

Daudi Munr Attacks

• Daudi Munr stomps the ground, then summons lava from the ground where you are standing. Move out of the way to avoid this.
• Daudi Munr leaps towards you and slams his pillar on top of you. For this, Atreus screams for you to watch out, and this deals massive damage, so dodge away.
• Daudi Munr wildly swings his pillar around. Stay away from him and wait for him to tire, then go in for a few attacks.
• An ogre and a few weak enemies arrive before him. Make sure to kill them before fighting the troll.

Daudi Munr Strategy

First, take out the adds. An ogre appears before anything else — spam Atreus’s arrows and dig into it with the Blades of Chaos to quickly fill the stun meter. Then, stun grab the beast, ride it, and punch it as it goes around the arena. Try to hit as many smaller enemies as possible. After the ogre is down, clear the other small enemies, and then it’s time to face the troll.

This is unlike previous troll fights because Daudi Munr’s attacks are more powerful and have a longer reach. For example, at the end of a stomp, it will summon lava under your position, and it can quickly lunge at you with its pillar. So, you need to stay on guard in this fight — do not just assume it’s another slow, dumb troll.

Just as with previous trolls however, your main plan of attack is evading its attacks and hitting into its side while it is recovering from its missed strike. Use the Leviathan Axe for this fight — the troll is Lava and thus weaker to frost. In addition, Atreus should spam his arrows throughout the fight off of cooldown. Finally, this is a good time to use the Spartan Rage that you’ve been saving from the previous waves. After the fight, collect the loot that it drops for another runic attack.

With the gauntlet successfully survived, exit the tower via the west door. That’s all for this quest.

Jotunheim in Reach

Cross the bridge and enter the temple to reach Brok and Sindri’s shop. Here, you should definitely consider upgrading your equipment. We are nearing the end of the game and the final boss, and you will want every little bit of edge you can get with your stats. So, upgrade your gear, socket it, and purchase all the skills you can. When you are ready, open the door to the Realm Travel Room.

Realm Travel to Jotunheim

Interact with the table and choose to travel to Jotunheim. It doesn’t work — turns out, we need to find Mimir’s other eye.

Talk to Brok and Sindri

Exit the Realm Travel Room and talk to Brok and Sindri. Sindri does a lot of vomiting, but Brok explains that it could be in the statue of Thor outside.

Return to the Serpent’s Horn in Midgard

You are currently in Midgard, so exit to the bridge. Cross half of it, then use the lever to raise the platform to the horn. Interact with it for a scene. Turns out the eye might be inside the serpent.

Boat into the Serpent’s Mouth

Lower the platform, then head back across the bridge to the temple. Go down the left set of stairs, and follow the walkway to the boat. Paddle over to the serpent now. You will see a gap in its teeth on the right side — you can paddle through there to get into its mouth. Treat it like a river and paddle down his throat.

Find Mimir’s Eye

Paddle down the serpent’s belly. It is dark, so use your compass as a guide here. You will see a chest on the left — beach the boat, grab the loot in the chest, then get back in the boat and paddle down further. You soon reach a dock — a dock inside a belly? Ask no questions. After docking, follow Atreus onto the land area. Destroy the wood on the north side to reveal a climbable wall, but do not climb yet. Instead, look to the northeast to find a spinner with a crane above it. Throw your Leviathan Axe at the spinner. It will spin the crane, which holds a platform on it. Continue throwing your Leviathan Axe at the spinner until it has been spun all the way, then throw your axe at the gear shaft below the spinner to freeze the crane. Do not recall your axe. Instead, go up the climbable wall now and eventually, you will drop down onto the platform. Recall the axe and the crane will move the platform back to its starting position.

Climb up the wall next to the platform, and you will see a gold chest to the left. Before opening it, loot the Cipher chest to the left of it, on a platform of its own, to find another Niflheim Cipher. If you’ve been following the guide, this will be the last cipher and complete the language disc. After collecting the cipher, go to the gold chest and open it to find Mimir’s eye. Kratos puts it back in Mimir’s head “for safe keeping.” To get back to the boat, zip-line down the rope to the left of the gold chest.

Get back on the boat and paddle back up the serpent’s belly. Use the compass or the ceiling as a guide so you paddle in the right direction. Soon, there will be a rumble, but continue paddling anyway. As the serpent rumbles, paddle toward the compass marker, and eventually, there will be a scene in which you end up on a snow shore. Then, you meet Freya again, but Baldur comes walking out of the water. This is it: the final fight of the main quest of the game!

Boss Battle: Baldur

Baldur Overview

This fight has many different phases and is made more complicated by Freya, who does everything in her power to stop the three combatants. Baldur has the same arsenal of attacks as the first time you fought him at the beginning of the game, and he also has a few more melee attacks.

Baldur Attacks

• Baldur can perform a variety of melee attacks on you. The most common is when he zig-zags and then strikes you. All of his melee attacks can be blocked completely, and by this point in the game, you will have counterattack measures to your blocking via the Skills you have purchased.
• Baldur can throw projectiles at you from a distance. These are ice for frost Baldur and lava for flame Baldur. You can block this and actually throw it back at him if you have purchased the appropriate blocking skill.
• Baldur can smash the ground, causing a shockwave line in front of him. Dodge out of the way to avoid this attack.
• Baldur can cause AoE damage when he kneels and then springs up. This will knock you back.
• Flame Baldur can lunge at you and cause flame damage at the end of the jump. You can see his landing point because of where the lava appears, so run away from his landing point to evade this attack.

Baldur Phase One

The first phase does not last long. As soon as you gain control of Kratos, charge and attack Baldur while commanding Atreus to spam arrows at him. Baldur loves to taunt, just as before, and is free to damage when he does. After the initial burst of damage, Baldur gets down to business. Just as with the first fight, he is quick and zig-zags before punching you. All of his attacks can be blocked in this phase, so block his attacks and then swipe away at him. I recommend the Blades of Chaos for this phase as they have a long reach. Just make sure to block and then counterattack while you command Atreus to fire arrows. Eventually, Freya wraps both of you up in vines, so you need to press Circle to mash out of it. After that, there is another scene in which Baldur punches Atreus’ chest. The mistletoe arrow that Kratos used to repair Atreus’ quiver at the beginning of the game turns out to be Baldur’s kryptonite. In fact, the mistletoe injures Baldur and makes him vulnerable again. Baldur’s ecstatic because he can feel, but it also means you can now kill him.

Baldur Phase Two

Freya now controls the Thamur corpse, which means she can use the hands to try to stop the three of you from fighting. For this phase, you must lower Baldur’s health to around half. He quickly imbues himself with frost during this phase. What this means is that his attacks now inflict the frost effect, and he can fling ice at you along with perform AoE frost attacks. Just like phase one, your best plan of attack here is to block his melee attacks and then counter with attacks of your own. Because he is frost, continue using your Blades of Chaos for this phase. In addition, spam Atreus’ arrows off of cooldown — if you’ve been upgrading his equipment and skills, it will do a moderate amount of damage also. Overall, in this phase, it is all about avoiding his frost attacks, blocking his melee attacks, and counterattacking with the Blades of Chaos. At the end of the phase, a scene occurs in which Freya drops Thamur’s hand between the combatants. Kratos picks it up, then you have to button mash Circle to pick it up further. After that, Baldur runs under it, but as he does, press Square to command Atreus to fire a shock arrow at the red crystal. This concludes the third phase.

Baldur Phase Three

Phase Three is Flame Baldur. Freya even summons a few adds to help him. Because everything in this phase is flame, you should switch to your Leviathan Axe here. Baldur has three main attacks in this phase. He will jump up and lunge at you. The landing point of the lunge is clearly visible by the lava marks which appear on the ground. Simply run away from the lava marks to avoid this attack. In addition, after Baldur smashes to the ground, you can hit him a few times while he is recovering from the miss. His other big attack is a lava shockwave attack, which he will only do from range and will only make a line, so stay out of the line. Finally, he can also melee as usual, and all of these attacks can be blocked. As for the fight, ignore the adds unless they are behind you. If they grab onto you, you must button mash Circle to get them off. And even though Atreus is not on the arena, you can still spam arrows, which do moderate damage again. Overall, hack away with the Leviathan Axe at Baldur after you block him or after he misses on his lung attack. After depleting a lot of his health, this phase ends with another scene.

Baldur Phase Four

After the scene, run over to the flaming chisel and press Circle to jump onto it. After another scene, we must fight Baldur on the chisel. This begins much like your previous encounter with Baldur on the dragon. You must press L1 to block him as he punches down on you. Then, he will get up and try to perform a smashing move. When he does this, move to the side to dodge it, and then punch him. When you punch him this time, you have Atreus by your side, so when prompted, press Square to command him to put an arrow into Baldur’s side. After more fighting, you must press Square a few more times when prompted to fire arrows into Baldur. Then, in a twist, you must button mash Square so that Atreus can choke Baldur with his bow. Baldur still gets the upper hand, but you still have your ace in the hole: Spartan Rage. Press R3 + L3 when the game prompts you for a short scene which thrusts you into the final phase of the fight.

Baldur Phase Five

When this phase begins, you will still be in Spartan Rage, so rush up to Baldur and bash away at him with your fists. If you haven’t been upgrading Spartan Rage in the Skills menu, now is a good time to pause the game and do so so that you have a little more bit of an edge. Otherwise, bash away while in Spartan Rage mode. You won’t be able to kill him here, but you can still do a large chunk of damage. After Spartan Rage mode, you must fight Baldur one last time here. He can switch between Flame and Frost, so adjust your weapon accordingly. In addition, remember to have Atreus spam arrows at Baldur. Just as before, the biggest strategy in the fight is blocking or evading his attacks and then attacking yourself. Make sure to swap your weapon when Baldur swaps between frost and flame. When Baldur is at critical health, there will be another scene. Press Square when prompted, and when Kratos is on top of Baldur, button mash the right shoulder button to punch away at him.

That concludes this final boss fight. Enjoy the scene between Baldur, Freya, and Kratos!

Mother’s Ashes & Journey Home

After the conversation, use the Mystic Gateway by the dock and teleport to Brok’s Shop, which is also Tyr’s Temple. After going through the mystic gateway, enter the Realm Travel Room and use the table in the center. Changing realms until you get to Jotunheim, then lock it in. After the Realm Travel Room does its magic, there is a scene, and you end up on a stone stairway. Walk up it the whole way to reach the hilltops of Jotunheim. After a scene, cross the bridge to reach a cavern. Press square while looking at the statues and the wall to hear some dialogue from Atreus. Of note is the stone wall to the right, which has words carved on it. Tell Atreus to look at it to get a piece of Lore, The Dream of Midgard. Continue further to find another wall of words, and this Lore is The Guardian Returns.

After looking at both pieces of lore, walk up the steps for a scene in which Atreus looks at all of the paintings on the wall. Afterward, go through the entryway and climb up the various levels to reach the top of Jotunheim. Follow Atreus to the far side for another scene in which you spread the ashes and learn Atreus’ real identity.

Return to Tyr’s Temple

As you walk back through Jotunheim, the credits roll, but you still have control of Kratos. Backtrack through the cavern and then go into the light. This leads back to that long stone stairway. Go down it as you watch more credits. When you reach the bottom, you find Mimir, and the game prompts you to explore all of the endgame content. You can still continue though and do the content afterward.

Return Home

To finish your journey, you must return back to your home. Use the table in the Realm Travel Room to travel back to Midgard. In Brock and Sindri’s shop, you must listen to their entire conversation before you can use the Mystic Gateway. When you do use it, choose “Home” and you arrive back at your home at the beginning of the game. Enter the house and lie down on the bed. This triggers the cliffhanger final scene of the game. Can’t wait for the sequel!

Congratulations on beating God of War