Chapter 4: Groa's Secret – SightlessKombat.com

In this chapter, you play as Kratos, followed by Atreus, Tyr and Mimir.

If you’ve not already done so, push forward on the left stick to leave the table. Before you head out on the next part of your adventure, you can head towards the metallic clang of the shop to purchase whatever you need in terms of upgrades or grab any loot from the warchest.

In addition to making any purchases, don’t forget to trigger any optional conversations as well with triangle.

That done, nav assist your way to the mystic gateway (via a brief cutscene as you open the door), followed by another when you interact with the gateway itself.

During this second interaction, you’ll meet another new character, be introduced to how realm travel functions and be advised how unlocking new areas works.

As a part of this tutorial, you want to hit confirm, then select Alfheim, then if you feel you’re ready, hold confirm to travel to this new realm.

Given this interaction makes you enter the mystic gateway automatically, after some dialogue, walk forward as usual to interact and exit said portal, at which point you start a new main quest element.

From here, nav assist your way to an interaction prompt, which will swing you over a gap. Continue nav assisting to another interaction prompt which will start you climbing.

When you reach the top and Atreus mentions about him hearing something, related to a side quest which you can complete later, continue onward to further interaction prompts.

Once you drop down from a blade auto-traversal, where the party start discussing Freya’s brother, somewhat confusingly named Freyr, you should hear a raven on your left which you can hit if you want to.

Note that you may have to move quite a way towards it to hit it though, just to make you aware.

Keep nav assisting until Atreus mentions a barricade, at which point you get a tutorial about Twilight stone, which reflects axe throws. Nav assist until your feet stop moving.

Roll to your left once and you should get an aim cue, which you can hit to allow you to pass through, after which a small battle begins.

That battle done with, nav forward and climb. Once you reach the top and nav assist further, you’ll come across some combatants and Tyr attempts to break up the fight by saying that’s enough.

These enemies aren’t immediately aggressive to you directly, but will be when you get close enough, starting your first encounter with light elves.

Once done, nav assist towards an interaction prompt and hit it, then navigate through some autotraversal until you get to a second prompt.

This second one has the distinct double haptic of a gate-style mechanism.

Hit this to start a cutscene, at first, then:

Puzzle

Move the left stick upwards until you can’t do so any further.
Then, once the dialogue has played, move it slowly down until the puzzle completes.
Finally, nav assist forward and interact to go through the gate.

End Of Puzzle

With a discussion about a statue ongoing, nav assist onward and look for an aim cue to throw the axe at.

In my experience, though on PS5 I could hit the cue straight away, on PS4 I had to nav assist, aim, then look up slightly to hit the twilight stone I was looking for. If the axe bounces off to your left, roll right and reattempt the throw.

If the bouncing metallic noises happen for a longer duration, with dialogue after, you’ve finished this small puzzle element.

Now move on to an interactable prompt and use it to swing to the other side of a gap.

On the PS5 version, you can nav assist after any dialogue here finishes and eventually find a throw cue to hit some twilight stone. Hitting this will allow you to progress.

If you can’t hit it successfully, rolling left once should solve the issue, at least it did for me in my tests. Also, if you don’t hit the throw first time, keep nav assisting and aiming until you get a cue. After a few attempts you should succeed.

PS4 notes for this throw:

Restart from checkpoint. Hit nav assist once to orient yourself.
Now walk forward slowly and regularly nav assist until it gives you a nav error sound cue. At this point walk forward a couple of steps (you should be able to hear this, though you may have to turn your audio up).
Then nav assist again, which should rotate you and the audio cue around slightly to your right.
Now aim to your wright horizontally in a straight line until you get a throw cue. Hit this and you should hear it bounce off the wall without success, this is intended.
Now walk to your left in small increments and keep aiming at the cue. Hitting this after a few steps to your left should bounce the axe in a longer sequence and you should be congratulated via dialogue, at which point you can progress forward.

The good thing is that once you’ve hit this throw cue, that’s a checkpoint.

After this checkpoint

Nav assist to your next interactable to open a door and trigger a battle with some more light elves.

After the fight, as Atreus points out that the light bridges are gone, nav assist your way to where Mimir talks about disfiguring some architecture, where Tyr will provide a way to get you across a gap after he jumps over it himself.

Cross said gap by following nav assist, to get to a back-to-back series of 3 blade swing interaction prompts. Note that on PS5, I got a little stuck and had to turn to my left and run for a while before retriggering nav assist to get this interaction prompt to show up, though this issue doesn’t always occur.

Keep nav assisting until they start talking about what the elves want with the light, where you should eventually find an interact prompt.

Use this to swing up onto a platform, then nav assist forward and periodically aim until you get a throw cue. Hit this and your party will warn of more light elves ahead, though they won’t be immediately present.

Note that the aforementioned throw cue is sometimes a little tricky to hit in the first place, just be patient with it and try to move as carefully as you can with nav assist and walking forward.

If you see an interact prompt and haven’t dropped off the platform, it’s actually one of Kvasir’s poems. If you’ve collected this, nav assist then aim and the throw should be successful, at which point Tyr says he’ll handle this. Of course, this request is rejected by the party.

nav assist to progress (roll around and you should drop down if you get stuck), then you should run into the previously referenced elves, including mystics that can throw homing orbs.

Those elves defeated and a discussion of which side is right ongoing, run to the next interaction prompt to progress through a door.

Nav assist to another interactable which will start a puzzle.

Puzzle:

PS5

If you haven’t already, interact with the crank and move all the way down with the left stick
Aim and move your right stick slightly to the right to see a second target, then move it back to the left to make sure you’re aiming at the first, left-hand side target and throw
If successful, you should hear a low metallic clang.
Now move your left stick up once a small amount, re-aim and if you hear a cue, throw. If successful, you should hear the axe connect with the twilight stone, bouncing along to your right and completing the puzzle.
If you need to, you can restart checkpoint and the start of this puzzle will be your next interact prompt

PS4

If you haven’t already, interact with the crank, at which point you’ll get a move stick prompt. Pull down until you can’t go any further with the left stick.
Whilst still on the crank, aim with L2 and keep holding it. Move down gently with the right stick until you hear a throw cue. Hit this and listen for the axe bouncing off of a loud metallic object.
Now move to your right a little with the right stick then down until you get a cue, both slowly so you don’t shoot past it.
Release your aim and move the left stick up once a small amount, then re-aim and move the right stick upward slowly. If successful, you should hear a throw cue. hit this and the twilight stone should bounce the axe along and complete the puzzle.
Alternatively, if you hit your first target and nothing happens/the axe misses, recall and move your right stick slowly to your left until you get a second cue. Hitting this should make the low metallic sound desired.
Then move your aim cue to the right until you see one target, then down again until you see a second. Release your aim and then move the crank up a small amount with the left stick, then aim and follow the line with the right stick to get a throw cue.
Hit this and you should complete the puzzle. These two alternate instructions should not be needed but the aiming for this can be a little tricky.

End of puzzle

Release the crank (it will sound like it’s not held in place but don’t worry, if successful you’ll be able to use a blade point and swing down into what turns out to be a battle with some nightmares.

A quick note on nightmares as Kratos: If you can get into fishing range with the blades, you can pull them in for an instant kill animation.

After the battle, proceed onward via nav assist and you should reach an interaction prompt that should trigger more combat through another door.

After the battle, nav assist to an interact that unlocks a blade shortcut, then continue nav assisting and auto-traversaling until you hear mention of a mystic. This is a tutorial for Twilight stone staggering enemies.

If you want you can just do this fight normally, but if you want to use the tutorial stone, you can move forward via nav assist and aim at the mystic, then downwards a little to find a throw cue. If you hit this and are successful you should see the axe bounce up and hit the enemy multiple times. This is not mandatory though, of course, but it is fun if you can land it.

After that battle, nav assist, interact to climb and when prompted, fight the elves that will meet you at the top. Note that there is some twilight stone to the right of the arena as you come in, though you may find it hard to hit in the heat of battle.

After that combat encounter, as Tyr points out a statue and crystals that he’s seen on the elves, nav assist to an interact prompt and save here before you hit it. Once you do hit this prompt, you shove that same statue to make a bridge, in suitably dramatic fashion.

This also begins, should you wish to take it, an opportunity for you to open another:

Nornir chest

Note that this chest, though obtainable, can be a little complicated in terms of navigation and locating it, even to begin with. These instructions are as consistent as we could make them during testing, though please be aware that this may take a few attempts, hence the above save suggestion. When you load the save, you’ll have to push the statue over every time, just in case you wonder why there’s an interact prompt immediately present.

Instead of having destructible seals, this chest has bells to ring in order to open it. All 3 bells ringing at once will unlock the chest.

Instructions

As you nav assist forward, walking not running, try and move to your right slightly as you go (by about 30 degrees or so) and continue nav assisting.
If successful, you will find a nornir chest to your right and on the right-hand side of the path, at what is visually the base of some stairs.
2 of the bells are nearby, one in front and the second slightly to the left and further away from the chest. Both of these are able to be hit from the starting position, with the chest in front of you.
However, bell 3 requires you to remove a piece of sound stone from it first before it can ring clearly.
Facing the chest, move towards it until your feet stop moving. You should be able to throw the axe at a bell close to you and hear it connect. This serves as a position check.
Now turn to your right so the chest is pretty much directly to your left. If you are in the correct position, you should be able to aim and throw to hit some twilight stone. We’ll need to use this stone to reflect on to that third bell in just a moment, after it can ring freely of course.
Walk straight forward until your feet stop moving. If you find yourself blocked from progressing immediately, take a sidestep to your right and re-find the cue if you can; this is the trickiest part of this puzzle. If you need to, move slightly to your left manually with the left stick after that previously suggested rightwards sidestep. This may help you walk forward and locate the cue, keeping it in focus for the next movement section.
Keep periodically aiming as you walk forward, making sure that cue is in front of you. If you’ve walked forward until your feet stopped moving, walk backwards a few steps, until the cue re-appears as you may lose it, then aim to make sure you still have your target available.
Also keep an ear out for a subtle waterfall-like cue almost directly to your right which indicates you should be in the correct position to undertake the next step.
Now turn to your right for about half a second and look for a companion cue. Getting Atreus to shoot this will result in the sound stone mentioned earlier being removed.
Now aim back to your left by the same amount and make sure you’re hitting the twilight stone.
Walk backwards and periodically aim every couple of steps just to make sure you’re in line and, if you walk back far enough you should find the chest on your left again.
All being well, the setup is done, now time for

The Throw

First, aim and hit the twilight stone you should be pointed at, which rings the first bell a good distance away if successful.
Then role once to your left and aim, you should be able to hit the bell directly in front of you.
Now role left one final time and you should be able to aim and hit the final bell which is further away from you.
With all 3 bells ringing, if you’ve made these throws quickly enough, the chest should unlock, granting you an apple. The interact prompt to open the chest should be a role or two to your right once you make the final throw.

End Of Chest Instructions

Chest unlocked or not, continue onward and interacting where needed. Eventually you’ll come to another battle, which gives you another tutorial about using Twilight stone to stagger enemies. Unfortunately, here all the enemies know where you are and lock on doesn’t factor these environmental elements in as targets, so you’ll likely just end up doing the fight normally.

Post elf-fight, nav assist onward (hit the raven on your left if you want to though it’s a little tricky and far away), then find an interact prompt to progress.

Hearing mention of a statue’s shield, this heralds the start of a puzzle.

Statue Shield Puzzle:

Nav assist for a short distance then roll backwards once, aim and you should be able to find a companion cue. Get Atreus to shoot it.
Find an interactable, hit it and move your left stick to the left.
nav assist through two interact prompts (you should have ended up grappling twice, once per interact).
Nav assist and keep aiming, you should eventually find another companion cue. On PS4, in my experience, if you hit a navigation error cue, go forward slightly then turn to your left and aim and it should snap into place. If not, after a little while of wandering you should find the cue, unfortunately it’s not as consistent as we’d like. Hit this to progress.

The tricky part

Find the next interactable, but don’t use it yet. Aim slightly to your right with the axe and hit the cue you find there. You’ll hear comments on how the shield has moved.

Now hit the interact you’re standing next to and move it to the left again.
Now aim and if you don’t immediately get a throw cue, move slowly to the left until you find a very small axe cue. If you don’t find it, face the blade ignition cue you’ll have heard earlier with the brambles (though it didn’t seem to do anything during my tests on this puzzle) and role backwards once, then aim and you should hear the axe throw cue.
This is a tricky shot to hit, but if successful, you’ll hear Atreus saying that it looks right, alongside a loud scraping noise.
From there, nav assist your way to an interact prompt to traverse a gap. Following this, nav assist until your feet stop moving and aim.
You should hear a cue which, if hit successfully should bounce the axe off some twilight stone and unlock the door.

End Of Puzzle

Continue navigating including dropping down via your blades to an interact prompt, which will allow you to open the door and progress.

Nav assist and drop down via auto traversal, then head to the next interactable to open a door, where another puzzle awaits.

Puzzle:

Keep moving until yet another light door is mentioned. Then, nav assist your way to an axe throw prompt, which will help you find a companion cue you need to progress.
To find said companion progression cue, nav assist until you find the aforementioned axe throw prompt, then whilst aiming look down via the right stick slightly until you hear the now familiar sound. Hitting this will get Atreus to shoot some geometry but complain that an object is facing the wrong way.
Use nav assist until Tyr says that he’ll speed things up. You might need to nav assist then aim when you’re near a distant interactable to get him to say this, though it’s a little tricky to locate. Once done though and Tyr’s in motion, aim towards where the object that he’s moved is and look up and aim. You won’t have long to do this whilst there’s still sound coming from said object, but the aim snapping seemed pretty forgiving here during my testing. You should get a throw cue for twilight stone to bounce the axe off, if successful. If you can’t find the object, nav assist until you’re facing the loud, almost humming ambient cue and aim upward and the lock-on should hopefully kick in.
Throw your axe at this cue and if it doesn’t bounce for a long duration as is customary when you’re successful, move to your left and then realign by looking to your right until you get the cue again and re-attempt the throw.
If successful, there’ll be some dialogue congratulating you and you can nav assist to another interactable to start a conversation as you take a lift upwards.

End of puzzle.

When the conversation is done and the lift stops, move forward via nav assist and a cutscene should trigger.

After the cutscene, nav assist and keep interacting with doors as you find them, until you hear the clanging of Sindri’s shop. Upgrade or purchase what you need from here before you move on, as well as having any optional conversations. If you loot the warchest and have trouble finding him again, move backwards and to your left slightly and you should find his interaction prompt.

When you are finished at the shop, move to the next interactable to trigger a long cutscene.

Cutscene over, there’s another optional conversation available with Sindri. This done with, nav assist through the next door via an interact prompt and into combat.

Enemies defeated, move to another combat encounter via nav assist. After completing this one, nav assisting to the next interaction prompt should get you into a third fight.

This combat encounter will involve some traversal, so look around for an interact prompt after the first few enemies are defeated in order to fight some more. Once the second set are defeated, your 3rd set will appear once you nav assist to them.

After defeating these, you’ll hear, after a little while, a shout ushering you this way thus meaning you should follow.

Nav assist, keep moving, interacting, fighting and using auto-traversal (the nav assist might get a little stuck at times, so being a little patient might be necessary here).

There will come a point after dropping down via your blades (not through an interactable prompt) where you no longer have control of your character. Eventually, you’ll hear the word enough as the score plays during a cutscene, then the standard battle themes kick back in.

Move forward until the rage cue plays to enter a boss fight.

Boss Fight: Alva

Alva is a light elf, though she’s significantly stronger than the ones you’ve fought before. Listen to the cues that you’re working with (shield strike, unblockable, parry/guard break) and counter these as needed, whilst being mindful of when you have your runics up.

Even on Give Me Grace this battle can take a while, so keep your wits about you and keep attacking her until she goes down thanks to a stun finisher or two.

End Of Boss Fight

Grab all the loot she drops, then nav assist your way to a cutscene (though the loss of control cue doesn’t play. Continue walking forward whilst the conversation is happening and eventually, you’ll trigger a second cutscene, again with no audio cue to tell you that you have no control.

Cutscenes over, move to an interaction prompt and hit it to swing across a gap, then nav assist to another interact prompt to find the next door and open it.

From here, continue nav assisting, interacting and fighting your way through until Tyr asks if you can leave now.

There are a fair few fights to go through here, also featuring your first encounters with dark elves. You’ll be able to tell light elves from their dark elf counterparts, as Dark elf wings are very easy to distinguish as they thrum through the air.

Once you’ve fought your way to the gateway, hit an interact prompt, then hit a second one not long after to actually activate it. Finally, press and hold square to travel to Sindri’s house and, after the dialogue is finished, walk through the gate in front of you via the interact prompt.

Head over to your left and talk to Ratatoskr (the character you met earlier and speak to him. You don’t have to throw at the chimes, but if you can and want to there’s some humorous dialogue you can get out of it.

Nav assist your way to the door to Sindri’s house proper that triggers a small cutscene. Once that’s over, conduct any upgrades you might wish to make, including looting the war chest as usual if there’s anything there. There should be an axe upgrade to make if you haven’t already done it, in my case getting it to level 3.

As I was upgrading my skills, purchasing multiple at once in this case, I got a tutorial for skill mods, though you may have already seen this previously. Press X on the skill it puts you on after the announcement and you should be able to follow it to its intended destination by using up and down on the DPad then holding square on one of the selected elements to craft the mod token. If you have access to OCR, you can see what impact the token will have.

After that’s all done, nav assist to an interact prompt, which will start the cutscene leading into chapter 5.