In this chapter, you play as Kratos, accompanied by Freya and Mimir.
At the end of the cutscene that concluded the last chapter, whilst dialogue and a quest update play, you might also get a notification of a companion accessory slot being empty. Using OCR, you can equip these accessories, via the armour menu discussed in the menus section of the guide.
Upgrades done or not as the case may be, nav assist your way forward and you’ll come to an interact prompt for Brok, who says he has somethin’ for ya
.
Specifically, what he gives you is the now repaired Guardian shield that, if you remember, was broken near the beginning of the game. This interaction also forces you to leave via the doorway in front of you automatically.
Should you wish to get further upgrades or take any optional conversations, you can turn around manually, making sure Ratatoskr is on your left. Walking towards the interact prompt for the door you just used, find the shop and warchest once you’ve gone through.
Upgrades done or not as the case may be along with any optional conversations, you can also navigate and speak to Ratatoskr who will be just to the right of the gateway where you actually need to go in a moment. Said interaction continues discussion of Nidhog should you choose to take the opportunity.
Nav assist to get to the gateway, with Midgard as your destination of choice.
In the usual manner of mystic gateways, wait for any dialogue to finish, then leave via the exit once it’s loaded in.
From here, follow nav assist, interacting where needed to retrieve the sled and journey out on to the lake of nine.
Navigate with the sled (interact to board it), or run, the choice is arguably yours for a while. If you are on the sled, you’ll likely get a tutorial on Scent Tracking
, no prompts need to be dismissed though.
if you hear voices of a raider speaking to your right and want to take him and his camp on, you’ll have to get off the sled and follow their audio. If you’re lucky, you’ll auto-traverse and can keep running forward to battle them, though they are very tough indeed as they do fire damage.
Note that finding the entrance to the camp can take you a while as you’ll have to find it manually by essentially walking into it after going forward for a while then to the right.
Should you wish to persist in removing this batch of raiders, the checkpoint on death is just outside the camp, meaning you’d just have to run forward, where the new area sound will still play to signify you entering their territory.
If you manage to defeat this first batch, you’ll have an extra side quest to complete, Animal Instincts
.
If you’re like me and die unintentionally in the fire the enemies can leave behind after killing all the raiders, the quest should still become trackable. Find more information in the associated section of the guide, linked above.
Though it took me many, many attempts, I did manage to complete this quest all the way back here, even if you can do it later in the game with a better build.
Before progressing, I also completed several other quests here during one run, with The Mysterious Orb, Freya’s Missing Piece and Conscience For The Dead all being possible goals when completed in the correct order. See their guide sections, again linked above, for more information.
In terms of main story only progression, however, if you get to a point where the sled stops, with Freya saying We can’t go further on the sled
, you can dismount and auto-traverse.
If you are indeed in the right place, you can simply nav assist onward, though be aware combat is just around the corner.
This next battle is, without a doubt, the hardest main story fight of the game so far, even if you have levelled up via the aforementioned side quests.
It includes multiple light enemies with weapon-based shields that you have to switch to the blades for, that can transform into even harder to kill variants, as well as an ogre who can do a large amount of damage at any one time, even on lower difficulties with the build you’ll have available.
I would recommend keeping moving and trying to get the ogre into stun, as then you can make it attack the rest of the enemies to dish out some hefty damage of your own.
After what can be a long, protracted battle with possibly many attempts, once these enemies are all dealt with, Freya will say The way forward is magically sealed
.
Nav assist and interact where needed to pick up a very concerning sword hilt which unlocks an unfortunately incompletable side quest.
Said quest involves fighting optional bosses, at least one of which you might choose to take on later.
Annoyances aside, nav assist forward and Freya will say about dispelling an illusion, achieved by hitting a companion cue that’s right on your path.
Said illusion turns out to be false and, after a quest update, you are given a new waypoint.
As you nav assist, you should be able to find a mystic gateway to your right, which you’ll be just before if you save and restart from here later on. Use it to fully refill your health and rage, then continue onward, interacting to unlock a blade shortcut.
Use the sled should you wish to, navigating and listening to more dialogue, until you find another stopping point.
You may accidentally stumble into an optional objective called a Draugr hole, as I did during one test when dismounting and trying to run, as the sled seemed to have stopped moving. For the record, I did manage to beat this as well, albeit it took me numerous attempts and pattern comprehension to take this tough optional boss down, though I could not find it in subsequent runs.
Back to the main path, however, if you’re in the right place, this time, at least for me, one of the party acknowledges that we’ve arrived. Once you drop down, there’s a stationary raven to your left that you can hit if you wish to try by looking up a little when facing the bird.
Though you’ll hear the clanging of a Dwarven shop in the distance, I personally couldn’t find it until I nav assisted, complied with the companion cue and ran into combat with some more raiders and a Frost Gradungr.
The Gradungr I managed to stun early on, allowing me to deal with the raiders relatively smoothly, including using a combat tree
against them in one run.
If you like, there is an optional quest you can go and get here, namely Sigrun’s Curse. To get to a point to unlock it, you’re actually looking for an interact prompt, with a couple of ways to find it.
Said prompt is actually roughly opposite the mystic gateway, if you restart the checkpoint and find that as a reference via its humming audio cue.
Find the gateway, activating then disengaging from it.
If you’re struggling to find the gateway at all, track any quest in the goals menu when you’re near to the shop. Nav assist should take you straight to the gateway, at which point the rest of the navigation elements to unlock Sigrun’s Curse are manual.
Immediately after activating and disengaging from the gate as stated previously, Turn 180 degrees and run forward. The interact prompt in front of you should lead to a chain.
Climb this chain and, once you reach the top, Freya should ask What’s that outpost?
Now run forward until your feet stop moving.
If done right, this should trigger Freya’s dialogue.
Once that dialogue, where Mimir responds That’s where Sigrun was from
finishes, you should get a new quest cue and can track the goal in the favours tab or via pressing up on the DPad. See its guide section linked above for further information.
If you do manage to track this side quest, Sindri’s shop should be right in the path of nav assist. If you choose not to, it’ll be behind you, along with, of course, the warchest.
Make any upgrades you like here then continue onward.
In terms of main story progression, with any upgrades done, nav assist and, if you get stuck, move to your left and keep traversing. Eventually you should drop down towards the wolves and the sled.
Then as before, navigate using the sled, listen to dialogue and get off at the stopping point.
Once Freya says this is the place
, though that dialogue doesn’t always trigger, dismount the sled if you’re still on it.
If you navigate successfully, you should drop down. From here, climb and traverse as usual and you’ll find a few back-to-back blade points to interact with.
After some more nav assisting, you’ll then be told to cut a hole in the ice.
Navigate to the interact prompt, then hit heavy attack as you’ve done before in similar previous sections.
You’ll automatically traverse through to enter another combat sequence.
These raiders should be a lot less frustrating than some you’ve come across. After defeating them, traverse onwards via an interact prompt and some climbing.
reaching the top allows you to see more enemies, though they aren’t immediately aggressive to you. To your left, with the raiders to your right and slightly behind you should be a raven that you can hit easily by turning and aiming. Even that doesn’t get the attention of the multiple foes nearby.
There’s a raider chief here, or at least one who fights like the heavier raider variant, so take him out with as minimal damage taken as you can, with the smaller raiders being less of an issue.
If you have the Pride Of The Frost and Glacial Permafrost skills, use these to your advantage to deal additional damage quickly.
Once done, Freya will say she feels something, so nav assist and follow the path as usual to a companion cue and a resulting quest update.
After Freya uses her magic again, nav assist onward and when your feet stop moving, turn 180 degrees and then aim.
Whilst aiming, if you’re in the right place, you’ll get a heavy attack prompt or a distant aim cue. Run forward and ignite said prompt with the blades.
If successful, you’ll get more blade points necessary to continue onwards, in the form of back-to-back blade traversals and a climbable surface.
Running forward once you reach the top along with some nav assist will get you into the first of several combat sequences, with dialogue as a part of the narrative here as well.
The Gauntlet Of Fate (unofficial Title)
Battle 1: Traveller
This first fight is against a traveller, a strong and formidable enemy that though slow, has wide reaching attacks, all of which are unblockable and must be dodged. If you completed Sigrun’s Curse, you should have no trouble fighting this standard variant.
Thankfully if you do fall in this fight, the checkpoint is a short run back from where you respawn.
The traveller starts by slowly walking towards you, so in this instance you can hang back and listen to the dialogue for a moment.
He does have an AOE attack, cued by him yelling and starting a shimmering, humming animation/sound cue. You have to aim at him, then flick upwards on the right stick to target the object he’s holding, then hit it to make it explode for a damage opportunity if you run back in.
If he instead yells and your weapons clang off him, you need to get back as he has the potential to do a melee attack that can one shot you, even on lower difficulties.
You’ll eventually break his armour which should have a sound cue, at which point you can do the final hits of damage to finish him off. If such an armour cue doesn’t play, don’t worry, just stick close to him and dodge (I’d recommend using the blades for this) and you’ll get a stun prompt once you’ve hit him enough regardless.
If you have the facilities to get skills via OCR and haven’t done so yet, I’d recommend doing so here, the Glacial permafrost skill is particularly useful as previously referenced.
Grab any items or health on the ground that you can find and continue onward, as Mimir and Freya talk about how real what they’re fighting is.
Battle 2: Elves
Nav assist forward to another battle, this time against some elves. Ranged axe throws should serve you well here, as well as stun if you can apply it.
Battle 3: Mixed Enemies
Another battle against more grounded foes follows, using the blades should be effective here as they appeared to be melee only at least in my run for this guide.
Battle 4: More Mixed Foes
A fourth fight includes at least one elf and a grounded enemy or two. Focusing on the latter proved to be a better idea, using the blades and the axe in combination.
Battle 5: Nightmares And Revenant
In the next fight, a revenant and some nightmares await you whilst more dialogue happens. Again, applying stun to the revenant should keep her from being too dangerous, though watch for incoming attacks all the same.
Battle 6: Frost Phantom
After finishing the previous battle, nav assist, interact and climb to the next area, at which point running forward will spawn a frost phantom. These enemies aren’t necessarily too much of a problem, as long as you stay at range and keep pressure on with axe throws and skills such as vengeful Sickle with extended duration. Using OCR to get these skills is a good idea as well as others, depending on your playstyle.
The tough part is hitting the springs that power the phantom, which make a humming noise but are not considered by the game to be target elements that you can lock onto during combat, usually.
The way to circumvent this is, when the phantom vanishes, to flick your right stick to the left or right as the enemy disappears, signified by a longer roaring sound than that you’d hear when you’ve merely stunned it.
,
If done right, you can aim and hopefully find a spring to throw your axe at. This method is mostly consistent, though learning the phantom’s sound cues for when it’s successfully vanishing namely that prolonged, loud roar, is useful here.
The springs take 3 hits to take down if you’re accurate with the axe, though you can hit them with melee as well should you be close enough, though range is recommended. In this fight, you can only hit 1 spring at a time between successful stuns, in other longer fights you can hit multiple if you’re quick.
The springs are on a time limit and the phantom will reappear, blocking the springs from view for lack of a better description, forcing you to fight it again to get another shot at hitting them.
Once you’ve taken down the springs a couple of times, hitting the phantom again in its now weakened state should give you a stun prompt to finish the job.
Grab all the loot, health and rage it dropped, then continue onwards.
End Of Gauntlet
Find the next interact prompt and use it to open the door, with Freya remarking there’s a cave up ahead. Follow nav assist, keep traversing and climbing, as Mimir and co start talking about his propensity for babbling
.
After you swing down from an auto-traversal blade point, where Mimir remarks there’s that itchy sound again
, start the climb but don’t interact with the rest of the climbing prompts.
When the haptics stop, release the left stick and hit nav assist, then resume moving forward. Once you get to a point where you can’t move forward, you should be able to move to the right, then down with the left stick. If done correctly, that will extricate you from the tricky surface and you’ll be able to run forward normally.
Fortunately, the checkpoint is just before this climb starts, so if you get stuck or want to save, here’s a good place to do so.
If you’ve climbed correctly as above, Kratos should redraw his weapon and you can continue onward.
Nav assist onwards, interacting where needed with the official
door, and though you’ll think you’re in a cutscene, you can simply nav assist to continue as standard, into what will eventually be some combat.
Fight for a while against some wisps and be aware of their incoming attacks and, eventually after a scripted conclusion to the fight, Mimir will call out for your aid, ending the sequence.
Go to him and interact to trigger another fight against some nightmares and a revenant. Note that you can’t use your normal strategies against her, as Freya is absent.
along with listening to the story-relevant dialogue, survive long enough and eventually you’ll get pulled into a scripted sequence for a second, after which you can nav assist to an interact prompt to continue onward.
With Freya and Mimir both out of the picture, you are left to face down a new oncoming enemy horde alone. These are Einherjar and here’s where fishing as a strategy comes into its own.
Fishing, for a reminder, is where you pull enemies in with the blades (assuming you have the correct skills to do extra stun and the like as well to amplify its effectiveness). Try and focus on the enemy who is attacking you and anyone around it will be stunned too. Pull a few times then wait to dodge any attacks that might happen, rinse and repeat.
After another scripted sequence with Atreus calling out for help and all enemies defeated, Mimir will say I think it’s over
. From here, nav assist onwards.
Eventually, after some more dialogue, you’ll be presented with an interact prompt. Take this and you’ll enter a cutscene.
After this cutscene is done with, nav assist and an interact prompt will allow you to enter the main cutscene of the chapter.
Important cutscene over, nav assist your way back to the interact prompt and hit it, though it may be a little tricky to find.
After the resultant dialogue has finished, with kratos saying I will do what I must
, a quest update appears, at which point you can nav assist to continue.
Moving to the left slightly to re-orient if needed should make sure you can get to an interact prompt that starts a climb.
Again, let the auto-traversal do the work, nav assisting to orient yourself on the surface occasionally.
A couple of interact prompts later after reaching the top and the party will start discussing character tendencies. Keep nav assisting and interacting until you start climbing again.
If the climb goes a little strange, try navigating to your left and re-orienting. Once you reach the top, you should hopefully be able to auto-traverse your way on, navigating as normal.
With that part of the quest having completed at the end of that expositional dialogue, continue nav assisting and you’ll come to the sled via an interact, where Kratos will suggest finding a gateway and Mimir talks about loose ends.
Sled your way along and you should see an interactable nearby, even whilst aboard. Leave the sled and you might hear a dwarven shop as well. Moving towards said prompt, you should auto-traverse upwards to see it in full. This should get you right to Sindri’s shop, where you’ll be able to then upgrade your gear. For reference, your blades should have one upgrade available if you’re playing with just the main story portion of this guide, in addition to any optional conversations you might not have taken.
Once you’re done with whatever you decide to do, nav assist and interact with the gateway, going to Sindri’s house.
Wait as usual for dialogue to finish, then take the exit and talk to Ratatoskr should you wish (including hitting the associated interact prompt), though it unlocks an incompletable side quest as well.
Nav assist and interact with the door into the house as normal, then go to the shop and trigger what looks like an optional conversation. Said conversation actually starts the next phase of the narrative, though not the next chapter just yet.
After the dialogue finishes, hit the new interact prompt and watch the resulting cutscenes. Once you regain control with Mimir’s line no idea what he’s on about brother
, you have the last opportunity for a while to take an optional conversation and upgrade your gear again, should you realise there’s anything you’d missed.
Any upgrades done, nav assist and interact to continue.
Nav assisting to the interactable prompt to enter the gateway, wait for the dialogue to finish, then take the exit as usual. This leads directly into the start of Chapter 10, Forging Destiny.