Secret Of The Sands – SightlessKombat.com

Quest Realm: Alfheim

Early Unlock Instructions

If you want to complete this quest at the end of chapter 4: Groa’s Secret, play until you reach the mystic gateway, but don’t return to Sindri’s house. Instead, disengage from the gateway.

From here, turn until the gateway’s interact prompt is 90 degrees to your left.

Roll right once and walk forward, this should trigger dialogue about not needing to rush if successful. This can be a little tricky but I’ve managed to get it first try during a couple of test runs, though not always.

During this dialogue, it’ll sound like you’re going to get the quest, but unfortunately it won’t track until you walk a little further on, as follows.

A pickup might appear on your left and this is a treasure map. Grab this, though you can’t complete it.

From here, run forward until your feet stop moving, then turn to your right in small increments (a strategy I’ve termed Gryla turning), and move forward. Eventually, you’ll drop down and enter a new area with the associated sound cue, and possibly even see an interact to your left.

Interact grabbed or not (it’s just some hacksilver for reference), run forward until your feet stop moving once again.

Gryla turn to your left and move forward until you can run for a short distance, stop when Mimir begins to discuss reaching the barrens up top.

This gives you access to the first puzzle of the quest.

Puzzle

Run forward, hive matter will be pretty much 90 degrees to your left.
Turn until the hive matter is slightly to your left by about 45 degrees, aim and you should get an axe throw cue.
Now we need to position ourselves to the left-hand side of this puzzle to hit all the hive matter at once.
To do this, roll left twice and aim, you should get a cue again.
Aim and throw, you’ll get the smack and the boom of the hive matter vanishing if successfull, completing the puzzle.

End Puzzle

Unlocking continued

Immediately on completing the above puzzle, in front of you there’s a dead end, with a crack visually to the right of your screen that you have to get to. The easiest way to do this is once again to run forward until your feet stop moving, then Gryla turn to your right until the traversal kicks in, or you see an interact prompt which you should follow and hit to continue.

Climbing up, you reach the top of the surface and if you run forward a little you should hear a shop in the distance to your right. This is your next sub-objective.

Hearing this, turn to your right and you should be able to auto-traverse up where whoever the vender is at the time should greet you.

Talking to said vender, you’ll get dialogue that actually gives you the quest officially, where you can track from here.

Other notes

Note: You can receive this quest later from talking at a shop as part of The Elven Sanctum side quest, if you’ve already unlocked that. These instructions pick up after having this optional conversation in Alfheim and receiving the trackable objective.

Note 2: some of these puzzles are difficult to complete, though they can be got through with elements of luck and patience. Though this is not ideal, if these circumstances improve, we will update this and any other similar sections in future revisions.

If unlocking this later, the shop can, at times, be difficult to find. If you want to make sure you get this quest before venturing onwards, whilst tracking The Elven Sanctum quest, briefly navigate away from the shop when you hear it on your right, following nav assist.

From here, go to your goals menu and track the first quest on your list, then nav assist once again to head back towards it. If all goes well, you should be led directly to the shop.

This at least appeared to be true during testing though an alternate instruction set also exists from The Elven Sanctum.

The Actual Quest

Navigating away from said shop after getting and tracking your new and intended objective regardless of when you unlocked it, you’ll find this realm’s sled. Take this or run and, eventually, a cave will be mentioned, which will be your next destination.

Unfortunately, even though someone will shout about a cave entrance, nav assist likes to be tricky here and take you around in circles, meaning it’s partially luck as to whether you’ll find it at times.

During several runs, restarting the checkpoint after the entrance was mentioned did seem to allow me to run straight to its associated progression point. However, though this wasn’t always consistent sadly. Even if you do restart the checkpoint, the entrance was mentioned again on restart after a while of running. This frustration with finding the cave entrance specifically appears to be solely a nav assist issue, one that cannot be easily circumvented with a few retries in some cases.
I additionally did have an occasion where, with the nav assist beacon to my right and the entrance being mentioned, I ran until my feet stopped moving and then pressing nav assist once turned me towards the interaction prompt for it, but I’ll have to do some more testing for this.

Once you do find that interact prompt, hit it to start a climb. Manually navigate downwards and as you do, some dialogue will occur.

Once you reach the bottom of the surface, if needed, press nav assist once to orient yourself, then interact to swing downwards into a new area.

Nav assisting onwards will get you to an interact. Use this to swing over a blade prompt.

As you nav assist from here, keep aiming periodically to eventually get an axe throw cue. Hit this and you’ll destroy a single piece of hive matter.

That done, nav assist some more and you’ll drop down into a small skirmish.

That over with, you’ll be presented with a:

Puzzle

Nav assist and interact with a blades prompt. If you restart checkpoint, this interaction prompt is where you’ll reset to.
From here, nav assist and drop down via auto-traversal to be able to get the best angle.
After this drop, immediately Roll left twice and walk forward, looking for a distant throw cue. Press nav assist once if you don’t get the cue after the double roll
Once you find this cue which is actually for some hive matter, whilst aiming, look diagonally down and left for around a quarter to half a second for each. You should see a second distant throw cue.
Note that re-aiming here will reset you to the hive matter, which is not what you want to hit.
If you hit this second cue and it’s the correct element, you’ll hear your axe bounce off of twilight stone and cut the vines needed to progress.

End Of Puzzle

After completing this puzzle, nav assist into combat with enemies that spawned after the hive matter was removed.

After nav assisting into yet more combat which can be a little tricky to trigger as you have to stand in the right place, Atreus talks about not wanting to fight dark elves.

Nav assist to an interact and climb to the top.

From the top of that climb, nav assist some more and you’ll reach a blades prompt, then continue and interact with a zipline.

Once you’re here, 180 and move forward until you drop down. From here, a small hacksilver chest should be forward to your right, though it’s not immediately visible.

Nav assist back up the ledge via a blades prompt, then find a second blades prompt after a little more running.

This is actually the beginning of a back-to-back set of blade prompts, you’ll end up on a platform once you finish interacting with them.

If nav assist gets you stuck here, turn left and run forward until you can continue nav assisting, dropping down via another blade swing, into combat.

I would save before this encounter if I were you as the back to back prompt is actually a checkpoint of sorts.

Enemies dealt with, nav assist onwards, but don’t hit the interact on your right. If you’re unlucky, you may inadvertently drop down into a separate encounter with some nightmares and wretches (as well as a nightmare next), which isn’t supposed to happen yet.

If you do finish that encounter, nav assist will take you up to the ledge where you need to be, with the interact on your right as previously referenced.

Your feet will stop moving and this will start the positioning for the puzzle.

Puzzle

Roll back once, aim and, with the interact still to your right, hit a distant throw cue to bounce your axe off of some twilight stone.
If successful, you’ll once again hear hive matter being severed and have completed the puzzle in a single throw.
If not, rolling forward once and re-aiming should give you the sever cue.
The twilight stone is up and left of the hive matter by maybe a quarter of a second each, for reference, if you need to readjust your aim after hitting the hive matter instead.

End of puzzle

Puzzle completed, nav assist through a series of blades prompts into a climb, as dialogue continues.

Moving right when you get stuck part way through this clime, nav assist then interact to get to the top and disengage with a further interaction prompt.

Nav assisting onwards, you should drop down via a blades auto-traversal. From here, press nav assist once, then turn 180 and you should find a distant interact prompt to your left.

This interact is for a door. It’s a shortcut that isn’t essential, but could allow you to traverse the area more easily.

Nav assist to another interact and climb down the resulting chain into more combat.

This fight involves a heavy dark elf (actually called an elite) alongside a few other standard ads.

The elite is your biggest problem, as his blind attack actually can break target lock, leaving you unable to easily orient to the other flying foes surrounding you.

Focusing on him and then the rest of his crew should be your strategy here, using rage if needed.

Note that if you die in this fight, you’ll reset to the interact for the chain. Additionally, there is a twilight stone in the arena which, if you can hit it and have the elite caught in the resulting reflect, you’ll do a massive amount of stun to him and allow you to end the fight much more quickly with some extra strategy on your part to finish the confrontation.

Combat done, nav assist and interact to start a crawl sequence, on the other side of which is another

Puzzle

Without nav assisting, run forward until your feet stop moving.
Run forward until your feet stop moving.
Keep turning right in small increments whilst moving forward, until you drop down once. If you drop down twice, restart checkpoint and go through the crawl, then repeat above steps
Aim at the cue in front of you and turn right about a quarter of a second each time and keep aiming. What you want is the hive matter to be mostly to your left.
180 via your shield to get you almost in the correct position
Aim and look down slowly and you should find the tiny throw cue you need. Hit this to explode a pot to progress.
If you need to reset yourself, restarting the checkpoint puts you just before the crawl.

End Of Puzzle

Nav assist and drop down via the blades, then via auto-traversal, into a small fight with some wretches.

Those eliminated, you enter another:

Puzzle

Nav assist until your feet stop moving, then aim and throw, though there may not be a cue. You Should hear your axe bounce onto twilight stone, or maybe hive matter, but you won’t hit everything automatically from here, this is just a position check.
Roll back twice, without pressing nav assist and reattempt the throw. If successful, you should hear twilight stone and hive matter vanishing, at which point you can progress, with no hive matter cue to your right.
Note that the twilight stone you need to hit is slightly to the left of the hive matter target, should you feel you’re unable to find it at first. The resulting throw should also hit an exta piece of hive matter to the left of the twilight stone, at least from what I could understand from the audio.
Also note that during testing, I had success with this puzzle by nav assisting round in what seemed to be a circle and hitting the next throw cue I found, though again this puzzle is one of the harder ones just due to positioning requirements.

End Of Puzzle

You Immediately get thrust into another puzzle from here.

Puzzle

Nav assist over the gap, stop, then nav assist until your feet stop moving for the first time, the beacn can be in a variety of places so this might require some trial and error on your part. Once you’re in position, press nav assist again and aim and keep looking downwards until you find a small axe cue.
Hit this to explode a pot to allow you to progress.
Nav assist forward, you’ll re-jump the gap, keep going for a while and aiming periodically and you should find a distant throw cue.
Keep moving forward and hitting this twilight bounce to eventually sever some hive matter to your right. You may hear a couple of metallic noises alongside the booming of the hive matter being destroyed, this is expected, especially at distance.
If you can’t hit this throw cue and have a successful bounce, rolling left once should help.
Nav assist to a blades traversal interact prompt and use it to swing up to the platform
Nav assist your way around and hit the interact prompt for a resource chest. This may be to your left, though on my first run it was to my right. Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be a consistent way to find this during my testing, though if we find a better method during future runs, we’ll update this.
From that chest interaction, hit nav assist once and aim. If successful, you are now lined up with a spinner with a clear throw cue.
Throw once and that will line the twilight stone up for you, as the spinner moves it into place. It might sound like you haven’t hit anything as it’s difficult to hear the connection over all the other information.
From here, aim down sights, then whilst doing so look down until you see a distant throw cue. Hit this and if you’re low enough, the axe should automatically complete the bounce for you.
Hit this spinner or the twilight stone as required and make the hive matter go boom to your right once again to allow you to progress. Use the spinner for reference, keep hitting it and looking down for the twilight stone, then returning to it if you don’t find it. It can take a while but can be done with some patience.
Note that this can take a while to find as all the throw cues sound the same when aiming, but if you want to reset yourself, you can nav assist and you’ll be taken off the ledge then back on to it.

End Of Puzzle

Annoying puzzle over, drop down via nav assist into combat with some nightmares. Just a quick note that these can be lethal, particularly after the earlier fight with the elite and his entourage.

Nav assist onwards through a blade traversal to more combat, including a nightmare nest that you have to obliterate to make the fight end. Fun fact, you can if you’re lucky, use a nightmare to blow up the nest, as I discovered during a test run. Running in and hitting a runic on the one that tries to explode can achieve this.

Those dealt with, nav assist, interact and climb.

Reaching the top, you find what could be described as a giant jellyfish, a Hafgufa.

With a quest update, this begins another:

puzzle

Nav assist until your nav beacon rotates to your left, then stop moving.
Aim and then look to your left and keep aiming, all being well you should be able to snap to a cue, though it might be a little glitchy.
Hitting this should make a pot explode. Note that cue took me a long time to find, there may be a more consistent way to do this.
From here, nav assist and drop down, then keep nav assisting until your beacon moves to your right.

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- If you move forward and automatically jump to a ledge in front of you, you should be able to 180 and traverse to where you need to be, though the traversal might be slightly to your right.

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Having made it to your current position, with the nav beacon to your right and with the wind mostly to your left, you should be able to aim and get a clear throw cue.
Hit this and you’ll hear a twilight bounce and some hive matter removal, with Atreus saying there we go.
Nav assist and wait until the beacons on the left, just as before, you should be able to aim and hit another clear cue.
If this is a hive matter cue, nav assist and move forward a step or two, then reattempt the throw.
If successful, you should see a twilight bounce and Kratos should say We can free it from the surface now

End Of Puzzle

After you nav assist up a ledge in front of you, there should be a resource chest to your right.

Nav assist onwards and climb, then interact with a blades prompt to dramatically smash through the ceiling.

From here, press nav assist once, aim and throw to hit a singular hive matter, then slowly move forward.

Nav assist to an interact prompt, but don’t hit it just yet as there is a legendary chest if you look to your left and downwards for about probably half a second.

This chest gives you some crafting components and a piece of an armour set found in this realm.

Nav assist and hit that blades prompt from earlier, you might have to roll backwards once to get it to reappear. Once done, nav assist onwards until Atreus says Hey, this is the spot!.

Keep nav assisting until you find an interact (along with some very interesting haptics). Hit it and hold it for some dialogue and quest completion.

This clears you to go to the other half of the desert, accessible by tracking The Elven Sanctum Quest should you have it available, or return to whatever you were doing elsewhere throughout the 9 realms.