Quest Realm: Alfheim
Note: This quest can also serve as a beginning to Secret Of The Sands, which in turn allows you to complete Song Of The Sands as well.
However, do note that this particular quest can only be unlocked after Chapter 6: The Reckoning is completed and dialogue directly mentioning the sanctum in question has occurred.
These instructions pick up on a general basis, as if you’ve just taken on the quest and travelled to Alfheim via a gateway after completion of Chapter 6: The Reckoning, without having completed Secret Of The Sands.
As you exit the mystic gateway and run forward via nav assist, you’ll see an interact to your left. Picking it up, you’ll realise it’s a treasure map, though sadly you won’t be able to complete it.
As you nav assist onward then drop down via auto-traversal, keep aiming periodically and look out for a distant throw cue. Hit it with the axe, you might hit all 3 hive matter elements if you’re lucky. See Secret Of The Sands for more in-depth instructions for this puzzle.
Hive matter destroyed, if nav assist gets you running around in circles, run forward for a while without pressing it then nav assist again. If things go to plan, it should then reorient you to an interact prompt that starts a climb.
Once you reach the top, after a while of nav assisting, passing the familiar clanging of a shop to your right, there’ll be some interact prompts to your right, hit these if you want a rune read, a gateway and a shop (though the last might be a little tricky to find due to geometry).
One way I found to do this was to keep the mystic gateway audio slightly to my left and run parallel to it, roughly towards the shop cue. Utilising this strategy should hopefully see you auto-traverse up and onto a platform, where prompts will be waiting for you.
If you can and do find the shop, an optional conversation will give you the trackable side quest Secret Of The Sands, covered in its own section of the guide, which must be completed to be able to finish this quest as well.
Any upgrades done and optional conversations taken, continue onwards.
If you’re just progressing with this quest directly, the next auto-traversal leads you to the Gulon sled, though you may have stumbled into this whilst looking for the shop.
The Gulon are much like your wolves from Midgard and the sled controls much the same, though a couple of new controls are mentioned here. Specifically, you can press L1 to slow the sled and circle to stop it.
I had to complete Secret Of The Sands before I could progress further and opted to do this part way through, picking up from where that left off with the next part of this guide.
Nav assisting from where you concluded Secret Of The Sands, you’ll see a stationary raven to your right, which you can hit if you wish.
Continuing to nav assist, you’ll find a chisel door. Note that if you completed Secret Of The Sands early back in Chapter 4, this will likely be the first interaction prompt you come across if you track the sanctum quest, with dialogue accompanying it.
Opening this allows you to progress to a companion prompt. With this hit, continue navigating into a new area.
As you move forward, you’ll see a mystic gateway to your left; hit this to refill health and rage should you wish.
Eventually after running or sledding for a while, the party will start discussing the need to free a second Hafgufa. This allows you to initiate and track the side quest Song Of The Sands, the sequel to Secret Of The Sands, should you be interested in doing so.
Completing or tracking Song Of The Sands does not appear to be mandatory, interestingly enough, as on restarting the checkpoint, Song Of The Sands seemed to be untracked and I could just run straight through to a blades prompt, then to a door.
Continuing on with your intrigue surrounding the sanctum, however, navigate to another door interact prompt, at which point you enter an archive
, as is described by Mimir.
Continuing to nav assist, after dropping down via a blades interact prompt, you’ll see a resource chest on your left.
Opening that and continuing onward, you’ll find an interact to pick up a journal, which is referenced in dialogue.
There is also a legendary chest here, containing a fragment for the amulet and some crafting components. If we find a consistent way to get this other than being lucky to stumble into it as I was during one run, then we’ll update the guide accordingly.
Book claimed, nav assist sees you retrace your steps and re-open a door. On opening the second one, however, you are confronted by the librarian.
Boss Fight: The Maven
This is reminiscent of the fight you had with Alva much earlier in the game, though admittedly also harder.
That being said, the move set this enemy possesses isn’t that tricky, you just need to dodge, block and counter as usual, knowing when you have opportunities to attack.
If you do happen to fall in this fight, you’ll reset to the door just before, with no cutscene introducing her once you open it on retrying.
End Of Boss Fight
Formidable foe defeated and any loot obtained, you’ll get a short sequence and then be able to nav assist your way out.
The dialogue here actually completes the quest, meaning that you can go back to whatever you were doing, including completing Song Of The Sands if you haven’t done that already.