Chapter 1: The Marked Trees 1

After chopping the tree, walk all the way back to the boat and interact with it. Row the boat down the stream until you reach the dock. Secure the boat and continue back to the house for another cutscene. After the cutscene, you’ll be hunting with your son, Atreus.

Before heading through the gates, turn to the right to find the first artifact - a Troll Carving. (Lost Toys 1/4) of The Lost Toys set. This is one of the four Artifacts you can find in this area.

If you look around as well, you can see a couple of piled rocks. This is an inactive Mystic Gate. Mystic Gates are fast-travel portals that you can use once you gain a story-related item. Take note that only discovered Mystic Gates can be used; so keep an eye out for them so you can use them later on if needed.

Continue through the gate and follow Atreus. In the first fork in the road, pick up the hacksilver on the ground. Hacksilver is the main currency in the game, which you can use to buy and upgrade equipment. From that fork, turn right and examine the tracks on the ground that Atreus missed.

Next, continue to the stone bridge and pick up another artifact near the stairs (Viking Boat, Lost Toys 2/4). Check the path leading under the bridge to find a chest. Loot some hacksilver from it.

Head to the bridge next and continue following Atreus. Jump across the gap then vault over the fallen tree trunk. Follow Atreus again until he encounters the deer. Continue and pick up the hacksilver by the boulder to the right. Follow that off-road path that leads to another chest containing more hacksilver.

Press forward and you’ll encounter a wooden hanging bridge. Pick up the hacksilver on the right, by the edge of the cliff. Across the cliff, you may see a long dangling chain. You can’t reach it for now so continue to the bridge next.

While on the bridge, throw your axe to destroy the obstacle then recall it back. Jump on the gap and continue to the open space ahead to encounter draugr. These are common enemy fodders that you’ll encounter often in the game and a good chance to get used to the game’s control scheme.

Aside from attacking, practice how to parry as well since it will be useful when facing tougher enemies and opponents later on. Press L1 to deploy Kratos’ shield. If you time it right just before an enemy attack lands, you’ll be able to perform a parry, which will leave the enemy open for additional counterattacks. Just remember that you can’t parry or block all attacks. More of that will be discussed later on but for now, you’ll be able to block and parry the draugr’s attacks.

These draugrs are also weak against ice so throwing your axe at them will freeze them temporarily. You can then pummel them with your melee attacks and even shatter them while frozen. When recalled, your axe can also damage any enemy along its trajectory.

After defeating all of them, turn around and backtrack a bit to find a fallen tree trunk to the right that you can vault over. There’s a fallen knight there with hacksilver so pick it up and regroup with Atreus. Continue to the ruins ahead.

There are three paths at this point. The real one is where Atreus leads, to the left. The boarded path ahead has a Nornir Chest, and the path to right leads to a frozen falls where you saw the dangling chain earlier. Let’s head to the right first.

• Tip 1: Don’t pick up the green or red runestones unless you really need them!
• Tip 2: Always look up for buckets and containers that you can smash. These contain a good amount of hacksilver. Every amount counts!

From the central ruins, drop down to the low ledge and continue along the path. There’s a wooden chest to the left so loot it then continue down the path to find a frozen stream. Continue to the end of the stream to the right to find a body with hacksilver in front of him. Backtrack to the path and climb up the ledges beside the falls and find another hacksilver along the way.

Continue to the end of the path where you can see the chain. Interact with it and slide down all the way to the bottom where you’ll find a cave with two wolves waiting inside. Take them out then pick up the Horse Figurine artifact (Lost Toys 3/4) and loot the nearby coffin for a high amount of hacksilver. Climb back up again and backtrack to the ruins.

Now from the ruins, go straight ahead to find a boarded entrance. Destroy the obstacle to reveal the Nornir Chest inside. To unlock it, you just need to find and destroy the rune seals all found inside this room.

The first rune is found right beside the chest. The second rune is found by the stairs in the right side of the room. The third rune seal is found inside a nearby opened coffin. This should unlock the chest. Loot the Idunn Apple inside. Backtrack to the branch again and follow Atreus using the correct path this time.