Chapter 9: The Sickness 2

Helheim is a barren, ice-covered land of the dead. During this first visit, there will be inaccessible paths that will require the help of Atreus once he’s cured so ignore them for the meantime and focus on what you need to do. After exiting the door, turn to the right and find the shining object by the ice wall at the end to pick up the first brooch of the new artifact set exclusive to this region. (Family Heirloom 1)

Backtrack a bit and you’ll find a set of stairs to the west that leads to a closed door. You don’t have the means to open this yet so take note of its location for the meantime. Continue along the bridge and take out the enemies along the way.

The path is blocked by Hel’s bramble. Your blades’ flames can easily burn these away so clear the path and loot the legendary chest along the way to get the first light runic attack for your blades (Spartan Charge).

Continue ahead and take out the next wave of enemies. After getting rid of them, clear the Hel’s bramble on the side of the bridge to gain access to a wooden chest. Continue and vault over the fallen pillar along the way where more Hel-broods and Hel-Reavers will appear to attack you. After clearing the area, don’t go forth yet. Instead, find the ledge you can climb on, to the left of the statue with the green orb as shown below. Loot the wooden chest at the end

Continue along the bridge then burn the large stretch of Hel’s bramble along the way. The main gate up ahead is closed so you have no choice but to find a way around it. Clear the hel’s bramble to the left.

Take that path then clear the bramble covering the narrow crevace. Squeeze through it and take out the hel-reaver guards. A handful of back-ups will arrive as well get rid of them. Next, clear the brambles covering the pillar and the wooden chest nearby.

Next, climb the pillar and shimmy around it so you cross to the next pillar that leads down. There’s a bramble on the wall to the south of your compass. Get near then hold L2 and press R1 to throw your blade and burn distant brambles such as this. Loot the hacksilver pouch that will drop. Next, burn another bramble between the two pillars you climbed earlier then go around the pillar to the left and burn another bramble to dislodge the debris to free up a wooden chest.

After looting the contents, look up and find another bramble on the side of one of the pillars in the middle. Burn it then collect the brooch to register the second piece of the Family Heirloom artifact set. (Family Heirloom 2)

Next, peek out of the cliff to the right of the ledge you can climb to find a raven circling around. Time your axe throw to destroy it. Once done, approach the ledge to trigger a collapse. Defeat the hel-viken and hel-reavers the burn the bramble to the west then climb up the ledge to the north. You should find another raven immediately, perched on the ice a short distance away.

Next burn the bramble nearby to topple a piece of the nearby stone pillar that you can use as stepping stone to reach the other ledge. There’s a legendary chest that can be seen from the hole in the wall, above the ledge you’re about to climb. However, reaching it is impossible for now so just take note of its location and climb the next ledge.

Destroy the bramble blocking the tunnel then look up to find a shiny object trapped within a bramble on the ceiling. Burn it with your blades to collect another brooch. (Family Heirloom 3)

If you look up, you’ll see the bridge connecting to the cavern where the legendary chest is located. It’s covered by red sap with a shatter crystal so you’ll have to come back for it later. For now, climb the nearby wall and climb another wall to the north, which will take you to the Bridge of the Damned, where the bridgekeeper you seek is located. Drop down and approach the keeper to trigger the battle.

The keeper is a troll called Mattugr Helson. It has the ability to teleport across the field which will then follow up with either a ranged attack or a melee combo. Avoid the blue orbs it leaves behind when teleporting since it can damage and stun you. You can destroy these orbs by attacking them.

The troll will swing its club three consecutive times before smashing it downward. It will phase in/out while doing these moves but since it’s pretty to predict, you shouldn’t have problems evading these.

Its basic ranged attack is by ice projectiles at you but later on starting when it’s down to 75% HP, it will start producing slow moving energy waves that travel the ground. There are spaces between each wave’s intervals so you can roll out of the way to avoid getting damaged and even attempt to close the distance so you can start landing some attacks as soon as the troll is finished with this attack.

Later on, the troll will also summon hel-broods. Focus on destroying them quickly since they’re really soft targets while also keeping an eye out of the troll’s attacks. They also leave healthstones when killed. When it’s down to 25% HP, it will start summoning slow-moving but homing orbs. If you’re Saving up your spartan rage at this point, this is a great time to activate it to land the finishing blows on the troll. Once it’s HP is almost gone, finish it off by pressing R3 and getting its heart. This troll also drops a Chaos Flame, which is a unique upgrade material for your Blades.

Before leaving the area where the bridge guardian is slain, loot the wooden chest nearby then interact with the pillar to proceed. Brok will appear and will take your blades in order to improve it. After giving it back to you, you’ll now be capable of capturing the winds of Hel and transferring it to specific objects called wind traps (these are the green spheres you have encountered while exploring). The blades can only capture the winds for a few seconds. If you weren’t able to transfer the winds to another wind trap before the timer runs out, the winds will return to the previous trap where you captured it from.