God of War Guide Lake of Nine Exploration

Veithurgard Pass

1. Lava Ancient

2. Lore Marker

3. Lore Marker

4. Grab the Boat

Coffin

dock

lore

Mystic Gateway

Shop

As long as you’ve visited Stone Falls and manipulated the wheel in order to open the massive gate, you can boat into Veithurgard Pass on your way to Veithurgard.

If the water has only dropped once, the waterway leads all the way to a new

First Available	After first water drop
Enemies	Lava Ancient, Draugr, Projectile Draugr, Rabid Wolves
Notable	Brok, Lore Markers
Artifact	No

Brok shop. Otherwise, a group of Draugr greets you at the beach. Fight cautiously, as the Lava Ancient (1) miniboss rests to the left. If you wish to fight the Ancient, wake it up after eliminating all of the Draugr.

Lava Ancient

Much like the other Ancients, the Lava Ancient has an indestructible exterior and possesses three explosive attacks. If it falls back onto all fours, it launches fireballs outward in all directions. After it falls forward onto all four limbs, it detonates a heat blast in its chest, damaging anyone nearby. After crossing its arms, the miniboss opens its chest and fires explosives in a wide area toward its target.

Use the boulders littered around the beach as cover from the Ancient’s projectile attacks, peeking out enough to fling your axe into its exposed chest cavity. This causes a core chunk to fall to the ground. Swoop in when safe to do so, collect the explosive, and return it to the miniboss. After the explosive detonates on the enemy, its chest can open up in a staggered state—allowing you to go in for more hits to its heart. You can also stun it if a thrown chunk fills its Stun Meter.

Once it’s stunned, sprint in and deliver a couple big hits before performing a stun grab. If you do enough damage by pounding on the Ancient’s heart before it recovers from the stun, it falls to the ground.

Once you’re ready to move on, collect the resources from the coffin to the north, then climb the cliff on the right. This leads up to Brok and a Lore Marker (2), which Atreus translates into an introduction to the Dwarf King. Squeeze through the crevice to the northeast.

Kill the low-level Wolves and Draugr before using your axe to open the spiked gate and reveal a hidden coffin. Next, crouch-walk through the small opening to find more Wolves. After dealing with the beasts, instruct Atreus to translate the Lore Marker (3) and a Lore Read north of the marker.

On the south side of the area, a heavy pillar of stone blocks the path, so lift it out of the way for Atreus. A boat (4) hangs on a rack next to the water ahead, so toss the axe at the disc that holds it up and then hop in the vessel.

There are two places to visit in Veithurgard: turn left once there to find the Thor statue (5), and turn right for the mainland (6). Destroy the statue on the small island to complete the “Hammer Fall” Favor. The southern dock leads to much more: one of three World Dragons, a Realm Tear, a full set of Artifacts, a Nornir Chest, and more. Exploration of this area is covered with “The Imprisonment of Otr” Favor.