Surviving Fimbulwinter – God of War Ragnarök

Heading Home

Kratos and Atreus are on their way home on their sledge pulled by two wolves, Speki and Svanna. Use your left stick to steer the sledge, the right stick to look around. You can always modify your camera settings in the menu.

Finding the path should be easy. You’re basically just on a given path. Just look for empty stretches of snow and fight off Freya, when she’s attacking you.

After you’ve arrived and Atreus feeds the wolves, head uphill following the lanterns. Go to the stables next to the house to see how Fenrir is doing. They’ve just arrived in time to see Fenrir pass away with little blue lights leaving his snout. Atreus, sad and devastated, asks to be left alone so he can burry Fenrir, while Kratos heads inside the house to go to bed.

Shortly after, Kratos is waking up because he feels a woman’s arm holding him from behind, finding himself in a beautiful forest together with Faye, his late wife. Follow her through the forest and move away large logs when prompted, so you can climb further up. Climbing spots are marked with symbols like in the screenshot below.

Climb up the hill and follow Faye until she touches your forehead and leaves a yellow handprint that will be gone after Kratos wakes up shortly after. He realises that some time has passed and Atreus has not come home yet. He asks Mimir if he had seen him but he didn’t.

Track Atreus

Outside the house and stables, follow Atreus’ footsteps. The tracks are heading down to the frozen river. At the end of the river is an opening in the rock but completely frozen. Notice the markings again on the left. Like ledges, passages are marked as well, so you get some guidance on where you can go. Perform a couple of attacks on the frozen passage to go through.

You’ll enter the cave. Go through it and exit at the other side, where the tracks stop. But a Raider attack starts. After the fight, Mimir suggest to check on the protective stave, which is a marking on a tree nearby. Interact with a big, marked, fallen tree to get there. The stave is broken and there is a lot of blood in the snow and a dead bear. Kratos thinks the bear had been mauled by another, bigger bear.

Now you can follow the blood trail in the snow until the path is blocked by fallen trees. Go around it towards the right.

There is a gap you could jump across but there is a fallen tree in the way. Hold Aim and throw the Leviathan Axe to destroy the tree. Then cross over, where you can follow the tracks again uphill – climbing a couple of ledges.

The tracks lead to a small cave, crawl through it and exit on the other side to fight some more Raiders. Continue to follow the tracks after. They are leading uphill and you can’t follow them. So, like before, go around by going to the left this time.

Some more attackers await, before you continue to track Atreus by going uphill to the right, where you can pickup the trail again. At the next dead end, just go the only path possible, even though it leads away from the tracks. You will know that you’re on the right path if you encounter another wave of Raiders near a small campsite and a wall you can climb.

So climb up the wall. The markings will lead you up to a big, red glowing chest. Then cross over the small bridge, where you can follow the blood trail trough a small cave to another, smaller chest. Turn left at the chest, where you can fit into a gap in the wall.

You get to a bigger cave, where you learn how to perform an attack from above on camping Raiders. Here you can follow the blood trail again, fighting some Raiders while you’re doing so.
The tracks lead to a passage blocked by stones. Take the path to the left and climb up there.

The Björn Boss Fight

Up there is another big red glowing chest. Take the path opposite this chest – past some more Raiders – and climb up the rocky wall. Up here, you can follow the track again. Outside, you are being attacked by a huge bear – Björn. Fight it.

Björn is Old Norse for “bear” – fitting, since that’s exactly what you’re up against here, even if you don’t know it yet.

The fight ends by discovering that the bear is in fact Atreus. His grief had transformed him into a bear.

Return Home with Atreus

To be able to return home from here, you first have to destroy a big fallen tree blocking your path by melee attacking it. Follow Atreus, until you get introduced to “Companion Arrows Attacks”, where you can command Atreus to shoot arrows.

Continue your path, by climbing down into the cave to the left, where you can open another big red chest. Keep following Atreus from there to another, smaller chest, until you get to the same blocked and bloody path that you encountered after you crossed over the first gap.

Ignore Atreus, walk past him straight ahead and follow the tracks until you get a cutscene, where Kratos tells Atreus to put a new protective stave onto a tree. Then, follow the path back home, moving away another fallen tree to fight some more Raiders.
Then keep following Atreus through a cave, when you finally arrive at home, where you go to sleep in the house.

Thor’s First Fight

You wake up having guests. Thor and Odin. Since the chat does not end in a friendly way, you end up fighting Thor until he decides to retreat.

This isn’t just a cutscene fight – it’s a full three-phase boss battle, and beating it unlocks the Blood Debt trophy. In phase one, Kratos only has his fists and shield, since the Leviathan Axe isn’t in play yet. Thor’s normal attacks can be blocked, but his yellow-ringed attacks break your guard, so dodge those instead of blocking, and his red-ringed attacks are unblockable no matter what – dodge those too. Popping Spartan Rage early in this phase helps you push through it faster. Once you stagger Thor, you’ll get a prompt to recall your axe, which moves you into phase two.

Phase two adds ranged attacks to Thor’s kit – he’ll throw his hammer and slam lightning into the ground in red-circle patches, so keep moving. The arena also has pillars you can grab and throw at him for solid damage, though he can destroy them if his own attacks connect with them first. At some point in this phase Thor lands what looks like a killing blow on Kratos. Don’t panic – it’s scripted, and Kratos gets back up for phase three.

Phase three leans hard on lightning: more ground-slam AoEs marked by red circles, along with hammer combos mixed in. Keep dodging the telegraphed hits, land your own combos when Thor’s open, and use Spartan Rage again if it’s charged. Once his final health bar is empty, Thor declares his blood debt paid and flies off – which is also your cue that Sindri and Brok are about to reenter the story.

Return Home to Atreus

Follow Sindri and Brok to the gate that leads you back home. Interact with it and cross this world until you find another gate you can interact with to get home. You’ll find Atreus and Mimir safe in the house, where you learn how to gear up.

Follow Atreus into the Forest

Atreus wants to show Kratos something in the forest. Follow him until you discover a group of dead Raiders. Turn left, following the dead Raiders until you discover the brambles that you can ignite. Do so and follow this path now.

Follow Atreus to a big wooden gate, where you learn to use your Blades to interact with obstacles. In this case, you will open these gates. Go through them and you will meet your fist Hel-Raider.

Keep following Atreus and fight Hel-Raiders and normal Raiders on the way.
Keep following Atreus through a cave to a big pillar you can more. Use your blades to move it to the left.

Now you can cross over the gap and use your blades to climb up on the other side. Up here, move the same pillar again to the left, so you can cross over.

Jump over the gaps until you get to the zipline. Pull the chain down by interacting with it until it gets stuck somehow.

Look at the zipline. There is some round shield hanging down on it. Aim and shoot it to destroy it.

Now you can pull the chain again to tighten the slack. Use the zipline and climb down towards a camp, where you have to fight raiders again. Then look for Atreus. He’s standing in front of brambles that you can light up again with your blades. Follow the path to another fight and the LORE RUNE: WINTER-MAN?.

Climb up the ice wall at the other end and fight some more Hel-Raiders. Here, climb up another icy wall until you’re being attacked by The Huntress. Fight her and climb the same wall again to follow Atreus into the ruins. He stops at a staircase which is blocked by another of those movable pillars. Move the pillar to the right, which will make ice fall of a tree. But before you move the pillar again, you have to destroy the tree by throwing your axe for it to work.

Now you can go up the stairs. Atreus is waiting for you in front of a mysterious gate. He interacts with it and both of them enter. Inside, they are told a story that only Giants are meant to see.

Return Home

After the story cutscene, Kratos and Atreus return home. Follow Atreus to higher ground, where you can destroy the cracked floor and loot whatever is in the cave below. Then return up to Atreus.

Up there, follow the path to a chain that you can drop for faster access. Then go down the chain to fight more Raiders.

After, move away a tree to continue on your path. Follow Atreus to a big red chest and finally home, where Sindri awaits. He’ll open up the Gate to Sindri’s Home go through it and you’ve survived Fimbulwinter.