Uploaded December 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Going exploring Midgard with Kratos much sooner than intended. This trick could even potentially skip half of the game, although right now it still runs into a few road blocks.
Note: this was played on the unpatched PS4-version. Things might vary on the patched version or other ports.
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0:00 - There's a subtle prompt glitch that allows going out of bounds at crevices. It's a bit hard to explain... I'll have to make a separate video of how it's done and what kind of effects it has a bit later on. In brief, you need to...
1, have "traversal assistant" turned on.
2, activate a traversal prompt with L-stick and 'block' simultaneously, followed very quickly by 'recall', all the while holding 'block'.
If done right, Kratos will enter the crevice with weapons in hand and at a slight angle. When exiting the crawlspace, he will go through an adjacent wall instead of exiting properly, ending up out of bounds.
0:18 - With a bit of seam walking, you can go past a fence and from there run all the way to Lake of Nine.
0:56 - Upon reaching Lake of Nine, the game considers every single quest in the main quest line up to this point completed, meaning you skipped half of the game. There's just one problem... You are without gear, without cash, no Blades, no Atreus, no shock arrows, no nothing. Is it even possible to complete the game from this point?
2:14 - Talking to Sindri crashed the game. However, reloading made everything work (comparatively) normal again.
(Edit: I've heard that this crash happens automatically as soon as the various quest messages have stopped showing, so it doesn't have anything to do with talking to Sindri.)
2:36 - Sindri's shop catalogue lists companion gear, Blades pommels and even the Sword, even though Kratos doesn't have any of them.
3:14 - For what it's worth, I experimented with this for a while. This is not on the video, but I first went to Sindri's House, where I found Freya. I recall she then spawned to Midgard with Kratos (in a clunky looking way) when I returned there afterwards.
I had to get more power for Kratos since lv. 1 Kratos will get insta-killed by some of the later enemies here. To that end, I got some pieces of the "Guiding Light" set that can be found around the lake and did other side-quests too to get to lv. 3.
I then went to King's Grave and attempted to continue the story line. The fight against the undead there is pretty hairy for a low level solo Kratos with no Blades.
After the battle, you can see some dialogue by Freya appear, although she herself is nowhere nearby. Finally, the path leads to a conspicuous stone wall which is not possible to get rid of without Freya... so, it's a dead end.
4:25 - Freya can be found loitering around Midgard, although she is not quite a full companion. She lazily tries following Kratos on foot but gets lost easily, and she is not interested in getting on the dog sled. You can't see her in any of the menus and can't give any commands to her either.
5:12 - In a desperate bid, I lured her to King's Grave on foot. She will follow you down to the combat arena, but stands immobile and will not help against the onslaught of enemies.
5:59 - At the end of the fight, she seems to start reacting to story beats. She slides at the first magical barrier and then gets into position to dispel the stone wall. Unfortunately, the prompt "R2" doesn't work at all... can't give commands to her. So, it's still a dead end.
7:14 - The second (and last?) opportunity to do early Lake of Nine is after finding Atreus. So, I tried doing this whole thing a second time, just in case picking up Atreus would activate some companion logic, allowing you to give commands to Freya... Again, pretty far-fetched, but I had to try it out.
7:58 - This time, I couldn't find Freya roaming around in Midgard, so I went to check on her at Sindri's House. Everything was not all right with her... She had bugged out and was floating in mid-air at the doorway of the house.
8:43 - Although retrying made things look a bit more normal, Freya still refused to follow Kratos to Midgard even though I moved between the areas repeatedly. It might've been just some bizarre bad luck, or maybe the game has a maximum companion limit of 1 that was already filled by Atreus? At any rate, this attempt also ended in failure.
Right now, I think the best chance of making this thing work and skipping half of the game would be at the very least also skipping King's Grave. But testing is still underway...
Have a glitchy new year!
Going exploring Midgard with Kratos much sooner than intended. This trick could even potentially skip half of the game, although right now it still runs into a few road blocks.
Note: this was played on the unpatched PS4-version. Things might vary on the patched version or other ports.
---
0:00 - There's a subtle prompt glitch that allows going out of bounds at crevices. It's a bit hard to explain... I'll have to make a separate video of how it's done and what kind of effects it has a bit later on. In brief, you need to...
1, have "traversal assistant" turned on.
2, activate a traversal prompt with L-stick and 'block' simultaneously, followed very quickly by 'recall', all the while holding 'block'.
If done right, Kratos will enter the crevice with weapons in hand and at a slight angle. When exiting the crawlspace, he will go through an adjacent wall instead of exiting properly, ending up out of bounds.
0:18 - With a bit of seam walking, you can go past a fence and from there run all the way to Lake of Nine.
0:56 - Upon reaching Lake of Nine, the game considers every single quest in the main quest line up to this point completed, meaning you skipped half of the game. There's just one problem... You are without gear, without cash, no Blades, no Atreus, no shock arrows, no nothing. Is it even possible to complete the game from this point?
2:14 - Talking to Sindri crashed the game. However, reloading made everything work (comparatively) normal again.
(Edit: I've heard that this crash happens automatically as soon as the various quest messages have stopped showing, so it doesn't have anything to do with talking to Sindri.)
2:36 - Sindri's shop catalogue lists companion gear, Blades pommels and even the Sword, even though Kratos doesn't have any of them.
3:14 - For what it's worth, I experimented with this for a while. This is not on the video, but I first went to Sindri's House, where I found Freya. I recall she then spawned to Midgard with Kratos (in a clunky looking way) when I returned there afterwards.
I had to get more power for Kratos since lv. 1 Kratos will get insta-killed by some of the later enemies here. To that end, I got some pieces of the "Guiding Light" set that can be found around the lake and did other side-quests too to get to lv. 3.
I then went to King's Grave and attempted to continue the story line. The fight against the undead there is pretty hairy for a low level solo Kratos with no Blades.
After the battle, you can see some dialogue by Freya appear, although she herself is nowhere nearby. Finally, the path leads to a conspicuous stone wall which is not possible to get rid of without Freya... so, it's a dead end.
4:25 - Freya can be found loitering around Midgard, although she is not quite a full companion. She lazily tries following Kratos on foot but gets lost easily, and she is not interested in getting on the dog sled. You can't see her in any of the menus and can't give any commands to her either.
5:12 - In a desperate bid, I lured her to King's Grave on foot. She will follow you down to the combat arena, but stands immobile and will not help against the onslaught of enemies.
5:59 - At the end of the fight, she seems to start reacting to story beats. She slides at the first magical barrier and then gets into position to dispel the stone wall. Unfortunately, the prompt "R2" doesn't work at all... can't give commands to her. So, it's still a dead end.
7:14 - The second (and last?) opportunity to do early Lake of Nine is after finding Atreus. So, I tried doing this whole thing a second time, just in case picking up Atreus would activate some companion logic, allowing you to give commands to Freya... Again, pretty far-fetched, but I had to try it out.
7:58 - This time, I couldn't find Freya roaming around in Midgard, so I went to check on her at Sindri's House. Everything was not all right with her... She had bugged out and was floating in mid-air at the doorway of the house.
8:43 - Although retrying made things look a bit more normal, Freya still refused to follow Kratos to Midgard even though I moved between the areas repeatedly. It might've been just some bizarre bad luck, or maybe the game has a maximum companion limit of 1 that was already filled by Atreus? At any rate, this attempt also ended in failure.
Right now, I think the best chance of making this thing work and skipping half of the game would be at the very least also skipping King's Grave. But testing is still underway...
Have a glitchy new year!
