Uploaded March 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
This video showcases an interesting side effect of breaking out of grapple points which give Kratos a temporary Blade in his left hand.
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0:00 - The basic idea of the break-out is pretty simple. Normally, you're not able to do actions simultaneously as you activate a prompt with 'O'. However, you can get around this limitation by buffering another action to coincide with 'O' use.
For this simple grapple point break-out, switch weapons, buffer an attack during weapon switch, use 'O' at a precise moment when Kratos would do his regular attack. This seemingly overlaps the two actions and breaks Kratos out of the grapple point during its first frames.
0:10 - After the break-out, Kratos is left equipped with two weapons: his Axe or Spear (whichever you had equipped at the time) as well as one Blade in his left hand. He now has a 50% chance of using actions from either move set when doing attacks, aiming or blocking. The missing Blade will also cause some misplaced streaks of fire and other minor graphical oddities when doing Blades attacks in this state.
One-Bladed Mode with Axe also has this odd side effect where simply pressing 'aim' makes Kratos "catch" the Axe first, a bit like during a recall.
There are basically two sets of glitch effects associated with grapple break-out. First is that Kratos enters One-Bladed Mode, the second is that grapple points and navigation prompts like vault or gap points become disabled. Your companion may also get stuck using the grapple point endlessly at this time.
Certain things end One-Bladed Mode without ending the second set of effects, and vice-versa. For instance, most generic prompts fix both sets of effects, but a health/rage pick-up only fixes second set of effects. Entering a dog sled or a store only fixes the second set of effects. Activating a Relic or Fury only fixes the first set of effects. Climbing a chain fixes neither. It's something useful to try to keep sorted out while testing this stuff...
(Not on the video: you can seamlessly switch between Spear and Axe during One-Bladed Mode using a roll.)
0:47 - If you throw away Axe (or switch weapons), you end up in True One-Bladed Mode, which is basically a fancy name for Kratos whose only active weapon is the extraneous Blade granted by the grapple break-out. This state mostly works like Blades usually does, except the weapon effects continue to be slightly messed up. Kratos also does not have an air attack in this state.
1:44 - Some footage of One-Bladed Kratos overlapped with Spear.
2:17 - Many prompts in the game expect Kratos to be unarmed, so they force him to sheathe his weapon. But what if Kratos is wielding more than one weapon at a time, like during this glitch? It seems the game doesn't know what to do with the extraneous Blade, so Kratos keeps it in his hands instead. When climbing a chain, this manifests in a graphical oddity.
2:40 - And when using a boat, the extraneous Blade will prevent Kratos from entering the boat. But it seems the game is programmed to forcibly remove all weapons from Kratos after a few seconds has passed, so you don't get stuck indefinitely by doing this.
(Not on the vid: the dog sled prompt on the other hand works completely normally and is compatible with One-Bladed Kratos.)
2:55 - Some more footage of the side effects of grapple break-out. To recap, your companion may get stuck using the grapple point over and over again, although this depends on the location. Kratos also becomes unable to use grapple points or navigation prompts like small steps, vaults or gaps, although often there are some ways to get around this.
3:34 - Alternatively, you can start One-Bladed Mode at a "lean" prompt using a slightly different setup. This way you will not incur the usual grapple point break-out side effects and navigation around the game world will be easier.
My setup for doing this is to overlap weapon switch to Unarmed with leaning, then overlap recall with leaning, then simultaneously press 'O' to leap down as you evade. Done correctly, the evade will interrupt the lean prompt, leaving Kratos One-Bladed.
3:52 - A generic prompt leading into an Axe puzzle chain is also delayed by One-Bladed Mode.
(Not on the vid: Mystic Gateways also work like this.)
4:05 - As far as Rage is concerned, Wrath randomly picks between Kratos' two move sets and uses either one for the powerful attack.
4:21 - Simply being in One-Bladed Mode causes Legacy to glitch up, resulting in Kratos having a 50% chance of using either Legacy or Blades move set during the Rage.
(Not on the vid: Valour works pretty much normally and does not end One-Bladed Mode. Fury works normally and fixes One-Bladed Mode.)
This video showcases an interesting side effect of breaking out of grapple points which give Kratos a temporary Blade in his left hand.
---
0:00 - The basic idea of the break-out is pretty simple. Normally, you're not able to do actions simultaneously as you activate a prompt with 'O'. However, you can get around this limitation by buffering another action to coincide with 'O' use.
For this simple grapple point break-out, switch weapons, buffer an attack during weapon switch, use 'O' at a precise moment when Kratos would do his regular attack. This seemingly overlaps the two actions and breaks Kratos out of the grapple point during its first frames.
0:10 - After the break-out, Kratos is left equipped with two weapons: his Axe or Spear (whichever you had equipped at the time) as well as one Blade in his left hand. He now has a 50% chance of using actions from either move set when doing attacks, aiming or blocking. The missing Blade will also cause some misplaced streaks of fire and other minor graphical oddities when doing Blades attacks in this state.
One-Bladed Mode with Axe also has this odd side effect where simply pressing 'aim' makes Kratos "catch" the Axe first, a bit like during a recall.
There are basically two sets of glitch effects associated with grapple break-out. First is that Kratos enters One-Bladed Mode, the second is that grapple points and navigation prompts like vault or gap points become disabled. Your companion may also get stuck using the grapple point endlessly at this time.
Certain things end One-Bladed Mode without ending the second set of effects, and vice-versa. For instance, most generic prompts fix both sets of effects, but a health/rage pick-up only fixes second set of effects. Entering a dog sled or a store only fixes the second set of effects. Activating a Relic or Fury only fixes the first set of effects. Climbing a chain fixes neither. It's something useful to try to keep sorted out while testing this stuff...
(Not on the video: you can seamlessly switch between Spear and Axe during One-Bladed Mode using a roll.)
0:47 - If you throw away Axe (or switch weapons), you end up in True One-Bladed Mode, which is basically a fancy name for Kratos whose only active weapon is the extraneous Blade granted by the grapple break-out. This state mostly works like Blades usually does, except the weapon effects continue to be slightly messed up. Kratos also does not have an air attack in this state.
1:44 - Some footage of One-Bladed Kratos overlapped with Spear.
2:17 - Many prompts in the game expect Kratos to be unarmed, so they force him to sheathe his weapon. But what if Kratos is wielding more than one weapon at a time, like during this glitch? It seems the game doesn't know what to do with the extraneous Blade, so Kratos keeps it in his hands instead. When climbing a chain, this manifests in a graphical oddity.
2:40 - And when using a boat, the extraneous Blade will prevent Kratos from entering the boat. But it seems the game is programmed to forcibly remove all weapons from Kratos after a few seconds has passed, so you don't get stuck indefinitely by doing this.
(Not on the vid: the dog sled prompt on the other hand works completely normally and is compatible with One-Bladed Kratos.)
2:55 - Some more footage of the side effects of grapple break-out. To recap, your companion may get stuck using the grapple point over and over again, although this depends on the location. Kratos also becomes unable to use grapple points or navigation prompts like small steps, vaults or gaps, although often there are some ways to get around this.
3:34 - Alternatively, you can start One-Bladed Mode at a "lean" prompt using a slightly different setup. This way you will not incur the usual grapple point break-out side effects and navigation around the game world will be easier.
My setup for doing this is to overlap weapon switch to Unarmed with leaning, then overlap recall with leaning, then simultaneously press 'O' to leap down as you evade. Done correctly, the evade will interrupt the lean prompt, leaving Kratos One-Bladed.
3:52 - A generic prompt leading into an Axe puzzle chain is also delayed by One-Bladed Mode.
(Not on the vid: Mystic Gateways also work like this.)
4:05 - As far as Rage is concerned, Wrath randomly picks between Kratos' two move sets and uses either one for the powerful attack.
4:21 - Simply being in One-Bladed Mode causes Legacy to glitch up, resulting in Kratos having a 50% chance of using either Legacy or Blades move set during the Rage.
(Not on the vid: Valour works pretty much normally and does not end One-Bladed Mode. Fury works normally and fixes One-Bladed Mode.)
