AKheon | God of War: Ragnarök (PS4) - skip bridge ambush in Ironwood (+ glitches) @AKheon | Uploaded January 2024 | Updated October 2024, 40 seconds ago.
Here's a speedrun tactic plus some related glitches that occurred while testing this stuff out.
To note: this is played on the unpatched PS4-version. Things might vary in unforeseen ways on other versions of the game. I've heard that the auto-walk loophole at the very least has been patched, making this skip (or at least this setup for it) not possible on the current version.
I freely admit that I don't fully understand this skip yet, and as a result I can't vouch for it being as reliable or optimized as it could possibly be. But from what I tested, I found the setup as seen on this video to be "fairly" consistent. An interested speedrunner should probably look into it some more before incorporating it into runs.
0:00 - There's a section in Ironwood where you ride Jalla over a bridge when enemies attack all of a sudden. Normally, Jalla is locked on a single axis while crossing the bridge and she automatically steps on the bridge too, making it impossible to steer her or avoid the ambush. However, sometimes when using the auto-walk loophole (i.e. using chained Parries to start moving during an auto-walk) Jalla will not automatically step on the bridge and her axis will not become completely locked after you mount her either. This lets you steer her off-track, ruining the ambush and also giving you access out of bounds.
This can happen even when using auto-walk loophole on Jalla's right side (i.e. the side you normally mount her in this section), but it's quite inconsistent and I couldn't figure out why or how it happens. Is it related to distance, timing or the way Atreus slides back to Jalla after moving away? However, in my testing, whenever I started the auto-walk loophole from Jalla's left side, I got this setup to work much more reliably.
Therefore, my recommendation here is to retry from last checkpoint. This gives a short amount of time to run past Jalla before she moves against the wall and makes her left-hand side inaccessible. Do a chain of three Parries to end up on Jalla's right side, then let auto-walk resolve as normal. If everything worked correctly, now it's possible to slightly steer Jalla and not get on the bridge.
0:22 - The bridge area itself doesn't really have collision, so if Jalla fails to get on it, she will soon fall through the ground out of bounds. Although it should be noted that if you're not careful steering her, you may end up getting stuck in front of the bridge. The controls are quite finicky in this point...
0:30 - From here, you can seam-walk to go past the area's sealed exit. This isn't a very difficult seam-walk in my opinion.
0:47 - Going to the higher path with a chest might be necessary to spawn Jalla on this side. Her A.I. is still fixated on the bridge you skipped and she can't be ridden, but going around the corner and returning, the section should work normally from there.
If you can get this to work, two fights and a cutscene are skipped. But as a side effect of doing all this, you never learn Rage for Atreus... could this be an issue later on?
(Not on the video: it's possible to continue the seam-walk to return all the way back to Angrboda's home. I tested this on a different attempt where I did this section normally, but if I seam-walked back instead of riding Jalla, the game became unwinnable because Jalla never got to Angrboda's home afterwards, even after retrying from a checkpoint.)
1:35 - Even if you get the setup right, the trick still has some randomness to it which might make it risky to use in runs. For instance, in one of my tests Jalla spawned underground. But apparently the game has a mechanism which teleports Jalla back on solid ground if she falls down while ridden.
(Not on the video: on one attempt Angrboda also failed to spawn on Jalla after doing the skip, making you get stuck in place forever.)
2:05 - As mentioned, Jalla's A.I. is fixated on the bridge right after doing this skip. She is trying to navigate back to the bridge waypoint, even though it's impossible to reach right now.
Also, if you're riding, Jalla's axis is somewhat locked forward, making it impossible to move around freely.
3:00 - After a while, Jalla stops wandering and becomes ridable again, but doing so right now is quite risky. Especially dismounting is bugged out and seems to create different kinds of break-outs. For instance, in this clip Atreus ends up in a combined state of riding Jalla and being on foot. His position is locked inside Jalla but he can also do ground attacks.
(You shouldn't think too hard about where his head must be right now, anatomically speaking...)
As another example in this very same clip, dismounting makes Atreus and Angrboda descend smoothly underground, as if on an express elevator. This can be stopped by quickly pressing 'O' to dismount a second time, but only before passing below the ground level.
4:13 - Another take with a different looking effect. Atreus won't be playing football with that leg any time soon...
Here's a speedrun tactic plus some related glitches that occurred while testing this stuff out.
To note: this is played on the unpatched PS4-version. Things might vary in unforeseen ways on other versions of the game. I've heard that the auto-walk loophole at the very least has been patched, making this skip (or at least this setup for it) not possible on the current version.
I freely admit that I don't fully understand this skip yet, and as a result I can't vouch for it being as reliable or optimized as it could possibly be. But from what I tested, I found the setup as seen on this video to be "fairly" consistent. An interested speedrunner should probably look into it some more before incorporating it into runs.
0:00 - There's a section in Ironwood where you ride Jalla over a bridge when enemies attack all of a sudden. Normally, Jalla is locked on a single axis while crossing the bridge and she automatically steps on the bridge too, making it impossible to steer her or avoid the ambush. However, sometimes when using the auto-walk loophole (i.e. using chained Parries to start moving during an auto-walk) Jalla will not automatically step on the bridge and her axis will not become completely locked after you mount her either. This lets you steer her off-track, ruining the ambush and also giving you access out of bounds.
This can happen even when using auto-walk loophole on Jalla's right side (i.e. the side you normally mount her in this section), but it's quite inconsistent and I couldn't figure out why or how it happens. Is it related to distance, timing or the way Atreus slides back to Jalla after moving away? However, in my testing, whenever I started the auto-walk loophole from Jalla's left side, I got this setup to work much more reliably.
Therefore, my recommendation here is to retry from last checkpoint. This gives a short amount of time to run past Jalla before she moves against the wall and makes her left-hand side inaccessible. Do a chain of three Parries to end up on Jalla's right side, then let auto-walk resolve as normal. If everything worked correctly, now it's possible to slightly steer Jalla and not get on the bridge.
0:22 - The bridge area itself doesn't really have collision, so if Jalla fails to get on it, she will soon fall through the ground out of bounds. Although it should be noted that if you're not careful steering her, you may end up getting stuck in front of the bridge. The controls are quite finicky in this point...
0:30 - From here, you can seam-walk to go past the area's sealed exit. This isn't a very difficult seam-walk in my opinion.
0:47 - Going to the higher path with a chest might be necessary to spawn Jalla on this side. Her A.I. is still fixated on the bridge you skipped and she can't be ridden, but going around the corner and returning, the section should work normally from there.
If you can get this to work, two fights and a cutscene are skipped. But as a side effect of doing all this, you never learn Rage for Atreus... could this be an issue later on?
(Not on the video: it's possible to continue the seam-walk to return all the way back to Angrboda's home. I tested this on a different attempt where I did this section normally, but if I seam-walked back instead of riding Jalla, the game became unwinnable because Jalla never got to Angrboda's home afterwards, even after retrying from a checkpoint.)
1:35 - Even if you get the setup right, the trick still has some randomness to it which might make it risky to use in runs. For instance, in one of my tests Jalla spawned underground. But apparently the game has a mechanism which teleports Jalla back on solid ground if she falls down while ridden.
(Not on the video: on one attempt Angrboda also failed to spawn on Jalla after doing the skip, making you get stuck in place forever.)
2:05 - As mentioned, Jalla's A.I. is fixated on the bridge right after doing this skip. She is trying to navigate back to the bridge waypoint, even though it's impossible to reach right now.
Also, if you're riding, Jalla's axis is somewhat locked forward, making it impossible to move around freely.
3:00 - After a while, Jalla stops wandering and becomes ridable again, but doing so right now is quite risky. Especially dismounting is bugged out and seems to create different kinds of break-outs. For instance, in this clip Atreus ends up in a combined state of riding Jalla and being on foot. His position is locked inside Jalla but he can also do ground attacks.
(You shouldn't think too hard about where his head must be right now, anatomically speaking...)
As another example in this very same clip, dismounting makes Atreus and Angrboda descend smoothly underground, as if on an express elevator. This can be stopped by quickly pressing 'O' to dismount a second time, but only before passing below the ground level.
4:13 - Another take with a different looking effect. Atreus won't be playing football with that leg any time soon...
