God of War guide: The Sickness walkthrough and collectibles

In “The Sickness,” God of War becomes briefly linear after the events of “Behind the Lock.” You won’t have any choice in what you do or where you go — for (really) good reason, mind you — for the rest of this Journey goal. There are still collectibles and chests to find, though, so we’ll walk you through where to find them.

Table of contents

The Witch’s Cave

LATE-GAME SPOILERS BELOW

Brok’s Shop

Helheim

• The Bridge of the Damned
• Return to the Travel Room

The Witch’s Cave

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After your brief “fight” against Modi, it’s time to visit the Witch’s Cave again. Head out the door and straight to the nearest boat dock. Paddle toward what remains of that statue of Thor and into the tunnel — it’s nearby. Ride the lift up, then climb the ramp to the Witch’s back door.

What follows that is a couple of heavy cutscenes and some traveling. There’s nothing to pick up during the next several minutes, so we’ll leave you to it. We’ll be waiting on the other side of this spoiler warning image when you get to Brok’s Shop.

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Brok’s Shop

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How about that, huh? Now you can see why we keep putting that image in all of our guides — every after this point screenshot shows the big reveal.

Since you’re here, talk to Brok and upgrade anything you want. You won’t be able to upgrade the Blades of Chaos or their handles yet, though. If you haven’t yet, dump some XP into upgrading your blade skills.

After you’re done, head into the Travel Room. Walk over to the controls and fire up the bifrost, then travel to Helheim.

Helheim

Items in this area: artifact (Family Heirloom 1), Odin’s raven, Legendary chest (Spartan Charge light runic attack), wooden chest x4, artifact (Family Heirloom 2), Odin’s raven, artifact (Family Heirloom 3)

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• SIE Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment via Polygon
• SIE Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment via Polygon

Once you arrive, head outside into Helheim. Before you start down the bridge, turn to the right. Pick up the first Family Heirloom artifact 1 from the corner.

Fight off the first (of many) waves of Hel-walkers. Right after you fight them, you’ll come to a ring above you. Stand in the middle and look up to find an Odin’s raven.

Continue along the bridge until you’re blocked by some Hel bramble. There’s a Legendary chest on your left with the Spartan Charge light runic attack for your Blades.

Burn away the bramble and continue along the bridge.

You’ll bump into a handful of Hel-brood on the other side. Take them out, then watch along the right side of the bridge for a gap. Head through it to find a wooden chest.

Continue along the bridge a little, then clean up the Hel-walkers that attack. Look for a ledge along the left side of the bridge right after the ice that juts out from the left side. Climb up, then turn left for another wooden chest.

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Keep following the bridge until you come to a locked door. Turn left and burn through the bramble. Drop down and turn right. Burn through some more bramble, then follow the ledge to the next area. Fight off the Hel-walkers on the other side.

Just to the right of the crack you came through, there’s a wooden chest under some more bramble.

If it didn’t burn away during the fight, burn the bramble around the base of the pillar on the left. Climb up, then work your way around to the left. Hop to the other pillar, then climb down.

At the bottom, fight off some more Hel-walkers. When you climbed down the pillar, you passed a wooden chest. Look up at it from the underside and use L2 + R1 to burn the bramble holding it up. Loop around to the left and burn the bramble from the other side as well to get the chest to fall.

Now stand by the pillar that was right behind you as you climbed down into this area. Loop around it while looking at the top. Burn away the bramble there to knock free Family Heirloom artifact 2.

Continue around to the open area on the left. This arena will drop, and you’ll have to (surprise!) fight some more Hel-walkers. Burn away the bramble behind you to unlock a way to climb back to where you just were.

From that bramble, turn right (toward the left side of the sunken arena) to find another climbing path. Climb up onto the ledge. Before you turn, look straight ahead of you to spot an Odin’s raven. Turn to the right and burn away some more bramble to knock down a pillar.

Drop back into the arena, hop onto the pillar and climb out of there.

Burn away some more bramble, then continue through the tunnel. The path will turn left. Stop there and look at the bridge up above you. Burn away the bramble on he underside of the bridge to get it to drop Family Heirloom artifact 3.

Keep heading forward and climb up the crack you find to start making your way back up to the bridge.

At the top, there’s an area behind you that will require you to return here later to access, so you can ignore it for now. Instead, keep heading forward and climb up another crack.

The Bridge of the Damned

Items in this area: Chaos Flame (Bridge Keeper drop)

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Generally, your fight with the Bridge Keeper, Mattugr Helson, goes like any other fight against a troll. He’s mostly got the same attacks you’ve seen a few times before. You’re in a scary realm, so this seems like a scarier fight than it actually is. You’ve got this. We believe in you.

If you have any armor or enchantments that will give you a boost to your frost damage resistance, now’s a good to equip them.

The Bridge Keepers most annoying move is his ability to teleport — and he usually reappears in mid-attack. But the good news is you can block or parry a lot of his attacks.

Beyond that, just unload on the guy. Use your new Blade runic attack as often as you can. Don’t skimp on your Spartan Rage. Block, parry and dodge a lot.

Return to the Travel Room

Items in this area: wooden chest, coffin (Inscribed Sign of Providence), wooden chest, Deadly War Handles (Traveler drop), coffin (solid Svartalfheim steel, Etched Crest of Menace), Legendary chest (Cyclone of Chaos light runic attack)

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When the Bridge Keeper is down and you’ve collected your grisly trophy (along with anything else he dropped — including a Chaos Flame to upgrade your Blades), head to the end of the bridge. There’s a wooden chest on the right that’s surrounded by Hel bramble (that more than likely burned away during the fight). Pick it up, then turn back toward the doors. Approach the pillar on the right and interact with it to trigger a cutscene with Brok.

He’ll give you a new ability with your Blades — and you’ll have a lot of chances to use it in the next few minutes.

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Use your Blades to grab the Winds of Hel from the trap on the pillar Brok is hiding behind. Turn left and throw your Blade into the wind trap in the door to unlock it. Push open the doors and head through.

Turn around and grab the Wind out of the door, then spin and throw it into the trap on the right side of the bridge. Through the next door, you’ll have some enemies to manage. When they’re done, you can get back to moving the Wind down the bridge.

Once again, grab the Wind from behind you and toss it into the trap ahead of you — it’s on the left side of the bridge this time.

Fight off some some Hel-walkers, then turn around. Climb onto the ledge in the middle of the bridge and up onto the walkway above. Turn right and follow the path around to the left. Turn and look down at the door you just opened. Grab the Wind out of the trap, then sprint back to the middle of the bridge. Drop back down the way you just climbed up, then turn to the right to find another trap. That’ll open an alcove with a coffin inside. Grab your Inscribed Sign of Providence enchantment, then turn back around.

Burn through the Hel bramble ahead of you and duck into the tunnel.

Turn right immediately after the tunnel to find a wooden chest. Check the left side of the tunnel exit to find some more Wind in a trap in the ice. Use that Wind to open the door.

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Now you’re back on (this realm’s version of) Tyr’s Bridge. It’s a straight shot back to the Travel Room, but there are a lot of enemies between here and there. There’s also a wind trap at the far end that will get you a Legendary chest.

We suggest going all the way down once to clear out the enemies, then coming back here to retrieve the Wind — having to leapfrog the Wind along 10 seconds at a time while managing enemies is just too stressful.

The first enemy you’ll come to is a level four Traveler. It’s possible to completely avoid him, but it’s worth the time to fight him. He drops a ton of hacksilver, a useful crafting resource and a new pair of handles for the Blades of Chaos — Deadly War Handles.

Continue along all the way back to the Temple clearing out all the Hel-walkers, Hel-brood and nightmares. Once the path is safe, head all the way back here to grab the Wind.

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When you have the Wind, there’s a lot of steps to get it all the way down to the Temple. You just have to keep moving the Wind along a series of traps — luckily they’re all a little less than 10 seconds apart:

• Turn right and use it to open the stone tomb — inside is a coffin with solid Svartalfheim steel and an Etched Crest of Menace.
• There’s a pillar on the right side of the bridge.
• There’s a pillar on the left side of the bridge, just before the next archway.
• There’s a statue on the right — the Wind trap is in its shield.
• Just after that statue, there’s another statue on the right with a trap on its back. You can either sprint along the bridge to get here, or climb up the ledge on the right (you got a wooden chest here earlier).
• In the middle of the ring above the bridge, turn around to find the next trap. This is where you got the Odin’s raven earlier.
• All the way on the left side of the bridge, you can reach a pillar behind some ice.
• Loop around the ice and grab the Wind, then cross the bridge, but don’t go down the stairs yet. Instead, toss the Wind into the pillar at the edge of the bridge.
• Go down the stairs, then turn and look above you to see the Wind. Grab it and unlock the tomb. Inside that tomb, you’ll find a Legendary chest with the Cyclone of Chaos light runic attack.

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Head back inside the Travel Room and get back to Midgard. Brok will (finally) give you full access to the Mystic Gateways. Use the one there by his shop to get back to Freya and the boy.