God of War - Escape from Helheim, Helheim Landing, Helheim Ship and Skies of Helheim
How to complete Escape from Helheim.
Escape from Helheim, Helheim Landing, Helheim Ship and Skies of Helheim come towards the end of God of War PS4's main story.
Here on this page, we'll take you through everything you need to know about this section of your quest, including how to solve any puzzles, take down any bosses and find any useful loot along the way. For guides to specific collectibles we also have pages on Valkyrie locations and how to open Hidden Chambers, Lost and Found locations and Faces of Magic locations, too.
This page follows on from Return to the Summit.
Otherwise, you can always cycle back to our main God of War walkthrough and guide hub, too.
Escape from Helheim and Helheim Landing
Ugh. Back in Helheim.
After Kratos gives Atreus a proper dress-down, Boy is back to himself, and you have to get out of there fast.
Start by climbing the marked parts of the wall ahead, up the tower, and clearing the bramble up there to get to a wooden Hacksilver chest.
Jump the gap to the North towards another tower, fight the handful of enemies that spawn, and then lift the small gate ahead.
In that second tower Atreus has a vision, which finally snaps him out of his misbehaving self for good. Climb onto the markings in the South corner of the tower to go out and round, and down the side of it.
Down the bottom there's a simple Wind Trap puzzle, with some wind behind a bit of Bramble in front of you, and a locked door in your way.
First throw your axe at the highlighted disc above the door in the centre to lock that side, then put the wind into the trap on the other side, and that holds both sides of the lock open, allowing you to pass.
On the other side is a Hel-Traveler. You know how to beat these guys but remember, dodge the red-marked attacks, counter-block the gold-marked ones, and batter him down with Spartan Rage if you have it available.
You'll find another Chaos Flame for upgrading your chains when you beat him, which is handy. Life up the gate to the West to continue, and it's time for a mini puzzle.
First puzzle
Clear the bramble in front of you, then go left, down onto a lower ledge, jump to another platform there and kill the single enemy.
Drop down to push a big rock cube as far as it'll go, climb back up and round to where you first cleared the bramble, and hop across on top of the cube to the Coffin chest.
Hop back to where you were in the tower, and run West towards another one - you'll start to hear Baldur up ahead, but now isn't the time to fight.
Jump onto the handhold in front of you and begin to work your way around, evesdropping on Baldur.
Keep going all the way around him and you'll see some pretty dramatic stuff unfold in one of his Hel-enduced visions, and there are some story revelations in there too, which we'll let you discover for yourself.
You'll climb up to a ledge on the other side of Baldur, and then drop down of the ledge shortly after - but before you go anywhere, smash away the weapon rack to reveal a small gap you can crawl through. Follow it round for another Coffin chest!
Crawl back out and continue, dropping down another small ledge to a bit of an arena, where various enemies - Nightmares, Hel-Reavers, the usual bunch - are waiting for you.
When they're dealt with turn to the East to see another big cubic boulder you can shove out the way. Push it forwards to drop it down into the slot and jump across it.
Ahead of you is a Nornir rune chest, and it's quite quick to solve.
Helheim Nornir rune chest solution
The C-like Rune is found by turning right at the chest and going into the little alcove. Then turn to the West and look through the gap to another pillar, to spot the rune lodged into the side of it.
While you're there, inside that alcove is another stone cube you can pull. Burn the nearby bramble, then pull it as far out as possible and climb up onto it and over it to reach a wooden hacksilver chest.
While ypou're up there, look to the South-East for a pillar out in the water. On the side of that pillar is the second rune you can just about reach with an axe throw.
Then push it back half way, and only half way. Climb over it again and you can get to the other side - look at the cube and you can now smash the third rune from the rear.
Open the chest for another Horn of Blood Mead, and now you can continue!
Head West, back the way you came, as far West as you can go to a fallen pillar of stone. Life it up and out the other side is a ship, which is hopefully your way out of here...
Hellheim ship - how to escape Helheim and the Skies of Helheim
Hop onto the ship, and you'll see a load of Hel's Bramble dotted around.
Use the ship
If you burn the bramble, you'll notice that some of it burns away, but other parts stay where they are, as bonfires - one at each end of the ship.
Once they're lit and the other bramble's cleared, head to the back end of the ship and crank the big wheel to raise the sail, and you're off!
But not for long... soon you're stuck against the wall, and it's going to take some drastic measures to get free.
Head down to the front of the ship and chop the wooden structure there that's marked for you, and it'll cut the front of the sail loose.
Go back to the wheel and crank it some more, and the sail tips up into the air above you, and now you're riding a kind of hot air balloon - and those two bonfires are the only thing keeping you up.
Again though, you'll get stuck - this time on a ledge to the right.
Jump up onto the ledge and in the South East corner of that area, open a Coffin chest for a Legendary Enchantment.
Go back towards the ship and crank the wheel there - this'll break the ship free, but also spawn a pair of Revenants!
Take them out as best you can, and as quickly as possible, then as you look at the floating ship, hang left inside the big tower structure, to find a contraption inside with another spinning panel and marked disc.
Hit the panel repeatedly to raise the platform you're standing on, and then hit the disc with a throw of your axe to freeze it in place and jump off towards the ship, recalling your axe as you go.
Go to the ledge you're stuck on and lift it clear with Atreus, and now get ready for a real challenging fight...
Escape Helheim
You're nice and high now, which is... good? Or not, because it's a long way to fall.
Waves of enemies are now going to start spawning either side of the ship and jumping down, and some of them are a real pain to deal with.
The task here is to protect the two bonfires - only one can be extinguished by these enemies at a time, and if both are then you'll fall to your death. To reignite them, hit them with your chains - but note that it takes several hits to get them right up to full burning capacity with at all flame, which is what you really want.
Start by hitting the dudes throwing projectiles at you from up high either side - they're a pain to hit thanks to the awkward angle, but some accurate shots will do it, and free you up for running about on deck where the real action is.
Now, you've basically got a test of your waveclearing abilities ahead of you. Our main advice is this - use every area of effect attack available to both you and Atreus, and focus on one end of the ship at a time, and where possible, try to hit both the fire and the enemies at once with your attacks, so you're simultaneously re-lighting them and killing bad guys at the same time.
Enemies tend to cluster towards one fire, and then the other. So go to one, smash every enemy in sight as quick as you can, then go straight to the other.
You are going to be doing this a lot of times. It gets tiresome after a while, but whatever you do don't slow down!
Eventually, you need to start shoving off anchors that latch onto the ship at either side - kill enemies quickly first then do it - and you'll also face Revenants and an Ogre! This can actually be used to your advantage if you hop onto its back when it's weak and take out waves of enemies in the process.
Near the end of the fight, you're prompted to run to the front of the ship - interact with it when prompted to mash Circle and break off the entire front end! A cutscene follows, which Atreus pretends not to see, and then you're finally, finally safe... ish.
Secret Chamber of Odin
Almost, almost there. You land in an area called a Secret Chamber of Odin, and there are two directions to go.
Go through the sealed door ahead of you first by using the Chisel. Inside as a scroll on the floor, and a superb enchantment in a Coffin chest called the Eye of the Outer Realm, which boosts every single stat. Nice!
Now go back the way you came and through the normal doors in the other direction, to find the lost panel of that Shrine about Tyr, and a lever up ahead to the Realm Travel Room, of all places - and thus safety, for now.
Next up: God of War - A Path to Jotunheim, Tyr's Secret Chamber and the Hall of Tyr