God of War - Inside the Mountain puzzle, Ascend the Mountain and Traverse the Dark Caves
A walkthrough for the first part of the God of War story mission, Inside the Mountain.
Inside the Mountain is your next major quest in in God of War PS4's main story, and the first tasks along the way will have you Ascend the Mountain and Traverse the Dark Caves.
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 God of War - Return to Tyr's Temple, Return to the Mountain and Go Back Through the Tower.
Otherwise, you can always cycle back to our main God of War walkthrough and guide hub, too.
Inside the Mountain puzzle and Ascend the Mountain
As you climbed up the Mountain's external steps through the black smoke, this quest will have begun. To begin the climb, hang left from the top of the steps and follow the gold highlighting and button promps as you ascend.
Soon enough you'll reach the entrance - with some more black smoke to dispel - and a large wooden door. Pry it open, head inside, and you'll find yourself in a room with another sand bowl, and a large statue of a stag up ahead.
There are two Crystal sockets that need filling for you to progress. The one on the right is sorted, but the one on the left is empty. Head left then, and into that side passage. You'll find a few Draugr there and, up above you, a Crystal perched on some destructible wooden planks (we actually destroyed them mid-combat without even realising, so it's easy to recover!
Carry the Crystal back to the socket - note that you might have seen some weird red sap blocking the path in that left-hand tunnel; you'll be able to clear this later on but ignore it for now.
Shoot the two Crystals with Atreus, and then go to the lever in the middle of that area and pull it. The floor now has lit-up runes on it and, with the level pulled, they'll line up to give you a solution - your next path isn't ahead; it's to the right!
Push the now-open doors to the right and proceed through - shooting the blue Crystals as you go to provide light. Proceed through the tunnel until you find a new area.
Traverse the Dark Caves
The first thing you'll see after lifting a fallen pillar is a Revenant, and some Nightmares with it, too. Focus the Nightmares quickly first, then stun the Revenant with Atreus' arrows as always, and whittle it down to death.
There are a few directions to go here and a few secrets to uncover, too. First up, while on the first bridge, look up to see some hanging buckets - hit the discs holding them and they'll drop to release Hacksilver.
Next, still on the bridge, head forwards past the big hole in the floor on the left, then turn back the way you came and look down through the hole to see an Odin's Raven to whack with an axe throw.
Continue ahead and you'll see a climbable ledge in front of you, a spinning totem with a Rune on it just to the left, and to the right, an old wooden cart. Smashing through the cart will take you to a little side route that, soon, you can traverse to reach a coffin chest. Come back here in a moment.
First, climb the ledge, defeating any enemies that turn up, and turn back to your right. Now you can see a Crystal beneath the right-hand fork that Atreus can shoot to spawn a light bridge. Hop down, cross, and grab the loot from the Coffin.
Hop back up and hang left. There are two things to unlock here: a Nornir rune chest, and a Lore Marker. First the Lore Marker: smash the wooden planks just ahead to the North-West that hide a Crystal, and shoot it to form a bridge.
Just before you climb up, hang right of the bridge to see another Crystal on the floor tucked behind the rock. Lug that up the bridge - ahead of you is the Nornir Chest but we'll come back to that in a mo.
Looking for more help? Our God of War walkthrough and guide helps with the main story progress, including The Witch's Cave puzzle solutions. We also have articles on God of War Valkyrie locations and how to open Hidden Chambers, plus collectables including God of War Faces of Magic locations,God of War Lost and Found locations, God of War Treasure Map locations and God of War Nornir chest locations.
Cross the stone bridge up here to the South-West, defeating any Draugr that spawn, and put it in the socket in the room at the far end to unlock the Lore Marker.
Return to the other side of the bridge to find the Nornir rune chest. The necessary runes are painted on the wall behind it - shoot the Crystal light to reveal them and step close to read with Atreus.
You need to go and spin those totems with the Runes on to display the ones marked here in order to open it:
- First go down the light bridge and turn to face it - there's one on the right you can spin to find the R symbol.
- Then hop down the little marked ledge you climbed up earlier to hit the one you first saw, until it reads N
- Now go back up the light bridge, left out onto the stone one , and when you're near the far end by the lore marker look up and left to see the third. Hit that to read B and you're done. (You can also reach this, at a push, from the lower level, which we managed just about).
Inside the Nornir rune chest is another Horn of Blood Mead.
Now go back down the light bridge and hang left, then when you reach the back wall hang right, to find some more smashable wooden planks hiding a room with a fallen soldier, and a new Artefact collectible, for the Bottoms Up set.
Come back out, turn right and head North-West, where you'll see another corridor leading you out of this area. You'll find yourself stooped in a tunnel full of corpses - killed by traps - and eventually come out behind that stag statue by the entrance!
Read the runes on the back of the statue, open the Hacksilver chest around the other side of it, and then smash the wooden planks to the East to find a chamber with a Scroll on the floor, called The Serpent.
Go back out to the statue and open the big doors to the North-East to continue. Ahead is a Draugr, to the left is that red sap you couldn't get past earlier on. So hang right! Continue on lighting Crystals as you go and defeating any Draugr you find.
Eventually you'll reach the end, where there's some wooden panelling on the right with a coffin chest behind it. Just to the right of that is a low entrance you can crawl under to get to the coffin on the other side.
Come back out and then climb the markings on the cliff ahead of you - there are more Runes along the way for Atreus to read - and at the top kick the chain down after you in case you need to return.
Continue along the stony path ahead, and smash the wooden stuff on your left as you go to reveal a chain down to a lower platform with a Hacksilver chest on it.
Next up: God of War - Heart of the Mountain, Ascend the Cave Shaft and Free the Chain
Come back up, and at the end of the path use the contraption to open the door and find the next area, which is littered with puzzles.
Other Inside the Mountain walkthrough pages: