God of War - Alfheim, The Light of Alfheim, Lake of Light, and how to enter the Temple

A walkthrough for the first part of the Alfheim God of War story mission, a The Light of Alheim.

Guide by Chris Tapsell Deputy Editor

Updated on 14 Jan 2022

Alfheim, and specifically the quest The Light of Alheim, is your next quest in God of War PS4's main story, with the first part unfolding across the Lake of Light and tasking you with finding out how to enter the Temple.

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 - A Realm Beyond, Tyr's Temple and the Realm Travel Room, and is the first of a few pages covering The Light of Alfheim.

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Otherwise, you can always cycle back to our main God of War walkthrough and guide hub, or our guide to God of War Valkyrie locations and how to open Hidden Chambers, too.

Alfheim and The Light of Alfheim quest

Welcome to Alfheim, which we're going to guess translates literally to "Elf Realm". Now that the Witch has been so suddenly sucked back into the other realm, you're going to be tackling it just the two of you once again. Your task is to get to that big beam of light in the distance, and step inside to fill up that little realm-travelling trinket called the Bifrost.

Find a way to the Light

Proceed onwards across this Elven version of Tyr's Bridge, where you'll soon be met by some large, pulsing vines blocking the way forward. This a new mechanic you'll want to get familiar with: to clear the vines, you need to hit the glowing bit in the central knot by throwing your axe.

Clear another vine right behind this one too, then proceed on, keeping to the right. There are some strange runes on the wall which Atreus can read, and just to the right of them is anotehr vine blocking your path to a chest - take it out to get some Hacksilver as a reward.

Up ahead, at the end of the bridge, you'll spot some Dark Elves killing a Light Elf. "The end of a war" as Kratos puts it. Soon enough the Dark Elves will turn their attention to you, so it's time for a fight.

These are much tricker than basic Draugr - knocking them up in the air for a combo doesn't work so well as they can simply fly out of it and recover (unless you freeze them with a heavy axe throw first) and they're generally faster and more aggressive with their attacks. Keep moving and try to learn their attack patterns though and you'll be fine.

With those enemies dealt with there are more vines in the way. This time you have to hit both glowing spots with one throw of the axe in order to clear it. This is another mechanic to remember as you progress through the realm.

Press on and you'll find none other than Sindri the dwarf, with his own shop, up ahead. Weird! Do any upgrading you need to and then continue with your task - right now, you need to find a boat.

Free the Boat

There's one behind - you guessed it - some vines just to your left as you entered the area. To free it you need to hit three glowing spots in one throw - to get the right angle, head round to the right of the vines and you can line it up nicely.

Push the boat out to the shore with Atreus and hop in. You can explore the water a little here - similarly to the Lake of Nine - and there are more areas branching off from the main story with all sorts to discover. For now though, we'll take you directly to your next story objective in this walkthrough.

Sail forwards, towards the little glowing blue thing that turns out to be a special consumable called Yggdrasil's Dew of Cooldown, that permanently boosts your Cooldown stat by 2.

Follow the waypoint forwards and there'll be a brief pause, as Atreus struggles with some strange voices inside his head. Foolish boy! Continue.

Paddle on down the river until you come out at a new area, the stunning Lake of Light.

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.

Lake of Light and how to find a way into the Temple

Again, there's stuff to explore here but to continue with the story, moor up at the nearby dock when prompted and head up to another of those sand bowls the signifies a puzzle.

Like before, you need to write a rune in the sand to proceed - but there aren't any runes nearby. Hope back in the boat and sail towards the far end of the lake where the light's coming from.

When you cock, there's a light bridge up ahead leading straight towards the light, but the battling Dark Elves nearby soon put a stop to you progressing, removing the bridge and attacking you.

When they're all cleared out, you'll notice a pair of large cogs either side of the place where you moored up. Spin one - and fight off the enemies - then the other, and it'll raise a huge pair of curved pillars out of the water - which go some way towards forming a rune!

Find a way into the Temple

Paddle back to the little island with the sand bowl and have boy carve the rune into the sand. With a great rumble, the water in front of you will part, as a huge trench opens up and you're lowered down into it - a way in!