This is Part 1 of The Journey . It covers The Marked Trees — Faye’s last wish, the hunt with Atreus, and The Stranger at the house. Play this before Part 2: Path to the Mountain .
The woods are a closed tutorial. There is no Lake of Nine yet. Do not leave the cabin path to hunt every raven you see; most of the map does not exist until you have a boat.
Before you cut the trees
Kratos is chopping wood. Atreus is hunting. The chapter teaches the axe, the boy’s bow, and the fact that this is a funeral, not a raid.
- Follow Atreus on the hunt. Call the deer, let him shoot, then finish what he cannot. The bow is his; you are the backup.
- Bring the kill home. The shroud and the ashes are the quest. Scatter them from the highest peak in all the realms — that line is the whole campaign.
- The trees around the cabin are marked because they were protection. Cutting them is the plot, not resource gathering. Chop when the Journey says so.
Health and rage tutorials fire here. Use them. The next fight assumes you already know dodge and axe recall.
The Stranger
When the last tree is down, The Stranger knocks. This is Baldur. He does not go down like a draugr.
- Unarmed stretches and axe stretches both happen. Dodge the grabs. Punish when the HUD says he is open. Spartan Rage is for the stun windows, not a panic dump at the door.
- He gets back up. That is the point. You are not meant to “solve” immortality in this fight.
- The house takes the hit. When the cutscene lets you stand, the Wildwoods are no longer a home base. The mountain is the next yellow path.
Do not start a New Game+ thought experiment here. One playthrough, one Journey.
What to do next
Loot the yard if the prompt still allows it, then walk. The next written chapter is Path to the Mountain — River Pass, Brok, the troll, the Witch of the Woods.
Hub: God of War (2018) .
