Just when I thought I’d done everything in God of War, it turns out there was one last mystery to uncover.
If you bought the Stone Mason Edition of God of War (which was $150), it came with a special cloth map that looked like it was just something cool you might want to hang on your wall, but fans have discovered that it contains secret messages that lead to…an actual in-game prize. Spoilers follow for this treasure hunt, but not the actual story.
The map contains runic lettering, including on paragraph that sets up the treasure hunt itself. When translated (which was done using in-game tools like the Valkyrie names on the braziers), it reads:
"The brilliant Huldra blacksmiths Brok and Sindri travelled all around the lands of Midgard to create this great map for the giantess Faye. A mysterious treasure was found at the space between them at the conclusion of their journey. Unfortunately for the brothers, the treasure's location was instantly forgotten. Brok retraced his steps and blamed Sindri for losing the treasure. Sindri retraced his own step,s but clearly knew it was Brok's fault. They could not find it the treasure was never found and neither brother has spoken to the other either since."
But that isn’t all. There’s also a string of lettering around the outside of the map. Part of it is a series of directions that both Brok and Sindri traveled to in order to retrace their steps, and while I’m still not quite clear on how exactly this was solved, it ends up being that you need to stand on the circle on the Muspelheim door area in the hub world (there is a fast travel door here if you’ve previously discovered it).
What you do then is follow the next set of translation instructions, which are also written around the side of the map:
“To Reveal the great treasure stand inside the golden circle and look straight ahead to tyrs temple now look to the left brazier look back to tyrs temple look to the right brazier and back to left brazier.”
“Having just looked to the left brazier now look back straight ahead to tyrs temple again now look down to the floor then look up to the right brazier and then back to the left brazier and finally look to tyrs temple to reveal the forgotten treasure.”
To simplify that, you need to look in these directions when standing on the circle facing outward:
Temple, left brazier, temple, right brazier, left brazier, temple, floor, right brazier, left brazier, temple.
Try to do it as quickly as you can. I believe you’re supposed to do it without L2 aiming. If you’ve done it right, there should be a series of chime, and then a rift will form at the edge of the door area. You can reach in and pull out your prize which is (spoilers, I guess), a Legendary Axe Pommel that boosts your stats and adds an effect to the end of a combo. It’s only level 3 so this isn’t exactly endgame gear, but I think you can take it to level 5-6 at least, with upgrades.
Kind of a cool secret for fans to band together to solve. Not a mind-blowing prize per say, but still pretty neat, and I do wonder if this is the last secret buried in this game, or if there are more still to be discovered.
Let me know if you manage to get the axe pommel prize for yourself, as you don’t actually need to own the special edition to find it.