In Chapter 9 The Sickness, after pulling out the heart of The Bridge Keeper, Kratos was able to heal Atreus. Continuing his journey to reach the highest peak once again both father and son heads to the Tyr’s Vault where they have to solve the Vault Defense Puzzle by deactivating the rings and dealing with two easy to kill bosses Grendel of the Ashes.
The Black Rune Walkthrough
Return to Tyr’s Vault
Get to the boat, return to the vault in Lake of Nine and use the sand-bowl. The same place where Modi attacked Kratos and Atreus felt ill. Atreus has to read the riddle, and the answer is on the wall. Interact with the symbols and return to the bowl. Once the lift is down, you have to retrieve Black Rune.
Retrieve Black Rune
One the lift is down, open the door that will lead you to Tyr’s Vault. Three rings will appear in front of you which is a kind of vault defense. Your next objective is to Deactivate the Vault’s Defenses. To do that, you have to disable the three rings.
Ring 1: Wait for the ring stone to rotate in your direction, use the blade and attack the stone, it will drain out the energy from it. Now you have a very short window to run into the open door on the left of the fire, and use the blade to attack the ball in it. This will reveal a wheel, rotate that to open a door that will help you to deactivate the defense of the second ring.
Ring 2: The new door that opens up has rotating sharp blades, you have to carefully pass through till you reach two wheels that are rotating side by side. Use the axe to freeze one and wait until the second one overlaps it, and then you get the passage from the right. Straight ahead you will spot the second ball. There is a door on the left, open it up and it will lead you to the rings. Now target the second one and return to this same area to get the next wheel. You will have to kill a few Draugr’s first.
Ring 3: After rotating the wheel, a new door will open up just in the front of the wheel. Now it has a moving platform of spikes. Look on the left of the platform where you can throw the axe to freeze it from falling. You can stand on the right end near the blue light, and move ahead towards the room with the ball. Similar to previous one, open the door to the rings. Now to deactivate the last one you have to climb up to the balcony. Go towards the broken wall and climb up. Follow the roots on the wall and keep moving up and jump on the right balcony. There will be a few Draugr up there. Target the last ring and then attack the ball of the first ring you can see in front of the balcony. Go down and deactivate the ring. After moving the final wheel, the defense will be deactivated.
Escape the Trap
Kratos will be caught up in a trap, and to free him Atreus has to pull the chain in a sequence. The Sequence is Right > Middle > Left > Middle > Right > Left. To stop the chain Aterus will have to use his knife. Go back to the main room and retrieve the Rune.
Defeat Grendel of the Ashes
After the cutscene, two bosses will appear. The first thing it will do is try to crush you below the huge wooden log he is carrying on his shoulder. That’s the only attack they will follow regularly. On one, you have to use the blades and on one, you can use the axe for high damage. They are pretty slow and does not has much variety in attacks so you can tackle them easily. By killing them you will get Chaos Flame a Legendary upgrade Blade of Chaos. The second thing you will get is Tartarus Rage a Heavy Runic Attack.
To exit the vault, go towards the sand-bowl room, it is on the left of a wall which you use to climb up on the balcony. Enjoy the short cutscene of a father-son moment and at the end Chapter 10, The Black Rune is completed. You can read our walkthrough on Chapter 11 Return to the Summit. For more updates and tips on the game, you can refer our God of War Wiki guide.
