The second optional area of Alfheim is The Forbidden Sands, a huge region with even more favors and collectibles to track down between main story quests. God of War Ragnarok gives you spectacle even when you’re completing side-quests, and you’ll have to do something special to stop the storm raging in The Forbidden Sands. A sandstorm is ravaging the area, making the sands hard to navigate. That makes finding collectibles even harder. The first thing you need to do is stop the storm.
The process is pretty similar to the first main optional area of Alfheim, but we’ll still break down exactly what you need to do in the full guide below. Free the creature and you’ll get an even more impressive lightshow at the end.
More God of War Ragnarok guides:
All Rage & Health Upgrades | Nornir Chests Guide | All Odin’s Raven Locations | All Treasure Map Solutions | Fully Upgraded Leviathan Axe | Fully Upgraded Draupnir Spear | How To Unlock Muspelheim | How To Unlock The Crater | How To Fully Explore The Crater | How To Use Crystalline Shards | Across the Realms Ingredient Locations | How To Unlock Witch Time Playstyle | How To Make Finding Collectibles Easy | All Jewel of Yggdrasil Locations | How To Unlock Enchantments | All Cosmetic Armor | Best Graphics Settings | Atreus Combat Guide | How Leveling Works | How To Upgrade PS4 To PS5 | All Healing Methods | How To Increase Health | How To Increase Spartan Rage | How To Unlock Transmog | Aurvangar Wetlands Gate Puzzle Solutions | How To Earn More Hacksilver | Best Healing Armor & Enchantments | Best Runic Attacks | How To Damage Heimdall | How To Stop The Sandstorm | Barrens Favor Guide | Bonus Epilogue Ending | Gna, Valkyrie Queen Boss Location | Secret Post-Game Dungeon | The Plains Collectibles Guide | The Jungle Collectibles Guide | The Sinkholes Collectibles Guide
Song of the Sands | Favor Guide
The “Song of the Sands” quest is unlocked when you travel to the Forbidden Sands in Alfheim. Travel to The Barrens and unlock the gate with Freya’s help using the Hidden Chamber Door. This leads to a new massive open-ended area.
Favor: Song of the Sands – Before you can fully explore this area, you’ll need to find a cave leading underground to free the creature generating sandstorms.
- Unlocks after arriving in The Forbidden Sands through the Hidden Chamber Door. Travel to the cave in the center of the region and drop down — to end the sandstorm, we need to free another giant trapped creature in the underground.
- Dropping down into the cave leads to the Burrows. This is an entirely new area for you to explore. In the Burrows, you’ll encounter strange hive material walls. The scaled red walls will open briefly when hit with Sound Arrows.
- Deeper into the cave, bounce your axe off the Twilight Stone and spin your axe into the have material until it shatters. The bounce imbues your axe with light — enough to shatter the barrier.
- Dropping down a deep shaft, a section of hive matter crystal will block your path. To shatter it, drop onto a ledge and use a Sound Arrow to open the orange flap. This reveals a Twilight Stone. Bounce Kratos’s axe off this surface and shatter the crystal barrier.
- Continue on the path and you’ll reach the Hafgufa. Break the red hive matter bulbs to free the creature — look left and bounce your axe off the Twilight Stone to reach the back of the trapped creature.
- Bounce your axe behind the giant creature to shatter the bulbs on the left. Clear each row — by now you understand how this puzzle works.
Return to the surface and cut the creature free at the quest marker — it’s only a short ride away from the cave exit. Freeing the creature clears the Forbidden Sands of the storm. Now Kratos can fully explore the region.
