For players seeking total mastery and 100% completion in God of War Ragnarök’s expansive Vanaheim, the Passage of Monuments represents a critical and densely packed challenge. This secluded region, accessible after progressing the main story, is not merely a scenic detour but a deliberate test for completionists, housing a significant cache of 30 distinct collectibles. These items are essential for unlocking related trophies, fully upgrading Kratos’s arsenal, and uncovering every fragment of the game’s deep lore.
Navigating the Chronological Path to Completion
The Passage of Monuments is designed as a linear yet intricate path, making a methodical, chronological approach the most efficient strategy for collection. Unlike open-world areas where items can be gathered in any order, this region’s layout and enemy placements often gate progress, suggesting the developers intended a sequential cleanse. This walkthrough is structured to mirror that intended path, ensuring players can minimize backtracking and confront challenges with optimal preparedness.
Initial Ascent and Early Campsite Markers
Your journey begins at the region’s entrance, marked by towering stone monoliths. Almost immediately, the environment prompts exploration. The first set of collectibles is clustered around the initial climbing sections and shallow river crossings. Keep a sharp eye on nooks behind destructible environmental objects, typically indicated by glowing sap or cracked masonry.
Among the first finds will be one of the region’s four Campsites. These are not just save points but vital hubs for crafting and story reflection. The initial Campsite is often located after the first minor puzzle involving your Leviathan Axe or Draupnir Spear to clear a path. Scanning the area with Atreus’s or Freya’s insights can reveal the shimmer of a Supply Chest or the distinct glint of a Blood Coffer tucked away on a high ledge, requiring precise axe throws or spear detonations to access.
Securing Knowledge and Resources in the Central Chamber
The central chamber of the Passage, a wide arena often guarded by a mini-boss or a challenging wave of Grims and Wretches, holds a higher concentration of loot. Here, combat proficiency is rewarded. After clearing the area, thorough investigation is key. Two Blood Coffers are typically found here, hidden in opposite corners behind pillar rubble or under elevated stone platforms. These coffers are crucial for gathering Hacksilver and Forged Iron, resources paramount for upgrading mid-tier armor sets.
More significantly, this chamber contains two entries for A Collection of Knowledge. These lore markers, often in the form of scrolls, runic readings, or spectral echoes, are frequently missed in the heat of post-battle cleanup. One is usually placed near a monument’s base, while the other might require using the environment—such as swinging on a grapple point or freezing a geyser—to reach an upper balcony. These collectibles provide indispensable context to the history of the Monuments and the Vanir gods, enriching the narrative far beyond the main quest.
High-Ledge Secrets and Environmental Puzzles
As you ascend to the higher levels of the Passage, the collectible hunt evolves to incorporate God of War Ragnarök’s full suite of traversal and puzzle-solving mechanics. This is where the bulk of the Supply Chests are located. Accessing them regularly demands the combined use of all your tools: the Draupnir Spear to create ascending grapple points, the Leviathan Axe to freeze moving mechanisms or shatter distant soundstones, and the Blades of Chaos to burn away red vine barriers or swing across chasms.
One particularly devious chest may be visible across a gap but require you to find a hidden chain to lower a bridge from the other side, involving a full loop around the perimeter. Another might be guarded by a Nornir Chest puzzle, where the three rune seals are scattered across multiple vertical layers of the environment, testing your spatial awareness and aim. Patience and a willingness to survey every ledge, alcove, and underwater path are non-negotiable virtues in this section.
The Final Campsite and Missable Mythical Artifacts
Nearing the exit of the Passage, the final Campsite serves as a checkpoint before a challenging combat sequence or a story beat. The area surrounding this camp is a final sweep zone. Here, the last of the Legendary Chests might be concealed, often containing a powerful Runic Attack or amulet enchantment. More subtle are the Mythical Artifacts, small objects belonging to the Kvasir or Stolen Treasures sets. These can blend into the environment, resting on a stone tablet or beside a skeleton, and are easily overlooked when focused on the path ahead.
Post-Story Cleanup and Trophy Assurance
A critical reassurance for completionists is that absolutely nothing in the Passage of Monuments is permanently missable. After concluding the main narrative, you can return to Vanaheim via the mystic gateway network and freely explore the Passage at your leisure. All combat encounters can be re-triggered or will remain cleared, and all environmental puzzles can be re-solved. This allows you to mop up any remaining collectibles with the full power of Kratos’s endgame arsenal and abilities, potentially making some previously tricky accesses trivial.
Strategic Benefits of Full Collection
The reward for this meticulous scavenger hunt extends far beyond a trophy notification. Each collectible type contributes directly to Kratos’s strength and the player’s understanding of the Nine Realms. Blood Coffers and Supply Chests amass the raw materials needed for upgrading armor and weapons at the Huldra Brothers’ workshop. Legendary Chests grant unique, high-power abilities that can define combat builds. The lore from A Collection of Knowledge and the Mythical Artifacts fills in the codex, offering experience points and completing cultural sets that often trigger additional dialogue from Mimir or Freya, deepening the immersion.
Systematically clearing the Passage of Monuments is therefore not a tangential side activity but an integrated component of progression. It forces mastery of the game’s mechanics, rewards curiosity with tangible power boosts, and layers the world with stories left untold by the central plot. The region stands as a microcosm of God of War Ragnarök’s design philosophy: every path, no matter how hidden, has a purpose, and every challenge overcome makes the Ghost of Sparta just a little more prepared for the final battles to come.
For those who measure their victory not just by the story’s end but by the completeness of their journey, the 30 secrets of the Passage of Monuments are a demanding yet ultimately satisfying testament to their dedication, ensuring no stone is left unturned and no monument’s story left unread.
