So, I'm playing through this game, and I'm really enjoying it so far. One thing is really bugging me tho. I had *no* idea there was optional content in this game until brad mentioned it on the podcast and like jeff, had not the faintest clue with what he was talking about. I got to the giant lake hub area, and I think they could have done a bit of a better job of saying there's extra stuff you can do around here. Heck, I'm in the second area and the only way I thought to even look for anything else, was your kid going "are you sure we want to leave this area?"

Now I'm running around and I'm finding some stuff, but I can't get past this lake which It looks like they might have more to do...but I'm not sure.

Anyway, I think They could have at least dropped a bit of a bigger hint that you could explore more and find more areas off the beaten path. Maybe that's just me tho ?

Are you in Alfhiem? It is after completing that area that the game really opens up..

I don't know if I did this because it was hinted at in Patrick's review, but I started exploring as soon as I was on that boat. I kinda wish I had done a bit more main plot to unlock the portals first, because they only unlock if you find them after talking to the dwarf.

I'm at where you are right now and I kind of feel like it's a good spot to start exploring, if you get what I mean. It's the first time I remember the kid saying "are we going to the main plot or do you want to explore first?" I almost get the feeling that the game wanted you to go to the second area first, it just doesn't stop you from exploring before then.

@jay_ray: yeah, that's where I'm at now.

@giantlennonx_x: Well if you listen to the developer interview podcast on the site, you'll discover this is intentional. They want you to have a chance of stumbling on the side stuff by yourself, before pushing you towards it.

They were pretty open about this happening on the Beastcast and Bombcast episodes that came out before the game released, so I pretty much immediately hit all the side areas before doing any more story missions the moment I could. I suppose it'd have been fun to just realize that was the case on my own, but I think purely from a design standpoint the layout of the lake pretty clearly implies its explorable. I also remember the kid saying, "there sure is a lot to do around here," more times than I can count, but maybe that only triggers when you're actually doing the stuff.

As the game goes on the kid starts talking about exploring more & more and Kratos talks also about training & betterment for the mission.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I do believe you can always go back, to some extent. But maybe some periodic gating? Not 100% sure.

Only thing i missed was freeing the dragon in the lake area brad mentioned, have no clue where that is.

The kid tells you constantly to explore after every story mission...

@travisrex: veithurgard, past the gate where you open the door to destroy the statue of the East shore.

I am in alfheim and did everything at the lake besides the dragon and the realm tears. I didn't see a point to keep getting one shot and will go back later, I hope.

Once the world snake moves for the first time there's a bunch of new areas. And when he moves again there's even more stuff, and some (all?) of the previous areas are expanded.

Like others said, Atreus is constantly asking if you're going to explore more. And the dwarves give you side quests that lead to some of these areas. I think the map even indicates some areas after the world snake moves the first time, and before you've even visited them.

I'm just surprised people are missing them.

@steveurkel: thanks, duder.

I dunno, I found Atreus to be pretty explicit about how much exploring you can do.

@steveurkel: Ugh those tears. I've been avoiding them since yeah, in the lake they're all fights.

Then lo and behold, around when you get the item that lets you open the sealed doors, I hit one out of boredom and I pulled out an item. I don't know how many I had skipped up to that point.

I was so confused I played for like 4 hours straight and my level never went up despite doing everything else at the lake and surrounding areas. I was halfway through level 1 no matter how much exp I got. I didn't know you needed to get better gear to increase your "level' so all the level 5-6 things at the lake I could probably cheese and fight them but does the game EXPECT you to actually be around the same char level to be doing these fights? I figure since it is throwing enemies that are killing me in one shot the game doesn't need me to get whatever reward is there. Same reason I skipped the dragon. I still haven't found better gear than the early strength gear you can buy so I am not sure when I will start getting upgrades and a higher gear to be able to fight those realm tears (level 4 or 5 I would think). I wish they explained it and maybe they did but I had to google it to see why I wasn't getting any experience.

Somewhat related, am I the only one not getting any daddy and son boat stories? Dan just casually noted this in the Quick Look, but in my game Kratos has never started telling Atreus any cool myths while we row around. They sit in awkward silence, bar any immediate story dialogue. I'm really worried this is some bug and I'm missing this substantial daddy and son content.

Also, separately, I just finished Alfheim, and I'm curious if others were able to leave that area with 100% completion? I felt like I was pretty thorough, but there were still a number of gaps. In this sort of Metroidvania-eque game, I never know if I'm just going to come back with upgrades later or if I just rowed right past a bunch of collectables because I was too captivated by the oppressive quiet of the boat.

@sansjason: You can't 100% Alfheim on the first try. It's better that way because when you revisit it later you can get some additional lore.

I don't know why you aren't getting boat stories. Maybe you're getting from dock to dock too fast?

@burncoat: Nah, I've been taking my sweet time. This is really kind of upsetting. I can't find anything searching for God of War boat dialogue bugged.

@sansjason: well they do like to talk about stuff that you have found so if you skipped most of the sidecontent then probably most of the boat storys are gone aswell.

I dont underatand how anyone could miss theres sidecontent here since the kid constantly nags about going exploring.

My problem is more that they send you off exploring to early in the game. I went off "exploring" right of the bat when the kid first mentioned it and what i found was skull leveled enemies that oneshotted me, areas and chests blocked off because i lacked the right storyskills to progress, fast travel nodes that didnt activate since i hadnt unlocked fasttravel yet.... and so on. It wasnt very pleasent and i recommend everyone to wait with exploring until the lake opens up once or twice.

@rethla: I'm not sure if you think I'm the OP, but I've done all the side content I could find. I didn't even go into Tyr's Temple (in which Atreus asks Brok how he got there) until I'd already run into Brok in two other locations.

Also joining the club of wondering how people don't know about the side stuff. One of the dwarves gives you a quest to do and then there's Atreus going on about maybe doing some exploring multiple times. Guess that explains why some people are also complaining about not having crafting materials, when I basically always had enough to make stuff that was level appropriate or when upgrading my gear.

Guess you can't win, because if they would make it more obvious, people would probably be complaining about the game holding your hand too much.

@sansjason: well that sounds straight up broken im afraid.

Well, got fixed as soon as I installed 1.16 actually, so there you go. Don't miss side content, but especially don't miss patches.

Atreus talks about exploring all the time on the boat, plus the dwarves and other people will ask you to do things and you'll be assigned side quests. Also, there's a quest log to see the main quest and side ones.

But 1.16 is a very fresh patch, i played the entire game pre 1.13 and didnt encounter your problems.

This is why you need a map filled with icons. ;-)