Technologies

God of War Ragnarok: Muspelheim Seed Locations

Here’s how to unlock God of War: Ragnarok’s Muspelheim Combat Trials, and what you get for completing them.

Sure, God of War: Ragnarok has recieved plenty of acclaim for its thoughtful story. But really, all God of War games mostly consist of Kratos killing things. Big things, small things, slow things, fast things. Kratos kills ’em all. Just like in its predecessor, Kratos’ killing skills can be put to the test in exchange for valuable resources in Muspelheim’s Combat Trials.

This guide will explain how to unlock the Muspelheim Crucible, as well as go through what rewards you get for completing its many Combat Trials.

Opening the portal to Muspelheim requires Kratos & Co. to find two Muspelheim Seed Halves which, when combined, act as a key, opening passage to the fiery realm. Both Muspelheim Seed Halves can be found in Svartalfhiem, the land of the Dwarves and the first open area that Ragnarok permits you to explore. Unfortunately, you’ll need the Draupnir Spear, a weapon you get well into the story, to get access to the second Muspelheim Seed Half.

How to find the first Muspelheim Seed Half

You can find the first Muspelheim Seed Half by accepting the first side quest (or «favor», as the game calls them) in God of War: Ragnarok. In the course of the game’s story, Kratos and Atreus seek out Durlin, a Dwarf who famously led a resistance movement against Asgard. Before finding him, you encounter another Dwarf, Raeb, who encourages Kratos to undo some of the harm done by Mimir and Odin years ago.

This unlocks a side quest titled In Service of Asgard, which tasks you with breaking down some old mining rigs that pollute Svartalfhiem Bay. Definitely do this side quest. It nets you an armor set, a Light Runic attack and unlocks several other side quests. Most notable of these is the side quest that gets you into Muspelheim.

As part of In Service of Asgard, you’ll find Modvitnir’s Rig, which you’ll need to destroy. Once you disembark, climb up the wall on the right, jump over the bridge and scale another wall. Atop you’ll find a chest containing a Muspelheim Seed Half.

Where to find the second Muspelheim Seed Half

The second part of the key to Muspelheim is basically around the corner, but you’ll need new equipment to access the area it’s in. This is a no-spoiler guide, so I won’t write about how you get the Draupnir Spear — other than it’s a weapon you get a good way through Ragnarok’s story.

Soon after you get the Draupnir Spear, you’ll encounter a character who embarks you on another side quest called Spirit of Rebellion. To complete that quest, you’ll end up travelling to Dragon’s Beach, which features the notable landmark of a giant Dwarf statue.

After you clear out the enemies on the beachfront, you’ll see a wooden structure you can climb up on the left of the beachfront (you can see it pictured below, directly in front of Kratos’ boat). There you’ll see a hole out of which a gust of air is blowing. Throw the Draupnir Spear into it, and Kratos will be able to swing to the platform above.

Follow the path and you’ll clear out enemies and find the item you need to complete the Spirit of Rebellion favor. Instead of going back the way you came, however, go through the path to the left of the big ol’ Dwarf statue. There you’ll find a family of ogres you’ll need to slaughter.

There’ll be a bunch of debris covering a chest. After you kill the ogres, you can toss a fire bomb from a nearby generator into the debris, allowing you access to the chest. In the picture below you can see where to get the fire bomb and where the chest is. Inside you’ll find the second Muspelheim Seed Half.

Muspelheim’s first Combat Trials

Once you get the Muspelheim Crucible, one of the first things you’ll notice is a Nornir Chest. Unlocking this one is unlike any other in God of War: Ragnarok, however. To remove the three letters from the chest, you’ll have to complete the six different trials immediately available to you.

Each area of the Crucible’s three areas features a sword monument at its center. Interacting with the monument gives you the option between two different combat trials. Completing these trials yields the Undying Pyres Armor Set. The Bracers and Girdle increase how quickly your Permaforst, Immolation and Maelstrom gauge fills up, while the Shoulder Guard offers a perk that sees Kratos gain a shield. That shield prevents the first hit you take from resetting those gauges once filled. You also get Divine Ashes, which are used to craft and upgrade various armor sets and weapon accessories.

Here’s all six trials and the rewards for clearing them.

Population Control: Kill the Bergsra without the the enemy count going above 4. If there are more than 4 enemies, a timer will begin to count you out. This is among the harder Combat Trials, in that it’s particularly difficult to use skill to make up for a lower level or underpowered weapons. If you’re having trouble, come back when you’re strong enough to more quickly take out the grunts. Rewards: Girdle of Undying Pyres, 250 Divine Ashes, 1,000 Hacksilver
King of the Hill: Three highlighted circles will appear throughout the area. You’ll be barraged by three waves of enemies, who will eat away at the trial’s timer if they stand in any of the circles. Like Population Control, this is a difficult one if you’re underpowered. Since you’ll have the option to swing between areas, make use of Kratos’ Death from Above attacks. (Press R1 or R2 while you’re in midair.) Rewards: 250 Divine Ashes, 1,000 Hacksilver.
Weapon Mastery: Kill 16 enemies in 3 minutes. The first wave has frost shields, the second has flame shields. After that, you’ll be met with a couple of waves of enemies with mixed shields, including ones you’ll need to use the Draupnir Spear to break. The hardest wave consists of a Draugr Lord, a Draugr Scout and a flame-shielded Nokken that will heal them both. Rewards: Shoulder Guard of Undying Pyres, 250 Divine Ashes, Hacksilver.
Flawless: Kill 15 enemies without taking damage. This one is most simple, and not as hard as it sounds — until the Dodher Gradungr beast comes out. This bull-like monster can lunge at you from far distances, and is accompanied by enemies launching ranged attacks. Keep that shield up, and make good use of the Draupnir Spear’s ranged detonation ability. Rewards: 250 Divine Ashes, 1,000 Hacksilver.
Ring Out: Kill 21 enemies with recharging health. This is actually one of the easier trials once you figure it out. To kill enemies, you’ll have to knock them into the nearby lava pits. That can be done fairly easily with moves like the Leviathan Axe’s Serpent’s Snare, and its running R2 attack. Rewards: Bracers of Undying Pyres, 250 Divine Ashes, 1,000 Hacksilver.
Feed the Rift: Kill enemies to generate orbs, then throw the orbs into the realm rifts that appear in the arena. This will be familiar if you’ve fought many Ancient Soul Eaters, and is similarly quite easy. Rewards: 250 Divine Ashes, 1,000 Hacksilver.

Once you complete all six of the Combat Trials, you unlock a Nornir chest in the central Muspelheim area which contains a Chaos Flame, which upgrades Kratos’ Blades of Chaos, as well as 10,000 XP for Kratos and 2,500 XP for his companion.

Muspelheim’s Final Challenges trials

As you may have guessed, the first six combat trials are just a warmup. After you complete them, a giant flaming sword monument appears in the central Crucible area, unlocking nine new trials.

If you go back to the three sword monuments, you’ll see that there’s a new trial offered at each. When you complete two of these new trials, lava flows to the sword in the center of Muspelheim, where you can do a «final» trial. Here’s where it gets a touch confusing

What «final» trial you get depends on which combination of two trials you complete. For instance, completing Rampage and Health Steal unlocks the Endurance final trial, but completing Health Steal and then Rampage unlocks Ring of Fire final trial. There are six combinations to complete the below three trials, resulting in six total final trials.

Rampage: Kill 20 enemies in 150 seconds. This one is straightforward, and mostly easy. It gets dicey when an Ogre hits the area about halfway through. Use attacks to stagger him as quickly as possible, which will allow you to ride its shoulders and pummel nearby enemies. Reward: Smouldering Embers, 8 Asgardian Ingots, 250 Divine Ashes and 2,500 Hacksilver.
Health Steal: Your health will be drained, but is replenished by killing enemies. This is also easy if you’re sufficiently leveled. Be aware of the enemies who pop up on ledges and fire ranged attacks at you. You’ll have to deal with a Wight at the outset, but the trickier part is at the end when a Nokken appears and heals a set of Elf Warrior enemies. Reward: Blazing Embers, 3 Luminous Alloy, 250 Divine Ashes, 2,500 Hacksilver.
Kill Fuse: Kratos has 30 seconds to kill 22 enemies, but killing enemies grants extra time. This is also easier than it sounds, as many of the enemies you’re presented with are ranged attackers who can be killed with one or two well-placed Leviathan Axe throws. You might have a slight bit of trouble from the Wulver that apears, but even he’s not too much of an issue. Reward: 4 Petrified Bone, Glowing Embers, 250 Divine Ashes, 2,500 Hacksilver.

A recurring theme in explaining the above trials is that they’re all relatively easy. That’s good, because you’ll be doing them a bunch of times. Below are the final trials, and the combinations that unlock them. By finishing all six final trials, you’ll assemble Surtr’s Scorched Armor Set and collect a trio of Muspelheim amulet enchantments.

Surtr’s Scorched Armor reduces the damage Kratos takes and increases his stagger resistance, while the amulet enchantments offer the perk of increasing Kratos’ melee damage when Permafrost, Immolation or Maelstrom are fully charged. Below is a full breakdown of the six «final» trials and their rewards.

Endurance: Kill 99 enemies without dying. Unlock Endurance Challenge by completing Rampage and then Health Steal. Rewards: Blazing Embers, 3 Smouldering Embers, 1,000 Divine Ashes, 20,000 Hacksilver and Surtr’s Scorched Curass.
Ring of Fire: Kill all enemies while staying within the safety of the fire ring. Unlock Ring of Fire by completing Health Steal and then Rampage. Rewards: Blazing Embers, 2 Smouldering Embers, Glowing Embers, 1,000 Divine Ashes, 20,000 Hacksilver, Surtr’s Scorched Arm.
Boss Rush: Kill five powerful enemies back to back (to back to back to back). You’ll face a Traveller, a Fierce Stalker, a Dark Elf Lord, a Light Elf Warrior and an Einherjar Brute. Unlock Boss Rush by completing Kill Fuse and then Health Steal. Rewards: Smouldering Embers, 2 Glowing Embers, 3 Blazing Embers, 1,000 Divine Ashes, 20,000 Hacksilver, Surtr’s Scorched Girdle.
Phantom: Kill a Flame Phantom. Unlock the Phantom challenge by completing Kill Fuse and then Rampage. Rewards: Glowing Embers, 2 Smouldering Embers, Blazing Embers, 1,000 Divine Ashes, 20,000 Hacksilver Muspelheim’s Essence amulet enchantment.
Shield Breaker: Defeat grunts to break the boss’ shield. The first boss is an Einherjar Champion, followed by a Stalker. Unlock Shield Breaker by completing Rampage and then Kill Fuse. Rewards: Glowing Embers, 2 Blazing Embers, 3 Smouldering Embers, 1,000 Divine Ashes, 20,000 Hacksilver, Muspelheim’s Force amulet enchantment.
Onslaught: Stay alive for 5 minutes. Unlock Onslaught by completing Health Steal and then Kill Fuse. Rewards: Smouldering Embers, 2 Blazing Embers, 3 Glowing Embers, 1,000 Divine Ashes, 20,000 Hacksilver, Muspelheim’s Endurance amulet enchantment.

Whichever trial you complete last will give you 100,000 Hacksilver instead of 20,000. There’s no additional treasure chest that presents itself after you finish all trials, but you will get 3,500 XP for Kratos and 1,500 XP for his companion. And, just as importantly, a sweet Trophy.

Technologies

Lemon8 and TikTok Could Be Banned. Here’s How the Apps Are Different

TikTok and Lemon8 are owned by the same parent company, but they offer different experiences.

TikTok faces another sale deadline Saturday, and unless a US buyer intervenes — or President Donald Trump extends the deadline again — the app could disappear for US users. If the ban goes into effect, TikTok wouldn’t be the only app to disappear: TikTok’s sister app, Lemon8, could be caught in the crossfire.

Read more: A VPN Alone Probably Won’t Bypass TikTok Bans. Here’s Why

Lemon8 is owned by ByteDance, the same parent company that owns TikTok. It’s one of the top Lifestyle apps in Apple’s App Store, and it has more than 10 million downloads in the Google Play store.

«Lemon8 is a lifestyle community focused app powered by TikTok, where you can discover and share authentic content on a variety of topics such as beauty, fashion, travel, food, and more,» the app’s description reads in both stores.

Here’s what you need to know about Lemon8.

Note: I reached out to ByteDance for this story, and the company did not respond for comment.

What is Lemon8?

Lemon8 is a video- and photo-sharing platform that eschews the vertical-scrolling format of TikTok in favor of a Pinterest board-style format. But what Lemon8 and TikTok do have in common is that both have Following and For You tabs to show you posts from creators you follow and posts the app thinks you will like.

Lemon8’s content is split into six topic tabs, plus a seventh tab called All. The other tabs are Fashion, Beauty, Food, Wellness, Travel and Home. These tabs can be found across the top of your screen, and tapping into these tabs shows you recommended and suggested posts.

Posts can be swipeable photo collections like in Instagram, or TikTok-style videos. Some creators add text to their photos to label clothing or a product. Some will also include the price of the item in the text.

How is Lemon8 different from TikTok and other apps?

Lemon8 is different from other apps in terms of what is posted and how it’s presented.

Lemon8 has a lot of influencer ads and product recommendations. It’s difficult to tell what is and isn’t sponsored content, and this appears to be the norm across the app. TikTok also has sponsored content, but usually these are marked as such in the bottom-left corner.

There aren’t a lot of memes or jokes on Lemon8 compared to other apps, either. You can find memes on Lemon8, but various hashtags associated with «memes,» like «funnymemes» and «catmemes,» have fewer than 1 million views (as opposed to hundreds of millions on Instagram). This could be because Lemon8 is still catching on in the US, but my suspicion is Lemon8 isn’t meant for memes. It’s meant to be more of a guidebook to help you achieve a certain lifestyle or aesthetic.

There’s also a lot of writing in Lemon8. For example, post captions might include instructions for a recipe or a deeper breakdown of an outfit. TikTok captions can have useful information, but those captions are more about connecting posts to hashtags to get more views and don’t necessarily add new information to the TikTok post. Lemon8 uses captions in a similar way to Instagram posts, but Lemon8 captions have one key difference from Instagram: templates.

Lemon8 lets you use templates for your posts to help you quickly format and to give you an idea of what to caption your post. There are caption templates for fashion, shopping finds, beauty, food and travel.

Lemon8 reminds me of a mashup between the magazines Martha Stewart Living, Muscle & Fitness and Travel + Leisure. You can find some useful tips in Lemon8 to help you achieve a desired aesthetic or find some vacation inspiration, but it’s not clear what is and isn’t an ad.

What are people saying about Lemon8?

People’s reaction to Lemon8 is seemingly positive so far. One TikTok creator posted a video calling Lemon8 «Pinterest, but interactive.» Another said Lemon8 is a combination of Pinterest, Instagram and TikTok.

However, this positivity could be artificially inflated. ZDNet reports that many TikTok posts about Lemon8 have described the app with similar language, making some believe ByteDance paid these creators.

And some Lemon8 creators’ claims make this theory sound more viable. One Lemon8 creator told Insider that ByteDance paid them to post on the app. Two other Lemon8 creators showed Insider emails that outlined the app’s payment structure.

Who owns Lemon8?

ByteDance, the Chinese tech company that owns TikTok, also owns Lemon8. According to ZDNet, ByteDance is positioning Lemon8 to be an Instagram rival as more users stop using, or abandon, Meta’s app.

According to the Wall Street Journal, a leaked internal memo from Meta showed that Instagram engagement was declining. ByteDance executives could be hoping to capitalize on this by giving Instagram users an alternative app in the form of Lemon8. And while Lemon8 was released globally in 2020, the app’s recent growth might show ByteDance’s gamble is paying off.

Will Lemon8 be banned alongside TikTok?

Since Lemon8 is owned by ByteDance, which also owns TikTok, it’s possible that the app will be banned alongside TikTok on April 5.

The law requiring the sale of TikTok could be applied generally to other apps that are owned and operated by ByteDance and its subsidiaries. When TikTok shutdown operations in the US in January, Lemon8 was shutdown alongside the app. If TikTok shuts down again, Lemon8 likely will as well.

Should you download Lemon8?

Even with a shutdown looming, Lemon8 is free, so you can download and try the app now before the sale deadline. Just know the app’s posts resemble instructional guides more than memes to share, and many posts feel like advertisements.

What’s Lemon8’s privacy policy?

Most of Lemon8’s privacy policy seems standard for social media apps. It states Lemon8 collects personal and location information to provide you with a better app experience. Some collected information includes your IP address and browsing history. But part of the app’s privacy policy might raise eyebrows.

«The personal information we collect from you may be stored on a server located outside of the country where you live,» the policy reads. The company has servers around the world, according to the policy, so your information could be stored in any of them.

This is different from how Lemon8’s sister app TikTok stores some user’s data. The company stores US-based user data in Oracle servers. TikTok CEO Shou Chew said ByteDance employees in China can access this data, but with «robust cybersecurity controls and authorization approval» overseen by a US-based security team.

For more on the TikTok ban, here’s what to know about the Supreme Court’s decision, here’s what could happen next and here are other apps users are flocking to.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for April 4, #193

Three of the four categories are especially tough today. Here are hints and the answers, for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, No. 193, for April 4.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

I only solved one of the four categories for today’s Connections: Sports Edition on my own, so if you need help, you’re not alone.

The yellow category was pretty simple, but after that I couldn’t make any connections. It might help if you know a lot about a certain NBA player’s resume. Read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is out of beta now, making its debut on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 9. That’s a sign that the game has earned enough loyal players that The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by the Times, will continue to publish it. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app but now appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can continue to play it free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Do better.

Green group hint: March Madness.

Blue group hint: Six-time all-star.

Purple group hint: Think Wimbledon.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Not meeting expectations.

Green group: Teams in the Women’s Final Four.

Blue group: Teams Kawhi Leonard has played for.

Purple group: Ends in a piece of tennis equipment.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is not meeting expectations. The four answers are bust, disappointment, dud and failure.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is teams in the Women’s Final Four. The four answers are Bruins, Gamecocks, Huskies and Longhorns.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is teams Kawhi Leonard has played for. The four answers are Aztecs, Clippers, Raptors and Spurs.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is ends in a piece of tennis equipment. The four answers are bracket, eyeball, horseshoes and internet.

Quick tips for Connections: Sports Edition

#1: Don’t grab for the easiest group. For each word, think about other sports categories it might fit in – is this a word that can be used in football, or to describe scoring options?

#2: Second meanings are important. The puzzle loves to use last names and even college names that mean other things, to fool you into thinking they are words, not names.

#3: And the opposite is also true. Words like HURTS might seem like a regular word, but it’s also the last name of at least one pro athlete.

Technologies

Skip Your iPhone’s Lockscreen: Here’s the Hidden Flashlight Trick You Need to Know

A couple of taps can really make a difference on your iPhone.

Not long ago, your iPhone’s lockscreen would only allow two app shortcuts that you couldn’t change: camera controls and a flashlight toggle. However, iOS 18.2 allows you to customize these shortcuts to almost anything you might want. This small but impactful change is one of many ways iOS 18 supercharges customization for iPhone and iPad users. But what if you still want an easy-to-access way to toggle your flashlight without unlocking your phone?

Apple introduced an accessibility feature in iOS 14 that, once enabled, allows you to perform actions by just tapping on the back of your phone. The feature is called Tap Back and it remains a sleeper feature that’s sneakily hidden away in your settings menu. Enabling Tap Back essentially allows you to create a button on the back of your iPhone to perform an action without needing to take up any space.

Once you have Tap Back enabled, it doesn’t take long to see how much of a game-changer it can be with its added convenience. Below, we’ll show you how to set it up so a couple of taps on the back of your iPhone will let you launch just about anything you want.

For more, check out what’s in the latest iOS 18.4 release.

How to set up Back Tap on iPhone

Whether you want to link Back Tap with your flashlight, camera or launch a different iPhone app, the path through your iPhone settings begins the same way.

On your compatible iPhone (iPhone 8 or later), launch the Settings application and go to Accessibility > Touch > Back Tap. Now you have the option to launch your action (in this case, your flashlight) with either two or three taps. Although two taps is obviously faster, I would suggest three taps because if you fidget with your phone, it’s easy to accidentally trigger the accessibility feature.

Once you choose a tap option, select the Flashlight option — or a different action if you prefer. You’ll see over 30 options to choose from, including system options like Siri or taking a screenshot, to accessibility-specific functions like opening a magnifier or turning on real-time live captions. You can also set up Back Tap to open the Control Center, go back home, mute your audio, turn the volume up and down and run any shortcuts you’ve downloaded or created.

You’ll know you’ve successfully selected your choice when a blue checkmark appears to the right of the action. You could actually set up two shortcuts this way — one that’s triggered by two taps and one that’s triggered by three taps to the iPhone’s back cover.

Once you exit the Settings application, you can try out the newly enabled Back Tap feature by tapping the back of your iPhone — in my case, to turn on the flashlight. To turn off the flashlight, you can tap on the back of your iPhone as well, but you can also just turn it off from your lock screen if that’s easier.

For more great iPhone tips, here’s how to keep your iPhone screen from dimming all the time and canceling all those subscriptions you don’t want or need.