Partway through Stronger Than Achilles, Coen and Anca run into a metal door in the ancient ruins that simply will not budge. The prompt reads “Blocked from the other side,” the quest tracker switches to “Find a way forward,” and the game stops pointing you anywhere useful. The route around it is a short climbing detour that ends with Coen opening the same door from the far side.
Quick answer: Climb the rocky ledge to the right of the blocked door, jump the gap, shimmy along the narrow wall ledge, and interact with the door from the other side to open it and let Anca through.
Where the “Find a way forward” objective appears
Stronger Than Achilles is a side quest set in the Ancient Ruins, and it opens up once you have finished Where Old Devils Lie. It runs alongside Anca’s story, and the journal describes the task as completing the trials and exiting the ruins.
“Find a way forward” fires after a cutscene in the area with the collapsed floor, once you have already dealt with the undead, made the blood offering at the idol, and put down the Fallen Hero. The door in front of you at that point is barred from the opposite side, so there is no interaction that opens it head-on.
Get past the door blocked from the other side
Note: the conversation after the door opens gives you the option to tell Anca you love her. Skipping it costs you nothing, because the quest offers another romance opening at the end.
Loot between the shortcut and the heavy door
Two containers sit along the corridor once you are back together, plus a herb pickup on the way. None of it is required to advance, but the stretch is short enough that clearing it costs nothing.
| Pickup | Where | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Green-Gilled Mushroom | On the path through the ruins | Herb |
| Rope | First chest, just past the opened door | Junk |
| Torch | Second chest, further down the corridor | Equipment |
| Wolf Claws | Second chest, same container | Crafting material |
Push open the heavy door with Anca
The corridor ends at a large, heavy door that Coen cannot shift alone. Interacting with it starts a cutscene where both characters shoulder it open together, so there is no timing input or puzzle attached. If nothing happens, you are standing slightly off the interaction point rather than missing a requirement.
The embalming chamber and the optional hidden chambers
Beyond the heavy door is a chamber of statues, occult carvings and embalming tables. An optional objective, “Explore the hidden chambers,” is available here, and everything in it is lore rather than loot gating.
The mural on the wall shows a figure that is half woman, half spider, which Anca identifies as a patron of sorcerers. The embalming tools and table nearby point to what happened to the people who failed the trials: they were turned into the guardians of the place, and their blood was kept.
How to confirm the objective updated to “Investigate the inscribed tablet”
From the chamber, drop down the ledge and follow the path until it opens into a much larger room. A tall inscribed stone stands in the centre, with a locked door on the far side. Approaching that door flips the tracker over.
You will see a “QUEST UPDATED” banner for Stronger Than Achilles, and the active objective changes from “Find a way forward” to “Investigate the inscribed tablet.” If the banner has not appeared, walk closer to the locked door on the far wall rather than circling the stone.
| Stage | What advances it |
|---|---|
| Find a way forward | Climb, shimmy, and open the blocked door from behind |
| Explore the hidden chambers (optional) | Inspect the mural, statues and embalming tools |
| Investigate the inscribed tablet | Drop into the large chamber and approach the locked door |
From the tablet, the quest continues into the rune section, where you activate the marker with Astral Communion and fight off the guardians it summons, and then on to the Font of Life decision that closes out Anca’s arc. The shortcut you opened stays open, so backtracking through the ruins no longer means repeating the climb.
