So, for everyone who wants to try getting Ardyn into their party as well, here's as detailed as I can make a tutorial;
Most of this has been documented in several smaller videos already, and making a video of the whole process will bust the file size limit, so you're getting bullet points and video links.
What we are going to do:
There is a super brief moment where Ardyn joins the party during the ride to the Disk of Cauthess, so we want to intercept at that moment to drag him with us elsewhere before the game can remove him from the party again. In order to achieve this we need a) increased loading times to intercept the game and b) the possibility to intercept it at all.
STEP 1
Start chapter 4, either by using chapter select with a NG+ or by loading an original save from before that.
Ride with Ardyn to the Coernix station and either stay at the caravan or don't. Important is that he'll be waiting inside the shop for you to talk to him and continue the ride.
At this point, you can take the Regalia and drive wherever you like. If you want to be able to take Ardyn with you outside of Leide and to West Lucis later, now is your chance to establish a fast travel connection from e.g. Longwythe to Old Lestallum. Driving along all those extra roads with the Regalia might seem pointless for now, but it'll increase the number of places you can take Ardyn to tremendously.
To continue with our main task, take your car and make your way to the Disk without Ardyn. You won't be able to get past the Imperial blockade in front of the disk, but that's fine for now.
Call your Chocobo and ride all the way to Longwythe Rest in Leide. Rest at the motel so we can now jump between Longwythe and the Regalia using the map menu.
Now SAVE. Up until here, we are well within what the game allows us to do.
STEP 2
Next up, we want to set up everything to get rid of the Regalia. Yes, you got that right. We want to remove the car from the map completely, so when we continue driving with Ardyn, we'll be out on foot and the game won't punish us with a Game Over for getting away.
Perform the Skywalking / Infinite Falling glitch in Longwythe Rest as seen in my previous post here or by TheDivineWinds on YT here. (I got the basic steps from him, really, and just refined them!)
Teleport back to the Regalia and walk beyond the blockade. Ideally just out of reach of the MTs so we won't be attacked when we come back. Then call your car from the menu. See video here.
Travel back to Longwythe using the menu and sit on the Kenny Crow bench across the street to disable the Skywalking glitch. Alternatively, save and reload.
Ride your Chocobo to the Bavlouve Mines dungeon nearby. SAVE in front of the entrance.
STEP 3
So far, so good. Here comes the first tricky bit: To remove the Regalia completely, we need to awaken Titan, but there's a chance it won't work and we get softlocked, so we prepared our save file up to this point to save us time retrying.
Set up the Return to Entrance glitch by calling the elevator, but not stepping into it. Use a pair of daggers to (not quite) enter the elevator, as seen in this video. Wait for your party members to load, call the elevator back up. If everything went well, the Return to Entrance option in your map menu is now permanently active until you reload your save file.
Use the Return to car option to teleport to the Regalia behind the blockade.
Walk or ride your Chocobo along the path until you reach the Royal Tomb with the Sword of the Mystic.
Careful now. Pick up the sword, skip the "picking up" cutscene, then immediately open your map menu and use Return to Entrance. If it worked, you'll reappear at Bavlouve Mines and the Regalia will be missing from the world map. If it failed, you'll get loaded into the Quick Time Event during the cutscene with Titan's awakening and have ultimately no other option but to close the game and try STEP 3 again. I don't know how much of a difference it makes, but running the game on an external SSD for the PS4 seemed to have helped. If it is really tied to faster load times, putting the game on a PS5 should also work.
If it worked: Great! You might not be able to save now (and even if you can: don't or the Regalia will reappear upon loading), so keep following the instructions carefully.
STEP 4
Congrats if you made it to this point. Now that the Regalia is gone, we can trigger the 2nd ride to the Disk and escape the scene.
Run or ride your Chocobo to the Coernix station where Ardyn is still waiting. There's a chance running will disabled and the Chocobo option, too, but be patient and just walk the distance.
Talk to Ardyn to begin the second ride. You'll be loaded into the scene, but without the Regalia, so you're on foot with most menus accessible.
I could not call my Chocobo at this point, but my bird was still around to hop onto. Otherwise, keep travelling on foot. You want to run far enough away so that the next reload won't drop you into the driving scene instantly, which means you have to go all the way to Old Lestallum.
Rest at the motel when you arrive so that even when you can't save manually, the game creates an autosave.
Load that save and SAVE manually again if you were previously unable to. The Regalia is now back on the map, but we have progressed the main quest.
Use the Tow car option from the map menu to return yourself and your car to Hammerhead.
STEP 5
We are now sufficiently far away from the Coernix Station to get the lag we need to intercept the game. Next, we need a means to do so since the Regalia is back and our usual teleport options won't work. If you have previously moved your game to a SSD or the PS5, move it back to the internal hard drive of the PS4 now, because the more lag, the better.
Run/Ride to Palmaugh Haven, which is the one closest to Insomnia. Camp there.
Prompto should ask for a tour. Decline for now, since we just wanted to set up the rest point for fast travel.
Go back to the Bavlouve Mines and SAVE in front of them because we will have to set up the Return to Entrance glitch again.
Once done, use the previously established rest point to return to camp. Camp again, and when Prompto asks this time, agree.
As soon as the tour starts, use Return to Entrance. DO NOT press the popup away because we want to transition into the Customize Menu glitch (also shown here).
Make your way to Hammerhead on foot. Besides warping and running, you have no other options at this point.
Hit X when you are close enough to talk to Cindy. You now have a time window of a few seconds to select Customize the Regalia and to modify it in some way, e.g. body color, before the game returns you to camp. If done right, the Customize menu will still be open, but you can move freely around the map.
DO NOT try to modify the Regalia further as the game will take your camera away (instead showing the Regalia) and you won't make it to our destination without a camera.
Run, again on foot, along the roads to the Fort in the north of Leide. Pay attention now! On a dirt road, you'll pass two fences. About 4 seconds after you have passed the second fence, the game will pause and reload the driving scene with some delay. On the PS4, you want to order your customization slightly before or at the moment the game pauses, so prepare the customize menu that you'll only need a single button press to close it and watch your timing. For the precise location, you can consult this video post.
If it fails, you'll have to try again from the Bavlouve Mines, which, yes, means you've wasted some time running around - but you can stick something under the L Stick of your controller so Noctis partially "auto-runs" to Hammerhead and to the Fort.
If it succeeds, you might see up to two loading screens and be returned to Hammerhead with Ardyn in your party!
LAST BUT NOT LEAST
DO NOT change any party member's attire. It is one guaranteed way to lock Ardyn in place. I'm not sure he can be un-locked again, so if you see him stuck and not following Noctis, better load your last save. Other conditions can trigger this, too. It also happened when I stayed at the Three Zs motel in Longwythe and Old Lestallum. So keep an eye out for him.
Also, DO NOT travel towards Duscae, as there is a large trigger area that'll load you back into the driving scene. However! If you previously took the time to establish fast travel from Leide to Cleigne via the Regalia, you can take Ardyn to the West of Lucis, e.g. the Rock of Ravatogh, Lestallum, Old Lestallum and Cape Caem.
I've been practising the Skywalking / Infinite Falling OOB glitch.
What's this glitch good for? It disables most collisions, including invisible barriers.
Some hints on how to pull it off:
Use "Dash de Chocobo" after your chocobo has run a considerable distance away from the fight to give you more time to find your way to the nearest bench.
Don't move the camera or the chocobo will teleport straight to you!
When the Chocobo rounds the corner of the building, it takes 2-4 seconds for it to pick Noctis up. How long exactly depends on how many and what kind of cars are parked in between.
It's not necessary for Prompto to take a picture - If you've already sat down, you can still pull off the glitch. Just press X again to "get up".
What are the limits of this glitch? Afaik you can only gain height, but not lose it. Also, Noctis can only walk normally once you've found a surface at the same height as him. Otherwise, he'll be free falling and the only way to move is by entering and closing the photo mode quickly. Also, while free falling, menu options are disabled.
(Following instructions by TheDivineWinds for "unlocking" a certain guest party member ...)
Many avid gamers have found success in creating video game tutorials and made money playing games. Follow our top tips for creating a great tutorial video.
