God of War II Walkthrough

By: Matthew Rorie
Design: Randall Montanari

PlayStation 2 owners need no introduction to Kratos. As the star of the game God Of War, which has sold over 1.5 million copies since its release in early 2005, Kratos took on hordes of mythical beasts as he fought his own demons, and eventually defeated Ares, the god of war, and took on his mantle for himself.

Now, two years later, God of War 2 has arrived. In it, Kratos is stripped of godhood by Athena, his onetime liege, as punishment for his ruthless abuse of his godly powers in the favor of his Spartan subjects on the Earth below. Although no longer a god, Kratos still possesses his combat acumen, as well as his burning self-righteousness, which will no doubt serve him well as he adventures through ancient Greece in an attempt to restore what was taken from him.

GameSpot’s Game Guide to God of War II will take you through the entire single-player adventure, with tips and videos for each boss fight, along with details on all the weapons and magic that you’ll be encountering along the way.

Tips

O, Mashing?

There are numerous times in the game where you’re going to have to mash away (tap rapidly) on the O button. A simple example of this is when you open a large door; you have to press O fairly quickly to simulate Kratos flexing his muscles and lifting the door.

Well, O-mashing can be complicated if you actually use your thumb to do it; it’s difficult to move the thumb up and down rapidly enough to complete some of the more strenuous mashing challenges. So, if you’re having a hard time with any of the O-mashing sequences, it usually helps to remove your thumb from the button and use your index finger instead. The movement required to move the index finger up and down is much smaller than it is for the thumb, so doing this can help you get more button presses in more quickly.

Also note that for actions that require you to grab something with the R1 button, then mash O (like the aforementioned doors), you can usually let go of the R1 button after you’ve grabbed your target and solely concentrate on tapping O.

Button Selection Minigames

There are plenty (plenty!) of button-pressing minigames in God of War II. You know what we’re talking about - those minigames where you have to hit a certain face button after it pops up on the screen. If you hit the button correctly, you’ll move on to the next part of the animation; if you miss, you’ll usually wind up having to start the whole thing over, if not take a lot of damage from the opponent that you’re dealing with.

If you’re not good at these minigames, then you’re going to have a hell of a time getting through God of War II. One thing we found that helped us during the more difficult minigames was to plant our thumb in the small flat area in the middle of the buttons in between individual button presses, so that it’s actually touching the controller instead of floating over the buttons. There can be a tendency to attempt to cut down on the time it takes to hit the next button by letting your finger hover over one, generally the one you guess will come up next. If you plant the thumb in the center of the buttons, though, you’ll be close enough to reach all of the buttons when the prompt comes up, and you’ll also hopefully avoid hitting the wrong button by accident. Your mileage may vary, but this technique helped us a fair amount, especially late in the game.

Evasive Maneuvers

Reprinted from Doug Radcliffe’s guide to God of War:

"You could rather easily argue that Kratos' roll maneuver is as important as any of his combo attacks. When an enemy is about to attack or if you're suddenly surrounded by foes, just flip the right-analog stick in a direction to roll and evade the enemy's attack.

Although it'll be primarily used to evade attack, it's important to use the roll to put some distance between you and any enemies nearby. The advantage of Kratos' Blade of Chaos is its long-range usefulness. As you near closer range, roll away using the right-analog stick and restart your combination attacks. If you're close, an enemy can strike and interrupt combo strings. A solid pattern would be to perform a combo that knocks down enemies, perform a multi-hit strike to damage the prone foe, and then roll away and repeat the sequence."

Abuse Your Throws

One of the best ways to increase your survivability in God of War is to attempt to use your throw mechanics as often as possible. Pressing O while near an enemy will cause you to grab them and perform a variety of throw effects on them, depending on the next button you press. The square button will typically throw them around bodily, while pressing O again will start mauling them at close range, and so on. (Note that a good number of enemies, especially later in the game, can't be thrown until you deal a certain amount of damage to them.)

This is important for one major reason: while you're throwing or grappling an opponent, you can't be hit by weapons or enemy attacks. (This is true of most throws, but throws that require you to button-mash the O button to grab hold of your foe, like summoners and some demonoids, will still be interruptable by damage.) In large groups of foes, you can often concentrate on throwing a single small opponent around until he dies, then repeat the process on the next small enemy until everyone's dead. This works especially well when large, unthrowable enemies, like cyclopes, are surrounded by low-level annoyances, like soldiers or imps. Concentrate on throwing the lower-level enemies around, since you'll be invulnerable while you do so, then deal with the bigger foes when you've cleared out the area. (Note that some fights will simply respawn in smaller enemies forever, though.)

Weapons and Magic

Weapons

You will spend most of the game with just one weapon: Athena's Blades. Eventually, though, you'll be carrying more than two weapons around. Since you only have one weapon switch button, you can only switch between the Athena's Blades and one other weapon at a time. To change weapons, hit Start and press O to cycle between the weapons that you want to select when you switch weapons. Athena's Blades are always equipped and can't be changed out.

Athena's Blades

You start the game with only Athena’s Blades as your sole weapon. You won’t get a true second weapon until well into the game, so make the most of the Blades by upgrading them fully before dealing with any of the other weapons that you possess. (We upgraded the Blades to level three, then upgraded Cronos' Rage to level two, then maxed out the Blades before bothering with anything else.) You’re almost definitely going to be using them more than the other weapons you pick up along the way, as they have longer range and a wider variety of attacks. Most of you will likely be familiar with the Blades from the first game; if you’re not, we’ll reprint the description that Doug Radcliffe wrote for our earlier game guide, when the Blades were called the Blades of Chaos:

"It's a good strategy to upgrade the Blade of Chaos before all other magic abilities. If you're thorough in red orb collection (seeking out hidden chests, etc) then you can have the Blades of Chaos fully upgraded certainly by mid-game. This provides full damage potential and access to powerful new combos.

Take advantage of the Blade of Chaos' long-range attack. Make every effort to avoid getting too close to your opponent. If you begin to move close, use the right-analog stick to roll away. If you're close, an enemy's strike may interrupt your combo and leave you vulnerable for further attack. Roll away then start the combo string from long-range so you can complete the attack.

Some of the Blade of Chaos' strongest moves are those that knock enemies off their feet. The Plume of Prometheus is such a move that's granted from the very beginning of the game. Use the Square, Square, Triangle combo to knock lesser enemies off their feet and vulnerable to additional combo attack to inflict further damage and to also increase the amount of experience orbs you receive."

Moves	Input	Description
Icarus Lift	X, X	Double-jumping is available as soon as you begin the game.
Olympic Ascension	Hold Triangle	Launches enemies into the air, and Kratos jumps along with them to allow for aerial combos or throws.
Orion’s Harpoon	O	When an enemy is airborne, you can grab them with the O button and slam them into the ground.
Athena’s Reverse	L1	Tap L1 to parry a blow just before it lands.
Plume of Prometheus	Square, Square, Triangle	Two wide, sweeping strikes, followed by a ground slam that brings up an eruption of lava near where it hits.
Level Two:
Moves	Input	Description
Rampage of the Furies	L1 + O	Delivers a lengthy combo that's mostly intended to strike one large opponent. You'll be locked into the combo when it starts, so you'll likely be hit by any enemies that manage to get behind you, or by your target if they're immune to stunning.
Rampage of the Furies (Air)	L1 + O while jumping	Automatic attack that spins your blades in a mostly vertical motion, letting you hit targets above your normal maximum jumping height.
Level Three:
Moves	Input	Description
Cyclone of Chaos	L1 + Square	Another lengthy automated attack, albeit not quite as lengthy as Rampage of the Furies. This will swirl your blades around your body, hitting everything nearby multiple times. Works best against smaller enemies that can be stunned by damage; if your opponents don't get stunned (as in the case of cyclopes) then this will simply let them get a free attack on you. Still, for mass crowd control, this really can't be beat, and it'll also let you get some big hit counts when you have a lot of targets to hit.
Cyclone of Chaos (Air)	L1 + Square while jumping.	Lets loose with a circular spin-attack in midair that will hit nearby opponents around ten times. Can be used for taking out small flying opponents like imps. Also useful for darting attacks against enemies that can't be stunned, like stone golems or cyclopes; wait for them to complete an attack, then bust out one of these while they're recovering, then dash away before their next attack comes out. Since it’s one of the quickest moves you have, and attacks all around you, it can also be useful for attacking walls while attempting to find weak spots.
Spirit of Hercules	Triangle, Triangle, Triangle	A mostly single-target attack that deals heavy damage and finishes with another jet of flame that will pop enemies into the air, assuming they're capable of going airborne.
Valor of Hercules	Triangle, Triangle, Square	Two over-the-head attacks, followed by a whipping attack from both sides that will repel enemies and knock them backwards. Can be useful for crowd control, but attempting to pull it off while surrounded by enemies can be difficult, as the first two attacks will leave you vulnerable to attacks from the side and the rear.
Level Four: 9,500 Orbs
Moves	Input	Description
Hyperion Charge	Hold Square to run	Doesn’t do anything by itself, but sets up the following moves.
Hyperion Rush	Tap Square while running	Slams Kratos into any enemy in front of him.
Hyperion Rise	Tap Triangle while running	Will uppercut an enemy in front of Kratos, knocking them into the air.
Athena’s Wrath	While evading, hit Triangle	Slams Kratos’ blade into the ground at the end of a dodge, causing a jet of flame to travel along the ground.
Prometheus’ Torment	Hold Square while in Rage of the Titans mode	Causes Kratos to continously whirl his blades around him while in Rage mode.
Level Five: 13,500 Orbs
Tartarus Rage	L1 + Triangle	Smashes the blades into the ground in front of you, causing a large explosion and jetting foes up into the air.
Tartarus Rage (Air)	L1 + Triangle while airborne	This move can also be performed while airborne, but will cause additional whirling/slashing attacks in front of you before you land.
Prometheus’ Inferno	Hold L1 while in Rage of the Titans mode

Barbarian Hammer

You’ll receive the Barbarian Hammer around five hours into the game from the Barbarian King boss. As you might be able to tell by looking at it, it’s going to be slow and ponderous to use, although it does do a lot of damage.

Personally, we didn’t bother to upgrade the Hammer, and rarely used it after obtaining it. We’re sure that some players will find it enjoyable to use, but its slow attacks will often leave you vulnerable to damage, and the fact that you can’t dodge while holding it will screw up most player’s combat routines. If you upgrade it fully, then the Legion of Souls attack will serve you well in crowded combat situations, but apart from that, don’t worry too much if you don’t care to bother with it.

Some enemies, however, such as skeletons, seem to be especially weak to the hammer’s attacks.

Level One
Moves	Input	Description
Crushing Defeat	L1 + Square	You whirl the hammer around you while moving forward. Starts off slow, but gains speed as you move along. If you use this in a crowd, expect to get knocked around, since you won’t be moving fast enough to avoid all incoming blows.
Might Of The King	L1 + Triangle	Slams the hammer into the ground, causing a sheet of flame to ripple along the floor there. Affected enemies will be damaged and launched into the air. You’ll be vulnerable to attacks from the side and rear while performing this move.
Might Of The King (Air)	L1 + Triangle while airborne	The same as above, save performed in midair. In most cases, double jumping before doing this move is a wise idea, since you’re less likely to get hit while in midair.
Level Two: 4,500 Orbs
Soul Summon	Tap upwards on the right analog stick	Sends out a tiny blue soul that will home in on nearby enemies. Does barely any damage, but can keep a weapon combo alive if you need to retreat.
Level Three: 17,500 Orbs
Legion Of Souls	L1 + O	Summons a large number of spirits that will attack nearby enemies up to 12 times. Enemies that can be knocked up into the air will have that affect applied to them, rendering them vulnerable to further attacks, but the spirits themselves do little damage.

Spear of Destiny

The Spear of Destiny won’t appear until late in the game, but will be a worthy addition to your arsenal. It’s basically a two-handed staff that will whip itself around you and cause damage to most nearby foes when swung. At level one, it’s most notable for two things. The Piercing Shards attack will break through enemies’ guards, knocking them down, which can be helpful when dealing with demonoids or other fast enemies that keep up a constant block. Secondly, the triangle-button mash combo is notable for its ability to similarly deal with medium-sized opponents; it’ll knock them into the air, stab them before they come down, then hit them with a storm of ice shards. Powerful stuff, and useful for easily taking out medium-sized enemies when you face them one-on-one.

When upgraded fully, the Spear makes it relatively easy to deal with large crowds of smaller enemies with the Unfortunate Remains and Altering Slash moves. Most of your enemies will spend more time getting knocked around than they will on their feet.

Level One
Moves	Input	Description
Deadly Slash	L1 + Square	Performs a sweeping attack that hits most enemies in a wide arc in front of and beside Kratos.
Piercing Shards	L1 + Triangle	Shoots a beam of weak icy projectiles in front of Kratos. This will penetrate the blocking actions of most small to medium-sized enemies, letting you follow through with more damage.
Piercing Shards (Air)	L1 + Triangle while jumping	Same as above, but fired in mid-air. These projectiles travel forward, not at the ground, so they’ll only hit airborne or elevated enemies.
Level Two: 3,750 Orbs
Unfortunate Remains	L1 + O	Places an explosive shell on the ground in front of Kratos that explodes after a few seconds, damaging nearby enemies.
Level Three: 12,500 Orbs
Altering Slash	L1 + Square	Altering Slash supersedes Deadly Slash, and is performed in the same manner. When it strikes, though, enemies will turn purple and eventually explode, dealing damage to themselves and all nearby enemies, in addition to knocking them around. This can only affect one enemy per swing, though, generally the first one that gets hit. Any size enemy can be affected, as well.

Blade of Olympus

The Blade of Olympus only appears twice in the game, once near the beginning, and once near the end. As such, thinking up a huge strategy for wielding it is overkill; you swing it, you hit your enemies, they die.

Level One
Moves	Input	Description
Divine Absolution	L1 + Square	Cheesy little slice and stab combo. There’s no real need to lock yourself into this attack animation, since it really doesn’t offer much to improve on the standard slashing attacks.
Divine Retribution	L1 + Triangle	Sends a beam of concentrated energy out towards an enemy. The animation is very quick compared to a lot of the other ranged attacks that the weapons offer.
Level Two: 9,000 Orbs
Divine Sacrifice	L1 + O	Drains red orbs from all enemies who comes nearby. Doesn't appear to cause any damage, or protect you from damage, and won't be of much use since you'll probably have already upgraded everything you actually want to by the time you can pay for this.
Level Three: 25,000 Orbs
Anger of the Gods	Square or Triangle	All of your attacks will cause a beam of energy to shoot from the tip of your weapon, causing damage to distant enemies.

Magic

You can cycle through your various magical abilities by tapping the D-pad in different directions on your controller.

Typhon's Bane

The first magical attack you receive in the game is Typhon’s Bane, a magical bow that can shoot gusts of wind at your foes. It’s a pretty simple skill, all told, and very similar to Zeus’ Fury from the first God of War, at least before you upgrade it. At its highest rank, it gains a couple of multiple-target effects, but for the most part, you’re going to be using this on distant enemy archers, and won’t need to bother with it on enemies that are close to you. It comes in handy during some boss fights, so upgrading it to level two is a good idea at some point during the game, preferably after you start picking up a lot more orbs in the mid-game. Level three is likely going to be excessive.

Level One
Moves	Input	Description
Wind Blast	L2 + Square	Hold L2 to lock on to an enemy, then tap square to fire gusts of wind at them to deal them damage.
Wind Blast (Air)	L2 + Square while jumping	You can also fire wind gusts while jumping.
Level Two: 2,500 Orbs
Moves	Input	Description
Rapid Fire Wind Blast	L2 + Square	Greatly increases the speed at which you can fire the bow.
Lethal Vortex	L2 + Triangle	Causes a whirlwind of...well, of wind, to speed along the ground, knocking enemies up into the air.
Level Three: 12,500 Orbs
Moves	Input	Description
Wind Blast (Charged)	L2 + Hold Square	Holding the square button before firing will charge your bow, allowing you to shoot multiple homing wind blasts which will hit targets more than once.
Titan Storm	L2 + O	Hitting O will cause a huge vortex of air to appear and damage enemies. Possibly the largest area-of-effect of any spell in the game, but there’s a large mana requirement and it doesn’t do a crazy amount of damage.
Lethal Vortex Upgrade	L2 + Triangle	Presumably deals more damage, and seems to move a bit quicker.

Cronos' Rage

Cronos’ Rage is something of an analog to Poseidon’s Rage from the first game and the beginning of this one. When you hit the summon button, you let loose a ball of lightning that will zap nearby enemies, dealing them damage and knocking them around. Unlike Poseidon’s Rage, though, you simply let the ball go and can continue to move around and attack while it does its thing, making this a perfect ability to use when you need to stay mobile, such as when you have to fight enemies and deal with puzzle sequences at the same time. It’s range is negligible at level one, so upgrade this as soon as you have the extra orbs to do so. You’ll eventually want it up to level three, but you won’t absolutely need it that high until later in the game.

Level One
Moves	Input	Description
Cronos’ Rage	L2	Places an electrical orb that will damage nearby enemies.
Cronos’ Rage (Air)	L2	Same as above, but in midair!
Level Two: 3,350 Orbs
Moves	Input	Description
Cronos’ Rage	L2	Same as above, but will hit more enemies at a time and will damage enemies across a larger area.
Level Three: 15,000 Orbs
Moves	Input	Description
Cronos’ Rage	L2	Hits more enemies, does more damage. At this level, the area where you stand when you hit L2 will also explode after a few seconds for extra damage and knockback effects.

Head of Euryale

This is basically a clone of the Medusa’s Gaze spell from God of War, but this time you’re going to kill Euryale, the second of the three Gorgon sisters. (Who wants to bet that Stheno pops up as a boss in God of War III?) The basic effects are the same; you can use it to cause petrification of almost any enemy that you come across. Petrified enemies will break free from their stone prison after a few seconds, but if you hit them enough while they’re petrified, they’ll crumble and give you extra orbs for the kill.

At maximum level, the Head of Euryale can freeze multiple opponents, making it useful in fights against large numbers of small enemies, but this will come at a significant mana price. If you specifically enjoy freezing enemies, then upgrade away, but you can easily get through the entire game without using this spell, save in very specific circumstances.

Level One
Moves	Input	Description
Gorgon Stare	L2 + Square	Slowly turns an enemy to stone when aimed at them. Some enemies are immune.
Gorgon Stare (Air)	L2 + Square	Same as above, but performed in midair.
Level Two: 4,000 Orbs
Moves	Input	Description
Gorgon Stare Upgrade	L2 + Square	Gorgon Stare petrifies enemies more quickly, and they seem to stay petrified for a longer period.
Gorgon Flash	L2 + Triangle	Uses more mana, but instantly stonifies most small enemies. Larger enemies will need more than one Flash, or a combination of Flash and Stare, to become petrified.
Gorgon Flash (Air)	L2 + Triangle while jumping	Same as above, but performed while jumping.
Level Three: 8,000 Orbs
Moves	Input	Description
Gorgon Stare Upgrade	L2 + Square	The Stare freezes enemies more quickly.
Gorgon Blast	L2 + O	Tapping O here will shoot out a bolt of petrification energy that can affect multiple opponents. Like Flash, though, larger enemies won’t be frozen all the way. Basically a petrification grenade.
Gorgon Blast (Air)	L2 + O while jumping	Same as above, but performed while jumping.
Gorgon Rage	L2 + Hold O and release.	While holding L2, hold down the O button, and you’ll see the snakes on Euryale’s head begin to quiver. When you let go of O, any nearby enemies will be petrified (assuming they can be at all). This is more powerful than Flash and Blast, in that larger enemies will also be petrified instantly, but requires much more mana.

Atlas Quake

The final spell you get in the game is also likely your most powerful. It’s kind of a riff off of Poseidon’s Rage from the first game, in that it allows you to damage enemies all around you, will let you mash the O button to deal more damage, and will render you immune to damage while you perform it. It’s this last aspect of the spell that will probably make it most worthwhile to you. If you upgrade Atlas Quake to level two, each time you cast it you’ll gain around five seconds of complete immunity to any attack coming your way. Since this is one of the few spells that can actually stagger larger enemies, like gladiators and cyclopes, you’re going to be getting two birds with one stone when using it to avoid their powerful attacks.

Level One
Moves	Input	Description
Trembling Earth	L2	Smashes the ground, causing two hits to all nearby enemies and knocking them into the air.
Trembling Earth (Air)	L2 while jumping	Same as above, but performed in the air. Will cause you to drop to the ground and start the quake.
Level Two: 4,500 Orbs
Moves	Input	Description
Trembling Earth Upgrade	L2	You hit the ground a few more times, causing more damage and knocking enemies around even more.
Level Three: 10,000 Orbs
Moves	Input	Description
Destructive Earth	L2, Tap O	When you start an earthquake with the L2 button, you can begin tapping the O button to cause more debris to fly up, dealing more damage to your opponents. Basically the same deal as Poseidon’s Rage in the first game.
Destructive Earth (Air)	L2 while airborne, Tap O when you hit the ground	Same as above, but performed after you hit the ground when pressing L2 while airborne.

Chapter One: Rhodes

(Note that this walkthrough is written based on the assumption that you are playing through on the Normal difficulty setting. Also note that our chapter breaks are our own invention, made purely for organizational purposes.)

You begin the game in Rhodes, shortly after Kratos' power has been stripped and the Colossus of Rhodes has been animated in the city in an attempt to squash him like a bug. It'll be up to you to defeat the Colossus and fight your way out of the city. Luckily, you currently have max-powered Athena's Blades and a likewise ubercharged Poseidon's Rage magic, which will help you out quite a bit in the early going.

You begin in a small, sealed room that will feature a couple dozen soldiers attempting to take you down. This is your opportunity to get back into practice with Kratos' weapons, which feature most of the same attacks from the first God of War. Take your time disposing of the guards in as gruesome a fashion as you like.

When all of the guards are done, open the door leading onward with the R1 button. Fight your way through the guards until the Colossus' hand busts through the wall, opening a passage to your left. The boxes and crates here conceal red orbs, so smash them thoroughly to receive your boon.

Ballista Fight

When you reach the balcony, jump off of it before the Colossus manages to strike you. You'll wind up on a small spit of ground populated by enemy soldiers, with the Colossus standing off to one side, ready to hit you as you fight. You have to strike at the Colossus to get away from it, but doing so won't be easy.

Begin by defending yourself from the predations of the soldiers here while the Colossus does its thing in the background. It has a few attacks, including throwing soldiers at you and a fist slam. Both of these can be avoided by sticking towards the bottom of the screen. It can also slap the ground near where you are, as you'll discover; it raises its arm above its head and attempts to flatten you out. If you time it right, you can use the right analog stick to roll away from this attack as it comes down and avoid taking damage. It's tough to time it, but if you wind up standing near the palm, you can start to attack it, and eventually the Colossus will recoil in pain, earning you some red orbs.

You need to repeat this process until the Colossus keels over and his eyes go out momentarily. When that occurs, you can finish it off - for the moment, at least. Begin by jumping up onto the platform to your left and examining the ballista/catapult thing there. It's currently loaded with a large rock, so hit R1 while standing behind it to launch the rock at the Colossus' head; it'll impact it and earn you a large orb reward. With that done, you can either keep attacking its hand and the soldiers here for more orbs, or simply jump into the ballista and launch yourself at the head to cut out one of the eyes. This entails another button-pressing game, as you have to press the square button four times, when the prompts come up, to complete the eye-gouging. If you fail, you'll be smashed into the ground by the Colossus and forced to try again.

Rhodes Bathhouse

With the Colossus' eye put out, it will throw you to another part of the city, where you'll wind up underwater. Before swimming on, though, surface with the X button and attack the dressing partitions in the room above you to earn around 100 red orbs. You can also find a pair of lovely ladies in one of the pools. Pressing O while standing near them will allow you to play one of the infamous sex minigames. To play, tap the buttons that appear, then follow the directional movements indicated with the left analog stick. When directions start to appear in the bottom left corner of the screen, those are also performed with the left analog stick, but are intended to be performed continuously as long as the icon is on the screen.

After swimming through the tunnel below you (you can smash the barricade by holding down the R1 button), you'll surface in some kind of factory. Climb the stairs and pull the switch to reveal a grappling point. Grappling isn't so difficult; just stand near the edge of the ledge, tap R1 to grab onto the grappling point, then hit X to jump off when you reach the other side of the room.

Clean out the soldiers beyond the doorway here and head up the ladder, but be prepared to tap O like a madman, as the foot of the Colossus will bust through the wall and attempt to smash you. After throwing it off, poke around the room (there's a chest of red orbs in a corner off to your left), then start climbing the wall to the left of the hole the Colossus made in it. There's another chest of red orbs that's available after you shuffle off to the left around the small indentation that the Colossus makes in the climbable wall; just drop down.

Colossus: Round Two

After climbing to the top of the wall here and jumping over, you'll be set to take on the Colossus in the next major phase of your fight with it. It holds court over a pair of docks which you can jump between via the grappling point in the center of the area.

You'll have to position yourself on one of the two docks to fight the creature, and you'll eventually have to defeat it from both platforms. Position yourself in the middle of the platform to more easily recognize its attacks and adapt to them as they land.

The Colossus here has a few major attacks that it'll use on you, which vary a bit in form depending on which side of the docks you're on, but which will be recognizably similar regardless of where you are. For our purposes, the Colossus is in "rest state" when it's resting with one palm on the docks and the other arm off in the air.

Attacks

• Fist Slam: The giant will rear back its hand and punch forward with it towards Kratos, then sweep its arm across the playing field towards the other platform. This will be the most common attack to come your way if you're in the middle of your half of the dock, but can be easily avoided by running or rolling towards the water. I.e. if you're on the left dock, then run to the left until you're out of range of the attack. When it lands, attack the fist before it withdraws, then attack the palm that rests on the dock.
• Arm Slap: When you move too far towards the water when the Colossus is in rest state, it'll smack you with the arm that's resting on the ground. This attack is quick and almost unavoidable, so stay away from the water's edge of the docks. If you're not attacking and notice this attack incoming, you can burn a Poseidon's Rage magic to temporarily become invulnerable and do a bit of damage to the arms.
• Palm Sweep: If you move too far towards the grappling hook in between the two docks, the giant will sweep his palm across the stage, knocking you down. Avoid the grappling hook around unless the beast is stunned!
• Palm Smash: Every so often, the Colossus will put both of its hands down on a dock and roar. Soon after, he'll slam the palm closest to the water down on the ground, hurting you if you're too close to the giant. Avoid this by backing away from the edge of the dock a bit, then counterattack the hand.
• Two-Fist Slam: After you damage the Colossus enough to cause it to recoil, it'll bring both of its hands up into the air and slam them into the ground in the middle of the dock. Back away into a corner of the area and jump before the slam hits the ground, or you'll be knocked down.
• Two-Arm Sweep: If you jump from one dock to the other too quickly, the Colossus will use both hands to sweep across the surface of the arena and attempt to slam you into the wall. Difficult to dodge, but you won't need to cross the docks very often.

Attack and Defense

You have to stun the Colossus a few times before you can more severely damage it. What this entails is avoiding its attacks while attacking its hands in return. The attack that is the easiest to avoid is the Fist Slam, which is generally what will come your way when you stand in the middle of one of the docks. (In other words, don't stand near the grappling hook; stand in the middle of one of the individual platforms, near the edge where the Colossus' hand rests.) When you see the hand rear back for a Fist Slam, dodge towards the water to avoid the blow, then turn around and start striking at the arm before it pulls back, and then attack the other palm as it comes to rest on the dock itself.

You'll see other attacks if you move around a bit, some of which are harder or easier to avoid, and which will give you more or less time to counter with your own attacks against the arms or palms of the giant. If you stick to the middle of the docks, though, you should consistently encounter the fist slam, which, again, is easy to avoid and easy to counterattack. After you hit the arms enough, the Colossus will stagger, feeding you red and blue orbs. (You may want to use Poseidon's Rage every now and then on the arms, whether to make yourself temporarily invulnerable if you don't want to bother dodging the Two-Fist Slam, or to free up some mana for when you nab these blue orbs, which are otherwise wasted if you have full mana when you get them.)

After a couple of cycles of this, the Colossus will crash onto the opposite dock and a large O-button icon will appear over its hand. Quickly leap across the grapple point and press O near the hand to start a button-press minigame. Doing so will let you slice open the creature's cheeks.

You'll need to go through this process twice. When you beat down the Colossus from the left dock, it'll crash into the dock on the right; when you beat it on the right dock, it'll crash into the dock on the left. Attack it on both sides of the dock, slice its cheeks in both directions, and you'll eventually be crushed in its grip. Quickly alternate between pressing L1 and R1 to break free and stab the hand, resulting in your being shuttled off to another part of the level.

Rhodes Palace

Now that you've escaped from the Colossus again, it's time to find out where the heck it is and hopefully finish it off. Begin by jumping up and opening the door here. Avoid the archers and find the savespot nearby, then start killing your way through the soldiers around the corner until you find a large statue that you can grab and move with the R1 button. Move it around to the pressure plate nearby to open the gate, then kick it under the gate with the X button. The gate will close behind it, so stand on the pressure plate yourself and roll under it to move on. If the statue didn't land on the second pressure plate, place it on it now.

You should be facing two paths, with one leading forward towards an orb chest. Avoid that path for now, and instead explore the path to your right. There's a long hallway here, at the end of which is a high platform with three chests on it. To reach it, you need to smash the eagle statue on top of the stone pedestal you've been moving around, then kick it underneath the platform and doublejump up. You'll earn the Urn of Gaia for your efforts, as well as a large number of bonus orbs.

With that done, return the pedestal to its resting spot and head towards the green chest there. Take a left, and when you reach the platform with a trigger on it, head towards the bottom of the screen before taking the lift to reveal another red orb chest.

Eastern Ramparts

After attacking the eye of the Colossus in the small hallway at the top of the lift, you'll be offered a boon by Zeus: the Blade of Olympus. Zeus' vague pronouncements about why he's helping you should probably forewarn you that a change is in the air, but there's nothing to do but forge ahead. Jump up to the wall on your right and jump up to the small ledge above it. Jump from there to the walkway above and start mowing through soldiers and archers, kicking open the door at the end of the walkway. Pop out the window at the end of the small chamber beyond to reveal a set of small walkways leading across the ruined roof of a room below you. The room is full of archers which will attack you, so you may as well drop down and finish them off. When you kill all of the soldiers, head back towards the window you smashed and find the ladder off to its side to climb back up.

When you start walking out onto the narrow wooden beams, be aware that there's a set of red orb chests off to your right. When you walk from the window onto the walkways, then take a right, you can double-jump from the second small corner of the beams off to the right to reach a platform with two of the chests. It can be tricky to know precisely when to jump, but you should be able to see the corner of one of the chests from the walkway.

With the orbs in your possession, return to the beams and cross them to find another save spot. Climb the ladder nearby and drop down via the chain there to reach a small room with magic and health recharge chests. Grab both of them, then open the gate and proceed across the bridge, rolling at the end to avoid its falling out from underneath your feet, if necessary.

The Final Battle

The Colossus is lined up to fight you for the last time...in a manner of speaking. In order to take him out, however, you'll have to charge and use the Blade of Olympus, which lies in the middle of the platform on which you will reside while fighting the Colossus. Doing so will require you to grab the Blade and charge it with the R1 button, but when you attempt to do so, the Colossus will knock you away.

The Colossus has three major attacks here, the first being a rift attack where he'll ram his shorn arm against the ground and cause numerous grooves to appear, which will quickly turn blue with energy. These are fairly easy to avoid. In addition, there's a hand slam that will come down whenever you're near the Blade of Olympus. You can double jump over the shockwave, but that's easiest to do if you're standing on the bottom side of the Blade. Lastly, if you get close to the upper edge of the screen, the Colossus will knock you around with a two-sided sweep of the arm and an arm slam into the ground.

Begin here by getting close to the discarded hand on the ground and using R1 to slam it into the Colossus' head. This will stun it momentarily, allowing you to run up to the Blade and press R1 again to load it up with all the red orbs that you've obtained. The Colossus will reanimate shortly afterward and begin slamming you again.

The next item you'll have to charge the Blade with will be your magic meter, so stand just below the Blade, double-jump over the fist slams, and use Poseidon's Rage to damage the fist. (You can also just stand right under where the fist comes down and use Poseidon's Rage just before it hits to damage the arm and avoid damage yourself.) After the beast is stunned again, charge up the Blade with your magic.

Lastly, you have to charge the Blade with your health. Stunning the Colossus can be a simple matter of double-jumping over the fist slam shockwave and hitting the fist once or twice, or you can get closer to the Colossus's waist and hit it up close. Either way, it will eventually be stunned again, allowing you to charge up the Blade completely and wrest it out of the guide.

The Blade of Olympus

With the Blade in your hands, charge up to the Colossus and start whacking away at it, staying close to the fist of its right arm as it rests on the ground. The left arm will periodically sweep the area with low-damage energy blasts, so try to roll out to the right of the screen to avoid the brunt of them. When you deal enough damage to the Colossus' arm, it will withdraw, allowing you to hit it with an animated attack to bust through its weak spot and enter its interior portion.

Colossus Interior

Start making your way up through the interior of the Colossus, keeping in mind that the blue-shrouded pieces of wood will greatly wound you if you touch them. After jumping over a blue beam that lies in your way, walk towards the central pillar of the structure and press R1 to drain the energy of the Colossus into the Blade. Doing so will reveal some netting on the nearby wall, which will allow you to proceed upward. Find the rope bridge that leads across the area and drop down on the far side by tapping R1.

After climbing up a bit more, cross a beam to find another area where you have to drain the central pillar. (A health chest is near the wall to your left here, somewhat out of sight.) Drain it and walk back across the beams to move on. At the top of the netting, you'll have to grab onto the ledge in front of you and shimmy around to the left, using R1 to drop down and go hand over hand to avoid the jutting, burning wood. Before attacking the chains around the central pillar and draining it, note the netting off to your left; your first Eye of Gorgon lies atop it.

When you drain the third set of wood, a chain will drop down. Climb it to reach the giant's head. Climb the ladder when you reach it and flip the switch nearby to drop the large metal object here down to the ground. Climb back down the ladder and strike the metal with your sword to start it swinging, then climb the ladder again and flip the switch one more time to retract the object; it will now swing back and forth and block the energy beams that go to the Colossus' eyes. When it blocks the energy beam closest to you, use the X button while hanging from the rope to quickly get to the middle of the rope. Repeat the process to get to the far side of the rope, then drop down and find the final set of energy-imbued wood and destroy it.

With that done, the Colossus is dead and will begin falling. Quickly hop from platform to platform to reach the mouth and exit the giant once and for all.

The Wrath of Olympus

After a lengthy cutscene, you'll have to begin walking towards the Blade of Olympus. You won't reach it, though, as an ominous figure will accost you. You cannot win the fight that you get into, so do your best and enjoy the resulting cutscene.

Chapter Two: Typhon's Domain

You pick up with Kratos on the path down into Hades. You have your trusty Athena's Blades in your hands, so begin slashing at the hands in your path with your weapons to destroy them and gain some health. They'll regrow quickly, so try to stay on the move whenever possible. First jump to the right, then jump up, then navigate past the hands to return to Rhodes.

Save your game (note that it's now Gaia that's offering you the opportunity to save), then speak to the writhing Spartan on the ground nearby to finish this segment and take to the skies.

The Burning Horse

Gaia has a plan for you, and sends you off on a journey to reach the Sisters of Fate. She lends you a burning, flying pegasus that you'll have to ride off into the ether towards your next destination.

You'll have Olympian eagles to contend with on your journey, though. Get used to the controls here, as you'll be flying in a much different manner than you would normally be moving around. Left and right will move you towards the sides of the screen, and depending on your settings, up and down will move you around vertically as well, but you won't be able to speed up or slow down or anything like that. Eagles will periodically come up alongside of you and attempt to attack you, so you'll have to counter them with your blades; tap Square or Triangle to whip them to death, while attempting to stay away from their sides as best as you can, as they'll periodically ram you from the right or left. Dealing enough damage to them will cause an O-prompt to appear above their heads, letting you finish them off with a single button press. This will regain most of the life you lost during the fight.

Other eagles will periodically appear in front of you and fire missiles at you. These will track in and hit your pegasus for light damage. If you move around swiftly, you can usually avoid them; try hitting L1 and R1 to dash to either the left or right to avoid the damage. Most of these eagles will fire one volley of missiles, then come back and attack you up close; eventually you will have to deal with both kinds of attacks at the same time.

When that's done, a confusing (at first) divebombing eagle will attempt to spear you from the fore here. Its attacks can be dodged with the L1 button (albeit with some difficulty), but what you want to do is use your X button to charge at it as it comes towards you. Doing so will ram your pegasus into its beak, causing another button-pressing minigame in which you can mash the O button to break the eagle's neck.

Lastly, another soldier riding a winged beast will attack you in a pipe of air. Your magic will drain here, preventing you from catching up to the enemy, so attempt to dodge its purple energy balls (if they appear towards the bottom of the airshaft, ride to the top, and so on), until it unleashes too many for you to dodge. When that happens, you'll be shunted into...

The Lair of the Titan

After a bit of riding around on rails, you'll wind up back on the ground. Your goal now is to free the Pegasus from the fingers of the Titan, but doing so will require more power than you currently possess. Drop down from the finger and look around for a chest containing green orbs. If you move towards the bottom of the screen here, you'll find an obscured handhold leading to another red orb chest and another Eye of Gorgon.

Climb back up the handholds and strike at the fingers in your path to reveal a path leading onward to another set of handholds. Enemies will materialize while you make your way across it, so stay vigilant; they drop a lot of red orbs, though, so do your best to kill them all. When you reach the end of the handholds, you'll find a save point.

The Hand Cavern

Kill the minotaur nearby (don't forget to use L1 to block against its powerful attacks), grab the red orb chest at the end of the passage, then smash the box on the rope nearby and grab the rope to slide down to another area.

After a lengthy walk you'll be out in the open air again, where you'll be accosted by more minotaurs and some archers on wooden platforms. You can smash the platforms with your weapons to bring the archers down to your level, and the minotaurs can be dispatched normally. Note, though, that if you wish to, you can apparently cause a goodly number (half a dozen or so in total) of minotaurs to continually spawn if you keep the rightmost platform intact for the moment. Killing the minotaurs with the O-prompt attack will net you a good amount of red orbs, as well as plenty of health, so you may as well take advantage of this.

When you're ready to move on, smash the remaining platform and jump up to the ledge above you, walk to the left, then jump up from there. After grabbing the chests, ride the chain down to where Prometheus is chained to a statue of a fist. When he's done yapping, attack his body to cut the chains around him to suspend him over the fires below, then climb the chain suspended between two of the fingers to drop to the ground below. There's nothing you can do for Prometheus for now, so continue along the path in front of you until you reach another set of handholds. Follow them, killing the enemies as they appear, until you reach the path at the bottom. (You may notice a few red orb chests hidden behind a few stalagmites during your journey; you won't be able to get them until later on.)

Fire of Olympus

After saving your game, make your way around to the end of the path and more handhelds; another Eye of the Gorgon is in a chest nearby. Climb up the handhelds nearby to reach another icy cave with some chests in it. When you swing across the gap on your grappling hook thing, you'll note another chest behind some bars. To open the bars, find the rope that leads down back to where you grappled across. Gliding down on the chain here will open the bars, allowing you to grapple back across the gap and retrieve a Phoenix Feather.

Move on down the path until you encounter a Medusa. If you recall from the first God of War, medusas are slithering enemies that can dodge your attacks and turn you to stone with their gorgon eyes. Attacking them is usually a matter of hitting them a couple times with the square attack, then holding down triangle to launch them into the air and grabbing them with the O button to throw them to the ground. Roll away from their green magic beams to avoid getting turned to stone; if you do get petrified, quickly move your left analog stick left and right to avoid being smashed to bits and instantly dying. Try not to jump around when you have a green beam on you; if you're petrified in midair, you'll fall and die when you hit the ground.

Apart from that, learn their attacks and try to roll or block when they dodge one of your attacks, because they'll counterattack soon afterwards. When you defeat the second pair of medusas and the imps that fly around, you'll be able to smash a wall that flickers in the background to move on.

Typhon's Cavern

Typhon, a son of Gaia, resides in the cavern nearby. He'll breathe onto the walkways over which you have to pass, so you'll need to time your movements so that you're hiding on one of the shelters provided to you when he does so. Try to grab the imps with the O button when they're near; it's an instant kill and nets you bonus red orbs.

When you reach the large platform near the bottom of the room, find the shiny wall to the right and destroy it. Use R1 to shift the large block here so that it falls, leaving you with a walkway towards Typhon's face (as the game so painstakingly points out to you). With that done, walk towards Typhon and use R1 to grab Typhon's Rage from him. This magical bow can be used with the L2 button to target and the square button to fire. For the moment, at least, it won't cost you any magic to use.

Shoot out Typhon's other eye with the bow, then retreat towards the bottom of the cavern again. A scary face will bar your passage to the right, a la Devil May Cry, and more enemies will pop up to deal with you. Stay near the face barrier to protect yourself from the arrows, take out the swordsmen, then shoot the archers from a distance with Typhon's Rage.

Hidden Treasures!

Before you swing back to the save point and head back outside, it's time to grab a hidden bonus to you. If you move over to the left side of this platform and walk towards the bottom of the screen, you should find a walkway heading out over the chasm below. It will lead you to a room with a large fireplace and infinitely spawning soldier enemies. The enemies don't provide you with any orbs, so don't bother killing them for that; instead, your goal is to throw them into the fire here. To do so, grab them with the O button, then make sure that the blue targeting icon is highlighting over the fireplace, then hit the square button to throw the soldiers into the fire. You'll need to throw five or so of them to melt the ice around the chests near the fire, resulting in a lot of red orbs for you and a new Phoenix Feather.

With that done, return to the platform you were on before and use the bow to fire away at the wooden barrier around the first grapple point. That will let you swing across the barrier (press X to jump, then immediately hit R1 to hit the next point) and fall down onto the ground on the far side, where a number of rocks have fallen. Smash them to retrieve a large number of red orbs, then start making your way back to Prometheus.

Freeing Prometheus

When you return to the exterior portion of the level, look to the left of the screen and find another of the boxes that cover the grappling hooks. Destroy it to come down near the concealed red orb chests, then smash another suspended crate to drop a rope. Climb the rope to return to the hand that Prometheus was originally chained to. Drop down via the chain again and hit Prometheus with Typhon's Rage until he drops into the fire, granting him a final rest, and granting Kratos the Rage of the Titans ability. When your power meter is full, you can click on both of your analog sticks to supercharge your attacks for a short time. Use it to dispatch the soldiers and minotaurs that appear nearby, then climb back up to the chain that Prometheus' death tightened up.

You can now finally obtain the hidden red orb chests here. Before grabbing onto the tightened chain, note the chain next to it that now drops into the abyss. If you jump to it, you'll be able to slide down to the cavern the chests are located in, nabbing you more red orbs and another Eye of the Gorgon. When you return to the top of the chain, examine the wall nearby for a handhold. Jump to it and follow the path to another small cave which contains another Phoenix Feather. Lastly, return to the bottom of the area, and follow the path you did before to reach the save point on the snowy path where all the soldiers were attacking you. Just before the handpath that leads up to the cave above, there's another broken bridge with a wood-encased grappling point. Destroy the wood with your bow and swing across to find another Eye of the Gorgon.

With all that done, return to the chain that Prometheus' death tightened and crawl across. Drop back down to the steel door that blocks your path back to the beginning of the level. There's a chest nearby that has magically appeared; it will refill your Rage meter. Note how the icon on the door looks just like your Rage meter? Activate Rage of the Titans, then smash the door to move on.

The Return

Start fighting your way back to the beginning of the level now, dispatching any soldiers foolish enough to get in your way. When you return to the fingers of Typhon, striking them will restore your Rage juice. Hit them until you're full, then activate your Rage and start whacking away at the fingers. When all of them are raised, your Pegasus will be freed, allowing you to return to the skies.

Chapter Three: The Temple of Lahkesis

Another lengthy encounter with eagles here. Many of the eagles will be ridden by soldiers, allowing you to either kill them when you leap to the eagle (which extends the button-pressing game to two buttons), or attempt to knock them off their mounts by using your triangle whirling attack. Apart from that, the encounter is only slightly more complicated than before. You'll be able to kill the special mounted warrior at the end of the encounter, after navigating through another air tube; strike at him as you would an eagle, and when you fall off the pegasus, engage in the button minigame to finish him off for good and fall to the Island of Fate.

The Climb

Climb up the handpath that you're on until you reach a balcony. To your left are a pair of chests, one of which contains a Phoenix Feather, and to your right is a save point and a ladder. Climb the ladder up to reach another balcony with red soldiers, fierce warriors who act much like the warriors you've been fighting thus far, but who can't be grappled until you knock them around enough for an O-prompt to appear above their heads. We found it helpful to knock them up in the air with a strong triangle attack, then grab them in midair to knock them around a bit.

When the soldiers are dead, climb up to the ladder nearby to encounter some dog-like creatures. The dogs will attempt to swarm you, but if you keep grabbing them with the O button and kicking them around, you should be able to keep them away from you and deal heavy damage to them, to boot. When they're all finished off, head to the right and open the red orb chests there, then jump around to smash the hanging skeletons and the vases along the walls to wrest their precious lifeblood, as well. If you smash around enough, you should notice a dead body on the floor. Pick it up with the R1 button, then place it on the platform at the left end of the area and flip the switch to head downwards.

There's a pressure plate in the room below you that controls a gate nearby. Place the body on the plate to open the gate, then pull the switch in the groove here backwards until the second gate is opened. With that done, you should be able to run towards the second gate (which will close as you do so), then roll through it. Kicking the bridge nearby will show you a lengthy cinematic which explains a bit of the Greek mythology to you if you didn't learn it in school. What are they teaching you kids in school these days, anyway?

Cerberus

Your goal now is to reach the island across the sea. You can spy a chain off in the distance. If you head backwards you'll see a small walkway that's available to you, heading towards the chain; first head into the walkway opposite it and walk to the right to find another Gorgon Eye.

Following the correct path (be ready to jump to the end when it collapses) will lead you to the Cerberus fight. This three-headed dog will be surrounded by smaller dogs, which, luckily, you can use as weapons against it. Each of the heads of the cerberus will have to be removed individually before the animal keels over, but you'll gain Rage points for doing so, so feel free to use whatever Rage you have built up for the first head and third heads.

The easiest method to take down the Cerberus is to grapple the smaller dogs in the area. If the cerberus is close by, it will usually be auto-targeted as the target for the dog-kicking that follows, and it'll take light damage. There are so many dogs coming your way, though, that eventually you'll get the O-prompt above the animal's head and you'll be able to rip a head off (by simple O-button mashing). You can always just attack the cerberus for the same effect, as well. Note that you have a mana chest nearby, so feel free to unload your bow into the cerberus to damage it.

When the cerberus is dead, destroy the statues at the far end of the wall. One of them is holding up a large pedestal, which you can drag to the jumping spot here and jump up and move on.

The Siren's Song

After saving your game, move through the small alley to the left of the savepoint to find handholds leading down. You'll come to a ladder that leads to more handholds. Destroy the enemies and smash the stone block that blocks your path, then move around to a broken bridge with archers and more dogs. Defeat the archers first with your arrows, if possible, before taking out the dogs, then jumping across the gap to where the archers stood. Another decent-sized fight will occur before you can take a lift leading downward.

You'll encounter your first siren at the bottom of the lift. These guys are essentially a pallette-shifted version of the medusa; they act very similar to those enemies in the way they dodge and attack. Instead of turning you to stone, though, they'll hit you with a wide-area stunning sound attack that will temporarily incapacitate you. You can cancel out of it by shifting the left analog stick side to side. As with the medusas, these guys can be overkilled by waiting for the O-prompt above their heads, then squeezing them to death. Since they drop magic orbs when they die in this way, you can wheedle down their health with Typhon's Rage, then grab them and destroy them to gain your mana back. Killing three of the sirens will open the door leading onward.

Move through the opened door to reach a savepoint, and the Steeds of Time.

Boss Fight: Theseus

When you get to the end of the chain, climb up the handholds to your left to find an upper platform. Not much you can do here, but there is a switch you can flip, which will lower the rope nearby and let you drop down to another platform, where Theseus is locking a door with his key. He seems reluctant to part with it. Time to officially issue the beats.

First Phase

Theseus will attack with his energized staff during the first phase of this fight. He can block many of your attacks, so try to avoid overstepping your bounds; stay away from large combo moves unless you're relatively sure that you can penetrate his guard.

For the most part, getting a couple hits here and there should be sufficient to antagonize Theseus. Periodically, he'll probably manage to stab you with his staff, resulting in a very quick left analog stick prompt popping up. If you manage to hit the prompt correctly, you'll counter his move and throw him to the ground, allowing you to quickly pop out a combo or special move for big damage. Apart from that, just keep your block up, wait for him to bust out his three-move combo, then slash at him when it's over.

Eventually Theseus will charge up his staff with blue energy. This will allow him to stab the ground and cause large explosions to occur in his immediate area. If you want to avoid damage, just stay away from him when he runs away from you.

Second Phase

After you deal enough damage to Theseus, he'll climb up to the balcony above the arena and start flinging missiles at you. You can't hide from these (if you attempt to get underneath the overhang, he'll cause multiple explosions to appear at your feet), but you can dodge them. If you stand still until the missiles are in midair, they'll hit the floor. Just try not to constantly move, though, as Theseus will lead you and hit you if you move in a straight line. It's best just to stand still, wait for a missile to get in the air, move slightly to the left or right, then fire away with arrows until the next missile comes your way. Eventually he'll start flinging out homing missiles, which you'll probably need to dodge with the right analog stick.

During this time, you should be flinging Typhon's Rage arrows at Theseus to deal damage to him. This will use up mana, obviously, and you'll eventually run out. Luckily for you, though, Theseus will eventually summon in a pair of minotaurs, both of which will drop mana and health when killed. Quickly blast them with Rage of the Titans, get your mana back, and continue to unload on Theseus with Typhon's Rage. If you don't have Rage, then you'll have to take them down the hard way; try to use the triangle move that blasts them up into the air, then grab them and slam them into the ground. This will mostly keep you invulnerable while you're airborne, which is helpful, since Theseus will continue flinging missiles and explosions at you during this time. The missiles that he sends your way deal fairly light damage, at least on normal difficulty, so if you have a comfortable buffer of health, feel free to simply stand there and wail on him with arrows, assuming no minotaurs are around to harrass you.

It may take you a couple rounds of killing minotaurs to finally finish off Theseus, but he will eventually drop down and hang from the platform he's on. Pull him down with the left analog stick, then mash his head in the door by tapping the O button. That will finish him off and nab you the Horse Keeper's Key.

Holding the Reins

After you pass through the door here, take the right exit and climb the ladder nearby. There's a red orb chest at the end of the path, so grab it, then walk back to the platform that Theseus was shooting arrows at you from. There's a set of steps here; climb them, then jump to the other red orb chest. Grab the rope here to slide back to the first steed you were on; you can now unlock the door with your key. Doing so, then placing the key in the pedestal beyond, will net you Cronos' Rage. Hitting L2 while this magic is active will send electrical energy through all nearby enemies; you can use it on the soldiers that start popping out of the ground for an example. If you simply mash the button, you should be able to kill all of the soldiers and net yourself a huge combo to boot.

Head out via the left exit and climb the stairs. Exploring the platform above you will yield a save point, a red orb chest, and a Phoenix Feather in another chest nearby. Get them all, then take the path near the ladder. You'll come to a kind of control mechanism that holds locks for each of the four steeds' blinders. Your goal now is to unlock all of the blinders, apparently.

Unlocking The Blinders

You stand in the middle of the four steeds at this point. The red and blue steeds are to your right (as viewed if you look the same direction the steeds are heading), while the green and yellow steeds are to your left. Before you begin fiddling with the controls here, head to your left and mount the green steed; you can find a Gorgon's Eye if you follow the path down to its nose.

Your goal here is to unlock the blinders on all of the steeds. Begin with the red steed. Grab the red post on the small platform and move your left analog stick around until you see Kratos pulling it. Eventually it will lock into place, and you'll notice a small guard mechanism on the blinders on the red steed unlock. If you quickly jump across to the red steed, then use X to jump up the handholds, you should be able to reach the lock mechanism before it closes, allowing you to hit R1 to put the Horse Keeper's Key into it. That will unlock the blinders and free the small imp that was hovering above the lock to move off between the green and yellow steeds, where it will act as a grappling point. Repeat this process with the green steed to unlock another grappling hook between the red and blue steeds.

Now, you're going to have to do the same thing for the yellow and green steeds, but they're farther away from the central platform, meaning that, for the yellow steed, you have to pull its lever, head to the green steed, grapple onto the imp, then jump to the yellow steed and unlock its blinders. The same process is done for the red and blue steeds. You should have enough time to get to your goal, presuming you remember to jump up the handholds instead of simply climbing them. Also, keep in mind that the imps that act as your grapple points move around; if you jump when they're far away from the steed that's your destination, you'll likely wind up falling to your death. Wait for them to get into position before jumping, and don't forget that you can double-jump off of a grapple hook for extra distance. Getting back from the yellow steed might actually require you to jump from the upper platform and grapple to the imp in mid-air.

When all of the blinders are opened, the brace in the middle of the four small pull-levers will be open. Tab R1 to flip it and ride the platform up between the steeds, then hit R1 again to start whipping the steeds into a frenzy. Completing the left-analog-stick movement game will prod the steeds forward, pulling the Island of Fate so that it fits snugly with the Temple of Lahkesis, presumably allowing you to move from one to the other. Time to find out!

Return To The Temple

Another large fight with soldiers and minotaurs will break out as you proceed back to the Temple. Don't forget that minotaurs drop blue orbs when killed via the O-prompt; feel free to abuse your Cronos' Rage magic against these enemies.

Cross the chain, smash the rock that blocks your path on the handhold, and save your game. In the small water-filled room nearby, you can smash the ornate wall underneath the largest waterfall to reveal a red orb chest. There's another red orb chest at the top of the room, hidden on a ledge to the right. If you jump to the right when you reach the fiery pedestal, you should find it.

Follow the handholds nearby. When you reach a choice between heading left or heading down, head left; another Gorgon Eye is in a chest on the ledge there. Follow the handholds back and down to the ledge below. Before heading off to the left, though, find the additional handhold path to the right. If you follow it down and under the ledge, you'll see a broken rock; smash it to reveal a Phoenix Feather.

Head-Scratcher

With all of those items gathered, return to the middle ledge and kick open the door. You're inside a large chapel here, with a pressure plate that lowers the hands of a statue across the way. Not much you can do with it now, so drop down to the ground below and move all the way to the bottom of the screen to nab a Phoenix Feather and a Gorgon Eye, in chests that are just barely out of sight unless you move towards them (i.e. move Kratos backwards towards you).

With that done, use R1 to grab the large island in the middle of the water here, and drag it towards the bottom of the screen. Doing so will reveal a hole in the water. Swim through it and examine the statue on the other side of the grate to obtain the Amulet of the Fates, which will allow you to slow down time when needed by pressing the R1 and L1 buttons simultaneously.

Swim back through the passage here and stand on the pressure plate at the bottom of the room, near the treasure chests. That will cause the pedestals nearby to raise up, but they'll quickly drop when you step off the plate. Thus, you need to stand on the plate, activate the amulet, then quickly jump up to the upper walkway before your time-stopping power winds down. When you're up above on the upper walkway, repeat the process with the pressure plate at the bottom of the screen, which lets the hands of the statue fall down and raise up. When you're done talking to the statue, smash it with your weapons to cause it to break the window behind you, then grab the Phoenix Feather from the chest below before moving on.

A lengthy fight will ensue in the courtyard here, which is your last challenge before reaching the Island of Fate. Two of the annoying burrowing enemies from the last game, wraiths, will attack you here, but if you continually activate your time powers, you shouldn't have a problem with them; just remember to block when they're underground and burrowing towards you. The easiest way to defeat them is to grab them and throw them around before ripping their arms off. They drop mana orbs when they die, so feel free to use your Cronos' Rage magic, as well. When everything's dead, smash the head that lies on the ground and move out to the last challenge before reaching the Island of Fate.

The Green Shield

The Sisters of Fate are apparently intent to not let you onto their island. They erect a large shield of fate energy here which bars your passage. There are two ladders leading down, but before taking them, explore the upper platforms for a red orb chest and another Gorgon Eye.

When you drop down, you'll be in another large arena, where cyclopes will attack you, alongside boars. Save your Rage of the Titans while dealing with the first cyclops. These guys are big and powerful, so try to keep your distance and tag them from long range when possible. When they roar and sparks fly out of their eyes, you can unload on them, since they won't be attacking you for a few seconds. They won't seem to take much damage, but they will eventually have a circle icon above their head, allowing you to bust their heads on your knee for a burst of red and green orbs. It'll take a couple of these to finish the beast off.

When the first cyclops is down, two more will pop up to replace them. Pop your Rage now and use the triangle-mashing attack to swiftly deal damage to the cyclopes here, being sure to de-activate the rage when you're stunned or caught up in a fist to preserve it. The boars around here will drop rage when you gut them, so grab them whenever possible with the O button to disembowel them.

Dropping the Shield

After both of the cyclopes are defeated, all of the barricades in the area will fall, giving you access to two new ladders. These ladders will lead to a walkway underneath the eye-beams that are raising the shield blocking you from the Island of Fate. You have to find some way to block the beams if you want to move on.

Luckily, there are two statues in the area. One can be simply dragged out and kicked towards the slot in the ground in front of the eyebeams, but the other one will be a bit more complicated. Flip the switch near it to drop the platform, drag the statue onto the platform, then flip the switch again to raise the platform. After you flip it, quickly double-jump onto the platform before it raises, then turn around and deliver a full-strength kick to the statue. If you kick hard enough while it's on the edge of the platform, it'll be kicked almost all the way to the slot on the bridge. Push it in to reflect the eyebeams back onto the eyes, destroying them and dropping the shield.

Chapter Four: Euryale’s Temple

Boss Fight: Barbarian King

After saving your game, move up the path into the bog, slicing up the hanging bodies to find some orbs. After you move forward a bit, a barbarian warrior will capture you and drag you along behind his horse. You need to deal with him!

Begin by saving yourself from a lot of damage by playing a button-pressing minigame. After four or five successful button hits, you'll regain your health and mana and be shuttled into a little arena to fight the barbarian king.

Phase One: Horseback

The barbarian rides into battle on his horse at the outset of the fight. He'll roam around the arena firing arrows at you, hitting you with his hammer when he gets close, and occasionally attempting to run you down with his horse. Dodge out of the path of the horse charge when that occasion arrives, and stay on the move to hopefully dodge the arrows. While doing so, unload your Typhon's Rage arrows into him; that will start knocking off the blue protective spirits that have gathered around him.

When you're out of mana (you'll gain some back each time you knock off a spirit), you'll have to finish off the remaining spirits with melee attacks. Get within range of attacks and start hitting your enemy, but try to avoid taking damage from the barbarian's hammer attacks. After knocking off the last couple of spirits, an O-prompt will appear above the horse. Getting close and nailing the O button will finish off the horse, making this a mano-a-mano fight. For the moment, anyway.

Phase Two: The Souls Of The Damned

The barbarian will now attack you one-on-one, using his hammer to deal plenty of damage to you. He is, again, protected by the blue spirits that swirl around him. He can also stomp his hammer into the ground with his foot to cause a large jet of flames to ripple along the ground towards Kratos; you can jump over this attack if you anticipate it.

The key to his undoing here will be that he can materialize the spirits into bodies. He'll first summon up four helper spirits to deal with you. They'll attack you if they get close, but they can be eliminated by a simple O-button grapple. Focus on the spirits while avoiding the barbarian's attacks; after killing the first four, another four will appear. After they die, two final spirits will appear, including one that will drop some health for you. After all the spirits are destroyed, you'll move on to phase three.

Phase Three: Hammertime

After you knock off all of the spirits for the second time, the barbarian will absorb them and grow to three times his normal size. He has two basic attacks which he'll send your way here; a two-swing combo that results in a big windup before the hammer smashes into the ground, and a slightly quicker three-swing combo that has the same basic finisher. These attacks are all kind of slow, so do your best to roll to the side when they come out to avoid the ground slam. If you manage to avoid getting rammed by the slam, then you should be able to unload a combo into the barbarian's side before he recovers and attacks again. Feel free to pop some Rage at this point, if you like, to power through the fight more quickly, but if you have any to spare, you may want to save it for the last part of the fight.

Phase Four: Finish Him!

After knocking the stuffing out of the barbarian, he'll shrink to normal size and start wailing on you. He'll use the same basic combos that he put out while he was supersized, but will now also summon his spirits together and throw them at you. Try to keep an eye out for this move and dodge away from it when it comes in.

At this point, it's difficult to dodge the barbarian's attacks, unless you stay back and use Typhon's rage or something. If you're running low on health, feel free to bust out your Cronos' Rage or Rage of the Titans or some such. You have to deal enough damage to him to cause an O-prompt to appear above his head. When you see it, get close to him and hit O, but be ready to mash on the O button with your index finger, because you'll have to do so immediately to grab the hammer out of his hands. When you have it, you have to hit four button presses in a row; missing any of them will force you to go back and damage the barbarian again and repeat the whole sequence.

You Got The Whole Hammer In Your Hands

Obviously enough, this whole boss fight will earn you a new weapon: the barbarian hammer. It's a slow and somewhat unwieldy thing, so we didn't use it very often, but you can feel free to do so if you want to vary things up a bit.

The Temple of Euryale

When you reach the temple, head right and save your game. There's a small jumping path near the save point; follow it to find Euryale's Key on the body of a soldier, as well as a new enemy, the boarmen. These boarmen group together well, but can be grappled, so feel free to simply grab them and slam them around to finish them off. Another new enemy is waiting back by the doorway to the temple (which you can't enter yet); these skeletons can be knocked around by hitting them a couple of times with your hammer's triangle attack. That will cause their O-prompt to appear, allowing you to finish them off.

To the left of the doorway, a pair of skeletons will appear. Finish them, then jump into the darkened alcove in the corner of the building, before the locked door, to find another red orb chest. After opening the locked door with Euryale's Key, check the small alcove to the right of the path nearby to find another Gorgon Eye.

Ruins of the Forgotten

Gird yourself for a major fight here. As soon as you approach the ruins, a boarman will appear, blow a horn, summon a cyclops, and mount it, using its axes to command it in battle, and opening up numerous new attacks to it. The three major attacks it will wield are a straightforward tree slam, which is easily anticipated and dodged, a two-swing attack which can be avoided by keeping your distance, and a very damaging three-slam attack which will deal major damage to you if you get caught up in the blasts. (If you find yourself stunned by the first slam here, quickly activate Rage of the Titans if you have any left and use your unstunnability to escape the next two.) In addition, if you get knocked up into the ground at all, the cyclops will grab you and hold you while the boarman comes down to the arm to hit you himself.

Attacking the cyclops is best accomplishes through dancing like a butterfly; you can't stay within melee range of it at all times, or it'll give you an absolutely whooping. If you've upgraded your Athena's Blades to level three, the aerial L1 + Square move will be helpful in dashing in after it attacks and hitting it, especially after the single-slam move where it rams its tree trunk into the ground; this move has the longest recovery time. If you try to pull this move off and still get hit, you may want to settle for just a normal square-button mash, then dart away.

Higher Goals

The thing to keep in mind here is that there's a collection mini-game at stake. The game will reward you with a special urn if you manage to collect 20 cyclops eyes as you play. It doesn't appear that you were able to collect the eyes of the weak cyclopes that you fought earlier, but you can nab the eyes of the cyclopes here, if you like. If you don’t want to bother with the minigame now, that’s fine; you’ll be able to complete it rather easily after you beat the game and unlock the extra content.

Unfortunately, doing so requires you to kill the boarman on its back before killing the cyclops itself, which is a tricky task, since most of your normal attacks here will be hitting the cyclops, which will likely die first, all things considered. Doing so is easiest if you've managed to upgrade Cronos' Rage to level two; it'll deal more damage and affect a larger area if you've done so. Since the boarman will die to Cronos' Rage damage before the cyclops will, planting an upgraded Rage down next to them, then quickly dashing away, will eventually kill the boarman and let you deal with the cyclops by itself. Otherwise, again, you can simply attempt to throw the cyclops, pull the boarman off the shoulders, and deal with him on the ground.

When the boarman dies, the cyclops will revert to its normal attacks, which almost always is a two-attack combo including a kick and a overhand slam with the tree trunk. Dodging both of these will give you plenty of time to counterattack, since they will usually be followed by a roar in which you can simply unload on the cyclops. When you get the O-prompt over the cyclops' head, jam a few buttons in sequence to rip its eye from the socket and pocket it.

Uh-Oh...

As soon as you defeat the first cyclops and boarman combo, a couple of boarmen will pop up from the ground, one of whom will call for another cyclops, which will come barreling up the cliff. If you leave the boarmen to their devices, one of them will mount the cyclops and start whacking you again.

It's obviously in your best interest to not let this happen, so try to defeat the boarmen before they get a chance to get near the cyclops, unloading Rage of the Titans or your magical attacks on them. Avoid grappling attacks if both of the boarmen are still alive; if you get locked into a multi-second animation while killing one of the boarmen, the second will almost definitely get on top of the cyclops and force you to fight another very difficult opponent.

Assuming you manage to kill both of the boarmen before they mount the cyclops, the cyclops itself will be a relatively simple kill. Again, avoid its combo attack, unload on it while it roars, then use the O-prompt to pluck its eye from the socket.

Into The Ruins

Now that you have all that out of the way, it's time to finally head into the ruins here. Pull the block away from the door and open the gate leading inside. (As far as we can tell, there's no particular puzzle involved with the tilting ruins here...although we're probably wrong!)

Inside the ruins, smash any suspicious-looking stacks of blocks in your way; one contains a red orb chest. You'll eventually come to a large doorway and a path leading off to your left; the path ends in another red orb chest. Head back through the doorway and begin killing off the firebugs and wraiths that appear; focus on the firebugs first, jumping and grabbing them, or they'll pelt you with fireballs. When everything's dead, smash the rock in the middle of the cave to reveal a grapple point. This one will spin you around as long as you hold down the R1 button, so time your jump so that you move to the far ledge here.

After a couple more grappling point jumps, you'll come to another section of bog. Climb the ladder on your right and slide across the rope to reach a Gorgon Eye, then quickly dash across the tree stumps in the bog until you get underneath the soldiers that are firing explosive grenades at you. Smash the pillars here to drop the soldiers down, then grapple them to death. After the left and right pillars are destroyed, you can R1 to grab the central pillar and shake it with the L1 and R1 buttons; that will spawn a few more soldiers, but also give you the path up to the ledge above you. There's a red orb and green orb chests near the edge here, in the small alcoves.

Bodies In The Water

After you drop down into the large circular room, you'll be confounded with a puzzle. You have to depress two switches to open the gate that leads on, but you only have one dead body. It would be possible to open the gate if you could put the body on the plate behind the half-opened grate, but you can't jump over it while carrying the body. Hmm...

The answer here lies in the water. If you flip the lever in the circular room, then smash out the rear walls to each of the small alcoves, you'll find a river that flows behind all of the rooms, which apparently goes in a circle. If you drop the body in the river that you have access to, then jump over the grate to the left room and wait in the water there, the body will eventually appear. Grab it from the water and place it on the left pressure plate, then jump over the grate and stand on the central plate. This will drop the northern grate long enough for you to roll across it.

River of Blood

You'll spot the Spartan warrior who was pleading for your help earlier at this point. You won't be able to reach him directly, so jump onto the gear in the water and latch onto the lever nearby to start moving it. You have to move it far enough along the chains so that you can jump to the next gear, but your progress will be impeded by undead soldiers that hop onto the platform as you move. You can quickly dispatch them either by grappling and throwing them overboard with the square button, or by hitting them with a couple of triangle-button attacks with your barbarian hammer.

Navigate the gears until you reach the far exit from the river, where you'll encounter a stone golem which will bar your path. If you stand far away from it, it'll throw rocks at you; getting up close and personal will force it to whirl around with its fists. It's easiest to take it out with melee attacks. Get close enough to force it to whirl around and note the range of its fists during this attack. After it finishes the whirl and begins settling up, dart in with a combo, then dodge backwards as it begins a new one. As long as you're quick to dodge, you can repeat this action a dozen times or so to weaken the beast. When the O-prompt appears above its head, finish it off with button presses and break the tree behind it to move on.

When you reach the rope suspended across the area, start crawling along it and use the O button to grapple your enemies to their deaths. When you reach the end of the rope, drop down and open the shutter near the rotating wheel to reveal a fate statue; this will let you use your L1 and R1 buttons to freeze time and allow you to cross the wheel.

You have to navigate through a rolling platform here, replete with undead soldiers. There are petrifying beams that cover the hallway you need to move along, so don't jump. Use grapples and throwing attacks to clean out the soldiers as they pop up, but be aware that you get 15 extra orbs for killing a soldier while it's petrified. They won't cross the beams themselves, but if you knock the soldiers around a bit, some will turn to stone and let you pick up the bonus orbs for finishing them off in that manner. If you don't want to deal with them, just roll your way to the end of the path and use a special attack to destroy the wooden wall there, then use the grappling point to swing across to the platform nearby. Destroy the statues to reveal a wooden block and push it to head...

Right back to the teetering ruins you were at previously. Now that you have two sets of blocks, maybe you can do something about them? In order to use the block, jump onto the teetering building and push the old block back towards the left side of the screen, so that there's a small ramp leading onto the building. Then, push the new block onto the building from the ramp, ensuring that both of the blocks are on the portion of the building that leans. With that done, kick both of them over to the far side of the building, near the door you used earlier. This will cause the building to tilt more heavily than it previously did, allowing you to move to the edge of it and use the R1 button to throw the whole thing into the river below.

The Cave of Torment

Climb down onto the roof of the building you shoved into the river and jump from there to the handholds on the far side. Break the tree that blocks your path and jump over to the far side from there. Ignore the big grinding wheel in your path, and head up and over the path nearby. Speak to the argonaut on the ground to learn about the Golden Fleece, which Jason possesses.

There's a new Medusa in the area, with a powerful petrifying beam that will turn you to stone before you can roll away from it. You can attack her as you normally would, but again, don't jump around. You'll deal with more of them in a few minutes.

After looking around and finding the Phoenix Feather here, pick up the argonaut and place him in the middle of the hallway, on the rolling path that leads under a grinder. His body will clog up the works and allow you to move into the room nearby, where another Cerberus awaits you.

Boss Fight: Cerberus II

This cerberus is a bit different than the one you fought earlier: it's tougher, for one thing, and can breathe fire and shoot fireballs. Luckily for you, though, you can block pretty much all of its attacks, except for the fireballs, which will eventually break through your block and damage you. Still, though, if you're patient, you should be able to beat the creature without taking too much damage.

This is technically more of a miniboss fight, so there's not much indication of progress here; there's one animation that plays when you knock off around a quarter of the beast's health, but apart from that, you'll just have to use normal weapon attacks on the animal until you get the O-prompt above its head.

Ignore the switch on one side of the room here; it won't help you. Instead, let the beast get close to you and keep your guard up. When you block a couple of its attacks, hit it two or three times with your Blades of Medusa. That's basically the pattern that you're going to be following here, making the fight a relatively long one. No need to bust out any supercombos, which will likely just open you up to damage anyway. Feel free to use your Rage of the Titans, however, and use that to knock most of the beast's health away; you'll be getting a full health recharge when it dies, anyway, so you don't need to worry too much about taking damage so long as you leave yourself a comfort zone for finishing the fight.

When the O-prompt pops up, hit it to finish off the devil dog and grab the Golden Fleece.

Escape!

With the Fleece in your possession, flip the switch in the room, head to the scorch mark in the center of the room, and tap L1 just before it hits you to reflect the fireball back at the wall; this is the special power of the Golden Fleece, which will let you do this on most incoming enemy attacks from now on.

For instance, the medusas that attacked you earlier are back in full force now, with two attacking you at a time. They're tough to take on normally, but with two, you'll need something special to deal with them. The Golden Fleece will let you tap L1 just as their eyes start to glow green; if you then hit the button prompt that appears (it's randomized), you'll petrify any nearby enemies, allowing you to attack them and hopefully crush them to death before they unfreeze. Again, no jumping attacks; if you get frozen in midair, you'll die upon landing.

Into The Temple of Euryale

Head back to the entrance to the temple, near where the skeletons originally attacked you. If you walk onto the platform nearby, you can use the golden fleece to block the stone beams and reflect them back on the doorway, which in turn will let you attack it and head inside.

Inside, start making your way through the frozen enemies, smashing them before they can come to life. Climb down the ladder to reach a large abattoir with new minotaur-like enemies. You can throw the lesser soldiers at them, if you like, or just use some upgraded Cronos' Rage spells to knock a bunch of them out at once.

Nearby, you'll come across a still-human soldier that wrecks a lift, seemingly preventing you from moving on. Don't worry about it, though; take the working lift down into the transfer room, then kill the bugs that are flying around. When they're dead, you can smash the giant emblem on the wall here to reveal some treasure chests, including either a Gorgon Eye or a Phoenix Feather. (You may have to throw one of the bugs at the emblem in order to smash it.) Get back on the working lift and raise it up slightly off the ground; note that the height of the non-working lift is affected as well. What you want to do is raise the nonworking lift just high enough for you to jump up onto it, without it being too high to reach. When you do so, you'll be able to jump up onto some footholds in the shaft and climb your way up to the top from those.

A fairly tough supersoldier will fight you here. It's immune to throws and will block many of your attacks. If you can pull it off, the parry attack (hit L1 just before an attack comes your way, then tap O) will be a good way for you to bust through its defenses. You have a health chest near the save point here, though, so feel free to toy around with it and find a strategy you prefer.

Challenges

When you climb to the top of the ladder here, you'll need to climb up the wall and avoid the ceiling blades that rotate around up there. They move slow, and there's another health chest at the end of this section, so don't worry too much if you get hit once or twice.

When you drop down to the health chest, you'll find a switch. Flip it, then quickly run down the hallway nearby until you find another switch. Flip that one as well, then move to the end of the hallway and lift up the door there with the R1 button. You need to do all of this before the spiketrap comes back and kills you, but you should have just enough time to do so if you act quickly.

Boss Fight: Euryale

Euryale, Medusa's sister, is a rotund, large snake that attacks with petrification effects and her massive body; she'll appear when you read the book in the room in front of you. There are three main phases here.

First Phase

This is going to be the quickest phase of the fight, since Euryale won't have many attacks to send your way. Her favorite move will be a quick tail-sweep, followed by a tailslam into the ground. You can block the first sweep, but the slam is unblockable, so roll out of the way. Jumping around is a good way to avoid this attack. Secondly, she'll periodically send out a red petrification field at you. If you're standing still, you can tap L1 just before it hits to activate the Golden Fleece; mashing on the O button if you're successful will explode the energy coming your way, causing Euryale to drop a few blue orbs for you.

Apart from dodging these attacks, you can attack Euryale as you like here. We used the aerial L1 + Square attack quite a bit to get in a quick ten hits, but you can also use Cronos' Rage on her, since you'll be getting back magical orbs when you reflect her petrification beam and when this phase ends. Save your Rage of the Titans, though.

After a bit of time, you'll get some health and mana from Euryale and the next segment will begin.

Second Phase

At this point, Euryale will head to the pillars on the north side of the room. She'll slither around them and attach herself to the wall in this manner. You can nail her with the aerial Cyclone of Chaos, if you like, or jump up and hit her with magic. She'll occasionally swing her lower body around, so be on the lookout for that, although it can be blocked if you're on the ground. She'll also periodically send down a huge wave of petrification at you; it apparently can't be dodged or jumped over, so just let it hit you and quickly tap your way out of it. Lastly, she'll sometimes jump off of the platform and create a shockwave, which can be jumped over.

Attack her while she's attached to the pillar, if you like, or nail her after she jumps down, and you'll eventually move on to phase three after completing a couple of minigames.

Third Phase

Euryale becomes enraged at this point, and has some new attacks to whip out. The first is a quick-action stone ray, that's difficult to block or reflect; be ready to tap out of it before she smashes you. Secondly, she can shoot small red orbs at you that move at varying speeds; these can be caught with the Golden Fleece, if you're quick with it. Lastly, she can pound her fists into the ground, which is unblockable and will obviously incapacitate you.

The best approach here is to just go hellbent. Activate your Rage of the Titans and start unloading on Euryale to deal as much damage as possible, assuming you have a decent amount of health remaining in your stores. It's a fair bit more difficult to play cat and mouse with her at this point, since she has a much broader array of attacks, but you can still unload with Cronos' Rage or Typhon's Bane if you like. After dealing enough damage to her (it won't take too long), you'll see an O-prompt above her head; completing the button pressing minigames will finish the beast off and earn you the Head of Euryale magic, which obviously is the same as the Gorgon's Stare magic from the original God of War. Use it on five of the soldiers that appear (press L2 to activate it) to open up the passage moving on.

Euryale's Defeat

After taking down Euryale, it's time to escape from the Island of the Fates. Head through the passage and examine the puzzle that lies before you. Well, you can't really examine it, since it's spread throughout a few rooms, but we'll go ahead and tell you about it. In order to move on from here, you'll need to swing around on a few grapple points, which aren't currently raised. Raising them will require a bit of swimming, however.

Anyway, move out from the save point and rotate the lever directly in front of you. That will raise the first grapple point post, of five total that you need to hit. With that done, jump to the nearby platform (note that most of the rooms here will have underwater jars that you can smash with your R1 swimdash for a few orbs) and pull the lever, which will open a gate underwater nearby. The gate will close as you approach it, so use your Amulet of the Fates (L1 + R1) before jumping into the water.

The second room features another post, so make sure it's fully raised and locked in place before jumping into the water and flipping the switch near the corner of the room, underwater. The gate nearby will open, allowing you to move on to the third room. As you'll find out, though, if you attempt to simply swim through the gates, the far gate will shut before you reach it. So, flip the switch, move towards the first gate, then use your R1 swimdash to jet through the second gate before it closes. If you mess up, you'll have to return to the first room.

Third Room

When you reach the third room, raise the third lever, then jump into the water and use your swimdash to bust through one of the fragile gates underneath; that'll lead to the fourth room. The fourth post is obviously here (take note of the hidden alcove above this room as you raise it), as well as a switch in a small alcove; flipping it will open the gate above the room, which is where you ultimately want to be. It's to be found in the hallway nearby, to the right of the ladder. Head into the room there and prepare for battle.

Truth be told, this fight is only as hard as you want it to be. As soon as you start rotating the lever underneath the fate statue, a horde of enemies will begin popping up, including a large gladiator and numerous smaller soldiers. The soldiers will be capable of flinging fireballs at you (which you can reflect with the Golden Fleece) and also crawling towards you and exploding when they're near death. The gladiators and just beat-down machines. Since you have the ability to stop time, you can do so as often as you like to either grapple the soldiers to death or beat down the gladiators.

Making The Jumps

After killing everyone here, move out into the hallway and climb the ladder. There are two red orb chests here, as well as a pressure plate that you should stand on. When you have all of those done, return to the gladiator arena and rotate the lever underneath the statue; that will raise up the post here. Unlike the others, though, this one will slowly rotate back down into the ground, leaving you limited time to get past the grapple point above.

As soon as you lock the post as far as it'll go, activate your Amulet and run towards the ladder. When you reach the top, wait for your timestop to wear off, then activate the Amulet again. At this point, grab onto the grappling point in front of you, then start rotating and jumping from point to point. You'll want to be around 45 degrees away from a full rotation before attempting to jump to the next point. A little practice will show you the way, and if you need to start over, the ladder you unlocked will let you do so.

Note that there's a hidden alcove on the right side of your screen as you rotate around the fifth and final post. Jumping to it will net you more red orbs and a Phoenix Feather.

Catacombs of the Fallen

When you reach the elevator, flip the switch and start dealing with the dogs that unceremoniously drop in your lap. If you've upgraded your Blades of Athena a fair amount, you should have the Cyclone of Chaos move bound to L1 + Square, which will make quick work of the doggies. When you reach the top of the shaft, tap O repeatedly to push the elevator back down a bit, kill a couple more dogs, then repeat the process until the doorway here is open wide enough for you to roll through.

After making your way onto the wooden beams here, jump up onto the handhold to your right and creep along. Predictably enough, the stone pile in front of you is another stone golem. Take it out the way you did before, rolling away from it when it rotates, then rolling back in to hit it. Note that there's a dual mana/health chest back a bit, though; if you're already full on both resources, feel free to use your magic to drain most of the creature's health. The imps here will attempt to divebomb you with firebombs; get used to jumping just before they hit the ground to avoid the damage.

After swinging across the gap, be ready for a group of skeletons that will rise from the dead behind you. Use the Barbarian Hammer’s triangle attack to mash them, then kill them with the O-button to gain a few extra orbs. Head up the stairs and flip the switch to return to the Atrium of the Fates.

Before you move on from here, head to the left of your screen and enter the Bog of the Forgotten. If you return to the area where the Barbarian King grabbed you with his horse, you can find a Gorgon Eye and a chest containing around 4,500 red orbs. Nice!

Across The Cliffs

Return to the Atrium and use the Fleece to counter the fireball in the hallway nearby. That will lead to a passageway towards a cliff area where more skeletons appear. Blast the nearby skeleton archers with magic or combos, then bring the skeletal gladiator back into the hallway to take him out without having to deal with the more distant archers, who can then be destroyed with your bow.

When you’re ready to move on, swing across the first gap, but don’t keep jumping; land on the first platform and climb up the wall to find a Gorgon Eye and a red orb chest. Grab those items, then drop back down and swing along the grappling points.

Chapter Five: The Hall of Atropos

The exterior of the hall here has a few of the burrowing wight enemies you’ve come to know and hate. They drop plenty of magic orbs when killed with throws, so try to soften them up with magic before using your throw combinations to finish them off.

When you save your game, move to the doorway near the save point and head on through. Heal at the chests if need be, then move through to the next little arena. You’ll be attacked by a trio of summoners here; shamans that can summon minotaurs up from the depths to attack you. The summoners themselves can fling green energy at you to slow you down, or slice at you with energy blades.

Luckily, the summoners aren’t too troublesome to deal with if you can get close to them, which itself can be problematic since they can teleport. If you’re having trouble, lay down a Cronos’ Rage to stun them, then grab them with the O button. Mash O to break through their guard, then start lassoing them in from the air. Lather, rinse, repeat as often as it takes to finish them off; being immune to attacks while you’re throwing these guys around will make this fairly easy. Since they drop a lot of mana orbs when killed by a throw move, you can use your magic to weaken up the minotaurs before killing the third summoner, then finish the minotaurs off.

Moving On Up

You have to exit this room through the upper passageway, and there’s a platform that will reach it if you move the lever in the center of the room. Unfortunately, the platform will drop before you can get up there, necessitating some statuesque interventions. Begin by placing one of the statues in the room on top of the platform itself. The second statue should be placed just to the side of the platform, between it and the lever. What you have to do here is move the lever until the platform is locked at its uppermost point, then let go and push the second statue underneath the platform as it descends. If done properly, the second statue will arrest the fall, and you’ll be able to jump up to the top of the room.

Move along the corridor there, popping the red orb chest before moving out to an exterior area. Head down to the chest at the end of the smashed bridge to fight off some soldiers, then take the nearby stairs to reach another little abattoir where a couple of demonoid-looking creatures will accost you. These guys are difficult, and will block and counter most of your attacks, so it’s well worth using either magic or Rage of the Titans to wear them down before killing them off. When they’re dead, head to the doorway leading out, press R1 to grab the large block, then drag it backwards into the room you’re in to jump up and reach a Gorgon Eye. With that done, push the block down and into the atrium below you.

The Edge of Creation

Push the block around until it comes to rest underneath the half-broken ladder here. After climbing it, move around to the right to find a statue atop a cracked pedestal; smash the pedestal, then push the statue onto the ground below you. Move back towards where the eye-beams cross the bridge, then step across the beams that lead off to the other side of the area. You’ll find a Phoenix Feather here, as well as a doorway directly above the one you passed through earlier. You’ll come into a room that’s populated with soldiers and a gladiator or two. Kill them before jumping up to the platform above and moving on.

After swooping around on the grapple points, swing your way to a balcony with a fate statue and kill the soldiers there. Stand on the system of roots near the edge; you should notice a small pressure plate on it that extends the roots out to the central platform here. After extending the roots, activate your Amulet of the Fates, walk out to the central platform, then drop down to the treasure chest between the two trees to find another Phoenix Feather. With that in hand, hit the pressure plate on this platform and return to the balcony.

From the balcony, you need to first hit the plate, then stop time and run back to the central platform, taking a left to reach another small platform nearby. When you reach it, clear out the enemies, hit the plate, stop time, then run back to the central platform and take another left to reach another small garden area. The pressure plate here will extend the roots off to the structure beyond the two trees, so stop time and run towards it.

Boss Fight: Perseus

Perseus is trapped in the temple, and has apparently been looking for an audience with the Sisters of Fate himself. It doesn’t take him long to talk himself into attacking you, in the hopes that this will further his cause.

Phase One

The gift of the cap of invisibility from the Nymphs to Perseus will make this first section of the fight problematical, since, well, it’ll let Perseus fight while invisible. You can make out a vague shape in the water, and see his footsteps, but he’ll still be tough to spot. Luckily, you can dodge pretty much any attack he throws your way here.

Perseus’ attacks are fairly typical. He’s got a lunging attack, a charge attack that will attempt to repeatedly hit you, and a sling attack that will send a green bullet your way. When you see him charging up the sling attack, get ready to use your golden fleece to reflect it. If he’s far enough away, you’ll be able to do this twice per volley. Apart from that, use standard attacks to try and wear Perseus down. No need to fool around with elaborate combos or special attacks; just tap out an attack or two in his general direction when he stops attacking. You’ll know you’re hitting based on the blood that spurts out, as well as the hit meter.

This can be a confusing fight, but if you keep your guard up when you’re unsure of Perseus’ location, you should be able to avoid most of the unnecessary damage. Feel free to pop your Rage and spam out some combos if you just want to wear him down quickly.

Unfortunately, moving past this phase will require you to hit an O-prompt above Perseus’ head. Normally that wouldn’t be too bad, but the prompt here only lasts for a couple of seconds; if you miss it, you’ll have to resume damaging him until it shows up again. Again, try just tapping out a couple of normal attacks if you find yourself consistently missing this prompt, and wait until you know he’s close to you before attacking him. Launching supercombos will usually result in the prompt coming and going while you’re in mid-combo and thus can’t react to it. Stick with simple attacks, stay close, and keep on trying; eventually you’ll get to grapple Perseus and smash his helmet.

Phase Two

Without his helmet, Perseus is visible to you. He’ll attack in much the same way as he did in the first phase, here, save that his sling attack will now send out multiple bullets in an arc. In addition, he can occasionally blind you by holding his shield up to the sun. You’ll need to move your left analog stick left and right to break out of the stun that results; start doing it as soon as you see the screen go white, and you’ll almost always be free by the time his attack lands, letting you put your guard up.

This is a good time to pop your Rage, assuming you didn’t do so in the first phase of the fight. There’s nothing super complicated here; just keep your guard up while landing blows to Perseus as best you can. Eventually another O-prompt will appear, allowing you to grab Perseus’ sword and break it, thus mostly ending the threat that he poses to you.

Phase Three

At this point, without a helmet or a sword, Perseus is greatly weakened. He’ll still attack you with shield bashes and sling attacks, but he won’t be able to do much damage to you. Just keep mashing out your square button attacks, and try to maneuver him to the north side of the arena, making a special point of attacking him when he’s near the walls. Eventually he’ll move to the center of the northern wall and stick there, so redouble your attacks on him and wait for an O-prompt. When it comes, hit the first button to slam his head into the wall, then start waggling your left analog stick when his head is underwater. As soon as the stick icon disappears from the corner of your screen, though, get your thumbs back over the face buttons and get ready for one last button press. Hitting it correctly will kill Perseus and let you return to the atrium below you.

Moving On

Now that you have Perseus’ Shield, you can affix it to the statue that you kicked to the ground here earlier. With that done, push the statue onto the small platform in the middle of this atrium; there’s a little slot where it’ll fit into. After it’s been inserted, raise the platform it’s on with the lever nearby. You should see it start to reflect the beam of light back into the eye of the statue that’s emitting it. If so, then you’re halfway there!

When the platform is raised, and one of the beams is reflected, let go of the lever and quickly jump onto the stone and hop up the ladder. You need to get in front of the second beam of light and hit the L1 button to reflect it with your fleece before the platform drops and you have to repeat the movement. If you can get into position before the platform drops, though, the shield nearby will drop, allowing you to move on.

Return To The Island Of The Fates

Now that the shield is down, you can walk back towards the Island that you were on before; this time, however, you’ll be in a different section of it. The first thing you’ll notice is a statue with some chests hidden behind a door to its left. You can’t get them now, so head to the right and make your way past the archers. Follow the path in front of you until you come to a broken bridge; find the roots growing on the building nearby, climb them, and flip the switch that opens a gate here. Grabbing the purple object in the body of the bird will net you the third weapon of the game, the Spear of Destiny. Use it on the chump soldiers that attack you.

When the soldiers are dead, it’s time to go back and retrieve those chests. The lever in the middle of this room will rotate a bit of the floor, which you can use to move the fate statue here so that it points in directions that are more easily accessible to you. What you want to do is rotate it 90 degrees, so that it faces towards the door here. With that done, kick it out of the doorway here and move it back towards those blue and green chests you passed earlier. Park it there, then swim across the water. When you’re on the far side, activate your amulet to freeze time, swing across the gap, and quickly run across the pressure plate and into the door to nab your loot. You’ll nab a Phoenix Feather, a Gorgon Eye, and the Urn of Olympus.

With that done, push the statue back to its original spot, after rotating it again so that it faces the wobbly bridge nearby. Hop onto the bridge so that it straightens out, then hit your amulet to cross over.

The Crossing Of The Lowlands

What comes now is a fun grappling-point game, where you have to swing across a valley crossing while the pillars around you are smashed into the ground. Your checkpoint is right at the beginning of this area, so you have as many tries as you need to get across, but it can still be complicated at spots. The trickiest area is the jump immediately after the only grappling point that spins you in a circle; at that point, you’ll have to actually hold on to the grappling point and let it swing you back and forth once before jumping. If you jump too early, the next grappling point won’t be in position and you’ll fall to your death. In most of these cases, though, you can return to the point you just jumped off of if you think you jumped too early.

You’ll have a couple of fairly challenging fights in this little cave in front of you. The first will come across some relatively easy sirens and large minotaur-esque creatures. Deal with the sirens first, using Cronos’ Rage to stun them while beating on them with your weapons and waiting for the O-prompt to appear to finish them off; each will usually take two O-prompts before they die. The firebrands here will attack with flaming axes, so keep your distance and engage them with care.

Next up is another tough demonoid-like foe that attacks with a staff of his own. If you use the Spear of Destiny on him, mashing the triangle button combination will be one good way to take him down, as it’ll launch him into the air, juggle him, then bash him when he comes back down to earth. You can also try grappling him with the O-button. A couple of gladiators will make life interesting for you, though, so feel free to pop off some Rage and button mash your way out of the fight. You have a combo chest here, and another pair of health/mana chests coming up, so don’t worry too much about preserving your mana or anything; use magic to aid you in the fight.

The Great Chasm

After a lengthy talk with Icarus, you’ll fight him. This isn’t a normal fight, though; instead, it’s mostly a collection of stick twisting and button mashing minigames. It’s apparently impossible not to fall off the bridge, so don’t worry about that. Instead, wait until you and Icarus are both falling, then start hitting him with the square and triangle buttons when you’re on top of him. If he twists you underneath him, get ready for a 360-degree rotation of the left analog stick; if you pull it off, you’ll bash Icarus into some of the rocks.

Successfully completing the minigame will net you Icarus Wings and will land you on the Titan Atlas.

Chapter Six: Atlas

Begin by walking to the left from your start point to find a save spot. From there, walk back to the eyes of Atlas and climb up the handholds there. You’ll have some lengthy jumps to make; if you double-jump, then hold down the X button, you’ll sprout your wings and will be able to glide across the gaps. Keep flying around until you reach a small cave that’ll take you into Atlas’ blood and guts.

More of the demonoids will attack you here, and they’ll be matched up with fire imps. Attempting to throw the wolves will let you kill them, but each of them can take six or seven throws before you finally are able to finish them off. Doing so will net you a 25-orb bonus, though.

When you’re done with the enemies, slash at the growth on the wall to free up a pushable section of bone. Drag it into the room you just fought in and push it up against the left wall to find a small alcove with a Phoenix Feather on it. Jump up, grab it, then move the bone back through the hole. You’ll need to pull it backwards, with Kratos going through the hole first, in order to position it into place so that you can jump onto it and move on through the tunnel near the health chest.

Stone Golem

Now, one of the more difficult fights you’ll have experienced lately is coming up. There’s a stone golem on the ground before you, but this one is actually capable of movement, so you can’t simply expect it to sit still. When it activates, though, you can still use your old attack plan: wait for it to perform its spinning attack, dash out of the way, then jump back towards it with a couple of aerial Cyclones of Chaos for quick damage. You can expect to get bashed around a lot more than you would in a normal golem fight, for sure, so feel free to let loose with magical attacks to weaken the animal.

After you deal enough damage to the golem, it will release a lot of orbs your way, then smash the platform here, which will quickly sink. You have to jump onto the handholds on the wall before you die from lava damage, so grab on and wait. The golem is immune to the lava damage, so it will start picking up rocks and throwing them at you. Wait until just before it releases, then hit X to jump to the left or right to avoid the damage from the rocks. After a dozen or so attacks, the platform will re-raise, allowing you to finish off the beast with more normal attacks.

When the golem dies, it’ll leave behind a chunk of itself. Push it to the end of the platform and use it as a springboard to reach the upper ledge nearby. Although difficult to see, you can jump from the edge of the ledge to the left to reach a small platform with a Phoenix Feather on it. From there, jump across the platforms until you see Atlas’ hands in the distance. There’s a save point near the green chest to your left.

Inside The Mighty Titan

Slash at the growths on the wall near the save point to free a rock, which will float into the lava. Jump onto it when it stops, then smash the growth blocking its path. When the rock is about to float off the waterfall, double jump, grab the grappling point, then double-jump and glide to the cave nearby. You need to smash the rock here to open up an air vent. Double-jumping while standing on the vent will cause you to float up and be able to glide over to the next cave.

Inside the cave, a number of imp-producing holes in the wall are scattered around. You only get orbs for the first few imps that you kill, so play whack-a-mole until the orbs stop coming, then start smashing the holes with your weapons. When everything’s dead, climb up to the handholds and climb across the room to the mana and health chests. You can double jump and glide from there to another set of handholds nearby. Smash the stalagtite in your way to move on, then jump to another balcony overlooking the exterior area here.

When you see Atlas’ face in the distance, find another set of handholds and start crawling along outside. Smash every stalagtite you see, even the ones that aren’t in your way; one of them conceals a hidden entrance leading up to the Urn of Prometheus. Retrieve it, smash the stalagtites in your path, then climb up and drop down on the weighted platform inside the small room. That’ll lead you to some handholds that pass back over the room containing the last save point. Smash the pillars that drop from the ceiling, and they’ll open up a lava vent below you. Crawl back around the handholds until you can drop down to the ground here, then jump across the vent to reach the balcony beyond it.

Waving Platforms

Jump from the balcony to the first platform, then from there down to the platform with a lever on it. When you touch the lever, a very annoying fight will begin. You’ll be accosted by fireimps that can grab onto you and firebomb you, as well as some of the heavy soldiers that you’ve been seeing lately.

The fireimps should be grabbed whenever they’re nearby, as that’s an instant kill for them. If you can’t reach them, then jump up and grab them before finishing them off. They’re really annoying here, and will make it difficult to see what you’re doing as you run around, so try to kill them before attacking the soldiers, if possible. The soldiers will attack as you run around after the imps, but they can be knocked out by using the Spear of Destiny. Use the Piercing Shards attack (L1 + Triangle) on them, and they’ll instantly be knocked down, even if they’re guarding. While they struggle to get back up, start a triangle combo with the Spear; it’ll knock them into the air, stab them before they come down, then blast them as they land. Eventually you’ll get O-prompts for them, allowing you to finish them off.

Without any health pickups here, this fight can be quite difficult. Do your best and don’t hesitate to use magic or Rage to help you out. When the coast is clear, rotate the lever to raise up the platform and get yourself in position for the next few jumps. The platforms here sway, so try to wait until both of them are almost in the middle of their arcs before jumping.

Ascension of Atlas

Save your game and start climbing up the handholds. At the top, you’ll need to hit R1 twice; once to drop off the handhold, and once to grab onto the grappling point. Swing around until you reach another handhold, then double-jump backwards from it onto the platform above. You’ll come to a pair of bricks. You need to position one of the bricks on top of the other. Push one of them up the ramp here, and position the other one nearby it on the ground. If you position them right, you can push the one at the top of the ramp onto the one below it, then push the lower one up to the ledge nearby. That will let you push the upper brick towards the ledge nearby and double-jump up to it. Before using the handholds beyond the green chest, jump to the handholds leading to the red orb chest and nab those.

The handholds above the green chest are going to be annoying. Large boulders will fall on your head as you climb. You can avoid them by jumping from side to side, but you’ll either have to proceed very slowly or just accept that you’re going to get knocked in the head once or twice, especially near the top of the two climbing sections. In between the two sections is a large channel that you have to descend; just hold the R1 button to glide down, and quickly move to the left to avoid the boulders that fall onto you.

When you reach the top of the hand, smash the chains that bind Atlas, then struggle out of his grip to start a lengthy cutscene. After receiving the Atlas Quake magic, start mashing on the L2 button to destroy the soldiers that come your way, and Atlas will return you to the world above.

Chapter Seven: The Palace Of The Fates

Time to get your ass kicked. Start jumping and gliding your way across the chasm in front of you. Don’t miss the red and green chests here; you can climb to them via the handholds.

When you reach the plaza in front of the palace, move to the right and flip the switch under the walkway, but be ready for a major fight. As soon as you flip it, two boarmen will appear and both blow their horns at the same time, summoning two cyclopes. In addition, a fireball-wielding soldier will continually spawn near one of the chests here, pelting you (or the enemies) with fireballs.

Cyclops!

Cyclopes will appear here, and if you’re not careful, you could face quite a few of them. Luckily, it’s fairly easy to avoid having to fight all but one cyclops if you wish to do so. Of course, the more enemies you face, the more red orbs you’ll likely collect. Feel free to adapt the strategies below depending on your skill.

Begin by slashing at the nearest boarman as soon as you’ve flipped the switch; that will interrupt his horn blast and cause only the horn summoned by the other boarman to appear. Start mashing away on your O button while engaging the boarman on the ground here; the other one will climb on top of the cyclops that is summoned, but don’t worry about that now. Keep throwing the boarman that’s running around; you’ll be immune to damage while you do so. If you stop attacking him, he’ll call for another cyclops, so just throw him until you kill him.

When that’s done, another boarman will spawn nearby. Again, stop him before he can blow his horn, then throw him around until he’s dead. Repeat this until all of the boarmen from that spawn point are dead and no more appear.

Now, focus on the cyclops. If you want its eye, use your throw button to pull off the boarman on his shoulders, then start throwing him around. When another respawns, grab it before it gets on the cyclops, kill it, repeat until no more boarmen appear, kill the Cyclops, kill the fire-thrower, and you’ll be golden. This is assuming everything goes perfectly well, of course; it’s possible that you’ll be knocked down long enough for another Cyclops to get summoned. But still, if it works, it’s the easiest way to approach the fight.

Into The Palace

When all the enemies are dead, start moving the small spike near the mana chest off to the left. You have to move it as far as it’ll go, then run back to the blue chest and grab another spike and push that. Repeating this a few times will eventually lock the gear into place and open the door leading on.

The spike room here is going to be another annoying section. Before you begin, grab the red orb chest in one of the rooms here, then flip the switch in the middle of the room. Doing so will cause the gates in the room to begin rotating around, periodically opening up new rooms for you to enter. It will also cause spikes to begin popping up from the holes in the ground; you’ll be able to see them before they appear. Lastly, poison imps will appear and start spitting at you. Annoying! Grab them and kill them if they get close to you.

Anyway, wait in front of the door in the lower-left corner of the area, with the softly glowing item inside. When the door comes around and opens up, head in, grab the Crank Handle and the orbs, then wait for the next door to open up. Quickly grab the two orb chests and get out; spikes will instantly kill you if you wait too long. The next door is currently closed, while the door after that has a large stone you can pull backwards to lock the gate in place and open the passage moving on. (Notice that we didn’t try pushing the block forward; it might lead to some secret area. Worth a try!)

East Auditorium

Head into the hallway and take a left (the passage to the right is a dead end). You’ll come out to a large open area featuring two locked doors, a switch, a pressure plate, a ladder, a large horn, and a jump that’s currently blocked by fire. It looks pretty complicated!

First things first. Climb the ladder here and press R1 to insert the crank handle into the post there. Turning the lever will shut off the flames below, so quickly activate your amulet of the fates, jump down, then jump across past the flame jets. In the small alcove, you’ll find a Phoenix Feather, then you can follow the hallway to reach a save point. Start jumping up onto the ledges, and eventually you’ll find a switch at the end of the corridor. Flipping it will lower one of the grates here. You have to quickly run back to the vent in the hallway, double-jump and spread your wings, then glide above the grate before it closes. It’s a quick timer, so be sure to just double jump and start heading towards the vent as soon as your wings open; waiting until you’re wafted higher will cause you to miss the opening.

Some easy dogs and soldiers will await you beyond the grate, so off them before opening the large door and moving on.

The Auditorium of Lahkesis

Go ahead and smash the scaffolding here; it’ll drop a rock. Push it along the path outside towards the man praying in the small temple here; he’s the translator, and you’ll need him to read the large book near the door leading on. Place the rock on the pressure plate he’s sitting on, then pick up the translator and move out towards the book.

Unfortunately, the underworld has different plans for you. Soldiers and dogs will attack you as soon as you drag the translator out of the door, so plop him on the ground and kill them off. You can’t let them damage him too badly, so try to just keep them away from him entirely by placing him back inside his small temple and using Cyclone of Chaos to keep them away.

The first wave will die quickly, but the second will have demonoids in it, appearing one at a time. This wave appears when you attempt to pass over the middle circle here, so be ready for them; as soon as they pop up, backtrack a bit and plant the translator down to give you some separation. Keep in mind that you yourself can’t hurt the translator, either with your weapons or your magic, so feel free to bust out an Atlas Quake now and again to keep enemies away from the translator. Use your throw button on the demonoids to keep them off balance; when the soldiers get the O-prompt on them, you can throw them into the demonoids to further knock them aside.

Lastly, when you reach the book, large groups of enemies will start appearing. Stick near the translator and use Cyclone of Chaos or Atlas Quake to whip your foes away from him. The main enemies here are three summoners, who will continually summon lesser soldiers to harry you. Luckily, the soldiers seem to grant the translator an exemption from attacking while you’re locked into a throw animation, so seek out the summoners, perform your lengthy throw animation on them, clear out the soldiers near the translator when that’s over with a spell or Cyclone of Chaos, then repeat the process. The summoners are the key, so focus on them before dealing with the rest of the soldiers.

When three summoners have been killed, take out the rest of the enemies and get to work interrogating the translator. You’ll need to mash his head into the book a few times with the O button to complete the scene, but eventually the door nearby will unlock. Approaching it will net you the Key Of The Ram.

Ram Door

Return to the exterior balcony and open the door with the ram insignia on it. There’ll be a combo chest inside; if you’re running low on mana, that’ll be what you want to pick up here.

As you walk along the corridor, two spiked doors will appear and slowly begin the process of crushing you. In order to escape your fate, you have to kill all of the enemies that appear before the doors can close. Whether or not you can do so depends on the upgrades you’ve obtained; we managed to complete the trap by immediately tapping our Rage of the Titans, using the Athena’s Blades square attack, and then, when the Rage ended, using Cyclone of Chaos and level two Cronos’ Rage on the remaining crowd. Obviously enough, you don’t want to bother with normal combos, since they won’t really do much good against the large crowds that you’ll be facing here.

The Garden of the Gods

After cleaning out the hallway and retracting the doors, move on through the hallway and into the garden at the top of the steps. There’s a Phoenix Feather in a chest here. If you wish, you can also destroy Athena’s statue with normal attacks, although it’ll take a while to do so; it’ll net you some red orbs.

The hallway beyond the cracked wall has a ledge that you need to walk along. You’ll see some red orb chests; move past them and hit R1 when you see the ladder to drop down and reach them, then move along to the save point.

Sacrifice To The Fates

After jumping to the chain here and dropping to the ground, read the door; you have to make an offer to the Fates, a sacrifice of fire, before they’ll allow you to move through. Sirens begin appearing, one by one. You need to maneuver them towards one side of the room, then flip the switch on the opposite wall to roast them.

Of course, making them stay still until the flames appear is going to be difficult, and that’s where the Head of Euryale comes in. If you need mana, use the Spear of Destiny’s triangle attack combo to beat up the sirens and hit the O-prompt to gain some blue orbs. When you’re ready to fry one of them, stand near one of the walls and guard until one of the sirens comes near, then whip out the head and freeze them while walking towards the switch on the opposite side of the room. If you’re having a hard time getting them to freeze in place, you can try upgrading your Head of Euryale spell, or you can simply knock them down by one of the walls before using it on them. Note that the more beat-up a siren is, the quicker it dies to the fire, so you may want to beat them up a bit before freezing them.

When you’re done with the sirens, swim through the passage of blood beyond them until you reach a puzzle consisting of a number of icebound doorways.

Light And Ice

First things first: after jumping out of the pool of blood, head towards the bottom of the screen to find a pair of orb chests. Grab the orbs and head north to the room above you. This is the ice puzzle we mentioned.

Your basic goal here is to unfreeze the owl in the center of the room and use it to fire lava at each of the frozen doorways, allowing you to move on. Begin by dropping down into the center of the room and flipping the switch behind the owl; that’ll melt one of the doors, revealing a draggable mirror. You can’t do anything with it yet, though.

In order to melt the owl, you’ll have to redirect a beam of light that shines down from the ceiling. There aren’t any beams just yet, though, so climb up onto the ceiling via one of the broken walls and start smashing all of the frozen iceblocks up there. Be sure to get them all; one of them that’s particular important is near the hallway leading back to the blood passage.

Completing the Puzzle

When you have the mirror unfrozen, and the light beams shining down, it’s time to get the mirror in the middle of the room in position to unfreeze the owl. You’ll note that there are three levers on the right side of the room, each of which controls one of the three rings inside the recessed center of the room. Take a look at the rings for a moment. There are eight patterns emblazoned on them, four of which are the God of War logo. The other four include three moons of varying thickness and the "sun", which is another mirror. What you want to do here is rotate the rings until you manage to make the moon with the middle thickness appear in the middle of your screen, under the middle of the three levers. If you get the fat moon or the thin moon, that’s not the one you want; the medium thickness moon is what you should be aiming for.

So, start moving the rings here until the medium-thickness moon is centered underneath the middle lever here. When done properly, the mirror-sun will appear on the opposite side of the circle at this point. If you drag the movable mirror statue down near the passageway to the blood pool, you’ll notice a shaft of light to the right of the exit. Placing the mirror underneath this shaft of light will reflect the light to the mirror in the rings, which will then melt the ice around the owl statue.

With the owl statue unmelted, you can begin rotating it around its axis and shooting its flames at the doors to melt them. There are two minotaurs here that will be unmelted, but they shouldn’t be a problem for you. Grab all the loot from the melted rooms before opening the door and moving on.

Olympus, We Have A Problem

Move through the hallway here to the room with a small lever in the floor. Moving the lever will be problematic with all the imps, so climb the walls to destroy their nests before rotating it. When the grapple point comes down to you, jump to it and let the chains carry you up to the upper part of the floor here.

One hell of a difficult fight will ensue after you move on from here, so be sure to grab all of the magic and health from the chests. At the outset, you’ll face off against two cerberus’; these being upgraded versions that can spit out smaller versions of themselves. You’re not going to be finding any mana during this fight, and health will likewise be difficult to pick up (unless you have a fully upgraded Head of Euryale), so you’ll need to preserve your energy for the second and more difficult part of the fight. The one thing you will have in spades is Rage of the Titans energy, so feel free to use that on the two dogies here while avoiding their attacks as best you can. Each of them will have two O-prompts before they die; the first will release more rage energy. No minigames involved, just simple taps of the O button.

Trouble!

After you start getting an edge on the dogs, trouble starts. More cerberus’ appear, with up to four attacking you at any one time. To add to the mess, a pair of gladiators pop in, giving you up to six enemies fighting you at once, none of which can be knocked down. The dogs can kinda-sorta be stunned by weapon damage, while the gladiators will only be stunned when you knock some of their armor off.

At this point, your tactics will depend on your remaining life. A good place to start would be to jump into the middle of the ring and bust out a level two or higher Cronos’ Rage or (preferably) a level two or higher Atlas Quake. Any area-of-effect magic will work, really, even the level three Typhon’s Bane spell. The Quake will be most effective on the dogs, which are what you want to take out first, anyway. It’ll also render you temporarily immune to damage while the animation plays, which helps, even if the gladiators will sometimes get free attacks if they’re in the middle of an attack animation when your Quake animation ends. If you have plenty of health, you can simply turn on Rage of the Titans and start mashing the square buttons; if you’ve upgraded Athena’s Blades to level four, then simply hold down the square button to filet any enemies near you. Granted, you’ll take damage doing this, but not as much as you would normally, and you can’t be interrupted by damage.

Regardless, your goal now is to hit the dogs and grab them when their O-prompts pop up. There isn’t much more to it than that. Avoiding damage will be difficult, so try to eliminate the dogs as best you can after hitting them with your powerful spells. When they go down, you’ll be left with the gladiators, who can take an excessive amount of punishment. Luckily for you, though, all of their attacks can be blocked, letting you dart away from them, hit them a couple times, block, then repeat, etc.

This is by no means an easy fight, but if you manage to survive the first couple of dogs with most of your health and all of your mana, then you should be able to eke out a victory in the end. Climb the ladder and save your game.

The West Auditorium

From the save point, jump across the gap that has the ladder in it. You’ll find more chests here, and can drop down to reach the red chests that you spotted at the bottom of the ladder. You’ll need to double jump from one side of the little hole to reach the upper platforms again.

Open the door near the save point and move on. You’ll spot a fate statue here; smash the blocks in front of it and pull it out of its little alcove. Kick or push it down the hall until you spot another gate. Flip the switch to witness the untimely death of the translator...for the moment. Push the statue here underneath the gate that you’ve opened; maneuver it around the little block in the floor and push it towards the book until it can’t move further any more.

If you want to do so, you can achieve the Gift of Health at this point. To do so, head into the hazy painting, then freeze time. Instead of running towards the translator that's about to kill himself, run backwards down the hall as quickly as you can and look into the the alcove where the fate statue was located. You should find a large chest there; bust it open and you'll receive the Gift of Health, which is an instant health bonus to you.

Now, when you’re ready to go back in time, head through the hazy-looking painting here. You’ll wind up back at the gate, which is prevented from closing by the statue. The translator will begin his suicide run again, so quickly hit L1 + R1 to flip on your amulet of fate and run up to him before he can jump, using R1 to grab him and drag him back to the book. After being persuaded to read from it, you’ll be granted the Warrior’s Skull.

Return To The Balcony

Time to get back to the large balcony that’s been your hub of adventure for a bit. Head through the unlocked door to reach a lever. If you rotate it, a steam vent will open, letting you coast up to a small alcove. Flipping the lever there will release more steam below, so drop down, rotate the lever again so that it’s fully opened, then double-jump and glide straight up to the handholds above you. Make your way across the ceiling until you reach another lever. Move it to be brought down to the balcony.

Cyclops Attack!

A group of cyclopes will attack you when you land on the balcony. These are tougher, meaner versions of the older cyclops you’ve been encountering, with some new attack animations and a different kill animation. You also don’t appear to be capable of grabbing their eyes. Luckily, there are no boarmen in sight.

Anyway, defeating these guys isn’t too difficult. Use Athena’s Blades from as far away as you can, tap the cyclops once or twice, roll away from their attacks, etc. Just stay away from them and tag them once or twice when you get a moment, and the damage will add up over time. If you are really having problems here, then climb the ladder and activate your amulet of the fates to stop time before dropping down and unloading combos on the beasts. These guys drop a good amount of health when killed via the O-prompt, so you shouldn’t have too much to worry about here.

Entrance To The Underground

Open the locked door with the Warrior’s Skull and save your game. If you haven’t upgraded your Cronos’ Rage yet, you’ll want to do so before stepping onto the platform here.

You have to approach the central chain here and press R1 to grab onto it, then start tapping O to move it down the shaft manually. As you do so, a spiked ceiling will begin falling down the shaft towards you at an alarming rate, while skeletons will begin reviving around you and both attack you and jam on the gears to prevent the floor from moving downward. You need to prevent the skeletons from killing you, prevent the skeletons from stopping the motion of the floor, keep the floor moving downward, then raise a gate at the bottom of the shaft to escape. All in a day’s work, right?

After you start the shaft moving downwards (use your index finger to jam on the O button to move as fast as you can), wait for the skeleton to jam on the gears before stopping, if possible. When it does so, run towards him and zap all the nearby skeletons with Cronos’ Rage. That will shock any nearby skeletons and remove the one on the gear. It might not kill them outright unless you’ve fully upgraded it, but it will knock them around and give you a couple seconds to either smash them to bits (just tap on the square button with Athena’s Blades; don’t do anything too fancy) or, if the ceiling is shaking and about to smash you, grab the chain again and resume your downward course.

Enough skeletons will appear here to jam the gears a few times, and they will also attack you, which takes you off of the chain, so you’ll need to reserve some mana for when you hit the bottom. The skeletons that jam the gears are your priority, so hit them with Cronos’ Rage when they get on there. If need be, use Rage of the Titans on groups of three or four skeletons to quickly dispatch them before getting back on the chain.

When you do finally reach the bottom of the shaft, you can knock the skeletons down with any remaining Cronos’ Rage mana you have. Even if that doesn’t kill them, it might give you enough time to open the door and escape before they recover and attack you, although it’s best to ensure that everything’s dead before doing so, presuming you have time.

Into The Pit

When you exit the shaft, check the bottom of the screen for red orb chests, then move out to the handrope nearby. As you cross it, archers will cut it down, so jump up beneath them and scootch over to the right until you can jump up and attack them. Undead gorgons will attempt to stone you here, so be careful! If you find yourself constantly getting petrified, use Rage of the Titans to make yourself immune from their blasts, or reflect it to them with the golden fleece.

When all the enemies are dead, jump back down to the pit below and use the handholds to move on. You’ll eventually come to a couple of chests with plenty of low-grade soldiers around them. Finish them off, then open the chests and look down the hall nearby. There’s something funky on the other side of that steam...take aim with your Typhon’s Bane at the wall and hit it a few times with your arrows. That will reveal a secret compartment with an orb chest and a chest containing the Gift of Magic, which is an instant mana bar upgrade for you.

With that done, jump back through the steam and let it glide you up to the platform above you. The goal now is to double jump above the lava, spread your wings, and glide through the next two chambers without getting hit by the rotating spikes. First move right, then move left, following the path that the spikes do.

The Phoenix Chamber

Your goal, as the book here states, is to place the ashes of the phoenix in the fire to resurrect it. The switch in front of the bird statue here is the mechanism for placing them in the fire, but you can’t access the ashes just yet. Save your game, then jump across to the platform on the left to move on to the spike room.

The spikes in this room are controlled by a large switch. Flip the switch, then aim your bow at the cracked wall in the upper left corner of the room and smash it, revealing a statue of fate and a couple of red orb chests. Don’t worry about the chests for now; if you get them, then die (a distinct possibility here), you’ll have to get them again. Instead, flip the switch again and grab the Hail of Boreas from the corpse on the lever in front of you. That will free up the lever for you to move, but for now, return to the switch.

After letting the spikes raise up and flipping the switch again, immediately activate your amulet to stop time, then move to the lever in front of you and start rotating it (your timestop will cease as soon as you begin revolving it, but it saved you a couple seconds!). You don’t need to rotate it all the way; just enough for you to get under it when you run towards it. One full revolution should do the trick, especially since inertia will continue the movement after you move away. When you think you have a good margin of error, let go of the lever, stop time again, then jump across the gaps in the hallway towards the gate. You’ll need to make two jumps, the second of which is hard to see, so be careful. When you’re under the gate you’ll be in the next section.

Fires of the Phoenix

A few red orb chests are behind a gate here. You can reach them by heading into the dark hallway nearby, jumping up on the right wall to reach a handhold, then double jumping back to the left to reach an upper alcove.

You’ll come across a pair of orb chests before the next large room. Unless you’re in dire need of mana or health, don’t open them yet. You’ll need all you can get in the next room here. When you’re ready for some fun, drag the statue to the left of the door into the room, but keep it between you and the statue of the phoenix at the far end. You’ll see why in a second, as the phoenix will send an unavoidable jet of fire at you; the only way to avoid its damage is to keep the movable statue between you and the phoenix, which will entail a lot of pushing it towards the northern end of the room.

There are some things to keep in mind here. First off, the statue will protect you from fire so long as you’re behind it; leave the area immediately to its rear, and you’ll take a lot of damage. Secondly, if you don’t actively hold onto the statue, it’ll be pushed backwards when hit by fire. Thirdly, you’ll be attacked by a demonoid and fire imps as you walk around; it’s best to simply avoid them as much as possible by laying down a high-level Cronos’ Rage when they get too close for comfort. That will shock them for a few seconds, allowing you to proceed on your way.

Lastly, there are a couple of optional treasure rooms here. To open them, you have to move the statue in front of the doors and quickly open the gates before the statue gets blown back to where it can’t protect you. The first room, on the right wall, holds a pair of red orb chests, while the second, on the left wall a bit further up, holds a red and a blue chest. Entering these rooms will usually let the fire burn you, unless you’re real lucky with your statue placement, so collect the rewards at your own risk, and remember that you (should) have a green orb chest back out the southern entrance, assuming you didn’t open it before.

Anyway, you need to maneuver the statue all the way to the top of the room. Eventually you won’t be able to move it any further due to a stone barrier; shift the statue above the switch nearby and flip it. That’ll lower the barrier, allowing you to move the statue further to the north. Plant it on the leftmost pressure plate near the phoenix. That raises the gate above you. Hold the statue in place until after a jet of flame ends, then quickly get on top of the right pressure plate to drop a grappling point above you. Snag it and swing up to the ledge above you before the gate closes (remember that the fire will push the statue, and it will eventually slide off the plate below). If you’re having trouble getting through the gate, try planting the statue on the northern side of the pressure plate before moving away.

One Last Fight...

After you recharge your health, push the urn off of the plate that it’s on to descend a bit. Push the urn from the ground into the hole nearby, then move towards the switch you passed by earlier. Before you can reach it, a group of skeletons and minotaurs will attack you. Dispatch them as best you can, then flip the switch here to burn the ashes, reviving the Phoenix. If you need to, you can return to the spike room to go after those red orb chests that you may have bypassed earlier. Otherwise, glide across the steam from the lava to reach the stairwell to the right of the new pillar of lava near you. The upper reaches will lead you back up to the hub balcony, but if you want some more red orbs, check the lowest, broken section of the staircase first to find a chest.

Head to the top of the stairwell to find two orb chests, one to the left and one to the right. Flip the switch nearby to raise up the platform, and you’ll be standing in front of the painting of Boreas. Plant the Hail of Boreas in its mouth to open the door. Head inside, grab the red orb chest, then climb the chain to find a save point.

Releasing The Phoenix

Blowing on the horn here will release the phoenix from the jet of lava, resulting in two new platforms for you to jump to. Jump to the right platform to the left, and from there to the balcony with the broken ladder beneath it.

Inside the small room here, flip the switch to raise a platform nearby, then climb the side of it to reach the ceiling of the room. Slash both of the chains here to open the doors below you, then drop down and flip the switch again to lower the platform. Move the pillar that you unlocked onto the platform, but try to position it so that, if you flip the switch again, it’ll jam the works and prevent the platform from fully moving up. If you can do this, the platform will move up around halfway, allowing you to jump up to it, then pull the pillar onto it, allowing the upward motion to be completed. Put the pillar near the gate, then jump onto it and destroy the chain above it to open it.

Rotate the lever nearby to raise the platforms on the balcony below. When they’re locked into place, move into the nearby room and start rotating the gate to open the passage leading on. (There’s a hidden red orb chest on the right side of the room, if you maneuver the gate to that position.)

After moving through the door, a shadowy figure will assault you. He can be difficult to kill, but if you’ve upgraded your Athena’s Blades to level four, then activating Rage of the Titans and holding down the square button should get you an O-prompt relatively quickly. Feel free to use all of your magic bar taking the soldier down. You’re going to get it all back shortly, so if you want to get your hit meter up a bit, use up all of your mana on Cronos’ Rage.

Boss Fight: Scylla

We’re not sure precisely what mythological beast this animal is supposed to be, so for the sake of classification we’ll go with the Scylla. After the cutscene with the soldier, start tapping buttons to call out to the gods. The scylla will grab you and start to choke the life out of you. After another lengthy cutscene, you’ll get a Rage of the Titans upgrade and will earn all of your health and mana back when you activate it to break out of the Scylla’s grip.

Luckily, the Scylla is pretty easy, even if it does look intimidating. Her attacks don’t deal much damage, even if they are hard to avoid, and she’ll drop health for you a few times during the fight.

Phase One

You need to attack the scab on the beast’s head if you want to deal any real damage to it. But how to get there? Well, you should start by unloading on the tentacle on the left side of your screen; the one that covers the pressure plate that controls the air here. If you use Rampage of the Furies with a fully-upgraded Athena’s Blades, you should be able to cause the tentacle to rise up, revealing the pressure plate, with just a few volleys. With that done, pick up the body of the soldier here and place it on the plate to cause an updraft in the middle of the arena.

With the updraft active, double jump and glide up to the Scylla’s face and deal some damage to it! Cyclone of Chaos or Cronos’ Rage are good choices for attacking it here. You’ll probably have to jump up a couple of times to deal enough damage to it; you’ll know you’ve annoyed it when it rams its arm into the middle of the arena.

When the arm is planted here, you have to move to the side facing the screen and jump up onto the handholds. Climb up the pole that the arm has made itself into and start slashing upwards at the stony protrusion on it. After destroying the protrusion, you’ll get an O-prompt allowing you to destroy the creature’s arm.

With one arm out of the way, you have to repeat the process for the second arm. Slash the left tentacle on the ground to raise it, place the body on the pressure plate, jump and attack the head, and wait for the right arm to smash into a wall. You need to get underneath it near where it hit the wall, jump up to grab onto the handholds that are hanging down, scootch your way over to the middle of the arm and smash the protrusion there and slice the end of that arm off.

Phase Two

At this point, you’ve already won; the Scylla just doesn’t know it yet. Without its tentacle spikes to stabilize it, it’s going to slip off the platform when you attack the tentacles at the base of the two pillars here, so do so. Activate Rage of the Titans if you need to, but quickly attack one of the tentacles until you see the beast slip backwards a bit. Move to the other tentacle at this point and attack it as well until the Scylla is just barely hanging on. You should see a switch in front of its face; pull the switch to extend the bridge and kill the monster.

With that done, cross the bridge, grab the red orb chests behind the Phoenix, then mount it with the O-prompt and some button minigames. It will take you off to...

Chapter Eight: The Temple Of The Fates

The temple entrance is frozen in time. Make your way up to the large statue in front of you and hit R1 to swing on up to the small crystal there. Destroy it to unfreeze time.

There are two large bells here. In order to proceed onward, you need to be able to ring both of them at the exact same time. To do so, jump over to the bell with Cronos’ face on it and ring it by tapping L1 and R1 simultaneously. As soon as you let go of the bell, freeze time, then quickly get back to the central platform with the smashed crystal on it and hit R1 to grab the bell ringer here. That will ring the bell with Zeus’ face on it. So long as the two bells’ ringing even slightly overlaps, the face of the large statue here will crack.

In order to break it, though, you need to readjust the ringer. To move it, drop down into the water and find the lever on the base of the central platform. You can grab onto it and pull it or push it; you need to move it so that the wooden plank beneath the water lines up with the groove in the submerged stone. With that done, swim down under the water’s surface and flip the switch there. That will lock the groove into place around the wooden beam, allowing you to rotate the entire platform with the lever. Line the ringer up with the statue’s face, swing it, and break on through to the other side.

Boss Fight: The Sisters of Fate

So, we’re a little confused. One of the sisters of fate, Lahkesis, has been egging you on for the last hour or so of gameplay, appearing to you after you smashed the translators. Now, when you finally get to reach them, it turns out that all they wanted to do is give you a lecture. Wha huh? Despite their former friendliness, you’re going to have to fight these witches off.

Phase One

It’s you and Lahkesis, one on one, during this phase. She has a number of attacks, most of them involving her staff. She can attack you with a three-swing combo, but the bulk of her attacks are ranged, including a simply energy bolt. She can also throw her staff into the air, where it will rain down a few bolts on you; dodge away from under it when this occurs.

Your best opportunities for damaging her will come when she fires her green bolts of energy at you; activate your block just before they hit you, and the golden fleece wil reflect them back at her for heavy damage, periodically knocking her over and sending up health and mana. Since your mana will periodically replenish here, feel free to knock her with Gorgon’s Rage or Typhon’s Bane. You can, of course, hit her with your weapons; this is easiest to do just after you knock her over and she’s struggling to get back up.

As the fight goes on, Lahkesis will reveal more powerful attacks, including a large green bomb that will sit in one place before detonating for a fair amount of damage. Roll away from this when you see it coming! She’ll also swoop up into the sky and slam her staff into the ground for an area-of-effect attack. Again, just roll away. She’ll use her easily-reflected single-bolt attacks less often towards the end of this phase, so you may want to save up your mana and use your spells on her here.

Phase Two

After you deal enough damage to the sister, she’ll take to the air and become much more difficult to hit with your weapons. She’ll also add a couple of new attacks to her repertoire, including a frustrating one that electrifies the floor here; jump to the grapple points scattered around the room and start dashing between them to avoid the energy bolts she flings at you here.

It’s pretty difficult to attack her with your weapons at this point, due to her height off the ground. You can use Cronos’ Rage or Typhon’s Bane to deal damage to her, or attempt to reflect her energy bolts. She’ll be knocked to the ground after you deal enough damage to her, allowing you to use your normal weapon combos until she takes off again. After a while, an O-prompt will appear above her head as she hovers above you. Grab onto a grappling point, double jump off of it, and glide over to Lahkesis to grab onto her and end this section of the fight.

Phase Three

The second sister of fate, Atropos, is your antagonist here, as you fight atop the huge sword that you used to defeat Ares in the first game. If you have a fully-upgraded Cronos’ Rage, then this section of the fight is going to be a piece of cake.

Atropos will attempt to break the sword here, and thus cause you to die at Ares’ hands before the events of God of War II even take place. She’ll do so by zapping the sword with lightning, either from far away or at close range. There isn’t much you really have to do here except thwart her efforts. The sword will be populated by plenty of soldiers, but some of them will oddly drop mana orbs, so you should be able to pop Cronos’ Rage to ward them off while focusing on the sister.

When the sister is far away, she’ll fling energy balls at you. They don’t hit you directly, though, as they seem to travel a bit underneath you. Move towards the bottom edge of the sword (placing yourself closer to the bottom of the screen) and tap the guard button just as the bolt is about to hit you to reflect it back to the sister. You can also use Typhon’s Bane here to deal damage to the sister.

When Atropos approaches the sword and zaps it with energy, get close and use one of your magical attacks to deal damage; spamming Cronos’ Rage is the easiest way to proceed here. Eventually, after doing this, an O-prompt will appear over the sister, allowing you to stab her right in the head.

Phase Four

Tough stuff! Lahkesis is still around, but now she’s joined by Atropos, who attempts to enter the arena via one of the misty mirrors in this area. The original sister will attack with most of the original moves, while the new sister in the doorway will either send green bolts at you, or sweep a green laser across the entire arena; jump or grapple over this to avoid the damage.

You can get Atropos to retreat back into the mirrors by hitting her, but your focus should be on Lahkesis here. Dealing enough damage to her will drop her to the ground and reveal a fury orb. When it appears, instantly stop time and start attacking the sister in the doorway. If you can deal enough damage to her before time starts back up again, the mirror will crack, allowing you to hit that and smash it. You’ll need to repeat this process twice, doing it once for each of the two mirrors here.

When the two mirrors are cracked, Lahkesis will relocate to the front of the remaining mirror. Her main new attack is a pillar-of-energy attack that will cover most of the room. If you’re far enough away from her, you can dodge the pillars; zapping yourself up to the grapple points will also do the job, it seems. Regardless, if you have enough health, then this is the time to simply get close and unload on her, using Cronos’ Rage, Atlas Quake, or your Rage of the Titans ability. When you’ve dealt enough damage to her, you’ll get an O-prompt. Hit the next four button presses successfully to lock both sisters into the mirror, then smash it to move on.

The Inner Sanctum

Examine the frescoes here, if you wish, then climb the handholds to the ceiling. You can only drop down on the balcony here; if you want the red orb chests, you’ll have to double-jump and glide to them. Move up towards the broken wall and smash it to reach a lengthy gauntlet.

As you proceed down the path here, you will periodically be blocked from moving onward as enemies spawn in around you. The further down you go, the tougher the enemies get. It’s going to be tough to regenerate health for the most part, so try to conserve as much of it as possible until you reach the green orb chest along the path.

The first tough challenge here is the siren/gorgon teamup near the chests. Since these guys drop so much magic when they die, though, feel free to use your magic to keep them off guard and away from you. There are more tough fights in the future, but you’ll be all right as long as you don’t get knocked around too much. We found it helpful to use a fully upgraded Spear of Destiny in a lot of these fights. You can use the Altering Slash to lay a timebomb inside any enemy you hit, even the cyclopes near the end, which will explode after around ten seconds, doing good damage to the creature and anything nearby. Combine that with the Unfortunate Remains ability, and you’ll be knocking around the smaller foes just like you were using Atlas Quake. (Which of course you should be doing, especially when the cyclops attack you at the end of the path.)

Anyway, don’t go too quickly down the pathway. In fact, it’s a good idea to retreat anytime you spot a new barrier popping up in front of you. Most of the fights here are spread across two or three segments of the walkway, and barriers will rise up and fall down as you fight. Try to split up your foes by moving across these barriers; that’ll reduce the number of foes you have to fight against at one time.

When you reach the end of the road and kill everything, you’ll be able to unlock the door by slashing at the claws on it. First open up the lock on the left, then move the bolt on the right, then push the door open.

Before The Loom

The remaining sister, Clotho, spins the web of fate from her mechanical prison. You have to defeat her in order to return to the moment where everything went wrong. Doing so will involve a bit of a climb, though.

Begin by dodging the blades before you and taking a left. One of Clotho’s many hands will swipe at you here, but hitting it often enough will render it mute for a moment, allowing you to move the lever around and open the gate above you. If you do that, then you can head up the steps nearby and glide over to the platform here. Heal up if necessary before climbing up the handholds and reaching the ceiling. Crawl along the ceiling as far as you can towards the other gate, but be ready for Clotho to grab you. Tap the left analog stick left and right to break free, then move towards the gate and smash the two skeletons at its top. With that done, you can drop down and move the lever that opens this gate. Jump to the platform and climb the chain to move up.

The Second Level

Three of Clotho's arms will fluster you here. Luckily, they can all be dealt with. Begin by moving to the right of the chain that you climbed up from. One of the hands is here, located near a green switch that opens a hole in the ground underneath it. (The hole houses a red orb chest that you might want to pick up.) When you’re ready to kill the hand, stab it a few times to make it drop to the ground, flip the switch to open the hole, then flip it again to shut the hand inside.

The second hand is further to the right. You’ll have to stab it until it falls, then quickly double jump to a chain and jump from the chain to the platform above to flip the switch there, which will drop a spike into the hand. It can be complicated to make the jumps to the chain; your best bet is to simply double jump up there and immediately let go of the X button after hitting it the second time.

The third hand is a bit more complicated to take down. There’s a sliding platform that rotates around the edge of the platform here; you can find it back by the first hand that you caught in the hole in the ground. Slide it around the platform until you near the third, moving hand. You’ll notice that there’s a winch near a spike near the hand; you have to move the platform underneath the winch, then step on the pressure plate to lift the jar into the winch. That will let you move the spike when you move the platform. If you move the spike and platform next to the hand, then slash at the hand a few times, it’ll impale itself on the spike. Climb the rope from the spike and jump to the platform nearby to reach Clotho herself.

Boss Fight: Clotho

It’s virtually impossible to die here, so don’t worry too much about that. If you ever need more health, simply freeze time at one of the statues and hit Clotho a few times in one of her breasts or arms; she’ll drop a little health for you. If she ever bugs you with her attacks, repeat the process until both of her arms go dead and she’ll leave you alone for a while.

In order to kill Clotho, you need to find something a bit more rough and tumble than your puny weapons. Begin by heading towards the blocked door to the right of Clotho. There’s a handhold beside the door, which will let you climb up. If you see the two skeletons that are clogging the gears when you can’t climb any further, smash them with your blades, then drop back down to the floor.

Now that the gears can move, you can grab the handle near the edge of the platform, to the right of Clotho, and move it. The handle controls two loading docks that can be moved along the outside of the platform, where there are a number of threads hanging. All of the threads are connected to dead bodies, which you can bring up to the platform if you like; each of them will drop plenty of health when Clotho eventually explodes it. What you want to do, though, is align one of the docks with the chain that runs down the middle of the platform, near the metal plate in the floor that you entered the room from. If you do, then you can flip the switch under the chain to bring up one of the huge blades that you dodged earlier.

With the blade hanging down in front of Clotho, you have to maneuver it for the kill. Hit her until she’s subdued, then use the R1 button to twist the blade so that it points at her, then hit R1 again to pull it towards the edge of the platform. A few button presses later, and Clotho will have a huge blade in her brain, and the doors here will open.

Reversing Your Destiny

Head through the door and swim under the barriers until you reach the last of the fate mirrors. Save your game and flip the switch here, then return to the platform that Clotho’s body is on. You have to find the thread of fate that belongs to Kratos; it’s near her rightmost hand here. When you find it, tap O to start rewinding fate. Keep going until it stops; when that happens, you’ll have 30 seconds to get back to the mirror. Stop time before leaving Clotho’s lair, run to the platform, raise it, swim to the mirror, and jump through before the timer runs out. Time to take out the end boss!

Chapter Nine: The Final Battle

Time to rage at the gods one last time. After you step through the mirror, Zeus will blow you to a windswept mountaintop, where your fight takes place.

Zeus attacks you while supersized here, summoning a few sirens to keep you company. There isn’t much you can do about Zeus’ attacks, but there isn’t much you need to do, really. Your goal is to take down the sirens themselves. Use Cronos’ Rage on the sirens until you get the O-prompt above their head. When you crack their backs, you’ll hurt Zeus, freeing up some health orbs and causing him to slam his fist into the ground. Attack it to damage him. We found it helpful to crack a siren, then roll into the area where the fist hits and lay down a Cronos’ Rage before the fist comes down. It’ll deal damage when the fist does impact, and the explosion caused by it (if you’re using a level three Cronos’ Rage) will cause even more damage.

Repeat this process a few times until an O-prompt appears above Zeus’ hand. That will let you smash your sword into it and move on to phase two.

Boss Fight: Zeus Phase Two

Kratos vs Zeus. The final battle. When we last met, I was but the learner, now I am the master, etc., etc.

Lightning Bolt! Lightning Bolt! Lightning Bolt!

The first time you attempt this fight, Zeus is likely going to kick your ass, but it’ll get easier over time. Here are some of the attacks that he’ll throw your way.

• Lightning Bolts: A pair of lightning bolts. You can’t block these or dodge them, really, but you can make yourself immune to the damage by starting an Atlas Quake when they’re coming your way. Far better, however, is to hit L1 just before Zeus throws them to reflect them back at him. This is one of the few ways to earn health in the middle of the fight.
• Zeus Fu: Occasionally Zeus will rear back and charge across the arena with his fist outstretched. This will often be how he follows up if you reflect a lightning bolt at him. If he misses, nothing happens, but if you’re anywhere near the attack zone, he’ll continue to swing at the air and finish off by pounding the ground. You can dodge this attack.
• Shockwave: Zeus will call down lightning and pound it into the ground, sending a small shockwave towards you. Easily avoided by dodging or simple running.

The latter two attacks are relatively easy to avoid, but if you can’t get in the habit of reflecting the lightning bolts back at Zeus, then this is going to be a very frustrating fight. If you’re capable of doing so, then you can take things slow, by avoiding his attacks, reflecting the lightning bolts, and occasionally tapping Zeus once or twice with your sword when you see an opening. If you prefer to keep your distance, use either Typhon’s Bane or the sword’s L1 + Triangle attack to zap Zeus from a distance.

If you just can’t get the hang of reflecting the lightning bolts, then you’ll need to use either Atlas Quake or Rage of the Titans to deal most of your damage; both of those attacks will prevent you from getting interrupted by Zeus’ bolts.

I Didn’t See That Coming

After you deal enough damage to Zeus, he’ll shower you with orbs of various natures. His next attack will steal the Blade of Olympus from your hands. At this point, his attacks will change, and you’ll just have to deal with them if you want to live!

• Sword Combo: Zeus swings his sword a few times at you. You can easily dodge away from this attack.
• The Overhead Projector: Zeus will jump and swing the sword over his head, letting loose a beam of light towards you. Dodge laterally (i.e. not directly towards or away from Zeus) to avoid damage.
• The Zapper: Zeus holds the sword above his head, gathers down lightning, and attempts to zap you with it. It’s easy to dodge this attack too early and get hit by it, so wait until he starts bringing the sword down before dodging away.

For the most part, this is a bit easier than the earlier section of the fight, mostly because Zeus won’t be flinging those annoying lightning bolts at you. If you want to take things slowly but surely, simply dash away from the attacks that he sends at you, and use your blades to tag him once or twice when his guard is down before dodging away again. Avoid large combos and premade attacks like Cyclone of Chaos, or Zeus will land his attack while you spin around. If you wish, you can again use Rage of the Titans or spells to weaken Zeus up, but it’s really not necessary to do so.

After dealing enough damage to Zeus, he’ll start staggering around with the sword, acting like a loon. Hit him a few more times to cause an O-prompt, then get ready to mash on the O button to steal the blade back from him, which will send him into one of the walls here. Grab the shiny spot on the ground nearby to pick up a pillar and ram it into him.

Finish Him!

At this point, Zeus will return to his lightning-bolt throwing ways. You’ve already beaten him once in this form; now you just have to do it again. Feel free to use up as much of your magic and Rage of the Titans meter as you like here.

When Zeus steals the Blade of Olympus from you again, he’ll wind up being surrounded by an energy shield. Your normal attacks will wind up hurting you instead of Zeus, and your magic will simply knock off rage orbs. Thus, you need to flip over into Rage of the Titans mode and attack him with that. We managed to knock him out after just a few seconds of attacks in one of our fights, but other fights have lasted a bit longer, so just keep plugging away at him while you have Rage activated. Even while you’re in Rage mode, your attacks will knock rage orbs off of the shield and back into you, so you’ll be able to keep it up much longer than you normally would.

When you finally do bust the shield and get the O-prompt, you’ll throw Zeus into another wall and topple a pillar on his head. This will piss him off royally, and he’ll decide to finish you. You can’t fend off the lightning that he throws at you, so Kratos will surrender. The hardest button-hitting minigame you’ve seen yet will begin after this. You have to hit a random button just before Zeus swings the sword at you, another button when you knock the sword away, one more after you mash Zeus’ head into the rocks, and one last one as Zeus is reaching for the sword. After this last button hit, start mashing away on the O-button to stab Zeus through the chest. This whole sequence is annoying if you die, since you’ll have to rewatch the entire cutscene before playing the game again.

After the subsequent cutscene ends, you’ll find yourself back in Clotho’s lair. You need to rewind your fate thread one last time. Do so, stop time, get back to the mirror, and jump through to witness the game’s Halo 2-inspired ending. (Interesting how Kratos can rewind his own fate to a place where he’d never been and a time before he was born!)

Unlockables And Treasures

God of War II has a number of unlockable bonuses that become available after you beat the game for the first time. This section will detail these unlockables, and (eventually) tell you what you need to do to unlock them.

Urns

Urns are obtained as you play through the game. When you replay through the game on a difficulty setting you've already beaten, you can select them in the Start menu (tap L1 and R1 to find their sub-menu) for a variety of cheat effects. They can't be activated on difficulties that you haven't beaten yet. We note the general area where the Urns are found below; if you need more detailed directions, skip to the section of the walkthrough and look for the name of the urn in bold.

Urn	Found	Cheat Effect
Urn of Gaia	Found in the Rhodes Palace early in the game.	You earn 10 times the normal amount of red orbs.
Urn of The Gorgons	In the Blood River section outside of Euryale's Temple, use the golden fleece on the petrifying beams on the rolling platform to reveal this urn.	Your weapon strikes will turn your enemies into stone.
Urn of Olympus	Found in the area near where you pick up the Spear of Destiny.	Infinite magical energy.
Urn of Prometheus	Found inside Atlas	Infinite Rage of the Titans.
Urn of The Fates	Achieve an overall rank of Mortal after beating the Challenge of the Titans.	Extends the time it takes for your combo meter to decay.
Urn of Poseidon	Achieve an overall rank of Spartan in Challenge of the Titans.	Allows you to replace Cronos' Rage with Poseidon's Rage.

Treasures

Treasures are more unlockable goodies. You can select them via the Treasures menu, but most of them are only unlocked after you beat the game for the first time.

Treasure	Unlockable By...	Description
Challenge Of The Titans	Beating the game on any difficulty	Seven progressively harder minigames.
Arena Of The Fates	Beating the game on Titan difficulty.	Presumably some kind of ultra-hard test of skill.
Titan Mode	You have to unlock Titan difficulty by beating the game on a lower difficulty first.	Ultra-hard difficulty level.
Urns of Power	Finding them during the game.	Allows you to cheat during gameplay.
Bonus Costume 1	Beating the game on Mortal Difficulty.	Cod of War! (Preferred skills: Magic and Health)
Bonus Costume 2	Beat the game on Spartan difficulty.	Hydra Armor (Preferred skills: Health)
Bonus Costume 3	Beat the game on God difficulty.	???
Bonus Costume 4	Beat the game in Titan Mode.	Athena costume.
Bonus Costume 5	Beat the game in Titan Mode.	???
Bonus Costume 6	Collect 20 cyclops eyes.	Unlocks Kratos outfit from the first God of War. (Preferred skill: Experience.)
Bonus Costume 7	Receive overall ranking of God in Challenge of the Titans mode.	Kratos wears his godly armor from the beginning of the game, even after being struck down by Zeus. (Preferred Skill: Armor.)
In-Game Movies - High-Res	Beat the game on any difficulty.	Watch all of the CGI gameplay cutscenes in order.
In-Game Movies - Story Format	Beat the game on any difficulty.	Watch all in-engine cutscenes in order.
Credits	Beat the game on any difficulty.	Watch the credits.