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.

Video Walk-through

Zeus, phase one.

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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.

Video Walk-through

A lengthy example of how to fight off Zeus while he throws lightning bolts at you.

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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.

Video Walk-through

And this is how you want to attack when he has the Blade of Olympus.

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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!

Video Walk-through

After knocking down Zeus' energy shield, you have to finish him off with a button-pressing minigame.

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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!)