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[__| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- God of War: Chains of Olympus (PSP 2008); Ready at Dawn Studios/Sony Computer Entertainment This guide copyright 2008, Levi van Tine - levi(dot)vantine(at)cmich(dot)edu (http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/recognition/80275.html) Boss Guide version 1.16 (Boss FAQ, originally submitted on 09-23-08) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |-----------------| |TABLE OF CONTENTS| |-----------------| {you can use CTRL+F to quickfind words in brackets} - Introduction..........................................................{intro} - Boss Basics...........................................................{basic} - Attica Bossess Basilisk (Round 1)...............................................{bas1} Persian King.....................................................{king} Basilisk (Round 2)...............................................{bas2} - Hades Bosses Charon............................................................{cha} Persephone........................................................{per} - Version History.....................................................{version} - Bibliography.........................................................{biblio} - Legal Notices.........................................................{legal} |------------| |INTRODUCTION| {intro} |------------| This guide is intended to help players defeat the bosses in God of War: Chains of Olympus (hereafter referred to as CoO), few as they are (only 4 - the basilisk, the Persian King, Charon, and Persephone). This guide was written while playing CoO on the "Spartan" difficulty level. If you'd like to make any other comments or suggestions, shoot me an e-mail at levi(dot)vantine(at)cmich(dot)edu. I've gone to moderate lengths to avoid spoilers, but I wouldn't classify this guide as strictly spoiler-free. Spoilerphobes continue at your own risk. On with the show! |-----------| |BOSS BASICS| {basic} |-----------| Each boss has a short cutscene to introduce it before the fight begins; you can also identify an upcoming boss fight because they generally take place in large, open areas with few obstacles. Most boss battles are one-on-one affairs (with one exception). Bosses' health is usually represented by a bar at the bottom of the screen. When it dips below 1/2, keep an eye out for the finisher tooltip - a spinning O above the boss that indicates that you should move close to the boss and press O to start a minigame. Each minigame has a series of button presses which if done correctly will generally be accompanied by a gruesome attack on-screen. There are several types of button presses: Any of the four action buttons, rotating the analog stick, rapid-taps, and alternately pressing the shoulder buttons as fast as possible. If you screw up any of the presses, the minigame will end in failure, usually with the boss rallying and shoving you off for damage, and regenerating some health of its own. |--------------| | ATTICA | |--------------| ------------------ BASILISK (ROUND 1) {bas1} ------------------ The basilisk is a wily opponent and you'll spend most of the initial part of the game chasing it around Attica. Your first encounter with it is in a small storeroom underneath your starting area. You'll kill some Persians and as soon as you try to open the door, a cyclops bursts through it. He apparently forgets to introduce himself and immediately tries to smash your face in with what appears to be a tree trunk. Rapidly press O to avoid this fate, and as soon as you push him off, the basilisk's head crams into the room and promptly eats the poor cyclops (and you had just barely gotten to know each other!). Now it's just you and the basilisk. It can only fit its head in the room so you don't have to worry about any pesky claw or tail attacks. His bite more than makes up for these shortcomings, however. His attacks are as follows: - Chomp - The basilisk will stretch farther into the room and take two big bites; one to the left, one to the right. Try not to be included in these bites - they do moderate damage and if one gets you, the other one stands a good chance of hitting you too because of the pause Kratos takes when he takes damage. He may also stretch straight in and gobble, but this is less common. - Fireball - Basilisks can apparently breathe fire, proving that you can in fact teach an old lizard new tricks. It will lean back and breathe in, then lean forward and spit out a great ball of fire into the room in your general direction. Tactics: The lizard is more or less immobile and so has a set attack pattern. He'll first settle in near the entrance and let you hit him. Get close (even though your Blades of Chaos are long enough to hit at a distance, I'd recommend getting up close so that all of your attacks are sure to hit - you need to make every one count) and hit him a few times with a 4-6 strike combo. I jumped up and did an aerial combo which had a high hit rate but that's up to you. You'll want to do more hits (what self-respecting god of war wouldn't?), but you'll need to stop after 4-6 because he's going to try to bite you. You can either block it (by far the easiest option) or dive, roll, jump, whatever you have to do towards the camera to dodge. You can also try to stand a little bit away from the creature, in the center of the room, and hope that the bites go to either side of you (it's possible - but you're probably better off blocking). At this point he may start his fireball animation - while it takes a few seconds to wind up, he pulls his head out of the hole while he does so, effectively taking him out of your range. You'll want to take this time to get to one side of the room, right or left, it's up to you (get away from the basilisk, towards the camera). When the fireball enters the room, quickly roll towards the opposite end (I always rolled left to right, it seemed easier that way), but be careful you don't roll too soon - the basilisk has kind of a pump fake that you need to watch out for. If you roll too early or too late the fireball will lay you out for serious damage. When you've got him to about 1/3 of his health, a tooltip will appear above his head. Run up to him and press O to start a minigame - you'll need to hit two random buttons and then rapidly press O to wound him. If you blow the sequence at any time, the basilisk will throw you off for damage and his own health will be restored to 2/3. When he's stunned after a successful minigame, run up to the tree that the cyclops dropped when he died and press O. Kratos will pick up the tree and gouge out the lizard's left eye with it, although this isn't enough to kill it (throughout the rest of the Attica sequence you'll notice that the basilisk's left eye socket is clearly wounded and he has blood all over the left side of his face). The basilisk will retreat and head over the walls of Attica into the city to cause mayhem. ------------ PERSIAN KING {king} ------------ After the basilisk you'll roam the halls of Attica until you find a big fat guy dressed in blue who claims to be the Emperor of Persia. He challenges you to a duel, clearly unaware that you are the Ghost of Sparta. Attacks: - Standard Attack - The king will take two wide swings with his scimitar, one to each side in a diagonal arc. The attacks, while painful, are slow and can easily be dodged. - Charge - The king will raise his scimitar up high and "dash" towards you. The scimitar is charged with energy and pretty damaging, it can also lay you out which would be bad except that the king tends to not follow up on this attack (although his cronies might). Not terribly difficult to dodge, but be careful while jumping because its high arc can still catch you. Has a small blast radius on impact. - Efreet - A large fire elemental will rise up out of the king and pound the ground near him, creating a large radius of fire that will cause Kratos a high level of damage if he gets caught in it. When you see the Efreet rise up, get away immediately; a double jump is best (this attack is ground-based). Tactics: The king is slow, but he does significant damage and has a decent range with his attacks. He also starts out with several garden-variety Persian infantrymen - there are 20 or so of these guys total, they will keep coming at you in pairs until you defeat all of them. I'd recommend clearing them out first so you can focus on the king exclusively. Use the double jump liberally in this fight; its height will keep you out of the way of most of the king's attacks. I wouldn't recommend aerial attacks, however, as they will make you vulnerable. The king will block occasionally and is immune to grabs. A good combo against him will give you some health orbs. When he's down to about 1/8 health, you'll see the finisher tooltip floating above his head. The first button press is a O rapid-tap so be ready for it. You then have two random button presses. If you screw it up, he'll flatten you and go back up to 1/2 of his life. When he's down, walk up to him for another O rapid-tap to defeat him. The spoils of your victory include the Efreet magic and a particularly refreshing mini-game in the room to the right of the dead king. Enjoy! ----------------- BAILISK (ROUND 2) {bas2} ----------------- This time the basilisk's playing for keeps. A little ways after the second cyclops you'll open a door and see a huge stone bridge, collapsed at the far end. Run out onto the bridge and the basilisk will descend upon you from the walls of Attica. Like before, you'll have access to the front part of the basilisk - but this time, the wide span of the bridge allows it to use its claws and other new attacks on you. Attacks: - Chomp - Two varieties; same as the first fight. - Claw - Get too far to either side of the bridge (including the right side, despite the fact that this should now be a blind spot for the monster) and the basilisk will raise up one of its giant claws and bring it down on you. It's tough to avoid this attack, simply because the basilisk (smartly) won't bother to use it unless you get so far to one side that you can't get back to the center quickly. Lots of damage and will flatten you. - River of Fire - The lizard has apparently upgraded its fireball attack since your first date. This attack will send a sweeping line of flame from one side of the bridge to the other. Double-jump, you cannot roll through or block this attack. It does heavy damage. - Smash & Grab - This is a desperation attack and is only used when Kratos is within biting distance of the monster - otherwise it cannot be dodged or blocked. It will smash you to the right side of the bridge (no damage, however) and try to bite you. Alternately tap the shoulder buttons as fast as possible to stop this attack and smash the creature's head into the bridge for its trouble. If you fail the button press, you'll take heavy damage. - Fireballs - These are the traditional fireballs seen in the first fight, but now you get lots of them instead of one at a time. The basilisk will only use this attack when you've significantly damaged it and it retreats to the top of the Attican wall. Zig-zag from one side of the bridge to the other and continuously double-jump to avoid the fireballs while you head to the far left side of the bridge. Remember that each fireball will burn on the ground for a short time after landing, so stay away from them. Tactics: Immediately take the fight to the basilisk - hit him with short (3-5) hit combos and then block to avoid the subsequent bite attacks. Like earlier, be careful not to lift your block too soon - sometimes he bites once, sometimes twice. Also don't forget to stay away from the edges of the bridge - those claw attacks hurt. Rinse and repeat this strategy until the basilisk shrieks and moves away from you on the bridge (you'll also get some orbs). After this it will immediately hit you with the river of fire attack detailed above. Double-jump this attack and settle back in for more short combos/blocking. At this point in the game you probably have access to the Chaos Whirlwind; I highly recommend you refrain from using it during this fight as it has a long animation that you cannot interrupt, meaning that the basilisk gets a free hit on you if it attacks while you use it (which it will). Don't forget about your Efreet magic; it does decent damage. After enough of this bruhaha, the basilisk will either do a smash & grab on you if you're close enough, or retreat to the top of the Attican wall if you're not. I'd recommend getting hit by the smash & grab because it doesn't hurt you and gives you some green and blue orbs (if you're successful at the button press). After the smash & grab the basilisk will usually go to the wall. Once on top of it, it will spit fireballs down at you until you move to its right claw (on the far left side of the bridge). You can activate the finisher minigame while jumping so double-jump across the bridge to the claw. When you hit O near it, you'll latch onto it with the Blades and jump up to its head. Now you'll have to rotate the analog stick counterclockwise as fast as you can; success will pull the basilisk down onto the bridge where you will smash it with a conveniently available support structure. Failure at the minigame will hurt you and you'll have to start it over again. Once you've smashed the basilisk with the wall, you'll start your previous cycle of combos and blocking. Continue this until the basilisk retreats back up to the wall and then do the same rotation to smash it with the other side of the bridge. Now it's pissed - all of its attacks will come at you faster, meaning your combos will have to be even shorter, maybe as short as just 1 or 2 hits. Keep working on it until you see another finisher tooltip - one last minigame of a few button presses and the basilisk goes down for the count. |-------------| | HADES | |-------------| ------ CHARON {cha} ------ This crusty old psychopomp is kind of a tough bastard. Your first fight with him you may as well throw; you can't beat him and you need to lose for the story to progress. The second round, however, is a different story. You will have access to the Gauntlet of Zeus and its super destructive power. This section will be arranged by round - there are 4 main rounds with Charon and his strategy changes for each one. ------- Round 1 ------- Attacks: - Standard Attack - Charon will swing his scythe in a big wide arc four times. He will throw the scythe for the last two hits, giving him a bigger range. I'd recommend blocking all of these attacks, you cannot roll by them. You can technically counter them with your shield, but doing so has no effect on Charon and if you attempt to counterattack afterwards, you'll just be rewarded with Charon's scythe in your face. - Green Balls - Charon will move to the outside perimeter of the deck (usually a corner) and three glowing green balls will form around him. After a few seconds, he will throw them at you in rapid succession. Tactics: At the beginning of the fight, nail Charon with a combo before he starts attacking. Now you're going to have to let him do the leading for this dance - he'll set the pace and you just have to keep up. Block those scythe attacks when they come (make sure you wait for all 4 to connect), then hit him hard. His scythe attacks will push you back so take a few steps forward at the end to put you in range for your combo - any combo with a Prometheus ender is a good choice. After you do some damage this way, Charon will disappear into a puddle of shadow and move to the edge of the deck. Position yourself as far away from him as possible. When he returns, the three energy balls will form around him. They're not too fast at this point so watch carefully and use your Sun Shield to return the energy back at Charon. You can return all three of them in this manner - as soon as Kratos throws the first one, press L again to catch the second and so on. After the projectiles, Charon will move in for more scythe attacks. Continue this cycle until he gets beneath 1/2 health at which point he'll do his shadow-walking to the upper deck on the right side of the screen. He'll use the green energy beneath the deck to regenerate - stop him by using your Gauntlets of Zeus to smash one of the 3 pillars holding up the deck. Do this as fast as you can because Charon will continue to regenerate until you do so (he'll probably be able to restore himself to at least 3/4). ------- Round 2 ------- After you smash one of the ship's pillars, Charon will return to the main deck and resume his fight with you. This is, in my opinion, the most difficult round of the three. Attacks: - Standard Attack - Again, with the scythe. Same as last time. - Green Balls - Same as last time, but less common and marginally faster. - Charon's Wrath - Not good. This is a quasi-projectile attack that the ferryman fires as a ray. If you get caught by it, you'll take serious damage over the course of several seconds. The worst part is the pause you take - Charon will attack with his scythe or even another Wrath while you're frozen, and you won't be able to attack or defend yourself. Tactics: Charon will probably start the round off with his Wrath, and of course not just one, but 4-6 in rapid succession. It only takes a couple of these to kill you so you have to move. When you see Charon pause and a green aura build around him, immediately run and then roll towards him. Your goal is to roll past him. This is the only way you can guarantee a successful evade - if you roll to the side or backwards, the ray may still hit you. After each ray, hit him a few times and then roll again until he stops shooting them at you. Now he'll settle back into his scythe attacks and the occasional flying green balls - you know what to do. After enough of this, Charon will again use his Wrath so be prepared to roll. Alternately, you could use your Efreet magic during this time because its animation will protect you - just be careful not to get caught with the Wrath when it ends. When you've got him down to under 1/2 again, he'll move to the upper deck and you'll have to quickly smash another pillar. ------- Round 3 ------- Charon will return to the deck again after you destroy the second pillar - freshly regenerated, of course. Attacks: - Green Balls - Same ol balls, but they're even faster now. You won't see them too often. - Scythe Smash - There are two varieties of this attack. The first is a smaller attack where Charon moves to a corner of the deck and smashes his scythe into the floor. The second is a much larger blast from the center of the deck. Both are ground-based, radial attacks. Tactics: This round is much less demanding than the previous and Charon will settle into a predictable routine. He'll move to a corner and do a small scythe attack. Move to at least half the deck away and open up with the Light of Dawn (hopefully you've bought the first upgrade, which will allow you to do a rapid-fire attack). Charon will do this 2 or 3 times before moving to the center of the deck and using his larger scythe attack. You have to double-jump this attack - you cannot block or roll by it. When it's finished, Charon's scythe will be stuck in the deck and he will be vulnerable to your attacks. Don't waste any time. Charon will continue this pattern, occasionally throwing the green balls at you. When he returns to the upper deck to regenerate, smash the third and final pillar with your Gauntlet. The deck will collapse and Charon will no longer have access to its regenerating energy. He'll be on the lower deck, weakened - walk up to him and press O to start a short, simple minigame. When you've got Charon seemingly dispatched, walk to the center of the ship and attempt to pick up his mask. Charon has a little fight left him, despite the fact that he's only half the man he used to be. ------- Round 4 ------- This is the simplest round. Charon is now flying around the ship, legless, and he has lost access to his scythe, mask, and regenerative ability. Attacks: - Green Balls - This is Charon's only attack in this incarnation. They are, as usual, 3 at a time, except this time Charon is levitating around the ship and the balls move with him. They're also much faster. Tactics: Move away from Charon and get ready to return the balls with your shield. The balls are now moving very fast and you may not be able to consistently return all three of them at a time. That's OK because they don't really do much damage anyways, and Charon has very little health. Hit him with 10 or so balls and he'll go down for the count. His mask and its Charon's Wrath magic are now yours to control. ---------- PERSEPHONE {per} ---------- The wrath of the gods is fearsome indeed. Persephone is the final boss in CoO and fights accordingly. Like Charon, there are distinct "rounds" with Persephone, but there are really only 2. ------- Round 1 ------- Attacks: - Swoop Attack - Persephone will glow with green energy and swoop in to attack you. It's a 2-hit combo, the first will stun you and the second will lay you out. Neither are particularly damaging but it will set you up for her devastating rock attack. You can't straight block this attack (doing so will "stun" you), but you can parry it with your Sun Shield. Double-jumping or rolling also works because she tends to swoop in a straight line. - Stone Throw - Watch out for this one. The goddess will telegraph it by flying a short distance away from you. She'll then pull a block of stone up from the floor and kick it towards you. It flies in a straight line, but is very fast so it can be tricky to avoid. If it hits you, it does heavy damage, knocks you halfway across the room, and lays you out. She likes to send several at a time so getting hit with even one of these guys may be the end for ol' Kratos. Tactics: Immediately start the battle off with your Charon's Wrath and either the Efreet or an aerial combo. This will cause Persephone to back off from you. If you don't hit her hard, she'll use her swoop which will be difficult to avoid at such close range. When she backs off, double-jump towards her and start an aerial combo with your Blades (I'd recommend Rampage of the Furies), or just pummel her with the Gauntlet of Zeus. After 6-7 hits she'll back off again and toss another rock at you. Continue this cycle of double-jumping and aerial combos - when you've got her down to about 3/4 health, she'll kneel and you'll get some life and magic orbs. Take this opportunity to hit her with a major combo like Tartarus Rage. When she stands back up, she'll probably swoop at you so try to parry it, or roll or double-jump out of the way. Then start back with your aerial combos because she'll throw more rocks at you. If you stumble or panic at any time during the fight, use your Efreet to buy you some time, but try to conserve your magic - you'll need it later for round 2. When you've got her down to 2/3 health, she'll kneel again and you'll get more orbs. Hit her again and continue your previous dance with her when she stands up. When she gets below 1/2 health, you'll get a checkpoint (in the middle of a fight, weird huh?) and she'll grab you. You'll have a minigame; alternately press the shoulder buttons rapidly to get her off you. She'll drop you and command Atlas to attack you. You now have several random button presses to take care of Atlas - don't screw it up. When you're finished with him, you'll jump back into the fight with Persephone and get another checkpoint. ------- Round 2 ------- The room you were fighting in before is now heavily damaged after your little spat with Atlas, the two of you managed to make a skylight (along with a circle of light in the center of the room - ignore it for now). Anyways Persephone will move to the top of one of the broken pillars, effectively out of your melee reach, and bombard you with projectile attacks. Attacks: - Energy Balls - Persephone will throw several large balls of green and black energy at you in relatively rapid succession. They're slow enough for you to roll away from, but probably not slow enough to run away from - they have a large blast radius on impact. You can, however, return them at the goddess if you time it right. - Energy Ray - Similar to the ray that the Gorgon enemies use to turn you to stone, but with a longer range. Oh and it won't turn you to stone, but it will do heavy damage. She'll follow you around the battlefield with it but it's pretty slow. - Energy Pillars - Several huge pillars of green energy will shoot up from the floor. They tend to follow you around and have a big radius. They do heavy damage and I wouldn't recommend double-jumping or rolling away from them, this may put you into the path of another pillar. Simply run around the battlefield avoiding the green spots that appear just before the pillar shoots up. Persephone will send 10 or so at a time. Tactics: This round is significantly easier than the previous one. Start blasting the goddess with your Light of Dawn rapid attack - she'll be throwing the green balls at you so you won't have time to charge it. Throw a few fireballs, then return the green balls she throws at you using your Sun Shield. If you get close to her, hit her with Charon's Wrath and then back off - the balls are significantly easier to dodge at range. She may also use her ray attack on you. If she does so, move to the edge of the room opposite from where she started the ray and charge your Light of Dawn to hit her with a big attack. Persephone's ray only covers about 2/3 of the battlefield so if you stand at an edge it probably won't hit you. Note: I forgot to mention that Persephone will return the energy that you have yourself returned by deflecting her balls with your Sun Shield. As the fight continues, you'll have to go back and forth an increasing number of times, and each time gets faster. Just watch Persephone closely to get your timing right. As it gets super fast, you may have to deflect again almost as soon as you throw it. You'll see what I mean. Thanks to Marc Louis Castillo for reminding me about this. After you do enough damage, Persephone will "kneel" and float slightly lower on the pillar. Move up quickly and open up with an aerial attack like the aforementioned Rampage of the Furies, or the Gauntlet's Lightning Thrash. After a few combos she'll recover and get back into position. She'll continue throwing her energy balls and rays at you, along with the pillars. When she pulls out the pillars, focus all your energy on avoiding them - don't try to attack her or you'll get hit by a pillar. When she's finished with the pillars she'll go back to the balls and rays so continue hitting her with your magic. When you've done enough of this and her health is down to about 1/8, she'll collapse on the floor. Rush into the circle of light in the middle of the room and block. Your Sun Shield will catch the light and direct it at Persephone. Rapid-tap O and Persephone will push back. You'll have to press O three separate times as she moves in. After you hit the third one, you defeat the goddess and the game. Congratulations! |---------------| |VERSION HISTORY| {version} |---------------| 09-23-08: Version 1.0 submitted to GameFAQs. 10-02-08: Version 1.05 submitted to GameFAQs. Cleaned up the format. 11-19-08: Version 1.15 submitted to GameFAQs. Slightly modified the Persephone section after I defeated her on God mode. 12-30-08: Version 1.16 submitted to GameFAQs. Added a detail that I had previously forgotten, about Persephone. |------------| |BIBLIOGRAPHY| {biblio} |------------| - ASCII art courtesy of dtools.net (ascii.dtools.net). - Disclaimers courtesy of GameFAQs (GameFAQs Help: Copyrights, Trademarks, and Plagiarism - http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/help/entry.html?cat=29). - Format developed using FAQ writer EntropicLobo's format as a basis (http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/recognition/47899.html); used with permission. - Written using Metapad (http://www.liquidninja.com/metapad/); created by Alexander Davidson. - Special thanks to Marc Louis Castillo for reminding me of a crucial detail in the Persephone fight. |-------------| |LEGAL NOTICES| {legal} |-------------| This work is the intellectual property of Levi van Tine. It is authorized for use exclusively on gamefaqs.com (although other sites are free to link to it). If you notice this guide being hosted by any site other than GameFAQS, I would greatly appreciate an e-mail about it. You are free to use this work, print it, and distribute it as you see fit, but it is expressly not to be used for commercial purposes. Also remember that presenting any part of this work as your own constitutes plagiarism, and mentioning any part of it without proper citation is just poor writing. All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders. _ _ ___ _ | | ___ _ _<_> _ _ ___._ _ |_ _<_._ _ ___ | |_/ ._| | | | | | <_> | ' | | || | ' / ._> © 2008 |___\___|__/|_| |__/<___|_|_| |_||_|_|_\___.