God of War III - Challenges of Olympus Guide

One of Kratos’ most difficult tasks he’ll face is not in the main game at all. Instead it’s in the Challenges of the Gods which is available after you’ve finished the game for the first time. These Challenges of the Gods are 7 unique and extremely difficult challenges. If you need help beating these challenges, and you will, use the tips and tricks outlined in this guide to claim victory over these Challenges of the Gods.

Population Control

Don’t allow there to be more than 50 enemies to be in the fight arena at the same time. Kill them before too many spawn or the time runs out.

-This is one of the easier of the challenges. Just equip the Cestus and attack the sentries with combos. Another effective method is to grab a soldier with circle, hit square to initiate the battering ram move. Using the battering ram, smash any sentries that are close to the edge out of the area by slamming into them.

Bare Hands

Before time runs out, kill all enemies without using any weapons

-Grab a Sentry with circle and perform the battering ram move, running into the two Stone Statue enemies. Try to knock them out of the arena, but if this doesn’t work, keep ramming them with enemies until they are defeated. Try to defeat them until the Armored Cyclops appears. Use the same battering ram technique on the Cyclops until it’s defeated or knocked out of the arena. Finish off any remaining Sentries.

Get Stoned

Allow the Gorgons to turn you to stone 10 times without dying.

-This is by far the most difficult of the challenges and will again and again try your patience. You’ll need to let the Gorgon freeze you in stone 10 times, breaking out after each time. Sounds easy enough right? Wrong. It starts off easy enough at the beginning, but after a few times being stoned, Harpy will appear slamming down into you. If they connect with Kratos while he is petrified in stone, he’ll shatter and fail the challenge. To make matters worse, as you continue to get frozen and stone and break free, more and more enemies will appear making it even more difficult to survive.

Prepare yourself for a frustrating but rewarding challenge. You’ll have to use the Gorgon’s stare to your advantage. The Gorgon gaze can freeze other enemies and slow them down just as it can Kratos. Attempting to grab a Gorgon will result in it attacking you with its petrifying stone gaze. However you want it to turn you to stone. The easiest and fastest way to get this to happen is by pressing L1 to reflect the gorgon stare. After pressing L1 you’ll be prompted to press a face button to complete the reflection of the stare. You’ll want to not press the face button and fail the action, doing so will prompt Kratos to move the left analog stick to break free of the stone. If you find yourself in a situation where you enemies are in the middle of attacking, and they will surely shatter Kratos if he’s turned to stone, press L1 to reflect, but complete the face button prompt to deflect the Gorgon’s stare at all enemies which will turn any enemies caught in the blast in stone. You can then shatter the defenseless enemies at your will. Don’t shatter the Gorgon and try not to knock any out of the arena. You’ll be shocked at the amount and variety of enemies you’ll face during this challenge but if you act really fast you can get to at least 9 times being stoned before the armored cyclops enter the arena. At that point there will be 3 Gorgon and a slew of other enemies, so again get it over as quick as possible while trying your best to survive.

El Matador – Ole’

Don’t get gored by the Minotaur. Don’t get piled on by the enemies.

-This challenge is incredibly simple when you get the hang of it. Defeat the first minotaur, and a group of soldiers will try and grab you, quickly dodge out of their way and use quick attacks (Square). When the duo of Minotaur appear, just use L1+Circle to grab each Minotaur and ram them out of the arena. Another larger group of soldiers will appear, use L1+Square repeatedly to keep the soldiers at bay while attacking. Finally a group of soldiers and 3 Minotaur appear all at once. Press L3+R3 to unleash Sword of Olympus on the them dodging attacks when necessary. You’ll likely still have one or two Minotaur to deal with once it wears off, but they’ll easily be taken down with L1+Circle.

Knockout

Score 1000 Points by knocking enemies out of the arena. Sentry = 16 points, Minotaur= 30 Points, Wraith = 60 Points

-Equip the Blades of Exile and just go to town with various attacks. The Cyclone of Chaos (L1 + Square) and the Plume of Prometheus combo (Square, Square, Triangle) work particularly well. Don’t bother with enemy types, just knock as many enemies out of the arena as possible before the time runs out. Shouldn’t take you more than a few times.

Hades’ Kids

They don’t die, they multiply. Get 5 Cyclops to spawn

-This challenge starts out with only one Cyclops in the arena, equip the Blades of Exile and take him out quickly. When the one is defeated two will appear in it’s place. After you defeat those two, four will enter the arena. Focus on one Cyclops, quickly weakening him until a circle button icon prompts you to ride the beast. Use the Cyclops to attack the remaining 3 Cyclops and defeat them. If you can’t defeat them until after you’ve ripped out the first Cyclops’ eye, hastily attack them until they are done for.

Simply Smashing

Destroy all the urns before time runs out

-Aim for the lower right hand side of the screen, the part of the arena closest to you and from there start smashing the pots in a clockwise rotation. Repeatedly use the Plume of Prometheus and other combos to smash all pots. This isn’t exactly easy, but it isn’t exactly difficult either.

For more God of War III coverage visit our God of War III Launch Center as well as the following guides:

Trophy Guide (tips and tricks to achieve all the game’s trophies and ultimately the Platinum Trophy)
Treasure Guide (all locations of Gorgon Eyes, Phoenix Feathers, Minotaur Horns, and Godly Possessions)

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