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)
Join in the community discussion of God of War III in our forums:
- God of War III Trophy Talk
- Challenges of Olympus Community Tips and Tricks
- Gorgon Eyes, Phoenix Feathers, Minotaur Horns, Godly Possessions, Oh My!
14 Responses to “God of War III – Challenges of Olympus Guide”
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March 16th, 2010 at 12:49 PM
Wow sounds like fun!!! Cant wait
March 17th, 2010 at 11:17 PM
Ole’ was hard at first, but here are some tips. Grab those little guys and ram them into each other. and as for the minotaur as soon as they run at you walk to the edge and let kratos hang from the edge. But press X quickly or you will fall. The Minotaur will run like crazy at you and fall right off the edge.
March 18th, 2010 at 1:40 AM
Get Stoned is all I need and its hard. I got stoned 9 times and I ran out of health. Here is a tip, press circle on the Gorgon and she will atttempt to freeze you than press L1 to perry it, than press the correct button to freeze some enemies or press the wrong button so she can freeze you. That is way easier than just waiting for the Gorgon to do her freeze attack.
March 19th, 2010 at 3:12 AM
In “Ole’” kill the minotaurs quickly with L1+Triangle, kill the sentries quickly with L1+Square. Minotaurs do the move as soon as they show up, do it twice and they die, if they charge at you do what leo says and hang of the edge, just remember to jump off at the last minute, or else you might fall too. On the sentries just spam L1+Square over and over, dodge when you need to. L1+Triangle(air) also works on sentries.
On the last part when you have both minotaur and sentry after you, kill the sentries first, when the minotaurs charge at you run away and lead them over the ledge.
March 19th, 2010 at 1:57 PM
These are all good tips I can’t wait.
March 22nd, 2010 at 3:35 PM
Finished these challenges this morning; got my trophy. I gotta say, though, the hardest one for me wasn’t the “Get Stoned” one… For whatever reason, the one I had the most trouble with was “Bare Hands.” The time requirement is VERY tight. Try to get one of the Taloses knocked off the edge before the Cyclops appears; you’ll thank yourself later.
March 22nd, 2010 at 8:23 PM
yes i got them all thnx psls better thn ign tips
March 30th, 2010 at 1:30 PM
i really thought STONED challenge was the hardest. took me awhile then i figured out grabbing the souls gave me green orbs and kept grabbing them till i was stoned 10 times. i think that is the easiest way to beat that challenge. i got all trophies except beatin game on titan so that is kinda a pain somewhat. DLC u should be able to buy but i guess if u got platinum ur VIP eh?
March 30th, 2010 at 1:31 PM
whats donate points?
April 3rd, 2010 at 7:13 PM
I’m new to god of war and god of war 3 is a great game, but the challenges are bogus…this has to be the worst part of the game!!!
Thank you for the challenge help!!!
April 9th, 2010 at 8:30 PM
For “Get Stoned” you can instigate the Gorgons to turn you into stone by pressing O, then you can do the blocking trick.
April 17th, 2010 at 1:37 PM
There’s actually an even EASIER way to dodge the Minotaurs. Before he gets into his charge stance get close to the edge and just as he’s about to ram you run off the edge. Kratos will hang on while the Minotaur runs off the edge.
BE CAREFUL! Your timing has to be really good. If you time it wrong he’ll ram you and you’ll have to start over. The other bad timing is if you run off the edge too soon and he just stands there waiting for you to come back up. Now you’re trying to run away from him and see if you can trick him into getting to another edge.
After he falls get up and fight the smaller undead.
Then two Minotaurs will appear. Do the same thing. Get close to the edge and just as they’re about to charge run off the edge.
After that you’ll get a huge barrage of smaller undead. Again, keep them away.
Next you’ll get a small group of undead and two Minotaurs. Fight off a few undead as the Minotaurs prepare to charge. Get close to the edge, let ‘em fall off but be careful getting back up as the smaller undead warriors will be ready to pounce. Hang on the ledge for a few seconds and some of them will actually fall to their own death. Be careful getting back up, take out what’s left and you win the challenge.
And yes, the Getting Stoned challenge is brutally unfair.
July 15th, 2010 at 4:07 PM
For the multiply one you dont need to kill the last 3 when you have 4 of them, Just beat the crap out of one and then dodge for a second or two while the new ones turn up and you pass, each one you kill drops 2 more, you dont have to clear a wave for them to drop
July 15th, 2010 at 4:56 PM
ALso, for the bare handed, rember the trick with the minitors? well with a bit of practice you can do that with the cyclops, and the stone guys. Took me 5 tryes and they all fell off, then break the last guy and done