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|                              Full Walkthrough                      (00000) |
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 /   od of War  /------------------------------------------------------------o
|  _ -----o-----\                         Aegean Sea                         |
 \_/   (00001)   \-----------------------------------------------------------o

At the very beginning of the game you're given control of Kratos, a man who 
wields two swords attached to the end of very long chains.  Using a 
combination of the square (weak attack) and triangle (strong attack) buttons 
you can perform numerous different combos at the start.  To save you the time 
of learning everything progressively with the tutorials you can also throw 
enemies with circle, block attacks with L1 and evade by moving the right 
analog stick.  Get yourself accustomed to the controls by smashing through all 
the enemies in this area.  Note a fun little tip, when you press the circle 
button to grab enemies you can perform three different throws.  While holding 
the enemy press either circle, triangle or square to do one of the three 
different throws.  After all the enemies have been disposed approach the trap 
door in the upper left corner and press the R2 button to grab hold.  Continue 
to press the R2 button over and over again until the trap door opens then drop 
down.  There's a treasure chest right here when you land, hold the R2 button 
to grab on and open it.  Inside a number of green orbs will refill your 
health.  You can break many of the objects in this area to get red orbs as you 
continue North down the hallway.  Head down into the next hallway.

Here you will be ambused by a large "miniboss."  It's the head of a hydra and 
it's extremely angry.  To defeat this boss you need to run up to it and attack 
using a combination of square and triangle attacks to dish out as much damage 
as possible.  The boss will be constantly attacking and size that's virtually 
impossible to dodge you need to block it instead.  When the head moves back to 
strike just stand where you are and hold the L1 button to protect yourself 
from the attack and go in swinging madly after each one.  Continue this 
process over and over until you've knocked out about half its health.  At that 
point it will fall down and the option to play a minigame appears.  To 
initiate the minigame press the circle button when you see the circle icon 
appear over the beast's head.  Now you have to press the button that appears 
on screen quickly, if you see a triangle press the triangle button and so on.  
Doing this will treat you to a rather violent and brutal scene.

Once the monster is gone continue forward and begin to cross over the pit on 
the beams that extend overtop.  It's quite a balancing act but if you happen 
to slip you can usually just tap the X button to climb back up again.  If you 
fall entirely just swim back to the start and give it another try.  Break the 
barrels on the other side to get all the red orbs and then jump through the 
crack in the wall to the left.  There's a man in the cage at the end of the 
path, you can speak to him using the R2 button.  Climb the stairs on the right 
and open the treasure chest to receive a whole bunch of red orbs.  Continue 
down the hall past the wooden barrier and kick open the door with the R2 
button.  Outside you'll find a huge chaotic scene of violence involving some 
nasty winged creatures ripping men apart.  Return the favour by using the 
circle button to rip their wings off completely, this will occur for many 
enemies throughout the game, special throws based on the type of enemy they 
are.  It's an unfortunate truth that the innocent men running around on deck 
will drop health when killed, so if you need it then just start swinging 
madly.  After defeating a few of the creatures and thinning them out a little 
run to the opposite side of the deck where you will find two doors.  Approach 
one of them and open it by tapping the R2 button, it will reveal a chest 
containing red orbs as will the second one.  Head back and continue your 
slaughter of the winged cratures, eventually a boss will appear.

This actually isn't so much a boss as a miniboss again.  It has a few basic 
attacks, first there's a generic bite attack which bites down on the spot 
wherever you are stand, simply block this attack.  The second attack the 
monster will pound its head down on the left side followed by the right side 
followed by the middle so knowing this pattern be sure to avoid it entirely.  
Finally the creature has a swiping attack where it uses its head to swing 
around on the ground and swipe you to the side.  This one can by jumping if 
you double jump and time it correctly.  The last one is an attack you actually 
want it to perform.  It grabs you in it's mouth but using the circle button 
and tapping it as fast as you can you can break free and do some serious 
damage to the creature in the process, so it's actually beneficial to be hit 
by this.  While you're not in its mouth however just stick with normal 
triangle and square attacks to defeat the creature, you must drain all its 
health this time rather than just a partial amount to kill it.

After defeating the miniboss drop down into the water where its head had 
popped up from since there is now a hole in the ship.  Swim up down the 
corridor and grab hold of the mesh net at the end.  Start climbing up and jump 
back onto the ship when you reach the top.  The game will now teach you a new 
attack, hold the triangle button to do an upward swing and launch an enemy 
into the air.  You will automatically jump up along with him so while airborne 
press the circle button to do an air throw, this manoeuvre can be pretty 
helpful at times so keep it in mind.  Start tiptoeing across the pole leading 
off the upper right side of the ship, if you fall then you die but the 
checkpoint was quite recently don't worry.  When you reach a fork take the 
right branch to find a chest containing red orbs.  Go back and take the left 
branch to reach another ship.  Head up to trigger a cutscene.

Following the scene open the nearby chest to reveal a whole bunch of healing 
green orbs.  Left of the chest is a glowing save point, while standing on the 
save point press the R2 button to bring up the save menu and then you can save 
your game.  Back on the ship drop down and run up to find a crate behind the 
first box on your right.  Using the R2 button you can grab hold of the crate 
and either push or pull it in any direction.  You can also hold the X button 
to charge up and kick the crate in the direction you are facing.  What you 
need to do is get this crate all the way down to where the archers are 
shooting at you because the ledge is too high to jump up to.  The problem is 
that the arrows can actually destroy the crate, and while another one will 
respawn you have to go back and try again so the easiest way to do it is 
charge up a kick when no arrows are coming at you and release right before 
they hit.  Kick the crate all the way to the end underneath the archers and 
use it to double jump up and grab hold of the ledge.  Kill off all the archers 
and then open up the treasure chest containing green orbs.  Head down to the 
end of the hall and you'll find a locked door but you cannot open it.  Your 
only option is to climb up the ladder on the opposite side and leave them.

There's a large net here and it is your only means of going further.  Approach 
the net to automatically grab hold of it and begin to climb.  Note as you are 
climbing that you can attack and grab still while on the net.  Grabbing is 
going to be most helpful, the best grab is the one you do while holding up on 
the left analog stick since it's fast and effective.  The other grab is good 
if there's multiple enemies around.  Note that as you climb you can hold up 
and press the X button to climb up faster.  On the way up there's a platform 
but still more net to climb after that, when you reach the very top head down 
and balance across the large pole.  At the other side of this pole is a lone 
chest containing a stash of red orbs.  Now head back across and jump up to 
grab that long rope leading from the top of the pole down to the other ship.  
Break open the left and right wooden blockades to reveal a chest containing 
red orbs on the left and a Gorgon Eye on the right.  Collect a total of six 
Gorgon Eyes to permanently increase you maximum health (so in other words, you 
just got a Blue Orb Fragment.)  Break through the middle and approach the 
glowing blue flame down at the end.  Here you will meet the one of the many 
Greek gods who assists you with your quest by granting you a special power 
which in this case comes in the form of a magic spell.  Using the L2 button 
you can crate a huge blast of lightning around you and deal heavy damage to 
foes.  It's quite an effective attack in large groups and for bosses actually.  
Use Poseidon's Rage here to take out the enemies that spawn around you, 
there's now a blue bar below you health which represents your magic power and 
using Poseidon's rage drains this bar, but you can refill your magic by 
defeating some enemies or finding chests with blue orbs in them.  Head through 
the door that Poseidon's head was blocking and make your way outside again.  
On your left is another save point which may come in handy here; on the right 
are two treasure chests which will fully restore both your health and your 
magic power.  Climb the net and get ready for a boss fight.

There are three Hydra's here, two babies and one absolutely enormous Hydra 
which you cannot even access because when you try to climb up the net in the 
middle the two smaller Hydras will automatically knock you off every single 
time.  So here's what you need to do in order to kill this boss.  First of all 
you should fight these two smaller Hydras the same way you fought the previous 
one with the exception that they will not grab you in their mouths, but one 
very large advantage you have now that you didn't have before is Poseidon's 
Rage.  Regardless kill the smaller Hydras however you see fit but you'll 
notice that once they go down you cannot hurt them anymore and after a certain 
amount of time they will come back to life with almost full health again.  
There's a special trick here, when one of the Hydras is down notice that there 
are a bunch of crates piled up beside them.  Hop up these crates and there 
above their heads is a large anchor-like object under a suspended platform.  
Jump on top of this platform and it will break and descend into the beast's 
neck, pinning it in place permanently.  Now all you have to do is the exact 
same thing with the Hydra on the other side and both of them will be pinned 
down so that they cannot prevent you from climbing up to reach the real boss.

The real boss too is a Hydra but far larger than any your have ever seen 
before.  It has a few basic attacks mostly involving large biting motions.  It 
has a weaker bite attack which it pulls it's head back and bites the middle of 
the platform you're on.  The best way to avoid taking damage is to double jump 
and hold the block button, the teeth won't hurt you.  Blocking isn't so 
effective when he pulls his head back to the side and does a more powerful 
chomp on either the left and right side of you platform.  Your best bet is to 
predict which side he's going to chomp and jump away from it while holding the 
block button in the air.  The final one is a big stupid roar meant to blow you 
off the top but in the end as long as you're holding the block button the 
attack can do no such thing.  Your main goal is to use the opportunities when 
the monster bites down on the platform to start hacking and slashing away and 
while you can hack and slash at it while it's in the normal stance as well, 
magic should only be used right after the creature bites down, run up to its 
head and zap it then move into a combo of square and triangle attacks which 
should actually refill your magic pretty well.  Now you'll also want to know 
how to actually damage the boss.  When you've take off about a third of his 
life the minigame circle icon will appear.  Press circle and you'll be given 
the chance to tap as fast as you can and end up slamming the monsters head 
against the pole.  His life refills as this point and it seems like nothing 
happened but if you look close you'll see the pole has actually splintered.  
You need to do this a total of three times before the pole actually breaks.  
Now once its broken damage the boss for about one third of its health and 
there's a chance to do a new minigame, I won't spoil it, but it's awesome.

When the boss is dead you need to actually run into his mouth and down his 
throat.  There's a man hanging on for his life at the end, press the R2 button 
to trigger a quick scene.  Now you've got the key to that locked door from 
before.  Exit the monsters innards and climb up the crates on the right side 
of the ship.  You can jump and grab the mesh netting at the top, there's two 
chests here containing health and another Gorgon Eye.  Jump up into the air 
and grab onto the sliding rope.  You'll drop in a familiar place, you can use 
the save point to save your game and then run down the lower area to reach the 
crate which is still in position.  Double jump up to the ledge and head 
through the hall to reach the locked door.  Approach the door and use the key 
by pressing the R2 button, run to the end of the hall and use the R2 button 
once again to kick down the door.  This scene marks the end of the first area.