God of War glitch FAQ
v. 3.6. completed 28. 11. 2009
Compiled by AKheon, found out by countless people.
See the end of file for more information.
0. Contents:
------------
0. Contents
1. Introduction & version history
2. Abbrevations & glossary
3. General gameplay glitches
- Weapon/attack/magic glitches
1. BoA glitches
1a. Homerun and its variations
1b. Strange death delay
1c. Special death effect after magic
1d. Glitched circle action
1e. Fusing BoA and BoC
1f. Artemis tricking
2. Infinite jump
3. Hermes Rush glitches
3a. HR strange collision property exploit
3b. Passing through large enemies
3c. Rope + L1 something move + HS = trouble
3d. Special property during Rage of the Gods
3e. Moving Pandora's Box with Hermes Stomp
4. Gorgon Rage glitch & related material
5. Other weapon/attack/magic glitches & tricks
- Enemy glitches
6. Enemy out of bounds
7. Infinite orb fountains
8. Throw/grab glitches
9. Shoddy A.I.
10. Enemy-specific glitches
11. Misc. enemy glitches
- Crooked surface glitches
12. Gliding
13. "Poseidon Jump"
14. Stance flicker
- Loading glitches
15. Music glitch
16. Loading trigger skipping
- Water glitches
17. THE swimming glitch
18. Reverse swimming glitch
19. Glitched jump out of water
20. Strange things of dying in water
21. Underwater rush glitches
22. Other water glitches/tricks
- Misc. glitches & exploits
23. Regen magic
24. High/long jump
25. Death glitch
26. Magic while grappling
27. Gravity "reversal"
28. Invisible rope momentum
29. Checkpoint glitches
30. Eye/Feather glitches
31. Graphical glitches in the menus
32. Game freezes
33. Disc tray glitch (NEW)
4. Glitch playthrough (level specific glitches)
5. Info and lists for experts
6. Credits, legal information, contact info, etc.
1. Introduction + version history
---------------------------------
Why a glitch FAQ:
Because this game has buttloads of glitches and other interesting stuff of
which to tell about. Many major ones, useful for skipping entire levels.
Countless minor ones, providing amusement or sometimes annoyance to
the gamer. Maybe by listing them and publishing the list people will gain
new interest in this game. Or appreciation for glitches? By getting to know
these strange quirks in the game mechanics, you can endure them with much
more lasting patience and grace. And do some heavy exploiting to blow off
steam when one feels like it.
About the content:
I'm purposefully loose in what is allowed in and what is not, simply because
the definition of a "glitch" is not a clear one. Rather than just glitches,
this guide pretty much lists and discusses anything interesting, random,
rare or "unintended by the game developers"-grade phenomena inside the game.
Also some small stuff that most people never notice during a normal playthrough.
Version history:
v. 3.6 (28. 11. 2009)
- finished listing save points
- added upgrading glitches
- corrected text here and there
- hopefully this thing won't have to be updated for a while now.
File size: 161kt.
v. 3.5 (23. 11. 2009)
- re-arranged things
- added various new stuff
- began listing save points
File size: 154kt.
v. 3.3 (28. 7. 2009)
- corrected stuff, added some small notes
File size: 148kt.
v. 3.2 (10. 7. 2009)
- added GMG things
- added Tyrhhjy notes
- re-arranged enemy list
File size: 147kt.
v. 3.1 (30. 3. 2009)
- added a new trick that's long overdue, the disc tray glitch
- added GMG things
- added Tyrhhjy things
- added Satvara things
File size: 144kt.
v. 3.0 (1. 3. 2009)
- added a new trick, "enemy momentum jump"
- verified a couple of old tricks
File size: 139kt.
v. 2.95 (12. 1. 2009)
- added a mention of one new Gates of Athens glitch
- updated "gorgon rage" glitch
- corrected 1000000 small errors
- added Tyrhhjy mysteries, tricks and skips
File size: 135kt.
v. 2.9 (14. 12. 2008)
- added small things here and there
File size: 132kt.
v. 2.8 (27. 11. 2008)
- corrected and re-wrote stuff
- added small things here and there
- added Satvara's new skips
File size: 131kt.
v. 2.7 (1. 11. 2008)
- corrected stuff
- added small things here and there
File size: 127kt.
v. 2.6 (26. 10. 2008)
- corrected stuff
- added one new big~ish glith
- finished level-by-level listings
File size: 122kt.
v. 2.5 (19. 10. 2008)
- corrected a couple of errors.
- updated a couple of sequence breaks.
- added small glitches!
- Started to add sweet spots... slowly...
File size: 110kt. (yes, now it's kt again and not kb.)
v. 2.4 (13. 9. 2008)
- corrected a couple of errors.
- added some random discoveries.
- started a new section in detailed 'for experts' info.
File size: 96kb.
v. 2.2 (31. 8. 2008)
- took heed of GMG's long list of improvements...
- started a glossary.
- Categorized glitches better.
- Added some random discoveries.
File size: 89kb.
v. 2.1 (10. 8. 2008)
- added info on high/long jumps, infinite air grabs, infinite Orion's Harpoon.
- added bestiary info.
File size: 80kb.
v. 2.0 (20. 7. 2008)
- added couple of new glitches
- categorized level-by-level glitches better
File size: 72kt.
v. 1.9 (13. 7. 2008)
- added a new glitch section about underwater rush tricks + other smaller stuff
- added sequence breaks to level-by-level listings.
- added many video demonstrations.
File size: 68kt.
v. 1.8. (18. 5. 2008)
- Updated/added links
- continued the lists
- added enemy glitches
File size: 58kt.
v. 1.5. (20. 4. 2008)
- added several new glitches, e.g. water glitches
- continued the lists
File size: 52kt. (see a pattern forming here?)
v. 1.3. (13. 4. 2008)
- added 1 new small glitch
- continued the lists
File size: 42kt.
v. 1.1. (5. 4. 2008)
- added a couple of glitches
- started to list enemy-specific glitches
- started to list level-specific glitches
File size: 32kt.
v. 1.0. (23. 3. 2008)
- Listed the general gameplay glitches
File size: 29kb.
What to do for the next versions:
- Some videos could be upgraded
- Finish the listings
- Add very detailed info on game mechanics (again courtesy of GMG)
2. Abbreviations & glossary
---------------------------
Abbreviations: (the most common ones)
GoW = God of War
GoWII = God of War II
BoC = Blades of Chaos
BoA = Blade of Artemis
PR = Poseidon's Rage
MG = Medusa's Gaze
Zf = Zeus' Fury
OH = Orion's Harpoon
RotG = Rage of the Gods
HP = Hit point
GMG = GodModeGOD
AK = AKheon
� = 'note to self', something to be tested or modified later.
Glossary:
Invulnerability frames (a.k.a. i-frames, invincibility frames, etc.) =
Some moves contain small periods of time during which all attacks pass through
Kratos and he receives no damage. Not as much in GoWI than in GoWII, though...
Launch =
An attack capable of (or intended for) launching enemies high up in air.
For example, BoC's Ascension.
Lift-up =
When Kratos himself can/will rise up in air during some attacks, like with BoC's
Apollo's Ascension.
Bounce =
An effect in which an enemy will bounce a bit after a succesful hit. It's not
nearly as high as a lift-up. For example, the last hit of Apollo's Offensive.
Knockback =
An effect in which the enemy is thrown back. Can be done in air too.
Downed =
An enemy which has fallen on its back/on the ground.
Tricking =
1. Manipulating enemy behaviour by using the scenery or certain moves (like
weapon switching).
2. Avoiding enemy attacks with invulnerability frames that some moves produce.
(most prominent usage in GoWII.)
Cancelling =
Canceling an attack or a combo to another move. Used to gain speed and combat
efficiency, not to mention it enables some cool strategies. (f.e. canceling
slow BoA finishers to blocking or rolling.) In an especially prominent usage
in GoWII with its Barbarian Hammer. An advanced strategy alongside tricking.
False grab =
Hitting an enemy with a grab in circumstances in which a grab would not be
succesful. Kratos will fumble backwards, oftentimes the enemy will react to the
failed grab attempt in some fixed manner, helping the player to manipulate enemy
behaviour.
Minigame-grabbable =
A situation in which the enemy has a 'circle' above their head. Differs from a
normal grab situation in subtle ways. The enemy may get stunned for a bit when
this happens.
Grab select =
Situation in which the player can decide how the grab resolves, e.g. most
legionnaire types.
GMG's list of enemies with basic grab select.
-Undead Archer
-Cursed Archer
-Hades Archer
-Undead Legionnaire
-Magic Legionnaire (no shield or glitched)
-Cursed Legionnaire ("O") *unless glitched*
-Fallen Legionnaire ("O") *unless glitched*
Sweet spot =
A place in the game area to which your enemies are blind or impaired to. These
change with your enemies and their A.I. limits. Some are listed in the level-
specifics further down.
Out of bounds =
Anywhere outside the intended game area.
Plume/Valor/Spirit/Might =
An abbreviation of some attack or combo. Read the full names of attacks (to know
which ones are referred to) from the game's menu.
Dissension =
GMG's dubbed name for an attack which brings the enemy down from a launch. (e.g.
air triangle for both BoC and BoA)
For more dubbed attack names, see the section "Info and lists for experts" near
the end of the FAQ.
3. General gameplay glitches
----------------------------
--- Weapon/attack/magic glitches:
---------------------------------
1. Blade of Artemis glitches
1a. Homerun and its variations
Using double lauches, your enemies can be launched extremely high up in the
air or bounced across the playfield in unusual ways. This exploit is possible
because of some loophole in this game's gravity mechanisms, not to mention
Blade of Artemis' strange attack properties. You can try to double launch with
BoC too, but it doesn't work nearly as well (if at all). In other GoW-games
there exists no comparable double launches (at least as of yet).
There are three main variations of it, Spike, Punt and Homerun, dubbed neatly
after sports terms by this trick's discoverer, GMG.
Keep in mind that if a foe can't be launched none of these works.
1. Homerun is a BoA launch followed by another BoA launch. First launch takes
enemy skyward. Second causes a knockback and a launch, causing the enemy to fly,
as has been suitably put, "up and away." Handy for getting enemies over
invisible boundaries and into chasms.
2. Spike, an "elevated knockback", is using BoA's air triangle attack on a
launched enemy. Will not clear invisible walls. Can cause a bounce + Knockback
effect if enemy hits solid ground. It works well for transporting single enemies
to fixed directions.
3. Punt is a launch after a bounce. This move strangely makes enemies ignore any
invisible walls around the arena, causing them to fly to their deaths with
surprising ease.
More exceptions/glitches:
- Gravity effects do not accrue very well after the first two hits. F.e. doing
three Homeruns in a row to the same enemy would not make it rise any higher
than normally.
- As mentioned, these attacks don't work well against Satyrs, other than Punt.
This is because they have a strange 'aerial recovery' which stops the launch
in its tracks. Spike doesn't always fail but isn't reliable either.
- A Cerberus Breeder, when launched with a Spike, will look like its merely
gliding in the air without worries. This is because it has no particular
response animation for the type of attack it is hit with.
Video demonstration:
1, GMG's and Shinobier's instructional video:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=sMTz7ff6O0Q
1b. Strange death delay
Instead of instantly falling apart, your enemies will in some circumstances
remain alive for up to several seconds before BoA's special death animation
kicks in. During this time, they will continue to attack Kratos like normal.
May happen if:
- Finishing move has a special property like 'launch' or 'knockback'
- If Kratos finishes using magic while BoA is equipped (see 1c.)
Does not happen if:
- Enemy is airborne or downed
1c. Special death animation after magic
For no logical reason from Kratos's point of view, all the enemies he
kills with magic during when BoA is explicitly equipped get slashed to
bits just as if he attacked them physically. EXP bonus from BoA's long
combos is also granted.
As with 1b, this will not happen if an enemy is airborne or downed.
1d. Glitched circle action
BoA has no throwing/grabbing option, only BoC has. The game gets confused on
this once in a while, and when around mini-game grabbable enemies (with the
circle hovering over their heads), a normal circle attack or a circle attack
from the middle of a combo will cause the glitch. Sometimes the attack will
deal its damage before the grab occurs.
A list of different outcomes:
1, The most likely one: enemy will be grabbed instead of/after a circle attack.
Kratos's weapon switches automatically back to BoA afterwards.
2, Kratos will fumble backwards as always when a grab attempt fails. Enemy
may or may not die afterwards. This is just a normal 'false grab', activating
in the conditions any false grab will. (read more in the Glossary)
3, The circle attack does enough damage for the enemy to die. Kratos will grab
at nothing afterwards.
4, Kratos will do the grab animation on nothingness, a failure. (needs other
external factors to work, e.g. large height differences on the ground.)
This is basically just a normal failed grab of this sort.
GMG insists on me noting the fact that Kratos may seem to slide towards the
enemy before/during this grab if the enemy has moved away from him after
the attack.
1e. Fusing BoA and BoC
You can "fuse" BoA and BoC temporarily, so that both of them are visible
at the same time. This is mostly just a graphical effect, with no influence on
the damage Kratos does for example. The easiest method to achieve this effect
is to do either Zeus's Fury or Medusa Flash in the air with BoA equipped.
Right during the magic animation, press down L1 and keep it down. That's it at
its simplest. Doing L1+something specials will yield interesting sights...
Another way to do this is through a glitch grabbing attempt with BoA, described
in 1d. You need to have a creature with 'grab select' (see glossary). After
having grabbed the enemy, let the grab time out while holding block. After
the enemy has freed himself, Kratos is in the fuse-mode, ready to kick ass
with two weapons at once. (if it only were as sweet in the actual game...)
This state will last only as long as you have L1 button down, don't cast
magics or get damaged. Other than the L1 + (something) moves, you can also
do weapon switching and Hermes Stomp without losing this effect. The last one
is actually something very useful, because Hermes Stomp adds much length to
your jumps, and it is normally unavailable during a BoA long jump. You can
really mix things up during high jumps as well.
An interesting thing to note is that during this kind of fuse long jump
you may have a momentum glitch with normal jumps: the jump is at full speed,
as if Kratos was running at full speed before jumping. This is useful too.
Video demonstration:
1, a BoA and BoC fuse long jump:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=P1_lrGGK8lM
1f. Artemis tricking
Switching weapons quickly enough, you can make all local enemies (with some
exceptions) forget attacking you.
Doesn't work on:
- Boss enemies
- Archers of any type
- Minotaur Hammer Grunts and Minotaur Warriors will not stop functioning
completely. They will switch doing their shockwave-attacks and only them.
Same rules apply for hanging on ledges ("ledge tricking") too.
1g. Forward roll to circle failure
If you try to do the circle attack after a forward roll, you only hear the
sound but no attack happens. This doesn't happen with side or backwards
roll, oddly enough...
2. Infinite Jump
A.K.A. "nth jump"
This game has ways for you to jump infinitely high or infinitely towards any
horizontal direction. The drawside is that doing it takes a lot of magic
(requiring either Dairy Bastard or regen magic) and time. It can be done with
either Lv. 4 -> BoC or Lv. 1 BoA, though BoA is in any case the best choice
because it's so versatile.
This trick is based on the fact that PR in air resets your falling momentum.
You've noticed how long attack strings keep you in air worse and worse the
longer you do them? Do a PR between the chains and you'll do much better.
With BoA air attack strings or Falling Helios you do not only remain in air
but also get a bit higher/forward with each consecutive attack and magic.
Short variations of this trick are classified as high jumps. They're often
mixed up with other attacks (such as Lv. 2 MG air blast) to suit the purpose
they're used, and countless sequence breaks are possible because of them.
Read more in the section 23, which is a tutorial for high/long jumps.
3. Hermes Rush/Stomp glitches
3a. HR strange collision property exploit
During Hermes Rush Kratos's hit/collision box is less wide but longer
than during his other stances/animations. This means in effect that you are
able to squeeze into tight spots (e.g. behind some chests). Depending on what
kinds of walls surround you and how tight the spot is exactly, you may be able
to get through them from there. Turning towards a wall is sometimes necessary
for this to work (to fully take advantage of his strange collision property).
Video demonstration:
1, skipping Pandora's front yard with this (Satvara's vid):
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=TahZ0khKQSo
3b. Passing through large enemies
Hermes Stomp goes right through some larger enemies such as cyclops.
3c. Rope + L1 something move + HS = trouble
If you pass a rope while doing a L1 + something move (e.g. Apollo's Offensive)
and at its end perform the Hermes Stomp, a glitch happens. The game thinks
Kratos is on the rope while Stomp's animation transports him away. This state
has no movement checks, so Kratos is eternally stuck in a silly position.
During this time, your enemies will register Kratos as both ground and rope
target. F.e. legionnaires will attempt to jump on a rope even if Kratos is on
the ground right next to them. However, at another location a gorgon actually
attacked Kratos who was stuck, inadvertently releasing him!
To be honest, this can happen without an L1-move too. For example, if you're
unlucky when an enemy attacks you - you fall down from the rope but get stuck.
Video demonstration:
1, see the end of this video for this glitch in practise:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=BJh_UCwzV_g
Not too long ago I noticed that this trick works with balancing beams as well.
Kratos can turn after reaching the final pose (after HS), but nothing else. By
turning at correct times, you can hit nearby enemies! You are still, after all,
in the middle of Hermes Stomp's attack part. If you get stonefrozen like this,
you can't break out for some reason.
3d. Special property during Rage of the Gods
The wait period at the end disappears, meaning that you can go crazy with this
move. Keep R1 down and mash X and see what happens.
3e. Moving Pandora's Box with Hermes Stomp
You can move the Box around before the elevator has descended using well-placed
Hermes Stomps. Why? Hard to guess. This account becomes even more bewildering
once you discover that this is not possible at the bottom of the elevator any
more...
4. Gorgon Rage glitch & related material
It was first noticed that one could quite consistently move Kratos' family
to a few directions at the second-to-last fight of the game by doing a Gorgon
Rage, then grabbing the family instantly afterwards. It is possible to even drop
the whole family off the map using the glitch. (discovery: AKheon @ 2008 winter)
Other circle moves work after Gorgon's Rage too, to some extent, such as Lance
of the Furies. However, the conditions of this particular location of the game
were too unique to have effects which could be reproduceable elsewhere (at least
to this day such haven't been found).
Another fixed circle mini-game location was the infamous sex mini-game. It was
found that Gorgon's Rage has a small effect there too, albeit a different one:
after the Rage animation has passed, the minigame starts on its own according
without an explicit grab animation at all. This causes the camera angle to
change and the small urn to either wobble or stay put. Kratos stays unoccupied
the whole time. Nothing else happens, or so it seems.
While hopes were high in regard to glitching more circle minigames using this
property of the move, it was found out that f.e. Ares or Pandora's Guardian
mini-games couldn't be broken into using the glitch. It is still not conclusive
what this glitch can and what it can't do, and in what different ways it can be
used, but hopefully research will continue...
NEWS for the year 2009: Manu918 and co. found another way to move Kratos' family
which works for NUR conditions. It's by merely freezing a couple of batches of
the clones, then grabbing the family. So, it may be necessary that there have to
be enemies to freeze before this glitch (or at least a part of it) works.
Video demonstration:
1, AKheon's vid of Kratos' family dropping into outer space:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=6KjVqoCcJZU
2, another vid, showing something on both examples:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=AujcC1xHI6g
3, manu918's vid:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd4tfP70J70
5. Other misc. weapon/attack/magic glitches & tricks
Note: see 'misc enemy glitches'-section for more.
Note 2: a section for RotG-glitches may be opened some day.
Other: If you enter a moment where time is frozen (e.g. talk to someone or
during cutscenes) while in a Zeus's Fury or Medusa's Gaze stance, and then
upgrade the magic in question, the graphical effect disappears and Kratos
looks like he has nothing in his hands, though the stance remains.
Graphical: If you spam Gorgon Flash in air fast enough, every other blast
will not be visible. Zeus' Fury can do this too.
Combat: You can deal damage through invisible/red walls (you know, the ones
that enclose a fighting area) but stone freezing beams become powerless though
they're not visibly obstructed.
Combat: Using Army of Hades on stonefrozen enemies will reduce their actual HP,
not "during stonefrozen" HP. This means that you can get the minigame circle
appear on these creatures. You can't do the minigame while they're stoned
though...
Other: Using any magic or throws which enable you to target things, you can see
currently spawning enemies as targets way before they can actually be damaged
in any way. Especially if the spawning way is unique, e.g. in the first room
of the game.
Graphical: If you switch weapons quickly enough, the BoA flash effect is not
always seen.
Combat: You can shoot both Gorgon Torrent and Gorgon Flash at the same time.
Graphical: The BoA glow is not seen in some areas.
Combat: Orion's Harpoon, when done on enemies that are just low enough, will
only hit but not throw them.
Graphical: Plumes that get canceled before impact at a certain moment in time
create the explosion but do no damage. However, the BoA circle ender
"Retribution" will in fact hit even if it is canceled in a similar way.
Strategy: Blocking in air causes Kratos to fall down quicker. This trick can be
used for interesting juggling combos, such as BoC lv. 2+'s L1+X, (block in air
until ground), L1+X. (gratz GMG)
Combat: Poseidon's Rage normally always does a fixed amount of hits. For reasons
unknown it sometimes hits more than it should. (pressing other buttons than
circle during the casting is the catalyst?)
Strategy: The Might of Hercules ender hit can do up to 4 hits. This makes it
worthwhile to use, even though a single hit isn't very strong. Also notice that
it's possible to do the ender without a long combo beforehand by doing a simple
square, square, SQUARE (pressing down).
Combat: During air attacks the game slows acceleration down. If the attack
cancels out, touching ground or water, the acceleration slowdown carries on to
normal movement time, causing Kratos to move and jump as if slightly suspended.
This is especially noticeable after longer (L1+something) attacks. It can also
be noted than it also works in water and if you cancel the acceleration upwards,
e.g. to ropes.
Graphical: When loading the game, after passing the point where Kratos can be
controlled while the screen is still dark, switch weapons to BoA and start
running. When the graphics show up, Kratos will run as if holding Blades of
Chaos, but with BoA in his hands. (gratz GMG)
Combat: During Rage of the Gods, if you try to cancel into Ascension from roll
(keeping triangle down, that is), the move self-cancels strangely. (gratz GMG)
Other: An extremely rare glitch concerning retrying with petrified Kratos can
leave him in a slow-moving state (according to GMG about 30 times slower) after
having retried. Getting petrified and breaking out was the only way to fix it.
Combat: During RotG, Hades' Reverse can be used, but none of its follow-ups.
Strategy: Your enemies will forget to block your attacks if you're far enough
away. Good to know for using your longest range attack, Zeus' Fury. Enemies
that would normally block it fervently will suffer the most this way.
Strategy: You can make a Zeus' Fury charged bolt even if you didn't have the
needed magic for it. You only need enough for a normal bolt.
Strategy: The AoH effect carries on between level transitions. The best use for
it is assumedly just before the last fight in the game, in which you can't use
any magic...
Other: if you enter Medusa's Gaze before the screen loads, the stance you enter
is completely immobile (you can't turn in it.) This can also happen if anything
related to your weapons/magic is still loading when gameplay resumes (read more
about this in the section of 'upgrading glitches'.)
Random: Gorgon Rage can hit max. of 9 target with one blast, and doesn't hit
anything that is below Kratos. (where do I get this 9 targets thing, then?
There's a hallway in Challenge of Poseidon which is full of urns. Each gives 2
hits for some reason, but the maximum the game will ever give you is 18 hits. Is
it reasonable to assume that 9 targets is the maximum for GR?)
Other: you can abuse enemy attack momentum to gain long jumps if you have RotG
on. First, get hit by an attack that has lots of vertical strength (while in
air), then jump again before hitting ground. Thanks to Tyrhhjy for this.
Video demonstration:
1, my vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2NRQ3JQ66o
--- Enemy glitches:
-------------------
6. Enemy out of bounds
The game has set strict limits for your enemies to wander, for various level
design reasons. Some of these limits are extremely obvious and exploitable.
F.e. getting on a ladder can cause every enemy in the room forget your
presence. If entering a new area, the enemies often act as if there was an
invisible wall separating them from Kratos (which, code-wise, may very well
be close to truth), and they will not follow him to wherever the path next
leads.
Rarely the game allows you to send an enemy outside of his regular bounds,
causing the A.I. to go wild. They run against walls, hoping to get back to
the correct area, in vain. Depending on how some areas are loaded and drawn,
you may encounter a phenomena of invible enemies during this kind of out of
bounds moment. You can hear the enemies, but can only see or damage them from
certain parts of the room. This isn't useful, but it's funny to look and
listen at. Air throwing or just launching enemies to strange places can get
this to work - though be warned that it's very rare.
(more detailed instructions/examples needed? contact me if the answer is 'yes'.)
Credits go to the Max Upgrade Guide at GameFAQs, that's where I first heard
about this glitch. Check it out for more detailed info.
Infinite orb fountain v3 is possible utilizing out of bounds limits, albeit in
a more limited form than it was in GoW II. Read the below section for more info.
Video demonstrations:
1, invisible minotaur at Rooftops of Athens (part X of this video):
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=YJP3uQsN-Mk
7. Infinite orb fountains
The death animation of your enemies can get stuck in a loop where the enemy
will give up his red orbs over and over again. It is caused by the animation
interrupting and resetting right after the orbs fly free but before the
animation naturally ends. This can happen f.e. if the enemy falls on some
strange piece of collision which can't accomodate his death throes, like a
crooked surface or a ladder.
The best enemy to do this with is the harpy: they're small and weak,
they fly, they have a quick, stable death animation. I've never seen a large
enemy get fountained. Once a minotaur bounced strangely from a wall and it
gave two times the orbs, but that was hardly a fountain of any kind.
The best known places where this works are the infamous Challenge of Atlas
ladder, and the statue room at Temple of the Oracle.
There exist other type of infinite orb glitches too. The one GMG refers to
as infinite orb v3 is basically causing an enemy repeatedly to un-exist (read
more from enemy out-of-bounds glitches) while he is dying. It doesn't seem
to work with all enemies. Maybe we will see a video of it eventually.
Video demonstration:
1, Challenge of Atlas ladder fountain:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=hRxl9yffSdc
2, Temple of the Oracle fountain:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb6CrJYbV5A
8. Throw/grab glitches
Doing throws over uneven surface will usually cause both Kratos and his
enemy to rise up in air for the throw's duration. If the height difference
between Kratos and enemy is too big, the grab cancels out disappointingly.
Sometimes Kratos acts out the grab/finishing move without actually holding
the enemy, e.g. trying to rip head off nothingness while the gorgon is
frolicking somewhere nearby.
Your enemies can interrupt Kratos's grabs even while they technically
shouldn't be able to. It's all a bit unstable. Sometimes Kratos does not
suffer any harm from attacks during a grab, sometimes he will. Arrows are
something that very stably interrupt him.
At least in one spot during the game, grabbing a spawning legionnaire will
cause another legionnaire in the room slide long ways away (this is after
getting Poseidon's Rage and enemies appear). I think it can happen elsewhere
too.
During grappling or rope sections, your enemies can do a very glitched looking
grab on Kratos. Because of lack of space, their animation becomes juxtaposed
somewhere away from Kratos and they may seem as if they're climbing a ladder.
If the grab ends against Kratos's favor, the enemy might disappear for no
reason afterwards.
Many enemies can be air grabbed again and again until they die. A big weakness.
In a similar way, many enemies can be Orion's Harpooned to death by just
repeating the move indefinitely. The particular weaknesses of each enemy is
listed at the enemy-specifics.
No one knows why or how, but some legionnaires with a circle looming above their
heads will remain 'false grabbable' (read the glossary if you don't know what
that means) with the exception that Kratos will not get shunned back when he
attempts to grab them. This means the false grab can be spammed and it looks
strange, to say the least. (GMG's reminder)
While Kratos is climbing a wall, he can still grab enemies that are on the
ground-level and not climbing. You can easily insta-kill your enemies this way.
If ground enemies get hit by an enemy that Kratos is grabbing while on the wall,
they suffer quite an immense knockback, a sight to behold.
GMG says that while doing a 360 degree toss with an archer, a cursed legionnaire
grabbed Kratos. Strangely, Kratos dropped the archer and began grabbing the
healthy legionnaire instead (who was instantly brought down to 'O'.)
9. Shoddy A.I.
In some corridors, you may find one of your enemies walking plainly against
a wall, usually towards where Kratos is. I've seen this happen at at least 3
different locations, though always with those legionnaire-types.
At least in one spot during the game your enemies (Fallen Legionnaires) will
try to climb a normal ladder to get to you. Unfortunately their behaviour
has a loophole in it and they get stuck in the middle if you quickly change
elevation. If you try to climb the ladder again, they turn normal.
You can fool some of the enemy A.I. with jumps and air attacks (easiest with
Blade of Artemis) or rapid weapon switching. The rapid weapon switching is
actually something very useful. Doing it fast enough causes all of your enemies
to simply stop attacking. It doesn't work on archers or bosses, though.
10. Enemy-specific glitches (and additional info)
Thanks go to GMG for most of this stuff. Entries with no important info to
mention are omitted.
-- Undead Archer --
Subject to Infinite Air Grab and Orion's Harpoon.
Will never get BoA tricked or ledge tricked.
-- Cursed Archer --
Subject to Infinite Air Grab and Orion's Harpoon.
Will never get BoA tricked or ledge tricked.
No area effect from explosive arrows can be blocked, whether the arrow in
question exploded on the ground or when hitting an enemy with Kratos nearby.
Melee-counter version of their arrow will not explode, but if it misses, it
makes the sound of an explosive arrow.
They will never melee-counter as long as an unexploded explosive arrow is
sizzling in the vicinity.
Rarely, deflected explosive arrows do not explode.
If an explosive arrow hits and shatters something petrified, the arrow sticks in
mid-air until it explodes.
In unknown circumstances an arrow can get stuck in mid-air, still "mobile",
turning towards Kratos if he's moving around it.
Arrows have a tendency to break all sorts of grab moves which would otherwise
be unbreakable.
-- Hades Archer --
Subject to Infinite Air Grab and Orion's Harpoon.
Will never get BoA tricked or ledge tricked.
Basically just a Cursed Archer with a triple arrow shot.
-- Centaur --
Subject to Infinite Air Grab.
Glitch "O" when grabs are interrupted *it's fake/a trap*
Their shockwave's range is larger than the effect would show.
Their arrows make it very easy for them to drop Kratos out of air.
Sometimes, after they've loaded an arrow but hadn't used it for some reason,
the arrow stays in their hand for some time and looks uncouth. This extends
to even them physically attacking Kratos with an arrow loaded and flashing.
(This is what GMG had to say about this matter: "The 'arrow in hand' thing
may not be a glitch but rather an augment to their physical strikes. If it
is a glitch, it is a blessing because it makes it obvious they CANNOT use
their Stomp (Shockwave) while it is out like that.")
If their death grab gets interrupted, they'll instantly grow back a new pair
of legs and continue attacking you.
-- Cerberus Breeder --
Subject to Infinite Air Grab.
Occassional failure to fire during its 3x fireball attack.
-- Cerberus Offspring --
Subject to Infinite Air Grab and OH.
They can do glitch growths even after their deaths.
OH will sometimes fail for no reason (maybe because of the small size?)
Grabs will also sometimes fail for no reason.
-- Cyclops Enforcer --
Just the furthest half of the spinning ball attack hits. You can stand in the
rope or back half without taking a hit.
Just walking *slowly* around it counter-clockwise is sufficient to avoid all
hits (perhaps not the rush though).
-- Cyclops Brute --
Grabs don't always connect when they should.
-- Cyclops Desert King --
Doesn't have a 'Brutal/Ruthless Kill bonus'.
-- Gorgon (and some petrifying glitches) --
Subject to Infinite Air Grab and Orion's Harpoon.
Chance for air grab high jump. (read more in the section of high jumps)
If Kratos is petrified while he does most attacks, he does not completely die
after shattering: enemies still target him, and you can hear him grunt when hit.
Arrows don't always crush petrified Kratos.
-- Medusa --
Has 10000 HP, which is a lot. The mini-game needed to dispose of her becomes
available a lot sooner, and most players deal with her this way.
- Harpy --
Subject to Infinite Air Grab and Orion's Harpoon, as are all other harpies.
Subject to orb fountain glitches, as are all other harpies.
-- Undead Legionnaire --
There are countless of glitches ready for these guys, mainly because they
appear at so many different circumstances (e.g. ropes and grapple sections too)
and places. Almost all have already been mentioned at the above sections.
-- Cursed Legionnaire --
Some of them can not be minigamed - the circle does not appear above their
heads.
At least one instance of this enemy is impervious to Orion's Harpoon.
Can climb ladders, though not very well.
If two of them are very close on a rope, a kick hits both.
Subject to air grab high jump when "O" is about to appear.
-- Magic Legionnaire --
While they are airborne, downed or spawning, their shields do not stop hits.
Physical hits at any such point make it possible to grab through their shields.
Throws towards Magic Legionnaires can either cause a knockback or be deflected.
GMG theorizes knockback occurs more often if the opponent is right in front of
the throw.
Some RotG BoC attacks act like their shield isn't there, as does AoH. However,
with BoA itself you have absolutely no way to pass through their shields.
Charged Zf bolts' area blast can hit them even with their shield intact, but it
does no damage.
"The glitch where a Magic Legionnaire uses shield attack AI without their shield
appears to only occur after they've lost it and been petrified (after breaking
free obviously)." - GMG
Some of them can be grabbed like normal despite they have their shields on in
some slightly special conditions, e.g. having taken a thrown legionnaire to
their face or possibly just having got damaged enough. This kind of grab is
glitched-up, causing Kratos to slide erratically across the playing field for
short ways. With this movement you can f.e. kill yourself to the spiked
crushers at Temple of the Eye, despite they're not functional and they have
a wall in front of them. Also, if you choose to throw your enemy somewhere,
his graphics will twitch a bit, and in some cases he will even die before he
is thrown.
"Just to say it again..the knockback in of itself will allow a glitch grab."
"Both Plume and Spirit (during Rage of the Gods) fail to break their shields."
- GMG
If one dies with its shield intact, the lone shield can stay a while after
the legionnaire's corpse has disappeared.
Just to note, any explosive move will destroy their shields, including Rising
Helios and Lance of the Furies. The sole exception to this rule is BoC's
plume attack during Rage of the Gods.
-- Legionnaire Captain --
Would otherwise be subject to Infinite Air Grab (and possibly Infinite OH), but
their minigame prompts mess the whole thing up.
They have a strange tendency to block Zf bolts while downed, as if their guard
was up.
"It REGENERATES 10HP everytimes you let it recover from "O"." - GMG
-- Minotaur Grunt --
Subject to Infinite Air Grab.
-- Minotaur Hammer Grunt --
Subject to Infinite Air Grab.
Uses the shockwave attack when you are abusing the ledge.
-- Minotaur Warrior --
Subject to Infinite Air Grab.
Uses the shockwave attack when you are abusing the ledge.
-- Minotaur Tormentor --
Subject to Infinite Air Grab.
BoA Homerun trick "Punt" typically (if done fast) will send them the opposite
direction that is desired.
Artemis often cannot block their shoulder rush unless your guard was up early.
-- Satyr --
I hear air grabs done to them actually deal no damage for some reason.
BoA Homerun trick "Spike" (read more in the section about BoA-glitches) causes
an unusual knockback/bounce effect. Very useful in Challenge of the Gods 10.
Their "aerial recovery" allows immunity from "Homerun" but not "Punt". (read
more in the section of BoA glitches)
The throw in which they move Kratos to their opposite side, can transport him
on nothingness. Kratos bounces once, then falls.
-- Temple Siren --
Subject to Infinite Air Grab and Orion's Harpoon.
"Petrification of a �Dizzy� creates a �Wander� and also prevents regeneration as
�O� doesn�t go naturally. Curiously, OH and air grabs would not connect so long
as the �O� was glitched as such though the mid-grab worked whenever I so wished
it to. If done at 19HP remaining, she would skip her final �O� and be left with
9HP. If done at 18HP-11HP she glitch dies. If done at 10HP or less she just goes
into her finisher rather than the mid-grab. Juggles appeared to cease working on
her." - GMG
Note: with "dizzy" and "wander" GMG was talking about its A.I. modes. Basically
one-word description of its primary movement in the mode.
-- Desert Siren --
They die when petrified 3 times in a quick succession.
They have 10000 HP, which is a lot. In fact, even their petrified state has
10000 HP! The mini-game needed to dispose of them becomes available a lot
sooner, and most players dispatch them this way.
-- Wraith of Athens --
Subject to Infinite Orion's Harpoon.
Kratos's grab can launch several Wraiths in the air when it resolves.
-- Desert Wraith --
Subject to Infinite Orion's Harpoon.
Their air grab sometimes breaks for no apparent reason.
"Some petrifications caused �unexisting� of the Wraiths. I typically saw it only
after petrifying 3 Wraiths. My guess is that the lingering remains (via shatter
or breakout) plus 2 other petrified wraiths *or more* causes the next wraith
petrified as such to unexist. The �stacking� issue only appears to work with
these Wraiths." - GMG
"~~an �uppercut� (from a grab) hitting a nearby foe will deal that grab's damage
to them and, in the case I saw, send them sailing away like with Zf�s
Stun/Charged bolts (the effect is like that of Homerun/Punt but without the
extra height due to a previous launcher)." - GMG
-- Pandora's Guardian --
See the level-specific glitches further down for mentions of his two big
weaknesses.
-- Evil Kratos, Agony --
The one with Zeus' Fury.
"Agony only attacks Kratos but because of the line of fire, he may hit the
family. Though his bolts are relatively weak, they can devastate by breaking
your control of the fight"
"Agony kills don't count towards the kill count." - GMG
-- Evil Kratos, Remorse --
The ones with Blades of Chaos. They can also grab Kratos.
-- Evil Kratos, Regret --
The ones with Blade of Artemis. For some reason they can also do the special
attacks only Blade of the Gods has! (the sword Kratos gets in the last fight)
-- Ares --
See the level-by-level specifics for the final boss fight.
11. Misc. enemy glitches
Combat: Enemies' attacks stun other enemies but will not do any damage.
Combat: If too many enemies (>2?) are shattered simultaneously not all of them
give you orbs.
Combat: Flying enemies sometimes do not fall down when stonefrozen.
Combat: Some enemies can be attacked for extra hits even after they're dead
(before they disappear).
A.I.: While Kratos is petrified, any enemies that weren't outright posing for
their next attack or already attacking will not try to attack. This happens in
GoWII too.
Other: I've heard that if Kratos gets petrified on top of a ladder or some other
special surface he will become petrified in such a way he can never break out!
Would this work on your enemies as well?
Video demonstration:
1, brandedartist's vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tSFbZzisz8
--- Crooked surface glitches:
-----------------------------
By a crooked surface, I mean a special type of collision surface which will
try to drop Kratos down when he's on it, but which responds to Kratos's
different stances in various ways.
12. Gliding
When on a crooked surface, if you try to block, roll, enter a magic stance
or do a grab, Kratos will not fall down as helplessly as usual, but instead
will either remain where he is or move to some direction (depending on
momentum). Effects also vary depending on how angled the crooked surface is.
Crooked surface does not count as normal ground. Kratos's jump counter will
not reset when he lands, for example, limiting somewhat what you can do. You
also can't move in other ways than what I just described.
This glitch can be abused to move over areas with a lot of crooked surface.
If you got a lot of momentum, Kratos's speed is irrationally high and the
movement looks completely strange. Gain momentum by doing a well-timed Hermes
Stomp or a grab (or other attacks).
Video demonstrations:
1, an outdated strategy, but still, it's gliding at it's finest:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=2Zad8ne9FyM
13. "Poseidon jump" (discoverer: AKheon)
When on a crooked surface, if you do PR, you may encounter this glitch.
Kratos will do the PR as he always does. Afterwards he enters a short
animation wherein he descends down but interestingly remains stable,
seemingly immune to the effects of the crooked surface. During this time
the jump counter resets (as the game thinks you're back on the ground again)
and you can jump two times more before again exhausting yourself. If you try
to move in any direction before jumping, you will cancel out of this state,
so be careful.
As foreshadowed, this event does not always follow PR. Sometimes PR just
cancels out and nothing interesting happens. Remain vigilant and cast PR
again before you are dropped off the crooked surface. Sometimes the PR will
not cancel out, but nothing interesting still happens. Be prepared with lots
of magic for this one.
Being able to jump in the middle of a crooked surface increases your
capabilities by a fair amount. If only there were more long stretches
of crooked surface in this game...
Video demonstration:
1, skipping a large part of Gates of Athens using this:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=rhOM5SYFyOk
14. Stance flicker
If you're right at the edge of a crooked surface and blocking, rolling, in
a magic stance or doing Hermes Stomp, Kratos will not fall down but will
stay on the surface edge and try to do whatever the button press denotes,
but failing each time because the game thinks he's constantly starting to
fall down. The action starts anew and it gets canceled again. Kratos flickers
strangely and makes noises.
Video demonstration:
1, see the middle part of this video:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=YJP3uQsN-Mk
--- Loading glitches:
---------------------
15. Music glitch
This glitch is not possible with every copy of GoW. I'm not sure if it depends
on different regions or versions or what. It might be even rarer than that.
Basically, the Rings of Pandora background music will stick whenever you visit
that place. It will not end when it should but instead plays alongside with
the other musics of the area where you move in. This causes your PS additional
strain and everything loads much slower.
The only useful thing this is for is doing a couple of skips: you are able to
get past some obstacles before they load and show up.
For more information, you can read a full-fledged Music glitch FAQ here:
http://akheon.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/gow-music-glitch-faq.doc
Video demonstration:
1, one of the skips possible with this trick:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=PACPzKSQXm8
16. Skipping loading triggers
The game loads it's areas mostly in realtime. When Kratos steps to a certain
trigger in the level, the next area begins to load. By skipping one of these
triggers you will not be able to proceed (in most cases), but instead are
confronted with emptiness where the next section should begin. You can skip
these either accidentally or, if you know about them, purposefully.
At least in one spot of the game skipping a loading trigger saves a
considerable amount of time, and it is at the Gates of Athens, where you can
enter the gate without loading its innards, enabling you to skip all the
obstacles you would otherwise have to clear. But all this can cause problems
to new gamers who accidentally skip some crucial trigger somewhere (though
unlikely). If something like this happens to you, now you know why.
Video demonstration:
1, the Gates of Athens skip:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=rhOM5SYFyOk
--- Water glitches:
-------------------
17. THE swimming glitch
In GoW, the game doesn't know which areas are water and which air - it simply
knows where's the water surface and what happens when Kratos touches it.
The only thing preventing Kratos from swimming wantonly wherever he wants
are a couple of walls, but with clever methods they can be bypassed...
you might've deduced what that means in this case.
Yes, while swimming wherever you want, you have absolute reach and capability
to move. You see the areas from angles you've never seen before. No physical
obstacle will restrict you, for the most part. Enemies can't reach you.
But what would an otherwise game breaking glitch be without crippling
disadvantages? A lot better, some would say. Here are the reasons for
why this glitch isn't more popular:
- You need Poseidon's Trident. Without it, Kratos can't control his
movement and the game deposits him to outer space. (a water surface
cheat protection system, sort of. You have to see it to believe it.)
- You can't operate several important switches or other devices or even
push anything. This will get you stuck at several parts of the game, so
no swimming through the entire game in any case.
- There are only a select amount of places you can start the swimming glitch.
- You can't stop swimming when you want. You're restricted to finding another
water surface or you'll have to swim eternally. What torment!
- The camera angles are hideous. At some points you have no way to see where
you are going.
- You are completely powerless. You can't block or attack. Grabbing enemies
causes a fine cloud of blood to appear, but nothing else happens.
- You are likely to skip several critical loading triggers while swimming,
getting you even more stuck.
The state of air swimmingness will stay if you save, which means that you
can get completely stuck in the game if you're careless with this.
For more detailed information, read a full-fledged swimming glitch FAQ at
http://akheon.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/gow-swimming.doc
Video demonstrations:
1, swimming at Challenge of Hades:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=mmaGwJcSSdA
2, swimming at Challenge of Atlas:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=q9N0MkCQh14
3, how swimming glitch could be used in a speedurn, Challenge of Poseidon:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=9E2qMv10kEk
18. Reverse swimming glitch
In a surprising turn of events, much like how you can swim above where there's
no water, you can run where there's supposedly no air. You just have to avoid
touching the water's surface when descending down to an area where you'd
normally swim. You can do this f.e. passing through a wall.
The uses for this are pretty limited. The underwater passages were not
designed for normal type of movement, and you quickly encounter many problems
when trying to move there normally. The floors are unstable and Kratos can
actually get stuck to the floor. Most of the swimming areas require Kratos to
move long distances upwards, which is impossible without regen or infinite magic
and a lot of time. Thirdly, you can't operate underwater switches.
19. Glitched jump out of water - A.K.A. "Uber jump" or "XXL jump".
Normally the game will not let you cancel an underwaterly charged jump out of
water into anything else. We didn't know what caused the exceptions in this rule
every now and then until a few days ago (18. 4. 2008) when BigVEE supplied us
with an answer: the game keeps track of HOW Kratos enters water. If he enters
with a dive animation, you can't do any sort of high jumps out of the water.
If he enters any other way (apart from running/walking) he is able to cancel
to a normal jump (without Icarus Lift). If he runs/walks into water, he can
do the highest of all jumps: "Uber jump" or "XXL jump", etc.
The glitched effect is only seen if you do Icarus Lift right as you leave
the water. This kind of jump effectively also works as a 'dash', breaking walls
or stone beam frozen enemies if you happen to hit them.
For another type of glitched jump, look lower for a section on Rush glitches.
Video demonstration:
1, see part IV of this video:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=lE0BPM_XtuY
2, usage in a speedrun: (courtesy of Satvara)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=qwFo5vf1xuI
20. Strange things of dying in water
If you die and then drop down into water, Kratos's stance is an idle, strange
one, as if someone stuck a huge stick up his ass. You can also have Kratos
completely freeze up in a stance, such as "jumping out of the water" but
with him not actually leaving the water. You can even achieve the "riding on
a BoC-sled"-effect from GoWII with Cyclone of Chaos!
Some of the horizontal momentum Kratos had before hitting the water will keep
moving his corpse. It seemed to me that the momentum shown no signs of
slowing down, unlike when he's alive. Very high speeds can be achieved with
this, it's just a shame it's useless. It seems to vary a lot by the attack you
die by and what position Kratos was in.
21. Underwater rush glitches
If you interrupt an underwater rush with a grab, Kratos's speed will halt
momentarily (for the grab's duration) before continuing at full speed for a
longer period of time than usual. A subtle usage for this is to win time during
swimming: on average you get to swim more at full speed in relation to the time
it takes to charge the rush. You can do this several times a row, but the effect
is weaker each time you do it (before re-charging).
You can cancel out of charging animation by doing a grab. During the grab Kratos
continues charging like normal, and if you let go of R1 during it, the rush
activates instantly after the grab ends.
A complex new glitch found by GMG messes up the game mathematics and can cause
Kratos to move at impossible speeds or crash the game. Here are instructions:
1. Start charging while pressing X or triangle (to aim upwards). Make sure
there's underwater ceiling over your head. Do a rush to the ceiling, then
press R1 and circle simultaneously. Now you're in charging phase again. You
don't have to press X or triangle any longer. Note that you could've aimed
downwards too, but you can't access a part of this glitch this way.
2. It's time to do another rush, so do it. Before it ends press R1 and circle
down again at the same time so that Kratos enters another grab & charge.
3. Repeat 2 for a couple of times. You will know you're doing the right thing
when Kratos's rush movement has him momentarily turning the opposite way,
looking strange. After third rush, if you do not interrupt things with
another grab, you will notice something strange in Kratos's limb motions.
He paddles like a madman. After fourth rush he paddles like his life were
depending on paddling, for a pretty long time. After fifth time Kratos's
limbs and movement completely stops for a few seconds before he turns
into a human blur with whirring limbs all over the place. He moves pretty
slow, but a normal grab momentum will help you move around. After sixth
Kratos's movements slow down to an insane crawl, along with some other game
functions (such as game menus, which you now can't access in real time).
Something is causing some very big strain to the game's calculations. After
seventh one the game effectively crashes, so don't go there. Note: touching
water's surface resets this state. Also, the slowdown is on hold during
normal grabs.
4. While in a hyper-paddling state, approaching the water surface and doing a
grab right before touching it (or just doing another upwards charge) can
lead to two interesting effects. Firstly, it's possible for Kratos to enter
normal swimming state (on the surface) while still flailing his limbs and
retaining the glitched rush animation. This mostly happens if you have very
little momentum from your rush left or you grab at an inopportune time. It's
only a graphical glitch. Secondly, it's possible for Kratos to jump out of
the water and move really quick to the opposite direction you were aiming his
movement. Sometimes this causes additional graphical glitches such as camera
failures. Both of these tricks' effects are greater depending on how many
times you did phase 2.
5. Mixing these up with the other jump glitches, very big jumps can be achieved.
We haven't fully explored the limits of this trick yet.
Video demonstration:
1, most of listed glitches:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=fcbWuvicH10
22. Other minor water glitches & tricks (most written text courtesy of GMG)
If you grab enemies while swimming, they will bleed heavily but receive no
damage. This is only possible during swimming out of bounds.
Lure? - When skimming water, beasts don't generally attack unless they can see
through tricking. When slightly underwater, they keep attacking often enough as
if you are on the ground. (you need to be near)
Splash - upward grabs at the surface cause a landing splash
Crushing - When using Rush you can crush breakable walls/objects. When you leap
out of the water using a Ascending Dash, the dive retains the properties of the
rush itself so it can break walls/objects OUTSIDE the water.
Slope flicker - on a slope between standing and skimming. Whipping out Zf/Medusa
will change the effect slightly as will blocking. It is also altered by having
Artemis out instead.
Slope Rush - Rush into a slope for a brief run
Fast skim - rush then ascend to the surface
Still one small discovery to add to the pile: if you start grabbing a ledge
during an ascent to the surface or a small swim jump (or so I think), Kratos
will grab the ledge, but whenever directing away from it, he will turn 180
degrees and hang on nothing. Just a graphical glitch.
Just as a passing mention: blood effects are the same underwater as they are on
the ground. Looks cheap.
Video demonstration:
1, about half of the mentioned tricks in this video:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=lE0BPM_XtuY
--- Misc. Glitches
------------------
23. Regen magic (discoverer: Satvara)
Regen magic is a state you naturally encounter at only one part of the game:
when you have to shatter several minotaurs in front of Afrodite's mug. In it
Kratos stably gains back his magic all the time, essentially resulting in an
infinite amount of magic you have at your disposal. During normal completion
Kratos would lose it immediately after this task is completed. But the room is
not escape proof, and by leaving there on your own accord, the game will forever
consider you having not completed the task, and you retain the regenerative
magic state 'til the end of time.
It's not a glitch, rather just a very powerful exploit.
Video demonstrations:
1, Regen magic v2. by KewBew63:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=yOHvvp6Xshg
24. High/long jump
There are ways to jump boundlessly longer or higher than the game intends you
to. A step-by-step explanation and instruction.
Fact 1: Kratos can jump a max of 2 times in a row.
Fact 2: Any attack or move that causes Kratos to leave ground constitutes as a
jump.
So, you're going to have to make the best out of two jumps. The first move
should generally be a lift-up, an attack which enables Kratos to rise high up
in the air, since it gives you the highest height gain possible with one jump.
The game restricts Kratos's ability to jump after a lift-up, but this
restriction can be bypassed by doing a normal attack, L1-attack or a grab while
in the air, but with these moves alone some height is always lost because Kratos
falls down while doing all this! A semi-high jump is possible, but we can do
much better.
Fact 3: Poseidon's Rage resets Kratos's falling momentum.
Doing it after the lift-up enables Kratos to not fall down during any attacks
that follow. This gives you important extra height needed for a classic high
jump. (note: originally invented by Satvara.)
Example: a lift-up, PR, air square attack, jump.
Fact 4: You get extra momentum to a move when you do it as soon as possible
after a normal jump. A small, but important detail.
This is used in both the long jump and the Artemis high jump. Info on long jump
is listed later, for now the concentration is on the boon of high jumping:
Apollo's Ascension (needing Lv. 2 Blades).
Example: a lift-up, PR, air square attack, jump, *instantly* L1 + X
If you do it correctly, you see Kratos flail himself way up during the AA. This
is enough to pass over many obstacles in this game. (found out by AKheon)
Fact 5: Most Blades of Chaos's moves have a low withstanding to the game's
gravity, unlike *drum roll* the BoA. With BoA you can keep on rising
indefinitely by doing its normal air attacks with PR's in the between.
Good for as long as you have magic at your disposal.
Example: a BoA lift-up, square, square, circle, PR, square, square, circle...
The bad part in BoA high jump is that you normally can't jump during it, making
it less flexible to control. Still, you move both forward and up at a pretty
fast pace, making this the best tool ever for the longest and highest of jumps.
The only BoC move you can repeatedly do alongside PR's and gain height is the
Falling Helios. The bad part is that the gained height is not much and you do
not move forward, heavily limiting what you can do with it. And since you get it
at BoC lv. 4, it's not the most convenient move to acquire either.
By doing the BoC + BoA fuse glitch in air you can mix things up further. This
is done by doing a Gorgon Blast (needs Lv. 2 head) or Zeus's Fury bolt in air,
then entering blocking stance. Follow it up by doing a L1+something attack. If
it's working, you see Kratos doing BoC moves with BoA equipped. (originally
discovered by GMG. High jump application by AKheon.)
A video demonstration:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=P1_lrGGK8lM
That's all for high jump, unless you want to know more about high jumping from
air grabs. They are done by first lifting up both you and a certain type of
enemy (mini-game grabbable legionnaires with a circle just appearing over their
heads or gorgons and centaurs). After doing a succesful air grab you can do a
jump, effectively from a lift-up. This may not be higher than a normal high
jump, but it needs no magic.
For the long jump, your options are more limited. You can't just do a PR because
it would stop all your speed!
- First and foremost hint is to jump from grabbing a ledge, if possible. This
gives you extra speed quite a lot.
- As mentioned, you can do attacks right after jumps to get more momentum.
(Fact 4)
- BoA high jump can also be used for long jumps but it costs magic.
The classic long jump can reach surprisingly far, but it's not easy to do.
(discoverer: Satvara)
Example: ledge jump, *instantly* square, (optional square), jump, *instantly*
square, (optional square)...
25. Death glitch
Some frames of Kratos's various moves (or something something, random factors?)
will not cancel into a death animation. This means Kratos will continue
living and moving even while the death phase is on - you hear Kratos's "Orghh."
and the screen slowly turns red and everything otherwise works completely
normally, as if Kratos really did die. This glitch can be unstably reproduced,
but as of now no use has been found for it.
Random facts:
- During the time you get to control Kratos, the game considers him having very
little health left, and the slightest of damages will cause him to re-die.
- You can do this in water too.
- Saving while dead will yield you an alive Kratos with very little health left.
- Untested: dying and activating an FMV.
- Untested: dying and activating a checkpoint (not possible?).
Video demonstration:
1, a collection of a few death glitches:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=1QF_mfNVVKo
26. Magic while grappling
If the collisions around the grappling zone are even slightly unstable (and
they usually are), Kratos can cast magic momentarily when jumping towards them.
You know it's possible when the magic icon at the upper left corner flashes to
active, even if only for a flash. It's not easy to do because the timing is
strict, but you can try easily over and over again until you finally get it. Be
warned that Kratos may fall afterwards off the grappling zone.
27. Gravity "reversal"
During a grappling section, if a legionnaire is in air (e.g. while jumping
between chasms), he can be launched very high with any move that hits several
times in a quick succession (Poseidon's Rage, Cyclone of Chaos).
28. Invisible rope momentum
If you flail for momentum while on rope while right next to and moving towards
an obstacle (easy place to try this out: at the barricades before Athens Town
Square), Kratos will stop moving but the momentum nonetheless gathers as if no
obstacle was there. It doesn't look nice.
Video demonstration:
1, watch 'VIII' of this video:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Oz32PmbZq8w
29. Checkpoint glitches
When retrying from a checkpoint, all the game conditions do not revert back
to what they used to be. The game simplifies things and cuts some corners,
enabling some slightly interesting stuff to happen.
- Some visual effects (like blood) or sounds are still around after retrying.
- Enemies' vertical heights are reverted back, but not their stances. This
causes small graphical glitches for enemies wielding weapons or trying to
counterattack.
- Kratos's vertical height is apparently not stored in the memory, causing him
to appear on the ground even if you were in air during the checkpoint. (or:
he falls down while the screen is black?)
It is possible for Kratos to become checkpointed in a situation from which he
can't escape without death, e.g. when falling into a chasm. This can happen in
GoWII too.
If you choose to save extremely quickly after retrying from a checkpoint, the
save screen may end up completely black. You can hear the selector move if you
press directional keys, but whether it should be on 'yes' or 'no', the game
chooses 'yes'. Then things return to normal.
The "Rage of the Gods" sound continues playing if you retry from checkpoint.
You can overlap it who knows how many times by upgrading, then quickly retrying,
then upgrading again... also, it's interesting how the sound actually continues
playing in the main friggin' menu if you choose to quit game during it.
And just to note: whenever you retry, the game clock reverts back too. Good for
speedrunning.
Upgrading glitches:
A brand new sub-section to checkpoint glitches!
At its basic form: if you upgrade a magic/BoA and then retry, the magic or BoA
you upgraded is unloaded for a short while after gameplay resumes. The effect
differs on weapon/magic and the skill level you revent back to.
BoC = when upgraded, they cause huge lag when retrying (especially lv. 1 ->
lv. 2 upgrade, maybe because you get RotG...) Kratos can move around for some
time with the screen still black. However, they always seem to be useable, even
right after retry, so in a way they are 'immune' to being glitched this way.
PR = PR cancels out without the graphical effect.
MG = Kratos enters a glitched up magic stance in which he is frozen, and tries
to do invisible version of Gorgon Blast at the start. Subsequent upgrades allow
him to turn again, but graphics won't show up (as expected.)
Zf = Kratos fires one invisible (non-existent?) shot of Zf, but then everything
is back to normal.
AoH = because of the long start-up animation, it's impossible to see the actual
glitch unless you upgrade BoC in conjunction with AoH before retry. So... the
actual glitch is that the game completely freezes when the souls are released.
BoA = the sword's graphics won't show up until a second or two passes (this time
is prolonged if BoC is upgraded in conjuction.) If you run or stand still as it
appears, Kratos' stance doesn't change to BoA's stance though the weapon becomes
equipped.
30. Eye/Feather glitches
"Lag" created by second phase of upgrade animation:
Strange things can happen in the menus if you use them during the time you see
Kratos' health/magic bar grow larger. This is because the process of upgrade
will not stop during the time you are in the menus. It creates something I tend
to call 'lag', though it is not exactly lag. Here is a list of symptoms...
--- In the start menu:
+ the most obvious effect: as the background process ends, you can't switch
pages in the menu with L1 and R1 any longer (until you leave menu, etc.)
+ you can continue funneling orbs even in the window that is shown right after
having upgraded something. This can cause "fake upgrades" (e.g. a completely
empty upgrade window is shown as the background process ends) and you can also
upgrade something else while the previous one's improvements list is still
showing (this one has no particular effect, the old window is merely replaced
by the new one).
--- In the select menu:
+ as the background effect ends, cursor placement is frozen in any sub-menu. If
you were in the main menu, no effect is shown. Basically, this "frozen"
effect means that all of a sudden the game put the cursor back in the main
menu, while the graphics still show the sub-menu. You can press up/down and
hear cursor movement - you can't see its position since the wrong window is
active. Pressing X will cause the prompt from main menu to begin, wherever
the cursor was and no matter in what menu you were. If you end up in the same
sub-menu you left from, small graphical glitches occur. Otherwise, the menu
changes like expected (but it looks weird).
Video demonstration:
1, my vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPbn7vQVA6g
Infinite eye/feather animation:
During the screen which informs you you have collected enough Gorgon Eyes/
Phoenix Feathers to upgrade, if you press start or select so that you enter
the menu RIGHT as the little Eye/Feather-animation starts to roll, it will
remain looping infinitely. So watch out for this.
Video demonstration:
1, watch 'VI' of this video:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Oz32PmbZq8w
GE/PF + save prompt:
Not a GE/PF message glitch, but related and caused by it.
In at least one place of the game, it's possible to delay save menu with a
correctly timed GE/PF message. The save menu carries over checkpoint retry,
which is odd: after retry you get to a graphic-less version of the menu, and
you also might not be able to choose 'yes' or 'no', getting stuck in the menu
for an eternity. (I think it depends on whether you had activated the save menu
on your game session before doing this.) If you save and retry, nothing too
interesting happens: the chest you just opened is now close and in effect you
never got the GE/PF. The save prompt can carry on to New Game, or so I've
gathered, but unfortunately it will always crash the game (right before first
gameplay starts). I've tried to carry it over to Character Graveyard and CotG,
but to no avail.
31. Graphical glitches in the menus
In the start menu, if you press 'up' and simultaneously press L1 or R1, the
following screens will have some entrancing graphical glitches. If you go to
the screen where Gorgon Eyes and such is listed, the icons are out of place
until you move the cursor. In the case of magic and weapon menu, every icon
is empty until you leave the screen or upgrade something. Every magic and
weapon is also listed as Lv. 1, even if they weren't. Also, the game may
target some other magic than the one right at the bottom.
This glitch goes slightly further than this. First of all, by pressing down
both R1, L1 and up/down in the 'items' menu, you can get the items change
descriptions even more quickly and obviously. Second of all, if you happen
to upgrade a weapon/magic, then access the weapons/magic screen in the glitch
mode, you will see a glitch item that is 1 orb away from being upgraded, and
which you can never activate.
If you move the cursor in a certain way (too fast, while selecting something,
e.g. I'm not sure of the exact mechanism) the texts in the menus may overlap.
This is really quite rare, and completely useless to boot.
Here's a rather new find: you know those 'yes'/'no' prompts every now and then,
like when the game asks if you want to pick something up? If you visit menu
when such a prompt is visible, you expand your list of choices from 2 to 5!
Too bad that these new choices seem to be but glitched versions of 'no', with
game time staying freezed afterwards (retry is the only true option.)
Also read the section #30 for a related glitch.
Video demonstration:
1, see III of this vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJh_UCwzV_g
2, at the end of this vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPbn7vQVA6g
32. Game freezes
They're everywhere in this game. I've seen it happen at loading screens, boss
fights, before cutscenes, before loading a game, etc. and the reasons are
unknown. Your likelihood of encountering one may increase if your game has
scratches in it.
33. Disc tray glitch
Discovered by me originally while playing God of War 2. It was found to be in
this game too, though in a less use-able form.
In GoW 2 you could (by opening disc tray at a certain point after retrying from
a checkpoint) stop game timer with the price of losing access to any menu and
also view of the gameplay - during the glitch the only thing you can see is the
disc tray message, even though the gameplay continues like normal beneath it.
In GoW 1 this doesn't seem possible to do from checkpoints. The only possible
application I've found for it is at Aegean Sea, right at the start of the game.
The very first in-game cutscene of the game is vulnerable to it...
Tyrhhjy also suggested that this glitch can be done right before FMVs, allowing
the skip of f.e. first minotaur fight. (however, unverified) �
Tyrhhjy also suggested that in GoW 1 game timer does not actually stop during
the glitch, which of course would render it useless for its purpose.
4. Glitch playthrough
----------------------
Different categories are these:
- Sequence break: skipping a portion of the game by any legit means.
- Collision flaw: a non-sequence break breach or glitch in the collisions.
- Trigger skip: may range from loading triggers to door triggers to more.
- A.I. glitch: includes blind spots and other level-specific oddities.
- Camera glitch: usually harmless, not that common.
- Other: glitches of some other type, usually small and harmless.
- Strategy: some pointers for battles, etc. Not necessarily glitches.
- Random: just some small piece of interesting info, not a glitch.
- Various: something that has several kinds of categories in them.
Pre-game:
---------
Other: If you press up or down at some frame before the main menu has loaded
and appeared, the text of "new game" is smudged under "load game". This effect
disappears once you choose to do anything in the menu.
Other: If you open disc tray during the opening sequences, you might get small
graphical glitches, such as the cutscene continuing playing with the "disc tray
is open" error message. Don't try it at home, it isn't very interesting.
Aegean Sea:
-----------
Random: The FMV of the floor entrance opening and new enemies flooding out will
not happen if Kratos stands on it.
Strategy: It is possible to damage kill the first Hydra head. However, it's
unlikely you can deal enough damage in the short time he is stunned. (you'd
need to be on easy and have a special costume)
Other: Sometimes the first Hydra will not go into the stun mode. Even though
the game drops the minigame tutorial (and for an instant it seems the Hydra
is stunned), he is back as normal the instant the message goes away. Sub-
sequent minigaming attempts cause the same to happen. I hear this can happen
the other way around too, so that the Hydra goes into mini-game stun right as
he should normally regain consciousness.
"Petrifying the Harpies and the Archers on the Ship causes them to un-exist
immediately after getting petrified. Course, you need a cheat to have MG on the
ship >__>." - Demonic Phoenix
Camera glitch: After kicking the door open to the second Hydra's room, start
walking towards the door and progress onward slowly. The camera will eventually
forcefully turn around while the rest of the scenery disappears for an instant.
Trigger skip: Skippable door trigger before second Hydra
If you run by the left-hand wall into the large area with harpies and
eventually the second Hydra head, the red wall which would enclose the
only exit does not activate - you avoid the door trigger. You may also leave
the area the same route and leave it open. This has no use unless you want
to play around with the second Hydra head by leaving the fight prematurely.
It just keeps attacking as if Kratos was near it...
Sequence break mystery: Tyrhhjy suggests, that it is possible to skip second
Hydra using the two harpies: first doing a lift-up (and air grab), then getting
hit by another harpie (and the attack's momentum whisks Kratos over the edeg to
the next area).
Collision flaw: Entering the second Hydra
If you roll just the right moment towards the spot where the Hydra appears,
and somehow manage to stay in that area after it has emerged (e.g. by jumping
in air at a correct time), you've entered the second Hydra. You're inside its
collisions. Unfortunately this is useless, because it can still attack you
from where you are. You can't skip the fight itself because the hole in the
floor is purely cosmetic until the creature is gone.
The easiest way to try this out is retrying again and again from the pre-second
hydra checkpoint.
Video demonstration:
1, see part II of this video:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=4scwgmQqc6g
Other: Small glitch at the short grapple section after second hydra
If you move/jump towards the right side of the wall while grappling, you may
activate this glitch. Whenever you press down, Kratos turns 180 degrees around
and climbs with his back against the wall. It's just a graphical glitch.
While you're at this grapple section, try to grab the legionnaires on top of the
ship while grappling. You get a glitched grab move.
"Shipwrecked Vessel" - save point
Other: box spawning oddities
You can destroy the box with your own hands and be a witness to how a new one
miraculously appears each time.
- The box will try to slide away from Kratos' position, if you're in the spot
where it is spawning.
- It's possible for you to enter the box. R2'ing it now will cause Kratos to
move away from the box for about one boxes length, strangely. I'm not sure
if Kratos could continue holding on to the box like this (in a glitched way)
since the message interrupts your grab hold.
- A box can spawn slightly inside the ground. It automatically breaks shortly.
A.I. glitch: Archers at the box moving "puzzle"
If, after activating the cutscene where the archers are threatening the ship
crew, you leave the area and go back where you met the first Hydra head and then
come back, the archers aren't shooting at all anymore. GMG reports that their
A.I. is completely shut off, making them non-reactive to anything done to them.
Sequence break: Skipping PR and big Hydra boss (discoverer: Satvara)
By doing a long jump from on top of the mast inside a wall that's near the
captain's domicile (extremely difficult), you can go past the locked door by
moving inside the wall. Unfortunately skipping PR will do you no good in a long
run, especially if you're going for speed.
Video demonstration:
1, Satvara's vid:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=M6COewN53zE
Other: Poseidon's Rage room is the location where mysterious enemy spawning
gliding happens. Try it out by grabbing an enemy and seeing if one of the other
enemies glide away from Kratos for no reason.
"The Hydra Attacks" - save point
Graphical: the Hydra health bars are prone to strange glitches. They overlap
any messages you may get, looking messy. Also, if you go into menus with a
message active, the Hydra health bars will carry on to them too!
Sequence break: Skipping other small Hydra head
It's possible to climb up to the big Hydra with only one small head nailed down
to the ground. I'm not completely certain about the mechanism behind this trick,
but often you get to do this by leaving the alive Hydra head's vicinity, then
quickly returning and starting to climb by the side that's farther away from the
head. This will save some time in a speedrun.
Video demonstration:
1, my video, showing different takes on this:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=QmYMgn-xYzM
Update (29. 9. 2008): Satvara noticed its possible to skip both of the heads
with the same trick.
Video demonstration:
1, Satvara's video:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=6R8brqn-pCA
Update (umm... X. 11. 2008): Tyrhhjy found out a new variation of this skip
again, using PR high jump. It is likely fastest variation that exists.
Video demonstration:
1, Satvara's vid:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ciA63TtmKlY
Update (11. 7. 2009): Tyrhhjy verified a variation which works without PR,
saving both time AND magic. Cool.
Video demonstration
1, Tyrhhjy's vid:
not available at the moment.
Camera glitch: concentration on a small Hydra head
When a small Hydra head dies, the camera concentrates on it for a moment. By
doing unknown things there and then, the camera will not depart from the dead
head's front and return to Kratos. This is completely harmless, only happened
to me once - while doing an infinite jump and being quite far away from the
dying head.
Video demonstration:
1, see part III of this video:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=4scwgmQqc6g
Collision flaw: Dropping through/inside falling platforms during the big Hydra
fight.
If you're on one while one rises, you can easily drop through it. Also,
you can manage to have one fall on you. Both of these instances are useless,
just simple lapses in collision.
Other: Getting stuck inside the grapple wall
This is completely useless, but at least unique. Jump to the grapple wall, then
embrace either side of it (so that Kratos looks like he's preparing to jump).
Then do a grab or strong hit, etc. If the small Hydra's "knocking Kratos off
the mast"-attack hits Kratos at a correct time, he will get stuck torso halfway
inside the ropes.
Strategy: Small Hydra's swipe move will not reach between the 12 and 3 o'clock
position, leaving a big opening. (GMG's tip)
Other: Tendency to freeze during the big/any Hydra fight
It's happened to me once or twice, and I've heard several other people complain
about this too. The screen goes black but you still see the boss health meter at
the screen's lower half. The music continues playing, but nothing you do will
evoke a reaction in the game. You must restart if this happens.
Speed strategy: Satvara deviced a damage dealing strategy so efficient the
minigames happen almost back to back (for God mode, undoubtetly works even
better on lesser modes).
Video demonstration:
1, his vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcwg6I1yDR0
Other: it's possible to damage kill Big Hydra, at least on easy/tycoonius and
using Rage of the Gods. This causes him to go straight into the last mini-game
stun, after which the fight is over with Hydra's head stuck in the mast. A lot
of time is saved in the process!
Other: it's possible to bring Big Hydra into the last minigame in a slightly
glitched manner, so that an additional attack will reset the sequence and the
minigame preparation animation will start from the beginning. I last did this
by doing a jumping attack right as he chomped down on the mast (almost hitting
Kratos).
Random: Moving/attacking inside Hydra's mouth cavity will cause blood spatters.
Wasted glitch potential: it seems impossible to skip the cutscene that follows
after Kratos has got the Cabin key. The event triggers extend as if to form
a box around him. Exiting the area straight down (using a floor breach under the
fallen mast) can skip the cutscene, but you won't win any time either.
Video:
1, AK's vid of the breach
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=iH45LPODKuU
Sequence break: You can unlock the cabin door at the same time you get the
prompt to do so. This saves a couple of seconds.
Port of Athens
--------------
Sex-mini game glitch:
If you try to grab the women from the top left part of the bed, the mini-game
glitches strangely with camera zooming in like it normally does, but with
Kratos completely unattended. Same thing can happen if you utilize Gorgon Rage
in this place, next to the bed. If the mini-game is re-activated during this
camera zoom, it works like normally though the urn moves at wrong times.
Random: the clips of the two woman talking are not available while Kratos is
on the bed. Talking to either of them while jumping on to the bed causes the
clip to cut short, strangely.
"Port of Athens" - save point
Sequence break: Wall breach at the ship
The two maps - the innards of the ship Kratos starts from after Aegean Sea and
the Port of Athens - are connected a bit loosely. By moving towards the wall
at a certain height while jumping, you get through it to the ocean bottom. Doing
a Hermes Stomp can be helpful. From the ocean bottom you can fall to nothingness
or activate a botched-up swimming glitch. It can also be used in a speedrun for
a few seconds win. Discoverer: Satvara.
Video demonstration:
1, Satvara's video:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=2yG1y9J9YeA
2, Satvara's updated video (saves even more time):
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=xU10wfQJBmg
Other: A glitched legionnaire, subject to an infinite Orion's Harpoon combo
Somewhere at Port of Athens' recesses there's a legionnaire who will not die
from Orion's Harpoon. You can keep doing the attack over and over again as
long as you like, even make an extremely long combo slowly but surely.
Discoverer: Shinobier?
Note that he will not appear unless you kill the first bunch of legionnaires
that try to attack you in the area.
Video demonstration:
1, Shinobier's video:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=SiEeHwXxD5E
Collision flaw: GMG has reportedly got enemy legionnaires under the water
surface several times.
"using 's,s,t', 2 Ascension and 2 OH before an aerial grab (over water) the
Cursed Legionnaire would be sent to "O" while falling through the water but
not dying. Also, if on one of the square platform along the rails you could
use OH (guided over water) for a no lethal version that sends them through
the surface." - GMG
Other: the red border which would disappear after beating the minotaurs will
not do it on the side you came from until you approch it.
Gates of Athens
---------------
Collision flaw: An exploitable chasm during the 3 cyclops fight
The chasm at the left side of the field is open to them, while it's not to
Kratos. Lure them right next to it, then run towards them (or attack them
when they're facing you). They will stumble backwards and fall.
Also, by simply running towards the wall near where the grass grows you can
drop the third one before it can even rise up. Discoverer: AKheon
Video demonstration:
1, see part I of this video:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=z-Wo42I1oEk
Other:
"I found this "handicap glitch" after the part where you fight Cyclops for the
first time. I can't remember what exactly I did wrong, but I just couldn't open
any of the chests. In fact, in this part if you go near the gate and press R2
it says something like "there is a bridge on other side". But whenever I pressed
R2 all I heard was the sound you get when you try to powerup abilities you
haven't unlocked yet.
...once I reloaded the nearest save it went fine. just in case it matters, I did
try to death bounce one of the undead soldiers in the area behind the wall
crack and water, where you get first gorgon's eye [or was it phoenix feather,
can't recall]" - the_requiem
Anyone have more info on this? �
Random: The ledge on the right side of the large box room can be rolled over.
It's faster than shimmying.
Sequence break: In the room with machinery on the walls and boxes you can break,
don't break any of the boxes but the leftmost. Then do a high jump on it.
Sequence break: Skipping a small cutscene
Right as you enter the room where you acquire Medusa's Gaze, you activate a
cutscene in which the camera pans through the whole room. To prevent the player
from escaping witnessing this small clip, there are high walls around the small
box - though overcomeable with Apollo's High Jump, it's slower and thus not
recommended. However, with Achilles' Flip (and other moves, I've heard) you can
in some circumstances just fly through the box and not get hindered by the
walls. I don't know how this is possible, however, I have a creeping suspicion
it is because of a loading error.
Sequence break: skipping Medusa
The barrier of Afrodite's head can be passed before it loads if you do this area
super quick. This way you won't get Medusa's Head or regen magic, though.
Video demonstration:
1, Tyrhhjy's vid:
temporarily unavailable.
Random: Defeating Medusa with pure damage
The actual HP value Medusa has is 10.000, which is extremely high. To activate
the minigame you need a lot less, and that's what virtually every player does
during their playthroughs. If you exceed the 10.000 damage limit, Medusa dies
by herself, and the game doesn't consider it a victory. If you don't know how
to escape the room, you will get stuck there.
Various: Regen magic and sequence break
Medusa room. This is the infamous room where you will gain regen magic. If you
escape it at the correct time, you get to keep it too... Basically, look at the
video demonstration below. It will show everything on doing it.
The collision at the ceiling is strange. First of all, it seems Kratos can only
grab the ceiling right above the door frame. There's some extra grabbable ground
to the right of the frame too, not visible to the player. It makes me think that
the developers put it all there intentionally to enable regen magic. To me it's
just too big a coincidence that just the right type of collision exists at the
exact spot you need it to to escape the room, and it exists nowhere else in the
vicinity.
Original discoverer: Satvara. However, Kewbew63 (and f.e. Zalo159 at the same
time, independently of each other) discovered the easier way out.
Video demonstration:
1, Kewbew63's example:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=yOHvvp6Xshg
2, Satvara's example (note: the old method, is very difficult to do):
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Dtc_YpAPULs
Strategy: getting early red orbs. While fighting the minotaurs in the medusa
room, you have regen magic and an infinite stream of enemies. You can build up
a combo to 1000 quite easily as many times you want. Thanks go to keltin_2002's
Max Upgrade FAQ for this nice idea. (check it out for a more detailed strategy)
Skipping a major loading trigger + very difficult SEQUENCE BREAK
After the Medusa room, get on top of the small platform which holds one chest.
Get on top of the chest and do a high jump against the wall - if correctly
performed, Kratos will grab an invisible ledge near the ceiling. Jump towards
the set of ladder up ahead. If you were high enough, you missed a loading
trigger, and the outside areas will never load until you retrace your steps and
touch the trigger. Doing this it's actually possible to do a major sequence
break at this location: you have to do a series of very difficult jumps down to
the area behind the two gates blocking your route.
On later note, Tyrhhjy said this about Satvara's skip:
"it's easier to do it by rolling after the first jump w/hs satvara did, then
jumping towards the left and doing an hs. A bit tricky with the roll but to me
it's easier that with the jumps. Also it's faster too." - Tyrhhjy
Video demonstrations:
1, see part IV and V of this video:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa08uFO5OmY
2, Satvara's impossibly difficult sequence break:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=X0tC0sEJtcg
"Fortress of Athens" - save point
Sequence break: Alternative way of skipping Gates of Athens
You can glide up the small opening from where the rope would later go in. This
method is not difficult to do at all (read earlier sections on Gliding to learn
this). Discoverer: AKheon.
Video demonstration:
1, the skip itself
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=rhOM5SYFyOk
"Athens Battleground" - save point
Road to Athens
--------------
Sequence break: Passing the pile of rubble
You know the rubble which appears after a short real-time scene where Ares's
fireball destroys a building? Here's elaboration on its strange collision.
The upper level of it is mostly something like a crooked surface, except it
doesn't respond to anything like crooked surface does. The rubble can be
crossed over in a normal game, though it's not easy because of this special
property. Discoverer: AKheon.
Satvara noticed that this obstacle can be passed without PR, making the skip
faster. Also, at 2009 Tyrhhjy said the following:
"just to note that satvara past the stone obstacle without PR because it turns
out that there is a gap in the collision here. after some testing today i
discovered that if you double jump towards the stone obstacle at a certain part
then you will notice your height increase a bit. then you can just do L1 and X
without PR."
Video demonstration:
1, see part I of this video:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Ktp4Mf9MIoo
Other: "On the road to Athens there is an invisible archer by a tree that
also is invincible and at random intervals will attack Kratos." - Riningan
Oh, he also specified that its near the first bend of the road. I haven't
personally seen one, but I'll keep an eye out next playthrough.
Other: The best place in the game to witness the rope momentum glitch. Don't
break the middle barricade, so that you can boost towards it with a rope to a
very lousy effect.
Sequence break: Instead of using ropes to cross the chasm after the barricades,
you can do a high jump.
"(Rope) I have to wonder if the High Jump would be faster then 'leap to rope
grab to leap to air attack to Icarus Lift to rope grab to leap'." - GMG
Athens Town Square
------------------
Twofold trigger skip: Skipping the cyclops fight (and its consequences)
There's an invisible ledge to the left before the cyclops fight. You can reach
it by doing a high jump. By going over there you skip activating the cyclops
fight trigger, though with a great price: you can't proceed into the Greek
house (where's the "suicide lady") because the area will not load. The cutscene
after the cyclops fight would've been the loading trigger!
Video demonstration:
1, the skip itself, not its dreadful consequences:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Ktp4Mf9MIoo
Other: "Suicide lady" mechanics
In several places the game uses "prop" characters with which you can only
interact in a very limited number of ways. JFCalibur88 has made a cool video
showcasing the mechanisms of the lady here, and a couple of glitches too.
Video demonstration:
1, JFcalibur88's video:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ASavchszXQg
"Athens Town Square" - save point
Potential sequence break: you can get out of bounds in this area by doing AHJ
towards the left pillar (the one that is almost behind the save point.) You land
either inside the corridor, to emptiness or (with some controlling) inside the
staircase that's right below the balcony. From there you could theoretically
move to the area inside the tunnels, although the actual process seems extremely
difficult. Maybe for dedicated players with Satvara-like skills, or for TAS. And
it's not guaranteed that all the loading triggers are collected if you do this.
Other ways to get out of bounds here: skipping the cyclops fight trigger and
trying to get inside the greek house. Also, doing AHJ against the backwall of
that platform with chests (which you can't normally reach until after coming
from Rooftops of Athens, you know.) Either option is even more arduous, though
the cyclops trigger one is potentially the fastest.
Strategy: The first magic legionnaires you encounter inside the Greek house have
very little moving room before they consider themselves out of bounds. Sweet
spots are easy to find and abuse.
Strategy: If you don't kill any enemies on your revisit to the Greek house, only
1 of the 4 archers in the final stretch of the area appear.
Sequence break: Skipping most of the Athens Town Square
You can reach the balcony with several chests from the large yard by doing a
variation of high jump, "Athens High Jump". From there you can just proceed
to Temple of Oracle without doing anything to the "suicide lady" or even
visiting Rooftops of Athens. (Discoverer: AKheon)
Another skip is getting to the balcony through the Greek house, and doing a
long jump from there to the high path leading to the next area. The pole
connecting the two sides is intact though invisible. Discoverer: Satvara, later
Kewbev63.
Video demonstration:
1, see II of this video:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Ktp4Mf9MIoo
2, doing a skip from the balcony (Kewbev63's video):
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=91QrJUfRyAs
Other: Failure in trying to get to Rooftops of Athens the wrong way
You can use the elevator on the upper level which would lead you back down
to the rooftops, but during the trip something will always go wrong. Kratos
will fall down to his death after some strange camera angles.
Random: Athens Town Square civilians
They are like headless chickens. They sometimes appear in clusters, running
against a wall or a corner at the exactly same direction. They can't be stone
beamed frozen, I wonder why.
"Tunnel Passage" - save point
Collision flaw: the sides of the stairway (which leads you to the first part
of Rooftops of Athens) have some bad collision to them. Kratos starts flickering
when walking towards the edges.
Rooftops of Athens
------------------
Sequence break: You can skip the short tutorial about climbing by jumping to
the other side of the vines right before the spot in which the tutorial begins.
Wasted potential: the trigger for the next FMV is impossible to jump over (too
low ceiling.) Getting out of bounds in the room before that doesn't seem too
easy either.
Camera flaw: before the vine jump section with four archers, if you jump heavily
to the right, you may activate a strange camera angle which shows the whole area
from a far-away isometric angle. Most of the objects in the area are not drawn
with this view, and it looks a bit strange.
Video demonstration:
1, see II of this vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJP3uQsN-Mk
"Treasure Room" - save point
Strategy: You can defeat the archers on the ceiling without Zeus' fury with PR.
(thanks for Riningan to reminding me on this)
"Return to Town Square" - save point
Temple of the Oracle
--------------------
Semi-wasted potential: the water in the courtyard is not actually water.
"Temple of the Oracle" - save point
Random: Strange collision at the yard area
You may haven't noticed, but you can get on top of the pillar sections from
the right side of the yard where there is a chest. Do a high jump and you
grab a ledge. No use has been found for this area, but still...
Various: Harpy glitches/tricks
Inside the temple harpies will spawn infinitely. While one might think that
them stopping giving orbs is a glitch, it isn't. It is a mechanism implemented
by the game designers to prevent too much orb farming.
If you put a statue in front of the hole they come from you can control their
spawning rate/formation. You can f.e. get them all to spawn at once, which
looks creepy in all its symmetricity. Note that if you start stone beaming
them now you will not get all the orbs you should: simultaneous shattered
enemies do not yield more orbs than just one or two shattered.
There's a very good way to get orbs in this place, and it is going to the
entrance stairway and waiting for the harpies to gather in front of you. Then,
shoot them to death with Medusa's Gaze very gently. Try to save your magic in
the process. The shatter death bonus is more than enough to get you large
amounts of orbs in no time, and this can be repeated as long as your magic
lasts. (~best success with regen magic enabled, of course)
One harpy will always get "stuck" hovering over one of the fountains if you
hang around that area a bit.
If you want, take a go at creating your very own harpy orb fountain with the
statues here. Note: as far as infinite/large amounts of orbs go, the above tip
about shooting them with MG from the entrance is easier and faster to do.
Video demonstration:
1, decent to set up, but not too efficient:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb6CrJYbV5A
Sequence break: Skip past the puzzle
You can do a series of jumps at the top floor using the breaking poles and
reach the next area without touching either of the statues. It is not easy
to do because of the chandelier collisions which usually block Kratos if he
jumps too high. Discoverer: ballofsnow?
Sequence break: Faster puzzle skip
By doing Apollo's High Jump (see section on high jumps) from on top of the
fountain near the room's entrance, you can reach the poles at the top and as
such you can jump your way to the room's exit even faster. Discoverer: Satvara.
Video demonstration:
1, Satvara's vid:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=wq1axuTlHZM
"Path to the Oracle" - save point
Collision flaw: Strange inner yard statue collision + what abuse it enables
Unlike at any other locale at the game, this place's statues do not move if
Kratos jams himself between them and the wall. This means that you can create
your own cramped space conditions enabling wall passage... in theory. For some
reason you most likely won't see any success with this other than against the
outer balcony walls. Using them you can get inside the wall, but navigation
from there to anywhere else is extremely difficult, so there's not much you can
do with this.
Video demonstration:
1, "food for thought"
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=IPzWNw1I83o
Other: Oracle voice glitch
If you save Oracle before activating the latter part minigame (in which a
countdown starts), you hear her shouts echoing in the area even after she's
safely on the ground.
Random: Why Oracle shouted so loudly?
Because the rope she was clinging on to was insubstantial, that's why. Try to
grab it with Kratos if you want to see for yourself.
Video demonstration:
1, or see this video if you're in a hurry:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=6svnq6PDPDM
Sequence break: Skipping saving Oracle altogether
Discovered by some unknown means by Satvara, this highly esoteric wall breach
enables you to pass through the locked door (with Oracle insignia on it) through
the small pillars on the side of it. Apparently, three well-placed Hermes Stomps
is all it takes...
Video demonstration:
1, Satvara's video:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=F3HOIBlo-lg
For 99% of people who can't do this, there exists another sequence break with
which you can skip the timed section altogether. Get those two pillars on top
of each other, and get 'em almost directly under the spot the Oracle's hanging
from. Jump on top of the pillars and then do the highest possible normal high
jump, Apollo's High Jump. The game considers you having visited close enough to
Oracle for the game to continue with the cutscene of Kratos rescuing Oracle...
and that's it.
Video demonstration:
1, Satvara's/Kewbev63's video:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=IZjqAbT_W-Q
"Suicide Bluffs" - save point
Collision flaw: Holes in collision at this area
If you do Hermes Stomp to the uneven walls at the upper parts of the Bluffs
Kratos may drop through them to his death. I know at least 3 spots where this
happens.
Video demonstration:
1, see the end parts of this video:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=6svnq6PDPDM
Trigger skip: Entrance to sewer stairs entrance trigger skip
Oftentimes the game will not transport Kratos to the next map (Sewers) as he
reaches the doorway. This causes him to run to a strange dead end. Kratos will
transport like normal if you move backwards a bit.
Collision flaw: Holes in collision at sewer stairs
You can skip going the stairs by doing a high jump on top of the doorway and
jumping over it. You fall in the sewers instead of ending back to the Bluffs.
Random: You can use high jump to reach the platforms near the ceilings you
couldn't normally reach.
Collision flaw: When at the area with two cyclops, do a high jump towards the
waterfall and grab its ledge. That area is somehow flawed, with Kratos starting
to flicker strangely. (well... this is not too uncommon, actually)
Strategy: By jumping onto the ladders of the area, your enemies will instantly
forget your presence.
Other: One of the legionnaires is subject to being infinitely Orion's Harpooned,
like the one at docks. I have no further info on this matter, though.
Random: If you try to return to the sewers after visiting the ground level,
there's an owl symbol blocking the path and the Oracle will do a little speech
for you.
"Athens Battleground" - save point
note: effectively a different save point than the other Athens Battleground
Desert of Lost Souls
--------------------
Strategy: Defeating first Siren easily
They are very vulnerable to stoning, dying after 3 times. In addition to this,
the first one can be destroyed during her introduction cutscene. Easy!
Video demonstration:
1, Kewbew's nifty video
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=LtSPxo_qv_Y
Other: If you go far enough from a Siren and wait a bit, it goes back to its
'wandering' mode, singing and moving aimlessly.
Other: The three Sirens you're supposed to defeat have 10000HP, which is a lot.
You only need to trickle about 125HP away to activate the minigame which kills
them automatically, and that's what most people instinctively do in their games.
If you do away all of their 10000HP they die like normal, and the gate gets one
more soul in it like it should.
Sequence break: Skipping all Sirens + puzzle
Find the entrance to the temple area. Go to the left for a bit, so that the
structure ends and you face a wall of sand. With a well-placed Hermes Rush
you clip right through the wall/floor and drop into the temple. Very
convenient! Discovered by Satvara.
Video demonstration:
1, Satvara's demonstration:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=akcypifd2nA
"Desert of Lost Souls" - save point
Sequence break: Skipping the conveyor belt
You can high jump your way to the next area very easily. Original discoverer GMG
with his PR-less high jump, but it became easier to do with higher jumps later.
Sequence break: Skipping door after conveyor belt
Another trick by Satvara to hasten this area. I believe he does this by dropping
right outside of the bounds from the desert area, and then moving past the wall
far enough to be able to skip the door. Then high jumping to get to the upper
level.
Video demonstration:
1, Satvara's video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwCU8-OD6gc
Sequence break: Skipping blowing the first horn
Do an Apollo's High Jump on top of one of the upper pedestals. Then jump around
the sandstorm to the other side!
Video demonstration:
1, Satvara's demonstration:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=MB5o9dfzRMg
Temple of Pandora
-----------------
"Pandora's Bridge" - save point
Sequence break: By utilizing Hermes Rush to the chest near the gate, you can
clip through the wall and enter the next area without completing the "puzzle".
Discoverer: Satvara.
Video demonstration:
1, Satvara's cool video:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=TahZ0khKQSo
Other: Oddities in moving corpse's behaviour
First of all: if you access his platform from the wrong direction, the cutscene
where Kratos and him talk will not load and he just continues doing whatever he
was doing normally. During this time his collision is such you can jump on him
and let him move you around.
Secondly: I don't know how it happens, probably after unexpected routes Kratos
can take during this level. The corpse person completely disappears from the
level and you can't proceed. This can also happen with discs with loading
problems.
Other: Cutscene black-out glitch
As you approach the corpse person the correct route, once you get close enough,
the screen blackens. If you now hastily move out of the platform you're on, the
cutscene will never start and you keep the black screen eternally. Basically,
it makes progress pretty much impossible... and it carries over saves too.
Video demonstration:
1, "way to fuck up your GoW save!"
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gtUlfeU990o
Random: Strange thing with the harpies
You see the harpy bringing in corpses near corpse person's den? You can jump on
it with a high jump and let it carry you off to distant lands. Well, not-so-
distant anyhow. The journey cuts out untimely as the harpy disappears and Kratos
falls down to a chasm.
Random: During when a corpse is dropped in the fire, other graphical effects
(such as Kratos's blades during an air Cyclone of Chaos) may behave erratically.
Rings of Pandora
----------------
Collision flaw: The crusher traps inside Chamber of the Eye can hit Kratos even
after they're disabled in some circumstances/randomly. Especially if you Hermes
Rush towards them.
"Temple of the Crystal Eye" - save point
note: hereafter the location is abbreviated as TotE
Other: Access unloaded outer areas
By completing Challenge of Poseidon before Challenge of Atlas, the small door
that would close when you leave the temple will not close. Now you have three
entrances from the outermost ring: to the inner ring, to TotE or Challenge of
Atlas. The use of this is the following: if you change areas and return to the
CotE entrance, its innards are mostly unloaded. You can activate the eye machine
or do swimming glitch through the half-unloaded pool. If you turn the wheel you
can also get Challenge of Atlas to appear unloaded, though this isn't useful.
NOTE: Satvara has reported that whenever entering or exiting the glitched TotE,
the formation of the rings resets. Unfortunately it seems that the beam of light
you can send from TotE must physically touch the crystal at the other end for
something to happen (e.g. any closed doorways are counted for). Satvara also
found a way to the unloaded TotE in normal game conditions. (see second vid.)
Video demonstration:
1, Swimming through Challenge of Atlas, utilizes this trick:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=q9N0MkCQh14
2, Satvara's demonstration:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=66ZfE1C1CM8
Camera glitch: If you approach the innermost ring from a bad direction or move
too quickly around it, the camera will move inside the sphere and you can't see
a thing until you move away.
Collision flaw: Getting inside innermost ring prematurely
You can get inside the innermost ring before you get rid of the water inside
it, by an infinite jump or gliding there. Unfortunately you can't turn the
wheel or do anything else there - even leave. A strange thing is that Kratos
will swim underwater here even without Poseidon's Trident with him. The
collision of the ceiling pushes him right through the water's surface.
Video demonstration:
1, See part II of this video:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=CS6uA6lmul0
Collision flaw: Getting to Challenge of Hades prematurely
From the higher area (from where you enter Challenge of Poseidon) you can reach
Challenge of Hades's waterway easily by doing a few jumps. Unfortunately you
can't pass Challenge of Hades without the Poseidon's Trident, so this isn't too
useful.
Video demonstration:
1, instructional video showing the folly of this attempted skip
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=CS6uA6lmul0
Sequence break: skipping to the ladder leading to CoP quickly.
In a normal game you'd have to go around to the stairs, then jump on top of the
rolling stone object, balance on top of it, then jump on the ladder. However,
you can reach the ladder by doing a simple high jump from the ground level.
Another way of quickly dealing with this part is from behind the object: by a
correctly placed Hermes Stomp you will land on top of the object naturally.
Other: after the ladder cinematic Kratos' position is moved forcefully, even if
you were not on or even near the ladder.
Other: I've heard a glitch being reported in which the red boundaries will not
drop even after all shielded legionnaires have been killed (when returning from
CoP). The game does not register final kill? In any case, rare.
Tyrhhjy also said that this can happen at the very last legionnaire appearance,
when you are supposed to combine the eye crystal parts, claiming that it is
because of approaching the barrier too quickly (before finishing the first
batch of enemies). �
Random: The two skulls (you need to unlock the doors) are not interchangeable.
Sequence break: Skipping 90% of CoA
Satvara outwitted this section of the game. First of all, it is possible to
reach the coffin corridor from TotE by grabbing the side of a moving crushing
boulder, and doing a long jump (whose details I can't really discern) to the
other side of the liftable door. Then, at the ladder it is possible to jump
through the coffin to the other side (using L1+X's collision bending property)
Video demonstration:
1, Satvara's vid:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gvAPfEaTchg
Challenge of Atlas
------------------
Sequence break: Skipping Blade of Artemis
By doing a Hermes Rush to the right-hand wall of the BoA corridor and pressing
L1 the instant Kratos seems to 'rise' up the wall, you start gliding. With this
movement you go right past BoA without getting it. (discoverer: AKheon)
"Challenge of Atlas" - save point
Sequence break: In-challenge skips
With strategic high jumps and loading trigger manipulating you can pass through
this challenge without doing any of the puzzles.
Video demonstration:
1, skipping the saw room and both of the shields (Satvara's discovery)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=YqU9Qp0metI
2, skipping both of the shields and the door leading out (slightly outdated)
(again Satvara's vid & discovery)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=CG9A08eMdMU
Other: The ladder at the area where you get by completing the block puzzle under
Zeus' shield is the one you can do A.I. glitches with. Climb on the ladder, wait
for your enemy to climb after you. Then jump off: they get stuck.
Sequence break: You can get to Zeus' Shield extremely quickly by doing a high
jump from right in front of the turning wall. Grab a ledge of the upper floor,
that's it, you're there. Discoverer: GMG (one of the few skips possible with
the PR-less high jump).
Video demonstration:
See the next video link that comes up.
Sequence break: You can get to Hades' Shield extremely quickly by doing a long
jump when descending on the rope. Discoverer: Satvara.
Video demonstration:
1, somewhere in this (Satvara's) vid...
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=veIHOf6OAQc
"The Path to Atlas" - save point
Random: Kratos can 'ride' on saws for extremely quick movement... probably
not controllable.
Other: THE famous spot for infinite orbs
Yes, you've seen it a million times already, the most popular spot for garnering
a full set of orbs: the ladder at Challenge of Atlas. Instead of repeating what
has been said already, I implore you to read an earlier section of this guide,
the one about infinite mana orb glitch. (or do a search on Youtube)
"The Cliffs of Atlas" - save point
note: this one spawns only after you've got the Atlas Handle.
Strategy: (written by GMG)
"There are 3 places you can use the action button (R2) to trick here. All
revolving around abuse of text screen giving ABSOLUTE invincibility at ANY
point..PERIOD..SRSLY. I�ve used this else where (entrance) but in those places
it could only be done once so I didn�t make a big deal about it. Here it is
freaking sweet. The locations are:
-The handle-less crank (where it says �Yes/No�; keep choosing no). I�ve not
tried it without getting the handle. It would likely keep asking for the handle
but work nearly as well. IF you put the handle in it, the trick can�t be used
there
-On Atlas� statue
-On the large doors we break later
NOTE: Using the above is super sweet. I�d advise it be tried by all for the sake
of a good time. Creatures WILL continue any attacks they start when like this
but nothing can hit you during this period.
Just wait until their attack ends and they�ll stand still�or wait for an opening
large enough to interrupt their attack. Whatever. Do what works and have fun."
Other: Atlas switch glitch
If you activate the Atlas rock pusher mechanism switch twice in a row quickly,
the switch will eternally get stuck to the 'on' position, and you can't use it
again.
Other: Graphical glitch while picking up the Architecht's Son's skull
If you stand at the edge of the coffin and not on top of it, Kratos will grab
at nothingness and tear away a piece of nothingness to use as a skull.
Video demonstration:
1, see VII of this video:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_IDg1l3pJes
Challenge of Poseidon
---------------------
"Poseidon's Challenge" - save point
Sequence break: You can skip the Cerberi fight by BoA high jumping over the red
wall at the other end of the arena.
Sequence break: You avoid the fight with cyclops and moving the big block around
by just running past them. And the archers too.
Sequence break: You can skip the fight before the turning room by doing a BoA
high jump over the red wall. You need to squeeze Kratos right between the wall
and the ceiling, but it can be done with correct timing. Satvara has a better
way, using Hermes Rush. It is done by abusing a very small hole in the collision
of the red wall.
Video demonstration:
1, unfortunately there might not be a vid of this skip available yet
2, Satvara's vid of his way:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=zFxg3QJdm0w
Random: trying to grab the breakable statues before sacrifice part causes no
false grab reaction. Collision oddity or a strange property of the statues?
Save point - Sacrifice of Poseidon
note: this may be a NTSC-only save point. It's not in my game, at least
Sequence break: Quickly getting the cage down
The cage inside of which is the object of sacrificial (a human in some versions,
an undead legionnaire in others) is lowerable by two ways: one is by turning the
crank, one is by jumping right next to it to an invisible platform up high and
pushing it to the ground. Just an odd/clever piece of level design. Discoverer:
GMG.
Video demonstration:
1, Kevbew63's demonstration:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=wTmnsDH87yw
Other: the sound of the caged legionnaire can be a lot louder than other SFX.
Sequence break: the sacrifice sequence in its whole can be skipped by doing an
arduous BoA jump. First over the wall at the last room's south side, then just
long jumping (with assumedly BoA) outside walls to the other side of the sealed
door. Regen/infinite magic is needed.
Video demonstration:
1, Satvara's vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WdWqtObOUg
"Poseidon's Chamber" - save point
Random: You can climb ladders from "the wrong direction", behind them, in
Poseidon's Chamber.
Sequence break: You can avoid unfolding the stairway platforms which lead out of
Poseidon's Chamber by doing a long enough BoA high jump. Viable with regen magic
and no upgrades. It turns even faster if you use fuse glitch to do a normal jump
as the last thing: there's a ledge you can grab.
Sequence break: You will skip the swimming tutorial if you don't jump into
the water pools of Poseidon's Chamber.
Other: You can activate "reverse swimming glitch" in the corridor which is
not completely submerged right before the spiked corridor. Try dashing to the
roof at different places and it might happen. It's not useful, though, but
just to mention it. I first saw this in a Youtube-video that I can't seem to
find nowadays any more.
Sequence break: You can leave the underwater hallway and swim past every other
obstacle during this challenge before the first insta-death trap. Discoverer:
(among alleged others) Euqununique.
Video demonstration:
1, Satvara's speedrun demonstration:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=9E2qMv10kEk
Other: Insta-death trap glitch
The corridor with the whirling array of all sorts of blades and spikes will
not always kill Kratos instantly when it closes shut. He might get stuck in
there for a longer time, losing his life little by little. You get to see the
buzzsaw animation right to the end, and it is not a pretty sight - it goes
nowhere, they just freeze strangely and look messed up.
Video demonstration:
1, see part I of this video:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=rPox7ti-XM0
"Flooded Passage" - save point
Other: Moving metal slab/grating corridor glitch (discoverer: AKheon)
You know the part where there's a long sideways corridor and these strange
slabs of metal that run through it periodically? You're supposed to go to left,
but going to right is actually more useful. This is because you get two of the
slabs appear at the same time, causing the trap to lose its lethality and turn
into a fast method of transportation. The glitched doubleslab will drop Kratos
off at the left end of the corridor, right next to the exit. Very convenient.
NOTE: This might only happen if your position is as low as possible.
Video demonstration:
1, see part III of this video:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=z-Wo42I1oEk
"Amphitrite's Temple" - save point
Collision flaw: Passing elevator's ceiling
The underwater elevator at the end of CoP will suck Kratos in through the
ceiling if you're close enough or swim upwards. It looks a bit strange but
does nothing harmful. However, if you do the same thing downwards, you CAN
actually get outside boundaries.. (not useful on this occasion, though)
Other: An event glitch if returning to Challenge of Poseidon
The elevator you used at the end of it works the other way around too, so you
can return there. But after you swim out of the elevator at its upper end and
then try to re-enter it, it disappears to thin air and you have to go pull the
nearby switch to get it up and working again.
Challenge of Hades
------------------
Sequence break: You can skip the short in-game cutscene showing the large hall
by doing a high jump at a correct spot (the rightmost edge of the step with the
omega symbol). Discoverer: Satvara.
Video demonstration:
1, Satvara's demo:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=zoKv_c3HlS8
Mystery/faux: Tyrhhjy has claimed that it's possible (with a high enough jump)
to reach the skull chamber from the great hall without even visiting CoH (pretty
much skipping it), but neither Satvara or I have not succeeded in this. Behind
the large door there's nothing but unloaded grayness, just like in the areas
above. At the very best this could be an actual regional difference, but...
For the record, my version of the game was PAL Platinum, Satvara's NTSC Greatest
Hits and Tyrhhjy's NTSC (unspecified).
Mystery 2: Getting to a turnable version of the boss wheel from the boss chamber
using high jump? (again, Tyrhhjy)
Note: if either turned out to be true, you could also skip Challenge of Poseidon
because there would be no need for the Trident. (my memory is hazy on the last
skull insertion possibility, but Satvara has said that Trident is not needed)
"The Hall of Hades" - save point
Sequence break: Do a high jump to the balcony where there's the button for
bringing up Hades Statue. You can grab its ledge, easy deal. Discovery: Satvara.
Strategy: For the (nowadays) optional centaur sacrifice, a great sweet spot is
right in the blood pool. Your enemies will ignore you if you jump in.
Interestingly, the pool's edges are of a different property depending if you
approach them from the water or the ground. If you just came from the pool,
your enemies are as oblivious towards you as before. However, if you just came
from the enemies' side, they will still notice you while you're on the edge.
Sequence break: If you nonetheless wish to pass by the lower regions, you can
use this hole in the wall to skip the 'kill all enemies'-segment.
Video demonstration:
1, video by ballofsnow (a GOW speedrun pioneer)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=r8HHOpo31i0
Sequence break: You can use the floor pool to do a water high jump (a.k.a XXL
jump, uber jump, etc.) up to the statue.
Video demonstration:
1, Satvara's demonstration:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=qwFo5vf1xuI
"The Chamber of Hades" - save point
note: only spawns after having activated Hades statue's light
Camera glitch/random: Chance to mess up a cutscene camera angle
If you roll/maybe do something else the instant you see the Hades statue's eyes
flash (after depressing the button), the camera will not follow the statue as
it rises up but instead it stays on Kratos. This is mildly useful because you
don't have to start the next section so disoriented. (discoverer: AK)
Wasted glitch potential: It would be possible to skip Challenge of Poseidon if
it weren't for the underwater switch right here. Activating it would require
gravity-less movement, only possible while swimming, and without Trident you
can't get down there while swimming.
Other: If you have both the centaur fight and Hades statue activated at the
same time (possible with sequence breaks), the game starts lagging moderately
and some camera angles are screwed up because of the statue. Don't want to
think about what would happen with music glitch on top of the whole thing...
Sequence break: Rope crossing tricks
There is this large chasm with a rope running over it. In the background there
are several archers which kill Kratos in just one arrow by plummeting him into
the lava below if he tries to cross the rope before dealing with them. Getting
across without having to bother with the archers in any case constitutes as a
quick rope crossing.
A trick Satvara used for doing this was to activate RotG while crossing. This
made the arrows largely harmless to Kratos, increasing your chance of success
thousandfoldly. However, RotG doesn't last long enough for a completely safe
passage, making this a fast, yet risky method.
While on rope, it is not possible to use, say, magics. However, it is possible
for Kratos to drop down from the rope, do a magic, and then grab the rope again
with the usage of L1+X. This allows for a more efficient offensive while doing
this section. You will get further on before RotG runs out. The trick itself
is slightly tricky, especially if used with Gorgon Flash with its wanky aiming,
and as such it is still risky. (discoverer: AK)
Satvara later devised two safer methods of getting past this part. Both involve
BoA long jumping. Other is by doing the jump from the archers' platform 'til you
reach the other side of the area. A faster variation is doing the jump from the
rope platform, but inching away from archers enough as to completely make their
platform become unloaded. Kratos can move forward quite a bit without the risk
of arrows. At the middle way Kratos should get back to the rope and deal the
rest of it using the RotG-method.
Video demonstrations:
1, crossing rope using RotG and magics (see part III)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=z-Wo42I1oEk
2, the safe but quick way (video by Satvara)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-kAnaMxlVds
3, new safe route (video by Satvara)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=LBPDHNM-5pw
"Blades of Hades" - save point
Random: Amusing oneself with heights
As you know, during the parts of CoH when you're at the upper parts of the
chamber, Kratos will emit a shout when he passes a certain point when falling
down. If you're swimming in air, you can safely reach the trigger where he
switches animation and starts shouting. Basically, he starts flailing his arms
and legs and screams, nothing happens. Then he does it again, and again and
again...
NOTE: during my first playthrough I thought Kratos was so tough a guy he never
ever screams, not even as he dies. Well, this place is an exception...
Video demonstration:
1, somewhere in this video:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=mmaGwJcSSdA
Sequence break: Skip most of CoH's upper level by doing a high jump under the
rope used to slide to the balcony where there's the Boss Wheel. Discoverer:
AKheon.
Video demonstration:
1, Kewbew's handy demonstration:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=3FOI6c5hkcQ
A.I. glitch: Blind spot "Pandora's Guardian" has
If you stand at a correct spot during the minotaur boss fight's last form, your
opponent will get stuck doing something useless. Discoverer: GMG.
Video demonstration:
1, GMG's demonstration:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=5Pst3Hm4p3U
Sequence break: Double lever pull
A part of the boss fight is skippable by pulling the log shooting device's
lever at an opportune time: right after having shot an earlier log at him.
Instead of having to deplete his health one additional time, you break more
of his armor off and get to the final phase of the fight quicker. (that is,
if you succeed.)
Using this, his armor breaks away differently than it would if you attacked him
normally. (e.g. the breast plate remains to the last part) But also, the armor
breaks differently depending on whether you use this trick on the first or
second phase of the fight.
Some strange timing variation enables you to reach a "5th outcome" in which
the second log hits the Guardian before he manages to stun Kratos. Could be
a fraction faster than normally, but it's not certain how it is done.
Video demonstration:
1, GMG's video:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=BSeyrXme38U
Random: If you pull the lever while Pandora's guardian is not stunned, etc.
he will rush to the back of the area and crouches under the flying log. I never
noticed this until I started firing the logs at him hapazardly...
Random: If you activate double lever pull right before the bosses death's FMV,
after the FMV the machine will click but no log comes out.
Random: After killing the boss, you get to shoot the log firing device at least
once so that the time does not stop nor camera change.
Trigger skip: You can skip the loading trigger for Army of Hades appearance (and
the small cutscene showing the icon) by doing a BoA high jump after the third
lava stream. Unfortunately it's useless because none of the exit doors will open
up if you do this. They stay locked like they are during the boss fight.
"Minotaur's Nest" - save point
Sequence break: After having picked up the skull, there's another in-game scene
at the large hall. You can skip it too by getting inside the nearby wall with a
high jump and bypassing the trigger. Discoverer: Satvara.
Video demonstration:
1, Satvara's video:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=zoKv_c3HlS8
Sequence break: You can skip going by the stairs after having picked up the
skull by doing a BoA high jump at the stairs. Doing this will also enable you
to skip the in-game cutscene. Discoverer: AKheon.
Video demonstration:
1, AKheon's video:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=psHSI-0I48Y
Other: Occasionally Hades says the "Go with the Gods, Kratos..." as if you had
full~ish volume on, even if you had it turned down.
"Chamber of the Gods" - save point
note: behind Muse key door, optional
Random: you can activate the gift of EXP from the ground level.
Cliffs of Madness
-----------------
Sequence break: Tyrhhjy said that you can do a high jump over the Athena's
speech trigger and pull the switch leading to Cliffs while she's speaking.
However, while testing Satvara found an even easier way to do it.
Video demonstration:
1, Satvara's vid
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=WpLw_g0nbUI
Random: If you try to backtrack while still on the statue's hands, Athena will
ramble on about your quest.
Random: I'm not sure what you have to do, but in some circumstances the stone
hands will not rise back up. Instead, they remain as a part of the platform.
Sequence break: You can skip the first Satyr fight by jumping over fight
boundary. (discoverer: Satvara)
"Cliffs of Madness" - save point
Sequence break: You can skip the short rope section and some travelling by doing
a long jump over the chasm where there are archers. It's possible to do 1, with
the regular long jump invented by Satvara (quite difficult), 2, a long jump
that uses BoA to gain some more height and length (a bit easier, though archers
may get to you if you wait too long in air), or 3, abuse enemy attack momentum
by keeping RotG on, jumping right as a legionnaire hits you, then instantly
doing your second jump. Kratos will fly surprisingly far, I've heard it's enough
to cross the chasm. (thanks to Tyrhhjy for #3)
Video demonstration:
1, my vid of #2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJKioHck7fQ
2, Tyrhhjy's speedrun segment in which the #3 is used (at 5:40)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCZJhQ0Xp1c
Strategy: To kill the first bunch of legionnaires easily, backtrack to the cave
in which there are exp chests (hidden behind a wall). Your enemies can't get to
you!
Strategy: Your enemies can't access the elevators. Use 'em for cheap victory!
Other: Magical elevator activity
If Kratos reaches the upper end of a long elevator section before the elevator
itself, the elevator will catch up and slam up to the upper end instantly,
bringing Kratos up too if he's in the way. This is most noticeable when swimming
up the elevator "shafts".
"The Traps of Madness" - save point
Random: After picking up the Necklace of Hera, doing a roll will land Kratos to
his death. For some reason the game will kill you as long as the camera hasn't
reverted back to the default position.
Collision flaw: One of the ladders is glitched-up, causing Kratos to get sorta
stuck on top of it. I think you can jump out of it, if it gets to it.
Sequence break: You can skip one of the caves and its fights by doing a long
jump from a ledge to the next elevator. Very hard to explain in detail, since
the process is quite intricate. Discoverer: Satvara.
Video demonstration:
1, Satvara's trick compilation. See about 01:51 for it.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=veIHOf6OAQc
Various: You can reach Necklace of Aphrodite without activating the trap
mechanism using a high jump. The open gate will instantly appear closed and
then opens up again. Sequence break discoverer was Satvara. (most likely)
"Just to note it, if you get Aphrodite's Necklace before Hera's (no backtracking
needed) you will probably have used the rope with a block on the way down...so
the "lever" past Hera's puzzle will instead be an EXP chest." - GMG
Sequence break: You can do a jump over the extending bridge without getting
either of the necklaces.
Video demonstration:
1, unfortunately only an outdated video is available.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=U-vnsCWdVLc
Architecht's Tomb
-----------------
Collision flaw: If you do BoA's air triangle attack ("dissension") to a correct
spot near the coffins in the twisty corridor right before the tomb, Kratos will
fall down through the floor. Not really useful, but... (note: I'm not sure who
discovered this.)
"The Architect's Tomb" - save point
Various: Cerberi fight's glitches
See this video for examples of glitching possibilities in this area.
Video demonstration:
1, SnapOfTheSynapse's collection of glitches:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=qX7exSCAGe0
Sequence break: Instead of doing the puzzle here, high jump your way to freedom.
Video demonstration:
1, Kewbew's nifty video
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=h1j20mgToag
Random: GMG reports that it's not possible to crush the cyclops using the block.
"Zeus Mountain" - save point
Sequence break?: Tyrhhjy has suggested that it's possible to skip the stairs
inside Zeus Mountain by doing a calculated high jump:
"at zeus mountain you can skip going down the stairs by doing abl to the left
side of zeus's mouth, just enough so that you are still on the wall, then jump
down carefull till you fall downstairs. it's hard not to fall in the chasm."
Sequence break: You can skip the small cutscene at the entrance by doing a high
jump.
Video demonstration:
1, Satvara's vid (and discovery):
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Kne4ZOF_Vcs
Sequence break: Instead of fighting at the conveyor belt, run by the area's
walls half way to the next room. The fight never activates this way. This is a
bit tricky because of the moving floor. Discoverer: Vortex72.
Also: "you could let the fight activate but HJ over the barrier." - GMG
Pandora's Box
-------------
Other: If you had skipped the cutscene which shows you around the conveyour
belt, the door to the Box room will only glitch up if you kick it. It will not
open, yet it becomes passable.
Other: A small-term music glitch happens here. If you skip the aforementioned
cutscene, you will hear Zeus Mountain's music in the background even after the
conveyor belt. After you kick open the door, you will also start hearing the
Box theme music. Unfortunately either of the overlapping songs will carry on
if you decide to quit the game (unlike what happens in the real music glitch).
Other: Not loaded?
GMG said that sometimes the Box is not loaded when you get to the correct room.
I guess it's not too common. I've heard it will load if you just retry from the
latest checkpoint.
Random: Before you have descended with the elevator, you can move Pandora's Box
around using a well-placed Hermes Stomp. I wonder why? Strange... This property
disappears after you've rode the elevator down too.
Random: Can't kick it around
An interesting thing to note is that your kicks are almost completely powerless
against Pandora's Box. It just won't budge that well.
Sequence break: If you somehow get outside the walls and directly under the
platform the box is on, descending enough will yield you the next cutscene in
which the elevator descends like normal. Easiest to do with swimming (though
with swimming you are stuck in the next part, unfortunately).
Random: About the level structure
Most of the Rings of Pandora and also the outer parts of Pandora's Temple are
permanently unloaded at this stage.
Hades
-----
"The Path of Hades" - save point
Random: On the rolling pillars, any move loses its buffer afterwards. E.g. try
doing Hermes Stomp here!
"Styx Below" - save point
"Sequence break": If you're feeling particularly anxious about the rotating
blade pillars (the vertical type) you can infinite jump to their top. A safe
but extremely slow method...
A more convenient way and an actually useful sequence break is doing BoA high
jump before fighting any enemies near the 1st spiked pillar until you reach
the top of the red wall which would prevent you from climbing the spiked pillar.
From there you get a good head-start to the whole climbing process too, in
addition to having skipped a fight. Discoverer: Satvara.
Video demonstration:
1, Satvara's vid (look near the end)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=CG9A08eMdMU
Temple of the Oracle (thrashed)
-------------------------------
"Oracle's Temple (destroyed)" - save point
Sequence break: You can skip the fight at what was once the harpy puzzle room
by getting onto a ledge on the left side of the wall and jumping over the fight
trigger in a devious manner. It is not difficult, once you learn the needed
movement.
"Final Battle" - save point
Ares 1
------
Other: Some kind of mechanism makes Kratos unable to spam Zeus fury too much
during this fight. If he shoots too many in a row, the bolts will simply stop
appearing for some reason temporarily. (well, might be many reasons for it)
Random: Ares may get the circle over his head while he is flying up in the air,
in which case it will promptly go to waste.
Strategy: You can abuse his death minigame to gather orbs pretty well. First,
get his circle to appear and activate the minigame. Succeed in the first two
prompts, but in the third, let Kratos fail. (e.g. you shove one of the spikes
into his back but not the other one) Kratos receives 2000 orbs and takes no
damage. You can repeat this as much as you want.
Also, if Ares has exactly 0 HP, a mere grab at him will make him go into the
mini-game stun again, and you can repeat the above almost instantly! Even
cheaper. (thanks GMG)
Strategy: A single Zeus' Fury bolt will get his ass down whenever his doing
his aerial magic thingy. Intentional or not?
Strategy: Do a high jump over the walls for a very safe fight. Ares can't reach
you at all, and you may even activate swimming glitch using the water all around
the place.
Kratos clones fight
-------------------
Other: Kratos' family shenanigans
The family's position is prone to changing as the battle progresses. Sometimes
attacked clones can push it to some direction. Sometimes it moves when Kratos
hugs them in certain circumstances. I've heard they can also move if Kratos hugs
them while being grabbed himself by a clone.
They can be moved off the game map. On easy they will lose 50% of their health
while remaining completely safe for the rest of the fight, but on harder
difficulties they will die. However, it might still be desirable to consciously
move the family, because they will remain at a better location in some cases,
with your enemies unable to reach them as easily (or at all, see the video
example #2). The easiest way I've found to move the family is to use Gorgon
Rage, then instantly afterwards hug them. It can also help to be on a different
height than the family is. (trick's discoverer: AKheon)
At the beginning of 2009, manu918 and co. worked a new way for doing the glitch,
this time suitable for NUR purposes. It is by merely freezing clones, then
grabbing the family. So, while it's not easy to say what is the exact cause of
this phenomena, it seems to happen especially in conjuction with stonefrozen
enemies...
If the family is fallen down, some clones might run after them and suicide
themselves foolishly. Also, new clone spawns are prone to move in slow motion
for some reason eventually.
Videos:
1, AK's demonstration
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=6KjVqoCcJZU
2, manu918's video
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd4tfP70J70
Random: just to note, there were only two players in the world who had beaten
the Clone War in God mode and NUR (not upgrading anything) before the year 2009:
Shinobier (doing it the hard way) and Manu918 (a group of players, apparently).
Since then there have been a few more. Perhaps an update would come in handy?
Other: New clone spawns will sometimes move in extreme slow motion without a
particular reason. This can happen in conjunction with the Kratos' family moving
glitch, but it can also happen without it.
Other: Kratos' family will bleed heavily if you do Gorgon Rage, even though they
receive no damage.
Random: The Zeus' Fury type of evil Kratos will not count towards the bunch of
Kratoses you must defeat to win the battle. They spawn infinitely and do not
influence the spawning of the other types. Once the other types are dead, this
type dies by himself at the end of the fight.
Collision flaw: The small altar behind Kratos' family can be accessed from
behind. Wait until the brick wall disappears, then just run inside. Might make
the fight easier?
Random: The platforms will start to deteriorate even if you don't kill any of
the clones.
Random: You can't hug yourself to death except in some random circumstances.
Random: By dying of a clone, or because your family loses their HP, you receive
a special death cutscene.
Random: If you die by a special death cutscene, you will never get the prompt
to lower the difficulty afterwards.
Strategy: Cast Army of Hades the last possible moment in this fight. The flying
souls will follow you to the next fight, in which you can't cast spells.
Ares 2
------
Camera glitch: At random times, the camera starts at a "bad location", but it
later fixes itself.
Random: If you go to the menu, all magics are locked. If you press X, it says
"Ares has stolen your magic." If you use the menu glitch which messes up the
graphics, you might encounter a glitch item which requires '10000' to upgrade.
Of course you can't funnel orbs into it...
Random: The move listing for the Blade of the Gods contains only 4 moves, all of
which are unique to this sword. Otherwise it acts almost like BoA. (another
difference is that it doesn't have a launch/lift-up move, or so it seems)
Wasted potential: I went into this fight with freshly upgraded Blades of Chaos.
The message telling me about Rage of the Gods appears as the first thing, even
before the epic flash of white which is always there. Then when I got to menu,
the game showed me all the regular moves and magics. Yes... I began the fight
with normal magics and weapons with me!
But right as I cleared the RotG-message, everything went back to normal. But it
was a genuinely good idea...
Random: In this battle the gravity has been changed so that you can never jump
very high.
Speed strategy: Tyrhhjy suggested this for Ares 2 (haven't managed to find time
to test it yet, though).
"the speed strategy for Ares 2 is keep restarting till he does the rock slam.
get in the middle (the spot where he appears to do it). go directly in the
middle then hit him 4 times. then just side roll to the side. then kill him
with the sword. he should die in 8-9 seconds. of course if you pause after
you've killed him. NOTE: easy mode Ares Armor costume only."
"That's hardly impressive. No need to roll. Pretty sure you can kill Ares
faster than that with Ares Armor/Tycoonius (Easy). If I recall right, a single
"Hades' Gift" during his 'rock slam' will due. It's 400% power....4x damage
for those settings. (I've been covering this shit at the Members Run thread)"
- GMG
Mystery: I've heard that the swimming glitch is possible to acquire in this
fight either by checkpointing or (possibly) by abusing a collision flaw.
"The glitch to swim out of water: when I attacked him, for some reason Kratos
appeared below Ares, Kratos then swam up uncontrolled
I hit with the square when he was in the middle(+/-) of the "arena"
And remember that when I tried to return the game was slow, showing the bar of
life, magic, and the 2nd bar fight" - Skabuf
Other: For either loading or mini-game related reasons, Ares' death might at
times get delayed a bunch. He slowly rises up if he was mini-gamed and then does
nothing for a short while until the ending FMV kicks in.
Other: Probably due to a loading glitch, Ares can turn into an insubstantial
'holographic statue' instead of dying like he should. (research underway)
Mount Olympus + Suicide Bluffs
------------------------------
You won the game. Congratulations.
Random: You have Athena's Blades, for some reason exactly the same as Blades of
Chaos, except of a different color. They are also automatically level 5 as you
get them.
Random: Despite the in-game statement about gods not letting Kratos die on that
victorious day, you CAN get yourself killed. They're keeping an eye only on that
particular cliff, you see. ;)
Go and high jump over the pile of rubble, and you can access lower regions of
the Suicide Bluffs. There's nothing you can do, really, except get killed...
"Olympus" - save point
Don't forget the two statues in the throne room which you can climb on top of
or demolish. The game will not display the number of hits (other than with a
couple of moves) but just keep at it. Eventually, after both statues have been
crushed, an easter egg is revealed.
L2 the throne to end the game. Interestingly, even on this occasion, after
having "won", Kratos will emit his death sound on game exit. It really wasn't
a happy ending...
You get to access normal game many times between ending FMVs. You can upgrade
weapons, etc. It doesn't seem to be useful in any way, though.
New Game+ ?
-----------
Right after having finished watching the ending FMVs, start a new game. Open
the weapons menu on the first possible occasion. You will see you still have all
your gathered weapons and magic, except they're lv. 1, and you have no orbs.
You also have relics like Poseidon's Trident. Neat, eh? If only they didn't
disappear very quickly afterwards, when you finally get to move...
Note: It seems this happens whenever starting a new game after having loaded a
game before. No need to play through the game.
Character Graveyard
-------------------
Collision flaw: You can get yourself killed by exiting through a part of the
wall/floor.
Video demonstration:
1, surprise... a video of the breach, by JFCalibur88
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=d8NP3YL0s9s
Challenge of the Gods
---------------------
- Random: The ballista challenge can be finished without using the ballista by
doing a BoA long jump to the other platform and defeating your opponents
manually. Rage of the Gods must be used so that Kratos would not run out of
magic.
- Other: CotG 10 has some glitches with the attacks Satyr's do, making it easy
for you to get your ass kicked. (should ask GMG for details some day...) �
5. Info and lists for experts
-----------------------------
A. Dubbed attack names
The following text is written by GMG. Formatted a bit by me.
----------
Below I list the names of various attacks I've dubbed to the best of my ability.
Including a bit of explanation as well as how to get to them. Descriptions if I
felt it necessary.
---When I say "s1". It refers to the attack done at input 1 with square. So "s2"
would be the second. In the combo, "s,t,s" the third hit is "s2" as that is just
how the chain links together you see. We aren't worrying about the coverage of
chains here. Just naming the individual hits. It's not terribly easy to
perfectly convey how I named these so if you do not understand, I'll sympathize
and try to better clarify. As for the others, there are sensible enough reasons
for why I call them as such---
---
Blades of Chaos
s1 = single swing
s2 = single swing
s3 = single upward swing
s4 = double swing
s5 = double upward swing
t1 - strong, double overhead swing
NOTE: Slow as a starter. Fast if done after a roll, 'Rush' or s1
t2 - double upward swing
NOTE: Always follows t1
s1air = single swing
s2air = single swing
s3air = strong, single thrust
t1air/Dissension = Double downward swing causing bounce
'whip' = Final hit of Apollo's Offensive
Hades' Valor = 'Valor' after "Hades Reverse"
Hades' Plume= 'Plume' after "Hades Reverse"
Hades' Fury = "Hermes Fury" after "Hades Reverse"
NOTE: Not sure if this attack is stronger then the Hermes variation or they are
just the same attack. It's at least interesting to note that this attack
is available before Hermes Rush is and starts off at lvl4 power (I know
this for certain).
R12/Hermes' Thrust = A single thrust after 'Rush'
Hermes' Valor = 'Valor' after 'Thrust'
Hermes' Plume = "Plume' after 'Thrust'
Hermes' Ascension = 'Ascension' after 'Thrust'
'Flurry' = series of hits before "Might"
NOTE: It is remarkably tough (IMO) to cover these hits in all regards. Might
itself is augmented by them, circumstance, control and the size of your
foe. Difficult to figure to be honest.
Rage of the Gods (unique attacks *for BoC*)
NOTE: My memory of the hits is foggy.
NOTE2: "Godly" is used as an adjective here in that the attacks with it are NOT
just regular attack with a 2x power boost. "Olympic" is used to describe
attacks that stand out as slightly altered, 2x power versions of basic
Blade attacks. The exception being with 'Ascension' where Olympic/Godly
are the same.
s1 = single hit
s2 = double hit
s3 = single hit
Godly Grace = Double hit, Square ender (knockback).
Godly Spirit = Double hit. Lacks explosion for range with bounce effect.
Godly Plume = Lacks the same.
Godly Ascension = Ascension in RotG.
NOTE: Cannot roll into it
Olympic Thrust = RotG version of "Hermes Thrust".
NOTE: Terrible hit detection
Olympic Valor = 'Valor' after 'Thrust'. 2x power of basic.
NOTE: Only way to use Valor in RotG
Olympic Plume = 'Plume' after 'Thrust'. 2x power of basic.
NOTE: NOT the same as 'Godly Plume' in power. Lacks explosion.
Olympic Ascension = 'Ascension' after 'Thrust'.
'Tempest' = Spins before 'Godly Spirit' in "Tempest of the Fates".
'Crash' = 'Spirit' of "Tempest of the Fates".
NOTE: 2 hits but weaker then "Godly Spirit"
NOTE: You can use "Hades' Reverse" in RotG, but no follow-ups/counters.
NOTE 2: It doubles power of most other attacks. (CoC, Helios attacks and Apollo
attacks are uneffected if I recall right) All Artemis attacks get a 2x
power boost.
RANT - I feel at least 2.5 is needed to make it really worth bothering with.
I'd have suggested 3x power for Artemis since it has no range or unique attacks
in that mode...and its swings should have just gone through Magic Legionnaire
shields like they didn't exist if they weren't going to give the weapon a way to
break their shields.
Blade of Artemis
s1 = single swipe
NOTE: There is no s3. It is just s1 again.
s2 = single swipe
t1 = double overhead attack
t2 = single overhead attack
o1 = single swipe
o2 = single upward swipe
s1air = single swipe
s2air = upward slash
t1air/Dissension of Artemis = Downward cut (knockbacks)
o1air = strong, forward thrust
Revenge = Square ender named after square special (multi-hit)
Ascension = Triangle ender named after triangle special (launch)
Retribution = Circle ender named after circle special (bounce)
NOTE: Unlike special, this is not slow, dedicated nor multi-hit
Artemis' Fury = R1 attack, was named for the multi-hit attack of the BoC though
it is a single thrust that can easily be canceled.
Artemis' Vengeance = Basically the Square ender after 'Fury'.
"Furious Vengeance" if you will.
Artemis' Ascent = Triangle ender. "Furious Ascent".
Artemis' Retribution = Circle ender. "Furious Retribution".
NOTE: It is slow like "Retribution of Artemis" but still a single hit that is
quite easy to cancel out of. Closer related to 'Retribution'
---
B. R2-action properties research
During R2-actions many strange things happen. This section is for delving into
into the secrets and oddities of these actions...
R2-action types:
1. 'Still' - Message immediately appears and halts all motion.
a. Delay of 1-2 seconds before re-use is possible
b. Instantly reusable
2. 'Phase' - Message immediately appears. Halts further attacks while letting
attacks in motion play out harmlessly.
a. Infinitely reusable; Instant
b. One use; Instant
NOTE: Using this as you die will delay the death until you press "X"
3. 'Zoom' - Message appears after camera zooms in. Basically the same as
'Phase' except that PRIOR to the message showing up, you can still be hit.
a. slow
b. fast
NOTE: Using this as you die will delay the death until you press "X"
NOTE2: I believe you can use these 'actions' (R2) even when dying *if close
enough* This also appears to be true when petrifed or even shattered
*just before dying*
The second one is the most useful, since it gives you immortality for a period
of time. Imagine all the things you could do during a fight. Well... there
aren't that many, basically, you could trick through enemies' attacks using R2.
It also might be fun to cheat death using the death-delaying property of 'em.
Research is still somewhat in progress. There might be more to these...
---
C. In-game timer
Here is a rundown on when it runs and when it does not. You may be surprised
from the results!
When retrying (whether by death OR retry), the game clock is reverted back to
the time the game checkpointed you. This means you don't lose any in-game time.
In pause-screen (select), no time runs at all.
In weapon/item screen (start), no time runs at all.
While in the save-screen, no time runs at all.
While in the screen you get when the disc tray is opened up, no time runs.
During FMV-cutscenes no time runs.
During in-game cutscenes time does run.
More coming at some point...
6. Credits, legal information, contact info, etc.
-------------------------------------------------
====================================
Copyright � 2008 Hannu Ratilainen
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation
License.
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html#SEC1
All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by
their respective trademark and copyright holders.
====================================
Additional thanks (and links):
------------------------------
GodModeGOD (a.k.a. the-creeper, BigVEE, etc. etc.) - being the vet in
this game series, he supplied me with info on many of the glitches. Wrote
a small part of this guide.
http://uk.youtube.com/user/bigvee
Satvara - A mysterious gamer who used his impeccable deducing skills to
completely break many sections of this game. Founder of many exploits.
http://uk.youtube.com/user/satvara
Tyrhhjy - founder of several skips and a few wild goose chases.
note: has recently done a slightly under 55 min speedrun on GoW.
http://www.youtube.com/user/tyrhhjy
Shinobier - gave video help and inspiration.
http://uk.youtube.com/user/shinobier
Shenminiu - A classic speedrunner-type.
http://uk.youtube.com/user/shenminiu
KevBew63 - Video help & a couple of glitches.
http://uk.youtube.com/user/kevbew63
JFCalibur88 - participated in glitch seeking and gave video help.
http://uk.youtube.com/user/JFCalibur88
HelloKittyKingxS, Euqinunique, SnapOfTheSynapse - small glitch help
---------------------------------------------------------------
If you need to contact me with suggestions, criticism, new strategies,
etc. then message my Youtube-account.
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=AKheon
For PMs/E-mails:
1. Don't ask me questions you can easily find an answer elsewhere.
2. Stay true. \m/
3. "think before you post", the classic rule of many a forum on the web.
Wordpress-account for further reading (among other things):
http://akheon.wordpress.com/
FIN.
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