Once again, Candied Skull presents:
The only walkthrough you'll ever need for
As written by:
GrahamDJ
(Elite Skull Board Administrator)
You begin your adventure on the stormy swells of the Aegean Sea. You are immediately attacked by Undead Legionnaires. Use your best level 1 combos to give them what for; more Legionnaires will climb up the sides of the boat and attack you. Dispatch them and fight yet another swarm that break through the chained hatch door. If you become surrounded (that’s a lot of damned undead guys), remember to roll around to get a better combat position. The Plume of Prometheus is your best friend in these early levels; spam this combo to send the undead reeling. When the enemies are all dead, walk over to the trap door and press R2 to grab it. Quickly tap R2 to open the door and get used to it; every door in the game is opened by rapidly pressing R2.
You will fall down into the interior section of the ship; there is a health chest that you can hold R2 to open and replenish your hit points. Break the barrels and get used to that also; they may only contain a couple orbs, but by the end of the game you will have netted thousands from planks, boards, statues, and barrels. The barricaded structure next to the health chest is also breakable; bust through it Terminator-style and walk through the room full of bunks.
The Hydra spawn will break through the opposite side of the room (you’ve got to love a game that throws a boss battle at you in the first level). It will make a series of lunges at you. Hold down L1 to block from damage as you are pushed to the back of the room. When the Hydra ceases its attacks, it will back off and start screeching. Roll closer to it using the Right Analog Stick, and start tapping Square to deliver a host of light attacks. You should get in between seven and ten before the Hydra attacks again. Keep this strategy up, blocking, rolling, and then dishing out a flurry of light attacks, until the Hydra has lost around half of its life bar. Now a Circle icon will appear above its head. Run up to it, and press Circle to engage the first minigame fatality. Press the buttons as they appear above the Hydra’s head to brutally slay the beast.
You will come to a maze of beams overhanging the water below. You need to carefully navigate the beams to make it to the other side. Luckily, unlike later sections of the game, there are no enemies firing explosive arrows at you. If you fall, quickly tap X to regain your balance. Walk out the opening to your right, and drop to the walkway below. Walk into the doorway to your right and up the short stairway. Open the red orb chest at the top (first thing to max out: Blades of Chaos), and continue down the hallway. Break through the door and follow the hall until you come to a closed door. Press R2 to kick it open, and relish in the violence before you!
A multitude of Harpies will attack you on this deck of the ship; use Plume of Prometheus, or any quick combo, to take them out. If you see innocent sailors on the ship anywhere, feel free to kill them. They drop health. When the Harpies are dead, roll quickly to the right and press R2 rapidly to open the wall panel closest to you for a red orb chest.
This Hydra is similar to the last one, but has a wider range of attacks due to the open environment. It will suck you close with its mouth, and then attempt to bite down on you. When it rears its head to bite, just roll out of the way. Beat him to death using nonstop light combos finished off with a Plume of Prometheus when the coast is clear. The Hydra will also swing its head around the deck in a circle; again, just roll out of the way to the left. When the Hydra’s health has decreased by about one-eighth, press Circle when the icon appears and engage the minigame. You will be in the Hydra’s mouth. Mash down the Circle button as fast as possible to swing its head to the deck and shave off a good chunk of health. It will lie motionless on the deck. Hit it with another couple combos, and repeat the minigame process when the icon appears over the Hydra’s head. After completing the minigame two times, bum rush the Hydra and beat the crap out of him. He will do the head swing attack a lot more, so be ready to roll. Once his health bar is drained, rejoice in the glory of your success…but not for too long.
Open the opposite wood panel to grab another chest of red orbs, and then hop down the gaping hole the Hydra left in the deck. Swim through the narrow path in front of you, and then climb the net when you get to the end. On the next deck you will be assaulted by a group of Legionnaires; a few more will sawn after the first squad is dead. Use light and heavy combos such as the Plume of Prometheus to defeat them, and then cautiously walk across the plank to the next section of the ship. When you reach the fork, follow the board to the right to open up an orb chest. Continue back down the plank to the left and save your game on the next deck. Drop to the deck below the save game point and press R2 to grab the small box in front of you. You will need to push, pull, and kick this box to the opposite side of the deck so you can climb up and kill the archers. The problem is that the box will break if hit by three arrows. Push the box into the open area, and then charge your kick (R2 + X). When the archers fire, kick the box under their arrows. It doesn’t matter if they hit you, there’s a health chest next to the previous save point. Roll up to the box, charge your kick, and let go right when the archers fire. A couple times you will have to push or pull the box back into a direct line with the back wall. When you have successfully navigated the box to the back wall, jump on it and then double-jump to grab onto the ledge. Pull yourself up and kill the archers.
Refill at the health chest, and then enter the door and walk through the next two hallways. Walk out onto the deck and take note of the locked Captain’s Quarters to your left.
Climb the ladder opposite of the Captain’s Quarters, and then ascend the rope nets. Legionnaires will begin to climb down the net towards you. Kill them easily by pressing the Analog Stick towards them and pressing Square, or by getting close to them and pressing Circle to bash them off of the net. You will reach a ledge, and then have to climb another net. There will be more enemies crawling on this net, so make sure you are comfortable fighting from this position. At the next ledge (the top), kill the two waiting Legionnaires and then jump onto the rope to zip to the next ship.
There will be three breakable walls to your left; one will contain a red orb chest, one will contain a Gorgon eye, and one will open into a passage that leads to your first magic spell, Poseidon’s Rage. After you have acquired the spell, enemies will spawn from the floor. Use your new spell to zap them to Hades (you’ll have to use your Blades, too). Walk through the opening Poseidon left, and turn the corner. Save your game and then fill up at the magic and health chests to your right. Climb the net to initiate the Hydra boss sequence.
When you first arrive on the deck, two smaller Hydra heads will break through the floor. There will be one on each side of the mast, and each will have a stack of boxes to its other side, facing the sea. Fight one Hydra at a time, or else they will use their “sucking” move on you. They will attack with one of two moves. Fortunately, they can both be blocked. What you need to do is block the occasional attack and then tear into the Hydra with every combo imaginable. They really aren’t that hard, and their attacks are blockable, so it won’t be long before its head collapses onto the deck. You have to act fast on this next part. As soon as the Hydra’s head hits the deck, jump onto the stack of boxes beside it. Double-jump onto the top of the boxes, and then jump onto the suspended platform to nail the Hydra’s head to the ship. If you are slow, then the Hydra will regain a fraction of its health and you will have to repeat the last few steps. Do this to both Hydra (one at a time), and then climb the netting in the middle to face the Hydra King.
The Hydra King is even easier than its spawn. Stand right in front of the mast and netting so that when it roars, it doesn’t knock you back to the deck. The Hydra King serves up only one real attack besides its lame roar: the death bite. When it swings its head back to bite, you have two options. Number one is to roll to the side and then start whaling on his head. Number two is to activate Poseidon’s Rage (you are invincible when you cast this), and then whale on his head. Don’t be cautious during this fight; run to the front of the kedge and really lay into him with quick combos and magic. When his health has drained, the familiar Circle prompt will appear above his head. Run up and press Circle to smash his noggin into the mast. You will need to repeat this three times (the last one breaks the mast). On the fourth minigame prompt, you will be required to push a series of correlating buttons to impale the Hydra King’s head on the broken mast.