God of War III

Want to get Titan mode done with no stress whatsoever?

If you answer "No", then don't bother with the rest of this solution. Seriously, just click something on your browser to take you anywhere else.

If you answer "Yes", then prepare yourself for the easiest Hard mode run in a game your have ever done!

There is a wonderful little glitch in the wonderful game known as God of War 3 which will make Titan mode simple for even newborns with no motor skills whatsoever (however, to get there takes a bit of work ).

In order to take advantage of this glitch, you need the following:

DO NOT Download the update for God of War 3 (seriously, there is no reason to download it. If you did download it, go into your system utility manager and delete it)

Have this trophy -

This allows you to enter the Combat Arena, and this is certainly something you want to do. Seriously - do it. And do it this way:

STEP 1: Select Infinite everything (health, magic, items) for Kratos.
STEP 2: Change difficulty to "Titan".
STEP 3: Select a few gorgons to be your enemies.
STEP 4: Enter the arena.
STEP 5: Die, and select restart the arena.
STEP 6: Die, and select restart the arena.
STEP 7: Die, and select restart the arena.
STEP 8: Die, and select restart the arena.
STEP 9: Die, and select restart the arena.

Now, I know what you are think: "But Mimic, if I select infinite health how can I die? You are dumb!"

Hold on fictional-gamer-dude-in-my-head-who-jumps-the-gun-and-resorts-to-name-calling, there is a reason you select gorgons as your enemies: they can still kill you with their stone cold stare. How? If they land a hit on you while you are in the air, you will crumble upon hitting the ground!

STEP 10: After dying five or six times the game will request you change the difficulty - select "No" and you will return to the title screen.
STEP 11: Select the "New Game" Option, and choose "Titan" Difficulty.
STEP 12: Notice, as you start this new game, how you have every one of your weapons and items from your first playthrough, and they are all maxed.
STEP 13: Find some enemies, and just stand in front of them. Let them beat the ever-loving piss out of you for a few moments, and really take in the fact that your health does not move...AT ALL.
STEP 14: Smile as you run through this difficulty as a god, killing gods in an uber god-like manner.

Questions, correction or neg vote justifications in the comments field below.

Oh boy, Titan Mode! I found this game's hard mode is actually inconsistent with its difficulty, with some fights being much harder than others – particularly in the early game. Tanking enemies and mashing the attack buttons won't work here; you'll need to know what attacks can be blocked and which must be evaded, and you'll need to have an understanding of the game's mechanics. With some decent play and these tips, however, I'm sure the majority of players can complete this. I was completely new to the God of War series (and this genre in general) and although I had some trouble in some early and late fights in the game, it wasn't too bad.

This is written from the perspective of someone who is new to the series. Unless you're hardcore or know this series very well, I don't recommend doing this on your first playthrough.

TIPS
• Learn from your failures and don't be discouraged. Certain attacks can be blocked while others must be evaded, and getting into the flow of battle and knowing how to read each enemy is pivotal to success.

• Upgrade your Blades of Exile first. They are your most versatile weapon, with great speed and range, and a large movelist.

• You should get enough red orbs in the game to fully upgrade everything, but you only really need to upgrade your Blades of Exile, your Bow of Apollo, and your Nemean Cestus. I recommend you upgrade the first level of Blades and the Bow first, which should be completed before reaching Hades. Then finish off the Blades and move onto the Cestus.

• The Nemean Cestus is a great weapon for many fights in the second half of the game, as they deal a satisfyingly large amount of damage. However, your evasion is slowed to a slight hop to counter this, so sometimes you'll want to stick with the Blades when speed and range are more valuable than pure attack power.

• Ordinary attacks (the square button) can be interrupted with defend (L1) and evade (right stick), but heavy attacks (the triangle button) cannot, but deal appropriately more damage. Therefore, using a combo that involves a heavy attack is sometimes a gamble as it leaves you open to being attacked; heavy attacks are slow and cannot be cancelled.

• Hounds and harpies are some of the more annoying early-game enemies; but using the Blades' Cyclone of Chaos (L1 and square) should keep them at a distance while killing them. You can also kick dogs away by grabbing them (circle) but this leaves you exposed to follow up attacks from other enemies, so I don't recommend it unless you're going for the "Obedience School" trophy.

• The Blade of Exile's fully upgraded magic, Army of Sparta (R2) is absolutely incredible: the arrow barrage deals a huge amount of damage to enemies and makes Kratos completely invulnerable while it's in effect. You should definitely be abusing this during many fights towards the end of the game, as there are almost always refill chests between each battle.

• Don't forget to use Rage mode (L3 and R3) if you're in a snag. Towards the end of the game, I do recommend saving it up for the final fight against Zeus, but otherwise I can't think of when it's vital to completing a fight, so if you want / need to use it, use it! (You'll also need to input a button prompt to burst out of Cronus' stomach while fighting him, causing you to lose all your Rage, so you might as well use it sometime before the fight.)

• The satyrs are the hardest enemies in the game, but there are only six that appear. They can be killed by grabbing them over and over again: on the third time, Kratos will instantly kill them. When fighting the first two in the tunnel in Hera's Garden, keep using your Army of Sparta magic – your Blades of Exile should be fully levelled up by now, allowing you to kill them at the expense of all your magic.

• The following fights are generally considered to be the hardest, and this is what my 'walkthrough' here will cover: Hades, Skorpius, Hades Cerberus Breeder, and the final boss Zeus. See below for strategies on each.

• There is a well-known glitch that allows you to start the game with full upgrades, but this only helps in the early game. It has been patched, but can still be utilised by deleting game updates and refusing to download the update until you have the trophy. For more information, see EmpathicMIMIC's guide here:
Solution for Unhuman In God of War III

• Note that some crazy bastard completed this game on Chaos Mode without ever upgrading, so don't give up – surely you can do it on just Titan Mode with upgrades, right? If you're actually interested in watching The- Deeb's Chaos Mode No Upgrade playthrough, the playlist is located here:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNQAovfnn8S1_5A9wCuGA7...

WALKTHROUGH
Rather than writing a full-on walkthrough, I thought it'd be better to just note the four main battles that most players seem to have trouble with.

Hades
After trawling through the Underworld (which shouldn't be so bad aside from the hounds and harpies – see Tips above for help on them), you'll eventually fight Hades: your first true challenge in Titan difficulty and your only challenge in the early-game. By this point, you should have fully upgraded your Bow of Apollo and your Blades of Exile by one. Hades can be brutal and unforgiving, but knowing each of his attacks and what to do is, as always, the secret to defeating an enemy. Also, just to note, when I say to use the Bow, that means spam as many arrows as possible at him – don't bother charging them up.

See also: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/943928-god-of-war-iii/5429853... for an old forum discussion which helped me during my playthrough.

PART 1 (PHASE 1)
The first fight part of the fight against Hades has three phases, and he can be a punishing boss. His few attacks in the first phase are easy to learn:

• His two swipe attacks done in quick succession can be blocked.
• His stomp has a small area of effect and must be evaded.

Attack between each of his attacks but don't go crazy – you'll always need to be ready to respond to each of his attacks. When he jumps in the air and lands in the centre-back of the arena, he'll start sweeping his weapons in an arc across the room, either above or below: you need to either stay where you are or jump respectively – they cannot be blocked. There is unfortunately no 'easy' strategy for this; you need to stay back, watch his weapons, and respond quickly and appropriately. You shouldn't need to double-jump. If he stays standing in the center and continues either his two overhead swipe attacks (which, again, can still be blocked) or his annoying weapon sweep attack, you should stay where you are and attack him with the bow when his attacks finish. Don't go near him, as he may suddenly grab you and throw you back into the centre of the arena.

When he's down, approach him and press circle to slice off a part of his skin. Some hands will appear from the ground and try to impede you from further attacking the skin (which will work its way back to Hades), so use L1 and square to use Cyclone of Chaos to remove some hands for health, and attack the skin to stop it from reaching Hades. Stay in the centre of the room and, as the floor fills up with darkness, wait for a clear space (either centre, left, or right) and rush to it before the chains appear. If you mess up the skin part and it comes back to him, it takes little more damage to slice it back off again, so don't worry about that. If you're successful however, move onto phase 2.

PART 1 (PHASE 2)
If you're struggling with Hades, then it's most likely his second phase that's giving you the most grief; here he turns very aggressive and changes up his moveset. You must learn which of his new attacks can be blocked and those which must be evaded and – worst of all – there's no checkpoint, so failure will lead you to the beginning of this long battle yet again. Keeping your distance and using your Bow of Apollo is a slow but sure method to safely take off his health, and is recommended, but if you want to attack him with your weapons for more damage, be sure to keep to fast basic combos so you can be ready to block or roll away. His attacks include:

• His two swipe attacks has been extended and will mess you up if you don't quickly adapt. Again, the first two done in quick succession can be blocked. However, the third and fourth cannot be blocked – he will stick them in the ground close to him, and then launch them upwards and outwards for a fifth attack. Keep your distance and use the Bow of Apollo while he wastes time attacking the floor.
• A quick but long-reaching swipe along the floor. Can be blocked.
• His stomp is replaced with a jump into the air and, when landing, he will cause a wave that spreads across the floor. Keep away from underneath him when he's in the air and, when he lands, double-jump and glide to avoid the AoE.
• He will grab Kratos' soul and you'll need to rapidly tap L1 and R1 to break free. Simple enough.

When he returns to the centre-back of the arena, you can block both his 'three successive overhead swipes' attack as well as the floating skulls. Keep using your Bow. Honestly, the trick to this entire phase is to keep your distance and use the Bow between Hades' attacks, as unlike later bosses he doesn't bother defending against it. When he's down, repeat the process detailed above of slicing off his skin, attacking it, and taking cover on a clear patch of ground before the chains arrive.

PART 1 (PHASE 3)
The hardest part of the battle is now over, and Hades once again has just two attacks now, although they're both new. Hades will now permanently stay in the centre-back of the arena and spam these attacks:

• Chains appear from the ground and chase after Kratos. Keep on the move and this won't be a problem.
• Two or three phantom Cerberus will pounce forward. Despite what you might initially thing, they can be blocked, whereupon they disappear.

While these attacks are easy to deal with, Hades doesn't leave himself open to attack much, so – again – spam him with the Bow between his attacks.

When he goes down for the third time, Kratos will not slice off a piece of skin again; instead you'll ultimately find yourself on one half of a torn arena and Hades on the other. Attack with square when you can, but remember to pull back as well before you get too close to the edge, and avoid his own attacks by alternating between evading side to side. Keep up the pressure and he'll be down in no time.

PART 2
The final part is easy: you're forced to use Claws of Hades, so once you clear up some fodder, a giant Hades will emerge from the water. Stick to the centre of him and attack the middle of his belly with basic square attacks. Staying in the center will mean most (but not all, so be wary) of his attacks will miss you. When he dramatically breathes in, go to the sides and grapple around behind him, get a few hits on his back, and continue. Once he goes down, you need to be behind him to initiate the QTE minigame that kills him.

You should be able to finish him off surprisingly quickly, and once he's down that's one of the hardest parts of the game over with until Skorpius.

Skorpius
Skorpius' main attack consists of raising his tail upwards and slamming it into the ground around one side; it does massive damage, cannot be blocked, and you're given little time to evade it. Furthermore, you'll need to be using the Nemean Cestus here to break through his legs, and when you attempt to role with the Cestus equipped, Kratos does a pathetic little hop which covers little distance. There are two things you can do here:

• Air-dash away towards the screen twice (by jumping and using the right stick when in the air) as soon as the tail rises. No matter how close you think you are to destroying one of his legs, you don't have time to fit in that extra attack. There's also no need to go to the opposite side of the Skorpius (which is the mistake I kept making when I first did this); just keep away from the legs and go towards the screen.
• Grab one of those mini-Skorpius; Kratos will instantly kill it, which gives him a little bit of health and makes him invinicible during the animation.

If you can evade the tail-stomp, the only other real challenge is dealing with the small scorpions that keep arriving – they are quick to die, but can stun you and leave you open to following attacks if you let them get too close. As mentioned above, grabbing them will instantly kill them and give you health, but you can deal with them in a variety of other ways that you feel comfortable with, too. I usually prioritize the legs over them, though.

When three legs have been taken down, you'll need to beat up the Skorpius' face while a bunch of small ones appear; equip the Blades of Exile quickly and either use the Cyclone of Chaos (L1 and square) to keep them at bay and deal damage to everything, or use Army of Sparta magic to clear everyone out.

During the second phase, you'll need to deal with the remaining three legs while continuing to avoid the little scorpions and the tail stomp. The Skorpius adds a few new attacks to his repertoire, and he likes to move around and off the arena a little more, but the same rules apply. Use the Army of Sparta magic (you'll have to equip the Blades to use them, remember) if you get surrounded for temporary invincibility and to kill all the mini scorpions.

When it's nearly dead, repeat Cyclone of Chaos / Army of Sparta on its head one final time, complete the QTE minigame, and follow him up the chain, using the right thumbstick to avoid his falling icicles, to finish him off.

Hades Cerberus Breeder
The Hades Cerberus Breeder is the massive three-headed dog that you'll fight on your return to the underworld after clearing the Labyrinth very close to the end of the game. The battle takes place where the Trials of Erebus took place earlier in the game. With its large amount of health, constant explosive hounds, and two satyr backups, this is essentially a boss battle. Now, although this battle takes place over three phases (separated each by pulling a head off the dog), only the first two will provide any challenge using the following strategy. Note that there is also an alternative 'cheap' strategy mentioned further down for effortlessly dealing with the satyrs.

• A head-on fight with the Cerberus Breeder is not recommended, as it likes to follow up with quick strikes that are hard to react to.

Attack its side using the Nemean Cestus with two or three basic strikes at a time, then move away, either evading or air dashing (right stick or right stick while in the air). Wait for any nearby dogs to explode and repeat, slowly striking and escaping before the dogs can catch up. When the massive hound has taken enough damage, you will get a prompt to rip off one of its heads. It might initially seem very hard to get the timing right here, but once you can do this phase without taking any damage, you should be able to complete the entire fight.

After ripping off its first head, a satyr will join the fight. Again, this may seem ridiculous considering how insane the previous part of the fight was – especially as if you fail you'll have to start the entire fight again – but try your best to repeat what you've been doing in the previous phase, this time avoiding the satyr too. Try to put the Ceberus Hades Breeder between you and the satyr if possible and be wary of the satyr's excellent long reach and unpredictable moveset. Consider this to be the hardest phase of the battle; although the next phase adds another satyr, there's a reason why we saved all our magic for the final phase...

Once the Hades Cerberus Breeder is down to its last head and the two satyrs are nearby, equip your Blades of Exile, get close to the giant hound, let the satyrs converge on you, and constantly spam your fully upgraded Army of Sparta (with the Breeder preferably close to a corner, so he won't move away while using your magic) until the Breeder is finally ready to fall; ripping off his final head will reward you with some likely much-needed health.

Ideally you'll have killed at least one of the satyrs with Army of Sparta and wounded the other. To finish them off, the secret is to keep grabbing them; eventually you'll be prompted to keep pressing circle, which sees Kratos kick the satyr away and hurl its blade at them, instantly killing it. If you want to play it safe and keep your distance, you can spam the Bow of Apollo at them too, but note that they can close the distance fast, so keep on the move and know that this strategy is very slow.

The 'cheap' strategy for dealing with the satyrs easily, mentioned briefly above, is this: Have your Claws of Hades fully upgraded and equip the Gorgon soul in the menu. Use the Claws' magic to summon the Gorgon, who will instantly turn the satyrs to stone: attacking them should instantly kill them, or so I've heard, although I can't say for sure as I never used this method personally.

I suppose it's also worth noting to try to keep away from that book pedestal at the front of the arena during the fight, as I found that Kratos has an annoying habit of getting stuck on it. Congratulations on beating this fight – it's definitely the hardest in the game, and Zeus is now the only obstacle between you and completing the game.

Zeus
The final battle against Zeus is split into four parts, although only the first and third parts are particularly difficult.

PART 1
The first fight against Zeus may initially seem hard, but once you learn his moveset you can either defend or avoid all of his attacks. I recommend using the Blades of Exile for its range and speed, as I found the Nemean Cestus are a little too slow for this fight and I'm not familiar with the other two weapons. Your main opportunity to strike is when he does a two-hit combo – although this can be countered, it's risky and if you get hit (or you're within range), he'll even do a third attack – instead, roll back and attack him after his second attack. When he jumps in the air to throw lightning bolts downwards at an angle, roll away from them. If you're near Zeus at the time, jump up behind him and press circle to grab and smash him into the ground; it does more damage than just hitting him normally in the air.

Generally, keep to the centre of the platform so there's always room to maneuver away from him in either direction if needed.

The halfway point of this battle is separated by a QTE minigame where you grab Zeus and throw him into a nearby pillar, but there is no checkpoint. Furthermore, he starts using the attack where he jumps into the air and smashes diagonally into the ground more frequently – the move is hard to dodge and I don't have a guaranteed way to escape it; this, combined with an annoying attack where electricity arcs out of the ground in vertical columns which you are given little time to avoid or block, means that you may want to spam all of your Army of Sparta magic as soon as you can, and finish him off using the same strategy as above. A tense fight, for sure, but keep at it and you'll succeed eventually.

PART 2
The second fight against Zeus takes place outside in a small arena. Just keep rolling around and stay away from Zeus; after a set amount of time has passed, Gaia will appear and the battle will come to a premature end.

PART 3
The third and by far the hardest fight against Zeus takes place inside of Gaia. The problem here when compared to easier difficulties is that you can quickly be overrun by Zeus' clones. Another problem is that because this game lacks a health bar, you can't be sure how much health Zeus has recovered if and when he reaches Gaia's heart (as well as how close he is to death). Remember that you yourself can attack Gaia's heart for health when it flashes, but this can leave you exposed and Zeus will charge up to do the same thing as well. Furthermore, Zeus will always manage to recharge his health the first time the heart lights up. When Zeus and his clones jump in the air and sequentially bash the floor, the clones' AoE attacks can be avoided by staying away from them, but the real Zeus (who always attacks last) electrifies the whole floor, so keep your distance and be ready to double jump just before he strikes the ground. The clones yield magic refill orbs upon defeat, and using Army of Sparta can really help against them when they fill the screen.

I wish I had some more tactics to give you, but I've only completed this fight once, and I managed to somewhat 'cheese' it using the following strategy:
Attack him normally to begin with. He will always automatically manage to refill his health a little the very first time. Once he moves away from Gaia's heart, either attack him normally or use Army of Sparta if he sends out a large number of clones. Now this is where the strategy depends a lot on luck: activate Rage mode and go on the offensive against Zeus (make sure no clones are present – you want to concentrate your temporarily increased attack power fully on Zeus); ideally, you'll land all of your attacks on Zeus, but you know how Kratos acts as if he's skating on an ice-rink while in Rage. With luck, you can finish him off with the rest of your magic and a few more attacks.

There is no guaranteed win for this fight, unfortunately. Don't let yourself get frustrated: this is all that stands between you and victory.

PART 4
I'm not even sure if this final part can be considered an actual fight, or if you can even lose. The battle takes place in a first person perspective, so just keep attacking Zeus until he falls, beat him into a pulp, and watch the final cutscene and credits; the gold trophy should pop on the rewards screen after the credits.

A sincere congratulations on beating Titan mode!

Just to add to the already amazing solutions! There are parts you can miss out because of the weapons! It cuts down the time and makes it a lot faster to finish. A good place was when you enter the upper gardens instead of having to go through Aphrodite's chamber to the blacksmith, use your whip on the cranks that turn the platforms and you miss out two boss fights! This takes you straight to the scorpion boss.