God of War
The Challenge of Hades      (0000D) 

Both the left and right sides of the stairs have healing chests.  Jump up onto
the left side of the room to find a door, when you examine it you must accept
the challenge to make a blood sacrifice.  Do so and a new type of centaur like
enemies will appear.  There's also a large circle area around the entrance,
what you need to do is kill enough enemies within this circle so that the door
opens, it's not easy.  Eventually when you manage to accomplish this the door
is unlocked and you can proceed through it.  When you come out of the hall use
the platform beside the door on the left side to jump up to the ledge above. 
Here you will find three chests, two with red orbs and one with a Phoenix
Feather.  Drop down again and lift up the door on the left side. 

In this hall the floors are behaving rather erratically and it just so happens
that underneath them there is nothing but lava.  What you need to do is time
your jumps so that you can land on solid ground, rather than liquid magma. 
Roll past the spears in the next hall as well, then get ready to navigate
through a maze.  At the first fork the left path only takes you to a face, so
head right.  At the next fork make a left and you'll find yourself in an open
area.  At the top there's a treasure chest, open it to get a whole bunch of
red orbs.  Return to the previous fork and go straight this time, then make a
left (if you go right, it's a health chest.)  Here you will find a lever you
can turn.  Turn the lever to raise yourself up to the next level.  Right
beside the elevator you can grab hold of that block in the wall and push it
forward so that it drops down.  Run to the end before the path collapses and
get the red orbs from the chest.  Go back and make a right at the fork, then
make another right and push the block forward so it falls.  Defeat all the
enemies in this room, grab the health and open the door down the hall at the
upper left.  Since you're back here again make a left at the fork.

There's a large crushing block here.  Wait for it to go out and then follow it
and jump on top.  Kill the enemies here in this area but you can't go through
the door yet, it says you must kill all the enemies in the maze.  The final
two enemies are through the door being blocked by the crushinator.  It goes
further every time until the third time when it resets.  Wait for it to go far
enough so that you can get through the arch door that it's blocking and kill
the two remaining enemies in there.  Now you can pass through the door and
find yourself back in the front hall again.  Step on the large button in front
of your to raise the huge statue out of the ground.  Jump down and jump into
the water where the statue came out of.  At the bottom you will find a switch
to pull, now the head is firing a light beam.  Jump out of the water and climb
the ladder on the side of the statue.  Turn the lever at the back of the head
to face it around in the opposite direction and light your path.  Now jump off
the head, save your game at the bottom of the stairs, and enter that room.

Now here's a little something interesting, all these flaming balls coming
toward you.  Your job is to navigate between them as you progress up the path
to try and reach the door at the end in between the slope the balls are
rolling down.  It's not easy, but not too difficult either.  Refrain from
using the right analog stick, it will probably do more harm than good, if your
timing is right you can just run between all of them anyway.  Once you reach
the end go through the opening and defeat the enemies.  Open the chests here
to get some red orbs and a Phoenix Feather.  Don't think you're in the clear
yet however because if you read that tablet you'll realize you need to go back
out there.  Notice that along the way there were doors that you passed, well
one of these many doors leads to the path you need to take.  To save you the
time of looking obviously, it happens to be the third last door on the left. 
This means from the top follow the left wall and go past the first two doors,
try the third.  Follow the hall to the end and get ready to fight.

A number of large minotaurs wielding deadly dual sided axes await you here. 
Defeat all four of them with your best attack combos along with the archers
that spawn soon after in order to remove the evil forcefield.  Follow the
upper right steps up and kill all the enemies in this area, if you're
wondering why it's a dead end it's because the point of this area is to kill
the archers, you can't proceed otherwise.  Return to the previous room and
take the upper left exit.  Jump up and make your way across the rope here. 
Drop down into the arena and get ready for some massive combat against a horde
of enemies.  After the two minotaurs are killed, or enemies other enemies that
are the last remaining climb up the ladder and jump to the next ledge.

There's another maze here, at least somewhat.  Go straight ahead at the first
fork and make a right at the second one to find a chest with red orbs inside. 
Take a few steps back and head left.  Make a right at the next fork and save
your game.  In this room you have to balance across the thin beam, but as an
added danger there's a spinning death machine around you as well.  When it
gets to close double jump straight up into the air to avoid it.  Head up when
you come to the first fork and then right when you reach the second.  When you
reach the safe platform cross over on the beam to the right side where you
will find a chest containing a Phoenix Feather.  Return to the platform and
head up.  Balance along the next beam and head left when you come to the first
fork to find a chest containing red orbs.  Go back and continue down. 
Continue moving right at the next fork and open the chest containing a stash
of red robs.  Now head up at the fork, you need to wait for the one arm that
doesn't have death blades on it, and then jump onto that one.  From there
simply walk forward and climb up the ladder.  Balance along this beam here to
reach the next platform but before you slide down, continue to the right to
eventually reach a chest with more red orbs.  Head back and slide down.

Descend down the ladder at the bottom and follow the path into the next hall. 
Turn the wheel at the end for a quick scene, then head left to drop down
somewhere familiar you've been before.  Make your way down and save your game
along the way.  Be sure you're full healed and all that mumbo jumbo before you
go out there, you wouldn't want to be underprepared for the... second boss.

Basically this boss does what many gigantic bosses in other games does, relies
on a huge battlefield with all sorts of crazy stuff going on and pretty much
confuses you to the point where you think it's hard.  Well I'm here to
simplify everything and point out that in the end this boss boils down to one
simple, albeit long, pattern.  First of all note that the boss is easiest to
fight when you're on the ledge at the lower end of the room so get up there
now.  This will make the boss come running and put his hands up on the ledge. 
The majority of this boss' attacks can be blocked, the only dangerous ones he
was are the unblockable ones so I'll describe them first.  When he raises his
left hand (on the right side from your perspective) then he's going to swipe
down and grab you.  To avoid this simply double jump to the left, often if you
do it straight up he still grabs you, so do it to the left.  The second occurs
only after he charges, a bunch of fire comes up from below you, simply double
jump to avoid this.  Everything else can be blocked.  Now for actually
damaging him.  Normal attacks work fine, here's what you have to do.  When he
runs up to your start slashing and smashing until he gets stunned and jumps
backward.  Now he will charge at you again.  You need to stun him so that he
jumps away approximately four or five times.  After that each time you stun
him he will temporarily curl up on the ground and the circle item will appear
above his head, so knowing that this will happen immediately after you stun
him jump down and start running to the top.  Press the circle button to jump
on top and use the left analog stick to match the screen patterns similar to
the gorgons.  After doing this the boss will stand up in a daze.  Now is you
chance, run back to the bottom of the area and pull the switch to load one of
the logs into the cannon and fire it at him.  Bam.  Now the process starts
over again, you need to do everything you just did exactly one more time all
the way up to the point where you fire a second log at him.  After the second
log is where things change.  Now when he runs up to your and you damage him,
when he gets stunned bits of his armour break off.  Stun him four or five
times now to wear off his armour completely and reveal his health bar.  At
this point he no longer becomes stunned and it's just a matter of fighting as
you always have been the entire time to wear down his health.  When it gets
very low, down in the red he'll become stunned just one more time.  This is
your cue to reach for the lever and bring and end to the long battle.

Following the fight you can now get through the large door via a crack in the
bottom.  Climb up the spiral stairs and use the save point when you reach the
top.  Further up you'll find three chests containing health, magic and red
orbs.  Now examine the book in the centre of the room.  Pull the lid off the
coffin and take The Architect's Son's Head.  Grab the head and return back to
where you fought the minotaur, here you will find another of the gods,
approach it to get a new magic spell, Army of Hades.  Use this magic to defeat
all the enemies that spawn around here.  Now head through the door Hades was
blocking and swim back to the room that had the large rolling object.  Press
R2 underwater when you're beside the skull door to insert The Architect's
Son's Head and the water lowers down.  Now here's what you need to do.  First
of all find the lever near the wall, beside it is a door, tap the R2 button to
lift this door up.  Now run into the very centre of the statue in the middle
where you will find a lever.  Turn it around and around until it is aligned
with the door you just opened.  Leave this room and start turning the lever
beside the door you opened until that door is aligned with the outer hall. 
Now go out to the outer hall and make sure that door lines up too so all the
doors are aligned with the room with the save point down at the very end. 

Here's a little update note that I believe I missed.  I'm under the impression
that if you rotate the outer wall you can eventually find a room where you can
use those two Muse keys you got to unlock a door filled with red orbs and god
knows what else.  It's around this area so be sure to check it out.

With all the doors aligned head to the save point room at the end and save
your game.  Here at the back you'll see a shiny handle you can grab, grab the
handle at the side of the little steps, not the one in the middle but the one
with the shiny thing on it.  When you push it a cutscene will trigger. 

Run to the very middle and pull the handle to rise up the elevator.  Leave the
room and start to cross the bridge.  There's a quick scene and then a battle
with a new enemy, you'll have to defeat three of them before you can proceed. 
As you cross the bridge there is another cutscene, then use the save point on
the other side.  Read the book in the middle, then begin your trek upward.

  __
 /   God of War  /------------------------------------------------------------o
|  _ -----o-----                    The Cliffs of Madness                   |
 _/   (0000E)   -----------------------------------------------------------o

Defeat all the enemies at the top and whip out Zeus' Fury to defeat those
archers in the distance.  On your left behind some urns is a chest that will
fully refill your magic.  Head right and jump from platform to platform until
you reach a rope.  Cross it hand-over-hand and battle the foes that await on
the other side.  Turn the crank to raise the ladder and save your game. 
Ascend the ladder and follow the paths along until you reach a doorway.  If
you continue left rather than going through the door you'll find a chest full
of red orbs.  Enter the cave area and follow the path to a crank you can spin,
turn this in order to connect the path to the platform with all the archers on
it.  Spin it further than you need to since it will automatically start moving
back when you let go this will give you time to get on it and jump over to the
other one.  When you come out of the cave at the top take the left path to
find a multicoloured chest.  Now jump up onto the ledge on your right.

You'll need to defeat three minotaurs here, around the corner is a door with
two head shaped crests on the sides which seems to suggest they once wore
necklaces.  If you jump around behind the one on the right you'll find a chest
with red orbs inside.  Head left from the chest though the cave, and jump down
into the water.  When you pop out at the other side you can break open the
walls behind the waterfalls to get a whole buttload of red orbs.  Return to
the door with the face emblems on it and look for a ladder on your left
leading down.  Descend it and follow the path to reach a chest full of red
orbs beside a rope, slide down the rope and enter the cave.  Beyond a whole
pile of enemies that you should kill first, is the necklace puzzle.

Your goal is to connect all the blocks together so that the gaps disappear. 
You can use the centre platform to rotate them.  Here's what you need to do. 
Grab the block at the upper right corner and put it on the rotating device. 
Now turn the device counter-clockwise exactly once, for a 90 degree turn. 
Push this block against the gate so that the lower right block which cannot be
moved fits exactly into the little gap.  Now grab the T shaped block, rotate
it 90 degrees in either direction and place it right in the centre so it fits
nicely into the upper gap in the piece you placed the first time.  Get that
little one block near the gate out of the way, you're never going to use it. 
Grab the upside down L shaped block at the top left corner and rotate it 180
degrees.  Now place it on the left side of the gate, it should fit perfectly. 
All that remains is to fill the final two gaps, between the last two places
you set the pieces should be a gap that's two blocks high so grab the piece
that will fit in there perfectly and set it.  The last piece is the tall on
the upper left side.  Set it on the right side to complete the puzzle.

Grab the necklace and leave the cave, you can now climb up the ladder on the
right side.  There's also a save point out here now.  Go up the ladder and run
to the right, climb across the side of the mountain until you reach the other
side above the rope where you slid down.  Return to the place with the two
emblems and insert Her'a necklace.  Now I know for a fact that this part is
one of the most difficult things people have a problem with and it's quite
likely that this is about the first sentence 99% of the people using this
guide have read because all the want to know is where the hell to go after
getting that stupid necklace.  Well here's the answer so listen close.  You
need to backtrack.  A lot.  Remember that room where you rotated the two
platforms and had to quickly jump from one to the other?  Past that.  Exit out
the from of that cave.  Now you've got the option of either going down a
ladder or following the path left.  Go down the ladder, then another and
another until you reach the save point.  Yes, you must find this save point,
there's your reference.  Get there and save your game.  Now from this save
point go right and you'll see a dead tree, well it just so happens that you
can jump over the rocks beside the tree to reach another path and whole other
area.  Yeah.  There's your answer, enjoy the rest of the game.

Anyway, where were we.  Follow this path into the main cave area where you'll
be trapped and forced to fight against quite a few enemies.  When you come out
the other end of the cave you'll find an elevator, turn the crank to raise it
upward.  Hop onto the weight on your right to lower a ripe down to the
platform below, this acts as a shortcut if you need it, don't actually go down
there.  Enter the cave and prepare yourself in advance, if you screw up then
you die.  Notice the holes in the floor, they are what's going to kill you,
but only if you aren't fast enough.  There's a lever here beside the gate. 
When you pull the lever another gate opens up and your time limit starts. 
Beside you is a block you can move, basically your goal is to kick this block
down to the other side of the cave and use it as a stepping stone to reach the
ledge before getting speared.  You're given enough time no problem, but don't
dilly-dally.  At the top you'll find a chest, open it to get a Phoenix Feather
and then jump across to the vines on the wall.  Grab the necklace and leave.

Return to the door with the two emblems and make sure both necklaces are in
place.  Now the ledges are moving back and forth, wait until they extend all
the way and jump across to gab hold.  Jump back and open the chests for some
blue and red orbs, then jump across to the right.  Head around to the right
and a cutscene triggers.  Follow the path to the end and swing across the
ropes to reach the other side.  Here there's an elevator, pull the lever to
activate it.  Follow the path at the top and enter The Architect's Tomb.

  __
 /   God of War  /------------------------------------------------------------o
|  _ -----o-----                    The Architect's Tomb                    |
 _/   (0000F)   -----------------------------------------------------------o

Some rather unpleasant platform jumping awaits you here, jump between the
moving platforms and the deadly saw blades to reach the other side.  Head to
the right side and open the gate using the R2 button.  Fight your way up to
the outdoor area again and defeat the cyclops here as well as all the
cerberuses.  Be absolutely sure to defeat them before they grow, that ins't
exactly pleasant when it happens.  There are three ladders here, climb the one
on the side that isn't broken and smash the door at the top to find a
multicoloured chest and a Phoenix Feather.  Next drop down and climb up the
one in the middle and turn the lever so that the crane's weight's shadow is
over the cracked ground.  There's a lever at the end of the crane so go and
pull it to smash the ground.  Lift it up again using the lever and turn to
crane so that the shadow is over the button on the other side, drop the weight
down on the button and then jump off the edge so you're on the ground again.

Grab the statue in the back left corner and kick it all the way over to the
other side, drop it down the no broken pit and set it on top of the other
button.  Only one more to go.  This one is located back across where you came
from, all you have to do is stand on it by yourself for a second to unlock the
door.  You've got to be quick though, it doesn't say open forever.  When you
get in there go around to the opposite side of the table and rip the head off
the corpse.  In the next area you'll find a save point and two red orbs chests
on the right side.  Enter the structure then descend the spiral stairs to
reach a large room with moving conveyer belts.  Enemies attack you when you
enter this room and you cannot leave until all of them are dead so equip the
Blades of Chaos for the harpies and the Blade of Artmeis for the archers and
go at it.  Take out all the archers and ones that respawn first and from there
go into an all out harpy-hunt.  Here's a fun scientific fact, they actually
had to declare "one bajillion" a real discrete value after seeing how many
stupid **mn harpies respawned in this room.  Just keep fighting and fighting.

Following the battle open the door and pull the handle on the large sphere in
the middle.  Examine the box and then ride the elevator down.  Drag the box
off the elevator and then push the box out the main door and watch the scene.

  __
 /   God of War  /------------------------------------------------------------o
|  _ -----o-----                     The Path of Hades                      |
 _/   (0000G)   -----------------------------------------------------------o

Ahead of you are two chests and a save point.  Jump across the platforms above
you to reach a chest with red orbs inside.  Now head right and follow that one
to reach more red orbs.  Take the left path here up to the large platform and
battle through the evil demons here.  Start across this dangerous spinning
mechanism being careful to avoid the knives.  Jump to the second platform on
the right to find a chest with a large number of red orbs inside.  At the very
end is another chest with red orbs in it, get there quick before the archer
spawns and fires at you.  Follow the path right and then down to reach yet
another large stash of red orbs.  Return to the very first spinning pole and
jump across to the left.  Now from here on it just goes nuts I'm telling you,
if you want to take the branching path to the right and get the red orbs go
ahead.  Other than that it's pretty linear to the end with a few ore red orb
chests here and there, I've got my hands full just trying to navigate through
here alive while avoiding cheap deaths.  You don't need directions, you need a
miracle.  Okay, well it's not that hard, but you'll need some luck for this.

There's a save point and a chest at the end here.  I'm absolutely in awe at
the stupid things that you're forced to do here.  I mean the idea of
platforming along with guys in the background firing arrows at you with barely
enough magic to take them all out, if even that.  Really this whole area is
just obnoxious, I'll stop complaining now.  Get across here however you can
and when you reach the other side it's time to put your fighting skills to the
test.  You must defeat every last enemy in this area to unlock the door and
there's a lot of enemies.  One somewhat helpful tactic is to use the Blades of
Chaos to knock the minotaurs off the edge, if you're desperate it works.  When
the forcefield disappears a large spinning thing is revealed, you can start
climbing up this now.  Obviously watch out for the knives as you ascend. 
There are places along the way where you can get stuck with no hope of escape
and you have to climb from the very bottom each time you're hit, but I guess
it wouldn't be a stupid cheap area if it wasn't stupid and cheap.

At the top you'll find a chest with red orbs, jump up to the right and defeat
all the enemies here, then get ready for another dose of fun knife wall
climbing.  This one is worse than the last one.  Hooray.  There's a save point
on the right at the top along with two chests.  You'll need to fight your way
through piles and piles of the same enemy here to create the platforms in the
distance.  Once all of them have sprung up jump across and get to the top
where a quick scene occurs.  Now climb up the rope and prepare for the end.

  __
 /  G od of War  /------------------------------------------------------------o
|  _ -----o-----                    Temple of the Oracle                    |
 _/   (0000H)   -----------------------------------------------------------o

There's a save point here of course.  When you're ready head up into the
temple.  Fight your way through here which pretty much just entails defeating
hordes of normal enemies until you reach the large outdoor area where you
rescued the girl from the rope.  Save your game at the back door and head
through it to find a number of chests with all kinds of orbs.  When you exit
the hall you'll find yourself outside and a cutscene triggers.

Here's the deal, for this first boss every single attack Ares uses is
blockable so you'll need to use that to your advantage.  I'll tell you this
now, the key to victory is the Army of Hades spell, level it up as much as you
can before the fight.  You attacks deal very little damage to the boss and his
deal a lot so you need to play defensively and block at any sign of an attack. 
Use whichever weapon you prefer for the fight, but keep the Army of Hades
going, often the attack alone will blast multitudes of health and magic out of
him so much so that casting the spell pretty much cost nothing.  You should
also use Rage of the Gods early in the battle, because even though you'll need
it later if you use it early then it should refill by the time the fight is
over.  After dealing enough damage to Ares the circle button appears over his
head, at this point grab him and start tapping.  Immediately after it
disappears stop tapping and go into a button combination.  You need to make
this transition quick or you'll screw up, after this a scene occurs.

Now the next part involves you protecting your family from clones of yourself. 
There are a lot of clones, more than anyone could ever count and it goes on
for along while so you'll need to keep yourself alive.  Before actual battle
tips it's important to note that running up to your family and holding the
circle button transfers your health to them, you'll probably have to do this a
couple times throughout the battle.  Anyway like before your primary weapon
should be the Army of Hades magic.  Ares' first form dropped a ton of red orbs
so you should be able to max out the power.  Use this often during the fight,
the damage it does should knock out a fair bit of magic power but not enough
to replenish it fast enough.  The solution?  Rage of the Gods which gives you
an infinite amount of magic power when the blades are maxed, which they should
have been a long time ago.  Have this and start using Army of Hades like mad,
it should be enough to, if not end the battle, give you the edge you need.

After one more scene it's finally time to take on his last form.  There's one
full health bar between the two of you, damage to him means healing you and
vice versa.  Most of the battle complications have been removed and you're
left with what can most accurately be described as a fighting game type battle
on a 3D plane.  Here's how it works, all his attacks aren't blockable anymore,
most of them are but not all.  The first is sort of a fire burst he shoot out
of his hand, learn to see this coming and dodge it because it will hit you
every time.  The second is easier to dodge, he'll pass through the ground and
pop up elsewhere.  This means that four pillars are about to rise and try to
hit you.  You can get hit by these nor can you even be standing on the ground
if you wish to avoid damage so after he teleports start running normally,
forget rolling.  If you're running around by the time they pop up you should
be outside they're hit range and all that remains is for you to jump in the
air before they crash together.  Now let's look at damaging him.  After most
of his combos he'll stop for a moment and kind of roar, this is your chance to
strike.  Go in with both square and triangle attacks to deal damage to him, if
you hit him and interrupt an attack you'll get the chance to do a circle
button tapping "tug of war" where if you win it means massive damage AND he
gets temporarily stunned.  Good all around.  The most important things to keep
in mind is that you must not try attacking unless he's doing the roar, if he
blocks more than three of your attacks in a row he'll do a fire burst that is
undodgeable and unblockable because it occurs in a little cutscene type thing,
the point is when he starts blocking then you stop attacking.  Play more
offensively than you did the first time, even knowing how to block and dodge
he's likely going to hit you sometimes, and that heals him.  Good luck.

That pretty much does it, there's one more section where you have control, but
if you need a guide for that, then... I don't know what to say.  Update:
VjDj779 has suggested that destroying the statues in the throne room will
unlock one of the game's secret messages, so there you have it.

You beat the game.  Good job! 

Now sit back and enjoy the ending.

d--(o_O)--b

Final Note                         (0000I)

To be honest I really don't see myself going any further than the walkthrough,
there's an extra challenge or two here and there but really the main game is
where it's at, and I've covered that as much (and more) than I had hoped from
the start.  If you're looking for some Challenge of the Gods info I believe an
in-depth guide for that just went up on GameFAQs this afternoon and it looks
pretty solid, also for another source of information, check out VampireHorde's
FAQ on GameFAQs, with all that information combined you're sure to be set for
everything you need.  Hope you enjoyed God of War (and the guide.) Cheerio ^_^

                               Version History                     (0000J)

Version 0.00 - (March 26th, 2005) - Began the walkthrough
Version 1.00 - (March 27th, 2005) - Completed the walkthrough

                                 Credits

VjDj779 and Justin L for some helpful hints

ASCII title is care of: http://www.rootsecure.net/?p=ascii_generator

Thanks to CJayC for continuing to keep GameFAQs running smoothly, and the same
to Sailor Bacon.  Thanks to Sean, Mark and Jeremy here at the University of
Guelph, thanks to everyone in the GameFAQs FAQ contributor community for being
great people, and thanks to everyone who takes the time to send feedback.

Kevin Johnston's Blog - http://www.300bucks.ca

The walkthrough courtesy of: www.gamefaqs.com