God of War: Ascension glitch & things of interest guide
v. 1.2 - completed 16. 9. 2015
Written and partially discovered by AKheon
0. Table of Contents
--------------------------
0. Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Basic techniques
3. Weapon and move info
4. Other general glitches and observations
5. Level-by-level glitches
6. The end
Version history:
- v. 1.2 (16. 9. 2015)
- Some more new glitches added.
File size: 225kb.
- v. 1.1 (14. 2. 2015)
- New glitches, tricks and techniques added!
File size: 193kb.
- v. 1.0 (2. 11. 2014)
- Has the basic data and more.
File size: 136kb.
1. Introduction
------------------
It's about time God of War: Ascension got its own Glitch FAQ. So what is a
Glitch FAQ? It is basically a written file that contains plenty of detailed
knowledge on a game's mechanics, especially the unintended things more commonly
known as glitches or bugs. Most of the info here is of use to enthusiasts and
speedrunners, and in specific cases to normal gamers who have become caught up
in the whirlwind of a game breaking bug. So, let's get cracking...
Note: this guide concerns single player only, and most of the things in it have
been tested and tried only on the unpatched version. Things may vary in
unforeseen ways if you've patched your game.
Abbreviations:
NG = New Game
NG+ = New Game+
c: = credits to
§ = note to self / does anyone else know better?
Glossary:
air momentum = air momentum as a term refers to how much vertical momentum
Kratos has when he is in air. He has the best possible air momentum at the
start of a normal jump when he is still rising upwards, very neutral air
momentum at the top of the jump's arc and finally bad air momentum when he
starts losing height and falls down. You need to know how to squeeze everything
out of good air momentum if you want to perform effective high jumps in this
game.
angled collision = for example, some floor that makes Kratos slide off if he
tries to stand on it.
break-out = Kratos breaks free of a dedicated animation or cutscene. A valued
type of glitch since you can usually do a lot of mayhem with a break-out.
buffering = this term is usually heard in fighting game context and can have
many meanings. But for the purposes of this FAQ, it just basically means
inputting another move to follow a first move, like when doing a combo.
high jump = doing a jump that is higher than the developers intended. It's a
basic glitching tactic in the action-adventure genre, and even simple high
jumps can have surprisingly destructive results.
long jump = along the same lines, doing a jump that is longer than what the
developers intended.
infinite jump = a jump technique that allows you to gain in theory infinite
height inside the game. This kind of techniques usually break a game, and are
well sought after.
out of bounds (or OoB) = going outside the intended boundaries of the level.
t-pose = a basic modelling pose for a 3d-character. Kratos enters it if certain
types of break-outs are done. In a well programmed video game the player should
never see this pose.
Fastest speed records of God of War: Ascension?
This game hasn't been that popular among speedrunners thus far, and it's not a
surprise considering it has a ton of unskippable cutscenes as well as game
breaking glitches that can end a run in an instant. The key tricks are also
very precise to pull off...
For real time-attack (RTA) runs, please see speedrun.com leaderboards for this
game:
http://www.speedrun.com/gowa
There also exists one segmented New Game-run, made by a Chinese player whose
name I don't know. The full run may not be viewable anywhere, but below there's
a narrated "best moments" compilation that shows the most important tricks and
tactics that have been used. Overall it is a pretty good run, and also one that
showcased some completely new tricks when it came out, so it is referenced many
times through this FAQ.
Videos:
1, a compilation of the run's best moments:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDqv61wmIvw
2. Basic techniques
-------------------------
"Unarmed Jump"
Unarmed Jump is a very basic high jump that can be done from the start of the
game. Just do an Unarmed air attack quickly after your double jump to fly in a
relatively high arc through the air. This is already enough to get over some
low walls here and there.
You can also do Unarmed Jump continuously by pressing circle over and over
again. This is not useful on solid ground, but jumping over chasms Kratos can
move much further than normal, so it works as a type of long jump. Also, if
there is angled collision beneath Kratos, that will also support Kratos and
help him stay in air longer while doing continuous Unarmed Jump.
The reason continuous Unarmed Jump works like it does for long jumping is
because Kratos barely loses any vertical momentum during the Unarmed attack, so
although the attack's arc is steep and makes Kratos descend, at the end the
remaining positive air momentum can be used to fuel subsequent Unarmed attacks
- if Kratos is still in air, that is.
One another thing to consider when Unarmed Jumping is that Kratos can use his
double jump after the Unarmed air attack resolves. This increases the
versatility of Unarmed Jumping, but only when doing long jumps from some higher
platform.
God of War-games usually feature hidden ledges that Kratos can use to gain more
height or go out of bounds. Kratos can't grab those while doing Unarmed Jump,
and this limits its use somewhat.
You can remove the cooldown when landing from Unarmed Jump by pressing R1
(doing "passive" tether) in air moments before doing the Unarmed attack. This
can save a second or two if you use Unarmed Jump for platforming around the
game, but keep in mind that you can't steer Kratos in air any longer if you
start your jump with a passive tether.
This jump is obsoleted by Shield Jump as soon as you manage to grab a Shield
for Kratos from Chapter 7.
"Shield Jump"
The Shield Jump is basic but a very effective high jump technique. Just doing a
Shield air attack quickly after your double jump gives Kratos a great deal of
height. This is already enough to go over many walls around the game, allowing
all sorts of sequence breaks to be done.
You can do Shield Jump continuously by pressing circle over and over again.
This doesn't really help on solid ground, but the Shield Jump becomes
noticeably longer either when crossing over a big chasm or over some angled
collision - the same as with Unarmed Jump.
The worst part about Shield Jump is that you won't get Shield until Chapter 7.
You also won't be able to grab hidden ledges around the game with this
technique. Other than that, this is Kratos' go-to high jump technique for most
of the game.
One another thing to consider when Shield Jumping is that Kratos can use his
double jump after the Shield air attack resolves naturally. This increases the
versatility of Shield Jumping, but only when doing long jumps.
Shield Jump can be combined with "slightly higher double jump" to make it
slightly higher. Read more below. Upgrading your gear strategically also causes
Kratos to break out of Shield attacks, allowing some other jump variations -
see the section about Upgrade Jump on those.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid of a simple Shield Jump skip at Temple of Delphi:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSDUB7Oz8fs
"Shield Discard Jump" (c: AKheon)
If you decide to discard your Shield, then press circle during the discard
animation, Kratos buffers a glitched air attack where his air momentum remains
unchanged for a few seconds. So if you were in the middle of the upwards arc of
your second jump, that positive air momentum becomes locked for a few seconds,
taking you forward in air a decent length. Afterwards you can start spamming
Unarmed air attacks to continue flying in an arc and make the jump even longer.
If you do Shield Discard from your first jump, you are able to use your second
jump in air afterwards and increase the versatility of this technique. Even
grab some hidden ledges, if there are some to be found in the walls. Not bad at
all!
But as you might imagine, you lose your Shield in the process of doing this
jump so that's a drawback. Also, for pure height gaining purpose, a normal
Shield Jump is better. The Shield Discard Jump is mostly reserved for
specialized long jumping.
However, using the Lenient Air Momentum trick this jump can become twice as
effective. Read more about it in its own section.
Videos:
1, AKheon's original vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQQ3XxFMD4I
Poseidon Tremble high jump (c: findlestick)
One of the oldest jump tricks found in Ascension. The Poseidon's Tremble high
jump is a small, mostly NG+ viable way of gaining limited height. First do a
double jump, then follow the second jump with Poseidon Tremble (air) and then
interrupt that with Ice Rage. Kratos gets some extra air height from the two
attacks, and if you had any horizontal momentum, you also move forward in air a
little during the Ice Rage.
Using Broken Destiny Jump techniques before finishing the jump with Poseidon's
Tremble can give some extra height as well. Read more about it in the section
below. However, after a certain point in the jump, once your air momentum stops
being decent, Poseidon's Tremble no longer gives you any height and it becomes
pointless to use as a finisher. So it has its limits. Also, Ice Rage can be
difficult to use as a finisher if there are enemies around since Kratos tends
to auto-target towards them.
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid (at the start):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD8k-gOFuxY
Broken Destiny Jump (c: findlestick)
Broken Destiny (air) is an air move that has almost zero air momentum loss
while doing it. So if you alternate it with Bravery of Hercules (air), Kratos
actually gains height in air. But only for a brief time - after that his air
momentum worsens and worsens until he starts losing height. Even though it has
huge limits, it's still a handy trick to know in the first half of the game.
This jump becomes far more effective once you get Amulet of Uroborus from
Chapter 13. Using the Amulet, you can interrupt the cooldown of Bravery of
Hercules (air), maximizing the possible height gain you can squeeze out of
these two attacks before Kratos' air momentum becomes too bad to gain height.
At maximum height you already get higher than a Shield Jump with this jump
tactic, although the optimal timing can be difficult to learn.
One common problem is that when trying to do the jump motions as fast as
possible, Kratos starts casting Amulet of Uroborus in air, ruining the high
jump. On NG+ it helps to turn the artefact Stonemason's Chisel off to slow
cooldown time and always be mindful of when Kratos is able to cast Certain
Destiny. However, with enough practice this ceases to be a big problem.
If you reset your air momentum, it's possible to continue doing the jump
motions a bit longer before starting to lose height. To reset your air momentum
you can either use your double jump in air after a break-out - more on those
below - or you can do the Sling air discard attack, but that isn't of much use.
Broken Destiny Jump also doubles as a decent long jump since Kratos slowly
inches forward in air while doing it. But you need to have a good horizontal
air momentum when you start the jump, so start doing the jump motions from a
running jump.
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid of using this trick to skip Furnace end fight:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UCJQ0xXt6g
2, AKheon's vid of using this jump to skip things in Chapter 5:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpA8cgipAXs
Double jump slightly higher
A small, occasionally useful mechanic in both God of War III and Ascension. The
game thinks Kratos has hit ground a little before he lands, allowing you to do
a new double jump from slightly in air. This is useful for squeezing everything
out of your regular double jump, and helps a little in all high jump variants
that are done from a double jump.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid of using this trick at Kirra:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz4SY1LW0Gc
"Upgrade Jump" or "Sky Jump" (c: findlestick)
If you do certain upgrades during a Shield Jump, the Shield air attack will end
abruptly, returning Kratos to t-pose. Now Kratos is in a neutral state and he
is able to do new air attacks or even his second jump in mid-air, making this a
clear improvement over your normal Shield Jump with more potential height and a
lot more versatility. Kratos is also able to grab hidden ledges while in t-
pose, so that's another plus.
An obvious limitation is that you only have a finite amount of Upgrade Jumps
available in a speedrun. And this jump is only for normal New Game since on New
Game+ you already start out with everything maxed out and cannot upgrade in the
first place.
As for instructions... well, the whole mechanism behind this jump is hard to
explain. The easiest way to enable this jump on a New Game playthrough is to
not upgrade anything except Blades to lv. 3. Then, after getting the Shield,
you are able to break out from your Shield air attack in most areas of the game
by simply upgrading Blades to lv. 4. There are other upgrade combinations too,
but no one has figured out exactly how or why they work. You should consult the
section about Break-outs as well for more info.
Finally, Upgrade Jump can be taken a lot further with "hover". While doing the
Upgrade Jump and upgrading your moves, spend as little time in the menu as
possible. Exit the menu as soon as possible, and after exiting menu, tap circle
quickly. If done correctly, Kratos' air momentum locks for a few seconds and he
does goes crazy high in air if you had good air momentum. This is arguably the
highest jump in the game, so spend it wisely in a speedrun...
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5haAFn9L8Ig#t=193
Ledge Magnetism (c: findlestick, AKheon)
There are two attacks in this game that make Kratos latch onto specific ledges
either above or below him, even though it seemingly makes no sense at all.
These two attacks are air Poseidon Tremble and Falling Helios. Using Poseidon
Tremble of the two is recommended because it seems to work better overall,
especially for reaching high ledges.
So you basically have to move Kratos to a location next to a ledge, or in some
cases above or below a ledge, then do the attack facing towards it. If the
glitch happens, Kratos is immediately scooped up or down (depending on
location) and starts hanging on from the ledge. This only happens at some very
select spots around the game, and there is no way to know where exactly without
simply trying it out.
For most of the game, it seems that there are certain spots in the wall that
react to Poseidon Tremble or Falling Helios and activate the glitch. The
glitchy spot can be at any height - it's most convenient if it happens to be at
double jump height or less, but that's not always the case.
One of the easiest places where to try this glitch out is at The Martyr's
Chamber. Start Chapter 17, then run to the right side of the cage, into the
cramped nook between it and a wall, and do Poseidon Tremble (air) against the
back wall. If you do the move at a correct height, Kratos should pretty much
always latch onto an invisible ledge high above and from there you can continue
onward skipping things on the way.
After Eyes of Apollo, this glitch starts working in a bit different way. From
that point on Kratos is able to latch onto most ledges and walls pretty much
automatically in every map - however, if you retry from last checkpoint just
once, you lose this ability. So remember that if you want to use ledge
magnetism in the last stretch of the game, play from Eyes of Apollo on and do
not retry at any point.
This glitch is still fairly mysterious... it remains to be seen if even more
uses are found for it in the future.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid of using ledge magnetism in The Martyr's Chamber:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTErYmjKyUY
Lenient Air Momentum (LAM) (c: AKheon)
This is a classic glitch present in all main God of War-games in some form. If
air special attacks become interrupted in certain conditions, their air
momentum lingers on Kratos for a small while, allowing his next jump to become
higher. It's as if the air momentum became more lenient for Kratos' next jump,
and that's where the trick's name comes from.
LAM happens automatically on rope or on water where special moves become
interrupted when Kratos hits either of the two level objects, but the glitch is
not particularly interesting in these conditions. It's on dry land where the
magic happens. In Ascension there is only one known way to create LAM on land,
and that is to do a jump at a precise time after Poseidon Tremble (Air).
You get more LAM depending on your timing. If you did Poseidon Tremble from too
high, Kratos gets a fairly average amount of LAM. If you did Poseidon Tremble
from too low, that is to say from practically ground level, you don't get any
LAM. Test for yourself and see what works. Also: you should be pushing L-stick
to some direction during Poseidon Tremble to cut off a little of its cooldown
and make the timing easier.
So, Kratos has some LAM. His first jump is now more floaty than before and he
can do more attacks before landing down. Or get more height boost with
specials. Actually, the specials in Ascension don't lend themselves much for
high jumps, but LAM finds a very potent use when combined with Shield Discard
jump, because it affects the momentum Kratos becomes locked into during the
jump, making it almost as high as an Upgrade Jump. So for NG+, this is a good
way to create higher jumps than normally possible, although the timing to get
best possible height is tricky. LAM can also make Broken Destiny jump (with
Amulet) extremely potent.
In God of War 1 LAM also had odd side effects like making Kratos breach water
surface or elevator floors. It remains to be seen if such side effects exist in
this game.
Videos:
1, AKheon's example of a very high jump that starts from LAM:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGnUvSG4psM
Air Tether high jump (c: findlestick)
This is something quite different from God of War III's Combat Grapple high
jumps since grabbing and grappling mechanics were reworked for Ascension.
Basically by launching enemies in air, then doing air grabs to them repeatedly
and doing Bravery of Hercules (air) in between, Kratos slowly gains height.
Naturally you can't do this trick with all enemies. The enemy has to be fairly
small that you can launch in air and keep air grabbing without the fear of
getting blocked. Smaller Satyrs or Manticore Hatchlings work well. It's
actually the best to do this jump with flying enemies because a group of them
tends to stay at Kratos' height, allowing him to jump higher. With ground
enemies there is a limit to how high Kratos can rise before his air grabs won't
reach ground level any longer.
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD8k-gOFuxY#t=32
Air Tether break-out high jump (c: findlestick)
Usually trying to Air Tether enemies that are not vulnerable to grabs causes
Kratos to fumble backwards in air a bit. However, certain enemy types make
Kratos' grab interrupt with a strange break-out instead. Kratos' air momentum
is reset and he can also use his double jump in air afterwards.
Combined with Broken Destiny jump tactics, you can get Kratos surprisingly high
up in the air. The only problem with this jump is that it requires enemies to
do, and even then it's only possible in very special circumstances... To be
more precise about the conditions of the jump:
- this jump works with any Hound enemy, but only if they are frozen when you
try to Air Tether them.
- this jump works with armored Satyrs if the game doesn't remember any previous
target for Kratos, i.e. the "grab memory" is empty. You can achieve this state
most easily by retrying from last checkpoint.
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kBoXe_sBXY
Glitched Olympic Strike (air) (c: AKheon)
Olympic Strike (air) - that is, Lightning L1+t during a jump has a glitch in it
that enables you to interrupt the attack early and return Kratos to neutral
state in air. In other words, this is the very rare sort of air attack after
which Kratos can use his second jump, and that makes it potentially valuable in
high jumping.
To do the glitch, first get some height (but make sure you still have your
second jump left). Now you must attempt to do the charged version of Olympic
Strike in air. So do the attack in air by pressing L1+t. Then let go of
triangle and quickly press it again, holding it down. With correct timing,
Kratos tries to do the charged version but it never works in air, so the move
fizzles out and you can use your double jump now.
Being able to use your double jump in air is useful for resetting your air
momentum or just grabbing onto invisible ledges. The worst part about using
Olympic Strike in a high jump is that the attack has quite poor air
capabilities and Kratos always descends during it, forcing you to lose height.
But still, it has a situational use, especially after LAM, to make the highest
possible jumps in the game.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid of a skip that features this trick:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqXK8khcuVw
Sling Discard jump (c: AKheon)
It turns out that Sling by itself can be used to do a type of high jump. After
you discard it in air, there is a very precise time when pressing circle
glitches Kratos' state up and he starts hovering in air. You can follow it up
by using your double jump!
This trick actually resets Kratos' ground jump for some reason, so you actually
can do (at best) two jumps after having tossed away the Sling. But
unfortunately, as usual, the ground jump is not very useful in air since it's
subject to gravity and Kratos keeps falling during it.
Sling Discard jump might come in handy in a New Game run somewhere, and it lets
you do better high jumps before getting the Amulet. Too bad it's fairly
difficult to pull off, so it remains to be seen if anyone dares to use it in a
speedrun.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoOuym8frAs
Shield Run
Kratos runs a long way without needing any extra input from the player during
the charged Shield attack. This can be used to do a skip or two around the
game.
For instance, think of a cutscene that first shows you the surroundings. At the
end of it, a gate rises up and a fight starts. If you do a Shield Run right
before the cutscene, Kratos runs during the cutscene and possibly escapes the
area before the fight starts, skipping the fight. Or even if Shield Run doesn't
produce a real skip somewhere, it can still be useful to keep Kratos moving
during a cutscene where he'd normally be forced to stop, saving some seconds.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid of using this trick to skip Amulet of Uroboros tutorial fight:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z55ia4Fwwro
Poseidon Tremble speed glitch (c: Vipeazone)
If Kratos falls on sliding floor while doing Poseidon Tremble (air), something
very strange happens. He gets extreme momentum for no apparent reason and flies
off from the sliding surface uncontrollably. While in air, you can do attacks
as usual to steer Kratos, but it is very difficult to give meaningful input to
him since he has such a crazy speed.
Some precise data follows. Apparently Kratos' speed value becomes about 1800
during this glitch. For reference, Kratos' maximum falling speed is 50 and his
default swim speed is 9... so you can imagine 1800 is helluva lot in
comparison. Kratos apparently still keeps falling like normal although his
horizontal speed is off the charts, but falling against walls can "convert"
some of his horizontal momentum and help him stay in air. (thanks to Wulf2k9
for the technical explanation)
You can do massive shortcuts flying through the air almost instantly, but at
the same time using this trick is fairly risky and you will die a lot. Flying
out of bounds and touching some insta-death floor by accident, for example. It
seems sometimes Kratos dies by himself if you just keep flying against walls
for long enough.
Using attacks like Broken Destiny or Sling shots slow down Kratos' flight a
little, but still nowhere near enough to make his flying reasonable to control
in real time.
There exists a milder variation where you first do Poseidon Tremble right
before a sliding part, then quickly roll into the slide before all Kratos' LAM
has dissipated. Kratos takes flight but you can now control his flight a lot
better. Could come in handy somewhere?
Videos:
1, Vipeazone Style's original video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqnsgcNCMHE
All elements plume (a.k.a. Captain Planet glitch) (c: BigVEE)
The Shield plume - circle, circle, triangle - has an unique glitch in it that
allows you to do the attack with multiple different element effects if you
rotate through elements with d-pad while the attack is ongoing. As you might
expect, this increases the power of the plume quite a lot, and further cements
Shield as the best sub-weapon in the game.
The effect is even greater if you have full Rage. Now all the element effects
hit at full force at once, granting you both good damage and crowd control.
Sweet!
Videos:
1, a part of Wulf2k9's no-upgrade run that uses this trick for advantage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dly0PRyTSL0
Ice Rage glitch (c: Robin Fleming, AKheon)
A.k.a. wrong target glitch.
The game always keeps a count of what was Kratos' last grab or R1 activation
target. If you hit a certain type of glitchy target with a grab, it doesn't
count as a legitimate target. Instead, the game uses Kratos' previous target as
the current target instead, resulting in some odd situations...
This glitch was first observed with Ice Rage. Just having a previous target in
memory, then Ice Raging a breakable object makes Kratos hit his previous target
with Ice Rage by proxy. If this last target was an enemy, it usually zips to
Kratos at an extremely high speed, sometimes phasing through walls while at it
and flying out of bounds! You can also target dead or dying enemies this way,
sometimes confusing the game into thinking that an enemy is still alive after
it died. This is a bad thing if it happens, though, since a fight can become
unwinnable this way.
You can also target switches or chests with a wrong target glitch. This doesn't
cause anything to happen, though, or so it seems. You just get a cool graphical
effect, but the object in question can't move around.
However, movable platforms like the coal pot at The Furnace can be
"teleported" using Ice Rage for instance, to save time. You can also get
movable objects to some really strange places using this glitch. Unfortunately
you can never move puzzle objects or enemies too far from their original
location because of strict loading triggers. Once an enemy or object unloads,
the pointer is cleared in the memory and the attack just fizzles out instead.
Any pointers in the memory are also cleared if you retry from a checkpoint.
Since you need a special target to start this glitch with, you can't do it
absolutely everywhere. Here's a more comprehensive list of what works for
starting an Ice Rage wrong target glitch:
- breakable objects. This means urns, wooden doors, furniture... everything
inanimate that Kratos can smash to bits starts this glitch when hit with Ice
Rage. Those Manticore eggs count as breakable objects and are fairly common as
well.
- those grapple switches that you pull along the ground can be hit with Ice
Rage to do wrong target glitch.
- any targets that would normally deflect Kratos' grabs and grapples can be
used for Ice Rage wrong target glitch, and this includes most bosses and frozen
normal enemies. If you cast air Ice Rage to them as close to ground level as
possible, instead of Kratos becoming deflected you get the Ice Rage glitch
reaction.
If Kratos is on top of some of the movable objects while he starts Ice Rage,
both the object and Kratos get a huge speed boost and start flying in air. The
direction and speed of the flight can be mostly controlled, but so far there is
no real use to this in a speedrun for instance. It's just something fun to mess
around with. The coal pot at The Furnace is the best object for testing this
with. The more tall objects are not that well suited for this purpose,
actually.
It was later discovered that some frozen enemies also have glitchy tether
reactions that create a wrong target glitch. For instance, freezing Bugs or
Hounds and then doing Tether to them while they're frozen causes Kratos to do a
glitchy throw to the previous target in memory. Targeting frozen Hounds with an
air tether also lets Kratos do a simplistic high jump from the glitchy grab
reaction, but it remains to be seen if it can come in handy anywhere.
A list of limitations to what you can recall using a wrong target glitch:
- grapple point prompts or world weapon prompts can't be wrong target glitched.
- generally dying enemies are unloaded from the memory pretty fast, so you have
to be quick if you want to wrong target glitch a dying enemy.
- switching maps typically unloads the previous area and therefore clears the
memory.
- retrying from last checkpoint clears the memory.
Videos:
1, AKheon's demonstration:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UKbAL8lJd4
2, Robin Fleming's original video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1d8f8sViSbM
3, AKheon's vid - "magic carpet ride":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pId5GiOHPQ
Increase Ice Rage range (c: AKheon)
Just an interesting tactic with which you can target things with Ice Rage from
extremely far away. Basically, do some ranged attack, then interrupt the ranged
attack with Ice Rage. The target that was intended for the projectile is now
used for Ice Rage, no matter how far it is. Walls still do block Ice Rage from
hitting too distant foes, though.
Javelins and Sling shots are the easiest to do this trick with. But it is also
possible to do it after some weapon discards, like with Shield discard.
Sometimes the game makes Kratos target some odd environmental things after
doing this glitch. For instance, in the later half of Chapter 3 Kratos is just
as inclined to target the large elevator than he is to target the enemies. But
any Ice Rages done against the environmental things don't cause any reactions.
Videos:
1, AKheon's demonstration:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efQxkRJI85U
Break-outs
The term break-out means that Kratos breaks free of some dedicated action or
even a cutscene. This kind of glitches are well sought after since you can
usually do a lot of mayhem with them! There exist a few different ways to do
break-outs in Ascension, so let's go over them...
Upgrade break-outs (c: findlestick, AKheon)
The easiest way to do an Upgrade Break-out is to use either an Amulet or Oath
Stone attack, then go to the menu and upgrade whichever Item you were just
using. The act of upgrading causes Kratos to instantly end the attack and enter
t-pose for a brief moment. Simple as that - that was a break-out.
Upgrade break-outs are useful in high jumping because a break-out resets
Kratos' air state, allowing you to use your double jump in air. This gives your
jumps more versatility and potential height, although as a drawback you can
only use these upgrade jumps on New Game (since everything is already maxed out
for you on New Game+).
There is also another, more obscure version of an Upgrade Break-out that is
used to break out of Shield attacks. The exact mechanism behind the glitch is
not known, but basically upgrading your Blades and Elements in certain
combinations occasionally causes Kratos to break-out of your current Shield
attack and enter t-pose for a moment.
A sure-fire way to enable Kratos to do Shield break-outs in your New Game save
file is to not upgrade anything at all except Blades to Lv. 3. Then, once you
get enough orbs for it, upgrading Blades to Lv. 4 causes a Shield break-out to
happen. This is the easiest setup if you want to try out what this trick feels
like.
But if you had already upgraded something, the above setup might not work. The
correct solution for creating a break-out might be something else entirely. You
can try to figure out what it is by going through all the remaining Blades and
Element levels, upgrading everything to see if some upgrade (if any) will cause
this esoteric glitch to happen. Findlestick has speculated that the order of
your upgrades also might influence which combinations work and which don't. So
yeah, this is a fairly messy, enigmatic glitch... In a New Game speedrun, the
runner might want to look into all this and figure out an "upgrading route"
that allows him to gain relevant skills as well as be able to break-out once or
twice during the run for maximum benefit.
Other than the mysterious upgrading conditions needed to do this glitch, Shield
break-outs seemingly do not work in certain individual maps, or are perhaps
reliant on another upgrade than usual to trigger them to happen.
One of the best uses for an Upgrade break-out is to do an Upgrade Jump. An
Upgrade Jump is basically doing a Shield Jump that you interrupt in the middle
with a Shield break-out. This gives your high jump more height and versatility,
which is nice. Or - you can start the "hover" variation of Upgrade Jump which
is the highest known jump in the entire game, making many new sequence breaks a
reality.
One interesting thing about break-outs is that if you start another attack or
move right at the moment of break-out, Kratos breaks out of that one too. So
you can extend the breaking out effect from Shield attacks to pretty much any
other attacks, or even dedicated animations like pulling switches or cutscenes
with careful timing.
Instructions: for switches and other R1-prompts, have Kratos stand still next
to them after a Shield attack so that his sub-weapon is still out. Then, start
running, press start and R1 in that order in a very quick succession, then do
the break-out... if your timing was perfect, Kratos breaks out of the R1-prompt
as well. For cutscenes, it's enough to Shield Jump into them for instance,
breaking out at the correct frame.
Unfortunately cutscene and prompt break-outs aren't that promising in this game
because more often than not time is stopped during such a sequence... So even
while Kratos breaks free, you still don't regain control and therefore don't
benefit from it.
Limitations of Upgrade break-outs:
No other sub-weapons appear to be vulnerable to break-outs like Shield, so for
now we are unable to do Upgrade break-outs before Chapter 7 where you first get
a Shield. And even after getting the Shield, you need enough red orbs for
several upgrades to do this glitch.
Obviously you can't do many Upgrade break-outs in a playthrough since there are
only a finite amount of upgrades available to Kratos. You can only upgrade
Amulet or Oath Stone once, and as for Shield break-outs, it's unknown how many
of those could be done in a single playthrough. Findlestick has suggested as
many as three.
In general breaking out of cutscenes and prompts is less useful in Ascension
than you'd hope. For one, activating switches and similar prompts almost always
stops the time. So, while Kratos breaks free of the animation, you don't regain
control of him and therefore don't exactly benefit from the break-out. You need
the rare sort of cutscene or prompt that does not stop time in order to really
have fun with this glitch.
Another thing is that trying to break out of important story cutscenes like
meeting Oracle, the game will crash. So that's also a drawback.
Like in God of War II, breaking out in conjunction to using grapple points
tends to crash the game.
It's not possible to break out of Amulet of Uroboros puzzle sequences by
upgrading the Amulet while doing them.
You can break out of chest openings and overlap things like Gorgon Eye messages
in the process. But this is not advantageous in any way - rather, you waste Eye
/ Feather chests and lose their contents if you open them up in too quick
successions, or interrupt the message by examining other R1-prompts too soon.
Videos:
1, AKheon's general look at Upgrade break-outs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxHdD8sX6Lg
2, findlestick's example of doing a skip with Upgrade Jump (with hover):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXiECGTc1FE
Magic break-outs (c: AKheon)
It was originally discovered that Kratos breaks free of many cinematic parts in
the game if they start from a checkpoint and you cast magic as you retry from
the checkpoint. The effects vary depending on the cutscene as well as the type
of magic you used.
The various elements seem to work like this: Ice Magic breaks Kratos out of
events immediately. Soul and Fire Magic create a temporary break-out, but then
Kratos tends to resume the action he was supposed to do short after. Lightning
either interrupts or has Soul / Fire-like effects in that Kratos will resume
the event afterwards.
Later it was also discovered that you can break free of most non-grapple point
prompts that can be activated in air - yes, quite a specific demand - by
casting magic at the same time you use the prompt. This kind of prompts are few
and far between, though, and timing is practically frame-precise, so this
variation too is pretty hard to put into a good use.
A pretty good case example of a latter type of magic break-out is the
collapsing pillar prompt near the end of Chapter 5. Casting magic at the
correct time breaks Kratos free of the cutscene and lets him move early, so
this would actually be a time save too, if it weren't so pointlessly precise to
do. Both ground and air magic work for this, and as mentioned, different magic
types cause slightly different effects. For instance, ground Ice Magic causes
the pillar to physically collapse as Kratos breaks out. Air Ice Magic and most
of the other magics on the other hand cause the pillar to stay intact, and
Kratos can later jump on top of an invisible collapsed pillar.
The individual cases of this type of break-outs will be listed down in the
level-specific glitches section. So far this trick has a lot of potential but
few actually great uses.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid of magic break-outs in Chapter 4:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBTDbUE60n0#t=18
Air tether break-outs (c: AKheon, Robin Fleming)
If Kratos jumps into a story cutscene doing the "passive" air tether, he may
become broken out of the cutscene motions entirely. The moment of break-out is
when Kratos lands on solid ground. For most cutscenes like helping Aletheia
this means that Kratos just stands there in his idle animation during the
cutscene, which looks pretty silly of course. Unfortunately this trick is
usually not useful since time is stopped during most cutscenes, and you can't
do anything during this time because Kratos is immobile.
Sometimes it's possible to break out of R1 prompts as well using air Tether. It
all depends on the prompt - if it's a non-grapple point prompt that can be
activated in air, chances are that Kratos can break out of it by first doing
air tether and then activating the prompt during the same jump. Although as
always, for the break-out to happen there needs to be floor under Kratos' feet,
which there sometimes isn't during some scripted sequences.
Rarely doing a Soul or Fire Rage or a weapon discard into a trigger frame
precisely can also cause a break-out, but it varies a lot where this works. Air
tether is the easier, all around more reliable option to use.
The known break-outs will be listed down below in the level-specifics section,
so look there for more info.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid of the Chapter 30 cutscene break-out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZRMIOcGHJY
2, AKheon's vid of many other tether break-outs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1WrF70NW7k
Climbing wall leap break-out (c: AKheon)
A.k.a. Rage break-out.
Normally when Kratos leaps off a ledge towards another ledge, in the middle of
those climbing wall parts for instance, you can't control the leap in any way
or do attacks in air. However, using a Rage at this moment you break out of the
leap animation and regain control. Your leap reaches longer and you can use
your newfound control to skip some small climbing parts around the game or in
best cases even more.
Using Fire Rage for the break-out is recommended because it is the shortest
Rage and easiest to combo with other aerial attacks. Also, as you may have
guessed, doing this trick is not so convenient on New Game where you don't
necessarily have infinite Rage.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid of using this tactic in Chapter 18 to skip things:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2GCHj_0B70
Grapple switch break-out (c: AKheon)
You know the grapple switches around the game you have to latch onto and pull?
You can actually break out of them by doing a Rage all of a sudden. This
reverts Kratos back into normal state while he is still latched onto the
grapple switch, with some graphical glitches in the process - for instance the
tethering chain can turn angular and quite wonky looking.
You can do normal attacks to any direction you want, as well as Rages and
magics. It doesn't seem possible to activate any prompts or target enemies with
grabs while in this mode, since all of Kratos' auto-targeting always aims
towards the grapple switch he is currently holding onto.
It's not normally possible to jump while holding onto the grapple switch since
this ends the break-out and returns Kratos back to normal grapple switch mode.
However, if you sprint and then jump, you get a glitched jump where Kratos
stays in the sprinting animation in air. After landing he may also enter a
strange falling / idle animation for a few seconds. What's also curious about
the sprinting jump is that it lets you move Kratos far away from the grapple
switch without it following you, although this usually doesn't serve any
purpose.
After getting Amulet, you can create a new, pretty crazy looking variation of a
grapple switch break-out by simply pressing L2 during the break-out. Kratos can
run freely as if on ground while still technically holding onto the grapple
switch - too bad the switch doesn't follow you at all in this mode. Trying to
do an attack or a roll makes Kratos do a grapple switch attack or a roll, after
which he continues running as if ground. You can jump in air but can't do any
other attacks in air than the basic Unarmed attack, for some reason. In any
case, in this mode you can move Kratos extremely far away from the grapple
switch even easier than before, and even leave a shadow clone holding the
grapple switch somewhere pointlessly far away. Just to note, usually just doing
this causes some additional glitches at grapple switch puzzles, but specific
examples will be listed later on in the level-specific glitches.
So far the effects of this break-out are not particularly useful, and the
glitch is also easiest to start on New Game+ since there you have infinite
Rage. But it remains to be seen if even more things can be done with it.
Videos:
1, AKheon's first video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmgB1XLJNKg
2, AKheon's second video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpXQ6DrhRFI
Shield wall breaching (c: AKheon)
The first Shield attack has a strong forward momentum and Kratos sinks into
walls during it somewhat easier than with any other known attacks. Therefore,
if there is bad collision somewhere, Kratos can most likely slip through using
a Shield attack. You can get behind some chests this way and also out of bounds
at a few select places around the game.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid of skipping a Cyclops fight with this tactic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYBu0e5smw8
Okay, I think that covers it for the techniques...
3. Weapon and move info
---------------------------------
General moves:
---------------------
About jumping
The developers did a major reworking on the jumping and air mechanics in
Ascension. Most noticeable differences are...
- Kratos is unable to rise up in air using most Ascensions.
- most attacks and animations that previously cut off when going over a ledge
no longer do that.
- it's easier to steer Kratos after having jumped. It's even possible to hold
block in air and steer.
Blades of Chaos
---------------------
Kratos has a new Blades skill in this title, and that is to sprint a short way
by pressing L3. For some reason this move can be buffered after almost every
attack. It combos better than your normal attacks do!
Rarely Kratos' Blades disappear entirely. He can still do basic combos, but
there are no Blades that would contact with enemies and damage them. Sub-
weapons still work like normal, though.
This is a fairly mysterious glitch as of now, with only a few reports of it
ever happening. Findlestick managed to capture some high quality footage of it,
and as for how it started, he mentioned that he upgraded the Blades around the
same time Kratos was blinded by the Bug enemies twice repeatedly, then he got
hit by a Cyclops too.
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5haAFn9L8Ig
Doing a tether to some frozen enemies (like the small Bugs) creates a similar
effect as Ice Rage glitch does: Kratos might target his previous target instead
and do a glitchy grab of sort.
There are two versions of air Tether: the normal version where he targets and
hits a foe to grab them, and also a "passive tether" which Kratos does when
there are no targets around. The passive tether just involves Kratos trying out
his other Blade with one hand, and during this time you can't do other air
attacks. Kratos does a passive tether on ground level too if you are just
barely too far away from certain R1 prompts.
If you do rage-less Soul or Ice s4 (fourth hit of the square combo) off a
ledge, Kratos will do the classic s4 while falling down. Wonder why?
If you upgrade Blades while doing rage-less s4, you can get the element power
effect (like Souls flying out) even without hitting anything with precise
timing. Somehow upgrading fools the game into thinking that your attack hit
something!
Grappling enemies near walls can sometimes give a big height boost for Kratos,
but it only lasts for a moment. Curious, nonetheless. Kratos also gets to use
his double jump in air after some variants of air grapple.
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid of both mentioned things:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evYTq8zFSUM#t=142
Sometimes Kratos can attempt to sheathe his sub-weapons at the same time while
doing attacks. This causes the graphical effects to glitch up, usually not very
badly though. Shield causes the most interesting effects, making Kratos' blades
appear kind of sticky and the range of the attacks to worsen.
Hyperion Uppercut is a somewhat useful move. It's specialty is disarming
enemies. If the attack makes contact, the enemy's weapon falls off and lands on
ground nearby where Kratos can pick it up.
Elemental powers
------------------------
So what do elemental powers do in practice?
- They give Blades combo finishers an elemental effect. The effect becomes more
powerful if Rage is full.
- Enemies killed by the elemental effects drop colored orbs - the color varies
by the element.
- Certain attacks of the basic combos change with different weapons. For
example the Rage-less fourth attack in a combo.
- Every element has unique special moves, Rage special and magic.
Wrong element attacks?
There are a few ways to do element power special attacks using the wrong
element. This is mostly just a graphical effect - Kratos either does the
special with wrong element graphics or two element graphics may combine, it
depends a little on the attack. Nothing too special...
Doing wrong element Rages is something slightly more special since it yields
actual glitchy effects.
- If you do a wrong element Fire Rage, it does chip damage as usual but doesn't
plant the fire bomb into the enemy.
- If you do a wrong element Ice Rage, the attack totally glitches up and
becomes useless. It looks like Kratos just throws his chains ineffectually at
the enemies. That, or alternatively the normal Ice Rage may happen with wrong
colors.
- If you do a wrong element Lightning Rage, it's just the normal Rage except
with wrong element shining on Kratos' Blades.
- If you do a wrong element Soul Rage, Kratos does the attack but no souls come
out.
Finally, it's possible to do wrong element magics as well. But these are again
nothing too special, just a little graphical quirk basically.
How to do wrong element attacks:
- First discovered method was to just flick L1 quickly, then press d-pad to
another element and square or triangle at the same time. This causes Kratos to
do a special from the element you started from using the element you went to.
You can also do wrong element Magics this way, but Rages are too hard to time.
- Do the same motion as above right before landing from a jump, and Kratos
should do the special with wrong element shortly after.
- You can do a wrong element s4 or s6 quite easily by switching elements after
buffering that attack.
- You can do wrong element Rages easily after t3. Buffer a Rage during the
attack, then switch elements to get a wrong element Rage.
- One of the easiest methods to do this with is using world weapons. Do an
attack with a world weapon so that Kratos remains standing with the world
weapon in hand. Now you can change element so that it buffers in the
background, only becoming changed once you leave the world weapon-related
animation. So do that - start running and instantly cast wrong element Rage or
simply do a wrong element special attack.
- You can do a wrong element Rage by buffering a Rage after a roll, then
switching elements.
- Another way to do a wrong element Rage is to buffer Rage during the little
transitional animation after s2 or s5 and then switch elements. This is pretty
hard to do and requires sharp timing.
- Yet another way to do a wrong element Rage is to buffer Rage after being in
item aiming stance, then switch elements.
- In air, options for doing wrong element attacks are very limited if not non-
existent. You can do a wrong element Lightning Rage by buffering a Rage after
air Lightning L1+t (Olympus Strike) and switching element. And you can do a
wrong element Ice Rage by buffering a Rage after air L1+s (Broken Destiny) and
switching element. That's about it for now...
A. Fire of Ares
Finishing enemies off with fire attacks yields yellow orbs.
The Fire Magic consists of two strong hits, the second of which only happens if
you win a short QTE. It is the most powerful magic damage-wise and also affects
enemies in a wide range, so it's a good basic magic to use in most situations.
The apparent slowdown during a magic casting only slows down enemies but not
the game world itself. This means you can cast magic during autoscroller
sections for instance, and it doesn't cause time to waste. This is true for all
the magics. However, the Fire Magic actually does waste some time because
everything slows down when the QTE prompt is visible.
If you go to the menus during the Fire Magic, all the sounds will be muffled.
This is true for all the magics.
If you do Fire Magic into a cutscene, you can buffer a tether (or R1
activation) to happen after it. This is also true for other magics as well.
Fire Rage disarms Shielded enemies very quick.
You can target some non-enemy things with Fire Rage and inject a fire bomb into
them, which looks strange.
You can do non-Rage versions of Cyclone of Fire and Inferno Slam even with full
Rage using a certain button combination. Have some other element than Fire
active, then quickly press L1, then switch to Fire and press square or triangle
almost at the same time. With exact timing you'll do a wrong element special
attack (as mentioned above), but with a very very slightly delayed timing you
will do a non-Rage version even if you have full Rage.
Inferno Slam (air) eventually kills Kratos if it can't resolve naturally. For
example if you do this move in too cramped spaces, eventually Kratos starts his
flailing falling animation, and upon touching ground dies instantly.
B. Ice of Poseidon
Finishing enemies off with ice attacks yields red orbs.
Ice Magic freezes all enemies in the vicinity. If the enemies are armed with
Shields, they will drop them.
Some important enemies that have to be killed with a cinematic finisher can't
be frozen and shattered - they just become frost-coated and slow down a bit.
Ice Magic (air) makes Kratos rapidly fall down, and during the attack he can
sink into certain types of objects in the levels. Kratos only becomes ejected
out of them after the magic animation is over.
The Ice Magic can create glitchy hits if it contacts breakable objects.
Broken Destiny may sometimes disarm enemies.
Broken Destiny (air) has almost non-existent air momentum loss, and is thus an
ingredient in a variety of high jumps. There was more about this in the
techniques section.
Poseidon Tremble (air) has several odd things about it, although most of them
have already been elaborated in the techniques section above. See the sections
about Lenient Air Momentum (LAM), Poseidon's Tremble ledge magnetism,
Poseidon's Tremble super speed glitch and high jumps for more info... yeah,
it's quite a broken move.
The first thing Ice Rage does is reset the enemy's state of frozenness. Yeah,
counter-intuitive, right? For bigger foes, you must freeze them by first doing
Ice Rage to them, then doing the Ice Magic. The other way around just doesn't
work.
Ice Rage can be used to teleport enemies or level objects in some cases...
there was more about this in the above sections.
If Kratos does Ice Rage to enemies while standing on higher floor, the enemies
are dragged up to Kratos' level momentarily, forcing them to stand in air.
You can increase the range of Ice Rage greatly by tossing a Javelin or a Sling
shot before using Ice Rage.
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid of an enemy rising in air during Ice Rage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD8k-gOFuxY#t=14
C. Lightning of Zeus
Finishing enemies off with electric attacks yields blue orbs.
Olympus Strike (air) with full Rage has a glitch in it: if you try to do the
charged version of the attack in air by letting go and then holding down
triangle after the move has started, the move will fizzle out and interrupts
instantly. This allows Kratos to use his double jump in air, and thus it can
sometimes have theoretical use in a high jump. The only problem is that Olympus
Strike (air) has a bad air momentum and Kratos loses height while doing it, so
it's not really optimal for high jumps.
Lightning Magic can sometimes get stuck in the animation if you're in an area
that has a rising floor beneath Kratos. Kratos emits lightning bolts for pretty
much forever and you can't control him any longer.
Videos:
1, Robin Fleming's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVvLGGDJkkE
If you cast Lightning Magic in combination with using grapple points, Kratos
can steer his momentum to new directions. Should be tested more. §
Videos:
1, vipeazone's video on Youku:
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNjkwNjEzMjI0.html?f=22044595
D. Soul of Hades
Finishing enemies off with soul attacks yields green orbs.
Only a limited amount of souls are released during Soul Rage. If Kratos tries
to do the Rage many times in a row, no new souls come out.
Unfortunately the game disappears any summoned souls at the start of most
cutscenes, so that limits the things you can do with them.
Underworld Agony (air) is a half-decent move for doing long jumps since Kratos
glides a bit in air while doing it. Overall other long jump tactics are
preferred, but doing this move is better than nothing.
E. About Rage
At the start of the game Kratos does non-elemental Rage attacks. Later on this
option is no longer available, because as soon as Kratos picks up the Fire of
Ares he is always forced to keep one element active no matter what.
If you buffer a Rage before running out of Rage, Kratos still executes the Rage
attack.
Items
--------
F. Amulet of Uroborus:
Taking out the Amulet with L2 is a very high priority move and it interrupts
many attacks that otherwise can't be interrupted. Even some air specials. This
makes the Amulet handy for certain types of high jumps - there was more about
this in the techniques section.
Upgrading Amulet while Kratos is using it causes a full break out and he enters
t-pose momentarily. Having broken out, he can use his second jump in air,
helping some high jump variations. There is more about this in the - you
guessed it - techniques section.
Sometimes the Amulet HUD disappears completely and you won't see the texts
"Decay" or "Heal" on the screen when doing Amulet events.
The green Amulet screen effect is known to become stuck when retrying from
checkpoints associated by solving some Amulet event.
G. The Oath Stone of Orkos
Upgrading Oath Stone while Kratos is using it also causes a full break-out,
forcing Kratos into t-pose momentarily.
The shadow Kratos attacks cause enemies to drop their Shields instantly, which
can be useful to know.
Sometimes shadow Kratos glitches up and just stands still instead of attacking
the enemies. This seems to happen more often in some levels than others.
H. Eyes of Truth
You get the Eyes of Truth really late in the game. So late that you only get to
use it for a few puzzles, a fight or two and... that's it. It can't be upgraded
either.
World weapons:
---------------------
World weapons are a new mechanic in God of War: Ascension. Kratos can find
weapon pick-ups around the levels, or he may also pick up weapons from enemies
he disarms. These weapons are interchangeable and can't be upgraded in any way,
and once you're done with a world weapon, you can discard it as an extra
powerful finishing move.
Some notes follow:
- If Kratos has no world weapon, he uses an Unarmed move set instead.
- World weapon attacks do not accumulate Rage.
- Holding the circle button down usually results in "charged" versions of world
weapon attacks.
- Most world weapons have a power attack that you see if you combo into world
weapon from a longer Blades combo. But other than that, world weapons don't
have many interesting combo options with Blades.
- There is its own special attack if you do a charged weapon hit from a roll.
- There are no weapon switch checks during any world weapon animations. This
means that Kratos won't switch Blade element while he has a world weapon out -
you won't even see a change buffered until all world weapon animations are
over.
- You can do wrong element special attacks with the help of any world weapon.
After having done a world weapon attack and Kratos is standing still with the
world weapon still in hand, switch element, then quickly press L1+something.
Kratos does the special move from the element you started from using the
element you went to.
- It's possible to pick up the same world weapon twice by spamming R1 as quick
as possible. Sometimes Kratos latches onto the same prompt twice, but it's not
very useful of course.
A. Unarmed
Spartan Kick disarms some enemies.
The basic unarmed air attack is quite good for high jumping since it has a huge
arc it does in the air. Just make sure to get yourself good momentum by doing
the attack as soon as possible after your second jump and watch Kratos go.
The basic unarmed air attack doesn't interrupt when hitting water, meaning that
Kratos can keep doing continuous Unarmed Jump against water surface. Looks
strange, that's all.
If you do press R1 shortly before unarmed air attack, the attack will interrupt
instantly upon landing. Might be useful to know when doing some tricky
platforming that the long cooldown of the unarmed attack could ruin.
B. Sword
The most common weapon found around the game, Sword is a fast melee weapon that
combos well with Blades of Chaos.
Each time Kratos makes a hit with a Sword he gains some extra orbs. So for
early orb gathering, Sword is the recommended weapon. In certain places the
Sword can also be used for getting infinite red orbs - although it's slow.
If you do a ground Sword attack, then jump in air and do an air Sword attack,
Kratos may do the new attack at the same time he is sheathing his Sword, making
the attack look displaced.
Doing a charged Sword air attack, Kratos' hitbox extends through the floor. If
there is death collision right under the floor, he may accidentally hit it
while doing the attack, giving the impression of sinking into the floor and
dying.
Often after doing Sword air attacks, during the cooldown you can see some
residual glitch Sword graphics somewhere in the vicinity. Especially noticeable
if Kratos has full Rage, as the Sword will be glowing. Interrupting ground
Sword attacks with L2 will also make a glitchy sword graphics float in air.
C. Club
The second most common weapon found around the game. Club is a very slow and
clumsy but semi-powerful. Use at your own risk.
D. Javelin
A projectile weapon. Comes in limited number.
Running out of javelins, Kratos automatically does what looks like a basic
discard attack. However, this attack is slightly different properties-wise. It
doesn't have any slowdown for example.
If you do an Ice Rage after tossing a Javelin, the range of Ice Rage greatly
increases.
E. Sling
A projectile weapon. Comes in limited number.
Sling's air attacks are somewhat useful for long jumping since Kratos moves
forward during them. I guess the biggest issue is that Sling is a rare weapon
that you usually don't have on Kratos... and also, Shield is generally much
better for high or long jump purposes.
Running out of slingshots, Kratos automatically does what looks like a basic
discard attack. However, this attack is slightly different properties-wise. It
doesn't have any slowdown or fireworks for example.
Doing air discard, Kratos' air momentum resets. This could be useful to know
for certain high jumps.
If you do an Ice Rage after tossing a Sling shot, the range of Ice Rage greatly
increases.
Unlike any other World Weapon, Sling has no sheathing animation after its
attacks.
F. Shield
Shield is an unique world weapon and you can do break-outs with it by upgrading
Blades or the various Elements certain amounts. There is more about this in the
sections about Upgrade Jump and Break-outs in this FAQ somewhere above.
The non-charged Shield attack lets Kratos move for a moment at a very fast
speed. He sinks a little inside nearby collision during this move and if there
are any noticeable gaps in the collision, he has a good chance to slip through.
The charged Shield attack is not only quite powerful, it also makes Kratos run
a long way without any input from the player. This is useful for doing a skip
or two during the game. This is called a Shield Run (and there was more about
it above).
Shield's basic air attack is one of your best assets for doing high jumps
because it does an absolutely humongous arc through the air. It's called Shield
Jump (and there was more about it above).
Shield air attack doesn't cancel like other attacks when hitting water surface.
Instead the attack breaks off a feet above water surface, leaving Kratos
hovering in air for a moment. Kratos can start doing continuous Shield Jump
over water surface if he wants to.
Doing a Shield air attack, Kratos' hitbox extends through the floor. If there
is death collision right under the floor, he may accidentally hit it while
doing the attack, giving the impression of sinking into the floor and dying.
If you interrupt a Shield combo with Blades attacks, sometimes the animation
where Kratos sheathes his Shield happens with extreme delay - long after the
Shield has already disappeared from his hands.
If you do the Shield plume - circle, circle, triangle - and switch elements
rapidly during the attack, you will get multiple element effects at the end of
the attack. There was more about this in the techniques section...
4. Other general glitches and observations
-------------------------------------------------------
Checkpoints:
After retrying, you can start moving around a second before the screen becomes
visible again. Unfortunately this time doesn't work out like "black-out time"
from God of War 1, and you can't skip cutscene triggers during it.
As usual, you can move checkpoint triggers around by being in air as you hit
them. The checkpoint becomes buffered and activates the next time Kratos lands
somewhere. However, in this game checkpoints apparently can't activate inside
cutscenes, probably to prevent some glitchiness. Note that this doesn't always
stop glitchiness from occurring.
For some reason after retrying Kratos or enemies can be in t-pose for several
seconds.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid of an enemy in t-pose after retrying:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY5pTanmyMI#t=149
Chests:
You can save time after many fights by multitasking: you can open a chest while
the game shows you some short post-fight cutscene.
You can break out of a chest prompt using one of the break-out techniques. The
chest breaks by itself as red orbs start pouring towards Kratos. Manually
trying to examine the chest at this time just resets the chest state, so it's
not like you can get two times the orbs from the same chest.
Trying to open chests in quick succession (using break-out glitch) can cause
the contents of the first chest to disappear entirely. Very noticeable with Eye
/ Feather chests.
If you have opened an Eye / Feather chest, then open Select-menu a little
before the message shows up, the Eye / Feather-message may entirely disappear.
Cutscenes:
You can break-out of some cutscenes. However, during most cutscenes time is
stopped, so breaking out is actually not all that useful. Kratos just stands
idly as the cutscene happens and you can't control him.
Cutscenes leading to action sequences are a different thing and with a break-
out Kratos can freely move during them, potentially causing some more glitches.
But this kind of cutscenes are in comparison rare.
If a checkpoint starts from a cutscene and the cutscene doesn't stop time,
Kratos can sometimes break out of the cutscene by spamming magic after retry.
Instances of this and other break-out glitch possibilities are listed way below
in the level-specific glitches section.
Breaking out of story-intensive, "important" cutscenes like interactions
between characters usually doesn't work out. If you try it, the game most
likely crashes.
Death collision:
Rarely, for example during Chapter 8 and 30 autoscrollers, there is death
collision that works in an unique way. You can enter the menus before the "You
Are Dead" text has appeared, allowing you to do odd things like retry while
dying - this causes a glitchy game over screen to appear after retry behind
which gameplay continues as normal - or retry checkpoint and quit game at the
same time (but this is inadvisable since it crashes the game). So far the
effects you can achieve with this glitch are not that useful.
Enemies:
If a Juggernaut manages to grab Kratos through a wall, the grab glitches up and
becomes inescapable. Juggernaut will hold an absent Kratos in his hand and
blood squirts everywhere. Kratos can attack to create hits, but the grab won't
cease until Kratos loses all his life.
Videos:
1, Wulf2k9's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJ3JWFfIh_8
Kratos can sometimes break out of enemy grab animations. Height differences can
do that, as some other mystery factors as well.
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evYTq8zFSUM#t=44
Trying to Ice Rage the Manticore Spawn enemies too early during their hatching
animation causes them to be whisked about in a strange way and in the end they
don't even freeze.
If you use Ice Magic on the first Chimera you encounter in Chapter 7, part of
its mane can become invisible for no reason. It returns back to normal once the
enemy thaws.
If you do the X grapple finisher to an enemy that is on higher ground or behind
a wall, so that Kratos' dash never contacts with it, the enemy will glitch up.
They will hold their chest in pain as if they were still being grappled by
Kratos even though the grapple is over. You can disable whole groups of enemies
by doing this to all of them.
Aside the missed X-grapple that can get Satyrs stuck in a strange animation,
there is another odd mode they can get stuck in. So far the reasons are
unknown, though.
Videos:
1, drgedy atmadja's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QqQxjbLsL8
Some enemies give glitchy tether responses simply if Kratos has an empty grab
memory - i.e. the game can't recall what target he last targeted. Retrying from
a checkpoint empties grab memory, for instance, or using certain cranks that
don't become remembered in the grab memory. It's easy to try this out with the
normal armored Satyr enemies for instance. If you retry from a checkpoint with
them around, it's very likely they'll start giving glitchy tether responses
afterwards. An example of a glitchy tether response is that an air tether
animation ends abruptly and Kratos hovers in air afterwards.
The Cyclops enemies have a strange "rope" object beneath them that you can see
if you go out of bounds or sometimes when knocking down the Cyclops. Wonder
what's up with that? It can be seen in Kirra re-visit and The Furnace at least.
Videos:
1, Robin Fleming's video of Kirra re-visit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L45RlpXX5QA
Soul Rage causes flying enemies to fly really high up in air sometimes as they
are stunlocked by souls. This can be troublesome since the enemies can end up
in a place where they can't fly back down from, causing the fight to become
stuck.
Doing an Ice Rage to a burrowed Wraith can cause it to become momentarily in a
mixed state between being burrowed and on ground. Some other attacks can do
this too, I think. Occasionally Kratos can also do a glitchy tethering to a
burrowed Wraith that hits nothing - possibly a related glitch.
Videos:
1, Robin Fleming's video of a tether that hits nothing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8pCodSvKJU#t=14
If you attempt to grab a frozen Bug enemy, Kratos may do a glitchy throw where
he throws an invisible bug around.
Normally you're supposed to wrestle Shields off enemies using the tether. But
in many areas this does not work for a reason or another!
Grapple points:
Grapple points are a very high priority prompt in this game and interrupt
almost every move Kratos has when activated. This includes magic, whose effects
may glitch up if you interrupt them all of a sudden!
If Kratos activates a grapple point instantly after having done a break-out,
the game will crash.
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5haAFn9L8Ig#t=139
HUD:
There is a rare glitch where the HUD disappears from the game, along with
subtitles, QTE-prompts and other text overlays that should appear on the
screen. Needless to say, this will make surviving in the game fairly
challenging if you can't see any of the randomized QTE-prompts. I've seen this
glitch happen once in Chapter 30, but the exact reason for it remains unknown.
Menus:
If you hold X to upgrade something but then switch pages in the menu, the
upgrade sound loop will stay on indefinitely, even after leaving the menu. The
sound is pretty annoying... but the glitch doesn't end there, you can go back
into the menu and overlap the sound repeatedly! You can end the glitch by
upgrading something again to end the sound loop naturally. Otherwise the sound
stays on and won't end by itself.
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oa8NVkKRDJY#t=59
Quick-time Events:
Hard to say if it's a glitch or not, but in the early game many of the QTEs
succeed even if you intentionally try to fail at them.
Slowdown:
There is cinematic slowdown in many attacks Kratos has, such as the magics and
Rages. But this slowdown only affects Kratos and the enemies around him - it
does not affect the environment. So casting magic during an autoscroller does
not in slow down the autoscroller... could be convenient to know. The only
exception is the Fire Magic slowdown since that is QTE-related and works
differently.
Subtitles:
Not exactly a glitch, but the subtitles in this game contain many errors
compared to the spoken lines. For instance, the name Hecatonchires is written
as (no suggestions) in chapter 1.
5. Level-by-level glitches
--------------------------------
--- New Game ---
-----------------------
Prologue
------------
There's a small stretch of cinematics and gameplay after starting a New Game
that you can't return to from the Chapter Select-menu. Let's call this the
Prologue. Chapter 1 won't start until Kratos lands on ground level after his
duel with Megaera.
Speed strategy: the game will load for about a 10 seconds shorter time if you
start a New Game after having already loaded a save or started another New
Game.
Other (NG+): you are able to enter Start-menu and turn bonus items frame
precisely before the intro cutscene begins. This allows you to cast magic or do
Rages before the game begins proper, but this doesn't do anything else that
create graphical effects on the screen for the Prologue.
Other: Prologue break-out
You can break out at the start of the prologue by using jump + tether frame
precisely after the first pre-rendered cutscene. This causes Kratos to stand
instead of being chained and you are free to move wherever after that. The
camera is pretty glitched up right now, but it can be manipulated by casting
magic for instance. There isn't much floor here - just a small island of
collision where Kratos is supposed to be chained and then a small floor beneath
it. Anywhere else, you just fall down to your doom. I've tried to leave, but it
seems that the next map is not loaded yet like this, so you can't use this
trick as a time save... instead you just get stuck.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqOMKOW6szA
Other (NG+): retrying from the checkpoint before the QTE-fight, you can frame
precisely cast magic. Unfortunately this doesn't help - this also just creates
a graphical effect and nothing more. From what I tried, a tether break-out
didn't seem to be possible, or if it is, it is very precise to do.
Random: try as you might, Kratos is unable to die in the QTE-fight against
Megaera.
Speed tactic: once Kratos can start attacking, it's faster to just attack with
triangle hits and never dodge.
Videos:
1, speedrun segment where this trick is used:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDqv61wmIvw#t=49
--- Chapter 1 - Prison of the Damned ---
----------------------------------------------------
Other (NG+): Megaera madness
You are able to Ice Rage glitch Megaera if you haven't retried from checkpoint
or targeted anything else with Kratos since the Prologue. This causes her
character model to move around to the spot where you do the glitch. She doesn't
have collision and you can't really do anything with her - just touching her
causes her to teleport back to her original location.
If you run up to the short cutscene up ahead, things change a bit. Megaera
moves to the corner to the right and stays there indefinitely. If you now try
to Ice Rage her, instead of Megaera always teleporting to Kratos, Kratos may
randomly teleport to Megaera! It's a fairly rare effect, but interesting.
Jumping down to the next corridor and jumping over the pit, then backtracking
to the urns, you are able to teleport Kratos inside the next building too. Too
bad the setup makes it unlikely that this would save time. You also don't skip
any important triggers in the process that would help messing up future events
in the level, so doing it is not very useful.
If you could teleport to Megaera's final location past the collapsing floor, it
would be a major time save. But unfortunately that Megaera model is
"different" from the previous ones and is unaffected by Ice Rage. In fact, once
you activate the trigger that drives away the third Megaera appearance (the one
at building entrance), the Megaera object disappears from the memory, ending
this glitch.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SdxvAAjHdw
Speed strategy: you can skip the short cutscene at the end of the first road by
doing continuous Unarmed jumps against some angled collision to the right and
foreground. Once you get far right enough, you've bypassed the cutscene trigger
and saved a few seconds. Other side effects include the first bug enemies not
spawning and one of Megaera's sound clips not playing.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid (at the start):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY5pTanmyMI
Other: after jumping down to the lower level, you are still able to return back
to where you came from using a slightly higher double jump followed by an
Unarmed Jump. But doing this is not wise since if you load and then unload the
next area - innards of the building - it will never load again and you may even
get stuck in the game.
Other: if you double jump into the cutscene where Megaera makes the ground
collapse, you may accidentally activate a destructive checkpoint glitch.
Normally Kratos should become checkpointed before falling through the ground,
but due to the delay from double jumping he may become checkpointed after
landing downstairs instead. If you now retry from this glitched checkpoint, you
see the pre-fight cutscene all over again, this time without any actors. And
your game is stuck - have to restart.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chZA5IocExs#t=23
World weapon: Kratos is encouraged to get a Sword in the first fight against
Megaera's Minions.
Wasted potential: in Chapter 17 when you're re-visiting this same area, you're
able to backtrack to the corridor after Martyr's Chamber with two Unarmed Jumps
since there is some invisible floor nearby. But sadly this doesn't work in
Chapter 1.
Wasted potential: you can get on top of the walkway you're supposed to tear
down after the fight with a precise Unarmed Jump. But there's a big gap in the
walkway up ahead, and so far it doesn't seem possible to jump past that too.
World weapon: there's a Sword lying on the outdoors path.
World weapon: enemies drop Sword in the next fight.
Random (NG+): Soul Rage souls apparently cannot find and attack this boss. Same
is true for the next few bosses as well that take place on moving platforms.
Infinite red orbs: if you have Sword, you can keep attacking the boss endlessly
to farm red orbs. Just don't activate the grapple mini-game to continue as long
as you want. This is very slow and arduous, though, not really worth it.
Other (NG+): many graphical effects, like Soul Magic, look completely
ridiculous when done on moving floor like this fight is on.
Other (NG+): if you cast magic at the same time you activate the mini-game to
end the first phase of the boss fight, this boss may glitch up. It will simply
become frozen in place with the mini-game prompt still hovering above its head.
Nothing happens until you go and re-examine the mini-game prompt, after which
things proceed like normal.
The same works at the 2nd phase of the fight as well, so you can get the boss
frozen in a pose there too.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnSvUBiFpbk
--- Chapter 2 - The Sewers ---
----------------------------------------
Sequence break: Kratos can skip the climbing bit after coming out of the Sewers
with Poseidon Tremble high jump on top of the sewer corridor archway. This jump
is possible on New Game too with an Unarmed Jump, but it is much more
difficult, requiring the use of tether to break out upon landing to land more
precisely.
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b8vlY-OlyI
World weapon: enemies drop Javelins in the first fight after climbing up.
Other: Kratos can get on top of the doorway to the next area using Unarmed
Jumps. If you're careful enough, you can touch the trigger that starts the
cinematic "slow walking" mode of the corridor but then walk leave via out of
bounds to do some cinematic slow walking outdoors! You can't activate R1-
prompts during this time, so you're in danger of getting stuck. Getting hit by
any enemy will free Kratos again and he regains normal movement, though.
Going over the gate early can't be used as a time saving tactic.This is because
the game will crash after you've walked deep enough. It will always crash if
you have not lowered the gate in front of the corridor, because some important
trigger is tied to that action.
If you get enough height near the doorway, then jump inside towards the
cinematic walking corridor, you might end up inside the cells with other
characters and also skip a loading trigger that makes the game load the next
area. This causes Kratos to fall down to his death at the end of the cinematic
walk.
Videos:
1, vipeazone's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5KWgXjI54o#t=90
2, CrucialSuicide's vid of doing this in the demo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW1wYndcb-8
3, Robin Fleming's vid of skipping loading trigger:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aE5sYFNVYQ#t=379
Other (NG+): normally the enemies waiting nearby in a cage are invincible.
However, if you retry from last checkpoint (the one at the start of the climb),
you are able to hit and damage any enemies with magic. This lets you start the
fight early. If you kill all the enemies, you can activate the switch that
opens the next area even though it is still barred. Also, if you pull the
switch that opens the cage after killing the enemies, you get a cutscene where
no one rushes out from the cage.
This would be a speed strategy, if it weren't for the fact that skipping the
climb is faster than skipping pulling the switch that starts the fight.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0FvGdqKxeE
Other / speed strategy: skip the cinematic prison hallway walk
Normally Kratos enters a slow walking mode when entering the prison wing ahead.
However, by doing the passive tether animation (with R1) while jumping into the
hallway, Kratos will break out mysteriously. A weapon discard works too,
although it is more difficult to do. Kratos needs to be at top height and at
the start of his discard animation when hitting the slowdown trigger, and
afterwards he is free to move like normal. This allows you to quick roll
through the place instead of slowly walking, if nothing else.
But you can also mess around by going out of bounds here... so far it's not
been possible to do additional skips by going OoB though.
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3ciVTQlyxw#t=181
Other (NG+): frozen enemies sink inside ground and twitch strangely due to the
movement of the platform.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY5pTanmyMI#t=58
Other (NG+): doing magics before enemies spawn can cause them to become knocked
on the roof of the building. You are stuck until you manage to defeat the
wayward enemies from the rooftop.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chZA5IocExs#t=58
Random (NG+): failing to escape when the building collapses, Kratos is taken
away by the big hand and you soon get a game over. But the game doesn't limit
Kratos' movement in any way, so you can still cast magic and do other things
during this time, looking strange.
Other / Wasted potential (NG+): if you enter the next grapple point while doing
air specials so that Kratos has some air momentum in reserve, he will freeze in
air for a moment. Afterwards he may be able to regain control in air before
actually landing at Guardhouse. So what's the use? Not much, as of yet. You can
move the Guardhouse checkpoint around this way if you wish. You can also do a
high jump to get to the other side of the Guardhouse early, but unfortunately
the game crashes if you do that.
On one rare occasion, I did a weapon discard when I used the grapple point,
causing Kratos to become idle during his flight. The Guardhouse was also
unloaded, so he fell into nothingness shortly after. Perhaps this was some kind
of a rare break-out?
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid of the mentioned things:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chZA5IocExs#t=98
--- Chapter 3 - The Guardhouse ---
----------------------------------------------
Other: Guardhouse glitch
Rarely this chapter can glitch up when entering it. You'll know it has happened
if the camera stays zoomed in on Kratos instead of zooming out to show the
whole yard. If you go pull the switch, the ladder descends and gate rise up
like normal - but there's no cutscene! Finally, pulling the crank and
activating the Cyclops fight also works, but no Cyclops spawns and you get
stuck.
If you retry from last checkpoint you finally get the Cyclops to spawn. So in
other words, in certain circumstances this glitch would actually save time if
it could be done at will since you skip one cutscene. But then you have to
retry to finally load the Cyclops and continue playing.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E2If52Cy-U
World weapon: there's a Sword lying in the Guardhouse yard.
Random: you can activate the checkpoint on top of the small building early by
jumping there instead of using the switch and the ladder. So far this doesn't
seem to cause anything special to happen, though.
Out of bounds: you can go out of bounds at the Guardhouse building by trying to
jump around the roof's left-hand railing in a certain way. Kratos can land on
small stretch of ground there and walk some way out of bounds.
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3ciVTQlyxw#t=207
Speed strategy: doing the Sword Discard against the Cyclops brings him
instantly to stunned state and Kratos can start riding it. §
Wasted potential: the grapple switch becomes disabled during this fight,
preventing you from both using it early or doing Ice Rage glitch shenanigans
like potentially dropping the Cyclops out of bounds.
Speed strategy: you don't have to climb the ladder to reach the grapple point -
instead do a "slightly higher double jump" close to the higher platform to the
left where you'd normally latch onto the grapple point and Kratos can reach it
early. On NG+ you can use Poseidon Tremble to make this really easy.
But don't use the grapple point and jump to the other side too fast, because
otherwise the game can crash. Just saying...
Other: if you retry after having activated the grapple point, the grapple
switch on ground level becomes active again for no reason. You can't pull it to
any direction and it doesn't serve any purpose whatsoever.
Other (NG+): you can do magic break-outs at the checkpoint after bursting
through the wall. Basically, just retry from the checkpoint and spam R2 and see
what happens. Ice or Lightning Magic causes Kratos to break out of the cutscene
for good, and it seems after that there's little else to do than promptly fall
to your death. Fire or Soul magic interrupts the cutscene for a few seconds
before returning Kratos safely into it, and things progress as normal.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqOMKOW6szA#t=143
Other: this boss can't be targeted by ranged attacks like Javelins. Souls also
ignore it.
Speed strategy: by being close to the boss and spamming R1 as it is falling
down sometimes allows you to do an early mini-game to it, saving a few seconds.
Other: the game can softlock in the 2nd phase of the fight. Occasionally the
boss becomes invulnerable and never enters another mini-game phase. It seems
this is related to luring the boss to the left side of the arena, so just to be
safe, don't do it.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-ip3ThJ5G8
Other (NG+): if you cast magic simultaneously as you activate the finishing
prompt, the finishing scene may become glitched up. The timing is very precise,
though.
Doing Fire or Soul Magic, the boss will start the finishing scene on its own
with the mini-game prompt still hovering above its head. Meanwhile, Kratos
casts the magic. Once the magic animation is over, the finishing scene starts
all over from the start.
Doing Ice or Lightning Magic, the boss will start the finishing scene on its
own, but soon it stops and returns seemingly to normal for a while. Then it
freezes entirely, and you can no longer damage the boss or make it react in any
way - you're stuck. You can also see Megaera hanging on the boss' side if you
look down.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://youtu.be/XnSvUBiFpbk?t=101
Speed strategy?: you can do a small checkpoint warp here. Retry as soon as the
intro cutscene to the next place starts. Afterwards the cutscene is over and
Kratos can just go on his way. Although it's still not tested if this truly
saves time since reloading takes some time as well.
Other: if you complete this area too quick, the game will not have enough time
to load the next cutscene properly. Megaera's sound bite is missing and there
are no enemies either. This means that you get stuck because you can't activate
the elevator until dealing with the absent enemies. What an awful thing to
happen in your speedrun!
My recommendation is to jog lazily to the switch and back instead of running at
full speed. That should be enough so that this annoying glitch doesn't happen.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY5pTanmyMI#t=21
Other: Javelin shots auto-target towards the large elevator in this area for no
particular reason.
Other: you can do a tether break-out when examining either of the R1 prompts
that let you examine the things here. This lets Kratos move a little bit or do
attacks after having examined the wall mural for instance. After the small
waiting period is over, the game interrupts whatever Kratos was doing - this
side effect could cause glitches, if you had time to actually go and do
anything else during this time. Which you sadly don't.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://youtu.be/g57GVc34LCk?t=25
Other: doing a charged Sword attack or Unarmed air attack from a certain height
will drop Kratos through the elevator floor to his death.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY5pTanmyMI#t=49
Other: if you lift up an elevator lock but then let it descend back down, it
doesn't have collision any longer and Kratos can walk inside it.
--- Chapter 4 - The Hecatonchires ---
-------------------------------------------------
note: from hereafter "Hecatonchires" is referred to as Heca
Other: you can R1 the door multiple times during the fade-out. However, this
doesn't really do anything.
Other: breaking out of the erotic cutscene
You can tether break-out of the long story cutscene after opening the door,
allowing some crazy sights. You first have to do a well-timed tether break-out
as the screen is fading out after opening the door. Then another tether break-
out a little after Kratos steps into the room. After that Kratos is free to
move during the cutscene until about the half-way of it.
You can do special attacks to mess up the camera during the cutscene, but you
can even go further than that: you can jump up to bring the real Kratos to
appear on screen alongside the cutscene Kratos!
It seems difficult to utilize this break-out to do really useful things,
though. Kratos is standing on some temporary platform that is very small, so
moving just a little causes him to fall down and you can even die during the
cutscene. So far it seems you can't go early to the next areas either, and you
will eventually lose control of Kratos during the cutscene since it keeps re-
positioning Kratos in the background. Oh well, at least it looks fun.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1WrF70NW7k
World weapon: the enemies in the first fight carry Javelins.
Random: during the short cutscene where Megaera says Kratos has hurt her for
the last time, Kratos is in fact completely free to move and do attacks. If
you're on NG+ and do magic or Rage attacks, the camera goes to focus on Kratos
instead of Megaera.
World weapon: the enemies in the second fight carry Swords.
Random: the fight where Heca's teeth balance the arena precariously works by
some pretty strange rules. It's like an autoscroller and it doesn't seem to
matter what you do during it, except at the very end. The amount of damage you
deal to the teeth doesn't seem to matter - just that you keep attacking them at
the right time.
Other (NG+): sometimes killing all the enemies at once with some magic can
cause them to stop respawning during this part.
Other (NG+): if you cast magic while failing the autoscroller, sometimes Kratos
won't get a game over. Instead the camera shows Heca's smug face from above
while Kratos is free to do attacks in his gut. It lasts for a while until the
game over mercifully cuts things short.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chZA5IocExs#t=239
Other (NG+): doing Ice Rage against the infected arm causes the Ice Rage glitch
reaction for some reason, causing the game to target objects like Heca's teeth
from the previous fight. This doesn't cause anything interesting to happen,
though.
Other (NG+): reaching the phase of the boss fight where you assault Heca's head
with the infected arm, if you retry, you are able to do a magic break-out of
the event by spamming magic. With good timing, Kratos becomes free to move
while the infected arm goes through its grapple motions. But eventually Kratos
is insta-killed mysteriously and falls through the ground.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBTDbUE60n0#t=17
Other (NG+): when QTE dueling against Megaera, if you retry and spam magic,
Kratos breaks out of this scene too. He falls down after casting the magic and
you can see the environment from a strange angle. There is some floor you can
walk on under Heca's face, for some reason. But trying to go anywhere doesn't
seem possible since there's a lot of insta-death boundary below. It doesn't
seem to be possible to long jump to the lower area early.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBTDbUE60n0#t=115
--- Chapter 5 - The Village of Kirra ---
-------------------------------------------------
World weapon: there's a free Club close to where you start the level.
Sequence break (NG+): skip Juggernaut fight and rope section (c: AKheon)
First of all, the trigger that starts the Juggernaut fight does not extend far
left. So if you use an extended Poseidon Tremble high jump, you can get on top
of the higher platform to the left and thus evade activating the Juggernaut
fight in the first place.
After this, there is a small problem since you are unable to push the movable
box anywhere from the right side because there is some invisible collision in
the way. Yes, this collision only disappears after having fought those
Juggernauts... so what to do? You can either go turn the crank to lower the
rope and complete the map like "normal", albeit without the box. But this is
fairly slow.
You can also skip the remaining area with a single high jump (on NG+). Go to
where the movable box is originally located, then climb the building to the
right. You can use an Unarmed Jump to get on top of the little roof there, and
from there do a Broken Destiny jump to get to the top. However, you need to
squeeze everything out of your jump here or else you hit some angled collision
that drops Kratos off. It can be annoying to pull off. My advice is to start
the Broken Destiny motions from a relaxed double jump - this gives you more
length instead of height, and helps to get across.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid of the entire skip on NG+:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpA8cgipAXs
2, AKheon's vid of a more difficult, outdated jump variation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-U4V82-OL4
Sequence break: other skips in the first area
Using "slightly higher double jump" you are able to do two different (mutually
incompatible) skips in this area.
First, you can jump on top of the higher platform at the left without needing
to use the movable box at all. However, you have to complete the puzzle and
lower the rope for this to be useful at all, so it's still fairly slow.
The more useful variation is to drag the movable box beneath the higher ground
where there are some planks and use slightly higher double jump to grab a ledge
there. You skip the entire puzzle when doing this.
On NG+ you can do either skip with a Poseidon Tremble high jump as well, should
be slightly easier.
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid of doing the latter skip on NG:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggCldIODukY
2, findlestick's vid of doing the latter skip on NG+:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9Je8yLTYPQ
Random: the Javelin and other ranged weapons tend to target the crank machinery
instead of other targets in this area.
World weapon: there's a Javelin after the rope crossing.
Other: sometimes the bug enemies up ahead will be glitched up and not "real"
enemies. You can't attack them nor will they attack you. This might happen only
if you access the upper areas via an unintended route.
Other (NG+): you can Ice Rage glitch the movable box to the higher ground if
you want. Having it right at the climbing section leading to Fire of Ares
allows you to go out of bounds easier. In fact, there is some floor to walk on
beyond the ladder, allowing you to do a long jump to reach the next map even
without climbing there. But this doesn't really change things since skipping
the climbing section doesn't save time, and you'd need a lot bigger jumps to be
able to reach any further from here anyway. But it's fun to mess around with
for a while.
Sequence break (NG+): skip Fire of Ares
On NG+ you can skip the entire Fire of Ares section in a somewhat bizarre way.
First go up to the Fire of Ares door. Then use Fire Rage against the door and
the urn, then do a Fire Magic once the tutorial message asking you to do Fire
Magic pops up. For some reason this makes the game think you completed the
tutorial fight, allowing Kratos to pass through early.
As a bonus graphical glitch, if you leave to the next area and then return back
to the Fire of Ares map, its graphics are glitched. Some things are not visible
until returning to the door.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUlAng7FXxI
Other (NG+): in general the Fire of Ares door is pretty strange and doing Fire
Rage when approaching it for the first time can cause the Satyr enemies to
spawn before you've even picked up Fire of Ares. If you start the Fire of Ares
tutorial fight with the enemies already spawned, it seems the game doesn't know
what to do and the fight will never end.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid of various glitches at the Fire of Ares door:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igQix4o17OI
Wasted potential: Kratos could in theory get infinite Rage or Magic from the
Fire of Ares tutorial fight for New Game... unfortunately for now we don't have
a way to escape it early.
Infinite red orbs: at the Fire of Ares tutorial, the game expects you to use a
Rage attack on an enemy. If you refuse and keep killing the enemies, the game
will spawn them infinitely. If Kratos has a Sword, he can slowly drain an
endless amount of red orbs from the stream of foes.
Sequence break: you can skip the Satyr General fight by doing an Unarmed Jump
to as far left as you can from the higher platform (before dropping down). This
way Kratos activates the camera that shows the fight starting but doesn't
actually spawn the enemies or the fight barriers, allowing him to continue on
his way without issues.
On NG+ it's even easier to do a variant of Broken Destiny long jump a bit to
make your jump longer and less precise to pull off.
Videos:
1, a part from a speedrun where this trick is used:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDqv61wmIvw#t=183
World weapon: you'll find Sling on the path before climbing up towards the
water wheel.
Other: retrying from the checkpoint before starting the big climb, the nearby
chest becomes colorless and gray for a few seconds until the colors reload
again.
World weapon: there's a Javelin in front of the water wheel.
Random: the Satyrs here can't be frozen with Ice Rage.
Sequence break (NG+): using a customized high jump, you are able to skip
touching the waterwheel grapple switch at all. You also skip the preceding
fight against the Satyrs and the cutscene that would follow.
Just using Broken Destiny high jump motions with a good air momentum is barely
enough to do the jump, but you got to start the jump from the slightly elevated
side of the ramp. So carefully jump to the edge, then do a similar Broken
Destiny jump that was used at Kirra Juggernaut skip to make it across.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid of the skip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9rCOMg7rTk
Speed strategy: kill only two of the Sling Satyrs here to avoid starting an
annoying filler cutscene. This way you can use the waterwheel grapple switch
without wasting as much time. (c: Robin Fleming)
Speed strategy: don't pull the waterwheel down all the way. Only enough for
Kratos to barely make it on top of the rising platform.
Other: Breaking bridge shenanigans
You can avoid having the bridge break by jumping down to the fight arena over
the abandoned building (with an Unarmed Jump). This causes a small difficulty
later on as you can't climb up from the fight area since the bridge floor is on
the way - you have to jump around it.
So what's the use of preventing the bridge from breaking? No use, really. But
after fighting the Gorgon you can use the bridge as a one-time platform to jump
back to where you came from... only to find out that things on that side are
now unloaded and that you can't backtrack anyway.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vB9RlQqlAak#t=124
Untested: you could probably skip the fight after the collapsing bridge by
using Sling Discard jump. There is for instance some floor on top of the
archway leading to the bonus area which you could use for this purpose...
Other: somehow it is possible to accidentally fall out of bounds when the
bridge breaks under Kratos. Kratos then becomes checkpointed on some floor out
of bounds and is stuck there.
Videos:
1, Robin Fleming's video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uS4G9mOs-7Y
World weapon: there's a Club to be found after the bridge breaks under Kratos.
Sequence break: Gorgon fight skip
The Gorgon fight starts if you hit a trigger right at the top of the short
stretch of ladder. So do your best to avoid it by jumping off the ladder and
getting to the top using a Broken Destiny or Unarmed Jump instead of climbing
up. Avoiding the area close to the ladder and rolling quickly, you can continue
on in the game without having to bother with this fight at all. (c:
findlestick)
The prompt to open the door is not active if you skipped the Gorgon fight, so
now you have to clip through the right side of the door to get past it. My
suggestion for doing this is having Kratos face left, then doing sideways rolls
towards the right side of the doorway. Afterwards everything should work like
normal.
Also, sometimes after having done this skip, Kratos is hit with some strange
mode for a second or two where he freezes up. If you are sprinting during this
time, you keep moving and can in fact breach walls during it. If you're lucky
this will also get you through the closed door. Or if you're unlucky, it will
drop Kratos out of bounds to his death.
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid of the skip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Y9X7CHUPpM
2, AKheon's vid of the phenomenon mentioned in the third paragraph:
https://youtu.be/zaoG_RH6uDY?t=26
Other: approaching the Gorgon fight from a wrong direction can glitch the pre-
fight cutscene and the fight itself up. The pre-fight scene wil be aligned
wrong - Kratos walks to a wrong direction during it and the camera shows you an
out of bounds area instead of the Gorgon. At the end, Kratos may accidentally
walk out of the combat arena and fall down before the fight has even started!
But this isn't very useful since you can't get back up to fight the Gorgon
after leaving, getting you stuck.
Since the triggers for Kratos freezing and the Gorgon appearing are separate,
it's also possible to start the Gorgon fight cutscene but have Kratos free to
move during it. If you approach the exit door, after a certain limit the Gorgon
will de-spawn unceremoniously.
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oa8NVkKRDJY
Other: duplicating Gorgon Eyes?
GameFAQs user Veladus reported an interesting thing that had happened to him on
his playthrough. He had played up to the start of Cistern and picked up the
Gorgon Eye chest on top of the bridge before backtracking and visiting the
secret area with a roller he had missed earlier. After dying inside the puzzle
a few times he had managed to complete it. But when returning to the Cistern,
it had completely reset itself - enemies were back, and the chests were reset
too, so he was able to pick up an extra Gorgon Eye. This should be verified,
and see if it is possible to repeat this procedure to fool the game into giving
Kratos even more early Gorgon Eyes. §
--- Chapter 6 - The Cistern ---
---------------------------------------
World weapon: there's a Sling lying nearby as you enter the Cistern corridor.
Other: for some reason the lighting of the climbing section can glitch up and
go mostly black. Nothing is visible except the various light and mist effects
of the area. This effect lasts all the way up to the part where Kratos boards
the snaketrain. It's unknown what might cause the glitch.
Videos:
1, nanosphere's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9caukFZLhQ
Sequence break: you can skip the sliding and climbing sections ahead by using
Poseidon Tremble super speed. This jump is too hard to control for single
segment runs, though. (c: vipeazone)
Videos:
1, vipeazone's vid (at the start):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqnsgcNCMHE
World weapon: you can get a Sword from a Satyr during the Ice of Poseidon
fight.
Sequence break: you can skip the whole Ice of Poseidon by doing an Unarmed Jump
to the side of the urn. Kratos will clip through the side of the urn upon
descending if you're lucky. Yeah, it may take several tries to make it work,
but it is still always worth it in a speedrun. (c: Robin Fleming)
Videos:
1, Robin Fleming's original video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UcXhcJsRGY
Speed strategy: in the Ice of Poseidon tutorial fight, grapple throw all
enemies to the corner that's left of the gate. Then, once they're all grouped
together, charged Club air attacks will hit them all at once for massive
damage.
Videos:
1, a part of a speedrun where this trick is used:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDqv61wmIvw#t=229
Other: you get a small camera glitch if you activate the snaketrain prompt with
Kratos facing away from it or doing actions like sprinting.
Other: you can cast a magic frame-precisely before the cinematic to the next
area for a harmless graphical effect during the ride.
Speed strategy: hold down R1 as the snaketrain is about to stop to latch onto
the grapple point early. This saves a few seconds.
--- Chapter 7 - The Tower of Delphi ---
---------------------------------------------------
Out of bounds: climb the staircase to the top. Then, doing an Unarmed Jump or
Poseidon's Tremble before exiting through the doorway can land you out of
bounds. You can visit the wrong side of the Tower this way - it's all-in-all a
decent-sized OoB area.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY5pTanmyMI#t=167
World weapon: a Javelin is lying on the path to the top of the Tower.
Other: any souls created here attempt to fly to the Temple of Delphi in a
straight line instead of attacking enemies - in this instance the Chimera.
Perhaps they are trying to target the Manticore perched close to the temple,
but it's too far away for the souls to reach in any case.
Other: if you Ice Rage Chimera from behind when it is stunned and ready to be
mini-gamed (only during its 1st or 3rd phase), Kratos and Chimera may zip a lot
since the game has difficulties understanding Chimera's direction.
Unfortunately for now this zipping hasn't enabled dropping Chimera out of
bounds.
Another crazy zip you can do with Chimera is by quickly Ice Raging it after
doing the first mini-game to it. Hard to even say what causes this zip to
happen!
Other: casting Ice Magic near the Chimera makes the lion's mane part entirely
translucent until the beast thaws again.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://youtu.be/g57GVc34LCk?t=135
Other: if you break out of the grapple switch, you are able to position Kratos
heavily to the left as you finish pulling the grapple switch. This way, when
the snaketrain comes, you can jump inside it much earlier than the game intends
to be possible. This causes Kratos to start sliding before the entrance
cutscene even finishes, which is a bad thing in this case since you don't have
any control over him! Kratos will always slides into the pit and dies, and
therefore this can't be used as a speed tactic, sadly.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://youtu.be/XmgB1XLJNKg?t=115
Wasted potential: skip snaketrain entrance cutscene (and get stuck)
You can skip a short scene when entering the first snaketrain by jumping around
the cutscene trigger with a basic double jump. However, this has severe
consequences later on.
The short cutscene is actually for masking loading times. Skipping it and just
rushing ahead carelessly, the snaketrain never enters its correct position. Its
inside collision acts strangely, with some sliding parts broken so that Kratos
starts normally walking while on them. In the next fight the graphics are
displaced and you have to be careful with the chasms since they're displaced
too.
Finally - you get stuck at the top of the Tower when returning there in Chapter
9 because the critical grapple switch never became reset and can't be activated
after beating Manticore. So this trick can't be used for time saving.
If you do this trick but wait a while before entering the slide, the next parts
of the game act normally instead of being glitched since the game had more time
to load things. But you still end up getting stuck at Chapter 9 end.
As another interesting side effect of doing this skip, there's a gaping hole in
the invisible wall at the top of the Tower. You can jump out of it after riding
the first snaketrain, but there's nothing but insta-death floor below.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMMvO0kBPzg
Wasted potential: after boarding the snaketrain, you can long jump back to
where you came from but the Tower has no collision and you just fall to your
death.
Wasted potential: you can zip from the first sliding part of the level to the
end of Chapter 8 if you're careful. Basically, use Poseidon Tremble speed
glitch here, then after sliding down the corridor a bit, you need to go out of
bounds and fly a long way to the left (?). This will land Kratos to the
vertical ice slide he uses at the end of Chapter 8. You will skip Lightning of
Poseidon doing this, and Chapter 8 will never show up in the Chapter Select-
menu afterwards.
Otherwise fine and dandy, but it seems that doing this skip in any of its forms
causes a game breaking glitch at the end of Chapter 9, when returning to the
center tower. No cutscenes start and you just get stuck.
Videos:
1, vipeazone's video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqnsgcNCMHE#t=35
World weapon: you can take a Shield from the enemies inside the first
snaketrain. This is the first known place in the game you can get a Shield,
which means from this point the Shield Jump and Upgrade Jump are options for
Kratos.
Speed strategy: one of the fastest ways to win this fight is to activate all
enemies and then group them together, then cast Ice Magic. This shatters the
flying enemies, disarms the Shielded Satyrs and freezes them all at once. Then
just break the Satyrs and you've won. Unfortunately sometimes an enemy can
evade the Ice Magic range, but mostly this is a pretty consistent strategy.
If a flying enemy does evade the Ice Magic, just to be safe you don't want to
use Ice Rage here to quickly shatter them. Why? Because if you miss the target
and hit one of those Manticore Eggs instead, you may accidentally target a dead
enemy, which makes this fight unwinnable.
Speed strategy: you can environmentally kill enemies here with grapple throws.
Environmental kills are possible in many later fights in this area as well.
Other: if you're unlucky, a flying enemy can fly out of bounds during the fight
inside the snaketrain. If you can't reach it, the fight barrier never
dissipates and you get stuck.
Other: some graphics in this part of the game can suffer from random pop-ins
and other oddities. You can see a floor of a snaketrain fade in and out of
existence as Kratos moves around it, for example.
--- Chapter 8 - The Python's Belly ---
------------------------------------------------
Speed strategy?: by doing a long jump, Kratos can skip the Lightning of Zeus
intro. However, it's unknown if this is worth it since you may have to do
Shield-discard jump to fly far enough, and losing Shield is a pretty bad thing.
If you do skip the intro, you can then freely move around the battlefield
without activating it, as long as you don't jump in air.
Wasted potential: using Shield attacks, you are able to slip Kratos behind the
left pillar next to the Zeus door. But so far it's not been possible to
entirely clip through the Zeus door to skip this part.
Sequence break: skip Lightning of Zeus
First of all, the loading trigger for the next area is down close to the
Lightning of Zeus power, so you have to drop down whether you like it or not.
Down inside the room, you can use an Upgrade Jump to escape the area before or
after picking up the power. Doing the Jump before picking up Lightning of Zeus
is a legitimate cutscene and fight skip, although fairly costly since Upgrade
Jumps are valuable things. If you escape during the tutorial fight instead, as
a side effect Kratos is forced to use Lightning power and can't switch away
from it for the indefinite future... which is probably something you don't want
to happen. (c: findlestick)
Nowadays there exists another method of skipping Lightning power that doesn't
need an Upgrade Jump (v2). There's some floor on top of the pillars that Kratos
can just barely land on during a Shield Jump. With a precise motion you can go
around the invisible ceiling that is in front of Zeus door and hit the top of
the pillar without Kratos instantly falling off it. After that you just jump
through the ceiling and escape without ever getting Lightning of Zeus. From
quick tests, it seemed like using the left pillar is better to use for this
trick. However, it's not consistent enough to really use in a single segment
run for instance. (c: AKheon)
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5haAFn9L8Ig#t=151
2, AKheon's vid of the skip v2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Q0ECDe8G5g
World weapon: Kratos can acquire a Javelin or a Club from the Lightning of
Zeus-fight.
Wasted potential: you can use Poseidon Tremble super speed glitch at the
sliding part after getting Lightning of Zeus to skip to the end of Chapter 8 as
well. It's quite difficult to do, as expected. One direction that worked for me
was to move forward to get out of the collisions of your current snaketrain,
then aim to the right and down sporadically.
You can also accidentally go so far that you get the title "Ice Caverns" on
your screen. But it doesn't seem like this helps skip straight to Chapter 9, at
least so far...
Unfortunately it seems that doing this skip in any of its forms causes a game
breaking glitch at the end of Chapter 9, when returning to the center tower. No
cutscenes start and you just get stuck.
Videos:
1, vipeazone's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqnsgcNCMHE#t=59
Other / wasted potential: after climbing up for a while, Kratos reaches a
grapple point that leads to him breaking through the wall of the next
snaketrain. You can in fact do a Shield Jump to end up on top of the snaketrain
instead of breaking inside it. This makes it possible to quick roll through the
part you'd normally slide, which is not very useful since sliding is faster.
Also, the camera becomes glitched in a fairly game breaking way.
You can play at least up to the next fight, but after that it seems impossible
to find the grapple point leading to the next area...? It's likely that it's
not loaded correctly, since its range is so big you'd think it was easy to find
even without seeing things properly. So you get stuck.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY5pTanmyMI#t=287
Other: the grapple point for breaking inside the snaketrain is oversensitive
and can be re-activated after you've already activated it once.
Speed strategy?: if you retry from the checkpoint where Kratos is sliding down,
he can jump up in air the first moment and do Poseidon Tremble super speed
glitch to get through the slide extra fast. But using this glitch is always a
bit risky... Not to mention with the extra loading times, this trick might in
the end cost more time than it would save.
Other: during the cinematic part where there's a QTE fight against a Manticore,
you are able to do the elusive "get a game over inside a menu" glitch by
opening either menu at a precise time as Kratos falls to his death after
failing the first QTE.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://youtu.be/g57GVc34LCk?t=171
Other: skip rest of Chapter 8
After the long cutscene of the snaketrain moving into place, you can use
Poseidon Tremble super speed glitch to skip the small bout of sliding and
climbing close to the end of the chapter. This shouldn't be too hard to do even
in a RTA since you can latch onto those grapples from a wide area or even fly
close to the vertical ice wall. Personally I have the best success with this
trick by doing a long double jump down the slide before doing Poseidon Tremble.
After hitting the slide with Tremble, I spam air attacks and steer to the left.
Kratos may get stuck on some collision there for a little bit, but you can
always re-steer from there more to the right to reach the grapple points.
Afterwards you can skip the last fight of this chapter as well since you can
activate the grapple point leading to the last snaketrain early if you're close
to it before the enemies load.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKm3m13Tq6c
Other: at the end of the level, you can use the first grapple in the series to
do a Shield Jump back on top of the ruined snaketrain you came from. Probably
not useful, and the camera refuses to follow you to this out of bounds area
anyway.
Sequence break: at the end of the series of grapples, Kratos is supposed to
latch onto a huge wall of ice and slide it down. Don't do this. Instead, from
the final grapple, do a double jump at the top height towards right and follow
it up with Shield air attack. At the very right, tap R1 for Kratos to grasp the
next grapple point early. This way you skip a fight.
However, doing this skip in a fresh save, Chapter 9 never appears in the
Chapter Select-menu afterwards. So that is an unwanted side effect.
Videos:
1, a part of a speedrun where this trick is used:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDqv61wmIvw#t=348
--- Chapter 9 - Ice Caverns ---
----------------------------------------
World weapon: Kratos can acquire a Javelin from the first autoscroller fight.
Other: for some reason elemental combo finisher effects are in slow motion
during the first part of the autoscroller. Doing "Captain Planet" glitch yields
impressive results as the multiple elemental finishers all pile into one slowed
down mess.
Other: inside the snaketrain slide that interrupts the autoscroller, steering
as much to the right as you can sometimes lets Kratos slip past the death
collision on the way, letting him fall out of bounds. But this doesn't seem to
be very useful since there is nothing beneath.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://youtu.be/R8Tqnly5-Qw?t=81
Other: at the end of the snaketrain slide, it's not a good idea to steer to the
left too much either. This is because jumping let or steering more to the left
lets Kratos fall down the vertical ice wall faster than normal, and if he is
too fast, he will miss the snaketrain that is coming and dies! So yeah... no
rush.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://youtu.be/R8Tqnly5-Qw?t=96
Other: occasionally some Bug enemies can spawn late and they appear along
Kratos as he is sliding down the snaketrain.
World weapon: Kratos can get a Club from a later autoscroller fight.
Sequence break: skip a part of the snaketrain ride
Using Poseidon Tremble slide glitch, Kratos can fly directly back into the
Tower without bothering with the rest of the snake ride. Going upstairs,
nothing is loaded at the roof level first - and not even the camera follows
Kratos there. But the solution is to just wait near the ladder for the game to
finish loading the necessary data. After that the Manticore fight and cutscenes
before it start like normal. This should save something like 40-50 seconds and
is not too difficult to do.
However, if you do fail the trick, there is no checkpoint close by and so the
game sends Kratos back to the last part of the autoscroller - almost two
minutes of time waste in a speedrun! As a backup strategy, do your best to keep
Kratos in air before the checkpoint at the last part of the snaketrain
activates, by doing a Broken Destiny jump for instance, along with Lightning
Magic when Kratos is about to land. This causes Kratos to become checkpointed
much later during the ride and you don't lose as much time if you fail the
trick.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrYsioqNkvg
Other: as mentioned, just waiting for long enough causes the snaketrain to
reach its destination without Kratos. If you high jump or Poseidon Tremble
glitch yourself to stand on the nearby mountain ridges, you can see this
process for yourself from a scenic viewpoint. And once the snaketrain has
stopped moving, you can go and jump on top of it to have it warp backwards and
reach its destination a second time. (c: vipeazone)
Videos:
1, vipeazone's vid on Youku:
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNjg5MjExNDY4.html?f=22044595
Speed strategy (NG+): unlike when facing Chimera, Souls work just fine against
Manticore. So those are a good ranged attack for when the Manticore is flying
and out of reach.
Wasted potential: considering the Manticore does freeze momentarily when you
attempt to freeze it, you'd imagine you could shatter it using the environment
to your advantage. But so far doing this is hard, probably impossible...
Other (NG+): If you do Ice Rage to the Manticore twice as fast as possible when
it is on ground level, you get a glitchy reaction and the Manticore slides
around a little without freezing.
--- Chapter 10 - The Temple of Delphi ---
------------------------------------------------------
World weapon: a Club is lying close to where you enter the Temple.
Sequence break: you can skip the Cerberus fight after it has started by doing a
Shield jump over the metal bars.
An alternative but not much faster way to skip the fight is to jump over the
trigger that would start the whole fight. This skips the short pre-fight
cutscene as well as a bonus. Hey, if you have an Upgrade Jump to spare, go for
it... (c: findlestick)
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSDUB7Oz8fs
2, findlestick's vid of using Upgrade Jump:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXHErQ7SDaA
Speed strategy: you skip unfolding the staircase by doing a Shield Jump.
Other: if you do a Shield Run away from the first sacred mist as Kratos is
touching it, he will keep running through the whole duration of the cutscene.
The camera will glitch up if you go too far. (c: vipeazone)
Videos:
1, vipeazone's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJ89NboYi1s#t=70
Out of bounds: after breaking the first door using sacred mist, the walls
nearby are low and you can drop Kratos out of bounds with a Shield jump. So far
this is not very useful, though.
Sequence break: skip most of Temple of Delphi
First of all, you can skip the long cutscene where Castor and Pollux are first
introduced by doing a Shield jump against the side of the doorway. Kratos can
clip through and get into the main area without having to kick the door open
(which would start the cutscene).
Secondly, you can use a series of Shield jumps to get directly to the platform
where you break the giant hourglass. First touch the sacred mist, then quickly
roll up the left path. Break the door, then do a Shield jump on top of the
door. From there you can jump through the ceiling with another jump. Do the
Shield jump continuously to reach the lowered chandelier. If you were quick
enough, the sacred mist effect is still ongoing, allowing you to shatter the
hourglass and reach Castor and Pollux fight instantly. (c: AKheon)
There is an alternative, faster way to do this but it requires an Upgrade Jump.
After touching sacred mist, do an Upgrade Jump (with hovering) to get over the
invisible wall in front of Kratos and land directly on the chandelier. (c:
findlestick)
Note that if you do this skip on New Game, the game will never unlock Chapter
11 in the Chapter Select-menu.
Videos:
1, AKheon's original vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPVohlwjXG4
2, findlestick's vid of using Upgrade Jump to cut some more corners:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyuEhj2hszM
Sequence break: another way to get to the hourglass room early is to jump over
the wall of the corridor upstairs and drop down there. But in a speedrun, the
above method is faster.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQFg1E2SMrI#t=92
Other: consequences of going to the hourglass room early
If you used a shortcut to reach the hourglass area early, be careful near the
hourglass because jumping in its vicinity - especially going to its right side
- may crash the game. You can still get to the upper level, but completing the
puzzle like this is not possible because one of the doors in the upper level
can't be destroyed right now.
If you activate the hourglass cutscene early, the camera will show you an empty
elevator shaft. Then the camera will become stuck in this position!
Jumping into the elevator chasm is wasted potential because nothing is loaded
below.
I think it's possible to play on in the game even from here and end up at the
Catacombs of Delphi. Later on when returning, the door leading to the hourglass
room is invisible and can't be opened, causing you to get stuck. (Or this is
the assumption at least. Should be tested at some point.) §
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid of these things and more:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQFg1E2SMrI#t=100
2, Robin Fleming's video of the invisible door:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofYttfkLJnc#t=31
World weapon: a Club is lying on the right path from the main hall. You can
also get a Shield from the approaching Satyr.
Speed strategy: if you want the collectibles from the right path, you can skip
having to push the statue if you touch the sacred mist, then jump in air and
keep doing Blades air attacks as the platform rises back up. With good timing,
Kratos will end up standing on the platform.
An alternative way is to do a Shield Jump on top of the barred gate before
fighting the enemies and from there jump to the collectibles.
Videos:
1, vipeazone's vid of the second way:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJ89NboYi1s#t=129
Sequence break: you can skip fighting the electric Siren by doing a Shield jump
over the barred gate blocking the doorway.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQFg1E2SMrI#t=12
--- Chapter 11 - Delphi Catacombs ---
--------------------------------------------------
Out of bounds: you can go out of bounds by Shield jumping over one of the
locked doors on the upper level. So far not useful.
Speed strategy?: doing a Shield Jump against a specific wall, it's possible to
drop down to Delphi Catacombs without using the mist. Sometimes the prompts on
the lower floor can't be activated after doing this, sometimes they can. I
guess this trick still needs to be examined more to see if it can be used as a
speed strategy or not.
Videos:
1, Robin Fleming's video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQwjl67wBj8#t=192
Wasted potential: it's been verified by both findlestick and Wulf2k9 that even
if we could skip Soul of Hades-tutorial fight, nothing would be loaded behind
the big gate.
World weapon: you can get a Sword from the enemies in the Soul of Hades fight.
Speed strategy: you can use Ice Rage glitch to slightly speed up the moving of
the stone block to the left side of the room.
Other / speed strategy: you can upgrade break-out of the grapple prompts where
Kratos breaks open some mist valves and causes the hanging platforms to lower.
This allows him to move freely during the time the sequence is happening, and
might save a little time.
Sequence break: after reaching the area with sacred mist and barred gates that
you normally disappear using the mist, you can ignore the mist entirely and
jump over the gates using Shield Jumps. The gates are conveniently just as high
as they look, and the developers accidentally left a small gap for Kratos to
get through from the top.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQFg1E2SMrI#t=39
Other: in the same area, the flying enemies can get stuck below ground in some
circumstances.
Videos:
1, Robin Fleming's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Da1iYLnbWpU
Other: sometimes the final gate before re-entering the hourglass room does not
spawn, or so it looks like.
Videos:
1, Robin Fleming's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajRmKCKYEw0
Wasted potential?: you can Shield run outside the Wraith fight during the pre-
fight cutscene and thus skip it. Not sure if this is useful, though, since you
probably can't complete the hourglass puzzle the normal way if you do this.
Other: rarely you can clip past the bars to the right of the hourglass and
reach the corridor with chests "early". The corridor has lighting issues in it,
and it's easy to jump out of bounds over the walls.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQFg1E2SMrI#t=63
Wasted potential: it's possible to Ice Rage glitch the prompt of the swinging
platform in front of the hourglass. But it can't be utilized to break the
hourglass early or anything.
Speed strategy: you can climb the hourglass quick by Shield jumping on top of
the statue's hands carefully. Find out the spots where there is collision
Kratos can stand on and use them to get to the top with multiple jumps.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQFg1E2SMrI#t=80
Other: perhaps by doing things in wrong order, the pillar close to the
hourglass Kratos is supposed to tear down fails to do that. You only hear the
sound effect but nothing happens.
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evYTq8zFSUM#t=38
Speed strategy: from the balcony behind the hourglass, you can quickly get back
to the lower level by Shield jumping over the painting.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQFg1E2SMrI#t=134
World weapon: you can get a Shield and / or a Sword from a Satyr during the
fight at the lower floor revisit.
Other: all enemies must be killed before the stone block can be moved. Rarely
the game may get mixed up and never end the fight, or the flying enemies have
wandered too far away, causing Kratos to get stuck here. This seems to be an
unfortunately common problem...
- Chapter 12 - The Oracle's Chamber ---
-----------------------------------------------------
Speed strategy: you can skip the grapple point in the middle of the platforming
section by doing a Shield Jump over the pit instead.
Wasted potential: you can use Poseidon Tremble speed trick on the small stretch
of sliding to skip directly to the boss arena. However, nothing is loaded there
at first. Tossing the rocks early sometimes spawns Kratos back to the grapple
points before the boss fight. Otherwise Kratos just gets stuck in the fight
arena since Castor & Pollux never arrive there. The only other odd result I've
found is that there is no music during the boss fight if you start it like
this.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY5pTanmyMI#t=81
Other: if you complete the platforming section too quick, the rocks at the end
of it never become loaded and Kratos falls to his death. Another trap for
speedrunners...
Other: using a long jump, you can go to the other side of the chasm and
interact with the boss before you've thrown the rock and officially started the
boss fight. The boss can be hit but he doesn't react to anything in any way.
Throwing the rock finally starts the fight like normal.
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bSxZssaLWY
Other: you can activate an Ice Rage glitch reaction by trying to Ice Rage one
of the rocks in the battle arena.
Other: you can Ice Rage glitch the boss to move him around the battlefield
during the more cinematic moments. For example, you can drop Castor into out of
bounds during the mid-part where he makes the floor collapse everywhere around
the place to get him moving earlier... unfortunately this actually glitches up
the fight. Castor becomes very passive towards Kratos and his sword hits no
longer deal any damage. The fight also never progresses to the next phase no
matter how long you beat up Castor.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pL4Y5Lvh5A
Speed strategy: when the phase of the fight starts where Castor teleports on
top of the pillars, you are able to break one or two of the pillars early,
before the cutscene where Castor taunts Kratos. However, the third pillar from
right can't be broken early - that's the one Castor teleports on to.
Other: interrupting the cinematic part where Castor prepares to face you off
with an Ice Rage causes Castor to fall down into the pit. This can sometimes
cause the event to get stuck - Castor never emerges from the pit and you get
stuck. Or sometimes the next cutscene will be displaced, with Castor trying to
attack nothingness instead of Kratos. The game doesn't like this and you are
stuck again!
You can also break out of this part by spamming X (and maybe R1) while the
screen is white. Kratos becomes free to move and the fight continues earlier
than it should, with the cinematic special effects like strange camera still
active. But again, you can't win the fight like this, so while it looks cool,
it's not useful at all.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pL4Y5Lvh5A#t=98
Other: sometimes the boss may get a permanent slow down ring around him after
the final checkpoint. It doesn't matter much since the fight is almost over,
but it still looks strange. It slows down all other Kratos' animations except
the finishing QTE.
Other: you can Ice Rage glitch Castor to fall out of bounds at the very last
part of the fight. This doesn't help at all. Moving him around before the last
QTE causes graphical glitches as well, with Kratos and him smashing through
solid floor to the freefall part.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pL4Y5Lvh5A#t=271
Other: rarely a game breaking glitch happens here and Kratos picks up an
invisible Amulet at the end of the boss fight. Afterwards he is unable to use
its power, though, and becomes stuck in the game. If you look at the weapons /
items menu, the Amulet is there but it has no graphic.
Videos:
1, Heavy Metal Knight 93's video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0XGWvjy-cc
- Chapter 13 - The Passage of Delphi -
----------------------------------------------------
Sequence break: you can skip fixing the bridge with two Shield jumps. First,
use a Shield jump to get to the higher level. Then, you need to do a continuous
Shield Jump to bounce over the soft collision that there is a lot of before you
finally reach the other side.
If you do this, the camera may not fix itself after having talked to the
Oracle. If this happens, you must do the short climbing section blind, but
after that the camera will fix itself.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGOnr1GDJOw
Wasted potential: you can jump over the cutscene of meeting the Oracle, but the
next area will not load afterwards. Also, trying to upgrade break out of the
Oracle cutscene crashes the game.
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid of jumping over the Oracle cutscene:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evYTq8zFSUM#t=114
Other: it's possible to tether break out of the Aletheia cutscene at least.
This causes Kratos and Aletheia lay idly while a part of the cutscene audio
plays in the background. Nothing seems to happen, but waiting long enough the
cutscene progresses as usual, and after the pre-rendered part everything is as
normal again.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1WrF70NW7k#t=72
Speed strategy: casting Fire or Ice Rage after jumping off the climbing wall,
Kratos' jump becomes longer and he lands on solid ground instead of having to
hang on the ledge first, saving a second or two.
Sequence break: Amulet of Uroborus tutorial fight skip
There are multiple ways to skip the upcoming fight where the game tells you
more about the Amulet. The fastest known method is simply to Shield Run through
the pre-fight cutscene before the gate becomes lowered to block Kratos' path.
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid of fight skip v1 (using Broken Destiny high jump):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88rpcuR0LV0
2, AKheon's vid of fight skip v2 (using Shield Jump to go out of bounds):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2CJm1R76f0
3, AKheon's vid of fight skip v3 (using Shield Run):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z55ia4Fwwro
Other: the Amulet tutorial fight can end early if you shoot at the gate
carelessly using the Amulet, at least in the very start of the fight. §
World weapon: you can get Sword, Javelin or Shield from the enemies in the
Amulet tutorial fight.
Other: the green Amulet screen effect sometimes becomes stuck on screen after
retry once you've fixed the large bridge. It should become fixed by progressing
onward in the level, or if you activate Amulet again at the bridge.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid (at the start):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vB9RlQqlAak
World weapon: there's a free Sword just awaiting to be picked up before
reaching The Cistern. You can also get Swords from the enemies that appear
along the Siren.
Speed strategy: if you fix the bridge after the Siren fight as close to the
edge as possible, you actually skip a cutscene that would start after fixing
the bridge.
Doing this also glitches up the checkpoint for The Cistern: when returning to
this chapter, Kratos starts from near the chests instead of near the waterway
like usual. Trying to return into the waterway causes the camera to follow
Kratos in a delayed way. You see the bridge fixing cutscene (where nothing
happens) when entering the waterway, and there are not one but two Swords lying
around the place!
Other: The green Amulet effect can get stuck in this part as well after a
retry. The effect is stuck with Kratos until you reach beyond the Cyclops fight
and the game loads new areas.
Videos:
1, Akheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBn2FdCc6eg
--- Chapter 14 - The Cistern ---
-----------------------------------------
Other: if you backtrack to the bridge you just fixed, you can decay it again if
you want - with Kratos still standing on it. This was probably unintended, and
looks pretty funny.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY5pTanmyMI#t=111
Sequence break: skip Cistern re-visit fight
You can skip the Cistern re-visit fight with Shield Jumps. First, go to the
left end of the waterway where the chests are and enter a small hidden platform
above them with a Shield Jump. Once Kratos is in it, he is a rather tight spot
and can't do other jumps, so you have to come out of there and aim a little to
the foreground and then heavily to the left with your next Shield Jump. If you
do two Shield air attacks to the correct direction, then follow it up with some
Broken Destiny motions, you are almost guaranteed to end up in the corridor
where the painting is, skipping a fight and two small cutscenes in the process.
(c: findlestick / AKheon)
An older method involved dropping down to ground level from the hidden platform
on top of the chests. After the fight begins, you can inch by the ground level
and go around the fight barrier blocking the exit, continuing on your way. But
the above method is both easier and faster.
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid of skipping the fight:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vAGAhgqKXg
2, AKheon's vid of the outdated skip method:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ed54PywsXH0
Sequence break: skip Cyclops fight
You can skip the Cyclops fight by jumping over the small house-looking
structure to the left before stepping into the fighting arena. But the jump you
need to do must be higher than a normal Shield Jump - you need an Upgrade Jump
or a Combined Tactics Jump for example. Once on the structure's roof, you can
keep jumping to reach the other side and never encounter the Cyclops. (c:
findlestick)
A new way that you can do without Upgrade Jump involves breaching a wall. The
two statues on both sides of the doorway have a collision flaw in them, and
Kratos can breach the outer corners using a Shield normal attack against them.
This allows him to go out of bounds, although be careful as there isn't much
floor there. It's worth it to interrupt the Shield attack with L1 to prevent it
from going too far once Kratos slips through. You should go out of bounds from
the right side, and from there Shield Jump / drop down to the bonus area
entrance. From there you can skip the Cyclops fight and bridge fixing sequence
like usual. (c: AKheon)
One final, arguably easiest way to do this skip is to Shield Run through the
Cyclops fight cutscene to the right to go out of bounds of the fight area, then
do a Tremble ledge magnetism to one of the corners of the statue to drop down
to the entrance to the secret area. The worst part is that you have to watch
the pre-fight intro cutscene, making this variation on average slowest to do.
(c: Robin Fleming)
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid of using Upgrade Jump:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4RLgmDsvBE
2, AKheon's vid of using a Combined Tactics Jump:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqXK8khcuVw
3, AKheon's vid of the wall breach variation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYBu0e5smw8
4, Robin Fleming's video of the Tremble variation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVCS3Y698uA
Sequence break: you can skip fixing the bridge when backtracking to the water
wheel with a simple Shield Jump from the ground level.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuL99Gh3YHM
Other: if you retry from the checkpoint after having fixed the bridge, the
green Amulet effect will affect the camera for no reason. The effect stays on
until you progress onward in the game to the sidling part up ahead.
Sequence break: you can skip the water wheel revisit intro with a few well-
placed jumps. There's a trigger that starts the intro cutscene as soon as you
land on the stone bridge, but you can avoid hitting it if you land on the
bridge from very far right. So do a Shield Jump that lands on the right end,
for example, and then follow it up by double jumping carefully. Now you're past
the trigger and didn't have to watch the cutscene.
Sequence break: skipping water wheel puzzle
First way to skip the entire water wheel fixing sequence is by using an Upgrade
Jump. Just Upgrade Jump (with hovering) your way up to the part of the bridge
where you activate the last Amulet prompt. The water wheel becomes fixed
instantly if you do this, so after that you can just fix the waterway and this
chapter is over. However: this tactic might not be mutually compatible with the
previous waterwheel revisit intro cutscene skip. So it overall may be faster to
do the intro cutscene skip and use the below speed tactics instead. (c:
findlestick)
Even without using an Upgrade Jump you can still cut a few corners during this
puzzle. First, you can get to the top of the wheel early by doing continuous
Shield Jumps over the angled collision. You can fix the wheel entirely in just
one go if you're standing at the top. Then just jump on the small part of the
aqueduct and fix that too. Puzzle solved.
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid of using an Upgrade Jump:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2725W7U1aZE
2, AKheon's vid of the second variation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuL99Gh3YHM#t=14
Other: there is a glitched Amulet point on the top of the broken bridge. If you
activate Amulet close to the waterwheel, Kratos attempts to fix something with
the Amulet, but in vain. You can try to create or decay, but that just makes
Kratos fist pump uselessly. After letting go of Amulet, the green Amulet-vision
is still active indefinitely, so this is definitely a glitch.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://youtu.be/R8Tqnly5-Qw?t=410
--- Chapter 15 - The Grotto ---
----------------------------------------
Speed strategy / swimming glitch: while descending into The Grotto, there's a
moment where the game does not stop time and Kratos is free to jump or roll off
the water wheel platform. This has a twofold purpose: first, just falling down
and hitting water skips a part of the scene and you regain control of Kratos
quicker than normal. So it's a good speed tactic. Second, jumping in a specific
way, you fall out of bounds and start this chapter with "swimming glitch".
For speed purposes, being able to get out of bounds is not invaluable, though,
since the route to the next area is fairly direct and you can already skip most
of it with Shield Jumps. But at least you can do some swimming exploration in
the process.
Just to warn you, jumping down in a wrong way rewards you with a softlock or
death, but a surefire way to simply land in water in a speedrun is to hold r-
stick down to roll of the platform. This always works, and Kratos can save some
seconds in this part of the game.
Interestingly, if you do die in this part of the game, you can accidentally
become a victim of a secret softlock. When Kratos is returned to the previous
checkpoint, he refuses to jump onto the descending waterwheel platform,
therefore causing you to get stuck. No amount of retries will fix this, and you
have to restart the entire chapter to continue.
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid of swimming glitch exploration:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3tqe6PlCBY#t=79
2, findlestick's vid of some more swimming glitch exploration:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oa8NVkKRDJY#t=142
3, AKheon's vid of the softlock:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHFTiVOnSKY
Random: there's a strange blue flame floating out of bounds somewhere near the
Grotto. You can find it using swimming glitch.
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5haAFn9L8Ig#t=46
Swimming glitch: a second way to get swimming glitch in this chapter is to do a
high jump near where you start the section. It seems there is some floor on top
of the angled wooden pole above the two chests to the very left, so if you
Unarmed Jump there, you can land on something and jump then even further and
get over the walls to the left.
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oa8NVkKRDJY#t=106
Sequence break: you can skip the two Talos fight and having to lower the gate
by Shield jumping over the gate instead. The camera may be bad for a few
seconds after doing this, but just dive and things should become fixed.
An alternative way is to use swimming glitch to go around the fight. But you
need to hit a certain loading trigger in the preceding underwater corridor and
also start the Talos fight to load the next area. This method is not difficult
either.
Videos:
1,, findlestick's vid of both methods:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSBhz9h8Rhk
Speed strategy: somehow you can do a Shield Run through the Talos fight
cutscene, perhaps by landing in a very precise spot when jumping out of water.
If it could be done consistently, it would save a little bit of time in a
speedrun. (c: Robin Fleming)
Swimming glitch: a third way to to get swimming glitch in this chapter is by
jumping over the walls from on top of the gate during the Talos fight. (c:
Wulf2k9)
Other: you can end swimming glitch here and go walking underwater if you like.
It is done by jumping against a certain part in the underwater corridor...
better instructions may come later. §
If Kratos hits the underwater spikes while walking, he permanently freezes in a
pose resembling swimming and you have to retry.
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3tqe6PlCBY
Sequence break: you can use swimming glitch to sneak on the boat early,
skipping the short wait in the process. Do a slightly higher double jump
followed by a Shield Jump to the right-hand wall after the last swimming
section. Once you go out of bounds, the water surface is right there for
touching.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoLhgFr5xOA
Wasted potential (swimming): the game ends swimming glitch if you enter the
boat cutscene while swimming, so it looks like swimming can't be taken into the
next chapter.
--- Chapter 16 - The Prison of the Damned ---
------------------------------------------------------------
World weapon: you can pick up a Club or a Javelin from your enemies at the
start of the chapter.
Other: it's not uncommon for the Amulet of Uroborus tutorial textbox to stay on
the screen permanently when you're in this level.
Wasted potential: you can jump on top of the right-side fence and get around
the building facade where there's the door you examine and start the long
cutscene of Kratos being tempted again. But nothing is loaded on the other side
if you don't watch the cutscene. Also, it doesn't seem like you can break out
of the cutscene using upgrading or via any other known means either.
Speed strategy: after seeing the Kratos being tempted cutscene, if you go to
the Empusa fight arena before the camera has returned to its usual position,
Kratos becomes free to move during the fight intro cutscene. This might at best
save a second or two, so it's not much.
Sequence break: skip Empusa fight
There's an Empusa fight right ahead. You can skip it before even seeing the
Empusa in two ways. One is to use an Upgrade Jump (with hover) to fly all the
way to the next rooftop. (c: findlestick)
Another method involves doing a Shield Jump over the archway that leads to the
battle arena. If you do the Jump at a certain angle, trying to get Kratos as
far into the room as possible, you miss the trigger that starts the fight and
can now climb up normally to the roof. This variation is just slightly slower
than the two other variations, and kind of difficult, but it never hurts to
have more options. (c: AKheon)
You also can escape the Empusa fight after it has started with a series of
Shield Jumps. First Shield Jump towards the right side of the wall, where you'd
normally climb after the fight. The spike fence there is actually a platform
Kratos can walk on. Then, from the right side do a Shield Jump adjacent to the
building's roof. Kratos should land on yet another platform. Finally, from
there it's easy to jump on the rooftop.
The Upgrade Jump method is the fastest, but not that practical since it needs
an upgrade, so you are in most cases better off using the Shield Jump method
after the fight has started.
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid of the 1st listed method
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXiECGTc1FE
2, AKheon's vid of the 2nd method
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyUNDuYZWR8
3, a part of a speedrun where the 3rd method is used
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDqv61wmIvw#t=652
Wasted potential: you can Shield Jump over the trigger that spawns the enemies
before the point you have to use the Amulet again, but it's of no use. Those
enemies have to be slain before the prompt to use the Amulet appears.
Other: doing a continuous Shield Jump, you can skip the first grapple point in
the series of grapple points. This causes the camera to glitch up for a part of
the way and music to not play, but otherwise things seem to work out normally.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://youtu.be/R8Tqnly5-Qw?t=223
World weapon: you can pick up a Javelin from the roof after the Empusa fight.
The enemies there will also drop Swords.
Other: the first decayed chest after going indoors again is unique. If you
activate Amulet near it and keep holding L2, Kratos will enter the Decay -
Heal-menu. Trying to use either option yields no results, though: the chest is
healed automatically like usual.
--- Chapter 17 - Martyr's Chamber ---
-------------------------------------------------
Wasted potential: with a precise jump you can avoid touching the floor of
Martyr's Chamber and thus skip its intro. But this way the following area does
not load... at the very least the floor of the room has to be touched for the
next area to load.
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5haAFn9L8Ig#t=20
Sequence break: the Martyr's Chamber puzzle can be skipped in at least three
different ways.
For a long while the best method for skipping the puzzle (v2) was dropping down
into the Martyr's Chamber like normal, then using Ledge Magnetism (with
Poseidon Tremble) against the back wall to the right of the cage. Kratos should
latch onto an invisible ledge high above the room, allowing him to jump ahead
in the level and skip the Scriber cutscene as well. (c: AKheon)
For other methods that don't skip the Scriber cutscene, you can use various
high jumps to make it up to the exit door. These are called Martyr's Chamber
skip v1.
But now there is a new method (v3) to skip Martyr's Chamber that also allows
skipping the Chamber intro cutscene, saving tens of extra seconds. To do this,
first you need to go out of bounds at the top of the ladder leading to the
Chamber, which is pretty easy - just do a Shield attack towards the back wall
on the right side of the ladder, angling the movement a little towards the
ladder. Kratos will either get stuck to the side of the ladder or start
falling. Now just double jump and try to move 'up' a little bit with L-stick
and Kratos usually ends up inside Martyr's Chamber but just out of bounds so
that he misses the intro cutscene. From here it's the most convenient to get up
using the elevator, and you can use one of two Ledge Magnetism spots to reach
the usual spot from where you can Shield Jump past the Scriber cutscene.
One spot was suggested by Wulf2k9, and it's to the left of the metal box, and
can only be accessed from the upstairs. So you got to ride the elevator, then
from the upstairs jump a little to the right and Tremble against the wall to
hit it. An even better spot was later discovered by Robin Fleming, where you
can skip riding the elevator altogether. Just do the Tremble to the inside wall
of the elevator to get to the top. All in all it's not a too difficult skip,
but a very useful one.
Also to note, doing this skip in a New Game file will make the game never
unlock Chapter 17 since you skip the Martyr's Chamber intro.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid of Martyr's Chamber skip v2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTErYmjKyUY
2, AKheon's vid of Martyr's Chamber skip v3 (Wulf2k9 variation):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8tZk_NScJM
Other: the Ledge Magnetism glitches in this room stop working for some reason
after you've utilized the Amulet to free the hanging corpse at the back of the
room.
Other (NG+): if you break out of the grapple switch here with a Rage and then
try to use Item, Kratos becomes semi-free to move even though he is still
attached to the switch - this works at other grapple switches too. Being able
to move and jump like on ground makes the invisible walls that appear while
handling the grapple switch painfully apparent.
If you had previously put the corpse on the button and start this glitch from
the right side of the room, you are able to Unarmed Jump on top of some angled
collision on top of the lifted up box and interrupt the grapple switch mode in
a glitchy way. Now Kratos is completely free to move, but the invisible walls
still clutter the place, not to mention you hear the grapple switch sounds when
you move Kratos. So it's an unique sort of break out. With a high jump you can
escape the area and continue playing the game, but nothing unusual seems to
happen as a result of this.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpXQ6DrhRFI
Other: the corpse can start floating in air, becoming impossible to pick up
again. Findlestick suggested this can happen if you drop the cage on top of the
corpse and try to pick it up while it is still stuck under the cage, but wasn't
sure about it.
A 100% certain way to get the corpse to float is to play until the next
checkpoint (right before Scriber cutscene), retry, then drop back down to the
puzzle area. The corpse is now floating pointlessly in air.
Videos:
1, findlestick's clip of this phenomenon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5haAFn9L8Ig#t=31
Random: picking up or dropping the corpse in front of the trap where you first
get it from yields a special camera angle.
Other: you can break out of the Scriber cutscene by doing passive tether while
jumping into it. This causes Kratos to stand idly facing away from the Scriber
during the cutscene, as if not interested in anything he has to say. The
Scriber's dialogue also doesn't play, so it's a very silent cutscene with no
interaction between the two characters.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1WrF70NW7k#t=114
Sequence break: if you Shield Jump deep enough into the Siren fight room, you
skip the intro cutscene. This doesn't prevent the enemies from spawning. You
can later activate the intro cutscene while the fight is going on for tame
results.
If you did the Scriber cutscene skip earlier, you pretty much have to watch
this cutscene to fix the glitched camera angle you currently have. So no
skipping it in that case.
Other: if you skipped the Scriber cutscene, then visit upstairs and come back
down, you get a really wonky, unique camera angle for the downstairs. Useful if
you want to see the environments from a new angle.
Other: if you view the Scriber cutscene, then start the Siren fight, then
backtrack - easily doable with two Unarmed Jumps for instance - the Scriber has
now unloaded and there is nothing where his cell used to be. You can still
activate the prompt with R1 to see the text, though.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://youtu.be/DTlMEWb0Og8?t=77
World weapon: there's a Club in the fight room. During the fight itself enemies
can drop Swords.
Sequence break: the Siren fight can be skipped by jumping to the bridge above
with a Shield Jump. Easier to do if you did the above Scriber cutscene skip
because that way there are no enemies pestering you here.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid of Martyr's Chamber skip v2 that also features this skip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTErYmjKyUY
Out of bounds: it's easy to drop out of bounds by doing a high jump against the
back wall of the large prison cell where there's the Siren fight, preferably
before having moved the block away from the back wall. You can run around the
room out of bounds, but there isn't much else to do or see here.
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evYTq8zFSUM#t=60
Other: you can latch onto the moveable stone early, before the fight end
cutscene activates. If you start dragging the stone at this point, upon retry
Kratos will start inside the stone block.
Other: if you plow too fast through this area, Kratos will fall down to his
death after opening the door leading outside. To prevent this from happening do
some air attacks while jumping through the doorway to slow down Kratos' fall.
Wasted potential: you can get past the cutscene trigger that sends you to Delos
Landing, but nothing is loaded ahead. So you can't just skip straight to
Chapter 29 from here.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vB9RlQqlAak#t=190
Other: you can break out of the cutscene where Tisiphone & Daimon attack Kratos
by either upgrading or using passive tether. This causes Kratos to remain free
during the start of the cutscene. Doing magic or other attacks sometimes drops
him out of bounds, which is strange. When the cutscene reaches the point where
the QTE begins, it abruptly ends, causing Daimon to float around stuck in a
frozen pose. He can be attacked and you can build an endless combo this way,
but you get stuck afterwards.
As an aside note, Tisiphone's character model also glitches up and can be seen
floating in air near the door if Daimon is facing the right way.
You can also move Daimon around the area by doing Lightning Magic since it
sucks nearby targets towards it. Robin Fleming even went as far as taking
Daimon down the stairs and pushing it through the doorway out of bounds!
Videos:
1, AKheon's original vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vB9RlQqlAak#t=34
2, some HD quality video of this break-out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1WrF70NW7k#t=210
3, Robin Fleming's vid of taking Daimon down the stairs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYxQp57qHug
--- Chapter 18 - Delos Landing ---
---------------------------------------------
Sequence break: you can skip the first cutscene and starting the Satyr general
fight by doing an Upgrade Jump (with hover) over the cutscene trigger. In a New
Game-run this might be one of the best places where to use an Upgrade Jump
since having a Shield speeds up several other upcoming skips as well.
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5haAFn9L8Ig#t=234
World weapon: the game forces Kratos to pick up the nearby Sword when you walk
into the first cutscene. This is a bad thing because you'd much rather probably
have a Shield on Kratos!
Other: often when restarting the game loads two Swords into the cutscene where
some guy is impaled with a Sword. The other Sword is just floating in air
eerily instead of looking a natural part of the cutscene. Yet, the glitchy
Sword has its own R1-prompt and can be picked up.
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evYTq8zFSUM
World weapon: the enemies in the first fight carry Swords.
Sequence break: you can skip the Satyr fight and some cutscenes by doing a
Broken Destiny high jump up the platform the Satyr General is standing on. From
there it takes an Unarmed Jump to reach the upper level, and that's it - a lot
of stuff skipped. However, be careful not to fall down during this skip because
if you do, the last checkpoint is pretty far away at the start of this chapter.
(c: findlestick)
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Aq3VgvFGv4#t=26
Other: the R1 prompt near the Javelin on the lower floor can be broken out of
using air Tether. This causes the cutscene to start with Kratos and the camera
completely still. Eventually a tentacle breaks the floor out of nowhere and
Kratos is left standing out of bounds on the broken part of the pier... and
you're stuck there.
Videos:
1, Robin Fleming's video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBW1SDG8rXU#t=84
Wasted potential: going to the upper area and hitting any trigger there forces
the pier to unload, so there's no chance of doing things in the wrong order
here in case glitches should occur.
Other: the event of fixing the path to the higher area may glitch up sometimes,
maybe if you end the fixing process right before it is complete. During the
glitch visually it seems everything is fixed, but the collision is still as if
it wasn't fixed and Kratos is blocked from progressing. This glitch fixes
itself if you continue fixing the bridge again.
Videos:
1, Robin Fleming's video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQpvnqgcn84
World weapon: the game forces Kratos to pick up a Javelin after getting past
the collapsed area to higher ground.
Other: Kratos can go and hang out with the cutscene-only civilians if he
reaches the higher area some other than normal route. As expected, they can't
be interacted with in any real way.
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evYTq8zFSUM#t=31
World weapon: enemies in the next fight carry Javelins and Swords.
Wasted potential: you can do a very big LAM high jump to skip the climbing
leading up to the Juggernaut fight along with the fight intro. Would be a
worthwhile sequence break otherwise, but the next map does not load this way!
The intro has to be watched.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGnUvSG4psM
Sequence break: you can skip the Juggernaut fight with Broken Destiny high
jump. Just get over the fight barrier blocking the exit. (c: findlestick)
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NICthDGjlyI
Other: after the Juggernaut fight but before walking onto the shimmy, doing an
Unarmed Jump towards your back sometimes lands Kratos on some freaky ceiling.
So far this doesn't serve any useful purpose, though. (c: Robin Fleming)
Videos:
1, Robin Fleming's original video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-KQeFN35BE
World weapon: you'll find a Shield after breaking through indoors. Finally!
Sequence break (NG+): skip the rest of Chapter 18
You can skip the whole last part of this chapter. When you're shimmying through
the cramped space and Kratos is ready to do a leap ahead... do the leap, but
then use Fire or Ice Rage as soon as possible to break Kratos out of the leap
motion. Now Kratos flies further than normal in air and you can use R1 to latch
onto the grapple point ahead just like that, skipping a whole bunch of
cutscenes, a fight and a puzzle. (c: AKheon)
As a glitchy bonus, if you don't use the grapple, you fall downstairs without a
cutscene and with some potential additional glitches like a mysterious wall
graphic hovering above the level.
However, a word of warning: if you intend to use this shortcut, you MUST wait
for some extra seconds in the side of the area where you pick up the Shield. It
also helps to retry from last checkpoint once you've ridden the platform to the
other side. Otherwise a the next grapple point does not load and this shortcut
does not work.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2GCHj_0B70
Sequence break: Empusa fight and puzzle speed tactics
So, an Empusa appears and you have to solve a puzzle as well. You should go
break the chain to the right as the first thing you do. You can break it
without climbing to the upper floor with Broken Destiny (air) or another long
range special move, saving a little time.
Once the chain is broken, the grapple point comes relatively close and now you
only need some extra height to reach it early. The easiest way to do this is to
pull the movable block a little to the right and do a Shield Jump from on top
of it. Spam R1 at the top of your jump and if you were correctly positioned you
reach the grapple point, skipping the fight. (c: findlestick)
Doing this skip is easier if you fight the enemies first so that they don't
interrupt Kratos, although slower. If you decide to not fight the enemies, try
slowing them down to make them easier to ignore.
Videos:
1, findlestick's original vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1GLSUe-xSU
World weapon: after completing the puzzle, there's a Club lying on the ground
ahead.
--- Chapter 19 - The Foot of Apollo ---
--------------------------------------------------
Sequence break: you can skip pushing the large stone and the associated
cutscene by first Shield Jumping on top of the stone and from there doing
another high jump to reach the above areas. One alternative is to do an Upgrade
Jump (with hover) to reach the wooden, circling platform up ahead. This skip
all the climbing and cutscenes, but costs an upgrade.
An alternative is to do a Broken Destiny jump straight upwards from on top of
the large stone to end up on the above floor. This way you skip slightly less,
but it's not a big deal. (c: AKheon)
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid of using an Upgrade Jump:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Al_4K0GkIyg
2, AKheon's vid of using Broken Destiny jump:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJ-j998VzS0
Sequence break (NG+): you can skip the small cutscene that starts when you
climb up the ledge ahead by extending your climbing wall leap to skip the
ledge. To do this, prepare Kratos for a leap, then when he is in air activate
Fire Rage to make him fly in air longer. Also aim heavily to the right while
doing this, and it's recommended to follow up Rage with other air attacks like
Shield air attack. It's quite an easy trick, but saves a good 20 seconds at
least.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJ-j998VzS0#t=12
Sequence break: you can skip the fight against Delos Warrior and Harpies that's
ahead. One way is to do an Upgrade Jump (with hover) from the area where
there's the big wall and a ledge Kratos can hang onto. Kratos reaches the fight
area without any enemies spawning and can easily continue on his way.
A second method involves hanging from the ledge, then jumping off and doing a
Shield Jump over the wall to the right. Now Kratos is out of bounds and can
jump into the fight arena from under the very tall wall. This is the
recommended method since it doesn't need an upgrade.
The least difficult and slowest alternative is to enter the fight like normal,
then Shield Jump over the fight barrier to escape it early.
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid of the skip in the first paragraph:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp93psbDH0g
2, AKheon's vid of the skip in the second paragraph:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSc2dxJvZpY
3, AKheon's vid of the skip in the third paragraph:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Al_4K0GkIyg#t=23
World weapon: a Javelin is at the upstairs after having fought against Harpies
and Delos Warriors.
Other / sequence break: rarely the game can forget to start the sequence where
the tentacle smashes the moving platform Kratos is on. This causes the ride to
go all the way to the other end without issues, then nothing happens. Kratos
can try to jump onto the hanging stone block in the background, but it doesn't
seem to have collision. Fortunately the rope to the next area is close by that
Kratos can still easily hang onto and progress ahead in the game. This saves
time if it happens in a speedrun.
You can reach the rope early with a Shield Jump if you jump off the moving
platform at a certain time. This is a guaranteed way to skip the tentacle
scene, but if you miss the rope, it's a massive time waste since you have to do
the entire autoscroller section over again.
Videos:
1, Robin Fleming's vid of the tentacle scene not starting:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TdK_fcX6UA
Sequence break: you can skip the block puzzle after the Siren fight by using
Shield Jumps or alternatively other high jumps. However, you must fight the
Sirens first or else the next area is not loaded. (c: findlestick)
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid using Broken Destiny jump for doing this skip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xTt2pF0gKA
Sequence break: skip a large part of this Chapter
On the way to the yard where there's the Centaur and Delos Warrior fight,
you'll notice a platform above you - it's somewhere you'd normally return later
after riding the fire elevator. There are grapple points near it which you can
already latch from down here during a Shield Jump. So get to the right side of
the platform and do a Shield Jump, then spam R1. Done right, Kratos grasps onto
the next grapple point high above and doesn't have to bother with the fight or
using the fire elevator at all.
The next area won't have time to load this way since you're too fast. You need
to wait inside the menu for a few seconds right before breaking the wall to fix
this. Otherwise Kratos falls into emptiness.
Videos:
1, a speedrun part where this trick is used:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDqv61wmIvw#t=906
Speed strat: you can also skip riding the fire elevator for the first time
using a Shield jump inside the elevator to get to the higher level quicker.
Speed strategy: you can skip a small amount of climbing by jumping over the
collapsing path with Shield jump.
Speed strategy: before reaching The Gauntlet of Apollo, you can skip latching
onto a grapple point and breaking a wall by doing a continuous Shield jump from
under the wall. After that, you can skip destroying the insect nest by doing a
Shield Jump from the left side of the room and latching onto the next grapple
point from there.
This skip also has the funny side effect of completely glitching up the
graphics for the next chapter.
Videos:
1, segment from a speedrun where this trick is utilized:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDqv61wmIvw#t=930
--- Chapter 20 - The Gauntlet of Apollo ---
-------------------------------------------------------
Other: if you go out of bounds and go standing on some invisible floor beyond
the grapple point, jumping up makes Kratos hit a trigger that activates a
cinematic slo-mo effect for a second. It's interesting to be able to activate
that effect at will.
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evYTq8zFSUM#t=97
Other: if you go out of bounds and jump into the pre-fight cutscene doing
passive tether, Kratos breaks out. He stands idly at a wrong location for a
little while as the cutscene starts, then falls through the floor. So you just
die during the cutscene. Not a spectacular outcome, but looks funny.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://youtu.be/XnSvUBiFpbk?t=244
World weapon: the game expects you to take Javelins lying nearby to hurt
Megaera with. You don't have to, if you can damage her by other means like Soul
Rage souls.
Other: you can Ice Rage glitch Megaera's model to appear on thin air or other
wrong places during the fight. This doesn't really help, and she just teleports
back in a moment's notice. Kratos can sometimes teleport to her too, and at the
last phase of the fight you can actually get Kratos to fall out of bounds by
Ice Rage glitching Megaera... but this isn't useful so far.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qDtOhCn61I#t=19
Other: sometimes the game can softlock at the last phase of the Megaera fight.
Kratos, Megaera and the summoned five Spartan soldiers just stand in place and
nothing ever happens after that - have to retry from the last checkpoint. This
softlock might be related to doing Soul Rage at a wrong time as the last phase
of the fight starts.
Videos:
1, Robin Fleming's video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBWr1bhWWWI
Other: another softlock at this part is that the game might not load any
assets correctly as Daimon swoops in and picks up Kratos. This means the
scenery and Daimon itself are invisible, and the mini-game looks highly
glitched since the camera is not aligned correctly either. The level can't be
won in this state because there is no Daimon to fight against. You're also
softlocked, because when you try to retry, you only return to the start of
this glitched mini-game.
It's unknown if this softlock is related to doing the skip in Chapter 19 which
starts the boss fight in an incomplete state.
Videos:
1, ragnellgow's video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ur-hAT-AlpI
Out of bounds: once the 2nd part of the fight starts, you can jump over the
walls of the fight arena with a Shield Jump and explore out of bounds for a
bit. Unfortunately there is nowhere you can really go from here.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vB9RlQqlAak#t=209
Other: retrying from the checkpoint where Kratos fights against Daimon and
spamming R1+X, Kratos can break out of it. He regains the freedom to move for a
moment, and after that may continue doing the mini-game displaced. He can win
the fight even if his Blade attacks are nowhere near Daimon.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qDtOhCn61I#t=113
Other: you are able to glitch up the mini-game of first phase of the Tisiphone
fight. After Tisiphone gets the mini-game symbol over her head, first do a
glitched ground tether at her by holding R-stick to a direction while you
tether her. The tether should miss. Then do an air tether to her while holding
R-stick to a direction. The tether should hit and the mini-game starts.
The effect of this fairly odd combination doesn't become apparent until the
start of the next phase. Now, doing some damage to Tisiphone makes her enter
mini-game mode almost instantly, and activating the mini-game reveals that it's
the same one that ended the first phase of the fight! So the fight is in a
strange limbo where Tisiphone's health and A.I. are from the end of the first
fight, but Megaera is around as well. Letting the fight linger on for long
enough makes Megaera lose her A.I., causing her to just hop in place menacingly
- she anticipates the sisters' scripted combination attack to start.
Meanwhile, activating the mini-game on Tisiphone causes a glitchy mini-game
since Megaera won't participate in it. Winning the mini-game mostly returns
things to normal and the next phase of the fight can continue proper.
Alternatively, you can ignore the mini-game and Tisiphone and simply deal
enough damage to Megaera to also force the fight to continue like normal.
Losing the mini-game instead causes the fight to revert back to phase 1 and
Megaera entirely disappears - apparently she drops out of bounds. The camera
will glitch up and go underground for a moment and you become checkpointed...
Now the fight is unwinnable, since the next time you damage Tisiphone enough
she won't enter her mini-game phase. Instead she just laughs on the spot
endlessly!
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6y2EdUdjNqI
Other: a similar type of mini-game glitch can be done at the 3rd phase of
Tisiphone fight as well. Doing the same input - first a glitched ground tether,
then an air tether where you hold R-stick to a direction - can make Kratos do
the 2nd phase mini-game to Tisiphone instead of the finisher QTE. Losing the
mini-game drops Megaera out of bounds like usual, but at least the fight won't
get stuck afterwards since the game knows you're basically in the last phase of
the fight and can continue damaging Tisiphone to bring her back to the
finishing mini-game again.
It's also possible to start the finishing QTE after having dropped Megaera out
of bounds to have the scene slightly glitched up with no Megaera at all. The
background graphics are also different until the last cutscene of the chapter
begins.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://youtu.be/6y2EdUdjNqI?t=140
Other: after the fight, it seems inevitable that you have to finish off
Tisiphone. However, if you press tether and then hold R-stick away from
Tisiphone, you can in fact miss with your grabs and move past Tisiphone. You
spared her! Unfortunately you are now softlocked and have to retry.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://youtu.be/DTlMEWb0Og8?t=158
--- Chapter 21 - The Forearm of Apollo ---
-------------------------------------------------------
World weapon: the enemies in the next fight wield Clubs and Javelins.
Speed strategy: you don't have to rotate the elevator crank all the way. Just
rotate it part of the way and then Shield Jump up the elevator. (Hopefully you
didn't lose the Shield in the last boss fight.)
Speed strategy: you don't have to use the Oath Stone to open up the gate to the
larger room. Instead, stand on the button as Kratos, then when the grapple
point is active, jump up to the corner of the room and R1 the grapple point
through the wall.
Or just Shield Jump repeatedly to get over the doorway, but this way will
sometimes spawn the enemies in the area too. Not to mention the floor can
sometimes kill Kratos when you land on it with a Shield attack, so just for
safety it might be the best to not use this method.
Videos:
1, a speedrun part where this trick is used:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDqv61wmIvw#t=1034
Sequence break: you can skip the The Oath Stone of Orkos tutorial fight by
doing a "slightly higher double jump" followed by Shield Jump. This is just
enough height to get to the top early. But it's overall more consistent to use
a Broken Destiny jump instead to do the same thing.
Speed strategy: you can get to the platform you'd have to drag closer by using
a Shield Jump. Or using Broken Destiny for long jump purposes works almost as
well.
World weapon: a Javelin is lying near the big broken chain.
Wasted potential: you can reach fire elevator with Upgrade Jump and thus skip
the fight at the yard... except that the elevator is not loaded until you've
beaten the fight.
As a plus side, instead of the fire elevator there is an interesting gray
square-patterned floor far below it you can check out.
Other: if you mess up fixing the chain by letting go of L2 too early, sometimes
the chain glitches up and becomes unfixable. The hotspot where Amulet responds
to the chain disappears and you have no choice but to retry from last
checkpoint.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBn2FdCc6eg#t=55
Other: sometimes the collisions of the chain glitch up after you've fixed it
and Kratos sinks inside it instead of being able to use it as a platform. If
this happens, you have to break and fix the chain again - sometimes this makes
things fine again.
Other: a myriad of extra chain puzzle glitches can occur if you break out of
the chain's grapple using Rage and Item and then leave the shadow clone to hold
chain too far away. This basically makes the game confused about what state the
chain is actually in.
If you leave the clone to hold the chain too far away, then just activate the
chain with amulet and let go of it, the chain breaks and returns to normal with
a potentially jerky looking animation. Afterwards, there is mysterious
collision in the way of the chain, making it harder to latch onto the chain a
2nd time. The collision will also prevent you from moving the chain unless you
do another grapple switch break-out.
If you leave the clone to hold the chain too far away, but then attempt to fix
the chain to the next level, you'll soon find that the chain will collapse
after fixed. It can't be used as a platform, and it can neither be tethered
again or fixed again, so the puzzle can't be solved after this. There is
actually an invisible piece of chain you could latch onto here if there wasn't
all this collision in the way.
Finally, if you leave the clone to hold the chain too far away and then
entirely fix the chain, you get a variation where the chain looks intact but it
can still be tethered onto with R1. Kratos can pull an invisible chain, and
finally leave a clone to hold the invisible chain and "fix" the chain all over
again. After that the chain starts working like normal again.
Some of these glitches can maybe happen without leaving a shadow clone far
away, but that is at least one guaranteed way to start this glitch.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://youtu.be/mpXQ6DrhRFI?t=131
2, Clarensee's original vid from 2013 (may be relevant?):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dfPHoYUcsg
Sequence break: if you want to spend an Upgrade Jump, you can skip fixing the
chain by jumping over it.
Even without using an Upgrade Jump there is a (very small) timesave here: first
drag the other end of the chain so that it meets the other end. Use Oath Stone
to have a shadow Kratos hold the chain in that position. Then do a Shield Jump
on top of the right half of the chain and then a continuous Shield Jump to get
well on top of the wooden platform in the background. Then choose to let go of
the chain again. Now Kratos should be behind the invisible wall of the chain
and can continue even without healing the chain. But this is barely faster (and
a lot riskier) than doing it normally.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid of the small timesave:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y41_PzqCNJ8
Wasted potential: you might be able to skip fixing the chain and also the fire
elevator intro by doing a very high jump over from the left side. But there is
some invisible wall on the way, so a mere Combined Tactics Jump does not cut
it.
Other: for a stylish and handy way to ride the fire elevator to the top, you
can set a shadow Kratos on one of the buttons of the elevator, then run out of
the exit. Wait for the elevator to rise up a bit, then hang onto its ledge. Now
you can safely hang onto the ledge for a good part of the journey without
having to bother with enemies or the fire at all.
Videos:
1, part of the speedrun where this trick is used:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDqv61wmIvw#t=1100
Sequence break: you can get out of the 2nd fire elevator ride without killing
any enemies by jumping through the fight barrier's right side in a certain
angle. Simple yet efficient!
--- Chapter 22 - The Ribs of Apollo ---
--------------------------------------------------
Sequence break: you can skip some climbing by doing a long jump to the
background. A Shield Discard Jump or continuous Shield Jumps should do for this
purpose. Just remember to grasp onto the grapple point down below after having
travelled long enough.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZWanwL3n3o
Sequence break: a more advanced version of this skip is to jump directly to the
platforms you'd normally end up after the climbing part. It's possible since
they're actually on the same side of the level than where you start from. The
best way I've found to do this is to use a Shield Discard jump from a LAM
momentum from the first grapple point up ahead, then at the top of the jump do
Unarmed Jump continuously. If your aim was good, you're now at the end of the
chapter.
But that's not all. Now you lack a loading trigger, so you need to go fetch it
from downstairs. Jump to the direction you would normally enter this area from
(yes, on top of the chasm) and then back again, this hits the trigger. Then you
will need a new Shield to do high jumps again, so you need to start the fight
before entering The Furnace and fetch a Shield from the small Satyr there.
Don't use Oath Stone for knocking a Shield off the Satyr's hands because this
can crash the game when entering deeper into the Furnace. All in all, this skip
should save around 25 secs.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev3skF7n3vU
Other: there is a small invisible floor below the mid-point of the last climb
before making to the next set of grapple points. You can carefully get onto it
with a Shield Jump, but so far there isn't much use from this knowledge. Hard
to reach anywhere useful from here with all the death collision nearby.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://youtu.be/R8Tqnly5-Qw?t=373
World weapon: after the climbing, you come upon an abandoned Club. The enemies
can also drop Shield.
Sequence break: you can skip the Satyr General fight by doing a Shield Jump
from atop the nearby box.
Alternatively, and faster, you can do continuous Unarmed Jump from the higher
platforms, sticking to the right-hand wall. If done right, Kratos ends up out
of bounds on the Satyr General fight platform and can just slip past the fight
boundary from there. Picking up a Shield from the enemies is still possible
even if Kratos is already past the fight barrier.
Videos:
1, a part of a speedrun where this trick is used:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDqv61wmIvw#t=1147
Other: sometimes you can have one of the larger Satyrs to spawn on the wrong
side of the fight barrier.
Speed strategy: The piece you push in the upcoming corridor can also be Shield
Jumped over.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qtzBjG8Fz0
--- Chapter 23 - The Furnace ---
------------------------------------------
Sequence break / wasted potential: you can enter The Furnace from out of bounds
with repeated Shield Jumps from on top of the second piece you'd push out of
the way. But doing this seems to be less useful than you'd hope, because the
switch to pour oil on top of the coal pot is never unsealed until you fight the
Cyclops fight.
This trick should be tested a bit more. For now it seems necessary to fight the
Furnace fight and see the intro cutscene sooner or later because otherwise you
can't complete the Furnace puzzle. Or am I missing something here? Could this
actually be a nice sequence break?
Videos:
1, a part of a speedrun where this trick is seemingly used:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDqv61wmIvw#t=1166
World weapon: there's a Sword in the middle of the main area.
Speed strategy: one of the fastest ways to complete this fight is to hit all
the required Manticore eggs to activate the flying enemies, then group them all
together close to the Cyclops and cast Ice Magic twice. This shatters all
flying enemies and freezes the Cyclops, and it's very easy to shatter him after
that.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL8_rm2d7Mo
Speed strategy: you can get around the bars leading to the left area by Shield
Jumping there. Go to the back and left and jump over the chasm and around the
wall to reach the other side. Simple as that!
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid of using Shield Jump:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwmIBIRWYgg
Other: if you do things in wrong order here, you can have the Cyclops hit
Kratos as he is turning the wheel that creates sparks. This causes the sparks
to shoot out of the machine forever, and you might become stuck, unable to
complete the puzzle. (c: findlestick)
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5haAFn9L8Ig#t=73
Speed strategy: you can reach the area at the back without using the moving
platform. You have to start by doing a Shield Jump from the left side of the
wheel you'd normally turn at this point. This is to go over a small invisible
wall. Then do another Shield Jump to get on top of the wheel. And from there a
continuous Shield Jump is enough to reach the other side.
Speed strategy (NG+): if you leave some of the Manticore eggs intact, you can
use them to move the coal pedestal around with the Ice Rage glitch, saving
time. However, it's not recommended to use more than one Ice Rage in a RTA,
because otherwise there is a chance the game will crash.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL8_rm2d7Mo
Other: for unknown reasons, maybe for using Ice Rage glitch in a certain way,
the coal pedestal can glitch up. Only the coal remains and it is floating in
air. The pedestal also can't be moved any longer after this! In Robin Fleming's
example below, the coal pedestal was positioned beneath the right-most part of
the machine and could still be lit on fire using the Amulet, even though it was
glitched up.
Videos:
1, Robin Fleming's video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3zITwE4wUg
Wasted potential: using an Upgrade jump you can reach inside the exit elevator
before lighting up the Furnace. The elevator starts rising, but it never
delivers Kratos to the next map, causing him to get stuck.
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5haAFn9L8Ig#t=103
World weapon: after lighting up The Furnace and walking back to the main hall,
some Sling enemies will spawn.
Sequence break: you can skip the fight after lighting up The Furnace by (again)
going over the gap using Shield Jumps.
An alternative is to jump through the ceiling of the room to get back upstairs,
if you can spare an upgrade for that purpose. Broken Destiny jump that gets
extra height from a reset in air or an Upgrade Jump (with hover) is also enough
for this job. You can also try to do a simple Combined Tactics Jump if you feel
lucky.
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid of going through the ceiling:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UCJQ0xXt6g
Speed strategy: you can skip using the grapple point and climbing for a short
while by doing a Shield Jump up to the conveyor belt.
Sequence break: skip conveyor belt fight
If you do an Upgrade Jump, Broken Destiny jump or a slightly higher double jump
-> Shield Jump, Kratos is able to get enough height at the back end of the
conveyor belt to be able to grasp onto the grapple point above early.
Videos:
1, findlestick's vid of using Upgrade Jump:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvHmKkOJ5Io
--- Chapter 24 - The Shoulder of Apollo ---
--------------------------------------------------------
World weapon: enemies with Shields, Swords, Clubs and Slings spawn at the start
of the level.
Sequence break: you can skip fixing the chain after the fight if you just
Shield Jump to the upper level. The footing is a bit slippery, but with a
certain angle you'll make it. However, you must do this after the fight or else
there is nothing loaded beyond.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vB9RlQqlAak#t=175
Speed strategy: you can save a little bit of time during the upcoming slide by
utilizing the Poseidon Tremble speed glitch. My recommendation is to aim L-
stick to the right just a little bit while doing Blades air attacks after
gaining superspeed. Kratos is aligned with the path for a moment doing this,
and then you can land back on it by using a move like Poseidon Tremble again -
something that sends Kratos down without the influence of superspeed. If done
correctly, you end up back on the path a short way before the grapple point,
and you save 15 seconds.
You can try to go further ahead with superspeed, but so far these attempts have
not yielded good results. Latching onto the grapple point ahead from superspeed
causes a mysterious game over. In general the death collision acts a bit weird
during that stretch of corridor, and I couldn't get Kratos there safely from
superspeed. Also, while you can land right before the exit of the sliding part,
nothing ahead is loaded having skipped too much of the sliding section. So for
now roughly 15 secs of time save is the best we can do in this part.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XSx7n0ZQFA
--- Chapter 25 - The Furnace ---
------------------------------------------
Random: apparently the enemies during the first elevator ride can't be
disarmed.
Random: if you use an attack with a knockback against the Hounds, they
sometimes fly through the flames without dying. But this is enough to start the
elevator rising sequence.
Speed strategy: you can lure the Talos enemy to jump into the flames during its
leaping attack.
Speed strategy: you can stun the Satyrs by parrying their attacks, then throw
them quickly into the flames. Fire Rage is another quick way to stun the
enemies.
Other: at the mid-way stop, you can cause a small glitch by first pulling the
grapple switch all the way and let it be held down by a shadow Kratos, then
going to the large wheel and doing L2+triangle in air in front of it just
before landing to cut the animation short. You have a very short time to
examine the wheel with R1 before the lid becomes closed. So now Kratos turns
the wheel while being phased inside the lid.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qDtOhCn61I#t=166
Other: you can cause some minor glitches here using a grapple switch break-out.
One interesting thing you can do is to leave a shadow clone on top of the
chest, then open the chest. Opening the chest severs the connection between the
clone and the grapple switch for some reason!
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://youtu.be/mpXQ6DrhRFI?t=283
Other: for some reason the fire in the center of the elevator can shut down
early and it becomes impossible to complete this section.
Videos:
1, Robin Fleming's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tminud8b8Yc
World weapon: during the second part of elevator ride, you can get Sword from
enemies.
Speed strategy: if you hadn't retried from last checkpoint since Chapter 24,
you are in a special mode where ledge magnetism acts in a extra powerful way.
In this case you can use Tremble ledge magnetism to climb on top of the tall
wall of the elevator and jump inside even if all enemies are not dead yet. Just
be careful with your jump: if it's too short, Kratos will get stuck on
something and you have to retry.
Sometimes it's simply faster to kill the enemies normally since this also
speeds up the loading of the next area, but it never hurts to have
alternatives.
--- Chapter 26 - Eyes of Apollo ---
--------------------------------------------
Speed strategy: after riding the elevator to the top floor, Shield Run to keep
moving during the scenic cutscene.
World weapon: a lone Club is sitting in the corner of the bottom floor.
Other: in general Eyes of Apollo is a somehow glitchy map. Loading this Chapter
from the menu (or just playing to here from the previous chapters) again gives
Kratos super-responsive ledge magnetism, allowing him to grab onto high ledges
almost everywhere in the map. But retrying just once, this ability is lost, so
keep that in mind.
Also, I've noticed that sometimes if you quit game as you do Poseidon Tremble
here, the game will crash.
Other: one of the sillier ledge magnetism spots in this map is inside the glass
cube. You are able to zip Kratos inside it so that only his head and arms pop
out. Pressing circle to drop down is fatal, since there is some death collision
at the bottom of the glass... Kratos also dies if he is standing under the
glass cube as it is lowered down, which looks humorous.
Videos:
1, Robin Fleming's vid of the ledge magnetism:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0F5JJ-ZO9k
2, AKheon's vid of being crushed under the glass cube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vB9RlQqlAak#t=381
Speed strategy: completing the puzzle fast (version 1)
It's possible to skip large parts of the Eyes puzzle and solve it under a
minute. First of all, you don't need the block to get out of the pit you start
in if you have Shield since you can just Shield Jump out. So do that. Then you
might as well pull the switch on the very left to lower the beam, because you
have to do this sooner or later. After that, go back on top of the glass cube
and push the block off the cube. Now, the interesting part of this strategy...
Jump on the spot on top of the cube so that it starts rising. Do Broken Destiny
to stay in air for long enough for the game to think that the block is rising
up unhindered and that the ensuing cutscene starts. Then, when the cutscene is
close to over, retry from last checkpoint. As the game continues, the block is
rising up... but so is Kratos with it! This is a fast trip upstairs.
Run a little ways into the conveyor belt, leave a Kratos clone, then solve the
remaining puzzle as normal. Easy peasy!
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNpXlliLotg
Speed strategy: completing the puzzle fast (version 2)
Later an even faster alternative way to solve the puzzle was discovered. First
push the block off the glass cube but leave a Kratos clone behind you to
prevent the block from rising up. Then climb up the ladder, get to the conveyor
belt and leave a new Kratos clone on it. Next, make your way up to the switch
to the left... it doesn't matter which way you go, as long as you don't land on
the glass cube or else a cutscene will start. Now you can multitask and pull
the switch and set everything else up while the clone is on its way, saving
some extra seconds in the process.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW_MrMhkr6s
Speed strategy: aside the previous ideas, it is possible to use Poseidon
Tremble under some strategic ledges to skip climbing. You can get to the
conveyor belt in one second by doing a Tremble close to the glass cube - a
little to the right and down from it, aiming the Tremble downwards. Or another
way to get to the conveyor belt fast is to do a Tremble close to the ladder
(aiming away from it) to grasp onto the ledge right above.
Finally, after solving the puzzle you can use Tremble to skip a part of the
ladder climb. Try doing a Tremble towards right when standing next to the chain
you had to pull during the puzzle. There is a strange ledge far above, and with
double jumps you can get to the top of the first part of the ladder in two
seconds or so. The worst part about all these Trembles is that they're not
always 100% reliable to do, so they probably aren't worth it to do in a RTA.
(c: Robin Fleming)
Sequence break: no matter how you solve the puzzle, you never have to fight the
Wraiths and other enemies down in the pit. As long as you can high jump just a
little...
Wasted potential: you can skip the entire puzzle using an Upgrade Jump, but the
game will freeze during the next cutscene.
--- Chapter 27 - The Lantern of Delos ---
------------------------------------------------------
Other: pressing R1 during the cutscene transition into this chapter, Kratos
breaks out of the small Manticore pre-fight cutscene. He doesn't fall from
above along with Manticore - instead he starts off standing on ground in his
angry idle stance. Looks somewhat comical, although it doesn't save time.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1WrF70NW7k#t=277
Other: the Manticore fight can glitch up in a game breaking way. There is no
music in the fight, camera is fixed to a strange position... and worst of all,
once you've killed the Manticore, the gate blocking the exit does not lower. So
you're stuck if this happens. The glitch seems to start if you retry from this
checkpoint, so you should do your best to ensure that never happens. Don't quit
playing at this point of the game or die during the fight.
Note: this glitch has been patched, so if you updated Ascension, this is
something you don't have to worry about.
Wasted potential: you can get over the gate and skip fighting Manticore with a
high enough jump... but you can't progress in the level before having dealt
with the beast.
Speed strategy: you can Shield Run into the next cutscene after having killed
the Manticore to save a few seconds. As a glitchy bonus, this moves the
location of the next checkpoint too a little, so that it starts right before
the pre-rendered cutscene.
Other: sometimes the music of the Manticore fight will get stuck even after
beating it. The fight music goes on until you go open the left door for the
first time.
Other: you can break out of the story cutscene that takes place shortly after
the Manticore fight by using passive tether into it. Kratos stands idly by as
the cutscene progresses and no dialogue is heard. Other than that, things work
out like normal.
You can also break-out of the 2nd part of the cutscene by pressing X and R1 at
the same time after skipping the pre-rendered cinematic.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid of glitching 1st part of the cinematic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1WrF70NW7k#t=300
2, AKheon's vid of glitching 2nd part of the cinematic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqOMKOW6szA#t=214
Wasted potential: you can try to do a high jump to the Trials of Archimedes
chapter before turning the lens to its right place, but nothing is loaded
there. Nothing is also loaded beneath this area (except one stray chest), so
you can't go to the end of Chapter 28 early either.
--- Chapter 28 - Trial of Archimedes ---
---------------------------------------------------
Other: in this level there are two areas, right and left side, that Kratos is
only supposed to move between using the portal. If Kratos goes around the
portal using high jumps, some strange things happen as a result.
If you're on the left side without the game being ready for it, the graphics in
the background are glitched up until you approach the left doors since a
loading trigger is there. Also, trying to open the left doors causes Kratos to
become stuck in the animation for all eternity! If you try to return to the
right side after having been to the left doors, Kratos falls out of bounds
since the right area does not exist at the moment.
If you're on the right side without the game being ready for it, trying to open
the right doors causes a really bizarre effect where Kratos appears in unloaded
nothingness and you get the cinematic that you normally see at the end of
Chapter 28! However, this doesn't seem to mean anything and afterwards Kratos
continues falling in unloaded nothingness, eventually getting killed.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid of the bizarre right side effect:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpRn9aP9VFE
2, AKheon's vid that has the listed left side variations and more:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhX2VGGQu28
Wasted potential: upgrade break-outs in this area can't be utilized in any
meaningful way. Even if Kratos has broken out of some action, time is stopped
and you can't do anything else during this time.
Wasted potential: you can't jump inside the cage to get Eyes of Truth early
from underneath because the floor is solid!
Other / speed strategy: when opening the right doors for the first time, you
get two cutscenes in a row. Between the cutscenes there is a frame of time
during which you can *close* the doors while the game is still reacting to them
being opened the first time, causing some strange stuff to happen.
The most obvious effect is that Kratos regains movement early during the door
opening cutscene. With the doors still closed, though, there is little to do
than marvel at the cinematic camera angles until the cutscene ends.
If you re-open the right doors while the cutscene is still playing, you are
able to go and fetch the Eyes of Truth during it, and... yes! This is actually
a speed tactic that cuts some 10 seconds off the boring cutscene. You also
regain movement during the elevator ride down, allowing you to multitask by
shooting the elevator switch with Eyes of Truth early. The worst part is that
this trick is indeed frame precise, and there's no guarantee of being able to
do it in a RTA. At least it doesn't waste time to try.
Escaping the elevator ride is possible. If you close the right doors while the
platform is down, you cause a glitchy switch to appear where the cage should
be. You can Eyes of Truth it, but cannot access and turn it at this state.
Escaping back to the first area, its graphics are currently glitched. If you
return, the Eyes of Truth have materialized back inside the invisible floating
cage. You cannot retrieve them like this, and you are stuck since you can't
begin the Trial either!
One drawback of using Eyes of Truth to the elevator early is that sometimes the
switch glitches up and can't be activated. The game thinks that the Fury
Barrier is still blocking the switch, although it is invisible. But you can fix
this by shooting the switch with Eyes one extra time.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpRn9aP9VFE#t=47
Other: if you still have hyper responsive ledge magnetism, beware: don't do
Falling Helios too much during the Trials of Archimedes fights. Otherwise
Kratos has the danger of falling through the seams of the fight arena to his
death, ruining your progress.
Don't try to escape the fights early either by climbing on top of the risen
parts of the platform either. Stray pieces of death collision can catch you
doing that!
Fight exploit: staying near the edges of the arena can sometimes make the
Gorgons or other enemies completely passive, allowing you to pick them off with
Oath Stone from afar.
Other: after beating all three fights but before lifting the elevator up to the
top floor, walking to the sides of the arena hurts Kratos as if there were some
spikes still there.
Speed strategy: you don't have to rotate the lens apparatus all the way to the
correct position. It can be slightly skewed and the game still counts the
puzzle as being completed.
Other: if you use the Eyes of Truth or do some other attacks while going in
through the doorway to the other side, the Eyes on Kratos' hands in the
cutscene are invisible.
Other / wasted potential: if you beat the Trial while the game thinks you're on
the left half of the area, upon closing the right doors again the cage will not
close. You can't rotate the switch right now, and thus can't complete the
puzzle of the area like this.
Other: if you dissipate shadow Kratos that is holding the crank right before
entering the portal to the other side after solving the puzzle, the game enters
a glitched state where you've half-won the level. You get the "puzzle failure"
cutscene, but afterwards Kratos still doesn't lose his Eyes of Truth. The inky
Fury barrier also doesn't appear behind him after passing to the other side,
unlike normal.
So what to do now? If you go to the left doorway, Kratos becomes stuck
struggling to open it. The animation of opening the door never ends and you
just get stuck. Also, if you visit the left door and try to return to the right
side, it has most likely unloaded, causing Kratos to fall to his death... too
bad you can't skip to the lower floor early doing this, though.
If you manage to return to the right side, you can cause other strange
reactions like picking up two sets of Eyes of Truth. Unfortunately doing this
will cause the crank of the cage to glitch up - after this point Kratos will
only grab an invisible "crank" that does not actually align the lenses at all.
So you get stuck. It's also possible to make Eyes of Truth disappear entirely
from both Kratos' inventory and the level before completing the puzzle, making
the game truly unwinnable.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhX2VGGQu28
Wasted potential: it seems you can't tether break out of the cutscene that
starts after beating the Trial puzzle and walking through the portal.
Other: with a break-out, Kratos can regain movement after opening the last set
of doors and completely prevent the final set of cutscenes of this chapter from
starting. During this time, you can try to go and pick up Eyes of Truth from
inside the cage, even though you're never supposed to do that in this part of
the map. Kratos' animation is displaced in a strange way, after which the eyes
float in air for a moment... and this can be done repeatedly. Not useful, it
seems, but looks pretty fun. You can also close the doors, but that does
absolutely nothing. You're stuck, and have to retry to continue.
Videos:
1, Robin Fleming's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGO80of20GA&t=811
Other: it seems that if you frame precisely cast a stray magic during the
loading transition to The Fury Citadel, Kratos can become frozen and refuses to
move afterwards. You also don't get a new checkpoint, forcing you to start over
from the previous chapter before all the long cutscenes.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqOMKOW6szA#t=253
--- Chapter 29 - The Fury Citadel ---
-----------------------------------------------
Sequence break: you can skip the section where you have to pull the grapple
switch to activate a grapple point, saving something like 20 seconds. There are
two ways to go about doing this:
The crazier, riskier way is to jam Kratos between the wall and the grapple
switch. Pull the grapple switch away from the wall a little way, hold it down
with a shadow Kratos, get Kratos in the right position and let go of the
grapple switch... Kratos may get pushed through the wall. Doing rolls towards
the wall at this time also seems necessary to have enough speed to go through.
(c: AKheon)
Or for a more reliable way, use a LAM / Broken Destiny type of jump to get
enough height to go over the wall.
The best way, if you've played directly from Chapter 26 without a retry, is
doing Poseidon Tremble ledge magnetism towards the right side of the far wall.
This will lift Kratos up to the top of the wall and you can jump over it from
there.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid of the first method:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gP8sleiBqQ
Wasted potential: you can R1 the exit door before beating the two Empusas, but
nothing happens afterwards. Screen stays black and you are stuck. In other
words, the Empusa fight can't be skipped.
Wasted potential: you can frame precisely cast magic at the last checkpoint
before Alecto's Chamber. But all this does is cause a short graphical effect -
no break-out seems to be possible.
-- Chapter 30 - Alecto's Chamber ---
------------------------------------------------
Other / speed strategy: Cutscene break-out
You can do a temporary break-out when entering the first cutscene. Jump in air
and do passive tether - as you fall into the cutscene, Kratos is able to do one
attack after landing down. You can cast a magic to glitch up the camera. In
general doing attacks switches Kratos' walking angle for the next part, so he
can accidentally miss Alecto during his dramatic walk and fall out of bounds
instead.
So how to use this break-out as a speed tactic? Simply do a Shield Run after
the break-out to have Kratos keep moving towards Alecto during the small
cutscene. Soon you'll see the text reminding you to use Eyes of Truth, meaning
you hit the next checkpoint and the next phase in the cinematic. If you retry
now, you can continue on in the game like normal, having skipped the cinematic
walk and a part of the cutscene (overall about 15 seconds time save).
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZRMIOcGHJY
Wasted potential: it's not possible to break out of the using Eyes of Truth-
checkpoint using magic.
Other: rarely if you cast magic as the game transitions into the stormy sea
section, you get a softlock where the HUD appears and the camera shows a
picture of the sea where nothing is going on. You seemingly can't control
Kratos at the moment, and have to retry.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://youtu.be/DTlMEWb0Og8?t=293
Other: during the first fight, if Daimon starts throwing Kratos at the same
time the cutscene of tentacles throwing ships around starts, you'll see Kratos
being thrown at first before he disappears mid-air. Then the following cutscene
cuts short as the game over screen appears.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://youtu.be/R8Tqnly5-Qw?t=171
Other: rarely a cruel glitch can happen here where Kratos falls out of bounds
during the cutscene after beating the first tentacle. This causes him to not
only die but also become checkpointed out of bounds, meaning that it is
impossible to continue playing from that point. Have to retry from chapter
beginning!
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://youtu.be/zaoG_RH6uDY?t=374
Wasted potential: in the part where you have to fight two tentacles that are
wrapped around the ship, you can high jump over the first tentacle to get to
the end of the ship early. Unfortunately nothing interesting can be done here,
other than camera becoming glitched. The tentacle forgets to shield itself with
a Fury Barrier so you can easily whittle down its health and then mini-game it
from the wrong side, but Kratos just phases through the tentacle to the correct
side.
Other: spamming Eyes of Truth causes the tentacle Fury Barrier to act
strangely. It rejuvenates almost instantly if you make it vanish, for one.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://youtu.be/R8Tqnly5-Qw?t=333
Other: detaching from the tentacle slide
When Kratos starts sliding on the big tentacle, retrying from last checkpoint
and spamming X can cause Kratos to begin the checkpoint in air. So he
effectively breaks free of the autoscrolling sliding section. He can land on
top of the next tentacle - still invisible at this point - and continue on like
normal. This would save a few seconds, except retrying from checkpoint wastes
time in itself... oh well. Other than landing on the invisible tentacle, Kratos
can fall into the water and see out of bounds for a moment before game over
hits.
It turns out that you can also detach from the tentacle without retrying from
last checkpoint by spamming X very fast when the part begins for the first
time. I only did it once, but as a result the upcoming tentacles are not loaded
at all. They start off invisible, they remain invisible, and at the end of the
ride Kratos can't save himself because the upcoming grapple points do not
exist.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid of the latter scenario:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqPhrur6O00
Other: the death collision of the water is unique and you can open up menus as
the game over screen is timed to appear on screen. This allows some unique side
results, like... crashing the game or finishing the game while Start-menu is
active and blocking your view.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9x3nDo5tPs
Other: you are able to do attacks for a short moment at the end of the
underwater section. Doing magics causes Kratos to land on the upcoming fight
arena early, which looks strange. But after the magic is over, the normal
cutscenes will continue and everything goes back to normal.
Well, it is a speed strategy of sort on NG+ to cast Soul Rage during this time
since the final boss is very vulnerable to souls and they do in fact keep
hitting it during the cutscene. It has not been timed, but this should save
some time.
World weapon: there's a Javelin in the final boss arena.
Other / Speed Strategy: casting Soul Rage has a strange effect in this fight.
The souls will target some invisible target at the back-left of the fight
arena, hovering around it and causing a lot of hits. This actually damages the
boss itself, and on NG+ you'll finish this boss in no time by just doing the
Rage over and over again.
Other: I once had a strange glitch here where screen prompts and subtitles
became disabled at the final checkpoint of the game. It would be kind of
difficult the play the game through like this, considering you don't see what
button you have to press during the QTEs!
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid:
https://youtu.be/R8Tqnly5-Qw?t=193
Other: you can break-out of the ending cutscene! First opportunity to do this
is after the cinematic where Alecto's Chamber explodes. Spamming R1+X may cause
Kratos to stand idly in the middle of the road when the game shows you Kratos'
house. But this break-out is pretty harmless and fixes itself soon.
Another break-out opportunity is after the cinematic cutscene where Kratos'
family is slain. This causes the camera to become very skewed so that you can't
see anything of the ending happening. There is also no narration, so it's a
very anti-climactic, bizarre ending like this.
Videos:
1, AKheon's vid of the break-outs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMfM78hYjas#t=2754
6. The end
-------------
====================================
Copyright © 2015 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.
====================================
For questions, you ought to contact the author's Youtube-address:
https://www.youtube.com/user/AKheon
FIN