Mount Olympus

Gaia:Shoulder

-BR

Gaia:Arm

-BR

Leviathan 1 - (Standing 1) s,t,t,t, switching sides for the breath

(Ceiling) s,s,s, quick move to change sides (didn’t make an effort to find the safe spot due to the lack of checkpoints between phases *didn’t want to waste what time I had*)

(Wall) s,s,t was amusing, though I opted out of using it because I had a tendency to not move quick enough when embroiled in an attack string

(Standing 2) I stayed up close for this stage, still using s,t,t,t, block the single claw swipes, roll away from the slam, switch sides for the breath

Mountainside:Exterior A

-BR

Mountainside:Exterior B

-Grab the nearest spawn at the front, BR, head straight to the back to take out the archers, then BR the rest

Moutainside:Interior:Tomb of Ares

-Reverse the first grab (scripted), I still prefer CQC due to the tendency of the reverse to malfunction, easy enough to just hit with t,s, block, wait for the others to arrive, BR for “O”, then finish them off

Gaia:Chest:Exterior

Leviathan 2

Stage 1 – I prefer to stay up close on the left side (our left), still using s,t,t,t (or as much as he allows time for). Block his claw swipe (reminiscent of the first Infected Hand encounter in GoW:A), block the alternating slams (with s,t in between), then s,t,t,t to drive him back, roll back twice for the big slam

Stage 2 – As before, but now dodging to the side for the breath

Gaia:Chest:Interior

-BR

Gaia:Head

Poseidon

Stage 1 – Stay in the foreground, s,t,t,t, switch sides for his claw slam, glide over his lightning (very handy to know that exists)

Gaia:Hand

Stage 2 – I tried out your little nook, seemed useful but I couldn’t play as directly as I wanted, so I chose to stay between Poseidon and the base of Gaia’s thumb, s,t,t,t when on the ground, blocking his punch and sweep, jumping onto the wall for his stabs (t,t,t when up here).

Gaia:Head

Stage 3 – Exactly as before but with more annoying lightning attacks. When he does the left/right one, if you’re on the left wait out the right, then jump and glide over it, if you’re on the right just pray you can jump quick enough (which you usually can’t), for the front to back one, wait out the first two then jump and glide (I often got hit here but jumping too early and gliding down onto the last one).

River Styx

-Swim

Realm of Hades

Hades Path

-BR

Palace of Hades:Exterior

(AoS Trial) BR

(Rope) To comment on your points from earlier, we absolutely do not have iframes whilst going for grabs, coming out of grabs, attacking, moving, etc. We only get them during grabs (and reverses), and they’re very keen to hit you right as you come out of a grab. After ~5 attempts I only managed to get through taking 1 hit, it’s asking a little too much of RNG to go without damage.

Gorgon Serpent Chamber

-Gorgon grab reverses are the main event here, then BR when her friends show up, when there was only a Gorgon left I went for CG whoring (seemed a bit quicker).

Peirithous Puzzle

-I did try the AI abuse option, but I found it easier to face the mongrel directly. Block his melee, dodge the fireballs (didn’t bother with air blocks), t,s for “O”. Then use fireballs for the sentries, and flamethrower for Peirithous.

Harpy Chamber

-Harpies are kinda dicks in GoWIII, they really enjoy swooping down at you after your air grabs or getting in the way as CG pulls you up, meaning you’ll often get hit in strange ways if you aren’t careful enough (which I’m not). The AI boundary at the entrance is also not precise, they won’t follow you in there unless they’re preparing for a dive, in which case they can do anything they want, and (why am I not surprised) their indicator on the floor sometimes disappears. So all that is a very long way of saying CG to air OS to ground OS, but with much opportunity for annoyance. I was also still getting back the HP from the hit on the rope, so no room for error (back to 100HP after grabbing the remaining Lost Souls).

Underworld:Cliffside

-Navigate

Three Judges:Lower *Trials of Erebus*

-Go to the corner slightly left of the book (where we’d jump to get the chests) and wait for some spawns, then OS the nearest hand until the spawn pool is worn out, after that use the space to charge spirits to take out the rest.

-BR, prioritise other sentries/souls, but make sure to hit the Minotaur as well, the idea is to finish the lesser enemies at the same time you get the minotaur to “O” (which I almost did, had one Lost Soul left).

-This one was a little more difficult. Harpies first is a good rule to have, when they’re gone the plan is to CG everything into each other (for space, stun, and collisions). I happened to have the Gorgon freeze a Minotuar in between itself and me, which gave me the space to use a full t3 and shatter it, then back to CG for the rest.

Three Judges:Upper:Section B

-CG them towards the gap in the floor, got a ring-out on one of them, and the other one ended up with “O”.

Caverns of Hades:Bridge

-First let them explode the pot next to them, then I headed straight to the top to get the fiends off screen, then OS to OH, then BR the two sentries.

Caverns of Hades:Bramble Vent Puzzle

-OS to OH all the fiends.

NOTE: I managed to use OH redirect here, so that was nice.

Caverns of Hades:Hades Arms

-Absolutely not.

Palace of Hades:Outer Atrium

-CQC for the Talos, t,s is my preferred attack, then block, BR when the adds show up.

Caverns of Hades:The Forge

-Lever

Caverns of Hades:Gazebo

-(Dogs) Kick them

Hades Path

(RoS Trial) BR

-It was actually surprisingly difficult to get up here without taking a hit, they like to stagger their arrows and their melee is quick, but the idea is to jump up, air block, and grab.

Palace of Hades:Exterior

(Twin Hades Cerberus) Cooking up spirits from the AI boundary (assuming the boundary is the same, this was useful practice for HCB; need to be far enough that they can’t hit you but not so far they charge).

Palace of Hades : Door of Hades

-Prioritise BR, kick the dogs after

Palace of Hades:Lower Chamber

-Used the AI boundary at the entrance as you note, worked rather nicely

Palace of Hades:Mezzanine

-I’ll note two handlings here. First, I lured the dogs to the gate and kicked the dogs through it (reminds me of grabbing through the barrier in the GoWII ER), then lured the Minotaurs out onto the balcony, T to CG for ring-outs. I was very happy with that until I realised I was missing a little bit of HP (about 1.5 Minotaur “O”s worth), so I restarted, did the same with the dogs, and whored CG to get the Minotaurs to “O”.

Palace of Hades:Upper Chamber

-BR, used alt.OH as well (just for the memories)

Palace of Hades:Lower Chamber *again*

-Handled it the same as before, didn’t work out quite as well as before (more willing to follow me down the hall), but still worked

Palace of Hades:Upper Chamber *again*

-Finish puzzle

Palace of Hades:Throne Room

Hades

S1P1 - (Stand) As soon as I realised I could block most of his hits, this became a lot easier. So block his double chain strike, roll away from the stomp (I believe those are his only attacks in this stage), hit him with s,t,s,s,s (spirit is the goal but he rarely gives you the time or the space to get it out).

S1P2 - (Wall) Jump over the first shockwave, get in tight next to him (in the semi-sweet spot), dodge away from his grab, block his claw strike, then keep going for spirits through his chain sweep and slam (since neither can hit you).

S1P3 - (Meat) Is it just me that feels like these stages are a little bit RNG regarding the path the meat takes? The idea is just to charge spirits and land as much damage as possible on the meat (takes roughly 3 spirits), but sometimes it seems to jump around and get back to him a lot quicker than others.

S2P1 - (Stand) As before, with his new double strike/blast (dumb hitbox), block the first one then roll to the side to get out of the way.

S2P2 - (Wall) As before, but he now has the skulls which are just blocked (although when he does that and then goes for a grab it’s very easy to miss it).

S2P3 - (Meat) As before.

S3 - (Wall) Block the Cerberus, walk slowly away from the geyser, after about 6 start charging a spirit and let it off when his guard is down.

S4 - (Tug-of-War) Nothing special here, hit, block, dodge, pull back up, repeat.

S5 - (CoH) Evade his sweep and punch, move to either side for his big slam, then swing to the other side for the breath, repeat until “O”.

Palace of Hades:Soul Summon Trial

-BR

Cavern of Hades:The Forge

-Pass through

Cavern of Hades:Gazebo

-This was exactly as bad as I was expecting it to be. Started with my usual CQC for the Talos’, made sure to get both to “O” so they could be dispatched simultaneously. Then grab the dogs, basically just mash o to chain grab them, as soon as the Talos gets close make some space and pray you don’t get grabbed by the dogs (great idea making it unblockable and undodgeable) before continuing, then finish off the last Talos.

Hades Path *yet again*

-Jump over and grab the first archers, then cautiously cross the bridge to the other three, quick s to stop them doing whatever they’re doing before grabbing them.

Olympia : Door

-Cast Gaia down

-Used the chokepoint at the level entrance, CG over the ledge

Olympia:Cave

-Navigate

Olympia:Building A

-CG over the edges, I like to go near the chest for camera abuse

-(Centaur) Legionnaires first (ring-outs) then my usual CQC handling for the Centaur

Olympia:Ballista

Chimera

(Snake) Roll to the side from the slime, block the tail swipe and the charge, t,s,s,s

(Lion) Charge spirit while keeping away from his fire, then let it off when he finishes, block the swipes and t,s

(Goat) I didn’t attempt jumping over (because it sounded like I might die trying it and I made it this far first try so better to be safe), so I stayed at a good distance to bait the fire wall, charged spirit, and let it go when it was over.

Olympia:Chasm

-Harpy ride

Olympia:Building B:Exterior:Balcony

-CG ring-outs

Olympia:Building B:Interior:Hallway

-BR the first Sentry, then grab another one at the far end, then keep that up as much as possible CG the Legionnaires (when no other possibilities are present, also “O” when available).

Olympia:Building C:Wall

-Navigate

Olympia:Eos Cave Door

-The stamp is ridiculously quick in this one, wasn’t expecting that after Ascension. The better way here is to bait out the stamp/punch combo, dodge it and charge t3 (reduce to t0 if he’s quick about it). After you mount it, a single t will break all the shields, then hit as many as possible, BR and CG as required to finish up.

NOTE: Now comes the real possibility of accidental DQ. Can’t wait for that.

Eos Cave:Corridor 1

-Rip them apart

Eos Cave:Corridor 2

-And again

Eos Cave:Catwalk 1

-This was actually a little bit difficult without the Head to quickly dispatch them (and light up the area), but CG and OS served fine

Eos Cave:Corridor 3

-BR

Eos Cave:Rope

-Standard rope

Eos Cave:Corridor 4A

-BR

Eos Cave:Corridor 4B

-BR

Eos Cave:Broken Bridge

-Harpy ride

Eos Cave:Cliffside

-CG or T to encourage burrow, stand against a ledge, CG to dump them off

Eos Cave:Catwalk 2

-First made sure to destroy all the bramble from outside before the fight started, then stood next to the barrier, blocking the arrows and dumping the Wraiths off the edge before finishing off the archers

Chain of Balance:Icarus Vent 1

-Do it

Chain of Balance:Scaffolding

-Navigate

Chain of Balance:Icarus Vent 2

-Do this one as well

The Caverns:Box 1

-Burn bramble.

The Caverns:Box 2

-Ram al the sentries into each other, leave one alive, then use it to ram a Minotaur off the edge (I got lucky and threw him back onto the box, so I could use him to do the same to the second one), then do the same for the next wave (this time I kept a minotaur on top for “O” to get back the tiny bit of HP I needed), burn the archers. BR the setries at the mongrel for “O”, flamethrower the minotaurs.

The Caverns:Box 3

-Listen to Hermes then get up the Chain of Balance

Chamber of the Flame

-Unveil 3 frescos, read them and watch the cutscenes

The Olympian Citadel A

-Proceed to the wall from the walk way, slide down, cross the grapple point and land on the burning, breaking bridge.

-(Bridge) OS for HP

-Pursue Hermes.

-BR

-Grab hold the Crane, pull the lever, cross the gap, make your way across another breaking bridge.

-Usual dog and harpy handlings

-Pursue Hermes past the portcullis. Use the catapult to reach Athena's Statue.

Grand Vestibule:Lower

Hermes

-t3 from distance, took a while but I got a good feel for the distance you need to be at not to aggro him

Grand Vestibule:Upper

-BR

The Olympian Citadel B

-CG Legionnaires off the edge, t0 the Enforcer, repeat

Upper Chamber of the Flame

-OS

Upper Chamber of the Flame:Hallway A

-T to air grab the sirens first, then I went for CG antics on the Legionnaires (I never had to unveil a siren so no DQ possibilities)

Upper Chamber of the Flame:Muse Music Box

-Puzzle

Upper Chamber of the Flame:Elevator

-Dull fight under these conditions. Turtel, reverse grabs for “O”, shatter statues, repeat.

Chamber of the Flame

-Move on up

Upper Chamber of the Flame

-Use the crank

Upper Chamber of the Flame:Hallway B

-OS/OH, CG, prefer to lure them further down the hall

The Forum

Hercules

S1 - BR

S2 – BR

NOTE: They really like surrounding you during a BR and immediately piling on you when it ends. Dicks.

S3 – Spirit from range

S4 - (Cestus) t,t, avoid his single arm, reverse the double arm grab

Olympus Sewer:Nemean Roar trial

-(Trial) BR

-(Phalanx) CG pokes to break a shield, take them down to the boundary at the water, then poke shields and toss them in

Poseidon's Chamber:Main Chamber

-This bit was not fun at all, due to keeping in strict PAIN+ conditions, one wrong move and you’ve hit a dog with the Cestus and have to restart. Strategy was to kick the dogs at each other into the room, then use the space to poke the shields, before BR into the water.

NOTE: I got a glitch here where the BR went into the water, but at such an angle as I didn’t let go and drop, but pushed through the side and ended up infinitely floating upwards into a flickering white light. Was mad trippy. Thought I was going to get swimmingness but no such luck.

Poseidon's Chamber:Hyperion Gates

-(Puzzle) Kick dogs

-(Elevator) Kick more dogs

-(Bronze Talos) Just slap and block, I didn’t bother trying to separate them, just handled them exactly like the stone ones, except making sure to keep the pressure on to heat them up.

Poseidon's Chamber:Halls

-Draw them down the stairs one at a time, then CG pokes to break the shields and finish them off (many options)

Poseidon's Chamber:Main Chamber *again*

-Almost the same as before, lure the shields towards you before ramming them into the water, couldn’t figure out how to get the Talos in the water but there’s an AI boundary where the main hall connects to the alcove with the water so it’s easy enough to take him out while exploiting that.

Upper Gardens:Bridges

-Navigate

Aphrodite's Chamber

-Go through the gate

Cavern of Hades:The Forge *yet again*

-Go to Tartarus

Cavern of Hades : Path to Tartarus

-Kill Lost Souls

-(Centaur) BR takes care of most of this, I like to prioritise clearing the sentries around me (because they can and will swamp you without warning) whilst making sure to get a hit or two on the Centaur as well, also prioritise archers when they’re present. The real problem here is making sure they don’t pile on you (which is far easier said than done).

Gates of Tisiphone

-(2x Chimera) Handled this exactly the same as before (in terms of individual stages), but just with the added issue of facing two at once. Snake phase of the first one is simple enough, after that’s done and the second spawns, the lion phase takes priority, just keep distance, charge t3, and hope he hits a bramble pot which gets both of them (happens fairly regularly). I’d say the most likely scenario from here will be that you get C2 to “O” first (obviously use it), then get C1 to “O” and take him down to goat phase, then C2, then finish off C1, then finish C2. Throughout all of this I was just cooking up t3 from distance. Also if they’re in the foreground off screen, you can move towards them and keep their face on screen and they’ll keep hopping back, although I’m not sure if that was useful or if they were just jumping away from me and wasting time.

-Do the puzzle

Pit of Tartarus : Path

-BR

Cronos

-Blind him

Cronos:Right Hand

-BR (aim them at the spawn point)

Cronos:Right Forearm

-BR, aim for the nail as much as possible (got very good RNG here, had the nail at “O” in about 3 BRs)

Cronos:Right Hip

-Wall grabs

Cronos:Navel

-Checkpoint here is always terrible. BR, when (if) you run out of sentries, standard Talos handling for “O”.

-Attack Onyx

-BR as many of them as possible, it’s very important to kill most of them so as not to get entirely bullshat on the hand.

Cronos:Left Hand

(Wall) The only saving grace here is that wall attacks move you, so you can almost hit your way across the hand (which is really my only strategy, just hit and hope you don’t get hit).

(Floor) BR

(Ceiling) s whore

Cronos:Left Arm

-Navigate

Cronos:Left Shoulder

-BR, mount cyclops, attack shoulder

Cronos:Throat

-Navigate then do mini-game escape

Cronos:Navel

-Break it and do mini-game

Cronos:Face

-Break onyx and finish this encounter

Cavern of Hades:The Forge *for the last time*

-Get the whips and end Hephaestus

-(Trial) BR

Aphrodite's Chamber

-Passing through

Upper Gardens:Bridges

(Nemesis Rage trial) BR

Daedalus' Workshop

-Pass through

Olympus Garden:Maze

-I found it best to move past the Talos to get a good angle the CG the Legionnaires off the ledge, then lure out the others and do the same

Olympus Garden:Hall

-(Satyrs) 3x ground OS, still not at all comfortable with Satyrs in this entry but I only took 1-2 small hits and there are scorpions coming up, so nothing to worry about

Olympus Gardens : Puzzle

-Do it and cross the gap

Hidden Passageway:Hallway

-OS for HP

Hidden Passageway:Cave

-More OS

The Caverns:Box 4

-Group the first two Enforcers together and use s,s,t, when one gets to “O”, get to the other side and focus on the other one, finish both at the same time. When the Berserker arrives the problems begin, although the strategy is simple, quick roll and t0 when you feel safe, get both Enforcers to “O”, then deal with the Berserker, mount him, take out as many Enforcers as possible. If you have two or less remaining you’re fine, three or more and it’s not good.

The Caverns:Flood Chamber

-Pass on through

The Caverns:Hallway A

-Use Elevator

The Caverns:Hallway B

-OS

The Caverns : Dark Path

-Navigate

The Caverns : Dark Pool

-Ring-out the first Gorgon, then use the other one to shatter the harpies before ringing her out as well

The Caverns:Hallway C

-OS

The Caverns:Box 5

Skorpius

-OS

S1P1 – t,t is a useful means of dispatching the spawn (OS is good for HP), there are positions directly between the claw and the wall there you can stand and bait the swipe without getting death-tipped and also not encourage more spawn, so exploit that point, deplete the spawn, keep pressure up on the legs. S is also useful for quick damage, takes ~3 full uses to break a leg. I prefer to break both front legs and one middle one (and get everything else to red).

S1P2 – I still find this bit to be mainly RNG as far as where the spawn go, if you get surrounded it’s just over and there’s nothing to be done (because even if you survive you’ve wasted too much time), but just t,t the group and the face together, you know how this part goes.

S2P1 – t,t the groups of spawn while you’re waiting for him to appear, then back to the legs. The only thing you’ll really have to dodge is the stab, which isn’t too hard. The only real problem is getting caught between needing to deal with the spawn and the legs at the same time.

S2P2 – As before

S3 - Icarus Vent to mini-game

-Use the Boreas Icestorm and go up the vent. Use it again. Do the grapple sequence.

The Caverns:Box 6

-This was a fun section. I started by using CG, T to CG on the Gorgon to ring her out, then quick roll around looking for opportunities to CG the Minotaurs into her beam, then Cestus CG poke the shields, then CG the Legionnaires (either into the beam or off the edge), then send the final Gorgon off the side as well.

The Caverns:Flood Chamber

-Proceed

The Caverns:Hallway D

-Get to the rope and cross it. Then deal with the grapples

The Caverns:Box 7

-Boreas it

The Labyrinth:Box 1

-Usual CQC handling for the Talos, make sure to get them both to “O” at the same time, finish them off, then make some space between you and the mongrel, wait for a charge and use t,s,s,s,s, maybe kick a dog of two if they swarm you, then “O” the mongrel, flamethrower the Talos, then finish off anything that’s left.

The Labyrinth:Box 2

-Puzzle

The Labyrinth:Box 3

-Puzzle

The Labyrinth:Box 4

-Use the spikes to kill everything on the first floor, grab the harpy, jump to the ledge at the left side, sit and wait until everything except the Sirens are dead, then grab the harpy and finish them off

The Labyrinth : Pandora's Cage

-Get her

The Laybrinth:Box 5

-BR into the gorgons

The Labyrinth:Box 6

-Puzzle

The Labyrinth:Box 7

-Not a great deal to be said here, this fight is mostly just skill (and there isn’t even a great deal of it required). Start by going to the right hand Siren, T to air grabs for “O”, then get the other two, then repeat to finish them off. From here, CG the shields, BR the guardians, isolate the bigger enemies and preferably kill them as they spawn, move around the perimeter to avoid getting bullshat from off screen, and pray Pandora leaves you alone (which she won’t, because she’s a dick). As discussed, I DQ’ed myself on two guardians, but I ripped them apart immediately after so I’m happy to accept it, had it been a bigger enemy I would have restarted.

The Labyrinth:Box Tops

-Get in position for the cutscene

Icarus Vent 3

-Do it

Three Judges:Lower

Hades Cerberus Breeder

S1 – Start with a spirit, then kick the dogs.

S2 – Air grab the satyr along the AI boundary, kick dogs when you can.

S3 – I got obscenely lucky here, I got the HCB to “O” before I killed the satyr, but it was exactly one air grab away from death, so I immediately finished it off and it was just S2 again.

Three Judges:Upper:Section A

-Smash

-Infinite air grab the sirens, kick the dogs. Checkpoints in this whole section are weird.

Three Judges:Upper:Section B

-Smash.

-CG the shields, then take them over to the gap and CG them off the edge.

-I prefer to drag everyone through the hall, then usual shield pokes, infinite air grabs (legionnaires), ground/air OS (satyrs), BR if “O” comes about. There’s a HP refill immediately after so no need to worry too much.

Three Judges:Lower

-Break it

Icarus Vent 4

-Do it.

The Labyrinth:Box Tops

-Get going

Chain of Balance

-Keep going

Chamber of the Flame

-Up

Upper Chamber of the Flame

-Turn it

Zeus

S1P1 – Jump over the dash grab, block the two punches, jump over the clap, t1 to air grab, repeat. Probably the easiest final boss in the series, almost literally nothing to it.

S1P2 – Block the floor bolts, then repeat. Could be more aggressive and jump up when he’s in the air but no need, easier to be safe.

Olympus : Pavilion

S2 -…

Gaia:Chest:Interior *Heart*

S3P1 – Much easier than it was on NUR+, t1 to air grabs, jump the clap, block the charge. Hardest part is not parrying at the start or between phases (the only method I found was to take a hit and close the distance).

S3P2 – Let him heal, evade for a while, then take out the clone while he goes to heal again (2x air grab). After that it’s exactly the same as before, keep the pressure up and he’ll never spawn another clone or heal (although his slam hits the heart, doesn’t seem to matter all that much since he never gets the chance to do it properly).

(Blame Jason) He has much to answer for.

(Final test) That title makes it sound very grand. I like that.

(Paratus) Understood, the way I read it made it sound deliciously cheesy, but given that such is the case it can wait until it’s necessary.

(Union) There’s also the dissent in Germany, the Swedish vote of no-confidence, Spain refusing migrants (as well as everything else we’ve discussed, and likely more to come). Surely Soros can only stand so much.

(GoW:A) Noted. As it stands, I’ll be taking the rest of the night off, and likely begin GoWIII PAIN+ in the morning. (and be sure to take detailed notes throughout).

(GoS) Further GoS runs are highly unlikely, I’m not against coming back to Gow1/II for NBR+ NUR+/NGR+ NUR+ (or GKPAIN+ for that matter, focus runs, etc.). Perhaps should recording become available to me I’d go back to note the easy Geryon strat but that’s for another time.

(Vanilla VH) That’s actually not strictly true, I got to Skorpius and never managed to beat him, so I’d at least been through the majority under those conditions (though MAX NW run is certainly not beyond the realm of possibility *later*).

(CoC) You say that, but I managed to continuously use CG/L1+X unintentionally so I’m content with my decision (also often threw away my shield in GoW:A and had to restart the checkpoint).

(PAIN+) The reason I didn’t go straight for PAIN+ was solely to avoid having to do Skorpius again so soon, but now that GoW:A is done I think it’s fair to say PAIN+ is now, likely followed by BoA PAIN+.

(BR) Reading all that is of course interesting and enlightening (will certainly keep the relative values of collisions in mind for PAIN+), however the main question I have is somewhat unrelated. In the earlier entries in the series (as you note) collisions were worth 50DMG, in this one they were brought down to 5DMG, however in GoW:A I see your notes listing damage at values like 0.667. Is that because we actually do such low damage in certain circumstances, a change of balancing, or a different notation you adopted for that entry?

(Leviathan 1)*Standing 1* t3 is correct. Regarding the blocking, I think I confused it with a later stage where he has smaller melee attacks. Another small detail to note, I prefer to quick roll during the breath so there is no distance to close.

*Wall* I was not aware our attack string was extended, will employ that whenever I get the PAIN+ started.

*Standing 2* Tough to recall specifics now, but I definitely prefer to stay close. Will make sure to go into more detail for PAIN+.

(Centaur) My preference for CQC is simply because the reverse is a bit temperamental at times, so I thought it better to handle him up close than risk wasting time getting hit and having to restart.

(GF) This is an interesting system you propose (particularly in the case of parrying into s6/t0), perhaps we could have ended up with something along these lines had the devs not abandoned ship, though the GR system does sound complicated, and we all know how devs hate unnecessary work.

(AoS trial) For some reason I was convinced MP wasn’t infinite here. Oh well, simple enough anyway.

(Ropes)*Inferior* It was a tall order to make the ropes worse than they were before, and yet here we are. I certainly don’t remember iframes during attacks, though perhaps the grabs are more forgiving, will test soon enough.

(Partial petrification) Immediately the Trials of Erebus W3 comes to mind to deal with the minotaurs, that will be useful. Perhaps even on the labyrinth box top with gorgons involved (though I forget the specifics of the other enemies present).

(RoS) Yes, absolutely dreadful.

(Path) Could have, slightly more fun this way though *making use of GF while I can*.

(Twin Hades Cerberus) We’ll see if it’s necessary, I find this fight to be a bother but it likely won’t be too much of an issue.

(Mezzanine) I used a variation of ‘gate’ in this run, will likely do the same in PAIN+.

(Upper chamber) I was not aware that alt. OH was still around, will give that a try.

(Hades)*S1P1* That is to say I was getting in close and using roll iframes to dodge his stomps, before I remembered bow was an option.

*S1P2* I did take the option of getting in on his side here (again, before I remembered I had the bow), so shouldn’t be a problem here.

*S2P1* Noted.

(Centaur 2) I did attempt the ring-out, but I couldn’t quite get it to work so just resorted to a simpler handling.

(Chimera)*Goat* This sounds like a fruitful strategy for PAIN+, very glad to have this one tucked away for when the time comes.

(Eos catwalk 2) I had considered how to do this without breaking PAIN+ conditions, though given ring-outs are available it shouldn’t be too hard.

(Hermes) So just stay far away from him? Should be simple enough.

(Petrification reverse) Personally I don’t feel it’s arbitrary at all, it doesn’t deal damage, but it does protect us and allow easy kills, very unbecoming of PAIN+.

(Hercules)*Cestus* No, I used t,t, then backed off and he just continually flexed his shoulders, no need for anything more.

(Tartarus)*Cursed Remains* I hadn’t noticed the bleeding, most amusing.

*Centaurs* Yes it would have been nice to have an old-style centaur involved, even just with the reskin (and an unchanged moveset). They did it for the Cursed Remains and the Cyclops, no reason not to add a Centaur.

*Harpy Boss* Shameful though it is, this is the first I’ve heard of the Harpy Boss (really the first was when you mentioned it in the GoWII PAIN+ evaluation, but still it was recent), now seeing what we missed out on I have to say one of the greatest shames of the series was that this boss never materialised in any form.

(Skorpius)*Stheno* The fight you describe would be infinitely better to the one we have. I don’t entirely see the problem with having two fist weapons, being as in reality we had three chains (granted the CoH and NW had different modes of operation from the BoE).

*Tough to make well* Can you think of a single good example? Off the top of my head I don’t have one to offer.

*Artemis* Reading all that just made me hate the fight even more. I didn’t think it was possible, and yet here I sit, despising Skorpius several orders of magnitude more than I did previously.

*S1P2* Is that to say we can stun the exposed legs to take out the spawn without wasting our time with the face?

(Box 7)*Chests* It had never occured to me before but you’re right, they obviously should have been HP/MP. Or just not been there at all so they could stop getting in my way.

*Pandora* I think you’re being too kind to her, the fact that she can be grabbed mid-fight and tries her best to stay next to you is more than a little annoying. Though yes, we should be thankful no protection is involved.

(HCB)*Discussed before* And one I’m sure we’ll discuss again before too long.

*Scaling* We can dream.

(Zeus)*S3P1* I take it this is because the grab does much more damage, yes?

*S3P2* I understand now, the issues with Cestus t,t is that I’m doing too much direct damage, so the successful run is one where more grabs come into play. In PAIN+ do we make an effort to keep him away from the heart (being as I assume we lack the damage to do so)?

(Skorpius again) My only concern is lacking jet dash to evade his slam/swipe, but hopefully that won’t be too much of an issue.

(Loathe GoW:A) I already do, it’s hard to imagine there are more aspects of it to take issue with.

There, that wasn't quite as long as I was expecting (much of it was just taking mental notes).

(Evade issues) Soon enough they’ll fade into memory, only then can we truly be at peace.

(Get used) Never.

(Intercepting fist) Hard to intercept the emotional tension of virtual beings.

(Death exploit) I can imagine that to be the case. As I recall, GoW:A is rather liberal with death refills. I had noticed the Soul trial refill, rather odd, though most of the decisions made in this entry are questionable, to say the least.

(SWFU) Perhaps better to leave that until a few of the simpler things are done then, although regardless it will be some time until this title makes an appearance.

(Paratus grabs) Exceptional. I might have to give that a go tonight, just to enjoy shitting on him.

(Poland) How could I forget about Poland? Although, speaking historically, they have every right to be pissed off. Hungary’s laws have caused some quite significant unrest, it’s wonderful, might be the strike to collapse the union (if we’re lucky).

(Flamethrower) That’s a fair comment, although it sounds vastly more complicated than the system we currently have, and of course then they would have had to put more effort in, and we all know how devs hate that.

(Videos) Noted (for the time, should it ever come *much to do now*)

(Soul t0) That is exceptional, if I’d had that in mind perhaps my SoA experience would have been a touch easier (though it wasn’t too hard, just required luck to execute).

NOTE: As mentioned elsewhere, I’ll get to the GoWIII evaluation soon (likely start tonight and finish in the morning, slightly lacking in mental energy at the moment).

Delos:Ribs of Apollo:Furnace:Flame Conveyor

-Navigate and Interact

-Open with OSoO, I found r1/t locking them to be the most effective means of handling things here (is that what WB is? If not what is it?), use magic if it gets crowded, OSoO when possible

-Navigate

Delos:Shoulder of Apollo

-I cannot comprehend how a large team of people worked on this product, some of whom were devoted entirely to QA, and at no point did anyone point out how obscene this is. Before I get onto tactics, allow me to complain some more, this time about grapple targeting. I like the idea of red halo being prioritised, even gold halo to an extent, what I don’t like is that even red halos are superseded by shields. Shield grabs, which leave you open for a full 15 seconds and cannot be cancelled. Stroke of fucking genius that was. I’d also like to take a moment to draw attention to the shitty enemies here. The slingers can drop mines that can cost you 50HP coming out of just about anything, can be hidden behind juggs, all manner of other nonsense. But that’s not even the end of it, why can the sword ones run at you from anywhere in the arena before striking, which can and will catch you as you come out of a roll? But none of that would be so bad if there weren’t 1000 enemies. From this point onwards, it’s almost like every fight was designed by children, just throwing in as many things as they could think of without regard for how it would work out. In summation, not a fan of this fight.

-As for tactics, you just need OSoO, timing, and luck. OSoO to start to disarm all the shields (helps to pick up the shields so they aren’t an annoyance), then use r1/t on the satyrs for collisions/iframes/OSoO recharge, then OSoO the jugg, when you get one of them down to red halo, grab him and use the time to let OSoO charge (worth noting that these QTEs do have a time limit, as was made very clear to me), then OSoO again to get the other to red halo, use it and charge OSoO, at this point the next shield wave should have arrived (this is where timing and luck come in, if you don’t have OSoO to disarm the shields it’s over), then just carry on as before. When all the juggs are gone just grab and toss the satyrs.

-AoU

Delos:Ribs of Apollo:Furnace:Slide

-left/right, left/right, right turn to center jump-zip, left turn (favor outside), right turn (favor outside), rightside jump, move left for leftside gap jump, move right (avoid break), right turn, center gap jump-grapple, favor left, favor right, center gap jump to end section

Delos:Ribs of Apollo:Furnace:Lower *yet again*

-Interact

Delos:Ribs of Apollo:Furnace:Flame Lift

-I forget the exact details of how many of what show up when, but basically just kick the dogs as priority, shield plume satyrs, toss them as well when you can.

-Interact

-Immediately use OSoO on the Talos which will take him to his first rage state, which you can just walk away from and wait out, then use t,s,L1 to get the second rage state, then OSoO again for red halo, then back to the first stage again.

NOTE: I got the Talos stuck in a flame when the lit quarters changed, and I didn’t get a second spawn, so that could be useful.

-Interact and take lift

-AoU

Delos:Eyes of Apollo:Light Puzzle Room

-Clear the crystal

-This was not even remotely difficult, OSoO to deal with the wraith shades, then again for the real wraith, standard satyr handling, what’s important is to kill both wraiths and one satyr, so you only have one satyr left. Use it to get rage, finish it off, then dump into the nearest Sybil, from this point just grab the Sybils to alternate gold halos until they’re gone, then finish up with OSoO.

-Do puzzle and Navigate

Delos:Latern:Landing

-It’s probably fair to say this is the fight I hate most in the game, not even because it’s difficult it’s just annoying, too big enemies in too small spaces. Just s slaps, block, get guard broken (or perfect block if you’re lucky), roll away from the fire breath (which has strange active frames, only seems to take effect after the fire appears, which is significant since we have so few iframes), rage dump is also useful for iframing through the fire. When the spawn appear just OS them, then get back to it.

Delos:Lantern:Eyes of Truth

-Do it

Delos:Lantern:Trial of Archimedes

-EoT and Interact

-Probably worth noting, I made it through ToA on the second or third try, was actually very easy (1000x easier than SoA), especially after W1 is done (even though I fully shat up W2).

W1 – Funny enough, I did sirens first (not sure this method applies to PAIN+ though, so probably no help to you). Standard opening, wait for the fire, go to a corner and t,s,L1 HG1, use red halo when you get it (also, when you have only one HG near you OSoO will only target that one, so that’s handy to speed things up). Same for the second but leave it with the red halo, then move onto the third (AoU is the best method I have for separating them). When HG2 and HG3 are both at red halo, use both. It’s almost guaranteed that you’ll have rage at this point, so dump it into SS1 and go about alternating stuns as I’ve detailed before. Because it takes so long to do, you can catch SS3/4 as they spawn, then finish off HG4.

-EoT and Interact

W2 – I dicked this up bad, started by waiting for the Amazon spawn, going to the top end and waiting for the next spawn, then AoU/grapple for ring-out. Except she was too close to the wall and I missed, so I lost about half HP before eventually being able to do it successfully, tossing all the harpies off the edge, and then doing the same to the last Amazon. When the Talos appeared, I opened with OSoO, took him straight to rage, avoided him (and the fire, which is really the biggest threat here), OSoO again for next rage state, avoid, OSoO for red halo, done.

-EoT and Interact

W3 – Reverse centaur grabs. OSoO the wraiths, EoT if they get too close (can also knock them into the spikes), believe I used magic as well just to speed things up.

-EoT and Interact

Delos:Lantern:Eyes of Truth *again*

-Do it

Aegean:Arm:Exterior:Path A *again*

-Do it and Navigate

Aegean:Arm:Exterior:Path B *again*

-Checkpoint problems once again. This fight was also a bother; OSoO is useful as always, shield plumes too, and AoU is good for keeping one distracted. The real problem is keeping them separate so you can focus on one of them, but once you get it set up there’s not all that much to it.

NOTE: No ring-outs.

-AoU and Interact

Fury Citadel:Alecto's Chamber

-QTE

Fury Citadel:Illusion Maelstrom:Boat

Furies 2

S1 – Bosses with adds, love it. Fortunately, I’d read your coverage, started by filling rage on the first two spartans, then kept her (and them) at bay with plume bombs until she dropped orbs, then avoided everything for a little while and she went away.

S2P1 – Not a great deal to be said here, use EoT, shield plume, block the ink. Probably should have used OSoO but I didn’t think to.

S2P2 – As before, but now blocking the stabs and evading the slams (and also much longer. Like way way longer for no reason whatsoever).

-QTEs

Fury Citadel:Illusion Maelstrom:Elevated Ruins Arena

S3 – Jump her shockwave, move to a corner when she uses ink/stab, move back from the bite. As you note s4 will fill rage, so just keep going with spirit (could have shield plumed but you don’t get in as many hits and I wasn’t sure about damage of o,o compared to s,s,s,s (if there isn’t time to complete the string). Nothing difficult here anyway.

S4 – Many difficult things here though (and of course no checkpoints to speak of). Just avoid Tissy until Ally shows up, then hope. I immediately died about four times, then on one attempt ended up getting maybe a few s slaps in but nothing in particular, cast OSoO off the edge (dickhead), then used magic (think I got both hits on both), then used OSoO again, and then the phase just ended…I don’t understand how it worked but it’s done so let’s just be happy about that.

S5 – As before, then QTEs, then happiness because the run is over.

Now at the Flame conveyor. It's comforting to know that once I pass this horrendous encounter I have SoA, EoA, and ToA to look forward to.

NOTE: You may recognise a lot of these strategies, probably would have been easier to just C+P your notes in place of my own for the most part.

NOTE2: This has also largely been a NMR, for no reason other than that all I have available under these conditions is a single charge of FoA, which is sometimes nice for extra damage and iframes, but in most situations is entirely useless. OSoO is where it's at (and AoU where ring-outs are available)

Delos:Foot of Apollo:Broken Gears Puzzle Room

-Move the Empusa to the left corner, then handle exactly as before, OS the manticore spawn after

-Puzzle and Navigate

Delos:Foot of Apollo:Interior:Hive

-OS

-Navigate

Delos:Foot of Apollo:Exterior:Path B

-Navigate

Delos:Foot of Apollo:Amazon Scaffolding

-OS the harpies. There’s no good way of handling the Amazon (as there are later), so just block, dodge, get hits in when you can, and reverse the grabs, 2x air t when the harpy takes her up.

-Destroy scaffold and navigate

Delos:Foot of Apollo:Gondola Lift

-Tosses, strange that we have ring-outs here, but they can’t be caused by collisions

-Navigate

Delos:Head of Apollo:Sibyl Chamber

-Double Sibyls, how could this possibly go wrong? The basic strategy is AoU on the first one, do whatever you can to get rage up, dump to get gold halo, use it, that will stun the other one, and from there you can alternate grabs until they’re gone. Easier said than done though.

Delos:Head of Apollo:Gear Path

-Navigate

Delos:Head of Apollo:Hive

-OS

-Zipline

Delos:Leg of Apollo:Exterior:Arena

-Keep distance and reverse centaur grabs, when they’re dead use AoU on the amazon and grapple her for a ring-out

-Yank and Navigate

Delos:Leg of Apollo:Interior:Flame Lift

-Navigate

Delos:Leg of Apollo:Exterior:Scaffolding

-Navigate

Delos:Statue of Apollo:Interior:Path

-Navigate

Delos:Statue of Apollo:Interior:Hive

-OS, then use a ridiculous amount of air t’s on the hive because it has way too much HP

-Navigate

Delos:Gauntlet of Apollo

Megaera

S1 – Shield plume

S2 – Shield plume

S3 – I attempted your shield plume tactics here but it wasn’t working, so I ended up just blocking and using s/t slaps

S4P1 – Your strategies served me well here though, shield plume and air t during summons

S4P2 - Again

S4P3 – 2x rage dump

-QTE

Tisiphone

S1 – Shield plume here frightens me because I can’t stop myself from using CP which obscures the view if she goes for the shotgun, also it’s the second o that stuns her which always worries me because it looks like she has hyper armour until she doesn’t and by then it’s too late. That said it’s not too hard, block all of her blockables, dodge the shotgun and the meteors, shield plume when possible, otherwise just s/t slaps (I like t1 because it gives instant knockback).

S2 – Roll around, AoU, s slaps

Furies 1

S1 – Shield plume, keep distance, jump the shockwave

S2 – Avoid Maggy, air slap Tissy when you can. Takes a while but it’s simple enough.

Delos:Forearm of Apollo:Oathstone Puzzle Trial

-Do it

Delos:Forearm of Apollo:Oathstone Combat Trial

-Use OSoO when possible, r1/t lock otherwise

-Navigate

Delos:Forearm of Apollo:Interior:Path

-Navigate/Puzzle

Delos:Leg of Apollo:Exterior:Arena *again*

-Kick the dogs, ring-out the Amazon, standard mongrel handling

-Puzzle/Navigate

Delos:Leg of Apollo:Interior:Flame Lift *again*

-This bit it so fucking stupid. The hitboxes on the flames are obscene, the camera angles are a disaster, and the idea that this made it past QA is just astounding. Strategy is to use OSoO, shield plume (especially effective with CP and rage), sometimes tosses or r1/t. The Talos is the problem, OSoO will take him to rage in one use, the problem is the his sky drop has an outrageous hitbox, the target on the floor sometimes disappears, and there’s not space to roll, so you have to be at the front or back and roll in a straight line to the exact opposite side, at the exact right time so that neither the bullshit fire hitbox or the bullshit drop hitbox get you (again, easier said than done).

Delos:Ribs of Apollo:Scaffolding A

-Navigate

Delos:Arm of Apollo

-Navigate

Delos:Ribs of Apollo:Scaffolding B

-OSoO first (for the free deshield), then shield plume, OSoO when it recharges, nice easy fight after the disaster I just dealt with.

Delos:Ribs of Apollo:Interior

-Navigate

Delos:Ribs of Apollo:Furnace:Lower

-Shield plume right as the cyclops climbs up (you want to keep him in the alcove he spawns in), then hope you get a stomp and evade it, get a few more hits for rage and lock him down with plume bombs. Ring-outs deal with the manticore spawn nicely (what are these called?)

-Interact and Navigate

Delos:Ribs of Apollo:Furnace:Upper

-Open and Navigate

Delos:Ribs of Apollo:Furnace:Lower *again*

-Do it

-OSoO and the camera are big helps here, I started by going to the bottom left corner, OSoO, then move to the right, get everything off screen and charge a shield plume, release it at them, repeat (and always OSoO when you can).

-Interact and Navigate

Delos:Ribs of Apollo:Furnace:Upper *again*

-Ring-outs

-Navigate

Castor and Pollux

-Hated this fight at release, hate it even more now. They really just threw together as much shit as they could think of.

-Toss rock

S1 – Destroy the pillars, toss the rocks. After that I prefer to keep at range, evade his floor shot thing, and if he’s close enough when he does it flank him and get in a t or s,s, depending on how close he is.

S2 – Keep far, far away from the AoU circles, when he does the slam move either towards or away from him (doesn’t really matter) and shield plume (CP helps as well). Rage dump when safe is also nice for speeding this along, as long as you don’t get hit coming out *because shitty iframes*. Any other attacks are to be avoided.

S3 – No checkpoint here. Wonderful. Start by destroying the pillars, I like to go round in a circle from right to left (including the ones he doesn’t teleport to) so maximum rocks are available once he hits the floor. I really enjoy that he can instantly drop the section you’re standing on so your roll hits the adjacent piece of floor. Really do like that.

S4 – Toss the rocks, then continue as before, except now he has his repeated teleport slash attack which is just wonderful.

S5 – This is where problems really begin. When he does the four shots, either block the first two and roll through the next, or roll right, then left, then forward (or vice versa), when next to him punish with t,s (or similar). For his ridiculous bullet hell shot, you have many options; if you’re directly in front of him you can block one and then roll through another end up in front of him, or just block everything, or block one and roll to the side. The issue is that it’s difficult to time a roll correctly when you’re at a strange angle and don’t have a good camera, so it’s often safest to just block. Ideally you want him to do his melee (why does the first hit do so much damage with such little startup? Bad design), when he does that block the first two hits, if he does the slam roll in pretty much any direction, or if he does the blockable one just block it. I see that you note punishing this with shield plume, but I was struggling to get that so just went with t (maybe s,t/t,s, in the event there was time).

S6 – Who needs checkpoints anyway? Break the pillars, toss the rocks, then just continue as before, but with much more fear knowing you can die in a second and will have to redo S5. Also he can do his shots if he’s only a tiny bit off screen, and he can sometimes block and do an instant slam, which is always fun.

Passage to Delphi:Bridge

-Stomp and get AoU

-Puzzle and navigation

Passage to Delphi:Path

-Navigation

Passage to Delphi:AoU Trial

-This one actually caused me some problems, too many enemies, too much armour, too small arena. Start by grappling the shield away, then shield plume from the door you entered (keeping everyone off screen), keep that up until they decide to come swarm you (which they do often). If you have anyone that can be grappled then use the R1/t lock for colisions, battering ram is nice when it’s available. When the next shield wielder appears try and isolate him for a safe disarm and then continue. Came out of this with about 30HP, fortunately the next wo fights were easy.

Cistern:Hall B

-AoU the Sybil immediately, drag the two satyrs over and shield plume them until they’re either dead or gold halo, in which case battering ram them into the Sybil and then the wall. Repeat for the next ones. When they’re all dealt with, AoU/shield plume the Sybil to death, can get her in a pseudo-lock if you time it right.

Cistern:Arena

-Kick the dogs, it’s nice to get collisions on the satyr but the main goal is just to get rid of them, then use standard t,s,L1,rage dump to finish off the satyr.

Cistern:Hall A

-Navigation

Kirra:Gate

-OS all the bugs first, then just standard handling for cyclops, t,s, keep some distance, rage dump when you can, whatever works really. Would have been better to lock him with rage t0 but I forgot that was possible until right now.

NOTE: I got hit in his first phase, then died in his second, and was spawned back into his second phase with half HP, so that’s something to be aware of for PAIN+ (although he gives us ~50HP from death so that’s nice).

-AoU bridge

Kirra:Path D

-Navigation

Kirra:Waterwheel Puzzle

-Do it

Kirra:Grotto:Swim Tube A

-Navigation

Kirra:Grotto:Gate

-You have enough time to shield plume in between their attacks so just CP them to death. They’re very cooperative a far as separating themselves from one another so you hardly need to do anything to take on one at a time.

-Puzzle

Kirra:Grotto:Swim Tube B

-Navigation

Kirra:Harbor

-Navigation

Prison of the Damned *return*

Aegean:Mouth:Interior

-Just block and hit the mongrel (usually t,s, but it doesn’t have to be strict), toss/slam the satyrs, use flamethrower after first gold halo, repeat. I see in your coverage you mention a possible ring out, care to share the details?

-AoU

Aegean:Entrance:Hall

-Navigation

Aegean:Empusa Balcony

-Shield plume to build meter, then rage dump for stun, build half the meter then grapple, then build the other half of the meter, rage dump for stun, repeat.

-Navigate

Aegean:Rooftop

-R1/t

Aegean:Entrance:Path

-R1/t

-AoU and Navigate

Aegean:Arm:Interior:Hall A

-Navigate

Aegean:Arm:Martyr's Chamber

-Do puzzle

Aegean:Arm:Scribe Jail Hall

-Navigate

Aegean:Arm:Interior:Cell Block

-I like this fight in a strange way, it’s almost like ToA W1 Lite. Start by AoU/shield pluming the Sybil, when the other show up slam/toss them, when they’re gone go back to dealing with the lone Sybil. Bait the gorgon’s melee, block, t,s, repeat, usual handling for the adds, when they’re gone get back to it.

-Drag block and climb out

Aegean:Arm:Interior:Hall B

-Navigate

Aegean:Arm:Exterior:Path A

-Do QTE

Island of Delos

Delos:Landing

-What is this thing they have about putting checkpoints before long cutscenes? It’s ridiculous. My basic idea here was to fill the meter with s,s,s and abusing off screen AI boundaries, then lock them with rage t0. I have a great disdain for the sword satyrs, their attacks are obscenely quick, they all have armour so there’s no quick way to deal with them (that I know of), and you can’t throw them off the pier. And all this immediately after they stole my shield. Unacceptable.

-Interact, AoU, Navigate, AoU and lever

Delos:Path A

-Don’t much care for this encounter either, but at least we can get ring-outs in certain spots. Idea is the same as before though, get to the block at the back, charge the meter, rage t0, grabs when possible.

-Interact for QTE

Delos:Path B

-Another checkpoint before a QTE and a cutscene. Unbelievable. As far as tactics are concerned, just usual Talos handling (which is to say fill the meter and rage t0 lock because they took my shield), only difference is that their rage state is now unblockable to when that happens make some distance and focus on the other one.

-Navigate

Delos:Foot of Apollo:Scaffolding

-This was actually remarkably easy. You can keep the jugg at bay by keeping it off screen, so move towards it, s,s,s, roll back, move in, s,s,s, roll back. Repeat that until the meter’s full and (there’s a pattern developing here) rage t0 lock. When he loses his weapon he’ll break out of the lock, but if you get him off screen it’s very easy to re-establish.

Delos:Foot of Apollo:Exterior:Path A

-Navigate (and reclaim the shield that was so callously torn from me)

Delos:Foot of Apollo:Interior:Path

-Navigate

(Covered better than you) I imagine I also gave myself cause to by struggling more than you.

(Written for you) I would be personally shocked if anyone else ever reads it.

(Did well) If I didn’t know better I’d say that almost sounded like a compliment.

(Grab intercept slide) I never even considered it, I found it easier to just jump over them, but you can certainly intercept most (if not all) of their other attacks so I wouldn’t be at all surprised.

(Keep away from the barrier) Is that to say the satyrs don’t spawn until you get close to the barrier? I hadn’t noticed.

(Excessive reverses) Oh how I miss the days of 3x air grabs. It was a simpler time, it was a better time.

(Wraiths/ravens) My HP was full by now because I died to the minotaur twice and this entry is a bit too liberal with death refills, but it was back at 40 by the end of it.

(Thanatos)*S1P1* I was aware of that, but I felt it violated the spirit of the run, if not the actual rules, so just decided not to use his spears until forced (nothing can be done to stop him getting a few regular hits in).

*S1P2* I hadn’t seen that bit of the Ally coverage, perhaps I’ll have to exploit that when I come back to a MAX run after the challenges are done.

(GoW:A NUR+) I’m now at the broken gear room in Delos (going to get back to it soon so will likely make a good deal more progress before the night is through).

(SWFU) Noted, I can already see there’ll be a lot to learn here.

(Bioshock) Yes it’s difficult to think of many restrictions to enforce, although I’m mostly trying to find a reason to play it again after so many years moreso than a real challenge, so perhaps a simpler run will do. Besides, I already did VH no death for the trophy many years ago, so perhaps VH Wrench-only would be the way to go.

(PoP) I did briefly attempt a H, NER, no time powers, no sub-weapons, no heal, but then I realised you need to heal to save and they don’t give you automatic refills, so back to the drawing board on that one.

(Infamous) I don’t actually own that, but good to know if I ever run out of options.

(SWFU notes) Will have a proper read of these when the time comes, already read through the challenge categories, they certainly sound interesting enough to do when the time comes.

(Paratus NFR+ NUR+) Care to enlighten me?

(Brexit) Unfortunately so, although they just rejected our ridiculous vassal state deal, and Hungary (likely Bulgaria and Italy as well) are growing restless to say the least, so perhaps freedom isn’t too far away.

(Flamethrower) It really is baffling they underpowered it so, although I suppose it would have been too much to have that on top of the limb cutting gimmick.

(Lack of help) Not to worry, still plenty of time before I ever get onto those runs.

(Brutes) That makes more sense using stasis to remove limbs, although if there are videos I’ll certainly look them up should the time come for such runs (more than enough to focus on for now).

(Other elements) Souls t0 allowing instant de-shield is very interesting (assuming that applies at base level), certainly something to remember for SoA.

GoW:A NUR+

Prison of the Damned

Aegean:Mouth:Interior

-Do it.

Aegean:Entrance:Hall

-OS

Aegean:Entrance:Path

-…

Aegean:Entrance:Damaged Bridge

-Drop down and OS

Aegean:Arm:Interior:Hall A

-Navigate

Aegean:Arm:Interior:Cell Block

- Grapple tosses are an option, as is locking them with grapple, t. Depends what gets the best collisions.

Aegean:Arm:Interior:Hall B

-Navigate

Aegean:Arm:Exterior:Path A

-Navigate

Aegean:Arm:Exterior:Path B

-Tosses

-OS

Infected Hand 1

S1P1 – Stay close in this stage, s,t,s,s,s, t3 when rage is available, block everything

S1P2 – Move to the back for this part, I like to stay on the right side to bait a slam, dodge left, get a few hits in and move back to the right

S2P1 – I like to use the left indent because the tilt of the ground means you can’t jump to the middle as easily from the right one. So just drop down there to avoid all attacks, jump up to the middle section, air t, drop back down

S2P2 – Exactly the same as the first, just need to make sure not to stay down for too long to avoid his stab (not a concern though)

NOTE: You can roll straight over the gap, so that’s fun.

-Slide

Aegean:Sewers

-Navigate

Aegean:Abdomen:Exterior

-Pull lever

-Tosses

-Pull Chain

Aegean:Abdomen:Interior

-Walk

-Tosses

-Tosses

-Yet more tosses

-Grapple

Aegean:The Guardhouse

-Pull lever, return and pull chain

-t,s, roll away from his stamp, repeat, use the halo and kill the things

-Pull chain, grapple and QTE wall

Aegean:Arm:Exterior

Infected Hand 2

S1 – Stick around the centre to start with, slightly to the left, as soon as he starts going for his sweep go to the far right corner to avoid it, get hits in, he’ll then probably use his side slam/centre stab combo, which is easily enough avoided by rolling to the opposite side, mostly repeat that. If he does the double hand barrier things, stay on one side and hit the hand then dodge to the other side, then continue.

S2 – Mostly the same as before, but OS the bugs (good for both collisons and iframes).

S3 – OS is the main deal here, should the bugs run out you can go back to the previous method but he seems to spawn excessively (just fine with me).

Aegean:Ribs:Interior:Hall

-Pull lever

Aegean:Ribs:Interior:Elevator

-Kick the hounds

-Interact with lift

-Kick some more hounds

-Interact with clamps and lift

-Grapple

-Navigate

Aegean:Brothel

-...

Aegean:Head Platform:Exterior

-Tosses

Infected Head

-I really don’t get how this fight works (never have), my only method is to attack the purple thing at the back right, then when it moves forward move forward with it, then it moves back, after these three rounds it usually shatters and the fight ends. Sometimes it’s a good idea to hit the enemies for space, tossing them at each other works well for that, as does t0. Fortunately the tactics I use here are acceptable under PAIN+ so no need to worry about it all that much. But in summation, dumb fight, too many enemies, ridiculous camera, not a fan of it at all.

Infected Hand 3

-Every attack this one has is blockable so just block and hit it, spirit when the meter is full.

-Do the mini-game.

Kirra:Path

-Navigate

Kirra:Market

-I find this to be one of the more difficult fights in the game (likely because it’s two annoying enemies before we’ve been given anything to cope). I didn’t pick up to club and the sword is shit, so no WWs for me. Also, their stamp has an inexcusable range, it’s more than one roll’s distance so your options are to get some roll iframes or jump over it (which is the better of the two). As far as strategy, go towards the first one and get a few hits in (I like s,s,s, or s,t,s,s, s4 leaves you open and is terrible), then when the hounds spawn kick them around until they’re gone, then when it’s just the juggs my preference is to avoid the charge (hopefully until they rest without attacking) and then hit them, and then repeat. Sometimes you can get one of them stuck over by the barrier so that’s nice if it happens.

Kirra:Path A

-Fire Parasites

-Navigate

Kirra:Fire Trial

-Use Fire Dump

-As usual, tosses or r1,t lock. I found an interesting thing here that is likely useless, but I’ll mention it anyway; if you rage dump into a satyr and grapple him, when the explosion goes off you’ll go into battering ram instantly. I doubt that can be used to any great effect but knowing you you’ll find something.

-Use Magic

-Infinite MP is to be exploited.

Kirra:Path B

-…

Kirra:Satyr Arena

-Fortunately, I read your coverage of this section. I had the spear from before, so I discarded it towards the slingers (once it killed them, then the second time it only went to red halo so I just hopped up and finished them), then lured the big satyr over, T to OH to get him up on the platform with me, then just s,t,s,s block. When he’s gone, drop down and deal with the others by usual means (which is to say just slap them, rage dump when you can, toss/t lock when their armour is gone.

Kirra:Path C

-OS

-Navigate

Kirra:Waterwheel Puzzle

-Their slings can’t go through objects, so you can just go up to them and slap them one by one, don’t have much HP.

-Puzzle

Kirra:Path D

-Navigate

-Sidle

-…

Kirra:Streets

-OS

Kirra:Roller Puzzle

-Do it and return to the pillar

Kirra:Gate

-Standard gorgon handling, bait the swipe/slam, t,s, repeat, rage dump when you can, continue through her gold halo until you get the red one.

Cistern:Hall A

-Navigate

Cistern:Arena

-OS

Cistern:Hall B

-…

-Slide and Navigate

Passage to Delphi:Ice Trial

-My appreciation of the r1,t lock grows. Very much enjoy it.

Passage to Delphi:Path

-Navigate

Passage to Delphi:Python A

-Ride

Tower of Delphi:Shaft:Exterior

-Navigate

Tower of Delphi:Shaft:Interior

-Navigate

Tower of Delphi:Neck

-OS

Tower of Delphi:Head

Chimera

I fucking hate this fight. It’s like they took the GoWIII Chimera and found ways of making it all worse. Snake phase has a charge that you can block? Let’s make it unblockable. It doesn’t have an instant attack after it unexpectedly blocks? Well add one then! The lion swipe is entirely reasonable? Let’s give it obscene range. The goat phase has fire we can roll through? Well then obviously make it ice and have it stay around for a few seconds. The goat phase can also catch you right at the end of the charge hitbox and, should that happen, will basically do a second full charge, like it reactivates the animation or something. Proper shitty is what it is.

(Snake) I had seen your coverage regarding air o, which I did in the original NUR, but I didn’t find it quite as useful this time for whatever reason, so I basically just went for flanking his charge, s,s, repeat.

(Lion) Same again, except with different dodges and you now have time for s,s,s

(Goat) If it ain’t broke…

The only benefit is that this is a perfectly serviceable PAIN+ tactic (although I did use my single charge of useless magic on the goat phase just to make it end quicker).

-Chain

Delphi:Python B:Interior A

-Slide

-Shield shield shield, good times ahead. After acquiring one, toss everything into the holes.

Delphi:Python B:Exterior A

-Swing and navigate

Delphi:Python B:Interior B:Electric Trial

-Love me some grapple/t lock.

Delphi:Python B:Exterior B

-Slide, grapple, navigate, grapple, QTE

Delphi:Python B:Interior C

-Slide, jump and grapple

Delphi:Python B:Exterior C

-There’s no invisible wall where the snake dips down, so go throw everything off it.

-Grapple, navigate and QTE

Delphi:Python C:Exterior A

-No walls here at all.

-Slide, jump, grapple, navigate and swing

Temple of Delphi:Exterior A

-Slide

-OS, quick shot of magic because the space is bad here

-Grapple

Delphi:Python C:Exterior B

-Start ride

-I like to stay at the front and use t0 to keep them busy, could just as well stand and block.

-Grapple

Delphi:Python C:Exterior C

-As before

-Grapple, navigate and grapple

Delphi:Python C:Interior

-Slide, jump and slide

Delphi:Python C:Exterior D

-And once more

-Grapple and navigate

Delphi:Python C:Exterior E

-Just block here, bad camera

-Grapple, swing, slide and jump

-Grapple

Tower of Delphi:Shaft:Exterior

-Navigate

Towerof Delphi:Shaft:Interior

-Navigate

Tower of Delphi:Neck

-Navigate

Tower of Delphi:Head

Manticore

S1 – Not a fan of this fight either. I found the best method was to go for air t when possible, s,s when he’s on the ground, rage dump if possible, repeat. Safety is my main concern here.

S2 – As before without the air attacks, OS spawn, use magic to speed things along.

-Pull

Temple of Delphi:Bridge

-Cross

Temple of Delphi:Front Gate

-Open

Temple of Delphi:Cerberus Mongrel Arena

-Simple enough, s,t,L1 until he warps, dodge it, repeat, kick all the hounds, use the first gold halo to remove the spawn, then back to more s,t,L1, ignore further halos. And rage drump, I might forget to say that later, but I don’t tend to use anything beyond s3 so just assume I’m doing it (and trying to time them for iframes).

Temple of Delphi:Mist Gate

-Navigate

Temple of Delphi:Hall

-Navigate

Temple of Delphi:Upper Halls:Eastside Hall

-Take the shield (timing’s tough here but I got away with it), then r1/t lock the smaller enemy before dealing with the bigger one as usual.

Temple of Delphi:Upper Halls:Eastside Hall:Room A

-…

Temple of Delphi:Upper Halls:Eastside Hall:Room B

-…

Temple of Delphi:Upper Halls:Westside Hall

-Block the overhead and the bolts, roll the screech, s,s,s, halos are nice.

Temple of Delphi:Upper Halls:Westside Hall:Room A

-…

Temple of Delphi:Upper Halls:Westside Hall:Room B

-Mist

Temple of Delphi:Lower Halls

-Navigate

Temple of Delphi:Lower Halls:Soul Trial

-Usual trial handling

Temple of Delphi:Lower Halls:Catacombs Chamber

-s,t,s,s or t,s,s while blocking, fairly easy to keep them separated. Only problem here is the instant unblockable when they go into the rage state. Also off screen works out nice here if you need to be cautious.

Temple of Delphi:Upper Halls:Catacombs Chamber

-Navigate and pull lever

Temple of Delphi:Lower Halls:Catacombs Hall A

-Navigate and cross

Temple of DelphI:Lower Halls:Catacombs Hall B

-OS

Temple of Delphi:Lower Halls:Hourglass Puzzle:Chamber

-OS to OH out of the burrow, not much room for anything else with the summons.

-Navigate

Temple of Delphi:Upper Halls:Hourglass Puzzle:Chamber

-Navigate

Temple of Delphi:Lower Halls:Catacombs Chamber

-Take away the shield, R1/t lock the satyr, OS the harpies

Temple of Delphi:Upper Halls:Catacombs Chamber

-Navigate

Temple of Delphi:Lower Halls:Hourglass Puzzle:Chamber

-Do puzzle

Temple of Delphi:Oracle's Chamber:Bridge

-Navigate

(SWFU) Would still be good to see a few things, maybe understand the options a bit better. I did make a brief effort (had to delete my save for some reason so could only do H, probably for the best though), but upon reaching Paratus I decided to finish the main GoW runs rather than spending a lot of time figuring out how this works, so we can leave that until after GoWIII/GoW:A PAIN+ are done.

(Bring order) We can only hope that happens as expediently and peacefully as possible, the tipping point is certainly on the way. Assuming you’re still in the US, you’re lucky enough to have begun the reformation process, we’re still busy negotiating with the oligarchical EU against the will of the people *and it’s going great. Just great*.

(Dead Space) Good to know the Flamethrower is useless. I believe I did the One-Gun for the trophy some years ago, might have been difficult if they hadn’t given us the best gun to do it with. Although I do like the No-Gun idea. Another one to hang onto for a different time.

(Melee)*Brutes* I can’t even comprehend how such a thing might be possible.

(Kinesis) Of course, I forgot that Kinesis existed, that certainly would make things a lot more manageable (stasis as well). Although it’s clear from your comments here that I’ve forgotten just about everything about the game, so perhaps it would be worth getting to know it better when the time comes.

(Dredge) Oh don’t even get me started on the OS damage/OS kill thing. Idiocy.

(Thanatos) Didn’t like his shockwave in S2, really didn’t like that it had a hitbox that came off the ground, didn’t like Deimos getting in the way, didn’t like that after a while parries stop affecting him, didn’t like that when he comes back in big form the front half of the arena becomes an instant hitbox. Wasn’t terrible I just found it to be more annoying than difficult (didn’t even know Deimos could hit us *since I didn’t use him until forced*, that sounds infuriating).

(Domain of Death) The handheld entries are riddled with lazy decisions like these.

(Lion placement) That is true, we didn’t even really have a gauntlet in this one (although we did have the Geryons and then the Cyclops/Wraiths, would take any number of lions over those.

(2x Dredge) I don’t even want to think about that.

(Re-tooling for fairness) Sounds like you just mean completely redesign Geryons, which would also be just fine with me.

(Fire) I’ve been using fire exclusively so far, except for CP glitch. Doesn’t seem much reason to use anything else except maybe electric s4 for stun, haven’t needed it yet though. Anyway, GoW:A NUR+ coverage to follow.