By now we've probably all seen it. The "hard game with enemies added, no more plz" hybrid of brick breaker and hack and slashing.
I played it and beat it with some effort and tricks I learned along the way.
So I'm going to give tips and hints for this difficult game and hopefully help more people enjoy it like I did.
Tips for combat: Underneath the health bar of Helios is a yellow bar that starts out dark. When this bar is full a powerup will drop from the ceiling, giving either the Spartan or Helios some helpful abilities/ enhancements.
Do note however that you can only fill this bar by doing three things: -Kill enemies: You don't need to do this but it makes it go a lot faster. -Keep Helios in the air: When Helios starts losing life both his health and the power-up bar are drained. -THE MOST IMPORTANT THING: DONT GET HIT! Enemies hitting you won't hurt you but it will drain the powerbar. Meaning that a mob of enemies can rob you of a hard-earned powerup.
Now for the powerups:
Dew of the lotus looks like a green flower. This power-up restores Helios' life to full.
Dew of shadows looks like a black flower. Turns the Spartan into a living shadow for a period of time, ELIMINATING THE NEED TO BLOCK. ABUSE THIS POWERUP AND SLAUGHTER ENEMIES. This will help you get your next powerup much faster.
Sword power-up. Gives the spartan a sword attack with increased range due to waves that he slashes outward. I'm fairly certain this hits harder than a regular attack.
The twilight spear looks like a spear with wings. When you use the attack button the spartan lunges forward at incredible speed, nailing foes in the way. It hits harder than your normal attack and allows you to keep Helios in the air longer by getting to him sooner.
The champion's wreath looks like a wreath. This causes the spartan to glow golden. Now this is a huge power-up for one reason: ONE HIT WILL KILL JUST ABOUT ANYTHING. So use and abuse this one but don't forget to block.
Dew of the tides looks like a bubble of green. Causes Helios to go up and down of his own accord in the air, glowing purple. Sometimes you can bounce him off of your shield to speed him up but he won't touch the ground.
Dew of shatter looks like several rings in a bubble. Causes Helios to become invincible and glow a red-purple, destroying any block he touches in just one hit. Dew of Chaos looks like a yellow ball bouncing in a bubble. Helios turns into an invincible, yellow ball that acts like it's had WAY too much sugar. He'll bounce around really fast.
The dawn shield, AKA ULTIMATE POWERUP Looks like a wierd ship/shield thing: as soon as you get his powerup position the spartan under blocks and spam the attack button. The shield launches a beam of damaging energy towards the ceiling, hitting blocks in the way. Use it on tougher blocks or more annoying spots to speed a level up. Be careful to avoid enemies as you use it though as all power-ups are timed, with this one being quite short.
So those are the power-ups. Next I shall list things that the game doesn't really tell you (And things it does but are worth repeating)
1. Bouncing Helios off of your shield can cause him to change the angle he flies at. 2. Bouncing Helios off of your shield BEFORE he touches the ground causes him to gain 10 HP. 3. If Helios is on the ground get to him ASAP. If no enemies are present just run. If enemies are around/ everywhere double tap the movement button to roll past them and get to him. 4. If you get hit by an attack ROLL OUT OF IT. You'll recover almost instantly. 5. Whenever you bounce Helios off your shield in the midst of a group of enemies Helios actually damages them and can kill some foes outright. I use this for big enemies and hordes of smaller ones often. 6. Prioritize Helios' life. If he dies it's game over. If you get clobbered by the hordes of the underworld and he still smashes all the blocks in the level you've done your job right.
Now enemies. They change appearance often in the game but the roles are like this:
Spear fodder: The first enemy type you encounter. One hit will take these guys out and they have the shortest range and no shield skills. Archer: Worse than fodder since they can shoot from afar. Shield block the arrows and then roll in to get that kill.
Guys who use their shields: Like cannon fodder but harder hitting, with better range (usually) and more life/ skill with a shield. These guys can be annoying. Best to block, than attack or block and wait for powerup.
Big guys: Lots of life and hard hitting, your shield and your rolling help a lot here. Use shield to block than attack than repeat until foe is dead.
Big guys that have little life/ lots of life but hit REALLY hard: You'll come to hate these guys since your shield is useless against them. You can typically kill them in a few hits if they don't block with their shield. Others (the mercifully rare type) have a lot of hit points and are best avoided until you get a power-up.
Boss character: Don't even bother attacking or blocking. Just roll out of the way or get caught looping the hit animation.
Armored guys that piss you off: They can't break your shield but MAN do they have a lot of life!
So those are the basic enemy types in the game.
In conclusion, Shield is good, roll is amazing, keep Helios alive, and don't get hurt to get power ups and speed things up.
