The Hardest Item To Get In Every God Of War Game

The Hardest Item to Get in Every God of War Game

Welcome to MojoPlays, and today we’re looking at the hardest items and costumes to unlock in each “God of War” game!

Challenge of the Gods Costumes

“God of War” (2005)

We’ll start with the first game in the series, which actually has one of the most formidable challenges in the entire franchise. After you beat 2005’s “God of War” once on any difficulty, you unlock the Challenge of the Gods, which turns out to be a pretty accurate name. This is a series of ten combat encounters that grow more and more frustrating as you work through them. The first one requires you to knock eight Legionnaire enemies off of a platform within a 55-second time limit. Crucially, you’re not allowed to kill them, or fall off the platform yourself. That’s only a bit annoying compared to later challenges, though. One fight requires defeating all enemies in 90 seconds without getting hit once. And the final one has Kratos raise the painfully small platform by hitting Cerberus Seeds and Satyrs, who endlessly spawn and are among the most annoying enemies in the game. It’s an absolute pain, but gets you several hilarious costumes with different stats for a replay, including Chef of War and Dairy Bastard.

Athena & Hercules Costumes

“God of War II” (2007)

In a few of the older games, you can also gain new costumes by beating the stories on the hardest difficulties. In “God of War II,” that difficulty is called Titan Mode. To even unlock it, you have to have already beaten the game once, which just adds to the difficulty of gaining certain costumes. As it’s the hardest of the four possible modes, Kratos’ ability to deal damage is severely hindered while enemies can easily swarm and rip him apart, recovering from and dealing attacks much more quickly. It also alters the potency of health-giving Green Orbs and magic meter-filling Blue Orbs, while making Red Orbs, which increase the power of Kratos’ weapons, much harder to come by. Beating “God of War II” this way gets you two costumes, Athena and Hercules. Athena’s costume decreases defense, and increases the number of Red Orbs gained as well as the potency of Green and Blue Orbs. Hercules’ costume also decreases defense, but comes with a 50% boost in damage, befitting of the demigod.

Mime of War

“God of War: Chains of Olympus” (2008)

The name of the hardest difficulty can change between “God of War” games. While it’s called Titan Mode in “God of War II,” it’s called God Mode in “Chains of Olympus.” It doesn’t really matter what it’s called, though, because it will still absolutely slay you. Again, you have to beat the game once on one of the other three difficulties to unlock it. And, as you probably expect, it essentially comes with all the same extremely demanding qualities as Titan Mode. Enemies will hit much harder and quicker than ever before, and Orbs only go half as far as they normally would. Naturally, these types of modes are only for players who really want to perfect their combat skills and defy the odds. Completing it gets you a few things, including behind-the-scenes features. But in terms of items, it gets you the Mime of War costume, which doubles the value of Green and Blue Orbs, quadruples the value of Red ones, and dresses Kratos like a mime with invisible weapons.

Daedalus’ Schematics

“God of War III” (2010)

“God of War III” debuted in the early era of pre-order bonuses. Meaning, instead of beating the game on a tough difficulty to unlock a new costume, you could get them by pre-ordering at different retailers, or by purchasing them on the PSN later. Even the highest difficulty level, here called Chaos and still unlocked after beating the game once, gets you no reward for completing it. So, its items and costumes aren’t really that hard to get. But of the bunch, Daedalus’ Schematics can be easy to miss. It's one of the Godly Possessions, each linked to a different deity which can grant various bonuses when equipped for another playthrough. While most of these are easily found after Kratos defeats a God, or in a place linked to them, Daedalus’ Schematics at least require solving a puzzle. They’re found in his workshop, which has several portals. Pulling the lever raises a ballista, and running up a wall into the portal facing downwards leads to another lever, which lowers a platform with two chests. Firing the ballista again into the portal directly ahead will drop the chests, one with the item inside.

Grave Digger's Shovel

“God of War: Ghost of Sparta” (2010)

While the PSP’s “Ghost of Sparta” also gives you a costume for beating it on God Mode (Xref), one named for the game itself, we want to focus on a different type of challenge. After beating the game once, players will unlock the Temple of Zeus. Here, Kratos can spend Red Orbs to unlock different things like behind-the-scenes content and combat challenges. Unlocking all of them takes a whopping one million Orbs, which naturally will take a ton of time and effort to collect while playing the game. After spending your hard-earned Orbs, Kratos can access a secret area holding the Grave Digger’s Shovel. It unlocks a costume you can only use in the arena combat mode, which starts you as the kindly gravedigger before transforming into his real form for the fight, Zeus. The leader of the Olympians has a pretty devastating moveset, but it sure takes a lot of dedication to experience.

Alternate Costumes

“God of War: Ascension” (2013)

Yeah, unfortunately this one is extremely straightforward. “God of War: Ascension” is the easiest in the series when it comes to its unlockable content. The artifacts you can find, which take the place of Godly Possessions of “God of War III,” are all fairly easy to spot with none locked behind puzzles. Even the one earned after the hardest part of the story, the Trial of Archimedes, is just sitting out in the open. Furthermore, while it does have different difficulty levels, even the most challenging, once again called Titan, doesn’t get you anything for beating it. So, how do you get the game’s alternate costumes? Just beat the game. Once. On any difficulty. I know, a bit of a letdown, but it does get you seven different costumes for a replay.

Radiant Shield of Unity & Aspis of Spartan Fury

“God of War” (2018)

While the older games had Kratos heal by collecting Green Orbs, which could appear fairly regularly depending on the difficulty, the Norse games are a bit less forgiving. You’ll have to find healthstones, which appear infrequently in the world or are dropped by enemies, also infrequently. That’s just on Normal Mode. On Give Me God of War difficulty, this game’s most punishing, which is once again unlocked after beating the game once, health isn’t something you’ll find often. But it’s definitely something you’ll be in need of often. Enemies will be of a much stronger stock right from the get go. They’ll also be a lot smarter and more aggressive, easily flanking you to tear poor Kratos limb from limb. Plus, status effects dealt to him will last longer and have extra negatives. Beating the game this way gets you two separate shield cosmetics, the Radiant Shield of Unity and the Aspis of Spartan Fury. So, it’s really if you want to put yourself through immense pain for some bragging rights.

Rond of Obliteration

“God of War Ragnarok” (2022)

In the base game of “Raganrok,” the Rond of Obliteration is earned by defeating Gna, this game’s Valkyrie Queen who appears as a pretty tough but optional fight during the post-game. Gna stands with Sigrun from the 2018 game as one of the hardest fights across the whole series. The Rond is great for boosting Kratos’ stats, and comes with a perk that charges a group of projectiles while Kratos blocks. However, in the “Valhalla” DLC, it’s a much bigger hassle to unlock, which is why it takes the spot. You can only gain it by beating Tyr’s fourth and final fight on the Show Me Mastery difficulty, naturally the highest on offer. But you also must choose to be afflicted with the Penalty of Breaching at the beginning of your run, which decreases Kratos’ strength and slowly drains his health as you go, but won’t kill him. It’s only cosmetic in the DLC, too, so it’s really only worth getting if you’ve gotten too good at the game.

Have you gotten all of these unlockables? Which was the most challenging for you? Share your thoughts in the comments and be sure to subscribe to MojoPlays for more great gaming videos every day!