The life is short challenge
Life is Short is the third of the five Challenges of Hades. In this challenge, Kratos must kill all of the enemies, before he dies. During this challenge, Kratos is bleeding out at a constant rate of 1 health point per second, making it hard to complete the task. The enemies come in waves, first are the minotaur, second in the harpies, and third is the Hyperion Guard.
Restrictions[]
- Life is draining at a constant rate of 1 health point per second.
Strategy[]
The player will have to be quick as Kratos' life depletes rapidly. Despite the presence of chained prisoners on the walls, which provide health when killed, they are barely enough to sustain Kratos' vitality and therefore an almost null margin of error. The player will need precision, speed, and most importantly, avoid damage at all costs.
The Minotaur will be a big threat as its attacks are not blockable and can deal large damage, while having large health. The Gauntlet of Zeus works best to defeat this beast as quickly as possible. The player should reconsider restarting the challenge if they are damaged by the Minotaur as the loss of HP by its attacks is sufficient to fail the rest of the challenge. It is best to kill this foe through Quick Time Event, as it yields more Green Orbs.
Next come harpies which will appear in hordes. Numbering on the thousands the harpies are threatening because they effectively delay the challenge while the player keeps losing HP with no source of healing other than the prisoners. The Gauntlet of Zeus is not as good as it is focused on single targets and its wider attacks take time to charge. Charon's Wrath is effective as it can catch a swarm of harpies in a single blast, but it is difficult to use because of its button combination which can trigger a Grab Kill instead. It is best to avoid Grab Kills as they take time, kills only one at a time, and worse of all Kratos still loses HP. The Blades of Chaos work much better because of its longer and wider radius and being much faster. Efreet might work to some extent but might be slow and risky. Overall the player should gather as many Harpies as possible and area kill them. One should not underestimate the Harpies' attacks as while they deal low damage, it can accumulate rapidly.
The Hyperion Guards are easily dealt with 2-3 charged hits from the Gauntlet of Zeus, but spawn only one at a time and take relatively long to spawn between one another. Killing them normally or by QTE provides Green Orbs. For speed, it might be better to normal kill them. All in all the player needs to avoid as much damage as possible and kill enemies as fast as possible. Only then can they succeed as there is small room for mistakes.