God of War 3 Challenge of Olympus Hint - A few of these took me a while to beat and I thought I would share my experience and hints on here for those having trouble with them. If someone else posted something similar already, then forgive me for the repeat, but I didn't see it yet, so here you go, and let me know if it helps. Thanks.
Population Control:
Don't allow there to be more than 50 enemies at the same time. Kill them before too many spawn.
---This is by far the easiest of the challenges. Just smash away at these guys with your Cestus and this should be over real soon.
Bare Hands:
Before time runs out. Kill all the enemies without using weapons.
---I found this one to be quite difficult. You must grab the smaller enemies and ram them into the larger enemies to damage them. (circle, then square). The best way to do this is to just keep grabbing the small guys and ramming the big guys non-stop. DO NOT hit (circle) on them and go through the prompts to kill them. This wastes valuable time. Just keep ramming them till they die. Also, avoid hitting the small guys against the rocks on the side as this also wastes time and only kills the small guy. If you can avoid doing those then you have a good chance if you keep up the pace of ramming them non-stop. Your odds will be increased significantly if you can ram one of the big guys off the platform as this kills them instantly, but this is difficult to do as well.
Get Stoned:
Allow the Gorgons to turn you to stone 10 times without dying.
---This was the hardest for me along with Bare Hands, but I finally did it with this method: Continue rolling and running around the map. I found that the Gorgons will use the green beam to turn you to stone more often if you are far away from them and continuously moving. If you are close to them they are more likely to use a normal attack. When they finally do attack you, hit (L1) to block the attack, but do not hit the next key. Just immediately after hitting (L1) start shaking out of the stone and you will find yourself through it quickly. The first 4 are easy, then those bastards with the double edged swords come. It is OK to use the (L1 plus correct command button) to freeze some of these enemies if you feel overwhelmed, but don't destroy the Gorgons or you will have to wait for them to respawn. My recommendation though is to just speed through it without killing enemies. Especially on the last 2 because when you hit 8 theres a million enemies and your only chance of survival is to get through it as fast as possible before they kill you. So basically keep blocking and shaking out of it as quickly as possible and you should get through it.
El Matador - OLE:
Don't get gored by the Minotaures. Don't get piled on by the enemies.
---I found this one very difficult until I found a nice little strategy. When there is Minotaurs charging you, stand near the edge of the platform, wait until they are close, and then roll off the platform. Kratos will grab onto the edge of the platform and the Minotaurs will go charging over the side. You must time this well though because if you hang on the edge of the platform too long you will fall, so you must pull yourself up quickly. On the small enemies that spawn simply repeatedly hit them with (L1 + square) area of effect attack and you will easily kill them. Hard challenge just became easy.
Knockout:
Score 1000 points by knocking enemies out of the arena.
---Some people said this was super easy and others super hard. I found it in the middle. Took me a few tries but I got it. The key is taking over the initial ogre quickly as that time is wasted just attacking him and not scoring points. If you can start trashing around with the ogre by the 43 second mark at least, then you should be able to achieve this.
Hades Kids:
They don't die, they multiply. Get 5 Cyclops to spawn.
---This one gets very difficult when there are 4 Cyclops around, so here is the key. Kill the first one. Easy. Now you have two. Take down the life of both of them before you kill one. When both are mostly injured. Then kill ONE of them only. This will cause two more to appear making you have three on screen. Now damage the other two that just spawned while not killing the original one that was left. Once you have at least one of the new ones damaged and hurt, then kill both of the damaged ogres together and 4 will drop giving you the win. Just make sure to keep dodging and rolling and take your time and you should get it pretty easy.
Simply Smashing:
Destroy all the urns before time runs out.
---I found this one very hard until I learned the proper attack combo to use to destroy the urns most efficiently. It is by far (square, square, triangle) If you keep in mind where the missing urns are located and continue to use the (square, square, triangle) attacks, you will do well and pass this fairly easily.
For simply smashing, I found it easier to hit square only once, roll, repeat. This attack goes straight out and then curves to the left or right a little before coming back so you can easily knock out 3 to 4 urns in one blow.
Population Control:
Don't allow there to be more than 50 enemies at the same time. Kill them before too many spawn.
---This is by far the easiest of the challenges. Just smash away at these guys with your Cestus and this should be over real soon.
Bare Hands:
Before time runs out. Kill all the enemies without using weapons.
---I found this one to be quite difficult. You must grab the smaller enemies and ram them into the larger enemies to damage them. (circle, then square). The best way to do this is to just keep grabbing the small guys and ramming the big guys non-stop. DO NOT hit (circle) on them and go through the prompts to kill them. This wastes valuable time. Just keep ramming them till they die. Also, avoid hitting the small guys against the rocks on the side as this also wastes time and only kills the small guy. If you can avoid doing those then you have a good chance if you keep up the pace of ramming them non-stop. Your odds will be increased significantly if you can ram one of the big guys off the platform as this kills them instantly, but this is difficult to do as well.
Get Stoned:
Allow the Gorgons to turn you to stone 10 times without dying.
---This was the hardest for me along with Bare Hands, but I finally did it with this method: Continue rolling and running around the map. I found that the Gorgons will use the green beam to turn you to stone more often if you are far away from them and continuously moving. If you are close to them they are more likely to use a normal attack. When they finally do attack you, hit (L1) to block the attack, but do not hit the next key. Just immediately after hitting (L1) start shaking out of the stone and you will find yourself through it quickly. The first 4 are easy, then those bastards with the double edged swords come. It is OK to use the (L1 plus correct command button) to freeze some of these enemies if you feel overwhelmed, but don't destroy the Gorgons or you will have to wait for them to respawn. My recommendation though is to just speed through it without killing enemies. Especially on the last 2 because when you hit 8 theres a million enemies and your only chance of survival is to get through it as fast as possible before they kill you. So basically keep blocking and shaking out of it as quickly as possible and you should get through it.
El Matador - OLE:
Don't get gored by the Minotaures. Don't get piled on by the enemies.
---I found this one very difficult until I found a nice little strategy. When there is Minotaurs charging you, stand near the edge of the platform, wait until they are close, and then roll off the platform. Kratos will grab onto the edge of the platform and the Minotaurs will go charging over the side. You must time this well though because if you hang on the edge of the platform too long you will fall, so you must pull yourself up quickly. On the small enemies that spawn simply repeatedly hit them with (L1 + square) area of effect attack and you will easily kill them. Hard challenge just became easy.
Knockout:
Score 1000 points by knocking enemies out of the arena.
---Some people said this was super easy and others super hard. I found it in the middle. Took me a few tries but I got it. The key is taking over the initial ogre quickly as that time is wasted just attacking him and not scoring points. If you can start trashing around with the ogre by the 43 second mark at least, then you should be able to achieve this.
Hades Kids:
They don't die, they multiply. Get 5 Cyclops to spawn.
---This one gets very difficult when there are 4 Cyclops around, so here is the key. Kill the first one. Easy. Now you have two. Take down the life of both of them before you kill one. When both are mostly injured. Then kill ONE of them only. This will cause two more to appear making you have three on screen. Now damage the other two that just spawned while not killing the original one that was left. Once you have at least one of the new ones damaged and hurt, then kill both of the damaged ogres together and 4 will drop giving you the win. Just make sure to keep dodging and rolling and take your time and you should get it pretty easy.
Simply Smashing:
Destroy all the urns before time runs out.
---I found this one very hard until I learned the proper attack combo to use to destroy the urns most efficiently. It is by far (square, square, triangle) If you keep in mind where the missing urns are located and continue to use the (square, square, triangle) attacks, you will do well and pass this fairly easily.
For simply smashing, I found it easier to hit square only once, roll, repeat. This attack goes straight out and then curves to the left or right a little before coming back so you can easily knock out 3 to 4 urns in one blow.