The City of Marathon

Grab the Phoenix Feather near the start point here, then climb down the cliff to reach the Red Orb Chest. Continue down from there to reach the first save point of the level.

Cliffs of Marathon

Bash your way into the home nearby to come face to face with your first undead knight. These knights are similar to soldiers, but attack more aggressively and take more damage. Be prepared to guard against their attacks. Finish this one off, then destroy the door at the rear of the area to reach a Red Orb Chest and another chest. The second chest will probably contain a Eye or Feather if you missed any of the earlier ones, but for us it contained more red and blue orbs.

Move back a bit to find the main drag here, where more Knights will appear and attack you. Kill them, then start heading down the road. There are a few more Red Orb Chests inside some of the buildings here, so look for doorways and explore a bit.

At the end of the road, you’ll get your first glimpse at the deadly fog that Morpheus is sending out into the city. Stepping into the fog has no ill effects at first, but will eventually deal heavy damage to you. You’ll need to move the small burning crate here towards the next gate in order to provide you with a bit of shelter from the fog, so do so, then open the gate and move on.

After passing through the gate, look near the large circular object on the floor to find a chest with a Gorgon Eye inside. As you head to the east, you’ll notice a statue with a torch; ignore it for the moment. Nearby, you’ll run into your first banshee. These annoying enemies attack quickly and have a shout that will stun Kratos. You can tap L and R to remove the stun effect, but it’ll often be impossible to do this quickly enough to avoid the first of the two-part attack that the banshee will be sending your way, so you may just want to hold the L button down to dodge the second attack. It’s generally easiest to just wail on the banshees with your L+Square attack to force the minigame and finish them off. They do drop magic orbs, so feel free to use Efreet on them to weaken them up.

The banshees will spawn forever, but will eventually stop giving you orbs when you kill them. In order to stop them from spawning, you’ll need to rotate the crank nearby; you may have to kill some archers in order to do this safely. Spinning the crank all the way will prevent any more banshees from spawning.

When the banshees are shut down, grab the Red Orb Chest to the east, then nab the torch from the statue. Throw it into the cart near where the archers stood and start pushing it. You can stop the cart whenever you spot another archer and run into their little areas; you’ll find a couple more Red Orb Chests as well as a Phoenix Feather.

At the end of the path, you’ll come across a vicious cold-breathing tiger enemy. They have a variety of powerful attacks, including their cold breath, which can’t be blocked. Attack from afar and dodge around, if you like, or simply get up close and personal, using Efreet to counteract the effects of their cold breath. Kill the beast and move on to the next save point.

The Steed Shrine

The steed shrine features a couple of readable objects and three crank shafts, but you apprently can’t do much with them at the moment. Ignore them for now and head down the pathway nearby towards Helios’ Temple. After killing the enemies here, make your way down the path and start climbing the wall. There’s a corridor halfway up the wall that leads to a locked door; presumably that’ll be how you return to the steed shrine later on.

After climbing to the top of the platform and having your conversation with Athena, start poking around. If you jump into the water near the statues and wade off to the west a bit, you’ll find a Gorgon Eye in a chest. There’s also a Red Orb Chest obscured by a wall; you’ll find it near the northern pool. There’s a gate up the steps that is impassable, so head to the save point and take the elevator nearby.