Dante's Inferno - Walkthrough

================================================ ========= Dante's Inferno FAQ ================================================ ========= This FAQ may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright.

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Written by: Daniel Acaba Online ID: Misfit119 Contact me at: eternalmisery718@yahoo.com System: Xbox 360 / PS3

This FAQ Copyright 2009 www.IGN.com

================================================ ========= Index ================================================ =========

1 - Update History 2 - Alignment 3 - Spells 4 - Tips and Tricks 5 - Walkthrough 5.01 - Citadel of Acre 5.02 - Florence 5.03 - Shores of Acheron 5.04 - Limbo 5.05 - Lust 5.06 - Gluttony 5.07 - Greed 5.08 - Anger 5.09 - Heresy 5.10 - Violence 5.11 - Fraud 5.12 - Treachery 6 - - About the Author

================================================ ========= 1. Update History ================================================ ========= v.1.0 - 2/24/2010

================================================ ========= 2. Alignment ================================================ ========= Holy - Following the Holy path is the way to create a character who is far more defensible and able to survive. He attains two spells that will aid him on this route: Divine Armor and Martyrdom.

Divine Armor is basically a weaker version of Redemption, rendering Dante fully invulnerable to harm for a very short time although his attacks aren't sped up at all. This is quite a boon since this gives you the ability to go invincible while building up your Redemption meter again. With this it's quite easy to go toe to toe with a boss for a short time by using Divine Armor, Redemption and then using Divine Armor again.

Martyrdom on the other hand isn't quite as useful. It does a whole bucketload of damage to basic enemies, and even bigger ones like Asterian Beasts, although it's not quite as useful against bosses. But it takes a pretty big chunk out of your HP when used reducing its effectiveness by a fair bit. If you know there's a health and mana font nearby then feel free to use this.

What's really helpful about this path is how useful Dante's Focus attacks are (the ones involving holding left trigger / R2). If you get the Divine series of skills you can pull enemies in and knock them into the air with ease. This will work even against the more defensive enemies in the game.

Holy characters will generally have an easier time against bosses but not so

much when it comes to the regular enemies in the game. You go through your MP really fast so you will have to use it only when it really matters.

Due to the ease with which you fight bosses this is the suggested path to take on your first trip through the game.

==============

Unholy - Considering Holy is the more offensive path you can easily gather that this is the opposite and is mostly geared towards offense. Dante learns a huge amount of skills that will enable him to use Fierce attacks to chop and slice through hells legions with ease.

Lust Storm is a powerful spell but it takes a bit to unlock. It will allow you to go on the offense while you're somewhat protected from harm. More important than that it actually hurts your enemies so you can go on the offense and the defense at the same time.

Sins of the Father though.. this is the reason you go down the Unholy path. It takes awhile to get this spell but when you do it's totally worth it. When you use this spell a number of gilded crosses are thrown, tearing the crap out of your foes. The damage you can do with this spell is awesome and it's the main crowd control spell in this game since Righteous Path is kinda crappy. Get this up to maximum level as soon as possible.

The Unholy characters will have a pretty easy time with much of the game. Since you can be insanely aggressive and still have it pay off there's little you

can't handle. However bosses can be tricky since Lust Storm isn't entirely an effective countermeasure. It's hard to outlast them without studying how they fight and defend themselves.

================================================ ========= 3. Spells ================================================ ========= Righteous Path ============== Dante charges forward with his cross forward, holy energy radiating off of it. As he moves ice trails behind him damaging all those it touches. - Righteous Path is the first spell you get but it's also a Holy spell. That means that unless you're going down that path it's not going to be incredibly useful for too long. But even for a Holy character it still ends up costing too much to use this with any regularity.

============== Divine Armor ============== Sprouting a pair of glowing wings Dante renders himself immune to enemy attacks for a very short time. He can be knocked back if the enemies parry or block his strikes but it does no damage. - Divine Armor is probably the best spell in the entire game especially if you equip the right relics. By simply making it so that your attacks can't be evaded it's possible to just unload on all enemies even bosses to acquire a big

boost to your Redemption meter.

============== Lust Storm ============== Surrounding himself in the storms that permeate the Lust layer of Hell Dante gains a magical barrier that protects him while also damaging foes. - Lust Storm works surprisingly well against bigger enemies since it gives Dante a huge amount of damage resistance. As an Unholy spell it kind of acts like the darker version of Divine Armor.

============== Sins of the Father ============== Taking the cross that his father wore Dante hurls it at his enemies. This cuts your enemies up like nobodies business and is actually one of the strongest special attacks in the game. - And right here you have one of the best spells in the game. This has some good distance to it and it does a lot of damage to your foes. Even better is that it doesn't take as much mana as some of the other spells making it one of the most effective spells in the game.

============== Martyrdom ============== Actually this is the strongest special attack in the game but it comes at the cost of HP in addition to the usual MP cost. By stabbing himself with his cross in a fairly macabre attack Dante damages foes with a burst of energy.

- There's no reason to use this spell at any time unless you're just messing around. The HP cost is too steep for it to be used with any regularity.

================================================ ========= 4. Tips and Tricks ================================================ ========= * Always speak to Virgil until he fades away. This is important even if you're not going for achievements / trophies since the relics you can get from him will help you out quite a bit.

* If you're more concerned about gathering souls than roleplaying the game a particular way absolving the damned will get you more souls than damning them.

* Make sure to equip Relics in need of leveling up when you're about to absolve or damn a soul. This gives you a big chunk of souls and it's a waste to let it go to waste on fully leveled Relics.

* On that same note be sure to keep a bunch of Relics that are ready to be used in particular situations. For example you might not really care about your Redemption bar most of the time as it's often full when you really need it. But if you find yourself needing it, or wanting it for a boss fight, there are a few Relics that will really help it out. Always be ready to switch it up.

* Your cross is your most effective weapon in your entire arsenal. Not only can you fling it at Pests / Fiends to kill them with little difficulty but the

charged Cross attacks can blow through almost all enemy defenses. Even the big and powerful Arch Demons go down pretty easily to your unblockable blows.

* Looking at it rather mechanically Holy has the most effective attacks, namely all of the powerful cross attacks, and it lasts best against bosses. Unholy type characters have some of the most powerful attacks in the game and their spells are quite damaging.

================================================ ========= 5. Walkthrough ================================================ ========= 5.01 - Citadel of Acre ======================== Dante's story opens with a flashback to his time during the Crusades. After his King ordered numerous innocent townspeople imprisoned Dante is forced to watch over them. Things get hairy when they begin to escape...

As a tutorial to the game mechanics Dante is besieged by a number of escaped prisoners bent on tearing him apart. Due to the sheer size of his polearm and the wide radius of its swings it's very easy to get through this with little to no damage if you simply button mash away. A 100+ hit combo is easily attained here although it's not a good idea to just mash buttons. Learn how to control Dante before going wild on the weak prisoners.

Dispatching the prisoners causes a boat to ram into the citadel. Use it to

cross the gap, making your way forward into a courtyard. Here you will be snuck up on by a lone assassin who plants his blade square in Dante's back, taking the Crusader out in o.heap shot.

=================== Boss: Death =================== To find a chance to redeem himself Dante must defeat Death itself. Luckily this is a very simple battle that doesn't require much of the player. However things will quickly get hectic so don't sit on your laurels in future boss battles.

Death only has a scant handful of attacks at his disposal. His basic attack is a one or three hit attack consisting of plain scythe swings. Secondly he will often pull his scythe back and unleash a whirlwind of slashes around himself. The third attack is a scythe throw where the weapon returns to his hand. His final attacks only start at the latter half of the battle, one being a few stabs at the player with the pointed end of the scythe while his final attack is a charging slash.

But none of this really matters, all of his attacks can be blocked. This means that all you need to do to defeat him is to hit him and then quickly hold the block button. You can typically get in two regular hits and a fierce attack before he starts to defend but watch him anyway. If he starts blocking you will need to be ready since he often starts to attack you after guarding.

Once he's taken enough damage he will grab you, quickly press the B or Circle button to break free while dealing some damage. He attempts this again when you get him down to a little less than half of his health.

Eventually your damage will stagger Death to his knees (at roughly 1/4th of his health remaining). Run up to him, pressing the trigger to initate a quick time event that results in his weapon being yanked away. From here it's a simple matter to beat him up some more before initiating a second QTE that tears Death to ribbons.

======================== 5.02 - Florence ======================== Dante returns home but all is not as it should be. He finds his bethrothed, Beatrice, dead in the back yard of their home. A dark force snatches her away from Dante before the dead in the cemetary come to life to tear Dante apart. However these dead bodies are no match for you especially now that you have the Scythe of Death himself. They fight very similarly to the prisoners from Acre so it's a simple matter to control them with repeated light attacks.

After dispatching the last of the zombies make your way along the path until you reach the church. Save your game at the Beatrice statue, heal up at the green font and then enter the church for another cutscene.

When the cutscene ends you should prepare for annoyance. Unlike most of these action adventure types, Dante's Inferno has an absolute love for one shot kills typically through surprise dumps into endless pits. You'll get used to it but by the time this section is over you'll hate the tutorials and dialogue.

This starts off with you fighting three flying enemies. Obviously you'll want

to use your newly acquired Holy Cross power to fend them off before they even get near you since they're fairly hard to strike with melee attacks. Fending off two waves of them causes some more zombies to spawn in along with a slight explanation of the abolve / punish mechanic. Basically finish off enemies with your regular attacks to get lots of souls or punish / absolve them to get experience towards that particular "morality" to unlock new skills.

Stay to the rear of the platform as you fight since the top right part breaks off. After that the bottom right falls off leaving you with a small platform. Finally when all of the zombies are defeated you will see a cross fall onto the ledge you're standing on. Quickly run onto it and across or you will fall into the pit and have to restart this section.

Use the healing font before sliding down the wall. When you dismount a giant wheel will begin rolling down towards you as enemies spawn in and a gate locks into place. To get the gate out of your way you need to kill all of the enemies but this can be a bit of a problem since the wheel is there. Run forward to stand near the gate, letting the enemies come to you and attack the crap out of them as they do. Resist the urge to use the cross as your melee attacks are a fair bit stronger. Just let them close in and tear them apart. Any who try to stay away from you will be crushed by the wheel. So long as you don't absolve too many of them there will be no problem clearing this section.

Activate the font before dropping off the cliff. Your path will be obstructed by flaming debris that spawns firey demons. These are immune to your scythe until they've been struck with the holy cross, freezing them in place. Try to stay back from the flames or your combos might walk you right into it, costing you a good bit of your health.

The next tunnel traps you in with a whole slew of zombies but to vary it up there are flames jetting out of the wall. There's practically no room to move here in this narrow corridor thanks to the zombies and flames so just stand your ground and swing away. It might be helpful to just absolve / punish the crap out of the demons to get rid of them quickly without too much movement. Since they can hit you out of using the healing font it's totally unreliable to even try to heal up so you'll just have to suck it up.

With the enemies gone now is a good time to use the healing font. Head forward, use the soul font and then save your game. When you slide down the wall here be ready for a boss fight. Before it starts use the soul fonts so that you won't have to worry about it during the boss battle. Moving a bit forward you will encounter Virgl the poet who grants you the spell Righteous Path.

Several Pest and Undead Minions will attack you, giving you a chance to test out your spell before the boss comes.

=================== Boss: Asterian Beast =================== The boss here isn't the giant monster but the rider on his back. This is yet another incredibly simple battle thanks to the fact that the boss really only has one attack, a smash with both hands, at his disposal. So long as you stay back he can't hurt you but he moves fast enough to catch up to you if you're not constantly in motion.

Defeating him is simple so long as you're not careless. Move in, get him to

attack and then dash out of the way. While he recovers hit him with the scythe a few times before retreating. Simply repeat this until he falls. If you'd like to accelerate this battle then use Redemption and your new spell to lay into his health.

When the beast has taken enough damage it will stagger to a knee. Activate the QTE to remove the rider and take control of the monster yourself. Once you're on its back use the beast to kill the enemies as they spawn in until you've exhausted all of them. Walk over to the door, tearing it open with the prompts to reach the next area.

======================== 5.03 - Shores of Acheron ======================== Save your game before climbing along the wall. Be sure to nab the soul font and keep going until you reach Virgil. Speak to him if you like before using a double jump to reach the soul font here. This one contains one of the silver Judas Coins, there are 30 to find in all. Up ahead is another "fun" area so be ready for a fight. A number of undead will attack you as you try to use the switch to create a bridge you can cross but they're not the problem - those two birds with the candles on their butt are.

Since you have no means of actually targeting them and the air attacks are woefully bad they're pretty much free to hit you over and over while Dante attacks the ground enemies with the holy cross. Even on the easier difficulties it's fairly easy to lose half of your life here to their attacks while flailing desperately at them. Lots of fun to be had.

Flip the switch and rush across the bridge to reach the far side although you may have to jump the gap as it retracts. Use this soul font and slide down to reach a mini-boss fight of sorts.

This beast, the Guardian Demon, isn't very difficult except for the fact that he has an unblockable attack. But the trick is he doesn't use it unless you're already blocking. But if you block he will almost always do the attack which is super easy to avoid so by using it over and over you can predit how he attacks you every time. Just roll out of the way and counter attack. Don't use up too much of your magic on the first once since a second one spawns in with a pair of the undead.

* NOTE: Pick whether to absolve or punish these big boys carefully. Taking out big monsters like this nets you 100 XP instead of the 10 you normally get so you can use them to level up a path quickly.

Grab the handle of the elevator and ride it up to the top to find another font that contains a Judas Coin. It will automatically lower to the bottom so ride it up again and break the glowing wall, leaping through. Kick open the metal door to find Virgil again. Head forward, past the health font, to fight another Guardian backed up by some undead and two more pests. Finishing them off heal up if the font is still there, use the magic font ahead and then speak to the man kneeling on the ground.

Meet Pontius Pilate. The man who ordered the death of Jesus is yours to punish or absolve for a hefty boost to whichever path you choose. The mini-game you will play to do this starts off easy but gets pretty tricky as the timer counts

down so stay alert and watch that tricky Y / Triangle button, those ones move really fast. With that done pass thrugh the door to get another cutscene.

As the cutscene ends undead and a guardian spawn in. It's important that you go after the Guardians first since more of them will appear as you kill undead. It can be rough to battle three of them at once. By now you should have some form of counterattack skill so use that to keep them under control. If you find it hard to counter the Guardians, and it can be due to how their attacks move, use the undead. Stay near the undead and Guardians, whiffing off a counter to send everyone flying away. Then dash into a Guardian, hammer on him and back up. Repeat this until all of them are dead.

Head through the newly opened door and save your game first thing. Now you can shimmy across the rope although it is cut partway across.

Dante ends up hanging on Charon's side, crawling across the living ship. Make your way to the right, across the ship until you see a doorway above you. Keep going past it and you will find a beast chewing on something above you. Go up and yank it out of the beasts mouth to obtain a Relic, Charon's Oar. You need a Holy Level of 3 to use it so you likely can't at this moment. Now head back to the doorway, entering the ship.

The puzzle in this room can take a bit to solve but it's really simple once you figure it out. First break everything in the room and use all of the fonts. Then go to the wooden crate and move it to the right side of the room, sticking it in the little cubby where the grate is. Step onto the platform and move it all the way to the south, past the crate. Slide the crate onto the grey part on the far side of the platform. You can now use it to reach a higher level on

the left side of the room where a font with another Judas Coin waits and then move it to the north side of the room.

When you leap up here you will find a Magic Font and Orpheus. Absolve or damn him as you choose before climbing up onto the ships deck.

Here you will have to face a gauntlet of enemies. Several Guardians will attack alongside some of the undead and taking them out gives you no reprieve. Once the last of them falls another Asterian Beast appears, climbing on board Charon to attack you. Fight him exactly as you did in the last battle to bring him to his knees where you can slaughter the rider.

Take out the enemies that spawn in since they're absolutely no threat. When the last one is defeated Charon will taunt you but it's time to show him who'se boss. Mosey on over and tear off his freaking head.

Unfortunately this causes you to crash into the shores of Hell. Quickly climb up the collapsing walls using the beast, it controls exactly like you do. Leap to the left column when your path is blocked, then back to the right when it's blocked yet again. At the top you will have to complete a QTE to successfully abandon your mount but the danger isn't over yet. Run forward along the walls until Dante is forced to stop. Be ready to press the RB / R1 button because the game doesn't really give you much time to do it - jamming on the button until he grapples the faraway wall may help.

======================== 5.04 - Limbo ========================

However you do it save your game at the far ledge before talking to Virgil. Afterwards climb down the cliff face until you reach the exploding enemy. Toss him at the door to allow entrance. In this hall you have three ways to go to the left will take you to a ledge where you can fight a Guardian for another Judas Coin. Straight ahead is Charons Head (you can push it out of the tower for a Trophy / Achievement) and another beast past it has a Relic, the Eyes of St. Lucia, as well as a Beatrice Stone.

With those in hand head to the right where there is a door you can carve open. Beyond it you will find the unbaptised children, souls of dead children who were never absolved of Original Sin. Now you get to tear them a new one. They are very easy to just absolve / punish over and over and they barely fight back if you do so making this a good combat strategy.

Beyond the door to this room you will find Virgil again, speak to him twice to obtain a new Relic. Open the door to his right to find a spinning, bladed pillar barring your path. Double jump over it and activate the two fonts on either side of the ramp before opening the door. Here you will find Electra, another tortured soul you can release or punish.

Head up the original hallway to find exploding enemies. They're easily gotten rid of by simply throwing them. All the way at the top of the ramp is a font as well as another door that needs to be opened. Head outside and around the battlements to find a Guardian Demon and some undead who will be reinforced by some unblessed babies. When they all fall there's another door to open.

Speak to Virgil again before heading up the nearby ramp. Use the save point as well as the health and magic fonts before pulling the lever. Swing across the

pit to reach the boss of this layer of Hell, King Minos.

=================== Boss: King Minos =================== Minos does a whole bunch of damage if you happen to get hit, and his attacks can trick you into getting hit, but overall he's actually kind of boring once you get the hang of it. Mainly this is because he only has a few attacks at his disposal and you'll see them quite often:

- Stabbing one of his tentacles into the side of the arena he starts thrusting them up out of the ground at you. This is easily avoided by just running around in circles, from one end of the arena to the other. - Minos will raise his fist up, slamming it down either in the center of the arena or to one of the far sides. Getting hit by this does a fair bit of damage and sets you up for his next attack... - After punching the ground he will place his arm at one side of the arena before sweeping it across. You'll need to double jump over it to avoid taking a whole bunch of damage. - When Minos is sniffing at the arena he will lash out with his tongue. Leap into the air to attack him to totally avoid this attack. - His last attack is a ground area attack. Either rearing back and roaring at the battlefield or slamming his hand down you need to be off the ground. A prompt will appear onscreen indicating you can grapple to the side to get away from the attack entirely.

The battle begins with Minos using his tentacle attack to give you a hot foot of sorts. Keep running until he leans down to sniff and bash his face in. Once

he's taken enough damage he will rear back, exposing his vulnerable belly, so go to town on him. After this he will call up some enemies to keep you busy but he doesn't attack while you're dealing with them so it's no biggie.

This is all there is to the battle - avoid the above attacks and then go after him when you can. Try staying in the air to avoid his attacks when possible, hitting him in the face repeatedly until his hand gets stuck in the floor. Run up to it and perform the QTE to tear him a new one. Finishing him off is as simple as landing another QTE so it's pretty easy. ===================

Swing across the chasm and head along the path until you reach a statue of Beatrice. Grab the health from the nearby font before sliding down the nearby robe. You're going to have to swing from rope to rope here, holding down the bumper to build up speed, and on the second swing leap to the next rope. When you're on the second rope climb to the top to find another font with another Judas Coin.

Drop back to the rope and swing across to the right. Aim not for the next rope but the two skull pillars, pressing the RB / R1 button madly as you near them. You will grab on and be able to climb to the top where you can get Francesca's Book, another relic, from the beast here. Drop down the second rope and swing to the obstacle in your way, shattering it with attacks.

Leap over the pit, press the action button to swing off the ledge and then grab the next rope. You'll have to swing around attacking the Pests before you can advance to the next pillar, sliding to the ground. Here you will meet another soul to be redeemed or absolved, Francesca da Polenta. If you care about the

trophies or achievements absolve both her and her lover who you will meet soon.

Afterwards you will be able to reach Lust proper.

======================== 5.05 - Lust ======================== After the demoness covers the giant penis monument in a whirlwind quickly move to the side, near one of the statues. Otherwise you're going to get hit by the ball lightning moving towards you. What you must do is reach the third statue, flip the lever to reverse the lightnings path to funnel it back at the whirling barrier covering the tower.

However before doing that go to the left of the third statue to find a wall you can climb that leads to another relic, Filipos Revenge, and to the left of the fourth statue to find a path to another coin.

When you enter the tower you get to fight the demons that populate the realm of Lust. The Temptress of Lust is actually very hard to fight since they move with such blinding speed. Not helping matters is the fact that they can combo the crap out of you after dashing in to attack, taking a good chunk of health quite suddenly. Counter attacks aren't too reliable here and if you block for too long they can grab you with their... thing which can be a problem. Their only slow attack is when they thrust their vagina... penis... hentai thing at you. It moves slow enough that counters are quite possible.

You must fight four before they will stop spawning in. Don't even worry about trying to absolve or punish them, you can't. So just unload on them, preferably

with the Cross to keep them away, until they're gone. Use the font in the right corner to heal up if you're hurt, and you probably are, before going to the switch on the left side.

Using this switch raises up the serpent head in the middle. Raise it up fully, run over the serpent head and smash its fangs. This removes it from its hinges and allows you to use the switch again to raise it up fully. Jump to the upper level for a view of Beatrice before speaking to Virgil. He will give you a new relic, Tristan's Desires, before leaving.

Head down the left path to find a safe point. With that done you have a few places to go. Jumping out, towards the first room of the tower, you can go to the left or right to find a soul font or magic font. Going down the right path will bring you to a health font. But to proceed you must pull out a statue from the rearmost wall, pulling it onto the platform. This locks it in place so you can pull the switch on the lower level to raise up the platform without it getting stuck to the roof.

Climb up onto the platform and leap to the left to find a Judas Coin. With that in hand leap to the right ledge, pull the lever and quickly leap onto the main platform to ride it up into the tower.

This is a pretty simple ride for the most part, requiring that you battle the zombies, Guardian Demons and Temptress' as you ride it up. After you've taken out the lot of them Cleopatra will smash the platform you're standing on. Press the action button quickly to grapple to safety, hanging there until she moves on and allows you to ride the platform up a bit higher.

She's not done with you yet though. Fighting off some regular demons she will eventually place her hand on the platform, stopping its ascent. You must battle off more demons as the two ledges on the side of the room lock in place. Once they do so hit her hand until she lets go of the platform. It will slowly start to drift upwards allowing you to leap to the left ledge, over the mana font. Pull this switch to cause the snake heads on the side of the tower to face out at Cleopatra.

Drop down, dodging the Temptress and that infinite supply of nipple babies, so you can get her hand off of the platform again. Once the platform raises up enough jump up on the right side, pulling that lever to burn her. This chases her off and allows you to continue your ascent of the tower. Now the only thing between the towers peak and yourself are some Temptress' and Pests. Show them how you feel about them being obnoxious.

At the top head out the right side, using the soul font, and slide down the pillar there to reach Paolo Malatesta. If you absolved Francesca and absolve him as well then you get a achievement / trophy. Go back up the pillar, through the left door this time. Here there is a mana font, health font and a demon wall that takes you forward through the tower. Be careful moving along the wall so that you don't get hit by the electrical bursts.

At the far side youc an find Semiramis' shade, either absolve her or punish her as you choose. Punishing her seems fitting considering all the crap that lust demoness has been putting you through. Use the save point before dropping down to the lower level to find a demon with another relic, the Arrow of Paris. Make your way back up and get to the top of the tower

=================== Boss: Marc Antony =================== Welcome to probably one of the most rage inducing boss battles in recent memory courtesy of Cleopatra and her lover! Antony has a laughably ridiculous amount of health, does a lot of damage, has lots of unblockable (or nearly so) attacks and you're near constantly being harassed by Cleopatra. It's very easy to get juggled and lose a good chunk of health so be careful here. Stay away from the middle of the arena if you know what's good for you.

Cleopatra has three attacks: - Slamming her fist down she causes lots of damage if you're caught in the middle of the arena. There's a shockwave effect to her hand so even if you're not quite under it you can still take damage. Avoid the middle! - Occasionally she will send out a Lust Storm that moves around the arena, doing its best to hit you. If it does you take damage and are stunned so that Antony can do even more damage. If it hits him then he's encircle in it and becomes invulnerable to your attacks, hurting you if you even come near him. This ends after a short time so just keep away. - She will at two points in the battle shield Antony so that he can't be hurt at all. The only way to get this to end is to attack her hand that's holding on to the tower. It only takes one good combo to do this. However do so very fast as he is healing while this barrier is up. Luckily she drops health when you do this so it's not entirely a bad thing.

Antony on the other hand has a bunch of attacks so that's fun: - Flaming kick. He performs this attack almost constantly and it's nearly

impossible to see it coming because it happens so fast. As a general rule when he moves in close to you automatically block. There's a good chance that you will counter this move or at least block it. - His basic attack is four sword slashes. The first three can be blocked but the last one must be evaded as it's a burning sword stab. If you don't counter the first one then here's a tip; keep blocking until the second attack hits and then immediately let go of, and press, the block button. There's a very good chance you will counter his third attack. If this doesn't work then roll away immediately or be stabbed. - Next he has a whole series of moves that start from one rather annoying attack. He will raise up his shield and plant it in the ground, going totally invincible. The move itself deals light damage but it segues into one of two more painful attacks. - If you stay close he will leap into the air and do a burning sword stab into the ground. The radius on this is much larger than the graphic shows but you're generally safe if you can get past where he started (ie. if he jumps from right to left then evade towards him to the right). - Staying far away prompts him to toss a bunch of flaming swords at you. This attack comes out so fast that it's nearly impossible to avoid and blocking doesn't seem to be 100% proof against it. Basically just stay near him so that he doesn't start spamming this attack or you will die incredibly fast. - Later in the fight when he plants his shield swords will come out of it. If you're close, or hit by the shield as it's being planted, then you will likely be hit by this. Otherwise just jump over it as it can hit you even if you're blocking at times.

There's no real strategy here besides getting damn good with counter attacks. Try to stay close to Antony and far the heck away from Cleopatra while you try

to counter everything he does. If he staggers hit him until it seems like he's about to attack and then quickly block. You need to be pretty aggressive here while also watching out so that you don't get hit. He has a ridiculous amount of health compared to your piddling amount so you can't go toe-to-toe with him in any measure. Fight smart.

If you have magic or Redemption then wait until later in the fight to use it. After about the halfway mark he starts spamming shield attacks instead of using his sword or kick. Should you miss the shield counter then you will have to deal with his other attacks. It can be very advantageous to use Redemption so you can just wail away on him or Magic Armor if you have it to do the same. Righteous Path is helpful but only moderately so.

After Antony has fallen you have a short, laughably sexual, QTE to deal with from Cleopatra before this fight is finally freaking over. ===================

Now you get to ride the platform back down for a bit. You'll have to take out a number of zombies and Guardian Demons before this ride is over. In addition you must avoid a number of falling rocks that will shatter the platform. Just stay to the bottom left and then head to the top, middle part once both sides of the platform are gone. It's easy enough to avoid.

After the platform falls to pieces start pressing the action button so that Dante will grapple the statue as he plummets. He pulls himself in, launching up into the air. Start pressing the button again to grab onto a point he can swing from. Time your swinging leap to avoid the electricity and make your way to the platform that Virgil is standing on. Speak to him before moving forward, taking

the soul and health font as needed.

Make your way down along the ropes and pillars but you have to move quick. Even though the path is simple as you swing around your ropes will catch fire, doing a lot of damage if you aren't fast. Just keep a steady movement forward until you reach a safe haven with Virgil, a save point and fonts to restore your mana and health. Whenever you're all set it's time to slide down the bone pillar to fight the next boss.

=================== Boss: Cerberus =================== This is an incredibly simple fight so no need to stress over another boss so soon. Cerberus only has two attacks - spitting groups of dead bodies at you or using one of his worm mouth... tongue things to bite you. Avoiding the bodies can be very hard because his aim isn't entirely accurate, meaning he aims to either the left or right side of you most of the time. As such if you're going in that direction you will get hit by the bodies which can be annoying.

The trick here is that killing a head restores a lot of health so you can take a few hits without worrying. Quickly move to either side of the screen and, in between dodges, break one of the red orbs on the ground. When Cerberus sends a head forward to bite you it will hit the flames and knock itself senseless. Run up to the fallen head, beating it with scythe and spell. It will rise up and, if you did enough damage, fall right back down. Once it falls run up to it and press the QTE buttons to sever it.

Repeat this for the second head to leave yourself with just the central one. This one will begin to spit corpses at you rapid fire so just keep dodging as best you can until it comes down to bite you. Avoid the bite and use your plain ol' scythe attacks to cut it up (Righteous Path will help). It moves too fast to use the orbs so just keep cutting at it until it falls. Complete this QTE to finish off the boss. ===================

======================== 5.06 - Gluttony ======================== Run across Cerberus' fallen, deflated body to the other side. Leap across the pit and prepare to be startled by a worm emerging from the ground. Use your Cross to stun the beast before beating on it in melee. Avoid its attacks since they do a lot of damage but try to stay aggressive. Grab the coin from the nearby font and heal up at the mana / health fonts.

Slide down the pillar to reach what appears to be the belly of a great beast. In this room numerous undead are battling a trio of worms. This is tricky since the worms can cut your health down really fast while the undead keep hitting you, thus stunning you in place. It's easy to lose a lot of health really fast due to one little mistake. Trying to keep your distance and using crosses to attack does work fairly well as does using either Righteous Path or Lust Storm.

When the last worm falls you can head forward to find Ciacco, another soul to absolve or punish, as well as a save statue. This is one of the first souls you will have to deal with the sins while absolving. As you try to absolve them blackened orbs will appear. If you press the button as these pass over you will

lose one acquired sin, pushing you backwards. So now you must press the buttons to absolve them while avoiding hitting these. It gets tricky.

Leap through the mouth to find yourself in some bizarre organic tunnel with two more mouths to the left. Defeat the Pests before leaping into the closest mouth to find another soul, Clodia. Handle her and then go through the next mouth. Speak to Virgil twice to get another relic, Ciacco's Bile, before continuing on your merry way.

Before you can reach the weird looking portal you will be locked into an arena with numerous undead, two Guardian Demons and another Gorger Worm. There is a mana font hidden in the corner here so feel free to use your magic as much as you like. Righteous Path does a pretty good job of damaging the worms so try to aim for him, the rest of the enemies are fairly easy. Refill at the font once you're done and then use the two fonts near the portal before going through.

After the cutscenes end you will have to fight your first Glutton. These beasts are huge and have a wide radius of attack (roughly a 180 degree arc in front of their bodies) but they're easily defeated. Just keep out of the way of this attack and you should be easily able to counter them. Don't hang out too far away or behind them too long though - if you're at a distance they will rush in to grab you and if you're behind them they will crap on you. It's... not fun.

* NOTE: There is a Judas Coin and Beatrice stone in this maze. You MUST get the two of them before completing it or you can expect to have to reload your game. Finishing this by riding the platform is an entirely one way trip.

Now to attend to this freaking maze. Enter the portal north of the start. Pull the lever and enter the left portal. Continue across the bridge to wind up on the lower level again. Leap onto the demon wall on the right so you can climb up to the first level. Bust up the font here to recieve some souls before going to the topmost level to find another Judas Coin.

Go back down to the lowest level so you can pull the lever and quickly double back through the portal you just used to be on the side of the wall again. Run across the platform that slipped into place before leaping across to the far ledge. Ignore the nearby switch and leap through the portal when the floating platform to the left stops just underneath it.

You can now either ride the platform through the portal to exit this maze or double jump to the right to reach a font containing a Beatrice Stone. Either way that portal is your ticket out of this place.

Run forward to find a save point as well as a pillar leading downward. Slide down, falling past the flaming orifice to reach the rope. Go down to the bottom of the rope and swing away until you can leap to the far left pillar. Climb to the top of the pillar, leaping up to reach the platform here. Take the coin and relic from the beast here before going back down the pillar. Make your way down to the bottom of this area, avoiding the fireworks as you go.

At the bottom you must pull the block off of the flaming... orifice in the floor before punting it across all four of these. Quickly jump up, grab the rope and swing across the pit before the flames reignite. Break the obstacle up here to expose another pillar you can slide down. Make your way down to the bottom to reach the path to Greed.

As you start to climb up these ledges hop onto the first one before grabbing the next ledge, don't go up onto it. Shimmy to the right along the lip to find another demon with a relic. Get the Crown of Carthage before dropping back down and going up the ledges. From here use the two fonts to your left before double jumping to your right. Take the souls from this font before double jumping to the left. Hop over the small pit to find a font containing another Coin. Now get back up on the first ledge and take a careful jump under the overpass to the ledge to the far left ledge. Here is the last Beatrice Stone.

*NOTE: If you didn't get the previous stones others will be placed further ahead but this is the last if you've followed the guide.

======================== 5.07 - Greed ======================== After speaking to Virgil cross the ledges, entering the lava vat. Leap across these ledges onto the left platform. Ride it up to the top of the vat where you will find a lever needing to be pulled. However yanking it gets you trapped on the top of this vat while enemies attack you. This isn't that bad as it's just a few Pests and Guardian Demons to deal with. The trick here is that you're on a timer - if the vat fills up beneath you then you die.

Killing enough of them causes a pair of fire demons to come out of the vat to attack you. Hit them with the cross and shatter them to cause the lever to come back. Yank it quickly to escape this vat before death. Use the font before saving your game at this well deserved save point.

Cross the first set of cogs and leap to the second set to your left. The exit to this area is to your left but don't leave just yet. Jump to the single cog to your upper right. Carefully leap around the cog connected to this one to grab the ledge nearby. Pulling yourself up you will find another soul, Tarpeia. This Vestal Virgin really deserves some punishment but absolve her if you like.

Now make your way to the health and mana font before entering the nearby door. Here you will face the Hoarder-Waster and the new undead, Greed Minions. The H-W is pretty powerful but also fairly easy. His primary attack is to spin about the room like a top, hitting everything they spin near including other enemies. They do have a strong melee attack but it's easily countered. Both of these attacks are easily blocked so they're no threat. Ironically the undead are since they move really fast. They will leap around twice before lunging forward with a slash. If you can time the counter then this is no big deal.

When they're all defeated pull the lever to cause the blades to smash into the ground and raise up. Leap to the ledge in front of you, get the coin from the font and then drop back to the lower level. Pull the switch again and quickly get back onto the ledge where you got the coin. When the platform lowers jump onto it, jump to the right one then leap to the cubby hole with the demon to get the Demon's Wing relic. Now you can pull the lever on the ledge to open the door, drop down to pull the switch to lower the bladed platforms and ride it through the door.

Ride the platform here to reach a lower level where you will find a circular room with a spinning blade thing in the middle. Drop down into the middle to fight the H-W as well as his three Pests after dispatching the lone Pest that

bothers you on the upper level. With the H-W dead use the two fonts to find a Judas Coin and then get back to the upper level. Carefully time your jumps over the swinging pieces, some must be jumped while they move while others should be jumped while they're staying still. Ignore the door and continue to the right to find a Damned soul, Gessius Flores. He's another scummy one so do with him as you wish.

Now get to that door and get through it before being whacked by any of the spinning blades, a task easier said than done. Pull the lever there to stop the moving blades (thank you geeze!) and open the dog cage in the middle. Jump to it from one of the ledges to get the Wasted Gold relic. Go back through the door, through the next door and into a room where you can heal up. Finally some mana, health and another save point.

Entering the next hallway shows a Beast Rider running away from you again. Run up to the lever on the floor and begin spinning it. Unfortunately this causes the sides of the hallway to begin closing in on you as two Guardian Demons spawn in constantly to make your life difficult. The easiest way to do this is to simply keep spinning the lever while being ready to counter the Guardians. If you knock them back they will more often than not land on the spinning blade things in the floor, dying immediately and healing you. Keep this up until the door is open and run through to the right.

Here the Beast Rider attacks atop his mount while Guardian Demons and exploding minions attack. Grab the exploding minions repeatedly, tossing them at the beast until both him and the Guardians have fallen. Take the mount, clean up the rest of the enemies as well as busting all of the fonts before opening up

the door again. After leaping off of the beast wait for an exploding minion before tossing them away and opening the door as fast as possible.

Speak to Virgil before starting to climb the wall here. Don't go straight up through, instead move to the right along the branch. There are two paths that go down to the ground behind fences, one has a Judas Coin while the other has yet another Relic for you to pick up. With those in hand you can climb to the top of the wall.

Swing from the ledge with your scythe, leaping to the rope. Climb across it to the far side of the suffering souls and drop down to find a new enemy, Throne Demons. These are essentially upgraded Guardian Demons - they look mostly the same but they're stronger, faster and have more health. However they're pretty easy to fight so long as you keep knocking them down. Abominable Slam or Sacred Quake will keep knocking him down or you can just use the Holy Cross to knock him out of his charge attack. Just be sure to Absolve / Punish him since he gives a good chunk of experience.

When he falls start heading to the north, using the fonts as you go to find a Judas Coin, to find a lever. Pull this to start the way forward. Get back on the platform the Throne Demon spawned on and ride it across. As you're going a pair of Hoarder-Wasters will attack but that's easy enough until the Pests fly over to bother you.

After the last of them falls the platform across from you will tip over before the one you're riding starts to do the same. Quickly leap to the far platform where you will be accosted by Temptresses. So we're repeating enemies from the

older areas now are we? Well to be fair the game calls them Seductress of Lust instead of Temptress but it's basically the exact same creature. It's not as if they even look different. They're hard as hell to fight here due to the small arena, pulled back camera and Pests flying overhead so don't be surprised if you take a bunch of damage here.

Ride the platform to the end and leap over the left side to find a health font. Use it if you need it but know that there's a mana font on the far end if that is needed as well. A few moments after you leap off the platform you were on will slide away revealing a ledge you can double jump to. Do so and pull the lever to reveal yet another lever to pull. But of course when you go to do it you are attacked by a Throne Demon and Pests. Killing the demon only prompts a pair of them to spawn in while the Pests will spawn in infinitely just for fun. If you've left the mana font alone now is the time to start using your magic and Redemption bar to unload on them with minimal health loss.

Pull the lever when they finally stop spawning in to turn the central pillar. Turn it to the right to blow away the souls holding up the pillar, revealing a small cubby with two fonts (one that has a Judas Coin). Turning it to the left will lower the platform leading you further into the level. Leap up to find a save point you're probably aching for by now.

Through the door and down the hallway, smashing soul fonts as you go, until you reach the elevator. Ride it down to find an arena just beyond Virgil, waiting to give you grief.

Entering this arena will put you up against a H-W along with a few Greed Minions to leap about the battlefield. This part is pretty easy so long as you

don't get corner trapped by the two of enemy types. When they both fall two Temptresses will appear alongside some exploding minions. Since we all know the Temptresses weren't hard enough before they now have the ability to blow a kiss at you that stuns you while you walk towards them. It's impossible to jump or block this and even evasion doesn't work all the time so be ready to jam on the B / circle button. Defeating them is easiest done by simply tossing exploding minions at them until you run out and then fighting them in close melee.

Once they die go to the newly revealed lever and turn it to the left until two platforms appear. Carefully time your jumps to reach the statues plates, making your way up them to the save point near the statues head.

Go through the door where you will find a rope near a soul font. Climb across the rope to reach Virgil alongside another font. Swing across the pit to the far side, climbing up the wall to reach a large room with a gear on the wall. This is an endurance test where you must fend off waves of enemies starting with Temptresses, moving on to a Throne Demon, a Glutton and yet more of those lovely Temptresses. There's no sense holding back here - abuse the crap out of your Redemption and magic as much as possible to avoid taking damage.

Leave the room and swing across the gap with your scythe to the gears. You'll notice that there's a pillar slamming down onto the gears, it's easily avoided but the Pests attacking you will complicated matters. Kill them with the cross before trying to cross to the far side and leaping to the exit door. Walk through then go up the demon wall to find another save point. To the left of that is a health and mana font as well as another Damned soul, Fulvia. Deal with her as you choose before saving the game and heading through the door.

Pass through the door and pull the first lever, then the second lever to find yourself in a battle with an Asterian Beast. The trick here is that every time he hits the groun dit sinks further into the liquid gold - get too far down and you automatically die. Killing him in short order is the only solution to this one so you're going to have to use up your magic if you've got any left. The only other solution is to keep your distance as much as possible while hitting him with your strongest attacks.

After the first Beast Rider is killed you will have to deal with a second one who knocks you off the beast, taking control. This one isn't time so take him out as you like. Mounting the Asterian Beast again prompts another rider to spawn in alongside numerous Throne Demons. Kill the rider first so you aren't dismounted before handling the other demons.

When they're all defeated push the block out of the way and begin climbing on the walls with the beast. Eventually you will find your way into the room with the giant statue of the God of Wealth. Stomp the enemies until a block appears. This must be quickly brought to the lower right hand side of the room to drop the statue into the gold. Then Dante must climb the wall on the right, leaping to the left side before the statue raises up again. It takes a bit to get the hang of but it's not too difficult.

Continue along the walls until you find yourself in the room with the giant gear on the wall. Waves of Throne Demons attack you alongside riders who you must shove away before they take you off of your mount. Try to get to them before they can even get too close so that you don't make any big mistakes and get take off the beast. As the final enemy falls a cutscene plays. After it

ends you must knock the giant gear out of place to finally find the boss of this level of hell, your father.

======================== Boss: Alighiero ======================== Yay for a boss battle that contains one shot kills! Whoever thought this fight was a good idea... well lets just say punishment is due.

Alighiero isn't actually very hard for most of the battle. As a matter of fact the hard part is listening to him ramble over and over. No, what makes this fight hard is that part way through you're trying to keep your eyes out for two or three different attacks all coming at the same time. Mess up your timing and you can recieve a good bit of damage from repeated hits.

Let's look at what this cheesecake can do: - His basic attack is a swipe with a giant sized version of the cross he was killed with. This is easily dodged or countered. Later in the battle this is replaced with an unblockable backhanded swing of the cross so be ready to have that change on you. - A boomerange that looks like his cross will be thrown at you. While it will be just a single attack early in the battle later on it turns into the weapon from Krull, striking at you four or five times before going away. - A slam with the cross. This is an overhead attack that is unblockable so you will want to get the heck away when you see it coming. - As the fight drags on he will begin planting multiple crosses in the ground that give off waves of energy at timed intervals. You can block these waves but it can be hard to fight if you're stuck near him, blocking wave after wave as

he is attacking you. Try to keep just out of their range. - Thrusting his gut forward he essentially counters your attacks at will. When he does this he is invulnerable for a few moments afterwards and any of your attacks will bounce off so don't bother. Put some distance between you two.

In reality Alighiero is an incredibly easy fight especially if you're sticking to the Holy path. Simply cast Divine Armor, beat on him until it ends and then fight him until he falls. Once he's knocked down he will release magic orbs so you can use more magic. If you're Unholy then you'll need to be pretty good with the counter attacks but your increased damage should balance out.

Here's where the one shot kills come in though. After he takes enough damage he will fall to his fat knees. While he's down the outermost ring of the arena is going to fall into the gold and if you're on it then you'll have pretty much no time to respond before falling into it. After he loses a chunk of health try to stay closer to him to avoid this.

Try to hold onto your Redemption until the final part of the battle. When you two are stuck on a small ledge together it can be pretty hellish to hold your own against his attacks while fighting back at all. Activate it and unload on him as much as possible. He should fall soon after. ===================

After the fight head to the save point but turn to the left towards the health font. There's a ledge up here where you can find another Relic, Hoarders Purse. Now use the health font, save the game and go through the door. Flip the lever to start the platform moving. As it crosses the expanse you will have a whole bunch of pests to fend off so get to throwing the cross.

At the far side a number of Greed Minions will attack alongside a H-W. There's a mana font and soul font here to use before taking this platform further down into Hell. Further ahead you will find a simple series of pillars and ropes you must navigate to reach the next circle.

======================== 5.08 - Anger ======================== Make your way forward across the lake of souls to find a save point. Head around to reach another arena where you will fight more powerful Greed Minions as well as more Gorger Worms. Of course they throw in a large number of Pests to provide entertainment so try to stay mobile and don't be afraid of your magic spells or you might lose some hair.

Further ahead the platform you step on will begin to sink into the muck. Leap across the pit, using your scythe to swing to the far side. Here you will find a box sitting there waiting to be used. Pull it near the ledge before climbing onto it and leaping to the upper level to your right. Get the coin here before pushing the box onto the platform. This, combined with Dante's weight, will lower it enough that you can reach the lower level.

Continue forward to find Virgil yet again, speak to him before using the font nearby. Climb along the vine... stuff to reach a new area where you will be locked in with dark shadows. These Fire Guardians are basically just slightly more damaging versions of the same enemies from earlier. After fighting some of these Seductresses will spawn in alongside explosive minions to frustrate your life even more so be ready to use some magic if you're not feeling like taking

a bunch of damage.

Up ahead you will find a health font near a rope, use it and then climb along the rope, dropping onto the platform here. This prompts a few waves of Guardian Demons and Throne Demons to attack you. When the last of them falls you can get onto the upper ledge. Bust up the font nearby to find a Judas coin. Grab that before continuing along the path. After climbing a wall you will find another save point.

Past the health and mana fonts you will find a lever as well as another Damned soul. This one is Hecuba, the Queen of Troy. Punish / Absolve her before giving the lever a yank. Spinning this will lower the middle platform that is pouring flames into the upper platform. However it will only do this for a short time, meaning you must get onto the upper platform and pull the lever in the wall to the far side. By doing this the platform will raise up a level. Here you must defeat enemies while moving the lever, occassionally stopping to destroy the barriers in your path.

At the top leap onto the demon wall to the left, climbing to its peak and using the lever there. This will cause a platform nearby to lower allowing you to go forward. Near Virgil is a font with a Judas coin as well as a beast with the Guiding Flame relic. Slide down the nearby skeleton pillars all the way down to find another Damned as well as a Save Point.

Step onto the platform once you're done with them to begin your trek across the Styx Marsh. As you would expect you're going to be harassed by Pests the entire time going across so get your cross ready. When you reach the far end your ride

will turn out to be the crown of a ginormous demon that emerges from the swamp. Prepare for a QTE to get off of him without turning yourself into a splatter.

You will need to begin moving along this area without being squashed by the giant demon. The first area will have you battling a Hoarder-Waster alongside some Greed Minions and explosive minions. This is a tough area because of how contained it is. Luckily the giant will eventually turn away to begin attacking another area so you do get a break when that happens. After defeating enough enemies the gate will lower allowing you access to a health and soul font.

Swing across the gap to find another area with a fence you must lower. Here you must pull the switch to see what you must do before the enemies come. But when they do it's quite the pain. A Glutton spawns in with Seductress' and when you dispatch them two more Seductresses come in alongside a Guardian Demon. There's a mana font beyond the fence so this is a good area to use some magic to make your life a whole lot simpler. Either Divine Armor or Lust Storm will work out pretty well here.

Use the mana and soul font before crossing the bridge to reach the next area. Here the giant will not only use his fist but he will occasionally lean down to breathe fire across the battlefield. The only way to evade this breath attack is to time a double jump or hide in the bottom left corner where the flame does not reach. If that wasn't bad enough you're stuck on this platorm for awhile fighting off wave after wave of enemies.

It starts off with just a pair of Guardian Demons who are easily defeated. Next

a quintet of these demons spawn in although this is just a display to show you how the fire breath attack works. Just avoid it and they'll all get burnt to cinders. From here you will have to fight Seductresses, Gluttons, Guardian Demons, Pests and Throne Demons as they just keep spawning in over and over.

Eventually the enemies will stop so use the health font if its still there. To advance you must goad the big guy into smashing his fist into the wall. Simply walk over that way and then roll when you see it coming. This leads to another bout with two Throne Demons, defeat them to lower the gate covering the lever. This takes you atop the battlements of this tower, granting you a cutscene.

When the cutscene ends an enraged Dante takes over Phylegyas, the giant that's been attacking you. This section is incredibly simple since this beast is big enough that all enemies are like ants. Use your flame breath to destroy all of the pillars, bridges and enemies you can as you're walking along. Eventually you will be stuck on a platform. Stomp your foot repeatedly to cause Phylegyas to fall into the abyss as Dante leaps to safety.

Slide down the first rope and leap to the second. From here swing to the side to find a destroyable object - once it's busted you can climb to the top of the rope, onto a ledge. Save the game before using the lever to the left. This will retract the bone spikes sticking out of the wall. Of course enemies attack so kill them, use the lever again and then quickly slide down the rope. Get to the bottom, swinging quickly to the left. At the end of your first swing double jump to the pillar.

From here it's pretty simple to make your way down the ropes and pillars to the very entrance of Heresy. The only real annoyance are the Pests that the game

developers have so generously stuck in your path. After a wall is blasted by a strange light drop to the ledge to find Virgil, some fonts and the door that leads into Heresy itself.

======================== 5.09 - Heresy ======================== Speak to Dante twice to obtain another Relic before using the two fonts and busting open the door. Defeat the Throne Demon then pull the lever to cause a second Throne Demon to attack alongside a few Flame Minions. This is easily done so long as you go for the Flame Minions first. As you attempt to go down the hallway more Flame Minions spawn in to harass you so carefully take them out before continuing.

Climb along the wall to the far side where you will be locked into another hall with two fonts. Don't go for them or the Throne Demon pulls the switch, giving Dante an insta-kill hot foot. Run forward, take out the demon and then go back for the fonts. When you head for the exit another demon will spawn in to try and fry you so go back to him, take him out and then leave this room.

Speak to Virgil in this room to make him disappear. Now look to the right of where he was standing to see a bone pillar up on the wall. Leap up and press the button to grab it so you can ascend to the top. Here there are two soul fonts and a beast you can absolve for another Relic, Calvanti's Blade. Go back down and it's time to start descending the cliff.

At the bottom of the ropes you will find another soul to punish / absolve as well as some healing fonts. Use them before going into the next room where you

will find the Heretics. These are essentially the wizard enemies of the game, using their magic to render themselves immune to counterattacks and your cross. It also gives them a number of ranged attacks. They're pretty tough but if you can keep them off the floor, or on their backs, they will go down quickly.

Make your way along the wall, gathering the soul fonts at the far end. Trying to go forward gets you attacked by another Heretic backed up by two Flaming Minions. The trick is that these guys are covered by the Heretics barrier so you can't do anything about them until the Heretic is dead. Once he's gone you can handle the smokey punks. Once the last of them fall pull the lever to open the way forward.

Head through the door and climb along the walls until you reach Virgil. To his left is a health and mana font as well as the door forward. This room is fairly simple although it can confuse you if you're not good at these puzzles. Pull the panel to the south of the block in the middle of the floor and charge kick it over, right into the line of the flame gout from the floor. This allows you to jump onto the box to reach the upper level. Fend off the three Heretics (use of magic strongly advised) and pass through the gate.

Absolve or Punish this Damned soul before climbing along the wall. The lava looks dangerous but only the flames that roll down them occasionally will do any damage so just time your jumps. Go through the door to reach another puzzle to test your wits. At the far end of the room is a moving block, this must be pulled underneath the bellows looking stone device that causes the statue to rise up into the strange light. Be sure to grab the Judas coin from the font as well as using the health and mana ones before doubling back.

Fiends, improved Pests (as if they needed that) will attack as you move through the previous room but you can just run from them. In the room where you fought the Heretic who was spell guarding the two flaming minions you fight... the exact same battle yet again. Very original. Defeat them, head to the left to save your game before going to the right. Use the mana and health font before climbing along the wall.

At the far end open the door to find a room with moving platforms. Bust the soul font before climbing on the first platform. A pair of Fiends will begin to shoot at you so take them out as fast as you can. Get onto the second platform but don't go to the third. To the left is a shade in a small alcove while the right contains a Relic and Coin. Get to the top of this tunnel to reach the exit back into the main area with the statue. Cross the rope and pull the lever to cause the statue to raise up enough to be destroyed. Use the save point before heading into the next room.

After crossing the wall of souls drop down but don't head forward. To your bottom right hand corner is a pillar you can descend to find another Relic and a coin. Further ahead is one of the harder areas in the game so be prepared for a few reloads. Basically you have to rush forward, avoiding the stalagtites as they fall and destroy the platforms underneath you. It's not hard but it will require a bit of memorization so that you know when to jump due to the floor falling out from underneath you.

Speak to Virgil and then slide down the nearby pillar into Violence itself.

========================

5.10 - Violence ======================== Climb across the first rope and then drop to the second. However don't drop down to the third rope just yet. Instead follow the second one further along to find a Relic, Coin and Damned all on a platform. Once you're done with all three of them then go back and drop down to the third rope. Follow it along to the end where you will see a swing.

Drop down, swing along the ledge and grab the next rope. Drop from the rope to the lower rope, following it down to the surface. The problem here is you have to destroy the obstacle in your way but it's too far to chop. On the ground you will find a lever you can reveal by destroying the rocks. Push it to the end and let go three times to destroy the axe and obstacle. Swing along the rope, across the gap and then slide down the pillar to the bottom.

Welcome to the River of Boiling Blood, it's quite the scenic destination. Bring your family, your kids or even grandpa!

Past Virgil you will find a health and mana font. Use them before leaping to the next ledge where you will be attacked by a flying Guardian Demon called the Arch Demon. These are some of the most powerful enemies in the game thanks to how hard it is to stun these beasts. Avoiding their melee attacks is a must but it can be tricky due to the fact that they use a long combo followed by an last attack that blows up in a decent radius. At range they can even freeze you by flapping their wings. Upon taking enough damage you can remove their wings making for a much easier battle.

Leap to the small platform to the north which allows you to jump to the bone

pillar nearby. Climb up this to the top where you will see a platform that is covered in flames every so often. Here you will have to fight two Arch Demons while leaping back and forth between the two platforms to dodge the flames. It is easier said than done to do this since the demons can lunge from a fairly far distance to impale you which gets to be a pain. Use your cross to try and drop them out of the sky while they're between platforms for an instant kill.

Go to the left side of the second platform but ignore the bone pillar. In the bottom corner you will see a demon wall, slide down it. Navigate to the left to go under the platform you were just on where you will find a demon with yet another Relic, Atilla's Armor. Go back and follow the wall down to find a font with a Judas coin. Now jump to the platform in the river.

Be ready for a run as these are all balanced scales requiring that you move quick enough that you don't end up dipped in the river. Stay on the first long enough to get the second up to about the same level before jumping to it. Leap to the third quickly and then to the fourth, looking like a cage, just as fast. This will get you to the far shore where Virgil and, more importantly, a save point wait. To the left of Virgil, on a higher ledge, is another Coin.

Enter the Forest of Suicides to see your new environmental challenge. These plants can be shut off only by destroying the tree its attached to. Aim for the pinkish-red part of the plant to stop it. Along the path you will be fenced in to deal with a huge group of Fiends. This seems bad at first but there's a nice trick to this - attack the pulsing pink tissue on the sides of the arena to cause a geyser of wind to knock them out of the air. Then you can easily hit them with crosses or other attacks to slowly dwindle their numbers.

After dealing with this you will encounter another Damned, Pietro della Vigna. Deal with him before continuing on. Here you will find a ramp you slide down. Grab the block, pushing it across to the other side of the pit. This is where it gets tricky - you must kick theblock up the ramp before leaping onto it and then to the upper level. The timing is tricky but you can get it with a few careful tries.

Save your game before continuing on. The path will circle on itself with a wall barring your way. Destroy the nearby pinkish thingie to destroy one of the tree that was barring your path. This lowers the wall allowing you to go into the previous area and hang a left to reach a new area.

In this area you will have a giant suicide plant above your head while trying to fend off minions as well as Throne Demons. This is pretty easy except for the fact that if the Thrones knock you totally under one of the suicide plants you will guaranteed kill yourself as there's no way to get out of the radius of the plant without stabbing yourself so you have to avoid that. Try staying near the bottom of the screen to avoid this happening and keep attacing the tree any time it lowers itself to your level.

When the cutscene ends you will have to fight some more Throne Demons as well as minions to get the exits to this area to open. Climb the wall to reach a desert region known as the Abominable Sands. Virgil is found here as is a save point nearby a health font.

Head down the path before you, fighting past the exploding minions, until you see a soul font. To your right along the path are two ledges you can leap up at the top of the second one is a font with a Judas coin as well as a Damned.

This one is notable as its Brunetto Latini, a man who mentored Dante, who you can absolve for an achievement / trophy. He's in Hell for sodomy eh? Hmmm...

In either case continue forward to find another battle waiting for you. First you must deal with another Heretic alongside Flaming Minions but then a second Heretic comes out with a Throne Demon. The first fight is rote at this point but the second one is pretty damn frustrating since it's hard to stay on your feet or avoid being juggled for longer than 30 seconds with these two. Magic is suggested especially if you've not yet used the mana font you passed.

Further ahead to your right is a ledge with the final Judas coin while to the left is another Damned, Guido Guerra, another sodomite. Hunh. Really not too fond of the homosexuals are we? Continue forward to fight a new enemy type made out of the Crusaders Dante fought alongside, Damned Crusaders. Apparently they blame Dante for being stuck in hell totally forgetting about that Archbishop who sent them to war which is super.

These guys are basically just slightly advanced minions with shields so they don't require much special in the ways of strategy. If they block your attack be ready to move so that the counterattack doesn't get you. They're easy when there's only one or two but more of them pose a threat since they can just keep their shield up to complicate your life.

Continue forward to find some Fiends waiting for you. Take them out before you attempt to leap across the pit. Jump to the upper platform and then double jump to your right to climb onto the ledge. Here you will find the last Light relic, Memory of Acre. From the right ledge jump across the pit where you will find

another soul font.

The next area is pretty difficult if you're not going down the Holy path but it is doable with magic (like Lust Storm). Here you must move the platform in the lower right hand corner all the way to the top of the ramp. Then climbing up the left side you can jump to the platform and then to the northern ledge. The problem is that an incredible number of Greed Minions will attack you alongside a Throne Demon that spawns in eventually. If you're Holy then you can use your artifacts to help out, such as stunning everyone nearby when you Absolve one of the minions. Unholy types should use Lust Storm to handle this problem.

At the top you have a wall to climb that will take you to a save point along with Virgil and a mana font. Use them before sliding down the nearby pillar to reach the lower platform and a boss fight.

=================== Boss: Francesco =================== Francesco is actually a surprisingly simple boss. His patterns are fairly easy to grasp and he doesn't have a huge variety of attacks. Small mistakes are very much punished here so you must be incredibly careful about how you proceed in this battle.

- A regular sword swipe. This is often followed up by a second swing going in the other direction. These are very easily countered and don't do too much damage even if you mess up. - If you stay at a distance he will throw a purplish sword at you. Try to dodge this one so that it hits the ground. These can be thrown back at him for

a fair chunk of damage. - Raising his sword behind his back he will slam it into the ground causing a radius of fire damage. This can't be blocked or countered so get away when you see it happening. - He will, on occasion, pick you up and impale you on the sword in his chest. In all the fighting against him he has only done this move twice, once on each playthrough. This move is only done if you stay close to him for too long and even then it's fairly rare. - The last issue is that shield of his. Francesco uses this to parry your attacks or to just push you back. The trick is that his shield will eventually break allowing you to attack him freely until he summons up a new one. Breaking the shield requires you hit it a number of times quickly so using Redemption or Divine Armor will really allow you to damage him.

Fighting Francesco is best done at medium range during the early parts of the battle. Let him throw a sword at you, evade it then fling it back at him. Use your regular attacks when he gets close and use your cross while he's at range. This keeps up the damage on him, as well as working towards destroying his shield, but you shouldn't get too attack happy. You will need to dodge when he comes near you so it's imperative Dante isn't caught in an attack animation.

At two points during the fight he will call up Damned Crusaders to back him up. All these guys do is take up space on the battlefield while occasionally trying to pick at your health. Hold out as long as possible and then use Redemption to just unload on Francesco.

It doesn't take much to defeat him so long as you're careful. This is actually a nice change of pace from the other bosses and their one shot kills so enjoy

it while it lasts. ===================

After the cutscene the platform you're on begins a rapid descent to the lower levels of hell. Of course no good elevator ride goes unpunished in an action game so you've got enemies to deal with.

It starts off simple with a number of Crusaders coming out to attack. After you defeat a number of them one of the Pagans spawns in, the Heretics who can make their allies immune to ranged attacks and counters. Get rid of him before you go after the other Crusaders since he's the most dangerous at the moment. Just remember that counters may not do damage but they do prevent you from taking any damage for a bit.

Defeating them causes an Arch Demon to spawn and, after you've had some time to fight him, another one will appear. These guys are pretty difficult to fight in this small of an arena especially since they love dashing around at you. To make matters worse once you've done enough damage another Pagan will spawn in. Try to get rid of the two demons first since they've likely taken a whole bunch of damage at this point.

When the last of these fall you will be able to get off of the platform.

======================== 5.11 - Fraud

======================== On this level you will find a health and mana font alongside a save point. Go past them a cutscene plays before introducing the last enemy type of the game, the Malacoda.

These are some of the most obnoxious enemies in the game as they combine the Throne Demon with the Fire Minions. After you shut the flames on their body off they will be vulnerable. However they can, at will, ignite again while also charging you to deal damage. When they do this you can't block the attack nor can you counter it and evasion doesn't really work in this small of an area so you're pretty much going to get hit. The only real strategy for this is to try hitting them with as many cross attacks as possible to stun them and then take them off of their feet, keeping them that way as long as possible.

When he falls use the health or mana fonts that were left over then save the game again. Head forward into Malebolge towards the next arena. These are the infamous "trials" so many reviews complained about - numerous arenas you must pass through to get to the next level. Of course before you get into the first trial there is a Damned to abolve, Thais the Harlot. This should be the point you reach either max Holy or Unholy depending on your actions during the game.

Ride the elevator down to find another health and mana font as well as the door to the first trial.

======================== Trial - Infinite Magic ========================

In this trial you will have infinite magic to deal with a large group of enemies. If you're going down the unholy path then this is a laughably easy battle but it can be a bit trickier for holy types. There's a general strategy to this for each type of character:

Holy: Use Righteous Path, hopefully maxed out, to rush all over the place as you kill the enemies. Only the Fiends are impossible to kill this way, they are best handled with the cross as usual. Just keep dashing into enemies with the spell until they die and move on to the next one(s).

Unholy: Sins of the Father is the key to this fight. You can literally just sit in one spot casting the spell over and over. All of the enemies will die to these attacks in incredibly short order. If you're on a higher difficulty then you can get the "Poetry in Motion" achievement here simply by using this spell. ========================

Climb along the wall to reach another save point and recovery fonts.

======================== Trial - 100 Hit Combo ======================== Once again there's two different ways to approach the trial.

Holy: Equip the Memory of Acre and Coin of Plutus. Now as soon as the enemies spawn in begin using the Cross combo over and over again. Simply by spamming this, only stopping to counter enemy attacks, you can actually control this arena. All of the enemies are easily handled by simply using this.

Unholy: Equip Hoarder's Purse, Shoe of Nessus and Atilla's Armor. With these on Dante can swing his scythe without a care in the world since no enemies can block him and the Guardian Demons push attack won't break your swings. Use the Lust Storm spell if you like before you just start swinging. If you've got Vile Tornado then that works fairly well. ========================

As you try to ride this elevator down it will fall into the pit so you must leap off of it.

======================== Trial - 5 Air Kills ======================== This is an incredibly hard one at least so far as meeting the bonus challenge goes. So far only one good method has been figured out at time of this writing and that's for the Holy types. Use Sacred Justice, initiated by performing the Sacred Judgement attack, to levitate the enemies in the air and then hammer on them. Do this a few times and you should destroy the first three. Just note that you must use the cross to extinguish their shields before this can work.

For Unholy types Vile Cyclone works, in theory, but it can be hard to get the shielded enemies in the air in the first place. Once you solve that problem either that attack or Soul Stabber works. Soul Shatter should work but it can be hard to hit more than one enemy at a time with it. ========================

Follow the ropes to the next area. Don't miss the shade of Tiresias along the way.

======================== Trial - Stay in the Air ======================== A tough one to complete the bonus on but simple to complete, all you need to do is use the heavy attack as well as the grab. Knock enemies into the air (hold the Y button to do this easily) and then quickly alternate between the heavy attack and grabs as quickly as the animations will allow. If you bring an enemy up into the air that has full health this will occur pretty fast. ========================

Bust the glowing gears to cause the platform to fall. Be ready to leap to the ledge to avoid falling to your death.

======================== Trial - Protect the Innocents ======================== Holy: Stay near the middle of the arena and start throwing your cross at the enemies on either side of you. Simply alternate, two for one side and two for the other, to keep their attention on you and not the enemies. Dante moves as he throws these so keep resetting yourself to the lower middle area, slightly below the very center of the platform. Here you should have enough time to hit the enemies without their explosions killing your wards.

Unholy: Unfortunately bad boys don't have quite as easy of a time of it. Try to throw a cross at either side of the platform to get the enemies attention and then throw them at each other using your grab attack. If there are multiples of them on the screen then use Sins of the Father to kill them off before they

become a threat. ========================

Make your way down the ropes to the next level.

======================== Trial - No Magic ======================== Don't stress yourself out over this one as the challenge is cancelled partway through. Fighting the Throne Demon and the Crusaders is easiest done by using up your Redemption meter. If that's not possible then try to use counters when possible but mostly stick to using your cross for damage. Otherwise the flames on the crusader shields will stun you while the demon tears you a new one.

After taking out the demon a Pagan will spawn in rendering the enemies immune to cross attacks. This is a great place to use the knowledge you've mastered in the "Stay in the Air" challenge - knock the Pagan up into the air and juggle the crap out of him to get his protection spell removed. After he falls an Asterian Beast blows onto the battlefield, cancelling the challenge.

Simply take out the enemies, including the beast, as quickly as possible. Once this happens you will have a QTE to play through that results in you being on the next level. ========================

Drop off the rope, use the health and mana fonts and save your game before you continue onward. Sick of these yet?

======================== Trial - Losing Health ======================== This is another fairly simple test it's just nearly impossible to actually get the bonus without using Redemption. The problem here is that first you fight Greed Minions and Fiends then you fight Temptresses and Guardians AND THEN you fight a Glutton with Crusaders. It's just a huge waste of time so not using Redemption means you will take about a minute and a half or so minimum which disqualifies from the bonus. ========================

Jump to the demon wall from the platform and start sliding down the wall. The platform will fall down after you climb for a bit so be ready for it by just non-stop moving.

======================== Trial - No Block ======================== Yet another simple one that will likely cost you the bonus, this only requires you to kill the demons. Unfortunately they throw Hoarder-Wasters at you while countering doesn't work. This means that if they get to spinning then they can waste your time with you not able to do a thing about it. Try to use your cross to keep one stunned while you deal with the other. If they get to spinning use either Lust Storm or Divine Armor to stop yourself from being smacked around.

When the first group dies a pair of Seductresses will spawn in. They're easily dispatched with either magic or cross attacks so use those to finish them off quickly. If you're fast enough, and lucky enough, you will get the bonus.

========================

Climb down the pillar, across the rope and along the wall to reach level nine.

======================== Trial - Single Combo ======================== Finally, another tricky trial. Completing this one requires a bit of setup for most players:

Holy: Equip the Coin of Plutus, Medusa's Call and Memory of Acre. With these set all you need to do is keep on spamming your cross attacks. By simply using these attacks you'll be an unstoppable whirlwind of devastation. Only the Throne Demon will present much threat but even he won't be able to stop your non-stop combo attacks.

Unholy: Equip Atilla's Armor, Shoe of Nessus and Coin of Plutus. Use Lust Storm to get this party started while you just start swinging. Use Redemption if your magic starts to run low. Your unstoppable scythe attacks should do the job for you but there's a certain amount of luck involved if the enemies aren't taking enough damage. You can try to substitute Death Blade for Atilla's Armor but that's taking a risk. It can be helpful to change them out should you end up using Redemption since your invincible anyways. ========================

Pull the lever to drop the platform, leaping off before falling into the pit. Here you will find Myrrah, the last of the Damned in this layer, who you can punish or absolve. Save the game and continue into the next trial.

======================== Trial - Endurance Test ======================== Aaand we have another easy one here. Once again the hard part of this is really just getting the bonus. Other than that all you're really going to have to do is survive. If you've made it this far in the game then this circle will be no real sweat. Just use your magic and Redemption with impunity - the enemies will not stand a chance, even the Malacoda. ========================

With that done you have another cutscene. Speak to Virgil, use the save point and deal with the next Damned soul, Fra Albergio. Slide down the pillar when you're ready to head deeper into Hell.

Dropping down from the bone pillars onto the rope wait for the giant to stop blowing his frozen breath before speeding across. Drop down to the ground to find a new, annoying area. Here you must fend off a group of Pests and then two Arch Demons while being blown about by a giants breath. Focus on evasion just before, and during, the giants breath. Then use your cross or magic to deal damage swiftly before it starts up again.

When the last of these pain in the rears falls you can swing to a rope to your right. Swing to your right to reach the ice blocking your path so you can break it with your scythe. Leap through the gap to the bone pillar. Don't go down just yet, instead climb to the top and leap up to the ledge to find the next to last Damned, Mordred.

Slide down the bone pillar to reach a rather tricky jump. You must drop, swing along the first ledge and leap to the second swing point all while avoiding the giants breath. It's just a matter of timing so if you die here don't be totally shocked. When you reach the far side you can slide down to Treachery.

======================== 5.12 - Treachery ======================== Now that you're in the devils lair the game is going to kick you in the crotch a few times as a final farewell. Here Dante must walk across a frozen bridge as it falls out from underneath him. This section will seem incredibly annoying... until you realize that there's a way to predict how this will go. Watch the ice as you walk - if you see cracks in the ice then that means the ice in the area is potentially unstable. Move forward very slowly and be ready to respond; if the ice starts to shake back up onto stable ground.

Really it's very simple after a bit of walking. You start to see a likely path that you can try to follow to avoid too much guesswork. From there it's all about being careful.

At the far end use the health and mana fonts, handle the final Damned soul in the game and then save. After you destroy the obstacle in your path you will be brought to deal with Lucifer himself.

=================== Boss: Lucifer, Stage 1 =================== As you start to fight this form you will realize one major thing: this fight

is really simple. Essentially it consists of little more than timing your jumps to avoid Lucifer's hand attacks and then returning fire. He only has a very few attacks at his disposal and they're all really easy to avoid.

- Fist slam. Lucifer slams his fist into the ground, causing a shockwave that travels most of the battlefield. Early in the fight he does this three times but he can do it up to five times if he so chooses. He will always do this five times in a row late in the battle. - After sending a storm of ice across the field that pushes you away two black whirlwinds will move around. If these hit you they do some damage as you go up and more when you come down. At the peak of going up you can save yourself by pressing the jump button - make sure to do so. - As he's slamming his fist down ice will sometimes travel across the ground in spike form. Avoiding these is key to reaching the center of the arena before he pulls himself back to standing position. - Lastly he will start sending out flames along the ground late in the battle. These are hard to avoid since they snake along the ground so be ready to jump out of the way.

Beating Lucifer is as simple as timing your jumps. Leap over the radial part of his fist slam in time to avoid his attacks. After enough of these he will keep his hand on the field as ice travels towards you; this is your opportunity. Get onto the glowing part of the ground and press the button prompt. This pulls you up to Lucifers face where you can attack the crap out of him. If you don't do enough damage to cause him to lean back start throwing crosses when you hit the ground as that helps.

After doing enough damage to cause him to rear back his stomach is wide open to your attacks. Start throwing crosses at his belly until he recovers. You should be able to do about 1/3 of his health with one of these.

When you do this the second time you prompt him to get really angry. He slams his hands into the field non-stop, sending out tornados and fire along the ground. Now you must time your jumps so that you can avoid the fire and radius attacks while hitting him in the face with your crosses over and over. Do this enough and he will recoil again so you can get to his stomach to finish him. ===================

=================== Boss: Lucifer, Stage 2 =================== You didn't think it was over did you? Well the game has a final fight for you and just to balance out the last fight this one is really cheesy. Many of the bosses attacks are impossible to see coming or he teleports offscreen to do them where you cannot see them coming. So much of this battle will really rely on your staying power - if you can survive his attacks then you will survive the fight. If you can't outlast him then be ready to start over.

Let's look at his attacks: - A sword swipe that he will either perform once or three times. If you can parry it then you counterattack but if you miss that it will break through your block. Generally try to avoid this attack if possible. - Flaming crescents. If you get too far away he will sometimes begin to throw blades made out of flames your way. Avoiding these is dicey at best since it requires a jump, evade, jump, evade pattern that is impossible if you've been

hit by even one of them. Later in the fight he will teleport away before he starts throwing these. - Raising his staff he will slam it into the ground causing an explosion of flames around himself. This is done pretty much at random and looks a lot like the sword swipe attack but it's totally unblockable. Confusion like this is why you want to just get away when you see him attacking. - Teleporting away Lucifer will start to send out radial bursts of energy. It starts off simple with just a few of these at a time but later in the fight he is more than happy to throw down six or seven in rapid succession making for a dicey situation.

Of course as you're reading this you're thinking, well I'll just use magic or cross attacks. That's a great idea except it doesn't work out so well in actual gameplay.

If you strike him with a cross he can either flash the screen white, doing... something, and dealing damage to you or he will throw back five red unholy crosses. There's really no way to dodge these nor is there any way to tell if he's going to do this. You can sometimes hit him four or five times with the cross and other times he will do this at the second hit. So using the cross is a total crapshoot.

Magic on the other hand works wonders but only if you're using the Bile of Ciacco Relic. Lucifer frankly has too much health for your magic to make much of a dent in his health. The only spell that's really useful is Divine Armor since it makes you totally invincible for a short time. Be sure to equip the Relic that makes you not recoil when your attacks are blocked for the ultimate in offense during this time.

Honestly this is just one long violent slog. You must do your best to avoid his attacks long enough to use your magic, if possible, or Redemption to render yourself invincible to his attacks and then unload on him. Fight very carefully and don't take any chances during this mess. You'll still get torn up whenever he teleports away but you will minimize the damage you take.

After his health gets low enough he will begin floating around the battlefield spamming his flaming crescent attack without pause. You must get up to his level which can be done by either double jumping or using the prompt that will appear onscreen occasionally to grapple to him. Keep trying to grapple to him and spamming the attack button while you're there. Crosses no longer work at all so don't even bother trying.

When his health has fallen near empty there's just one last thing to do. Use your scythe swing to grapple your way up to where Lucifer is. This starts up a QTE that will finish him off. ===================

Defeating Lucifer unlocks a New Game+, an arena battle mode and hints at a sequel. That's... exciting?