A Journey Into War

• Recommended Level: 7
• Prerequisite: Complete Equal Employment Opportunity Program
• Unlocks: The Athenian Leader, Crumble and Burn, One Man Army, The Athenian Treasure Trove, Missing Map, Portion Control
• Story: As you near Megaris, you are greeted by an almighty Athenian blockade preventing access to the port. To reach the Spartans, you will have to smash your way through.

Reach Megaris

You’ll encounter three Athenian battleships (2) as you sail east to Megaris from the small pirate island (1). Three objective markers appear on the horizon, each marking an Athenian ship in the blockade you must destroy.

Destroy the Three Athenian Blockade Ships

Start the battle by exiting travel mode at the last possible second or when forced to when engagement starts. Press the ram speed button and ram right into the middle of one of the enemy ships.

While launching arrow attacks, always be ready to use the ram speed of the ship to escape enemy ram attacks. When going up against multiple ships you want to make sure that you do not allow yourself to be surrounded. Turn to match the direction of the enemy ship to avoid being rammed. And try to outflank and maneuver the enemy so that you can catch them off guard and side-ram them. Cripple each ship until anchor icons appear above them and then finish each off with a high-speed ram through their sides. Sinking a ship will raise your bounty status.

Talk to Nikolaos

Megaris: Occupied Forest of Tripodiskos

Now head to shore following the next objective marker (3). A Spartan and Athenian battle scene on shore begins when you are within 300 meters of the marker. During the cinematic, Stentor, the Wolf’s adopted son, stops you from reaching your father. He thanks you for your help taking out the Athenian blockade.

Conversation with Stentor

Your first conversation option is to reveal that you are Nikolaos’s child or to avoid the topic. Stentor will not believe you if you try to be honest, so answer either “So, you’re my brother” or “Nikolaos’s children died.” You learn Stentor was adopted. Tell him “I’ve come to pledge my sword,”“Tell me why you need a mercenary,”“I’m ready to serve,” and “I know what I must do.”He enlists your help to drive the Athenians back to Athens.

Conquering Nations

After your Conversation with Stentor, prompts for conquering nations and nation power appear. They instruct you to weaken Megaris’s nation power enough to trigger a conquest battle. For more information on lowering nation power and conquering nations, see the War section of the Essentials chapter. Stentor hands you a badge that’ll get you past Spartan authorities in the area.

Crumble and Burn

• Recommended Level: 8
• Prerequisite: Complete A Journey into War
• Unlocks: N/A
• Story: You know that an army without supplies will quickly fall, and the chance of meeting the Wolf would be just within your grasp.

Destroy Four Athenian Supplies in Megaris

Port of Nisaia

Visit a blacksmith to upgrade and engrave weapons and armor. Travel to the outer walls of the Port of Nisaia fortress. Send Ikaros up to tag all the targets in the location objectives as well as every soldier in the stronghold.

A good approach is stealthily climbing the west wall (2) to take out the guards on the wall first. There tends to be less activity on the west side. Eliminate the soldiers around here and then loot the treasure in the tent (3) and burn the war supplies on the second floor of the barn. Use atorch.

Get to the brazier (4) as early as you can and set a trap. That way if you are spotted and someone runs to call for support, that person is blown up.

Work your way to the water and burn the war supplies at the ends of the piers (5) and (6). Dive into the water to lose detection if you are seen. Work your way to the eastern side of the fort and loot the treasure behind the tent (8). Eliminate the lesser guards in the area before taking on the polemarch. You don’t need guards coming to support him while you are battling him. Free the five prisoners (9) and they can become a distraction to the remaining guards. The prisoners don’t need to live; they just need to be freed. Lastly, burn the fourth batch of war supplies (10) in the central barn.

One Man Army

• Recommended Level: 8
• Prerequisite: Complete A Journey into War
• Unlocks: N/A
• Story: If you want to meet the Wolf, you need to help the Spartans conquer Megaris. And Megaris will be easier to conquer if there are fewer Athenian soldiers.

Kill 20 Athenian Soldiers in Megaris

This quest completes as soon as you kill 20 Athenian soldiers in Megaris. More than half that number can be eliminated when you clear the Port of Nisaia in the previous quest. Start a nearby side quest (like Odessa’s) to get in more conflicts with Athenians, or let the brazier get lit in the port to allow more soldiers to arrive while clearing that fort. This quest usually completes while you’re in the middle of another quest.

The Athenian Treasure Trove

• Recommended Level: 8
• Prerequisite: Complete A Journey into War
• Unlocks: N/A
• Story: The Athenian army’s morale will crumble if the treasure used to pay the soldiers was stolen, and Sparta would be one step closer to victory over the region.

Find and Steal the Athenian National Treasure

Each region, including Megaris, has a national treasure (a fancy treasure chest). Megaris’s treasure is inside Fort Geraneia (1).

Send Ikaros up to mark the national treasure and all the enemies and loot in the fort. Find the secret cave entrance (2) on the northeastern side of the fort. Follow the cave to a fork. If you take the left fork you can sneak up on two soldiers and assassinate them and light the war supplies (3) they guarded.

Fort Geraneia

Take the right fork and follow it to the end to find a watery death pit. A Spartan floats on top with another poor soul. Loot the body and collect all the goodies at the bottom of the pit underwater. You can climb the walls of the pit upward to enter the fort through a well (4) near the south wall near the mountainside.

Look for the soldier that patrols near the top of the well. Climb up below him and pull him over the edge so he can meet his death the same way that Spartan did. Use the grass near the hole for cover and work on assassinating the guards around the area before climbing the nearby tower with a tightrope leading to the central tower where the brazier is located (5). Set the trap and raid the chest underneath it. This chest contains a mysterious letter that unlocks the Besieging Bandits side quest.

The national treasure (6) is one of the five treasure chests in the fort. When you loot it, you complete the mission and knock out one of the treasures from the location objectives. Continue eliminating everyone and looting and burning to complete the location objectives before you leave.

Missing Map

• Recommended Level: 10
• Prerequisite: Complete A Journey into War
• Unlocks: N/A
• Story: A map containing vital strategic information was stolen from the Spartan camp. You are asked to track the culprit and return the missing item to the polemarch.

Talk to the Polemarch (Quest Giver)

Pagai

Talk to the Spartan polemarch (1) inside the tent in the Pagai camp. You show him the badge that Stentor gave you and he then trusts you with his problems. An injured spy stole a tablet, and he wants your help getting it back.

Retrieve the Tablet from the Thief

Travel 315 meters southwest in the wilderness until you are prompted to send Ikaros to scout. You’ll locate a very small camp (2) with the spy tied up and on his knees. Free him. Talk to him.

Conversation with Spartan Spy

The Spartan spy asks who you are and what you want. You tell him you are the one who is going to return the tablet he stole. You can ask him why he stole it and how he got in the camp, but to move the plot, select “Give me the tablet.”He admits his intentions were profit related. He asks you if you are willing to come to an arrangement. You can respond “Let’s make a deal,”“You can walk away from this,” or “I’m taking the tablet,” the latter meaning a fight to the death. If you make a deal, you get 100 drachmae and the tablet and the spy goes free. Let him walk and you don’t get the drachmae, but you do get the tablet.

Return the Tablet to the Officer

Head back to the Spartan officer (1) in his tent and return the tablet. No matter your answer (“He’s taken care of” or “Here’s your tablet”), the results are the same and it’s insinuated that the spy is dead (especially if you did kill him).

Portion Control

• Recommended Level: 10
• Prerequisite: Complete A Journey into War
• Unlocks: N/A
• Story: Tensions are high in the Spartan camp after a supply convoy was plundered and the men guarding it killed. In hopes of gaining more favor with the Spartans, you set out to find the perpetrator.

Talk to Dolios

Pagai

Talk to the Spartan captain (1) standing near a main road next to the victims of a fatal robbery. You show him your badge and he asks for your help solving the murder in the road.

Investigate the Site of the Attack

Investigate the bodies under a sheet next to the captain. Walk up to the magnifying glass icon and inspect the scene. The clue leads you to believe you are dealing with professionals. Investigate the horse cart across the road. You determine they couldn’t have gone far with the supplies because carts were not used. Investigate the debris on the rocks beside the cart to determine the direction they fled.

Talk to Dolios

Find the Stolen Food and the Culprits

You’re not far from the culprits—you are prompted to launch Ikaros after the conversation. Do so and locate the target to the south, near the grave of Tereus. They’re in a nearby cave (2). When you enter the cave you discover a group of civilians, scared, tired, and hungry.

Conversation with Starving Civilians

You have the choice to slaughter them or give them a break by answering “Explain yourself.”Select “Enough!” and then “We can settle this peacefully” if you’re playing nice. But if you select “You’re going to die” you’ll have a fight (albeit an easy one) on your hands. You’ll have to kill them all and risk raising your bounty.

Report to Dolios

Return to Dolios (1) and talk to him. He tries to defend the stealing of their food and lets you off the hook for showing them mercy. You earn a good amount of XP and an armor piece.

The Athenian Leader

• Recommended Level: 6
• Prerequisite: Complete A Journey into War
• Unlocks: The Final Push
• Story: In order to defeat the Athenians in Megaris, Stentor asks you to kill the region’s leader. He mentions that this task would be easier if you weaken the Athenians’ position first.

Find and Kill the Athenian Leader of Megaris

Leader’s House: Valley of the King Lelex

Before entering the leader’s house, send Ikaros up to tag everything listed in the location objectives and every enemy you will face while in this restricted zone. You should be anywhere from a level 7 to a 10 now. How much you weakened the leader through support quests determines what you are up against. So much so that he may not even be at his house but in a tent outside the city walls (8) with low security.

Cyclops’s Lair

Check your armor and weapons to enhance your fighting style. Divide and conquer and don’t forget about the clues to check out for Odessa while you’re in there. If you don’t see them, select the level in the Quest Select menu. Tros the Heartless is going to be discovered in the middle of the facility surrounded by high-ranking guards. Use the high vantage points and the many rooms to duck into to sneak up on anyone in this zone. You could go Warrior just as easily as Assassin in this environment and come out unscathed.

Even though you are killing the region’s leader, don’t forget to take out the captain, burn the three war supplies (3)(4)(6), loot the two chests (5) (7), and grab the Ainigmata Ostraka (2) from under the rooftop gazebo. Do this for location objective completion. This place is loaded with loot. Grab it all. Completing this quest unlocks The Final Push.

If the Leader Is Not at Home

If the leader is not at his house, then you weakened his defenses by completing the support quests. You can find him outside the city walls, sitting at a tent (8) with medium to very low security. You can take his life there with little effort.

The Final Push

• Recommended Level: 11
• Prerequisite: Complete The Athenian Leader
• Unlocks: The Wolf of Sparta
• Story: Having weakened the Athenian hold on Megaris, you join the Spartans in battle to conquer the region. The time has come to turn the blue banners red.

Stentor (1) can be found at the Spartan stronghold on the shore of the occupied forest of Tripodiskos, where you docked your ship. Do not take this quest unless you have leveled up, taking advantage of the side quests and location challenges. Upgrade and engrave your armor and weapons at a blacksmith.

Conversation with Stentor

You report to Stentor that the local Athenian commander (leader) is dead and that Megaris is ready to fall. Respond to his thanks for joining with him in the battle with: “I’m honored to be here” or “Let’s kill some Athenians.” Both get you where you want to be without anyone losing their head over it. The battle does not start here. He will walk to his tent first, and there you must make the final decision to join the war. Now answer “I’m ready” to follow him to his forward camp.

Use your special fighting abilities to defeat them and don’t forget to dodge, block, and counterattack. You won’t win by only using the forward spear thrust. Use the Shield Removal ability on those with (and without) shields. It’s a very useful ability. Drain the blue Athenian health bar by finishing off some low-level soldiers to complete the challenge.

After completing the quest, you receive news that Megaris will now side with Sparta as they have defeated Athens. You earn a very high XP reward as well as minerals, drachmae, and armor.

In the quest-ending cinematic, you are allowed to now face your father. Stentor seems upset that he will not be joining the meeting (reunion). The first story-branching decision is just ahead.

Follow Stentor

Follow Stentor around the fort to the forward camp (2) to the northeast. He stops at a green tent with a strategy map laid out on a table. When you’re ready for war, talk to Stentor and accept the invite to fight with the Spartans.

Join Stentor for the Conquest Battle

You have multiple chances to back out of this battle if you don’t feel you’re ready. Even after speaking to Stentor to start the battle you have one more chance by answering “Not yet” instead of “To battle!” to begin. If you were able to defeat the mercenary Hyrkanos (unlocked during your earlierc onversation with the starving civilians) you will not encounter him during this Conquest Battle.

When the battle starts, break any target locks and run until you find the four elite captains of this battle marked by golden level markers above their heads. These captains are known as Battle Feats and killing them quickens the decrease of the opposing faction’s gauge, substantially increasing your chance of victory. These captains do not all appear on the battlefield at the same time though, so you should watch for their appearance.