Olympus Coliseum

Opponents

Items

No.	Item	Location	Condition
	Firaga-G	4-1	Extinguish the eight flames with Blizzara
	Holy-G	4-1	Extinguish the eight flames with Blizzaga
	Mega-Potion	4-1	-
	Orichalcum	4-1	Win Hades Cup
	Olympia	4-2	Win Phil, Pegasus, and Hercules Cups

Characters

No.	Character	Location	Purpose
	Hercules	4-1	After battle with Cerberus
	Phil	4-2	-

Special Objects

No.	Prop	Location	Purpose
	Billboard	4-1	When Phil Cup begins
	World Exit	4-1	-

Trinities

Trinity	Location	Purpose
	4-1	Mythril Shard
	4-1	Dalmatians 22, 23, 24
	4-1	Mythril
	4-2	Seals Keyhole
	4-1	Violetta

Objectives

1. Speak with Phil in the Lobby

2. Pass the barrel tests

3. Defeat the preliminary opponents

4. Best Cloud in the Arena

5. Slay Cerberus

6. Speak to Cloud before leaving the Coliseum

Step 1: Find Phil

Set a course for the Battle Level 2 world in your gummi ship. You’ll land outside the Olympus Coliseum with two heroic statues looming high overhead.

Look for the blue Trinity Mark in front of the right statue. Huddle around the Mark and activate it to rescue Dalmatians 22, 23, 24.

Run across to the left statue and you’ll discover a second blue Trinity Mark. You’ll gain a Mythril Shard when you activate it. All the other Trinity Marks in the area will have to wait until you’re higher level.

If you look closely between the foot of the statue and the columns near the Coliseum entrance you’ll spot a partially hidden treasure chest. Open the chest for a Mega-Potion.

Enter the Coliseum Lobby and speak with the satyr, Phil. He confuses you with someone else and asks you move the large stone block to your right.

Philoctetes

The Coliseum’s hero trainer, Phil, acts as the mentor of Hercules and your coach during your stay in the Arena. Phil hosts matches for the Coliseum and will get you in the act if you prove your worthiness. Phil trained the son of Zeus in Disney’s Hercules.

Push the stone block until you mention how heavy it is, then return to Phil. With a little convincing, Phil agrees to let you prove your worthiness to enter the Arena through two barrel challenges. Use the save point in the Lobby and then enter the Coliseum Arena.

Hidden Item: Firaga-G & Holy-G

Extinguish all the braziers in the Coliseum Gates area using Blizzara to cause a treasure chest to appear. Open the chest for a Firaga-G. Repeat this later once you’ve earned the Blizzaga spell for a Holy-G. Also, remember to return to here to activate the green and white Trinity Marks once you’ve earned them.

Step 2: Bashing Barrels

The first barrel contest consists of destroying 20 barrels in 30 seconds. The strategy for each barrel sequence is the same: lock on to the central barrel so that you strike all the barrels in the area with your attack arc. With luck, destroyed barrels will fly into the next set of barrels and knock out some of them before you even reach them.

Destroy the first barrel set and charge ahead into the next four. Cut through them as quickly as possible and hop up on the short platform to smash through the set of six. You’re now more than halfway to the finish.

Run around the platform edge to crush all the outer barrels.

The toughest barrel is the one on the platform by itself. Attack the barrel on the corner platform from behind. If you hit it squarely from behind, you can catapult it across the gap and shatter the difficult barrel. If you can’t, quickly lock onto the barrel and nail it with a Fire spell.

Splinter the final barrel in under 30 seconds to complete the first challenge. Now there’s a more advanced barrel course to conquer.

The second barrel test gives you more time (60 seconds) and only five more barrels, but the positioning makes it a real challenge. Jump up on the central platform to take out the first three barrels.

Next, jump up on the left platform and strike the single barrel squarely in the back. This will send it flying to destroy the four barrels behind it. Hack any barrels that may still stand before continuing on.

Jump up on the back platform and wade into the six barrels. Again, if you lock onto the middle barrels, you should eliminate them all with your swinging blade. If you miss any, destroy them before moving on.

Try to smash the next barrel across the gap to knock off the lone barrel on the column. If you miss, lock onto the barrel and destroy it with Fire.

Race around the platform’s edges to get the rest of the barrels. Splinter 25 in under a minute for victory.

Speak to Phil after the challenges. He rewards you with the Thunder spell, but refuses to let you enter the real games. Save at the save point and exit the Lobby.

Essential Upgrade: Thunder Spell

Ranged Thunder Magic

Although it doesn’t give you an upgrade to your other spells, you gain a new area-effect spell. This type of spell doesn’t have to be aimed; it strikes all targets in the area for Thunder damage. It’s excellent against multiple targets, especially ones that move around quickly.

On your way out, Hades intercepts you. He has an Entry Pass to the Arena tournament and gives it to you in the hopes that you’ll be defeated in combat, ending the threat of the Keyblade once and for all.

Step 3: Preliminary Matches

With the Entry Pass in hand, enter the Lobby again and step on the save point. Make sure you are loaded with Potions and Ethers. Round 1 pits you against Soldiers and Blue Rhapsodies. As with any magic-casting foes in the Arena, attack the Blizzard-casting Blue Rhapsodies first so that they don’t pick you apart, and then crush the melee Soldiers.

The same strategy applies to Round 2. There are more Shadows, but the same Blue Rhapsodies; wipe out the Blue Rhapsodies first and then cut down the Shadows.

Round 3 brings a new challenge: a full complement of ranged attackers. Press the attack on the Fire-using Red Nocturnes and the Blizzard-using Blue Rhapsodies. Don’t stand still long or you’ll be zonked with a barrage of fire and ice.

A mix of everything up to this point—Shadows, Soldiers, Red Nocturnes, Blue Rhapsodies—assaults you in Round 4. Abuse the spell-casters first and then clean up the melee opponents.

Round 5 throws nine Blue Rhapsodies at you. Dodge continuously as you make any opponent pay dearly when you get close enough to swing your Keyblade.

The last preliminary round before the boss fight, Round 6, seeks to end your run of successes with Blue Rhapsodies, Red Nocturnes, and a Large Body. Keep out of reach from the Large Body while picking off the Nocturnes and Rhapsodies. When the spell-casters are down and out, circle around behind the Large Body and hack away until it explodes.

Step 4: Cloud

The reluctant Cloud fights you because he’s made an unwise deal with Hades. Play serious defense in this battle; you want to avoid Cloud’s attacks first, then worry about counterattacking for damage.

Don’t let Cloud get behind you or the match could be over with a few swings of his huge blade. Also, watch out when Cloud jumps up in the air and slams his blade into the ground; the resulting shockwave deals damage to everyone adjacent to him.

Cloud cries out each time he attacks, which is your cue to dodge out of the way. Rely on Dodge Roll to roll to the side, then roll behind Cloud for an offensive blow or quick combo. If you don’t have Dodge Roll ready to go, jump to the side to bypass Cloud’s charge.

You can use Fire to hit Cloud at range. Even better, if you can get behind him and hit him with a quick flurry of attacks, you’ll drop his HPs down faster. Strategically retreat if your HP drops low and drink a Potion to shoot back up to full, or drink a Mega-Potion if the whole party needs healing.

You don’t have to defeat Cloud to progress the storyline, though. He’s a very tough opponent, so no worries if you can’t beat him on your first attempt. However, if you can beat him, the experience reward may level up you or one of your companions in the process.

Hercules

Son of Zeus and Hera, Hercules possesses superhuman strength for a mortal. He battles Cerberus before you do, and softens up the huge monster for you. Hercules appeared in the Disney film of the same name in 1997.

Step 5: Cerberus

Immediately after your battle with Cloud, Hercules busts into the Arena battling the mighty, three-headed, dog-like creature, Cerberus. Don’t begin the battle right away. Instead, leave the Arena to save and restock your item slots.

Cerberus is another difficult opponent. It will bite you for major damage from any of its three heads if you’re close, or it will shoot fireballs at you if you drift too far away. If it rises up on its hind legs, retreat immediately or it will hit you with the earthquake that erupts when it lands. Avoid the area in front of its three heads to minimize your damage from all its attacks.

Your best strategy is to attack Cerberus from the side. Lock on to one of its side heads and track that head throughout the battle. Skirt around the side and deal as much damage as you can before it turns its attention to you. If the head lifts up in the air, you will have to jump and connect from up high.

Try out your new Thunder magic on the creature. You don’t have to lock on to the side head to deal effective damage with this magic attack.

Occasionally, Cerberus will let loose a pool of dark magic into the ground. This spreads to a series of dark magic pools that track your position. If you stand still, you will take serious damage; run in a circle around Cerberus until the dark magic energy dissipates.

Stay patient in your battle with Cerberus. It takes a while to drop his HPs down, though it helps that you can land triple or quadruple combos when its head is low to the ground. With steady damage from you, Donald, and Goofy, Cerberus will eventually fall. When you defeat the dog boss, you earn the Inferno Band.

Step 6: Cloud Sharing

After the battle, Phil rewards you with a Hero License. Unfortunately, the damage in the Arena from your recent contests means the facility will be under repair for a while; check back later for future tournaments you can join in (see the “Olympus Coliseum Revisited” chapter).

Go find Cloud on the Coliseum Gates’ steps before you leave. He will give you the Sonic Blade ability, an extremely useful special attack that you will want to equip as soon as you can and trigger often in combat. After saying goodbye to Cloud, board your gummi ship and prepare for a descent into the Deep Jungle.