Yours truly managed to finish Dante’s Inferno a week ago, and let me tell you that it’s not quite a cakewalk. Here are a few tips and tricks on how to deal with the denizens of the inferno, from the small fries to the big cheeses.

Regular Enemies

Lust Demons – Yes, it’s the one with the funky cooch. You better practice block countering their delayed cooch attack, unless you like dodging a lot and getting hurt. Try not to spam your attacks on them, because they can do a quick dodge and lunge at you with a quick three-hit slash.  Just do short combos so that you can anticipate their quick lunge attack. If you guess right, you can quickly block counter the lunge and punish them.

Gluttony Demons - They will use an area-of-effect spew attack if you go up close to them and combo their hides. When you start using your cross attacks, they’ll start chasing you down and try to bear-hug you. Since you’re faster than them, just play it safe and spam your cross attacks if you happen to face them with a bunch of other enemies.

Greed Mace Demons - For the love of God, I hope you already unlocked block counters by the time you reach the Circle of Greed, because that’s the only way to efficiently kill these guys. As soon as they start spinning around with their mace, just time your block then press the Light Attack button to smack them out of their attack. An alternative is to use the Righteous Path on them (which uses mana, of course) for an instant knockdown.

Heretic Priests - They’re bloody annoying, especially when they cast their magic-preventing forcefield on themselves and their allies. You can tell that they’re immune by the purple symbol on their heads. Just quickly focus your attacks on him as soon as he starts moving. Just remember that he will do a cane swipe when he gets up from a knockdown; dodge out of the way just to be safe.

Flying Goat Demons - Just spam your cross attacks on it for a quick and easy fight. Just remember that they take two Quick Time Event attacks to kill; one for their wings and one for the finishing blow.

Bosses

Marc Anthony - Just dodge all of his attacks; one of his swings is unblockable, and it’s hard to tell when it’ll come out. Keep slashing and dodging, as well as mix in some Cross attacks. When you see Cleopatra’s hand come down, immediately stop what you’re doing and spam your Cross attacks on it, because it’ll heal Marc Anthony. After the fight, watch out for a QTE involving Cleopatra.

Cerberus – When you start, you’ll notice a bunch of floor caps that looks breakable. Keep attacking any one of them while dodging Cerberus’ spit and lunge. After breaking a cap, one of Cerberus’ heads will lunge at you. The lava from the cap will stun that particular head; strike at it until it comes off. Rinse and repeat the procedure for the second and third head.

Alighiero - Alighiero will also do a stationary cross attack; he’ll place a green cross on the ground, which then emits a small area-of-effect attack consistently for a few seconds. You can’t destroy the cross, ergo you’ll have to run away from the area and lure his dad to your direction. Other than that, he’ll do normal swipes and throws mini-crosses in your direction. Just block-counter the minicrosses (hopefully you got the block counter projectile Unholy upgrade at this point), or just block them until it’s over.

As Alighiero’s life gets shorter and shorter, the platform you’re on gets smaller and smaller, making his stationary cross attack a lot more dangerous. Still, just jump when you need to; apart from his mini-cross attacks, he can’t hurt you when you’re in the air. Oh, and try not to fall off the platform unless you want to start the fight all over again.

Francesco – Keep circling around him; normal attacks are pretty inefficient as his shield can regenerate. Just wait until he pauses and attempts to throw a sword at you. Dodge this, and make sure that the sword lands on the floor. Pick it up and throw it at his face.

As soon as he’s shieldless, just do combos on him (scythe, combos, or magic) and watch out for his melee swing. From time to time, he’ll summon other soldiers. When one of these soldiers summon a flaming shield for themselves, use the cross on them since they’re immune to scythe attacks.

Treachery’s Big Demon Housing Lucifer – You can only use your Cross to hurt him. He’ll do a ground pound which emits a radial wave; jump over it. He’ll also do a frost attack of sorts which usually misses. When he does this, you can do a QTE by pressing the Right Bumper/R1 when prompted to. You’ll be close to his face for a few seconds; use this time to slash him until he gets knocked down and expose his weak spot. Spam your Cross attacks on the weak spot, since it’s the only way to hurt him. If he doesn’t seem to do the frost attack, you can just use the Cross targeting his face.

As soon as a small part of his life is gone, he’ll do up to six consecutive ground pound-with-radial-waves attacks. Time your double jumps carefully so that you can narrowly jump over the next ground pound. Other than that, just keep spamming your Cross attacks.

Lucifer – In his first form, he’ll be on the ground. The one attack to watch out for is his teleport-and-fireball move. Just when you least expect it, he’ll teleport away from you and immediately launch a barrage of fireballs which you must dodge, because they take out a lot of health. Don’t bother countering his melee swings, because he can sneak in an unblockable attack in the middle of it. Just dodge, be patient, and strike with your scythe. Avoid spamming the Cross attacks, because he can absorb it and throw back a large projectile at you that also hits hard.

In his second form, he’ll be on the air. You’ll have to use RB/R1 to grapple onto him and slash him when he’s up close. Just dodge his solitary projectile attack (easy to do), and keep grappling him at any opportunity. While you’re slashing him up in the air, when he suddenly flies back from you, he’ll immediately throw a barrage of horizontally-wide projectiles. Get to the ground quick and dodge them until it’s over. Rinse and repeat until he’s down.

Keep in mind that this battle will take a while. Lucifer has a lot of health. When it comes to the part where the platforms are raised up (this is when he’s near-death), just grapple onto the platforms one by one, then grapple onto him and perform the QTE.

Congrats: a winner is you! Now savor in your victory of achievements/trophies. Onto March and God of War III!