How to kill Assassin's Creed Odyssey's Legendary Animals

Assassin's Creed has always flirted with the boundary between history, fantasy, and sci-fi. In Assassin's Creed Odyssey, the blurred lines between genres is most apparent in the Daughters of Artemis questline. In central Phokis, a priestess at the Temple of Artemis tells you about eight animals that wander the world even though they'd fit in better in the realm of myth and legend. Hunting down all eight and returning trophies to the priestess grants you a blessing from the goddess herself—and a lot of amazing legendary items.

Many of the animals are high-level, meaning you don't have a hope of beating them until many hours in to the game. Finding them is also an issue: All eight of these beasts are huge, dangerous monsters living at the far corners of the Greek world.

These fights can be relatively easy if you're prepared, though. For each one, we recommend using the abilities Second Wind, so you can heal; Venomous or Flaming Attacks, for extra damage and mitigation; and Overpower Attacks while using a sword or dagger. When fighting animals, Overpower Attacks doesn't initiate a combo but instead unleashes one insanely powerful attack that also heals you. It's extremely effective in all of these fights.

In a rough order from lowest level to highest level, here are all of Odyssey's fantastic beasts and how to kill them.

1. Kalydonian Boar, level 20 

Location: Northwest edge of Sacred Lands of Apollo, Northwest Phokis

The Kalydonian Boar is a really, really big pig. Before you can start the proper questline, Daphnae will require you to kill this one first. Unfortunately, he's a real pain in the ass even if you're a few levels above him. Luckily, he's also nearby—about 400 meters due west of the temple, at the top of a cliff.

Beating the Kalydonian Boar isn't easy—especially at such a low level when you have few abilities to use in combat. As soon as you approach its den, the boar will automatically spot you and begin charging, so make sure you're prepared ahead of the fight by equipping the right abilities. It's worthwhile to spend the drachmae respeccing your abilities to favor all-out combat, as there's no opportunity for stealth or ranged attacks during the fight.

To start, unlock Second Wind, which you'll need to heal yourself when you inevitably get gored on one of his tusks. I also highly recommend getting Venomous Attacks, which will weaken the boar's damage and armor while also applying some extra damage over time. Vanish can help you later in the fight if you start getting overwhelmed and need a few seconds to breathe. You can assign the rest of your ability points to your liking, depending on your level. If you're far enough along, Overpower Attacks with a sword or dagger will unleash its damage all at once instead of initiating a long combo sequence and it will heal you. It's a powerful ability that you should use in each of these fights.

The Kalydonian Boar favors strong, straight-line charges that you'll need to dodge. The best strategy here is to dodge often and avoid the front of the animal. If you can get behind it, you'll only have to worry about its 180 degree swipe attack that doesn't do any damage but will stagger you. Otherwise, stick to its sides and chip away at its health while avoiding its side-lunge attack.

When the Kalydonian Boar's health drops to three quarters, it'll run from you and keep its distance. At this point, a swarm of angry boars will take the field and you'll have to kill them all while keeping your distance from the Kalydonian Boar. This is where Vanish comes in handy, but you can also perfect dodges to slow time and create openings to take each mini-boar down one at a time. Using a bow can also be effective if you kite the monsters, get some distance, and unleash some quick headshots to thin the herd. Once the last one is dead, the Kalydonian Boar will return to the fight and the process will repeat. 

2. The Hind of Keryneia, level 25 

Location: Marsh just south of the center of Artemision Point, Northwest Euboea

Hope it's deer season in Greece, because the Hind of Keryneia is an enormous deer with golden hooves and a massive rack of gold antlers. Unlike the Kalydonian Boar, she doesn't get any help from her fellow deer—deer are famous pacifists, after all. Still, the Hind of Keryneia can be a tricky hunt. She's quick to charge, and she'll lower her head to swing her antlers at you in a pretty unpredictable way.

This fight is thankfully much easier and all you really need to do is stick to the hind's sides and hack away while dodging her attacks. From this angle, the worst she can do is stagger you with a blow that you can quickly roll out of. If you stand still and she gets close, she'll also slam her antlers down over you, pinning you to the ground underneath an angry, golden cage. If you dodge that attack, however, her antlers will get stuck in the marshy earth, giving you some precious moments to unleash hell.

Again, I recommend having Second Wind, Venomous Attacks or Flaming Attacks, and Overpower Attacks while using a sword or dagger to unleash a single, incredibly powerful strike. 

3. The Nemean Lion, level 25 

Location: Central Sinkholes of Herakles, South Argolis

Strutting around like a huge stone statue come to life, the Nemean Lion is a dead ringer for the carved lions guarding temples and palaces all across Greece. Unlike those statues, the Nemean Lion is hungry and he's coming for your face.

Before the fight begins, circle around the sinkholes until you're up on a ledge overlooking the arena where the Nemean Lion prowls. You'll notice several lionesses who you absolutely don't want to fight at the same time. Fortunately, with the right bow skills (namely Predator Shot) you can kill each one of them easily. Because you're high up on a ledge, they can't reach you and are easy prey.

Once you've killed the lionesses, jump into the pit to tackle the Nemean Lion. Unlike a lot of the animals on this list, you'll probably have some practice fighting lions. The Nemean Lion follows the same fighting pattern as ordinary wild lions you might anger in the wild—he just hits a lot harder. There's not much strategy here other than to stay on your toes and focus on dodging over doing damage.

4. The Kretan Bull, level 33 

Location: Western Fertile Battleground, South Messara

The legendary father of the minotaur, the Kretan Bull can be found in a lonely mountain-top clearing. You should be pretty used to dodging out of the way of charging animals by now, but with the Kretan Bull it's probably the most important to avoid those initial charges. Though he can do some damage throwing his horns around, his charge does the most damage. Also look out for him when he starts bucking and jumping around like a rodeo bull—there's no safe way to attack him while he's doing this, so just stand back and let it play out.

Unlike other animals in this guide, the Kretan Bull can deliver a deadly kick if you're directly behind him. The trick is to stick to his sides and jump in to attack in the precious second-long window after he charges.

5. The Lykaon Wolf, level 36 

Location: Northwest corner of Dioskouroi Peninsula, Southeast Lakonia

Ever since he was an extra in that flashback scene from 300, the Lykaon Wolf has had a big ego. To be fair, he probably deserves it—he's one of the toughest hunts on this list. In an abandoned farm near a cliff, the Lykaon Wolf leads a large wolfpack that you'll have to fight through to get to him. Even worse, if you give the Lykaon Wolf a chance to step back and breathe, he'll howl and summon even more friendly wolves to help him.

It's tempting to focus all of your energy on the Lykaon Wolf to take him out, but after a couple of minutes I found myself surrounded by more than two dozen wolves. Try to thin out the attacking wolves at least a little as he calls them. One effective way of doing this is by using a spear or staff because each has sweeping, area-of-effect attacks that'll hit any wolf that gets too close. Pair that with Venomous or Flaming Attacks and you should be able to trigger their respective debuff on the wolfpack pretty easily.

By this point, you should have Overpower Attacks, which is invaluable in this fight. With so many enemies coming for you, dodging and attacking them will rack up absurd amounts of adrenaline which will let you use this ability to thin the pack and top up your health at the same time. 

6. Kallisto the Bear, level 37 

Location: Southeast Golden Fields, Northeast Arkadia

Bears are scary, but this one actually isn't. Kallisto is all on her own, which means you just have to focus on bringing her down while avoiding her fatal attacks. But at this point, you should have some powerful weapons and armor and a good amount of ability points to keep you in the fight without much trouble.

Chances are you've fought a bear already, and Kallisto doesn't have any special tricks up her sleeve. Similar to the rest of these animals, stick to its sides and rear and unleash hell. Kallisto's attacks are slow and easy to dodge, so this fight should be an easy one.

7. The Erymanthian Boar, level 38 

Location: West Erymanthos Foothills, North Central Elis

What's with boars being so damn hard to kill in Odyssey? The Erymanthian Boar is one of the toughest fights in this questline due to his tendency to—I kid you not—fart toxic clouds of gas that will poison and quickly kill you.

You won't have to worry about any extra boars joining the battle, so the trick here is to avoid the Erymanthian Boar's attacks and try to stay on its rump to avoid its tusks. Eventually, though, the boar will do a kind of sideways charge and trip over itself, that's your cue to back up and move to a new part of the arena. Just as it hits the ground, it'll fart out a big cloud of toxic gas that'll linger in the area for up to a minute. Move the fight to another part of the arena and repeat this process until it's dead.

8. The Krokottas Hyena, level 39 

Location: South Central Skandeia Bay, South Kythera Island

Despite being the highest level beast on this list, the Krokottas Hyena is another pushover you should have no problem defeating when you're the appropriate level. The biggest thing to know is that this beast is incredible agile, so I highly recommend using a dagger or sword in this fight due to their faster attack combos.

Relying on the usual abilities (Second Wind, Venomous or Flaming Attacks, Overpower Attacks with a sword/dagger), you shouldn't have much of an issue. At a certain point, the Krokottas Hyena will begin leaping around the arena, and it covers such a large distance in each bound that it'll frequently disable the lock-on camera if you're using it. During these moments, you want to try and track the beast manually as best as you can, dodging each lunge as best you can. Really, there's not much more to it than that.