Guide on how to defeat Medusa in Assassin’s Creed Odyssety. How to pick up the starter mission, unlock the Petrified Temple and beat her.
The Assassin’s Creed Odyssey Medusa is one of the four mythical beasts available and probably the longest one to get to. It’s locked behind a small chain of quests, that starts and ends on the Lesbos island (in the top right corner of the map).
To defeat Medusa in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey you need to be level 47 or higher. The boss performs a number of special attacks, often in specific sequences and with patterns. Learning these will help you defeat her easier. Using Line of Sight to avoid damage and control the adds she spawns is key.
In this guide I will show you how to get the starter quest, go through the support quests, get inside the petrified temple to defeat Medusa and in the end I have a paragraph dedicated to who Medusa was in Greek Mythology.
This quest is part of the Atlantis-related chapter and it will grant you one of the four relics you need to seal Atlantis for “The Gates of Atlantis” quest.
How to get the Medusa Starter Quest in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
The starter quest is on Lesbos – to the far north-east corner of the map. This is a high level area, so I would not advice you to go there until you are at least level 46 or even better – 47.
On top of a hill near the docks in the southern side of the island, you will encounter a woman (Bryce) being harassed by an angry mob for a deed she claims to have never committed.
The Mob believes she has sacrificed her lover Legeia to the Creature in the forest – the Writhing Dread (the Medusa boss). After accepting to help find out what happened, you receive the “Romancing the Stone Garden” quest. This is the beginning of the Medusa story arc.
Bryce asks you to follow her to Dread Ruins in the Petrified Valley. This is where the two women lived together before Legeia was taken into the Petrified Temple by the mythical creature. This is also the end of the “Romancing the Stone Garden” quest. It is replaced by the next one in the chain – “Love’s Long Shadow”.
Bryce takes you to the Writhing Dread’s lair – the stone gates of the ruined temple. Quick note – Phobos will refuse to take you deep into that forest. You will have to get to the gate on foot.
After both of you arrive at the entrance of the temple, a cinematic plays (you can see it in the attached video above).
How to open the Petrified Temple in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
To open the Petrified Temple, you have to complete two new support quests that you received. They are both nestled under the “A Slithery Plea” Odyssey quest.
- Hard to Artemis – reach the Huntress Village on Chios. Bryce believes that they may have the key to unlocking the temple’s gate.
- Find and talk to the mercenary about the spear – a mercenary on Lesbos claims to have killed the Writhing Dread and you have to find him and ask for more information on how to enter the temple ruins.
The chain of quests follows this timeline:
Romancing the Stone Garden ► Love’s Long Shadow ► A Slithery Plea
Completing both these quests will move the story forward for you to the final third part – entering the lair and defeating Medusa – the Writhing Dread.
Spoiler follows: The disk-key you get from the cave in the village is the item you need to unlock the temple’s door. I did not test it, but it may be possible for you to skip the other quest and not meet the mercenary. I did the Mercenary objective first and Huntress Village second, so for me the main quest updated after I completed them both. The Huntresses are quite strong even on normal difficulty. If you approach the cave from the high ground, you can enter the cave, defeat the bears and get the disk, skipping a lot of needless fighting.
How to defeat Medusa Boss in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
The fight is relatively long. Medusa is a high level boss and you will need to learn a few special patterns that she follows.
Her special moves include spawning stone soldiers (adds), targeting you with a light beam that slows you down (turns you to stone) and giant flashing lightning circles on the ground that damage you. More on each one of these below:
Medusa’s Mercenary Adds – Medusa shields herself up for a short time and calls for support. Three stone soldiers with random/unique names drop down into the arena and start attacking you. They are not too hard to kill and are rather slow. The more dangerous thing to be careful about is Medusa’s light beam.
Medusa’s Light Beam – This is an ability Medusa uses often and targets and follows you. Hide behind one of the stone pillars in the arena to break line of sight. Wait for the channel to be over and quickly move close to the boss to land a hit or two before she teleports away. If you are built as a Hunter, you can peak from behind the pillar and sneak a couple of powerful shots while she does that attack.
Medusa’s Lightning Circles – The boss drops these always three in a row, targeting you. You have a second or two to move out of a circle once it drops on your feet. Be quick and you will completely avoid the damage from this special attack.
Do not rely on long series of attacks on Medusa. She teleports away rather quick. Be careful when and how you use the strongest abilities that consume your resources. You have to time those correctly if you don’t want her to move away before your heavy attack lands.
Spoiler follows: In the end it turns out that Medusa was indeed Legeia. The artifact was transforming people, who enter the temple and attempt to get it into a new Medusa over God Knows how many centuries, which means that the mercenary was telling the truth. He did kill a Writhing Dread indeed, but later a new one was spawned (or reborn, if you like).
Rewards for completing the Medusa Odyssey Quest
After completing the Writhing Dread quest (killing Medusa), you finish this story ark. For that you get the following rewards and achievements:
- Brain and Brawn Ubi Club Badge Unlocked
- Harpe of Perseus Legendary Sword
- Medusa Figurehead decoration for your ship
- Prize of Medusa (quest item for the Atlantis Odyssey storyline)
- the -25% Cooldown Duration of All Abilities Legendary Engraving
- and some Drachmae, of course.
Here are all the rewards with their stat and info In-Game:
Medusa in Greek Mythology
In Greek mythology, Medusa (guardian, protectress) was a monster, a Gorgon, generally described as a winged human female with living venomous snakes in place of hair. Those who gazed upon her face would turn to stone. Most sources describe her as the daughter of Phorcys and Ceto, though the author Hyginus makes her the daughter of Gorgon and Ceto.
According to Hesiod and Aeschylus, she lived and died on an island named Sarpedon, somewhere near Cisthene. The 2nd-century BCE novelist Dionysios Skytobrachion puts her somewhere in Libya, where Herodotus had said the Berbers originated her myth, as part of their religion.
Medusa was beheaded by the hero Perseus, who thereafter used her head, which retained its ability to turn onlookers to stone, as a weapon until he gave it to the goddess Athena to place on her shield. In classical antiquity the image of the head of Medusa appeared in the evil-averting device known as the Gorgoneion.
Lore Source ► Wikipedia
