How to Beat All 16 Colossi in Shadow of the Colossus: Order, Weak Points and Climbing Routes

How to Beat the Colossi in Shadow of the Colossus: Order, Stamina and Climbing Basics

There are 16 colossi in Shadow of the Colossus, and every one of them is a self-contained puzzle rather than a straight fight. The order is fixed, running from Valus (1) through to Malus (16), and each encounter asks the same four questions: how do you reach the arena, what behaviour exposes a route, where is the glowing sigil, and how long can you hold on before your grip gives out. Raise your sword in open daylight and its converging beams point to the next target. Charge a stab by pressing Square once to begin and again to strike.

This guide covers the fundamentals that apply to all 16 colossi, with worked examples from the early fights and the usual mid-game wall. It follows the original PlayStation 2 release (North America, October 18, 2005) on Normal difficulty using the default control scheme. The same routes apply to the 2011 PS3 remaster and Bluepoint's PS4 remake (Bluepoint Games was closed by Sony in February 2026, with around 70 jobs lost), which is currently available on PS5 at a low price.

What you need before the first hunt

You do not need to farm anything. The essentials are a copy of the game on PS2, PS3 or PS4/PS5, a controller, and a save at a shrine altar. Fruit and white-tailed lizards grant optional health and stamina upgrades, but they are not prerequisites for a Normal playthrough.

Play on Normal first. Hard-mode differences are outside the scope of this guide, which follows a Normal first clear.

The default PS2 mapping is worth memorising:

• R1 grips fur and stone
• Triangle jumps
• Square attacks and charges stabs
• Circle raises the sword or prays

Keep a separate save before the final encounter so you can revisit the ending without a full second run.

How to find each colossus with the sword's light

Hold Circle in open daylight and the sword fires beams that converge on your destination. In shade, indoors or under heavy cover the light becomes unclear, so navigate by landmarks and re-check the beams the next time you reach open ground. If you lose the bearing entirely, ride back to open ground rather than guessing under tree cover.

The ride to each arena is part of the encounter, not downtime. Learn the terrain around the Shrine of Worship early, and let Agro find a steady line across open ground instead of constantly overcorrecting the reins.

The grip-and-stab loop you need before climbing any colossus

Grip stamina is the real resource in every fight. The stamina ring drains while you hold R1; if it empties, Wander falls, and recovery happens only when he is standing on a broad enough surface. If it empties mid-climb, you fall, and on most colossi that costs you the attempt.

To stab while gripping, press Square to begin charging and press Square again to strike once the charge is ready. A driven sword stab does far more damage than an arrow; the bow chips weakpoint sigils and pops soft targets such as Phalanx's air sacs, but deals a fraction of a stab's damage. Treat it as a secondary tool, never your main weapon.

Rest on broad, stable surfaces mid-climb to recover grip before committing to the next section. On longer routes like Phaedra (4) and Malus (16), stamina discipline matters more than raw aggression.

Read the tell, then provoke

Every fight begins passively. A colossus will ignore you until you trigger the behaviour that exposes a climbing route. If it is not reacting, you have not provoked it yet.

Three early fights establish the grammar the rest of the game builds on:

• Valus (1) and Quadratus (2) are the first two hunts in the fixed order.
• Gaius (3), the knight, plants its sword in the ground. That sword is your staircase, and the arena is built around the climb.

Later fights escalate the same pattern, with longer routes and tighter stamina windows.

Stamina, recovery and the knockdown mash

The stamina ring is your real health bar during a climb. Back off and let it refill rather than gambling on one more stab.

If a colossus knocks you down, press any button repeatedly to shorten Wander's recovery. The game never tells you this, and against fast, aggressive colossi like Celosia (11) the default recovery time lines up almost exactly with their next charge.

Celosia is punishing for new players — one reviewer calls it their least favourite of the sixteen, with a knockdown that can loop into a game over. It is the smallest of the 16, and the fight works like this:

1. Bait Celosia into knocking a flaming torch down.
2. Use the fire to drive it off a ledge, exposing the weak point.
3. Get your hits in before it shakes you off on the run back.

If Celosia knocks you down at any point, mash immediately. A single knockdown can loop into a game over.

Save between hunts

Return to the Shrine of Worship and pray at an altar to open the save prompt, rather than pressing on with a sliver of health.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Treating the bow as a main weapon. Kills come from charged sword stabs on sigils.
• Ignoring the stamina ring until it empties mid-climb. Drop once and you often lose the attempt.
• Fighting before provoking. If the colossus is not reacting, the route is not open.
• Overcorrecting Agro. Small inputs keep the horse steady.
• Not knowing the recovery mash. Against Celosia and other fast colossi, it is the difference between a knockdown and a death.

Where to go after your first clear

Hard-mode differences and later-release extras are outside the scope of this guide. Collecting fruit and white-tailed lizards raises your maximum health and stamina, which pays off in the harder rematches.

If you want to revisit the colossi on modern hardware, the 2018 remake is currently available on PS5 at a low price. Our Shadow of the Colossus hub tracks guides and news around the game.