The team behind 2D side-scroller God of War: Sons of Sparta has shared details on how to access the game’s two player co-op content without finishing the main story first.

God of War: Sons of Sparta was announced and shadow dropped earlier this month on PS5. Developed by Mega Cat Studios in partnership with Sony Santa Monica, it is a retro-inspired canon story all about Kratos and his brother Deimos in their youth at training at the Spartan Agoge (which was very “brutal”).

On its debut earlier this year, many had assumed the game would be able to be played in single player, or as a two-player co-op experience, due to the wording on the PlayStation Store which said the game was suitable for “1-2 players”. However, it turned out this was only partly accurate, as the co-op gameplay was actually a roguelike challenge mode which was only accessible after Sons of Sparta’s main story had been completed.

This led to a certain amount of disappointment among the God of War community. Comments like “this might be legit false advertising” and “locking co op behind beating the full story is such a weird call” soon peppered Sony Santa Monica and Mega Cat Studio’s social media. But, it now seems that the Sons of Sparta team has heard these cries, and sought to remedy the situation by providing a code players can enter on the start menu which will unlock the separate endgame roguelike challenge mode from the off.

And that code? Well, it’s:

Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, L1, R1, Touchpad

If you pop that in, you will then get a new option on your menu which will allow you to access Sons of Sparta’s The Pit of Agonies, which can be played solo or in two-player local co-op.

As for what The Pit of Agonies is all about, well the reason the team initially decided to keep it as endgame content is because it is apparently very difficult. But, if you are up for it, this challenge mode will present you with different enemies and reward pools each time you play. You can check out a trailer about it all below.

As well as this Sons of Sparta, the original God of War trilogy is getting remade. However, this particular project is still in the early days of development, so don’t expect anything more soon. “As we look to the future, we also want to invest in the past and tend to the series’ roots that got us to where we are today,” Sony said earlier this month, announcing the remakes.

“We know that remaking the Greek saga has been a frequent request – the genuine, passionate interest from fans to see the original games return is something we’re very thankful for and can’t wait to share more when the time comes!”