h2-discussion

[craggy totem]

In CotND, one of the terrain hazards was a trapdoor that would immediately drop you to the next level, missing out all uncollected loot from the previous level, losing your accumulated gold/damage multiplier, and having to fight a miniboss and a bunch of adds inside a tiny "penalty box" of death.

Obviously speedrunners took this on purpose 100% of the time.

[nova oar]

Grisly gain too

[tender oracle]

(good) cotnd players are just insane in general

[craggy totem]

This is true

[crude dragon]

CotND?

[craggy totem]

Crypt of the Necrodancer, another roguelite (that had a pretty robust speedrunning and racing scene)

[nova oar]

I love getting fig scammed in summit

[craggy totem]

It could be worse, you could be getting scammed in Olympus. At least, I feel like that would be worse.

[nova oar]

Yeah true that

Just annoying with antler but I won so it's fine

@craggy totem Should I do selene or Mel coat speeds first

[red fox]

Selene because it feel more suffering

[craggy totem]

🌛

[tender oracle]

crypt of the necrodancer
rhythm roguelike that also happens to be hard as balls

[crude dragon]

Ah

[nova oar]

Doing neither got a tournament at 3

[opaque kindle]

guys

i was so mindblown i had to join the server

[nova oar]

Yes?

[opaque kindle]

pull up google images, search Artemis then search Huntress Wizard from adventure time

[nova oar]

oh

[thin laurel]

maybe I just don't know adventure time well enough to be mind blown by this
but the character seems like a pretty direct reference to artemis/diana as mythological figures...? so having similar designs + iconography checks out

[nova oar]

Defo

[opaque kindle]

Jen Zee is a woman of culture

[thin laurel]

idk if Jen Zee is imitating adventure time so much as both adventure time and hades 2 are drawing on the same set of references for how the goddess of the hunt is depicted in pop culture 🤷

[next merlin]

Does Vow of Rivals effect getting a testament? I've twice now beaten Hecate with the proper amount of fear and gotten no nightmare reward. I'm wondering if it's because I have vow of Rivals on.

[thin laurel]

if you're fighting the right boss with the right weapon + fear level then vow of rivals shouldn't change anything about whether you get rewards

[opaque kindle]

yeah i didnt mean for it to sound like she copied adventure time, i know Huntress is very probably based on artemis

but i love both characters and they have a lot in common

[next merlin]

Ok, that's what I thought too. Then I got no idea what I'm doing wrong.

[thin laurel]

can you send a screenshot of your testaments rn or something, to confirm you're on the right weapon + fear level and such?

[nova oar]

Could you link a ss of the testaments

[opaque kindle]

green hair, marksmanship, cool magic, horns

[candid nimbus]

Is there a Discord server for Hades modding? I am feeling curious about the topic lmao

[opaque kindle]

and the cape

[next merlin]

Trying but can't send a pic to the chat

[nova oar]

Just dm me then

[thin laurel]

the horns I'm pretty sure are a reference to actual iconography of artemis/diana as a goddess, like... historically!
i.e. most shrines to Diana (the roman version of arty) hung up stag antlers during a certain point in history
and then marksmanship is obv very her much a goddess of the hunt thing
idk if the color green has a historical basis, but it makes sense given how tied to like.... nature and stuff the goddess is

[thin laurel]

you can dm them, or send them to a private server/dms then copy paste the image link here

[nova oar]

It's prometheus, 10f, and blades

[thin laurel]

oh if it's prometheus then that would do it
since beating hecate won't uh. do anything, if he's your target

[opaque kindle]

in HW case she is a plant and has leaves for hair, but artemis having green hair to blend in the forest makes the designs simmilar and i think its so cool

i dint know about the shrine antlers thing, thats so cool

[thin laurel]

also welcome to the server btw!! and it is neat that the designs are similar, I just don't know a ton about adventure time 😅

[next merlin]

Mystery solved 🤦‍♂️

Guess it's time for a check up at my eye doctor.

[nova oar]

😭 😭

[opaque kindle]

its quite the expirience hahahah

the first few seasons are kinda goofy but really cool, later seasons develop the characters more and have big story arcs

also it makes you cry a lot its beautifull

[next merlin]

Complete agree. The arc is... Wonderful.

[opaque kindle]

and thanks

[next merlin]

It now occurs to me that I've thought that was Hecate this whole time and just never noticed I wasn't getting the reward before.

[nova oar]

😭 😭 😭 😭 😭

[next merlin]

Yeah.

[opaque kindle]

you gotta bring fear to everyone friend ashdjkhajdgkd

[next merlin]

So thank you very much for straightening things out for me!

[nova oar]

Any time, it happens alot

[next merlin]

I mean, are names with the pics too much to ask for? Lol

[nova oar]

I was never unable to tell tbh

[next merlin]

Yeah, I'm sure it's a me thing. I really do have bad vision.. I have a special pair of glasses I wear just to play. But this explains why my Black Coat testament is still on 1 fear req lol.... Ah boy

[nova oar]

[jolly hound]

this may sound crazy, but do a few runs with like, 20-30 fear, vow of hordes and frenzy in particular. yes, you will get smoked, but then turn them off and breeze through single digit fear and build up confidence. also i'm guessing you still have some arcana and weapons to upgrade, that helps too

[next merlin]

Cool. I'm on the last round of Nights Champion, so I've got to do some runs like that soon anyways. My arcana is maxed but I am still working on weapons. I'm kind of stuck with the story, so I'm just trying to grind nightmare for weapons and I assume whatever I'm supposed to do for the story will reveal itself.

[neon barn]

Hordes surface is really hard though, unironically (saying this as someone who has done this strat)

[foggy sable]

how do i properly use Nyx?

[nova oar]

You sprint to activate nightspawn, spam special and attack until it runs out, rinse and repeat

[foggy sable]

well I meant like, effectively lol

[jolly hound]

I stand by it, it’s reckless but it’s solid

[neon barn]

Yeah even I'm using it as practice because it makes even normal rooms a threat which is missing on lower fears

[nova oar]

That is how you do it

[jolly hound]

psa: grape juice from dio with Anubis staff is stupid good

[craggy totem]

Does it apply to every hit until that field expires?

[jolly hound]

Yep!

[craggy totem]

Nice.

[foggy sable]

what hammer improves the most from icarus upgrading it?

[jolly hound]

LOL the victory narrator story was “and then the princess of the underworld went back to Dionysus feast and got wasted”. Apt

[golden dome]

for Melinoe Find us, Do i have to proc engraved pin 3 times in a row or 3 times in Oceanus total and then die? Should i have no death definace arcane card? is there a trick behind this? i accidently dont know how many monsters there are left

[craggy totem]

Be sure to spoiler tag ending/epilogue stuff. ||You need to do it three times in a row in Oceanus before dying. It's fine to bring Death Defiances; you don't need to beat the timer, just proc the keepsake. One trick is to leave one or two enemies alive at all times to see if more will spawn in, but if you're bringing DDs, you're fine either way probably.||

[golden dome]

||so i just need to proc it... ok dont have to beat the last monsters within the timeframe ok thank you||

[golden dome]

||is there any more Story after Melinoe find us?||

[craggy totem]

Mostly just ||reactions to the conclusion of that storyline||.

[hallow vault]

Why does a tweet with the GIF of Mel Stretching her back msucles in that one Animation Trailer have 54k likes ? 🤨

[sullen remnant]

Lesbians

Does anyone have tips for getting the hephaestus legendary? I've looked up the requirements and there's FIVE prerequisites and I've never managed to get them in a single run

[marble socket]

do the boonpool manipulation

[golden dome]

Oh i got it! thanks for the help!

[sullen remnant]

Which is that?

[marble socket]

u need it for the surface right?

[sullen remnant]

I need it for either, it doesn't matter. It's the last legendary on my fated list

[marble socket]

ok it'll be easier on the surface
First u take the keepsake to ensure he is in the pool
when u enter ephyra, take all available boons for heph and beat em (important)
then u reroll other god boons and they'll also turn to heph (theres a higher chance if theres no other heph boon available)

[sullen remnant]

Thank you! I'll give it a go

[foggy sable]

one left, ive beaten the surface with every aspect.. except pan lol

[odd dune]

Hey how do I upgrade the pets?

[tender oracle]

tame 3 familiars, cast Bravery of Familiar Spirits once you unlock it, then give em more witch's delights

[smoky rover]

How long does it take for Prometheus to summon reinforcements in the rivals fight, or the normal one?

I'm trying to proc the half-health Heracles and the reinforcements at the same time, followed by the 2nd flamestrike

I cannot get the timing right

And can he not summon before the first flamestrike?

[rotund hearth]

||Who knows how to do the melinoe seek us storyline. I've maxed out relationships with moros seek to know who is our emissary but it hasn't marked. Need help||

[pale pier]

Did you get all the npcs’ line? Are they all marked out?

[rotund hearth]

No. Only four marked out

[pale pier]

You have to get the others, which are you missing?

[rotund hearth]

Wait. What do you mean. Is it the "seek to know who things"

[pale pier]

||Seek to know he who is our emissary: Moros||
||Seek to know they who created the world: Chaos||
||Seek to know he who cast us out: Chronos||
||Seek to know she who trained you: Hecate||
||Seek to know he who rebels against the gods: Prometheus||
||Seek to know he who labors for the gods: Hermes||

You gotta keep talking to all of them and you will eventually scratch their prophecy

[rotund hearth]

I've not gotten ||moros and Prometheus||

[pale pier]

Prometheus is the most annoying one imo. He was the hardest one for me to get

Just keep doing runs and talking to them, it’s all rng

[rotund hearth]

I don't even know how I got Hermes

the fates story is what keeps me playing tbh

[pale pier]

After this, you’ll get ||another prophecy you gotta complete 😭 it’s a grind ||

[rotund hearth]

Gonna add another 50 runs

[hazy glacier]

the fates sure did bless me. I was just going to ask the same thing but u guys already discussed it :D

[old depot]

I just got rare steady growth as my 3rd boon, I feel so blessed

[glacial light]

iirc you gotta max bond them (the ones with bond)?

[cursive nacelle]

He who labors is heracles, in the myth he's given 12? labors aka quests to complete

[minor eagle]

Yeah

[lilac palm]

wow so i beat hades 2 my first ever rogue like game

[minor eagle]

Nice

[nova oar]

As in rolled credits?

[lilac palm]

yes

so now i’m confused am i still gonna fight ||chronos and typhoon|| again if i go do some runs or

[minor eagle]

Yeah

Cant sacrifice the gameplay loop, but they have explanations behind it

The explanations are kinda meh imo but its not like i would have been able to come up with better ideas so i cant judge it too hardly

[lilac palm]

i see
maybe i should get hades 1 now

[tranquil wren]

||Chronos (Time itself) is split after Mel's time-travel shenanigans, so she needs to kill the remnants of his split self so that the main timeline remains secure||

for an indefinite time, not forever

[lilac palm]

so its a paradox basically

[tranquil wren]

yea
like, the ||paradox of time travel created the problem mel now has to solve||

[lilac palm]

I wanna play hades 1 but idk if i can play it without Mel 😔

[restive condor]

Zagrey is cool

[shrewd silo]

Eris is harder than chronos

[nova oar]

Lies

[shrewd silo]

For me

[minor eagle]

Eris is easy asf

[nova oar]

Amen

[minor eagle]

Especially rivals eris

[restive condor]

||Scylla with amplification is more difficult than everything||

[minor eagle]

Amen

[restive condor]

Initially I had the same problem, but now I can get through without taking any damage.

[shrewd silo]

I've beat chronos both times I've gotten to him I've only beat Eris once out of 4

[minor eagle]

Surface is overall harder, so you're losing more health to the foes

[restive condor]

Well, we need to not let her hit too much and dodge.

[minor eagle]

Yeah dont rush her between phases when she absorbs her blasts

Except for the very last one when she's on like 5% health because thats a perma buff i think

[restive condor]

Well, it opens later.

[minor eagle]

Yeah

[restive condor]

Winter harvest 😍

[minor eagle]

True

I still need one more legendary (fire away) before ive picked up every legendary atleast once

[lilac palm]

interesting
i’m not particularly that great at the game but i have never lost to eris

i’ve never lost to eris or cerberus
the rest i’ve lost to atleast once

[restive condor]

I had the last harvest. Well, I collected everything during the Chaos trials.

[restive condor]

Even Hecate and Polyphemus?

[nova oar]

Eh

[minor eagle]

Tbh polyphemus isnt that hard

[shrewd silo]

I lost to the hecate a couple times the cyclops never the sirens 2x Eris 3x chronos never and IDK what the other boss is

[lilac palm]

i mean ofc i lost to hecate when i first started lol
and prometheus was my biggest op the first couple times but now he’s easy

[nova oar]

You still have two more surface bosses dw

[minor eagle]

I beat hecate on my first run bcus i just camped with special

[restive condor]

Yes, but his combo with Medea really battered me the first time

[minor eagle]

Yeah the poison is annoying as hell but doesnt actually deal all that much over the course of the fight

[lilac palm]

actually
i’ve never lost to cyclops either

[restive condor]

Well, not everyone lost to Hecate on their first try.

[lilac palm]

he’s so weak i forgot his ass

[nova oar]

As a whole rivals scylla and chronos are pretty easy for me

[lilac palm]

well, i am speaking for myself ofc.

[nova oar]

Rivals surface is mostly a joke in terms of difficulty increase

Actually all rivals fights are fine now

[minor eagle]

Time to finish the sister blades bounties

All i need is 20 fear chronos

[restive condor]

What...

[minor eagle]

Starting with deep dissent is nice

[minor eagle]

What? Do you want me to call them by the official name

It seems pretty clear that i mean the fear testaments or whatever

[restive condor]

What are the sisters' blades?

[minor eagle]

Lim and oros

[restive condor]

Oh

[minor eagle]

Yeah lol

[restive condor]

Damn, I remember running only with them.

This is the only thing where I have fully completed the covenants

[ocean iris]

Any tips for Rivals Scylla since I got my ass absolutely handed to me last night on my first try? Not sure she’s ever actually killed me before 😞

[restive condor]

Charybdis is a force together with Scylla...

[minor eagle]

Ooh infernal pact in erebus

This is a very bad idea! My favourite kind

[restive condor]

It seems there is no point in taking it later.

[verbal rampart]

From what I know about you, you seem like a "Heck it, we ball" person

[minor eagle]

He got me

About what i expected, really

[nova oar]

Biggest thing is target priority, and a good build.

First you need to take out one of the tentacles in front of roxy, then use that space to fight her and the rest of the band, if she does the big aoe in the middle, run to the center and fight scylla there.

Once roxy is down, target scylla, and jetty if she's around, once scylla is down, you can clean up the tentacles one by one and whack jetty when she appears

Looks smth like this:https://imgur.com/a/BNUlYKy

[nova oar]

Me taking antler every run

[minor eagle]

Entirely my fault for not accepting the ares magick refill (even if its mediocre) when im using morrigan

[verbal rampart]

You. I'm afraid of you.

[minor eagle]

Oh well, there's always next time

[nova oar]

LMAO

[minor eagle]

Basically yeah!

[nova oar]

I'll only do it with strength up to 40f after that it's dd's and it's even more free

[verbal rampart]

On my side I try to be much more "strategic but daring". And most of the time I fail

[nova oar]

Antler is the best defensive keepsake fr

[restive condor]

[minor eagle]

I am kinda annoyed about losing deep dissent because i find it really useful for vow4 chronos but whatever

[verbal rampart]

Sure. I believe you. But still, I'm afraid of this keepsake

[ocean iris]

Thanks. I think it took me too long to realise the tenacles were actually targetable

[nova oar]

Just try it it's fun I promise

[minor eagle]

It is fun

[nova oar]

Any time

[minor eagle]

Very very dangerous but fun

[nova oar]

It's not dangerous cause everything dies before it attacks

[verbal rampart]

Now that sells it to me, killing my enemies before they kill me sounds good

[thin laurel]

antler also just makes most fights end very fast, so you can't get hit

• you can stack a lot of defensive boons to get 10+ free hits in a fight, which makes it pretty chill for low fear
  and for high fear, I take antler and die a lot, but also my second ever 62 win was with antler, and was also a hitless rivals chronos since he had trouble surviving long enough to uh. attack. so I had less total stuff to dodge

well, damageless*, not hitless, he prob burned a lovers barrier or two

but if you're playing low fear stuff just dies. even at 62 it's rare to get hit in tartarus lol

[minor eagle]

Okay new start is unseen ire, i like that

[neon barn]

does antler make chronos p3 easy too lol

[thin laurel]

not easy
but I have a lot of 40 fear p3 chronos wins with antler

you do need to dodge, but also the fight ends fast
and you can cheese him more easily w stuff like casts

[minor eagle]

Aye banshee brand, my favourite blades hammer

[restive condor]

Horn of Artemis?

[storm glen]

ya

[restive condor]

It's interesting, but it's a pity that it's only for one region.

[ocean iris]

I had an incredibly fun Olympus once with the antler and... blood spree. Was great until I got one shot. Still scared of it too though

[thin laurel]

it's basically just a last region keepsake, for that exact reason

[storm glen]

they want you to swap keepsakes in thsi game

[verbal rampart]

Boons to get literal free hits? Da hell?

[neon barn]

snow queen, nitro boost

[thin laurel]

yeah 🤷
the lovers arcana card = 3 free hits versus every boss
gale the familiar = 3 free hits per region
nitro boost from hermes = 1-4 free hits per room while sprinting (rarity)
snow queen = 1 free hit per room
trusty shield = 1+ free hits per room
and armor in general isn't affected by antler, so stacking armor, dodge chance, and daze makes it a lot safer

[restive condor]

Actually, it's very clever. Accumulate a lot of armor with the Arachne artifact, then take the Horn on the last zone and wipe everyone out.

[thin laurel]

also i-frames from wolf howl (and dark side but then your damage is worse so eh), and any form of self healing is op
if you have blood spree from ares on a fast hitting weapon then if you avoid oneshots and high damage hits you can heal back up to 30 super fast

[verbal rampart]

Oh wow indeed. I really need to step up my builds

[thin laurel]

there are a LOT of ways to make antler pretty safe
taking it without defensive boons is riskier, but if you plan for it (or just have hephaestus + demeter in your pool) it's not that bad, truly

[nova oar]

What arcana have you been running

[restive condor]

My build depends on which double gifts I haven't unlocked yet.

[minor eagle]

Instead of getting any useful boons i have been offered to trade my cast 3 times in a row

[nova oar]

I can naked antler tartarus and chronos and maybe summit (big maybe)

[thin laurel]

I can def naked antler non-rivals chronos, typhon like... idk, 90% of the time?
rivals I need some defense tho lol

[restive condor]

By the way, how much fear does it take to open Hercules' trust?

[thin laurel]

altho then again sometimes you just don't get hit. like.... this is still one of my fav runs I've ever done: https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1233146305308528650/1440619363005632542/Screenshot_2025-11-19_at_12.22.25_AM.png?ex=69368bd5&is=69353a55&hm=9ae1f10f3d82e5d3e6d11f9a3a9904123f4ffc73a9ce31fde93e8da529ef4b2a&=&format=webp&quality=lossless&width=2284&height=1486
raki + lightning lance on circe made it super easy to just focus on dodging and delete his hp lol

[crystal prawn]

are all 3 familiar bonds of the pets active at same time or do i need to pick just 1 somewhere?

[thin laurel]

iirc it's more about taking a specific vow ||rivals 3 on the surface||
after you do that it can still take a bit for him to unlock it, tho, dialogue gets acked up

[ocean iris]

all active

[restive condor]

Well, it says there: Hercules will approach you when your night is full of fear.

[thin laurel]

yup, but it's a vague hint and I'm fairly certain it's about that vow, for uh. specific reasons I don't want to spoil

[restive condor]

I saw it there, yes. I just didn't take the oath with ||Typhon||.

[verbal rampart]

For now most of my builds are : Sorceress ; Wayward Son ; Furies ; Persistence ; Death + some other cards depending on the weapon (mostly Origination though)

[nova oar]

Yeah that's fine

[restive condor]

I didn't change the arcana from income to maximum willpower

[thin laurel]

you shouldn't need to do anything with typhon (who can be mentioned on this channel, he's not post-ending content)
if you've beaten rivals 3 on the surface and heracles isn't opening up yet then just give it time and run that fight more, afaik there aren't extra requirements there are just a lot of little bits of dialogue to get through

[thin laurel]

are you running rerolls or fate's whim, btw?

[restive condor]

Okay, we'll try, thanks.

[verbal rampart]

Even though I don't have the Fate Whim's keepsake, yeah, generally I don't use rerolls

[thin laurel]

ooooh interesting... rerolls are very strong tbh
the fate's whim keepsakes are absurdly op, but they kind of have to be for the downside of no rerolls
still doable to not run rerolls if you just want to embrace rng, but they're very good, during early access before fate's whim existed a common complaint was that arcana felt too "solved" since rerolls + origination just dominate non-FW builds lol

[restive condor]

Rerolls are not needed for those who do not die 😎

[verbal rampart]

I shall try to use rerolls in my next runs, but for now I'm trying to master the game without them

[thin laurel]

both ways are fine!
just fair warning that once you reach the credits and get access to fate's whim keepsakes, you'll have way less reason to ever run rerolls lol, I rarely do these days. so may as well use them a bit before you get to that point, to familiarize yourself with more boons and playstyles

rerolls are also nice for finishing prophecies, since you can lock down the requirements for duo boons and such more easily, which is why I kind of think of them as ideal for early in a save file

[verbal rampart]

I'll follow your advice, thanks Malkin!

[stuck horizon]

how does gift gift gift affect olympian keepsakes? do I just get an extra rarify for that god's boons without the guarantee of them showing up?

[verbal rampart]

I'm not sure to understand your question but : equipping an god keepsake guarantee you will meet them during your run

[stuck horizon]

echo has a boon called gift gift gift that keeps the "basic effect of your keepsake" after you switch keepsakes

[thin laurel]

I believe it makes them show up again...? but gift gift gift is bugged rn so I almost never see it (and I rarely if ever take a god keepsake to fields)

it gives the rank 1 effect, which for a god keepsake is turning a common boon rare + making them appear (if possible)
you won't be able to rarify rare/epic boons via gift gift gift

[verbal rampart]

Woe is me, I forgot about Echo's boons 🤣

While Echo is the best girl, next to Dora

[nova oar]

Echo has the best npc boons

[thin laurel]

is there even a single miss in her boons

like. boon boon boon is a gamble (and won't show up if you reroll seed iirc) but it's still fun
fight fight fight is basically free healing through scars, but is admittedly not that amazing if you aren't running scars since it'll b mostly gone by the time you reach gramps
and then everything else is fantastic imo

[ocean iris]

I'll never be over the fact that it took until after the credits for me to realise you can gift her you just have to do it after dialogue

[storm glen]

gift gift gift and gold gold gold are usually meh imo

[stuck horizon]

gold gold gold can duplicate a hammer

that's pretty good imo

[thin laurel]

and gift gift gift can in theory let you stack pin + white antler
or double experimental hammer
both pretty good as far as NPC boons go imo, not her top rolls but better than meh, to me at least

[minor eagle]

Lunar ray shield upgrade is so amazing when abused

I love a panic button that lets me tank basically anything and recharges fast

[verbal rampart]

No really?

Duplicating a hammer is WILD

[nova oar]

It'll duplicate anything, even onion iirc

[minor eagle]

Lmaoo

Could it duplicate the anvil in the tartarus shop

[nova oar]

😒

[stuck horizon]

I never buy the anvil but yeah I guess so

[minor eagle]

Yeah same

[verbal rampart]

Never buy the anvil too. I even forgot what it's for

[minor eagle]

Removes one of your hammers and gives two random ones

[verbal rampart]

Wait that's actually really good

[nova oar]

It's really bad

[minor eagle]

Its bad because usually you do this technique called picking the hammers you think will benefit you the most

[limpid oar]

Gift gift gift isn't even real

Haven't seen it since 1.0 🔥

[verbal rampart]

Oh. Well I'll keep going on not buying it

[verbal rampart]

Oh you don't get too choose the hammer-boons

[minor eagle]

Yeah

[minor eagle]

Which one is gift gift gift again

Oh that one

Ive only seen it like once ever

[buoyant matrix]

because it won't appear if you have an active jpom effect

and the most common way to deactivate jpom is gorgon amulet in fields, which is also blacklisted from ggg

[tame musk]

are there any downloadable pngs of the hades emojis that exist in this server? for example these: etc

[floral quest]

Hmmm

game is frozen not loading

[verbal rampart]

F10 it and #h2-tech-support

[floral quest]

see #h2-discussion could not F10...

anyways just killed it

[ember ravine]

i finished getting all achievements and i'm feeling empty

[verbal rampart]

No adventure is eternal

[brisk dirge]

I beat Typhon with the torch....finally.....I used the Eos aspect. I don't have the boost from the Moros aspect

[ember ravine]

i like the torch so much

[ember ravine]

sadly yes

[brisk dirge]

I like it too finally but the need of magick is kinda hard to get too if I don't have that magic regen arcana on

I want to have the Legendary boon chance increase on but my grasp is 29 and not enough

Also I need to use 500 psyche and darkness and something else to increase it by 1 now

[storm glen]

that arcana isnt that great u should try smth else

[ember ravine]

i played mostly the hades arcana with mana regen, health regen and the +40hp mana

[verbal rampart]

The Unseen Arcana? Not great. Cost 5 grasp just to regen mana, that's not outstanding

[bronze stream]

Is the range to activate aphro attack shorter than the range torch special orbits at?

[jolly hound]

i once took an anvil back in the hades 1 days and got both pieces of clockets from it, it will never be that good again

[minor eagle]

Lol

[ivory sail]

out of context but why dionysus is so goofy in h2 compared to h1😭

[restive condor]

Why is he stupid

[ivory sail]

?

[cursive nacelle]

hes the same as he always was

[restive condor]

so yes

[crude dragon]

Because he's completely sauced in an attempt to distract himself from the war happening outside his room

[ivory sail]

ty

[rotund hearth]

Nyx coat + strength + air quality has changed my life

[minor eagle]

Strength is probably the main factor there

[rotund hearth]

It's crazy how nobody did up to 100 damage

Wow. To find the fates I must ||turn off my god mode in Oceanus apparently||

[minor eagle]

Stating that you're using god mode would have been important earlier

Nothing wrong with using it but its absolutely the main factor

Also yeah you need to die to do the thing

[rotund hearth]

I mean I have said it before a lot but even with god mode, I still take a lot of dmg.

Plus I've been toning it down the better I get. I'm currently at 40%

[minor eagle]

We have never talked before so thats probably my issue then LOL

Tbh i dont even know what god mode does

Altho realistically if its fun thats all that matters imo

[rotund hearth]

It's fine. I even did a few non god mode runs where I got to chronos but died in the second phase

[minor eagle]

Chronos can be rough if you arnt used to his attacks

[rotund hearth]

Eh, it's more of a learning thing for me. I usually start games at an easier mode then the better I get, I up the difficulty

I've also been playing 16 fear with the god mode.

[minor eagle]

Nice

[rotund hearth]

Dmg resistance up to 80%. I got to the whole 80% before I stopped dying but I've been reducing it ever since

[minor eagle]

Ah, i thought it would do more stuff honestly

[rotund hearth]

I'm waiting to get good enough for rivals 3. I'm still not good at rivals 1 Polyphemus

[minor eagle]

Rivals polyphemus is annoying just because the poison goes EVERYWHERE

[rotund hearth]

Nope. If you would normally take 20 dmg from a hit, you take like 5 or so. Which is great but you're still getting hit lol

[minor eagle]

Why must medea do this to us :(

[verbal rampart]

He's coping. The man really doesn't like war

[devout cairn]

i mean, what is it good for?

[verbal rampart]

Not certain I understood your question

[rotund hearth]

It's kinda shocking how she'll give you curses only to poison you

[devout cairn]

[minor eagle]

I mean, will of the night and all that

[rotund hearth]

I unironically like rivals eris more. Something about the straight line rail shot is better for my brain than the flurry

[verbal rampart]

I'm sorry, I'm not a native english-speaker

[minor eagle]

Yeah rivals eris is easier than non rivals lol

[minor eagle]

It took me a moment to get it and i am a native english speaker

They're basically saying that war isnt good for anything so it makes sense why he wouldnt like it

[verbal rampart]

Oooooh sorry

[minor eagle]

Although i counter that point by mentioning ares exists

[rotund hearth]

Wait, so what does ||successive chambers|| mean

[verbal rampart]

Thanks for explaining

[minor eagle]

||Chambers in a row||

[devout cairn]

halfway there, I was waiting for someone to say "absolutely nothing" 😔

[minor eagle]

So if you're doing the fates thing ||activate the engraved pin 3 rooms in a row (so you cant go into rooms with no foes or it breaks it) and then die in the 4th room||

[minor eagle]

I was tempted to respond with that stupidly dumb line from sonic forces tbh

[craggy totem]

Tag your epilogue spoilers

[devout cairn]

which one i'm not familiar with sonic forces

[minor eagle]

"Of course its not good, thats why its called war."

Genuinley i have no clue what that could mean but its so stupid it makes me laugh

[minor eagle]

For the best honestly, it is not a good game in the slightest

[devout cairn]

maybe it's right in the etymologic sense but i'm no etymology nerd

[minor eagle]

Lol

[rotund hearth]

Omg they found mee.

||why do they have new York accents lmaooo||

[devout cairn]

ngl i'm surprised of sonic's popularity even before the movie considering how much even sonic fans hate the video games

[minor eagle]

Sonic fans are just like that

Most of their games are overall fine if you arnt actively looking for reasons to hate them

[rotund hearth]

I like the sonic mobile games. Sonic dash was fun

[minor eagle]

Except for a couple of them (notably 06, secret rings and forces), they suck

[minor eagle]

I really like black knight and unleashed

[rotund hearth]

150 runs and over 40 hours later... Man

It's so peak.

[verbal rampart]

Really? I do not know the difference between american accents, I've been told they had a New Jersey accent

[rotund hearth]

Tbh those are close (I'm not American) but i recognized it as an NY accent or at least an exaggerated one from movies.

[thorny bluff]

Does anyone know how to get Madea to give the upgraded Dream Vapour? Ive gone to her like 20 times and she wont give it to me

[craggy totem]

Have you maxed her relationship?

[broken creek]

You dont have to max it

[craggy totem]

Hm, idk then

[broken creek]

Iirc medea has been at like 2 hearts for me all game lol, its like 90% rng cuz I didnt even get the evaporated tears incant thing till wayyyy after credits with me doing nothing specific

[thorny bluff]

that so weird. maybe im unlucky. Its gotten to the point that I was just killing the run after talking to her and not getting it. I did it for like 2 hours and still not working

[minor eagle]

Silly question but have you actually used the first dream vapour

[hardy depot]

Have you unlocked the ||End to Deepest Slumber|| Incantation, used the first ||Dream Vapors|| on Hypnos, and gifted Medea 2 or more times?

[thorny bluff]

I think ive only gifted her once so that may be the issue. Ill try that out and see if it works thnaks

[thorny bluff]

yes I have

[minor eagle]

Probably this then

[hardy depot]

She might give it right after the 2nd gift, or maybe the next run, depending on if there's any other priority conversations

[thorny bluff]

that did the trick. Thanks for the help

[jagged trench]

Hey, do you know if it is possible to disable the sounds of the familiars specifically? The meows of Toula drive my own cat wild and every time I play she tries to find the mysterious cat in the TV 😬

[verbal rampart]

...I don't know how you could except by turning off the sounds but your message is hilarious

[storm glen]

but there is a cat in the tv...

[candid nimbus]

God forbid a woman for having hobbies

[verbal rampart]

I will not question Medea because I'm a total simp for her. Mommy witch is guilty of absolutely nothing

[craggy totem]

She could just ask for experimental subjects and get volunteers, I'm sure

[minor eagle]

You need worse taste

Because while i do agree she is also a basic option

[verbal rampart]

https://tenor.com/view/danah-tribute-volunteer-gif-21763573

[verbal rampart]

Worse taste? Par exemple?

[minor eagle]

Scylla

I love her even if there are many things wrong with her

[verbal rampart]

She is voiced by the famous Erin Yvette which is a good thing

[craggy totem]

What is the point of a fictional character who hasn't got anything wrong with her

[minor eagle]

TRUE

[verbal rampart]

I mean there is something wrong with every single character in this game and all of them are either damn cute or totally hot so...

[verbal rampart]

We hate Mary Sues here

[foggy sable]

just no hit prometheus

[verbal rampart]

No way?

[foggy sable]

I am simply too skilled

[verbal rampart]

You are indeed much better than I am

[foggy sable]

(dont mind the fact that this is the first time this has happened)

[verbal rampart]

I mean, it's quite the amazing achievement. I never did any boss in no-hit, not even Hecate

...moderators?

[minor eagle]

<@&456908176877551658>

[foggy sable]

yeaaaaa

[minor eagle]

Thanks mods

[flat glacier]

ah, someone beat me to it

[foggy sable]

Thanks mods :D

[verbal rampart]

That escalated quickly and kinda ruined the moment. As a non-white person I feel upset

[minor eagle]

I was just in the middle of a chaos trial LOL, i was so confused

[verbal rampart]

Also thanks mods

[minor eagle]

Well if you dont mind me im getting back to chaos above

[verbal rampart]

Good luck, dear friend

[flat glacier]

sounds like a good plan! sorry for the brief troll interruption there.

[minor eagle]

Hey its fine, not your fault

[flat glacier]

..."brief troll interruption" sounds like either a captcha code or a band name, hehe

anyway.

[minor eagle]

Type these words to prove you're not a robot lookin ah

[verbal rampart]

You'll tell me if you manage to beat it. For me, it's bedtime. Good night, folks

[minor eagle]

Good night!

[minor eagle]

I beat it yippie

[dull tendon]

If I pair Brave Face and Tough Gain, which one procs first

[crude dragon]

Brave Face

[tiny timber]

can you fully romance multiple people?

getting a "commit" prompt

[summer elk]

I think so, but I haven't collected enough nectar to know for sure.

[broken creek]

Yes you can

[summer elk]

Was anyone else surprised you can't visit ||Zag in Tartarus or the Olympians on Mount Olympus|| after completing the story? I know that was one of the few major sticking points in the first game, that you couldn't visit ||the surface|| after completing the story in Hades. I'm surprised SGG didn't change that part of the formula, especially how vocal the community was about that one thing in particular.

[bronze stream]

Really having a hard time seeing the safe spots when typhon spreads the little wormy bombs everywhere

||doesnt zag show up in crossroads sometimes in the current version?||

[broken creek]

Which attack?? The like bomb that splits or the ones that make the little guys that go in a circle

[broken creek]

No, or if he does ive never seen him

[minor eagle]

He doesnt

||none of the house of hades even know where the crossroads are||

[minor eagle]

Not really bcus it was the same as hades 1. Although its still one of the only parts of the games i genuinley dislike

[craggy totem]

At least in H2 ||you can run it back on the same save using the timetravel incant, although it's not the same as seeing everybody after the events of the game||

[minor eagle]

Yeah

[summer elk]

I just thought that after the very vocal feedback about that one issue being particularly displeasing after the stellar game and story that lead up to it, SGG would make a point to remedy that issue in the sequel. I know they fixed a lot of other issues in H2, particularly QoL stuff.

[minor eagle]

Yeah

[indigo mortar]

not being able to|| visit your familys house post game feels kinda bad especially since we dont really get any content with dusa (i miss her) and the others apart from the ending cutscene, but maybe they decided it would be too much new content to make with new voice acting and possibly events for something so late game,|| it would take lots of resources

definitely wish ||we could see zagreus in tartarus though||

[nova oar]

You could definitely put more content in there forsure but it obviously wasn't a priority and the way the game ended it looks like their deal with Nintendo forced a rushed version

[charred merlin]

||Why are we talking like this||

[indigo mortar]

spoling end game stuff lol

[craggy totem]

Read the channel description

[nova oar]

My one nitpick is that the appearance of tartarus should change at least a little, or ||chronos does his summoning thing at the start like he does the summit||

[craggy totem]

||It does change slightly by the time you reach endshop iirc||

[storm glen]

vidoe game development makes me sad

[nova oar]

That and the soundtrack sucks

[indigo mortar]

i dont think hades 2 was rushed, this game packs an insane amount of really polished content and at some point you have to decide when to stop putting stuff in it

[nova oar]

The ending was 100% rushed

[charred merlin]

What ||even is endgame|| the stuff ||they added since 1.0?|| It's ||hard to tell if that's what I'd call ending or not.||

[nova oar]

It took them 3 weeks to turn around and fix it, was obvious they had more in store but had to meet the deadline

[nova oar]

Endgame is credits and epilogue

[storm glen]

possibly the most labor intensive and extensive works of art have to get crunched out for profit while losers on the internet constantly dogpile on them

[indigo mortar]

yeah the ending was definitely a thing as someone who played through both the original and new endings but i believe it was more about a mistake on SG's part which they put the effort to fix later than necessarily a lack of time

[craggy totem]

It's possible that they did all of the 1.1 changes only after launch, but the sheer amount of crunch that would probably entail seems kinda inhumane, so I certainly hope at least some of it was already in the pipeline before launch

[charred merlin]

I didn't play ||1.0 right away I guess when I got around to the "ending"|| it's already "fixed."

[nova oar]

Rest of the game is absolutely fantastic tho

[storm glen]

could you imagine if the video game community wasnt nearly 100% perverts and asses for like 2 decades

[nova oar]

Ssg is known for their amazing storylines, they would've known it was subpar

[nova oar]

There is a concerning amount of hate for the art of alot of characters

[storm glen]

anyway hades 2. the ending is like mid its fine

[nova oar]

They had new dialogue for most characters, moved lines around, animated and changed cutscenes, the works

[craggy totem]

I do feel for the Dio fans who felt like he got shafted by becoming a buffoon in H2 but I will die on the hill of "his new portrait art is hilarious actually"

[nova oar]

The story is still good and mostly makes sense but it isn't h1 level of good, but the gameplay is 11/10 so I don't really care

[storm glen]

dio is another part of the line of characters "GOD WHY COULDNT THE SURFACE ACTUALLY MATTER TO THE GODDAMN PLOT"

[indigo mortar]

yeah tbh i get the ending isnt the best but like the other 90% of the game is so good and full of details i cant really call the entire thing bad

[nova oar]

Exactly

[craggy totem]

Also the shared initial in Hera, Hephaestus, and Hestia's names as newly added gods stands for "hella cool designs"

[storm glen]

he fits in so well with the idea of gods' disputes having a ton of collateral because hes also a god which is really interesting

[nova oar]

Um actually hestia is black and heph is in a wheelchair and that's actually really bad
https://www.reddit.com/r/Hades2/s/saFhLfAoUl

[storm glen]

& he shares parallels with eris & nemesis

[craggy totem]

You caint make me click on a link to a video game sub I have been on the internet for 20 years and I know better

[nova oar]

[indigo mortar]

i think they made the scope of the story too broad, it wanted to be a game about family and relationships but it also wanted to be a game about gods, humanity and saving the world

[storm glen]

i feel like it couldve worked there are 2 routes but the surface basically doesnt have a plot

[nova oar]

They also pigeon-holed themselves into the game looping making sense

[tranquil wren]

tbf it's at least downvoted to hell

[indigo mortar]

it stumbled on trying to tackle all the themes it put on the table at the start

[indigo mortar]

still dont know wtf|| time flowing freely forth ||even means

[nova oar]

Chronos and the fates no longer influence time and destiny

Basically it's the age of mortals and they have free will again

[storm glen]

i feel like the plot of this game is very badly served as a video game if that makes sense

[nova oar]

Yeah pretty much

[indigo mortar]

i mean the part where you have to|| kill chronos so some alternate universe is just saved out of nowhere like what would even happen there||

[storm glen]

itd be much better as a novel

[nova oar]

There are certainly better options for the ending but it's not the end of the world

[storm glen]

anyway my life isnt going to end just becuase hades 2 didnt have a better ending

[indigo mortar]

its still one of my favourite games, very few games can say "yeah the whole thing is perfect except the ending"

[crystal tusk]

I feel like they could've emphasized it better post-credits that hey ||time broke from melinoe and zagreus's actions so we're just kinda patching things up just in case so nothing else comes from that||

[storm glen]

if anything i like the ending song better than hades 1

[nova oar]

Definitely, I think the whole thing with hecate was also supposed to explain why they couldn't actually kill him

[storm glen]

ah damn i shouldnt have mentione dmusic in front of the girl who listens to peppa pig truck metal

[nova oar]

WHATS WRONG WITH MY PEPPA PIG DEATHCORE

[broken glen]

peppa pig what

[nova oar]

https://youtu.be/7gKecceKqy0?si=7PIcoIpsUd1-bvgX

[storm glen]

evolutionary regression

[nova oar]

How about you get good taste in music actually

[broken glen]

now this is gonna be the boss music for my next D&D session

[nova oar]

Based

[summer elk]

Is Eternity a crutch? I've been using it for almost all my builds involving an omega move.

[devout cairn]

you can make it work but those 3 points are better off spent elsewhere

[broken creek]

eh if youre doing an omega heavy weapon its super nice

i wouldnt call it a crutch, since with that logic the entire arcana page is a crutch so play void4 at all times

and tbh there isnt much else to spend the grasp on

[tender oracle]

void5

[crude dragon]

Kind of, yeah

Personally prefer Night in that corner

[summer elk]

I sometimes have both. But usually default to Eternity. I never take Unseen.

[foggy sable]

does the psychic leash do more damage with cast bonuses? and is there any way to make it stronger if not?

[nova oar]

Air quality and global damage

[foggy sable]

is it any good outside of the first area?

[thin laurel]

yes, very, if you play around it

[nova oar]

Yep

[thin laurel]

it’s consistently going to be your 2nd or 3rd highest source of damage on a lot of circe builds if you position well

[fluid kernel]

Whats the "meta" familiar on circe? Ive been using raki and its been working fine

[nova oar]

Raki/Gale

[thin laurel]

Raki is great, Toula is similar to Raki but takes more effort (and is more defensive) so I don’t rly like her with Circe.
Gale is also good, but works differently

[thin laurel]

also here, leash* damage: #h2-victory-boasting message
second place after cast is rly no joke, it goes hard

[foggy sable]

I love raki so I use raki

I hate losing defiences to hecate but thats the price I pay lol

[misty star]

Same

[misty star]

Just use strength

[foggy sable]

I would die to hecate instead lol

[fluid kernel]

I didnt realize how hard olympus mob hit until i took off strength for death

[misty star]

Wat how much fear

[foggy sable]

16 rn but my minimum is 10

[misty star]

What ones r u using (DM me the screen shot)

[foggy sable]

the potential to just get taken out like that gives me anxiety

[foggy sable]

could just say lol
Grit
Wards
Hordes 3
Fangs
Time
Rivals 3

[thin laurel]

at 10-16 deathless hecate should generally not be an issue, but that’s also prob just a matter of “practice more”
at 62 fear she’s sometimes my second highest source of damage taken tho lol

[foggy sable]

makes sense, the first bosses are by far the biggest jump from normal to rivals imo

[thin laurel]

woah, grit and hordes that early is kinda wild ngl. not a common choice, most ppl opt for hubris, return, menace or something instead

[misty star]

What weapon u using

[foggy sable]

circe rn, im just a bit bad lol

[misty star]

I personally like hordes

[red fox]

That is some insane choice for 16 fear

[thin laurel]

polyphemus is the rivals boss I find by far the easiest lol, and hecate herself isn’t that bad, high fear just makes erebus suck in general.
scylla is still a much bigger jump in difficulty imo

[foggy sable]

I would never use hordes 3 on surface

[misty star]

I use it all the time 😂😂😂

[thin laurel]

I like hordes but I wouldn’t turn it on that early, generally

[misty star]

I use the skulls alot

[foggy sable]

the regular enemies are a pain already

I unironically have fun clearing out large groups of enemies in uw

[thin laurel]

but idk, rivals Hec has some annoying patterns but the bigger issues at high fear are Erebus timer, and Erebus potentially giving you zero damaging boons lol, between debt, forfeit, and artificer rng

[foggy sable]

but yeah I usually have menace, maybe 1 level in hordes, 1 or 2 in rivals, only ever 1 in time

[thin laurel]

I suppose hordes and grit are less of an issue with time 1
they’re mainly a timer issue
altho also grit makes boss fights take longer so you have more opportunities to take damage

[foggy sable]

I honestly just wanted to swap out a couple of my vows for fun lol

[misty star]

Fair enough

I use 32 to 16 for fun runs

[foggy sable]

ive been going with smth like this for the entire time lol

[misty star]

Try rivals 4

Chronos

[foggy sable]

I am simply afraid

[thin laurel]

it’s a fun fight
hard af
but maybe my favorite in the game overall

[misty star]

As long as you have range it's not that much harder

[thin laurel]

granted my experience with it is all frenzy 2 at minimum, and mostly 40-62 fear? but

still, one of the overall harder fights I’d say, and the hardest in the underworld at 62 imo, with scylla in second place

[misty star]

Yea I should start using frenzy

[thin laurel]

it’s very much a muscle memory vow imo, once you get used to it it’s kinda weird to go back

[misty star]

Is it better to put both on at the same time or get used to one and then put the other one on

[craggy totem]

I think that's gonna depend on your personal learning style tbh

[foggy sable]

HOW DID I LIVE

[thin laurel]

hmmm very much depends? I’ve only done it one way so I can’t rly compare 😅

[foggy sable]

(went into scylla fight with 3 defiences, left with one, kinda wishing I lost the last one for Athena but oh well)

[broken glen]

both

[nova oar]

Both, go hard

[broken glen]

steeper learning curve but it's only one curve as opposed to two

[misty star]

Ok that sounds very fun

[broken glen]

⌚ your language...

time...

[foggy sable]

should I take athena anyway so I can get her in case I burn my last one?

[broken glen]

Do you think you'll die in fields without her

[foggy sable]

I wont die unless I do poorly against cerberus

fields are the easiest region in the game for me personally

[broken glen]

If you take athena, I would just burn it in the fields entrance room if you don't want to thread the needle later

[foggy sable]

fair

[broken glen]

You can get renewed faith now, and then go pin in Tart (or Whantler if you're feeling REALLY spicy)

[foggy sable]

I have a plan for echo so I dont wanna have any defiences missing

[broken glen]

there's spikes in the entrance room so timer/enemies won't mess you up

[red fox]

Or miss renewed faith and cry

[broken glen]

are you on rolls or (now broken) FW

[foggy sable]

rolling cause zeus

[broken glen]

how many rolls

[foggy sable]

why would I take athena on fates whim lol

[broken glen]

If you SOMEHOW don't get renewed faith, Echo can give defiances (though I have a feeling you're ransom maxxing)

[foggy sable]

but uhh 6

[red fox]

Because otherwise you die

[thin laurel]

getting DDs back still saves your run
and if you already have your build mostly set you only lose future pom levels, and the hades boon, which doesn’t always matter

[red fox]

Usually first 2 region should give you boon you want level with

[broken glen]

If your main build is mostly done, and the Hades boon doesn't matter (like a used life tax) then you can go Athena

[thin laurel]

my first 62 win I took athena and broke fate’s whim in oceanus lmao
what no gain erebus on charon does to a person

[foggy sable]

ok i got lucky and only used one roll thank goodness

[broken glen]

Now time to get a bajillion levels on your Zeus boon 🙏

[foggy sable]

Hopefully I can pull it off lol

..Queen's ransom.. yayyyy

aand echo showed up

[broken glen]

Rigged... Rigged... Rigged...

[foggy sable]

aaaand I didn't even get pom3 im going to lose it

[broken glen]

Now. There are two wolves inside of every high fear player going into Tartarus. One wolf says go pin for a 10 second window to decimate Grandpa. The other wolf says go antler and just don't get hit

[foggy sable]

see this is why I refuse to plan things

cmon zeus

HEPHAESTUS????

welp time to (hopefully) beat up chronos on the admittedly very scuffed run

[brisk dirge]

Really? Then how can I regen my magick cause I often forgo the Gain boons for attack ones if I have that arcana

[brisk dirge]

I want to use the King but until i get all the needed stardust to upgrade it I won't use it

[brisk dirge]

Hmm......so you are saying I can use another arcana? Any suggestion?

[brisk dirge]

Cause it is very random.

[broken glen]

The gain boons are really good, and can help you be eligible for things like duos and origination (some of them inflict status curses, like Glamour gain)

The biggest issue with Unseen is that you never need that much magic: pick the right gain boon and you're set. Compare this to even 4 cost arcana like strength or death, which can't really be found during runs

[brisk dirge]

IF you chose a very bad hammer upgrade and then again it is a 50 50 between your 2 hammers cause the anvil takes one and replace 2. I do usually risk it and I got off good. Dunno how long though

[brisk dirge]

Ikr???? He had no clothes on!

[broken glen]

Additionally, you can't regen magic via recharge over time while channeling, making the unseen virtually useless for weapons like torches. However, you CAN regain magic with something like lucid/born gain

[craggy totem]

Flood Gain my beloved

[brisk dirge]

64 and counting here

[brisk dirge]

I have Origination. I never off it

[rotund hearth]

Oh I'm not THAT insane

[brisk dirge]

Oh?

[rotund hearth]

Oh you meant the percentage. I thought you meant 64 fear

[brisk dirge]

Mwuahahahahah.

[broken glen]

In summary: try and take gain boons more! They can offer a lot more benefits than just magick. Duos, elements, origination... taking the unseen just isn't worth it compared to other arcana cards once you factor in gains.

[brisk dirge]

Bruh I struggle at 10 fear atm. I won't be that strong yet!!!

[rotund hearth]

Flood and cardio gain my specials

[rotund hearth]

Honestly, as long as you're not discouraged do as you like. The night champion statues are ugly anyway

[foggy sable]

"i dont plan on keeping this special boon, it'll be more levels for zeus"
me at the end of tartarus, no zeus boon, knife thing. feeling upset about it all

[brisk dirge]

Sure. After the run I am currently on|| to be the Underworld champion for those statue thing the skeleton did. What are they though?||

[foggy sable]

like the charon well thing that improved unbooned damage

[rotund hearth]

Did my first judgment run; Sorceress, death, origination, along with queen obviously. Wasn't bad

[brisk dirge]

I am currently trying that. I wanna see if they have benefits

[brisk dirge]

Judgement?

[craggy totem]

Adamant Rails at dawn, you and me

[rotund hearth]

It's the arcana card that only lets you pick 3 cards to start. Down at the bottom of the pack

[broken glen]

||It's a joke from the first game that's been carried over to Hades 2. They do quite literally nothing. Statues of a muscled Melinoe that are supposed to be rewards, and she doesn't even like them. Only get them if you want to beat the challenge!||

[brisk dirge]

Oooh. Any good cards I can replace with the Unseen?

[rotund hearth]

I don't add unseen to my pack sooo idk

[brisk dirge]

Then why the hell am I doing it T_T

[broken glen]

It's fun!

[rotund hearth]

What's your current grasp though?

[craggy totem]

Yes, but ||Dora likes them and are you questioning her taste :P||

[foggy sable]

"keep going" moros i just killed chronos how much farther can I go

[brisk dirge]

AHHHHH at this rate dear old ||gramps|| would one shot me

[brisk dirge]

29

[foggy sable]

THE LEASH DID 42K????

[brisk dirge]

And I am very terrible at using the Medea Aspect

[brisk dirge]

Leash?

[craggy totem]

Psychic Leash on Circe

[thin laurel]

yeah it does that lol, leash damage is great
the run I linked earlier it did like 67k or something for me

[rotund hearth]

If you have maybe boatman on, you can remove it and keep unseen. I don't think you need unseen though

[broken glen]

Here's the list of arcana that most people would normally take, not factoring FW (strength and death are interchangible)

I can't post images, so I'm just gonna list them from memory...

||The Sorceress
The Wayward Son
The Huntress
The Furies
Persistance
The Swift Runner
The Centaur
Origination
The Enchantress
The Champions
The Boatman
The Fates
Death/Strength
Divinity||

If you're not using a weapon that uses magick, swap out sorceress and wayward son for the Lovers, but you may have to use Death for divinity

[rotund hearth]

No way that ish is THAT good 😭.

[broken glen]

Leash does a LOT of damage over a run, it's surprising

Air quality isn't good, but it DOES work on leash....

[rotund hearth]

Me who thinks leash is a hindrance that slows me: okay then, I shall see

[brisk dirge]

Oh? I have not unlocked it. I use the other aspect and it is kinda good tbh

[rotund hearth]

Also my lord, Thanatos axe has been so good since I switched to controller

[thin laurel]

I don’t take Huntress that universally tbh, it’s less niche than night but it’s still niche. I’d much rather drop huntress and a 1 cost and grab Lovers

[broken glen]

I mean it's not something that you pay attention to or play around, but it just does damage in the background

[brisk dirge]

Still slow. I have not completed a run with it I think

[broken glen]

Yep! I noted that below

[brisk dirge]

People said Unseen is useless so

[thin laurel]

I saw that! just more commenting on Huntress, idt it’s that universal

[brisk dirge]

I won't take off death so

[rotund hearth]

Yeah I can get that. Axe is normally an acquired taste for new players. Just use the one you're comfortable with

[brisk dirge]

The thing is I need to complete the surface with all the weapons for that prophecy

[brisk dirge]

Either I get a hammer upgrade which increase speed(is there?) Or hope there is a hermes boon that increase attack speed

[rotund hearth]

lovers is way more essential than enchantress but I get that you need enchantress for fates

Idk. Lovers seems like a tier 2 essential. Below Sorceress, death/strength and origination but still important like wayward son or persistence

[rotund hearth]

There's a hammer that increases attack speed

[broken glen]

If you're going rerolls at all, you need all 10. Otherwise just use a FW build

[thin laurel]

dash strike spam also helps a lot on some axes, since it isn’t as slow as the normal attack sequence.
but also Than axe has an innate attack speed bonus, and you can pair it with attack speed hammer and hermes upgrades, or lean fully into omega moves if you want

dash strike is more the Mel axe thing 🤷 Than is fairy fast

[rotund hearth]

I get you. FW build with calling card though >>>

[craggy totem]

I truly can't stop myself from dash striking on every non-continuous-fire weapon regardless of whether it makes sense or completely not

[nova oar]

No cause hammers can brick a run

[rotund hearth]

I instantly get a curse on my attack and special and make them epic or if possible heroic. That's all I need for the run

[broken glen]

CC is weird, because I usually take JP and TP first, meaning I'll be typically taking it in region 3... but by then my build is (hopefully) mostly done

[nova oar]

Calling card is pretty mid

[thin laurel]

ngl calling card is very fun but I find it hard to justify over jpom, idt it’s on my first page of most used keepsake
6 hits of rarity is fun but it just does less than +3 levels to every single boon

[craggy totem]

I assume if you're doing a fun run, you could take CC region 2 and TP region 3 instead, since you aren't worried about Forfeit or Debt

[broken glen]

yeah, there's usually things you want to take over it

[nova oar]

Super fun but doesn't win over other keepsakes I agree

[brisk dirge]

It is hard to channel the moves cause I dunno why it always aims away from the enemy and I always manually have ti change it. If it was not for the enemy slower when causing omega moves Arcana I most of the time would be taking damage

[rotund hearth]

I start with CC mostly for my early build, always first region then jpom after it. I've not had any use for TP yet

[broken glen]

...please use jpom first, the +3 levels only apply to boons you take after it's equipped

and TP gives you THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS, I MEAN I CAN TAKE A CHAOS GATE FOR A FREE 500 + ROOM SKIP WITH NO DOWNSIDES

[brisk dirge]

Brick? I find Hammers to make my game easier. I mean I beat ||Typhon ||the first time using the skull with the infinite ammo hammer(auto return skull one)

[brisk dirge]

?

[thin laurel]

calling card into jpom is just kinda. idk. it makes me sad.
like if I leave region 1 with no attack boon yet and take calling card region 2, I have a lv4 heroic attack boon. that’s cool as hell, why would I not want both the levels and rarity if I take both in the same run

[craggy totem]

"Brick" is being used here as slang for like, "destroy" or "shut down", in analogy with the use of that term to refer to destroying or shutting down electronic devices (i.e. rendering them as useless and inert as a brick). Some hammers will do that to your build.

[brisk dirge]

I always dash strike but it usually does the entire combo before dash(made a button just for dash strike in my steam link controller)

[broken glen]

tfw when you take something for a "fun run" but it isn't even fun

[woven crystal]

||rivals hecate|| just bodied me, sheesh

[craggy totem]

That'll happen! Sympathies.

[thin laurel]

if you’re in the middle of the attack combo then dashing won’t interrupt it, so you either need to only dash strike or combo break with your special to avoid getting locked into slow attacks

[woven crystal]

Burned three DD on her, dang

[brisk dirge]

What is ||Rivals?|| does it have to do with that vow?

[thin laurel]

yup, the version of the fight that has vow of rivals active

[woven crystal]

Yeah it's ||extreme measures||

[thin laurel]

that’s also not post ending content so can be freely discussed on this channel btw

[brisk dirge]

T_T I never took it at Hades one and I am not doing it again

[thin laurel]

it’s a cool vow since like… yes it’s hard but you also get new visuals and new dialogue. worth seeing at least one or two times imo

[craggy totem]

FWIW there's a lot of things I never bothered with in Hades that I tried out in Hades 2 and, if not always enjoyed, at least was able to surmount

[woven crystal]

Thanks, wasn't sure of spoiler policy so didn't want to risk it

[brisk dirge]

So one swing ans dash?

[brisk dirge]

Same here. I even spoiler the boss names

[woven crystal]

And idk I felt extreme measures up to three was a free 6 heat in the first game

[thin laurel]

usually I either go
dash-attack (repeat)
or dash-attack-special (repeat)
or a mix of both, for Mel axe dash strike spam

[brisk dirge]

Like? I rather stay alive 🤣

[woven crystal]

Seems less likely here!

[craggy totem]

Well, any difficulty modifiers at all, to begin with 😆

[woven crystal]

Or maybe selene!coat just needs more offensive boons idk

[thin laurel]

yeah I mean same here. idm dying that much in these games, it’s just more dialogue.
and in h1 I never went past 12-16 heat or so, but now I’m doing 62 fear, so. things change

[woven crystal]

Does hitch work on rivals hecate?

[brisk dirge]

My arm is gonna hurt. I had an accident which cut my right arm nerves. And I use that hand for gaming 💀. Hence why I made special buttons for those attacks. Still it hurts cause honestly I get mad when playing and press to hard

[craggy totem]

I even did all the Rivals bosses eventually in H2

[brisk dirge]

Sky fall was hard to use cause I did not know what it does.

[thin laurel]

yes and no? visually yes, it won’t help you do damage lol, except on the witch summons.
but if you’re doing max rivals then both routes have a fight where hitch is REALLY good

[broken glen]

Hecate's duplicates are intangible, but here's a tip if you can't spot the real one: only the real Hecate can move. The others will only stand in place and rotate.

[woven crystal]

Hitch seems pretty good in sirens regardless

[craggy totem]

It works fine enough as an Origination curse 😂

[thin laurel]

hitch for sirens is absurdly good yeah

[broken glen]

Hitch is a life saver in rivals Scylla

[woven crystal]

Ooh useful!

[rotund hearth]

Hitch is pretty good tho generally

[thin laurel]

also for a specific other rivals fight you may or may not have done yet ||aka Prom||

[broken glen]

I love hitch

[thin laurel]

but I never say no for hitch, I love hitch lol. it’s still a great damage% source on attack/special even in single target

[woven crystal]

yeah one of will smith's better roles

[thin laurel]

hera is my single most picked god for a reason lol, love her boons

[broken glen]

And Nexus rush is really nice

[thin laurel]

T_T sigh. autocorrect can you stop force het-ing me

[broken glen]

...and Born gain is ALSO really nice

[thin laurel]

I type the word boons way more, let me have this, leave me aloooone (it made the n a b)

[nova oar]

You can get hammers that ruin builss

[broken glen]

Experimental Hammer into Hellsplitter

[brisk dirge]

True.

[brisk dirge]

I rarely use that keepsake. Kinda used to Selene, a god, phial, tooth

[thin laurel]

selene start?
is this aspect of selene specifically

[craggy totem]

I found that Nexus Rush is especially nice on Nyx bc it'll grab everyone you sprint past on your way to your chosen Enemy Cluster, and then when you actually proc the omega sprint burst damage, anyone you sprinted past on your way in also takes the damage.

[nova oar]

Selene is so bad to start with

[brisk dirge]

Hey uh how can I unlock the ||hidden aspects||

[broken glen]

Hammer IS a really good region 3 pick, you just need to make sure there aren't any awful hammers

[thin laurel]

cause otherwise taking it first can mean you don’t get the full value out of it

[brisk dirge]

The keepsake

[craggy totem]

1. Unlock all non-hidden aspects
2. Max one non-Melinoe aspect
3. Speak to someone who's been there for the whole game and lent their name to an aspect

[thin laurel]

no I got that
are you using the aspect of selene as your weapon?
because otherwise starting with selene keepsake is a fairly bad idea

[broken glen]

-Have all aspects for a weapon unlocked
-Get 1 non-Melinoe aspect to rank 5
-Talk to the appropriate NPC during the run, you may-

yeah what Escalier said

[brisk dirge]

I like to have a hex ready att eh start and the increase on the path of stars is always welcome

[thin laurel]

I like moon beam! I like hexes.
but if you take it region 1 and don’t get a path of stars until region 2 you aren’t getting the full benefit

[brisk dirge]

No. I did not when I used her coat

[nova oar]

Terrible start

[broken glen]

you are insane

[brisk dirge]

1.not yet
2. Done(skull)
3. Huh?

[craggy totem]

Read the names of the aspects

[brisk dirge]

Ouch

[broken glen]

the only aspect where Selene start is viable 💀

[craggy totem]

Anyway, it's fine, it's not a game that is unplayable if you do some ~suboptimal~ move or whatever

[nova oar]

Even then selene start is worse than ares start

[brisk dirge]

Me?

[thin laurel]

when you’re using selene coat then moon beam start is pretty solid. in any other situation I’d take it region 2 or 3, getting a hex room one isn’t going to carry all that hard 🤷 you’ll get a hex pretty early anyway, usually

[thin laurel]

idk if I agree with this but it’s at least debatable

[woven crystal]

Selene coat hex seems tough to use against mobile guardians too

[brisk dirge]

Cause I don't usually get a hex until the next region

[craggy totem]

Coat is a mobile weapon. The damage follows you around, it's not like Lunar Ray

If you're standing still a lot then.... I mean, It's Fine I Guess ™ but it's just not taking full advantage ig

[broken glen]

If you're on surface you can probably get Ares in Ephyra

[woven crystal]

I guess my struggle with coat is that a lot of the damage seems kinda slow

[thin laurel]

are you exclusively using weapons that burn a lot of magick fast?
cause, idk, I like hexes more than some people on this server but I don’t think getting a hex ASAP is very important at all, especially when the bonus upgrades for path of stars can sometimes not even work if you take it region 1

[craggy totem]

Are you relying a bunch on omega attacks? Slow is sort of the opposite of the adjective I would use

[brisk dirge]

Also it is hard to get the Path of Stars thing. The extra 3 makes it so I don't need to take a lot of rooms with Selene as rewards if I am close to maxing it. Like at the last region my path of stars only needed 1 more to be complete and I chose a room with a. Boon instead of selene. Damn it was good. Got a legendary Hermes boon

[brisk dirge]

I do mostly

[woven crystal]

I find omega attack tough to use properly for sure

[brisk dirge]

Coat, torch, staff and skull. The ones I mostly use a lot of omega for

[thin laurel]

again, I like moon beam. if I have a good hex I will often take it in region 2 or 3 (when I can be sure I’ll actually GET a path of stars while it’s equipped)
but selene keepsake start is rough, and not every run even needs a hex at all

[charred gazelle]

why is that i go to midshop and sometimes ||zag|| isnt there

[craggy totem]

You can if you want, but if you want it to be not slow then it would be better to just do non-omega attacks

[thin laurel]

40% chance of showing up in each one

[brisk dirge]

I like Total Eclipse

[charred gazelle]

40% is such a random number

[nova oar]

Coat oattack is buns

[thin laurel]

I do too, but I don’t think total eclipse in room 1 of a run is even that useful…
you can just take a god keepsake and kill enemies faster than total eclipse would in region 1 where they’re all weak 🤷

[craggy totem]

If you want a faster experience, you'll want to zip around the enemies dash-striking and spamming attack/special

[brisk dirge]

I usually got saved by hex many times. So I should never start with selene? What do you think I should start with then?

[woven crystal]

Coat ospecial is super satisfying though

[craggy totem]

It is pretty fast, yeah!

[nova oar]

Olympian, go for a build

[brisk dirge]

I do that a lot then Omega

[craggy totem]

If you stop dead to charge an omega attack you are losing DPS and positioning. Which, again, if the big number is more satisfying, that's up to you.

[brisk dirge]

I usually build around the hex for a godsent sometimes. I am nit good with planning a build cause I usually go with what I egy

[nova oar]

Building around a godsent isn't going to get you very far

[brisk dirge]

The snake staff with that 4 direction hammer was so good for me

[thin laurel]

you also can’t even reroll hex offerings, so you could be stuck with no options that carry a build
I’d start with a god keepsake or a postgame keepsake usually, take stuff like selene/phial later if they’d be useful

[nova oar]

I hate that hammer

[craggy totem]

simply start Silk Sash like I did for over 100 runs

[brisk dirge]

Then I start with an Olympian then. I usually want a hex early on so I can focus on boons in other regions where I am sure to get higher rarity boons. This means even if I get a hex I won't be able to get it's max potential. Also I often dealt the final blow using hex

[craggy totem]

no god keepsakes, no masters

[brisk dirge]

Oooh!

[brisk dirge]

No masters?

[thin laurel]

I don’t think boon rarity is tied to which region you’re in…? minibosses have higher rarity, but normal room encounters are all the same

[nova oar]

Song reference 👀

[nova oar]

I just don't think hexes are worth investing in every run

[brisk dirge]

Well in my runs I usually see the 2nd region have way more epics

[brisk dirge]

If you say so

[nova oar]

Survivors bias

[craggy totem]

It's either pattern-recognition going haywire (very human) as Luthien says or just, if you pick up Hera boons early then she has something that can help with getting higher level boons later in the run, or Chaos boons that do similar

[nova oar]

Or whatever it's called

[thin laurel]

I do like investing in hexes when I can, I just think selene keepsake in region 1 is an inefficient way to do that 🤷

[nova oar]

I don't think investing in hexes at all is a good idea, there are some good at base and the rest suck

[craggy totem]

Like, over the course of a run, you could be picking up boons that increase your chance at higher rarities, but it's nothing to do with the inherent properties of each region

[thin laurel]

ik this about you but also I think they’re fun and good lol, and if someone rly likes hexes they should at least build towards them in a way that doesn’t have an opportunity cost

[nova oar]

No everyone should play the game the way I want them to >:(

[woven crystal]

I almost always tend to go selene keepsake for region 2 regardless. I just like filling up path of stars

[thin laurel]

true actually nobody should click ionic gain ever

[craggy totem]

Remove Ares from the game 😏

[nova oar]

Are you trying to bait me

[thin laurel]

if you have a hex and no other good keepsake for that region it’s nice to click, it’s in my top 5-10 most used.
but I’d much rather take it to upgrade a hex I already know is good for my build than to GET a hex

[craggy totem]

Me? Bait you? Surely not.

[thin laurel]

I think fate’s whim makes it more of a region 3 keepsake, tho, at least at high fear with debt making timepiece rly appealing to get ASAP

[craggy totem]

I never even considered taking it z3 on my Selene runs, weirdly. I guess most of my faster runs sorrrrta mostly ignored the aspect

[nova oar]

For speeds you need other keepsakes more

[carmine gyro]

falling for truth bait

[craggy totem]

SORRY MOON MAMA ILU STILL

[carmine gyro]

ares is buns 😭

[nova oar]

Don Salad I thought we were friends don't do this to me

[carmine gyro]

i would rather die standing than live defending ares

[nova oar]

NO HE'S NOT GRRRR

[thin laurel]

oh yeah for speeds almost never
altho I have had very silly moon beam Than builds get sub-10 surface lol

[carmine gyro]

what's your argument for ares genuinely asking bc you clearly have a lot of game knowledge so I wanna hear ur take

[brisk dirge]

Chaos boons. I always see a boon rarity thing when I am at dear Chaos

[thin laurel]

I also only click moon water for speeds tbh, so I can be more reckless and have extra antler insurance

[brisk dirge]

Also what do I use Flux for?

[brisk dirge]

Ugh I don't use it

[woven crystal]

I probably have better keepsakes most of the time tbh. I just like Selene

The big boom hex is very fun

[brisk dirge]

IKR?

[thin laurel]

I mainly like total eclipse if it’s godsent 👀
speaking of hitch, hitch + hestia godsent + rivals sirens? carnage. extremely satisfying

[rotund hearth]

Judgment gave me strength while my death was still active lolll

[woven crystal]

I've been keeping circe keepsake for region one after that one time I rolled judgment and just got all the arcana. Still chasing that high

[nova oar]

His core boons are pretty strong in most cases, yes there can be better options but when using FW he fits in really nicely and his cast/gain/rush are all super underrated

His secondary boons are really where it gets going, you have things like blood spree keeping you alive forever, especially with antler, grievous blow and other boons to regularly hit for 200% damage, cut above is also strong (when it doesn't miss) the only thing that sucks is his plasma, which is mostly why people hate him, but I love picking him up almost every run

[nova oar]

I am a hex hater in a world of lovers 😔

[carmine gyro]

now THIS we agree on

[carmine gyro]

i can respect this take but i always just feel bad whenever i see him show up in my boon pool, like occasionally i try to have fun with his attack or special or even go for a sword drop run but to me it feels like for him to be good or at least fun i have to purely build around JUST him

[nova oar]

He tends to be worst when you only build around him, he's the most supportive Olympian in the group

[thin laurel]

I kinda feel the opposite, I think (outside of blades) ares feels pretty bad when you specifically build around JUST him, but he’s a very good offensive support.
grievous, mutual, and his duos are all great at supporting other gods

[carmine gyro]

maybe i just don't like him bc ive been playing him wrong lmao

[thin laurel]

even plasma is like…. arguably antisynergy with ares? ares offensive boons all have their own cooldown which attack speed can’t get around, so plasma + wounds is awkward, whereas splash and static shock can make better use of it if you want to invest in it

I agree w Luthien that plasma is the weakest part of ares rn (profuse bleeding is a deeply boring boon smh), but if you want it to be good the best way imo is to support other gods

[nova oar]

Amen

[carmine gyro]

i really miss hades 1 ares ngl

i love you doom <3

[nova oar]

Almost a sub 10 40f

[carmine gyro]

what aspect

[nova oar]

Persephone of all aspects

Got a lot of good levels and had p array with wide grin

[rotund hearth]

How do I get hera legendary

[nova oar]

Same way as any other

[thin laurel]

you also don’t need her legendary for what I was talking abt there.
but yeah, you just need 3 boons that meet the requirements

[nova oar]

Helheim charge is such a dumb hammer

[thin laurel]

hitch + a tier 2 hitch related boon + something like fine lines or bridal glow iirc

[rotund hearth]

Just got it now. I had five hera boons before that and had to fight Typhon eye

I heard her legendary is like broken. Like right after Zeus is hers

[nova oar]

Eh

[thin laurel]

hers is fine? I like it but idk if it’s all that broken, but then again idk if zeus leg is that broken imo

[rotund hearth]

First strike can wipe anyone out is broken tbh. Maybe it's just me

[nova oar]

Malkin I have to play hel can you do it for me

[thin laurel]

shocking loss is nice! but it won’t help for any boss, and will only work on some minibosses
it mainly just helps you go fast, not kill things you couldn’t normally

[thin laurel]

for speed? no. hel speed nearly made that aspect get into my bottom 3 I hated it so much

[red fox]

Hel is hell

[nova oar]

Last aspect for 40f

[carmine gyro]

good luck

[thin laurel]

oh that’s not too bad then
try autofire 🤷 if you want to stream it I’ll be around in like 10-15

[nova oar]

I gotta make dinner soon so gonna finish up this run, might be on later i'll let you know

[nova oar]

I don't get auto fire whats this supposed to do

[thin laurel]

1 sec let me switch to my computer, typing is hard

[red fox]

It let you auto fire special after it comeback to you

[thin laurel]

ok:
autofire lets you make better use of your special if you're ignoring Ω special, which imo is often a good idea, especially for high fear.
you can hold down the special button (or both buttons) and it'll immediately fire as soon as it returns to you, so you don't need to keep track of the cooldown or even pay attention to it at all

[nova oar]

Right ok

[thin laurel]

Hel special is like..... deceptively good, lol. it can be a hitch/blitz dispenser, but it also did the most damage of anything on my Hel run somehow even with >200% pyro technique and scorch attack

[nova oar]

My button layout is horrible for this

[thin laurel]

you can also just tap it whenever it comes back to you, but I find that annoying to manage since idt it's even the same amount of time always lmao, it depends how many enemies it can bounce to

[nova oar]

I'M DOIN THAT

[thin laurel]

@nova oar my other Hel tips for your 40 are:

1. hitch and blitz special ideal ofc, wounds also fun if you want; on-hit attacks
2. valkyrie mode is rarely worth it
3. static shock and air quality are both crazy good. zeus attack with air quality and static shock is honestly one of my fav ways to play Hel, despite not being the go-to scorch/splash attack, it's nice. if you have a zeus hera god pool you can make that work with no pos/hestia, imo

also the special flight speed hammer is deceptively good, I grew to rly like it

[nova oar]

1. I have scorch and apollo
2. Got it
3. No zeus yet

[thin laurel]

scorch apollo is odd but ig doable, scorch attack I assume
neither one rly good for special, but someone will turn up I'm sure

[nova oar]

Yeah got apollo on the special, at sirens, it'll be enough to win but we are not ballin

[thin laurel]

yeah apollo special is. weird. I'd rather dem special tbh, any curse rly

dem special is kinda fire actually, the damage bonus isn't great but it bounces so many times that it's like... idk, weird super nova arctic ring but on special

[nova oar]

I've had no good room rewards lmao

Why you didn't play medea or Mel skull i'll never know

[thin laurel]

mel skull was a possibility
but also like. for 40 you can do what you're doing
for 62 you just erebus reset for a decent first god or two lol

but medea is scary, idt I'm ready for it at 62. I tried it once and lost a DD before the erebus miniboss 💀 I'm too used to playing it like I would for speeds

[nova oar]

Lmaooo

[thin laurel]

hel is just very safe tho, you can kinda just camp in a corner and clean up rooms if you want 🤷 the downside is absurdly narrow build variety, but once it's online it's p well suited to fear imo

[craggy totem]

Wishing you a very Hera special on these runs 🫡

[thin laurel]

if she first tries it I suspect Hel is getting benched forever
in which case oof, apollo special....... not the most fun 😔

I always feel like heph special should be fun on Hel but I think it's kinda bad, like it's okay ig but the bouncing between enemies thing isn't like....... it doesn't help

[nova oar]

It's ares special, and I still have to do it for speeds

[thin laurel]

so it's rly blitz, hitch, freeze, woulds for me, as the top hits to get

[craggy totem]

Why is it always* Apollo showing up when you've been missing a core boon for ages and he is emphatically not a desired god for that slot

*by always I mean it has happened twice

[thin laurel]

oh was this a typo? didn't realize ares special, ares special is fun

[nova oar]

No i got a sacrifice

[thin laurel]

OH hell yeah, good. full god pool now?

[sullen remnant]

If I want to get as many chaos chambers as possible, is up or down better for that?

[nova oar]

Hestia, apollo, ares, and pos

[craggy totem]

Down, because Wells of Charon can have Spark of Ixion (and iirc you can't get natural Chaos portals in Thessaly at all)

[nova oar]

Antlering as always

[sullen remnant]

Thanks!

[cunning laurel]

i have never tried hel without using valkyrie, maybe thatll be enough to enjoy it finally

[sullen remnant]

I'm so close to clocking the fated list. A few more runs with different weapons + that one chaos boon to go

[craggy totem]

Valk's nice if you get channel speed

[thin laurel]

to me it makes it feel more mobile
and ignoring gain boons is nice
but tbh that's also like.... high fear Hel. at low fear I like omega special, even if idc much about the actual valkyrie buff

[craggy totem]

Big screamy hairy skull zooming around a room is pretty fun to watch ;P

[red fox]

Valk buff last like 3s doesn't feel worth

Using ospecial because it is good already

[crude dragon]

Also can't get them in Ephyra except for in the first room

[craggy totem]

Sad!!

[cunning laurel]

omg valkyrie mode was the leg weights

shes fun now

[bronze stream]

Just because you dont have to keep using special?

[merry wave]

Does ||Zagreus|| scale in power depending on how early or late he appears?

[craggy totem]

I don't believe so

[nova oar]

He doesn't scale

[merry wave]

Right, so agreeing to the contract in a depth 6 floor was never a good idea 🙃

[craggy totem]

Yeah, that is the uhhh antirecommended thing

[merry wave]

Can I find a contract later if I skip a fight in an early shop?

[nova oar]

Yes

[brisk dirge]

Hey guys I want to know where to get more animal familiars as there is a fated list and I need 1 more

[brisk dirge]

Contract?

[cunning laurel]

which do you have

[nova oar]

Post ending

[nova oar]

Presumably gale, on olympus

[brisk dirge]

The frog and the cat

[brisk dirge]

Oooh ....wait is it that eagle? Gale is a good name

[cunning laurel]

do you want the locations of them all

[brisk dirge]

Ok

[brisk dirge]

Yes. I know about a dog at crossroads but I don't even see him where he may have been beside Hecate ever since I unlocked my first animal familair

Familiar

[cunning laurel]

theres one each in erebus, fields, and olympus. lmk if you want more

[nova oar]

Raki is the bird in erebus fountain, hecuba the dog is in echo room in fields, gale the polecat is in olympus final shop iirc

[brisk dirge]

T_T I just want one more but I do wanna know each of their abilities. Also how do I increase their power? The cat(I always use the cat) only attacks when I dash into it so is there a way to maybe bond?

[brisk dirge]

Oooh

[cunning laurel]

youll learn when you get more

[nova oar]

You need all 5 to level them up

[brisk dirge]

Thanks.....ouch

[nova oar]

But the cat will always only attack when you dash into it

[merry whale]

iirc the requirements changed to be less but i might be wrong

it's prob a diff requirement i'm thinking of

[nova oar]

Hecuba gives more magic, and can stun enemies, raki deals damage and gives crit chance, and gale blocks 3 hits per region and gives bonus dodge chance

[cunning laurel]

hey move speed too

[brisk dirge]

Ooooh. I use the cat usually for that bonus death defiance

[brisk dirge]

CRIT? I want it

[merry whale]

raki is the best offensive familiar it's so free

[brisk dirge]

Gale sounds good too

[red fox]

Gale good

[brisk dirge]

I usually always get the cat cause for one, it's death defiance has saved me so many time

[merry whale]

tru toula is a nice middle ground

[nova oar]

Cat is my least favourite and most worthless but probably not if you have no other familiars and they're all base

[merry whale]

having to wake up toula still sucks tho

[crude dragon]

Unfortunately, Toula also turns off Strength until you burn her DD

[merry whale]

if ur playing toula ur prob playing with 3dds lol

[crude dragon]

And for all the disparaging I give it, at least it's finally a good DD instead of healing for, what? 40 at max rank?

[merry whale]

and at that point toula's dd isn't the first dd that pops so it's kindaaaaaaaaa (it's 80hp at max)

old toula pre-patch 11 was so funny

[crude dragon]

Oh, she was so garbage back then

Didn't both her attack damage and her DD both get doubled?

[buoyant matrix]

yes

[brisk dirge]

I kinda agree.....it's death defiance is the only reason why I am bringing it

[brisk dirge]

.......huh?

[brisk dirge]

4. 3 DD from arcana and 1 from Toula.

Hey is it good to start a run with the Crystal Figurine?

[nova oar]

She used to give more health and dammage

[brisk dirge]

Ouch. Why the nerf T_T

[nova oar]

Absolutely not

[merry whale]

i mean ur prob playing with Death and i feel super comfortable just having 3dds through a run but i am also extremely high fear pilled so dw about me lol

[nova oar]

3 is plenty

[thin laurel]

I genuinely took Toula for a bit while figuring out which blade aspect I wanted to 62 with to get literally any help with erebus timer 😔 since it was going badly

[merry whale]

crystal figurine is only for if ur running 65f and entering r3 and need to guarantee key arcana entering r4

at least from my experience

[cunning laurel]

that must feel rough to need to take

[merry whale]

like if ur somehow missing both lovers and death post scylla/eris then i think it's worth it to invest in crystal to compensate

[thin laurel]

yeah, ik some people start with crystal figurine but imo that's the same vibe as running judgement at 0 fear
like... you can if you like randomness and gambling, but you're sacrificing a ton of consistency for not much benefit

[merry whale]

honestly u already probably have a really solid arcana setup to where crystal figurine doesn't really do much lol

like, it's not like it upgrades ur activated cards, whatever's not active u probably didn't need anyway

[brisk dirge]

Ouch. What is thdn