h2-discussion

[crude dragon]

That's generally how people play it, especially if you get the hammer that makes your dash-strike hit twice

[copper bison]

figured

I used Mel Axe in an actual run like, once and for some reason it's my current fastest clear on Axe

side note/rant but is Trick Knives actually not available on Morrigan or something I've had like 6 runs with it not on

the wiki tells me no but I literally joined this server to ask about hammers showing up on the same weapon despite the wiki supposedly saying it doesn't

[craggy totem]

Do you have the codex unlocked? There's a tab for weapons and if you hit I on the appropriate weapon (or whatever the bind is on your setup), it will show you the hammers for that weapon, including prereqs and exclusions

[buoyant matrix]

you can play around base attack and oattack if you get decent boons early
on surface it's harder since enemies have way more hp, you can go the ol reliable dashing heave
omega special is always viable because giga cleaver exists

[copper bison]

have it but I'm asking since I can't access the game rn

mostly just an off-topic rant since I thought about my experience last night

[craggy totem]

Correct, Morrigan special works differently and can't TK

[torn wind]

Choke a good run cause my cat clawed my leg and I missed the pattern on prometheus

Missed i-framing it on the guess

[buoyant matrix]

toula!!

[torn wind]

Nah strength run

40 fear strength

Rivals 3

[ebon sigil]

What’s better than getting Athena to give you all your death defiances back after a clumsy sleepy run at rival Eris and losing 3 defiances? Nothing in this game. 👌

[torn wind]

That feeling of beating a new fear level using strength arcana

[elfin heron]

so I met the weasel but was unable to give her the cookie, do I need to meet some other condition?

[torn wind]

You had cookies and it wouldn't let you use them?

[elfin heron]

yeah, I just baked 3

no bond prompt

maybe it's 2nd meeting onwards??

[torn wind]

And you collected the treats after they finished baking?

[elfin heron]

yeah...

[torn wind]

I mean I'm just asking cause I've seen people not get that they baking takes time

And they thought it was instant

[elfin heron]

I know it's not instant

[torn wind]

Well I know you know that NOW

But yeah idk it might be you have to see them twice

Have you bonded frinos already?

[elfin heron]

I'll try recruing the dog next, maybe it works

I have frog, cat and raven so far, hence me running out of the cookies, cause they give you 3 initially

[torn wind]

Okay just making sure

[elfin heron]

raven seems the best so far, but I liked how frog would auto-complete the awful shade mini-game

[torn wind]

Raki is great for damage

[elfin heron]

yeah free marks, probably gonna stick with him (?)

[torn wind]

Frinos is good if you're worried about health and can block the morph from hecate which is especially helpful on rivals hecate

[elfin heron]

I thought his blocking was very low chance? like, in case he happens to stand in the way of some projectile

[safe gate]

the shade minigame is easy, I dont really get how people struggle with that. Fishing on the other hand... I can never get the timing right in either game.

[torn wind]

Just walk behind him

[torn wind]

There's no timing, you just wait

The window is like a whole second or more

It takes a while for the fish to swim off

[safe gate]

ive clicked right as it went down many times and never gotten a rare fish

[elfin heron]

the mini-game is easy until it's not, in earlier biomes you just wait for the prompt, hold either/both triggers, wait for the ding and release the triggers, rinse and repeat, but in Tartarus it's too fast and this doesn't work

[torn wind]

I guess if you care about rares yeah fair

Forgot about that

At endgame there's just an incantation that automatically collects resources for you, besides gold pots, when you leave a location

So you can just ignore them and save time

[safe gate]

that sounds nice

[torn wind]

Just walk out the door and it gives you everything

Haven't touched a fishing rod intentionally in a while

[bitter stirrup]

I haven't touched that incantation yet because you can reroll Ephyra by changing whether or not you pick up resources lol (though I also did only recently get the seed reset incantation)

[elfin heron]

oh yeah I found the fishing to be very easy, you have to wait until the bobber disappears then press the button, that is all, they try to juke you sometimes by shaking the bobber, but just keep your cool

apparently fishing was more involved in early access but it was simplified due to complaints, that's a shame I love fishing mini-games

[torn wind]

if you time it shorter you get rare fish

[torn wind]

Yeah I'd rather not spend time collecting resources. I just want my chance to get infusion elements and be on my way

[elfin heron]

do ashes have any other use after you unlock all the arcana

[torn wind]

Some cosmetic unlockables and other things need shadow extraction which uses it

One of the hidden aspects needs shadow extractions

[elfin heron]

okay, thought it was dumb that some rooms still give you ashes when you have all the cards

[torn wind]

They stick around cause artificer arcana exists and you can get incantations to make minor rewards give small bonuses

5 health from ashes. 5 magick from bones. and a pom slice from nectar

[elfin heron]

how does artificer work anyway? just doubles ashes and bones X times, that's it?

doesn't work on hearts and magic bottles, right?

[torn wind]

Artificer lets you transform ashes, bones, or nectar into a random one of any other rewards

hearts, tonics, boons, hammers, paths, etc

[elfin heron]

ahhh, that's kind of useful

[torn wind]

Yeah but it's an endgame arcana once you don't need resources anymore

[elfin heron]

judgement is always ass though, right? seems like it's never worth it

[torn wind]

It lets you get some free fear from vow of void if you're willing to give up some early game strength. It's also guaranteed to not pick arcanas that contradict with the endgame keepsakes from post-credits

[elfin heron]

it has the same flaw as Circe's keepsake, aka it can activate Death

[torn wind]

Which isn't terrible

But being able to get 19 or 20 arcanas by the end is pretty strong

[elfin heron]

yeah man just make me take double damage, it's no big deal right

[torn wind]

Max level judgement gives you 5 every guardian

so assuming you have the queen and 3 other arcanas

[merry echo]

By the end I put 28 arcana

[torn wind]

thats 19 arcanas not counting judgement

20 if you take the moon

[torn wind]

arcana not grasp

[merry echo]

Ohhh

[elfin heron]

does judgement work with circe's keepsake

[merry echo]

I got mixed up

[torn wind]

20 physical arcana cards

[torn wind]

Not that I'm aware since it has a prerequisite

[merry echo]

Btw anyone knows where u get darkness from?

[torn wind]

Do you mean like can the keepsake GIVE you judgement?

[elfin heron]

random resource in chaos gates

[elfin heron]

I mean will judgement still proc if you have Circe's equipped

[torn wind]

It should

So I mean if you really wanted you could get every arcana at once

[elfin heron]

I suppose you just have to embrace the revives at that point, grab the cat etc

and treat Strength as a last stand type card

[torn wind]

Actually no it activates 2 arcana cards at different level based on keepsake level

not more arcanas I had that wrong

So you only get 2 arcanas

So 2 extra arcanas could be good or worthless either one. Just running judgement can screw you over in some ways like giving you higher rarity which causes hubris vow to be worse

[elfin heron]

so speaking of Circe, she has 2 funny Alice in Wonderland boons, that make you smaller or bigger, smaller is always better right?

10% chance to dodge, 10% faster

[torn wind]

Not inherently, no

Larger is more damage

And 15% extra health adds up

[elfin heron]

I picked larger last time and Mel's voice got deeper (pretty sure it's just pitched down) and Eris had unique dialog

[torn wind]

It's situational which you take

[torn wind]

Yeah same for smaller pitchin it up

[elfin heron]

isn't the extra damage just for regular attacks and specials, because it says your weapon specifically

[torn wind]

weapon if you read the description means all attacks and specials

Anything specific to your weapon

So not casts

[elfin heron]

heph blasts were the same damage as before, so there's that

[torn wind]

Since that's not a weapon

That's a god effect

God effects are buffed by universal damage and rallying cry, ares' infusion

And crit

[elfin heron]

so yeah, smaller seems straight up better, 10% dodge is very high

probably stacks with other dodge bonuses too

[torn wind]

Don't need dodge if you don't get hit

And yeah thats how buffs work

They stack additively

The larger one is a natural damage buff that doesn't rely on random chance

[elfin heron]

so there's that boon (maybe infusion, I forget) that buffs your god damage by X boons collected, that one will buff heph blasts, no?

[torn wind]

Yeah Rallying cry

From ares. I mentioned that

[elfin heron]

but I don't have Ares, it was something else

[torn wind]

Ah hera's

family something

[elfin heron]

Extended Family

[torn wind]

Yeah that

[elfin heron]

just looked it up

[torn wind]

That's a universal damage buff

Same for the one when you have no common boons

Those apply to all damage

It's a reason why hera is top tier

[plain bronze]

Ugh, just had a power outage in the middle of a run with heroic nova attack and special. I made it all the way to Olympus before it happened. Then after booting the game up again it just put me in Crossroads instead of loading the last encounter again 🙁

[elfin heron]

the game has anti-savescumming mechanics, just like hades 1

if you alt+f4 mid-run your saves are deleted immediately

it sucks if it was a legimate power outage though but this is the reason

[plain bronze]

I guess that explains it then. Kinda dumb to impose that on a single-player game though. Woulda been cooler to provide a modding API and let the competitive community create some sort of run verification mod with auto-delete for stuff like that.

I've seen that done successfully in other games

[elfin heron]

I think the way it's coded is, your auto-save is not written to disk (just held in memory) until you quit the game safely

[elfin heron]

that's for the profile save aka crossroads, no?

[torn wind]

The backup should save whatever was the last possible point to quit IIRC

[plain bronze]

Let's go see... Your explanation of them just not writing to disk mid-game makes sense though.

Hmmm, not really sure how this save system works. I see files from around the time of the power outage, but I have no idea what I'd move/re-name here to try and restore them:

nthexwn@TheXwn2022:/mnt/c/Users/nthexwn/Saved Games/Hades II$ ll
total 5.2M
   0 drwxrwxrwx 1 nthexwn nthexwn 4.0K Feb 18 01:44  .
   0 drwxrwxrwx 1 nthexwn nthexwn 4.0K Feb  8 20:43  ..
   0 drwxrwxrwx 1 nthexwn nthexwn 4.0K Feb  8 20:43 'Data Dumps'
   0 drwxrwxrwx 1 nthexwn nthexwn 4.0K Feb  8 20:43  EnableSimulateCloudConflicts
   0 -rwxrwxrwx 1 nthexwn nthexwn  334 Feb 17 17:30  GlobalSettingsWin.sjson
   0 -rwxrwxrwx 1 nthexwn nthexwn  334 Feb 17 17:30  GlobalSettingsWin.sjson.bak
128K -rwxrwxrwx 1 nthexwn nthexwn  78K Feb 18 01:58 'Hades II.log'
4.0K -rwxrwxrwx 1 nthexwn nthexwn  842 Feb  8 21:14  Profile1.ctrls
4.0K -rwxrwxrwx 1 nthexwn nthexwn  842 Feb  8 20:45  Profile1.ctrls.bak
556K -rwxrwxrwx 1 nthexwn nthexwn 554K Feb 18 00:32  Profile1.sav
556K -rwxrwxrwx 1 nthexwn nthexwn 554K Feb 18 00:32  Profile1.sav.bak
356K -rwxrwxrwx 1 nthexwn nthexwn 356K Feb 14 23:53  Profile1.sav.bak1
448K -rwxrwxrwx 1 nthexwn nthexwn 445K Feb 16 02:51  Profile1.sav.bak2
456K -rwxrwxrwx 1 nthexwn nthexwn 454K Feb 16 16:28  Profile1.sav.bak3
480K -rwxrwxrwx 1 nthexwn nthexwn 480K Feb 16 18:03  Profile1.sav.bak4
460K -rwxrwxrwx 1 nthexwn nthexwn 457K Feb 17 02:03  Profile1.sav.bak5
472K -rwxrwxrwx 1 nthexwn nthexwn 471K Feb 17 17:11  Profile1.sav.bak6
372K -rwxrwxrwx 1 nthexwn nthexwn 372K Feb 14 04:06  Profile1.sav.bak7
   0 -rwxrwxrwx 1 nthexwn nthexwn  304 Feb 17 17:30  Profile1.sjson
   0 -rwxrwxrwx 1 nthexwn nthexwn  304 Feb 17 17:30  Profile1.sjson.bak
   0 -rwxrwxrwx 1 nthexwn nthexwn    9 Feb 18 01:38  Profile1.v.sav
   0 -rwxrwxrwx 1 nthexwn nthexwn    9 Feb 18 01:37  Profile1.v.sav.bak
516K -rwxrwxrwx 1 nthexwn nthexwn 514K Feb 18 01:38  Profile1_Temp.sav
516K -rwxrwxrwx 1 nthexwn nthexwn 516K Feb 18 01:37  Profile1_Temp.sav.bak
   0 drwxrwxrwx 1 nthexwn nthexwn 4.0K Feb  8 20:43  Screenshots
   0 drwxrwxrwx 1 nthexwn nthexwn 4.0K Feb  8 20:43  Temp
   0 -rwxrwxrwx 1 nthexwn nthexwn   16 Feb 18 01:44  activeProfile
   0 -rwxrwxrwx 1 nthexwn nthexwn   16 Feb 18 01:44  activeProfile.bak
   0 -rwxrwxrwx 1 nthexwn nthexwn  400 Feb 18 01:47  lastSession.ga
   0 -rwxrwxrwx 1 nthexwn nthexwn   50 Feb 18 01:44  steam_autocloud.vdf

*Printing output from WSL because apparently I can't post screengrabs of Windows Explorer

If I close the game, delete Profile1.sav, copy Profile1_Temp.sav to Profile1.save, launch the game again, and attempt to load save slot 1 it says the data is corrupted. I wonder if I have to rename Profile1.v.sav and Profile1.v.sav.bak as well?

No dice.

At least restoring the directory to how it was didn't leave my save game corrupted, but I guess I have to do the run over

RNG started the same, but looks like it diverged after the first 2 encounters, oh well

[glacial light]

Rng will always diverge after first 2 rooms

Same thing happens if you hit undo night

[plain bronze]

I wonder if it just re-uses the same generator object for all random rolls, so playing the combat slightly differently affects boon rolls too (IE: if you hit 9 things instead of 10 then the sequence is off when the next area loads compared to the last time)?

since it'd have to roll a random number for stuff like crit chance on each hit

[glacial light]

Yup

90% sure it's the way you move and what order you killed the enemies

Maybe not that first part tho

[plain bronze]

In that case it would be interesting to record an input macro while playing, intentionally crash the game several encounters in, and then replay that to see if the exact same inputs applied to the same random seed would yield identical results

Or I could just stop getting distracted and play the damn game again, lol...

[glacial light]

Probably do that last bit

[royal minnow]

Is h2 coming to ps5?

[torn wind]

Nintendo bought out a 1-year exclusivity deal so probably not until Q1 2027

But it should eventually

[graceful sundial]

wait really? thats news to me lol

[torn wind]

I mean that’s how most temporary exclusivity deals work with third party game companies

Recent Nintendo example being Monster Hunter Rise

Switch exclusive till 1 year in got ported to all other platforms

And it’s not like Supergiant wouldn’t put it to other consoles after the deal is up when the first game is already on the other consoles

[silk needle]

Im Maxed out with hecate, but imma try taking athena keepsake to Arachne

[fathom lake]

I GOT A PERFECT STEADY GROWTH YOU DONT UNDERSTAND HOW HILARIOUS THAT IS LMFAofghj,mjfgbv

[torn wind]

Heroic roll as early on as possible?

Is it actually even possible to get it on the first boon? Would have to be like at least 2 encounters in but still that’s nuts

[main copper]

H2 on Sale lessgooo

Now to find some cash.....

[tawny wave]

I know this ismt the place to ask but... I could really use a friend right now. I messed up IRL and could just use someone to talk to...

[ebon sigil]

Soon I will try. Still needing more arcana leveled up

[short raft]

Okay so i just learned than Light SMite oneshots Scilla to the point its not even funny

Every single guitar sound from the knockback attack triggers light smite, to all units in the fight.

[tranquil wren]

lmao nice

[sudden eagle]

Did I miss any incantations? I'm watching replays on Youtube and players have ||a purge pool in the room right after Hecate's arena||.

[craggy totem]

That one isn't a spoiler, it is something that you should have been able to unlock naturally

[sudden eagle]

I'm being too precautious ^^

[craggy totem]

There's an incantation that gives you purging pools after every Underworld boss, which does have the prereq that you purge a certain number of boons first, but I don't remember what the prereq is to just see your first purging pool at all

[sudden eagle]

I have a pool after the other bosses though…

[craggy totem]

Every other boss? Then you should have one after Hec 🤔 what

[sudden eagle]

Maybe my mind is playing a trick. I'll check after work

[craggy totem]

Alr, I looked it up, the first purging pool you unlock is actually the one between Fields and Tartarus, not the one between Erebus and Oceanus, so if that's what you're remembering (and not anywhere else), then that should track

You need to actually use that enough times before you can unlock the incant that puts purging pools everywhere

[sudden eagle]

Okay.
Strange enough on surface I have all the pools and I don't remember purging any boons.

[craggy totem]

Surface doesn't have purging pools at all

You may be thinking of the Hermes shrines, perhaps?

[sudden eagle]

Haha yes my mistake.

I'm an old guy, please forgive my rambling

[craggy totem]

No worries haha

[tranquil wren]

every time I see your username I think of knives out

[craggy totem]

Benoit Blanc's cousin, Benoit Masa

[sudden eagle]

I'm pleading guilty for being French

[tranquil wren]

I was so excited for the merch

then I see what price the watch is going for

380USD! holy moly

[jolly hound]

link?

Is it a real Chrolex

[craggy totem]

#announcements

I think they accidentally'd some HTML

Well, in this day and age, probably whoever updates their website is very unlikely to be doing hand-coded HTML lmao

But they put a close-up photo of a detail on the bag when they were describing a close-up detail for the watch

[jolly hound]

ah nah I’m good I want a Chrolex lol

[craggy totem]

God I feel like a dinosaur

[jolly hound]

watch out for meteors

[sudden eagle]

Is chrolex legit on surface runs? I'm using it when I do underworld runs in the mourning fields but on the surface I can't get the momentum

[old veldt]

Yeah
For me i like it even more since you can buy out shrines as well

[sick sage]

well the watch and bag looks nice the jacket is way to orange for me but in the end im broke so it dont matter

[plain relic]

Does anyone know what actions I can take in the crossroads to alter my seed?

[tranquil wren]

salute the vow statue

the incantation to unlock it only comes after the epilogue I believe

[cunning laurel]

until then you have to die to change it

[plain relic]

Dang

Ok time to kms in a run lol

Volcanic strike builds are just too fun when you game a 2 second cooldown early

[craggy totem]

What's tripping you up momentum-wise? I'm not sure I have envisioned what you could mean

[plain relic]

Also I wanna put out there. Ares seems like a cool ass dude

Wtf man I love war

[sudden eagle]

When you should equip it. I'd say on second stage since you get resources quite often...

[craggy totem]

Something to note is that on the Surface, you can also kinda use random Hermes shrine items to chrolex, because the price is usually less than what you'll get from the transform

I usually don't throw it on until Olympus cos I prefer grabbing Leaf second, but ymmv

[sudden eagle]

You can do that? Oh now I understand previous messages!

[craggy totem]

Well, I think Chuck just meant that if you are rolling in cash from chrolex, you can get more stuff (to keep) from the shrines, but this trick is a second thing that you can consider :D

[plain relic]

Wow Eris is actually way easier with rivals lol

[raw kraken]

Does kings ransom sacrifice all together

[buoyant matrix]

yes

[raw kraken]

Do I lose the infusions

[buoyant matrix]

now that is an interesting question

[raw kraken]

I’ll have to see I guess

[buoyant matrix]

the answer of which i don't know

[crude dragon]

It shouldn't

Except for Proper Upbringing

[plain relic]

Yeah I beat a run while taking well over 1500 damage. ama

[stuck minnow]

Who goes well with Xinth>

Using the aspect of Selene btw, unlocked it immediately

[broken creek]

poseidon/hestia attack then blitz/hitch on special

[stuck minnow]

Hmm

Go with hera then...

[broken creek]

shimmering rockets and exhaust riser are auto takes for hammers

and since its selene you can play towards the hex but id recommend you dont since its pretty weak and takes wayyyy too much investment

also the godsent is ares and ares isnt really all that strong on coat as is so :P

[jolly hound]

After getting henious affront with light smite yesterday I appreciate ares more now

[crude dragon]

Basically a requirement to find Ares for the Godsent

Even if Wounds is godawful for Coat

But you still want it, because Lance of Ares isn't a valid prerequisite for stuff like Heinous Affront or Grievous Blow

[celest tinsel]

Welp I just saw VOR Typhon for the first time. Idek if there’s a phase 3 😭 i died in phase 2

[crude dragon]

Phase 2 meaning what?

[celest tinsel]

like the part after “Zeus” shows up

[crude dragon]

It follows the same cadence as the normal fight

[celest tinsel]

oh okay it’s just all insane then

I was probably a lot closer than I thought grrrrrr

[crude dragon]

Well, you'd still have the second adds phase and the final 40%

[celest tinsel]

I got passed the adds phase so I was probably amidst the final percent

[jolly hound]

There’s a new phase

[celest tinsel]

what

[crude dragon]

I was deliberately avoiding mentioning that

[celest tinsel]

LMAO

it’s okay idc

[torpid sky]

Rivals Typhon is ridiculously based

[celest tinsel]

I’m so cooked bruh

[torpid sky]

amazing mix of the music too

[celest tinsel]

What could phase 3 possibly be bro, I was like screaming at my monitor in agony and excitement

Staff of anubis was doing its best

[torpid sky]

poor anubis lol

[jolly hound]

Get grape juice from Dionysus then you win with Anubis ez

[celest tinsel]

oops

It seems good for learning fights since I can just drop my damage in typhon’s face and run around

[stuck minnow]

Oh, well I don;t have ares

Haven't made it past Prometheus at all yet

Got him to half the first fight, but haven't made it back since

Much less making it to Typhon

[final saddle]

Anubis seems really slow is it that good?

[tranquil wren]

yea

dash strike/omega atk and then spam omega special

[jolly hound]

if you get an attack that is damage per hit like scorch or Poseidon yes. Don’t put %damage boosts on its attack you’ll be disappointed.

[tranquil wren]

^

so scorch/splash on atk, %dmg on special (apollo, ares, etc)

[celest tinsel]

What hidden aspect should I chase next? I only have Anubis and Nergal

[tranquil wren]

daggers

[celest tinsel]

oooo are they dope

[tranquil wren]

yep

[jolly hound]

Dionysus grape juice tho, that makes it so every hit in the circle gets that 100 power boost for the entire duration of the attack. It is very based

Zeus static shock also likes it a lot. It’s a solid air quality weapon if you can get some gusts going and or support fire

Hera attack w grape juice is probably hilarious but idk how that’s beating Eris lol

[celest tinsel]

Bruh burger, I need Artemis dialogue for Morrigan. Is there any sure fire way of spawning Artemis or is it pure chance lol

[crude dragon]

It's a staff, so it's good by definition

[crude dragon]

Nope, though Underworld runs have 2 biomes she can spawn in

[crude dragon]

They're the only good knives aspect

[celest tinsel]

🙏🏼 will get to it then

[stuck minnow]

HERMES GIVE ME WINNERS CIRCLE PLEAAAASE

[celest tinsel]

NO!!$

[stuck minnow]

I NEED LUCID GAIN HERMES

HERMES

[tranquil wren]

apollo gives you lucid gain

[stuck minnow]

I know

I have Lucid Gain

I meant I need it more

Hence my begging for Winner's Circle

[celest tinsel]

Dude literally first run of going for it, I get the Artemis spawn AND the dialogue 😭🙏🏼

[crude dragon]

EZ

[celest tinsel]

Wwwwwww

[stuck minnow]

Artemis has three regions she can appear in
Erebus
Oceanus
Ephyra

Chronos hearing "Multiple targets sighted" while fighting Melinoë

[raw kraken]

Wish the watch was the time piece instead

[celest tinsel]

I died five seconds into phase 3 what the HECKKKKK WAS THATTT

[buoyant matrix]

the lasers

[celest tinsel]

I got caught off so guard I was panickedddddd

why am I SMOLLL then I got vaporized

I accidentally had my strength build on too LOL maybe strength is the move

[crude dragon]

Cutscene

But anyways, it's important to note that the entire arena is valid ground and not just the clock faces

[celest tinsel]

mm. that is good to know

[crude dragon]

It's something I wish was better visually communicated

[celest tinsel]

I thought I was gonna be smitten if I left it

[craggy totem]

There's a lot of things about the Chronos fights that coulda been visually communicated better 😔

[viral moat]

omfg why is there so little health in this game!

utter bollocks!

[shut needle]

Don't get hit, you can get upgrades later to start with more though and find health along the way along with healing

[viral moat]

doing that, but it is sloooooooowwwwww!!!!

I swear the first game had more healing

[crude dragon]

It really didn't

[broken glen]

Don’t worry, once you progress there’s more healing sources compared to the first game

Apollo has 2 healing boons

[crude dragon]

You had the fountains, Chthonic Vitality, and praying Charon wells or the shop sold healing

[viral moat]

ohhhhhhhh

[crude dragon]

In this game, there's Wayward Son (which starts out equal to level 3 Vitality and can be upgraded), a Demeter boon, an Apollo boon and the Apollo/Hestia Duo, an Aphro boon, and a few keepsakes

[broken glen]

demeter has a lot of damage negation, and a heal whenever you forage
hephaestus is all about temp HP (in the form of shield)

[viral moat]

also Skelly's death defile!

which is a god's send! literally!

[broken glen]

||ares|| has a heal boon when you're at low HP
ghost onion is a great heal source

[crude dragon]

Sure, but there's a way better keepsake than Tooth

[broken glen]

well it's not a bad choice early game

once you unlock the engraved pin, give it a go- it's real fun

[crude dragon]

So's Pin

And unlike Tooth, it's reusable

[broken glen]

I know but I'm assuming this is a new player that hasn't gotten pin yet

since the character with it takes a bit to arrive

[viral moat]

only for 50 points to start with 😭

[viral moat]

not if you play like I do...which is get up in the enemy's face and spam click!

[torpid sky]

Agreed, I wanna buy the Chrolex

[broken glen]

What’s been your favorite weapon so far?

[crude dragon]

No, Pin is just categorically better than Tooth in every way

[viral moat]

what's the pin?

I only have like 4 hours, just got past the sirns

[viral moat]

the staff

I like the magic

[viral moat]

a certain big dog killed me...

[broken glen]

It essentially gives you a 10 second grace period between dropping to 0 HP and losing a death defiance- if you can clear the room in time, you’ll heal HP and you won’t lose it

[crude dragon]

It's a keepsake you should be unlocking soon

[viral moat]

ohhhhh....

[broken glen]

Resets every room too, so it’s great if you die a lot

[viral moat]

when do you get that

[crude dragon]

Yeah, it's basically Stubborn Defiance as a keepsake

[crude dragon]

When you do a pair of incantations related to the Fates

[broken glen]

You’ll get it from a character that will arrive at the crossroads :)

[viral moat]

I have met Moros

[broken glen]

Oh yep it’s him

[crude dragon]

And yeah, can't recommend Pin enough because it's something you get value from for an entire run, which is great for when you haven't unlocked keepsake swapping

[broken glen]

Give him some nectar for the pin

[crude dragon]

Yeah, it's from Moros. You'll get it when you invite him to camp and give him nectar there

[viral moat]

I ALREADY DID!

I MUST HAVE IT!

BRB!

[broken glen]

Oh awesome put it on

[crude dragon]

Check the cabinet, then, there's only one specific place you don't want to use it (and even then, there's a workaround for it)

[mint bobcat]

yall got an idea on a run for me?

[viral creek]

plasma

[mint bobcat]

those were my go to runs, I ran them as ares legendary combined with master conductor

[crude dragon]

King's Ransom

[jolly hound]

if you like ares, henious affront with Zeus duo then Apollo light smite. It was absolutely incredible yesterday, each tag of light smite still does area damage so you can wound like 5 dudes and each of em get 5 blasts of light smite and then there’s no dudes

Anubis staff with Poseidon and Zeus (wave strike and static respectively)

[mint bobcat]

a run i wanna do is a full revenge run

[jolly hound]

I did it yesterday and it went HARD

[mint bobcat]

also lando I use hoards 3 for all my runs

[tranquil wren]

ew

[jolly hound]

[mint bobcat]

my fears are Hoards 3, Grit 3, Menace 2, Wards 2, Fangs 2, Shadow

[craggy totem]

People have done "AFK" boss fights where they basically just load up on a lot of revenge boons, protection, and so on, and let the revenge boons kill the boss 😆

[mint bobcat]

every once and a while I put on hubris to make the run spicy

[mint bobcat]

but this is my default fears whenever I do a run

for me this is honestly really easy

[jolly hound]

no frenzy or rivals

it’s so random I love it

[mint bobcat]

I do rivals more then hubris but not as often

I also tend to forget to put on a familiar

[cunning laurel]

it could be a lottt easier

[mint bobcat]

it could but I might start running frenzy on it for a challenge

[jolly hound]

I don’t feel alive if I’m not staring down 60% more bad guys going 40% faster

[mint bobcat]

currently doing a run using my set up but got frenzy 1 going

next run ill change it to frenzy 2

[elfin heron]

so when I got to Typhon's doorstep, I figured let's watch a video first so that this run is not wasted, and the guy in the video had 500 hp and still almost died, and the boss has 4 phases, double that of Chronos, I thought I was screwed, but hey at least I know how to dodge some of the attacks, right? let's give it a hail marry
and then I melted the boss in like 15 sec, every phase only lasted one combo, I guess the guy in the video was playing on high fear or something, the boss has no HP, it's odd

[old veldt]

he has hp, hes just a punching bag

[solid epoch]

any high damage build will SHRED him
specifically ive noticed the summon hex completely deletes him
I had his third phase last ONE SECOND

[old veldt]

well, the damage from when hes down from zeus counts towards that

unless you mean he was down for one second which idk if thats possible

[solid epoch]

I meant after he got up
but ye i know
just find it funny since I dealt so much damage while he was down he immediately summoned enemies again lol

[crude dragon]

He has 65K base, it's more than anything in the previous game besides EM4 Dad

[elfin heron]

oh yeah I had the infinite summon hex, almost maxxed the path in fact

[old veldt]

well, mel can also do more dmg than zag

[elfin heron]

but the main damage mostly came from mirrored thrasher + origination plus various boons I accumulated

it's just weird how Prometheus is so much thiccer, this difficulty curve makes no sense

[torn wind]

The surface is designed to be hard even after you’ve already beaten the underworld

And the fear requirements for the surface for 100% completion are lower

So naturally the bosses have more health, are more evasive (besides typhon), and hit harder

[elfin heron]

what I meant to say, I think Prometheus is overtuned while Typhon is undertuned, because honestly Typhon is THE final boss, and it was such an underwhelming fight

[viral moat]

wait so I am not supposed to be up there while still doing underworld stuff?

[torn wind]

I mean I think Typhon is inherently harder, personally. He requires you to pay decent attention to your positioning and the boss while still dealing a ton of damage

[jolly hound]

yeah if you’re doing rivals 3 and you beat Prometheus you’re gonna win

[elfin heron]

it's like, the tail mini-boss was way harder, it in fact almost killed me and I only healed all the lost HP back due to 'bounce back'

[torn wind]

I mean you can, nothing is stopping you. Just that you unlock it later

Naturally stuff you unlock later in a game is meant to be harder

[torn wind]

The tail boss has like 3 moves and all of them are just “don’t stand right on him”

[viral moat]

how does it impact the story? the head lady seems to be pretty insistent you stick with the underworld task

[torn wind]

And the only other move is “just follow him to one side of the screen”

[elfin heron]

it got me with the beam at the start of the fight and then there's a phase where you have to dodge eggs or whatever while also dashing through rings, took a lot of damage there

[solid epoch]

I alternated both, but beat the underworld FAR before I beat the surface
the surface still gives access to very valuable resources, and made the story progression feel very natural imo

[torn wind]

Your actions have no real impact but obviously to get to the credits roll you have to do some stuff in the underworld since that’s your main goal

[elfin heron]

the beam it only did once, I guess you need to get behind it??

[torn wind]

You can attack the eggs if they’re an issue

[torn wind]

Yeah literally just stand behind him

[viral moat]

so is the underworld the main quest and the over world is just bonus stuff?

[elfin heron]

yeah and they explode with AoE damage, it's tricky

[torn wind]

“Death to Chronos”

[old veldt]

not necessarily

[torn wind]

The surface is required

[old veldt]

theyre both needed for the story

[torn wind]

It’s part of the story

[solid epoch]

the overworld still has some importance
you'll see what I mean >:)

[viral moat]

ok then!

[old veldt]

and surface is not exactly insignificant lol

[torn wind]

The game wouldn’t give you the surface if it had no reason to be there

[viral moat]

in about 100 hours probs

[old veldt]

no lol

[viral moat]

I mean more locations to kill guys isn't no reason....

[old veldt]

considerably less

[torn wind]

I got credits roll pretty casually in like 40 hours or so

[solid epoch]

i have like 65 hours on the game
the overworld became important like 30 ago lol

[elfin heron]

you still haven't beaten the game??

[old veldt]

yeah i got it in around 30-40

[torn wind]

That’s not what the said

[old veldt]

which requires like 5 surface and 10 uw wins or smth

[solid epoch]

I took me around 45 or so

[solid epoch]

nvm

[old veldt]

i think 8 uw

[torn wind]

Yeah I say the playtime range is about anywhere from 35-50 hours for most people

For credits

100% more like 125+ easily if you’re going for all collectibles

[elfin heron]

I'm 40 hours in, cleared underworld 2x, surface 1x, what do I even do now, how to progress the story?

[torn wind]

I’m at about 145 and just need like a few collectibles in

[torn wind]

RIP

[viral moat]

I just unblocked the surface, and just got to the dog in the underworld

not beat him yet tho

[torn wind]

I thought I told you it’s like 8 underworld clears and 5 surface for the ending

[solid epoch]

d i a l o g u e
stuff will unlock, and when it does you'll immediately know

[elfin heron]

woah, you're really taking your time

[viral moat]

I am only 5 hours in, also I am not very good lmao

[torn wind]

They never said 100 hours

[elfin heron]

do I just keep beating Chronos, idk, Hecate just said something about hourglass sand

[torn wind]

They said they might finish in 100 hours throwing a totally random number out

[solid epoch]

the surface is important as well

[elfin heron]

ah, only 5 hours, that's a great pace then

[torn wind]

Rest of us are saying credits took us like 35-50 hours

You’re 40 hours in and 3 clears down so you got a ways ahead of you to go

[viral moat]

took me around 50 hours to get to credits in hades 1, this one seems much bigger, so yeah like 100 hours

didn't even get to the true ending in hades 1 lmao

[torn wind]

If you have like a 5% clear rate maybe

100 hours in I had line 125 total runs

[elfin heron]

I tend to just walk around the hub and look at everything lol, I'm only 32 nights in and that's including trials and surface suicide runs

[viral moat]

yeah I suck at this game, I just run, dash and attack with very little thought behind it

I am having fun tho

[torn wind]

Well that’s what matters

[viral moat]

and enjoying the unique hades charm with the story and chararters

[solid epoch]

Lmao I just got some funny dialogue from chronos when pausing
he's mad im pausing as he's going into phase 2

[elfin heron]

spam casts, the regular kind, not the charged ones, that's the only mechanic the game doesn't properly explain and it's crucial, basically enemies can't walk over those circles so you can hide behind them or ensnare enemies for damage/DOT effects

[torn wind]

No reason not to omega cast if you’re already using it to catch enemies

It’s 150 base damage

That’s a lot, early on especially

[old veldt]

you could use that time to just hit them normally

[rough lintel]

if you wanna just easily clear the game learn which god is good and which god to skip lol

[elfin heron]

I heard in the EA version you couldn't pause at all because blah blah time powers, they changed it due to complaints

[torn wind]

You can but just suggesting for easy strats. Messenger arcana makes omega casting easy and safe

[rough lintel]

you still can't pause at rival 4 btw

[viral moat]

during one of our meetings between the worlds, I checked my trinkets first, and he very passively aggressively said "I'll wait!" I love all the details in this game lmao

[torn wind]

Using omega casts is a very easy way to clear a lot of the early game while not putting yourself in danger. Wait until you get down the enemy attacks and everything before trying to rush straight in

Obviously you can do MORE damage in other ways but a good cast build is a safe option

[elfin heron]

honestly, I wish Chronos was more threatening looking, kind of like daddy in the first game, he just looks like a naked old man and isn't even that mean, just passive aggressive

[rough lintel]

eh omega cast is clunky as hell to play :(

if you want easy clear just run ranged weapons like torch, skull or staff

[solid epoch]

considering what he does I still find him terrifying lol

three, two, one

[elfin heron]

I don't recommend charged casts, at least not without that time stop card, too easy to overreach and take damage

[torn wind]

He’s very regal in his behavior. Very sure of himself

[elfin heron]

though, the scars running all over his body are a nice touch, that's because the gods cut him up into pieces the last time lol

[rough lintel]

same as how prometheus has that bandage across his torso

[elfin heron]

yeah, some hidden lore for those in the know

[rough lintel]

my favourite easter egg is how the narrator name is homer

just like the writer of oddyseus

[elfin heron]

Mel talks back to Homer sometimes, which is funny

[rough lintel]

and how zag's affection with mel is infinite in the book

[elfin heron]

reminds me of Supergiant's older games like Transistor

and Bastion as well, those had full narration

[rough lintel]

zag ♥️♥️ ♥️ ♥️ ♥️ ♥️ ♥️ ♥️ ♥️ ♥️ ♥️ ♥️ ♥️ ♥️ ♥️ ♥️ ♥️ ♥️ ♥️ mel

that was funny

[torn wind]

Hades has some restraint cause he doesn’t want to do what he’s doing, but Chronos is entirely sure of himself

I stepped away and didn’t finish my thought

[elfin heron]

Zag has an Aphrodite poster in his bedroom, so I assume that's who he fancies the most, Heph would be mad if he knew

[torn wind]

It’s meant to look like old gold pottery repair

Where they put it back together with gold

[rough lintel]

aphro is FULLY naked in the game btw

in hades 2

[elfin heron]

first game as well

[rough lintel]

yea

[torn wind]

She was in one too 🤷‍♂️

[rough lintel]

so cooked

[torn wind]

But like yeah that what she do

[rough lintel]

well if you know how she was born in greek lore it's valid

[old veldt]

greek 'lore' 💔

[torn wind]

Incest

[rough lintel]

nope

[torn wind]

No I know

[rough lintel]

aphro was NOT born from incest

[torn wind]

I’m saying Greek lore. I know how she was born

[elfin heron]

btw, Immortals: Fenyx Rising also has Aphrodite and Hephaestus (and a bunch of other gods) and their quarrels are really funny

[rough lintel]

ah yes

heph got ntr'ed so bad in the lore it's sad

i also like how ares is smiling in hades 2 coz there is an active war

[elfin heron]

funnily enough, the final boss of Fenyx Rising is also Typhon (it's shown in the intro, so not really a spoiler)

and Zeus and Prometheus narrate the whole game, just like in Bastion

[torn wind]

Typhon is, in essence, “the big evil” of Greek mythology

[rough lintel]

is fenyx rising another zeus slop game

[torn wind]

Apparently

[broken glen]

Do you think that’s how Aphrodite knows who zag is dating

She just looks through the poster

Or is it a spidey sense sorta thing

[elfin heron]

he's the main god in the mythology, so he's gonna be important in games like these

[torn wind]

Or it’s literally that it’s part of her godly powers

She literally says “I just know these things”

About all the characters you interact with in Hades 2

And hades 1 for that matter likely

[elfin heron]

personally, I think Artemis is the prettiest in the game, but apparently she's a perma-virgin in the myths, never fancied anyone

[jolly hound]

Why would that make her less hot

[broken glen]

In hades 2 she’s a certified lesbian (though in some cultures sesbian lex doesn’t break virginity)

[elfin heron]

her good looks are wasted if she's going to stay alone forever

[torn wind]

Why is this the conversation that this went to just cause I said Greek mythology was incest lore

[broken glen]

Have you seen her gifting dialogue

[elfin heron]

does she have a hot spring scene

[old veldt]

u cant gift her in crossroads iirc so i assume not

[elfin heron]

does she come onto Mel or something??

[torn wind]

No

[broken glen]

No but she’s implied to be in a relationship with Callisto (and thinks Mel might be into her with all of the ambrosia gifting- though just look up the dialogue for yourself it’s very direct)

[rough lintel]

YURI!!!

[elfin heron]

I have that book that shows relationship progress and apparently Eris has a bath scene, which is funny because she's a villain

[broken glen]

She says (paraphrased) “hey Mel if you’re into me I could ask Callisto if she’d be willing to share” and Mel says NO fumble of the CENTURY

[torn wind]

Villain and antagonist aren’t the same thing

[elfin heron]

well, she's more of a hooligan

[torn wind]

She’s strife incarnate

[broken glen]

She’s… discord

[crude dragon]

In Hades 2, she's actually more clothed than she was last game

[torn wind]

That’s what she does. She is literally the personification of being annoying

[crude dragon]

She's now wearing bracelets

And either greaves or an anklet

[elfin heron]

though, these "I can fix her" tropes have been really popular recently, so I guess Eris has her fans

[torn wind]

Or it’s just gods being gods

[rough lintel]

i honestly much much prefer hades 1 aphro than hades 2

[torn wind]

“I can’t help being this way”

[rough lintel]

hades 2 aphro is so asss

[torn wind]

It’s literally WHAT she is

[broken glen]

Eris’ plot line is about how she doesn’t need to be fixed (and she becomes a whole lot nicer once you just accept her for who she is)

[elfin heron]

it's cute that Eris' gun is literally from Hades 1 and even looks the same as the Eris aspect

[crude dragon]

I beg your pardon?

[crude dragon]

Well yeah, it's her aspect

[rough lintel]

best weapon in hades 1 too

[elfin heron]

a lot of games don't have this kind of continuity and just redesign everything

[crude dragon]

Like how Nem's using Stygius

[torn wind]

The first game literally foreshadowed that she would take the rail because the aspects exist for both past and future

[old veldt]

beowulf 😔

[crude dragon]

Well, it's also said she had used it before

[torn wind]

The aspects exist outside of time

[rough lintel]

nah

[crude dragon]

Same goes for Nem, IIRC

[rough lintel]

ok actually yea maybe coz

[crude dragon]

Rama:

[rough lintel]

merciful end

[old veldt]

what about it

[torn wind]

Fair. Either way they basically showed us they were gonna be characters in the first game

[crude dragon]

That it's the best weapon in Hades 1

[elfin heron]

is there more to Dora over than being cute and managing the furniture etc?

[crude dragon]

You'll see

[elfin heron]

I haven't unlocked any pier/bath scenes yet

[rough lintel]

wait what

what am i missing

[crude dragon]

About Dora?

You'll see

[torn wind]

Were there any other aspects in the first game for Greek gods that weren’t in the first game besides Nemesis and Eris

Ones that foreshadowed them showing up in the second game

[elfin heron]

my guess is Dora will eventually remember who she was

[old veldt]

tbh i never tried it

[old veldt]

hestia

[crude dragon]

||Well, her brother-in-law is a boss who likes to talk a lot before throwing hands...||

[magic valve]

Hera and Hestia

[crude dragon]

Hera

[torn wind]

Got ya

I forgot about those aspects

[crude dragon]

It's more likely than you think, in other words

[elfin heron]

I only did 1 clear in the first game so missed a lot (I believe there are some hidden bosses like ||Charon||??), I will give it another try after this, and the wiki said you can also visit Erebus in the first game??

[crude dragon]

That is correct, and you can

[magic valve]

||erebus is visited via Charon’s fight||

[torn wind]

You could try stealing from Charon

[crude dragon]

Though Erebus looks significantly different than it does in Hades 2

[torn wind]

And Erebus was a no-hit challenge chamber you had to have a certain amount of heat to enter

[old veldt]

and also ||erebus chambers||

[elfin heron]

oh yeah, a couple runs ago when I got to Oceanus Mel said this is actually a safer route than Elysium, Elysium was the third biome in 1, IIRC

[torn wind]

Because it’s outside the main of the underworld and so not under Chronos’ control

Elysium is in the underworld so he controls it

[elfin heron]

also, some of the arcana cards have characters from 1 like the hero and the minotaur dual boss

[radiant crescent]

When do you guys consider the game 100% completed?

H2 specifically

[elfin heron]

Steam achievements probably

[radiant crescent]

I have on switch lol

I’ve done everything but max rank

[torn wind]

Prophecies, chaos trials, and champion of night. The rest is just farming materials

[old veldt]

whats considered the hardest prophecy?

[torn wind]

True 100% is a lot of materials especially for unlocking ranks

[magic valve]

you could do steam achievements but also stuff that doesn’t appear in steam achievements like all post game rankings, all relationships and all upgrades and all prophecies

[torn wind]

Two chaos trials in a row

[crude dragon]

And also the location for the secret boss arena

[crude dragon]

Improbable Outcomes

[radiant crescent]

I’ve done All that

[torn wind]

On PC there’s an achievement for great chaos below as well and that’s the hardest one

But that’s not a prophecy

[radiant crescent]

I thought great surface would be worse

Erm I mean I thought it was worse

[torn wind]

There isn’t an achievement for great surface sadly

[radiant crescent]

Interesting

[craggy totem]

*Great Chaos Above

[elfin heron]

is it for all trials?

[craggy totem]

The Fear levels required for the statues indicates that SGG considers Surface more difficult than Underworld, so they probably didn't want to "require" it from players, I suppose

[torn wind]

Surface is naturally designed to be harder yeah

[elfin heron]

some of the trials are ass, I'm not doing them lol

[craggy totem]

There is no achievement for "all Chaos trials", no

[torn wind]

40 surface was harder for me than 40 underworld

[radiant crescent]

And yet you have to do 32 fear on surface as well as underwood for statue right?

[rough lintel]

surface at around 24-50 fears is significantly easier than uw

[craggy totem]

No, 32 UW 24 SF. This is what I mean by SGG considering SF harder.

[torn wind]

And I tried going straight to 50 surface before 50 underworld lol

[rough lintel]

coz u are just so so so so so so so much stronger on surf than uw

[torn wind]

Ephyra buffet ♥️

[rough lintel]

you have like 10+ more boons than you normally get in uw

[torn wind]

Also that Olympus guarantees two options which is great

[craggy totem]

The humble Vow of Denial:

[torn wind]

Denial is fun to me I choose to always play it

[radiant crescent]

Really?

[rough lintel]

that kinda exactly why i said from 24 to 50

[radiant crescent]

I see

[craggy totem]

It's somewhat subjective, and I disagree with Ducky

[radiant crescent]

Bosses feel harder on surface despite that

[torn wind]

You get like 5 boons in ephyra almost guaranteed but Thessaly you get weaker

[rough lintel]

on surface run you don't have to face rival scylla and rival chronos

[rough lintel]

arificer

[magic valve]

honestly I think the surface bosses are easier esp w vow of rivals

[craggy totem]

You don't have to face Rivals anyone at up to 40F :P

[rough lintel]

yes

[torn wind]

Minor rewards are rare from going in homes

But yes Thessaly you can artificer

[rough lintel]

not immediately locking out rival 4, frenzy 2 and time 3 is crazy

[torn wind]

But artificer is endgame arcanas when resources don’t matter

[magic valve]

vow of rivals Eris and Typhon I did first try while I struggle a lot more w chronos and Cerberus

[craggy totem]

You aint my mum

[torn wind]

Rivals Chronos is easily hardest boss in the game

[rough lintel]

rival chronos, rival scylla and rival prom is the hardest

[torn wind]

Rivals Prometheus is tough but fair

[rough lintel]

then rival mommy witch at grit 3 and time 3 coz you will most likely die due to time

[torn wind]

Rivals Prometheus is a very fair fight and I like it for that

[magic valve]

I agree

[torn wind]

There’s no random BS in that fight or overwhelming stuff like Scylla or Hecate

[rough lintel]

that saying, rival prom when the humble knucklebone appear

[magic valve]

I think my only struggle w rivals Prometheus is that it’s v tanky near the end but whatever it’s meant to be a challenge

[craggy totem]

Rivals Hec is the meanest thing on the planet to run into for your very first region boss in a region famous for not necessarily giving you a lot of boons

[radiant crescent]

I pooped my pants first time I saw ||Heracles|| tho

I felt so betrayed

[rough lintel]

greek lore, GREEK LORE!!

[radiant crescent]

True…

[torn wind]

Yeah lol sometimes I absolutely crush her and other times it takes 2 minutes of pain and suffering

[radiant crescent]

Disney got me

[magic valve]

||I mean Heracles was never on your side to begin with he’s so done w the gods I wasn’t shocked||

[rough lintel]

i once beat rival hec with 0 core boon

[craggy totem]

Bully for you, big man :P

[rough lintel]

worse than einstein

[torn wind]

||heracles also was the one in myth who saved Prometheus from Zeus’ curse||

[rough lintel]

the humble vow of forfeit can suck it

[torn wind]

So they’re OG buddies

[magic valve]

this is also true

[radiant crescent]

You’re making too much sense!

[torn wind]

Sorry

[rough lintel]

but yea, surface mel is so much stronger man, you get hermes delivery service, circe, athena, dionysus

like surface mel is just so strong that once you reach typhon it's trivial

[radiant crescent]

I still felt betrayed tho regardless of myth cause ||he helped you up to that point more or less||

[torn wind]

Or he just felt there was due compensation for you helping him fight

[rough lintel]

UW mel is just sad :(

[radiant crescent]

No I love it. I just love everything about the game really. I can’t remember the last time I 100% a game

[magic valve]

UW Mel gets to talk to Scylla so it’s not that bad

[rough lintel]

i thought hercales and prom is gay for each other

[magic valve]

if Scylla has 0 fans I’m dead

[torn wind]

It is still funny to me though how much myth they DID have to change like making Hyperion the parent of some of the Olympic gods to remove the weird part of them all being Chronos’ children

[rough lintel]

rival scylla is worse than einstein

[radiant crescent]

Sounds like most anything goes for the gods

[torn wind]

Even though that’s still bad cause it would make them cousins instead of siblings

[magic valve]

she’s still my goat

[radiant crescent]

gestures broadly at zeus

[craggy totem]

Honestly trying to make the Greek gods work as normal and reasonable human beings just doesn't work, but youtried.gif, Supergiant

[radiant crescent]

I kinda like that they aren’t

I thought they we’re capricious and passionate and really didn’t think a lot of stuff through unless it was winning a war or battle

[torn wind]

Also it took me a while to realize Hephaestus was in a wheelchair cause I forgot the myth

[radiant crescent]

lol I just 100% the game and never noticed until now

Figured he was just hunched over

[craggy totem]

Would also be in-character for his personality, but yeah nah.

[torn wind]

I thought it was just a very nice chair

[radiant crescent]

Did you know aphro is nekked?

[torn wind]

I’m aware

[rough lintel]

ah yes, the new obsession of the hades server this week

[torn wind]

Except bracelets she has those

[rough lintel]

aphro is naked

last week it was "ares bad"

[torn wind]

I like Ares it’s just what he do

[radiant crescent]

I was just being facetious cause I missed the wheel chair

[craggy totem]

Can I nominate next week's obsession to be "Arachne best girl"

[radiant crescent]

I can get behind that

[rough lintel]

arachne is nice, but i absolutely dislike how UW npcs are so much weaker than surface

maybe beside hades

hades is stronk

[magic valve]

I mean if you invest into shields Arachne’s dresses are a nice bonus

just don’t get hit

[craggy totem]

Yeah but have you considered: that is a sick-ass lair

[rough lintel]

yes

[craggy totem]

And also: if you get cocoon rooms in a run, which are great for speeds, that's her doing 👀

[rough lintel]

yessir

[elfin heron]

for me the funniest bit of the story was when you get to Olympus and Apollo lets you use the phone and Hecate answers with the usual "In the name of Hades! Olympus, I accept the message!", while it's just Mel lmao

[craggy totem]

"Apollo lets you use the phone" A+ description of events, correct and accurate

[magic valve]

boons are basically FaceTimes with your elderly family who don’t know how cameras work

[solid epoch]

why is this so accurate lmao

[craggy totem]

Oh my god I need to re-record my voice mail message

As a dyed-in-the-wool phone-hater, no one should be leaving me voice mail messages anyway, so it should be fine ™

[elfin heron]

if you listen carefully, they even added phone static to Hecate's lines

[rough lintel]

i love how icarus keepsake is the inferior version of his dad's hammer

[magic valve]

Icarus is a permanent resident of mid town he can’t help it

[rough lintel]

eh

his +3 boons are great

[magic valve]

I don’t rlly find any use for like 90% of his boons personally

[rough lintel]

+3, healing or hammer + 1 is ok

[magic valve]

I’d rather just meet Circe

[craggy totem]

The armor has saved my ass on some of my Fearful attempts

[elfin heron]

I've got a feeling Icarus is hitting on Mel the last time I saw him

she said she feels awful due to the curse and he's like you look great... uh, I mean you look well, probably just seasick haha

[rough lintel]

just keep playing the game

[jolly hound]

Try the explosive one on torches it’s very fun

[rough lintel]

hazard boom on charon 🗣️

hazard boom on circe 🗣️

[elfin heron]

are Hecate's torches the same weapon as Umbral Flames? she likes to comment on the flames when you bring them, is it a witch thing

[craggy totem]

They're definitely the same kind of weapon

[magic valve]

they’re different torches

bc she comments she used to wield the ones melinoe had

[craggy totem]

Same kind tho

Someone mod in Aspect of Hecate for the flames

[elfin heron]

big torches with big AoE, would've been fun

[rough lintel]

you mean aspect of melinoe

[magic valve]

maybe melinoe’s too small to carry them both like with the axe lol

[rough lintel]

i wonder why there's no such thing as aspect of hecate

[elfin heron]

speaking of Hecate, is that flashback scene where you see a kid Mel a one-off, or is there more to it, it was very early in the game

[magic valve]

I mean not every character has a aspect

[rough lintel]

does he know

[torn wind]

You ask her about it in a dialogue

||And it’s funny cause I got a dialogue after I already understand what||

[elfin heron]

we've got Thanatos' scythe as an aspect, so anything's possible

[rough lintel]

does he know

[magic valve]

I need hypnos to get an aspect that would be silly

[elfin heron]

uhhh

[torn wind]

Poor buddy didn’t play H1 enough

[elfin heron]

wasn't Thanatos in 1 just like Nemesis? you compete for kills

[magic valve]

?

[torn wind]

Yes

[elfin heron]

he used the scythe you get in 2

[torn wind]

Yeah so what do you mean “anything is possible”

[rough lintel]

yea it's called aspect of supay the way you can play it half asleep

[elfin heron]

so maybe in Hades 3 you'll get the Aspect of Hecate torches

[craggy totem]

Bro imagine Aspect of Echo

[torn wind]

Or they have a different weapon

Why would they reuse weapons

[craggy totem]

Some kind of weapon that lets you copy enemy attacks

[rough lintel]

all attacks repeat itself, with each upgrade +1 repeat

[magic valve]

This is the aspect of momus

[rough lintel]

add that for axe

[elfin heron]

oh yeah, about Echo, is it worth doing her relationship, does she literally only repeat back what Mel says

[torn wind]

Just do the game

[elfin heron]

idk, she looks very sad with those tears in her eyes and the voice acting is decent, but she just repeats back

[torn wind]

“Is it worth” 🤷‍♂️ do you care about dialogue

[elfin heron]

idk, nectar economy is kinda ass, you can only buy 1 per night

[torn wind]

It’s almost like she’s cursed

[magic valve]

you could always play the game and find out

[torn wind]

She’s a nymph, a minor god, it’s what she HAS to do. Not a curse but still

[elfin heron]

yeah Mel figured that, and it's like in the myth anyway

[craggy totem]

HYUGE spoiler actually the game only lets you develop storylines with three characters and if you try doing any more than that then Grarramir (a gem fusion consisting of various SGG founding members) erupts out of your monitor and slays you irl

[rough lintel]

it's almost like how the word echo got its meaning

[elfin heron]

I got the keepsake

[rough lintel]

silkposting

[rough lintel]

one of the best reigion 3 aspect btw

[solid epoch]

does he know?
HOW TO GET MORE NECTAR: || after talking to Aphrodite with a golden apple in your inventory and having defeated eris in the past 2 runs there's a chance for a dialogue about the gold apple to trigger, a little after that, another dialogue will trigger, granting the nectar recipe (it can take a WHILE, I got it 60 hours in||

[craggy totem]

This is definitely an opinion that someone who thinks the Surface is easier would have

[elfin heron]

my keepsake strat is, regions 1/2 are for forcing the build I want, region 3 is charon or whatever, 4 is always knuckle bone

[rough lintel]

well yea coz i don't turn on denial early

like you guys

denial is my 3rd last vow to be turned on

[craggy totem]

MORE isn't always BETTER

[rough lintel]

most of the time it is

[craggy totem]

smdh mutter mutter stick shake at clouds etc

[elfin heron]

this is funny because Aphrodite commented on my golden apples last run, so I guess I'm getting somewhere

[rough lintel]

forfeit is fine, coz you can just chronos +150 gold out of it

[solid epoch]

yup!
it took around 3-4 dialogues for the recipe after that for me
I recommend using her keepsake to talk to her quicker

[rough lintel]

vow of denial is just bad design

just like void

[magic valve]

I’m very curious as to what you mean by this

[elfin heron]

and how do you unlock pet skins? is that an incantation you need to get from someone?

[rough lintel]

denial also majorly nerfed travel deal with is also a banger boon

[craggy totem]

This is definitely an opinion that someone who thinks Concave Stone is the best region three keepsake would have

[rough lintel]

?????

[craggy totem]

You need to level up all the familiars first iirc

[rough lintel]

denial is just unfun

just like void

[magic valve]

||you get it from Circe after max leveling up a familiar iirc||

[elfin heron]

my raven is almost maxxed so I'll try that, thanks

[craggy totem]

Ah, that sounds right -- what I was thinking of was that you can't unlock specific outfits for a specific familiar until you have maxed that one

[magic valve]

I like void, makes me rethink my arcana cards and use ones I wouldn’t have otherwise

[rough lintel]

having more boons is just straight up beneficial, it is the 2nd strongest thing you can do to your mel aside from aracana

[elfin heron]

though, I might switch to weasel later, seems pretty strong too

[rough lintel]

you can't tell me that having less boon is more fun

[craggy totem]

Best defensive familiar!

[elfin heron]

yeah, free dodges

[magic valve]

the polecat is my favorite

[elfin heron]

it's literally a weasel, what is even a polecat

[rough lintel]

max out raven, he's good

having some crit is nice

[magic valve]

it’s a polecat

[rough lintel]

even very little

polecat is unecessary until scar 2

[craggy totem]

Polecat is just an alternate word for a kinda weasel-related animal

[rough lintel]

just don't use toula

[elfin heron]

oh btw, so the raven pecks at the stones, does this mean I won't get the upgraded tool bonus from these

[magic valve]

you will

[elfin heron]

I don't know what they were thinking, let's add a cute cat because everyone loves cats right, oh btw you'll never want to use her because strength is the meta

[rough lintel]

strength is meta until scar 3

[magic valve]

I mean she’s good if you don’t like the fishing minigame lmao

[rough lintel]

and when that happens toula is outclassed by the weasal

[cunning laurel]

if it's cats vs dogs hecuba is way cooler than toula

[rough lintel]

gale let you run antler safely

which is what i like

[elfin heron]

if you unequip strength you literally take double damage, so those extra hp you might get are wasted anyway

did 1 have a strength equivalent, I forget

[rough lintel]

scar 3 and the damage buff from the vows makes it so u die in 1 hit regardless

high fear dd is better

[elfin heron]

then just run artemis keepsake then

[craggy totem]

They do, that's what antler is

[rough lintel]

kinda exactly why people run bell and antler in high fear

[craggy totem]

Antler's only active for one region though

[cunning laurel]

ok nobody is running bell

[rough lintel]

boated did

[cunning laurel]

nobody not trolling

[elfin heron]

do people run Hermes' keepsake

[rough lintel]

!

[craggy totem]

I know someone took it for hitless runs, which is fair

[rough lintel]

yes

[craggy totem]

Yes. It's better when you max it out

[rough lintel]

best for speerun

[elfin heron]

it's like 5 min per region when maxed out, right?

[rough lintel]

on fom

[craggy totem]

No, five minutes total

So it's another one that basically only works for one region

[rough lintel]

speedrun meta is jpom fig anchor then antler

[wide wigeon]

does it still work if you swap it out

[craggy totem]

Don't think so, doesn't say 'this night' does it?

[rough lintel]

yes

[cunning laurel]

whats anchor

[craggy totem]

Hm alr

Also I'm pretty sure for some aspects, god keepsake start is still meta

I'm staring at "anchor" but all I can think of is that maybe it's a braino for "amulet"?

[wide wigeon]

think i used it like maybe 4 times idk i used it up in a single region so idk

[cunning laurel]

yea must be

[torn wind]

Maybe they meant hammer

Idk

[wide wigeon]

hammer time

[craggy totem]

Hammer is good but I wouldn't call it The Speedrun Meta

[rough lintel]

anchor is ignited anchor

[craggy totem]

What

[wide wigeon]

ichor no?

[elfin heron]

does arachne's keepsake have any merit? the silk sash, it gives you more armor each room if you still have armor

[rough lintel]

it's ichor bruh autocorrect

[craggy totem]

OH. Ichor is a Well of Charon item

[craggy totem]

I ran it for hundreds of nights in my playthrough before I unlocked the endgame keepsakes lmao

[cunning laurel]

if you mean hermes keepsake it's definitely not that

[rough lintel]

oh i keep on missing the name but it's the hermes keepsake

[craggy totem]

Metallic Droplet

[rough lintel]

my bad my bad it's droplet

[craggy totem]

Cos geddit. Hermes. Mercury.

[magic valve]

It’s rlly good especially if you invest in armour w Arachne and Hephaestus boons

[cunning laurel]

... i didn't get it

[craggy totem]

Mercury is what the Romans called Hermes

[elfin heron]

armor is kinda lame because you can't heal it, so I usually don't pay much attention to it

[craggy totem]

Mercury is a metal that is liquid at standard temperature and pressure

[cunning laurel]

no i got it now, why did i accept that metallic droplet meant something to me before

[rough lintel]

trusty shield

[magic valve]

It’s still free damage reduction

[craggy totem]

Armor also can tank overkill for you (I didn't realize this before being told)

[torn wind]

Trusty shield is another barrier for every encounter like nitro boost or snow queen

[craggy totem]

So if you have 1 point of armor and you get caught in the Chronos instakill

[elfin heron]

all planet names correspond to Greek/Roman gods, like Mars = Ares, Venus = Aphrodite, it's kinda funny that the Greek names are more popular in media nowadays

[craggy totem]

you........ survive unscathed

[torn wind]

Yeah behaves the same way as enemy armor

Enemies can tank any hit with armor

I actively use armor to tank Chronos’ instakill

[rough lintel]

you can time ur dash to dodge it

no need to tank it

[cunning laurel]

maybe you can

[torn wind]

Yeah but then I have to stop doing damage

[rough lintel]

it's a lot easier to do that in frenzy 2

[elfin heron]

what do you mean, when you lose armor the rest of the damage amount doesn't go to your hp?

[torn wind]

To focus on timing

[magic valve]

still a good fallback if you mistime it

[torn wind]

it’s the same as enemies behave

They can tank any hit with armor

[rough lintel]

better practice timing it to make facing rival typhon easier

[elfin heron]

so if you have at least 1 armor point, you can tank the 999 attack? interesting

[torn wind]

Yes

[cunning laurel]

you should probably just dodge it and save the armor tho

[torn wind]

I’m not that good yet

[cunning laurel]

i mean stand on the circle

[rough lintel]

funny interaction is that if you have the lunar ray + 10 armour and you get the one that let you shoot it by itself, ur basically invincible

[torn wind]

But then I have to stop doing damage was what I was saying

[rough lintel]

like how the nuke shield too but it requires too much magic

[torn wind]

If I have armor then I just stand there and attack him

[elfin heron]

I haven't been hit by any of Chronos' insta-kills personally, because I watched a video in advance, sorry bros I cheated

[rough lintel]

best hex in the game bc of that coz it let me run antler

[elfin heron]

both are telegraphed way in advance, so if you know what this is it's impossible to get hit by them

[rough lintel]

or this

[craggy totem]

Naw just get caught out of position by a timeslow ez

[cunning laurel]

does non rivals chronos have time slow

[elfin heron]

what happens if there's a minion still alive and it stands on that small circle, do you just die

[craggy totem]

After that happened to me, when I see gramps doing the pre-timeslow movement, I immediately walk toward donut position

[craggy totem]

YES :)

[cursive nacelle]

does

[cunning laurel]

never see him attack these days

[cursive nacelle]

you can stand on it together

[craggy totem]

I need you to imagine this reply carrying behind it approximately seventeen barrels of salt

[cunning laurel]

i must be gettin lucky to not see it

[craggy totem]

Yeah, the Chronos moveset RNG is kinda annoying sometimes

Total coinflip whether he does the inconvenient attack pattern that means I can't melee or the nice one where I can just dash in

[rough lintel]

chronos keepsake generate money coz time is money

just like how his theme is just gold

goz he's the titan of time he's also the titan of money

[elfin heron]

the other day someone said twilight curse is the best hex and I didn't believe them, but it dropped a couple runs back and it's actually crazy good if you invest in it, with mirrored thrasher you can basically loop it, it affects 10 (!) enemies, you deal +40% damage to the cursed ones, and +15% for the rest of the encounter, and it even works on mini-bosses, just stand in front of a mini-boss and mash away

[craggy totem]

I mean, even with no investment, the utility is unmatched

[elfin heron]

doesn't work on guardians, but you still get +15% damage for the encounter, I believe

[rough lintel]

the nuke is the best tho with the right investment

[craggy totem]

There is nothing else in the game that guarantees you nullify every single (non-HP-bar-having) enemy's moveset

Not even freeze, ftr

[rough lintel]

curse is the best in surface

coz surface non-boss is annoying

surface is all about non-boss, uw is all about the 3 bosses

[elfin heron]

the summit enemies are awful, you definitely need CC or bounce back etc

[rough lintel]

3 out of the top 4 hardest bosses in the game is UW rivals

[magic valve]

Rivals Cerberus

[elfin heron]

is that the one where the arena has lava pools a la Asphodel

[rough lintel]

yea

[elfin heron]

fug

[rough lintel]

cerb is free

cerb is actual pushover

cerb is easier than hecate

[magic valve]

his rivals is so tough for me

[rough lintel]

hecate is hard coz 5m timer

[elfin heron]

regular cerb is ez, except sometimes there's literally no room left and you have to memorize in which order those things will explode and make room for you

[rough lintel]

even rival cerb is easy

[magic valve]

yeah

[torn wind]

Rivals cerb is easy if you don’t hit him while his hands are up

[rough lintel]

my rating for bosses in the game is like

r.chronos, r.scylla, r.prom, r.hecate, r.typhon

every other bosses is free

[torn wind]

And just stand behind him and avoid the occasional side swipe

[craggy totem]

I have seen even extremely good at the game high Fear runners get screwed or put in awkward situations by RNG on Rivals Cerb

He may be easier than some of the other contenders, but I wouldn't call hilim "easy"

[elfin heron]

I struggled with cerb for a couple runs because his hitboxes are MUCH larger than they seem, and that's what kept killing me, especially the fireballs and stomps, but once you know this you're good and won't take damage

[torn wind]

Easier yeah

[rough lintel]

he's still a boss

just an easy boss

[craggy totem]

And that's before you even get into the thing where apparently your familiars can trigger the counterattack

[torn wind]

Yeah gotta strafe him for that. I just always run behind him during that

Just in case