h2-builds-and-combat

[spiral wadi]

tbh i'd be mega down if they made it give movement speed per use in a location

then it becomes a hex that u don't get to cheat scars, but a hex that helps u evade easier

(and it should stack so i can save like 10 charges on chronos)

[empty musk]

Hmm that does kinda step on the territory of Wolf Howl and Plasma tho, plus Moon Water's prob the best hex for casual players rn and I know they hate movement speed 😭

How much healing does Pride of Poseidon do anyways? Like conservation 19 moon waters would def be broken with Scars 3 but would the godsent bypassing be that bad?

(I'm asking bc I never get to pick it up anyways nowadays bc of scars 💀)

[glass bone]

15 per use at base + 10 per Vigor upgrade + 40 per Godsent.

[spiral wadi]

fair, i meant like movement speed as an additional benefit rather than an entire replacement

[empty musk]

So basically it would become Revival x2

[spiral wadi]

poseidon godsent is really strong as is, just feels bad that it becomes redundant w scars maxed

[glass bone]

Sort of. Also the 40 Godsent is spread out over 10 seconds rather than a burst heal.

However useless this may feel, Moon Water can give magic back, and gold.

The Magic back is kind of decent; 50 Magic per second with Godsent, 50 Magic back per use with each Purity upgrade

Do note though this is what the wiki says so idk if that’s fully accurate (probably is?)

The gold part is actually bad though probably. 15 per Fortune per use.

[empty musk]

But the magic isn't basekit right, only with upgrades?

[glass bone]

Base kit is only the 15 HP per use.

So a Moonwater Hex with no upgrades is 45 HP per Region

[empty musk]

Yeah then replacing your gain w Moonwater is never really gonna be practical, not even thinking ab limited uses

[glass bone]

Yeah…

But it would be funny. Meme 50/62 run with Godsent Moonwater

It feels like that Blinding Rush Supay idea a while back. It would be fun, but completely impractical and probably detrimental to the run.

[flint widget]

i haven't played anubis in a while so correct me if im wrong but the ideal build for anubis is hestia attack and go all in on scorch, is it not?

asking cuz im doing anubis surface today

[wheat thistle]

Could be wrong- but I remember someone said before with Zeus attack and Hestia cast and trying for Thermal Dynamics? Or Hera attack and Hestia cast

[glass bone]

Anubis 62 UW runs have used Hestia / Zeus Attack + Zeus / Heph Special (the Heph Special is an outlier among 6 clears).
As for Surface, save for a single 50 fear clear, all had Zeus Attack and some form of Hestia (Special, Cast, or both).

I think if you are going for UW, Hestia Attack + Pyro Technique could be perfect (I myself did this in a recent 56 fear run). But because of Ephyra / Surface, high rolling for Thermal Dynamics on Attack probably is best.

[flint widget]

im going surface with zeus attack rn

massive damage

but im kinda cheeks with anubis

[glass bone]

Advice; always dash attack. The animation is so fast compared to regular attack.

And there is no damage difference iirc between attack and dash attack

[flint widget]

i see

is cardio gain good for anubis also since i took that as well

[glass bone]

I believe so Yes.

Anubis attack pulses are 1 per 0.2 seconds.

I think…

Ok actually now I’m not sure.

All I know is; Cardio Gain good. But a Gain (at-least for UW) is not extremely necessary. My 56 clear didn’t even have a Gain until Tartarus, and I had to take a boss room and 4 rerolls to get it.

[flint widget]

anubis just feels really bad without magick tbh

blitz procs are slow as hell without o attack

[glass bone]

True

[indigo viper]

I'm amazed by anyone who does such high fear runs

[tall notch]

Hestia attack feels better without magick since you're scorching everyone with the reg attack

[flint widget]

ok strength feels ass with high fear surface, switching to dds immediately

[glass bone]

I think the reverse should be stated, that high fear surface is awful.

[spiral wadi]

yea weirdly strength does (kinda) work in uw (emphasis on kinda), just absolutely not in surface LOL

like so many enemies are competing at the exact same time to be the "focus on me or die :)"

auto seekers have way more effective range in thessaly than olympus due to the smaller camera

p sure it's the same for the satyrs with cannons

my 62f mel torch clear survived as i brought pin from thessaly to summit, no keepsake change after hestia start

gale is cracked, love the 3 blocks

[flint widget]

u have a point

[spiral wadi]

lost 1dd but athena kept offering me stalwart, i literally can't take it otherwise my magick goes out the window

so had to spend all my rerolls just for a 1dd faith refill

[uneven palm]

Hestia, Zeus, Poseidon, or Hera attack, big +% or high-rarity Blitz special. Dash-strike into maybe O attack, cast, O special the room into your doom zone

[willow kraken]

is ||typhon|| immune to scorch?

[spiral wadi]

nah, typhon can be scorched, it's just that it's invisible on him

same w freeze

[flint widget]

ngl the fact that it took me three days to complete 48 fear surface when it took two hours to complete 48 fear underworld shows how surface really is a pain in the ass

[digital juniper]

for morrigan, what order do you guys like to do for the blood triad? just from feels i feel like it’s oattack into special into attack?

[sage flame]

dash attack -> special -> oattack

[glass bone]

The other thing I heard (but could never get down probably), is Attack -> Dash Cancel -> OAttack -> Special. Then I think the combo can continue with Attack -> OAttack?

There’s some combo video online that I saw. Go look it up on YT

[uneven palm]

That’s good for safety since the Omega’s the slowest part. Can also do dash -> special -> hold attack -> release

Fast double is O attack, special, hold attack, dash back, release

The standing attack procs the triad and does the attack for the second, and the boomerang special will cover that part of it

[digital juniper]

this would require some practice but sounds very strong once i get it down

[uneven palm]

Like in practice it’s more you’re just keeping eyes open for easy triads to close since a bunch of your attacks cover areas

[digital juniper]

i was also thinking about ocast for groups of enemies, big aoe and attack also has aoe, with special being able to pierce

[tall notch]

I kinda just try to get final slice and not rely on triads, morrigan specials feel awful to use

If i do triads, the attack and oatk tend to happen naturally and I'll throw a special out

[digital juniper]

morrigan specials do feel clunky to use compared to the other blades, but atleast early game the triads do feel crucial for your damage, but idk

[tall notch]

On low fear you can start Hestia and do damage without triads from the get go, high fear i haven't practiced enough morrigan

[tough vapor]

man tthe poison in the cyclops fight with the vow of rivals is absolute BRUTAL, idk if im doing smth that makes it especially bad, but it feels like im watching my health bar get flushed away

[tall notch]

are you playing with strength instead of death defiances by any chance

[surreal hazel]

Get to a shrine asap

Also there's no shame in taking the +50hp room in ephyra

[tough vapor]

ye, allways

[wheat thistle]

With scar 3 or nuh?

[tough vapor]

shrine?

[wheat thistle]

the fountains in the corner of the room

[tough vapor]

nah, specifically didnt take tthe dmg booster vow

[surreal hazel]

the fountains, yeah, you just gotta notice you've been got and get outta there

[tough vapor]

I did not now about that mechanic, that will make it much more bearable lol, I thought I was just boned and had to deal with taking such a massive DOT after getting hit with poison

[surreal hazel]

the game literally draws white lines from your character to the fountains

[tall notch]

ok yeah in the polyphemus fight specifically, dds are much better. strength doesnt affect the poison so its like you didnt have strength

[surreal hazel]

and they have a "Cure" prompt over them

[wheat thistle]

nahhh it cures your poison those fountains

[tough vapor]

look im blind sometimes okay lmao

[surreal hazel]

apparently!

[glass bone]

Don’t fret. I completely missed the fountains too the first three times I did the fight.

[restive bolt]

anyone know any good builds for mel skulls? it's my last 20 fear testament but it is surface and i suck at skulls

[uneven palm]

Any big percent on attack, Zeus/Ares/Heph on special for some supplemental damage. Possessed Array is the best hammer by a lot but you’ll need magick, like a lot of it (Born Gain or Flood Gain) for a lot of uptime. Otherwise Bolstered and Fetching are nice hammers.

Mel Skull is pretty straightforward mash attack semi-close, tap special to retrieve the ammo, special to the side if the enemy is armored and/or swinging at ya

[upbeat solstice]

What do you guys like to run with Xinth? I'm ngl I have a really hard time finding a good style for this weapon on all of it's aspects

[toxic pebble]

not even lying when i say double heph blast

and probably smolder ring, blinding rush, and glamour gain for the duos

[upbeat solstice]

So you run Heph on both special and attack? I always thought Heph was for slower hitting weapons

[olive sphinx]

which aspect?

[upbeat solstice]

I mostly use Shiva, Melinoe, and Nyx

though any suggestions for Selene are very welcome

[olive sphinx]

I think Heph is mostly good as a "support" god for utility stuff, not for like a main source of damage... So I don't think he's good for Xinth lol

[austere swan]

Apollo goes crazy on Coat attack, especially because the "larger area" is way bigger than on any other weapon

[toxic pebble]

it depends on whether heph is your main or secondary god. if he's your secondary (like most people would have), it's better on slower attacks because you typically don't use them as often, which fits with the blast cooldown.

with heph as primary, he can work on literally any aspect as long as you get as many poms as possible. and having both attack and special means that you get the blasts twice as often

[upbeat solstice]

I shall give it a try... The game tells me that Xinth craves bones

[toxic pebble]

the most recent heph buffs have made him a viable damage dealer. i beat 32f rivals chronos first try with a blast build on shiva

[olive sphinx]

that sounds crazy... doesn't shiva want a percentage boon on attack??

[upbeat solstice]

I just have a hard time figuring out what to run on Rapid-firing weapons in general tbh

[olive sphinx]

Poseidon and Hestia mainly

hestia 100% is the best choice though

just make sure to get pyro technique!!!

[toxic pebble]

i mean it mostly depends on how you play. with heph, you don't have to set up and charge the omega attack on shiva, and getting the cooldown to 2 sec isn't even that hard to do

[olive sphinx]

but then why are you playing Shiva and not Mel? because then you dont get any bonuses from the Shiva thing..

[toxic pebble]

poseidon is the best for rapid attacks because it's flat damage.

[olive sphinx]

not really because you need to remember that the ICD exists 😔

[toxic pebble]

imo the special works really well with it. you can still get the destructive benefit (albeit weaker than if you have a percent attack boon), but it becomes really safe when you alternate the omega special and block, which aspect of mel can't do

although it does absolutely work on aspect of mel too

[toxic pebble]

they did the panseidon build so dirty with that 😭

[upbeat solstice]

Does Scorch stack or something?

[olive sphinx]

yes!!!

scorch is AMAZING!!!

[austere swan]

tbh I think Coat is low-key not really a rapid-fire weapon (well except on the special) and that might be part of why a lot of people haven't taken to it

[toxic pebble]

ye up to 999, plus there's tons of extra boons (thermal dynamics, burning desire, pyro technique) that make it really strong

[olive sphinx]

the rapid hits come from the dash attack there

[austere swan]

it seems like it should be with the similar attack style to Hades 1 fists and the attack speed boost on Aspect of Mel but it really does work better with percentage boons imo

[austere swan]

that is true

(Exhaust Riser my beloved)

[spiral wadi]

thinking about how funny it'd be if stalwart was shifted onto dionysus

[civic ocean]

Narc

[spiral wadi]

true...

[clever aurora]

Can I have some useful tips against Cerberus in its Vow of Rivals form? I literally do not know how to avoid any of his attacks when he blocks, spits fireballs (without the animation of spitting them), and covers almost the entire map with AoE circles?

Hell, not even Typon in his VoR form is this big of a pain in the ass for me

[median anvil]

the block is actually a parry, if you attack him while he's blocking he will shoot fireballs back

[clever aurora]

Oh wow

[median anvil]

so just stop attacking for two seconds when he blocks

the aoe circles are experience based, you gotta fight him until it clicks

[clever aurora]

That's a bit difficult when I have the Aspect of Supay

[spiral wadi]

when he does the fireball spit, he only dashes if the fireballs are sort of "spread out", and will hold fire if the fireballs are a straight line

and he also dashes in the exact direction that he's facing

[median anvil]

the non omega attack and non omega special don't activate his parry i think

there are a few damage sources that don't activate it

[spiral wadi]

o i misread the fireball spit thing lol

aoe circle spam kinda dumb tbh, there's like one or two safe spots but otherwise i find i rather just stand in lava to take like 3 to 5 ticks of fire damage over however much an aoe circle does

[clever aurora]

This sole fight is the only thing I really disliked about Hades 2 ever since the update dropped and it has been making me scratch my head ever since.

Hopefully I can just find a way to turn it into a somewhat satisfactory experience, if not entirely plausible.

[spiral wadi]

tbh yea it's still a fun fight overall, just gets a little unfair

thankfully it's not as unfair as on release when cerb used to spawn magma on top of himself when he unburrowed, or during his other moves

[clever aurora]

Meanwhile my old man at the bottom spawns a clone and even that clone respects the distance between me and him

the dog has some issues, someone needs to spray him with water

[median anvil]

i think boated has a 62 fear run with supay, you can watch him and see how he fights the big boy

[spiral wadi]

whenever i'm away from cerb i'm always like "please don't spit please don't spit please don't oh okay"

[clever aurora]

That would be helpful, will give it a watch after I am done with my run. Thanks!

[spiral wadi]

like legitimately if they make it so cerb only spits fire if ur away from him it'd be 10 times more enjoyable

cuz i think one of the better ways to beat cerb anyway is to stay close to him

ig fire spit is easy to deal with anyway when ur right by him, but there's like a really weird "not near but also kinda near" spot that still lets cerb goob u

[clever aurora]

yeah

[median anvil]

the trick is to ultra instinct your way through every attack to keep your lovers for the spit 😤

if you're playing 65 or 67 fear then 🫵 😂

[spiral wadi]

true,,

his paw chase attack actually has pretty fun tech to dodge, back and forth dashing

[median anvil]

i only do that when i know he's got me cause it's pretty hard to pull off

[spiral wadi]

yea it's a lil weird to get used to but hella fun to perform

[surreal hazel]

You asked for the hardest the game had to offer, so this is what you get

[flint widget]

how do u guys dash strike consistently on controller? i did a run where i had mel blades tk but i couldnt get tk out like half the time cuz when i tried to dash strike it let out the reg attack

[spiral wadi]

iirc it only throws tk for the first "attack" of the multiattack combo

so just don't spam attack

[flint widget]

i see

[wheat thistle]

Is there any consistent way to not take damage during the bullet hell phase of Charybdis? (without using an Aspect that has a block or having Athena's deflects) ;-;

[spiral wadi]

if only

wait the midphase of charyb?

sprint to one side of the arena arc, then once charyb spits like 2 or 3 balls, walk (no sprinting) along the wider arc wall all the way to the other side of the arena

it's dumb but it works

[wheat thistle]

Yeah the surface route one

not err UW rival

[wheat thistle]

Do you stick to the edge of the arena for this while walking or stays in the middle path?

[median anvil]

edge

[vague eagle]

Is there some trick to dash-strike I’m not getting? I keep failing to do it

[brave dove]

hm? are you sure you're not just not noticing it? the dash strike on many weapons is visually essentially identical to the regular attack if you're not very cued into animation lock

it's attack after dash though, not before

[empty musk]

Hold the dash button for slightly longer compared to Hades 1 so you do the beginning of sprint, good habit anyways for i frames

[wooden carbon]

is there any guide or something about which vows to take for 16 to 32 fear? there was one for hades 1

[glass bone]

One is being worked on by unexplainedbacn, but it’s not done (partly because 1.0 is not here yet). If you need some guide now. If you want an idea of a relatively simple 32 Fear clear, you’ll need Rivals;

• Wards 2
• Frenzy 2
• Menace 2
• Fangs 2
• Debt 2
• Shadow
• Timer 2
• Hubris 2
• Denial
• Rivals 2

[civic ocean]

I rebind dash and cast to the shoulder buttons

[glass bone]

However, most combos of 32 can be cleared pretty well without a huge amount of practice. In general, I’d say there’s a few vows you want to avoid, then trade any vows for what you may not want:
Rivals 3 (Surface), Rival 4 (both), Pain 3 (if you are bad at dodging), Grit + Hordes (because Timer is much easier to deal with than super tanky bosses and enemies), Forfeit (losing 1 boon per region is actually a big deal if Debt is also taken), Void (Arcana are really important, so keep it).

[brave dove]

Wait is bacn recommending this vow setup

[glass bone]

If you want to go beyond 32 Fear, you can really do any combo of 32 (preferably Rival maxed), save for Void, because that vow still sucks

[glass bone]

No. This is just my opinion

[brave dove]

I need to play more so I can re-establish the credibility to declare war

I would say rivals 2 underworld is significantly harder than fear you've left on the table, like time 3 - debt 2 and wards 2 are also genuinely very hard vows that I would try to keep out of 'easiest 32' setups

[glass bone]

Do casuals hate Return?

[brave dove]

like I think with rivals 2 and wards 2 you have lost substantially more time than time 2 -> time 3

idk about casuals but I hate it

[glass bone]

Really I was thinking like… clearing Rival Scylla would be the big pain point of the run, but then you coast it.

[brave dove]

return, wards and rivals UW all have massive impacts on timer and any form of 'easiest 32' is going to include time 2 or time 3

It is, but you've given yourself a genuinely very rough erebus

[glass bone]

I feel stuck trying to figure out what casuals are fine with or not fine with, because I’ve been “high-fear pilled”. Since you’ve joined back, I have cleared 62. So trying to figure out the worst elements when I’m constantly wanting to do 40-50+ is uh… a challenge.

[brave dove]

Well I wouldn't describe anyone going for 32 as a casual, generally

[glass bone]

Well I feel like a casual player may want to go for the statues. Though I guess also some may stop at Statue 2 since it’s not an achievement.

[brave dove]

Casual player =/= achievement chaser

they are just entirely separate demographics the venn diagrams do not touch

[glass bone]

Ok, so the right word is the latter.

Or “hardcore players” I guess

[brave dove]

for people who are looking for easiest 32 I would personally avoid the ones that make erebus hell (rivals, wards, hordes, return) and econ vows (debt, forfeit)

[glass bone]

I do want to figure out good advice for those wanting to do all the statues, because I don’t want to be an elitist.

Yeah, but also there are people saying that Hordes felt easy.

So I’ve considered the “Erebus Hell” to be Hordes, along with stuff like Wards or Grit

[brave dove]

hordes is easy for nergal, specifically

the thing about the erebus hell vows is they have a really snarly compounding effect on each other

https://h2crossroads.pages.dev/FearCalculator/?vows=WzMsMCwwLDYsMCwzLDAsNSwyLDAsMiwwLDYsMCwyLDIsMF0= I would personally say that the easiest 32 is this + whatever 1 fear you find easiest out of what's left. With that said I would say if you're willing to do rivals you can cut a lot of potential personal pain points - just don't take rivals 4

it's kinda annoying they cut surface back to 24 because I do think rivals is in easiest surface 32

[glass bone]

What about 24?

Rival Poly and Eris isn’t taken for about 1/5 of the requirement?

[brave dove]

I mean frenzy/fangs/time already gives you 17...

the other thing about 24 is it enters the Frenzy Debate Zone

[glass bone]

Like I could see Frenzy 2, Menace 2, Shadow, Hubris, Time 2, Denial, and Rivals 2 + 1 could be good.

Because I thought people don’t like Timer, and especially Timer 3

[brave dove]

like I guess frenzy 2 fangs 2 denial time 3 and rivals 2 would prolly be my picks but yeah that one's probably also fine, I'm just not sure if I'd recommend it (either mine or yours) because a lot of people have trouble with poly's poison and unrivaled strife is unintuitively hard to beat the timer on on cast or scorch builds

[glass bone]

I feel like the Poison of Rival Poly is like a memory game almost like Prom, because the phase transitions are always the same. I don’t think it’s the exact same order for putting down poison, but I know the patterns are the same.

[glass bone]

Idk how much of this helped for you, but hopefully this all does.

**or just wait some weeks / months for the guide

[brave dove]

oh yeah to answer this basically vows are a lot more flexible than they were in h1 and somewhat more balanced, so to a degree this is always going to be a personalised answer

particularly given how people can have very different reactions to vow of time

so I suppose the question would be what are you looking to clear it on

[wooden carbon]

well i guess ill have this list in mind but also adjust to whatever

thanks guys

[brave dove]

the main thing I will ask is how high are you intending on going?

vow of frenzy is an infamously somewhat strange vow where it's extremely difficult if you don't add it on until 32 or later but you can adjust to its highest level to the degree it becomes barely noticeable if you start using it early

but it's hard to get used to and it's much more difficult than other vows per fear in a vacuum, and if you ever turn it off you have to relearn the muscle memory again so, pros and cons :v

[digital juniper]

wait so going from frenzy to non frenzy doesn’t just straight up feel like easy mode?

actually no nvm, i understand what you mean by the muscle memory

a few times frigid rush made me get hit by the typhon ball attack because i got used to it being quicker

or hard target with hecate sheep ball

[brave dove]

yeah basically

[glass shell]

it actually feels like turning up the difficulty lowkey

mostly bosses

[brave dove]

you become emboldened by the flame of ambition...

[glass shell]

chronos pump faking you it feels like on frenzy 0 after playing on frenzy 2

[digital juniper]

yeah i’m still at my early stages of getting used to frenzy 2, so im still learning about that

[brave dove]

anyway yes this but also I mean that if you play on frenzy 0 for more than a few runs you will have to relearn frenzy 2

[digital juniper]

but yeah jesus does chronos feel like a whole different fight on frenzy 2, and that’s without rivals

[brave dove]

so once it's on, you keep it on

[digital juniper]

ahh i didn’t even consider that

[brave dove]

it's probably the biggest reason frenzy 2 is a default in every high fear loadout, aside from it lowkey helping a bit with timer

[digital juniper]

and as hard as it is with all the other vows, it’s mostly pretty fun IMO

[wooden carbon]

i imagine 32 since thats what ive done in hades 1 but maybe ill go further in a later point

[brave dove]

personally I'd just experiment on your own with a few fears - you can always ask on here for a relatively easy setup for any given fear level

not all vows are even but the most dangerous ones tend to be either fairly obvious - scars 3, void - or they're dangerous because of compounding effects with other vows (the hordes/wards/return/grit combo here to make you time out in erebus)

[glass bone]

Or Mount Olympus (though that’s also because of Rival Prom)

[brave dove]

thessaly and rivals prom both yee, though surface rewards stopping at 24 fear means it's only really the challenge runners who push hard enough to find out

[glass bone]

I have, and I hate it

And idk if either region will be changed in 1.0

[brave dove]

wdym you don't like 90k hp after two incredibly long regions-

with forced invulnerability periods*

knucklebones helps a lot but there's only so much you can do if unrivaled strife decided to play 'fly up and down every 2 seconds' so you brought no buffer into olympus and got no skips

hecate's still my public enemy #1 for time wasting bosses tho

[glass bone]

Not as if the last one is any easier too. I have one 50 Fear Max rival surface clear, and I’d feel content with just that.

[brave dove]

typhon was briefly the easier of the unrivaled bosses then they gave him his current p1.4 and it's just kinda 'oh okay'

I'm still not certain he's not easier but if he is it's only because surface resources and invulnerability tricks make damage racing that phase viable even on very high fear

[glass bone]

Well also Rival Chronos has a cheese button like Scylla and Prom in the form of Deep Dissent

[brave dove]

deep dissent my beloved...

[glass bone]

Watch all 3 cheeses get nuked in 1.0

[brave dove]

deep dissent or unseen ire or bust

tbh decent odds they do remove what deep dissent does to clonos rn, but as long as it continues to skip the miniboss phase it'll be value

[glass bone]

Well it also sometimes affects the clones as well. That I feel is useful.

[brave dove]

yeah, clonos

[glass bone]

Worst case scenario, people will be forced into running the Melting Hammers I guess.

[brave dove]

in practice what you do is you just hit chronos while the miniboss is active, it doesn't carry over to p2

unless you have hera godsent so you want the miniboss or similar

[glass bone]

True. I wonder if there’s been a high fear run that claimed the miniboss with Sun Worshipper

So the only one with the boon at a high level UW is Foolish’s 62 Moros clear.

Hmm… You’d think it would be taken more because Hera and Apollo are such common gods (for Hitch and Blinding Rush)

[restive bolt]

possessed array is so absurd but i wish they made it clear that it doesn't work with hexes or heartthrobs

[brave dove]

They did change the wording for that - it says that you lose magick, rather than spending it, IIRC.

[restive bolt]

okay fair enough

[spiral wadi]

i had a run that did get sun worshipper and it was a good run, i fumbled at prom tho

ah miniboss claim for rchronos spawn

seems hard when his minions suck ass to fight

[glass bone]

True. And also I think the miniboss is the 3rd set of spawns / the second time he goes invincible in Phase 2.

But it would be amazing if pulled off.

[spiral wadi]

sun worshipper still evil cuz charmed poisoned barrel lobbers in polyphemus will still throw barrels at poly, but their poison pools still poison u

[glass bone]

Same thing with Night Bloomed ones?

[spiral wadi]

ye

and prob same for aphro hera

[glass bone]

Add it to the list of reasons why I hate Surface

[spiral wadi]

dw i already reported it like a month ago or smth

[glass bone]

12 more days to go, and then we will get the maybe final balance patch (and also the story patch).

[wooden carbon]

also another question, does huntress work with aspect of charon and lucid gain? because the magick goes down but comes back up

[glass bone]

You don’t want to be using Huntress on Charon, because it only effects Attack and Special

[wooden carbon]

oh it doesnt work on omega? if so then yeah i need to remove it

[glass bone]

Night is also a trap card, because it doesn’t work with the Omega Cast explosion iirc.

[wooden carbon]

good thing i wasnt using it xd

im debating between artificer or lovers for my last 3 grasp

[glass bone]

If you have Rivals on, take Lovers, especially for Surface. Artificer’s main use is to hope for Hammers or Boons in UW (specifically with Vow of Forfeit)

In general, Lovers is more popular nowadays

[wooden carbon]

i have rivals 2 on 24 fear surface

[glass bone]

Here’s what I could say; Artificer has a chance to save about 2-3 shop items across the run, while Lovers could save like… 100 damage over the course of the run.

[wooden carbon]

fair enough

[glass bone]

Also with Charon, start Apollo, grab Lucid Gain common rarity if you can, then rarify either Blinding Rush or Nova Flourish if you get a second Apollo boon. If you don’t get Nova Flourish, next best special is Sworn Flourish (Hera).

For Hammers, aim for the two OSpecial hammers (Giga Cleaver and Sudden Cleaver)

Apollo Legendary could also work in replace or alongside Giga Cleaver

And just be sure to not over prime your magic

[wooden carbon]

yeah ive been doing pretty much that, the workflow seems pretty obvious

[brave dove]

quick tip: if something says Attack, it means it only affects the regular attack

if it says Attacks it means it affects both the regular attack and the omega attack

same for special and specials

there's uhhh, one exception to this I can think of (medea claims to boost ospec, it does not) but that's a bug/error

[toxic pebble]

medea has a few errors tbh. doesn't it still boost cast damage by the full 90%?

[brave dove]

it does, yeah

that's expected to be gone in 1.0

[olive sphinx]

if it says Attacksss it means dash-strike too

(I wish there was a distinction for when the dash strike is affected or not)

[glass bone]

Where does is say Attacksss?

[toxic pebble]

really funny honestly, they should just keep that (ignore that medea is like the strongest aspect in the game)

[olive sphinx]

in the game?

[glass bone]

It was sarcasm. Because I don’t think there’s 3 s’s in Attacks

[brave dove]

don't most Attack-only effects also do that except for hammers

[olive sphinx]

clearly you haven't been paying attention enough...

[brave dove]

I know huntress boosts dash-strikes, for example

[olive sphinx]

I don't know.. I think there are some exceptions?

[brave dove]

aren't there always 😩

[olive sphinx]

😔 this game is at least better balanced than hades 1!

[toxic pebble]

vow of scars lurking in the corner

[glass bone]

True. It’s when certain weapons get to certain levels of far when it doesn’t feel so great, but is still leagues better than Hades 1 high fear

[brave dove]

they just mcfking gave up with vow of scars and specifically added some stuff to work through it

'we're never getting them all, so some of them are just gonna work'

[glass bone]

Like I feel like 62 and 67 Fear are far easier than their equivalents in Hades 1

[median anvil]

chaos revival is so based

[brave dove]

yes because of approval process

but mechanically I'd say h2 is rougher

[toxic pebble]

i'm fine with things working through it (ghost onion needed the buff tbh), but they should give it a new description (call it true healing or something)

[brave dove]

you have to press more buttons more cleverly and faster

[median anvil]

the will of night says you can't heal? well i say you can spawn of hades huh how about that??

[glass bone]

Yeah, but also Renewed Faith cheese exists.

[brave dove]

I wouldn't call renewed faith cheese

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qppmjhIJYU I might call this cheese

[glass bone]

It feels like it at times. 8 Death Defiances is a lot.

[brave dove]

stubborn defiance was in h1

[glass bone]

Though also this feels like a parroted opinion…

[brave dove]

and you can't take both that and renewed faith in h2

*niche uses of concave stone aside

[toxic pebble]

i knew it was nergal before even opening it lol

[brave dove]

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/874854721968541736/1394348083302764554/image.png?ex=68c6e6d8&is=68c59558&hm=99cda4893aa7541b6e7e18447cd32f3b79c9f3c68f9c2281f5ac6c1937f4c7dc&=&format=webp&quality=lossless

[toxic pebble]

i need to make that for some other things lol

[indigo viper]

I need to help - how avoid Typhon's lick slap? These red pulses have so huge aoe

[fresh galleon]

Dashing into them at the right time always works for me. You're momentarily vulnerable when you dash, so when you dash into it right as it's coming your way, you dodge it. Took me a bit to the timing right

[digital juniper]

you can do this with almost all if not all attacks by the way!

[restive bolt]

i really appreciate that they added a second route and that it's harder than the underworld, but thessaly is probably my least favorite location in both games. having mutiple fights in the same location is such a nerf on trusty shield and i really hate the enemies that shoot three strings of projectiles lol. also hestia is avoiding me even with rolls

anyone have any tips for smaller boats?

[spiral wadi]

what weapon u using

in general but for smaller boats especially, it helps to use ur cast to stop enemies from diving into u

[restive bolt]

nyx coat, the issue is mostly automatons and i'm getting used to vow of fangs as well

[spiral wadi]

ah gotchu

[glass bone]

Oh yeah. The automatons can suck. You want to cast slow the melee ones, and hide behind cover if possible for the ranged ones

I know this is a cop-out answer, but also. Demeter is huge for Surface, because the enemies in Surface are leagues above UW

[spiral wadi]

auto-seekers when they take any source of damage they instantly go into self-defense mode (one time), u can abuse this by trying to deal w other enemies first, but when the seeker starts charging and ur not behind any cover, that's when u can poke them

[restive bolt]

she was mvp for my last string of surface victories, tho i unfortunately only had ice strike and not arctic ring lol

[digital juniper]

for the enemies that shoot three strings, when you realize that just dodging perpendicular to your shots completely invalidates them, they become much easier

i’m also getting used to menace and fangs, and only recently have found these guys to be easy-ish to deal with

[spiral wadi]

for the auto beyblade guys, u either wait for them to stop spinning or keep hitting them until they die

on surface i find it helps to get aphro cast to just group em all up together

[glass bone]

Also, be careful of the Anchors. Those I feel are the worst out of the natural Thessaly enemies.

[spiral wadi]

i just remembered ppl still shocked that i put aphro cast on circe

ss tier boon

[restive bolt]

i'm sayin

[brave dove]

aphro cast is solid but never quite as good as I want it to be

[digital juniper]

was it an ocast build atleast? or was majority of your damage the staff’s basekit?

[restive bolt]

definitely. i'm honestly glad once olympus rolls around because then i have a build for automatons, cover, and i don't have to mind the giant aoe

[glass bone]

I think the reason why is because Storm Ring and Smolder Ring are used so much, and any AQ builds are more Demeter than Aphro

[spiral wadi]

nah, high fear omegas aren't worth so just normal cast

[glass bone]

Also because so few do High Fear surface

[digital juniper]

i’m not good with the staff basekit yet, so all my circe runs were just storm ring or smolder ring and pyro hard carrying

[spiral wadi]

tbh i haven't played circe in so long, i think one of my uw clears it was like blitz on spec freeze on atk

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/773298528310001716/1416500799940591637/Screenshot_2025-09-13_at_12.08.16_PM.png

[glass bone]

Dash Attack Special combo imo is a fantastic way to start. Like I imagine there’s sometimes where you want to do the full Attack combo, but Dash Attack Special feels so good

[digital juniper]

yeah i’ve been trying to incorporate dash attack into special but i just get lost in the sauce and randomly alternate between atk and special

melting swipe on top of it is just a beauty

[glass bone]

For the most part, Staff OAttack and OSpecial on Not Anubis is… bad. You can still use OCasts or the like for Sharks in UW, but the main damage stuff I think is that combo, in part because you can immediately dash cancel out, and repeat

[spiral wadi]

it prob didn't help that the aphro cast clear also had black night banishment that smited grit so dmg wasn't as important, but thankfully uw doesn't have an hp problem

but yea storm/smolder/froth/daze, all quite strong offensive casts

[glass bone]

Red I have an idea. There’s 12 days left before 1.0 releases. What if all casts with Circe can be brought to 62?

[digital juniper]

oh yeah i barely if ever use oattacks on staff(never even ran momus before)

it’s that instead of constantly dash attack->special it’s just a mix of a few attacks into a special into dash and repeat

[glass bone]

All cast boons anyway. Not counting Castless Circe

[spiral wadi]

on one hand this sounds fun but on the other hand trying to win with hitch cast circe sounds miserable

[digital juniper]

apollo cast without winner’s circle also doesn’t sound much fun

[spiral wadi]

also i'm not doing like 6 circe runs after finally beating 62f mel flame on both routes

[glass bone]

currently there’s 5 different casts done. Zeus, Hestia, Heph, Aphro, and Demeter

[spiral wadi]

current goal is to see how far i can take mel axe

ok poseidon cast should be easy af to get

[civic ocean]

I am going to be recording commentary of my 62F Nergal run on Twitch now if anyone wants to tune in, video should be up later

[spiral wadi]

apollo cast should be straightforward, just get winner's circle and prob blast on spec

[glass bone]

I feel like Ares and Hera may or may not require duo boons

[spiral wadi]

hitch cast prob helps for cc honestly, i think the best hammers to go with it would be longer range atk or shimmering spec

[glass bone]

I.e. Queen’s Ransom and the immediate fall one

[spiral wadi]

ares would, suck cuz cast falling blades are bad and dumb

[glass bone]

The mighty God of War turns out to not be good at War. At-least it’s accurate to the source material

[spiral wadi]

i mean omega falling blades are really strong generally

it's just that, cast falling blades is not good and it should swap places with blade rift

ig that'd get too much air quality value

[brave dove]

what attack boon did you use-

[visual verge]

What do yall think about Nyx black coat? Seems just okay at a first glance. A bit of a burst of damage then some aoe

[glass bone]

Imo it’s the best coat

Scorch spam is ridiculously strong

[visual verge]

It felt solid when i was running it with scortch attack and blitz special. Do the duplicated attacks hit the first target too?

[glass bone]

No, the best part of Nyx is the Special

[visual verge]

oh?

[glass bone]

And I don’t fully remember if it does hit the same target

Well, each special fires 3 missiles. Then each of those fire 2 more. So that’s basically 9 Specials per special button

[visual verge]

dam, so you put scortch on special and just go to town?

[glass bone]

Yeah. And be sure to grab Pyro Technique for the latter 2 regions

[visual verge]

Yeah, that feels really really good on any scortch build

[glass bone]

Also, you can take either Cardio Gain, Flood Gain, or Glamour Gain as a great gain to solve magic

[visual verge]

What do you reccomend for attack?

[glass bone]

Hera or Demeter could work

Well, Demeter is better on Cast

Mainly the Attack is a way for a second curse.

Though you could away with No Attack Boon if you take Glamour Gain / Blinding Rush

[visual verge]

Hera seems strong, the damage share with the dot seems quite good

[glass bone]

Yeah. I will say though that if you are on Surface, then Blitz Special can still work, provided you fish specifically for Thermal Dynamics

So if you are playing UW, just start Hestia. If you are in Surface, either go for Hestia Special, or Zeus Special with the intention of Thermal Dynamics

[visual verge]

Nice, ill have to do some more runs with it

Thanks!

[surreal hazel]

Hard no for nightspawn to hit the same target as the main attack

[visual verge]

Makes sense. It would be kinda wild if it did

[surreal hazel]

They're coded not to. They'll target anything else in preference

[vagrant sentinel]

ANYBODY PLEASE I NEED A GOOD BUILD SP I CAN DEFEAT TYPHON AM GOING TO BED REACT TO MY MESSAGE SO ILL SER IT TOMMPRPW GOODNIGHT YALL

[glass bone]

I am confused what you need….

Is it a Moonstone Axe surface clear? Or asking if Poseidon waves work for the axe? Or something else?

[vagrant sentinel]

No any weapon

[glass bone]

Ok… what fear?

[vagrant sentinel]

None

Even without i camt beat him yet

So i thought maybe somebody could help me here

[glass bone]

And also is there a specific weapon you want to clear it on, because all weapons can clear up to 32 well enough with practice.

[vagrant sentinel]

Anything but not the bomb

And i always beging with the wheel

Yo imma go to sleep so tag me with @ if you have a build

[glass bone]

Ok, specific weapon ideas. I guess I’ll provide one for each weapon (except Skull I guess). No hidden aspects either.
Staff: Circe; take Hestia Cast, Pyro Technique, some form of Demeter (Attack or Special), and Arctic Gale.
Blade: Mel Blade; try for a Blast Blade build, aiming for the duos between Heph, and Hestia / Apollo (Hestia most important imo).
Torch: Moros; Hera Attack, Zeus Special, Born Gain
Axe: Charon; Nova Flourish, Lucid Gain, Sudden And/Or Giga Cleaver as hammers
Coat: Nyx; Scorch Special, Cardio Gain, Pyro Technique

[restive bolt]

charon axe is very simple and can be extremely good if you get lucky. you'll want lucid gain, omega special hammers like the other person said, and it's borderline broken if you can get the phase shift hex and other olympian effects for omega moves. i would reccommend starting with the harmonic photon, going for lucid gain, and most special boons will work though poseidon is really good. it's harder to use during prometheus but it's all about just not getting hit!!

[civic ocean]

I, too, desire a good build so that I can defeat typhon

[toxic pebble]

my favorite build is medea with zeus special and hera attack, but it's a pretty unsafe aspect so i wouldn't recommend if you haven't learn the enemy attacks yet

[wooden carbon]

What gods besides apollo would you recommend for a charon build? Ive been doing apollo poseidon demeter and hephaestus for defense but maybe there's some duo boon or some other combo im missing out?

[glass bone]

Hera Special can work if you don’t get Nova Flourish

[wooden carbon]

Most of the times I do manage to get the basic build, im talking extras for empowering the build

[glass bone]

Oh. Geyser Spout is amazing for Charon.

[wooden carbon]

Ive been doing geyser and climate but like since I dont know much about all the duos Ive been thinking about them

Anything for this or nothing that helps much? Like generally they are pretty good

[glass bone]

So outside of more universal duos (such as Island Getaway, Sun Worshipper, etc), the only duo I can think of would be Hostile Environment, and Tropical Cyclone. However, that feels like a huge high roll to go for either of them

Because for Charon, you already need some Special boon, typically a cast boon, Lucid gain, and preferably one of the two OSpecial hammers

I guess an ideal god combo is Ares (literally just Meat Grinder and that’s basically it), Apollo (Nova Flourish, Lucid Gain, and maybe Solar Ring), Demeter (Dem Attack / Sprint), and Poseidon (Tidal Ring + Geyser Spout)

[wooden carbon]

I mean I get that part I just enjoy trying to maximize the builds I have, so going towards duo boons at the same time is something ill want to do

[glass bone]

I mention Tropical Cyclone because if you get Arctic Gusts, you can generally hit the cyclones regularly

But it’s probably not as important as Geyser Spout or even Hostile Environment

[marsh beacon]

I don't care if it's not the most min-max, riposte daggers and playing ninja-witch is my favorite way to play.

[toxic pebble]

i would love riposte if it wasn't so awkward to use. it's just too often where i'll just be slowly walking awkwardly waiting for an enemy to hit me

it'd be a perfect aspect if not for that

[brave dove]

arty's really good tbh

it has the usual knives issue of being night and day with and without trick knives but that's fine

[rich belfry]

guys whats a good build for morrigan? trying to learn it and beat fear 24 but i cant till now

[toxic pebble]

morrigan works great with a lot of things, but i think the best would be hera special. anything else doesn't matter too much. you could do poseidon, hestia, or even heph attack

[brave dove]

you mean attack not special right

[glass shell]

morrigan is quite literally the weapon that is "pick anything"

it is probably the most build agnostic weapon in the game

[rich belfry]

kinda all

[brave dove]

no I mean, hera attack not hera special

[rich belfry]

yeah thats why im just trying till i find something

[brave dove]

hera attack is good on morrigan because of the oattack echoes and blood triad being transmitted through hitch, hera special is... worse than engagement ring, to the best of my knowledge

[glass shell]

biggest thing to learn with morrigan is the combos to cleanly execute the triad adn learning when to not triad

like you don't need 777 damage on some random mobs, just spam dash attack > follow up > repeat

[brave dove]

also try to roll sweeping ambush or final slice

strongly advise not failing to roll one of them

[glass shell]

never normal attack

[waxen niche]

Typhon's last phase tongue attack is the worst. That second sweep is getting me every time.

[spiral wadi]

if u mean the tongue laser attack, there's a blind spot right in front of typhon

when typhon starts throwing stuff that actually covers that blindspot, yea ur kinda forced to actually dodge that second sweep

[humble dagger]

Completely new player here, I'm looking to play a somewhat melee/midrange build and I'm wondering if I'm missing something about the weapons.

The Staff seems to me like it has a super good moveset from the start - adding some kind of boons for normal attacks (Wave Strike/Nova Strike/...), cast boons like Arctic Gale, and maybe some rush boons, and I feel like I got a fun and build already, plus those boons aren't that hard to come by. I haven't seen any Daedalus Hammer upgrades that are a must for the Staff.

Meanwhile the Sister Blades have super short reach, the normal Omega is fine, special is nothing special, and on the 2 runs I did with them, I managed to grab Final Slice on 1 of them which makes them more usable, but I feel like it's still nothing compared to how easy to use the Staff is. On the other run I got nothing and it was miserable, and I hate having to depend on a specific Daedalus Hammer upgrade.

Am I missing something here? Just kinda curious to me how to starter weapon is so good and feels so much better to use.

Also FYI I'm completely new to the roguelike genre too so it could be that my understanding of the game is flawed 😄

[median anvil]

well the first thing to note is that you don't have weapon aspects yet, they really spice up your weapon gameplay

so yeah you kinda are missing something about the weapons 😂

for blades if you can somehow get the "trick knives" hammer it should get you what you want
if you have the torches unlocked, you can make a build revolving around specials and omega specials

staff doesn't have any must take hammers yeah, but the best ones are dual moonshot and mirrored thrasher
the must takes for blade and torches are trick knives and hidden helix respectively

[earnest arrow]

Hope this is the right place to ask this. I haven't played yet—was waiting for 1.0. Are there guides available yet similar to some of the big Hades 1 guides (e.g., Bananas' 32 heat guide and leereamsnyder build ideas for all weapon aspects)?

[median anvil]

leereamsnyder just finished his build guide a week or two ago, currently asking for feedback on it to improve it. i don't think anything available specifically for high difficulty runs, you'll have to ask for advice in #h2-discussion once you wanna do it

[earnest arrow]

Thank you. Appreciate the response. Is Lee's guide published publicly or are they waiting for feedback and to finalize it after 1.0 launch? I don't see it on their website but I might just be being dumb. (I can imagine with lots of changes in early access no one has been eager to put a comprehensive guide out.)

[median anvil]

yes all the pros are waiting for 1.0 to make guides

i think lee's guide isn't public yet? he sent something in the speedrunning discord but i didn't check it out

[earnest arrow]

Thanks. I'll see what I can find in the speedrunning discord

[digital juniper]

Yeah the guide isn’t public yet. If i’m not mistaken he’s both still refining it and waiting for 1.0 balance changes

[humble dagger]

Ah okay that makes sense, I think Aspect of Pan really spiced up Sister Blades, but so far I still think I enjoy the moveset of the Staff more

[open flume]

I need ideas how to get most out of aspect of shiva pls

[median anvil]

take hecuba and grab either tranquil or born gain

[open flume]

yeah need a lot of magic

[glass bone]

Flood Gain could also work. Just note there are intervals where you can be primed, but you are never infinitely primed (because even at 0 magic, you can still use your omega moves when it’s off cooldown provided you do have enough magic to do it if you were at max magic). Flood Gain is better for bosses, Born Gain is better for room clearing. At-least imo

[open flume]

i primed out with born gain vs rivals chronos last time lol

[glass bone]

Yeah. The way Flood Gain works, is;

Use an omega moves
It gets regained
You have a time limit listed on the boon for how much longer you can infinitely use omega moves
Then there’s an 8 Second cooldown before it’s back up again

Also Seismic Servo does work with it, but I don’t think you should be taking Hephaestus on Shiva, and also Poseidon after Flood Gain has like… Water Fitness, and Sea Star, and that’s about it.

[maiden hound]

been trying to do a (seeded because it gave a heroic strike right at the start) aspect of the morrigan run on the surface, but I've just been taking way too much damage throughout more or less the entirety of it. I think I have some idea on what to try getting, but in the end I don't really know... my notable progress so far was a summon run (I just happened to get full moon night bloom and hera boons) that lost at typhon, a splash build that didn't get king tide but did get shocking loss that died to spawn of typhon, and I think an epic pyro technique run with freezer burn and a whole lotta goodness that also died to spawn of typhon. none of them are particularly related, but they're all very very strong, and in the end I think I'm just playing awful... what do I even keep in mind for builds and combat? I feel like I can't fight without taking damage, and I don't even know if it's me turning my brain completely off subconsciously or what

for reference of fear, max rivals and frenzy. there's other stuff (i.e. shadow, time, hubris), but those don't matter

[brave dove]

seems to me like you're just vibing with staff more - blades are pretty good, though they do have more impactful hammers than staff does to confirm that for you

(Trick Knives, Final Slice and Sweeping Ambush are the standouts, particularly Trick Knives)

staff has Mirrored Thrasher but you kinda need to get it early so you can build around it

[brave dove]

it's worth noting that unrivaled typhon is just Very Punishing. For combat tricks, the main thing I'd say is to think in circles — most attacks are aimed directly at you so moving in a circle will dodge them.

your 'default' movement should be circling around your enemies, basically

beyond that, watch some challenge runners play and also remember that dash strike is more dangerous than dashing

[surreal hazel]

You downplay the holy thrasher trinity

[brave dove]

do I when the comparison is the best knives hammers-

[surreal hazel]

Trick knives does run away with it. But getting all three thasher mods is just mash X to win. 12x base damage output is hilarious

[maiden hound]

wait, what's the difference here?

[brave dove]

I forget the precise timing but when it transitions into a dash-strike it drops the iframes

and attacks don't destroy most projectiles like they did in h1

[humble dagger]

yeah you're right, Final Slice was really good, I haven't had a chance to build around blades special yet, but overall I'm just vibing with staff more

what's the best staff aspect and how do I unlock aspects?

[brave dove]

just keep playing you need all weapons IIRC and that takes a while

all the staff aspects are real good honestly

the hidden staff is the 'best' because its unique mechanics make it exceptional for high fear and it's a good speedrunning weapon as well, but it's also tricky to use and the other staves are also all very good

there's no like, zag swords or aspects of gilgamesh in h2, thankfully

[tough vapor]

does attack speed do ANYTHING with anubis staff?

[olive sphinx]

it makes the placing the circle down animation a tiny bit faster, that's it

[glass bone]

It means that placing down the circle is faster.

[tough vapor]

damn, so not super useful

[olive sphinx]

nope..

[glass bone]

This could be beneficial though, because it could make Attack as useful as Dash Attack

I don’t know how much of a difference there is, but Dash Attack is significantly faster than Attack

And there’s no damage difference at all in Patch 11, because they spawn the same exact circle of damage

[tough vapor]

im trying to learn anubis staff atm and its a little funky to get the feel of, any tips?

[glass bone]

Tips for playing it, or tips for building?

[brave dove]

if you need things to die faster use ospec, not more attacks

[tough vapor]

bit of both

[brave dove]

specifically ospec, regular spec is almost worthless

[glass bone]

If the former, again, there is the whole Dash Attack > Attack. Also, you’ll want to generally place the Circle down first, use OAttack if you wish, then place the cast in the circle, then use OSpecials over Specials until you run out.
If the latter;
Zeus / Hestia Attack first (Hestia is better if you don’t think you can get Thermal Dynamics)
Hera / Apollo Special (Hera for a curse for Origination, Apollo for Pure OSpecial damage
Cardio Gain / Flood Gain (Cardio Gain is the overall best, but if you lose it to Denial, try for Flood Gain cause it’s so consistently strong)
Then later on grab Pyro Technique

The alternative Non-Scorch build is Poseidon Attack, into King’s Tide (Poseidon’s Legendary)

In summary for the simplest version; Hestia Attack, then either grab Cardio / Flood Gain to consistently have access to Omega moves, or Hera Special for bursting down stuff like Sharks and Anchors. Combo is Dash Attack (possibly OAttack if you can) -> Cast -> OSpecials

[tough vapor]

anubis staff can basically ignore the blue heart vow which is nice, most my other go tos get shut down if I try to run that one lol

[sonic pagoda]

Zeus or Hestia better for Anubis attack?

both seem very nice synergy but i have to make a decision

[glass bone]

Which route are you going on?

[sonic pagoda]

Underworld

whacking at Oath of Rivals Chron until i learn his patterns

[glass bone]

For the most part, Hestia is stronger early game, but Zeus can get stronger late game. The thing with Zeus Attack is you need to get Thermal Dynamics.

I feel like it would be better to take Hestia therefore

[sonic pagoda]

thanko

didnt get attack from hestia
beans

[glass bone]

That being said… I do see several 62 fear clears without any Hestia on Anubis UW, so either or could actually work

I just tell myself that Zeus requires more setup with Anubis in order to trigger Blitz, and can be better than Hestia with Thermal Dynamics, so I prefer Hestia for UW

[spiral wadi]

i've noticed that scorch, for as strong as it is, still doesn't hold up on its own endgame, u still need some secondary dmg sources to help

[glass bone]

True…. I did go over time with a near scorch only build with Nyx.

And I kept asking “Why isn’t this working?”

[spiral wadi]

uw's def softer in the dmg department but especially on surface uhh i lucked out into air quality static shock gust sprint gust cast

[glass bone]

But I somehow pushed through

[spiral wadi]

fr

[glass bone]

Genuinely, if I did a run back with Nyx, Blast on Attack sounds perfect

[spiral wadi]

btw it's still funny to me how i got prometheus to combo break out of spawning his goon squad twice

[glass bone]

Like you’re constantly spamming Scorch Special for the early game, take Chain Reaction with Heph and Pyro Technique in the late game

[spiral wadi]

nyx blast attack? why not blast sprint

then put glow on it

[glass bone]

1. Not a fan of how long the sprint takes to charge
2. I want my Blinding Rush
3. It’s the lowest damaging Blast source of damage of the 3 core boons

Oh, and 4. What else would attack be doing? Hera or Demeter for hitch or Freeze I guess?

[spiral wadi]

it is the lowest damaging but it still does like 300 dmg w origination, and u can duo echo it into 600

still scorch to benefit from the glow status effect

like deadass glow actually boosts ur dps quite a bit

[glass bone]

Ok, so the sprint is the fastest of the three…

But I still want my Blinding Rush…

[spiral wadi]

ye fair, just figured id mention that

i'm on the field that thinks blast sprint is underrated rn and should be used more

[glass bone]

I think it’s underrated because Heph is probably still a bit underrated, and the Sprint slot is contested by Apollo and Dem for taking the gods for it.

[spiral wadi]

like it's not meant to be primary dmg dealing but it does a pretty damn good job at helping ur main damage sources keep up

[glass bone]

And also you still need the right weapons, because Heph Blasts work best with the duos

So like… the Scorch weapons, and something like Charon, or Shiva could use Heph Sprint

[spiral wadi]

maybe mel coat

idk i mean glow affects all dmg sources not just scorch

[glass bone]

Actually, that sounds really good… Mel Coat has a built in 2 Swift Runners / 1 Rarified Blinding Rush

And you do go for Scorch Attack…

[spiral wadi]

ye

[glass bone]

To this point, I’ve cleared Mel Coat at 51 with Poseidon, so if I go for Mel Coat 62, perhaps I’ll try it

[spiral wadi]

sic

[glass bone]

Right now though… not sure what I’ll do next. Thinking about pushing Mel Blades a bit faster for time. My current best is a 7:39, and I saw pre-Unseen runs do sub 6…

Not sure how I am a full 2 minutes behind WRs, but I’ll go ask the Any% folk

The alternative is another 62, and I’m torn now between Anubis, Mel Torch, and Mel Coat.

[spiral wadi]

speedrun hour

anubis is fun, i haven't played that one as much cuz of how different it is

[glass bone]

Anubis feels like “the easy option”, but the 56 felt a bit challenging since again, Scorch could cause you to be late on time

[spiral wadi]

kinda fell into morrigan for me where it feels boring af

[glass bone]

But Morrigan is the combo weapon…

[spiral wadi]

like for morrigan gameplan is triads and buff up ur attack, that's the entire gameplan

i like aspects that offer a little more variety in buildmaking/playstyle and morrigan does not offer that

[glass bone]

No secret tech found thus far?

[spiral wadi]

like mel flames has actually a crazy cool playstyle shift between going all in on either attack or special

[glass bone]

Or underrated boons that stray away from the Meta Strat?

[spiral wadi]

uhh i think it's just that morrigan's playstyle revolves around hitting triads, but they have no interaction w anything else so ur kinda just expected to triad over and over, which is like fine and strong but kindaaa boring

at high fear obv it's "buff up ur attack % and spam attack", but that's it

like that's the aspect solved

[glass bone]

I mean there will come a day (probably) where all weapons are “solved”. Where there’s a definitive “best strategy” or several “best strategies”, and though the rankings may shift a little, a “proper tier list” will be made

We’re still in the phase of figuring stuff out (especially since 1.0 could majorly shift some weapons or boons), so at-least Morrigan has the charm of combos.

[spiral wadi]

ig what i should clarify is that for most aspects, there's not really a "solved" way to play as long as there's enough variability to make a number of builds workable

like for charon, ur gameplan is still omega cast stuff, but there's a ton of omega cast boons to play around with

[glass bone]

Would something like Mel Staff or Charon fall under the same umbrella as Morrigan for you?

Oh, you answered that question

[spiral wadi]

for morrigan ur stuck with one (1) triad for the entire run

[glass bone]

I mean, the 65 run Foolish did and a few other runners at 50+ have Scorch Attack on Morrigan

[spiral wadi]

like imagine if they made it so the way u landed a combo caused different effects

as in the order

[spiral wadi]

yea scorch, hitch, and apollo are the most common morrigan attacks rn

i wonder if they wanted heartthrobs to be usable for morrigan

it should

[glass bone]

Also, there’s an order listed on crossroads: Hestia (36%), Apollo (26%), Aphro (10%), Hera / Zeus /Poseidon (6%), Ares / No Attack (4%), Heph (2%)

[spiral wadi]

like it is literally the john melee aspect and heartthrobs are still ass

[glass bone]

**at-least when looking at all runs submitted

[spiral wadi]

lol heph 2%

[glass bone]

But yeah, at 50+, it is the order you described

The 2% is because it must be a single run using Heph Attack

[spiral wadi]

OH when i said order i was continuing my own combo order thought lmaoo mb

[glass bone]

Because there are 50 total runs of Morrigan

No, it’s fine. I was just mentioning the whole Attack boon discussion

[spiral wadi]

ah

hm aphro higher than hera, ig that makes sense

[glass bone]

At 50+, Hestia (47%), Apollo (26%), Hera (8%), then Aphro, Heph, Poseidon, and Zeus are tied at 4% each / 1 run

At-least I assume it’s 1 run each

[digital juniper]

i mean without final slice, hitch just doesn’t seem all that much with it no?

[glass bone]

The thing with Hitch is that it is one of the strongest statuses in the game.

[spiral wadi]

i've had a run where each final slice hitch atk did 1000 dmg on chronos

[glass bone]

You have super good AoE clearing with Hitch, provided you apply it to everybody

[spiral wadi]

it def holds up lol

[glass bone]

And Hera’s Attack percent boon is on par with Demeter iirc.

Not 1 to 1, but close in damage buffs

[spiral wadi]

i was intending to find a way to make that repeating special hit hammer work w poseidon splash, unfortunately it's not good

[glass bone]

I see

Well, time to go do some 62s, speedruns, or Balatro if I get fed up with Hades 2 / not want to burn out

[spiral wadi]

rad

[digital juniper]

oh yeah i completely agree. I’m beyond certain that hera atk is my highest picked attack boon across all weapons

[spiral wadi]

ye hera is just generally a busted god lmao

[digital juniper]

born gain, bridal glow, herd bane (especially with KB), extended family

all but arguably herd bane are straight up A if not S tier boons lmao

fine line is incredibly strong on quite a few builds

i’m probably missing a boon or two aswell

[glass bone]

I would also argue that Proper Upbringing can be really strong when you have a good collection of common boons

[toxic pebble]

i love proper upbringing. i just really like the rarification upgrades in the game, i wish there were more of them. it's really just proper upbringing, bridal glow, aromatic phial, and steady growth (although it's really slow and only works if you both get it early and have it at a good rarity itself)

and also that two of those 4 options only work on common boons

[digital juniper]

hmm now that i’m thinking about it, what other gods have a lot of really great t2 boons?(besides Zeus, as he’s the king of that)

[median anvil]

hestia

flash fry 🤑 pyro technique 💰

[spiral wadi]

poseidon technically, helps to get froth out if u happen to not have his cast

most cases would basically only be getting his splash for froth t2

[elfin forge]

it's been a few months do we think froth is still bad

[spiral wadi]

aphro's are like, standard t2s

wtf no froth is busted

[elfin forge]

didn't it do like no damage

[median anvil]

???

[digital juniper]

true, bestia for a reason

[elfin forge]

oh does froth just like not show up on win screens or something

[tough vapor]

I do really enjoy just how sstrong hera and zues boons can synergize, like, hitch + static shock goes insane, I was trying out supay and it just tore through groups, though I admit I struggled with bossess since I ended up having hera attack and hera special cause I needed to activate the ares infusion

[toxic pebble]

i would say heph has some of the best t2 boons, but only if you're doing a heph run. he requires a lot of commitment, but man it's definitely worth it

[limpid isle]

i don’t often do dedicated heph runs unfortunately, but I really should

honestly i love h2 combat so much, its hard to go back to h1 sometimes

[karmic berry]

man

hate to discover that scorch caps at 999 after getting echo to double its level

[surreal hazel]

Truefax, Pyro Technique poms extremely well

[toxic pebble]

it didn't used to 😔 rip patch 1 freezer burn

[cerulean panther]

"Scorch takes too long to build up and ticks too slowly." [a digit on the monkey's paw curls]

[surreal hazel]

It's still doing 100dps before improvements

[frosty grove]

Lord, Chaos just gave me white antler going into Typhon

[elfin forge]

time for some optimal dps

for 4 seconds before you get oneshot

[frosty grove]

I have like, 5 duos so I might be okay

Including Heph effects trigger twice if I attack right after they come up and they're on my attack and special, buuut it's mel ax so, grain of salt

Though I just checked my arcana and if I get through all 4 did I trigger strength, so...

[wispy iron]

I'm wondering, when you do purposefully take Hephaestus' boons ?
Fast weapons don't need a ~50 dps increase, especially when you can get some scorch stacks, waves or chain lightning, and slow weapons don't care for the additional bit of damage when you can have Apollo or Aphrodite boosting the base weapon.

I don't purposefully reject him when I see him as the 4th god offered, for some additional health or the armor on each location, but I feel like the duos or even the legendary are just... there. Not as impactful or run-defining as anyone else.

And since I'm here spewing questions : Does anyone knows how the Path of Stars is generated ? I know that the Godsend actually modify the tree, but even without it, I see about three variations of the upgrade tree on each Hex, and can't wrap my head around why

[surreal hazel]

Aspect of persephone and highroll a very low cooldown

His duos can be great, his legendary is variable, with some big deals and some really terrible ones

[surreal hazel]

thinking about it, his duos also scale multiplicatively

Apollo gives more blast damage, demeter adds +50% blast damage, Hestia double triggers the entire blast

[wet pawn]

Haelian has like 2 recent videos showcasing heph focused builds

[sonic pagoda]

I don't have the screencap at the moment, but I narrowly beat Oath of Rivals Chronos by getting so angry with him that i just spent the entirety of phase 3 calling him a sad wet bag of a man and insulting his attacks

cathartic. can only recommend. didnt even look ar my hp just chased him down on the field. 😭

can't insult someone who's out of range. Anubis Staff, I ran Strength and just prayed I get the instakill section right

[restive bolt]

what is the consensus on knuckle bones

[limpid isle]

i like knuckle bones

[wet pawn]

I always use them for the final bosses when I can't use evil eye

[wispy iron]

I'd say it's ok. Way better on Typhon given that it only has one phase (I'd consider P3 on UR not that challenging), than Chronos, but the damage reduction can be worth it.

[glass bone]

I prefer it over Evil Eye, because it can demolish Rival Prometheus, and be pretty good against Rival Cerberus, Chronos, or Typhon.

[brave dove]

knucklebones is the best boss keepsake for general use if you're running strength

(if you're running death, you prolly want Pin instead)

antler is the highest damage but is uh, risky

[glass shell]

one of the best keepsakes

[tall notch]

It's okay imo, I click it vs Cerb sometimes but that's about it

Probably better value on surface than UW with both Prom and Typhon gaining lots of value from it

[olive sphinx]

what is the best defensive keepsake if you're on low hp for the final region? would it be knuckle bones?

[glass shell]

likely more context needed.

If you have no dd's athena to bailout get 3 more is the best

if you're playing strength, pin is likely better cause its more overall healing, the damage resistance at low hp vs guardians doesn't really matter that much since you'll likely get 1-2 shot anyway at that level of hp

but as a just default general keepsake vs biome 4 yeah KB is the best but i wouldn't really call it good to take at low hp

[olive sphinx]

what if I'm playing Death and I already lost all DDs and got Athena's DDs and lost those too

[glass shell]

see 2nd answer

moros pin if you think you will die on the way to chronos.

still moros pin if you think you will make it to chronos alive and have dps to rush him down to phase change if you die mid fight

skelly tooth otherwis prob

[tall notch]

Then take white antler, you're dead anyway may as well do tons of damage

[brave dove]

pin or antler ye

[brave dove]

reminder that pin has disabled strength for like four or five patches now, btw :p

[glass shell]

o right

https://tenor.com/view/dies-cat-dead-died-gif-13827091

still though i think if you're going into tartarus at that low hp pin is prob better

cause you're so close to dying

[wicked isle]

I was just using Nexus Rush for the first time in a long time and was struggling to get it to trigger. It seems it has an unlisted 0.2 second cooldown, but I was dashing into enemies and away from enemies without luck. Does it only happen when you dash THROUGH an enemy?

[surreal hazel]

It only happens if they're not already hitched

[wicked isle]

Yes, I'm aware.

[surreal hazel]

otherwise you've basically got to be in contact range while in a full sprint

the inital dodge part doesn't do anything for nexus rush

[wicked isle]

That may have been part of my issue. I was more focused on dodging, as that typically works with the other boons, and not focused enough on maintaining the sprint. I'll test it out again to see if that's all it was - thanks.

[surreal hazel]

Yeah, it's very much like Breaker Rush but doesn't end when you first hit

[cloud scarab]

does snuffed candle count against guardians and bosses ?

[olive sphinx]

yes

[glass bone]

Now here’s a question. Do the sheep / Medea, or the Hecate clones count as enemies that go against Snuffed Candle?

[cloud scarab]

huh had an interesting interaction with the Hades Boon that inflicts scorn when dash striking, because I had beach ball, it registered as an attack, so the scorn swipe would automatically trigger with every dash (attack or no)

[median anvil]

the hades boon inflicts scorn when dashing

you don't have to dash attack

[cloud scarab]

oh I thought it said when dash striking, must have misread then

[spiral wadi]

it should add power instead of being 30% so i can use it on axe

trust

[surreal hazel]

You see a sweeping effect when you tap dodge

[gritty solstice]

Hey, i need an build reccomendation just to have fun. Someone knows one?

[limpid isle]

freezer burn is always super fun

i either do

• demeter atk + hestia spec
• demeter cast + hestia atk/spec

and if you get aphro cast or glamour gain respectively u can do burning desire along with it which is awesome

[mint mauve]

https://medal.tv/games/hades-ii/clips/l73a3FiGRdmgdIjl0?invite=cr-MSxBVWosMzAzNjQ1NDA3

i need to do an enitre run like this

[mint mauve]

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1237304647996276757/1417414636893900800/image.png?ex=68ca65bf&is=68c9143f&hm=2eda6ef7b91167bf06db1b729de281cf126587e85deb4fdc41400d0060341709&=&format=webp&quality=lossless

i did in fact do an entire run like that

[surreal hazel]

Funny, I had a run last night where godsent lunar ray was over 200k of my damage for similar reasons.

But yeah, Hera's godsent goes crazy because the limit of "one godsent per room" is kinda moot if you roll Servitude and your summon just stays forever

And Night Blooms from boss adds tends to be more powerful because they're dumb

as in, they have very basic enemy scripts that just do a basic attack over and over

[wet pawn]

What the hell? I need an entire video of a run like this

[ebon reef]

What boons affect Blood Triad? Are there any? Or are the Heph Legendary, the two Triad hammers and Success Rate the only ones?

[surreal hazel]

none other than just getting your moves out faster

[glass shell]

hitch technically

since it spreads the triad damage

but yeah triad doesn't outright benefit from anything including crits etc just success rate and triad specific hammers

[ebon reef]

Dang. It'll be a long while to get the rng for a run to get both hammers AND Icarus WITH the upgrade. Wish me luck lmao

[surreal hazel]

just attacking faster is good. or just final slice

you don't have to play the blood triad game on every enemy

[ebon reef]

I don't. But I kinda want to lol

Got past 200k last time I did blood triad. I feel I can do more lol

[digital juniper]

wait what does succ rate do for triads?

[glass shell]

baseline, nothing

for the hammer that gives a 33% chance to double, makes it like 50%

[limpid isle]

success rate was such a good addition to hermes boons

[glass shell]

the entire hermes rework was probably the best update this game has seen balance wise

he went from never take to always take

[limpid isle]

i always thought hermes was at least decent before. but yeah the hermes rework was amazing

also travel deal is peak i love having a fourth shop slot

[austere swan]

travel deal feeds my hopium when I don't get what I want in the shop and then betrays me 75% of the time

[glass shell]

aint no way

[limpid isle]

hermes was good before at least from my memory

[glass shell]

you looked at "attack speed up" "hex costs less magick" "omega cast cost less magick" and said "Yeah this is my guy right here"

"Swift Flourish
Your Specials are faster."

[limpid isle]

…okay yeah i see ur point

i guess I figured i always had to take it

[glass shell]

"Midnight Oil
While your Hex is ready, you move and strike faster. "

like what are these options bro 😭

[glass shell]

the like TWO good things he had is quick buck and greater evasion

oh and nitro sprint

everything else is trash, though his legendary was pretty good too but lmao 1% drop rate

[limpid isle]

… now that i think about it those three are the ones I picked before this update

[glass shell]

yeah only 3/11 options 🔥

[limpid isle]

I think omega moves being faster can help a lot in certain builds though

[median anvil]

i wouldn't say always take but yeah I'm never unhappy to see the guy

[spiral wadi]

this should be an arcana card

[spiral wadi]

yea faster omegas are super nice on like, mel flames where it takes an unusually long time to charge ospec even with sorceress

im p sure the game still forces dash buffer after ospec the same way it does after normal spec

[surreal hazel]

Ehhh, that boon got binned with quite a few hex related upgrades that made it more desirable not to actually use your hex. They clearly didn't like that design direction

[spiral wadi]

ye fair

could be shifted to like 5/10/15 sec after ur hex

[surreal hazel]

Billowing Strength from H1? I guess that might work

[spiral wadi]

that'd actually be p good cuz then all hex options would give u solid mobility for rivals

less emphasis on apollo sprint meta

[open flume]

when it comes to the boon tall order

what does infused damage mean

??

[wispy iron]

Isn't that the Hermes boon, which gives +25% on all damage if you have aleast 8 of one element ?

[median anvil]

yes

[surreal hazel]

Just means a global damage bonus of +25%

but only once it's actually active

[open flume]

oh, i thought it was more specific

thanks

[spiral wadi]

i think one of the minor annoyances of getting an infusion boon is the fact that it itself doesn't give an element

so it's always like "damn i really need one more element for that infusion but i also want the infusion"

[surreal hazel]

end shop problems

[bright bison]

Hey anyone having issues with black coat special landing just before Oath Strife pulse bombs and never destroying them. I can't counter her saftley with the coat. Idk why?

[elfin forge]

they're not real enemies so black coat special can't really target them properly

[bright bison]

Would it be inappropriate to ask for proper targeting so strife can be more well not a run ruiner?

[surreal hazel]

Yeah, regular rockets are super dumb

Implementing a heat seeking rocket system against hordes of the dead might not have been the best idea

[elfin forge]

nah I think it'd be a great addition

I'm just explaining why it is the way it is

[bright bison]

Heat seaking is worse because they're proto stars

[glass shell]

technically speaking feedback is closed and 1.0 is coming

but i believe it has been stated before that coat sucks at dealing with UR eris

[elfin forge]

they will no longer listen to mortals

[surreal hazel]

A bunch of these are already in the interal build they're prepping

[elfin forge]

are they?

[surreal hazel]

Most likley

[elfin forge]

oh I thought you had insider info

[surreal hazel]

Nope

But I know the reality of software dev is that changes are locked into the build long before golive

[glass shell]

^

numerical changes that are loc lock irrelevant can still be done but still discouraged unless avery good reason

[pale vortex]

Hey guys may I ask of there is a guide with some suggested builds? Im so overwhelmed and dunno which weapon and build should I choose to beat surface last boss and in general too..

[elfin forge]

Hm there are definitely suggested builds but I think it's better to know what niches each god generally servers

Apollo/Aphro are good for melee, usually slower weapons like Nergal or Morrigan.
Hestia/Poseidon are good for high attack speed weapons like Hel
Zeus is good in general, with Blitz adding a lot of damage, and Static Shock being incredibly strong for groups of enemies. Combo Zeus with another god for best results.
Hera and Demeter I would put more as support gods. Demeter has an excellent Cast, while Hera's Hitch is great for crowds of enemies

there's obviously more to each god with Duos and Legendaries but I tend to focus on the core boons

[restive bolt]

so do yall like to use hordes/grit in low-mid fear runs? i saw a reddit post with recommended fear setups, and most people who commented didn't have hordes/grit and instead had fangs, frenzy, shadow, etc

[olive sphinx]

grit is one of the worst fears to use unless you do 50+ fear yeah

hordes is more okay, at least it's more fun!

[spiral wadi]

the problem w hordes/grit rn is that especially if ur aiming for 5-minute times they start making erebus starts increasingly more rng

so better to start off not worrying about that

[olive sphinx]

also Grit is arguably the least fun vow

it just makes everything spongey and tedious

[spiral wadi]

tru

[restive bolt]

i've been playing on max grit/hordes this entire time, even for 24 fear surface 🧍

[spiral wadi]

ye it's not necessarily a bad idea to put them on blast

[cerulean panther]

I think Frenzy might be the hardest Vow besides Rivals.

If you can build well then stuff like Debt and Hubris aren't as painful, but Frenzy is insanely punishing unless your reflexes are on point.

[upbeat solstice]

How does Freezer-Burn work? I feel like it never does much but I think I'm using it wrong

[spiral wadi]

u wanna build up as much scorch as possible before hitting freeze

[surreal hazel]

Whenever a target has both freeze and scorch at the same time, it takes all of the scorch stacks on that target, removes it and deals 3x that value as olympian damage

Then the victim is immune to scorch buildup for 2 seconds if freezerburn triggered

Thaw does not count

[spiral wadi]

imagine trying to do hestia godsent right after doing freezer burn and wondering where the 999 is

[olive sphinx]

imagine doing freeze right after the hestia godsent and having that 999 be multiplied by 3 !!!!

[spiral wadi]

tru,,

[surreal hazel]

It's fine. The meteor takes 3 seconds to land and it keeps trying to apply 1200 scorch throughout that time

[spiral wadi]

o fr

[surreal hazel]

What's funny with cold storage is you can get two freezerburn procs on one feeeze this way

[olive sphinx]

the real question is where does all that cold get stored with cold storage?

[spiral wadi]

ur victim

[surreal hazel]

Demeter's kitchen

Oddfax: freezerburn cannot crit, but it can double damage

[spiral wadi]

visually or no, iirc freezer burn still visually crits

[surreal hazel]

I mean it's tripling your scorch damage. So it is mind of a scorchcrit

[gritty solstice]

how?

[surreal hazel]

How what?

[median anvil]

it was programmed to be like that

[cerulean panther]

Ares's boons Grievous Blow and Mutual Destruction can proc on the Freezer Burn hit.

[pale vortex]

Thanks a lot for the info

[elfin forge]

Use god keepsakes for the first zone or two, and rerolls to make sure you get strong core boons to begin with

Everything else will depend on those, and you'll need them to live long enough to earn more power

In Surface, you can choose the order you pick up gods in

your first 3 gods, as a result, should be reserved for core boons that you'd really like, such as Attack, Cast, or Gain

Example: I am playing Morrigan Daggers. The boon I really want to start with is Apollo Attack, so I will equip apollo keepsake and try to reroll for a blue one at least.
Next, I see Hera, Zeus, and Aphro doors. I will probably pick Hera first to try to secure Hera cast, gain, or even special. Aphro afterwards could also be good for dash or gain. Zeus has some pretty good secondaries like Static Shock, so its not a big loss if he goes last.

[plucky yew]

Any Recommanded Hex Builds? Anyone?

[glass bone]

Well there is Aspect of Selene for the Coat.

But otherwise, I’d say to build around either Lunar Ray, or Dark Side. Total Eclipse, Night Bloom, and Wolf Howl also can deal great amounts of damage, but I don’t know if they match the first two if the goal is a focused Hex build

You’ll want to probably play Strength in UW for Gorgon Amulet, or go Surface and get lucky, in order to grab Task Force

[spiral wadi]

night bloom can actually get some noticeably crazy damage in, u just need to invest in a couple nodes but it can do work

[plucky yew]

which hex is the one that makes u imprevious again? i love that Hex but it don't pair well with Aspect of selene Coat (u know it comes with a hex already)

[spiral wadi]

dark side

[glass bone]

That’s Dark Side

[glass bone]

True, but Night Bloom I’d say would want a secondary source of damage, because just standing around for the bloom to kill may or may not be entertaining. So for what was described as a “Hex Build”, I thought to recommend those two specifically

[spiral wadi]

i swear i just saw a clip of some1 letting their slave kill p2 chronos in like 15sec or so

[glass bone]

Maybe I’m underrating it compared to those two

Like for the most part, I’ve not done dedicated hex builds. I’ve taken Lunar Ray, Wolf Howl, and Dark Side at higher fears for invincibility, and Total Eclipse for sirens cheese

So all I know is Lunar Ray and Dark Side are proclaimed to be the best damaging sources of hexes

[spiral wadi]

ye u don't have to invest too hard and it becomes a very strong secondary dps option in high fear, practically main dps in low fear i imagine

[glass bone]

Oh wait… no…

My bad. Night Bloom is very strong. I was reminded of how much I’ve taken it

Just fishing for the infinite duration node is amazing on its own

[spiral wadi]

lmao tru

[plucky yew]

and do u most play on Mouse & Keyboard? i find it hard to play without Controller, i don't leave my controller where i m living

[glass bone]

Steam Deck personally, with the controller

[spiral wadi]

whatever ur most comfortable with tbh, i play controller

keyboard n mouse is prob genuinely stronger

i just can't be assed to change setup lol

[plucky yew]

i play on Ecip games, cheaper price than steam

[spiral wadi]

also for controller i really like swapping the special and cast buttons, makes game feel more natural

it also opens up messenger strat w mel flames

[median anvil]

i once had a sun worshipper'd polyp deal 12k damage to typhon in like 5 seconds

the hex should be even crazier because of the godsent critical chance

[spiral wadi]

cracked

[plucky yew]

i thought the max damage in Hades 2 was 9999

[glass bone]

One nice part I’d say about Night Bloom now that I think about it, is that most weapons want Hera for a boon very early on in the run

[median anvil]

9999 is just a visual indicator for Zeus's legendary

[glass shell]

not even close

yeah the zeus leg is straight up a visual effect doesn't actually do dmg

[glass bone]

Like…. So many weapons can use Sworn Strike or Flourish as an option, and stuff like Proper Upbringing or Bridal Glow can be used as a support

I’m not even sure what weapon would not want Hera…

I guess Selene, maybe?

[median anvil]

technically you can use that to beat any 62 on the surface

[glass shell]

i think the record is that guy on reddit

who did like 25k with shiva o attack

[median anvil]

eris and prometheus ads will tear apart the bosses with godsent and servitude node

you can also let one of Typhon's eggs to hatch and revive the miniboss

[plucky yew]

then what is the max dmg?

[median anvil]

there is no limit

as long as it fits the game's calculation you can hit it

[lapis lantern]

hey guys, how rare are the godsent hexes ?

[median anvil]

not rare at all, you can get them regularly if you aim for them

[lapis lantern]

< i havent seen one in like 3 days of non stop playing

i swear my game is borked ive seen arti once 🙁 and my well/chest tables are ALWAYS empty lol

[median anvil]

each hex has one specific god associated with its godsent

you need to have the god and the hex both

[lapis lantern]

so i need to have x god in my pool and THEN get selene?

[median anvil]

you can do it the other way around too

[lapis lantern]

ugh

[median anvil]

for example pick lunar ray, then grab any apollo boon

[lapis lantern]

then i should have seen one by now

[median anvil]

you have to unlock godsents first with an incantation

[lapis lantern]

ooooo

[median anvil]

use every hex at least once

and the incantation will appear

[lapis lantern]

ahhh

ty man , off i go

[plucky yew]

I wonder, how can send a screenshot of my nights in hades 2 here?

[lapis lantern]

i have the fated list to that says i have used ALL selenes hexes ?

do i need tro go through them SINCE the update or something?

[median anvil]

even coat's aspect of selene?

[median anvil]

send the picture somewhere else then share it here

[lapis lantern]

yeah , selene was my first surfasce clear lol, i got the whole fates list completed 🙁

google says resetting seed sometimes works, but i dunno if thats just ai slop answer >< im working on unlocking the reset seed option

[digital juniper]

maybe you picked them up but there’s one you didn’t use?

i think you have to actually use it

[lapis lantern]

oh god lol, yeah i was working on that assumption now, so goota go through the list 🙁

do i need to have a certain amount of bond with her?

[glass shell]

as of unseen godsent hexes are guaranteed as long as you have both the hex and the god

cause it was actually trash design requiring you to get the god BEFORE the hex, yet hexes are designed to be gotten earlygame so you can have enough rooms to collect path of stars

[lapis lantern]

so any idea why mine isnt showing up? could it be like Six said and I have picked one of the hexes in fated list and not used it?

[glass shell]

to clarify, do you have godsent hexes unlocked?

to unlock them you need to have met every olympian including ares

let me double check if theres other reqs cause it might need you to have every hex too and im not remembering

you need to have met
Hera
Ares
Taken every hex

[lapis lantern]

ok so i have met every single god, (got all keepsakes ) and I have all the hexes marked off in the fated list

but i DONT have the incantation for godsent hexes

[glass shell]

so second point of order, when are you getting the hex? Cause you can get hexes post taking it, but it won't be marked as a godsent until you actually get the 1-2 path of stars to unlock it(i think you need at least half moonglow for 1 POS to get the godsent node)

If you for instance have apollo and lunar ray is offered it shows as godsent in the menu. but if you get it AFTER it is still godsent just not like... visually shown until the path of stars

to get the incantation you need to take a godsent hex

[lapis lantern]

ok so im waiting for one to show up

hmm so how i would go about "forcing" it to show? just so i can test this

[glass shell]

or, just take a hex and then take the respective god via keepsake

[lapis lantern]

sorry , ty for ur help

[glass shell]

Start selene keepsake > take a hex > reroll doors until you get that hexes god > if that fails take that gods keepsake region 2

[lapis lantern]

OH so certain hexes have certain gods

[glass shell]

yes, all hexes are preset

[lapis lantern]

i c ic , so i could just be missinng the right combo

[glass shell]

yes thats why i was saying its retroactive before

[lapis lantern]

ahh ok, srry for my dumbness lol

[glass shell]

before you had to have the god first then selene would need to RNG the correct hex for you

now its either or. Have the god first the hex will show as godsent, or get the god after and the game will generate the new nodes for you in the path of stars

[lapis lantern]

so i can get selene check my first hex then find its corrisponding god

[glass shell]

Correct.

Now if you have NEVER gotten a godsent before in your save file there is specific dialogue she needs to play and i believe she is forced to offer you godsent hexes

so i think it might be better for you to just do a normal region 1 > take selene keepsake and maybe that unlocks for you

unsure post change how it works for first time

[lapis lantern]

hmmmm not sure why it hasnt shown up then, i do take hexes quite often, but if i use keepsake ive always been coat, so maybe that is effecting it

[glass shell]

if you use selene coat that would prevent it yes

cause it generates the path of stars first so you can't "get" a godsent hex when you started with one

though it does have a godsent with ares, it just can't.... play that dialogue

since you already have a hex

literally just go do a run, pick as many different gods as you can then talk to selene and she will eventually say something like "the olympians are aware of me now little one and we are teaming up" or something

[lapis lantern]

ty ty , goinna try it now 😄

[plucky yew]

check the h2-victory-boasting for my post

[lapis lantern]

ty man, got the hex, didnt get any extra flavour text tho , just "ur path has led to applo" i assume ill get the incantation now tho

[glass shell]

be sure to get path of stars to actually unlock the godsent

cause its like 5-6 nodes deep

that is what you need to actually "have" it godsent

[lapis lantern]

yeah i got the apollo unlock

[glass shell]

nice

[lapis lantern]

so I didnt get an incantation or anything, i did get a different incantation unlock aftrer this run tho ||Dora || so mb that overwrote it?

nice got the flavour text in next run

[glass shell]

there is no incantation for godsents

there is a fated lits to collect all the godsent hexes though

[lapis lantern]

ok ty 🙂 yeah i got her flavour text that u said, and now i get a little icon next to the hex if it includes a godsent

Apollo wont was pretty sick tbh when my tree was maxed out

[glass shell]

correct, but that icon will only appear if you have the god already

[lapis lantern]

yeah ok that makes sense

[glass shell]

but remember you can always make the hex godsent anyway by either

A- getting the god later

B- taking that gods keepsake even if you don't take the god themself

[lapis lantern]

oh B is a good option lol

[glass shell]

probably the worse options

[lapis lantern]

oh 😄

[glass shell]

cause like.... if your wasting an entire regions keepsake just to make your hex godsent its kinda waste

[lapis lantern]

yeah ig

[glass shell]

it has niche use cases but generally speaking your probably at the end of biome 2 by the time you have all 4 gods filled out, and there are better keepsakes to take for biome 3/4

its also just a holdover from when selene aspect could only be godsent by starting with ares keepsake

and man that was also trash design

[lapis lantern]

wth that sounds awful >< Contact node is nice with apollo - + 500 power , I assume it counts for that

[glass bone]

I could see someone taking Hestia keepsake with Total Eclipse in Oceanus. Though typically it would be better to roll into Hestia, and take Moonbeam instead after you get a Hestia boon.

Also, Hera, and Apollo I feel have good enough support boons to make the keepsake worth it

[glass shell]

would still be reliant on getting a path of stars

[glass bone]

I’m just saying I don’t think it is a “waste”.

I have taken a god keepsake in Region 2 plenty of times (even once in Region 3). So the god keepsake could be a bonus.

[glass shell]

the posts context was in the sense that you are already IN region 2 with all 4 gods filled out

so you'd be taking region 3(or 4s) keepsake as a god keepsake

not post hecate/poly

so you're not only filling out a 5th god slot

but you're wasting a keepsake slot

[glass bone]

Ah. I still don’t think it’s a complete waste because you can pivot into Godsent Dark Side, Lunar Ray, or Night Bloom for a finisher, but it’s less valuable in Region 3, and even less valuable in Region 4 (most so in Tartarus)

[brave dove]

keepsake for godsent would only be worth it if other boons from that god would be huge gains for you, I think

like getting aphro as a fifth god when you've got darkside and you've got a blitz build so you can fish for romspark? very solid option, I think

but outside of situations like that nah, in general 5 god pools are kind of hugely annoying to work with

[wet pawn]

Would be cool if we could change the limit of our god pool. Like, change the number of gods from which the game stops presenting you more gods. The base is 4 but would be cool if we could change that number somehow

[glass shell]

original builds of hades 2 had a 3 god limit

i kinda liked that more tbh

[surreal hazel]

Only 3 duos tho

[lapis lantern]

ok i am SOLD on the godsent hexes tbh

[surreal hazel]

Some go harder than others

[limpid isle]

the heph godsent is awesome

[surreal hazel]

Most upgradable. But not the most powerful

Solar ray can do 15k in one sitting

[limpid isle]

I wanna do a hera godsent build ngl

[glass shell]

i wish hera godsent was different like summoned TWO enemies or something

[surreal hazel]

Hera is lulzy in how Servitude basically bypasses the "one godsent per room" thing

[glass shell]

it giving crit or w.e is just that old node upgrade

[surreal hazel]

Hestia is just a wave-delete

Zeus is potentially thousands of damage

Aphrodite's and posideons are kinda meh

[limpid isle]

i wish heartthrobs did more damage just generally

[surreal hazel]

Go back to older patches, they were so busted