h2-builds-and-combat

[split igloo]

artificer

[gloomy wind]

That's only 3 rolls though

[mystic mango]

Yeah you just have to bring artificer and hope they don’t show up more than 3 times

Otherwise you purge them using time piece if you need the money

But it’s usually better to purge health and magick

But yeah 66 boons causes an overflow and the game can’t process the excess boons since a third page doesn’t exist

It crashes when you hit the win screen

[gloomy wind]

Unfortunate. Can you roll doors that are not boons into a boon?

[mystic mango]

Yes

Major rewards can all reroll into boons

Minor rewards are the meta currencies which only reroll into themselves

But Poms, health, magick, and paths can be rerolled into hammers or boons

Hammers have some restrictions on them though

You can only get one hammer in region 1 and 2

And one in region 3 and 4

If you don’t take one in 1/2 it rolls over into 3/4

And the game will TRY to give you a hammer if it’s available so a room 1 hammer on region 3 is very common

The max hammers that can naturally spawn is 2

But there are ways to duplicate them and having 5 hammers at once is theoretically possible on underworld

If you include Icarus keepsake

[gloomy wind]

They can reroll into each other as well, right? Or are boons weighted differently?

[mystic mango]

All major rewards can roll into eachother on normal doors, they’re all on the same pool

Also if you already have 4 gods you can’t roll anything outside of your god pool

And warden doors only reroll into other gods

[gloomy wind]

I knew about the god pool. Is cash treated as a minor reward?

[mystic mango]

Nope

Gold is weighted the same as all other major rewards

[gloomy wind]

Selene points are minor rewards?

But not the hex itself

Thank you @mystic mango I learned things about this game I can't stop playing

[mystic mango]

As said the only minor rewards are the meta materials

Ashes, bones and nectar

[wild drift]

They may be talking about the ones in Fields

Small moon thing, small Centaur Heart, small Soul Tonic

[mystic mango]

Everything else including Selene, gold, poms, health, tonics, hammers and boons are major rewards

[wild drift]

Game would be 2× better if Selene got onion'd

[mystic mango]

That includes paths of stars which are what the Selene collectibles after you get the gift of the moon are called

[gloomy wind]

How many attempts did you do before you reached 58?

[mystic mango]

My 58 surface clear I really can’t say. If I didn’t pick up speed running it would have been way less

[viral yew]

Both should be tbh

[viral yew]

Have you done 62 yet? Or is that the end goal

[mystic mango]

As far as actual 50+ fear surface attempts I maybe have like around 20 before clearing 58

And I reached Typhon first try on 62 then died

58 UW I’ve yet to get past Cerb

I’m genuinely better at surface than underworld

[viral yew]

I'm the complete opposite

[flint widget]

im the exact opposite of u two

im ass at uw and surface

[alpine raft]

says #5

[mystic mango]

So then you’re also exactly like both of us

[viral yew]

^

[mystic mango]

Also yeah hush #5 speed with your meta skull p-array slop

[flint widget]

https://giphy.com/gifs/STRAPPEDUS-speed-ishowspeed-i-show-s5wFafpHxqKbIEERl9

[alpine raft]

after this week im tired of goats with imposter syndrome

[mystic mango]

Bingo opened our eyes

(Mine are still closed I very much suck)

[gloomy wind]

I tend to not do high fear. I mainly just use rivals and I'm used to frenzy, menace, revenant and time constraints.

[mystic mango]

Grinding skull wouldn’t have gotten anywhere cause we had so many top 10 runners

And I can’t do fear speed

[mystic mango]

Ew revenants before shadow

[gloomy wind]

Shadow as well.

[mystic mango]

Idk why so many people don’t take shadow, debt and hubris

They’re practically free

I see people take return and I genuinely hated having to turn it on above 55 fear

[alpine raft]

for now

[flint widget]

whats that

[mystic mango]

I need to stop just playing speed and actually try to get better at the game

I can only get so much better at anyfear

I need stuff to actually fight back

[alpine raft]

yall downplaying yourselves despite all these crazy times

foolish the worst offender

[mystic mango]

I didn’t set any crazy times

I’m not downplaying myself only normally playing myself

https://tenor.com/view/played-yourself-dj-khaled-gif-11099992

[flint widget]

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1283830399683919906/1487513825207910491/yujiro-hanma-vs-the-tibetian-monk-who-taught-batman-all-v0-nx7pxn87ygrg1.png?ex=69e71474&is=69e5c2f4&hm=bd4e88ccbc90fa29283fd7363ab01313b055da4d189d377f77257aee0d2dbf96&=&format=webp&quality=lossless&width=352&height=428

[mystic mango]

https://tenor.com/view/spongebob-squarepants-spongebob-fire-flames-panic-gif-4421094

[lyric summit]

It’s what the speedcord does to people lol

Imposter syndrome running rampant cuz of how psychotic good the high fear and speedrunners are 💀

[flint widget]

aight time to start up the max fear surface grind again fr this time

[lyric summit]

Sure man. Sure 💀

Next will be a 65F Dream dive

[flint widget]

nah im being fr

65f dream dive sounds like chinese water torture

[lyric summit]

Truly

Then raijy did a 67 first try almost damageless 😭

[round olive]

Question: let's say I want the easiest path possible to getting the 8, 16 and 32 fear rewards (That is the highest I need to go to get everything, right?)

What would be the preprations I need fopr fear, weapons and arcana and keepsakes etc, and stratergy I need to do so? I want as close to an easy run as I can for each, just want them out of the way. Also tag me with such info

[viral yew]

Have you completed the ending yet (the fear rewards also need runs on the surface done too)

[round olive]

Do you mean have I sucessfuly done a surface and underworld run, or do you mean I have brought a final death to both bosses?

Because I have done a sucessful run or two of both, but the Ultimate Task is yet incomplete

[magic grove]

the post-game keepsakes are nuts and they really help you push fear

[round olive]

I see. So I should wait untill I have Deathed To Chronos, then, got it.

Thanks for the aid

Untill then I guess i will focuis on clearing out the fated list a littlem, i got like 3 pages of propecy to wade through

[viral yew]

ALong with the 8, 16, and 32 runs on the uw, you need to do a 6f, 12f, and 24f on the surface

[frank siren]

Id also suggest starting with time. It has no impact on any mobs or anything so its the most free.

Shops and npc encounters pause the in game timer so use those to catch your breath, so some planning, etc.

[indigo viper]

Imho:

1. Unlock at least LV. 2 vows of rivals (even better if you can go with LV 3)
2. Turn on frenzy 2 to normal runs to get used to faster mobs
3. Avoid heavy mana-hungry weps (like Moros or Momus) or heavily dependent on 1 god (like Charon so you can take denial and hubris without worrying too much;
4. Switch strength to death - it's more safe-net, it's easier to replenish your DD, can heal you and allow you to bring pin and gold tooth as keepsake;
5. Most important - bring wep that you like to play and can play decently - no reasons to play wep you don't like only because it's op.
   When you pick wep you can adjust your vows, arcana and familiars.
6. Generally good familiars are Toula (extra dd) or Gale (Block + base chance to dodge)

Ofk, disclaimer - I'm not pro player, there are things that helped me, more or less, during my 32f fears, feel free to adjust to yourself. xD

[split igloo]

really disagree with most of these
Strength is a lot easier unless you take vow of scars, you take half damage and just use regular healing to top up, and you deal 20% more making runs shorter
Frenzy 2 is one of the hardest vows in the game, no real reason to take it unless you plan to climb beyond 32 fear or speedrun the game (faster enemies = faster runs)
Raki and Gale are the best familiars

[viral yew]

Death is still safer, toula is also more safety, gale is not nearly as good below 62, frenzy 2 is free and actually beneficial

[final sedge]

I like strength better and it only downside is insta kills, so just avoid those.

[spiral wadi]

i feel like ignoring scars, death and strength r equally safe

[final sedge]

You don’t need to take scars on 32 heat runs.

[spiral wadi]

with death u have dd refills thru the run, with strength u kinda stack hp and hits matter less

[final sedge]

I feel like the only redeeming value of death defiances is its refill possibility

[spiral wadi]

also antler safety

but yknow 99% of the playerbase never touch antler so whatever

[final sedge]

Antler doesn’t feel like “the easiest path to 8-16-24-32”

[spiral wadi]

ye ur not really strict on time even in 32 so antler isn't smth u need to pick up until 62f

[final sedge]

I’m the 99. My face is built like a tank still

[split igloo]

DD refills cost money, while with Strength even if you waste almost all of your hp on a boss, you can just take Narcissus' keepsake in the next room and heal to full (and you'll get a heroic boon as well)

[spiral wadi]

does narc give more rng boons in dream

[indigo viper]

If you take vor then a lot of bosses turned into bullet hell (Hecate, Scylla, some pattern for Cerb) and it's quite easy to lose a chunk of hp without even noticing.
Also, death gain you access to both pin, gold tooth, if you really lucky to chaos' legendary. And Toula as free DD.
Like I said - for me death is safer, more forgiveness option that give you some safe-net when you messed up.
Frenzy is not that bad when you get used to it and has quite high reward in terms of fear.

Idk, TL;Dr DD is safer option imo.

[final sedge]

After reading your responses, not sure I agree with your takes.

[manic shuttle]

He gave me 6 elements each I think in final region

Narc

[spiral wadi]

cracked

tall order gaming

i wish selene had infusions

[indigo viper]

Maybe different play styles too.

[spiral wadi]

idk i feel like u can get away with either strength or death, doesn't particularly matter since both provide the survivability u need quite well

it only really matters in higher fears where once scars is max u objectively should be on death if ur aiming solely to clear

32f? run either

[split igloo]

IMO, the big thing is Death makes it harder to recover from mistakes
with Strength you take some minor hits, no biggie, wayward son will smooth it out
worse case, you use narc keepsake and you're good
whereas with Death you'll be on the hunt for refills, which might take a while and then you'll lose the run

[spiral wadi]

that's tru, but i mean u can also just Play Good and win with either

[split igloo]

even the best players take hits, watched Boated almost die to Rivals Typhon twice last night, down to sub 20 hp both times

[lyric summit]

A lot of this really boils down to how much fear you’re putting yourself through. At the end of the day nothing matters until 62 anyways, both are viable

EA though…Strength 100% 😂

[spiral wadi]

delicious gorgon start meta

good thing there's nothing like that in 1.0

[hollow stag]

Does the bonus damage from Mel Skull apply to 3 other skulls from Wide Grin hammer?

[split igloo]

what, athena's DD worked with strength??

[spiral wadi]

no but u could get stalwart room 3

then u can just pin all the other regions

u effectively cannot die unless ur bad

[final sedge]

If you do this then strength would be wasted arcana

[final sedge]

Except for after the death each room which is weird gaming.

[spiral wadi]

well kinda? if dd pops then u have strength on for the rest of the room

[final sedge]

I guess I could try to do an athena run one of these days... what are some decent aspects that don't need magic?

[spiral wadi]

prob non-anubis staff and blades

u could prob run hecuba and u have 50 magick remaining with persistence

[split igloo]

Medea
Circe
non-Shiva coats

[flint widget]

well uh nyx exists

[final sedge]

I need to get better at medea... i still ospecial when I'm scared of taking damage.

[flint widget]

mel staff also, non-morrigan blades, mel axe, supay and mel skull

[spiral wadi]

tbh u could prob get away with playing magickless on most aspects

exceptions prob being shiva and hel

[wild drift]

Nah Hel magickless is great

[spiral wadi]

well maybe shiva can get away wth it

[spiral wadi]

idk i feel like u'd want to either run valk focused or helheim focused

[wild drift]

Shiva has that annoying tech to cancel dash-strike yeah

I like my ungabunga auto-fire focused Hel

But I guess yeah in theory it might be strictly worse than using Valkyrie, just easier to use and sustain

[opal pecan]

The Shiva 67F

[wild drift]

In my head Charon and Eos would suffer most from having to prime to 0

[split igloo]

I think all non-Supay torches would be equally unviable with 0 magic

[wild drift]

Mel still has special spam possibilities (so does Moros, Eos doesn't get Hidden Helix so that hurts it in this weird hypothetical) and Moros can still do attacks -> special blast with no magick right?

[alpine raft]

yea moros is halfway usable without

[opal pecan]

Funny that the axe, one of the most martial and least magical seeming weapon types out there, has the(?) most magick dependent aspect

[night lagoon]

Moros?

[drifting rose]

What’s an good aspect of Mel moon axe build to beat typhon with

[night lagoon]

Apollo or Hera attack, Hestia or Poseidon Special

[hollow stag]

On night 5 on Mel base Torch, which is the better first hammer to get?

Inverted Blaze or Dividing Blaze

[split igloo]

dividing by far

[hollow stag]

Not inverted first?

That does piercing damage

[somber beacon]

i think both give pierce right? but inverted is just a bit clunkier to utilize properly

[split igloo]

dividing is free damage, inverted requires changing your playstyle

[hollow stag]

And I just got Apollo Rare Attack

[drifting rose]

What’s an good aspect of Mel staff build to beat typhon with

[split igloo]

all aspects can beat Typhon, would be dumb if they couldn't

[drifting rose]

I meant like give me an build for aspect of mel staff yk

[split igloo]

oh, misread that one, my bad
tbh just check the build guide https://www.leereamsnyder.com/hades-2-build-guide

[drifting rose]

Your good and thx

[somber beacon]

i would just put any percent boon on the special, like hera or apollo, maybe put ares/zeus/heph on the attack and sprinkle that in. just play primarily with your special. your omega special is quite cheap and fast so its good to rely on, especially with the extra special damage from the aspect of mel (unless you havent upgraded it much)

[drifting rose]

I thing it was my bad with my grammar and stuff

[drifting rose]

Alr thx alot fam

[split igloo]

no worries, but basically go for the dual moonshot hammer and one of the percentage boons like Hera

Mel staff has a strong special, so it makes sense to build on it

[drifting rose]

Alr appreciate it yall

[solemn carbon]

If you get enough omega charge speed on torches can you just always omega attack

[split igloo]

the torches alternate between regular and omega attacks when channeling, so no

[solemn carbon]

like I currently have epic Revelation from chaos + sorceress arcana and it’s doing omega attack every second attack, with +54% increase

So no amount of speed stacking above that will change anything now?

I will test but i would guess +33% speed or more would get you there

and sorceress gives +30 by itself

I legit feel like jewelled pom makes Huntress really hard to activate for most gains because your gain boon gives you too much magick recovery 😬

[austere trail]

if you need to fill the core but don't want magick recovery, I guess you can just take tough gain

or ionic/tranquil gain now that I think of it

ionic's best because in case you suddenly want magick again, you can simply refill

[vernal quiver]

I mean huntress barely does anything for mana weapons as is

[split igloo]

Huntress is kinda meh, it only works on your base attacks and specials, doesn't work on casts or any Olympian effects
we only take it to activate Divinity pretty much

[vernal quiver]

Only regular attack and special at that

[vernal quiver]

Divinity doesnt matter its taken for non mana weapons cuz 50% on attack and special is still 50%

Just its very easy to forget to really apply but when its good(which is most weapons) its good

[split igloo]

so assuming you play Medea (without p.array), would you intentionally omega attack/special as you enter each room just to activate Huntress?

[vernal quiver]

No you do it while something is spawning

When theres forced downtime you get it active since charging it as soon as you enter is generally a time loss

Or if we arent caring about seconds of time loss if its like mel staff you can always just drop an Ocast or Ospec just to turn on huntress

[mystic mango]

Huntress isn’t bad on stuff like Eos that still are very much centered around spamming special while still using magick but you need a gain like born that doesn’t screw up huntress

[split igloo]

just another reason why born gain is the best one

[mystic mango]

But on stuff like Moros or Charon it’s not that important

[mystic mango]

Born gain can screw you over if you’re using hexes and does require max magick stacking if your weapon is very magick hungry

Born gain is still probably the best overall gain for magick weapons though

Aside from Lucid on Charon

[split igloo]

huh, how does it affect hexes? I don't get it

[mystic mango]

Free magick from born gain or flood gain does not contribute to hex charge

When the charge icon becomes green that means your getting free magick

[split igloo]

but hexes charge by expelling magic not restoring it?

[mystic mango]

Such as when you have too little magick and born gain activates

[mystic mango]

It counts as “losing” magick

Same as with possessed array

Which does not count towards hex charge

You have to actively spend magick that you have

I’ve become very familiar with magick and gains from doing a max hex damage challenge

[split igloo]

yeah, but isn't that the case on every gain, spend magic = gain hex charges

I'm sorry, I really don't get it

[mystic mango]

Again

It doesn’t COUNT as spending magick

If you don’t have enough to activate the ability without the gain

The icon above Mel turns green

Meaning you’re getting “free” magick

Which does not count. Such as when flood gain activates when you have too little magick to use the omega without it

Or when born gain activates when you spend the last of your magick

[split igloo]

so basically that short moment when born gain activates doesn't charge your hex, is that it? no big deal

[mystic mango]

Yes. And no I didn’t say it was a big deal but it’s a thing that exists

An edge case. I never said it was important

[split igloo]

I mean I guess it matters if you're spamming hexes every 3 sec, but idk if there are good hex builds like that

[mystic mango]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1493061989394682037/1494596507695845497/image.png?ex=69e7cc37&is=69e67ab7&hm=818d0d7cd5b7ef04c842ec77ed9d2ab82497ee127d610041ec0c4ea631368701&

[split igloo]

cool little detail though, thanks, maybe we should report it as an oversight

[mystic mango]

It’s not

Nobody ever said it was an oversight. It’s intentional

Because you have to SPEND magick for hexes

If it’s free magick it doesn’t count the amount that you had, it just activates born gain when the ability is cast

[split igloo]

is there an auto-aim perk for lunar ray, because I never take it

[bronze flax]

I was having a very good run with Aspect of Selene, until I did not break the eggs in time for scattering my attention and I had to face two Dragons which took away a lot of my health

[mystic mango]

It’s good for bosses and splitting up room clear

I’ve used it a good few times

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1233146305308528650/1494896049146298458/20260418-0302-56.4184079.mp4?ex=69e791af&is=69e6402f&hm=923531386a673da52687eac58189803c3c890e0fd571e8310ffa292d8c2f2561&

[split igloo]

is there auto-aim though? crystal clarity (demeter x artemis duo) in 1 was goated, auto-aim lasers

[mystic mango]

That’s what I just said

Yes it’s a thing and I use it

If you’re getting paths you might as well take it

[bronze flax]

Yes, Prominence upgrade

[mystic mango]

It’s free boss damage setup

[vernal quiver]

No its very intentional like how p.array is specifically losing magic rather than spending

[split igloo]

I should try it then

[mystic mango]

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1218621088049659930/1494891558305140736/20260418-0244-07.7419679.mp4?ex=69e78d81&is=69e63c01&hm=9834cbee734b45b3b01b61ec67c1ef2caf0fbbe79c6f4f79d25362bce3c00dc4&

If you can guess where the boss is going and set it up before they land or become vulnerable then it’s free damage unless your weapon needs pre-invulnerable setups for optimal kills

Which honestly I should have done sooner in this clip

[split igloo]

do you have a clip of the auto-aim's tracking

[mystic mango]

Not on hand but all the beams on the fan upgrade can track individually and the turning is pretty slow

Like maybe 15-25 degrees per second

[split igloo]

so won't do much good on bosses like Eris, I guess

[mystic mango]

she sits still long enough to use it if you happen to have it before reaching her

[split igloo]

I'll give it a go though, if anything it's free damage on Typhon

[mystic mango]

Yeah if you’re already running Apollo and have to take a hex it’s a very solid option since on its own does thousands of damage and doesn’t interrupt your normal damage

Just hopefully you get the upgrades for extra duration and increasing damage

[split igloo]

why Apollo?

[mystic mango]

Godsent

As you can see in the first video

[split igloo]

is his much better

[mystic mango]

Gives it 500 extra power per second…

If you can’t tell from my 1.24 million damage YES

[split igloo]

are the other godsents any good?

[mystic mango]

There’s only one godsent per hex…

[split igloo]

oh it's like that huh, thought it was random, goes to show I barely use hexes

[mystic mango]

But like Hestia, Hera and Zeus all have good godsents and depending on your weapon and boons Heph or aphro’s aren’t bad

[mystic mango]

Every hex has a godsent effect that only appears if you have any boon from that god or their keepsake

If you purge a boon from that god and have none left the godsent will not go away

And you can have the godsent appear if you take the hex before getting that god

[split igloo]

I thought it was random like the moon phases

[mystic mango]

Nope

You can check selene’s boon page to see all the godsents

RIP ares for having a godsent with Selene coat

[split igloo]

but what if you take lunar ray in room 1, then get apollo a few rooms later, you miss out on the godsent?

[mystic mango]

Read

If you already plan on taking a god you can intentionally take the hex that corresponds to them

And then the godsent will appear on the path when you get them

Once a godsent appears it can’t go away

[split igloo]

okay, got it

I thought the path of stars couldn't be expanded once you get the hex

[mystic mango]

Nope, it can’t change which layout you get but the godsent and lineage nodes can appear after

It’s why a room 1 Selene isn’t the end of the world if you want a godsent

Also if you’re really desperate for the funny godsent you can just take the keepsake and it will count even if you don’t ever take a boon from that god

The last week has made me painfully familiar with all the stupid and obscure tech regarding build optimizations, damage numbers, and keepsakes

[split igloo]

I just play jpom these days, it goes well with strength

[mystic mango]

Like that’s not tooting my own horn but there is maybe a handful of people I know in the game community that know more obscure tech and that’s the people who know the actual code of the game or have been playing for twice my game time

[split igloo]

if you know that much consider cataloging all the bugs/oversights and reporting them

[mystic mango]

Bug knowledge is not my expertise but that’s why I really hope people playing the game are using F10 regularly

[split igloo]

because Hades 1 has a lot of bugs that never got fixed (e.g. all the Beowulf bugs, it was the last aspect to be added)

I hope 2 doesn't end up like that

[mystic mango]

Eh aside from some very obscure and minimally impactful tech on like one weapon it’s pretty harmless or non-existent

Like even the one major weapon tech I know is basically useless the moment you get a good normal build that you’d be hunting for anyways

Or for use at high fear

If I was fighting tankier enemies it would likely be more useful but I’ve yet to put it to use on surface

[split igloo]

oh yeah, there are a bunch of things that still give health at max scars like life tax I believe

these are likely oversights

onion keepsake as well

[mystic mango]

Nergal, life tax, ghost onion and self healing are the only ones and I really don’t get why you keep thinking that’s an oversight

They’re intentionally designed to be used at high fear for scars 3

The entire point of Nergal is the it’s big and chunky but gives you healing and a huge buff mid-way into an encounter

Ghost onion is meant to save a death defiance or for late game healing

Self healing is basically just a damage resistance

[bronze flax]

Revival too

[mystic mango]

And life tax is a hades boon so it’s designed to be useful

Well yeah I figured death defiances, Moros, and Skelly tooth were pretty obvious

Since otherwise death defiances would be worthless

[bronze flax]

No, no, I meant Chaos' Revival curse

[split igloo]

nergal makes sense because guan yu worked the same in hades 1, but what about life tax and onion, what makes them special

[mystic mango]

Oh that too yeah

“Oh great I got life tax reset”

Also making an entire keepsake worthless is a decision of all time

[spiral wadi]

life tax was only cuz jpom resets were ass with it

[mystic mango]

They’re intentionally designed to claw back a run with healing

[spiral wadi]

onion was a change made during EA ig they didn't want dud keepsakes in high fear

[mystic mango]

Life tax also gives a lot of early game safety cause having 150 extra health to start is massive and balances out gig dash and unseen

I’d say the trinity of hades boons is pretty balanced

Free wards clear/damage
total invuln and agro clear
And extra safety

It’s the fact the other hades boons exist that kinda stinks

But there’s a reason jpom is mandatory at max fear

[spiral wadi]

jpom do be the "you're gambling at max fear anyway might as well run jpom"

[mystic mango]

But I think having a handful of things that heal through scars is plenty reasonable

[vernal quiver]

Yeah if nothing worked through scars it'd be awful

[mystic mango]

I mean… trusty shield exists

[spiral wadi]

i am currently toying around with the idea that high fear dream dives might be god keepsake start meta

[mystic mango]

Trusty shield casually being the single best high fear boon in the game

[spiral wadi]

cuz hitting hammer/selene starts is atrocious with forfeit in tart/summit where ur only getting 1 boon into final boss

[mystic mango]

Just reset if you get them lol

But yeah if you were doing multi run

[spiral wadi]

maybe

[mystic mango]

And weren’t allowed to reset

[vernal quiver]

Losing the +3 levels and gigaros stinks for dream dive though

[spiral wadi]

tru

[mystic mango]

Dad dash goated

[split igloo]

I was thinking of playing with god keepsakes again but I can't think of a good arcana loadout that has both strength and the re-rolls (and wayward son, I don't want to drop it)

[mystic mango]

It’s not that hard one second

[spiral wadi]

simply run god keepsake no rerolls

and hit

[mystic mango]

https://h2crossroads.pages.dev/ArcanaDeck/?deck=WyJjMSIsImMzIiwiYzYiLCJjMTEiLCJjMTIiLCJjMTMiLCJjMTQiLCJjMTUiLCJjMTYiLCJjMTciLCJjMjAiLCJjMjEiLCJjMjIiLCJjMjQiXQ==

Swap huntress for persistence if you need it

And death for strength

You can do wayward messenger instead of sorcress swift if you run strength

But I guess you’d have to take arty instead of lovers if you want to get divinity

So up to you

[split igloo]

persistence and lovers are both god tier cards

[mystic mango]

Honestly divinity only really matters on certain builds it’s not the end of the world if you don’t have it

Extra epic chance is mostly useful on stuff like flat damage builds

Or cast builds for epic winners circle

[split igloo]

the thing is, you're already dropping jpom with this loadout, and now you're also dropping rarity

it's gonna feel like ass

20% damage boost Ares strike etc

like barely stronger than not having anything

[mystic mango]

Welcome to the life fresh file players live

[split igloo]

lmao, was it really that bad

[mystic mango]

Fresh file runners get base Mel staff, no arcana, no keepsakes, no meta progression, no fountain chambers, no special encounters

No Charon wells

[split igloo]

I kinda want to recreate fresh file conditions, and I know you can disable the arcana (obviously) and dismiss your familiar, but looks like there's no way to not take a keepsake

[mystic mango]

They play the game entirely with absolutely nothing

[mystic mango]

There’s a lot of stuff that you have even if you do that

Consider that you’re removing EVERYTHING related to incantations and meta progression

You can’t even get Arachne for armor

[split igloo]

well not literally the first run, but just early game you know

wish you could remove keepsakes and revert mel aspects to 0 upgrades

[mystic mango]

And then you’d still have a million things they don’t have

Even just getting fountain chambers or Charon wells is an incantation

[split igloo]

yeah I know about the hammers and stuff

[magic moss]

lol

its like fine

its definitely something you need to practice a lot

idk ive just played so much fresh file i dont even think its that bad anymore tbh

but that is 1000000% biased

[split igloo]

from what I've seen briefly on YouTube, FF runners just take scorch, beach ball etc boons that aren't too dependant on rarity/levels

[magic moss]

eh kind of

beach ball is the #1 boon, then breaker rush (tho that is very skill reliant), scorch is also solid but poms definitely help out, froth buffs was kinda big as well

[modern acorn]

What keepsake do y’all usually start with?

[mystic mango]

None

[magic moss]

jpom or nothing

[mystic mango]

Ah right not fresh file

[magic moss]

hi kol

[split igloo]

everyone plays jpom which is a post-game keepsake

[mystic mango]

Jpom unless you’re running god keepsakes

[split igloo]

if you don't have it, just pick one of the god keepsakes to kickstart your build

[mystic mango]

If you want easy peasy early clears just run Moros keepsake the entire time

[modern acorn]

I have all of them already

[magic moss]

jpom

[mystic mango]

Okay then yeah jpom easily

[magic moss]

if you dont know, jpom

if you know, jpom

[split igloo]

then it's jpom -> timepiece -> whatever

[mystic mango]

It’s weird seeing mini without the purple name and out in the wild

[mystic mango]

For speed take fig or to preserve Arachne dress take sash

[modern acorn]

I usually start with the one that gives bonus arcana cards. I haven’t tried jpom yet

[magic moss]

ive been here longer than you have xd

[mystic mango]

I know that

Just I don’t see you on here much

[split igloo]

jpom makes every single boon in the game start at level 4, it's a huge boost in power

[magic moss]

fair enough, ive mainly shifted to speedcord after i retired from high fear

[modern acorn]

I’ll try it out when I get home, that was the last one I unlocked. I think

[mystic mango]

First rule of speedcord, never talk about speedcord

[magic moss]

literally pinned in #self-promotion

[mystic mango]

I know lol but like nobody knows that

(I didn’t)

[modern acorn]

Is that the ||zagreus one?|| @split igloo

[mystic mango]

But hey got some casual players who could maybe join Bingo 2.0

[split igloo]

||Hades & Persephone||

the full name is ||Jeweled Pom||

[somber beacon]

i like calling card second region... its fun to play ultra greedy and not take a gain/attack or whatever until second region where you can make it heroic

probably not good for high fear though

but red boons make me happy

[mystic mango]

With Debt having time piece is life changing but depending on the build yeah card is great

If you have space for heph blasts it’s huge

[split igloo]

just keep in mind that you have to play at "fates' whim" to be able to use jpom, timepiece and calling card, otherwise you lose their effects
fates' whim means no re-roll cards and no god keepsakes, you take you what you get (or reset a lot lmao)

[mystic mango]

Or winners circle heroic is massive

[modern acorn]

I played 60hrs since it came to ps5 on Tuesday, first goal was unlocking everything. Kept saying one more run and ended up doing 10-15

[somber beacon]

oh yeah, hermes is a big one

[mystic mango]

Winners circle buff is insane

[split igloo]

also, the cool thing about these 3 fates whim keepsakes, is you get to KEEP their effects when you take them off, so jpom is only needed for region 1

then you take timepiece, and it likewise stays for the entire game

[modern acorn]

I love those keepsakes. Been switching every stage

What cards do you guys run for high fear runs?

[magic moss]

i really should play more staff

[somber beacon]

basically all the cards that arent in the top right or the bottom left

[mystic mango]

I do mean that though like if you guys think you’d be interested in doing challenge bingo in late May we’re looking for more casual and mid-level players interested in getting in on that

[somber beacon]

actually i take boatman thats bottom left. but none of the rerolls XD

[split igloo]

most people run this Strength loadout, assuming jpom (so no re-rolls) https://h2crossroads.pages.dev/ArcanaDeck/?deck=WyJjMSIsImMyIiwiYzMiLCJjNiIsImM3IiwiYzgiLCJjMTEiLCJjMTMiLCJjMTQiLCJjMTUiLCJjMTciLCJjMTgiLCJjMjMiLCJjMjQiXQ==

[mystic mango]

The first one was really fun but very geared towards high skill, but we are looking for more mid-level players just looking to contribute

[somber beacon]

what is the bingo

[mystic mango]

Check the discord in the #self-promotion pins. It’s in the weekly leaderboard channel

All entrants welcome as long as you can predict your availability and your skill level can be gauged based on what you’ve cleared before

[modern acorn]

I’ll have to try that, I’ve been using this the most. Obviously that’ll change with jpom https://h2crossroads.pages.dev/ArcanaDeck/?deck=WyJjMSIsImM2IiwiYzciLCJjMTEiLCJjMTIiLCJjMTMiLCJjMTQiLCJjMTUiLCJjMTYiLCJjMTciLCJjMjAiLCJjMjEiLCJjMjIiLCJjMjQiXQ==

[mystic mango]

If any of you have imposter syndrome about participating don’t worry

@magic moss I’m not gonna like go around trying to recruit people actively but it got mentioned so might as well see if they’re interested

Mini is the host and they did an incredible job with the last one

[modern acorn]

Bingo sounds fun, I’ll have to enter once I get more familiar with the game as a whole and get all upgrades

[mystic mango]

A month is plenty of time to do that

[modern acorn]

True

[mystic mango]

I’m sure you’d be well above the average level and pushing high fear by then

[somber beacon]

dang, these bingo squares dont seem very casual to me 😭

[modern acorn]

Most likely, I’ll check it out when I get a chance.

[mystic mango]

I know I said that was an issue with the last one that is being addressed

There’s a feedback channel you can read

It’s linked at the bottom of the leaderboard channel

Along with closing notes from mini

But definitely there will be a LOT of changes with the next one including ways to encourage active participation and contribution even from casual players

Mini is cooking fr

[modern acorn]

I checked the pins and don’t see a leaderboard channel. Am I missing something?

[mystic mango]

#self-promotion

[modern acorn]

Speedrunning or modded?

[mystic mango]

Speedcord

[modern acorn]

Okay

[somber beacon]

i think the only contribution i could put in is just crazy playtime. like if they want to do most 12 fear runs done in one day, you know im good for that. ill keep an eye out and see what new squares they come up with perhaps

[mystic mango]

A lot of the challenges are group participation

So even if you’re an anchor you’re still contributing

My only major contribution was getting the center square within the first hour and coaching the person who got square 7

But the next one will minimize that

[somber beacon]

understood, i will keep an eye out for it then

[mystic mango]

We’d love to have you you sound a lot better at the game than you give yourself credit for

The last one sadly suffered a lot from Team 2 (Nemesimps) being cursed by Vow of Employment

[somber beacon]

i appreciate that, i have a lot of experience but not a super noteworthy amount of skill or expertise. i dont get that much out of fear pushing and im afraid that the challenges of a bingo square might be the same thing, which is why i say that any square thats just "low stakes grinding" would be my thing 😭 but that might be a bad square to have for all the employed participants

i love the game though which is why the idea still intrigues me

[magic moss]

no pressure i guess 😭

[mystic mango]

Consider that “playing fear” isn’t something that can be upstaged

Like yeah playing fast can be but they’re based around doing something BETTER as a group

[somber beacon]

true i could definitely put up some numbers as a member of a group

[mystic mango]

Leave the speed challenges to the top 10 speed runners lol

[somber beacon]

im curious what kinds of squares could even work that are non-trivial yet casual friendly without grinding. i feel like you can only accomplish 2 of the 3 at a time

[mystic mango]

I say that jokingly though. You might be better at it than you think

[mystic mango]

You kinda just have to wait and see until it gets closer

[magic moss]

tbh very little 😭

like theres a ton of casual challenges you can do, but very little when the only evidence required is a screenshot

especially for the purposes of a competition

[mystic mango]

Not using video does limit the challenges some but saves a ton of time on free labor

[modern acorn]

I’ll def need to play a lot more before attempting that. Most of those squares are intimidating

[mystic mango]

Read up but honestly if you’ve even beaten the story you’re probably already going to be able to at least do SOMETHING

[modern acorn]

Perhaps. The highest fear I’ve done so far is 16 and whatever the greater underworld trial is

[somber beacon]

the greater chaos trials are 24 fear if im remembering correctly

[modern acorn]

I just started this past week tho

[mystic mango]

20

[somber beacon]

ah

[mystic mango]

Doing GCB before 32 fear is impressive

32 fear is a lot easier than you probably think with the right vow setup

[modern acorn]

Most of my weapons are like level 2 as well besides the ones I used

[mystic mango]

GCB is harder than nights champion genuinely

[modern acorn]

It’s def hit or miss. I got super lucky on my second run. The first one I got whooped

I ended my second with all 3 revives and full health

[mystic mango]

Rolling pain, scars 3, return, forfeit, or hordes 3 is worth a reset usually

[mystic mango]

https://tenor.com/view/american-psycho-impressive-very-nice-coping-patrick-bateman-gif-26518058

Jeez why is that gif so high FPS

[modern acorn]

I did save a ton of moon healings for the final fight tho lol

[mystic mango]

Okay maybe slightly less impressive but genuinely the fact that you’ve even done that is rarer than you think

On steam that’s like a 4% achievement

Rarest in the game

[modern acorn]

That’s good. I did play Hades 1 like 400 hrs so that probably helped. I 100%’d it twice

[mystic mango]

lol yeah that might do it but like that basically means you’ve played hades as a series for more time than I ever have

I only got like 35 hours on H1 and am at 400 hours H2 including just sitting around and doing nothing

Give yourself a month. It’s only been a single week so far

[modern acorn]

We shall see where I’m at in another week.

Once I finish upgrading things, I’ll play around more. Been trying to get all trophies first and unlocking everything to max

[somber beacon]

somehow i have more hours in hades 1 but considerably fewer runs. i guess i sat around a lot in the first game

[modern acorn]

I wish chaos trials didn’t add to runs count, gonna have to go in and see how many are what. I think I was at 70 runs when I left this morning

[mystic mango]

You can see how many runs you’ve cleared on every weapon but it doesn’t count deaths and idk if record keeper counts chaos runs

[modern acorn]

My first 10 or so were deaths lol

[grim gyro]

i got vicious strike + dazzling display to inflict both wounds and daze on my attacks

free origination

truly a 1 button build

[somber beacon]

if you could get zeus that would be a wonderful heinous affront build

[grim gyro]

oh yeah

that boon is so strong already lol

[somber beacon]

those of you who know a lot about the game, if you arent spending magick and dont want to clog your door rewards with selene, is it better to take her or not? like, which is more common: getting offered selene doors when you dont have her, or getting offered path of stars rewards when you do have her? or is it the same. what about clogging shops, i feel like path of stars clog shops more often than normal selene but idk

or are they the same reward with the exact same chances, just presenting differently depending on whether you have a hex or not

[alpine raft]

ill avoid her for as long as possible unless shes in a fields room i want

[broken spoke]

Moon?gold!

[viral yew]

Avoid her till I can chrolex

[next crystal]

I should learn how to make better runs of surface

[vernal quiver]

you kinda just hope for a good ephyra and go from there

thessaly is kinda a wasteland in terms of boons and olympus scaled tf up so if you arent beefed up by then its easy to get outscaled

[next crystal]

I have been mostly doing Aspect of Mel

[vernal quiver]

boatman + artificer work wonders though past normal build crafting knowledge

[vernal quiver]

which weapon

[next crystal]

[sweet bolt]

What's good on black coat? Aspect of melinoe, what should I look out for each slot

[vernal quiver]

bro theres 6 mel aspects which one 🥀

[next crystal]

The skulls

[vernal quiver]

coat likes on hit effects, so attack tends to be posiedon/hestia and the special sticks to hera/zeus for more strong curse application

[vernal quiver]

ahh yeah those are super flexible

[sweet bolt]

Thx

[vernal quiver]

i think genuinely anything works on those but the power buff on attack leans it to like % attack options then zeus on special

[next crystal]

I prob should try and fit origination on my tarot

[vernal quiver]

yeah thatd be a good idea its the single strongest arcana card

50% global bonus for super simple build crafting is insane

[next crystal]

Also strength but I’m not that good for it to benefit me

[vernal quiver]

if youre at low fear strength is kinda free, 40% damage reduction makes a lot of things just tickle you and healing will overall be more valuable because of it

although i do use death like 99% of the time because its nice, strength is a lot easier than it sounds until youre at like 45 fear onward

[next crystal]

I’ll have a shower and give surface another shot

[sweet bolt]

Do you think hera' hitch sprint is best for it? Since you move around so quickly

[vernal quiver]

it can be! hera sprint is one of the stronger options but when hera is already in the pool theres no reason to not just get her special then hope for shimmering rockets since then the room clear becomes absurd

sprint boons tend to just kinda be whatever, just pick whatever feels right they never make or break anything, theyre more just free curse applicators

[opal pecan]

Note that Hera sprint only does damage to enemies that aren't already hitched

[sweet bolt]

Thanks, so far I got everything you said in my run. Plus dying wish and slippery slope

[opal pecan]

So if you have, say, Sworn Flourish, which is better at spreadin hitch around, your sprint aint gonna do that much

[sweet bolt]

Yeah I got sworn flourish

[opal pecan]

Yeah there ya go

[sweet bolt]

Is the cast on black coat just an afterthought? I'd assume demeter would probably be best if you do run into it

[vernal quiver]

cast is integral to any weapon, furies is a mainstay arcana with the 30% global damage and can be a major source of damage(like say zeus cast/hestia), strong crowd control(aphro/demeter), and overall just be a strong origination setup option

cast should always be down

[sweet bolt]

Yeah I just meant like who the cast is from, I always cast for spacing even if I don't have a boon for it

[vernal quiver]

really doesnt matter tbh, kinda like sprint you just put whoever you feel like for that run

[zenith olive]

Im a big fan of apolo sprint I dont put whoever for sprint

[vernal quiver]

sprint pick genuinely doesnt matter until high fear lol, imo hera/apollo/demeter tend to be the best but like theyre only beating the others in like super marginal 45f+ reasons

[solemn carbon]

On low heat strength is easier than death

Once you start using vow of scars or pain it’s probably not worth it

Does anyone know what counts for Extended Family as an “Olympian” or as “Olympian damage”?

like is Hermes’, Athena, Dionysus, Artemis counted

and does hitch count as Olympian damage?

[wild drift]

Yes the four gods you mentioned count, and I don't think Hitch counts as Olympian damage

Only way to boost Hitch damage specifically is with Hereditary Bane

[vernal quiver]

tldr any damage that has a unique color is olympian damage

and for every olympian in extended family its just how many different gods have given you things

[solemn carbon]

But hitch does 🥲

[vernal quiver]

yeah but hitch is unique in that its damage is based on a % of your weapon damage and it shows on win screens as weapon damage

so functionally its an extension of that

[wild drift]

Yeah Hera Olympian damage would be damage from Engagement Ring and Nexus Rush, and the effects of Dying Wish and Rousing Reception

And Fine Line

[solemn carbon]

Right that makes sense

Some people on reddit say that Athena / Artemis etc don’t count but I guess I’ll test it rn

Yes Athena counts 🙌

50 heat run with Moros / Poseidon attack, just reached Tartarus 🤞

[glossy jetty]

Small addendum, how many different NPCs have given you things

Chaos and other non-god boons count towards the damage

[bronze flax]

Wait, really?

[glossy jetty]

Yep, just a few runs ago I got a rare extended family that gave an extra 24% damage. Increments of 4% means the boon counted 6 boon givers, even though your core god pool is limited to 4 without forcing more through keepsakes

[bronze flax]

Dio, Artemis and Athena count, but is there anyone else whose boon count for that?

[glossy jetty]

NPC boons, like Icarus, echo, and hades

Not sure if Arachne counts

[viral yew]

Is it boon givers, or olympians

[glossy jetty]

Extended family specifies "boon-givers"

Anyone who gives a boon ┐⁠(⁠´⁠ー⁠｀⁠)⁠┌

[mystic mango]

All “boon-givers” so anything that counts on the menu

Except Selene she’s not a boon

Unless the path nodes count idk

I’m sure you can just check the number on extended family before and after picking anything up to see

[glossy jetty]

They don't unfort

[dusk lagoon]

A build for Mel's Twin Blades, which gods should I choose?

[viral yew]

poseidon, hestia, zeus, or hera

[mystic mango]

Aphro is fine on the special if you go trick knives

Just definitely do not take dancing knives if you plan to go trick knives since it guts the damage since the specials can only hit once

[dusk lagoon]

Which blessings should I choose?

I defeated Siphon again.

[marble badger]

how does the damage scaling in this game work? to my understanding it's
(base + power) x (any percentage bonuses from any sources all added together) x (critical DMG if applicable)
am I missing anything?

[vernal quiver]

Sounds about right yeah

[marble badger]

what about foes take more damage that's also lopped together with the percentage thing?
let's say I have a 50% boost from artemis arcana and also weak foes take 30% more damage from the aphrodite boon, that's not 1.5x1.3 but just 1.8 boost right?

[viral yew]

Crit is 2x for grievous and 3x for normal btw

[viral yew]

I believe so yes

[marble badger]

okie thanks y'all

[surreal hazel]

yeah, all +% add to each other, but what you want is +power

since that modifies the base damage of the move itself, and thus is multiplicative with +% bonuses

(Do I get the balatro reference out again?)

[broken spoke]

Pwr = chip, % = mult, crit = xmult

[sweet bolt]

What's a good build for the aspect of Charon? I already know Apollo or Aphrodite on the special. Plus super nova and prominence flare, but other than that idk what to get

[wild drift]

I don't love Aphro on the special without the duo with Poseidon (who you want because of Geyser Spout)

[broken spoke]

Geyser sprout

[wild drift]

Hera and even Demeter are good picks for the special too because they give % damage and a curse

[sweet bolt]

When running Charon is origination worth it? Idk how to apply two curses since you're just trying to nuke everything with the special

[wild drift]

Always worth it

Hera/Demeter/even Ares or Zeus special, Apollo/Poseidon/even Demeter or Aphrodite or Hera cast, Apollo/Demeter rush all give curses

Arctic Gale too

Which cast boon you use matters less than you think with Charon because it acts like an Ocast anyway

[sweet bolt]

I'll try some of that

[split igloo]

as long as your cast and special have curses, you will have origination, hera special + apollo cast is a strong combo

[drifting rose]

Could Apollo work on the special for aspect of moros

Also could moonshot work with anbuis

[mystic mango]

Generally on torch you want a curse or a flat damage buff on special

And yes all moonshot effects work on Anubis

Including dual which is very strong

[somber beacon]

how does the high fear/speedrunning community feel about static shock? i feel like i dont see it talked about much, its mostly a favorite among casuals i think. i also find it quite fun. are there any notable runs with a reliance on static shock? the fact that it doesnt take up a core slot means the opportunity cost should be low, and kings ransom is a big bonus

[flint widget]

top 5 best boons in the game

but runs dont really have a reliance on static shock

its just a nice dmg boost

really nice for wards clearing too

for speedrunning tho, it falls off a lil bit since static shock gets outdamaged by stuff like parray and stuff

[somber beacon]

yeah, that definitely makes sense. i guess its simply competing against other crazier builds

i might try to put together a static shock, kings ransom, master conductor run just for the lols. the wiki says it can only activate 3 times in 0.75 seconds - assuming thats true, how many weapons really hit that limit? i guess coat special depending on the timing?

and knives special

[marble badger]

that sounds like an amazing run, good luck

one final DMG calculation question:

if I have the Ares boons [Grievous Blow] & [Mutual Destruction] both at 50% trigger chance (somehow), would I

1. have 100% chance to deal 200% damage
2. have 50% chance to deal 200% damage, 25% chance to deal 300~400% damage (my instinct tells me nope :P), 25% chance deal the normal 100% damage
3. have 75% chance to deal 200% damage, 25% chance to deal the normal 100% damage

further, I've learned that the mini-crit from Ares CAN stack with the regular crit, would that be a 400% total or 600% total? (I'm guessing the former but want to confirm)

[surreal hazel]

There is only one double damage roll, it adds the probabilities from both boons that cause if it you have both

so scenario 1 applies

and for mini and full crit? 6x damage

using the in game "+200%" damage for crits in discussion is kiiiinda confusing, the damage calculation is literally just tripling it

[autumn vortex]

Does anyone know a strength build? I wanna mix up my game a lil bit and i think im pretty good at the game so i dont have to rely on DD

[surreal hazel]

Nothing particularly different, just you get to lean more towards big base power effects like Blitz and Heph Blasts

but also healing is improved since -40% damage resistance make healing effectively better, so you can lean on Wayward Son a bit more

[autumn vortex]

Im talking about the arcana cards sorry i didnt specify that

Im really bad at theorycrafting i only have a judgment and my main go to build

[surreal hazel]

Not massively different, but it does change what to pick to get Divinity to activate

[surreal hazel]

how deep into the game are you?

[autumn vortex]

Already finished it

[surreal hazel]

okay, jewlled pom builds then, fate's whim go

a few variants, but The Lovers is a good choice, artificer, Origination, Furies, Huntress, the mainstays

[autumn vortex]

Is the artificer like a change of fate in terms of mechanic

Havent used that before ngl

[surreal hazel]

lets you turn minor rewards like ashes into run-rewards like boons and cash

3 times per night

[autumn vortex]

Ooo thats nice

Could work well with sea star

[surreal hazel]

usually you just blow them all in Erebus to get your run underway sooner

just... you'll forget to do it at first

since you need to manually hit the right button for it (RT on pad) before picking up that reward

[autumn vortex]

Yeah thats what i was thinking of how that works

[split igloo]

artificer works with jpom/fates whim btw, which is pretty cool

[surreal hazel]

Yeah, it's not a reroll or an olympian keepsake

[autumn vortex]

Alright i got 8 more grasp left what should i put on

[surreal hazel]

sorceress, swiftrunner

[autumn vortex]

6 more

[surreal hazel]

what weapon?

[autumn vortex]

I dont really have a main weapon

[surreal hazel]

Boatman

Messenger

what else have you activated?

[autumn vortex]

Its maxed now

Got all what you said before

[surreal hazel]

so has Centaur and Divinity switched on?

[autumn vortex]

Plus i activated persistence

[surreal hazel]

ah, there we go

[autumn vortex]

Yes

Both are on

Tho origination seems lil off ngl

[surreal hazel]

go have fun. Might not be optimal for your weapon but it'll work, take Jpom up front, swap it in the next region and wreck face

[surreal hazel]

Origination is so disgustingly powerful that it's mad not to have it

[autumn vortex]

Im trying out the hidden aspects now

I did the torch last time it was decent

Now im gonna try the axe

[autumn vortex]

Really?

I never used it

[split igloo]

origination is the best card in the game, works with any weapon and virtually any build

[autumn vortex]

What💔

[surreal hazel]

+50% global damage bonus for just two curses? That's crazy good

[split igloo]

+50% damage speeds the game the F up

[surreal hazel]

nothing else comes close to that

[autumn vortex]

I watched some tier lists of the game keepsakes and stuff and i didnt use the most op ones

Like bruh

Guess it goes to the arcanas too

[surreal hazel]

Huntress is crazy good and that only applies to normal attack and special, nothing else

[split igloo]

just hit an enemy with 2 different Olympic boons and now that enemy takes +50% more damage, it's that simple, it's just like in the Nioh games

[surreal hazel]

origination is any damage of any kind caused by mel

basically the only exclusions are from shades, traps and your familiar, so eh

[autumn vortex]

Does the hidden aspect of the knifes count as a curse

[surreal hazel]

no, it must be an olympian curse

[autumn vortex]

Aaaa

[surreal hazel]

and from two different gods

so don't try to mix freeze and gust from demeter, that won't count

[autumn vortex]

I see i see

[surreal hazel]

every other god has precisely one curse

[split igloo]

the easiest origination is glamour gain + whatever, you don't need to do anything special, but glamour gain is bad on magic hungry builds

[surreal hazel]

Or if you prefer, Blitz, Weak, Froth, Freeze/Gust, Wounds, Glow, Scorch, Daze and Hitch

[autumn vortex]

And hangover

Dont forget my beloved dionysus

[surreal hazel]

Now you see, you should be right about that, but you aren't

[autumn vortex]

What

No way

[surreal hazel]

yeah, it's a bit dumb

[autumn vortex]

So i guess athenas stuff doesnt work either

[surreal hazel]

Nor Artemis' marked

[split igloo]

also, scorn doesn't work either (Hades' curse), because he's not an Olympian

[autumn vortex]

Tho i cant remember if she has anything curse stuff

[surreal hazel]

Or Hades's Gigaros sweep

[split igloo]

that's Scorn

[surreal hazel]

Athena hasn't got her Exposed curse in H2, no

[autumn vortex]

Damn thats sad

[surreal hazel]

Steam also doesn't count from Scalding Vapour

[autumn vortex]

I always wanted an op burn hangover build

[surreal hazel]

Just make a pyro technique scorch build

[autumn vortex]

Does charm count

[surreal hazel]

No

[autumn vortex]

I guess the falling swords doesnt count as a curse

[surreal hazel]

Sadly not

because they're just delayed projectiles

[autumn vortex]

Was about to say festive fog but it works differently in hades 2

[surreal hazel]

it works basically the same way, it wasn't a curse in H1 either

[autumn vortex]

Really

[surreal hazel]

yep, it caused stun, but that's not a curse

[autumn vortex]

I remember it being like a posion debuff cloud

Maybe it was a duo thing

[surreal hazel]

it didn't inflict hangover

Ice Wine inflicted chill

Curses are strong in hades 2 anyway, stacking them is good even if origination isn't in play

[autumn vortex]

Everybody says wound is ass tho i cant tell why

[surreal hazel]

oh and bonus trivia for you: If you have Blitz and some other curse on a victim, Blitz will get origination's bonus when it activates

[viral yew]

It's good

[surreal hazel]

Ares is actually great on low fear

it's just a lot of the vows to increase fear seem laser targeted at making ares bad

[autumn vortex]

Most of the time i only play with the vows maxed

[surreal hazel]

Wards makes wounds awful

[autumn vortex]

I mean the rivals

[surreal hazel]

ah, yeah

then wounds is fine

[viral yew]

Thought for a second you only ran 67f

[surreal hazel]

pffft

[autumn vortex]

No god no

I cant even beat the final bosses on rivals yet

Let alone play on 67

[surreal hazel]

hah, yeah, you really need to learn those before you can consistently beat them

[split igloo]

Ares is good since the big patch last week, watch Boated
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r81Ork0vBkE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZBW6huimZE

[surreal hazel]

Ares' biggest criticism is that he needs investment

[autumn vortex]

Oh yeah ofc falling swords are really good but i was talking about only wound

[surreal hazel]

His potential is bonkers, but he needs specific duos and combinations of boons to really get him to realise that power

out of the gate he's kinda meh

[split igloo]

you need more boons yeah, can't just take a core boon and call it a day, Ares needs investment

watch the videos, Boated explains all the synergies and combos

[autumn vortex]

Will do

Also is there any benefit to these dream dives(?) besides those star tickets

[surreal hazel]

fun

they're generally a bit harder

[surreal hazel]

They are until they aren't

try hitting eris on Frenzy II with sword ring without Coffin Nail

[autumn vortex]

I hate eris with all my life

[surreal hazel]

Dash through her, stop running

[autumn vortex]

I gave her only one nectar cuz i hate her so much

[surreal hazel]

she's a bully, stand up to her and she crumbles

[autumn vortex]

Also ngl the rivals version of her is kinda easier

Except those balls

[surreal hazel]

in some senses, harder to do flawlessly though

and slower

[autumn vortex]

Dodging the lucifer lasers is easier then the bullets from her normal form

For me atleast

Aight im gonna give this strength build a go

My only sad thing is that i cant use my kitty

[surreal hazel]

Get birb, get crit

[split igloo]

she's easily the best romance option in the game, what the hell man

[autumn vortex]

I dont like her shes annoying💔

[surreal hazel]

That's fair

but yeah, she's fast, good luck dropping swords on her

doesn't much care for your binding circle either

[autumn vortex]

And she throws her garbage around even tho i gave her a literal trash can

[autumn vortex]

Yeah right the swords doesnt trach either

[split igloo]

you can recycle those candy wrappers for kudos, so Eris actually cares about you, she's just tsundere

[autumn vortex]

1 kudos

Thank you very helpful

[surreal hazel]

Precisely, it's why Coffin Nail is often better than Cutting Edge

even though "lol double your swords and bigger radius" seems like the clear winner here

it's actually not

(Also for reasons of sword caps)

[autumn vortex]

What if i slow the time down

[surreal hazel]

definitely helps

[autumn vortex]

Does the swords slow down too

[surreal hazel]

no, everything owned by mel is at normal speed

heck, you can spawn a sword and then cast Phase shift and the sword will drop during the super pause

[autumn vortex]

Huh i def try that one

[surreal hazel]

iirc the only thing that's slowed is scorch?

[autumn vortex]

Sometimes she give me more trouble then rivals prometheus

[autumn vortex]

Im pretty sure any dot slowed down

[surreal hazel]

scorch is the only DoT that's relevant

[autumn vortex]

Tho im not sure when they are applied or when they are getting applied

[surreal hazel]

Specifically?

[autumn vortex]

Like when shes on fire already and takes the dot or when she gets the dot applied

[surreal hazel]

oh how scorch works?

It's quite simple

[autumn vortex]

No i mean which one gets slowed down

[surreal hazel]

from smolder ring?

I believe the cast still ticks once per second, but the scorch number counts down slower, but I'm not 100%

[autumn vortex]

So the actual tick speed when its already on is slowed

I see

Not like its changing anything lol

[surreal hazel]

yeah

[autumn vortex]

Does the moon debuff from the selene hex count as a curse

Probably not

[surreal hazel]

Shine? no

Due to a bug, one (Probably) still does and that's Softness (Total Eclipse)

[split igloo]

Selene is not an Olympian so it doesn't matter either way

[surreal hazel]

Yeaaah, except for that bug

[split igloo]

Medea also has a curse, and again it doesn't matter

[hollow stag]

How much faster does Furious Whirlwind charge your Axe Omega Attack speed?

[viral yew]

50%

[surreal hazel]

Except not unless they fixed the bug

Initial charge time is halved, the stacking of extra levels isn't

[hollow stag]

If you have Psychic Whirlwind already,

Is Furious or Colossus Slash better? On Base Mel Axe

[wild drift]

Def Colossus

Even if you don't have Psychic

[mystic mango]

Furious whirlwind is still bugged AFAIK and does nothing

Stepped charges like whirlwind are not affected by charge rate buffs

[surreal hazel]

....What's the third option?

both of those aren't exactly great on mel axe

[wild drift]

Yeah Mel Axe best hammers are Dashing Heave and Seething Marauder by far

[surreal hazel]

Melting shredder is never wrong, oddly

[spiral wadi]

melting is great unless ur nergal where u don't have multihit

[surreal hazel]

is it even allowed on that?

[spiral wadi]

yes

[surreal hazel]

huh

[spiral wadi]

it's quite ass

[surreal hazel]

siege shredder?

[spiral wadi]

melting pretty sure

i think i've seen shredder too

[surreal hazel]

yeah, looks like it

got some older scripts to hand

That at least might be decent, since it's not as fiddly as shredder normally is

Golf swing some fool into next week

base damage 60 instead of 20x3, eh

[spiral wadi]

golf gamemode

[surreal hazel]

strictly worse for combos but otherwise BONK

Nergal special is pretty ass, come to think of it

still kinda funny to get Exceptional Talent and Giga cleaver on any axe though

[spiral wadi]

ospec nergal actually is fun

it's the egregiously long endlag that makes it ass to use without getting hit for it

[surreal hazel]

the endlag doesn't lengthen with anything that makes it fire more than once

so with Giga Talent you get 4x the kaboom

[spiral wadi]

tru

but it still long

[surreal hazel]

just becomes a death zone that you lure enemies into

[spiral wadi]

ig so

[surreal hazel]

but yeah, I find Cleaver just better

[hollow stag]

Do I want Aphrodite in my God Pool for Mel Torches? (Night 7)

[viral yew]

No

[flint widget]

hidden helix special spam with aphro special is goated tho

[manic shuttle]

Real

[green mist]

Vow of rivals should give like +5 per level at least

I'm now going on 16 fear with my least fav weapon, and I just slash up without even breaking a sweat

But 5 fear on rivals and you can bet money I won't finish the run

[opal pecan]

The Vows don't have Fear points that necessarily reflect 1:1 how difficult they are

Void, for instance, is worth like one point per rank

I have been assured that this is deliberate

[green mist]

I feel weird about this, cos on one hand normal bosses are too easy for me, but rivals are just impossible

[mystic mango]

The difficulty difference between normal and rivals is a lot more aggressive in this game than in H1 with Extreme Measures

Aside from Hades and the champions the fights were basically just the exact same thing with a slight added hazard

But some rivals bosses get harder with their normal moves or just outright have entirely different fights from the top down

[green mist]

If they just weren't damage sponges

[mystic mango]

Honestly they aren’t

Having fought EM Champs in H1 just recently those guys are so much tankier than any rivals boss even with a solid build

Basically every rivals fight is easy to clear in under 60 seconds or so unless you’re playing high fear

I’d say their health is pretty well balanced

[green mist]

Hmm

[mystic mango]

Damage sponge implies their difficulty comes from how long they take and how much you have to hit them rather than mechanical difficulty

[wild drift]

Funny thing is EM Champs is less HP than Prometheus by himself, we just do so much more damage in this game it seems

[mystic mango]

Honestly Chronos folds like a wet napkin if you can do damage to him

Same for Heroes if you have a decent build

Heroes is easily one of the longer fights

[flint widget]

uh rivals chronos and typhon would beg to differ

[mystic mango]

I said BASICALLY

[green mist]

I mean I see how quickly base Chronos is going down, like he's literally melting on an average run, but Eris

[mystic mango]

Eris is only slow cause of how many times she goes invulnerable or flies away

Otherwise she’s another wet napkin

[split igloo]

idk if you have the summons unlocked in H1, but the fight can be a lot shorter if you drop Meg or Than on them

[green mist]

It may be that I just see it differently because rival eris is high cortisol battle, and Chronos just seems more slow paced but I don't know the actual numbers

[mystic mango]

Nope cause I’m only like 34 runs in on H1 so no companions yet

[mystic mango]

Eris smol

[split igloo]

they should unlock around that ballpark, unlike H2 you can buy as many nectars as you want at the hub, spend gems to get keys, 5 keys = 1 nectar, and you average about 300 gems per run

[mystic mango]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1233146305308528650/1490835009349877760/45C9C91.MP4?ex=69e89d8c&is=69e74c0c&hm=129fef67ad87b3df12b5c7833ef7c471453bf9507093b5e7d670c69515135de5&

Beating Eris with Hammers

[mystic mango]

I’m just playing H1 for fun I’m not interested in optimizing it any time soon

[green mist]

I noticed that hammers are effective against her, but having a full build like this and upgraded doesn't always happen in the second region

[wild drift]

I went to check and my lazy ass didn't have a companion until run 76

[mystic mango]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1233146305308528650/1488211849437511913/7A9B4C1.MP4?ex=69e8f5ca&is=69e7a44a&hm=a44155534d47b1067a67776156ae6c704c96669527ad04efdbac3bdf1f97a2aa&

More Eris folding

[split igloo]

I'm 60 runs in in Hades 1 with like 95% of it done (only missing Achilles and Nyx prophecies), it can be a very short game if you optimize well

[wild drift]

Conversation made me boot up H1 and do a run, just tried to cast a Wringer going at me and got grabbed

[mystic mango]

Cast reflex lol

[split igloo]

lol

they're kinda annoying in 1

[wild drift]

Trying to dash-strike + special with Guan-Yu this ain't Mel Staff

[split igloo]

yeah, and Arthur is basically a worse Axe, and its aura is like a prototype for the H2 cast

[green mist]

I liked Arthur, not the strongest, but it was cool

[drifting rose]

What’s an good build to run aspect of Anubis with

[split igloo]

hestia attack then all her other scorch stuff like pyro technique and highly flammable

[flint widget]

blitz attack and get double strike static shock and arc flash

[tall notch]

shout-out to Poseidon dash, you can always put down your attack and then start zooming around to hit enemies

[flint widget]

true but i prefer nexus solely for the purpose that u can run around and hitch everything lmao

[drifting rose]

Alr thank yall

What build should I do for aspect of nyx black coat run

[flint widget]

same thing but replace the attack with the special

[opal pecan]

Check the pins

If your question is just a general "what build should I do", check the pins

[drifting rose]

I was trynn which booms would be good with it

[upbeat goblet]

Is there any accessibility option for the || Prometheus || boss fight? I Just cant deal with the 2nd transition phase without tanking it

[opal pecan]

Have you checked the pins

[drifting rose]

God mode?

[opal pecan]

They literally talk about which boons

[drifting rose]

Alr I will Ty

[upbeat goblet]

I am fine with the rest of the game, I have Just THAT specific issue

[opal pecan]

There is not. You can pause the game and write down the lanes, or you can use dash iframes to get through the flames.

[upbeat goblet]

Sucks. Thanks anyways

[sullen blade]

random question but does anyone know if the temporary armor from Security System counts for Heavy Metal?

i dont take either super often so im not sure but am curious

[proper cloak]

If it did not I would be incredibly surprised

[vernal quiver]

yeah it counts while its there

[opal pecan]

This is why I have called it discount Hydraulic Might

[glossy jetty]

It does, it's essentially a mini hydraulic might

Ok the last three messages didn't load, in my defense

[stray pivot]

OK but Add it to hydraulic Might and you get Pro HYdralic might

[gritty widget]

HAHA, YES

[stray pivot]

AND ANOTHA

[hollow stag]

What would be the best base weapon for 1st night on Surface?

If I want the best chance to get 2 mosses.

[south copper]

Which ones do you have unlocked? Really I'd say whatever you are best/quickest with

[hollow stag]

Woah, Static Shock clears room even at Common rarity.

Does Nimble Limbs help for Knives?

[drifting rose]

Can someone give me their favorite build to use

[stray pivot]

Anything with Hephin it

[drifting rose]

Any weapon and aspect to be pacific?

[stray pivot]

Heph rocks everywhere (with enough rarity and poms)

[drifting rose]

Wdym

[viral yew]

Heph with high rarity and lots of poms, plus some duos, can give you heph blasts every second

[stray pivot]

On Morrigan for extra fun

[magic grove]

what aspect?

well if you want something fun in general i always recommend supay with ares dash and other falling blades effects (new profuse bleeding is super good) plus also the heph/ares duo (and if you can the apollo/ares duo)

is it an easy build to do? no, needs a lot of boons
is it even the best supay build? nope
but its so fun when it all works out

[drifting rose]

Alr thank yall

For the build ideas

[drifting rose]

What would be the best supay build?

[viral yew]

Aspect of circe, zeus cast

[glossy jetty]

mel coat, posiedon attack, static electricity, support fire, air quality

played it once and i could feel my soul physically ascending from this mortal plane

[clear sail]

which is the best rush/dash boon? ive got no idea which ones r worthwhile beyond loving apollo's

[magic grove]

probably like Hera special Zeus attack or something

With Zeus dash

[drifting rose]

Alr ty

[drifting rose]

Got it appreciate it gng

[magic grove]

Apollo's dash is imo the best boon in the game

But in terms of raw damage it's Zeus dash

[viral yew]

Pos found dead in a ditch

[broken spoke]

Muh aq dem dash

[magic grove]

oh yeah right

[clear sail]

ok i thought this run would help me understand aspect of anubis but that was miserable

[viral yew]

How did you build/play it

[clear sail]

nothing on special hestia on attack zeus on rush

and tbh it was doing pretty good damage but still sucked 😭

o attack spam bc i got several things boosting my o attack

[boreal zealot]

hey y'all does winner's circle affect storm ring dps

[spiral wadi]

ye it speeds up the tick rate

it follows a weird calc (rare is 50% but only changes 3sec to 2sec)

but still an improvement

[boreal zealot]

hell yeah thanks a bunch

[spiral wadi]

np

small side note is that nimble limbs includes "cast" in "Strike Speed" but actually doesn't increase tick rate at all

[hexed spade]

New Winners Circle is my best friend, even super nova scales with it

It still functions as a nerf for stuff like lethal snare but I would say it’s quite obvious on why the two wouldn’t work well.

[sand crow]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/849525788005236766/1496398141413654659/207D931.JPG?ex=69e9bcde&is=69e86b5e&hm=a7d487345c37f31036de36087c825944957ccdf691a072c649ae5c8d76cced8d&
man this dream dive just laid out a beautiful buffet and said "pick whatever you want"

[wild drift]

As Pizza once said something is Rising and it isn't just the Exhaust

[sand crow]

Oooooough do i take stabbing rush or new and improved epic level 6 Ares cast (replacement for Apollo cast) or visceral

[surreal hazel]

visceral probably

[sand crow]

region 4 rivals 4 frenzy 2 scylla is terrifying

[formal herald]

I don't understand why in the pinned guide the swift runner arcana is used instead of wayward son. Wayward son gives quite a lot of healing in the long run, swift runner just makes you a bit faster. And wayward son actually activates full column 2, just like swift runner activating row 3. Can someone explain why swift runner is picked more often?

[broken spoke]

In frenzy 2 context that extra speed let you actually outrun thing, and able to sprint thru enemy is useful

Ofc you can experiment with both to see which better for you

[viral yew]

Healing isn't needed if you don't get hit

[wild drift]

You'd be surprised at how much you miss 10% movement speed AND being able to pass through enemies, plus Wayward Son gets worse as you make the game harder because of the Vow of Scars

[viral yew]

Plus fountains, hearts, boons, it's just a bonus

Speed is just better to play with

[formal herald]

Well it's the only reliable healing you have within an area

So I can always meet bosses with less than 50 health missing usually

I guess I'll level up swift runner next and try it out

[formal herald]

And I get the vow of scars thing, I'm just not at that point yet

[lyric summit]

I have genuinely died so many times without swift runner due to body blocking 😭

[formal herald]

I usually just fully dash through enemies

[lyric summit]

But again it depends on what kinda run you’re doing

[formal herald]

Depending on boons or fear?

[lyric summit]

Yee

If you’re not gonna go to ridiculous fear levels to the point of Scars3 then ye Wayward is fine

[manic shuttle]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1438829189385031692/1496439910192779264/output.mp4?ex=69e9e3c5&is=69e89245&hm=2fc55db99fd45047b871d6e34552fc411cebd3ed0b144bd759c2f698ab4c01c8&

2.7k total eclipse mini-crit

[jolly aurora]

question what has been you guys favorite build

[gloomy wind]

Can someone help me understand Incandescent Aura? The duo from Hera and Hestia.

[jolly aurora]

it deals 500% dmg of mana restored every 0,2 seconds and it afflicts hitch affected enemies

thats what the wiki says atleast

[surreal hazel]

When you gain mana, (actually gain, not overgain) deal 5x thst value to all hitched enemies

So you gotta have a build that can spend and recover mana fast and spread hitch

It's hard to get working honestly

By the time you hitch everyone in a room they're all dead because hitch

[jolly aurora]

like a axe secret aspect or black coat and comboes at least with what i would think hera gain

[gloomy wind]

Thank you. I had a strange interaction that I've never seen before. I had the chaos boon restore 12 magic every 1 second and I was spamming my omega constantly and as soon as I got the duo everything I hit started bleeding 60 dmg non stop.

[jolly aurora]

sounds so fun

[surreal hazel]

Yeah, any kind of mana gain will do it