h2-for-new-players

[balmy plume]

Seems like a lot of prime over the course of a run. Does centaur do enough to offset it?

[woven smelt]

At first you only have the staff and afaik every weapon can be used.

I would suggest keeping the nectar for characters you don't usually see that often (like arachnea) and Schelemeus

[tidal moss]

Morrigan is a good aspect, everything seems solid, you may just need more metaprogression and practice, make sure all your arcana are upgraded, I would recommend moros pin over tooth

[winged stirrup]

got it

what about gods gifts

[tidal moss]

Moros, and then all the Olympians so you can control builds better, after that doesn't matter

[tidal moss]

Wouldn't really recommend this

[winged stirrup]

i read that the moon goddess gifts are really good, are they actually ?

[balmy plume]

You wanna give one to everyone you can for a keepsake

[tidal moss]

Selene is strong early game, I highly advise against using her too much as alot of new players rely too much on her and never learn to build and manage runs to their fullest potential

[balmy plume]

Jokes on you I often forget that I can press right trigger

Usually I just take the healing one or the polymorph

The slow one is really strong too

[tidal moss]

Twilight curse is actually one of the ones I think are good

The rest are buns once you actually get good at the game

[balmy plume]

Is that the name of the polymorph?

[tidal moss]

Wolf howl too

[tidal moss]

Yes

[winged stirrup]

u talking about the nectar?

[balmy plume]

Yes

Try to keep a few on hand

[tidal moss]

Everyone you can gift gives you a keepsake

[balmy plume]

For NPCs you only meet randomly out in the world

[woven smelt]

What do you mean? Isn't Hestia-Demeter a good build? I target fire attack and special, ice cast and the duo

[tidal moss]

They misread your arcana thing

[balmy plume]

If you roll the +500 vs guardians it becomes a do everything power it crazy

[tidal moss]

You don't want hestia on both, it isn't really a strong build for typhon

[balmy plume]

I found that one just kind of hard to aim on controller personally

[tidal moss]

You don't need to aim, it's just for the iframes

[winged stirrup]

you got any other tip ?

[woven smelt]

Oh, maybe thats why Typhon feels much harder since I focus on this combination. Is there a build for Typhon you can recommend?

[tidal moss]

Always use cast, and always use origination

[tidal moss]

https://imgur.com/a/iHVt2EC

Something like this, apollo on attack, zeus on special, and go all in on oattack

[woven smelt]

Thanks a lot! I'll try that 🙂

[balmy plume]

O

[tidal moss]

Twilight curse and wolf howl are good because they provide utility and don't need upgrades to work

[tidal moss]

Good luck

[woven smelt]

Do you think this Arcana would work? https://h2crossroads.pages.dev/ArcanaDeck/?deck=WyJjMSIsImMyIiwiYzMiLCJjNiIsImM3IiwiYzExIiwiYzEzIiwiYzE0IiwiYzE2IiwiYzE3IiwiYzIxIiwiYzIyIiwiYzIzIiwiYzI0Il0=

[tidal moss]

I'd swap huntress and sorceress for lovers but I run antler so it's not really needed

You have all the important bits

[balmy plume]

But if you dont upgrade how will you make it godsent

[tidal moss]

You don't

[balmy plume]

[tidal moss]

Nearly all high level players ignore hexes and upgrades for 99% of their runs

[balmy plume]

[tidal moss]

They're just not worth it

[balmy plume]

I forget I have them like half the time honestly

I feel like there should be like

A default hex that's just some simple basic thing

[tidal moss]

Eh

[balmy plume]

Cause its awkward having that keybind do nothing half of the time

[tidal moss]

They're fine as is

The only one that needs to be reworked is aspect of selene

[balmy plume]

I tried that aspect a bit and honestly the hex seemed awkward and not very helpful

Never really did what I wanted it to do

I hope some of the other coat aspects are more interesting cause I don't love any of the onesI've tried so far

Mel, Selene and Nyx

[tidal moss]

Nyx is the strongest, then mel, then hidden, then selene

[trim carbon]

Godsent Nightbloom says hello. Those allies do stupid amounts of damage. Ive had quie a few runs where the damage output had allies in the 1st or 2nd spot.

[balmy plume]

Oh is there only 4 rip

I have the hidden one available but haven't been able to buy it yet. 4 nightmare is a lot rn

Nyx is cool the omega dash to activate just feels a little... clunky? Breaks up the flow just enough to make me feel bleh

[trim carbon]

i dont like Nyx. The nightspawn thing, to me, just seems to do VERY little. And it's really not useful on bosses. Selene's Skyfall, however, especially if you have Ares to make it Godsent does a surprising amount of damage.

[balmy plume]

I mostly end up using Mel to just spam normal and dash attacks faster but like eh

I hope i like the hidden one 💀
It says it has an altered moveset so there's hope

[trim carbon]

Shiva takes a bit of getting g used to.. but its good

I mean.. none of the aspects are strictly bad...so

[balmy plume]

I assume it's around as different as Rama vs other bows in the first game

[trim patio]

what a fun 3 weeks this has been playing hades 2, i've nolifed it pretty hard.

I just have one more achievement to get, which is the arachne one, does anyone have any tips for it? it sounds rough as hell. I'm guessing you go heph keepsake straight away and then the armor one that keeps giving you some per room afterwards?

[lapis cloak]

yeah

and play carefully, its easy to do

[trim patio]

Not for a bulldozing specimen like me but yeah cheers, i'll give it a go haha

Ooooh only have to reach chronos, not beat him

Sounds easier now

[balmy plume]

Try a weapon with some range

Or maybe a winner circle build

[trim carbon]

Play carefully, try and forcce Hephestus and collect armor boons.. also buy armor from the well of charon, and every time you get a choice that involves armor, make tha choice. You only have to get TO chronos. You dont have to beat him. Once you enter the room, you get the achieve.

also.. using the arachne keepsake for the whole run isnt a bad idea.

That particular run isnt supposed to be a speed run, or even a win. Your sole goal is collect as much armor (assuming you get an arachne room) as you can and keep at least 1 point so you can keep the dress.

[rustic hinge]

antler last region would be better than dress

[trim carbon]

maybe.. but it really depends on your skills. I cant use the antler.. unrivaled Chronos/Surface last boss will always get me for more than 30hp. Yes i know.. skill issue

[rustic hinge]

why do arachne achievement with rivals on

[trim carbon]

i mean.. you wouldnt.. but i cant do chronos/Surface last boss with antler.. they always get me for more thn 30

well.. i guess if your sole goal is the arachne achieve.. then the antler may work well. just to clear the rooms

[livid crypt]

So uh... How does the sprouted mechanic actually work? It says "up to 2 seconds" is that an "increased per each damaging effect?" Sort of deal? Also does it only look for ones that impact the special? Is it just having them or do you need to be applying them? When/how does it recharge?

[lapis cloak]

Right side of your health/mana bar there's a little gauge, the more Olympian damage you do the more this gauge increases

When maxed, your ospecial will last +2 seconds compared to when it's empty

Then if its like half is +1 second

Note that not everything is Olympian damage, you regular attack and special is not Olympian damage even if it's being increased by a boon

Scorch, blitz, Poseidon waves, Heph blast, falling blades, and other stuff is considered Olympian damage

[polar laurel]

If your damage number has a special color its Olympian damage. I'm pretty sure that's universal, or at least close to it

[lapis cloak]

Yeah I think even stuff like wounds counts but I could be wrong

[trim carbon]

WEeirdly enough.. the damage done by an ares wound counts as olympian.

but not like.. the bonus from aphro/apollo/hera on your atk/special. that increase doesnt count towards Sprouted. The damage applied by the bonus 50 power from the wound DOES count.. which is kind of counter intuitive

[polar laurel]

Would be weird if it didn't considering ares infusion

[livid crypt]

Wild

Regardless on that particular run it ended up costing 10 magick after a hammer or something increased its cost, and I was regenning 6 magick per second so the duration didn't really matter all that much lmao

[balmy plume]

i tried this. its doing good, though i do kind of miss artificer

[vivid flare]

It's the bonus base damage from Wounds getting applied that counts

[trim carbon]

Yeah. Not the whole strike

[balmy plume]

wow Demeter/Ares duo is pretty good on Momus staff 💀

[winter basin]

Yeah it’s pretty fun on there especially if you get sword ring since that should cause more blades every time it explodes

You don’t get any other cast omega effects like fine line, prom flare, or meat grinder but you should still get your base cast boon so it should activate sword ring

Would be the strongest boon to match with momus omega cast AFAIK

[balmy plume]

i am most certainly getting meat grinder

source: this run

[winter basin]

Meat grinder is alright especially if you get air quality, though usually isn’t that much damage. But can’t hurt if it’s the best option you got

I’ll take meat grinder over blood spree almost any day

[balmy plume]

i took it for fated list

[winter basin]

I only have two fated lists left for picking boons/rewards, finished Dionysus but still have flames Daedalus and narcissus

[balmy plume]

air qualk would be amazing for this build since i have a scorch special and rapture ring

and meat gringer

[winter basin]

Air quality doesn’t affect scorch AFAIK

And wouldn’t really do much for rapture ring since it’s damage is only every .85s

Air quality is best used on the ones that damage far more often in lower damage numbers

[ebon rover]

Hi Im new

[winter basin]

Meat grinder, prom flare, gusts from Demeter all get a massive buff like 5-7x damage

[ebon rover]

I’ve beat chronic but dont know how to upgrade animal familiars

[winter basin]

Have you found every familiar?

[ebon rover]

No

Do you have too

[winter basin]

Yeah so if I’m correct you have to find all of them to unlock the incantation to upgrade them. You can check the list of all incantations in the game, I think it’s on there give me just a second

[balmy plume]

i dont think i had Gale when i got the recipe

but i think i had talked to them out in the world

[ebon rover]

I can’t find the black dog anymore

[vivid flare]

She and Gale are out in the world now

[ebon rover]

Oh

[vivid flare]

That's where you can recruit them

[ebon rover]

Ok

[winter basin]

To unlock it you have to befriend frinos and raki

https://hades2.wiki.fextralife.com/Bravery+of+Familiar+Spirits

[vivid flare]

And Toula

[vivid flare]

Is that one up to date, since the requirements changed in 1.0?

[balmy plume]

dang is fextra really our best wiki

[lapis cloak]

nope

[tidal moss]

Requires the godsent which is alot of setup and does nothing for normal encounters, it's good for typhon and that's about it, plus they're slow and dealing damage compared to how fast I can take out bosses

[winter basin]

Maybe idk that’s fair

[lapis cloak]

There's the fendom wiki, much better, it's a general hades wiki so it has stuff from both games but afaik there's some stuff wrong there but it's mostly correct

[winter basin]

But I just know you get an incantation for upgrading them after finding a few of them or whatever

[tidal moss]

You've got it mixed up. Nightspawn charge does quite a bit of damage, and the special give you the effect of shimmering rockets for free, making room clear so much easier. Selene has an inconsistent path of stars, and does very little damage until you get the right upgrades, even then it's not great, and you have to use a lot of coat omegas, which are pretty bad in the first place

[winter basin]

On fandom it says spend 4 morsels on familiars

So you have to unlock any 4 familiars to get the incantation to upgrade them

[balmy plume]

bleh i'd rather a fextra wiki than a fandom wiki

[trim carbon]

Yeah..well.. I guess we all aren't up to your level then. I can Melt bosses if the build lines up..but since I run fates whim, I'm kind of at the mercy of RNG on certain aspects

[winter basin]

https://hades.fandom.com/wiki/Cauldron

Assuming this is the one that’s up to date

[lapis cloak]

From my own experience, the fextralife one has a lot of wrong info

[balmy plume]

this is not a comment on specifically the hades 2 fextra vs fandom wikis

[winter basin]

Fandom having its bad eggs in some communities doesn’t spoil the dozen

[tidal moss]

That's why I hold the opinions that I do, if you have fun with those things then i'm glad someone is getting use out of them

[lapis cloak]

ah, I don't know much about wiki platforms so I can't comment on it

[balmy plume]

fandom and fextra are both kind of crap in general, but i'd rather fextra if i had to pick.
at least it looks nice 💀

[lapis cloak]

i know there's some controversies involving them but anyway I just use whatever is the "least bad" one depending on game

[winter basin]

Yeah a lot of people try it without upgrading it and don’t realize the cap is 75% damage which is really strong. And having a 300 damage dash is pretty strong too

I did that and was like “damn this is lame”

[tidal moss]

Base 300 too, with origination and other buffs it easily gets over 500 which is a heph blast

[winter basin]

Yeah for sure, really strong

Having any extra way to just delete a single enemy is pretty great

[lapis cloak]

Nyx is dopamine inducing because you activate nightspawn spam special with Poseidon and just see the whole room exploding

[winter basin]

Yeah a pocket heph blast + an effective temporary 150% damage buff (not counting flat damage boons) and multiplying rockets is pretty great

King Tide 💙

I’ll have to go do a nyx run or two with the new appreciation for it

[tidal moss]

Fr

[spice shoal]

First Medea Skull run was terrifying but very fun

[balmy plume]

this game is strategically designed to only offer my kiss of styx when i am 10 gold short of being able to afford it

💀

[winter basin]

“Oh you lost a DD to that boss? Hope you didn’t decide to buy that Pom at Charon”

[balmy plume]

i need to stop buying poms at charon fr

[quiet flax]

Okay just played some more and this game is still peak

[balmy plume]

i stopped buying meta resources since i have enough, of the ones he sells anyhow

man olympus side is so much harder

[winter basin]

Once you have JPom the value of poms goes way down

[balmy plume]

what

[winter basin]

But even still they’re not that worth it unless you have a ton of extra cash

Jeweled Pom is Hades/persephone’s keepsake

Gives you 3 free Pom levels on every applicable boon for the entire run

[balmy plume]

i've beaten chronos 3 times and typhon 0 times

[winter basin]

So makes Poms even less valuable

Ah okay so you’re a good ways away from credits roll

[balmy plume]

just beating my head against topside

[winter basin]

You got 5 more chronos kills and 5 more typhons to go

[vivid flare]

My brother in Christ, use some spoiler tags

[winter basin]

I mean the name gets thrown around a million times anyways I’m not spoiling how you get it

[balmy plume]

cause all of my testaments seem to be topside for some reason

[winter basin]

But okay

[vivid flare]

You are literally in the "no spoilers" channel

[balmy plume]

Its the hades 1 keepsake yeah, but someone who hasn't done hades 1 might not like it

[vivid flare]

The Hades 1 keepsake is Pom Blossom

And was you get a random pom every 4 rooms

[balmy plume]

basically the same thing frfr

[vivid flare]

Eh, not really. The H2 version is significantly stronger

[winter basin]

Except that’s 1 level every 4 rooms instead of 3 for literally everything

And a free hades boon

[balmy plume]

cause blossom wasnt good enough

lol

[winter basin]

It really wasn’t tbh

[balmy plume]

not everything could be dad's trinket

[vivid flare]

Considering mom pom ||didn't persist after swapping and didn't give a Hades boon||

[winter basin]

Yeah JPom is permanent

Just absolutely broken compared to every other keepsake in the game

[balmy plume]

that thing sound disgustingly op

[tidal moss]

Very much so

[balmy plume]

i already hate it

[winter basin]

Its basically SS tier compared to everything else

It deserves the Meta Knight treatment

[balmy plume]

really don't love when there's one single correct choice

and then 27 other options

[winter basin]

Eh, you can go other options, the god keepsakes are still good and rerolls can be a life saver if used right

[vivid flare]

There are certain weapons where it's not ideal, but it's such a strong general-use keepsake that it's very much the meta to start with it

[winter basin]

Jpom just makes it so any build becomes viable, even if you don’t have rerolls

Since everything becomes strong

Not having rerolls also frees up grasp for other arcana

I will say that until you get JPom the god boons are a very close second in most cases so you get the build you want

Just don’t fall for Concave Stone. It sounds good but honestly can be pretty annoying if it gives you something you didn’t want

I did have a single time though that I got two duos at once from it

It has potential to override the denial vow

[rustic hinge]

it helps that jpom is by far the more fun option

[winter basin]

Cutting 5 minutes off your times just by picking jpom with zero additional skill is nice

[polar laurel]

Jpom is fun but the starting hades boon forcing rerolling fate a bunch right away when speedrunning stinks

I'm totally fine with getting everything except the final boss ones

[balmy plume]

man.
I normally don't mind when games sass me for having a skill issue.... But does this one really have to rub it in every. single. time?

[rustic hinge]

||you dont like a deep dissent start in underworld?||

[polar laurel]

I do not

It commits the cardinal sin of being less fun

[rustic hinge]

so effective tho

[polar laurel]

Is it now

Doesn't gigaros dash give you like a 30% damage up

[rustic hinge]

it only buffs your normal attack and special

[polar laurel]

I mean

[rustic hinge]

deep dissent makes the fight like 50% easier

[polar laurel]

But it's one fight right at the end :P

[rustic hinge]

and it's the hardest one

[polar laurel]

Not like chronos takes longer than like 15 active seconds

Deep dissent does not seem like the speedrunning play

[rustic hinge]

for sure but you wont have a hades boon in that fight anyway

[polar laurel]

?

[rustic hinge]

||getting a boon from hades is a time loss and athena keepsake breaks fw and saves time||

[polar laurel]

Why would you go for deep dissent then

[rustic hinge]

safety on 62

[polar laurel]

62?

I'm talking about speedrunning 😭

[rustic hinge]

lol i wasnt but again theres no hades boon in speedrun

[polar laurel]

Wait why not tho what kind of time loss is there

The timer pauses in that room

[rustic hinge]

||tartarus rooms get longer the deeper you go so hades increments difficulty without being a skip, also navigating there||

[polar laurel]

Well OK tbf it's no slower to navigate to one room vs another but the other point makes sense

[tidal moss]

It loses 0.5 to 1 second

[polar laurel]

How can it possibly be slower to go to a different entrance

[tidal moss]

You lose time running to that entrance

When it could've gone to the next one

[polar laurel]

What?? You have to run to the number entrance too

Why not just go to whatevers closer

[tidal moss]

Combined with the increased difficulty

[polar laurel]

Yeah that part I get

[tidal moss]

It's because of the increased difficulty

Which is why you lose that time rather than going to the next room

[balmy plume]

wait so you mean hades room also increase enemy count in rooms afterwards?

bruh

[tidal moss]

Yes

All npcs except medea

[balmy plume]

wait more rooms adding more enemies a mechanic in all zones? i thought it was just tart and olympus

[tidal moss]

Nope

[winged stirrup]

i just met the spideer and i ahve no nectar im so unlucky

is the keepsake good ?

[tidal moss]

No

[winged stirrup]

oh thank god then

[tidal moss]

It's one of the bottom 5 keepsakes so dw

[shy zephyr]

i wouldn't call it bottom 5 but its uses are niche so yeah you didn't miss out on much

[winged stirrup]

just beat hecate thanks to selenes magic the one that charges up after using 30 mana and the dedalo attack spell that deals 400 damage randomly

[tidal moss]

Not the hexes 😔

[vivid flare]

Twilight Curse

If this game were based, it'd turn the bosses into unique sheep models

Like, imagine a Heca-sheep with a cape and torches following her

[winged stirrup]

yo i just gave a nectar to hypnos and he didnt give me nothing back

how does that work

[magic aspen]

For the first time?

Hold up I just checked and there is no keepsake from Hypnos!

[winged stirrup]

frick

[tidal moss]

Nope

[winged stirrup]

yea

shouldve kept it

[magic aspen]

He is useful later for story development tho!

[winged stirrup]

i have one ready for moros hopefully i dont forget using it the next time i meet him

[tidal moss]

Always use the one you get from moros it's very very good

[winged stirrup]

rn im using the lucky tooth

or the hecate one

last run i used the lucky tooth and i won so i think i might continue using it

[tidal moss]

Moros keepsake does what the tooth does but better

[winged stirrup]

niceee

i casted the spell to summon him but it didnt work hopefully next time i die he will show up

[tidal moss]

You need to gift him in the crossroads after that

[winged stirrup]

oh ok

i will just keep a nectar then for whenever he shows up

[dense root]

Really?

But on a boss fight what if you just die

Too early

[winged stirrup]

should i give a nectar to narcissus ?

[tidal moss]

You take it last region

[tidal moss]

Why not

[tidal moss]

If you phase either final boss then pin doesn't use a dd and you get the free damage

[winged stirrup]

nvm i cant cuz i already spoke to him by mistake

i will do it next time i see him

[winged stirrup]

gave it to him

is nemesis keepsake any good ?

[shy zephyr]

no

[winged stirrup]

ok im just wasting nectars then

lets say im doing it for the love of hte game

[shy zephyr]

you have to get every keepsake anyway

may as well give one to everyone

[winged stirrup]

do you have any reccomendations on an early game arcana build ?

[shy zephyr]

not really, been a long time since i played a fresh file

[dense root]

could you send a photo of what you have?

[winged stirrup]

i closed the game oh no

[dense root]

you can send as a link iirc

[winged stirrup]

i will send it later

[dense root]

okay

how early game are you talking about?

[winged stirrup]

like i beat hecate and now i almost beat the 2nd boss

lol

[vivid flare]

It's a contender for the worst in the game

Funny how both the female LIs give unfiltered dog leavings for keepsakes and both the male LIs give some of the best

[winged stirrup]

whos the other male

[vivid flare]

You'll meet him later

[quiet flax]

uh oh

is uhh

fun

[balmy plume]

For moros torches, I've got Sudden Burst, Leaden Blaze and Furious Blaze all on offer at the same time. Where is my take all option

i think just leaden tho

[unborn plaza]

sudden burst is the best if you have a good gain

[balmy plume]

second hammer

I've also got the hammer for faster O special and -10 cost

[unborn plaza]

clean coil's good, don't take inverted blaze on moros tho

[balmy plume]

yeah i learned that first hand

💀

I usually like stuff like Like Coil or Enduring Coil

since keeping the special active is the hardest part of moros i find

[grizzled granite]

does ||crystal figurine work if hecate is kidnapped||

[shy zephyr]

it does not

[grizzled granite]

🙁

[dense root]

Oh hi there

[grizzled granite]

chello

[kindred quiver]

Because of magic consumption or because dog actually having to charge it?

[balmy plume]

ive had both be an issue at different times

[kindred quiver]

Whenever I play with Torches I bring Hecuba

[balmy plume]

more often its just re casting it so often

[kindred quiver]

Racing Thoughts helps. Or Nimble Limbs. Whichever is the Hermes boon that increases channel speed

I don’t remember

[balmy plume]

my hecuba is level 1 still pretty sure

Racing i think

[kindred quiver]

Still decent at level 1 cause they can still dig up the mana ball

[grizzled granite]

woohoo new pb of ||scylla phase 2||

[blazing drift]

how do i lvl up ||animal familiars??||

[kindred quiver]

Once you unlock the first 4 of them, you’ll unlock an incantation that lets you use the animal biscuits to upgrade them

[blazing drift]

thx

[kindred quiver]

Np 👍

[grizzled granite]

do poseidon waves have a cooldwon

[winged stirrup]

i sent it to you in dms cuz idk how to send it as a link

[kindred quiver]

no

[winter basin]

They’re very good for stuff like ||supay|| (hidden ||flames|| aspect) for that reason due to the rapid hits

[balmy plume]

does vow of return just make affected enemies like the elysium enemies in the first game

[tidal moss]

Not really

[balmy plume]

o

[tidal moss]

You just have to collect what they drop

[kindred quiver]

I think they’re asking if they turn into the same enemies that dropped them rather than a random one

[balmy plume]

That too ig. Not having to kill the soul thing is nice though

[kindred quiver]

Still annoying when they fly to the other side of the screen 😔

[balmy plume]

Rip

Im starting to get to testaments that require more than just frenzy 2 + rivals 1

And rivals Eris sounds scary

So i dont wanna do that yet

[kindred quiver]

What fear level do you need?

[balmy plume]

10

Did frenzy 2, rivals 1 timer 1

[kindred quiver]

||Lowkey Rivals Eris is easier than regular Eris||

[balmy plume]

And uh

What's the name of it

Chance of enemies being from next biome

[kindred quiver]

https://h2crossroads.pages.dev/FearCalculator/?vows=WzAsMCwwLDYsMCwzLDAsMCwwLDAsMiwwLDMsMCwyLDAsMl0=
Just use this through 18

[tidal moss]

Menace

[tidal moss]

I'd do denial and debt over menace

Or just timer 3

[balmy plume]

I could probably do debt, but I like clicking buttons in shops

[kindred quiver]

Imo, nah

[balmy plume]

I can not do timer 3 yet

[kindred quiver]

Debt 1 is barely a difference

[kindred quiver]

Do timer 2 at least

[balmy plume]

I could maybe swing timer 2 but itd be tight

Since im still sweeping rooms for meta resources

[kindred quiver]

It’s effectively 28 minutes for the entire run

[balmy plume]

Hm

[kindred quiver]

And I’m assuming most of your runs don’t take that long lol

[balmy plume]

I guess I'm averaging 21 for a clear rn

[kindred quiver]

Yeah you’re good

[tidal moss]

You could to timer 3 easy with some optimisation

[balmy plume]

Region 1 might be a little tight sometimes, if I remember the timer from the first game well enough

[kindred quiver]

Hades 2 is quicker than Hades 1

[balmy plume]

Once I get all the meta stuff done I'll probably go to timer 3 yeah

[kindred quiver]

Also unlock the next rivals levels ASAP

[balmy plume]

...is that the ??? In the ||monster Disintegrator|| recipe is from

Cause I only need one more typhon kill but still dont know the third ingredient

[vivid flare]

No, Nightmare is used for weapon upgrades

It's essentially just Titan Blood from the first game

[balmy plume]

I know that. I meant the "unlock the next rival asap" tip tho

[vivid flare]

Oh, no, that's just to get more fights

[kindred quiver]

You just have to beat the region 1 rivals boss on both the surface and UW. Then, Selene can give you dialogue to get the next level

[vivid flare]

Because the maxed-out Vow of Rivals is 12(?) learnable Fear all on its own

[balmy plume]

I have the ability to toggle rivals 2 rn

[kindred quiver]

Oh just turn that on now so you can start learning it

[vivid flare]

Thankfully, ||Unrivaled Eris|| is debatably easier than the base fight

[kindred quiver]

Rivals 2, Frenzy 2, Timer 2, and Shadows is already 16f

[vivid flare]

However

The same cannot be said for the Underworld

[balmy plume]

That fight is the main reason i haven't toggle rivals 2 yet, but you're the second person that said its easier so ig I'll try it

[vivid flare]

There's a valid argument for putting ||Unrivaled Sirens|| as the second-hardest boss in the game

At least the music is fire

[balmy plume]

I can guess what that fight is like, since I've listened to the sound track a lot even before I bought the game

[vivid flare]

Well, I'll just say this... the song title gives it all away

[balmy plume]

Sorry which one is shadows, not at my pc rn

[vivid flare]

Shadows is extra adds during minibosses

Sometimes literally just a second miniboss

[balmy plume]

O

Triplets of ||typhon||¿¿?

[vivid flare]

I think that one specifically ||has more of the crystals spawn||

[balmy plume]

Im glad Rivals is really encouraged in this game. EM||4|| was objectively the most fun pact in the first tgame

[vivid flare]

I believe it's ||Satyr Champion, Root-Stalker, Hellifish, Yargonaut, Mega-Dracon, Queen Lamia, Goldwrath, and Spawn of Typhon|| that all have their Shadow add just be a second miniboss

And other ones have other things

[balmy plume]

Shrimply Sun Worshipper and hide. Its that easy

[balmy plume]

is ||goldwrath|| the life steal miniboss from mourning

[tidal moss]

No

[balmy plume]

thank goodness

that would be ass

[vivid flare]

||No, he just gets a punchy ghost. Goldwrath is the money bag miniboss in Tartarus||

[balmy plume]

oh right

wait what ||lifesteal ghost gets a punchy ghsot sidekick?|| 😭

my least favorite miniboss gets my least from regular mob as a sidekick say it aint so

[vivid flare]

||Yes, and this is debatably a Jojo reference||

[balmy plume]

havent seen it

that sort of really long anime intimidates me.

[vivid flare]

Well, Jojo is at least broken up into seasonal parts with clear starts and ends

And that's not some anime adaptation thing, that's just how Araki wrote the manga

[balmy plume]

Hmm. I'll take a look at it again.
It's not that i don't think i'd like most longer shows, I just usually fall of of them is more the issue

[vivid flare]

There's 6 seasons of the anime (one for each part), with a seventh in the works

Though technically speaking, Parts 1 and 2 are the same season and Part 3 is divided into 2 seasons for reasons beyond understanding

[shy zephyr]

the ||root stalker and queen lamia|| do not add a second miniboss, first one gets ||a lot more tentacles|| and the second gets ||a holeheart||

[vivid flare]

Ah

[balmy plume]

got ||Morrigan||. First impression is that I think i'm gonna like this one

second thought is oh god i went in to rivals hec without a gain

What's better between scalding vapor and thermal dynamics?
I recon scalding, though removing froth seems potentially rip

[tidal moss]

Thermal

depends on build and aspect tho

[balmy plume]

morrigan with zeus attack, posiden spec and hestia cast. plus slipper slope obv

[vivid flare]

Generally, Thermal

[balmy plume]

does Wide Grin instantly get max damage with Mel skull?

[vivid flare]

Nope!

[balmy plume]

😦

good thing im on persephone then

[vivid flare]

Despite this being something that has been known for the entirety of early access, it still calculates the aspect bonus at the time of firing and not at the time of impact

[opal mural]

Just came from Hades 1, had a build yesterday that seemed like it should've been broken but it didn't feel broken, it did help me get my 3rd clear though

It was Heaven Flourish, Lightning Lance, Smolder Ring, Winner's Circle, Thermal Dynamics, and Arc Flash

I have 2 questions

1. Arc Flash sounds like Merciful End from Hades 1 but it didn't feel that good (my attack pattern was Special -> Omega Cast and repeat), how does it work?
2. Does Scorch stack like Hangover did in Hades 1? i.e. Was Thermal Dynamics doing anything if I was already applying Scorch with Smolder Ring?

[vivid flare]

1. There's an internal cooldown with Blitz procs (the animation needs to finish before you can reapply it), and there's a Duo that is actually just Merciful End
2. Scorch stacks, but it doesn't do so like Hangover does. Scorch will always decay at 100 stacks/second before considering Pyro Technique's increased consumption per tick. So Thermal Dynamics will do something, even if it's just giving you a buffer

[opal mural]

Alright thanks

[balmy plume]

So that's why origination feels so awkward sometimes

[tidal moss]

Why?

[opal mural]

How do I unlock more testaments? Having Circe at rank 4/5 is irking me lol

[tidal moss]

Have you seen all the bosses?

[opal mural]

Haven't unlocked the Surface Incantation yet

[tidal moss]

That's why

[opal mural]

I just have to keep going into Chaos Gates and hoping for dig spots right

FOr the Thalamus

[tidal moss]

Yep

[vivid flare]

Your first ones will be from talking to them, then afterwards Chaos rooms will start having resources

[robust copper]

Bit of a noob question, but I thought scorch meant it deals 100 damage over 1 second. I have it on my special at the moment, yet it only does the scorch damage: 35 amount. Is there only a chance of it afflicting 100 over 1 second or something?

[tidal moss]

Scorch is used up at a rate of 100 per second, if you inflict 35, it will do 35 damage in 0.35 seconds

[robust copper]

I kind of don't understand. My special attack with the staff is pretty slow. If my special with scorch is only 35, then where does the 100 per 1 second come into play?

[tidal moss]

Every time you inflict more scorch, it increases, and caps at 999, so you can have more than 100 scorch stacked on an enemy, but it will only do 100 damage per second at max (unless buffed by pyro technique or global damage)

[robust copper]

Oh I see, I appreciate it. One more thing. Is it more optimal to enter boon encounters with the skull or the shop when I have a lot of cash. Like should I just take the encounter and wait for charon before the guardians to spend my gold? @tidal moss

[tidal moss]

If you haven't unlocked the boatman arcana yet then it's probably better to take the door with a skull, that's a miniboss, or 'Warden' as the game calls them, and gives you a better chance for higher rarity boons

[robust copper]

I JUST unlocked boatman. Does that mean go for the shop then? Since I suppose I can afford the boon and pom of power if there is one?

[tidal moss]

If you have boatman and the extra gold then it's the faster and safer choice, but depends on what the god on the door is

[robust copper]

Zeus

[tidal moss]

Take it

Zeus is the best god, hera is next best

[robust copper]

Okay. Also, do you recommend I learn the names of these build names I see you guys throwing out in #h2-victory-boasting ? Like what does shotgun and stuff mean. And what is frenzy? Is it like a heat thing like from Hades 1

[tidal moss]

Just ask if you need clarification, shotgun is referring to wide grin hammer for skull, and frenzy is part of the fear system, which works the exact same as the heat system in h1, frenzy increased enemy movement and attack speed

[robust copper]

Okay, thank you. I'm glad I found this server. Better than google

[tidal moss]

There is alot of misinformation around from early access, here is probably the most reliable source

[rugged citrus]

Boatman arcana overrated (judgement better trust)

[tidal moss]

[woven smelt]

Yeah, I was mislead into thinking Hestia-Demeter is a good universal build before I came here.

[rugged citrus]

Yea so tip os for new player u should max out judgement

[tidal moss]

Shut it

[tidal moss]

Yeah uh online and reddit are not good places

[balmy plume]

They internally delay before you canre apply blitz

[winged stirrup]

is eris keepsake good ?

[dense anchor]

no

[vivid flare]

It's the other contender for the worst in the game (outside of niche cases)

[tidal moss]

Yes

[woven smelt]

I don't know if this is the right place to ask, but I got Hades 2 physical and digital with my Switch 2 and I am considering on buying it for my PC/Mac as well.

If I use a cross platform save file with a lot of progress, will Steam recognize all the achievements I already got?

[tidal moss]

It should

[winged stirrup]

i beat ||scylla|| for the first time and almost ||cerberus|| (in the same run)

the stuff i had were insane

+i buffed my weapons

[spice shoal]

Great job!

[balmy plume]

||cerberus|| takes a lot less to learn than Scylla. Or at least for me it did

You kind just ||Kite behind them the entire fight|| and half of their attacks simply miss

[winged stirrup]

got it ty

[winged stirrup]

Guys does moros keepsake reload after i die then defeat a boss

if i didnt kill him in time thanks to the keepsakes ability

[balmy plume]

keepsakes refresh whenever you return to the crossroads

[winged stirrup]

tysm for the tip it was so helpful

[cobalt linden]

Hey, I just upgraded an arcana card with insight but I don't see the upgraded option when I go back to the selection screen. What am I missing about how this works?

[kindred quiver]

The upgraded version replaces the previous level

[cobalt linden]

Oh! I'm an idiot. I didn't realize there was ANOTHER upgraded version available too

Duh

[kindred quiver]

lol

[winged stirrup]

who should i give an ambrosia to ?

[balmy plume]

whoever you want

it passes 20 ticks of time tho

for garden stuff, cauldron stuff etc

[winged stirrup]

they wont give me an item ?

[kindred quiver]

Nah

[balmy plume]

on the first nectar you get a keepsake

[winged stirrup]

so its just for relationships purposes

[balmy plume]

that's all for the most part though

[kindred quiver]

Yup. If you’re curious about the romances, those characters are Nemesis, Moros, Eris, and ||Icarus||.

You can romance all of them btw. You don’t have to pick just one.

[balmy plume]

i have odyseus lined up with wanting three gifts the pass time in a row in case i ever need to brew something up fast

[winged stirrup]

i can give the ambrosia only to these 4 characters ?

[kindred quiver]

No. Every character who can be gifted will accept Ambrosia at some point

[balmy plume]

its weird how early you get ambrosia. No one takes it until much later

[winged stirrup]

tbf i just built the tavern

asnd they give you one

[winged stirrup]

so i should give it to him whenever i can ?

[balmy plume]

if you want to

Its nice to have some folks at the crossroads that will take a gift that passes some time though

[kindred quiver]

Charon doesn’t take long to get to the ambrosia point

[balmy plume]

so if you need to brew something in the cauldron that takes time or you need a plant to finish growing to unlock something, you can just do that

[winged stirrup]

wait the ||cat|| gives you an ||extra life|| thats so broken LOL

[balmy plume]

i just used forg for a while

[kindred quiver]

Yeah use Frinos early game cause you want a ton of psyche

[balmy plume]

that was a good side benefit, but it was mainly for the max hp tbh

[kindred quiver]

That too but the psyche is realllyyyy important

[balmy plume]

man rivals hex has so much going on.

does origination act weird on her? I have weak and hitch and it didn't seem like it was applying

[kindred quiver]

If an enemy has that orange star/shine symbol next to their health bar it means they’re affected by origination

Looks like this but lighter💥

[balmy plume]

i know

it didnt appear on her health bar though

even when i was hitting the real one

[kindred quiver]

Maybe you had a status on one of the clones instead of both on the real one

[balmy plume]

oh there's two real ones wtf

[kindred quiver]

Uhh that’s not true lol

[balmy plume]

huh

oh i see, misread slightly

[kindred quiver]

lol

[balmy plume]

i mean i was hitting them with aphro attack while inside hitch cast and seeing damage numbers fall off them so

[kindred quiver]

Aphro attack doesn’t apply weak

[balmy plume]

[kindred quiver]

It’s only her cast, dash, and gain.

[balmy plume]

bruh

dont play hades 1 gang its not worth it

well it least i read this while in an aphro boon screen

but now i have to pick common glamour gain over wispy wiles lol

[winged stirrup]

i can use already like 23 arcanas

should i use the frog ?

[balmy plume]

true max is 30

[kindred quiver]

@balmy plume In case this is useful to you or anyone else, here’s how you can get each god’s curse:

Zeus: Attack and Special

Poseidon: Cast

• Attack and Special if you get Slippery Slope

Demeter: Freeze is from Attack, Special, and Cast. Gust is from Dash and Article Gale

Apollo: Cast and Dash

• Attack if you get Dazzling Display
• Light Smite (when you take damage)

Aphrodite: Cast, Dash, and Gain

Hephaestus: Attack, Special, and Dash BUT you need Furnace Blast

Hestia: Attack, Special, and Cast

||Hera||: Attack, Special, Cast, and Dash

||Ares||: Attack and Special

[kindred quiver]

For sure

[winged stirrup]

aight

[kindred quiver]

More grasp and upgrading arcana is the main way to get stronger early on

[balmy plume]

i mostly get the curses i just let hades 1 brain take over and forgot boons do different things now

[kindred quiver]

Yeah I get it. Don’t want it to seem like I’m talking down to you. Just wanted to put that there for other people. Plus, I like listing stuff lol

[balmy plume]

does steam count as a curse? its only from the one duo but

[kindred quiver]

I saw someone in a stream chat say “Steam Origination” once but I didn’t know if it was a meme or not lol

But I know that Scorn from ||Hades|| doesn’t count and Shine from Selene doesn’t count

Fairly certain Marked from Artemis doesn’t count. Like 99% sure it doesn’t

[balmy plume]

Death Warrant says marked is a curse

but if it works or not idk

😎 Hitting Survive from echo with 3 empty DDs

[kindred quiver]

The game is also just hypocritical about certain stuff lol

[kindred quiver]

That was the last boom I needed from Echo for the prophecy cause I used to only use Strength lol

[balmy plume]

i remember the DD related prophecies being really a pain in the first game so i made them a priority in this one

[kindred quiver]

The literal very last prophecy I completed, even after getting all steam achievements, was the “Get all legendary boons” JUST because Hestia’s legendary didn’t wanna show up

[balmy plume]

buy a cheeseburger for 1 hp

[winged stirrup]

guys is the thanatos scythe good ? its so cool i lwk wanna use it even tho i dont like heavy weapons

[kindred quiver]

It’s good. It it attacks much faster than the other axes

@winged stirrup Tip for the axes: You can use your special to break up the attack combo, so you don’t have to do the big, slow third hit.

Do attack -> attack -> special -> repeat

You can also do a dash attack at the start and it doesn’t count towards the 3 attack combo

[winged stirrup]

ty

[kindred quiver]

No problem 👍

[winged stirrup]

how do i dodge ||cronos|| first attack in his ||second phase||

i have to time the dodge ?

[kindred quiver]

The one where he raises his scythe in the air? One small circle appears in the arena that is a safe spot

[winged stirrup]

oh ok

i didnt see it then

[grizzled granite]

is selene an olympian?

[kindred quiver]

No

She’s a Titaness

[grizzled granite]

marked should count then since origination states olympian curses

[kindred quiver]

Yeah but Raki also gives it

[grizzled granite]

🤔

[kindred quiver]

The bird

[winged stirrup]

which arcanas should i buff ? i can send photos in dm if you wanna see which ones i have

[balmy plume]

omfg ||media|| teleporting behind me to yoink the last few hp and burn a DD right as i'm inputting the attack to kill polyhemus has gotta be the most infurating thing i've encountered so far

[proven gazelle]

death/strength(depending on which you prefer to use), origination, furies should be top priorities

after that its kinda whatever youre in the mood for, sorceress and eternity are mostly just for omega weapons which isnt as many as youd think, boatman and artificer are both pretty strong and important for the early run, lovers is super valuable the better you get at the game

[winged stirrup]

i have on furies and origination rn

[proven gazelle]

great! but yeah in terms of upgrading them focus on the 3 i mentioned then after that its whatever, once you get farther along and have all the arcana with lots of grasp we can give you full arcana setups if you end up a bit lost

[winged stirrup]

i also use the mana regeneration arcana is it okay ?

[proven gazelle]

its pretty bad all things considered. With persistence and a couple magic pots you tend to have plenty to feed you in the early game and getting a gain on omega weapons is a top priority as is

basically its ok early and then becomes useless the second you get a gain boon so for 90% of the run its a wasted 5 grasp

and getting that cleaner start isnt as necessary until like top end fears and difficulty and even then its arguable to not use it

[balmy plume]

i mean it does let you mostly skip taking a Gain

[proven gazelle]

but like why would you

[balmy plume]

so that you can greed pick buried treasure obviously

[winged stirrup]

i maxed out furies , +1 death +1 origination

[proven gazelle]

lmao, but yeah unseen sounds good but in application gets made obsolete pretty fast

[proven gazelle]

perfect 😌

[balmy plume]

it is nice at least for when you're trying to evaluate which gains are good or not

since you've got the fall back

[proven gazelle]

ig yeah, but a lot of the early weapons dont really need gains as is

axe, staff, coat, knives are all variations of dash attack spam + tap special, not a single skull cares for mana

so until you get into some specific aspects generally you can get away with no mana on a lot of things and itll probably do better than mana(speaking in the context of mel aspects assuming they dont have the rest)

[balmy plume]

huh i was using mana a lot even with mel staff

[proven gazelle]

at best you ignore the omegas entirely besides activating huntress

dash attack -> attack -> special or dash attack -> special are the only combos you need tbh since it puts out plenty of damage so channeling becomes more time and an extra step in boons youd want which isnt consistent

[winged stirrup]

what combos should i do with the maxed out staff cuz pretty much im just spamming special attacks rn

[balmy plume]

axe i also find myself channeling the special a lot for all aspects, not just That One™

[proven gazelle]

its weird, mel axe is like staff where its dash attack -> special spam but with the right hammers it really easily leans into omegas, and all aspects really want the omega hammers

[proven gazelle]

dash attack -> attack -> special or dash attack -> special are the 2 gotos, basically avoid your basic attack sequence as best as you can since its super slow and the 2 combos i mentioned are high damage and keep you mobile

[balmy plume]

funnily enough i like doing dash attack spam on ||Thanatos|| more than Mel axe

[proven gazelle]

which is crazy cuz thats just a worse mel axe for that lmao

[balmy plume]

but its got faster attack speed?

[proven gazelle]

although tbf im sure both of the normal aspects for axe become dash attack spam, iirc the ||charon 65f|| ignored the aspect entirely

[balmy plume]

[proven gazelle]

mel axe gives a crazy amount of base power

[balmy plume]

o

with ||Thanatos|| i play it more like... attack, attack and then dash attack to cut off the combo

so i dont do the big slow slam thing

though sometimes it happens anyhow

[proven gazelle]

yeah axe buffer windows are weird

generally you do a tap special to break the normal attack sequence it locks you into, or do the slam anyway and cancel the start of it with a tap special

[balmy plume]

the axes all seem pretty fun and like they play diffedrently enough to feel distinct

haven't done a run with the hidden one yet but the moveset is wacky as hell

[proven gazelle]

tbf at high fear its get psychic whirlwind or bust

[balmy plume]

i have not channeled attack on axes very often tbh

it feels like it causes me to just get hit a lot whenever i tried

[proven gazelle]

sorceress and eternity get rid of that problem(arguably just sorceress) but axe also is just a tough weapon to get used to its openings to do anything

but psychic whirlwind is just an insane hammer

[balmy plume]

i only had that one once, but it was back when i was playing this like hades 1 (as in forgetting channeling exists)

can you prime more than your remaining mana?

just wondering if its worth it to buy mana capacity at shops and stuff even if im not using it

[proven gazelle]

Yeah

[balmy plume]

coolio

[balmy plume]

got ||morrigan|| upgraded to 4. Yeah this is so much fun. I was kind of worried after playing the other knives 💀

but i finally beat rivals Poly without losing a DD thanks to it

[kindred quiver]

I just had a run where I got the Poseidon + Hestia duo. The tooltip doesn’t say curse:

[balmy plume]

Possesed Array seems so beyond ridiculous

at face value it seems pretty strong already

[wintry rivet]

Well it is strongest skull hammer for a reason

[balmy plume]

but it seems like it gets all the "on omega attack/move" stuff too, without the boosted cost. like ocean swell

[tidal moss]

Yeah pretty much is

[tidal moss]

Yep, it just doesn't count as using magic for things like hexes and power surge

[balmy plume]

it might be black fleece time

[tidal moss]

Never take black fleece

[balmy plume]

i've got winners circle + lucid gain so im just doing like.
spam out all my shells, special/dash in either order and repeat

[tidal moss]

Shame it's not born but it'll work

[balmy plume]

and i am at summit at under 13 min which is my fastest so far

i've only got 140 mas max so i think born gain would put me at 0 mana in roughly 3 seconds

[tidal moss]

Yeah that's why if you did have born gain you would take more max magic

[balmy plume]

i think media did have the +5 after each encounter this time

almost 4 minutes faster than my next best win. 5 or so faster than my next best surface win too

[grizzled granite]

||turns rivals 2 off||
gets a massive pb with a garbage build the very next run

[balmy plume]

Hmm. Just did the final story kill for Chronos... ||I'm guessing that's what his Rivals fight is, but without the infinite revives||

[vivid flare]

||That's what phase 3 is, yes. Phases 1 and 2 are also different on Rivals||

[balmy plume]

o

[vivid flare]

Anyways, how did you like ||the feature-length drum solo to complement Hades phase 3's feature-length guitar duet||?

[balmy plume]

i could not hear it over the sound of coat spam with posiden attack

[vivid flare]

Well, luckily it's on YouTube

||https://youtu.be/m94IhgcfXOA?si=betWofLlBEavXGzm|| (story finale spoilers)

[grizzled granite]

aaaaaaaand i won the next run after that

[sand violet]

chat, once we have full hearts with nemesis will we get special dialogue when we're out in like erebus or the fields of mourning and we see each other or will it be along the regular lines of competition but she won't say anything else

[tidal moss]

Will just be generic

[sand violet]

dang

cant win it all, i guess

[balmy plume]

Can you ever get an HP bar for ||typhon||? I kind of assumed it would be an incant eventually but still nothing yet

[dense anchor]

no

[tidal moss]

No

[woven smelt]

I heard that || Jeweled Pom & Calling Card|| are some of the best keepsakes but they won't allow me using any || Change of Fate ||. Is there an Arcana Build you can recommend for such keepsakes?

[tidal moss]

Calling card isn't a great keepsake, it's pom and chrolex

[tidal moss]

https://h2crossroads.pages.dev/ArcanaDeck/?deck=WyJjMSIsImMyIiwiYzMiLCJjNiIsImM3IiwiYzgiLCJjMTEiLCJjMTMiLCJjMTQiLCJjMTUiLCJjMTciLCJjMTgiLCJjMjMiLCJjMjQiXQ==

[woven smelt]

Chrolex is such a gread name for this keepsake!

[woven smelt]

Thanks a lot!

[bold plume]

i got sent to asphodel by chronos in oceanus on my first day playing is that good?

[tidal moss]

It's a random event, you've barely started the game

[bold plume]

oh ok

[balmy plume]

Bruh

That asphodel event is messed up

Well depending on which asphodel room

[winged stirrup]

why cant i give the nectar to echo ?

also to hercules i remember i couldnt give it to him

[tidal moss]

Gotta gift it after you talk

[winged stirrup]

lol i didnt know ty

[golden bay]

I swap enchantress and champions out for artificer, lovers, and messenger, but thats just me. Also, yes, I use more Chrolex than Calling Card

[winged stirrup]

i left ||cronos|| 1hp in his ||second phase||

my build was stacked

😭

also why isnt ||hades|| giving me nothing if i give him a nectar thats so sad

[tidal moss]

Are you post credits?

[winged stirrup]

No

[woven smelt]

You started on Saturday, didn't you?

I am sure you'll get him soon...

[winged stirrup]

yea, hopefully lol

[winged stirrup]

i gave him a nectar in ||tartarus||

[tidal moss]

Oh oops im dumb

[winged stirrup]

LOL

[tidal moss]

Yeah u can't gift yet

[woven smelt]

You are way faster than I was. I am getting too old for beeing good at fast paced games xD

[winged stirrup]

im struggling more with ||eris|| than with hell tbh

[tidal moss]

Just stay behind her and play around pillars

[winged stirrup]

like bro i got to her and she destroyed me instantly i couldnt even dodge basically

[tidal moss]

Never dash away from her

[winged stirrup]

basically what i was doing LOL

also like ||olympus|| is much longer than hell

im getting through the first two zones in like 10 minutes max

[woven smelt]

I had way less struggle in the ||overworld|| than in the underworld

[winged stirrup]

nah tbf i played a ton yday i almost have 20 hrs

[winged stirrup]

im struggling so much there thats why im trying to kill ||chronos|| first

[winged stirrup]

im a nerd yes

[tidal moss]

Olympus is the longest region in the game

[woven smelt]

I finished the game after 50+h

[tidal moss]

Surface as a whole is slower

[winged stirrup]

do you recommend me to clear every room in the first olympus city ?^

[tidal moss]

From my runs about 2 minutes slower on average

[winged stirrup]

so i have many buffs

[tidal moss]

You can only do 6

[winged stirrup]

oh ok nvm

[tidal moss]

In ephrya

[winged stirrup]

i thought i could clear all of them

[woven smelt]

I killed the surface boss on the first encounter, Chronos kept beeting me up

[winged stirrup]

it would've been broken ig

[tidal moss]

I go by speedrun routing but take whatever u want

[tidal moss]

You're more prepared at that point as opposed to the first time you fought typhon

[woven smelt]

I don't know why, but I killed Typhon before I killed Chronos, there was something about Chronos I struggled with way too much. Maybe I was to impacient and got too close to him.

[tidal moss]

You're not the only one

Typhon is also easy in that he's a massive bullet sponge, and once you get his moves down he drops like a stone, chronos does not

[woven smelt]

May I ask how many hours you had played Hades/ Hades II before starting to speedrun efficiently?

[tidal moss]

Uh my best times were set at around 300 hours

Closer to 400 for my best surface time

But if i'm doing a casual run on any aspect, minimal fear, it's at or below 7 minutes for uw, and at or below 9 minutes for surface

[woven smelt]

Ok, than I have some more hours to grind left

[tidal moss]

If you practice for it and learn the right strategies early you could get there way faster

Just keep lowering your times and you'll get there eventually

[woven smelt]

I'll do my best! I think h2crossroads will help to figure out what kind of builds work best for me.

[tidal moss]

Just ask

[woven smelt]

I am glad ||Morrigans|| is used in some of the fastest runs because its the aspect I currently enjoy the most

[tidal moss]

We know the pretty much optimal build for any situation

[tidal moss]

My fastest morrigan time is I think a 6.12, i'm not very good with it

[tidal moss]

Are you prepared to run the speedrun arcana

[woven smelt]

I am not sure ^^

[winged stirrup]

i have the selene spell that deals 1000 dmg that charges up 80% faster when i enter an area

will i beat ||chronos|| this time ?!

[tidal moss]

Not the hexes 😔

[tidal moss]

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

[woven smelt]

Is this the recommended Arcana build for every aspect, or is there no universal one?

[tidal moss]

It's this for the fastest speedruns

I can give you the universal fates whim and non fates whim

[woven smelt]

That would be awesome!

[tidal moss]

Reroll arcana:

https://h2crossroads.pages.dev/ArcanaDeck/?deck=WyJjMSIsImMyIiwiYzMiLCJjNiIsImM3IiwiYzExIiwiYzEzIiwiYzE0IiwiYzE2IiwiYzE3IiwiYzIwIiwiYzIxIiwiYzIyIiwiYzIzIiwiYzI0Il0=

Fates whim arcana:

https://h2crossroads.pages.dev/ArcanaDeck/?deck=WyJjMSIsImMyIiwiYzMiLCJjNiIsImM3IiwiYzgiLCJjMTEiLCJjMTMiLCJjMTQiLCJjMTUiLCJjMTciLCJjMTgiLCJjMjMiLCJjMjQiXQ==

You can swap strength for death in both of these

[winged stirrup]

am i lucky or is there a script that makes you meet ||hades|| almost everytime i go in the tartarus

[tidal moss]

He appears almost every run

[winged stirrup]

ok

again really low hp

im going insaane

[tidal moss]

Have you made it to p2?

[winged stirrup]

yea ofc back to back one hp in his second phasew

i feel like if i had the cat i wouldve won but im using the frog cuz of the arcana levels

[tidal moss]

Frog is better

[winged stirrup]

yea but at least i would have +1 life

[tidal moss]

Doesn't matter, frinos gives bonus hp that can be used and healed up multiple times, toula only gives life at the very end, and you get less value out of it than you do frinos

[balmy plume]

DDs basically just extend your max hp as a force multiplier.

So forg giving a lot of max hp vs cat giving a DD are pretty similar

[winged stirrup]

well guys

i killed the final boss and spoke to ||zagreus||, ||how many times do i have to do it again|| ?

[opal mural]

At least 6 more, I've done it 7 times so far and I think I'm close

[winged stirrup]

omg

thats a lot

[opal mural]

But you also have to beat the ||surface boss|| like 4 or 5 times I think I heard? Only done it once so far

[winged stirrup]

ok ill grind the surfacew then

[woven smelt]

You'll have to beat both a few times. I don’t know if there is a specific order until the last fights which are going to be || Typhon first and Chronos afterwards.||

[balmy plume]

Listening to Bewitching Eyes outside of the game for the first time (so I can actually hear and understand the lyrics)
oh my

[winged stirrup]

how many bosses are there after ||eris||

[balmy plume]

There's 4 regions on both routes

[woven smelt]

There are two after || Eris || which are || Prometheus and Typhon ||

[winged stirrup]

i met ||icarus|| for the first time and hes so coool OMG

[mossy lynx]

Do you guys just give up duo boons when you play with ||denial||

||Trying to climb up fears (Just hit a 42 F run) and I just turned on denial, realized some of the duos just dont seem that good lol||

[grizzled granite]

perhaps the timing?

my strat was using dash iframes, the ||cane throw in particular kept getting me||

also dashing behind him helps

[vivid flare]

Yeah, there's quite a few ||Duos that aren't particularly load-bearing||

[winged stirrup]

Are ||hercules|| and ||medea|| keepsakes good ?

[lapis cloak]

1st one yes, the other no

|| Heracles || keepsake is used on the last region (on both routes) since its just flat dmg increase to everything. || Medea || not only needs you to be damaged it only increases omega damage, so it ends up being not as good as it might look

[vivid flare]

||Heracles is a decent final-biome keepsake if you're scared of taking Antler, Medea is outclassed in pretty much every scenario||

[winged stirrup]

any tips on how to beat ||prometheus||

[balmy plume]

Practice playing memory tests

Otherwise get good at taking 200 something damage

[kindred quiver]

His ranged attacks are super easy to dodge while the melee ones are fast and do big damage.

Because of this, when I’m at close range and I see he’s about to melee attack, I just assume he’s gonna use the worst possible move for me in that scenario and I dodge accordingly.

I don’t even really know his tells/signals for his different melee moves. As I said, I just always assume he’s gonna use the most dangerous one for the given moment lol

[dense root]

whats the worst one

[kindred quiver]

I’m saying worst one for the given moment

[balmy plume]

Half the time he has a aoe in his close range attack which is what gets me usually

[kindred quiver]

Like if I’m behind him, I act as if he’s gonna use his spin kick

Or if I’m directly in front, the barrage

[winged stirrup]

😭

[kindred quiver]

Trust

A lot of it is also instinct which will improve over time

[balmy plume]

One fight I had a sun worshipper plinking at him on the opposite side of the arena and I ran away to hide cause I was one hit range and he was about to die.
Then that big wide wave kick he sends out came in from off screen when he was one hit away

My guy had doom trinket equipped fr

[kindred quiver]

Bro tapped in is teammate 💀

[balmy plume]

Was one of my first rivals Poly runs

So I was hurting that entire run

[kindred quiver]

Yeah I have 0 strategy for that fight despite having 255 hours in the game. I go off of raw instinct, guts, stupidity, and faith.

Usually take a lot of damage but it works out

[winged stirrup]

thats what ive been doing

for like these first 25 hrs of gameplay

[kindred quiver]

The good news is that if you get used to regular ||Prometheus|| the rivals version isn’t too hard to get used to

[winged stirrup]

whats rivals

[kindred quiver]

Did you play Hades 1?

[balmy plume]

Extreme Measures

[winged stirrup]

didnt finish it

[balmy plume]

[winged stirrup]

so its like a harder difficulty ?

[kindred quiver]

It’s the equivalent of Extreme Measures. The heat/fear modifier that changes the boss fights

[winged stirrup]

ive been wanting to play hades 2 more than hades 1

[balmy plume]

Its hard mode bosses basically

[winged stirrup]

ok

[balmy plume]

Rivals Poly is brutal 50% of the fight there is just nowhere safe to stand

[vivid flare]

Unrivaled ||Sirens|| is a contender for the second-hardest fight in the game

[kindred quiver]

@winged stirrup Have you beaten ||Prometheus|| yet? Cause if it makes you feel better, a good number of people find the final surface boss easier than him

[balmy plume]

Rivals Poly and Hec are huge steps up compared to non rivals

[tall kernel]

he's the hardest for me right now... need to learn his fight.

[kindred quiver]

Rivals ||Polyphemus|| is only a huge step up the first few times you fight him. After that, it’s an annoying inconvenience

[balmy plume]

Ngl I didnt find it to be that much worse. The main hard thing is ||water spouts around roxy||

I finally did the incant for rivals 3 last night but didnt have time for a run

[winged stirrup]

nah

i died to him two times now

brought him to half hp

[balmy plume]

I had 0 feathers when I unlocked the incant so it took a bit to get the resources

[winged stirrup]

maybe its because ive already beat ||chronos|| but lwk i find ||prometheus|| more difficult for now

[balmy plume]

I assume ||the eagle|| just doesnt go away or something

[kindred quiver]

Oh I was talking about ||Polyphemus not Prometheus because you said Poly||

[balmy plume]

O

Right

Man those names are easy to confuse

[kindred quiver]

@winged stirrup Another tip I have-if you can call it a tip-is that ||Prometheus|| the one of the best bosses for getting in a ton of damage uninterrupted. Most bosses constantly switch to invulnerability phases, but ||Prometheus|| only does that twice for the entire fight.

So you can whale on him for awhile

[winged stirrup]

like i melt him really fast but he kills me faster

if that makes sense

also i always die during that "phase" with the eagle and the fire

the second time he does that is way too difficult to remember

[balmy plume]

Eh? I mean like most other bosses just have 2 immunities too

[vivid flare]

During the Simon Says phases, there's no shame in saying what lanes are safe out loud

[winged stirrup]

i dont think this might help me

[vivid flare]

You'd be surprised

[kindred quiver]

Say the name of which lane you’re gonna stand in. Not the lanes that are bad

[vivid flare]

And worst comes to worst, just pause and write the safe lanes down

[kindred quiver]

I say “left, middle, right” but I know other people use “top, middle, bottom” or “1, 2, 3”

[winged stirrup]

wait you might have a point

[balmy plume]

I tried this and it genuinely made it harder

[balmy plume]

I do roughly this but instead I say up and down relative to the previous position

[vivid flare]

Were you trying to keep track of the safe zones or the unsafe zones

[balmy plume]

Safe

[kindred quiver]

After the first lane is revealed, I’ll wait for the third lane to be revealed before saying the second one. I do this so I can pick the same lane for the 2nd and 3rd attacks if the safe spots overlap

I’m making it sound way more complicated than it is but that’s just because I don’t know how to explain it over text lol

[winged stirrup]

you are good

[balmy plume]

I get you. Sometimes I just say "there", "there" and "there"

💀

[woven smelt]

I'm a top, middle, bottom guy

Sometimes it’s hard to get into a save zone even though I know where it is.

[kindred quiver]

If you have nothing increasing your sprint speed, I find it’s faster to incorporate one dash while sprinting from one side to the other

Rather than just sprinting the whole way

[balmy plume]

Oh a big thing. During the memory test, the fire hit box goes away before the fire

So when it goes top all the way to bottom its not as tight as it seems

[kindred quiver]

One time, my game lagged during the memory portion. For me, it looked like an attack hadn’t happened while in reality it did; however, I was already in the safe zone so I didn’t take damage.

But because of this, my order was off-sync and I got hit twice by the fire and died 😭

[balmy plume]

I have to balance thinking about it enough to remember but not too much that is psych myself out

[balmy plume]

how the hell do you play ||nergal|| this is so slow

[dense anchor]

for casual play (>=32F) I just spam attack

I really like apollo on ||nergal|| because 1. it's a %dmg modifier 2. daze increases your survivability a lot 3. light smite works nicely with the healing aspect 4. self healing again works well with ||nergal||'s heals

[balmy plume]

but apollo doesn't add daze with his Strike... that's a secondary boon and also a low proc chance 😭

[dense anchor]

if you can also get hestia on there then it's even better

[dense anchor]

his sprint/cast boon is amazing at applying daze

[serene laurel]

Luckily Apollo sprint is really good

[dense anchor]

I can type okay 😔 ✌️

[balmy plume]

i thought we were talking about the attack because we said % modifier 💀

[dense anchor]

slow weapons prefer %dmg because they have higher base damage

so yeah I was talking about the attack

when I said daze I was implying the sprint/cast boon

[balmy plume]

i don't remember the last time i use apollo cast tbh

[dense anchor]

it's pretty good

[vivid flare]

It's an alright Cast for Charon

Though I prefer Poseidon

[balmy plume]

mmm, that makes sense

[dense anchor]

aphro cast truther

[serene laurel]

On Charon???

[balmy plume]

i was just gonna say it seems like it needs winner circle to be worth, but charon axe does the same thing sort of

[vivid flare]

It works, the damage goes off when the cleave happens

[balmy plume]

hmm

Rapid Hack or Furious Whirlwin for ||nergal||

it seems like i want to be channel my attack as much as possible

there's also siege shredder ig if i want to just commit to never pressign attack

i died to rivals hec 💀

[kindred quiver]

The omegas are surprisingly fast

[balmy plume]

yeah i was just spamming omega attack mostly

but it meant face tanking a lot

probably need more upgrades to do that really

[kindred quiver]

Or Just Demeter cast 😈

Apollo attack also gives yoy ungodly range

[balmy plume]

no its pretty godly

[balmy plume]

Hmm. Chaos boons.
Next 3 Boons are common. Afterward use 40% less mana
Next 3 encounters, prime mana as you use it. Afterwards, gold is worth 40% more.

Thinking the first is what i'm taking, but curious what others think

[tidal moss]

What aspect and build?

[balmy plume]

morrigan in erebus

[tidal moss]

Prime for gold

[balmy plume]

hmm really? why's that

i mean in retrospect i got two gold rooms in a row plus a timed trove so gold would have been a lot better either way

[tidal moss]

Morrigan doesn't have high magic usage, super easy to keep it sustained so more gold is going to be better

[balmy plume]

I felt like I used a lot of magic every other time i used it, but maybe i was trying to force the channeled attack too often

[tidal moss]

Should just be using oattack

[wintry rivet]

Tbf what else you are using

Ospec is horrible ocast is...ocast

[balmy plume]

like as in never using normal attack?

[wintry rivet]

You need to use normal atk and special for triad

[balmy plume]

I use normal/dash attacks a lot, and mostly just throw special to proc triad and apply another curse for origin

yes i know

[wintry rivet]

Just don't bother using other omega move

[balmy plume]

I havent been

im just confused about how it doesnt use a lot of mana because i spam the hell out of omega attack

[tidal moss]

It does use magic but if you get a gain boon it solves that issue

[vivid flare]

As in using OAttack as your way of proccing Triad

[balmy plume]

that's how ive been using it yeah

just trying to proc triad as much as possible

[vivid flare]

It does use mana, it's just not super mana-hungry like the torches or hidden Coat. So even one of the weaker regens like Aphro or Demeter is enough to keep you topped up

[balmy plume]

aphro's not a bad shout for easier origin

[opal mural]

How does the Messenger Arcana work? Since I prefer to always be casting especially when I get Lightning Lance + Winner's Circle, how much invulnerability is that?

[proven gazelle]

Its i think like 14(?) Or like 16 frames of invuln at 60fps unless im crazy

Basically at the start if the cast youll see melinoe go green and translucent, thats where the iframes are

Idk how ranged casts interact with it though since they have different animation speeds and everything

[opal mural]

Yeah I was also wondering how Lightning Lance/Glowing Coal interacts with Athena's Mental Block

[woven smelt]

Good morning 🙂
Is there any good guide on how to speedrun?
What routes should i take, should I really press pause after defeating an area to see what path to pick next, what are dos, what are don'ts?

[wise locust]

Take Frenzy II to speed up all enemy spawns, on UW take Shadows because it makes one miniboss much faster

Always take NPC rooms and Shops since they pause the timer

[tidal moss]

Pause before choosing yes

Always take room skips

Frenzy 2 and shadow are a must

Don't take hades in tartarus

Activate huntress

[shy zephyr]

boated has one

https://youtu.be/hMmholFSJoc?si=Bjn6oGuYiw8Y8NhF

[balmy plume]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/742094289361961061/1468203229660844033/image.png?ex=69832a4f&is=6981d8cf&hm=875679ca0cfb791a18126e2857f77f5620100ae74e775a75cef7423206d70560

just fought rivals ||prometheus|| for the first time

Had full DDs when I walked in 💀

[opal mural]

Does Romantic Spark work on ||Typhon|| aside from the part between phase 1 and 2? Feel like it wasn't working

[tidal moss]

Works on all phases

[opal mural]

Guess I just let myself be confused by the lack of health bar

But I swear the yellow blitz damage wasn't showing up

[balmy plume]

I wish you could get an hp bar for typhon

[tidal moss]

You can tell via his phases and the way he looks

[opal mural]

Yeah on one hand I hate it but on the other hand I love it cause it makes the moment you kill him even better

[winged stirrup]

YESSS i killed ||prometheus|| for the first time (now i have no extra lives and im 20 hp with lwk an awful build)

[tidal moss]

You're cooked

[winged stirrup]

i am bro but at least i killed him for the first time

the counnting thing u said in the "simon says" phase actually helped me

i cant believe it

[tidal moss]

When did I say that

[winged stirrup]

idk maybe it wasn'tyou

[tidal moss]

It's the right thing to do but ion recall telling you lmfao

[balmy plume]

You need so many feathers for random crud glhf

[tidal moss]

I have nearly 200, you get plenty dw

[winged stirrup]

oh nvm its this guy LOL

[balmy plume]

Just relative to other bosses resources i mean

[winged stirrup]

yea ikr

[balmy plume]

I'm getting close to the end of resources for non cosmetic things

I need like 3 feathers, 3 tears, some plankton and some scales

[tidal moss]

They all evened out for me iirc

[tidal moss]

We look nothing alike 😭

[winged stirrup]

idk bro im just dumb

LO

[balmy plume]

Plankton has been brutal cause I get like 1 per surface run and then it takes 2 runs to grow 💀

[tidal moss]

Take hecuba

[balmy plume]

Yeah I started for surface.
I just got to summit on my current run but I had to shut it down and go to work

Hopefully I can spike 2 plankton and then hand out like 3 ambrosia or whatever and call it good

[winged stirrup]

what pet should i buff ?

the frog ?

[balmy plume]

Forg was the first one I maxed out

Max hp good.
More arcana juice good.
Playing shade minigame lame.

Forg has best skins too