h2-for-new-players

[winged stirrup]

ok i gave him max hp and +2 on the arcana cuz i finished the seeds

also im missing only 6 keepsakes then i have all of thewm

[balmy plume]

Missing 4. I know 1 is ||dad|| but idk the rest

[winged stirrup]

im surely missing ||circe|| and ||dionysus||

[winged stirrup]

yea i gave him the nectar but he didnt give me nothing back

[balmy plume]

I think one is ||Echo|| but they never have the option to give so idk

[winged stirrup]

you gotta talk to her first then give it

idk why but it works like that

someone said it on this server

yea luthien said it

[proven gazelle]

Gale or raki

Most other pets are useless minus niche high fear situations and even then get edged out by gale

3 gale blocks a region + built in 6% evade is more effective hp than frinos and toula, and raki is basically epic pressure points so thats best for damage

Hecuba has niche use for mana hungry weapons early on(gets outdone by half decent luck), toula is kinda only used for supay, and frinos is just kinda there

[winged stirrup]

i didnt unlock hecuba yet

like every time i meet him i dont have the stuff to "tame" him

[tidal moss]

You need to make the pet treats

[winged stirrup]

yea ik but i always forget

[balmy plume]

Forg best because forg

https://tenor.com/view/common-rain-frog-frog-in-train-frog-looking-out-train-window-for-len-from-nic-cuz-we-couldnt-find-this-as-a-gif-alrdy-gif-3679557726432238120

Which one has the best movement pattern for ||Circe|| staff do y'all reckon

[winged stirrup]

i beat ||chronos|| without dying the whole run im getting good maybe

[winged stirrup]

guys what should i buff on raki ?

[wise locust]

Crit chance

[woven smelt]

Everything 😉
But yeah, crit first, than damage, than outcropping findings.

[winged stirrup]

im also buffing gale or whatever then ame is

[woven smelt]

This applies to all familiars, first the buff of your stats, than the damage your familiar is dealing and materials if you have some snacks left 🙂

Gale the polecat

I maxed out Raki first, than Toula and Gale, now I am working on Frinos

[winged stirrup]

bro ive met ||dionysus|| 15 times but i never have a nectar to give him

[tall kernel]

you have a self control issue with nectar, just like ||Dio!||

[winged stirrup]

no cuz this run i gave it to ||circe||, the last one i gave it to ||icarus||

[tall kernel]

first step of nectar anonymous healing is admitting you have a nectar problem.

[balmy plume]

I waited until I gave most people one nectar for the trinkets before giving more

[winged stirrup]

i got to the final boss of olympus but i only have one life and thanks to ||dionysus|| i dont even know how many hp i got LMAO

@tidal moss sorry for the ping but how many hits i had to give ||typhon|| after ||zeus|| shows up

cuz i think he was low but he has no ||hp bar||

[vivid flare]

||Zeus ex machina is at 60%||

[winged stirrup]

mh so only ||50%|| hp then

i mean it was doable

but i was unlucky

[vivid flare]

And then ||I think second adds phase is at 40%?||

[winged stirrup]

i brought him to his last phase

[kindred quiver]

I think that’s the value for Rivals but I could be totally wrong

[torpid knoll]

Got my first ||Chronos|| clear earlier. ||Should I get a Typhon kill first before messing around with Fear?||

[inland palm]

||fear helps you upgrade your weapons, which I recommend because typhon is a lot harder than chronos||

[kindred quiver]

Completely up to you. You can add a handful of fear levels without even noticing increased difficulty

https://h2crossroads.pages.dev/FearCalculator/?vows=WzAsMCwwLDAsMCwxLDAsMCwwLDAsMiwwLDMsMCwyLDAsMF0=
This is already 8 fear and is still extremely easy

@torpid knoll Although, I recommend you turn Vow of Frenzy on now to get used to it. It won’t be too long before you’re used to it and then it’s a free 6 fear. No rush or pressure tho

[torpid knoll]

||What's funny is that on failed runs, I tended to get a lot closer to beating Typhon than failed runs on Chronos. I just happened to stumble on a run where I absolutely ate Chronos alive while taking almost no damage on the run where I did beat him.||

[torpid knoll]

Is that the one that ups the enemy speed?

[kindred quiver]

Yeah

[torpid knoll]

Do I only need to increase Fear enough for whatever the current Testament is? Do I get anything for exceeding it?

[kindred quiver]

You don’t get anything extra for exceeding it.

But super low fear such as 1-5 is barely anything so might as well add some more

[torpid knoll]

Ah. So my first bounty is ||Cerberus with the skull.|| I just pop a single Scars and at the moment it's not needed to do anything more than that?

[kindred quiver]

Nah. But why scars?

[torpid knoll]

It cost 1

So I just used it as an example

[kindred quiver]

Ah gotcha

[balmy plume]

example from personal experience?

[balmy plume]

man ||Hel|| channel is soooooooo slow

[tidal moss]

Yeah it's not a great aspect

[balmy plume]

trying out ||Supay|| now and uh... Lost a DD to the satyr boss in erebus cause it kept targeting the adds instead of the boss

wow i think that's the first time I've ever hit the timer in this game

how do you even play ||Supay|| wtf 😭

[tidal moss]

Lots of flat damage, has a super weak early game tho

[balmy plume]

omg having hestia dash in a hestia family dispute is the worst thing ever

[wheat wren]

Flat damage like scorch or poseidon splashes. Zeus is great for Blitz, static shock, and he has a great rush boon for it too - plus his duos with Hestia and Aphro go crazy on that weapon

It's also my favorite for building up Heph blasts

[balmy plume]

I took zeus bangle but somehow ended up with hestia dash and heph attack

i did end up with the zeus "bolts when you use mana" thing

[wintry rivet]

Ah yes power surge, one of the worst boon in game

[balmy plume]

[lapis cloak]

The early game is super garbage

But you get some flat dmg boons and it goes crazy

[tidal moss]

Fr

[balmy plume]

yeah i killed the demon rat in oceanus a lot faster than i would have expected after how disastrously hec went

[winged stirrup]

omg i finally killed ||typhon||

i cant believe it bro ive been grinding olympus almost all day long

[foggy pier]

Ok just booted up for the first time today.

Feeling overwhelmed by the currencies. Anything should
Be prioritizing early on? I’m guessing cards and unlocking weapons?

[tidal moss]

Just keep playing, unlock all your arcana and all the weapons, if you get stuck we'll help you out, just always be using your cast and always use origination once you unlock it

Oh and stay away from unseen and excellence

[foggy pier]

How do I check prophecies?

Also, is there a guide on what the currencies are used for?

[tidal moss]

Prophecies are checked at the fated list, to the left of the cauldron, all currencies are used for various things, incantations, upgrading arcana, unlovking weapons, and brewing materials

[foggy pier]

I played the first game thoroughly, I just gotta keep telling myself it’ll start to make sense as I keep powering through

[tidal moss]

It is quite a big adjustment

[foggy pier]

I’m still not quite sure what the effects of base cast are

[tidal moss]

The cast slows all non boss enemies inside

Like excalibur special from H1

You can also get cast boons that do damage while slowing enemies

[foggy pier]

And if I hold it down is it damages upon disappearing? (Using magic)

[tidal moss]

Yes

[foggy pier]

I saw crit bumps too

[tidal moss]

Crit bumps?

[foggy pier]

Increase crit chance for enemies in the cast

Might have been an Artemis boon

[tidal moss]

Ah yes, artemis, good boon that one

[balmy plume]

I dont use my cast enough on some builds

I usually end up shooting for lucid gain just to force myself to remember to cast lol

[tidal moss]

You should always be castin

[balmy plume]

I should do a lot of things

Doesn't mean they happen

[vivid flare]

Yep, keep in mind that one's specifically for your Attack and Omega Attack

[foggy pier]

Omega attack? (Hold it down?)

[balmy plume]

Yes

Omega Attack, O Attack, sometimes Channeled Attack

[opal mural]

Yup I noticed the Blitz working this time maybe was a visual glitch or a me being stupid glitch

[woven smelt]

Is it best-practise to use Ω attack over normal attack on most weapons?

[tidal moss]

No

But depends on the aspect

[foggy pier]

Are bones just a universal currency essentially?

[short eagle]

yup, they're the currency for the most part

[foggy pier]

Ok wasn’t sure if i should horde or just trade in for what I need

[opal mural]

Tried Underworld 32 fear with the Romantic Spark Thermal Dynamics build and lost to final boss, I am just incapable of playing both safe and aggressive at the same time lol

Same thing happened in H1, was the reason I capped out at 19 heat on Merciful End fists

[balmy plume]

You'll get better as you play more

[opal mural]

I'll probably go back to my safer cast builds to clear it first then retry it with a better suited weapon

Like Idk Mel Blades or something

[balmy plume]

I mean heck I went to like 43 in hades 1, but I haven't cleared 16 yet in this game cause I have to unlearn and relearn

[opal mural]

Yeah I still revert to trying to double dash so much

[opal mural]

I'm taking Rivals Cerberus off my oath lol it just takes too much health off me

[tidal moss]

Noooo I love that fight

[balmy plume]

That one feels fine to me.

Honestly Rivals Hec feels harder for me.

Dodging the curse in rivals hec got me like

[tidal moss]

You gotta turn right to go left

[balmy plume]

Kachow?

[wise locust]

you gotta block it with your night bloom

[balmy plume]

Take frinos so they eat it

[shy zephyr]

you gotta rush while frigid

[foggy pier]

With planting, is there any reason I should not harvest them immediately once they are ready?

[shy zephyr]

no

[tidal moss]

You know ball

[balmy plume]

What

[vivid flare]

You got the reference

[kind fjord]

I'm not new to the game but i have been playing for a while now and i still havent been able to get the ||Voice and vanity questline||, what exactly do i need to do to get that?

It seems kind of bugged because i have talked to ||Narcissus|| and ||Echo|| many times and still have not been able to give ||Echo|| any nectar or get a quest item

[kindred quiver]

Have you ever given ||Echo|| nectar?

[kind fjord]

I've never seen a prompt for it

[kindred quiver]

You can only gift her after getting her boon.

After you get the boon, then the prompt will appear

[kind fjord]

I see alright good to know, its different than all the other boon givers then?

[kindred quiver]

Yeah. It’s just because ||Echo|| can only repeat words that Melinoë has said. And since Melinoë starts talking as soon as she enters the room, it wouldn’t logically make sense to get the gift dialogue first

[kind fjord]

Alright good to know, thanks for the help 👍

[kindred quiver]

Np 👍

[opal mural]

I did not know you could directly attack the Eye miniboss lol I thought it was a requirement to whittle it down by killing the balls lmao

Also, is Surface Frenzy 2 + Rivals 3 reasonable if my goal is only to get to like Idk 32-40f? I had Frenzy 2 + Rivals 2 for my Underworld 32f

[tidal moss]

Yeah if you learn frenzy 2, timer 3, and rivals 3, you'll be able to clear 40f easy

[tidal moss]

https://h2crossroads.pages.dev/FearCalculator/?vows=WzAsMCwwLDYsMCwzLDIsNSwyLDIsMiwwLDYsMCwyLDIsOF0=

This is the setup i recommend building for

[opal mural]

Yup that checks out with the vows I've been taking and avoiding, thanks

[woven smelt]

Hey there, I fully defeated || Chronos and Typhon || and got through the credits.

I have unlocked all keepsakes and one || hidden aspect ||. What do I have to do, to unlock the || hidden statues or pylons in the upper right corner of Skelly||.

[tidal moss]

Hidden aspects require all 3 aspects unlocked, a max non mel aspect, and then talking to the npc associated with the second aspect

The statues can be unlocked by fufilling the fear requirments listed in the box below the testament one, called nights champion

[woven smelt]

Yeah, thats how I got Morrigans, I maxed out Circe's staff to get the phrase for Anubis but she wasn't willing to share it yet 🙂

[woven smelt]

I will have a look on those than, seems like I missed those requirements 😅
Thanks for your help!

[tidal moss]

Pure rng on that front

[tidal moss]

Fear requirements for each statue are:

8fuw, 6fs
16fuw, 12fs
32fuw, 24fs

[woven smelt]

Oh, I just found out that I haven't even unlocked the || vow of rivals||.

[balmy plume]

Vow of Funtimes

[opal mural]

Just unlocked Medea, isn't it just like Beowulf from Hades 1 without blocking

[tidal moss]

Yep, strongest aspect

[opal mural]

If so then I'm using it forever

As someone whose best heat was with Beowulf

Though I did just see what Supay does and sounds like it's a great Romantic Spark weapon so I'm trying to unlock it expeditiously too

[wise locust]

It's a great blitz aspect in general, yes

it's really bad right out of the gate, but boy does it ramp up in capability

the basic attack is automatic but 0.75 seconds between each shot is slow, and the base damage is terrible

the base special is better but again, really terrible base power

and omegas basically just bring the power of those moves up to "basically okay I guess" and they're expensive

[woven smelt]

I am too dumb to use the aspect of Medea

[wise locust]

No no no no no, you're not dumb enough

channel your inner meatbrain

[tidal moss]

Just one attack, one special, repeat

[woven smelt]

Just one attack?

I was trying to load it until it's maxed and than rush into enemies

I am going to give it a try again 🙂

[wise locust]

yeah, everyone makes that mistake

as an extension to this AVOID WIDE GRIN

[woven smelt]

Had to look up Wide Grin as I haven't played Argent Skull more than a few times and my game isn't in English... gonna change that asap

[lapis cloak]

yeah i decided to put my game in english for the same reason

[wise locust]

Yeah, suffice to say that it sounds good for medea, but it actually slows you down since it makes you overkill enemies and slows down your reload

loading just one makes you able to load a second skull right after using your special and keep the good times going

and since you're mashing special a lot anyway, you'll be scooping up dropped skulls and you're unlikely run out of ammo

(Skull special briefly vastly expands the pickup range for skulls if you hadn't noticed)

[balmy plume]

[woven smelt]

Yeah, story wise I found it easier in German but that was pure laziness on my side^^

I underestimated how much I would love Hades 2 (and how complex it could get)

[wise locust]

It's fascinating how sometimes the translations are very literal and easy to translate, yet some translations are.... definitely a choice

some of the puns also get murdered in translation, but there's no real avoiding that

[flat heart]

After learning the truth about ||Hecate||, is there any other major story events in the game?

I did just about everything else

[shy zephyr]

no not really
you can move to #h2-discussion now 😂

[flat heart]

Oh lol

I still consider myself bad at the game lol

[foggy pier]

Gotta say the magic and omega stuff isn’t doing it for me at all. Maybe I’ll get into it as I unlock other aspects

[shy zephyr]

most aspects don't use a lot of omegas, what have you tried

[foggy pier]

I have the first 5 weapons unlocked but I’m finding the charging up breaks up my combat style and rhythm, I felt that way with the first game too. And then the magic restoring, I haven’t really been able to get my arms around that. Additionally I barely use hexes at all as a result. Maybe I just need to get more comfortable with the game and keep pushing.

[shy zephyr]

base torch and base axe can kinda use magick

but yeah it'll change a lot once you unlock aspects

[foggy pier]

Yeah I was using base axe with Omega attack occasionally

[tidal moss]

Yeah none of the mel aspects do too well on omegas

[foggy pier]

In the first game there was a mirror buff that made boons appear more often, is there a similar card here?

[tidal moss]

No

[dense root]

There's artificer which kinda does indirectly?

But no parallel

[dense root]

This lets you turn minor finds such as ashes into major

[tidal moss]

The day artificer actually hits a boon I want is the day I die a happy woman

It's only hit a good boon once out of hundreds of uses

[wintry rivet]

But if you die the boon is wasted

[dense root]

Isn't that always the case lol

[rustic hinge]

if artificer makes a boon i swear its hermes 95% of the time

[solemn torrent]

how hard is it to beat the final boss here compear to hades 1

i nearly got his ass on like my fourth run

i did have a insane combo but sitll this game just feels way esier idk

double spear + boon that gives mana was insane w/attack

[wintry rivet]

Definitely feel easier but it was because few reason: i had experience on h1 and general boon quality is higher

[solemn torrent]

i mena obviously experience is a huge part but idk

[wintry rivet]

And h2 underworld boss feel much easier before you add the rival on them (extreme measure in h2)

[solemn torrent]

ahh

[wintry rivet]

That where the real fun start

[solemn torrent]

i mean i have bearly done any heat

[tidal moss]

Yeah if you played the first game and you adapt well to the second you'll find the base difficulty fairly easy

[wintry rivet]

I would say h1 generally feel harder anyway, because h2 you can make a decent build out of most thing

There is less wtf is this supposed to achieve boon here

[tidal moss]

I mean we had someone the other day who had 63 runs and still hadn't beaten him

[nova kiln]

old message but never once have i gotten a boon from artificer

hearts money and one single deadalus hammer

[tidal moss]

Yeah the chances are not high lmfaooo

[kindred wharf]

I just started Hades 2 and i really enjoy the axe, is there anything i should know about it or some perks to look for? (If it matters I haven’t made it past Scylla yet)

[wintry rivet]

Dash strike special is your short and fast combo

Ofc you can still do the slow swing

Psychic whirlwind hammer make omega attack broken

[tidal moss]

More important to just keep playing, but yeah dont use the normal axe attack

[kindred wharf]

I thought it was slow lol. The game is fire although my lack of experience is showing, the only game I’ve played that’s similar is Minecraft dungeons

[tidal moss]

Yeah you're gonna have a big learning curve, this game is quite different to dungeons

[vivid flare]

The Special can be used to animation-cancel the attack (and will also reset your combo so you don't do the slam)

Also, may I recommend the previous game

[upper apex]

may I recommend hera bow

[tidal moss]

Wrong game

[vivid flare]

I think that was a follow-up to what I said?

[tidal moss]

Oh lmao

[opal mural]

Does pomming Divine Vengeance make Heinous Affront better?

[tidal moss]

Yeah but you want light smite, not penance

Vengeance*

[opal mural]

Have both luckily

[wintry rivet]

Divine vengeance scale badly with pom

[vivid flare]

Yeah, but due to the way Vengeance works, you very quickly run into diminishing returns

[wintry rivet]

You get more strike that barely happen because of rng

[vivid flare]

Even with Success Rate, it's pretty terrible after +3 or so

[opal mural]

Yeah just got unlucky with Pom choices in Olympus shop it was like Lucid Gain, Vengeance, and something else that was also mid

I have a lot of trouble avoiding damage with Medea rn since my brain still wants to treat it as if it's Beowulf

And I don't have that one hammer that reduces dammage

Loving how fast it is though

[opal mural]

How does Engraved Pin work if you fail? Do you just lose the DD behind it?

[wintry rivet]

Yes

[keen kelp]

just got here from hades
only having 1 dash is killing me

[upper apex]

try holding the dash button to sprint

[keen kelp]

yeah i found out i could do that

is splash sprint the best one

[opal mural]

I like Apollo's the most so far

[wintry rivet]

Splash sprint has high dmg but annoying to optimise

The rush boon that apply curse easily usually the best

[balmy plume]

80% of my runs are Apollo dash. 15% are Hera dash. 5% are i didn't get either in pool so screw me i guess

Hera dash is pretty good... there's just other good ways to apply hitch.
For Daze there's a lot fewer ways to apply it and the non dash ones are a lot more mid (imo anyhow)

[rustic hinge]

less about the daze and more the speed

[foggy pier]

Where you max out grasp does psyche have any other use?

[tidal moss]

Some Incantations and cosmetics

[foggy pier]

Ok

Thinking I should just max it out asap and use my purple

[tidal moss]

Your purple?

[foggy pier]

The bones

[tidal moss]

Yeah use bones

[foggy pier]

Does hitch stack?

Like does it make sense to have more than one boon active that triggers hitch?

[tall kernel]

i think it resets the timer, but doesn't stack

[foggy pier]

Does scorch stack?

[polar wraith]

yes up to a cap of 999 scorch

[wise locust]

Basically no.

If you want to amplify hitch, take hereditary bane

[balmy plume]

Hitch with Bane has like infinite duration effectively

[wise locust]

It's the bonus damage

[balmy plume]

Why does everyone think I don't know it does both

Its just wild to me that it gives +5 seconds when hitch already lasts so long to begin with

[serene laurel]

In a way, hereditary bane nerfs nexus rush (as you can only deal the sprint damage when applying hitch)

[balmy plume]

[serene laurel]

But other than that it’s a REALLY good secondary

[balmy plume]

I guess thats true for hera cast too then

Never thought about that

[foggy pier]

So if you lose magic that is not the same as spending it with regards to activating hexes

[vivid flare]

Correct, and that's specifically to prevent Brave Face and Possessed Array from letting you spam them out

[foggy pier]

Yeah I took it with the kills think omega attack was gonna nuts. I couldn’t be boost omega attacks without apollos legendary which I think the odds are too low to risk it

[vivid flare]

Eh, it's 10% once you fill the prerequisites

15% with Excellence

Also: Weed Killer, Fine Line, and Cutting Edge will all proc off of Array without changing the MP cost

Abuse responsibly

[teal sundial]

Can you get the ||epilogue|| by doing that one chaos trial

[vivid flare]

Yes

[dense root]

What
I did not know that

[foggy pier]

Can you translate for a new player? I don’t know what these mean, proc?

[rustic hinge]

trigger

[vivid flare]

Those are all boon names, specifically ones that do extra things when you use an Omega but also increase the MP cost

[foggy pier]

What is proc?

[vivid flare]

@foggy pier

I forget what it's short for, but it means to trigger an effect

[foggy pier]

Roger

[rustic hinge]

something Random OCcurence

[foggy pier]

So what about like Daedalus upgrades or boons that use magic, do the stack with hex magic usage?

Like “last hit hits twice but uses 20 magic” I still can’t understand when magic utilization outside of omega, counts towards hexes

[vivid flare]

If it says "spends," it counts towards Hexes and boons like Heart Breaker; if it says "loses" like it does for Brave Face or Possessed Array, it won't

[humble sinew]

is there any particular advice for getting used to the one dash n sprint after coming from hades 1 or is it just a "play longer until you adjust" situation

[tidal moss]

Pretty much

The game plays very differently to h1 so just throw everything you think you know and what you're used to out the window

[humble sinew]

gotcha

[vivid flare]

Not everything should get tossed out, but playing Mel like she's Zag will get you killed repeatedly

[shy zephyr]

if you feel uncomfortable with the sprint try turning on auto sprint in the options

[kindred wharf]

Is there a way to get consistent healing? Taking a little too much damage on one floor could easily end a run for me and make things so much harder

[shy zephyr]

the wayward son arcana card

and one of chaos boons

also Demeter's plentiful forage boon

[vivid flare]

I have a suggestion

[kindred wharf]

Yeah?

[vivid flare]

@vivid flare

[humble sinew]

didnt realize there was auto sprint, that might be just what i need

[kindred wharf]

Interesting

[vivid flare]

The passive DR from doing a Strength run helps a lot with making healing more effective, and making chip damage from rooms less of an issue

[kindred wharf]

What’s a good way to get rid of those armies of pinheads In oceanus? I take so much damage when trying to kill them as there’s way too much

[opal mural]

Use cast to group them up

[soft jasper]

yes, cast in this game is so useful as a mechanic i should've used it much more in my early game.

[teal sundial]

I’m pretty sure I did but it didn’t work

[tidal moss]

It can be done in a chaos trial, you probably did something wrong

[teal sundial]

So I gotta || use the moros dd 3 rooms in a row and then die in the fourth in Oceanus,right ?||

[tidal moss]

Yes, and it has to be 4 normal combat rooms in a row

[teal sundial]

So complete it 3 times in a row and then let myself die

Pretty sure I did that in the chaos trial but it didn’t work

[tidal moss]

You activate pin, clear the room in time, do that 3 times in a row, then active and die in the 4th

[teal sundial]

Ok

I’ll try again when I’m back

[vagrant storm]

Idk but I feel surface last 2 regions in surface is so hard man

I'm able to beat chronos easily

But can't cross the summit barely

Mini bosses hitting me like a tank

My favourite weapon is thanatos axe any good build for crowd control and boss melting

??

[shy zephyr]

psychic whirlwind is in instant take

for crowd control, Demeter's cast is enough by itself lol

[vagrant storm]

Yeh I'm picking it but due to lack of dashes

Dodging enemies in summit is son annoyed

1 hit huge blood loss

[shy zephyr]

use your cast to keep them away

if you ever think you're casting enough, you're wrong

[vagrant storm]

What would be better demeter on cast or attack?

[shy zephyr]

cast

for attack take apollo, aphro or hera

[vagrant storm]

Enemies on surface need to hit so many times to kill them man..like even though they have small bar it still take more hits

Enemies are really hard or am i tripping lol

[shy zephyr]

you're not scaling your damage well enough

are you running origination

[vagrant storm]

I kept aphrode lvl 4 attack demeter cast

I was clearing bosses easily but I was dying at olympus so many times

So i switched to demeter attack and zeus cast

And they have duo boons

Freeze also get electric shock

[shy zephyr]

try apollo attack

[vagrant storm]

This way I was managed to go upto summit

[shy zephyr]

with psychic whirlwind

[vagrant storm]

Yeh it increases range tho but at bosses it struggles

Any duo boons or combos

To scale appollos damage

[shy zephyr]

no it doesn't

[shy zephyr]

not really? just keep up your mortality to profit off of oattacks

weed killer from demeter is good to have

[vagrant storm]

So see Im not really good at dodgy attacks if so many enemies are there

So what would be best build for me

Should I change weapon

Go for more safer one

Like even 1 hit mortality buff will be gone

[shy zephyr]

mel staff is the ol reliable

[vagrant storm]

As game gets harder it really feels punishing

[shy zephyr]

put zeus on attack and any %boost on special

run origination, furies and huntress in arcana

[vagrant storm]

Playstyle ?

Should I just spam special

And cast

[shy zephyr]

dash attack into special

[opal mural]

For me safest way to play is with Staff (Circe), get Blitz on Special and hope for Lightning Lance to be able to play everything ranged

[opal mural]

But it's slow

[shy zephyr]

do not run zeus on mel staff special 🗿

[vagrant storm]

Aah wdym bro..dash attack into special? 😭

[shy zephyr]

dash attack, special, dash attack special

that's how you play mel staff

[vagrant storm]

Ok I will give a try ಥ⁠‿⁠ಥ

[proven gazelle]

This is not how you should ever play circe btw

LL is pretty dookie even on kbm and zeus should only be on staff special if you have no other option for blitz(which unless youre doing 45+ fear should never be a compromise)

[shy zephyr]

YOU'RE dookie on kbm 😠

[proven gazelle]

I am a bum controller user 🥀

[shy zephyr]

lightning lance is goated with the sauce i just unfortunately have to deny it to take the better stuff 💔

[proven gazelle]

That too yeah, zeus has so many better things taking LL is a throw most of the time

[kindred quiver]

Just take Concave Stone forehead

[proven gazelle]

And even when it isnt why would you completely change how your cast functions for like 2 extra damage

And idek how it interacts with messenger

[shy zephyr]

because of safety?

[kindred quiver]

Plum when every player doesn’t use the same exact build and strategy every run: 😡👹🤬

[proven gazelle]

I wouldnt really call LL safer, from a controller perspective its actually unusable and for kbm you have to be very aware of mouse placement more than usual

[kindred quiver]

Yeah I don’t like LL on controller

[proven gazelle]

Mfw the decision is LL, blitz, or static shock

Hell id take ionic over LL since on circe thats a core slot gone

[shy zephyr]

as if being aware of mouse placement is hard 🗿

[kindred quiver]

I like my casts being instant. The Dionysus one is exception but it depends

[proven gazelle]

Oh no youre trying to dash and cast abd now you have to throw your mouse to one side of the screen to dash then hyper flick it over to cast where you wabt then back to the thing you wanna hit normally

Like why in gods name would I make myself do that for an extra 100 damage every several seconds

[kindred quiver]

Sounds like a skill issue lowkey

[proven gazelle]

Not saying its not doable but why would I make myself have to work so much harder for zero payoff

And again with denial in play LL is never a take 😭

[kindred quiver]

Operative word here is “I”

[proven gazelle]

Clear 65 with LL twin

Take it over blitz and static shock willingly with denial on

[kindred quiver]

You’re proving my point 💀

[proven gazelle]

Its just such unnecessary macro to have to add to an already kinda macro intensive game

[kindred quiver]

Not everyone plays 65f

[proven gazelle]

LL is bad thats my point

[kindred quiver]

Dude when you’re only considering 62-67 fear most things are bad

[proven gazelle]

No actually a lot still works

[kindred quiver]

Bad the majority of people don’t play that high

[proven gazelle]

Every weapon has cleared 65, 62 still giving you a full arcana table lets anything still work

[kindred quiver]

So if a new player asked “Is Moon Water good?” It’s disingenuous to say “nah it sucks”

[proven gazelle]

I dont go as far to say smth isnt usable until 65 since thats when things actually start being dysfunctional without arcana off rip

Like Ospec hel or how charon had to play like mel in its 65 clear

[kindred quiver]

Then why’d you say this 😭

[shy zephyr]

folks this is the new players channel

[proven gazelle]

But LL reasonably just doesnt do anything useful and becomes even less desirable the second denial is on

[shy zephyr]

should probably move this to #h2-discussion

[kindred quiver]

Don’t be such a square 😡

[proven gazelle]

Cuz its just bad and gets terrible atp and afaik there isnt really high fear clears with LL cuz it sucks

And by high i mean 62+ but thats besides the point

[rustic hinge]

why would you have to throw your mouse to dash

[shy zephyr]

wait i just fully read that lol

[rustic hinge]

is dash at cursor even a setting 💔

[shy zephyr]

movement is completely separate from your mouse

[shy zephyr]

was in h1, dunno about h2

[rustic hinge]

sounds like a nightmare

[balmy plume]

this is why i basically never take Lightning Lance. with LL it just feels like my cast is placed at 'random' whenever i click it

[rustic hinge]

well really your mouse should already be on the enemy

[balmy plume]

my mouse is usually floating over discord on my other monitor

[rustic hinge]

how are you aiming then

[balmy plume]

with the stick

its awful

with dad cast and hestia cast its not that bad because they can hit stuff and stop when they do

but LL does so you have to drag the circle around and it just aint it.

its way too sensitive so it goes all the way as far as it can go, but if you turn the sensitivity down normal gameplay is too sluggish so

[teal sundial]

Am I the only controller player

[balmy plume]

no

[tidal moss]

No

[spice shoal]

No

Switch 1 w/ a Pro Controller over here

[primal mantle]

broo this game feels so much harder then the first

[balmy plume]

the main point of difficulty in hades 2 is that you're coming from hades 1

and play it like hades 1, for the most part, kills you unfortunately

[polar laurel]

Once you figure out "oh, my weapons have way better ranged attacks" and "oh, my cast is a win button" the game becomes a lot easier

Also the enemy design is way better which has a side effect of the enemies being more learnable and thus easier

[kindred quiver]

Except for ||Olympus|| enemies 🫩

[polar laurel]

I get that

I still think Olympus enemies are better than h1 enemies tho

[kindred quiver]

Also those tiny enemies on ||The Summit|| that are so incredibly fast with Frenzy 2 on top of being tiny and hard to see. I get hit my then so mic just because I don’t even know where they are

[kindred quiver]

Been some years since I played Hades 1 so I’ll have to take you’re word for it

@balmy plume Potty mouth 😡

[balmy plume]

heckin laser machinegun howitzers

[kindred quiver]

And the “let me go into my shield form and waste time” move

[polar laurel]

You've got enemies that run away so fast you gotta really chase them down in area 2, enemies that respawn in area 3 (and those bow guys I hate them) and poison in area 4 which nobody likes

¯_(ツ)_/¯

[balmy plume]

whenever ||rivals Eris|| summons them its instantly -1 DD for me

[polar laurel]

Surely use strength

[balmy plume]

if i was on Strength it would be -1 run 💀

[polar laurel]

Lmao

I mean your effective health with strength is more than your effective health with 1 dd tbf

Man... I really wish they didn't nerf strength that last time

[balmy plume]

once i work through the testaments and get up to Fear 32 i'll probably chill there and focus on cleaning up my gameplay

so that i don't need to have so much hp and dd to cover for mistakes

[polar laurel]

I did 1 attempt of 50f the other day and made it to the final phase

How do I replicate this

(Second question how do I beat the final phase 0_o)

[balmy plume]

shrimply assemble a broken build and dont care

[polar laurel]

Mannnn

It's so hard to build with forfeit

[balmy plume]

practice will get you there eventually

people post 50F+ clears in #h2-victory-boasting all the time

[foggy pier]

Can somebody help me in understanding damage mitigation using Dash? I see boons from Hermes that talk about absorbing a hit, but sometimes if I type it right I can avoid damage. I’m talking particularly in the instance of the first boss on the surface, sometimes I can get through those red rings without damage and other times I take damage how does this work?

[shy zephyr]

you get invulnerability frames when dashing, this invulnerability goes away if you press any of the attack, special or cast inputs during your dash animation

you should get used to running like 0.1 seconds after every dash before doing anything

[foggy pier]

So the initial rush does not have vulnerability?

[shy zephyr]

it doesn't

you get iframes as soon as you press the dash buttons, they end if you press any of those inputs or when Mel's dark "glow" goes away

[primal mantle]

cast is a win button? how

[primal mantle]

yeahhh

[shy zephyr]

because it's very strong

use it more often and you'll see the amazing crowd control capabilities

[vivid flare]

It's a very potent slow on basic enemies, even before considering cards like Furies or Messenger that add additional effects to it, or all the Cast-boosting boons

The MMO mantra of "ABC: Always Be Casting" applies to this game, too

[kindred wharf]

Anyone have advice for ||Chronos phase 2|| i’ve only gotten there twice but its cooking me

[rustic hinge]

what attacks specifically

[kindred wharf]

The boomerang, and the timestop

[rustic hinge]

the visual cue for the scythe throw is very obvious, just dash into him. time slow is rough, just dont try to hit him during it

[teal sundial]

I don’t understand the cast hype, can someone explain

[rustic hinge]

it costs literally nothing to always have a cast down and it prevents enemies from leaving the circle among other things

[dense root]

Basically enemies are immobile in it, for free kills
Costs nothing
Furies gives global 30% (or maybe 20 I forgot) boost in damage (for reference, best card has 50% boost
Also cast boons are free curses or can deal a solid amount of damage but just throwing them out whenever
Again, costs nothing

[balmy plume]

30% after upgrades. i think starts as 20% though

[polar laurel]

if you have no time restrictions, you can just set a cast down and pelt enemies with your special from afar

its not very fun to play that way but you can in a pinch

[dense root]

Oh, I thought your pfp looked familiar...

[polar laurel]

?

[dense root]

Nothing, I just recognized you

[polar laurel]

oh wait youre in hkt lmao

[dense root]

Yep

[kindred quiver]

TERRARIA I DONT WANT A THIRD METEOR

PLEASE STOP DESTROYING MY WORLD

[dense anchor]

wrong chat

[kindred quiver]

Yeah I was wondering where I sent this message by accident lmao

[velvet tide]

Sharp shadow S-tier

[dense root]

moving to this server to ragebait 😔

[fierce falcon]

Hey. Not sure if there is a better place to ask this, but does Artemis' 'Whispered Prayer' boost the damage dealt by a raised minion I revive with Night Bloom?

[velvet tide]

xD sorry, thats the only thing i know you for

[tidal moss]

Yes

[dense root]

Not for my 12k help messages?💔

[tawny torrent]

Is it generally bad to take both zues attack and special on mel torches

I already have it on special but wasnt sure if i would gain much from also adding it to my attack

[vivid flare]

Yeah, you never want to have both your Attack and Special be Blitz

Only one instance can be active at a time, and I think they overwrite each other

[tawny torrent]

Thank you 🫡

[balmy plume]

You basically never want to have the same curse more than once

[vivid flare]

It's fine for Hephaestus blasts because it's a side effect, but otherwise it's overkill at best and genuinely detrimental at worst

[opal mural]

Does Extending Wallop + Dual Moonshot make the attack and special range on the staff approximately equal?

[kindred wharf]

Is it a good idea to prioritize hp and survivability above all else? That’s my general strategy

[opal mural]

Never a bad idea to take survivability boons like Trusty Shield, Heavy Metal, Uncanny Fortitude, Snow Queen, Spiritual Affirmation, Water Fitness, Worry Free imo

[vivid flare]

Never a bad idea to take it when you can (especially since mitigation boons are way rarer than offensive ones), but I wouldn't go out of my way for them

I'd especially look for stuff that's not straight HP upgrades with your defensive boons, because those ones will still play nice with Antler

[tidal moss]

Just means your builds aren't going to be as strong

[kindred wharf]

Yay i beat Chronos for the first time, that was rough

[tidal moss]

Now you get to do it again

[kindred wharf]

And to think that i thought the god of time would be done for after one fight

[tidal moss]

Wouldn't be much of a roguelike if he was

[vivid flare]

Nah, wars are won with time

[wise locust]

It gets easier, chronos hits hard but you will learn his tells and patterns

[steep jolt]

until the VOR

[wise locust]

And when you can push your luck more and damage him faster, you'll get attacked less

[wise locust]

Definitely felt like learning it all over again

[steep jolt]

I'm currently raising my fear count to get the final statue, I guess I should have more control on my build with rerolls but jeweled pom is just too good. What's your approach?

[wise locust]

That is fine, pick better vows? Stay off the grit and hordes

[fierce falcon]

I'm currently learning to run Vow of Denial and I feel like there are some situations where I will be offered the exact same sacrifice boons over and over. I just used rerolled three times in a row to get rid of a sacrifice boon but it kept showing up, thus killing my build.
I know I can check the boons in the menu before picking one up, but this was a wrapped boon at Charon, so I didn't check this could happen.
Was this just some bad luck on my part or will the game always offer sacrifice boons in certain situations? I could have sworn I did reroll in the past when there are no boons available to be left with no option other than gold. Was this just doubly bad luck on my end?

[wise locust]

Basically, the game will try to fill all available boon slots with whatever it can

The only exceptions to this are Duos and Legendaries, which must pass their luck check

so if you have denial on, what's happened is that that god has literally run out of things to offer outside of sacrifice boons, so that's all you get

[fierce falcon]

I see, then it was a skill issue.

Duos and Legendaries I have noticed, I believe they worked like this in Hades 1 as well. But at least this means that you can force Infusion Boons with Vow of Denial.

[wise locust]

Only in the instance where that god can't offer anything and fails any duo/legendary rolls that might be possible will you get the "Spare Wealth" option for 90 gold

[wise locust]

Infusion boons are classed as common boons in most cases, so yeah, they'll be called to fill out the offering if they haven't been denial'd

Oddly their appearance is made rarer because they can only appear in a boon slot if all other higher rarity rolls have failed

since they cannot appear as rare or epic

[fierce falcon]

When I first saw Vow of Denial, I assumed it was more an upside than a downside because the two banished boons tend to be worse than average. But there are legit hard decisions you come across with it.

[wise locust]

yep, and there's just a very real chance of running out of boons to take with a particular god

and sometimes you can be "lucky" and get a boon choice with two duos and a legendary

Rerolls help you steer the choice into losing boons you care less about

You also end up losing core boons pretty early on because the first boon choice in a run will always be three cores

and thereafter the first slot of a boon menu will always be a core as long as you have a slot open for one (Even if it then rolls the 10% chance to get a sacrifice boon instead, which is infurating when trying to fill that last slot)

(This forced core boon thing acually supercedes even duos and legendaries appearing, so if you're after getting one of those, fill your core slots)

[opal mural]

I still think it helps more often than not (though I haven't played without Denial since like Night 21 because of this possibly unfounded belief)

[analog root]

Super n00b question: I have about ~10 hours into Hades 2 and every guide I read talks about builds to make runs more successful. At this point in the game, I feel like I'm stumbling into boons/abilities/etc. at random and feel like I have no control over what I get.

Is there a point in the game later where I have a lot more control over what build I run with?

[tidal moss]

Have you unlocked all the arcana yet

[analog root]

No, I haven't even made it to Chronos yet

[tidal moss]

Once you unlock the arcana in the bottom left, it gives you access to rerolls, which allow you to alter boon and door rewards to ensure you get what you want

[analog root]

Ahhh okay. I knew there was something I was missing

[tidal moss]

Since you're very early on it's better to just keep doing runs and experimenting as it's quite difficult to make strong builds early in the game

[wise locust]

There's theoretical ideal builds, but ultimately what you want is enough game knowledge to assemble a functional setup from the boons you get dealt, since there's many paths to success

[tidal moss]

Ideal hades 2 gameplay is just going off vibes

[wise locust]

Also there's the other trap of thinking that builds are the reason you win or fail, usually it's really just a skill issue

[tidal moss]

So you're saying that me dying to hecate 62 with only a gain boon is a skill issue (it is)

[wise locust]

There's no substitute for knowing how to evade enemy attacks, when to strike, how to move, optimising what buttons and moves to focus on with the current build, actually playing the aspect properly

[tall kernel]

Have you given gifts to the gods and gotten their keepsakes that allow you to get their boons next and rarify it?

Have you unlocked the keepsakes inbetween each location/act?

[analog root]

Been giving gifts. Still grinding 😊 working on not dying to the Sirens regularly. It’s the only boss I really seem to have issues

[tall kernel]

Want a tip on them?

[analog root]

Sure. I’ve watched some guides but I’ll take any help

[opal mural]

I always kill the drummer first

[tall kernel]

Learn the pink radiating circle attack pattern and timing so you can avoid it, but also know that those are coming from the drummer, so they stop when the drummer is down.

Always kill the drummer first.

[opal mural]

Especially since it's the easiest to kill the drummer since she's stationary

[tall kernel]

Also back stab damage

[opal mural]

Also it took me like 3 deaths to them when I started playing to figure out that I was supposed to go inside the safe circle lol

[analog root]

Sounds like the guides I’ve watched are on the right track then. I’ll keep at it. Just repetition at this point

[tall kernel]

It becomes muscle memory eventually.

Don’t worry, just when it gets habit and almost boring, the game gives you ways to make it punishing and hard again so it stays fun for many more runs.

[foggy pier]

How do I check my bond levels with familiars?

[shy zephyr]

pick them, then open your boon menu

it's right under your aspect

[foggy pier]

I see it

Thanks

Also, there’s a blue sparkling dot above my death defiance counter next to my magic. What does that represent?

[dense root]

which aspect are you using?

[shy zephyr]

your aspect gimmick

[dense root]

it generally means the effect is ready

[foggy pier]

Got it

[humble sinew]

what does the little list icon that sometimes appears over doors mean?

i assume it has something to do with the fated list but im not sure

[vivid flare]

Means you have something that'll fill a prophecy in there

[humble sinew]

gotcha, ty

[vivid flare]

Either a miniboss you haven't seen yet or a pet

[humble sinew]

nice that it tells you that

[foggy pier]

Does static shock apply to specials? Or is strikes only attack?

[proven gazelle]

strikes is attacks and specials

semantically the way the game divides things is
strikes- attacks and specials
attack- only normal attack
special- only normal special
attacks(plural)- both reg and omega
specials(plural)- both reg and omega

[balmy plume]

Super clear and thoroughly explained

[foggy pier]

Does scorch Stack?

[proven gazelle]

yes up to 999 but it has a built in tick rate of 100/s

so its damage is limited until you get something like pyro tech or freezer burn, then it goes insane

[balmy plume]

Ptech is so weird. Sometimes I its the best possible boons I could be offered... and sometimes I feel like I can't take it (like when its on an action I'm not doing frequently)

[dense root]

Why is that weird

[balmy plume]

Because I said so

[serene prairie]

Does anyone know if it's possible to use the tablet of peace on the lost souls while playing on a touchpad keyboard? It requires holding left click and right click at the same time which I can't really do on this setup. It's the only interaction in the whole game that caused any sort of problem for me, I ended up just getting all of my psyche from the broker instead.

There's the one right after the 3rd biome boss that I was hoping to recruit

[tidal moss]

You can rebind the keys

[serene prairie]

oh yeah I forgot that was an option

good idea

[balmy plume]

Simply acquire forg

[keen kelp]

does h2 have any boons like divine dash(as in i should always take them)

[shy zephyr]

no

some are obviously better than others but I can't name always-take boons

[rustic hinge]

how about renewed faith

[balmy plume]

There's plenty of boons that are always worth taking, but i cant think of anything that's a must take

[shy zephyr]

uhhh close but not quite, if you have two left then mental block is better value

but that's the closest we have to a must take yeah

[balmy plume]

Yeah even then you could be on strength build or w/e

[rustic hinge]

then it wouldnt show up

[balmy plume]

Tru

[fierce falcon]

I'm assuming if I use an Omega Move that hits multiple times with Arc Flash, it can apply and trigger Blitz multiple times on just one use?

[tidal moss]

Depends on how fast the omega move hits

[fierce falcon]

ah, so there is an internal cooldown on Arc Flash?

Makes sense, I suppose. It would grow out of hand with Aspect of Pan, for example.

But now it's really hard to judge how good that strategy is on certain weapons.

[tidal moss]

On blitz

@wise locust You know this stuff better than me

[wise locust]

what am I being asked?

oh I see

so once Blitz is "triggered", it takes a half second to actually deal damage.

and since blitz is still there during this time, you can't add another one

[fierce falcon]

And I assume an Omega Move cannot apply and trigger Blitz with the same hit, right? It would need to be two separate hits.

[wise locust]

not the same hit, no,

all blitz moves do damage first then apply blitz

so that opening hit doesn't even count towards the 120 damage needed to force-proc it normally

[exotic osprey]

And it still ends up being one of if not the best status effect in the game

[wise locust]

A lot of awkwardness can be compensated for by the power of BIG NUMBER

[fierce falcon]

So Aspect of Shiva Omega Special with Arc Flash hitting three times would apply Blitz, trigger it, then apply Blitz again but not trigger it a second time.

[wise locust]

assuming it takes longer than 0.5 seconds to do each bounce

which seems right

[fierce falcon]

roughly 1 second from what I can tell.

[tidal moss]

Uh yeah shiva works well with arc flash

[exotic osprey]

And then get the ||Hera|| duo and Pom Pom Pom and you got a +32 Blitz attack and start wondering where the boss’s health went

[wise locust]

sorta? It's nothing on shimmering rocket salvos

[tidal moss]

Well it's not the best way to go on shiva but I can at least say it works

[wise locust]

it's hard to go wrong with blitz, it's true

[exotic osprey]

I think Zeus is the best god in the game on any weapon generally tbh

[wise locust]

ah, it's 0.45 seconds

[exotic osprey]

Blitz is busted on anything and from his boons alone you can create a build where you can ditch the weapon entirely, few gods have even one of those things if any

[wise locust]

no wait, it is 0.5 seconds for this conversation

weird little technical bit here

[tidal moss]

Except for charon

[wise locust]

You proc blitz somehow, "Blitz" itself is instantly removed, but at the same time, two other things are triggered

[tidal moss]

Even then zeus special works just fine

[wise locust]

one is a fakey-leftover invisible status curse that lasts 0.5 seconds that blocks a new blitz from applying but does count for origination

[exotic osprey]

Oh aspect of Charon

[wise locust]

the other is a lightning strike that happens 0.45 seconds from the same point

[exotic osprey]

Took me a sec to realize lol, I thought that there were a whole set of boons or something I didn’t know about

[wise locust]

basically SGG were really nice and let blitz count as a curse towards origination for its own damage

[exotic osprey]

The animation lasts a bit after the bolt yeah, and you can’t apply blitz again until it goes away

[rustic hinge]

interesting

[wise locust]

it's 0.05 seconds, unless I'm missing something else

[exotic osprey]

Idk the exact time, I just know blitz lasts for a bit after it does damage

[wise locust]

unless that 0.5 seconds starts counting after the lightning strike

[exotic osprey]

Enough for the bolt to get Origin buff but not so long that you can’t apply it again if you swing a few times after the bolt

[wise locust]

which... maybe? I need to get the game open to see

but 0.05 seconds isn't very long, 1/20 of a second, or 3F for us fighting game nerds

[tidal moss]

3 frames is a big window tfym /j

[wise locust]

This isn't GGXX+R

[tidal moss]

If it's not true I don't want it

[wise locust]

we're talking about periods of 0.5 seconds here, if you were that into GGXX+R you'd be wondering why we're using a calendar to measure in game interactions

[tidal moss]

Similar to my fighting game

The meta is determined by singular frame nerfs half the time

[exotic osprey]

A single frame could turn a game of RPS into Gun, although usually in the games I’ve played I haven’t noticed many nerfs like that

[wise locust]

Also going back to blitz, it's kinda weird that the billowing cloud effect had me thinking that the lightning strike came from the cloud itself, but no, it's just a full on Zeusbolt like any other

(Lightning strikes are a lot less visually messy than they are in H1, in my defence)

[tidal moss]

Frames only start to matter when you're min maxing and landing everything on the first frame possible so in a game like h2 it doesn't matter much

[wise locust]

tell that to Foolish

[tidal moss]

Foolish isn't really human anyway

Plus I can always disable their aircon

[lapis cloak]

Fighting games in general are all like this

"reduced startup 10f to 9f" and then suddenly that character goes up a whole tier

[proven gazelle]

mfw 4 frames was all it took to make ggst johnny insufferable

[lapis cloak]

it wasn't just that but yeah

mist finer counter hit is the real enemy i need it gone forever

but anyway

[tall kernel]

What is better for someone who gets hit a lot still. Death defiances or strength card?

[vivid flare]

Strength

[wise locust]

defiances, but the best answer is to be hit less

[vivid flare]

Strength is better for chip damage

[balmy plume]

anotha one

[astral orchid]

Once you win a run with all your defiances on both routes back to back, swap to strength

then when you start doing super high fear, specifically vow of scars 3, go back to defiance

[proven gazelle]

then once you get good at high fear you go back to strength to flex

[tidal moss]

Uh yeah pretty much

[vivid flare]

Or you make the startup on their jab a frame longer and it drops them 3 tiers

[proven gazelle]

all fighting games are balanced on a knifes edge made of cardboard

[tidal moss]

Can confim

Last brawlhalla balance patch they nerfed a true combo to a 1 frame dodge window and it went from S tier to D

[lapis cloak]

but then you see some characters getting 5 lines of buffs and going from bottom 3 to bottom 5

(based on my experience)

surely strive 2.0 will not disappoint me at all

[spice shoal]

First end credits!

[balmy plume]

fighting games are way to technical for me 😭
last one i played was 3ds Smash

[fierce falcon]

Is it wrong that I want to equip Icarus' keepsake in the third area in almost all of my runs? It's hard to justify anything else unless I really need a specific god.

[wintry rivet]

It is fun

I almost do it everytime for gamba

[tidal moss]

Nah that's fairly normal

[balmy plume]

I do sometimes but other times I'm to worried about a bad hammer ruining things

Or I'm too dead and need to take Gorgon

[opal mural]

Yeah some aspects are a never hammer thing

[balmy plume]

I wonder what the max amount of hammers is

2 default... going UW for echo

[opal mural]

Medea in particular right cause Wide Grin just bricks you

[balmy plume]

Hammer in end shop

[opal mural]

I know there's a win message for having 5 hammers

[balmy plume]

Icarus hammer

I think 5 is it yeah

3 perma hammers +anvil +icarus

[opal mural]

Nemesis can give you one too right

[balmy plume]

Can she if you already have 2?

[opal mural]

Artificer might be able to give you one

[balmy plume]

Maybe

If both are true then 7 hammers

[tidal moss]

You can no longer get 7 hammers

Pretty sure the hard limit now is 5

[balmy plume]

Rude

[vivid flare]

At the same time, though, Possessed Array is a massive damage spike and you can get MP regens that can sustain it indefinitely on Medea, Colossus Driver is great QoL for it (and gives you alternatives to Blitz Special), and even Volatile Array is good

[opal mural]

Yeah I like those two and also Boosted/Looming Ignition

[balmy plume]

Looming Medea is really funny

Just hitting the entire screen

[fierce falcon]

I assume "losing" magick is different from "spending" magick as in the former does not charge my hex among other things . But do effects that cause me to lose magick still occur when I am unable to pay for them? Because the wording implies that they should still work.

[shy zephyr]

losing is different than using yes
no they will not activate if you don't have enough magick

assuming you're talking about possessed array, the upside is that it's always the same fixed cost, so stuff like fine line and ocean swell will not increase it

[fierce falcon]

Awakened Rockets from Aspect of Shiva is what made me ask. But I assume it works the same.

Flood Gain says it restores any "Magick you use" which is another different wording. Does this apply to both spending and losing?

Heart Breaker says "use" as well.

[cloud sorrel]

use 40 magic to make a heart, yeah

[fierce falcon]

But why does it say "use" instead of "spend"? Does this mean it also works if I lose my magick instead of spending it?

[cloud sorrel]

how would you "lose" it

[fierce falcon]

as I said above, there are effects that cause you to spend magick and effects that cause you to lose magick. Those are both words the game uses.

losing magick does not count towards charging your hex, but I'm trying to figure out if there are other differences.

[cloud sorrel]

I see

[shy zephyr]

nope

any effect that wants you to use or spend magick does not work with possessed array or awakened rockets

[vivid flare]

Or Brave Face

[shy zephyr]

oh that makes you lose magick too?

i never take it so i wouldn't know

[rustic hinge]

good thing awakened rockets makes you lose magick, itd be waay too strong otherwise 🙄

[fierce falcon]

Maybe I still need to play a bit more, but I feel like I don't have any idea about what exactly Omega Casts do. The only time I tend to use them is if I get anything that specifically interacts with Omega Casts, like Geyser Spout.

Like, do they add Power or a percentage increase to the different gods' casts? Or do they all do something else towards the end like the regular cast?

Maybe it's the fact that the regular cast is so convenient to drop that I never want to channel it.

[lapis cloak]

That's mostly it

[dense root]

Just explodes at end of cast

Idk if it's affected by god boons

[lapis cloak]

Nope

Only if the boon specifically says something about ocast

And you can do ocast builds, they can be funny, but honestly not that good

[fierce falcon]

oh, so it does the same explosion at the end regardless of which boons I put on it? The same explosion that the vanilla omega cast does?

[lapis cloak]

Yes, unless you get a boon that buffs your ocast

[fierce falcon]

Huh, I guess I was doing it right by pure intuition then.

[lapis cloak]

Geyser spout, the one from Demeter, prominence flare and the Zeus Apollo duo, hostile environment, etc

Also it's an omega move so anything that affects omegas in general also count ocast

One thing I'm not sure is if the chaos boon that increases cast damage applies to ocast, Im assuming it does

And there's also the arachne dress which falls in the same scenario

[shy zephyr]

it does

[gilded stream]

Hello, what are some of the most fun and easy to learn aspects in hades 2

I maxed out thanatos axe

Immediately

It is fun, looking for some other aspects

[tidal moss]

Circe, mel blades, moros, mel axe, mel skull, mel coat

In terms of fun it's just what you prefer, gotta try out all the aspects for that

[balmy plume]

||Morrigan|| hidden knives

[tidal moss]

New players channel remember

[opal mural]

I am Mel Staff's new biggest fan, so Mel Staff

Medea Skull is easier to learn if you played Hades 1 and used certain aspects there

[tidal moss]

Medea is quite hard to learn well

[balmy plume]

They might get ||nergal|| soon if they already have than max

[opal mural]

I feel like at 20s to even 30s fear Medea is easy because you can easily out dps everything, it's probably only hard to learn to play it safely (which I have not)

[proven gazelle]

medea is john skill ceiling kinda weapon, easy to pick up and play but playing it at higher fears becomes a pretty awarness check

[winter basin]

Medea hasn’t clicked for me yet

Brain shuts off when I play it and I just run headfirst into damage

[swift path]

yea its not an easy aspect to play with

id say once you use ur skulls, use your special and dash to collect them quick

also I suggest using 1 skull at a time for enemies

but for bosses use all your skulls to deal heavy damage

[winter basin]

oh like I know HOW

I just am not good at it

[swift path]

same neither am I

kinda why I use other aspects like Persephone and Frost Heir

[rustic hinge]

you should really just do one at a time always

[swift path]

yea but when your fighting bosses, the skulls go out of range so they automatically return to you

kinda make sense why some like wide grin and some dont

[gilded stream]

What is the optimal way to use thanatos axe?

[swift path]

Thanatos Axe in general is already good on its own but I like to have Apollo, Demeter, or || Ares || in the god pool to provide heavy damage with the axe

[naive siren]

Hey guys is there anywhere where i can practice on dodging bosses movesets? Havent played in a while and im trying to remember how to dodge ||chronos||

[tidal moss]

Nothing ingame, you have to alter files and setup a save state

[swift path]

or there are youtube videos that have guides on how to dodge boss attacks

but personally imo just keep playing the game and eventually youll get used to the attacks

[cursive venture]

guys can i start hades 2 now since i finish the epiloque

[shy zephyr]

yeah sure

[cursive venture]

i mean i still have like two prophecy that i haven't finished yet like achilles and patroclus and sisyphus

[shy zephyr]

those aren't necessary to play hades 2

in fact you can play h2 without having ever played h1 (although it's recommended you do)

[cursive venture]

i just want to know if there's like continued stories of them in hades 2

[shy zephyr]

not really

sisyphus gets a few references but you don't need to have finished his quest

[balmy plume]

rip bouldy

[stuck vortex]

Hi guys uh where do i unlock familliars, like ive beaten hectate like 20 times but it hasn't appeared?

[tidal moss]

You need to confide in frinos 3 runs in a row

[vivid flare]

Pet the frog

[swift path]

pet the frog with treats

[stuck vortex]

oh

thank you

[stuck vortex]

how do iget treats?

[swift path]

you can craft them in the cauldron but you will need ingredients to make them and if you do make treats it takes some time once you activate to cook it

[stuck vortex]

ok ty

[vivid flare]

You need to unlock the familiars system first, as the incantation will give you 3 to start off

As a side note, those treats are what all the Stardust from the ||Chaos trials|| that you're doing are for

[final trellis]

Yo dude i suck at this game

👍👍👍

Its fun tho

[swift path]

you just gotta keep playing it get easier

[stuck vortex]

which familliar is usually the better one?

[swift path]

I wouldnt say there is a best since all have different abilities, I like using Toula mainly

but you can use Frinos, Gale, Hecuba, or Raki

[vivid flare]

Raki for offense, Gale for defense

[balmy plume]

Frinos for vibes

if you're not max Grasp yet (||30|| Grasp), then taking Frinos is probably a good idea until you're maxed

[polar laurel]

I feel like for no vow of pain gale < frinos usually

[proven gazelle]

No gale still outdoes frinos in effective hp

3 blocks a region + 6% evade is gonna beat out 40 hp like nothing

And the better you are the more impactful hits gale blocks

[polar laurel]

It's more than 40hp though. It's also more healing from fountains and a higher hp threshold in bosses. Plus a really easy ||hecate transform dodge||

[vagrant nymph]

As frustrating as it is to hear they all have their uses at different times. I'm 100 hours in and if I'm particularly squishy I'll take Frinos, if I'm magick-starved I'll take Hecuba, if I'm doing a weapon build that takes me into the fray I take Gale or Toula or Raki

If I'm going Circe, always Raki

[vivid flare]

If Frinos was an HP scalar and not flat HP, sure, but the fact that you get 95% of what he offers by just taking 2 Centaur Hearts is kinda bad

Or getting 95% of what he offers by taking Mel Axe

[balmy plume]

but have you considered the immaculate vibes of forg

[vivid flare]

I have, but I prefer the immaculate vibes of corw

[proud vector]

Hello! can't chat with || zagreus || much, so I beat || typhon || first, what should I do next?

[shy zephyr]

you have to beat both paths enough times

||9|| times underworld, ||5|| times surface

[vivid flare]

Spoiler mark that

[woven beacon]

duuude

this mourning fields mini boss is ....better than me

it seems to have SO much health and it replenishes SO much even if it manages to hit me just a little bit ,and it's so fast....

i went down from 254hp to 108 and it currently has most of its hp...

wtf am i doing something wrong

currently i'm doing my first axe run which isn't helping

[sage whale]

axe is super slow, I feel like the torches and staff are pretty forgiving.

[woven beacon]

i like cannot prevail against this mini boss

[vivid flare]

As much as I want to tell you something other than "just don't get hit," it literally is "avoid getting hit by the vampire's bites"

[woven beacon]

i run around it soooo much and barely get hit but then it gets me one time and it's like... i might as well not even be trying lol

but thank you lol... good to know that's all there is to it, even if i seem to be unable to accomplish it

[vivid flare]

Use your Cast to slow it, use your Special to cancel out of your Attack since you're playing axe, and actually use dash and not dash-strike

[woven beacon]

i'm using dash a lot... i'm not sure about this using special to cancel attack thing but i'll see if i can figure it out

ohhhh ok i'm dash striking whenever it does its wind attack thing

[vivid flare]

Yeah, avoid being in front of it when it's sucking you in, it will always follow up with a bite and heal off your hubris

[woven beacon]

😭 i even have the zeus boon where if i just keep running circles around it it gets struck by ligthning and that gets it down real slow but then somehow it fakes me out and hits me one time and i'm like..... aaaahhhhhh

[vivid flare]

Yeah, uh

Zeus sprint is what is known in the business as "next to worthless"

[woven beacon]

valid

it seems to be the best shot i have at winning this lol

part of me thinks i should just sacrifice this run to preserve my poor aging hands lol

[vivid flare]

Nah, just smash its head in with the tried-and-true axe combo of Attack -> Attack -> Special

Or alternating Attack and Special as you learn to weave them

Plus if you let the Special play out, it'll make it so you never do that glacially-slow slam

[woven beacon]

oh i'm already not doing the slam

i'm lucky if i get two axe hits off in a row, and even then i feel reckless and like i'm gonna get hit one of those times

thank you! i made it through with your advice about the special cancelling

i just ran away until it started sucking and then hit it with one attack and special and then ran away again

lol... not a very fun fight i'll say. but i did it. i only lost...175 HP lol

[vivid flare]

It's something you'll learn to abuse with time

Plus with enough burst, it just kinda explodes, despite the fact that you can't flinch it

[winter basin]

Yeah it’s usually dead in a matter of seconds with a decent build

I often kill it through its healing and just tank the damage

[woven beacon]

yeah my build is probably not the greatest either lol

but i do have 404 max hp and 2 death defiances let's see if i can finally make it through the infernal beast

[winter basin]

Just strafe around behind them and stand back a little bit so you don’t get hit by the shockwaves, since those can reach behind them

When he burrows find him ASAP so you can avoid the big attack that does a lot of damage

[woven beacon]

did it haha, quicker than the damn vampire

[gilded stream]

Who should i give ambrosia?

In hades 2

And what do i get from gifting it

[winter basin]

It’s really just for dialogue and completion. The characters at the crossroads have a lot more unique interactions based around giving them gifts and every character will eventually want ambrosia

As far as actual game mechanics, any characters who give boons or rewards will unlock a prophecy at two gifts of nectar, but beyond that it’s just for dialogue and completion

There’s achievements on PC at least for forging bonds with a number of characters, but the same as the first game it’s mostly just for dialogue and such

[gilded stream]

Is ambrosia the best way to raise relationship with characters?

[thorn sand]

characters will only want Ambrosia later down in their relationship line
nectar is the main thing used to raise relationship, but at a certain point, characters won't want it anymore
so as long as you have it unlocked you can check with the journal

[winter basin]

Characters will accept certain gifts at certain times

If you open their codex entry it’ll show what they’re willing to accept at that time

So if it shows any unlocked hearts and any one of them is a gift then you can give them that gift

Characters will require a certain number of each gift during your interactions so you don’t miss out on anything by picking one or the other

Gifts also can be used to progress time for things like crops and charon orders at the crossroads

If you want to speed those up

[tall kernel]

Is it worth saving my money for the ||fourth act shop and try to buy the nightmare for 1300, or nah? ||

[dense anchor]

not really imo, far easier to get the ||testaments||

[wintry rivet]

Unless you are so confident on your current build to beat the boss, then go ahead

[tight gale]

I got all of mine from the loyalty cards

[winter basin]

It’s something you get if you happen to get enough gold econ but I’d never actively hunt for it especially since it’s never guaranteed

It could also be a singular moon dust and then you’ll be disappointed

[balmy plume]

I think its 3 but yeah not great

[winter basin]

Worth a 5th as much as a nightmare yeah

Only reason I’d see fit for bothering with it is if you’re a maniac trying to speedrun 100%

[balmy plume]

Even when I feel like I have great economy I end up not being anywhere close to being able to buy the nightmare

[sick stream]

What’s the best keepsake that helps your survivability

[vivid flare]

Pin

If you're on Strength, you're looking more at Amulet, Knuckle Bones, or Onion

[swift path]

if damage is a problem, you can also use lion fang

[vivid flare]

The humble White Antler:

[swift path]

Antler is good but you only get 30 hp 😭

so kind of a risky keepsake to take

[sour cobalt]

Get Blood Spree and you become immortal

[swift path]

or armor from Heph

[balmy plume]

Blood spree is so goated. I need to take it more highly

[woven beacon]

seems like Perfect Catch isn't a thing anymore? or have i just gotten slower?

i'm cool with it being gone, seems like an accessibility thing maybe

[shy zephyr]

it's not a thing anymore

[woven beacon]

ty haha

[vivid flare]

It is entirely just RNG now

[shy zephyr]

they had another elaborate minigame for fishing in early access, people seemed to dislike it so it was outright removed

[woven beacon]

oh i feel like i remember that, although i could be remembering fishing mechanics for other games haha

[wheat wren]

I miss the elaborate mini-game... but it was kinda butts so I don't miss it THAT much

[woven beacon]

uh also, what do fish... do? i guess i'll probably find out in due time, but just in case i'm missing something thought i'd check haha

[shy zephyr]

sell for bones, nothing else

you need to have fished at least one of each type for a very late game incantation, so don't stop even if you don't need bones

[woven beacon]

do i.. need to unlock the ability to sell? i don't see it 😅

[rustic hinge]

i doubt it? its a menu in the broker

[woven beacon]

oh nvm i see it, it is an incantation

which i can't afford yet

but soon enough! ty all

[robust narwhal]

i really like the axe but it feels like it makes me unable to dodge 😩 well more than i normally do bc im already terrible at dodging anything

[vivid flare]

Use the Special to animation cancel and you'll never see the third Attack come out

[hearty stag]

whats the best cast for damage?

[vivid flare]

Zeus for single-target, Hestia for room clear

[tall kernel]

how does hephastus or ares compare? What happens when you add cast modifiers or air quality to things like demeters hestia or aphrodite

[vivid flare]

Hephaestus doesn't get any way to scale the damage outside of global boosts and Poms (unlike Zeus cast having Double Strike or Hestia having Pyro Technique), and Ares cast is a sword drop and as such desperately wants the sword drop Duos

Also, Air Quality doesn't work with Scorch anymore (not that it needs it since it now counts as Olympian damage)

Aphrodite is more about utility than damage, both with the Weak application and the pull

Demeter is solid utility as well, and can do decent AoE damage (just not as much as Hestia)

[tall kernel]

it doesn't? I thought i saw a damage spike after i got air quality going with it like two days ago on switch. You saying I'm mistaken?

[vivid flare]

Nah, got changed in one of the patches before release

Did that damage spike happen because you pulled Air Quality off All Together?

[tall kernel]

hmm... dunno. Maybe I was thinking aphrodite's cast.

[robust narwhal]

perhaps its bc the weapons r slightly more esoteric this time but i feel like i understand how to use them infinite less than the ones in hades 😭 like i got NO clue how this is meant to be viable

[rustic hinge]

which ones

[robust narwhal]

the only one that makes any sense to me is the twin blades

and ig the axe but its so slow im terrible at it

[rustic hinge]

usually the idea is if the weapon hits often, put flat damage, and for slow do %

[robust narwhal]

that's not actually useful?

[rustic hinge]

or a high base power do %

wdym not useful

[robust narwhal]

they tell you what the stats are

im talking about gameplay. like. using them.

[rustic hinge]

oh like the actual moveset

[robust narwhal]

im terrible at using all of them cept the scthes probably bc they're the most similar to the hades moveset

[rustic hinge]

staff likes dash strike special, axe is lots of dash strike

[robust narwhal]

hm

[rustic hinge]

torches is ospecial into spam attack or special

[rustic hinge]

wrong channel probably big spoilers

[balmy plume]

your right sorry

[rustic hinge]

that was hype tho

[balmy plume]

i must have accidentally clicked with my mouse while tabbing out

i clipped it and was gonna post a part of it on victory anyhow

[tall kernel]

What is close as it refers to Aphrodite’s attack boon? What is long ranged compared to close. Like is the staff both normal attack and special close or are those far away? What is close enough?

[swift path]

the closer you are to an enemy, the more damage you do, so I would say at best be mid range of enemies

but for bosses you want to be close to them so that you deal the most damage

[proven gazelle]

about the size of your cast

everything is determined on melinoe's distance to the target rather than the attack itself

[winter basin]

Yeah like an axe attack will almost never be long enough to reach anybody outside the range

Only thing would be like the very edge of the whirlwind on the hidden aspect

Or maybe the very end of the final attack of the main axe combo

So if you’ve already got curses covered the Aphrodite attack isn’t a terrible option if you get a good roll on it

[vivid flare]

No, you're either in range or you aren't for Aphro's Attack and Special. There's no falloff

[swift path]

I know that

im just saying its better to be near the enemy so that you deal alot of damage

[winter basin]

Well if you can catch them at the edge of the range that’s optimal

[marble fjord]

what do I do if I don’t wanna use my charged moves

Do I just go for stuff that primes my mana

[rustic hinge]

no its just easier to take those when you dont use mana

no need to prioritize them just for that fact (although most of em are very good)

[woven beacon]

man the skulls with the auto-return hammer upgrade feel broken haha

this is my first time using the skulls, i even forgot to test with skelly to find out what they do 😅 so i'm just spamming attack

[woven beacon]

question: in ||biome 3 of the surface (mount olympus?), sometimes there's a reward behind a door and a reward through a circle that makes you drop into the next fight--do those both progress you toward the end equally fast, or is one like a side quest kinda thing?||

[proven gazelle]

same progress!

[woven beacon]

ty 🙂