h2-for-new-players

[proven gazelle]

theres almost zero difference to the paths, they both will progress chambers however the fountain and npc for that region are tied to the doors more than the launch pads

so if you wanna maximize chances there you take doors

[woven beacon]

ohhhhh okay good to know! ty

[vivid flare]

If the boon helps, sure, but there's no reason to go out of your way for it

Plus even if you do, you want to have a little bit of MP to spend for the sake of activating Huntress

[fierce falcon]

Am I understanding Burning Desire correctly in that assuming I got perfect uptime on Weak, it does not matter at all how much Scorch I apply? Well, as long as I apply at least 100 Scorch total or whatever the tick rate is once I get Pyro Technique.

[swift path]

I think it doesnt matter how much scorch you apply

because burning desire inflicts infinite scorch

so its good to have boons like you said pyro technique and highly flammable

[fierce falcon]

Well, but there is the default tick rate. The text says that it doesn't decrease, but it should only tick for 100 per tick if the enemy actually has 100 or more scorch.

but okay, then I understood it correctly.

[winter basin]

Scorch applies like per-frame or something it’s not just a 100 tick. It’s constantly going. So you just need a singular point of damage and it will work

You can also use it with Pyro Technique to massively buff the damage per second

If you manage to get something like island getaway with glamour gain it can be pretty fun to just have infinite scorch on everybody

Eww smelly scammer begone

[woven beacon]

i love skelly

his silliness is even more needed in this game

[vivid flare]

<@&456908176877551658> Kill the bot

[swift path]

Skelly is funny

[woven beacon]

me forgetting and leaving two garden plots empty during my last run

[tall kernel]

It’s true, strength card feels better the death when you can use it well

[winter basin]

Strength also gives any healing a lot more mileage so between the damage reduction and the added healing you get as much or even more value from strength than DD

But DD gives you the possibility for a late game crutch win from Athena or Echo or purchasing more from wells

So if you manage to buy more DD then it does get you more than strength, just relies on if you’ve got the money and luck for it

Which money shouldn’t be any issue if you’re using time piece well

[stiff hawk]

does a DD let you survive an insta-kill, or will the damage carry over

if it does let you survive it, then I guess that's one of the advantages of DD

but I'm too used to running strength, don't feel like changing it at this point

[shy zephyr]

you can tank the instakill yeah

[pliant iron]

Breaking your armor does that too.

[winter basin]

Things that can avoid or tank an instakill include damage negation (lovers, snow queen, nitro boost), armor, death defiance, Artemis aspect parry, dodge invincibility frames, and I want to say you can dodge using messenger arcana

Also if for some reason you got enough damage negation and health or paid dues gold obviously you can tank it with your health bar lol

[balmy steeple]

i genuinely have no idea how to play this game someone please help me

[tall kernel]

Did you play hades 1 and get good at it or are you coming in fresh?

What happens to be the problem you’re having?

If it’s the guys that yell and charge at you , put down your cast ring to stop them and then time an attack when they aren’t screaming.

[winter basin]

The game does drop you in with minimal information if you haven’t played Hades 1. Schelemeus will tell you tips between runs but that’s mostly it. Generally the way the game works is you have normal abilities and omega abilities that cost magick. Attack and special change between different weapons then you always have a cast that you can place on the ground that stops enemies who walk over it, this can also be charged for an omega ability. Gods will give you “boons” that will either upgrade one of your 5 main abilities:
-attack
-special
-cast
-rush
-gain (magick regeneration)
Gods can also give you other boons that will upgrade various other aspects or their own boons

You can only have one boon in each of the main 5 slots but can have as many miscellaneous boons as you want

Every region of the game has 10 locations, which can include “encounters” where you get enemies. Then you get a boss encounter

[balmy steeple]

im very new to the game and my problem is i literally dont know what to do i havent done a thing except go in and do the dungeons and then die by like \he 2nd boss

[winter basin]

Well so I mean how many runs have you done, it takes a lot of runs for some people to even reach the final area

[balmy steeple]

i just got something called crescent pick and it seems theres different fighting styles in this game but like i cant even equip this thing\

[balmy steeple]

ive done 3 im familiar with the boons and some enemies i think

[winter basin]

The crescent pick is just for collecting resources

There’s resources in the world that are used for casting incantations and unlocking weapons at the crossroads

That’s why those tools you unlock at the very right tab of the silver pool are for

They’re not weapons. The 6 weapons are the staff, the sister blades, the torches, the axe, the skull, and the black coat

Those are the ones that appear in the circles around the silver pool

[balmy steeple]

which one should i try getting im assuming some of them aren't as good as others

[winter basin]

The staff is a very solid beginner weapon that’s actually really strong layer on with consistent main attack and special and solid omegas once you learn to use them

[balmy steeple]

also where is this silver pool

[winter basin]

A very safe bet early on is to utilize your omega cast a lot

[balmy steeple]

lets slow down a little whats omega

[winter basin]

Omega is holding the button to spend magick and use a stronger ability

You can do that for your attack, special, and cast

So you have a normal attack and special, and an omega attack and special

Different boons will specify what they empower and you can read the tooltips on the right to make sure

[balmy steeple]

ohh u mean when i hold left click

[winter basin]

If something says “attack” that just means base attack, but if it says “attacks” it means both attack and omega attack

If it specifically says “ attack” then it only empowers that

[balmy steeple]

oh yeah a huge issue i have is how do you regen health in this game bro

[winter basin]

Yeah holding your abilities is omega abilities

[winter basin]

Your gain is that fifth slot on your bar of boons on the left

The “gain” is how each different god lets you regenerate magick

Oh wait you said health

[balmy steeple]

yeah health

[winter basin]

Mb. You get a fountain at the end of each region

[balmy steeple]

oh so i haventr even finished a region

[winter basin]

You can also collect centaur hearts and food to increase or regenerate health

Centaur hearts increase your max health by 25 and heal you for 25

And food regenerates health either by a fixed amount or for a % of your max health

You can also find boons that can heal you

Also once you unlock arcana cards (buffs that make you stronger for the full run) you get ones that increase health or heal you when you leave a room

“The Wayward Son” arcana heals you for 3 health every time you leave a room

And “Persistence” increases your max health and magick

[balmy steeple]

is there anything you think i should do before my next night?

i upgraded a lot of those cards that cost ashes right now

[winter basin]

And equipped them right? Just making sure

[balmy steeple]

yes

[winter basin]

If you’ve already upgraded and equipped arcana all that’s left to do is talk to anybody that has a an exclamation point over their head

Schelemeus will give you tips to help you out

[balmy steeple]

i dont have img perms i wanna show u the cards thingy

[winter basin]

There’s no image perms in any chats here except #h2-victory-boasting

[balmy steeple]

i uploaded it there

ill unsend after u see so that like its not a nuisance

[winter basin]

That’s not what I meant lol but yeah

[balmy steeple]

my question is what do those numbers mean

[winter basin]

Those are “grasp”

You’re limited to a max grasp which determines how many you can bring

[balmy steeple]

i see

[winter basin]

Each arcana costs a certain amount. You unlock more grasp by getting “psyche” from helping out spirits (shades as they’re called) that you find out in the world

You can delete the picture

[balmy steeple]

its gone

wait are there more cards than these

[winter basin]

But yeah you’ll unlock more grasp to equip more arcana as you go

[balmy steeple]

because some of these look pretty useless

[winter basin]

When you unlock a card it reveals the ones next to it

There’s 25 cards

5x5 grid and you’re just on the top left

[balmy steeple]

i seee

[winter basin]

Later on you can also upgrade the cards but the ones you have access to early aren’t that strong yet

[tall kernel]

This game is meant to be hard/impossible to make much progress in for a new player until they slowly unlock things after dying many times.

[winter basin]

I’d highly suggest unlocking the one on the top row “eternity”

[balmy steeple]

i can see that im getting mopped

[winter basin]

It’s 2 to the right of “the wayward son”

Eternity slows time while you’re channeling omegas

It’s really good early on for making omegas safer to use @balmy steeple

[balmy steeple]

i forgot where the card place is

[winter basin]

On the path between the crossroads center and the training grounds

It’s the altar you walk over

[balmy steeple]

so i need to unlock the huntress?

[winter basin]

Yeah since it unlocks the one to the side of it

Which will be “eternity”

[balmy steeple]

i seee

[winter basin]

The huntress is a solid arcana. Lot of extra damage in the right situations

[balmy steeple]

okay ill do that now then thanks so much for the help

[winter basin]

No problem. The game has a lot of stuff and a decent amount of build complexity to learn early on

If you got any questions feel free to ping me

@balmy steeple

[balmy steeple]

will do thanks a bunch

[vivid flare]

I would recommend against it for several reasons

[winter basin]

It helped me a lot early game personally but I get it

If they don’t like it then they don’t like it

[balmy steeple]

if i finish a section do i get to start from that sectrion

or do i go from scratch

[balmy steeple]

why

[vivid flare]

It's something of a crutch, it won't work on the final boss without more meta-progression, and eats 3 Grasp that can be spent on cards that'll have more noticeable power spikes in your run

[opal mural]

Yeah I relied on it when I was only using Winner's Circle Circe for the story clears, felt the difference when I had to abandon it for better cards

Eventually I almost stopped using Omegas entirely lol (until today when I finally started using Morrigan seriously and turned Eternity back on thanks to Fates' Whim)

[winter basin]

Yeah it’s good on certain weapons that rely a lot on omegas

[winter basin]

Full runs

Total reset on death

[balmy steeple]

oh hell no

so i need to not die for 2 hours straight?

[winter basin]

2 hours? That’s how long your runs are taking?

I mean a typical run even for people taking all the time in the world is at most an hour. Once you know the mechanics and play at a decent pace you’re unlikely to go past 30-45 minutes

But like… welcome to roguelikes. That’s the genre you signed up for

That’s how every roguelike works is a reset death so you can go back and get meta progression to make the next run better until you finally succeed

[swift path]

probably dialogue stuff

[winter basin]

And then you keep doing it

That’s fair

But like yeah a full reset on dying is the point of the genre

If you played hardcore roguelikes then there’s not even any meta progression you literally just start from square one

Your “meta progression” is literally just the knowledge and skill you have as a player

[tall kernel]

Look at the victory boasting screens. Once you’re clearing, you are easily under a half hour game clock.

[balmy steeple]

isnt there 10 levels

i finished the first level and i was like 15 minutes in

[tall kernel]

There are 4 acts, 43 chambers?

[balmy steeple]

its 4?? i thought it was 10

i fought the second act boss and he mopped me idk how you even get beyond that

[tall kernel]

You’re slow at first and your power level and skill is low. You eventually level up all your cards and keepsakes and weapon aspects and you’re full clearing with additional modifiers to make it even harder than base game.

[balmy steeple]

i see

[tall kernel]

The sirens are actually pretty easy once you learn the pattern

[tall kernel]

Not sure where you’re getting 10, but a slight spoiler is there is a separate 4 acts on the other entry that is currently sealed for you.

[winter basin]

Yeah but game clock freezes several times

Usually your run is double whatever your run timer is @balmy steeple

[tall kernel]

True, but no way it’s 2 hours unless you’re taking breaks

[winter basin]

Game timer freezes in non-hostile encounters, special encounters, while in dialogue or choosing boons, and during transitions @balmy steeple

But yeah even a slow run is likely not even an hour

[winter basin]

10 locations per region

[tall kernel]

Not counting the shop and the boss right?

[winter basin]

Locations can include encounters (hostile areas) or normal stuff that doesn’t count as an encounter

[winter basin]

Well counting the boss and transition area there’s 12 per region

So you always get a shop on location 23 for example

And location 10

Since hecate and the transition area is 11 and 12

But that there’s 10 locations between entering a new region and the boss

Including the non-hostile one at the beginning

Fields does make that a bit more complicated though

[tall kernel]

I just finished my run that finishes the main story arc, and it feels like I still have over half the game to do in terms of aspects and trinkets and fear climbing. I probably have 20 plus full clears. @balmy steeple

[winter basin]

100% completion unless you procrastinate is in the 80-120 hour range

TRUE completion with like buying every single thing and maxing your rank is more like 150-200

[tall kernel]

I have over 500 hours in hades 1 getting to 20 heat with each weapon type.

Maybe I did it basically twice. Once with god mode once without.

[winter basin]

Yeah I didn’t like the progression system as much in H1

But this game improved on a lot of aspects for stuff like collectibles and decoration

As well as upgrading aspects

[tall kernel]

I liked the story around zag better honestly.

[winter basin]

That’s fair, I just prefer the overall game design a bit better here.

[tall kernel]

I’m still deciding. I think it’s a lot more nuanced in hades 2. I’m looking forward to unlocking the ||pom trinket || in my clean run file.

[winter basin]

Yeah that’s the meta keepsake. A fitting unlock for beating the game

[tall kernel]

I like that it’s both powerful and left up to the fates. That sounds fun.

[winter basin]

It has its tradeoffs since you can get potentially more powerful without it but it makes you just more generally powerful even on a mediocre build

[tall kernel]

My last clear was a 12 fear run with the embryo the whole way on my least favorite weapon. Felt good.

[winter basin]

Embryo can be REALLY good if you switch off of it with a good book since you keep it once you change keepsake

But that’s entirely luck

[tall kernel]

Oh so it doesn’t go away after 8 encounters?

[winter basin]

It can even give you something like Chant

[winter basin]

It gives you a new one every 8 encounters if still equipped

So if you unequip it you keep the chaos boon

So you should get switched to one right before the boss

[tall kernel]

Interesting, still I’m mostly underwhelmed by chaos in hades 2 vs hades 1

[winter basin]

Then changing lets you keep that one

[winter basin]

Getting a 100% gold buff early on is great

Or 90% on attacks or specials

[tall kernel]

Like chaos giving you a weak gain after you already have magic on lock is so underwhelming.

[winter basin]

But some of the boons are pretty useless yeah

Yeah but that’s the draw

Is he can be insanely good, or just mediocre

You never know and that’s the point

[tall kernel]

He was mostly good in hades 1

[winter basin]

It’s just that the balancing around some stuff leans into casual things like the magick regen over time

[tall kernel]

Extra cast was so fun in hades 1

[winter basin]

The magick regen boon from chaos and unseen arcana are basically useless in meta but are a fine addition for new players

[tall kernel]

Like trying to get a 6 cast hunting blades or crystal clarity was so fun

[winter basin]

The chaos boons here are all just flat buffs yeah

Nothing that really changes anything especially. But that means it’s more of a thing you can be willing to pass up

But it CAN be insanely good so I often take it anyways

[tall kernel]

I’m at the point if I like the next chamber I’ll skip chaos. Sometimes even after I already paid for his appearance lol.

[winter basin]

That’s fair

But that’s why I like him as a factor of the run

He’s not always there and might not always persuade you

[tall kernel]

I would take him if he had a blessing that would allow you to reroll hammer

[winter basin]

I don’t feel bad for passing him up and might be disappointed if I take him, but when I get something good I get something GOOD

[tall kernel]

I wish he acted like Hermes when facing the final boss, that it would pop his blessing early. I had to fight the final boss while still slowed the other day

Slow is one of the more benign curses honestly.

[winter basin]

During the Tartarus mid room or the walk up to the gate at the peak of Olympus

That it would activate at the boss but require you to do near the entire region with it active

[fierce falcon]

Just had a run with Possessed Array, triggering omegas which in turn caused Fine Line and Ocean Swell, but causing me to use magick. Based on an earlier discussion here, these should not trigger once I run out of magick.
But I swear they did trigger. Or at least, the Fine Line and Ocean Swell still triggered whenever I retrieved Skulls. I was long out of magick against the final boss but it kept happening.

[lunar canopy]

Just started Hades 2 today, after reaching the Hades Epilogue yesterday. After 5 or 6 runs, my first superficial impression is that 2 is much easier than 1. I'm wondering if there's any truth to that.

First Hades 1 was incredibly difficult at first to me. Had no end of trouble beating Meg the first time, and took me a few dozens of runs to start beating Tartarus reliably. Took me, iirc, over 100 attempts to beat Hades the first time, and over 200 attempts to reach the epilogue. So I found it difficult despite my enjoyment.

I n Hades 2 I'm now at 5 or 6 runs and I've beaten Hecate more often than not, and reached the third area already. I have four weapons unlocked, the call system going and the card thingies more than halfway unlocked My attacks also feel a lot stronger than in the first game. My first suspicion is that, given that the structure is different, reaching Hecate is not at all equivalent to reaching Megaera. Also, Melinoë's boon/upgrade system seems a lot more complex and involved than Zagreus' so maybe the challenge kicks in later to accommodate Melinoë's more versatile and powerful move set.

Finally I've considered that maybe my experience with the first one is allowing me to adapt to Hades 2 quicker. So in the interest of science, I played a new save for a bit with Zagreus. And while I did much better than on my first playthrough, I still found it tougher and more unforgiving than I'm finding Hades 2. Oh yeah, and not even considering or understanding the builds I'm running, yet.

Finally, finally, as a little as a Greek mythology nerd I'm enjoying the vibes and the newness of Hades 2. The first one was great in the mythology respect, but also a bit more predictable and by the numbers. Also I prefer Odysseus to Achilles, because the Odyssey was one of my favourite books as a kid, and Odysseus has always been my kind of hero.

[vivid flare]

Have you considered that you might just know what to expect and know the general flow of the game since you had a great deal of experience with the first game?

[fierce falcon]

I would agree that the first win specifically comes way, way faster in Hades 2. Though I've started Hades on Hell Mode which does not exist in Hades 2, so that's not a fair comparison.
However, I think a lot of knowledge from Hades still helps you a lot in Hades 2. You gotta relearn some muscle memory, especially when it comes to dashes. But it's much easier to understand how to scale which strategies if you have already played Hades.

[lunar canopy]

I kinda address that in my post?

[lunar canopy]

I'm not putting much thought into builds yet, though. I'm just mostly picking whatever I have not picked before. In the interest of quests. I did the same in Hades, and often that would just wreck the run I was in.

[winter basin]

It took 100 attempts to beat hades…

How…

[lunar canopy]

I suck? 😁

[vapid wasp]

don't feel bad, I'd personally respect the commitment! not everyone is an Epic Hardcore Gamer, it took me a long time to beat it too

[winter basin]

I mean that had to have been like 60+ hours of gameplay to clear a single run. Like I’m not criticizing it just feels like at least once during all of that you would had to have gotten good enough RNG to carry a win

[fierce falcon]

I remember being stuck on Elysium for a very long time when first I played Hades. And I would totally unlearn everything and do it all over again if I could.

[vapid wasp]

if you've played a lot of action games or anything similar to Hades before and you were good at them, you'd absolutely have an easier time than someone who usually only plays casual games, which is why I think it's more impressive when a "non-gamer" has the persistence to beat a game like this

[winter basin]

I just couldn’t imagine that H1 was THAT much harder for some people than H2, having played both

[lunar canopy]

Thing is I am a hardcore gamer? To take an obvious recent example, Silksong I found relatively accessible. Which is why I'm speculating if the difference is a matter of the games' design and that I just do better with the second game's design. Maybe?

[winter basin]

I just don’t remember H1 being that hard but I can imagine it being harder for some people and don’t fault you for that

[lunar canopy]

Also, I dunno yet if Hades 2 will stump me later on

[winter basin]

I mean how far have you gotten?

It took me like 15 runs to get my first win and that’s including some for having to go to the surface to get some resources

[lunar canopy]

The third area

[winter basin]

The power cap in H2 is way higher than H1, I will say

A good build can be REALLY good, while a good enough build in H1 you still had some difficulty

This game is still hard but the game backloads a lot of its harder challenges

Once you start fighting rivals bosses and such it gets way harder

[lunar canopy]

By the way 100 was actually a positive estimate. Here's something I wrote somewhere else a month ago :

"Started playing the first one a few weeks ago, at run 130 something, just reached Hades for the first time. Got killed pretty quickly by the second phase.

After skimming through a fair bit of this whole thread, I am convinced I suck at this."

[winter basin]

And you may struggle with Chronos and the other final boss for a while

I know you haven’t unlocked the run logs yet but how many runs do you think you have so far

[lunar canopy]

5 or 6 I think

[winter basin]

Ah right you said that

I mean that’s pretty normal

Have you reached the boss yet?

That one stumped me for a bit, won’t spoil what it is

[lunar canopy]

Beat the first boss on my second attempt. Same for the second boss. Didn't manage to reach the third boss on my first and only trip to the third area

[winter basin]

Well then you’re on the right track. As said before the strength cap in this game is pretty high

[lunar canopy]

Yeah, it was immediately my impression that the power levels for Melinoë are different

[winter basin]

But you may struggle on the third and final bosses unless you get a good build going or really skill gap them

It’s a lot more possible in this game to feel like you’re at Styx power levels over the full run

Based on your luck

This game also has another run you’ll unlock

And that one is definitely way harder at the start than the underworld

It’s intentionally harder and thus the difficulty requirements to 100% it are lower

This game has “fear” in place of “heat” and the fear requirements are 75% or the ones for underworld

[lunar canopy]

That's why I was thinking that maybe the first bosses difficulties just aren't an apples to apples comparison

[winter basin]

As said also the difficulty is very backloaded on the content difficulty

Rivals bosses in this game are way harder than extreme measures in H1

They massively change the mechanics of the bosses by comparison

[fierce falcon]

Quite a bit of Power in Hades is locked at the start. No Calls. Casts suck without corresponding mirror talents. Companion Keepsakes.
Hades 2 also has a few such things, but they feel less drastic.

[winter basin]

Yeah the arcanas are unlocked WAY earlier in H2

And are less fundamental

[lunar canopy]

Yeah, I felt that unlocking the mirror took me ages

[winter basin]

Still very strong but finishing the arcana’s doesn’t take as long and most of your best ones are unlocked early

Also bones are way more accessible

In my opinion

Since you can use bones to buy any of the main resources and you can get about 120 during any run as long as you go whatever weapon has dark thirst

[pliant iron]

H2 really doesn't want to see you winning a run too early because of ||Eris. I really disliked this. How would you like to not have any experience with enemy patterns AND take 150% damage from them just because you reached an area "too soon"?|| You still need dozens upon dozens of runs to clear all content so I really didn't see the point in this.

[pliant iron]

That just makes no sense to me. What I've seen from Silksong your character consistently deals diddly amounts of damage (or maybe, rather, enemies are just really tanky?) while you need to do all kinds of acrobatics just to find the right timing and angles to dodge everything and also deal your own damage. In the Hades games, meanwhile, if you just know when to press dash (particularly in the first game) you can avoid taking most hits. You also have a health bar that can extend into the hundreds, extra lives, all sorts of damage mitigation, tons and tons of easy damage with the correct boons... Point is, difficulty 0 in both Hadeses should get really easy with enough meta upgrades while Silksong looks like you'll never get out of that stage of struggling against everything because you're never given any overtly major upgrades to your basic numbers.

[lunar canopy]

While in theory I agree with you, in practice I finished Silksong twice, and while the first go I got stuck on quite a few bosses for a quite a bit, the second was almost all smooth sailing.

[rustic hinge]

its the best way to ensure skilled players can still enjoy the story with decent pacing

[wintry rivet]

It make fresh file run interesting too

[serene laurel]

||you can dodge eris between each region! She won’t show up if you’re below half HP. Actually makes for really fun routing for fresh file runs||

[quick fiber]

She only does this if you are above half health and before run 10

[pliant iron]

Doesn't make that part of the on-boarding stage any more fun. You either gain the debuff or are near-death anyway, not much of a difference. If you are accidentally dodging her as a new player you're probably soon dead anyway if you didn't even manage to get back to half health with a wayward son tick + fountain + another wayward son.

[stiff hawk]

as a big Silksong fan, Silksong is a 'git gud' game, once it clicks you'll be shredding enemies even with 0 upgrades, whereas Hades is more about upgrades and builds, the game is designed for you to grow stronger and eventually beat it with almost no effort, and if you're too good, it will instead sabotage your success (||Eris debuffs on the first 10 runs||), it's a big difference in game design

[lapis cloak]

Yeah, the whole roguelike genre works like that it's supposed to only get easier and easier as time goes on... until you decide to make it hard again

[tall kernel]

If you say Silksong is accessible but you're taking 100 for hades clear, it's a huge skill issue, something about the game isn't clicking for you. This isn't about the game design as much as it's about your ability to play it. Maybe watch some people play it on youtube, something you're doing is very wrong. I'm pretty sure I can get first clear hades from a scratch file in about 6 runs or less and epilogue in less than 50. Same with Hades 2.

Also, I'm much better at Hades 1 than I am at hades 2. So I'm pretty sure something just ain't clicking for you.

I say all this, not to discourage you, but hoping that it does eventually click. Hades 1 and Hades 2 are both wonderful games, I love them. It's the perfect game to wind down after a day for me. Hoping you like them also.

[tall kernel]

early Eris curses are fine... I think people that complain about Eris discount her huge handouts of bones and ashes and other stuff that also helps with early progression. And she goes away fairly quickly. I say if you get her, count is as both a big boon of stuff as well as a pat on the back that you were good enough to see her in the first place.

[tall kernel]

I'm convinced if you can get good enough to finish silksong and then do it again and experience "smooth sailing" that as a gamer you are good enough to also be good at hades, just need to figure out how to play it right.

[tall kernel]

This is all hades 1 help:
Look up meta builds, give gifts to the gods to get their keepsakes and then focus on a build that works.

Athena Dash is very helpful for survival, deflecting everything during your dash animation.
Zeus for fast hitting weapons for the chain lightning
Dionysus for stacking poison
Ares for doom
Aphrodite for weakness

Look up duos and start playing with them, many of them totally change your gameplay and powerlevel. Like Hunting Blades between artemis and ares is so powerful, will win runs on it's own.

Always pick the extra darkness weapon and choose darkness rooms or keys on earlier runs for leveling up the mirror and unlocking aspects.

[lunar canopy]

Thanks for all of that, but I ended up powering through everything, and I'm essentially done with the game, having reached the epilogue. With well over 200 runs.

No God mode too

I don't think my builds were the issue. Partly it might be that I'm too aggressive and try to dash too late, or that I'm stubborn and keep doing the same mistakes. Also it's not like I didn't have easily successful runs. Not with a lot of heat but still I managed to almost face tank Hades

[tall kernel]

Someone please guide me to understand how the arcana card night works and with which soecs does it work with?

[shy zephyr]

1. use any omega move
2. now do any omega move EXCEPT the one you just did, it has 15% chance to crit
   example: use an omega cast, then an omega attack, then ocast, then oattack etc. everything except that initial omega cast will have 15% crit chance

[tall kernel]

How soon do I need to cast the other move?

Sounds like axe of Charon and torch of moros would be great. But what other weapon wants to cycle omegas?

[tall kernel]

Sounds good. Yeah sounds like you’re making some sort of mistake over and over. It’s possible to be aggressive and hitless, I mean people speed clear.

[vivid flare]

Charon Axe doesn't work, you actually have to cast it

What would work, and works quite well, is Momus staff and the hidden Coat

Eos torch is another really good one with it

[vivid flare]

There's no time limit

[tall kernel]

thanks for explanation

[tall kernel]

Any tips on trial of blood? Aspect of Artemis with white antler

[winter basin]

Don’t get hit 👍

But to be serious make use of the parry and omega attack teleport

The parry is omnidirectional and can block a single hit of any damage

[tall kernel]

Woot, got it like 5th try

[sweet crown]

how do people use Possessed Array with Persephone what

the sheer amount of magick drain from constantly using attack then the special is ridiculous

[proven gazelle]

Treat the weapon like a worse mel skull

So dont touch the omegas, get born gain and a bunch of base mana

[sweet crown]

aw man that’s no fun

welp checks out

[sweet crown]

so if it’s just Mel skull but worse why do people suggest all these Heph builds if you’re not even gonna be using the omega special

[tall kernel]

Because of the inbuilt poms

[sweet crown]

is that it

man

fair enough ig

[winter basin]

Flood gain

Fetching array is great for it

#h2-victory-boasting message

Lets you just spam it during flood gain

[vivid flare]

Because the chance for poms means you can get a clang build up and running way quicker than on other weapons. The fact that it also fills the gas tank is just icing on the cake

[viral bough]

qq: how do I get a hidden aspect? for example, im trying to get the hidden aspect for sister blades and I have aspect of pan all the way to level 5. is this sufficient to trigger the phrase?

||i read something along the lines of you have to upgrade the aspect of the person that gives you the hidden one. i.e moros, circe, artemis, etc. all the way to lvl 5. not the eos, pan, etc.||

im currently at the last couple of runs for time and monstrosity

[rustic hinge]

nope, you should be fine as long as youve also unlocked artemis blades. the phrase could just take a bit to appear

[vivid flare]

First of all, spoiler mark that second paragraph. Second, no, it's either Nightmare-using Aspect that can be rank 5

[viral bough]

ty both. do relationships influence the likelihood of the phrase coming up?

[rustic hinge]

if the relatioship dialogue has a higher priority

[winter basin]

I’ve had situational dialogue override unlock dialogue a lot of times

Like for Aphrodite giving me an incantation that I’d completed the requirements for like 50 runs prior

[shy zephyr]

born gain, tranquil gain, giga buffed ionic gain, giga buffed lucid gain

[upper apex]

lucid gain x winner's circle my beloved

[serene prairie]

Is there anywhere I can find a full list of all the attacks that can't be blocked by the coat?

So far the only one that I know is unblockable for sure is Hecate's ring attack

[split current]

does the moon phase change any gameplay?

[proven gazelle]

it changes how many points in the path of stars you get when you pick one up

so just how quick youll be able to progress the given hex that night

[split current]

ok thx

[vivid flare]

Like, the phase of the moon you can see from the training grounds? No.

[split current]

yes

[vivid flare]

Yeah, that's just cosmetic outside of "the first full moon of your save file is when you unlock Hexes"

[open magnet]

Does someone know how to make the ||shade tablets|| work? I can't figure them out (i dont know if i should spoil it but i will)

[stiff hawk]

you need to find an interactable shade (those can be rare, it is entirely possible to not find any in a full run), then press interact and play the mini-game

[open magnet]

no i got that, i just dont get the minigame

i cant tell what its asking of me

[stiff hawk]

just hold left trigger when it shows the left arm, right trigger for the right arm, and both for both, you need to HOLD, not just press

[open magnet]

ok ill try that then

oh that worked!

huh it usually doesn't

[stiff hawk]

the way I do it is keep holding until the DING, then release triggers and wait for new indicators, rinse and repeat

the mini-game gets more complex in later regions

[open magnet]

thanks

wait it appears in later regions?

[stiff hawk]

it can appear in any region

later ones have more prompts and less time to react

[open magnet]

thanks for the help

[vivid flare]

(And also fill quicker)

[wintry rivet]

Eat them with frog

[woven beacon]

beat ||chronos|| last night wearing an arachne dress that still had over 100 armor at the end, didn't take a single point of damage to my HP all night haha

[tall kernel]

Torches? I bet it was torches.

[woven beacon]

it's always torches

i mean i always go for the grave thirst, but the flames are just ridiculously strong in my experience

3 out of 5 of my clears so far have been with the flames

is it just me, or does the boon list not explicitly show which boons are from which boon-givers?

do i need an eventual incantation for that or somthing?

[vivid flare]

There will be a boon list incantation, yes

Needs you to gift every Olympian up to Hera for it to appear

[winter basin]

Yeah offerings list is pretty essential to making build crafting easier especially once you have to keep track of stuff with Denial

Keeping track of potential sacrifices and if taking a boon of a certain god is worth it over just purging

Definitely worth unlocking ASAP

[woven beacon]

i did an incantation that allows me to see each boon-giver's offerings in the book of shadows, but it still doesn't seem to tell me who gave me a particular boon when i'm looking at it in the boon list

so maybe that's a different one

i've got the first 8 keepsakes in the middle row, is that all of the olympians? ohh wait i know who i haven't gifted to yet, someone i met recently...

[winter basin]

What do you mean by that?

I mean you should know who all has given you boons already. Though I do wish the boon list did put a little tab on the boons if you already have them

[woven beacon]

yeah i just don't have it all sorted in my head yet who gives which boons i guess

sometimes it's obvious, but sometimes less so imo

[winter basin]

You can just tell by the colors

[woven beacon]

i'm a lil colorblind so some of them can look similar to me

[winter basin]

Ah yeah that’s fair. Ares and Poseidon can look a little similar in that case I’d imagine

Since the blood can look kinda like the water

But the main thing to know is you are limited usually to 4 gods during a run, it’s rare to get 5

Usually once you select 4 gods you won’t see any other ones

But sometimes a random boon bag will give you a god you don’t have then the next room will offer another god you don’t have

So it ends up giving you 5

[woven beacon]

fair, yeah i think when i was asking that question earlier it was because i started a ||dark stone chaos run thing and i already had boons loaded out when i dropped in|| and i was like "wait whose boon is this again?"

[woven beacon]

if i have 5 and then i put on a 6th olympian's keepsake, any chance of them showing up, do you know?

[winter basin]

God keepsakes will guarantee gods

So it’s entirely possible to get 7 gods if you’re crazy enough

Why you’d ever want to do that idk

Unless you wanted to take a late-game gamble

Also Artemis, Athena, and Dionysus don’t count for that god cap

[woven beacon]

yeah probably just for the sake of doing it lol. i probably wouldn't unless i wanted to give myself my own challenges i guess

[woven beacon]

i'm guessing hermes doesn't either

[winter basin]

Yeah

Forgot about him

Just the main ones that can be upgraded by Poms and such

Since you can’t use Poms on any of the other gods outside the core ones

[woven beacon]

right on, ty for the insight

[winter basin]

No problem

Also if you haven’t noticed yet on the boon list you can mark stuff as “forget me not” and so when you go to select a boon it will show any required boons you still need to get it

Say if you select a duo boon it will show you which of the options you’re offered will let you get to that duo boon

Same for any other boons that require other boons to be unlocked before they can be offered to you

[woven beacon]

ohhhhhhh!

hell yeah i had not noticed that, thank you!

[winter basin]

So if a duo requires you to have one of the gods main 5 boons then it will mark those for you

[woven beacon]

i haven't quite gotten to the point where i'm hunting specific boons yet, but i'm sure it's coming

[winter basin]

Getting a familiarity with duos and legendaries will help a lot

Don’t rely on them but learning what builds you can make with a certain set of gods is a big part of the game

Like knowing that Ares, Apollo, and Hephaestus together can give you a really strong build with Ares’ falling blades

Or that Zeus, hestia, and Demeter can cause blits to scorch from thermal dynamics then you can freeze them for freezer burn

Hephaestus blast duos are also some of my favorites in the game

[vivid flare]

To get max benefit from Extended Family, though you can do that already by getting her Legendary and playing right

[winter basin]

Yeah that’s an option though in many cases I’d say going all in on number of gods isn’t really worth it over getting more boons from the gods you already have

But it’s an option

[woven beacon]

oohhhhh it's another umbral flames run here we gooooooooo

[stray socket]

Yes, its easier to synergize within a god's offerings than to roll 5+ gods for the sole purpose of that extra flat % damage

Also pay attention whenever you roll a god that exclusively has one element on their boons (Zeus, Poseidon, Hestia, Ares; technically two others special Olympian cases as well). You may want to steer gods in your run toward the second god that offer that element's infusion boon: (Aphro for Zeus, Demeter for Poseidon, Apollo for Hestia, Heph for Ares), then a third god with elements in that option (Hera is always an option here).

[woven beacon]

good call, i don't think i've made significant usage of infusion boons yet

[stray socket]

They can absolutely anchor a run, especially if you pull other relevant boons from that one-element god. Zeus infusion with a fast-striking weapon and Static Shock gets disgusting in a hurry

[woven beacon]

god mode damage resistance should come down when you get a victory

[woven beacon]

for the Judgment card, do the 0 cost cards count toward the 3 "Activated" cards to meet Judgment's condition?

if they're activated i mean, haha

nvm i have my own answer lol

[winter basin]

I won't say that infusions are all especially build defining but can definitely be good if you do get them

Air quality isn't too hard to get on any of the builds you'd actually want it for

Because the main build you'd even want it for already is with two gods that give air elements

[opal mural]

I feel like the only Infusion I have more than 2 clears with is Water Fitness lol

[winter basin]

I have apparently 20 clears with water fitness and 18 with air quality

My highest rate taken and highest clears is with travel deal lol

Second is nitro boost

[vivid flare]

They don't

[winter basin]

Yeah so naturally any time you have judgement you're likely to also have the queen

[woven beacon]

is there any difference in the siren battle based on what song they're performing?

[winter basin]

Nah just aesthetic

[compact sinew]

If they're not playing Rock And A Hard Place you will do worse because that song is so incredible it lights a fire inside you and turns you into a god gamer

[vivid flare]

No, the featured artist is random every night

[woven beacon]

idk if i know that one, but if they play I Am Gonna Claw i'll probably do worse cuz i'll be singing along lol

[compact sinew]

Oh oops you probably haven't heard that one yet lol

||It only plays in their Vow of Rivals bossfight||

[vivid flare]

No, they wouldn't have

And there's another song as well

[compact sinew]

Forgot I was in the new players channel

[opal mural]

It plays first in that then they can just play it randomly afterwards

[balmy plume]

If you're apollo hestia, it might be worth picking up enough air for aphro to offer whiles

And just make the giga dodge% build of doom.

[viral bough]

q regarding a specific incantion: ||what is the reason to reset in hades 2 using the returning to a real possibility incantation? is it purely for story reasons?|| i've done 1 surface run and 1 underworld run past credits. ||don't want to undo stuff yet that I haven't finished yet like getting all keepsakes||. i see it being said "the earlier the better" but that doesn't really explain anything

[opal mural]

Made for people who got the ending before it was changed in 1.1

[proven gazelle]

yeah if youre playing now(post 1.1) then the incantation will just reset story progress for funsies but for people pre 1.1 it was so we didnt get skimped out of the changed ending

[woven beacon]

if i am in the broker menu to sell stuff for kudos, and it doesn't say "needed resource" by it, it'll never be useful for anything other than selling am i understanding that right?

[wintry rivet]

Yes

[woven beacon]

ty

[stoic meadow]

Do the ||infusion boons|| appear only when you have the prerequisites? I cannot see the boon screen during the choice presented.

[wintry rivet]

They usually need you to have some amount of element before show up

[polar wraith]

you need between 2-4 of the relevant element scaling with how much the infusion itself requires.

apollo req is 3, need 2 for it to show up
hermes req is 8, need 4 of any for it to show up

[shy zephyr]

you can see the boon screen, it's I on keyboard

[stoic meadow]

During the selection screen? I've not been able to bring it up so far.

[shy zephyr]

have you done the incantation to unlock it?

[stoic meadow]

I have the elements and I believe I have seen at least one infusion boon so far. My concerns are from accessibility point, so if I know a boon won't show unless you fulfil the requirements that would make it easy for. If it doesn't, then I just have to roll with random builds.

[shy zephyr]

there's an incantation that unlocks the boon list

allowing you to see all boons and the prerequisites for them to show up

"insight into offerings" or something like that

[polar wraith]

you need to have all normal boongiving olympian keepsakes to acquire that incantation

[stoic meadow]

Alright. I'll trust that helps during runs and try to get it soonish.

[polar wraith]

knowing the prereqs for legendaries and duos is pretty huge

[stoic meadow]

Thank you

[winter basin]

I think it’s actually just up through Hera that you need so not including Ares but yeah

Gotta gift some gods to unlock it

[stoic meadow]

Thank you all, yes working on the gifting now. I noticed the boon list comes up as well, not sure why it wasn't before but I guess user error.

Also isn't the ||"Ghost Onion"|| keepsake at 3rd upgrade supposed to say ||"fully restore you health up to 100 health?"|| Currently shows as ||10 health||.

[dense anchor]

that means you have 10 health left for the onion to give you

it doesn't waste health when restoring you

[stoic meadow]

Of course it is a total of not per location. Makes sense now.

[lilac sundial]

started a new run beat scylla second try, I struggled soooo much on my first save file

[tall kernel]

second time is better

[stiff hawk]

this boss feels super annoying at first, so much stuff to dodge, but then you realize it's just the drummer and you can burst her down in seconds, and then the fight is a joke

I died to the sirens like 2-3 times in a row, but then never again

[lilac sundial]

Wait until you get to using rivals, 2 haste and then some. I'm struggling again. Haven't died but getting out of there with one DD left, not good.

[stiff hawk]

haven't tried any rivals yet, just got my first statue

[lilac sundial]

Once you get used to them rivals is basically free Fear

[polar wraith]

Rivals chronos is still fairly scary tbh. If my build isnt particularly strong i definitely i still need to lock in for phase 3

||Rivals typhon ||is easy though since you can get sooo many boons ||topside||

[shy zephyr]

new player channel btw so spoiler mark

[balmy plume]

Just embrace turning on rivals 4

It is really that shrimple

[tall kernel]

Any help with ||rivals Chronos and typhon? I tried both for the first time tonight, went in super strong and confident, died not really knowing all that happened. ||

[proven gazelle]

i can help with chronos since ive ran high fear uw a ton

basically you have to respect what hes doing, very your turn his turn kinda fight and the start of them is always the same so you can play around it

lemme find my damagless 62 of it actually

|| https://youtu.be/82r-sPuTcNo?si=K4Vlo5wFiYMGk8s6 ||

just cuz its rivals ill spoiler it

p2 is the most evil visual clutter youll ever see and p3 sometimes he can just decide to hit you so just be ready for that kinda stuff

and theres times in p3 where the play is just run tf away

[shy cairn]

I can not unequip the moon card thing? is it supposed to be that way?

[dense anchor]

if you read the Awakening tip, it says that if you activate a surrounding card, it itself will activate

[shy cairn]

I don’t have any surrounding cards activated. I can’t show you because I’m not able to attach images.
Do diagonal cards count?

[dense anchor]

yes

[vivid flare]

Yes. Now unequip Unseen

[winter basin]

All 0 cost arcanas are activated automatically and can only be deactivated by not meeting the conditions

[worn pilot]

What keepsakes are good?

[vivid flare]

When you're starting out and don't yet have the ability to swap keepsakes between regions, the best Keepsake you can get is the Engaved Pin from ||Moros||

If you played the first game, it's basically just Stubborn Defiance with a couple extra rules

[proven gazelle]

Tldr god keepsake r1, r2 can be another if you wanna fish harder or can be whatever, r3 is super flexible, and r4 is pin/antler

When you cant swap off quite yet id just take hera/zeus and call it a day

[vivid flare]

Nah, Pin

Pin always gud

[proven gazelle]

Sure but guaranteed zeus is also always good

[stiff hawk]

huh, why? never used it

and it deactivates Strength I think

[opal mural]

Considered taking Pin to Scylla to help end my drought vs her, ended up choosing Knuckle Bones instead (still went Pin for Fields and Tartarus though)

[stiff hawk]

drought?

btw I just fought the rivals version of Scylla, the new getup and song are kinda sick, but the boss is still easy, sadly

[opal mural]

I hadn't beaten her in a while

[opal mural]

Rivals Scylla is hell for most people wow

[stiff hawk]

are you playing high fear or something?

[stiff hawk]

idk, I thought rivals Polyphemus was actually much more annoying, with all those poison trails

[opal mural]

Yeah I fear Rivals Scylla so I only fight her on 45+ fear and even then sometimes I avoid Rivals entirely at that level

[stiff hawk]

well, I'm playing low fear, so it's all easy lol, I only have 1 statue so far

gonna get all the other things out of the way first before I start attempting the other two statues

[opal mural]

Even so the Charybdis spins and projectiles and Scylla dashes gave me a hard time back when I was getting the statues

[stiff hawk]

this was with Momus, so you just set up an omega attack and then get back to dodging, it kills 2 tentacles in one go

but you still need to rush the drummer first, and that can be tricky, I tanked some damage there

[opal mural]

Oh yeah that's smart

Sometimes I forget Omegas exist on certain weapons lol

[stoic meadow]

Are there any simple rules I can follow in picking up rooms with boons? The problem is I have some memory issues so I generally just pick by intuition as it is not possible for me to know which boons belong to each NPC or even which NPCs I have already picked during a run. I tend to prioritize weather it is health/mana or a power/boon based on my own needs already but if I need to pick between two gods boons, do I just continue randomising or are there easy ways to tell which would be a better choice?

[proven gazelle]

its h1 stubborn defiance on a keepsake so its crazy

and at high fear no one is running strength unless theyre trolling or crazy

[opal mural]

Or if they're using Nergal apparently

[proven gazelle]

having a baseline 60hp per room that also protects your dds and is 10 seconds of pure uninterrupted dps on a boss makes it one of the best r4 takes

[proven gazelle]

eh nergal is weird

[proven gazelle]

its either this or antler so :P most other r4 takes(tooth, bones, droplet) are either just worse than those 2 or super super niche

[rustic hinge]

once i zoned out and noticed i took moon beam instead of antler halfway through the zone

[stiff hawk]

just memorize boons, at least strikes/flourishes, percentage based ones are better for slow hitting attacks/specials, flat damage ones for spammy ones, also never pick mana doors, you will get enough eventually

[stiff hawk]

huh why not, when I take off strength (had to do it for the toula prophecy) it feels like I'm naked and every stray hit hits like an 18 wheeler lmao, you're better off just taking moon water tbh

[stoic meadow]

Yeah I avoid mana, I've not fealt like that was needed! Will try to focus on some more damaged based ones. I can't say I've had an issue with the boons or runs, but just wondered if there was anything else that could help. Seems like a big jump to me from the basic skill floor to memorizing everything. Thanks a mundo 😄

[stiff hawk]

what weapon are you playing? I can give you some build tips

[proven gazelle]

because when everything does like 30 minimum and you cant heal why in gods name would you take strength unless youre cracked

the 20% global isnt worth having almost zero wiggle room

its taken on 62s for flexing or 67 practice, and on 65 its taken so you dont get it from judgment later

[stiff hawk]

are you playing with all vows on? then I guess that makes sense

[opal mural]

Moon Water is turned off with Scars 3

[proven gazelle]

yeah strength starts being dogass the second pain and scars go on

[spare meteor]

pratically made it useless

[stiff hawk]

I don't think you ever need to take every single vow? even for the third statue

[proven gazelle]

yeah but we're talking about why something is usable and when it stops being good, 3rd statue is 32 you can do whatever tf you want and win it, high fear the game changes

[opal mural]

Well yeah but at some point past 45 fear Scars 3 becomes one of the easier vows left to take

[proven gazelle]

scars3 is the 60->62 take lol

[stoic meadow]

Oh I am still picking up whichever is highlighted for the additional resources, and only have 5/6 weapons unlocked. I've only ever reached ||phase 2 of chronos|| so still working through gifting and picking upgrades during runs for prophecies.

[proven gazelle]

grit, hoards, pain is most of the 50 -> 60 jump

[stiff hawk]

I mean, you could just not play past 32 lol, it's 100% optional

[opal mural]

I just realized I'm an edge case cause I avoid Rivals like the plague lol

[proven gazelle]

even at lower fear pin/antler are infinitely stronger than most if not all r4 takes

[stiff hawk]

try torches with zeus special and poseidon attack, it's very strong and easy to play

[proven gazelle]

if you dont want strength to turn off then take antler not like youll die from anything at pain0 scars0 anyway

[stoic meadow]

Will give it a try, ty 🙂

[proven gazelle]

and grit0 so everything dies in half a second

[stiff hawk]

a lot of people stick with the staff early on, but it's kinda hard to build unless you really know what you're doing, whereas with the torches you can mostly just slap whatever and spam, e.g. if you take demeter special, you just charge your special and the whole room is instantly frozen, it's very easy to play

[proven gazelle]

staff is one of the easiest weapons to build anything works

like literally anything

[opal mural]

Same can be said for Mel Staff, Zeus attack and any % on Special, Circe staff, Zeus or Hestia on cast

[stiff hawk]

staff needs meme builds like mirrored thrasher plus one of the OP gains, or high rarity heph blast, things like that, assuming you don't have any aspects

[proven gazelle]

??

you have no idea how to play the weapon then

its omegas is bait, dash attack -> special solves like 99% of the game keeps you mobile and is super high damage, all you need is a % on special and whatever on attack(preferably zeus)

[stiff hawk]

I have a fair amount of clears with the staff, I still stand by my claim that torches are more newcomer friendly

[stoic meadow]

thanks, I found out for rooms all weapons can be are really good but def depends on the boons. The short range weapon is one of my favorites so far, esp if you get the upgrades on the special . The axe is one i struggle the most due to the charge times so I tend to avoid teh charged attacks

[proven gazelle]

saying it needs meme builds or mirrored or heph stuff with a gain is just incorrect though

wicked thrasher, dual moonshot, shimmering moonshot are all insane hammers that will scale literally whatever you do to the moon

[stiff hawk]

yeah you can build towards the special too, but just slapping random boons on it won't be as strong as the torches

that was my point

[stoic meadow]

yes WIld was responding to a specific request here. Ty 🙂

[proven gazelle]

80% of weapons you can just autopilot take zeus and hera and everything will die so :P

[stiff hawk]

have you unlocked the aspects yet? the daggers are pretty strong once upgraded due to the backstab mechanic

it's double damage

[stoic meadow]

Yes, only just. And the backstab is great, What i did not realize is it also applies to the special, unless that is due to a boon I am using on this run.

[stiff hawk]

it applies to all sources of damage, provided you're hitting them in the back, try to take Apollo's Back Burner, it further boosts backstab damage

[stoic meadow]

oh great! I don't know why I assumed it was just the primary attack!

[stiff hawk]

when you throw a knife (the special on the daggers) it hits them in the back on its way back and you should see a 'backstab' popup

[stoic meadow]

That makes sense, I was wondering why it procs so much! Sounds broken

[stiff hawk]

the daggers are great with flat damage sources like poseidon's wave strike + slippery slope

[devout radish]

And when you grab a hammer called Trick Knives, all those 3 extra knives will backstab too

[stoic meadow]

I literally just grabbed that for the first time! Need to remember to dash and attack 😄

[proven gazelle]

tk when its the best hammer in the game and invalidates everything 🗣️ 🔥

[stiff hawk]

as for Chronos phase 2, just remember his 2 insta-kills, and make sure to stay away from the hourglasses when they die, because they make a time bubble that will trap you and you won't be able to dodge the insta-kills

[devout radish]

Such a wonderful hammer 😄

[stoic meadow]

thanks, need to be more patient on that phase I think, but only seen it 2ice so far. I'll get there.

[stiff hawk]

his insta-kills are: 1) run to the small circle, phase 2 starts with this, super obvious, 2) he floats in the center and the entire arena is dark except for a thin ring around the center, stand there

[stoic meadow]

Beat P2 with a couple of deaths only 😄

[stiff hawk]

great job! and while it might sound daunting, consider playing without revives, the Strength arcana gives you a flat 40% damage reduction, which is huge

[stoic meadow]

will try, thank you!

I will look to upgrade that arcana as well in that case.

[stiff hawk]

yeah, the Death and Strength arcana are basically two mutually exclusive playstyles, Strength boosts your damage by 20% and gives 40% damage reduction, so the healing is much stronger, and your health lasts a lot longer, it's better IMO

but the revives will tank insta-kills, so there's that

there's a surface boss with insta-kills, though his aren't too hard to dodge

[proven gazelle]

which one??

[stiff hawk]

||Prometheus, each flame is 100 hp, so you will likely die if you tank more than 1||

[proven gazelle]

so its not an insta

like dont say its an insta 😭 its just wrong

[stiff hawk]

did you just "um, actually" me??

[stoic meadow]

I don't mind trying different playstiles, i find I would often stick to what is comfortable and used to and experimentation can be good. Its not like deaths are wasted too, you get resources and phrophecies 🙂

[proven gazelle]

its one thing when its me being semantic its another when youre just wrong lmao

[stiff hawk]

it's 5 attacks each hitting for 100, yes you can technically survive 1, 2 or even 3 provided you have a lot of HP or Strength

[proven gazelle]

"ahh yes the one shot that needs to hit you several times to kill you"

[stiff hawk]

sorry man, but first the staff thing, now this, are you looking for an argument? having a slow day?

[proven gazelle]

ur the one just saying incorrect things lmao

[stiff hawk]

personally, I don't go online looking for a fight, so this is just weird to me

[dense root]

To me it doesn't look like plum is looking for a fight more that they're correcting you

[stiff hawk]

100x5 is practically an insta-kill, they're just arguing semantics, which is the worst kind of argument

[dense root]

If you stand in all 5 sure, but that's not really the case

Like if ||chronos instakill did 200 every second but you could easily escape would it really he considered an insta kill?||

[dense root]

And neither would it be instant

[stiff hawk]

technically speaking, Chronos' insta-kills aren't insta-kills either, it's just a flat 999, Strength even softens it lol

and you can block it with Artemis or w/e

[dense root]

Yep

But you never really get above 999 hp so it's just considered that

[stiff hawk]

if you wanted to go full "um, actually", then this game doesn't really have insta-kills, just high damage attacks

[dense root]

Whereas almost every run has 100< HP by prom

[stiff hawk]

Strength + Knuckle Bone will cut it in half and you can stack 500 hp with some luck, so it's possible to survive that

[proven gazelle]

yeah but its one thing to optimize tf out of damage res and mechanics to invalidate a move that functionally ohkos 99.9% of the time vs saying "yeah if you stand still and get hit 5 times youll die"

[dense root]

Sure

[stoic meadow]

However Wild is respondign to a very specific request. And the request wasn't "what is the best" but considering I have this accessibility requirement what would be an easy solution for me specifically. So then someone saying "that is wrong, this is better" doesn't help since I myself am not able to fulfil said requirements to achieve the "better" version.

[proven gazelle]

i wasnt correcting the fact that they recommended flames since they are really simple but rather the statement that staff is niche and needs meme mana bs builds or a cracked player 😭 which is just a gross misunderstanding of the weapon

[stiff hawk]

some people really enjoy micro-correcting others, I'm new to this discord too, it's not very welcoming, it seems

[rustic hinge]

bro

this aint micro

[dense root]

I think it's just when you give out misinformation.

[stoic meadow]

that is why I had to say something, as I find your responses helpful, and I have been in that situation where you provide advise but this is causing some discourse which can be offputing to providing further help. It is way too common but don't want you to feel like your comments are not helpful, to me they are.

[dense root]

I'm not disagreeing with the torches, more the instakill part

[stoic meadow]

lets not forget this is a new comers channel, a lot of the things may also go over my head, so the details atm won't matter as much for me as they would for more experienced players.

[stiff hawk]

the ||Prometheus|| attack will hit you at least twice if you don't dodge it correctly, 200 hp will most likely kill you, but hey let's spend 30 min arguing this back and forth, we don't have anything better to do?

[dense root]

Alright. I don't want an argument anyway, I have to go to work now

[dense root]

Do you really want to argue? I can

[stoic meadow]

no worries, I was not trying to get in teh argument, but don't want the person that gave me advise to feel unwelcomed to do so next time 😉

[dense root]

👍

[vivid flare]

Because it's a reusable DD with some extra rules

And if you get ||Stalwart Stand from Athena||, you can use it on Strength

[velvet tide]

Chuck is (nearly) always right trust them

[dense root]

I'm definitely right about sharp shadow

[rough mortar]

isnt sharp shadow smth in hollow knight lol

[stiff hawk]

sharp shadow is a charm in Hollow Knight that makes you deal damage when you i-frame dash through an enemy

it's great against certain bosses like NKG

[vivid flare]

Also increases its distance

[stiff hawk]

yeah, which can be annoying as it messes with your muscle memory, I would consider it a downside tbh

[dense root]

Yeah

I'm an... Avid hater

[rustic hinge]

great for wasting 2 notches

[vivid flare]

Doesn't the damage also not scale with anything?

[dense root]

its one nail hit

so it scales with nail upgrades

[vivid flare]

Okay, so it would at least scale with stuff like the Strength charm?

[dense root]

nope

[vivid flare]

Cringe

[dense root]

it does with dashmaster tho for 1.5x nail dmg

[vivid flare]

Yes, but isn't Dashmaster also bad?

[dense root]

i mean

for a casual player sure but there are strats with it

nothing ik tho

[proven gazelle]

Its funny with path of pain speedruns

Sharp shadow and dashmaster are funny asf there

[tall kernel]

checking I'm still in the hades server

[balmy plume]

Nope

[stoic meadow]

Is there a point in continuing a run with the fear chosen? I've only done one as I am just trying to figure it out.

[dense root]

fear? you get nightmare to upgrade aspects, plus a personal challenge

[stoic meadow]

so going through all areas/bosses at each level despite the requirements being a set boss?

[vivid flare]

You still get the drops from the other biomes and bosses

[wise locust]

Don't do an undo night, it literally rolls back the save file

[stoic meadow]

oh thanks!

Thankfully I did continue but I am wondering if there is a benefit other than that normal resources.

[dense root]

oh, you mean that. theres no reward, but again the personal challenge part comes in, for some the game is boring at 0 fear or you just might want to push yourself
but yeah as plasma dragon said dont undo the night since that completely resets it

[vivid flare]

There isn't, it's just "why throw the run"

[stoic meadow]

yeah I figured the +1 that i picked (20% more enemies) won't be much of a difference/

[dense root]

most vows by themselves arent really a problem

[vivid flare]

There's still plenty of stuff that needs materials from the various biomes for either weapon unlocks, or decorations, or Incantations if you're only just starting to dip your toes into the Fear system

[vivid flare]

I recommend not doing that one until much later, because it's the one that makes every other enemy-buffing Vow exponentially worse

[stoic meadow]

I think the game already acknowledged the challenge, so hopefully when/if i die it would be okay. Might not throw it away, but I just need to know how it works. I went it with the idea that this will be first area only so I picked a weapon for funzies 😄

[lilac mica]

how do i find out which characters i still need to gift a nectar to?

unlike hades 1 there's no indication

my keepsake chest looks like this

oops no image perms

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1427765237318160549/1478269416239140927/image.png?ex=69a7c92d&is=69a677ad&hm=788af908af7725f55bc4cabb21af7d5f2039239e9a0cda064de593f456bb8dd9&animated=true

[vivid flare]

You'll get an incantation that shows you your relationships with everyone for the sake of boons and other stuff, but there's an even easier way to tell: You don't get most characters' Book of Shadows entry until you gift them for the first time

Also, for the Mourning Fields NPC, you need to ||gift her after interacting with her||

[lilac mica]

uhm what's the mourning fields npc

[lilac mica]

what kind of boons should i be getting with the staff

i wanna beat the game with it for my first run

cus in h1 i'd use the fists>zeus keepsake>his attack like clockwork

made it super ez

currently my fav is poseidon's attack and cast

love em!

[stiff hawk]

depends on your hammers, you could go for dual moonshot and then get a percentage based flourish, or get mirrored thrasher and some flat damage strike boon + a good gain like Hera's or Hestia's
you could also try for Volcanic Flourish from Hephaestus + seismic servo from Poseidon, if you get lucky with both and then keep pomming it you'll end up with 500+ damage every 1-3 sec which is an easy win

Echo (the NPC in the fields) has a boon called "pom pom pom" which will double the level of your highest level boon, so e.g. if you have lvl 5 volcanic by then she will make it 10, which should cut the cooldown down to 1.5 sec

[lilac mica]

can you get the 500+ dmg thingie at the start?

ive done maybe like 10 runs

do i need to do like 67 runs to get that?

[lilac mica]

gotcha

i dont think ive met echo yet?

[stiff hawk]

it's a regular boon from Hephaestus, he has strike, flourish and rush versions, though rush is only 200 dmg

[lilac mica]

alrighty

[stiff hawk]

you can force it by equipping his keepsake in region 1, then switch to Poseidon's keepsake in region 2 to hopefully get seismic servo

seismic servo cuts all cooldowns by 35% I believe

it's a Heph/Poseidon duo boon

[vivid flare]

The NPC in the NPC room for that region. Like how you found the one for Oceanus and gifted him

[lilac mica]

gotcha

[stiff hawk]

there should be a door with yellow hands and a speech bubble in each region, there's an NPC inside

[lilac mica]

well ive only beaten scylla once so yee

[stiff hawk]

e.g. you have Arachne the spider girl in the first area, then Narcissus in Oceanus, and so on

[lilac mica]

mhm i gotcha

[twin hatch]

The third one can only be gifted to after you talk to them.

[visual fractal]

Is it possible to beat hades 2 on the first run?

[wintry rivet]

Yes

[visual fractal]

If so, how though?

[wintry rivet]

Be good, avoid eris

[stiff hawk]

watch a first run clear on YouTube, the main thing is you need to take a lot of damage on the first 3 bosses INTENTIONALLY, so that you end up below half health AFTER the fountains
this way, Eris won't show up and debuff you

if Eris catches you, it's practically unwinnable, which is a bit lame, I hate this mechanic

[visual fractal]

Wdym by that?

Catches me?

Unwinnable?

[stiff hawk]

on your first 10 runs, if you're doing too well and finish a boss fight will high health, Eris will spawn in the first room of the next region and give you a double damage TAKEN debuff, which increases by 5% more with each encounter I believe

[visual fractal]

Is there an achievement related to Eris?

[stiff hawk]

no

[visual fractal]

Oh

Anything else before I start to 100% on hades 2?

[stiff hawk]

nothing is missable, just play the game

the only tip I wish I knew from the start is, make sure to buy a nectar at the store after every run, he only sells 1 at a time and you need tons

[visual fractal]

Okie

Unless I could one shot every boss, that’ll be a piece of cake. But anyway, wish me luck

[undone abyss]

do share how it's going (whenever you feel like)

[visual fractal]

Btw, I finished Hades at 100% on steam time for Hades 2

[nova sapphire]

Yeah I love my hades 100% trophy 🙂

[snow dune]

[spare laurel]

do i need to finish hades history to play hades II?

[rustic hinge]

not really, if you know the characters thatll be enough

[spare laurel]

thanks

[winter basin]

All you need to know of Hades 1 is that everybody gets along now and the underworld has support of Olympus again after Hades stopped being a grumpy grouchy pants

[thorn sand]

I nearly 100% Hades 2 before playing Hades 1 lmao
Hades 1 has been a lotta fun tho 👍

[robust narwhal]

Tbh how has that been? I'm curious. Hades II builds so much on Hades I that i would initally fear it'd feel a lil underwhelming. but then again they did a very good job of making the playstyle of the weapons feel so totally different from Hades i that i miss playing with the fists </3 zagreus plays with such a mad frantic energy lmao

[stiff hawk]

I initially dropped Hades 1 after getting to final boss phase 2 in 9 runs 6 years ago, felt it was too tedious and repetitive, now trying to get back into it, and you deal so little damage compared to 2, even after 1200 darkness, it doesn't feel anywhere as fun

the enemy patterns and such aren't even hard, but once you get to Elysium every enemy takes forever to die

it's like hacking away at a rock, just mashing buttons

[golden falcon]

Generally speaking, are H2's tooltips more accurate than H1's often wildly misleading tooltips? Are builds less centralized compared to H1 with its ME, movespeed shenanigans, etc?

[stiff hawk]

not an expert, but I feel like in 2 you can just slap whatever random boons and be fine most of the time, unless you're doing something really stupid (e.g. high magic boons with no/bad magic gain)
ofc, optimized builds can deal very silly damage, but it's harder to screw yourself

[golden falcon]

Thanks!

[stiff hawk]

just remember the golden rule of picking % based boons for slow hitting attacks/specials, and flat damage boons for fast attacks/specials

e.g. the axe hits hard but slow, so you don't want Poseidon on it, but Apollo and Aphrodite will be amazing

on the other hand, the daggers deal very little damage relatively but hit extremely fast, so poseidon's wave strike + slippery slope will make them chew through everything in seconds

[opal mural]

I would say there's a lot more variety here but at the same time Zeus Hera and maybe Hestia dominate most "best builds"

There are some known tooltip errors like with Hearty Appetite and Seismic Servo iIrc

[stiff hawk]

where is the error with Hearty Appetite? it says it gives +10% damage per every 100 points of health

[wise locust]

It's just weapon damage only

And the other "error" that's kinda nitpicky is that it's not actually gated

it's not "You get +10% damage if your max hp is between 100 and 199, +20% if it's between 200 and 299"

it's "You get 0.1% bonus damage for every max hitpoint you have"

[stiff hawk]

I picked up Hearty Appetite on my last run and it annoyed me that the tool tip didn't update from 10% to the actual number, I had 400+ hp

Hermes' dodge/move speed boon shows the actual number, same goes for Hera's Extended Family etc

[wise locust]

But only after you take them, oddly

but yeah, I see your point

[stiff hawk]

what counts as weapon damage anyway?

if I'm attacking with flutter strike, is that part of damage calculation weapon damage or boon damage

[wise locust]

That's is completely weapon damage

[stiff hawk]

ah, then it's a good boon

[wise locust]

+% bonuses are additive though

so if you're getting +100% on flutter strike and +40% on hearty appetite, it's a total of +140%, not 2 x 1.4

[stiff hawk]

if all these bonuses were multiplicative you'd just one shot everything like in Expedition 33 lmao, millions of damage per hit

[wise locust]

quite

Weapon damage is synonymous with "strikes" in the game notation

basically attacks and specials themselves

[stiff hawk]

omegas are not weapon damage?

[wise locust]

but not any effect that might be stacked on top of those like blitz and splashes

[wise locust]

Omega attacks and Specials are weapon damage, yes

[stiff hawk]

so it just doesn't boost things like gust, scorch etc?

[wise locust]

Yeah, if you're seeing an extra damage number in addition to the white number the weapon did, that's not weapon damage as well

it's probably olympian damage

There's a few ifs and buts, but that's mostly how it works OH HI ARES, NICE TO SEE YOU MIXING IT

[stiff hawk]

I normally don't look at damage numbers, but during that phase where the surface final boss is stunned I watched my damage numbers and the crits were like 4200, I had uncommon grace, extended family, hearty appetite etc, this is with thanatos, love this weapon

[wise locust]

you get double damage there too

as a final damage multiplier

[stiff hawk]

oh yeah Ares, when you hit something with his strike/flourish you get +50 power for that hit only

[wise locust]

yeah, that bonus power bit is olympian damage, kinda

but sorta in a hacky way

it's also weapon damage

[stiff hawk]

I like to put this on the axe special, it's kinda like a lesser heph blast but more practical

[wise locust]

because of reasons I can explain, but it's a bit confusing

[opal mural]

Oh I guess they fixed it, I haven't seen that boon in a while but apparently it used to say per 50 life

[thorn sand]

I've had a lot of fun with Hades 1
And it's neat going through and seeing how things came to be in Hades 2

[visual fractal]

Turns out, literally cleared my first three runs with dat debuff with no issues, now I’m going on the fourth

[stiff hawk]

are you cheating? even streamers like Haelian can't do a first night clear consistently

[proven gazelle]

fresh files arent that crazy

you can dodge the eris buff and even then frenzy0 means everything is a snail

[stiff hawk]

you start with only 30 hp
have to be below half hp after the fountain
damage output is terrible, need to rely on DOT like scorch
basically can't afford to take any hits on Chronos at all due to low hp and no lovers arcana

[polar wraith]

Yes but if you get good enough at the patterns. Taking no hits isnt that hard

[stiff hawk]

the bubble phase is a bit of a gamble, I like the safety of lovers there

though I guess you could take Snow Queen like Haelian did on his winning attempt

[dense root]

i feel like youd generally have snow queen or armour for defense

[stiff hawk]

you need to almost kys on cerb so that you're below half health after the tartarus fountain (to prevent Eris from spawning)
can't really get armor, unless it's a lucky Heph boon or there's armor at the final shop

[rustic hinge]

its really not that luck based

mininet had a 30 streak or something close i believe

[proven gazelle]

you leave erebus with around 80 and if you just take hearts its easy to be at gramps with 200+, damage output is fine getting poseidon dash and beach ball solves every issue there and knowing how to play staff helps a lot

and yeah just dont get hit by chronos lol hes very reactable at frenzy0

[proven gazelle]

you can also just choose to not drop that low, i didnt

[wise locust]

Heph, zeus, hera and ares won't appear on freah files btw

Hermes too iirc

[proven gazelle]

Yeah ur god pool is apollo guaranteed then demeter/pos/aphro/hestia are the options??

And hestia/aphro wont appear until you get a demeter or posiedon

So getting beach ball or like freezer burn is stupid consistent

[stoic meadow]

Stalward stand ||(Gain +1 Death Defiance Death Defiance that replenishes in each Location, but you Prime Magick 150.)|| has reduced my mana to 0, but it says it should prime 150. What is causing this? Is it because I have less than 150 maybe?

[dense root]

well if you had under 150 mana it would go to 0 yeah

or 150 on the dot

[stoic meadow]

yeah i did not consider that possibility. 😄
ty

No I still have that primed mana, odd because I had a boss fight where i could not use any mana attacks, so I assumed i was without any mana (not even the primed portion).

[rustic hinge]

theres the normal bar and the purple bar, are you using mana from the purple bar while the left says 0?

[stoic meadow]

yeah it probably is me being confused again. I swear every time I tried to use omega attacks I was getting the red marker above my head but most likely had used it up.

[rustic hinge]

yea the left number is all you have access to

[stoic meadow]

yeah I have plenty. 🤷‍♀️ 🤣

Oh I see, it flashes because if the zero to the left of the primed, but still triggers!

Not only that but it seems to be infinate mana

[vivid flare]

Assuming you have something regenerating it

[golden falcon]

Apologies in advance for what might be an annoying question. Do we know whether H2 is mostly done receiving patches?

[opal mural]

Very likely done

[golden falcon]

Thank you!

[visual fractal]

How long will ares will spawn? RNG?

[wintry rivet]

When you see surface last boss

[winter basin]

If ever then we might get a final patch when the game is ported to Xbox and Playstation

But otherwise this should be the final state of the game. We would have gotten an announcement otherwise since the norm for SGG is very few if any post-launch patches

[woven beacon]

Is there any reason I may have missed that would have caused Demeter boons to stop showing up?

[proven gazelle]

Just unlucky or youre early enough in the game where scripted boons show up

[robust loom]

what arcana should i focus on upgrading first? (i play mostly staff but 2-3 good overall arcanas would be great to know)

[vivid flare]

Persistence, Death, Centaur, Lovers, Artificer

The rerolls, too

[stiff hawk]

never used the re-rolls or artificer myself, they're far from necessary

and I would also recommend Strength over Death

also, Huntress and Origination are massive damage boosts and should be acquired ASAP

[vivid flare]

Death gets more from its upgrades than Strength does

And the question was specifically about what upgrades they should prioritize

[stiff hawk]

diagree, Strength cuts down the damage taken by a lot, and thus makes healing a lot more powerful as your hit points are now worth more
but with Death once you pop a revive, that's it, maybe you can buy a refill, maybe you can't, it feels bad when it pops

[vivid flare]

Strength's upgrade is only 5% more mit

Death's upgrade is another DD

[stiff hawk]

what is your point? I suggest not using Death at all

[vivid flare]

@stiff hawk

[stiff hawk]

these arcana cannot be used together

[opal mural]

One of the best things about not running rerolls is getting to run Artificer

[stiff hawk]

as for re-rolls, I recommend Excellence instead, this way you're gonna get much better boons, so not much point in re-rolling

[vivid flare]

???????????

[rustic hinge]

you don't reroll for rarity you reroll for the right boon

[opal mural]

Excellence is objectively terrible in most cases

[vivid flare]

Even with the post-credits Keepsakes, you still don't bother with Excellence most of the time

[stiff hawk]

most of your boons being rare/epic is terrible? this is one of the strongest cards

[vivid flare]

Excellence doesn't boost Epic odds

Only Rare

[stiff hawk]

rare is still good, that's like a few free levels

[opal mural]

Excellence is 5 grasp for a chance at Rare, Divinity is 0 grasp for a chance at Epic

[rustic hinge]

it's 1 level

[vivid flare]

1-2

[opal mural]

And boon rarity is not even that important especially if you're not running rerolls which means you're probably running JPom

[stiff hawk]

at 30 grasp if you're running jpom, what else can you take?

[rustic hinge]

boatman

[vivid flare]

Still Boatman since that's not a reroll

[stiff hawk]

I basically take all the essentials from the top left part, then excellence, strength, and a few 0 grasp ones

[stiff hawk]

why bother with this when you have chrolex

[vivid flare]

Because you can't take that region 1

[rustic hinge]

hard to get a boon from first 2 shops yea

[stiff hawk]

you don't need much money in region 1??

[vivid flare]

Boatman is, bare mimimum, 1 guaranteed shop boon

[rustic hinge]

540 region 1 is not that achievable without boatman

[stiff hawk]

you're always guaranteed to have at least 150 coin for the boon at the pre-boss shop

do you really need the pom as well?

[vivid flare]

The nefarious Vow of Debt raising the shop prices to 270

[stiff hawk]

ah, well I don't play high fear

[vivid flare]

Debt's still considered one of the "easy" Fear options

Because, by virtue of the Boatman Arcana, it's something you can effectively ignore

[stiff hawk]

eh idk, the combat related ones like more enemies, enemies from next region, enemies have more health/perks etc are pretty fun
we'll see when I get around to the 32F run, that will require a lot of vows

[rustic hinge]

fun maybe but those are the hardest

[vivid flare]

Outside of the one turning off your Arcana, yeah

[wise locust]

Stop buying poms. They're so bad for that ckst

[tall kernel]

Bah, rivals eris sometimes goes me trouble on some aspects and builds. She’s nasty

[opal mural]

Yeah if I'm on Medea and primed out of magick it's gonna be a bad time unless I have Lightning Lance or Glowing Coal

[digital jungle]

wait are you not supposed to run both? If I run rerolls, should I be using smth else instead?

[opal mural]

Probably worded it poorly, what I meant is with the freed up grasp from rerolls I get to run Artificer

Since with rerolls, Enchantress and Lovers take precedence as 3 grasp cards

[digital jungle]

Also, any tips for beating ||Prometheus|| w/ vow of rivals (idk what to put in spoilers)? I've won once(!) but struggle immensely with keeping track of the weird prediction thing when jumps away while fighting the other guy. Should I deal damage to both of them equally or focus one of them? Should I also just let the rival to just beat up on me so I can ensure that I dodge the prediction flame things idk what theyre called?

[balmy plume]

Part of me wishes artificer was 4 so it was easier to use with queen

[vivid flare]

||Focus Prometheus first, Heracles only gets really spicy once he's below half||

Also, Knuckle Bones is a very good Keepsake for the fight because not only does it do 15% to each of them, you can also Hitch them to make it do even more

[balmy plume]

The hardest thing for me is ||the second Simon says with heracles in sicko mode||

It makes it so i usually have to guess on at least one

[vivid flare]

Yeah, but then that means you'd have to do Eternity and Lovers for your 3-costs on Fate's Whim

[balmy plume]

Sorry my lines are a little fuzzy. Been a week since I've played cause I've been working on a character for a campaign ||I've been pre nerfed thrice so far so its taking a while||

I dont hate the text on eternity. Seems nice to have, just hars to make room for. Does it play worse because of some undisclosed clunkyness?

[opal mural]

Nah it's just seen as kind of a waste, but I do run it a lot now that I actually use magick-heavy aspects

[lilac sundial]

A lot of people find it helps to repeat it output like "top, top, middle, top, bottom" or whatever the pattern is

[upper apex]

is top bottom top bottom top a possible pattern

[opal mural]

I know getting 3-1-3 or 1-3-1 is a possible thing to happen in the middle of the second one

Not sure if it can happen as the only three in the first one

[proven gazelle]

its mostly just that in terms of like actual time it takes to cast nothing changes, so its something you can very easily get used to not having

[visual fractal]

Unless u one shot every foe until your 10th run, she probably won’t spawn (I believe)

For me to eris, she won’t be a problem for me

[stiff hawk]

probably the easiest rivals boss for me, no partners to watch out for, just dodge the bombs then hug her

what is that thing on the shore though, it's a massive carcass of some mythical beast

[tall kernel]

Does he know?

[tall kernel]

The bombs on the field are a problem. How do you “dodge” them? Do you just avoid them or do you set them off?

I died using ax because I was trying to set things off at a distance with omega special and it was too slow I died to other things.

[opal mural]

You have to destroy them especially in the phase transitions

[proven gazelle]

you break them with your attacks yeah, axe might struggle a bit but a half decently spaced attack or cast should clear it fine

[lilac sundial]

Hug her, she'd like that

[stiff hawk]

hail strife

[exotic osprey]

Pick one and kill them before the other, during the ||prediction|| attack if ||Herakles|| is still alive I put most of my focus on the memory game while keeping the big man in my peripheral and staying away from him, as for the memory game itself like what others are saying I see it and say it (I say top mid bottom, some say 1,2,3, whatever works)

It doesn’t matter who dies first tbh imo, but the important thing is making sure they don’t both pop their last phases at the same time, kinda like Theseus and Asterius

[oblique verge]

If you have the time, I would also try to avoid triggering ||herakles|| 's phase 2 before the 2nd memory game. that phase introduces a series of much more annoying attacks

[robust narwhal]

wait what is the percentage thing next to my magic bar?

i was gonan post a screenshot but no images 😔

OHHH ITS MORTALITY i figured it out. aspect of thanatos

[swift path]

yea its different depending on what aspects you have

its like for every weapon except the melinoe aspects for each weapon

[robust narwhal]

ahh

ah i see i see so like for the blades aspect that gives you parry it indicates when its charged?

[swift path]

well aspect of artemis doesnt show the cooldown, it just lets you know when you can do another parry

its more on weapons that can build ranks such as aspect of shiva for example

[desert robin]

hi everyone im new

[wise locust]

hi new, i'm dad

[winter basin]

Hi dad. Where have you been all these years?

[wise locust]

Playing some game about punching your grandfather in the kneecaps

[winter basin]

Well at least peepaw was there for me

[swift path]

He lied

He was grabbing milk

[tall kernel]

Does running with the hades card count as clearing with the other cards it awakens for prophecy purposes?

[vivid flare]

It does

[tender bison]

What's the best nocturnal arm?

[swift path]

depends on what u like

I like most of the weapons

[tender bison]

heavy hitter with large area of damage

[rustic hinge]

might like charon

[vivid flare]

Axe

[tender bison]

alright thanks

[desert robin]

is there anything i can do about the surface draining hp

[winter basin]

Have you checked the cauldron yet?

You're there to get resources for that reason

[stiff hawk]

talk to NPC's, are you skipping the story

[desert robin]

mb guys i just didnt unlock it yet
I have the option now
Thalamus is tartarus guardian drop or something?

[stiff hawk]

talk to Chaos about Thalamus

[desert robin]

ima jump into the chaos portal if it pops up

[desert robin]

😭of course chronos has two phases what did i expect

upgrades getting reallll slow

[lilac mica]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1378043473575284809/1480201845862568088/Discord_Kc3MfyOodP.png?ex=69aed0e4&is=69ad7f64&hm=57ceefe3b270fec8d849d8201a4fe090deafe52a71f35a6bdf43f5afff73590e&

have i gifted to arachne?

[stiff hawk]

yes, bottom left corner, the sash

[lilac mica]

aaa i keep dying to cerberussss

[stiff hawk]

his stomps and fireballs have very large AoE, stay away

just keep circling and hitting him in the back

[lilac mica]

what's aoe

[dense anchor]

area of effect

[lilac mica]

i got so lucky with this, i randomly do 400 dmg thanks to heph, my cast is poseidon + zeus and super strong, my attack is also very strong cus of a couple random boons + hammer

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1378098886215733301/1480221376232165426/image.png?ex=69aee315&is=69ad9195&hm=af045d9a92c25f618d705ae476713efb12cd1c6835bb9c7dc898f14255d6813c&

[lilac mica]

NOOO i made it to chronos and died in the 2nd phase D:

[stiff hawk]

if I may, that's not a very good build, your Hephaestus blast is on a long cooldown and you have nothing else in the meantime

[lilac mica]

wdym? its only 6 secs?

[stiff hawk]

6 sec is pretty long, you can get it down to 1.5 sec with higher rarity and more levels

[lilac mica]

how do i make em rarer

[lilac mica]

i see!

[stiff hawk]

hmm, if you really want a Heph blast build, start with Heph's keepsake to guarantee him in region 1, then switch to Poseidon's keepsake in region 2, hopefully you get seismic servo (cuts all cooldowns by 35%), then in region 3 go to Echo and get Pom Pom Pom which will double your highest level boon's level
there's a fair amount of luck involved though

[lilac mica]

hm, so rn i've been doing poseidon's keepsake>the guardian keepsake to defeat scylla easily>death defiance keepsake for the doggy>dora's keepsake for health

[stiff hawk]

also I recommend flourish rather than strike, it's 500 damage and the 1.5 sec cooldown is perfect for the special, then you can put something else on your attack

[lilac mica]

i think i'll switch it up now

[lilac mica]

gotcha!

and keep in mind im using the uhhh default weapon

not gonna start using the other weapons until i defeat chronos at least once

[stiff hawk]

yes, I can see you're using the staff

though the torches are also pretty easy to play, feel free to try them out if you get bored of the staff

if you want other staff builds, an easy one is to get mirrored thrasher from a hammer (and other thrashers if they show up), then cardio gain for magic regen on hit, then you just spam attack, poseidon's wave strike + slippery slope would be a good boon combo for this

Zeus strike + static shock would also be very strong

[proven gazelle]

you can also just get zeus on atk then any big % on special and go all in on dual moonshot stuff

staff is a super flexible weapon basically any god works with the right knowledge and hammers

[stiff hawk]

yeah basically get flat damage boons on attack (strike), and % based ones on the special (flourish)

[astral gorge]

First time in tartaria, whats the chamber behind a door with roman numeral III? I have to pick this or a hammer. Choosing carefully cause I'm so powerful this run I might finish the Underworld.

[vivid flare]

The numbered rooms are the ones you need to go through to get to the final boss, and you can take side rooms that give rewards but won't progress you further

[astral gorge]

Oh. Thanks. Hmm, I want the hammer then 🙂

Delaying the boss with the optional rooms was always a good way to get stronger in Hades 1, I guess its the same principle.

[vivid flare]

Side rooms will also increase the amount of enemies spawned in all subsequent rooms

So there is some trade-off to be made in pushing your luck

[astral gorge]

Gah, I lost during phase 2 of the boss fight, but got close enough 🙂

[drifting cloak]

quick question

What's the plot out of the sequel?
are we trying to escape the underworld again?

[lilac sundial]

trying to rescue family from Chronos and going down into the underworld to do that

[drifting cloak]

so we're "Going Under" by devo

thanks

[vivid flare]

Play it and find out :3

[drifting cloak]

I will do after 100% the first game

[astral gorge]

Worth knowing you can also go up to help Olympus eventually in this one, not much of a spoiler since you see the locked path at the start.

So that add more diversity than the first game.

I like a lot so far. It IS very remniscent of Hades 1 in many ways, but new in others.

[winter basin]

It does break up the repetition of the game to have an alternate path that plays considerably different

Surface is generally harder but has some mechanics that make build crafting significantly easier, such as having a literal buffet of major rewards in Ephyra

The game accounts for surface being harder by making the requirements for 100% completion easier

[limpid nebula]

just bought h2!!! its downloading, wish me luck!

[lilac sundial]

gl hf

[winter basin]

Get ready to witness peak

[swift path]

good luck and enjoy peak!

[tall kernel]

You play hades 1 before?

[gaunt nexus]

hey! my account just got hacked! this is my old one, please ban it!

<@&456908176877551658>

[solar fractal]

ban hornet lover?

[solar fractal]

could you DM me some proof it was your account, if you have it?

[gaunt nexus]

for sure!

[desert robin]

today is the day i beat chronos y’all
A grand third day after download

hopefully i dont just get stuck the whole day

[lilac mica]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1378043473575284809/1480504366610907276/image.png?ex=69afeaa3&is=69ae9923&hm=1836b8d8b036753f6e5506f82488b7f8ad5cd54d098ce6457a3cb56e3556c84b&animated=true

[lilac mica]

so did i!!!!

[stoic meadow]

Just curious how does knuckle bones work. My assumption is that for Chronos it would only apply ||in phase 1 of the fight||, since ||the phase change is essentially like a new encounter - new arena, full HP etc, where for Typhon, it is most likely transitioning on HP% . While we do not see the HP bar, I doubt it refills on transition||

[vivid flare]

You assume correctly

[desert robin]

🥲i failed, got him to very low hp at second phase
But died to a moments lapse in concentation

[lilac mica]

lowk just use the default staff and get zeus cast + heph and hestia stuff