Hades

[odd hawk]

oh damn that's on the prophecy list? I didn't think it was important...

huh, the every keepsake achievement was 10.5%

I assume I really did get screwed on the Darkness RNG

[odd hawk]

for tonight's surface run I'm gonna do 6 fear, with xinth selene aspect (since graven thirst, the all weapons prophecy, and her social link is apparently locked on that), the apollo keepsake since he's one of the gods with prophecies to finish, and as always trying to give even more nectar to all the region NPCs

Toula stole my kill

[indigo bone]

I think Hades 1 had 300 000 words, and I believe 2 has even more

[indigo bone]

Prophecies are essentially the quest ❗ marker

And if you're feeling completionist, the steam achievements for the game are great 'goals' for it. Not TOO long-lasting

[odd hawk]

tbh I think that's a you problem

this is not a myth I know in great detail, but... that feels like a weird take

Toula gets the killing blow
Mel: "Go lick your wounds."

...was that a cat joke? perhaps accidentally???

[odd hawk]

good job Toula

man this is not the storyline I thought this guy was gonna have, oof

I knew that was coming but it's still funny

I don't know what I was expecting from Hypnos but it wasn't this

a series of clerical errors, suuuuuure

[indigo bone]

[odd hawk]

hm, are any of the Vows associated with prophecies besides Rivals and Fangs? none of the others seem like they have an obvious "do all the things" list associated with them

huh... I don't think I've heard this story

[odd hawk]

makes sense

[indigo bone]

If you want to clear all prophecies, I believe there's one where some of the 'elite' mobs (not the minibosses necessarily, but some of the ones you activate with higher level of vows like +10. sometimes it's avoid being hit, other times it's one big mob) have a modifier and there's a prophecy to kill one of each modifier

[odd hawk]

wow, ok, I suck at the infernal contract when I have a non-staff weapon

[odd hawk]

actually no I'm just sucking today in general

this is why I focus on one game at a time

I like them

THERE IS A RECIPE FOR NECTAR

now that I kinda don't even need it any more? I'm getting nectar slightly faster than I can spend it at this point

I could shift my arcana back away from d20s to stuff that's more helpful for survival, but I think I still want those for boon prophecy optimization after the social links are in a good place

well, yes, I usually do like the song

also: if I had a nickel every time I fought the sirens with a Slothful chaos boon, I'd have two nickels

awwww

wait a second...

is that Sisyphus' boulder, covered in moss, behind Cerberus?

ok, that was adequate

managed to advance several social links and prophecies

speaking of which

...ok now I feel like this might be partially my fault for setting the base BGM to their discography

oh damn the nectar recipe gives six for one stardust? maybe I will use this after all; those numbers will let me spam it at everyone I think

[odd hawk]

I... think that might just be me and Zag

even Nyx was saying this whole mess made her realize she should reconnect with her children

[odd hawk]

I feel like the skull would be pretty good at the infernal contract actually

ooooh no, that was my worst of three visits here, and I still forced you to ||use your DD|| before dying, don't pretend you're winning this

yeaaaaaaaah take that

||literal anime finisher: he disappeared, I stood in the dead center of the arena, so I omega attacked myself, then waited to dodge right when he was lunging into the center to get omega'd||

I've been having bad RNG as far as talking to Circe postgame

[odd hawk]

well that was the jankiest prometheus fight in a while

since I replaced my magic regen arcanum with the legendary boon % arcanum, fights where omega X is by far the best attack can really drag

that last fight felt so much faster than normal I think I might've lucked into a decent skull build by mistake???

oooh, I'm farther into this quest than I thought I was

[vivid umbra]

Yes, yes it is.

[odd hawk]

nice

"cease your wretchedness" , I might have to use that line next time we moon someone

that's what the soot is for!?

[vivid umbra]

[odd hawk]

I appreciate that Hypnos is canonically aware of the supportive shade

[odd hawk]

that's what I said!

ok when you put it like that it sounds like we're idiots

[vivid umbra]

[odd hawk]

not that these screens show prophecy/social link progress, but still, productive

there we go, this sidequest is now properly unlocked

so next session is gonna be (at least) one of each run with knuckle bones in the relevant regions

but tonight... I'm gonna do one chaos trial, partly to see if I can get Moros to reappear, partly so I can brew more moon dust (I'm getting dangerously close to maxing every arcana)

[odd hawk]

all right, that seems like a pretty great stopping point

[indigo bone]

I await your reaction to them

[odd hawk]

ok, I'm gonna do underworld before surface partly because it's the norm and easier but also because I'm half-expecting ||Arachne's subplot to trigger a "talk to Athena" step||

but first, chaos trials so I can brew some more moon dust and cat treats

r/brandnewsentence

[odd hawk]

🎣

I don't even remember completing these?

checks the keepsake
oh that is a wild requirement

can I combine this with Odysseus' quest...

I like that answer

guess that'll be our next underworld task; obv can't do that this run

need to do that over now

or wait did I actually trigger it

nope I triggered something else entirely

still made a weird amount of progress for a confusingly aborted half-run

let's try that again

[odd hawk]

oh hey, this was true, but I needed two more interactions to trigger it

so screwing up the precise way I did turned out for the best

the Fates weave in strange ways or something

mmmm that didn't count either

if the conditions are what I think they are then luck is a significant factor too

THERE WE GO

for the record, it turns out you can trigger this from a chaos trial; there just so happens to be one with the thing in the place

[vivid umbra]

I just love that ||they're from new York. Because of course||

[odd hawk]

and that's the last legendary boon

might as well write down all the missing duos now...

oh frick I should've brought knuckle bones now that I'm allowed to survive this fight

[odd hawk]

figured I might as well finish a run for once

also got to update Echo and Hades and found a few more duos on the todo list

[odd hawk]

ah, that chaos trial was actually tricky because it had Vow of Rivals on

ok finally time for a serious knuckle bones surface run

hey, it's not my fault you have a social link

that's what you wanted to ask him?

yeah the sister blades are way too short range for me, that was an awful cyclops fight

she has a point...

[odd hawk]

there's something oddly poetic about getting a "Trust Deepened" even in the room just before Typhon

definitely my worst weapon, but who cares, prophecy's done now

take that past me

wait, did I

holy shit that was nearly sub 30

I didn't even look at the time

"oops" they say

for possibly the first time ever, she's read the situation correctly

[odd hawk]

nyooom

anyway stopping here, this is where my "main quests" are at

[vivid umbra]

[odd hawk]

I think for today I'm going to stop finishing runs, since I no longer need anything in the final regions, these remaining quests all involve grinding region NPCs which is easier/faster if I'm not trying to seriously finish, and most of all, yesterday I finished the "prevail with all six weapons" prophecy which is more than enough tryharding for me for one playthrough

[indigo bone]

Have you unlocked the aspect of ||BONK||?

[odd hawk]

I only got one hidden aspect and it's for the black coat

I don't think I'll be grinding every social link, especially the ones I've already advanced up to a weirdly vague lock

[indigo bone]

I think that's mainly for epilogues. The unlocks are conversation based, but you have to raise the level of at least one of the aspects (base is fine too) of every weapon to the max to unlock the last one

[odd hawk]

oh

well that explains a lot

when I kept not seeing nightmare in any of the incantations I eventually decided to burn it on maxing out Aspect of Selene just to see if that was her lock condition

actually I think I've already maxed every Mel aspect

I stopped bringing Raki for silver mining

yay, rolled Circe, that's a good omen to start with

sounds about right

[indigo bone]

If you want the list of who to talk to to unlock the hidden aspects, here ya go

[odd hawk]

I'm sure Chaos doesn't mean that as a diss but to mortal ears

[vivid umbra]

[odd hawk]

hm, according to reddit analysis of quest requirements, the arachne quest is just refusing to advance despite me doing exactly what's required

[odd hawk]

sweet, got the ||polyamory|| conversation

and that's the last chaos trial I have access to

that's enough for today

I'll probably keep dabbling in underworld runs until I get those last two "main" quests but yeah not feeling any bigger goals like a high fear run or all prophecies

[indigo bone]

(also, as a side note, the hidden staff aspect is a very interesting one. I'd be curious to see your reaction to its gameplay )

[odd hawk]

might make some decent progress on this tonight

[odd hawk]

only 3 duo boons left

[indigo bone]

I quite liked that storyline!

Which ones?

[odd hawk]

uh... if my notes are right:

Hera - Aphrodite
Apollo - Aphrodite
Poseidon - Ares

I think I got 2-3 just this playthrough though? it's not that hard to optimize with the keepsakes and arcana all maxed out

[indigo bone]

As a side note: hidden torch aspect + poisedon/apollo boon (and just plain dash related and poseidon boon related stuff) is one of the most fun builds I've ever done

[odd hawk]

(mostly it's something to do in between the region NPCs I really care about)

oh yeah I haven't looked up anything about other hidden aspects

are they all social links / NPC sidequests?

I strongly doubt I'm going to do all of them given only 1 even popped a hint so far

[indigo bone]

Nah, I said earlier that they're related to maxing out an aspect, I think for that weapon that you want to unlock the hidden for

[odd hawk]

oh duh that's right

[indigo bone]

Then you gotta talk to specific people (not social link i think)

[odd hawk]

I don't have anywhere close to enough nightmare to max all aspects

[indigo bone]

The list

[odd hawk]

yeah I'll probably just not bother with that

[indigo bone]

It's not all all, just one aspect for each weapon needs to be maxed

[odd hawk]

a non-Mel aspect?

[indigo bone]

Mel's count

https://www.reddit.com/r/HadesTheGame/comments/1pxeb7c/how_to_unlock_the_hidden_aspect_in_hadespost_10/ ah, here

hmm its saying it has to be a non mel aspect

[odd hawk]

yeah I've had all the Mel aspects maxed out for ages because those aren't blocked on nightmare

[indigo bone]

I think I just abused Charon's ticket thing to get plenty of nightmare, honestly

[odd hawk]

the obol point deliveries to HQ?

I've been using those for moon dust for most of the game since 4 for moon dust became an available option

though now that I have all arcana maxed I'll do 5 for nightmare if I get that many

[indigo bone]

Yep, that and I think the broker allows some trades

[odd hawk]

I was doing the nightly indulgence buys for a while, esp nectar

but I'm basically done with nectar now, and I only have enough bones for 1 nightmare from the broker, so I'm not gonna commit to that unless I'm actually that close to a prophecy or something

[odd hawk]

that feels culturally insensitive somehow

I'm never going to get that prophecy for every Vow of Fangs perk am I

I've had only 1 perk left for like 10 runs now

this is one of the few settings where that's arguably a legit point

[indigo bone]

[odd hawk]

doing a quick surface run, thankfully rolled Medea so delievered the thing immediately

will keep going to Eris just because that's a testament, then back to grinding the underworld NPCs

(arachne quest guide indicates I won't need athena for a few steps yet)

oh I think I just rolled the final perk maybe

[odd hawk]

one duo boon left

Eris with the ax is a pretty fun challenge since she normally pushes you to favor the speedy attacks

progress

[indigo bone]

[odd hawk]

oh, uh, found one

and now I'm getting none of the quest NPCs

"Nemmie"

if Eris' goal is to piss off Nemesis, drawing a little chibi mascot version of Nemesis would probably do it

[indigo bone]

Eris is good at what she does

[odd hawk]

no quest NPCs twice in a row

there we go

and a testament, so this run wasn't a total waste

[indigo bone]

Oh that's a fun boon

[odd hawk]

ok, triggered enough dialogue to advance this one at least, stopping here for tonight

[odd hawk]

"I cheated"

[indigo bone]

[odd hawk]

[odd hawk]

funny how that works

[odd hawk]

this should be fun

heck yeah, first try, didn't even use up a DD, and that was a testament

(granted, the backstab bonus from sister blades Mel aspect is kinda tailor made for this fight but still)

my god is that a lifetime supply of candy bars

[indigo bone]

I think there's more on the left side too

And yeah oddly enough I find her rival fight to be the easiest of the bunch, and almost easier than the normal version of her fight

[odd hawk]

"We have it easier than mortals, certainly."
"Poor things."

well that feels oddly insulting

ok, I need one more pet treat to max out all the pets

not like I have anything else to do with stardust at this point

(well I could brew ambrosia, but we have so much of that promised by prophecies that would be a bit silly)

strange that the d20s don't work on selene or daedalus

ok back to story progress

the reddit thread said it had to be rift of thessaly at the earliest, but I wanted to check that it really couldn't be underworld or ephyra alongside some other goals, and that turned out to be true

WOW. OKAY THEN.

...Anubis?

[indigo bone]

I really wanna hear your opinion on this aspect

[odd hawk]

these last two "main" quests take kinda forever don't they

[vivid umbra]

https://www.rpgsite.net/interview/20348-supergiant-games-interview-2026-greg-kasavin-darren-korb-hades-2-ending-music-future-coffee

[odd hawk]

the game loves giving me nectar now that I literally have every social link nectar-maxed already

ha-ha, plot!

nice, I can sheepify Uh-Oh

finally got the final Godsent

[odd hawk]

ok got the tear for unlocking anubis, I can die now

[odd hawk]

ok, only 3 steps left according to that guy on reddit

something tells me this dialogue was supposed to trigger a looooooong time ago

[odd hawk]

my "build" at this point is gorgon amulet for story reasons, followed by fig leaf to minimize time wasted checking for Narcissus

[odd hawk]

don't fuck this up don't fuck this up don't fuck this up

that... was the epicest of fuck-ups

[odd hawk]

phew, that's done

[vivid umbra]

[odd hawk]

gotta have that

[odd hawk]

I'm so torn on it

on the one hoof, the special pulling in enemies is kinda strictly bad? I get that you want to pull enemies into the attack circles but when they always land right on top of me it's just kind of a suicide move unless the enemy's already paralyzed

on the other, the omega attack is so strong when you place it right... that was easily the fastest Scylla fight in all of my runs so far, I might've literally spent more time waiting for the phase transition than actually fighting

yeaaaaah, progress!

[indigo bone]

You can kinda tweak it. Not charging it fully lets you pull less strongly. And what attack boon are you using? (community verdict is that there's one that is leagues ahead of others for that aspect)

[odd hawk]

omega attacks with scorch boons, then casts with freeze boons

plus time freeze hex which often let me place both (the one time that's a useful hex!)

though I wasn't charging the special at all so not sure what you mean there

"you know how late it is?"
Dora's looking at my irl clock isn't she

[indigo bone]

And yeah, scorch is just insane. Zeus also isn't too shabby but in comparison, yeah...

[odd hawk]

she's still mad about it!

ok apparently when I bring my normal set with no weird secondary objectives it's still a pretty quick fight nowadays

got my echo dialogue, time to die

stopping there for tonight; it's not much progress but that's the nature of this last quest

...why did you stop doing that

[indigo bone]

[odd hawk]

so now that I'm bringing Dionysus' charm most nights to speed up these "easy" runs for NPC grinding

apparently he's a fan of Scylla's band?

damn, there's always another unique dialogue snippet

phew, all I was missing for Selene's bond was wearing the aspect one more time while talking to her

...

it took me >100 runs to learn that my casts also slow down Hecate's Twilight Curse projectile

I... just got the fig leaf effect when it wasn't equipped???

ok the achievements have like 5 prophecies I still have zero leads on, I'm looking these up

aaaah, some of these are prophecies I have but forgot the names of, and the others are locked behind unlocking every weapon aspect

yeah I'm definitely not "platinuming" this, that'd be a hell of a grind

I can at least spend the nightmare I have on upgrading non-Mel aspects, since that seems to be an annoyingly unstated blocker for hidden aspects

hmmmm

I think I'm gonna start choosing bone rooms over nectar rooms

wow

that is the last time I try fighting Zag with the axe

some fights really depend on the weapon you bring

[odd hawk]

why did it have to be an ingredient I had no reason to believe had other uses still

...okay this is an actual problem I think

I've done every chaos trial available to me already

so it seems like my only option is to farm 3k bones

[vivid umbra]

Have you been fishing at all? Or selling fish to the broker?

[odd hawk]

at every opportunity

even got the auto-gather incantation a few irl days ago

I’ve just been spending my bones on other stuff, since I had no reason to think I’d suddenly need to save up

[indigo bone]

The auto-gather is a fucking godsend (ha). It's so convenient and gets everything.

[indigo bone]

Aw :<
Are you on console or steam? I didn't really find it too hard to do, but then again I do have 250+ hours in the game (From early access and post launch). And I 100%'d the first game so I had to do the second... though I haven't done the ultra high fear for the third statue yet. That's really fucking hard and not necessary to 100%

Correction, 288 hours

Also, favorite tracks? The siren ones are great, but I also quite like the non-combat Ephyra theme. That guitar(?) portion is lovely. And the olympus track sounds fucking epic

I just checked, I still have two more prophecies. Bared fangs (elite modifiers) and one that is for content I am not sure you have yet (did you unlock the final 'mode'?)

[odd hawk]

I'm guessing you're talking about the things I learned yesterday are blocked by getting every hidden aspect

my memory for BGM is terrible so genuinely no idea besides the sirens' vocal tracks

Steam

and yeah I did notice there's no achievement for the 3rd statue, I'm definitely not doing that

fortunately I did want to make a serious attempt at Vow of Rivals after finishing Narcissus' story (hence that run the other day where I turned on Unrivaled Eris to finish set 2)... so I think the upshot from yesterday's discovery is I'll be working on rivals sooner than expected

[odd hawk]

dang it, almost had Unrivaled Cerberus... but I really don't know how to handle the first phase where half the attacks literally cover the whole now-tiny arena

still got enough bones for 1/2 stardust

[indigo bone]

You didn't do the re-do thing, right?

[odd hawk]

which redo?

[indigo bone]

There's a thing near the fountain near Icarus that sets you back to before I think finishing off Chronos

[odd hawk]

oh that, yeah I never activated that

I did the incantation to make the button exist mostly to clear the incantations list, but I have no plans to actually use it

[indigo bone]

And I'm not sure, based on what I'm seeing for the other thing (dives, if that helps identify) I see someone say to uninstall/reinstall, or just finish 4 runs

[odd hawk]

sorry, 4 runs for what now?

[indigo bone]

Okay then I don't think you have that yet. Do you mind if I spoil a bit? (not really an important story beat or anything)

[odd hawk]

odds are I already spoiled myself for whatever this is the other day so go ahead

[indigo bone]

|| Hypnos' dream dives, looking online you have to fully clear a certain amount of runs for the cushion to appear, it's near the bottom of the training /weapon room. ||

[odd hawk]

wait, there's an actual reason to do the dream dives?

I poked my head into that once and noped out as soon as he explained it

[indigo bone]

Just to finish a prophecy, really

[odd hawk]

I keep rereading your messages and either you switched topics every message or I'm still not understanding any of it

I don't have any prophecies about dream dives

[indigo bone]

All I have left is 'bared fangs' and 'get 20 dream dive tokens'

[odd hawk]

thank goodness there isn't an achivement for "all prophecies"

[indigo bone]

I mean, there is but I think it doesn't count all all

[odd hawk]

bared fangs is the roll every armoed enemy perk on vow of fangs, right?

[indigo bone]

yeah

[odd hawk]

yeah no the achivement is 60 prophecies, I got that a while back

[indigo bone]

Ah right, the achievements list them by name rather by count

[odd hawk]

there's half a dozen prophecies I obviously could get but don't involve any actual skill, just rng grinding, so I don't plan on putting any more effort into them than "might as well bring a weapon that I might complete a prophecy for"

[indigo bone]

You're not alone in thinking that

[odd hawk]

the Narcissus/Echo quest and Vow of Rivals are my only real goals at this point

but Rivals might get me close enough to 2nd gift of night that it's worth shooting for anyway

then there's also stuff like Fair Fight; if I don't have that after literally >100 nights (and iirc never once losing to her) that's entirely RNG's fault, nothing I can do to improve the odds so who cares

I'm glad I looked up the achievements though since I didn't know there was meaningful content hidden behind the hidden aspects, and the "fully max a non-Mel aspect" condition is kinda BS frankly

[indigo bone]

Did you do the Greater Chaos runs?

[odd hawk]

that's one of the things I had to spoil for myself last night because it's apparently locked behind that BS

[indigo bone]

I think since I'd played throughout EA I didn't quite realize that's what it took

[odd hawk]

according to multiple random guys on reddit, it was a 1.0 patch

[indigo bone]

[odd hawk]

so if I'd "just" done the story quests and stopped playing, I would never have even known that system existed in the game

very baffling design choice there

in fact, before the hidden aspects showed up, I genuinely thought I had done "every chaos trial", and there was simply no special reward for that

[odd hawk]

ok, let's start today by trying R3 surface, with my "serious" build this time, since optimizing for grave thirst/prophecies/etc got me killed even in R3 underworld

nice, fangs and debt is enough to get within gift 2 range and a testament, so even if I crash and burn I should get something beyond bone farming

I love it when the gods randomly diss each other for having overinflated egos

that was an awful R1 fight

I should not still be losing sash to that

barely R2'd without burning a DD

at least I'll get to see R3

nice, I needed one more adamant for an aspect unlock and it spawned immediately

progress

wasn't sure if we'd be addressing this or not, but I really appreciate hearing her side of it

...oh

well, I've seen it, not sure I'll get much farther than that

FIRST TRY 1 DD

the 2-on-1 rival fights are sooooo much more interesting than the cramped arena rival fights

I'm gonna try to actually complete this run because a) 12 fear, might get an altar reward, and b) it's been a long time now since I did the Typhon fight so I feel like I should get the practice before Rivals 4

speak of the devil

lost another DD to Typhon, definitely the right call to practice that

hm, 600/1500 bones for the 2nd stardust I need

seems like Erebus is better for bone farming than all the surface regions combined

maybe I should spam a chaos trial even

[odd hawk]

ooooor I could just remember the normal way I used to get stardust back in the good old days

you know, I had wondered about that

I think I really like this aspect

let's do this

also this

hm, I could go for a Morrigan/Hel underworld run to get the ambrosia rewards

but I think I'd rather give Unrivaled Cerberus a more serious attempt, ideally combined with 2nd gift and a testament

ofc my main objective is Narcissus/Echo progression but any underworld run will do that

-# I also have a tertiary goal of farming bones to buy fate fabric to brew shadow because Aspect of Supay is revealed but needs six shadow to unlock, but the bone count for that is something I expect to naturally get without trying much

Raki's only here because I need marble for an aspect unlock...

[odd hawk]

sigh, got Asphodel instead of Narcissus

[odd hawk]

maybe I still have a chance at this achivement... but not yet apparently

the tortoise has a name!

hm, did roll Echo, but that sounded like generic dialogue...

[indigo bone]

The duo fight took me multiple attempts, you are more gamer than me 😛

[odd hawk]

dog successfully bathed

nah the duo is just better for my run away and hide from all the damage playstyle

wait was that testament worth two nightmare?

ok, ok

the question now is can I finish the run, because this is 16 fear / gift 2

sweet, 2 marble outcrops, that's exactly what I needed

nope, for once, it's not about sand

it's about a really stupid-looking statue

I think I accomplished every goal I had except Narcissus/Echo

[indigo bone]

[odd hawk]

can't forget this step

Melinoe: "Were you aware Scylla and Charybdis had teamed up?"
Odysseus: lol. lmao even.

"My mind reels at the thought of a sculpture in excess of those."
mine too Mel

ok I think now I need to just specifically grind narcissus

so 0 fear underworld runs with nothing weird except a weapon that still has its daedalus prophecy unfinished

[odd hawk]

that's more like it

[indigo bone]

I love those little comments for each bond

[odd hawk]

I also love how upset the bosses are when I turn off Vow of Rivals

wow the Hel omega attack is OP

[odd hawk]

Hel Aspect prophecy done

unfortunately Echo didn't spawn so I still need one more run probably? and I do have another aspect prophecy to clean up

dang it, I knew I recycled slightly too much of the still-"required" materials

hm, I have a bunch of bond forging stuff to do on the surface

but I think I'm gonna do that Morrigan underworld run first because if Echo does spawn that's 4 whole ambrosia I need for the other bonds

there we go, I can combine Morrigan with an "easy" testament

not that I need any more nightmare now that every hidden aspect is revealed, but might as well

[odd hawk]

Fig Leaf and Vow of Forfeit hitting the same miniboss room is a mood

excuse me

god I am awful with this aspect

he doesn't know.gif

awful x2

did ancient looms involve 3 people?

at long last

all right, next up is definitely a surface run, primarily to get iron and buy time for my 6th shadow to brew, so the last two hidden aspects can be unlocked afterward

that and nearly all of my unforged bonds are on the surface at this point

gonna do Rivals 4 since I'm pretty sure the R3 fight is part of ||Heracles'|| bond, and I no longer have any good incentive to bring other weapons

(there's still the daedalus prophecies for 4 of them but it's pretty clear I'm gonna just have to farm those in chaos trials if I really want to finish them, which I might not)

[odd hawk]

I think my Circe bond is trapped in priority dialogue limbo

"is it really that noticeable" she asks

[odd hawk]

not quite hitless, but damn clean for an R3 fight, very happy with that

[odd hawk]

oh boy, I'm going into R4 with the best hex 100% upgraded

...well fuck

NOOOO THAT WAS FIRST TRY DO NOT TAKE THAT FROM ME

he took it from me

oh, that counts for the prophecy? hell yeah

now we're getting somewhere

ah, that's what this achievement is for

there we go, these things finally exist

ok, finally remembered to do this achievement

these new chaos trials are intimidating but I think I might be able to handle the two achievements for them

my current inclination is to continue playing until I have all bonds forged, do that last step of unrivaled prowess/see underworld r4, and make a serious attempt at Improbable Outcomes/Chaos in Hell

but not Bearing Dark Gifts and Fair Fight, or the Aspect and Daedalus prophecies, those look like pure grind (especially since most of my unfinished bonds are on the surface, and those achievements aren't)

definitely stopping here for the moment though, it's great to finally have these milestones cleared

after I splurge on base decorations

"bulk deal on Cyclops Jerky"
is that what Eris has been eating this whole time???

[indigo bone]

Eris in particular. "Nonononono bring it back!"

[indigo bone]

[indigo bone]

Nergal is so much fun

[odd hawk]

next session's probably gonna start with underworld R4, but then the new aspects' regular chaos trials will be next

[indigo bone]

I kinda gave up on R4 rivals, i can't keep up

[odd hawk]

I'm like 80% sure I can do R4 Typhon

there's several combinations of moves I don't have a mental plan worked out for, but I got so close that clearly I only need to get slightly better to survive that final surprise

at least I assume that was the final surprise

please tell me it ends there

[indigo bone]

I don't know, when he showed up it wrecked my rhythm and I died and never got back to do R4

[odd hawk]

I just assumed by now you would've watched videos of any content you hadn't done

[indigo bone]

I did! I saw r4 Chronos and noped out of that. I just can't remember what else is in R4 typhon, if there is anything at all

[odd hawk]

speaking of which, is R4 Chronos ||like the main story ending where he suddenly has a 3rd phase with a huge arena and ridiculously wide attacks but you have infinite lives?||

[indigo bone]

||Uhhh. The first two I think so, the last one I don't think so? ||

[odd hawk]

oh dear

[indigo bone]

Side note: the skull aspect that doesn't actually shoot, and just explodes when you dash (I think?) is considered one of the strongest aspects in the game, just for the sheer multiplier/damage percentage. I think with aphrodite or ares, the damage numbers go crazy

[odd hawk]

uh... Medea?

in retrospect that does feel like a mechanic that'd be numerically good despite me not enjoying playing with it all that much

[indigo bone]

Same, hoenstly

[indigo bone]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OVWM3Nkxc8 this track is what I meant earlier

I like the more instrumental part at the start

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjiYUgx74rU and this is just awesome

One of the composers commenting to this

[odd hawk]

ok, R4 underworld run, let's do this

only side objective is giving one last ambrosia to Echo, and maybe a few olympians; there's nothing else left to do down here

[odd hawk]

dang I got some of my favorite boons right off the bat (Nexus Rush, Volcanic Strike and Flourish)

...run past everyone, fire one special, and the 500 damage for direct hits gets hitched into 150 for everyone else

lol, and my favorite Well combo: Witch's Mark (+50% omega damage) after an Archaic Seal (extended to 2 guardians) right after Scylla, so it'll even apply to R4

good, I did roll Echo today

really? I lost two DDs on R3?

really? one moon dust is as fitting a reward for 12 fear as a nightmare?

hm... that was the achievement...

LOL this version of him actually won't let you pause

and yeah I died

unfortunately I misread the new version of the phase 2 instakills so I only had 1 DD for the real fight

[odd hawk]

slow clap.gif

honestly, my current vibe with the R4 final bosses is that, if I could just fight them, without the 20+ minute runup every time, I'd love to, but at the end of a run I think it's just too much for retries/practice to be fun

we have finally hit the point where me not being a roguelike person is an actual problem

[vivid umbra]

That used to be there for the normal version too

[odd hawk]

that makes a lot of sense

yeah this bit is much funnier when it's Rivals-only

you absolutely expect bullshit on your first visit

I wonder if Chaos Above includes the NPCs...

[vivid umbra]

And people complained it was an unwelcome surprise especially if you paused for a reason

I think it does?

[odd hawk]

then I might be done with normal runs

so my bond situation is this with 4 ambrosia

Apollo obv is trivial to complete whenever, Hera/Circe/Dio are surface-only, and Icarus might require surface encounters though it's not super clear

so I'll probably be do at least one chaos above for those bonds

(I think Heracles might be ready to unlock now that I've ||beaten R3 twice||...? at least one guy on reddit suggested that was the key)

[vivid umbra]

Possibly, yes. Still best to meet in Ephyra

[odd hawk]

yeah I'm expecting that to be the final step

incidentally, would you have any interest in me streaming attempts at the random chaos trials?

[vivid umbra]

Now-ish? Unfortunately time zones suck, I am at work

[odd hawk]

not specifically now, I mean in general

now that it's pretty clear this is the endgame, I did in fact get to the endgame, and I am interested in doing the hard gameplay thing with no distracting grinding out of story stuff

right now I'm just cleaning up the two new regular chaos trials

turns out I do not like nergal at all

[vivid umbra]

Aww

How could you not like the aspect of BONK

[odd hawk]

because there are other aspects that do BONK and also other stuff!

this is only BONK, even when BONK is a bad idea

anyway

[vivid umbra]

i do love the omega special for it

And i think one hammer reduces the amount of hits to make them stronger and O lawd

[odd hawk]

volunteers to be a boss fight, has an existential crisis about staying a boss fight

I rolled the dash-strike does 2 hits hammer for this one which is probably ideal for Eris anyway

[vivid umbra]

Oh I love those with the gauntlets and lightning

[odd hawk]

yeah I'm pretty bad at BONK-only

[vivid umbra]

[odd hawk]

ok I think I'll do the Supay trial and stop there

completing at least some of the random chaos trials will probably be the final goal for my playthrough, we'll see how many bonds I clean up doing that

[vivid umbra]

[odd hawk]

just to be super clear, as far as you know, the "heart prophecies" and the social links cover pretty much all of the story content in the game? besides the main story ofc

there's no super secret true ending locked behind defeating both R4 fights or 67 Fear or anything like that

[vivid umbra]

Not as far as I know, no

Dialogue at most but nothing like the drawings we saw

[odd hawk]

cool

so how far did you go with all this

now that the answer can't possibly spoil me

[vivid umbra]

I think i got to fear 20 at the very least? I 100% all the achievements so whatever those imply plus a bit more

I never did brat the r4 but I have done all the story obviously

[odd hawk]

really? all achievements but not R4?

they're that hard?

bad assumption sorry

I should say did you just stop at seeing them for the prophecy cause it wasn't your thing

[vivid umbra]

I tried them once I saw them but found them excessively hard, and further attempts I felt i lost too many DD or just failed the previous rivals so I gave up

And after seeing them on YouTube I just noped out of chronos

[odd hawk]

ah, so we're pretty similar on this one

I probably should pull up the videos just to see how many bonus fuck you phases those fights have

again if I could go straight to the R4 fights without the rest of the run I would love to grind these buuuuuuut yeah

[vivid umbra]

I THINK the testament even affect chaos runs so if there is one that directly puts you in region 4, it might work

[odd hawk]

heck if there were just some chaos trials for the 4th region with Rivals on, I might do that

[vivid umbra]

Jinx!

[odd hawk]

chaos trials definitely set their own vows/fear but testament maybe

[vivid umbra]

I miss an early duo boon that I first saw in a chaos trial then emulated outside of it

Poseidon and hera, 5% increased damage per 100 gold, with no cap

I had 2200 gold that run, using the Pan knives and poseidon special

Shit MELTED

I think chronos took 30 sec or less

[odd hawk]

I think the fastest boss melts I've done were scorch/freeze boons on Hel and... Anubis?

there's a few aspects that are just really good for dps maxing

even if I don't find Anubis as fun to play

[vivid umbra]

My most fun was supay with poseidon dash and everything boosting that type of damage

[odd hawk]

I was probably playing Supay wrong because the slow autofire incentivized me so heavily to run into special range of everything

[vivid umbra]

Yeah I didn't think of it too hard then reread it and realized its more about the dash damage bonus

The attack/special are just the cherry on top

[odd hawk]

wait it has a dash bonus

I only saw my dash do damage in that trial because of a dash boon

[vivid umbra]

Aspect of Supay
You have the Devil Sparks, which also enhance your Rush Boon.
▸ Rush Boon Damage: +10%/+15%/+20%/+25%/+30%/+45%

Like I said, poseidon dash + this =

[odd hawk]

oh so it is an effect I wouldn't notice without seeing the text or doing damage calcs

oh well not like I'm gonna try to properly understand every aspect

-# fuck I wanted to say "grok" there but that word is ruined forever

[vivid umbra]

It's definitely hard to quantify but I was just perma dashing, knocking stuff back, into walls, and did the Apollo duo for the beach ball, added more damage to the water damage you do, etc

It was just so much fun

[indigo bone]

How do you rate the story, by the way? 1 vs 2?

I think overall I prefer the first. Zag feels more compelling and I think more approachable? And funnier. Not to say Mel is bad in any way, I just like him better >.>

[indigo bone]

The fuck, people?

[odd hawk]

it has been a long time since I played H1, and I'm definitely not about to redo that lol, but going by my vague memories

I like both protagonists about equally? ofc there's a lot of overlap between them for a lot of obvious reasons, but nothing jumps out at me to make one a favorite over the other

I do think the story in 2 took longer to get interesting since the basic premise of the war meant everyone was mostly going "yeah, kick his ass" for the first few runs, while 1's characters were giving a wide range of mysterious reactions to your task from the very start

gameplay stuff seems similarly good in both though that's exactly where I'd need better memories to judge, or perhaps actual skill, beyond the obvious fact that there's more content in this one and that's a win in some ways; they certainly retained that roguelike goal of making almost every run feel meaningfully different (and incentivizing me to turn more of the dials than I would've on my own)

I mean we are talking about 2 games I played over 100 hours of, any comparison is gonna be nitpicks

even if we look at weaknesses, both games kinda sucked about the same at giving you subplot-advancing dialogue when you're far enough in to be aiming for specific subplots (I think I just managed it better with multitasking this time because I knew to expect that)

[odd hawk]

hm, that was already pretty late evening for me, so probably best to discard the idea

ok, long list of objectives short, I should start today with specifically a Chaos Above

Evil Eye is a no-op atm, Aspect of Circe is easy mode, okay

[indigo bone]

There's definitely a few trinkets I haven't bothered using at all

What is it, artemis? The one limiting you to 30 hp, fuck all of that noise

[odd hawk]

...what happened to my magic regen arcana?

yeah I only used that in its chaos trial

ok it does rerandomize the keepsake each region

so are the arcana also random

they must be, I never use artificer

on the plus side they did give me a Medea room, so that confirms the usual "NPCs never show up in chaos trials" rule doesn't apply to whole run chaos trials

ok found a magic regen boon I can work with

right I also want path of stars asap for hex regen whenever I have a good hex but limited magic regen

oh, my favorite hex is the one with no regen in the skill tree

so wait is the play to burn all my magic before leaving every room to recharge my hex more often

[indigo bone]

[odd hawk]

is this how you non-magic-regen players live

(which are you actually lol)

[indigo bone]

My preferred hexes are the nightmare and time stopper so I wouldn't know

[odd hawk]

oh so hard opposite of me

[indigo bone]

My reaction times aren't as good I think, so I need all the help i can get

[odd hawk]

I'm curious if that's actually true or if I'm actively playing in less reflex-demanding ways

historically it's always reaction times where my hard skill ceilings show up in games

tbc, a big part of why I like the staff and total eclipse is because they allow me to do damage while a) being far away from the enemies, and b) spending 90% of my time running and dashing

most of the other weapons and hexes require or at least encourage a lot more standing still or standing in the enemy's face

time stopper is one of those hexes that's situationally nice but really only lets me deliver at best one salvo of damage (often not even that); any "hard" fight is one where a single salvo is not the issue, it's enduring long enough to do 10, 20, 30 salvos and whittle the guardian all the way down

to make time stopper appealing to me you'd have to combine it with things like 100% backstab bonus damage, where precise positioning I can't normally manage is actually worth the hassle

but ofc the sister blades are the #1 "stand way too close to the enemy the whole time" weapon, which is why I'm awful with them

there we go, finally rolled the bond-advancing dialogue

[indigo bone]

maybe because i play almost all weapons (prob skull less though) so it varies run by run. Mostly I like those so i don't have to avoid attacks on the boss fights

[odd hawk]

this doesn't matter at all but... this pig has an anchor tattoo? that's gotta be leftover from when it was human, right? did the ancient greeks have tattoos???

[odd hawk]

hm, maybe you're getting to use it way more frequently than I am? I'd need a lot of time stoppers to reach "don't have to avoid attacks"

heck yeah, randomly selected silken sash

aaaaand I blew it almost immediately

wooooooow, he gave me the final boon for the prophecy and I have exactly the number of ambrosia he wanted in my pocket at this precise moment

after that kind of luck I'm gonna fail to complete this run somehow

...wait, how much health did I have before I selected that

[indigo bone]

Eh, it's more that I save it for the attacks I know give me the most trouble on stuff like Typhon especially

[odd hawk]

200, okay

yeah that makes sense

I'm in the "must learn everything" camp so I end up not having ones to save the hex for

[indigo bone]

This is where the early access comes in, I pretty much have everything memorized, just my skill can't always keep up

Aaaand now I'm off to work

[odd hawk]

you know I just realized I don't have my DDs either

[indigo bone]

[odd hawk]

so Worry Free is maybe the worst thing I could've picked

stupid prophecy

have fun lol

[indigo bone]

(can still probably say a few things since i check my phone but, not gonna be quick)

[odd hawk]

nah, Meat Grinder

uh... not really, no?

advanced Worry Free mitigation strats

"+90" ha!

there is a loophole in that boon!

please be tail please be tail please be tail please be tail

IT'S TAIL

and rolled more food so I know I'm at full health going into this

I'm sorry

was that a hitless fucking Typhon???

the odds that I took the pre-Typhon screenshot to prove it too, what the hell

okay, thinking back on it, I think I resisted a hit or two from barrier boons, but still zero damage suffered is wild

and I'm not gonna get luck or skill like that again anytime soon so let's do Chaos Below right now, i.e. the easiest/safest way to satisfy Improbable Outcomes

Mel torches, frog, Doom pin, DD arcana yes, magic regen arcana no, probably mid-tier difficulty for me

aaaaaand I immediately rolled a magic recharge boon

LOL Hecate's Twilight Curse dissipates immediately if it hits your pet

who gave Narcissus stardust

maybe Roxy can have a solo career without Scylla bossing her around

[odd hawk]

indeed I've taken a lot of stupid hits so far this run

[odd hawk]

yeah that was a pretty weak Chronos fight

but I got the thing

do I want to try great chaos below right now...

maybe not quite yet, let's do a boring surface run for bonds first, that's the only other thing I care about enough to try to finish

[odd hawk]

huh, I got 2 fear for a cyclops testament? I thought the +2 was based on how far into the run it was, but I guess it's about a minimum fear count

Heracles and Icarus just aren't spawning today

but I finished Circe's bond and got a testament so time to kill myself

[odd hawk]

this guy really will complain about everything

[vivid umbra]

It's a really interesting take on Heracles

[odd hawk]

yeah, smart move considering how many straightforwardly heroic versions of the guy we've seen

though I do wish we'd gotten an actual resolution to the whole ||wtf are he and Prom up to|| question

I buy that he won't tell me, but still

[vivid umbra]

I dont recall if they really get into it, and depending on the weapon I find that to be one of the toughest fights so I might not have seen all

[odd hawk]

hm, rolled Icarus this time but nothing changed