Hades - by Supergiant Games (Bastion, Transistor, Pyre)

boogle wrote:

Athena, Demeter and Dionysis have the best boons for my taste, in that order.
Others are all good, there are no bad boons really but its nice to have some kind of slow/deflect to lean on.
Up to skull level (I dunno the real name) 12.

"Samson's the champion. Them other two pretty good."

Weapon selection makes a big difference in which boons I chase. Ares, in particular, has wildly varying utility.

I forgot my other starting tip, which is to rebind your special attack to your thumb mouse button, or at the very least to a button you can hit with your pinky. Can't be takin' no fingers off no movement keys just to hit your Special.

And since I'm so generous, a bonus starting tip if you stall out and want the "easymode" first win: take the starting weapon, chase the Daedalus upgrades for "double Special" and "increased Special range," and exclusively use your cast and special attack. You can forget Mouse1 exists for this run.

For PC players, how does it play with mouse+kb? Or is this really a controller kind of game?

LeapingGnome wrote:

For PC players, how does it play with mouse+kb? Or is this really a controller kind of game?

It plays just fine with both. I swapped back and forth pretty regularly.

I'll probably stick with controller mostly going forward so I can easily adapt to the Switch controls when they turn on cross save.

LeapingGnome wrote:

For PC players, how does it play with mouse+kb? Or is this really a controller kind of game?

I feel like the movement really requires a degree of control and precision that you couldn't get from the keyboard. It's not as bad as Pyre, where using k&m would eventually ruin you on the game, but I'd try and use a controller if possible.

kazooka wrote:

I feel like the movement really requires a degree of control and precision that you couldn't get from the keyboard.

Different strokes, different folks, but I couldn't disagree more.

That could be the years of Nuclear Throne kb + m talking

Got it on Switch yesterday (20% off for the first week) but didn't get to play until today. 4-5 runs in and it's pretty great.

I had one minor complaint... the first time I reached a shop, I didn't know for sure what 2 of the 3 items were. I pressed R on one like it said, thinking I would have a confirm/buy prompt or something, but nope, I bought it. And then didn't have enough coin for the other.

In a similar vein, I figured out pretty easily what the dark and heart door icons are. And the key. But no clue what the others were. And still don't know some of the gods symbols until I run into them once or twice. I guess that's fun?

I wanted to keep playing blind but and just enjoy the story but I had to look up some tips and saw the gamepedia page. Hopefully I won't get too spoiled, but I like to have somewhat of a plan and know what I'm clicking on or where best to use these key items first.

Like I got my first gift, and after a quick glance at those rewards, figured out who I thought best to give that to.

Spoiler:

Who's a good boy? Cerberus, that's who!

And I spent the first key on trying a new weapon. One list of tips I saw said to spend keys on the mirror first, but since the next mirror unlock took 5 keys and I only had 1, I'm trying a new weapon for now, thanks.

I like it a lot so far though, aside from the confusion over symbols and shopping. The combat feels just right. And from even the few runs I've done so far, I've already experienced some unique changes to combat. Lightning chains, poison damage, boost damage, crits, etc. It's fun how things change. A little bit like Dead Cells, but just aspects of the weapon instead of completely new weapons.

I picked this up despite being a bit disappointed by the studio in the past and I’m glad I did. The first hour or so was really fun, and I felt like I was actually making progress unlike some other critical darlings of the genre. Beat the first boss on my 4th or 5th run, my first using the bow. The game runs flawlessly on Switch.

Got the shield unlocked and wow I love it. Got my first area boss win with it, and made it to 2nd area boss and had it down to maybe 30-40% health.

I did almost beat the area boss the first time with the bow too, but then switched back and forth between sword and bow for a couple more runs. I think the shield is my favorite the 3 right now.

Picked this up for the launch on Switch. Can’t wait to dive in.

So beat the 1st area again with shield, but failed to reach 2nd area boss again You only get the nice reward the first time for each boss with each weapon apparently. One of the NPCs clued me into that after that run.

So I switched back to the bow, beat the 1st and 2nd area bosses! Didn't make it to end of 3rd area though. Still, my best run yet and the 2nd boss reward let me unlock some more construction stuff.

There's a whole lot of upgrading and materials and stuff to do in this game. Plus new story with all the characters. I already sense I won't just be quitting when/if I finish a full run

Stele wrote:

So beat the 1st area again with shield, but failed to reach 2nd area boss again You only get the nice reward the first time for each boss with each weapon apparently. One of the NPCs clued me into that after that run.

Not strictly true, but true for now

Dang. I love the shield, but I guess I need to make some runs with other weapons then...

There also seems to be an encouragement to change up because one of the weapons you aren't using gets a 20% darkness bonus. You can see it flashing when you're in the armory(?) before you leave.

I unlocked the spear, and also beat the 1st area boss again, but didn't make the 2nd. Next time I came back there's a new weapon there, that takes 6 keys to unlock.

I know I should probably be spending keys on the mirror to unlock more overall abilities, but I am really liking trying out different weapons every run or two. Long term I probably need to spend some keys on the mirror.

But I also got my mirror upgraded from a story scene (maybe triggered after beating the first area once?). And now it has two abilities for each row that I can toggle between. For instance the "revive with 50% health once per run" has an alternative "revive with 30% health once per room". I think the alternate will be the best one for long term progression and finishing a run. But alas, it costs 500 dark. So I'll be saving up for a bit... or possibly respec and lose every other ability... haven't done the math yet.

Lots of choices, lots of fun. And so far I like all the voice acting as well. Apparently that's a new 1.0 thing?

I unlocked the first tier of new talents in the mirror and regret it, wish I’d used the keys to unlock the spear. The first tier only unlocks two new and boring talents.

I unlocked the spear before the extra mirror tier and it seemed like a good choice.

Got up to the third boss this morning but they took me out pretty handily. I find the spear to be my most effective weapon, but that depends on finding a boon that enhances the basic attack. My two best runs have come with the one that splits it into a spread attack and the one that makes it rapid fire but not chargeable.

Or are those daedalus hammer upgrades?

I found the fist weapon a bit hard to use, it lacked mobility and range.

Yeah that rapid fire spear was interesting. I got myself killed by a projectile in the next room so I needed more practice.

I've still only beat the 2nd boss once. Got to him again last night on a shield run, and to the 2nd add spawn and fell apart again.

Think I'll keep changing weapons for the dark bonus, every little bit helps.

Have had some really good boons for Cast attacks. Lightning, ice, AoE, etc. Now that I have 3 uses of it from mirror upgrade it's pretty effective to focus on that.

Blind_Evil wrote:

I find the spear to be my most effective weapon, but that depends on finding a boon that enhances the basic attack. My two best runs have come with the one that splits it into a spread attack and the one that makes it rapid fire but not chargeable.

Or are those daedalus hammer upgrades?

Those are indeed hammer upgrades. Try going for the rapid attack and extended range combo.

Stele wrote:

For instance the "revive with 50% health once per run" has an alternative "revive with 30% health once per room". I think the alternate will be the best one for long term progression and finishing a run.

You'll pretty quickly get to a point where the only thing that ever kills you is a boss, and having multiple revives on a single boss, plus having those revives be 50% instead of 30%, is a lot more useful.

Stele wrote:

There's a whole lot of upgrading and materials and stuff to do in this game. Plus new story with all the characters. I already sense I won't just be quitting when/if I finish a full run

Quite a few of the most interesting systems aren't even available until you finish a run for the first time. There's a ton of incentive to go through after finishing.

Stele wrote:

Lots of choices, lots of fun. And so far I like all the voice acting as well. Apparently that's a new 1.0 thing?

No, there's been voice acting in there from the start, as far as I'm aware. 1.0 just added several thousand new voice lines on top of what was already there.

Mr Crinkle wrote:

You'll pretty quickly get to a point where the only thing that ever kills you is a boss, and having multiple revives on a single boss, plus having those revives be 50% instead of 30%, is a lot more useful.

Yep. I messed with the once per room revive a few times, but I find the multiple per run talent more useful, particularly for the last fight.

The second tier of mirror unlocks is a lot more useful IMO - max life up.

Loving this, it's what I've been looking for since I finished Children of Morta. I've done 9 runs so far and almost beat the first boss. I never feel very good at games like this but the incremental improvement of stats is totally my thing. My favourite weapon is the bow but I know I should practice with the others.

My only gripe at the moment is I wish there was a way to tell what some of the icons mean.

malking wrote:

My only gripe at the moment is I wish there was a way to tell what some of the icons mean.

Yep. Starting to learn them all now but there's no reason the in game codex can't have the icon for each god and collectible. You could check that before clicking. But for whatever reason it has pictures and stories but no icon of anything.

I don't like having to check a wiki for simple stuff.

I finally beat the second boss once after a half dozen encounters.I wasn’t sure I was spec’d very good, but pulled it out. That run took me to the third boss and obliterated me. Ah well. I finally got enough to have 2 revives, which made me happy.

Decided to jump in again. Loving it.
Game feels the same, although I remember some of the mirror boosts differently.
I managed to get to Styx before my 10th try, so I'm not that rusty.
Now to go beyond Styx seems to be taking some more skill and I have mustered...

This is so good! I think I’m on attempt 30 and the furies are relatively trivial, the hydra is probably a 50% shot, and I’ve failed twice now to take out the Minotaur and his buddy. I love that it actively rewards experimentation and changing things up each run, it’s a real evolution of the genre in just about every way. Love the ongoing story nuggets, the music, the art, and the tactile gameplay is spot on. I’ve been hit-and-miss on Supergiant since Bastion, but gosh did they nail this one down hard!

Oh, and it runs like butter on the Switch! Best indie port I’ve played on it by a significant margin.

Finally saw the 3rd area boss with the spear. Used the charge attack a lot better that run.

Unlocked the 5th weapon instead of more mirror upgrades. Partially y'all convinced me to keep doing weapons. And also I saw that you can use the weapon upgrade item you earn for beating the first area boss once you unlock all 6 weapons. That seemed important enough to try to me.

So then I used that new 5th weapon.... And the boss of the Friday area was different! Not sure if that was based on number of runs or new weapon or what. But it was very surprising. And she kicked my ass, hah.

Stele wrote:

So then I used that new 5th weapon.... And the boss of the Friday area was different! Not sure if that was based on number of runs or new weapon or what. But it was very surprising. And she kicked my ass, hah.

My experience exactly... lol

I've come back and now beaten the final boss (or what I think the final boss is?) with all but the bow. I'm loving that not only am I constantly running into new dialog based on what I'm carrying or what I've done, but that the combat has yet to feel stale to me. Have yet to get far in the way of Heat, but I'm also jumping between weapons all the time.

At a point where the upgrade path doesn't seem super obvious to me, because I seem to have quite a few options, but that also means I'm getting to focus on what types of builds I want to ideally see.

I’ve really hit a wall on the third boss fight. Any tips? The bow and spear are my preferred arms.