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

You get a unique reward for the first time you finish each boss with a different weapon. After that you get a generic resource. You don’t need to use other weapons per se but it can have benefits.

Blind_Evil wrote:

You get a unique reward for the first time you finish each boss with a different weapon. After that you get a generic resource. You don’t need to use other weapons per se but it can have benefits.

That will change later. The game will heavily incentivize you to swap weapons to gather various late game currencies. Early on, it doesn't matter aside from the 20% darkness bonus on one weapon if you want to go for that.

farley3k wrote:

Good tips? I have gotten to the first boss blundering around but I feel like I am probably not making wise choices.

Find a weapon you like and what boons work well for it (with the fists, I love Zeus's lightning on the main attack, whereas with the Adamant Rail, I love Dionysus's Festive Fog cast; this will vary by what you prefer playing with).

Upgrade Death Defiance fairly early on in the Mirror of Night. It's something I rely on less so now, but was essential early on to forgiving mistakes and letting me continue on in a run.

Give early nectar to both Cerberus and Skelly for their keepsakes, both are fairly nice early on.

At a certain point, you'll learn attack patterns, and better be able to dodge. I love finding additional dodges with Hermes as a boon (or the boon that makes you run faster just after dashing). In particular, this becomes necessary with bosses.

If you're not a fan of dodging, the shield gives you the ability to turtle a bit by holding down attack.

Aeazel wrote:

If you're not a fan of dodging, the shield gives you the ability to turtle a bit by holding down attack.

It's so good. I love when those "survive 45 seconds" events happen when I have the shield. Come on just try and hit me when I don't have to kill you hahaha.

Apropos of nothing, i'm so obsessed with this game right now i drew my next upcoming D&D PC in something as close to the style of HADES art as I could

IMAGE(https://smackfolio.files.wordpress.com/2020/09/esme-colour.jpg)

I beat the first boss yaaaaay! Got just the right combo of boons to have a somewhat easy time of it. Didn't take long to die in the 2nd level though. :p

Welp, I finally beat A&T with what I thought was a throwaway run and then I met a guy who refilled my rez stacks. Burned them all to do it, but level 4 here we go!

Well, heck—

Spoiler:

Hades redux got me. I so thought I had it! I was at like 3 hp when he went down...

Made it to Stage 4 after 14 runs. Since I hadn't seen the stage boss before felt pretty good getting them down to 40% health as a first try. Was using the sword which is by far my least favourite weapon so far. Loved how the gods were commenting "we didn't expect you to get here so fast" and I assume 14 runs to hit stage 4 is pretty quick.

- Got the +2HP on hit which while good, definitely lacked finishing power at higher levels. Would work better with a faster weapon I think
- Also had a 5% bonus damage per $ in inventory which I think ended up actually harming me more than helping. For that final fight I was carrying $1,400+ which is about 70 bonus damage but again, on a slow weapon like the sword I feel that it's not as helpful relative to what I could have spent it on (almost 10 boons from Charon)

I was worried I'd burn out on this one like I have on EVERY rogue-lite-like-ish-meh-maybe game in the past because on my third run made it to A&T and thought "oh no, here we go. Another rogue-ish where I somehow luck into a super long run, with no feedback, then get stuck middling on the first levels forever". But the power creep is really really smooth. By about run 6 I was consistently clearing stage 1 and 2, by run 9 it was just A&T tripping me up. Probably going to do some dark runs here to pump into some extra levels and then make another solid trip for stage 4 by around run 20-21 is my guess.

The "lite" part is extremely well designed and fairly forgiving. Pretty much every type of boon is workable, its just about adapting the playstyle.

OK, question - focus boons on a single attack type (e.g. normal, AoE, cast), or spread them around?

I've been tending to focus on a single one, which does mean that each run feels distinct from the previous ones as sometimes I'm using the same weapon in an entirely different way.

I don't like to use cast, but i normally want a different boon on my heavy and normal attack. Can be really nice for slowing/DoTing some folks with a heavy and then using your normal as a room clearer e.g.

This also increases your chance of duo boons dropping later which is good.

staygold wrote:

Made it to Stage 4 after 14 runs. Since I hadn't seen the stage boss before felt pretty good getting them down to 40% health as a first try. Was using the sword which is by far my least favourite weapon so far. Loved how the gods were commenting "we didn't expect you to get here so fast" and I assume 14 runs to hit stage 4 is pretty quick.

Prior to certain aspects, the most effective way to use the sword is to forget that your attack button exists. All special, all the time. If you get the Daedalus upgrades for double-special and increased special range, it's GG.

Jonman wrote:

OK, question - focus boons on a single attack type (e.g. normal, AoE, cast), or spread them around?

Depends on how the weapon is used. In the sword example I just gave, I won't even bother picking up an attack boon unless it gives a status effect I'm wishing to apply.

For cast, you are normally either committing to a cast build or using it as utility (do you want it for deflect? Do you want it for applying diamonds to activate your mirror buff? Do you want it for status effect application?). Unless you are committing to a cast build, it's generally a 1-point wonder and you don't apply any pomegranates and only selectively buff it.

Attack and special...if your weapon always combos them (e.g., some Fist aspects), then spread the love between them. Otherwise, I tend to focus very hard on one, putting all my pomegranates into my main damage dealing source and my Call when offered.

Don't sleep on powering up Calls. Everything but Aphrodite and Demeter become real boss killers when powered up. Ares and Poseidon, in particular, absolutely wreck the stage 3 & 4 bosses if you have leveled them up and found boons to increase duration or speed up your charge time.

Mr Crinkle wrote:

Don't sleep on powering up Calls. Everything but Aphrodite and Demeter become real boss killers when powered up. Ares and Poseidon, in particular, absolutely wreck the stage 3 & 4 bosses if you have leveled them up and found boons to increase duration or speed up your charge time.

Aphrodite's is an odd one, because instead of charming the bosses, it will briefly stun them and deal mass damage all at once (I've used it after a boss invulnerability stage to get them down really quickly).

I also think Zeus Cast is under valued as a nice one point wonder if you are not focusing on Cast. With no upgrades it does really good range AOE damage/clear for some fodder. I find it particularly useful in stage 4.

Deflect dash as previously mentioned I think is the truly strongest upgrade even over hammers.

There is one dash that I consider over deflect, and that's Poseidon's tidal rush. Particularly if you can augment the effects associated with it, you can really put out a massive amount of damage, particularly to groups of enemies. I'm not entirely certain of the mechanics of it, but I think you get into a thing where you bounce enemies off of walls multiple times and just melt down their health.

That said, it's not very useful for bosses whereas Athena's boon is immensely useful. And arguably all of your boons should be chosen with an eye towards boss fights.

Mr Crinkle wrote:
staygold wrote:

Made it to Stage 4 after 14 runs. Since I hadn't seen the stage boss before felt pretty good getting them down to 40% health as a first try. Was using the sword which is by far my least favourite weapon so far. Loved how the gods were commenting "we didn't expect you to get here so fast" and I assume 14 runs to hit stage 4 is pretty quick.

Prior to certain aspects, the most effective way to use the sword is to forget that your attack button exists. All special, all the time. If you get the Daedalus upgrades for double-special and increased special range, it's GG.

Hard disagree, the sword normal attack is fine!

Right, it's fine. The special attack is excellent. Armed with this information, the discerning player may make their decision.

GOOD DAY, SIR! Goddamn normie attackers.

Nonsequitur: For me Zeus and Hermes boons are the bottom of the barrel. And cast in general.

Ooh, I think it’s worth exploring a buffed up Zeus cast a bit more; as per Escher’s comment, it can do wonders clearing trash or downing shields, especially if you can spam three (or more) at once into crowds. Also, his lightning bolt on dashing a near-miss can cause real hurt to anything with a charge attack (see Astarion). I really want Hermes to be better since I usually love speed buffs in rogue-lites, but I agree that the bonuses are too small to really be noticeable.

Suck my normal attack crinkle
IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/ExSLB6x.png)

I do think Zeus/Hermes overall are lower tier boons in general. However, I just think when you don't have cast and lacking in AOE that the Zues one does a good job and makes "cast" useful when you are not going a cast build. Without it I often find I only use it when i'm trying to go a pure cast build.

Hermes buffs absolutely rule and never overwrite other buffs because they don't take up the main slots. You probably find them weak because you aren't mirrored up to the point where you get a lot of Epics.

40% movespeed, 30% attack or special speed, 100% damage if you have any bonus movespeed source, the list goes on.

Well yeah I haven’t beaten the game, I wouldn’t be playing then would I?

Mr Crinkle wrote:

Hermes buffs absolutely rule and never overwrite other buffs because they don't take up the main slots. You probably find them weak because you aren't mirrored up to the point where you get a lot of Epics.

40% movespeed, 30% attack or special speed, 100% damage if you have any bonus movespeed source, the list goes on.

Unfortunately I must agree with the Coward Crinkle in this matter.

I might be having my first win tonight. Had to break for baby stuff. But on area 3 I picked up 2 duo boons and some epic stuff. One is healing me at all times now that my revive count is at 0!

The other was a hammer I think that changed the shield charge attack into a ranged attack! So about the area that you would rush with the shield it shoots a wide attack instead. It's amazing. I still can block everything but also attack between enemy attacks and hold my position.

I completely kicked the sh*t out of A&T, almost felt sorry for them. My health (125) never got below 100 during the fight and ended at max.

Can't wait to get in and try 4th area later.

The old Stone Soup adage about hubris applies almost as much to Hades. Every time I get overconfident it kills me, it seems like my best runs are the ones where I pull through each area by the skin of my teeth and have to stay constantly on guard. As soon as I get that OP feeling I get lazy and dead :p

I'm starting to make some real progress in the game. On my 5th run, I finally beat the first boss for the first time (with the bow), and died a few rooms into the second region. On my 6th run, I beat the second boss on my first try (with the bow again, and the special attack up close is basically a shotgun), and then proceeded to die a few rooms in to the third region. I'm on my 7th run now, this time trying out the shield, and got through the first boss on the first try with it, thanks to casting two bloodstones onto her for boosted damage. Focusing on upgrading the mirror, like some in this thread have recommended, seems to be paying off.

Not looking forward to this third boss, though, after reading the thread.

I've finally seen credits on this one. Seeing as how I've been playing since before release, I suspect my number of runs is going to be a lot higher than most people's. Only 115 or so. It eventually became a blow-off-steam game for me, something I played out of habit. Which is how I've finished all but one of the Fates' prophecies (still missing the hidden aspect that came out with release, though I think I triggered the conversation path in my last run).

Also missing that last statue, which seems like a pretty big mountain to climb in itself. That one may have to stay hidden.

Oh man am I on a run. I’m running the gloves and have both lightning on attack and arrows on attack. Plus I have 5 dodges and extra dodge-strike damage. Hydra melted just as my battery was getting low. I feel godly, though I’m sure the final boss will wreck me again. Got him down to maybe 20% left with the bow and frost on strike that was particularly mean but still not enough.

EDIT Still not enough. I had Athena on call and I swapped out lightning for a heroic hangover at the last minute, thinking it might be better. He was again at about 20%. Aw well. I think I’m now 4-5 consistently getting to level 4 so that feels good.

I'm loving this game, though I'm not very good at it. I've had 53 runs and haven't made it out yet. I've got to the final level a couple times but only fought Hades once. I think its because I'm not good at these types of games (which is why its great that the game never makes you feel like a run was worthless) and because I love the variety, so once I got access to other weapons I've never used the same weapon in consecutive runs.