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

Enjoy the ride!

The first time you beat him will feel so good. I guarantee it.

YMMV, but I found that learning the fight against Hades required about as much effort as learning an entire act.

Vargen wrote:

YMMV, but I found that learning the fight against Hades required about as much effort as learning an entire act.

Once I beat him the first time it kind of felt like a dam broke and I was able to start beating him with relative consistency. I wasn't even using god mode. He only has a few moves, so once you know those he is manageable.

I felt the same way with the other bosses. It was only a handful of runs between "I need all the luck in the world to get past this hydra" to "If I get lucky I can beat the hydra without getting hit".

I had a long stretch where I was able to handle all of his moves most of the time, but the fight took so long that I'd usually screw up and get tatered by something I'd avoided a couple dozen times already.

I think getting past that point was a combination of better execution and learning to put together higher damage builds so the fight would be shorter. If you get the build thing down first then I could see him not taking quite so long to master.

I finally escaped! It's funny that I was able to finally break through using the bow and arrow which was initially at the bottom of my list of weapons. But I got the hold A to rapid attack boon which makes such a difference with the bow plus the weapon upgrade to have the special seek out the enemy. Weight of the Underworld off my shoulders!

I know this is old news for a lot of the people here but man this game is such a delight. I've given roguelikes a try a couple of times and just didn't think it was my genre. But the way the story, voice acting and artwork all work together leaves me with a smile on my face, rather than frustration at dying, over and over.

I just beat Megaera for the first time and escaped Tartarus, so I'm certain I have a long way to go. But after each run, there's something new or funny or interesting and leaves me thinking "Just one more...".

I'm curious to see how long I keep it up.

Felt the same way. You've got so much fun ahead of you!

I can't reasonably say I'm not a roguelite kinda guy, as I've enjoyed Death Cells, Celeste, Binding of Isaac, and many more. But usually I move on after a couple of hours. Children of Morta is the only one I actually finished.

I've been a huge fan of Supergiant Games since Bastion, and this might be their masterpiece. Everything seems to come together: Bastion's narration, how players are nudged towards experimenting with game mechanics in Transistor, the trickle of story beats in Pyre, ...

But I am losing momentum after 30 hours. I'm not 100% focused anymore, as the gameplay loop is getting repetitive, and I haven't even reached the Big Boss yet. Let alone defeated them several times to get all the story beats.

Regardless, I will make sure this game gets GOTY votes 3 years in a row

I really didn't like Bastion at all so I really resisted picking up Hades despite all the hype. But I'm so glad I succumbed to the hype and gave it a try.

I have reached the end boss 3 times, and having a little trouble getting motivated to throw myself back into the breach and finish. The godmode adjustment helps, but it's still a bit frustrating for an old gamer. Some day!

Rolled credits last night, but I'm not anywhere near done playing which is rare. Almost always I'm ready to move on to something else before I finish a game. Best game I've played in years. Slay the Spire is probably the last time I've been this in love with a game.

I think I'm ready to call time on this game. Credits rolled and I'm picking my way through the Epilogue, but it seems I have a long way to go to get that done. So I'll probably YouTube the rest of the story and move on.

I've put in nearly 48 hours, so that's a good go.

MrDeVil909 wrote:

I think I'm ready to call time on this game. Credits rolled and I'm picking my way through the Epilogue, but it seems I have a long way to go to get that done. So I'll probably YouTube the rest of the story and move on.

I've put in nearly 48 hours, so that's a good go.

I just reached the Big Boss for the first time, and actually got him down to 1/3rd of his health (in God Mode). I'm on the same page, if and when I beat him I'll maybe go for some achievements within reach. But I'm not going to finish the game over and over to get all the endings and will youtube the other ones.

dejanzie wrote:
MrDeVil909 wrote:

I think I'm ready to call time on this game. Credits rolled and I'm picking my way through the Epilogue, but it seems I have a long way to go to get that done. So I'll probably YouTube the rest of the story and move on.

I've put in nearly 48 hours, so that's a good go.

I just reached the Big Boss for the first time, and actually got him down to 1/3rd of his health (in God Mode). I'm on the same page, if and when I beat him I'll maybe go for some achievements within reach. But I'm not going to finish the game over and over to get all the endings and will youtube the other ones.

I personally found myself enjoying the game far, far more after I beat it the first time. That pressure to "get the W" was off and I had the mental freedom to just goof around with builds. The next 10 or so wins (I forget how many) necessary to get the "real" ending seemed like a breeze.

dejanzie wrote:
MrDeVil909 wrote:

I think I'm ready to call time on this game. Credits rolled and I'm picking my way through the Epilogue, but it seems I have a long way to go to get that done. So I'll probably YouTube the rest of the story and move on.

I've put in nearly 48 hours, so that's a good go.

I just reached the Big Boss for the first time, and actually got him down to 1/3rd of his health (in God Mode). I'm on the same page, if and when I beat him I'll maybe go for some achievements within reach. But I'm not going to finish the game over and over to get all the endings and will youtube the other ones.

Credits don't roll the first time you beat him. It takes 10 wins. It does get progressively easier, especially with weapons you're more comfortable with. The story beats as you play through after the first win are also very cool.

They start to get a bit few and far between after the true ending and you need to max relationships with a bunch of Olympians which is a bit of a grind. That's where I'm falling off.

Ah that's more clear, thanks. If the story beats become a bit more frequent between win 1 and 10, I will probably stick around. They have been awesome so far.

Yeah, every completed run gives some very cool story progression, and the Olympians start sharing more information.

And you start getting the resources to really explore your weapons and max out your Darkness.

When does Grandma show up? I was playing in late Early Access so I got her as soon as she was patched in, but as I understand it she doesn't start showing up until you hit some in-game milestone that I had already passed. Is it after your first Hades kill?

She shows up the first time you reach the surface. you don't need to win the fight.

It's probably not a surprise at this point, but I'd recommend spoiler tagging that last fact.

Finally beat the Big Boss - albeit in God Mode! I had a great run, with the Twin Fists + Aspect of Zagreus for extra dodging, the Lambent Plume I got up to 20+% extra dodge, and a bit of luck with getting Hermes' boon for another 12% dodge. The high DPS of Twin Fists combined with 40% dodge did the trick.

I'm looking forward to getting more story beats in my future runs, should be interesting

Now, do it a bunch more times!

Runs will start getting easier now as you get more titan blood from trading resources and beating bosses with different aspects.

The late mirror skills really help too as you get a lot more high end boons and synergies.

imbiginjapan wrote:

Runs will start getting easier now as you get more titan blood from trading resources and beating bosses with different aspects.

The late mirror skills really help too as you get a lot more high end boons and synergies.

I've been progressing so slowly that the mirror skills have been upgraded to the max, except for the dice skill

UpToIsomorphism wrote:

Now, do it a bunch more times! ;)

At least 9 more, from what I've understood

I was in a bit of a slump, especially after a few unlucky runs (zero gold vases nor gold encounters after giving me a 100% boost for my build, really?!), but I'm looking forward to enjoying the steamroll phase of the game. I used to love that in 90's CRPGs

Just reached the final boss for maybe the 7th or 8th time (still haven't beaten him). Had a solid build and felt pretty confident. The fight was going really well until my controller ran out of juice. In the time it took me to switch to a fresh one poor Zagreus got pushed in a corner and ganked out of two death defiances. Still ended up getting the boss down to a sliver of health before dying. I'm absolutely livid.

Developers make your games pause when the controller disconnects 2022 challenge.

jontra wrote:

Developers make your games pause when the controller disconnects 2022 challenge.

Usually the system does pause when controller disconnects. Happens with PS4/5 definitely.

What are you playing on?

Switch you could have hit the power/sleep button. PC, esc probably would have paused. Other consoles you can have CIC with your TV. My PS5 goes into rest mode if I power the TV off... or turns the TV on when I turn the console on.

I know it probably won't happen again. But I'm just curious.

Stele wrote:
jontra wrote:

Developers make your games pause when the controller disconnects 2022 challenge.

What are you playing on?

Yeah I should have mentioned it was on PS4.

Most games do pause when the controller disconnects, but a few don't (e.g. anything with multiplayer). I assumed it's something the developers have to explicitly enable.

I wish I could embed this Instagram post, but fans of Hades will get a kick out of it.

After I finished playing through all the Picross games a few months ago, I needed a new game I could play semi-mindlessly in the mornings while the kids eat breakfast, so I fired Hades back up. I've had god mode on for a while, and I did get my first escape before I put it down the last time, and I since got the true ending, though I don't remember if that was before or after my last break.

I've still been playing, and trying to clear all the prophecies. Spoilers, I guess?

Spoiler:

The main one I'm aiming for is the Persephone one that I think needs me to get affinity with all the gods. I'm pretty high with all of them, mostly just grinding runs and handing out nectar and ambrosia to get the last one or two.

I'm also trying to get through the various get all the legendary and duo boons, which are being kind of a pain. I think I'm only missing a few of each, and have the list of pre reqs, so I'm just fighting with the RNG gods. What's annoying is that one of them is Artemis, and I don't really like her boons, mostly.

Not sure how long I'll keep playing if I clear out all the prophesies, but I might. It fits a pretty nice niche of engaging, but easy to play in bursts and pick up and put down. Except that lately it sometimes locks up when it's paused and I wake the Switch up from sleep. I can close and reopen it, but it sometimes loses the partial run when it does that, annoyingly.