Hades - Escaping Hell - first video game to win a Hugo Award!

Some minor tactics/tips that you may want to figure out yourself:

Cheers Aaron.
I've already been having fun with staffing effects from mirror abilities and boons and keepsakes, so looking forward to unlocking more to play with.

I've been mucking about with the chaos egg, to go grab those high risk high reward chaos boons without losing hp, but not sure the trade off is worth it over a keepsake that will boost my damage output, especially when I've got health recovery tied to collecting purple gems.

Yeah re: chaos Egg- If you level up the Cerberus collar then you'll get enough extra HP to get a "free" Chaos entry anyway, with the added utility of having extra health.

To be honest I always enter Chaos Gates and never find that the loss in HP is that debilitating.

Using the Fists feels like cheating at this point. With the +2 health per Special kill and a few well chosen Boons it was nigh on invincible even at Heat level 4.

Bought this tonight on Switch, very much liking it so far! 5 runs in and so far steadily improving - beat Meg on run 2 and just beat the hydra on my last run (and then died to Asterius and Theseus). I've only tried them once each other than the spear, but the spear is definitely my favourite weapon at the moment. Got to unlock the gauntlets(?) next, but spent my keys to unlock the first two extra mirror upgrade things. Cast on cooldown sounds pretty game changing - as does getting a revive every chamber!

The voice acting is damn good isn't it?

I thought the VA in Pyre was better. The character art, too. Game world art in this is on par with Pyre. Dunno where I stand on those compared to Transistor, as it's been so long since I played that last.

Desperately trying to get Daedalus auto attack for secret spear :lol:

All I keep getting instead is armour damage, attack range, hold special, etc and other shite I don't want.

Not played Transistor or Pyre, I didn't particularly get on with Bastion. The VA ad character art in this is great but the general game art doesn't really do anything for me. I've not paid enough attention to the music but it sounds like there are some great tracks.

About the only thing that's disappointing so far is the music. Supergiant have yet to beat Bastion in that respect.

Run 6 was my first with less progress than before - was using the sword and had +2HP attack which was working well, but the minotaur tore through me. I can't deal with him at close range apparently. Did finish meeting all the olympus gods at least!

Run 7, got to Hades. Didn't have any death defiance unfortunately, managed to get him close to half health before he killed me. Was a very good run health-wise though as I'd stacked my way to 268 which is what got me there! Was also my first run with a ZR special which seem pretty game changing.

Just respecced as now I can afford the alternate defiance so that should help going forwards.

Edit:

Got to Hades again but died to his second stage. Annoyingly think I'd have been ok had I not took.a boon that made my cast turrets fire towards me. Is the choice of sellable boons just randomised at each sell fountain?

Run 9 I bought the fists and then died really early to one of meg's sisters. I really don't like close range on bosses!

Saint of Killers wrote:Desperately trying to get Daedalus auto attack for secret spear All I keep getting instead is armour damage, attack range, hold special, etc and other shite I don't want.

Flurry Jab isn't available for Guan Yu aspect.

A tip for easy money (it won't ruin the game; this is still dependant on chance): if the boons on offer aren't doing it for you, but one of them is a duo boon, then go for that and sell it at next available Pool of Purging. It should get you 400+ gold.

Asterius and Theseus are the bane of my life. Got me on my first rail run, and then again with the sword - which I thought I had a great loadout for (annoyingly I actually beat Theseus and Asterius was almost dead when he go me). The only two times I've passed them it's been because I have had some sort of health regen. Anyone got any advice other than pray for health regen so I can cheese them?

I know to hide behind the pillars from Theseus' spear when locked on (or just dash sideways and hope). They just have so much health each. Honestly seem worse than Hades as he is just about managing the enemies he spawns in.

OrangeRKN wrote:Asterius and Theseus are the bane of my life. Got me on my first rail run, and then again with the sword - which I thought I had a great loadout for (annoyingly I actually beat Theseus and Asterius was almost dead when he go me). The only two times I've passed them it's been because I have had some sort of health regen. Anyone got any advice other than pray for health regen so I can cheese them?

I know to hide behind the pillars from Theseus' spear when locked on (or just dash sideways and hope). They just have so much health each. Honestly seem worse than Hades as he is just about managing the enemies he spawns in.

Pray you get Demeter's crystal laser. Feeling lucky still? Opt for Artemis boon and hope she duos with Demeter to turn crystal tracking OP AF. But you need CRAZY good luck for the latter.

Normal cheesing:

Athena's dash deflect (even base version is good enough) coupled with attack deflect to keep projectiles off you.

Hermes overall speed and or dash boons. The bull is very slow at turning, so even if you don't have speed/dash, swerve in and out of the stands or even in circles to keep him off you a bit.

Demeter's slow boon's are good too. I also sometimes use spear special - yeah, it's slow, but you do damage on the recall, so boost special attack. Again, that last one isn't for everyone. Oh and, I've not tried this, but Poseidon's push boons may help do extra damage if you can slam them into the walls. (And slam damage effect can be increased too, obviously.)

Spear cheese: Daedalus auto attack and or spread attack.

Sorry for the being a bit all over the place but I have so many play styles they're all a jumble in my head.

Oh and, you could always switch on God mode (you take less damage for every time you die), beat them and then switch it off.

Yeah SoK's advice is good there. I like combining Athena's reflect dodge with Hermes' bonus dodges.

But I usually approach that boss t fight the same every time - constantly dodge around the outside of the arena and use opportune moments to attack.

Spend some time in the Asterius only miniboss fight getting really familiar with him. He doesn't change from that fight to the main fight so he becomes super easy to predict and dodge away.

The shield is very OP against the minotaur. He can't hurt you at all while you're shielding.

Oh also when Theseus gets to half health he'll call for a god for help making the fight harder. Consider killing Asterius before Theseus gets to half health to make things a bit easier for you.

Any status effects are very useful too. Chill, Hangover or Rupture seem to work the best.

Killing Asterius before Theseus gets to half health seems like the way. Got through to Hades twice more but still no luck. Sometimes this feels a little FTL in that a good build for most the game can be terrible for the boss. Think I'm on 16 runs overall now so its still relatively early days but hopefully I won't be stuck here much longer.

Do people tend to take all 5 paths in the temple of Styx, or quit after 3?

Also is the shop in the house (or rately charon in the temple) the only way of getting more boss drops after you've got them with each weapon?

OrangeRKN wrote:Killing Asterius before Theseus gets to half health seems like the way. Got through to Hades twice more but still no luck. Sometimes this feels a little FTL in that a good build for most the game can be terrible for the boss. Think I'm on 16 runs overall now so its still relatively early days but hopefully I won't be stuck here much longer.

Do people tend to take all 5 paths in the temple of Styx, or quit after 3?

Also is the shop in the house (or rately charon in the temple) the only way of getting more boss drops after you've got them with each weapon?

Can you post a screen of your Mirror of Night's abilities/upgrades?

Depends how OP/fragile I'm feeling. Usually I stick with the 3 or even less if I get the sack earlier than that.

Nope, you eventually unlock something which allow you to earn those with the same weapon over and over.

16 runs and you've already made it to the final boss twice? I'm on well over 20 now, and can barely make it to the second boss again. :lol:

I know you don't like grinding for upgrades, but... you REALLY need to upgrade via the mirror.

I actually used a cthonic key to respec at the mirror, so I maxed out all the buffs I am using, and have left the others empty, which definitely helped.

I do fine against most of the normal enemies, but the bosses and mini bosses just completely ruin me still. Like the Doomstone can be a total ballache on a bow run, for instance, and leave me with no health, and while I was comfortable fighting Meg, now I have to face one of the other furies every time, I can't get past them any more, especially when you're fighting the one who rearranges the room layout until it's just a small square area with a length of corridor, and then sets up an AOE attack you can't get out of the range of.

I'm sure I just need to git gud, but I've been looking online at people who say they beat the whole thing after 20 odd runs, and it just baffles me.

Knoyleo wrote:I actually used a cthonic key to respec at the mirror, so I maxed out all the buffs I am using, and have left the others empty, which definitely helped.

I do fine against most of the normal enemies, but the bosses and mini bosses just completely ruin me still. Like the Doomstone can be a total ballache on a bow run, for instance, and leave me with no health, and while I was comfortable fighting Meg, now I have to face one of the other furies every time, I can't get past them any more, especially when you're fighting the one who rearranges the room layout until it's just a small square area with a length of corridor, and then sets up an AOE attack you can't get out of the range of.

I'm sure I just need to git gud, but I've been looking online at people who say they beat the whole thing after 20 odd runs, and it just baffles me.

Bow and arrow is one of the toughest weapons to get to grips with. I've only cleared the game with it once (total clears must be around 25-30) and made ample use of spray and pray option. The attack type which can crit if you hit when it blinks... meh. Too slow for me. Ditto the charge attack. (I bet they're the same attack :fp:

My memory is bad.) It'd also help if you got lucky and were able to alter one of your chosen weapon's attack with Daedalus's hammer early in the game. Always pick the hammer when you're offered it!!

With the furies, Meg and Tisiphone are fine but I've died twice to Alecto. I think she has stopped both of my fist runs, I don't know if it's just bad luck to have that combination or if I'm just bad with the fists in general :lol:

I've done two bow runs, both went well but my second went much better when I realised the bow is best as a short range weapon as you can unload the special at point blank for multiple hits - but the special is also great for crowd control, especially for stunlocking whole groups to stop them from firing.

@Knoyleo are you generally trying to make sure all your boons are spread out across attack/special/dodge/cast? I am very much tending to focus on a single approach and then min-max as much as possible for it. My last bow run for example I basically never used standard attack and only took one boon for it (because there was no better choice). I just used special/cast all the time. Likewise my last run which was with the spear and I only ever used the special (and previously I did the opposite with the spear and only ever used attack).

Saint of Killers wrote:Can you post a screen of your Mirror of Night's abilities/upgrades?

Currently this:

Only just unlocked the last two, haven't done a run with them yet.

Hades - Escaping Hell - first video game to win a Hugo Award!

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