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Hades is out now, holy heck

aturtledoesbite

earthquake ace
(any/all)
How the Heat system works:
Each weapon has a bounty level that starts from 1. Once you have heat equaling or exceeding that bounty level for that weapon, you get new rewards. Once you clear with that weapon at that bounty level, the bounty level rises by 1.

For example:
Starting with Bounty level 1, you take one Heat. This allows you to get the unique rewards from each boss (assuming you haven't beaten that boss/bounty/weapon combo yet), rather than just a pile of Darkness. Once you clear the game, that weapon goes up to Bounty level 2, and you now need two Heat to get new rewards.

Also starting with Bounty level 1, you find low heats boring, so you skip to Heat 5. However, you still only get the rewards from Bounty level 1. Once you clear, the bounty level rises to 2 for that weapon, which you can then use the same 5 Heat to obtain.
 

Sarcasmorator

Same as I ever was
(He/him)
the joke of Zagreus’s quest structure compared to how Sisyphus is always on a break when you encounter him is pretty funny
 
Tip for anybody who wants to keep their 30 win streak going: while the Tight Deadline timer pauses in many safe situations, standing in the shop is not such a situation. So don't say, put down your controller for five minutes to take a phone call without hitting that pause button first.
 

Destil

DestilG
(he/him)
Staff member
Thanks, the UI is absurdly unhelpful about that!

Yeah, using gates was a big motivation to turn up the heat
 
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karzac

(he/him)
You can absolutely do this. If you only play at 5 heat, you'll keep getting rewards until you've gotten rewards for heats 1 through 5.

Also, playing at higher heat will allow you to use the Erebus portals, so it's not all downsides.

This is really good to know, I had no idea! I rarely used Erebus gates in EA because of this precise misunderstanding, I'm glad to learn I was wrong!

In other news, I unlocked the Rail's hidden aspect and it seems reaaaallllly fun. Very excited to try it out.
 

Kalir

Do you require aid.
(whatevs)
Probably my favorite weapon in the game, that. Here's a hint: both Athena and Zeus make for very handy choices on the flourish!
 

Kalir

Do you require aid.
(whatevs)
Divine Flourish works best on things with big active hitboxes, and the Hellfire orbs frequently pulse for minor damage, so each of those pulses counts as a Deflect. Thunder Flourish adds a lightning bolt when it scores a hit, which will also detonate the orb, turning them into proximity mines.
 
Decided to try out Extreme Measures 4 since I lost my winning streak earlier today anyway, and actually knocked it out first try. I think that's been the case for each level of Extreme Measures, interestingly enough. It was definitely much more difficult, but I may wind up enabling this more often; I usually end the final fight with plenty left in the tank, so putting a final encounter that really tests the quality of the run seems intriguing.

YQqKTD2.png
 

Sarcasmorator

Same as I ever was
(He/him)
Four clears now, two in a row after a string of defeats following my second. This one was weird. I took a Daedalus upgrade (twin shot) I really didn't end up liking much and kinda screwed up my play plan, but later managed to change it to rapid fire instead of a charge shot and get some really god-tier (ha!) defensive buffs and Death Defiance replenishment. In the end I didn't even need to use Skelly's Tooth.

 
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Sarcasmorator

Same as I ever was
(He/him)
So who's NOT worth giving extra nectar to? I know a bunch of characters you eventually get summons for, but I can't figure out if you get anything from the rest for plying them with sweet stuff after you get a keepsake.
 
You can see a list of characters that give companions here. You can see if there's one you particularly want and go for it. Note they can't (immediately?) be used in all encounters and you level up the number of encounters you can use them in with Ambrosia. I only have two companions, but I only ever use one. (in contrast to Keepsakes) Maybe I'll experiment when I get more.

I've heard to see the epilogue, you have to raise relations with Olympian gods, who don't give companions, but I've also heard... that's not true. I've saved them for last anyway. Don't feel particularly starved for nectar at the moment but you can buy more with keys which you probably won't need many of once you unlock all the mirror boons - it just costs a very generous one to respec.

Anyway, raising relations with any rando gives you the satisfaction of no longer having a reason to bump into them and press ZR before RB or whatever.
-
What are your favorite aspects?
 

Serephine

and a spark kindled carpet into flame, Blooming
(she/her)
If you really want to know who gives out summons it's Meg, Dusa, Than, Sisyphus, Skelly, and Achilles, but there's story lines and quest chains and interesting stuff hidden behind everyone's affection meters.
 

Mogri

Round and round I go
(he)
Staff member
Moderator
Nectar for everyone! Definitely prioritize a single nectar to each character to start with, but after that, give it to the characters you like best. You'll be swimming in the stuff eventually anyway.
 

Sarcasmorator

Same as I ever was
(He/him)
I actually already gave a nectar to everyone and peeked at the companions list, I just wasn't sure if there was any point on wasting extra nectar on anyone who wasn't on the companions list. Sounds like I can put the Olympians, etc., low on the priority list.
 

Mogri

Round and round I go
(he)
Staff member
Moderator
There are affection-locked quests here and there, I'm pretty sure, which show up on the fated list and give you nice rewards.

Once you get a certain contractor upgrade, nectars also upgrade a random boon by a level, making them by far the best low-tier reward. There's also the Dionysus boon that makes nectar increase your health. Even without those, nectar is so key to progression early on that you want to gun for it whenever it shows up.
 

Sarcasmorator

Same as I ever was
(He/him)
Yeah, I went for that upgrade as soon as I could. I generally go for hammers and nectar every time they're available.
 

Cyrael

...we're shy.
(he/him)
Rolled Credits!

I had lost count of the number of clears I had made, and decided to try and beat it with my least favorite weapon (Adamant Rail) with Heat turned up to 8 to unlock the first of the covered things in the weapons room. I had a shitty run of things, and even though a lucky Patroclus visit helped refill my Death Defiance, doing the expanded Theseus fight sucked hard and I ended up with just one DD afterwards. I had totally resigned myself to losing against Hades and went into the fight with only 10 health and no DD left. Lucky me though he just let me go on through giving me a free win! I am now trying to decide how much more I am going to play. I want to get more of the summons still (I only have Skelly and Sisyphus right now) but not sure if there is any more major stuff to do?

This game is very good.
 

Mogri

Round and round I go
(he)
Staff member
Moderator
not sure if there is any more major stuff to do?
There's still the epilogue. I have not yet reached the epilogue, but I've unlocked the quest to reach the epilogue.

Other than that, you'll want to get the keepsakes from Mom and Dad now.
 
Rolled Credits!

Nice! I had a similar experience on my credits run.

I was on a 6 heat run with the shield, the weapon I’m least comfortable with, and burned through two Death Defiances in Elysium and Styx. I had restored one of them with a Well of Charon purchase, but was nervous about how poorly boss encounters had been going thus far and decided to risk one extra set of chambers in Styx in hope of finding a game changing boon or another lucky Well of Charon to restore the other Defiance before the last boss.

I ended up facing a room full of elite Satyrs with much higher speed from Benefits Package, and managed to instead lose both remaining Death Defiances and most of my health bar. I was ready to write off any remaining hopes for the run, focused my remaining coins on buying unhelpful boons from the fated prophecy lists, and braced to last as long as possible in the Hades encounter, only for Hades to give me a free pass just this once to watch the proper ending with the credits without a fight.

I gratefully accepted the opportunity to learn a bunch of hard lessons without the actual brutal moment of failure, and completed my next shield run with no deaths and a full health bar (albeit with a fully depleted acorn).
 
not sure if there is any more major stuff to do?

It depends on what you enjoy about the game, and how far you want to go. There are quite a few goals still, but they may or may not be of interest.

  • I find a lot of the prophecies interesting to do for story related reasons. Several of these are what earn you the summons you mentioned, others are just for flavor. Most of them are mentioned by name in the achievements, so things like 'Night and Darkness' are achieved just by doing a lot of runs and giving the proper NPC's gifts.
  • Heat is a very interesting mechanic to play with. In addition to just trying out all the options, there are the rewards at 8, 16, and 32 heat. If you don't enjoy the cumulative heat, I wouldn't push these, as the reward is very minor, but if you do, those runs can be quite interesting and different (especially the 32 heat one).
  • Extreme Measure 4 should unlock shortly and changes the final boss, which is worth seeing at least once.
  • As Mogri alludes to, their is an epilogue to unlock. I have never found the exact requirements, but suffice it to say that it's a long haul goal. I got it on my 103rd total run, I believe. It definitely seems related to making a lot of friends with the gods.
  • If you haven't unlocked\tried them, the final weapon aspects are very different, as well. The sword aspect is my favorite way to play that weapon, and I like all of them except the rail and spear (and I've seen people have very mixed opinions on the rail).

Ultimately, though, the credit roll ends in a very nice place, and everything else is only something I'd push for if your still having fun with the varied runs. I was, so I found the above to be enough to keep me going.

Oh, and one other thing I recommend if things start to feel to the same, just do every run with the weapon that will reward the extra 20% drops each time. This is very random, so I didn't stick to it strictly, but it did keep me from just doing my favorite combo over and over again.
 

Sarcasmorator

Same as I ever was
(He/him)
Pretty sure I've heard you can arrange a threesome with Thanatos and Meg also, if that's the sort of thing you like unlocking character bonds for

I'll probably take a break after the credits roll and come back to this after a different game, maybe Tacoma, which I've been meaning to get to.

I got the hidden spear aspect and it was a fun thing to try out. Got out of Styx but didn't beat the game with it yet; tough drawback on that thing!
 

Mogri

Round and round I go
(he)
Staff member
Moderator
Epilogue requirements, as I understand them:
  • Beat the game, of course.
  • Two conversations with Demeter where she mentions her missing daughter Kore.
  • Three conversations with Zeus where he mentions Demeter's missing daughter.
  • Several conversations with Mom and Dad.
  • At least ten runs under your belt post-credits.

These requirements appear to be necessary but not sufficient. The fated list mentions making friends with the Olympians, and I'm not sure if that means getting max hearts or what.
 
Epilogue requirements, as I understand them:

I would say it requires you to give ambrosia to them, based on the fact that my epilogue finally rolled when I was able to hand it out to Poseidon (I still don't know why he finally unlocked, but I assume it's fish related). You definitely don't have to do all of them, as Demeter won't take Ambrosia till after the epilogue, and I hadn't personally done Dionysis. Your list definitely sounds about right as necessary, though.
 

nataeryn

Discovered Construction
(he/him)
I have unlocked the Heat system. It was really close. I only won because i had +2 health from every normal attack. Also the mirror upgrade that gives bonus damage when 2 curses are applied is quite good. I had splash dash with rupture and drunk on attack.
 

upupdowndown

REVOLUTION GRRR STYLE NOW
(he / him / his)
has anyone forged a bond with Hades himself? He's the last person I'm missing. I'm one heart away from being able to do it but I haven't been able to give him anything in a VERY long time and I have a ton of clears under my belt...
 
Hades might have literally been the first person I maxed out hearts on; I didn't focus on anyone in particular, and he has so few. I don't recall there being any particular trick to it or anything, though maybe I somehow triggered something unintentionally.
 

Mogri

Round and round I go
(he)
Staff member
Moderator
You do need to roll credits before you can max Hades, but I imagine you've done that.
 
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