Hades is out now, holy heck

[narcodis]

Alright I finally got the dream Poseidon sword aspect run. really all it needed was the Artemis boon that does damage when a cast is ejected. Boosted damage on specials and a decent cast were all just a bonus. The triple cast + special to eject them all would do something like 2000 damage minimum. I had all sorts of crit stuff going on as well so sometimes that 1200 would turn into 4-5k or so. But man, I guess I should think about using the Artemis keepsake if I wanna try that weapon again, just because it feels almost necessary to make it work.

 

[YangusKhan]

I always pick the Artemis keepsake when I use Poseidon sword

 

[Mightyblue]

Both unlockable sword aspects seem to pretty much require heavy Artemis investment, yeah.

 

[Sarcasmorator]

I liked the Arthur sword.

 

[Mr Bean]

Noob question: now that I’m getting comfortable getting all the way to dad and having a decent shot at beating him, what should I be spending my titan blood on? Should I just pour it into my favorite weapon or spread it around and try all the aspects? Are there specific aspects that are the “good ones” or should I just go and try anything that sounds cool?

 

[Neo Skimbleshanks]

Spread it around the weapon groups, at least, because you're incentivized to switch groups each run.

To unlock final aspects, I think you need to have invested a number (five?) of level ups into a weapon group. So the cheapest way to do that is to invest in the first weapon per group because level ups only cost one titan's blood. I'd recommend unlocking everything you can, trying them out (...if they seem fun) and then only focusing on one aspect-per-group at a time. Once I maxed out an aspect for a weapon group, I didn't spend more titan blood in that group until I maxed at least one from every other group. Does this make sense? It's been months.

I think all final aspects have prophecies associated with getting to Hades (and beating him?) with them. Some of them are very easy to use and you don't need to invest much to try them out, but others are that one spear.

 

[karzac]

Noob question: now that I’m getting comfortable getting all the way to dad and having a decent shot at beating him, what should I be spending my titan blood on? Should I just pour it into my favorite weapon or spread it around and try all the aspects? Are there specific aspects that are the “good ones” or should I just go and try anything that sounds cool?

Just go for the ones that sound cool. Try everything until you find one you like.

 

[lincolnic]

I think all final aspects have prophecies associated with getting to Hades (and beating him?) with them.

You just have to reach Hades with the final aspects, you don't necessarily have to beat him.

 

[Paul le Fou]

Noob question: now that I’m getting comfortable getting all the way to dad and having a decent shot at beating him, what should I be spending my titan blood on? Should I just pour it into my favorite weapon or spread it around and try all the aspects? Are there specific aspects that are the “good ones” or should I just go and try anything that sounds cool?

I would spread the blood around to unlock each one, then dump blood into the one or two you like the best. Don't spend blood on any of the "Aspect of Zagreus" basic versions, though.

Spoiler: Detailed breakdown by weapon about how they match certain play styles

Sword:
Nemesis - Pretty plain (i.e. similar to the normal playstyle you're used to). A solid normal attack build with lots of Specials cycled in. If you don't like normal sword, this one won't change your mind. Particularly shines with Artemis on attack for lots of crit.
Poseidon - Departure. Strongly emphasizes cast-based builds in particular, and changes up your rhythms to maximize that. Artemis's "Exit Wounds" boon is very good if not semi-required. Keep in mind that you super-duper-shouldn't get casts that don't stick in enemies (Dionysus, Demeter, Ares; Zeus sticks but is finicky what with its bouncing)

Spear:
Achilles - Moderate departure from normal play; the rush adds a lot of mobility to the kit, and gives a rare boost to cast (or attack, ofc) damage. My preference.
Hades - Plain. Emphasizes the spin a lot by buffing it and if you like playing with that, but doesn't change up the kit much beyond that.

Shield:
Chaos - Plain or moderate departure; emphasizes lots of blocking and charging to get the extra shields, so it benefits if you already like to block and rush a lot. Needs particular boons on shield to really shine, but up to 5 shields at a time can do some damage, I guess.
Zeus - Huge departure from normal playstyle, probably the biggest of any normal aspect. Sends a slow spinning saw-disc out to sit or be called back manually. It's a little finicky, but can do AMAZING damage with good positioning (protip: use the shield's knockback to push enemies into it!) Put Zeus's boon on special and it's insanely powerful. One of my top 2 or 3 favorite aspects in the game.

Bow:
Chiron - Big departure, in that it redefines your attack rhythms (attack-special-special, repeat). Extremely powerful single-target damage; attack-special-special absolutely melts enemies but it's a little weak on AoE (so just get a cast imo). Another of my top 3 aspects. Typically my recommendation for "first aspect to power up" (if you like the bow).
Hera - Moderate departure in that you lose your cast entirely, but your bow attacks are otherwise the same (albeit empowered by the casts ofc, so it emphasizes powerful attack shots).

Fists:
Talos - Moderate departure. Magnetic cutter is very good - Draws enemies in, giving more control/mobility to the short-range fists; also boosts attack and cast damage nicely.
Demeter - Plain. I don't get this one. Strong focus on huge special attacks after a few punch combos, but 12 attacks is a weird number to base that on; feels arhythmical.

Rail:
Eris - Plain. The big difference is that you need to get up into your special's blast radius, so you're more mobile, but it boosts all your damage by a big chunk, so it's really versatile with whatever normal builds you're into.
Hestia - Departure. Prioritizes huge first shots and frequent manual reloading; leans much more heavily on the attack-boosting boons (i.e. no Zeus/Dio/Ares) for those big multipliers. People like this one but I haven't gotten it to work for me personally.

 

[Neo Skimbleshanks]

Don't spend blood on any of the "Aspect of Zagreus" basic versions, though.

I maxed out the defaults fists just to have Maximum Dodge with the Hermès (autocorrect; I'll leave it) accessory. It was fun. Not too much extra Titan's Blood. But yeah, you're better off spending TB on more expensive aspects.

 

[lincolnic]

Don't spend blood on any of the "Aspect of Zagreus" basic versions, though.

Generally yes, but if you want to collect Skelly's companion, you'll need to max out the basic Zagreus sword.

 

[Mogri]

words on swords

Another way to look at it, if you like casts, is that each weapon has one aspect that emphasizes casts in one way or another (Poseidon sword gives you more bloodstones, Hera puts your cast into your attack, and hidden shield does things, and Achilles, Talos, and Eris all boost cast damage).

 

[Paul le Fou]

Generally yes, but if you want to collect Skelly's companion, you'll need to max out the basic Zagreus sword.

True, but I recommend waiting til later. It costs a total of 5; that's chump change later on, but to start out, that's several powerful upgrades.

 

[lincolnic]

True, but I recommend waiting til later. It costs a total of 5; that's chump change later on, but to start out, that's several powerful upgrades.

An entirely fair recommendation!

 

[Mr Bean]

Thanks for the tips everyone. And thanks to Paul for the big weapon breakdown. I finished runs with all the basic weapons last night giving me a bunch of blood for fuffilling the prophecy. I’m doing one heat runs playing around with all the aspects.

I think there might be an argument for tuning up the standard bow. I had put a blood into the aspect of Zagreus when I was first experimenting with it and I may have lucked into a decent build for it. I got lucky with an early Zeus boon and hammer giving me rapid shot with chain lightning. I was throwing so many little hits that the crit was proccing pretty regularly. Meg and the hydra just melted like butter under a blowtorch and regular rooms went down in like 10 seconds. Throw in jolted and the Zeus legendary and just constant streams of numbers were flying from all the enemies at once.

Also - Zag started calling the bone hydra Lernie last night and the health bar changed to match. This is a good video game.

 

[YangusKhan]

I think there might be an argument for tuning up the standard bow.

My argument against it is that every other bow aspect is more fun (imo, obviously)

 

[lincolnic]

My argument against it is that every other bow aspect is more fun (imo, obviously)

I'm with you there. I've seen more than one person say that you can get a ton of damage from the regular bow by standing right next to an enemy and shotgunning them with the special attack, but I haven't felt inclined to try when I can just put Artemis on the Chiron bow and go to town.

 

[R.R. Bigman]

Has anyone here gotten the second ending? If so, how does that work, roughly?

 

[Neo Skimbleshanks]

The epilogue? Requirements are here. The time consuming thing is you need to get as far as you can with six Olympian gods’ relationships. I think I always had enough... relationship moneys... to always give them to whoever I met without restricting it to just six.

 

[R.R. Bigman]

Thanks, that‘s a helpful link. I already have four Olympian’s bonds, so I should be getting close.

 

[lincolnic]

Just got the epilogue today, in fact! Though I feel like there's still a ton of stuff to do. I think the highest heat I've won with so far is 5...possibly 6. I'm finally at the point where I feel like I can more or less freely level up whatever weapon aspect I want without feeling like I'll never have Titan Blood again. To that end, I did indeed fully level up the Guan Yu spear before taking it out for a (winning) run and oh man, does that thing hit hard. I was able to pick up the hammer upgrade that cuts your charge time to almost nothing, and after that the run was easy mode.

 

[Mr Bean]

I think all final aspects have prophecies associated with getting to Hades (and beating him?) with them. Some of them are very easy to use and you don't need to invest much to try them out, but others are that one spear.

Speaking of, the final spear form unlocked for me last night with only 4 blood put into it I think. Dunno how that happened. It’s neat but I am nowhere near good enough yet to use it.

 

[Neo Skimbleshanks]

Guan Yu has slightly different unlock requirements than other final aspects - TB in five separate non-Zagreus aspects, spear or otherwise. All other final aspects have the 5 TB in the weapon group requirement. (in addition to various conversations and whatnot) Also all of them require having revealed the Guan Yu aspect.

 

[madhair60]

I got to Hades for the first time and died. I can't decide if I like this game or not. It's fun to play but I don't think it's very well designed. I'm rarely sure what's hurting or killing me

 

[Regulus]

Really? In my experience, the enemies have pretty distinct and consistent tells. Consistent enough that the Forced Overtime pact really throws my timing. I think the only thing that really feels spotty to me is the toxic puddles that the giant vermin spew.

 

[R.R. Bigman]

I found Hades visually taxing the whole time I played it. Sometimes I still could not comprehend what was happening in certain boss fights where too many purple orbs were on screen at once.

I got the Epilogue, such that it was, and completed all the different character's associated minor prophecies, so I guess I'm done. I put 90 hours into a game with essentially four levels, so it had to be doing something special.

 

[lincolnic]

I got to Hades for the first time and died. I can't decide if I like this game or not. It's fun to play but I don't think it's very well designed. I'm rarely sure what's hurting or killing me

I think it's well designed (the overwhelming majority of the game feels way too well balanced for me to say otherwise), but the problem I have is more that there's no real feedback for when you take damage rather than knowing where the damage came from, if that makes sense? Though like R.R. Bigman said, there are some rooms where it's just really hard to tell what's going on. Even with 80 hours into the game I still feel that way. I'm not sure how I'd fix it, though.

 

[Mightyblue]

The problem is mostly that if you're playing on controller, the rumble function's basically going at a low level all the time in feedback to your actions and there's not a strong enough impetus on a hit to differentiate.

 

[Paul le Fou]

I think Hades is extremely well designed, but the low clarity of feedback for having taken damage is a pretty widely-recognized flaw in its overall play, and even after 100+ runs it's sometimes not entirely clear what hit me if for no other reason than there's so much stuff happening at once it's almost impossible to track it all.

 

[lincolnic]

Had to come back and post the most ridiculous casting build I've ever had. Started with True Shot from the first room, picked up Rare Crop very shortly thereafter when that and one other boon were the only ones I had. All I was missing was the legendary Hermes boon to auto-return my shards, but pretty much nothing stood a chance. I'm honestly not even sure how I lost two Defiances fighting Hades.

(I don't hate the spear or the bow, I just use whichever weapon has the darkness bonus. Those don't come up as often for some reason!)