Hades (PC and Switch)

johnny_ultimate

God Mode’s a bit more complicated than that. It gives you a boost right off the bat, but then gives the player additional boosts each time they die. So these can stack steadily to make you more damage resistant. It can then be turned off whenever the player wants.

It’s basically the game’s take on an easy mode: easing the difficulty curve without taking away the player’s sense of getting stronger with each run. Quite a clever way of implementing it IMO rather than making them immediately superpowered, while also ensuring the story structure stays intact.

skerry

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117774621#Comment_117774621

If you encounter the bosses buddy during the 3rd area before you get to the boss at the end when there's 2 of them, the buddy will have much less health and it'll be easier to focus on him and take him out of the equation. Its still a really tough fight though.

Sorry if that's a bit vague, trying to avoid spoilers

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117775005#Comment_117775005

No I totally get you. The buddy absolutely crushed me when I met him alone. When in the actual boss battle I probably focused too much on the buddy, whereas his attacks are easier to dodge so I should probably focus on t'other guy.

DarC_Kn1ght

"God Mode” is a toggle in the settings menu that you can turn on or off at any time during gameplay. Turning it on gives 20% extra damage reduction to Zagreus during gameplay, with the reduction increasing by 2% each time you fail a run with God Mode enabled, up to a cap of 80% reduction. The setting doesn’t affect any other aspect of gameplay, only adds damage reduction.

Stone Deaf 4evr

The Key to success in Hades, was foretold by the might prophets.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vm262cXxRrU

S club, they're gonna show you how....

joking aside, if you can get a few attacks that do damage on dodge - Ares has one that unleases a blade thing, you can sort of passively inflict damage over time by striking and dodging immediately after. The action can get hard to follow if the screen gets overly cluttered with stuff, but its a tactic that has served me well.

Penn

Have gotten to (what I presume is) the final boss a few times now. That one's going to take some work.

Spoiler Warning

Goddamn second phase surprised me when I was on my last sliver of health. Didn't stand a chance then. That was the closest I got to beating him. If there's a third phase then I'd rather just stay in Hell.

nullObjects

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117774621#Comment_117774621

Each time you fail it gives +1% damage resistance

I'm almost up to 50% 😅

There's an upgrade that lets you switch the item you can equip between areas by the way

edit - ah bugger sorry, for some reason the last page of replies didn't load when I opened the page.

I'm well behind the discussion now

nullObjects

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117775122#Comment_117775122

What I normally do is try to grab a cast upgrade that gives it an area of effect, then I toss that into the middle while I run around in circles on the outside and chip away at their health. When the bull chases after me then I run through the middle to pick back up the casts, land a hit or two and start again.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117792196#Comment_117792196

Yeah I can beat them consistently enough now. AoE damages by cast or dash works well for me, jump in, do AoE and dash back out. I try take out the spear guy first as I think the bull's attacks are easier to dodge as time goes on.

skerry

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117791517#Comment_117791517

He's a tough fight. I found once I got to him the first time I had a decent idea on good builds and could get to him again on most runs. Beat him third time I think. Once your used to his patterns after a couple of losses he's not as intimidating. Shield is good for him, you can defend all his attacks with it so positioning isn't as much of an issue. Once attack is defended you can rush in and get a few hits and leg it again.

DarC_Kn1ght

If I'm not playing hades I'm thinking about it. Terrific game. Now to go for the platinum 🏆

Penn

Gotta love when a run starts off poorly and you think this isn't going to be the run where I beat it, and then turns out it is. Finally beat him.

Hell of a game. Really just tremendous in every sense, one of the best designed games I think I've ever played. Everything works in such an incredible harmony. Excited to start focusing on some of the other weapons and see how that changes things.

skerry

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117799381#Comment_117799381

Fair play. What weapon did you beat him with? I've had a few runs like that where your losing interest and your build isn't coming together and then you get a killer boon in the last area and get an escape. Love how the did the ending, wasn't expecting that kind of quality from a rogue like.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117799688#Comment_117799688

Spear, infused with titan blood (the version where your special makes you dash to the spear and do extra damage for a few hits). Spear was definitely my go-to throughout. Decent damage but still good range to stay out of harms way.

Athena's attack and dash deflects, Dionysius' cast (put a good few poms into powering it up) and Demeter's call (with upgrades to mean my meter increased more when taking damage so I could use it more often) were most of what I ended up with for the final fight, as well as the usual hammer and chaos boons. Think I had an extra dash from Hermes, weak-infused attack from Aphrodite and revenge damage from Ares too. Ended up being a pretty solid build even though at the start I was getting nothing but darkness and gemstones. Plus found the item in the last area on second try and didn't feel the need to take the chance on some of the other tunnels so that helped a lot.

Interested to try the shield or the bow next.

skerry

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117800247#Comment_117800247

You can get a great cast build going on the bow with Aspect of Hera. You load all your casts into your bow and fire them all at once. Works really well with dionysus or poseidon cast. If you get the hammer upgrade that let's you fire bow without charging the shot you get instant nukes at the tap of a button. Its a fun build

nullObjects

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117799688#Comment_117799688

Exact same happened me. Just beat the final boss for the first time after failing a good few times

Had the shield and was taking a lot of damage but got the ice (/frost?) cast that lets you put down a crystal that fires into an area.

Just ran around hiding and planting them everywhere :)

AbusesToilets

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117791517#Comment_117791517

There's a third phase if you stack the punishments high enough. Possibly a 4th, can't remember exactly.

From what I've seen, I think Aphrodite's cast and special attack do the greatest single burst damage.

Still trying to work thru unlocking the hidden aspects.

Penn

Have now completed the game with spear, shield (though was on my last sliver of health), sword and fists. I tried the bow but was disappointed. Feels very slow and hard to stunlock enemies. I'm sure with the right upgrades it can probably do serious damage, but I'm just more of a jump in, attack, jump out kind of player.

Also "borrowed" money from Charon on one of my trips last night. That was a nice surprise.

Vicxas

Every time im forced to use the gun, i always look for the triple shot/ no reload option.

Still in love with the bow and Sword, Shield is fun but never seem to get passed Elysium with it.

TitianGerm

Started this last week with GamePass and loving it. Have all the weapons unlocked but stuck at the third boss now but I'll get past them.

I read you can upgrade your weapons but how do you do that?

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117837465#Comment_117837465

Once you've unlocked all weapons and then done another run (even if you die in it), the next time you go to the weapons, stand in front of whichever one you have equipped and you should be able to get an R1/RB prompt to inspect or unlock. Then you use Titan Blood to unlock different weapon aspects.

TitianGerm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117837492#Comment_117837492

Cheers, had done a few runs since I unlocked the last weapon but hadn't actually swapped weapon since so never noticed.

nullObjects

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117837504#Comment_117837504

I think the Skelly guy gives you an audio cue but you might not notice if you're throwing a few swipes at him :)

Potential-Monke

Just be wary, Titan Blood is hard to come buy, you get 1 for defeating the first boss with each weapon, and then none until you do something after endgame, and beat the first boss with each weapon again. Or something. You can also buy it for Ambrosia, but I've no idea if I should do that, internet says no.

I've gotten to the final boss with nearly each weapon, and nearly killed him with the Shield and Fists, can't get past Elysium with the Sword. But I swap each time so I'm not getting too used to each one, keeps it fresh. I'm so close, yet so far. Tartatus is a breeze now, Asphodel not too bad, Elysium can be tricky and goddam that poison!!! Still loving it. 40 runs so far iirc. Can't believe I'm still getting new conversations, but the boons are starting to repeat, which is fair enough.

Without spoiling, is the ending the first time the ending, or is there a "true" ending? While I can see myself beating it, I'm not usually one to play over and over again unless there's something definitely worth it, and usually these roguelikes get way too hard to get the proper ending...

johnny_ultimate

The proper, true ending does not happen the first time you beat the game. That said, the true ending isn't locked behind any kind of crazy difficulty or anything like that: if you beat it once, you're more than capable of getting the true ending, it just means playing the game more (not a bad proposition given how great Hades is to play). All the crazy hard difficulty stuff is entirely optional.

TBH one of the things I like about Hades is how generous it is in giving you options to hop off. Happy to just finish once and be done? Well it's not like there's a whole bunch of secret levels or anything you'll be missing out on. Want more? The road to the true ending gives you much more story and room to play around with the weapons and upgrades. Want even more? There's a bunch of entirely option post-game epilogue stuff.

Potential-Monke

That's the job. I like that, I do appreciate there are people out there who want mad craziness like the speed runs in Dead Cells, Hollow Knights, etc, but I'm happy to know that I can get the full story without being that punishing to myself. I haven't played any of Supergiants previous games, but they're up near the top of my rader for future releases, and I'll try to play their previous ones once I've finished with Hades. I'm astounded by how perfectly everything in this game works together, even if it's not your type of game, it's pretty much perfectly crafted.

Mickeroo

Been playing this lately too and loving it. Have mostly used the spear, seems to be the easiest weapon to use. Beat the game on my 25th run or so I think(3rd attempt on last boss) but not really come close since. Had a crazy good build that run though, 350 health, 4 death defies and a legendary boon from athena that made me impenetrable until someone managed to hit me on a seven second cool down.

Penn

Yeah I beat the game once after maybe 25-30 tries, then failed a few times after that. But I started getting into a good flow and ended up with a 7-win streak, beating it with each weapon and a few of the Heat levels.

Wasn't sure about endgame content but google tells me I'm probably just one or two more wins off unlocking the true ending and more endgame content. Might dip back into it at the weekend just for the true ending.

Once you pick which boons best suit your gameplay and focus on that, you can get into a pretty good rhythm. I had my own strategy I'd stick to in terms of keepsakes or which boons/upgrades to prioritise and when, but the beauty of the game is that there's really no one viable strategy over another. Whatever strategy you favour is viable and the best one for you.

pixelburp

Yes, I Was surprised how relatively straightforward the "true" ending was. No tricks, no nonsense about having to stand by a particular pot plant on a Tuesday; just a little extra grind - which wasn't a bad ask given Hades is such a joy to play, with there always being some new lines of dialogue to enjoy.

Potential-Monke

Fricken Hades! Thought I had it last night, had my most powerful build, flew through the first area, and by the time I was at Elysium I had the fists with deflect attack, deflect special and deflect dash, and Ares cast with 80% size and pull and Zeus' call.l. I murdered the lads in Elysium without barely taking damage, and got to the second stage without losing health, but he decimated me in the second stage... I even had the Acorn and death save and still got mullered.

God mode is looking at me, but I'm so close...