Hades (PC and Switch)

Just about to play this for the first time on PS5. Any 'must know' tips? Or just dive in blind?

Had Hades down to last hit there. Fired an arrow and he hit me before it hit him. I could have cried. Had a decent cast build going with Bow and aspect of Hera. Think Hades and me need some time apart

Finally managed to escape Hades. Used bow with aspect of Hera. Down to a sliver of health in the final fight but got the last shot in this time. Got lucky with a good duo boon in the last area that helped. Great ending for a rogue like, was not expecting that much from it but its really well done.

Finding that buff that gives you a deflect when dashing is a god send for the second boss! Especially in part 3. I was looking at that Dark Drinker, I think I may have to give that a go. I'm too headfirst to be able to manage health properly!

Just got this myself, seem to be having a lot more success with the bow because I find it easier to dodge damage.

Will go back to the sword when I level up my health

Someone recommended to use God mode til I level up, does that limit rewards or anything?

Wait.... what the f*ck is God Mode?!

Have gotten to the end of the third area. Got the boss down to about 20% health first try but couldn't withstand the attacks. Real shame too because I had an awesome setup. I nearly wish you could change weapons between areas, but probably make things too easy.

Athena's dash/deflect seems an absolute must. Spear with Athena's dash, Ares'/Dionysus' cast and Zeus' special is how I've been trying to go so far.

Ah, didn't cop it at all. Kinda seems like it'd hurt the story more, as talking to everyone each time you die really opens up their characters more.

Although you probably still die a fair bit on God Mode anyway, so maybe it's not too bad. I'll leave it alone at this stage anyway.

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

"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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 :)

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.

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?

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

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...

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.

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.

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...