Hades (Supergiant Games)

Triple bombs w/ the gun was my fav

Rajaah said:

Just unlocked the last? weapon, the AR-15. At first I was like "this thing doesn't do any damage, meh" and almost went back to the shield, but then I got a few powerups for it and DAMN. Especially the Zeus powerups. AR-15 plus Lightning Strike to proc electric bolts plus Storm Lightning to chain the bolt effects = Mass destruction that homes in on foes and can clear a screen pretty fast. I'm taking way more damage than I was when I used the shield, though, probably because I'm spending a lot more time standing still instead of constantly dashing/blocking/bullrushing.

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I love it with a larger Ammo Clip and Autofire, then stack the % boons or ricocheted. - as you mentioend lightning is super fun.

yeah i 100%'d it on gamepass earlier this year and i totally see why it won so many 2020 GOTY awards, it really is an amazing, accessible, fun and easy-to-digest in bite size pieces game. 100% worth a play on any platform, its absolutely fantastic on xbox/psn for 60 fps and crazy fast loads but I'm sure switch is great too. I'm playing Deathloop now and while they share similar core concepts, Hades is SO much more fun.

only real advice i'd say is don't get too married to any weapon or style, its crazy how often you'll try a new weapon with a slightly different config (based on hammers, boons, etc) and suddenly find yourself feeling god tier. You can only get 2 upgrades (daedalus hammer icon on maps) per run so prioritize those first always and try all of em out so you can see what works and what doesn't. Its crazy the gap between clear times when you have an amazing loadout vs a meh one. that doesn't even get into the whole heat level stuff, which adds a crazy layer on top of the difficulty.

also on xbox/psn using a controller with paddles is AMAZING, i finally learned how to use my elite xbox controller paddles because dashing while attacking at the same time is crazy great and easy on the hands

Deathwing said:

I'm having trouble getting past the Minotaur and his friend. I have a few issues that I'm unsure how to resolve.

How integral(to beating the game) is using Cast? I suck at aiming, especially while trying to dodge, and the pseudo cooldown nature the skill means I basically never use it.

Taking damage annoys the fuck out of me and leads to frustrated and sloppy play. I'd love to play a build that takes damage and heals it, but I'm guess that doesn't really exist? I'm old and suck at dodge stuff. Even stupid shit like those skulls still hit me sometimes.

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I basically never use cast unless I have a build around it. The minotaur is pretty easy you just gotta kite him behind pillars while you avoid Theseus and kill him 1st. You should probably try different shield builds and practice blocking.

Deathwing said:

I'm having trouble getting past the Minotaur and his friend. I have a few issues that I'm unsure how to resolve.

How integral(to beating the game) is using Cast? I suck at aiming, especially while trying to dodge, and the pseudo cooldown nature the skill means I basically never use it.

Taking damage annoys the fuck out of me and leads to frustrated and sloppy play. I'd love to play a build that takes damage and heals it, but I'm guess that doesn't really exist? I'm old and suck at dodge stuff. Even stupid shit like those skulls still hit me sometimes.

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Just need to learn to dodge through him as he swipes, and again as he leaps if you're melee, otherwise just kite like hell as ranged. Athenas deflect ability also helps greatly if you're using a melee weapon

Deathwing said:

I'm having trouble getting past the Minotaur and his friend. I have a few issues that I'm unsure how to resolve.

How integral(to beating the game) is using Cast? I suck at aiming, especially while trying to dodge, and the pseudo cooldown nature the skill means I basically never use it.

Taking damage annoys the fuck out of me and leads to frustrated and sloppy play. I'd love to play a build that takes damage and heals it, but I'm guess that doesn't really exist? I'm old and suck at dodge stuff. Even stupid shit like those skulls still hit me sometimes.

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when you're first learning bosses, if you have it unlocked the shield is pretty good. Holding down the button blocks (infinite time) all damage from the direction of shield, so you can take your time and learn positioning, tactics, boss attacks, etc. Its not a great weapon usually itself (some boons make it crazy) since damage tends to be low, but I found it extremely useful in learning all the fights.

for some weapons cast is absolutely insane, there are boons you can mix from dionysus (wine god) and the old frost chick that create pools on the ground that tick damage as mobs move through them. with some crazy builds i've killed theseus and the minotaur in under 15 seconds together.

some other minotaur tips: halfway through elysium, always pick the doors that are boss tier (I forget exactly what sets them apart on the door symbols but its obvious, like a skull i think?). If you kill minotaur solo before the end level fight, he has 20% less health. and as rob said kill the minotaur first, fights easier with him out of the way.

Well of course aggressive high damage play is always rewarded but you need to be competent enough to not get run over. If your goal is to be able to continually take hits then you're not going to go far no matter how much you unlock.

Also buy yourself a controller.

You're crippling yourself irl and in game.

Deathwing said:

Finally got Hades down. Used Achilles' Spear, but I don't think much of my damage came from attacks nor casts. I want to say triple dash strike while maintaining boiling blood and privileged status was most of my damage. 40 attempts, almost maxed out mirror, preferred Athena boons for deflection.

Playing this game makes my left wrist hurt(keyboard and mouse). Maybe I'm evaluating the gameplay incorrectly, but it seems to incentivize dps. As in, bursting down bosses leads to less damage taken rather than playing to the mechanics. And it seems one of the most reliable ways(as in, not RNG from which boons you're offered) to boost damage is boiling blood and privileged status. Which means attacking, dashing, specials, and casts. For how much you have to dodge, that's too many buttons for my taste. FWIW, I like 1-2 button builds in PoE, and my wrists almost never hurt playing that game.

Desire to continue playing isn't really there. I don't get the sense that continuing to grind will open up some new build options. I'm looking for something that's tankier, less twitchy, and forgiving on mistakes.

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I rarely cast unless I get some good boons for it. And there's certainly defensive styles (shield/ranged) , but the issue with playing defense is there aren't many reliable ways to replenish your life, and the longer the fight goes on, the more chances you'll eventually be hit.

You never need to do all 4 of those things. Some weapon aspects are suited to Cast builds and so you try to take cast boons and just dash and cast. Some are suited to attack so you take attack/hammer boons and just attack and dash. Some are suited to specials... you get the idea.

You never NEED to build all 4, though sometimes you get some nice boon synergies and use both attack and special or attack and cast, etc though the most powerful setups usually focus on just one method of attacking in tandem with dash. Learning how boons synergize and unlock is key to figuring out how to navigate your way through each run to fish for boons.

I always played with M/KB but everyone who's played this game seems to agree that controller is superior.

Deathwing said:

Cast is a requirement for boiling blood. 50% more damage seems too large to ignore on bosses. And because it seems not every bosses will grant their curse to casts, or some of them in a shitty way(Aphrodite), or some of them that prevents the cast from sticking, you can't rely on cast for privileged status.

That leaves some combination of revenge(a bit unreliable), attack, dash(unreliable depending god), and special. You're going to be dashing always, regardless if it's setting up privileged status. So, depending on build, you can leave out special or attack. That's still a few more buttons than I'd like.

I'm aware I'm talking a bit too generic. I don't think I'm good enough yet to tackle the game with whatever boon RNG is thrown at me. I'm still trying to build around aspect + 1st boon from keepsake.

Killed Hades again with cluster bombs, ares on special, and zeus on attack with jolted. Started out a garbage run just to try to unlock Guan Yu, wasn't expecting to go that far.

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I'm not sure if you know or not, but most newer players tend to not realize there are pre-requisites for boons and also duo boon requirements that need to be met before they show up during a run (you'll never see high tier boons from a certain god unless you have certain tier 1 and 2 boons from that god already). Knowing about these simplifies decisions made throughout a run. Its still RNG, but you can remove a decent portion of that RNG and start making your runs more reliable once you start "fishing" with this in mind.

Khane said:

I'm not sure if you know or not, but most newer players tend to not realize there are pre-requisites for boons and also duo boon requirements that need to be met before they show up during a run (you'll never see high tier boons from a certain god unless you have certain tier 1 and 2 boons from that god already). Knowing about these simplifies decisions made throughout a run. Its still RNG, but you can remove a decent portion of that RNG and start making your runs more reliable once you start "fishing" with this in mind.

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by far the best way to consistently have good runs. also essential if you are trying to platinum

I almost failed the bar exam because of this game.