Keeping the kick going. There are 4 main bosses to the game, a hidden boss, and a bunch of mini-bosses. They start off pretty easy (one exception), then culminate in the insanity of Hades himself.

General Tips

Every build is different, so play styles will certainly change.

• Odds are you’ll have the mirror upgrade that increases damage for foes with gems in them, so often best to start the fight by emptying your Casts.
• Dash-strike is bread and butter, it allows you to save frames when attacking, and with a LOT of boon options, deal damage. Dash strike should be explained as Dash – Dash – Attack. The double dash will come naturally.
• Dash is a defensive move, it avoids all damage for a few frames. It’s essential to beat the final boss
• All bosses have attack patterns, and all damage is avoidable with planning.
• For the 3rd and 4th bosses (and most mini-bosses), learn to use pillars to protect yourself from AE/ranged damage. Just fight around them, and dash through to protect yourself.
• Bosses cannot be knocked back. They can get the other effects (damage) but they will not be stunned or interrupted. Wall damage is therefore not going to happen from boons (it can happen from weapons).
• My favorite weapon for first clear is the shield. It has decent close up attacks (with knockback), can block 99% of attacks by holding attack, and a solid ranged option.
• Dying is a-ok! Your first runs should focus on keys (for mirror unlocks) and darkness (for mirror upgrades). Gems are useless at the start, and nectar will come eventually. Avoid Chaos gates (you need the HP).
• God duel rooms are awesome since you get 2 boons! They are hard because the 2nd god will have AE attacks while you face a wave of enemies. The worst is Poseidon (his waves are hard to see), followed by Demeter (the AE effect grows and chain hits/stuns you). Unless you’re fishing a duo boon, take the hard god first.

Tartarus

The starting zone is meant to train you on the game, plenty of walls to use, big ol’ traps that you can clearly see, and most of the maps are small enough to see everything without scrolling. The mini bosses here generally focus on a lot of dashing, the exception is the large gem enemy which has tons of beams. This guy is a major pain for anyone who doesn’t have ranged attacks, or decent armour penetration. You want to corner him and get as much wall damage/knock back as you can.

Meg/Alecto/Tisiphone are randomly picked (or up to all 3 with Extreme Measures on) and follow very similar patterns that focus on dashing towards you, an AE standing attack, some sort of spread shot attack, and a delayed AE attack. Meg is by far the easiest of the bunch, but the tactics are similar with Alecto. Get her to dash to you, then dash away and back for some quick hits. Alecto can go rage-mode, and then you need to circle around her to get some quick hits in. Tisiphone is different as she’ll dash twice in a row, and she’ll get a smaller platform as the fight goes on.

Asphodel

No walls here, and the two mini-bosses here can be quite painful. The Medusa fight is annoying because she’ll cast twice in row, which will stun you if hit. Ranged attacks are best, though dashing to the back is a safe tactic as well. The 5x mystic fight is easy if you can deflect or have decent AE. Otherwise, you need to circle outside group and pop through diagonally to get quick damage hits. Dash-strike is key.

Lernie as a final boss is probably the easiest boss since he doesn’t really move (Extreme Measures he moves in phase 2/3). Cast + dash-strike for some quick hits, followed by a dash-strike away will avoid nearly all the damage in this fight. He has 3 modes, and the only tough one should be the summon mode. Fire can be easily avoided, and the waves can be dashed through. Imagine a clock face and you standing at 6 o’clock. Dash to 11 or 1 will avoid 99% of the damage in this fight.

Elysium

The zone as a whole sucks because of the armour and shield wearing enemies. Ugh. The butterfly balls are also painful, but can be circled for some quick hits. The chariots have a weakness where they will stop if you dash through them, allowing for some quick hits. This zone above all makes the Poseidon dash-knockback feel like the best thin in the world.

Theseus and Asterius are a big mess (and are extremely mobile with Extreme Measures). If you’re close to Theseus, he’ll spin attack. If you’re far, he’ll throw his spear and you can use the pillars or dash to avoid it. At 50% he summons a god to help him out, and that starts filling the screen with AE attacks. Oh, and his shield deflects all front attacks. AE attacks are amazing here. Best bet is to dash through him while he’s not aiming his spear, take a pile of hits, then dash away when he tries to spin (there’s a long tell).

Asterius is a tank and spank fight. All his attacks are from the front, so always attack from the back. His ram run can be stopped by dashing through a pillar. His overhead axe attack always goes in your direction, and the waves (phase 2) go forward, so dash in the opposite direction to reach his back.

I prefer to keep Asterius above 50% and kill Theseus. Makes the area easier to control, and Asterius is pretty easy to avoid when he’s above 50%.

Styx

So this place sucks due to poison (use the pits to cure) and AE damage. The dragon statues should use line of sight if at all possible, otherwise knock back and strikes from the back are the best bets. The small rats require you to always be dashing. The large rats are manageable if you have knock back to keep them away from you. The poison-spitting gnolls…you can chain stun if they don’t have armour. If they do, then you should be using your Call ability on them. Especially if they are a mini-boss. I personally think the mini-boss paths in Styx are easier than normal rooms – less enemies to manage.

Hades

His own section, with 2 phases. If you’re struggling, use the Skelly keepsake for a free Death Defiance (give him a nectar to get it).

In both phases he has 2 main attacks. He will throw skulls that deal damage on contact, or after a timer deal expanding AE damage. I prefer to ignore them and then dodge through the slow moving AE. He also has a spin attack for some crazy damage (25+) which can potentially hit you more than once. There’s a white circle around him before he does it, and you need to dash either through him, or diagonally through him. Dashing right/left/away will mean you get hit.

First phase

• He has a quick front stab
• At 66% and 33% he’ll summon some enemies to help the fight. They are armoured.
• He can turn invisible, but you can see his footprints. Normally comes out with a spin attack.

Second phase

• He summons green jars which when broken deal damage and stun you. Can generally be avoided.
• He shoots lasers from his fingers. The pillars block all damage.

A “standard” build will have boons on all types of attacks. You want to keep your Casts empty for as much as the fight as possible. They often deal decent damage, but having them in the boss means more damage output from you. If you have a damage Call, you want to use it all the time. If you have a defensive call, wait til the bar is full to get a longer duration.

Phase 1 is all about dash-strike to his back, quick hits, then dash-strike to his back. You will be able to avoid his spin attack as noted above if you’re close to him. When he summons adds, you want to take them down quickly (especially any ranged attackers) and try to keep him at the other side of the map.

Phase 2 is all about keeping your distance. Close up attacks are extremely painful as he can spin strike twice in a row, changing directions between them. Learn to love the pillars and fight near them (not touching them). He can’t move through them, and his finger beams will be stopped by them. If for some reason you don’t have good ranged attack options, you will dash-strike, dash AWAY from him and then wait until he has done a spin attack, then attack again. He is 100% vulnerable before, during, and after (~2s) his finger beam attack.

Some “cheap move” boons include:

• Festive Fog (Dio) deals major damage from a cast, and can be lobbed over pillars. The Duo with Zeus is bananas.
• Crystal Beam (Demeter) deals a beam attack from a cast, and has quite a few upgrades (Artemis Duo is quite powerful)
• Support Fire (Artemis) shoots an arrow every time you hit an enemy with any attack. Fast attack weapons, or DoT weapons are very useful.
• Defensive Calls (Ares/Poseidon/Athena) make you immune to damage. Maxed effects can last 10 seconds, and allow for serious damage.
• Doom (Ares) effects are very useful for dash-strike attacks since they take a second to take effect and don’t naturally stack.