Clearly we’re at the point where base Anthem is dead, and everything is focused on NEXT. We’re a few months shy of 2 years from launch from the base game, with nothing new for over a year. I guess all the chips are in this new pile.

A blog post due in August is finally up. I’ve read it a few times now, and truthfully everything in there is a solid decision point. In terms of “decisions that should have been made years ago”, the only thing that really matters is that abilities are unlocks and not drops.

For those not recalling Anthem’s skill system, javelins at max level have no abilities. You need to equip items to get access to abilities, and those abilities are limited by your class. The drops have stats, and for nearly every item in the game, there are god rolls and then garbage. Inscriptions made it even worse, since they allowed for tweaks of base abilities, had god rolls that made things broken, and were next to impossible to find.

So that change is more than welcome, there’s no point in having NEXT if that’s not the foundation to build from.

The rest of the post talks about drops that add modifiers to abilities, a skill tree, and specializations. Which if you look at every other looter/shooter, is baseline structure. It’s hard for me to emphasize how fundamental that this be the case and how mind blowing/infuriating it was when Anthem launched.

At this point, I can’t say that there’s anything bad in here. The devil is clearly in the details and balance. At no point did I ever have a problem with the moment to moment parts of Anthem, they were kick butt. Everything wrong with Anthem was the mechanics that prevented players from experiencing the game. It really felt like no one played the game outside of the battles. It was like a 4 course meal of AAA lobster, nachos, curry, and tiramisu. Each piece is great, but they just don’t go together.

In that respect, if you look at Anthem NEXT as a parallel to FF14’s relaunch, things are rosy. That EA/BioWare are willing to invest in this is amazing, clearly seeing some value in the IP/assets already in place. We’re ~6 months since the new direction was launched, and this is pretty much where I expected things to be. EA’s fiscal year end on March 31, ain’t no way we’re going to see anything launched by then. So I guess we’re looking at March 2022 as the end date for all this work.

Aside from Dragon Age, I don’t know what the devs would be working ont. I sure wish them luck in this.

Probably.

I completed the full epilogue the other day, which I won’t spoil for those who have yet to reach it. Understand that it takes a significant amount of “relationship” investment to achieve. It was somewhere around run 78 I think. I have 1 only Aphrodite left to max out now.

I still have some minor prophecies to go, related to getting all the duo boons, getting all hammer upgrades for gloves, bow, and railgun, as well as completing the lyre quest. That last one appears to take ~100+ uses of the lyre and a good half dozen extra runs. I think that one quest is my only complaint of the game so far!

Given the Duo Boons quest, it’s made for some interesting focused runs. Things I normally would not have tried for. The biggest hurdle in this is Demeter, as she is the least likely to show up as a primary god on a run. Primary gods are those that show up 5+ times in a run. Combined with the fact that her tier 1 boons are the weakest, you’re really at the mercy of RNG to have a decent run.

I wouldn’t say I’m in the optimization mode, since you know, RNG is RNG. Yet, I’m aware of every weapon’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as each god’s. Zeus for example, is great on fast attacks, but horrible otherwise. Artemis is best on slower weapon as the crit impacts can deal crazy damage levels. Dash-strikes reduce combo damage, but are twice as fast. Hermes speed boons can be crazy. Chaos boons need to take into consideration when you’re going to reach the boss.

Some screenshots below of end of game screens that I thought were worth mention.

This run focused on the Zeus/Poseidon with the Zeus Shield. That shield aspect hits multiple times, and if you aim it right, it can hover over a boss. The actual shield damage is minimal (30) but it triggers a 71dmg bolt that has a 43% chance to hit twice. Each of those triggers a 40dmg bolt which can also hit twice. All the while I’m dashing to trigger Sea Storm for yet another 40dmg bolt (again hitting twice). It’s impressive to see.

This run was an Arthur Sword run, which is high damage but really slow swings. The base combo damage 60/80/200. It was focused entirely on getting the Hoarding Slash hammer upgrade, which raises attack damage by 5% of your total gold. Poseidon, Hermes, and Chaos all give gold boons. The Golden Touch mirror upgrade (+15% gold at end of zone) is also great. With 3158 gold, that comes to +158 damage on attack. It has a 15% crit chance, and with Weak, crit deals 350% damage. You’ll notice that I didn’t boon my Cast, that’s due to a mirror upgrade that increases damage to targets with a crystal by 50% – only Artemis and Poseidon have casts that inject a crystal. The weird math behind this means a 3rd strike can hit for ~2,300. Even a non-crit 3 hit combo hits for 1,500.

Easy Heat

Heat levels give you more Diamonds, Ambrosia, and Titan Blood. Diamonds are for cosmetics (some quests), Ambrosia to max friendship, and Titan Blood to upgrade weapon aspects. You only get rewards for 1 Heat increase per weapon – repeating the same heat level only gives Darkness. In the picture above, that means I’ve successfully beaten Hades 41 times with increasing Heat levels. The rewards end at 20 heat (aside from a Skelly cosmetic/achievement at 24). You can get all these materials through the Broker in the Lounge, or buying them at the Styx/Charon shop.

The absolute easiest Heat levels come from Tight Deadline, which reduces the amount of time you have to clear a zone. No difficulty increase, and ample time to clear everything with either 9m or 7m selected (36m/28m full clears). As a perk, this pact prevents the annoying “survive 45 seconds” rooms. Extreme Measures is also helpful here, at least for the first two ranks. The Furies add some extra AE attacks, but that’s it. And Lernie has a smaller zone, which actually helps clearing the extra heads (and AE damage). Extreme Measures for Theseus/Asterius is a pain in the butt, at least in terms of clear time.

Now for the hard ones. Underworld Customs (remove a boon at end of zone), Routine Inspection (lose 3/6/9/12 mirror upgrades, from bottom up) is insanely painful, and finally Approval Process (remove 1/2 boon choices) is extremely restrictive. There’s a quest to clear the game with each active, but I don’t suggest trying with all 3 active at the same time.

I won’t suggest any combos past 5 heat. If you can clear that, then the rest is fairly obvious.

While I’m still having a ton of fun playing, I think I’ve saturated the blog enough on Hades for a while. Happy gaming!

Of all the console launch games coming in a couple weeks, this is the one that intrigues me the most. At least, at the conceptual level. It gives a vibe between Warframe’s flexibility, and a 3rd person hack and slash like Monster Hunter. It’s a weird mix.

Destiny launched in 2014, which ostensibly put the looter/shooter into the limelight. Destiny 2 and The Division(s) iterated on that. Warframe had launched a year earlier but took a couple years to find it’s footing. The game today is much different than back then. That to say that in general, the model has evolved over time. Where it hasn’t is with Anthem (the 2.0 blog update is 2 months late), and from all I’ve read, Avengers.

The good news with Godfall is that the lead designer has a fair chunk of experience in this field. Devs have worked on Diablo2 and Destiny 2. IGN has an interesting article on their mindset for loot management, which articulates how much importance they are putting on that item. Since “tinkering” is the long term carrot for most of these games, I’m somewhat optimistic that they can get this to work.

There are some eyebrow items in here, such as how leveling one class levels all the others – you swap plates to change classes. That’s a very odd choice as it reduces replayability, and certainly has some mechanical reasons. I think the grid mechanic is neat, where proximity of slots impacts their effects. Two identical classes, with identical gems to slot could have different (marginal?) effects based on the order of the slots.

I’ve been a fan of Warframe’s customization for a long time now, enjoying it much more than hunting light levels or whatever arbitrary term the game uses. I’ve written dozens of posts as to how Anthem screwed the pooch on this aspect. I’ve avoided Avengers, primarily due to the way the power grind is built (I won‘t get into the Mega Hives, or that it’s better to play with AI).

I should point out that this game is built by a rather small team, so there’s no “traditional” end game here. There’s some sort of rogue-like tower activity you can do with others, but that seems to be it for now. The focus appears to be on the campaign, which can have on-line co-op. Which seems a-ok to me, much better to bite off what you can chew. If multi-million dollar companies can’t even get the basics right, then why would a small crew try to do the same?

Colour me interested. Maybe they actually figure out the loot part and can teach the big studios something. Guess we’ll find out in a couple weeks.

This morning there was some white stuff on the ground, first time. Considering we were wearing shorts on Friday, it’s a hell of a swap of mindsets. I rather enjoy winter, though that’s primarily due to the hockey season. Without it, I’m curious as to how my brain will manage through.

Wife is interested in taking up cross-country skiing. It’s one of those weird things where I have zero interest in skiing, in any form. I think that the cross-country version is too close to running, which I also do not enjoy. My joints have enough invested in hockey already, I don’t need even more abuse. I’m sure it’s a mental block. That and the near grand I’d need to drop to be equipped for it properly.

Winter also brings a form of SAD, where sunlight plays a massive part of my energy levels. The good news there is that I work next to a very large window, so I get a ton of it during the day. The downside is that I don’t get it directly by being outside. When the work day starts it’s usually dark, and it certainly is by the time it ends. Recalls when I was younger in an office with no windows… felt like I was working in a mine. I did invest in a neat piece of technology, an alarm clock that simulates sunrise. It’s done wonders for my morning routine.

Pumpkins are carved, outdoor patio stuff is put away, cottage is closed. All that’s left is putting up the holiday lights in a couple weeks and the outdoor rink. Winter coats aren’t out yet, but I’m sure they will be by next weekend. Including winter tires. Adulting sucks sometimes.

Games, well it’s obviously all Hades. I’ve done about 75 runs now, on a streak of 33 wins too. There was one in there that was a heck of a close call, while I was trying out some interesting difficulty modifiers. Got the last boss with 2 HP to spare. Note to others, Hades with speed and damage modifiers is like bullet hell.

I will say that going for fast runs is certainly fun. I’m running ~15 minutes on the good ones, and have some favorite aspects to get through. Lenny on Extreme Measures, and enemies with increased move speed makes it all go a lot faster. I do like that every run has a preferred weapon, with a 20% boost to darkness/gems. It’s a neat motivation to keep trying different playstyles instead of fishing for the perfect boons on a specific weapon. I should have the final epilogue complete in 5 or so runs, which would “complete” the true game.

As I put more time into Hades, the more I come to appreciate it’s horizontal design. At the most basic of levels, the tool sets you are given on your 1st run are there on your 50th. Sure, there are some back end number tweaks, like slightly more HP, or better odds for a rare boon. And when you get the weapon aspects unlocked, the damage boosts they give are offset by the gameplay changes they present. Homing missiles on a bow, a long-term DoT for the gloves, a massive AE slow effect for the sword.

In my mind, horizontal design excels where the gameplay itself changes over time. Vertical design is where you do the same thing again, and again, just that your power (and potentially enemy defence goes up). RPGs almost exclusively focus on the vertical aspect, you get bigger numbers, bigger attacks, more targets. Destiny, Avengers, Anthem, Division are in a similar bag, where you certainly have gameplay choices, but often they lack the balance due to the difficulty of enemies. Not that you want to select the highest DPS option, but that you essentially have to. And there’s a place for that design, no question.

What Hades does is more akin to something like Civilization, or XCOM, in that the strategy and tactics you apply change dramatically based on each step. Hades just has so many variables into the mix, it’s bonkers.

• 6 weapons, 4 variants each. Each weapon has 12+ hammer upgrades.
• 10 gods, with 15 personal boons each, and 28 duo boons. I’m not counting Bouldy
• 25 Keepsakes and 6 Companions

You’re looking at hundreds of thousands of combinations, most of which are completely randomized. You can pick the weapon/aspect and the keepsake/companion, but the rest is all RNG.

A previous post mentioned a Chiron Bow (homing missiles) run which focused on Doom stacking. That build is not possible without 2 specific boons – enabled by a Hades favoured run. I got those really late in the run, so it was a decent build… getting those two put a massive smile on my face.

A recent Arthur Sword (AE aura that slows enemies and reduces damage) was off to a rough start. Arthur is the slowest of all weapons, but deals insane damage. It’s the only build I’ve seen where the default attack is actually decent DPS. Normally my start of builds are focused on getting boons and then potentially poms if I think the boons are worth upgrading – it makes room choice important, so I end up skipping gold/nectar/keys. Well, some “bad” luck was in with some so-so boons that aren’t all that good together – then I got an interest hammer upgrade – Hoarding Slash. This thing gives extra damage to attack equal to 5% of your total gold. Which stacks with a % attack boost. Long story short, when I got that one I started focusing entirely on money, no more Chiron shops, and gold rooms all the time. I re-rolled Hermes boons to get the +10g per room and equipped the +100g keepsake. I was at 1500g when I reached Theseus/Asterius and over 2000g when I fought Hades. So 100dmg attacks as my baseline, upgraded through other boons, and an exposed Hades. It was my 2nd fastest boss clear. Just insane damage. And that entire run was dependent on that one random hammer roll.

The less obvious point here is that nearly all the boons build on each other. My base attack may deflect. Then deflects cause Exposed. Another than increased deflect damage. And another that causes deflect to trigger Doom effects or increase crit chance by 20%. And then there’s a similar train for critical hits.

In the 50+ runs I’ve done, I have had only 1 run where I didn’t like the results of RNG. It happened to be a run with Guan Yu which came with a 70% HP penalty. In retrospect, the rolls were not bad, they were just average. I was going in with a large penalty and needed some luck to get through.

I’ve done runs that focused on Cast damage, Special damage, chain lightning, curse stacking, dashing, DoTs… all sorts. I’ve had similar runs, but never identical runs. I’ve cleared with every weapon, using a bunch of aspects. I’ve cleared on multiple heat (difficulty modifiers) levels. I’be maxed out a chunk of keepsakes, and have 1 companion on hand. I’ve beaten the last boss without getting hit once. I’ve died a bunch of times. Every run is a new adventure.

And I’ve not even remotely touched the storyline of the game, the fact that NPCs remember what you did, that you have relationships with them, or their quests. And god forbid I start talking about how this game has fishing!

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.

Continuing on the the Hades topic, an overview of how builds generally work. Given the randomness inherent in any given run, this will assume that the player understands all the enemy mechanics, from Tartarus to Hades himself.

Weapons

Each weapon has 2 types of attack, regular (attack), and special, with the latter being twice as strong as the former (e.g. 25 and 50 dmg). Cast is always 50 damage. % increases to these are therefore quite small in the larger scale. Raising attack to 50 would require 100% dmg, which is not going to happen on most runs. Instead, you need to think of these as enablers for other types of attacks or boons.

The Bow’s Chiron aspect is a good example, where you use attack to target a foe, and all special attacks send missiles to that target. This is different than the usual “spread” attack for bow specials, and allows for HUGE damage stacking.

Cast is a weird one, since most boons that affect cast change it’s behaviour – either a fog, a beam, or a pulse. The beam is low damage but consistent, while the fog (100+) and pulse are high damage and well worth a % increase. A decently buffed fog cast can deal 500 damage and chain stun an enemy.

You can get up to 2 hammer upgrades per run, and these can have a dramatic impact on your success. Make choices that align with your build…and as a general rule, you want to avoid anything relating to armor penetration – that only matters in the final 3-4 rooms of Elysium.

Mirror

It’s a good idea to focus your first runs to unlock all the mirror upgrades, even before unlocking more weapons (at least the 20 key options). Death Defiance is key, giving you multiple tries to complete a run. The rest are either safety nets or increases in options and up to personal choice. My personal choice is to swap the last 4 to their alternate options (+5% per god boon, 20% chance of gold laurel rooms, 10% legendary/duo boons, 4 reroll chances on boons).

Gold (Obol)

9 out of 10 runs will reach Styx with less than 500 gold. Visiting Chiron’s shop doesn’t mean you need to buy something, though often it’s still a good idea. Keep in mind that Styx’s shop offers diamonds (1000g) and titan blood (1200g) if you happen to have that much on hand. Getting a Hermes boon for +10g per room can give you ~300g if you get it early on. Well of Charon items are extremely situational, and generally best reserved for the final rooms of Elysium. Styx burns through these effects since it’s 4-5 encounters per path.

Curses

Each god has one, and they are not made equal. Weak causes enemies to deal less damage, which has only marginal use – meh. Rupture causes enemies to take damage while moving, but is super low to be unnoticeable. Hangover deals damage over time and stacks up to 5, this is really only effective with high attack speed builds. Marked causes a target to be more susceptible to critical hits, after taking a critical hit. Crits are insane damage but you need this to be very high for it to be useful (> 50%). Jolted causes enemies to take damage when they attack and is very high, it can become pretty insane. Exposed makes enemies take even more damage from backstabs, which really only impacts a couple weapons and a couple fights. Doom causes enemies to take a big hit after a second, it can reach very high levels but will not stack. Chill causes enemy movement to slow down, meh.

Except for Jolted, they are all situational. However, they all unlock interesting tier 2 boons or duos. Weak is usually useless, but it can cause enemies to take 25% more damage, or Doom to tick, or plain charm enemies as examples.

Boons vs Poms

First a note that every run has a preferred god. You’ll know who it is before Tartarus is over and see them show up more than any other.

When you meet a god, you get to pick from 3 boons. The rarity is locked, and you need special items to increase them. Rarity increases the base effect of a boon, which is good but rarely a deal-breaker. This can help if you’re fishing for a specific boon, as the pool of available ones gets lower as you go on. Some boons are only available if you select prior ones (e.g. you can’t get Static Discharge if you don’t have lightning effects already.) You can upgrade each basic boon by using a Pom of Power, which has a decreasing effect the more you use. The first Pom is worth more than Poms 4,5,6, and 7 together. So not much use to go past level 4.

Legendary boons are the same, requiring the 2nd tier of boons to be chosen (so at best, the 3rd time you meet that god). Duo boons require specific boons from both gods and have a random chance to show. Chaos boons require you to play with a penalty for a few encounters and get boon afterwards – the cast boon in particular is amazing. None of these three types can be upgraded.

Making a Build

It’s a good idea to prioritize 2 types of attacks per build, say Cast and Special. This also depends on the weapon you’re using, and the hammer upgrades you have. Say you have the sword hammer upgrade that causes attacks to heal you – probably a good idea to invest in attack options that run.

The above shot is a recent bow build I used to great effect. Using the Chiron aspect, it causes the special attacks to all hit the enemy – normally you can get 3 special volleys (I’m currently at 5 missiles per volley). While I have quite a few boons, the important ones are shown and mostly from Ares

• Relentless Volley (hammer) means my special hits 4 more times per volley, which means 9 total. It’s a 40% damage increase. This damage isn’t very much mind you, since base special damage on a bow is pretty low.
• Curse of Pain causes my special to inflict Doom for 161 damage. Doom doesn’t stack normally, so this would just be 161 damage after 1 second (so 3 volleys a second apart). 161 x 3 = 483
• Impending Doom increases Doom damage by 115% – so 346. But is also causes Doom to tick later, meaning I only get it after the first volley and the last. 346 x 2 = 692
• Dire Misfortune causes Doom to stack and deal more damage per stack. Combined with Impending Doom’s delay, I can now stack 3 times. 2.15*((346)+ (26×16)) = ~1,700 damage.

I got that last one near the end of Elysium and up until that point the run was “ok”. That single boon put it on another level.

The point here is that when you’re making a build, it’s never going to be there the next run, and it likely won’t work as well with another weapon. Like above, damage would have been abysmal with a sword, since the special is so slow. It’s important to understand what each god’s strengths are, and use that as the core forward.

Exceptions

There are 2 exceptions to the boon rule. First is that you want Poseidon’s dash for as many runs as possible. The knockback effect is insanely effective for every single build and makes nearly every other boon look like garbage.

Second is that you ideally want a Call (summon) that makes you invulnerable. That’s Athena, Ares, or Poseidon. These make a massive difference, especially in the final Styx rooms and boss fights. It’s not critical, but it does make life a whole lot easier.

And yes, it’s entirely possible to clear the game without these boons. Frankly, it’s possible to clear the game without any boons, and just hammer upgrades. Just takes longer.

The marvel of Hades is the progression through the world, the player, and the character. I remember my first run, and Meg took me down without much trouble. Now she doesn’t touch me.

Some spoilers ahead.

World

Of the 4 zones, each builds upon the last, including the bosses. Tartarus is very simple, you learn to dodge to avoid some attacks, learn that you can backstab and corner lock enemies. You can easily button mash through here – boss somewhat included. Asphodel has no real walls, and it focuses almost entirely on area awareness. There are bombs, fire pits, smoke, and waves that cross the screen. You move defensively. Elysium adds target focus to the mix, and dodging through enemies. Most of the enemies have an “eyeball” phase, where they can regenerate, so you need to focus and burn down. Styx is all about speed. The rooms are tiny, there’s poison everywhere, and AE damage from every corner. You need to clear quickly, and use the environment to protect yourself from attacks. It’s a progressive world building methods, adding to each previous challenge. When you get to Styx the first time, you’ll have mastered Tartarus and Asphodel.

Player

This is about learning the key game mechanics. It is very rare that you can face tank anything, 90% of every build focuses on dashing in/out. So you end up learning how to dash-strike, and how to position yourself best with every weapon against every enemy. Knock an enemy into a trap for massive damage, or taunt one to attack so you can backstab them. You learn that certain boon combinations make basic enemies a breeze but are less effective against bosses. You learn which rooms should be taken when given options (Hammers are always taken).

You learn that every weapon has strengths and weaknesses, and that the limitations of Cast can be offset to tremendous effect. The most important lesson learned is that you are deadly all the time. Learn to dash in while attacking, quickly strike, then dash out while attacking. It’s like you’re a ginsu knife.

Character

This is going to take more posts, but at the very least upgrading the Mirror buffs will make every future attempt miles easier. Maxed Death Defiance gives you 4 chances to complete a run, and should be prioritized. Getting all the keys to unlock weapons and Mirror buffs is a top priority, as well as giving 1 nectar to anyone who has affinity (hearts in the codex). The gifts they give you in return are game changers – I prefer using Skelly while still learning the basics.

The meat of it is in boons. Every god has some amazing boons, but not all boons are great. There are so many variables, it would take ages to go over all the permutations. High level, you have active boons which impacts your active skills, and passive boons that impact the rest of gameplay. You generally want to focus on a giving theme, and that can often change depending on the weapon.

• Attack – % increases here are bad, since base attack is so poor. Curses are also bad, since they often don’t stack. Zeus’ boon insanely powerful.
• Special – A good spot for curses, and the damage can be pretty high.
• Dash – Poseidon rules all here. Knockback while dashing creates room, deals damage, and can trigger other amazing boons.
• Cast – Cast already deals high damage, and almost every boon is a solid choice. The beam and pulse boons can becomes OP if you stack more boons onto them (like more Casts).
• Call – The summon ability is often used for immunity (Poseidon, Aphrodite, or Ares). If you want to use it for damage, then you need to use Call actively as the “max bar” version is less effective that using 5 charges.

Curses (doom, rupture, marked, weak, chill, jolted) will not stack, but hangover will. Doom can deal crazy damage, but takes a second to activate. Jolted is simply bonkers in power, but you need other Zeus powers to make it really shine.

% increases to attack are often the ones you want to avoid, and instead focus on flat + damage. The is because attack starts at 10 damage, and 40% to that is 4. Every single boon that applies flat damage is more. Dash alone is in the 70s. % increases to others can be useful, like say increasing Cast damage.

In a future post I’ll talk about specific builds that I enjoy. You’ll find that Zeus & Poseidon are there often, it’s impressive how powerful they are when combined.

There are a handful of game companies where I buy all their products, they are simply that consistent. Supergiant Games is one and Hades is no exception to the trend.

Incrementals/Roguelikes are all the rage. That does make sense, since developers make smaller packages and re-use it for dozens of hours of content. Assassin’s Creed recycles a ton of content, but it still adds small tweaks to the layout. Clearing that last fort on the map isn’t much different from the first one, it just happens to be on a hill rather than a bay.

A pure roguelike doesn’t allow for increments between plays, it expects the player to learn how to get better over time. Pure incrementals allow for the player to choose when to reset, and then provides some boost to the next attempt. You can find hundreds of these in mobile apps.

The merger between both is a challenge in terms of balance. You want there to be a cap to the increment in player power, but not so much that the game over screen never is a possibility after a few attempts. Conversely, you want the increments to be valuable so that people can “beat” the game. Tricky math, and as a general rule, players are much smarter than developers in that regard. Slay the Spire and Dead Cells are two recent examples of games that hit that just right.

Hades has more in common with Dead Cells, but focuses less on exploration and more on intense combat. The best Dead Cell runs simply blow through looking for specific drops. Hades forces you to clear everything in a room before giving you options as to the rewards in the next room. It’s hectic action with a period of respite afterwards.

Mechanically, the game has multiple levers to increment both the power of the player as well as the difficulty. It took me 17 tries to beat the final boss, and that first win had much less to do with the power increments than it did with my knowledge of the game.

The real beauty in Hades is the setting. Every character you talk to exposes more of the story, but only 1 conversation at a time, and often only after you die. And they are solidly written and drawn. Each one has their own motivations, slowing lifting the fog of the game as you progress. The friendly competitions with Thanatos, or great cooking of Eurydice are high points in the mess of tons of enemies. Even the bosses have dialogue that they expand upon after previous victories/defeats.

It’s easy to lose a couple hours to runs, a whole bunch of “one more turn” of old. Dying never feels like punishment, cause you’re always getting something from a run. And you never really feel cheated along the way, because you have more control over the room rewards than the high randomness of something like Slay the Spire. And once you beat the final boss, a whole new aspect of difficulty opens up, with a level of granularity that isn’t common in games.

And with any game of this nature, speedrunners are going at it. See video below, which took about as long for the whole game as it did for me to clear the last boss on my first attempt.

An amazing game. Well worth the pick up. I’ll have a future post on some strategies I’ve found over many failures.