Hades

[Ian]

Bit off of a bit more than I could chew just now. Went for a shield run with my first attempt at level 5 heat and a mix of different PoP options. Ended the STREAK with my hubris at... 8 I think? Not sure how to check in the House of Hades. Either way, I'm sorry Streak fans (@Sir Andy Mahowry)

Fucking died before the Bone Hydra for the first time in what must be about 30 runs. The shame.

Probably best to work on some other weapons at level 3 or 4 heat next. I just wanted to unlock the hidden aspect for it.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

RIP in pieces sweet prince

[Vercetti]

Finally made my first escapes over the last couple of days.

Two with the sword, and one each with the spear, fists and railgun.

I can already see that I will never make an escape with the bow. What a piece of crap that is, in my hands.

[Ian]

I discussed this with Vowels upthread but I don't feel like the bow is a weapon I like and yet I did really well with it for a number of my early escapes. I think the main thing with it is bad positioning is harder to get away with. Unless you've got some get-out-of-jail-free card boons for the bow it's tricky if you get cornered, for example. What do you find the issue is? Struggling to do damage quickly enough or enemies getting up in your face or something else?

[phonics]

It’s only any good if you have a full charge and the special move always sucks. All the best weapons allow for maximum movement.

[Ian]

I barely use full charge on any of my bow escapes, shoot far enough to hit an enemy and keep moving. The spray special is ace too. Get some boons it, deflect is lovely, and against tough enemies just get right in behind so you can hit a bunch of simultaneous backstabs with all of the spray.

[phonics]

Early.

[Ian]

Pardon?

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Late.

[hfswjyr]

I find the attack speed (or lack thereof) the most annoying thing about the bow. I'm standing in place way too long to get a shot off.

[Ian]

Monstered Hades with the Aspect of Beowulf for the Shield last night, though I think it was more about the fact that I got the Duo boon which made all my boons after that Epic which made it a strong build.

It'd be fun to play about with it though with different boons on your cast.

[Ian]

The Aspect of Lucifer for the rail seems like it could be stupidly powerful. I didn't get by Hades (I took too much damage in Asphodel) with it but I don't think it'd take much Boons-wise to make it melt basically everything.

[Ian]

The Aspect of Guan Yu, at least as under-levelled as it is for me, is rough with so little health so it's one of my most satisfying escapes in ages.

Only went into the Hades fight with 87 max health and 2 DDs. It comes with a sort of extra cast from your spin attack that gains some health on hit but while you do that you need to really keep your distance because with 87 health one hit from Hades fucking wrecks you.

Really pleased with that.

[hfswjyr]

My usual tactic against Hades (including an escape last night) is just to slug it out him while expending all the health I have built up.

So yeah, I don't think I'm ever escaping with Guan Yu.

[Ian]

If I have one gripe with the game, and this might genuinely be the first, it's that the way you can only speak to characters once per visit to the House really keeps you waiting an infuriatingly long time to progress stories sometimes.

I've been waiting fucking ages for the next bit of Achilles' story but he keeps passing comment on other random shit rather than progressing the quest. Luckily there's usually other stuff moving along to keep it going but still. It's annoying.

[Ian]

Also, on a related note, I ended up looking up Hypnos' favour requirements on the Wiki and they're really dumb.

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Having to die specifically to Asterius x times then Theseus, etc. There's genuinely no way that'll ever happen for me now unless I die at the appropriate times on purpose.

[Ian]

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All that extra damage. Plus dodging 26% of attacks thanks to Hermes' keepsake.

Poor old Hades never got near me.

And the fully levelled Aspect of Demeter is just lovely.

Vowels:

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You got to the epilogue?

[hfswjyr]

Nope, not yet. I think I'm at... 17 or 18 clears?

[Ian]

I'm not sure what actually triggers it. It's less good than the credits sequence but it's still cool.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Just had a run with the rail which started tragically bad which, by the time I reached Elysium, I thought might also be my first clear.

I took a Chaos gate which meant that I took X% more damage from traps and obviously when I faced Alecto all I could do was hit the fucking traps so I used both of my death defiances up.

I thought I had no chance but I was rocking it in Asphodel and beat the Bone Hydra without any deaths (I managed to buy 1 of my DD's back from the well shop) and was going well in Elysium. I then faced the Mino in a room (that's fucking harsh lads) who used my last DD. I was doing well against Theseus and The Mino though and thought I would do it as I managed to take down The Mino quite quickly.

Unfortunately I decided to stop dashing to lob my specials (I had the boon which lets me do 3) and casts (Dionysus' drunk fog bombs) at the worst possible time and Theseus gutted me

I was really liking my build too and had I not been such a fucking twat with Alecto/traps at the start I reckon I could have possibly done it.

[Ian]

The good thing about facing Asterius alone is that it does at least knock some of his starting health off the Theseus fight if you beat him but yeah first time you see him as a mini-boss it's a bit of a "Oh for fuck's sake" moment.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I have now given nectar to everyone (I believe), what should I do with nectar now?

Edit: I've missed Patroclus.

[hfswjyr]

Give them more nectar.

[Ian]

Max everybody (in the House, the three NPCs out in the underworld and the Olympians) and unless you've done a bunch of escapes that you've not mentioned there's a character you won't have had the chance to give any to yet.

Probably more than one actually, now I think about it.

[Ian]

Also you can always give a bit to Bouldy.

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[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Thought I was about to have my first clear. I was doing well with this build:

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Was getting into a groove by dodging, laying down a demeter crystal cast or two, lobbing the shield and doing my Athena call when I got in trouble/decided to whittle down some of Hades' health. Got him down to about a quarter bar before I got hit by one of those shit pots and it took my life.

[Ian]

I'm slowing down on this quite a bit now.

Running out of prophecies to knock off, have seen the 'epilogue' and it's really starting to annoy me that there's one character whose next story chunk I only haven't unlocked yet because the RNG hasn't picked the dialogue from the available options when I've been in the house. It really ought to be prioritising that over the chit chat.

[Ian]

Finally got the end of the Achilles story to start moving along.

I'm not as hooked as I was before but I still very much enjoy the runs I do. The bow aspect with the homing special is mega if you get the right boons on it.

[hfswjyr]

I've been hooked on another game, so haven't had any time for Hades recently. Funnily enough, I am reading a book about Achilles and Patroclus which contains a bunch of characters I recognise because of the game.

[Ian]

Yeah I've been reading Heroes by Stephen Fry so people keep popping up that I'm like "Oh yeah I know this dude."

I still haven't done Hypnos' story either but at this point I 100% can't be bothered failing multiple times at a specific point on purpose which is what would be required.

[Andrew]

Bit late getting into this but managing to get to the 1st boss pretty easily but then getting my arse handed to me by her..

If you guys love Roguelites then you seriously need to check out Returnal on the PS5

Amazing game, I'd go as far as saying the best game I've ever played ever.

The boss of Biome 4 is the greatest boss battle ever

[Ian]

It's fair to say that Hades is the exception to my feelings on roguelikes rather than the rule. It's a pity Supergiant just tend to move onto a brand new thing because I've love more of it. Another pantheon altogether could be fun.

[Andrew]

So manged to reach the final boss battle against Hades by spamming dash and attack randomly seems to work fine as long as you get deflect and that boon that causes damage over time.

To beat Hades himself though is going to take a while I managed to take his first health bar which seemed to rather upset him greatly he then went on and battered me 🙄

[Ian]

Yeah it's very this:


Obviously you might want to discover them for yourself but I, while not an expert, have posted some stuff in my updates about boons and combos of things that worked really well that I stumbled upon.

[hfswjyr]

It really is such a punishing twist when he gets back up, angrier than before.

[Andrew]

So can pretty easily reach Hades every time I start a run now, got him down half way to his 2nd hp bar 🤦

I've enabled God mode aswell now as I'll be getting arthritis in both my wrists if I keep mashing the buttons like a mad man at this rate..

[Andrew]

It's now never !!!
250 hp
2 death defiance

Wish me luck!!

[Ian]

What's your weapon of choice?

[Andrew]

Well that was easy...

The story is really great in this.

@Ian just escaped using the sword I've been using the shield mainly up to now. But the sword seemed to make short work of everything fair play!!

[Ian]

Nicely done.

In my experience even weapons that don't click for you initially you'll eventually find boons that tweak it that really work for you.

[Andrew]

Definitely i had some sweet boons ethat run, i seem to be able to reach Hades now consistently now so i think ill try and clear the game with every weapon.

Just having a look at a new option where I can add heat? I'm guessing the more heat the better the rewards the harder it is !!

have you played Returnal? Hades is up in the top 10 of games I really like but I honestly think Returnal is the greatest game I've ever played.

The boss in the 4th Biome 🤤

Just installing Elden Ring now.

[Ian]

So Heats adds specific difficulty tweaks that you choose but it means you start getting rewards for beating bosses again with weapons you've already beaten them with at less/no heat, instead of darkness or gold or whatever it gives you when you're doing repeat fights.

I don't have a Playstation so I have not played returnal.

[Ian]

We're getting a Hades 2.

Absolutely yes. Give it to me.

[Pepe]

I never finished this. It was fun. Maybe I should go back to it.

[hfswjyr]

Finished...? Where have you gotten up to?

I'm looking forward to the sequel primarily for the story if I'm honest. The gameplay is nice, but the story keeps me interested.

[Ian]

I didn't finish one storyline because I couldn't be bothered getting to the third biome and then dying on purpose. I think I did everything else though.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I never had a successful run because I'm shit.

It was very fun though.

[Pepe]

Finished...? Where have you gotten up to?

The bull.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Stunned that someone was worse than me.

Congrats Pepe.

[Ian]