Athena’s Legendary Boon is absolutely ridiculous.
Also, what collectible boon (or whatever they’re called) do you guys use? Before I got Persephone’s, I usually used Chaos’ thing and then switched to Cerberus or Skelly late game.
I started out using Skelly’s until I got the every-room rebirth, and switched mostly to the ones of the gods I was trying to grab a boon from, usually matching the kind of weapon I was using.
Big and heavy? Aphrodite or Artemis
Fast and furious? Zeus, Demeter, Dio
Though I’ve been messing around with Lambent Plume for a few runs, the speed and dodge boost is very nice, and when you eventually pick up the damage boost based on your speed it gets even better.
Even though I saw those chests in the waiting rooms, I didn’t actually grok that I could change the boon over the course of the run until 20+ runs in. I had been foolishly using skelly the whole time instead of waiting for the end.
Lambent Plume broke my win streak today. Speed requirement means I rush, I rush means I take damage, I take damage means I die. Before that I had been just using whatever I didn’t have at max level, going down on them on order. Somewhat sad that the moment I allowed myself to make actual decision on what to use, I fucked up.
The very first thing I used and maxed out was the Spiked Collar.
Now, it depends on the weapon I’m running.
I’ve settled in nicely to the spear with Aspect of Hades (Punishing Swing is amazeballs) as my favorite form (6 clears so far, including a 2 Heat run), and for that one I don’t really terribly care which specific Olympus boons I get since it relies more on Daedulus. As a result, I find myself running Lambent, or Pierced Butterfly, or Myrmidon Bracer. Sometimes if I’m feeling punchy I’ll use the Conch to specifically grab Poseidon’s attack boon, because Punishing Sweep + knockback = fuck everything on every map.
If I get up to Styx and am down on uses of Death Defy (I use the one that brings you back up to 50% a limited number of times), I’ll switch to Skelly.
Other weapons, I will pick the keepsake of a god whose boon I want, then do that again for Asphodel. Gives me the best chance at controlling my build. Then I’ll run Broken Spearpoint through Elysium, and if I have all my Death Defy, I’ll keep that going throughout Styx.
I aim for Zeus and Demeter for the railgun (the last run I did, I had Zeus on Attack, and got the hammer upgrade that turns your attack into a 3-shot burst where you never need to reload, and I fucking melted everything in my way) and pick up status effect along the way.
For the Twin Fists, I’m gonna try an Ares/Athena combo so I can roll on the Duo Boon that lets your Deflect abilities automatically activate Doom. I suspect I will melt shit. Up till now I’ve been running Zeus on attack and Aphrodite on Special - I use the aspect with the Magnetic Cutter, so pull + Weak + take damage debuff + lightning hands = widespread mayhem.
I suck out loud with the bow but generally go for Artemis and then fail somewhere up in Styx.
Still figuring out the sword and Aegis. With Aegis I’ve had the most luck with a “turret” run, getting Demeter’s cast and just blocking things. The sword seems to be solid no matter what I pick, so usually I wind up picking some god whose boons I still need for a prophecy or something.
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I say “I suck out loud with the bow” but literally just had a run that I shoulda fuckin had but I choked at very literally the last second. I got hit by a Hades projectile a half-second before I woulda dropped him with one last bow shot.
I love this fucking bullshit game.
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I went on a Titan blood spending spree and unlocked every aspect, and I’ve been having a lot of fun with Hera’s bow aspect. Get Aphrodite’s cast, and it becomes a mini-nuke.
Also, I’m playing with God Mode on. The fact that it makes the game a little easier is kind of negated that even with it, I died a stupid amount before I actually started to get good enough at the game to get through. I’d debate turning it off since I can get through a run most of the time without a death defiance, but I’m just going to wait until I’m done with the story.
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I finally reached Hades for the first time last night with the Twin Fists.
At first he didn’t seem so hard and I was steadily chipping away at his health bar, and then I would get hit by some attack that would take massive amounts oh HP. I ended up dying, which seems only proper story-wise.
I definitely need to play more patiently, dashing around more and kiting instead of trying to do my impression of the Berserker Barrage on bosses.
Love this game and Demeter is badass.
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“I suck out loud with the bow” is how I feel because that’s the only weapon I never got a clear with lol.
I feel like a backwards person. The bow is by far the easiest weapon for me. Stay far away from enemies and kill them with significantly decreased risk of being damaged. The melee weapons require you to stand in the most dangerous place right near the enemies, how can they be easier?
I don’t like being stationary while the bow is charging up. I’d rather be dashing around the room than standing in the same spot.
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Athena’s boons tend to combo with them really well, they’re mostly a great deal faster, and there’s the whole timing issue on the power shot of the bow. I understand why people might have issues.
That said, I find the sword my least proficient weapon. Just something there that leaves me not able to manage as easily, even compared to using Guan-Yu’s double-sided death stick.
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Me either. I stand far away from enemies where nothing is happening. If I’m in danger, I move, or I shoot an uncharged shot. Any kind of dash upgrade, especially one that does damage, takes care of business when it’s not safe to stand and fire.
I also always use the Aspect of Hera. This lets you load your cast (red crystals) into your next shot. This is terrific against individual strong enemies, like bosses. Does just a crapton of damage to one target. Even the bosses that have multiple parts, like hydra, I take down one part at a time. Attack only one.
As for lots of little enemies, that’s what the special is for. I always try to load something good onto the special. Deflect is really good. Any kind of AoE I can use to make space to stand and fire.
It’s mostly the charge time with the bow that threw me off for a while. It felt at odds with the pacing of a lot of foes.
It was actually the spear with Apsect of Hades that helped me figure out a good rhytm with slower weapons like that.
I actually really enjoyed the bow with Demeter on special, using the aspect that has your special track whoever was hit by your attack. Poseidon attack to knock someone away and Rupture, special to apply a whole bunch of stacks of Chill, repeat to keep Privileged Status until stuff dies.
Helps if you get more dashes from Hermes.
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I’m still basically mainlining Hades. Working on finishing the Epilogue quest (nearly done), and finishing out the list of prophecies.
I didn’t think I’d ever finish the Mirror of Night one, because Stubborn Defiance is pretty rough against Hades, but I wound up pulling it off with luck and help from Patroclus and that Styx Dark.
I’m vaguely tempted to get into heat runs, now that I’ve cleared 1 heat with every weapon. I’m up to 5 with the spear, so I’m tempted to try Extreme Measures 3 to see what that’s like. And I understand EM4 turns Hades into an even bigger bitch so that could be cool.
I feel like once I’ve resolved the Epilogue I’ll probably be mostly done with the game for a while.
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Once I got to run 35 with always fighting and dying against Hades I broke down and turned on “god mode”.
This made the game easier, but by no means super easy to my old person reflexes. I can consistently get to Hades without it, but his fight is just too much for what resources I’ve got left by the time I get to him.
I felt that if I kept grinding I could power up everything to where I could do it without the extra 20% damage reduction, but man, I don’t have that time in my life.
And there we see the big reason why I turned it on about that run. It’s enough of a change that you get a solid learning curve. It’s still a difficult game, but you get to keep interacting with the story parts of it too.
I’m still chasing after the epilogue and playing with all the different weapon aspects and the changes raising the heat level brings.
I’m so god damn happy they included ‘god mode’ in the game. I don’t know why other games don’t have something like that. Lookin’ at you soulsbourne. It seems like an easy enough to implement, no extra faff required mitigation step for accessibility.
At the end of the day all it does is ensure more people play/see more of your game.
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I feel like this god mode really works with the nature of Hades itself.
Starting with a substantial, but not game breaking, damage reduction and having that ramp up slowly if you repeatedly fail is a nice way of doing it.
This method very neatly dovetails with a game that you’re expected to die a lot in.
I’m not entirely certain how well it’d work with a soulsbournes game, or many other games, but I really do like it. It’s similar to the handicapping system in Go.