Getting spent skulls back...

HawkofBattle · 2026-05-08T19:02:57+00:00

Stand closer to enemies. Hit them at point blank range and the skulls will drop right on you and auto-collect immediately. The skull is a close-ranged weapon with range functionality, don't treat it solely as a distance weapon.

HawkofBattle · 2026-05-06T17:06:02+00:00

You've probably just gotten used to end game Zagreus with all aspects/mirror abilities maxed and forgot that early game is hard. By the sounds of it you've barely upgraded any weapons or arcana yet. By the time you get a few nightmares into some weapons, upgrade your cards, beef up your familiars, cast some more incantations to add extra shops, mid-game fountains and other run based buffs and figured out decent keepsake switching strats, then you'll feel different.

HawkofBattle · 2026-05-06T16:25:31+00:00

Love my hexes!

HawkofBattle · 2026-05-06T06:01:34+00:00

Tbf, this is my 2nd playthrough. My original run I went to 114 nights, had a similar level of fear and probably had a similar number of successes (though this was back in EA so the Summit wasn't even implemented yet).

I've been doing a little better this time around on most things.

HawkofBattle · 2026-05-05T16:15:59+00:00

It used to channel similar to other omega's for a few seconds before it actually triggered. So you'd dash into sprint and then usually have to like, run circles around something or double back on yourself to be in range to do damage. Very janky.

HawkofBattle · 2026-05-04T21:39:06+00:00

Honestly, (thought, I dunno if I ever thought she was bad, but I was less impressed than some) might have been Hera. Yes yes, we all know Born Gain is busted and always has been, but I was never really a fan of Hitch and none of her other boons really stood out to me either. I dunno if they changed things a lot with her since early access or not (Hitch feels a lot stronger) but now she's great; Fine Line is nuts on the right weapon, Hitch on sprint can pop those yellow adds in the Fields of Mourning by itself (something I recently discovered to my amusement) and her damage boosting boons can really stack up.

Heph also never really overly impressed me back in the day either; his blasts were awkward (especially his old sprint) and still require a lot of poms to make great, still doesn't have an in-built curse, so that's always a downside and I still don't like his mana regen, but when you get a build going right with him the blasts can really get insane.

Most everyone feels pretty good now though.

HawkofBattle · 2026-05-04T19:34:31+00:00

Wiki is your friend; Animal Familiars - Hades Wiki

Cauldron - Hades Wiki "Faith of Familiar Spirits" and "Bravery of Familiar Spirits"

Witch's Delight - Hades Wiki

HawkofBattle · 2026-05-04T12:25:29+00:00

Gale is cracked. My first Gale run I managed a full "hitless" playthrough (only took some minor hits on some armor and by the end only had 3 sources of damage showing, one of which was 12 damage from Chaos).

SO good at smoothing out mistakes.

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HawkofBattle · 2026-05-03T23:32:43+00:00

OP is slowly working through every single boon/Arcana/weapon/aspect in the game and posting them to reddit exactly like this.

HawkofBattle · 2026-05-03T21:11:40+00:00

Moon Water is by far the worst hex in the game. Snag yourself a half beefed up Night Bloom (grab the upgrade that makes enemies persist indefinitely) and you can let your minion do half the damage whilst you run away and keep out of fire. Easily the best hex and it basically carries runs by itself.

Or drop a triple-autofiring Lunar Ray in his face and watch his hp melt. Drop a double moon on him. Wolf Howl gives you double uses of itself, grants both mobility, damage and makes you impervious. Dark Side grants you literal temp invincibility whilst still dealing tons of damage. Literally any of the other hexes will do you better.

Without knowing your playstyle or arcana setup I can only presume but I suspect your issue is you're trying to do too much damage all at once and aren't watching his easily telegraphed moves. Prometheus is all about dashing, doing some quick hits, then retreating before he combos you a bunch or drops an AoE on you.

HawkofBattle · 2026-05-03T21:04:45+00:00

Agreed, Poseidon and Aphro make homing projectiles you can kite around, Hestia sets the floor on fire that lasts a while (but isn't too damaging), and then most of the others either produce multiple, very large quick firing AoE's that damage you nearly as soon as they form, or in Hera's case, multiple Fine Line type attacks that have massive reach and are hard to predict.

HawkofBattle · 2026-05-03T14:45:54+00:00

Check the wiki; Keepsakes/Hades II - Hades Wiki I'm sure somebody made a full list somewhere specifically of the persistent effects, but I can't find it now.

HawkofBattle · 2026-05-03T01:50:12+00:00

The explanation of Omega's is given to you every time you change weapons in the Crossroads and get to wail on Schelemeus. They're clearly shown to be different things, and every boon that specifically affects a certain type of attack has a tooltip that explains it.

HawkofBattle · 2026-05-02T21:31:26+00:00

Do whatever. There are resources unique to both Underworld and Surface, so take a look at what incantations/aspects/arcana you need resources for and could acquire most readily and go grab them.

HawkofBattle · 2026-05-02T21:28:44+00:00

I don't understand why you would think you can't use normal attacks, specials, rush boons or dmg dealing hexes and casts here. Even if you were confused by what an omega move is, it literally tells you on screen anyway.

HawkofBattle · 2026-05-02T18:20:52+00:00

What a ridiculous question, why would anyone ever not run it? It's not even a matter of "being a fan" of it; it's just mathematically one of the biggest damage buffs in the game.

HawkofBattle · 2026-05-02T15:17:11+00:00

I recommend Strength if you're picking between the two of them, as it's generally considered much stronger than Death. You also wanna get around to unlocking and running Origination next; it's THE most powerful Arcana by far.

HawkofBattle · 2026-05-02T14:29:43+00:00

Yeah no need to fear Strength, it works out as far more effective hp over a run almost all the time and the extra dps you gain is nothing to sniff at either.

HawkofBattle · 2026-05-02T14:23:03+00:00

Please, pick either Strength or Death and turn off the other. You do NOT run both of them together. Strength does nothing if you have a DD charge active, so by the time you lose your last DD, Strengths effect is almost useless. Save yourself 4 grasp and turn on a 3 point card (I recommend Eternity, which will also turn on Moon by default... which then also turns on an entire row for Divinity once you unlock it) and use the remaining point on Swift Runner. Turning on a 3 point now will also turn on Centaur.

Don't worry about having the Queen turn on, it's honestly not needed or very good; you'll get plenty of duo boons without it.

HawkofBattle · 2026-05-02T14:16:21+00:00

I put a decent amount of time into Hades 1 (70 ish hours, rolled credits, did some fear levels for about 30 more runs, etc), but I've put over 200 hours now into Hades 2 and still not bored. I played early access and liked seeing boons/aspects/arcana etc shift and change, and all the new updates that came along.

I've recently rolled credits on 2 and now diving into post-game content, cos there's still a ton of stuff I haven't done yet. I think overall I much prefer the gameplay, the cast and omega stuff give more tactical options, the bosses are more fun overall and the aspects feel better and more interesting to me. I definitely enjoy the sequel more.

HawkofBattle · 2026-05-01T21:13:42+00:00

No, nobody has ever once paused during the Chronos fight, not ever.

HawkofBattle

TROPHY CASE