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Lee Reamsnyder | Feed · Sep 25, 2025

Build ideas and tips for all weapon aspects in “Hades 2”

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Lee Reamsnyder · leereamsnyder.com

Table of contents

Who is this for?

This is the guide that I wish existed when I was roughly at the midpoint of my Hades 2 playing. Maybe this describes you?

  • You’ve cleared the final bosses a couple of times.
  • You realize you still have a ton more runs in your future to power up all of your tools and complete the various story threads.
  • When you’re past the first region or two, things feel hard still. You have a couple of aspects you like, but when you get a clear, it feels like luck most of the time.
  • You’re trying out other aspects, and some feel unworkable.

That’s where this guide comes in. I want to show you how to competently use each weapon aspect and give you some build recipes you can lean on for consistent, repeatable clears.

Current status

Hail, Xbox and PlayStation folks! You are welcome here, and safe.

This has been updated for the post-launch patches from June 2026.

Since initial publication, I’ve added some guidance for Fates’ Whim runs with the post-credits keepsakes. I’ve also recorded and linked to post-launch gameplay videos for all the aspects and build recipes. If there’s anything in particular you’d like to see in action, let me know.

Because I recognize that not everyone has every single boon, hammer, and Arcana memorized, I’ve been adding pop-up tooltips like this one so you don’t have to go elsewhere for definitions. All the weapon-specific sections have good coverage. I still have tedious tables to work through.

Too Long; Didn’t Read

If you want to understand one key to success and get to playing, it’s this:

Slower or high-damage attacks or specials want boons that confer percentage-based increases: Aphrodite, Apollo, Demeter, Hera, or Ares. Faster or low-damage attacks or specials want boons that add a new damage source: Zeus, Hephaestus, Hestia, or Poseidon.

Use your cast more. No: more than that.

If you would prefer just a big ol’ list of synergies to look for, try my Get More Powerful™ Cheatsheet.

If you read just one more thing, I recommend the section on controlling your build.

Why should you listen to me?

Just like the original Hades, I love the heck out of this game and I played it a problematic amount during Early Access.

I’m among the first 20-odd folks to have cleared 50 Fear ever during Early Access. I’ve also now cleared 62 Fear — both routes!—with every single aspect and cleared 65 Fear, so I know some things.

Don’t just take my word on it. Here’s Reddit user HairyBatman’s opinion:

I thought this was dumb as shit

Ah! Well. Nevertheless,

What are these build recipes?

An ideal build for me is one that…

  • Works with the core mechanics of the weapon aspect. There’s plenty of workable builds where you ignore the weapon. There’s nothing wrong with those! But you get a variety of weapons in this game for a reason, and all of them are potentially strong.
  • Works with a handful of common boons. You can force seeing gods with keepsakes, so there’s a good chance you get a core boon from them. But after that, you might not see them much! Or you won’t get offered the duo you really need! I don’t want to leave you high and dry if that doesn’t happen.
  • Doesn’t necessarily need a specific Daedalus Hammer. You might not get it! Of course, if a particular aspect and hammer combination is a spicy way to murder things, I’ll call those out.
  • Once the basics are in place, the build has a couple of different avenues to scale up in power.

The quicker and more easily a build is effectively “online,” the happier I am. Struggling through the Mourning Fields when your build isn’t effective yet or you have the ‘wrong’ hammers stinks.

In this house we believe in DPS. Killing things fast is the best and safest way to clear. I’ve used every build idea in this guide to clear at least 32 Fear — both routes — with the maxed Vow of Time ; any of them should be strong and fast enough for nearly anything you’d like to do in this game.

Controlling your build

When you’re starting Hades 2, you’re at the mercy of the game’s random number generator for the gods and boons you get offered. Because you should be experimenting with different combinations while you learn the ropes, this is for the best.

However, eventually you’ll want to tug the strings in your favor. Here’s how.

Use the god keepsakes early

Nearly all my build suggestions will tell you to start with a specific god (“Start with Apollo on attack”) or broad class of god (“Start with a percentage-based attack boon”). To this end, use god keepsakes in the first region, guaranteeing that the first chamber reward will be a boon from that god.

My build recipes will also suggest other gods with good complementary boons or potent duos. If those gods don’t show up in the first region, take a keepsake into the second region. Your next boon reward will be from that chosen god.

Know the mechanics of the god pool

Once you’ve taken boons from four different gods in a run, you won’t get offered any new gods for the rest of the run. Chaos, Hermes, Selene, Artemis, Athena, and Dionysus do not count towards this total. You can force more with keepsakes, but then you’ve got even more gods in the pool and you’ll be less likely to get any particular god later on.

If you’re planning on forcing another god in the second area, try to take a maximum of three different gods in the first.

I hardly ever take a god keepsake into the later regions, when there’s plenty of good options:

  • Need more damage? Try the Fang , Fleece , or Eye . Or Antler if you like to ride the lightning.
  • Need more survivability? Try the Tooth , Bones , or the Pin .
  • Need some speed? The Droplet can fix that.
  • Need some extra Magick? Take the Wheel .
  • Don’t need anything in particular for the second region? Take the Fig Leaf and skip a bunch of fights.
  • Want to power up a Hex? Take the Moon Beam for a stack of upgrades.
  • YOLO? Gamble on a free Chaos boon or an additional hammer. When leveled, taking the Experimental Hammer before Oceanus or Mount Olympus can last the remainder of the run.

Understand the core boon slots

Every standard god has “core” boons — attack, special, cast, dash, or magick recovery. The game tries real hard to fill those slots: you are nearly guaranteed to be offered one if a slot is empty.

When you’re looking for tier-2 boons, duos, or legendaries you might want to fill core slots so you stop getting offered a dash boon you don’t care about. If you can do so without unlocking unwanted duos, perfect.

On the flip side, if you must have a core boon like Born Gain : fill the other core slots with whatever, then Hera will likely offer Born Gain next time you see her.

Take the rolls

The two Arcana cards that let you change door rewards (Enchantress) and re-roll boons (Champions) give you more control over the gods that are available and which boons you take from them, which in turn give you more power than any other Arcana you could take instead. I only turn these off if I’m using Fates’ Whim keepsakes.

Warden chambers (the doors have a skull) in early regions can only be boons, so those are ideal targets for rolling the door when fishing for specific gods. I’ll also roll doors to avoid a god I absolutely don’t want.

Most rolls, however, are for boon selections: another shot at a key boon lets you get your build online that much quicker. If you’re not looking for anything specific from a god, save your rolls and take the best option on screen. For important boons, I typically only roll once unless I’m desperate or I have a huge pile of rolls. Speaking of…

Take the cash

Although The Boatman arcana feels expensive at five Grasp, early money is nice. With 300 gold you can buy two boons from early shops, locking in other gods and getting your build online sooner. Even at higher fear with Vow of Debt you can buy one extra boon, a huge blessing as resources get pinched.

Spend that coin! Don’t save for the final shop, where the boons and other goodies are overpriced. Get stronger buying six boons and a couple of health or magick boosts over the run instead of maybe getting one (1) Nightmare.

That said, the true value of The Boatman is it activates The Fates in the corner for a downright luxurious 10 rolls. With that many rolls to start, you’ll feel more comfortable rerolling twice for key boons or changing Warden doors to different (hopefully better) gods. I turn Boatman off very, very rarely.

Ignore boon rarity (mostly)

While rare and epic boons are certainly nice, if you get offered the boon you need, you take it — even if it’s common. I’ve cleared 50 Fear with level 1 common boons for my main damage. It’s fine.

Don’t fall into the trap of taking the highest-rarity boon on the screen, even if it doesn’t offer much long-term or actively makes your build worse. The correct common boon beats the wrong rare one every time.

Don’t chase Poms (mostly)

Get a Pom or two on your major sources of damage, then don’t go out of your way for more. The bonuses for further levels — especially percentage-based boosts — won’t move the needle much.

The most important exceptions are:

  • Blitz from Zeus and waves from Poseidon have relatively flat level bonuses and increasing the base power has a big impact.
  • Hephaestus is like Cookie Monster but for Poms: blasts need to reduce their cooldown, and Grand Caldera has big level bonuses.
  • A few boons have sorta silly Pom scaling: Aphrodite’s cast, Aphrodite’s special, Hereditary Bane from Hera, and Pyro Technique from Hestia.

With a mid-game incantation, you get a free Pom slice when you take a Nectar. If it’s early in an Underworld run, you have just one boon, you’d like a Pom on it, and there are 2 exits showing Ashes and Bones, you can roll one door into a Nectar for an early bonus level. That’s the only time I’d use a roll on minor rewards.

Consider the Vow of Denial

If you’re fishing for run-defining boons that aren’t core boons, look into Vow of Denial . The boons it deletes won’t be offered again during the run, which has the sneaky benefit of making it more likely that the boon you do want will get offered later. Also, frankly, you usually don’t care about many of the boons in any god’s pool.

Do not do this blindly, as it has considerable downsides! You will have to spend rolls if you get caught with multiple must-have boons that you don’t want to erase. Because you have to delete so many boons, legendary boons are probably off the table. Also, be wary of late-run boons — especially mystery boons. You can end up in a situation where build-bricking core boon swaps are the only thing you can choose. Check the Book of Shadows, which marks the boons you’ve deleted.

And before you ask: no, Vow of Denial won’t force a duo or legendary boon to appear.

Fish for a favorable start

With a later-game incantation you can salute the Oath of the Unseen in the Training Grounds, which changes the beginning of the upcoming run. I don’t want to get too deeply into the RNG seeding system but in short: if a night’s run was going to start with a certain selection of boons, it’ll now start in a randomized different way.

In practice, what you do is equip a god keepsake and start a run. If the core boon you want isn’t among the ones on offer within a roll or two, select Undo Night, alter the seed, and try again. You have to alter the seed every time you Undo Night. Repeat until you get your ideal boon to start, then off you go.

Know your elements

Although it’s not, like, the law, the elements for each god’s boons are a little nudge for which gods play extra-nice together.

God Boon elements Infusion element
Aphrodite Air & Water Air
Apollo Air & Fire Fire
Ares Earth Earth
Demeter Water & Earth Water
Hephaestus Fire & Earth Earth
Hera All All
Hestia Fire Fire
Poseidon Water Water
Zeus Air Air

Artemis offers mostly air and earth boons. Athena is all fire, and Dionysus is all water. Hermes offers a mix. You can get bonus elements from resource harvesting, Chaos, Narcissus, or Hera’s legendary.

Understand in-game descriptions of your moveset

Boons, hammers, arcana, or aspects can be quite particular about what they are modifying. Pay close attention to avoid surprises.

Pluralized “Attacks” or “Specials” or “Casts” means it applies to both basic and Omega moves. The core attack and special boons use this wording.

“Attack” or “Special” not pluralized refers to the basic moves, not Omega moves. The Huntress arcana is the most prominent example: it does nothing for Omega moves.

Attack(s) includes dash-strikes, although some hammers are only for dash-strikes or exclude dash-strikes.

If there’s an Omega (Ω) symbol (like “Ω Attack”), it only applies to Omega moves, not basic moves. The Omega cast is the damaging blast that occurs when your cast expires.

Faster Omega move speed (e.g. Racing Thoughts ) and channeling speed (e.g. Revelation from Chaos) are the same: faster channeling.

“Strikes” is anything done with your weapon: attacks and specials, including Omegas. Well, except for Grievous Blow (Ares) which says “when struck” but that means everything you do including on-hit effects. I dunno, man.

Some effects last a given number of Locations (rooms) or Encounters (fights for a reward). Most of the time, they’re the same thing. Friend rooms, shops, and Chaos are Locations, not Encounters. In the Mourning Fields or Rift of Thessaly, a single Location can have multiple Encounters.

Know how damage increases work

Without going into exhaustive detail on the damage formula, the following bits are worth knowing:

  • Multiple percentage damage boosts (eg “+50%”) are additive with each other, not multiplicative. A +80% attack boon from Aphrodite and +20% global damage boost is a +100% total increase on your attacks — effectively doubling the base power. More percentage boosts are always nice, but they’re most valuable on attacks with bigger base power.
  • Added Power increases base damage and is further improved by relevant percentage boosts. For example, an axe swing with 70 base power, +30 power, and +100% damage will hit for 200. Power is always welcome, but it’s extra-welcome on faster attacks.
  • Global damage boosts increase the damage of everything: weapon moves, casts, on-hit effects like Poseidon waves or Heph blasts, statuses, Hexes, all of it. These are valuable because they up the damage on, for example, a Heph blast and the weapon’s Omega move that triggered the blast and the resulting Heartthrob from the Omega move.
  • Percentage damage boosts or added Power for attacks or specials apply to your weapon’s damage, not on-hit effects on those moves.
  • Crits are triple damage, multiplied after most other calculations. Our axe swing above that hits for 200 will do 600 if it crits.
  • When Grievous Blow or Mutual Destruction from Ares trigger, the hit does double damage, multiplied after most other calculations. This can stack with crits for a x6 multiplier on the hit.

Arcana

Assuming your cards are unlocked and leveled, here’s a layout that’s a decent balance between damage, survival, and flexibility:

Screen capture of the Arcana page with the following cards active: Sorceress, Furies, Persistence, Swift Runner, Death, Centaur, Origination, Lovers, Enchantress, Boatman, Queen, Fates, Champions, Divinity

Don’t take that blindly or be lazy with your cards! You should be swapping Arcana to match your needs, Fear level, aspect, and planned build.

The non-negotiable arcana are:

  • Your pick of Death or Strength
  • The rolls-and-cash corner
  • Persistence (unless you’re real comfy)

That leaves just 12 grasp, which will involve hard choices and is mostly to your preference. I do mean that: I have Arcana that I favor but when I shuffle things around and use other cards, I find myself thinking “oh these are nice, actually.”

Here’s some brief comments on other Arcana:

  • Sorceress : Take this if you’re using Omega moves. Even if you’re not, it’ll let you activate Huntress faster.
  • Wayward Son : Helpful to stay topped up, particularly with Strength where the healing goes farther.
  • Huntress : If you’re not using (many) Omega moves, almost definitely take this. Squeeze off an Omega move as soon as you enter a room to get it active. If you prime more magick than your maximum it won’t give you the damage bonus.
  • Eternity : A stealth damage boost for Omega-heavy aspects because you’re less likely to miss and will have to dodge less.
  • Moon : Handy for low-magick usage so you can use Hexes occasionally, but the Arcana that activate this encourage Omega-heavy play.
  • Furies : You should always be casting and a global damage boost is nearly always useful.
  • Persistence : The starting health and magick are good for both survivability and damage. If you need just one, Frinos or Hecuba can free up this Grasp.
  • Messenger : Dashing and then casting can give you that extra bit of invulnerability to dodge tricky moves or leap into danger.
  • Unseen : Just-OK regeneration, 5 Grasp is expensive, and gain boons are core so they’re hard not to get. If you’re concerned about early magick, take Hecuba before this.
  • Night : A huge damage boost for aspects that alternate Omegas. Eos Flames and the hidden Coat come to mind.
  • Swift Runner : Faster sprinting helps you avoid a surprising amount of damage.
  • Origination : Pricey, but it’s the biggest global damage boost available. A gigantic power boost for Zeus, Poseidon, Hestia, and Hephaestus in particular. Getting two curses takes some thought, but typically isn’t difficult.
  • Lovers : Helpful padding against Guardians, some of whom hit for ludicrous amounts of damage. This is often the first thing I drop for other things and then I miss it terribly.
  • Artificer : Although three more major rewards is good, you have no control over what you get. I take this when I don’t have Boatman or to counter Vow of Forfeit at ultra-high fear.
  • Excellence : Nah. Some rare boons are not worth 5 grasp, and the boost to Legendary chances is slight. God keepsakes will get your most important boons to at least rare anyway.
  • Queen : Ten rerolls goes a long way to getting that duo you want. I don’t go out of my way to activate this.
  • Divinity : Ups the general chance of epic boons from 1-in-20 to 1-in-5. Yes, yes, ignore boon rarity, but that’s a lot of epic boons. You likely take a 1- or 2-Grasp card that you’re not totally jazzed about for this.
  • Judgment : Far too random for reliable clears. If you must, take the rolls & cash to start, or maybe Persistence and Strength for early durability.

If you’re not sure what you’re going to do on a given run, Furies and Origination are the most flexible damage boosts to use.

Common Arcana swaps

The layout in the image above is effectively my baseline. I take all the rolls, and the left-most column is (a) broadly useful and (b) activates Divinity. Here’s the most frequent adjustments I make:

  • For aspects that rotate through big Omegas, drop Origination for Eternity and Night , either of which conveniently turn on Moon
  • For more safety with Omegas, drop Lovers for Eternity
  • For a little more healing and damage, drop Lovers for Huntress or Night and Wayward Son
  • For low-Fear speedrunning, drop Persistence for Night or Huntress
  • For a faster first region at absurdly high Fear (like, really high, 58+), drop Boatman for Artificer and Night or Huntress
  • For the post-credits Fates’ Whim keepsakes, I make numerous changes.

And, of course, a decision has to be made between…

Strength or Death?

Don’t use both at the same time. You only have so much Grasp, and you’re getting little value out of Strength with Death giving you Defiances most of the run.

To pick one, don’t overthink it:

  • If you’re learning the ropes, use Death. Some Guardians have instant-kill (or near enough) moves that you need to learn.
  • If you’ve hit a wall with a particular Guardian, use Death. It’s more effective health for a single room.
  • If you favor defensive keepsakes that give you Defiances, use Death. In particular, the Engraved Pin and its 10 seconds of complete invulnerability is strong.
  • If you’re pushing Fear — especially if you have maxed out the Vow of Scars  — use Death. Because there’s many ways to recover lost Defiances, especially in the Underworld, Death will probably be more effective health.
  • If you’re concerned about Vow of Time , take Death. The 5 damage per second you take if you go over is the same with Strength, so you’ll survive longer with Defiances.
  • If you want a lot more cushion to use the White Antler to shred a region, use Death.
  • If the Strength card isn’t fully upgraded, use Death.
  • If Death lines up better to activate Divinity , probably use Death.

If none of the above apply, give Strength a go.

The lengthy list above looks like I’m beating up on Strength. I’m not. I use it frequently. A global damage boost is nice, you get big value out of cheap and plentiful health recovery, you get to not think about Defiances at all, and you can summon Athena and her cracked boons whenever you want.

Familiars

Early on, use Frinos. Melinoë is squishy and you need all the health (and Psyche) you can get. Also, he absorbs that pesky transformation curse from Hecate.

Later, choosing is simple:

  • Concerned about magick? Take Hecuba. More magick is more damage and you can delay getting a gain or take sub-optimal ones with the doggo around. Also she sometimes stuns baddies. 14/10 great dog.
  • Concerned about dying? Take Gale. Compared to Frinos or Toula, built-in dodge chance and free hits are worth more effective health over a run. If you’re pushing Fear, start here.
  • Not concerned about either of those things? Take Raki. More damage is good.

(Sorry, Toula. I like your hat. Watch me take on the Underworld with Toula and Athena for lots of extra-strength Defiances.)

Some builds that will come up a lot

Flat Damage Soup

Get as many additional sources of damage as you can, then seek out “global” damage boosts to boost everything. For example, the Furies arcana giving +30% damage on only your weapon attack is fine, but it’s extraordinary when it’s boosting your weapon and lightning bolts and Scorch and Heph blasts.

If you’re coming from Hades, there are more global damage boosts here, including up to +100% from Arcana alone. Because of the relative glut of global damage, flat damage builds are viable more often than you’d expect.

Use the Furies and Origination arcana, nab a few things from each column below, then channel your inner Moon Knight and “random bullshit go!!!” It’ll probably work out.

Source Flat damage Global damage boosts
Aphrodite Rush, Heart Breaker Sweet Surrender , Shameless Attitude
Apollo Cast, Prominence Flare , Beach Ball , Tropical Cyclone Perfect Image
Ares Cast, Rush, Cut Above , Profuse Bleeding , Meat Grinder Grievous Blow , Mutual Destruction , Rallying Cry*
Demeter Cast, Rush, Arctic Gale , Tropical Cyclone , Hail Storm
Hephaestus Blasts and Casts Furnace Blast (Glow)
Hera Cast, Fine Line , Dying Wish, Rousing Reception Extended Family*, Uncommon Grace
Hestia Scorch, fireballs & explosions Snuffed Candle
Poseidon Waves and splashes, Froth
Zeus Blitz, other lightning, duos w/ Apollo & Demeter
Artemis Easy Shot, Support Fire Pressure Points, Death Warrant, Vital Signs
Hermes Tall Order (infusion)
Athena Righteous Pike , Deflects
Selene Wolf Howl, Total Eclipse , Lunar Ray, Sky Fall Twilight Curse; assorted Path of Stars upgrades
Arcana Furies , Origination, Strength
Keepsake White Antler, Lion Fang, Evil Eye, Discordant Bell
Familiar Toula Raki
Hades Howling Soul , Cinerary Circle, Gigaros Dash Unseen Ire, Last Gasp

(* Rallying Cry and Extended Family boost Olympian flat damage, but not Mel’s weapons or hexes, so they’re not truly global.)

Hera is a great fourth god here, as Hitch is a damage multiplier against crowds and Extended Family will power up most of your flat damage.

Zeus will often feature prominently; global damage boosts not only increase all his flat damage, but also make it easier to trigger a…

Big Bad Blitz

Blitz from Zeus — especially at high rarity — is rarely bad, whether it’s your primary damage or you’re working it into the rotation. Blitz has outlandish scaling with rarity, solid scaling from Poms, and you can grow it even further with Double Strike and global damage boosts. Put it this way: even when I’m focusing on other things, if Blitz is in my build it nearly always lands in the top-2 damage dealers.

Don’t sweat Blitz’s requirement to do 120 more damage to trigger the bolt. That’s frankly not much. More damage sources can help. Conveniently, Zeus has good duos with Poseidon, Hephaestus, and Hestia. Or add Aphrodite and look for their duo Romantic Spark , letting you dash and sprint about for bonus Blitz damage.

If you’re going for maximum lightning and feel satisfied with three gods you got in the first region, take Hera’s keepsake in the second. Get a bunch of useless-to-you Hera boons, then dump them with King’s Ransom for a pile of poms. You’ll be all-powerful and an ass, the perfect Zeus cosplaying experience. Although if you’re not feeling like screwing over Hera, try…

The Unhappy Family

Although they’d never admit it, the pairing of Zeus and Hera is tough to beat. Hera is often the best overall take for moves that want a percentage boost: the damage is good enough, there’s no range restriction, you’re halfway to Origination , and Hitch is silly against crowds. Meanwhile, a big Blitz or Storm Ring will up your damage on tankier baddies and Guardians.

The high-Fear try-hards in the speedrunning Discord joke about this: if someone’s asking for a good build for ultra-high Fear, the answer is nearly always Hera and Zeus.

Speaking of perfect pairing…

Rub Some Dirt On It

If you’ve got two gods that are vibing well together damage-wise and you’re not sure what to do next, add Demeter and Hephaestus to up your odds of survival. Freeze and Snow Queen from Demeter are incredible for safety, and she has fun utility boons like Plentiful Forage or Steady Growth . Heph has excellent defensive boons such as Security System and Trusty Shield . Bonus points if one of your damage gods is Ares, because you need a hefty 8 Earth elements to get his infusion Rallying Cry online; Demeter’s utility boons and all of Heph’s defensive boons are Earth.

Just add Ares

There are few gods I like to see second more than Ares, particularly if you can work him into your rotation on attack or special. The front-loaded boost from Wounds chunks down armor and one-shots weaker baddies, and you’re halfway to Origination to make up for his meager percentage boost. More importantly, Ares has insane tier-2 boons around Wounds and Plasma : Grievous Blow gives everything a chance for double damage, and Profuse Bleeding turns your blood drive into a blade storm.

It gets better! Nearly all of Ares’s duo boons are good to great. Omega-heavy aspects will have a good time with Cut Above and his Heph and Apollo duos, and cast-heavy aspects love Hostile Environment with Demeter.

Or — this is harder to get fully online — add a Zeus core and Divine Vengeance and look for Heinous Affront for massive front-loaded Wound-and-bolt damage. With Apollo’s Light Smite tacked on you’ll clear even late-region rooms in seconds.

A Slaughter of Ice and Fire

If you have reasonably fast attacks or specials, Hestia is often a great take. The passive damage from Scorch starts at good, then Hestia’s Pyro Technique and global damage boosts lift it to great.

Aphrodite’s duo with Hestia, Burning Desire , is terrific for hit-and-run tactics if you can keep Weak applied. One greedy example: Glamour Gain and Island Getaway will apply perma-Weak to everyone in the room.

If you’re finding yourself constantly at the 999 cap against bosses, add Demeter and the Demeter – Hestia duo Freezer Burn to fix that problem, clearing accumulated Scorch stacks for instant double damage when you apply Freeze. Pile on Scorch quick enough and you’ve got a boss eraser in just three boons.

If crowds are your concern, Hera is great support: Hitch and Scorch make a wicked feedback loop of pain against swarms. Also, Hestia’s Flash Fry and godsent hex upgrade (with Total Eclipse ) are arguably the best room clearing tools in the game. Try the latter against Vow of Rivals Scylla and when you speak of me, speak well.

Gain and pivot

For aspects that use Omega moves prominently in the damage rotation, start with magick recovery so you can get right into it.

Although the ideal gain boon varies by weapon or build, Zeus or Hera or Apollo can work for anything. Demeter can too if you can stand still (I can’t). Poseidon’s also great if you’re consuming lots of magick in bursts.

With magick sorted, see who else shows up in the first region and pivot into any of these other builds. If you’re burning lots of magick, allow me to suggest…

Omega Maxing

For Omega-heavy aspects, you typically want to be as efficient as possible with your magick use. But sometimes it’s more fun to throw efficiency out the window and torch your magick bar as fast as possible with things like Weed Killer from Demeter, Ocean Swell from Poseidon, Controlled Burn from Hestia, or Cut Above from Ares.

For starters, you can get expensive Hexes active in seconds, and there are some zesty ones. Or you can trigger Righteous Pike from Athena constantly.

Hera is, naturally, the queen of this build. She has good-enough damage boosts on attack or special, Born Gain is often the best overall magick recovery boon when you need to burn lots of magick, and Fine Line makes all your Omegas more expensive. She also has duos worth seeking with Poseidon, Hestia, or Apollo.

Aphrodite and Apollo are big hitters here too. Literally: they have the largest percentage boosts for high-power Omega moves. Aphrodite’s Heart Breaker rewards burning magick, and Sunny Disposition gives you triple.

Although I don’t often recommend builds that rely on a Legendary boon, Apollo’s is fun to chase. Double the Omegas is potent, and the increased magick cost means more Heartthrobs, Hexes, or heavenly spears.

Be like water, flow and crash

Want a gigantic health pool so you can absorb a bunch of hits and just keep going? The water gods — Poseidon, Demeter, and Aphrodite — are here for you. Get lots of water boons from them, then add Poseidon’s infusion Water Fitness for a huge HP bump. Spiritual Affirmation (Aphrodite) from Aphrodite stacks with Water Fitness for even more health and magick, and if Hephaestus — also a clutch defensive god in his own right — is in the pool his Uncanny Fortitude can give you even more health. Aphrodite’s Weak or Demeter’s infusion or armor from Heph can reduce your incoming damage, too.

It’s not all about defense here: Poseidon or Aphrodite are frequently great takes on attack or special. On faster-hitting aspects, I like to start with Poseidon and build towards his legendary for potent Guardian-slaying power. He’s also got good splash or Froth duos with Ares, Zeus, and Hestia.

Wispy Warm Breeze

Aphrodite’s infusion Wispy Wiles grants 2% dodge chance per Air element. Dodge chance is additive, so with a bunch of Air boons (Zeus and Apollo are your friends), Gale, and Hasty Retreat from Hermes you can have the majority of hits whiffing for no damage, dramatically extending your life.

Daze from Apollo makes even more things miss, and the best way to take advantage of a high Dodge/Daze rate is the Hestia – Apollo duo Warm Breeze , which actually heals you for each of those misses. With this build I’ve gotten caught in a flurry of Olympus sniper robot fire and come out of it with more health than I started with.

Maximizing Warm Breeze in this manner requires an annoyingly specific four God pool of Aphrodite, Apollo, Zeus and Hestia. For more flexibility, pumping your dodge chance with Zeus’s Air boons is a fine side quest any time Zeus and Aphrodite are in your pool, like Romantic Spark runs. Watch me build up a huge dodge chance and clear the Underworld at 62 Fear with Selene Coat, a lot of Zeus and Aphrodite, and Wispy Wiles.

Malfunctioning Pressure Cooker

Big booms from Hephaestus are big fun. Heph has excellent-to-good blast-centric duos with Hestia, Apollo, Poseidon, Aphrodite, and Demeter. Find a use for any of them and you can assemble a bone-rattler of a blast build.

My favorite approach is to look for the other Fire gods, Apollo and Hestia, who have the best blast duos.

Having Hestia around gives you a side hustle if you’re not getting duos or Poms: look for her infusion Slow Cooker for added power on all your weapon moves. Aspects with faster movesets — think Blades, Flames, Coats — love added power. I especially enjoy this because any time Heph, Apollo, or Hestia show up you can grab another Fire boon and get stronger, even if the actual boon is meh or they don’t cough up a duo.

Some combat tips

A comprehensive guide to combat in Hades 2 is beyond the scope of this article. Mastery comes from practicing, learning baddie movement and attack patterns, and dying a lot. That said, here’s a few things that were not immediately obvious to me that will help you die less often.

Use your whole kit

While you can occasionally find an effective mash-one-button build, most aspects — even the ones that don’t outright demand it for the aspect’s gimmick — output far more damage by mixing up your moves.

To optimize your damage, look for things that let you do other things while they’re hurting stuff for you. The specials on the Blades, Flames, and Coats are excellent examples.

Casts (with a boon) and Omega casts are another prime example, and they’re always available to you. On that note…

Always Be Casting

Young Melinoë stands in front of a chalkboard, on which is written “ABC Always Be Casting”

First draft “ABBBITBC: Always Be Binding Baddies In The Binding Circle” lacked a certain pizazz

If you’re struggling with combat, I am willing to guess that you aren’t using your cast enough. The movement of most baddies is slowed way down in the binding circle. Most are effectively locked in place, and many can’t attack until they’ve moved a certain distance.

I can’t stress this enough: the cast is a crucial mechanic and you ignore it at your peril. You should nearly always have a cast down. You can drop one almost any time, even in the middle of attack animations or while charging some Omega moves.

The strategic possibilities are endless: bash things in the binding circle for free damage from the Furies Arcana; pin one gaggle of baddies to keep them off you while you deal with another; stop that Wailer from chasing you down; keep a cast between you and baddies while you charge an Omega move or wind up an axe swing; drop a cast on you and Scylla to keep all the swarming fish off of you.

Dash for a reason

I have a bad habit of dashing and sprinting at the nearest baddie the instant I enter a room. Especially on the Surface, like half the baddies punish exactly that: you finish dashing within, say, a Boozer’s surprisingly large attack range and oops now your dash is on cooldown the exact moment you need it to avoid damage. (Also, you left Toula napping back at the entrance.)

Save your dashes for the right moment. Speaking of…

Dash through everything

Although you are invulnerable during the duration of your dash, the game punishes you for dashing away from things. What you want to be doing, almost without exception, is dashing into or through things. Dash through projectiles, dash into expanding shockwaves, dash through baddies and smack ‘em from behind. Especially once they’ve started an attack animation, virtually every baddie takes an eternity to turn around. (Hint: especially Eris.)

Maybe rebind your controls

On a controller, the default control scheme is suboptimal. All of the face buttons (Attack, Special, Cast, Dash) need to be pressed in quick combination, and you have just one thumb. I assume.

Here’s a general-purpose controller layout that works effectively for all aspects:

  • Keep Attack and Dash at their defaults on the face buttons.
  • Move Special to the right bumper.
  • Move Cast to the left bumper.
  • Move Interact to a now-open face button. I moved it to where Cast was.
  • Move Salute wherever. You don’t need this mid-combat. I have it on a joystick press.

This gets Attack and Special under different fingers, which helps with button-mashy aspects like the Blades or Black Coat or Medea Skull. You also have a dedicated finger for Cast. Charon Axe in particular loves having dedicated fingers for Cast, Special, and Dash.

Be reasonably aggressive

Hitting things, for lack of a better word, is good. Not just because you need ’em to die. With the exception of armored baddies and Guardians, most hits from your weapons stagger baddies, interrupting their attacks and movement. Things that can’t move or attack can’t hurt you. Aggression pays off here; if you can work out how to constantly land hits, you’ll generally have an easier time.

To give one example, holding a Wailer in a cast so they can’t chase you down while screaming at you is fine. Lobbing a special their way to shut ’em up is better. Hitting them with a special or dash-strike before they can do anything at all is best.

Because being able to hitstun baddies is so important, the “Melting” hammers that destroy armor are always reasonable takes, particularly with Vow of Fangs active.

Wait your turn

For armored baddies or bosses that you can’t hitstun, the smart play is to bait them into an attack, dodge it, then punish them. Nearly every baddie stands around doing nothing for a while after attacking, and you often don’t have a big enough health pool or overwhelming enough damage to constantly trade hits with late-run goons.

If you’re having trouble learning the animations, most regular baddies flash white just before attacking.

Kill ranged baddies first

Unlike in Hades where you could destroy projectiles with your weapons, you don’t have many counters here outside of the Coat Omega attack, Athena, or Frinos.

Don’t find yourself in bullet hell, losing huge chunks of health to off-screen goons. Chase down, stagger, and slaughter everything that shoots at you before you deal with anything else.

Obstacles are your friend

There are obstacles like columns, rocks, tables, gaps, or bushes in almost every room, and you have the advantage: you can dash through them while baddies have to go around, baddie tracking around them isn’t great, and most baddie attacks can’t go through obstacles while many of your attacks can. Stick close to corners and central obstacles to slow baddies down, have some cover, and direct their attacks away from you.

Strong low-rank aspects

Nightmare eluding you? Once you have weapon aspects unlocked, here are some that are strong at low levels:

  • Circe Staff: You can have a lot of fun with two casts.
  • Artemis Blades: The parry mechanic is the same at all ranks, and the Blades’ base moveset is excellent.
  • Moros Flames: Starts out with plenty of damage.
  • Charon Axe: Tons of damage even at Rank 1.
  • Medea Skull: Not for the timid, but it’s strong.
  • Persephone Skull: Going invulnerable for a bit while doing heavy damage is handy and that mechanic is not affected by rank.
  • Nyx Coat: Makes an easy meal of Flat Damage Soup builds at all ranks.

Alternatively, Melinoë Staff or Melinoë Flames are strong and flexible when ranked up, so you can use those to farm Nightmare for the others.

Among the hidden aspects, the hidden staff and hidden flames are solid at Rank 1.

Very good boons

Over many hundreds of successful runs, here are the boons that really delivered.

  • Arctic Gale & Frigid Rush (Demeter): Adding a second curse to your cast is handy, and Gusts slow baddies and projectiles too.
  • Arctic Ring (Demeter): Freeze is great; Freeze on an area is better. The damage is also surprisingly good. A strong contender for the best core boon in the game.
  • Blinding Rush (Apollo) & Nitro Boost (Hermes): It’s shocking how much damage you avoid by being a bit faster.
  • Born Gain (Hera): When you need to burn lots of magick and not think about it during combat, nothing else suffices. Take some magick upgrades so you don’t prime out.
  • Deep Dissent (Hades): Half the number of floating hourglass fuckos that show up in the final phase of Chronos. Also removes the summoned miniboss during Vow of Rivals Chronos!
  • Flash Fry (Hestia): Free damage and funny chain reactions against swarms.
  • Glamour Gain (Aphrodite): Not the most robust gain, but it applies Weak all around you for safety and Origination .
  • Grievous Blow (Ares): A chance for everything to do double damage as long as you can keep Wounds applied is absurd.
  • Hard Target (Hermes) & Enfeeblement of Cowards (Medea): There are many horrible projectiles in this game and you’d be happy if they were slower.
  • Heaven Flourish (Zeus): Nearly every aspect can work specials into the rotation for shocking supplemental damage from Blitz.
  • Hot Pot (Hestia) & Wispy Wiles (Aphrodite): Building up a big Dodge chance breaks the game a little bit.
  • Lethal Snare & Killing Stroke & Shadow Pounce (Artemis): A massive damage spike for attack- or special- or Omega-heavy aspects, respectively.
  • Lucid Gain (Apollo): Solid magick recovery centered around something you should be doing all the time anyway.
  • Proper Upbringing (Hera): Yes, yes, boon rarity isn’t all that, but bumping everything to blue can be a sizable power spike from a single easy-to-activate Infusion.
  • Rapture Ring (Aphrodite): Sucking baddies into a tight clump significantly speeds up room clear.
  • Renewed Faith (Athena): A bonkers amount of recovery from a single boon.
  • Security System & Trusty Shield (Hephaestus) & Snow Queen (Demeter): Any of these can be worth hundreds of health over a run. If you have two of these (or Nitro Boost ), consider taking the White Antler for the final region.
  • Slow Cooker (Hestia): More Power is good, and this works on both regular and Omega moves.
  • Smolder Ring (Hestia) & Storm Ring (Zeus): An awful lot of damage while you do other things.
  • Spiritual Affirmation (Aphrodite) & Uncanny Fortitude (Hephaestus): Either are potentially worth a stack of magick or hearts or both.
  • Static Shock (Zeus): If you have reasonably fast strikes and can spare the primed magick, it’s tons of extra damage on top of what you’re already doing.
  • Success Rate (Hermes): Makes good things happen more often. It even works with hammers or aspect-specific stuff like the crit rate on Artemis Blades or Thanatos Axe.
  • Sworn Strike / Sworn Flourish (Hera): Often the best overall percentage-based boon on attack or special. If you’re using Vow of Hordes or pushing Fear, start here.
  • Travel Deal (Hermes): Two boons at every shop!
  • Winner’s Circle (Hermes): Amazing for Omega-cast-friendly aspects, and a big DPS bump for many casts. Even without those, repositioning your cast quicker is often useful.

Hexes of note

Hexes have a lot of haterz online. They’re missing out.

Although you can’t really plan around Selene, there are strong Hexes and paths worth pursuing if they’re on offer. Doubly so on the Surface where Hermes shrines offer cheap upgrades.

  • Twilight Curse: This is useful without upgrades, cheap, very nice for rooms, and it even neuters some minibosses. It’s also a +50% global damage boost, even against things that can’t be sheep’d.
  • Wolf Howl: You’re invulnerable during the rise and fall and it’s cheap to activate. A terrific “oh shit” button to avoid damage. With upgrades, the damage goes from fine to borderline silly.
  • Night Bloom: Even the weakest-looking revived baddie hits harder and faster than you’d expect. With the godsent upgrade (Hera), the damage output can be ludicrous.
  • Total Eclipse : Hefty damage for bosses, and the blue and purple upgrades grant even more damage or some safety. The godsent upgrade (Hestia) wipes out entire rooms for you.
  • Phase Shift: A couple of relatively safe seconds to wallop things is a little broken, particularly after you can use it against Chronos for a bit of time-slowing revenge.
  • Dark Side : A few seconds of invulnerability isn’t bad, particularly if you’ve got an ability with a cooldown that you’re waiting on.

Ok. Finally. Let’s talk weapons.

Descura, the Witch’s Staff

Aspect of Melinoë Staff

Winning combo

The starter weapon in Hades 2 is your introduction to baddie management. Be thinking: which of your moves will dismantle whatever’s heading your way?

Swarmed or surrounded? Drop a cast to keep ‘em off you, or Omega cast to punish a group while you tend to other matters.

Are baddies in a clump? Hit ’em with an Omega special; it’s cheap and fast. You can smoothly transition an Omega cast into an Omega special for big damage against crowds.

Can you line baddies up? Try an Omega attack. It can also hit through obstacles. However, I find the aiming, hitbox, and automatic release on this to be a bit fussy, particularly on a controller. A dash-strike into an Omega attack is a reliable little combo against unarmored baddies, and you’re unlikely to miss that close. You can also dash in the middle of channeling the Omega attack to avoid getting hit, but it will reset the channeling.

If you want to torch magick you can hold attack or special, keep holding the button, then every time you dash you’ll go right into another Omega move. With Mirrored Thrasher or Rapid Thrasher or Dual Moonshot , this can pump out a lot of pain in a hurry.

The regular attack combo can do some work and has decent reach, but be a little careful with the slower third hit. You can cast at any point in the attack combo without breaking it, so keep a cast down to get more use out of your cast boon and the Furies arcana.

Weave in regular specials — it’s fast, hits hard, and has surprisingly long range. It’s excellent at interrupting baddie attacks before you move in closer. The special cancels any lingering attack animations, so little combos like sprint → dash-strike → special, or dash-strike → attack → special → repeat, or attack → attack → special → attack work well.

In general I do dash-strike → attack → special as a baseline combo, weaving in Omegas as appropriate.

Should you use it at low ranks?

Trick question! You don’t have a choice.

If you’re concerned that the beginner’s weapon will be mediocre, don’t be. When ranked up, this is a formidable stick. (Watch me clear the Underworld at 65(!) Fear with Mel Staff.)

Hammers of note

Dual Moonshot is twice the heavy-hitting specials. You want this. Watch me poke-poke the Underworld at 62 Fear with Mel Staff, Hephaestus attack, and Dual Moonshot. Or watch me double-bonk the Surface at 62 Fear with Mel Staff, Dual Moonshot, and Hera special.

Shimmering Moonshot is terrific for room clear.

The aspect’s added power makes Giga Moonburst pretty fun too. Rapid Moonshot for faster Omega specials is convenient.

Wicked Thrasher , Mirrored Thrasher , or Rapid Thrasher are good for Omega attacks, but they’re also signs from the universe to just bonk things with your stick using regular attacks. With Wicked Thrasher basically anything on attack is fine. If you see Mirrored Thrasher early, pivot hard into Hestia, Poseidon, or Zeus on attack. Hestia’s gain is the dream.

Melting Swipe understates its “larger area”: it doubles the range of your dash-strike. Keep baddies at bay with dash-strike → special combos, as both moves will have nearly the same reach.

When you have magick regeneration in a good place nothing will brick you, so the Experimental Hammer is worth a shot before the third region.

Build recipes

Aspect of Circe Staff

Winning combo

If you haven’t internalized that you should always be casting, meet Always Be Casting: The Aspect.

Approach baddies and drop a cast or (magick permitting) an Omega cast. You can dash while channeling an Omega cast to dip away from danger. From there, boons and hammers will influence what you’re doing between casts. A combo like special → dash-strike → attacks or Omega attack (magick permitting) is a good starting point. In dangerous situations the regular special has decent range, so you can poke at baddies from some distance. See Mel Staff for more discussion of the base moveset.

The leash with your familiar adds significant damage. Watch your positioning and keep it zapping baddies. Use Raki or Toula or Gale for best results: Raki will kinda-reliably chase after baddies, Toula is quite aggressive after you wake her up, and Gale will chase after you.

Double the casts is double the fun, most notably double the Omega eruptions. Winner’s Circle from Hermes is often welcome to get to the Omega cast faster. Lucid Gain from Apollo restores double.

If you catch baddies in overlapping casts, most casts will hit twice; the exceptions are Tidal Ring (Poseidon) and Sword Ring (Ares) . Sadly, Hostile Environment (Ares – Demeter) doesn’t pin both Omega casts to you, but you’ll still be a menace with a mobile Omega cast.

Definitely have Furies and Origination active. I also like Night for a chance at a crit on Omega casts if you’re sprinkling in other Omega moves.

The Dark Side hex-y is sexy here: you can cast and Omega cast normally while invulnerable, and there’s often a bunch of nodes that give a global damage boost throughout.

Should you use it at low ranks?

Yes. Two casts have a lot of potential at all ranks.

Hammers of note

The doubling hammers ( Dual Moonshot and Mirrored Thrasher ), speed boosters ( Rapid Moonshot and Rapid Thrasher ) and Wicked Thrasher and Melting Swipe are all nice to have.

Build recipes

Aspect of Momus Staff

Winning combo

If you enjoy tower defense games, here’s your aspect.

Drop a cast or an Omega cast in between clumps of baddies to pin ’em. It’s a commitment, so do your best to target a crowd. You can move in, cast, and dash while still holding Cast to dip back out while you finish channeling.

The rotation from there will depend on what hammers and boons show up and how baddies are grouped. Blast tight clumps with the Omega special, or nail rows of baddies with the Omega attack. In a vacuum, I’d lean on the Omega cast early for weaker crowds, and a combination of Omega attacks and Omega casts for tougher baddies.

You can smoothly channel the Omega cast or Omega special into the other Omega moves, letting you set up multi-Omega damage zones quickly. To set up a King Of Omegas Kill Zone, hold Cast → dash back → hold Special → release the Omega → dash-strike → hold Attack.

If you open with an Omega cast, once it starts popping make a judgement call if it’s worth immediately dropping a regular cast: you can keep baddies stuck in your death zones, but you won’t be able to relocate your Omega cast turret until it expires. Another option: smack unarmored baddies with regular attacks and specials to hitstun them, keeping them in place for the turrets. See Mel Staff for a discussion of the basic moveset. Dash-strike → special is a good starting point.

Winner’s Circle from Hermes is great to get to the Omega cast damage faster.

Don’t get attached to your Omega turrets: if baddies aren’t where they’re firing, set up new ones instead of trying to draw baddies into your existing ones.

Because you’re cycling through Omegas, the Night arcana is great for burst damage.

Should you use it at low ranks?

I don’t love this one at the earliest ranks. The Omega echoes are really dang slow. It’s manageable without Vow of Frenzy .

Hammers of note

With triple the Omegas, the big Omega boosting hammers like Giga Moonburst or Mirrored Thrasher or Dual Moonshot are great takes.

The speed boosters —  Rapid Thrasher and Rapid Moonshot  — are handy for faster channeling.

With an early Wicked Thrasher I often end up doing more of a mix of Omegas with plenty of regular attacks to take more advantage of the additional power. Watch me bonk and soak the Underworld Rivals bosses real good with Momus Staff, Wicked Thrasher, Aphrodite attack, and Geyser Spout.

Build recipes

  • Start with your favorite magick recovery between Hera, Zeus, Poseidon, Demeter, Apollo (each Omega cast pulse recovers magick!), or Hestia (poke baddies while your turrets are going to replenish). Get big percentage boosts or a high-rarity Zeus on attack and special and cycle through your Omegas. The Night arcana is solid here. Omega boosters like Weed Killer and Local Climate from Demeter, Controlled Burn from Hestia, Heart Breaker from Aphro, Cut Above from Ares, or Geyser Spout from Poseidon are worthy additions. Or try assembling a beefy Hex to cash in on all the magick you’re burning. Watch me thrash the Underworld with Momus Staff and Apollo’s magick recovery.
  • Start with Zeus on cast. Your cast does damage while you wait for the Omega cast turret to get going, so you’ll always be inflicting pain. Look for robust magick recovery (I list some good options in the recipe just above). A hammer should direct you to focus on your attack or special next; look for percentage boosts for your new favorite Omega move. A high-rarity Blitz is also a fine take, for either your primary or less-used move. Build up your Omegas (again, see directly above for some ideas) or look for Double Strike for more lightning damage. Lightning Lance gives you a lot of control over where to drop casts and Omega cast turrets. For a variation, start with Poseidon on cast instead, which will set you up nicely for Geyser Spout from him later. Watch me zap the Underworld with Momus Staff, Storm Ring, Lightning Lance, and the White Antler.
  • Start with Demeter on cast, but I wouldn’t turn my nose down at an epic attack or special if those are available. Freeze baddies, then they’re sitting ducks for your Omega turrets. I like to add Poseidon for Geyser Spout , Apollo for Super Nova , or more Demeter for Weed Killer and Local Climate to amp up your Omega moves. If Ares shows up, Hostile Environment goes unbelievably hard on Momus, gluing your Omega cast turret and Omega cast add-ons like Meat Grinder to you. Starting with Ares on cast as a jump-start to Hostile Environment works here too. Watch me Freeze and then thrash the Surface with Momus Staff, Demeter cast, and Mirrored Thrasher. Or watch me make Mel very unpleasant to be around with Momus Staff and Hostile Environment.
  • With the aspect fully leveled start with Hephaestus, taking the highest rarity attack or special on offer. Take the special with a tie. Start filling out the requirements for Heph’s legendary; a rank 6 Momus has a 1-second delay on the turrets, doubling their damage over time. Get a robust magick recovery boon, get Origination up between your attack, special, and cast, then wreck shit. I like adding Poseidon’s Geyser Spout and Winner’s Circle because must go faster. This one’s a little choose-your-own-adventure based on the gods that show up; either you power up double-speed Omega move turrets with big percentage boosts and Omega boosters, assemble some blast duos, or take Zeus for Static Shock and Master Conductor if you get an early Rapid Thrasher or Mirrored Thrasher . Watch me do a Dream Dive with Momus Staff, Premium Service, Rapid Thrasher, and Geyser Spout.

Aspect of Anubis Staff

Winning combo

Avoid the standing attack and its agonizingly slow animation. Dash-strikes are faster; the result is the same.

Dash, sprint a little bit until your dash is off cooldown, then tap Attack near baddies to dash-strike and create a damage zone. If you’re in peril, dash back to safety. For more safety, drop a cast between you and baddies before attacking.

Now work around the zone to keep baddies inside and taking damage. This is an outstanding use-your-entire-kit aspect: cast to keep things pinned, and use specials to suck nearby things in.

The Omega special in particular charges faster and hits harder than the other staffspects, so that’s worth weaving in or building around entirely. It’ll zorp most baddies (except Guardians and such) right on top of you, a side effect that is amazing for clearing rooms but less amazing if they’re armored and shooting at you. Not helping matters: the damage ticks from the attacks don’t hitstun.

The Omega attack adds an another zone in an arc where you’re pointing it, excellent for choke points, enclosing waves, and large bosses. The arc acts as a “wall” of sorts, kinda like your cast. Unlike your cast, it can stop Guardians. Both the Omega arc and regular attack zone can strike baddies at the same time, and the Omega ticks have high enough power that percentage boosts on attack can work. (Watch me make the biggest attack zone with Anubis Staff, Apollo attack, and Exceptional Talent.)

The advanced rotation is dash → sprint → tap Attack for a dash-strike → (time and magick permitting) hold Attack for an Omega attack → cast → dash again to reposition while charging the Omega (if you’re quick with the inputs you can tilt the Omega arc to overlap the regular zone), then do Omega or regular specials until your zone expires, dashing between specials to avoid the clumps of baddies that you’ve invited into your personal space. HookieDookie has a good breakdown of the mechanics.

Don’t get too attached to your active zone; if you can’t suck baddies in, make a new one.

Between the fast-hitting and large-coverage damage zones and the ability to shift the entire room into them, few aspects clear a room better. (Even if I think Morrigan looks cooler doing it.)

I don’t go much out of my way to activate all the extra Lone Shades, but they can contribute meaningfully in busy rooms. If sucking baddies on top of you with specials sounds unappealing, spend your time between attacks rallying your ghost army. Tell ’em Aragorn sent you.

Total Eclipse is fun: your specials can suck baddies into the blast zone and help keep them there. Watch me do a Dream Dive with Anubis Staff, Bottomless Drink, and Total Eclipse.

Should you use it at low ranks?

Omega moves are slightly more dangerous at earlier ranks, but this is a powerful aspect from the get-go.

Hammers of note

All of the special-focused hammers are decent, but Dual Moonshot is the best for double the Omega specials.

Because it speeds up the animations for attacks, Rapid Thrasher is useful for safety.

Of the aspect-exclusives, Soulfilled Ankh is the best for a more forgiving zone size. Mirrored Ankh and Pharaoh Etchings are solid too.

There’s no bad hammers. Feel free to use the Experimental Hammer for more.

Build recipes

Lim & Oros, the Sister Blades

Aspect of Melinoë Blades

Winning combo

To maximize damage — both to baddies and your hands — the best rotation is special → dash-strike (or attack) → attack (or two) → repeat, skipping the later, slower parts of the attack combo and chucking out specials — you can attack while the knives are flying — at every opportunity.

That said, I don’t always use that rotation as it’s not entirely necessary. I often use the full attack combo, which is straightforward, good enough, and more forgiving as the final slash covers a bigger area. Chuck a special, then dash-strike and stab away with attacks in the back for the bonus damage from the aspect. Even that simpler rotation sounds more strategic than how I usually play: I mash attack and sometimes it’s in the back.

If you’re feeling dextrous and you’re quick with the inputs you can sneak in a special before the final slice for extra damage or to apply a curse. You can also dash right before the big final slice to reposition.

The dash-strike has minimal range but hits harder than you’d expect: get a decent boon on there and you’ll one-shot a lot of weaker baddies in the early regions.

I don’t often focus on the Omega attack with this aspect (check out Artemis Blades if you like it) but it does teleport you behind the target, handy for backstab damage and also for getting out of a pickle. Pay close attention to the targeting reticle so you don’t zorp into a worse situation. You can move around while charging, or dash to do a little hop and avoid projectiles or shockwaves.

I also don’t build around the Omega special, even though it has an outlandish selection of dedicated hammers. Here it’s the fastest and cheapest way to activate Huntress.

Should you use it at low ranks?

Yes. The Blades’ base kit is excellent, and most of your damage will come from boons or hammers anyway.

Hammers of note

Trick Knives is subjectively my favorite hammer in the game and objectively it kicks righteous ass: you get seven hits out of a single dash-strike with backstab damage on top. Add Zeus or Ares on an open attack or special slot or Static Shock or Reaper Knives for a real good time. Watch me shred the Underworld in under 9 minutes with Mel Blades, Trick Knives, and a lot of Zeus. Or watch me take on the Surface at 62 Fear with Mel Blades, Trick Knives, and a lot of double-damage strikes from Ares.

Don’t sleep on Reaper Knives by itself; if you’re throwing out specials at every opportunity — and you should be — the extra power adds up.

Speaking of extra power, Wicked Onslaught nearly doubles the base damage of the attack combo. It’s amazing. Watch me big backstab the Underworld at 62 Fear with Mel Blades and Wicked Onslaught.

Final Slice is solid damage and the added reach is welcome for safety and against crowds. It’s funny with Apollo on attack.

Avoid Dancing Knives . Your specials won’t return to you and you probably lose the backstab damage. Beware the Experimental Hammer for this reason.

Build recipes

  • Because the aspect is pretty fast, pretty strong, and has a built-in damage boost, you can roll with almost any boon on attack. Percentage-wise, Aphrodite’s the biggest number, Apollo’s range boost is helpful, Hera’s nice against crowds. For flat damage, Poseidon (good duos with Zeus or Ares) and Hestia (add Demeter for Freezer Burn ) are both excellent. Mix and match some of the following things for support: Slow Cooker from Hestia; Secret Crush from Aphrodite; Back Burner and Extra Dose from Apollo; Ares on special and Grievous Blow to make everything stronger; Zeus on special or cast or Static Shock . Watch me turn the Surface Rivals bosses into shredded meat with a big Slow Cooker, Apollo attack, Final Slice, and Wicked Onslaught on Mel Blades.
  • Start with Zeus on special so you can boost the rarity and get some early poms on it. Sprinkle in specials here and there as you approach or in between bits of the attack combo to keep applying Blitz. Pick up basically anything on attack per above. Adding Static Shock and a Hephaestus core boon to unlock Master Conductor is my favorite way to go, but Zeus has good duos with Poseidon, Ares, Aphrodite, Hestia, Demeter, or Hera (if you’re feeling vindictive) so you have options. Watch me zap and moisten the Surface with Mel Blades, a big Blitz special, and Poseidon on attack.
  • Start with Hephaestus on special to chunk down groups or armor early on. Take any percentage-based attack you find, particularly Apollo. Add Hestia for Slow Cooker to up your power on all the rapid attack hits and nab as many Fire elements as you can. Or add Zeus and look for Static Shock and Master Conductor . As an alternative, start with Zeus attack or special and add Heph later. Either way, you’ll want the Furies and Origination arcana to double-dip on global damage boosts. Apollo, Hestia, Demeter, and Poseidon have good blast duos with Heph if they show up. Watch me blast many holes into the Surface with Mel Blades, a huge Heph special, and many Heph duos.
  • Start with Hera on cast, which will make up for the Blades’ relative lack of attack range and AOE. Starting with Poseidon’s cast isn’t bad either, as the many hits from your aspect will trigger Froth a lot. Based on who shows up, flesh out your attack and special with any of the above recipes. Watch me give the Underworld a shotgun wedding (because they’re getting Hitched? eh?) with Mel Blades, Hera cast, and Apollo attack.

Aspect of Artemis Blades

Winning combo

Early on, interrupt baddies with the basic special and use dash-strikes or the attack combo to slice through weak baddies. It’s not worth taking the time to set up Riposte when a special and dash-strike kills a chunk of Erebus.

For beefier baddies, charge an Omega attack just before you get hit. You can parry without magick, and you can parry everything that can hurt you: attacks, projectiles, explosions, shockwaves, traps, thorns, fire, Chronos instakills — all fine! Parrying is great for getting out of a corner, as you’re briefly invulnerable after it happens. This is a more-experience-more-better aspect, as you can anticipate when to Parry when you’re more familiar with attack patterns.

Hammers or boons will influence what you do while Riposte is active. Spamming Omega attacks is one way to go: the big base damage and the relative safety of zipping about (you are invulnerable while teleporting) are hard to beat. Unfortunately, you have to do a dash-strike or standing attack to charge another Omega attack, consuming some of your precious Riposte charges. You can still get off 5 Omegas during Riposte if you’re careful.

With crowds, zorp around the perimeter so you don’t get surrounded. When charging an Omega attack, tap Dash (while holding Attack) to do a little hop to avoid getting hit. It resets by the channeling, but with the aspect leveled you channel incredibly fast so it’s no biggie.

While the Omega attack is the most efficient strike-to-damage available during Riposte, the second-most efficient is the regular special, which can hit twice, pierce multiple baddies, and crit both directions. Against big crowds or with low magick, give it a shot. Special → dash-strike → repeat is a good (and magick-free) rotation.

A point-blank Omega special is nearly the least efficient use of Riposte, but it’ll chunk stuff down quickly if you’ve got charges to burn.

The Riposte buff isn’t time-limited, so take a beat to drop casts to control the area.

When off Riposte, do attack combos, sprinkling in specials as frequently as you can. See Mel Blades for more discussion of the regular moves on the blades. Again, boons and hammers might change up which moves you lean on more.

I’m fond of the Dark Side hex here. When you’re out of boosted hits after Riposte, go invulnerable for a bit while you’re waiting to Parry again. With Aphrodite’s Godsent upgrade, your damage output will be excellent during the hex.

Should you use it at low ranks?

Yes. The Parry mechanic is the same at all ranks. For Omega attack spamming, higher ranks are more convenient.

Hammers of note

Sweeping Ambush is the killer Omega attack hammer if you’ve got the magick. If you get this, do everything you can to get the magick and enjoy instantly phasing early bosses.

Skulking Onslaught is second-best for big Omega attacks, and it’s pretty good if you’re just regular-stabbing.

Final Slice , Wicked Onslaught , or Reaper Knives are less good for huge Omega attacks, but they’ll increase your damage overall. No shame in playing like Mel Blades — all the build recipes for that aspect work here too — except your damage output is spikier, you’re occasionally invulnerable for a second, and your attack/special slightly prefers percentage boosts because of all the crits.

Don’t sleep on Trick Knives . The bonus knives do not crit during Riposte, but 6 free special hits and critical dash-strikes is a lot of damage and you can ignore magick. Add Reaper Knives for preposterous damage output.

I avoid Dancing Knives ; you lose the boomerang on regular specials so it’s often a damage loss. For some do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do, watch me ruin my day or night in the Underworld at 62 Fear with Artemis Blades, Trick Knives, and Dancing Knives.

Build recipes

  • Start with Aphrodite on attack and look for solid magick regeneration like Hera or Zeus or Poseidon. Starting with Apollo (more reach) or Hera ( Hitch is nice) is also valid. Honestly, that’s the meat of it: you’re looking to get your attacks as chunky as possible and have magick recovery in place for Sweeping Ambush if it shows up. If it does show up, Heart Breaker from Aphrodite (and the Aphrodite – Apollo duo) is a fun source of additional damage. Weed Killer from Demeter is excellent. If the hammers on offer favor regular attacks, get your base attack souped up with Secret Crush from Aphrodite, Extra Dose from Apollo, Static Shock from Zeus, or Slow Cooker from Hestia if Fire gods are in the pool. Add Zeus, Heph, or Ares on special for supplemental damage. Especially Ares: Grievous Blow or Mutual Destruction and a crit processing on the same strike is a 6x multiplier. Watch me stab all four Surface Rivals bosses in the back real hard with Artemis Blades, Sweeping Ambush, Weed Killer, and Sunny Disposition.
  • Start with Hera, Apollo, or Aphrodite on special; Hera’s great on crowds, Apollo is consistent, Aphrodite is big number up close (and Island Getaway can help). Special, then dash-strike is the basic rotation. Try to line up baddies for the piercing special. Add Apollo’s cast or sprint for Daze and Back Burner . Ares or Zeus on attack are great. If Heph or Hestia shows up, nab more fire boons and Slow Cooker from Hestia. Static Shock from Zeus is also a good take. You don’t need magick here, so prime away. This is quite fun with Trick Knives or Reaper Knives . Watch me pick apart the Surface and 2 Rivals bosses with Artemis Blades, Apollo special, Ares attack, and some Zeus.
  • This is hammer-dependent to really sing. Start with Ares on attack. If you get Sweeping Ambush , it has +400% damage built-in, so the added power from Wounds on the first hit absolutely chunks harder than you’ll get with anything else. Add Weed Killer from Demeter so it chunks harder. Cope with Skulking Onslaught if that’s on offer. Add Grievous Blow so follow-up Omega attacks can sometimes hit for double damage. Oh also you’ll need a ton of magick, so look for Hera, Zeus, or Poseidon for their magick recovery. If the hammers don’t behave, you can pivot into assembling Heinous Affront with Zeus, or perhaps add Cut Above and fish for falling blade duos with Hephaestus or Apollo. Watch me apply some deep Wounds to the Surface Rivals bosses with Artemis Blades, Ares attack, and Sweeping Ambush.

Aspect of Pan Blades

Winning combo

Sprint in, drop a cast on a baddie, maybe dash out of danger, charge an Omega special, fire.

While charging the Omega special you can tap cast (still holding special) then release special, a handy trick for approaching baddies or bosses coming off of invulnerability or if you’ve held onto the special too long. You can also cast just after releasing the special and the knives will start seeking.

Wanna do some sick Wanted-curve-the-bullet shit? Of course you do. Aim outside the cast circle and catch baddies all around you as the daggers swoop back into the cast. Lightning Lance from Zeus, Glowing Coal from Hestia, or Howling Soul from dad let you place your cast at a distance, clutch for safety. Watch your spacing as the knives don’t have infinite range.

This is all, let’s say, fine at lower fear.

If you do push higher fear or use Vow of Frenzy , focusing on the Omega special is harder to recommend. First, the Omega special daggers don’t pierce baddies like regular specials, leading to crowd control issues. Second, the Omega special locks you in place while aiming and after releasing. Even worse, although you can dash while the daggers are flying out to avoid getting hit, if you do so early you won’t fire all the daggers and you lose the magick anyway.

In this universe, optimal play looks a lot like Mel Blades: throw out a special, then dash-strike or do a couple of standing attacks, repeat when the special boomerangs back. The specials will do sick Wanted-curve-the-bullet shit towards baddies in a cast, so you can aim at one just outside and the dagger will swoop back and hit the other. Sometimes this is helpful, other times your specials just won’t hit what you want. Omega casts are a useful source of damage against crowds.

Apollo is an excellent support god for Pan: Super Nova expands the size of your cast to make up for near-misses and Back Burner adds backstab damage.

If you’re doing lots of Omega specials, the Sorceress arcana is mandatory.

Should you use it at low ranks?

If you’re leaning into Omega specials, I’d wait until the higher ranks. If you’re not doing Omegas, ranks make no difference.

Hammers of note

Trick Knives is the clear winner, granting an (under)world-beating combination of damage and safety. You get a bunch of knives in the air by spamming dash-strikes, it costs zero magick, you can dash-strike outside a cast and still hit stuff (twice!), and it opens up plenty of boon combinations because you’re simultaneously doing attacks and specials. Although I’ve been a little harsh on this aspect, Trick Knives makes it one of the strongest in the game. Watch me throw a whole lotta knives at the Underworld Rivals Guardians at 50 Fear with Pan Blades and Trick Knives.

If you’re focusing on Omega specials, Sudden Flurry and Hidden Knives are good. Sureshot Flurry lets you pepper baddies without bothering with a cast, an upgrade against solo baddies and a sidegrade or downgrade against crowds.

Reaper Knives and Melting Sickle are always helpful. Watch me neuter armored baddies on the Surface at 62 Fear with Pan Blades, Melting Sickle, and a lot of Zeus and Ares.

Dancing Knives is great for busy rooms, but won’t help against solo bosses and can hurt your damage with regular specials or Trick Knives because you lose the boomerang.

Build recipes

  • Start with Poseidon on special. Pom it as much as you can while looking for Slippery Slope or building toward his legendary. Wave Flourish gives you badly-needed crowd control. Get some magick regeneration and add another status on cast to trigger Origination . I like Hera here on both counts; her cast gives you better damage against swarms and Born Gain is manageable with a few Soul Tonics. Adding Zeus for Lightning Lance or (magick permitting) Static Shock is great fun. Gusts from Demeter are handy for triggering more damage from Froth. Zeus or Ares or Hephaestus are nice to throw on attack to sprinkle in occasionally, and Poseidon’s got nice duos with all three of them. Watch me moisten the Rivals bosses on the Surface with Pan Blades, Poseidon special, and King Tide.
  • Start with Hestia on special. Add Demeter on attack and fish for their duo Freezer Burn . Build big Scorch stacks with Omega specials, then pop 'em with an attack. In my experience, to reliably build up loads of Scorch you need some combination of a high-rarity or high-level Flame Flourish, Burning Desire , or Highly Flammable from Hestia. Or if the Total Eclipse hex is on offer, the godsent upgrade applies 999 Scorch to everything in the room instantly and lets you exceed the usual 999 cap. If Freezer Burn isn’t forthcoming, take Pyro Technique . Hestia’s duos with Poseidon, Aphrodite, or Ares are fun avenues to explore too. Watch me do a Dream Dive with Pan Blades, Hestia special, Trick Knives, and Freezer Burn.
  • Start with Hestia or Zeus on special. Get any cast with a curse for Origination , and look for robust magick recovery (like Hera or Zeus or Demeter or high-rarity Apollo). Once you’ve got magick sorted, look for Omega boosters like Controlled Burn , Fine Line (Hera) , Ocean Swell (Poseidon) , or Cut Above (Ares) or Power Surge (Zeus) . Take potshots with your regular special until you have your Omega death machine online, then switch to short Omega specials to launch an assortment of fireballs, fissures, swells, pikes, etc nonstop. If you went with Blitz, Arc Flash is great here. Fourth Degree is a fun direction too. Or power up a Hex, which you should be able to activate real fast. Watch me throw the Omega kitchen sink at all the Surface Rivals bosses with Pan Blades, Hestia special, Controlled Burn, Fourth Degree, and a huge Dark Side Hex. Or watch me take on a Dream Dive with Pan Blades, Zeus special, and a bunch of Omega add-ons.
  • Use the Night arcana. Start with your favorite magick recovery from Hera or Zeus or Apollo. Alternate Omega casts and Omega Specials for a potent mix of area blasts and single-target damage. Get whatever big percentage boost on special for a flurry of big crits — it’s Aphrodite’s time to shine. (You can also start with a special and add a gain soon.) One approach I like is to start with Apollo’s gain or special and add the Fire gods for added power from Hestia’s Slow Cooker . Back Burner is 🔥 for this setup. Watch me take on the Surface’s Vow of Rivals bosses with Pan Blades, Aphrodite on special, and Reaper Knives.

Aspect of The Morrigan Blades

Winning combo

Against the weakest baddies, don’t bother with the Blood Triad. Use dash-strike → attack, which jumps to the “final” slice of the two-attack regular combo. Chuck out specials for a little extra damage. An Omega attack will also wipe out trash baddies in a blink.

Against tougher baddies, go for Triads for huge damage and also, not for nothing, sick style points. Between the teleportation and area coverage of Omega attacks, boomerang specials, and quick dash-strikes followed by that chunky Triad cha-ching, nothing looks cooler than Morrigan clearing a room. It’s a fact.

The Triad indicator is top = Omega, left = attack, right = special. The corners of the triangle with dots have been satisfied; the dot-free corners are what you need to hit still.

While dashing you can launch a special and buffer a dash-strike right after, so a fast Triad combo is Dash → Special → hold Attack → release to Omega. I rebind Special off a face button to make this easier.

Because channeling the Omega attack is the riskiest bit, a more practical Triad combo is hold Attack → release to Omega → Special → attack or dash-strike (Triad) → hold Attack to repeat the loop. If you’re just a bit out of range for an Omega attack, you can tap Dash while charging the attack to reposition a bit, which is faster than dropping the Omega completely and starting again.

To look super fucking rad, abuse the boomerang special to complete two or even three Triads with one special. This slightly outdated (but still informative) video and this more recent one from Loose Cage on YouTube break down the steps. Extremely good speedrunner TheDarkOmen has an overexplained-style video about speedrunning with this aspect; they talk basic Triad combos at 1:30.

While reliable combos are good to know, stay flexible and adapt to complete Triads. The Omega attack throws out more slashes to the side, so scan crowds for easy targets to finish off with a dash-strike and special. When the special is covered or you only need an Omega to complete a Triad on a beefy baddie, use an Omega special to apply another Omega on the way back. If you only need the attack, a standing attack will complete the Triad and immediately apply an attack for the next one.

The Omegas are cheap and are primarily for triggering Triads, so this is an especially efficient magick-to-damage aspect.

The Sorceress arcana is effectively mandatory. Eternity helps for timing the coolest-looking Omega attack zorp backstabs. Watch me take agonizingly close to zero damage from all the Rivals-boosted Surface bosses with Morrigan Blades, Eternity, and Lovers.

Poseidon is somewhat restricted on attack or special here. You get 2 waves on standing attacks even though they hit thrice, and specials don’t always trigger a wave per strike.

Worth noting: the Triad’s damage is fixed, so boons or other global damage boosts won’t boost it. If you have concerns about it not scaling up, don’t. It’s still meaningful damage even into the endgame. Well, unless…

Should you use it at low ranks?

This one is not a world-beater at the lowest ranks; you’re missing a lot of Triad damage.

Hammers of note

Sweeping Ambush gives more coverage on the Omega attack and a lot more damage overall, assuming you get enough magick to power it. Watch me clear the Underworld in under 5 minutes and 30 seconds with Morrigan Blades and Sweeping Ambush (and a lot of luck). Or watch me annihilate the Surface with Morrigan Blades, an Icarus-boosted Sweeping Ambush, and a whole lot of bolts and falling blades.

Wicked Onslaught or Final Slice are both terrific here to juice up regular attacks. If you’re finding Triads tricky to pull off, either of these can be sufficient damage with simple dash-strike → attack combos. Rapid Onslaught is a nice add-on to either of those. Watch me cut up the Unrivaled Underworld with Morrigan Blades, Final Slice, and Wicked Onslaught. And here’s a 62 Fear Underworld clear where I lucked into that combo.

Two of the aspect-exclusive hammers (or Heph’s legendary) are the only way to increase the damage of the Triad, either via more damaging ones ( Phantom Brand ) or more of 'em ( Banshee Brand ). Banshee Brand is especially good with Success Rate from Hermes.

While none of the special-focused hammers are great, Dancing Knives is radioactive. Stay far away. Against solo baddies you lose the special boomerang, restricting your ability to complete Triads. The Experimental Hammer can ruin your day with this.

Build recipes

  • Start with your pick of Hestia, Apollo, or Hera on attack. Hestia’s nice for clearing smaller baddies and wearing down bigger ones before you coup de grâce 'em with a Triad. Apollo’s area coverage is helpful — you can get multiple hits on the Omega attack from overlapping slashes — and his Legendary has loads of potential: pop a Triad with an Omega attack and instantly apply a second Omega for the next Triad. Hera is terrific for clearing rooms and lets you get more damage from Triads with Hitch . For your special, Zeus or Ares or Heph are fantastic. Weed Killer from Demeter can get you more Omega attack damage. Watch me clear the Surface at 32 Fear (Vow of Rivals 4) with Morrigan Blades and Hera’s attack. Or Watch me take on the Unrivaled Underworld with Morrigan Blades, Apollo attack, and Exceptional Talent.
  • Start with Demeter and pick whichever of attack, cast, or special. Take a high-rarity attack over the others. Frozen baddies are sitting ducks to complete the Triad, and Weed Killer is already in the pool for more damage on Omega attacks. Get magick recovery and Origination sorted, and power up whatever shows up for your open core slots. Watch me take on the Underworld at 40 Fear with Morrigan Blades and Demeter attack.
  • Start with Zeus on special. I wouldn’t turn my nose down at a high-rarity attack if that’s on offer. Omega attacks and Triads will pop Blitz immediately (assuming they survived the Triad), giving you another potent damage source to build around. Get Origination active, and toss something on attack per any of the above recipes. While this is niche, hammer dependent, and only sorta effective, have fun with Arc Flash from Zeus and the Sinister Pinion hammer: an Omega special will apply and immediately trigger Blitz, and you can sprint around and dash through baddies while your Omega specials give chase. Watch me take on the Underworld at 40 Fear with Morrigan Blades, Zeus attack, Hestia special, and Sinister Pinion.
  • Start with Hephaestus and pick the highest rarity between attack or special. I’d go with special in a tie. Assemble the rest of your kit with a combination of Hestia (gain, attack, cast), Poseidon (gain, cast), Apollo (attack, cast, dash), Ares (special, cast, gain, Grievous Blow , Cut Above , cast, dash), or Demeter (attack, special, cast). Then you want every Heph duo you can get for more/bigger/faster blasts between Triads. Fair warning: this is very much the opposite of an ASMR build. Watch me clang and cha-chang through the Underworld with Morrigan Blades, Heph attack, and Chain Reaction.

Ygnium, the Umbral Flames

Aspect of Melinoë Flames

Winning combo

Charge up an Omega special, then approach baddies and hold Attack to bonk baddies with your flames. Maintain a little distance so your specials keep smacking things. Unfortunately the Omega special doesn’t hitstun, but attacks and the regular special do.

You can slide around, dash, and drop casts while holding Attack, so if you’re about to get hit, dash out of the way. When your specials expire back away, reload your Omega special, and repeat.

Regular specials have short range but can hit twice. If you’re surrounded up close or some baddie is near death and you don’t wanna refresh your Omegas, it’s your best option.

Consider changing your control scheme. Before I landed on the linked control setup, I moved Attack to a shoulder button so I could tap Dash or Cast while holding Attack.

Because of the built-in critical hit chance, attacks and specials slightly prefer big percentage boosts, but nearly anything is fine. This is a great submit-to-RNGesus aspect where you throw whatever on your core slots and it somehow works out. Watch me do a 62 Fear Dream Dive with Mel Flames, Hera special, and Demeter attack.

Hexes have a fun wrinkle here: when you activate a hex your Omega specials smack baddies during any time freezes or while you’re transformed with Dark Side .

Should you use it at low ranks?

Yes. The extra critical chance from higher ranks doesn’t alter how to approach the aspect.

Hammers of note

Hidden Helix not only boosts your Omega special but also doubles up your regular specials, a substantial damage boost. A high-rarity Aphrodite special here goes hard.

Dividing Blaze or Inverted Blaze make your regular attacks pierce baddies, a helpful upgrade against crowds. With Inverted Blaze you can do funny tricks like stack up a bunch of attacks behind something and dash back, or sprint past a bunch of baddies and let your trailing flames torch 'em.

Otherwise, most hammers are nice bonuses and don’t change your rotation. I like Enduring Coil , Furious Blaze , Sudden Burst , and Clean Coil .

Build recipes

  • Start with your favorite (or whoever you’d like to lock in) of Hera or Zeus or Apollo or Ares or Hestia or Poseidon on magick recovery, from which point forward you kinda have to go out of your way to run out of magick. Put your favorite percentage boost on attack and get Origination up with your special or cast. Starting with Hera attack/special and getting magick recovery next works too; you can get through a few rooms (or many rooms with Hecuba) without a magick recovery boon. Some solid attack/special combos are Aphrodite/Poseidon, Demeter/Zeus, Hera/Zeus, Hera/Hestia, or Ares/Poseidon. Watch me dip, duck, dive, and dodge through the Underworld with Mel Flames, Hera Special, and Hestia on magick recovery. Or watch me dream of knives with Mel Flames, Ares magick recovery, and a bunch of Falling Blades boons.
  • Use the Strength and Origination arcana and start with Hera on magick recovery. You’re looking for Fine Line from her also, which will torch your magick bar and also baddies. In the second region, take Athena for Righteous Pike ; you have one shot with her so save some rerolls. Now you’ll be dropping heavenly spears every few seconds while you hold Attack. Or take Poseidon for Ocean Swell and Ripple Effect for more waves and lines. Get Origination online with whatever, and take a reasonable number of magick upgrades. I like Demeter to Freeze baddies in places for Fine Line. Aphrodite’s cast can also force baddies into a tight clump, and Heartthrobs fit in here nicely. Cost-increasers like Apollo’s legendary, Weed Killer from Demeter, Controlled Burn from Hestia, or Cut Above from Ares will get the spears flying all the sooner. If you’re planning on summoning Athena, Toula needs to stay on the bench here. Sorry, kitty. Watch me rain fissures, falling blades, and pikes on a Dream Dive with Mel Flames, Fine Line, Righteous Pike, and Cut Above.
  • Start with Aphrodite and take the highest rarity attack or special. Couple of different ways you could go from there: if you see Zeus, Static Shock provides a lot of value with your swarm of attacks and specials. Or go for a high-rarity Zeus attack or special and Romantic Spark . If you see Poseidon, he’s excellent on special and you could look to Demeter for more statuses and water boons. Or if you see Hestia, Apollo, or Hephaestus you might start gobbling up fire boons and fish for Slow Cooker from Hestia so everything hits harder, or get a Heartthrob factory up and running with Apollo and Sunny Disposition . Watch me shatter the hearts of the Rivals Surface bosses with Mel Flames, Aphrodite special, and Dark Side.
  • Start with Poseidon on special. Look for Slippery Slope and try to unlock his legendary to shred bosses. Get magick recovery fast, then nab another status effect for Origination . Look for Demeter and Aphrodite for safety and health, Ares for Arterial Spray , or Zeus or Hestia on attack or cast. One thing to be aware of is you won’t get a wave on each regular special hit with Hidden Helix . Even with that arbirtrary annoyance, this works well in my experience. Watch me do a Dream Dive with Mel Flames, Poseidon special, Arterial Spray, and King Tide.
  • Start with Zeus on special. Look for Aphrodite on any core slot (I like Glamour Gain here) to unlock Romantic Spark . Once you’ve got it, do an Omega special, then sprint about and trigger big-damage Blitz while your orbiting thunderballs add it to everyone around you. When up close, tap Special and then dash to trigger Romantic Spark. Hera on cast or dash can apply Hitch for additional crowd control. The Enduring Coil hammer is especially useful. Watch me run around and zap the Underworld with Mel Flames and Romantic Spark.

Aspect of Moros Flames

Winning combo

This is a ludicrously powerful aspect if you play like a lunatic at close range.

As baddies are spawning in, charge an Omega special. Run up and start holding Attack. You can dash and cast while channeling, so if you’re about to get hit, dip out of the way. You’re banking on the close range and your orbiting Omega specials to detonate your increasingly damaging ghosties. When your Omega special expires, sprint out, reload your Omega special, and repeat.

If you’re out of magick, stack up a few attack ghosts at close range, dash toward them and tap Special, and let the specials clip the ghosts. But, ideally, don’t run out of magick.

Consider changing your control scheme. You want it to be as comfy as possible to dash or cast while holding Attack.

Worth noting: the Omega special doesn’t hitstun, but the rest of your kit does.

Should you use it at low ranks?

Yes. The base aspect has big damage on those exploding attacks.

Hammers of note

For more damage, Sudden Burst is best to get to the high-power Omega attacks faster. Furious Blaze , Mega Blaze or Leaden Blaze all have merit too.

Clean Coil and Hidden Helix are both solid quality-of-life upgrades.

Build recipes

  • Start with your favorite (or whoever you want to lock in) between Hera, Apollo, Zeus, Hestia, Poseidon, or Ares on magick recovery. Put your favorite percentage boost on attack and get Origination up between your special, cast, or dash. Some solid attack/special combos are Aphrodite/Poseidon, Demeter/Zeus, Zeus/Hestia, or Ares/Apollo all with duos worth chasing. Hera attack and Zeus special is probably the best overall combination. Apollo is also fun on attack for gigantic ghostplosions. Watch me run a blood drive on the Surface with Moros Flames, Ares magick recovery, and a bunch of Plasma boons.
  • Use the Strength and Origination arcana and start with Hera on magick recovery. You’re looking for Fine Line from her also, which will torch your magick bar and also baddies. In the second region, take Athena for Righteous Pike ; you have one shot with her so save some rolls. Now you’ll be dropping heavenly spears every few seconds while you hold Attack. Or take Poseidon for Ocean Swell and the duo Ripple Effect for more waves and lines. Get Origination online, and take some magick upgrades. I like Demeter to Freeze baddies in places for Fine Line. Aphrodite’s cast can also force baddies into a tight clump, and Heartthrobs fit in here nicely. Cost-increasers like Apollo’s legendary, Weed Killer from Demeter, Controlled Burn from Hestia, or Cut Above from Ares will get Athena’s spears flying all the sooner. Watch me torch the Underworld and my magick with Moros Flames, Fine Line, and Ripple Effect.

Aspect of Eos Flames

Winning combo

As baddies are spawning, hold attack to get a Daybreaker out close to the spawns. Once it’s out it’ll duplicate any specials you do. So Omega special, then tap special until it expires. Or alternate tapping special and attack. When the Daybreaker expires, call in another one ASAP.

If you have magick to spare, start the rotation with an Omega special for more damage while you summon the Daybreaker.

You’ll get a feel for how long it lasts so you can start summoning a new one just before the old one expires. That said, don’t get attached; if the Daybreaker’s not where baddies are, start attacking again to get a new one out where you need it. Or if you can’t let go, stick close to it and most baddies will chase you both down anyway.

You can dash and cast while channeling the attack, so if you’re about to get hit, duck out of the way.

Consider changing your control scheme. The easier it is to dash or cast while holding Attack, the better.

As with the other torches, Omega specials do not hitstun, but attacks and regular specials will, and you get extra coverage with regular specials from the Daybreaker.

If you’re not making new Daybreakers every few seconds, this aspect sips magick; you can get away with Unseen here. Flood Gain from Poseidon is great too: you can do Omega Special → Omega Attack → Omega special effectively for free during the boon’s recovery buff, then wait out the Daybreaker’s duration and go again.

Omega specials and the Daybreaker and its Omega specials will keep damaging things during hex time-freeze animations or while transformed with Dark Side , so Selene is your new best friend. Watch me abuse invulnerability in the Underworld at 62 Fear with Eos Flames, Dark Side, and a bunch of Poseidon.

Also make friends with the Night arcana, then enjoy when your Daybreaker’s attack pulse crits for over 1,000 damage. Watch me call in backup on the Surface at 62 Fear with Eos Flames and the Unseen & Night Arcana.

This is a particularly good anti-Typhon aspect. Send in the Daybreaker, get your Omega specials up, then focus on dodging his other nonsense. The Daybreaker basically can’t miss.

Should you use it at low ranks?

The Daybreaker’s damage is decent even at the lowest ranks, and much of your damage comes from the flurry of specials anyway.

Hammers of note

Sudden Burst is the best; it lets you get the Daybreaker out in a fraction of the time.

Inverted Blaze forces the Daybreaker to move towards you when you dash. That’s an adjustment if you like to divide and conquer, but being able to kinda control the Daybreaker’s position is nice and most things chase you down anyway.

Like the other Flames, Clean Coil and Enduring Coil are solid.

Sadly, Eos can’t get Hidden Helix for more specials flying about.

Build recipes

Aspect of Supay Flames

Winning combo

At a safe distance Omega special, then Omega attack, then sprint around baddies as they get smacked by all the assorted things flying around you or from you. Cast (or Omega cast) to keep things away from you. When the specials expire, back away, refresh your Omegas, then zip back in.

Although you don’t need to use Omega moves — the aspect happily fires away without your input — the Omega attacks pierce baddies and the Omega specials hit faster and everything hits harder. That said, the base power of the entire kit, Omegas included, is offensively low. Only the Omega attack reaches (barely) into the range where big percentage boosts will feel good.

This is the aspect if you hate button-mashing; other than maintaining your Omegas and dropping casts, you can focus on spacing and dashing to avoid damage and the weapon will hurt things for you. This isn’t to say it’s easy: the lack of hitstun on the entire moveset — as if you’ve given every baddie the Tougher perk from Vow of Fangs for free — is a significant drawback for rooms.

Because you can’t do much more than cast or sprint between Omegas, get a Rush boon, which the aspect conveniently boosts. Hestia or Poseidon or Zeus are easy picks, but Aphrodite, Hera, or Ares can do some work too. Demeter is nice for safety as you sprint around.

For Arcana, Origination is more or less mandatory. Huntress is pointless. Night is intriguing: you’ll get a crit chance on every hit of your multi-hit Omega moves, and you can charge an Omega cast while all your nonsense is flying about.

If you’re doing Fates’ Whim runs or using Vow of Forfeit and have no damaging boons early on, the Omega cast is your most efficient source of damage. Gods help you. Watch me eventually put together a silly blast build on the Surface at 62 Fear with Supay Flames, a lot of Heph, and Cut Above.

Should you use it at low ranks?

Yes. Assembling a flat damage soup build is effective at all ranks.

Hammers of note

Hidden Helix is more specials flying about for more damage.

Inverted Blaze or Dividing Blaze will make your regular attacks pierce baddies, which is helpful against crowds. Enduring Coil and Clean Coil are quality-of-life improvements.

The sole aspect-exclusive, Demonic Cell , is fine. It’s free damage, but it doesn’t lift the power of any of the moves up to a level where you’d want a percentage boost on them.

Build recipes

  • Start with your choice of Hestia or Poseidon or Zeus and take the highest rarity between special, rush, or attack. Lean attack or special. With Hestia’s rush try to build up multiple little lava pools under larger baddies, because the damage stacks. For Poseidon’s rush, you have to dash and sprint again after ramming into something but the damage is excellent. Get Origination up between attack, cast, and special. Add on-hit effects for attack/special: Hestia, Poseidon (also Slippery Slope for Froth), or Zeus (also Static Shock ) are excellent. Hephaestus blasts are an option too — he’s got good duos with Hestia and Poseidon. Avoid percentage boosts on attack/special except for Ares ( Cut Above is nice here) or Hera or maybe Demeter. Beach Ball is fun. Watch me scorch and soak the Underworld at 50 Fear with Supay Flames, Fates’ Whim, Hestia attack, and Poseidon special.
  • Start with Zeus and take the highest rarity between special and attack; go with attack in a tie. Add Aphrodite in any core slot to unlock Romantic Spark . Get Origination up between your remaining core slots. This starts out a little slow but with Origination and Romantic Spark online you can sprint about applying Blitz and watching things die. If the duo isn’t forthcoming, Static Shock and Arc Flash from Zeus can do good work here. Hera’s sprint is decent damage on its own and can help you spread damage around… but if it also happens to open up a big King’s Ransom , go for it. Watch me sprint and shock the Underworld Rivals bosses with Supay Flames and Romantic Spark.

Zorephet, the Moonstone Axe

Like Kratos, I too like the axe.

Aspect of Melinoë Axe

Winning combo

Cast to keep things off you while you wind up attacks. Stick to dash-strikes and the first two swings of the attack combo. Unless it’s safe, avoid the slow and therefore dangerous final big chop. You can dash between each swing to avoid damage or reposition yourself.

Practice on Skelly — ahem, Commander Schelemeus — to get a feel for how long you have to wait after the second attack to avoid triggering the big chop. A handy sequence is dash-strike → attack → attack → special. Wait for the special to finish before hitting Attack again, and you should be clear of the big chop. As a bonus, you’ll be in the habit of weaving in the special.

Tap Special at nearly any time — even mid-swing, even mid-big-chop — to immediately stop your attack. The special has short range but it hits a few times, so it’s worth throwing a boon on there, particularly Zeus, Hestia, or Hephaestus. Against solo baddies dash-strike → special → repeat is a fast and relatively safe rotation.

Once you’ve got a feel for positioning and timing (or Demeter), sure, go ahead and big chop on crowds, special-cancelling out of it in emergencies. You can cast in the middle of the big chop without cancelling it. Dash or dash-strike just after the chop to get out of the lingering animation. With 1 tick of Vow of Frenzy I can drop the chop during the lingering hitstun from the second swing, but it’s tight.

The Huntress arcana is great here. With the health bonus from the ranked-up aspect, I drop Persistence without noticing.

I don’t use many Omega moves outside of activating Huntress; other aspects will take better advantage and the damage bonus from the aspect only applies to regular attacks. If you get good hammers, don’t let me stop you from whirlin’ about if you want (but take a close look at Thanatos). Charging a big Omega attack in between waves or when you’ve got a cast keeping things off you is a good use of your time.

While charging an Omega attack, you can dash to start the whirlwind at the end of your dash — careful! you can take damage while doing this!—and you can dash again to cancel out of it early if you’re about to get hit.

Should you use it at low ranks?

Rank 1 has no damage bonus, so I’d skip it unless you jibe with the weapon.

Hammers of Note

Dashing Heave is king here. If you get it, just do dash-strikes or dash-strike → special. Seriously. Watch me beat up the Underworld and Unrivaled Scylla with Mel Axe and Dashing Heave. Or watch me carve an ice sculpture on the Surface at 62 Fear with Mel Axe, Dashing Heave, and lots of Demeter.

Rapid Hack is great, giving you Thanatos-y speed with more power.

I go into more details on Omega attack hammers with Thanatos. Short version: Psychic Whirlwind and Seething Marauder rule.

Seething Marauder is a damage boost for whatever you’re doing, whether it’s dash-strikes, swings, or spins.

Unless you are very comfortable with the big chop, avoid Hell Splitter . Don’t take the Experimental Hammer keepsake unless you’re OK with it being forced on you.

Build recipes

  • Start with your pick of Aphrodite (big number), Apollo (big reach), or Hera (big Hitch ) on attack. I like adding Demeter on cast or dash next because frozen or slowed baddies are easy to chop to bits. Apollo also has some nice attack boons like Extra Dose , Back Burner , or Dazzling Display . Hephaestus, Zeus, Hestia, or Ares are nice to chuck on special or cast for more damage. Watch me clear the Surface at 32 Fear and Vow of Rivals 2 with Mel Axe and Flutter Strike.
  • Use Furies and Origination and start with Zeus or Hestia on special. Hear me out! You want rarity and poms on those, and any of the percentage gods are fine on attack so you can pick one up soon. Get Origination online with your remaining attack/dash/cast slots. Dash-strike → special → attack is a solid, simple combo. At the start, I might take an epic cast over a common special. Watch me pivot into a big Zeus special against Rivals 4 in the Underworld with Mel Axe.
  • Start with Ares on special, then pick up any big percentage attack like above. Weave specials into your rotation for chunky damage and to keep Wounds up. Get Grievous Blow from Ares so all your big attacks have a chance for double damage. If Artemis shows up, Lethal Snare is something else here, and Success Rate from Hermes can make all your damage multipliers happen even more often. Watch me chop through a Dream Dive with Mel Axe, Grievous Blow, Dashing Heave, and Lethal Snare.

Aspect of Charon Axe

Winning combo

Bind or bait some baddies into your cast; do not do an Omega cast. Fire an Omega special so it hits the cast, and watch everything evaporate with an instant Omega cast blast. The cast eruption is larger than the visible cast, so don’t worry if baddies are just outside. You only have to clip the cast with your Omega special, so you can aim at some other baddies and probably blow the cast anyway.

You can dash at nearly any point between charging the Omega special and unleashing it, changing direction if needed. In practice you drop a cast, start channeling the Omega special immediately, then dart away from danger and go boom.

Impatience can pay off handsomely: drop castplosions on just-spawning baddies to eliminate many of them immediately.

Nearly all the goodies for Omega casts work here: Local Climate from Demeter and Hostile Environment (Ares – Demeter) increases your damage; Geyser Spout (Poseidon) is a lot of bonus power; add-ons like Prominence Flare (Apollo) and Meat Grinder (Ares) trigger.

Use the Sorceress , Furies , and Origination arcana. Eternity is useful for a little more safety. Even though it seems like you’re alternating Omega special and Omega casts, the Night arcana doesn’t work.

Channeling speed boosts from Hermes, Chaos, or Arachne are incredibly useful. Regular special speed boosts ( Nimble Limbs from Hermes, Plasma from Ares) are also helpful because they let you finish the animation and get to charging slightly faster.

Lightning Lance from Zeus or Glowing Coal from Hestia can be handy to drop your cast at a distance.

This aspect gobbles magick and doesn’t need a gigantic pile of boons, so Hexes are worth chasing and powering up.

If (gods forbid) you’re out of magick, dash-strike → special can suffice for clean-up work. Otherwise your Attack button doesn’t exist.

Should you use it at low ranks?

The smaller castplosions make this a bit harder to use at lower ranks, but this is a strong aspect at any rank.

Hammers of Note

With Giga Cleaver you can cast, fire the double-special, then drop a second cast and the repeat special will immediately pop it. This is a shitload of damage. (You can do the same thing with Apollo’s legendary, and, yes, they stack for four Omegas.) However, the input timing on this is fussy and it feels like it depends somewhat on channeling speed. Like I can’t seem to do it at all if I also have Sudden Cleaver . Your mileage may vary.

That aside, Sudden Cleaver is great.

Melting Shredder is the only other hammer worth considering.

Build recipes

Aspect of Thanatos Axe

Winning combo

Use combinations of dash-strikes and standing attacks — try to avoid the slower third chop unless you’re comfy with it — to build up your crit percentage. You can dash between each swing to avoid damage or reposition yourself. Practice on Skelly to get a feel for how long you have to wait after the second swing to not accidentally trigger the big chop.

A handy sequence is dash-strike → attack → attack → special. Wait for the special to finish before hitting attack again, and you should be clear of the big chop.

You can tap special at nearly any time — even mid-swing, even winding-up-to-big-chop — to immediately stop your current attack.

Once you’ve got a feel for positioning and timing, sure, go ahead and big chop, special-cancelling out of it as needed.

Once the Mortality gauge is nearly full, switch to Omega moves. If you want! Playing this like a way faster Mel Axe is valid and fun; hammers will influence this decision.

The Omega attack gives you the most flexibility; you can charge up shorter spins for weaker baddies or go all-out on tankier ones if you can get away with it. I usually dash-strike, charge as much as I think I can get away with, then spin. Or drop a cast to keep baddies off you, charge up as much as you can, then let ‘em have it. While charging, tap Dash to start the spin at the end of the dash (but be careful, this does not give you invulnerability during the dash). You can move, albeit slowly, while spinning. Dash to cancel out of the spin if you’re about to get hit.

Because you have to avoid damage to preserve Mortality, this aspect rewards knowledge of baddie movements and patterns. Similar to Medea Skull, if you didn’t vibe with the scythe early on, try coming back to it later. Damage-negation tools like Lovers , dodge chance, Daze , Snow Queen , or Nitro Boost are helpful.

Success Rate from Hermes increases your crit rate.

You can get away with some unexpected magick recovery. The Unseen arcana or Aphrodite’s Glamour Gain function while you’re whirling, so a long spin is nearly free. You can also activate Demeter’s gain mid-spin if you’re not moving.

Damage-boosting Arcana is tricky for this aspect. Without the Psychic Whirlwind hammer I find it hard to overlap casts and big Omega whirls, so I might drop Furies . With the mix of Omega and regular moves, I lean towards Huntress and Night (alternating Omega casts and attacks) to increase the crit chances.

Should you use it at low ranks?

This starts decent, but I think comes into its own around Rank 3 or higher.

Hammers of note

For Omega attacks, Psychic Whirlwind is the best: it removes most downsides of the Omega attack because you can dash, sprint, cast, and attack (raising the crit rate!) while the whirlwind is reaping. You can do funny stuff like run away from things while still slashing ’em or stack up channeling speed and get two spins going at the same time. It’s rad.

Seething Marauder triggers frequently during Omega spins, a huge damage boost, and it’s also free damage if you’re focusing on regular attacks.

Rapid Hack is a nice-to-have for way faster swings, and Furious Whirlwind is likewise useful for charging Omega attacks faster.

You can skip Omega moves entirely and give Executioner’s Chop or Hell Splitter (or both!) a try. Land a dash-strike and the hitstun is enough time to land bigger chops, even with Vow of Frenzy .

If Giga Cleaver or Sudden Cleaver show up early, consider working in Omega specials when your crit rate is maxed, but make sure you’ve got magick sorted. Watch me nuke the Surface with Thanatos Axe, Sudden Cleaver, and Giga Cleaver.

Build recipes

Aspect of Nergal Axe

Winning combo

The Omega attack is the play here: it charges incredibly fast, covers a ginormous area, and hits hard. With Sorceress if you dash-strike and hold Attack, as soon as the attack lands you’ll have charged up enough to start a spin even though the charge indicator isn’t yet visible. As with the other axes, you can charge and then tap Dash to start whirling at the end of your dash — carefully, as you don’t have invulnerability when dashing here. Dash to cancel out of a spin (this one is safe) if you’re about to get smacked.

Similarly, the Omega special comes out alarmingly fast. It’s also your fastest-hitting option to restore health against solo baddies while Berserk. After it’s firing, you can dash so you’re not stuck in place while the shockwaves are happening. I like to sprint up, dash-strike, hold special and release for the Omega.

The Night Arcana is nice to have so you have a built-in way to get more damage out of the multiple-strike Omegas. As with Thanatos I lean towards alternating Omega casts and Omega attacks, but boons or hammers might change that rotation.

If you’re out of magick, the safest rotation is dash-strike → special. Tapping Special will cancel any lingering attack animations, so this is faster than it looks.

I mostly stick to the Omega moves, dash-strikes, and specials. That said, the attack combo is satisfying to vent some aggression. It’s dangerous against bosses and armored baddies. Dash in between parts of the combo to get out of harm’s way or hit something otherwise just out of reach. You’ll have to rewire your brain, but an alternative to the dash-strike is tap attack, then dash to reposition mid-swing; you’ll have invulnerability during the dash and it hits harder than the aspect’s actual dash-strike.

The Berserk buff heals even with the Vow of Scars active and all the healing plays nicely with the Strength Arcana. I speak from experience: you can play real sloppy with Nergal and it’s weirdly fine because you heal yourself constantly.

Should you use it at low ranks?

The damage is there at Rank 1, but if you were banking on the Berserk buff, stay away until you rank up.

Hammers of note

Psychic Whirlwind is the best. It’s not even a discussion. Omega attack, then race around, dash, cast, special, Omega special, charge another Omega attack… whatever you want while everything dies around you.

Dashing Heave is great. Like with Mel Axe, you can go surprisingly far with a simple dash-strike → special rotation. Watch me work through some emotions by QUADRUPLE SMASHING the Underworld with Nergal Axe, Dashing Heave, and Extra Dose. Or watch me double-smash and double-blast the Surface at 62 Fear with Nergal Axe, Dashing Heave, and Chain Reaction.

Giga Cleaver gets more hits out of the Omega special, which is pretty funny.

Of the aspect-exclusives, Iron Core is nice for survivability. And you should at least try Heaven Splitter once; attack, then tap dash for best results.

Build recipes

  • Start with your pick of Apollo (insane reach) or Hera (best against crowds) on attack. Add Demeter for some Freeze and Weed Killer if you’re big on Omega attacks. Zeus or Aphrodite are excellent on special. Apollo has a bunch of nice-to-have attack bonus boons, or you can flex for his Legendary (very amusing on the Omega special) or make a bunch of Heartthrobs with Aphrodite. Watch me do big spins in a Dream Dive with Nergal Axe, Apollo attack, Weed Killer, and Psychic Whirlwind.
  • Start with Demeter on attack. You’d really like epic or heroic rarity here, but it’s not the end of the world. Baddies will stay frozen long enough to set up a second Omega attack, and Demeter’s in the pool already for Weed Killer to up her just-ok attack damage. Add Ares on cast or Meat Grinder next to unlock their duo, then cycle between Omega casts and Omega attacks, especially with Psychic Whirlwind . Cut Above from Ares is solid, or Heph and Apollo have fun duos with Demeter. Watch me do a Dream Dive with Nergal Axe, Demeter attack, Psychic Whirlwind, and Hostile Environment.

Ravaal, the Argent Skull

Aspect of Melinoë Skull

Winning combo

Pin baddies in a cast and pepper them with attacks as fast as you can launch them. Closer is better. Tap special to retrieve your skulls, either going through a baddie, or to the side if it isn’t safe to ram into something. Repeat. You can stun-lock unarmored baddies with continuous attacks and specials once you have the rhythm down.

Try out Auto-Fire in the settings — particularly the Hold option. Then you can hold the Auto-Fire button with Attack to spare your thumbs some stress. It’s also marginally faster since attacks will launch when you press down, not when you release.

Dash → Special lets you scoot around quickly if you need to outrun something or get into a better position.

The Huntress arcana goes hard here; open locations with a random Omega move to burn some magick and keep Huntress active.

Don’t ignore Omega moves. The Omega attack is great against crowds that aren’t clumped together tightly enough to all get hit by regular attacks. Conveniently, the blast zone covers about the same area as your cast.

You are invulnerable during an Omega special, so keep that in your pocket to get your skulls out of a dangerous situation.

Should you use it at low ranks?

Try it out to see if you like the playstyle or some of the more insane hammers like Possessed Array or Wide Grin . Otherwise, this stands out more at later ranks.

Hammers of note

Possessed Array is a ton of additional damage, but you do need a ton of magick (or Flood Gain from Poseidon) to trigger it frequently. Watch me explode the Underworld real good at 62 Fear with Mel Skulls, Possessed Array, and Flood Gain. Or watch me quadruple blast the Surface at 62 Fear with Mel Skulls, Possessed Array, Wide Grin, and Hera magick recovery.

Wide Grin sadly doesn’t instantly apply the aspect’s damage bonus to all your skulls with regular attacks, but it does let you fire all your skulls in an Omega attack for the cost of one. Consider leaning into that. Adding Bolstered Array or Possessed Array later is good fun. As you can imagine, Apollo’s legendary is bananas here (Watch me drop a lot of bombs on the Surface with Mel Skulls, Wide Grin, and Exceptional Talent). But don’t discount Wide Grin for regular attacks: blasting all your attacks up close can outdamage the one-by-one power ramp-up. Watch me shotgun the Surface and all the Rivals bosses with Mel Skulls, Aphrodite attack, and Wide Grin.

Fetching Array lets you machine gun baddies nonstop. Stand a slight distance away to make sure you’re getting the bonus power on later skulls before the first ones return to you.

With Bolstered Array you can either use the added ammo for more flexibility, or chuck some out of the way and then play like normal with the added attack power for each skull that’s out of your hands.

Volatile Array is free damage. It adds up. Looming Ignition is also free damage, and the larger area coverage is useful.

Build recipes

  • Start with your pick of Hera ( Hitch is good), Aphrodite (big number), Apollo (big booms), or Ares (big first hit) on attack. From there I like seeing Apollo for attack bonuses like Extra Dose or Back Burner ; Demeter on cast for safety; or Heph or Zeus for supplemental damage on cast and special. Ares on whichever of attack or special is nice to open up Grievous Blow to help with the tankiest baddies. Watch me clear the Surface with Mel Skull, Apollo attack, and a lot of support from Zeus.
  • Start with Hephaestus on special. We want Heph early because we’re hunting for his legendary; when the aspect is maxed out, his legendary boosts the aspect bonus to +21 power per skull that’s out of your hands. Get whichever of Hera, Apollo, Aphrodite, or Demeter on attack and power up Heph’s blasts —  Grand Caldera , duos with Apollo, Hestia, Demeter, Posiedon — for additional burst damage. Bolstered Array is silly here. Watch me clear a Dream Dive with Mel Skull, Premium Service, and Aphrodite attack.
  • This one’s a dream build, but it’s both hammer-and-legendary-specific: Start with Apollo on attack, get a robust gain (Hera or Poseidon, probably), then start fleshing out the prerequisites for Apollo’s legendary. Add Demeter for Weed Killer . Then we pray for Possessed Array , where we get the bonuses from Exceptional Talent and Weed Killer for free, with jumbo-sized, extra-damaging double-skullsplosions whenever you pick one up. Wide Grin is another zesty hammer option if Possessed isn’t showing up. Watch me blow up Vow of Rivals 4 on the Surface with Mel Skull, Possessed Array, Exceptional Talent, and Flood Gain.

Aspect of Medea Skull

Winning combo

Tap Attack once or twice. Race up to baddies. Then tap Special to go through them and pop your attacks. Immediately load another attack, then special back through the other way. Rip and tear until it is done.

I rebind Attack or Special to shoulder buttons on a controller to make the loop easier to execute. Others have success rolling their thumb over Attack and Special with the defaults. Play around with different combinations until something feels good for you and lets you Attack → Special quickly.

Dash → Special lets you scoot over a lot of ground, either to reposition or just outrun almost anything the game throws at you.

Once you’ve got the damage loop down, this is a dangerous but ridiculously fun aspect. The fast attack-special cycle, built-in damage boost, and AOE from the explosions makes it one of the strongest aspects in the game.

Approach baddies from the side or behind or in between their attacks so you don’t get whacked. Keep a cast down to control swarms. Against armored baddies, load multiple skulls for the first attack (or toss an Omega attack their way before moving in) to hopefully break their armor. For bigger armored baddies and Wardens and Guardians, you have to know your openings to dive in unless you’re willing to trade damage.

More than any other aspect, Medea rewards your knowledge of baddie movements, attack patterns, and health pools. If you tried it at one point and hated it, give it another shot when you have more experience.

Although I mostly ignore Omega moves here, keep the Omega special in your pocket to retrieve skulls from a dangerous situation — you’re invulnerable for the duration. Or open rooms with an Omega attack to activate Huntress .

Should you use it at low ranks?

The aspect’s built-in damage bonus isn’t significant until Rank 3 or so, but this is strong at any rank.

Hammers of note

So, um, that thing I said above about ignoring magick? Possessed Array is king here. If you see it early, get big magick regeneration immediately. Flood Gain from Poseidon is great for a few seconds of insanity during the buff and you can ignore max magick otherwise.

Neither Colossus Driver nor Boosted Ignition nor Volatile Array are flashy, but you’ll be shocked at how much damage they add, particularly when the aspect is ranked up. Watch me clear the underworld at 62(!) Fear with Medea Skull, Colossus Driver, and a big Aphrodite special.

Looming Ignition makes your attack AOE weirdly huge. Way more coverage than you’d expect. It’s worth a take if you’re strugging with crowds.

Special shoutout for Melting Break . Armored baddies are your nightmare here.

Avoid Wide Grin . It slightly delays retrieval of your ammo and you’ll find it annoying against loose crowds. I don’t take the Experimental Hammer with this aspect.

Build recipes

Aspect of Persephone Skull

Winning combo

This aspect initially plays like Mel Skull: pepper baddies with regular attacks fairly close up, then tap Special to retrieve your skulls when empty. Avoid special-charging straight into a crowd of armored baddies; you can special to the side and still hoover your skulls to you. Look into Auto-Fire to give your thumb some relief.

About 2,000 points of flat damage from Olympians fills the Sprouted gauge. When the gauge is charged, unleash an extra-long Omega Special and zip through crowds to clear the room or nab any loose skulls. As with the other Skulls, you can’t be damaged during the Omega special. Unlike the other skulls you can change direction while Omega special surfing; do loose circles around tough baddies or bosses to keep smacking them with the waves.

A few seconds of invulnerability from the Sprouted Omega is super valuable both to avoid getting killed and to dish out some pain in otherwise hazardous situations like traps, fire, or AOE moves. Keep an eye on the gauge and don’t get too reckless: it’s easy to get whacked if your Omega special expires at an inopportune moment. I speak from experience.

If you just need to get away from a dangerous situation, Dash → Special covers a lot of ground in a hurry.

You can’t build up your Sprouted gauge while surfing about with the Omega special. Put big percentage boosts instead of Olympian damage on special for best results.

If a room is almost done but you don’t have a full gauge, you can use it for a little bonus time just to end things, or save some for the next room — your call.

The distribution of the aspect’s freebie levels for boons is skewed towards granting low bonuses or no bonuses at all. If you’re fishing for, say, a high-rarity and high-level Hephaestus start, the ability to reset the RNG seed for the start of the run will be your friend. Or if you’re willing to give up build control, this is fun with Fates’ Whim as the aspect’s free Poms stack with the Jeweled Pom . Watch me get lots of buffed stuff in the Underworld with Persephone Skull, Aphrodite’s cast, and Twisting Crash.

Should you use it at low ranks?

Yes. The ability to go invulnerable for a bit might power an early clear for you.

Hammers of note

The Skulls are swimming in solid special hammers to get more mileage out of the Omega. Twisting Crash is the clear standout, but Colossus Driver , Mega Driver , and Rapid Driver are all helpful.

As with Mel Skull, most attack hammers are good too. Mom spoils us rotten here! In particular Possessed Array is an insane damage boost if you can get enough magick to trigger it constantly. I also like Wide Grin either for shotgunning regular attacks or launching quad Omega strikes. Watch me blow up the Underworld at 62 Fear with Persephone Skull, Possessed Array, and Wide Grin. Or same hammers, same Fear, going up this time.

Build recipes

  • Start with Hephaestus on attack. A few bonus levels and a rarity bump should get you close to the fastest 2-second recharge. A blast on a crowd should fill your gauge. From there, look for Hestia (cast, gain) or Aphrodite (special) or Apollo (cast, dash, special) or Poseidon (cast, gain) or Demeter (special, cast, gain) for their blast duos. Zeus’s Static Shock and duo with Heph is another direction to go. Or add Hera on special; she’s probably best-in-slot there. Watch me blast the Underworld to bits with Persephone Skull, Heph attack, and duos with Demeter, Apollo, and Hestia.
  • Start with your pick of Hestia, Poseidon, or Zeus on attack. Compared to a Heph start, these are a more stable drip for Sprouted. Any of them are quite happy with a couple of bonus levels to start. Hestia and Poseidon are smoother starts, but Zeus has the highest potential late-game with Double Strike or King’s Ransom . Get Origination online with your other slots and get any percentage boon on special. For a Hestia start, look for Aphrodite (any core) and Demeter (cast, special) or Ares (any core) who have fun duos with Hestia. Poseidon has good duos with Ares and Zeus. Watch me do a Dream Dive at 62 Fear with Persephone Skull, Hestia attack, Hera special, and Wide Grin.
  • This is a convoluted build that dominates if you get it online. Start with Ares on attack. For reasons I do not completely understand, the added damage from applying Wounds counts as Olympian damage, so this will build your gauge from the start. Add Zeus on any core slot (cast or high-rarity special are great). Next add Apollo’s Light Smite or Zeus’s Divine Vengeance (ideally both) to unlock Heinous Affront . Once you’ve got all that (told you this was convoluted!) every time you inflict Wounds with attacks you’ll trigger tons of bolts and Light Smite on everyone around you and fill your Sprouted gauge in a flash. Add a percentage boost or big Blitz on special to pump out the damage when you go joyriding every few seconds. Watch me flash the high beams in a Dream Dive with Persephone Skull, Heinous Affront, Light Smite, and Twisting Crash.

Aspect of Hel Skull

Winning combo

Charge and launch an Omega special, then hold Attack at close-ish range. Keep your distance or drop a cast while channeling the Omega special, because it takes a while. Do not skip Sorceress . Dash if you’re about to get smacked while holding Attack. The attacks pierce, so try to line baddies up.

If you’re out of magick, hold Attack and occasionally tap Special to launch it for more damage. You can’t fire another special or charge an Omega special while any special is flying about. In busy rooms it can be out for a long time. Be aware: none of the specials hitstun.

Theoretically this weapon has an Omega attack but you have to sit still for a while to fire it, which is kind of a death sentence if you’re using Vow of Frenzy . That said it hits a big area with high power and goes through obstacles; if you’re doing Fates’ Whim or are otherwise forced into a percentage boon on attack, it can put in some work. (But, heck, what do I even know? Watch me clear the Underworld at 62 Fear with Hel Skull and huge Omega attacks.)

Because the Omega special costs a small fortune to launch, building up a Hex can be a fruitful side quest. Unless you’re planning on starting with a magick recovery boon or using Unseen , take Hecuba so you can do more than one Omega special per room at the beginning.

Should you use it at low ranks?

Your damage output is lower than it could be but this starts reasonably strong, and rank doesn’t change the optimal builds.

Hammers of note

The aspect-exclusive Venerated Relic is tempting; it doubles the length of the Valkyrie buff, a gigantic quality-of-life upgrade if most of your damage is coming from the machine gun attacks. However, it is a trade-off because you can’t fire another Omega special during that longer buff.

Helheim Charge is a huge power spike if you can adjust to Omega attacks. Drop the Omega special → attack rotation and try triple blasting stuff.

I also like Leering Glance to spread attacks around some, although I don’t love combining it with Helheim Charge.

Otherwise, the various special hammers are all decent. Rapid Driver is maybe the best for faster charging on the Omega special.

Build recipes

  • Start with Poseidon on attack, which does exactly what you want it to do with waves every strike. Get magic regeneration sorted, add Slippery Slope and another status on cast/special for Origination and you should be in good shape. I like Hera ( Hitch is great here) or Ares (good duo with Poseidon) or Aphrodite (with her duo with Poseidon) on special the most. If you can get it, Poseidon’s legendary is amazing for bossing here. Watch me soak the Surface Rivals bosses with Hel Skull, Poseidon attack, and Hera special.
  • Start with Zeus on attack. Compared to Poseidon, this is a much slower start but late-run can get ridiculous with Static Shock and Double Strike . Add Hera, Hestia, or Poseidon on magick recovery (they all have good duos with Zeus too) and get Origination online to amp up all your lightning. Watch me zap the Underworld Rivals bosses with Hel Skull, Zeus attack, and Shocking Loss.
  • Start with Hera on special. The damage is good and applying Hitch to entire rooms to open fights has obvious benefits. Get magick recovery sorted and add whichever of Zeus, Poseidon, or Hestia on attack and build your attack up from there. Hestia in particular has Controlled Burn for more damage out of all the Omega specials you’ll be doing. Watch me Hitch and then zap the Surface at 62 Fear with Hel Skull, Hera special, Zeus attack, and Twisting Crash.
  • Start with Demeter and take either special or cast. A high-rarity attack can work too. Freeze baddies, then hammer ’em with attacks and, yes, Omega attacks. If Poseidon, Hestia, or Zeus show up, slot them on attack if it’s open and build around that. If you wanna play with the Omega attack and a big percentage boost from Aphrodite, Apollo, or Hera shows up, here’s your chance. Weed Killer is in the pool for even stronger Omega attacks, and other Omega add-ons from Hera, Poseidon, or Ares are worth chasing if you have robust magick recovery. Watch me terrorize the Surface with Hel Skull, Helheim Charge, and Weed Killer

Xinth, the Black Coat

Aspect of Melinoë Coat

Winning combo

Leaning on attacks or specials or both is viable here. The balance of specials and attacks you favor will depend on the hammers and boons that show up. Special → attack → attack → repeat is a reasonable starting point; you can attack while rockets are out, and the attack cancels the special’s recovery animation.

For special-heavy builds, pin baddies in a cast and keep a slight distance while you pepper them with rockets. Keep moving and tapping special and things will die. Unfortunately, the rocket tracking is sometimes wonky, they’ll get lost on barriers, and you can’t guarantee what or when exactly they’ll hit.

In comparison, the attack hits reliably and immediately. If baddies are in your face, punches will manage them better.

With the Auto-Fire setting on, you can do fast combos if you hold attack or special or both in combination; the Fandom Hades Wiki has more details in the “Auto-Fire Statistics” section. I get good results holding Auto-Fire and Special and then briefly holding and releasing Attack.

The Omega special can focus a bunch of special rockets on a baddie, the tracking is reliable (they’ll even chase teleporting Vow of Fangs baddies or Eris if she flies away), and you can do other things while the rockets are flying. I use this a lot, actually. My typical rotation is a quick sweep with the Omega special (you don’t need to wait for all the lock-on reticles) → dash-strike in → alternate attack and special a bit. If they’re not dead, back out and repeat.

While charging the Omega attack, you block attacks in front of you. This is one of the rare tools that deletes projectiles. You can block almost everything, including Gramps’ dashes and scythe swings. You’ll learn the unblockable stuff real quick; it’s mostly expanding rings and ground explosions. I don’t lean into Omega punches too much with this aspect. Selene coat or the hidden coat take better advantage.

Similar to Mel Flames, you can sorta throw anything on attack or special. When I advise folks on Reddit or Discord, I’ll say any combination of Hera, Zeus, Poseidon, Ares, or Hestia will probably work out. However, the dash-strike adds an interesting wrinkle: it hits 3 times quickly, perfect for Poseidon or Hestia or Static Shock .

Should you use it at low ranks?

Try the Coat’s playstyle out, but the speed boosts aren’t noteworthy until the highest ranks.

Hammers of note

Exhaust Riser makes the dash-strike hit six times. If you see this early, run towards Poseidon or Hestia’s attack or Static Shock and use dash-strikes liberally. This is great with Reaper Frame for the added power or Launcher Frame so you’re also constantly launching free rockets.

Shimmering Rockets is incredible for crowds, and Ripper Rockets is a power boost against guardians and bigger baddies. Watch me toss a lot of rockets at the Underworld at 62 Fear with Mel Coat, Hera special, Shimmering Rockets, and Killing Stroke.

Siege Frame extends the range of your punches substantially, some helpful breathing room that also helps a lot against crowds.

Build recipes

Aspect of Selene Coat

Winning combo

The aspect-exclusive Hex, Sky Fall , starts good and gets better. Plan on taking the Moon Beam keepsake at some point so you can reach the juicy blue and purple upgrades. Ferocity and Prism are excellent. Cascade is solid — free damage is nice. Otherwise prioritize nodes that give you additional hits or more power.

Alternate Omega attacks and specials. Omega specials are more flexible since you can sweep a crowd or focus on one baddie. Meanwhile, Omega attacks have huge base power and consume more magick. Once you’ve burned enough magick for Sky Fall, light it up for more damage and to boost your next Omegas. The space lasers hitstun. My typical rotation is Omega special → activate Sky Fall → dash-strike → Omega attack, squeezing off a cast somewhere in the middle there.

While charging the Omega attack, you block attacks in front of you. This is one of the rare tools in this game that deletes projectiles. You can block almost everything, including Gramps’ dashes and scythe swings. You’ll learn the unblockables real quick; it’s mostly expanding rings, ground explosions, and Hecate’s transformation curse. The range on the Omega attack is a little lacking in my opinion, but you can glide a little bit while charging or dash and you’ll punch immediately afterwards.

You can drop a cast while channeling either Omega move; triggering your Hex while channeling, however, will fire the Omega move.

If you’re out of magick or for small or weakened baddies that aren’t worth Omegas, alternate regular attacks and specials like Mel Coat.

For damage Arcana, I like either picking Eternity & Night and cycling through all the Omegas — that corner will also turn on Moon — or Origination for a damage boost for all the space lasers. Either works well in my experience. Watch me use Origination with Sky Fall to beat up the Rivals bosses in the Underworld with Selene Coat, Hera special, and Hestia attack.

Should you use it at low ranks?

Probably not. This aspect revolves entirely around Sky Fall, and it’s much easier to activate at the higher ranks.

Hammers of note

Nearly every hammer has merit here. I’m happiest when I see Shimmering Rockets or Ripper Rockets . But those aren’t flashy and you’re here for big punches, be honest.

Siege Frame and Reaper Frame increase the coverage of the Omega attack so you whiff less often. World Collider is a touch impractical — it’s a long windup — but 100 more power is no joke if you’re chasing big funny numbers. My record big punch is in the 9000s and I know it’s beatable.

Build recipes

Aspect of Nyx Coat

Winning combo

In between waves, sprint around to power up your Omega Boost. Slam into the first unlucky baddie you see, then drop a cast and spam attacks or specials while the Nightspawn buff is improving your area coverage. When Nightspawn expires, repeat the process.

The mix of attacks or specials you’ll favor will depend on boons and hammers. Special → attack → attack → repeat is a reasonable starting point. You can attack while rockets are out, and attacks cancel the lingering special animation. In dangerous situations, strafing around and firing zillions of Nightspawn rockets is valid.

As with Mel Coat, spend some time in the Training Grounds exploring what the Auto-Fire setting can do for you to string together specials and attacks.

You can’t hit the same baddie with both a regular attack and Nightspawn attack simultaneously. With proper spacing, you can hit larger baddies with both Nightspawn’d attacks for more damage than striking with a normal attack. I don’t stress much about doing this, but it is worth keeping Nightspawn up against chunky solo baddies, Wardens, and Guardians.

Nightspawn doesn’t do anything for Omega moves, so I mostly ignore them here outside of occasionally charging an Omega attack to block something, or using the Omega special to focus a bunch of rockets on something before sprinting in.

While charging the Omega attack, you block attacks in front of you. This is one of the rare tools that deletes projectiles, so keep it front of mind. You can block almost everything, including Gramps’ dashes and scythe swings. You’ll learn the unblockables real quick; it’s mostly expanding shockwaves, ground explosions, and Hecate’s sheep curse.

Because you’re always opening fights with an Omega move, Huntress is nice.

Nitro Boost from Hermes or Frigid Rush from Demeter are hugely useful for a little protection as you sprint into things. With the high power on the sprint, Vital Signs from Artemis is funny for huge damage as you slam into freshly-spawned enemies.

Hera’s magick recovery doesn’t automatically trigger with the Omega sprint, so I’d avoid it here or at least watch your magick carefully.

Should you use it at low ranks?

Although you’re missing out on some supplemental damage from Nightspawn at the lower ranks, that doesn’t change the gameplay or desirable builds.

Hammers of note

The non-Omega ones are what you want. Shimmering Rockets is a clear standout, potentially stunlocking entire rooms under a swarm of skipping missiles. Watch me do the Underworld at 62 Fear with Nyx Coat, Shimmering Rockets, Demeter special, and Static Shock.

Siege Frame dramatically extends your attack range for more comfortable punching. Watch me take on the Surface at 62 Fear with Nyx Coat, Siege Frame, Hera attack and Zeus special.

Ripper Rockets , Launcher Frame , and Reaper Frame are all decent.

Build recipes

Aspect of Shiva Coat

Winning combo

Launch an Omega special near some baddies, zip into the landing zone, then hold Attack for an Omega attack. Hang out as long as you can to build up the Destruction gauge with the Omega special bounces. Casts (you can drop one mid-charge) and the Omega attack’s shield will help you do this without getting too bullied — hopefully. Let 'er rip. Repeat.

The Omega attack covers an absurd area (even at minimal charge) and hits hard. You should be one-shotting most early baddies with it.

While charging the Omega attack, you block attacks in front of you. This is one of the rare tools that deletes projectiles. You’ll learn the unblockables real quick. Be wary of ground explosions and expanding rings. You can dash while charging to avoid damage at the cost of immediately firing the attack.

Against weaker baddies or things that don’t merit a gigapunch, skip the Omega loop and do special → attacks up close. If you’re not big on Omegas, the basic attack combo is strong enough to build around. Attack → Attack → Dash → Attack lets you reposition before the final part of the combo.

Avoid the dash-strike if you can help it. The animation is slow, it hits just once, and it doesn’t hit terribly hard. While dashing you can tap Special, wait a beat, then tap Attack to go right into the attack combo, skipping the dash-strike.

For damage arcana, I like taking Huntress and especially Night here since the primary rotation is alternating Omegas. The occasional and hilarious boss instant death from a Destruction-boosted gigapunch is one of this game’s greatest dopamine hits.

The Omega moves are outlandishly expensive, so Hexes are easy to activate here.

Should you use it at low ranks?

If you don’t use Omegas, ranks do nothing for you.

The highest ranks unlock the silliest gigapunches, but without the Counter Supreme hammer you’re rarely filling the gauge to 6 anyway.

Hammers of note

Most of the aspect-exclusives are solid. Elephant Rockets saves you some Destruction-building time as you can launch on Omega special up close and immediately absorb it.

Counter Supreme is also aces for building Destruction fast. Pro-tip: you can block the golden orbs that Chronos emits during phase transitions to build up a full Destruction gauge in a blink. He won’t know what hit him.

Siege Frame extends your attack and Omega attack range significantly, handy for not whiffing those slow, expensive Omega attacks. Reaper Frame also makes for bigger punches, but it’s better for regular attacks instead of the Omega, which already has huge base power.

I also like Rapid Frame to speed attacks up generally and World Collider or Chakra Collider for big funny numbers.

Build recipes

A few Warden (midboss) tips

Shadow Spiller (Erebus)

  • He has two attacks: a slam and a big swipe. Get behind him and they miss.
  • With Vow of Shadow on, use your cast to keep the screamy ladies off you while you deal with the big guy. There’s no single perfect placement, but I try to keep the screamers at the cast perimeter and keep shifting away from the crowd. Here’s a small handful of examples in action. Or just eat some hits; even if it looks terrifying, Wailers don’t hit hard.

Master Slicer (Erebus)

  • When he rears up to attack, drop a cast or Omega cast between you. Now he can’t poke you. When he’s done poking air, hit 'em.

Phantom (Fields of Mourning)

  • If you’re here, you’ve probably learned this the hard way: if he hits you, he heals himself. A lot. Don’t get hit.
  • To not get hit, keep dashing through him. He has one attack sequence where he’ll turn around for a second swing, but otherwise everything misses if you’re behind him.
  • Kill the little shooty guys. If he hoovers them up, he recovers health from them too.

Charybdis (Rift of Thessaly)

  • To avoid her phase transition bullet hell, go to one corner of the arena. Bait the bullets towards you, then march along the perimeter to the opposite corner. You’ll outrun most of the bullets and the sub-bullets. Then dash into the stagglers. Dodging the bullets looks like this. (At launch you could do this but that has been patched out. Sad day for doors everywhere.)

Spawn of Typhon (The Summit)

Some Guardian tips

Hecate (Erebus)

  • Dash into her expanding ring, and dash back out when it’s contracting.
  • To avoid getting Sheep’d, dash directly through the projectile a few times. It looks something like this. The left and right sides of the arena give you the most room to also dodge Hecate’s hexes. Or let Frinos absorb the ball.

Unrivaled Hecate

  • Her Dark Side pattern is always an expanding ring first (dash in, then out), then either a flamethrower attack (run in circles around her) or another expanding ring.
  • Standing behind a pillar during the flamethrower attack will protect you, even though it looks like the flames are passing through.
  • Only the real Hecate (1) does Dark Side or (2) moves her feet or (3) gets curses applied to her or (4) takes actual damage (try poking them with ranged attacks) or (5) does the flurry of green arcs projectile move in the last phase.
  • Other somewhat reliable methods to find the real one: if you have stereo headphones and she has a voice line, the direction can give her away. If two Hecates are doing the same move and the third is doing something different, the third is likely real. If two Hecates are clumped together but the third is farther away, that’s often the real one.
  • To dodge the triple critter hex, continuously dash through the spot where it splits in 3. They’ll keep converging there, so you can dash through all three at once. Whichever projectile nightmare Hecate chooses to harass you with will… complicate matters.

Scylla & The Sirens (Oceanus)

  • Kill Roxie (drums) first. She’s got all the ground area-of-effect attacks and she doesn’t move so she’s easier to wail on. Bait the others away from her if you’re not in a hurry.
  • It’s a hectic fight, but try not to lose track of Jetty (guitar), who has a bad habit of slinking off and then charging in or sending hard-to-spot projectiles your way.
  • There’s 3 of them, so Hitch from Hera is extraordinarily helpful.
  • In the final phase, keep a cast on you and Scylla and the fish swarm can’t get near you.

Unrivaled Scylla & The Sirens

This one’s rough.

  • The most reliable order of operations I’ve found is going after the tentacles near Charybdis first, then try to take out Scylla or Jetty (guitar) as you work your way up to Roxie (drums).
  • As you can, take out one if not both of the tentacles near Roxie so you have some breathing room when she’s doing her huge area denial moves. This goes double for Phase 2.
  • When Scylla closes up, be ready to dash through her charge. She always opens the fight with this, and she’ll also do it if you do a lot of damage to her quickly.
  • Don’t hang out on top of or behind Roxie. The spouts will bully you and you will get hit by something.
  • At the start of Phase 2, try to bait Scylla or Jetty towards the exploding tanks to the right of Roxie. If they’re near one when it blows, they’re out immediately. The frontmost tank will kill the nearby tentacle, if nothing else.
  • Hitch is useful. If you can get it online, the godsent upgrade with Hestia on the Total Eclipse Hex is just the best here.

Infernal Cerberus (Mourning Fields)

  • At nearly all times the safest place to be is behind him. Keep dashing straight through him.
  • All the glowing circles don’t hurt you until the last moment, so you don’t have to get out of them immediately.
  • When the screen is absolutely covered in glowing circles, the timing is offset: stand in the newer ones, wait for the oldest ones to blow, then dash into where the earliest ones were.
  • In the back half when he starts rampaging around slamming the ground repeatedly, he does 8 slams total. Keep count so you know when to move in.

Unrivaled Infernal Cerberus

  • The most important move to understand deeply is his “combobreaker.” If you do enough damage in a short period, he stops what he’s doing, goes “paws up” and blocks damage from the front. If you hit him, he spews fireballs. This is always followed up with a paw slam to the front and a swipe to the back.
  • For the first phase transition, stick to the edges of the island for a beat and watch for the miasma. Ideally, wait for it to clear completely. If you get slowed down in a cloud, you’re getting hit.
  • The lava is a bit of a trick. You can be on it for a second before it does damage, and it doesn’t hurt much. If you’re faced with a choice between eating a glowing circle or standing in lava for a second, choose lava.
  • Like with the regular fight, you’re mostly best off staying behind him. The joke, of course, is the developers know that and make that difficult. Faster movement speed like Blinding Rush (Apollo) or Nitro Boost (Hermes) are your new best friends.

Chronos (Tartarus)

Polyphemus (Ephyra)

  • In general, beat on him until he moves, then dash through him immediately.
  • Wait for him (or a boulder) to land, then dash into the shockwaves.
  • Unless you have overwhelming damage, kill the barrel guys so they can’t set too much of the stage on fire.

Unrivaled Polyphemus

  • Keep moving. Standing still is a sure-fire way to let Medea poison you.
  • The fountains in the corners clear poison when you interact with them. Memorize their locations so you can get to one quickly.
  • If you get poisoned, don’t panic. (Easier said than done, I know.) You’ll take more damage from barrels and boulders and shockwaves than you will from poison if you freak out and stop dodging things properly.
  • His boulder toss is harder to avoid here. If you don’t damage him while he’s “listening” he won’t throw anything. Failing that, get as much distance as you can between you and him after hitting him so you have more time to react to the shockwaves and dash in.
  • Medea always poisons the middle of the arena in the same patterns between phases: alternating lines at 66%, and the pentagram at 33%. The edges of the arena are safe for either.

Eris (Rift of Thessaly)

  • Stay nearly on top of her and keep dashing through her. Once she starts shooting she turns very slowly.
  • Failing the above, hug the pillars. They absorb bullets and they’re not large so you can often attack through them.
  • Try to not let her blow up the pillars with the sniper shot. Run circles around her while she’s aiming and she’ll whiff.
  • During her final hit-and-run onslaught, she has fixed locations she can land. I like staying to the right of the right-hand pillar (if it’s still standing); you’re covered there for 2 out of the 3 nearby places she’ll land.
  • Watch me break down how to avoid all her nonsense in this video.

Unrivaled Eris

  • Your overriding goal of this fight is the same: keep getting behind her. Her laser sweeps and charges won’t hit behind her.
  • You can — and should — blow up the mines. Every aspect has a ranged option in your moveset; Coats have it hardest here as aiming the special at the mines isn’t the easiest. Some boons that are particularly good at clearing mines are Rapture Ring (Aphrodite) , Anvil Ring (Hephaestus) , Arctic Ring (Demeter) , Frigid Rush (Demeter) , Static Shock (Zeus) , Lightning Lance (Zeus) , and Ocean Swell (Poseidon) .

Prometheus (Mount Olympus)

  • Each phase has a fixed pattern of small or flashy moves. You can dash straight through him to avoid nearly all of them. Once he completes the cycle, he stands still for a bit. That’s when you beat on him. The patterns vary by phase, which I break down in this video.
  • Do your best to aim the summoned fire moves towards the edges of the arena so he doesn’t severely restrict your movement.
  • For the memory game, assign numbers to the zones. Top/left is 1, middle is 2, bottom/right is 3. Say the “safe” zones (they don’t flash) out loud, like “1, then 3, then 2.” You can remember 3 or 5 numbers. If you can’t even with all of that, dash straight through the waves; only the leading edge of the flames can hurt you.
  • You have enough time to sprint across even if the safe zones are on opposite sides. Yes, even with maxed Vow of Frenzy . Here’s what navigating a “3-1-3” sequence of safe zones looks like.

Unrivaled Prometheus

  • They alternate who is aggressive and who isn’t, which determines their movesets. I wrote an extremely overwrought breakdown of this fight in the Hades Speedrun Discord. Boated on YouTube has a video breakdown.
  • Unless you are pressed for time, kill Prometheus first and ignore Heracles. Heracles gets much worse under 50% health, with a lot more projectiles flying about.
  • Do not screw around during the memory game. Ignore Heracles as best you can and focus on avoiding the flames.
  • If you have Hitch , bring the Knuckle Bones . If you can Hitch them both before the Bones trigger, they’ll lose a huge chunk of health.

Typhon (The Summit)

  • The chin slam is hugely telegraphed by the horns flashing. Either move down quickly to avoid it completely, or dash right under him to i-frame it.
  • For the 3rd-eye ball, move to one side, dash to avoid the first shot, and sprint to the other side to avoid the splashes. They probably won’t bounce that far. In the final phase, there’s a third splash that you’ll have to save and time a dash to completely avoid.
  • During the egg portions, the arm will pound once or the tail will drop on you twice, so be ready for it. As always, dash into shockwaves once they start expanding.
  • The phases are not equal in terms of health; the final phase after the second eggs he’ll have about 40% of his total health, so that’s a slog.

The Oath of the Unseen (Fear)

Although you don’t have to engage much with the Fear system, if you’re looking at some of the prophecies or trying out Testaments, here’s a brief overview.

How bad are the vows?

Vow & Level How bad is it? Fear
Pain • You’ll barely notice 1
Pain •• You’ll notice 3
Pain ••• You better believe you’ll notice 5
Grit • Do you really want to add 6,500 HP to Typhon? 1
Grit •• Do you really want to add 13,000 HP to Typhon? 2
Grit ••• Do you really want to add 19,500 HP to Typhon? 3
Wards • Slightly annoying, especially for things you would otherwise 1-shot 1
Wards •• Very annoying. Some aspects or boons can kinda ignore this 2
Frenzy • Take 10 – 20 full runs to relearn the game 3
Frenzy •• Take another 10 – 20 full runs to relearn the game 6
Hordes • Not godawful in isolation but slows things down significantly 1
Hordes •• Now rooms will feel like slogs 2
Hordes ••• Makes most other vows much worse, and it takes forever 3
Menace • A trivial difficulty bump 1
Menace •• Hippos in room 1 stink, but there are worse Vows 3
Return • Annoying; mostly a small time-waster 1
Return •• Frequently annoying; occasionally dangerous 2
Fangs • Some perks are gnarly, but this isn’t horrible 2
Fangs •• Occasionally you’ll roll a run-ruining combo, but it’s a lot of Fear 5
Scars • You’ll barely notice 1
Scars •• You still have quite a bit of healing 2
Scars ••• Changes strategy and gameplay dramatically, but you can learn to work with it 4
Debt • Buying lots of stuff is how you get super strong 1
Debt •• Boons cost 270 Gold! Feels bad! 2
Shadow Good deal for 2 Fear; significantly worse on the Surface 2
Forfeit Nasty! Miserable starts, you’re far weaker, and frequent boon-free zones 3
Time • Should be absolutely free with this guide at your disposal 1
Time •• Should be nearly free with this guide at your disposal 3
Time ••• Five minutes can be tight and requires adjustments, but many things are far worse 6
Void • Are you nuts? Arcana is too valuable! 1
Void •• Skip right to Void ••• and use Judgment 2
Void ••• Take what you need to stay alive early and activate Judgment 3
Void •••• Good luck on your 67 Fear attempts! 5
Hubris • Free for magick-free builds, and magick-heavy ones will barely notice 1
Hubris •• Magick-heavy aspects will notice, but it’s still relatively easy to manage 2
Denial Forget about stacking zillions of boons, but this is workable 2
Rivals • Every Rivals boss comes with a learning curve. With practice, you can handle harder Hecate and Polyphemus 2
Rivals •• Significant step up for the Underworld, not so bad for the Surface 5
Rivals ••• Not so horrible for the Underworld, nasty for the Surface 8
Rivals •••• Extreme difficulty spike and longer final fights either direction, slightly worse for the Underworld 12

Recommended pacts for testaments or statues

Here’s what I’d recommend for each notable Fear level. The links are to the Fear Calculator on H2 Crossroads if you’d prefer to see the layout similar to how it appears in-game.

  • 1 Fear: Time •
  • 2 Fear: Time • , Menace •
  • 4 Fear: Time •• , Menace • (or vice-versa)
  • 8 Fear: Time •• , Menace •• , Shadow or Rivals •
  • 10 Fear: Time •• , Menace •• , Shadow , Hubris ••
  • 12 Fear: Time •• , Menace •• , Shadow , Hubris •• , Fangs • or Rivals •
  • 16 Fear: Time •• , Menace •• , Shadow , Hubris •• , Scars • , Fangs •• or Rivals ••
  • 20 Fear: Time •• , Menace •• , Shadow , Hubris •• , Scars • , Rivals •• , Fangs • , Return ••
  • 24 Fear: Time •• , Menace •• , Shadow , Hubris •• , Scars •• , Rivals •• , Fangs •• , Return ••
  • 32 Fear: Time ••• (you can do it!), Menace •• , Shadow , Hubris •• , Scars •• , Fangs •• , Return •• , Denial , and Rivals •• will get you to 29. Then pick either Rivals ••• or a mix of Pain , Debt , or Wards .

Watch me clear the Underworld with the recommended 32 Fear setup with Mel Staff and Zeus attack.

Adjust things to taste or swap in something from the next tier up. If you feel comfortable with more Time for the middle tiers, take it and drop something irksome.

If you are only looking for a clear at any of these levels, do not take unreasonably hard pacts like Void , Rivals •••• , or Forfeit . Think very hard about lots of Hordes or Grit . Also, be wary of Debt , especially on the surface where you can get ludicrously strong by throwing money at Hermes.

If you refuse to learn any of the Vow of Rivals bosses, for 32 Fear I’d look at a pact like this. Watch me clear the Underworld at 32 Fear with this pact and Eos Flames.

Are you a fellow try-hard and want to push beyond 32 Fear? Use Frenzy •• as soon as possible and get used to faster enemies. It’s an adjustment, but you can learn. It’s also a whopping 6 Fear, which lets you drop a lot of annoyances from other Vows. Alternatively, practice for a bit with Frenzy, then turn it down and the game will feel easy all of a sudden, like taking off a weighted vest.

On the Vow of Time

While many folks think a time limit on each region sounds impossible, I promise it’s not.

With Time ••• , you have to play somewhat aggressively, pause when choosing doors, and take most free room offered, but five minutes per region is manageable on either route. Particularly if you don’t take the Vows that make everything take longer.

If you’re waffling, trust me, it’s easier to go a little faster and maybe get a little lucky than it is to handle 60% more enemies with way more health that take more hits to kill.

If you’re pushing into ultra-high Fear or choosing to ignore me and adding the time-sink Vows, add them in this order of increasing nastiness:

  1. Return
  2. Wards
  3. Grit
  4. Hordes

Finally, to clear up a few common misconceptions:

  • The timer doesn’t run down at all when menus (boons, hexes, Poms) are open, in friend rooms, in the shops, during Artemis or Nemesis or Heracles or Icarus encounters, or the intro/outro rooms between regions.
  • You carry over any extra time each region. If you have 2 minutes left after Erebus, you’ll have those additional 2 minutes for Oceanus (and the rest of the run).
  • You don’t die immediately if you go over time. You’ll take 5 damage per second until dead. With a big health pool, you can keep going for a while.

Fates’ Whim

After you complete the main story, you can get three “Fates’ Whim” keepsakes. These only work if you:

  1. Turn off the reroll Arcana; and
  2. Don’t use any keepsake that forces an Olympian God to appear. (The keepsakes from Hermes, Dionysus, and Artemis are safe, as are Chaos and Selene who aren’t Olympians.)

As long as you don’t break those rules, you keep the considerable benefits of these keepsakes even after you take them off.

Because these rules upend, uh, a major tenet of this guide, you’ll need to make some adjustments.

Should you? If you’re looking for consistency, these aren’t it. On the other hand, the keepsakes are undeniably strong, making random stuff work is fun, the variety of stuff that does work expands quite a bit, and if you get the stuff you want you’re much more powerful. They’re fun.

Here’s how I approach it.

Arcana adjustments

I run a layout along these lines if I need Unseen or something like this if I don’t.

  • Unseen is costly but helpful because you can’t roll for magick recovery boons. If you don’t need endless magick, rely on Huntress , or can work with whatever magick recovery if and when it shows up, drop it.
  • Furies and Origination are even stronger with the Jeweled Pom boosting flat damage boons by a couple of levels.
  • Boatman is still expensive and now harder to justify, but boons from early shops to lock gods in or fill some core slots is a tiny bit of build control.
  • I am not sold on Excellence . Going from Common to Rare when you’re already at level 4 from the Jeweled Pom doesn’t move the needle much, and it’s hard to flesh out the requirements for legendary boons or have enough opportunities to get them without rolls.
  • Death or Strength is still your choice, but you obviously can’t reroll Athena for Renewed Faith if you bank on that with Defiances.
  • If I have 2 Grasp free that doesn’t need to go anywhere pressing, I use Night to also activate Moon . Now even low-magick builds can run a Hex, and the Moon Beam doesn’t break Fates’ Whim.
  • Forget about Queen . There’s too many tempting 1 – 3 cost cards available now, and you can’t roll for duos or prerequisites anyway.
  • If you are a gambling addict that likes Judgment , don’t worry: it won’t activate the reroll Arcana on you.

Keepsake order

Take the Jeweled Pom first. No question. Free levels on all your boons is insane, especially with flat damage builds. A lot of random stuff works when it’s all starting at level 4. You can ignore Poms even harder because you’ve got plenty. And you get a free Hades boon! Gigaros Dash , Life Tax , or Unseen Ire are insane early boosts. Or sometimes you get Howling Soul and your casts miss all the dang time.

Unless you need something else urgently, take the Time Piece in the second region so you can buy all the things for the rest of the run. I’d purge minor rewards or Poms, but you can do shenanigans like enter Chaos and purge the boon for a free room with no curse — Chaos is exceedingly dangerous without rolls.

I occasionally take the Calling Card instead of the Time Piece. If Heph or Zeus are in your god pool and either of your attack or special are still open, the Card can maybe get you a Heroic blast or Blitz. Rarifying Hermes and Artemis is also fun.

For later regions take the Moon Beam for a hex or whichever survival or damage keepsake you need.

If you need to call in Athena to survive in the later regions, go ahead. You’ve probably gotten most of the value out of Fates’ Whim early.

Flexible aspects

Aspects that can work with whatever do better with this playstyle. Here’s some well-suited ones:

Sorta-flexible but Omega-heavy aspects like Momus Staff or Eos Flames or Selene Coat can also do well: you can take Origination and the Omega-boosting Arcana like Night or Eternity to improve your damage and survivability. Watch me get unkillable in the Underworld with Momus Staff, Fates’ Whim, Paid Dues, and a big pile of gold. Or watch me soak the Surface with Eos Flames, Fates’ Whim, Poseidon special, and Apollo’s legendary.

If you’re doing Fates’ Whim runs and looking for ways to get stronger, allow me to introduce you to…

The Get More Powerful Cheatsheet

You have many possible avenues to get silly powerful. Here’s an aspect-agnostic way to think about builds, so you can stay flexible or work around Fates’ Whim.

Movesets

Melinoë:

Whatcha got? Make it better
Cast Use it all the time, put a boon on it, Arctic Gale (Demeter) , Glowing Coal (Hestia) , Lightning Lance (Zeus)
High-damage cast Fuchsia Dress (Arachne), Chasm (Chaos)
Omega cast Geyser Spout (Poseidon) , Hostile Environment (Ares – Demeter) , Local Climate (Demeter) , Prominence Flare (Apollo) , Meat Grinder (Ares) , Shadow Pounce (Artemis) , Easy Shot (Artemis), Winner’s Circle (Hermes) , Chasm (Chaos)
Sprint Poseidon, Apollo, Demeter, Zeus, Hestia, Hephaestus, or Hera Rush boons; Beach Ball ; Nitro Boost (Hermes) , Celerity (Chaos)
Dash Aphrodite, Ares, Apollo, or Hera Rush boons; Divine Dash (Athena); Gigaros Dash (Hades)

Attacks or Specials, broadly:

Whatcha got? Make it better
Rapid-hit or low-power (less than 25ish) attack or special Hestia, Poseidon, Zeus, Hephaestus, Ares, Slow Cooker (Hestia) , Static Shock (Zeus) , Air Quality (Zeus) , Pressure Points (Artemis), Support Fire (Artemis)
Mid-power (30 – 40ish) attack or special Anything can work
Slow or high-power (50+) attack or special Aphrodite, Apollo, Hera, Demeter, maybe Ares, high-rarity Zeus or Heph, Huntress Arcana
Attack or special with sizeable percentage boost already Ares
Attack or special you can work in frequently Ares, Zeus
Attack or special you’d be willing to work in occasionally Hephaestus
Mid – high power attack or special with too-short range Apollo
Mid – high power move with a huge +% boost on it Crits (Artemis or some Selene upgrades), Grievous Blow or Mutual Destruction (Ares)
Attack or special that hits multiple times Bottomless Drink (Dionysus), Lethality (Wolf Howl hex upgrade)
Hard-hitting opening move Vital Signs (Artemis)
Attack or Special lets you do other things while it’s happening (e.g. Flames Omega special) Romantic Spark

Regular (non-Omega) attacks and specials:

Whatcha got? Make it better
Regular attack Secret Crush (Aphrodite) , Slow Cooker , Extra Dose (Apollo) , Back Burner (Apollo), Lethal Snare (Artemis) , Gigaros Dash (Hades), Strike (Chaos)
Dash-strike Passion Rush (Aphrodite), Stutter Step (Hermes), Divine Dash (Athena), Strike (Chaos), Gigaros Dash (Hades)
Regular special Slow Cooker , Back Burner , Killing Stroke (Artemis) , Gigaros Dash, Flourish (Chaos)
Regular attack or special you would like to be faster Nimble Limbs (Hermes) , Plasma (Ares)

Omega moves:

Whatcha got? Make it better
All Omega moves Fine Line (Hera) , Cut Above (Ares) , Ocean Swell (Poseidon) , Heart Breaker (Aphrodite) , Shadow Pounce (Artemis) , Explosive Intent (Icarus), Power Surge (Zeus), Chant (Chaos)
Slow-to-channel Omega move Sorceress , Racing Thoughts (Hermes) , Lavender Dress (Arachne), Revelation (Chaos)
Expensive Omega move Heart Breaker , Righteous Pike (Athena) , Cinerary Circle (Hades)
Too-expensive Omega move Talent (Chaos)
Omega attack Weed Killer (Demeter), Back Burner , Lethal Snare , Shadow Pounce , Strike (Chaos), Exceptional Talent (Apollo legendary)
Omega special Controlled Burn (Hestia) , Back Burner , Killing Stroke (Artemis) , Shadow Pounce , Flourish (Chaos), Exceptional Talent
Omega cast Geyser Spout (Poseidon) , Hostile Environment (Ares – Demeter) , Local Climate (Demeter) , Prominence Flare (Apollo) , Meat Grinder (Ares) , Easy Shot (Artemis), Winner’s Circle (Hermes) , Chasm (Chaos)

Magick recovery

What do you need? Which gain is suitable?
The best overall gains Born Gain (Hera) , Lucid Gain (Apollo)
To mostly not think about magick recovery mid-combat Born Gain, Lucid Gain
Light Omega usage and also can it inflict a status? Glamour Gain (Aphrodite)
Omega moves are sprinkled in between regular moves Cardio Gain (Hestia), Flood Gain (Poseidon) , Glamour Gain
Weapon hits frequently Grisly Gain (Ares), Cardio Gain
Lots of magick, used in bursts Flood Gain , Ionic Gain (Zeus), Tranquil Gain (Demeter)
I have something productive to do between Omegas Flood Gain , Will (Chaos), Unseen Arcana, Glamour Gain
Enough magick to last this wave/encounter/boss phase Flood Gain , Ionic Gain, Tranquil Gain
I am willing to break away from combat to recover my magick Ionic Gain, Tranquil Gain
I get hit (be honest!) Tough Gain (Hephaestus)
I don’t get hit of course but if I did (hypothetically) it would be nice if took less damage Tough Gain, Glamour Gain
Better with lots of max magick Born Gain , Ionic Gain, Flood Gain , Tranquil Gain
Better (maybe) with low max magick Cardio Gain, Tough Gain, Grisly Gain, Flood Gain , Lucid Gain
I don’t want to accidentally disable Huntress No gain, Ionic Gain
I have Wolf Howl Tranquil Gain

Statuses for Origination

Core boon slots:

Whatcha got? God
Attack Ares, Demeter, Hera, Hestia, Zeus
Special Ares, Demeter, Hera, Hestia, Zeus
Cast Aphrodite, Apollo, Demeter, Hera, Hestia, Poseidon
Rush Aphrodite, Apollo, Demeter, Hera
Gain Aphrodite

Tier-2 boons:

Whatcha got? God
Poseidon attack or special Slippery Slope
Hephaestus attack, special or dash Furnace Blast
Apollo attack Dazzling Display
Cast & non-Demeter curse Arctic Gale (Demeter)

Niche sources:

Whatcha got? God
Apollo showed up Light Smite
Hestia Fireballs Fourth Degree
A lot of Aphrodite boons Nervous Wreck (legendary)
Artemis showed up Death Warrant

Boon synergies

Very broadly:

Whatcha got? Make it better
A variety of damage sources Global damage boosts
A lot of global damage boosts More damage sources
A boon with a chance of something happening Success Rate (Hermes)
Frequent magick recovery Incandescent Aura (Hera – Hestia)
Dodge chance Warm Breeze (Apollo – Hestia)
You hit frequently Froth status (Poseidon), Static Shock (Zeus) , Slow Cooker (Hestia)
A random boon I wish was higher rarity Bridal Glow (Hera), Steady Growth (Demeter) , Proper Upbringing (Hera), Aromatic Phial keepsake

Just to cut down on some noise for these God-specifics, if a column has a “*”, it benefits from global damage boosts.

Aphrodite:

Whatcha got? Make it better
Weak status Burning Desire , Broken Resolve (Aphrodite), Sweet Surrender
Heartthrobs* Sunny Disposition (Aphrodite – Apollo)
Flutter Strike/Flutter Flourish/ Glamour Gain but baddies are far away Island Getaway (Aphrodite – Poseidon)
Sunny Disposition* (Aphrodite – Apollo) Godsent Dark Side hex; Love Handles (Aphrodite-Hephaestus), Carnal Pleasure (Aphrodite – Ares)
Wispy Wiles Warm Breeze, Air boons from Zeus/Apollo/Hermes/Artemis/Hera, Creation (Chaos), Heavenly Splendor (Narcissus), All Together (Hera)

Apollo:

Whatcha got? Make it better
Daze Back Burner (Apollo), Warm Breeze, Rude Awakening (Apollo – Hephaestus)
Solar Ring Winner’s Circle (Hermes)
Lucid Gain Winner’s Circle
Prominence Flare* Glorious Disaster (Apollo – Zeus), Air Quality (Zeus) , Froth status (Poseidon), Chasm (Chaos), Chant (Chaos), Winner’s Circle
Light Smite* Heinous Affront
Sunny Disposition* (Aphrodite – Apollo) Godsent Dark Side hex; Love Handles (Aphrodite-Hephaestus), Carnal Pleasure (Aphrodite – Ares)

Ares:

Whatcha got? Make it better
Wounds status Grievous Blow , Heinous Affront , Profuse Bleeding , Sanguinary Savor (Ares legendary)
Sword Ring Winner’s Circle (Hermes)
Falling blades* Cutting Edge (Apollo – Ares), Coffin Nail (Ares – Hephaestus)
Plasma Profuse Bleeding , Carnal Pleasure (Aphrodite – Ares), Universal Donor (Ares-Hera), Sanguinary Savor (Ares legendary)
Meat Grinder* Winner’s Circle (Hermes) , Hostile Environment
Hostile Environment (Ares – Demeter) Meat Grinder , Local Climate (Demeter) , Winner’s Circle (Hermes) , Geyser Spout (Poseidon)
Heinous Affront Light Smite (Apollo) , Divine Vengeance (Zeus) , Unseen Ire (Hades)

Demeter:

Whatcha got? Make it better
Freeze status Hail Storm (Demeter – Zeus), Freezer Burn (Demeter – Hestia) , Cold Storage (Demeter), Cryo Pounder (Demeter – Hephaestus)
Gusts* Tropical Cyclone , Air Quality , Froth status (Poseidon)
Tranquil Gain Freeze, gusts, Hecuba (stun), Wolf Howl hex
Hostile Environment (Ares – Demeter) Meat Grinder (Ares) , Local Climate , Winner’s Circle (Hermes) , Geyser Spout (Poseidon)
Hail Storm (Demeter – Zeus) Cold Storage, Double Strike (Zeus)
Freezer Burn (Demeter – Hestia) Highly Flammable (Hestia) , Burning Desire (Aphrodite – Hestia) , Godsent Total Eclipse hex

Hephaestus:

Whatcha got? Make it better
Blasts* So many Poms, duos with Hestia/Apollo/Poseidon/Demeter/Aphrodite, Queen arcana haha, Grand Caldera (Heph), Furnace Blast (Heph), Bridal Glow (Hera), Supply Chain (Icarus), Steady Growth (Demeter)
Anvil Ring* Winner’s Circle (Hermes)
Cryo Pounder (Demeter – Hephaestus) Cold Storage (Demeter)
Martial Art Heavy-hitting weapons, Earth boons from Ares/Demeter/Heph/Hera/Hermes/Artemis, Creation (Chaos), Heavenly Splendor (Narcissus), All Together (Hera)

Hera:

Whatcha got? Make it better
Hitch More baddies with Hitch, Dying Wish (Hera), Hereditary Bane (Hera)
Fine Line* Ripple Effect
Engagement Ring Winner’s Circle
Any Pommable Hera boon Queen’s Ransom (Hera – Zeus)

Hestia:

Whatcha got? Make it better
Scorch* Pyro Technique , Hot Pot, Highly Flammable , Freezer Burn (Demeter – Hestia) , Scalding Vapor (Hestia – Poseidon), Godsent Total Eclipse hex
Freezer Burn (Demeter – Hestia) Highly Flammable , Burning Desire (Aphrodite – Hestia) , Godsent Total Eclipse hex
Fireballs* Fourth Degree
Slow Cooker Fast-attacking weapons, more Fire boons from Hestia/Apollo/Hephaestus/Athena/Hermes/Hera, Creation (Chaos), Heavenly Splendor (Narcissus), All Together (Hera)

Poseidon:

Whatcha got? Make it better
Waves* Slippery Slope , Arterial Spray (Ares – Poseidon), King Tide (legendary)
Froth status Fast-hitting weapons, Killer Current (Poseidon – Zeus), Scalding Vapor (Hestia – Poseidon), Static Shock (Zeus) , Gusts (Demeter), Prominence Flare (Apollo)
Ocean Swell * Ripple Effect
Geyser Spout Winner’s Circle (Hermes) , Local Climate (Demeter) , Hostile Environment (Ares – Demeter)
Water Fitness Spiritual Affirmation (Aphrodite) , more water boons from Poseidon/Demeter/Aphrodite/Hera/Dionysus, fishing, Heavenly Splendor (Narcissus), All Together (Hera)

Zeus:

Whatcha got? Make it better
Blitz* Double Strike , Arc Flash , duos with Aphrodite/Hestia/Hera/Poseidon
Divine Vengeance* Heinous Affront
Other lightning bolts* Double Strike , King’s Ransom
Static Shock * Master Conductor, Electric Overload, Air Quality , King’s Ransom
Air Quality Low-power weapon moves, Static Shock , Prominence Flare (Apollo) , Support Fire, Gusts (Demeter)

Problem-solving

Resources:

What’s your problem? Make it better
Only getting like 2 Boons in Erebus Use Boatman, take shops, and buy more
Not enough max health Persistence Arcana , Centaur Hearts (duh), Frinos, Water Fitness

Read the original on leereamsnyder.com ↗

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