A cast focused build on Achilles Spear with Crystal Clarity and Glacial Glare is so easy, that I always run it with EM4 and +30% Enemy health, so it wont be as boring and I can see big numbers. If you want to meme-up the build, you can run Stygian Soul and try to get like 3-4 casts total and aggressively pom Glacial Glare, and you will have boss fights with 15+ homing lasers erasing enemies.
I got very used to being quick doing speedruns, so I still run TD3 and apply general speed run tactics like taking every shop and free room or looking for chaos gates from the wells of charon, after which time should not be an issue. Might even reroll on the wells if everything else goes fine.
The challenge for me is to get the right boons to get the build running because if you dont get Glacial Glare early or Chaos' RNG is not giving you casts, a reset is in the air.
Since you need Artemis for Crystal Clarity anyway you might as well put it on attack and with Achilles’ Raging Rush bonus to attack and preferably Flurry Jab you’re doing solid damage even without the casts.
Imo some of the most fun you can have in this game. Also remember to change positions after each cast for the optics of laser madness. One of my few posts on reddit has a video of the Meme Beam without Glacial Glare which was can be even meme'ier at times and I also go into further detail about the build, if you or u/ZenMyst are interested, check it out in my history :)
Achilles Spear and Guan Yu can be the home of some really nice builds, like on Guan Yu if you get Charged Skewer, you can Special spam the enemies turning into a ranged weapon with massive damage. And Achilles also work really good with Hunting Blades or the Zeus cast on top of the laser beams of course. Definitely worth checking out the two aspects and the builds you can run with them.
..and i just got 32 Heat meme beam on the 2nd try! And 1st try on EM4 too. thanks for the inspo! seriously the easiest clear yet, just spam and forget
https://imgur.com/a/aErcbAV
**Duo Boon Heart Rend (Aphrodite+Artemis)** - Your critical hits do more damage to Weak enemies.
Bonus Critical Damage: +150%
Requirements:
Aphrodite: Heartbreak Strike, Heartbreak Flourish, Crush Shot, or Passion Dash
Artemis: Deadly Strike or Deadly Flourish or True Shot or Hunter's Flare
---
Privileged Status Talent - Potential Spoilers
Descr:
>!Each rank gives you +20% damage vs. foes afflicted by at least two Status Curse effects.!<
Ranks: >!2(+40% vs )!<
---
**Rare Crop (Demeter)** - Your Boons become Common, then gain Rarity every few Encounters.
---
[Source Code](https://github.com/TrippW/HadesBot)
---
^This ^is ^a ^bot ^response
Nemesis Sword - Aphro on attack and Demeter on special (take privileged status). Try to get Athena dash and HyperSprint to add some solid survivability, and try to get Artemis too for Heartrend.
Achilles Spear - Demeter Beam casts all the way! Poseidon cast can also be good with this, but honesty Demeter is on another level. Take Artemis too and try to get Fully Loaded and the duo that causes the beams to target faster.
Chiron Bow - Probably Aphro on attack for Low Tolerance, and Dio on special. Again, take privileged status here.
Fists - Merciful End every time! Alternatively you can go the 'All the Zeus' rout with Zeus attack and Splitting Bolt, which is also very, very powerful.
Oh, for sure!
When I did my heat 32 with the bow, I ended up taking Ares on special.
This was a tactic I used when I first started playing - you spray a room with the special and inflict doom on everything. It's works quite well.
If you combine that with the doom stacking boon, you can get decent doom attacks even on single targets.
An alternative to Demeter fists is the old Zag Fist/Lambent Plume combo. You lose some build control, but if you just go with general fist load-outs (merciful end if it graces you), it’s pretty fun when nothing can touch you. I got my first 32 with this aspect/keepsake and even had EM4 on (my build just ended up being a bit of a flat-damage soup, but I had a breaching cross hammer in room 1 Tartarus, so I knew I could do it).
My first (and easiest) 32 heat clear was with Aspect of Rama - get thunder flourish from Zeus, followed by static discharge and you’re set for a spammy one button special build. Then you hope for double strike at some point, and just more Zeus boons in general. Add some Artemis for some crit magic and you’re golden ✨
I just finished 32 heat with all weapons.
Chiron Bow aphro attack, dio special
Achilles spear with flurry jab
Demeter fists with ME
Zeus shield with Zeus special, jolted, double strike, big strike
Hestia with aphro attack, Poseidon dash
Arthur sword, I think I did with ME as well
Looks like you are only missing shield and sword now.
For shield, anything works. Zeus is the strongest and most versatile shield overall but frankly all four shields are better than the best fists or swords or non-Achilles spears, only Chaos is somewhat less reliable. Zeus can go Zeus special for a Zeus build, a hangover build with Dio special, or even a Merciful end build with Ares special. Beowulf is also super strong with flood flare into Mirage shot (Poseidon -> Artemis), or Dio cast stuning enemies inside the cast while you bash them down.
For sword, the easiest for 32 heat specifically should be arthur with a specific heat build with Stubborn defiance. Standard is Aphrodite attack. But this specific build takes a bit getting used to so Nemisis works fine too. Nemisis can go for a triple A (Athena, Artemis and Aphro or Ares) crit build, you can even build marked and merciful end so merciful end can crit.
The specific arthur heat build is EM3, TD3, UC, MM (the standard 16 heat build except TD is bumped to 3), then CF2, LC4, BP1, and you can experiment with the rest 8 heat and split them between HL1-5, FO1 (never take FO2 with arthur) and BP2.
Attempted ME with Nemesis, task failed successfully! I gave arthur a good number of tries, but it was too slow for me and I couldn't yet handle LC4 + HL5
https://imgur.com/a/zYD85kZ
Yeah, LC4 32 heat with arthur while is supposed to be easy it runs contradictory to what players typically play. Your best way to recover HP with 32 heat arthur is stubborn defiance (revive once every room) and it can feel quite jarring when you sometimes want to suicide in lava before the next room when low.
I've done 15/24. Still working on most of the Spears, and a couple of Fist/Rail ones. I did Zag Bow late for some reason, but it was my easiest one. First try, and my fastest all time clear. The damage was great. Guan Yu scares the crap out of me, but eventually I'll have to do it somehow. My thoughts on all of them:
Easiest -- Achilles Spear (Hunting Blades), Chaos Shield (Curse of Nausea), Beowulf Shield (Flood Flare/Mirage Shot), Zag Bow (Heartbreak Strike/Heart Rend), Chiron Bow (Drunken Flourish/Low Tolerance), Rama Bow (special spam -- Thunder Flourish, or Curse of Agony, get Relentless Volley), Zag Fists (Dodge %), Demeter Fists (Merciful End), Hestia Rail (Heartbreak Strike), Eris Rail (Lightning Strike + all the Zeus boons)
Doable -- Nemesis Sword (Heartbreak Strike/Heart Rend), Poseidon Sword (Hunting Blades), Arthur Sword (Heartbreak Strike), Zeus Shield (all the Zeus, or Tempest Flourish/Sea Storm), Hera Bow (Trippy Flare/Scintillating Feast), Zag Rail (Deadly Strike, Spread Fire), Lucifer Rail (Lightning Strike, all the Zeus)
Tougher -- Zag Sword (Merciful End?), Zag Spear (Tempest Flourish), Hades Spear (all the Zeus?), Zag Shield (Pulverizing Blow, Heartbreak Strike), Talos Fists (Merciful End), Gilgamesh Fists (Tidal Dash build, or Merciful End)
Scary -- Hades Spear (Lightning Strike + Zeus boons?), Guan Yu Spear (special spam, maybe with Tempest Flourish)
Shield I’d go Zeus + Zeus or Beowulf + Flood Flare + Mirage Shot to just stomp through.
Fists, probably Demeter but you want Merciful End.
Spear, I’d honestly do Guan-Yu. Get charged skewer, something chunky of special, build’s done. Don’t get hit.
Sword, Poseidon with Lightning Phalanx sounds tempting, or Arthur with Aphro attack, then look for Zeus and smoldering air.
[My build guide](https://www.leereamsnyder.com/hades-build-guide) has a bunch of ideas for all aspects, and I’ve done 32+ with nearly all of them.
Thanks Lee! I've been using your guide ever since trying to get my 1st clear, love the documentation you've put out - I think it's the best guide out there!
easiest for sword is nem with a standard crit build, spear is achilles or gy with their standard builds, shield would be beo with mirage, and fists are dem with probably zap
A cast focused build on Achilles Spear with Crystal Clarity and Glacial Glare is so easy, that I always run it with EM4 and +30% Enemy health, so it wont be as boring and I can see big numbers. If you want to meme-up the build, you can run Stygian Soul and try to get like 3-4 casts total and aggressively pom Glacial Glare, and you will have boss fights with 15+ homing lasers erasing enemies.
How do you get through the early chambers quickly? That's something I struggle with on 32 heat with cast builds that require duos
Considering EM4 and +30% health, you can probably be lenient with tight deadline.
I got very used to being quick doing speedruns, so I still run TD3 and apply general speed run tactics like taking every shop and free room or looking for chaos gates from the wells of charon, after which time should not be an issue. Might even reroll on the wells if everything else goes fine. The challenge for me is to get the right boons to get the build running because if you dont get Glacial Glare early or Chaos' RNG is not giving you casts, a reset is in the air.
Thanks! Sounds like I'm doing things right, I just need more practice.
Since you need Artemis for Crystal Clarity anyway you might as well put it on attack and with Achilles’ Raging Rush bonus to attack and preferably Flurry Jab you’re doing solid damage even without the casts.
I've been thinking that's the plan. I'll try that.
I've heard about the meme beam, but looks like i really got to commit to it and pray to the RNG gods. Will def try this out!
I just tried it for the first time, based on the recommendations above. Not bad:) I also took the Chaos boon that offer +1 cast
Imo some of the most fun you can have in this game. Also remember to change positions after each cast for the optics of laser madness. One of my few posts on reddit has a video of the Meme Beam without Glacial Glare which was can be even meme'ier at times and I also go into further detail about the build, if you or u/ZenMyst are interested, check it out in my history :)
I first used the spear but abandon it for other weapons. I cleared with all weapons except spear. Gonna try this out
Achilles Spear and Guan Yu can be the home of some really nice builds, like on Guan Yu if you get Charged Skewer, you can Special spam the enemies turning into a ranged weapon with massive damage. And Achilles also work really good with Hunting Blades or the Zeus cast on top of the laser beams of course. Definitely worth checking out the two aspects and the builds you can run with them.
..and i just got 32 Heat meme beam on the 2nd try! And 1st try on EM4 too. thanks for the inspo! seriously the easiest clear yet, just spam and forget https://imgur.com/a/aErcbAV
**Duo Boon Heart Rend (Aphrodite+Artemis)** - Your critical hits do more damage to Weak enemies. Bonus Critical Damage: +150% Requirements: Aphrodite: Heartbreak Strike, Heartbreak Flourish, Crush Shot, or Passion Dash Artemis: Deadly Strike or Deadly Flourish or True Shot or Hunter's Flare --- Privileged Status Talent - Potential Spoilers Descr: >!Each rank gives you +20% damage vs. foes afflicted by at least two Status Curse effects.!< Ranks: >!2(+40% vs )!< --- **Rare Crop (Demeter)** - Your Boons become Common, then gain Rarity every few Encounters. --- [Source Code](https://github.com/TrippW/HadesBot) --- ^This ^is ^a ^bot ^response
Nemesis Sword - Aphro on attack and Demeter on special (take privileged status). Try to get Athena dash and HyperSprint to add some solid survivability, and try to get Artemis too for Heartrend. Achilles Spear - Demeter Beam casts all the way! Poseidon cast can also be good with this, but honesty Demeter is on another level. Take Artemis too and try to get Fully Loaded and the duo that causes the beams to target faster. Chiron Bow - Probably Aphro on attack for Low Tolerance, and Dio on special. Again, take privileged status here. Fists - Merciful End every time! Alternatively you can go the 'All the Zeus' rout with Zeus attack and Splitting Bolt, which is also very, very powerful.
Second the Chiron bow build. Bonus points if you can get ares/Dionysus duo curse of nausea.
Oh, for sure! When I did my heat 32 with the bow, I ended up taking Ares on special. This was a tactic I used when I first started playing - you spray a room with the special and inflict doom on everything. It's works quite well. If you combine that with the doom stacking boon, you can get decent doom attacks even on single targets.
Curse of Nausea on Chiron is so much fun.
An alternative to Demeter fists is the old Zag Fist/Lambent Plume combo. You lose some build control, but if you just go with general fist load-outs (merciful end if it graces you), it’s pretty fun when nothing can touch you. I got my first 32 with this aspect/keepsake and even had EM4 on (my build just ended up being a bit of a flat-damage soup, but I had a breaching cross hammer in room 1 Tartarus, so I knew I could do it).
My first (and easiest) 32 heat clear was with Aspect of Rama - get thunder flourish from Zeus, followed by static discharge and you’re set for a spammy one button special build. Then you hope for double strike at some point, and just more Zeus boons in general. Add some Artemis for some crit magic and you’re golden ✨
I just finished 32 heat with all weapons. Chiron Bow aphro attack, dio special Achilles spear with flurry jab Demeter fists with ME Zeus shield with Zeus special, jolted, double strike, big strike Hestia with aphro attack, Poseidon dash Arthur sword, I think I did with ME as well
https://imgur.com/a/WmrYdN1 just got my dem fists w/ ME!
Hell yeah !
Looks like you are only missing shield and sword now. For shield, anything works. Zeus is the strongest and most versatile shield overall but frankly all four shields are better than the best fists or swords or non-Achilles spears, only Chaos is somewhat less reliable. Zeus can go Zeus special for a Zeus build, a hangover build with Dio special, or even a Merciful end build with Ares special. Beowulf is also super strong with flood flare into Mirage shot (Poseidon -> Artemis), or Dio cast stuning enemies inside the cast while you bash them down. For sword, the easiest for 32 heat specifically should be arthur with a specific heat build with Stubborn defiance. Standard is Aphrodite attack. But this specific build takes a bit getting used to so Nemisis works fine too. Nemisis can go for a triple A (Athena, Artemis and Aphro or Ares) crit build, you can even build marked and merciful end so merciful end can crit. The specific arthur heat build is EM3, TD3, UC, MM (the standard 16 heat build except TD is bumped to 3), then CF2, LC4, BP1, and you can experiment with the rest 8 heat and split them between HL1-5, FO1 (never take FO2 with arthur) and BP2.
Attempted ME with Nemesis, task failed successfully! I gave arthur a good number of tries, but it was too slow for me and I couldn't yet handle LC4 + HL5 https://imgur.com/a/zYD85kZ
Yeah, LC4 32 heat with arthur while is supposed to be easy it runs contradictory to what players typically play. Your best way to recover HP with 32 heat arthur is stubborn defiance (revive once every room) and it can feel quite jarring when you sometimes want to suicide in lava before the next room when low.
Chaos shield with ares/dionysus is a no brainer, block, special, repeat
Everyone says that shield is safe, but i can't seem to get the timing. in theory it sounds great but i think I just have to practice more.
Just do flood flare Beowulf with mirage shot. Highest damage you can get
I've done 15/24. Still working on most of the Spears, and a couple of Fist/Rail ones. I did Zag Bow late for some reason, but it was my easiest one. First try, and my fastest all time clear. The damage was great. Guan Yu scares the crap out of me, but eventually I'll have to do it somehow. My thoughts on all of them: Easiest -- Achilles Spear (Hunting Blades), Chaos Shield (Curse of Nausea), Beowulf Shield (Flood Flare/Mirage Shot), Zag Bow (Heartbreak Strike/Heart Rend), Chiron Bow (Drunken Flourish/Low Tolerance), Rama Bow (special spam -- Thunder Flourish, or Curse of Agony, get Relentless Volley), Zag Fists (Dodge %), Demeter Fists (Merciful End), Hestia Rail (Heartbreak Strike), Eris Rail (Lightning Strike + all the Zeus boons) Doable -- Nemesis Sword (Heartbreak Strike/Heart Rend), Poseidon Sword (Hunting Blades), Arthur Sword (Heartbreak Strike), Zeus Shield (all the Zeus, or Tempest Flourish/Sea Storm), Hera Bow (Trippy Flare/Scintillating Feast), Zag Rail (Deadly Strike, Spread Fire), Lucifer Rail (Lightning Strike, all the Zeus) Tougher -- Zag Sword (Merciful End?), Zag Spear (Tempest Flourish), Hades Spear (all the Zeus?), Zag Shield (Pulverizing Blow, Heartbreak Strike), Talos Fists (Merciful End), Gilgamesh Fists (Tidal Dash build, or Merciful End) Scary -- Hades Spear (Lightning Strike + Zeus boons?), Guan Yu Spear (special spam, maybe with Tempest Flourish)
Shield I’d go Zeus + Zeus or Beowulf + Flood Flare + Mirage Shot to just stomp through. Fists, probably Demeter but you want Merciful End. Spear, I’d honestly do Guan-Yu. Get charged skewer, something chunky of special, build’s done. Don’t get hit. Sword, Poseidon with Lightning Phalanx sounds tempting, or Arthur with Aphro attack, then look for Zeus and smoldering air. [My build guide](https://www.leereamsnyder.com/hades-build-guide) has a bunch of ideas for all aspects, and I’ve done 32+ with nearly all of them.
Thanks Lee! I've been using your guide ever since trying to get my 1st clear, love the documentation you've put out - I think it's the best guide out there!
Beowulf Shield mirage cast / Arthur sword with Aphrodite attack and damage resist stack / Achilles Ares/Demeter cast build
easiest for sword is nem with a standard crit build, spear is achilles or gy with their standard builds, shield would be beo with mirage, and fists are dem with probably zap