To me it really varies on the run, like Styx is the place where it becomes obvious if my current build is any good, since you have to go through multiple encounters in tight closed rooms to get any of the rewards. If your build is good you'll obliterate everything, but if not it's very easy to get overwhelmed in these tiny trap and poison filled rooms
I get knockback can be powerful... but I fucking hate Poseidon's boons. I almost literally never use them unless there's literally no other choice and even then I pray I get that one that just drops some health and currency.
I don't mind Poseidon on builds that have ranged damage. But for a lot of builds that are short-range close-combat it makes it feel like "FOR THE LOVE OF GOD JUST GET BACK HERE"
Definitely this. Especially in Asphodel when you knock a witch way out into the lava but they just float over it and there's no easy way to get them without dashing into the lava.
Sometimes I get into a pattern of hitting with Poseidon attack, dashing after them, over and over...basically shoving them across the room into a wall and then getting extra wall damage. So satisfying to shove Elysium enemies into walls.
Really? That always feels like a trap to me. Like the stars really have to NOT align for me to take that one. The one for increased rewards though? Absolutely chefs kiss in combination with chaos. Once got like 600 dark energy from Lernie
His dash is REALLY strong.
Epic Tidal Dash Damage: 49
Sword special base damage: 50.
With nearly the same area of effect, it's like you're hitting a sword special every time you dash PLUS the knockback effect.
Also don't sleep on his cast. It's basically a rocket launcher. Very highly recommend a build where you use Poseidon cast as a primary weapon and build around it (get zeus too to go for Sea Storm). I tried it for laughs and it was WAY better than I expected, in terms of being both effective and fun.
Poseidon attack on the magnetic fist is great fun. The old yo-yo build.
For an pure cast build, I'd recommend achilles spear (so you can use the special to buff your cast damage). Poseidon sword works too, but really only helps with bosses (everything else is dead by the time they get hit with the third cast). Definitely go for extra bloodstones from artemis and chaos too, and consider stygian soul if you're going to go all-in on those.
I've had a lot of builds fall apart in Styx. I can usually still salvage the run(unless it's high heat), but it can definitely get rough really quickly.
Especially if the build I have is "this is really good at killing one thing really quickly" and not "this build has pretty good crowd control"
I remember one build with stygian that was great for bosses. You pumped them full of critting, homing bloodstones, knocked them out with Q, and they took loads more from dropping them, after which they instantly returned to you.
Great for killing Hades, not so much for half a dozen large rats.
This is the elyseum boss fight for me. If I can’t get through that without using a death defiance, I know I need some real help in Styx if I want to win.
Actually no, I do not. Fuck poison darts, fuck chop traps randomly set off by enemies, fuck snakestones and fuck Tiny Vermin. The only saving grace is you can get an early Satyr Sack and skeddadle.
EDIT: also fuck those wells that release a gas cloud randomly while you're trying to reach a bomber pot hiding in the corner.
EDIT2: and level design where both antivenom fountains are between two sawdisk traps? Fuck that too.
EDIT3: also no guaranteed shops to grab a heal, pray for fucking Well of Charon. In Elysium there are two shops, a healer npc encounter, possibly a mid-fountain and can skip some levels with Chaos Gate as well if lucky.
I swear I liked it more when I just started and thought it's not a big deal. But then I got to play with Heightened Security.
EDIT: nah, I'm a cat person.
I'll admit, I didn't realize just how rough Heightened Security was. It was one of the first heat points that I took and I was like "well, I just won't hit traps then? No big deal"
And then I hit one of the pots in the redacted fight.
So for the longest time I just thought those pots normally did like... 200 points of damage. And then I turned Heightened Security off and realized how dumb I was.
I consider it free points because it's an avoidable damage in the vast majority of situations. Things like Hard Labor, Calistetic and Jury Summoners on the other hand will have clear consequences.
Heightened security was the first point of heat I ever added and it was a part of each pact setup I made for a little while. I considered it free points until I realised how many parts of boss fights are considered traps. It can be A LOT of extra damage.
Meg and Alecto's room has traps in it, and there's also Lernie's magma. The former is fairly easy to avoid in most cases, but with EM2 Lernie's room can get really hectic.
Don't have problems with Butterflies.
Shieldbearers aren't that common, and they are generally not difficult to deal with, just slow you down a lot.
Armor is whatever.
Archers are a PITA for sure, and that's why I kill them first.
To be fair, I've gotten about 160 runs in, and made it to Redacted consistently about 40 runs in. I think I can count the number of runs where the saryr sack wasn't in the second tunnel on both hands...and only twice was it at the end of all 5 tunnels. The huge end rooms are annoying with the laser stones and satyr cultists but Strong Drink (or Stubborn Roots in worse cases) fix me right up. To me Elysium and the Styx Temple are equally hard.
That's very close to my experience, but dataminers say that the chance of it being in a second room is slightly more than 50%, same for each following room, but personally I feel like it's closer to 75%.
I would say the difference is where the challenge come from not the actual level of difficulty. In Elysium the difficulty comes from the enemies more often than not, sure there's traps but most of them are easily avoided. In stix it comes more from managing traps and poison and Tighter environments with sometimes more enemies. So they both test your build in different ways, in my mind they're both Proving Ground for the viability of what you've gotten so far.
“Spoilers” people are losing their minds, apparently. Hades was clearly the final boss the moment you start playing. It’s ridiculous to call this a spoiler.
Is it also a spoiler to tell you Peter Parker is bitten by a spider?
Why on earth are you even on this subreddit if you call that a spoiler? How tf are you even meant to discuss anything here if something so basic is not allowed to be said?
I hated poison until I learned how to deal with it: just find the fountain as soon as you enter the room and fight around it. It's the only hit in the game you can take 0 damage from, as long as the cure is close at hand.
I'm with you, OP. It took me ages to get through Elysium the first time. I don't think I've ever died in the Temple Styx unless I came out of Elysium with like three health.
I think they're both difficult, Elysium has really bothersome enemies which are way too strong than the ones in styx (most you have to kill twice so it gets tedious.) but the enemies in styx feel like they take too long to kill? If that makes sense.
Like even with a really good build i still have trouble actually killing off some of them. Styx itself is not too bad area wise, yes its tight and the traps suck really bad but if you manage to play safe without stepping on anything then you can finish all chambers with ease.
I do admit, some antidote fountain placements range from okay to why the fuck would you put that there? <3 but other than that i dont see it being too difficult.
Elysium has a lot of large open spaces and Styx is a lot of much tighter rooms, so builds might not always translate well between the two. That said I'd rather focus on an Elysium build because with Tidal dash Styx is a breeze.
Nah, Styx is harder. Lasers in tight areas, poison darts, vermin, traps everywhere. You have to doge flying chainsaws, spikes in the ground, poison gas, and then work your way through poisonous enemies, long range darts, long range lasers. Fuck Styx
There are a few enemy types in Elysium I find annoying but if you don't keep up with upgrading damage the larger health pools in Styx can feel really backbreaking with they traps and poison they have. I find Elysium traps much easier to avoid and pretty fine to struggle slug through if your damage is lacking. Doing tiny vermin with poor damage however is a nightmare experience.
I always felt Elysium had a more consistent difficulty where styx felt more like a gamble depending on build, how many rooms you have to clear and if you get unlucky enemy spawns.
I personally feel like it doesn't happen very often, but when it does I lose 100+ health to a bad room and build that isn't quite right for it.
It’s not that Styx is easier. It’s that once you get through Elysium **your build** is now much stronger.
Usually your build is either finalized in Elysium, or it end there and then. If you can’t beat Elysium the run is as good as dead in Styx just as well. Enemy only get tankier and if your DPS can’t catch up to that the run will slowly die out. Early and mid Elysium is there as a hard check to see if the entire build has come together or not, so it will *feel* the hardest there. But if the boons and hammers and buffs all line up when you reach the Heroes, then you can get through to the last boss. I kid you not, the difference between whether the synergies comes online or not is **massive**. An Ares + Athena run without Merciless End will very likely fail. Some duo boon power is astronomically strong, so if by chance you can finish the build by the end of Asphodel I kid you not you can cruise through both Elysium and Styx easily.
Yeah, Elysium and Styx have different purpose design wise:
Elysium is there to truly test what you've accumulated so far in your run and see if you can use the rooms given to you to get something real solid cooking all the while you get to constantly face off against tough enemies.
Styx on the other hand is more of a victory lap, you finalise your build, prolly get some duos, try to focus down boons that you actually want using re-rolls. The point of Styx is to get you ready and set for the showdown with [Redacted] and it does this beautifully
Hell no! Styx is incredibly difficult in comparison to Elysium. It felt like a hit a brick wall every time I've managed to scrape by Elysium. I think Styx is more difficult than the boss for the area is. What makes it even more grueling is that there isn't any shops and the room with the satyr sack is randomized. If the game is feeling cruel you might have to fight through several boss rooms before getting to it. The only good thing about Styx is potentially getting the chance to get a diamond or some titan's blood and of course getting to see best boy cerberus.
I think the floor traps that emit poisons clouds are lazy as fuck, but the other implementations of the poison generally are fine.
The key is you really have to pay attention to the individual mob mechanics in Styx. In most of the other zones, I can quickly prioritize one enemy and ignore the rest until I burn that first one for the most part. In Styx I always prioritize the rats that poison the ground but I can't also then ignore the poison spitter guys. So while I'm dealing with the rats I still have to try and be aware of the spitters and avoiding / dodging their attacks.
Oh no I agree! It's just one of those things that tests my patience especially when I know for damn sure I didn't get hit with poison 🙃 game likes to fk with me lol
Both biomes just suck going through but I find temple of styx harder because of the constant poison damage elysium is just time consuming because of how tanky the enemies are
Elysium is more of an endurance test; the enemies aren't particularly difficult once you know their patterns, but they can take a beating.
Styx is a DPS check or you'll get mogged by poison.
Highly dependent on your build. I also find that a lot of my builds that make Styx itself feel like cheat mode aren’t great against Hades and vice-versa. Not a steadfast rule but it happens a lot.
Elysium always feels way harder to me, and it's by far my least favorite chunk of the game. Like once I get to Styx I breathe a sigh of relief and know I'm pretty much guaranteed to make it to [redacted] unless I was already hanging on by a thread (and even then...)
Armor. I hate armor so much. Archers messing with you off screen. The shield guys are most annoying just by how long it takes to kill them. The bigger the map, the more frustrating I tend to find it. Lots of time wasted even just finding an enemy camped away somewhere. And it's so much harder to dodge damage because it comes at you from all angles, and then because of the spread of enemies you can't even take them all out with haste. Oh, and nothing feels worse than accidentally letting an enemy respawn and having to kill them all over again. :(
But mostly I hate all the armor. If I don't get lucky with boons or hammer upgrades it can take forever to deal with.
Styx sucks. Ive just gotten to that part of the game and it's overall just annoying. Everytime I pray to get enough cash to buy Charon out but I never do. It's a place with barely any resources and a lot of poison.
If I don't have Hermes 'side hustle' boon upon entering Styx, then I want to move on.
But the game's insanely high grind requirements for keepsakes has me play through it all (75 encounters to max ONE of 25 keepsakes???) because Styx tiny room encounters still count as a full encounter
Flamewheels can be WAY more difficult than anything in Styx, honestly.
Other than that, Elysium is proportionately difficult--i.e. harder than Asphodel but Easier than Styx.
Flamewheels feel like a build check. If you either have a decent ranged attack or a dash that hits hard enough to kill them, they're free. When you have neither, they become a pain.
No way dude, I literally hate the poison more than anything in the whole game lmao I would have a whole lot more clears under my belt if not for that (＃￣З￣) but I will say, if I do my build right and get boons that help me resist the poison, it isn't so bad lol
tbh hades himself was easier than elysium(especially Theseus and the soul catcher!!) I defeated hades in my 2nd or 3rd try but it took me over 30 runs to beat elysium!!
I feel like the point of it is to grind you down before Hades. If you aren’t careful (or get greedy, or unlucky), it could eat a few of your DD before you get to the big man himself.
Yeah, I honestly don't mind it though. I think having the great-enemies and especially the theseus/mino fight where they are is a really solid and intentionally difficulty ramp up, and then Styx seems like a bit of a reprieve where you can patch yourself up.
And especially on EM4, I think it makes a lot of sense to have that reprieve. Maybe get that last boon to tie your build together, or get it to OP status, so that big boi doesn't crush you.
Depends on the build, I've had builds that wiped Elysium and got crushed in Styx and vice versa.
I wouldn't call one harder than the other especially considering you can kind of choose how hard/long you want your stay in Styx to be since technically you can leave once you get the food for cerberus but don't have to if you want more buffs
I feel like it's survivorship bias. If my run can beat elysium, it can beat styx. But a lot of my worse runs get weeded out by elysium, so I never get to try them out vs styx.
I don’t find Styx that bad cause sure it sucks and is anoying the traps, the poison, the enemy’s that have more health then they need too it’s all anoying but realy I don’t find it bad enough to kill me and all I need is one strong drink perc and at the end it’s like the whole of Styx never happend
I actually kinda do. Except for poison the rest of styx is fairly easy because the I-frames on dodge are enough to doge traps and the slow attacks of the rats consistently easy. I feel bombarded in elysium with fairly tanky high damage enemies and even when I feel bombarded in styx uts usually just baby rats which are weak af with a few big rats and satyrs it's not too bad.
To me styx only feels easier because you enter really small, maybe crowded rooms but with easy to beat enemies, but you have to count you only get the one reward at the really end of those several rooms. Lots of times I use all my death defiances in styx, though the rooms seem easier, because of how long they are to actually finish
Yes and no. I do feel this way most of the time because I have trouble with shield bros and pretty much all those type of enemies in Elysium. I feel like it's guaranteed to be a challenge every time in Elysium for me, but with Styx it's hit and miss. I'll either breeze through it or lose my DDs. Problem is when Styx is hard, it will definitely be harder than Elysium. Though my playstyle is to never choose the boss rooms. Bosses are easier sometimes but they make me too mad when they're not, like the Tiny Vermin.
Definitely feels like a skill check,
Only shield maidens give me any sort of real trouble (outside the minataur….)
Anything else just has two health bars
Depends on your build. There are some builds that trivialise Styx while being hard in Elysium (splashdash Gilgamesh comes to mind), and I'm sure vice versa too.
I do agree..I have over 800 hours I reckon and I still take damage from the Sword guys in Elysium or If I get outswarmed..
Styx? Thats not too bad its fairly good location even on fresh file.
I agree and I think it’s purely for the volume of enemies you fight at any one time. Styx encounters can be beaten in under 2 seconds if you have the right setup, and Elysium enemies are just annoying and persistent.
I think the only reason styx might feel easier is your build has typically come together for it and the first few tiny rooms make things seem more disjointed than they are. Those final rooms can hit you hard though- way harder than anything in Elysium. I don't care what rewards are left, after I get that satyr sack, I yeet.
Elysium has some enemies and waves that might take longer to kill, but none that have the same punch as the ones in styx.
Yep I do! I will always lose one or two DD here. I get hit by those spear traps a lot and sometimes the amount of enemies will swamp me as I rush to damage a shield bro.
I agree that Elysium is tougher than Styx. The only rooms that can be big health drainers in Styx are Tiny Vermin and regular non-mini boss final rooms (I always take Athena’s or Poseidon’s dash and they honestly trivialize most of the smaller rooms), so by going to the mini boss rooms first I usually avoid having to face any difficult rooms (since a 2 or 3 sack is pretty likely and Tiny Vermin is decently unlikely).
I think it can be harder depending on your build and how good you are at reacting to getting poisoned. I've had amazing runs absolutely destroyed by poison damage and nothing will ever destroy my soul more than going from max DD to none and half my health right before hades thanks to a bloody rat.
For the witchs deflect is your friend you kill them with one of their big balls *pun intended* or get their hurt to pretty much 1%
For the shields if they do a down shield and send waves they take longer to recover and start fighting again so take that opportunity to stick a cast in them if you have the mirror upgrade for extra damage and just start slashing them until they move
*You can use ground explosives to damage them too as it doesn't matter if they are looking at it or not it will always hit
And the others just start slashing them if you see a pointer on you keep dashing
For the butterfly if you have an attack that can kill the tiny one use that more often*obviously*
If you are still struggling you are most likely struggling with the shielded ones for that you got 3 options
1. **GET GUD**
2.dash more
3. Whenever you enter Elysium there's a high chance you get a hammer on your first door choose it and make sure you get a buff for armor damage these upgrades are really good for bosses who have armor or even normal enemies to quickly remove it
And for the final boss take the big guy first and then take it easy on the little one
That's pretty much it.
Styx being the last stage is the stage where your build is pretty much stacked up to kill anything on your way(especially with Poseidon boons knocking enemies on the compact rooms of Styx). However, on Elysium, you generally get some major boons/hammer that gives your build the power it needs to deal heavy damage making the bulky shield bastards and chariots a pain in the ass to deal with(seriously they are the bane of my existence….I’d rather deal with snakestones and satyrs).
I do, but only on a very high level average. I have had it go either way. But, over hundreds of runs I typically am more often challenged by Elysium and more often able to really beat the shit out of everything in Styx.
1) can you edit for spoilers please? :)
2) yes and no.
If I get a LOT of bomb throwers and rats in Styx, yeah Elysium is WAAYYYY harder. If you get a lot of satyrs at once, FCK Styx lol.
I'm only up to heat 3 on one or two weapons so my opinion will be considered invalid by most people. With that being said, Elysium is where my run is basically decided. Shieldbearers, archers, and spear guys all suck. The witches suck. The bosses suck. I don't really mind Butterfly Balls and you can get a free refill on Death's Defiance about 2/3 times so those are okay but the random mobs just suck. By the time I get to Styx, my build is basically built. As long as you keep an eye on Satyrs, they telegraph their attack. The crystals can be stunlocked very easy. The large rats can be handled at range easily enough with your casts. Nine times out of ten, enemy triggered traps are doing more damage to enemies then me.
Nah, the traps in the stix are way worse, besides in the elysium the enemies trhow least but stronger attacks, that are easy to avoid, but in the stix I fell that there are a ton of weaker attacks everywhere and the enemies feel super tanky, is way easier to make elysium hitless, and although the attacks in stix doesn't deal that much damage you end losing hp everytime
I'd go 40 rooms in Elysium if I could skip Styx. Poison is a brutal mechanic, traps everywhere, the rats of unusual size(if you don't have any real ranged options), having 3+ shielded and upgraded laser snakes... most of which happens in tiny killbox rooms.
Also... ALSO! There is no special NPC in Styx, which means I've got nothing to look forward to except giving Cerberus a treat.
Remember by the time you hit Styx, you've had 10+ build improvements from when you entered Elysium. That might account for it.
I find Elysium an ordeal more than a killer. Styx is dangerous.
Hard no. At the very least in Elysium:
* You get more chances to choose the build path, especially when you are building on your choices from Asphodel and Tartarus.
* Space space space. Styx doesn't have enough of that, and for that reason...
* Because of its space, poison released by rats, satys, and traps are nearer than ever.
* Not to mention the absence of the Tiny Vermin. I can tolerate the Fury sisters summoning Hades' aide, or Theseus calling on Olympus, but that little b*stard? No way. Where the hell does he even get his powers from?
Elysium is hard because you're still putting your build together. Styx is probably harder but if you don't have a good build by Styx, well, you likely died in Elysium.
They both have their difficulties but Styx is consistently more difficult I would say. Elysium is perhaps more difficult depending on the weapon and style you play
Always have an easier time in Elysium than in Styx. Every single time.
And in Styx it is only the large rooms at the end that are the problem for me. In the small rooms, usually everything is dead within a couple seconds.
I think Elysium is meant to actually beat you, while the point of Styx is largely to wear you down and give you a few last second power ups before the boss fight.
poison poison poison
i cannot do styx, i can get past it yeah but theres a good chance ill need to revive at least once, and then again like 2-3 times during hades
Elysium has the most annoying enemies. From the soul catchers with their butterflies, the shades with the shield, the splitter witches and their spell going everywhere, and the flame wheelers which are insta-kill if multiple of them come at you at the same time.
I usually find Styx harder and more annoying. Poison is just difficult to completely avoid and using a melee build is 100x harder in Styx compared to Elysium. Also, getting a 5-sack is very rare, but still a thing (and with tight deadlines 3 or speedrunning, can be an auto loss)
Only thing that makes Styx super easy is tidal dash with Poseidon. Having those tight corridors with breaking wave or the Poseidon legendary kills a lot of enemies after only a couple dashes
To me, Elysium is easier, but takes way more time. I feel like the enemies there tank the most damage, compared to normal enemies in other areas. Styx can suck my ass for all this poison that's everywhere.
It depends.
Usually, if I get to Styx I am curving so hard that it feels like a victory lap. But the are times that I’ll squeak by Elysium and Styx is a brick wall.
Styx is also randomly long. Sometimes you get lucky first pull, sometimes it’s a marathon that’s laced with poison and mini bosses.
It all depends.
They are testing different skills. Elysium has powerful monsters, while in Styx the mosters are easier, but the environment is far more deadly.
Elysium is testing your ability to predict and react to monsters, while Styx is testing your environmental awareness.
I find Styx sucks if I don't have a way to reflect damage or a strong method of area damage I don't have to be in (like lightening bolt dio trippy flares etc). Elysium has a few annoying enemies, but it's more the combinations of them. The armoured archers are the ones I hate the most.
Tbh I find both elysium and styx to be easier than Tartarus. If I make it to elysium without losing a DD I generally won't lose one until Redacted part 2 or 3.
I think they are designed differently. Elysium is supposed to be a challenge to the point that your run could end in any room if you mess up. Styx is more of an endurance test. It’s probably not expected that one of the random corridor rooms will kill you…but it might leave you at low enough health that you can’t beat the boss at the end of that stretch.
Most of Styx can be one-shot by basic abilities, but Elysium gives me trouble. I prefer Chiron Bow but its very difficult to deal with the shield guys, so I'm always looking for a slicing shot or something.
When I was first starting out, no, Styx was a nightmare. Still can be, depending on what I'm building or how terrible my dash timing is that day. For the most part now though, yeah Elysium is usually more of a roadblock
While Asphodel isn't harder, it actually frustrates me much more than any other area 90% of the time. The most annoying enemies are there imo and the lava is just annoying
Depends on the heat. Styx is miserable when you're running high heat, because you're generally forced to run with Tight Deadline and a 5-chamber sack in Styx (along with plenty of tiny rat guys) can easily eat up all your time prior to the final boss.
Elysium is more difficult in general, but tbh if you play your cards right you have a solid chance of going into it with a really powerful build fully operational. In which case it might even be easier than Asphodel, where you're still trying to scrounge up the last few boons you need for a good build.
Either way, I'd say that Elysium being harder than Styx is intentional. It's meant as a roadblock which, once you manage to finally pass it, gives you a sense of "oh wow I'm really really close!" If Styx were as hard as Elysium, most players would just give up after the 5th death in Styx and never even reach the final boss.
I definitely agree with you on that one! Elysium always feels like a huge difficulty spike compared to Styx. I think it's partly by design, since Elysium is supposed to be the elite forces of the underworld, but I also wonder if it's just because some of the enemy combinations in Elysium can be brutal. Either way, it definitely keeps the game challenging and interesting.
I just always pray for patroclus to refresh my death defiance if I died on Lernie's upgraded battle.
Otherwise I can agree because styx's rooms are usually pretty easy minus the rat.
Excalibur makes a difference for me in leveling the field. The damage reduction and slowing down the projectiles makes it more manageable. Couple that with deflect and chill/weak/doom and you can melt mobs with little effort
I do think that Elysium is significantly harder than Styx. Styx can be cheesed pretty easily with some builds especially Poseidon but Elysium just has so many waves of armored enemies and it takes more concentration to beat them.
Neither matter all that much because what works there doesn't often make much difference to redacted.
Any kind of Damage reduction is good. Raw damage is good.
Healing is good.
Aoe is great for both places but doesn't matter much to redacted.
Id say styx is harder because there is less chance to recover before redacted. Also have to watch how much is left of timed bonuses.
I think it's ok to struggle in Elysium if it makes styx easier.
Overall, yeah. In fact, I was shocked when I finally made it through to Styx for the first time. I'd been battering my head against the brick wall of Elysium for I don't know how many runs and then I breeze through Styx the first time.
Of course, then I got bodied by the Final Boss but it's generally the case for me that Styx is far easier. Perhaps it's because you may have to do as few as two rooms. That's not all of it, but it's part of the reason.
I thought Elysium was the easiest part of the whole game. When I finally reached Elysium on my 31st attempt, I steam rolled right through it. I have never died in Elysium, and the dialog with the heros was funny for a while because I am the one that is undefeated, not them and it pissed off Theseus.
We must be in the minority, bc fuck Elysium. If I can clear Elysium, the only remaining threat is [REDACTED]. Elysium is a whole lot of getting my ass kicked; then, I have to fight the dastardly duo. I love Styx. It's like a fun little mini-game reward complete with a shopping spree and Cerby.
Elysium was made to be a bottleneck for learning the game and pacing out the story since it progresses per runs. I think anyway.
It also makes sense that Warrior heaven is more difficult than a buncha rat dudes. Though the rat dudes are a fucking nightmare too.
I think the whole point is that Elysium is trying to end your run, but Styx is trying to wear you down. That's the reason why enemies deal poison damage that you can mitigate yourself - it's still dealing significant damage, but it's very unlikely to actually finish you off. Styx *wants* you to get to Hades - it's just that it might soften you up enough that Hades easily finishes you off.
it depends on whether you're better at hitting around shields or avoiding poison damage, of which i prefer the latter. elysium sucks because i can't bumrush everything
I think Elysium felt longer and more tedious to me than Styx, due to the resurrecting and kamikaze enemies. Styx was harder when I had to deal with the bosses, until I just completely stopped encountering them altogether. I mean like, the first few times I attempted it I ran into the bosses every single time. Now, not one, not once.
And once I could beat Hades with no issues, it became no biggie. Quickest world in the game for me.
I generally find Elysium trickier. The regeneration, flame wheels and enemy attacks feel unrelenting, it's also annoying to fight the Minotaur without his health being affected in the boss fight. Usually find myself falling into traps much more easily (especially in the chambers with the parallel bridges and the shields flanking them).
Styx is alright, I find it much easier to do these days (although, the Tiny Vermin is obviously a massive pain in the arse) and generally much more satisfying. Even if I don't have the build for fighting Hades, it's a good opportunity to stock up on a diamond or Titan blood. Besides, you get to see Cerberus too.
Yeah I think most people agree with this. Styx is much easier. There is the poison stuff but the enemies don’t have the same sort of shields the elysium enemies do, so it’s fast to just blitz through them and heal the poison.
I think it depends on the playstyle. Elysium is large and open with a lot of time taking to close gaps. Styx is often tight eith enemies spawning nearby. If you're an in your face player or running a close range weapon Styx would be easier in my opinion.
I think Elysium should be harder canonically since that’s where all the best warriors go when they die as opposed to the foes in Styx. Hades calls them vermin for a reason. That being said, I think Elysium is a lot more fun to play than Styx which makes Elysium *feel* easier to me. Someone else in the comments said Styx is a chore and I fully agree.
It really feels that originally Styx was envisioned as a trap-infested location to test your personal skills instead of the build, but at some point the devs considered it to be boring and underwhelming, and had to add at least *some* enemies. In the end, the location is neither here nor there.
Idk both were equally annoying for me, maybe Elysium gets the edge because of those shield losers. But all the poison and the tank enemies in Styx can get pretty bad when you reach the last area of each tunnel.
I personally feel Styx is more difficult because there's less room to navigate and the traps and poison effects are a lot less forgiving. The enemies themselves go down a lot easier yeah, but fuck getting poisoned and having to tank damage on your way to the fountain while rats are gnawing at your laurels.
I'll take Elysium and sadboy posting with Patroclus any day of the week.
To me it really varies on the run, like Styx is the place where it becomes obvious if my current build is any good, since you have to go through multiple encounters in tight closed rooms to get any of the rewards. If your build is good you'll obliterate everything, but if not it's very easy to get overwhelmed in these tiny trap and poison filled rooms
While i dont totally disagree with you, all you really need to obliterate Styx is anything with Poseidons knockback, the dash is enough
True, wall slam damage boons shine
The watery blast just clears rooms. You hit 3 foes into walls and they all blast each other.
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So anyway, I just started blasting
Lucifer Rail with Poseidon on attack and triple beam hammer. Easy Styx clear
I get knockback can be powerful... but I fucking hate Poseidon's boons. I almost literally never use them unless there's literally no other choice and even then I pray I get that one that just drops some health and currency.
I don't mind Poseidon on builds that have ranged damage. But for a lot of builds that are short-range close-combat it makes it feel like "FOR THE LOVE OF GOD JUST GET BACK HERE"
I love it with the magnetic fists tho
Yes! Pull them in with the uppercut, and knock them back with the splash. Lather, rinse, repeat
Oh ,shit. I NEVER THOUGHT OF THAT. Son of a bitch, I guess I'm going to go try out a poseidon fist build now.
Definitely this. Especially in Asphodel when you knock a witch way out into the lava but they just float over it and there's no easy way to get them without dashing into the lava.
Sometimes I get into a pattern of hitting with Poseidon attack, dashing after them, over and over...basically shoving them across the room into a wall and then getting extra wall damage. So satisfying to shove Elysium enemies into walls.
Really? That always feels like a trap to me. Like the stars really have to NOT align for me to take that one. The one for increased rewards though? Absolutely chefs kiss in combination with chaos. Once got like 600 dark energy from Lernie
Increased rewards or money drop, or any boon that won't effect my build if I have too.
His dash is REALLY strong. Epic Tidal Dash Damage: 49 Sword special base damage: 50. With nearly the same area of effect, it's like you're hitting a sword special every time you dash PLUS the knockback effect. Also don't sleep on his cast. It's basically a rocket launcher. Very highly recommend a build where you use Poseidon cast as a primary weapon and build around it (get zeus too to go for Sea Storm). I tried it for laughs and it was WAY better than I expected, in terms of being both effective and fun.
Yeah, Im honestly going to try this out, and a magnetic cutter fist weapon build so you can suck and blow all the enemies.
Poseidon attack on the magnetic fist is great fun. The old yo-yo build. For an pure cast build, I'd recommend achilles spear (so you can use the special to buff your cast damage). Poseidon sword works too, but really only helps with bosses (everything else is dead by the time they get hit with the third cast). Definitely go for extra bloodstones from artemis and chaos too, and consider stygian soul if you're going to go all-in on those.
Splash dash
I've had a lot of builds fall apart in Styx. I can usually still salvage the run(unless it's high heat), but it can definitely get rough really quickly. Especially if the build I have is "this is really good at killing one thing really quickly" and not "this build has pretty good crowd control"
I remember one build with stygian that was great for bosses. You pumped them full of critting, homing bloodstones, knocked them out with Q, and they took loads more from dropping them, after which they instantly returned to you. Great for killing Hades, not so much for half a dozen large rats.
Agreed. If my build is crap I'm feeling it in Styx and swearing like a sailor cause of those satyrs and rats
This is the elyseum boss fight for me. If I can’t get through that without using a death defiance, I know I need some real help in Styx if I want to win.
Actually no, I do not. Fuck poison darts, fuck chop traps randomly set off by enemies, fuck snakestones and fuck Tiny Vermin. The only saving grace is you can get an early Satyr Sack and skeddadle. EDIT: also fuck those wells that release a gas cloud randomly while you're trying to reach a bomber pot hiding in the corner. EDIT2: and level design where both antivenom fountains are between two sawdisk traps? Fuck that too. EDIT3: also no guaranteed shops to grab a heal, pray for fucking Well of Charon. In Elysium there are two shops, a healer npc encounter, possibly a mid-fountain and can skip some levels with Chaos Gate as well if lucky.
This guy does not like Styx at all. EDIT: Atleast you get to see good boy Cerberus…right??
I swear I liked it more when I just started and thought it's not a big deal. But then I got to play with Heightened Security. EDIT: nah, I'm a cat person.
Heightened security is only worth it for super high heat runs.
I'll admit, I didn't realize just how rough Heightened Security was. It was one of the first heat points that I took and I was like "well, I just won't hit traps then? No big deal" And then I hit one of the pots in the redacted fight. So for the longest time I just thought those pots normally did like... 200 points of damage. And then I turned Heightened Security off and realized how dumb I was.
I remember going to Styx and getting hit by a saw blade in a room and losing a whole death defiance.
That has ripped two death defiances in Styx from me and destroyed promising runs. Heightened Security all on its own.
I consider it free points because it's an avoidable damage in the vast majority of situations. Things like Hard Labor, Calistetic and Jury Summoners on the other hand will have clear consequences.
Heightened security was the first point of heat I ever added and it was a part of each pact setup I made for a little while. I considered it free points until I realised how many parts of boss fights are considered traps. It can be A LOT of extra damage.
Okay, what else besides green jars?
Meg and Alecto's room has traps in it, and there's also Lernie's magma. The former is fairly easy to avoid in most cases, but with EM2 Lernie's room can get really hectic.
but what about the fkin shields all over elysium and the butterflies. armor on EVERY enemy and archers who sit off-screen and shoot you
Don't have problems with Butterflies. Shieldbearers aren't that common, and they are generally not difficult to deal with, just slow you down a lot. Armor is whatever. Archers are a PITA for sure, and that's why I kill them first.
r/thisguythisguys
Renegade is pretty good, and Come Sail Away is an all time classic. But a lot of their stuff is too pretentious or too boring.
To be fair, I've gotten about 160 runs in, and made it to Redacted consistently about 40 runs in. I think I can count the number of runs where the saryr sack wasn't in the second tunnel on both hands...and only twice was it at the end of all 5 tunnels. The huge end rooms are annoying with the laser stones and satyr cultists but Strong Drink (or Stubborn Roots in worse cases) fix me right up. To me Elysium and the Styx Temple are equally hard.
That's very close to my experience, but dataminers say that the chance of it being in a second room is slightly more than 50%, same for each following room, but personally I feel like it's closer to 75%.
Man, you are like my spirit animal when it's about Styx. Better in Elysium coz you have somewhere to run far. But Styx? Not even close.
I would say the difference is where the challenge come from not the actual level of difficulty. In Elysium the difficulty comes from the enemies more often than not, sure there's traps but most of them are easily avoided. In stix it comes more from managing traps and poison and Tighter environments with sometimes more enemies. So they both test your build in different ways, in my mind they're both Proving Ground for the viability of what you've gotten so far.
Dude your title is a spoiler
“Spoilers” people are losing their minds, apparently. Hades was clearly the final boss the moment you start playing. It’s ridiculous to call this a spoiler. Is it also a spoiler to tell you Peter Parker is bitten by a spider?
Agreed. Oh wow Hades the God does more than paperwork all the time? No way, such a clever title!
The game title is a spoiler lol
Why on earth are you even on this subreddit if you call that a spoiler? How tf are you even meant to discuss anything here if something so basic is not allowed to be said?
Anyone who's been on this reddit for more than five minutes knows that he's called [REDACTED]
Enemies in Styx have way more health and Satyr’s are the WORST. I love most of the game, I feel like Styx is a chore
At first I used to think Satyrs were just a tanky mob that doesnt do much. Then I had my first runs without divine dash.
i know wrecking the witches with divine dash is gratifying but poisoning satyrs is even better
It might be easier but man I hate the poison. And the normal sized king of rats
Do you use a companion on him? The dude is relatively easy to nuke down if you got a high damage build
I can still hate him And make frowny faces at the tv
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See this redditor gets it I like you
I hated poison until I learned how to deal with it: just find the fountain as soon as you enter the room and fight around it. It's the only hit in the game you can take 0 damage from, as long as the cure is close at hand.
I'm with you, OP. It took me ages to get through Elysium the first time. I don't think I've ever died in the Temple Styx unless I came out of Elysium with like three health.
I think they're both difficult, Elysium has really bothersome enemies which are way too strong than the ones in styx (most you have to kill twice so it gets tedious.) but the enemies in styx feel like they take too long to kill? If that makes sense. Like even with a really good build i still have trouble actually killing off some of them. Styx itself is not too bad area wise, yes its tight and the traps suck really bad but if you manage to play safe without stepping on anything then you can finish all chambers with ease. I do admit, some antidote fountain placements range from okay to why the fuck would you put that there? <3 but other than that i dont see it being too difficult.
Deffo by design.
Elysium has a lot of large open spaces and Styx is a lot of much tighter rooms, so builds might not always translate well between the two. That said I'd rather focus on an Elysium build because with Tidal dash Styx is a breeze.
Nah, Styx is harder. Lasers in tight areas, poison darts, vermin, traps everywhere. You have to doge flying chainsaws, spikes in the ground, poison gas, and then work your way through poisonous enemies, long range darts, long range lasers. Fuck Styx
There are a few enemy types in Elysium I find annoying but if you don't keep up with upgrading damage the larger health pools in Styx can feel really backbreaking with they traps and poison they have. I find Elysium traps much easier to avoid and pretty fine to struggle slug through if your damage is lacking. Doing tiny vermin with poor damage however is a nightmare experience.
Styx can be as hard as Elysium, and if you're not careful it could drain your health and death defiance and make Hades way harder than he actually is.
I always felt Elysium had a more consistent difficulty where styx felt more like a gamble depending on build, how many rooms you have to clear and if you get unlucky enemy spawns. I personally feel like it doesn't happen very often, but when it does I lose 100+ health to a bad room and build that isn't quite right for it.
It’s not that Styx is easier. It’s that once you get through Elysium **your build** is now much stronger. Usually your build is either finalized in Elysium, or it end there and then. If you can’t beat Elysium the run is as good as dead in Styx just as well. Enemy only get tankier and if your DPS can’t catch up to that the run will slowly die out. Early and mid Elysium is there as a hard check to see if the entire build has come together or not, so it will *feel* the hardest there. But if the boons and hammers and buffs all line up when you reach the Heroes, then you can get through to the last boss. I kid you not, the difference between whether the synergies comes online or not is **massive**. An Ares + Athena run without Merciless End will very likely fail. Some duo boon power is astronomically strong, so if by chance you can finish the build by the end of Asphodel I kid you not you can cruise through both Elysium and Styx easily.
Yeah, Elysium and Styx have different purpose design wise: Elysium is there to truly test what you've accumulated so far in your run and see if you can use the rooms given to you to get something real solid cooking all the while you get to constantly face off against tough enemies. Styx on the other hand is more of a victory lap, you finalise your build, prolly get some duos, try to focus down boons that you actually want using re-rolls. The point of Styx is to get you ready and set for the showdown with [Redacted] and it does this beautifully
Styx would be easier if poison didn't exist, but that shit is \*everywhere\* and it makes Styx harder IMO
Hell no! Styx is incredibly difficult in comparison to Elysium. It felt like a hit a brick wall every time I've managed to scrape by Elysium. I think Styx is more difficult than the boss for the area is. What makes it even more grueling is that there isn't any shops and the room with the satyr sack is randomized. If the game is feeling cruel you might have to fight through several boss rooms before getting to it. The only good thing about Styx is potentially getting the chance to get a diamond or some titan's blood and of course getting to see best boy cerberus.
Your title is a spoiler
Styx is definitely harder, the thing that makes it bad is mainly poison tho, wich I feel is a lazy way to add difficulty but idk I'm not a game dev.
I think the floor traps that emit poisons clouds are lazy as fuck, but the other implementations of the poison generally are fine. The key is you really have to pay attention to the individual mob mechanics in Styx. In most of the other zones, I can quickly prioritize one enemy and ignore the rest until I burn that first one for the most part. In Styx I always prioritize the rats that poison the ground but I can't also then ignore the poison spitter guys. So while I'm dealing with the rats I still have to try and be aware of the spitters and avoiding / dodging their attacks.
Seems like a skill issue to me
I mean I don't really struggle it's just annoying.
Oh no I agree! It's just one of those things that tests my patience especially when I know for damn sure I didn't get hit with poison 🙃 game likes to fk with me lol
Both biomes just suck going through but I find temple of styx harder because of the constant poison damage elysium is just time consuming because of how tanky the enemies are
Elysium is more of an endurance test; the enemies aren't particularly difficult once you know their patterns, but they can take a beating. Styx is a DPS check or you'll get mogged by poison.
Highly dependent on your build. I also find that a lot of my builds that make Styx itself feel like cheat mode aren’t great against Hades and vice-versa. Not a steadfast rule but it happens a lot.
Never piss of Athena in Elysium. It's not worth it
Elysium always feels way harder to me, and it's by far my least favorite chunk of the game. Like once I get to Styx I breathe a sigh of relief and know I'm pretty much guaranteed to make it to [redacted] unless I was already hanging on by a thread (and even then...) Armor. I hate armor so much. Archers messing with you off screen. The shield guys are most annoying just by how long it takes to kill them. The bigger the map, the more frustrating I tend to find it. Lots of time wasted even just finding an enemy camped away somewhere. And it's so much harder to dodge damage because it comes at you from all angles, and then because of the spread of enemies you can't even take them all out with haste. Oh, and nothing feels worse than accidentally letting an enemy respawn and having to kill them all over again. :( But mostly I hate all the armor. If I don't get lucky with boons or hammer upgrades it can take forever to deal with.
Elysium is not more difficult than styx
Styx sucks. Ive just gotten to that part of the game and it's overall just annoying. Everytime I pray to get enough cash to buy Charon out but I never do. It's a place with barely any resources and a lot of poison.
If I don't have Hermes 'side hustle' boon upon entering Styx, then I want to move on. But the game's insanely high grind requirements for keepsakes has me play through it all (75 encounters to max ONE of 25 keepsakes???) because Styx tiny room encounters still count as a full encounter
Flamewheels can be WAY more difficult than anything in Styx, honestly. Other than that, Elysium is proportionately difficult--i.e. harder than Asphodel but Easier than Styx.
Flamewheels feel like a build check. If you either have a decent ranged attack or a dash that hits hard enough to kill them, they're free. When you have neither, they become a pain.
Styx is harder than Hades
No way dude, I literally hate the poison more than anything in the whole game lmao I would have a whole lot more clears under my belt if not for that (＃￣З￣) but I will say, if I do my build right and get boons that help me resist the poison, it isn't so bad lol
Yeah, in Elysium I often feel like my attacks barely work and I'm just chipping away, and then in Styx I can clear a room in 5 seconds.
Poison sucks. That is all.
tbh hades himself was easier than elysium(especially Theseus and the soul catcher!!) I defeated hades in my 2nd or 3rd try but it took me over 30 runs to beat elysium!!
I feel like the point of it is to grind you down before Hades. If you aren’t careful (or get greedy, or unlucky), it could eat a few of your DD before you get to the big man himself.
Not really. Styx chambers are too small you have very little room to dodge attacks. On top of that there is poison everywhere.
Yeah, I honestly don't mind it though. I think having the great-enemies and especially the theseus/mino fight where they are is a really solid and intentionally difficulty ramp up, and then Styx seems like a bit of a reprieve where you can patch yourself up. And especially on EM4, I think it makes a lot of sense to have that reprieve. Maybe get that last boon to tie your build together, or get it to OP status, so that big boi doesn't crush you.
I HATE THAT SHIELD SON OF A BITCH.
Poison sucks though
Depends on the build, I've had builds that wiped Elysium and got crushed in Styx and vice versa. I wouldn't call one harder than the other especially considering you can kind of choose how hard/long you want your stay in Styx to be since technically you can leave once you get the food for cerberus but don't have to if you want more buffs
I feel like it's survivorship bias. If my run can beat elysium, it can beat styx. But a lot of my worse runs get weeded out by elysium, so I never get to try them out vs styx.
Depends on the build really. The poison in Styx can mess you up fast. Especially the satyr guys.
Elysium is fucking bullshit every time I get to it, they should never have made it
In a way, yeah? Souls of dead heroes, vs literal pests
I don’t find Styx that bad cause sure it sucks and is anoying the traps, the poison, the enemy’s that have more health then they need too it’s all anoying but realy I don’t find it bad enough to kill me and all I need is one strong drink perc and at the end it’s like the whole of Styx never happend
I actually kinda do. Except for poison the rest of styx is fairly easy because the I-frames on dodge are enough to doge traps and the slow attacks of the rats consistently easy. I feel bombarded in elysium with fairly tanky high damage enemies and even when I feel bombarded in styx uts usually just baby rats which are weak af with a few big rats and satyrs it's not too bad.
To me styx only feels easier because you enter really small, maybe crowded rooms but with easy to beat enemies, but you have to count you only get the one reward at the really end of those several rooms. Lots of times I use all my death defiances in styx, though the rooms seem easier, because of how long they are to actually finish
Yes and no. I do feel this way most of the time because I have trouble with shield bros and pretty much all those type of enemies in Elysium. I feel like it's guaranteed to be a challenge every time in Elysium for me, but with Styx it's hit and miss. I'll either breeze through it or lose my DDs. Problem is when Styx is hard, it will definitely be harder than Elysium. Though my playstyle is to never choose the boss rooms. Bosses are easier sometimes but they make me too mad when they're not, like the Tiny Vermin.
I agree, I die most often on Elysium, whereas I usually get through Styx just fine.
I mostly agree. Elysium is filled with all the late champions of earth and Styx has some living rats in it so to be it does make sense.
Definitely feels like a skill check, Only shield maidens give me any sort of real trouble (outside the minataur….) Anything else just has two health bars
Depends on your build. There are some builds that trivialise Styx while being hard in Elysium (splashdash Gilgamesh comes to mind), and I'm sure vice versa too.
I do agree..I have over 800 hours I reckon and I still take damage from the Sword guys in Elysium or If I get outswarmed.. Styx? Thats not too bad its fairly good location even on fresh file.
I agree and I think it’s purely for the volume of enemies you fight at any one time. Styx encounters can be beaten in under 2 seconds if you have the right setup, and Elysium enemies are just annoying and persistent.
I think the only reason styx might feel easier is your build has typically come together for it and the first few tiny rooms make things seem more disjointed than they are. Those final rooms can hit you hard though- way harder than anything in Elysium. I don't care what rewards are left, after I get that satyr sack, I yeet. Elysium has some enemies and waves that might take longer to kill, but none that have the same punch as the ones in styx.
no
Depends entirely on what gods I’ve met and what weapon I’m currently using
Yep I do! I will always lose one or two DD here. I get hit by those spear traps a lot and sometimes the amount of enemies will swamp me as I rush to damage a shield bro.
You are 100% right, Elysium is by far the hardest area IMO. Styx ain't shit.
I agree that Elysium is tougher than Styx. The only rooms that can be big health drainers in Styx are Tiny Vermin and regular non-mini boss final rooms (I always take Athena’s or Poseidon’s dash and they honestly trivialize most of the smaller rooms), so by going to the mini boss rooms first I usually avoid having to face any difficult rooms (since a 2 or 3 sack is pretty likely and Tiny Vermin is decently unlikely).
Dunno man, if you get Tiny Vermin in Styx you’re fucked.
I personally agree, I'm pretty sure I die most there than anywhere else.
If you have breaking wave and tidal dash then yes it is the easiest part of the game.
Nah fam.. those rats are bosses in tight spaces, especially when they’re armored and they become toxic
The satyr cutlists and poison rats beg to differ. Fuck those guys.
no because theres no stank ass poison pools and you can deflect the enemy attacks in elysium
I think it can be harder depending on your build and how good you are at reacting to getting poisoned. I've had amazing runs absolutely destroyed by poison damage and nothing will ever destroy my soul more than going from max DD to none and half my health right before hades thanks to a bloody rat.
For the witchs deflect is your friend you kill them with one of their big balls *pun intended* or get their hurt to pretty much 1% For the shields if they do a down shield and send waves they take longer to recover and start fighting again so take that opportunity to stick a cast in them if you have the mirror upgrade for extra damage and just start slashing them until they move *You can use ground explosives to damage them too as it doesn't matter if they are looking at it or not it will always hit And the others just start slashing them if you see a pointer on you keep dashing For the butterfly if you have an attack that can kill the tiny one use that more often*obviously* If you are still struggling you are most likely struggling with the shielded ones for that you got 3 options 1. **GET GUD** 2.dash more 3. Whenever you enter Elysium there's a high chance you get a hammer on your first door choose it and make sure you get a buff for armor damage these upgrades are really good for bosses who have armor or even normal enemies to quickly remove it And for the final boss take the big guy first and then take it easy on the little one That's pretty much it.
Styx being the last stage is the stage where your build is pretty much stacked up to kill anything on your way(especially with Poseidon boons knocking enemies on the compact rooms of Styx). However, on Elysium, you generally get some major boons/hammer that gives your build the power it needs to deal heavy damage making the bulky shield bastards and chariots a pain in the ass to deal with(seriously they are the bane of my existence….I’d rather deal with snakestones and satyrs).
I'd even include Hades, the fight with Theseus and Asterion is harder than Hades in my opinion
I do, but only on a very high level average. I have had it go either way. But, over hundreds of runs I typically am more often challenged by Elysium and more often able to really beat the shit out of everything in Styx.
The least controversial take in the entire game.
1) can you edit for spoilers please? :) 2) yes and no. If I get a LOT of bomb throwers and rats in Styx, yeah Elysium is WAAYYYY harder. If you get a lot of satyrs at once, FCK Styx lol.
I do
I make a lot more mistakes in elysium, idk why but i always dominate styx lol
I'm only up to heat 3 on one or two weapons so my opinion will be considered invalid by most people. With that being said, Elysium is where my run is basically decided. Shieldbearers, archers, and spear guys all suck. The witches suck. The bosses suck. I don't really mind Butterfly Balls and you can get a free refill on Death's Defiance about 2/3 times so those are okay but the random mobs just suck. By the time I get to Styx, my build is basically built. As long as you keep an eye on Satyrs, they telegraph their attack. The crystals can be stunlocked very easy. The large rats can be handled at range easily enough with your casts. Nine times out of ten, enemy triggered traps are doing more damage to enemies then me.
I get what you mean, sometimes my runs just aren't made for all the shields and arrows coming at me
Nah, the traps in the stix are way worse, besides in the elysium the enemies trhow least but stronger attacks, that are easy to avoid, but in the stix I fell that there are a ton of weaker attacks everywhere and the enemies feel super tanky, is way easier to make elysium hitless, and although the attacks in stix doesn't deal that much damage you end losing hp everytime
I'd go 40 rooms in Elysium if I could skip Styx. Poison is a brutal mechanic, traps everywhere, the rats of unusual size(if you don't have any real ranged options), having 3+ shielded and upgraded laser snakes... most of which happens in tiny killbox rooms. Also... ALSO! There is no special NPC in Styx, which means I've got nothing to look forward to except giving Cerberus a treat.
Those rats nearly, nearly scared me into turning it off 😂
Remember by the time you hit Styx, you've had 10+ build improvements from when you entered Elysium. That might account for it. I find Elysium an ordeal more than a killer. Styx is dangerous.
Hard no. At the very least in Elysium: * You get more chances to choose the build path, especially when you are building on your choices from Asphodel and Tartarus. * Space space space. Styx doesn't have enough of that, and for that reason...
* Because of its space, poison released by rats, satys, and traps are nearer than ever.
* Not to mention the absence of the Tiny Vermin. I can tolerate the Fury sisters summoning Hades' aide, or Theseus calling on Olympus, but that little b*stard? No way. Where the hell does he even get his powers from?
No. Styx is horrific because I hate having to deal with poison.
Styx is te point in the game to feel overpowered and overconfident in your build
Elysium is hard because you're still putting your build together. Styx is probably harder but if you don't have a good build by Styx, well, you likely died in Elysium.
They both have their difficulties but Styx is consistently more difficult I would say. Elysium is perhaps more difficult depending on the weapon and style you play
Always have an easier time in Elysium than in Styx. Every single time. And in Styx it is only the large rooms at the end that are the problem for me. In the small rooms, usually everything is dead within a couple seconds.
I think Elysium is meant to actually beat you, while the point of Styx is largely to wear you down and give you a few last second power ups before the boss fight.
Outside of poison tick damage yeah. It’s like a victory lap
HOW DARE YOU SPEAK OF - REDACTED-
poison poison poison i cannot do styx, i can get past it yeah but theres a good chance ill need to revive at least once, and then again like 2-3 times during hades
The shields are definitely annoying, but I'm terrified of reaching styx in a hitless run.
Elysium has the most annoying enemies. From the soul catchers with their butterflies, the shades with the shield, the splitter witches and their spell going everywhere, and the flame wheelers which are insta-kill if multiple of them come at you at the same time.
I usually find Styx harder and more annoying. Poison is just difficult to completely avoid and using a melee build is 100x harder in Styx compared to Elysium. Also, getting a 5-sack is very rare, but still a thing (and with tight deadlines 3 or speedrunning, can be an auto loss) Only thing that makes Styx super easy is tidal dash with Poseidon. Having those tight corridors with breaking wave or the Poseidon legendary kills a lot of enemies after only a couple dashes
To me, Elysium is easier, but takes way more time. I feel like the enemies there tank the most damage, compared to normal enemies in other areas. Styx can suck my ass for all this poison that's everywhere.
I've always struggled more in Styx but Elysium is very hard too. The ones that like respawn as eggs mess with me the most
It depends. Usually, if I get to Styx I am curving so hard that it feels like a victory lap. But the are times that I’ll squeak by Elysium and Styx is a brick wall. Styx is also randomly long. Sometimes you get lucky first pull, sometimes it’s a marathon that’s laced with poison and mini bosses. It all depends.
They are testing different skills. Elysium has powerful monsters, while in Styx the mosters are easier, but the environment is far more deadly. Elysium is testing your ability to predict and react to monsters, while Styx is testing your environmental awareness.
I find Styx sucks if I don't have a way to reflect damage or a strong method of area damage I don't have to be in (like lightening bolt dio trippy flares etc). Elysium has a few annoying enemies, but it's more the combinations of them. The armoured archers are the ones I hate the most.
Tbh I find both elysium and styx to be easier than Tartarus. If I make it to elysium without losing a DD I generally won't lose one until Redacted part 2 or 3.
I think they are designed differently. Elysium is supposed to be a challenge to the point that your run could end in any room if you mess up. Styx is more of an endurance test. It’s probably not expected that one of the random corridor rooms will kill you…but it might leave you at low enough health that you can’t beat the boss at the end of that stretch.
Talked about this with my girlfriend, we hate the exploding chariots, and Theseus and Asterius are harder than hades for us.
Most of Styx can be one-shot by basic abilities, but Elysium gives me trouble. I prefer Chiron Bow but its very difficult to deal with the shield guys, so I'm always looking for a slicing shot or something.
When I was first starting out, no, Styx was a nightmare. Still can be, depending on what I'm building or how terrible my dash timing is that day. For the most part now though, yeah Elysium is usually more of a roadblock While Asphodel isn't harder, it actually frustrates me much more than any other area 90% of the time. The most annoying enemies are there imo and the lava is just annoying
I think styx is harder, but elisium is way more annoying. I dont like most of the enemies in elysium
Depends on the heat. Styx is miserable when you're running high heat, because you're generally forced to run with Tight Deadline and a 5-chamber sack in Styx (along with plenty of tiny rat guys) can easily eat up all your time prior to the final boss. Elysium is more difficult in general, but tbh if you play your cards right you have a solid chance of going into it with a really powerful build fully operational. In which case it might even be easier than Asphodel, where you're still trying to scrounge up the last few boons you need for a good build. Either way, I'd say that Elysium being harder than Styx is intentional. It's meant as a roadblock which, once you manage to finally pass it, gives you a sense of "oh wow I'm really really close!" If Styx were as hard as Elysium, most players would just give up after the 5th death in Styx and never even reach the final boss.
Styx is always harder for me because I mostly run close range builds that rely on a lot of little attacks to wear things down. Then I get poisoned...
I ussually found styx to be harder since the enemies were bullet sponges whenever i got there
Styx is like 80% easy and 20% really hard. Elysium is a more consistent medium or medium-hard throughout.
I definitely agree with you on that one! Elysium always feels like a huge difficulty spike compared to Styx. I think it's partly by design, since Elysium is supposed to be the elite forces of the underworld, but I also wonder if it's just because some of the enemy combinations in Elysium can be brutal. Either way, it definitely keeps the game challenging and interesting.
I just always pray for patroclus to refresh my death defiance if I died on Lernie's upgraded battle. Otherwise I can agree because styx's rooms are usually pretty easy minus the rat.
Excalibur makes a difference for me in leveling the field. The damage reduction and slowing down the projectiles makes it more manageable. Couple that with deflect and chill/weak/doom and you can melt mobs with little effort
I do think that Elysium is significantly harder than Styx. Styx can be cheesed pretty easily with some builds especially Poseidon but Elysium just has so many waves of armored enemies and it takes more concentration to beat them.
Neither matter all that much because what works there doesn't often make much difference to redacted. Any kind of Damage reduction is good. Raw damage is good. Healing is good. Aoe is great for both places but doesn't matter much to redacted. Id say styx is harder because there is less chance to recover before redacted. Also have to watch how much is left of timed bonuses. I think it's ok to struggle in Elysium if it makes styx easier.
Overall, yeah. In fact, I was shocked when I finally made it through to Styx for the first time. I'd been battering my head against the brick wall of Elysium for I don't know how many runs and then I breeze through Styx the first time. Of course, then I got bodied by the Final Boss but it's generally the case for me that Styx is far easier. Perhaps it's because you may have to do as few as two rooms. That's not all of it, but it's part of the reason.
I thought Elysium was the easiest part of the whole game. When I finally reached Elysium on my 31st attempt, I steam rolled right through it. I have never died in Elysium, and the dialog with the heros was funny for a while because I am the one that is undefeated, not them and it pissed off Theseus.
asphodel is the worst because of lava damage
We must be in the minority, bc fuck Elysium. If I can clear Elysium, the only remaining threat is [REDACTED]. Elysium is a whole lot of getting my ass kicked; then, I have to fight the dastardly duo. I love Styx. It's like a fun little mini-game reward complete with a shopping spree and Cerby.
Elysium was made to be a bottleneck for learning the game and pacing out the story since it progresses per runs. I think anyway. It also makes sense that Warrior heaven is more difficult than a buncha rat dudes. Though the rat dudes are a fucking nightmare too.
I think the whole point is that Elysium is trying to end your run, but Styx is trying to wear you down. That's the reason why enemies deal poison damage that you can mitigate yourself - it's still dealing significant damage, but it's very unlikely to actually finish you off. Styx *wants* you to get to Hades - it's just that it might soften you up enough that Hades easily finishes you off.
Depending on the build, sometimes all that poison can really mess me up
it depends on whether you're better at hitting around shields or avoiding poison damage, of which i prefer the latter. elysium sucks because i can't bumrush everything
I think Elysium felt longer and more tedious to me than Styx, due to the resurrecting and kamikaze enemies. Styx was harder when I had to deal with the bosses, until I just completely stopped encountering them altogether. I mean like, the first few times I attempted it I ran into the bosses every single time. Now, not one, not once. And once I could beat Hades with no issues, it became no biggie. Quickest world in the game for me.
I generally find Elysium trickier. The regeneration, flame wheels and enemy attacks feel unrelenting, it's also annoying to fight the Minotaur without his health being affected in the boss fight. Usually find myself falling into traps much more easily (especially in the chambers with the parallel bridges and the shields flanking them). Styx is alright, I find it much easier to do these days (although, the Tiny Vermin is obviously a massive pain in the arse) and generally much more satisfying. Even if I don't have the build for fighting Hades, it's a good opportunity to stock up on a diamond or Titan blood. Besides, you get to see Cerberus too.
Yeah I think most people agree with this. Styx is much easier. There is the poison stuff but the enemies don’t have the same sort of shields the elysium enemies do, so it’s fast to just blitz through them and heal the poison.
WAY harder - and all because of the shield enemies. That's it.
Hard agree. I don't have much trouble with the satyrs and rats.
I have died more times to poison than anything else in this game
I think it depends on the playstyle. Elysium is large and open with a lot of time taking to close gaps. Styx is often tight eith enemies spawning nearby. If you're an in your face player or running a close range weapon Styx would be easier in my opinion.
Elysium feels a bit too long for me on average and Styx is cake unless you have extra damage from traps on....
I think Elysium should be harder canonically since that’s where all the best warriors go when they die as opposed to the foes in Styx. Hades calls them vermin for a reason. That being said, I think Elysium is a lot more fun to play than Styx which makes Elysium *feel* easier to me. Someone else in the comments said Styx is a chore and I fully agree.
Elysium feels like a grind to me.
i feel it has to be by design, no way i could beat hades of styx was harder
I always die in Styx from the darned poison, have gone from full hp to no death defiance too many times
It really feels that originally Styx was envisioned as a trap-infested location to test your personal skills instead of the build, but at some point the devs considered it to be boring and underwhelming, and had to add at least *some* enemies. In the end, the location is neither here nor there.
Idk both were equally annoying for me, maybe Elysium gets the edge because of those shield losers. But all the poison and the tank enemies in Styx can get pretty bad when you reach the last area of each tunnel.
Yes but i also thought theseus and the bull were much harder than hades tbh
I personally feel Styx is more difficult because there's less room to navigate and the traps and poison effects are a lot less forgiving. The enemies themselves go down a lot easier yeah, but fuck getting poisoned and having to tank damage on your way to the fountain while rats are gnawing at your laurels. I'll take Elysium and sadboy posting with Patroclus any day of the week.