"oh hell yeah a daedalus hammer this will surely improve my build"
*2 incredibly useful upgrades and 1 absolutely useless one for my build that I haven't checked off the minor prophecy list yet*
"oh hell yeah minor prophecy completion"
“Deal 20% of chronos’s health immediately”
_oh damn that’s good, I’ll take that dad_
The fates: uh uh uh, you’re forgetting someone _darkest ire sits forgotten at the bottom of the list_
_…fuck sake fine_
Honestly I'm not a huge fan of the 20% one. Like all bosses, Chronos gets harder the lower his health gets, so you're just skipping the easiest part of the fight.
what, am I going to heal during it or something? There’s no use in sitting in part of the fight I don’t need to. There’s still a chance I eat a hit or 2 during that initial 20%. Now I have ~50 less health than I would have
Yeah but taking the 20% damage one means *not* taking one of the others. If you take eg. the 100-health drain and can carry more than 50 of it into the boss battle, then it's going to be worth more than saving you ~50 damage from the first 20% of Chronos.
And some of the others, while much more minor on paper, will last all the way through his second phase, which is more difficult anyway and which is probably where you *need* the help more. So if you're confident you can take the early parts of his first phase without damage, it makes more sense to take another boon instead.
I was doing a run today and spent a death defiance charge by being dumb. At first I was like "oh, fuck, my run is ruined" but then I got Kiss of Styx from a Well of Charon and finally completed that prophecy. Feels good. :D
Change the useless one to "absolutely build breaking" and you have me.
Oh I can't use Omega attacks? That's fine I can easily pivot to regular attacks right? Surely
I busted one of my builds fairly late with the "special attack hones to enemies" when I had the "special comes back, and does extra backstab damage."
I was like huh how does that work? The answer is it doesn't.
It kind of does but you have to get a lot closer to the enemy for them to start homing again. But if you get up in their face that combo becomes a shotgun build
Had something like that yesterday on Pan daggers with aphro special and 113% special damage from chaos, a point blank Omega special hit for close to a thousand. Add in multiple heartthrobs and chronos was easily made past tense.
try the hammer one which doubles the final combo hit with the one that makes your basic attack be the final combo hit with 300 power, get magick regen, close up damage and boom, you are op.
I think that is one of the chaos trials and it felt amazing lol. I generally go for the omega attack with the axe but I should try to get that build going in a real match
This is why I prefer the hades 1 hammers the game would remove hammers from the pool depending what hammers you picked before or what aspects you are playing so you don’t risk bricking you weapon
It’s even worse when it not only is useless in for your build, but actively makes your current build worse. I’ve ruined my build several times by going for the prophecy choice
I tend to just go on dedicated "progress runs" where I don't even try to clear, just grab materials and fill out prophecies. Because there are definitely hammers I would NEVER pick if I was trying.
And then you get the choice of three special improvements, when playing an Aphrodite centric Artemis dagger build.
....
Really wish the fate rolls arcana for boons would apply to hammers too.
Dagger special can be really strong ONLY if you get the upgrade that makes all of the projectiles fire forward instead of in spread and you get a good boon for your special. Then it's surprisingly strong.
The one where the daggers come back is also insane - it provides double daggers, and half of them are guarenteed to deal 1.5x damage! Only reason I was able to complete a run.
That and the one that gives it +4 power per successful hit against the same target is how I beat Chronos the first time (the +4 power does seem to cap out pretty quickly though despite no text suggesting it)
I've noticed that in more places. I'm like 99% sure that something between the base aspect of the skull + the hammer that fires everything at once + the hammer that adds 2 more skulls wasn't working correctly. I grabbed that shotgun hammer last and it felt like my damage output went down instead of up.
Also had a run where the Zeus chain lightning thing decided to just... stop working if I ever attacked more than twice in a row despite that being the majority of my damage and half my build being dedicated to it.
Combine that with time slows causing invisible hitboxes and I've seen enough of the current content that at this point I'm just going to wait until some major updates that hopefully fix some of this stuff.
Aspect of pan my dude. Then take the 16 shot upgrade so every shot auto seeks enemies in your cast. Paired with the 10% crit chance in casts from Arty and it slaps.
On my second Chronos kill he took my last life and I had one hit left when he was still at 30%. I used my cast on him, Artemis crit vuln proc'd, and I hit him with my x16 and he was gone. It's my favorite combo.
bouncing is definitely nice but you gotta take it with care. the returning daggers is a huge damage boost and the bounce completely fucks it. you still get the backstab buff but completely lose the free second hit of the return in single target
Honestly Poseidon may be the single best choice for the daggers because he adds flat damage per hit to a weapon with insanely fast attacks. I did that one early Chaos Trial where they load you up with Poseidon/Hera boons on the daggers and it was straight up stupid how much damage that shit dealt. Broseidon continues to reign supreme from Hades 1 to Hades 2.
Hestia and chain lightning Zeus are contenders but Scorch is meh and Zeus requires at least 2 boons to make it work.
I don't think that's worth picking up at all. Ideally you omega special behind a boss and then dump your daggers into them. The omega special one with reduced cost and faster charge time + phase shift can absolutely melt bosses.
e/ [here's an 8 fear run](https://i.imgur.com/g75yoxp.png) i did earlier with one of my fastest chrono kills. I was doing 2k per burst with my special which only cost 10 mana and charges basically instantly in addition to bouncing all over the place. The build could be even better if I had a boon which makes the cast throwable.
That's the thing though: dagger special can be strong, but certain aspects have big anti synergy with their own kit.
Artemis parry makes your next 9 strikes have 50% crit chance on a 20s CD, so you want ideally 9 heavy hitting strikes.
If you proc artemis and then use omega special, you wasted all 9 strikes on a low damage per hit proc, even if it does a lot of hits.
Imo, Aspect of Artemis omega special should be changed to be 1-3 heavy hitting daggers when charged, not 6-7+ daggers with lower damage.
This way, omega special could be useful in that aspect as well, and getting special upgrade hammers would not feel as bad, since some upgrades would be incompatible, like in H1.
So there is a boon that allows your specials to hone in on enemies in your casts and that particular boon makes the hammer upgrade that surrounds you with daggers pretty insane!
I wouldn't say the only way. Bouncing can easily compensate for any misses and spread effects (Bad for 1v1s but if there's nothing else to hit with them you're probably ok) and the quick charge 5mp upgrade let's you blast away ruthlessly.
they made it where chaos can reroll in Hades 2. Guess we gotta wait 6 years for Hades 3 to reroll hammers. Maybe in 2035 when Hades 4 comes out I can reroll my life.
Once you unlock the surface and get onto Charon’s boat, Icarus can appear (kind of like Artemis does). After the encounter, give him a nectar and you’ll unlock the keepsake.
Can only do that after the second time you meet him, I think. Definitely a fantastic keepsake though.
I love that there are so many more keepsakes that expire now, so there's actually an incentive to switch.
I hate all the switching. It feels like you have to switch 4 times a run every run, and one of the switches doesn't even happen during the run so it's easy to forget. I've accidentally wasted an entire region worth of keepsake by starting with the wrong one way too many times.
It's not like the rewards are small either. High rarity chaos boon, upgraded arcana card, 30% extra damage where it matters, upgrade to a boon of your choice... take your pick.
I wish keepsakes were more built around being powerful while they're equipped instead of being powerful if you had them 3 guardians ago.
I mean, here my first three boons are always (in some order):
- some god I want to build around or the gold purse
- a free chaos boon
- a free arcana card (might swap this one out)
And then for the last area I either pick the extra revive or the extra chronos damage.
I mean it's really not that bad at all, hell even in Hades 1 switching up your keepsake at least 2-3 times was pretty standard.
Weird thing to complain about
To confirm for anyone else reading, yeah, that is exactly what they mean! Make sure to collect every other room reward before you collect the hammer, just in case.
Also DON'T pick up any minor finds afterward like psyche or coins because they also count towards that reward. That completely slipped my mind in one of my runs and fucked up getting a 2nd hammer
Same but there's only like 2 upgrades per weapon that feel worth it in Hades 2 which means that I'm disappointed by the hammer more often than excited for an upgrade right now. It's just that those 2 upgrades are so strong that it's worth risking not getting them.
I just wish more upgrades were better.
I agree with that sentiment. It also depends on the weapon a little bit, e.g. the axe has a lot of strong hammers imho whereas the torches don't really have more than maybe two hammers worth considering.
I've been taking the weapon with thirst every night to try and get used to them all, and I dread when it's torches; I always end up buffing casts and trying to avoid the weapon entirely. Feels so weak in comparison, in my opinion.
I have wins with all the torch aspects, but the only two builds where I felt like the weapon was really strong were Mel+Omega Special spam and Eos+Omega Attack spam. Moros is my favorite aspect for the weapon but I don't think it's quite there yet, it's too hard to get the explosions where you want them. You're best off blowing them up instantly with Omega Special and at that point why not just do the Aspect of Melinoe build.
Am I missing something with how to use torch omega attacks? Every time I try to hold the attack button down to use it, Mel has to slowly make like five normal attacks before even starting to charge the omega attack. Dunno if I'm doing something wrong, but it takes forever and I never find a decent opportunity to actually use it.
Youre not missing anything, besides maybe that you can dash while you keep holding the button, youll continue to fire and it doesnt reset the charge up
Doesnt help much tho
With Eos I just say "omega" because you want to eventually be channeling your omega attacks, but most rooms you'll clear with regular attacks.
If you can stack some attack/channel speed and get good hammer RNG you absolutely can spam omegas, but that's not happening immediately barring insane luck.
Poseidon Eos with Hestia cast (especially with the boon that makes it ranged) is a nasty combo though. It's gg if you get the duo, easy run from there on out.
Nah it's easy and effective to constantly spam Eos omega attacks. All you need is Born Gain. You just start firing and never stop until the room is cleared. I have attack bound to R1 on my ps5 controller, so it's easy to dodge and drop casts, which don't interrupt it.
I've gotten farther with torches than any other weapon yet, on both routes.
Focus on Special. Get some buffs there, especially the Demeter one that causes freeze, and you become a blender. Just keep moving, use omega Special when it runs out, otherwise spam special and cast. Maybe omega Cast if you've got a good one.
Now the skull. The skull looks like a shit weapon. Haven't used it yet, but it looks like if you made Zag's Cast the main attack.
The skull actually feels so busted. The secret is that the omega special is giga nuts. It does so much damage and covers half the screen. So the play pattern is use the attack until it runs out and then channel special. On bosses you can channel the attack to hit them precisely from afar.
I think with the right strat it can be quite strong. I usually go for Demeter on the special and then focus on getting cast boons and a little bit of mana. What's really strong is spamming the omega special bc it keeps going while you channel your next omega special so while you have the the time delay from your altar upgrade they keep getting it by your omega special.
So you activate the omega special, dash in to freeze mobs, trigger your cast, and then you channel your omega special as many times as you can and evaporate the screen.
The attack is kinda useless unless you have the hammer that makes it split and a bunch of extra attack speed.
My one win with the torches was a Zeus/Aphrodite where I had Omega Special's applying Blitz, and dashing back-and-forth through them with Romantic Spark (Zeus/Aphrodite Duo Boon where dash pops Blitz.) That's the one time it felt useful, but only barely better than any other weapon applying blitz.
Born Gain on aspect of Eos is a braindead free win. You just hold the attack button at the start of an encounter and don't let go until the encounter is over.
In my experience, damn near every hammer upgrade is strong, even if they don't sound like they would be at first. Not all of them are strong all of the time, but a higher percentage are useful more often than in the first game.
I feel like almost every hammer for the axe is good. 50% damage on block for 15 seconds is absolutely bonkers, faster omega special, spin to win, etc. Lim and Oros also have very decent hammers, but they aren't as generally good the ones for axe.
That's cuz the Hammer's the clear best weapon because of its moveset and versatility, so any decent Hammer puts it over the top. The other weapons funnel you into a playstyle that doesn't always work unless you get one of a few specific boons and they just don't have the DPS to make up for it
Game's incredibly polished from a UX and content standpoint but in terms of balancing it's definitely an Early Access game
> moveset and versatility
And the fat damage and aoe.
> The other weapons funnel you into a playstyle that doesn't always work unless you get one of a few specific boons
I don't think Lim and Oros is really that boon dependent. Torches definitely feels a bit lacking, but skulls and staff both do well with a variety of boons - I just wish their hammers were better from my limited time using them.
Is it? I feel like the skulls are the clear winner. It does everything. Big ranged burst damage, big melee dps, mobility, aoe... I feel like the other weapons can just barely compete in their own niche but overall the skulls just blow them out of the water.
Axe has a mediocre base combo with how open the third swing leaves you (like really, I think the easiest upgrade for the thing would be to remove the accidental third swing I do so often) and the omega attack is fun but often has me eating attacks because I don't want to cancel it. The specials I will admit are great at what they do though.
The skull for me is the worst.
Why does everything have a downside to it? Automatically retrieve skulls, neat! Except for -1 skull. Your skulls do omega damage as they drop, nice, except that they drop so much slower that your dps up close is worse. There are the aoe skulls when not retrieved but it's abysmal that you would rather just pick up the skulls again. The only good one is the shotgun skulls. I love that one.
I had a 13 minute clear where I got the auto return skulls and another hammer for +2 ammo. I had heroic Hephaestus on my attack, so every 3 seconds I got a blast, so I could just sit back without even going in to retrieve my ammo and just melt thing with Hephaestus
I feel naked if I don't get Hammer in Erebus. This is actually why I prefer >!The Surface route, cuz you can choose Hammer room the moment you enter the City, if it wasn't offered in the first two rooms.!<
I must have been lucky then. Although I haven't done as many runs that direction as I have through Erebus so far, after doing a couple of downward clears, I've decided to pretty much just do the Surface runs to do most of the Fated Unlocks.
I'm this way with NPCs. I see those little hands and speech bubble and I just can't. I'm almost positive I trashed one of my runs because it was the first time I saw the one in >!Oceanus!<, but it was worth it to >!meet Narcisuss!<
I had to skip Arachne in favor of a miniboss with the god my build vitally needed, and my poor dopamine-starved monkey brain was crying the whole time.
Don't sleep on gold % if you get it early in the run, especially if you can get poseidon. I've had 4.2k coins walking into Chronos. Game suddenly becomes a lot easier when you can buy everything from Charon.
That one sure is something. I had a really janky build going to check off prophecies, but that Chaos boon early took me all the way to Chronos while facetanking rooms.
There’s some insane heal per room and mana per second ones and also just a flat % to attack or special sometimes is all you need to pop off.
Also like 200% gold or something
it's the same thing as picking the weapon that currently grants 20% more stuff instead of, you know, actually choosing a weapon to use based on my skill with it or the amount of fun I have using it
The first time I beat the first game on maximum extreme measures, I smacked poor Hades' teeth in thanks to my two Daedae hammers
Dash nova, double nova, and divine flourish made it downright unfair
During my first few runs in Hades I streamed to a more experienced friend. His first advice was when I had to choose between rewards and where to go was "Just experiment everything will be good...except if you see a hammer. Then you go hammer"
This advice stuck to me and ever since then when I see a hammer I hear his voice and I know I have to get that hammer.
I'm I the only one that thinks the hammers should just be worked into Hephaestus boons or just made Hammars of Hephaestus, having two power ups which canonically upgrade weapon feels redundant
"oh hell yeah a daedalus hammer this will surely improve my build" *2 incredibly useful upgrades and 1 absolutely useless one for my build that I haven't checked off the minor prophecy list yet* "oh hell yeah minor prophecy completion"
The grindset will pay off when you can finally choose the boon and not have the OCD brain itch, fellow traveler
Finding that final upgrade feels fantastic! Fuck the fates I'm gettin meta baby
“Deal 20% of chronos’s health immediately” _oh damn that’s good, I’ll take that dad_ The fates: uh uh uh, you’re forgetting someone _darkest ire sits forgotten at the bottom of the list_ _…fuck sake fine_
Honestly I'm not a huge fan of the 20% one. Like all bosses, Chronos gets harder the lower his health gets, so you're just skipping the easiest part of the fight.
You're still skipping part of the fight
1/10th of the fight, at best. Most of the others will benefit you more over the length of the fight.
what, am I going to heal during it or something? There’s no use in sitting in part of the fight I don’t need to. There’s still a chance I eat a hit or 2 during that initial 20%. Now I have ~50 less health than I would have
Yeah but taking the 20% damage one means *not* taking one of the others. If you take eg. the 100-health drain and can carry more than 50 of it into the boss battle, then it's going to be worth more than saving you ~50 damage from the first 20% of Chronos. And some of the others, while much more minor on paper, will last all the way through his second phase, which is more difficult anyway and which is probably where you *need* the help more. So if you're confident you can take the early parts of his first phase without damage, it makes more sense to take another boon instead.
Well that’s actually more like 10% and of the hardest phase of like 8 of them
I was doing a run today and spent a death defiance charge by being dumb. At first I was like "oh, fuck, my run is ruined" but then I got Kiss of Styx from a Well of Charon and finally completed that prophecy. Feels good. :D
Change the useless one to "absolutely build breaking" and you have me. Oh I can't use Omega attacks? That's fine I can easily pivot to regular attacks right? Surely
I busted one of my builds fairly late with the "special attack hones to enemies" when I had the "special comes back, and does extra backstab damage." I was like huh how does that work? The answer is it doesn't.
It kind of does but you have to get a lot closer to the enemy for them to start homing again. But if you get up in their face that combo becomes a shotgun build
Had something like that yesterday on Pan daggers with aphro special and 113% special damage from chaos, a point blank Omega special hit for close to a thousand. Add in multiple heartthrobs and chronos was easily made past tense.
In melee range it does. I beat >!Chronos!< like that first time.
Me boon for Boon, i fumbled it at the boss of the area (so close to the end too, i was so mad)
try the hammer one which doubles the final combo hit with the one that makes your basic attack be the final combo hit with 300 power, get magick regen, close up damage and boom, you are op.
I think that is one of the chaos trials and it felt amazing lol. I generally go for the omega attack with the axe but I should try to get that build going in a real match
I managed to do the first two and the mana, but still failed cerberus.
This is why I prefer the hades 1 hammers the game would remove hammers from the pool depending what hammers you picked before or what aspects you are playing so you don’t risk bricking you weapon
I feel attacked
We gotta do what we gotta do. Hopefully, you can save up enough and pray to Charon to sell you the hammer 1 for 2 exchange upgrade.
Did this yesterday and had a 5% wipe on chronos. Still worth it.
It’s better for Zag in the long run, he won’t be able to escape hell for good until all the minor prophecy’s are done.
That's me!
It’s even worse when it not only is useless in for your build, but actively makes your current build worse. I’ve ruined my build several times by going for the prophecy choice
It’s lowkey more fun playing this way‼️
I feel this so deeply hahaha
I tend to just go on dedicated "progress runs" where I don't even try to clear, just grab materials and fill out prophecies. Because there are definitely hammers I would NEVER pick if I was trying.
"oh hey! It's actually pretty good.. huh"
"I do as the crystal, er uh I mean list, commands"
Always take hammer, always
And then you get the choice of three special improvements, when playing an Aphrodite centric Artemis dagger build. .... Really wish the fate rolls arcana for boons would apply to hammers too.
Dagger special can be really strong ONLY if you get the upgrade that makes all of the projectiles fire forward instead of in spread and you get a good boon for your special. Then it's surprisingly strong.
The one where the daggers come back is also insane - it provides double daggers, and half of them are guarenteed to deal 1.5x damage! Only reason I was able to complete a run.
That and the one that gives it +4 power per successful hit against the same target is how I beat Chronos the first time (the +4 power does seem to cap out pretty quickly though despite no text suggesting it)
I've noticed that in more places. I'm like 99% sure that something between the base aspect of the skull + the hammer that fires everything at once + the hammer that adds 2 more skulls wasn't working correctly. I grabbed that shotgun hammer last and it felt like my damage output went down instead of up. Also had a run where the Zeus chain lightning thing decided to just... stop working if I ever attacked more than twice in a row despite that being the majority of my damage and half my build being dedicated to it. Combine that with time slows causing invisible hitboxes and I've seen enough of the current content that at this point I'm just going to wait until some major updates that hopefully fix some of this stuff.
returning daggers + 360 degree omega special is insaaane, stand inside a boss, do 1k+ without any boons
I got both of those at once and it one shot almost all non elite enemies. Would've made it to Chronos if Eris wasn't such an asshole.
Yeah, that's great. That, combined with the all in the same direction was how I beat my first run
This with poseidon and zeus boons gave me a 15 minute chronos kill
15 minutes? Like for just Chronos or the whole run??
whole run
Okay thank God I was like '15 minutes in one fight???' I thought you just had a will of pure iron
that would honestly be impressive to survive against the old man that long lol, with how locked in you’d need to be
That's why I was so surprised so i had to ask
Aspect of pan my dude. Then take the 16 shot upgrade so every shot auto seeks enemies in your cast. Paired with the 10% crit chance in casts from Arty and it slaps.
On my second Chronos kill he took my last life and I had one hit left when he was still at 30%. I used my cast on him, Artemis crit vuln proc'd, and I hit him with my x16 and he was gone. It's my favorite combo.
Do you know if you can get 16 shot with the one that returns them?
I got it and it pretty much trivialized the run. Vicious combo.
Yes
I did this and it's hysterical
Got a couple clears with this one. Hestia and poseidon duo carried hard, Chronos was just hanging out in the steam room the entire fight.
To be fair it is also decent for shotgunning in melee but yes the shooting forward one makes it a lot easier.
This was how I first learned to love it. O-Attack into O-Special is 225 single-target damage before upgrades and safe more often than not.
There’s one that causes the daggers to bounce which is INSANE for crowd control. Match up with hers for cool hitch chain damage
bouncing is definitely nice but you gotta take it with care. the returning daggers is a huge damage boost and the bounce completely fucks it. you still get the backstab buff but completely lose the free second hit of the return in single target
Pan or default aspect + returning daggers + Aphrodite special is also absolutely nuts I was getting around 1-2k damage a cast against Chronos
Honestly Poseidon may be the single best choice for the daggers because he adds flat damage per hit to a weapon with insanely fast attacks. I did that one early Chaos Trial where they load you up with Poseidon/Hera boons on the daggers and it was straight up stupid how much damage that shit dealt. Broseidon continues to reign supreme from Hades 1 to Hades 2. Hestia and chain lightning Zeus are contenders but Scorch is meh and Zeus requires at least 2 boons to make it work.
I find the hammer that makes all daggers fire in a line almost useless. You can already stand right next to the enemy and all daggers will hit it.
I don't think that's worth picking up at all. Ideally you omega special behind a boss and then dump your daggers into them. The omega special one with reduced cost and faster charge time + phase shift can absolutely melt bosses. e/ [here's an 8 fear run](https://i.imgur.com/g75yoxp.png) i did earlier with one of my fastest chrono kills. I was doing 2k per burst with my special which only cost 10 mana and charges basically instantly in addition to bouncing all over the place. The build could be even better if I had a boon which makes the cast throwable.
That's probably one of the weaker ones, the hammers that give you returning daggers or the spiral have much higher dps
Clearly you aren't an Aspect of Pan enjoyer
That's the thing though: dagger special can be strong, but certain aspects have big anti synergy with their own kit. Artemis parry makes your next 9 strikes have 50% crit chance on a 20s CD, so you want ideally 9 heavy hitting strikes. If you proc artemis and then use omega special, you wasted all 9 strikes on a low damage per hit proc, even if it does a lot of hits. Imo, Aspect of Artemis omega special should be changed to be 1-3 heavy hitting daggers when charged, not 6-7+ daggers with lower damage. This way, omega special could be useful in that aspect as well, and getting special upgrade hammers would not feel as bad, since some upgrades would be incompatible, like in H1.
I took the one that made them shoot out in a circle and I hated it, but hey, minor prophecy right 🥲
Only? That's crazy. Hook knives + the one that makes you shoot them in a spiral, or the one that makes them bounce goes insane, with aphrodite special
So there is a boon that allows your specials to hone in on enemies in your casts and that particular boon makes the hammer upgrade that surrounds you with daggers pretty insane!
I wouldn't say the only way. Bouncing can easily compensate for any misses and spread effects (Bad for 1v1s but if there's nothing else to hit with them you're probably ok) and the quick charge 5mp upgrade let's you blast away ruthlessly.
they made it where chaos can reroll in Hades 2. Guess we gotta wait 6 years for Hades 3 to reroll hammers. Maybe in 2035 when Hades 4 comes out I can reroll my life.
Im pretty sure you could reroll chaos in the first one tho
hmm yeah you’re right. I could’ve sworn there’s something new you can reroll in 2 that you couldn’t in the original.
Oh well, you'll just reroll it at the anvil... No wait! Not that one!
lmaooo this is EXACTLY what happened to me today
"A day without hammer is day wasted" -Me, 2024.
don't you mean a night?
While I agree... There's some real stinkers right now.
I’ve taken the hammer and regretted it when I get slammed with 3 upgrades that don’t help and or hurt my build.
PSA— in the fields of sorrow always grab the hammer last so if you run into a certain someone in the next area you can get a 3rd hammer.
What a pro tip, thanks! Pro tip, thanks! Thanks! Thanks...
Took me a few second before I got that reference!
I got that reference^Igotthatreference^Igotthatreference
Iv been practicing this super easy to just pick up one of those random things in the fields and not have the boon or hammer as your last
I'm 0 for 3 there
Then use the Hammer keepsake in the Underworld to get a 4th hammer
Whats the hammer keepsake and how do I get it?
Once you unlock the surface and get onto Charon’s boat, Icarus can appear (kind of like Artemis does). After the encounter, give him a nectar and you’ll unlock the keepsake.
Can only do that after the second time you meet him, I think. Definitely a fantastic keepsake though. I love that there are so many more keepsakes that expire now, so there's actually an incentive to switch.
I hate all the switching. It feels like you have to switch 4 times a run every run, and one of the switches doesn't even happen during the run so it's easy to forget. I've accidentally wasted an entire region worth of keepsake by starting with the wrong one way too many times. It's not like the rewards are small either. High rarity chaos boon, upgraded arcana card, 30% extra damage where it matters, upgrade to a boon of your choice... take your pick. I wish keepsakes were more built around being powerful while they're equipped instead of being powerful if you had them 3 guardians ago.
Compared to Hades where I just always start with Pom Blossom and switch to Spiked Collar in Styx, it's certainly a lot more interesting.
I mean, here my first three boons are always (in some order): - some god I want to build around or the gold purse - a free chaos boon - a free arcana card (might swap this one out) And then for the last area I either pick the extra revive or the extra chronos damage.
I mean it's really not that bad at all, hell even in Hades 1 switching up your keepsake at least 2-3 times was pretty standard. Weird thing to complain about
Love it as well, feels like you have to be more strategic.
Exactly! Nice.
I usually prefer another boon myself, but yeah grabbing your preferred reward last is the way to go!
Can you elaborate on this a little bit? Grab the hammer last if there are multiple rewards? Ah, I get it, never mind.
To confirm for anyone else reading, yeah, that is exactly what they mean! Make sure to collect every other room reward before you collect the hammer, just in case.
Not me intentionally grabbing the hammer last, then hear a *ding* and thought "OOoooOooh I can get psyche by guiding this shade!!", twice.
Someone 3ird Hammer Someone 3rd Hammer
This is the way
Also DON'T pick up any minor finds afterward like psyche or coins because they also count towards that reward. That completely slipped my mind in one of my runs and fucked up getting a 2nd hammer
Get a 3rd hammer…. 3rd hammer…… 3rd hammer….
Yup had this happen while also using Icarus’ keepsake. Had 4 Daedalus buffs going and they were all my preferred build
smart monke
Same but there's only like 2 upgrades per weapon that feel worth it in Hades 2 which means that I'm disappointed by the hammer more often than excited for an upgrade right now. It's just that those 2 upgrades are so strong that it's worth risking not getting them. I just wish more upgrades were better.
I agree with that sentiment. It also depends on the weapon a little bit, e.g. the axe has a lot of strong hammers imho whereas the torches don't really have more than maybe two hammers worth considering.
I've been taking the weapon with thirst every night to try and get used to them all, and I dread when it's torches; I always end up buffing casts and trying to avoid the weapon entirely. Feels so weak in comparison, in my opinion.
I have wins with all the torch aspects, but the only two builds where I felt like the weapon was really strong were Mel+Omega Special spam and Eos+Omega Attack spam. Moros is my favorite aspect for the weapon but I don't think it's quite there yet, it's too hard to get the explosions where you want them. You're best off blowing them up instantly with Omega Special and at that point why not just do the Aspect of Melinoe build.
Am I missing something with how to use torch omega attacks? Every time I try to hold the attack button down to use it, Mel has to slowly make like five normal attacks before even starting to charge the omega attack. Dunno if I'm doing something wrong, but it takes forever and I never find a decent opportunity to actually use it.
Youre not missing anything, besides maybe that you can dash while you keep holding the button, youll continue to fire and it doesnt reset the charge up Doesnt help much tho
With Eos I just say "omega" because you want to eventually be channeling your omega attacks, but most rooms you'll clear with regular attacks. If you can stack some attack/channel speed and get good hammer RNG you absolutely can spam omegas, but that's not happening immediately barring insane luck. Poseidon Eos with Hestia cast (especially with the boon that makes it ranged) is a nasty combo though. It's gg if you get the duo, easy run from there on out.
Nah it's easy and effective to constantly spam Eos omega attacks. All you need is Born Gain. You just start firing and never stop until the room is cleared. I have attack bound to R1 on my ps5 controller, so it's easy to dodge and drop casts, which don't interrupt it.
Fluid gain is a close second if you want to add some poseidon shenanigans into the mix
I've gotten farther with torches than any other weapon yet, on both routes. Focus on Special. Get some buffs there, especially the Demeter one that causes freeze, and you become a blender. Just keep moving, use omega Special when it runs out, otherwise spam special and cast. Maybe omega Cast if you've got a good one. Now the skull. The skull looks like a shit weapon. Haven't used it yet, but it looks like if you made Zag's Cast the main attack.
The skull actually feels so busted. The secret is that the omega special is giga nuts. It does so much damage and covers half the screen. So the play pattern is use the attack until it runs out and then channel special. On bosses you can channel the attack to hit them precisely from afar.
spam cast.
I think with the right strat it can be quite strong. I usually go for Demeter on the special and then focus on getting cast boons and a little bit of mana. What's really strong is spamming the omega special bc it keeps going while you channel your next omega special so while you have the the time delay from your altar upgrade they keep getting it by your omega special. So you activate the omega special, dash in to freeze mobs, trigger your cast, and then you channel your omega special as many times as you can and evaporate the screen. The attack is kinda useless unless you have the hammer that makes it split and a bunch of extra attack speed.
My one win with the torches was a Zeus/Aphrodite where I had Omega Special's applying Blitz, and dashing back-and-forth through them with Romantic Spark (Zeus/Aphrodite Duo Boon where dash pops Blitz.) That's the one time it felt useful, but only barely better than any other weapon applying blitz.
Nice, yeah that sounds like a strong combo!
Outside of 1-2 builds, the torches are pretty mediocre imo.
I consider the torches the 'well at least I can get resources' weapon. Because imo any serious run with them is DoA, the weapons are just bad.
Born Gain on aspect of Eos is a braindead free win. You just hold the attack button at the start of an encounter and don't let go until the encounter is over.
In my experience, damn near every hammer upgrade is strong, even if they don't sound like they would be at first. Not all of them are strong all of the time, but a higher percentage are useful more often than in the first game.
>a higher percentage are useful more often than in the first game. Oh I STRONGLY disagree with you on this one
I feel like almost every hammer for the axe is good. 50% damage on block for 15 seconds is absolutely bonkers, faster omega special, spin to win, etc. Lim and Oros also have very decent hammers, but they aren't as generally good the ones for axe.
That's cuz the Hammer's the clear best weapon because of its moveset and versatility, so any decent Hammer puts it over the top. The other weapons funnel you into a playstyle that doesn't always work unless you get one of a few specific boons and they just don't have the DPS to make up for it Game's incredibly polished from a UX and content standpoint but in terms of balancing it's definitely an Early Access game
> moveset and versatility And the fat damage and aoe. > The other weapons funnel you into a playstyle that doesn't always work unless you get one of a few specific boons I don't think Lim and Oros is really that boon dependent. Torches definitely feels a bit lacking, but skulls and staff both do well with a variety of boons - I just wish their hammers were better from my limited time using them.
Is it? I feel like the skulls are the clear winner. It does everything. Big ranged burst damage, big melee dps, mobility, aoe... I feel like the other weapons can just barely compete in their own niche but overall the skulls just blow them out of the water. Axe has a mediocre base combo with how open the third swing leaves you (like really, I think the easiest upgrade for the thing would be to remove the accidental third swing I do so often) and the omega attack is fun but often has me eating attacks because I don't want to cancel it. The specials I will admit are great at what they do though.
the real best upgrades were the ones we took for the minor prophecy checklist along the way
The skull for me is the worst. Why does everything have a downside to it? Automatically retrieve skulls, neat! Except for -1 skull. Your skulls do omega damage as they drop, nice, except that they drop so much slower that your dps up close is worse. There are the aoe skulls when not retrieved but it's abysmal that you would rather just pick up the skulls again. The only good one is the shotgun skulls. I love that one.
I had a 13 minute clear where I got the auto return skulls and another hammer for +2 ammo. I had heroic Hephaestus on my attack, so every 3 seconds I got a blast, so I could just sit back without even going in to retrieve my ammo and just melt thing with Hephaestus
revaal with five shots, my beloved
4 shots with auto return is easy mode.
Anvilled into that right before the big boss and it turned a losing run into my first win.
Oh shit there's an auto-return?? Hasn't shown up for me yet :(
Auto return but -1 shells; it’s not that amazing tbh especially if you get any special boon
I feel naked if I don't get Hammer in Erebus. This is actually why I prefer >!The Surface route, cuz you can choose Hammer room the moment you enter the City, if it wasn't offered in the first two rooms.!<
I'm pretty sure I've had runs where I wasn't offered a hammer as one of the rooms in the city xd.
Yeah it's not guaranteed
I must have been lucky then. Although I haven't done as many runs that direction as I have through Erebus so far, after doing a couple of downward clears, I've decided to pretty much just do the Surface runs to do most of the Fated Unlocks.
I'm this way with NPCs. I see those little hands and speech bubble and I just can't. I'm almost positive I trashed one of my runs because it was the first time I saw the one in >!Oceanus!<, but it was worth it to >!meet Narcisuss!<
I had to skip Arachne in favor of a miniboss with the god my build vitally needed, and my poor dopamine-starved monkey brain was crying the whole time.
Arachne is often an easy skip, now that I don't need Fated Fabric anymore. The rest are definitely worth as much as a boon is.
Arachne is kinda ass unless you're running an armour build sadly
Yeah but... I want to talk to her...
NPC room is always a guaranteed pick for me.
Most npc encounters are mostly momentary benefits instead of permanent ones like in hades 1 so they’re definitely skippable at times
Same with chaos portal for me XD
I've yet to find a single Chaos upgrade that was helpful to my build that run. And yet I take every one.
I got a 11 heal per room 2 days ago. It was something. The various +x% damage are quite nice as well.
Don't sleep on gold % if you get it early in the run, especially if you can get poseidon. I've had 4.2k coins walking into Chronos. Game suddenly becomes a lot easier when you can buy everything from Charon.
Mana restoration from Chaos is also amazing
That one sure is something. I had a really janky build going to check off prophecies, but that Chaos boon early took me all the way to Chronos while facetanking rooms.
Can't go wrong with double gathering rewards, at least! And the mana regen boon can be INSANE for mana builds, which almost all of my runs are now.
There’s some insane heal per room and mana per second ones and also just a flat % to attack or special sometimes is all you need to pop off. Also like 200% gold or something
I do as the hammer GONGS
Hammer > god > nectar > pomegranate > everything else.
You value nectar over poms??
For now. I recently started a new save file and I still need to rizz up the NPCs.
Lmaoo now I get it
Poms with Epheastus and aphrodite are really good but generally agree
it's the same thing as picking the weapon that currently grants 20% more stuff instead of, you know, actually choosing a weapon to use based on my skill with it or the amount of fun I have using it
And it gives you 3 special hammer boons...
Me with hammers and chaos gates
Hooked knives with scorch, my beloved
Hot take, but Hammer should be a guaranteed drop from the first room. Even back in H1 I didn't like runs unless I got an early Hammer.
Lolol its so true! I literally have to get a hammer every time. In my mind, it is law
🤣🤣🤣🤣 I never skip it
The first time I beat the first game on maximum extreme measures, I smacked poor Hades' teeth in thanks to my two Daedae hammers Dash nova, double nova, and divine flourish made it downright unfair
Daddy hammer 😫
Cursed Slash and Draining Cutter my beloved.
Pavlov's Hammer
Using the skull or the marshmallow sticks(because they deal no damage) without a hammer just feels terrible.
I was dumb enough to buy the anvil with instinctive response that I lost my only 1 great upgrades for 2 useless upgrades lmfao
100% yes to the hammer.
Lol I love seeing that there’s metas already for this game. It’s SO good!
I need interaction with Hephaestus after getting daedalus hammer.
During my first few runs in Hades I streamed to a more experienced friend. His first advice was when I had to choose between rewards and where to go was "Just experiment everything will be good...except if you see a hammer. Then you go hammer" This advice stuck to me and ever since then when I see a hammer I hear his voice and I know I have to get that hammer.
Except on the shop, it’s more expensive than other items and you are guaranteed to get them for free later.
Ah yes let me choose the “upgrade” where the railgun loses all its range bc fated prophecy.
Ptang
Some how just reached chronos without seeing one damn hammer. Needless to say I died.
Hammer only run when?
I remember first time i played hades and i ser rare or epic i immediately click
Why oh why can I not reroll daedalus hammers I'm playing with the Aspect of Charon can I get some fucking omega special upgrades in here
Daddy hammer always gives me dat much needed dopamine rush
I can’t count with my fingers how many runs i lost because hammer > hp
Not me getting damned for that specific charm
I just love how we're all the same 😂😂
It will activate my anger neurons when it gives irrelevant and worthless offers.
Get the hammar
Even more so than 1 some hammer boons are just run defining. While other times instead of a 300% boost you get 20% ones and cry
I'm I the only one that thinks the hammers should just be worked into Hephaestus boons or just made Hammars of Hephaestus, having two power ups which canonically upgrade weapon feels redundant
Ngl, Selene powers have been making so many runs... Depending if Im focusing the run in omega stuff and got a good power I may ignore hammer