Tag: Hades

Although I rarely go back to games I’ve completed, I do make an exception for Hades. My main goal I had still left was to give the “Arthur” sword a try.

What almost nobody explains is that in order to unlock the secret aspects, you need to invest 6 Titan Blood into the second or the third aspect of the weapon, not the first one. I wasted plenty of Titan Blood and runs until I learned that. So, I’ve got the Arthur sword, even finished a run with it. Guess it’s finally time to lay Hades to rest, then

Completed Hades.
I didn’t think I’d manage to beat it once. Now, what do I say when I escaped 10 times?

Had a good run with the Sword, using a hammer that halves your HP, but leeches life. Until I got to Hades. He just deals too much damage for that.
Then I escaped with “magnetic fists” without dying even once, I think mostly thanks to Athena’s Legendary boon.
This game really grew on me, I must admit. Although I usually dislike permadeath games, to the point I rarely touch them. But I like the art, despite it’s supposed to be very “woke”, I like the story and the very British writing. And after 50 attempts, I stopped minding dying that much 😅
The only bit that annoys me is that even after 50 attempts and 10 escapes, I opened just a single hidden aspect. That’s grindy as hell, I’d say.

6th escape. It’s time to agree that you don’t need the perfect combination of boons in order to escape sometimes. I was using the Chiron Bow, and lost a couple of lives to the first bosses, since I had the Extreme Measures on. But then I still managed to escape, partially due to Neptune’s Legendary that knocks back twice.
7th escape. That was easiest escape by far. I started with Ares Doom Special, and that was it, really. When fully empowered, it deals incredible damage.
8th escape. I had the Rail, but what did the trick was Duo of Neptune and Zeus, really.
Funny that I almost escaped with the “Magnetic” fists, and died when Hades had just a couple of hits to go, because I got overconfident.

Managed to beat Hades for the second time, with a combination of Zeus and Dionisius, including their duo-boon. And expended just a single life in the process!
The principle that I follow is that if there’s a fated choice, I always take the fated choice.
Unlocked the first hidden aspect, the Spear.
I wish I could say that my 3rd escape was with the Shield, but in fact it was 90% combination of Artemis’ cast, Artemis’ Exit Wounds and Hermes’ Epic Quick Reload.
4th escape: didn’t expect it would go well at all. But Chiron Bow, Zeus cast and Dead Defiance reload from Athena surprisingly did the job.
5th escape. Again, didn’t expect to make it. But I randomly traded for Rocket Bomb and Tripple Bomb, so I fired 3 rockets. Then I went for Demeter cast topped with Arctic Blast. I think in this run I also collected the most Duo boons ever, three of them, including Stubborn Roots that regenerates HP if you don’t have lives left. That carried me through the entire Labirynth.

Like Diablo 3, this is another example of a game that although originally released on PC, I would only play on Switch.
I’m surprised how much written dialogs are there in this game. And all of them are also brilliantly voice acted.

Managed to get up to Hades himself on my very next run. With full set of lives, no less. Used the tripple-hitting spear (Flurry Jab) with great success. Still got wiped out by his second phase, of course.
Then the most successful run I had was some 20 runs later, with a Rocket Bomb special. And by “most successful” I mean that I managed to beat Hades for the first time.

That’s not the end of the story, though. And I’m not sure if there is.