Hades 2: Lades - Out now in Early Access! - The Something Awful Forums

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QuarkJets: Sep 8, 2008

Yeah some of the most dangerous rooms are just normal and miniboss encounters. You can learn the boss movesets and basically stop getting hit altogether, but some rooms basically turn into a bullet hell

Like I'll more often take 0 hits on Furies and Hydra than on any of the rooms in Elysium

# ? Jan 7, 2020 10:05

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# ? Jun 3, 2024 17:20

gandlethorpe: Aug 16, 2008

Wall slams are really satisfying against those shield bastards in Elysium, even unbuffed.

# ? Jan 7, 2020 10:13

Xaris: Jul 25, 2006; Lucky there's a family guy
Lucky there's a man who positively can do
All the things that make us
Laugh and cry

Does Heightened Security also amplify Lava Damage? I went into Hydra Boss with Extra Measures +2 and did nto expect the map to be... that. Not too bad but I took a lot of lava damage that game. Didn't help I had the Chaos Movement Debuff and no extra Hermes dashes.

I had a really good run with Chaos Shield where I just annihilated several of my Death Defiance's in Styx by bull-rushing with like +800% trap damage into the spinning blades. It didn't help in particular that run I was using the Hermes Keepsake trying to speed-run rooms so I was getting sloppy at some points. Even clearing a lot of rooms fast early on and in Asmodel, I think that Hermes Keepsake kinda loving sucks because you just won't clear most of the Elysium Rooms fast enough and some levels will just be dicks with the timer like the one mini-boss with the big medusa head and falling rock that just takes god drat forever. Especially once you start adding Pacts for +Enemies/+Enemy HP I can see it making it entirely useless. Granted it was only Lvl1 Keepsake when I started but still by the end I think I had maybe +20% movespeed/dodge and it wasn't that helpful at all compared to using Coins and Broken Spearpoint/Myrmidon.

I feel Chaos Shield works a lot better when you get the Hammer upgrade that transforms it into a Power Shot instead because my second run went a hell of a lot better once I got that as I was taking a little bit too much attrition damage while/post Bull-Rushing, and it lets you shoot the shields right at their face.

Trying to pick-up the slack that the Spear has neglected because I just don't use it often compared to Bow/Sword/Shield, and I had like 3x +60% Attack Damage boons from Chaos and +120%+Weak Aphro boon--it went very well and was a lot of fun going back to an Attack build, but I honestly wasn't getting much out of the Achilles Aspect out of it and probably lost more damage trying to reposition to backstab. Granted it's only Lvl2. The faster Spin Attack hammer upgrade while dashing to activate it was giving me a hell of a lot of mileage and I found it quite useful so much that I almost think maybe the default aspect or the Punishing Sweep might be better; anyone have the latter maxed out to compare?

I finally got Skelly and Thanatos Companion Summon and keep forgetting to use them. Thanatos one kinda sucks and Skelly is easy for you to accidentally kill and doesn't help that much on Hades but was nice on some particular dick Elysium levels. Is there one in particular I should save my Ambrosia for to max out? Seems like Boulder might be the best one because it can drop items.

Xaris fucked around with this message at 10:48 on Jan 7, 2020

# ? Jan 7, 2020 10:37

pray for my aunt: Feb 13, 2012; 14980c8b8a96fd9e279796a61cf82c9c

I had a completely busted Zeus/Poseidon build where I could just poke enemies once and they would bounce off of 6 walls and die. Boss fights were a frustrating slog.

# ? Jan 7, 2020 10:47

Motherfucker: Jul 16, 2011; I certainly dont have deep-seated issues involving birthdays.

Every one of my best runs has been Ares and Artemis.

# ? Jan 7, 2020 10:53

Wafflecopper: Nov 27, 2004; I am a mouth, and I must scream

~~Yeah Artemis is amazing.~~ Wait no I'm thinking of Aphrodite, who is also awesome. I just got my easiest final boss kill with Zag Shield using weakness on attack, weakness has chance to charm, doom on special, doom continually hits weak, and a bunch of other weak/doom synergy and damage reduction. I basically just stood on top of the boss and wailed on him with attack and the odd special/cast. He was chain charmed so he never swung back. When he did his rotating ray thing he'd just get charmed again in half a second and go back to standing there doing a Skelly impression

# ? Jan 7, 2020 11:11

Ayn Randi: Mar 12, 2009; Grimey Drawer

artemis is a tad too universally good i think. ive never looked at an artemis reward and gone "i dont want this for my build"

# ? Jan 7, 2020 11:14

Eraflure: Oct 12, 2012

All gods are good and the game is surprisingly balanced

Xaris posted:

I finally got Skelly and Thanatos Companion Summon and keep forgetting to use them. Thanatos one kinda sucks and Skelly is easy for you to accidentally kill and doesn't help that much on Hades but was nice on some particular dick Elysium levels. Is there one in particular I should save my Ambrosia for to max out? Seems like Boulder might be the best one because it can drop items.

Yeah maxed out Bouldy is absolutely bonkers
Like it's straight up the most powerful thing in the game and you can get it every single run

# ? Jan 7, 2020 11:46

Vargs: Mar 27, 2010

How does the +trap damage pact interact with the -trap damage boon anyways? Like, a 10 damage trap at +800% is 90 damage. Would a -90% trap damage boon just negate +90% of that +800%, taking it down to +710% and making you eat 81 damage? Or would it subtract 90% from the final total, making you take 9 damage?

Aphrodite is probably my favorite god. The damage boosts are great, weak is fantastic not only inherently but also for privileged status, and she has my favorite cast. It does a fuckton of damage, it sticks into enemies for the damage boost, and it usually bursts down normal mobs so quick that they die and drop your gems right next to you immediately unlike a lot of other casts where they end up halfway across the world in some lava or impassable geometry for the rest of the room.

Vargs fucked around with this message at 12:08 on Jan 7, 2020

# ? Jan 7, 2020 12:02

Xaris: Jul 25, 2006; Lucky there's a family guy
Lucky there's a man who positively can do
All the things that make us
Laugh and cry

Finally got enough keys to unlock all the MIrror Upgrades. I stupidly skipped the +25% chance for Epic Boons in favor of Fated Authority and man, I really was not getting much mileage out of FA. I can always grab Keys with the renovation upgrade to get Fated Authority if I really need to, but I have a feeling I'll try to avoid keys in the future.

Are there any use for Keys anymore, or just sell em at the trader in the bar? Unfortunately the exchange-rates seem god awful.

# ? Jan 7, 2020 19:46

Ciaphas: Nov 20, 2005; > BEWARE, COWARD

gandlethorpe posted:

One duo I never seen get mentioned, but is surprisingly good, is Zeus/Athena. You wouldn't think a duo that solely added an affect to a specific cast would be a gamechanger, but it enabled one of my easiest clears.

RE: Poseidon. Zeus/Poseidon with all the right boons is one of my favorite combos in the game, but yeah Poseidon feels really lackluster otherwise. His duos with Aphrodite and Dionysus feel really worthless when you get them late game, which is the most likely time. Hell, I think I got the pom one once around the halfway point and still didn't get an opportunity to use it until the freebie you get in Styx. I hope Demeter gets some good duos with the gods who are lacking in that department.

Zeus/Athena was the combo that got me my first win, with Shield of Chaos. Brilliant combo IMO

# ? Jan 7, 2020 19:49

Ciaphas: Nov 20, 2005; > BEWARE, COWARD

Wafflecopper posted:

~~Yeah Artemis is amazing.~~ Wait no I'm thinking of Aphrodite, who is also awesome. I just got my easiest final boss kill with Zag Shield using weakness on attack, weakness has chance to charm, doom on special, doom continually hits weak, and a bunch of other weak/doom synergy and damage reduction. I basically just stood on top of the boss and wailed on him with attack and the odd special/cast. He was chain charmed so he never swung back. When he did his rotating ray thing he'd just get charmed again in half a second and go back to standing there doing a Skelly impression

Charm works on the final boss????? :stare:

# ? Jan 7, 2020 19:50

Mzbundifund: Nov 5, 2011; I'm afraid so.

Ciaphas posted:

Charm works on the final boss?????

Achilles does say he thinks Aphrodite is the most powerful of the gods.

# ? Jan 7, 2020 20:03

Ciaphas: Nov 20, 2005; > BEWARE, COWARD

Well now I'm annoyed, that would have been the difference between victory and defeat with Achilles' spear yesterday. Right down to the wire on phase 2 :mad:

# ? Jan 7, 2020 20:16

Oxxidation: Jul 22, 2007

Ciaphas posted:

Well now I'm annoyed, that would have been the difference between victory and defeat with Achilles' spear yesterday. Right down to the wire on phase 2

charm lasts for maybe half a second on boss enemies so you really need that very specific combination of boons to get any use out of it

# ? Jan 7, 2020 20:18

kaschei: Oct 25, 2005

Ciaphas posted:

Charm works on the final boss?????

It�s not a full 4s charm but it seems to interrupt his plans. It�s great if you can spam a special that hits multiple times.

# ? Jan 7, 2020 20:20

Lester Shy: May 1, 2002; Goodness no, now that wouldn't do at all!

Aside from duration, is there any difference between using your Call on cooldown vs waiting for the full bar to charge up? The wiki seems pretty light on info and I'm usually spamming it when I actually pick a Call.

# ? Jan 7, 2020 20:24

kaschei: Oct 25, 2005

Lester Shy posted:

Aside from duration, is there any difference between using your Call on cooldown vs waiting for the full bar to charge up? The wiki seems pretty light on info and I'm usually spamming it when I actually pick a Call.

Each Call has a full gauge bonus that uses all four charges and usually gives 6x duration (Aphrodite just adds a flat amount of damage based on rarity).

# ? Jan 7, 2020 20:25

Dias: Feb 20, 2011; by sebmojo

Lester Shy posted:

Aside from duration, is there any difference between using your Call on cooldown vs waiting for the full bar to charge up? The wiki seems pretty light on info and I'm usually spamming it when I actually pick a Call.

Full bar gives you a Greater Call, which just lasts for the entirety of the bar or deals a ton of burst damage if you're using Artemis.

# ? Jan 7, 2020 20:29

PJOmega: May 5, 2009

kaschei posted:

Each Call has a full gauge bonus that uses all four charges and usually gives 6x duration (Aphrodite just adds a flat amount of damage based on rarity).

Is the 6x the length of the full bar (so 24x the duration of a single bar) or 6x the length of a single bar?

# ? Jan 7, 2020 20:33

Xaris: Jul 25, 2006; Lucky there's a family guy
Lucky there's a man who positively can do
All the things that make us
Laugh and cry

Lester Shy posted:

Aside from duration, is there any difference between using your Call on cooldown vs waiting for the full bar to charge up? The wiki seems pretty light on info and I'm usually spamming it when I actually pick a Call.

Feel free to use a Call during regular encounters as soon as it's up and would Do Something. I find you generally don't get Greater Call/Full Bar unless you have a few very specific boons, or it's a very long drawn-out fight. Bosses also tend to like to go Invuln right as you pop your Greater Call so you have to time it right, but in general you'll get more mileage waiting for a Greater Call to charge for a boss fight. Despite that, sometimes you might sometimes be better popping a 1/4 bar charge if the situation warrents. I.e. I was using Dionysus's Call on 1/4th bar charges to trigger the Privileged Status effect on Hades because I only had Weak that run.

# ? Jan 7, 2020 20:35

Hogama: Sep 3, 2011

PJOmega posted:

Is the 6x the length of the full bar (so 24x the duration of a single bar) or 6x the length of a single bar?

Latter. Zeus's Call is normally 1.5 sec duration for a single bar. The Greater Call is a 9 sec duration (1.5 x 6).

# ? Jan 7, 2020 20:39

bamhand: Apr 15, 2010

What's the fastest way to build your bar? I notice for some builds it goes up super fast while others it takes forever. I assume I'm dealing a roughly equal amount of damage with both since the number of bad guys per level are similar.

# ? Jan 7, 2020 20:40

kaschei: Oct 25, 2005

bamhand posted:

What's the fastest way to build your bar? I notice for some builds it goes up super fast while others it takes forever. I assume I'm dealing a roughly equal amount of damage with both since the number of bad guys per level are similar.

It definitely has a per hit cap (or sharp diminishing returns). It charges loads faster with flurry spear than Hestia rail.

# ? Jan 7, 2020 20:45

CharlestonJew: Jul 7, 2011; Illegal Hen

Xaris posted:

Finally got enough keys to unlock all the MIrror Upgrades. I stupidly skipped the +25% chance for Epic Boons in favor of Fated Authority and man, I really was not getting much mileage out of FA. I can always grab Keys with the renovation upgrade to get Fated Authority if I really need to, but I have a feeling I'll try to avoid keys in the future.

Are there any use for Keys anymore, or just sell em at the trader in the bar? Unfortunately the exchange-rates seem god awful.

theyre adding one more weapon to the game so might be helpful to keep 10 or so keys on hand, otherwise yeah trade em in at the shop

# ? Jan 7, 2020 21:39

bamhand: Apr 15, 2010

CharlestonJew posted:

theyre adding one more weapon to the game so might be helpful to keep 10 or so keys on hand, otherwise yeah trade em in at the shop

The trader guy also occasionally has one off deals that are good. Like 15 keys for a Titan Blood.

# ? Jan 7, 2020 21:50

Internet Kraken: Apr 24, 2010; slightly amused

QuarkJets posted:

Yeah some of the most dangerous rooms are just normal and miniboss encounters. You can learn the boss movesets and basically stop getting hit altogether, but some rooms basically turn into a bullet hell

Like I'll more often take 0 hits on Furies and Hydra than on any of the rooms in Elysium

I genuinely have no idea how you can no hit the extreme measures Hydra. Its such a ridiculous fight with almost no breathing room.

# ? Jan 7, 2020 22:37

thewizardofshoe: Feb 24, 2013

The amount of incidental dialogue in this game is great. Just got to the 3rd boss while still holding a Yarn of Ariadne and the commentary on it is pretty good.

# ? Jan 8, 2020 00:33

Hogama: Sep 3, 2011

There's follow-up on that if you do it again, too.

# ? Jan 8, 2020 00:35

PJOmega: May 5, 2009

Internet Kraken posted:

I genuinely have no idea how you can no hit the extreme measures Hydra. Its such a ridiculous fight with almost no breathing room.

Lava _everywhere_.

# ? Jan 8, 2020 00:42

Ragnar34: Oct 10, 2007; Lipstick Apathy

gandlethorpe posted:

I hope Demeter gets some good duos with the gods who are lacking in that department.

Wait, do we know it's them?

# ? Jan 8, 2020 01:12

Avasculous: Aug 30, 2008

Man, I really wish they'd tone down boss 3 and 4 and buff some of the earlier, non-boss stuff to compensate.

I'm only ~25 runs in, but so many of the boons/daedalus mods/keepsakes feel actively stupid to take since they do absolutely nothing against bosses and that's where almost all of the game's difficulty is: armor piercing, multi-target attacks, AOEs, trap stuff, some of the debuffs.

thewizardofshoe posted:

The amount of incidental dialogue in this game is great. Just got to the 3rd boss while still holding a Yarn of Ariadne and the commentary on it is pretty good.

The meta jabs at the medium are great throughout.

I cracked a smile at Zagraeus confronting the 3rd boss's intro boast with "Shouldn't I be the CHAMPION OF ELYSIUM by now??"

# ? Jan 8, 2020 01:38

Hogama: Sep 3, 2011

Ragnar34 posted:

Wait, do we know it's them?

It's strongly implied.

Those are sheaves of wheat and what looks to be a held cornucopia, both symbols of Demeter's.

# ? Jan 8, 2020 01:45

NObodyNOWHERE: Apr 24, 2007; Now we are all sons of bitches.; Hell Gem

Avasculous posted:

Man, I really wish they'd tone down boss 3 and 4 and buff some of the earlier, non-boss stuff to compensate.

I'm only ~25 runs in, but so many of the boons/daedalus mods/keepsakes feel actively stupid to take since they do absolutely nothing against bosses and that's where almost all of the game's difficulty is: armor piercing, multi-target attacks, AOEs, trap stuff, some of the debuffs.

They're definitely the biggest difficulty spikes as you're learning, but after a while I found that the bosses stopped being the toughest parts of the game. They're pretty consistent, so once you've figured out a strategy that works, it generally keeps working. If I die now, it's usually because I stupidly wandered into a trap with 800% damage on the pact or other goofy unexpected poo poo. So some of those boons and buffs you mention can be nicer than you'd think.

# ? Jan 8, 2020 02:39

President Ark: May 16, 2010

Hogama posted:

It's strongly implied.

Those are sheaves of wheat and what looks to be a held cornucopia, both symbols of Demeter's.

huh, i was expecting hephaestus

# ? Jan 8, 2020 02:41

Ciaphas: Nov 20, 2005; > BEWARE, COWARD

At this point I die more often to That loving Raft Chamber in Asphodel than any boss save the final :argh:

# ? Jan 8, 2020 02:42

QuarkJets: Sep 8, 2008

Internet Kraken posted:

I genuinely have no idea how you can no hit the extreme measures Hydra. Its such a ridiculous fight with almost no breathing room.

If you have huge burst DPS then you can quickly clear out a little safe area during each phase. Then it just takes a lot of careful dashing

# ? Jan 8, 2020 02:47

Ayn Randi: Mar 12, 2009; Grimey Drawer

the worst part of EM hydra is just hitting the fucker when you're melee and he's hovering in the central lava

# ? Jan 8, 2020 02:58

bamhand: Apr 15, 2010

Hunting Blades, Vicious Cycle, Vacuum Blades. Well that was easy. Build didn't come together until first mini boss in act 3 and I had 0 revives left but the rest of the run was trivial.

# ? Jan 8, 2020 03:41

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# ? Jun 3, 2024 17:20

Mr. Baps: Apr 16, 2008; Yo ho?

President Ark posted:

huh, i was expecting hephaestus

I would've guessed Apollo.

# ? Jan 8, 2020 05:16

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