I saw Hades when it first came out and thought it looked fun, but I was playing other games at the time, so I figured I’d play it later… and then completely forgot about it. Last year, I saw it on sale on the Switch and bought it.
It was around about $9, and I just bought it because it was a famous game. I thought it wasn’t really my type, so I figured I’d just enjoy it for a few days and be done with it. But maybe it wasn’t that it wasn’t my type – maybe I just thought that because I’d never played this kind of game before? Or maybe there’s a reason why famous games become famous? I found it so fun that I played for quite a while, but I noticed that while the early game was fine, as the skills got more flashy, the frame rate on Switch dropped like crazy.
So I ended up logging into Steam and buying it again lol. The save data syncs well so I can switch between platforms, but when I tried it on PC, it was so crisp that I only played on PC after that. I played hard for about a week like that, but I quit because I couldn’t get past Theseus.
A few months later… I recently remembered the game and tried it again. I accidentally put Dionysus’s hangover on special attack stacking damage and used the bow, and I almost… killed Theseus. So I kept playing, and when I met Dionysus again, I quickly gave him a nectar and from then on, I played with the bow and stuck with Dionysus builds…! I did manage to get past Theseus. Though I used up all my death defiances… I somehow made it outside, but of course I couldn’t beat Hades. Still, since I got to see Hades’s face once, weapon upgrades became available, so after upgrading to the Chiron Bow, I could clear stages 1 and 2 much more easily. With Dionysus stacking damage, the arrows would stick and the damage would tick away like crazy, making it easier and easier to face Theseus. As I kept challenging myself, true to the “learn by dying” style of game, I gradually became able to save more death defiances.
For a few days like that, I kept failing to escape because I died to Hades, but while searching for Hades strategies, I saw that there was something called “duo” builds. Since Dionysus usually has duo synergy with Aphrodite, I started giving nectar to Aphrodite too and playing with that. I did see the duo once, but even then I couldn’t get past Hades.
Still, after trying various things besides a few fixed combinations…!
Finally made it out!
I got one effect from Aphrodite that adds weakness,
One effect that lets you stack 5 hangover stacks at once when you aim with the Chiron Bow after putting Dionysus hangover damage on special attack,
One attack and special attack enhancement from Ares,
And if you add the damage reduction from Aphrodite,
That was the highest damage I’d gotten from any combination I’d tried so far.
When I met Hades, I tried to deal with all the minions and skulls first, but I realized it was better to quickly dish out damage and finish him off rather than that approach. So I focused on combinations that could deal damage as fast as possible, and that’s how I beat him.
At first, when I was stuck with the fixed combination of Dionysus hangover damage + Poseidon dash + Zeus lightning damage, the damage wasn’t going through well. But when I switched to Aphrodite weakness + Dionysus hangover + Ares damage enhancement, the damage was ticking down so fast that I killed him before he could kill me. I barely managed to escape just before hitting my 40th escape attempt.
After that, I just tried the spear once before closing the game and escaped…?
Maybe once you beat it, you get the hang of it? I couldn’t escape for the longest time, but today I escaped twice.
+ Finally escaped! And just as I was about to leave,
Zagreus: Then hurry up and die so you can get out of my way.
…? So that’s why people call it an unfilial game…
Seeing him die and go back again was kind of sad, so I took a screenshot☆