Are you jumping into Hades 2 for the first time and want some beginner tips? Fear not. After playing hundreds of hours between early access and the 1.0 version (check out my review if you haven’t), I’ve come up with some early game tips that will make your life easier.
While the meat and bones of a game like Hades 2 is experimentation, some might feel overwhelmed with the amount of stuff you’ll need to juggle as you begin to familiarize yourself with every system and progression path the game has to offer.
If you’re worried about spoilers, don’t; this is a mostly spoiler-free guide to help you on your early Hades 2 runs. I’ll mention some characters you might encounter during your runs, but that’s about it. Let’s begin.
Hades 2 Beginner Tips & Tricks
Most of these tips will be about what sort of upgrades and encounters you need to prioritize to start making your life easier as you explore the depths of the Underworld or climb Mount Olympus.
Prioritize Resource Gathering Early On
Resource gathering is key to progression in Hades 2. While you might be tempted to only tackle the rooms that will lead you to meeting more bosses, don’t neglect the minor rewards each run. This would be my recommended list in particular:
- Ashes: These will let you unlock more Arcana cards to help you in each run. I’ll have a dedicated Arcana guide to help you further, so stay tuned.
- Bones: Once you unlock the Wretched Broker at the Crossroads, you’ll be able to trade these for more useful items like Moon Dust, Fate Fabric, Nightmare, and even more Ashes/Psyche. Always good to have plenty.
- Psyche: While Psyche isn’t found as a room reward, you can obtain it by buying it from the Wretched Broker or by guiding Lost Shades with the Tablet of Peace, which you can find in some rooms a few runs into your save. Also, Narcissus can give you Psyche as one of his rewards. You’ll use Psyche to increase your Grasp. Increased Grasp means you can activate more Arcana cards.
- Silver: Do not miss out on farming this mineral every time you spot one, as it’ll be key to unlocking more weapons. You’ll start with the Witch’s Staff, but there are a total of six; each will require some amount of Silver plus other resources to unlock.
Another incentive you get for entering locations with minor rewards is that you always have a chance at triggering a special event and meeting a specific NPC that can aid you or even challenge you for extra rewards.
As you progress, other resources will become important, such as Moon Dust, Darkness, Nightmare, or Star Dust, to name a few. So always keep that in mind and try some resource gathering runs to replenish when your stock is low.
Unlock The First Cauldron Incantations
After you complete a couple of runs, you’ll be able to interact with the big cauldron at the Crossroads. Complete all of them as they are extremely useful and practically necessary to progress in Hades 2.
The Night’s Craftwork will unlock your gathering tools, which you can then use to forage resources. Since it only requires a singular Moly (a yellow flower that you can find without the need for said tools), this should be priority number one, especially because you don’t need time to pass to reap the rewards.
You’ll basically be handed the pickaxe at first, as it only costs 1 Ash. It’s used to gather minerals like Silver. The next three you’ll have to unlock later:
- Tablet of Peace: Requires 4 Silver. It allows you to placate Lost Shades, granting you Psyche to increase your Grasp.
- Silver Spade: Requires 8 Silver. Another incredibly important upgrade you need to prioritize, as this will allow you to gather seeds of all kinds, which you can then plant at the Crossroads. These plants will be used for various incantations.
- Rod of Fishing: Requires two Fate Fabric (you can get this with the Broker or by visiting Arachne in Erebus) and one Bronze. Perhaps the least necessary tool, it’s used for fishing. Fish can then be sold for Bones with the Wretched Broker.
Then go for the Summoning of Mercantile Fortune incantation, which only costs 10 Bones. This will bring the Wretched Broker to the Crossroads.
Finally, the Fated Intervention incantation (costs 1 Ash, 2 Moly flowers, and 1 Silver) will unlock the Fated List of Minor prophecies. If you’ve played Hades before, this will feel familiar. Here, you’ll see some challenges you can complete for extra rewards.
Befriend NPCs & Give Them Nectar
There are dozens of NPCs to talk to in Hades 2, and many will be ready to return the favor in kind if you decide to hand them some sweet Nectar.
The Broker will eventually sell it, but early on, your best bet is by clearing encounters that hand Nectar as a reward. You’ll also unlock an incantation later on that lets you brew six at the cost of 1 Gold Apple and 1 Star Dust.
Not only will you progress your bonds with each NPC, but they will also give you Keepsakes. These are handy amulets that will grant you a specific modifier that can massively help you during your runs. My recommendation is that the first Nectar you hand over goes to Schelemeus, as he’ll give you the Luckier Tooth Keepsake, which will revive you once your health goes down to 0, essentially giving you an extra chance.
Your Cast Is Your Friend
This, ironically, may be harder for those who played Hades 1, but using your cast is extremely important early on. The cast will snare your enemies, preventing them from moving and locking them in place.
Grab a boon that empowers it, and you’ll quickly find just how useful it is when you don’t have enough burst damage to quickly dispatch big waves of enemies that may want to rush you down.
Daedalus Hammer Rooms Are Always A Must
Whenever you see a Daedalus Hammer room, go for it. These will upgrade the weapon you’re currently using and can be run-defining if you get lucky enough to get one that matches what you’re trying to work towards on your build.
Take, for instance, the Witch’s Staff. A super easy combo to pull off early game is adding Zeus’ Attack boon, which grants Blitz, Static Shock, which gives chain-lightning to your basic attack at the cost of primed Magick, and the Mirrored Thrasher Hammer, which lets your attack hit two times at the cost of 5 Magick per hit.
Top that with Hestia’s Cardio Gain boon, which grants Magick back with every hit of your basic or special attack, and you’re all set with a very straightforward and incredibly powerful build.
Damage Calculations & How They Work
I won’t go too in-depth, as things can get crazy “behind the scenes” when it comes to damage values in Hades 2. But at the very least, you should know two basic things about the system.
There are two ways your damage can be modified: either your damage percentage or base damage. Let’s do some quick math:
Let’s say your basic attack does 10 damage per hit and you pick up a boon that increases your damage by 50%. You’re doing 15 dmg per hit afterwards. Then you pick up a boon like Aphrodite’s Secret Crush, which adds +5 base Power to your basic attacks. Now, your base damage is 15 without the percentage calculations. Therefore, the 50% damage buff is being applied to the 15 base Power, rather than the 10, giving you a final tally of 22-23 damage per hit on your basic attack.
You can see how things can get a little crazy when you know what to prioritize. One more thing, do keep in mind that base Power increases do not affect curses unless you’re specifically looking for boons that buff them. Things like Blitz, Scorch will retain their base damage values unless you stack things such as Arc Flash or Highly Flammable, for example.
And that’s about it. Stick with us at Gfinityesports.com: your go-to source for all things Hades 2.