Trying Hades For The First Time? Here Are Some Beginner Tips!
Indie games are a serious hit or miss. And with overwhelmingly positive reviews on Hades found on Steam; in addition to the game winning multiple gaming awards, we guess it is safe to say that Supergiant Games struck gold with Hades.
Back when Hades was released back in 2020, it managed to sell over 1 million copies across Steam and Switch. Just imagine the numbers if the game was available for the Xbox and PlayStation!
Well, during E3 2021, it was revealed that the epic roguelike Hades will be making its way to the aforementioned consoles later this August.
And if this is your first time attempting to escape from Hell, here are some tips that might make your journey in the Underworld much smoother.
1. Be Friends With Everybody
The modern portrayal of Greek gods is already amazing, and Supergiant Games takes it up a notch with its aesthetic take on these deities—but they aren’t there just for looks, all these Greek figures will have something in store for you if you are nice to them!
As we will try to make this piece spoiler-free, we would not include the conversational context of Zagreus and the Gods but here are some things you would want to take note of.
Throughout the game, you will notice an item called Nectar which you will be getting during your forays in Tartarus. This sweet item is extremely useful as you will be able to gift these items to NPCs and in return, they will give you their keepsake which will greatly help you in gameplay.
Some keepsakes are great for your first-time runs but here are some of the keepsakes you would want to obtain first.
-Cerberus (Old Spiked Collar)
Increases your total health pool.
-Skelly (Lucky Tooth)
Revives Zagreus upon death with a certain health point.
-Eurydice (Evergreen Acorn)
Nullify damage taken from the first few hits from bosses.
Over time, other keepsakes might eclipse the ones that we have suggested, but above are the few that would largely help you during your first few runs as you would want to focus on survivability and sustainability early on.
2. Mirror of Night
Zagreus’ room is filled with useless stuff but there is one item inside the Son of Hades’ chamber that is arguably the most important in the game.
The Mirror of Night allows you to insert darkness—an in-game drop—to enhance Zagreus passively. Also, note that you would need Chthonic Keys to unlock the mirror in the first place.
Once you’ve unlocked the mirror, there would be a bunch of buffs for you to choose from and it can be overwhelming at first, but here are our suggested buffs you should commit your darkness on.
-Death Defiance
Revives Zagreus upon death. Up to 3 times when the buff is maxed.
-Greater Reflex
Allows Zagreus to dash 1 extra time.
-Thick Skin
-Increases your life total. Extra 85 health points if maxed.
-Shadow Presence
Extra damage when striking enemies from behind. Extra 50% when the buff is maxed.
3. Recommended Boons
As you venture through Tartarus, you will be assisted by the gods of Olympus and with some RNG and choices, you will be able to select which gods’ perks you would like to have.
Here are some of the few we would recommend for starters.
-Athena
Athena offers boons that are more defensive. Her dash upgrade “Divine Dash” is arguably the most sought-after dash as it can reflect all incoming projectiles as you are dashing.
This is an insanely strong upgrade as it reduces any damage taken and is able to provide some chip damage back to enemies.
-Aphrodite
The Goddess of Love’s boons pack both offensive and defensive upgrades. While her choices usually grant you the most damage increase percentage-wise, it is her status effect ‘weak’ that stands out.
Enemies affected with ‘weak’ will have reduced damage output meaning even if you are getting hit a lot—which you will—it will hurt much less.
-Poseidon
The lord of the sea’s boons are no pushovers. Most of Poseidon’s upgrades cover AOE damage and will push back enemies when the hit lands.
This attack modifier is very efficient when it comes to damage control as the push effect will create a distance between you and the mobs while you are dishing out your damage—you can almost assume it is like a mini-stun effect.
4. Choosing the right chamber
As you progress through Tartarus, you will be given options as to which chamber you want to enter. The chambers are Boons for new skills, Poms upgrade existing skills, Heart for increasing your max HP, Charon’s Obols for coins, and Daedalus Hammer that upgrades your wielded weapon.
Other stuff like darkness and keys will just add more of these drops to your arsenal.
That said, here are the best chambers you should always go for and will always be a safe option.
-Daedalus Hammer
You only get 2 hammer upgrade for every run—always take it. The upgrade you get for your weapon is run-defining and can make your way to the top a breeze if you got the ideal weapon enhancement.
-Double Boon
Sometimes you might notice two boons together in a chamber. It might be a hassle to clear this chamber, but the rewards are worth it. The rarity rate of the boons is much higher and you would get a set of options from different gods.
-Pom
For every boon you get, it starts with level 1. And the pom upgrade gives you an option to increase a randomized skill that you have by another level. This upgrade is significant as the numbers go up by quite a bit and you will be seeing its effect later when you are facing tougher enemies.
5. Dying Is A Norm
Hades is one of the few games out there that welcomes death. Know that it is perfectly fine to fail at any run as it is all about the hellish experience—in a good way.
And with every failure, you will be more wary of the types of enemies you will be facing and automatically you will devise new strategies to play around these adversaries—and that is the true roguelike experience.
Or if you can’t wait for the console release of Hades, you can get it from Steam using our Hades game card.
