[Hades] is King of the Scythe and the Sword

Straightzi

He covers the world in the color of rust, he scrapes the sky and scars the earth, and he comes down heavy and hard on us.

But especially on you, Zagreus. You're his rebellious teenage son, and you're going to get out of the underworld even if it kills you. Again and again and again.



Hades is the new game from Supergiant games, who made a bunch of other games that are also good. It's a roguelike action sort of affair, and is currently available in early access on the Epic Store. It's a lot of fun, even in its technically incomplete state, and we've been talking about it a lot, so now we've got a thread to do that in.

Shorty

chaos shield is best

Uriel

I like the barrage upgrade on the bow with the artemis boon that makes it crit a ton.

Just walk up on the enemy and shotgun their ass.

Straightzi

The bow is my favorite, although I like the spear and the shield as well. I will largely use both the spear and the shield at range though, which makes me think that maybe I should just be using the bow.

The only downside to the bow is that it means I'm constantly forgetting to use my blood cast unless I have it turned into something weird. My current favorite combo is to get the Aphrodite boon for it, so that it becomes a short range attack as a counterpoint to my bow.

Shorty

Aphrodite's cast boon turns your cast into a GIANT shotgun

Uriel

The boiling blood plus extra bloodstones in the mirror is really strong.

Boiling blood maxes at 50% and that'll stack with each stone.

Straightzi

Oh also everyone listen to Hadestown, obviously

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gv0QX1Lpues

It actually plays with a similarly bureaucratic depiction of Hades as this game does, even if the tone is wildly different in every other respect

Tofystedeth

For the bonuses that give +% to rare or better, i assume that's additive not multiplicative?

Mx. Quill

Cerberus is a very good boy.

Straightzi

One of my favorite bonkers builds was entirely cast based. I think I was using the shield, but it doesn't really matter.

I made it up to I think seven or eight casts, which were Poseidon blessed to deal a decent amount of damage. But the real trick was that Artemis had made it so they fell out after a mere 5 seconds, and when they did, they did an additional 300 damage in the process.

So my entire strategy was based around flinging out all of my casts, dodging around the battlefield for a few seconds, and then going to collect them while enemies respawned.

It was an extremely weird strategy, but it got me all the way to Theseus.

UnbrokenEva

I was excited to see this thread because I just got a new PC a week and a half ago, and picked this up in the Epic sale and it is seriously impacting my sleep this week (one more run...)

and then you open it with a Hadestown quote?

Hell yes.

Straightzi

My friends and I were obsessed with Hadestown in college. It was constantly playing the the theatre where we worked, we went out to see an early live performance of it, and so on. We got very close to staging our own bootleg production of it, long before it was turned into a stage play.

UnbrokenEva

Anyways, I'm consistently making it to the second realm on runs now, and have made it to the third a couple times

second realm boss spoilers

the Lernaean Hydra is an asshole

So far my favourite builds are Shield or Bow with a Dionysus boon on their special to put Sick damage over Time on many enemies at once

though I had a Spear run last night with Zeus adding lightning to the throws and Artemis boosting Special damage and crit chance that put in serious work

Mr. G

I've not yet been able to get past whatever the second area is

Brolo

Straightzi wrote: »

My friends and I were obsessed with Hadestown in college. It was constantly playing the the theatre where we worked, we went out to see an early live performance of it, and so on. We got very close to staging our own bootleg production of it, long before it was turned into a stage play.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWDwy2lAFFo
I missed out on the original live show when it was touring

i'm very excited for the musical to come to my town

Brolo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kl0vvLnspQM

although this is the voice that I really want for orpheus

UnbrokenEva

Straightzi wrote: »

My friends and I were obsessed with Hadestown in college. It was constantly playing the the theatre where we worked, we went out to see an early live performance of it, and so on. We got very close to staging our own bootleg production of it, long before it was turned into a stage play.

in at least two Holiday Forum opinion threads over the years I've had people say that their main recollection of me is "person that introduced them to Hadestown" and there are worse things to be remembered for

For anyone listening to Hadestown for the first time as a result of this thread, I highly suggest headphones

they do some harmony stuff with a set of triplets on one song that is such a cool effect in full stereo

Phasen

I beat this game.

Tofystedeth

15 seconds into Hadestown.
Yeah okay, I'm sold.

Raijin Quickfoot

Shit... I need to get this game.

Shorty

it's one of the better roguelikes I've played recently

reminds me of Wizard of Legend, with better thematic integration

Anzekay

this game isn't even finished and it's already my favourite Supergiant game

also I want to make out with Zag

and probably Meg

that is all

(the shield is the best)

Shorty

so far I think Pyre is probably still in the lead because in that game I got to be a revolutionary, and also Jodariel was there

but this is definitely on the same level as Bastion so far

Straightzi

Anzekay wrote: »

this game isn't even finished and it's already my favourite Supergiant game

also I want to make out with Zag

and probably Meg

that is all

(the shield is the best)

I thought for a brief moment after I first met Thanatos that they were making Zagreus bisexual, but that doesn't seem to have held up since then

Brolo

Shorty wrote: »

it's one of the better roguelikes I've played recently

reminds me of Wizard of Legend, with better thematic integration

yeah for some reason Wizard of Legend just left me kinda cold

I feel like supergiant is really good at filling in their games with little bits of charm and personality, and this game is doing a great job with that, even in Early Access

Phasen

I just beat it again.

Anzekay

Straightzi wrote: »

Anzekay wrote: »

this game isn't even finished and it's already my favourite Supergiant game

also I want to make out with Zag

and probably Meg

that is all

(the shield is the best)

I thought for a brief moment after I first met Thanatos that they were making Zagreus bisexual, but that doesn't seem to have held up since then

oh he definitely is

if you give Achilles enough gifts, Zag basically propositions him. Achilles turns him down, and Zag is very gracious about it, and they talk about Achilles still not being over Patrocles

Phasen

Anzekay wrote: »

Straightzi wrote: »

Anzekay wrote: »

this game isn't even finished and it's already my favourite Supergiant game

also I want to make out with Zag

and probably Meg

that is all

(the shield is the best)

I thought for a brief moment after I first met Thanatos that they were making Zagreus bisexual, but that doesn't seem to have held up since then

oh he definitely is

if you give Achilles enough gifts, Zag basically propositions him. Achilles turns him down, and Zag is very gracious about it, and they talk about Achilles still not being over Patrocles

Deciding to mainline Achilles is going to finally pay off.

Anzekay

it's an extremely cute and touching conversation, I really like what they've done with that NPC

Delzhand

I've gotten to Theseus and the Minotaur three times now and they've cleaned my fucking clock each time. I've got no idea other than my normal roguelike strategy of "pray for a really synergystic set of upgrades".

But I felt all "this is impossible" for the Hydra, too, and now I clear it on the reg.

The shield guys in Elysium can suck a fuck.

Tofystedeth

How do you get the friendship levels that are locked?

Grey Ghost

Real excited for when this hits a console

Anzekay

Tofystedeth wrote: »

How do you get the friendship levels that are locked?

they're incomplete, they'll be unlocked as the game gets more and more updates

Straightzi

I had most everyone up to max unlocked friendship level for a while before updates, but they've changed some things and I think I'm back to just base level at this point. I'll need to renew my efforts there, apparently.

Peewi

I have three wins so far and all of them have been with the shield and Artemis boons for crit chance.

I'm not even sticking to the shield. I pick whichever weapon has the dark thirst.

UnbrokenEva

We've discussed favourite weapons, but who's everyone's favourite god to get Boons from? Obviously this is going to vary a bit from weapon to weapon but in an ideal run, whose symbol are you want to see the moment you jump out the window?

For me it's Dionysus. Stacking DOTs and dodging around while enemies die is a solid strategy with multiple weapon choices. The sword is about the only one it isn't as good with, in that case I want Athena so I can baseball bat projectiles

UnbrokenEva

Peewi wrote: »

I have three wins so far and all of them have been with the shield and Artemis boons for crit chance.

I'm not even sticking to the shield. I pick whichever weapon has the dark thirst.

Same here, and I haven't started using the keepsakes that guarantee a particular god for your next/first Boon. I'm loving the variety of trying a different setup every time.

Shorty

so far I've had the best results with Zeus, Dionysus and Artemis

everyone else is kind of a mixed bag

Straightzi

Artemis is probably my most consistent favorite

Everyone else is deeply dependant on the weapon and boon in question

Peewi

I'll go for Aphrodite almost any time I can just for a chance of getting the shotgun cast.

UnbrokenEva

oh also the Artemis cast upgrade where enemies take 200 damage when the cast dislodges?

fucking amazing against bosses