The roguelite dungeon-crawler Hades centers around Zagreus, who tries to fight his way through the underworld to escape from hell. In our Hades Build Guide, you’ll learn which build suits your play style and is the best for your next run in the underworld.
Table of Contents
1) Hades Build Guide: General weapon tips and tricks
Hades is a game about defeating enemies again and again with improved skills. However, since the enemies become more and more powerful as the game progresses, it is sometimes necessary to fight even simple enemies repeatedly to collect enough experience points.
The following weapons and abilities are available in Hades:
- Divine Boons
- Different weapon variants
- Titan Blood
- Duo Boons
- Legendary Boons
Divine Boons are abilities that you can use to improve your chances of survival in the dungeon. Each god offers different abilities. For example, Zeus, the God of Thunder, gives you abilities such as High Voltage and Double Strike.
Besides, there are also Legendary Boons in Hades. You’ll get these if you possess the Divine Boon and have some luck finding them. The best Legendary Boon is Athena’s Divine Protection, as it becomes increasingly difficult to dodge all enemy attacks. So, a shield comes in quite handy.
Various weapons can also be found in Hades. To unlock particularly powerful weapons, you need Titan Blood. You get this, e.g., as a reward after defeating a boss. Each weapon variant can be upgraded on five levels, which increases its combat power immensely. Now you’re probably wondering, which weapon is the right one for me? The answer is that it depends on your fighting style. More on that later.
Keepsakes are also important. These are resources that you can get in exchange for Nectar from various characters. The Keepsakes will give you passive buffs as the game progresses. Keepsakes can also be improved on three levels.
They also help you get certain pairs of gods – these are important for your build. There are many gods in Hades and therefore a variety of combinations.
Special builds include Ares and Athena, Poseidon and Zeus, Artemis and Dionysus. These are especially good for the last battles in the game. But enough chit-chat, let’s get to the important stuff: What are the strongest builds and how can you get them?
2) Ares and Athena
To get the duo of Ares and Athena, you need to have the Twin Fists equipped in the Demeter variant and the Frostbitten Horn Keepsake. In addition, the boons of Curse of Sorrows, Divine Tush, and Divine Spurt are helpful.
When Zagreus is wearing the Twin Fists, you should play as offensively as possible, because the range of the weapon is very limited. So, it’s best to choose Divine Boons that strengthen your offensive power. With the powerful Demeter variant, you’ll also get an effective special attack.
To make ideal use of the abilities, you should try to upgrade your weapons and thus increase their range to hit several enemies at once.
3) Poseidon and Zeus
Poseidon and Zeus are also on hand to help Zagreus escape. To get this build, you need to use the standard weapon in the Arthur variant.
Try to get the Duo Boon Sea Storm. It causes enemies you push away to get hit by lightning. So, knockback abilities are very effective. Poseidon’s abilities give you a massive damage bonus. He’s best combined with weapons that already generate knockbacks, or ranged weapons. So medium-fast but hard-hitting weapons are ideal.
This makes Poseidon your first choice if you choose a build with a shield, spear, or dash attack, or a fist special. If you have unlocked the Zeus-Poseidon Duo Boon, any attack supported by Poseidon will also be boosted by Zeus. Zeus’ Lightning Strike and its passive enhancements will deal additional damage to enemies.
Still, the main focus should be on Poseidon to increase damage until the duo is complete because even after that, much of the damage dealt still comes from Poseidon. In turn, Zeus helps compensate for Poseidon’s weaknesses in boss fights. Bosses are usually immune to knockbacks and thus Poseidon’s damage bonuses. This build is especially good for clearing rooms quickly and using spears, fists, or shields.
4) Ares and Dionysus
Another very strong build is the combination of Ares and Dionysus. The build is suitable for weapons that have an ability which can quickly spread Dionysus’ Hangover Curse. The duo is strong because the curses of both gods deal damage. In addition, the Duo Boon significantly increases the damage of Dionysus’ Hangover Curse. The combination allows you to use the Doom and Hangover Curses on as many enemies as possible.
Under the Aspect of Chaos, the Ares and Dionysus build is probably one of the strongest. Appropriate weapons for this build are the Shield of Chaos and the Aspect of Zeus (this includes both Ares’ Attack, Zeus’ Shield, and Dionysus’ Special), the Aspect of Rama (Ares’ Attack and Bow), and the Aspect of Demeter (Ares’ Special and Fist).
5) Doom Build
For the Doom Build, the weapons Bow, Spear, and Shield are important. You also need the Curse of Pain skill and the Attack Weakness of Aphrodite. Ranged attacks are especially good for this build.
Due to the unspecific boons of the status curse “weak,” the build is very good for defeating Hades if you haven’t managed to do so yet. It makes the bow easier to use, so give it a try even if it wasn’t your cup of tea so far.
6) Lifesteal Build
Do you want to drain your opponent’s life while increasing your own? Then this is the fighting style for you! For this ability, you need the Guan Yu Spear. It has the disadvantage of reducing Zagreus’ total life and life gain by 70 % at level 1 and by 50 % at maximum level. In return, however, it has the Frost Fair Blade ability, which allows the spear to perform a circle attack.
On the other hand, Guan Yu pierces enemies and explodes in the air, dealing additional damage. With the circle attack, Zagreus gets one health point back per hit. Since many hits are scored quickly with such an attack, you can regain quite a lot of health points.
7) Hera’s Bow Build
The bow is a powerful weapon in Hades and is further strengthened by the aspect of Hera. Hera’s Bow allows you to load the throw into the next shot, increasing both the bow’s damage and its spellcasting effect.
The proper weapon to obtain Hera’s Bow is the Heart-Seeking Bow. The ideal gods to pair the effects with are Athena, Aphrodite, or Poseidon. The bow is, of course, a ranged weapon, so you can pair it well with an effect like Poseidon’s.
8) The Aspect of Chiron
The “Aspect of Chiron” is a weapon keepsake for Coronacht, the Heart-Seeking Bow. With it, your special attack will automatically seek the enemy that was hit last by your attack. He will be marked for a few seconds, and then all arrows, when you use your special attack, will be fired at the marked enemy. When marked, up to three special attacks are possible before the mark disappears.
At the lowest level, the Aspect is not that good yet, but at the highest level, its power doubles. Each arrow fired then deals its damage and therefore applies its boon to the enemy, so critical hits are especially powerful, as with Artemis’ effects. Chiron’s effect is also applicable to bosses, they are simply targeted repeatedly and then hit by up to three special attacks.
9) Chaos Build
Chaos is one of the secret and optional locations of Hades and a mysterious figure that can be found in it. To reach it, you’ll have to fulfill some requirements. The secret passages to Chaos appear randomly after you die at least six times. To discover them, you need to look for black holes in the ground. These will rob you of 20-25 health points on average, so you should consider whether it’s worth the trip.
Afterward, you can bring Nectar into the Chaos and receive a keepsake called Cosmic Egg, which ensures that you won’t have to sacrifice life points for the journey in the future. Furthermore, you’ll receive special Chaos buffs that give you special abilities but always come with a disadvantage. However, since the Chaos builds are usually very strong, it’s still recommended to collect them.
10) Crit Build/Slugger Sword
With this build, you go from a nimble fighter to a heavyweight. This is due to the Aspect of Arthur. This is a very powerful, but equally slow, big sword. Although it takes some practice to wield, the sword can turn into a true instant-kill weapon, allowing you to deal enough critical damage to enemies with just one hit to defeat them outright.
11) Twin Fist Build
Fist builds quickly deal heavy damage to your opponents – but only in melee combat. The first unlockable aspect is the Aspect of Talos. With this, you can pull enemies towards you and deal extra damage while you do so.
Alternatively, the Aspect of Gilgamesh can be unlocked later. With this, nearby enemies take additional damage and suffer from a status effect that also deals damage for a certain amount of time. To unlock it, you must first unlock the Aspect of Guan Yu in Varatha. Then you have to distribute Titan Blood to Fist aspects five times and then fight Asterius with your fists. With a bit of luck, Asterius’ room in Elysium will open up – but this happens randomly. There you can get the Aspect.
Customize your Hades experience with PLITCH!
In Hades, there are a lot of possible builds, for which you sometimes have to fight for a very long time. You can simply use PLITCH’s Hades cheats to speed up the process. These are exclusively for single-player games – cheating in online games is uncool after all. There is something for everyone and your gaming experience can be customized.
With our Hades cheats, you can save yourself from the time-consuming collecting of resources or speed it up by adding gold, Titan Blood, Super Gems, or Meta points. Even difficult sections can be overcome with the Godmode or the one-hit kills.
Happy Gaming!
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