Hades - The Bear and Badger

hylian_elf

I think I’ve done 33 runs now and just made it to Theseus for first time, got them down to half and died. Still enjoying it, specially the dialogue and story, but I confluence to be absolutely shit at this.

Subbax

Funnily enough a few runs after I posted, I beat Asterius and the Douche. I did fail hard on the way up to them so ended up coming out with 10 health. I magically got through the next bit after only 2 goes and then at a guess, had just under 150 for the finale.

I lasted longer than I thought but I did not do well. Took a third of their health, maybe.

Decided to use the boon where the charge turns into a gun/projectile, which seemed to do a fair bit of damage but it wasn't for me. I feel like the shield favours dash and special but could be wrong.

Tempy

There's a shield attack upgrade on the hammer that lets you hit twice, which makes it a monster for just mashing people in the face with stuff like chill or stacking doom.

stonechalice

Subbax wrote:

I feel like the shield favours dash and special but could be wrong.

It does. I rarely ever used bull rush when using shield. Go with Zeus for the lightening.

Tempy

Just to be contrary based on experience with my many, many wins: Bullrush is amazing. It lets you defend against 90% of the attacks in the game allowing you to save health for when you need it, and it also does massive damage with certain upgrades (gimme 300% armour damage pls daedalus daddy).

The Beowulf version absolutely fucks people up with Poseidon casts in it, and the Chaos version procs extra shields on your Special making your special far more valuable. In short - be Bullrushing, you'll not die, and you'll kill lots of people.

I'd go as far as to say the only attack in the game that isn't extremely useful is the charged spin for the Spear - it just feels a bit out of the pace with the game. Everything else has huge utility.

stonechalice

I suppose I don't like defensive play so bounced off it. More often than not I'd end up bullrushing into a corner and getting ganked or end up in a trap.

Tempy

My advice would be: don't bullrush into a corner or into a trap.

It's not overly defensive, it's just a good tool for taking stock against chaos, like Meg's bullet hell wave, or a bunch of hydra heads throwing out shock waves, blocking poison arrows/snake crytal beams in styx, or to just totally nerf the last bosses nastiest attack (the spear spin).

You're not crawling behind it, but if you're struggling to get a clear Shield and Bow are your best bets cos they let you maintain decent spacing.

stonechalice

I got my first clear with the spear. I wasn't very keen on any of the charge up stuff except maybe the bow.

Minnesänger

Yeah, put me down as a Bullrush boy. Love it.

Roujin

Bullrush + Daedalus upgrade giving 500% power rush at full charge, plus Artemis boon on attack for crit chance gets you silly burst damage from a defensive position.

Shield has potential to deal damage in a variety of ways, lightning boon on special is handy for long range attacking, as is putting doom on special. Poseidon on special is nice as well for some levels like the satyrs. Really though, any slow striking weapon like the shield, swords, spear, bow will benefit from sticking any of the athena, artemis or demeter boons on attack as they deal the most damage per hit. As Tempy says, couple that with the double hit upgrade and the shield is no slouch.

I think all the weapons in this game are viable up to a certain point, at which point some of the conditions required for high heat runs start to make some weapons better than others. A lot like slay the spire, it is not about saying X boons are what you need to get with this weapon, it's about identifying which boon is the best for now, and which boons you want to target for later.

Subbax

To clarify, I usually do bull rush like a lunatic. I like bonking people into walls for extra damage with Poseidon. Funny how the furthest I've gotten is with the boon that changes the bull rush into a gun.

I didn't like the bow or the rail. Cursed blade was fun as hell. I haven't seen any Demeter boons yet.

Subbax

GotY.

Subbax

How do I not collect a reward if I'm using Sisyphus keepsake? Do I just have to sell stuff when I can and hope I don't get a boon reward?

Roujin

Yes.

Edit: Actually, the specific wording is that attack/special/cast are increased when not powered by a boon, I think you can take boons, just specifically can't take boons that go in the attack/special/cast slot, so like, I think you could take other boons, but I've never tested it.

Subbax

So Exit Wounds is foes take damage when my cast is dislodged. So the cast itself is lower initial damage but does the dislodge damage also go down?

And calls should be fine then?

Tempy

I don't think anything lowers, it's just in addition to.

Roujin

Tempy correct.

Subbax

I'm going to trying to start with Chaos to get something good out of the gate and then just try to get dash/call stuff. Sort the first boss out, switch to the shackle, sell what I need and try to score more Chaos/call/dash stuff.

Subbax

Is there a recommended mirror set? I saw Tempy run all red apart from last 4 in his video so I've copied that except I make my cast regenerate so I don't have to bash it out of enemies. I seem to be able to get 4+ on people in a relatively short space of time this way.

I also want to try out Privileged Status with Dionysus/Aphrodite and the twin fists. That sounds like a sort of dash in/out build, which could solve my problem with fists. I stay in close for too long.

voices

Is the combat in this better than Bastion? I thought Bastion was 'ok', but it never really clicked. If this isn't a lot better then I will give it a miss, despite thinking it looks great.

Minnesänger

Yes. I also didn’t click with their previous work, despite appreciating the quality, but the combat in this is very good.

voices

Good to hear, seems like I'll be giving it a go.

Tempy

Am I the sort of person that's gonna chuck 100 hours into a subpar combat system that has me thirsting after world record times?

My image is being disparaged here, I won't stand for it.

voices

Yes?

Tempy

NO!!!!!!!!!!!

Tempy

I need Ozno in here, so he can do the law.

voices

Are there leaderboards in the game (like Trials) or is it outside the game?

Tempy

Outside the game, but it was just something I was curious in getting involved with cos I enjoyed it a lot.

Roujin

Subbax wrote:

Is there a recommended mirror set? I saw Tempy run all red apart from last 4 in his video so I've copied that except I make my cast regenerate so I don't have to bash it out of enemies. I seem to be able to get 4+ on people in a relatively short space of time this way. I also want to try out Privileged Status with Dionysus/Aphrodite and the twin fists. That sounds like a sort of dash in/out build, which could solve my problem with fists. I stay in close for too long.

Not really, although you can't go wrong with purple for everything apart from maybe the bottom 3 items that control what boon rarities you get and how you reroll boons. The only thing I have that isn't purple most of the time is the option where every time you collect darkness you reclaim a percentage in health, as opposed to healing for 3 hp every room.

They start to become something that needs more attention when you are trying specific weapon sets or boon strats at higher heats where you want to optimise your damage output as much as possible. For instance, having the +40% damage if you apply two status effects, is not always as important if youre going into a run with a weapon that benefits more from big damage attacks as you are more likely to be prioritising attack and special boons that offer big damage, rather than damage plus status effects.

Subbax

Good, at least I'm not doing something really wrong. I like the recharging cast more than battering it out of people as the stuck casts don't count towards the total number I have so I can spam cast every 4 seconds or whatever it is and then reap the benefits of the damage when in enemy boost.

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