As long as you have darkness to spend, you can experiment to your heart's content. It only costs one Chthonic Key to totally reset your mirror, so don't worry about locking yourself into a bad build or anything like that. This is especially relevant once you unlock secondary abilities for the mirror (again, talk to everybody). You can change it whenever you want, either because you think other abilities would benefit specific weapons or play styles, or because you want to try something else. While we do recommend investing in the abilities above, your Mirror of Night is just that – yours.

Don't be afraid to change your Mirror of Night bonuses If you lose your Death Defiance in the middle of a region, you may find that one of Charon's wells sells an item to recharge it for 200 gold.Ĩ. You can stack up to three Death Defiance charges, and the first one is super cheap, so be sure to grab it early.

Death Defiance: respawn at 50% life one time.

This provides another huge damage boost to single targets which is great in boss fights, provided you aren't a cast DPS build.

Boiling Blood: deal 50% more attack and special damage to enemies with a Cast shard embedded in them.

There's no contest here barring pixel perfect i-frames, dodging twice is essential for avoiding many attacks and hazards, especially in the final fight.

Greater Reflex: dodge twice back to back.

A huge, flat damage bonus that's easy to utilize in most builds.

Shadow Presence: increased attack and special damage when hitting enemies from behind.

For your first few hours, we suggest investing in the following buffs:

This is your main way of growing stronger outside of escape attempts, so you're going to spend a lot of time contemplating upgrades. To round things out, we've got a few combat pointers, starting with the Mirror of Night. Her boon rarity boost will dramatically increase the power of future abilities. The benefits of visiting Sisyphus and Patroclus vary depending on how healthy you're feeling, but if you get the option, always go see Eurydice. Finally, Patroclus in Elysium can refill your Death Defiance stock (or buff your Stubborn Defiance), give you a huge chunk of passive healing, or temporarily increase your attack damage. Eurydice in Asphodel will buff your current boons or improve the rarity of the next three boons you get. The special vendor in Tartarus is Sisyphus, and he'll give you some health, darkness, or gold. Speaking of Eurydice: there are three special merchants of sorts in Hades, one for each primary underworld region. And without spoiling anything, something really cool might happen if you give the same person a whole bunch of Nectar. Eurydice's Keepsake, in particular, is a godsend for boss fights, especially the final one. We'd recommend gifting Hypnos, Cerberus, Eurydice (the special vendor in Asphodel), and all of the gods first, and then leveling up their Keepsakes by wearing them while completing encounters. The more Keepsakes you have, the better, and the ones the gods give you are especially valuable since they let you control the types of boons you receive. The first time you give somebody one of these – including gods, who you gift by chucking nectar into their boons before picking them up – they'll give you a new Keepsake.

While you're talking to everyone, give them at least one of the orange Nectars you find while escaping. Even if you don't see a dialogue icon over their head, run up to them and have a quick chat if possible. Talking to those characters can unlock essential abilities like the Codex, as well as new options for the Mirror of Night, so you should always hit up everyone in the underworld after each run. Hades is primarily an action game, but it's also rich with story content and memorable characters. You'll unlock this contractor job once you get the codex, which you can do by speaking to Achilles after a few runs. This is really handy if you're doing a super specific build that hinges on certain boons. While you're at it, you should also have the contractor add the Boon Codex Index, an indispensable list of all the boons you can get from each god. Passively completing Prophecies will help you unlock many other upgrades, and swapping Keepsakes lets you better control your rewards and prepare for bosses.

Sisyphus hades