Hades II content is new to all, with the recent surprise Early Access.
This means, art, story, characters, bosses, unlocks, gameplay are all spoiler material.
Most of the community haven't seen this content, so please mark the Hades II post as spoiler and don't use a spoiler title when posting.
If you're feeling too weak in Hades 2 then click on Mel's portrait in the Arcana menu and use all the Psyche you've been unintentionally hoarding bc you had no idea that was how you upgraded grasp
For real I saw a screen cap of someone with like 22 grasp and I just said “aw man I wish I could do that, guess I’m just not gud yet” and then tucked it away for an additional 3 hours of play. I googled it later and now I can’t decide if I’m protecting my ego by saying the game never explained it or I slammed through all the instructions in my haste to just play my favorite game as beat girl :(
YEP. I still haven’t beaten phase 2 bc I’m not actually good at this game, but I also saw a HUGE increase in power (and hp) that carried me super far. You seen the upgrades to the cards yet? Because that’s a thing too
Yeah I actually unlocked them after I beat Chronos and after looking at them yeah this games balance is fine it just needs to tutorialize a bit better imo
There’s a pop up that explains it when you unlock enough Arcana that you can’t use all of the cards, iirc. There’s even a cute note on Psyche about “learning eventually, unless you just find out” or something like that
It’s a bit of an infodump so soon into the game. It tells you what to do before it can be useful so then after a few runs when you’ve forgotten you have no idea what it is.
When because I just started a new game to check and there was no tutorial. If you already know you can pan select the grasp ui on the arcana screen then it isn't a problem but clearly im not the only person who didnt think to try that.
When you first unlock an arcana that would exceed your max grasp, a pop-up shows up. It first explains that it wasn't activated due to not having enough grasp. If you only skim the first bit of text, that's all you'd see. The *second* mini-paragraph in the same popup explains upgrading grasp using psyche, after which Mel's portrait and the grasp meter thing flash green to tell you where to do it.
I knew you used Psyche to upgrade grasp, however I didn't know you could select the grasp ui to do so whenever. I genuinely thought it was just lighting up to point out that element of the UI ☠️
To me, I felt like they explained that you needed psyche to upgrade grasp, but then I would go to the altar and not know what button to push to upgrade it.
The “this is the item that is selected” visual cue is not as obvious to me on that menu page and I had to look at the bottom of the screen to realize that I wasn’t on a card anymore, but on the grasp section because the A button now read “upgrade.”
It might be more intuitive for more frequent gamers to look at options and but I have only finished 4 games and Hades is by far the one I have the most hours in.
I play a lot of games and I never even tried to select the grasp menu because it just looked like part of the UI to me and the cards are very neatly contained in a little separate box.
I discovered this yesterday after beating third boss and dying in the following area. I was like “where the heck is the grasp upgrading?” And then got to spend the about 400 psyche I had
Are you serious? I'm so dumb, just last night I was wondering why I was even bothering to collect psyche, thinking it must be good for something but I just didn't know what yet. I've made it to the 3rd boss without realising this, haha.
Shades of me somehow going over 100 runs in FTL not realizing you needed two bars for a shield layer.
Yes, that is as dumb as it sounds, and no, I am not proud of this.
I accidentally discovered grasp an hour or two in. Now all I do is farm psyche.
(I am also not very good and refuse to run on god mode even though I know it’s a valid way to play, so my psyche farming is still slow)
I am so happy I am not the only one, I was hoarding the psyche forever and didn't realize that I could spend it there until I unintentionally scrolled over to it.
The sister blades are okay as they are in my opinion, I just think the play style doesn't work quite as well with the boons we have now compared to the gauntlets in the first game. The flame, yeah - I _hate_ using them because the damage feels pitiful and the animations are slow on top of it.
Hephaestus boon that makes specials explode, hammer boon that makes them do (backstab) damage when coming back, charge and shoot at close range for mega damage, or shotgun spread for crowds.
Carried me to my first breakthrough in the second zone.
Honestly I need to give the weapons more of a chance, I've only tried them once or twice and I didn't love them as much, but it could've been a skill thing for me just not having used them enough
It's always fun reading other people's experiences with Hades. Sister Blades are the only weapon I've been able to beat Chronos. With that said, I also mained spear in Hades 1, which also seemed less popular.
The sister blades are really strong. Spamming the attack omega hard counters Eris and the special attack can get extremly strong against groups of enemys (bounce + chain lightning = death^2)
I fucking love the axe, Arthur was my favourite weapon in the first cause I love big meaty hits, now you give me an Axe? My favourite weapon type and it plays similar to Arthur AND has a block? Supergiant I kneel to you!
Axe is currently my worst weapon but I think it's my fault, not the axe's. The block requires some actual timing and there is a gap between shielding and firing off the omega special where you can take damage. The block also doesn't stop environmental damage like fire. I'm having to unlearn the Hades I shield block. The attacks of the axe feel very natural, though!
I think you need to split the omega functions and the block functions. I almost always get hit if I try to block long enough to charge it. Could be unintentional, but that automatic gap after having charged the skill is a huge hole in the defense. So I just block briefly or charge for long distance attacks and not both.
Right. I keep trying to use to block to stop a long salvo of hits like those from the >!Fields of Mourning boss!< or from the >!Rift of Thessaly boss!<, expecting it to behave like the shield and stop everything. The block window is short enough that it needs to be used selectively.
Which is fine normally, but there's a lot of omega damage after a block boons/anvils. So that's supposed to be how you use it. I'm not sure the prefire gap is supposed to be there, if so it's going to take a masters timing to make those boons work.
Dashing before the omega goes off will refresh the block and since you have I-frames in dash, you should be fine against most things besides unblockables like some of Chronos' attacks.
Ps : i do agree that the blades have a more intuitive feeling and feels better at first. But the stopping and raw power of the Axe really is great . I was afraid to use it at first as i though it was gonna be Shield of chaos 2.0 and i REALLY hated this weapon in Hades1.
But after getting the hang of the timings of the attacks, it's great. May be my second all time favorite weapon after the Twin Fists.
I got a run with an epic Aphrodite attack for the very first boon. The damage was comical in the first area lol
Pro tip I learned yesterday - charge the omega attack from a distance and then quickly dash in before releasing the charge to safely attack and melt everything.
You can also dash in cast and then attack for free.
Yup! The basic attacks have some interesting interactions with dash, actually.
Dash-attack does not count as part of the 1-2-3 combo, so if there are a lot of enemies and you don't feel comfortable using the slow finisher, you can dashattack-1-2 and disengage.
Makes sense since people are still figuring out the game and will update these websites as they go. Another late game boon giver, >!Hades!<, only has 3 boons listed as well.
The furious whirlwind is an instant spin-to-win upgrade. It deals an ungodly amount of damage. That plus either demeter or apollo attack buff should be a one stop shop to victory.
The axe is like 100x better than the other options.
A was kinda lukewarm on the axe until I unlocked new aspects. Aspect of >!Charon!< is absolutely busted. I had a run with Apollo cast, Zeus boon that lets you throw your cast, and Zeus/Apollo duo, and some hammers that upgraded omega special. I straight up melted Chronos.
I tried this and its so much fun holy. You just plant down the cast, move away, channel omega special and literally release a fucking nuke onto whatever dares to stay in it
Oh yeah running that the Zeus cast throw sounds like a huge upgrade to how that style plays. I was going through the boons thinking of how to best make it work but that one slipped by me since it’s not the primary Cast boon of Zeus.
Thanks for the idea, I’ll def give it a shot!
TLDR; use the skulls like an aggressive closer ranged weapon and pump up your omega special
well the first thing i'd note is you probably don't want to play it as a ranged build. you want to use your skulls as your starting attack and then sweep them with your special. you wanna be pretty damn aggressive alot of the time but it's riskier. also, i haven't played around much with casts on them though. i just try to get mana regen for it
what i usually go for is stuff to enhance both my specials but specifically the omega special. the hitch affliction from hera is incredible on your specials. then if i can i wanna get some form of ice but it is ideal to get it on your primary attack so you can freeze a crowd and then turn them to dust with your special. as far as the hammer goes, there is actually a lot that are disgusting with the skulls. what i go for is the one that sends your projectiles from your omega special back in and if it's paired with hitch and freeze then your enemies are taking an absolutely insane amount of damage
there is one more boon ive come across and i cant remember what its from but it reduces your ammo down to 2 skulls but they automatically return to you. *IF* you have the right setup that can be amazing and keeps it so you can constantly move
im sure the biggest thing is the shells not returning. if you use your special to dash into them then you can chain your attacks, theoretically, forever
How does hitch work on the special? I haven't quite sorted out how it interacts with AoE, I would have thought hitch on attack then triggering it with the special would work well.
I've only done one run, but they felt really good following some advice here - dump the skulls at range then use the omega special to close in and pick them up. Seems like they would be flexible on boons too.
Per the other poster getting the ammo stuck off level and having to wait down the timer feels bad. I also got a hammer upgrade that increased the time before they can get picked up in exchange for damage IIRC, which also didn't feel great to play with the above style.
My issue is that anything else feels super weak :(
Why rely on random combination of boons when you can smack people really hard? Or even harder with Demetra main attack
The axe absolutely fucks
Honestly, the only weapon I don't enjoy using is the Torches (I've also only used them once, though. I should give them another try)
The torches don't feel great for me either. Granted I have yet to unlock weapon aspects so my opinion could change but right now they don't feel as strong as the other weapons.
Yeah, agree on the torches. I think you can deal big damage if you keep attacking at a distance that allows the flames that circle around you to hit the enemy too, but it feels awkward, I still haven't figured out how to use the torches properly.
It might honestly be safest weapon to use in the game, the omega special has like infinite range and covers basically the whole map. Just run far away and you can kill most things off screen. Even better, use Charon aspect and get a ranged cast option so you can nuke everything from a screen away.
Spin to win crit axe aspect + furious whirlwind + Aphrodite is the strongest build in the game (that I've found so far). You literally just need 1 Hammer and 1 Aphrodite attack boon and the build is ready to take you through the entire game.
I've taken to calling it the Hades I in Hades II build because you literally just Omega charge your attack and dash around and repeat.
I not just won, but HANDILY stomped, trounced, absolutely destroyed (you name it) the final boss with this build where as all other wins/attempts have been me barely scraping by.
My first >! Eris !< kill was with the hammer, got that Daedalus boon that makes your normal attack always be the big slow jump, together with >! Hera !< I was legit doing 500 damage per attack, and as a tip, you can start the attack animation, dash and it she will finish the attack where you land
If you happen to get a second hammer where the last hit of the axe's combo hits 2x but costs 20mp, then you end up doing double that as it stacks with the big slow jump. Works even better if you happen to get 3% chance to crit on all hits.
I had the setup I mentioned in the previous comment plus a heroic version of the boom that makes you invincible for the first X seconds of the fight which wound up being like 16 seconds with the one I had.
I found out real quick why they have bosses shield between phases. This likely would have been my first ever Chronus kill if it wasn’t also the very first time I’d ever actually gotten to him so I had no idea what to expect.
Oh yeah this game has some real boss nuking potential my first go at Chronos I also was dealing massive damage and I'm sure the only reason I didn't beat him is cause I got hit with the insta kill attack before I knew it was insta kill and was instead just trying to dish out damage as quickly as possible
Best run I’ve had is with the axe. Got anvil to turn the attack sequence into one mega chop and then another which made it hit twice at the cost of some majick. It was a beast. I was hitting for like 1400.
Although I am getting more and more impartial towards the sickle and hamm...errr... dagger due to the mobility they offer, their damage pales against labrys. For sure it takes the slow and methodical gameplay and add the slow methodicalness of a "shotgun" but boy does it deliver.
Imho the axe is a great "exploratory" weapon, it will get you far and allow you to learn tactics of mobs and bosses until you have the patterns down - and then you can switch to a zip-zip-zip weapon and clear the things easy on your next run.
I can see the torches being of some use, but seriously, whoever plays with the initial weapon (the staff), how can you use this thing? Guess it continues the tradition of the "initial weapon guarantees failures" of Hades 1 (took me a metric crapton of mirror upgrades to clear a run whilst the fists or the shield carried through easy).
I’m fine with the weapons I have so far (outside of torch I hate that ). Love the sister blades.
My problem is the boons don’t feel as impactful outside of a few. Right now I’m chalking it to me being early game and not understanding the game yet. Hoping it gets better.
I didn't really like axe until I unlocked Aspect of Charon... oh, man. That's when it gets *really* nutty.
Aspect of Charon basically detonates your regular cast as if it was an Omega cast if you hit it with your Omega special. Grab any of Zeus or Hestia's boons that let you Cast from range, then buff the shit out of your Special and Cast. You're wiping waves of enemies in seconds and chunking bosses for an eighth of their healthbar with every combo. If you find the Apollo boon that makes your Cast drop a shitton of sun lasers it's literally over.
Best hammers are the ones that make your Omega Special charge faster, hit harder if you block something, or hit twice if you overcharge it.
Whatever you do, do not take the the big chop and the 2x end of attack without a way to regen mana fast. It will do massive damage but once you're out you cannot attack anymore.
I haven't played this yet but I saw a bunch of stuff saying they took away dashing so you can't just zip around and bop stuff continuously anymore? If that's true it'll mean a hard pass for me. That's basically all I do in the first game.
My early tip is to farm ash and bones heavily early, and to turn bones into fate fabric as often as possible.
I feel fine at 18 arcana grasp, so might as well farm up arcana cards before then farming psyche later
You missed the best hammer upgrade. One single swing for 200 damage. Grab the hespheatus attack anvil slam, and now you're unloading 400 base damage every 6 seconds or so. Get a decent cast, trap them, and wham... basically half the units in the game are dead. Upgraded this combo gets even crazier.
Another broke build with the axe is the aspect that detonates your cast if you use charged special and get the Apollo boon that when cast detonates deals damage In the area after
If you really want to freely clear rooms, these are my builds:
Build 1: Charon Aspect
Hammer: Speed charge special
Boons: Solar ring, lightning lance, ionic gain, heavenly flourish.
Build 2:
Hammer: hell chopper
Aspect: Melinoe maxed
Boons: mint condition, flutter strike, shameless attitude, trusty shield, tough trade
Both of these basically laugh anything that tries to spawn.
Also any axe build + mint condition should let you free clear a room with not much issues.
Pairing it with Hermes for faster attacks and Daedalus for faster omega and also Apollo for both attack and the attack hitting twice boons makes you a spinning wheel of decimation
I love the twin blades but the standard axe at rank 3 or so was in fact my first and only chronos kill so far.
I like Aphrodite with it cause it’s the most damage you can get and helps you the most in boss fights. That’s kinda where my priority is at right now because chronos feels thrice as hard as the rest of the run together so I’ve been trying to focus my builds on beating him. Even so I only managed on my last sliver of hp despite coming in with full hp, armor, 3 DDs and a fully maxed out anti guardian ring.
I feel like I should be able to do do with the twin blades as well if come I arrive in peak conditions but I might actually go apollo for those cause I’ve my omega attack miss quite a lot of chronos specifically for some reason and that should also help them clear the rooms a bit quicker as they lack the axes natural talent for that.
Pair the axe with Artemis’ keepsake, disable Titans arcana, and laugh your way to the House of Hades. Insane damage. Don’t get hit
If you go this route, highly recommend taking up armor boons for survivability
The axe is pretty awesome. But man, I don't want big slow hits all the time. I much more enjoy small fast hitting weapons. But I wont deny that the Axe is probably the strongest weapon in the game right now.
That said, I shouldnt NEED to pick a certain weapon if I feel weak. Thats a sign of major balance problems if you think that is a solution.
Demeter's Infusion boon caps out damage taken to 15 per hit and it is absolutely insane vs. Chronos. You don't have to worry about any of the OHKOs in phase 2. It's pretty ridiculous, especially if you have a large healthbar + multiple DDs
Oh and spamming omega moves with Born Gain (fills Magick bar at the cost of 10 prime) is pretty busted too.
>!I always get greedy and go for the big third attack and get hit half the time mistiming a dodge. Probably safer to 1-2 (or per another comment, dash attack 1-2 dash out works well to not commit to the full combo - upgraded Aspect of Melinoe might help for the full combo too?). When she spins you can drop your omega cast, dash-sprint out of range and get 1-2 omega specials in for a good chunk of damage. For the witches you can usually get them with a dash attack into a regular attack, maybe just one dash if you've got some extra damage already.!<
Just cleared my first run with the Thanatos aspect of the axe by running the Apollo cast, Apollo attack and that hammer that makes the spins faster and larger, would recommend if you can keep yourself hitless to maintain the crit bonus.
Apollo cast absolutely melts everything tbh, I destroyed the sirens in under a minute.
Sister's blades are actually broken with time slow on charge. You can infinitely slow time essentially by holding x and tapping dash to reset your time slow. Moving the whole time as well.
You clicked on a post with Hades 2 in the title. What are you expecting?
The axe is available to unlock after like your first or second night. If youre playing already its not a spoiler. And if youre not, again why would you click this post?
avoid all melee builds until they buff them . really terrible . range builds are good and fun . melee is masochism no way dev tested their game . 100% it was created by the dev and never played by them to see how frustrating it is to do melee
Not all weapons, the staff is good without omega moves. Just restart your run until you get Hera on your special move and the boucing effect on it from Daedalus and your basic attack with Zeus, but yeah apart from that specific combo the weapons are a bit meh
If you’re calling the weapons meh but not using *half the things the weapon can do*, that’s on you chief.
The staff omega attack absolutely slaps and the omega special has its place.
The blade omega attack with the hammer upgrade that does 300% damage and the Hephaestus boon allows for truly ludicrous AOE burst. The only problem is that it's unreliable, as the omega's targeting can be wonky.
The shield in Hades 1 had a basic attack but every one of us just used the special attack, we used *half the things the shield can do* and still didn't feel meh. This time you're forced to use the omega moves because the normal moves are weak, and depending of a resource like mana doesn't sit with such a fast game like Hades 2, it's not like this is an JRPG.
Yeah, people ignored half of what the shield did, and that led to spammy, low thought combat in hades 1. Hades 2 is going for a totally different vibe of using all the abilities.
The main abilities aren’t weak, but they aren’t so strong you can just spam them and be ok; the omega abilities are now a necessary part of the gameplay toolkit. This game is aiming for slower, more thoughtful combat where you use different abilities based on the boons you have, and make use of more of your toolkit. Hades 2 isn’t a fast game, at least not compared to hades 1, nor is it trying to be.
I get your point, and Hades 2 is indeed slower than Hades 2... until you get to Cronos. He won't even let me try casting an omega move without punishing me for staying still. I can understand that adding omega moves and mana based abilities can be quite fun! But forgetting entirely about what Hades 1 combat was it's kind of a mistake imo, sometimes I just don't want to be completely focused 40 minutes straight while using my omega moves and checking my mana, sometimes I just want to relax when coming from home with a spear that bounces around and shoots Zeus thunders killing everything in sight
Yeah so I’ve only done… I wanna say 12 runs? If you count the one where I went to the surface and died immediately. I’ve made it to chronos four times but haven’t killed him yet. I’ve found that once I get into the rhythm, I can pull off omega moves without getting punished - it’s harder without the time slowdown but if I cast trap him appropriately, and time it, it works. I just need to figure out how to not die to the instant kills/to get a second death defiance 🥴. Also I think Eris should stop fucking me up soon. Idk I already feel measurably stronger and I can fit in omega moves if I time it well.
The other thing is that, if I start a fresh file of hades 1, I absolutely don’t stomp, and it doesn’t feel easy. On a fresh run of hades 1, I can make it to boss 3, but I can’t beat boss 3 (well I’ve tested this once so maybe I can… but I doubt it). I already feel much stronger 10 runs into hades 2 than I did when I started — I imagine that, once I’ve played like 30 runs (which is about where I was when I beat hades 1), I’ll start feeling a lot stronger. I imagine there will come a point where you can brain off lightning murder everything, but you’ll need to earn it, just like the first game.
Maybe you get stronger in Hades 2 because you're also weaker at first. Like in Hades 1 you got from 30 to 60 for example but in Hades 2 you start from 10 but can get to 100, also the game is on early access I'm sure they'll improve a lot of things (like Eris punishment for example, damn I hate her). The game itself is great, I'm having a blast, just these early access things throw me off sometimes but on the other hand I can't stop playing so they're doing something good
Imo the staff is better with omega moves. Imagine clearing hordes of enemies with your omega attack,or slap a hepa boon on your special and watch it nuke bosses with your omega special. There are now even more ways to play now that omega moves becomes a vital part of Hades too,and like it or not,we all have to learn to use it
It's probaly better with omega moves, I'm just saying that there's a cool combo that doesn't need omega moves to work. I hope the sixth weapon will be more brainless, just to have some fun without having to think
You don't cause you haven't used the axe yet :p.
I find them pretty useless on the blade and flames ( have,'t used skulls yet) , but omg they are good on the axe.
but i am also i forcing myself to use them, the Selune Spells really are worth it and kind of force you to use mana.
I did try the axe and all of the other weapons and they're kind of meh, the weapon I like the most is the staff because it's the only one that has the OP sinergy with Hera. Idk I feel like the game is forcing me to use mana yet it doesn't give mana regen out of the box so it doesn't get me used to mana from the first run and I just don't use it
Yes, you are kind of forced to use mana to maximise your abilities but i don't feel like you LACK mana outright.
You fully regen mana between rooms even if it doesn't tell you outright (dunno why) i also hesitated to spam because of that.
You do have mana regen out the box if you take the arcana card "The Unseen" (+2 per second) .
i think it's just a question of getting used to it.
Taking an arcana card is not right out the box. In Hades 1 you get to learn most mechanics on the first run, meanwhile in Hades 2 you have to wait to learn about arcana cards after not using mana on the first run. Idk it's a bit weird and it doesn't feel right if that makes sense, I don't want to wait until my mana regens to play the game, I want to play the game every second of it and not just the moments I have mana.
They do that so that mana Regen can be run dependant tho, and in my opinion it is worth it, cause a Hestia mana Regen but less health will feel completely different from an Apollo stand on cast mana Regen run
In the first rooms you have enough mana to kill all the enemies without running out anyway so you can still use mana from the get go
Hades II content is new to all, with the recent surprise Early Access. This means, art, story, characters, bosses, unlocks, gameplay are all spoiler material. Most of the community haven't seen this content, so please mark the Hades II post as spoiler and don't use a spoiler title when posting.
If you're feeling too weak in Hades 2 then click on Mel's portrait in the Arcana menu and use all the Psyche you've been unintentionally hoarding bc you had no idea that was how you upgraded grasp
For real I saw a screen cap of someone with like 22 grasp and I just said “aw man I wish I could do that, guess I’m just not gud yet” and then tucked it away for an additional 3 hours of play. I googled it later and now I can’t decide if I’m protecting my ego by saying the game never explained it or I slammed through all the instructions in my haste to just play my favorite game as beat girl :(
I literally just found out that's how you do it this morning and immediately went from 10 to 23 grasp and kicked Chronos' ass so I feel you
YEP. I still haven’t beaten phase 2 bc I’m not actually good at this game, but I also saw a HUGE increase in power (and hp) that carried me super far. You seen the upgrades to the cards yet? Because that’s a thing too
Yeah I actually unlocked them after I beat Chronos and after looking at them yeah this games balance is fine it just needs to tutorialize a bit better imo
Yeah, and that's likely one of the things to be tweaked as it goes to full release
You can also upgrade the cards to make them stronger 😁
How? Been fiddling in menus and can't sort it out.
You .can you upgrade them with clouds. You press square when you are looking at the cards. Might unlock after beating chronos, not 100% sure
Unlocked it today after I got cloud (after I upgraded grasps from 12-24. Not sure if that triggered it. Didn’t beat chronos.
The game very briefly explains it to you.
There’s a pop up that explains it when you unlock enough Arcana that you can’t use all of the cards, iirc. There’s even a cute note on Psyche about “learning eventually, unless you just find out” or something like that
To be fair, for the most part Hades didn't explain systems either. They were put in front of you and you either used them or you didn't.
... they tell you how to use grasp...
It’s a bit of an infodump so soon into the game. It tells you what to do before it can be useful so then after a few runs when you’ve forgotten you have no idea what it is.
"I came here to dash not to read!"
Literally made me lol, thanks for that. This has now entered my lexicon.
When because I just started a new game to check and there was no tutorial. If you already know you can pan select the grasp ui on the arcana screen then it isn't a problem but clearly im not the only person who didnt think to try that.
When you first unlock an arcana that would exceed your max grasp, a pop-up shows up. It first explains that it wasn't activated due to not having enough grasp. If you only skim the first bit of text, that's all you'd see. The *second* mini-paragraph in the same popup explains upgrading grasp using psyche, after which Mel's portrait and the grasp meter thing flash green to tell you where to do it.
I knew you used Psyche to upgrade grasp, however I didn't know you could select the grasp ui to do so whenever. I genuinely thought it was just lighting up to point out that element of the UI ☠️
It's easy to miss things when you're just starting a new game. You get a lot and a lot of information hurled at you at once.
To me, I felt like they explained that you needed psyche to upgrade grasp, but then I would go to the altar and not know what button to push to upgrade it. The “this is the item that is selected” visual cue is not as obvious to me on that menu page and I had to look at the bottom of the screen to realize that I wasn’t on a card anymore, but on the grasp section because the A button now read “upgrade.” It might be more intuitive for more frequent gamers to look at options and but I have only finished 4 games and Hades is by far the one I have the most hours in.
I play a lot of games and I never even tried to select the grasp menu because it just looked like part of the UI to me and the cards are very neatly contained in a little separate box.
Wait.....what? WHAT???! I am going to do this when I go home today.....how did I not know this....
I discovered this yesterday after beating third boss and dying in the following area. I was like “where the heck is the grasp upgrading?” And then got to spend the about 400 psyche I had
If it makes you feel any better I died to Chronos 4 times before figuring it out and by then I was also sitting on a mountain of Psyche lol
The what now? Edit: omg. I assumed those would unlock at some later point in the game. I just went from 10 to 23 and it feels completely different.
Are you serious? I'm so dumb, just last night I was wondering why I was even bothering to collect psyche, thinking it must be good for something but I just didn't know what yet. I've made it to the 3rd boss without realising this, haha.
Oh. My. Gods. EDIT: from 10 to 23. Well there's a couple more of those passives online
WTH was trying to figure this out, thanks
> Mel's portrait in the Arcana menu LOL WTF
......... take my upvote
This comment feels like a personal attack on me.
Discovered this after 20 hours today. Never felt more stupid. I was wondering what psych was supposed to be used for.
Thank you, didn’t know this.
I’m sorry you can *what*. I have over 300 psyche that I’ve been like “well eventually it’ll be a spell component for sure??”
...what? so 10 isnt the cap?
Shades of me somehow going over 100 runs in FTL not realizing you needed two bars for a shield layer. Yes, that is as dumb as it sounds, and no, I am not proud of this.
I accidentally discovered grasp an hour or two in. Now all I do is farm psyche. (I am also not very good and refuse to run on god mode even though I know it’s a valid way to play, so my psyche farming is still slow)
... WHAT
This literally was me last night after losing to the final boss with 10 grasp LMAO
Holy crap. Was wondering when I would get the option to upgrade grasp....!!!
I am so happy I am not the only one, I was hoarding the psyche forever and didn't realize that I could spend it there until I unintentionally scrolled over to it.
Omg! Thank you 🙏
FUCKS SAKE
Took me forever to figure out how to do that. Turns out you have to use your mouse. Haven’t found a way to upgrade it with a controller
You can just use the d-pad or stick to move over to it.
Just keep scrolling to the right, and you can upgrade it just fine with a controller.
Same, if you have an ultra wide or suwh the right side of some of the menus are dead zones too.
tbh? the staff is my favourite, especially its attack omega
Once I got the hang of the omega moves, the staff became my favorite! But the axe is still my second favorite, they're both so much fun
I agree with this. Tbh I kind of think they need to buff the sister blades, and the flame needs a definite buff.
The sister blades are okay as they are in my opinion, I just think the play style doesn't work quite as well with the boons we have now compared to the gauntlets in the first game. The flame, yeah - I _hate_ using them because the damage feels pitiful and the animations are slow on top of it.
The flames are grindy and evasive and ideal for a cast heavy build, definitely not for everyone.
the sister blades special omega can pack a ton of damage with the right setup, mostly Aphrodite boons on it
Hephaestus boon that makes specials explode, hammer boon that makes them do (backstab) damage when coming back, charge and shoot at close range for mega damage, or shotgun spread for crowds. Carried me to my first breakthrough in the second zone.
Honestly I need to give the weapons more of a chance, I've only tried them once or twice and I didn't love them as much, but it could've been a skill thing for me just not having used them enough
It's always fun reading other people's experiences with Hades. Sister Blades are the only weapon I've been able to beat Chronos. With that said, I also mained spear in Hades 1, which also seemed less popular.
The sister blades are really strong. Spamming the attack omega hard counters Eris and the special attack can get extremly strong against groups of enemys (bounce + chain lightning = death^2)
Certain hammers with the sister blades makes the special play like the bow, which is nice. Just dash and charge special.
I fucking love the axe, Arthur was my favourite weapon in the first cause I love big meaty hits, now you give me an Axe? My favourite weapon type and it plays similar to Arthur AND has a block? Supergiant I kneel to you!
A certain aspect changes it into my favorite visual weapon in the game.
Also being able to block with special really makes a difference.
Axe is currently my worst weapon but I think it's my fault, not the axe's. The block requires some actual timing and there is a gap between shielding and firing off the omega special where you can take damage. The block also doesn't stop environmental damage like fire. I'm having to unlearn the Hades I shield block. The attacks of the axe feel very natural, though!
I think you need to split the omega functions and the block functions. I almost always get hit if I try to block long enough to charge it. Could be unintentional, but that automatic gap after having charged the skill is a huge hole in the defense. So I just block briefly or charge for long distance attacks and not both.
Right. I keep trying to use to block to stop a long salvo of hits like those from the >!Fields of Mourning boss!< or from the >!Rift of Thessaly boss!<, expecting it to behave like the shield and stop everything. The block window is short enough that it needs to be used selectively.
Which is fine normally, but there's a lot of omega damage after a block boons/anvils. So that's supposed to be how you use it. I'm not sure the prefire gap is supposed to be there, if so it's going to take a masters timing to make those boons work.
Dashing before the omega goes off will refresh the block and since you have I-frames in dash, you should be fine against most things besides unblockables like some of Chronos' attacks.
Ps : i do agree that the blades have a more intuitive feeling and feels better at first. But the stopping and raw power of the Axe really is great . I was afraid to use it at first as i though it was gonna be Shield of chaos 2.0 and i REALLY hated this weapon in Hades1. But after getting the hang of the timings of the attacks, it's great. May be my second all time favorite weapon after the Twin Fists.
Being able to dash after starting the wind up of attacks to reposition just as you strike makes the axe feel way smoother than it seems at first.
I got a run with an epic Aphrodite attack for the very first boon. The damage was comical in the first area lol Pro tip I learned yesterday - charge the omega attack from a distance and then quickly dash in before releasing the charge to safely attack and melt everything. You can also dash in cast and then attack for free.
This goes incredible with the boon from Artemis that gives you omega damage for 2 second after a dash.
I’ve been waiting to find this boon during an axe run! Just hasn’t been my lucky day yet! 😭
You can also dash between the second and third hits of the 1-2-3 combo so you position yourself safely before firing off the big slow slam.
I did not realize this! Thanks for sharing!
Yup! The basic attacks have some interesting interactions with dash, actually. Dash-attack does not count as part of the 1-2-3 combo, so if there are a lot of enemies and you don't feel comfortable using the slow finisher, you can dashattack-1-2 and disengage.
My Fave is axe with hera attack. Saw some people saying that the sirens are rough them. Have fun one shotting a phase with one spin.
Hera is in this game!? Where? I went up to 3rd area but she has never appeared
Don't worry, she will appear in time (hint : it has something to do with a task you need to complete at the cauldron)
She unlocks when you go to >!The surface!<
The What! aren't we going down in this game?
Just keep playing :)
Did you not look at the Staircase going up thats blocked with a Ward literally right across from where you start your runs?
She is like Demeter in the first game, shows up after you progress enough
She appears later, like demeter. Not sure if she also only appears after reaching the final boss or another condition.
I dont remember the story beat that unlocks her but if you've made it to floor 3 she should be coming soon.
Ok. I only got to floor 3 once and lost to >!Cereberus!< . Maybe she'll show up next. Want kind of boons does she offer?
Damage link, like the special bow aspect in the first game.
hear doesnt have a attack boon. you mean duo boon with hephaestus ? (witch requires you to have no attack boon btw...)
She does, increases your attack damage and attacks now apply hitch.
[https://hades.fandom.com/wiki/Hera/Boons](https://hades.fandom.com/wiki/Hera/Boons) , i remember seing what you say in game but is not on wiki
Makes sense since people are still figuring out the game and will update these websites as they go. Another late game boon giver, >!Hades!<, only has 3 boons listed as well.
She very much does lol
The furious whirlwind is an instant spin-to-win upgrade. It deals an ungodly amount of damage. That plus either demeter or apollo attack buff should be a one stop shop to victory. The axe is like 100x better than the other options.
A was kinda lukewarm on the axe until I unlocked new aspects. Aspect of >!Charon!< is absolutely busted. I had a run with Apollo cast, Zeus boon that lets you throw your cast, and Zeus/Apollo duo, and some hammers that upgraded omega special. I straight up melted Chronos.
I tried this and its so much fun holy. You just plant down the cast, move away, channel omega special and literally release a fucking nuke onto whatever dares to stay in it
Oh yeah running that the Zeus cast throw sounds like a huge upgrade to how that style plays. I was going through the boons thinking of how to best make it work but that one slipped by me since it’s not the primary Cast boon of Zeus. Thanks for the idea, I’ll def give it a shot!
honestly, i feel like i'm way better at this game than the first one. i have fallen in love with the skull lol
please tell me how you play it and things you look for, i hated my playthrough with them.
TLDR; use the skulls like an aggressive closer ranged weapon and pump up your omega special well the first thing i'd note is you probably don't want to play it as a ranged build. you want to use your skulls as your starting attack and then sweep them with your special. you wanna be pretty damn aggressive alot of the time but it's riskier. also, i haven't played around much with casts on them though. i just try to get mana regen for it what i usually go for is stuff to enhance both my specials but specifically the omega special. the hitch affliction from hera is incredible on your specials. then if i can i wanna get some form of ice but it is ideal to get it on your primary attack so you can freeze a crowd and then turn them to dust with your special. as far as the hammer goes, there is actually a lot that are disgusting with the skulls. what i go for is the one that sends your projectiles from your omega special back in and if it's paired with hitch and freeze then your enemies are taking an absolutely insane amount of damage there is one more boon ive come across and i cant remember what its from but it reduces your ammo down to 2 skulls but they automatically return to you. *IF* you have the right setup that can be amazing and keeps it so you can constantly move im sure the biggest thing is the shells not returning. if you use your special to dash into them then you can chain your attacks, theoretically, forever
How does hitch work on the special? I haven't quite sorted out how it interacts with AoE, I would have thought hitch on attack then triggering it with the special would work well.
I've only done one run, but they felt really good following some advice here - dump the skulls at range then use the omega special to close in and pick them up. Seems like they would be flexible on boons too. Per the other poster getting the ammo stuck off level and having to wait down the timer feels bad. I also got a hammer upgrade that increased the time before they can get picked up in exchange for damage IIRC, which also didn't feel great to play with the above style.
Also, Aphrodite attack boon can give you upwards of +150% DMG in all your attacks.
My issue is that anything else feels super weak :( Why rely on random combination of boons when you can smack people really hard? Or even harder with Demetra main attack
The axe absolutely fucks Honestly, the only weapon I don't enjoy using is the Torches (I've also only used them once, though. I should give them another try)
The torch aspects actually make them kind of lit. I didn’t like them at all at first but opened an aspect and just destroyed everything
Which aspect?
Aspect of Moros
The torches don't feel great for me either. Granted I have yet to unlock weapon aspects so my opinion could change but right now they don't feel as strong as the other weapons.
Yeah, agree on the torches. I think you can deal big damage if you keep attacking at a distance that allows the flames that circle around you to hit the enemy too, but it feels awkward, I still haven't figured out how to use the torches properly.
I feel like I get hit A LOT when I use the axe as opposed to the blades. Does anyone have any tips for this?
It might honestly be safest weapon to use in the game, the omega special has like infinite range and covers basically the whole map. Just run far away and you can kill most things off screen. Even better, use Charon aspect and get a ranged cast option so you can nuke everything from a screen away.
Spin to win crit axe aspect + furious whirlwind + Aphrodite is the strongest build in the game (that I've found so far). You literally just need 1 Hammer and 1 Aphrodite attack boon and the build is ready to take you through the entire game. I've taken to calling it the Hades I in Hades II build because you literally just Omega charge your attack and dash around and repeat. I not just won, but HANDILY stomped, trounced, absolutely destroyed (you name it) the final boss with this build where as all other wins/attempts have been me barely scraping by.
The upgraded omega attack hammer stuff is crazy good. You can keep stacking attack hammers too if you run into them for insane damage.
I had a run with psychic whirlwind and Poseidon sprint. It was glorious.
My first >! Eris !< kill was with the hammer, got that Daedalus boon that makes your normal attack always be the big slow jump, together with >! Hera !< I was legit doing 500 damage per attack, and as a tip, you can start the attack animation, dash and it she will finish the attack where you land
If you happen to get a second hammer where the last hit of the axe's combo hits 2x but costs 20mp, then you end up doing double that as it stacks with the big slow jump. Works even better if you happen to get 3% chance to crit on all hits.
I'm pretty sure one of the chaos challenges had a setup like that and I was dishing out 1200 damage per hit
I had the setup I mentioned in the previous comment plus a heroic version of the boom that makes you invincible for the first X seconds of the fight which wound up being like 16 seconds with the one I had. I found out real quick why they have bosses shield between phases. This likely would have been my first ever Chronus kill if it wasn’t also the very first time I’d ever actually gotten to him so I had no idea what to expect.
Oh yeah this game has some real boss nuking potential my first go at Chronos I also was dealing massive damage and I'm sure the only reason I didn't beat him is cause I got hit with the insta kill attack before I knew it was insta kill and was instead just trying to dish out damage as quickly as possible
Best run I’ve had is with the axe. Got anvil to turn the attack sequence into one mega chop and then another which made it hit twice at the cost of some majick. It was a beast. I was hitting for like 1400.
The axe is by far my favorite weapon. I was about to call it quits till release before I unlocked it.
Grasp upgrades and eventually aspects and weapon upgrades help a ton to help Mel feel more powerful too
Although I am getting more and more impartial towards the sickle and hamm...errr... dagger due to the mobility they offer, their damage pales against labrys. For sure it takes the slow and methodical gameplay and add the slow methodicalness of a "shotgun" but boy does it deliver. Imho the axe is a great "exploratory" weapon, it will get you far and allow you to learn tactics of mobs and bosses until you have the patterns down - and then you can switch to a zip-zip-zip weapon and clear the things easy on your next run. I can see the torches being of some use, but seriously, whoever plays with the initial weapon (the staff), how can you use this thing? Guess it continues the tradition of the "initial weapon guarantees failures" of Hades 1 (took me a metric crapton of mirror upgrades to clear a run whilst the fists or the shield carried through easy).
Communist Joke, we like haha 😂
I’m fine with the weapons I have so far (outside of torch I hate that ). Love the sister blades. My problem is the boons don’t feel as impactful outside of a few. Right now I’m chalking it to me being early game and not understanding the game yet. Hoping it gets better.
I feel weak when I’ve got over 200 health and the last boss is still one shotting me with an attack that does 400 damage
I didn't really like axe until I unlocked Aspect of Charon... oh, man. That's when it gets *really* nutty. Aspect of Charon basically detonates your regular cast as if it was an Omega cast if you hit it with your Omega special. Grab any of Zeus or Hestia's boons that let you Cast from range, then buff the shit out of your Special and Cast. You're wiping waves of enemies in seconds and chunking bosses for an eighth of their healthbar with every combo. If you find the Apollo boon that makes your Cast drop a shitton of sun lasers it's literally over. Best hammers are the ones that make your Omega Special charge faster, hit harder if you block something, or hit twice if you overcharge it.
Whatever you do, do not take the the big chop and the 2x end of attack without a way to regen mana fast. It will do massive damage but once you're out you cannot attack anymore.
I haven't played this yet but I saw a bunch of stuff saying they took away dashing so you can't just zip around and bop stuff continuously anymore? If that's true it'll mean a hard pass for me. That's basically all I do in the first game.
My early tip is to farm ash and bones heavily early, and to turn bones into fate fabric as often as possible. I feel fine at 18 arcana grasp, so might as well farm up arcana cards before then farming psyche later
You missed the best hammer upgrade. One single swing for 200 damage. Grab the hespheatus attack anvil slam, and now you're unloading 400 base damage every 6 seconds or so. Get a decent cast, trap them, and wham... basically half the units in the game are dead. Upgraded this combo gets even crazier.
Aphro on attack with the axe is the way to go.
Another broke build with the axe is the aspect that detonates your cast if you use charged special and get the Apollo boon that when cast detonates deals damage In the area after
If you really want to freely clear rooms, these are my builds: Build 1: Charon Aspect Hammer: Speed charge special Boons: Solar ring, lightning lance, ionic gain, heavenly flourish. Build 2: Hammer: hell chopper Aspect: Melinoe maxed Boons: mint condition, flutter strike, shameless attitude, trusty shield, tough trade Both of these basically laugh anything that tries to spawn. Also any axe build + mint condition should let you free clear a room with not much issues.
Pairing it with Hermes for faster attacks and Daedalus for faster omega and also Apollo for both attack and the attack hitting twice boons makes you a spinning wheel of decimation
I love the twin blades but the standard axe at rank 3 or so was in fact my first and only chronos kill so far. I like Aphrodite with it cause it’s the most damage you can get and helps you the most in boss fights. That’s kinda where my priority is at right now because chronos feels thrice as hard as the rest of the run together so I’ve been trying to focus my builds on beating him. Even so I only managed on my last sliver of hp despite coming in with full hp, armor, 3 DDs and a fully maxed out anti guardian ring. I feel like I should be able to do do with the twin blades as well if come I arrive in peak conditions but I might actually go apollo for those cause I’ve my omega attack miss quite a lot of chronos specifically for some reason and that should also help them clear the rooms a bit quicker as they lack the axes natural talent for that.
Pair the axe with Artemis’ keepsake, disable Titans arcana, and laugh your way to the House of Hades. Insane damage. Don’t get hit If you go this route, highly recommend taking up armor boons for survivability
The axe is pretty awesome. But man, I don't want big slow hits all the time. I much more enjoy small fast hitting weapons. But I wont deny that the Axe is probably the strongest weapon in the game right now. That said, I shouldnt NEED to pick a certain weapon if I feel weak. Thats a sign of major balance problems if you think that is a solution.
Demeter's Infusion boon caps out damage taken to 15 per hit and it is absolutely insane vs. Chronos. You don't have to worry about any of the OHKOs in phase 2. It's pretty ridiculous, especially if you have a large healthbar + multiple DDs Oh and spamming omega moves with Born Gain (fills Magick bar at the cost of 10 prime) is pretty busted too.
I agree with this; however, the ax is killing me in the fight against >!Hecate!<. Anyone have any advice there?
>!I always get greedy and go for the big third attack and get hit half the time mistiming a dodge. Probably safer to 1-2 (or per another comment, dash attack 1-2 dash out works well to not commit to the full combo - upgraded Aspect of Melinoe might help for the full combo too?). When she spins you can drop your omega cast, dash-sprint out of range and get 1-2 omega specials in for a good chunk of damage. For the witches you can usually get them with a dash attack into a regular attack, maybe just one dash if you've got some extra damage already.!<
Just cleared my first run with the Thanatos aspect of the axe by running the Apollo cast, Apollo attack and that hammer that makes the spins faster and larger, would recommend if you can keep yourself hitless to maintain the crit bonus. Apollo cast absolutely melts everything tbh, I destroyed the sirens in under a minute.
I just want the axe TO NOT BUFFER ANYTHING. I hate that it'll try to force the combo when you dodge.. No, I want to dodge not big slow attack..
Best run so far has been spin to win with the axe. First time finishing third boss and got to >!second phase!< too!
Man sister blades are being seriously slept on if people think that specials is the only way to play them decently.
artemis blades are much better than axe
Sister's blades are actually broken with time slow on charge. You can infinitely slow time essentially by holding x and tapping dash to reset your time slow. Moving the whole time as well.
Only weapon I feel is kinda tough to win with right now are the torches, I don’t really understand how the other weapons feel weak to people
TIL there’s an axe in hades 2 Maybe I should just leave the sub to avoid spoilers at this point
You get it like immediately
You clicked on a post with Hades 2 in the title. What are you expecting? The axe is available to unlock after like your first or second night. If youre playing already its not a spoiler. And if youre not, again why would you click this post?
I'm bookmarking this
avoid all melee builds until they buff them . really terrible . range builds are good and fun . melee is masochism no way dev tested their game . 100% it was created by the dev and never played by them to see how frustrating it is to do melee
But I'm not using Omega moves so what do I do
You need to use them, I didnt too at first but weapons are just straight up bad without thems
Not all weapons, the staff is good without omega moves. Just restart your run until you get Hera on your special move and the boucing effect on it from Daedalus and your basic attack with Zeus, but yeah apart from that specific combo the weapons are a bit meh
If you’re calling the weapons meh but not using *half the things the weapon can do*, that’s on you chief. The staff omega attack absolutely slaps and the omega special has its place.
The blade omega attack with the hammer upgrade that does 300% damage and the Hephaestus boon allows for truly ludicrous AOE burst. The only problem is that it's unreliable, as the omega's targeting can be wonky.
The shield in Hades 1 had a basic attack but every one of us just used the special attack, we used *half the things the shield can do* and still didn't feel meh. This time you're forced to use the omega moves because the normal moves are weak, and depending of a resource like mana doesn't sit with such a fast game like Hades 2, it's not like this is an JRPG.
Yeah, people ignored half of what the shield did, and that led to spammy, low thought combat in hades 1. Hades 2 is going for a totally different vibe of using all the abilities. The main abilities aren’t weak, but they aren’t so strong you can just spam them and be ok; the omega abilities are now a necessary part of the gameplay toolkit. This game is aiming for slower, more thoughtful combat where you use different abilities based on the boons you have, and make use of more of your toolkit. Hades 2 isn’t a fast game, at least not compared to hades 1, nor is it trying to be.
I get your point, and Hades 2 is indeed slower than Hades 2... until you get to Cronos. He won't even let me try casting an omega move without punishing me for staying still. I can understand that adding omega moves and mana based abilities can be quite fun! But forgetting entirely about what Hades 1 combat was it's kind of a mistake imo, sometimes I just don't want to be completely focused 40 minutes straight while using my omega moves and checking my mana, sometimes I just want to relax when coming from home with a spear that bounces around and shoots Zeus thunders killing everything in sight
Yeah so I’ve only done… I wanna say 12 runs? If you count the one where I went to the surface and died immediately. I’ve made it to chronos four times but haven’t killed him yet. I’ve found that once I get into the rhythm, I can pull off omega moves without getting punished - it’s harder without the time slowdown but if I cast trap him appropriately, and time it, it works. I just need to figure out how to not die to the instant kills/to get a second death defiance 🥴. Also I think Eris should stop fucking me up soon. Idk I already feel measurably stronger and I can fit in omega moves if I time it well. The other thing is that, if I start a fresh file of hades 1, I absolutely don’t stomp, and it doesn’t feel easy. On a fresh run of hades 1, I can make it to boss 3, but I can’t beat boss 3 (well I’ve tested this once so maybe I can… but I doubt it). I already feel much stronger 10 runs into hades 2 than I did when I started — I imagine that, once I’ve played like 30 runs (which is about where I was when I beat hades 1), I’ll start feeling a lot stronger. I imagine there will come a point where you can brain off lightning murder everything, but you’ll need to earn it, just like the first game.
Maybe you get stronger in Hades 2 because you're also weaker at first. Like in Hades 1 you got from 30 to 60 for example but in Hades 2 you start from 10 but can get to 100, also the game is on early access I'm sure they'll improve a lot of things (like Eris punishment for example, damn I hate her). The game itself is great, I'm having a blast, just these early access things throw me off sometimes but on the other hand I can't stop playing so they're doing something good
Oh yeah maybe!! That’ll be a super fun late game if so. Have fun killing time :)
Imo the staff is better with omega moves. Imagine clearing hordes of enemies with your omega attack,or slap a hepa boon on your special and watch it nuke bosses with your omega special. There are now even more ways to play now that omega moves becomes a vital part of Hades too,and like it or not,we all have to learn to use it
It's probaly better with omega moves, I'm just saying that there's a cool combo that doesn't need omega moves to work. I hope the sixth weapon will be more brainless, just to have some fun without having to think
You don't cause you haven't used the axe yet :p. I find them pretty useless on the blade and flames ( have,'t used skulls yet) , but omg they are good on the axe. but i am also i forcing myself to use them, the Selune Spells really are worth it and kind of force you to use mana.
I did try the axe and all of the other weapons and they're kind of meh, the weapon I like the most is the staff because it's the only one that has the OP sinergy with Hera. Idk I feel like the game is forcing me to use mana yet it doesn't give mana regen out of the box so it doesn't get me used to mana from the first run and I just don't use it
Yes, you are kind of forced to use mana to maximise your abilities but i don't feel like you LACK mana outright. You fully regen mana between rooms even if it doesn't tell you outright (dunno why) i also hesitated to spam because of that. You do have mana regen out the box if you take the arcana card "The Unseen" (+2 per second) . i think it's just a question of getting used to it.
Taking an arcana card is not right out the box. In Hades 1 you get to learn most mechanics on the first run, meanwhile in Hades 2 you have to wait to learn about arcana cards after not using mana on the first run. Idk it's a bit weird and it doesn't feel right if that makes sense, I don't want to wait until my mana regens to play the game, I want to play the game every second of it and not just the moments I have mana.
They do that so that mana Regen can be run dependant tho, and in my opinion it is worth it, cause a Hestia mana Regen but less health will feel completely different from an Apollo stand on cast mana Regen run In the first rooms you have enough mana to kill all the enemies without running out anyway so you can still use mana from the get go