I was surprised that you didn't mention Cursed Slash. I remember how I used to think that it was the best possible Hammer when I started playing Hades because I kept getting hit and needed the extra healing. But then I discovered that it's pretty much a trap upgrade when fighting Dad since it can't keep up with his damage output at all and does nothing to actually improve your own power.
Entirely by accident, I found out that the Special Launcher on the Fists actually works absurdly well with certain Demeter multi hit boons, especially Poseidon, where even Bosses get launched into a multi-hit wallbounce that can delete a third of their health at a time.
I think there's a difference between entertaining hammers and actually useful ones. flying cutter is really fun to play but not very useful. In lower heat, though, it doesn't really make a difference, so goofy fun might be the way to go.
One thing you did miss is that you can actually get 3 hammers in a run. You need to have 2 by the time you reach the temple, and then Chirons shop has a chance to contain the Anvil of Hephaestus. If you buy it, it scraps one of your hammers and gives you two random ones. Obviously, this is a risky thing to do, since you have very little control over what you lose or gain, but, if you have two hammers that are bad or just okay, it can be worth it to try and roll for a significant power boost.
I just started playing hades a couple days ago, and these videos are greatly expediting the pretty large learning curve, specifically with all of the ability choices.
I think you missed serrated point on the spear. Combined with Artemis dash, it deals good damage. Sure, the dash distance takes some chambers to get used to, but it's not that bad
@@Haelian in my opinion it's one of the best Spear Hammers. Most of my really good spear runs really take of when I get it. But I also haven't really played with aspect of Zagreus or Achilles. Because I kinda hate the spear special with any aspect besides Guan Yu. It's manual retrieval mechanic breaks the flow of my prefered high speed dash strike playstyle, because I sometimes forget that I need to press Special again to get my weapon back. That's a problem pro Hades players wouldn't have but being casual-friendly has value. Sometimes the quality of an ability doesn't come from max potential but from low skill requirements. And serrated point lowers the spear's skill requirement for me by removing the need to rely on anything else. I don't have to bother with the spin attack anymore (I've mainly used aspect of hades so far). Spear is my least favorite weapon, serrated point makes it more fun.
flurry jab is just so much better than serrated that I don't think serrated is notable at all. when you use dash strikes, you lose the invincibility of the regular dash for dodging attacks. this means you really need the dash mobility to not get hit. flurry jab gives at minimum the same dash strike frequency without the -25% dash penalty, and using flurry with serrated does not give you that many more attacks. this means that one of the attack buff hammers (extending or triple) is better as a second hammer as well
I’ve honestly seen a lot of success with flurry slash and piercing wave on the sword There’s something extremely entertaining about them, especially both of them working together
Hazard bomb is still one of my favourites because I got my first win with it. Artemis's special + hazard bomb meant over 1500 damage crits that sometimes just cleared the entire room
The crits are really good, but What about Aphrodite's? It has a straight damage upgrade, so it's really consistent over the chance with critical. The Weak effect is also really handy.
Draining cutter has a special place in my heart because it carried me through a dashless run (not a huge achievement in the grand scheme of things, and one definitely more based in luck, choices, and math rather than actual skill, but I’m still proud of it.)
I did once get a build with the power shot on the shield combined with the minotaur rush, which allowed me to get multiple hundreds of damage alone, and then I got Artemis's chance for crit and could get over 1500 damage a shot. It was awesome.
Relentless Volley + Concentrated Volley with Chiron is how I got my first win. I got an epic Aphro special, then an epic Chaos special, add some chimera jerky in Styx, and I absolutely shredded Hades. Chiron special builds, and blade rift cast builds will always have a special place in my heart.
Just got into this game maybe a couple months ago since binding of Issac was getting a bit stale after however many years, but mate your videos are a blessing, took me some time to get my first Hades down, hell took me ages to get my first Theseus kill too but you videos are mint, no frif fraf just hard info. Much love mate, and I'll for sure be watching your Hades 2 stuff.
Kind of interesting how you can't combine Aspect of Hades with Flurry Jab because it would make the Aspect useless, but you can combine Aspect of Hestia with Delta Chamber.
I remember when I first got Explosive Upper when I was using Demeter fists, greatest twin fists run I've ever done. Paired it with Artemis special and just ate enemy health bars. Kinetic Launcher along side Demeter fists and Arty special is also a build I grew to love.
I recently did a laser-focused run with the aspect of Lucifer for fun (objective being having as many lasers as possible, including ice beams), and found out that trible beam + Poseidon attack boon + his wall damage boons absolutely destroyed any enemy that was even remotely close to a wall. the boss damage may not have been too good, but damn was it fun to demolish Styx with that
I saw this was uploaded 17 seconds ago which is cool that I loaded UA-cam at this exact time. Thank you for the video, Haelian! EDIT: After having watched the video now, this is great! The only thing I feel was missing is some of the changes for some aspects like Sudden Rush becoming quite a bit better with Beowulf Shield or the changes to Beowulf with charged shot.
There was this run I did with the sword that all that I had was cursed slash, slash flurry, support fire, curse of agony and dire misfortune. And only that was enough to beat the whole game with so much ease it was simply hilarious.
I beat the game for the first time a few days ago thanks in no small part to your videos. now I'm crushing dad left and right after months of dying to him. thank you for the great content, keep it up :)
I love this because it generally confirms my sentiments on most of 'em,(spear spins ewww) and learned a few things i didn't realize about the way some of this multiplies. super helpful! I have made the mistake of taking Delta Chamber on Hestia, waaaaste
If you're lucky enough while playing Aspect of Charon to get both Concentrated Volley and Relentless Volley, you're peachy. Get Demeter on your special if you can, and just breeze through the rest of the run. Full Chill in two button presses, and well over a thousand damage. I've beaten Extreme Measures 4 quite a few times, but it's never easy - not unless I have that specific combination of hammers. Then it's a cakewalk. The other hammer combination I find really useful against him is actually Concentrated Knuckle and Rolling Knuckle, for pretty much the same reason. It lets me do a hell of a lot of damage while loading him up with Chill, and extends the hit sequence while making each hit do more damage than the previous one. That combination - "each hit in a combo does more than the previous one" along with "your combo is longer" - is the basis for some truly broken builds.
Idk man, Flurry Fire on the Rail can be fun. I paired it with Swift Strike, Frost Strike and Arctic Blast. I might not have been doing the most damage, but it felt really cool to do
I'm still running on low heat, so maybe it doesn't scale well, but I found that Shield + Dread Flight + Ares on special works great (especially with Impending Doom). It lets you clear out whole room from a safe distance and without much aiming, or hit enemies behind obstacles by ricocheting against the wall (like those satyrs or laser crystals in Styx or Hades during beam attack).
6:51 I'd also like to mention that the same can be true of the rama bow since the special shots ricochet onto nearby foes by default and fires in a straight line. Making it just as good if not better thanks to shared suffering.
My favorite build with this was a Zeus build where I pretty much stacked every single boon onto Rama's special attack (thunder flourish, double strike, static discharge, splitting bolt, and cold fusion) along with relentless volley. I could literally fry everything that crossed my path including EM4 REDACTED, it was my first clear against him actually.
Spread fire with tidal dash was one of my most fun builds. Can't remember what other buffs I had on the dash and attack, but there was razor shoals on dash. Discovered this by accidentally choosing spread fire. Almost gave up the run, thinking it was lost.
there are two builds that may be sub-optimal but that I love on aspect of Lucifer with the hammer that gives infinite ammo, one I call the super soaker, using poseidon on the attack to deal constant knockback and slam people into walls and the other is just a swarm of seeking arrows with artemis, fully decked out crit build. I like it because it hits so rapidly, making it good to pair with boons where you want to proc an effect more than you want to deal flat damage
Super soaker isn't even a bad build. It's entirely a meme until you pick up Sea Storm at which point it becomes real great. Now one could make the argument that this is just a worse version of mono-Zeus and Splitting Bolt, but SB is a legendary and I find Duos *much* more frequently than legendaries. You can at least force other gods to show up in your pool whereas you don't really have a way to guarantee a single god shows up enough times to guarantee their legendary.
I started playing this game because I found it recommended by UA-cam (Haelian's videos) and I ultimately beat 32 heat because of his recommendations (and then promptly retired... 🤣). If you are just picking this game up now, I would recommend trying these suggestions because it will make the early part easier to learn.
While flurry fire and seeking fire definitely are not sought after or first picks, they do work really well with things like zeus or dio on attack if you play more defensively or braindead. Auto aim and faster shooting enables some hit and run tactics or makes them more effective. Dio rail honestly feels like free wins.
I'd actually love to see a run focusing on Lucifer, I suck so bad with that aspect and a quick run/guide would give me some more insight into how to actually use it. x.x
i did once make a silly little build with nemesis sword that mostly relied on flurry slash + cursed slash hammers cursed makes you heal on hit but greately reduce max HP, meanwhile flurry slash lets you hold left click to keep doing the first hit great source of healing and you still have damage options (maybe spin, definitely cast) also charged shot is absolutely busted, you can literally become a turret which absolutely demolishes lower heat levels
That's probably an unpopular opinion but as a casual player I like to take Spread Fire with Hestia if I don't get offered the best hammers. It provides some melee damage if I don't have time to reload or if I get swarmed by enemies.
I always skipped triple shot cause the spread pattern looks so useless. Good video, a lot of info in a short time. Can you make a video on what conditions chambers like shop/minibosses/boldy and co. can appear?
Like the response above me said, unlike triple beam on lucifer, the 3 arrows can do 3x damage to an up close enemy. Point blank shot+triple shot+Artemis on the attack on rama (while applying the shared suffering of the special) is probably the highest single damage you can get out of 1 attack, maybe along Arthur with shadow slash and cluster rockets on eris. Try it out on bosses, you can make them phase to invisibility in 1 attack, specially if you have aphro on the special or dash and get heart rend
Hmm, there is info to share about chamber numbers essentially. Could be tough to make an entire video about it. Maybe an "Advanced Tips" kinda thing though.
rolling knuckle is pretty good, you can ignore the sequence and just dash strike for max dps. It gave me my second win with Zeus and Poseidon boons. Concentrated knuckle is pretty good too if you can sit through the full attack sequence. Long knuckle is also pretty convenient even though the bonus damage is negligible, the range helps with multiple enemies. Flurry slash is nice with support fire and cursed slash is great with flurry slash but terrible in every other situation. World splitter seemed like the worst sword hammer to me, the damage is nice but the area of effect goes away and it feels slower.
For the spear, there is a boon with aspect of hades that grants your attack 3 rapid strikes after a dash with reduced dash range. I don't know if it is specific to the aspect but think that is OP.
I was always wary of spread fire because I was in the habit of playing super passive with the rail. However, I slapped on spread fire recently for the list of prophecies, and it lead me to my fastest ever run. I just stacked it with a crap ton of percentage damage boosts and by the end I was completely melting everything in front of me.
Breaching cross is by far my most preferred boon. If I see it I always choose it. 900% damage to armor with piercing is close to not having armor at all.
i personally think draining cutter is great because its basically free healing, and if you combo that with quake cutter you're also immobilizing your enemies while also having lifesteal
Twin shot and explosive shot may not be the worst individually, but one run when I was underwhelmed by the hammers I had (and knowing how I had just been unlucky and that there were a lot of powerful bow hammers), I used the anvil of fates in Styx. I got both explosive shot and twin shot which honestly have significant downsides when paired. Less range and slower charge neither of which I was used to using really messed me up. Also, in general the anvil feels like a trap. Sure, it replaces one hammer with two new ones, but that's a terrible deal considering it's random and just as if not more likely to give you duds or worse than actually useful hammers.
I managed to get cluster bomb and rocket bomb late into a run where i got too many Poseidon boons. I thought i was gonna end up losing that run initially. It was the most bonkers thing ive seen in Hades. Almost every chamber in styx consisted of me stepping in, pressing Triangle once, and then watching everything ping pong around the room until there was nothing left. Styx and Hades were completely trivialized. I was kind of sad i didnt get to use it more.
First time I "cleared" hades was with zag spear using almost exclusively special attacks with ares on special for the doom effect and using the armor peircing hammer and chain skewer. If you do play passively with the special on spear to use it as a rangers weapon then chain skewers effectiveness is top notch.
Quake cutter on the Talos fist (barely upgraded the aspect) with Artemis on Special let me hit 700 on the landing hit with little investment as soon as Tartarus. It was the entire point of the build when I got it once, and it was hitting 1k+ by dad.
My favorite upgrade is for the sword, specifically the one that makes it so that you heal off of every baasic attack while lowering your max HP, I found that it allows for you to play the game like it's a doom clone where you just run everyone down and heal off of your massacre, works best with the other upgrade that makes it so you only spam your first 2 attacks instead of throwing in the third thrusting attack
My first win was with a crazy hoarding slash run when i was super new to not only hades but the whole roguelike genre. I then didn't win for like a solid 30-40 more attenpts. So for beginners at least it's pretty good
Cluster rockets really is too powerful. Today I got it on eris after getting heroic zeus attack +6 and suddenly my attack felt like it was doing nothing.
You missed the hammer that was a strong part in getting me my first 32 heat win (and making it WAY easier than I anticipated): Eternal Chamber + Zeus attack meant the drawback from losing the damage ramp up meant nothing since it didn't affect the stream of bolts that I could mindlessly fire infinitely without needing to pause to reload! Obviously very situational but easily the single biggest carry hammer I ever got!
Honestly, Breaching Cross while using Aspect of Gilgamesh is straight up broken given how many dashes you get. It's one of my favorite combos to run. That and something more specific; either Aspect of Rama or Chiron with Relentless Volley was fun, specially if you get the Poseidon's Special, Rupture, and combine it with Zeus Boons for the Duo. That breaks runs, just takes time and lots of upgrades Edit: wrote Poseidon wrong
cursed slash has gotta be the biggest game-changer of a hammer. if you're bad at dodging, it can sometimes help if you manage to hit consistently enough. i'm not saying it's *good*, but it's fun if you want a little chaos. i love me a little chaos to go with my bad reflexes! for any god mode players out there: this hammer can honestly help if you strategize just right! i got my 32 heat win with cursed slash on arthur, it was insane. i play with god mode off these days and i don't think i could accomplish that now haha
Feel like boon combos can and will change this a bit. Having zeus or dio strike (and maybe a support fire) with rail and you absolutely want the attack faster with more ammo.
I think that honestly the only dud spin hammer with Hades is Flaring Spin. Hades is really great for noobs like me because you just charge it up as the glyphs start and it's always ready by the time the wave spawns with a little practice, ready to blitz smaller enemies and chunk larger ones. Great for both avoiding damage and doing things quickly.
One of my most broken runs, I had minotaur rush and charged shot on Aegis. It was basically Coronacht that deals 500% power shot damage on top of 80 base damage and also had a guard while being charged. 😂
Hmm, I really like explosive return on the shield, take any special damage boosting boon, focus your poms on this boon and keep spamming that special. It's how I get most wins, but after seeing this video, I wonder if it's the best option.
Personally I'm a big fan of Cursed Slash on Stygius (Zag). The max health penalty hurts sure, but can be offset with the right boons - I've had a few very lucky runs where I got purple Life Affirmation right away followed up by Bronze Skin & Positive Outlook. Granted Hades will still hit you a bit too hard especially on higher heat, but the life on hit is extremely forgiving lower difficulties and good for helping newer players I think who don't know all the boss patterns yet. I just wish it had been full on lifesteal instead, but clearly the devs were scares of that. I don't think 2 HP per swing - even with a maxed Swift Attack & Zag aspect for 55% speed - justifies the massive HP loss.
My first successful run was with the god combo without knowing about it previously. It was a decent run leading up to the boss fight but I had no more DD and was low on health. I was running the Rail of Eris and did have Seeking Fire and Piercing Fire, with Zues on attack and Poseidon on special and most of their best boons, most notably, Sea Storm and Second Wave. There were a few rooms left and I had a few houndred obols but it was a real risk going for a well that might not show up, and if it did, might not have a Kiss of Styx. However, there was one more option. The Anvil of Fates! The only other time I had purchased it, I got screwed over and potentialy lost out on my first win. But, the chances of victory couldn't get much worse. I don't remember what hammer I lost, but I gained Rocket Bomb and Cluster Bomb. I then said f**k it and went for one of the remaing rooms. Melted everything instantly. This pattern of face-melting continued right up to, and including, the Hades fight. I even replenished a DD on the way which I didn't even use. No idea the combo existed, felt great finding it at random like that for my first win.
idk why but chain skewer always feels really good to me and is alot of fun on the spear. pair it with curses and its very enjoyable. but im new so maybe that changes on high heat
Rocket Bomb & Cluster Bomb nearly got me my first hades kills, I had Aprodite on attack and Ares on Special, plus the duo that makes the Ares damage constantly fire on weakened mobs. I didn't realize Hades had a second form though welp. I got my first kill on his first form though, then lost when he was around 25% health on the second form :(
I combined flurry fire with seeking fire with zag rail, tempest strike, razor shoals, breaking wave, waving pounding, and sea storm. If there was a wall, there were no survivors.
Did I miss any hammers that you're curious about? Feel free to ask about them here!
Double nova for the sword? I got a run on Arthur with it and Swift Flourish from Hermes, really fun to spam and delete shades.
I was surprised that you didn't mention Cursed Slash. I remember how I used to think that it was the best possible Hammer when I started playing Hades because I kept getting hit and needed the extra healing. But then I discovered that it's pretty much a trap upgrade when fighting Dad since it can't keep up with his damage output at all and does nothing to actually improve your own power.
I always thought Long Knuckle was pretty good for the fists, I think you forgot to mention it at least
massive spin on aspect of hades is always a go-to for me
What the one that makes your bow attack chain
Entirely by accident, I found out that the Special Launcher on the Fists actually works absurdly well with certain Demeter multi hit boons, especially Poseidon, where even Bosses get launched into a multi-hit wallbounce that can delete a third of their health at a time.
sounds hilarious
I had a shield triple shot + extra bounce doom/hangover run that was fun as hell.
It works well with everything because of how stylish it is
what bosses exactly
for the sake of details
Salt i did the same with merciful end at one point and it actually i think worked better because you can get away if need be
I think there's a difference between entertaining hammers and actually useful ones. flying cutter is really fun to play but not very useful. In lower heat, though, it doesn't really make a difference, so goofy fun might be the way to go.
One thing you did miss is that you can actually get 3 hammers in a run. You need to have 2 by the time you reach the temple, and then Chirons shop has a chance to contain the Anvil of Hephaestus. If you buy it, it scraps one of your hammers and gives you two random ones. Obviously, this is a risky thing to do, since you have very little control over what you lose or gain, but, if you have two hammers that are bad or just okay, it can be worth it to try and roll for a significant power boost.
I just started playing hades a couple days ago, and these videos are greatly expediting the pretty large learning curve, specifically with all of the ability choices.
Awesome that this is in short form at 10 mins long and not a 30 min slog. Great info, love the content.
I think you missed serrated point on the spear. Combined with Artemis dash, it deals good damage. Sure, the dash distance takes some chambers to get used to, but it's not that bad
Serrated point is good but it acts negatively with flurry jab
Eh just not my favorite. Big upside but the downside is just as big in my eyes.
@@Haelian in my opinion it's one of the best Spear Hammers. Most of my really good spear runs really take of when I get it. But I also haven't really played with aspect of Zagreus or Achilles. Because I kinda hate the spear special with any aspect besides Guan Yu. It's manual retrieval mechanic breaks the flow of my prefered high speed dash strike playstyle, because I sometimes forget that I need to press Special again to get my weapon back. That's a problem pro Hades players wouldn't have but being casual-friendly has value. Sometimes the quality of an ability doesn't come from max potential but from low skill requirements. And serrated point lowers the spear's skill requirement for me by removing the need to rely on anything else. I don't have to bother with the spin attack anymore (I've mainly used aspect of hades so far). Spear is my least favorite weapon, serrated point makes it more fun.
I'm gonna tack onto this that it's probably my favorite spear hammer, the damage output is just insane
flurry jab is just so much better than serrated that I don't think serrated is notable at all. when you use dash strikes, you lose the invincibility of the regular dash for dodging attacks. this means you really need the dash mobility to not get hit.
flurry jab gives at minimum the same dash strike frequency without the -25% dash penalty, and using flurry with serrated does not give you that many more attacks. this means that one of the attack buff hammers (extending or triple) is better as a second hammer as well
I’ve honestly seen a lot of success with flurry slash and piercing wave on the sword
There’s something extremely entertaining about them, especially both of them working together
Hazard bomb is still one of my favourites because I got my first win with it. Artemis's special + hazard bomb meant over 1500 damage crits that sometimes just cleared the entire room
The crits are really good, but What about Aphrodite's? It has a straight damage upgrade, so it's really consistent over the chance with critical. The Weak effect is also really handy.
Yesterday since I’m a noob I got it it felt like a nuke and was funny, my only other good attempt was with triple bomb and rocket
It was my first and second win with it!
It would be cool to have a "only hammer" run
That's called Binding of Isaac
Have to say, I really improved I Hades because of you and your build ideas and seeing what you do.
Great video
Love this kind of practical analysis from a master. Nice one!
During all the time I put into this game, fully charged Demeter+Explosive upper combo was the single most satisfying thing.
Draining cutter has a special place in my heart because it carried me through a dashless run (not a huge achievement in the grand scheme of things, and one definitely more based in luck, choices, and math rather than actual skill, but I’m still proud of it.)
I did once get a build with the power shot on the shield combined with the minotaur rush, which allowed me to get multiple hundreds of damage alone, and then I got Artemis's chance for crit and could get over 1500 damage a shot. It was awesome.
Relentless Volley + Concentrated Volley with Chiron is how I got my first win. I got an epic Aphro special, then an epic Chaos special, add some chimera jerky in Styx, and I absolutely shredded Hades. Chiron special builds, and blade rift cast builds will always have a special place in my heart.
Just got into this game maybe a couple months ago since binding of Issac was getting a bit stale after however many years, but mate your videos are a blessing, took me some time to get my first Hades down, hell took me ages to get my first Theseus kill too but you videos are mint, no frif fraf just hard info. Much love mate, and I'll for sure be watching your Hades 2 stuff.
Kind of interesting how you can't combine Aspect of Hades with Flurry Jab because it would make the Aspect useless, but you can combine Aspect of Hestia with Delta Chamber.
Well technically you can still reload with the delta chamber, it just won't do anything unless you're using the Aspect of hestia.
I love that you're getting the credit you deserve lately bud. Keep it up!
I remember when I first got Explosive Upper when I was using Demeter fists, greatest twin fists run I've ever done. Paired it with Artemis special and just ate enemy health bars. Kinetic Launcher along side Demeter fists and Arty special is also a build I grew to love.
really like the vid, i love that its so objective to help people with all different kind of play styles
I recently did a laser-focused run with the aspect of Lucifer for fun (objective being having as many lasers as possible, including ice beams), and found out that trible beam + Poseidon attack boon + his wall damage boons absolutely destroyed any enemy that was even remotely close to a wall. the boss damage may not have been too good, but damn was it fun to demolish Styx with that
I saw this was uploaded 17 seconds ago which is cool that I loaded UA-cam at this exact time. Thank you for the video, Haelian!
EDIT: After having watched the video now, this is great! The only thing I feel was missing is some of the changes for some aspects like Sudden Rush becoming quite a bit better with Beowulf Shield or the changes to Beowulf with charged shot.
I know it's a very specific build, but combining Shield of Chaos, the extra ricochet hammer and the Ares special is one of my go-to minion swatters.
There was this run I did with the sword that all that I had was cursed slash, slash flurry, support fire, curse of agony and dire misfortune. And only that was enough to beat the whole game with so much ease it was simply hilarious.
I beat the game for the first time a few days ago thanks in no small part to your videos. now I'm crushing dad left and right after months of dying to him. thank you for the great content, keep it up :)
I love this because it generally confirms my sentiments on most of 'em,(spear spins ewww) and learned a few things i didn't realize about the way some of this multiplies. super helpful! I have made the mistake of taking Delta Chamber on Hestia, waaaaste
If you're lucky enough while playing Aspect of Charon to get both Concentrated Volley and Relentless Volley, you're peachy. Get Demeter on your special if you can, and just breeze through the rest of the run. Full Chill in two button presses, and well over a thousand damage.
I've beaten Extreme Measures 4 quite a few times, but it's never easy - not unless I have that specific combination of hammers. Then it's a cakewalk.
The other hammer combination I find really useful against him is actually Concentrated Knuckle and Rolling Knuckle, for pretty much the same reason. It lets me do a hell of a lot of damage while loading him up with Chill, and extends the hit sequence while making each hit do more damage than the previous one.
That combination - "each hit in a combo does more than the previous one" along with "your combo is longer" - is the basis for some truly broken builds.
Idk man, Flurry Fire on the Rail can be fun. I paired it with Swift Strike, Frost Strike and Arctic Blast. I might not have been doing the most damage, but it felt really cool to do
I'm still running on low heat, so maybe it doesn't scale well, but I found that Shield + Dread Flight + Ares on special works great (especially with Impending Doom). It lets you clear out whole room from a safe distance and without much aiming, or hit enemies behind obstacles by ricocheting against the wall (like those satyrs or laser crystals in Styx or Hades during beam attack).
I love ricochet on Hestia. Hitting multiple enemies with that massive damage on the first shot is insane.
yeah it's the best attack hammer for her
6:51 I'd also like to mention that the same can be true of the rama bow since the special shots ricochet onto nearby foes by default and fires in a straight line. Making it just as good if not better thanks to shared suffering.
My favorite build with this was a Zeus build where I pretty much stacked every single boon onto Rama's special attack (thunder flourish, double strike, static discharge, splitting bolt, and cold fusion) along with relentless volley.
I could literally fry everything that crossed my path including EM4 REDACTED, it was my first clear against him actually.
Nice and to the point. Chapter markers by weapon would be nice for reference.
Spread fire with tidal dash was one of my most fun builds. Can't remember what other buffs I had on the dash and attack, but there was razor shoals on dash. Discovered this by accidentally choosing spread fire. Almost gave up the run, thinking it was lost.
there are two builds that may be sub-optimal but that I love on aspect of Lucifer with the hammer that gives infinite ammo, one I call the super soaker, using poseidon on the attack to deal constant knockback and slam people into walls and the other is just a swarm of seeking arrows with artemis, fully decked out crit build. I like it because it hits so rapidly, making it good to pair with boons where you want to proc an effect more than you want to deal flat damage
Having fun is the most important part anyway!
Super soaker isn't even a bad build. It's entirely a meme until you pick up Sea Storm at which point it becomes real great. Now one could make the argument that this is just a worse version of mono-Zeus and Splitting Bolt, but SB is a legendary and I find Duos *much* more frequently than legendaries. You can at least force other gods to show up in your pool whereas you don't really have a way to guarantee a single god shows up enough times to guarantee their legendary.
I started playing this game because I found it recommended by UA-cam (Haelian's videos) and I ultimately beat 32 heat because of his recommendations (and then promptly retired... 🤣). If you are just picking this game up now, I would recommend trying these suggestions because it will make the early part easier to learn.
Interesting to see how other people play. Cursed Slash is the best sword hammer by a ridiculously huge margin, arguably the best hammer overall.
While flurry fire and seeking fire definitely are not sought after or first picks, they do work really well with things like zeus or dio on attack if you play more defensively or braindead. Auto aim and faster shooting enables some hit and run tactics or makes them more effective. Dio rail honestly feels like free wins.
I'd actually love to see a run focusing on Lucifer, I suck so bad with that aspect and a quick run/guide would give me some more insight into how to actually use it. x.x
I was really hoping the tactical nuke for the rail could combo with the three round burst. I guess instead the Artemis crits could work at least.
i did once make a silly little build with nemesis sword that mostly relied on flurry slash + cursed slash hammers
cursed makes you heal on hit but greately reduce max HP, meanwhile flurry slash lets you hold left click to keep doing the first hit
great source of healing and you still have damage options (maybe spin, definitely cast)
also charged shot is absolutely busted, you can literally become a turret which absolutely demolishes lower heat levels
Exploding Launcher with either Zeus or Poseidon on the special is divine (no pun intended)
the one thing I'd say with the shield, dread flight can be good if you get say, 'apply doom with special' or suchlike effects from boons.
That's probably an unpopular opinion but as a casual player I like to take Spread Fire with Hestia if I don't get offered the best hammers. It provides some melee damage if I don't have time to reload or if I get swarmed by enemies.
Demeter Fists + Special Launcher is an instant-win IMO.
Hazard Bomb is my favorite rail hammer, it makes the game so easy
I always skipped triple shot cause the spread pattern looks so useless. Good video, a lot of info in a short time.
Can you make a video on what conditions chambers like shop/minibosses/boldy and co. can appear?
the spread is terrible, but being able to get 2-3 hits on an close enemy is very strong
Like the response above me said, unlike triple beam on lucifer, the 3 arrows can do 3x damage to an up close enemy. Point blank shot+triple shot+Artemis on the attack on rama (while applying the shared suffering of the special) is probably the highest single damage you can get out of 1 attack, maybe along Arthur with shadow slash and cluster rockets on eris. Try it out on bosses, you can make them phase to invisibility in 1 attack, specially if you have aphro on the special or dash and get heart rend
Hmm, there is info to share about chamber numbers essentially. Could be tough to make an entire video about it. Maybe an "Advanced Tips" kinda thing though.
rolling knuckle is pretty good, you can ignore the sequence and just dash strike for max dps. It gave me my second win with Zeus and Poseidon boons. Concentrated knuckle is pretty good too if you can sit through the full attack sequence. Long knuckle is also pretty convenient even though the bonus damage is negligible, the range helps with multiple enemies. Flurry slash is nice with support fire and cursed slash is great with flurry slash but terrible in every other situation. World splitter seemed like the worst sword hammer to me, the damage is nice but the area of effect goes away and it feels slower.
If you can combine world splitter with high crit chance, it actually destroys. The down side is just the attack being a little awkward to use
@@bipstymcbipste5641 I'm sure, but it's problem isn't the damage. It's single target and leaves you vulnerable
Omg that outro 🤣!! Great guide also, thanks for this!
For the spear, there is a boon with aspect of hades that grants your attack 3 rapid strikes after a dash with reduced dash range. I don't know if it is specific to the aspect but think that is OP.
Omg finally lol iv stop playing this but Iv always wanted to know what was good and bad thank you😁
I was always wary of spread fire because I was in the habit of playing super passive with the rail. However, I slapped on spread fire recently for the list of prophecies, and it lead me to my fastest ever run. I just stacked it with a crap ton of percentage damage boosts and by the end I was completely melting everything in front of me.
6:45 maybe it was because I used the anvil, but I'm sure I had a sniper shot and point blank shot at once during some run.
I think the hades aspect of the spear pair’s brilliantly with the bigger stronger spin. Even if it takes a while to charge its a wave annihilator
Flurry jab and the x3 spear was what got me past past Elysium for the first time
Breaching cross is by far my most preferred boon. If I see it I always choose it. 900% damage to armor with piercing is close to not having armor at all.
agreed if you play on high heat it's so good, there's no other way to deal so much damage to armor
Had no idea that you were locked out of certain hammers. Thanks for the info.
i personally think draining cutter is great because its basically free healing, and if you combo that with quake cutter you're also immobilizing your enemies while also having lifesteal
Twin shot and explosive shot may not be the worst individually, but one run when I was underwhelmed by the hammers I had (and knowing how I had just been unlucky and that there were a lot of powerful bow hammers), I used the anvil of fates in Styx. I got both explosive shot and twin shot which honestly have significant downsides when paired. Less range and slower charge neither of which I was used to using really messed me up. Also, in general the anvil feels like a trap. Sure, it replaces one hammer with two new ones, but that's a terrible deal considering it's random and just as if not more likely to give you duds or worse than actually useful hammers.
I managed to get cluster bomb and rocket bomb late into a run where i got too many Poseidon boons. I thought i was gonna end up losing that run initially. It was the most bonkers thing ive seen in Hades. Almost every chamber in styx consisted of me stepping in, pressing Triangle once, and then watching everything ping pong around the room until there was nothing left. Styx and Hades were completely trivialized. I was kind of sad i didnt get to use it more.
Vicious Skewer when paired with Breaching Skewer, crit boons and a fully upgraded Default Aspect is a .50 Cal Sniper rifle
Just today i had the god combo on rail, 5-spread rockets, for the first time. What a coincidence. A crazy combo indeed.
First time I "cleared" hades was with zag spear using almost exclusively special attacks with ares on special for the doom effect and using the armor peircing hammer and chain skewer. If you do play passively with the special on spear to use it as a rangers weapon then chain skewers effectiveness is top notch.
Dread Flight and Dashing Flight on the shield turns you into Captain America and is ridiculously fun. Styx rooms have never been easier!
Double exploding shot and double code range were the first two ways I completed a run. I think I had aries special, dio's attack and aphro's call.
Quake cutter on the Talos fist (barely upgraded the aspect) with Artemis on Special let me hit 700 on the landing hit with little investment as soon as Tartarus. It was the entire point of the build when I got it once, and it was hitting 1k+ by dad.
My favorite upgrade is for the sword, specifically the one that makes it so that you heal off of every baasic attack while lowering your max HP, I found that it allows for you to play the game like it's a doom clone where you just run everyone down and heal off of your massacre, works best with the other upgrade that makes it so you only spam your first 2 attacks instead of throwing in the third thrusting attack
Doesn't apply to dash-strikes so it kinda sucks
My first win was with a crazy hoarding slash run when i was super new to not only hades but the whole roguelike genre. I then didn't win for like a solid 30-40 more attenpts. So for beginners at least it's pretty good
Dude, love your vids, but you missed a mention of Long Knuckle for the fists, which is a good but not top hammer (one of my fav aspects) 👍
Kinda just falls in the middle of the road for hammers I think, not bad, not super interesting though. Therefore it got the DROP from the video.
9:15 : There are no I-frames on dash with normal rail ?? Did I completely miss that or just misunderstood ?
This video is 10/10 just for starting with Wildfrost music.
Cluster rockets really is too powerful. Today I got it on eris after getting heroic zeus attack +6 and suddenly my attack felt like it was doing nothing.
You missed the hammer that was a strong part in getting me my first 32 heat win (and making it WAY easier than I anticipated): Eternal Chamber + Zeus attack meant the drawback from losing the damage ramp up meant nothing since it didn't affect the stream of bolts that I could mindlessly fire infinitely without needing to pause to reload! Obviously very situational but easily the single biggest carry hammer I ever got!
I knew that sniper shot was garbage but I finally chose it to fulfill the prophecy. I wasn’t wrong.
Honestly, Breaching Cross while using Aspect of Gilgamesh is straight up broken given how many dashes you get. It's one of my favorite combos to run.
That and something more specific; either Aspect of Rama or Chiron with Relentless Volley was fun, specially if you get the Poseidon's Special, Rupture, and combine it with Zeus Boons for the Duo. That breaks runs, just takes time and lots of upgrades
Edit: wrote Poseidon wrong
I love these guides
cursed slash has gotta be the biggest game-changer of a hammer. if you're bad at dodging, it can sometimes help if you manage to hit consistently enough. i'm not saying it's *good*, but it's fun if you want a little chaos. i love me a little chaos to go with my bad reflexes!
for any god mode players out there: this hammer can honestly help if you strategize just right! i got my 32 heat win with cursed slash on arthur, it was insane. i play with god mode off these days and i don't think i could accomplish that now haha
One of my persobal faves is Rush Kick on the fists, bc the mobility it gives is just super fun
Feel like boon combos can and will change this a bit. Having zeus or dio strike (and maybe a support fire) with rail and you absolutely want the attack faster with more ammo.
I think that honestly the only dud spin hammer with Hades is Flaring Spin. Hades is really great for noobs like me because you just charge it up as the glyphs start and it's always ready by the time the wave spawns with a little practice, ready to blitz smaller enemies and chunk larger ones. Great for both avoiding damage and doing things quickly.
One of my most broken runs, I had minotaur rush and charged shot on Aegis. It was basically Coronacht that deals 500% power shot damage on top of 80 base damage and also had a guard while being charged. 😂
making my prediction that 5xRockets is the best or one of the best combos for the glizzy 🤞
Hmm, I really like explosive return on the shield, take any special damage boosting boon, focus your poms on this boon and keep spamming that special. It's how I get most wins, but after seeing this video, I wonder if it's the best option.
If you can get the speed hammer and minatour rush for the sheild it actually becomes kinda good
Super late post, but came here to say my very first clear on hades was with the 2 "bait" hammers for the spear lol
Personally I'm a big fan of Cursed Slash on Stygius (Zag). The max health penalty hurts sure, but can be offset with the right boons - I've had a few very lucky runs where I got purple Life Affirmation right away followed up by Bronze Skin & Positive Outlook.
Granted Hades will still hit you a bit too hard especially on higher heat, but the life on hit is extremely forgiving lower difficulties and good for helping newer players I think who don't know all the boss patterns yet.
I just wish it had been full on lifesteal instead, but clearly the devs were scares of that. I don't think 2 HP per swing - even with a maxed Swift Attack & Zag aspect for 55% speed - justifies the massive HP loss.
my favorite was the one that made your dash attack deal damage 3x but shortened dash distance. SO much dmg, atleast for my very casual brain.
My first successful run was with the god combo without knowing about it previously. It was a decent run leading up to the boss fight but I had no more DD and was low on health. I was running the Rail of Eris and did have Seeking Fire and Piercing Fire, with Zues on attack and Poseidon on special and most of their best boons, most notably, Sea Storm and Second Wave. There were a few rooms left and I had a few houndred obols but it was a real risk going for a well that might not show up, and if it did, might not have a Kiss of Styx. However, there was one more option. The Anvil of Fates! The only other time I had purchased it, I got screwed over and potentialy lost out on my first win. But, the chances of victory couldn't get much worse. I don't remember what hammer I lost, but I gained Rocket Bomb and Cluster Bomb. I then said f**k it and went for one of the remaing rooms. Melted everything instantly. This pattern of face-melting continued right up to, and including, the Hades fight. I even replenished a DD on the way which I didn't even use. No idea the combo existed, felt great finding it at random like that for my first win.
Honestly spread fire+explosive ammo on aspect of eris has insane dps. But you have to remap the reload to something more convenient.
My personal favorite's got to be exagryph faster shots + explosive shots. Really makes me feel like Im firing a heavy bolter from warhammer 40k
When I took hazard bomb for the first time, it was my first time that I got to hades...
idk why but chain skewer always feels really good to me and is alot of fun on the spear. pair it with curses and its very enjoyable. but im new so maybe that changes on high heat
Rocket Bomb & Cluster Bomb nearly got me my first hades kills, I had Aprodite on attack and Ares on Special, plus the duo that makes the Ares damage constantly fire on weakened mobs.
I didn't realize Hades had a second form though welp. I got my first kill on his first form though, then lost when he was around 25% health on the second form :(
Missed my favorite one on the sword where the special becomes a dash
Thank you so much!
My favorite malphon hammer is rush kick because its funny and i think it drags you to your foes faster
Sudden rush and Bull rush on Zeus aspect… use special to proc crits with Artemis mark, then Bull rush like mad.. profit
I love running lucifer with eternal chamber and persidon such fun 😊
I combined flurry fire with seeking fire with zag rail, tempest strike, razor shoals, breaking wave, waving pounding, and sea storm. If there was a wall, there were no survivors.
2:20 how did you get aphroditie boon in there