Topic: Hades.

@render This is the first time since I had an N64 and a PlayStation that I've had multiple consoles. I won't be doing that again though as there are more than enough games on PS to keep me busy, and I've learnt to accept there will be games I will miss out on.

That is a good ploy though to get you more gaming time. Hopefully it works!

@JohnnyShoulder That's interesting to hear your take on Bastion v Transistor... it seems a lot of people seem to favour one quite substantially over the other (although seems fairly 50/50 on which is the preference). I almost wish I'd played both prior to Hades, as I imagine both perhaps seem a 'step down' in comparison.

Dread is good, and definitely a solid entry in the franchise... BUT even as a longterm fan, I must confess the pricing point is a bit of a sore point. I think £30 GBP would have been far more reasonable. Funnily enough, it still doesn't top Hollow Knight for me! But nonetheless, Dread is pretty good and would be well worth a pickup in a sale and/or second hand.

@Kidfried You mean you weren’t gifting Bouldy some sweet sweet Nectar? I found out you could do that and then did it every single time afterwards 😂

@Kidfried @nessisonett Damn you've been missing out on some sweet rewards all this time. I just love the name of the reward you get, "You believe in Bouldy, and Bouldy believes in you".

Which reminds me I meant to mention a great build I had just before I platinumed the game. I managed to get both lightning strike and doom revenge damage and levelled it up a few times. That coupled with a bit of damage resistance from bouldy as well as a damage resistance boon meant that anything that hit me didn't do too much damage and basically exploded right in front of me. Being bad at not getting hit has never been so much fun 😆

Edit: Forgot to say well done for the platinum @Kidfried!

@Kidfried I bounced between the gods depending on what weapon I was using. I found the fists were my favourite along with Athena for deflect on dash and Ares for Doom on attack. I could do immense damage with that build and clear rooms really quickly. I almost managed to do the Tight Deadline heat modifier on level 3 with those where you just have 5 minutes to clear each level.

Another of my favourites was the rail of adamant using the special with the hammer upgrade to deliver 300% damage but you take damage from it. Couple that with something like Poseidon and then you can do those last rooms really easily.

There's also a great combo on the bow with Aphrodites cast where it delivered a short range blast. Use that with the Aspect of Hera where you can load the cast into the bow and you could pretty much one shot all standard enemies and take other things out with a few shots.

The spear though was a strange one for me. It started out as my favourite but actually was one that I used less as I went through the game. The worst weapon for me was the blade. I just couldn't get that to work for me for some reason, even with the various different aspects unlocked. How did you get on with that?

@Kidfried The Artemis boons were awesome for big damage. I would always take the option of a percentage of critical damage or seeking arrows on Attack, Special or Cast as that was a good way to double up on damage.

I agree with you on the Dionysos ones though. The damage was too little even spread over time so they were always ones I took only if I absolutely had to.

Generally I really enjoyed experimenting with the different boon / weapon combos. I especially got into it when I was trying to level up all the keepsakes as then I wasn't sticking to particular builds. I ended up with some amazing combos that I could never repeat again but were great fun for that one run.

Hades isn't usually the sort of game I play, but I'd heard a lot of positive stuff about it so when it hit game pass on pc I gave it a go.

It's not bad, actually, and offers a decent challenge.

I’ve been playing this a fair bit since I finally picked it up in the latest sale. I’m about 20 runs in and have just got to the stage where I can breeze through the game but just cannot get a grip on the final boss.

I finally unlocked the third death defiance which I’m hoping might tip the balance on my favour but of the handful of times I’ve got to the end, I think I’ve only once got onto the second phase.

@Thrillho You’ve done well to get there in 20 attempts. I was struggling well into the 40s until I realised it was my use of stubborn defiance rather that straight death defiance that was causing me to not have enough of a chance against the final few bosses.

I think the 3rd death defiance should allow you to get through it though as when my wife replayed it that was what made it for her.

What’s your weapon of choice so far?

Funnily enough I actually made it through on my very next go and still had two "lives" remaining

(stolen from reddit)

But yeah, I mix it up each run to keep things varied and work towards the prophecies/trophies to do with unlocking all abilities and using all boons etc.

My best runs have been with the Adamant Rail though as you can keep your distance. On my one successful run so far, I had the below build which gave me a ridiculous special attack (where it fires the rocket/grenade) dealing over 500 damage a go. The 16.5% damage buffer was also rather nice and Lightning Strike really helped against numerous enemies.

@Thrillho That's what I ended up doing although I did stick with one specific one until I'd beaten the game once, I just can't remember what that was. There were a few weapons that I enjoyed using more than others though. My favourites were the Twin Fists, Adamant Rail and Shield, and if I were to pick one then it would be the Fists. There were a few aspects on them that made them even better and I found them particularly good for when I was doing the heats.

You had some good boons there by the looks of it. It's great when you get a set of boons that really work well together and some of those Duo boons can really make you OP in some cases. I also like the fact that it pushes you to try different things and means you don't get complacent and can have fun playing in different ways whether that's close or ranged combat or a bit of both.

Well, I'm up to 6 completed runs and had a streak of 4 in a row! The Adamant Rail is still my most successful weapon with three of the runs using that (still not finished with the spear or shield) and the final one at just heat level 2.

I've been looking up some of the trophies and the level of depth to get some of the relationships built up is pretty mad. Think I need to have another look and start being a bit more strategic, particularly to get the companions.

@Thrillho Nice one! It's great when you can get stuck into the heats and experimenting with the different modifiers can be quite fun. One of my favourites was the one that allowed you to mod the boss fights as it felt like it added some freshness into it for a while.

Doing all the relationships and getting all the keepsakes levelled up feels like it takes an age. I tended to stick with using the same few keepsakes to start with and it's only once I'd successfully escaped a few times did I then start to mix it up a bit more. It's then that I realised I probably should have done that from the start as it would have made the job a lot easier. Building up the relationships of some characters will move the story on as well as it was quite interesting to see what order my wife got some of the story elements in compared to me where we'd done things differently.

@Indoorhero hey every game isn't for everyone but it's a bummer you didn't like it. I liked how you advanced the story with both success and failure, the variablity in builds between runs, the art style, soundtrack/VO and the general flow of combat. Hope you enjoy what you play next

@Indoorhero I've heard nothing but good things about dead cells, will have to give it a try sometime. The procedural generation for levels sounds interesting

@Indoorhero It might that this is just the wrong time for you and you could come back to it months or years down the line and enjoy it. Hope you find something you want to play soon.

@Indoorhero I've been loving the game so far! I'm on around 50ish runs and having a great time, and have seen the credits roll after beating the games enough times.

I much prefer it to Dead Cells as each run can come together well enough for a decent go at getting far whereas DC you can spend half the time scrabbling round to try and get a decent weapon. Hades also has much more currency that rolls over between runs so you're always unlocking something new. DC felt like you hit a wall too often and so many of the weapons were utter garbage.

I'm really enjoying the story in this game too which is a nice surprise for this sort of game. But each to their own

I finally managed to trigger and complete the epilogue last night so that’s another main thing ticked off. Just a handful of trophies left which include the two high heat runs and then I’m done.

I still enjoy mixing it up with the weapons but for hard runs I certainly find the shield with the Zeus aspect (the one where it carries on spinning in the air) is great, especially when mixed with lightning damage or Doom. Getting the duo boon so dropped cast items cause lightning damage is fantastic too and I even doubled that with a legendary boon to give me two extra casts on one run.

@Thrillho Doom was always my favourite mixed with deflect which meant I could make easier work of the later levels where there were a lot more projectiles. It’s a great game for having something for every play style and I like how it pushes you to try different things but offering you the reward for using a specific weapon or by using the different keepsakes.

Good luck on the high heats level one but it’s sounds like it should be easily manageable for you now 👍

@render The Ares boon that lets Doom stack is rather handy too!

Yeah, I enjoy mixing up which weapon and boons to use but it can be too easy to just stick with ones you regularly use. I’ve started using the Festive Fog cast a bit too, the chill ones can be great, and then the ones that give Weak generally have high extra damage modifiers.

Deflect works well with dash but is a bit rubbish to link to attacks. Artemis’ critical ones I don’t like and Poseidon’s knock back effect can actually be a bit annoying sometimes too.

As well as the heat runs I think there’s one more modifier from the pact I haven’t completed a run with and then the one for getting the butterfly keepsake to a high level (the one that increases attack for not getting hit). So hopefully just a few more evenings worth of runs!