The most broken boon in the game carries this run. | Hades 2

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[@ShirokumaSama]

Zag is more of a troublemaker while Mel is more of straight A student plus the difference in their situation make Hades 2 mood much more serious

[@iamerror1699]

Zag x Than was very mood, so i'd say 1st was better.

[@holynder3181]

Yeah it’s not just the stakes that make Hades 2 feel more serious, it’s Mel’s personality too.

[@FeuxF]

The omega special of the axe has that small window between the shield ending and the attack triggering that leaves you vulnerable and it feels like enemies find that window all the time to hurt you. It’s really obnoxious.

[@JohnDoe-tt5qc]

I hope Dionysus gets back into the game eventually, if only because Festive Fog would translate really well to Mel’s cast.

[@alialdoukhi2014]

My guess is after the surface update we’ll free the rest of the Olympians because they confirmed all gods will return.

[@Annokh]

​@@alialdoukhi2014 Well damn, good news.

[@Ojos_]

@@alialdoukhi2014 thank god(s)! I need Athena's dash back haha

[@borkbunns]

If you guys want an idea of how broken this boon is, we can think of the total calculation as this: Total = M(M+P) / 2P where: M = your current magick P = the boon's magick primed So if we just take Haelian's current setup of 252 magick and the prime at just only 6, he'd have a whopping 5418 total magick... that's practically infinite mana for any single encounter, and honestly doing the math you can reach 1000 total magick easily by just having 140 magick, assuming we have the baseline of 10 prime with no upgrades.

[@hendini]

It can be even stupider if you have a heroic version of heroic gain. If you have 2 poms on it the prime just becomes 1 magick, for effectively infinite magick.

[@brianestepa2376]

@@hendini Do yall think it should be nerfed?

[@hendini]

@@brianestepa2376 I think it is fairly balanced, actually. The common born gain tends not to be as useful for me (since I’m not super skilled) I end up just going through tons of magick and priming the whole bar.

[@SkyllerSY]

They will 100% nerf cast builds dealing over 4k damage with a single button and born again giving infinite mana 😂

[@user-25352]

Born again isn't "infinite" mana, if you use it too much without high max mana you will soon prime all of your mana reserve meaning no magic whatsoever. But good mana reserve if you use it like 3-4 times per battle; so it combines well with huge max mana and/or other ways to regenerate it

[@kitakkful]

I’d agree they’ll likely nerf born gain to prime more mana (maybe 25-50 or so), but I’d imagine it would still be super strong combo with a ~200 mana pool.

[@borkbunns]

@@user-25352 if you do the math, just getting 140 magick on the born gain's baseline of 10 primed magick will quickly get you to a total of 1k magick. that's definitely more than enough for any given encounter for not a lot of magick honestly

[@vick1873]

I predict they will double the prime amount. So start with 20 for common boon

[@cmike123]

They may make it Prime more, but it is supposed to be a mana Regen option.

[@axllow3914]

I have used aspect of Charon 3 times in a row and was never offered the Omega Special Speed, did quite a lot of damage anyway. I used aspect of Than afterwards and the first room had a hammer offer it to me lmao

[@eloelo6944]

It's good with than too. Play safe and spam the special all you really need is a good mana boon (preferably Hera) and a special with good percentage increase like Apollo

[@KatelynGadd]

aside from all your correct observations, hades 2 has much stronger "this one's for the ladies" energy than the first game

[@agumon1605]

I mean look at moros

[@SpiffierShindigs]

Hades: Ladies

[@_dFour_]

male bisexuals vs. female bisexuals (and enbies are just eating good)

[@unamuseddeathgod5128]

can confirm, my sapphic ass almost didn't complete a run because I couldn't stop looking at hecate's abs

[@prachetasnayse9709]

I mean Chaos design really looks sleek ngl

[@StarrChild.]

While the relationship with his father was rocky, Zag was raised as a prince and was spoiled. He was given the best teachers and got to take it easy. Mel was raised forever knowing the danger looming below and trained every day to fight it off. I really like the differences they've done with the siblings but still keeping them similar.

[@gregw_]

I feel like whenever I get the Nem trial in the fields, she sprints off and hunts down enemies before I can even find them.

[@akaoz2617]

The block feels so bad to try to use with how long your vulnerable between when it ends and when you finally hit. They should at least make it similar to the shield in hades 1 when you can choose when to let go.

[@lookalike4805]

The Problem with with Aegis in Hades 1 was Anything you Blocked could just have Easily been Dodged since you had to Attack to Block.

[@holynder3181]

@@lookalike4805That’s not really a problem. The point of blocking with aegis is mainly to prevent damage while charging your bull rush, not so much as a purely defensive tool.

[@liorzaphir5358]

Wow at the start: "Dont like anything from aphro" Aphro and apollo duo really good for mass magicka spam :(

[@hendini]

Using the Heroic Born Gain with 2 Poms is my favorite. You’d only prime 1 magick for every full magick pool you go through. It’s so dumb. Very fun though if you want to spam the special on the Skull. Highly recommend.

[@thatonefool0215]

That also sounds really good on the flames too since you're constantly using magick

[@hendini]

@@thatonefool0215 it’d be fun for the blades too because you can constantly spam omega special or omega attacks. It’s just crazy strong. Once you get to level 3 (2 poms on it) you can’t get any less than that, but you don’t need to. Highly suggest trying it out for something silly. Better players could probably take more advantage of it than me, but I enjoy it because it means I can just spam what I need to.

[@elGonho]

But in general you end up getting a couple mana upgrades even if you don't look for them, I rarely deplete mana with common level 1 born gain

[@hendini]

@@elGonho I’ve used common born gain and primed all of my magick unable to do anything. It’s limiting to how I play. You do you though

[@Hibachii]

I feel like its really not necessary to invest poms/upgrades in Born Gain since it already offers an insane amount of mana, better to invest these poms/upgrades in core damage boons.

[@theformation3781]

7:14 that move (crossed flames, awaken!) is actually unblockable! There are a couple more unblockable moves in the game (for example chronos's instakill) but i think hecate's big ring is perhaps the most annoying of them (others are polyphemus's advancing shockwave move, and the fire barrel guys in ephyra's flames are both unblockable and stack damage the more you stand in them so you just have to dip and time your moves well against them)

[@Mochila03]

I'm wondering if in the super secret ending far down the road, Chronos gets a redemption arc of sorts where he's reconciled with his kids. But that could be a long shot. He might just be an irredeemable son of a gun.

[@anon9067]

this is my theory also. in some versions of the story, long after the titanomachy, chronos is raised from tartarus and granted rule over elysium. continuing the theme of family reunion from hades 1, it would be neat to see an ending in which chronos gains a grudging respect for melinoë which eventually leads to her persuading him to attempt to reconcile with his children and grandchildren

[@StarrChild.]

I'm totally fine either outcome tbh. I trust the writers could make him have a great redemption but also he's so fun as a villain.

[@aaaaa-dt4ni]

theyre definitely planting seeds that his motivations arent -that- bad. Him constantly essentially agreeing with chaos on the level of "the fates shouldnt have this much control"

[@faceless58]

For my own challenge because I'm very rusty at maths I was just figuring how to calculate how much total magick you get with born gain. Probably I've made it far too complicated and it can be simplified but I got to the ~right answer with this so here it is. (Note both A/B terms must be calculated first and rounded down) The formula is A + ( A x (A/B)) - B ( A/B x ((A/B)+1)/2). A is total Magick, B is the Born Gain reduction, so in the Hecate fight for example A is 130, B is 6. A/B must be rounded down and is the number of times you can trigger born gain (21 times here) You can also call this number n. ((A/B)+1)/2 is just (n+1)/2 which is part of the formula for finding the sum of a consecutive integers up to integer n. So it ends up as 130 + ((130 x 21) - 6 x ( 21 x 11 )) This is 1474 total magick. If i manually add every number from 130 each time removing another 6 it comes out as 1476 and I have no idea where that extra 2 comes from so if someone can explain that or simplify the formula let me know.

[@VivBrodock]

gifting echo after talking to her is for sure intended, her gimmick is that she repeats part of the last dialogue spoken to her and being able to gift first would break up that pattern

[@ShratTheMighty]

whoever said Infernal Cerberus is too easy is DEAD WRONG. sure, his attacks are slower, but his massive sack of HP makes him a Very Intense DPS check. If you don't have a way to do big damage fast and/or decent magick regen, he simply wears you down when he eventually gets a good hit or two on you. he taught me the value of needing to not try to be a jack of all trades, but to make sure your build Does Something

[@charleywilson2146]

Nah you can very easily just whittle down his health with even a small semblance of a scorch build. All his attacks are easily avoidable too.

[@iamerror1699]

@@charleywilson2146 This game is supposed to be for casuals too, y'k?

[@charleywilson2146]

@@iamerror1699 …??? Pattern recognition is one of the things that the human brain does best, and Cerberus has a grand total of like 7 attacks, most of which are very short range. And idk what you’re talking about with “casuals”, what gives you the impression that I’m not one?

[@LSDon-gs7bz]

@2:45 Aphrodite's attack especially epic or heroic is OP on the axe

[@VivBrodock]

he built around special, that would defeat the purpose of the run

[@-Mu-min]

The moonstone axe is amazing hope they would add the gloves we had in the first game i see 2 slots or 1 open for weapon(s) have my doubts because it’s melinoë maybe a sword will be added

[@blackbird8able]

Hera's sigil does resemble a shield, but I thought it was a peacock feather, since her design has the same coloring and the peacock was considered as one of her sacred beasts. Like how horses are atributed to Posiden and the like, and Apollo had his bulls.

[@craftymoustache]

Wait, I expected Born Gain to prime the magick for the entire run! Never used it because of that. Didn't know it resets after each encounter. That's absolutely bonkers.

[@KingJerbear]

I am struggling so bad with the Axe. Just locks you into animations for so long and feels so clunky. I think the key is to figure out how to utilize the blocking but I always get chunked in that moment after the block right before it hits

[@champiggyfrm_pig5271]

The most success I've had was with aspect of than, omega atk and just kill everything before it can dmg me. Still currently the worst weapon imo

[@maksimlomovcev8069]

Exactly this, like they wait for that window to hit u

[@ajpatter777]

You may already know this, but in case you didn’t between the second to last and last hit of the normal attack combo you can dash in any direction and also after you charge up the omega attack you can dash and you will start doing the spin move wherever you dash to. it changed the ax from unplayable to playable for me

[@cruxofthesubject1402]

I think the axe is the 2nd or 3rd best weapon next to the staff and behind the Sickles. You can make a handful of different build work. My first ever chaos kill was with an extremely oonga boonga are build with the big chop as my attack. You just have to understand your limits. In fact, id say playing with the axe is probably the best way to learn boss timings and ability animations so you know your openings

[@cmike123]

For axe blocking, learning timing is key at range. You can also put it into an enemy's chest. The wind up does nice damage and applies effects.

[@JaboodyEnthusiast]

Born gain on the axe is fun until chronos. I miss my momus staff when that fight starts.

[@DangerzoneDuggar]

Once Born Gain gets nerfed, Hearth Gain is next. Almost Zeus regen speed, and with a massive health pool from fully upgraded frog and card, it's hardly noticeable on the cost side

[@lookalike4805]

I actually prefer Aphrodite's Regen Boon.... It works Everywhere Except the Mourning Fields 👍

[@catwaluigi4756]

I had Hermes boon that slows enemy projectile speed and it affected Chronos entire move set. He threw the boomerang slower attacked slower gave more time for his insta kills etc.

[@DonaldPrevie]

I’m glad I’m not the only one that gets smacked around while trying to block with the axe.

[@Purgingcrab]

Games looking very promising

[@MaceHead117]

I really enjoy the new builds in Hades 2 they feel a lot more intentional though would love some buffs to the other hammers as there are definetly one or two that are waaay ahead of the pack

[@PocketEden]

the thing I don't particularly like about thanatos aspect is it's a scythe but works like a hammer

[@holynder3181]

Only the omega special does that, whereas every other attack with the weapon uses the blade.

[@DKH712]

With the omega special there seems to be a distance where the enemy is hit with two overlapping hits. If you stand too close or far away they only get hit once

[@-Mu-min]

Was playing helldivers 2 Took a look at my steamdeck last week Hooked to hades 2 now couldn’t stop playing the first one the second is even better and it’s still in early acces

[@justarandomdood]

Double Ω Special in the DPS at the end is a little funny haha

[@cantrip7]

I wonder how they're gonna nerf Hera's Born Gain... Like, do you just make the prime cost heftier? Do you make it ramp? I assume the intention is to give you juuust enough magick to burst down bosses with Omega-heavy builds...? I guess it's hard to imagine situations where it's useful but not broken considering how bursty the game can get.

[@ryanrodgers3099]

I saw someone suggest making it a % of your total magic rather than a flat amount, and that's probably the healthiest way to go about it. Still massively increases your max magic while having some semblance of a limit.

[@modelcitizen1977]

Narcissus sounds like Andy Samberg doing his Nic Cage impression.

[@biiyen8458]

They should really split the life bar on Scylla, Roxxy, and Jetty

[@holynder3181]

It’s not a big deal but it would be nice.

[@themushroominside6540]

Born gain would be still be good even if its epic was to prime 20 magic when exhausted, it encourages proper magic management and allows you to keep on casting, the fact you can pom it even at its current state is busted, as a result other gains such as Aphrodite's, Apollo's and definitely Hephaestus should be buffed. there should also be more cast buffing boons that increases how long the cast last other than Hera's "ring" boon and i certainly want a boon that allows you to cast more than one cast at a time.

[@c3l1ant]

i miss than 😔

[@msadventurecomedy]

Do you think Apollo didn't show up after he grew displeased by not being picked in the trial?

[@fatalfury28]

Hades 1.. Zag: this is kinda gay.. is it? Hades 2.. Mel: all of you are bitches!, lets all FIGHT TILL SOMEONE BLEEDS BACK TO THE BASE

[@tiagoj8020]

40:10 did he dash with the omega special causing all that damage!?

[@Iaman2527]

Chronos dashed into the omega special other shots, he take all of it

[@Arthurcoco33]

Sometimes I hate the axe so much just because of that HALF second while charging your technique that makes you vulnerable to hits

[@brandonedwards6119]

Personally not a fan of how so many boons have negatve tradeoffs, especially legendary and duo boons. Save those for hammers and Chaos.

[@ProkManNeel]

Do they? I haven’t seen negative trade offs?

[@holynder3181]

⁠@@ProkManNeel Ionic Gain, Hearth Gain, Burnt Offering, Family Trade, Rare Crop, Bridal Glow, any boon that primes magick, etc.

[@2admie]

@Haelian Hi Dan, can you explain why you switched arcana cards from full fourth row to full second row and now to full first row selected? Is it varied for a different weapons or you just think this is more optimal?

[@holynder3181]

It’s probably a combination of him trying out new stuff and certain cards being better for certain weapons.

[@davidthompson9504]

I've noticed Halenene has gone from saying "you know what I mean?" a lot to "write that down". Anyone else?

[@justarandomdood]

Born Gain is gonna be nerfed for sure but like... Damn...

[@articwolf467]

The one build where ive had issues with born gain is an attack build on the torches. There's been 2 times in the chronos fight that I've ran out of mana

[@fishermancy7719]

I’ve done that build and never had that problem lol

[@reboot3332]

I've had problems getting it to trigger cause of other magic regen. It is awesome but I don't think it needs a nerf at all.

[@Emerald29]

I thought im the only one who thinks this boon is broken af

[@Zayber129]

I’ll cry if they nerf born again, I know they need to but it’s SO FUN

[@potatofarmer2490]

Are all the staff aspects a bit lame or is it just a skill issue on my part?

[@grizzlyosc8586]

Just spam special with Aspect of Momus and the Daedalus hammer that gives two special shots + seeks enemies. That with Poseidon’s special boon and you’re a machine gun

[@f3nn3lgaming]

I actually like Hearth Gain more than Born Again TBH.

[@lookalike4805]

I think the Disparity Between all the Aspects is way too Big.... I'm Struggling with The Axe but I'm getting Accidental Clears with the Torches.... Why ? 🤨

[@elGonho]

Probably positioning or not dashing during attacks. You have to be deliberately choosing when and where to start channeling, and if you don't dash when you omega attack, or during your attack combo it's too hard to do damage and not get hit

[@lookalike4805]

@elGonho I think the real issue is Chronos is too Fast to use the Axe the way you would normally use it on Other Enemies. Which makes sense... Chronos is the only Boss who ignores all Slow Motion Effects. The Torches don't Rely on that and so Naturally they work Better on Chronos.

[@Zerokion]

I rly wanna watch all these runs but I just started playing and don't want to spoil anything. Sadge

[@lg3nda3ryslay3r]

The Hex carried

[@alexandermheen-garschke6166]

Does anyone know how to gift eris? I dont get the option to or she just rejects it.

[@cmike123]

She only rejects the first and maybe second attempt. Just keep trying.

[@xplux24]

hes going to get it nerfed

[@munchlacks2900]

Am I insane or is he playing aspect of Than like it’s aspect of Charon

[@ryanrodgers3099]

You're not insane it definitely looks similar. Cast holds enemies in place to line up omega special really nicely, and he has no magic issues thanks to Born Gain, so he might as well Omega Cast with Apollo's cast since it does crazy damage. He was using cast quite a bit even before the Apollo Omega came in. Good showcase of how useful the bind effect on cast is for things like this where you're a sitting duck for ages before your damage.

[@lookalike4805]

To be Fair.... Special Is more Effective on Chronos anyway.

[@elGonho]

Maybe with good mana Regen than is better even at special cause crit is more damage than the percent extra on the cast, if you can expend the omega cast mana. Maybe the one thing Charon's makes better is save mana (and negligible aoe)

[@VivBrodock]

I absolutely hate the axe's special, feels like garbage. I miss Arthur's special everytime I play it.

[@lookalike4805]

You mean the one that was so Slow that Enemies would Counter Hit you every time you tried to Activate it ? 🤔

[@shavedmonkeys11]

GOTY already

[@Shingeki1323]

FIRST ❤️

[@michaelmarquis284]

I don't understand why everyone calls Born Gain "broken" and calls for nerfs. Mel is a SPELLCASTER. What kind of shitty spellcaster would you be if ran out of mana after like 3 spells? If anything, everything else needs to be buffed up to compete with Born Gain. At a minimum, all the passive gains need to be able to restore mana while you're attacking. Like, that's literally the difference between a lot of the Gain boons being underwhelming and awkward to use and them being called as "broken" as Born Gain

[@lookalike4805]

Everything else actually does Regen your Magic.... The issue with Born Gain is you functionally have Unlimited Magic with Zero Cooldown. The only One that's Really Bad Is Heaphestus and maybe Demeter's Magic Regen Boons.... Tanking is not Practical and There's no Opportunity it Stand Still in the Last Fight. Fluid gain is also a Problem since it's too RNG reliant. But Apollo, Aphrodite & Zeus are 100% Functional. How Does Hestia's Regen work Again ?

[@D0verking69]

@@lookalike4805 Shhhhh we're try to keep it from getting nerfed

[@michaelmarquis284]

@@lookalike4805 Hestia's is -Max HP. The issue is none of them regen while you're attacking. And Aphrodite's is FAR from functional. You get like 2-3mp per kill unless you just dance next to an enemy without attacking and literally no one's doing that. Hephaestus is ironically one of the more functional boons bc you can easily get 150+ mp back per hit and it's not like your some super god that's never taking damage.

[@lookalike4805]

@michaelmarquis284 Aphrodite's One Works while attacking.... I don't know what made you think it Doesn't.... On Top of That it Also a Permanent Curse so that's Easy Origination Maintenance 😳 As for Heaphestus.... Its just like you Said... She's a Witch.... What Witch Do You Know Tanks for Any Reason ? Its not a Viable way of Defeating Chronos who Can deal a Maximum of 1500 Damage in Phase 2... 👀

[@Lajn5]

disliked didnt try to pet cerberus :(

[@leozzeras]

STOP THE DUOS!!!

[@diiegoaguilera7435]

Just say whats the boom bro, dont make me watch a 40 min video to find out

[@vick1873]

I'm 20 minutes in and I still have no clue 😂. Reading the other comments, they're probably referring to Hera's mana boon, Born Again, which I bet will get nerfed at some point.

[@duncanrobertson6472]

4:09 he makes it pretty clear

[@QDRG64]

Bros just go to the end of the run at 40:49 lol, the game literally has a victory screen where people usually mark all the important boons in their run.

[@lookalike4805]

Its right there in the Thumbnail. 👀

[@drakkenmensch]

In the second area of the open fields, ALWAYS keep for last the boon that you want replicated in case you meet Echo and she offers "Reward Reward Reward" in her boons. This trick can let you have THREE hammers if you're lucky and play the rewards strategically before meeting Echo.