UPDATED Fear Guide for Surface and Underworld Routes! | Hades 2 Olympic Update

[@masonskiekonto590]

The first night I've unlocked the pact I've toggled frenzy 1 and I'm never turning it off. Hades 1 taught me the hard way that you need to adjust to faster speeds and dealing with that with other bull crap at once is nightmarish.

[@VivBrodock]

this is actually a pretty good point, I did the same thing with one level of timer, just to get my brain used to looking at the timer and judging how fast I am clearing rooms and making decisions

[@muhammedaskin1830]

yeah even after beating 32 and doing low fear runs, 2 lvl frenzy is always active to stay on form

[@RubberGamesHD]

That's exactly what I did

[@dhmgeor]

To whom it may concern! The onion vow works in a weird way with the surface . I am running always on the artificer arcana , because the game is structured around how many major finds you get and the ability to get 3 more is incredible. I'm the little side areas of the rooms there are often minor finds and if you use artificer on them whatever boons were there will be onions because the game recognizes them as "new regions"

[@VivBrodock]

I think I'm gonna wait for the Extreme Measures equivalent before doing 32 fear tbh, but will be nice to have this for the testament

[@Haelian]

Totally fair, the Oath is definitely in a better place now than last patch so they're going in a good direction.

[@amanofnoreputation2164]

I want that damn 32 fear statue.

[@yadamspiezer]

Just use strength. It's busted. I know it seems harder not having DDs, but it's way easier.

[@klementa0225]

I want it too 😡 😤

[@小苹狗]

@@yadamspiezerout damaging the enemy is the way to go

[@tokilladaemon]

​@@yadamspiezeralso i think psychologically it's easier to accept a loss and get back on the horse if you play strength. I feel like it motivates you to keep banging your head on the wall without worrying about the losses, and sooner or later you will get lucky and bust through

[@jonhsmith8238]

​@@yadamspiezerYea, it is easier, you have double the health, any max health you take is effectively doubled, and any damage reduction effect you take is also effectively double (stuffs like Weak and that 1 poseidon boon). However, I do want to add, what makes Strength legit busted is Heph Trusty Shield. Your Armor is also effectively double, and when your armor break it's basically a DD effect, you can't take more damage instance than the amount of armor you have. But Armor benefits is frontloaded to the first few instances of damage you take instead of backloaded like DD, so you just proc it way more, and the value just adds up through the length of the run. Not to mention the same guy also have a boon where you get invulnerability for like 6s, and gets more Max HP based on Magick, which also has doubled value with Strength. Any drawback from having a defensive god is completely off-set by Strength global dmg boost. The synergy is kinda absurd because Athena dash + Strength + Heph and whatever god you want for damage is just basically a free win on 32 fear and below. I'm probably expecting some kind of nerfs.

[@abela03]

i'm just starting of with fear, thank you for the guide!!

[@adamtwosleeves]

Been struggling with 16 fear with xinth. Got it first time after using your guide. Thanks!

[@coach_hotwheels3474]

idk i think if you plan to go to higher fear, or even if you just want to be consistent at 32, revenants are easier once you are good at it, and it’s a lot better than a whole 40% more enemies imo

[@Schubes17]

I agree. Maybe it's just my play style, but I feel like return is really not that bad, especially if you are using a weapon that has you bouncing all over the map anyway.

[@lombers]

The Athena keepsake is now fixed! Great timing 😊

[@AKTKWNG]

From my experience, the best high-heat coat runs have been with Mel aspect and Zeus start. Zeus attack is surprisingly strong for the coat. Factoring the damage increases from The Huntress and/or Strength arcanas, it takes 1 punch to apply blitz and 2 punches to detonate it. Seeing how a rare Zeus attack deals 120 blitz damage, that works out to +40 damage per punch, which is equivalent to ~80% damage increase. So you start with a 80% damage attack boon which applies a curse for Origination and also sets you up to get static shock, which helps your AOE damage and trivialises vow of wards.

[@sebastianzarek7056]

Me watching the video even tho I already did 32F both surface and underworld multiple times:

[@sebastianzarek7056]

Actually recently I slipped and almost died on a 32F underworld run when I was trying out the Nyx aspect at 32F. I was planning to run hera on special, so decided I can try to go Vow of Time, Revenants and Hordes at full power. I won with literally 2hp left, no DDs and 22:14 as my run time. Entered the fight with 4DDs (Hermes legendary) and 300+ HP, and vow of time started hitting me even before Chronos went into phase 2 lol. DO NOT use these together if you're going with 5 minutes Vow of Time, even if you clear rooms super quickly with hera boons.

[@archer111000]

Me watching this video even though I haven't even played Hades 2 yet. I've been avoided any actual gameplay of it so not to spoil myself, but these sort of meta discussions I get to watch!

[@shreshthanigans]

It's fun to see other people's opinions. If you made a video I'd watch that too 👀

[@skone_aseema]

My most consistent 32 fear runs on the surface have been Nyx aspect with the coat. Zeus attack and Dem's cast plus hailstorm. The issue I always have with using Poseidon attack with Hestia cast is that the normal rooms become way harder without Arctic Ring.

[@tyschmal]

I've been recently using a similar Black Coat build, but I push Hephaestus on the special instead. The goal there is to get static shock with Zeus and the Heph/Zeus duo. A dash strike sends out 3 chain lightnings, and if it can bounce with you, a single dash strike can do a lot of damage to a single target.

[@TheSUGA1202]

0:22 How to build up my fear? I just need to watch the tv atm.

[@DamienLby]

I tend to always have 2 fangs - 2 time - 2 menace - 1 frenzy activated, I think it's a good baseline. I like fangs, it brings welcome variety (except the effect that makes one foe unkillable until you kill all the others). I found beating 32f underworld surprisingly easy compared to what I was expecting. 32f surface though, I had a really hard time. The strategy that did it for me was to favor pain, scars and even return in order to be able to tone frenzy down, because frenzied Eris/Prom were consistently beating me, then in addition to a good damage boon, priorize Heph for trusty shield/mint condition. Had my first clear with Mel coat, attack based. One big advantage of this weapon (in addition to its great mobility, good range and good base damage xD ) is that it has a lot of very good hammers, and none that ruins it. Usually, each time you'll get a hammer during a run, you'll be able to pick a choice that helps your build.

[@amanofnoreputation2164]

10 fear or so is nothing because you can reach it by applying things that you can get aroudn by playing just a little bit differently. 16 fear is the turning point where the modifiers start to compound each other and it gets difficult not to make serious concessions. Each extra fear isn't just a _little bit_ harder, but _exponentially_ harder. Fear 20 is about the highest I've gotten without a bespoke plan. And 24 is probably my limit right now. There are just so many restrictions that I can't overcome it without a lot of luck.

[@tuckerensmenger8001]

I will say, if you feel like you can get through Erebus on decently high fear, just for fun try out a judgement run. I just did a 24 fear underworld using it on a strength Moros Torches run. Getting to remove a tick of Fangs or Frenzy feels great in erebus and by the time I finished Oceanus I was unbelievably overpowered with all the Arcana i had activated. Really fun run.

[@simonepriolo]

32 surface rn is unberable. It's so hard it's frustrating. It took me 31 tries to clear it. It was fine when there were only 2 areas, but with olympus added it's now way too hard (mainly due to the additional enemies in rift, that in the narrow rooms of the area are just hell)

[@Schubes17]

Maybe I'm an outlier, but I don't find return to be that bad. Maybe it just suits my style of play, but I feel like managing them while I'm fighting the remaining baddies isn't too terrible. I'd much rather have the potential threat of an enemy that I can squash by just sprinting than a guaranteed increase in enemies with hordes.

[@MrBlurryEyes_]

Been waiting for this

[@Sonar009]

For my own part, I just turned on the first Vow of Frenzy as soon as I had access to it and then never turned it off, which served as a nice 3-point base to build off of. I knew I would eventually need it to push fear levels, so I figured I may as well adjust to the timing for dodging stuff as early as possible. Got my 32-fear statue just a couple days ago, and personally I opted for maxing everything except Pain, Frenzy, Scars, (Took I think 1 of each of these?) Forfeit, Time, and Void. (Avoided entirely) I've got a very different playstyle, though; I personally can't stand being on a timer, and I _like_ Grit and Hordes because they make it so that a build that pops off has more room to flex. Who cares if I'm hitting for 2000 when the chunkiest non-boss enemies only have 1500 health? (Exact numbers may vary)

[@amanofnoreputation2164]

Run two Vow of Fangs. Trust me. It save so much time over Hordes and is so much safer than Pain. I also used Raki, not Frinos because health wasn't an issue for me. (I beat Chronos and hadn't taken any damage to my health, thoguh I had lost my armor.)

[@amanofnoreputation2164]

Okay I tried Xinth with Posidon attack on 32 fear. Made it all the way to Chrono's second phase, got him down to 50% and then got hit by the instant death move because I got stuck on a dying hourglass's time-freeze field. I had engraved pin, but it didn't matter. The ten seconds remaining to me weren't enough to beat him. The run was solid -- I was just unlucky or careless at the last second.

[@morag2378]

@haelian updated tier list of weapons and aspects ( and pets) and where they work the best or separated tiers for underground and surface would be cool

[@Haelian]

Soonge (I worry we'll get another balance update in the near future)

[@Opno]

Man, I'm never using a single suggestion from this guide lmfao

[@RubberGamesHD]

Both my 32 fear wins were with Void 3 and judgement+strength It's a breeze

[@MichaelWegmuller]

As someone who starts getting into 20+ fear runs, the wandering soul you have to pick up really ain't that bad as long as your timer is 7 minutes. I find extra damage or enemy speed to be much more punishing

[@amanofnoreputation2164]

That feel when you get Circe to remove a vow and she picks Denial. Denial is actually a benefical vow for the most part because it allows you to exert much more control over what boons you get. It sucks if you want lots of boons from one particular god, but if you just have one or two in mind, then you can just mill all the boons you don't want. A boon you might just not get when Denial is not active suddenly becomes a boon you're all but certain to get in conjunction with a couple rolls fo the dice.

[@masonskiekonto590]

I didn't test it on the new patch but on patch 4 I've tried using denial to force legendaries, it showed me 1 boon in tartarus and then finally that same boon and a legendary after 2 rolls. I don't know whether that was the intended behavior but rollin a lego is a separate random variable.

[@theguythatasked6400]

@@masonskiekonto590 any duo/infusion/legendary boom has the same likelihood of being offered whether you have other boons or not.

[@wildstorm3486]

⁠@@masonskiekonto590that has been patched for some time. Can’t remember which update it was. But you cannot force Duo and Legendary boons with Denial anymore. These options are suppose to make your runs more difficult. Guaranteeing Duo’s and Legendaries is not making the game more difficult.

[@sebastianzarek7056]

@@masonskiekonto590 Yep, you can't use it to force legendary/duo boons.

[@totallynormaIcat]

@@masonskiekonto590that was patched some time ago, as the other commenters said; but Denial still gives you so much control over the rest of the boons, especially tier 2s (like Pos’s Slippery Slope), as well as getting rid of core boons you really don’t want! Speaking of legendaries and duos though, now they have a fixed 10% chance to appear (for duo boons this can be increased to 20% total chance by the “The Queen” Arcana) As of now, there are no effects concerning specifically legendaries, but you can still get a higher chance by using Chaos’s Rarity buff I believe (not sure on this one, though)

[@HU-iv1ns]

You are such a nice person :)

[@MaxHaydenChiz]

Updated boon / build guides for each aspect incoming?

[@Haelian]

One big edited video outlining specific builds for each weapon is probably not in the cards for a while I'm afraid. The game changes too quickly, possibly even in the middle of editing a video like that. A (admittedly lazy) series of videos where we aim for the "Most OP" builds for each weapon is definitely plausible like we did after the last balance patch.

[@MaxHaydenChiz]

@@Haelian Make sense. If you can, please make it clear from thumbnail / title that that's what that video is and not some meme run or whatever. I watch most of your non-Hades stuff, but there's only so many random runs I can enjoy watching.

[@WrenKainIV]

40+ fear is where the real fun begins. Just leave the arcana active and have a go at it. Absolutely bonkers

[@debrucey]

Interesting you don't turn on Grit sooner. I turned it on just to make my boss-melting builds feel more impactful

[@radmi2746]

Surprised we just didnt get the old reliable scyth/hera build

[@Bards.98]

Now do a 55 fear guide 🙃

[@wiimaster6421]

Timer is aoways on 2 grit is always on 3 and faster enemies is always on 1. Fangs has been on 1 for as long as its been out as well

[@2admie]

For me frenzy is a big no. Back in the first patch I tried 32 fear so many times without success because Eris or Charibdis would easily kill me. When I switched frenzy off, I beat it first time.

[@edgynickname1056]

32 Fear Charon Axe for the underworld was one of the easiest runs I’ve done in this game Especially if you use the Silver Wheel you just feel unstoppable

[@dodang_9147]

Hecuba pet is overpowered. it's easily strongest pet right now. That fear in which you prime magic for rarity is completely meaningless with the pet. you can run aspect of pan or 3rd staff and just spam omega moves while picking most shiny boons the entire run on 32.

[@jo40p3dr0]

I have a question. Let's say I go for the surface with forfeit, and I get Zeus on the first chamber. Will Zeus join the 4 gods pool? Or since the boon became an onion, he will not be added to the pool?

[@yadamspiezer]

You should still see a Zeus boon when the next one is offered if you wear his keepsake.

[@Haelian]

Gods aren't added to the pool unless you actually obtain a boon from them so no. The god keepsake will be retained if it gets onion'd so you're guaranteed Zeus again after.

[@joaovmlsilva3509]

everything is going up to 32 fear but the skulls I hate them

[@CajunPhoenix]

this guy really hates revenants

[@Haelian]

It's fair to say that it *might* be easier than something like Hordes but the difference is minimal in my experience. I'd rather not have to spend energy concerning myself with the revenants in that case.

[@sh.walker]

Day 2 of asking for a weapon Tier List

[@Haelian]

Soonge

[@sh.walker]

@Haelian Yeee 🥳