Hades

[Gold Ergo Sum]

I did not see a thread on here about this game, but it just came out of Early Access on Steam and finally has its true ending.  It is on sale for $20 (USD) for another 24 hours or so.

If you have not played it and enjoy rogue-like and action games, I highly recommend it.

You are Hades son, and are battling your way out of hell, with the assistance of "boons" from the gods of Olympus, using six different weapon types--each of which has four modified versions.  There are also other relics, buffs and items which you can level up to modify your runs over time, and a Pact of Punishment to add difficulty-modifiers to the end game.

I have put over 50 hours into this game.  Runs take around an hour to fully complete.  I find the gameplay loop super compelling. The mechanics are very tight, and even when you are in bullet-hell type environments, it still feels pretty fair and skill-based.

Also, unlike most games in this genre, it has very enjoyable side stories with dozens of mythological characters, and over 10,000 lines of dialogue recorded to flesh out the experience.

I think this is probably the most ambitious and polished game I have played in this genre.

[El Grillo]

I saw the Switch launch trailer and it looks like fun, with me having enjoyed Transistor and having an interest Greek mythology. Might be checking it out this weekend.

[El Grillo]

This game is so much fun and I'm so bad at it. I played it a bunch today, reached the final boss (I think? You never know with these kinds of games...) a few times and got utterly destroyed each time. I'm inexperienced at the genre so hopefully I can get better quickly, and I can see the potential for a lot of depth in the metaprogression. Voice acting, art, and music have been good too.

[Lewwyn]

I've played about 12 hours so far the last 2 days. It's great. I made it to the third boss so far.

[yuris125]

I loved what I saw on twitch; bought it, and looking forward to trying it myself once the end-of-month rush at work is over. Expecting to be absolutely terrible at it

[Gold Ergo Sum]

I just keep playing runs over the past two weeks. I’m probably up to 100 hours.  With the weapon aspects and keepsakes etc, you can play runs that feel very, very different because some of them completely change the way the weapons and the game are played. I did 3-4 “cast” runs yesterday, just focusing on getting my damage from my cast. It’s something I had not really done too much, and proved very effective with the right setup and boons.  I’ve also have just been taking all the random boons I have not taken yet so I can start to complete all the Minor Prophecies.

I also decided to do a “dodge” run and took the dodge keepsake, plus the fist aspect that gives 15% dodge, plus the Hermes boon for dodge, and got up to 59% dodge, so only ~40% of instances of damage even hit me. That was kind of funny.

Even after all that time, I’m still advancing the story, learning more back story, and getting new progress in interactions with individual characters, which adds a lot to the replayability.

I’m not certain. I think 10 heat is my best run so far, but I think with the right OP setup (Hunting Blades build, a good  bow setup, the legendary shield aspect etc.), I could probably win at 25-ish heat, but you don’t get extra rewards for adding more than 1 new heat each run, so I haven’t tried it. But I have beat the final boss with around only 100 health loss with three full Death Defiances left, so I have some room to spare in adding heat.  I’m not very quick though. My fastest runs are around 30 minutes, when I am trying to rank up a keepsake that requires quick room clears.  Once you start to max out the mirror, and get leveled keepsakes etc., the game gets much easier. 

I might try some super high number today and report back.

I think the worst fight in the game if you don’t do damage quickly is the butterfly mini-boss in Elysium who spawns units the longer it stays alive. Also, a certain character who you can choose to rob and then fight is also insanely tough, especially if you pick the fight in Act 1.

[El Grillo]

I seem to have hit my stride, at least with some of the ranged weapons. I'm not at all looking forward to doing some of the Styx rooms with melee builds...

A couple of breakthroughs for me were getting Eurydice's keepsake for extra sustain during boss fights and figuring out enough of the attack patterns to be able to slow down and focus on minimizing damage taken while slowly chipping in and building up Call gauge. It brings me back to the closest adjacent genre experience I have from playing Touhou badly ~10 years ago This works great with ranged options where I can look to pick up big burst Calls like Aphrodite or Artemis and some DoTs or push on my primary attack, but I'm clearly going to have to come up with something else for sword/fists.

[Gold Ergo Sum]

I prefer the ranged weapons and I'm better with them as well, but the melees can be easier than you think, depending on build. Some of the Daedalus hammers can give you dashes and increased range, and you can stun lock a lot of the enemies too with repeated melee hits. Also, some of the weapons aspects give you significant damage reduction (dodge on the fists, 40% damage reduction on your special on the sword etc.) which help as well. You also can just get some super high damage builds that allow you to just shred things before you can take much damage. Also, it helps to have a dash that does high damage, Poseidon being the prime candidate, just to clear all the little rats and stuff in Styx rooms. when you are melee.

One thing that I think is super underrated is the extra dash charges from Hermes. I have gotten up to 5 dashes, and due to the invulnerability frames from each one, you can end up being invulnerable for well over a second, which makes it very easy to dodge Hades's spin attack, the Minotaur's dash, the spear throw from Thesius, and the arrows from the Elysium warriors etc. When combined with Athena, you can almost just dash around and eventually kill stuff with your deflected damage.

I think in general the Eurydice keepsake is one of the weaker ones, just because you take so many instances of damage. I think the Myrmidion bracers, which leveled up is a 30% damage reduction on frontal damage, will save far more health overall, or even just the 100 health from a fully upgraded Lucky Tooth. If you can get Hermes's Lambent up to 20+% dodge, which is very doable with some of the high damage melee builds, that is also a huge reduction. But there is a big downside with that, and the Thanatos keepsake, which is that you need it equipped the entire game.

I think once you have the contractor upgrade that lets you switch keepsakes (super important), you ideally use Charon's for one of the first three levels to get the 150 gold (usually just from the start) which is a free boon, then switch to whatever god's keepsakes you need to force good duo boons or combinations of traits during Asphodel and Elysium, and then switch to something like Myrmidion or Lucky Tooth for survivability during Styx/Hades.

Also, keep in mind that if you use your charges of Deaths Defiance, Athena can return one to you with a certain boon (so use her keepsake to try and force it if need be), and you will often get the option to buy a replacement charge at Charon's well if you are missing one, so keep 200 gold around. I have taken extra satyr tunnels in Styx just to find a well to buy a recharge. But even better, if you find Patrocles in Elysium, he will refill all of your Deaths Defiance charges.

A couple of other tips. If you have the mirror upgrade that lets you re-roll rooms, there is a bit of a science to it. Minotaur hearts, Charon Obols, and Poms will ALMOST always re-roll into one of the other two. Never re-roll a double boon room, because it won't roll into a different two-boon room. Generally, if you re-roll a God boon room, you will mostly get more God boons, especially if it's an elite God room, but usually the game only gives you the same 3-4 gods over and over unless you force it with keepsakes to give a new one. Also, if you walk into the first empty room of Elyisum and your options are Obol/Heart/Pom, you will re-roll into a Daedalus hammer a significant portion of the time (over 50%) based on my anecdotal attempts of roughly 40-50 tries. Additionally, the Darkness/Gems/Nectar/Key rooms will always re-roll into one of the other three, never into a Boon/Heart/Obol/Pom/Hammer room (and vice-versa), so don't waste your re-rerolls trying.

I would generally rank rooms like this: Hammer--------->Two Boon-->Elite Boon-->Chaos->Boon----->Heart->Obol------->Pom------------->Gem/Nectar/Darkness/Key. Always take Hammers. Always. Chaos is generally quite good, especially if you need a damage upgrade on an Attack/Special or health, and can survive the next few floors.

I beat 13 heat yesterday, but I tried 23 heat and died in Styx due to running out of time (the Pact choices that negate your first two instances of damages on enemies, and give them health, does not play well with the one that gives you 9 minutes to clear each level of the underworld). I died to Hades in the final phase of his Extreme Measure buff on 20 heat. I'm reluctant to go much higher than 20 heat, because the options like reducing your choices of boons and upgrades, making shop items more expensive, and making you cleanse one boon per level, just seem really un-fun to me.

[Lewwyn]

I beat Hades last night finally hah. on my 31st attempt. I used a chiron bow and got the ice cast with like 3 duo boons that souped up the build till I was doing huge revenge damage (activated without being hit) and my sitting cast crystals would do passive lightning damage (amplified by double strike and jolted) to everything around them. I basically just lightning dashed around while my casts and passive damage killed everything by themselves, it was glorious.

[Lewwyn]

Yes! a heat 1 run (timed) with the fists for my second win!

I've been playing a lot the last few days. Really good feels.