Introduction
In this article, we will be taking a look atHades 2,the follow-up to Supergiant’s successful rogue-like game. Much akin to the first game, you will have access to a myriad of boons from the pantheon of gods on Olympus and more and can be spoiled for choices. Today, we will be taking a look at some of the combinations of boons and buffs that will help you bring out your most potential in your task of taking down the Titan of Time,Chronos.
For this particular build, we will be usingZorephet, theMoonstone Axethat can be unlocked once we have gone through a few runs. This weapon is the heavy-hitting weapon of our arsenal inHades 2and allows us to deliver powerful, devastating strikes to our foes.
InHades 2, we can meditate at theAltar of Ashesat the beginning of each night before heading out to increase our strength and upgrade ourselves, but the amount ofArcanathat we can use is limited by the amount ofGraspavailable to us, which can be upgraded using thePsycheresource.
For this specific build, we will be usingArcanathat will enhance our damage output as much as possible.
The first Arcana available to us and that we will be using for this build isThe Sorceress.
This card costs 1 Grasp to equip and will increase the charge speed of ourOmegaversions of our attacking moves.
Next, we will use theWayward SonArcana, which is another card costing 1 Grasp and will allow us to recover health points after each encounter, and at the base level of the card, it enables us to regain 3 HP.
This card helps with sustain on our runs and is one of the more valuable Arcana to use.
TheHuntresscard requires 2 Grasp to use and will increase the damage of our attack and special when our Magick is not at full capacity, and since we will be using our charged Omega attacks that use the resource quite often, we will benefit highly from having this card equipped.
Next, we will be using theUnseenArcana. This card is one of the more expensive cards to use as it costs 5 Grasp to equip but plays a crucial role, especially when using this build, as it will restore our Magick by a set amount depending on the level of the card every second.
By having theUnseencard, we will haveThe MoonArcana card active, as the card will activate whenever we use any of the surrounding cards.
The Moon card makes it so that our Hex will charge up automatically regardless of whether we are using the Magick or not, and when we are using our Magick actively with our charged Omega attacks, it will greatly speed up our Hex build-ups.
Next, we will be using theOriginationArcana card for our build. This is a card that costs 5 Grasp to activate but will enhance the damage that we deal to any foes that have been inflicted with 2 curses from our Olympian god relatives.
This will greatly enhance the heavy-hitting damage we will be dealing with ourMoonstone Axe.
Persistenceis another Arcana card that is really useful and will increase both our max life and max Magick by 20 when having this equipped.
This Arcana card requires 2 Grasp to equip, and upgrading this card further increases the bonus we get from using this Arcana. Since we will be mostly in melee range with this build, the extra life points and Magick really help with our survivability.
Finally, we will be using theDeathArcana. This Arcana card requires 4 Grasp to equip, and the high cost is definitely worth it as it gives usDeath Defiance.
This acts as an extra life which allows you to come back with 40% of your max life and Magick upon dying, increasing your chance of successfully finishing a run.
For this build, we will be taking theGold Pursekeepsake to use on our run.
We can obtain this keepsake fromCharon, the faithful ferryman, and it will give us extra gold to use when we start our run, allowing us in turn to buy more upgrades from Charon himself. This goes a long way on our runs depending on the upgrades we can buy from the ferryman.
Among the plethora of boons offered by the gods, we will have 5 main slots that will affect and upgrade our moves.
First, regarding the boon relating to our regular attacks, we will take one of the boons fromApollo, theGod of Light, withNova Strike.
This boon will increase the area of our already formidable attacks using theMoonstone Axe, as well as increasing the attack damage, allowing us to easily take out more enemies with our axe swings.
For our special attack, we will be taking the boon from theGoddess of the Hearth,Hestia, theFlame Flourish.
This allows our special, which damages foes in front of us by spinning our axe, and the charged Omega version being the single ranged attack option available to us when usingZorephet, to inflictScorchon our enemies, giving us a reliable tool to inflict consistent damage.
With our cast placing a sigil on the ground, we will be choosing another one of the boons from our grandmother, the goddessDemeter, theArctic Ring.
This will enable our casting sigil circle to freeze any enemy that is within our circle while repeatedly dealing damage to foes in the circle. This will help greatly with dealing with mobs of regular enemies that can overwhelm you easily in the later stages.
For our sprint and rush, we will be enhancing it by taking theBreaker Rushboon, granted by theGod of the Sea,Poseidon.
This boon allows us to knock away the first foe we run into while using our sprint, preventing damage from accidentally running into or dashing into enemies. This gives us a defensive option to the high-risk close-ranged nature of the weapon.
For our special gain slot, we will take the boon from theGoddess of Love,Aphrodite, with theGlamour Gain.
This boon will automatically inflictWeakupon any nearby enemies, decreasing the damage they deal against us and allowing us to gradually restore our Magick against any foe afflicted by our Weak curse.
These five boons will occupy our core slots when we are on our runs, but they do not necessarily need to be the only boons that we use. There are combinations of boons that can greatly improve the effectiveness of this build, with the first beingCold Storagefrom theGoddess of Seasons.
This boon will increase the duration of the freeze that we are inflicting with ourArctic Ring, increasing our crowd control capability.
Additionally, we will take theSweet Surrenderboon from theGoddess of Love,Aphrodite, to increase the damage we deal against Weak-afflicted enemies.
This boon works amazingly with the high-damage nature ofZorephetas it will ultimately lead to higher damage resulting from the increased percentage we will be dealing.
If we come acrossArachnaeinErebus, we will be taking theLavender Dressgift, which will greatly increase the channel speed, helping with our slow weapon.
With gifts fromArachnae, it is important to remember that you need to maintain your armor to keep the outfit and the bonus, as you will lose the bonus once you lose all the armor points.
At this point in the game, we will have metSelene, theMoon Incarnate, and have our Hex ability available to us, and from among her gifts, we will be taking theDark SideHex for this build.
This Hex will turn us into an invulnerable and impervious form with its own unique attack and special that can deal serious amounts of damage in the short duration that we will be transforming.
Weapon Upgrade
Regarding the options we get from using theDaedalus Hammer, we will be looking to enhance our charging to help with the Omega versions of our strikes.
TheSudden Cleaverwill help increase our channeling speed by 25%, which is extremely helpful.
Psychic Whirlwindupgrade will allow us to continue using our regular attacks and special while the charged Omega version of our attack, spinning our axe, is activated.
Playstyle and General Tips on Runs
With the build, we will be leaning hard into the close-ranged melee capability of theMoonstoneand focus on taking out our foes with powerful strikes. While powerful, the combo ofZorephetis slow and can easily lock us into an attacking animation, making it risky, especially when fighting against bosses. This risk is highest with the third strike in the normal attack combo, which has the slowest attack speed and the longest animation. This risk can be avoided by comboing into our special after two attacks and then pausing for a moment or dashing away before resuming our strikes, as this will prevent us from going into the third strike of the attack combo. When you need to deal more consistent damage, we can use the Omega charged special of the weapon to inflict damage from range, combined with the Scorch from ourFlame Flourishboon.
Even though we are a few runs into the game, it is still useful to go forAshesinstead ofBonessince that will allow us to unlock more Arcana cards to fully unlock all of the cards for use in our later runs.
Also, investing in at least threeCentaur Heartsso that our max HP can reach 100 is also helpful. Even though we will be staying at range and away from damage, the additional health will allow us to make more mistakes.
When faced with choices between an upgrade that is not a boon that you are not necessarily aiming for and gold coins, it is generally better to go for the coin route, as you will then have access to more options that you can choose between at theBoatman,Charon, whenever you run into him.
But if you are certain that you will not be able to gain enough coins to afford multiple purchases, you go for the upgrade route.
Going forPoms of Powerwill also allow us to level up our boons, and for this build, I suggest upgrading theSweet Surrenderboon.
This will increase the damage we deal against Weak-inflicted foes, and when combined with theOriginationArcana card and Scorch and Freeze curses within our repertoire, we can deal substantially high damage usingZorephet.
Conclusion
When using this build with theMoonstone Axe, it can be tempting to press the attack with our powerful melee strikes. This is a high-risk move as you are more susceptible to incoming attacks since you will be in close range to your enemies for the majority of the run. By constantly switching between our attacks and specials, we can keep up our damage output, and whenever we need to stay away and deal damage from range, we can rely on our Omega charged special.
This wraps up my article for theZorephetbuild forHades 2. I hope you find this helpful in your conquest againstChronos, the Titan of Time, and may you find success in all your runs. If you have any tips, feel free to leave them in the comment section below!
