This game has taught me that I’ve used a controller incorrectly for my entire gaming life. My hand gets sooo worn out spamming buttons, but my son never complains (granted, this also means I’m just old). But the other day I was watching him play and watched how he was using the controller… his method of button pressing required almost no thumb movement at all, which is a stark contrast to how I do it. No wonder. Not sure I’ll be unable to unlearn a lifetime of doing it wrong though.
“Oh, you think controllers are your ally. But you merely adopted the controller; I was born with one in my hand, molded by it. I didn’t use a mouse until I was already a man, by then it was nothing to me but archaic! The thumb buttons betray you, because they belong to ME!”
-LittleDaagar probably.
A bit more on the nose than just “probably”.
I started playing this a few weeks ago, about a run or two a day. Finally beat Hades on run 29, only due to having some boon that gave me constant life regen, which made the boss feel pretty trivial.
My problems are two:
- Fucking poison murders my face. How does one avoid poison, or do you just rush to the weird statue that removes poison?
- In the Hades fight, there are these big circles of explosion (green) that you can’t see to dodge behind a structure to avoid. Where do those come from, can you avoid them somehow (dodge through them towards the center of the circle?). If I knew WTF how to avoid those, that would be 90% of the damage I take on the boss level, which is…really sad. I only won the game once because there was enough time between those to regenerate.
Step 1: don’t get hit. Know what enemies use poison (rats, stayrs mostly) and dash like mad. Some boons, such as Athena dash, really help. But after my first few runs into that zone I was able to avoid poison in 90% of the rooms.
That little rat mini boss though, it will murder your face. I only beat it my first time because I had such high level boons that I was dealing huge damage. Poison, eugh.
But yea, basically be aware of enemies that can poison, and find the healing fountain as soon as you enter a room. And dash murder everything before it can get a chance to poison you. But, like so much in the game, I find my gameplay approach is very dash heavy. Its what works for me. But if you are moving around in different directions enough, it is usually sufficient.
Hades will periodically throw skulls that will follow you and bounce a couple times before landing and kinda turning into minions. If you don’t kill them, after a while they will explode into the big rings. You can in fact dash through them without taking damage. It can be hard to dodge the overlapping rings when more than one is active, so you can focus on killing one of them, and then dodging the other one’s single ring.
So what does the shield do? Uh, I guess it lets me win the first time I use it…
[lighting rod did a lot of the work, and knowing to kill the skulls or be very far away did the rest.]
I’ve been playing this all week. I haven’t been playing to “win” but to max out all the mirror skills (maxed all the reds so far), gifted artifacts, and build everything I can construct. In games like this I like the grind, which means I wasn’t ever aiming for the best build, but the one that would help me finish in-game achievements for the quest rewards, and always using whatever weapon gives the loot bonus for that run.
Well, I’m 60 games in and I managed to bumble my way into a fight with Hades. I don’t know if this would be considered the end of the game, but it’s the end for me. I’m not keen on patricide, or having the dad figure trying to personally murder his kid. Doesn’t sit right, and I never realized he’d show up on the battlefield.
So I guess I’ve won all I’m gonna win. I wish that fight wasn’t there, weirds me out. I also hated constantly running into Meg in the bar for similar reasons, but it didn’t put me off so much.
I really got into a groove with the game after bouncing off it so hard last year. I’m irked that so many upgrade paths are totally useless resource drains (what a waste maxing out friendship with Charron, or blowing early gems on idiotic cosmetic construction jobs, as a couple examples). And I really like how each of the different gods can greatly enhance and diversify your builds each run. In the end I liked the game more than Dead Cells, mostly because I enjoy the weapons, boons, and enemies a lot more than what Dead Cells offers. At the moment these two games sit in similar places for me, and that’s a good place.
All of the weapons and skills felt great to,me except for,one specific attack, the the charged basic attack for the Spear, where it swings around you. Does anybody ever actually use that thing? It’s the only weapon ability I never liked.
It’s usable once you learn the trick to it. You can charge it, hold, then dash, and it will release where your dash ends. It’s a bit clunky but it works.
It’s been a long time since I’ve played but iirc there are upgrades for both area and charge speed. It’s not a super ability, but I enjoyed building around it a couple of times.
Does it help that neither of you can actually die, and you both know it?
I mean Hades fight basically ends with him going ‘rules are rules, now go say hi to your mother for me’
I’ve only had 6 successful escapes (out of 86 attempts lol), but a big theme I’m already noticing is how you’re operating under mistaken assumptions.
This game makes me smile. Supergiant really outdid themselves here.
A question:
What’s a decent bow build that does both good single target damage to Bosses (looking at you Hades), as well as being able to deal with the cramped rooms in Styx?
I’ve cleared with every other weapon (as well as some minor heat), but while I get the idea of the Chiron bow for single target damage, I can’t imagine the bow blowing up tiny rooms the way so many other builds (especially caster builds like dio+zeus or dio+demeter do.)
An assertion:
Eurydice is a much more pleasing singer than Orpheus. Change my mind.
I prefer Bow of Rama and aim to get Artemis’s crits boons that can deal 1000+ DMG with its slow attack. Artemis syncs well with Poseidon or Zeus, both of which have boons to transform the bow’s quick attack and casts into high DPS machines that can take out the venomous adds in a blink.
Thanks, I look forward to getting that unlocked and giving it a shot!
I like Aspect of Chiron for single target DPS and backing it up with something like Poseidon or Aphrodite cast or Poseidon dash to handle crowds. Chiron Bow is easily the weapon I have the most success with at this point.
I haven’t unlocked Rama yet to know how that compares.
Aspect of Hera with Dio’s Trippy Flare cast. Pom it up whenever you get a chance to increase the damage.
Add Zeus and aim for duo boon Scintillating Feast. It makes the festive fog rain down lightning bolts while active.
I’m still relatively new at the game, but I love Jolted. Go ahead, attack me.
And Dash Deflect… talk about a key run tool.
Dash deflect is the one boon I always want, no matter what build I’m playing. It’s just so good in so many situations.