Hades
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Newbie Build Guide
By Nyaanyaa Mewmew
Simple guide with tried-and-true builds for every base weapon (without any upgrades) to get you started—from one of Hades's top players.
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Introduction
This is just a quick and easy build guide to show what's tried and true for the base forms of each weapon (without any upgrades). It's only intended as a starting point. I encourage you to experiment with anything you come across that looks interesting! (And sometimes the things that don't immediately look interesting turn out to be the most fun!)

I've listed what's typically the main source of damage for each weapon and how to make it work. I've also listed the most-commonly picked dashes for each weapon because dashes can be pretty important. To be clear, the choices are all for maximizing DPS or gaining access to Deflect.

I hope that this list will give you a solid "core" for your builds from which you can explore the many possibilities that you have with it; and I hope that you can use these "cores" as a reference to gauge the strength and utility of your own core combinations that you can come up with.
Stygian Blade – Stygius

Focus on Attack and Dash-Strike as your primary source of damage.

Attack: Heartbreak Strike (Aphrodite), Divine Strike (Athena), Deadly Strike (Artemis), or Curse of Agony (Ares)
Dash: Divine Dash (Athena) or Hunter Dash (Artemis)
Eternal Spear – Varatha

Focus either on Attack and Dash-Strike or on Special for damage.

Attack: Heartbreak Strike (Aphrodite), Divine Strike (Athena), or Deadly Strike (Artemis)
Special: Heartbreak Flourish (Aphrodite), Divine Flourish (Athena), or Deadly Flourish (Artemis)
Dash: Divine Dash (Athena), Tidal Dash (Poseidon), or Hunter Dash (Artemis)
Shield of Chaos – Aegis

Focus is typically on Attack or Special or both. It's versatile!

Attack: Heartbreak Strike (Aphrodite), Divine Strike (Athena), Deadly Strike (Artemis), or Curse of Agony (Ares)
Special: Heartbreak Flourish (Aphrodite), Divine Flourish (Athena), Deadly Flourish (Artemis), or Curse of Pain (Ares)
Dash: Divine Dash (Athena)
Heart-Seeking Bow – Coronacht

Focus on Attack and Dash-Strike damage. Spam Dash-Strikes!

Attack: Heartbreak Strike (Aphrodite) or Deadly Strike (Artemis)
Dash: Hunter Dash (Artemis), Divine Dash (Athena), or Tidal Dash (Poseidon)
Twin Fists – Malphon

Attack, attack, attack! Dash-Strike to reset your combo and keep enemies stunlocked! "Dash-Strike" boons affect Dash-Upper damage, but "Dash-Strike" hammers do not.

Attack: Divine Strike (Athena), Curse of Agony (Ares), or Lightning Strike (Zeus)
Special: Heartbreak Flourish (Aphrodite) or Deadly Flourish (Artemis)
Dash: Divine Dash (Athena) or Hunter Dash (Artemis)
Adamant Rail – Exagryph

pew pew pew

Attack: Lightning Strike (Zeus) or Drunken Strike (Dionysus)
Dash: Tidal Dash (Poseidon) or Divine Dash (Athena)
16 Comments
daffydilsam 12 Aug, 2024 @ 6:25pm 
Adamant Rail is great if you stack the special too. I forget the specific boons, but Aphrodite ones and the Daedalus hammer one to make the range bigger is op. Almost beat Hades with it and ran clean through the encounters. It was to the pt where it gave 600-800 damage each shot which was insane
Ezecruk 6 Jan, 2023 @ 1:57pm 
the dadalus shotgun upgrade is also good
10/10 satisfaction and boss melting
Sheriff < Deagle 25 Nov, 2021 @ 4:35am 
throw in Support Fire alongside Lightning Strike for Exagryph and most of the stuff disappears. Aspect of Zagreus works wonders for this because of extra ammo.
Purasangre, neverpony 6 Nov, 2021 @ 3:07pm 
do i have to play a run with every weapon? Beacuse the only one i have not used is the bow
Nyaanyaa Mewmew  [author] 6 Nov, 2021 @ 2:47pm 
@nocs yeah, if you have those four unlocked with Chthonic Keys, just do one more run and you should see the Twin Fists in the courtyard when you return.
Purasangre, neverpony 6 Nov, 2021 @ 2:43pm 
@Nyaanyaa Mewmew i have the sword, the shield, the spear and the bow.
Nyaanyaa Mewmew  [author] 5 Nov, 2021 @ 9:42pm 
@nocs you need to unlock the other weapons and then do do a run.
Purasangre, neverpony 5 Nov, 2021 @ 2:23pm 
how do i get the twin fists?
Zechstraff 10 Jul, 2021 @ 9:50am 
I love how Exagryph is just "pew pew pew" and yes, Exagryph + Light Strike is great. I also focus on buffing up the special attack. Get the Triple Bomb from Daedalus and then bomb bomb bomb pew pew pew
TalmondTheLost 30 Jun, 2021 @ 2:24pm 
Just get hoarding slash on the sword and start hoarding.