Hades - roguelike action dungeon crawler from Supergiant Games

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Tigranes]

I had good success with the get life back on special kill boon - really helps mitigate the few silly times you get hit by something, though obviously the goal is to almost never get hit at all.

Deflect I've found working well with bow, I imagine spear can also do it, anything where you can deflect AOE.

 

[Great Deceiver]

I had played this for a few minutes and put it down about a year ago when it was still an Epic store exclusive (I was the first to post the picture of black Athena here - bought it on Steam and couldn't put it down until I cleared my first run (took me 16 tries) with the gun.

It's my favourite game of the year, and although it isn't too terribly deep, the gameplay is fast and fun, the writing is surprisingly well done, avoiding most SJW pitfalls that are so common these days and portraying the in-fighting between Greek deities (as well as their tendency to impregnate human wahmyns) in a pretty fun way. I was honestly surprised at how many unique interactions there are in the game, and by the quality of the voice acting in general (apart from some minor cringy stuff like Ms. Dusa).

My only real criticism is that the common mooks are too easy and the only challenge comes from bosses. However, I haven't really climbed up in "heats" and haven't tried the enemy modifiers.

I don't expect I'll keep playing obsessively, but I did play around 20 hours in the past 3 days, which is more than I can say for any recent game. Very good job by the team.

 

[Citizen]

So what are some other games of this type that you'd recommend then?

My favourite roguelite is Risk of Rain 2. Very fast paced gameplay, amazing music, moody visuals and the feeling of absolute god-like power as soon as you get a good build and start obliterating bosses

 

[Riddler]

I like dead cells. Although that is 2D but Hades kind of is as well.

 

[Tigranes]

Slay the Spire, despite being turn-based, is unparalleled. I found RoR2 impossible to get into with awful visuals and MMO-y feeling, but maybe it was just me.

 

[Tavar]

I put a couple of hours in this. Seems good, even though I'm not fond of rogue-likes/rogue-lites/whatever in general. I'm not sold on the quirky writing and the main character blends to well with the background for my taste, but it is a very competent and polished game in general.

 

[luj1]

Looks a little cringe, like someone did Lost Ark in java/flash

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Hobo Elf]

Alright, think I'm done with the game for now. Managed to do a full clear run on my 9th try, after that I went on to unlock all the weapons and grab most of the relics or whatever. The game is real nice but now I'm at the point where the loop and the gameplay itself is getting repetitive and the rate at which I unlock new things which could help with the repetiton isn't fast enough for my taste. Too grindy to unlock all those new weapon Aspects, etc., real shame about how they did that. Oh well, it was a thrill while it lasted.

 

[Alpan]

Im unable to double dash out of harms way even when using spear and trying to keep my range.

Double dash should be enough, though. Still, Hermes boons should help. With any luck you should be able to pick either Hyper Sprint (+move speed, -damage taken after a dash), Quick Recovery (recover some of recently lost health after dashing) or Greatest Reflex (+x extra dashes) from him. The first two will help you mitigate the damage, the third will help you put some extra distance.

Also consider using the Mirror talent Abyssal Blood for some extra damage reduction on Hades' attacks.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Tigranes]

Alright, think I'm done with the game for now. Managed to do a full clear run on my 9th try, after that I went on to unlock all the weapons and grab most of the relics or whatever. The game is real nice but now I'm at the point where the loop and the gameplay itself is getting repetitive and the rate at which I unlock new things which could help with the repetiton isn't fast enough for my taste. Too grindy to unlock all those new weapon Aspects, etc., real shame about how they did that. Oh well, it was a thrill while it lasted.

The heat system means you'll get those Titan Blood/etc drops every newly successful run.

That said, as a roguelike, if you find it repetitive after just 9 tries then I guess you don't find the gameplay that fun, so oh well. I'm enjoying how there's actually way more variety in possible builds/styles beyond what I thought.

lukaszek the bosses' attack/rest timings are pretty standardised, so you can, e.g. go in, do 3 attacks and get out, because you know that's when the attack comes a lot of the time. but double dash really should be enough to get out of any normal attacks?

 

[Hobo Elf]

Alright, think I'm done with the game for now. Managed to do a full clear run on my 9th try, after that I went on to unlock all the weapons and grab most of the relics or whatever. The game is real nice but now I'm at the point where the loop and the gameplay itself is getting repetitive and the rate at which I unlock new things which could help with the repetiton isn't fast enough for my taste. Too grindy to unlock all those new weapon Aspects, etc., real shame about how they did that. Oh well, it was a thrill while it lasted.

The heat system means you'll get those Titan Blood/etc drops every newly successful run.

That said, as a roguelike, if you find it repetitive after just 9 tries then I guess you don't find the gameplay that fun, so oh well. I'm enjoying how there's actually way more variety in possible builds/styles beyond what I thought.

lukaszek the bosses' attack/rest timings are pretty standardised, so you can, e.g. go in, do 3 attacks and get out, because you know that's when the attack comes a lot of the time. but double dash really should be enough to get out of any normal attacks?

Yes, I'm aware of the Heat system. But it just felt like a grind to turn up the Heat by 1, go out and clear the game as far as I can again with each weapon, collecting all new resources on the way, upgrade as much as I can (slower now because blood costs shot up with Aspects) and then turn the heat on again and repeat. Very grindy process, and I'm not a fan of ARPG systems that are player adjustable incremental difficulty sliders. I went into this game 100% blind so I had no idea that such a thing was waiting for me down the line here, sadly. For as much fun as I did have with the game, this probably would've been a deal breaker for me.

 

[Riddler]

how do you deal with hades wide spin attacks as melee? Im unable to double dash out of harms way even when using spear and trying to keep my range.

Its only thing that can get me, can get him down to 10% but in the end ill always die since I cant deal with this

Dashing gives immunity frames. Realistically though, unless you are playing on a fairly high heat level and/or hell mode you don't even need to dodge because you should out damage Hades, especially if you have a defiance or two.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Shackleton]

how do you deal with hades wide spin attacks as melee? Im unable to double dash out of harms way even when using spear and trying to keep my range.

Its only thing that can get me, can get him down to 10% but in the end ill always die since I cant deal with this

Dashing gives immunity frames. Realistically though, unless you are playing on a fairly high heat level and/or hell mode you don't even need to dodge because you should out damage Hades, especially if you have a defiance or two.

'Get him down to 10% or so'...

Spoiler

 

[Shackleton]

I'd have to say, despite Hobo Elf not being a fan of the heat levels, some of them do significantly change the game. I tried a run with the 'Boss fights are changed' condition at 2 and 'Armored enemies have more tricks' condition and both of those gave me some nasty surprises. (Hydra was still a complete cakewalk though). I do wish there were a few more basic enemy types yes, but once you get into the Heat levels there's plenty of extra challenge there.

 

[Peachcurl]

Pretty nice sound track by the way (as other's have already said). The only annoying thing about that: unlocking the credits-song ('in the blood'), but getting the instrumental version only...

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Tigranes]

Yes, I'm aware of the Heat system. But it just felt like a grind to turn up the Heat by 1, go out and clear the game as far as I can again with each weapon, collecting all new resources on the way, upgrade as much as I can (slower now because blood costs shot up with Aspects) and then turn the heat on again and repeat. Very grindy process, and I'm not a fan of ARPG systems that are player adjustable incremental difficulty sliders. I went into this game 100% blind so I had no idea that such a thing was waiting for me down the line here, sadly. For as much fun as I did have with the game, this probably would've been a deal breaker for me.

I mean, how else would it work? Do you mean you wanted there to be 12 acts rather than 4, or something?

I think if you're doing runs just to grind towards the next shiny thing, then yes, there's no point to playing. The next shiny thing is just a way to keep things fresh while you're having fun actually playing each run. And that fun comes from trying different builds/setups and seeing how they do at a fairly fast clip, because each run lasts, what, 20-30 mins at most.

One thing I think is a big pity is that whereas the Act 1 boss has three versions, the later ones don't - they should have had the same system of different kinds of hydras, etc. to retain variety.

 

[Tigranes]

lukaszek is it the Guan Yu aspect? I thought the prereqs are that you invest in 5 different Aspects across any weapon type, and then talk to Achilles until it fires. But fuck me it's not happening for me.

Or do you need to upgrade 5 non-zag aspects, rather than just unlock them?

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Hobo Elf]

I mean, how else would it work? Do you mean you wanted there to be 12 acts rather than 4, or something?

Yeah, that would've been neat. At least something else. I prefer developer tuned difficulty rather than giving players the option to fine tune it with incremental levels, as I said previously. The Furies also set a standard that didn't get met in later levels. I thought the game would have a larger pool of different bosses that get rotated in and out. Well, it sort of does, but the Hydra and Theseus fights are really similar and feel more like glorified color swaps. The Furies all feel a lot different from one another, and it's great. But you already mentioned this. Because of this going through the 2nd and 3rd floors always ends up feeling too much like going through the motions.

 

[Sjukob]

OK, I got round to my first "Victory". The writing/story's been "I guess it's fine" for me all the way through, but the way they handle the "Ending" and work the roguelike respawning into the setup is really nicely done.

So what are some of the "builds" / synergies that people have found useful?

I've been very partial to Bow (Chiron) and Fists, as I favour high mobility and complete spatial flexibility, and they also support easy proccing of boons like hangover/chill/crits. Eveyrone says Shields are great but I just can't get with it - I'm always getting hit in the back, bullrushing into lava, or some other incompetence.

I've also been slow to realise just how powerful Casts can be - in one run I had the Athena cast with extended timer & the Poseidon pull-people-in bonus, and it just obliterated everything while deflecting eveyrthing. Add the Artemis fast cast & any faster-bloodstone-drop perks and you could just not bother with normal attacks.

Some examples:

1. Aspect of demeter fists with heart rend duo boon. Get Aphrodite primary attack and Artemis for the special, charge up the special and watch how your 3k+ crits explode everything, bonus points if you can grab explosive upper upgrade via hammer. If you want more safety you can go for Athena primary attack and get deadly reversal duo boon instead;
2. Any cast with poseidon sword: hunting blades, scintillating feast, ice wine, blizzard shot, freezing vortex, anything;
3. Chiron bow goes great with sea storm and heart rend. Duo boons are not required, just get Artemis for the special;
4. Zeus shield, get Zeus special and just go deep Zeus afterwards. Alternatively, get Athena and Ares boons for primary and special attacks, doesn't really matter how you slot them, but getting Athena's special will probably give you more defense. Anyway, go for merciful end duo boon and keep procing those doom effects;
5. Deep Aphrodite on any weapon, keep everybody perma charmed;
6. Eris railgun with lightning rod duo boon. Pretty fun, but can be slow at times.