Well. If you remember my last post, I was talking about giving up Hades II (Supergiant Games) because I did not think I would ever beat the ‘final’ boss of the game. I put ‘final’ in quotes because beating a run once is only the beginning. In fact, in the first game, you had to beat the ‘final’ boss ten times before eyou got the true ending. And then there was more game to play after that as well (if you wanted to get the plat/hundo chievo).
I did it. I won a run, and it was fairly easy because of very specific reasons. Warning, there will be some spoilers, mosttly of boons and keepsakes (equipable items) in the game.
*SPOILERS*
There are six weapons in the game called Noctural Arms. I usually use the one that gives you bonus Bones (money, basically) in the run. I like most of them for different reasons, but I really do not like the Umbral Flames called Ygnium–which is sad because I’m a pyro in games. I will use it when it’s the highlighted weapon, but I don’t enjoy it. It’s the weapon of my teacher, Hecate, and I really wish I liked it better.
In the first game, I really liked the spear and the sword. In this game, I do not love any of the weapons. In part it’s because while I have unlocked all the aspects of the weapons (I think), I have not been able to upgrade the aspects. You need to beat the game and beyond (I’m assume) in order to do that. Therefore, I have the base aspect of each weapon (Aspect of Melinoë) fully upgraded, but none ofthe other Aspects upgraded even once. Which, as you might imagine, means that I’m mostly using the basic aspects of each weapon.
I don’t remember when I was able to upgrade the different aspects of the weapons in the first game (yes, that was a thing in that game, too), but it feels–ok. First, you only needed one material to upgrade weapons in the first game (yes, I looked it up). That would be Titan Blood, and there were different ways you could get them.
In this game, once you unlock the different aspects, what you need to upgrade each aspect is differnt, I think. In fact, I have not even seen one of the items needed. I’m not sure what it is or how to get it. I have a hunch it’s in the last area of the upward path or by beating that boss, but I can’t be sure. It’s not by beating the downward boss, I can tell you that much.
When I beat the big boss of the downward path, I was momentarily elated. And stunned, quite frankly. Why? Because it was much easier than I thought it was going to be. In fact, I was so intent on fighting, I didn’t realize how close I was to beating the boss. Which was a good thing because I would have fucked it up if I had noticed.
Wanna know how I did it? I had all the Death Defiances I could possibly have (3 plus 1 with Toula, one of the animal familiars), but I forewent Luckier Tooth (a Keepsake that gives you one chance to come back with 101 HP when it’s fully upgraded), which is what I usually take to the final level. This time, though, I decided to take Evil Eye, which was given to me by Nemesis. When it’s fully upgraded, it lets you do an extra 30% damage to the last foe who ended your run. In my case, it was the last boss of that path. So I gave up my beloved Luckier Tooth in favor of doing more damage.
Then, I ran into the Boon-giving NPC on that level/area (there’s a different one for different levels, and you might or might not run into them), and I chose the one that took of 20% of the boss’s health at the beginning of the fight.
The weapon I used was the last one you can unlock, and it’s by far the funnest one to use. I’m not saying it’s always the best one, but it is certainly so fucking badass.
And, of course, there is good old RNG and which moves the boss decides to do in the game. Most of the time, there is one move that a boss does that I simply have to eat. And with this boss, that means dying because the boss has three moves that are one-shot kills. I have learned how to deal with two of them (for the most part), but the third one is still frustrating to me because of all the visual noise. In addition, you have to stay motionless for longer than you would expect or you’ll die, anyway.
Basically, the second phase of this boss fight breaks down into watching a bunch of bullshit happen, waiting for the bunch of bullshit to stop happening, hit the boss two times, maybe three if you’re feeling lucky, then rinse, lather, repeat. There is so much visual noise to this fight. I have read the forums saying it’s an easy boss fight, but for those of ous with reflex issues and spatial issues, not to mention a few other issues, this is not true.
Side note: I have always hated the ‘git gud’ mentality because not only because it’s so smug and condescending, but also because it buys into the idea that anyone can do anything. Or to put a more sinister spin on it, if you (general you) can’t do something, it’s your fault. Anyone can do anything if they just put their mind to it!
This just isn’t true. Even taking disabilities out of the picture, I knew from when I was very little that there were things I simply could not do well. Or at all. For example, the lie that American kids are told from a very young age is that anyone can be president. This is a lie. Oh, theoretically, it’s true that any American-born American of a certain age can be president, but in reality, that’s a lie. You have to be male (preferably white), heterosexual, tall, insanely rich (or have rich connections), be college educated (even if it’s barely), married (highly preferable), nominally Christian, and did I mention be very well connected?*
Back to the game.
I figured out how you get the item I was missing to upgrade the other aspects of the weapons–I’ll get to that in a bit.
I was speaking of heats in a previous post, and it showed up after beating the big baddie of the below world. It’s called something different in this game, and it’s vastly simplified, but it’s there. In the last gcame, it was very specific. I’m not sure if I like the new way better because I have yet to try it. Look, I barely won a base run, so there’s no way I’m adding shit to it to make it deliberately harder.
At some point today, Hecate mentioned the Vow of Rivals in the Oath of the Unseen. That’s the name of the list of heats, by the way. In the first game, it was called the Pact of Punishment. Anyway, you get the Nightmare as a reward for winning runs with different conditions activated. If you do the Vow of Rivals, you win Nightmare for beating the boss named with the weapon named, and they have added difficulty to their boss fight. Oh, by the way, Nightmare is what you need to level up the aspects of the weapons.
This was also in the first game, called Extreme Measures, and the highest level for the hardest boss was the worst achievement in the plat. I can already tell that it’s going to be just as hard in this game. I mean, as I said, I can barely clear a base run, let alone boss fights with harder conditions. Though I did beat the first boss of the downwards path with on the easiest level, for which I got two Nightmares.
This is running long. More tomorrow.
*Obama is an anomaly in many ways, and it’s a testament to how much of an outlier you have to be to even have a shot if you’re not all of the above. Even given that, Obama is a tall, handsome, college-educated straight Christian man, so he had all that going for him. And he’s outrageously charismatic, which certainly helps.