I’m relatively new to the game and can farm darkness and keys rather quickly. What I really struggle with is finding nectar which makes character progression difficult. Do you guys have any tips?

I just bought the game and I find the system pretty confusing. I would greatly appreciate it if someone can give a brief description of the dif resouces, how you acquire them and how they are used.

Thank you soo much. I would enjoy the game so much more of I knew what the hell I was doing lol.

Been playing the EA for a while and only now was able to put into words how I feel about everything.

I really really like the Magick system is great and kinda forces me to engage with with combat on a bit of a deeper level.

I'm not too big a fan of the resource gathering though for some reason. Unlike the fishing from H1 it feels like a bit much (I guess I feel more indifferent about it).

Curious to hear what others have to say!

Hey all, u/ChrisBot8 here, back again to do a little deep dive on a topic I've seen going around that I think I can shine some light on. As always with these I will likely forget something, not know something, or flat-out say the wrong thing on some of these, if that happens please let me know in the comment and I'll update the post! Today I want to talk about the different ways you can make certain things more likely in Hades 2 (many of these will apply to Hades 1 too, but I am more knowledgeable on and have researched Hades 2, so that's where the focus will be). These won't make your expected outcomes happen all the time, but they will be tools you can use to make your runs more consistent. I'll divide this post into three main sections (Boons, Doors, and NPC Encounters), so if you are interested in one portion you can feel free to skip to that part. Let's get started.

Boons

In this section, I'm going to go over how choosing boons and gods will affect your ability to get other boons. Some of this might be fairly common knowledge, and some of it might be higher-level play. I'll try to order these in a least to most complex manner.

Core Boons

Hades and Hades 2 weigh giving you "core" boons above non-core boons. So if you are trying to get a specific boon that is not a "core" boon (say you want Duo or Legendary requirements, or just good secondaries like Trusty Shield) you will want to fill your core boon "slots". These slots are displayed on the left side of the screen and represent an Attack, Special, Cast, Dash, and Gain from any god (in Hades 1 Gain is replaced with Call).

Boon Requirements

Some boons require another boon to be offered. For instance, there are many boons that revolve around Wounds or Scorch (I think the two curses that have the most of these) that cannot be offered unless you have a boon that inflicts that curse. So like above, if you are searching for a specific boon, then you want to keep your eye on what boons are unlocked by others, specifically if they unlock multiple boons like boons that inflict the above curses.

The God Pool

I was unsure whether to put this one in doors or boons, but I decided to put it here as it will help you acquire a boon that you are looking for. If you don't know what the god pool is, it is the Olympian gods that you have a boon from. The game wants you to have a four god pool. It will weigh offering you boons from new gods before offering you boons from gods you already have while you do not have a full god pool. So if you are looking for a specific boon from a god that you already have and you don't have four gods it is actually optimal to take a fourth god over other rewards so that the game will offer you the god you are looking for more often.

Doors

This section will go over rerolling doors and when it is smart to do so.

Major and Minor Rewards

In Hades and Hades 2 all the room rewards are divided into two categories: Minor and Major. The Minor rewards are ones that give meta progression to the players (Ash, Bones, and Nectar in Hades 2). The Major rewards are the ones that give real value to the run (before the incantations to give the minor rewards value as well). As far as rerolls go, Minor rewards cannot be rerolled into a Major reward and vice versa.

Mini Boss Doors

Mini Boss Doors can only offer non-Hemes boons. This means if you reroll them you are going to get another Olympian, and it is likely to be one already in your god pool if it wasn't before.

Ephrya

Ephyra rewards are limited to Boons, Hammers, Selene, Double Max Health Upgrades, and Double Max Magick Upgrades. These doors are great for rerolling because of two things 1) they are limited to a smaller pool than normal Major Rewards doors are 2) a bunch of the things the doors could be are on the other doors of Ephyra. Basically, the game doesn't like offering the same thing on two different doors, so if you take all the boons of one god in the Ephyra room, but leave all the other gods and rewards, you are much likelier to roll into that god because there are a bunch of blockers for what that door could be rolled to.

NPC Encounters

This section will go over requirements to get NPC encounters, sometimes called "skip rooms". I would consider this the highest level of RNG manipulation in Hades, and only really useful if you are speed running or playing on very high fear. That said, in either of those cases I would consider this knowledge a prerequisite for doing well.

Artemis, Aracne Eggs, Nemisis, and Athena

I grouped all of these NPCs together because they all have the same requirements for showing up except on different biomes. All of them require the chamber count to be four or greater in the current biome, and the room reward to be "non-menu". Non-menu means the reward from the room cannot bring up a menu to choose its options (examples of menu rewards are Poms, Boons, Hammers, and Selene). The main difference between these NPCs is where they can show up. Artemis can show up in Erebus, Oceanus, and Ephyra. Aracne Eggs can show up in Erebus and Oceanus. Nemisis can show up in Erebus, Oceanus, and the Fields (where her chamber count is set to 1 because of how the fields work). Athena can only (naturally) show up in Olympus.

How Doors Work in Olympus

Doors in Olympus have an "indoor" and an "outdoor" designation, and some rooms and NPC encounters can only be accessed through one or the other. For instance, the mid-shop will only ever be offered on an outdoor door. You can tell if a door is indoor or outdoor based on if it launches you up in the air (outdoor) or if it is a normal door (indoor). I put this here because it's very important for the next section.

Icarus, Haracles, and the Olympus Foutain Chamber

Icarus and Haracles both have standard rules for their encounters like above, but since they also appear in Olympus and have rules around that I wanted to group them together. Icarus can show up in the Ryft and his rules for showing up there are a chamber count of three or greater in the biome and a non-menu room. Heracles can show up in Ephyra and his conditions for doing so seem to be that the room reward is not Selene (that's it).

In Olympus, their conditions change quite a bit. First, Sticky Ic can now only show up after four or later chambers, and Heracles can only show up after five or later chambers. Second, they have indoor and outdoor requirements. Icarus can only show up on outdoor rooms (to drop his bombs), and Heracles and Fountain Chambers can only happen in indoor rooms. So if you are looking for a skip room chamber five or later and haven't encountered Heracles you are slightly more likely to do so by taking indoor chambers.

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Anyway, that's all I have off the top of my head, but as always I almost certainly forgot something or got something wrong. Please let me know if I did! Also let me know if there's another topic you think would be useful. Looking at the code is pretty fun for me, and I'd like to research things that are useful for the community.

Since many people would be starting this awesome game after it launching on Xbox , so I felt like sharing my experience to help others to avoid the pitfalls ( I fell into) and maximize the game.

1. If escaping Hell was that easy, everyone would do it :) - Let's get this aside first, its a tough game , the rooms are randomized every turn when you try to escape and event eh upgrades you get will be randomized every turn, so you may get some really good upgrades in a run and go far whereas in some runs the upgrades may mess up your gameplay because they didn't align with your playstyle. Just be patient and focus on learning and maximizing first few runs, you will eventually get hang of it and game will get a lot better and easier later on
2. Focus on Keys/darkness in initial runs- When you finish a battle you’ll get a glimpse at the reward for an upcoming room displayed on the door that leads out. Boons such as Darkness and Keys, let you upgrade Zagreus for your next run out . When you’re starting out, focus on Keys (they look like keys) and getting darkness as much as possible. They unlock new weapons back in the House of Hades and new skills to pick from at the Mirror of Night
3. Focus on unlocking all weapons early- Your initial focus should be unlocking all weapons and trying them out to see which suits your playstyle. shield may help a defensive player, some may like to snipe using bows, some may like to get up close and personal with infernal gloves etc. try and see what fits you. I personally liked the spear and it has helped me reach the 4th level easily if I get my maximized build luckily
4. Nectar- You get nectar out of some rooms while running, save those and gift them to everyone you meet. Before giving nectar to someone repeatedly, give at least 1 nectar to everyone you meet. First focus should be giving nectar to Skelly ( gives you an artifact which can bring back from Life) , Cerberus ( gives an artifact which increases maximum life) and Hypnos ( an artifact which gives 150 gold for each run when equipped and at max level)
5. Keep some Nectar handy- While going on runs keep at least 1-2 nectar with you as some characters can only be met randomly, You’ll know their event room by the door preview, which features a gray rock with an exclamation point on it. Sisyphus appears in Tartarus, Eurydice appears in Asphodel, Patroclus appears in Elysium, and Thanatos is a random event in any area once you’ve met him in Elysium
6. Not every run is for the Win!- Focus on learning and maximizing your power initially, be strategic if you feel that this run is not good for you then focus on farming as much darkness or coins or diamonds out of it, instead of pushing forward with boosts and then getting defeated and losing them. Once you are strong and clear about basic mechanics then plan for you winning runs.
7. Use you environment in battles: Traps, walls, pillars, lava everything can and will be used if you want to escape the hell
8. Get that Purple weapon- Before each run of Hades, one weapon in the armory will have a purple hue around it. This means you’ll gain bonus Darkness if you use it this run. Grab and use this purple weapon for every run.
9. Don't get too attached with keepsakes- Get the Keepsake collection upgrade from contractor and then use it to change your keepsakes at the end of each run. For eg. Lucky tooth ( Given by Skelly) will be useless once it has been used to resurrect from dead, so change it and go for something else.

Feel free to add your own tips if you found any. These are just some beginner tips for people's reference based on my experience, of course advanced levels such as Elysium needs proper understanding and tactics but I feel by that time you will have figured everything out. All the best and Happy gaming!

When do man resources respawn? Running out of wood lol