Just keep beating the game, at some point this area will open up for story reasons, I don't know if any character mentionned what it's supposed to be at this point in the game, but it'll make sense.

It's purely story-related anyway, there's no secret feature or game mechanic behind that gate, just some plot and lore.

Keep playing mate, you’ll unlock it through story eventually. I don’t want to spoil anything lol

I’ve beat hades twice. Are there a certain number of finishes? Certain people to talk to? Am I looking for certain aspects or wells? Thanks again

My friend put the game down after beating Hades once. I couldn’t believe it..

Literally just keep playing, you'll get there

It's only 10?! Geez I just got to this part after many, many runs...

As far as I'm aware there's not much else. Of course there's probably some dialogue you haven't gotten cause there always is. Some that you just would have never guessed lol. But for story that's pretty much it. If you haven't gotten all the prophecies then there's that. And if you haven't fought the secret boss then there's that as well but if not then yea you can definitely move on.

1. As far as anyone has found, not yet

2. Legendary Keepsakes from a couple characters that you have maxed out relationships with. You'll start giving them Ambroisa. There are currently four.

3. Skelly might have a couple "rewards" for you after doing clears with progressively higher heat levels

Just keep getting clears. You have to get to the end credits before it unlocks.

Clear 10 times

Well, brother, you need to get those numbers up.

Them's rookie numbers.

Get your tenth clear first. Then keep doing runs and talking to him whenever possible. It'll unlock eventually.

For the hammers, check the wiki. Certain hammer upgrades are incompatible with certain weapon aspects. It's possible you're always running e.g. Lucifer on the rail, and then can't get spread fire or something. 

The wiki is a good source for all th se questions honestly but I'm sure there is nuance that someone here can help you (and me) with. 

The bedroom ghost upgrades your rank if im not wrong. >!You can get up to the highest one which matches Hades i think? I believe there is a dialogue or so to uncover then if im not wrong.!<

For achilles and patroclus i think you talk to hades at some point and >!then get a contract or so to release achilles..!<

Dont remember the rest, its been a while, honestly the wiki should have all the answers or if you just google some keywords + "reddit" im sure someone on some sub somewhere will have answered it! Good luck!

(Sorry for the marking, just want to be sure im not spoiling the game for anyone😅)

I know that the Achilles patroclus story unlocks by wearing Achilles keepsake when you visit patroclus

These two links should help you with 1-4.

Guide on Unlocking Hearts(Completing Favors)

Hades 1.0: Endgame FAQ/Guide(Spoilers inside)

5. that’s just an arbitrary rank you can get. It means nothing really. You do get a cool looking badge by your HP bar though.

All it is, is an end game meta currency resource dump.

At Max Rank(Unseen One) you get special dialogue with Hades about reaching the same rank as him.

6. Check the Wiki. I know some hammers are exclusive to some aspects or are locked out for some aspects.

Like you can’t get the Flurry Jab hammer on Hades spear because it disables spin attacks which is Hades spear gimmick.

https://hades.fandom.com/wiki/Daedalus_Hammer

Suggestion: talk to the sassy salad girl (aka Artemis) :D

Talk to the famed hunter, the one in the heavens, and the originator of existence

Game is trash. Your best option is uninstalling

Invest some blood in the Rail, Shields, and Bows, and keep talking to Zeus, Chaos, and Artemis.

can you tell us how you figured out the codes?

Since you already have the hidden aspect for the spear, the only requirement you really need to worry about is having at least 5 Titan Blood invested into each weapon. Beyond that, it's pretty much just a matter of playing until you are told the awakening phrases for the remaining weapons.

Anyone know how you unlock mirror talents? I only have 3 options on there.

Generally speaking, it just takes more runs. A lot of things are gated 'til a specific number of runs - I think Than, for example, is only there after... 15 runs or so.

you have to unlock Guan Yu on the spear first and then spend a certain amount of darkness titan blood on each weapon to unlock the others

edit: brain no work

Google

keep talking to skelly, eventually his dialogue tells you about them.

They’re in the training grounds, directly right from Skelly. You have to clear 8/16/32 on both the surface and underworld for each one.

As soon as you unlock fear modifiers it should say on the bottom left of the modifier screen "conquer the underworld" "conquer the surface" with a number next to them which indicates fear you need (you might have to speak to Skelly first idk)

Once you conquer both areas at the required fear just go talk to Skelly each time. I think the first statue only requires 8? fear for both clears.

Hermes - talk to him with a maxed Lambent Plume. You need to do it at least 2 times iirc

Dionysus - give out at least 10 Ambrosia

Poseidon - talk to him while holding a fish. You can carry this over from a previous run

Zeus - get all dialogue of other gods commenting on him. It's gotten by talking to another god with a Zeus boon on you. Not sure if there are any restrictions, though.

Each has a different unique requirement. They're all on the wiki if you want to look them up. Keep in mind that you still have to trigger a specific dialogue to get the unlock even if you meet the requirements, so just keep doing runs and talking to them.

Yep, all you have to do is check the wiki.

I haven’t checked if they took it out or not with 1.0, but you could check the first rooms boon (which would “lock it” as the first choice) then retire, allowing you to switch weapons/mirror options/keepsakes to beat suit that boon. It also lets you fish for the “best” option for that boon/weapon combo. For example, if Athena is in your first room, you can check what she’s offering, and if dash isn’t there, retire and try again.

It’s not the most game breaking or useful thing, and again I haven’t checked to see if they kept it in, but it is a “hidden” mechanic

There's the duo boons requirements, such as 1 "tier 1" boon from each god. And somewhat even more vague, the legendary requirements. These aren't on the wiki (anymore?), but there's guides out there that show which boons are (maybe) required for legendary boons to show up.

Edit: not hidden any more!

Daedalus is accurate I think unless you do the 1 for 2 trade with Charon or buy a hammer from him regularly (maybe, it’s really rare to get it to show up in shop and I can’t confirm if you can find two past that). It’s certainly easier to get more than two from Hermes, but generally you’ll have to buy them. Not sure on the duo exclusion from trials.

As for muddying the boon pool, I assume they’re talking about how boon prerequisites work. For example, you can’t get Poseidon boons that buff knockback boons until you have a knockback boon. So if you’re fishing for one of a God’s tertiary boons, it’s more likely that they’ll be an option if you don’t have one of their regular boons. In my example, say you want Poseidon’s +gold, gems and darkness boon, if you have no knockback boons it’s more likely to be one of the three options - especially once your slots are all full.

Oh speaking of, that’s another thing - when you have empty ability slots, every boon you find that can fill that slot has a higher chance of offering you that as an option - fairly obvious, as the first few boons you find will generally offer 2/3 of the slot fillers.

You can get three Hermes boons in a run. Otherwise I'm pretty sure the rest is correct, although it's four gods other than Hermes. As far as muddying the boon pool, some boons only show up when you have certain prerequisite boons - that's not hidden since you can see it in the codex. Sometimes if you want certain boons to show up it's better not to qualify for too many of that god's other boons.

I think the hammer availability isn't very random. If you pass up your first hammer, and each after, you'll probably see hammers offered very frequently - this isn't something I've tested thoroughly, but I've seen 4 or more hammers offered afterword. Also, this wasn't the case for second hammers. Pass that up and you often never get another chance (though second hammers, if they show up at all, are generally quite late in the run, which may be a contributing factor).

Long story short, the game seems to stack the deck for you to get at least one hammer.

So, in a trial room, you can NOT get the duo for the two competing gods. But, can you get a duo boon for each with a different god?

Example: Trial room is Art & Zeus. So Art + Zeus duo is not available. But is something like Art + Ares or Zeus + Pos available? Assuming you have the prerequisites.

Athena dash.

Collect keys at the start so that you can unlock more options on the mirror of night and also collect darkness to afford the upgrades. Get the second dash, purchase extra death defiances (DD), thick skin and privileged status.

By the time you do this you should have a pretty good grasp of what you should be doing and take it from there.

Have fun and good luck!

just enjoy the game. dont think too deeply. It's about replaying again n agin and learning new builds. choose a weapon, choose a god keepsake, and try to complete the run. failed change god or weapon. that's it. Hope you enjoy it ✌️

a lot of dash strike, merciful end ares athena duo is completely game breaking, don't be afraid to die

There's no such thing as being late for Hades

(Me still playing and Platinuming 100% Hades years later)

It is not similiar to nightreign, as nightreign has you moving freely across the map while Hades has you having a predetermined path with different types of variables. Hades has only one character but 6 weapons but all play differently. The between run progression is also bigger with Hades.

There is a mirror in your room. Don't give more than one nectar to any one person until you've given everyone at least one.

Other than that... off you go. See you back in the house soon.

You can't do the wrong thing and miss anything.

There's no shame in turning on God Mode if you're getting super frustrated.

The game is best experienced organically, so get out there and fight!

The other comments are already good enough advice. The only thing I'll add is, while you know you're meant to die, really make sure to make yourself accept that death in this game isn't a punishment. Even if you know you're supposed to die, people in the wrong mindset can still get upset over it, but understand the only way to spend all the new resources and get new dialog is only going to happen after dying.

&#x200B;

The game really doesn't consider death a punishment, and the better you understand this the better you'll enjoy it.

The special resources you get from beating an area boss for the first time* are arguably the most limited resources in the game. Don't trade them in for darkness or gems unless you really know what you're doing.

*first time per weapon and per [mechanic you haven't unlocked yet]

There is no map. You just get doors and sometimes there's several to choose from. The icon above the door tells you what kind of a reward you'll get for clearing the next room. If it has a lottle skull under it, it means it's a miniboss/harder fight. At the beginning, one of the main resources is the chthonic key - it allows you to unlock more weapons and you should do that asap. After you've unlocked them, the key beckmes pretty useless. Darkness is also more useful at the beginning, as the amounts of darkness you get from darkness rooms becomes very insignificant to the darkness you get by beating bosses. Gems are mostly cosmetic, but in late game, I take them over darkness or the keys. Nectar is used for relationship progression - I advise you give everyone at least one nectar to get their keepsakes. Titan's blood, diamonds and ambrosia are resources you get by beating bosses for the first time and they become pretty important a bit later. This covers the resources that stay with you after your run. In the late game, when it's all about clearing the runs, they (except the boss fight) become much less useful.

Out of other resources, you have boons and hammers - personally, I'd focus on these, unless you know you're going to die in the next few rooms. Coin is useful in late game, when you can spend it in the end, but much less useful if you feel like you won't reach the next shop. Poms are somewhere on par with darkness or gems imo - useful, but not nearly as good as boons. Charon's shop is useful if you have enough money to heal up and you're on low health or you feel like you might die soon. NPC rooms (the exclamation point) give you great advanteges and progress the story, so I almost always pick them with hugh priority. That's about it as far as doors and resources go. Let me know if you have further questions, but above all, have fun. Yes, you will die a lot in this game, but you WILL get better at it, both through upgrading Zagreus' abilities and you yourself getting the feel for the game.

The locked hearts require completing a ‘quest’ from that NPC to progress past. It’s not officially tracked or anything, you just have to keep playing and eventually the conditions will happen, but you can look up specifics on the wiki.

Once you get to the locked heart for Thanatos, you gotta beat him at his death competition, then talk to him a few times at the house of hades. The dialog you need from him can compete with other dialog he can give on each visit, so it can take a while to get it.

Just play the game. Some interactions need prior specific interactions to ocur. I recommend you to speak to everyone in the lobby before each run to increase the chances to do the specific interactions needed for that. Also, focus speaking to Hipnos specifically.

I think it'll happen organically the next time you see him during an escape attempt.

See for further reference: The One Answer. (Just Keep Playing).

Ten clears is what’s needed to complete the “main” story line, but you should keep going. There’s an epilogue after the credits roll that you can unlock >!by gaining favor from the Olympian gods.!<

Apart from the epilogue, there are also a number of side stories and achievements you can get. And new dialog seems to keep popping up. I made it to about 15 heat (70+ clears) and was still getting new dialog. Apparently new dialog continues at least until 30 heat (150+ clears), though it gets increasingly more sparse…

How many tries did it take? I’ve escaped like 4 times by now

Well congratulation if you want to unlock (small spoiler ahead) >!mayor story part - true ending!<, keep escaping, talking with everyone . you might also want to do the achievments.

Also you might want to try (semi spoiler ahead) >!Redacted true fight with EM4 its pretty fun.!<

Congrats on finally starting the game. lol. Tons left to do and see

Correct

Just saying, if you go to a game's sub and ask if you should get it, the answer is always yes.

But yeah, if you like roguelikes, you'll like this game.

One of the finest games ever made. It's the only game in my Steam library I bothered to complete. And I'm almost 300 hours in, but currently playing Hades 2.

Well I hate to brake it to you but asking the dedicated sub full of fans if the game is worth it or not is a pretty silly idea.

Of course we will all tell you it’s worth it.

However I am mature enough to realize that not every game is for everyone(stupid collective shout).

---

Hades may be a game for you or it may not be.

Hades is a rogue like game. It means that when you die you start back at the beginning again.

Thankfully Hades has Meta currency that you can bring back with you to power yourself up with Permanent upgrades.

---

As for what you will be getting yourself into.

Zagreus is the son of Hades god of the dead.

Zag wants to escape the Greek underworld to go live with his godly relatives up on Mount Olympus.

To do this Zag has to battle his way through various Lvs of the underworld and many enemies and four strong bosses to reach the surface world and eventually Mt Olympus.

---

Whenever Zag fails in battle he returns to the house of Hades.

There he can use Gems, Darkness, Nectar, Keys, Diamonds, Ambrosia and Titans Blood to do various things.

Like giving Nectar to NPC’s to further his relationships with them.

Using his meta currency at the House Contractor to renovate the house itself via cosmetic items or buy stuff to help him out with various quests or to alter the underworld to help him escape.

He can use his darkness to power himself up via the Mirror of Darkness in his room.

Use Keys to unlock more of the mirror or use said keys to unlock more weapons for him to try out in his escape attempts.

Eventually he can use the Titian’s blood he gathers to power up his weapons.

---

As for playtime that depends on where you stop and how long it takes you to understand the combat well enough.

How long to beat .com says Main Story 23 Hours

Main + Sides 48½ Hours

Completionist 95 Hours

All Styles 43½ Hours

So you can get at least a good 24-100 hours out of the game if not more. Some of us have fell in love with the game so much that we have well over 200 hours in it.

Honestly it just depends on how much you come to love the game.

The game is also only about $25 US. So it’s a really good bang for your buck.

---

The general game play loop is you choose a weapon then choose a keepsake(once you have those unlocked) then start your escape attempt.

You battle your way through the hoard of undead and various bosses Hades sends your way.

You pick up various boons from your godly relatives to help power you up. You can collect gold, Max hp, hammers to upgrade your weapons and pomegranates of power to Lv up your god boons.

These are only temporary and go away once you die.

You can also get your various meta currency as stated above.

Once you die you get sent back to the house and you use your various meta currency to power up. You also talk to NPC’s to get more story.

In the beginning you will die a lot. Each time you make it to a new boss you will die a lot.

Get used to it. At least with Hades Dying is not total defeat.

It means you can take what you learned and try and go farther the next time.

---

While the gameplay itself is fun for many players. I think what draws and keeps most of us in is the Story, characters, visuals and sound designs.

The Lv of polish the game has is so great many have stated that Hades has killed or at least diminished there excitement of similar style of game.

Although in recent years plenty of other quality games in the rogue like genre have popped up.

---

One last thing before I go.

Hades 1 Beginner Video.

Here is an old comment of mine going over the mirror in extensive detail.

Useful tips for new players. Part 1

Useful Tips for new players. Part 2

Good luck, have fun and always remember,

THERE IS NO ESCAPE!!! EVIL LAUGHTER!!!

Not necessarily. The people who will criticise on most game subreddits will criticise things that aren't likely to have chased them away or put them off for playing more.

For example, I have a ton of things I can complain about in WoW and I can certainly make dozens of suggestions to make it more to my liking. But I still play it, and a lot of things WoW does are easily enough to put other people off - and with good reason.

You will get reliable criticisms often in the sense that they are making informed complaints and - hopefully (but not always) - are making suggestions for the game to better fulfil its intended purpose.

But you are not getting reliable criticisms in the sense that the criticisms are comprehensive as to the problems with the game that may apply to you. WoW doesn't respect player time nearly as much as most games, but that won't get brought up much on the subreddit by and large because as bad as it is now, it was much worse before. So if you ask if you should play WoW you'll hear about complaints regarding class balance or seasonal changes or maybe the contemporary story, but on /r/wow it's "the best MMO out there" and the other stuff that we already accept doesn't get brought up as much.

Now personally I don't see any issues with Hades I or II. I may have nitty gritty complaints about many other games I play but in general (good) single player games are very good at what they're designed for, and Supergiant Games produces great single player games. Hades II has more polish than many release games out there and it's in Early Access.

You will get a huge worth out of this game. The gameplay loop will keep you coming back.

Keep going. You'll run into a big guy with a key.

advance further until you meet the warden and slay that mf he will provide you with the key

The key from the Warden of souls, a bit further in. It's recyclable and reusable for later characters

you need to have the key from the warden in your inventory

if you leave no enemy alive, you will eventually find the key.
There is also a (kind of hidden) majestic chest you only reach if you have the key. right by some cliffs, next to a door.

I can’t get over how cute your angry lil Zag is!

This is too accurate lmao

are you certain you have enough titan blood spent on the rail?

I haven't gotten the 100% since it's a pretty long journey and I have a lot of games to finish yet, but Hades is a fantastic game, I played enough to get the actual ending and most NPC storylines to the end.

The artsyle, music and most importantly, gameplay, are 10/10 in my book. Really excited for the sequel, the only bad part is that it's on early access in PC and I have to avoid spoilers all the time till it gets finished and ported to consoles.

Hint for new players: Do not fall in love with a weapon. You have no idea what each weapon is truly capable of. Just pick whatever weapon has the darkness booster on it and have fun. I hated the gun but one run I randomly ended up with a missle machine gun lol.

Truly a crazy decision by the devs to map the right stick as reload.

Probably my only critique of the game, lol.

Like OP, I was very late to getting around to playing it (I saw the reviews, awards and audience love but I don't like roguelikes and I'm not good at games), but it's one of my favourite gaming experiences. I can't wait for Hades II to be complete (I don't want to buy it until then).

I saw a tip on reddit once that worked 100% for me. Look away from your screen such that Zagreus is in the corner of your eye. You'll register the flash a lot more consistently.

The end boss redacted on his 2nd form or whatever makes me sweat. I lose more than I win but it's always fucking exciting. Def a game that makes it apparent you are the one making mistakes and missing cues.

Yeah Animal Crossing is way tighter than Hades.

my one real complaint was I found it sagged a bit narratively in the fairly long period between "first 6 or 7 runs" (where they give you all the setup) and "first clear"

felt like it was paced for someone who got to that first clear quite a bit faster than I did. but the gameplay being fun carried me through that period anyway

That’s funny. I’m honestly shocking at this game. I’m on 45ish runs with two clears and my godhood is on I think 62% at this point. I don’t think I’ve ever not caught the fish. Must have 20 by now and it’s only reading this I find out you can fail.

you haven't even seen the end credit yet, you still have Hades content ahead. Don't worry about finishing it, there is still a lot of stuff for you to enjoy.

Now you need to master all extreme measures enhanced boss fights, including hades himself. Oh, and try a boon less run.

I don't really agree with you saying even with heat content game is done. Heat changes the game a lot.

Beating the game at 32 heat is a lot different than 0 heat. And every weapon plays different factoring all those aspects. You still have a long way to go

I would strongly recommend branching out from your favourite weapon and build.

Embrace the game and have fun along the way.

not even close to done if you care about maxing bonds or getting the true ending lol

So much content left! I beat Hades for the first time over 200 hours ago and just got my last steam achievement today. 100 percenting Hades has been a blast!