Hades 2 Best Endgame Build Guide – How To Win Runs Easily

Hades 2 offers a myriad of tools, blessings from Greek gods, and witchcraft-coded spells to overcome its challenges. Yet, the further you plunge into the Underworld and Olympus, the bigger the resistance from enemy forces is. Simply put, the closer you get to the endgame, the harder everything gets.

Considering it’s necessary for you to not just do runs but also achieve victory in them to actually see the overarching story through, you’ll need all the help you can get. As someone who had to constantly win runs in order to write extensive guides on reaching the end of the game and successfully navigating the epilogue that follows, I’ll be detailing what worked for me as the best endgame build for Hades 2.

Hades 2 Best Endgame Build Explained

Hades 2 has countless synergies and permutations with which to experiment. Even the sole choice of your weapon can radically change how you approach a run. At the same time, this is still a roguelite–aside from some specific picks, there’s never a guarantee that you’ll always be getting what you want during a run. As such, it’s worth being open to improvisation on the go.

The details below are meant to provide a general scheme to follow. Again, depending on the boons you have, as well as whether or not you’ve spent the time upgrading Arcana Cards, Keepsakes, and the like, you might not get the same results. Still, the build should provide more than enough pointers as guidance.

Weapon

Xinth, the Black Coat was my predilect weapon. Specifically, I went with the Aspect of Melinoë version, which, at Rank V, makes it so your attacks, sprint, and move speed are 20 percent faster from the get-go.

It’s an extremely versatile weapon. The attacks that benefited the most from this build were its Special, which launches a barrage of rockets either freely or by locking onto an enemy if you hold the button, as well as the dash-strike.

Plus, it’ll allow you to move fast with Melinoë using the weapon almost like a jetpack. With the mentioned aspect, this is only increased, and that’s before taking boons into consideration.

Arcana Cards

Using 29 out of 30 Grasp, here’s the list of Arcana cards I had active with this build:

• The Sorceress: This increases the speed of your held-pressed attacks, which adds to the overall speedy build.
• The Wayward Son: Always nice to recover some health after exiting a location.
• The Huntress: Increases damage while you have less than 100 percent Magick. This pushes you to play aggressively and adds a hefty bonus to your base attack and special.
• The Furies: Increased damage to foes inside your casts. Even if you don’t tend to use casts, this is a nice-to-have.
• Persistence: Increasing your maximum life and Magick is a must.
• The Swift Runner: Makes your sprint even faster and lets you pass through most enemies in your way.
• Death: It’s always good to have Death Defiances. They have both a practical purpose and also give you some comfort in knowing that meeting defeat won’t immediately end your run.
• The Centaur: This increases your maximum health and Magick whenever you pass through five locations, which is great, especially for Olympus runs.
• Origination: It’s good to always strive to have multiple debuffs on enemies. This Arcana increases your damage to foes with at least two curses from different Olympians, which is easy enough to achieve.
• The Lovers: With this, you take 0 damage the first time you’re hit in boss encounters. It might not sound like much, but it definitely counts.
• The Artificer: This gives you two chances a night to turn any minor find (common resources) into major finds (such as boons).
• Excellence: A must. This makes it so any boons you find have an increased chance to include legendary or at least rare blessings.
• Divinity: A good pairing for Excellence. Divinity makes it so that any boons you find have an increased chance to include epic blessings.

Now, let’s see how to put these to good use.

Boons

Glamour Gain: You automatically inflict weak on nearby foes and gradually restore Magick. Weak is a powerful condition, and gradual Magick restoration is great, as this build comes together when you’re pushing for held-pressed attacks. If you’re lucky with drops and you can pair this up with something like Sweet Surrender, which increases the damage that weak-afflicted foes take, you’ll have a significant advantage.

Flutter Flourish: In general, Aphrodite’s boons are a great way of ensuring damage bonuses. Flutter Flourish is one I picked often, which made it so my special attack, the rockets, dealt more damage to nearby foes. It might seem counterproductive when using a weapon like the Black Coat, but since you’ll be moving in and out of combat constantly, the boon will come into effect often without you having to think about it too much.

Sworn Flourish: A good alternative is going for Hitch instead. Once this effect is applied to two or more enemies, whenever you attack one of them, the others who are linked will receive damage as well. It’s perfect to deal with large enemy groups.

Nitro Boost: Your sprint is faster, and you get a barrier that ignores instances of damage. Even more speed.

Heavy Metal: If you’re lucky with shield-related boons, pay attention to any blessings from Hephaestus. Heavy Metal is always a good one, which makes it so your weapon deals more damage based on 20 percent of your shield. It grants you shield when chosen, kicking this into effect from the get-go, but the benefit lasts for the entirety of the run. Even if you lose it all, you can get more from a shop or other sources to kick this back in.

Mutual Destruction: Gain a chance to deal 200 percent damage that increases the less health you have remaining. If you know you’re having a tough run and you might not make it to Typhon unscathed, this is a good way of ensuring you’ll be hitting harder in the process.

Vital Signs: Foes with at least 80 percent health or 80 percent armor may take critical damage. It might not seem like much due to the clear threshold, but the idea of this build is to get through enemies fast and not linger unnecessarily, and this boon helps in that regard.

Shameless Attitude: Once you’ve gotten the hang of things, Shameless Attitude is a great choice. You get bonus damage, and while you have at least 80 percent health, said bonus is doubled.

Divine Vengeance: With this, after you take damage, your foe is struck by lightning, and there’s a 50 percent chance of them being hit again in every instance. You will inevitably get hit at some point, so why not set up a trap of sorts?

Ice Strike: It’s simple, but it works. Freeze is a powerful condition in Hades 2, allowing you to slow down almost every enemy you encounter.

Keepsakes

Beautiful Mirror: This is the one Keepsake that turned the tide for me when I started grinding the endgame. This makes it so a boon from Aphrodite is likely, usually the first one you get, and you’re also able to rarify the blessing. Pushing for Weak as a main condition to use against enemies is key–all additional damage you manage to accrue from there will only increase things, and you’ll have a baseline to build upon.

Silken Sash: If you’re in a good spot with your current build and want to start building some armor, go with Silken Sash, which will immediately add some shield and make it so you gain more after each location. This one is best used if you’re encountering Hephaestus’ boons to further amplify it, but it’s a nice to have, especially for the second regions of either the Underworld or Olympus.

Knuckle Bones: You take less damage from guardians, and when you first use it, it also reduces the health of the next guardian, so you can start the boss encounter with a significant advantage.

Evil Eye: I recommend keeping this locked for Typhon. He’s likely to kill you at least once, activating it, and you can then use it repeatedly whenever you’re doing Olympus runs. I’d usually equip Knuckle Bones for the Prometheus fight, and then switch to Evil Eye for Typhon.

Familiar

Gale: Out of all the familiars available at launch, Gale is the one who consistently had my back. Whenever you’re about to be hit, the charming polecat leaps and blocks the attack, while also dealing damage in retaliation. The familiar can do this up to three times per region, 30 seconds apart. Once you’re familiar with the build, you’ll likely not be hit that often, but when you do, it’ll likely be in the third or fourth area of either the Underworld or Olympus, or during bosses. Enemies hit hard, and if you’re not careful, they can easily leave you at a disadvantage. Gale will prevent this from happening a few times, and boy, do they count. Gale also increases.

Last but not least, Gale also increases your chances of dodging, as well as your move speed. You’ll also get more Flora resources.

Tips and strategy

With the Black Coat being as versatile as it is, there’s no shortage of attack options at your disposal. Again, I used both the dash-strike and the held-pressed special more than anything else, but be open to improvising depending on the boots you get. Also, remember that holding the attack button will block (most) incoming hits while it charges. It took me a while to get this into rotation and use it more deliberately during fights.

In terms of boons from specific gods, the ones that work best in tandem for me where a combination of Weak and Hitch, as well as either Freeze or Scorch. If you can get something from Zeus or Poseidon, even better. But always make sure to start out with at least one or two boons from Aphrodite for that additional damage against inflicted foes.

As a last note, if you’re really struggling during runs, remember that you can enable God Mode at any time on the settings menu. It doesn’t radically change the experience, only adding damage reduction that increases each time you die, and it might be the thing that allows you to get a little farther if you’ve been stuck in a particular area.

That’s all you need to prepare yourself for the endgame and beyond. If you’re looking for pointers or answers to any other questions, check out our Hades 2 guides hub.