Mastering Hades: An Easy Guide to Beating 32 Heat
Hades II is coming out, and surprisingly, the first game is reaching an all-time peak of players on Steam.
Many of the players returning to the game may be trying to conquer one of the toughest challenges in the game that yields a reward: completing a 32-heat run. For those who have reached the upper heats and are wondering what’s a good combination of boons, heat, and weapon needed to easily beat this task, I got you. If you want to skip the explanations and try the build, here’s the final screen showcasing what I did.
Weapon
You can really use any weapon you are comfortable with, but for the sake of this guide, I’m going to delve into a Chiron Bow build. You can figure out builds yourself through practice, or you can look at what others have found to be the best, though if you’ve reached 25 heat or more on a weapon, you should have a solid idea of what boons work well with it.
In terms of Chiron’s playstyle, make sure you tag an enemy and then kite backwards. You’ll also want to alternate your attack and your special, even though most of the damage is coming from the special.
Hammers
Try to opt for Relentless Volley and Concentrated Volley as your two highest-priority picks. Things like Chain Shot and Piercing Volley are good for clearing out packs as well.
Boons
There are a decent amount of options, but for Chiron, the first thing you want to focus on is getting a boon that modifies your special. I would recommend Dionysus’ special modifier as each shot from your special that hits an enemy adds a stack of Dionysus’ poison to the enemy. Upgrade it as much as possible without sacrificing other parts of your build like health/other boons.
Once you’ve gotten the special you should focus on building up your cast and getting a status effect on your attack to get the increased damage from your mirror. Personally, I would opt for Aphrodite or Demeter on the attack, as the status effect will help you survive the high heat. Trying to go for as many Demeter boons usually works well in my experience, as the Duo boons with her and Dionysus and Aphrodite are amazing. Demeter special with Artemis’ duo boon will almost automatically win you the run, especially if the rest of your build is on track. However, you can also opt for Dionysus special with Demeter or Zeus duo for instant Festive Fog or Poseidon’s special to completely destroy every encounter in Temple of Styx.
For your dash, I’d recommend going Poseidon or Athena, depending on if you prefer an offensive or defensive playstyle.
For your ultimate, you can go with what you’re most comfortable with, but I would recommend Artemis for the potential duo boons + the massive damage her Greater Call does.
Make sure your getting extra boons that aren’t critical for your build for the Well of Purging at the end of every floor. While this heat seems annoying at first compared to not playing with it, trading a boon for some money and heat is actually not too bad.
Keepsakes
Pick up Dionysus’ keepsake “Overflowing Cup” for Tartarus, then grab Artemis/Athena/Demeter for Asphodel depending on what is missing from your build.
In Elysium, you really want to adapt with what’s going on. Ideally, you would opt for another God keepsake, but if you’ve gotten unlucky with health/money/defiance’s, you might have to change to Harpy Feather Duster/Chthonic Coin Purse/Lucky Tooth that help you with that.
For the Temple of Styx, it depends on how the rest of the run and how confident you are feeling that you can do damage. If I’m feeling confident I go with Pom Blossom to power up my boons levels. If I’m not feeling confident, Lucky Tooth or Evergreen Acorn are my boons of choice.
Mirror of Night
You can really go with preference for the Mirror of Night. I’ve looked at many different 32 heat builds and everyone seems to take different things depending on what they prefer. Just make sure it works for you.
- Shadow Presence – More useful than Fiery as you should be getting behind enemies, and while the damage on a charged-up shot is good, most of the damage of the build is coming from your special. But, choose what you like here.
- Chthonic Vitality – At 3 health per room, if you’re going the full ~70ish rooms the game has to offer in a run, that’s an extra 210 health restored throughout the run. Not picking darkness rooms for dark regeneration also makes you not feel as bad.
- Death Defiance – 3 extra lives is insane. Stubborn Defiance is used by people though, and can especially be good with Demeter’s passive regeneration Duo boon.
- Greater Reflex – Two dashes is insane, especially with Athena and Poseidon’s boons. Two seconds of damage and dodge chance for barely dodging an attack is not worth the darkness here in my opinion.
- Boiling Blood – More damage versus taking defensive option. They can’t move/do damage if they’re dead.
- Infernal Soul – I haven’t messed around with this too much. With the build I run above, having three casts out at the same time can be really helpful versus Hades as you’re doing triple the damage you would versus Stygian Soul.
- Deep Pockets – Personal preference. If you plan on saving money, Golden Touch can be insane, but even if you just go Deep Pockets you should have enough to pick up every boon (as long as you don’t take the extra heat for increased costs).
- Thick Skin – You will lose health, and being under 80% will make you angry. Take the extra health pool.
- Privileged Status – Personal preference again. If you go with Aphrodite/Demeter on your attack and Dionysus on your special, you should basically have 100% uptime for 40% extra damage, which is going to outpace Family Favorite in almost every situation
- Olympian Favor/Dark Foresight – Actual toss up. Most situations I would recommend Olympian Favor, as having the rare is like an extra Pom Fruit on all of your boons. Blue rooms are also not as bad once you have the added effects from the contractor.
- Gods’ Pride/Gods’ Legacy – Another tossup. If you held a gun to my head and told me I HAVE to choose one to recommend, I’d probably tell people to go for Gods’ Pride as the 20% chance for a double Pom Fruited Boon is insane. But getting a chain of Duo boons late in the run can also secure the edge you need to win. So at the end of the day, go with what you want.
- Fated Persuasion – Fated Authority is really good, however, I think being able to get what you need out of a boon is better than getting the boon itself. Depends on what RNG you feel more comfortable adapting to.
Pact of Punishment (Heat)
- Hard Labor (1-5) – On a 32-heat run, I took 5 here as I don’t think enemies doing 100% damage is that impactful, especially with Chiron’s kiting capabilities. You should not be getting hit all that much with this build in particular, so opting for more damage here is an easy way to avoid pain in other parts of the Pact.
- Lasting Consequences (1-2) – This punishment is not as bad as it seems, especially if you get Demeter’s increased healing boon or Dionysus increased health from fountain boon anywhere in the run. 75%+ starts getting painful and probably isn’t worth it for most people.
- Convenience Fee (0-2) – I hate this boon as I think it restricts how you build and move through the underworld. If you want though, taking 2 points here isn’t as bad as other places.
- Jury Summons (1-3) – You should be extremely careful with this heat. It might seem like free heat with a really good build, however, stacked with the extra heat, things can get out of control very quickly. Asphodel becomes neigh impossible with the enemies with two lives. Would recommend only 1 point in Hell Mode or 0 in normal.
- Extreme Measures (5-9) – EM3 is pretty standard for most people, and actually makes Theseus a little easier in my opinion. EM4 you want to be careful of though. Hades with three phases is difficult, but not impossible for the right builds. Potentially try him on lower difficulty and see if you can acclimate yourself to the fight. If you can, I would recommend the free four heat.
- Calisthenics Program (2) – One of the options you want to be careful mixing Jury Summons and Forced Overtime with. Two free points for most builds though.
- Benefits Package (5) – Annoying with Forced Overtime in some situations, but the 5 heat is too much to pass up. The added effects become natural after a while.
- Middle Management (2) – Free. Can only be annoying for certain mini-bosses, but almost always easy to handle.
- Underworld Customs (2) – Annoying, but less annoying than most of your other options. And gives you free money in return.
- Forced Overtime (3-6) – My most hated enemy. Three heat is tolerable here, but unless you want to acclimate to a much faster pace and you hate yourself, do not pick six. Especially difficult to get used to if you’re already used to attack patterns and timings of enemies.
- Heightened Security (0) – Do not take. Everyone thinks they don’t step in traps or magma until they take this, then they realize how terrible of a mistake they’ve made. 400% is A LOT of damage for these things that you don’t think about most of the time.
- Routine Inspection (0-2) – You can take this, but I don’t like things messing with the potential strength of my build. I would rather have a harder challenge than hamstring myself at the same difficulty.
- Damage Control (0) – Do not take with Chiron. With the Rail or Fists, 2 in this is actually not bad, but having every enemy be immune to the first shot you do that you take time to charge up can be really bad for certain encounters.
- Approval Process (0) – I hate this for the same reason I hate Routine Inspection: I don’t want my build hamstrung at the same difficulty. This pact also has the added effect of enraging you when you see that legendary/duo boon locked out in front of your eyes. There are ways to do this build with Shattered Shackle that are really good, but I’d rather just opt for the other heat.
- Tight Deadline (3-6) – Probably want to stick with three heat here if you don’t want too much stress, but if you have the speed runner strats on lock then five minutes per level is possible.
- Personal Liability (1) – Forced for hell mode.
Final Thoughts
The thing to keep in mind with these guides is that they’re just ways people have figured out what works for them. This guide is perfect for people who are looking for the easiest way to conquer 32 heat, however, there are plenty of other ways to beat Hades out there to do it, many faster or with other weapons.
Regardless, enjoy whichever way you choose. If a way of playing doesn’t suit you, just choose what you have fun with. Just because someone says it works for them doesn’t mean it will work for you.