SPOILER WARNING: This guide contains spoilers for Hades

You've played around for a while, made some good progress and unlocked whatever stuff seemed interesting so far, but now you feel like it's time to just put up that W. Even if you're not done exploring don't worry, the game has a lot more to offer after you win!

This guide will help you put together a brutal dash strike build to get revenge on whatever killed you last time and take the fight all the way to the final boss. I'll explain some farming strategy, some combat tactics and some boon stuff and I'll give a step-by-step run plan. Depending on how much you've played, you may want to skip around to what's useful for you.

Alright runners, time to meet at the starting line!

You'll want some house upgrades to give yourself the best chance of winning. There are a ton of things you can buy and upgrade in Hades, but they aren't all important or even helpful for this build. I recommend getting a few key advantages.

Shopping List

• House Contractor
  - Keepsake Cabinet
  - Fountain Upgrades
  
• Mirror of Night
  - Death Defiance maxed out
  - Greater Reflex maxed out
  
• Weapon unlocks
  - Your favorite melee weapon - anything but bow or rail
  - Other weapons (optional)
  
• Collect during runs
  - Athena's keepsake
  - Euridice's keepsake, maxed out
  - Aphrodite's keepsake, maxed out (optional, see next section)

Farming equipment

• Fated list of minor prophesies
  
• Rod of fishing (situational)

main cost:

• 3 Nectar
  
• 150 Gems
  
• 1580 Darkness

optional surcharges:

• 0-24 Keys depending on your chosen weapon
  
• 1 Diamond (situational)
  
• 5 Titan blood (very situational)

If you already have most of this, you might just want to skip ahead to the Hold on to your butts!!! section for the run plan. You don't need every last item on the list to try for a win, especially the situational items. You will need the keepsakes and cabinet upgrade to execute the basic plan. Everything else on the list is optional but very helpful.

If you don't quite have your house set up yet, you'll need to do some farming. I have some basic tips for shopping efficiently and I'll also explain what some of this stuff is for. Then I'll get into a level of detail that you can't possibly need. Ready?

You'll want to collect nectar, keys, gems and darkness in about that order. It's a good idea to prioritize nectar because you'll want to have some on hand when you randomly encounter Athena, Aphrodite or Euridice during a run.

Give one nectar to each of them to earn their keepsake. More nectar won't help. One thing to keep in mind is that you can't give nectar after you've initiated conversation, so exercise trigger discipline when when the options come up. If you have extra nectar just pass it out to whoever you want. It will open up the game for later.

The point of the Athena and Aphrodite keepsakes is to help you get boons from those gods. Leveling up a keepsake makes the boons you get from that god more likely to have good rarity. Leveling doesn't matter for Athena since her dash is great at any level. Leveling does help for Aphrodite because it can make her attack boon stronger.

Euridice's keepsake is an acorn that cancels the first few hits from each boss. Leveling it up increases the number of hits cancelled. It's pretty OP to start and leveling it helps.

To level up a keepsake, clear rooms with it equipped. It takes 75 fights to max a keepsake out. Tartarus has ~14 fight rooms, so even if you're struggling to get past Meg you can max one out in about 6 runs.

This is another reason to prioritize nectar early on. You'll pick up darkness, keys and gems while you're leveling your keepsakes. The other resources aren't as important as nectar because you can spend them whenever, but it's better not to have to grind them up from darkness if you can help it. The Wretched Broker engages in some questionable banking practices.

Speaking of which, the Wells Fargo branch in Tartarus is mostly a scam. It's maybe worth it to grind up to something once you're close but you're paying a stiff premium. The main reason to check him is the Special deals. These are basically "fair" trades and sometimes let you trade down (e.g. if you need darkness but have extra of something else).

There are also some opportunities to get extra meta-currency during each run. You can farm a little extra darkness by doing runs with whatever weapon is currently purple. You'll need keys to unlock multiple weapons to really take advantage of this.

Poseidon and Chaos have boons that increase rewards and you can sometimes buy gems or darkness with Obol during your runs. Mini-boss rooms (marked by a little skull under the chamber reward) generally have double the rewards which is a great deal, especially for nectar.

The Fated list of Minor Prophesies is a house contractor item that basically adds a bunch of collection quests that reward you with resources. Many of them you'll just complete by playing, so it's worth picking up.

The Rod of Fishing is a fun item to consider. It costs 1 Diamond at the contractor. You can earn a diamond by beating the boss of Asphodel, so if you've gotten that far the rod is a decent place to spend that diamond. It's probably not worth trying to buy a diamond from the broker. Even on special it's 100 gems which takes a while to pay itself off. Grinding it all the way up is a lot more.

If you do get the rod, fishing spots will appear in some rooms as shiny white patches in whatever fluid the river is made of in the current biome. You'll hear a nautical bell sound after clearing a room if there's a fishing spot to find. You can play a little fishing mini-game to get fish and sell them to the head chef for resources.

There are more complicated ways to game the farm, but nothing I think is super worth it. I don't recommend intentionally dying as a farming tactic, although there is an argument for it if you're a total goblin.

Every biome has some rewards that help the house (darkness, gems, keys, etc.) and some that only help your current run (boons, hammers, poms, etc.). The earlier biomes have more of the house stuff and the later biomes have more run stuff. So hanging out in Tartarus will give the best house loot reward percentage.

In practice though, it never really seems worth it to me. If you make it to Meg, you might as well fight her. If you win you'll get titan blood or a big drop of darkness. You could quit there, but if your build is starting to come together, Asphodel might actually be easier than Tartarus. The Asphodel boss is definitely easier than Meg. If you make it to Elysium, you're so close to the end - even if you aren't totally done shopping, this little farming run might turn out to be The Run Where It All Happens.

I'm bad at video games. The good news is that I beat Hades anyway and so can you!

This is a Dash Strike build. I usually just put my thumb over A and X and dash strike from one enemy to the next. Once you get Divine Dash this is actually a fairly safe way to play. If you can get extra dashes you'll be even safer. For bosses, it's hit and run once you know the patterns. It's a sloppy plan, but the acorn is there to handle mistakes.

For weapons, any melee will work. I like them in this order:

Fists > Shield >> Sword >>>> Spear

I think a lot of players would flip the order of Shield and Fists. There are probably even some weirdos out there who like the Spear. It's just personal preference.

Don't worry too much about unlocking weapon aspects. They don't provide a clear advantage. They're more about unlocking new, mostly harder, ways to play. There are no aspect unlocks that are going to make the game easy.

That said, if you have one unlocked that you're good with, there's no reason not to use it. Unless it's Chiron. What are you even doing here? I said no bows for this plan!

Every weapon starts with an Aspect of Zagreus for free and it can be upgraded 5 times. Upgrades for this one all help a little and they don't cost too much or change the gameplay. You'll get a titan blood every time you beat Meg with a new weapon, so you'll at least get 1. You'll get more if you plan on unlocking multiple weapons. If you have some Titan Blood, upgrading the Zag aspect of your favorite weapon is a good place to spend it, but definitely don't grind blood from the broker for this.

Hammers are really hyped in guides and especially in game reviews, but they're not all great for our needs. They can also change weapon behavior and mess up your muscle memory. There are some very useful ones though! Keep an eye out for:

Fists - Breaching Cross, anything with the world Knuckle in it
Shield - Dashing Wallop
Sword - Double Edge
Spear - Serrated Point, Triple Jab. Serrated point is particularly great, but it does alter the way the weapon plays!

If there's a hammer that makes you hold down a button for a while and then release it at some particular time, it's a scam. Any hammer that's for improving your special probably won't help much either.

On that note, I'll mention special attacks. This build doesn't rely on them, but they can come in handy. The ranged attacks for Shield and Spear are good for killing that last gorgon head hiding in the corner over a lake of lava. The Sword special is an AoE which can be useful for setting up synergies or just getting some DoT started if you have a boon that does that. The Fist special is mostly useless.

Here's the main plan for the run

Equip the Athena keepsake before you start. The goal is to get Divine Dash from her. Anything else is extra. You may be tempted to go for a rare Athena boon if Dash is common and there's a sweet looking purple below it, but don't fall for the Purple Nurple! Divine Dash is critical for this build and may be the best ability in the game.

You won't need shops to get the basics for this build, but they give you more options and help you fill in supporting boons. There's almost no point in going to a shop unless you have about 150 Obol or if you really need health. If you have 300 you'll probably be able to afford anything you might want.

Definitely do Chaos gates on your win attempts. It's worth the health, but pick useful advantages and don't pick penalties that hurt too much. You want advantages that help your attack or increase your dashes. If those aren't available, look for health or Obol advantages. You can probably go 4 rooms without using your special, so those penalties are OK to take. You won't need cast stones for this build so any penalty that makes them more annoying to use is totally safe to take too.

The goal here is to get a good attack boon. If you have a keepsake for a god you want on attack, equip it after the first boss fight. I suggested Aphrodite in the shopping list because of her super high base damage, but others can work.

If you don't have a keepsake or Aphrodite just won't give you strike as an option, you'll almost certainly still be able to find something you can use. Zeus, Dionysus and Ares are all viable. Artemis and Athena are both workable, especially with good rarity. Poseidon is probably the worst, but even he can work. Whoever you pick, keep an eye out for synergistic boons from the same god and try to upgrade your attack boon at every opportunity.

If you run into Euridice on your run, you'll have a choice to make. If you've picked up your Dash and Attack by now, go for the current boon rarity upgrade. If you're still looking for your core kit, pick the option that makes the next few boons more rare. Juicing the future rarity also gives you a shot at rare Hermes boons which are harder to find than rare boons from other gods.

Equip the acorn in preparation for the boss fight. If you didn't get your two core boons by now (it can happen) you have time to pick them up here. Otherwise pick up hammers, poms, hearts and any boons you like. Use the poms on your strike, but once you get to 6 or so you'll hit diminishing returns. Keep 200 Obol on you to buy Death Defiance recharges.

There is a mini-boss room where you fight the Minotaur. If you beat him here he'll be easier when he shows up for the main boss fight. (Remember, you can tell a room will be have mini-boss by the skull icon under the reward icon). There is also a special room in this biome that can refill all Death Defiances. You aren't guaranteed to see it, but it can totally salvage a tough run.

Leave the acorn equipped. The main goal here is to get the Satyr sack and face The Final Boss with all of your Death Defiances (and a reasonable amount of health) intact. If you're lucky, you may have a last minute chance to refill lost death Death Defiances: There is a chance for Charon wells to appear in labyrinth rooms and they sometimes sell Kiss of Styx. There are also two Athena boons that each refill a Death Defiance if you see her and you haven't gotten them already.

One general tip for the Labyrinth rooms: You can usually avoid getting poisoned. Poison is mostly there to annoy players with a running clock. If you have time to let them come to you, you can save yourself some damage. If you do get tagged, hit the anti-poison well asap unless you can clear in a hit or two.

You don't need to do all the rooms and you probably can't afford all the things at the Charon shop. Remember to look for Athena in the labyrinth room rewards and on the Charon table if you need Death Defiances. Other than that, just get as much of what you want as you can without risking health or lives.

How do you know what you want? If you've played for a while, you may have favorite boons so go ahead and grab those. If you're not sure what to pick I have opinions in the next section.

You can add basically any boon to this build, but there are some I recommend keeping an eye out for. First, a few important reminders about how boons work:

• You have 5 core boon slots: Attack, Special, Cast, Dash and Call
  
• Adding a new boon to a filled core slot will overwrite the old one - so if you have Divine Dash, don't pick up Passion Dash
  
• Non-core boons never overwrite each other, so go ahead and grab them*
  
• Some powerful boons, including Duo Boons and Legendaries, have pre-requisites. You'll need the Codex for full details but usually they require a core boon, so keeping your core slots filled can give you access to better boons even if you never open the Codex.

Extra dashes - This is a Dash Strike build so every extra dash you can get will make you noticeably safer and stronger. You can get these from Hermes or Chaos if you're lucky. You can force Chaos Gates to appear with a Charon Well item. You can't control Hermes, but you are guaranteed to see him as an option twice.

Duo Boons and Legendaries - You probably won't have enough control over your build to make sure you get one of these, but there's a chance each run you'll have the option to get one or two through luck. Legendaries have a bunch of pre-requisites from a single god. Once you fulfill them the option has a chance to appear. Duo boons each have prerequisites from two different gods. Once you fill the prerequisites, you'll have a chance to get the duo next time you see either god.

Aphrodite Self Synergies - Sweet Surrender, Empty Inside and Broken Resolve all improve her attack. Unhealthy Fixation, her Legendary, causes charm. Charm can be unpredictable but it's usually good. It can make the Elysium boss fight weird in a fun way. It has prerequisites but they are all things you'll be trying to get anyway.

Aphrodite has good Duos with Ares and Dionysus that intensify their status effects (so you'll need to apply doom or hangover somehow, probably with your special). She has one with Poseidon that makes poms better (maybe you put him on call?). If you have something that does crits, the Artemis duo boon can work.

Athena - Two of her boons each restore a Death Defiance: Deathless Stand and Last Stand. These can be the difference between victory and defeat in Styx if you wind up needing them. Her duo with Demeter, Stubborn Roots, lets you regen health after you burn your last Death Defiance. Her Legendary requires Brilliant Riposte and it blocks hits like the acorn. Not easy to get, but it can be a game changer.

If you focus on Athena and Aphrodite, you'll have a good chance of getting their duo. It's a cast upgrade that's arguably useless even for cast builds. If it drops, be polite to their faces but sell it for a bunch of Obol.

Dionysus - If you're having trouble keeping your health up, Dionysus has some quality of life boons to look out for. After Party, Positive Outlook and Strong Drink all give you some space. Premium Vintage - gives you a free Nectar and max health and even more max health when you find more nectar yourself. It's always worth picking up, bonus if you're farming nectar.

Artemis - Pressure Points turns all of your damage into potential crit damage. It's worth getting and, if you do get it, it makes her other crit boons worth it. Support Fire is just some free auto-aim damage. Hard to say no to that.

Poseidon - The god of the sea has some loot related boons to offer. Late game players with their full trinket cabinets and their multiple wallpaper choices tend to scoff at Ocean's Bounty and Sunken Treasure, but if it's early and you're farming one of them might be just what you need. Sunken Treasure even has health, which can be very handy after a tough room. His duo boon with Dionysus improves boon rarity. This build doesn't give you a great shot at it but it can be sick if you happen to get it.

Cast - Speaking of which, I haven't made any recommendations for Cast or Call. If you have a fave cast, feel free to go for it. Just keep in mind that you'll have to decide what to prioritize with poms and synergies and stuff. You usually can't do a good job on both attack and cast. Dionysus and Artemis both have decent casts for this build.

Call - Similarly, this build won't be able to focus on Call but it's def worth having one. I like calls that I can use as an escape. This is a Dash Strike build, so I sometimes wind up vulnerable because my play style is hopelessly sloppy for very good reasons that are totally outside of my control.

Athena, Poseidon and Ares are all good for this because they make you invulnerable temporarily. You can get some invulnerability frames along with some DoT from the Dionysus call. Alternately, a Call that just does straight damage like Artemis or Zeus can work great in boss fights. Basically anything can work so if you have a fave, my advice is to ignore my advice.

$$$ - Hermes, Chaos and Poseidon all have boons that give Obol. How much Obol you need depends on how your run is going. You usually won't need much if things go according to plan, but you may be forced to buy a boon in the shop if you have very bad luck. Refilling health and Death Defiances can also drain you. You can track these gods down if life happens.

*galaxy brain tip - some game effects will improve a random boon (e.g. Euridice). This means cluttering your tray with useless boons will make it less likely for the ones you need to get randomly chosen for upgrade. On the other hand those effects aren't super common so, if you're still getting the hang of what the boons all do it's totally safe to just collect them and see.

So you followed all my advice and beat the game. You totally know what Heat means now and you're already well on your way to beating Heat 1 billion. If you want to keep going, this build should still be viable up to heat 8 or maybe even 16-20. After that it may be time for a special build.

Or maybe you did everything I suggested and didn't win. Sorry!!! I hope the run felt good anyway and you try again! A lot of the game is muscle memory, so just getting to a new boss consistently is progress (although it sure may not feel like it in the moment!)

What else to try:

• This guide made almost no use of the Mirror of night. If you have a bunch of it unlocked, check out a mirror guide.
  
• Maybe dash strike builds don't click for you. You can use a lot of the same build strategies with Zeus on attack and the Rail as your weapon. For that, focus on special instead of dash.
  
• Similarly, lots of people love the bow. I have no problem with the bow! The only reason it's not in this guide is that I am bad at it
  
• Cast builds! This is a whole other way to play the game where all of my advice is opposite, dogs are cats and gravity pulls things sideways. So good luck with that!

One last thing. You're not holding down buttons and then releasing them at a particular time are you? No no, I know! Sorry, just checking!