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Melinoe has a very tough task ahead of her inHades 2- taking down the titan of time to rescue her family will take a very long, arduous journey. Thankfully, she has a whole host of weapons available to her to help fight through the masses of enemies of the underworld.
The Umbral Flames are one such weapon, and provide quite the steep learning curve. A ranged weapon that rewards careful positioning and knowing the attack patterns of each of your enemies, these flaming staves can be difficult to work with. Once you have a grasp of their potential, however, you’ll be rewarded.
Hades 2 is currently in Early Access, so the details below may change over time.
Updated June 19, 2025:We’ve updated this guide to reflect the changes made with Early Access Patch 2.
Umbral Flames Moveset
The Umbral Flames are ranged weapons that require some positioning, timing, and Magick management thanks to how its moveset works.
Description
Attack
Emits a projectile in a linear path. Holding down the attack button will fire projectiles constantly.
These projectiles are quite weak, so the idea is to value quantity over quality and make sure every hit counts.
Omega Attack
After holding down the attack button long enough, the Omega Attack will start firing, costing a small amount of Magick with each new projectile.
These bigger projectiles will drain your Magick very quickly, but they do far more damage and have larger hitboxes. It’s for this reason that Magick regeneration is important for the Umbral Flames.
Special
Fires a projectile that spins around Melinoe and has decent tracking. This will also provide Melinoe with a speed boost.
This is a good tool for dealing with large crowds of weaker enemies, and is good to weave in between flurries of your regular attack.
Omega Special
Fires two rotating projectiles that spin at two poles from Melinoe, travelling with her as a fixed point.
This is a more reliable version of the regular Special and works very well with Special-oriented builds. Otherwise, it’s a little lacklustre.
A general strategy to learn that will serve most runs is to useboth your regular attacks and your specials interchangeably- the more projectiles you can get on the field at once, the better. As mentioned above, it’s a game of quantity over quality, with each projectile doing quite low damage.
As you’d expect from an inherently magickal weapon, you’ll want tofind a source of Magick regeneration quickly. Luckily, most gods have a good option for this. Once your Magick problems are solved, it becomes far easier to rely on your Omega Attack to pump your damage numbers higher.
We’d like to stress that the Umbral Flames are risky to use, moreso than any other weapons. Not only are youslowed down or stationary for longer periodswhile attacking in comparison to other weapons, the sheer amount of projectiles on-screen can make it difficult to parse where your enemies and their projectiles are. As a result, you’ll get the most success from this weapon once you’ve got used to the game with other weapons, with familiarity with enemies and their attack patterns.
Umbral Flames Aspects
As with other weapons, the Umbral Flames havetwo additional aspects to unlock, and all three can be upgraded.
Aspect of Melinoe
This is the Umbral Flames’s default incarnation. It has no special effects to begin with, but upgrading it will improve your Omega Special’s duration.
Aspect of Moros
With this aspect, the projectiles from your regular Attacks will stay on the field for roughly 6 seconds after being cast. If those projectiles are then struck by one of your Special projectiles, they will explode. Upgrading this aspect improves the blast damage.
Aspect of Eos
This aspect turns your Omega Attack into a single powerful projectile attack that creates explosions as it travels slowly in linear fashion. This explosions copy your Special effects.
As you can see, each aspect encourages building and using different parts of the Umbral Flames' moveset.
An alternative yet risky strategy with theAspect of Morosis to set up an Omega Special and then stay close to your targets, firing them with normal attacks. Very regularly, the normal projectiles will collide with your surrounding Special projectiles and explode almost instantly, dealing a lot of damage in a short amount of time.
These aspects promote very different styles of play, so it’s important to experiment with them and find out which ones work for you.
Best Boons And Upgrades
With such a unique weapon, it’s important to find out whichgod’s Boonswill work for you and your build.
Evaluation
Zeus
Offensive Boons: Thanks to how much you’ll be dodging and your low damage output, blitz isn’t a very useful status effect for the Umbral Flames. Spirit Surge, on the other hand, will trigger a lot.
Magick Boon: Ionic Gain isn’t great for the Umbral Flames as the reduction in max Magick will severely hamper your Omega Attack uptime.
Hera
Offensive Boons: Hitch is a fantastic status for the Umbral Flames as you’ll be able to hit many enemies at once. This is especially true for Specials, so Sworn Flourish is a top-tier Boon.
Magick Boon: With some Magick improvements, Born Gain is a wonderful Boon that will give you nigh-infinite Omega uptime.
Poseidon
Offensive Boons: Splash is very good for this weapon, as it does a lot to keep pesky enemies at a safe range. One of the best effects to grab for sure, if a little chaotic.
MagickBoon: Spirit Bubbles require some positioning to make use of, but you’ll be repositioning yourself a lot anyway. Very solid choice.
Demeter
Offensive Boons: Freeze is perfect for Umbral Flames, as it means your target cannot counter very quickly and keeps them in place for a high-damage flurry of Omega Attacks.
Magick Boon: Tranquil Gain requires that you remain inactive to trigger, so it’s not that great in comparison to other options.
Apollo
Offensive Boons: More damage and a larger area make for a very useful Boon when you’re getting used to the weapon, but this does pale in comparison to the status-infliction Boons. Apollo is a solid mid-tier choice.
Magick Boon: Lucid Gain is not a good option for the Umbral Flames. You won’t be standing still enough to recover enough Magick.
Aphrodite
Offensive Boons: Unless you’re going for a close-range tactic with the Aspect of Eos, Aphrodite’s Boons are pretty useless.
Magick Boon: Glamour Gain requires you to stay near particular foes to recover Magick. Again, close quarters make this a poor choice.
Hephaestus
Offensive Boons: Extra blasts of damage are useful on pretty much every weapon, so you may’t go wrong if Hephaestus shows up.
Magick Boon: Fixed Gain restores Magick only when you take damage, so it’s not ideal for the Umbral Flames, which would need more reliable Magick regeneration.
Hestia
Offensive Boons: Scorch is wonderful for the Umbral Flames thanks to the high hit output.
Magick Boon: Reducing your health in exchange for quick Magick regeneration is risky, but can work out very well if you’re skilled at dodging.
If you’re very keen tosort out your Magick recovery problemswithout relying on getting a good god Boon, consider grabbing Hecate’sSilver Wheel Keepsake. At max rank, it will provide you with 2,000 Magick quickly and passively. This will cover you easily until you do manage to find a good Boon later in a run.
Since the Umbral Flames are so varied in how they can be applied and your personal strategy may differ wildly from another person’s, it’s difficult to recommend any one-size-fits-allHammer upgrades. The following do stand out, though:
Melting Coil
Your special destroys 80% of a target’s Armour.
This has the highest Armour destruction value in the entire game, and turns many encounters into incredibly easy battles. Well worth considering, especially for the Aspect of Moros.
Split Fire
Your normal projectiles split into 2 upon hitting enemies.
Any builds that benefit from more hits over stronger hits will love this, especially scorch, hitch, and blitz builds.
Dire Candle
Your Omega Attack is condensed into a single, combo-ending massive attack that deals 1,500% damage.
While this uses more Magick in one go, this upgrade will quicken up your damage output and will help you beat bosses far quicker. Always worth taking, especially once you have some good Magick regeneration in your pocket.
Leaden Spark
Your attacks are stronger and have significant knockback.
Keeping a good distance from your foes is crucial with the Umbral Flames. As a result, this upgrade is incredible.
Your priorities when it comes to the Hammer will change from run to run, but those listed above are rather universal in their strength and usability.
