Difficult boss fights are part and parcel of the roguelike experience, andHades 2does not deviate from that trend. Its ‘Guardians’ - the bosses found at the end of each region, are very tough individuals who can be major roadblocks to progress and provide frustrating experiences for beginners and veterans alike.
Erebus, the first region of the path to the underworld, is guarded by Hecate, your mentor, headmistress, and companion. While not outwardly aggressive, she isn’t going to let you progress until you can prove yourself against her, and she has some pretty nasty tricks up her sleeves.
Hades 2 is in Early Access, so the details below may change over time.
How To Beat Hecate
The fight against Hecate is broken intothree phases, with many attacks shared between them.
Hecate will always begin this fight by using apurple pulsing attack, which creates a ring of damaging energy around her that expands outwards. When it reaches the apex of the expansion, it will shrink back down into Hecate again. It’s very easy tododge into the ring, perform a few attacks against Hecate, and then dodge out when the ring is returning.
She’ll use this attack throughout the entire fight.
Hecate will also firewaves of green energyat you. These come in two varieties:
When you notice Hecate starting this attack up by charging up her staves, try toposition yourself behind her. If she uses the double-wave version of the attack, you may start your counterattack immediately. If she only fires one wave, wait for the second to dodge it before attacking.
At certain points throughout the fight, Hecate will split herself intothree clones, placed at different points in the arena. They will then perform a long attackbased on the phase of the fight:
There is no obvious way to know which of the clones is the real Hecate - you’ll usually have tostrike them and watch to see if her health bar decreases. Once the attacks are over, the fake Hecates will disappear.
If you are using Boons that inflict status effects withvisual indicators, such as Hestia’sScorchor Zeus’sBlitz, these will stay on the real Hecate if they are present when she splits herself into three, making it obvious who the real one is.
Once you’ve reduced Hecate to two thirds of her life remaining, she’ll teleport to the middle of the arena and shield herself. She will then summon Witches who will fire ranged projectiles at you around the arena, who you must kill to end the phase transition.
While she’s shielded in the middle of the arena, Hecate will cast spells at you:
Afterdefeating the Witches, the transition will end and the second phase begins, the only difference here being the attacks her triplet forms use.
When you get her down to a third of her life, Hecate will begin another phase transition. This time, however, she will summon vastlymore Witchesand also cast aHexat you. If this orb hits you, you’ll betransformed into a sheepfor a short while, which reduces your movement and sprint speed, making it harder to avoid her attacks.
It’s difficult but possible toavoid the Hex, you just need it to get caught on obstacles or bounce far away from you by hitting walls. If you have anAnimal Familiar, it can also soak the Hex for you - Hecate will even comment on this if it happens!
The final phase enables Hecate to use the burst of green waves, so be wary of this attack when it comes out. As ever, getting behind her when she fires the attack off it a good way to get some great damage in.
Your reward for beating Hecate is aCinder, a useful crafting resource.
