Which Arcana Load Outs Work Best and Why! | Hades 2 Olympic Update 

Personally I thought the game was just kinda un-fun when you were watching everything in slow motion all the time. Sorceress change was a long time coming, and I'm glad you still have the keepsake option if you still want it.

I totally understand the sorceress change. It was insanely powerful for only 1 grasp, always useful except with Artemis because it messed with parry timing. It was definitely going to get nerfed somehow and I think putting the effect on the keepsake makes sense. It now means you aren't nearly invulnerable while charging your omegas, so there's a risk/reward to it now.

I personally like the change to The Sorceress. I found myself turning it off a lot due to the slow not also slowing the timer, so I like this much more. I am curious however what it will mean for early runs now that silver wheel isn’t free magic regen anymore.

I actually really like the Sorceress change, I think it pushes a more aggressive playstyle compared to the old version, while also subtly guiding players to a "better" (for lack of a better word) play pattern, since you can't count on the slow down to help you get your bearings and avoid attacks. It kinda forces you to pay more attention to enemies movesets, which I think is great design. As for arcana builds, I almost always run the build you showed with the lovers. I'd like to have the huntress on, but I've grown too attached to the unga bunga aggressiveness that the lovers enable, especially during the bossfights of the first 2 zones.

The sorceress change definitely hurts, but it was necessary, I believe it's better in the long-term. Considering how easy it is to make strong omega move builds, and in general how much insanely good stuff we got, I think I can accept the loss of old sorceress. Moving the effect to a keepsake makes sense. I do think it's a bit too specialized, as when I'm choosing a trinket for an immediate gameplay effect and not for build-crafting, I'd most likely rather go for pin, gorgon, fleece or even the purse if I need money. Actually, maybe the effect should be moved to an aspect? Perhaps an alternative effect for Aspect of Circe, or a future secret aspect? Old wheel kinda worked for me as an emergency magic restore tool, I definitely had several times it had a real use.

Dan, were you using the Dionysus room as swanky background music for this video?? 😆 Randy baby!!! Just RRRaaaannnnnddddyy!!

The setup I enjoy only uses 29 grasp. I feel like I'm wasting the last one but I just can't get rid of what I like using.

I like the sorceress change. I believe that sgg intended its original effect to be for beginners and advanced players would drop it which did not happen as it's so easy to add to your arcana loadout. Now it's tied to what's probably the first keepsake new players will get so it will actually help them early one (unlike old hecate keepsake which sucked) and the more these players get through the game, the more they will have to try new keepsakes and leave aside the slowdown effect

Worth noting, I had the keepsake that activates a random card, got judgement, wound up having almost the whole board by the end of the run. Thats really the only place that I see it shine, when you don't pick it in your base build.

just wanted to say thanks for today's stream, I had to call in sick so I was in bed feeling awful but it really lifted my spirits! I usually can't make the streams and watch the vods instead so I was happy to catch one.

I dont think ive ever seen one upgrade that completely changes the way you play this game as much as the Strength arcana. What a great change the devs made on this one.

Don't mind Sorceress change at all. Slowing down time is super powerful, gameplay and lore wise, so it was weird you could get it for 1 grasp and for simply charging a move

Thank you!!! Was waiting for this guidance!

I love sorceress change, it started getting annoying slowing down the time ALL THE TIME using builds around it, but you had to run it cause it's broken, now it's still insane so correct change.

there is a pretty fun (but a bit rng) build with just death, the lovers and another card of your choice. This gets you four of the free cards active (including judgement) and lets you take the vow to reduce your arcana to 40% basically for free.

My main problem with "Judgement" largely boils down to one boss: Eris. I use a Judgement setup for my underworld runs, usually around 8-12 fear, but Lady Strife is not something you want to mess with while having only a few bare bones essentials, and a handful of random arcana on top. Underworld is usually winnable even if a build never comes together, but Eris stops you dead in your tracks if you don't have a really good build assembled and figured out.

2:00 change swift runner to sorceress and wayward sun lets you keep the whole row active assuming your run dd

Boatman is good because it's a kickstart to your run that causes you to snowball sooner. It being 300 gold means it gives you some flexibility in buying what will help you the most.

Thank you for this explanation. I was looking forward to this as someone thats new to hades.

What makes artificer really balanced is that you never remember that you have it

One implication of the new Strength card doubling the value of health is that Flood Control (posiedon's damage reduction boon) is effectively doubled (if its flat damage reduction applies after the 50% damage reduction). At Epic it's -4, but that's significant compared to halved damage numbers.

Judgement is cool when you have an oath which limits your total grasp; plus it may appear after using Cercei keepsake, leading to having all the arcana enabled

Dude, the new pam aspect with the hammer that throws the knives when you dash strike is absolutely bonkers and so much fun

I was literally going to comment on one of your new Hades II vids yesterday asking for an updated arcana guide 🙏

Sorceress change made the game a lot harder, but I think it was necessary. The previous version was as close to required as you could get if you used omegas at all, and removing it just opens up more builds imo, even if you still really want to take the new version most of the time.

Sorceress change was amazing, I actually think the charge up is stronger than the slowdown

I have a setup that I've been using since before the Arcana update, so I have a 32/30 loadout save.

My main loadout is top left quad + bottom left quad + Origination, which puts me at 23 grasp. If I add Death Defiances + Artificer then I'm at 30, with both Queen (Duos) and Divinity (Epic) activated. If I'm running a cast build I'll swap out Artificer for cast damage and dodge, if I'm running Strength instead of DDs I'll swap Artificer for Lovers. (note: I've never made it past Thessaly without using all my Artificers)

Artificer is underated, e.g. you play with a keepsake to get a specific god, rarify that one and at the start on the way to Tartarus you have the chance to drop multiple boon upgrades with less than three boons which empoweres the boon you wanna play around.

Love the advice! Really helpful on getting back into the game Definitely wanna try judgement at some point once ive got it maxed out.

I've been enjoying doing Underworld runs with Judgement and no Death Defiances. Equip Athena, get a boon from her in the first biome, and then a good chance of Eternity activating later in the run.

I will seriously miss the old sorceress card but I get why they changed it, it was super OP and I could see it being used as a crutch and holding back players from improving their ability to utilize omega moves. This is why I enjoy doing early access for hades 1 and 2, you get to try out stuff that doesn’t make it to 1.0, also given my love for suoergiant games and how much their games iterate on each other, early access is a chance to see that iteration in fine detail

Hexes feel way better with Aspect of Selene, so it makes me wonder if there shouldn't be a way to pick a hex without summoning/RNGing Selene. Because, when you do that, grabbing a path of stars with the four extra nodes from Selene's keepsake actually feels on par with getting a solid boon you can splash into most builds, like Mint Condition, Born Gain, sIDe HuSTLe, Bright Dash, Nitro Sprint, etc. So maybe instead of charging your hex, the Moon card lets you start the run with a hex? The card art could feature a moon and the phase shown represents which hex you've picked and you can click it to open the UI to choose which one you want: total eclipse is the full moon, darkside is the new moon, lunar ray is the crescent moon etc. (If you have Aspect of Selene, it overwrites it's effect.) Even if auto-charging your hex was tactically significant, it would only make sense in situation where you need to conserve your magick or are playing really slow and defensively, which is usually boring and undesireable. Alternativly, one of the other cards could have this effect depending on balance. If so, it would be possible to net both effects, but overall it mostly feels redundant. Hexes still just take a little bit too much preamble to set up.

Mostly agree with your opinions ! Its too early to say but i think Death is a really good card for Nyx's aspect for Xinth since you always use your Omega Sprint, it makes the combo really easy by using specials when the double-hit thing is on, and of course you want to protect yourself with the Omega Atk sometimes so its even easier to chain combos. The effect is really busted, 15% crit chances is clearly not a joke and doing 450 damage crits with the Omega Sprint is pretty cool lel. Since it also activate the Moon card + Selene boons are getting better + this Aspect use some Magick so Selene is ok, its imho one of the best cards for this aspect. I think Sorceress was a needed change as it was in a pretty weird spot imho. In a way it was one of the few MVP cards : lowest cost, easy placement to make a free line and the effect was just too busted in 99% builds that needed Omegas. Alongside Eternity, Titan and Origination which are what i call the MVPs, Sorceress was activated like 100% of the time and was probably the most impactful card of the whole board with Eternity.. but just for 1 grasp and with no upgrades. At base lvl the 2s of slow were already enough (i actually never upgraded it) which made the card even stronger and a 100% pick at beginner progression. So yeah it was way too good, way to free.. really needed at least some balance. But in the other way, even if it was that busted i don't think it was a goodly designed card. Its the first card you unlock and its that powerful that you basicaly always keep playing with it. You learn the whole game with it, probably win you first run with it, probably keep picking it for 90% of your runs so we're playing most of the game, if not the whole game with it activated. Its like a permanent busted mechanic almost for free that drasticaly changes the gamedesign. Imho it kinda "ruins" the game pace. Devs work to make balanced enemies with X timing for Y pattern.. just for them to eat non-stop slow-moed Omegas with no possibility to punish you lel. So the learning curve, the gamedesign of the enemies.. everything the devs are working to make a challenging, dynamic and strategic game, we just sit on half of it by playing this always-activated card. I actually realised that it was busted and not a really nice gamedesign when a few weeks ago i showed the game to a friend that was playing Hades 1 at the moment. She was so surprised that the game was so frequently in slow mo (i was playing Momos). And now i that its gone i realise that the game clearly has a better gameplay that requires fast thinking if you want to play things like Momos or slow omegas, you can't dash everywhere holding Omegas mindlessly and it makes it way less spamy. Now that its a keepsake the cost of the mechanic is way higher and imho more in line with the power of the effect, and i really like the 30% casting speed the new Sorceress gives. They're on a good way to make a really good Arcana board, there are a few things i could see changed like Swift Runner which is so... boring and meh, but they're on the right path ! (Still hope there will be "reverse" arcanas or something to have more diversity, as long as visuals for the cards with Gods or things.. should be insanely cool hehe)

It would be cool if unused grasp would give you 5% damage boost. you could go cardless for 150% damage. you could drop the 1's and 2's you don't actually like, and get damage instead. something like that

strength is probably my new favorite. i love the way they worded it so there is *no* chance of cheating it and getting DD's plus the strength bonus. gonna be running that one for awhile and it's actually making me play better

I like the sorceress change, the pacing was hurt by the constant slowdown in so many runs. It also feels weird immersion wise to have such an easy way to control time when time is the main enemy in my opinion. It makes much more sense as a keepsake

I think you vastly undersell Strength. It is MUCH stronger than Eternity without ever taking Athena's keepsake. You can take SO MUCH more damage during a run it is kind of crazy. Buying healing costs about a quarter the price of buying back a Death Defiance that heals you for the same amount. 15-20 armor Trusty Shield becomes this massive wall that absorbs like three hits per chamber. With Wayward Son, I can play with +100% enemy damage and walk into the first biome's boss at full health every time and always full heal at the fountain afterwards. It may look scary not having death defiances, but by the time your Strength health bar depletes, you would have lost all three death defiances and be at the last sliver of your last health bar taking the same amount of damage, never mind if you healed some it back, which puts Strength farther and farther ahead with any amount healed or gained as armor. One huge perk of Strength that you didn't name is its interaction with the Engraved Pin to deal with the final boss of your run. Because Engraved Pin goes off when you would lose your first Death Defiance during a fight, Strength makes it much easier to save it until you can win the fight within ten seconds by just going ham on the boss, letting you skip the hardest part of the Chronos fight as long as you have any amount of damage, or blitz the last third of Prometheus' life bar.

TYSM FOR THIS VIDEO!! if not for this video I would’ve never defeated eris I think so thanks a lot lol

That's interesting, I used judgement to beat my first 32 fear, thought it was the best way to deal with turning off the arcana, but I totally see what you're saying about it.

The sorceress change I adapted to almost immediately, while the slowdown was cool, it defintely felt too strong and now the charged moves feel like the charge has weight.

I like to do the "big L" with Judgement, activating the rightmost row and Strength. Then I go into a run with Athena's keepsake to get one of her busted boons and hope for the Death Defiance card later in the run (it's actually pretty likely to happen, since in Tartarus there will only be 3 inactive cards)

Honestly, I find slowing down during omega charge and faster omega charge to both be valuable. I'd really like to see both of them be an arcana, and if balance is an issue just raise their value a bit, but I can't think off the top of my head what I'd like to see replaced

I think with a bit of love The Moon could be a great card to take with the new Selene aspect where you start the run with a hex, but it doesn’t quite feel like it’s there yet. Definitely agree that The Queen needs something to make it actually a card worth considering. Even a buff to the chance of seeing duos with it active might be enough?

With the new strength arcana it makes judgement less of a meme build. Titan + Strength + Originiation

The sorceress change made me despair that I suddenly was terrible at the game after a hiatus of a couple months. As I jumped at soon as patch dropped and got wreaked I was playing as if time was slow and wondering why I was suddenly taking so much more damage.

17:44 as a matter of fact, with Strengh and good health (I reached Prometeo with 405 health) you can survive without many problems his fire. I had also the HeraxHeff boon but I don't think that triggered in that moment 🥴

I’ve avoided these videos because I’m all in on Hades 2 and don’t want any spoilers before the game launches, but I’m compelled to say that I hope the image in the thumbnail is actual in game art. 😅

I used the mana Regen card when doing judgment runs to level up Athena's keepsakes, with the new weapon. Some runs that covered me and didn't need mana Regen boon but the point is I believe the mana Regen card is in a good spot

I don't mind the change because Hecate's previous keepsake felt pretty useless considering there were better ways to refill your Magick

I lucked into Circe activating that arcana that activates 5 arcana when you beat a boss - ended up basically unlocking all cards when I beat prometheus

7:07 I think Death works well with the Umbral Flames Aspect of Eos since you can only have one Daybreaker out, you kind of get into a rotation of your Omega Attack and Specials.

Judgement is kiiinda good thanks to the Grasp-reduction vow having multiple steps now? Leads to some quite easy 32 Fear runs with Melinoe Axe, at least.

Hopefully they add some minor secondary benefit to Seer or make it so Crystal Figurine and Judgment can't hit it unless you have one of the other things. Had that happen once, and it was like "Great, you've got some d20s, but you can't use them for anything"

I think the Sorceress change feels like a big one. I miss having that slow down basically for free. I understand why, tho. it was really broken as an arcana

I would've prefferred if they changed the effect of another card to the slow time one, maybe make it expensive. But there's waaay too many useful trinkets that I'd rather use.

im okay with the sorcereress change but not the keepsake. I feel like yes 1grasp get you slow down is pretty op, but using your keepsake slot is pretty rough especially to new/casual players. Since it is tarot/card theme, i would rather they have a reversed card option, have different cost and effect so you still using grasp rather than important keepsake

Speaking about the Artificer, I tend to run out of its uses during ship fights in act 2. The double ash/double psyche reward choice just hurts *sigh*

I have a 32 or 34 setup xD I have kept it since the early beginning; I imagine they changed the cost at some point, and my build is still valid.

With this Sorceress change, what did they do to the incantation that allowed slow down effects to work on Chronos? I guess they could’ve left it for the slow down Hex.

Nerfing the sorceress card was good, but they should decrease the base charge time for a lot of the omega moves to compensate. Base cast feels okay on mobs because of the root, but so awkward on bosses. Haven't tried every aspect since the patch, but axe special feels so slow also

I think a build for the magic regen arcana would be the torches plus hera's bloodline plus her new duo w hestia that deals dmg each time ypu regen magick.

So about the strength arcana vs the eternity arcana, in a single room eternity gives you 2.4 times your HP maximum number of hitpoints if you're at full

the artificer can turn surface's minor find to hammer in the zone that has another hammer and if you get echo hammer then that run can be 5-6 hammers in total but it's rarely happen

The shave looks nice

They should change Divinity and Excellence activation conditions, maybe up 1 point on Death defiance and lower one in The unseen

I like the change to Sorceress, previous made the game slower and especially annoying with Artemis daggers. "Downside" of the new one is that now it's a must pick talent, before you could just not take Sorceress if you don't like the slowdown. Also, I generally don't like rerolls and gunning for builds, so I rarely take anything from the bottom left corner. Worrying about specific boons just makes the game feel worse to me.

Do you have any recommendations for staying alive in the surface runs? I’m not a very hardcore player (I never interacted with the Pact of Punishment outside of necessity lol) but I’m 50 hours in and have gotten pretty okay at fighting down to Chronos. Meanwhile on the surface it feels like ALL my Death Defiances get eaten up by Eris and I’m basically crawling around Olympus to stay alive. This is compounded by the Sorceress nerf, which has pretty much made Omega builds feel even worse than they already did.

I didn’t even notice the change for the first like 10 runs and was wondering why my omega felt weird

rn i have 25 grasps and i need to sacrifice origination to get reroll arcanas. I really dont like to give up a good damage bonus but rerolls are very crucial to make effective builds.

The sorceress really helped those who kinda sucked at the game, (me). It is a devastating loss

The Queen seems designed for when you have less than 30/30 or you're looking to get all the duos for the fates list. Otherwise, I think it gets outclassed just because chance isn't as good as definitive benefits and looking for duos is not as run defining as Hades 1.

I think old Sorceress was simply unhealthy for the game, moving it to a keepsake was right

wish they’d allow us to name each loadout

Hey, thanks for the video! I was on my way to check how my arcanas were organized only to realize I only have one loadout available. How to I unlock the other ones? Thanks again for the guide!

i like my arcana setup which is 32grasp out of 30,

Do we think the cards will get art on them?

Sorceress was too strong 100%, making it one grasp meant omega moves slowed time practically by default. They could've just increased the grasp cost but eh, I'm cool with it as a keepsake.

I miss the old sorceress, but maybe is because i didn't fully upgrade yet

I do like the slow down time. Maybe just rework the cost or duration. I also think it's thematic to the game.

Ive been using exclusively Strength builds and I haven’t lost with it yet. Just finished a 24 moros torches vs chronos! Feels kinda overtuned ngl

Will speedruns using the 33/30 thing be invalid?

I feel like the Arcana system is in a pretty good place, but there are some underperforming cards that should get buffed. And, even though this is a particular pet-peeve of mine, I'd like to see the importance of Origination diminished. I feel like, at the moment, it's just too necessary to have.

I just returned. Didnt our spells słów motion times earlier ?

Artificer is only good late game when you've unlocked everything otherwise it just slows down how quickly you can unlock everything.

I personally think the sorceress should have stayed as an arcana but maybe make it cost more

I think they should revert the Sorceress but nerf it by making it a 4 or 5 grasp card. It being a keepsake is just too high of a cost for me to even consider using it.

Is sprint speed really that important? Sometimes I just use the one that has 5% dodge chance, it might be minuscule but the little dodges here and there might be clutch ngl, mostly in high fear runs.

Nooo! Haelian killed his patch stache

I guess i just don't understand what "%faster" mean? Does it mean the particles move faster? It doesnt seem to make the channel significantly faster.

I'm not trying to be annoying but do you think we could ever see a pet tier list? strengths/weaknesses I love all the content you've been putting out

He shaved 🗣

can anybody tell me their most efficient way of getting moonlight essences?

I am going to be brave and stand up and say: I am a hater of the Sorceress change. I totally understand it was very powerful and likely in need of a nerf. However, switching it to a Keepsake has inadvertently nerfed many other weapons and builds. Omega builds really suffer from the change, as Omerga's are now riskier to charge. For some weapons - and even the entire weapon class of axes - this is an enormous drawback. The axe's Omega moves are now simply not worth the drawback of how long they take to charge/how slow you are when charging. On higher Fear, you are essentially playing without half your moveset. For some weapon aspects like the Pan daggrs, the playstyle now goes from a cool option to something you can only rally achieve if you have already mastered the game. A nerf needed to happen, but moving it to a Keepsake slot IMO is overkill. Think of it this way; equipping it as an Arcana took up 3% of your available Arcana limit. Equipping it as a keepsake takes up 100% of your keepsake limit... AND they made the ability worse. I know there is going to be a chorus of "get guds" here - but what I'm saying isn't "I don't like that a powerful option got nerfed", it's "I think the numbr of viable builds and options in the game has decreased", which from a design standpoint I always view as a bad thing. Personally, I think changing it to a 4 cost card and keeping the duration nerf would have been enough. That's a large enough cost that you'd be seriously giving up other powerful options, but also not so great as it make it an untenable pick.

I really hope they are giving the cards an image instead of the numbers. Really unclear to see what's what.

I somehow have 32/30 Arcana so I am afraid to change it lmfao

I really hate the slow on omega being a keepsake

Hate the change to sorceress, I’m just too used to slowing down time now that I can’t stand not having it, especially in Olympus that shit is brutal

The Queen is definitely not worth it. So many of the duos are awful or insanely narrow, often times you would rather not get offered them.

Could not stand the slow down, personally. Completely disrupted the flow of gameplay and was not helpful since it also slowed down Mel. My reaction time was disrupted more than it was helped, and having to plan attack patterns around slowing down the game felt cumbersome. It also didn't slow down the timer, so that added up over time to a few minutes lost by the end of a run.