Supergiant struck gold when they released the beautifully designed and intensely addictiveHadeson June 14, 2025. The action roguelike was a Game of the Year nominee and has won the hearts of over a million players. While there are plenty of new players stepping into the Underworld with Zagreus, a lot of fans have completed the story and are looking for a bigger challenge.
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This won’t be a problem thanks toHades’ unique “Heat” mechanic, which allows players to up the difficulty as they please to each run. As the runs get harder though, players will need the best kits to beat the endless shades and tough bosses. Many builds are viable, and roguelikes thrive off of experimentation. However, a few builds stand out as the best choices for the most challenging runs.
Heads up: These builds assume that players have maxed out the relevant weapons, aspects, Mirror of Night skills, and construction bonuses.
Updated on October 21st, 2021 by Hodey Johns:Hades has a special place in many players' hearts and so it shouldn’t be a shock that many gamers continue playing it. Adding more Heat to the escape is a challenge for players at all skill levels. Those who continue to play the game today are likely seeing exactly how much they can crank up the temperature before melting down. As a result, this list is more popular than ever. To make it easier to read, charts have replaced pieces of the guide with lots of exposition. Additionally, three new and incredibly popular builds have been added to the mix.
Ideal Gods
Athena, Aphrodite, Poseidon
The bow is a fantastic weapon for zoning out enemies and keeping Zagreus out of harm’s way. The Aspect of Hera makes the bow a DPS machine, and with the right build, it can carry players to victory.The aspect of Rama build is great, but this build makes better use of the underused cast ability.
This build is based around Zagreus’ casts. Hera’s bow allows the player toload the cast into the next shot, delivering both the damage of the bow and the effect of the cast. Though many of the casts work for this build, a safe go-to is Athena’s Phalanx Shot cast.
Poseidon, Dionysus, Athena
For a long time, the shield was considered the best weapon in the entire game. No other weapon offered the unbeatable combination of defense and offense as the shield. Though it has been nerfed, the shield is still a viable weapon with the right builds. For this build, players will use thefinal unlockable shield aspect: The Aspect of Beowulf. This shield can be a gamble because players will take 10% more damage with it, but the positives are often more than enough to compensate.
Like Hera’s Bow,this build centers around a strong cast. Players will be using the shield’sDragon Rush abilityquite a lot, loading their casts into the rush and heading straight into danger.
Ares, Athena, Poseidon
The Guan Yu spear has been a topic of discussion in theHadescommunity since the game’s full release. It’s surprisingly divisive: Some players say that it’s one of the worst weapons, while others saythe Guan Yu build is the best in the game by far. As it is, Guan Yu can be incredibly powerful,but it has to be fully upgraded.This is becauseusing it debuffs Zagreus’ total life and life gain by 70% at level 1. By max level, this debuff is reduced to a meager 50%.
Despite these drawbacks, the weapon does hold certain appealing qualities. Guan Yu offers a unique move set called“Frost Fair Blade,”which gives the spear a great spin attack variant and changes up the special. Normally, the spear is thrown with the special attack and recalled with a second press of the special button. On the other hand,Guan Yu pierces enemies and explodes in midair, causing even more damage.The spin attack sends a vortexthat can bounce around and heal Zagreus for 1 HP per hit. These two moves are the bread and butter of Guan Yu.
Ares, Athena, Artemis
Semi-spoiler: it turns out that Hades is Zagreus' rival. Though the two are constantly fighting, this build has Zagreus using his dad’s own spear, the Aspect of Hades. Unlike many other builds, this spear buildisn’t strictly considered meta. It is, however, like many builds that players love, a lot of fun to play around with. This isdefinitely one of the more aggressive builds, so players who don’t like getting their hands dirty might not enjoy it.
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By using one sweep, Zagereus has his attack and special damage boosted by 150% for the next ten seconds. This can be a game-ender against bosses that ordinarily act as strong blocks, especially is getting ahold ofa god’s best boon.
Athena, Ares, Poseidon
Tired of all of these cast-based builds that require impeccable movement and frantic dodging? Want to deal massive amounts of damagewith only a few swings? Look no further than the Aspect of Arthurcritical strike build.Though common among the community by now, this build turns the otherwise fleet-footed Zagreus into a slow attacking slugger.
Though the sword is usually a weapon built for an “all-around '' approach, the Aspect of Arthur turns it into aheavy-hitting, albeit slow-moving, greatsword.Many players will be turned away by the nerf to movement speed, but if built correctly, Arthur’s sword can certainly feel like a one-hit machine.
Zeus, Artemis, Dionysus
This Twin Fist build is aimed at helping the player live up to Muhammed Ali’s fighting advice: “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. Your hands can’t hit what your eyes can’t see.” It focuses onquick movement, even quicker attacks,and a lot of pain for the shades trying to keep Zagreus down.
For six seconds after using the special attack, regular attacks get a 50% boost. This zany amount of damage is further assisted by any boons or upgrades. There’s a nice rotation to be had between the one large strike and the smaller strikes, meaning most gods can be made valuable to some degree.
Aphrodite, Ares, Demeter
Many of these builds focus on wiping out hordes of enemies quickly and effectively. They can sometimes suffer against the many intimidating bosses that Zagreus will face on his journey through the Underworld. As many challenge runs will make the bosses harder, this build can make these cinematic fights just a little easier.
Players will be using the Aspect of Poseidon sword, which focuses onbuilding a powerful cast and spamming it as much as possible.Poseidon’s sword dislodges casts with successful special hits, allowing Zagreus to quickly gather his casts back and send them right back into the enemy hordes.
Artemis, Ares, Zeus
The premise of this build is simple. Just make sure Zagreus hits himself with his own special once every four seconds. The effect of this build is undeniable. Itboosts attack damage by 75%. Pair that up with Artemis or Zeus and enemies are going to be melting.
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As atip for those learning about the game still, the special doesn’t actually do damage to Zagreus, so it’s not like this is incurring any damage. And a 75% damage increase makes this very difficult to argue against as the best Exagyph build.
Athena, Zeus, Aphrodite
It stands to reason thatthe best build on the Shield of Chaosutilizes the aspect of Chaos. The rhythm goes a little something like this: charge up bull rush, blocking any attacks in the meantime, then unleash the move and use the special at melee range afterward.
Repeat these steps until the battle is won. Why is it so easy? Well, blocking is always great. Butthe Chaos aspect allows Zagreus to fire off five shields with his special. Used at melee range, all will hit and instantly return to him.
Demeter, Artemis, Zeus
Considered the best build in the game by a plurality of the community, the Aspect of Chiron makes it soall special shots automatically target the victim of Zagreus' last attack. It’s as busted as it sounds in terms of raw damage, even outclassingthe vaunted Lucifer buildin terms of DPS.
After getting it fully upgraded, the special is only reduced by a single arrow, which is practically no price to pay for virtually guaranteeing that every one of those shots hits. It’s hard to go wrong with the gods given as any stacking buff or damage boon will be useful.
Hadeswas released on September 17th, 2020, and is available on PC, Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Series X/S
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