How do you build for Moonstone Axe?

[Big Mistake]

Having some trouble nailing down a setup that feels consistent with the axe. I've had some luck building around Apollo/Hephaestus and just playing safe and spamming charge special, but it feels rough to get off the ground for surface runs and pretty inconsistent in underworld runs.

That said, what aspects, hammer buffs, boons, and keepsakes do you like for the axe? Are there any essential boons you reroll for in the early game?

[Washing Machine]

Hell Smash with freeze made for a really trivial and easy run. I remember hating the hammers that change main attack into some single hit attack in Hades 1, especially with the sword. This one feels legit.

[Overeagerdragon]

I like to have either Demeter cast or Attack, Hestia sprint and MAYBE hera special if I can get it; but Demeter is pretty much something that made all my runs with the axe a resounding succes for the simply reason that the freeze or slow ensures I can get my Omega attacks off without a hitch (pun intended)

[hewittlemming]

For me, it's always Apollo > Heph > Aphrodite. Apollo attack, dash, and daze when taking damage, Heph armor and damage mitigation, and take Aphrodite for cast, always weak enemies, and special. For the hammer I always aim for faster attack but can't omega, 10% damage cut when attacking, or faster and stronger special.

[A Street Sweeper]

Not going to claim to be super knowledgeable about the axe but I have cleared with it up a handful of fear lvls. I've found Freeze on the attack makes every non boss encounter an absolute breeze as you spam your omega attack and shred everything. The Daedalus buff that allows you to move as normal during Omega attack is a no-brainer pick every time it's offered.

I think the axe is so powerful that it doesn't matter too much what you take as long as you are aiming for %dmg scaling instead of flat dmg scaling as its attacks are slow but big base damage. The silliest I got with it was freeze on attack and blitz on special with the daedalus buff I mentioned above. You charge the Omega attack then cast, then hold the special block down in the enemy's face blocking everything they do and constantly triggering and reappplying Blitz. Absolutely EZ win. Favourite part was when all the sirens tried to clump on me and they triggered into second phase in two combos lol.

[Knight_of_Gallifrey]

My first Chronos kill I had Thanatos' aspect of MSA. Had Heph on attack, with vent, Demeter cast, with Zeus' bolts attached, Apollo's special and magick gain, and finally Deadulus quick charge special.

Omega cast holds enemies in place, get in the Heph boom on an armoured target, then get space to unload a special on the gathered foes. Near instant regain of crit chance boost when I do get hit. Simple, yet effecient. can't wait too upgrade the Scythe for even more crit chance.

On Chronos himself, 1st phase it was careful positioning, mostly dashing through and behind him when he would swing. Disengage when mooks spawn in and mostly use special or cast to pick them off from max range before closing back in with Chronos.
2nd phase it was focusing on dodging and moving to safe spots, casting when I could and focusing down the adds as soon as they spawn as my last attempt was stymied by 1 badly placed hourglass bubble between me and the safe spot.

[her]

I'm sure there are hundreds of builds out there that work fine, but for me, I found that going heavy into Heph and Demeter was really nice. Demeter allows for the windup of the axes attacks to have less of a penalty, since the enemies will be slowed or frozen. Since there's that windup/cooldown to the axe's attacks you also benefit from the occasional blast damage that's present in some of Heph's boons.

But this could all be subject to change, make sure you play the game and see what works for you best!

[AtheistPreacher]

I've played nothing but Axe since I unlocked it. There are basically two builds that I go for and it all depends on what buff the first Daedalus Hammer gives me.

I always start any run with Demeter for Attack. The freeze effect and extra power gives you the bit of breathing room to kill foes with your omega attack without tanking a bunch of damage (even armored ones, crucially). By the time they're unfrozen they're usually dead or at least their armor is broken. Of course getting the extended freeze effect boon helps.

Then the question is whether to build around your omega attack or omega special. The former is easier to build for but the latter is safer if RNGesus smiles upon you and gives you the right boons and upgrades.

For the omega attack, three key pieces are: the Daedalus Hammer that throws your omega attack in front of you and gives it +80% damage, the Daedalus Hammer that lets you move freely during your omega attack (which also just lets you begin charging a new one as soon as the first is out), and then Demeter again: the boon that increases your omega attack damage by a large % in exchange for costing 10 more mana. If you can get all three of those and decent mana regen, you'll roll over most everything pretty easily. The exception is Chronos, whom I still find to be a nasty customer for an omega attack build.

Whereas the right build for omega special sort of turns Chronos into a punk (him and everyone else). The two key pieces--aside from high mana regen, because it's a mana-hungry playstyle--are the Daedalus Hammer that speeds up your omega special charge by 50%, and the Daedalus Hammer that lets you spend 15 more mana to send out a second attack. The Hermes boon to speed up your specials even more also helps. If you're lucky enough to get both of those upgrades and have good mana regen, you can hit foes for big damage from a country mile away. IMO there are multiple special boons that will work fine, the damage is good enough that it hardly matters.

[Silyon]

I tend to prefer the base axe form over the aspects, because of the faster swing. Lets you get away with big unga button-mash more often. Demeter or Apollo attack boons to interrupt or slow enemies, then stack defensive boons mostly from Hephestus and Aphrodite. I tend to take a LOT of dumb and/or greedy damage with the Axe, so survivability is most important for me.

Charon Axe is a cast build. Depends on getting good cast buffs then smacking the circle with your charged special. My favorite cast buffs are Hestia, Demeter, Apollo, and Aphrodite, but you always want to try to get ahold of Zeus for the Lightning Javelin cast as well. The special itself can be anything, but look for Hermes for speed up on it's charge.

I've had best results focusing on the whirlwind with the Thanatos Axe. Same rapid-hitting strats as you use for the daggers apply here, look for either flat damage from Posiden/Aphrodite or stackable debuffs like Zeus/Hestia. Spamming whirlwind also means you need MP, and Zeus also happens to have one of the better MP regen boons. Hera or Hephestus are also good ones.

[Big Mistake]

Thanks for the advice y'all, was able to take a pretty awkward build all the way to Chronos. Freeze attack was doing way more work than I gave it credit for in the past

Originally posted by AtheistPreacher:

Whereas the right build for omega special sort of turns Chronos into a punk (him and everyone else). The two key pieces--aside from high mana regen, because it's a mana-hungry playstyle--are the Daedalus Hammer that speeds up your omega special charge by 50%, and the Daedalus Hammer that lets you spend 15 more mana to send out a second attack. The Hermes boon to speed up your specials even more also helps. If you're lucky enough to get both of those upgrades and have good mana regen, you can hit foes for big damage from a country mile away. IMO there are multiple special boons that will work fine, the damage is good enough that it hardly matters.

I have to be real here, it's been so long since I saw the special channeling speed buff from hammer that I thought I just imagined it existed. Hermes never gives me his channel speed boon either, it's maddening trying to get an Aspect of Charon build going.

[Asshat]

I love throwing Apollo on special and nuking enemies from the other side of the area with the omega, the AoE buff makes it easier to hit and double hit things. Needs some good mana regen though, that omega special is really mana hungry when you spam it.

[Elazul]

I really like Demeter on Attack, Special, and Cast cause the Freeze helps out with CC a ton. For Sprint I love the Apollo one. Then add on Hera's mana boon where you can instantly refill your mana bar by priming a small amount of Mana and you can basically just constantly Omega attack freezing everything while running at 100mph. Toss on the heal Hex and you're good to go.

[Lexomatico]

Originally posted by AtheistPreacher:

For the omega attack, three key pieces are: the Daedalus Hammer that throws your omega attack in front of you and gives it +80% damage,...

Crazy, that hammer somehow always gets me killed on chronos because you can't cancel it and chronos just rushes you down and doesn't stay at a distance.

I agree with most people here that Either Demeter attack for a safer option but i like Aphrodite for max damage and then just demeter on cast or something to apply freeze since freeze can only proc every so often so it feels wastefull on attack.

Luckily you don't need alot of magic regen since it automatically recharges during your spins so a bad one like aphrodite is perfectly fine.

[AtheistPreacher]

Originally posted by Lexomatico:

Originally posted by AtheistPreacher:

For the omega attack, three key pieces are: the Daedalus Hammer that throws your omega attack in front of you and gives it +80% damage,...

Crazy, that hammer somehow always gets me killed on chronos because you can't cancel it and chronos just rushes you down and doesn't stay at a distance.

That's normally true, which is why you need the other Hammer upgrade to be able to cancel out of it (Psychic Whirlwind). For every other encounter and every other guardian you can live without it, but fighting Chronos without being able to get out of the omega attack animation is definitely a bad idea.

[Raith]

Hephaestus attack perks are good because they are high damage and long recharge, which suits the slow move set nicely. Even the slightly glitchy sprint attack is good for dealing damage in situations where slowing down to attack would result in you getting hit.

[Lexomatico]

Originally posted by AtheistPreacher:

Originally posted by Lexomatico:

Crazy, that hammer somehow always gets me killed on chronos because you can't cancel it and chronos just rushes you down and doesn't stay at a distance.

That's normally true, which is why you need the other Hammer upgrade to be able to cancel out of it (Psychic Whirlwind). For every other encounter and every other guardian you can live without it, but fighting Chronos without being able to get out of the omega attack animation is definitely a bad idea.

Ohh i read that wrong then my bad. That's gonna be hard to get in most runs tho without hammer rerolls but yeah the combo of those 2 are a super safe option for sure. I also never thought about combining them. With most other weapons i take the hammer for 20 encounters keepsake at Biome 3 but i usually don't with the axe but now that i know those work together i can take it again if i already got the free movement one