Anyone having success with overworld and 16 fear?

[Robin]

I just tried it twice and it seems rather impossible. First region I beat with about 1 second to spare and had to play fairly recklessly in the bossfight to get there. Then died in the second region.

Conversely I didn't feel like doing underworld is a big issue on the same settings and using the same weapon/loadout.

Anyone else have the same experience? I feel like they could maybe change the penalties depending on if you're doing overworld or underworld, cause if it's already near impossible on 16, I don't even want to think how bad it will get on even higher fear numbers

[Tomcio P]

I'm having success with everything except the axe

[Crow Buddy]

You'll get there. It's tough, and it'll take practice. Get as many Crossroads upgrades as you can, upgrade Mel's weapons, arcana, etc.

Once Hermes starts doing Surface deliveries like your own personal Amazon prime, it can save Mel from a rough run. A lot of the difficulty is getting beaten up by strong minions, and not even necessarily the bosses.

Try to focus on grabbing crowd control boons. Demeter's Freeze (S Tier) will stop enemies from going hog wild and shooting their lasers and guns everywhere.

Play keep away, don't get up close and personal unless you have time slow. Use your Cast ability like a screen divider - try to chip away enemies who get stuck in your Cast abilities, and don't over commit Mel and put her in harm's way.

Hera's Hitch curse is also extremely powerful, you can clear out full screens of enemies by spamming Hitch everywhere.

[jaderpansen]

I'm struggling with 32 fear on the overworld, too rn.
Yeah, the difference to the underworld is a bit crass imho (which i already finished on lvl 32), even from the first stage on everything seems alot beefier and hitting harder. I guess it's by design to a degree, but hm... i remember steamrolling Hades 1 with 32 heat with most weapons / boon setups. For reference i have everything unlocked and maxed the game has to offer at the moment, including keepsakes and weapons.
Bottom line: I feel Hades 2 is quite alot harder than OG Hades (or i don't understand the meta... or both) and the overworld is alot harder than the underworld, maybe a tad too much?

[Xeril]

This probably won't be that helpful, but I'm able to beat the Overworld 100% of the time with any weapon (any weapon, not any aspect) at 16 Fear, even when going out of my way to pick inferior options like leveling bad Keepsakes or picking undesirable boons to complete the last few Duo boons I'm missing. With that said, I've had runs that have gotten a bit dicey at the end when my build truly has almost zero synergy. I will sometimes pick a "power" Keepsake for Olympus if I feel like I'm at risk of not clearing.

I don't like just giving the advice of "play better," though, I'd rather offer something more substantive and useful. If the question is whether or not it's possible, though, it's definitely possible.

Edit: Consider changing which Fear options you take. Plan out your Keepsakes to build in power. You could either take Keepsakes to force specific boon combinations, or to give arbitrary power you have less control over like with Chaos's or Echo's. You might also want to take a Keepsake specifically good at finishing off Olympus when you get there, like the Fig Leaf if you're struggling with normal encounters/time or the Knucklebones if you're struggling with Prometheus.

What kind of Arcana setup are you using? There could be room for increased power there, too. Are all the Arcana you're using maxed?

Edit 2: Regardless, I do think Overworld is harder than Underworld; I'm not disagreeing with that.