"Final" boss

[Ally]

I say final, as I'm not sure if there are options bosses passed it, but it feels like the equivalent of the "Mom" fight in BOI.

How on earth do you beat Hades? I've got to the second phase a few times but man, his HP is so high and too many adds. I play mainly on the gun and go for poison damage, I breeze through the game upto that boss and then I just get squashed. What's the trick I'm missing?

[Timbermaw]

Try filling his poison bar and staying away from him. If he does his spin attack dash towards him to the opposite side
Other than that have 3 lives and like 250 hp or so. Poison build might have a problem killing the adds fast enough, not sure about that. Try getting an upgrade that deals bonus damage to armor if he's summoning those annoying act 3 enemies.

[Eluin]

I beat him the first time on my 12th run or so.
Honestly its just be agressive but defensive when needed.
Athenas dash with deflect is pretty much a must the first time you beat him.

When he gears up for his beam spam, if its the 3 way one just go behind him, a goot 5-6 seconds you can wail on him without danger.
For the other one hide behind rocks.

Make sure you have 2-3 Death Defiance when you reach him, you will need it in the beginning.
Also the gun is really not the best weapon for a first time escape.
It can be very powerful but needs VERY specific upgrades to be so.

Its much easier to beat him with the knuckles, the spear and the bow.
My first escape was with the bow, just flurry shot + high damage + double arrows and dashing behind him , shooting him in the back . Best with a effect like Chill or Hangover.

Also make sure to use your cast and the mirror skill that give 10% more damage for every cast inside the enemy. 30% more damage is nothing to sneeze at at the beginning.
Also extra backside damage never hurts.

Also it is technically the "final boss" but you are a long way from finishing the game, even after defeating him. There are certain conditions for the "main ending" of the story that keep you busy for a good while after that and even after reaching that there is another "epilogue" ending in which you can invest a ton of time.

[Zwiebelchen]

Originally posted by Eluin:

Its much easier to beat him with the knuckles, the spear and the bow.

Honestly? In retrospective, I think the shield is the easiest way to kill the boss, because you can ignore key mechanics if you just block when he attacks.

[Nibbie]

Probably just dodging; if your build doesn't have trouble with Theseus it should be strong enough for Hades, especially with a few extra boons on top from Styx. Part of it is simply learning his attacks, how to see what is coming and how dodge them (for example, if he is close to you when he starts his spin, you can dash towards/past him since he moves forward with his spin. For the lasers, you can just hide behind the rocks).

I would guess another part of it is patience, especially while you are newer and learning. If your DPS isn't that high, you probably want to employ a 'parry riposte' style of combat, where you wait for him to attack, use your dodges to avoid, then use the couple seconds between attacks to damage him before waiting to dodge again. Constantly being on the attack is better, but requires you to have a better knowledge of timings which you likely don't have yet. With ranged weapons especially, you can dodge away, shoot for a couple seconds, then keep distance again until after his next attack.

[Songbird]

He doesn't resummon the adds. They're one-time-only at specific HP thresholds, and only on the first form. If you beat the first form, any remaining adds are instantly killed.

You really don't need to do much more than have some decent damage and get used to dashing out of range of his attacks, whether this means behind him, to the side, or whatnot. You are invincible during dashes as long as you do not perform a dash attack. If you are holding the attack button when you hit dash, or if you hit attack (or special with some weapons) during a dash, you will immediately end the dash's invincibility. He can only attack directly in front of himself in a straight line except for the spin attack which has a significant tell, so just get moving when he points his spear at you or you see the circular indicator. When skulls enter the field, use your judgment as to whether it's wiser to kill them, to just stay out of explosion range, or to dash through the explosion when it happens.

Second form doesn't really add anything other than jars and lasers. He can combo his spins, but it doesn't really matter unless you're trying to avoid the first spin by running directly away from him instead of just dashing through it or to the side. Jars are super dangerous to fight near, and it's important to get rid of the ones that are near the cover spots behind rocks as well. Break them from out of range or immediately dash away after breaking them. Lasers will kill you super super quickly if you let them hit you, but there's multiple ways to avoid them: until he's below 50% HP, you can just get behind him for a ton of free damage. At all HP amounts, you can just get as close to him as possible and the lasers will miss you, allowing you to do free damage as long your attacks don't cause you to move (note: this does not work on Extreme Measures 4.) You can take cover behind the rocks, you can shield them, and if all else fails, you can technically stand between them and walk with them as he rotates them.

[qawal]

You said his HP is too high, maybe you had really bad luck with your boons.
For starters you can try experimenting with Zeus + Aphrodite boons~

and try getting Aphrodite's Call. You can cancel a lot of his attacks with it, my personal favorite is when you cancel his laser. He'll TRY to cast it over and over if you have enough call bars (but don't use greater call)