How hard is this game?

[Apollyon]

Hades has had my attention for a while, but it seems pretty hard to master. Is it comparable to a Souls game in terms of difficulty?

[nortynort]

I would say the base game is easy-medium difficulty. You'd die to the bosses in your early runs but once you "get it" (attack patterns, the general pace of the game) you would stop dying altogether.

After you beat a run, the game then lets you tune up the difficulty to your liking, for more rewards

[Imorutaru]

At first it'll look almost impossible, but that's just the first impressions.

After playing more and more, getting the hang of it, you'll pass smoothly almost not dying and faster than the first plays.

I thought of giving up when I played, but since you start getting stronger, it gets easier.

[Doxorn]

If you are having a hard time you can enable/disable God Mode anytime in the options.
It will make you take 20% less damage and increase by +2% every time you die, up to 80% (disabling it will not reset the counter)
I haven't used it yet but I was tempted. Even if you die you get rewarded by new story elements and you can spend your gathered resources to make yourself stronger.

[Local Jerk]

Easy till you turn on the hardest pacts of punishment. But you can even finish the game AND the afterstory without doing that.

[abyssalfury]

It intentionally starts 'difficult', but this is more a case of your character starts very weak compared to the challenge the game presents you. You WILL die repeatedly because that's how the game is set up. And this isn't just a matter of one or two things that make the game easier as you develop; there are numerous systems in place that will make Zagreus significantly stronger as the game goes on.

At the base difficulty, the end game actually reverses this; Zagreus' power will outstrip the game's standard difficulty by a significant margin, to the point that playing end game Zag is, well, mostly a walk in the park. However this is where the Pact of Punishment comes into play, allowing you to customize a level of difficulty that is suitable for you. As such, you can absolutely make it a hard as hell strugglefest, or you can keep it fairly light and easy.

[Nibbie]

Your first couple runs are "souls like" in terms of difficulty, but that is because the game is a roguelite. You gain more powerful between every run, with some permanent upgrades including;
Double starting health
Revive at half health three times
Heal a bit every single room with occasional free healing rooms
Second dodge
Way more money generation
Rerolls
and plenty more. It typically takes 20-30 runs to win once, but after that, not only do you understand the game better and are more skilled, but you are statistically so much stronger that you start winning pretty regularly.

[Seventh Monkey]

not like souls....still difficult though...more like everspace...way more like everspace than souls...everspace though the combat is probably more difficult

[Taweret]

you unlock more buffs but also the game gets harder the more you play, more bosses unlocks and bosses get harder. 19 runs and i'm still dying in 2 act.

[Apollyon]

Originally posted by abyssalfury:

It intentionally starts 'difficult', but this is more a case of your character starts very weak compared to the challenge the game presents you. You WILL die repeatedly because that's how the game is set up. And this isn't just a matter of one or two things that make the game easier as you develop; there are numerous systems in place that will make Zagreus significantly stronger as the game goes on.

At the base difficulty, the end game actually reverses this; Zagreus' power will outstrip the game's standard difficulty by a significant margin, to the point that playing end game Zag is, well, mostly a walk in the park. However this is where the Pact of Punishment comes into play, allowing you to customize a level of difficulty that is suitable for you. As such, you can absolutely make it a hard as hell strugglefest, or you can keep it fairly light and easy.

I assume that in order to 100% it, I need to use pact of punishment?

[Senegalas]

Yes you do need pact of punishment at 16 heat, which is not very difficult by end game. Other achievements will not require you to be nowhere close to 16 heat.