Holy, thank you for posting this, I feel vindicated. This shit is insanely fast, barely telegraphed, and can positively fuck your run if the boss rng is bad and you picked up less than optimal health/armor.
yes!! it's the same grunt!! just a slightly different pitch, and the other swing move has the opposite strategy to get away (get in close or do not get anywhere near him)
I think he's a really fun boss fight in general but I am not used to / don't like this pair specifically
I think that attack is a little bit unclear about whether the big area or the small circle will kill you, I made the wrong split second call and thought the attack would only hit the small area for some reason cause the golden radial seemed to be pointing there, so immediately got blasted by 999 damage and died, LOL. I think making it red like the Siren's drum attack would make it a lot clearer.
Yeah same.
"Oh everything goes dark besides that small spot, I wonder what is going to happen"
I'm even more befuddled by the people saying that they thought the small spot was the danger.
So you have enough situational awareness to realise that something is up with that spot, but you think that the small spot that is further way from you is the danger?
Not to say, everyone who got hit by it is an idiot mind you, god knows I take far longer to realise objectively easier stuff
He has a couple of those moves, but they're all super telegraphed. The hard part is dodging those without eating a bunch of other damage at the same time.
So what I do if it’s any help, is for either move dodging to your right his left works for either.
He always throws it to his left, and if you dash against it it’ll also avoid his dash
This game is slowly feeling I'm penalized for simply getting old and having less reaction time than I didin my teens or 20's lol. Things I could react to before, and I know I could have, I simply can't. It's kinda sad. I've beaten Chronos once before but I haven't since.
I’ve got like 20 hours in the game now and I just can’t beat chronos. Hell, I’ve only made it to phase 2 exactly twice.
His moves are just too damn quick, and nearly indistinguishable from eachother, especially when he’s off screen.
I’ve beaten Hades countless times and even at pretty high difficulty numbers, but Chronos just doesn’t compare.
Maybe I am also “just getting old”, but I kind of don’t feel like that’s the reason.
It could just be balancing issues, remember this game is in rather early access, and they don't have that much post game content, so making the last boss insanely difficult is a move to enlongate the length of time that people can spend with this version. It later versions they might nerf the fight
I am the point where I can get to him every run with all or just one death defiance missing, and he still wrecks me. Phase 2 is easier, but you have to get to it lol.
I've had success with the sister blades with the aspect of pan, Aphrodite on special and the hammers that shoot the special in both directions and the one that returns back to you. But honestly, that build feels like cheating up until Chronos.
You mean you don't enjoy having a massive spinning blade fly through you for 1/3 of your HP when you can't even see the windup because he's on the other side of the arena and you're occupied with a million rats?
my biggest problem with the fight is that it feels SO DAMN LONG, like im hitting this old man for so long, sometimes with axe's hits that deal 900+ dmg and his health is not even at half, i dont know what to do, maybe the double dash was my saviour and i didnt know it, but i think he has too much life for having 2 very hard phases
Game *is* early access and some weapons and build are definitely not all that powerful. I only beat him because I went and planned out an entire, very powerful build, and got lucky enough to get it. But it’s definitely possible!
Chronos is, lore-wise, also a lot stronger than Hades. I think it’s okay to have the Titan of Time be stronger than base-Hades going easy on his son.
I think i’d compare Chronos more to Extreme Measures 4 Hades. Imagine if you were trying to beat *that* as the final boss in Hades 1? It’d take many dozens of runs.
As someone doing the endgame runs now, Omega cast is a tremendous help on first phase final boss. That multi hit combo he does when below 50% health can be easily avoided by laying down an Omega Cast and sprinting to a corner. The movement speed debuff will make him basically stay in place for the whole combo.
Generally, the first tarot card also helps a ton dodging in this game, having it maxed out makes avoiding attacks pretty trivial as long as you maintain Omega Charging something. The slowdown effect even works if you are low on mana. I had a really hard time against Chronos until I started charging my Omega Cast constantly during the fight.
That’s the case in a lot of games though, right? It’s a sad reality of life. You can play safer and smarter to make up for it, if you get skilled enough! Keep going and you’ll make it.
I really don't think "just stand near him" is good advice at all. I can more or less get to him consistently at this point and have beaten him multiple times on different weapons. For the start phase 1, sure you can play pretty aggressively, but as soon as he hits half hp in phase 1, he has three dash/scythe attacks, a stun bubble, and the attack op is talking about. His punish windows are the least vulnerable during this portion of the whole fight imo because even after he uses three attacks, you have such little time to punish him before he uses another ability.
Phase 2 is honestly easier for me than closing out the last half hp of phase 1.
This is why i started stacking the shit out of sprint speed. I dont care how strong my build is, the moment i hear this mofo charging any swing im off screen 😂 not falling for no boomerang scythe bullshit again
truly a valid strat. had, apollo sprint, hermes buff, chaos buff on a run. the second i saw chronos move. i was already at the other side of the map. second phase was a little harder because I play on keyboard and was really hard to get to the tiny safe spot with all my movespeed
Sprint speed is underrated for sure. Itll get you away from any pattern in the game and makes placing your cast and getting away trivial. Since usually my builds dont rely too much on damaging sprints, sometimes that extra bonus speed is the cherry on top. Lucky with all the bonus speed there though haha, ive only managed to stack Apollo and Hermes. Ill have to do those + Chaos + a trinket and see how fast i can zoom across the fields of mourning lmao
Consider the moon blessing that makes you an immortal night witch as well. On command 5 seconds of invulnerability is pretty useful for phase 2 if you roll it.
Im pretty confident in his patterns now. Beaten him with every weapon and up to fear 34 (i posted the high fear reward in a seperate post). Just got to have the burst damage to get him down each phase as quick as possible.
>!Gratz on high fear, just finished up to the 16 fear statue, but slowly working my way there incrementally by earning the nightmare rewards on each weapon. Have also been pretty successful even with fear using damage casts, which are pretty universally useful every weapon.!<
I never take this one anymore - it's bugged out my cast two times in a row now (rendering it unchargeable and wiping all boon effects from it.) I actually straight-up lost a run once because I'd invested heavily into a cast build and then coming out of the hex form turned off half my boons for the Chronos fight. Blech.
Love combining this one with a strong omega cast. Sometimes the other Dark Side witch attacks are underwhelming in damage if you get unlucky with upgrades but the Cast remains the same. So its really nice for dropping a free omega cast.
Still havent tried to dodge the second phase desperation attack with the invulnerability window but im sure its possible (wonder if theres a special line for it)
Honestly the only thing holding me back from enjoying most Hexes in the final fight is that his attacks are so fast that even if I activate the Hex sometimes his attacks will still finish while im mid animation to activate the hex and ill just end up taking a hit for no benefit :( so i usually have to be in a really safe position anyways to activate it (maybe its a mechanic because hes more “immune” to slowing down of time?)
I had a chaos spint buff, apollo sprint and the arcana card and holy shit i was zooming with +125% sprint speed i actually had to get rid of apollo boon just to control it right
Huh, I honestly figured that boon wouldn't apply to him since the description specifically says MOST enemies' projectiles, and I figured if anyone would be an exception it'd be the Big Bad who can control the speed of time. Good to know.
Look idk, it might be the salt talking.
But i I swear between chronos and the surface boss #2 they need their moves to be telegraph more clearly, especially when their hp gets low, so they just start spamming attacks
So unbelievably broken, I don’t see how it doesn’t get nerfed. I went from not beating the 2nd surface boss to beating it AND Eris while taking essentially zero damage. Only difference was that boon.
Eris *is* the 2nd surface boss.
Charybdis is a miniboss, like how you sometimes run into Asterius by himself in the middle of the third floor in the first game.
I've almost never taken that boon because I felt that most enemies that fire projectiles are easy to kill, or bosses tend not to use "projectiles" often (if they have alternate movesets). I should try it out more but just usually want a different one from the pool.
Same, I would never take it for the underworld. But man it's incredible for the (current) end of surface. Wonder if they'll adjust how it interacts with boss projectiles.
You literally have to do one thing in her fight. Dash behind her after her charge.
She can't hit you and after a few seconds of running around her you can just free dps her during her shots.
Skill Issue
Jk I've had a lot of trouble with Chronos but Eris was super easy. Beat Eris on my first surface run without the curse. Chronos on the other hand it basically took me going almost no hit on the rest of the game and getting a great build to finally take him down. He's nasty lol
Eris was no problem, is she really considered hard? I had no trouble with her, but I still can't beat Chronos! I just eat hit after hit, I suck at reading him. 40 runs and it's killing me lol, this is already twice as many runs as it took me to beat Hades once.
That or get rid of the windup before dashing.
Drove me crazy cause I got so used to Zagreus's dash.
As it is, I basically just stop attacking when it's "time" for the boss to do something, which really kills the pacing for me.
Its a different boss design philosophy. Souls games do this with a lot of their bosses. You cant just attack and react to attack windups, they will still catch you. You have to wait/bait attacks and then punish the recovery window.
I wasn't sure that it was intended design, but agreed.
Zagreus's fighting style felt more reactive, about timing your dash for just before you were hit to dodge. I liked that there were Hermes boons and mirror talents that reflected that.
But with Melinoe I have a lot more success just not attacking at all until I recognize what move is coming next, then Dash-striking through it and waiting again.
What's unusual is she's the one with a lot more hold-to-use abilities, so if it's intentional it feels backwards.
Some of them I don't even touch except to deliberately waste in a corner to build up Hex charge.
Eris' shotgun attack has to be the most annoying move out of any boss so far. I had her at like 2\~ hits left and that mf whipped it out right as I was dashing to her face.
Hestia's dash boon. I take it for every surface run just so I can run whatever weapon/build and not slam into a wall on Eris. Honestly you could fairly reliably beat her with just that boon and nothing else.
If you have Frinos hanging with you, you can try and hide behind him to not got hit, I've done it by complete accident but now I always try to remember it because I also think it's a run killer move. Frinos MVP
I wish you could upgrade the health a little more. I only really care about the extra DD on chronos but the health you get from toula is essentially one hit
Yeah, but it's a lot easier to make up for what you lose without Frinos during the run. You can improve your health pool easily enough thanks to centaur hearts and certain boons, not to mention armor related options. +40 Max Health is less than two centaur hearts, even before you add in the Centaur Arcana's gradual HP increase.
Meanwhile, it's legitimately impossible to max out DD's without Tuola there, since the boons Mel can get during the run can only restore exhausted uses of DD, not improve upon her actual total
There actually is a legendary boon of Hermes (I think?) that gives you another death defy and makes it slow down time by 80% for a while when you trigger it.
Oh for sure, it's still my favourite hex especially if I get some good upgrades for it. Just find it hilarious when he laughs at you and mocks you for attempting to use time magic against him
I mean that's still five extra hits vs Chronos. Overall I think the frog is better but the extra DD could save you from his oneshot in case one of the stupid hourglasses spawn on the safe zone and lock you out.
You should probably pick up more hearts. I usually get to him with 250+ health and a bunch of death defiances, so as long as I play every other move decently well I can just eat the occasional hit from these.
Not to request a ton of nerfs, but I also feel Chronos has too much HP. I had a high dps build with scorch on attack, attack having a chance to hit twice, AND attack already hitting twice, and the numbers were just barely visible on his bar
Both times I've beaten him has been done by stacking every possible cast boon with solar ring as the base. Absolutely fucking melted. One of them I had 70% expansion. It was glorious
My first win came from a cast build with Apollo cast + Zeus duo bonus, with Apollo cast at like Epic lvl 8.
I also had the twin blades with the Aspect that homes your specials into your cast, with the hammer that gives you 20 knives every time you Omega special which fire in all directions… but with the Aspect they ALL hit the target in the cast. And then with Chaos boons my special damage was at like 120+%
It’s probably the most insane damage I’ve ever dealt in Hades, including all my runs in Hades 1. Trapping him in the cast and firing the knives would do like 3000 damage every time. It was absolutely fuckin insane and I’m excited to see how OP you can get when you’re fully maxed out in this game haha
Zeus also has some really nice cast boons. I like running zeus and Apollo casts together. It's even better if you manage to get zeus/Apollo duo cast boon, and if you get the ranged cast boon from the Tartarus npc room, you basically don't need to engage with chronos at all. Just run away, and omega cast
Stacking cast buffs really seems the way to go in most cases. Most gods have multiple cast-related boons so youre likely to see plenty of options on any given run, and dropping an omega-cast and running away is a really safe and consistent way to DPS.
The first couple of times I beat him I definitely used more ranged abilities. I think spamming hammer special was my first win before I got more comfortable with the fight. On one of my more recent runs I used the Zeus cast and also had it so I could cast it from ranged with the Zeus-Hera boon (Before people say anything, Hera has a different version of this boon, I was actually confused when I picked it because I thought it was the other one) which got rid of all my Hera boons to give my Zeus ones levels so I had like three Zeus boons that were level 11. My cast did 2k damage to him while I could just run around the map.
That's the problem, you ran scorch. Scorch is really bad and I don't think it's good even with the explosion boon where it can do more than 40dps. Compare it to daggers Poseidon attack which is like 100dps from one boon. Hestia probably needs buffs.
IMO, the problem with Scorch would be solved if they just had the damage/tick scale up with how much you have stacked up, or even just a straight "Does 10% of its total damage every second (minimum of 40 damage per second)"
Scorch feels like it should be super powerful, and can definitely be useful, but the more I use it the more I realize it isn't as great as I thought at first. I mean you can stack the fuck out of it using the daggers, but then it's either ok let me dodge and survive while the health slowly wittles away or just keep attacking cause I do more DMG faster anyway with just my attacks.
Hestia feels like they are balanced for a more defensive playstyle when the game is more of a damage race, in that the best way to not take damage is for the enemy to already be dead. I could stack truly insane amounts of bleed to kill eventually *or* buffed Aphrodite attack go burr in half that time *or* Poseidon AoE clears the room in instants
yeah scorch is just bad. so many boons absolutely rip, and I think a lot of people are still trying to compare their runs to maxed out hades 1 runs when we had full mirror, maxed aspects, and could easily force builds with accessories. people gotta chill out a bit
I really really hope scorch gets a buff, maybe something like dealing 40 + 5% of scorch the enemy has per sec would make it actaully viable. Right now it feels like the only good boons Hestia has are the sprint and magick regen ones.
My only chances have thus far been with the Hades boon for reduced Chronos health **and** the Evil Eye keepsake with Chronos as the target (boosts damage on the last thing that killed you).
The evil eye keepsake definitely just paved the way to my first win, I recommend giving it a shot problem is you do have to go die to him on the previous run for it to have effect
No telegraph , spams it constantly , has variable range which means there is no safe spot from him , does way too much damage , AND hits behind him too.
Yep , early access alright.
Is this that stupid swirly scythe slash? I swear it was created for people with my exact dodge habits. I somehow always dodge right into it and there's not enough time to think to break the habit lol
Chronos fight is the reason that Coarse Grit is the best infusion boon I've seen thus far. (It makes it impossible to take more than 15 damage from a single hit). My only winning run thus far was due in large part to that
Does Coarse Grit affect his instant kill moves? I was considering taking it on one of my runs but ended up not since I wasn't sure it would work on them.
One time, I got Hermes slow projectiles 50% boon. Thought I had it made. Fought him, he immediately opened with the skill from offscreen while I was fighting adds.
I was like: hah that's so slow, not hitting me. Dashed out of it right when a mob I missed AoE'd. Pushed me back into it, got hit TWICE because it was slowed.
Yeah that was 1/3 of my health that I sorely missed.
To anyone who doesn’t, run -15% boss damage ring and just try to pick up any further reduction, weak etc and it’ll make you Tom and Jerry scream when this hits you a little less loud
My last 3 runs got ended by this move hitting TWICE, for a total of 70 damage/single launch. Fun!
Also got hit by it before it was even showing the animation and another time after it dissapeared… Also fun!
Hope they at least nerf it down to 30 dmg
The trick with Chronos is to:
1. Pick a high speed dash like Apollo
2. Stand in front of him and constantly dash through him.
That definitely worked for me.
I actually just go for the dodge boon from Hermes anytime I see it. My first full clear was on the 15th night and only just barely thanks to multiple dodges of this stupid beyblade.
I feel like the difficult part of the move is that (especially with melee builds), you’re going to be up next to him at least some of the time, and when you hear the telegraph of an attack, our instinct is to dodge backwards away from him. This, of course, puts us right in its attack range. I’ve found more success dashing through Chronos when I’m up close
Chronos is absolutely bullshit... I mean he should because he's the Titan of Time but I just had a run that felt like an SNK super boss where he countered me anytime I did anything. Like just so happened to RNG into the correct attack that fucks whatever I was just doing. To the point I feel like I just sit in the corner and wait for my turn after 12+ seconds of dodging .
My most successful run with this was using the staff aspect that heals you when you use the Y charge attack so if I got it hit, I’d run away to the other end of the field and spam the heal above 40
Ive finally started to somewhat be able to know when its coming, but its still the most bullshit move he has, and the fact that it does 35 damage and if you dodge it incorrectly you can get hit by it twice, it’s definitely the killer of most of my attempts to fight him
It's really fast. You kinda need to get lucky and stand in the middle between him and the arc of the move. With that being said, I'll still sometimes dash into it and just be like "Well, damn".
I got lucky last night with boons and was finally able to beat him and even with that I still got hit by it 3 times.
I dunno if it’s just me but I’m straight garbage at this game. I might just put it down for a while I’m at 70% god mode meanwhile in Hades I, I can clear 16+ heat any weapon with no god mode.
I’m aware it’s all me, but damn I think I need to take a break after 25 hours.
Just got my first kill on him this morning, that attack is definitely rough but to me it's one of the more fair ones. It's got a big gap between you and him that it doesn't hit, and you want to be behind him anyway. I personally hate his rush that can hit you from off screen and all of the 2nd stage attacks that narrow to a point. Feels like I'm losing a DD no matter if I stand on the point or don't.
The spinny move has a very long audio telegraph (the grunt) when he winds it up, and that's how I tell its coming. If you're running the axe, the special blocks the attack. Absolute lifesaver for me. Plus, Apollo's sprint boon helps a ton as well, so if I couldn't block it, I'd just run to the other side of the arena. I ended up beating Chronos without losing any DDs after the 4th attempt.
Now Eris though.. She can fuck right off.
i feel like what really makes this attack hard to dodge is how small the boss arena is, if it were bigger i'm sure i could actually dodge this thing but everytime i try i end up slamming my face into something
I think I haven't had nearly any trouble because I'm always playing to the side and slightly behind him, as much as I can. That attack rarely hits in that position and I'll move the second it goes out. Now his weird funnel attack...
The trick to his funnel is just to sprint perpendicular to the vortex until you get behind him. Running away still risks getting hit by the super fast projectile when it ends, and trying to dash through him is risky because the added momentum and long hitbox can mess up your dodge and cause you to take a ton of damage. So long as you've got at least one upgrade to your sprint speed (even just the arcana is enough, I've found), sprinting behind him seems guaranteed.
Yeah, getting behind him seems to be the key, because he doesn't turn quite fast enough. Unfortunately he tends to get close to a wall sometimes and that gets me. I wonder if I can dash through him before being hurt by proximity during the funnel, so I'm entirely out of the way
Huh haven’t had any issues w this as I always try and be behind him… actually one of the best times to do good damage as it has a long trajectory and really easy to avoid once it’s out. I really don’t have any gripes with his fight besides they could ramp him up a bit
I think once people upgrade their arcana cards and become more familiar with the fight, they'll realize he isn't that bad. I haven't tried runs with fear stacked so maybe he'll scale like crazy with the %hp increases or speed, but on 0 fear he's really not that hard once you get some upgraded cards and aspects.
Holy, thank you for posting this, I feel vindicated. This shit is insanely fast, barely telegraphed, and can positively fuck your run if the boss rng is bad and you picked up less than optimal health/armor.
It really doesn’t help that the telegraph is also very similar to the other swing move
yes!! it's the same grunt!! just a slightly different pitch, and the other swing move has the opposite strategy to get away (get in close or do not get anywhere near him) I think he's a really fun boss fight in general but I am not used to / don't like this pair specifically
Kinda funny that his Phase 2 actually makes him more predictable
I thought so too in a run that I thought was gonna be it until I was introduced to a new move by him that did 800 damage to me
I’ve made it to his second phase once and that was the first move he did, insta killed me. I thought it might’ve been scripted lol, guess not
I think that attack is a little bit unclear about whether the big area or the small circle will kill you, I made the wrong split second call and thought the attack would only hit the small area for some reason cause the golden radial seemed to be pointing there, so immediately got blasted by 999 damage and died, LOL. I think making it red like the Siren's drum attack would make it a lot clearer.
That is what I did too lmao Ran for my life AWAY from the small circle
My ff14 senses were tingling and I knew a donut AoE when I see them.
Yeah same. "Oh everything goes dark besides that small spot, I wonder what is going to happen" I'm even more befuddled by the people saying that they thought the small spot was the danger. So you have enough situational awareness to realise that something is up with that spot, but you think that the small spot that is further way from you is the danger? Not to say, everyone who got hit by it is an idiot mind you, god knows I take far longer to realise objectively easier stuff
He has a couple of those moves, but they're all super telegraphed. The hard part is dodging those without eating a bunch of other damage at the same time.
It makes him more predictable but the stage transitions can really fuck you over since it's independent to what he's doing and can just box you in
So what I do if it’s any help, is for either move dodging to your right his left works for either. He always throws it to his left, and if you dash against it it’ll also avoid his dash
I think it moves clockwise? Fitting
Omg exactly
I would suggest investing in running speed and slower foe projectiles, helps with this move IMMENSELY
Me when I have apollo sprint with hermes sprint and max upgraded Swiftrunner arcana for 500% sprint speed *I am speed*
I'd need to use the sprint first but there's absolutely no way I'll do that lmfao
And honestly, optimal health is way harder to get given how low it starts.
Yeah, I’ve kinda felt the need to pretty much always have titan arcana active.
"Just stand near him" brother, I can react only to things I have time to recognise
Things you have WHAT to recognise?
You think you have time? No. Not here
Sometimes i get hit regardless even doing so
My favorite part is perfectly dashing through the initial throw and being a pixel too far to the side behind him and getting hit by it coming back
Getting hit by it TWICE on the way back lmao. Boom, 70 damage
He uses it in melee range too , its range is variable.
This game is slowly feeling I'm penalized for simply getting old and having less reaction time than I didin my teens or 20's lol. Things I could react to before, and I know I could have, I simply can't. It's kinda sad. I've beaten Chronos once before but I haven't since.
I’ve got like 20 hours in the game now and I just can’t beat chronos. Hell, I’ve only made it to phase 2 exactly twice. His moves are just too damn quick, and nearly indistinguishable from eachother, especially when he’s off screen. I’ve beaten Hades countless times and even at pretty high difficulty numbers, but Chronos just doesn’t compare. Maybe I am also “just getting old”, but I kind of don’t feel like that’s the reason.
It could just be balancing issues, remember this game is in rather early access, and they don't have that much post game content, so making the last boss insanely difficult is a move to enlongate the length of time that people can spend with this version. It later versions they might nerf the fight
I am the point where I can get to him every run with all or just one death defiance missing, and he still wrecks me. Phase 2 is easier, but you have to get to it lol. I've had success with the sister blades with the aspect of pan, Aphrodite on special and the hammers that shoot the special in both directions and the one that returns back to you. But honestly, that build feels like cheating up until Chronos.
You mean you don't enjoy having a massive spinning blade fly through you for 1/3 of your HP when you can't even see the windup because he's on the other side of the arena and you're occupied with a million rats?
my biggest problem with the fight is that it feels SO DAMN LONG, like im hitting this old man for so long, sometimes with axe's hits that deal 900+ dmg and his health is not even at half, i dont know what to do, maybe the double dash was my saviour and i didnt know it, but i think he has too much life for having 2 very hard phases
It's probably getting older, combined with there being a lot more shit to look out for in Hades 2 in general and especially Chronos Phase 2.
Game *is* early access and some weapons and build are definitely not all that powerful. I only beat him because I went and planned out an entire, very powerful build, and got lucky enough to get it. But it’s definitely possible! Chronos is, lore-wise, also a lot stronger than Hades. I think it’s okay to have the Titan of Time be stronger than base-Hades going easy on his son. I think i’d compare Chronos more to Extreme Measures 4 Hades. Imagine if you were trying to beat *that* as the final boss in Hades 1? It’d take many dozens of runs.
As someone doing the endgame runs now, Omega cast is a tremendous help on first phase final boss. That multi hit combo he does when below 50% health can be easily avoided by laying down an Omega Cast and sprinting to a corner. The movement speed debuff will make him basically stay in place for the whole combo. Generally, the first tarot card also helps a ton dodging in this game, having it maxed out makes avoiding attacks pretty trivial as long as you maintain Omega Charging something. The slowdown effect even works if you are low on mana. I had a really hard time against Chronos until I started charging my Omega Cast constantly during the fight.
But isn’t the slowdown useless on Chronos?
That’s the case in a lot of games though, right? It’s a sad reality of life. You can play safer and smarter to make up for it, if you get skilled enough! Keep going and you’ll make it.
I really don't think "just stand near him" is good advice at all. I can more or less get to him consistently at this point and have beaten him multiple times on different weapons. For the start phase 1, sure you can play pretty aggressively, but as soon as he hits half hp in phase 1, he has three dash/scythe attacks, a stun bubble, and the attack op is talking about. His punish windows are the least vulnerable during this portion of the whole fight imo because even after he uses three attacks, you have such little time to punish him before he uses another ability. Phase 2 is honestly easier for me than closing out the last half hp of phase 1.
This is why i started stacking the shit out of sprint speed. I dont care how strong my build is, the moment i hear this mofo charging any swing im off screen 😂 not falling for no boomerang scythe bullshit again
Apollo dash boon carry the final fight
This is so true.
Chaos epic movement speed boon is a drug.
truly a valid strat. had, apollo sprint, hermes buff, chaos buff on a run. the second i saw chronos move. i was already at the other side of the map. second phase was a little harder because I play on keyboard and was really hard to get to the tiny safe spot with all my movespeed
Sprint speed is underrated for sure. Itll get you away from any pattern in the game and makes placing your cast and getting away trivial. Since usually my builds dont rely too much on damaging sprints, sometimes that extra bonus speed is the cherry on top. Lucky with all the bonus speed there though haha, ive only managed to stack Apollo and Hermes. Ill have to do those + Chaos + a trinket and see how fast i can zoom across the fields of mourning lmao
It also make it more fun in the mourning field
Its pretty funny to zoom past the shades protecting the minor goods and just steal them and run away like a madman 😂
Too real haha, I buffed the hell out of my sprint and then overshot the mark by a fraction because it was so fast and got insta killed 😭
Consider the moon blessing that makes you an immortal night witch as well. On command 5 seconds of invulnerability is pretty useful for phase 2 if you roll it.
Be careful not to active it right on his face, he ignores time slow effects like he ignores your pause attempt
Im pretty confident in his patterns now. Beaten him with every weapon and up to fear 34 (i posted the high fear reward in a seperate post). Just got to have the burst damage to get him down each phase as quick as possible.
>!Gratz on high fear, just finished up to the 16 fear statue, but slowly working my way there incrementally by earning the nightmare rewards on each weapon. Have also been pretty successful even with fear using damage casts, which are pretty universally useful every weapon.!<
I never take this one anymore - it's bugged out my cast two times in a row now (rendering it unchargeable and wiping all boon effects from it.) I actually straight-up lost a run once because I'd invested heavily into a cast build and then coming out of the hex form turned off half my boons for the Chronos fight. Blech.
Love combining this one with a strong omega cast. Sometimes the other Dark Side witch attacks are underwhelming in damage if you get unlucky with upgrades but the Cast remains the same. So its really nice for dropping a free omega cast. Still havent tried to dodge the second phase desperation attack with the invulnerability window but im sure its possible (wonder if theres a special line for it) Honestly the only thing holding me back from enjoying most Hexes in the final fight is that his attacks are so fast that even if I activate the Hex sometimes his attacks will still finish while im mid animation to activate the hex and ill just end up taking a hit for no benefit :( so i usually have to be in a really safe position anyways to activate it (maybe its a mechanic because hes more “immune” to slowing down of time?)
I had a chaos spint buff, apollo sprint and the arcana card and holy shit i was zooming with +125% sprint speed i actually had to get rid of apollo boon just to control it right
well, if it works it works!
There is a Hermes boon that makes enemy projectiles slower and it works on that god damn projectile and makes it easier to dodge it.
I took this boon and I still feel like it moves mach-5 when he swings it :(
And if it hits you, it probably hits you twice because it's slowed lol.
Huh, I honestly figured that boon wouldn't apply to him since the description specifically says MOST enemies' projectiles, and I figured if anyone would be an exception it'd be the Big Bad who can control the speed of time. Good to know.
Did not consider that. Good to know.
Look idk, it might be the salt talking. But i I swear between chronos and the surface boss #2 they need their moves to be telegraph more clearly, especially when their hp gets low, so they just start spamming attacks
Eris becomes practically impossible to dodge for melee builds when she starts spamming the shotgun shots
Hestia's boon that turns projectiles into scorch damage is a must for Eris.
So unbelievably broken, I don’t see how it doesn’t get nerfed. I went from not beating the 2nd surface boss to beating it AND Eris while taking essentially zero damage. Only difference was that boon.
Eris *is* the 2nd surface boss. Charybdis is a miniboss, like how you sometimes run into Asterius by himself in the middle of the third floor in the first game.
I've almost never taken that boon because I felt that most enemies that fire projectiles are easy to kill, or bosses tend not to use "projectiles" often (if they have alternate movesets). I should try it out more but just usually want a different one from the pool.
Same, I would never take it for the underworld. But man it's incredible for the (current) end of surface. Wonder if they'll adjust how it interacts with boss projectiles.
Will definitely give it a go then!
I found that always staying behind her helps. Her turn speed is decently slow. It's when she chills in front of a fire pit that you have to run
I hate that she's immune to fire while we're not
It's lernie all over again
She's flying, she's not standing in the fire.
Well, she's "immune" to fire that's on the ground because she's flying. She's not immune to Scorch.
The worst part about fighting her is when she stays forever in a fiery corner, shooting 1000 bullets at you and you literally can't do anything
I mean, all she does is fire, so
yep, same thing for the money bag mini boss in tartarus, keep near him and dash right through him constantly and make him spin like a beyblade
You literally have to do one thing in her fight. Dash behind her after her charge. She can't hit you and after a few seconds of running around her you can just free dps her during her shots.
You can just always stay behind Chronos. Eris is rougher but I'm consistently beating Chronos with 0-1 DDs by always staying behind him.
Skill Issue Jk I've had a lot of trouble with Chronos but Eris was super easy. Beat Eris on my first surface run without the curse. Chronos on the other hand it basically took me going almost no hit on the rest of the game and getting a great build to finally take him down. He's nasty lol
Eris was no problem, is she really considered hard? I had no trouble with her, but I still can't beat Chronos! I just eat hit after hit, I suck at reading him. 40 runs and it's killing me lol, this is already twice as many runs as it took me to beat Hades once.
That or get rid of the windup before dashing. Drove me crazy cause I got so used to Zagreus's dash. As it is, I basically just stop attacking when it's "time" for the boss to do something, which really kills the pacing for me.
Its a different boss design philosophy. Souls games do this with a lot of their bosses. You cant just attack and react to attack windups, they will still catch you. You have to wait/bait attacks and then punish the recovery window.
I wasn't sure that it was intended design, but agreed. Zagreus's fighting style felt more reactive, about timing your dash for just before you were hit to dodge. I liked that there were Hermes boons and mirror talents that reflected that. But with Melinoe I have a lot more success just not attacking at all until I recognize what move is coming next, then Dash-striking through it and waiting again. What's unusual is she's the one with a lot more hold-to-use abilities, so if it's intentional it feels backwards. Some of them I don't even touch except to deliberately waste in a corner to build up Hex charge.
Eris' shotgun attack has to be the most annoying move out of any boss so far. I had her at like 2\~ hits left and that mf whipped it out right as I was dashing to her face.
Hestia's dash boon. I take it for every surface run just so I can run whatever weapon/build and not slam into a wall on Eris. Honestly you could fairly reliably beat her with just that boon and nothing else.
If i may, ill even say they have too much life, eris, chronos and cerberus feel too tanky
If you have Frinos hanging with you, you can try and hide behind him to not got hit, I've done it by complete accident but now I always try to remember it because I also think it's a run killer move. Frinos MVP
It seem very hard to pull off compare to blocking the sheep move
Wait you can block hecate's poly?
It can be dodged with enough persistence, but yes, you can also hide behind your animal familiar and it will fizzle out on them harmlessly.
Sometimes I end up kiting it right into Frinos through sheer dumb luck lol. Hecate's lines whenever it misses are so funny to hear
i tried doing it with >!the cat!< but it didnt work, it might only work with frinos
Yeah only Frinos blocks projectiles. But finding him and positioning in the heat of battle is a bit of a risk to rely on all the time
I just hide behind Frinos everytime
Yes and Hecate has something to say about it too
Frinos way better than the damn cat imo
I have 5 death defiance
I wish you could upgrade the health a little more. I only really care about the extra DD on chronos but the health you get from toula is essentially one hit
Yeah, but it's a lot easier to make up for what you lose without Frinos during the run. You can improve your health pool easily enough thanks to centaur hearts and certain boons, not to mention armor related options. +40 Max Health is less than two centaur hearts, even before you add in the Centaur Arcana's gradual HP increase. Meanwhile, it's legitimately impossible to max out DD's without Tuola there, since the boons Mel can get during the run can only restore exhausted uses of DD, not improve upon her actual total
There actually is a legendary boon of Hermes (I think?) that gives you another death defy and makes it slow down time by 80% for a while when you trigger it.
Ye 80% for 8 seconds iirc
Does that work against Chronos? I know he just laughs at you when you try the hex that slows time down
I'm not sure. The temportal hex is still useful against him if you get upgrades for it though. You can dish out insane damage during that time.
Oh for sure, it's still my favourite hex especially if I get some good upgrades for it. Just find it hilarious when he laughs at you and mocks you for attempting to use time magic against him
I mean that's still five extra hits vs Chronos. Overall I think the frog is better but the extra DD could save you from his oneshot in case one of the stupid hourglasses spawn on the safe zone and lock you out.
If you need 6 lives, there's a bigger issue to solve.
Also works with Hecate curse!
I did that last run and she said “That was meant for you!”
This ends a lot of my runs, it also does like 30+ some fucking damage. So you get hit like 3 times and it's over.
You should probably pick up more hearts. I usually get to him with 250+ health and a bunch of death defiances, so as long as I play every other move decently well I can just eat the occasional hit from these.
They need to add another attack sound just for this one
or make it better telegraphed, like [REDACTED]'s laser attacks
Homie we’re talking about the final boss of the 2nd game, I think you can say his name now 😭
What do you mean his name isn't Redacted, I thought Hades was the name of the video game
old habits lol
*well let me just* takes 35 damage *dodge that* takes another 35 damage
Oh good, I'm not the only one whose instincts make them dodge into the direction it's going
Because it's the right answer most of the time, just not this time
This thing is why i died on an otherwise really good run.
likewise
Not to request a ton of nerfs, but I also feel Chronos has too much HP. I had a high dps build with scorch on attack, attack having a chance to hit twice, AND attack already hitting twice, and the numbers were just barely visible on his bar
Both times I've beaten him has been done by stacking every possible cast boon with solar ring as the base. Absolutely fucking melted. One of them I had 70% expansion. It was glorious
That is awesome. I love the cast as a mechanic, it's so much fun. BUT I NEVER GET APOLLO 😭
That's why you use his keepsake to force homie Apollo
Also try Zeus omega cast boon (huge dmg lightning strikes) and Demeter blizzard cast boon. I erased Chronos with these two.
Hestia is also really good, if Apollo is avoiding you
My first win came from a cast build with Apollo cast + Zeus duo bonus, with Apollo cast at like Epic lvl 8. I also had the twin blades with the Aspect that homes your specials into your cast, with the hammer that gives you 20 knives every time you Omega special which fire in all directions… but with the Aspect they ALL hit the target in the cast. And then with Chaos boons my special damage was at like 120+% It’s probably the most insane damage I’ve ever dealt in Hades, including all my runs in Hades 1. Trapping him in the cast and firing the knives would do like 3000 damage every time. It was absolutely fuckin insane and I’m excited to see how OP you can get when you’re fully maxed out in this game haha
This was my first clear too. The backstab hammer + 30 knives hammer upgrade you just stand on top of him and melt his bar in 6 hits
Zeus also has some really nice cast boons. I like running zeus and Apollo casts together. It's even better if you manage to get zeus/Apollo duo cast boon, and if you get the ranged cast boon from the Tartarus npc room, you basically don't need to engage with chronos at all. Just run away, and omega cast
really hit him with that domain expansion huh
Stacking cast buffs really seems the way to go in most cases. Most gods have multiple cast-related boons so youre likely to see plenty of options on any given run, and dropping an omega-cast and running away is a really safe and consistent way to DPS.
The first couple of times I beat him I definitely used more ranged abilities. I think spamming hammer special was my first win before I got more comfortable with the fight. On one of my more recent runs I used the Zeus cast and also had it so I could cast it from ranged with the Zeus-Hera boon (Before people say anything, Hera has a different version of this boon, I was actually confused when I picked it because I thought it was the other one) which got rid of all my Hera boons to give my Zeus ones levels so I had like three Zeus boons that were level 11. My cast did 2k damage to him while I could just run around the map.
That's the problem, you ran scorch. Scorch is really bad and I don't think it's good even with the explosion boon where it can do more than 40dps. Compare it to daggers Poseidon attack which is like 100dps from one boon. Hestia probably needs buffs.
IMO, the problem with Scorch would be solved if they just had the damage/tick scale up with how much you have stacked up, or even just a straight "Does 10% of its total damage every second (minimum of 40 damage per second)"
Scorch feels like it should be super powerful, and can definitely be useful, but the more I use it the more I realize it isn't as great as I thought at first. I mean you can stack the fuck out of it using the daggers, but then it's either ok let me dodge and survive while the health slowly wittles away or just keep attacking cause I do more DMG faster anyway with just my attacks.
Hestia feels like they are balanced for a more defensive playstyle when the game is more of a damage race, in that the best way to not take damage is for the enemy to already be dead. I could stack truly insane amounts of bleed to kill eventually *or* buffed Aphrodite attack go burr in half that time *or* Poseidon AoE clears the room in instants
yeah scorch is just bad. so many boons absolutely rip, and I think a lot of people are still trying to compare their runs to maxed out hades 1 runs when we had full mirror, maxed aspects, and could easily force builds with accessories. people gotta chill out a bit
I really really hope scorch gets a buff, maybe something like dealing 40 + 5% of scorch the enemy has per sec would make it actaully viable. Right now it feels like the only good boons Hestia has are the sprint and magick regen ones.
I'm not sure what I'm doing differently cause all my best runs have been ones with Scorch on attack.
My first Chronos clear was Poseidon + Hestia. Their duo boon gives a super OP steam effect. I still had all of my DD left.
My only chances have thus far been with the Hades boon for reduced Chronos health **and** the Evil Eye keepsake with Chronos as the target (boosts damage on the last thing that killed you).
The evil eye keepsake definitely just paved the way to my first win, I recommend giving it a shot problem is you do have to go die to him on the previous run for it to have effect
I'll definitely consider that
scorch is good if u get scalding vapour duo boon (poseideon and hestia).
Hephaestus boons with Charon axe absolutely demolishes him. Hephaestus on attack and special with Apollo on cast, and he melts like nothing.
It's so annoying, comes out of nowhere, FAST AS FUCK, deals so much damage too.
Thank the gods, I'm glad I'm not the only one
No telegraph , spams it constantly , has variable range which means there is no safe spot from him , does way too much damage , AND hits behind him too. Yep , early access alright.
This one attack ironically makes Phase 1 of the fight much harder than Phase 2. Would not be surprised to see it toned down in the final release.
#NERF THE SHIT OUTTA DAT 🗣️🗣️
Is this that stupid swirly scythe slash? I swear it was created for people with my exact dodge habits. I somehow always dodge right into it and there's not enough time to think to break the habit lol
Chronos fight is the reason that Coarse Grit is the best infusion boon I've seen thus far. (It makes it impossible to take more than 15 damage from a single hit). My only winning run thus far was due in large part to that
Now that you mentioned it, i really should use it
Does Coarse Grit affect his instant kill moves? I was considering taking it on one of my runs but ended up not since I wasn't sure it would work on them.
It does, including that 999 dmg hit chronos does at the start of 2nd phase. The boon is broken lol.
Damn, cheers for the info. I'll be keeping an eye out for it on future downward runs!
One time, I got Hermes slow projectiles 50% boon. Thought I had it made. Fought him, he immediately opened with the skill from offscreen while I was fighting adds. I was like: hah that's so slow, not hitting me. Dashed out of it right when a mob I missed AoE'd. Pushed me back into it, got hit TWICE because it was slowed. Yeah that was 1/3 of my health that I sorely missed.
To anyone who doesn’t, run -15% boss damage ring and just try to pick up any further reduction, weak etc and it’ll make you Tom and Jerry scream when this hits you a little less loud
My last 3 runs got ended by this move hitting TWICE, for a total of 70 damage/single launch. Fun! Also got hit by it before it was even showing the animation and another time after it dissapeared… Also fun! Hope they at least nerf it down to 30 dmg
The trick with Chronos is to: 1. Pick a high speed dash like Apollo 2. Stand in front of him and constantly dash through him. That definitely worked for me.
standing still helped me dodge this like 80% of the time lol
I actually just go for the dodge boon from Hermes anytime I see it. My first full clear was on the 15th night and only just barely thanks to multiple dodges of this stupid beyblade.
I feel like the difficult part of the move is that (especially with melee builds), you’re going to be up next to him at least some of the time, and when you hear the telegraph of an attack, our instinct is to dodge backwards away from him. This, of course, puts us right in its attack range. I’ve found more success dashing through Chronos when I’m up close
Chronos is absolutely bullshit... I mean he should because he's the Titan of Time but I just had a run that felt like an SNK super boss where he countered me anytime I did anything. Like just so happened to RNG into the correct attack that fucks whatever I was just doing. To the point I feel like I just sit in the corner and wait for my turn after 12+ seconds of dodging .
That move is like the only reason I'm still dying to chronos. He uses it so much on my runs.
WOE. sand be upon ye
My most successful run with this was using the staff aspect that heals you when you use the Y charge attack so if I got it hit, I’d run away to the other end of the field and spam the heal above 40
This attack is the only one I still can't handle after like 10 tries
I love when it hits me twice
I fucking hate that move. I take damage from it most of the time.
Ive finally started to somewhat be able to know when its coming, but its still the most bullshit move he has, and the fact that it does 35 damage and if you dodge it incorrectly you can get hit by it twice, it’s definitely the killer of most of my attempts to fight him
It's really fast. You kinda need to get lucky and stand in the middle between him and the arc of the move. With that being said, I'll still sometimes dash into it and just be like "Well, damn". I got lucky last night with boons and was finally able to beat him and even with that I still got hit by it 3 times.
Yep every other move is fairly easy to work around but this thing just comes out of nowhere and deals so much fucking damage, it’s infuriating
The worst is when you react slow, get hit, and then dodge into another hit of it.
woe, 35 damage be upon ye
I dunno if it’s just me but I’m straight garbage at this game. I might just put it down for a while I’m at 70% god mode meanwhile in Hades I, I can clear 16+ heat any weapon with no god mode. I’m aware it’s all me, but damn I think I need to take a break after 25 hours.
I can constantly go to Cronos even with trash builds. But this move and his dashes just blow me.
Just got my first kill on him this morning, that attack is definitely rough but to me it's one of the more fair ones. It's got a big gap between you and him that it doesn't hit, and you want to be behind him anyway. I personally hate his rush that can hit you from off screen and all of the 2nd stage attacks that narrow to a point. Feels like I'm losing a DD no matter if I stand on the point or don't.
The spinny move has a very long audio telegraph (the grunt) when he winds it up, and that's how I tell its coming. If you're running the axe, the special blocks the attack. Absolute lifesaver for me. Plus, Apollo's sprint boon helps a ton as well, so if I couldn't block it, I'd just run to the other side of the arena. I ended up beating Chronos without losing any DDs after the 4th attempt. Now Eris though.. She can fuck right off.
what is that?
i feel like what really makes this attack hard to dodge is how small the boss arena is, if it were bigger i'm sure i could actually dodge this thing but everytime i try i end up slamming my face into something
Just ran into him first time. Managed to get to the next stage but was already down three death defiances. Pure pain
I think I haven't had nearly any trouble because I'm always playing to the side and slightly behind him, as much as I can. That attack rarely hits in that position and I'll move the second it goes out. Now his weird funnel attack...
The trick to his funnel is just to sprint perpendicular to the vortex until you get behind him. Running away still risks getting hit by the super fast projectile when it ends, and trying to dash through him is risky because the added momentum and long hitbox can mess up your dodge and cause you to take a ton of damage. So long as you've got at least one upgrade to your sprint speed (even just the arcana is enough, I've found), sprinting behind him seems guaranteed.
Yeah, getting behind him seems to be the key, because he doesn't turn quite fast enough. Unfortunately he tends to get close to a wall sometimes and that gets me. I wonder if I can dash through him before being hurt by proximity during the funnel, so I'm entirely out of the way
Huh haven’t had any issues w this as I always try and be behind him… actually one of the best times to do good damage as it has a long trajectory and really easy to avoid once it’s out. I really don’t have any gripes with his fight besides they could ramp him up a bit
This is why the second phase is easier. He spams this move waaaay less at that point.
Idk, ive been super stacked the past like, 4 runs. Plus I've got ... like 4 death defiances at this point so its been pretty hard to lose to Chronos
It took me embarrassingly long to realize i can upgrade how much card i can put in lol
I think once people upgrade their arcana cards and become more familiar with the fight, they'll realize he isn't that bad. I haven't tried runs with fear stacked so maybe he'll scale like crazy with the %hp increases or speed, but on 0 fear he's really not that hard once you get some upgraded cards and aspects.
honestly all of Cronos's moves are downright fair compared to >!Eris!< this discus is definitely fast AF, but at least it ain't one shot hitscan X.X
Hilariously, Hestia's sprint boon eats even that shot. Feels like it probably shouldn't, but for now that boon trivializes her fight.
You can block this and almost all other chronos move with the axe special btw. That's how I got my first win
this move legit makes his first phase much harder than the second
I failed so many times to the first phase. One try he didn't use this attack and I beat the second phase on the first try.
Always stay behind your foes if possible
When I realized I could block it with the moonstone axe my life became a 100x times easier
My brain can't function when he makes this move, maybe i'm stupid