Part 28

Explore Hades II Twin Fists Aspects: Talos, Demeter, and Gilgamesh. Learn their unique mechanics, boons, and upgrades for your runs.

Aspect of Talos

If using the Aspect of Talos, your boons and upgrades should be much the same as with the Aspect of Zagreus, as most of your damage will still come from your basic Attack. That said, you’ll want a low-frequency status-afflicting or defensive boon tied to your Special (Aphrodite’s Heartbreak Flourish works well, as always), and will want to slightly modify your attack approach. Since the damage buff conferred by Magnetic Cutter only lasts a short while, the Aspect of Talos is more of a hit-and-run weapon, as opposed to the direct assault methods of the Aspect of Zagreus. Single out an enemy with Magnetic Cutter and dispatch it with a quick flurry of punches, then dash to safety and prepare to repeat the process.

Complementary upgrades: Concentrated Knuckle, Long Knuckle, Colossus Knuckle, Breaching Cross, Rolling Knuckle, possibly Draining Cutter

Complementary boons: high-frequency Attack boons (Demeter, Zeus, possibly Athena); low-frequency and/or defensive Special boons (Aphrodite, Athena, possibly Ares); defensive Dash boon (Athena, Aphrodite, Demeter) or possibly Hunter Dash

Aspect of Demeter

After landing 12 Attack strikes, your next Special hits an additional 5 times (as “Giga Cutter”) at max Aspect level (Note: standard Rising Cutter hits twice for 60 total damage – boosted Aspect of Demeter Rising Cutter therefore inflicts 30 * 7 = 210 base damage). Precision is not typically the Twin Fists’ strong suit, but some semblance of precision is indeed needed to time and place your Giga Cutters and make the most of the Aspect of Demeter. 12 Attack strikes are not difficult to build up (thankfully, the game will clearly tell you when your Special is charged), and Giga Cutter can certainly lay a hurt on enemies with a solid 3.5x damage output relative to the standard Rising Cutter. Still, accessing this boosted Special requires eschewing a 15% evasion buff, and as often as you’re in the midst of crowds of enemies while thrashing about with the Twin Fists, I find the evasion boost more beneficial over the course of the run. The Aspect of Demeter does not require any significant change in attack approach from the initial form of the Fists, but simply goes even further all-in on offense over defense for a weapon that is already plenty capable of offensive prowess in its initial iteration.

If deploying the Aspect of Demeter, you’ll ideally have access to a Special boon from, well, Demeter, whose damage buffs are substantial and whose Chill effects can stack beyond the number of hits levied by Giga Cutter. If Frost Flourish is not available, any high-frequency/damage-centric Special boon can work in its place (Zeus, Artemis, possibly Aphrodite for percent damage gain). Draining Cutter is a no-brainer for the Aspect of Demeter if you can get your hands on it, as your Giga Cutters are highly likely to kill standard enemies, frequently activating the restorative benefit and thus offsetting the loss of your evasion buff. Finally, Hunter Dash is less viable on the Aspect of Demeter, as you need the additional benefit of a defensive boon without your evasion buff and are less concerned with dash attack damage.

Complementary upgrades: Draining Cutter, Flying Cutter, Quake Cutter

Complementary boons: high-frequency Attack boons (Demeter, Zeus, possibly Athena); high-frequency Special boons (Demeter, Zeus, Artemis, possibly Aphrodite); defensive Dash boon (Athena, Aphrodite, Demeter)

Aspect of Gilgamesh

Heavy Attack is slower with higher base damage and has a laterally sweeping path (as opposed to the outward jabs of the other Aspects), standard Special (Rising Cutter) is unchanged mechanically, Dash-Special inflicts Maim (enemies take +25% more damage and inflict +50% more damage for 4 seconds, then take a Doom-like hit of 400 damage at max Aspect level), Dash length reduced (by roughly 1/4 to 1/3 per dash) but maximum Dash chain increased by +2.

To get the most out of Maim and, by extension, the Aspect of Gilgamesh, you’ll ideally not be on a PC with a two-button mouse. It is an understatement to say that timing spacebar-Q to perform dash-uppers is tedious, especially if you want to maintain any sort of directional control over Zagreus. If that is indeed your setup and you want to use Maim with any frequency, it’ll be helpful to change your key bindings to assign your Special to your right mouse button and put your Cast to Q. Also, note that Draining Cutter heals you if your dash-upper kills an enemy, but not if the subsequent Maim damage does. [UPDATE 10/27: Post-game patch now activates Draining Cutter’s healing effect if Maim damage kills an enemy.]

Even with a thumb mouse button or controller to make things a bit more streamlined, Maim is a precarious debuff to spam and rely on, in that it’s not solely a debuff and can lead to you taking substantial damage while waiting for the delayed damage it imparts to activate. Simply put, 400 damage isn’t a significant enough blow against bosses like Hades to justify the possibility of suffering a 60-damage return strike if you’re caught in one of his sweeping spear attacks (the same, of course, can be said for Asterius and his heavy axe blows). On its own, Maim is an unreliable effect, especially relative to other debuffs available in the game, such as the Eternal Spear’s Aspect of Hades (spin attack produces a debuff of +1.