Unlocking Hades 2 Aspects is a major step up in power for Melinoe, letting her upgrade the Nocturnal Arms with new abilities. All five weapons in the game get their default Aspect of Melinoe and two other unique Aspects that change how they work. All Aspects are upgradeable too, letting you bolster the power of your weapons even further, and you can freely switch them around between Hades 2 runs, giving you loads of customization options to suit your playstyle. Here's how you can unlock and upgrade Weapon Aspects in Hades 2 quickly and which ones are the best to unlock first.
Best Hades 2 Aspects for each weapon
Weapon Aspects are neither easy or cheap to unlock and upgrade, requiring specific, high-level resources that can be hard to obtain, so it's important to collect and improve the best ones:
- Best Staff Aspect – Aspect of Momus: Provides a way of getting some emergency healing which can be hugely useful in a pinch. It's also easy to craft as you only need resources from Oceanus and the Hades 2 Scylla boss fight.
- Best Blades Aspect – Aspect of Melinoe: Reliable Backstab damage makes the Omega Attack for Lim and Oros very powerful. The Aspect of Artemis is close behind, offering superior Critical damage and a bit of damage mitigation but with less reliability and more risk, though you may prefer that.
- Best Axe Aspect – Aspect of Thanatos: While this Aspect relies on taking as little damage as possible, boosting your Critical chance can make the already high-damage strikes of the axe even more devastating.
- Best Flames Aspect – Aspect of Melinoe: The Umbral Flames are probably the worst weapon in the game right now, so it's worth just sticking with the default Aspect of Melinoe. I did find the Aspect of Eos to be quite a nice improvement, but not enough to make me consider using the weapons more than I must.
- Best Skull Aspect – Aspect of Persephone: The Argent Skull has three solid Aspects, but Persephone's amps up the power of the Skull's extremely good Omega Special, dealing lots of damage in a huge area. If you don't like the Omega Special, stick with the Aspect of Melinoe.
How to unlock Hades 2 Aspects
To gain access to Weapon Aspects at the Silver Pool in Hades 2, you need to cast the Aspects of Night and Darkness Incantation at the Crossroads Cauldron. This Incantation will be revealed to you during the Hades 2 Hecate boss fight in an Underworld run but appears to have a secret requirement. Based on my experience, it seems you need to defeat Hecate at least once using each of the five Hades 2 weapons for her to share the Aspects of Night and Darkness Incantation – I unlocked it after beating her with the Argent Skull, Revaal, for the first time, having previously beaten her with every other weapon.
If you've done that, hopefully the Hades 2 Weapon Aspects Incantation should appear on your list at the Cauldron, requiring these resources:
- 5 Bronze: Gathering Hades 2 Bronze can only be done with the Crescent Pick if you've unlocked the Surface.
- 1 Nightshade: Use the Silver Spade on digging spots in Erebus to collect Nightshade Seeds. Plant them at soil plots next to Odysseus at the Crossroads and they'll eventually grow into Nightshade flowers you can pick.
Now that you've cast the Incantation, head over to the Silver Pool and you'll notice all the Aspects have been added to your weapons list, but you need to spend more resources to unlock each individual Aspect, making them available to apply to their respective weapons. Once you've unlocked an Aspect, stand by the relevant weapon at the Silver Pool and equip it if you haven't already, then press the equip button again to bring up the Aspect list for the weapon. In this menu, you can swap between any of the Aspects you've unlocked for the chosen weapon to suit your preferences, but you may also want to upgrade them.
How to upgrade Hades 2 Aspects
Some Aspects, particularly the default Aspects of Melinoe, get much better once they've been upgraded. All Aspects can be improved up to Rank V by spending even more resources via the Silver Pool menu under the 'Aspect Awakenings' tab.
Each weapons' Aspect of Melinoe is upgraded with varying amounts of two resources, with each subsequent Rank requiring more of one of those resources. However, all other Aspects are upgraded with Nightmares – a resource that can only be obtained by defeating Guardian bosses as part of a Testament of Night challenge.
If you have no idea what that means, you need to defeat Chronos first, which will reveal the Oath of the Unseen found between the Hades 2 Surface and Underworld entrances at the Crossroads. Interacting with this Oath lets you apply modifiers (Vows) which add a Fear to your next run. If a certain level of Fear is met, a Testament of Night challenge to kill a particular Guardian boss might be activated. Defeat the boss with the required weapon to enact the Testament and get one Nightmare as a reward, which you can then spend on a Weapon Aspect upgrade.
All Hades 2 Aspects
Each of the five weapons currently in Hades 2 has three Aspects each: an Aspect of Melinoe and two others based on other Hades 2 characters and figures from Greek myth. The Aspects of Melinoe are just the default weapons, but the other Aspects change both the appearance and behaviour of the weapon. Here are all the available Aspects for each weapon:
Witch’s Staff Aspects
- Aspect of Melinoe: Unlocked by default. Channel Omega Moves faster. Upgrading this Aspect increases Omega Channel Speed even more.
- Aspect of Circe: 5 Silver + 5 Lotus. After landing 21 Attacks or Specials, you gain Serenity for 6 seconds (While Serenity is active, Omega Moves are 15% faster and Magick is rapidly restored automatically). Upgrading this Aspect increases the duration of Serenity.
- Aspect of Momus: 2 Limestone + 1 Pearl. Special and Omega Special Power increased by 10. While you have 50% health or less, absorb your Omega Special blast to restore 5 health. Upgrading this Aspect increases the Power of your Special and Omega Special even more and increases the amount of health you restore by absorbing your Omega Special.
Sister Blades Aspects
- Aspect of Melinoe: Unlocked by default. Attacks and Specials gain bonus Backstab damage, causing them to deal more damage when hitting enemies from behind. Upgrading this Aspect further increases the Backstab damage bonus.
- Aspect of Artemis: 15 Silver + 1 Glassrock. While you Channel your Omega Attack, you have a chance to Parry (briefly block most types of direct attacks with a 15-second cooldown), then Riposte right after (become Impervious for 1 second and your next 9 strikes have a +50% Critical chance). Your Omega Attack is also faster. Upgrading this Aspect further increases the speed of your Omega Attack.
- Aspect of Pan: 1 Wool + 2 Shaderot. Your Specials seek foes in your Cast, and you can fire an extra blade when you Channel your Omega Special. Upgrading this Aspect increases the number of extra blades you can throw during your Omega Special.
Moonstone Axe Aspects
- Aspect of Melinoe: Unlocked by default. Recover faster after using your Attacks and Specials. Upgrading this Aspect further increases your recovery speed.
- Aspect of Thanatos: 3 Hades 2 Glassrock + 1 Dark. Whenever you hit enemies with Omega Moves, your Critical chance increases by 1% up to a maximum of 4% until you take damage. Upgrading this Aspect increases the maximum Critical chance you can build up.
- Aspect of Charon: 5 Pearls + 1 Obol Points card. Your Cast lasts 3 seconds longer and erupts like your Omega Cast if it is hit by your Omega Special – this eruption is your "Cleave-Cast", which is larger and more powerful than your normal Omega Cast. Upgrading this Aspect further increases the size and damage of your Cleave-Cast.
Umbral Flames Aspects
- Aspect of Melinoe: Unlocked by default. Flames from your Omega Special burn longer before expiring. Upgrading this Aspect increases the duration of Omega Special flames even more.
- Aspect of Moros: 2 Bronze + 2 Tears. Your Attacks linger for 6 seconds and explode if struck by your Specials. Upgrading this Aspect increases the damage of the explosions.
- Aspect of Eos: 2 Driftwood + 2 Golden Apples. Your Attacks grow bigger and stronger over 4 seconds, dealing 40% more damage when at their full size. They also return to you whenever you Sprint. Upgrading this Aspect increases the damage dealt by Attacks when fully grown.
Argent Skull Aspects
- Aspect of Melinoe: Unlocked by default. Your Attacks have more Power for each Shell fired and not yet retrieved. Upgrading this Aspect further increases the additional Power gained for each spent Shell.
- Aspect of Persephone: 1 Moss + 5 Poppies. Any damage dealt generates Glory (Makes your Omega Special last up to 5 seconds longer, firing continually while you have control). Upgrading this Aspect increases the amount of damage your Omega Special deals.
- Aspect of Medea: 4 Hades 2 Iron + 1 Nightshade. Your Attacks stay within reach and explode in a large area on impact with an enemy after using your Special or after 3 seconds. Your Attack and Special damage are also increased by 20%. Upgrading this Aspect further increases your Attack and Special damage.
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