Hades – How to Complete a 32 Heat Run (Chaos Shield and Aspect)

Setup, strategy, and pointers to complete a 32 heat run with the Chaos Shield’s Chaos Aspect.

32 Heat Guide

All credit goes to Porforis!

Introduction / Basics

This guide is here for you with tips and pointers to unlock the final Skelly statue with a 32 heat run, with the Chaos Shield, Chaos aspect. Be sure you have the Chaos Shield, Shady companion, Broken Spearpoint, Lucky Tooth and/or Old Spiked Collar, and optionally Chaos Egg fully upgraded before attempting. If you’re regularly dying before Elysium, try turning the heat down a bit to around 20 and practicing a bit more with the Chaos Shield before attempting again.

If you don’t mind “Cheating”, once you get a good starter boon (and especially if there’s a first room chaos gate), Give Up to end a run instead of dying and you’ll keep the same starting boon and room on subsequent runs, leaving a lot less to chance. Get Chaos Egg, rinse repeat on subsequent runs until you get a good Chaos Boon, and then take any other chaos gates you get in Tartarus. On my winning run I got +62 max life and +52% special from Chaos Gates in Tartarus which makes a world of difference especially early game. Chaos negative effects can suck but for the most part if you got a good starting boon it won’t be a problem in Tartarus.

Setup – Pact of Punishment Conditions, Keepsake, Companion

Companion: Shady all the way for the heals. Use only when really low on health to avoid using up Death Defiances.

KeepsakeEither coin purse or Chaos Egg (see notes about Chaos Gate in intro) to start with, spearpoint until Temple of Styx. Then, either go with Lucky Tooth or Old Spiked Collar depending on how many Death Defiance you have left – Since Spiked Collar gives you +50 max HP, it’s essentially worth 50 + 25 per Death Defiance remaining, so if you’ve got 2 then it’s a wash with Lucky Tooth, if 3 (or 4 if you got a rare chaos boon for that) then you’re better off with Old Spiked Collar. I didn’t find the spearpoint that helpful in Styx, and Hades can’t really hit you multiple times.

Pact Conditions: Maxed out Convenience fee, Jury Summons, Extreme Measures, Calisthenics Program, Benefits Package, Middle Management, Heightened Security, and Damage Control. Lasting Consequences on -25%, Hard Labor on +40%, Forced Overtime on +20%, and -6 on Routine Inspection.

Extreme Measures kinda sucks for the Hydra but frankly in a lot of runs I find Thesius to be easier with Extreme Measures – plus by the time you get to him either you’ve got a proper boss-killing boon setup or you don’t.

You could swap in Approval Process and Underworld Customs to reduce some combination of hard labor, calisthenics program, forced overtime, and routine inspection but this build focuses on getting quality boons in combinations that will carry you, and being forced out of choosing a quality boon or having to ditch a useful boon just isn’t worth it IMO.

Boons

Boons, boons, boons. A few good boons can completely make or break this run.

Most useful Dadelous Hammer boons are in order, Sudden Rush, Breaching Rush (really good against armored baddies which can cause serious problems), Dread Flight. If you have Sudden Rush, I typically suggest forgoing more hammers if there’s a Hermes door available.

Hermes boons for dashes, evasion, attack, and special speed are all huge. Movement is pretty nice too but with the mobility of Bull Rush especially with extra dashes, it’s not worth forgoing something else potentially more useful.

As far as other boon types go:

• Attack: Pretty much anything – Zeus, Ares, Demeter, Athena, Ares, Poseidon all have their usefulness.
• Special: Zeus, Zeus, Zeus. Ares is nice too but he ain’t Zeus. it almost negates the Damage Control as nearby baddies will be taking extra hits from the lightning damage plus there’s multiple shields flying around. Definitely take the Jolted perk to compliment it for extra damage. Any boons or duo boons that work with Jolted is fantastic and will probably end in a successful run if you don’t screw up.
• Dash: Athena. You’ll be doing a lot of dashing after bull rushes, being able to reflect attacks is pretty huge.

Doors, Shops

Doors – Focus on boons where possible. Don’t be afraid to go into Erebus if the rewards are better (Centaur Heart +50 is huge for example) in Tartarus, just bull rush around the perimeter keeping distance from baddies and using your special to take them out. You’ll obviously need some health but don’t overestimate how much you’ll need and get too many Centaur Hearts instead of boons – I won handily with about 260 health.

Purchasing – Keep extra cash around for death defiance restores if you need it but don’t be afraid to buy boons – especially Hermes, D-Hammer, or a god that you really need more of.