Our resident Rouge-like expert Glen (Gunna) spotted Hades on the Epic Game Store and subsequently persuaded me to buy it. Luckily, unlike almost every other game he has suggested I buy, Hades turned out to be an awesome game. The graphics are beautiful, the combat is great, and the upgrades and dialog are equally as good. Sure, at the moment the game is a bit short and the mobs become a little repetitive after hours of constant gameplay, but these are things that you expect in such an early access game and they should be sorted with future updates before the games full release.
Anyway, I digress, this isn’t a Hades review, this is a walkthrough for the first big challenge you’ll face in the underworld – taking down Megaera.
Glen recently published a video guide for this boss on YouTube which you can watch below.
The first challenge is actually making it to Megaera in the first place, which is fairly easy (after a few failed attempts) but the choices you make on your journey to her are important, and, more specifically, the boons you choose to take on the way play a key role in how easy she is to take down. The boons you should look out for are as follows:
Best Boons for Megaera
Deflect: Due to Megaera’s AOE projectiles, Deflect can be really useful in the boss battle; not only will you deflect damage back at Megaera, but you’ll also be able to thin down the extra mobs that spawn. It doesn’t particularly matter which boon you choose as long as it gives Deflect.
Primary attack damage: Most of the damage you do to Megaera will be with your primary attack. You’ll quickly learn that spamming your special ability isn’t the way to go; because of this you’ll want to choose at least one boon that boosts your primary attack. You could also opt for critical hit chance and critical damage if you prefer.
Hunter Dash: This boon is incredibly powerful and can really help boost your DPS. Hunter Dash will provide you with critical damage after you dash and considering the amount of time you spend dashing around in Hades its probably one of the best boon choices for the game, as well as the Megaera boss battle.
Primary attack buffs and a deflect buff are the two most important boons to pick up. If you’re lucky enough to also get Hunter Dash then Megaera will be a breeze.
As well as boons, the upgrades you take from the mirror are just as important. My personal preference of upgrades are as follows:
Best Mirror Upgrades
Triple Dash: The dash is arguably a bit OP so the more times you can do it in a row the better, especially when facing Megaera, as it’s the best way to avoid her AOE damage. If you aren’t able to afford triple dash then double dash should be sufficient to take her down, but never run single dash – that’s just lame.
Death Defiance: This upgrade will bring you back to life should you happen to die a slow and painful death in the underworld. The upgrade will bring you back to life with 20 health, and each upgrade provides you with another chance up to a maximum of three revivals.
Boiling Blood: This upgrade provides you with extra damage when your cast attack is attached to an enemy. Keeping a cast on Meg throughout this fight will increase dps greatly.
Now you know the upgrades and boons to take, let’s move onto the boss fight itself.
Megaera Boss Fight Strategy
You’ll do most of your damage to Megaera when she charges you. You’ll know when she’s about to charge you because she’ll charge up and you’ll hear the sound effects. When she does this you should dash in the same direction that she is charging (not towards her but away). Megaera will then do nothing for a moment, allowing you to get some hits in. As soon as it looks like she’s going to attack again, back off and dash around until she’s ready to charge again.
Megaera also has a spin attack which is relatively simple to avoid. When Megaera chases you around all you have to do to avoid being hit is stop momentarily and she will begin the attack animation as soon as she is close enough. Once she starts the animation simply dash away. Never try to melee her before the animation or while shes mid attack as this will result in you taking considerable damage.
That’s essentially all you have to do for the whole fight. Of course, things get a bit more difficult when she starts pulling out the big guns such as her AOE, but this is easily avoided by dashing, deflecting, and keeping your distance, as described below:
AOE projectiles: When Megaera performs this ability it’s best to keep your distance, as if you’re too close the projectiles will be tightly packed and hard to avoid. If you’re at the other end of the room the projectiles are easy to avoid by simply moving out of the way, but it’s also a good idea to deflect some of them back at her for a little bit of extra damage.
AOE floor attack: When Megaera performs this ability you’ll see dark circles underfoot. The only way to avoid taking damage from these is by moving away from them, and the best way to do that is by dashing. It is possible to dash off the circles completely with a double dash, which is why that upgrade is important for this boss fight, as mentioned above. The triple dash is even better and gives you a little room for error. It’s important to only dash when the circles appear, as if you get caught mid dash you might not be able to dash quick enough to avoid taking any damage.
That’s the main threat from Megaera taken care of, now the only other threat in the room are the mobs. It’s a good idea to kill some of these while you have down time, such as while you are waiting for Megaera to attack or if you’re avoiding her projectile AOE. If you don’t kill some mobs it’s pretty easy to get overrun, which in turn makes it difficult to avoid the boss herself. Oh, there is one other threat, and that is the spike traps, but you have to be a bit of a fool to land on those…
So, that’s it. Take these tips, remember them, and slay the demon; you’ll be facing her many more times as you make your way through the game, so master these tips and strategies to increase the speed of your runs.
Leave a Reply