Best Hades 2 Familiars and how to unlock and upgrade them

Bonding with Hades 2 Familiars lets you bring them along on your nightly runs, with each pet granting Melinoe some nice bonuses. Whether its Frinos' hypnotic gaze that can instantly pacify shades or Hecuba's superb digging skills, or Raki's critical-boosting pecking, each Familiar can be a massive help in any Hades 2 run, especially when it comes to gathering valuable resources.

The problem is that unlocking all five of them is a long process and upgrading them all takes even longer, requiring lots of special treats that you'll mostly need to make yourself. So, it's a good idea to know how to unlock each Familiar in Hades 2 as quickly as possible, what you need to upgrade them, and which ones are best to invite along, and I've covered all of that below.

Best Hades 2 Familiars

The Best Familiar in Hades 2 entirely depends on the sorts of builds you like and what resources you need to collect – particularly if you're trying to upgrade Hades 2 weapons and their Aspects. Given that Incantations and upgrades are also key to making good progress, I recommend choosing your Familiar based on what you need, but some are definitely more useful than others thanks to their additional buffs.

Here's how I rank all five of the Familiars in Hades 2:

1. Raki: The white raven helps you find mining outcroppings for reagents that are often needed in large quantities – great if you need lots of Hades 2 Adamant. His Marking and Critical bonuses are also nice to have in almost any build, massively upping your damage in some instances.
2. Hecuba: Hecate's hound is similarly useful when it comes to gathering seeds, while her other benefits are solid but not essential and will mainly help those using Magick-intensive builds.
3. Gale: While I've not struggled that much with finding Flora, Gale's assistance here can certainly be helpful and her dodge chance and speed boost can be a lifesaver that works with any build.
4. Frinos: Melinoe's loyal toad is an excellent starter Familiar, boosting Melinoe's health and Psyche gains which should help you increase your Grasp in no time. However, I think you should switch to Raki or Hecuba as soon as you can, mainly to help with Incantations and unlocking the best Hades 2 Aspects.
5. Toula: There are so many ways to get Bones that Toula's fishing bonus just isn't that useful. The extra Death Defiance isn't worthwhile either unless you feel you really need it, and it doesn’t help that her admittedly quite strong attacks will only trigger when you sprint near her.

How to unlock all Hades 2 Familiars

You can recruit Familiars in Hades 2 by casting the Faith of Familiar Spirits Incantation, which requires 2 Hades 2 Nectar and 1 Lotus to cast. It also gives you three Witch's Delights, which are what you actually use to bond with Familiars so that they'll appear in the Crossroads training ground where you can take them with you on runs.

I'm not sure about the exact requirements for unlocking this Incantation, but you'll know you're on the right track when, just before starting the Hades 2 Hecate fight, the Witch of the Crossroads and Melinoe will have a brief chat about Familiars. Beat Hecate after this and she'll teach you Faith of Familiar Spirits. I got it on my tenth time facing Hecate, but the point is you'll unlock this Incantation eventually, so long as you keep running through the Underworld.

Now you can start handing out those Witch's Delights to the various friendly creatures you find on your runs, some of which you will have already come across – note that some Familiars can't be bonded with straight away, with the option to give them a Witch's Delight first appearing when meeting them for the second or third time.

Here's where you can find all five Familiars in Hades 2 and what they do:

Frinos the toad

• Location: Melinoe's amiable amphibian is the first face you see upon returning to the Crossroads, so give him a Witch's Delight right away to recruit him to the cause.
• Benefits: Hops around and can obstruct certain ranged attacks from enemies, increases Melinoe's maximum health, and increases the chances of Lost Shades appearing, helping you get more Psyche.

Raki the raven

• Location: You'll find Raki in the Erebus fountain that has a chance of appearing in the region after casting the Woodsy Lifespring Incantation (from my experience, this fountain became inexplicably rare which meant it took me ages to reach Raki after seeing him several times without Witch's Delights but keep doing Underworld runs and you should get him eventually).
• Benefits: Occasionally pecks at enemies, dealing a tiny bit of damage but leaving them Marked, which increases their chances of taking Critical damage. Also increases Melinoe's innate Critical Chance a little, and increases the likelihood of mining outcroppings appearing, helping you gather lots of reagents.

Toula the cat

• Location: You'll first see Toula on the left side of the entrance area of the Rift of Thessaly, the second region of the Hades 2 Surface path.
• Benefits: Toula is usually napping at any given moment but if you sprint near her, she'll wake up and attack the nearest enemy, dealing 99 damage several times. She also provides a bonus Death Defiance and increases the chances of fishing spots appearing during a run – caught fish can be exchanged for Bones with the Wretched Broker.

Hecuba the hound

• Location:  Hecate's loyal dog can be found in the Fields of Mourning, guarding the exits in Echo's location. However, she seems to only appear here after you have recruited at least two other Familiars and have received the 'Permission Granted, Shared Familiar Bonds' notification after a conversation with Hecate at the Crossroads (I'm not sure what the exact triggers are for receiving this permission but so long as you recruit at least two Familiars and continue to fight Hecate, you should get it eventually).
• Benefits: Occasionally stuns surrounding enemies for one second and can sometimes dig up healing snacks and Magick-restoring Spirit Bubbles. Hecuba also increases Melinoe's maximum Magick and makes digging spots for seeds more likely to appear during a run, which you can then plant.

Gale the polecat

• Location: To find Gale, Hecate's polecat pet, you need to reach the Hades 2 Prometheus boss fight on Mount Olympus, as she waits just by the steps that lead up to the arena. But it seems like she will only appear here once you have recruited the other four companions.
• Benefits: Gale will leap in the way of danger and deals one instance of high damage, but she can do this only three times per region with at least 30 seconds between each attack. Gale also increases Melinoe's Dodge chance and move speed and make it more likely for Flora resources (plants that you can just pick) to appear during runs.

Bonded Familiars will rest in the Silver Pool area of the Crossroads where you can invite them to follow you – remember that you can have only one Familiar follower at a time and you receive only your current Familiar's benefits. All Familiars are completely invincible and do not get attacked by enemies too. Their Silver Pool resting spots are also where you upgrade your Familiars.

How to upgrade Hades 2 Familiars

You can improve the bonuses that each Familiar provides once you've cast the Bravery of Familiar Spirits Incantation, which will automatically appear in the cauldron after you've bonded with Frinos, Toula, and Raki.  You need 1 Wool and 3 Wheat to be able to perform this Incantation.

Once you've cast that, you can give any of your available Familiars resting near the Silver Pool more Witch's Delights to level them up. When you give them a treat, you get to choose one of their three Bond skills to level up, improving its benefit, and all three can be increased to Rank 3.

Obviously, you'll need more Witch's Delights to power level your animal pals and the main source of these is the Beast-Loved Morsel alchemy recipe. You can find this at the Crossroads cauldron, providing three Witch's Delights in exchange for 1 Nectar and 1 Star Dust from Chaos Trials. You'll also some Witch Delight's from the previous two Incantations you cast, but you'll get through these quickly, and the only other way I've got them is a very rare gift from Odysseus.

That's all you need to know about unlocking and upgrading Familiars, but make sure you also know how to enhance your Hades 2 Arcana Cards.

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