Best Hades 2 Aspects and how to unlock them all

Using the best Hades 2 Aspects will massively boost Melinoe's power on any run, adding all sorts of new powers to the Nocturnal Arms. There are 24 Aspects in the game – four for the six weapons Melinoe can wield – ranging from a Staff that lets you create a psychic laser beam to blades that let you bleed enemies dry in an instant.

However, Aspects can be hard to unlock and much harder to upgrade in Hades 2, requiring rare, high-level resources – and very specific requirements in the case of the hidden Aspects. With that in mind, it's important to focus your efforts on getting the best Hades 2 Aspects early, so we've listed our favorites below, as well as everything you need to know about unlocking every Aspect, even the hidden ones!

Best Hades 2 Aspects for each weapon

While every weapon and Aspect in Hades 2 has the potential to be good with the right Boons and Keepsakes, some of them are a cut above the rest and can be a massive help when taking on some of the toughest runs. Here are what we think are the best Aspects for all six weapons:

• Best Staff Aspect – Aspect of Circe: When you lean into stacking all sorts of Boons on your Cast, the Aspect of Circe can be extremely destructive, and the Psychic Leash does surprising damage too! For more area-based damage, the hidden Aspect of Anubis is another excellent choice.
• Best Blades Aspect – Aspect of the Morrigan: This hidden Aspect makes the Sister Blades quite slow but the Blood Triad ability can dish out absurd amounts of damage, helping you rip through encounters and bosses alike. However, getting this hidden Aspect isn't easy, so the Aspect of Melinoe is an excellent one to use in the interim.
• Best Flames Aspect – Aspect of Supay: The Umbral Flames have some notable problems that the Aspect of Supay resolves with auto-firing Attacks and Specials, letting you focus on being mobile and the more powerful Omega Moves.
• Best Axe Aspect – Aspect of Thanatos: The Axe's major downside is that it's really slow, and Thanatos' Aspect increases its speed and adds a nice critical hit chance buff on top for massive damage. The hidden Aspect of Nergal is another top choice but needs to be upgraded a fair bit to really reap the benefits of Berserk.
• Best Skull Aspect – Aspect of Persephone: The Argent Skull's Aspects are all pretty good, but Persephone's amps up the power of the great Omega Special and provides extra levels for your Boons, which is a huge overall boost. While the required playstyle is a little odd, we also found the Aspect of Medea to be pretty good.
• Best Coat Aspect – Aspect of Nyx: The Omega Boost is almost like a free Hephaestus Boon and the extra Nightspawn strikes help you deal more damage and potentially hit more foes. The hidden Aspect of Shiva is also pretty good but far more focused on single-target damage.

How to unlock Hades 2 Aspects and upgrade them

To unlock Weapon Aspects 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 after beating Hecate in Hades 2 for the fifth time – as far as I can tell, there aren't any other requirements.

When you next return to the Crossroads, you should see the Aspects of Night and Darkness Incantation available at the cauldron, requiring 1 Nightshade and 5 Bronze to cast. Nightshade is easy enough to get in Erebus, but Bronze is exclusive to the first region on the Hades 2 Surface path, so you might need to perform more Incantations first.

After you've cast Aspects of Night and Darkness with those ingredients, head over to the Silver Pool to find that all your weapons now have three Aspects to unlock and upgrade – the default Aspect of Melinoe and two others based on Hades 2 characters and figures from Greek myth. To unlock the other two Aspects, you'll need to pay with various resources collected during your runs, which I've mentioned further below.

Once unlocked, an Aspect can be upgraded from Rank 1 to Rank 5, substantially improving the unique bonuses they offer. Aspects of Melinoe are upgraded with even more resources while all other Aspects are upgraded with Nightmares – a resource that's awarded for completing Testaments of Night, completing certain Fated List prophecies, and can eventually be bought from the Wretched Broker for 1,200 Bones a piece.

How to unlock Hades 2 Hidden Aspects

Each of the six Nocturnal Arms also has a fourth hidden Aspect that can only be unlocked unless specific requirements are met:

For a particular weapon, you first need to fully upgrade any Aspect. Then you need to find the character named in one of the weapon's Aspects during a run or in the Crossroads and hope that you hear the 'waking-phrase'. It's very hard to tell if there are specific requirements for unlocking the waking-phrase but take every chance you get to talk to the required character, and you'll eventually hear it – it might take a while. Note that you also don’t need to be using the weapon when talking to the character either – I got the Sister Blades hidden Aspect phrase from Artemis while using the Staff.

After that, visit the Silver Pool and Melinoe will recite the phrase to reveal the secret Aspect, which you can then unlock with various materials. You'll then need to upgrade with Nightmares, though hidden Aspects are more costly than the others.

That's all you need to know when it comes to revealing, unlocking, and upgrading Aspects, but here's what all 24 of them do and what you need to unlock them.

All Witch’s Staff Aspects

• Aspect of Melinoe: Increases Melinoe's maximum Magick and the Power of her Special and Omega Special by 0 at Rank 1 and 40 at Rank 5.
• Aspect of Circe: Whenever you create a Cast or Omega Cast, so does your Hades 2 Familiar and a Psychic Leash is formed for 5 seconds. Psychic Leash is a pink beam that runs between Melinoe and her Familiar that deals 10 damage every 0.2 seconds at Rank 1 and 30 at Rank 5.
  • Unlocked at the Silver Pool for 5 Hades 2 Marble and 5 Lotuses
• Aspect of Momus: Whenever you use your Omega Moves, they fire again in the same place up to 3 times until you use them again. The delay between repeated Omega Moves is 4 seconds at Rank 1 and 2 seconds at Rank 5.
  • Unlocked at the Silver Pool for 3 Limestone and 1 Pearl from the Hades 2 Scylla boss fight
• (HIDDEN) Aspect of Anubis: The Staff becomes the Ankh Scepter, which causes Attacks to create a damaging field and Specials to pull enemies in. Wherever you kill a foe, a Lone Shade is raised. Your Omega Moves also gain a 10% speed and damage bonus, which increases to 30% at Rank 5.
  • Unlocked at the Silver Pool for 5 Tears and 2 Fangs after hearing the Aspect's waking-phrase from Circe

All Sister Blades Aspects

• Aspect of Melinoe: Attacks and Specials (this includes Omega versions!) deal more damage when hitting enemies from behind. This Backstab damage bonus is +0% at Rank 1 but +100% at Rank 5.
• Aspect of Artemis: While you Channel your Omega Attack, you have a chance to Parry, blocking incoming damage from attacks (this has a 15-second cooldown), then Riposte right after, making you Impervious for 1 second and granting your next 9 strikes an extra 50% Critical chance. Additionally, your Omega Attack is faster by 20% at Rank 1 and 60% at Rank 5.
  • Unlocked at the Silver Pool for 15 Silver and 1 Hades 2 Glassrock
• Aspect of Pan: Your Special and Omega Special projectiles seek foes in your Cast. You can also channel your Omega Special for longer to throw more daggers than usual, from 1 extra at Rank 1 to 5 more at Rank 5.
  • Unlocked at the Silver Pool for 2 Shaderot and 2 Wool
• (HIDDEN) Aspect of the Morrigan: The Sister Blades become the Crow Cutters which have a wide slicing attack that hits three times and slower Specials that hit repeatedly in flight. Landing an Attack, Special, and Omega Move on a single enemy also activates the Blood Triad which deals 333 damage at Rank 1 and 777 damage at Rank 5.
  • Unlocked at the Silver Pool for 8 Iron and 2 Feathers from the Hades 2 Prometheus boss fight after hearing the Aspect's waking-phrase from Artemis

All Umbral Flames Aspects

• Aspect of Melinoe: Attacks and Specials have a chance to deal Critical Damage. This chance is 0% at Rank 1 and 10% at Rank 5.
• Aspect of Moros: Your Attacks linger for 2 seconds and explode if struck by your Specials. Upgrading this Aspect increases the damage of the explosions by 0% at Rank 1 and 60% at Rank 5.
  • Unlocked at the Silver Pool for 6 Bronze and 4 Tears
• Aspect of Eos: Your Omega Attack fire a Daybreaker, a slow-moving seeking cloud that deals damage in an area around it every 2 seconds and copies your Specials. The damage of the Daybreak's blast increases from 100 at Rank 1 to 150 at Rank 5.
  • Unlocked at the Silver Pool for 2 Driftwood and 2 Golden Apples from the Hades 2 Eris boss fight
• (HIDDEN) Aspect of Supay: You gain the Devil Sparks moveset which causes you to fire your Attack and Special automatically and your Omega Attack and Omega Special are improved. The damage of your Rush Boon is also enhanced by 10% at Rank 1 and up to 30% at Rank 5.
  • Unlocked at the Silver Pool for 15 Marble and 1 Shadow after hearing the Aspect's waking-phrase from Moros

All Moonstone Axe Aspects

• Aspect of Melinoe: Increase the Power of your Attack and maximum health by 0 at Rank 1 and 35 at Rank 5.
• Aspect of Charon: If you hit your Cast with your Omega Special, the Cast erupts as a Cleave-Cast with increased size and damage. Upgrading this Aspect boosts the size and damage of the Cleave-Cast from +10% at Rank 1 to +30% at Rank 5.
  • Unlocked at the Silver Pool for 3 Pearls and 3 Obol Points Cards
• Aspect of Thanatos: Your Attack is faster and each hit with it grants a stack of Mortality, which are lost when you take damage. Each stack of Mortality grants +2% Critical chance for Omega Moves, capping out at +20%. Upgrading this Aspect further increases Attack speed from +20% at Rank 1 to +40% at Rank 5.
  • Unlocked at the Silver Pool for 4 Nightshade and 4 Glassrock
• (HIDDEN) Aspect of Nurgal: The Rock Lion Mace's Attack is a strong overheard slam that hits in large circle and the Omega Special hits the same area a few times rather than travelling in a line. After landing enough hits, you become Berserk for 8 seconds, which grants +65% speed to your Attacks and Specials and health regeneration per enemy hit. At Rank 1, you need to 21 hits to go Berserk but you can get this down to 9 hits when upgraded to Rank 5.
  • Unlocked at the Silver Pool for 15 Iron and 5 Serpent Scales after hearing the Aspect's waking-phrase from Charon

All Argent Skull Aspects

• Aspect of Melinoe: Your Attacks have more Power for each Shell fired and not yet retrieved. At Rank 1, the Power bonus per spent Shell is 0 but this increases to 12 Power per spent Shell when upgraded to Rank 5.
• Aspect of Medea: Your Attacks stay within reach and explode after hitting an enemy with your Specials or after 3 seconds. Your Attack and Specials also deal more damage and this bonus increases as you upgrade this Aspect – 30% more damage at Rank 1, up to 90% more at Rank 5.
  • Unlocked at the Silver Pool for 1 Mandrake Root and 4 Hades 2 Iron
• Aspect of Persephone: Your Omega Special is Sprouted – which causes damaging effects from Olympians to extend its duration by up to 2 seconds when its next used – and you can change direction while using it. Boons also gain a random number of bonus levels. At Rank 1, the maximum bonus levels a Boon can gain is 2, and this increases to up to 6 levels at Rank 5.
  • Unlocked at the Silver Pool for 1 Moss and 5 Hades 2 Poppies
• (HIDDEN) Aspect of Hel: You gain the Frost Main moveset, which makes Attacks burst-fire without spending shells and causes Specials to seek enemies. Using your Omega Special also grants the Valkyrie buff for 3 seconds, causing you to fire your Attack constantly but also preventing you from using Omega Moves. Attack speed is increased by 5% during Valkyrie, but upgrading this Aspect to Rank 5 boosts it to +25%.
  • Unlocked at the Silver Pool for 12 Adamant and 2 Snake Reed after hearing the Aspect's waking-phrase from Medea

All Black Coat Aspects

• Aspect of Melinoe: Your Attacks, Sprint, and move speed are faster by 0% at Rank 1 but up to 20% by Rank 5.
• Aspect of Selene: You start with runs with a unique Hex called Sky Fall. This Hex fires several beams of moonlight from above near Melinoe's position, potentially dealing damage to multiple foes and applying Shine (afflicted foes take 50% more damage from Omega Moves for 8 seconds). At Rank 1, Sky Fall is ready after 100 Magick has been spent but this comes down to 60 at Rank 5.
  • Unlocked at the Silver Pool for 4 Silver and 4 Moon Dust
• Aspect of Nyx: Sprint for a short time to activate Omega Boost, which deals 250 damage in an area and grants Nightspawn for 5 seconds. While Nightspawn is active, your Attack and Special also split in two and deal reduced damage. At Rank 1 Nightspawn damage is only 15% of normal damage, but this goes up 75% at Rank 5.
  • Unlocked at the Silver Pool for 4 Flux and 1 Darkness
• (HIDDEN) Aspect of Shiva: Gain the Purifying Grace moveset which causes your Omega Attack to launch you forward and adjusts your Specials so that they fire fewer shots that deal more damage. You can also absorb Omega Special explosions to gain stacks of the Destructive buff. For each stack, your Omega Attack deals 50% more damage, and you can have up to 2 stacks of Destructive at Rank 1 but up to 6 at Rank 5.
  • Unlocked at the Silver Pool for 2 Void Lenses and 4 Nightmares after hearing the Aspect's waking-phrase from Selene

As well as Aspects, you need to upgrade your Hades 2 Arcana Cards and give out Hades 2 Nectar to unlock lots of Keepsakes.

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