Undefeatable Nergal Build

Aspect of Nergal is an Omega Weapon through and through. If you get the right build going, it's an easy dub, and will even be great for high fear and speedrunning.

The Berserk mechanic of Nergal heals you with every strike, so this Aspect is very forgiving. Starting with Apollo also opens the possibility of getting his infusion Boon, Self Healing. Together, they make up the tankiest build in all of Hades 2.

That's why I'm calling this build "undefeatable." No matter how much damage the enemy pumps out, you can practically face tank all of it.

The following guide is an overview of the strategy I follow when building for Aspect of Nergal. Using this build, I cleared the Underworld in just 7 minutes and 11 seconds! (A PB at the time).

The TLDR is to stack every Omega Attack buff you can, hope for Psychic Whirlwind and Hooooold Attack. The only thing you'll really need after that, is a lot of Magick.

• Check out the linked YT video to see Nergal in action in the Unrivaled Typhon fight. (Spoiler Warning if you haven't fought against Unrivaled Typhon)

If you want higher starting damage, or you find standard encounters to be easy, but are really struggling with Guardian encounters, you could swap out Nova Strike for Flutter Strike. The higher damge % increase is better against Guardians. Plus you can use Rapture Ring to CC foes away from you.

The trade off is that the peak power of an Aphrodite build will be lower than an Apollo build for Aspect of Nergal. Exceptional Talent may be hard to get without rerolls, or when not using Excellence (XIX), but once you have it, every spinning Omega Attack literally doubles in damage and maintains Apollo's ginormous AoE.

Combat Loop

Aspect of Nergal's main weakness is being super slow. The best way to counter this is to only Dash-strike, Cast and Omega Attack. Try to avoid using the standard Attack, and there is no need for either Special.

• Berserk is built by all strikes, including Omega Attacks. Even if you are not Berserk, you should still be focusing on Omega Attacks.

1. Sprint in, Drop Cast as you go by the perimeter of the foes.
2. Dash-strike right as the momentum from The Messenger (VIII) Cast ends
3. 1. Hitting foes with the Dash-strike is optional, only do so when safe.
3. Channel your Omega Attack
4. While still holding Attack, Dash towards the foes and Melinoë will automatically Dash Omega
5. 1. These foes should be currently ensnared by your Cast.
5. Repeat

Unkillable

I am not kidding you, Melinoë can literally absorb so much damage with this build. Berserk is healing you quickly (because the Omega attack has good attack speed), and Strength (XXIII) is giving you a base 40% damage reduction. Furthermore, if you have other damage mitigations like Weak, or you graabbed Self Healing, even the strongest enemies will be unable to defeat you! 

Check out the damage taken values at the end of the Youtube video, you’ll see I suffered hundreds of damage from multiple sources and took over a minute of Timer damage in the final fight. Yet I still had a Death Defiance left over (granted I had an insane amount of max HP).

• Obviously you are not literally unkillable, and still need to be focusing on avoiding damage and evading enemy attacks. Compared to all other Aspects, however, Nergal makes Melinoë super tanky, and you will feel undefeatable.

Weapon Aspect

Everything about Aspect of Nergal revolves around its Omega attack. When you beat the final boss and you're looking at your Victory screen, your Omega attack damage should easily be five times the damage inflicted by anything else. Unless you have an important curse like Freeze on the special, you can just ignore that move entirely.

For Fear, you can easily throw on some Vow of Scars because Berserk healing is unaffected by the Vow. Also the huge AoE of your Omega Attacks clear standard encounters really fast so you should be able to use rank 1 or 2 Vow of Time without much trouble.

Arcana

Strength (XXIII) is the most important Arcana for Aspect of Nergal. Compared to Death (XII), Strength (XXIII) grants you +40% damage reduction in trade of Death Defiances. This effectively makes every point of Health healed through Berserk 40% more impactful when using Strength (XXIII).

All other choices are pretty standard, but I would note that The Huntress (III) likely won't get a lot of milage with this Omega focused weapon.

If you can work in Omega Casts (or if you get Winner's Circle), Night (X) is gonna be great. Otherwise, you can sacrifice The Messenger (VIII) and Night (X), to opt for The Lovers (XV).

Cast Boon

Cast usage will be very important when wielding Aspect of Nergal. (See Combat Loop above).

Your Omega Attack channels quite quickly the but even though the dash strike is faster than the base attack, it's still very slow.  The easiest way to work around this is to use either Rapture Ring or Arctic Ring. They are the best CC Casts in Hades 2.

Rapture Ring pulls foes towards the center of your Cast, and Arctic Ring Freezes them in place. Both are incredible for creating space and giving you plenty of time to get-in-get-out with Cast and Omega Attack.

Bonus if you land a high rarity Cold Storage, because most foes will be shattered by the massive swings before they unfreeze.

Gain Boon

Aspect of Nergal Omega Attack only requires 20 Magick, so it's unlikely you'll run out of Magick with most Gain Boons. The two you should avoid are Glamour Gain and Cardio Gain. Glamour Gain doesn't refill Magick While channeling Omegas, and Cardio Gain only restores Magick from standard attacks (worst possible choice).

Preferred Gain Boons

• Lucid Gain
• Flood Gain
• Tough Gain
• Born Gain

Apollo Boons

After getting Nova Strike, try to fulfill the requirements for Exceptional Talent. As soon as you land the Legendary, you're Omega damage doubles, and you'll be priming Hexes super fast.

Blinding Rush or Lucid Gain are good for the 2nd Core boon, and Back Burner would be preferred as the 3rd requirement for its damage, but honestly just take whatever you are offered.

Hammers

The absolute best hammers for Nergal are: Psychic Whirlwind Furious Whirlwind Seething Marauder. If you don't get at least one of these, I will be very sad.

Psychic Whirlwind will turn this build into a free win. It's completely OP to be able to spring and dodge around while using your Omega. The other two are decent substitutes, however, so don't make the mistake of thinking you 100% need Psychic.

Hermes

From Hermes, Travel Deal will improve your odds of getting enough Apollo Boons to land Exceptional Talent. Another I've found useful will all Zorephet builds is Hard Target. The slow projectiles make dodging enemy attacks with your Dash-Omega Attack really easy.