Chronos Boss Guide (Mechanics, Tips, and Tricks)

After carving through countless encounters and toppling three powerful Guardians, Chronos stands as the final obstacle between Melinoë and her quest to save the Underworld and free her family. As the final boss, you don’t get endless chances to practice—each attempt comes only after surviving an entire run.

That’s why we’ve built this guide: to arm you with the knowledge, strategies, and confidence needed to bring down the tyrant Titan of Time once and for all! Below you'll find proven techniques to overcome every single one of Chronos' attacks, and tips on how to enter the fight best prepared. May moonlight guide you,

"Death to Chronos!"

Take Your Time

The first thing to remember when facing Chronos is to not rush the fight. You are better of going slow and avoiding damage, than getting caught spamming and forgetting to dodge. If he's swinging wide, or the black time cuts are about to explode, stay away until the attack is over and you have a safe opening to sprint back in.

Positioning and Distance

Spacing will partly depend on your Weapon Aspect. When wielding Descura's Aspect of Melinoë, both the Omega Attack and Special have great range and allow you to fight Chronos outside the range of many of his attacks.

When using closer ranged Weapons like Lim and Oros' Aspect of Melinoë, try to stay close to Chronos and keep rotating behind him. Many of his moves only have frontal hitboxes.

Generally, its a good idea to keep a medium ranged distance to the titan. Try to never leave him out of your screen or it will be very difficult to avoid his attacks.

Practice Makes Perfect

Nothing is a substitute for good ol' fashion hard work. Get your reps in and don't stress out if it takes you 100 nights and 50 battles against Chronos to finally defeat him.

Use the following GIFs to get used to the visual ques of each Chronos attack. When you learn to recognize his movement patterns, vanquishing him becomes very consistent.

Dealing with Reinforcements

Whenever Chronos summons reinforcements, its typically best to deal with them first. Some have projectiles you might not see coming from off screen, and can really mess up a good attempt. While they are spawning, you can begin channeling an Omega Move to have its hit timed with the foes appears to deal an immediate burst of damage.

Do your best to avoid Chronos, and don't feel rushed. Take your time and wait where it is safe for a few seconds. Try to stay on the away from the center when foes are in the battle, so you don't get attack from all sides at once. Work your way in a circle and take them out one by one.

Vow of Frenzy

After you've unlocked the Oath of the Unseen, you'll be able to invoke the Vows. Vow of Frenzy increases move and attack speed of all foes, including Guardians. Even at Rank 2, all the same tips will still apply, and you can dodge all of Chronos' attacks using the same methods. The only difference is that you will have less time to react and tighter windows to dodge.

Satyr Supplicants

As soon as the encounter starts, Dash away from Chronos and start killing his summons. Focus on avoiding Chronos attacks because getting hit by the Satyr Supplicants is tiny damage compared to getting hit by a Scythe Slash.

Vortex Pull

The vortex itself deals no damage. You can stand in the vortex while battling his reinforcements if needed. The wind pulls you in so be careful not to get too close to Chronos because the spinning Scythe will damage you.

To avoid, Sprint to get to the side or behind Chronos. Make sure you are not in front of him when it ends because he shoots out a powerful blast.

Attack him from behind while he's channeling the Vortex to sneak in some free damage!

Scythe Slash

Chronos has two timings of this move. One he channels for longer and one that comes out faster. Both can be avoided by Dashing away from him.

You can also dash sideways, towards, or through Chronos if you time your Dash at the moment he swings. Remember, the black realm tears he leaves behind explode after a few seconds and will hurt you.

Scythe Spin Throw

Do not dash early! The best advice on learning how to deal with the spinning scythe is to practice your trigger discipline. Hold your ground until you see him through the scythe and immediately Dash towards Chronos. If you end up a few feet directly in front of him, the travel arc will go around you. You can also dash straight through him to end up safely behind him.

Alternatively, you can Dash sideways through the scythe, but the timing is much tighter.

Dash Slice

Chronos quickly dashes straight at you. Dashing perpendicular to dash path is the easiest way to avoid this attack.

Melinoë can dash straight through Chronos without taking damage. You can also end up in the black realm tear without taking damage as long as you move away before the explosion.

Triple Attack Combo

Chronos mixes up the order of this attack, which makes it the most difficult to deal with. He'll use a mixture of the long windup Scythe Slash, fast Scythe Slash and the Dash Slice. There may be three Dashes in a row, or it may be one of each.

The best way dodge his triple attack combo is to keep some distance, then Dash sideways for each attack. All variations can be dodged with a well timed skidways Dash.

• Note how you can safely stand in the black-tears until they explode.

Phase 1 Time Bubble

If you see a glowing bubble start to form around Chronos, immediately Dash away from him. This attack does not move, so you only need to worry about dodging it initially, then staying outside of its AoE.

Time Banners

Chronos creates Banners that grant shields to himself and all reinforcements within the glowing AoE. The shields are displayed as on enemies health bars. Each will absorb one attack.

Until you are facing Rivals 4 Chronos, you don't need to worry too much about destroying the banners.

2nd Wave Reinforcements

When Chronos gets down to 75% health, he'll summon reinforcements near the bottom of the map. Rush down there and quickly take them out before going back to focus on the Guardian.

3rd Wave Reinforcements

When Chronos has only 25% health remaining, he'll spawn in empowered versions of standard foes with Armor. These always spawn in the middle of the map, need to be dealt with immediately. They have more health and are more dangerous, so now is a good time to use Hexes and Magick if you've been saving them.

Time Bust

One of the 12 numbers on the clock (I - XII) will have an energy circle hone in on it. Run as fast as you can to it, and stand there until after the explosion. If caught outside of the safe zone you will get one-shot.

Time Slow

Extremely dangerous move you'll hopefully only see once or twice per fight. Chronos slows down time and summons Time Bubbles. First, focus on moving to a spot in between Time Bubbles. Next hold onto your Dash until Chronos unleashes an attack. Most importantly, don't dash into a time bubble.

Tempus Reinforcements

In Phase 2, Chronos summons hour glass Tempus. When destroyed, they explode in a time bubble. Keep your distance because if you get frozen by them, Chronos gets a free shot!

Diagonal Orbs

Chronos teleports to the center then spawns orbs in a circle around him, with lines of orbs going diagonally outwards from him. The thin red circle on the ground indicates where the center orbs will spawn so don't stand on it!

They don't move too fast so walk out of their path to stay safe.

• Pro tip: Dash through the centermost spheres and attack Chronos at point blank. The orbs won't hit you can you can dash away when he starts slashing again.

Spiral Orbs

Chronos creates orbs that shoot out in a spiral from his body. Dash away towards the edge and stay there until they retract back to his body.

Time Fire Circles

Chronos spawns a huge circle of fire the stage. The circles slowly move in towards the center. Wait till they are close and dash through them towards the edges of the stage. Sometimes he'll spawn two, and sometimes it will be one.

Phase 2 Time Bubbles

The time bubbles in phase 2 cover most of the map. Similar to the ones in phase 1, just dodge their initial placement and stay put until you need to dodge Chronos' follow-up attack.

Spider Clock

The ground quickly becomes covered in glowing lines. Stand between them to avoid damage!

Clock Burst

Chronos stands in the center and the entire Floor darkens except for a thin circle around him. Stand in the bright circle, and avoid all darkened areas until after the massive explosion.

Clock Hands

Time ticks away and clock hands made of fire make their way around the floor. You can either outrun them and avoid the hands all together, or dash through the hands. Just make sure not to let catch you off guard and tick through you.

Keepsakes

Engraved Pin

• Engraved Pin activates one time per encounter, so you are guaranteed to benefit from it during your fight with Chronos. Gaining a 10 seconds of invulnerability enables you to get a huge amount of damage in since you can spam your moves without the need to dodge.
• Moreover, if Engraved Pin gets activated during Phase 1 and you finish the phase to trigger phase 2 before the 10 seconds are up, that will count as clearing the "encounter" and you won't use up a Death Defiance or die. Instead you'll use up the Pin and restore (60) health.

Knuckle Bones

• The standard Guardian defense Keepsake. The more health you go into the fight with, the more impactful the 10% damage reduction will be. The burst of damage is nice to have as well but is unlikely to have a noticeable impact on the outcome of the encounter. Still, if you don't feel you need any other Keepsakes benefits, Knuckle Bones is a fine option as your final Keepsake.
• If you're running Strength (XXIII), it's likely a better defensive option that Luckier Tooth because it will keep Strength active.

Evil Eye

• If the last foe you died to was Chronos, then you can equip Evil Eye to deal an extra (30%) global damage to him. While you won't often be in this scenario, its a good option to remember.

Luckier Tooth

• A very common final region keepsake, Luckier Tooth grants an extra DD with a set amount of health restoration. As long as you can make it to Chronos without losing the DD, the 2nd chance can often give you the luck needed to vanquish the titan of time.

Blackened Fleece

• Very specific to Magick builds, but if your strategy revolves around spamming Omega Moves, then the 40% damage boost essentially means you'll defeat Chronos with 40% less Moves. If you picked up Cherished Heirloom during your run, then Blackened Fleece becomes one of the better final region Keepsake options.

Hades Boons

Hades offers two Boons that help you specifically in your battle against Chronos:

• Old Grudge. We don't generally recommend choosing this Boon, however, because 20% off of only Phase 1 Chronos is not as impactful as the rest of Hades' offerings.
• Deep Dissent helps with the annoyance of Chronos' summons. If you have found the standard foes in the encounter to be difficult to deal with, try this Boon out. Once you are using Vow of Frenzy and Vow of Rivals 4, Deep Dissent becomes notably stronger.

If you can make it to Chronos without taking too much damage, Life Tax is great for extra sustain during the final battle.

The rest of Hades are quite good as well, and depend on your build and playstyle which you will find the most useful. Trying out all them a few times is the best way to find what suits you!