Weapon Aspects Tier List (Aspects of Nocturnal Arms)

The pinnacle of power in Hades II. These Weapon Aspects are defined by their incredible versatility and game-changing base effects. They form the core of the most dominant builds, consistently excelling in every scenario, from a first-time victory to high Fear and speedruns.

Medea

Throughout the entire life of Hades II, the Aspect of Medea has dominated online leaderboards and everyone's in-game Record Keeper's list. Even considering the bug fix in v1.0 (Medea damage boost no longer buffs Cast damage), it's still easily the best Aspect in the game.

A Medea run holds the current Speedrun World Record, and was the world's first unseeded 67 Fear run victory.

When fully ranked up, Melinoë starts with a 90% damage boost to Attacks and Specials. Aspect of Medea Attacks also have an increased explosion size compared to Aspect of Melinoë.

You basically can't have a "bad build" when using Medea Skulls, though most players opt for Heaven Flourish as their starting Boon.

Proper use of Medea will make you feel like you moving at light speed with unlimited Dashes because of the combined movement of Dash and Special.

The one caveat of placing Medea at the #1 spot is that it is one of the more dangerous Aspects to wield. You have to Special directly into your target, and Specials have no invulnerability frames. However, once the movement and Special timing is mastered, Aspect of Medea is hands down the strongest Weapon in the game.

• Check out the build HookieDookie used to clear 62 Fear with Medea

Circe

When using the Aspect of Circe, you'll want to build around a high damage Cast. Storm Ring or Smolder Ring are great choices because getting an enemy in a double Cast deals rapid damage.

The attack patterns and movement of Toula and Raki make them the most consistent choices for maximizing the benefits of the Psychic Leash and the 2nd Cast.

The double Cast and Leash are so strong that you can reasonably clear a run and barely use Attack or Special.

• Check out Carried by Casts: A Circe Guide

Witch's Staff

Thanks to the Bonus Special Power, the Aspect of Melinoë has great versatility. You can build around Omega Moves or standard strike combos. Even though it's the game's starter Weapon, that doesn't mean it can't also be one of the best!

You have nearly endless build options as Descura will perform well with just about every decent Boon combinations. The meta tends to revolve around Heaven Strike on attack and any damage % Boon on special like Sworn Flourish or Flutter Flourish.

• See our Witch's Staff build or Vytautas' Love and Thunder for a full breakdown.

The Aspects considered high-tier are extremely powerful, but have limitations compared to the Meta weapons. Their peak power levels are similar, but they possess less build flexibility.

Moros

The main combo for using Aspect of Moros is to activate an Omega Special, then spam Attacks to trigger explosions. The Blasts are powerful and pair well with any of the percentage-based Boons.

Throw a Clean Coil Hammer upgrade on and you are for an ez dub. The only thing limiting Moros is the high Magick requirement, and the time it takes to be constantly channeling.

• See Best Moros Build

Anubis

The best hidden Aspect in Hades II, the Staff's Aspect of Anubis alternate moveset is completely busted with the right build. As long as you start with Heaven Strike or Flame Strike, you can't really go wrong from there.

Melinoë can place down the Attack's damaging field, then use Special to pull enemies into it. This combo works with both standard and Omega Moves. Once the enemies are inside the damaging field, you can focus on movement and dodging until you need to repeat the process.

The low-maintenance playstyle makes this one of the easier Aspects to achieve a victory once you get the hang of its unique mechanics.

• Check out the Anubis Staff Build Guide for the best builds and tech

Charon

Aspect of Charon is the best Omega Cast Weapon out of all the Aspects. For the price of one Omega Special, you also get an Omega Cast with increased AoE.

The most common strategy is to build around Apollo as your primary God. Lucid Gain is essentially infinite Magick with becauseAspect of Charon you are instantly exploding your Cast. You will want an Epic or Pom the Lucid Gain a few times if you have any hammers or secondary Boons that increase your Magick cost.

Single target damage is huge, the AoE is massive, and other than channeling time, Charon is one of the safer Aspects to use.

• Check out DTB's Guide to Charon for a full breakdown

Morrigan

Aspect of the Morrigan has a few really strong builds. The multi-hit Attack can be paired with an on-hit Boon like Flame Strike, or utilize the increased AoE of Nova Strike

Regardless of the specific build, Aspect of the Morrigan has access to Blood Triad, so you always have the capability to deal high burst damage.

Against most standard enemies, spamming Attacks with a few Specials thrown in will be more than sufficient. When facing Guardians, however, you'll need to learn how to optimize Blood Triad combos.

• See The Morrigan Blood Triad Build

Nergal

Honestly at Rank I, the Aspect of Nergal will feel very underwhelming. The horrendously slow attack speed makes it take forever land 21 Strikes and become Berserk.

Once you've rank it up a few levels, the healing during Berserk makes Aspect of Nergal a very forgiving Weapon. Focus on using the Omega Attack to rack up strikes, and you will quickly understand why this Hidden Aspect ranks so high.

• See Undefeatable Nergal Build

Nyx

The Black Coat's Aspect of Nyx produces a Nightspawn that splits your Attacks and Specials in two. Based on this mechanic, Wave Strike and Flame Strike are the go to choices when wearing Nyx's Coat.

For room clear speed, no one really does it better than Aspect of Nyx with Shimmering Rockets. The Nightspawn split rockets combined with the bouncing Special rockets make every standard encounter feel like a free pass.

With a bit of extra damage from the Omega Boost plus the splitting Nightspawn for easy room clearing, Nyx is a great Weapon. The Nightspawn mechanic does feel a bit limited during Guardian encounters, since it doesn't help as much in 1v1 scenarios.

• See Ultimate Nyx Nightspawn Build

Thanatos

There are two main problems with the Aspect of Thanatos. First off, you really really want Psychic Whirlwind, or at least Furious Whirlwind to improve your Omega Attacks. Secondly, the Aspect is only going to work well for you if you are really good at not taking damage.

Mortality and its crit damage chance resets every time you get hit with even the tiniest amount of damage.

If you played early access, try out Than axe again because it has been heavily buffed!

• See Max Damage Than Axe Build

Although the mid-tier Aspects are good, they never feel overpowered like the higher-ranked Aspects. They each excel in their niche, but getting the right build going can prove challenging.

Eos

Aspect of Eos is a very fun Weapon to use as the Daybreaker mimics your Special usage. The ability feels unique, yet quite powerful. Immediately after shooting out the Daybreaker Omega Attack, use one Omega Special, then spam standard Specials until the Daybreaker expires.

The inability to control Daybreaker's movement, however, does mean there will be some occasions during the run where it is missing Attacks.

• See Daybreaker Orbital Destruction Eos Build

Shiva

Aspect of Shiva has the highest single hit damage potential in the game. All its needs it Flutter Strike or Nova Strike paired with a Curse Boon on the Special.

Once you get the hang of absorbing Omega Specials to rank up the Omega Attacks, the combat loop is both simple and satisfying. Be careful not to get caught from the back while channeling because Melinoë only blocks forward attacks.

• See Shiva One-Punch Destruction

Supay

Aspect of Supay lists Rush Boon Damage as its primary effect. Don't be fooled into tunnel visioning on the Rush Boon because investing in the Omega Attack and Special will bring you just as much success as the Rush Boon.

Both moves deal low damage so the best builds focus on on-hit effects like Scorch, Blitz, and Splash. Aspect of Supay burns through Magick like it's nobody's business, so you may struggle early in the run to clear encounters.

• See Delicious Soup-ay Recipe

Umbral Flames

The Umbral Flames' Aspect of Melinoë grants Critical hit chance on both Attacks and Specials. This makes it work decently well with any damage percentage boosting Boons. We recommend starting with Sworn Flourish or Flutter Flourish for Hitch or max damage % boost.

Many common builds, however, ignore its base effect and instead utilize the speed of its Specials to rack up Scorch damage with Flame Flourish.

• See our Mel Flames Build for a full breakdown

Momus

The Aspect of Momus barely feels usable until you upgrade it all the way. The delay between Omega Bursts is a bit long to get consistent use of the 3rd pulse against many foes. Let's say you have it at rank II and the delay is 3.5 seconds between Bursts. How often will an enemy exist in the same spot for 7 seconds straight!?

At max rank, however, it becomes a very safe and decently strong Aspect. As long as you can manage your Omega channeling cycles, the Omega Bursts start to play the game for you, and frees you to focus on dodging.

The biggest struggle for Momus is the reliance on Omega Moves. You need a high amount of Max Magick, and a strong Gain Boon. You also cannot Dash whiling Channeling Omega's so you'll be resetting the Channel meter often.

• See How to Make Momus OP for a full breakdown

Black Coat

The Black Coat's Aspect of Melinoë Attack's feels limited to Wave Strike and Flame Strike builds. Exhaust Riser paired with either of these makes it feel pretty good. You'll need to get Poseidon's legendary Boon on top of the already extreme luck of getting the right Hammer if going the Splash route, or grab Hestia's tier 2 Boons such as Pyro Technique.

The other viable build for Aspect of Melinoë is to focus on the Specials, and target Shimmering Rockets. This version is much better in standard encounters, and is generally safer to play because you can play from range. Special Boons also have more flexibility, but Sworn Flourish is a popular choice.

• See our Mel Coat Build for a full breakdown and build strategies.

These Aspects can be understood as weaker versions of another Aspect. Their base effects lack power on their own, so you typically won't have a great build until late in your run. Also, their best tend to be tied to a single Hammer, so RNG is not your friend.

Moonstone Axe

Zorephet's Aspect of Melinoë is one of the most difficult Weapons to use due to its extremely slow Attack Speed. Starting out with +50 HP and +50 Attack power balances out the slow speed.

Watch your spacing, and you can safely clear rooms with a few wide swings.

If you don't get Dashing Heave, Guardian Encounters with Vow of Frenzy 2 activated can be quite challenging to survive.

• See our Mel Axe Build for a full breakdown

Sister Blades

The Aspect of Melinoë needs many of the right boons to achieve damage numbers that the higher-ranked Aspects achieve more easily. There are few good options for builds, but a popular choice is grabbing Heaven Flourish along with any other Curse on Attack (Scorch, Hitch, etc), then play around Blitz damage.

• See our Sister Blades Build to learn how to optimize your mel blades gameplay

Persephone

The Aspect of Persephone's Sprouted effect is cool, but most people use it for the Bonus Boon levels. This makes it a popular choice with Hephaestus builds because his Attack and Special heavily rely on rarity and Boon level.

Hel

The Aspect of Hel basically has two good builds, but both require a lot of investment with non-core and tier 2 Boons. You can either go for a Splash build or a Scorch build.

While unloading Attacks during Valkyrie, you are completely movement locked, making this a dangerous and challenging Aspect to use effectively. The dps potential is very high, so if you master the mechanics, it can melt Guardians.

• See Unleash Hel Upon Your Enemies

Pan

The best build for Aspect of Pan doesn't even use its Omega Specials. Instead, it spams Dash Strikes after acquiring Trick Knives. The recovery animation of the Omega Specials takes forever, so its very dangerous to use them against enemies with fast attacks or movement.

Once you throw on Vow of Frenzy, Pan can feel miserable. Often times you'll end up playing it as a worse Aspect of Melinoë

• See Best Poseidon Pan Blades Build

Argent Skull

The Argent Skull'sAspect of Melinoë is great for players who enjoy using long-ranged abilities and playing keep away with the enemy. You'll spend most of your time positioned outside enemy attack range, which makes one of the easier Weapons to earn a slow and steady victory with.

Wide Grin is a good Hammer to maximize Aspect of Melinoë's potential. While it doesn't trigger the bonus attack Power, firing four Omega shells at once more than makes up for that. Take it whenever you see the opportunity and spam those quad Omega Attacks.

Looming Ignition is the best Hammer for actually utilizing the Aspects effect as the Bonus Power scales up with the Bonus damage %.

• See our Mel Skulls Build for a full breakdown

Artemis

Play The Sister Blades' Aspect of Artemis for a few runs and you will soon be asking yourself, "why aren't I using a different Blade aspect?" The Parry is too slow to reliably be used reactively. However, the Parry mechanic can be good to save yourself when you're in a situation you can't confidently dodge out of.

The chance to deal critical damage for a few Strikes doesn't mean a whole lot when the Blades Attack and Special post some of the lowest damage per hit. Overall the Aspect deals low damage, has tiny range, a performs worse than most other Weapons.

Buffs are needed for the bottom-tier Aspects. Their base effects are not particularly useful. Don't underestimate them. You can 100% beat both routes with any of these Aspects, and many players have used them to clear 50+ Fear.

Selene

The only Aspect that comes preloaded with a Hex, The Black Coat's Aspect of Selene feels lackluster. While Sky Fall is a good Hex, starting with a Hex only saves you a single reward or door.

Playing Aspect of Selene basically just feels like you're playing a worst version of Aspect of Melinoë Coat. Put any other Hex on Xinth and it's like playing Selene Coat but at least you get +20% Move and Strike speed.

The other problem with Selene's Coat is that if you want to maximize Sky Fall, you HAVE to have a core Boon from Ares (or equip Sword Hilt). He's one of the weaker Gods in the game which further justifies the low placement.