Hades: Death - How to avoid it? Hades guide, tips

This Hades game guide page offers a set of tips on how to die less often. It also explains how to better protect yourself from the sudden death of the main character.

Last update: 05 September 2021

This page of the guide to Hades includes practical tips on how to try to avoid dying. In addition, we posted information how to use the Death Defiance talent to protect yourself in case of sudden loss of all Zagreus' health points.

• Death and respawn of Zagreus - general information
• Death Defiance - protecting the hero from sudden death
• Lucky Tooth - an alternative way of respawning
• How to die less often - a set of tips

Death and respawn of Zagreus - general information

In Hades you will die quite often and it is an element of the game that cannot be avoided due to its mechanics referring to typical roguelike productions. In order to reach the end of the adventure, complete all the major lands and defeat all the bosses, you will die at least several dozen times. Of course, one can not count the approximate number of deaths, because a lot depends on the player's skill, the path of Zagreus development, and how lucky one gets with the random improvements or strong opponents in the next attempts to complete the game.

After each death, you resume the game in the House of Hades. This is a safe location, which is a kind of base - among other things, you can meet NPCs, select equipment, trade, and spend the accumulated resources on items related to the further course of the game or the development of the hero.

Defeated Zagreus must go through the same locations again. For example, if you died in Elysium, then you can not take a "shortcut", you just have to go through Tartar and Asphodel again, passing their randomly-generated chambers and defeating their bosses. Fortunately, as you progress through the game, passing initial lands and defeating initial bosses should come with more and more ease.

Death Defiance - protecting the hero from sudden death

By default, a single run ends when all health points are lost, meaning a new escape attempt must be started. In the game, there is an extremely useful talent called Death Defiance, which can save Zagreus from death.

Death Defiance is one of the talents you can buy using Darkness in House of Hades. To do this, you must reach Zagreus' bedroom and interact with Mirror ff Night.

The first level of the Death Defiance talent costs only 30 Darkness - this should be your first purchase. Unfortunately, since then, prices rise dramatically, and unlocking the second level of talent, for example, requires the sacrifice of 500 Darkness. Nevertheless, we advise you to put aside a large part of the accumulated Darkness in order to improve the Death Defiance talent, as this will be one of the most important factors in helping you to advance further in subsequent playthroughs.

Death Defiance is triggered automatically and you do not have to make sure in any additional way that the hero has a chance to be reborn and defy death. Zagreus will always be reborn with half of health bar.

The number of available rebirths is displayed above the health bar. You can use this to determine the extent to which Zagreus is protected from death.

The game allows you to renew spent Death Defiance charges within the same attempt but it's not easy.

1. In the example in screenshot 1, a purchasable Kiss of Styx can be used for this purpose. It renews only 1 charge.
2. In the example from screenshot 2, you can ask Patroclus to renew Death Defiance charges (Premium Styx Kiss action). This is a free operation, but you must meet Patroclus while exploring Elysium (the third main land). He does not always appear there.

In most playthroughs, count on the fact that you will not come across any ways to regenerate the talent and you will have to be satisfied with the default number of his charges.

You can and should also look for gifts associated with the Death Defiance effect. An example gift from the above screenshot (Blood Frenzy) allows you to inflict more damage in the same skirmish, in which one of the charges of Death Defiance was used. This can significantly help you to successfully complete the fight in which Zagreus previously lost all health points.

Lucky Tooth - an alternative way of respawning

There is also an alternative method of resurrection with a similar effect to the Death Defiance talent. To do this, you must give nectar to Skelly - a skeleton from the training arena at Hades' house.

As a reward, you unlock a gift associated with Skelly - Lucky Tooth. It also prevents Zagreus from dying. To make it work you must have Skelly's gift set as active. We also advise you to upgrade it to rank 3 as soon as possible so that the hero can recover as many health points as possible at the time of resurrection.

How to die less often - a set of tips

The Death Defiance talent described above only allows you to delay the "final" death of the hero, but throughout the game you should remember a few things that will reduce the risk of loosing all health points. Below we have compiled some of the most important tips how to die less often in Hades.

Don't risk too much by playing a weakened character. This is a fairly general advice that can be applied in different types of situations. In general, the idea is not to take unnecessary risks in a situation where the main character has less than half of the health bar. Zagreus can then easily find himself on the verge of death even as a result of a single stronger enemy attack.

Playing with a weakened hero, try to avoid dangerous melee confrontations. Be careful when attacking elite opponents. Rely more on the ranged combat, and above all look for ways to regenerate your health to return to a safer state. Zagreus health regeneration techniques are described on a separate page titles Healing wounds - how to do it?.

Use weapons with which you feel comfortable. We describe all available weapons in a separate chapter titled Weapons. We advise you to spend the Chtonic Keys you earn on unlocking new weapons in order to test them thoroughly.

Available weapons are very different from each other - there are those best for melee combat and those better for ranged confrontations, as well as some weapons that can be a compromise between different styles of play. We recommend the eternal spear - it is an excellent weapon for learning the game and its mechanics as well as completing chambers in a less stressful atmosphere. The spear, due to its length, allows you to attack opponents from a much greater distance when compared to other types of weapons for melee combat. What's more, you can also throw and then summon it, inflicting additional damage from Backstab attacks.

Choose your next chambers wisely. Exploring further chambers and lands is discussed in more detail on the page titled Underground structure, and the meaning of the symbols appearing over the doors can be found on the page Icons above doors - what do they mean?. Very often, you will have the opportunity to choose between 2-3 doors, and it is always worth considering the choice. Here are some useful tips for staying alive:

1. search for doors leading to a store or location with a Centaur Heart (health bar extension - screenshot above),
2. if you are severely weakened, avoid visiting dangerous locations - in particular those marked with the skull icon - there is a high risk that you may not be able to defeat the monsters there,
3. do not open the Infernal Troves or move to Chaos if you have a short health bar or if the hero is already severely weakened.

Skillfully choose gifts and objects to buy. Most of the time, you should decide on the rewards that are best tied to your playing style, but you can change your tactics if your hero is severely weakened.

With a seriously injured character, look first for objects, with which you will be able to heal yourself or provide yourself with treatment under special conditions (eg. recovery of a portion of health when entering each new chamber). It may allow you to survive longer and complete to more chambers.

Beware of traps and environmental hazards. They can vary depending on the chamber and, above all, depending on the currently visited land. For example, in Tartar, the main threat are pressure plates , which can activate nearby turrets or lead to protrusion of spikes. In Asphodel traps can be lava reservoirs which deal damage upon contact.

Do not forget about the dangers during intense battles because then, the easiest thing is to make a mistake. Make sure to dash a lot, to run safely through a trap or lava - it is important only that this action does not end in a place that creates a risk of losing health points (i.e. not on a pressure plate).