Hades 2 best weapons tried and tested – Tier list

✓ At a glance

• The Sister Blades’s close-range firepower and the versatile Witch’s Staff are our S-tier picks.
• The Moonstone Axe’s slow but lethal strikes and the Umbral Flames’ ranged superiority place them in our A-tier.
• Meanwhile, the Argent Skull has plenty of potential, its risky nature drops it to the B-Tier.

On your path to knocking Chronos off his throne, you’ll need the best weapons in Hades 2 to make it past his minions. Understanding all their attacks and new Omega moves is crucial to surviving combat encounters with enough health to take on the bosses. Here’s how you can unlock and effectively use every weapon in the game, including our ranking of the best weapons.

The Sister Blades are a close-range specialist weapon you’ll unlock first after the standard Witch’s Staff. Its tight range favours offensive strategies, letting it synergise well with Aphrodite’s boons like Flutter Strike and Flutter Flourish. These increase the damage you deal at close range, maximizing Melinoe’s damage potential. Instead, you could rely on Hestia’s Controlled Burn for Scorch damage over time. 

Naturally, a melee-focused build will involve plenty of dodging and generous usage of your Cast AoE slow. Demeter’s Frigid Sprint and Arctic Ring will let you freeze enemies with those two moves. These are particularly useful when you’re swarmed with weaker foes like the darting fish in Scylla’s boss fight. With the right boons, especially Apollo’s Back Burner for bonus backstab damage against Dazed foes, you can whittle down boss health bars, making the Sister Blades the top weapon to use in the game.

While most games give you better weapons over time, Hades 2 puts one of the best weapons in your hands right from the start. With a mix of melee and ranged attacks, you can chart multiple strategies based on the boons you receive from the gods. Your Attack and Special have decent range, letting Melinoe strike from safety. This approach to combat pushes the Witch’s Staff to our S-tier. If your enemies don’t have armor, you can stagger them and take advantage of its three-hit combo for more damage.

A Daedalus Hammer can net you Double Wallop, letting your Attacks hit twice for double the damage. As your first weapon, most boons work well with the Witch’s Staff. While I’m partial to Hephaestus’ Volcanic Flourish and Volcanic Strike boons for massive damage at specific intervals, boons from other gods are great too. Pair them with a Cast that has status effects like Hestia’s Scorch, Aphrodite’s Weak (less enemy damage), or Apollo’s Daze (enemies attack less often). In the keepsake department, Schelemeus’ Luckier Tooth acts as an extra Death Defiance to survive a fatal hit so it accompanies me on most of my runs.

The Moonstone Axe is a solid choice if you’re looking for a heavy hitter. While it can take some time to nail its attack timing, it’s a killing machine once the boons start pouring in. Your Omega moves are excellent for crowd control and your Special is the only one in the game that deflects damage. The latter is especially useful when trigger-happy bosses like Scylla litter your screen with projectiles. One trick you’ll find useful is that Melinoe can dash mid-air after triggering your final Attack, letting you evade damage before your last strike.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, Hephaestus’ timed interval attack boons are the strongest when paired with the Moonstone Axe’s high starting damage. You can also opt for boons that grant status effects but none match the metalwork god’s sheer damage potential outside Aphrodite’s close-range buffs. Zeus’ Blitz condition drops lightning strikes on a foe if you deal enough damage, making their boons another prime pick. As for the Daedalus Hammer, there’s one that swaps your slow combo for a single devastating strike. It’s certainly a risk but with the right boons, you’ll turn boss health bars into snack bars with the Moonstone Axe.

Ranged attacks promise safety in Hades 2 and the Umbral Flames are a prime example. While spewing projectiles from a distance can take a while to get used to, this lets you stagger enemies and stay out of harm’s way. Firing off a string of attacks will pin you in place though, making you easy pickings for nimble enemies like the skeletal assassins of Ephyra. Your Omega moves will help you counter this with more damage but require a steady supply of Magick. By keeping your distance, you’ll eventually be able to take down bosses without much risk or even losing health. This makes the Umbral Flames one of our top picks.

Pick up The Huntress Arcana Card to boost your Attack and Special damage by 30% when under 100% Magick capacity. The Unseen Arcana Card lets you regenerate Magick but having your Magick full will negate the effect of the previous card. As for upgrades, the Daedalus Hammer that splits your Attacks to enhance their mediocre damage is a must-have. It synergizes incredibly well with Artemis’ Support Fire, adding support arrows whenever Melinoe’s attacks strike a target. The Umbral Flames weapon works well with boons that grant status effects. Hera’s Hitch, Demeter’s Freeze, and Zeus’ delayed damage burst from Blitz are solid choices. The Silver Wheel keepsake from Hecate will restore your mana by up to 1000 Magick per run, plenty for Melinoe’s Omega moves.

You’ll unlock the Argent Skull after the others and it demands a good amount of skill to use effectively. It has a habit of putting you in harm’s way, from picking up used skulls to its Special, a modified dash more vulnerable than a late-night conversation. Unlike the standard dodge, enemy attacks still land when you use the Argent Skull’s Special dash to move through them. Rely on its Omega Special to charge through foes on your way to pick up skulls.

Your skulls’ AoE damage goes well with Poseidon’s Wave Strike and conditions like Demeter’s Freeze and Hestia’s Scorch. Pairing your Special dash with Aphrodite’s close-range damage buff turns you into an absolute menace against bosses. Your Cast will help you pin enemies in place to make the most of your limited skulls. In addition, mobility should be a key part of your builds as you don’t want to be a sitting duck without your skull ammo. 

Hermes’ Nitro Boost boon buffs your sprint and adds a temporary shield while Chaos’ Excruciating Celerity boosts movement in general. You can also improve your Sprint speed by 20% with The Swift Runner Arcana Card before boosting it further with Moon Dust. Pick The Titan Arcana Card too to increase Melinoe’s health and Magick totals by up to +40 before a run. While you can certainly work towards powerhouse builds with the Argent Skull, its risk factor puts it in our B-tier.