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Welcome to the House of Hades.
For Zagreus, being a God of the underworld, death is more of an uncomfortable setback than anything else. Accordingly, whenever something manages to take him out he'll respawn back here in the foyer or his father's house.
We also almost immediately run into the House's appointed greeter.
Some of us more that others.
Hypnos here is the personification of sleep, son of Night, and brother to Death. In addition to this nice pep-talk he'll also have something to say about whatever killed Zagreus on any given run.
In Greek myth he has similar origins and also lives in the underworld (after Zeus chased him down there for putting him to sleep at Hera's request). He isn't exactly Hades doorman, instead he just hangs out on a nice couch near the river Lethe.
Once we finish with Hypnos we can see THE DOG. Also our dad, who has something to say about our recent escape attempt.
Greetings, Father. My ransacking was a delight, thank you for asking. So, I'll just be on my way, again.
Be on your way, indeed. What do I care? You shall never reach the surface. Go, see for yourself.
Anyway, get a load of this dog!
You watch over this for me, boy. You know I'd take you if I could.
Like in all good video games you can also pet the dog. Remember to show your animals the love and appreciation they deserve.
That done, let's take a quick look around the House. We'll start with the west wing.
Achilles is a hero that took part in the Trojan War, and a central character in the Iliad. He has a bad heel.
Over at the east wing of the House we find another important member of the crew.
I believe it, Nyx. I'm grateful that you put us into contact. I know you took a considerable risk reaching out.
The risk is not to me. I expected the Olympians would involve themselves in this, eventually. Reveal to them no more than they already know. Are we understood?
Yes. We are.
We can also listen in on a few shades down here. Looks like this one died of heart failure.
Let's head north...
To Zagreus' room! It's a bit of a mess.
The important thing is over here on the right, the Mirror of Night.
This is the main upgrade system in the game, and how we become stronger over the course of our runs going forawrd.
We can invest that Darkness we collected during the run in a few things:
- Shadow Presence: Deal bonus Attack & Special damage when striking foes from behind, +10% per rank.
- Chthonic Vitality: Restore a small amount of your health when you exit a chamber, +1 per rank.
- Death Defiance: Restore 50% health instead of dying when your life total is depleted, 1 time per rank.
- Greater Reflex: Perform +1 additional Dash in quick succession.
All of these are pretty important, but we've going to invest in Death Defiance right away. Having an extra life is a big deal, especially in the early game.
There's not too much going on in here yet. Over near the top of the screen are a few goodies though.
These are weapons! One of the uses of Chthonic Keys is to unlock these guys. Right now we have enough to unlock that bow, so let's do that.
This is our new weapon, Coronacht. It's alright, not really one of my favorites.
This guy also just pops into existence once we grab our new weapon.
I don't remember have you on payroll, mate. Who's your supervisor?
Oh-hoh, I'm not about to rat my sources, pal! Just try and beat it out of me!
Skelly is our practice dummy. We can test our moves out on him to our (and his) hearts content. If he happens to die he'll respawn a second later ready for more.
But that's about all we can do in the House right now.
So, let's get back to it, shall we? All we have to do is head out this pink door over here and we'll start our escape attempt all over again.
From now on every time we start a run we'll be treated to a boon. I'll let you guess who this one is.
Zeus drops by with pretty solid boons, you can't really go wrong with him.
After a few rooms we run in to another new god.
It's Ares! He grants some of the best boons in the game, in my opinion.
Sadly, our run this time ends at the bomb tossing mini-bosses.
Back at the House it looks like Hypnos has wandered off somewhere. Which is cool, it's not like I let those guys kill me specifically to hear what he'd have to say about it or anything.
Looks like there's a new addition to the House as well. That tall shade on the right over there...
That shade, boy, is my newly designated contractor; one whose responsibility is to work on ths House. Though, who shall pay for everything my subjects here demand, I do not know.
You're trying to guilt me into funding the exorbitant furnishings you desire.
Perhaps once we are finished with repairs for all the carnage you have sown throughout my realm, then we might finally have time for all the needed renovations that have piled up.
Nice.
Talking with the house contractor we see there's a bunch of cool upgrades that we don't have any gems to afford. Most of these will be cosmetic, but a few are genuinely helpful for our escape runs.
Case in point, this first one that we can get (for free!) will give us a random chance to find safe rooms in Tartarus where we can recover our health. I've gone ahead and bought it since there's no reason not to.
Now it's time to check in on THE DOG.
Each terrifying may of the infernal watch-dog Cerberus responds affirmatively, one after the next, as if to reassure the ever-doubting Prince.
We also pet him, of course.
I'll give them hell as you once did, Achilles. Though, doubtless many of the shades who stand against me first arrived in Tartarus because of you.
Achilles gives us another pep-talk before we check in on the last member of the House who we can currently speak with.
I won't forget you Nyx, I swear it.
I decided to skip the Mirror of Night for now, since we don't have enough darkness to get any worthwhile upgrades. So let's see how Skelly's doing instead:
Wreck my father's finely crafted architecture every chance I get? That I can do for sure.
Skelly gives us a tip: Slamming enemies into columns will cause them to collapse and deal more damage. This isn't super helpful advice, but it works occasionally.
This time we start off with something entirely new: A Daedalus Hammer!
We'll talk more about these during a video segment, but their basic function is to alter the way your weapon works. Usually for the better.
We also find some Nectar. We can give it to people to make them like us more.
And another new god shows up.
This one is Artemis. (The other heavenly archers Zagreous might have been thinking of could have been Apollo or Eros, gods of the sun and love respectively.)
Artemis boons focus mostly on increasing your chances of critical hits. I'm not a big fan of them, but occasionally there's a good one.
This time we meet our end by a wretched thug. Here Zagreous is seen moments before death.
I haven't, no!
Hypnos has some nice advice for us on our return.
Oh, I had little choice about that, boy. You see, after you fled the first time, Cerberus, why he was very much upset. Utterly tore the place to shreds. It's now under repair. All thanks to you.
You're really blaming me for not minding the dog while I was out, and while you all were here?
I lay the blame entirely upon you, yes. Who else? It's fortunate that Cerberus has calmed himself since then! Come to his senses, I should say. May you yet come to yours.
Dad is never satisfied. We did, however, pick up that nectar on our last run. Maybe if we gift it to him he'll cut us some slack...
You're welcome, Father.
Well that didn't go well. Next time we'll just give it to the dog. Let's see how everyone else is doing, I guess.
What, wait, you're giving me your Codex? I can't accept something like this!
Please, I insist. I want your love of history to grow, not just your love of warfare. Besides, maybe you can finish out the rest of it.
I'm grateful.
We now have the Codex! This is where I'll be pulling most of the in-game lore from. As we do more runs, meet more people, and kill more stuff we'll acquire more entries.
What a cruel end to an otherwise pretty good life! - Shade who died of liver failure
Skelly reiterates his advice about slamming dudes into stuff.
Dionysus shows up again on this run. I don't think this was covered before, but communication between Zag and Olympus doesn't seem to be two-way. This is a bit weird considering Zagreus can send gifts to them (and for other reasons), but we're told a few times that the Olympians can't see going on down here.
Nothing much else of note happens, besides getting lasered to death by these guys.
That's not a bad idea.
When we get back Hypnos reminds us that all we have to do to win is not get hit.
It's such great advice we're going to give him some Nectar as thanks.
Surprise Hypnos! I got this for you.
In exchange we get out first keepsake! It's not a very good one:
You'd like that, wouldn't you? Lucky I've got other family who believe in me.
Be careful whom you give your trust. My brothers frolic on Olympus while we work. While I work! You're just like them. No wonder they like you.
About as supportive as usual. Let's chat with Cereberus.
You really ripped the lounge to pieces, boy? I hope you didn't get yourself in too much trouble. I'm sorry to have worried you like that.
I only wish you could have seen it lad. The place looked like a vineyard after a typhoon! Your lord father was livid. But he never gets so angry with the dog. Poor Dusa, though, she's picking the place up.
Oh no...I wondered what became of Dusa. She's always worried Father's going to fire her, even without something like this.
We haven't met Dusa yet, but it seems like Cerebrus' rampage did not go unnoticed.
It's also about time to spend some darkness on upgrades. I decided to invest in Shadow Presence (bonus attack damage when hitting enemies from behind) and Chthonic Vitality (+2 HP regained between rooms).
Finally, Skelly gives us some more advice on murdering shades.
And that's it! Next time we'll do a bow run on video and explore the next level of Hades.