Sword and Spear Aspects Guide & Tier Ranking | Tips and Tricks

Time for a fresh tray of JP opinions. These are especially fragrant I hope. Thanks for tuning in!

Sword
0:00 Intro
0:35 Zag Aspect
1:35 Nem Aspect
2:42 Pos Aspect
3:38 Art Aspect

Spear
5:40 Zag Aspect
7:05 Ach Aspect
8:35 Had Aspect
10:12 Gua Aspect

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ABOUT THIS GAME

Hades is a god-like rogue-like dungeon crawler that combines the best aspects of Supergiant's critically acclaimed titles, including the fast-paced action of Bastion, the rich atmosphere and depth of Transistor, and the character-driven storytelling of Pyre.
BATTLE OUT OF HELL
As the immortal Prince of the Underworld, you'll wield the powers and mythic weapons of Olympus to break free from the clutches of the god of the dead himself, while growing stronger and unraveling more of the story with each unique escape attempt.
UNLEASH THE FURY OF OLYMPUS
The Olympians have your back! Meet Zeus, Athena, Poseidon, and many more, and choose from their dozens of powerful Boons that enhance your abilities. There are thousands of viable character builds to discover as you go.

BEFRIEND GODS, GHOSTS, AND MONSTERS
A fully-voiced cast of colorful, larger-than-life characters is waiting to meet you! Grow your relationships with them, and experience thousands of unique story events as you learn about what's really at stake for this big, dysfunctional family.
BUILT FOR REPLAYABILITY
New surprises await each time you delve into the ever-shifting Underworld, whose guardian bosses will remember you. Use the powerful Mirror of Night to grow permanently stronger, and give yourself a leg up the next time you run away from home.
NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE
Permanent upgrades mean you don't have to be a god yourself to experience the exciting combat and gripping story. Though, if you happen to be one, crank up the challenge and get ready for some white-knuckle action that will put your well-practiced skills to the test.

SIGNATURE SUPERGIANT STYLE
The rich, atmospheric presentation and unique melding of gameplay and narrative that's been core to Supergiant's games is here in full force: spectacular hand-painted environments and a blood-pumping original score bring the Underworld to life.

Explosive Launcher Multiskewer

[Darkenixx]

Bonus thanks to Skelly for making this video possible.

[TheRegulus]

Spear with aspect of Achilles, a personal favorite of mine for many reasons. But first and foremost, it was the one who got me my first victory a few days ago. An amazing weapon already, the rush attack is incredibly helpful for reposition and doing damage. That thing with the hammer buff for three dash hits paired with Zeus' attack boon and Poseidon's call helped me snatch that victory.

Love the spear!

[nealko]

Oh man, on the contrary, aspect of Arthur is my most lovet aspect.

[penguinmonk]

You gotta bump up that Poseidon rank: Exit wounds and fully loaded make this thing SHRED. Couple with flurry cast and Aphrodite boon and you will be shredding SO HARD. Or go for Artemis cast and dash nova if you can find it for a nice in and out.

Hades spear is low A tier at least: when you know what you are doing, especially with the sturdy or fast charge in addition to massive. It clears rooms really fast and coupled with Artemis attack can leave a lot of hunters marks even on the boss. Unfortunately it is a little lackluster with special since once you have massive sweep there is very little reason to do special. Additionally you can dash with your charge attack making it easier to be safe and/or hit with it. Works well even in higher heat, however forced overtime 2x makes it a lot harder to pull off as consistently.

[al-nemer]

Don’t forget the special for Arthur disables traps and slows projectiles so really strong against furies and the hydra

[gambitguides]

It feels like I'm a minority, but personally I like the spear best with fully upgraded Aspect of Zagreus (great all round weapon) and don't like the other aspects as much (although Guan Yu was interesting). Get extra damage on the special together with chain skewer and additional boons (Artemis, Zeus and Poseidon boons are great).

Just had the most fun ever with the following build (several of these severely upgraded):
- Hammer: Chain Skewer (1st room!)
- Heartbreak Flourish (2nd room!) - biggest Special Damage unless I'm mistaken. Also great is Artemis Special, Poseidon Special and Zeus special (fill the room with lightning).
- Deadly Strike
- Hunter's Mark
- Clean Kill
- Support Fire (not really a must but had the opportunity to get it in Styx)
- Battle Rage
- Heart Rend

- Distant Memory Keepsake

Would have liked Divine Dash but alas no Athena anywhere.

This build clears crowded rooms like nobody's business! Maybe the drawback is that it's not the greatest vs. Single bosses (particularly Hades), would depend on the build. And special is a little harder to aim compared to Attack.

I know you can get the Aegis Shield for a similar effect, but I just like the skewer pattern much better plus of course the bonus backstab damage.
Clearing Satyr tunnel rooms in mere seconds is a sight to behold :)

[ryu-ken]

Nice video. We need these with the other weapons lok

[Tiphereth.]

Problem I have with Excalibur is you have to wait for the defensive zone to go away before casting it elsewhere. And a lot of ennemies tend to stay away from you, dealing ranged damage. So most of the time, I use the special, and I have to go out to chase ennemy. And since the weapon is so slow, I take damage without the defensive bonus.
I have no idea how you're suppose to use this weapon (especially with forced overtime).
Same issue with spin attacks. I don't have time to charge an attack. Maybe it can work without Forced Overtime, but with it it seems to be the best way to take damage, and so I feel the Guan Yu is a nightmare. In my opinion, the heal shouldn't be on a charged move. :'(

[ChurchCOD]

Great vid! Looking forward to the fist and gun rating. Really dislike the gun, might have to level one of the aspects. Feels like a waste.

[Shiftshapercat]

I currently have a 30 win winstreak... I almost lost it 4 times because of having the Guan Yu spear with low health in Asphodel

[DamienM]

How do I get the last aspect unlocked? I’ve reached the final boss and unlocked 5 different aspects from other weapons using titan blood. Am I missing something?

[jacobolson]

There is an Artemis boon that brings Aspect of Poseidon up to S tier. “When your cast dislodges from foes deal 100 damage.”
That shit is a total boss melter.

[plohka]

I got Guan Yu spear as my first “hidden aspect” or whatever it’s called. How great that the first one I got is probably the least beginner-friendly.

[NimiKhan]

Great thing about Arthur aspect is that it's combo is not interrupted by dash: you do first attack and dash, then second and dash, then you get to your big numbers swing. It really help with survivability, plus bonus backstab damage is nice too.

[Bogrin]

Something new I found out today with Arthur is it shuts off some traps! From my experience it shuts down ground spikes, lava, and the horse head spear traps! Waking on lava is fine in the aura! Anyone else notice this or see any other interaction with traps?

[khpc]

I actually just used aspect of Hades to clear Hades for the 1st time using a weapon other than shields. Which really surprised me. Aspect of GuanYu needs to be buffed. As it is now, it really sucks so much that it is not worth the time. If they plan to punish health, health items so much when using it, they should really increase the amount recovered to maybe +5 per hit?

[ThaMobstarr]

Man as a Switch beginner, thanks man! I cleared the underworld just once so far. Your videos are incredibly helpful! I am loving this game so much.

[lbs.hercules]

When I first got Guan Yu I was so confused on what it was supposed to be useful for. I didn't realize how good the special damage was. it still seams kinda bad to me but it's cool.

[adamn]

Really good video. As someone that started in 1.0 these sorts of videos have been a huge help. I'd love it if you could do a video on how to unlock the 4th aspect of each of the weapons. They seem really cool but there isn't really any reliable info on how to go about unlocking these

EDIT: For anyone seeing this now the Hades wiki has instructions of sorts for unlocking the weapon aspects. In short it's:
1. Get the fated list of minor prophecies from the house contractor
2. Get to the final boss (winning not required)
3. Spend at least 5 blood on different non-zagreus weapon aspects
4. Talk to Achilles every chance you get. Eventually he will mention how the fates spoke to him of future bearers of your weapons.
5. Spend 3 blood and unlock Guan Yu for Varatha

After doing that the steps for the rest of the weapons are:
1. Invest 5 blood into that weapon
2. Talk to a specific character enough times for them to mention that weapon it's:
Nyx for the sword
Chaos for the shield
Artemis for the bow
Asterius (in his own mini boss arena not with Theseus) for the fists
Zeus for the gun

It seems like it's best to bring that weapon when you're going for its 4th form. Once those characters mention the weapon you can unlock it back at home

[pingupower]

Thanks for this, spear more than any other weapon, has been hard coming up with synergistic builds outside the hades spin but I'll have to give the casting theseus spear a try