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Melinoë is juggling a lot in Hades 2. She’s on missions for both the House of Hades and Olympus, while also drawing the attention of Chaos, who’s intrigued by her and the ongoing conflict. The ominous Pitch-Black Stone is a constant presence in her training grounds.
The Trial of Blood is one of Chaos’s toughest challenges, rated at the maximum level of difficulty. In this trial, Melinoë must navigate the Rift of Thessaly and defeat Eris, the goddess of Strife, using the Sister Blades, the White Antler, and a feline companion. The initial setup for the Trial of Blood can get quite intricate, requiring some trial and error along the way.
What Is The Loadout?
For the Trial of Blood, the core elements you start with include the weapon, its Aspect, and the Keepsake. Specifically, these are the Sister Blades with the Aspect of Artemis, along with the White Antler. You need to unlock all three to initiate this challenge.
The Sister Blades are agile and versatile. The Aspect of Artemis provides you with a Parry and Riposte ability: while using your Omega Attack, you can potentially Parry to avert most direct attacks and then Riposte, making you Impervious for one second and giving your next nine strikes a 50% increase in Critical chance.
The White Antler keepsake from Artemis boosts your Critical chance starting at +20% and grows as you upgrade it. However, it sets your maximum health to 30, which is a significant drawback at the beginning of a run.
Despite the nature of Chaos’s trials determining what weapon, aspect, keepsake, Boons, Arcana, and familiars you begin with, any upgrades you make to Melinoë and her equipment will carry over into the Pitch-Black Stone. Additionally, encounters within the Pitch-Black Stone contribute to upgrading your keepsakes.
Some Trials may provide you with a specific Familiar, Arcana, and Boons at the start—here, you have Toula the cat! While her attack is decent, she also grants a single Death Defiance, which is extremely valuable given your low health.
Your Arcana consists of just two cards: The Lovers and Strength. The Lovers offer a single instance of damage resistance during Guardian Encounters, likely against Eris in the Rift of Thessaly.
The real standout here is Strength. This card provides damage reduction and a 25% damage boost as long as you have no Death Defiance effects. You could consider using your Death Defiance early to gain a damage boost, but since Toula’s effect only restores 10 Life, that strategy may put you at greater risk. It’s better to save Strength until you’ve naturally lost your Death Defiance.
What Are The Trial’s Boons?
You start with several Boons from the goddesses Artemis, Aphrodite, and Poseidon, so expect to see mostly Aphrodite and Poseidon in the Rift of Thessaly.
Flutter Strike from Aphrodite provides a substantial +120% damage boost against foes in close proximity. Glamour Gain applies a Weak status to nearby enemies, allowing you to regain Magick gradually whenever they are Weak. Finally, Broken Resolve enhances the effectiveness of your Weak effects.
Note: Affected foes deal less damage.
Poseidon’s Heroic Boon, Flood Control, decreases your damage taken by five but costs you 30 Magick. The Sister Blades don’t heavily rely on Magick, so this shouldn’t pose too much of a problem, especially given Aphrodite’s Glamour Gain to help restore your resources.
The last Boon from Artemis is First Blood. This one allows you to inflict Critical damage on enemies with at least 80% Life or Armor, enhancing your chances by 30%.
Into The Rift
Navigating the Trial of Blood can seem straightforward: just avoid damage.
While damage reduction helps, it has its limits. Eris’s attacks grow stronger the more damage she takes, meaning a single hit could end your run. The Trial of Blood demands you stay alert and aware of your surroundings.
Artemis is there to assist you in overwhelming foes. Her offerings for this Trial not only increase your Critical chances but also provide some damage prevention. As a result, most enemies can be dealt with in just a few strikes, emphasizing the importance of striking first.
Boons In The Rift
While you’ll likely encounter Poseidon and Aphrodite, Hermes may also appear. The choice of Boons should reflect your playstyle preferences.
For instance, you could utilize Poseidon’s knockback abilities to maintain distance from potentially dangerous foes, or you may lean into Aphrodite’s abilities to keep enemies close, making the most of Flutter Strike and Glamour Gain. Feel free to retry the Trials as many times as you like, as experimentation can help you find the optimal strategy.
Overall, most of Hermes’s offerings are highly effective. They typically enhance your speed or hinder enemy movement.
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Nimble Mind: Increases the speed of your Omega moves, minimizing vulnerability during Channeling. Given that the Aspect of Artemis centers on the Omega Attack, speeding this up limits enemies’ opportunities to hit you.
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Hard Target: Slows down the ranged attacks of most enemies, making them easier to anticipate and dodge. This is particularly useful in the Rift, where many enemies use projectiles.
- Nitro Boost: Provides a 15% increase in Sprint speed and grants a damage-blocking barrier for a limited number of hits, depending on the rarity of the Boon. This speed enhances your ability to evade attacks, and the damage barrier is effective across all encounters.
Aphrodite’s Boons generally focus on increasing damage output while reducing incoming damage. Although they might seem less flashy, they are usually reliable choices, except for Life Affirmation, which boosts Max Life rewards, not particularly useful in this context.
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Shameless Attitude: Offers a damage increase but doubles it if your health is above 80%. Keeping your health up can provide a significant advantage in battle.
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Healthy Rebound: Fully restores your health when leaving a Location, provided you haven’t taken too much damage—specifically, you need at least 80% Life remaining. This requires the Shameless Attitude first.
- Sweet Surrender: Allows you to deal extra damage to Weak targets. You’ll need either Rapture Ring, Passion Rush, or Glamour Gain for this one, but since you start with Glamour Gain, you’re already on the right track to amplify damage.
Poseidon’s skills emphasize knockback, giving you space to maneuver when surrounded.
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Wave Flourish or Tidal Ring: Wave Flourish generates knockback on ranged attacks, pushing distant enemies further away, while Tidal Ring adds extra damage to your Cast.
- Island Getaway: This Duo Boon with Aphrodite grants you 15% Damage Resistance against nearby foes, treating all enemies as nearby for Aphrodite’s Boons, which pairs great with Flutter Strike and Glamour Gain.
Daedalus Hammers
Since your starting Boons focus on close-range combat, any Daedalus Hammers you find should ideally enhance your Attacks, with a couple of exceptions.
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Explosive Ambush: Increases your Omega Attack damage to 400% in a wider area, but consumes +20 Magick. This can be especially effective with the Aspect of Artemis, but you’ll need to be vigilant about your Magick use.
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Skulking Onslaught: Boosts your damage by 150% for attacks from behind. This tactic encourages good habits by promoting flanking, increasing your damage while decreasing the likelihood of being hit by front-facing enemies.
- Melting Sickle: Your Special can remove 50% of any enemy’s Armor. This is a useful exception that allows you to weaken opponents from afar, making them easier to finish off.
How To Defeat Eris
The approach here is pretty straightforward: strike first to avoid being hit.
Eris can be a formidable opponent. With her firearm at your disposal and your health capped at 30, you’ll need to remain vigilant.
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Stay behind her: Eris signals her attack paths before firing, so if you’re quick, you can position yourself behind her or take cover. Close combat offers an advantage, as she can only shoot in one direction—ensure you’re not in her line of fire.
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Eliminate her minions: Throughout the battle, she’ll summon small allies to aid her. They can be distracting and pose a greater risk; ignoring them increases your chances of getting hit. With Artemis’s critical damage boosts, dispatching them should be easy.
- Engage Eris directly: Get up close to the goddess of Strife! Utilize the Aspect of Artemis’s Omega Attack to maximize your crits.
Don’t be discouraged if you need a few attempts to get the hang of it—it’s all part of the learning process!
