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InHades 2, Melinoe’s weapons offer a wide variety of play styles between them. But what adds additional complexity to them are the three different aspects players can choose from. Each aspect fundamentally changes how the weapon functions and, in turn, what players should build during a run. Out of all of these aspects, the Sister Blade’s Aspect of Artemis can be a tricky weapon to build.
The Sister Blades' Aspect of Artemis needs plenty of damage buffs to scale well with your run and a healthy amount of Magick regeneration to remain relevant through your journey into the Underworld or on the Surface. Knowing what to look for and what gods are perfect for these weapons will be the key to your success. So if you’ve been looking for the best way to turn this Aspect into a titan-slaying machine, here are the boons and upgrades you should keep an eye out for.
What Does The Aspect Of Artemis Do?
Never-ending Omega Attacks
The Aspect of Artemis gives a shield to Melinoe while she’s charging her Omega Attack. If she’s struck while the shield is up, Melinoe will parry that damage and gain the Riposte buff. This buff makes her impervious for 1 second and adds 50% critical chance to her next 9 strikes. Melinoe can parry every 15 seconds, and this aspect also increases her Omega Attack’s charge rate by 60% at Rank 5.
Overall Strategy
In effect, this allows Melinoe to play a more aggressive, close-range game than the other aspects of the Sister Blades. Parries encourage her to stay close to bosses and enemies alike so she can get the Riposte buff and increase her damage. The best part about Riposte is that it works for both her Attacks and her Special, which gives you some flexibility to how you build this weapon during your run.
For the build itself,you’ll want to focus on anything that increases Melinoe’s Omega attack damage, refreshes her Magick as fast as possible, and rewards her for using Magick.If you’re going through the Underworld, you’ll want to setup a good Attack boon and Magick regeneration boon before you reach Hecate. If you don’t have a good Magic regeneration boon, you’re able to still defeat Hecate as long asyou know how the fight works, then focus on finding a good Magick regeneration boon in Oceanus.
In comparison, if you’re fighting through the Surface,you’ll want to start with a boon that refreshes your Magick firstso you can keep using your Omega Attack. Then, when you reach Ephyra, look for a good Attack boon. Unfortunately, if you don’t find the boons you need after defeating Polyphemus, it may not be worth it to dedicate a Keepsake to find an Attack boon.
Attack Pattern
Ideally, you’ll want to charge an Omega Attack, parry an attack, then release the Attack. Once it lands, you’ll want to dash-strike through the enemy, and charge your Omega Attack again.
Performing a dash-strike is important here for two reasons: it gives you an opportunity to regenerate Magick before your next Omega Attack (you can’t regenerate Magick while charging your Omega Attack), and it allows you to reposition yourself so your Omega Attack can get any backstab bonuses.
This attack pattern will only change if you get Hera’s Born Gain. Since it’s the only Magick regeneration boon that refills your Magick while charging your Omega Attack, you’re able to parry an attack and then continually unload Omega Attacks. If you need to get the backstab bonus, you’ll have to take a few steps away from your target while charging and then release the Omega Attack to consistently teleport to the same spot.
Arcana Card Set Up
Focus On Damage And Consistency
Out ofall the Arcana cards, besides the usual suspects of damage Arcana cards (Huntress, Origination, Furies), the next most important cards to bring with you are the cards that allow you to alter boons and location rewards. These options will help you consistently find the boons you need and ultimately lead to more damage than Death and the Unseen. While Death and the Unseen aren’t bad options, getting your build together consistently will usually be better in the long run.
Useful To Have
Escalating Ambush, Fan Knives, Flick Knives
Skulking Slice (+200% damage when attacking enemies from behind) early on is ideal since it’s a good damage boost without increasing the amount of Magick you consume. However,finding Explosive Ambush will help in the long runsince that’s going to be a massive spike in your damage and allow you to clear rooms more efficiently at the cost of consuming more Magick.
To a lesser degree, Escalating Ambush is an acceptable option to take if you can’t find Skulking Slice, but be aware that this option will not help very much against bosses. Along those lines, Flick Knives and Fan Knives can be useful if all of these other hammers aren’t offered.
Best Boons for the Aspect Of Artemis And How To Build
These are the Gods and Goddesses You Should Focus On For Big Damage
The best gods you’re able to get for the Aspect of Artemis areAphrodite, Apollo, Hera, and Demeter. These four have plenty of boons that fit perfectly into the Aspect of Artemis' attack plan and each one also has a good Attack boon if you’re looking for one.
Getting your build together is simple - focus on increasing Omega attack damage and get Origination working as soon as possible. While having these four specific gods is ideal,the only one that’s truly core to the build is Aphrodite.She has the best attack stat and a majority ofher best boons are relevant to this weapon.After that, focus on finding a good Magick regeneration and the rest of the build can be very open-ended.
Here’s a specific list of what each god/goddess has to offer when you pick up their boons:
Bolded boons are highly recommended, and worth using a reroll token for.
Acceptable Alternative
Apollo’s Nova Strike, Demeter’s Ice Strike, Poseidon’s Wave Strike
Aphrodite’s Flutter Strike is easily the best boon here to use.It scales well later in the run, and it comes with plenty of support boons to make it better. If you’re in need of a different attack boon, Apollo’s Nova Strike and Demeter’s Ice Strike can also work, but be aware that you’ll have to lean more heavily on other support boons to increase your Omega Attack’s damage later in the run.
An alternative to all of this is Poseidon’s Wave Strike. It’s useful early on, but it requires you to find Slippery Slope and later King Tide to truly take off.
Apollo’s Lucid Gain
Easilythe best Hera boon in the game,Born Again is by far the best Magick regeneration boon you can find for this weapon.It’s one of the only two boons in the game that will recharge your Magick while you’re charging your Omega Attack (the other is Poseidon’s Fluid Gain), and it’s practically infinite Magick when you need it for a ridiculously small price. .
An acceptable alternative is Apollo’s Lucid Gain, which will refill your Magick extremely quickly while you’re standing in your cast. You’ll have to use dash-strikes at times to get your Magick back before returning to Omega Attacks, but its rapid Magick gain makes it the next best thing.
Best Special And Cast Boons
Anything that applies a Curse from Hera and Demeter
Anything that applies curses from Hestia and Zeus, Apollo’s Nova Flourish and Apollo’s Solar Ring
Finding boons for these two slots follows the same logic:find anything that applies curses so you can get Origination working as soon as possible.For your cast, Hera and Demeter are the two best candidates. Two ofDemeter’s best boons, Arctic Ring and Gale Force, are incredibly powerful together because they will activate Origination with a single Cast. Comparatively, Hera’s Hitch can do a surprising amount of damage and her cast can clear rooms fairly quickly.
Your special can either be used to apply curses, or if the game keeps throwing Special-oriented hammers at you, you can use it for damage by getting a Riposte stack, then unloading Omega Specials into an enemy’s back. The same gods that would buff your attack (Aphrodite, Apollo, Demeter, Hera) also offer powerful Special boons, but if you just need a curse applied, Hestia and Zeus can also work in this slot.
Hestia’s Soot Sprint, Apollo’s Nova Sprint
Almost every dash boon can work here, butif you’re hoping to squeeze out every last drop of DPS from your build, Passion Dash is ideal.Not only does it introduce Sweet Surrender into your Aphrodite boons pool, it also works well with the Sister Blade’s Omega Attack, and helps with Origination.
The next best option is Apollo’s Nova Sprintwhich loses the damage of Passion Dash in exchange for the potential to get Backburner later in the run. Hestia’s Soot Sprint is a good alternative if you’re battling through the Surface because of how much it can help againstEris in her boss fight.
Best Support Boons For Aspect Of Artemis
Best Support Boons
Heart Breaker (Sunny Disposition), Back Burner, Gale Force, Weed Killer, Artemis' Silver Streak
Exceptional Talent, Keen Intuition, Uncommon Grace, Coase Grit
Heart Breaker, Back Burner, Gale Force, and Weed Killer are all amazing.Not only do these keep you coming back to Aphrodite, Apollo, and Demeter and Hera, they all create powerful spikes in your damage output without any large changes to your game plan. Heart Breaker becomes even better if you’re able to get Sunny Disposition, Apollo and Aphrodite’s duo boon, which will make short work of every boss in the game. Justmake sure you have all the necessary requirementsto get this powerful duo boon if you plan on investing rerolls for it.
On the note of requirements,Exceptional Talent (Apollo’s Legendary boon) is a powerful tool to add since it’ll use your Omega Attack twice per cast.The problem is you have to build toward it by taking specific Apollo boons. IfHades 2continues to throw Apollo boons at you during your run at the cost of everything else, you may want to consider pivoting toward an Exceptional Talent build.
As far as other support boons go,Keen Intuition and Uncommon Graceare useful ways to get more damage out of your build, and they both come from Hera. If everything is going wrong, and you’re worried that you won’t be able to beat Chronos,you can never go wrong with Demeter’s Coarse Gritsince it will make the Chronos fight much more forgiving.
