Eris, for as quirky and energetic as she seems in Hades 2, is actually a very fearsome combatant. Her boss battle fought up on the surface is pretty widely regarded as being very difficult, second to only Chronos, at least in the current state of the game's Early Access. There are a multitude of reasons as to why Eris' encounter is so hard, but one of the primary ones has to do with her range. She's using the Exagryph, otherwise known as the Adamant Rail, a weapon anyone who played the first Hades game is going to be more than familiar with already.
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More specifically, she's actually using the Aspect of Eris version of the Adamant Rail in Hades 2, and this means she has ranged fire, area-of-effect explosions, and the ability to buff her own damage output by a whopping 100 percent. So, if you don't come into this fight with a whole lot of Health, a couple of Death Defiances, and some great Boons, you're going to struggle to send Eris back to Crossroad. With that in mind, let's break down her fight as a whole, list out all the moves she seems to use, and go over what ways you can directly counter her.
Eris: Strife Incarnate
A Battle Against the True Wielder of Exagryph: The Adamant Rail
Out of all the bosses currently available in Hades 2, Eris is the one who relies on ranged damage the most. You could argue that Scylla and her Sirens have a lot of ranged attacks too, but even then those 3 Sirens have just about as many attacks as Eris does on her own. Eris being so built around her arrowfire or gunfire is something that'll be both helpful and harmful to anyone fighting her.
It's helpful because it makes Eris very predictable, as her standard gunfire is always going to be fired directly in front of her and her AoE attacks have gigantic telegraphs and a lot of time to react to them. However, it's also harmful because this can make it difficult to 'go in' on her without taking a bunch of unnecessary damage and if you don't have a weapon or a specific Boon that helps counter enemy projectiles, you're going to have a tough time.
The general game plan for Eris is pretty simple, despite the vast number of moves she has. You really just want to stick close to her, lay in as much damage as possible, then get as far away as possible or, better yet, directly behind her when she starts to wind up for any of her attacks. Because you don't really have I-frames after being hit, if you play it a bit too loose when fighting Eris and she gets you with her entire Salvo (shotgun or single shot) you'll find that your entire Health Bar can disappear in an instant.
Lastly, it's also worth mentioning that Eris' arena has some stage hazards and cover for you to use to your advantage. There are explosive barrels you can set off, oil next to these explosive barrels that you can light aflame, and there are those 2 'pillar-like' columns in the center of the arena that you can use to hide from Eris' gunfire or kite enemies around (though they do eventually break).
All Of The Attacks Eris Can Use
It's a Whole Lot of Gunfire & Explosives
- Video above is courtesy of FoolJuice on Twitch
Now we can finally go into all the attacks this big-time litterer can use. Quite frankly, Eris is probably up there with Chronos in terms of the number of attacks she has, but hers are a lot easier to read and a lot easier to avoid as long as you know which attack is coming ahead of time. Thankfully, the startup animation for all of these attacks is vastly different from each other, so as long as you know which animation is tied to which attack you can accurately respond to each and every one of her attacks.
Disclaimer: There aren't any 'official' attack names in the game, so we came up with our own.
You might notice in-game that some attacks mentioned here are slightly different than described, and that's because her attacks like Bombard or her Mob Summon have a couple of different variations such as Eris launches a bunch of Bombard grenades in unique patterns or Eris summoning enemies into the fight that you weren't at all prepared for. All we can say in response to that is you're going to have to be able to adapt and adjust in the moment if you want to beat Eris, as the personification of Strife itself isn't (and shouldn't) be an easy opponent. Without further ado, here are all the attacks Eris has at her disposal:
Move Name | Attack Type | Description | Strategy |
|---|---|---|---|
Arrow Volley | Damage | Eris fires a barrage of arrows directly forward, following Melinoë's position the entire time | The best thing to do is to Dash through Eris entirely, but that might not always be possible. Otherwise, just keep Dashing to stay ahead of her tracking, or use your Sprint to outrun to volley. |
Shotgun Volley | Damage | Extremely similar to Arrow Volley, but Eris first a shotgun spread of arrows 6+ times | This is probably Eris' most difficult attack to consistently avoid and is the main reason that Boons like Soot Sprint are so beloved when fighting Eris. Try to Dash through Eris and always stay on the opposite side of where she's firing. |
Bombard | Damage | Eris fires the Exagryph's Special (AKA its grenade), with a telegraph on the ground showing the impact zone. | A very simple attack to avoid, just stay out of the telegraph or at least Dash out of it before the grenade hits the ground. |
Triple Bombardment | Damage | Variants of the Bombard attack with multiple grenades in different formations | Same strategy as with the default Bombard attack. |
Advancing Salvo | Damage/Movement | Eris winds up, flashes white, and charges forward while firing the Exagryph diagonally to either side of her. | When she's about to unleash this attack, try and Dash through Eris or get a lot of distance, you basically just don't want to be at any sort of angle to her flight path, since the arrows are fired diagonally. |
Aspect Self-Buff | Buff | At 3 different points of the fight, Eris will put up an unbreakable shield and hit herself with her Bombard. This buffs her damage by 100 percent for a duration of time. | This is the Aspect of Eris version of the Exagryph after all, so its main feature would of course be part of Eris' toolkit. Play it safe during this buff duration, which you can see visually by the plumes of flame billowing from the bottom of Eris' 3D model. |
Armor-Penetrating Shot | Damage | Eris preps the Exagryph and a long sniper scope comes out of it. She lines up a shot on Melinoë with a pink telegraph on the ground showing the flight path before firing a high-damage shot a few seconds later. | You're typically not going to be able to outrun the telegraph for this attack unless you have a Sprint Speed Boon, so you'll have three other options:
|
Bombing Run | Damage During Untargetable Phase | Eris spins in place a couple of times & flies up and off-screen. Then, she'll fly across the screen, but much closer to the 'camera' this time. When she does this, a bunch of telegraphs will briefly flash on the ground in different patterns before explosions occur in those spots from Eris' bombardment from above. | Very simple, just avoid the spots where a grenade is going to explode. There are a couple of different patterns/formations she'll use for this attack, so it basically just boils down to 'avoid any red areas'. |
Bombing Run (Summon Variant) | Mob Summon | Similar startup animation to Bombing Run, but instead of dropping grenades Eris will drop enemies instead. These enemies are typically all the same 'type' and she can pull from any of the enemies that appear on the ships in the Rift of Thessaly. | This may seem like any other mob summoning attack, however, unlike, say, Infernal Cerberus, Eris actually lands back down while these mobs are active and will continue attacking you alongside said mobs. |
Continuous Salvos | Damage | When Eris is about to be defeated (at about 8-15 percent HP left) she'll start using this attack where she flies off screen, comes back down, unleashes a rapid-fire of arrows at Melinoë, flies off screen again, and repeats this process. She'll do this infinitely until you finish her off. | You don't have much of a window to actually hit Eris during this attack, so you'll likely have to attack mid-salvo. To do this, you'll want to get on her side as soon as she lands or use something like the Moonstone Axe's Ω Special or Soot Sprint Boon to approach safely and get your damage in. |
Quite frankly, if you have Soot Sprint you've pretty much already countered all of Eris' attacks as long as you're sprinting. So, we highly recommend trying to get Soot Sprint from Hestia whenever you attempt the topside run (AKA going to Mount Olympus) or at the very least look for Hermes' Nitro Boost Boon.
Some other 'honorable mention' Boons and Abilities that'll help deal with Eris' attacks are Hermes' Hard Target Boon, the Moonstone Axe's Ω Special, the Argent Skull's Ω Special since you're invulnerable during it, Demeter's Frigid Sprint Boon (the cyclone slows projectiles inside it), the Dark Side Hex, the Moon Water Hex, and the Phase Shift Hex. Sadly after beating Eris you've pretty much reached the end of Hades 2's Early Access progress but there's a whole lot more to do in the game currently outside of just story and character progression.
