Melinoe has a long and grueling journey ahead of her in Hades 2 as she attempts to descend from Crossroad, through Erebus, and all the way down to Tartarus to kill Chronos and take her home back. And, to test her and act as the first difficult (but safe) barrier, Hecate is the boss stopping her from progressing from Erebus to Oceanus.
6 God Design Changes In Hades 2
Just about every returning God or Goddess character seen in Hades 2 has had their design updated in some way, so let's look in-depth.
At the end of Erebus, every time, you (and everyone else enjoying this game) will have to fight and defeat Hecate to keep going. And, at first, this boss can seem pretty difficult, but once you understand all of her moves, she becomes so much easier to handle. So, let's go over exactly how to easily defeat your pseudo-mother, Hecate, in Hades 2.
Hecate Overview
General Plan for the Fight
First off, let's just give a general overview of the 'type' of boss Hecate is, what (if any) phases she has, and the general game plan that you'll want to keep in mind while fighting her. Hecate is a pretty simple boss and is actually pretty comparable to the Furies boss fights from the first Hades game, though she doesn't have multiple variants you can end up fighting like the first game did with Megara, Alecto, and Tisiphone.
In general, Hecate stays close to you or in the middle of the arena, she has 2 phases where she'll summon mobs and cover herself with an impenetrable barrier until you defeat them all, and her telegraphs are all very obvious (once you've seen them a few times).
As a very open-ended strategy, you'll want to get some hits in whenever she teleports to you, wait to see what move she's winding up after a few hits, back off, and/or quickly dodge through said move and rinse and repeat. There are not a ton of complex mechanics in this boss fight, and even the one it does have (her clones) has a pretty simple trick to overcoming it. So, without further ado, let's break down her move list one by one.
Hecate's Move List
Lot of Flame-Based Attacks
- Video above is courtesy of FoolJuice on Twitch
In Greek Mythology, Hecate is known as the three-faced Goddess and is known to take on three different forms or have three different bodies to fulfill different purposes in different parts of the Crossroads. In Hades 2, this concept is brought in mechanically by giving her a couple of clones she can use during her fight.
Disclaimer: There are no 'official' names for any of her attacks, so we came up with our own, please don't flame my naming sense.
Outside of that, Hecate is actually pretty simple, as she only has a couple of different moves that she'll rotate between. Once you fight her a couple of times, you should naturally start memorizing her attack patterns, but to help in that process here is a description of all her moves as well as how you might want to react to them.
Move Name | Description | Strategy |
|---|---|---|
Flame Wave | Hecate briefly winds up her Ygnium (AKA her 'torches' or Umbral Flames) before swinging them in an arc that releases a wave (or two waves) that glides forward. Then, Hecate will either send out another wave even faster than the first or do nothing. | This feint before the second swing can throw you off if you're not careful. Melinoe can dash through these Umbral Flames or, if she stands close enough, can even avoid these entirely without trying. |
Circle of Flame | Hecate starts spinning with her Torches before releasing a purple arcane sigil that quickly expands outward in all directions with green fire surrounding it. After expanding about 4 steps in width on either side, it recedes back into Hecate at the same speed. | The green fire surrounding the 'edge' of this attack isn't actually able to hurt Melinoe, despite how it looks. As such, you can dash through the border, get some hits in on Hecate, and then dash through it again before the aura fully closes in. |
The Virgin, the Mother, & the Crone | Hecate has 2 other 'clones' of herself that she'll routinely summon during the fight. First, Hecate disappears in a puff of shadowy smoke before three of her reappear on different ends of the arena. Then three Hecates will all use the same attack at the same time, all targeting Melinoe. There are three potential attacks they'll use:
| Only one of these Hecates is 'real' and can be damaged, the others are fakes and will flash green instead of white when hit, and no damage numbers will appear above them either. The real trick here is the audio. Hecate will typically say something as she reappears with the clones, and you can actually guess which one is the 'real' her by following the direction it sounds like her voice is coming from. |
Umbral Flame Barrage | Hecate slowly winds up Umbral Flames again, just like with her Flame Waves, but the animation is slower. After winding up, Hecate unleashes three different barrage 'lines' of small flame waves in a fan-like spread formation. These lines of flame waves fly out at a relatively slow speed before eventually returning to Hecate and will bounce off any terrain they hit. | The safest option is just to stay out of the way of these until they fully return to Hecate, but you can sneak in and get some hits on her while they're being sent out and/or returning. Just be careful, as each wave that hits you counts as an individual hit meaning the damage can quickly stack up. |
Phase 2 Transition | After taking about 25 percent of her Health, Hecate will teleport to the middle of the arena and surround herself with the typical unbreakable shield bosses in the first game used. Then, she'll start attacking Melinoe in a variety of ways all while summoning her helper Shades 'sisters' who fire singular purple projectiles at Melinoe. Take out all of the Shades, and a short time later the shield will drop and you can continue the fight. The attacks Hecate can use while shielded have a couple of variations, but thankfully she doesn't swap between them mid-phase. Once she uses one of them, that's the attack she'll use until you defeat all her Shades. The potential attacks are:
| Honestly, this phase is about as easy as it gets, just keep moving either dashing through Hecate's (or the Shade's) projectiles or avoiding the attacks you don't need to dash through. Take out all the Shades as quickly as possible (the trees are helpful for quick terrain kills) and head back to the center to get some quick hits on Hecate right as the shield drops before she starts attacking again. |
Phase 3 Transition | At about 50 percent health or so, Hecate teleports to the center again, just like the Phase 2 transition. She has the same array of potential attacks she can use here while shielded, but she does fire a tracking blue sphere at Melinoe before she starts attacking. This sphere, if it hits, Morphs Melinoe into a harmless sheep that can only dodge for about 20 seconds or so. Hecate will start doing one of the attacks listed above on repeat until you kill all of the Shades she summons. | During this time as a sheep, you'll need to avoid incoming attacks (you can still dash, it's just more of a 'hop' now) until the time runs out and you become Melinoe again. Alternatively, you can keep dashing through the projectile again and again and after doing this about 6+ times, it should disappear and you're good to focus on beating the Shades and then subsequently beating Hecate. |
And those are all the possible attacks that Hecate, Witch of the Crossroads, guardian of Melinoe, and Titaness of the House of Hades can use in the Early Access version of Hades 2. Once you beat Hecate once or twice, the gameplay loop of fighting her gets very simple, and you'll find that you rarely, if at all get sent back to Crossroad during your fight with her anymore. After defeating her, Hecate typically praises you before heading back to Crossroad, leaving a Cinder behind for you to add to your collection of Materials that'll come in handy for future Incantations & Upgrades.
