Those of you reading this guide around the time it was written (May 9th, 2024) must have really put the time into Hades 2 so far to already make it to the surface city of Ephyra. When you finally make it up here with Melinoë and complete the incantation to let her stay up here for a good amount of time, you have a whole slew of new bosses blocking your progress to Mount Olympus. And, first up for the bosses you fight by ascending, not descending, is Polyphemus. Yes, this is the very same Cyclops who gave Odysseus and his men such a hard time in the Odyssey.
Hades 2: 7 Ways Melinoe Plays Nothing Like Zagreus Did
With players now able to get their hands on Hades 2 through the Technical Playtest, they can find out how different Melinoe & Zagreus are.
Polyphemus is working with Chronos now and is ready to both kill and eat whoever is trying to get past him, which is primarily Melinoë. So, here's everything you need to know to beat this giant oaf in Hades 2 as well as a thorough breakdown of all the moves at his disposal.
Overview Of The Cyclops, Polyphemus
He's, Unsurprisingly, A Very Simple Fight
Compared to almost every other boss fight in Hades 2, Polyphemus is about as simple as they come. The guy basically has two attacks, a summon attack and a jumping attack, with some slight variations on each. That said, you can get unlucky with the type of sheep that spawn in the arena, and you might also struggle avoiding the actual jumping part of his attacks rather than the shockwaves he creates.
The basic 'game plan' for fighting Polyphemus is also pretty simple, as it should be. This large Cyclops, when he decides to move, moves pretty quickly and covers a lot of ground. But, in between his attacks, he's pretty much entirely stationary. So, the core 'loop' when fighting Polyphemus is to keep your distance when he's jumping, Dash through the shockwave he creates, get a whole bunch of hits in after he lands, and then get out of the way when he starts to move again.
Polyphemus' Range Of Attacks
Mostly It's Just a Bunch of Different Shockwaves
- Video above is courtesy of FoolJuice on Twitch
Once again, Polyphemus really doesn't have a lot of different attacks. While the number of them may seem like it's comparable to Hecate or Scylla, most of them boil down to being slight variations of each others or new flavors of 'slamming the ground'.
Disclaimer: The game doesn't really have any 'official' names for the attacks, so we just came up with our own.
Still, these attacks each have their unique telegraphs and their unique ways to deal with them, so let's go over each one in-depth, one-by-one, and tell you how exactly you're meant to avoid them:
Move Name | Description | Strategy |
|---|---|---|
Hand Slam | Polyphemus's most basic attack, he simply raises his right hand up before slamming it, open palm, on the ground, creating a small pink shockwave around the point of impact. | As long as you're not directly in front of Polyphemus, this attack shouldn't hit. |
Jump & Slam | The attack Polyphemus uses the most by far. Basically, he jumps at Melinoë with his feet surrounded by pink energy before slamming down onto the ground and creating a pink shockwave that gradually expands outward. | It can be a bit annoying to dodge the first part of this where his feet can clip you as he jumps overhead, but otherwise, you just need to Dash through the shockwave and that's it. |
Grab & Chomp | Polyphemus outstretches his arms incredibly wide before quickly reaching down and attempting to snatch up Melinoë. If he does, he snacks on her a bit, dealing a good chunk of damage. | Just keep your distance when he outstretches his arms and you should be good. |
Kick Shockwave | The eyeless cyclops lifts up one of his legs, charges up a kick, flashes white, and then kicks forward, releasing a pink shockwave of energy that surges forward in a fan formation. | Don't be in front of Polyphemus when he kicks, and either avoid the shockwave to the sides or Dash through it. |
Boulder Slam | Polyphemus grabs a nearby boulder, quickly launches himself into the sky, and then crashes back down, sending a very fast-moving shockwave in all directions, though, after a bit of distance, this shockwave splits into four separate sections. | You can either wait until the shockwave splits into separate sections and move to the area the shockwave isn't at or just dodge towards Polyphemus as soon as he makes contact with the ground. |
Lubber Summon | This pattern typically happens when Polyphemus loses about 33 percent of his health(and again at 66 percent lost). He'll surround himself with an unbreakable shield, summon about 4 or so Lubbers with Armor, and then go back to his standard attacks. | Take out the Lubbers as fast as possible. The fire they put on the ground is a huge menace and their attacks, in general, hurt pretty bad. |
Stomp & Summon | For his other summoning attack, Polyphemus starts stomping around, creating small shockwaves around his feet and also summoning a whole mob of Shamblers each time he takes a step. After doing this 5-6 times, he'll immediately go back to his standard attacks. | While you shouldn't ignore the Shamblers, you don't have to primarily focus on them like you might want to with the Lubbers. They're a lot less irritating overall. |
Sheep | Not really an 'attack' Polyphemus has, but a variety of different sheep can spawn in his arena during the fight, with unique interactions and patterns. We're not entirely sure how many different types of sheep there are, but in our experience, we've seen devilish sheep that follow Melinoë around trying to attack her, sheep that Polyphemus can use his Grab & Chomp to eat mid-combat, and darker sheep that we couldn't really figure out what they did. | This isn't really an 'attack' you're meant to handle. Rather, just keep an eye out for any loose sheep in the arena during the fight and make sure they don't sneak up on you. |
Honestly, we don't expect many people to struggle all that much with Polyphemus. The only time we really did was during a 16-Fear Run with the Vow of the Unseen and we got incredibly unlucky as he had 2 different highly aggressive sheep spawn in the arena that constantly pestered us. Still, that doesn't mean Polyphemus is 'easy' overall, he just takes a bit less time to memorize and learn.
