Whether you’re deflecting attacks or skewering enemies using the Eternal Spear (Varatha), Hades has just about something fun to keep anyone entertained. It may not be the harshest Rougelite, but its difficulty lies in your inexperience, but rest assured as Hades offers smooth leveling, making every run slighty easier. You collect different types of resources when playing the game, but the most important resource early on is darkness as it allows you to add extra lives, start with deeper pockets, or reduce the RNG element when it comes to picking rare boons. Through Nyx’s help, you have access to the Mirror of Night which allows you to spend your darkness on upgrades which empower your runs. TheGamesCabin’s guide on Hades’ Mirror of the Night will help you perfect your run while you unlock as many power-ups as possible.
As a general rule of thumb, it’s best to go for any upgrades which increase Health and charges of Death Defiance as that will prolong your survival, in turn increasing the possibility of a successful attempt. Once those are settled, focus on any upgrades that increase your long term damage and keep investing into those aspects.
While you have the first set of upgrades unlocked, we believe that is more than enough to invest in to beat the game. The first set of upgrades in the Mirror of Night allow give you access to passive skills which forgive mistakes and allow you to do more, which help you throughout the chamber.
You’ll have to go through 10 successful attempts to reach the ending, so we advise you to focus on the upgrades that you enjoy and those that fits your play style. Some upgrades fits certain weapons and keepsakes more than others. There is a second set of upgrades, allowing you to swap between the red and green options – you’ll need to collect a minimum of 300 Darkness before Nyx will open the Green versions. The second set of upgrades are far more conditional and may not suit those who are new to Hades. Keep in mind that every upgrade only unlocks either red or green version, so you’ll need to upgrade each variant one at a time.
The Mirror of Night’s levels can be unlocked using Chthonic Keys. The first 4 levels are unlocked at the start of the game, but the rest you’ll need to buy using Chthonic Keys which you collect during your runs. 5 Chthonic Keys will unlock the next 2 levels. An extra 10 Chthonic Keys will unlock an additional 2 levels, with a set of 20 and then 30 extra keys respectively for the every 2 levels after that.
Talents
Mirror of Night Level 1
Shadow Presence:
This ability allows you to do an extra 10% damage to enemies when you hit them from behind. You can level up this ability 5 times to reach an extra 50% damage when hitting foes from behind. The total Darkness you’ll need to fully level this Mirror of Night upgrade is 100 (10 + 15 + 20 + 25 + 30).
Best Infernal Arm: The best weapon for this is clearly Varatha, the spear, as the special allows you to throw the weapon back and forth through the enemy, piercing them from behind in quick succession. Though if you’re just beginning and don’t have the spear unlocked and are stuck with the sword, you can quickly dash behind enemies to take advantage of this upgrade.
Best Keepsake: Nyx’s Black Shawl as it allows you to damage foes with an extra 10 to 20% when hitting enemies from behind.
Best Boon: Athena’s Blinding Flash works with this talent as it allows Deflect attacks to leaving your foes Exposed, which is a status affect allowing you to do more damage from behind. There are not a lot of boons which go along with this ability, most like as you can already stack up quite a bit of damage with the upgrades and keepsake.
Fiery Presence:
This talent involves inflicting an extra 15% of damage to undamaged foes, and it can be upgraded 5 times to reach a maximum of 75% damage. The total Darkness to level up this Mirror of Night upgrade is 100, similar to Shadow Presence.
Best Infernal Arm: The best weapon is pretty open here as most weapons do generally the same damage at their base levels, but we believe that Exagryph, the gun, may be the ideal choice. It deals the most damage using its single special shot. If you’re just starting out, the sword should be a good option.
Best Keepsake: One again, Nyx’s Black Shawl is a great option here as deal an extra 10 to 20% damage when hitting undamaged foes.
Best Boon: There are a number of boons which fit this talent, especially any which do a lot of base damage, but we believe Aphrodite’s Blown Kiss is the ideal combo piece as it does more damage to undamaged foes.
Mirror of Night Level 2
Chthonic Vitality:
Using this ability grants you 1 Health every time you enter a chamber. It’s a great way to restore health, especially when you reach the Styx as you’re presented with multiple chambers back to back. Full upgraded, you can receive 3 Health for each new chamber you enter. The total Darkness to level up this Mirror of Night perk is 70 (10 + 20 + 40).
Best Infernal Arm: Since this is less of a build and more of a quality of life upgrade, it with all the Infernal Arms. Though, you may prefer more Health when using close ranged weapons such as the sword or fists, hence you try going for a build which prioritizes a high vitality.
Best Keepsake: The best boon is a bit harder to determine, but we believe Demeter’s Frostbitten Horn may be the ideal choice as it allows you a higher chance to luck into her Nourished Soul boon.
Best Boon: Demeter’s Nourished Soul seems to be the way to go here. It makes all your health restoring affects stronger.
Dark Regeneration:
Dark Regeneration allows you to restore your Health using 30% of the Darkness you pick up. It’s relatively a high risk, high reward perk, but one that can work well late game once you can get more Darkness for clearing worlds. It can be upgraded once to reach a restoration of 60% of Darkness collected. The total Darkness needed to acquire the max rank of this Mirror of Night talent is 90 (30 + 60).
Best Infernal Arm: Weapons don’t direct affect how much Darkness you’ll be attaining in a run, but every run one of the weapons glows purple, this allows you to get 20% more Darkness for each drop so it’s definitely worth going for that pick. Purple weapons are a good way to build Darkness over time, especially after boss fights, to level up the Mirror of Night faster too.
Best Keepsake: Since there are no keepsakes which directly influence the amount of Darkness you’ll collect, we recommend Chaos’ Cosmic Egg as it increases the chance for better boons. Chaos’ Eclipse allows you to gain anywhere from 75 to 200% more Darkness and Gemstone depending on the rarity, so if you luck into that boon, definitely pick it for a lot more Health restoration that run.
Best Boon: The best choice here is still Demeter’s Nourished Soul.
Mirror of Night Level 3
Death Defiance:
This talent allows you come back to life after dying with 50% Health. It is arguably the best of all 24 talents, allowing you to successfully complete runs with ease. There are 3 levels, allowing 3 lives in total. The total Darkness needed to acquire the max rank of this Mirror of Night perk is 1530 (30 + 500 + 1000) – yes, you get what you pay for.
Best Infernal Arm: Any of the weapons work with this boost, but if you’re prioritizing lives and safety, we recommend Aegis, the shield, as it allows you to block any incoming attack when holding the attack button.
Best Keepsake: Since we’re talking about extra lives, the best keepsake to go with this talent is Skelly’s Lucky Tooth as it allows you to regain 50 to 100 Health back after dying. The caveat here is that it only works once during the run, so we recommend equipping this keepsake before entering the Temple of Styx.
Best Boon: Not just the best boon for Death Defiance, but one of the best in the game is Athena’s Last Stand. It restores a charge of Death Defiance on the spot and also increases how much Health you are going to regain. We have to mention though, Athena’s Deathless Stand comes almost as close as it also replenishes a use of Death Defiance but without restoring extra Health.
Stubborn Defiance:
This perk allows you to restore 30% of health once per every chamber. It only requires 600 Darkness to unlock and there are no Mirror of Night upgrades. Unless you’re completely new to the Rougelike genre, we recommend not spending on this at all as the chances of dying every chamber are very low, and you’ll want to save 3 to 4 charges of Death Defiance for bosses instead.
Best Infernal Arm: Similar to Death Defiance, the shield is the way to go.
Best Keepsake: Eurydice’s Evergreen Acorn would be a good choice with this talent as it allows you to nullify the first 3 to 5 hits during a boss encounter.
Best Boon: Ares’ Call – Ares’ Aid – or Poseidon’s Call – Poseidon’s Aid – may be the way to go here as they make you invulnerable during the Call animation. Hermes’ Quick Favor goes along with this pretty well as it allows you to charge up your Call automatically.
Mirror of Night Level 4
Greater Reflex:
This Mirror of Night benefit allows you to Dash an extra time, and it can be upgraded to have a total of 2 Dashes. It requires a total of 50 Darkness, just one upgrade.
Best Infernal Arm: Any weapon works with this one, but Varatha, the spear, or Stygius, the sword, are a good choice for their simple and widespread Dash Strike ability.
Best Keepsake: Evidently, Hermes’ Lambent Plume is the way to go to utilize speed as it allows Zagreus an extra 1 to 1.2% dodge chance and move speed whenever you complete a chamber swiftly.
Best Boon: Hermes’s Hyper Sprint and Quick Recovery are good options as they allow you to become Sturdy or recover Health after Dashing respectively.
Ruthless Reflex:
This perk from the Mirror of Night rewards you with a 50% increase in damage and dodge chance for 2 seconds if you dodge just before getting hit. It’s a onetime unlock, costing 75 Darkness.
Best Infernal Arm: Similar to Greater Reflex, the sword or spear are good options.
Best Keepsake: Similar to Greater Reflex, Hermes’ Lambent Plume works well here.
Best Boon: Artermis’ Hunter Dash may be a good option here as it allows your Dash Strike to do more damage.
Mirror of Night Level 5
Boiling Blood:
This benefit allows you to do 10% extra Attack and Special damage to foes which have Cast Ammo in them. It has 5 levels, reaching up to 50% extra damage. The total Darkness you’ll need for this Mirror of Night talent is 250 (10 + 30 + 50 + 70 + 90).
Best Infernal Arm: This works well with builds that aim for short bursts of fast damage. Coronacht, the bow, or Exagryph, the gun, are good options with Boiling Blood as you can deal more instances of damage. It may not sound as impressive at the base level, but with Boons, Weapon Aspects, and Daedylus Hammers these two weapons can put out a lot of consecutive damage.
Best Keepsake: One again, Nyx’s Black Shawl comes in hand as focusing enemies from behind can inherently increase the successive damage.
Best Boon: This is highly build dependent, but majority of the boons with Cast effects work quite well here.
Abyssal Blood:
This perk lowers the amount of damage and speed the enemies have by 6%. It has a total of 5 levels, reaching a max reduction of 30%. The total Darkness you need to fill the Mirror of Night is 300 (20 + 40 + 60 + 80 + 100).
Best Infernal Arm: Any of the weapons work well here, but we recommend Aegis, the shield, if you’re going for a reduction in damage.
Best Keepsake: Patroclus’ Broken Spearpoint is a good option as you become invulnerable for 1 to 1.5 after taking taking damage, and it refreshes every 7 seconds.
Best Boon: Athena’s Divine Dash is a blessing if your aim is to reduce damage. It allows you to power through almost any attack by just dashing towards it, with the attack being deflected back to the enemy. It’s one of the best Boons in the entire game, early or late.
Mirror of Night Level 6
Infernal Soul:
This talent gifts you an extra cast, and it can be upgraded to have a total of 3 casts. The total Darkness you need to feed the Mirror of Night is 100 (20 + 80).
Best Infernal Arm: We recommend Coronacht, the bow, because of the Aspect of Hera variant which allows you to fuse your next Attack with your Cast.
Best Keepsake: Since you’ll be throwing your cast to enemies at a distant most of the time, Orpheus’ Distant Memory is a good combo piece with multiple casts as this keepsake allows you to do 10 to 30% extra damage to foes that are far away.
Best Boon: Similar to Boiling Blood, most Boons with Cast effects would work well with Infernal Soul.
Stygian Soul:
This variant allows your Cast Ammon to fill itself instead of having it to pick it up. There are 3 levels to this, with each second replenishing the Cast Ammo faster. It starts at 5 seconds and can be reduced to 3 seconds. The total Darkness required by the Mirror of Night is 180 (60+ 120).
Best Infernal Arm: Once again, similar to Infernal Soul, the bow is the optimal choice due to the weapon’s Aspect of Hera.
Best Keepsake: You may like to go with Artemis’s Adamant Arrowhead to increase your chances of landing into multiple Cast-based Boons.
Best Boon: Following its predecessor, any Cast Boons go well with Stygian Soul.
Mirror of Night Level 7
Deep Pockets:
This perk allows you to start a run with 10 Obols, the in game gold. It has 10 levels for a total of 100 Obols when starting an escape attempt. The total Darkness needed to please the Mirror of Night is 525 (30 + 35 + 40 + 45 + 50 + 55 + 60 +65 +70 +75).
Best Infernal Arm: Any weapon can be used as they have no relation with Obols.
Best Keepsake: Hypnos’s Chthonic Coin Purse is a good one to keep for an Obol run, giving you 100 to 150 Obols to spend once per escape attempt.
Best Boon: There is no boon to combo with, but it is recommended to save 150 Obols for the last room in every area to buy an extra boon.
Golden Touch:
This Mirror of Night bonus rewards you with 5% of your total Obol count every time you defeat the boss of the Underworld area. It has a total of 3 levels giving you 15% extra Obols for each area cleared. The total Darkness needed to full upgrade this perk is 270 (70 + 90 + 110).
Best Infernal Arm: All weapons perform equally.
Best Keepsake: Hypnos’s Chthonic Coin Purse.
Best Boon: All boons perform equally.
Mirror of Night Level 8
Thick Skin:
This Mirror of Night attribute adds 5 Health to your Life Total, with a max upgraded amount of an extra 50 Health. The total Darkness needed to level up this pick is 625 (40 + 45 + 50 + 55 + 60 + 65 + 70 + 75 + 80 +85).
Best Infernal Arm: If you’re concerned about health, Aegis, the shield, is the safest weapon to play. You can block any attack and hit enemies from range. Be sure to pick up lots of Centaur Hearts.
Best Keepsake: Cerberus’ Old Spiked Collar provides and extra 25 to 50 Health if you think you need more.
Best Boon: Dionynus’s Strong Drink is a great boon which not only fully heals you using the fountain after each Underworld area, but also increases you damage each time.
High Confidence:
This perk allows you to do an extra 5% damage when your Health is above 80% or more. It has 5 levels, leading to a total of 25% extra damage. The total Mirror of Night cost is 750 (50 +100 + 150 + 200 + 250) Darkness.
Best Infernal Arm: Once again, Aegis, the shield, is a great way to keep Health high so that you can optimize your damage.
Best Keepsake: For a high damage build, as you’ll already be focused on protecting yourself, Thanatos’s Pierced Butterfly combos well with this perk as every encounter you clear without taking damage allows you to gain an extra 1 to 2% damage.
Best Boon: To the rescue again, Athena’s Divine Dash is a fantastic fit for this talent as it maximizes your chance of mitigating damage and keeping your Life Total above 80%.
Mirror of Night Level 9
Privileged Status:
This power up allows you to inflict 20% extra damage to foes who are under the influence of a minimum of 2 Status Curse effects. So they can be afflicted with Weak, Hangover, Ruptured, Jolted, Exposed, Marked, Doom, and Chill). When fully upgrades, you can deal an extra 40% damage. The total Darkness needed to fuel this Mirror of Night upgrade is 550 (50 + 500).
Best Infernal Arm: Curse effects are great with weapons which prioritize multiple short bursts of damage. Stygius, the sword, is a great option to combo your attack and special, giving each one a certain status effect.
Best Keepsake: At least two of the God’s keepsakes, while looking out for Status Curse effects. Dionysus and Ares are great ones to go for to stack passive damage.
Best Boon: Ares’ Curse of Agony is a great one to get for its passive damage.
Family Favorite:
This variant allows you to deal an extra 2.5% damage for each different Olympian’s Boons you have. You can upgrade it to reach an extra 5% damage. The total Darkness needed to fulfill this Mirror of Night upgrade is 200 (50 + 150).
Best Infernal Arm: .
Best Keepsake: Pick a new keepsake
related to an Olympian God for whom you do not have a boon, which also fits your build. This isn’t only a good way to get an extra 5% damage for each God, but the base damage for each new boon will also added to the chaos.
Best Boon: Chaos’ Favor is a great way to maximize the effects of all your other potential Boons.
Mirror of Night Level 10
Olympian Favor:
This favor allows you to increase the chance a Boon will be rare by 1%. It has 40 ranks, requiring a total of 2000 Darkness in the Mirror of Night to reach 40%. We recommend you opt for this early on as it will help getting stronger builds in the long term.
Best Infernal Arm: Any of the of the weapons works.
Best Keepsake: Chaos’ Cosmic Eggs so that you have a higher chance of finding his Boon which increases the chance for Boons to be Rare, and have it be powered up by 20 to 40%.
Best Boon: Chaos’s Favor as it will make getting rarer Boons easier.
Dark Foresight:
This ability allows you to increase your chance to get Boons, Hammers, Obol, and Poms options for each chamber clear by 2%. This Mirror of Night upgrade has 10 ranks which cost 150 Darkness each for a total of 1500 Darkness, reaching 20% extra chance to find those rewards.
Best Infernal Arm: Any of the weapons work.
Best Keepsake: Chaos’ Cosmic Eggs so that you have a higher chance of finding his Boon which increases the chance for Boons to be better, and have it be powered up by 20 to 40%.
Best Boon: Chaos’s Favor as it will make getting better Boons easier.
Mirror of Night Level 11
Gods’ Pride:
This perk acts in the same way as Olympian Favor, only for Boons to be Epic, with a total extra chance of 20%, costing 2000 Darkness to the Mirror of Night, 100 Darkness per rank.
Best Infernal Arm: All weapons work equally.
Best Keepsake: Chaos’ Cosmic Eggs so that you have a higher chance of finding his Boon which increases the chance for Boons to be Epic, and have it be powered up by 20 to 40%.
Best Boon: Chaos’s Favor as it will make getting Epic Boons easier.
Gods’ Legacy:
This talent is similar to Gods’ Pride but instead works for Legendary or Duo Boons, with a max extra chance of 10%. The total Darkness needed for this Mirror of Night upgrade is 2500, 250 per rank.
Best Infernal Arm: All weapons work equally.
Best Keepsake: Chaos’ Cosmic Eggs so that you have a higher chance of finding his Boon which increases the chance for Boons to be Legendary, and have it be powered up by 20 to 40%.
Best Boon: Chaos’s Favor as it will make getting Legendary Boons easier.
Mirror of Night Level 12
Fated Authority:
This talent gives you 1 die used to reroll the rewards for the next chamber. You can have a total of 8 dice. The total Darkness needed for this Mirror of Night upgrade is 11,000. We recommend leaving this as one of the very last purchases in the game. The RNG elements in the game are pretty favorable, and with being able to choose Boons through keepsakes, you can go for the build you want. Through the help of the House Contractor, you can even have every Chthonic Key pick up reward you with a die.
We recommend using the die on Poms as they don’t increase your stats as much as opposed to Boons, Obols, and Centaur Hearts.
Best Infernal Arm: Works with all weapons equally.
Best Keepsake: You can go with any of the God’s keepsakes for a specific build.
Best Boon: You may want to go for any boon that increases the chance for Boons to be rarer, especially Chaos’.
Fated Persuasion:
In a similar fashion to Fated Authority, each die will allow you reroll the rewards for Boons and Well of Charon choices. You can have up to 4 dice, netting a total of 10,000 Darkness to spend at the Mirror of Night.
The dies should ideally be used to get better Boons rewards, especially when the current ones don’t fir your build.
Best Infernal Arm: Works with all weapons equally.
Best Keepsake: Charon’s Bone Hourglass works well here are you can optimize which items to buy, upgrading their longevity as each purchase at the Well of Charon will last 4 to 8 encounters longer.
Best Boon: Any of the Boons work, so go for as many as you can using the rerolls.