Chaos is back, and they’re taking a bit more active role in Melinoë’s journey in Hades 2 than they did with Zagreus in the first game. The Pitch-Black Stone’s hovering ominously in Melinoë’s training grounds, and it offers unique challenges posed by Chaos, inviting Melinoë to beat different regions with different loadstates.
Related
Hades 2: Complete Guide To The Pitch-Black Stone
We show you how to unlock the Pitch Black Stone and Chaos Trials.
The Trial of Humility ranks in at four out of five eyes, one of the more difficult of Chaos’ trials. It puts you back at square one, throwing Melinoë back into Erebus to fight Hecate without any starting gear or magic other than whatever Keepsake you have in your pocket and a big stick.
What Is The Loadout?
The weapon Melinoë is equipped with here is the Witch’s Staff: the stick you start the game with, and the stick you’re taking through this trial. Any upgrades you’ve made to the Witch’s Staff in the Training Grounds will carry over, but with the Aspect of Melinoë, all this means is faster Omega moves—a nice upgrade, but nothing incredibly game-changing.
The staff is a basic weapon with a melee attack, a ranged special, and Omega moves that are pretty much more powerful and larger versions of those. It’s a solid, easy to use weapon. Other than that, you start with next to nothing. No Arcana, no familiar, and no starting Boons. It is the same setup you have when you first start a new game.
Trials in the Pitch-Black Stone are unlocked when you unlock the required components—weapon, aspect, keepsake—in your main run. Since the Trial of Humility is the same as a new game, this will always be available as soon as you unlock the Pitch-Black Stone.
What Is The Best Keepsake?
Whatever keepsake you equip in the Training Grounds is what you’ll take with you into the Trial of Humility, upgrades included. They can make a big difference, so it’s worth taking the time to pick one out.
- Purest of Hope (Apollo): your first Boon in this trial will always be Apollo’s, so while the likely appearance feature becomes redundant, the ability to Rarify his blessings can be useful.
- Gold Purse (Charon): this is one of the easiest keepsakes to get, which is useful if you’re attempting this trial before getting all keepsakes. You’re pretty much guaranteed to have one Charon encounter before fighting a Region’s boss, so the extra gold can net you anything from a Pom to a Boon to even just a healing item.
- Silken Sash (Arachne): without Arcana cards, you lose the potential for some healing abilities. The Silken Sash gives you Armor that regenerates after each room as long as you still have some left—a nice replacement.
- Luckier Tooth (Schelemeus) or Engraved Pin (Moros): Schelemeus is another easy-to-get keepsake, but both of these help by giving you either an outright Death Defiance or a similar ability, that gives you a second chance after losing all your Life.
What Are The Best Boons?
You will always start with Apollo, which also means you have a good chance of finding him multiple times throughout Erebus. Starting out the Trial, you’ll likely want to focus on Boons that don’t require use of Magick, as you don’t start with a lot of it and don’t have any ways to regenerate it.
- Nova Strike or Nova Flourish: both increase both the damage and area of your Attack and Special, respectively, making them solid choices.
- Blinding Sprint: increases your Sprint speed and inflicts Daze, which gives enemies a chance of dealing no damage. A lot of Apollo’s later Boons require something that inflicts Daze, so getting one of those early on is a good move.
- Lucid Gain: restores Magick when you stand in a Cast when it expires, helping with the can’t-regain-Magick issue.
Any other gods will be random, as in a normal run, so as is typical in Hades you can’t fully plan out a build. Any of the gods’ keepsakes will help if there’s someone specific you’re looking for. Since the Trial of Humility only passes through Erebus, though, making long-term plans such as for Duo or Legendary Boons isn’t as worth it—short-term results are going to be just fine here.
Other Boons
Restoring Magick and Life is the biggest, most obvious obstacle in the Trial of Humility. Other Boons that might help with that are random, but frequent.
- Fixed Gain (Hephaestus): restores Magick when you take damage.
- Fluid Gain (Poseidon): drops a Spirit Bubble that restores 20 Magick.
- Hearth Gain (Hestia): restores Magick whenever you deal damage with your Attack or Special.
- Uncanny Fortitude (Hephaestus): increases your max Life based on your Magick limit.
What Are The Other Rewards?
If there’s anything to prioritize first, it’s increasing your max Magick. A lack of Magick severely limits your capabilities, and turns combat into a game played by kids in the park where they hit each other with big sticks. Look for rooms with Soul Tonics as rewards, or if you have the Psychic Slivers of Clarity incantation, rooms with Psyche as a reward.
If you happen upon a Daedalus Hammer, almost any will be a good option, but try to base it off what Boons you’ve been collecting. The Witch’s Staff has some unique ones that help with the Trial of Humility that you can look out for.
- Rapid Thrasher or Rapid Moonshot: one of the downsides of the Witch’s Stafff is that it’s kind of slow, so increasing the speed of your Attacks and Specials is always safe and soild.
- Aetheric Moonburst: your Omega Special gets a new Power Shot that deals +50 percent damage and restores 20 Magick. We’re looking for ways to kill enemies fast and keep our Magick up!
- Vampiric Cataclysm: whenever you slay a foe with your Omega Attack, you restore five Life. It does have to be the Omega Attack, so be careful with your Magick limits and usage, but like your Magick, you don’t have a reliable way to heal in the Trial of Humility, so grab whatever you can.
