Hades II Guide: Die besten Arkana für den Einstieg

In Hades II, you can enhance Melinoë through Arkana. We will show you which Arkana are perfect for starting.

Hades II is, in contrast to its predecessor, significantly more complex. What may initially seem overwhelming quickly reveals a mix of interesting game systems that are beneficial to the genre. One of the most important systems is the Arkana – special powers that amplify Melinoë during the night.

To ensure that you get the most out of the Arkana right from the start, we will show you a strong build that is suitable for both the early hours and still works wonderfully in the endgame.

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Unlocking and Upgrading Arkana

What are Arkana? Arkana are tarot cards that hold special powers. Most of them grant passive bonuses that accompany you on your descent into the underworld or ascent to Olympus. At the start, you only have a few Arkana, but you unlock them gradually through the use of ash.

The number of Arkana you can have active simultaneously is determined by your current knowledge. You can increase your knowledge by spending psyche.

You can view both your current Arkana and your knowledge in the preparation area. Once you enter the area, simply go to the floating archway and select the “Meditate” function.

How do you obtain ash and psyche? Ash is needed to unlock new Arkana, and psyche increases your knowledge, meaning the maximum number of simultaneously active Arkana. You can buy both resources from the Wretched Trader at the Witch Camp as soon as you have unlocked the merchant. You can also find both resources during your adventures – they remain after a defeat.

How to unlock Arkana: There are a total of 25 Arkana. As soon as you unlock an Arkana using ash, the adjacent Arkana are also revealed, allowing you to purchase them afterward if you have the necessary resources (usually more ash).

Later on, you will also have the opportunity to further upgrade your Arkana and make them even more powerful, but this unlocking only happens after a few hours of gameplay.

The Best Arkana for Beginners

At the beginning, it is essential to get to know the various enemies, understand their abilities, and progress as far as possible to gather many resources. Therefore, we recommend starting with Arkana that make you more resilient and improve the selection of your gifts.

Since your knowledge is quite limited at the start, we recommend activating the Arkana in the order listed here and adding the next one as your knowledge grows or you can purchase the next Arkana.

The Eccentric Son (1 Knowledge): Upon leaving each area, Melinoë restores 3 health points.
The Huntress (2 Knowledge): Attack and specialty deal more damage when Melinoë has less than 100% magic.
The Messenger (1 Knowledge): Banishing circles make Melinoë invulnerable for a short moment and increase her movement speed.
The Crafty One (3 Knowledge): Once per night, Melinoë can turn a small reward into a large one.
The Strength (4 Knowledge): If Melinoë has no Death Defiance, she takes 30% less damage and deals 20% more damage.
The Excellence (5 Knowledge): Gifts have an increased chance of being legendary or at least rare.

If you have followed everything up to this point, three additional Arkana will automatically be activated (if you possess them). These three additional Arkana remain active as long as their conditions are met and have no activation costs. They are:

The Centaur (0 Knowledge): Every 5 areas, Melinoë receives 3 maximum health and 3 maximum magic. Condition: Activate one Arkana with costs of 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.
The Divinity (0 Knowledge): Gifts have an additional chance to be epic. Condition: Activate 5 Arkana in any other column or row.
The Queen (0 Knowledge): Gifts have an increased chance to contain a powerful duo gift. Condition: Activate no more than 2 Arkana with the same knowledge cost.

Your build of active Arkana should now look like this screenshot:

With this build, you only need 16 knowledge, but you already have a large amount of strong effects that will help Melinoë during the nights.

Late-Game Build: These Arkana You Should Unlock Next

As you progress, you will unlock more knowledge, allowing you to activate even more Arkana additionally. If you want to keep the previously mentioned build, you need to ensure that you do not choose Arkana that conflict with the conditions of other Arkana (i.e., for Centaur, Divinity, and Queen). Therefore, we recommend continuing with the following Arkana:

The Hidden Ones (5 Knowledge): Melinoë regenerates 6 magic every second.

By unlocking “The Hidden Ones”, the condition for the following Arkana is also activated, which is automatically active if you have already unlocked it:

The Moon Goddess (0 Knowledge): The moon spell charges automatically as if Melinoë consumed 1 magic every second. Condition: Activate any surrounding Arkana.

Next, you will proceed as follows to spend the last points:

The Persistence (2 Knowledge): Melinoë gains 20 maximum health and 20 maximum magic.
The Death (4 Knowledge): Melinoë starts with +1 Death Defiance (rebirth after death).
The Transformer (3 Knowledge): Melinoë can once per night turn a regional reward into another.

If you have recreated everything, your build should ultimately look like this screenshot:

Don’t the Arkana contradict each other? Particularly attentive readers will notice that 2 of the Arkana seem to contradict each other at first glance. Because The Strength improves Melinoë only as long as she does not possess Death Defiance – but The Death grants exactly such a Death Defiance.

It is true that the effect of The Strength only becomes active when the last Death Defiance is used up – which usually happens in a boss battle. In that case, the additional strength after a rebirth is often helpful. Fundamentally, however, The Strength is in this build, as it ensures that many other free Arkana are also triggered, such as The Divinity or The Queen. That alone justifies activating The Strength.