Companions are a very late game aspect to Hades, though one of the most important Aspect when it comes to ensuring your survivability in late-game Heats simply because they are going to help carry you in tough battles.
Companions are considered to be Legendary Keepsakes and a single Companion can be used in tandem with a normal Keepsake.
Admittedly, Companions are going to be quite the grind for players to obtain as players will have to unlock a character’s regular Keepsake before they do so. I strongly recommend that players try to unlock all of the Companions as each one has it’s own set of perks that can change the way a player maneuvers through the different areas of Hades.
While at first players will only be able to summon a companion a single time during an escape, players will be able to unlock more summons simply by giving the Companion a few Ambrosia.
Players will want to make sure that they have a good amount of Ambrosia ready for their Companions as they are going to want to upgrade some of these very quickly, simply due to the usefulness of them.
HOW TO SELECT/USE A COMPANION
Companions must be selected before a player enters the first chamber of a run and cannot be changed midway through, unlike other Keepsakes.
As soon as players have access to Companions, though also when they get access to regular Keepsakes, players should get used to heading to the Display Case by Skelly before every run in Hades.
Choosing the right Companion is going to be very important, especially if players are resource grinding or repeating content as some Companions are better for clearing new content and others are best for using when players need a bit of extra resources in order to farm Artifacts.
Players will be able to summon a Companion in any chamber or against any bosses by using their selected keybind. I’ll admit, the keybind which is originally set was a button that I kept pressing on my controller, so I changed it due to me wasting my companion multiple times.
WHAT COMPANIONS CAN YOU UNLOCK IN HADES?
There are a total of 6 Companions that players will be able to unlock in Hades, each bound to a single character.
As players will find that they prefer certain Companions over others, I strongly recommend choosing a few characters to focus on, especially if players are running out of Ambrosia.
Even if players are not preparing to get a Companion from a particular character, players should make sure that they are always talking to that character to prepare for when they may actually want the Companion.
Similar to many other resources in Hades, I strongly recommend that players have a plan to grind the various resources they need so that they can quickly power up everything by the time they need it.
If you haven’t made yourself acquainted to the multiple forms of Artifacts you can farm in Hades, I would strongly recommend doing so because you will want to set up a goal for each escape you complete of Hades, especially before the difficulty significantly increases.
Admittedly, players can go back and grind resource, however, for a player who cannot play Hades as often as I’d want this isn’t always a possibility.
I would recommend focusing on collecting resources as often as you can as long as you are able to defeat the currently Heat that you are trying to complete. If possible, I would mix up the amount of Boons you collect and Artifacts you get in order to secure enough resources, unless you are working towards getting an achievement for Duo Boons.
That aside the following are going to be how you collect Companions, what resources you need as well as the stats for each Companion:
BATTIE
Battie can be obtained by reaching trust with Megaera and will be given to the player once they gift her with the first Ambrosia.
Battie tends to be a player’s first Companion as Megaera is one of the first characters that the player will begin having interactions with.
Battie will allow players to deal 2500 damage to enemies in a line in front of the player, dealing AoE damage in small circles similar to Megaera’s attack during her boss battle.
Players will not be able to use Battie against any of the Fury Sisters ever, meaning that players struggling with this battle are out of luck.
Battie in my opinion is going to be a great Companion to use early into your runs.
MORT
Mort can be obtained by reaching trust with Thanatos and will be given to the player once they gift him with the first Ambrosia
Mort’s summon will actually summon Thanatos to aid the player, dealing 3500 damage in a wide circular area in front of the player after a brief delay.
Players will deal AoE damage similar to that of Thanatos’ in his challenges.
Due to the fact that Mort is from Thanatos, players will not be able to use it during this challenge.
Mort, in my opinion, is the strongest Companion.
RIB
Rin can be obtained by reaching trust with Skelly and will be given to the player once they gift him with the first Ambrosia.
Rib will summon Skelly to help aid you, appearing and distracting enemies around you by shouting at them.
Skelly will stay on the map until he is killed, by either the enemy of the player. Note, due to the fact that Skelly can take friendly damage, it’s going to be a good idea to try to avoid him as much as possible.
Players should note that Skelly will remain active if he is not killed during the Chamber or Encounter they summon him in, however, this isn’t anything to really take note of.
It should be noted that Rib cannot be used when fighting Charon or when outside of Combat encounters.
Skelly will spawn with 250 Health and quite frankly isn’t the greatest Companion for players to use. If you’re going to avoid using a single Companion I would strongly recommend avoiding Rib.
SHADY
Shady can be obtained by reaching trust with Sisyphus and will be given to the player one they gift him with the first Ambrosia.
Shady will summon Sisyphus and Bouldy to aid you.
Sisyphus will drop from the sky, dropping Bouldy onto the ground in front of the player, dealing 1000 damage.
While this damage is less than many of the other Companions, players will also receive a care package with the following:
10 Darkness
30 Charon’s Obol
50-60 Health
Shady is by far one of the best Companions for players to use when farming for Artifacts and while the damage that it deals is quite a bit less than other Companions this isn’t that much of a problem when players are repeating old content or are already successfully completing runs at their current Heat level.
Players will want to make sure if they choose to use Shady that they try to obtain Ocean’s Bounty or other perks that will boost the amount received from Artifacts. This will help players successfully farm a healthy amount of Artifacts in a single run.
I would strongly recommend leveling up Shady as soon as you can simply because of the amount of Artifacts players can pick up from him.
FIDI
Fidi can be obtained by reaching trust with Dusa and will be given to the player one they gift her with the first Ambrosia.
Fidi in my opinion isn’t the best Companion, but has niche uses for players who are struggling when against multiple enemies.
Essentially Fidi will summon Dusa to aid you and will deal petrifying shots at enemies for 30 seconds, dealing 70 damage per each shot.
Admittedly, this isn’t the most damage, however, it can thing down how many enemies are swarming a player, which for me isn’t usually the problem.
The best part to using Fidi is the fact that there are no limitations as to what Encounter a player uses it on as it is not banned from any uses.
In my opinion, I personally would avoid Fidi, though respectively, Fidi can be useful for some players.
ANTOS
Antos can be obtained by reaching trust with Achilles and will be given to the player one they gift him with the first Ambrosia.
Antos is a great Companion and will summon Achilles and Patroclus to aid the player dealing 1500 damage to 2 foes, one after the other.
Antos is another one of the best Companions to gain access to, especially when players are against Theseus and Asterius, however, depending on what Companions players already have, he might not be a players first option to upgrade.
I personally think that he is the second best Companion to use, especially because he is meant for two targets versus one.
HOW TO UPGRADE A COMPANION
All Companions have 5 stages in order to be fully upgraded. While this is true, every companion starts off at level 1, meaning that a player will be able to utilize the Companion immediately after it is unlocked.
While admittedly it’s not going to be important to upgrade all Companions, completionists will want to make sure that they have enough Ambrosia to upgrade all of their Companions.
All Companions will need 10 Ambrosia to max them out, meaning that a player will need a total of 60 Ambrosia to upgrade all of their Companions.
Whenever a player upgrades a Companion it will not raise any of the stats of the Companion, however it will allow players to summon that Companion one extra time for that escape.
Depending on what a player is trying to acquire or achieve, the order of the Companion upgrades is going to depend, though I will cover that when I dissect each of the Companions.
Back to upgrading the Companions though, the following are the exact amounts of Ambrosia players need in order to upgrade their Companions:
LEVEL 1
As mentioned, all Companions will start off at Level 1, meaning that players can summon them a single time upon receiving them. There is no shame to leave Companions at this level if you’re not interested in said Companion.
You are going to want to rush some Companions before others as some will be focused on your play style over others.
LEVEL 2
To upgrade a Companion to Level 2 players will need 1 Ambrosia. Having a Companion at Level 2 will provide the player with 2 summons.
LEVEL 3
To upgrade a Companion to Level 3 players will need 2 Ambrosia. Having a Companion at Level 3 will provide the player with 3 summons.
LEVEL 4
To upgrade a Companion to Level 4 players will need 3 Ambrosia. Having a Companion at Level 4 will provide the player with 4 summons.
LEVEL 5
To upgrade a Companion to Level 5 players will need 4 Ambrosia. Having a Companion at Level 5 will provide the player with 5 summons.
WHY DOESN’T MY COMPANION WORK AGAINST HADES?
While it is true that Companions are going to be useful against Bosses in Hades, the reality is that players are locked out of summoning their Companion against Hades at first. Do not fret though, players will be able to quickly unlock the ability to summon Companions against Hades, especially if they are talking to as many characters as they can any opportunity they get.
At first Hades will allow players to attack him using Shady and Rib (Sisyphus’ Companion and Skelly’s Companion), though with more bonding with other characters players will have the authority to use any companion against him.
In order to unlock this authority players will need the following affinity with characters:
4 Hearts with Hades
7 Hearts with either Skelly or Sisyphus
7 Hearts with either Megaera, Thanatos, Dusa or Achilles
Players will need the set amount of Hearts for at least one on each list in order to get the authority to spawn in their Companion, so if you’re banging your head on the table wondering why you’re still unable to, this may be why.
Realistically, it’s not going to take long for you to forge the affinity between these characters as longa s you’re making sure to chat with them every opportunity you get, however, if you were a player who didn’t understand how important it was to fledge relationships with characters this might take you a bit of extra time as it can be difficult to catch up.
CAN I EVER SUMMON MY COMPANION MORE THAN 5 TIMES?
There is only a single way players will be able to summon their Companions more than 5 times and this is by obtaining a Night Spindle from the Well of Charon.
The Night Spindle can be purchased for 40 Charon’s Obol and will provide players with 1 extra use of their Chthonic Companion’s Summon.
While I would normally avoid shopping from the Well of Charon, it can come in extremely helpful for players who rely on their Companion to carry them through sticky situations.
CAN YOU SUMMON A COMPANION TWICE IN ONE ENCOUNTER/CHAMBER?
No, players will only be able to summon a Companion a single time for each Chamber or Encounter.
This means that players will not be able to use Companions twice on a Boss or in a single instance, meaning that players will still have to carry the majority of the damage load.
Due to the fact that players will be unable to use their Companion multiple times in a single encounter/chamber will make it so a player is smart about when they use a Companion, especially due to the fact that if a Companion is summoned in the middle of a Boss Battle when they are reaching an “invulnerability threshold” this could essentially waste the Companion.
It’s a good idea to watch the mechanics of a Boss to ensure that you know where in their health state they are.
CONCLUSION
In my opinion the best Companions players are going to want to get access to as quickly as possible are Mort and Shady.
Players can also choose to use Battie as a great second best, though Antos is probably going to be more useful for players in the mid-game.
At the end of the day the Companion that a player chooses is going to heavily depend on what it is they need, so if a player is not struggling or does not need to Artifact grind they can avoid Companions like Shady all together.
But I’m curious, who’s your favourite Companion and why do you choose them? Do you care about how much damage they deal or are you more interested in the way that they function? Let me know in the comments below!
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