Hades 2 Hecate boss guide

How do you beat Hecate in Hades 2? As the saying goes, it's time for the student to become the master as Melinoe faces her mentor, Headmistress Hecate. With enough persistence, you should be able to overcome this challenge using the daughter of Hades' witchy powers and quick reflexes.

However, Hecate isn't going to make this easy for you. She has some rather devious tricks that make even the first Hades 2 boss fight one to remember. If you want to see the rest of the Hades 2 bosses with as much health remaining as possible, here are the best strategies to deal with the roguelike game's first major fight.

How to beat Hecate in Hades 2

The key to beating Hecate, the first Hades 2 boss, is to master dodging her attacks. Melinoe is invincible while she's dashing, so you can use this to your advantage by phasing through Hecate's deadly projectiles,  getting behind her for a few sneaky stabs. We also highly recommend using charge-up attacks, particularly if you have Poseidon's Fluid Gain boon, which restores 20 mana when collecting Spirit Bubbles that drop from defeated enemies. Hecate isn't particularly vulnerable to any specific weapon, but anything that increases range will aid you in this fight.

New to Hades 2 is armor. If you run into Arachne on your journey through Erebus, she'll offer you one of three enchanted dresses. These not only give you a unique perk but, more importantly, grant you additional armor points that allow Melinoe to take increased damage before her health points start to deplete.

Phase One

Hecate will always begin the fight by surrounding herself in an expanding ring of fire. This AoE spell goes quite far, but you can chase it back toward her and get some attacks in with the weapon of your choice as it draws nearer.

In the first phase, she has two main attacks. One involves swiping her staff to fire one or two projectiles simultaneously. You can dash to dodge these, then hit her a few times before she launches a second salvo. It's your best opportunity to do some damage, and we recommend sticking to regular melee attacks as you can quickly react to any incoming blows.

Hecate can also make two copies of herself, and then all three of her forms cast a flamethrowing spell to fill the battlefield. Given that flames do damage over time, we recommend that you go on the defensive and focus on avoiding getting burned. When trying to attack these, the only one that will take damage is her true form. Hecate will glow green if you hit a clone version, and her health won't deplete.

Phase Two

After damaging Hecate to around two-thirds of her health, she will retreat to the center of the battlefield and conjure a barrier that makes her invulnerable to all attacks. After a bit, she'll also summon her "sisters," which you need to kill to break her shield.

While in this position, Hecate will be locked into one of the many attacks she can execute:

• Throws boomerangs that return after reaching a short distance. This attack is exploitable if you position yourself so that no waves will hit you on the way back.
• She fires three lasers, which she then rotates for a time. Dodging through the lasers is the key to avoiding being hit.
• Summons bombs that drop on rune-like targets. Just dodge out of the affected area, and you should be fine.
• She conjures some homing magic missiles that track your position. Since they're slow-moving, dodge them to ensure they turn sharply to avoid damage.
• She summons a burst of fire from herself that retracts after reaching a fairly long distance. If you keep your distance from the ring and the fire, you shouldn't lose health.

After taking down Hecate's shield, she'll revert to a cycle of melee attacks with waves, one of the above attacks while splitting herself into three, and an individual flame burst to keep things spicy. So long as you're observant of which attack she's using at any given time, you should be able to avoid damage and whittle her down to the final section.

Phase Three

The most dangerous part of the Hecate boss fight is at the beginning of the third phase, which is triggered when she has a third of her health left. Not only will she repeat her attacks from the start of phase two, but she also now casts a polymorph spell that will turn you into a sheep. It's tough to avoid this spell as it homes in on you at high speed, but going back and forth, dodging through it a few times, will cause it to fizzle out.

If you do become a sheep, you'll no longer be able to fight back, and your dodge range will be severely limited, but you should be able to dodge all of her attacks. Once the polymorph spell has worn off, kill the ghosts again to begin the final phase properly. Keep attacking Hecate, and she'll fall, ending this first boss encounter and clearing the area of Erebus.

With these tips, you should be able to make short work of the Hades 2 Hecate boss fight. Now that Hades 2's full release is here, you should look into what the best Hades 2 builds are and which Hades 2 boons you should focus on collecting. Once you've exhausted everything there is to see, we have a list of the best PC games for you to catch up on. For those who want something brand new, these upcoming PC games may excite you.