The very first boss of Hades II, Headmistress Hecate can prove a very difficult foe to get past, especially if Hades II is your introduction to the Hades series. Fortunately, she has a number of vulnerabilities — you just have to know what they are. In this guide, we’ll explain how to avoid all of her attacks, as well as what the best attack windows are.
Location – End of Act 1 (Erebus)
Reward – x1 Cinder
Boon Selection
While boon selection will largely depend on the build you’re crafting, there are some boons that specifically help against Hecate. Boons that buff your sprint speed are very nice for the sections where you have to avoid projectiles, particularly Soot Sprint from Hestia — this boon destroys projectiles, meaning you don’t have to dodge them anymore, just sprint while they are near you.
Boons that add damage to your ΩCast are another good option, as Hecate often stands in the center of the arena — you can use your Ω Cast to damage her and simply focus on avoiding her attacks.
Weapon Selection
As with boon selection, your weapon is something that stays with you through the run, so you probably won’t want to pick a weapon just to deal with Hecate — but if you’re stuck on her, it can be helpful to build specifically to take her down.
With that in mind, the Sister Blades are a very strong choice against Hecate. This is primarily due to her sequence of attacks where she telegraphs and then creates a damaging wave in front of her. You can use the Ω Attack of the Sister Blades to dodge Hecate’s wave attacks and get good damage in at the same time (see below for details).
Attacks & Damage Windows
Your primary goal in this fight should be avoiding damage. Heals are rare, and damage carries over between rooms — it doesn’t matter how quickly you defeat Hecate if you have 3 health left when you do so.
Let’s take a look at Hecate’s different attacks and phases, how to avoid taking damage during them, and when you can attack. Hecate’s attacks that give you damage windows are marked as such.
Small Waves [Attack window present]
Hecate rears back, then launches 1 or 2 waves of damage out the direction she is facing. The wind up for the double wave attack is slightly longer. The best way to avoid this is to dodge through her as she telegraphs the attack — if you’re using the Sister Blades, you can use your Ω Attack to dodge it. Once you’re behind her, you can get some damage in. If you aren’t comfortable dodging through her, simply stay far away from her and avoid the waves, but realize that dodging past her gives you one of the better attack windows in this fight.
Avoiding the Small Waves Attack with Sister Blades
Crossed Flames [Attack window present]
Hecate spins, gathering energy, then sends out a large circle of damage. To avoid, simply dodge/sprint away from her. Depending on the range of your Special attack, you can potentially damage her while you sit on the far edge of it, especially while it contracts.
Crossed flames wind up and damage phase
Glyphs/Orbs & Summons
Hecate becomes invincible (indicated by the shield that appears around her), glyphs appear on the ground, and she summons adds. The inner green circle of the glyph expands to fill the outer circle — when it fully expands, the glyph will explode and do damage (see below), so you need to get off of it before that happens. As long as you are sprinting, you can easily get off of the glyph… the hard part is killing the adds while avoiding the glyphs. Sometimes, she’ll shoot little orbs at you instead of summoning glyphs.
If your Ω Cast or sprint does damage, you can use that on the adds, otherwise the trees are a good way to kill a few at a time: position yourself so that you will hit one add, and a tree that has an add beyond it.
How the glyph worksUsing trees
Triple Divide
Hecate splits into three version of herself and either launches orbs or waves of damaging energy into the arena. The orbs have some tracking, so you’ll need to move in a circle at the edge of the arena, then find a hole through them. The waves are easily avoided by hugging the walls or otherwise avoiding until they end. You can also dash through the orbs and avoid taking damage as long as your dash ends when you aren’t on any orbs — though it’s better to simply stay away from them.
Sheep Curse
Hecate launches a spell at you that turns you into a sheep. She’ll then begin the Glpyhs and Adds phase, and/or launch Orbs, and you’ll have to avoid damage until the curse wears off. Your dash is weaker, but is still a dash, and your attack becomes a small dash as well. Use both the regular dash and the attack dash and run along the wall of the arena — avoiding trees — until you can fight back.
Hyper Waves [Attack window present]
Hecate will rear back like the normal wave attack, but for longer, and then unleash a huge wall of waves that expand and then return to her. It’s very, very important to avoid the front of this attack, so dodge past her and then take advantage of the long window where it expands and returns to get a lot of damage in. Sometimes this attack will track, so once you dodge past her, move in a circle until she stops turning.
With the Hyper Waves, it’s very easy to gauge when the window for attacking Hecate opens and closes
We hope this guide on defeating Hecate was helpful! If you have any questions or suggestions, or if you’d like to add your own tips, drop us a line in the comments below!
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DanielD
Unabashed FromSoftware fanboy still learning to take his time with games (and everything else, really). The time he doesn't spend on games is spent on music, books, or occasionally going outside.
