Testaments are the endgame Guardian bounties, gated by a Fear level and a specific weapon, that reward Nightmare for weapon upgrades.
The Testaments of Night are how Hades 2 turns difficulty into a checklist, asking you to beat each Guardian under set conditions for the best upgrade material in the game.
They are the bounty cards in the Oath of the Unseen 
, each one demanding a specific weapon and a minimum Fear level. Clear one and you earn Nightmare; clear it and the next bounty for that weapon asks for even more Fear.
The key wrinkle is that progress is tracked per weapon, so each Nocturnal Arm has its own ladder of bounties to climb independently of the others.
This guide covers what the Testaments of Night are, how Fear and weapon requirements gate them, the Nightmare rewards they give, and how the per-weapon progression works.
endgame Guardian bounties in the Oath of the Unseen.The Testaments of Night are the Guardian bounty cards shown on the left of the Oath of the Unseen menu, and clearing them is the core endgame loop of Hades 2 as of patch v1.0.
The wiki explains that each card represents a Guardian you must defeat, with a purple skull at the top showing the required Fear level and an icon at the bottom showing the weapon Melinoe 
must wield. You activate a card by equipping that weapon and reaching that Fear level, then beating the marked Guardian.
They are the structured challenge layer on top of the Oath of the Unseen, turning the open-ended Fear system into concrete goals. Each one you complete is a permanent mark of mastery with a weapon, and a source of the game's rarest upgrade material.
If a bounty's prerequisites are not met, or you bring the wrong weapon or too little Fear, the card stays inactive and gives nothing. Reading the skull and weapon icons is the whole skill of engaging with them.
Two requirements gate every bounty: the specific weapon shown on the card, and a minimum Fear level you reach by stacking Vows.
To start a run against a bounty, you equip the designated Nocturnal Arm and raise your Fear to the required number by selecting Vows on the right side of the menu. The wiki gives the example that a Polyphemus bounty needing the Sister Blades 
at a set Fear level will stay locked until you equip that weapon and stack at least that much Fear.
Vows are the dial. Each Vow adds a set amount of Fear, so you mix and match them to hit the exact threshold a card demands. Circe 
Black Night Banishment can even suspend a troublesome Vow for a night while keeping its Fear value, which is ideal for reaching a high threshold without the hardest modifier active.
Match the weapon first, then build Fear to the exact number. There is no benefit to overshooting a bounty's Fear requirement for the clear itself, so once you hit the skull's number, add only the Vows you can actually handle on that weapon.
Completing an active bounty rewards Nightmare, the material used to upgrade your Nocturnal Arms aspects, which is the main reason to chase them.
The wiki specifies that clearing a bounty grants Nightmare, spent on aspect upgrades after you cast the Aspects of Night and Darkness incantation 
. Since aspect upgrades are how you push a weapon to its ceiling, the bounty loop and your weapon power grow together.
The Oath also tracks larger milestones like The Night's Champion at the highest Fear thresholds, with the Underworld route topping out at 16 Fear and the Surface route at 12. Pushing toward those is how you wring the most completion 
out of the system.
Each weapon has its own independent ladder of bounties, so progress with one Nocturnal Arm does not carry over to another.
The wiki notes that clearing all of the Witch's Staff bounties does nothing for any other weapon's progress. Every Guardian starts at Fear level 1, and as you complete bounties some demand higher and higher Fear, so each weapon walks its own climbing path.
This is what gives the endgame its length. In practice, to fully clear the Testaments of Night you have to master all six Nocturnal Arms, from the 
Moonstone Axe to the 
Umbral Flames, each at escalating Fear. It rewards genuine breadth rather than one comfort-pick weapon.
Pick one weapon and climb its ladder before spreading out. Because each Nocturnal Arm progresses separately and the Fear requirements rise as you go, focusing a single weapon keeps your build knowledge and aspect upgrades aligned with the bounties you are actually clearing.
The Testaments of Night are the Guardian bounty cards in the Oath of the Unseen menu. Each one asks you to defeat a specific Guardian with a specific weapon at a minimum Fear level, and clearing it rewards Nightmare for upgrading your weapon aspects.
Each bounty card shows a required Fear level on a purple skull and a required weapon at the bottom. You equip that weapon, raise your Fear to the number by stacking Vows, then beat the marked Guardian. Wrong weapon or too little Fear leaves the card inactive.
Completing a bounty grants Nightmare, the material used to upgrade your Nocturnal Arms aspects after casting the Aspects of Night and Darkness incantation. The bounties are the main source of Nightmare, so they drive your weapon power in the endgame.
No. Each Nocturnal Arm has its own independent ladder of bounties. Clearing all of one weapon's cards does nothing for any other weapon, so fully completing the Testaments means mastering all six weapons.
Select Vows on the right side of the Oath of the Unseen menu. Each Vow adds a set amount of Fear, so you mix them until you reach the bounty's required number. Circe's Black Night Banishment can suspend a hard Vow while keeping its Fear value.
Yes. Every Guardian starts at Fear level 1, but as you complete bounties some demand higher Fear on later cards. Each weapon climbs its own escalating path, which is what gives the Oath of the Unseen its long endgame.
The Night's Champion is a higher milestone tracked alongside the Testaments, reached at the top Fear thresholds. The Underworld route caps at 16 Fear and the Surface route at 12 Fear, and pushing to those is the deepest the system goes.
Yes, if you want the strongest weapon aspects, since Nightmare from bounties is the main upgrade material for them. They also give the endgame structure, turning the open Fear system into concrete goals for each weapon.
Keep building out your Hades 2 knowledge with these next stops.
Game data and character art adapted from hades.fandom.com, used under CC BY-SA 3.0. Original content remains the property of the wiki contributors and Supergiant Games.