The best build for every Nocturnal Arm: aspect, boons, Arcana, and familiar.
A strong Hades 2 build is four choices stacked together: the weapon aspect, the boon gods, the Arcana cards, and the familiar you bring.
Most players focus on boons alone and forget that the aspect sets the ceiling, so the same god blessings feel weak on the wrong aspect and broken on the right one.
This page gives the best build for each of the six weapons, then covers the boon gods, Arcana, and familiars that hold every loadout together.
Weapon and boon mechanics come from the Hades Wiki; the build picks reflect the current live meta.
Every Hades 2 build stacks four layers. The weapon aspect is the foundation and sets the damage ceiling, which is why the weapon tier list ranks arms by their best aspect. On top of that sit the boons from Olympian gods, the Arcana cards that give run-long passives, and the familiar you bring for its combat bond.
According to the wiki, you also reshape any weapon mid-run with the Daedalus Hammer, which adds a permanent modifier to your Attack, Special, or Omega moves for that run. The strongest builds line up all four layers behind one damage type or status, so every pickup pushes the same plan forward.
Decide your build by your first two boons, not your weapon. In practice, committing to a damage type early and only taking boons that support it beats grabbing every rare boon you are offered.
Each weapon's highest-ceiling aspect and the damage plan to build behind it. Click a weapon for the full loadout.
| Weapon | Best aspect | Build around |
|---|---|---|
| Argent Skull | Aspect of Medea | Close-range damage and Weak |
 Moonstone Axe | Aspect of Charon | Single-target boss damage |
 Witch's Staff | Aspect of Anubis | Ranged hex and endurance |
 Sister Blades | Aspect of Morrigan | Fast attack-speed scaling |
 Umbral Flames | Aspect of Moros | Sustained area damage |
 Black Coat | Aspect of Selene | Sky Fall wave-clear |
The strongest overall build remains the Argent Skull on Aspect of Medea, which pairs its close-range burst with damage boons for the fastest clears in the game. The Moonstone Axe on Aspect of Charon is the specialist pick when a run is about killing Chronos or Typhon rather than clearing waves.
Boon gods define your damage type, so pick one core god and support it. Aphrodite is a standout for close-range builds because her Weak curse cuts enemy damage by 30% while her Close-Up Damage boons add burst, which pairs perfectly with the Skull and Sister Blades.
For wave clear, a chain-damage god spreads a single hit across a room, and for bosses a raw damage-per-hit god beats crowd effects. The wiki notes that duo boons, which combine two gods you have already invested in, are the highest-impact pickups in any run, so plan your first two gods with a duo boon in mind.
The last two layers are cheap power most players under-use. Arcana cards give run-long passives you set before a run, and the right familiar adds a combat bond on top. Raki for critical chance and Frinos for flat Health are the two most build-relevant familiars, while Gale keeps you alive on a weapon you are still learning.
Slot the keepsake that raises the odds of seeing your core god early, and unlock the hidden aspect for your main weapon, since it usually outranks the standard three. Together those two picks turn a good build into a consistent one.
A build is one piece of the run. These guides cover the weapons and fights around it.
Weapon and boon data adapted from hades.fandom.com, used under CC BY-SA 3.0. Build recommendations are RogueRanker editorial assessments. Original content remains the property of the wiki contributors and Supergiant Games.