Hades dungeon guide: Temple of Styx and Cerberus

The Temple of Styx is the final region in Hades. It’s also very much unlike what you’ve experienced while traversing through the chambers of Tartarus, Asphodel, and Elysium. That’s because your goal here is to shoo Cerberus away from blocking your path. Here’s our mini-guide to help you out.

Note: This guide is intended for Hades’ early access stage and certain mechanics may change in due course. For more information, check out our Hades guides and features hub.

Hades guide: Region IV – Temple of Styx and Cerberus

First off, don’t forget to take a look at Charon’s wares. His shop is nearby and he’s selling six items, and many are quite expensive.

Anyway, to shoo the gigantic hellhound, you’ll need to find a Satyr Sack filled with treats. But, before you get there, you’ll need to take note of five available doorways.

Pick your poison

Choosing a doorway/wing will lead you to a series of rooms. These are filled with numerous traps such as guillotines and flying buzzsaws.

If possible, you can bait your enemies to move to specific locations. Then, you can activate the floor panels so that the traps end up killing them.

The biggest threat you’ll face, however, is poison. You can get afflicted with this disease when you’re fighting giant rats or satyr mobs.

Just like the lava flows of Asphodel, the poison will do damage over time. Unlike lava, though, you’ll still lose health even if you’re not standing in the slimy pools.

What you’ll need to do, instead, is interact with the Mandragora Statue to cure yourself. Alternatively, killing all the mobs in the room will also remove the debuff.

The final room

The final room of each wing will have a bunch of elite/armored enemies for you to face and you’ll end up getting the reward. Some, such as the Snakestone (seen below) are considered minibosses as well, and it can be one of four possible minibosses if the doorway has a skull symbol.

Or, you might find a relatively peaceful room with the boon/reward, the Satyr Snack, and a Healing Fountain that keeps you in tip-top condition.

The Tiny Vermin boss fight (?)

There’s one more special encounter other than the possible minibosses in the Temple of Styx — it’s the fight against the Tiny Vermin. Zagreus even laughs at the little rat when it spawns.

Surprise! It’s actually counted as a boss fight because the creature does have its own health bar at the top of your screen. Likewise, it’s got a whopping 10,000 HP to boot.

The Tiny Vermin has ridiculously fast attacks that can inflict status effects like Weak. When it drops below 50% health, it’ll summon half a dozen giant rats.

I actually had to use my Companion Rib/Skelly summon to distract them for a bit. Too bad the poor training dummy’s bones were quite brittle and he melted within seconds.

What next?

If you’re lucky, the first wing that you choose would have the Satyr Sack at the end already, allowing you to distract Cerberus. This means you can press onward and battle Hades.

If you’re unlucky, or you just want to obtain more boons, you can continue clearing each wing to obtain the rewards. You could end up going through roughly 70 chambers before you even say hello to Hades. Oh, and remember that you can also use a Reroll Dice item to change the possible reward (even in the second to the last room of each wing).

One more thing: keep in mind that the waters in the main area will have a fishing spot:

The final boss

Do what you feel is necessary. Whenever you feel that you’re ready to do battle against Hades, head through the doorway behind Cerberus’ spot to reach the surface.

It’s time for Zagreus to settle his daddy issues. Take a look at our Hades boss fight guide if you need help with the encounter.

Hades is available via Steam’s early access program. For more information, check out our guides and features hub.