Hades guide: Unlocking your Call Aid super

Hades already provides you with countless skills from Olympian gods. Likewise, you’ve got Heroic, Legendary, and Duo boons to discover throughout your runs. However, there’s still one more key ability from the divines that you’ll want to try out. It’s the “Call Aid” ability, technically your “super” symbolized by your God Gauge. 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: Call Aid – Summoning the gods of Olympus

Think of the “Call Aid” button as your “super” ability in Hades. What should happen, normally, is that Poseidon will be the first Olympian to offer you this power. The god of the seas will only offer Poseidon’s Aid as a boon with no other selections available. This particular instance should occur roughly on your fourth or fifth escape attempt.

Note: Based on some posts on Hades‘ subreddit, other players found it much later in their playthrough, so don’t fret if you don’t get it early.

Anyway, this should unlock the “Call Aid” button on the left side of your screen. You’ll also see a bar on the lower left-hand side of your UI known as the God Gauge. From this point onwards, there’s a chance in future Hades runs that Olympians will provide you their “supers.”

The God Gauge

The God Gauge is filled normally as you damage more enemies. There are also other perks that can affect this:

• Hunter Instinct boon (Artemis) – Faster charge with critical hits.
• Proud Bearing (Athena) – Start an encounter with the gauge partially full.
• Boiling Point (Poseidon) – Faster charge when taking damage.
• Clouded Judgment (Zeus) – Faster charge when dealing or taking damage.

The above boons require you to have the specific Call Aid skill for those gods first. However, there are two other ways to help improve the gauge’s charging capabilities:

• Smoldering Air Duo boon (Aphrodite and Zeus) – Automatically charges your gauge, but caps it at 25%.
• Quick Favor (Hermes) – Automatically charges your gauge.
• Aether Net item from the Well of Charon – Start each encounter with the gauge 15% full.

Note: The God Gauge resets when an encounter ends.

Charging up your heavenly powers

If the God Gauge is at least 25% full, you can use the “Call Aid” skill. Do remember that this might mean lower damage or shorter duration. Likewise, your Call Aid skills are still subject to rarity (the rarer they are, the better the effect).

For best results, try to build up the God Gauge to full. This will unleash the full power of the Olympian whose boon you obtained.

Here are their spells:

• Artemis – Fires multiple arrows with a high critical hit chance.
• Athena – Become invulnerable and deflect all attacks temporarily.
• Demeter – Summons a freezing vortex that chills and damages enemies.

Dionysus’ Aid will surround Zagreus with a poisonous cloud that causes Hangover:

Zeus, meanwhile, will smite mobs near you with lightning:

Aphrodite will blow a kiss that causes a bit of damage while charming hostiles for a few seconds:

Ares will turn you into a spinning blade so you can slice your foes:

Poseidon will make you temporarily invulnerable while you surf and crash into your opponents like a rogue wave:

I find that both Ares and Zeus offer the most worthwhile benefits from a DPS standpoint. Ares just comes out ahead because you’re also invincible while you’re transformed into a Blade Rift, whereas all the lightning strikes from Zeus won’t necessarily protect you from damage.

As for the weakest ones, I’d have to say that it’s Aphrodite’s. It’s slightly useful for bosses due to the damage and the short-term charm effect, but it has no place in every other encounter. Most of the time, the charm will either wear off too quickly before it can make a difference in a fight. There are also a few cases where you could accidentally hit a mob with low HP, wasting the shot completely.

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