Season of Hades

The Underworld rises#

"The Underworld rises. Pay the ferryman."

The dead have broken through. A crack called the Breach has opened in the Scorched March, and the Olympians have built a camp in front of it: the Ashen Camp. Behind the Breach are the Halls of Hades, and below those the Gates of Tartarus and the House of Hades raid.

If you're new to seasons, read How Seasons Work first. It covers the Season Board, ranks, talents, bounties and affixes. This page is everything specific to Hades.

Your first hour#

1. 1
   Teleport in with ::hades. The first time you arrive, Athena briefs you. After that, talk to her any time for What is happening / Where is everything / How do I get stronger.
2. 2
   Start the story. Ask Athena "Is there work for me?" That starts Ashes at the Gate, the first chapter of The Underworld Rises.
3. 3
   Open the Season Board (::season) and read your first row of tasks and your three daily bounties. Most of them overlap with the story.
4. 4
   Kill on the Scorched March and pick up your Soul shards. Feed some to the Soul Altar in the Burned Village.
5. 5
   Grab a pickaxe and a hatchet. Stygian iron, Tartarus coal and Scorched ash all open at season rank 1. Every node you work pays season XP and helps call the next siege.
6. 6
   Spend your talent points as you rank up. A few points in Fury or Plutus early make a big difference.

The story: The Underworld Rises#

Seven chapters, each needing the one before it. They all show in your Quest Log. Athena gives out the chapters set in the Scorched March. Once you're below the Breach, Persephone in her grove takes over.

Chapters pay season XP and Obols, and the quest points count towards your normal Quest Log.

The maps#

The Scorched March#

The first map, a burned plain in front of the Breach. The Ashen Camp is a safe hub: nothing hostile can reach you there except during a siege.

Getting around: the sappers' tunnel in the camp (south side) comes out right in front of the Breach, and the tunnel there brings you back. Walking into the Breach takes you down to Persephone's Grove in the Halls.

The Halls of Hades#

Below the Breach. There are three safe hubs, and the rest is hostile.

Below the Halls#

• Gates of Tartarus (hub). Reached from the cave in the Pits of Tartarus. The Cocytus altar is here.
• The House of Hades (raid lobby). Use ::house or the teleport menu → Raids → House of Hades. The lobby cave climbs back out to the Pits. See The House of Hades.

Monsters and what they pay#

That's per kill, before your talents, boons, affixes and potions. On top of it:

• Soul shards drop from every season monster. They feed the Soul Altar, refill phials, and go into almost every season recipe.
• Dracma on every kill, and Olympian Bonds on the drop tables.
• Season materials are deliberately rare off monsters, so skilling pulls its weight. Bulk materials drop about 1 in 3, bars about 1 in 40, weapon parts 1 in 6 to 1 in 60, and a Heart of Erebus 1 in 1,000.
• Season boxes: an Ashen Cache from any normal monster (about 1 in 150), and a Stygian Coffer very rarely (1 in 2,500).

The Drop Viewer's Season tab lists every table.

Catch-up help#

New to the season, or still under-geared? The Underworld helps you. If your Power is below what a season monster calls for, your damage against it goes up, so a new player can finish a kill in about twice the time of a player geared for it, instead of never.

• The help fades smoothly to nothing as your Power catches up. It never lifts anyone above the reference.
• It reads the best gear you own (worn, carried or banked) and your 24-hour peak Power, so taking gear off doesn't earn you more help.
• The boosted damage counts for boss shares. It shows as a line on the buff overlay.

The Underworld's Wrath (the spawn chain)#

The whole server feeds one chain, from kills up to the global boss. The events panel in the season shows every meter.

1. 1
   Kills (+2) and season skilling actions (+1) fill a map's elite meter. At 300 an elite spawns: a Breach Wraith on the March, a Stygian Sentinel in the Halls. Each map holds up to 2 at a time.
2. 2
   5 elite kills on a map raise that map's zone boss: a Fury on the March (Alecto and Megaera take turns), Thanatos in the Halls.
3. 3
   Events fill the last meter: a siege finished, or a zone boss, the Soul-Eater, Cerberus or Hades killed. At 10 events the Underworld's wrath breaks, and a global boss rises in the crater at the Breach.

The global boss is one of three forms, rolled 1 in 3: Cerberus Unleashed, the Minotaur of Tartarus or the Lernaean Hydra. It has 12M HP (+50% per extra player), is announced server-wide, and pays everyone by share from one shared, rich table.

The bosses#

What they do#

• The Furies: screams that burst the ground. Move off marked tiles. Below 30% they frenzy.
• The Soul-Eater: bursts the ground under everyone in the square. At 70% and again at 40% it spits souls out as wisps that heal it while they live. Kill the wisps first.
• Thanatos: reaps whoever has the least health left, so keep your HP topped up. He also calls Tormented Souls to him.
• Cerberus: lanes of fire breath (step out of the line), a triple bite on whoever is doing the most damage, and a howl that calls whelps. Throw a Honey cake at him and one head falls asleep: no triple bite for 20 seconds.
• Hades: a bident strike under every player's feet, so keep moving. Judgement marks one player, and the blow is split between everyone standing next to them, so group up on the marked player. At two thirds and one third health he vanishes and shades pour out. In his last phase, ruin falls across the hall.
• Cerberus Unleashed: three heads breathe three lanes, the jaws take the top damager, and the pack answers his howl.
• The Minotaur of Tartarus: charges whoever is farthest away, stomps whoever crowds it, and enrages when wounded.
• The Lernaean Hydra: venom under every foot, spit from its heads, and cut heads that regrow and heal it.

Waking them faster#

Item	Effect
Honey cake	Offered in the Kennel: counts as 20 whelp kills towards Cerberus. Thrown at Cerberus: no triple bite for 20 s.
Funeral libation	Counts as 10 offerings at the throne, and gives +10% boss damage for 10 minutes.
An Obol offering	1 offering at the throne altar, costs 5 Obols.

Boss loot#

All bosses pay by share: season XP, Obols, Dracma, materials and boxes. Boss-only materials are Thanatos' shroud (Thanatos), Cerberus' collar link (Cerberus) and Bident shard (Hades). They go into Divine boons and the Tribunal and Panoply weapons.

• Boons: the Furies, Thanatos and the Soul-Eater give a Lesser boon about 1 kill in 50. Cerberus and Hades give a Lesser about 1 in 25 and a Greater about 1 in 40.
• Boxes: mini-bosses give a Tribunal Reliquary about 1 in 4. Cerberus and Hades give one about 1 in 2, and a Treasury of Hades 1 in 40. The global forms always drop a Reliquary and give a Treasury 1 in 8.
• The Wealth of the Dead talent gives you an extra loot roll on every boss you help kill.

The Siege of the Ashen Camp#

The dead don't just wait at the Breach. They rally, then they come for the camp.

How a siege starts: every March kill adds 2 rally, and every season skilling action adds 1. At 3,000 the siege is called. The server hears it at 25/50/75/90%, then there's a 2-minute warning before the first wave.

The siege: 10 minutes of waves, one every 30 seconds, coming down the Street of Tombs at the camp. After a siege, the camp gets a 15-minute breather before the rally can call the next one.

The waves: Risen Thralls, Breach Hounds and Ashen Husks, with Ashen Bowmen and Cinder Adepts (ranged and magic, from 6 tiles) from wave 2. Elites come from wave 3: the Legionary of the Last Stand, and the Sepulchral Hierophant, which heals the dead around it (kill it first). Big wave fights come at wave 5 and 15 (the Gatebreaker) and wave 10 and 20 (the Crimson Reaper, which calls up the dead at half health). Siege monsters get tougher with every extra defender.

A siege HUD shows the top damagers, the wave's health, the gate and Hermes, the clock, and your defenders and cannons.

Hermes' Siege Wares (paid in siege points)#

Season skilling#

Season skilling is its own content, separate from the Olympian skilling on the home island:

• Nodes open by season rank, not skill level.
• Every action pays skill XP and season XP.
• Every action also feeds the siege rally and the Underworld's Wrath, so skillers help raise elites and bosses as much as fighters do.
• Everything you make feeds the season forge, the potions and the Grimoire.

XP below is the base on-screen drop per action, before your multipliers.

Mining#

Smithing: the Tartarean furnace#

The furnace is at the Ashen Camp depot. Every bar burns Tartarus coal, and Brimstone doubles a smelt.

Bar	Season rank	Ore + coal	Smithing XP
Stygian iron bar	1	Stygian iron ore + 1 coal	450
Orichalcum bar	20	Orichalcum ore + 2 coal	800
Adamantine bar	40	Adamantine ore + 3 coal	1,200

Woodcutting and Firemaking#

Any hatchet works on season trees.

Season logs have one use: fuel. Char them at the Tartarean furnace into Tartarus coal, and get Firemaking XP for each:

Fishing and Cooking#

Season fish need Grave grubs as bait. Dig them from the graves at the north end of the Street of Tombs (season rank 1).

Cook at the Hearth of Hestia (Persephone's Grove) or the Flames of the Phlegethon (the Sulphur Fields' north-west corner). The burn chance is 25% at Cooking 1, falling to nothing by 100. Season food heals a share of your max HP, so it keeps up as you grow.

Herblore#

Herbs grow in the Fields of Asphodel: Asphodel (season rank 1), Mintha (15) and Hypnos poppy (30). Cleaning pays 150 Herblore XP and making an unfinished potion 200.

Potion	Rank	Recipe	Herblore XP	Effect (10 minutes a dose)
Fury draught(4)	5	Asphodel (unf) + Fury feather	3,000	+20% damage, plus 1% per kill chained within 10 s (up to 15 stacks)
Styx tonic(4)	10	Asphodel (unf) + 5 Shade ectoplasm	3,250	-20% damage taken. Immune to the Grip of the Styx affix.
Cerberus brew(4)	20	Mintha (unf) + Cerberus fang	3,750	+15% attack speed, and every 3rd hit bites for +30%
Pomegranate elixir(4)	25	Mintha (unf) + Pomegranate seeds	4,000	Healing ward and barrier. Below 20% HP, Persephone's Return heals you 30%.
Draught of Hypnos(4)	35	Hypnos (unf) + Lampad cinder	4,500	+20% crit chance, 50% affix resistance, and a 10% chance to put a monster to sleep for 3 s
Nectar of the Dead(4)	60	Hypnos (unf) + uncut Soul garnet + a full (4) dose of each of the five potions above	7,000	Combat stats held at 600, and all five effects at half strength. 5 minutes a dose, costs 10% HP.

Season potions replace the base game's best equivalent instead of stacking with it: they top you up to their own level. They only work inside the season.

Runecrafting#

Craft Shade essence (mined in the grove, never runs out) at the river altars. You get 1 rune per essence, plus 1 for every 50 Runecrafting levels.

Rune	Season rank	Runecrafting XP	Altar
Styx rune	50	4,000	Banks of the Styx, south
Acheron rune	50	4,000	Banks of the Styx, north
Lethe rune	50	4,000	Fields of Asphodel
Phlegethon rune	55	6,000	The Sulphur Fields (Scorched March)
Cocytus rune	65	8,000	Gates of Tartarus

River runes are what the Grimoire of the Underworld casts with.

Crafting#

Cut an uncut Soul garnet (season rank 45) to cut every one in your pack, for 2,500 Crafting XP each. Cut garnets go into Divine boons, Divine cannonballs, and the Tribunal and Panoply jewellery.

Consumables#

Phials (carried)#

Phials work while they're in your pack. Each has 1,000 charges and uses one per kill. Refill them at the Soul Altar: 25 charges per Soul shard.

Phial	Effect	Source
Phial of Wrath	+35% damage, +35% drop rate, +10% attack speed	Obol shop (25,000, rank 35)
Phial of Iron	Combat stats held at 400, -15% damage taken	Forged: 10 Nectars of the Dead + 250 Soul shards + 30M Dracma
Phial of Souls	Heals 2% HP and 1% prayer per kill, +15% season XP and Obols from kills	Obol shop (15,000, rank 25)

Like the potions, phials top up to their own level and don't stack with the base game's elixirs.

Other consumables#

Item	Effect
Honey cake	Feeds Cerberus' wake-up count, or puts one of his heads to sleep. See the bosses section.
Funeral libation	10 offerings at the throne and +10% boss damage for 10 minutes.
Scroll of Hermes	One-use teleport to the Ashen Camp, the Halls or the Soul Altar.
Draught of Lethe	A free season talent respec.
Charon's lantern	+50% Soul shards from drops for 10 minutes.

The Grimoire of the Underworld#

The season's own spellbook. Buy the Grimoire of the Underworld from the Obol shop (50,000 Obols, season rank 50), and it swaps in for your spellbook while you're in the season. Its spells only work in the Underworld, except Hermes' Descent. Spells open by season rank and cast with river runes. Damage is a multiple of your own final max hit, so the book grows with your gear.

The Olympian cannon#

Buy the kit from Hermes (1,000 siege points, season rank 25). Set it up anywhere in the season's maps (one per player), Fire to load up to a stack of balls, and Pick-up to take it back.

Each shot hits for the cannon's own 3,000 plus 5% of your max hit on that target. Kills and loot are yours, and in a siege the damage counts towards your share.

Boons of the Olympians#

Boons are the season's relics. Invoke one to get its bonus for a while, then it goes on cooldown (you keep the item). One boon is active at a time. They only work in the season, and the timer pauses while you're outside.

Where boons come from: boss loot (see above), season boxes, raid Keys, board line prizes and rank milestones. Upgrade them at the Stygian Anvil:

• Lesser → Greater: the Lesser boon + 50 Soul shards + 200 Ashen dust + 200 Shade ectoplasm + 15 Orichalcum bars + 5M Dracma.
• Greater → Divine: the Greater boon + 150 Soul shards + 25 Adamantine bars + 5 cut Soul garnets + 1 Heart of Erebus + one boss material + 15M Dracma. The boss material is a Bident shard for Ares, Zeus and Poseidon; a collar link for Athena and Hermes; a Thanatos' shroud for Artemis, Demeter and Dionysus.

Season gear: Stygian > Tribunal > Panoply#

Three sets, each eating the one before it. Forge them at the Stygian Anvil in the Ashen Camp (it opens the season forge), or on the Seasonal tab of ::forge. Every season recipe burns Tartarus coal and costs Dracma.

The Stygian set (entry, T420, needs 99)#

The season's first set, already above the old best-in-slot. A third is forged, a third comes from the Season Board and a third from season ranks:

Regalia of the Tribunal (mid, T510)#

Every Tribunal piece is forged from its same-slot Stygian piece. The weapons follow their style: Scythe → Rapier, Bow → Crossbow, Staff → Sceptre, Shield → Ledger.

• Armour (Helm, Cuirass, Greaves, Vambraces, Sabatons): Orichalcum bars, Hellhound hide, Shade ectoplasm and Soul shards. The Cuirass also takes a Heart of Erebus. 50M Dracma each.
• Mantle, Seal, Signet, Verdict (cape, neck, ring, aura): Adamantine bars, cut Soul garnets, ectoplasm, shards and Hearts of Erebus. 50M each.
• Weapons: 250 Adamantine bars, 300-400 of the style's part (fang / feather / cinder), 3 of one boss's material (collar link for the Rapier, Thanatos' shroud for the Crossbow, Bident shard for the Sceptre), 400 shards and a Heart of Erebus. 75M each.

The Panoply of Hades (raid set, T555)#

The best set in the season. Each piece eats its same-slot Tribunal piece plus one rare material from House of Hades Keys:

• Erebus obsidian for the armour and the Aegis.
• Tear of Persephone for the Pall (cape), Torc (neck), Signet and Crown (aura).
• Cyclopean ingot + Ember of the Throne for the weapons: the Bident, the Ballista and Hades' Lantern.

Each piece also takes Adamantine bars, hide, cut garnets, Soul shards and Hearts of Erebus, plus 75M Dracma (100M for weapons). How to get the raid materials is covered in The House of Hades.

Season materials at a glance#

Material	Main use	Main source
Ashen dust	Stygian set, cannonballs, boons	March monsters
Shade ectoplasm	Tribunal armour, boons	Halls monsters
Hellhound hide	Every armour piece	Monster drops, board, ranks
Cerberus fang / Fury feather / Lampad cinder	Melee / ranged / magic weapon parts, potions	Monster drops
Stygian iron bar → Orichalcum bar → Adamantine bar	The three metal tiers	Mining + Smithing
Brimstone	Doubles a smelt, Hellfire shot	Mining
Soul garnet	Jewellery, Divine boons, Divine shot	Mining + Crafting
Pomegranate seeds	Pomegranate elixir, capes	Drops
Tartarus coal	Forge fuel, smelting	Mining + Firemaking
Heart of Erebus	The rare gate on high recipes	Rare drops, boxes, ranks
Thanatos' shroud / Cerberus' collar link / Bident shard	Boss-tier weapons and Divine boons	Thanatos / Cerberus / Hades
Soul shard	Nearly everything	Every season monster

Season boxes#

Open them on the Box Opening reel. The reel shows every roll and its odds. Every season box pays Dracma, Soul shards, Olympian Bonds, boons and season materials.

Box	Top bond	Highlights	Where it drops
Ashen Cache	$100	Lesser boons, potions, bars, materials, 750k-7.5M Dracma	Any normal season monster (1 in 150), Breach Wraiths, sieges
Stygian Coffer	$250	Greater and Lesser boons, Nectar, Heart of Erebus, herbs, bars	Normal monsters (1 in 2,500), Stygian Sentinels
Tribunal Reliquary	$250	Divine boons, Keys, boss materials, Hearts of Erebus	Elites, bosses, sieges, raid Keys, global bosses (always)
Treasury of Hades	$1,000	Ready-made Tribunal gear, the richest Dracma roll	Bosses, global bosses (1 in 8), sieges, raid Keys

Bonds in these boxes are never rarer than 1 in 600, and always more common than the gear.

Ranks, board, talents and shop#

Rank milestones#

Rank 100 takes about 1.7M season XP in total. Every rank gives a talent point, and every 5th rank pays a prize:

The task board#

Five rows, harder as you go down: the way in (first March kills, the ferry, first bounties), the March (hounds, acolytes, Breach Wraiths, the Furies, 25 House of Hades clears), the Halls (Asphodel, Lampads, Wardens, offerings, 100 House seals), the deep (whelps, 35 Hades Reborn kills, Sentinels, Thanatos, Cerberus) and legends (Hades 3 and 10 times, 10,000 season kills, 50 Hard+ House clears, 25 season bosses). The four House tasks pay 1,000 / 1,500 / 2,000 / 3,000 Key fragments on top of the row reward.

Rows pay 1,500 / 3,000 / 6,000 / 12,000 / 25,000 season XP and 20 / 40 / 80 / 150 / 300 Obols per task, plus materials.

The full board pays 50,000 season XP, 500 Obols and the permanent honour Conqueror of the Underworld (+10% damage, 5% damage reduction, forever).

Talents#

Bounties and affixes#

• 12 daily and 7 weekly contracts rotate through your 3 + 3 slots. 1 free reroll a day, then 25 Obols, doubling each time.
• Weekly affixes (each pays a season XP and Obol bonus while it runs):

The Obol shop (Persephone, or the board's Shop tab)#

Item	Obols	Rank
Grimoire of the Underworld	50,000	50
Styx / Acheron / Lethe runes x100	75 each	50
Phlegethon runes x100	120	55
Cocytus runes x100	120	65
Phial of Souls	15,000	25
Phial of Wrath	25,000	35
Scroll of Hermes x5	50
Honey cake	150	10
Funeral libation	400	20
Draught of Lethe	5,000	30
Soul shard x25	20
Heart of Erebus	25,000	40
$50 Olympian Bond	40,000
$100 Olympian Bond	75,000

Commands#

Tips#

• Early on, skill as well as fight. Rank-1 iron, coal and ash open at once, pay season XP, and push the siege and the Wrath along.
• Always carry Honey cakes into the Kennel. They speed up Cerberus and switch off his worst attack.
• Stack up for Hades' Judgement. The more of you stand beside the marked player, the less it hurts.
• Kill the Soul-Eater's wisps first, and the Hierophant first in a siege.
• Don't skip bounties. They're the quickest steady source of season XP and Obols, and several board tasks count them.
• Keys from ranks 60, 75 and 95 open on the Box Opening spinner just like raid Keys, and every spin is a chance at the Panoply's rare materials.