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Hades 2 really likes to show you that Melinoe is a witch. If the giant cauldron, fancy-hatted mentor, and spellcasting didn’t tip you off, stonking big pits of cards with doodles on them will. These are Arcana, and they are pretty darn pivotal to your success – at least whilst you are still a newbie.
Arcana offer powerful passive benefits that can have drastic effects on your run’s efficacy. Everything from slowly increasing stats to mana regeneration and even full-on defiance of death can be found here. In this guide, we are going to go over every Arcana, and how to unlock them (and what they do I guess).
Note: Do be aware that Hades 2 is still in Early Access, so anything and everything is subject to change.
More Hades 2 content:
Beginner Tips | How To Reach The Surface | How To Survive The Surface | How To Get Nectar | How To Unlock Every Tool | How To Upgrade Your Tools | How To Unlock Every Weapon | How To Unlock Weapon Aspects | Complete Incantation Guide | How To Unlock Ever Keepsake | Complete Resource Guide
How You Unlock Arcana In Hades 2
Arcana are unlocked by heading to the Altar – a place completely unmissable as you have to literally walk over it to leave the Crossroads. Here, you can spend a copious amount of Ash (among other things) to unlock Arcana. Each Arcana is unique and will unveil all adjacent Arcana on the board.
Here’s a list of every Arcana for your viewing pleasure. We have arranged them in order from left to right, top to bottom.
| Arcana | Cost | Effect | Grasp |
| The Sorceress | 1 Ash | While you Channel your Omega Moves, everything moves slower for 2 seconds | 1 |
| The Wayward Son | 10 Ash | After you exit a location, restore 2HP, or twice that if you have no mare than 30%HP | 1 |
| The Huntress | 10 Ash | While you have less than 100% MP, your Attack and Special deal +30% damage | 3 |
| Death | 15 Ash | Your Omega Moves have a +3% chance to deal critical damage | 3 |
| The Messenger | 20 Ash, 1 Pearl | You have +6% chance to Dodge | 0 |
| The Furies | 3 Ash | Deal 20% damage to foes in your Casts | 2 |
| The Titan | 7 Ash | Gain +20HP and +20MP | 2 |
| The Unseen | 20 Ash | Restore 2MP ever 1 second | 5 |
| Night | 25 Ashe | Your Hex also charges up automatically as though you used 2MP every second | 4 |
| The Lovers | 30 Ashe | In Guardian Encounters you take 0 damage from the first hit | 2 |
| The Swift Runner | 10 Ash | Your Sprint is +20% faster | 1 |
| Eternity | 20 Ash | Start each run with 1 Death Defiance | 4 |
| The Centaur | 25 Ash, 1 Cinder | After every 5 locations gain +3HP and +3MP | 0 |
| The Moon | 30 Ash | Your Omega Cast has +50 Power whenever it detonates | 3 |
| Strength | 35 Ash | While you have no more than 30%HP you take -30% damage and deal +30% damage | 5 |
| The Fates | 15 Ash | Start each run with a Change Of Fate | 3 |
| The Boatman | 25 Ash | Start each run with +200 gold | 5 |
| Origination | 30 Ash | Deal +25% damage to foes afflicted with at least 2 Curse effects | 3 |
| Excellence | 35 Ash | Any boons you are offered have +30% chance to be improved to Rare | 5 |
| The Queen | 40 Ash, 1 Tear | Any Boons you are offered have a +6% chance to be a Duo. | 0 |
| The Seer | 20 Ash, 1 Wool | Start each run with +2 Change Of Fate | 0 |
| The Champion | 30 Ash | Start each run with +! Change Of Fate | 4 |
| The Artificer | 35 Ash | Start each run with 1 chance to turn a Minor Find into a Major Find | 6 |
| Divinity | 40 Ash, 1 Golden Apple | Any Boons you are offered have a +10% chance to be improved to Epic | 0 |
| Judgement | 50 Ash, 1 Zodiac Sand | After you vanquish a Guardian, activate 3 random inactive Arcana Cards. | 0 |
Increasing Your Grasp Capacity
If Melinoe were to have the power to equip every Arcana she finds right from the get-go, she would be a smidge overpowered. Melinoe has a finite capacity for Arcana, and this is down by the bar to the right of the Arcana screen. Every Arcana has a cost, and you can only equip Arcana up to Melinoe’s current limit.
Thankfully you can increase that limit by using Psyche – another common resource. The catch is you need A LOT of Psyche, and that amount rapidly scales the more you upgrade. We have yet to hit the Arcana cap, so it could be limited. However, it could also be so vast that you can equip every Arcana at once. We will update this guide once we find out!
Some Arcana have a Grasp cost of 0. These Arcana instead have an alternate activation clause.
That’s all we have on Arcana for now. Be sure to check out our other Hades 2 guide for more tips and tricks.
