The first real, full, whole-fat boss that you encounter in Hades 2 is Melinoe’s mentor, Hecate. She appears at the end of Erebus to test your mettle, and she won’t hold back. You’ll get a lot of practice against Hecate as you strive to reach Chronos, but this should get you off to a good start.
Hecate’s fight has three distinct phases. Headmistress Hecate will deviate somewhat during these phases, but they always follow roughly the same flow.
Hecate Phase 1
At the start of the Headmistress Hecate battle, she’ll start by facing Melinoe head on. By my count, there are three attacks that she employs.
The most common attack is sending two wide, crescent waves across the ground toward Melinoe. Sometimes this will take the form of a 1-2 attack with a space between waves. Other times, she’ll send the two waves on top of each other in different directions. You can either bypass them by moving to the side around them or simply dash straight through them. As long as you emerge from your dash on a spot not consumed by flame, you won’t take damage.
The second attack is to summon a circle directly beneath herself that expands into a wide area around her. It doesn’t move unreasonably fast, so you should be able to sprint away from it. Once it contracts, you can resume attacking.
The third attack has Hecate split into three versions of herself. The three clones will all spout fire toward Melinoe, much like a flamethrower. It’s not hard to avoid these in a singular fashion, but if you’re caught in the crossfire, it’s easy to get overwhelmed.
Whenever Hecate splits into three copies, one of them can always be damaged. Attacks will phase through the fake ones and they’ll flash green. If you hit the “real” Hecate, she’ll flash red and take damage as normal. Sometimes, however, it’s best to just avoid their attacks and wait for the fakes to disappear before resuming the battle.
Once you take Hecate’s health down by a third, she’ll summon a shield and move on to phase 2.
Hecate Phase 2
Once Hecate summons a shield, you need to just turn your attention away from her. You can’t hurt her while the shield is up.
She won’t always do the same attack during this part of her battle. Sometimes, she’ll summon Area of Effect spells from the sky which blow up a circle of area. Other times she’ll fire a stream of damaging orbs at Melinoe. Finally, sometimes she’ll create an Area of Effect circle around herself that expands outward, then contracts, then repeats. Whatever the case, just watch your feet and stay out of the way of her attack.
There’s a fourth attack that she does while shielded, as well, but it’s very rare. She’ll call out “Selene’s burning light” and then fire a solid beam of light in three directions. This is a bit like her spray of orbs, but you need to be extra careful to stay out of their path.
Once her shield is up, Hecate will summon a number of witches to help her. These enemies have low health and fire basic projectiles. Your goal while Hecate has her shield up is to eliminate all these minor enemies, at which point she’ll drop the shield and you can begin damaging her again.
At this point, things revert to how she was in the first phase. However, when she splits into three copies, each one will fire orbs of energy in Melinoe’s direction.
Once you take off another third of health, she’ll again raise her shield and it’s onto phase 3.
Hecate Phase 3
To kick off the third phase of the Hecate, she’ll launch a hex at Melinoe that will turn you into an adorable sheep. This attack is extremely difficult to avoid, but it is possible. I recommend dashing straight toward it, as it will take a bit of time to circle back around, at which point you can dash back into it to repeat the process. It takes some time, but it will eventually vanish. Don’t sweat it if you get hit. It isn’t immediately the end of the world.
The curse lasts about 12 seconds. During this time, you’re slower and you can’t attack. However, you can still dodge, which will be necessary to avoid attacks. If you’re lucky, Hecate will use her AoE that expands around her, as this is easiest to avoid if you simply stay outside of your range. Then you just have to worry about the summoned enemies.
Once you get your godly form back, you have to do away with Hecate’s lackeys. When they’re all eliminated, she’ll drop her shield.
Again, the battle will continue much as it had. However, this time, when Hecate splits into three copies, each one will do the outward spreading ring of fire attack. While this is normally the easiest attack to avoid, it’s not difficult to get stuck in a corner when there are three Hecates using it at once.
During this last phase, Hecate also has another attack which has her send out three streams of crescent fire. While the wide spread can make this difficult to avoid to begin with, you’ll need to keep in mind that after a short while of maintained fire, Hecate will recall the waves, and they’ll reverse and return to her. This is a bit easier to avoid since they follow a predictable path, but if you aren’t aware that they’re going to come back, it’s easy to take your eyes off of them and wind up getting swept up in them.
How to beat Headmistress Hecate in Hades 2
It’s a bit difficult to sum up the best way to beat Headmistress Hecate in Hades 2 because it mainly depends on your chosen weapons and boons. Like many things in Hades 2, you just have to adapt to what you have.
However, there are two things that are important in this fight. The first path to success is to just recognize the moves she’s going to throw at you. It will help you know when she’s vulnerable to attack.
The second is that you need to keep your distance. Most of Hecate’s attacks have limited range or they move slowly. This means that the further out you are, the easier it is to dodge what she throws at you. Like with any fight, keep moving, stay safe, and choose your moments to attack. Often, you can get a good opening if you are able to bypass her attack, as she’ll stand motionless until the casting is complete.
Really, Hecate is the first boss. She’s no pushover, but you’ll be seeing her the most out of any boss in your journey. You’ll have plenty of time to internalize her movements and figure out how best to dance around them. Hopefully, this guide has helped you get over the initial hurdle of beating her the first time.
