 Hades just released its last major early access patch, The Blood Price, and I had an amazing first run with Excalibur, the newest aspect of Zagreus' sword, the Stygian Blade. wielding Excalibur is way too much fun, and although it was released as part of a previous patch, I thought I'd share my impressions just the same. This was a low-heat run, so don't expect me to overcome ridiculously overpowered enemies, perhaps in a few months time, if I get good. Few things I'm going to need to point out before we go. First of all, every swing with Excalibur has a lot more weight than the other aspects of the Stygian Blade. It's a slower weapon aspect, a lot slower than the three others, but it makes up for the decreased attack speed with sheer damage. Its special attack leaves an aura, which offers you damage reduction, disable straps and slows the speed of enemy projectiles to a crawl. Remember that last one, it's going to come into play a little later. How then did I build this bad boy? Well, the first thing to it is, of course, plenty of luck. The Jor of Hades comes from the infinite number of combinations you can build, but the Trinket system allows you to equip different keepsakes through the trunk available in the House of Hades and at the restroom after each boss encounter. These increase your chances to get boons from any one Olympian. For this run, I went with Athena's Trinket, the old pendant, throughout, so I'd make the argument that Demeter's Frostbitten Horn is just as important to the build I ended up using. Why? Because the Crystal Beam upgrade to your cast combined with follow-up upgrades made clearing this run possible for me. The Crystal Beam upgrades I would advise you to pick up if given the opportunity are Snowburst, which damages nearby foes when you use your cast as well as inflicting Chill, and Glacial Glare, which increases the duration of the Beam itself and also inflicts Chill. That last one in particular makes the cast such a big deal, if you're lucky enough to get over this, take it no matter what else you've got in store. One blessing which to far from bad I would try to build without is Arctic Blast, which after applying 10 stacks of Chill causes a blast. Not half bad damage, but the Chill just being there might in fact be better, where bosses are concerned anyway. In Elysium, fighting Thesias and the Minotaur, probably the encounter I most commonly struggle with after Hades, the amount of Chill that I got on both Thesias and the Minotaur were incredible. And I wrecked them. I completely destroyed them, because they were little more than frozen statues, by the time my blade connected with their necks. Remember the special attack? Something I got early on was Athena's Blessing, Divine Flourish, which made my special attack stronger, but more importantly, it allowed me to deflect attacks whenever I used it. This turned out to be a lifesaver. A very powerful buff, which works wonders with the Aura that Excalibur leaves behind every few seconds. If you manage to snack a Daedalus Hammer, the absolutely most useful upgrade for me is Breaching Slash, which increases your damage to armour by 300%, insanely good for all those tough baddies with plenty of armour in Elysium. As for my legendary, I got Aphrodite's Aid, which at 100% outright murders, folks. They could look at the Hydra getting Aphrodite's kissy-kissy projectile in its face. Incidentally, the Hydra, which in very early access, once terrorized me, freely needs to up its game, blowing a kiss to a mighty monstrosity, living in lava, and seeing its wrecked talk about a vulnerable emotional state. As concerns to the other bosses surprisingly, I struggled a little with Meg, the OG Fury and the first boss in the game at the end of Tartarus. She was extremely fast and my build lucked most of the later booms that made it lethal and enhanced its defensive damage dealing capacities. She trashed me for a little bit, but I hadn't lost a single fight against those furies in at least 30 runs, and I wasn't going to lose one while wielding the sword of the king. Now, Hades... Hades is always fun to fight with, always challenging. And again, I'm not great at this game. He almost killed me, realising I was two hits away from death, though. That's when I turned away from my ill-fitted attempts to chop his head off with his kyber in the start of the vading, while casting the Demeter-infused Crystal Beam. Several casts later... Well, you see for yourselves how the ice beam smelt at Hades' held away. Right then, Hades continues to be a remarkable fun in the game, and I'm off to play some more of it. Should see if this build can be replicated and still effective at a higher heat level. Until next time, I'm Philip Madness, thanks for watching this, bye!