Hades 2: Rift of Thessaly Hades 2 guide, tips

After crossing the City of Efira, your next challenge in Hades 2 is to stop the fleet of Chronos. On this page of the guide we have described the Thessalian Fault, its structure, unique features, more dangerous enemies and mini-bosses.

Last update: 03 June 2024

In Hades 2, the Rift of Thessaly is the second alternate area, leading to the surface. You will travel through it on ships sent by Chronos to attack Olympus. On this page of our guide, we break down Rift of Thessaly, explaining its layout, unique elements, more dangerous enemies, and mini-bosses.

• Unique elements in Rift of Thessaly
• Enemies in Rift of Thessaly
• Resources in Rift of Thessaly
• Special chambers in Rift of Thessaly
• How to defeat Charybdis?

Unique elements in Rift of Thessaly

The Rift of Thessaly is the second path leading to the surface. You'll visit it after completing City of Ephyra.

Rift of Thessaly, similarly to the previous region, has unique layout and structure. Each chamber takes the form of a single warship belonging to Chronos. As you move from chamber to chamber, you also move from ship to ship - unfortunately, at each ship you'll need to fight a few battles before being able to continue. There is only one available door in each chamber, and the choice of a reward is made at the ship's helm by turning left or right. After a few battles, the helm will fall apart, unlocking the path to the next ship.

While traversing Rift of Thessaly, there is a chance that mid-combat, Icarus may join you, attacking your enemies with airborne bombings. At the end of that fight, Icarus will land and offer you one of his unique Boons. These can be a large bonus to armor, upgrades to random Boons after winning a certain amount of battles, a penalty to magic that additionally increases the damage of your attacks or finally adding to your Casts a powerful explosion property that can hurt both the enemies and the player.

Halfway through Rift of Thessaly, you'll either encounter a mini-boss - Charybdis, or a unique NPC, Circe. Just before the final battle of the region, which will see you face Eris, you'll always come across Charon's shop.

When exploring Rift of Thessaly, you need to watch out for environmental hazards - exploding barrels and oil spills. Barrels most of the time appear next to spills, and when the oil is set on fire, it will burn for the remainder of your time in the current chamber, permanently reducing the safe area of the battlefield and dealing a lot of damage if stepped into the fire.

Enemies in Rift of Thessaly

Rift of Thessaly, similarly to other regions, introduces new types of opponents. These are:

1. Sea-Shamblers - standard enemy attacking in melee range, and a variation of the basic opponent you could encounter in Ephyra. They are very slow and not that dangerous.
2. Droplets - small, blue skulls that attack in melee range. They are easily defeated, but appear in large groups - use Casts to defeat them.
3. Seeswords - levitating swords that teleport and appear next to you and attack in melee range. Pay attention to what happens in the vicinity of your character and be ready to Dash whenever a Seesword appears nearby.
4. Blaskets - monsters emerging from the ground and firing a burst of three projectiles fired in 3 different directions. Watch out for the projectiles and try to get close to the enemy to eliminate him.
5. Sticklers - spear-wielding enemies that attack in melee range or by throwing their spears from a distance. Always watch out for these opponents as they can attack from every position.
6. Boozers - enemies hiding in barrels, and attacking with two blades once you're in melee range. Stay at a distance from them and be ready for attacks once you get close - the swings are very fast.
7. Anchors - large enemies wielding anchors. The anchor is used to perform an area of effect attack, creating a shockwave around it when it strikes the ground. After a few seconds, the anchor is taken from the floor, creating another shockwave that affects the same area. Stay away from these opponents when they attack and defeat them quickly after they pull out the anchor from the ground - they vastly reduce the safe area.
8. Harpy Talons - airborne harpies attacking with claws or sending blade whirlwinds affecting extended areas of the arena. They are the most dangerous enemy from the region - you should take eliminating them as a priority, as their attacks are fast, hard to avoid, and have an extended range, limiting your movement options.

Resources in Rift of Thessaly

In Ephyra, there are following unique resources to find:

1. Driftwood - brown branches collected without any dedicated tool;
2. Iron - requires a pickaxe to collect.

Special chambers in Rift of Thessaly

A special meeting in Fields of Mourning (i.e. a unique chamber where the NPC exclusive for the region will provide you with unique bonuses) is Circe. If it is Circe that you encounter, it means that you won't have to face the mini-boss of the region, Charybdis - but it may turn out that instead of the NPC, you'll meet the boss. Circe's bonuses can, e.g. heal you, temporarily improve one of your Arcana cards, or make Melinoe bigger/smaller - this changes the voice of the heroine for the remainder of the current expedition, and either increases her damage dealt or making her faster, giving a bigger chance to avoid damage.

How to defeat Charybdis?

Charybdis is the only unique mini-boss in Rift of Thessaly. If Charybdis is the one you've encountered, it means that you will not meet Ciece, a special encounter of this region - and vice versa. Although Charybdis' attacks are easy to learn and avoid, the battle is long and it is easy to make a mistake that will cost a lot of health, and you need to keep it at adequate levels for the fight against the boss of the region.

The boss has four attacks:

1. Tentacle swing - one of Charybdis's tentacles lays on the floor, preparing a swing that will hit the area around it. Dash away from the tentacle once you see it preparing to strike.
2. Shockwaves - Charybdis's tentacle rises in the air then hits the ground, creating three shockwaves - two wide at the sides of the tentacle, and one narrow in front of it. Either position yourself diagonally from the tentacle or make a Dash through a wave as it gets close.
3. Purple arrows - Charybdis's tentacle swings to a side then fires a large arrow-shaped projectile in front of it. Dash away or move to a side to avoid the projectile.
4. Splintering projectiles - Charybdis uses this attack whenever you've deprived her of around 25% of her health. The boss fires a barrage of projectiles in your direction that additionally explode after getting close and splinter into more projectiles. Go to one of the edges of the arena and sprint to the other end until the projectiles disappear. If the projectile has reached you or you've sprinted to the edge of the arena already, Dash away or through the bullets to change the run direction.

Charybdis is not a complicated battle but the enemy deals a lot of damage with its attacks and has a lot of health, so it is easy to make a mistake. The boss spends the entire fight inside a whirlwind - to deal damage to it, you need to attack the tentacles. Avoid receiving damage at all costs, and stay and attack from a distance if you can. If Charybdis's tentacles happen to get close to each other, you can use your Omega cast or other area of effect attacks to deal damage to a few tentacles at once, significantly increasing the damage dealt to the mini-boss.