All Hades 2 Materials (& What to Farm First)

There are various materials in Hades 2 that you need to farm to unlock weapons, tools, and invocations. With so many to find, I wanted to outline all of them as well as which ones are early game priorities. Here are all Hades 2 materials and what to farm first.

All Materials in Hades 2 and What to Get First

Ash and Psyche (Arcana Cards)

The Ashes and Psyche (Grasp) are your core bread-and-butter materials used to mechanically empower Melinoe, like Darkness in the original with Zagreus. I highly recommend you focus on these first as they’re used to unlock and increase Arcana Card capacity, which are essentially an analogue for the Mirror of Night in Hades 1. Ashes are used to unlock new cards, while Psyche (Grasp) increases your capacity of how many you can equip with the equip value displayed top right on any card.

You can find them as room rewards during your run, buy them from the Broker in the Crossroads, or order them via Charon’s delivery service after a few runs. Always be on the lookout for both of these resources. The Arcana Cards I recommend you get as soon as possible are:

• The Sorceress: Safe Omega attacks.
• The Wayward Son: HP regen.
• The Huntress: A great damage boost that will always be active.
• The Unseen: A must-have card for Magick regen.
• The Titan: Beefs up Melinoe to withstand the second and third areas.
• Eternity: Extra Life or Death’s Defiance from the original.

Ash is also used to unlock the best weapons, tools, and invocations, so it’s your primary material for the entire game. Let’s now move on to secondary materials.

Bones

Bones are your secondary most important material for the early game besides Ash and Psyche. They can be used to buy other important materials once you unlock the Broker for 10 Bones with Summoning of the Mercantile Fortune incantation. Furthermore, you also need quite a lot of them for incantations like unlocking and upgrading the Broker. Lastly, they’re a reliable way to buy Nectar and unlock all trinkets.

Stones, Metals, and Ore

There are various Pick-oriented stones and metals you’ll need for unlocking weapons, tools, and some incantations. I’ve ordered them from most to least important in terms of the early game:

• Silver: You’ll need Silver for most weapons and tools, so it’s the second most important material to farm early in Hades 2. You can get it in Erebus by using the Crescent Pick tool on Silver veins. The pick is unlocked for just one Ash. Stick to the Pickaxe in the first few runs since you need 15 Silver for the Moonstone Axe weapon, 3 for Umbral Flames, and 1 for the Sister Blades. Furthermore, you need 5 for the Tablet of Peace and 10 for the Silver spade, which are used for farming Psyche and Seeds, respectively. You’ll also need 2 to 3 Silver several times for some early invocations, so again, stay with the Pick early game.
• Limestone: Limestone isn’t that crucial apart from the incantation to change Keepsakes. I wouldn’t equip a pick just to go find it in Oceanus. You’re perfectly fine just picking it up when you get to it accidentally on a Pick run.
• G. Stone: G Stone is mined using a Pick in the Mourning Fields, you’ll need it for the Ardent Skulls weapon but you won’t use it until you find Bronze in the first surface level.
• Bronze: Bronze is crucial for weapons and tools in the latter stages of the game and it’s harvested in the first surface level using a Pick once you unlock surface levels via the Permeation of Witching-Wards incantation.

You’ll also need 5 Bronze to unlock weapon aspects with the Aspects of Night and Darkness incantation so bring a Pick as soon as you unlock the surface levels.

Flowers

Here are all the important flowers in the early stages of Hades 2 that you can pick up:

• Molly: Molly goes hand in hand with Silver in the early game for most incantations to unlock important features like tools, planting spots for seeds, the Fated List for achievement rewards, etc. Collect it in Erebus.
• Lotus: Lotus flowers are found in Oceanus and they’re used in a lot of important Incantations so be on the lookout for them. Some of the most important Lotus incantations are Rich Soil for 3 to unlock more planting spots, 2 Lotus for Unraveling a Fateful Bond to remove HP drain on surface levels, and 1 Lotus for Faith of Familiar Spirits to unlock familiars.
• Myrtle: Myrtle isn’t a crucial flower but it’s a quality-of-life improvement resource gathered in the Mourning Fields. Essentially, the two Myrtle Incantations allow you to unlock Golden Bows that point the way in the Mourning Fields, and the other one is to check Nectar relationship progress with all the characters.

These are the three most notable flowers for the early game of Hades 2.

Seeds

Here’s a full list of seeds you can dig up with the Spade in Hades 2, with the first one being the most important in the early game:

• Night Shade: You’ll need a lot of Night Shade for incantations, so I highly recommend that once you unlock planting spots, you plant Night Shade primarily first. You can get it by unlocking the Spade for 10 Silver and then digging it up in Erebus. Most of the crucial incantations like being able to sell items, recruiting Moros, weapon aspects, removing health drain on surface levels, etc., are unlocked with Night Shade. Plant it whenever you have it over other seeds at first.
• Cattail Seeds: Similar to Myrtle, Cattail Seeds offer quality-of-life improvements but aren’t crucial. Incantations that contain them allow you to increase fountain healing, spawn Wells of Charon after bosses, and add fishing spots in the Crossroads once per run.
• Wheat Seeds: Growing Wheat from Wheat Seeds dug up from the Mourning Fields allows you to complete the Incantation for the last two growing spots as well as unlock familiars that work for you in the crossroads through Attending a Faithful Beast incantation.
• Garlic Cloves: Dug up with the Spade on the surface level near the City of Ephyra. Garlic along with Wheat is used for the last two growing spots but also to unlock the bar to interact with other characters cordially through the Rite of Social Solidarity incancations.

Until you unlock four planting spots with Lotus and the Rich Soil incantation, focus on plating Night Shade as it’s the most-used one early.

Other Important Materials

Besides Ashes, Psyche, Bones, Metals, and Flowers, there are some other miscellaneous materials that you should keep an eye out for:

• Nectar: Nectar can be an extremely important or a negligible material depending on your goals. If you just want a powerful and reliable Keepsake for the early game, like the extra life one from Skelly, you can just offer him one Nectar to unlock it and be done with this material. However, if you want to unlock all Keepsakes and furthermore get some narrative information and lore from all the characters then Nectar becomes an important resource. You can buy it once per run from the Broker and also find it in random rooms across all the stages of the game.
• Fate Fabric: Apart from unlocking the Fishing Rod and bringing Moros to the Crossroads, you don’t need that much Fate Fabric. I would get around 4 to 5 from either Arachne outfits or the broker and leave it at that in the early game. However, around the mid-game 6 Fate Fabric can be used in an incantation to unlock upgrading Arcana Cards so after you’re done with early game unlocks stockpile some Fate Fabric from the Charon supply service.
• Obol Points: You unlock 1 Obol Point by spending 1000 gold universally across all runs, so the progress carries over. You can then use Obol Points at Charon’s order service near the Broker to buy large quantities of Ash, Psyche, and Fate Fabric. This means that you should always look to enter Charon shops and spend gold if you have 150 to 250 since Boons are 150 and Daedalus Hammers for weapon upgrades are 200. I wouldn’t recommend stockpiling large amounts of coins since there’s no benefit.

Lastly, let’s talk about early boss items.

Early Boss Items: Cinders, Pearls, and Tears

You get Cinder from defeating Hecate, Perals from the Sirens, and Tears from Cerberus in the underground levels respectively. Out of all these Cinder is the most important in the early game for unlocking weapons and the path to the surface after a few runs.

Pearls aren’t that important as of yet, except for unlocking Trials to collect Star Dust, where you need 2 of them. As for Tears from Cerberus, you need 1 for unlocking the animal familiars feature later, but it’s nothing important in the early game.

Overall, farm Ash and Psyche first for mechanical Arcana Card upgrades, Silver for your first tools and weapons, and Night Shade for important early incantations. That’s it for my guide on all Hades 2 farming materials and what to get first. For more Hades 2 guides, check out the best Selene Hexes from Gift of the Moon.