Progression in Hades doesn’t just happen while you’re trekking through the underworld. That’s because you’ll also unlock a few upgrades in the House of Hades central hub. It’s also here where you’ll find the Mirror of Night upgrades and Fated List of Minor Prophecies. Both features will give you powerful rewards. Here’s our guide to help you out.
Note: This guide is intended for Hades’ early access stage and certain mechanics may change in due course. For more information, check out our Hades guides and features hub.
Hades: The Mirror of Night upgrades
The Mirror of Night in the House of Hades is found in Zagreus’ bedroom. Therein, you’ll be able to unlock permanent upgrades that completely change the way you approach the game.
The Mirror of Night only has a select few upgrades that are available. However, you can unlock more by spending Chthonic Keys. In turn, you’ll see even more perks that you can acquire using Darkness Crystals.
You can see the basic (red) upgrades below:
Let’s say that you’ve progressed further in Hades and you’ve amassed more keys, you can then obtain the alternative (yellow) versions of those upgrades:
Just keep these details in mind:
- The Mirror of Night’s basic upgrades will be color red.
- The alternatives for each basic upgrade will be color yellow.
- Basic and alternative perks are mutually exclusive, so only one can be active at any given time. For instance, you have to choose between “Death Defiance” or “Stubborn Defiance.”
- You may freely switch between these while you’re interacting with the Mirror of Night by clicking on the leftmost icon with two arrows.
- Upgrading a basic perk using Darkness Crystals won’t automatically boost its alternative version and vice versa. The two are completely separate which means you’ll need thousands of Darkness Crystals to unlock all the perks.
Below is a table of all the Mirror of Night upgrades in Hades:
| Basic (Red) Upgrade | Cost (Darkness Crystals Per Rank) | Effect | Alternative (Yellow) Upgrade | Cost (Darkness Crystals Per Rank) | Effect |
| Shadow Presence | 5 ranks: 10/15/20/25/30 | +10% backstab damage (up to 50%) | Fiery Presence | 5 ranks: 10/15/20/25/30 | +10% damage to undamaged enemies (up to 50%) |
| Chthonic Vitality | 3 ranks: 10/20/40 | +1 HP per room that you enter (up to +3) | Dark Regeneration | 2 ranks: 30/60 | Every Darkness Crystal you collect will restore 30% of its amount as HP (up to 60%). |
| Death Defiance | 3 ranks: 30/500/1000 | Gain 1-3 extra lives; heal 50% of your health when you die; temporary invulnerability | Stubborn Defiance | 1 rank: 600 | Heal 30% of your health instead of dying; can only happen once per room |
| Greater Reflex | 1 rank: 50 | Gives you an additional dash movement charge | Ruthless Reflex | 1 rank: 75 | Dashing before getting hit gives +50% damage and dodge chance for a couple of seconds |
| Boiling Blood | 5 ranks: 10/30/50/70/90 | +10% basic and special attack bonus for enemies suffering from your boiling blood debuff from your casting skill (up to 50%) | Abyssal Blood | 5 ranks: 20/40/60/80/100 | -5% speed and damage for mobs that are debuffed by boiling blood (up to -25%) |
| Infernal Soul | 2 ranks: 20/80 | Gives +1 casting skill charge (up to +2) | Stygian Soul | 3 ranks: free/60/120 | Casting skills recharge but no longer drop refresh ammo; rank-ups reduce the cooldown from 5 to 3 seconds |
| Deep Pockets | 10 ranks: 30/35/40/45/50/55/60/65/70/75 | Gives +10 gold (up to +100) at the start of each escape attempt | Golden Touch | 3 ranks: 70/90/110 | +5% of your gold total for each room you clear (up to 15%) |
| Thick Skin | 10 ranks: 40/45/50/55/60/65/70/75/80/85 | +5 permanent HP per rank (up to +50 HP) | High Confidence | 5 ranks: 50/100/150/200/250 | +5% damage when your health is 80% or higher (up to 25%) |
| Privileged Status | 2 ranks: 50/100 | +20% damage to enemies debuffed by at least two status effects (up to 40%) | Family Favorite | 2 ranks: 50/150 | +2.5% damage for every different Olympian with a boon/skill that you’ve acquired (up to +5% per different Olympian) |
| Olympian Favor | 40 ranks at 50 darkness each | +1% chance for a boon/skill to have rare effects (up to +40%) | Dark Foresight | 10 ranks at 250 darkness each | +1% chance to find Gold Laurel rewards such as boons/skills, Poms of power, or Daedalus Hammers (up to 10%) |
| God’s Pride | 20 ranks at 100 darkness each | +1% chance for a boon/skill to have epic effects (up to 20%) | Gods’ Legacy | 10 ranks at 150 darkness each | +1% chance for a boon/skill to be a legendary or duo type (up to 10%) |
| Fated Authority | 10 ranks: 500/1,000/2,000/3,000/4,000/5,000 /10K/20K/30K/40K | +1 reroll die that can alter the symbols/rewards for the next room (up to 10 dice) | Fated Persuasion | 4 ranks: 1,000/5,000/10,000/25,000 | +1 reroll die that can alter the existing boon or Well of Charon choices (up to 4 dice) |
Note: You can reset all the Mirror of Night upgrades you’ve obtained (and refund all the Darkness Crystals you’ve spent) by using one Chthonic Key.
Given the exorbitant amounts necessary to unlock all Mirror of Night upgrades, it would be highly unrealistic to expect all Hades players to obtain them all. That effort would take countless hours just to complete.
Instead, try to focus on the perks that will be useful all throughout such as “Death Defiance,” “Greater Reflex,” “Thick Skin,” and “Infernal Soul.” Meanwhile, “Shadow Presence” and “Boiling Blood” can be your later picks once you’ve obtained the necessary ones. These are all basic upgrades and, in my opinion, the only alternative upgrade that’s helpful would be “Gods’ Legacy.” Another perk, “Family Favorite,” could be useful, though it’s extremely dependent on RNG unless you’ve got a lot of rerolls via “Fated Authority” or “Fated Persuasion.”
In any case, here are my ideal selections while progressing through Hades campaign:
The Fated List of Minor Prophecies
The Fated List of Minor Prophecies is a feature unlocked via the House Contractor in the House of Hades. You’ll find it on a desk next to the Mirror of Night. Think of this as an “achievement list” or “bucket list” of sorts.
These tasks and tallies are all related to your progression in Hades, whether it’s the number of gods you’ve met, the types of skills you’ve obtained, certain sidequests that have been completed, or beating the final boss for the first time. Completing the requirements will net you with cool rewards.
Here are some examples:
| Prophecy | Requirement | Reward |
| Is There No Escape? | Defeat Hades | 1,000x Darkness Crystals |
| Infernal Arms | Obtain all six weapons (Stygian Blade, Heart-Seeking Bow, Eternal Spear, Shield of Chaos, Twin Fists, and Adamant Rail) | 20x Gemstones |
| Distant Relatives | Meet the following gods of Olympus (Zeus, Poseidon, Athena, Aphrodite, Ares, Artemis, Dionysus, Hermes) | 3x Nectar |
| Chthonic Colleagues | Meet the notable denizens of the underworld (Hades, Megaera, Charon, Nyx, Alecto, Tisiphone, Hypnos, Thanatos, Primordial Chaos) | 10x Chthonic Keys |
| King of the Olympians | Obtain all the skills/boons provided by Zeus | 90x Gemstones (the other gods will also have their own tallies with the same reward) |
While you’re exploring Hades‘ underworld, be on the lookout for skills/boons with a scroll icon and tooltips that say the following:
“Fated Choice: One of the Prophecies in the Fated List indicates you will choose this.”
It implies that selecting a certain boon/skill might be related to a particular tally. If you can manage, try to pick that to cross that off your bucket list.
The last part we need to discuss about the House of Hades is the training room where you can find your Infernal Arms and unlock new weapon aspects.
Hades is available via Steam’s early access program. For more information, check out our guides and features hub.
