By Sophie, with input from the community

Published April 9, 2022.

Update March 8 2024: rewrote the section on the heroes fight, adding advice on how to keep Theseus from making moves on you when you want alone time with Asterius.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• The Build
• Using the sword
• Boss practice
• Specific enemies
• When to reset, what to aim for
• Commentated run
• Closing remarks

Introduction

This document is intended to collect as much as possible knowledge about running Fresh File, with a specific focus on First Run. Any unfamiliar words can be found in the Hades Speedrunning Glossary.

Generally speaking, First Run is quite challenging for most runners; even an experienced any heat runner might struggle to get past Meg at first. There is a lot to learn in this category, and seeing your skill grow is very rewarding.

This page collects knowledge found in various places throughout the Hades Speedrunning Discord, as well as some of my own views and experiences. Many thanks to everyone in the community for your insights and for being so welcoming and helpful. Let me specifically shout out Retr0Spektre, Nitrostarch, cgull, Vorime, Museus, Fives, Pseudo and Kalobi, who together taught me most of what I know about this game.

The Build

The build that we go for is:

• Ares attack
• Athena special (’safety circle’)
• Athena dash (’deflect dash’)
• Impending Doom (’ID’, from Ares)
• Merciful End (’ME’, duo boon of Ares and Athena)

With a few poms and a bit of health, this build will get a practiced player into Greece most of the time. These are the boons you want every run.

How to get the build