Hades II True Ending Guide: The Complete Roadmap to the Golden Age
Introduction
Unlocking Hades II's true ending is a marathon of cryptic prophecies, grindy boss fights, and precise mechanical challenges. This guide cuts through the complexity, providing a clear, step-by-step roadmap from your first Chronos victory to the final epilogue. Follow it to navigate the post-game labyrinth and claim your golden laurel.
Prerequisites: Opening the True Ending Path
Defeat Chronos for the First Time
Your first victory against Chronos is what actually opens the door, but don't expect the path to be immediate. After the fight, you'll need to return to the Crossroads and speak with both Zagreus and Hecate - only then does the Dissolution of Time incantation appear at the cauldron. That's your real starting point for the post-game questline.
Here's where it gets grindy: the recipe needs 5 Zodiac Sand, and Chronos only drops one per win. You're looking at multiple victories just to gather that material, plus you'll need Entropy from a completely different surface boss. Think of that first Chronos kill as getting the blueprint, not finishing the project.
Unlock Surface Access & Defeat Typhon
You can't just waltz up to the surface and grab Entropy - the game gates this behind two incantations:
- Permeation of Witching-Wards - Cracks open the physical Surface Gate at the Crossroads, giving you access to The Rift of Thessaly.
- Unraveling a Fateful Bond - Removes the Chthonic Fate HP-drain debuff, letting you survive full exploration.
With both active, you're finally free to reach The Summit and challenge Typhon. Beating him drops the Entropy you need, so consider this a mandatory detour before you can even think about the true ending.
The Moirai Prophecy Chain: 'Melinoë, Seek Us'
Alright, so you're chasing down the Moirai Prophecy Chain - this thing is a real marathon, but the payoff is worth it. The whole quest hinges on getting four specific characters to spill their guts about the Fates, then completing three riddles that'll test your memory and patience.
Triggering the Prophecy & Four Dialogue Requirements
Here's the deal: you need to trigger special Moirai dialogue from four NPCs, and each one has their own weird set of conditions. It's not as simple as just chatting them up - you've got to set the scene first.
Nemesis is your easiest target. After you use one of her boons during a run, head back to the Crossroads and poke the Training dummy. Then find her leaning on that lava railing - she'll have a fresh line about the Fates waiting for you.
Odysseus is where it gets complicated. You'll need to finish the 'Night's Craftsmen' prophecy first so he'll relocate to the dock. Once he's there, equip any Rank 3 weapon, clear an Erebus gate, and pick the Letters reward. After all that setup, talk to him and click through his normal dialogue until the fourth conversation - that's when he'll finally mention the Moirai.
Eris demands some investment upfront. You need to give her the hot-spring invitation, which costs 1 Nectar and 1 Ambrosia. Then start a run with 40% Chaos heat and die on the surface. When you respawn, talk to her on the broken column left of the Cauldron - her second line should trigger the prophecy.
Heracles is the biggest time sink of the bunch. You need to complete two 'Heroic Reputation' prophecies and see his advice dialogue five separate times. Then start a run while holding the Engraved Pin, reach the Rift of Thessaly surface boss with at least 5 perfect chambers, and either die or clear the run. After that, chat with him in front of the armour racks for his Moirai line.
Solving the Three Fate Riddles
Once you've heard from all four characters, you'll get three riddles to solve. These aren't cryptic poems - they're pretty direct about what the Fates want you to do.
The first riddle points to Cronos, 'the one who cast us out.' After the credits roll, you'll find him hanging in the Erebus-Oceanus rest area - just offer him Nectar when you see him.
The second riddle sends you after Prometheus, 'the one who rebels against the gods.' You need to fight him on the Surface route multiple times, but there's a catch: he won't mention the Fates until you've faced him in 20+ room encounters. So keep grinding those Surface runs and don't skip him.
The third riddle is about 'using our gift in Oceanus,' which means the Engraved Pin from Moros. You need to equip it in Oceanus and trigger its revival effect in three consecutive combat rooms - more on that in a second.
Engraved Pin Oceanus Challenge
This is where precision matters. Before you even enter Oceanus, equip Moros's Engraved Pin and make sure you're not bringing a familiar or any extra death-defiance effects that could screw up the trigger.
You need to find three combat rooms in a row - no shops, NPC rooms, or fountains between them. In each room, leave a few enemies alive, drop to 0 HP, let the Pin proc, then finish the room. Do this for rooms 1, 2, and 3.
Then, in the fourth consecutive combat room, you need to die intentionally without letting the Pin save you. This final 'return to shadow' step triggers the Moirai cut-scene and unlocks the Golden Age achievement. That's it - you're done.
Crafting the Essential Incantations
These two incantations are non-negotiable for the true ending, and both will test your patience with boss repeats. Let's lay out exactly what you're signing up for.
Disintegration of Monstrosity (Typhon)
Despite the name, this one starts with Chronos. You'll need 1x Gigaros, 4x Void Lens, and 1x Zodiac Sand to craft it.
Gigaros is the real gatekeeper - Zagreus won't hand it over until you've beaten his dad six times. That's your baseline grind right there. The Zodiac Sand comes from any Chronos kill, so you'll snag one naturally while farming for Gigaros. The Void Lenses are Typhon's contribution, dropping one per defeat, meaning four successful runs against the storm god.
So that's six Chronos kills and four Typhon kills before you can even think about Typhon's permanent end.
Dissolution of Time (Chronos)
This recipe flips the script: 5x Zodiac Sand and 1x Entropy.
The Zodiac Sand means five Chronos victories, though you might already have leftovers from the Gigaros grind. Entropy is the unique one - it only drops when you permanently defeat Typhon, which is the final battle after you've broken the time loop. You can't get this until you've already crafted Disintegration of Monstrosity and used it against him.
Total tally: You're beating Chronos at least six times (maybe more) and Typhon five times total - four regular fights for the Void Lenses, then one final, permanent showdown for Entropy. Better get comfortable with those attack patterns.
The Critical Zero-Death-Defiance Run (Moros Pin Setup & Strategy)
Moros Pin Setup & Strategy
This isn't your normal run - the goal is to die exactly once, in a very specific way, using only Moros' Pin. Before you even start, go through your entire kit and remove anything that could save you at 1 HP, which means ditching Silver Skull, Tough Luck, Kerberos' Old Spike, and any Chaos or Last Gasp boons. You'll equip Moros' Engraved Pin as your only Death Defiance source, because if you have any hidden charges lingering, the whole thing fails.
Clear Erebus normally, then enter Oceanus. Here's where it gets picky: if you see Moros hanging around in the first stair-well, that's bad news - you need him absent, or you'll have to restart the run after talking to him. Otherwise the flag won't trigger correctly.
In Oceanus, you want Confrontation rooms (the elite ones) because they hit harder, so don't clear everything - leave one or two enemies alive. Stand in hazards and let them whale on you until your Life hits exactly zero, which triggers the Pin and gives you a 10-second revive window to finish off the remaining foes. This Pin revive is the only save that raises the Fates spawn flag, which is why you can't have any other defiance sources muddying things up.
Triggering the Dream Sequence
After that pin-resurrection moment, just keep going until you hit the next inter-region stair-well where you should see three ghostly silhouettes - that's the Fates (or Moirai), and they'll update your Moirai Prophecies ledger to confirm you did it right.
Now head back to the Crossroads and craft Dream Vapors, then sleep in your cot. You'll get a dream titled 'threads are ready' where Nyx and Moros show up to supervise the repair of Hypnos' destiny. Nyx acts as the architect, reminding you that even sleep is woven by the Fates, while Moros - Doom Incarnate himself - warns that Doom follows the wakeful, which is a neat thematic tie-in to the Pin mechanics.
Inside the dream, you'll fight three yarn-spool shadow weapons, and beating them all fully repairs Hypnos' psyche. When you wake up, just interact with Hypnos and you'll receive the Fated List of Minor Prophecies plus the Soundest of Sleepers achievement.
Final Chronos Rematch & Epilogue
Two-Phase Chronos Boss Fight
So you've made it to the final Dissolution of Time run - this is where things get real. Once you've battered Chronos down to his last health segment, it turns bright gold, which is your visual cue that you're now in the permanent-kill phase. This golden bar triggers a 30-second self-revive countdown, and any damage you deal during this window gets 'banked.' If you can empty that golden bar before the timer expires, Chronos dissolves on the spot and the credits roll.
But here's the catch: during this phase, Chronos stops healing but the arena gets hit with an Entropic Fade debuff that slashes your attack speed unless you're standing in a single lit circle. He'll also throw a bunch of new environmental attacks at you - a blanket of darkness with only one safe zone, a closing golden ring, summoned clock-hands, and those infuriating golden orbs that trap Melinoe.
This is where you go all-in. Save your cast, omega attack, and Call for the exact moment the bar turns gold, position yourself inside that lit circle, and unload everything. Multi-hit weapon aspects like Sister Blades Aspect of Charon absolutely shred here. If you've got the Entropy arcana equipped, you'll get a massive +40% damage multiplier against the golden segment - so seriously, don't leave home without it.
Epilogue Cutscene & Rewards
If you pull this off, you're treated to an extended in-engine cutscene where Chronos's body fragments into sand-like particles that dissolve into the hourglass backdrop, the Underworld clock shatters, and Melinoë finally sees the True Ending epilogue.
Your rewards for beating the true final boss are:
- Golden Laurel Save Icon: Your save file gets a new golden laurel flag, which marks it as permanently in the 'Golden Age' state.
- +10% Olympian Boon Rarity Buff: All future runs get a passive +10% rarity boost to Olympian boons. This is permanent and stacks with any keepsake or mirror bonuses you've already got.
- New Soundtrack: Supergiant added six new instrumental tracks that replace the normal House of Hades themes until your next escape attempt. It's a heavier lyre-and-percussion mix that fits the epilogue state perfectly.
And of course, the 'Golden Age' achievement pops when that cutscene finishes and the credits roll after your final Chronos Dissolution run.
Troubleshooting & Common Issues
Missing Dialogue Triggers
Nemesis' late-game conversations won't show up even after I gave Ambrosia
If you're hitting a wall here, you're probably dealing with a bug that Hotfix 2 specifically patched. First, make sure you're running build 1.0.14 or newer, because that update fixed several Nemesis and Moros events that were flat-out refusing to play.
Still nothing? Check if the Ambrosia icon is missing from her interaction wheel - this means an earlier dialogue branch is still hanging. You'll need to force-clear it by either earning a new scene or gifting Nectar, and once you do, the next heart level should unlock like normal.
Sometimes the dialogue is actually running but you can't see.
Complete True Ending Checklist
Quick Reference Checklist
Here's your full roadmap from your first Chronos kill to that elusive epilogue. This is a long haul, so keep this tab open.
☐ Step 1: Farm Chronos seven times total Yeah, seven. Across both Underworld and Surface routes combined - not seven each, just seven total. Once you've dropped him for the last time, the post-credits shell unlocks along with the 'Melinoë, Seek Us' prophecy tree, and that's your ticket to everything that follows.
☐ Step 2: Befriend six specific Crossroads NPCs Time to empty your Nectar stash. You need to max out Rapport with Moros, Chaos, Cronos, Hecate, Prometheus, and Heracles by gifting them Nectar and Ambrosia. Each one needs to be fully gifted before you can move on, so start early and spread the love.
☐ Step 3: Craft 'Fated Intervention' Head to the Crossroads Cauldron and brew this Incantation. The recipe is Celestial Shard ×2, Lotus ×10, and Moss ×10. It's a small price to pay for access to the Omega Tribunal, which is where the real endgame begins.
☐ Step 4: Solve the four red-ink riddles Open your Fated List and hunt down those cryptic red-ink riddles. One example: 'Wear the golden clasp that binds the heavens' means you need to equip the Engraved Pin from the Oceanus mini-boss. Each solved riddle spawns a luminous Fate-Sigil spool on your next run.
☐ Step 5: Collect all four Fate-Sigils Here's the annoying part: each spool appears on a separate run after you solve its riddle. You need all four sigils, which means four distinct runs minimum - no stacking them in one go.
☐ Step 6: Enter the Omega Tribunal and win With all four sigils in hand, a purple Omega Tribunal gate spawns after the Surface boss. Step through and face the True Final Boss: a souped-up, three-phase Chronos echo that'll test everything you've learned. Beat him and win the Timeline Fight to permanently seal the Titan.
☐ Step 7: Watch the True Ending and claim 'Fateless' Complete the fight and you'll trigger the True Ending cutscene, plus unlock the 'Fateless' epithet as proof you saw the real ending. Wear it with pride - you've earned it.
Conclusion
The path to the Golden Age is demanding, requiring mastery over both the Underworld and the Surface. By methodically completing prophecies, crafting essential incantations, and conquering the final, remixed Chronos fight, you will permanently alter the timeline. Your reward is a new era for the House of Hades and the ultimate proof of your mastery.