Hades II Argent Skull Build Guide -- Revaal, All Aspects (Post-Launch Patch 2)
Everything you need to run the item:argent-skull (in-game name: Revaal), the thrown skull weapon that carries the speedrun community's top chassis: HookieDookie's verified 62 Fear Aspect of Medea run and the community-reported 67 Fear unseeded ceiling.
TL;DR
item:aspect-of-medea is the unseeded WR chassis. The 90% bonus to attack and special damage is baked into the base aspect, so every boon set you stack scales on top of it. Sub-12-minute Surface clears are the target; HookieDookie's verified 62 Fear, with 67 Fear pushed unseeded by the wider community, sets the live ceiling. item:aspect-of-persephone is the forgiving high-Fear standard pick (A-tier per the 32-Fear runner consensus, after a B-to-A revision once the rotation clicked for more runners). item:aspect-of-hel is the Hidden Aspect with an alternate scaling path that survives the crit-collapsing vows. item:aspect-of-melinoe-argent-skull handles the entry-level shell-management run for new pilots. Pick Medea to race; pick Persephone to outlast.
Why the Argent Skull
The Skull throws shells that explode on hit, and the special is a lunge that retrieves them. That ammo loop is the weapon's signature: every aspect rebuilds the loop differently, but the Medea rebuild is the one that owns the meta. The 90% attack-and-special bonus on Medea is a base-passive effect, not a conditional one, which is why every boon stack compounds cleanly without setup conditions to hit. There is no other Hades II weapon where the headline aspect's signature buff applies to two damage sources at once with no per-fight ramp.
All Aspects
Aspect of Melinoe (Default)
Modifier: Power scales with unfetched shells in play. Best for: Learning the ammo-economy loop before committing to a high-Fear push.
The default aspect rewards leaving shells out and building stacks before retrieving. It's the cleanest way to internalize the throw-and-fetch rhythm without a 90% damage bonus papering over mistakes. Treat it as the first 32 Fear weapon for any run that hasn't pushed Skull yet, then graduate to Medea once the lunge timing feels native.
Aspect of Medea (Standard) -- S-Tier
Modifier: 90% bonus to attack and special damage. Special doubles as evasion (graze targets to deal damage while avoiding their hitboxes). Best for: Speedruns and the highest documented Fear ceiling. Meta build: Medea Skull Speed-Crit (62 Fear HookieDookie-verified, 67 Fear community-reported unseeded).
The aspect carries the Skull's speedrun world record. Hera Attack first, then Zeus on Special with Heaven Flourish or Blitz, then Static Shock for armor breaking. Snow Queen, Double Strike, Arctic Ring, and Grisly Gain round the build out. Familiar slot goes to Toula. Hammers: Volatile Array first, Colossus Driver second.
The execution layer is what makes this aspect demanding. Two curses early to activate item:origination's Punished band, item:the-messenger keepsake timed so its invulnerability lands when the character flashes red post-cast, and Cloud Bangle into Engraved Pin (twice) into Gorgon Amulet on the keepsake rotation. The special isn't a damage move; it's a graze tool. Dash through the hitbox, deal damage on the way out, never trade.
Aspect of Persephone (Standard) -- A-Tier
Modifier: Damage you deal generates Glory, which fuels Omega enhancement on the next throw. The rotation is non-obvious for the first few runs, then locks in. Best for: High-Fear runs that want consistency over front-loaded burst.
The 32-Fear runner consensus puts Persephone at A-tier (revised up from B once enough runners reported the post-learning ceiling). The aspect is forgiving in a specific way: every boon set works because Glory generation scales off raw damage, not off any one Olympian's mechanic. Apollo Pierce on Attack feeds the loop cleanest, but Hera flat-damage globals, Aphrodite percentage modifiers, and Zeus on Special all produce viable runs. There's no boon-priority order that breaks the build.
The trade-off is ceiling. Persephone won't push 67 Fear like Medea, but it will close out 50+ Fear runs that Medea fumbles when a single graze gets read wrong.
Aspect of Hel (Hidden Aspect) -- B-Tier
Modifier: Hidden Aspect. Aspect-specific shell behavior with an alternate scaling path on the explosive throw. Best for: Niche vow-heavy runs where the alt scaling rolls strong.
Hel sits below Medea and Persephone on the priority list because its scaling paths overlap with Medea's without matching the 90% bonus, but it's a clean Hidden Aspect to unlock once you've finished the headline two. Worth slotting on a Vow of Frenzy or Vow of Rivals night where Medea's crit window collapses; Hel's alt scaling doesn't depend on the same crit math, so it survives the vows that bury the speedrun chassis.
Daedalus Hammer Picks
Volatile Array first on every Medea run; Colossus Driver second when the pool offers it. The two stack into the throw cleanly and don't compete with the special's evasion role. Skip the lunge-modifying hammers on Medea since they break the graze timing, and skip the AoE-shrinking options on Persephone since the smaller blast radius starves Glory generation in packed waves.
Boon Synergies
Hera Attack scales the throw; Zeus on Special punishes anything that holds still long enough to take a Blitz proc. King's Ransom multiplies Blitz, Double Strike, and Arc Flash on top of that, and the three independent multiplicative axes are why the Hera-Zeus-Gain triangle is the headline package. For Persephone, Apollo Pierce on Attack pulls Glory generation forward; Aphrodite globals compound everything else. item:death and item:the-furies arcana sit in every Skull run for the standard reasons: Death pads the Fear ceiling, Furies fronts the damage curve.
Best Build Embed
Build: b128fa0890d3Where to Go Next
- Aspect Tier List
- Weapon Tier List
- Hades II Build Hub
- Boon Tier List