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Black Coat Build Guide -- Xinth, All Aspects

Wave-clear king on Aspect of Nyx with HookieDookie's 65 Fear Underworld clear, plus the Shiva Hidden Aspect

By BrokenBuilds Wiki6 min readUpdated

Hades II Black Coat Build Guide -- Xinth, All Aspects (Post-Launch Patch 2)

This is the full Black Coat (Xinth) build hub: every aspect of the swirling-cloak Nocturnal Arm, the wave-clear king (Aspect of Nyx) at 32-65 Fear, and the Shiva Hidden Aspect for on-hit chip stacking.

TL;DR

Aspect of Nyx is the fastest room-clear in the game and HookieDookie-verified at Underworld 65 Fear. Aspect of Selene is the Sky Fall Hex amplifier: low aspect-tier on its own, S-tier when you build around the Hex column. Aspect of Shiva is the Hidden Aspect with an on-hit stacking modifier that compounds chip damage at scale. Across every variant the core loop is the same. Sprint between packs, build Omega Boost, let the swirling cloak do the work. Boss damage trails Medea and Charon, so pick a different aspect for Chronos pushes.

Why the Black Coat

The item:black-coat is the final Nocturnal Arm in the unlock chain (2 Cinder + 2 Adamant after Revaal). The swirling cloak design is what defines every aspect on it. Specials and attacks split and bounce, and the Nightspawn mirrors damage for 2x effective output once Omega Boost is active. Sprinting between packs is the build-up. Standing still kills the loop.

Patient play opens the weapon. Block, retaliate, clear. The seeking specials chase down anything that tries to escape the parry window, which is why Xinth holds the highest-volume per-weapon search cluster outside the build hub itself.

All Aspects

Aspect of Melinoe (Default)

Modifier: Faster attacks, sprint, and movement. Best for: Learning the parry-retaliate rhythm before committing materials to a Hidden Aspect.

The default Melinoe variant exists to teach the weapon. Mobility scales with rank, so the swirling-cloak attack strings come out faster and the sprint gap between packs shrinks. It clears 32 Fear once you understand the parry timing, but it has no defining mechanic of its own; every other aspect on Xinth rewires the weapon, and Melinoe's just runs the base kit better.

Aspect of Nyx (Standard) -- S-Tier

Modifier: Specials and attacks split and bounce; the Nightspawn mirrors damage for 2x effective output. Best for: Wave-heavy fear vows; rooms clear before enemies finish their first wind-up animation. Meta build: Nyx Coat Nightspawn Wave-Clear (32-65 Fear, HookieDookie-verified Underworld 65-Fear).

item:aspect-of-nyx is the fastest room-clearing aspect in the game. Wave Strike and Flame Strike both proc on hits AND on duplicates, so a single boon roll fires twice on every split projectile. Hephaestus damage reduction extends the run when Fear vows tax your HP pool, Hera Hitch pulls bosses into the cloak's hit-cone, and Zeus item:static-shock is the cleanest scaling spine for the Nightspawn duplicates. Static Shock procs on every mirror hit, which means a 200-damage shock stacks four to six times per enemy in any pack.

Hammer priority is item:shimmering-rockets for the off-screen 300 DPS clear and item:siege-frame for defensive padding on high-vow runs. Boss damage trails Medea and Charon. Pick this for waves; pick a different aspect for Chronos pushes. The 65 Fear Underworld clear came from sprint-discipline, not from raw burst, so the build wants Cloud Bangle on start and item:iridescent-fan mid-rotation rather than burst keepsakes.

Aspect of Shiva (Hidden Aspect)

Modifier: Hidden Aspect. On-hit stacking modifier that compounds chip damage with every connected swirling-cloak hit. Best for: Compounding chip damage at scale on packs that survive the first split.

item:aspect-of-shiva is the Hidden Aspect that consensus tier lists hold at A-tier. It rewards weapons that connect often: every cloak hit feeds a stack, every stack feeds the next hit. On boss fights with no adds the curve is slower than Nyx, but on multi-pack rooms the stacking modifier overtakes flat-damage builds by the third wave. Pair it with flat-damage boons that fire on every connect, and skip burst-window boons that want a single big hit. Run this when the fear-vow combination forces longer rooms and shorter burst windows.

Aspect of Selene (Standard)

Modifier: The Sky Fall Hex applies Shine curse for crowd control. B-tier on the standalone aspect tier list, S-tier in the Hex column. Best for: Hex-spam builds with magick-fountain pacing.

item:aspect-of-selene sits B-tier as a raw aspect and S-tier the moment you build the Hex around it. The framing is real. Without item:sky-fall the aspect underperforms; with Sky Fall it becomes the strongest Shine-curse dispenser in the run. Shine stacks reduce enemy accuracy and chunk crowd density, which is why the aspect carries the wave-clear floor on Vow of Hordes runs that would otherwise punish positional play.

The build wants magick economy first, scaling second. Aphrodite Glamour Gain or Apollo Lucid Gain anchors the omega-cast spam; Hera flat-damage globals scale every Shine tick; Zeus on-hit fires on every cursed enemy. The Selene unlock cost (Silver x4, Moondust x4) is the highest in the Black Coat aspect tree, so save it for the run after you have the Hex economy figured out.

Daedalus Hammer Picks

Shimmering Rockets is the headline Black Coat hammer; the off-screen rockets push effective DPS to 300+ on Nyx without the player needing to face the targets. Siege Frame is the defensive complement when Vow of Forfeit or Vow of Wards punishes your dash i-frames. Skip the hammers that rework the basic attack into a single-target combo. The cloak's value is the splitting and bouncing, and any hammer that collapses the spread loses the aspect's identity.

Boon Synergies

Flat-damage boons compound on the duplicated specials, which is why Wave Strike + Flame Strike outscales percentage-attack boons on this weapon. Hera Hitch carries the boss damage by pulling targets into the cloak's optimal range. Hephaestus damage reduction is the survival anchor on 50+ Fear pushes. The Selene-build wants a different priority list. Magick economy (Lucid Gain or Glamour Gain) goes first, percentage scaling on Hex damage second. Apollo Solar Ring is the cast-modifier of choice when the run already has a Gain anchor.

Best Build Embed

Build: 78925b7ca212

-- Nyx Coat Nightspawn Wave-Clear

Where to Go Next

  • Aspect Tier List for the full 24-aspect ranking and where Nyx, Shiva, and Selene sit against the field.
  • Weapon Tier List for how the Black Coat ranks against the Argent Skull, Moonstone Axe, Witch's Staff, and Umbral Flames.
  • Build Hub for every meta build across all six Nocturnal Arms.
  • Boon Tier List for the per-Olympian rankings that drive the Wave Strike and Flame Strike priority calls above.