Hades II Hex Tier List (Post-Launch Patch 2)

Selene grants nine hexes from the Crossroads moon altar, and only one rides with you per encounter. This list ranks all nine by post-1.0 build-defining potential, not by raw damage. A hex earns S-tier only if a flagship meta build is built around it; everything else gets ranked by how often it shows up across the eight named archetypes.

TL;DR

item:lunar-ray is the single best hex in the game because it costs 30 Magick and powers the Charon Axe Omega-Cast Launcher boss-shred loop. item:sky-fall is mandatory if you are running Aspect of Selene on the Black Coat, since the aspect routes Sky Fall hits through the weapon's Shine curse. item:total-eclipse is the third pick, narrower than either but elite on stationary boss phases.

How Hexes Work

Selene gifts a hex through the moon altar at the Crossroads between runs. Inside a run, the hex charges as you spend Magick on omega-moves and casts; once the meter fills, you trigger the hex with the dedicated input and the effect drops where you are aiming. Every hex carries its own Magick cost per activation, which means a 30-cost hex like Lunar Ray fires three times for every one Phase Shift you can squeeze out at 130.

Hexes are mutually exclusive per encounter. You bring one to the run and you live with that pick until you swap at the next altar, so the choice has to match your weapon, your aspect, and the boon pool you expect to build into. Path of Stars upgrades from The Moon arcana give each hex a separate progression curve, and stacking The Moon plus Hex-charge bonuses turns the lower-cost hexes into round-by-round tools rather than once-per-fight ultimates.

S Tier

Lunar Ray

The lowest-cost damage hex in the pool at 30 Magick, and the centerpiece of the Charon Axe Omega-Cast Launcher build. The 800-damage beam locks onto a target during the channel, which lets it stack on top of the omega-cast shockwave for sub-15-second stationary boss kills. The Moon plus any Hex-charge keepsake produces three or four Lunar Rays per Chronos phase, and the 30 Magick floor lets you fit it into omega-heavy rotations without starving the cast loop.

Sky Fall

The mandatory hex for Aspect of Selene on the Black Coat. Eight random hits per cast each apply Shine, and the aspect routes Sky Fall through the weapon's curse mechanics so the Shine stacks become the build's primary scaling vector. Outside that aspect Sky Fall is a B-tier crowd-clear pick; inside it the aspect's S-tier framing carries the hex up with it. If you are running Selene Black Coat, you are running Sky Fall.

A Tier

Total Eclipse

A 4-second wind-up paying out 1000 damage in a large area. Boss-fight oriented because the wind-up locks you out of repositioning, but the single-hit ceiling is the highest in the pool. Path of Stars picks that cut the wind-up or widen the blast radius are the priority. Strong on Chronos phase 2 windows and weaker on Eris-style mobile bosses.

Phase Shift

Slows everything else by 50% for 4 seconds at a 130 Magick cost. Expensive enough that you are firing it once per encounter, cheap enough that the buff covers a full boss DPS window. Pairs with any high-APM aspect that wants safe room to channel: Circe Always-Be-Casting, Moros Flames omega-special, Anubis field placement. Treat it as a panic button on Vow-stacked runs where you cannot afford to dodge through a wave.

Dark Side

Five seconds of Impervious living-nightmare uptime. Defensive hex first and damage hex second. Strong on Vow of Forfeit pushes where face-tanking is the difference between clearing a phase and dying to chip. The five-second window is also long enough to land a free omega-cast charge under fire, which lets it slot into the Charon and Moros builds when you need a defensive answer instead of a damage one.

B Tier

Twilight Curse

A 40 Magick seeking projectile that inflicts Morph on up to 5 susceptible foes. Cheap, but Morph caps at non-elite trash, which means the hex does nothing in boss rooms and only modest work in elite-heavy waves. A pick for Vow combos that want crowd control rather than damage.

Wolf Howl

A 200-damage rise-and-crash slam. The damage number lags every other damage hex in the pool, but the gap-closer mechanic lets it double as repositioning on aspects that want to stay airborne, and the flat cost-free trigger keeps the option live on Magick-starved runs.

Moon Water

Restores 15 health up to 3 times per encounter, refilling at Fountains. The hex you pick when the run is bleeding HP and the boss is two rooms away. Patch 2's Tribulation interaction lets Moon Water trigger "after you take damage" effects multiple times in a row, which gives Anubis and Nergal a real reason to consider it on long underworld pushes.

Night Bloom

Raises the last susceptible foe slain in the encounter to fight for you for 12 seconds. The pet does meaningful work on add-heavy rooms but contributes nothing on most boss fights, where the susceptible-foe requirement strands the hex with no body to raise.

How to Pick a Hex by Build

Meta build	Recommended hex
Charon Axe Omega-Cast Launcher	item:lunar-ray
Selene Black Coat	item:sky-fall
Circe Staff Always-Be-Casting	item:phase-shift
Moros Flames Ghost-Detonation	item:total-eclipse
Anubis Staff Zoning Fields	item:moon-water
Nergal Axe Berserker Lifesteal	item:dark-side
Medea Skull Speed-Crit	item:lunar-ray
Nyx Coat Nightspawn	item:twilight-curse

See Also

• Hades II Build Hub
• Hades II Boon Tier List
• Hades II Aspect Tier List