Thankfully, there are many ways to get your health back if you know what to look for, which upgrades to take, and how to strategize your way through a run. If Hades feels generous — a rare thing — you’ll be gifted one or more free heals. Don’t count on them because the next run isn’t likely to be so friendly.
How to Heal in Hades
Even though you don’t start a run with any way to heal, there are more than a dozen ways to get your health back while making your way through the Underworld. You won’t have easy access to all of them early on, so expect your first few runs to end violently.
Healing Shop Items
Most rooms in the Underworld can spawn a shop fountain filled with the purple water of the Styx. There are several different types of healing offered at these small shops, the most common being: flat amounts of health back, the ability to spawn healing items on kill, and increased healing on entering a new room.
Healing…Tacos?
Charon, Boatman of the Styx, sometimes sells healing tacos and with a side of fries. Don’t ask. Buying it for 50 Obol provides a percentage of your health back once purchased. There are buyable upgrades that make breakable pots also have a chance to drop the healing tacos, though these will only regenerate ten health per meal.
Centaur Hearts
Centaur Hearts will permanently increase your health by 25 points and heal you by the same amount. You can find these as room rewards or purchase them from Charon.
Sisyphus
Every time you visit the dead king Sisyphus, you have the option of receiving healing items once your conversation ends.
Healing Fountains
Initially, the only healing fountain you’ll find sitting in the room just after a boss fight. These heal you for 50% of your maximum. By visiting the House Contractor, you’ll eventually be able to add healing well rooms to each level of the Underworld, though these are expensive and not guaranteed to spawn.
Dark Regeneration or Chthonic Vitality (requires upgrade)
The Mirror of Night offers two healing abilities. You’ll only have access to one of them, Dark Regeneration, at the beginning of the game. This initial power grants you up to 3 health whenever you enter a new room, regardless of the dangers in the room or lack thereof.
Once you spend 300 Darkness at the Mirror, you’ll unlock a special conversation with Nyx in the House of Hades, and she’ll unlock a second set of upgrades.
Chthonic Vitality is the alternate to Dark Regeneration and gives you the ability to heal every time you pick up crystals of Darkness. You can upgrade the power to give back up to 60% of the Darkness’s value in health. Put another way, pick up a 10 Darkness crystal, get six health back, and so on.
HydraLite Gold
In Elysium, you have a slight chance of coming across an NPC named Patroclus. One of the items he offers is Hydralite Gold, which restores 30% of your health every time you enter a new chamber, up through five total chambers visited.
God-Granted Boons
Many of the gods’ boons give you ways of regaining health or increasing the effectiveness of your Death Defiance.
Infernal Troves
On the same platform you find Charon Wells, you might run across a large treasure chest. Using these Infernal Troves activates a time trial. You’ll need to kill all the enemies that spawn, and the faster you do it, the higher the Trove’s reward. One reward can be up to 150 health, though your likely to get around 100 or so at best.
Death Defiance
This MIrror of Night ability instantly revives you with base 50% health when your HP reaches zero, up to three times when fully upgraded. There are ways to restore uses of Death Defiance throughout a run, either at shops, Patroclus, or through god boons.
That’s it for all the ways to heal in Hades, as you can see there are plenty of methods.. provided you know what they are. If you found this guide helpful, take a look at some of our other Hades guides here on GameSkinny.
