Hades: How to Defeat The Bone Hydra (Boss Guide)

Making it all the way through Hades is a testament to a player’s patience and fighting abilities. Each new area of the Underworld presents players with unique challenges that they must overcome if they wish to survive. On top of this, the game features randomly generated levels, so players never know what to expect next, or when they will be forced to face off against one of Hades’ deadly bosses.

One of more unique bosses in the game is the Bone Hydra. This is the same mythical creature that the hero Hercules managed to kill, but now that it is dead it guards the exit of Asphodel with an iron grip. Players will need to destroy this skeletal beast if they wish to continue their journey and make it to the surface. This guide shows players how to bring down the Bone Hydra.

Hades: How to Defeat the Bone Hydra

There are three different parts to the Bone Hydra fight which will take place when it’s health drops below a certain limit. All three of these phases offer different challenges for the player to be aware of when dealing with the Bone Hydra, which forces them to stay on their toes. Here are the three parts of the fight and how to overcome them:

Part 1- The first part of the fight isn’t anything special, and players most likely won’t have much trouble with it. The Hydra has three attacks that it will use. The first one is a projectile attack that launches dark bolts at the player. These move very slowly so they are easily dodged or deflected if players have one of Artemis’ boons. The Bone Hydra will also lunge at the player or slam its head down on top of them if the player is within range, so the best idea is to stay just outside of its strike. The best move is to use ranged attacks on it as often as possible to minimize taking damage. Once its health drops below 2/3 the second part of the fight will start.

Part 2: Once its health drops the Hydra will surround itself with an impenetrable force field before summoning four of its other heads around the arena. Players will have to defeat each of these heads before the force field on the main head will drop. There are five different abilities that these extra heads can have with three of them being the attacks that the main head has. Another can fire out fast wave attack that needs to be dodged or deflected, while the final attack will summon enemies to attack the player.

Once players have eliminated the heads, the shield will drop and the main head can be attacked again. Keep in mind that it’s attack patterns haven’t changed at all, but it has become much stronger. Its projectiles have become faster and more powerful, while its head slam and lunge attacks do more damage.

Part 3: Once Bone Hydra only has 1/3 of health left, it will pull up its shield again and summon six other heads to attack the player. These heads have the same attacks from the second phase, but there are now more of them. The main head has gotten a few upgrades again though. Now its projectile attack resembles something out of an old-school bullet hell game and its slam attack can be done several times in quick succession. If players keep their distance and keep attacking they will be just fine though.

Hades can be played on PC and Nintendo Switch.

About The Author

Cody Peterson
(951 Articles Published)

Cody Peterson is an avid reader and writer. Graduated from Midwestern State University with a BA in English where he worked as an editor for the University literary journal. Currently a freelancer for Screenrant, where he spends most of his time writing guides or reviews. Be warned that any conversation started with him will probably wind up gravitating towards his two dogs, The Adventure Zone, or Kingdom Hearts 2.

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