Hades

Skelly’s Prizes are unlocked by beating the game with a Heat Rating of 8 for his first, 16 for the second, and 32 for the third. Luckily the game doesn’t have an achievement for the third prize, so the end goal is to clear a 16 heat run. Unfortunately as well the prizes are all cosmetic decor only, so no special upgrades from achieving these.

If you’re looking for a quick/sure fire way to achieve these, I’m not sure there is one. Here are some quick tips about the different modifier settings


-Learn/Experiment with the Heat Settings. After clearing your first run, you’ll have unlocked the pact of punishment. These add modifiers that can change just about every mechanic in the game to make it less forgiving and more challenging. The big hurdle of this is going to be figuring out which modifiers you can actually beat the game with (as combining a certain number of these almost always results in death). As an idea for which ones are easier than others/synergize well, try combining some of these:

~Extreme Measure (at least 1 & 2): these remix boss fights and the first 2 fights are not all that different or difficult, giving you an easy 3 heat rating right here. If you’re feeling confident enough as well, EM3 bumps you up to 6 heat, and EM4 bumps you up to 10 (you will need to purchase EM4 from the house contractor for 100 gems) for a more detailed guide on the EM fights, check out the guide for Champion of Elysium. I’d recommend EM the most as it doesn’t change the room to room gameplay as much as the other modifiers, and the boss fights, much like on your first few runs, get easier the more you attempt them. Also just an FYI for those bold enough to use EM4,

~Middle management (2 Heat): will add an armored foe to each miniboss encounter. By the time you’re attempting this you should have every miniboss patterns down, so one more armored enemy won’t add that much. This gives 2 heat rating as well for a modifier that again doesn’t really affect your room to room gameplay all that much. You can even just avoid all the minibosses you can during these runs to get free heat essentially.

~damage control (1 rank): will add 1 heat, this makes every enemy has a shield on the top of their health bar that breaks after any amount of damage. While this one will change your room to room gameplay, if you have a good run/quick damage output, the change is minimal. It’s almost like just giving every enemy an armor bar on top of their normal health/armor.

~tight deadline (1 rank): gives you a time limit of 9 minutes per floor. Depending on how your play style is, this won’t affect you. For those that take a little longer, you’ll have to play a little more aggressive, not spend so much time debating rooms and boon choices (you can press start to pause and pause the in game timer if you really need to debate) or looking for pots/treasure troves. Each rank adds more heat but shaves off 2 more minutes, so depending on your speed you can get 1 heat, 3 heat, or 6 for whatever rank you use. For most tho, 1 will be change enough

~Benefits package (1 rank): this boon starts to get into the real room to room gameplay changes. It gives all armored foes in the game a perk that can range from slow around it to regen health. For 2 heat rating, it’s not a terrible choice, but can definitely be harrowing. Using rank 2 add 3 more heat rating, but gives armored foes 2 perks each instead of 1. I’d recommend only equipping rank 1 if you choose to use this. For a list of the perks, click here:

~jury summons (1 rank): each rank adds 1 heat, but increases number of enemies by 20% for up to 3 heat and 60% increase. This one doesn’t sound bad, but coupled with some of the others (especially calisthenics program) and the rooms can get really overwhelming really fast. If you’re going to use more than 1 rank on this or calisthenics, I’d recommend you pick one to upgrade. At rank 1 however a 20% increase feels manageable, especially if you have a good run going.

~calisthenics program (1 rank): each rank adds 15% health for all enemies and 1 heat. At rank 2 it adds 30% and 2 heat total. This one sounds easier than it actually is, as it affects every enemy in the game, including minibosses and bosses. If you were cutting it close on bosses before, I’d steer clear of this one, especially if you’re adding jury summons on top of it. Unless you have an insane amount of DPS, most runs will get overrun fairly quickly.

~approval process (1 rank): this modifier removes the amount of boon choices you have for 2 heat. This ones kind of a gamble as obviously if you’re getting less options you have less of a chance of getting boons you want or need for your build. But with a little luck it can add an easy 2 heat for no room to room gameplay changes


SOME PACTS TO AVOID
-heightened security: a 400% increase on trap damage is insane and it can lead to one bad move in the satyr rooms ending your run because the saw does 100 damage a hit
-routine inspection: with all the other modifiers going you need as many permanent buffs that you can get
-forced overtime: same as routine inspection, with all the other modifiers going on, adding movement speed and attack speed to enemies is a quick way to lose a dun
-underworld customs: not as bad as the others but losing a boon your run is depending on is a quick GG you’ll want to avoid doing
-hard labor: while you shouldn’t be getting hit in these runs too much, giving the enemies extra dps can make things quickly go south, especially if you have extra enemy increases or armor on (plus the theseus/hades bosses already do so much damage)


This will come down to a lot of skill, a lot of luck, and quite a bit of patience. But only having to complete 16 heat makes the experience a little more bearable. By the time you’re messing around with the Pact of Punishment and going for these, the 0 heat setting should feel ridiculously easy anyway. Good luck, may the gods bless you!

EDIT: It's really easy to miss the actual “trinkets”but there are 3 boxy looking objects with fabric draped over them, just at the bottom of the room with Skelly. You can walk over and examine one with RB. skelly will give you his explanation and you should get the prophecy. You can do this before or after your 8/16 heat runs and it will still count.

While this is not a full guide, here is some helpful advice to save you some struggles.

This requires 8 heat from the pact of punishment to unlock, the other one requires 16 heat, you can stack them Spoilers below.