How to get Thorn of Thanatos Achievement in Hades

By: Joseph Maffettone

One of my favorite Roguelikes to come out in recent years is Hades. It was an Epic Store Early Access Exclusive back in 2018. Unfortunately, I heard no news or any info on the game besides a trailer back at the Game Awards in 2018 which was my first exposure to the Game Awards. After that, the game was silent till it finally got out of early access and was no longer an Epic Store exclusive as it made its way onto the Steam and Nintendo online shops. The game was soon released on Xbox and PlayStation consoles in 2021 and was on Xbox Game Pass for a while before being removed in August 2022. However, during my time with the game, I decided to hunt for some of the achievements that Hades presented me, along with replaying the whole game again. I'm trying to get the Hades platinum trophy, but that does mean I have to deal with an award that I had trouble with before because you have to avoid being damaged, and that is the Thorn of Thanatos trophy.

So to start, who is Thanatos? Thanatos is part of Greek Mythology and is known as the personification of death. He is introduced in the game during one of your runs depending on the runs you succeed in the end or fail at a certain point. He will challenge you to a kill game where whoever kills the most enemies will win. You don't have to win for this, but if you do, you can talk to him, and he will give you a health boost. After this encounter, there will be times when he will appear to rechallenge you, or he will show up at the House of Hades after you succeed or fail a run, and you'll be able to talk to him when you get the chance and when he is around. However, he has an item you need to tackle this achievement, so how do you get this item?

The item above this text is called Nectar, an essential thing you can get in Hades. This item is critical because it increases your relationship with characters in the game, and the first time you do give Nectar to a specific character, they will provide you with their Keepsake, which is an item that can help you out on runs. Nectar can be obtained through runs after you clear a room of its enemies, or you can buy it at the shop in the Houses of Hades(if you upgrade the house and open the lounge). So you can tell where this is going, you need Thanatos's Keepsake in order to get the trophy. Below is the image of Thanatos's Keepsake called "Pierced Butterfly".

Pierced Butterfly is Thanatos's Keepsake and it can increase your damage by a certain percentage if you beat a room without taking damage. Based on the amount of times you beat a room without getting hit, your damage percentage increases. For the trophy, you need to get that percentage to 30%. When you start off with the Pierced Butterfly, everytime you clear an encounter or room without getting hit, the percentage goes up by 1%. The best thing about all Keepsakes is when you clear a encounter or room, a meter goes up in the Keepsakes shelf that is located in the House of Hades room filled with your weapons and when you beat a floor. This meter helps make your Keepsakes stronger and when it reaches to the end, the Keepsake ranks up, meaning you either getting a higher percentage, better damage, more health, it's upgrading the Keepsake. A Keepsake can only go up to Rank 3, so you'll need to do possibly 2-3 runs to fully rank it to max rank. For the Keepsake Butterfly, Rank 1 is 1% so you'll need to beat 30 encounters without taking damage. However, Rank 2 is 1.5% which means you'll need to beat 20 encounters without getting hit. Rank 3 gives you 2% so of course a total of 15 encounters without taking damage is needed.

So now we in part of how can you get this trophy. To start, save up some Nectar and keep playing the game till you have full access to Thanatos. Once you beat him at the challenge or he waiting back at the House of Hades, give him one Nectar which will give you the Pierced Butterfly. Head to the training room and find the Keepsake shelf and equip it. Now don't try to go for he 30% percent immediately. I recommend fully ranking up the Pierced Butterfly to Rank 3 so it make things a bit easier when you finally go for the 30%. Once it's at rank 3, wait till you finish the run your on and start a new run. There are 6 weapons in the game which are Sword, Spear, Shield, Armored Fists, Bow and Arrow and Railgun. For this I recommend using the ranged weapons which are the Railgun and Bow and Arrow or the Spear. All the weapons are pretty good but for this I recommend the Ranged weapons so you can stay farther away from enemies. Another thing to know is this game is always random so you'll best bet is to make the right choices of attacks or combination of powers in order to get the 30% that is needed to get this trophy. Anyway that is how to get the Thorn of Thanatos trophy.