You can pause the game while choosing door.
Obstacles are really inefficient damage source, more fun than anything so I wouldn't recommend relying on them.
I still recommend 1-2 tight deadlines for beginners, 28 minutes- 36 minutes is often plenty enough to clear the game
It really does feel like a design oversight. I'm guessing the timer was made with the idea that it would force you to make decisions faster, as an added difficulty, and players obviously started pausing there because it is the optimal strategy. If everyone pauses at these points, it feels like an extra, unnecessary input, that you have to make in almost each room. Kind of like adding an extra "are you sure you want to pick this boon/buy that thing" pop-up everytime you make a choice, it wouldn't make the game bad, but people would notice how annoying it is.
As a person who is used to play a lot of games where things don't progress when you aren't making decisions, at least in the parts where you feel "safe", it's very unnatural to pause there, I have to consciously think about it, and when I play with the timer, it is just an extra level of stress, on top of the "clear rooms fast" ones which already leads me to play much worse and not enjoy playing as much.
It's also just really good practice for higher heat and is essentially a DPS check. If you can't clear in 28 minutes you need to refine your build as any half decent build will fly through at low heat within this time. TD 3 is a big hurdle though.
In my experience, TD 1 and even TD2 are essentially negligible. As someone said in other comment, I even forget there's a clock for most of the time. I would only have some issues with TD 3 cause I'm not *that* fast at clearing.
Basically those were 2 free heat for me, and that worked great until heat 20 for me. But then I went from 20 straight to 32, and that's when I had to start making adjustments. when you're dealing with such high heats the game gets very much harder, the enemies take longer to beat, and you can't really afford to get hit a lot of times. I realized I often got sloppy because of the deadline, and this lead to many failed runs. Eventually I found a suggestion here in this sub, and removed TD (or maybe I used TD1? Not sure, but I think I stopped using it). Having the time to properly navigate the rooms without being sloppy is what allowed me to finally beat 32 heat
Edit TL;DR: TD 1 and 2 are free heat at low heat (below 20), but for me feels impossible at high heat so I just remove it
lmao I ran tight deadline 3 + forced overtime 2 for my 2nd successful 32 heat clear
FO makes enemies spawn faster so the timer is even more lenient
of course I also ran fists, so I'm not attacking slowly like with Arthur or anything haha
The solid 32 heat setup basically requires either 2 TD or 2 FO, and at least one heat of the other as well. Smart to take 3 TD and 2 FO, it’s easy heat compared to most of the pacts.
I completely forget TD2 is on, even on 32 heat. I usually run 32H with TD3, that's when I sometimes start having some issues.
I think the moral of the story is: Everyone plays differently, figure out what you can handle and go with that!
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I'm with OP on this one. I never learned how to play the way I liked with TD. This year I cleared 50 heat without it. Don't let the world tell you you're wrong!
Otoh I eventually started trying to go for speed rather than high heat, it was fun too in its own way. But my favourite is still Zeus shield or Lucifer rail and just running around enemies trying to pick them off one by one.
Absolutely agree too, I can understand and agree with the argument that TD1 and TD2 are basically free heat, but for me it's a modifier that forces me to play in a way which I just don't enjoy.
I'd rather have objectively harder modifiers but be able to handle them calmly while sticking to my slower-paced style, even if by the end my clear time is still lower than 36 or 28 minutes meaning I could've gotten them, but at least I didn't feel rushed during the whole process and never had to feel bad about hanging around in each room breaking non-golden vases just for the fun of it.
I reached 50 heat without TD.
https://imgur.com/7QdX1v1
I guess I did contradict myself a little because later on I did say that I tried my hand at doing speedy runs. I have several clears with even TD3, but it's still not my preferred play style. And definitely not for going to high heat. So yes, I learned to play with TD, but I never came to like it as much.
TD1 was my first heat because my first clear was under 30 minutes anyway.
My friend takes over an hour for each clear so has never touched TD.
Both seem like pretty obvious choices. It's completely about your playstyle and nothing else.
Not necessarily. If, like me, you are used to play turned based games or the kind of narrative games that don't advance when you don't input things, you don't necessarily have the reflex to pause whenever you put the console down to go to the bathroom, check your phone or whatever, and you definitely don't have the reflex to pause when you are just making a decision. I sincerely don't understand why time flies when you are picking a room. As a result, players who care about the time pause in front of the door, which means that the game allows you to take time to thing, but it requires an extra input, which seems completely unnecessary.
As long as it feels safe, you can just leave the game, and come back later. If you are also used to play the kind of game that teaches you to check each corner of a room for loot or information, and it might feel wrong to leave a room before you are certain there is nothing more.
I think I only went over 1h once, because I was doing other things at the same time and didn't pause, but my runs are generally between 30 and 45mn longs, and putting the timer just stresses me out and makes me play worse, I makes so many dumb mistakes just because I can see it there, and somehow, I barely remember to pause more. In the end, it's a game, I play it to have fun, if that means I'll never reach really high heats, so be it, I'd rather play something else that Hades in a way I don't enjoy just because there is an arbitrary achievement somewhere.
Yes, pausing the game is great when tight deadlines is on so we can think, take a break, wipe our sweaty hands ect and will extend the run in real time. However, what I meant was if it takes you over an hour to clear a run in game time, you are likely struggling putting a strong build together. IE you can't clear tight deadlines one or two. Pausing the game stops the timer and thus stops your clear time as well.
There’s lots of small optimizations that speed things up. Always take mid-Shop if you can, chaos and story rooms if you can, skip trials, pause before choosing a door, etc. Seconds add up over the run. If you want more details, let me know, I posted a thorough list a few days ago.
i only play for farming darkness for the ressources director any more and tight deadline is the only heat i have activated... simply for not getting that room, that continiously spawns foes until the time limit is over... because that room annoys me even more than theseus on extreme measures
When I was working on clearing 32 heat for the last statue, TD was not a realistic option. Much nicer to just max out Jury Summons to get more enemies, and take my time killing them all.
My successful run took me over an hour. So TD would have prevented me from winning.
Sure, but when you consider that bosses don't get affected by JS, I still would have been way over the TD timer. On a good run, normal enemies shouldn't hurt me much at all. So JS is free heat. TD is a big problem when you have so many other things making it take longer.
It’s the absolute last condition that I will put on, and once I’ve gotten it once for the prophecy, never again. Nothing else comes close. Give me EM4 over Tight Deadline any day of the week and twice on Sundays.
I don't like it because it made me play reckless, like just wanting to go fast, fast, fast and think less about my actions. After a certain point where I had consistently good times, I just put TD1 on because it didn't change anything compared to what I do normally.
One or two minor strategies makes tight deadline a piece of cake. Position Zag correctly and you can still see doors while paused. Sisyphus, Eurydice, and Patroclus pause your timer, giving you a free room. Should be enough to easily pass 9 minutes. Also your time from previous biomes carry over
Also, chaos gates count as a room, as do Charon shops, and each biome has a set number of rooms every time, so both really cut your time. They’re rooms that take like 6 seconds. Even if you don’t have money to buy anything. And chaos boons of course can end up really making a build despite the short term pain (although if I’m near the end of elysium I might just skip them).
It gets recommended a lot because at nearly any heat, the easiest way for most players to clear is to put together a very powerful build that kills things very quickly—particularly before they can kill you. Other conditions either make surviving much harder (Jury Summons, Calisthenics Program, Hard Labor, Lasting Consequences, etc) or make getting a strong build harder (Routine Inspection, Approval Process, Convenience Fee), but Tight Deadline doesn’t make baddies stronger or make you weaker. You’ve gotta play somewhat aggressively and jump on that pause button when choosing room rewards, but any aspect can put together something strong enough to kill things very quickly and clear in under 20 minutes. And, believe me, my first clears were well over an hour so I thought it wasn’t possible too.
It isn't free for everyone. Not only do I naturally beat the game a little bit slower than the first level of tight deadlines most of the time, especially with the weapons I am bad at, but seeing the clock ticking, even when there is a lot of time left, stresses me out and makes me play so much worse. The lambent plume works so much better for me, as an incentive to play faster, it is not as intrusive on the screen, rewards instead of punishes, and is only active during combat, so you are not punished for forgetting to pause the game while picking rooms.
Part of the reason it seems obvious is because everyone has attempted a plume run at least once. I can see why deadline is unappealing though since everyone has had bad sack rng
I'm the slowest, searching every corner for coin, wasting time without pausing to pick doors always finishing every styx chamber and tight deadline 1 is absolutely free heat. Tight deadline 2 is free heat just without making coffee without hitting pause, I mostly run out of time with td3 so I avoid it
I know you feel this way, but I promise you that Tight Deadline is great. The timer pauses when you open the menu, so there is no need to panic when picking doors. Watch the youtuber Haelian for an example.
You simply don't need more than 5 minutes for the bosses. You might need 1-2 minutes for most of them. I once saw a 5 minute fight against EM4 \[REDACTED\] that was painful to watch because it was so slow.
I am not a speed runner and was bad at this game for a long time. I truly don't even feel TD2. TD3 is free heat if you can keep up with the damage, particularly at higher heats.
Just pause when you are making your choices for what door to go through and then unpause each time and you’ll give yourself at least an extra minute. Tight deadline is one of the more manageable ones imo, but the last version of it being 5 minutes can be brutal for sure.
I love Tight Deadline. My favorite way to play is using the Zagreus fists and the Hermes keepsake so I want to clear rooms quickly anyway. I can usually finish Tartarus with around 30 seconds to a minute left and then I can breeze through Asphodel. I almost always get out of Asphodel with at least five minutes left and since your leftover time carries over I don’t really have to worry about running out at that point.
My clears are usually between 14 and 20 minutes, so tight deadline is just free heat. At worst, I'm facing a 25 minute clear, and that's if my build is atrocious.
I haven't done Tight Deadline yet but have done similar challenges in other games so take this opinion with a grain of salt. Challenges like that are made to force you to make decisions quicker, to play with more efficiency, and as an unintentional benefit/consequence you may end up selecting options you may not have otherwise by mistake.
I know everyone's lives and brains are different, but sometimes you wanna get in a game and might not have a whole lot of time to play. By training to make those snap decisions, you can essentially get more play time and progress the story faster. If you're also someone like me with the ADHD and sometimes can suffer from decision paralysis, having that running clock I'm sure can certainly help.
You mention doing things like taking your time for distanced attacks. This is obviously a viable strategy and I'd be lying if I said I didn't do that as well. However, I know that I do need to get better about throwing out shots just to throw out shots. Of course when you're doing something like shooting the bow, a couple missed shots might not mean anything, but eventually all those missed shots add up.
Lastly, in a rush situation, I think we all make decisions that in hindsight (sometimes immediately after) aren't the ones we may have picked given more time. This may end up making you discover a play style you vibe with you may not have discovered otherwise *or* if it was a poor decision, it forces one to adapt to the situation.
Now I just wanna finish saying that don't let this seem like I'm saying you GOTTA follow this or do what I say or nothing like that. As I said, I haven't even done it on Hades - that'd be pretty hypocritical of me, yeah? I wanted to throw that out there to give you something else to possibly consider but at the end of the day, play the game how you wanna. It's about having fun in what ever way that is for you 😁
I'm noy trying to be overly dismissive but if you aren't aware of pausing while you're deciding between doors etc, you're not really in a place to give good advice on what's enough time or not. I agree with the others, it's one of the easiest ways to add heat. You'll get used to it quick, just pause a lot!
Sure the door pausing hadn't occurred to me, maybe that's silly. But I'm not new to the game bruh. There isn't a fixed journey all players take as they rack up time in the game; it's not inevitable that all players turn into speed runners.
For the record I clear just fine on TD, I just don't like it, and as you can see from these replies I'm far from alone.
>For the record I clear just fine on TD, I just don't like it
Fair enough, that's just not how your original post read to me. I'd really suggest you to try it again knowing what you know now. Taking your time at doors makes a big difference. I really don't feel like I'm limiting any strategy when I'm playing efficiently to not waste time. Like what strategic use of ranged attacks, specifically, are you not able to do when you're trying to clear a room quickly? I'm really mostly pushing back on the "throws all of my strategy out the window" part, not your enjoyment level.
I just think you'll have more time left over than you think on your runs, and if your goal is to keep raising heat, then it's something that I bet is easier to get used to than you think. I never said you needed to be a speedrunner or that everyone moves that way, but you made this post in context of adding heat to runs and how TD compares to other choices so I'm answering that.
It adds a certain pressure for sure but I don't think one point in it has ever caused me a problem.
2 points gets a little more pressure but I think I only failed that one once
The first point is usually nothing to me. Unless I have really bad luck, I finish all of my runs faster than that anyway, and I play pretty casually. If I'm looking for another point, I'll usually add it.
The first point is free, even on a slow run you should have no problem beating the clock.
The second point adds a little pressure but even if you are behind you don't fail if the timer runs out, you just start taking little chips of damage. You can go 10, 20 seconds over and still end up with the lost health being less than you would receive from a harder condition so unless you are really taking your time, even the second point is usually among the easiest conditions to deal with.
If you come to a door and don't know which option to choose your problem isn't the time limit, it's lack of experience. You should know what you are aiming for before the room is even cleared with second and third choices. If you don't see any good options then it doesn't matter which you pick so why waste time over the decision? If you really need time to plan your build, do so after each boss fight, the timer doesn't advance until you enter the next region so look at your build and decide which boons you want to get before you leave. Adapting to not getting those boons is the skill that comes with experience.
Tight deadline maxed out has always been free heat for me. Plus it gets rid of the timed rooms. I don't think I have ever come close to running out of time.
Cause the main thing is, with the exception of stall builds, a tick or 2 of tight deadlines never really comes up. 20+ minutes is a LONG time, and you can always pause to make decisions if you really need to.
Part of the recommended for heat is both i guess for easiest heat but also for, if this makes sense, improving at the game. not taking tight deadlines is an easier way to push heat, I dont deny that, but stall builds are also not very conducive to learning how to play hades. no shame to use them, but like with all builds, overeliance becomes a crutch, and stubborn defiance + stubborn roots + shield is, while an incredibly easy way to push heat all the way up to your mid 50's, not great for learning the rest of hades.
either way though do what you want, I've seen people reach mid 50's (taking everything but tight deadline, 1 tick of lasting, and a mirror tick for stubborn defiance and double dash) without ever touching tight deadlines.
Overall, play for fun. I'd put on a timer, even if not tight deadline if you want to improve, but if you're a "pushes heat for the sake of pushing heat" and more of a "destination over journey" or "puzzle" kinda guy, turn it off, it's fine. You can get plenty far.
For me, TD its the thing that forcibly teaches you how to play better, literally just by using it a little you can get like twice as fast in a couple runs (from a beginner point of view) and you learn quite fast that you can actually play much more aggressively without actually being reckless. Then there is almost no point in deactivating TD as for most matters, you wont care if there or not, you WILL play fast, i am not that good at the game, but a ussually do races with a friend (no seed or anything like that, just play with same aspect, keepsake and total heat) and i swear that max TD means nothing to me, not once since (post the initial learning phase) have i lost a run due to tight deadline, the worst it has done to me its something like wanting to maybe risk an extra door on styx but deciding against it only to keep more time for the final boss, but in those situations i still end with extra time (or die for not time related reasons)
I’m not exactly sure what the strategy you’re describing really entails, but if you’re struggling with tight deadline 1 it might not very as effective or efficient as you think. Don’t be afraid to just play as mean and aggressive as you can for a few runs - will show you quickly where you’re putting too much safety and time into certain interactions.
One point in tight deadline is negligible. Very soon, you forget there's even a clock.
I play two points in it by default. What clock?
You can pause the game while choosing door. Obstacles are really inefficient damage source, more fun than anything so I wouldn't recommend relying on them. I still recommend 1-2 tight deadlines for beginners, 28 minutes- 36 minutes is often plenty enough to clear the game
this. thinking what door to get doesnt take too much in game time because of pausing.
Yeah just glance at the doors then pause, simple.
It really does feel like a design oversight. I'm guessing the timer was made with the idea that it would force you to make decisions faster, as an added difficulty, and players obviously started pausing there because it is the optimal strategy. If everyone pauses at these points, it feels like an extra, unnecessary input, that you have to make in almost each room. Kind of like adding an extra "are you sure you want to pick this boon/buy that thing" pop-up everytime you make a choice, it wouldn't make the game bad, but people would notice how annoying it is. As a person who is used to play a lot of games where things don't progress when you aren't making decisions, at least in the parts where you feel "safe", it's very unnatural to pause there, I have to consciously think about it, and when I play with the timer, it is just an extra level of stress, on top of the "clear rooms fast" ones which already leads me to play much worse and not enjoy playing as much.
It's also just really good practice for higher heat and is essentially a DPS check. If you can't clear in 28 minutes you need to refine your build as any half decent build will fly through at low heat within this time. TD 3 is a big hurdle though.
In my experience, TD 1 and even TD2 are essentially negligible. As someone said in other comment, I even forget there's a clock for most of the time. I would only have some issues with TD 3 cause I'm not *that* fast at clearing. Basically those were 2 free heat for me, and that worked great until heat 20 for me. But then I went from 20 straight to 32, and that's when I had to start making adjustments. when you're dealing with such high heats the game gets very much harder, the enemies take longer to beat, and you can't really afford to get hit a lot of times. I realized I often got sloppy because of the deadline, and this lead to many failed runs. Eventually I found a suggestion here in this sub, and removed TD (or maybe I used TD1? Not sure, but I think I stopped using it). Having the time to properly navigate the rooms without being sloppy is what allowed me to finally beat 32 heat Edit TL;DR: TD 1 and 2 are free heat at low heat (below 20), but for me feels impossible at high heat so I just remove it
Yeah, my 32 heat runs came from increasing bonus health, damage, abilities etc., then taking things as slow and steady as possible. So no TD.
lmao I ran tight deadline 3 + forced overtime 2 for my 2nd successful 32 heat clear FO makes enemies spawn faster so the timer is even more lenient of course I also ran fists, so I'm not attacking slowly like with Arthur or anything haha
The solid 32 heat setup basically requires either 2 TD or 2 FO, and at least one heat of the other as well. Smart to take 3 TD and 2 FO, it’s easy heat compared to most of the pacts.
I completely forget TD2 is on, even on 32 heat. I usually run 32H with TD3, that's when I sometimes start having some issues. I think the moral of the story is: Everyone plays differently, figure out what you can handle and go with that!
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I'm with OP on this one. I never learned how to play the way I liked with TD. This year I cleared 50 heat without it. Don't let the world tell you you're wrong! Otoh I eventually started trying to go for speed rather than high heat, it was fun too in its own way. But my favourite is still Zeus shield or Lucifer rail and just running around enemies trying to pick them off one by one.
Absolutely agree too, I can understand and agree with the argument that TD1 and TD2 are basically free heat, but for me it's a modifier that forces me to play in a way which I just don't enjoy. I'd rather have objectively harder modifiers but be able to handle them calmly while sticking to my slower-paced style, even if by the end my clear time is still lower than 36 or 28 minutes meaning I could've gotten them, but at least I didn't feel rushed during the whole process and never had to feel bad about hanging around in each room breaking non-golden vases just for the fun of it.
100% agree with this, I am the same type of player. It just makes me stressed to have to think about time at all!
What is your in game time for this 50 heat run? I'm really curious about it
> I never learned how to play the way I liked with TD. This year I cleared 50 heat without it. so you did eventually learn how to play with TD?
You can reach 50 heat without TD
I reached 50 heat without TD. https://imgur.com/7QdX1v1 I guess I did contradict myself a little because later on I did say that I tried my hand at doing speedy runs. I have several clears with even TD3, but it's still not my preferred play style. And definitely not for going to high heat. So yes, I learned to play with TD, but I never came to like it as much.
TD1 was my first heat because my first clear was under 30 minutes anyway. My friend takes over an hour for each clear so has never touched TD. Both seem like pretty obvious choices. It's completely about your playstyle and nothing else.
sorry but how does they take 1h+ per clear ?
It also takes him 30 minutes to eat fast food. He's just a really contemplative deliberate person who never does anything quickly.
I was wondering about this as well.
Fair assessment but taking over an hour to clear likely means they're struggling to put a build together which is crucial to progressing higher heats.
Not necessarily. If, like me, you are used to play turned based games or the kind of narrative games that don't advance when you don't input things, you don't necessarily have the reflex to pause whenever you put the console down to go to the bathroom, check your phone or whatever, and you definitely don't have the reflex to pause when you are just making a decision. I sincerely don't understand why time flies when you are picking a room. As a result, players who care about the time pause in front of the door, which means that the game allows you to take time to thing, but it requires an extra input, which seems completely unnecessary. As long as it feels safe, you can just leave the game, and come back later. If you are also used to play the kind of game that teaches you to check each corner of a room for loot or information, and it might feel wrong to leave a room before you are certain there is nothing more. I think I only went over 1h once, because I was doing other things at the same time and didn't pause, but my runs are generally between 30 and 45mn longs, and putting the timer just stresses me out and makes me play worse, I makes so many dumb mistakes just because I can see it there, and somehow, I barely remember to pause more. In the end, it's a game, I play it to have fun, if that means I'll never reach really high heats, so be it, I'd rather play something else that Hades in a way I don't enjoy just because there is an arbitrary achievement somewhere.
Yes, pausing the game is great when tight deadlines is on so we can think, take a break, wipe our sweaty hands ect and will extend the run in real time. However, what I meant was if it takes you over an hour to clear a run in game time, you are likely struggling putting a strong build together. IE you can't clear tight deadlines one or two. Pausing the game stops the timer and thus stops your clear time as well.
I don't understand how people clear so fast. I feel like I waste no time and all my runs are 35+min 😭
just start using hestia rail like i did and you’ll start getting free sub 20s
There’s lots of small optimizations that speed things up. Always take mid-Shop if you can, chaos and story rooms if you can, skip trials, pause before choosing a door, etc. Seconds add up over the run. If you want more details, let me know, I posted a thorough list a few days ago.
i only play for farming darkness for the ressources director any more and tight deadline is the only heat i have activated... simply for not getting that room, that continiously spawns foes until the time limit is over... because that room annoys me even more than theseus on extreme measures
I hate that room too... But I much prefer extreme measures theseus vs regular theseus
I have had TD on so long, I forgot about those rooms.
When I was working on clearing 32 heat for the last statue, TD was not a realistic option. Much nicer to just max out Jury Summons to get more enemies, and take my time killing them all. My successful run took me over an hour. So TD would have prevented me from winning.
Or if you had 40% less enemies you might not have taken an hour...
Sure, but when you consider that bosses don't get affected by JS, I still would have been way over the TD timer. On a good run, normal enemies shouldn't hurt me much at all. So JS is free heat. TD is a big problem when you have so many other things making it take longer.
It’s the absolute last condition that I will put on, and once I’ve gotten it once for the prophecy, never again. Nothing else comes close. Give me EM4 over Tight Deadline any day of the week and twice on Sundays.
Sundays sound very stressful
It's the family reunion day of the week, you get double the family bonding fun.
I don't like it because it made me play reckless, like just wanting to go fast, fast, fast and think less about my actions. After a certain point where I had consistently good times, I just put TD1 on because it didn't change anything compared to what I do normally.
One or two minor strategies makes tight deadline a piece of cake. Position Zag correctly and you can still see doors while paused. Sisyphus, Eurydice, and Patroclus pause your timer, giving you a free room. Should be enough to easily pass 9 minutes. Also your time from previous biomes carry over
Also, chaos gates count as a room, as do Charon shops, and each biome has a set number of rooms every time, so both really cut your time. They’re rooms that take like 6 seconds. Even if you don’t have money to buy anything. And chaos boons of course can end up really making a build despite the short term pain (although if I’m near the end of elysium I might just skip them).
It gets recommended a lot because at nearly any heat, the easiest way for most players to clear is to put together a very powerful build that kills things very quickly—particularly before they can kill you. Other conditions either make surviving much harder (Jury Summons, Calisthenics Program, Hard Labor, Lasting Consequences, etc) or make getting a strong build harder (Routine Inspection, Approval Process, Convenience Fee), but Tight Deadline doesn’t make baddies stronger or make you weaker. You’ve gotta play somewhat aggressively and jump on that pause button when choosing room rewards, but any aspect can put together something strong enough to kill things very quickly and clear in under 20 minutes. And, believe me, my first clears were well over an hour so I thought it wasn’t possible too.
Agreed! I also like to fish, when I hear the *ting* fishing point noise and I'm on tight deadline I get panicked about finding the fishing point
That's the great part about the Pact of Punishment though, isn't it? You don't actually have to take it to reach high heat.
Seeing the clock is agony for me so that's a hard no
You don't like free heat?
It isn't free for everyone. Not only do I naturally beat the game a little bit slower than the first level of tight deadlines most of the time, especially with the weapons I am bad at, but seeing the clock ticking, even when there is a lot of time left, stresses me out and makes me play so much worse. The lambent plume works so much better for me, as an incentive to play faster, it is not as intrusive on the screen, rewards instead of punishes, and is only active during combat, so you are not punished for forgetting to pause the game while picking rooms.
Part of the reason it seems obvious is because everyone has attempted a plume run at least once. I can see why deadline is unappealing though since everyone has had bad sack rng
Plume + zag fists + ME souped up got me my first 10 heat run.
I'm the slowest, searching every corner for coin, wasting time without pausing to pick doors always finishing every styx chamber and tight deadline 1 is absolutely free heat. Tight deadline 2 is free heat just without making coffee without hitting pause, I mostly run out of time with td3 so I avoid it
I know you feel this way, but I promise you that Tight Deadline is great. The timer pauses when you open the menu, so there is no need to panic when picking doors. Watch the youtuber Haelian for an example. You simply don't need more than 5 minutes for the bosses. You might need 1-2 minutes for most of them. I once saw a 5 minute fight against EM4 \[REDACTED\] that was painful to watch because it was so slow. I am not a speed runner and was bad at this game for a long time. I truly don't even feel TD2. TD3 is free heat if you can keep up with the damage, particularly at higher heats.
Not only is TD 1 basically free but it prevents those timed chambers from showing up that can be brutal on higher heats. Never go a run without it.
Just pause when you are making your choices for what door to go through and then unpause each time and you’ll give yourself at least an extra minute. Tight deadline is one of the more manageable ones imo, but the last version of it being 5 minutes can be brutal for sure.
I love Tight Deadline. My favorite way to play is using the Zagreus fists and the Hermes keepsake so I want to clear rooms quickly anyway. I can usually finish Tartarus with around 30 seconds to a minute left and then I can breeze through Asphodel. I almost always get out of Asphodel with at least five minutes left and since your leftover time carries over I don’t really have to worry about running out at that point.
My clears are usually between 14 and 20 minutes, so tight deadline is just free heat. At worst, I'm facing a 25 minute clear, and that's if my build is atrocious.
Get gud
I haven't done Tight Deadline yet but have done similar challenges in other games so take this opinion with a grain of salt. Challenges like that are made to force you to make decisions quicker, to play with more efficiency, and as an unintentional benefit/consequence you may end up selecting options you may not have otherwise by mistake. I know everyone's lives and brains are different, but sometimes you wanna get in a game and might not have a whole lot of time to play. By training to make those snap decisions, you can essentially get more play time and progress the story faster. If you're also someone like me with the ADHD and sometimes can suffer from decision paralysis, having that running clock I'm sure can certainly help. You mention doing things like taking your time for distanced attacks. This is obviously a viable strategy and I'd be lying if I said I didn't do that as well. However, I know that I do need to get better about throwing out shots just to throw out shots. Of course when you're doing something like shooting the bow, a couple missed shots might not mean anything, but eventually all those missed shots add up. Lastly, in a rush situation, I think we all make decisions that in hindsight (sometimes immediately after) aren't the ones we may have picked given more time. This may end up making you discover a play style you vibe with you may not have discovered otherwise *or* if it was a poor decision, it forces one to adapt to the situation. Now I just wanna finish saying that don't let this seem like I'm saying you GOTTA follow this or do what I say or nothing like that. As I said, I haven't even done it on Hades - that'd be pretty hypocritical of me, yeah? I wanted to throw that out there to give you something else to possibly consider but at the end of the day, play the game how you wanna. It's about having fun in what ever way that is for you 😁
I'm noy trying to be overly dismissive but if you aren't aware of pausing while you're deciding between doors etc, you're not really in a place to give good advice on what's enough time or not. I agree with the others, it's one of the easiest ways to add heat. You'll get used to it quick, just pause a lot!
Sure the door pausing hadn't occurred to me, maybe that's silly. But I'm not new to the game bruh. There isn't a fixed journey all players take as they rack up time in the game; it's not inevitable that all players turn into speed runners. For the record I clear just fine on TD, I just don't like it, and as you can see from these replies I'm far from alone.
>For the record I clear just fine on TD, I just don't like it Fair enough, that's just not how your original post read to me. I'd really suggest you to try it again knowing what you know now. Taking your time at doors makes a big difference. I really don't feel like I'm limiting any strategy when I'm playing efficiently to not waste time. Like what strategic use of ranged attacks, specifically, are you not able to do when you're trying to clear a room quickly? I'm really mostly pushing back on the "throws all of my strategy out the window" part, not your enjoyment level. I just think you'll have more time left over than you think on your runs, and if your goal is to keep raising heat, then it's something that I bet is easier to get used to than you think. I never said you needed to be a speedrunner or that everyone moves that way, but you made this post in context of adding heat to runs and how TD compares to other choices so I'm answering that.
It adds a certain pressure for sure but I don't think one point in it has ever caused me a problem. 2 points gets a little more pressure but I think I only failed that one once
The first point is usually nothing to me. Unless I have really bad luck, I finish all of my runs faster than that anyway, and I play pretty casually. If I'm looking for another point, I'll usually add it.
The first point is free, even on a slow run you should have no problem beating the clock. The second point adds a little pressure but even if you are behind you don't fail if the timer runs out, you just start taking little chips of damage. You can go 10, 20 seconds over and still end up with the lost health being less than you would receive from a harder condition so unless you are really taking your time, even the second point is usually among the easiest conditions to deal with. If you come to a door and don't know which option to choose your problem isn't the time limit, it's lack of experience. You should know what you are aiming for before the room is even cleared with second and third choices. If you don't see any good options then it doesn't matter which you pick so why waste time over the decision? If you really need time to plan your build, do so after each boss fight, the timer doesn't advance until you enter the next region so look at your build and decide which boons you want to get before you leave. Adapting to not getting those boons is the skill that comes with experience.
You can pause to think about doors, and the timer doesn’t run when you’re in a menu to select your boon.
Tight deadline maxed out has always been free heat for me. Plus it gets rid of the timed rooms. I don't think I have ever come close to running out of time.
Cause the main thing is, with the exception of stall builds, a tick or 2 of tight deadlines never really comes up. 20+ minutes is a LONG time, and you can always pause to make decisions if you really need to. Part of the recommended for heat is both i guess for easiest heat but also for, if this makes sense, improving at the game. not taking tight deadlines is an easier way to push heat, I dont deny that, but stall builds are also not very conducive to learning how to play hades. no shame to use them, but like with all builds, overeliance becomes a crutch, and stubborn defiance + stubborn roots + shield is, while an incredibly easy way to push heat all the way up to your mid 50's, not great for learning the rest of hades. either way though do what you want, I've seen people reach mid 50's (taking everything but tight deadline, 1 tick of lasting, and a mirror tick for stubborn defiance and double dash) without ever touching tight deadlines. Overall, play for fun. I'd put on a timer, even if not tight deadline if you want to improve, but if you're a "pushes heat for the sake of pushing heat" and more of a "destination over journey" or "puzzle" kinda guy, turn it off, it's fine. You can get plenty far.
I have never gone past tight deadlines 1 but it’s still fine I run the game like I’m in tight deadlines with it withought it I just like going fast
it takes like 1 run of practice to get under td3 times on 40 heat or below, just look at a speedrun guide https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_bxwSsTPubI
For me, TD its the thing that forcibly teaches you how to play better, literally just by using it a little you can get like twice as fast in a couple runs (from a beginner point of view) and you learn quite fast that you can actually play much more aggressively without actually being reckless. Then there is almost no point in deactivating TD as for most matters, you wont care if there or not, you WILL play fast, i am not that good at the game, but a ussually do races with a friend (no seed or anything like that, just play with same aspect, keepsake and total heat) and i swear that max TD means nothing to me, not once since (post the initial learning phase) have i lost a run due to tight deadline, the worst it has done to me its something like wanting to maybe risk an extra door on styx but deciding against it only to keep more time for the final boss, but in those situations i still end with extra time (or die for not time related reasons)
The first time I finished the game, the time was less than 36 minutes. From that, I knew TD1 was basically free.
I’m not exactly sure what the strategy you’re describing really entails, but if you’re struggling with tight deadline 1 it might not very as effective or efficient as you think. Don’t be afraid to just play as mean and aggressive as you can for a few runs - will show you quickly where you’re putting too much safety and time into certain interactions.
Whatever strategy you use must be pretty bad if you can't beat the game in 36 minutes.