Umbral Flames, Aspect of Melinoe Build Guide

The Umbral Flames, Ygnium with the Aspect of Melinoe puts you at the center of an icy vortex that Freezes enemies while burning through their health pool. This build makes up for the fact that Ygnium's Special does not inherently interrupt enemies by Freezing them solid, but you may need to use your Attack to interrupt foes from time to time. As a result, the playstyle is much more relaxed than Aspect of Moros or Aspect of Eos, both of which require careful positioning for maximum damage. There are many ways to build, the Umbral Flames, Ygnium so feel free to experiment with different Arcana, Boons, and Keepsakes!

Weapon Aspect

The Aspect of Melinoe increases the duration of flames from your Omega Special making them easy to use. You can maintain more of them by spamming the Omega Special, or have a few flames orbiting you while you spam the regular Special (weaving in Attacks as needed to interrupt enemies) for optimal damage. With that said the Umbral Flames with Aspect of Melinoe tend to be lower damage than other weapons unless you obtain strong Boons.

No Daedalus Hammer Upgrades are required for this build, but two do provide significant upgrades. Triple Helix adds +1 flame to your Omega Special, causing more hits as you stand near Frozen enemies. Whirling Coil increases your Omega Special's orbit speed, making it easier to hit enemies and deal damage.

You can also take Triple Comet, Melting Coil, Rising Coil, or Clean Helix if they're offered but these Hammer Upgrades are less impactful than Triple Helix or Whirling Coil.

Arcana, Keepsakes and Familiar

Before you set out each night, you need to choose your active Arcana, Keepsakes, and Familiar. Which Familiar you use is up to you, but Frinos is a great choice for beginners due to the extra health and ability to block enemy projectiles. You have the option to switch up Keepsakes between each region but the remaining choices are fixed for the entire run.

Arcana

The following Arcana are particularly impactful for this build.

• As most of your damage comes from dropping your Cast and then using an Omega Special, The Sorceress and The Huntress are high impact Arcana cards with low Grasp costs. The Unseen is also crucial so you have a way to restore your Magick and continually use your Omega Special.
• You also want The Titan for bonus Health and Magick plus Eternity for the Death Defiance effects.
• Excellence and Divinity ensure you get higher quality Boons during your run.
• If you're willing to target 2 Curses from different Olympians, the Origination card offers a massive damage bonus!
• After that spend your remaining Grasp on additional Arcana cards, you can learn more about what each of the cards do with our dedicated guide.

Keepsakes

• Start out with the Barley Sheaf from Demeter to ensure you have reliable access to Freeze, ideally, you want this on your Special but the Cast is solid as well.
  • If you want a more damage-oriented setup start with Poseidon's Vivid Sea or Aprodite's Beautiful Mirror. Try to get a Freeze effect on your Cast if you use these so you don't take damage while setting up your Omega Special burst.
• The Transcendent Embryo from Chaos, Concave Stone from Echo, Moon Beam from Selene and Blackened Fleece from Medea are all good Keepsakes to use when you don't need the favor of a specific Olympian.
• For the final zone, Knuckle Bones from Odysseus gives you a damage reduction and reduces the final boss's health.
  • Alternatively, use Skelly's Luckier Tooth for an additional Death Defiance.

Boons and Upgrades

The Umbral Flames, Ygnium struggle from a clunky Attack mechanic and low base damage. Aspect of Melinoe solves this by eschewing the Attack for Special and Omega Special spam then using boons from Demeter to Freeze enemies. So long as you have enough damage to kill a foe before they unfreeze this build remains quite safe. If you don't get high rarity Boons you need to use a proc from Hephaestus on your Attack, or a damaging Cast to ensure you have enough damage.

Ice Flourish is your main source of damage, as the flames from your Special spiral out they Freeze and damage foes. Pair this with Smolder Ring from Hestia, Anvil Ring from Hephaestus or Arctic Ring from Demeter to boost your single target damage. If you want an alternative playstyle that's less safe but has higher damage potential, instead use Poseidon's Wave Flourish, Hestia's Flame Flourish, or Aphrodite's Flutter Flourish. Then use Demeter's Arctic Ring as a supporting effect to Freeze foes. Try to get a second Curse on either your Attack or Cast to enable Origination!

Frosty Veneer from Demeter is an incredibly powerful defensive tool, especially as you do runs with higher Fear! Get 6 Water to activate this effect and limit your damage intake. This is especially potent against bosses who deal 2x this amount of damage in a given hit.

Additional Boons

In addition to the recommended Boons, here are a few things to keep an eye out for when playing Aspect of Melinoe.

• Gale Force from Demeter creates a Cyclone on your Cast which slows enemies and their Projectiles.
• Demeter's Frigid Sprint is another way to access the Cyclone effect by Sprinting past enemies. This is a great alternative if you can't find Gale Force.
• Cold Storage from Demeter extends your Freeze duration, making it easier to kill enemies before they can move or act.
• Your Special hits frequently, making it easy to use Poseidon's Fluid Gain for near infinite Magick.
• Room Temperature, a Duo Boon from Demeter and Hephaestus empowers your blast effects to clear Freeze allowing you to permanently Freeze enemies.
• Volcanic Strike from Hephaestus gives you reliable access to an additional damage proc on your Attack.
• If you take Volcanic Strike, pair it with Furnace Blast from Hephaestus to amplify the damage and apply an additional Curse.
• Boreal Gust, the Duo Boon from Apollo and Demeter harnesses your Cyclone effects for additional damage making it a great alternative for aggressive play.

Playstyle

This is a close-range aggressive build that opens by Freezing enemies and then creates a whirling vortex of death with Ygnium's Omega Special. Start by using a Move with Demeter's Boon to Freeze your enemies in place, then use your Omega Special to create the orbiting flames. From there, spam your Special until the enemy dies (or their Armor breaks.) If they unfreeze, weave in Attacks to interrupt them. You need to be careful on bosses as it's easy to take damage while spamming your Special.

• Your damage has a bit of a ramp time, you gain DPS (damage per second) by stacking multiple uses of your Special and Omega Special. Counteract the inherently low base damage with a high rarity boon or by targeting the Poseidon Special for more damage instead of Demeter.
• Remember to weave Attacks between your Specials once an enemy unfreezes so you can interrupt their attacks.
• Drop your Cast for additional damage or charge up an Omega Cast to efficiently deal with dangerous enemies.
• This setup does a lot of AoE damage so groups of foes aren't too challenging, but be careful when fighting a group of Armored foes as you may not have the burst damage to finish them off before they unfreeze and your attack has much less AoE.
• Bosses are a weakness of this build due to the low base damage, use Cuses, high rarity Boons and an offensive Hex to combat these issues.

Damage can be a struggle on this build, particularly when you don't get high rarity Boons. If you're struggling, pick up an item to increase Special damage from the Well of Charon or hope for a Chaos Boon which increases your Special damage. Make sure Demeter's Barley Sheaf is rank 3 so you can Rarify a wider range of Boons.

Bosses

Chronos in particular is a bit tricky unless you can slow time against him (unlocked via the Temporal Fluctuation Incantation). While you're progressing, make use of the damage from your Cast and Special for chip damage. Only charge an Omega Special when you have time and if you see him attacking, fire it and dodge!

When fighting in the Overworld, Polyphemus is particularly problematic due to the hitbox on his jump, stand behind him whenever possible. The persistent nature of your Special and Omega Special also makes it likely that he's going to spot you so get ready to dodge some rocks. Regular enemies don't pose much of a challenge, you can Freeze them and kill them (or at least break their Armor) before they unfreeze. As always, Hestia's Soot Sprint is a great way to deal with Eris's projectiles. Using Hecate's Silver Wheel for your 3rd leg of Olympus makes it much easier to channel your Omega Special when fighting Prometheus. He does a lot of AoE moves making him very dangerous so only move in to hit him between his strikes. If needed drop your Cast then run away or throw your Attack and Special at max range.

Video

Check out this video from Tenkiei using the Aspect of Melinoe from before the Olympic update.

Summary

Combine the Aspect of Melinoe with Boons from Demeter to trap foes at the center of an icy vortex. This build Freezes foes to make up for the lower innate damage from the Umbral Flames. While not as much damage as Moros or Eos, it has a much more relaxed playstyle and is still capable of clearing most enemies with ease.

Written by: Tenkiei