Resources and Economy

Every resource in Hades II and what it does, from Bones and Ashes to the weapon reagents, Psyche, Moon Dust, Nightmare, Nectar, and in-run Gold.

Hades II runs on two economies. One persists between runs and funds permanent progress: Bones, Ashes, Psyche, Moon Dust, Nightmare, the weapon reagents, and relationship gifts all carry over and feed your unlocks. The other lives and dies inside a single run: Gold spent at shops resets the moment you respawn. Knowing which bucket a resource sits in, and which permanent power it feeds, is how you decide what to chase. The standing advice for a new account is simple, hoard Ashes and Psyche first, because those drive the Arcana Cards, the biggest source of permanent power.

The permanent currencies

These persist across runs and pay for your meta-progression.

Resource	What it does
Bones	The base currency. Almost everything can be bought with Bones at the Wretched Broker. Earned mainly as a minor room reward.
Ashes	Unlocks Arcana Cards at the Altar of Ashes. A top early priority.
Psyche	Raises your Grasp pool, the cards you can equip, up to 29. Earned via the Tablet of Peace minigame and runs. A top early priority.
Moon Dust	Upgrades Arcana Card rarity up to Epic. Buy from the Broker, find in Charon’s shop in the final region, or craft it.
Nightmare	Upgrades Weapon Aspects. Earned from Oath of the Unseen Testaments.

Ashes and Psyche are the priority because they work as a pair: Ashes unlock the cards, Psyche grows the budget that lets you equip them. Moon Dust is the long-tail spend that keeps an unlocked grid scaling, and Nightmare is the endgame currency you only start banking once you raise difficulty with the Oath.

The weapon reagents

Five materials craft and unlock the Nocturnal Arms, and each comes from a specific region.

Reagent	Where it comes from
Silver	Crescent Pick from crescent-moon clusters, plus Narcissus in Oceanus
Cinder	One per run from defeating Hecate in Erebus
Glassrock	Found in the Fields of Mourning
Bronze	Found in the City of Ephyra on the surface
Adamant	Crescent Pick from Outcroppings in Mount Olympus

Because each reagent is tied to a place, your shopping list dictates your route. A weapon blocked on Adamant means a run up Mount Olympus with the Crescent Pick, and a weapon blocked on Cinder means beating Hecate again, since she is the only source and drops just one per run.

Gather the reagent before you want the weapon, not after. Cinder, Glassrock, Bronze, and Adamant each come from one region only, and Cinder trickles in at one per Hecate kill. If you wait until a weapon’s craft screen to start collecting, you are several runs away. Bank reagents as you go on the gathering tool runs you are already doing.

Relationships and greeneries

A second set of materials feeds relationships and Incantations rather than weapons.

Nectar: gifted to characters to earn Keepsakes and build relationships.
Ambrosia: the higher-tier relationship gift, for deepening bonds.
Bath Salts and Twin Lures: additional giftable items tied to fishing and relationships.
Greeneries such as Nightshade, Moly, Lotus, and Garlic: plants and seeds gathered in regions or grown in Crossroads Soil Plots, used in Incantations and sold for Bones. Nightshade comes from Erebus, and Moly from Erebus when it is not raining.

Nectar is the one to spend deliberately early, since the Keepsakes it unlocks, like the Moon Beam for your Selene Hex, are run-shaping. Greeneries are cheap and steady, especially once Soil Plots let you grow your own.

The in-run economy

A few resources never leave the run. Gold, also called Obols, is the in-run currency you spend at shops mid-run on boons, healing, and upgrades, and it vanishes when the run ends, so there is no reason to finish a run sitting on it. Gemstones, which were a core currency in Hades 1, are mostly traded for cosmetic upgrades here rather than power. The contrast is the whole point of the economy: spend Gold freely within a run because it does not persist, and bank the permanent currencies because they do.

Exact per-recipe amounts and the full greeneries list shift with patches, so confirm specific costs against the current build before relying on a number. The buckets and what each resource feeds, though, are stable.