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In Hades II, materials come from several routes: gather plants by hand, mine deposits with the right tool, dig and grow seeds, collect room and boss rewards, fish, trade with vendors, or make reagents through alchemy. To find a specific item, first check its region and source, then confirm whether you need a tool or an unlocked progression system. Because guides disagree about whether multiple gathering tools can be active in one run, check the tool selection shown in your current game before planning a route around that mechanic.
Find a material by how it is obtained
Not every resource is a field pickup. A useful first check is whether the item is gathered during a run, awarded for clearing a room or defeating a guardian, grown at the Crossroads, bought or exchanged, or produced at the Cauldron. Secondary guides such as GameSpot’s September 25, 2025 resource overview and Vandal’s August 8, 2026 reagent guide describe these different routes; exact availability and mechanics can change with updates.
- Gathering: Pick some plants up by hand; use the appropriate gathering tool for deposits, seed mounds, fishing, or interactions with Lost Shades.
- Room and boss rewards: Some resources arrive as rewards for clearing encounters or defeating a region’s guardian.
- Gardening: Find seeds in runs, plant them in unlocked Crossroads plots, and complete encounters before harvesting.
- Vendors and exchanges: Trade Bones at the Wretched Broker, order items through Charon’s Chest using Obol Points, or claim rewards for completed objectives on the Fated List.
- Alchemy: Some materials, including Shadow, are made through Cauldron recipes rather than collected from a deposit.
Unlock gathering tools
Perform Night’s Craftwork
Vandal’s August 8, 2026 tool guide says the Night’s Craftwork incantation at the Crossroads Cauldron costs 1 Moly and reveals gathering tools at the Silver Pool. Moly is a hand-gathered plant found in Erebus; Vandal notes that it appears when it is not raining. NeonHades2’s independent resource catalog also recommends unlocking the Crescent Pick first because it lets you mine Silver.
Match the tool to the task
| Tool | Use described in the guides |
|---|---|
| Crescent Pick | Mine ore deposits, including Silver; Vandal also lists Glassrock in the Fields of Mourning and Flux in Chaos as mining sources. |
| Silver Spade | Dig seed mounds to obtain seedlings. |
| Rod of Fishing | Catch fish, which can be sold for Bones according to GameSpot. |
| Tablet of Peace | Interact with Lost Shades to obtain Psyche, according to Vandal. |
Tool-equipping instructions are unsettled in the available guides. Vandal says only one tool can be equipped per run; Switchblade Gaming’s August 5, 2026 guide says all unlocked tools are equipped simultaneously. Switchblade says its material map reflects Post-Launch Patch 2, dated April 14, 2026, but it is not an official patch note. Since those accounts conflict, use the current in-game tool selection rather than assuming either rule applies to your build.
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Use the region map to locate common materials
This is a practical locator, not a guarantee that every listed item appears on every run. The regional examples below come primarily from GameSpot’s September 2025 guide; Vandal’s 2026 guide adds the Chaos examples.
| Region or route | Examples | How to get them |
|---|---|---|
| Erebus | Moly, Silver, Nightshade seed, Cinder | Gather Moly by hand; mine Silver with the Crescent Pick; dig for Nightshade seeds with the Silver Spade; defeat Hecate for Cinder. |
| Oceanus | Lotus, Limestone, Cattail seed, Pearl | Find regional plants and deposits, dig for seeds, or defeat Scylla and the Sirens for Pearl. |
| Fields of Mourning | Myrtle, Glassrock, Wheat seed, Tears | Find regional plants and deposits; Vandal lists Glassrock as Crescent Pick ore. Tears is associated with Cerberus. |
| Tartarus | Shaderot, Marble, Poppy seed, Zodiac Sands | Find regional plants and deposits, dig for Poppy seeds, or defeat Chronos for Zodiac Sands. |
| City of Ephyra | Moss, Bronze, Garlic seed, Wool | Unlock Surface survival before attempting this route; Polyphemus is the source of Wool. |
| Rift of Thessaly | Mandrake seed, Golden Apple | Dig for Mandrake seeds; Golden Apple is associated with Eris. |
| Mount Olympus | Feather | Defeat Prometheus for the listed boss reward. |
| Summit | Void Lens | Defeat Typhon for the listed boss reward. |
| Chaos | Flux, Darkness | Vandal lists Flux as Crescent Pick ore and Darkness as a hand-gathered resource. |
Boss-reward associations in this map are reported by GameSpot’s 2025 guide, not current official documentation. If an expected reward or route does not match your game, check the current build rather than treating a secondary guide’s map as a guarantee.
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Grow materials from seeds
Cultivation is a separate route from collecting a finished plant during a run. GameSpot describes this sequence:
- Unlock and equip the Silver Spade, then dig dirt mounds during runs to find seedlings.
- Unlock Crossroads garden plots with the Flourishing Soil, Rich Soil, and Verdant Soil incantations.
- Plant a seed in an available plot.
- Complete the number of dungeon encounters required for that seed, then harvest the grown plant.
GameSpot’s seed examples are Nightshade from Erebus, Cattail from Oceanus, Wheat from the Fields of Mourning, Poppy from Tartarus, Garlic from Ephyra, Mandrake from the Rift of Thessaly, and Thalamus from Chaos. The spelling here is Nightshade.
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Get materials from rewards, trades, and alchemy
Room rewards and progression currencies
GameSpot describes Bones, Ashes, Psyche, and Nectar among the common run rewards or purchasable materials. Ashes unlock or upgrade Arcana, Psyche increases Grasp, and Nectar can be given to characters for Keepsakes. Bones are used at the Wretched Broker and can also be earned by selling caught fish. These items have different purposes, so check a material’s planned use before exchanging it.
Broker, Charon, and objective rewards
GameSpot says the Wretched Broker exchanges Bones for items including Ashes, Psyche, Fate Fabric, Moon Dust, Star Dust, and Nightmare. Its guide also describes Charon’s Chest as an ordering route paid for with Obol Points, and the Fated List as a source of resources for completed objectives. Vendor stock and prices can change; consult the current in-game exchange before spending.
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Other sources for named reagents
Vandal’s August 8, 2026 reagent guide gives additional examples: Fate Fabric can come from the Wretched Broker and occasionally Arachne; Psyche can come from the Broker or Tablet of Peace interactions with Lone Shades; and Shadow is produced at the Cauldron through Shadow Extraction. Its guide covers 31 reagent categories, but it is a secondary checklist rather than an official complete inventory.
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Materials can feed incantations, weapon and aspect unlocks or upgrades, Arcana, Grasp, relationships, and other progression systems. Some reagents are used in multiple recipes, so exchanging or spending an item simply because it is available can delay another goal.
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Pick the symptom - the matching free tool is one click away.
- Choose the specific incantation, weapon upgrade, Arcana improvement, or other unlock you want.
- Read its material requirements in the game and note which items are still missing.
- For each missing item, identify its source: region pickup, tool-gated deposit, seed and garden, encounter reward, vendor exchange, or Cauldron recipe.
- Unlock the relevant tool or progression route, then gather or trade only what you need to close that target.
- Before exchanging a rare material, check whether another planned recipe also requires it.
NeonHades2’s independent resource catalog organizes 167 records across categories including tools, garden items, seeds, fish, exchanges, and room rewards; that figure describes the catalog’s own scope, not an official Supergiant Games in-game count. Its useful practical idea is to trace a material from its source to its uses before spending it.
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