Turns out you can beat Hades by smashing apart a pomegranate

In Hades, a pomegranate will upgrade one of the Boons bestowed upon you by the Olympian gods. While such supernatural gifts don't apply to our lowly mortal poms, one determined streamer discovered that the lowly fruit can be used to escape the underworld—assuming you're willing to put up with the mess.

Twitch streamer Rudeism has carved out something of a niche for himself beating games with unusual controllers. Having previously snagged a Fall Guys victory using a handful of jellybeans, his latest goal was to escape from the house of Hades using an actual pomegranate.

You can catch the process of his piecing together his fruity controller over on YouTube. It's a little, erm, messier than just plugging in your standard Xbox pad, and the juicy nature  of the pom only makes the whole thing fiddlier.

"If we connect two pieces of pom, even if they're separated on the board, the fact that there's juice between them can mean that they'll basically cross-conduct," he explains.

Beating Hades with a squashed fruit is perhaps not the optimal way to play, of course. But one by one, Rudeism mashes his way through each of Hades' bosses, making his way as far as the big man himself. It takes a few tries, but finally, the streamer scores a win—his desk absolutely ruined with loose seeds and blood-red pom juice.

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While mashing fruit is Rudeism's latest craze, it's still somewhat less involved than many of his previous experiments. You might recognise him as the guy who dressed up as a goose to honk through Untitled Goose Game back in 2019, though he's also danced his way to World Of Warcraft's level cap.

This whole endeavour is also a firm example of why you should ignore your parents and absolutely play with your food. After all, one day it might help you escape hell.

Natalie Clayton
Features Producer

20 years ago, Nat played Jet Set Radio Future for the first time, and she's not stopped thinking about games since. Joining PC Gamer in 2020, she comes from three years of freelance reporting at Rock Paper Shotgun, Waypoint, VG247 and more. Embedded in the European indie scene and a part-time game developer herself, Nat is always looking for a new curiosity to scream about—whether it's the next best indie darling, or simply someone modding a Scotmid into Black Mesa. She also unofficially appears in Apex Legends under the pseudonym Horizon.