Climbing out of Hades is always going to be tricky. Still, nothing is worse than clearing a room and not knowing what boons to look out for. With ten different gods to collect boons from, knowing which is best can be very handy. So, what are the best boons per god? What upgrades should you re-roll for, or dig deeper for? Let’s dig in and find out!
Best Boons For Each God in Hades
These listed Boons will not appear in every run. There are eight “normal” gods who can be encountered in a given room. From these gods, four of them are selected to be part of a given run. You can force gods to spawn and join the pool by using their Keepsake.
Hermes will be part of every run and start spawning near the end of Tartarus. Chaos comes from a randomly spawning gate, and their boons are randomized with a downside and an upside.
From these gods, each can have up to 23 boons. These include Legendary and Duo boons, which the gods can grant under specific conditions. For the purpose of this article, we’re going to ignore Legendary and Duo boons and talk about the normal buffs that you’ll be able to collect most frequently.
We’re also going to split our list in two: Best Upgrade and Best Other. Upgrades include Attack, Special, Cast, Dash, and Call Boons that permanently buff your attack. Other is any other boon that the god offers.
Aphrodite
Best Upgrade: Heartbreak Strike – Heartbreak Strike adds a whopping 50% damage buff to your attack at Common Rarity. This is a gigantic buff to your attacks, and the Weakness is just a cherry on top!
Best Other: Sweet Surrender – This increases the damage that your enemies take by 10% or more. You just need an Aphrodite upgrade (like her strike), and your enemies will melt. Dig for this whenever you get an Aphro upgrade!
Ares
Best Upgrade: Ares’s Aid – Ares’s call gives you damage immunity and a pretty high damaging tornado. Invincible Calls are really strong, since you can use them to dodge damage in an emergency. And Ares adds on a bunch of damage on top of it!
Best Other: Urge to Kill – This gives a simple damage buff of +10-19% to your Attack, Cast, and Special. And that’s really good for every build! It’s rare that Hades grants raw damage buffs, and Ares has one of them. This is universally stellar.
Artemis
Best Upgrade: Artemis’ Aid – Artemis’s upgrades aren’t incredible, but her Call is something else. It deals guaranteed damage with a high chance to triple. And, you get five uses if you want to spam them out! Her max of 10 arrows completely decimates bosses and random rooms alike. It’s overall pretty great, if you want raw damage.
Best Other: Support Fire – Support fire makes it so you deal extra damage with any offensive action you do. That means every single swing, shot, special, or cast can pump out some extra power.
Athena
Best Upgrade: Divine Dash – While your dash has immunity, it is actually liable to take damage at the end. If you have Athena’s dash, you can deflect projectiles while moving. This is a great increase to damage for many areas, and some extra protection at the end of your movement.
Honorable mentions for Athena Attack and Athena Call, which greatly improve your durability during offense.
Best Other: Holy Shield – This ability blocks damage for a moment after you take damage. While you’re learning enemy patterns, this Deflection can save you a ton of health while offering a small boost to damage.
Honorable mentions go to Deathless Stand and Last Stand, which can give you an extra life in your time of need.
Dionysus
Best Upgrade: Dionysus’ Aid – While all of Dionysus’ Upgrades are situational, his Call is less so. This deals consistent, high AoE damage that lasts even after the call is over. It’s one of the best calls to use without having a maximum gauge, and is the highest damage call that you can get! No invincibility, though.
Best Other: Strong Drink – Not only does this heal you to full, it gives you passive damage increases. Hades doesn’t give that out lightly! You’re guaranteed to get a fountain at the end of each area, so even if you get this boon very late, you’ll still get some bonus damage.
Hermes
Best Boon: Greatest Reflex – Extra dodges can save your life! This boosts the number of times you can quickly move out of the way of an attack, and also how many times you can Dash Strike. Dash Strikes are quick, good damage, and reliable, so getting access to more is great!
Note: Hermes is a very situational god. He has bonuses to Attack, Special, and Cast speed. Choose the speed buff that works best for your build! Hermes is a great god, so make sure you get the best boons for your build!
Poseidon
Best Upgrade: Tidal Dash – No dash is as disruptive as Poseidon’s. This dash can very quickly and easily clear rooms, introduce ridiculous damage to enemies that can be pushed around, and still do fine damage to bosses. An extremely safe and aggressive dash!
Best Other: Razor Shoals – If you get any push back abilities, Razor Shoals is necessary. This gives you a Damage over Time against bosses and enemies alike. Rupture is a stellar damage boost, after all!
Zeus
Best Upgrade: Lightning Strike – This is interchangeable with Lightning Flourish, based on your build. Strike is best on fast-attacking weapons… Which happens to be most weapons, especially those with dash attacks. Adding 10 to 20 damage to every attack, which can hit multiple enemies, is handier than it might seem. Guarantee Zeus with an Adamant Rail build and watch the enemies die!
Best Other: Static Discharge – Jolted is a great status effect, dealing high damage as long as you can consistently deal lightning damage. This is a boss melter and can keep enemies from jumping you.
Unlockable God Best Boons
These two gods, Chaos and Demeter, have unlock requirements.
Demeter
Best Upgrade: Frost Strike – Demeter’s Attack is solid. It applies Chill, has a good damage increase, and combos well with Demeter’s other options. Great for Gun builds!
Best Other: Ravenous Will – If you randomly get Demeter, Ravenous Will introduces more damage and more durability to your build. All-around damage buffs are rare, so we take these! It’ll also incentivize you to use your Casts more often.
Chaos
Best Boon: Chaos doesn’t really have boons. They have upsides connected to downsides. Choose based on your favorite upgrade! Some of the best boons for this god include Rarity Boosts, general damage upgrades, and extra cast ammo. However, if you don’t think you can play around the downside, please don’t! These upgrades are nice, but not necessary. Just be ready to take some downside from Chaos when you enter, as there’s always an extra price to be paid.
Love Hades as much as we do? Check out some of our guides!
- How to Fight All Extreme Measures Bosses
- What To Spend Diamonds On First in Hades
- Best Build For Your First Hades Clear
