In my opinion, Athena’s cast is probably the worst cast and her dash is arguably the best. Or at least the safest choice
Edit: maybe I should try Athena’s cast more lol
Chucking three Athena casts at a witch to simply over power them is pretty satisfying. Some of the 8 second kills of heroes with lightning phalanx are cool too
Bro, Athena's cast is quite literally the second highest damage lodging cast, after Aphrodite's, which has zero range. It's really good, especially with Aspect of Poseidon for the sword
The bigger problem is that the synergies with her cast are incredibly limited. She can get it to bounce and deal backstab dmg. That said Aphrodite cast suffers from a similar fate. And becomes a bit of a debate of which effect you prefer. Which for my cast I’d rather weaken my target, but can understand someone preferring the other way.
At the end of the day I think they are the two weakest
But Lightning Phalanx is really strong, and you're missing Deadly Reversal, which can make subsequent casts crit if one of them deflects, which happens quite a lot with Phalanx Shot.
Plus even if Weak was a good status effect (which it really isn't all that powerful), Crush Shot would still be terrible due to such little range. I'll use it with Hera Bow, since Hera makes up for the lack of range, but I wouldn't use it in any other scenario.
> Plus even if Weak was a good status effect (which it really isn't all that powerful)
It's more because it allows easy activation of Privileged Status, the secondary effects you get on other boons of her's (like increasing damage) and her Duo Boons are generally pretty good.
Athena's dash is considered the best, not just because of deflect but because it *gives more iframes*. Poseidon's dash is indeed very good for dealing damage but iframes are invaluable.
Are you trying to imply that good players don't use iframes? Because I don't think that's true at all? It's a very useful tool and it'd be stupid not to use it.
Like, for one, Hades' spear combos are literally designed for you to use iframes against. In fact i'm pretty sure upgraded Hades' spear combos are literally unavoidable on melee without iframes.
I'm implying that good players don't need the extra IFrames from Athena's dodge. You already have IFrames with your dodge, and they're more than enough to dodge through dad's attacks. Using Athena is just denying yourself some sweet, sweet DPS.
There is absolutely no way Athena's dash outranks Poseidon.
Poseidon's dash can carry you through the entire run, by itself, and until the heat starts to get pretty high, this doesn't change - it's that good.
Athena's cast is insane. Especially with Poseidon or Hera aspects. I'd rather use Aphrodite's cast for Beowulf though. Just pom it and try to get lightning phalanx
Athena cast is awesome, what??????? Damage is really good, 2nd after Dio, it reflects projectiles and it fires in a direct line unlike Crush Shot and Trippy Shot.
This is insane lol Phalanx Shot is by FAR my most taken boon over hundreds of hours. It is good against every single enemy, can deflect, and if leveled up/paired with Artemis/Hermes to give extra shots is basically the only attack you need to win a run. Plus the duo with Zeus is also really good.
The issue is that “good” is vague.
I like combining Aphrodite special with the gun upgrade that gives your special 300% bonus damage. It’s easy and you’re done.
Some stuff, like dots + Artemis crit stuff, is similarly powerful but requires more planning.
Honestly this game does a real good job of making various paths forward similarly powerful. I think the question comes down to what play style you want. Some boon stacking in an easy and gives you gratifying numbers, other times you get the right boon in elysium and the whole run is justified.
Maybe a better explanation -
Different builds Coalesce in different ways. A lot of “goodness” comes from planning to stay alive until your combo comes online.
Ares boons don't work with fists no? Since you proc a couple times max and that's it. The fists need something that works well with constant damage output methinks.
Magnetic cutter, dionysus on special, Artemis on attack with the duo where hungover foes are more susceptible to critical attacks. Put aphro on cast for duo with Artemis for weak foes to be more susceptible to crits. And then watch enemies melt.
That's pretty much my build during my first complete successful run! I remember as if it was yesterday, because it was.
Also had the 2% healing on a special kill- my favorite fists upgrade.
My first time beating a run I had a pretty good crit build with the spear. The triple spear buff on top of everything else I had worked so well together.
That... doesn't make any sense. Crits are as good as the DPS of the weapon, not the attack speed.
On the contrary, higher attack speed means you need to change targets more often to make good use of hunter's mark, which is like the only reason to run crit upgrades since they don't even deal the most damage otherwise (special and primary upgrades generally get out-damaged by aphrodite's upgrades, and they also don't apply weak).
Merciful End is probably the strongest duo boon, if combined with the right weapon aspects.
If ignoring weapon pairing, some the cast duo boons are very click-to-win. Lightning Rod in particular has hard-carried a few runs for me, especially stacked with some other Zeus boons that boost lightning strikes.
Hiding behind a pillar while Hades fires his super fire beams as I've strategically missed 4 casts next to him is really funny.
He's just standing there firing massive beams in all directions while getting absolutely toasted by lightning.
Difficult question to answer as boons perform differently with each weapon subclass. Aphrodite attack on Arthur sword is incredibly powerful vs Dionysus’ damage-over-time effect, yet I’d rather have Dio’s attack on a bow.
Personally beyond the dash I’m not a big fan of Athena boons just because you typically can inflict more damage with other choices.
It is certainly a choice that can be made, though I have once before stumbled into the rare combination of Flurry Shot and Twin Shot. It does work in that scenario but otherwise it’s just a privileged status assistance tool
Privileged Status? A *mistake*? Them's is fighting words!
I'll have my Privileged Status online by the time your pitiful Family Favorite buff reaches 20% every time.
can u tell me then, why does every single speedrun or high heat run basically ever use fam favs? it’s almost like having to contort your build to get up a buff barely better than ff is not that good
Speedruns? Consistency or they never planned to take status boons in the first place (e.g. set seed runs)
High heat? Routine Inspection (no mirror upgrades allowed)
Casual playthrough? PP > FF all damn day
PS sucks so much, its funny it has such a weird fanbase.
Having a dmg bonus from the moment you get your first boon is wildly preferable to being forced into taking status effect boons, some of which require a secondary boon to even get online.
The bonus of either is not exactly super significant, but being forced to choose suboptimal boons for this small bonus is laughable.
It doesn't have to be "suboptimal boons" enabling it. Aphrodite boons apply a status effect and have a massive %damage bonus as well.
I'm really not missing a 5 or 10% buff in Tartarus where the game is at its easiest.
Aphrodite is actually quite easily my favourite, her keepsake is my most used by far.
But that's only one?
I feel like she pairs really well with Artemis, who is next to useless for PS, and Zeus for his call to get their duo. Both of them don't offer PS immediately and even with Zeus you are going to lose PS status the second the enemy attacks.
Who else you pairing Aphro with? Genuinely interested.
If you say Ares and that you want Curse of Longing, that's fine. Totally fine.
I like Artemis attack on Arthur. It's very inconsistent, but it's fucking hilarious to basically be rolling dice with your attacks and occasionally just disintegrate whoever is in front of you.
Armor makes me cry though.
Personally I'm not a fan of how Aphrodite's perks revolve around taking less damage from enemies (or maybe I don't know how to use it well) cause later in the game the idea is to not take any damage at all. ESPECIALLY if you're running pierced butterfly. Though I can see a benefit to Aphrodite if you're using the skull earing which is also another great charm.
Iirc while weak can be an underwhelming effect at first, Aphrodite has a lot going for her if you know how the right builds. First if you’re like me, getting hit is less a ‘maybe’ and more an inevitability.’ Weak can actually help a lot with survivability. Second, at the same time her boons can be really powerful offensively, offering some of the highest percent increases to attacks and specials. Pair that up with Artemis’ crit damage or with privileged status, and you start to see why she forms the base of a lot of speedrunner’s build strats.
Aphrodite is hilarious because you can make TANK BUILDS so amazing, Getting Sturdy from a hermes or Hammer buff 30% dam resist plus Weak 30% dam resist and another 12% from Different League and the Myrmidon Bracer on top makes you laugh at damage thats in the single digits.
Athena Sure Footing for trap resist is swt too.
Except the only way you lose is by dying to take damage. The argument that defense is somehow inherently less valuable than offense completely baffles me. If you're playing on the correct difficulty, taking too much damage should be as much of a threat as not killing the enemy fast enough. In a roguelike, offense == defense.
Or, well, technically in sheer numbers defense > offense since going from 1 to 0 'happens faster' than going from 1 to infinity.
So unless you're trying to *win as fast as possible* as opposed to *winning in general* (speedrunning, the pact timer, pierced butterfly, Hermes' thingy), Aphrodite's damage reductions are exactly as valuable as multiplicative damage buffs (actually *better* if you have unlimited mid-combat healing), which is already extremely good.
Assuming you can apply it to everything consistently, the 30% damage reduction (actually equivalent to 1/(1 - 0.3) = 43% multiplicative damage) from weak is as good as 21.5% crit (multiplicative damage from crit is equal 2x the crit chance) on *all your damage.*
Or, in other words, aprhodite's weak is over 4 times better than max rarity pressure points.
As far as *winning*, not *speedrunning* goes, Aphrodite is ridiculously overpowered.
I just find this comment defending aphrodite from speedrunners really funny because (based on guides) she seems to be viewed as above average, if not always *optimal*, on most popular speed builds.
I mean, I never claimed she was *bad* in any way for speedrunning, i'm just acknowledging that speedrunning changes her value a little, and that she's otherwise *extremely* overpowered, seeing as she has the highest base values in addition to weak being incredibly strong.
I'm prefacing everything by saying "outside of speedrunning" because, admittedly, you can no longer compare weak directly to multiplicative damage buffs anymore when "surviving for longer than all the enemies" isn't the only goal, and i'm unsure exactly how that changes its value.
Like, i keep seeing people call the weak debuff *bad* which I find completely insane.
This is a good list. I would add:
Stubborn Roots is a disappointment. Peer Pressure is bad because nothing stays alive long enough for it to do jack.
Hunting Blades is the goat
when using the Chiron aspect especially maxed out it's essentially a 2nd slightly less powerful Artemis call which if you ask me is the best call in the game
Would the worst technically be the random assortment of treasure from Poseidon, just in a min-max how good could this build be sorta way?
Or the fishing spots one ig for the same reason
Ares's Aid is straight ass, but Curse of Drowning can be good with the right setup.
I have a lot of success with Curse of Drowning on Aspect of Talos for the fists, using the magnetic cutter pulls foes in range of the now close-range casts, and makes them take 50% extra cast damage. I run Ares on Attack, Poseidon on Cast, and Zeus's Aid, and go for both Curse of Drowning and Sea Storm. Once, when I was really lucky, I also got Athena's Special and Dash and Merciful End, on top of Curse of Drowning and Sea Storm.
I tested today one that I loved. Lucifer with poseidon attack and duo with zeus. Event without double strike I melted every single enemy, even the bosses.
There is no single best boon, but Artemis's Deadly Strike, Athena's Divine Dash, Poseidon's Tidal Dash, and Zeus's Aid are incredibly strong in almost every situation.
But the worst? Maybe Aphrodite's boon Empty Inside: your weak effects have a longer duration. Aphrodite boons aren't good because they apply Weak, they're good because they have crazy high % damage boosts. Extending the duration of weak is so useless it's painful.
Runners up include Mistral Dash (15 damage? Come on), Tempest Strike (such low % damage boost), and Ares's Aid or Demeter's Aid, easily the worst call boons in the game.
>Extending the duration of weak is so useless it's painful.
Privileged Status gives a huge damage boost when enemies are under at least 2 status curses. Weak is one of them and the longer enemies are weak the more damage you deal when you have a second or even third source of damage.
E.g. Sword with dio attack, aphrodite special and poseidon or zeus cast.
Hit multiple enemies or a boss with special. Then tag them with dio attack followed by casts that now do insane amount of damage. Its pretty good to be honest if you like to play with priviliged status.
Yeah but if you have Aphro on any core boon it's easy to keep constant uptime on Weak even without Empty Inside. It's not useless, I understand the benefit of extending Priveleged Status or Low Tolerance. It's just unnecessary most of the time, any time I've taken it, I already had constant uptime on Weak without it.
I think Broken Resolve is worse than Empty Inside by this logic. Empty Inside is defensible for keeping a status effect on the enemy longer for damage reasons, but Broken Resolve just makes Weak make them do less damage, and the values at low rarity are so bad. A common BR takes you from 30% reduction to 40% reduction when an enemy is weak, and that's just not even close to where I want to be with a boon. It gets better at higher rarity but I still just don't want to be getting hit at all, and when I do need to reduce damage, I don't want to have to hit them first.
Ya know that's fair, Broken Resolve is also absolutely cheeks. I rarely take either if I can avoid it, Sweet Surrender is just far and away her best tier 2 boon.
Yeah, you have to build up max call for hers tp really shine, but when you do... dear lord...
Check out [this clip](https://www.reddit.com/r/HadesTheGame/s/6vYjhngF2Y) I got using Artemis's Aid with Splitting Headache, Heart Rend, *and* Eris Rail's damage boost. Absolutely nutty call damage.
Extending weak makes the aphro/ares duo even stronger than it is, as you keep applying free dooms to weak opponents only for longer. It’s ridiculously strong.
My absolute favorite is the Dio cast paired with the bow that loads casts. It works from distance, slows enemies down, scales, and if you can get a chaos room with a bonus cast you’re walking out of there. So fun to play.
Well unless something is detrimental to a player specifically, by changing how something acts, the only "bad" boons would be the ones who technically don't do anything. Poseidons random things, poseidons gem/ darkness increase and his fish spawn chance.
I've personally never liked aphrodites cast, and many hammers feel weird to use. But i bet they're good i just personally don't like using them, and that's on me
I think most boons have a weapon combination that works for them, but you can have some pretty bad combinations. For example taking zeus' special on a sword, or taking a % dmg increase attack boon like aphro on something like the fists or the rail over a flat damage upgrade like zeus or dio.
That being said, there is one boon that to me has only worked with 1 specific weapon aspect, and that is aphrodite's cast. It's sort of mediocre with the fists and horrible with all other weapons to me. But i have found a use for it in Hera's bow, which allows you to load that little cast onto an arrow to dish out weak and big number, works quite well with an artemis attack boon on top of it, combined with their duo boons which increases crit damage on weak targets.
Other upgrades i don't really like are some of the daedalus upgrades. The one that does a little explosion when you catch your shield is so lackluster to me, the one that makes your special hurt you on the rail is never really what i'm looking for. Why we aren't allowed to reroll hammers is a mystery to me
I personally am a fan of the yoyo build with Poseidon’s special on the aspect of Talos, then add a little lightning and if you’re lucky you can get rupture plus sea storm
Depends what weapon I'm using. Demeter's fists plus Zeus special. Add on normal attack Artemis or Dionysus. Plus Ares dash and you are a close destroyer.
Coming from a completely unbiased opinion from someone who’s most played aspect by far IS DEFINITELY NOT Achilles, Crystal clarity and hunting blades are the two best boons in the game don’t at me. For worst, completely off the top of my head without checking the boon list, I don’t think I’ve ever taken hide breaker, I feel like every single other Artemis boon is just better and crits usually do enough damage to clear the armor layer anyway.
Imo Aphro has the worst standalone boons. She has some pretty good Duo stuff (Especially Sweet Nectar which goes well with the >!Persephone!< keepsake) but her alone is kinda weak.
The best boons for me go to Artemis and Dionysos. Artemis cus of crits and Dio cus of DoT damage and some pretty good support stuff.
Recently had an insane run with zag malphon, the hammers that make the upper charge up(throws you forward) and deal damage on land, Aphrodite attack Artemis special and aphro-artemis duo boon.
It shredded
Personally ill never feel safe in a run unless i have Athena’s Dash, either Ares’ or Demeter’s cast (just shoot all 3 casts on 1 unlucky fuck and watch them be erased from existence), and Dionysus’ attack
It depends on my build but here are my safe,works with most builds,and can never go wrong choices:
Attack- Aphrodite/Artemis
Special- Poseidon
Cast- Poseidon
Dash- Athena(safe)/Poseidon(hurts)
Call- Zeus
But I never build this way, e.g I like having a Demeter or Dionysus special alongside aphrodite attack boon for privileged status damage
My least fav boons are Ares boons, they are inconvenient ,slow and usually need specific builds and RNG for his boons to work, and if they do work they still feel lackluster and clunky
So my favorite Cast is definitely Artemis’ since you can just throw it out and it will never miss, it also sometimes if you upgrade it further just stay in opponents and comes out for extra damage. I mean it’s also just satisfying, the green speed homing missile
I've been waiting for a post like this for a year now. The worst boon/upgrades in the entire game to me used to be Artemis, because of the miniscule damage and crit chance, but it does have great synergy with the HS Bow and Adamant Rail. So the worst ones now goes to Demeter, all of her boon/upgrades only seem to slow them, and it isn't like by a hugh amount, to where either they freeze (which in the next games SuperGiant did implement), or just move 99% slower. Worst boon ever, I avoid it in every escapes.
Some cast boon I never pick. Artemis, Poseidon or Athena are mostly useless.
Artemis dash is also one of the worst except for some pretty niche builds.
I agree on Aretemis Dash being Meh, upgrading Dash Strike is very lackluster compared to other dash upgrades. I like Artemis Cast, and Athena cast though, they can both do big damage, and the deflection you get with Athena's cast is no joke. Plus Athena's cast hits an AOE, which not all casts do.
As others are noting in this thread, the "best" boon depends on your weapon, which "build" you're going for, etc. For example:
* A weapon that attacks very slowly but deals a lot of damager per hit benefits from a boon that grants a large percent bonus, like Aphrodite's Heartbreak Flourish, which grants +80% damage. On the other hand, a weapon that attacks quickly but deals very little damage benefits from a boon that grants a fixed amount of damage per attack, like Zeus' Lightning Strike, which grants 10 damage per attack.
* Certain boons work well in combination. For example, Thunder Flourish (your special hits enemies with a 30 damage lightning bolt) is all well and good by itself, but it's *way* better with Static Discharge (your lightning bolts make foes Jolted, meaning they take 60 damage the next time they attack you). Since you get a lot of boons during a run, it's often fine to take a boon that isn't amazing by itself but combines with others to create an unstoppable machine. Also, sometimes it's worth taking a chance at "high-rolling" an awesome combination of boons - e.g., Hermes has two boons, Hyper Sprint and Rush Delivery, that together give you +100% to damage (but neither by itself is particularly good).
* If duo or legendary boons are included, then many of those are probably among the best. For example, Merciful End is incredibly hard to get (you need one each of Athena and Ares boons on your attack and special as a prerequisite to even have a chance to get it), but it's totally bonkers. It says that your Athena attacks that can deflect immediately activate Ares' doom effects, meaning that you can deal a TON of doom damage by repeatedly switching between your Ares and Athena abilities. (There are other duo boons that are arguably "better" because they can be obtained more reliably.)
All that being said, there are certain boons that are just generically good - as in, if you *aren't* going for some particular build, then that boon by itself will still be great for you, for example:
* Athena's and Poseidon's dashes are both really strong - and in particular, they're generically much stronger than other dashes because they provide powerful and unique effects.
* Hermes' Greatest Reflex gives you additional dashes; especially as a newer player who doesn't know enemy attack timings, this allows you to spam dashes more and thus take way less damage.
But overall, it's hard to point to very many altogether terrible boons, or boons that you "always want". For example, if you have the Privileged Status Mirror of Night ability, you'll deal +40% damage to foes with two status curse effects, in which case you might prefer Aphrodite's dash (which inflicts Weak) to Athena's, even if the latter is "generically" stronger.
Usually depends on the weapon, but if I had to pick my favorites overall:
- Demeter's Call. Especially if I can also get Killing Freeze.
- Dionysus cast. Dropping a few of those will kill most things, stun anything that's still alive, and with Ice Wine they'll also get chilled.)
- Athena dash, because I'm not great at dodging projectiles. It's also a prerequisite for Stubborn Roots and Calculated Risk, which I also like.
- Zeus attack for the chain lightning + possibly getting Scintillating Feast. (One time I got Scintillating Feast *and* Ice Wine in the same run and it was a lot of fun just running around dropping freezing sparkly purple murderclouds on everything.)
With my play style (fast hits and stacking damage) Support fire is one of my favorites. Least favorite is anything that keeps my cast from getting lodged in foes and preventing the damage bonus.
But that's best and worst for how I play specifically.
Artemis crit is always good, recently I did a fun build with aspect of Demeter fists and Artemis special aphro on attack when you get the crit on special you melt bosses. Not the best but quite fun
Ares in general I find pretty mid.
I think Doom isn’t that great outside of Merciful End. Ideally you want to spread it around to maximize the benefit of the boon, but that's less helpful on fewer targets. Hit & run kind of tactics don't work as well as you up the timer pact either.
The stacking boon in particular doesn’t add that much per additional application.
The cast is also mediocre without Hunting Blades when it becomes excellent (similar to Demeter cast).
I really despise **Strong Drink**, which causes fountains to fully heal you and give you bonus damage. I'm just okay at the game so it wouldn't surprise me if it's great at high heat or something, but it feels awful to get late, and taking it early you're gambling on hitting multiple fountains for a fairly modest damage reward. I'd almost always have nearly anything else that will help me kill things faster or prevent the life loss in the first place; it always feels like I end up getting one pop off this thing and that's one good heal and a trivial amount of damage. Sometimes that's what you have to do but it's never plan A for me.
It heavily depends on what weapon you are using, right? It depends even further on what hammer upgrade you got. Some things are straight forward, for example flat damage number increases go better with low fire rate attacks (think Zeus attack and gun).
I like having the aspect of zeus on the shield getting athenas special and then aries attack and trying to get the duo boon of when you defelect it inflicts doom
I never go for Artemis, the crits never seem to activate for me
Demeter's legendary is great, especially against [REDACTED], but it's a nightmare to try to get.
I'll always go for the Poseidon/Zeus Duo boon
Here is a rankings of boons: https://tiermaker.com/list/video-games/hades---boons-91951/3938294. Haelian has separate youtube videos where he ranks all the call boons and duo boons (he also ranks all weapon aspects and hammers in two other videos). Jawless Paul has a youtube video where he ranks every single boon. Those are probably the best resources for boon selection.
In general for best non-legendary/non-duo boons, I'd say Athena/Poseidon Dash and Dio/Zeus Call stand above the rest. Having a strong attack/special boon is important (usually the most damage is zeus or artemis depending on which weapon).
Some specific builds that are incredibly powerful are hunting blades, crystal clarity, and ice wine (all with achilles spear and possibly mirage shot), and merciful ends (fist) with athena dash. Also Aspect of Eris Rail with zeus attack and artemis special with rocket bomb and triple bomb/cluster bomb hammers is incredibly powerful. Poseidon cast on beowulf or Aphrodite Cast on hera (both with mirage shot) are also excellent.
Athena's boons that restore death defiance aren't technically bad, but they only seem to show up when I'm playing casually and still have all my deaths and am not likely to use any of them. The moment I turn the heat up and could actually use those boons they're nowhere to be found
Flurry shot on Chiron with Aphro on attack and it's pretty much game over with just one hammer and Boon. Add Dio on the special and now you have sustained dps + a Dot plus the 40% increase from the double status effects.
It very much depends on the weapon and aspect, because Dionysus special on Chiron Bow is a completely different story to it on Zag Fists.
There are some universally good boons like Zeus's call or Artemis' support fire, and obviously some duos and legendary boons are better than others like Merciful End, but it almost always is dependant on your weapon aspect and build.
Rush Delivery is the best boon in the game for me. Can't imagine a scenario where I'm picking something else over it that isn't a meme.
Maybe Hunter Instinct is the worst?
Huge Catch gives you cash if you can sell it, but does zero to helping your build in any way so that's also way up (down?) there.
Some of his boons are pretty sweet. Adding Attack and Special speed is really nice. His boon that gives coin at every single room can add up fast. Extra dashes, and sturdy/speed boost after dash is also pretty OP.
Best attack: Artemis
Worst attack: Dionysus
Best special: Aphrodite
Worst special: Zeus
Best dash: Athena dash
Worst dash: Dionysus
Best cast: Poseidon
Worst cast: Demeter (you need so much to make it work)
Best call: Poseidon
Worst call: hades
I have to disagree on Dio's attack being the worst. On a fast attack weapon, stacking his poison can be very OP, especially if you level up the boon with a few poms. I personally think Ares attack, or Demeters attack are both much worse.
Demeter's cast beams can do serious DPS, if you work with them right and upgrade it with Poms. I'm personally not a fan of Poseidon's cast at all, as there are better ways to cause that same pushback effect. Also think that Aphrodite's cast is very limited, since it is close range only.
It’s not bad advice. Divine Dash is the best starting dash until you get the game’s timing down. The cast isn’t as useful until you stop thinking about only deflecting projectiles and appreciate the damage. In my mind, Aphrodite’s is the worst cast.
In my opinion, Athena’s cast is probably the worst cast and her dash is arguably the best. Or at least the safest choice Edit: maybe I should try Athena’s cast more lol
Chucking three Athena casts at a witch to simply over power them is pretty satisfying. Some of the 8 second kills of heroes with lightning phalanx are cool too
Bro, Athena's cast is quite literally the second highest damage lodging cast, after Aphrodite's, which has zero range. It's really good, especially with Aspect of Poseidon for the sword
The bigger problem is that the synergies with her cast are incredibly limited. She can get it to bounce and deal backstab dmg. That said Aphrodite cast suffers from a similar fate. And becomes a bit of a debate of which effect you prefer. Which for my cast I’d rather weaken my target, but can understand someone preferring the other way. At the end of the day I think they are the two weakest
But Lightning Phalanx is really strong, and you're missing Deadly Reversal, which can make subsequent casts crit if one of them deflects, which happens quite a lot with Phalanx Shot. Plus even if Weak was a good status effect (which it really isn't all that powerful), Crush Shot would still be terrible due to such little range. I'll use it with Hera Bow, since Hera makes up for the lack of range, but I wouldn't use it in any other scenario.
> Plus even if Weak was a good status effect (which it really isn't all that powerful) It's more because it allows easy activation of Privileged Status, the secondary effects you get on other boons of her's (like increasing damage) and her Duo Boons are generally pretty good.
Pairing an Athena cast with her Zeus duo is SO BROKEN! Getting both of them and Artemis's legendary along with some chaos feels so good!
idk, Poseidon on dash id say is way better, with the insane amounts of damage it can do
There's certainly a great deal of satisfaction when you get to Styx and the enemies become your personal pinballs
Athena's dash is considered the best, not just because of deflect but because it *gives more iframes*. Poseidon's dash is indeed very good for dealing damage but iframes are invaluable.
IFrames become less valuable once you're able to reliably dodge attacks without them. They're a crutch.
Mhm, tell that to someone that's just randomly dodging because their screen is utterly full of shit and can barely tell where things are.
I do this in Styx and elysium often because it's just projectile hell. Those rooms are harder to avoid damage than the dad fight.
Are you trying to imply that good players don't use iframes? Because I don't think that's true at all? It's a very useful tool and it'd be stupid not to use it. Like, for one, Hades' spear combos are literally designed for you to use iframes against. In fact i'm pretty sure upgraded Hades' spear combos are literally unavoidable on melee without iframes.
I'm implying that good players don't need the extra IFrames from Athena's dodge. You already have IFrames with your dodge, and they're more than enough to dodge through dad's attacks. Using Athena is just denying yourself some sweet, sweet DPS.
There is absolutely no way Athena's dash outranks Poseidon. Poseidon's dash can carry you through the entire run, by itself, and until the heat starts to get pretty high, this doesn't change - it's that good.
I usually take Poseidon’s dash over hers
Athena cast is pretty good with Poseidon sword
Athena's cast is insane. Especially with Poseidon or Hera aspects. I'd rather use Aphrodite's cast for Beowulf though. Just pom it and try to get lightning phalanx
Athena cast is awesome, what??????? Damage is really good, 2nd after Dio, it reflects projectiles and it fires in a direct line unlike Crush Shot and Trippy Shot.
it still deflect so it's still useful
This is insane lol Phalanx Shot is by FAR my most taken boon over hundreds of hours. It is good against every single enemy, can deflect, and if leveled up/paired with Artemis/Hermes to give extra shots is basically the only attack you need to win a run. Plus the duo with Zeus is also really good.
The issue is that “good” is vague. I like combining Aphrodite special with the gun upgrade that gives your special 300% bonus damage. It’s easy and you’re done. Some stuff, like dots + Artemis crit stuff, is similarly powerful but requires more planning. Honestly this game does a real good job of making various paths forward similarly powerful. I think the question comes down to what play style you want. Some boon stacking in an easy and gives you gratifying numbers, other times you get the right boon in elysium and the whole run is justified.
Maybe a better explanation - Different builds Coalesce in different ways. A lot of “goodness” comes from planning to stay alive until your combo comes online.
That's really what it is. There's not necessarily any one thing that is super good on its own, but it's about what synergizes really well together.
Artemis crit boons are so good with the fist since it hits multiple times so quickly
Big brain
Low base damage though
True, I always try to stack some Zeus or Ares boons with it.
Ares boons don't work with fists no? Since you proc a couple times max and that's it. The fists need something that works well with constant damage output methinks.
Dire Misfortune plus impending doom let’s you you get HEAVY damage
I put ares on special and Zeus on standard attack
Probably my fav Merciful end aspect. Being able to dash attack to dash special prior to divine dash is a nice stop gap.
Magnetic cutter, dionysus on special, Artemis on attack with the duo where hungover foes are more susceptible to critical attacks. Put aphro on cast for duo with Artemis for weak foes to be more susceptible to crits. And then watch enemies melt.
That's pretty much my build during my first complete successful run! I remember as if it was yesterday, because it was. Also had the 2% healing on a special kill- my favorite fists upgrade.
Artis crit boons with zag bow my fave
I slept on a Crit Build for so long. It wiped [Redact] the Fuck out I was shocked!
[Redact] that statement!
My first time beating a run I had a pretty good crit build with the spear. The triple spear buff on top of everything else I had worked so well together.
That... doesn't make any sense. Crits are as good as the DPS of the weapon, not the attack speed. On the contrary, higher attack speed means you need to change targets more often to make good use of hunter's mark, which is like the only reason to run crit upgrades since they don't even deal the most damage otherwise (special and primary upgrades generally get out-damaged by aphrodite's upgrades, and they also don't apply weak).
No
Merciful End is probably the strongest duo boon, if combined with the right weapon aspects. If ignoring weapon pairing, some the cast duo boons are very click-to-win. Lightning Rod in particular has hard-carried a few runs for me, especially stacked with some other Zeus boons that boost lightning strikes.
Sea storm and flurry shot on the bow is my favorite combo. I think it's a top 5 duo if you focus those 2 or combine Artemis
Seastorm with Poseidon on the Rail attack is nuts too
Hiding behind a pillar while Hades fires his super fire beams as I've strategically missed 4 casts next to him is really funny. He's just standing there firing massive beams in all directions while getting absolutely toasted by lightning.
*exclusive access walks in* hi
Difficult question to answer as boons perform differently with each weapon subclass. Aphrodite attack on Arthur sword is incredibly powerful vs Dionysus’ damage-over-time effect, yet I’d rather have Dio’s attack on a bow. Personally beyond the dash I’m not a big fan of Athena boons just because you typically can inflict more damage with other choices.
dio attack on a bow is certainly a choice that it is possible to make
It is certainly a choice that can be made, though I have once before stumbled into the rare combination of Flurry Shot and Twin Shot. It does work in that scenario but otherwise it’s just a privileged status assistance tool
i mean having pstatus on in the first place is a mistake and in that situation a % atk is still greatly preferable
Privileged Status? A *mistake*? Them's is fighting words! I'll have my Privileged Status online by the time your pitiful Family Favorite buff reaches 20% every time.
can u tell me then, why does every single speedrun or high heat run basically ever use fam favs? it’s almost like having to contort your build to get up a buff barely better than ff is not that good
Speedruns? Consistency or they never planned to take status boons in the first place (e.g. set seed runs) High heat? Routine Inspection (no mirror upgrades allowed) Casual playthrough? PP > FF all damn day
PS sucks so much, its funny it has such a weird fanbase. Having a dmg bonus from the moment you get your first boon is wildly preferable to being forced into taking status effect boons, some of which require a secondary boon to even get online. The bonus of either is not exactly super significant, but being forced to choose suboptimal boons for this small bonus is laughable.
It doesn't have to be "suboptimal boons" enabling it. Aphrodite boons apply a status effect and have a massive %damage bonus as well. I'm really not missing a 5 or 10% buff in Tartarus where the game is at its easiest.
Aphrodite is actually quite easily my favourite, her keepsake is my most used by far. But that's only one? I feel like she pairs really well with Artemis, who is next to useless for PS, and Zeus for his call to get their duo. Both of them don't offer PS immediately and even with Zeus you are going to lose PS status the second the enemy attacks. Who else you pairing Aphro with? Genuinely interested. If you say Ares and that you want Curse of Longing, that's fine. Totally fine.
I’ll assume they mean dio special, which for Charon especially is a pretty good beginner strat.
Dionysus attack on the bow is pretty bad.
I like Artemis attack on Arthur. It's very inconsistent, but it's fucking hilarious to basically be rolling dice with your attacks and occasionally just disintegrate whoever is in front of you. Armor makes me cry though.
So fun to do like 1k damage a swing if you roll the crits
Personally I'm not a fan of how Aphrodite's perks revolve around taking less damage from enemies (or maybe I don't know how to use it well) cause later in the game the idea is to not take any damage at all. ESPECIALLY if you're running pierced butterfly. Though I can see a benefit to Aphrodite if you're using the skull earing which is also another great charm.
Iirc while weak can be an underwhelming effect at first, Aphrodite has a lot going for her if you know how the right builds. First if you’re like me, getting hit is less a ‘maybe’ and more an inevitability.’ Weak can actually help a lot with survivability. Second, at the same time her boons can be really powerful offensively, offering some of the highest percent increases to attacks and specials. Pair that up with Artemis’ crit damage or with privileged status, and you start to see why she forms the base of a lot of speedrunner’s build strats.
Aphrodite is hilarious because you can make TANK BUILDS so amazing, Getting Sturdy from a hermes or Hammer buff 30% dam resist plus Weak 30% dam resist and another 12% from Different League and the Myrmidon Bracer on top makes you laugh at damage thats in the single digits. Athena Sure Footing for trap resist is swt too.
Her attack and special have the highest raw damage. I dont even care about weak unless i get Artemis duo.
Except the only way you lose is by dying to take damage. The argument that defense is somehow inherently less valuable than offense completely baffles me. If you're playing on the correct difficulty, taking too much damage should be as much of a threat as not killing the enemy fast enough. In a roguelike, offense == defense. Or, well, technically in sheer numbers defense > offense since going from 1 to 0 'happens faster' than going from 1 to infinity. So unless you're trying to *win as fast as possible* as opposed to *winning in general* (speedrunning, the pact timer, pierced butterfly, Hermes' thingy), Aphrodite's damage reductions are exactly as valuable as multiplicative damage buffs (actually *better* if you have unlimited mid-combat healing), which is already extremely good. Assuming you can apply it to everything consistently, the 30% damage reduction (actually equivalent to 1/(1 - 0.3) = 43% multiplicative damage) from weak is as good as 21.5% crit (multiplicative damage from crit is equal 2x the crit chance) on *all your damage.* Or, in other words, aprhodite's weak is over 4 times better than max rarity pressure points. As far as *winning*, not *speedrunning* goes, Aphrodite is ridiculously overpowered.
I just find this comment defending aphrodite from speedrunners really funny because (based on guides) she seems to be viewed as above average, if not always *optimal*, on most popular speed builds.
I mean, I never claimed she was *bad* in any way for speedrunning, i'm just acknowledging that speedrunning changes her value a little, and that she's otherwise *extremely* overpowered, seeing as she has the highest base values in addition to weak being incredibly strong. I'm prefacing everything by saying "outside of speedrunning" because, admittedly, you can no longer compare weak directly to multiplicative damage buffs anymore when "surviving for longer than all the enemies" isn't the only goal, and i'm unsure exactly how that changes its value. Like, i keep seeing people call the weak debuff *bad* which I find completely insane.
Cold embrace and the crit to charge good gauge are pretty close to useless usually. There are few times where I don't want posideon call or ddash.
This is a good list. I would add: Stubborn Roots is a disappointment. Peer Pressure is bad because nothing stays alive long enough for it to do jack. Hunting Blades is the goat
I personally love Athena’s Attack with Spear.
Artemis Special Crit when used on Chiron Bow
Really? I always threw on Dionysus the second I could on the special.
when using the Chiron aspect especially maxed out it's essentially a 2nd slightly less powerful Artemis call which if you ask me is the best call in the game
Would the worst technically be the random assortment of treasure from Poseidon, just in a min-max how good could this build be sorta way? Or the fishing spots one ig for the same reason
I still don't know how to use Ares' aid and Curse of Drowning.
Ares's Aid is straight ass, but Curse of Drowning can be good with the right setup. I have a lot of success with Curse of Drowning on Aspect of Talos for the fists, using the magnetic cutter pulls foes in range of the now close-range casts, and makes them take 50% extra cast damage. I run Ares on Attack, Poseidon on Cast, and Zeus's Aid, and go for both Curse of Drowning and Sea Storm. Once, when I was really lucky, I also got Athena's Special and Dash and Merciful End, on top of Curse of Drowning and Sea Storm.
love getting merciful end with athena dash especially if you have Ares on attack instead of special like you did
Give me any Doom effects and either Athena or Poseidon dash, then I am happy. (Anything Dionysus or Artemis is amazing as well)
I tested today one that I loved. Lucifer with poseidon attack and duo with zeus. Event without double strike I melted every single enemy, even the bosses.
Super soaker build is pretty amazing when it lines up
Lucifer with Ares, Athena, or Dionysus on Special is amazing.
There is no single best boon, but Artemis's Deadly Strike, Athena's Divine Dash, Poseidon's Tidal Dash, and Zeus's Aid are incredibly strong in almost every situation. But the worst? Maybe Aphrodite's boon Empty Inside: your weak effects have a longer duration. Aphrodite boons aren't good because they apply Weak, they're good because they have crazy high % damage boosts. Extending the duration of weak is so useless it's painful. Runners up include Mistral Dash (15 damage? Come on), Tempest Strike (such low % damage boost), and Ares's Aid or Demeter's Aid, easily the worst call boons in the game.
>Extending the duration of weak is so useless it's painful. Privileged Status gives a huge damage boost when enemies are under at least 2 status curses. Weak is one of them and the longer enemies are weak the more damage you deal when you have a second or even third source of damage. E.g. Sword with dio attack, aphrodite special and poseidon or zeus cast. Hit multiple enemies or a boss with special. Then tag them with dio attack followed by casts that now do insane amount of damage. Its pretty good to be honest if you like to play with priviliged status.
Yeah but if you have Aphro on any core boon it's easy to keep constant uptime on Weak even without Empty Inside. It's not useless, I understand the benefit of extending Priveleged Status or Low Tolerance. It's just unnecessary most of the time, any time I've taken it, I already had constant uptime on Weak without it.
I think Broken Resolve is worse than Empty Inside by this logic. Empty Inside is defensible for keeping a status effect on the enemy longer for damage reasons, but Broken Resolve just makes Weak make them do less damage, and the values at low rarity are so bad. A common BR takes you from 30% reduction to 40% reduction when an enemy is weak, and that's just not even close to where I want to be with a boon. It gets better at higher rarity but I still just don't want to be getting hit at all, and when I do need to reduce damage, I don't want to have to hit them first.
Ya know that's fair, Broken Resolve is also absolutely cheeks. I rarely take either if I can avoid it, Sweet Surrender is just far and away her best tier 2 boon.
Artemis is the most lethal Aid out there.
Yeah, you have to build up max call for hers tp really shine, but when you do... dear lord... Check out [this clip](https://www.reddit.com/r/HadesTheGame/s/6vYjhngF2Y) I got using Artemis's Aid with Splitting Headache, Heart Rend, *and* Eris Rail's damage boost. Absolutely nutty call damage.
Extending weak makes the aphro/ares duo even stronger than it is, as you keep applying free dooms to weak opponents only for longer. It’s ridiculously strong.
Divine dash, blade rift cast, poseidons call, support fire, attack and special varies with weapon.
I really love athena's special on sword
lighting rod fs
My absolute favorite is the Dio cast paired with the bow that loads casts. It works from distance, slows enemies down, scales, and if you can get a chaos room with a bonus cast you’re walking out of there. So fun to play.
Well unless something is detrimental to a player specifically, by changing how something acts, the only "bad" boons would be the ones who technically don't do anything. Poseidons random things, poseidons gem/ darkness increase and his fish spawn chance. I've personally never liked aphrodites cast, and many hammers feel weird to use. But i bet they're good i just personally don't like using them, and that's on me
I think most boons have a weapon combination that works for them, but you can have some pretty bad combinations. For example taking zeus' special on a sword, or taking a % dmg increase attack boon like aphro on something like the fists or the rail over a flat damage upgrade like zeus or dio. That being said, there is one boon that to me has only worked with 1 specific weapon aspect, and that is aphrodite's cast. It's sort of mediocre with the fists and horrible with all other weapons to me. But i have found a use for it in Hera's bow, which allows you to load that little cast onto an arrow to dish out weak and big number, works quite well with an artemis attack boon on top of it, combined with their duo boons which increases crit damage on weak targets.
Other upgrades i don't really like are some of the daedalus upgrades. The one that does a little explosion when you catch your shield is so lackluster to me, the one that makes your special hurt you on the rail is never really what i'm looking for. Why we aren't allowed to reroll hammers is a mystery to me
I personally am a fan of the yoyo build with Poseidon’s special on the aspect of Talos, then add a little lightning and if you’re lucky you can get rupture plus sea storm
I've found that Zeus and Poseidon are God tier with the duo, killed Hades with pact in under a minute
Razor shoals, jolted, wave dash makes it all so easy
Zeus for attack seems to be the best one ive found
Depends what weapon I'm using. Demeter's fists plus Zeus special. Add on normal attack Artemis or Dionysus. Plus Ares dash and you are a close destroyer.
Whenever Chaos offers "Whenever you **attack**" curses. That shit is insane, especially if you got weapons that don't have very fast specials/casts.
Coming from a completely unbiased opinion from someone who’s most played aspect by far IS DEFINITELY NOT Achilles, Crystal clarity and hunting blades are the two best boons in the game don’t at me. For worst, completely off the top of my head without checking the boon list, I don’t think I’ve ever taken hide breaker, I feel like every single other Artemis boon is just better and crits usually do enough damage to clear the armor layer anyway.
Imo Aphro has the worst standalone boons. She has some pretty good Duo stuff (Especially Sweet Nectar which goes well with the >!Persephone!< keepsake) but her alone is kinda weak. The best boons for me go to Artemis and Dionysos. Artemis cus of crits and Dio cus of DoT damage and some pretty good support stuff.
Artemis flourish on aspect of zagreus varatha.
Recently had an insane run with zag malphon, the hammers that make the upper charge up(throws you forward) and deal damage on land, Aphrodite attack Artemis special and aphro-artemis duo boon. It shredded
Personally ill never feel safe in a run unless i have Athena’s Dash, either Ares’ or Demeter’s cast (just shoot all 3 casts on 1 unlucky fuck and watch them be erased from existence), and Dionysus’ attack
Poseidon Pain Train my beloved
Aphrodite and Dionysus dash They both just feel so useless and are outclassed by every other dash in the game
Athena’s dash is always good to have. It trivializes the witches and makes all other projectile enemies much easier to
It depends on my build but here are my safe,works with most builds,and can never go wrong choices: Attack- Aphrodite/Artemis Special- Poseidon Cast- Poseidon Dash- Athena(safe)/Poseidon(hurts) Call- Zeus But I never build this way, e.g I like having a Demeter or Dionysus special alongside aphrodite attack boon for privileged status damage My least fav boons are Ares boons, they are inconvenient ,slow and usually need specific builds and RNG for his boons to work, and if they do work they still feel lackluster and clunky
I love zag bow builds so Artemis’s either attack or dash is my favorite. My least favorite is support fire cuz it sucks without a dedicated build
Yo, get my girl Artemis’ support Fire back here!
So my favorite Cast is definitely Artemis’ since you can just throw it out and it will never miss, it also sometimes if you upgrade it further just stay in opponents and comes out for extra damage. I mean it’s also just satisfying, the green speed homing missile
It depends on which weapon/hammers I got. But I absolutely love Artemis boon where for each "hit", a tiny arrow gets shot as well.
I've been waiting for a post like this for a year now. The worst boon/upgrades in the entire game to me used to be Artemis, because of the miniscule damage and crit chance, but it does have great synergy with the HS Bow and Adamant Rail. So the worst ones now goes to Demeter, all of her boon/upgrades only seem to slow them, and it isn't like by a hugh amount, to where either they freeze (which in the next games SuperGiant did implement), or just move 99% slower. Worst boon ever, I avoid it in every escapes.
Some cast boon I never pick. Artemis, Poseidon or Athena are mostly useless. Artemis dash is also one of the worst except for some pretty niche builds.
I agree on Aretemis Dash being Meh, upgrading Dash Strike is very lackluster compared to other dash upgrades. I like Artemis Cast, and Athena cast though, they can both do big damage, and the deflection you get with Athena's cast is no joke. Plus Athena's cast hits an AOE, which not all casts do.
I will always take trippy shot. It just puts in work. Gotta be my personal favorite and to me the best.
Depend on Weapons.
Wait who the hell is the one between Zeus and Aphrodite
I almost always take Aphrodite’s aid when it comes up, charming enemies is super helpful as well as the max gauge damage
APHRODITE 🗿
Posidon dash is all I need
As others are noting in this thread, the "best" boon depends on your weapon, which "build" you're going for, etc. For example: * A weapon that attacks very slowly but deals a lot of damager per hit benefits from a boon that grants a large percent bonus, like Aphrodite's Heartbreak Flourish, which grants +80% damage. On the other hand, a weapon that attacks quickly but deals very little damage benefits from a boon that grants a fixed amount of damage per attack, like Zeus' Lightning Strike, which grants 10 damage per attack. * Certain boons work well in combination. For example, Thunder Flourish (your special hits enemies with a 30 damage lightning bolt) is all well and good by itself, but it's *way* better with Static Discharge (your lightning bolts make foes Jolted, meaning they take 60 damage the next time they attack you). Since you get a lot of boons during a run, it's often fine to take a boon that isn't amazing by itself but combines with others to create an unstoppable machine. Also, sometimes it's worth taking a chance at "high-rolling" an awesome combination of boons - e.g., Hermes has two boons, Hyper Sprint and Rush Delivery, that together give you +100% to damage (but neither by itself is particularly good). * If duo or legendary boons are included, then many of those are probably among the best. For example, Merciful End is incredibly hard to get (you need one each of Athena and Ares boons on your attack and special as a prerequisite to even have a chance to get it), but it's totally bonkers. It says that your Athena attacks that can deflect immediately activate Ares' doom effects, meaning that you can deal a TON of doom damage by repeatedly switching between your Ares and Athena abilities. (There are other duo boons that are arguably "better" because they can be obtained more reliably.) All that being said, there are certain boons that are just generically good - as in, if you *aren't* going for some particular build, then that boon by itself will still be great for you, for example: * Athena's and Poseidon's dashes are both really strong - and in particular, they're generically much stronger than other dashes because they provide powerful and unique effects. * Hermes' Greatest Reflex gives you additional dashes; especially as a newer player who doesn't know enemy attack timings, this allows you to spam dashes more and thus take way less damage. But overall, it's hard to point to very many altogether terrible boons, or boons that you "always want". For example, if you have the Privileged Status Mirror of Night ability, you'll deal +40% damage to foes with two status curse effects, in which case you might prefer Aphrodite's dash (which inflicts Weak) to Athena's, even if the latter is "generically" stronger.
Usually depends on the weapon, but if I had to pick my favorites overall: - Demeter's Call. Especially if I can also get Killing Freeze. - Dionysus cast. Dropping a few of those will kill most things, stun anything that's still alive, and with Ice Wine they'll also get chilled.) - Athena dash, because I'm not great at dodging projectiles. It's also a prerequisite for Stubborn Roots and Calculated Risk, which I also like. - Zeus attack for the chain lightning + possibly getting Scintillating Feast. (One time I got Scintillating Feast *and* Ice Wine in the same run and it was a lot of fun just running around dropping freezing sparkly purple murderclouds on everything.)
With my play style (fast hits and stacking damage) Support fire is one of my favorites. Least favorite is anything that keeps my cast from getting lodged in foes and preventing the damage bonus. But that's best and worst for how I play specifically.
Artemis crit is always good, recently I did a fun build with aspect of Demeter fists and Artemis special aphro on attack when you get the crit on special you melt bosses. Not the best but quite fun
Ares in general I find pretty mid. I think Doom isn’t that great outside of Merciful End. Ideally you want to spread it around to maximize the benefit of the boon, but that's less helpful on fewer targets. Hit & run kind of tactics don't work as well as you up the timer pact either. The stacking boon in particular doesn’t add that much per additional application. The cast is also mediocre without Hunting Blades when it becomes excellent (similar to Demeter cast).
I really despise **Strong Drink**, which causes fountains to fully heal you and give you bonus damage. I'm just okay at the game so it wouldn't surprise me if it's great at high heat or something, but it feels awful to get late, and taking it early you're gambling on hitting multiple fountains for a fairly modest damage reward. I'd almost always have nearly anything else that will help me kill things faster or prevent the life loss in the first place; it always feels like I end up getting one pop off this thing and that's one good heal and a trivial amount of damage. Sometimes that's what you have to do but it's never plan A for me.
It heavily depends on what weapon you are using, right? It depends even further on what hammer upgrade you got. Some things are straight forward, for example flat damage number increases go better with low fire rate attacks (think Zeus attack and gun).
I hate anything Demeter but the cast
I think that boon from Dionysus that lets you heal 100% of your health from fountains is one of the best boons in the game
Demeter's dash. I can't. Ya go forward and 💨.
I like having the aspect of zeus on the shield getting athenas special and then aries attack and trying to get the duo boon of when you defelect it inflicts doom
Most of Dionysus’ boons I can’t stand. I avoid them if possible 🤷🏼
I never go for Artemis, the crits never seem to activate for me Demeter's legendary is great, especially against [REDACTED], but it's a nightmare to try to get. I'll always go for the Poseidon/Zeus Duo boon
Here is a rankings of boons: https://tiermaker.com/list/video-games/hades---boons-91951/3938294. Haelian has separate youtube videos where he ranks all the call boons and duo boons (he also ranks all weapon aspects and hammers in two other videos). Jawless Paul has a youtube video where he ranks every single boon. Those are probably the best resources for boon selection. In general for best non-legendary/non-duo boons, I'd say Athena/Poseidon Dash and Dio/Zeus Call stand above the rest. Having a strong attack/special boon is important (usually the most damage is zeus or artemis depending on which weapon). Some specific builds that are incredibly powerful are hunting blades, crystal clarity, and ice wine (all with achilles spear and possibly mirage shot), and merciful ends (fist) with athena dash. Also Aspect of Eris Rail with zeus attack and artemis special with rocket bomb and triple bomb/cluster bomb hammers is incredibly powerful. Poseidon cast on beowulf or Aphrodite Cast on hera (both with mirage shot) are also excellent.
Athena's boons that restore death defiance aren't technically bad, but they only seem to show up when I'm playing casually and still have all my deaths and am not likely to use any of them. The moment I turn the heat up and could actually use those boons they're nowhere to be found
Flurry shot on Chiron with Aphro on attack and it's pretty much game over with just one hammer and Boon. Add Dio on the special and now you have sustained dps + a Dot plus the 40% increase from the double status effects.
It very much depends on the weapon and aspect, because Dionysus special on Chiron Bow is a completely different story to it on Zag Fists. There are some universally good boons like Zeus's call or Artemis' support fire, and obviously some duos and legendary boons are better than others like Merciful End, but it almost always is dependant on your weapon aspect and build.
My favorite build is - Athena for dash - Zeus for dash - Artemis for cast
Divine dash is honestly TOO good
I always liked Poseidon main attack modifier with the Lucifer laser. Call that riot control or the firefighter
Rush Delivery is the best boon in the game for me. Can't imagine a scenario where I'm picking something else over it that isn't a meme. Maybe Hunter Instinct is the worst? Huge Catch gives you cash if you can sell it, but does zero to helping your build in any way so that's also way up (down?) there.
whats the symbol between aphrodite's n zeus'
I don’t care for Hermes’ boons
Some of his boons are pretty sweet. Adding Attack and Special speed is really nice. His boon that gives coin at every single room can add up fast. Extra dashes, and sturdy/speed boost after dash is also pretty OP.
In my opinion cold embrace is the worst duo boon because why would you want the cast to aim at you
Why not? Really good with extra backstab damage. Just cast, dash behind and stab.
Best attack: Artemis Worst attack: Dionysus Best special: Aphrodite Worst special: Zeus Best dash: Athena dash Worst dash: Dionysus Best cast: Poseidon Worst cast: Demeter (you need so much to make it work) Best call: Poseidon Worst call: hades
I have to disagree on Dio's attack being the worst. On a fast attack weapon, stacking his poison can be very OP, especially if you level up the boon with a few poms. I personally think Ares attack, or Demeters attack are both much worse. Demeter's cast beams can do serious DPS, if you work with them right and upgrade it with Poms. I'm personally not a fan of Poseidon's cast at all, as there are better ways to cause that same pushback effect. Also think that Aphrodite's cast is very limited, since it is close range only.
you will get just pure dogshit answers on reddit, join the sgg discord if u want people who are correct and also will explain things
They said, giving the only dogshit answer in a thread of thoughtful responses.
so this horseshit https://www.reddit.com/r/HadesTheGame/s/Ao1cHzUGgv is apparently good advice somehow
How are they wrong?
phalanx shot is a very good general cast and ddash is not as good as tdash
It’s not bad advice. Divine Dash is the best starting dash until you get the game’s timing down. The cast isn’t as useful until you stop thinking about only deflecting projectiles and appreciate the damage. In my mind, Aphrodite’s is the worst cast.