With Supergiant's bombastic game Hades recently releasing onto Switch and PC with its 1.0 version, it's a good time to take a look into its mechanics and help the newer players out. The game has been selling extremely well since it left early access and tons of people are discovering it and falling in love. In Hades, players take the role of Zagreus, Prince of the Underworld, as he desperately tries to escape it and see the outside world while revealing a lot about the characters and events around him.

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To help in his escape, Zagreus can use a variety of different tools, from Keepsake items to Boons granted by the gods and even magical weapons. To be more specific, there are weapons such as a sword, bow, shield, spear, gauntlets, and even a gun. All of these weapons have an Attack, a Special, and a Cast. These "Infernal Arms" play incredibly differently and have a variety of different "Aspects" to them, but today we're focusing on which upgrades (called Boons) work best for each one.

Updated August 24th, 2021 by Jacob Buchalter: With Hades dropping on both Microsoft and Sony consoles (as well as the Xbox Game Pass), finally, there are a lot of new players experiencing this incredible roguelike (not rogue-lite) for the first time. And, as they get further and further in their runs and start to unlock all the Infernal Arms and Aspects Hades has to offer, they might start wondering how each one is supposed to be built.

Originally, this list had Boon recommendations for each Olympic God relative to the weapon, and would sometimes mention that a specific Boon was better for a specific Stygian Blade Aspect and so on.

To streamline the information, this article has been updated to now include explanations for every Weapon Aspect, what Boons people tend to typically use with it, and why. Each Aspect in this game is so fun and original, and it only makes fans more excited to see what Supergiant comes up with if there's ever a sequel story. But, for now, this is what tends to work best with each weapon.

Disclaimer: Combat actions with each weapon in Hades are broken down into their Attack, Special, and Cast. So, buffing a weapon's Attack isn't the same as buffing the weapon's entire damage output. Additionally, a lot of the Olympic Gods have naming conventions for Boons that modify each of these three attributes, and we used those naming conventions to save a bit of time. So, in case the terminology is confusing

  • "Strike" Type Boons = Attack-Modifying Boons
  • "Flourish" Type Boons = Special-Modifying Boons
  • "Shot" Type Boons = Cast-Modifying Boons

"Stygius": The Stygian Blade

Zagreus' main weapon is up first, the Stygian Blade. It's what players are forced to use in the tutorial run and it's about as basic as they come. This Infernal Blade has a medium attack range, medium damage, and the most basic strikes in Hades.

Typically, players will want to use Boons that capitalize on boosting the raw damage of the Special and the attack speed since it's very useful for inflicting statuses like Jolted, Chill, or Hangover. This of course differs from Aspect to Aspect, but the Special is almost universally beneficial to build into on every variation of the blade.

Aspect Of Zagreus

Here's the iconic weapon of the game, the Aspect of Zagreus Stygian Blade. Players will want Boons that boost the Special primarily, as previously mentioned, as the standard combo for the Zagreus Stygian Blade is quite literally too slow and too low damage compared to the Special into Dash Attack combo.

So, look for Boons that add extra damage to the Special, apply a low-stacking status effect if possible, and build the Cast as a backup option for when close-range combat isn’t super viable. Some overall great choices for this Aspect are:

  • Any Boon that alters the Special, Aphrodite, Ares, and Athena are great choices.
  • Cast Boons that deal passive damage to enemies while Zagreus is spamming the Special such as Ares’ Blade Rifts, the Festive Fogs of Dionysus, or Demeter’s Crystal Cast.
  • Avoid any Poseidon Boons that add knock-away, for the most part.
  • Any Athena Boons that put Deflect on Special, since it'll be used the most often. Or, alternatively, Athena Boons with Deflect on everything other than Special so that players have a well-defined alternative Attack option that blocks enemy projectiles.

Aspect Of Nemesis

The Aspect of Nemesis is very very similar to the Aspect of Zagreus, but players get an increased crit chance for 3 seconds after every Special with this blade's innate passive ability.

So, a lot of the Boon recommendations are the same, with the only difference being that players should hard tunnel on Artemis Boons if possible, since her Boons are all about crit chance and crit damage as well, and only grab other primary Boons when that loveable little Hunting Goddess just isn't popping up.

Aspect Of Poseidon

The Aspect of Poseidon is the biggest mix-up in the Stygian Blade Aspects, as it really incentivizes players to go for a specific combo of hitting enemies with Casts, using the Special to remove them, and repeating these two steps as quickly as possible. Again, a lot of the same Boon recommendations, but:

  • The Exit Wounds Boon from Artemis is a gamechanger for this aspect, since removing the Bloodstones from enemies is what this weapon variant is all about.
  • Look to buff the Cast damage as much as possible, and avoid any Boons that either slow down the time it takes for a Bloodstone to get lodged in an enemy or fundamentally change the way the Cast works.
  • Key an eye out for Hermes’ Swift Flourish Boon, as it increases Special speed, or Flurry Cast, since it literally increases the Cast projectile speed.
  • Especially avoid knock-away Poseidon effects on this build, as players desperately want to make sure enemies get hit by both their Cast and Special with no room for error.

Hidden Aspect Of Arthur

The Hidden Aspect of the Stygian Blade, the Aspect of King Arthur. This one massively changes Zag’s playstyle for the Blade, as the Special becomes Hallowed Ground rather than the standard sword slam. In this Hallowed Ground, players take reduced damage, so it’s a high-damage high-tank Aspect that swings a lot slower than the other sword Aspects but also hits a lot harder. Basically:

  • Go for flat damage increase Boons like Aphrodite’s Heartbreak Strike or Artemis’ Deadly Strike.
  • Avoid Boons that “stack” status effects like Chill or Hangover, and go for ones with single-stack or low-stack limits like Weak or Jolted.
  • Other than that, Boons that reduce damage taken (like Dionysus' Positive Outlook), add extra effects to the Dash (Hermes' Greatest Reflex/Quick Recovery), or increase max health (Demeter's Nourished Soul) are useful as well.

"Aegis": The Shield of Chaos

Aegis is the safest (and most commonly used) weapon in Hades on average, which makes sense considering it's a shield. Its moveset allows players to Bull Rush, which is where Zagreus charges up and blasts toward enemies while also blocking incoming damage from the front. It essentially means that Zag can defend while attacking, and it's the only weapon that straight-up has a block mechanic.

Most of the Aspects for this weapon build around the Bull Rush, but there are one or two that change things up a bit. But, on average, Boons that build up attack speed, charge speed, and overall Attack seem to do well for the Aegis.

Aspect Of Zagreus

The base version of the Shield of Chaos, AKA the Aspect of Zagreus is pretty basic, but also pretty good. The passive of this Aspect is that it does extra damage on Dash-Strike and Attack, and with a Daedalus Upgrade like Dashing Wallop or Pulverizing Blow, this thing really hurts. Because of this innate buff, there’s really no reason to go full Cast-build or full Special-build with this Aspect. It's not that players can't build the Zag Aspect for the Cast, but there are much better shield Aspects to use for that. With that in mind, some good Boons to look out for are:

  • “Strike” type Boons that buff Attack damage, prioritize high-stack ones like Hangover or Chill instead of single-stack since the shield hits pretty often, but either works well.
  • Other than that there really isn’t more to recommend, incentivize building up the Attack with "Strike" type Boons, look out for Attack speed or Dash-Strike speed Hermes Boons such as Greater Haste or Swift Strike, and just go from there.

Aspect Of Chaos

Poor Aspect of Chaos, it used to be so much more enjoyably broken before the 1.0 release. It's still good nowadays, but just not as viable for speedrunning-type runs. The Aspect of Chaos, like the upcoming Aspect of Zeus, has a Special that's different from the standard shield throw, but this one only changes after a Bull Rush. After Bull-Rushing, Zagreus’ next Special throws out 4 "fake" Chaos Shields along with the real one in a shotgun-spread in front of him. However, unlike the Zeus Aspect, Zagreus can’t attack until the “main shield” comes back to him.

In older patches, these shields would expand out from Zagreus on all sides in a star shape, which led to some broken builds. Nowadays? Chaos Shield is still the only Shield Aspect that's meant to be heavily built towards the Special, but it generally performs worse overall compared to something like the Zeus Aspect that builds half Special, half Attack.

  • Players can either build the Special with a single-stack status effect using Aphrodite's Heartbreak Flourish or Ares Curse of Pain and throw from afar to inflict all nearby enemies with it.
  • Or, they can build for high-stack status effects with Demeter's Frost Flourish or Dionysus' Drunken Flourish in order to get up close and inflict one enemy with 5+ stacks of Hangover/Chill at once.
  • Zeus' Thunder Flourish is a lot of people's bread-and-butter Boon for this Aspect, as it turns the default weak damage of this shield on its head and bursts down enemies hit with the charged Special in an instant.

Aspect Of Zeus

The Aspect of Zeus is the “Expert” or “Intermediate” Aspect for Shield players. This is because this Aspect has Blitz Disc, which replaces Zag’s Special and has him throw out a spinning Shield that hurts nearby enemies while it spins, and it only comes back after the player presses the Special button again.

And, Zagreus can still attack with the Zeus Shield while the Blitz Disc is out, essentially meaning he can stack two different avenues of damage at once. That said, the innate speed of Blitz Disc is slow, and it’s hard to keep track of what's going on in Hades by default, so keeping an eye on the spinning shield takes some getting used to. As far as recommendations go:

  • Quite frankly, build it like the Aspect of Zagreus, while also looking for good Special-oriented Boons.
  • High-stack status effects like Chill or Hangover are great for the Special, while low-stacks are great for the Attack.
  • Again, anything that buffs the speed or damage of the Special, like Swift Flourish or Deadly Flourish are great too.

Hidden Aspect Of Beowulf

The Aspect of Beowulf is the Hidden Aspect most beloved by the Hades speedrunning community. This Aspect, when built correctly, can almost one-shot the tankier and more difficult bosses in the game. This gigantic shield allows Zagreus to load his Cast charges into it, unleashing them all in quick succession at the end of his next Bull-Rush. So, players using this thing have to aim their Bull-Rushes a bit more than they normally would so that they don't charge through enemies entirely and all the Cast triggers hit nothing.

The oddball thing about this Aspect, though, is that it’s a gigantic tower shield yet the build's focus is entirely based around the Cast and the Daedalus Upgrades. As far as “best Boons” go for this one:

  • Almost any Cast works for this playstyle, from Zeus’ Electric Shot to Aphrodite’s Crush Shot. The only ones that don’t work incredibly well are Demeter’s Crystal Beam and Ares’ Slicing Shot.
  • The entire focus for Boons should be on Cast Damage, Cast status effects, and extra Bloodstone charges with Boons like Artemis’ Fully Loaded.
  • Otherwise, just build it with the Cast in mind, and it should be an easy run regardless of any unforeseen circumstances.

"Exagryph": The Adamant Rail

Now it's time for the Adamant Rail, the literal gun that Zagreus carries around through the Underworld and the last of the Infernal Arms. Exagryph has even lower starting damage than the bow or shield and actually forces players to manually reload quite often, but its attack speed is the fastest in the game, and its Special (for most Aspects) is a giant AOE bomb.

Overall, Exagryph is the best weapon to build stacking effects on because of its attack speed, while the Special is amazing for single-stack spread, though it does slightly differ from Aspect to Aspect.

Aspect Of Zagreus

The Zagreus Adamant Rail is the iconic baseline Aspect for any of the weapons. What that means is that there’s almost no situation where the Zagreus Aspect of this weapon is better by default than any of the other ones, it’s outclassed in almost any category, for better and for worse. That said, the Spread Fire Daedalus Upgrade build only really works with the Zagreus Aspect's innate extra ammo, so at least it has that.

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With this in mind, the recommended Boon builds for the Zag Rail are pretty standard, and can be applied to most of the other Rail Aspects as well. Basically:

  • Build the Attack for multi-hits with Boons like Zeus' Lightning Strike, Dionysus' Drunken Strike, or Athena's Divine Strike.
  • Because this is a ranged weapon, Poseidon's Boons with knock-away aren't nearly as detrimental! Though, with most Adamant Rail Aspects, his Tidal Dash is actually the most recommended option, since it's an easy tool to both reposition and push away any enemies who get too close.
  • The Special takes a bit of getting used to but can be built into as well. Though Special-heavy Rail Builds make a lot more sense with other Aspects compared to this one.
  • A lot of the Daedalus Upgrades either nullify the benefit from the innate extra ammo this Aspect has or greatly reduces its impact, which is why people tend to avoid the Zag Aspect more often than not.

Aspect Of Eris

There's an Aspect that will be mentioned in a bit that's so insanely powerful simply because it buffs all Zagreus' damage globally. Whether it's the damage from his Attack, his Special, his Cast, or even his Call. That’s the Aspect of Eris in a nutshell, but even more absurd thanks to the 75% damage increase. It’s an Aspect that’s so hilariously broken by design that literally any build works for it, simply because as long as Zagreus is always in the blast zone of his Special and maintaining the passive buff, he’s going to be melting enemies regardless of his build.

And, because the Special doesn’t necessarily need to be aimed most of the time (it has a "soft" auto-lock on the nearest enemy when the input is quickly pressed), players can just mash the Special, Dash towards it, fire a couple of buffed shots, mash the Special again, and repeat without worrying about user error for the most part. For a bit more explanation:

  • A global damage increase means that this buffs the damage Zeus’ lightning does as well, or Hangover damage, or the wall slams from Poseidon’s knock-away. These numbers weren’t designed to scale up by 75%, so when they do get buffed, the damage gets unimaginably huge.
  • Players can either full-build toward the Attack, putting status effects on the Special and ignoring the Cast entirely.
  • Or, they can build all three (Attack, Special, Cast) for Damage and melt bosses in an instant. Really, as long as they’re playing optimally, it’s completely up to them.
  • Some fantastic Boons for this, in general though, are of course the Hermes ones that increase the speed of Attack (Swift Strike) or the Special (Swift Flourish), Zeus' Lightning Strike, and Poseidon’s Tidal Dash.
  • Lastly, this build Synergizes with even more of its potential Daedalus Hammers than most other weapon Aspects, giving Zagreus even more freedom in his build.

Aspect Of Hestia

Hestia’s Aspect is the “one-trick pony” of all the Bow Aspects. Basically, after manually reloading (not automatically reloading after reaching the end of the clip), the next shot fired will be empowered by up to 150% at max rank. The initial damage of this empowered shot is laughably strong, it's honestly good enough to clear the entirety of Tartarus quickly with no Boons, which is pretty impressive.

But, firing and reloading is sort of all it has and all it’s really used for. There are no real “builds” for Hestia's Aspect that switch up this loop of fire, reload, fire, reload, and the Boons itself don’t really matter much.

  • Build up the Attack's damage as much as possible with big buffing Boons like Aphrodite's Heartbreak Strike or Athena's Divine Strike as soon as possible to elevate this empowered shot burst damage to some disgustingly broken heights.
  • Use the Special as a backup option, since Zag can fire this while reloading, Festive Fog, Weak, or just Artemis’ bonus Crit Chance Deadly Flourish all work great for this.
  • Sweet Surrender with Heartbreak Flourish is pretty fantastic for the Special as well, since it lowers the damage resistance of Weak enemies even further, making that empowered shot hit even harder.
  • This Aspect also synergizes really well with a fair amount of Daedalus Hammer Upgrades such as Spread Fire, Explosive Fire, Ricochet Fire, and Targeting System.

Hidden Aspect Of Lucifer

Compared to the Aspect of Hestia which only has really one “build” per se, the Aspect of Lucifer, which is the last of the Hidden Aspects, has a lot of variability in its builds. How it works is that instead of firing “ammo”, Zagreus just has a laser. This laser hits constantly when fired at an enemy, and it also has these Hellfire Orbs for the special, which explode when shot with the beam and do burst damage.

The big benefit of the Lucifer Aspect is that it’s innately fun to use and incredibly strong even without Boons. And, if players don’t like the whole Hellfire Orb mechanic, they can ignore it entirely and still decimate everything in their way with the Attack alone. As far as standard Boons to look out for:

  • Any Boons that benefit the most from its insane attack speed, so Zeus’ Lightning Strike, Demeter’s Frost Strike (with Arctic Blast), Dionysus’ Drunken Strike, and so on. This is one of the rare Aspects where the Athena, Artemis, and Aphrodite trio of “Strike” type Boons isn’t really recommended.
  • One particular interesting build for it is the Laser Barrage build where players go for Demeter’s Crystal Beam Cast as well as Glacial Glare and Arctic Blast. When all three are gathered, players can lay down crystals that also fire beams and inflict chill along with their own laser.

"Varatha": The Eternal Spear

Much like the Stygian Blade, the Varatha is a speedy weapon that's meant to steadily poke enemies down. But, rather than doing an AOE burst like the Stygian Blade, the spear has a Special where Zag throws it at enemies.

It's probably the weapon people find to be their least favorite on average, but that doesn't at all mean it's underpowered. The Varatha builds very similarly to Stygius, but with less emphasis on the Special and more on the Attack (except for one Aspect).

Aspect Of Zagreus

Out of all the Varatha Aspects, the Zagreus Aspect is the one most heavily impacted by Daedalus Hammer Upgrades. Without Flurry Jab, it’s hard to make this thing feel anywhere as useful as any of the Blade or Bow Aspects. Meanwhile, with Flurry Jab, the Zagreus Spear becomes a lot more versatile. The Spear, in general, is meant to incentivize players to use the Special a lot but in most cases, that's the last thing they should be doing. Look for:

  • Any “Strike” type Boon that buffs Attack damage, such as Divine Strike or Heartbreak Strike, as the Varatha has a great base attack speed
  • Any high max-stack status effects like Chill or Hangover that are applied to Attack, AKA Drunken Strike and Frost Strike.
  • “Flourish” type Boons that add a single-stack status effect to the Special, like Weak (Heartbreak Fourish), Jolted (Thunder Flourish + Static Discharge), or Doom (Curse of Pain).

Aspect Of Achilles

Quite honestly, the Achilles Aspect of the Varatha is just like the Zagreus Aspect, but better in every single way. It has the Raging Rush ability where Zagreus dashes to his spear to recover it after tossing it (press the Special input twice). But, because of its innate Post-Rush global damage buff of 150% at max rank, as long as players are keeping an eye on the little aura around Zagreus that denotes the Post-Rush buff, it’s game-breakingly good.

Like the Adamant Rail's Aspect of Eris, that 150% damage buff is global and applies to any damage Zagreus does from any source. This means that the Achilles Aspect can be built for either the Attack or the Cast, and it works equally well. So:

  • Keep an eye out for the Flurry Jab or Serrated Point Daedalus Upgrades to make even more use of this constant buff.
  • Get any “Shot” type Boons in general (Crush Shot, Drunken Shot, Deadly Shot) to make the strongest Cast possible to unload with the Post-Rush buff, since Casts scale the most with percentage increases.
  • Buff Special speed with Hermes’ Swift Flourish and look for any flat or single-stack status effect “Flourish” type Boons since players will be using this Special quite a lot.

Aspect Of Hades

The thing about the Aspect of Hades is that it fundamentally feels worse than the Zagreus Spear, simply because it’s entirely centered around the Punishing Sweep, which restricts it from being able to get the Flurry Jab upgrade that most other Varatha Aspects are centered around. That said, for players not speedrunning Hades that don’t mind the long windup of Punishing Sweep, the Hades Spear is pretty reliably useful. It has a lot of the same Boon recommendations as the Zagreus Aspect, except:

  • Keep an eye out for Quick Spin, Flaring Spin, and Massive Spin Daedalus Hammer Upgrades
  • Look for “Flourish” type Boons that flat buff Special Damage, again like Artemis’ Deadly Flourish and Aphrodite’s Heartbreak Flourish.
  • Because enemies affected by the Punishing Sweep take more damage from regular Varatha attacks for a bit, using damage buffing “Strike” type Boons like Divine Strike or Heartbreak Strike is viable as well.

Hidden Aspect Of Guan Yu

Sadly, for as cool as the Aspect of Guan Yu looks, it’s probably the worst Hidden Aspect out of all of them. The Spin Attack is awful, slow, and doesn’t recover much health. The innate max HP reduction is a tough sell. And lastly, its Attack is pretty much the same as the other Aspects.

Really, using the Special or Special into Dash Attack is the only way to make this thing work, but for players who want to try here are some tips:

  • Use “Flourish” type single-stack Boons to buff the Special as much as possible, such as Curse of Pain, Deadly Flourish, or Heartbreak Flourish.
  • Look for Hermes’ Greatest Reflex, Hyper Sprint, and Swift Flourish Boons.
  • Keep an eye out for any Boons that increase max HP, reduce damage taken, or anything in between such as Dionysus’ Premium Vintage, Athena’s Bronze Skin, or Demeter’s Nourished Soul.
  • Athena’s Divine Dash is almost mandatory for this Aspect since it helps a ton with survivability.

"Coronacht": The Heart-Seeking Bow

Coronacht, the Heart-Seeking Bow, is the weapon players might expect to like the least in Hades (bow-wielding characters can be polarizing), but veterans and speedrunners will quickly tell them it's quite the opposite. Early on, the bow has some of the weakest damage, but the safety it gives Zag by letting him attack from afar shouldn't be underestimated, and the innate passives of some of the Aspects are amazing.

While the shotgun spread of arrows that the basic-version Special displays might seem weak at first, with the right Boon, hammer, and Aspect it can really dish it out.

Aspect Of Zagreus

Moving onto the Bow Aspects – first up is, of course, the Aspect of Zagreus. This bow is surprisingly good but is sadly not nearly as fun to use as most of the other weapons or even most of the other Bow Aspects. Basically, it has the standard Attack, the Power Shot, and the Special (which is almost never used). The +15% Crit Chance bonus it gets at max rank pushes this Attack-focused theme even further, making Zagreus look like a fool if he doesn’t full-build into his Attack while using it.

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But, for those who still want to build it:

  • Obviously, go for Artemis Boons, since her Crit buffing Boons synergize perfectly with the Zagreus Aspect’s passive.
  • Look for “Strike” type Boons and build into a specific one right away (Deadly Strike is probably the best choice). Because of how often players will Power Shot, dash, Power Shot, and repeat.
  • It’s also recommended to go for Chill or Hangover rather than Weak or Doom since it’s easy to build stacks from afar.
  • Also, unlike Varatha's Aspect of Achilles or Exagryph's Aspect of Eris, the passive buff from the Zagreus Bow isn’t global to all of his damage, just to his Attack.

Aspect Of Chiron

Two things that new players need to know right away for the Aspect of Chiron is that it isn’t a bow for speedruns (usually), and it needs to be upgraded to max level (time to farm more Titan's Blood) to actually be usable. But, once it is max level, it’s by far the most fun and satisfying Bow Aspect to use. Why?

Well, because the Volley Fire lock-on mechanic means that players get to see 8+ arrows hit an enemy at once, which is comparable to feeling a bunch of hit-markers hit at once in any first-person shooter. For builds, it’s recommended to:

  • Build into the Special heavily; Aphrodite’s, Artemis’, Dionysus’, and Demeter’s “Flourish” type Boons all work great on it.
  • If Arctic Blast shows up at all when grabbing Demeter Boons, build into Chill for the rest of the run, as 1-2 Volley Fires will get an enemy to 10+ Chill Stacks, meaning they’ll be taking the “damaging blast” quite often.
  • Winter Harvest also synergizes with a Chill/Arctic Blast build quite well.
  • This is one of the safest Aspects to use for newer players, but the Concentrated Fire Daedalus Hammer or the Relentless Volley Upgrade are almost required if players want to at all attempt a speedrun with the Chiron Aspect.

Aspect Of Hera

Looking for a weapon like the Aspect of Beowulf for the Chaos Shield, but maybe not quite as risky? Look no further than the Aspect of Hera, which basically functions the same, but with a Bow instead of a Shield. Cast-based Weapons in general are pretty overpowered due to the fantastic damage scaling of the Cast, and the Aspect of Hera is no different.

Load the Cast into the Bow, fire it, and watch enemies melt! Like Beowulf, a standard Hera build will sort of center around the Cast, so:

  • Look for any strong base damage “Shot” type Boon, such as Aphrodite’s Crush Shot or Artemis’ True Shot.
  • But, unlike Beowulf, the Support Fire and Exit Wound Boons from Artemis are incredible too, as it isn’t entirely about the Cast with Hera’s Aspect since the Attack is pretty useful as well.
  • Also works well with a lot of the Daedalus upgrades, though the Special is almost entirely ignored on a typical Hera Aspect build.

Hidden Aspect Of Rama

The Aspect of Rama, just like any of the Hidden Aspects, plays very differently from all the other Bow Aspects. Basically, by using the Special "Celestial Sharanga", Zagreus fires some bouncing darts that apply the Shared Suffering Debuff to any enemy hit. Then, when Zag hits any enemy in the room, even one that doesn’t have the Shared Suffering Debuff, all enemies with the Debuff take 60% of the Damage from Zag’s Attack.

Because of this, Rama is an incredibly tedious play style to learn, but once it is absorbed, this Aspect has some very overpowered potential.

  • Because the Special’s damage isn’t really important, players should prioritize “Flourish” type Boons that add status effects to the Special, such as Zeus', Ares', Dionysus', Aphrodite's, or Demeter's.
  • Then, try and build the Attack for pure damage as much as possible with high damaging-buffing Boons like Athena’s Divine Strike, Aphrodite’s Heartbreak Strike, or Artemis’ Deadly Strike.
  • Two Daedalus Hammers specifically can massively buff the damage output of this Aspect, those being both Twin Shot and Triple Shot.

"Malphon": The Twin Fists

And lastly, let's talk about the Twin Fists of Malphon, the weapon for those who want to get up close and personal in Hades.

These gauntlets let Zag unleash a flurry of lightning-fast punches by holding down Attack, a devastating uppercut Special, and it's also the only Infernal Arm with a Dash-Special. Typical builds for most of the Malphon Aspects share a lot of similarities with the Exagrphy builds, as both weapons heavily rely on their attack speed more than they do on their default damage.

Aspect Of Zagreus

Flat out, almost all of the Twin Fists of Malphon Aspects are perfect for Ares’ Merciful End Boon Builds. Why? Because all Zag does is punch with these things, so if he gets Divine Strike and modifies his Attack so that it Deflects, Merciful End triggers constantly. Otherwise, the Zagreus Aspect fists are about as basic as they come. The passive Dodge Chance is nice, but not a game-changer, and most builds for these things are all about the same:

  • The standard build for these fists is Zeus’ Lightning Strike + Poseidon’s Tidal Dash. Using these in combination, especially with the Long Knuckle Daedalus Hammer, is an easy way to get through the game on Low Heat.
  • However, for players who want to deviate from the standard build, they can build the Special for heavy damage (Deadly Flourish or Heartbreak Flourish) since it doesn’t get used often, then build the Attack for stacking status effects (Drunken Strike or Frost Strike).
  • The optimal playstyle is holding down attack, dashing to reset combo, throwing an uppercut in there every once and a while, and starting again, so any Hermes Boons that make this quicker like Swift Strike, Swift Flourish, Hyper Sprint, or Greatest Reflect are great.
  • In particular, Greater Evasion from Hermes, as well as utilizing his Lambent Plume and the passive of the Zagreus Aspect fists equals a metric ton of Dodge Chance, letting players attack more aggressively without fear of taking hits.

Aspect Of Talos

Out of all the Aspects, the Talos and Zagreus Aspects for the Twin Fists are probably the most interchangeable. The Talos Aspect has this Magnetic Cutter Special that pulls enemies in and puts a debuff on them where Attack and Cast both do 50% bonus damage for the next 6 seconds, but these two Fist Aspects still build mostly the same. The only thing players can really do differently with their build for Talos is:

  • Build for the Cast a little bit, instead of not at all for the Zag Aspect. Preferably, get a Cast with high damage over anything else. Aphrodite’s Crush Shot is perfect, since it melts enemies up close, and Zag’s Magnetic Cutter pulls them face-to-face with him.

Other than that, players will, more often than not, be building this Aspect almost exactly like the first one.

Aspect Of Demeter

Players who love the Twin Fists will quickly find that there are two big shortcomings for these weapons:

  1. They struggle with burst damage and killing tankier enemies without getting hit.
  2. The range is really short.

Well, the Aspect of Demeter completely fixes both of these issues and more. Using this Aspect, after landing 12 hits with the Attack in general, the next Rising Cutter Special used hits 5 times at once (at max rank). That’s some disgusting damage potential in the same realm as some of the more overpowered Cast builds.

And, the range of this Rising Cutter, especially with a Daedalus Upgrade like Explosive Upper, is deceptively huge. So, these fists sort of build the opposite as the first two, where players will be building their Special up like they would their Cast in a Beowulf/Hera Aspect build, and building their Attack about the same as usual.

  • Swift Strike and Swift Flourish are huge for this Aspect.
  • The Dionysus Drunken Flourish is also a pretty insanely good choice for the Special since Hangover caps out at 5 stacks by default.
  • Merciful End, a fantastic Duo Boon between Ares and Athena, also works fantastically, especially with Dire Misfortune and Divine Flourish.

Hidden Aspect Of Gilgamesh

This last one is just so sad. There are so many people that swear by Gilgamesh, but at the end of the day, these fists are just awful in comparison to almost every other weapon Aspect and build.

They’re slow, they leave Zag open to taking hits way too often, their animations take forever, the extra dashes are nice but way too short, and the damage isn’t worth the lack of speed. Maim basically functions as a second Doom effect, and the back and forth swipes with the bear claws deal good damage but not for the speed at which they come out. To put it bluntly, these are a nightmare Aspect for speedrunners or for people who love the hyper-speed combat of Hades.

That said, for those who want to build them, some good options are:

  • Curse of Pain for the Special to double up on Doom with Maim
  • Merciful End with Divine Strike so that Zag is a bit less open to damage while attacking.
  • Swift Strike is almost a must-have.
  • Greater Haste and Quick Recovery make this Aspect more viable as well.
  • And any of Demeter’s Chill-based Boons are helpful too, as they bring the enemies down to Zag’s snail-like pace to increase his survivability.

NEXT: Great Games That Are Better On Switch (According To Metacritic)

Source:gamerant.com
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Hades