The Strongest Duo Boons In Hades & How To Get Them

Supergiant Games' Hades took the internet by storm when it came out of early access, and for good reason. The game has amazing animations, an incredible story, great art, all sorts of inclusive romance options, and the combat is fun as hell. The roguelike (not rogue-lite) employs a Boon system that allows players to make a build every run. This is a very flexible and deep system, while also being fairly intuitive and allowing a variety of viable endgame builds.

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A part of this Boon system is Duo Boons. These are interactions between two Gods, which result in a new, custom Boon that combines the characteristics of both Gods' Boons. These Duo Boons are powerful and are a great option for any build. And later, as a player refines their run and grows into a playstyle, knowing these Boons and their interactions will be very helpful. So, here are all the Gods that play nice with each other in the indie darling that is Hades, and what it entails for dear old Zag.

Updated May 25th, 2024 by Jacob Buchalter: Hades 2 is now out and beloved by the general public, and funnily enough, it is actually also causing a ton of people to go back and check out the first Hades game. In fact, the first game just recently (at the time of writing this) hit a new highest concurrent player peak, so it's clear that people love Hades 2, so much so they're going back to the first game to look for more. And, a system that can be found in both games is the Duo Boon system which are rare Boons that have a chance to appear if Zagreus or Melinoë has specific Boons from two specific Gods. Depending on the build and time they're offered, Duo Boons can be some of the strongest buffs that you'll find in the entirety of your run, so it's absolutely worth knowing what the strongest options are and how to get them offered to you.

12 Ares & Aphrodite

Curse of Longing: Your Doom effects continuously strike Weak foes.

The first Duo Boon is one that uses the combined powers of the married pair AKA the God of War and the Goddess of Love, it's called the Curse of Longing. To activate this, AKA have it even appear as an option, Zag needs to have a pre-requisite Boon from each God, including:

It constantly inflicts Doom damage (Ares' main 'gimmick') on all opponents who have the Weak status effect, which is Aphrodite's gimmick. By default, Doom effects only proc once for a big burst of damage, so getting a Boon that can guarantee it'll proc multiple times sounds powerful. However, there's a lot that this Boon asks of you in order to get the most out of it. First, you have to have a way of inflicting Weak reliably and then you inflict that Weak on your enemy of choice. After, you don't really want to attack that enemy, especially with whatever attack you have that inflicts Doom, as that'll just reset the Doom timer overall. It can be an incredibly strong Boon in the right hands, but for the general player base the Curse of Longing Duo Boon is just a bit too 'involved'.

11 Dionysus & Poseidon

Exclusive Access: Any Boons you find have superior effects (Minimum Boon Rarity is now Epic).

This Boon comes from the party God of Olympus Dionysus and the undisputed King of the Seas Poseidon. It is one of the strongest Boons in the game, simply because it improves all future Boons found in that escape attempt. With Exclusive Access, an escape attempt that just didn't seem to be going your way can suddenly become one of your most powerful runs. To unlock the ability to have this Duo Boon offered, you'll need one of the following from both Dionysus and Poseidon:

Exclusive Access guarantees that all further Boons gained will be of Epic rarity, at minimum, that's quite literally all it does. And its ranking is also rather simple to explain, as it is entirely dependant on 'when' you get offered this Duo Boon. If you happen to get it offered basically anytime before Elysium, it's absolutely worth grabbing and can be incredibly strong. But, if you get it offered to you at Elysium or even further past that, it's not really going to have much of an impact overall.

10 Zeus & Artemis

Lightning Rod: Your collectible Cast strikes nearby foes every 1 second for 70 Lightning Damage.

This ability comes from getting abilities from the pompous King of Olympus and the humble Goddess of the Hunt. Compared to some of the other Duo Boons on here, this one is a bit more niche, but it's shockingly strong if used correctly. For Zagreus to use it, he needs to find:

Whenever Zag uses his Cast attack, a Bloodstone is used. When those Bloodstones pop out of the enemy, they land on the ground until Zag picks them back up. But with Lightning Rod active, those Bloodstones are now continuously struck with lightning bolts that'll deal that damage to any nearby enemies when they're struck. It's very interesting as it's one of the only Duo Boons that sort of makes you 'want' to leave your Bloodstones sitting around, but the actual damage output is relatively low unless you really play around it.

9 Aphrodite & Dionysus

Low Tolerance: Your Hangover effects can stack even more times against Weak foes (+3 to max Weak stacks).

The Hangover status effect inflicted by Dionysus Boons is one of the strongest effects in the game, and Low Tolerance makes it even better. To get Low Tolerance, Zag needs to get both Aphrodite and Dionysus to work together by getting one of each of their Boons. More specifically:

By default, an enemy can get a max of 5 Hangover stacks on them at once by default, but Low Tolerance ups that cap to 8, as long as they're also inflicted with the Weak status effect as well. This does mean you'll have to really center your playstyle around keeping enemies Weak all the time, which can be tedious depending on which of your Attacks is actually inflicting Weak, but if you already like the playstyle around Aphrodite's Boons, then this will be one of your favorite Duo Boon options.

8 Artemis & Athena

Deadly Reversal: After you Deflect, gain +20 percent to your Critical Chance for 2 seconds.

This Duo Boon comes from the unlikely pairing of both Athena and Artemis, two strong Olympic Goddesses. To get it, players have to get:

For players who are going for a full Artemis Build with tons of Crit Chance and Crit Damage, there’s no better Duo Boon to get. It triggers on every Deflect (the trademark effect seen in Athena Boons) and gives Zagreus 2 seconds of +20 percent Critical Chance each time you do so.

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By  Prateek Pandey

Sure, it can be a bit difficult to intentionally Deflect a projectile and then utilize that two seconds of Crit Chance, but once you get the hang of it you'll quickly find that this Duo Boon is pretty overpowered. People often forget that this is a total Critical Chance buff as well, meaning it applies to all of Zag's attacks, not just his Attack, Cast, or Special.

7 Demeter & Zeus

Cold Fusion: Your Jolted effects do not expire when foes attack & Jolted duration +10 seconds.

These two Gods on Olympus hold domain over two elements primarily (they both control more than one): ice and lightning. Zeus and Demeter work together for once to give Zagreus the Cold Fusion Duo Boon, and all he needs to have a chance at it appearing are:

This Duo Boon impacts the 'Jolted' Mechanic that is integral in a good handful of Zeus’ Boons. For a long time, players were confused as to how exactly Jolted enemies took damage, but now it’s known for sure. Once an enemy is Jolted, they’re briefly stunned and then take a big burst of damage the next time they try and attack. With the Cold Fusion Boon, this Jolted status effect no longer wears off after one attack; but rather after a certain amount of time. This means that enemies who attack rapidly such as, say, Hades himself or Theseus as well will end up taking this Jolted damage quite a few times. Outside of boss fights however, this Duo Boon can feel pretty niche, as most of the time enemies who are hit by Jolted get knocked out of their attack animation and won't attack again for at least a few seconds, so it doesn't get triggered as often as you might think it would.

6 Artemis & Ares

Hunting Blades: Your Cast is a faster Blade Rift that seeks out the nearest foe (Seek Duration is 3.3 seconds).

Hunting Blades combines the powers of the world's ultimate Warrior (Ares) with the world's ultimate Hunter (Artemis) to turn Zag's Cast into an even faster-swirling rift of death. To activate this Boon, he'll need:

With this Boon, Zagreus has a Cast that can output a ridiculous amount of damage as well as reach his opponents even quicker, and it even gets a homing effect as well. This is almost always worth grabbing, as it fixes the biggest downside of Ares Blade Rift Cast, the fact that most opponents move out of the way before they're caught in it for all too long. With Hunting Blades, you can literally just throw out your Casts and forget about them, letting them fly off on their own to deal tons of blending damage to anything nearby.

5 Zeus & Poseidon

Sea Storm: Your Knock-Away effects also cause foes to be struck by lightning for 40 damage.

Normally the knock-away effects gained from the God of the Sea aren't highly sought after by Hades players, but with this Duo Boon that borrows some of the Lightning God's power as well, it's a totally different story. As usual, for this Duo Boon to appear, Zag needs:

This Boon ensures that any enemies knocked back by Poseidon Boon effects, or just any knock-away effects in general (AKA most of the Aegis' attacks) will also be struck by lightning for 40 damage. This applies to any knock-away effect source too, whether it's a Cast, Attack, or Special.

It can be a bit hard to set up finding this Duo Boon since it requires getting Poseidon to modify your core attacks instead of your Dash (AKA Tidal Dash) but if you're offered this Duo Boon there's almost zero reason to ignore it, especially if you're using the Aegis currently.

4 Poseidon & Aphrodite

Sweet Nectar: Any Poms of Power you find give +1 Bonus Levels to your Boon of choice.

While this next Boon is not as flashy as some of the others in this list, it is very powerful and will be very helpful to anyone aiming for a build to make it all the way to the end. It seems odd that a Duo Boon made up of the two most eccentric Gods isn't all that flashy, but regardless it's an interesting one. Once again, to have these even show up as an option, Zag will need:

This makes all the Poms of Power that appear from this point on more effective. And while that sounds amazing, there are two things that make this Boon strong but not 'incredibly strong' and it's the fact that you typically find this Duo Boon too late and Boon buffs really don't matter all too much past +3. So, I wouldn't tailor your escape attempt around getting this Duo Boon, but if it's offered early enough it's absolutely worth grabbing.

3 Demeter & Dionysus

Ice Wine: Your Cast blasts an area with freezing Festive Fog that inflicts Chill (Blast Damage is +30 percent).

Ice Wine is another great area control Boon made from arguably the least likely duo, Demeter and Dionysus. The Boons the player needs to obtain this are:

This makes the Festive Fog left by the Dionysus Cast ability inflict Demeter's Chill effect in that area as well and also increase its overall blast damage. Of all the potential Cast options, Festive Fog was already overpowered enough since it stunned enemies inside and applied Hangover.

Now that it inflicts Chill as well, it becomes a prison cell for any enemy caught in it, one that slowly kills them over time. Additionally, and this isn't mentioned in the Duo Boon description, but the Cast actually spends less time in the air as well, which means you don't have to lead your shots as much as you normally would.