While regular boons are useful, duo-boons combine two gods’ power to produce epic effects. It’s important to choose the duo-boons for your run depending on the kind of strategy you are using. The right combos can mean the difference between a complete run and having to start over.
In order to find duo-boons, you must beforehand find two abilities: one from each of the gods involved in creating that duo-boons power. Different duo-boons require different boons from each god in order to be found, but only one from each.
There are 28 duo-boons in the game, and while they all have their own unique traits, some stand out from the rest when it comes to getting you above-ground to fight the final battle against your father.
With that, here are my top 10 hades duo-boon recommendations to amp up your gameplay, and which abilities you would need in order to find them!
10. Exclusive Access
This ability combines the greatness of sea god Poseidon and his party-fiend brother Dionysus into a strong aid for Zagreus. In order to understand the true strength of this duo-boon, one must remember that boons in this game come in 4 rarities: common, rare, epic, and heroic.
What makes this duo-boon extremely powerful is its ability to guarantee every boon you find after the fact is of epic rarity or higher. This means that with Exclusive Access, you no longer have to worry about running into low-level boons you might not want, and are instead met with an array of powerful options!
The Benefits:
- If you find this boon early on in your gameplay, you can create an intensely powerful build that can knock down enemies far faster than you would without it! The sooner you can grab it the better.
- Without this boon, your selection of boons throughout your run will also be littered with common and rare boons. Yeah, they are still useful, but far less superior to epic and heroic boons that you’d have a better chance of finding with the help of Poseidon and Dionysus!
- With this duo-boon in use, if you find it early enough, you’re more likely to be able to gather enough boons to find even stronger duo-boons along your way!
What You Need to Get This Duo-Boon:
From Poseidon: Tempest Flourish, Tempest Strike, Tidal Dash, Flood Shot, or Poseidon’s Aid
From Dionysus: Drunken Flourish, Trippy Shot, Drunken Strike, Dionysus' Aid, or Drunken Dash
9. Sweet Nectar
In a similar fashion to Exclusive Access, Sweet Nectar is another boon that strengthens the next boons you can find… just in a different way! Lady Aphrodite and the god of the sea Poseidon produce this ability for the player.
Poms of Power are pomegranates you can find or purchase on your runs to increase the level of your already found boons. Leveling up your boons increases their power, so it's a good thing to do as you are fighting through the Underworld.
Sweet Nectar increases the amount of levels gained from a Pom of Power from 1 to 2! So, two Poms of Power on one boon would make it only 2 levels higher without Sweet Nectar… and 4 levels higher with it! That’s a pretty big leap, if you ask me.
The Benefits:
- Again, similar to Exclusive Access, the sooner you find this boon, the better. So, keep an eye out for the Aphrodite and Poseidon boons you need in order to get it!
- There are different strategies you can try when you have this boon, but if you have a particular ability you rely on mostly in your fighting style… I recommend using your Poms of Power to make that ability intensely powerful on the field. That way, the attacks you are doing most gain the most benefit.
- If you get this boon, choose Pom of Power whenever you can at the shop or as a reward for completing a stage! That way, you can consistently receive the benefits of the boon and use them to intensify your power in game.
What You Need to Get This Duo-Boon:
From Poseidon: Poseidon’s Aid, Tempest Strike, Tidal Dash, Tempest Flourish, or Flood Shot
From Aphrodite: Aphrodite’s Aid, Heartbreak Strike, Passion Dash, Heartbreak Flourish, or Crush Shot
8. Low Tolerance
One of my favorite in-game duo-boons, Low Tolerance is intensely powerful on the battlefield. Aphrodite’s weakening effects and Dionysus’s hangover effects combine into a deadly force when this duo-boon is obtained.
Inflict enemies with weak status, and afterwards, you’ll find that your hangover effects can be stacked up three more times than before. Instead of 5 hangover stacks, you get 8.
Put that together with the weak status, and not only are enemies receiving passive damage, but they also do less damage to you while they are affected!
The Benefits:
- If you make sure to weaken enemies before you hit them with hangover, you can stack the hangover effects up to 8 times to do intense damage. The faster you take out enemies, the faster you can progress through the stages.
- Many enemies do incredible damage even from a distance, making sure those enemies are weak before affecting them with hangover can give you more of a chance to dodge their attacks while also doing passive damage to them.
- As for up close damage, this duo-boon still provides an incredible advantage. If you are unafraid to get up close and personal with your enemies, the weakening effects from Aphrodite keep you safer while the hangover effects from Dionysus can help you take down enemies more quickly with your attacks.
What You Need to Get This duo-boon:
From Dionysus: Drunken Dash, Drunken Flourish, Drunken Strike, or Dionysus’s Aid
From Aphrodite: Passion Dash, Heartbreak Flourish, Crush Shot, or Heartbreak Strike
7. Deadly Reversal
Athena and Artemis make an unlikely team, Athena being the goddess of wisdom and war, and Artemis being the goddess of nature and the hunt. If you’re one to enjoy doing critical damage, this duo-boon is the one for you.
With Deadly Reversal, every time you deflect attacks with one of Athena’s abilities, you get 2 full seconds where the critical hit chance is increased by 20%. Combined with Artemis’s boons that already increase your crit chance? Dangerous.
The Benefits:
- If you’re going for an Athena-based build, and you enjoy throwing up defenses to keep your enemies from hitting you… this boon will increase your chances to do critical damage whenever you choose to utilize those shields!
- If you’re going for an Artemis based build, the added bonus of bringing in Athena’s shield boons will help keep you grounded in the fight. You’re already relying on doing critical damage, so why not increase your chances even more?!.
- Whenever you deflect, and every time you deflect, that’s a 20% increased chance of doing a critical hit for two whole seconds. If you have an Athena boon that frequently deflects… this duo-boon becomes a dangerous force for even the strongest enemies!
What You Need to Get This Duo-Boon:
From Athena: Divine Strike or Divine Flourish (both of these allow you to deflect, so keep an eye out!)
From Artemis: Deadly Strike, True Shot, Hunters Flare, Artemis’s Aid, or Deadly Flourish
6. Stubborn Roots
Stubborn roots is great for those runs where you run out of death defiance. It can be tough to press on when you know you have only one life left… Luckily, this duo-boon allows you to regenerate health overtime. For every .8 seconds you regenerate 1 health, and in many cases, that can save you from death.
Athena’s Divine Strike and Dash can deflect, which is so useful against enemies if you’re able to time your hits right. Demeter’s Frost Strike and Flourish can chill your enemies and slow them down. Both of these, in combination with the reassurance of Stubborn Roots, can easily get you past Hades.
The Benefits:
- Everybody has those runs where they’re about to go down and they feel that all hope is lost. Stubborn Roots helps keep me motivated in fights where I might otherwise get frustrated. If you dodge quickly enough and are smart with your enemies, you can regenerate quite a lot of health and stay in battles you might otherwise lose to.
- Deflecting is incredibly useful against both up -close and long-distance enemies. Having that and the HP re-gen can make you strong when combined with the right boons. If you have no more death defiance left, you can press on for the longest distances by making the right moves while regenerating health.
- Quick-moving enemies can be some of the most frustrating ones. Slowing them down with Demeter’s chill ability can give you more time to think when fighting against them and also allow you to land more hits.
What You Need to Get This Duo-Boon:
From Demeter: Frost Flourish, Demeters Aid, Frost Strike
From Athena: Divine Dash, Divine Strike, Athena’s Aid
5. Sea Storm
Zeus and Poseidon already have some of the hardest hitting abilities as it stands, so when you are able to find the duo-boon Sea Storm, your game is amped up massively.
This combo increases your damage with Poseidon’s knock away effects massively by sending out lighting to damage them. Keeping your enemies away from you can already give you an advantage, but that extra little burst of damage can get you to a win faster and help to get down those harder-to-pin enemies.
The Benefits:
- If you’re a Poseidon fan, Tidal Dash is my biggest recommendation if you’re going for this duo-boon. Many might not agree with me, but I like to dash around the battlefield often in order to stay alive. If I dash past the enemies, hit them with that knock away, AND do that lighting damage? It’s over. It’s a well tested strategy on my end, and I recommend you try it!
- When searching for this duo-boon, Zeus-focused players get the added advantages of Poseidon's knock away effects along the way. While lighting damage is useful and effective, keeping your enemies knocked back while doing extra lighting damage will help keep you ahead.
What You Need to Get This Duo-Boon:
From Zeus: Thunder Dash, Zeus’s Aid, Electric Shot, Lightning Strike, or Thunder Flourish
From Poseidon: Flood Shot, Tempest Strike, Tempest Flourish, Poseidon’s Aid, or Tidal Dash
4. Curse of Longing
Aphrodite and Ares can’t be beat when it comes to the Curse of Longing. Get this duo-boon to do additional doom damage to each foe that suffers from weakening effects. Foes will not do as much damage, and they’ll also suffer for it! Brutal.
Rather than having doom effects hit enemies only one time, they’ll hit multiple times on those that are weakened! Even though each additional hit is 50% less strong, this is still such a powerful ability if you time your hits right and keep getting in that doom damage while you fight.
The Benefits:
- Having an ability to intensify and harness that damage overtime? That’s a great boost forward in the long run. Doom damage can continue affecting your foes even as you continue to damage them in other ways, so, knock ‘em out!
- Weakening effects are often underestimated in comparison to other buffs, but when put in combination with abilities like those of the god Ares, they can be unstoppable. The weakening effects will protect you from some of the damage enemies are dealing while you continue to fight.
- Doom damage is useful for when you need to dash away, but don’t want to leave the enemy lingering, wasting precious playthrough time. If that enemy is weakened, that doom damage will just continue to do that for you even if you need to give some attention to other enemies.
What You Need to Get This Duo-Boon:
From Aphrodite: Passion Dash, Heartbreak Strike, Crush Shot, or Heartbreak Flourish
From Ares: Curse of Pain or Curse of Agony
3. Ice Wine
This duo-boon is an extremely fun one to play with, utilizing Dionysus’ and Demeter’s abilities together to intensify an already powerful attack. Those who play Dionysus often will know of Trippy Shot, an ability that turns your cast into a glob that plops into festive fog.
This shot stuns your enemies for a moment and then inflicts them with hangover effects that do damage over time. Ice Wine makes this already powerful ability into a game-winning one by adding chill effects into the mix.
So… not only are you slowing the enemies down, but you’re doing passive, intense hangover damage every time you cast that trippy shot.It’s a move that can steal the entire game.
The Benefits:
- Hangover damage is well known in the player-base for how strong it is and how fun it is to play with. I find, personally, in my gameplay that having Trippy Shot equipped makes me far more likely to use my cast. It gives you an advantage over enemies with additional damage that packs a punch.
- Chill effects give you more of a chance to make narrow-escapes and land important hits on enemies. Some enemies are incredibly quick, and chill effects come in clutch for those moments when it's necessary to face off with them.
- You can combine the powerful effects of this duo-boon with other boons of Dionysus and/or Demeter to only further intensify the chill and hangover damage you have! Throw in some weapon proficiency, and that's the game.
What You Need to Get This Duo-Boon:
From Dionysus: Trippy Shot
From Demeter: Mistral Dash, Frost Flourish, Demeter’s Aid, or Frost Strike
2. Merciful End
Ares and Athena? Need I say more? Two all-powerful war-waging gods of bloodshed and victory?! Merciful End will surely carry you to the final battle with Hades. Grab yourself one of two Ares and Athena boons on your journey and find that ability!
With this duo-boon, your attacks that can deflect will also do additional doom damage to the foes that you face. Doom damage is useful in game for its ability to stagger hits overtime with only one initial hit from the player, while Athena’s deflecting abilities can shoot projectiles and attacks back towards the enemy trying to hit you.
The Benefits:
- While other effects also do doom damage to enemies, Merciful End also gives you a chance to keep yourself defended from incoming attacks by deflecting. This puts it a bit above other doom-inflicting abilities, and can also make for some incredibly engaging gameplay!
- Surviving against enemies that can land powerful hits, or a lot of hits at once, is crucial to doing well in this game. Athena’s deflecting abilities can be a lifesaver in those moments where you need to keep hits off you in order to win a battle. Luckily, the doom damage being inflicted additionally will allow you to intensify your progress.
- The added doom damage from this ability can coincide and stack with the doom damage you get from either of the Ares curses you choose! This makes for strong attacks over time and higher rates of success.
What You Need to Get This Duo-Boon:
From Ares: Curse of Agony or Curse of Pain
From Athena: Divine Strike or Divine Flourish
1. Cold Fusion
Zeus and Demeter’s duo-boon is not to be underestimated, even though you need a specific ability from Zeus in order to obtain it. With the jolted mechanic, every time an enemy goes to attack after being affected, they receive a burst of damage.
Usually, the jolted status only lasts for one attack. With Cold Fusion, this is no longer the case. Instead, jolted effects do damage whenever an enemy attacks until the effects wear off. Hit an enemy with a lightning effect, they become jolted, and every time they try to make a hit they receive that extra damage.
For boss battles? This means that even the strongest bosses can be defeated in record time
The Benefits:
- In a Zeus build, your lightning effects are going to be intensely more powerful than before. Cold Fusion makes the jolted effect way more useful, and if you combine the boons you get with a weapon you know well, you’re almost guaranteed an encounter with Hades himself.
- If you’re focusing on Demeter, you’re primarily focusing on control. Slowing down your enemies in order to do massive damage to them. Demeter also provides very useful boons for healing and making your cast more powerful. If you incorporate some Zeus boons into your build, and find the cold fusion duo-boon, the damage you do to those enemies can increase the speed of your battles and make your attacks more powerful against quick enemies!
- If you happen to find this duo-boon, the final battle against Hades can be a piece of cake if you play your cards right. Even the boss battles in earlier biomes can be quickly defeated if you’re able to jolt those bosses. If you’re anything like me when I first started playing, I’d die in those fights the most. Cold Fusion is a great way to do massive damage to those hard to beat enemies that can drive you crazy after a few runs.
What You Need to Get This Duo-Boon:
From Demeter: Demeter’s Aid, Mistral Dash, Frost Strike, or Frost Flourish
From Zeus: Static Discharge
This concludes the list of my top 10 boon combos for hades! There are 18 more to be discovered, so get playing!
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