Elysium

"The rare, heavenly splendors of Elysium, reserved for only the most great of mortal souls, spread forth luxuriantly all about the fire-stepping Prince."

Elysium (also known as the Elysian Fields) is the section of the underworld reserved for those who were great heroes or particularly beloved by the gods in life. It is seen as an eternal paradise, where warriors, heroes and kings relive their living days by engaging in recreational combat. Elysium is filled with ageless crystal structures and statues depicting various heroes, all overgrown with moss. The river of forgetfulness, Lethe, flows through the area, numbing the memories and old pains of the shades who reside there.

Elysium is the third biome Zagreus encounters in his escape attempts, and is always 11 chambers long (Elysium will always end with a Stairway chamber in the 37th room of any run.)

Traps
The traps of Elysium act differently than the traps from previous levels, and can be used more offensively than the ones in Asphodel and Tartarus. Elysium features a variety of traps.

One of these traps are the regrowing phoenix eggs. Like the explosive barrels in both Tartarus and Asphodel, these eggs can be primed by Zagreus (or by the projectiles from other traps) to explode, dealing high damage to anything caught within the radius. Unlike the barrels, these eggs will eventually regrow in the same spot, thus they can be reused to deal damage to enemies (and serve as a constant threat)

Elysium also features automatic firing crossbow traps. These traps will regularly fire slow-moving, high-damage bolt projectiles across the room. These bolts can trigger the destruction of phoenix eggs, with many rooms having an egg across the room from each crossbow. Like most projectiles, these bolts can be deflected. However, they cannot be destroyed.

Finally, Elysium features hoplite statues which line some of the walls of its chambers. Anything that stands directly in front of a statue will be attacked by its spear after a brief delay, dealing moderate damage. Rows of these traps often form a shield wall along the outer edges of the chambers, and occasionally appear around the centerpieces of rooms as well.

Another thing to note, while not a trap for Zagreus, is that pillars in Elysium—shaped as phoenix statues—will also regrow after a delay once (completely) destroyed, similarly to phoenix eggs. These can be used to repeatedly bring down rubble on enemies, dealing high damage when used effectively.

Unique Chamber
Elysium features a unique chamber with the shade Patroclus, who can be found reflecting moodily on a bench overlooking the River Lethe. When encountered, Patroclus will offer Zagreus a brief conversation, and then grant him an amplified item from the Well of Charon. Patroclus will always offer a choice between these 3 items:


 * Kiss of Styx Premium (which replenishes all of Zagreus' expended Death Defiances)
 * If using Stubborn Defiance, offers Touch of Styx Dark (increases Stubborn Defiance by 50% for 15 Encounters)
 * HydraLite Gold (Heals Zagreus for 30% each time he enters a room for 5 Encounters)
 * Cyclops Jerky Select (Zagreus' Attack deals 60% more damage for 10 Encounters)

Patroclus can only be encountered one time per run, and is not guaranteed to be encountered. Zagreus cannot use Fated Authority on his chamber to swap it to a different reward. Patroclus's chamber will not count towards Encounters for Chaos boon debuffs, but it will count for specific items from the Well of Charon (like the HydraLite or HydraLite Gold).

Mini-Boss Encounters
Elysium features two separate mini boss encounters. Zagreus can encounter only one of them in a run. It is possible to encounter neither of them, depending on the paths the player takes.

The rewards for both mini-boss encounters are a god boon of increased rarity. When Fated Authority is used on them, the god boon reward will change, but the room itself will not, and the mini-boss will remain. Additionally, Fated Authority will not change which mini-boss room is encountered.

Both rooms are marked with an elite skull beneath the offered god boon. There is no way to distinguish between the two encounters without entering one.

The first mini-boss encounter in Elysium is a fight with a Dire Soul Catcher. The room will spawn an Elite Soul Catcher in the center, surrounded by pools of the River Lethe. Elite Exalted will begin to spawn in the room, but will spawn in unarmed. Their weapons will appear around the room, and they will attempt to rearm themselves during the fight with the Elite Soul Catcher. While the Exalted spawned in eventually have a cap, they can very easily overwhelm a player if not dealt with while taking care of the Soul Catcher. Once the Soul Catcher dies, Exalted will stop spawning. The encounter will end when every enemy has been slain, including any Exalted.

The second mini-boss encounter in Elysium is a fight with Asterius, the Bull of Minos (more commonly known as the Minotaur). Asterius' chamber is always a small arena with 2 wall pillars in it. Unlike other mini-boss encounters in Hades, Asterius will have a health bar, and will become briefly invulnerable at 50% health, after which he will gain new attacks. The fight with Asterius will end at 20% health, where he will become invulnerable again and call off the fight, complimenting Zagreus before leaving the chamber through the exit door. After he leaves, the god boon will be awarded.

More details on Asterius' attacks can be found on his respective page.

Boss Encounters
Elysium features one final boss: Theseus and Asterius. This boss will appear at chamber 36. This boss is unique in that the player is fighting two separate boss entities at one time.

The reward for this encounter is an Ambrosia Bounty if it is the player's first victory against the Heroes, or if they meet the Target Heat from the Pact of Punishment. Otherwise, it is a Darkness drop. By default, this drop is 120, and is affected by boons and bonus effects.

Once the Heroes are defeated, the back entrance of the stadium will open, which leads to a Stairway encounter. This stairway will always lead to The Temple of the Styx, the final biome of the game.

Enemies
These are all the enemies that can be encountered in any other Elysium chamber. Most of these enemies can also appear as Elites, giving them armor and upgraded attacks.

The Exalted
One enemy type that is worthy to note are the Exalted. These come in various classes with different weapons. However, all Exalted are merely separated from their weapons when killed. Disarmed Exalted Souls will attempt to re-arm themselves by traveling to a nearby weapon, and performing a short channel on it. If successful, it respawns as an Exalted of that weapon's type, with full health. Exalted of any type can re-arm with any weapon, and thus swap their weapons mid combat.

It is important to note that Disarmed Exalted Souls have very low life amounts, and have no attacks. Their channel on a weapon is also interrupted by a weapon's stagger effect, knockback, and stuns. (Assuming they are unarmored.)

Elite Exalted will be disarmed as Elite Disarmed Souls, giving the soul armor. If it rearms with armor, it rearms as an Elite Exalted of the weapon's type. If it only re-arms with health and no armor, it will rearm as a normal Exalted.

Trivia

 * Elysium is typically understood as "Greek Heaven". While this is more-or-less true, Greek ideals of what made a "good" person deserving of Heaven often leaned towards warring and killing; the All-Loving Hero is actually fairly rare in Hellenic lore. In the game, this matter is well-understood; Hades chafes at the Greek humans' concept of a hero, saying he would rather have Heracles in Tartarus, while Patroclus bitterly comments that "paradise" isn't populated by decent people.