Pact of Punishment

"Infernal Contract valid for eternity in the Underworld of Hades. For official use only!"

The Pact of Punishment is a contract provided by Hades for the purpose of making Zagreus' escape attempts even more difficult while earning valuable rewards. In a regular playthrough (save file), the Pact will only appear after the Final Boss is defeated at least once, and Zagreus has claimed victory. When he inevitably returns to the House of Hades, the Pact of Punishment will block the open window in the courtyard, allowing Zagreus to customize aspects of his run before he leaves. In Hell Mode, the Pact is available from the start.

Conditions
The Pact of Punishment features a total of 15 (16 in Hell Mode) different conditions which can affect an escape attempt. Most of these have differing levels, allowing Zagreus to further increase how effective one condition is.

Each Condition in the Pact of Punishment is worth an amount of Heat. The amount of Heat displayed in the gauge on the left of the Pact's UI represents the "total difficulty" of the conditions chosen.

Choose your conditions for a run carefully. Many of the conditions can be nearly ineffective against one particular weapon build, but extremely difficult to another. The prophecy Harsh Conditions requires you to completely clear a run with each of the conditions in place, but the condition only needs a single rank active in it, and they do not need to be done all on the same weapon or within a single run.

Additional Information
Extreme Measures affects bosses depending on how many levels you spend on it. At Level 1, it only affects the Furies. At Level 2, it affects the Furies and the Bone Hydra. At Level 3, it affects the Furies, Bone Hydra, and Theseus and Asterius. At Level 4, it affects the Furies, Bone Hydra, Theseus and Asterius, and the Final Boss.

Extreme Measures Level 4 (Extremer Measures) can only be purchased from the House Contractor after the main game is completed and the Final Boss is fought once after that.

Middle Management adds a unique effect each mini-boss Encounter. It affects every mini-boss Encounter in a run.


 * The Wretched Sneak summons Wringers.
 * The Doomstone has a new arena featuring Chimera traps on several islands.
 * The mini-boss room in Tartarus has increased numbers (4 enemies instead of 2) and the chosen enemies are a random mix of Slam Dancers, Inferno Bombers, Burn Flingers, and Wave Makers, instead of 2 of the same enemy.
 * The Barge of Death Encounter in Asphodel summons a Dire Voidstone (with increased health) alongside a horde of enemies. There is only one wave of enemies.
 * The Megagorgon and Elite Skull-Crusher Encounter in Asphodel gives both enemies new abilities. The Megagorgon gains the ability to frequently teleport around the room, and the Skullcrusher's landing creates a shockwave that travels across the entire room, and must be dashed through to avoid.
 * The Elite Soul Catcher Encounter in Elysium gains the ability to dash itself around the room at steady intervals.
 * The Solo Asterius Encounter in Elysium is unaffected by Middle Management. (However, Asterius will gain all of his Extreme Measures abilities in this encounter if Extreme Measures is enabled at Level 3.)
 * Elite Wings in the Temple of Styx will have 2 different Dire enemies in the room, instead of 1.
 * Mini-bosses summoned by the Final Boss during his boss fight also receive the extra abilities mentioned above.

Benefits Package affects armored enemies, granting them one additional perk up to a max of 2 per level. The following perks are:


 * Shifter (green ghost) - The enemy will teleport randomly.
 * Bruiser (helm) - The enemy has greatly increased health and size.
 * Slugger (sword) - The enemy deals more damage, like the Hard Labor punishment. (Stacks with other pacts of punishment).
 * Puller (purple disk) - The enemy has a small 'gravitational' field around them that can not be escaped by walking. Usually takes several dashes to break free.
 * Savior (blue shield) - The enemy will periodically give other nearby enemies 1 shielded health, up to a max of 5.
 * Speeder (boots) - The enemy attacks and moves faster, like the Forced Overtime punishment. (Stacks with other pacts of punishment).
 * Linker (pink ray) - A laser is created from the enemy to another nearby enemy. Prioritizes linking with armored foes, but can link to normal enemies.
 * Cloner (skulls) - Tartarus only. Fake clones of the enemy will constantly spawn, up to a cap. Each clone has 2 hp (1 armor, 1 regular). All clones die when the original dies.
 * Burner (fire) - Asphodel only. The enemy will constantly create fire traps.
 * Seeker (green star) - Projectiles fired by this enemy will home in on you.
 * Popper (warrior soul) - Warrior enemies in Elysium only. Upon death, the foe will drop many fake souls that explode upon death or after a few seconds. However, one is real and will function as normal.

Tight Deadline 's timer will pause:


 * After a region's boss has been defeated, as well as in the transition staircase rooms between biomes.
 * In the first empty room of a region (with the exception of the first room in Tartarus, and the main hub in Styx.)
 * During all Thanatos encounters.
 * While in a non-combat chamber, with Sisyphus, Eurydice, or Patroclus.
 * While fishing.
 * While choosing a boon or upgrade.

Also, when Zagreus enters a new biome, Tight Deadline will add the stipulated duration to the timer (rather than previous, when each zone was limited to the stipulated timer). Chambers where Zagreus must survive for a set duration against continually spawning enemies will not appear if Tight Deadline is active.

Although Routine Inspection deactivates Mirror of Night Talents, some effects still remain active. Zagreus remains able to reroll either chamber rewards (Fated Authority) or Boons (Fated Persuassion) – however, he loses the free rolls at the start of the run and can only gain rolls from collecting Chthonic Key s if he has the Fated Keys work order from the House Contractor.

Rewards
Defeating the Final Boss at certain Heat thresholds (8, 16, and 32) unlocks special rewards - though much to the disappointment of Zagreus (and perhaps also the player), these "rewards" are merely cosmetic statues of Skelly to display in the House of Hades courtyard.

In addition, powering the Pact up to 5, 10, and 15 Heat will allow Zagreus to access the Infernal Gates that lead to Erebus in Tartarus, Asphodel, and Elysium, respectively.

Bounties
In addition to the rewards above, completing the game with active Heat will award Zagreus with bounties. Each boss slain at (or above) a Target Heat value will drop a Diamond, an Ambrosia or Titan Blood which Zagreus can spend back in the House of Hades. After defeating the Final Boss and achieving victory at the target Heat value, the target will be raised for future bounties.

Bounties and Target Heat are tracked independently per weapon.

The limit for bounties is 20 Heat, with 21 completed runs that need to be completed to collect all bounties. In Hell Mode, the limit is increased to 25 Heat, with 20 completed runs to collect all bounties.

Bounties can only be collected once per weapon, per boss, per Heat level. So for example, once a player has defeated the Furies on 3 Heat with the Sword, they will no longer be able to collect a Bounty from defeating them with the Sword until they also defeat the Final Boss. However, the player can still collect a Bounty for defeating the Furies with a different weapon.

You can only claim rewards for the lowest Heat you have not yet completed, even if you defeat a boss at a higher heat (e.g If you have not yet beaten the Final Boss on 2 Heat for the Rail, then you go through and defeat them using 5 Heat, you will claim the remaining rewards for 2 Heat, and your Target Heat for the Rail will go up to 3). The Bounties for 0 Heat are tracked separately, and cannot be claimed by clearing on a higher heat.

Trivia

 * While most of the text on the courtyard scroll is composed of Lorem Ipsum, the top of the Pact reads: Together with his brothers Zeus and Poseidon and his sisters Hera, Demeter and Hestia, he rid the land of the Infernal Titans, who defied the very principles of Life and Reason, and lie entrapped forever now in deepest Tartarus.
 * A fully empowered Pact of Punishment has a total of 63 Heat. Prior to the Superstar Update, it required a total of 200 Heat as well as 80 Skeleton Keys to unlock all conditions. Keys are no longer required to unlock conditions, and Heat does not have to be collected to use the Pact.
 * When using Hell Mode, the Pact total is 64.
 * The pact received several reworks in the Superstar Update. Prior to this update:
 * Every point of Heat invested in the pact gave +2% collected during escape attempts.
 * Bounties did not exist prior to the update.
 * The required Heat to unlock each of the "rewards" was 15, 60, and 120, respectively.
 * The required Heat to access Infernal Gates was 25, 50, and 75.
 * Extreme Measures is hidden if you have not encountered each of the three Furies.
 * Routine Inspection is hidden if you do not have all sections of the Mirror of Night unlocked.
 * The Pact of Punishment could be considered the equivalent to the difficulty functions in earlier Supergiant games - Bastion's shrines, Transistor's limiters, and Pyre's Titan Stars.
 * When initially introduced, there were no rewards (aside from bragging rights) for completing a run with the Pact enabled.