Temple of Styx

The Temple of Styx is the gateway of the Underworld, and acts as the barrier between the surface world and the land of the dead. At the back of the temple, the watchful hellhound Cerberus assumes his post, devouring any soul attempting to leave. The Temple is the 4th and final biome Zagreus must fight through in order to escape the Underworld, after surviving the perils of Elysium. This biome is structured differently than the previous three biomes of the game, featuring five wings of small chambers with rewards only offered in the final room of a wing. A full clear of the Temple of Styx will be 33 chambers.

Layout
The Temple features a different layout than previous biomes. The first room of the biome is a hub room, which Zagreus will be returning to often as he travels here. Charon's final shop (aka the "Mega Shop") will always be found in the hub, as well as a side passage which leads to the five encounter wings.

Charon's shop will always offer a Hermes Boon of boosted rarity for 500 or an Anvil of Fates for 275, one of two bounty resources: a Diamond (1000 ) or Titan Blood (1200 ), and four other upgrades (God Boons, Centaur Hearts, or Poms of Power). Two of his offerings will be upgraded versions of Boons or Poms with increased prices: Boons will cost 450 rather than 150  but have boosted rarity, whereas Poms cost 300  rather than 100  but increase a boon's level by 2 instead."A crudely-hewn network of tunnels grows from one of the cold Temple's flanks, containing vicious denizens unwelcome in this realm, even in death." In order to escape Styx, Zagreus must find a Fetid Sack within the Satyr Tunnels of the temple, in order to persuade Cerberus to abandon his post and allow Zagreus past. Five wings of Satyr Tunnels open in the western part of the hub room. Each wing consists of compact and small chambers with no reward, concluding in one final larger chamber where the reward is offered. Two of the wings will always be Elite wings, offering more dangerous encounters which end with a mini-boss, and have increased rewards.

The Styx wings, with no Fated Authority used, will always offer two or three Boons, a Daedalus Hammer (if only one Hammer had been picked up prior to the Temple) and a combination of Obol, Pom of Power, and Centaur Heart rewards for the remaining wings. If Fated Authority is used on a chamber, it will not revert back to its original version if Zagreus travels down a different path instead, and returns to the hub later.

After finding the Fetid Sack, Zagreus can talk to Cerberus, who will accept it and leave the room, allowing access to the Exit Door of the Underworld. When Cerberus moves, all remaining wings of Styx will be closed, and Zagreus will no longer be able to enter them. Charon's shop will remain open, allowing for potential last minute upgrades.

Traps
Styx features the most deadly traps in Hades. All of its traps deal very high damage and activate very quickly.

Guillotine traps are the most common trap in Styx. These traps drop large axes from the ceiling, which do very high damage should Zagreus or an enemy be beneath them. Networks of these axes can be linked to pressure plates in rooms, or they can automatically trigger on a loop.

Another dangerous trap in Styx is the Snake Saw launcher. These traps continuously shoot large buzz-saws across the room, in a straight line. These saws can be deflected, but cannot be destroyed, and do very high damage to anything in their path.

Styx also features poison vents on the floor, which randomly release poison clouds. These clouds can only harm Zagreus, and inflict him with a stack of Styx Poison if he lingers for too long within a cloud.

Features
Every Styx chamber contains at least one Mandragora Curing Pool, with larger rooms containing 2 or 3 of them. Mandragora Curing Pools can be used to cleanse the Styx Poison debuff from Zagreus. Curing Pools are often placed in precarious positions, usually around traps. Using a Curing Pool puts it on a very short cooldown (about 3 seconds) before it can be used again.

Additionally, Chaos Gates and Infernal Gates cannot spawn in any Styx chamber. Wells of Charon and Pools of Purging can however, albeit at a reduced rate compared to other biomes.

If unlocked, Valuable Urns (Urns which contain gold) are more frequent in Styx than in every other biome.

Unique Chambers
Styx features one unique chamber which is the "Storage Room". The Storage Room is guaranteed to spawn in one of the five wings of Styx, as a replacement for a larger final room in a wing. The Storage Room will contain that wing's room reward, as well as the Satyr Sack and a Fountain. The fountain will heal for more health than any other fountain in a run but is the only fountain in Styx. The Storage Room will not be the first wing you choose to enter.

Styx currently features no NPC room encounters, unlike every other biome in the game (not counting the hub room with Cerberus and Charon in it).

Mini-Boss Encounters
"Inside the filth-encrusted lairs carved into the looming edifices of the Underworld lie such terrible abominations that not even grim Lord Hades is inclined to speak of them." Styx features four potential mini-boss encounters, which only spawn as the final room of an elite wing. Up to two of these can be encountered in a run. The mini-boss encounters of Styx are an upgraded Dire Bother, Snakestone, Gigantic Vermin, or Satyr Cultist, with various Styx enemy reinforcements. These variants will have a different appearance, increased armor and health (more than a typical Elite of the same type) and improved attacks. While alive, these Dire enemies will continue to spawn enemy reinforcements up to a cap. These encounters end when all enemies in the room have been defeated, including all remaining enemy reinforcements. Their reward is always the reward of the wing they were found in (which will be of increased quality).


 * The mini-boss Bother spawns in a rhombus chamber with Snake Saw launchers and Gigantic Vermin reinforcements. It attacks by launching multiple deadly explosives in a circle around itself, leaving little room for safety between poison puddles and AoE damage.
 * The mini-boss Snakestone spawns in a large rectangle chamber with a large chasm through the center and Satyr Cultist reinforcements. It attacks by shooting lasers in 360 degree around itself, while cultists use poison darts to flush Zagreus out of cover.
 * The mini-boss Gigantic Vermin spawns in a narrow multi-level chamber with pressure-plate axe traps and Bother reinforcements. It attacks by spewing large poison puddles and lunging at Zagreus very quickly.
 * The mini-boss Satyr Cultist spawns in a small chamber with almost no cover and Crawler reinforcements. It attacks by shooting multiple poison darts at a time.

If the pact Middle Management is active, two different mini-bosses will appear in each encounter instead of one.

Boss Encounters
There are only two bosses to be found once the player reaches the temple, one inside the temple itself, and another one, after Zagreus leaves for the Surface. One of them, which can be found inside the chambers, is the Tiny Vermin, a much stronger version of the regular Crawler. The Tiny Vermin attacks much faster than its regular counterpart, deals a lot more damage, and has 10,000 health.

The second boss of the area and final boss of the game is Lord Hades himself. He can be found in the Surface, once the player gives Cerberus the Satyr Sack and goes through the final door. He will talk briefly to Zagreus before initiating combat. His boss fight consists of two phases.

The reward for this encounter is a Titan Blood bounty if the player meets bounty conditions, either through first victory against the boss or Heat Levels through the Pact of Punishment. Otherwise, it is a Darkness drop. By default, this drop is 250 Darkness, which can be affected by boons and bonus effects.

Once the Final Boss is defeated and the reward accepted, a path will be revealed to escape the entrance of the Underworld and Zagreus can finally travel to the surface world. However, prior to release 1.0 of the game, this led to an end game cutscene which narrated a potential way for Zagreus to die on the surface world, and returned him to the House of Hades with a congratulating message from the development team.

Enemies
These are all the enemies that can be encountered in any Temple of Styx chamber. All of these enemies can also appear as Elites, giving them armor and occasionally upgraded attacks.