Boons

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Boons are upgrades given by the gods to help Zagreus in his attempts to escape the underworld. They can be obtained as rewards for clearing a room marked with the respective god's symbol or purchased for 150 from Charon's shop. Boons only last for the duration of a run; they will disappear should Zagreus die and be sent back to the House of Hades.

Gods

Equipping a keepsake given by one of the gods (except Hermes or Chaos) ensures that, the next time a boon is offered, it will be from that specific god. It does not guarantee that the very next reward will be a god boon - only that, the first time one appears, it will be from that god. Chaos and Hermes boons can appear before any other god boon regardless of the keepsake you are using.

• Aphrodite gives boons that inflict Weak and Charmed on opponents.
• Athena gives boons that allow abilities to Deflect projectiles and improve various defensive options.
• Ares gives boons that inflict Doom on opponents, create Blade Rifts, or increase the damage of your attacks.
• Artemis gives boons that grant Critical hits and improve Cast abilities.
• Chaos gives boons that grant a variety of bonuses after inflicting a debuff for several encounters.
• Dionysus gives boons that inflict Poison, create Festive Fog, and improve survivability.
• Hermes gives boons that increase your mobility, attack speed, evasion, and allow you to slow enemies.
• Poseidon gives boons that add Knockback to abilities and improve room rewards.
• Zeus gives boons that add chain lightning to abilities, or cause lightning to strike nearby enemies.

More information on specific boons from each god can be found on their respective pages.

Slots

Zagreus's Attack, Special, Cast, Dash, and Wrath abilities cannot be affected by multiple gods at the same time. For example, you cannot have both Shatter Shot from Aphrodite and Tipsy Shot from Dionysus. However, gods may sometimes offer to exchange one Boon for another. In the above example Dionysus could offer to exchange your Shatter Shot for Tipsy Shot. Exchanges increase the level and rarity of the boon by one stage, with Epic boons becoming Heroic when traded. Zagreus does not have a limit on how many other boons he can have at one time.

Rarity

There are four 'standard' rarities of boon available, each more powerful than the last:

• Common
• Rare
• Epic
• Heroic

Legendary and Duo rarities are exclusive to specific boons from each god, and require having certain boons as prerequisites. Heroic rarity is only available through exchanging an Epic-rarity boon, and therefore is only available on Attack, Special, Cast, Dash, and Wrath boons.

Requirements

Some boons require earlier boons from the same god in order to be offered. These requirements tend to follow basic logic; for example, Aphrodite will not offer boons improving your Weak effect if you do not already have a boon allowing you to inflict Weak to begin with.

Duo boons - which combine the powers of two gods - function similarly, but require specific boons from two different gods before they can be offered. Duo boons can be received from either god involved, and can trigger dialogue between the pair when obtained. A list of all Duo boons, their effects, gods, and requirements can be found here.

The exact requirements are different from one god to another and are listed on each god's individual page, both for their regular boon progression and their Duo requirements where available.

Trial of the Gods

Trial of the Gods rooms are denoted by two god symbols appearing on the door instead of just one, as well as the skull marker typically seen on miniboss doors. In a Trial, both gods present their boons, and you must choose one over the other. Whichever god was not chosen will become displeased and retaliate by attacking Zagreus, in addition to summoning enemies.

Killing all waves of enemies successfully completes the Trial, and the displeased god forgives Zagreus and gives him their boon. There is no lasting penalty to displeasing a god, even if they are encountered in multiple Trials within a run and never chosen.

God	Attack
Aphrodite	Periodically summons a ring of circles around enemies which deal damage.
Athena	Periodically grants shields to enemies which last for 2 to 3 seconds, and then explode, dealing damage.
Ares	Periodically spawn slow moving circles which inflict damage rapidly.
Artemis	Periodically spawns in fast moving circles which explode randomly, dealing damage.
Dionysus	Periodically and randomly spawn large circles that explode, dealing damage.
Poseidon	Enemies coast around the room on waves, inflciting knockback
Zeus	Periodically spawns circles which call lightning strikes, dealing damage.