Hades II Boon Tier List

A flat 400-damage blast tacked onto your Attack, recharging every 12 seconds at Common and just 6 at Heroic. At Heroic that's close to a second Attack going off in the background.

Blitz turns your basic Attack into a delayed bomb that deals 80 to 200 damage, before Arc Flash or Master Conductor even touch it.

500 flat blast damage on a Special, recharging every 8 to 14 seconds depending on rarity. Pair it with Volcanic Strike and half your kit is free explosions.

100 to 190 Blitz damage baked into your Special. It's the other half of the lightning build, and it hits just as hard as the Attack version.

120 to 240 damage per falling blade, once for every foe caught in the binding circle, and the April patch pushed the damage up further. Against a packed room this is the single highest ceiling of any Cast.

A flat +40% to +100% Attack damage in a bigger radius. No status attached, it's just a straight damage boon that never stops pulling weight.

+50% to +80% Attack damage plus Hitch, which shares 30% of the damage to every other Hitch'd foe for 8 seconds. Great in packs, wasted on a single target.

+80% to +140% damage to nearby foes is the biggest number in the Attack column, but only pays off on weapons that actually fight in melee range.

+100% to +250% close-range damage, the single biggest multiplier on this board. The catch is the same as Flutter Strike: it only fires at melee range.

+40% to +100% damage and Freeze on your Special locks a target down long enough to set up Winter Harvest's execute.

+60% to +120% damage in a wide area. Good even before Back Burner starts punishing everything you Daze.

An instant 60 to 150 splash on cast, no delay, plus Froth. Most Casts make you wait for the payoff; this one doesn't.

Repeated Freeze and damage in the circle, and it's the boon that sets up Winter Harvest's 10%-health shatter later.

Daze plus an 80 to 200 burst when the ring expires. Good damage and good control in the same package.

Every foe near your dash path gets struck by lightning. Free group damage on a button you're already pressing to reposition.

The 1.0 patch changed this from a contact-only proc to hitting all surrounding foes, dealing 60 to 150 damage when it does. Went from skippable to genuinely good.

+15% to +30% Sprint speed and Daze on everyone nearby. Mobility and crowd control in one slot.

4 to 10 Magick back on every weapon hit that lands. The most reliable sustain in the Magick column, because it doesn't ask you to stand still or wait on a Cast to expire.

40 to 100 Magick back whenever a Cast expires, and the 1.0 patch dropped the old requirement to stand inside the ring while it happens.

+30% to +75% damage and Freeze. The percentage undersells it: this is a lockdown pick, and the Freeze buys you a setup window most Attacks don't.

+20% to +50% is the weakest raw bump of any Attack boon, and Wounds only pays off once something follows up on it.

20 to 35 splash damage and a knockback. Fine crowd control, forgettable damage, and the knockback can shove foes out of your other AoE.

+30% to +60% damage and Wounds. It applies the status your Ares build wants, but the number trails the other Specials.

+60% to +90% damage plus Hitch. Good, just crowded out by the bigger names in this slot.

Repeated Scorch application with no burst damage attached. Feeds a burn build over time instead of spiking your Cast.

20 to 50 damage per foe caught, so it scales with how crowded the circle is and does very little solo.

Three hits of 60 to 90 damage each, up to 270 total. Reliable, unremarkable.

Repeated single-target bolts, 25 to 40 a hit. Everything else in this slot hits multiple foes; this one doesn't.

Low direct damage (10 to 25), but it drags every foe toward the center and Weakens them, worth more than the number suggests in a group fight.

A row of falling blades along your dash path, 30 to 75 damage each. Positional, and easy to whiff on a straight retreat.

80 to 140 blast damage, but only against the first foe you run into. Great as an opener, dead weight after that.

A 200-damage blast if a foe happens to be near you right after the dash ends. The timing window makes it less reliable than the Attack or Special blast.

20 to 50 damage twice, once on the dash and again when you stop, plus Weak. Fine utility, nothing that changes a run.

A lingering Gust dealing 4 to 10 damage. Mostly there for the crowd control, not the numbers.

Passive Weak on nearby foes and a slow Magick trickle (6 to 12). Fine sustain, nothing that defines a build.

Restores whatever Magick your Move just spent, once every 8 seconds. Good if your kit leans on Move-cost boons like Fine Line or Ocean Swell.

50% to 125% restoration, but only while you stand still for half a second first. Works against you mid-fight.

1 to 4 Magick back per hit taken, plus a small damage shrug. Small, frequent, easy to ignore.

Inflicts Scorch but adds no direct damage bonus of its own, so it's the one Attack pick that does nothing for you until the burn ticks.

Scorch with no accompanying damage bump, same problem as Flame Strike. You're picking it for the status alone.

Its rarity scaling got trimmed in the 1.0 patch, and the base numbers weren't impressive to begin with.

A cinder trail for 10 to 25 damage, and it caps your own burn damage at 1. Purely defensive tech, and a minor one.

A 20% chance per hit to spill Plasma, and the April patch let Rarity and Poms of Power boost how much Magick each spill restores (15 to 30). Better than it used to be, still not as reliable as Cardio Gain.

Only kicks in once you're already completely dry, so it helps just after the fight that needed it most.

A font spawns in the arena and fully refills Magick, but you have to walk to it and it only resets every 7 to 10 seconds. Clunkier than every other Magick boon in the column.

Foes with Daze take 50% to 125% more damage when you hit them from behind. Pair it with any Daze source and backstabs stop being a gimmick and start being your main damage.

+75 to +150 flat damage on every Hephaestus blast, and the blast itself gets 50% bigger. The single best multiplier for a blast build, bar none.

Damage from your Attack or Special instantly pops any active Blitz and makes it 30% to 60% stronger. This is what turns Zeus's delayed burst into on-demand damage.

Every strike emits chain-lightning bouncing up to 4 times, for the price of Priming 50 Magick. The foundation of the entire lightning build.

+5% damage for every Earth Boon you're carrying. Earth has some of the best Boons in the game, so this scales harder than it looks on paper.

Restores 50% to 80% of whatever damage you took in an Encounter, every single Encounter. One of the best sustain boons in the game, full stop.

Hephaestus blasts also inflict Glow for 15% to 30% bonus damage. Stack it with Grand Caldera and your blasts do almost double.

A 10% to 19% chance for Wounds to trigger 200% damage on a hit, and the April patch increased how much Rarity and Poms boost that chance further. Close to a guaranteed double-damage proc once Wounds is up on everything.

Refills every spent Death Defiance immediately and makes them heal for more. At deep Fear, more Death Defiance uses is more runs that don't end on one mistake.

+15 max Life for every Water Boon you hold. Lean into Water and this alone can add well over 100 HP.

The first time you Scorch a foe, it burns for 80 to 200 extra damage. A huge opening burst for any scorch build.

Turns 20% to 35% of your Magick limit into bonus max Life. Free HP for anyone who was going to raise their Magick cap anyway.

Lets you aim your Cast's binding circle at range instead of dropping it on yourself, and it hits for 50 to 110 lightning damage on top. One of the best quality-of-life boons in the game.

+10% to +25% speed on your Attack, Special, and Cast. A flat DPS increase on your entire kit with no downside.

+100% to +175% damage for the first 10 seconds of every Encounter. Huge if you can front-load the fight, which most builds can.

+20% to +35% chain-lightning damage and 3 extra bounces. Stacks directly with Static Shock for a lightning build that clears whole rooms.

You become Impervious for 2 seconds after taking a hit, recharging every 7 to 13 seconds. A genuine get-out-of-jail card on a short cooldown.

While you hold 5+ Air, you can never deal less than 50 damage per hit. A hidden damage floor that quietly fixes your weakest attacks.

+30% to +60% to any chance-based effect you own, except Dodge and Daze. The more procs your build has, the more this is worth.

Heals you to full when you leave a Location above 50% to 80% Life. Play clean and this is close to a free heal every room.

Dodge chance and move speed that scale with your total Boon count. By the last few Locations of a run, with 20-plus Boons stacked, this is one of the best defensive scalers around.

15% to 38% crit chance against foes above 80% Life or Armor. Most bosses and Guardians qualify at the start of the fight, which makes this a huge damage spike exactly when it matters.

+20% to +110% Froth damage. The core payoff boon for any splash-and-knockback Poseidon build.

+2 to +5 seconds of Freeze duration. More lockdown time, and more time for Winter Harvest to land its execute.

+10% to +25% damage against Weak foes. Weak is trivial to maintain in an Aphrodite build, so this is close to a flat damage multiplier.

Scorch deals its damage 50% to 125% faster. Turns a slow burn into a DoT that actually finishes fights.

+40% to +100% damage against Armor. Armored enemies and Guardians show up constantly at high Fear, so this earns its slot in almost any Hephaestus build.

While you hold 2+ Elements, every Common Boon you own gets bumped up a rarity. Low threshold to hit, and the upgrade compounds across your whole build.

While you hold 6+ Water, any hit that would deal 20 or more damage gets reduced by a flat 10. Solid defensive tech against the hits that would otherwise drop you fast.

Reworked in the April patch so it triggers off collecting Plasma or inflicting Wounds instead of only one, making it a far more reliable blade proc for any Ares build.

Turns your Cast into a single lobbed bomb for 300 to 750 damage. Great burst, but it replaces your ring entirely, so it's a poor fit for a build that wants to hold foes in the binding circle.

100 flat lightning damage back at whoever hit you, with a 50% chance to strike again. Good in a crowd, unremarkable against one big target.

Dodge chance scaling per Air Boon. The 1.0 patch trimmed its numbers, so it's solid in a heavy-Air build now rather than mandatory.

Bumps one random Boon to Heroic rarity with bonus levels. Fantastic if it lands on your build's centerpiece; you don't get to pick which one it hits.

Sounds like a punish since it zeroes out your Gold, but 300 to 600 back after the next Guardian is usually more than you were holding onto anyway.

5% to 11% chance for your Attack to deal exactly 5, 55, or 555 damage instead of its normal hit. Once your Attack is properly scaled up, this boon is a downgrade almost every time it fires.

Flat damage resistance against anything nearby, and Aphrodite's boons start treating every foe on screen as nearby. With a rival joining every Guardian under Vow of Rivals, this is the duo that keeps you standing long enough to finish the fight.

+50% blast damage against Frozen foes. Stack Volcanic Strike with any Freeze source and this duo turns every blast into an execution.

Every Blitz proc also inflicts 160 Scorch damage. Two delayed-damage systems compounding into one, and it's the reason to run the Zeus lightning build and the Hestia burn build together.

Your chain-lightning bounces off you and hits harder each time it does. This is the duo that turns a Zeus build into a room-clearing machine, and it's been a top pick since early access.

Inflicting Wounds also fires off every 'after you take damage' effect you own, on a 6-second recharge per foe. Turns Ares's bleed into a trigger for your entire retaliation kit.

Scorch stops decaying while the foe is Weak, so the burn ticks at full strength for its whole duration instead of tapering off. Easy to keep up since Weak is everywhere in an Aphrodite build.

Automatically Charms a foe whenever two or more are in the fight. Reliable, no-input crowd control in every group encounter.

Fire a Hephaestus blast right as it recharges and it goes off twice. Timed well, this doubles the output of every Volcanic boon in your build.

8 total levels spread across whichever Boon sits leftmost on your list. Free power for your best pick, no matter what build you're actually running.

+30% lightning damage against Froth-afflicted foes. Poseidon's splash tags targets with Froth constantly, so this is close to a flat damage boost for a lightning build.

Automatically spends Magick to block up to 30% of incoming damage. A free safety net for any build sitting on spare Magick, which is most of them.

+100% Cast damage, and the Cast now follows you instead of staying put. Huge for anyone leaning on a ring-based build.

Dashing into a Blitz'd foe triggers it early and makes it 80% stronger. Turns your dash into a detonator button.

Channel 30 extra into your Cast and it starts repeatedly striking with lightning bolts. Only pays off if you're already committing to long Cast channels.

Your blasts clear Daze and deal 300 bonus damage when they do. Strong, but it needs both a Daze source and a blast source already in your build.

35% chance to spawn a Heartthrob whenever you collect Plasma. Decent if you're already building around Heartthrob procs, dead weight otherwise.

10 Life back whenever a Dodge or a Daze-forced miss saves you. Small per instance, but it adds up over a long run.

25% chance for your splash to hit twice. Solid with Poseidon's Legendary and any build leaning on knockback damage.

Ares's falling blades drop an extra time and cover more ground. Good if blades are already doing the heavy lifting in your build, irrelevant if they're not.

Bumps your Keepsake a rank higher, if the Keepsake can go that high. Value depends entirely on which Keepsake you brought into the run.

Restoring Magick during a fight deals 500% of whatever you restored as damage to every Hitch'd foe. Big number, but it needs both Magick sustain and Hitch uptime running to pay off.

+35% recharge speed on anything that regenerates over time. Quietly good in any build built around cooldown procs, easy to overlook when drafting.

Falling blades drop immediately instead of delayed, and hit 25 harder. Makes Ares's blade boons noticeably more responsive.

Frozen foes get repeatedly struck by 30-damage lightning bolts. Passive damage on top of the crowd control Freeze already gives you.

Blast effects also spawn a 160-damage Heartthrob. Combines two strong kits, but you need both already running to feel it.

Standing in your own Gust fires random 70-damage gales every 0.3 seconds. Excellent if you can hold ground in the Gust, useless the moment you have to move.

Give up every Zeus Boon and each one adds 4 levels to your Hera Boons instead. Strong if you're deep on both gods, closer to a wash if you're not.

The mirror of Queen's Ransom: sacrifice your Hera Boons for 4 bonus levels on every Zeus Boon you hold. Same math, opposite direction.

Keeps up to 20 of your Plasma-based bonuses when you leave a Location. A minor quality-of-life boon, not a build enabler.

Freezing a Scorched foe detonates the burn for a big single hit and clears the status. Strong on paper, but it deletes the Scorch stack you were relying on for sustained damage.

Bigger Wounds power specifically on Hestia's fireball boons. Only relevant if you've already committed to Controlled Burn or Glowing Coal.

Heartthrobs spawn extra copies of themselves. Great in a dedicated mana-burst build, dead card in anything else.

Weapon damage scales off your max Life, so it only pays off once you've stacked Life boons to back it up.

Your Sprint leaves a watery globe that surges for up to 300 damage once you stop. Decent mobility damage, but there are better things to fill this duo slot with.

The first foe you kill in an Encounter comes back to fight for you at +200% damage. Fun, but the ally AI is unreliable and it only triggers once per room.

Froth-afflicted foes hit by fire get Steamed for 20 damage. The 1.0 patch removed its interaction with the Froth Curse, and the payoff was already narrow before that.

Gives Fine Line and Ocean Swell a chance to fire twice, but you need both of those specific Passive boons already equipped for this to do anything at all. Skip it unless you've built around both.

Your Attack and Special both fire twice, for more Magick cost. Feed it steady Magick sustain and this doubles your entire weapon's output, which is why it's one of the best Legendaries in the game.

Every time you inflict Weak, you also land 3 random Curses from gods you don't even have. Weak procs constantly in an Aphrodite build, so this becomes a debuff generator that stacks Wounds, Hitch, Freeze and more for free.

Grants Elements and a free Infusion Boon for each one. The payoff scales with how many Infusions you already hold, so it's a late-run power spike rather than an early pick.

Your Casts destroy ranged shots on the way in and hit the shooter with 400 Scorch damage. Shuts down projectile spam and deals real damage at the same time.

Boosts Wounds damage further and automatically draws in spilled Plasma, reworked in the April patch alongside the rest of Ares's kit. The auto-collect alone is worth it for any Plasma-based build.

Frozen foes below 10% health shatter for 100 area damage. A clean execute that turns Freeze from crowd control into a kill condition.

You burn Magick instead of Life when you take damage, until the Magick runs out. Functions as a second health bar for any build with Magick to spare.

Bigger splash and +200% damage against Guardians specifically. Excellent in miniboss fights, unremarkable against everything else.

25% chance to instantly destroy susceptible foes on the first hit. Strong crowd-clear against the enemy types it works on, dead weight against anything it doesn't.

+1 rank to your Aspect of the Nocturnal Arms. Solid flat power, but how much it matters depends entirely on which Aspect you're running.