Summary
- Duo boons are powerful combinations of blessings from two gods in Hades 2, offering unique abilities.
- Strategic selection of duo boons can greatly enhance your gameplay and help you defeat tough enemies like Chronos.
- Examples like Queen’s Ransom and Hail Storm showcase powerful effects that can change the course of your run.
Duo boons are rare upgrades that can significantly improve your build in Hades 2. These boons are actually a combination of blessings offered by two gods. Their unique abilities and perks make them the strongest in the game, as they combine two elements to grant special powers to Melinoe.
However, they are pretty rare, and some of these require specific boons to be equipped by the relevant gods. There are plenty of duo boons in Hades 2 to choose from, so it is important to know that you pick the best ones for your runs. With the right boons, you can win against most of the enemies and even defeat Chronos easily.
Updated on March 6, 2025, by William Quick: Ever since the gaming world was graced by the awesomeness that is Hades, both in gameplay and writing, we thought it couldn’t be followed. However, when Hades 2 released in Early Access, we were pleasantly surprised. While there’s still plenty of debate about which game is better, this is a worthy sequel to a stellar title. It follows a new protagonist who has new mechanics to work with, and the duo boon is one of the more interesting ones. Here are some of the best duo boons you can get by getting the gods to combine their powers.
11
Queen’s Ransom
- Required Gods: Hera and Zeus.
- Effect: You can trade in all your Zeus Boons, and each one will increase your Hera Boons by one level.
The longer you play Hades 2, the quicker you realize it isn’t a game you can play safely. This doesn’t mean you need to start swinging carelessly at anything dangerous, but you can’t stay on the defensive constantly, or enemies will pile onto you. You need to be willing to take risks, which is what Queen’s Ransom represents.
This Duo Boon is a gamble with a big payoff if you can use it effectively. You’d be giving up all of Zeus’s Lightning perks to massively boost Hera’s Hitch perks, which can cause lots of chain damage to enemy hordes. By weaving between targets and striking them with Hitch, you’ll constantly be doing damage to multiple enemies with all your attacks.
10
Hail Storm
- Required Gods: Demeter and Zeus.
- Effect: If you inflict Freeze on enemies, they’ll be struck with Lightning multiple times.
The cool thing about duo boons is that it gives you another world of combos. Nothing is more satisfying than hitting an enemy and watching, then getting buried under the status effects of all flavors while you sit back and watch the show. The show will be cool and shocking by picking up Hail Storm.
At its core, this effect lets you hit enemies with two kinds of damage. First, you chill them with Freeze, which is already very effective, and then those frozen enemies will be hit with Lightning strikes as they struggle to break free. The kind of power makes you want to fill the battlefield with flashy effects just for fun.
9
Beach Ball
- Required Gods: Poseidon and Apollo.
- Effect: Whenever you sprint, you’ll create a Water Sphere, which will shoot ahead and blast enemies.
So many Greek gods have reputations for being serious and intense, so it’s nice to encounter ones that seem or at least look a bit more lighthearted. Whenever you meet Poseidon or Apollo for the first time, these smiling representations of the elements will perk you up. It only makes sense that their duo boon would be named Beach Ball.
Despite the playful name, the effect is somewhat literal. By dashing around the field, you can generate watery balls that appear behind you before they launch forward and explode all over any enemies they hit. It’s a quick, effective, and entertaining way to fill the field with additional projectiles that have literal splash damage.
8
Romantic Spark
- Required Gods: Zeus and Aphrodite.
- Effect: The boon will activate if you sprint into enemies afflicted with Blitz, which will allow you to deal with bonus Blitz damage up to 200 percent.
Blitz-focused attacks are always worth picking up as they tend to deal significant damage to affected enemies. The Romantic Spark duo boon can add more to this damage as it activates Blitz if you run into enemies instead of having you attack them directly.
Additionally, since Blitz only works if you deal damage to the Blitz-affected enemy within a certain time limit, this duo boon can help you deal Blitz Damage immediately as you dash toward the cursed enemies. This will allow you to target a large group of enemies without separately hitting each of them.
7
Golden Rule
- Required Gods: Poseidon and Demeter.
- Effect: You will deal more damage depending upon the Gold you have. Bonus damage per 100 Gold is five percent.
Golden Rule is favorable for wealthy players as it allows you to deal additional damage depending on the amount of gold you have. While you will only get five percent damage per 100 gold in late-game, this boon can prove to be quite useful, especially if you are not spending your gold.
If you manage to get the Golden Rule boon early on in the game, then it can entirely change the course of your run. All you will be required to do is not spend your gold at the Charon’s shop and focus on collecting more gold to truly benefit from this boon.
6
Island Getaway
- Required Gods: Aphrodite and Poseidon.
- Effect: You take less damage from the nearby enemies.
Island Getaway is definitely one of the best boons in Hades 2 in terms of defense and can offer a damage reduction of around 15 percent. While picking up boons that increase the damage of your specials and attacks is important, it is also essential to focus on defense, especially in late-game runs.
The duo boon will also allow Melinoe to use boons like Glamour Gain without being too close to enemies, which is normally a prerequisite for Aphrodite boons to work. Moonstone Axe, Umbral Flames, and Argent Skull paired with Island Getaway can truly bring out the best in Aphrodite’s boons.
5
Master Conductor
- Required Gods: Zeus and Hephaestus.
- Effect: The chain lightning attacks will deal 15 percent more damage per bounce and can bounce back to Melinoe.
No doubt Zeus’s blitz attacks are powerful, but his chain lightning attacks are actually the star of the show. The Master Conductor duo boon makes the chain lightning deal double the damage to a single target, which can prove to be a game changer, especially during boss fights.
Related
Hades 2: Every Returning Character
Here’s every character from the first Hades game who has returned in Hades.
This rare duo boon is a must-have if you already have chain lightning boons. While it focuses on a single target, it can work greatly against crowds as well through lightning bolts that can travel within groups of enemies, absolutely destroying them.
4
Room Temperature
- Required Gods: Hephaestus and Demeter.
- Effect: The blast effects from Hephaestus will clear Freeze, so you will be able to freeze enemies again immediately.
Demeter’s ability focuses on ice, so you will have to pick up a freeze boon from her for this duo boon to show up. Room Temperature uses both the blast damage abilities of Hephaestus and the ice abilities of Demeter to stun enemies. The Freeze effect is definitely one of the best debuffs in Hades 2, as it tends to work great against crowds of enemies if you are getting cornered by them.
Normally, it takes some time before you can use the Freeze effect again on enemies, but with Room Temperature, you can immediately freeze enemies again, making it one of the most powerful duo boons in the game.
3
Freezer Burn
- Required Gods: Hestia and Demeter.
- Effect: When you freeze an enemy, the Scorch effect will be amplified on the foe.
If your main weapons are Witch’s Staff or Sister Blades, then you might want to consider picking up the Freezer Burn boon, which incorporates both Freeze and Scorch status elements to deal serious damage over time.
Not only will you be using Scorch against enemies, but you will also be inflicting Freeze. This damage combo can work great against a large number of enemies to quickly get rid of them.
The duo boon works best on its own, so it is important to avoid stacking boons like Hestia’s Fire Extinguisher, which also focuses on Scorch damage.
2
Scalding Vapor
- Required Gods: Hestia and Poseidon.
- Effect: If enemies with slip are struck by fire, they get 25 Steam Damage every 0.2 seconds.
This duo boon works great in inflicting high damage over time. If you want this to appear, make sure that you equip Hestia’s powerful keepsake, which you can get by gifting her the Nectar, and make sure that you pick up any of her cast-focused boons along with Poseidon’s Slippery Slope.
Against guardian boss fights, it can work as a charm, as you will be able to deal immense amounts of damage over time to the affected enemies. This duo boon, paired with Poseidon’s Wave Flourish, can cause both steam damage and splash damage, making you unstoppable against heaps of enemies.
1
Glorious Disaster
- Required Gods: Zeus and Apollo.
- Effect: Channel 30 Magick into your Omega cast to deal lightning bolts repeatedly to enemies.
Glorious Disaster allows Melinoe to strike enemies in her Omega cast with powerful bolts, dealing around 50 damage every 0.13 seconds.
Against end-game bosses like Chronos, this duo boon can give you a huge advantage as it can rack up to around 400 damage per second. However, you will need Apollo’s Solar Ring for this to appear.
By using other boons from gods like Zeus, Poseidon, or Apollo that focus on improving Melinoe’s cast, you can further enhance the boon’s effects.
- Franchise
-
Hades
- Released
-
May 6, 2024
- Engine
-
Proprietary Engine
- ESRB
-
t
- OpenCritic Rating
-
Mighty