Hades 2: Every god ranked from worst to best

Every god in Hades 2 ranked from worst to best

Aphrodite, Demeter, Hephaestus, and Zeus / Supergiant Games

The gods and their various boons are the powers that give you any chance of standing up to the powerful foes you’ll face in Hades 2. With a mix of returning gods from the first game and brand-new ones, this sequel has a lot to explore, with each god’s array of boons dramatically overhauled to suit Melione’s style of gameplay.

As with any roguelike, you’ll naturally start to favor some builds and upgrades more than others, and in Hades’ case, it causes us to play favorites when it comes to the Olympians. Sometimes we find their boons only useful under the right circumstances, while others are always helpful.

So, we’ve sorted through all these divine beings, ranking them based on how useful they are, how powerful they can make you, and a little bit of personal preference based on their personalities.

Chaos

Chaos / Supergiant Games

You wouldn’t think the embodiment of primordial chaos would be such a stiff and dry character, but here we are.

Chaos’ “boons” are rarely worth the sacrifice. Things like more health, mana, and recovery are nice, but they rarely outweigh the burden they place upon you, if only temporarily. Coming away from an encounter with Chaos I always feel like I came away worse off than I entered, which is not what you want when beholding a divine being.

Hestia

Hestia / Supergiant Games

I never thought I’d say this, but fire’s just a bit boring.

The scorch effect isn’t bad and has the benefit of working well with every weapon, the problem is that I’d rather have any of the other effects offered instead. Extra damage over time is nice and all, but when you’re clearing a horde of enemies, you need the kind of extra power that gets rid of them immediately, not after they’ve had a chance to get off a couple of attacks.

Poseidon

Poseidon / Supergiant Games

Poseidon is in an interesting position, as a couple of his boons are incredible while the rest suck. Fluid Gain is the perfect way to maintain a heavy mana-usage build, and the ability to sacrifice max life for even more mana can be extremely powerful.

The problem is that I never want anything else he offers. The knockback water effect is fine, but like with Hestia’s scorch, just about anything else is preferable. Then there’s abilities like Sunken Treasure which just seem entirely pointless.

Hera

Hera / Supergiant Games

You can’t encounter Hera until your first unhindered run on the surface (check out our guide on how to get to the surface in Hades 2 if you haven’t got that far yet) and while some of her boons are worth the wait, she can be hit-and-miss.

The Hitch effect is great for dispersing crowds, chaining damage between nearby enemies – although it takes a little setup to get going. Similarly, the effect she can have on your cast is great, dealing big damage to enemies as soon as they enter the field. However, outside of those two features, she doesn’t have much to offer. She’s certainly the kind of god you can focus a build around, but if I have a choice between her and most other gods, she won’t get my attention.

Apollo

Apollo / Supergiant Games

From here on up, these are all gods that I really like, and am happy to build a whole run around. Apollo is at the bottom of this section only because I think one or two other gods can do his job better. This comes down to personal preference, but I don’t find Daze to be an overly useful effect. It can come in clutch if you get stuck in a horde, but it won’t do much to aid you in boss fights.

His other abilities are all great though, particularly with the damage and power he can add to your cast.

Zeus

Zeus / Supergiant Games

Zeus gets the edge on Apollo, as they do a lot of similar things, but Zeus does them all a little better. Starting with the cast, Zeus’s boons also add extra damage to it, but in a much more effective way, repeatedly striking a single target with lightning. Less useful for crowd control, yes, but the damage quickly stacks up in boss fights.

Blitz is also a great effect in this regard, although it can only be used effectively if you have a quick striking weapon like the Witch’s Staff or Sister Blades. If you focus on stacking his boons together though, you’ll quickly find every hit you make comes with a massive dose of extra damage.

Selene

Selene / Supergiant Games

I feel a little bad putting Selene this low, as she’s most certainly the nicest of all the gods to offer you boons. The problem is, while a few of Selene’s special abilities are hugely powerful, a lot of them are quite rubbish.

Things like extra healing, reviving dead enemies to fight for you, or a simple beam of massive damage are great. However, others, like the invulnerability boon, aren’t anywhere near as powerful as you’d hope they’d be – even after upgrades.

Hephaestus

Hephaestus / Supergiant Games

Big explosive power is what Hephaestus is all about and, while it’s not a good fit for every weapon in the game, if you focus on upgrading Hephaestus’ best abilities, then you can become quite the powerhouse, especially when paired with the Moonstone Axe or Argent Skull. His boons may not be to everyone’s taste and arguably aren’t the most reliable, but he’s still worth a go whenever he pops up.

Hades

Hades / Supergiant Games

Hades’ is unique in that all of his boons are focused on one thing: the final fight with Chronos. That, plus the fact that he only appears in Tartarus, means you can’t build a whole run around him, but his input is still extremely valuable. He can take 20% off Chronos’ health right out of the gate, stop his minions from overwhelming you, or give you extra protection from his attacks.

You may only get one boon per run, but it’s the kind of boon that you should never pass up.

Artemis

Artemis / Supergiant Games

Like Hades, Artemis’ abilities are very powerful, but the fact that you can only get one per run (and the fact that she appears at random) means you can’t rely on her to always get you out of trouble.

Still, if you are lucky enough for her turn up then you’re in for a treat, as she can boost your critical rate, mark enemies as vulnerable, or even give you extra damage with seeking arrows that spawn following your attacks. She doesn’t have a single bad option.

Demeter

Demeter / Supergiant Games

No matter what weapon you’re using, the freeze effect is very powerful. Holding enemies in place, or even just slowing them down, is one of the best ways to protect yourself from damage while you go in for the kill. It makes those small openings in boss fights even wider, not only letting you get in more damage but also giving you more time to react to their biggest attacks.

Hermes

Hermes / Supergiant Games

Hermes is never a bad god to stumble across in a run. His main boon is that he speeds up the rate of your attacks, something that is always useful no matter what your build is. All of his other boons follow that same vein, and I have absolutely no complaints about that, Hades is a game where faster is better as it lets you clear out enemies and deal more damage to bosses all the sooner.

Aphrodite

Aphrodite / Supergiant Games

Maybe we’ve just been taken in by her charms, but the truth is Aphrodite’s boons complement absolutely any build you’re going for. Her weakness-inflicting boons make everything just that little bit easier, as well as offering you beneficial effects like mana regeneration. The boon that lets you deal more damage to closeby enemies is one of the best in the game, especially if you’re using a weapon like the Sister Blades.

On top of that, she has powerful healing abilities, fully restoring you in each room if you’re above a certain threshold, or even increasing he amount of max HP things like Centuar Hearts can give you. There is no circumstance in which you should pass up a boon from Aphrodite, it’s as simple as that.