Surviving a run in Hades is no easy task. The game is fairly difficult. And as the players learn more and more about Hades, it throws more and more challenges in response to keep them on their toes. However, as the challenges grow, so does the assortment of tools available to Zagreus.
One of these tools is the Aid Boons from the Olympian Gods that give Zagreus the ability to "Call" on their power. In contrast to their other Boons which, mostly give passive buffs or augment one specific aspect of combat, This "Call" ability is dependant on Zagreus' God Gauge, seen underneath his HP bar. This bar then slowly fills up as he both dishes out and takes damage from enemies.
Once a minimum of one-fourth of it is full, he can "Call" on the respective God the Boon is associated with to activate a brief super ability, similar to an Ultimate in a MOBA or a Super in a fighting game. Each of the Olympus Gods offers an Aid Boon, so here they all are, ranked from worst to best.
Updated August 24th, 2021, by Jacob Buchalter: With Hades dropping on both Xbox Game Pass and all the modern consoles (as well as immediately garnering absurdly high reviews on the Xbox Series X), there are a lot of new players swarming to try out this non-stop award-winning roguelike title. And, early on in their playtime, most players become enraptured with the "Aid Boons" that each Olympic God gives that unlocks a sort of "super ability" called a "Call" using a meter called the "God Gauge".
With the game's popularity surging, it seemed like a good time to go through this guide again and to include one of the secret Aid Boons that most articles tried to not use since it involves story spoilers. Also, any Boon-granting inclusions that don't give Zagreus a "Call" ability such as Hermes or Chaos have been cut. So, once again, here are all the abilities Zagreus can "Call" on the Olympic Gods to use throughout his multitude of escape attempts, ranked from worst to best, taking their damage potential, defensive potential, and their ability to combo into others methods of attack (like Zag's Special, Cast, or regular Attack) into account.
Disclaimer: Any specific Boons mentioned will be bolded, and there are slight story spoilers within the content of the Hades' Aid entry as well.
9 Poseidon's Aid: A Speedy Surfing Super
- Offensive Utility: B-
- Defensive Utility: A
- Combo Potential: C-
The Boons given to Zagreus by the King of the Ocean, Poseidon, are all about knocking enemies away, slamming them into walls, or improving the rewards Zag can receive from Encounters, but his Call Boon is actually a bit unique. Poseidon's Aid has Zagreus "surf around" on a magical wave, completely impervious to damage, for a short amount of time.
A few things to note about this Aid Boon:
- Zag can't use his standard moveset (Attack, Special, and Cast) while this is active, he literally just surfs around and does damage by physically running into enemies.
- Its amount of active usage starts 1.2 seconds but can go all the way up to 7.2 depending on how much God Gauge is used or if it's a Greater Call.
- The speed at which Zag zooms around using this ability is much faster than his standard movement, so it's good to use in a large room of enemies who are spread far apart.
Sadly, because it has almost no combo potential with Zag's other attacks, only deals amazing damage in very specific situations, and doesn't really synergize with many builds outside of its general usefulness, it ranks right here at the bottom of the list.
8 Aphrodite's Aid: A Real Charmer
- Offensive Utility: A+
- Defensive Utility: C+
- Combo Potential: B
Aphrodite's Aid turns Zag's Cast into a homing arrow-like projectile, similar to another Call a certain Hunting Goddess offers. But more than that, it also "charms" enemies for a period of time, including bosses (of which there are a few).
Ranging from 5 to 6.5 seconds depending on the rarity level of the Boon, this effect will cause enemies to attack other enemies or just simply stand absolutely still if no one else is around. But, compared to all the other Aid Boons, It's sort of the best all-rounder "Call" ability that does everything decently well, but does nothing the best. A few more reasons as to why it only goes this far:
- It does a fair bit of damage, especially when fully charged into a Greater Call, but nowhere near the most.
- It seeks enemies, meaning there are no repercussions for using it in an awkward spot.
- The charm doesn't last all too long.
- It does open Zagreus up to comboing with his other attacks, but not quite as much as many of the other Aid Boons on here.
7 Dionysus' Aid: Make That The Worst Hangover Possible
- Offensive Utility: C
- Defensive Utility: C-
- Combo Potential: A+
Dionysus' Hangover is a lot like one that will be mentioned near the top of this list, only it's a tad bit worse. First of all, it's pretty boring, it just inflicts Hangover on foes around Zagreus continuously using this explosive AOE circles of Festive Fog for between 1.5 seconds and 9 depending on if it's used as a Greater Call or not. Secondly, while it does allow Zagreus to attack while this Call is active, there's no real "combo potential" between the Call and Zagreus' attacks.
With Demeter's Aid players can attack alongside the Call in order to build up Chill stacks faster, or leave the vortex to keep the biggest enemy locked down while they go pick off the smaller ones. In comparison, with Dionysus' Call there's no real reason to use it at a specific time or anything like that since there's no reset or "cap reset" for Hangover, so just use it when it's up. It's a bit of a shame, considering how interesting Dionysus is dialog-wise. That said, there is still a lot that makes this one a good Aid Boon to grab when it pops up:
- Because it's centered around inflicting enemies with Hangover, it synergizes with any other Boons that increase the max Hangover stacks or cause Hangover damage to trigger faster, such as a build centered around the Low Tolerance Duo Boon or a Curse of Nausea build.
- Different Boons that grant Hangover-inflicting properties, such as Drunken Dash or Drunken Flourish, deal different amounts of Hangover damage and they don't stack, meaning the ability with the highest Hangover Damage should always be the one applying the status effect to enemies. Well, compared to the 5-10 Hangover damage from Dionysus' standard Boons, his Aid can deal up to 19.5 damage per stack.
6 Ares' Aid: I Have Become The Blade
- Offensive Utility: B
- Defensive Utility: A
- Combo Potential: C-
Much like his Boons, Ares' Aid is all about putting out loads of damage, quickly. A lot of the Boons from this God of War are centered around his "Blade Rift" mechanic, which are these spinning blades that deal constant damage to enemies stuck within them. Well, Ares' Call also transforms Zagreus himself into a Blade Rift for a short while, giving him full control of the Blade Rift's movement and making him impervious.
And, when Zag uses this as a Greater Call, the amount of time he spends as a Blade Rift jumps from 1.2 to 6 seconds total. The level of this Boon determines how much damage it does to enemies per hit, and while going from 30 damage per hit to 53 may not seem like a huge amount, remember that this Blade Rift hits a ton of times per second. But, this Aid also does have its fair share of downsides, such as:
- While in Blade Rift form, Zagreus moves at maybe 50% of his normal movement speed, and he can't use his normal Attack, Special, Cast, or even Dash, making it feel like a slower version of Poseidon's Aid.
- The damage per hit is noticeable against early-game bosses like the Fury Sisters or even Lernie, but it quickly falls off right around Elysium.
- While the Greater Call only increases the duration of the Aid like Demeter's, at least with her players could use their attacks as well, with this one, since they can't attack, it really feels like there should be some sort of extra effect for using it as a Greater Call.
5 Demeter's Aid: For Enemies That Just Need To Chill
- Offensive Utility: C+
- Defensive Utility: B
- Combo Potential: A
The Call of the Goddess of the Seasons, Demeter, is pretty decent but also very situational. Her Aid creates a spinning vortex that deals damage and inflicts Chill, and can quickly devastate large hordes of enemies while giving Zag time to pick off any unaffected stragglers. The icy effect spreads out with Zagreus as the center, and the amount of time it lasts can go up to 15 seconds when used as a Greater Call, which is a pretty absurd amount of time in the fast-paced world of Hades. This Call isn't mind-blowing in its damage, utility, or effect, but it does do a pretty good job at meeting all three categories.
The best part is how well it synergizes with some of Demeter's other Boons:
- With Arctic Blast, this Call almost doubles in damage since it applies stacks of Chill so quickly.
- It becomes incredibly easy to trigger something like Killing Freeze with this Call, especially in a boss encounter.
- And, if Zag happens to find Winter Harvest, a pretty rare Legendary Boon, then Demeter's Aid becomes a surefire method of cleaning all the summoned mobs during a boss fight since it works as a great execute.
4 Hades' Aid: An Unseen Competitor
- Offensive Utility: B
- Defensive Utility: B+
- Combo Potential: A+
The Sigil of the Dead, AKA Hades' Aid, is a bit of a tricky Call Aid to rank. Technically it’s a Keepsake, not a Call Aid, but it serves the same purpose as one; furthermore, it stops all other Call Aid Boons from appearing while equipped, so it absolutely counts.
When the Sigil of the Dead is used, Zagreus turns Invisible, moves faster, can’t be targeted by enemies, and deals bonus damage (100% at max rank) on his next attack. But, this next attack breaks the stealth early if used, meaning that one hit needs to really count.
On the other hand, the Greater Call turns Zag “Unseen” rather than Invisible. This Unseen effect has all the same benefits as Invisibility, except that the bonus damage boost lasts the entire time and doesn’t break stealth when Zagreus lands a hit.
Because the max level Keepsake starts the God Gauge at 30% in each room, this Call Aid gets a lot of use throughout a run. Now, compared to a lot of the other Aid Boons, the Invisible effects just aren’t worth it. But the Unseen effects? Now those are pretty good. The 100% damage buff makes an already broken build even more broken for 5 seconds, which is just long enough to nuke the entire health bar of some bosses.
3 Artemis' Aid: "Critically" Important
- Offensive Utility: S
- Defensive Utility: C
- Combo Potential: B
Artemis' set of Boons are all based around critical hits or critical damage, and her Aid Boon matches this central theme. Artemis' Aid fires a big homing arrow of energy (similar to Aphrodite's) that inflicts a lot of damage and has a chance to critically hit as well. Furthermore, when using the Greater Cast, Zagreus unleashes a whole flurry of these arrows, 10 in total. This Call also:
- Goes through shields.
- Only uses a fifth of the God Gauge for some reason, rather than a fourth like all the other Aid Abilities.
- Has much stronger homing than most other abilities with the trait, as it can do full circles around an enemy trying to hone in on them.
It's not nearly as versatile as Aphrodite's Aid, but the absurd damage it does and the absolute potential it has to melt bosses when the Greater Call is used earns it a slightly higher spot.
2 Zeus' Aid: And They Say Lightning Doesn't Strike Twice
- Offensive Utility: A
- Defensive Utility: C-
- Combo Potential: A+
To put it as simply as possible, Zeus' Aid is just a better version of Dionysus'. Both Aid Boons have the same time restrictions of 1.5 seconds as a regular Call and 9 seconds as a Greater Call, both hit enemies around Zagreus at random while active, and both Boons have damage increases based upon the rarity of the Boon itself. But, where Zeus pulls ahead:
- Lightning Damage has more avenues to stack effects with things like Jolted enemies, Chain Lightning, no stack limit to lightning damage, and the series of Boons like Splitting Bolt and Double Strike that can cause Lightning to hit the same enemies twice with each trigger.
- Zeus' Lightning has higher initial damage overall. While Dionysus' Hangover might deal more damage over time with max stacks, Zeus's lightning is fantastic for burst damage and can hit in a wide area as well as bounce between enemies.
- Most times, players tend to spec into one specific God's Boons more than the rest, and the Aid Boon used is usually the one matching their primary Boons. Well, a lot of Zeus' Boons also buff the damage done by Zagreus after using a Call, how quickly the God Gauge charges, and a bunch of other aspects that work well in combination with his Aid Boon.
Truly, Zeus has the best "active type" Aid Boon in the game, as it has fantastic offensive potential, is versatile enough to work with almost every type of build, and even helps safeguard Zagreus while active.
1 Athena's Aid: 12 Seconds Of Pure Deflecting Fun
- Offensive Utility: A
- Defensive Utility: S+
- Combo Potential: S
Hands down Athena has the strongest Aid Boon. It's, quite frankly, one of the least exciting Calls to use in the game, but is also inarguably the most useful. Basically, Athena's Aid turns Zagreus invulnerable (as a fair amount of other Aid Boons do), and causes him to Deflect all incoming attacks for a bit of time.
And, this one also has the greatest disparity between using it as a regular call and as a Greater Call. As a regular Call, Athena's Aid can last up to 1.95 seconds depending on the rarity/level. But, when used as a Greater Call, that time jumps up to an eye-opening 12 whole seconds. That's not the only reason, of course, that this Call is at the top:
- The fact that it also "Deflects" all attacks as well while active is great for synergizing with certain Boon builds as well, like Blinding Flash, Brilliant Riposte, or any of her Duo Boons centered around Deflecting.
- This is the best of the "passive" Call abilities that let Zagreus attack while they're active. The amount of damage this Call does on its own is entirely dependant upon Zag's Deflect-based boons, but the utility and defensive power of it will always be top tier.
- This also synergizes with most other builds fantastically as well, since players can use their invulnerability to build up Chill stacks for a Demeter build, try and get crits to trigger with an Artemis build, and so on.