Curses and Status Effects Explained

Blitz

Zeus

• Heaven Strike
• Heaven Flourish

Zeus's primary status effect Curse is Blitz. Foes afflicted by Blitz are struck by lightning after they take 120 damage or after 4 sec. There is a brief window between when Blitz is activated and when it can be activated again. Consequently, even with fast attacks and high damage, you cannot rapidly inflict and activate Blitz.

Blitz is considered Olympian damage and is calculated separately from Attack/Special damage and power.

• Olympian damage multiplier Boons: Rallying Cry, Extended Family

How Double Strike affects Blitz Damage

For the purposes of these calculations, we will assume all Boons are Common rarity.

Heaven Flourish deals 100 dmg + you have Double Strike for +10% of double hit.

• For the math enthusiasts: (100 x 2) x .10 = 20 ∴ new avg Blitz damage = 120.

Weapons that are able to quickly reapply the Blitz, but also have the burst damage required to trigger the effect, work best. A good example is using Mel Staff Attack Heaven Strike to inflict Blitz, then immediately Special to trigger the Blitz.

Heaven Flourish will always deal more damage than a Heaven Strike, and you'll often see Zeus on Special.

• Weapon examples include: Aspect of Melinoë Attack, Aspect of Medea Special, Aspect of Anubis Attack.

Daze

Apollo

• Blinding Rush
• Solar Ring
• Light Smite
• Dazzling Display

Apollo's primary status effect Curse is Daze. Daze-afflicted foes have a 20% chance to deal no damage. Lasts 9 seconds. Thanks to the long duration, it is fairly easy to keep surrounding enemies constantly debuffed by Daze, making it an easy way to activate Origination.

• When Daze causes an enemy to deal no damage, "MISSED!" will appear over their head.
• Daze is unique from Dodge and does not interact with any Dodge Boons.

Freeze

Demeter

• Ice Strike
• Ice Flourish
• Arctic Ring

Freeze is the best stun effect in Hades 2. Freeze-afflicted foes are stopped for 2 sec. Can be reapplied after 10 sec. During the 10-second cooldown window, enemies are still considered to be under the effect of Freeze. Therefore, while an enemy can't be frozen, the Curse still counts as one of the Curses required to activate Origination (XIV).

Freeze is a crowd control effect and deals no damage. To clarify, Arctic Ring ice shards deal damage and inflict Freeze, and Hail Storm adds lightning damage to frozen foes, but the Freeze status itself does not deal damage.

Against Guardians, Freeze will not hard-stun them. Instead, they are slowed by the effect. Note that Cold Storage also increases the duration during which Guardians are slowed.

Because Freeze can only be applied once every 12+ seconds, it works well on slow-hitting or infrequent moves.

• Weapon examples include Aspect of Charon Attack, Aspect of the Morrigan Special, Aspect of Momus Special.

Froth

Poseidon

• Tidal Ring
• Slippery Slope
• • Required Boons: Wave Strike or Wave Flourish

Poseidon's Curse is only native to his Cast Boon. If you want it on your Attack or Special, you'll need to grab his tier 2 Boon Slippery Slope. When hit, Froth-afflicted foes have a 25% chance to take 50 damage for 3 seconds.

How Froth Works

1. Inflict the Froth curse and it will display as a water circle underneath enemies.
2. Froth does not automatically deal the 50 Damage. Froth only has a 25% chance to deal 50 damage if the afflicted foe is hit. Each hit has a 25% chance to trigger Froth's 50 damage
3. 1. The 3-second window resets with each new application of Froth and does not negate the damage of the previous infliction. The base 25% chance of Froth damage can be increased by Slippery Slope and Success Rate.
3. When Froth deals damage, an eruption of water like a geyser appears over the foe.

Froth is considered Olympian damage and is calculated separately from Attack/Special/Cast damage and power.

• Olympian damage multiplier Boons: Rallying Cry, Extended Family

Assuming your primary source of Froth damage is Slippery Slope paired with Attack or Special, the same weapons that are good for Splash damage are good for Froth damage.

• Weapon examples include: Aspect of Hel's Attack, Aspect of Pan's Special (Omega Special in particular), and Aspect of Melinoë's Attack

Glow

Hephaestus

• Furnace Blast
• • Required Boons: Volcanic Strike or Volcanic Flourish or Smithy Rush

Glow-afflicted foes take +15% damage for 5 seconds. Glow is a powerful status effect because it increases ALL damage the inflicted foe suffers.

Most damage-buffing Boons only increase damage from a specified source of damage, such as Olympian Damage or Attack Damage. Glow is one of the few ways to buff global damage.

No cooldown exists for Glow, so if you get your Hephaestus Blasts down to 5 seconds or less, you can have 100% Glow infliction time.

Gust

Demeter

• Frigid Rush
• Arctic Gale

Gust-afflicted foes are 20% slower, and their ranged shots travel 60% slower, and the status effect lasts for 3 seconds. The slow effect of Gust stacks with the slow effect of Freeze on Guardians. As long as you are paying close attention, dodging becomes much easier when you have either or both of Demeter's Curses.

The projectile-slowing effect of Gust also works on individual projectiles themselves. If you are running away from an enemy projectile and it passes through the Gust cyclone, it will be slowed by 60%.

• Important Note: Gust and Freeze cannot be combined to activate Origination (XIV). Either one will work, but you need a 2nd Curse from a god other than Demeter.

Hitch

Hera

• Sworn Strike
• Sworn Flourish
• Engagement Ring
• Nexus Rush

Hitch-afflicted foes take 30% of damage dealt to other Hitch-afflicted foes. Lasts for 8 seconds. Hitch is best for standard encounters with high numbers of enemies.

While Guardians can be afflicted by Hitch, the shared damage is generally not going to be a meaningful amount. However, in your fight against the Guardian of Oceanus, Hitch is insanely strong because all of the Guardians in that fight share a single health pool.

Hitch (the shared damage only) is considered Olympian damage and is calculated separately from Attack/Special/Cast damage and power.

• Olympian damage multiplier Boons: Rallying Cry, Extended Family

Hitch works great on weapon aspects with large AoE, or that make it easy to hit multiple enemies at once.

• Weapon examples include: Aspect of Thanatos Attack, Aspect of Shiva Special, Aspect of Persephone Special.

Scorch

Hestia

• Flame Strike
• Flame Flourish
• Smolder Ring
• Thermal Dynamics

Scorch afflicted foes take 100 damage accrued from this every 1 Sec. This is the most confusing Curse to try and wrap your head around. While the game describes how Scorch damage is calculated and the actual tick rate is much faster than the listed 1 second, there are only a few mechanics that are important to understand.

How Scorch Damage Works

1. Applied Scorch damage is the number you see listed next to Boons that inflict Scorch. For example, each hit of a common level Flame Strike applies 30 Scorch damage.
2. 1. Every move that inflicts Scorch stacks. You'll see this number displayed below the enemy up to a Maximum of 999 Scorch.
   2. (999 does not equate to 999 Scorch damage per second)
2. 100 damage every 1 second is the base rate at which the previously accrued Scorch deals damage and can be increased by Pyro Technique
3. As the accrued Scorch deals damage, the max number (e.g. 999) will decrease to display the remaining amount.
4. 1. Burning Desire causes this number to never diminish as long as the foe is inflicted with Weak. Resulting in high amounts of Scorch damage over time, but not necessarily faster Scorch damage.
4. Actual Scorch damage per second is calculated by base rate, multiplied by Pyro Technique and Olympian/Global percentage damage multipliers:
5. 1. Rallying Cry, Extended Family, Origination (XIV), Strength (XXIII), The Furies (VI), etc.

Scorch is considered Olympian damage and is calculated separately from Attack/Special/Cast damage and power.

• One caveat is that Scorch damage is not affected by critical damage or 200% multipliers Grievous Blow or Mutual Destruction.
• Air Quality does not increase the tick damage of Scorch, so don't waste your time trying to grab and activate this Infusion Boon.

Weapon Aspects with a high rate of fire are best for stacking Scorch damage quickly.

• Weapon examples include: Aspect of Melinoë Special, Aspect of Hel Attack, Aspect of Anubis Attack

Weak

Aphrodite

• Rapture Ring
• Passion Rush
• Glamour Gain

Weak afflicted foes deal at least 30% less damage. Weak lasts for 1 second and can be reapplied with no cooldown. The damage reduction of Weak can be increased by Broken Resolve & Island Getaway.

The easiest way to keep foes inflicted with Weak is by using Glamour Gain. Otherwise, the 1-second duration makes it difficult to rely on the damage reduction.

Damage reduction in Hades 2 is multiplicative and has a floor limit, so you can never have 100% damage reduction where every enemy attack deals zero damage.

Wounds

Ares

• Vicious Strike
• Vicious Flourish

Wounds grant your strike with +50 Power when inflicting the curse. Wounds can only be reapplied every 3 Seconds. Being limited to one Wound per 3 seconds means that Weapon Aspects that hit quickly with low base power have poor synergy with Vicious Strike and Vicious Flourish.

How Wounds Works

1. Only the hit that applies Wounds will have the +50 base Power. However, every hit with the Boon strike will benefit from the damage percentage multiplier.
2. 1. e.g. Common Vicious Strike Attacks always deal +20% damage.
2. Power, in Hades 2, is a base damage number that gets multiplied by all % damage modifiers.
3. 3 seconds later, the Wound curse wears off the afflicted for, and you can strike with the +50 Power and inflict Wounds again.

• Vow of Wards eats Wounds +50 Power, making Vicious Strike & Vicious Flourish generally a poor pick for high fear runs. (unless you get Grievous Blow, then it's still worth it.)

The best Weapon Wounds is the Aspect of Medea because its base effect that increases your Attack and Special damage benefits from Wounds' Power increase.

Most of the aspects of Lim and Oros or Xinth also work pretty well with Vicious Flourish because you primarily spam Attack, and just use Specials to inflict Wounds.

Wounds (the +50 Power on hit) is considered Olympian damage and is calculated separately from Attack/Special/Cast damage and power.

• Olympian damage multiplier Boons: Rallying Cry & Extended Family