Hephaestus Guide (Synergies and Strategies)

For a full list of Hephaestus Boons, refer to our Wiki

Hephaestus is primarily focused on fortifying your defense. He has multiple Boons that grant damage reduction, Armor, and health increases:

• Uncanny Fortitude increases max HP and scales as you increase max Magick.
• Trusty Shield, especially early in a run is super powerful. Even 1 armor will tank even the hardest hit.
• Heavy Metal for some extra damage and protection. The armor synergizes with the bonuses of Arachne Silken and similar armor buffs.
• Security System often gives you enough time to vanquish a mini-boss or encounter before you're armor even wears off.
• Tough Gain reduces the damage of every hit, making it particularly useful against small attacks.

Anvil Ring is one of the higher damage Cast Boons. It's amazing with Winner's Circle, but poor on Aspect of Charon.

Lastly, Volcanic Strike, Volcanic Flourish, and Smithy Rush all create blasts on hit. After a long cooldown, the blast effect recharges and you can use it again.

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

• Olympian damage multiplier Boons: Rallying Cry, Extended Family

The best thing about Hephaestus's Attack and Special Boons is that the damage is completely independent of the Weapons base damage. Put Volcanic Strike on the powerful swing of Aspect of Melinoë or the low damage Aspect of Selene punch, and the blast deals 300dmg either way. Consequently, moves with lower base damage see more benefit from a Heph blast, and high power moves like Mel Axe benefit better from damage % boosting Boons.

Both Volcanic Strike and Volcanic Flourish start out with very long cooldowns. Unless you are going to invest lots of Poms into them, they'll work best on the Move you don't use very often.

Weapons synergies for Hephaestus:

• Aspect of Persephone starts with increased Boon levels, directly making up for Hephaestus primary weakness. If you want to see the fullest potential of Volcanic Flourish, this Skull is your best choice.
• Aspect of Thanatos Special. You use Attacks 90% of the time, and go in for Volcanic Flourish Special on when it's recharged.
• Aspect of Melinoë Special, for the exact same reasons as Thanatos Axe.
• Aspect of Circe Special. You manly focus on Cast and Attack. Anvil Ring is also a good choice with Circe staff.

Because Hephaestus offers so many universally good defensive Boons, he'll fit with any God. If you want a Blast focused build, however, these are the best Gods for the job.

The best Gods to pair with Hephaestus:

• Poseidon for Seismic Servo which also benefits Flood Gain.
• Hestia for Chain Reaction which instantly doubles the damage of every Blast.
• Apollo for Rude Awakening. Inflicting Daze before every blast is easy, and nearly doubles the damage of each.

Target Hephaestus when you are not frequently using either your Attack of Special. Throw his Boon on the unused one for that burst of damage.
Also, anytime you just want more sustain (which should basically be always), try to add him to your God pool for all those defensive boons we listed above.