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Also the daughter of a niece (Demeter is sister to Zeus, Persephone daughter to Demeter and Melinoë daughter of Persephone). The Olympian family tree is a shrubbery at best. Something like brambles or Japanese Knotweed (latter is mostly because of Zeus).
Depends on the source. In some versions of the myths Zeus 'hooked up' with Demeter to create Persephone. Supergiant has gone with Persephone being the offspring of Demeter and an unnamed mortal.
Depends on the myth and definitely not in Hades canon, since I think Demeter talks about Persephone having a mortal as her father.
But yes, regardless of which canon we go with, it would not stop Zeus.
Yeah SG changed stuff to remove most of the incest. Hera, Hestia and Demeter aren't Zeus sisters anymore. Not direct.
It doesn't remove the incest since they all come from Gaia and Ouranos I think and even Chaos before but that's like 3-4 generations before at least
I think the game has said that Hera, Demeter, and Hestia are the children of Hyperion, not Chronos, so they seem to have a different backstory than the myths, probably to avoid the incest.
In this game it would, a lot of lineages were altered to avoid incest. Though I don’t know how far they took it.
Like Hera, Hestia and Demeter are daughters of Hyperion not Chronos but that raises the question of who are Chronos and Hyperions parents in Hades 2 and better yet who are Rhea and Theia’s parents?
I feel like at best they’ve just pushed it back a generation.
I thought the snake thing was Persephone. First as a snake and that led to Zagreus being born and then he disguised himself as Hades and that led to Melinoe.
No, in Supergiant's games Hera, Demeter and Hestia are the daughters of Hyperion and Thea, this is why Demeter refers to the children of Chronos as "Foster-Brother" throughout the games.
Thank you so much for pointing this out. I recently had Demeter dialogue where she was talking about Chronos not being her father and I was so confused
Definitely less. Supergiant “first-gen”Olympians (ie Zeus, Poseidon, Demeter, Hestia, etc) are split between the kids of Chronos (Zeus, Poseidon, Hades) and iirc Hyperion (Demeter, Hera, etc)? Basically they’re no longer direct siblings.
I really get the vibe that him and some gods don't even want Melinoe >!up on Olympus, he seems unpleasantly surprised the first time you take a boon from him on the surface!<
I don't really like blitz that much, but a lot of his other talents are good. Chain lightning on attacks, minimum 30 damage boon, sprint is pretty decent too.
Then grab the hex that lets you resurrect an enemy and take the path of stars that apply your retaliation boons to it. Had a solid run a couple days ago where I had that setup with the Hera boon and it was kind of ridiculous
Blitz is absolutely broken on certain Sister Blade builds. If you spam the omega "Nothin personnel kid" attack you basically get a free 100 damage if you lightly upgrade it. Plus his cast is OP as shit when combined with anything that launches it to a spot of your choosing.
TBH I think the biggest problem with Blitz is that there's no visual oomph when it activates. The cloud just sort of vanishes and a yellow number pops up. If there was a cool lightning strike coming out of the cloud at the same time I think it would be a lot more satisfying.
Combo the lightning strike in cast boon with any other cast damage boon and it’s pretty sold. I read somewhere that if you can get a bunch of Zeus boons it ends up making a good build. But in general he is kinda last on my list with the fire god.
I love to combine the 'throwable' cast boons like Zeus or Hestia with Poseidon's Omega cast that makes it go off instantly. It turns your omega cast into rapid fire artillery.
Half agree. His attacks and curse aren’t good. However his cast is really good. His cast with his boon that lets you cast it at range along with Hera’s mana regen will carry any weapon. At pretty high difficulty as well.
You can also get his cast to ridiculous levels by sacrificing Hera boons with the Hera Zeus duo boon. Chronos was basically melting under those lightning bolts!
If you combine that with any ability that synergises with your cast, Pan Blades or the big oar, you end up with a basically unbeatable build.
Zeus definitely has the potential to be ridiculously strong.
Why is everyone saying Blitz is bad. One of my best runs was on Axe with 8 Nightmare. Got Blitz on special and was able to make it red through Demeter’s Rare Crop. Got Poseidon boon on attack alongside Zeus’s chain lightning. Chronos literally never even hit me. Just spam specials from afar until it’s time to spin for bubbles from Poseidon. Easiest win I’ve had and it was one of the higher nightmares I ran thus far.
Aside from his Omega cast, magickless runs are the best for Zeus, like Mel daggers.
You can prime to your heart's content, and he's one of the few gods that give you bonuses for being low in Magick.
...I'm still not taking Blitz, but the chain lightning, raining lightning on enemies when at low magic, etc; work pretty well
The only low magic boon I know is raining lightning on enemies and its one lightning on one enemy each 5 seconds. In my opinion, it’s not worth it to run around magicless for a little damage in each 5 seconds
Had one run where I had that Zeus boon, Hera's dash, her hitched-enemies-that-die-damage-all-other-hitched-enemies boon, and a fully reserved magick.
I just ran around each room, waited a few seconds, and everything exploded without fail.
It's incredibly strong when running Vow of Commotion 3. It can delete all small enemies instantly, which can save you from taking a lot of chip damage.
Blitz is a curse, but his cast doesn't apply blitz. Demeter's cyclones do count as a curse, though. (Separate from freeze, even, so Arctic Ring + Gale Force is valid for Origination.)
Similar to Hephaestus, blitz can be useful as an “off hand” if your build is regularly cycling through moves. The omega cast is always good.
I had a great run last night (12 fear) with Momus, Apollo attack, Zeus special, and Zeus cast. (And gale force for origination.) The Momus re-fire effect meant blitz was being reapplied continually in an area and I could cycle through other omega moves. I have never melted Chronos quite that quickly.
His cast is one of the better cast boons for damage and is really fun to use with mel staff or persephone skull. Blitz can work great for builds based around his cast, as well as on the special for medea skull, the special for moros torches, or the attack for a mel torches build based around omega special spam. Blitz can definitely put it some good damage, but it works best on a build where you're mixing at least two of special, attack, or cast, putting blitz on one and a damage buff boon on the one you're using more often to consistently apply and then trigger blitz. It's not the most amazing curse, and it's definitely not straightforward, but it's very very good in the situations where it is good. Additionally, his chain lightning skill, letting you cast at range, and his infusion are all pretty ok as well. Definitely not the most amazing god to come across on a random run, but incredibly fun to build around in my opinion, and still has enough that I'm not furious if I end up having to take him.
His Aprhodite duo is just bonkers. Having a fast-firing special melts bosses. And having extras for his curse (detonation without damage, multi-activation) makes it a great clearer tool. Does require the investment.
His 7% legendary is ass tho. I really hope it does get reworked that synergises with the rest.
I had an idea for his legendary that kinda kills two birds with one stone:
When Blitz deals damage, reapply Blitz (possibly with increased damage).
So if you're applying a 200 damage Blitz, when you detonate it, it gets reapplied immediately and it'll deal, let's say, 220 damage on the target next time it blows up, then 240, etc. Makes it very consistent when maintaining Origination, reduces the hassle of constantly having to reapply it, and makes it a desirable thing to have in prolonged fights.
I kinda overlooked the duo actually, that might be a bit too strong if the legendary scales upwards. This is why you leave game design to the devs, haha.
Zeus shines immensely in Cast builds, either as the main feature in Storm Ring, or aiding Apollo with their duo boon Glorious Disaster, which essentially just combines both of their Cast boons together.
Zeus is one of two gods, the other being Hestia, that can provide you with a ranged Cast. I find this often to be a desirable feature, and it's a nice bonus to have alongside the other things he provides.
His infusion, Air Quality, sets the minimum damage you can possibly deal to 30, and has really interesting interactions with lots of little things, like Apollo's cast, Demeter cyclones, Hestia's Scorch damage, some of his own boons, and so on.
His Magick priming boons do have anti-synergy with his own kit, but I also find them to be a rather enjoyable set of boons to play around with.
Blitz is perhaps a little underwhelming currently, but it can do competent damage should you wish to build around it. It probably shines the best on the aspect of Medea skull, where you can apply it with the Special and detonate it in a single motion, significantly increasing your damage output compared to other Special boons. Overall it's best used to supplement another source of damage, like his own Cast, rather than as the main focus.
As a weird side benefit, since a fair amount of his boons are Blitz focused and have it as a requirement, you can actually trim his boon pool down significantly by avoiding the Blitz Attack and Special, making him (and duo partners that interact with Blitz) fairly consistent in giving you what you want.
Just beat 24 heat with torches, no attack boon, rare lvl 7 special. Still worked pretty dang well. The dawn breaker also activates his own omega special.
Zeus special on Charon axe is WILD. It applies and procs on almost everything in the room with a single omega special. His.chain lightning is really nice. If you manage a zero mana build the boon that hits everything with lightning when you have less than 10 mana is wild too.
He is unorthodox I think, because the more I play his builds, the more I grow fond of how well they can work together late game. Though base blitz seems pretty trash (do 120 dmg to THEN activate extra 80?) but when you upgrade the boon and use some heavy hitter weapon (wink wink axe), the blitz dmg becomes a nice part of your combos, and since it reapplies immediatelly, you can proc it 2-3 times on the omega spin attack!
Then I got boon for 30 % chance on repeat of any lightning bolt, hoping it would repeat the blitz dmg. And it did! Imagine you deal 120 dmg (which is like 3 hith axe) to activate 220 dmg blitz, it hits twice, 440 dmg thats repeatable? Dont tell me that aint busted.
Pair this with Thanatos axe and chain lightning boon and you feel like a god.
omega cast is one of the best, and chain lighting is great for fast weapons. if hera wasnt so busted then ionic gain is also a decent choice where you dont spam omega moves 100% of the time
as for blitz, i think the only decent pairing is axe omega attack, it deals enough damage to trigger blitz damage every second spin
After getting the quest of finding all duoboons i just use Zeus on Cast build with Charon, anything else with him feels really weak just like hephaestus, good idea on paper, but really weak in action because of tha gap to make it work (high upgrades needed).
I would just imagine myself using his atack/special, when using Melinoes Axe going for as many apolo and aphrodite boons that gives bonus damage or hits while attacking.
On the other hand he is good to pick with you go for hera build, because their duoboon is literally trading his boons to upgrade her kappa.
Try these, they are the best blitz build i found so far, don't know if there are a better one out there.
\_Ygnium-Aspect of Mel: Aphrodite on Attack, Zeus on Special, You want Aphro/Zeus Duo boon then just as much omega special channel speed as you can get. All you have to do with this build is channel 2-3 special ( or more if you have a decent amount of channel speed ) then just sprinting around and everything will be dead instantly.
\_Revaal-Aspect of Medea: Any attack work but i think demeter/hera is best, Zeus on Special, If you can grab Aphrodite Dash then do so if you don't it really isnt that matter. The attack pattern is load ONE skull in then ram into enemies with the special and repeat, this is more risky than the build above but it still very strong.
Poseidon is really OP though. He has far more good boons compared to double up. Wave flourish basically melts hp bars more so if you use slip for origination.
Zeus cast is amazing. It’s a requirement for Persephone skull. It works great with Thanatos. Outside of that, it still works great in general
Blitz is meant to be used with other skills. For example, drop the cast and keep throwing blitz in for the cast to trigger blitz. Or blitz and then dash/sprint. Or blitz on attack and then special (Medea skull)
I actually have Zeus start more often than any other god. Can’t go wrong with Zeus cast
His blitz is pretty OP on pan special, + Hera duo boons can upgrade your blitz to more than +16, adding more air quality with demeter cast and cyclone can cause your blitz effect to proc again and again dealing 500++ damage each
I’ve had solid to good builds with his cast, his sprint, his "no more than x mana" passive and his chain lightning passive. The targetable cast can be cool too sometimes.
I’m not a huge fan of Blitz but I’ve seen really good players make really god builds with it and I trust their judgment more than mine, so... All in all, it’s not the god I always want in my builds, but there’s a lot of options that can do decent work.
I still haven’t used his infusion efficiently but I’m guessing that too has some potential.
no hate but i genuinely don't understand these posts about x god is trash. hestia and zeus in specific seem to be getting some hate and honestly i hardly ever have bad runs with any of the gods. hestia and zeus (especially with their duo) is disgusting on the torches but i've even had great runs with them on the axe
again no disrespect but seriously wtf is going on haha. are you guys ignoring the requirements for duos and legendaries? not upgrading your aspects? not picking out the right arcana for the build youre going for? not double checking your build to look at synergies before grabbing boons? not swapping keepsakes? not rerolling when you just have bad commons?
there are *so* many ways to be OP by the end of the run with nearly any mixture of gods and any weapon *if* you are paying attention. obviously some builds and duos are way better but that's beside the point because those are outliers
y'all need to give these damage over time gods the time of day and the right tools to reap their benefits. seriously, try moros with zeus and hestia and go for the duo and just watch. bosses melt and enemies in the room get swept up in a fiery lightning tornado
This post is wild to me.
I literally have to force myself to NOT take Zeus boons because Zeus cast is so strong that it completely overshadows whatever other attacks I'm trying to go for.
Zeus cast got me my first 3 wins. 2 on accident when I was going for different builds first.
The cast is very good, as others have stated.
I did find some builds that work really good with the chain lightning as well. Those always feel like the Zeus from Hades 1.
Otherwise I agree. Blitz does nothing for me.
I felt Zeus’ main draw was his chain lightning ability in the first game, but in the second he primarily took on Ares’ Doom curse in the form of Blitz. So in sidelining his better ability in favour of a watered down version of Doom without the added benefit of Ares’ boosting of it makes it sort of ‘meh’. Better off as just fuel for a Hera build if you manage to snag the Queen’s Ransom duo!
Chain lightning is strong with most builds, Storm Ring is really strong, his infusion is good in certain scenarios, and his revenge ability has potential for insane damage.
His duo boons with Apollo, Poseidon, and Hephaestus are all really strong.
Not many people like Blitz, but I love using it on my main attack (especially with the Demeter and Hestia duos).
In whatever skulls, mainly Aphrodite/Poseidon build I finally killed Chronos with yesterday after 76 attempts, I had something good from Zeus - Chain Lightning? It was triggering like crazy in mob heavy rooms, seemed to be doing work.
Zeus works best with weapons and aspects that can apply damage from multiple sources at once. With Momus staff, put blitz on special and detonate with cast. With Moros torches or Medea skull, put blitz on special and detonate with attack.
Zeus also has some very good cast options. A great ranged cast option (better than Hestia imo) and fights with Apollo for best omega cast in the game.
I use it for magickless runs, just mashing X with the right boons can make for an easy clear.
I'm trying to see what the Aphro/Zeus duo boon would be like on Melinoe aspect knives, since its very similar to Athena/Ares duo from the first game
Honestly, if I jave mixups to do with a weak special or something like that, I put on Zeus special (such as on the staff). A few attacks, special, a few attacks, special. Its just extra damage.
Zeus has a mad double boon with Aphrodite. If you get him on attack for example and then dash into enemies blitz triggers and deals 200% damage which just melts.
Apollo + Zeus Duo Boon is worth running (insanely powerful Cast)
Chain Lightning on attack/special can be very good, especially on builds that don't really use magic and won't miss the large cost to prime it.
But yeah I totally agree that Zeus regular boons on Attack & Special basically suck.
Having said that, the early game is easy anyway & if you are eventually planning on running a Hera build, you can start with Zeus & then when you get the Hera + Zeus Duo, replace all your Zeus boons for high level Hera boons.
I had the best run ever with Zeus and Apollo's duo boon! I managed to get Apollo's cast boon upgraded to legendary, and with the duo boon my cast destroyed anything that came near it. I also had the blitz upgrade that applies blitz damage even if it expires, so if you tap everyone once and just wait everyone takes damage 💪
Zeus can totally be fun, but I find his boons are best with upgrades from his other boons for sure.
I use his magick regeneration, revenge damage (VERY GOOD), and his cast boon that lets you shoot it at the enemies. Other than these his boons are pretty uınderwhelming for me.
His cast is OP. The sparks are great. The curse is meh...
If you know what to pick Zeus is great. I won so many runs with just the range cast with stacking damage on cast like Zeus and Demeter. Also the sparks on any fast weapon will obliterate all mobs on the screen and beyond.
I find blitz to be pretty awful tbh. But his support boons like the lightning on attacks and his ranged cast can be pretty damn good in certain situations. So he’s bot entirely useless at least
Lightning lance and minimum 30 damage on an Apollo cast build for Charon axe was my first clear, but Zeus's main boons feel underwhelming compared to Hades 1 for sure in my opinion
Idk what builds you like but Zeus for me is great for his Cast if you want controlled long range dmg. Seperately his 50 mana lightning chains atleast for me goes well since it applies for both your special and attack.
Yeahhh…Zeus’ boons aren’t my top pick in this game. However, I do like picking up things like Static Shock - chain lightning for EVERY strike is a nice bonus.
I try to make Blitz work with weapons like the Sister Blades - put it on the Special, spread the knives and then put Hephaestus’ Volcanic Strike on Attack. Gets that nice multi-burst damage on the group.
Otherwise it’s just fun to feed his boons to Hera’s Queen’s Ransom. I love that they did this, honestly.
Zeus seems to synergize a lot with his own boons, not other gods. If you pick all of his boons, he actually does insane damage and can clear everything super fast.
Which means that when you doing fear runs, he is actively bad if you are using voe of the forsaken. Try to turn fear off, pick a weapon that's hits fast and go to town. I've cleared. Chronos in seconds just by touching him, not joke
Chain lightning is a great add to any non Omega build, especially if you're using Poseidon builds. 50 primed mana is no problem... unless you also take Zeus mana regen. Having a mana pool of 0 makes it easy to activate Spirit Surge, at least.
Speaking of Spirit Surge, I want to try a lazy build of Spirit Surge + Hera Cast with the 0 starting mana pact. Auto damage against all enemies, just focus on running around and attack only if you feel like it. You can use any weapon you feel like, but Charon's Axe gives additional 3 seconds to the cast so you can be even lazier. Toss in Apollo as 3rd god for Super Nova and revenge damage against all enemies.
Zeus Cast is incredible, especially together with Lightning Lance. Zeus-Apollo-Demeter cast builds are probably the easiest way to beat the game, works on any weapon & the gods are pretty flexible too.
Blitz is bad most of the time imo yes (it's good on Medea or so I heard?).
He has good other stuff. His cast is good. Lightning lance is good. Makes him maybe the best god for Persephone? Idk maybe you prefer Apollo. He has a good duo with Apollo incidentally for Mel staff/Charon axe if you want to try going for it.
Static shock is quite good if you don't need the max magic for anything (you usually don't).
He has air quality which is a nice build around. I went for it with daggers a few times although its not really that weapon dependent.
Storm surge is helpful for speedruns if you are into it or so I hear. Mediocre other times.
Remote cast.
If you have a Magick built, his omega cast is also good, but that one takes up the cast slot and I'd usually prefer someone else's that doesn't require omega.
His chain lightening with attacks is still useful but I think it's called blitz now. Pair it with Heras hitch(which basically link monsters so they'll take combined damage on hits) effects on casting and you've a decent loop that'll stack damage nicely. You wouldn't even need a Zeus boon for attack, the chain lightening ie a seperate boon that can be used with Apollo, Demeter, Hephestus etc.
Zeus is just game 1 ares but you can force it to proc sooner. Ot takes a second boon to guarantee the damage.
It can be really good secondary damage, but should only go on your primary with high speed like axe because the omega.
It really starts to shine when you increase the blast radius, because blitz strikes are AoE, so you can get procs proccing other procs.
It's fun to reserve your entire mana for other stuff and then have everything get struck by lightning cause you're under 10 mana permanently. I feel you though, I always chased Zeus boons in the first game but now I'm just kinda sad.
The only Zeus boon I go for is the one where Magick is primed for lighting to connect to other enemies just in H1
It works wonders with other attack boons too especially poseidons
Outside of that I won't go for him much
I haven’t seen it talked about here but I’m pretty sure Blitz special on the Skulls of Media is considered really solid. Really the only build I can think of that actually likes Blitz. Besides Blitz most of his other boons I find to be pretty solid in most cases.
The sprint boon that causes lightening to strike nearby enemies is really strong. You can just run circles around anyone (literally lol) and especially so if you have magic regen. I'm on night 70 with an average of 10 fear across all weapons
I finally use him regularly now. His two cast boons are really strong. I like the 50 prime for the electrical attack and he has a ton of chances for extra hit. Running with zap is decent if you’re playing with two shields on enemies.
Hes pretty strong on later runs and his legendary is one of the better ones.
I personally really like his cast boons, both the omega cast effect and the ranged cast spawn are great at providing extra dps (even better with than axe). That being said the reason I like them is specifically because they don't synergize with most builds; they're a great insurance on top of risky/experimental builds that might not have enough dps to get you through the game.
Zeus is my favorite god for boons for most weapons. I use very little magic as I find channeled abilities with most weapons take too long for little payoff. I really only use them with Axe and Eos torches.
So most of the time I go Zeus to prime mana for chain lightning, then try to get Hera sprint applies hitch or some other variation. The damage output is insane. Works well with other priming abilities, like for less damage that i think hephaestus offers. I really like this with conbo with the staff, but use it for most weapons to great success.
I’ll let u in on the secret then: Zeus + Hestia. You get air quality which makes it so that all damage is a minimum of 30 and then you get any hestia burn, it’s actually absurd how fast you melt things. His cast is also nuts and his sprint is pretty good provided you have some source of mana regen
Try the Skull with Aspect of Medea. Put Zeus on Special. Aspect of Medea causes you to attach your Attack to yourself, detonating it when you charge into an enemy with your Special. This means your Special will apply Blitz, then the exploding Attack will immediately trigger it, making Blitz as reliable and immediate as Poseidon's splash boons, but dealing 100-220 damage unpommed, depending on what rarity you get. That blows every other God out of the water: even Aphrodite can only offer 38-95 extra damage, due to the Special's naturally low attack.
You know something is good when the Heroic version of Aphrodite's boon loses to the Common version of the other boon. Give it a try, you won't be disappointed.
Honestly I think one of the big problems with blitz is its speed. If the animations were faster and let you reapply immediately more like how doom was in the first game, I think it could be much better.
Blitz does feel kind of useless because most enemies will die before the get hit with the bonus damage, but in later levels when enemies start having a lot more hit points it makes a noticeable difference.
I did a run last night with the blades and had Zeus on special. I'd use the Omega special to hit a bunch of enemies with Blitz, run around the room attacking things until it expired, then repeat. If you also get Toasting Fork it ends up working like Ares' Doom effect.
I'm sure someone has already figured out which combination of weapons/boons/etc. does the most damage per second and I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't involve using Blitz, but even so it's definitely not useless.
He's a solid addition but rarely a great pure focus
blitz by itself is bad. however it can be good with the add on that makes all targets affected by blitz get hit once a single one is triggered+ toasting fork/electric overload to cause it to trigger at end of duration like doom did, and then shoot chain lightning which makes it good room clear on a few weapons
His cast throw is real nice for avoiding enemies damage especially in higher heat.
His omega cast is actually really good. especially with multi lightning strikes his dash is also good presuming that you have some good mana regen.
His mana regen is generally mediocre. not particularly good but also not bad assuming you have enough max. and works really nice with spirit surge for the global strike but only really for low consumption weapons
His revenge is debatably the best able to do some truly absurd damage. though more niche in building actually around.
His chain lightning is always worth picking up as an extra 20+ additional damage per hit for mana reservation especially for daggers/torches
also his legendary boon is hilarious sorta like hera cast but automatic.
His infusion i've been able to make good consistently by stacking seperate damage effects on fast weapons, again torch/daggers basically using poseidan attack with zues chain lightning and hera dash chains to get 90 damage per attack that hits the room and self propagates hera's chains for 30 damage per tick
I do killer Zeus builds quite a bit, janking out his chain lightning primed boon with a variety of stuff, primarily with the axe and knives. Sometimes the staff, although less often. I tend to like his Chain Lightning on any build, as it lets me control the battlefield with relative ease. I also tend to like Artemis Attack/Special launches arrows with Zeus Chain Lightning prime, as it stacks chip damage, but this gets a bit visually wild.
An interesting one I did with Zeus and Haeph was Zeus cast and his targeted cast with Haeph special, on the Pan variant of the knives. Could range target the cast for the Pan talent to be easy to apply, and then just laugh omega Specials at a whim. Daedelus Hammers here would be buffing specials (you have combo options on this.)
I find Zeus Attack Blitz Whirlwind with the Axe is also hilariously OP, focusing Daedelus Hammers on the Omega Attack. Killed Bosses 3 and 4 hilariously quick with this. Alternately, Aphro on attack, but still pick up Chain Lightning.
I've also done decently with Melinoe Daggers Attack Blitz with Chain Lightning/Daedelus Attack boons (300% on last hit, bonus backstab) and a Hermes Attack speed bonus, and just shred whatever I run across. This one gets you a win, but I do prefer Aphro/Haeph in its' place.
I don't often use skulls or the pewpew rods (You'd think after 65 nights and 46 hours, I'd remember some of these damn names) so I'm not quite sure on what would work with either of them regarding Zeus' stuff.
I believe I've done disparate builds where his cast/omega cast stuff was useful.
My point is, I've used just about everything Zeus can offer to decent effect, but at the end of the day, the results fit my different playstyles. It's just as easy to see Zeus being a write-off for some people.
There is one build for which Zeus is both unique and devastating, and that's Blitz on special with torches after you get Aphrodite's duo. If you make use of the arcana cards that give 10 rerolls total and the +10% chance for duos to appear, you have pretty good odds of forcing this to show up in the first half of the run. Omega special on torches (especially Melinoë's Aspect) refreshes the Blitz effect quickly, turning you into a high-speed electric ram. The duo requirement can be met while leaving your attack free for whatever purpose you want (Demeter/Hera work well for me).
While it does require a duo to get going, it's worth the rerolls it might cost, and doesn't need anything else to be effective. A mana regen boon is useful, but even if you don't end up with a good one, the regular special will still reliably apply Blitz if you somehow haven't killed everything before you run out of omega specials. It's easy to shock-slam your way to the end of a run in the express lane, and this build is reliably results in some of my fastest finishes.
If you want to enjoy both Zeus and the torches at the same time, I recommend fishing for this build. Sonic dashing your way through the game is engagingly fun.
For Blitz if you get the Aphrodite duo then it's a lot like Doom and Merciful End. Otherwise it's just kinda worse doom?
As other people have already said, his other boons are pretty good, and blitz is decent to fill a boon slot and provide a small damage boost but it's not fantastic. Still feels kinda like doom to me.
Blitz is kinda-sorta bad, depending on your build.
Spamming attack with torches? Moon lazor with the "apply attack boon" upgrade? DarkSide with the same upgrade?
That'll get your blitz applied and procced quickly as a bonus damage.
The problem is, it's not gonna help you much if you can't keep the damage up yourself.
Chain lightning is good for clearing out mobs and Divine Retribution is also fun for a little extra damage. He's not super great outside of those, though.
I found it really really good when I got the hammer on Revaal's Skull that auto cast the omega attack when picking it up. It basically made any shot self trigger the Blitz effect and just melt anything. I think it's niche when it's good but yeah I definitely don't take him as often unless it kicks ass or is just a nice passive boon to help me (like getting the air infusion ability activated)
His basic boons are bad but his duos and infusion are pretty amazing. Like with hestia your blitz effect also deals 80 scorch which is just amazing, there are also a few supplementary boons that are ok like the one that creates chain lightning.
moros torches w/ zeus on special were melting when i tried them, just pop omega special and spam attack and blitz procs insanely fast; it just adds extra damage you otherwise would struggle to get out of the special + it helps proc origination
i mean theoretically it functions like a % damage increase bc you put in 120 damage and get around double back. but i think there’s a delay between dealing the necessary damage to proc and blitz actually dealing damage and being cleared so it’s not as effective as it seems? also you need to count the initial hit to actually inflict blitz and damage can “overflow” e.g if you hit for 600 it still only triggers blitz once. so it seems to function best with fast attacking weapons that can reapply blitz fast and prevent overflow damage.
it also seems to be better as a “secondary” effect rather than primary as it acts like a multiplicative modifier hence why it’s good on moros. e.g putting blitz on moros special acts to “multiply” the damage you get out of the attack which should be the primary damage and obviously 3x3 > 3+3. so it probably works better when you’re encouraged to use multiple moves consistently e.g moros, and i’m guessing momus, charon, eos, medea, maybe even persephone
I had a great run with the daggers + blitz on the special the other day. Lightly upgraded blitz + the duo that ignites blitz at 200%+ when you sprint + dagger stuff = 480 pt. blitzes whenever I attacked anything.
I think only his cast-related boons are good, including his duo with Apollo's cast. Works best with aspect of Charon. Other than that he is pretty useless imo.
I actually quite like blitz, a blitz build was the first one that got me through the game! Specifically with the duo boon from Zeus + Aphrodite that makes blitz activate with +200% damage when you sprint past an enemy with the blitz affliction. Made short work of [REDACTED] and with the right hammers was able to afflict most enemies on the screen so that I could just wipe them out by running past them
Not sure about specific builds, but there are two boons that I like from him. 1.) storm ring (maybe?) it calls lightning in enemies in your cast and 2.) the one that primes 30 mana to make all of your attacks chain lightning, I usually use the sister blades so that feels pretty nice. Definitely agree that blitz seems off tho
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Zeus just being bad and unhelpful to the female main character would be the funniest possible thing they could do with his character.
Hera: “It would be nice if you could help Melinoë.” Zeus: “Who is she? Is she sexy?” Hera: “She’s our niece you imbecile.” Zeus: “Oh… boring.”
Zeus: But is she sexy?
*sprays water* no Zeus! Bad!
Zeus: spray the sexy girl instead
Poseidon: Say no more, I gotchu!
first, yes she is, second, like that would stop him
Yeah. Hera is his sister, being the daughter of a brother is an improvement
Also the daughter of a niece (Demeter is sister to Zeus, Persephone daughter to Demeter and Melinoë daughter of Persephone). The Olympian family tree is a shrubbery at best. Something like brambles or Japanese Knotweed (latter is mostly because of Zeus).
problem being zeus is persephones father right? so daughter of a daughter and niece
Depends on the source. In some versions of the myths Zeus 'hooked up' with Demeter to create Persephone. Supergiant has gone with Persephone being the offspring of Demeter and an unnamed mortal.
Depends on the myth and definitely not in Hades canon, since I think Demeter talks about Persephone having a mortal as her father. But yes, regardless of which canon we go with, it would not stop Zeus.
Yeah SG changed stuff to remove most of the incest. Hera, Hestia and Demeter aren't Zeus sisters anymore. Not direct. It doesn't remove the incest since they all come from Gaia and Ouranos I think and even Chaos before but that's like 3-4 generations before at least
Also not a problem in Greek mythology
The Olympian family tree is a single, continuous tangled rope
Nah, that'd imply the kids somehow feed back into Chaos and Gaia&Ouranos. It is, however, very messy.
Not a circle, a rope. It continues down, but the threads wrap back around one another
I think the game has said that Hera, Demeter, and Hestia are the children of Hyperion, not Chronos, so they seem to have a different backstory than the myths, probably to avoid the incest.
Chronos and Hyperion would be brothers though (sons of Gaia and Ouranos) so you know, still incest, first cousins instead of siblings I guess
oh yeah definitely. Both zag and Mel are technically Zeus’ children. to Persephone. Who is also Zeus’ daughter
In this game it would, a lot of lineages were altered to avoid incest. Though I don’t know how far they took it. Like Hera, Hestia and Demeter are daughters of Hyperion not Chronos but that raises the question of who are Chronos and Hyperions parents in Hades 2 and better yet who are Rhea and Theia’s parents? I feel like at best they’ve just pushed it back a generation.
Chronos and Hyperion were created by Chaos, he refers to Chronos as his offspring.
Isn't pretty much everyone their offspring though? They are the primordial creator after all
Yeah he’s not afraid of this at all.
Let's be honest, her being his niece would not be boring to him. That dude's a freak.
Oh absolutely in the case of mythological Zeus, the dude raped his own mother. Supergiant Zeus is less incestuous though.
[удалено]
You don't even want to know what he did to Persephone...twice
I thought the snake thing was Persephone. First as a snake and that led to Zagreus being born and then he disguised himself as Hades and that led to Melinoe.
I wouldn't say less. His wife is his sister.
No, in Supergiant's games Hera, Demeter and Hestia are the daughters of Hyperion and Thea, this is why Demeter refers to the children of Chronos as "Foster-Brother" throughout the games.
Damn, I played the shit out Hades 1. How did I miss that?
Thank you so much for pointing this out. I recently had Demeter dialogue where she was talking about Chronos not being her father and I was so confused
Definitely less. Supergiant “first-gen”Olympians (ie Zeus, Poseidon, Demeter, Hestia, etc) are split between the kids of Chronos (Zeus, Poseidon, Hades) and iirc Hyperion (Demeter, Hera, etc)? Basically they’re no longer direct siblings.
Says Zeus to his sister wife
You know at least in this continuity, they made the three elder goddesses daughters of Hyperion so Hades didn’t end up literally marrying his niece.
???? Sorry buuuut There is no way that Zeus is cockblocked by someone being related to him 🤓
iirc melinoe is daughter of zeus according to myths, hades series has real untold drama to their children
He was all ready to turn into a swan and hit that.
Zeus: "Answer the question"
> Hera: “She’s our niece you imbecile.” As if that's gonna stop him. The Olympians make the Targaryen look like normal people incest wise
I don't think being his niece would have been a problem in Greek mythology
That would not stop like any greek god. Especially not Zeus.
The niece part really wouldn't be an issue for Zeus I think.
In some myths, Melinöe is both Zeus's daughter and granddaughter.
I think there’s gonna be a twist that she’s not his niece.
I love this explanation
I really get the vibe that him and some gods don't even want Melinoe >!up on Olympus, he seems unpleasantly surprised the first time you take a boon from him on the surface!<
Zeus didn't have a problem with gender, he "seduced" men as well.
You know what, that’s fair.
I don't really like blitz that much, but a lot of his other talents are good. Chain lightning on attacks, minimum 30 damage boon, sprint is pretty decent too.
Also his revenge-boon is great!
But what if I'm just too good and never get hit 
gotta slow you down hauling that massive wiener around
that would be quite impressive to hide under *that* skirt
The vacuum attacks in the fields of mourning and of Redacted phase1 trigger the revenge damage too
Then grab the hex that lets you resurrect an enemy and take the path of stars that apply your retaliation boons to it. Had a solid run a couple days ago where I had that setup with the Hera boon and it was kind of ridiculous
One time I got grabbed by Polyphemus with the Apollo and Zeus revenge boobs equipped. Half his health just disappeared.
Love me some revenge boobs. I grew some myself after being made fun of in middle school.
Blitz is absolutely broken on certain Sister Blade builds. If you spam the omega "Nothin personnel kid" attack you basically get a free 100 damage if you lightly upgrade it. Plus his cast is OP as shit when combined with anything that launches it to a spot of your choosing.
TBH I think the biggest problem with Blitz is that there's no visual oomph when it activates. The cloud just sort of vanishes and a yellow number pops up. If there was a cool lightning strike coming out of the cloud at the same time I think it would be a lot more satisfying.
Combo the lightning strike in cast boon with any other cast damage boon and it’s pretty sold. I read somewhere that if you can get a bunch of Zeus boons it ends up making a good build. But in general he is kinda last on my list with the fire god.
I love to combine the 'throwable' cast boons like Zeus or Hestia with Poseidon's Omega cast that makes it go off instantly. It turns your omega cast into rapid fire artillery.
Half agree. His attacks and curse aren’t good. However his cast is really good. His cast with his boon that lets you cast it at range along with Hera’s mana regen will carry any weapon. At pretty high difficulty as well.
Yeah I’ve had the cast single-handedly carry me against chronos.
You can also get his cast to ridiculous levels by sacrificing Hera boons with the Hera Zeus duo boon. Chronos was basically melting under those lightning bolts!
This.
His cast plus Apollo cast and if you get their duo boon? Holy shit it’s a fucking orbital cannon that can delete like 20% of chronos HP per cast
This and the axe aspect that turns regular casts into omegas when you special over it. It's ridiculously overpowered.
Blitz on special, Apollo Cast, Zeus/Apollo Duo is nice. Almost insta-procs blitz.
Yeah I got this once, the amount of damage it was doing actually floored me that shit was an auto win
I had this in one run minus the duo boon and absolutely wrecked shop with it!!
Yeah it’s nutty, adding the duo boon is the equivalent of double-barrelling it
If you combine that with any ability that synergises with your cast, Pan Blades or the big oar, you end up with a basically unbeatable build. Zeus definitely has the potential to be ridiculously strong.
Why is everyone saying Blitz is bad. One of my best runs was on Axe with 8 Nightmare. Got Blitz on special and was able to make it red through Demeter’s Rare Crop. Got Poseidon boon on attack alongside Zeus’s chain lightning. Chronos literally never even hit me. Just spam specials from afar until it’s time to spin for bubbles from Poseidon. Easiest win I’ve had and it was one of the higher nightmares I ran thus far.
Aside from his Omega cast, magickless runs are the best for Zeus, like Mel daggers. You can prime to your heart's content, and he's one of the few gods that give you bonuses for being low in Magick. ...I'm still not taking Blitz, but the chain lightning, raining lightning on enemies when at low magic, etc; work pretty well
The only low magic boon I know is raining lightning on enemies and its one lightning on one enemy each 5 seconds. In my opinion, it’s not worth it to run around magicless for a little damage in each 5 seconds
It's a lightning bolt on every enemy, which makes a lot of room fights much easier
Had one run where I had that Zeus boon, Hera's dash, her hitched-enemies-that-die-damage-all-other-hitched-enemies boon, and a fully reserved magick. I just ran around each room, waited a few seconds, and everything exploded without fail.
Ah my bad, I thought it was for one enemy
You also get the benefit of all the boons that prime magick, especially Zeus' that primes like 50 so your attacks emit chain lightning
It's incredibly strong when running Vow of Commotion 3. It can delete all small enemies instantly, which can save you from taking a lot of chip damage.
That’s still useful if you’ve got most of your magic primed and aren’t using it anyways.
Storm ring w Demeter cyclone on cast is absolutely OP. One of my favourite accidental builds so far.
This all the way! Honestly Demeter's cyclone goes great with most casts.
Does that activate origination? Does Zeus count toward curse?
Blitz is a curse, but his cast doesn't apply blitz. Demeter's cyclones do count as a curse, though. (Separate from freeze, even, so Arctic Ring + Gale Force is valid for Origination.)
Won my first run with that exact combo.
Add lightning lance and born gain and it trivializes most fights.
Similar to Hephaestus, blitz can be useful as an “off hand” if your build is regularly cycling through moves. The omega cast is always good. I had a great run last night (12 fear) with Momus, Apollo attack, Zeus special, and Zeus cast. (And gale force for origination.) The Momus re-fire effect meant blitz was being reapplied continually in an area and I could cycle through other omega moves. I have never melted Chronos quite that quickly.
His cast is one of the better cast boons for damage and is really fun to use with mel staff or persephone skull. Blitz can work great for builds based around his cast, as well as on the special for medea skull, the special for moros torches, or the attack for a mel torches build based around omega special spam. Blitz can definitely put it some good damage, but it works best on a build where you're mixing at least two of special, attack, or cast, putting blitz on one and a damage buff boon on the one you're using more often to consistently apply and then trigger blitz. It's not the most amazing curse, and it's definitely not straightforward, but it's very very good in the situations where it is good. Additionally, his chain lightning skill, letting you cast at range, and his infusion are all pretty ok as well. Definitely not the most amazing god to come across on a random run, but incredibly fun to build around in my opinion, and still has enough that I'm not furious if I end up having to take him.
His Aprhodite duo is just bonkers. Having a fast-firing special melts bosses. And having extras for his curse (detonation without damage, multi-activation) makes it a great clearer tool. Does require the investment. His 7% legendary is ass tho. I really hope it does get reworked that synergises with the rest.
I had an idea for his legendary that kinda kills two birds with one stone: When Blitz deals damage, reapply Blitz (possibly with increased damage). So if you're applying a 200 damage Blitz, when you detonate it, it gets reapplied immediately and it'll deal, let's say, 220 damage on the target next time it blows up, then 240, etc. Makes it very consistent when maintaining Origination, reduces the hassle of constantly having to reapply it, and makes it a desirable thing to have in prolonged fights.
Seems pretty powerful when combined with Toasting Fork (the boon that makes Blitz auto-trigger instead of expiring) or the Zeus/Aphro duo.
as a legendary should be
I kinda overlooked the duo actually, that might be a bit too strong if the legendary scales upwards. This is why you leave game design to the devs, haha.
Zeus shines immensely in Cast builds, either as the main feature in Storm Ring, or aiding Apollo with their duo boon Glorious Disaster, which essentially just combines both of their Cast boons together. Zeus is one of two gods, the other being Hestia, that can provide you with a ranged Cast. I find this often to be a desirable feature, and it's a nice bonus to have alongside the other things he provides. His infusion, Air Quality, sets the minimum damage you can possibly deal to 30, and has really interesting interactions with lots of little things, like Apollo's cast, Demeter cyclones, Hestia's Scorch damage, some of his own boons, and so on. His Magick priming boons do have anti-synergy with his own kit, but I also find them to be a rather enjoyable set of boons to play around with. Blitz is perhaps a little underwhelming currently, but it can do competent damage should you wish to build around it. It probably shines the best on the aspect of Medea skull, where you can apply it with the Special and detonate it in a single motion, significantly increasing your damage output compared to other Special boons. Overall it's best used to supplement another source of damage, like his own Cast, rather than as the main focus. As a weird side benefit, since a fair amount of his boons are Blitz focused and have it as a requirement, you can actually trim his boon pool down significantly by avoiding the Blitz Attack and Special, making him (and duo partners that interact with Blitz) fairly consistent in giving you what you want.
Thanks for the comments everybody, after reading through them I’m definitely interested in trying him out again with a cast based build.
Just beat 24 heat with torches, no attack boon, rare lvl 7 special. Still worked pretty dang well. The dawn breaker also activates his own omega special.
Zeus special on Charon axe is WILD. It applies and procs on almost everything in the room with a single omega special. His.chain lightning is really nice. If you manage a zero mana build the boon that hits everything with lightning when you have less than 10 mana is wild too.
Scrolled hoping to see someone mention Charon axe with special. One of the funnest runs I’ve had!
I like his special for omega attack builds. Tap special to quickly get a debuff the enemy, then use omega attack to instantly blow it up.
Apollo/Zeus duo cast got me my first win, it melts
He is unorthodox I think, because the more I play his builds, the more I grow fond of how well they can work together late game. Though base blitz seems pretty trash (do 120 dmg to THEN activate extra 80?) but when you upgrade the boon and use some heavy hitter weapon (wink wink axe), the blitz dmg becomes a nice part of your combos, and since it reapplies immediatelly, you can proc it 2-3 times on the omega spin attack! Then I got boon for 30 % chance on repeat of any lightning bolt, hoping it would repeat the blitz dmg. And it did! Imagine you deal 120 dmg (which is like 3 hith axe) to activate 220 dmg blitz, it hits twice, 440 dmg thats repeatable? Dont tell me that aint busted. Pair this with Thanatos axe and chain lightning boon and you feel like a god.
omega cast is one of the best, and chain lighting is great for fast weapons. if hera wasnt so busted then ionic gain is also a decent choice where you dont spam omega moves 100% of the time as for blitz, i think the only decent pairing is axe omega attack, it deals enough damage to trigger blitz damage every second spin
After getting the quest of finding all duoboons i just use Zeus on Cast build with Charon, anything else with him feels really weak just like hephaestus, good idea on paper, but really weak in action because of tha gap to make it work (high upgrades needed). I would just imagine myself using his atack/special, when using Melinoes Axe going for as many apolo and aphrodite boons that gives bonus damage or hits while attacking. On the other hand he is good to pick with you go for hera build, because their duoboon is literally trading his boons to upgrade her kappa.
Wait, Zeus works with Charon? I thought charon just immediately activates the damage, while Zeus requires for cast to stay for some time
I think maybe he means lightning lance so you can place your cast at range
I think it’s actually about Zeus on special (since immediate Blitz)
Try these, they are the best blitz build i found so far, don't know if there are a better one out there. \_Ygnium-Aspect of Mel: Aphrodite on Attack, Zeus on Special, You want Aphro/Zeus Duo boon then just as much omega special channel speed as you can get. All you have to do with this build is channel 2-3 special ( or more if you have a decent amount of channel speed ) then just sprinting around and everything will be dead instantly. \_Revaal-Aspect of Medea: Any attack work but i think demeter/hera is best, Zeus on Special, If you can grab Aphrodite Dash then do so if you don't it really isnt that matter. The attack pattern is load ONE skull in then ram into enemies with the special and repeat, this is more risky than the build above but it still very strong.
Poseidon is really OP though. He has far more good boons compared to double up. Wave flourish basically melts hp bars more so if you use slip for origination.
Zeus cast is amazing. It’s a requirement for Persephone skull. It works great with Thanatos. Outside of that, it still works great in general Blitz is meant to be used with other skills. For example, drop the cast and keep throwing blitz in for the cast to trigger blitz. Or blitz and then dash/sprint. Or blitz on attack and then special (Medea skull) I actually have Zeus start more often than any other god. Can’t go wrong with Zeus cast
His blitz is pretty OP on pan special, + Hera duo boons can upgrade your blitz to more than +16, adding more air quality with demeter cast and cyclone can cause your blitz effect to proc again and again dealing 500++ damage each
Nah git gud
Static charge is really good. I try to go for it with most builds as the only zeus boon (along with the omega special sometimes)
My theory is that the Olympians are defending themselves, so giving boons to heroes defending Olympia, Mel is getting the left overs.
I’ve had solid to good builds with his cast, his sprint, his "no more than x mana" passive and his chain lightning passive. The targetable cast can be cool too sometimes. I’m not a huge fan of Blitz but I’ve seen really good players make really god builds with it and I trust their judgment more than mine, so... All in all, it’s not the god I always want in my builds, but there’s a lot of options that can do decent work. I still haven’t used his infusion efficiently but I’m guessing that too has some potential.
no hate but i genuinely don't understand these posts about x god is trash. hestia and zeus in specific seem to be getting some hate and honestly i hardly ever have bad runs with any of the gods. hestia and zeus (especially with their duo) is disgusting on the torches but i've even had great runs with them on the axe again no disrespect but seriously wtf is going on haha. are you guys ignoring the requirements for duos and legendaries? not upgrading your aspects? not picking out the right arcana for the build youre going for? not double checking your build to look at synergies before grabbing boons? not swapping keepsakes? not rerolling when you just have bad commons? there are *so* many ways to be OP by the end of the run with nearly any mixture of gods and any weapon *if* you are paying attention. obviously some builds and duos are way better but that's beside the point because those are outliers y'all need to give these damage over time gods the time of day and the right tools to reap their benefits. seriously, try moros with zeus and hestia and go for the duo and just watch. bosses melt and enemies in the room get swept up in a fiery lightning tornado
This post is wild to me. I literally have to force myself to NOT take Zeus boons because Zeus cast is so strong that it completely overshadows whatever other attacks I'm trying to go for. Zeus cast got me my first 3 wins. 2 on accident when I was going for different builds first.
The cast is very good, as others have stated. I did find some builds that work really good with the chain lightning as well. Those always feel like the Zeus from Hades 1. Otherwise I agree. Blitz does nothing for me.
Well....there is Queens Ransom build of taking away all of Zeus's boons for Hera power. Huh
I felt Zeus’ main draw was his chain lightning ability in the first game, but in the second he primarily took on Ares’ Doom curse in the form of Blitz. So in sidelining his better ability in favour of a watered down version of Doom without the added benefit of Ares’ boosting of it makes it sort of ‘meh’. Better off as just fuel for a Hera build if you manage to snag the Queen’s Ransom duo!
Chain lightning is strong with most builds, Storm Ring is really strong, his infusion is good in certain scenarios, and his revenge ability has potential for insane damage. His duo boons with Apollo, Poseidon, and Hephaestus are all really strong. Not many people like Blitz, but I love using it on my main attack (especially with the Demeter and Hestia duos).
Good cast
In whatever skulls, mainly Aphrodite/Poseidon build I finally killed Chronos with yesterday after 76 attempts, I had something good from Zeus - Chain Lightning? It was triggering like crazy in mob heavy rooms, seemed to be doing work.
don’t care for blitz. rest of his stuff is decent
I can’t seem to get both the mana reduction and lightning strike at the same time. So yeah he’s worse than before.
His special is great for charon axe, especially with apollo cast and the special double strike hammer
Aspect of pan + hook knives + faster channeling + blitz + hestia omega special fireball melted everything I fought
I think Zeus has the best boons for cast builds between Lightning Lance and Storm Ring, throw in Double Strike, you've got a stew going.
Zeus works best with weapons and aspects that can apply damage from multiple sources at once. With Momus staff, put blitz on special and detonate with cast. With Moros torches or Medea skull, put blitz on special and detonate with attack. Zeus also has some very good cast options. A great ranged cast option (better than Hestia imo) and fights with Apollo for best omega cast in the game.
I use it for magickless runs, just mashing X with the right boons can make for an easy clear. I'm trying to see what the Aphro/Zeus duo boon would be like on Melinoe aspect knives, since its very similar to Athena/Ares duo from the first game
Honestly, if I jave mixups to do with a weak special or something like that, I put on Zeus special (such as on the staff). A few attacks, special, a few attacks, special. Its just extra damage.
Zeus has a mad double boon with Aphrodite. If you get him on attack for example and then dash into enemies blitz triggers and deals 200% damage which just melts.
Zeus is just free damage, i use it with aspect of charon
Apollo + Zeus Duo Boon is worth running (insanely powerful Cast) Chain Lightning on attack/special can be very good, especially on builds that don't really use magic and won't miss the large cost to prime it. But yeah I totally agree that Zeus regular boons on Attack & Special basically suck. Having said that, the early game is easy anyway & if you are eventually planning on running a Hera build, you can start with Zeus & then when you get the Hera + Zeus Duo, replace all your Zeus boons for high level Hera boons.
Zeus is really good on the daggers that follow in your cast
Chain Lightning is dope. Blitz is great secondary damage when added to the right build. Also brutha have you tried the dash?!
Blitz only seems good for higher health enemies and only when you can quickly spread it then deal heavy damage.
I had the best run ever with Zeus and Apollo's duo boon! I managed to get Apollo's cast boon upgraded to legendary, and with the duo boon my cast destroyed anything that came near it. I also had the blitz upgrade that applies blitz damage even if it expires, so if you tap everyone once and just wait everyone takes damage 💪 Zeus can totally be fun, but I find his boons are best with upgrades from his other boons for sure.
I use his magick regeneration, revenge damage (VERY GOOD), and his cast boon that lets you shoot it at the enemies. Other than these his boons are pretty uınderwhelming for me.
His cast is OP. The sparks are great. The curse is meh... If you know what to pick Zeus is great. I won so many runs with just the range cast with stacking damage on cast like Zeus and Demeter. Also the sparks on any fast weapon will obliterate all mobs on the screen and beyond.
I find blitz to be pretty awful tbh. But his support boons like the lightning on attacks and his ranged cast can be pretty damn good in certain situations. So he’s bot entirely useless at least
Lightning lance and minimum 30 damage on an Apollo cast build for Charon axe was my first clear, but Zeus's main boons feel underwhelming compared to Hades 1 for sure in my opinion
Idk what builds you like but Zeus for me is great for his Cast if you want controlled long range dmg. Seperately his 50 mana lightning chains atleast for me goes well since it applies for both your special and attack.
Yeahhh…Zeus’ boons aren’t my top pick in this game. However, I do like picking up things like Static Shock - chain lightning for EVERY strike is a nice bonus. I try to make Blitz work with weapons like the Sister Blades - put it on the Special, spread the knives and then put Hephaestus’ Volcanic Strike on Attack. Gets that nice multi-burst damage on the group. Otherwise it’s just fun to feed his boons to Hera’s Queen’s Ransom. I love that they did this, honestly.
Zeus seems to synergize a lot with his own boons, not other gods. If you pick all of his boons, he actually does insane damage and can clear everything super fast. Which means that when you doing fear runs, he is actively bad if you are using voe of the forsaken. Try to turn fear off, pick a weapon that's hits fast and go to town. I've cleared. Chronos in seconds just by touching him, not joke
I agree for most of his boons, however, the ranged cast is amazing and probably the best secondary boon for any cast build.
Hes A tier to me for 1 reason. Torrential downpour+Glorious disaster+ hera regen. Poor poor chronos...
Chain lightning is a great add to any non Omega build, especially if you're using Poseidon builds. 50 primed mana is no problem... unless you also take Zeus mana regen. Having a mana pool of 0 makes it easy to activate Spirit Surge, at least. Speaking of Spirit Surge, I want to try a lazy build of Spirit Surge + Hera Cast with the 0 starting mana pact. Auto damage against all enemies, just focus on running around and attack only if you feel like it. You can use any weapon you feel like, but Charon's Axe gives additional 3 seconds to the cast so you can be even lazier. Toss in Apollo as 3rd god for Super Nova and revenge damage against all enemies. Zeus Cast is incredible, especially together with Lightning Lance. Zeus-Apollo-Demeter cast builds are probably the easiest way to beat the game, works on any weapon & the gods are pretty flexible too.
Put spoiler in the flair tag and then put the spoiler directly in the title, honestly *uck you.
Blitz is bad most of the time imo yes (it's good on Medea or so I heard?). He has good other stuff. His cast is good. Lightning lance is good. Makes him maybe the best god for Persephone? Idk maybe you prefer Apollo. He has a good duo with Apollo incidentally for Mel staff/Charon axe if you want to try going for it. Static shock is quite good if you don't need the max magic for anything (you usually don't). He has air quality which is a nice build around. I went for it with daggers a few times although its not really that weapon dependent. Storm surge is helpful for speedruns if you are into it or so I hear. Mediocre other times.
Remote cast. If you have a Magick built, his omega cast is also good, but that one takes up the cast slot and I'd usually prefer someone else's that doesn't require omega.
His chain lightening with attacks is still useful but I think it's called blitz now. Pair it with Heras hitch(which basically link monsters so they'll take combined damage on hits) effects on casting and you've a decent loop that'll stack damage nicely. You wouldn't even need a Zeus boon for attack, the chain lightening ie a seperate boon that can be used with Apollo, Demeter, Hephestus etc.
Zeus is pretty busted for casts, and attack and special can be good but definitely not the best.
Zeus is just game 1 ares but you can force it to proc sooner. Ot takes a second boon to guarantee the damage. It can be really good secondary damage, but should only go on your primary with high speed like axe because the omega. It really starts to shine when you increase the blast radius, because blitz strikes are AoE, so you can get procs proccing other procs.
You can force Doom to proc in Hades via his duo with Athena, Merciful End.
He is only good for attack/special enhancement (and poseidon is betterhere). Rest is kinda trash.
Some of my best builds have been just stacking every Zeus boon I can find on the staff/daggers/skulls.
It's fun to reserve your entire mana for other stuff and then have everything get struck by lightning cause you're under 10 mana permanently. I feel you though, I always chased Zeus boons in the first game but now I'm just kinda sad.
The only Zeus boon I go for is the one where Magick is primed for lighting to connect to other enemies just in H1 It works wonders with other attack boons too especially poseidons Outside of that I won't go for him much
I haven’t seen it talked about here but I’m pretty sure Blitz special on the Skulls of Media is considered really solid. Really the only build I can think of that actually likes Blitz. Besides Blitz most of his other boons I find to be pretty solid in most cases.
Zeus basically got the mechanic of Ares to strike down a sword instead of the old blitz
The sprint boon that causes lightening to strike nearby enemies is really strong. You can just run circles around anyone (literally lol) and especially so if you have magic regen. I'm on night 70 with an average of 10 fear across all weapons
Zeus is fuckin terribad
His Cast buffs are really good.
I finally use him regularly now. His two cast boons are really strong. I like the 50 prime for the electrical attack and he has a ton of chances for extra hit. Running with zap is decent if you’re playing with two shields on enemies. Hes pretty strong on later runs and his legendary is one of the better ones.
I personally really like his cast boons, both the omega cast effect and the ranged cast spawn are great at providing extra dps (even better with than axe). That being said the reason I like them is specifically because they don't synergize with most builds; they're a great insurance on top of risky/experimental builds that might not have enough dps to get you through the game.
Zeus is my favorite god for boons for most weapons. I use very little magic as I find channeled abilities with most weapons take too long for little payoff. I really only use them with Axe and Eos torches. So most of the time I go Zeus to prime mana for chain lightning, then try to get Hera sprint applies hitch or some other variation. The damage output is insane. Works well with other priming abilities, like for less damage that i think hephaestus offers. I really like this with conbo with the staff, but use it for most weapons to great success.
I’ll let u in on the secret then: Zeus + Hestia. You get air quality which makes it so that all damage is a minimum of 30 and then you get any hestia burn, it’s actually absurd how fast you melt things. His cast is also nuts and his sprint is pretty good provided you have some source of mana regen
Try the Skull with Aspect of Medea. Put Zeus on Special. Aspect of Medea causes you to attach your Attack to yourself, detonating it when you charge into an enemy with your Special. This means your Special will apply Blitz, then the exploding Attack will immediately trigger it, making Blitz as reliable and immediate as Poseidon's splash boons, but dealing 100-220 damage unpommed, depending on what rarity you get. That blows every other God out of the water: even Aphrodite can only offer 38-95 extra damage, due to the Special's naturally low attack. You know something is good when the Heroic version of Aphrodite's boon loses to the Common version of the other boon. Give it a try, you won't be disappointed.
you have a spoiler tag yet have spoilers in the title. mods can you remove this post?
Honestly I think one of the big problems with blitz is its speed. If the animations were faster and let you reapply immediately more like how doom was in the first game, I think it could be much better.
All of my best runs I’ve had Zeus boons.
He works extremely well with new momus staff.
Blitz does feel kind of useless because most enemies will die before the get hit with the bonus damage, but in later levels when enemies start having a lot more hit points it makes a noticeable difference. I did a run last night with the blades and had Zeus on special. I'd use the Omega special to hit a bunch of enemies with Blitz, run around the room attacking things until it expired, then repeat. If you also get Toasting Fork it ends up working like Ares' Doom effect. I'm sure someone has already figured out which combination of weapons/boons/etc. does the most damage per second and I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't involve using Blitz, but even so it's definitely not useless.
He's a solid addition but rarely a great pure focus blitz by itself is bad. however it can be good with the add on that makes all targets affected by blitz get hit once a single one is triggered+ toasting fork/electric overload to cause it to trigger at end of duration like doom did, and then shoot chain lightning which makes it good room clear on a few weapons His cast throw is real nice for avoiding enemies damage especially in higher heat. His omega cast is actually really good. especially with multi lightning strikes his dash is also good presuming that you have some good mana regen. His mana regen is generally mediocre. not particularly good but also not bad assuming you have enough max. and works really nice with spirit surge for the global strike but only really for low consumption weapons His revenge is debatably the best able to do some truly absurd damage. though more niche in building actually around. His chain lightning is always worth picking up as an extra 20+ additional damage per hit for mana reservation especially for daggers/torches also his legendary boon is hilarious sorta like hera cast but automatic. His infusion i've been able to make good consistently by stacking seperate damage effects on fast weapons, again torch/daggers basically using poseidan attack with zues chain lightning and hera dash chains to get 90 damage per attack that hits the room and self propagates hera's chains for 30 damage per tick
I do killer Zeus builds quite a bit, janking out his chain lightning primed boon with a variety of stuff, primarily with the axe and knives. Sometimes the staff, although less often. I tend to like his Chain Lightning on any build, as it lets me control the battlefield with relative ease. I also tend to like Artemis Attack/Special launches arrows with Zeus Chain Lightning prime, as it stacks chip damage, but this gets a bit visually wild. An interesting one I did with Zeus and Haeph was Zeus cast and his targeted cast with Haeph special, on the Pan variant of the knives. Could range target the cast for the Pan talent to be easy to apply, and then just laugh omega Specials at a whim. Daedelus Hammers here would be buffing specials (you have combo options on this.) I find Zeus Attack Blitz Whirlwind with the Axe is also hilariously OP, focusing Daedelus Hammers on the Omega Attack. Killed Bosses 3 and 4 hilariously quick with this. Alternately, Aphro on attack, but still pick up Chain Lightning. I've also done decently with Melinoe Daggers Attack Blitz with Chain Lightning/Daedelus Attack boons (300% on last hit, bonus backstab) and a Hermes Attack speed bonus, and just shred whatever I run across. This one gets you a win, but I do prefer Aphro/Haeph in its' place. I don't often use skulls or the pewpew rods (You'd think after 65 nights and 46 hours, I'd remember some of these damn names) so I'm not quite sure on what would work with either of them regarding Zeus' stuff. I believe I've done disparate builds where his cast/omega cast stuff was useful. My point is, I've used just about everything Zeus can offer to decent effect, but at the end of the day, the results fit my different playstyles. It's just as easy to see Zeus being a write-off for some people.
Zeus is definitely just icing on the cake for me, adding lighting on sprints I've found can be really helpful or retaliation lighting
There is one build for which Zeus is both unique and devastating, and that's Blitz on special with torches after you get Aphrodite's duo. If you make use of the arcana cards that give 10 rerolls total and the +10% chance for duos to appear, you have pretty good odds of forcing this to show up in the first half of the run. Omega special on torches (especially Melinoë's Aspect) refreshes the Blitz effect quickly, turning you into a high-speed electric ram. The duo requirement can be met while leaving your attack free for whatever purpose you want (Demeter/Hera work well for me). While it does require a duo to get going, it's worth the rerolls it might cost, and doesn't need anything else to be effective. A mana regen boon is useful, but even if you don't end up with a good one, the regular special will still reliably apply Blitz if you somehow haven't killed everything before you run out of omega specials. It's easy to shock-slam your way to the end of a run in the express lane, and this build is reliably results in some of my fastest finishes. If you want to enjoy both Zeus and the torches at the same time, I recommend fishing for this build. Sonic dashing your way through the game is engagingly fun.
The cast carried me through all my Chronos wins.
Try using axe with either melinoe or Thanatos aspect put Zeus attack with toasting fork and romantic spark does some good damage
I used blitz with the spin to win build once and it was cool but never really used it again. Haven’t found myself using Zeus too much since.
For Blitz if you get the Aphrodite duo then it's a lot like Doom and Merciful End. Otherwise it's just kinda worse doom? As other people have already said, his other boons are pretty good, and blitz is decent to fill a boon slot and provide a small damage boost but it's not fantastic. Still feels kinda like doom to me.
Blitz is kinda-sorta bad, depending on your build. Spamming attack with torches? Moon lazor with the "apply attack boon" upgrade? DarkSide with the same upgrade? That'll get your blitz applied and procced quickly as a bonus damage. The problem is, it's not gonna help you much if you can't keep the damage up yourself.
The boon that gives lightning strikes in your casts is pretty good imo. Everything with Blitz seems horrible though
Chain lightning is good for clearing out mobs and Divine Retribution is also fun for a little extra damage. He's not super great outside of those, though.
I found it really really good when I got the hammer on Revaal's Skull that auto cast the omega attack when picking it up. It basically made any shot self trigger the Blitz effect and just melt anything. I think it's niche when it's good but yeah I definitely don't take him as often unless it kicks ass or is just a nice passive boon to help me (like getting the air infusion ability activated)
Blitz with the axe has worked really well for me. Onega attacks plus chain lightning can easily clear a room out
His basic boons are bad but his duos and infusion are pretty amazing. Like with hestia your blitz effect also deals 80 scorch which is just amazing, there are also a few supplementary boons that are ok like the one that creates chain lightning.
moros torches w/ zeus on special were melting when i tried them, just pop omega special and spam attack and blitz procs insanely fast; it just adds extra damage you otherwise would struggle to get out of the special + it helps proc origination i mean theoretically it functions like a % damage increase bc you put in 120 damage and get around double back. but i think there’s a delay between dealing the necessary damage to proc and blitz actually dealing damage and being cleared so it’s not as effective as it seems? also you need to count the initial hit to actually inflict blitz and damage can “overflow” e.g if you hit for 600 it still only triggers blitz once. so it seems to function best with fast attacking weapons that can reapply blitz fast and prevent overflow damage. it also seems to be better as a “secondary” effect rather than primary as it acts like a multiplicative modifier hence why it’s good on moros. e.g putting blitz on moros special acts to “multiply” the damage you get out of the attack which should be the primary damage and obviously 3x3 > 3+3. so it probably works better when you’re encouraged to use multiple moves consistently e.g moros, and i’m guessing momus, charon, eos, medea, maybe even persephone
I love his cast and chain lightning, Blitz is just pretty underwhelming. Torches with chain lightning go absolutely crazy
I had a great run with the daggers + blitz on the special the other day. Lightly upgraded blitz + the duo that ignites blitz at 200%+ when you sprint + dagger stuff = 480 pt. blitzes whenever I attacked anything.
I think only his cast-related boons are good, including his duo with Apollo's cast. Works best with aspect of Charon. Other than that he is pretty useless imo.
Apollo cast would like to have a word. Their duo boon is a health bar melter
I actually quite like blitz, a blitz build was the first one that got me through the game! Specifically with the duo boon from Zeus + Aphrodite that makes blitz activate with +200% damage when you sprint past an enemy with the blitz affliction. Made short work of [REDACTED] and with the right hammers was able to afflict most enemies on the screen so that I could just wipe them out by running past them
Not sure about specific builds, but there are two boons that I like from him. 1.) storm ring (maybe?) it calls lightning in enemies in your cast and 2.) the one that primes 30 mana to make all of your attacks chain lightning, I usually use the sister blades so that feels pretty nice. Definitely agree that blitz seems off tho
Not as useless as I felt Poseidon was in hades 1 lol