History GameBreaker / Hades

** The Aspect of Arthur has the slowest attack of any weapon but consequently has the highest base damage. Combine this with certain boons, such as Athena's Blinding Flash, which boosts backstab damage when combined with any Deflect boon or, even better, Daedalus Hammer's Shadow Slash upgrade (+200% backstab damage), or Artemis' critical chance boons, and you can easily decimate enemies and bosses alike if all three swings connect (with the last hit dealing much more damage than the first two). You can easily deal over 1000 damages in a single hit under the right conditions. Furthermore, the Aspect changes Stygius' special to an area of effect that slows down projectiles inside it ''and'' gives you damage resistance.

* Ares and Artemis' Duo Boon, Hunting Blades, has been nerfed several times and yet still remains this. It adds a homing effect and a 100% speed increase to Ares' Slicing Blades, turning an AwesomeButImpractical cast that does huge damage but is slow and hard to hit with into a homing monstrosity that will easily deal 500 damage on its own. It's incredibly fire-and-forget, allowing Zagreus to focus on avoiding attacks, and since both gods have several Boons that upgrade Cast it has incredible growth potential.
* Demeter and Artemis' Duo Boon, Crystal Clarity, is another variant of Hunting Blades. While not being quite as insanely damaging, it also allows Zagreus to play an almost entirely defensive playstyle while having his crystal turrets kill enemies for him.
* Zeus and Aphrodite's Duo Boon, Smoldering Air. It caps your God Gauge at only one segment, so you can't use a Greater Call. But in exchange, the gauge charges up almost absurdly quickly on its own, at five points per second. If you've got a Call from the likes of Athena or Poseidon, that means becoming briefly invulnerable once every five seconds flat, allowing you to get through the most brutal of segments with relative ease.

* Athena's Divine Dash deals a pitiful amount of damage, but it causes any projectiles to be deflected if Zag touches them while dashing, and also blocks most melee attacks from causing him any damage. Also, instead of making Zagreus invincible for a split-second, he becomes invincible for the entire dash. The fact that Zagreus can stop almost anything that comes his way with a basic move makes avoiding damage trivial. Combined with Blinding Flash (which gives Athena's moves a chance to make enemies Exposed, which increases the damage they take with back attacks), it's easy to dash through an enemy's attacks and hit them from behind with a quick counter for big damage.

** The Aspect of Arthur has the slowest attack of any weapon but consequently has the highest base damage. Combine this with certain boons, such as Athena's Blinding Flash, which boosts backstab damage when combined with any Deflect boon, or Artemis' critical chance boons, and you can easily decimate enemies and bosses alike if all three swings connect. Furthermore, the Aspect changes Stygius' special to an area of effect that slows down projectiles inside it ''and'' gives you damage resistance.

** Chaos' aspect of Aegis adds an additional thrown shield to your special whenever you bull rush (you will bull rush a lot with Aegis), and can be upgraded to five additional shields. With the right special-boosting boons (anything that adds flat damage like Zeus, Ares or Dionysus is good, as is Artemis for the critical chance or Athena since every single thrown shield now reflects missiles) or upgrades (especially the one that lets thrown shields hit multiple foes, or the one that deals a 50 damage explosion whenever a thrown shield returns to you) a fully upgraded Chaos aspect will clear rooms in seconds.

** Another upgrade allows the Twin Fists to restore 2% of your health every time you kill something with the uppercut special. It's not especially overpowered in most areas of the Underworld, but it becomes a whole other story in the Temple of Styx thanks to [[GoddamnBats the Vermin]]. Any solid hit will kill the small rats and with [[ZergRush how many fling themselves at you at a time]], clearing a room of them using just your special will typically restore a ''very'' generous amount of your health. This goes double if you have the [[YouWillNotEvadeMe Aspect of Talos]], which lets you pull the Vermin straight to you.

* Poseidon's Duo Boon with Zeus, Sea Storm. Provided you can acquire it, it's an instant recipe for huge damage output, as it is the only ability in the game that allows you to stack two effects onto one attack (knockback + lightning). This also means it's possible to use the Privileged Status upgrade with only one attack, as both knockback and lightning strikes come with additional status effects (Rupture and Jolted), providing a 40% damage bonus while both are maintained in addition to the damage they inflict. To really sweeten the deal, if you go that far, you're on a fast track to getting both gods' legendaries.[[labelnote:Some math]]Splitting Bolt causes every lightning-producing ability to trigger twice, while Second Wave causes knockback to trigger twice. Sea Storm adds lightning to every knockback ability, so you're striking a single enemy with lightning four consecutive times for one attack. Add the damage modifiers from both gods' status effects, and now you're just achieving overkill...[[/labelnote]]

* Athena's Divine Dash deals a pitiful amount of damage, but it causes any projectiles to be deflected if Zag touches them while dashing, and also blocks most melee attacks from causing him any damage. The fact that Zagreus can stop almost anything that comes his way with a basic move makes avoiding damage trivial. Combined with Blinding Flash (which gives Athena's moves a chance to make enemies Exposed, which increases the damage they take with back attacks), it's easy to dash through an enemy's attacks and hit them from behind with a quick counter for big damage.

** The Aspect of Arthur has the slowest attack of any weapon but consequently has the highest base damage. Combine this with certain boons, such as Athena's Blinding Flash, which boosts backstab damage when combined with any Deflect boon, or Artemis' critical chance boons, and you can easily decimate enemies and bosses alike if all three swings connect. Furthermore, the Aspect changes Stygius' special to an area of effect that slows down all enemies inside it ''and'' gives you damage resistance, making it extremely good against large groups of enemies.

** The Aspect of Arthur has the slowest attack of any weapon but consequently has the highest base damage. Combine this with certain boons, such as Athena's Blinding Flash, which boosts backstab damage when combined with any Deflect boon, or Artemis' critical chance boons, and you can easily decimate bosses if all three swings connect. Furthermore, the Aspect changes Stygius' special to an area of effect that slows down all enemies inside it ''and'' gives you damage resistance, making it extremely good against large groups of enemies.

* Artemis' Support Fire boon adds a 10-damage AlwaysAccurateAttack that fires every time Zagreus attacks, uses his special, or casts. With a rapid-fire weapon like Exagryph or the Twin fists, this Boon practically doubles your damage. It is also very simple to obtain, being a tier 2 boon (you need Artemis' cast boon to get it).
* Aphrodite's Unhealthy Fixation makes any Weak effects have a 15% chance of charming an enemy which causes them to fight for you. Not only is this fantastic for neutralizing the threat of large mobs, there is no enemy immune to this effect. Not even the FinalBoss has ContractualBossImmunity to it, so it can turn the game's hardest fight into a joke.
* Athena's Divine Dash deals a pitiful amount of damage, but it causes any projectiles to be deflected if Zag touches them while dashing, and also blocks most melee attacks from causing him any damage. The fact that Zagreus can stop almost anything that comes his way with a basic move makes avoiding damage trivial. Combined with Blinding Flash (which gives Athena's moves a chance to make enemies Exposed, which increases the damage they take with back attacks), it's easy to dash through an enemy's attacks and hit them from behind with a quick counter for big damage.

* Poseidon's aspect of Stygius boosts your cast damage, and its special (which is identical to the baseline special attack) automatically dislodges any blood crystals stuck in your foes. Artemis has a boon called Exit Wounds (you need her cast or call to qualify, which is a fairly low bar to clear by picking the Arrowhead as a keepsake), which deals a minimum of 50 damage whenever a blood crystal dislodges from a foe -- which includes dislodgings from the aspect of Poseidon. As long as you don't re-pick to a cast that doesn't lodge in foes (i.e. not Zeus, Ares, Dionysus or Demeter), the aspect of Poseidon/Exit Wounds combo allows Zagreus to repeatedly cast at foes and dislodge them again, racking up a lot of damage quickly.
* Hera's aspect of Coronacht is incredibly powerful, removing the normal cast (which is usually redundant when using the bow anyway) and instead lets Zag load the cast directly onto his bow and fire it, striking the enemy with both the arrow and the cast at the same time. Combined with casts that are powerful but hard to hit with, like Dionysus' Tipsy Shot or Ares' Slicing Shot (both can be gotten in the first room with the proper keepsake), the aspect of Hera provides an AlphaStrike build that will deal 400+ damage in a single attack.
* Chaos' aspect of Aegis adds an additional thrown shield to your special whenever you bull rush (you will bull rush a lot with Aegis), and can be upgraded to five additional shields. With the right special-boosting boons (anything that adds flat damage like Zeus, Ares or Dionysus is good, as is Artemis for the critical chance or Athena since every single thrown shield now reflects missiles) or upgrades (especially the one that lets thrown shields hit multiple foes, or the one that deals a 50 damage explosion whenever a thrown shield returns to you) a fully upgraded Chaos aspect will clear rooms in seconds.

* The Guan Yu aspect of the Eternal Spear, when fully upgraded, halves your health and any health upgrades for the duration of the run, but in exchange gives the spear's spin attack health-restoring properties for each hit. It only heals for one point per hit, but the spin attack will hit several times at least and has decent range. It gets even more broken when combined with hammer upgrades that increase its size and decrease charge time. This was so broken, in fact, that the spin attack got nerfed so it would bounce off walls instead of passing through them, as prior to that you could hide behind the plentiful barriers and attack with impunity.
* Lucifer's aspect of Exagryph replaces the normal fire with a fast-hitting laser that has a 20-round magazine. This synergizes insanely well with Zeus's attack aspect, chewing through mooks and bosses like a hot knife through butter while sending lightning bolts at nearby opponents at an astounding rate. The only thing that will kill you when you have this combo is carelessness.

* The Death Defiance Mirror upgrade is simple but very powerful. You simply get 3 revives during your run, revives that can be refilled by one charge from the merchant pools and by all 3 if you meet Patroclus during Elysium. If you reach the final zone with all 3 lives then switch to Skelly's trinket, you can go into the fight with Hades with essentially 3 bars worth of health.

* Aphrodite's Unhealthy Fixation makes any Weak effects have a 15% chance of charming an enemy which causes them to fight for you. Not only is this fantastic for neutralizing the threat of large mobs, [[spoiler: there is no enemy immune to this effect, not even Hades.]]

* The Death Defiance Mirror upgrade is simple but very powerful. You simply get 3 revives during your run, revives that can be refilled by one charge from the merchant pools and by all 3 if you meet Patroclus during Elysium. If you reach the final zone with all 3 lives then switch to Skelly's trinket, you can go into the fight with Hades with essentiall 3 bars worth of health (the revives don't give you full health).

* The "Reckless Dash" upgrade to the Mirror of Night offers Zagreus a 3-second 50% dodge chance and damage bonus whenever he dodges an attack by dashing. On its own, it's DifficultButAwesome because [[DamnYouMuscleMemory it denies Zagreus his second dash]] (which is almost necessary to get through Asphodel and to dodge certain attacks like the FinalBoss' SpinAttack). There are, however, two ways to break the game with this: One, Zagreus' aspect of the Twin Fists of Malphos can be upgraded with a flat 15% dodge bonus using titan blood, and the Lambent Plume can add 1-1.2% dodge chance every time you SpeedRun a room (fairly easy in Tartarus and Asphodel, and still doable in Elysium), which can see Zagreus hit a ~90% dodge chance for three seconds by the endgame with a well-timed dash (or higher with a Hermes 'Greater Reflex' boon). Second, Hermes has a boon that straight-up adds dashes. Normally, having more than two dashes is overkill. With Reckless Dash, however (which can trigger on each of the multiple dashes) you have just eliminated the only drawback and can use a DashAttack style with Stygius, the Twin Fists or Varatha to straight-up be invincible most of the time.

* Poseidon's Duo Boon with Zeus, Sea Storm. Provided you can acquire it, it's an instant recipe for huge damage output, as it is the only ability in the game that allows you to stack two effects onto one attack (knockback + lightning). This also means it's possible to use the Privileged Status upgrade with only one attack, as both knockback and lightning strikes come with additional status effects (Rupture and Jolted), providing a 40% damage bonus while both are maintained in addition to the damage they inflict.

* Hera's aspect of Coronacht is incredibly powerful, removing the normal cast (which is usually redundant when using the bow anyway) and instead lets Zag load the cast directly onto his bow and fire it, striking the enemy with both the arrow and the cast at the same time. Combined with casts that are powerful but hard to hit with, like Dionysus' Tipsy Shot or Ares' Slicing Shot (both can be gotten in the first room with the proper keepsake), the aspect of Hera provides an AlphaStrike build that will deal 400+ damage in a single attack.

* Ares and Artemis' Duo Boon, Hunting Blades, has been nerfed several times and yet still remains this. It adds a homing effect and a 100% speed increase to Ares' Slicing Blades, turning an AwesomeButImpractical Cast that does huge damage but is slow and hard to hit with into a homing monstrosity that will easily deal 500 damage on its own. It's incredibly fire-and-forget, allowing Zagreus to focus on avoiding attacks, and since both gods have several Boons that upgrade Cast it has incredible growth potential.

* Aegis' "Power Shot" upgrade turns Aegis into a better version of Coronacht, replacing its Bull Rush with a powerful ranged attack that requires charging. However, unlike Coronacht, Aegis' damage-nullifying guard is kept while the attack charges, which removes the Bow's main drawback. The Power Shot also pierces shields (like Theseus and Greatshields'), and still counts as a Bull Rush for the purpose of other upgrades and Aspects.

* Poseidon's Aspect of Stygius boosts your Cast damage, and its Special (which is identical to the baseline Special attack) automatically dislodges any Casts stuck in your foes. Artemis has a boon called Exit Wounds (you need her Cast or Call to qualify, which is a fairly low bar to clear by picking the Arrowhead as a keepsake), which deals a minimum of 50 damage whenever a Cast dislodges from a foe -- which includes dislodgings from the Aspect of Poseidon. As long as you don't re-pick to a Cast that doesn't lodge in foes (i.e. not Zeus, Ares or Demeter), the Aspect of Poseidon/Exit Wounds combo allows Zagreus to repeatedly Cast at foes and dislodge them again, racking up a lot of damage quickly.
* Chaos' Aspect of Aegis adds an additional thrown shield to your special whenever you bull rush (you will bull rush a lot with Aegis), and can be upgraded to five additional shields. With the right special-boosting Boons (anything that adds flat damage like Zeus, Ares or Dionysus is good, as is Artemis for the critical chance or Athena since every single thrown shield now reflects missiles) or upgrades (especially the one that lets thrown shields hit multiple foes, or the one that deals a 50 damage explosion whenever a thrown shield returns to you) a fully upgraded Chaos Aspect will clear rooms in seconds.
* The Guan Yu aspect of the Eternal Spear halves your health and any health upgrades for the duration of the run, but in exchange gives the spear's spin attack health-restoring properties for each hit. It only heals for one point per hit, but the spin attack will hit several times at least and has decent range. It gets even more broken when combined with hammer upgrades that increase its size and decrease charge time. This was so broken, in fact, that the spin attack got nerfed so it would bounce off walls instead of passing through them, as prior to that you could hide behind the plentiful barriers and attack with impunity.

* The "Reckless Dash" upgrade to the Mirror of Night offers Zagreus a 3-second 50% dodge chance and damage bonus whenever he dodges an attack by dashing. On its own, it's DifficultButAwesome because [[DamnYouMuscleMemory it denies Zagreus his second dash]] (which is almost necessary to get through Asphodel and to dodge certain attacks like the FinalBoss' SpinAttack). There are, however, two ways to break the game with this: One, the Twin Fists of Malphos can be upgraded with a flat 15% dodge bonus using Titan Blood, and the Lambent Plume can add 1-1.2% dodge chance every time you SpeedRun a room (fairly easy in Tartarus and Asphodel, and still doable in Elysium with a good Upgrade), which can see Zagreus hit a ~90% dodge chance for three seconds by the endgame with a well-timed dash (or higher with a Hermes 'Greater Reflex' boon). Second, Hermes has a Boon that straight-up adds Dashes. Normally, having more than two dashes is overkill. With Reckless Dash, however (which can trigger on each of the multiple dashes) you have just eliminated the only drawback and can use a DashAttack style with Stygius, the Twin Fists or Varatha to straight-up be invincible most of the time.

* Most of the highest-tier/Legendary boons [[PurposefullyOverpowered are designed to be this]], being very rare and difficult to get but somewhat annihilating the game's difficulty--assuming you can get them before the final boss, that is. Several Duo boons also apply, but are similarly difficult to find.

!!Weapons and Weapon Upgrades

* Poseidon's Aspect of Stygius boosts your Cast damage, and its Special (which is identical to the baseline Special attack) automatically dislodges any Casts stuck in your foes. Artemis has a second-tier boon (meaning you need one other boon from her to get it, which is a fairly low bar to clear by picking the Arrowhead as a keepsake) called Exit Wounds, which deals a minimum of 50 damage whenever a Cast dislodges from a foe -- which includes dislodgings from the Aspect of Poseidon. As long as you don't pick a Cast that doesn't lodge in foes (i.e. not Zeus, Ares or Demeter), the Aspect of Poseidon/Exit Wounds combo allows Zagreus to repeatedly Cast at foes and dislodge them again, racking up a lot of damage quickly.

* The "Reckless Dash" upgrade to the Mirror of Night offers Zagreus a 3-second 50% dodge chance and damage bonus whenever he dodges an attack by dashing. On its own, it's DifficultButAwesome because [[DamnYouMuscleMemory it denies Zagreus his second dash]] (which is almost necessary to get through Asphodel and to dodge certain attacks like the FinalBoss' SpinAttack). There are, however, two ways to break the game with this: One, the Twin Fists of Malphos can be upgraded with a flat 15% dodge bonus using Titan Blood, and the Lambent Plume can add 1-1.2% dodge chance every time you SpeedRun a room (fairly easy in Tartarus and Asphodel, and still doable in Elysium with a good Upgrade), which can see Zagreus hit a ~90% dodge chance for three seconds by the endgame with a well-timed dash (or higher with a Hermes 'Greater Reflex' boon). Second, Hermes has a Boon that straight-up adds Dashes. Normally, having more than two dashes is overkill. With Reckless Dash, however (which can trigger on each of the multiple dashes) you have just eliminated the only drawback and can use a DashAttack style to straight-up be invincible most of the time.