Tropes Media Browse Popular Indexes Forums Videos Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Tools
Cut List Image Fixer New Edits New Articles Edit Reasons Launches Images List Crowner Activity Un-typed Pages Recent Page Type Changes Changelog
Tips
Creating New Redirects Cross Wicking Tips for Editing Text Formatting Rules Glossary Edit Reasons Handling Spoilers Word Cruft Administrivia FAQ
Tropes HQ
About Us Contact Us DMCA Notice Privacy Policy Report Bug
Go Ad-Free Changelog
  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Highlight Links

Follow TV Tropes

Following
Video Games »

Hades

Go To

Hades (Video Game)
See you in Hell.

"Family? Death is your only family. Death, and I. Best get accustomed to the both of us."
— Hades himself

Hades is a game based on Classical Mythology. Developed by Supergiant Games, the game follows Zagreus, Prince of The Underworld and son of Hades himself. When a revelation about his heritage proves to be the last straw in his strained relationship with his father, Zagreus resolves to Escape From Hell or die trying. As the game is a Roguelike, he'll succeed frequently at the latter; whether he succeeds at the former is up to the player.

As befitting a Player Character of an Action RPG, Zagreus has only a few abilities available to him:

  • He can Attack or use a Special ability with one of his Infernal Arms, which he selects from the armory every time he leaves the House of Hades to attempt escape. He can also equip a "Keepsake" which tweaks how he functions in battle; he gets these by giving consumable items to NPCs, some of whom are found in the House and others are out in the Underworld.
  • He has a "Cast" ability to throw a bloodstone, which does a fair bit of damage. He has only one (though he can get more), and he has to go pick it up every time he uses it.
  • He can use Video Game Dashing to get out of trouble. It is his first, and in many cases only, line of defense. It can also be combined with the basic Attack for a "Dash Attack."
  • Zagreus can enhance himself in various ways.
    • As he progresses through any given escape attempt, he will encounter Athena, Goddess of Wisdom, who has summoned her fellow Olympians to aid Zagreus. They give (a choice of three randomly-selected) Perks to any of the five basic abilities (Attack, Special, Cast, Dash, Dash Attack) or other tweaks to Zagreus himself. Though not a god, the artificer Daedalus can also provide Hammers which likewise add a non-permanent modification to the currently-selected Infernal Arm, with each weapon having its own list. Finally, he can find Heart Containers and money to spend in shops. All of these are lost at the end of any given run.
    • Zagreus can play the Macrogame. Various currencies allow him to: cache the game's Randomly Generated Levels with useful power-ups, more effective healing fountains, and so on; power up his own skills; unlock new Infernal Arms; strengthen the Infernal Arms; and more. He can also level up the Keepsakes purely by using them. These are persistent between runs.

The development of Hades began less than a month after the release of Supergiant's previous title, Pyre. The game received a surprise Early Access release (a first for the company) after being revealed at the Game Awards on December 6, 2018 and was released as an exclusive title of the Epic Games Store for a year on December 10th 2018, with a Steam Early Access release coming the following year. It left early access for a full release on September 17, 2020 on PC (again via Epic Games and Steam), Mac, and Nintendo Switch, with ports for the PS4, PS5, and Xbox One eventually released. In January 2024, Zagreus was added to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as a spirit.

Not to be confused with the Roguelike Hades Vanquish from Doujin Soft developer Fox Eye, though that game also has Escaped from Hell as its main premise, nor the obscure Korean First-Person Shooter Hades from 1995 by Ablex.

A sequel, Hades II, was announced at the Game Awards 2022. It follows the story of Zagreus's sister, Melinoë, some time after the events of the original game. Tutored in witchcraft by Hecate, she sets out to slay Chronos, the Titan of Time, who has escaped his underworld prison, imprisoned Hades, and declared war on Olympus. Its Early-Access release began in May 2024.

In the name of Hades, I accept these tropes:

    open/close all folders 
    Tropes #-C 
  • 1-Up: Death Defiance, which gives Zagreus the ability to ignore a mortal wound and recover 50% of his health when he would otherwise die. You can unlock up to three of them in the Mirror, or alternatively a single one that regenerates between rooms, but only restores 30% of his health. Certain boons and items can restore spent uses or grant additional ones.
  • Achievement System: The Fates' prophecies can be bought at the contractor and put in Zagreus' room. It poses various challenges to the player that, once completed, can be turned in for rewards like Gems, Diamonds, Titan blood, and so forth. Prophecies include getting all the available boons from a god, all possible upgrades for a weapon, and so forth. The game's actual achievements, however, differ a bit and don't always overlay with the prophecies; for example, there are prophecies for getting to the surface while using the weapons' hidden aspects, but the achievements for the game only include defeating the final boss with any of the hidden aspects once.
  • Action Bomb: The Flame Wheels encountered in Elysium are small chariots that chase after you and explode if they get close enough. They can be detonated prematurely by damaging them enough, or by tricking them into running into a wall. The blast can still hurt you if you're in its radius, however.
  • Action Girl: The Furies, who serve as the first boss fight. They can and will kick your ass further back down the Underworld, since it's their job as tormentors of the worst kinds of souls. You fight one of them normally, or up to all three on Extreme Measures.
  • Action Prologue: The game starts with Zagreus's first escape attempt, waiting for the player to inevitably get themselves killed before providing the context and introducing the characters at the House of Hades.
  • Adaptation Personality Change: A notoriously violent misanthrope in the myths, Poseidon instead acts as Zagreus’ bumbling Cool Uncle.
  • Afterlife Antechamber: Erebus's primary function, though Hades has repurposed some of it for challenge battles to throw at Zagreus.
  • Afterlife Express: Charon's boat. Zagreus tries to bribe him with a thousand obols to skip all the painful dying and just sail up to the surface. No dice.
  • The Alcatraz: As the tagline goes, There is no escape from the Underworld. Not even for Hades himself.
  • All Just a Dream: Played for humor in one of the post-game death messages which claims that the preceding run was just a dream, or more accurately, a deadly nightmare.
  • All Myths Are True: While the lore focuses on Greek mythology, at least one equippable aspect of each weapon confirms the existence of people from other religions and myths from time periods set before or after the story's era. This is also discussed by some characters; even if the Greek pantheon doesn't know who these foreign people are, their feats are still acknowledged:
    • Stygius, Stygian Blade: Aspect of Arthur.
      Peace and destruction await a kingdom by the rule of might.
    • Coronacht, Heart-Seeking Bow: Aspect of Rama.
      The preserver's marksmanship is one of his many unequaled qualities.
    • Aegis, Shield of Chaos: Aspect of Beowulf.
      Would that the stalwart warrior-king's sword offered similar protection.
    • Varatha, Eternal Spear: Aspect of Guan Yu.
      A mighty general shall battle with unmatched ferocity to unite his people.
    • Exagryph, Adamant Rail: Aspect of Lucifer.
      As he fell from grace, he nonetheless fought back in all his defiant fury.
    • Malphon, Twin Fists: Aspect of Gilgamesh.
      The god-king inherited the furry-man's savage strength and stout heart.
  • Amazing Technicolor Population:
    • All three Fury sisters have light blue skin, so does their foster-brother Hypnos (though oddly enough, Thanatos, their other brother, does not).
    • The unnamed Shades in Elysium have dark skin and glowing blue-white hair.
  • Ambiguously Sentient Object: Bouldy mostly seems like he’s just Sisyphus’s Companion Cube… except that he can grant you small boons in exchange for nectar…
  • Amicable Exes:
    • It takes a while to get there, but Zagreus and Megaera eventually reconcile… if they don't just make up for lost time.
    • Additionally, despite Zagreus's initial impressions, Hades and Persephone parted on good — if tragic — terms and bear no ill will towards each other. Even Persephone's apparent unpersoning was done at least partly by her own request.
  • Anachronism Stew:
    • The +25 health pickup is a very Greek but also modern gyro. Sure, meat etc. wrapped in bread is rather timeless, but the addition to the large +50 health pickup, a paper cup of french fries, is less so.
    • The Administrative Chamber has a very modern-looking water cooler in it, though it's filled with the River Styx's blood-red water.
    • Several of the Tartarus encounter chambers are decorated with small stained-glass windows, to complement the graves-and-mausoleums aesthetic. While colorful glass was known to even the ancient Egyptians, the earliest records of stained glass windows date back to the 7th or 8th century.
    • The Employee of the Month board in the House of Hades is a modern-looking corkboard with stickers all over it. After Persephone returns to the Underworld, the board gets plastered with more stickers and a toy Shade on top.
    • If you beat the Superboss, they will give you a plastic loyalty card.
    • The last weapon you can unlock, the Adamant Rail, is what amounts to an assault rifle with a grenade launcher. In this case, the weapon was actually invented by the gods, but after it was used against the Titans, they were so horrified by what it could do that they refused to use it again and have made sure humanity hasn't found out about it. However, Achilles speculates that one day, the Adamant Rail will make its way into the realm of mortals.
  • And the Adventure Continues: Almost exaggerated.
    • First, Zagreus — finally — succeeds at defeating Hades and making it into Greece, where he finds a little garden where Persephone has been living. He learns that she didn't abandon him on purpose — he died shortly after birth, and it took Nyx quite a long time to bring him Back from the Dead — and the two begin to reconcile; but Zagreus also learns that he can't stay on the surface for long due to his heritage. He is going to have to defeat Hades ten more times before he can get the whole story from both him and Persephone.
    • On the tenth attempt, Hades lets him through without a fight. Zagreus has learned that Persephone entered a Citizenship Marriage, wanting to get away from Olympus, particularly her loutish uncle Zeus and My Beloved Smother Demeter; though it turned out to be a Perfectly Arranged Marriage, she still wasn't totally happy in the Underworld. Hades did a I Want My Beloved to Be Happy and let her set up that little cottage in Greece — for all intents and purposes a Purgatory and Limbo where she could hide from Olympus. It was kind, but Zagreus realizes that they embody the Central Theme of the game: running away from your problems never solves anything. He convinces the two to reconcile, and Hades commissions Zagreus to test Underworld security by continuing his breakout attempts. (Their pre-battle dialogue from this point on is much more civil.) The credits roll.
    • Finally, Zagreus has to make peace between the Olympians and the Underworld, as Zeus et al will be wroth if they learn what truly happened. The Golden Ending involves giving the Gods enough Nectar that they will consent to come down for a feast, during which Hades and Persephone claim they eloped, and also claim that she is bound to the Underworld for six months of the year due to eating pomegranate seeds. The Olympians accept this at face value, though it's implied they are simply happy to have the matter resolved. Demeter lifts the Eternal Winter, and Zagreus gets to keep doing his QA testing of Underworld security, allowing players to keep playing.
    • Regarding the secret Aspects of the Infernal Arms who will be wielded by future legendary figures, it's implied that Zagreus bringing them to the surface fulfils their upcoming roles as he tells them to take care of their future masters.
  • And Your Reward Is Interior Decorating: Finishing the main story quest rewards you with a family painting of Hades, Persephone, Zagreus and Cerberus which is displayed in Hades's chambers. Afterwards, getting the Olympians together for a feast in the Underworld so that Persephone can patch things up with them rewards you with a scale model of Olympus, which is displayed in Persephone's garden.
  • Animalistic Abomination:
    • Most of the sealife you can fish from the Underworld count, but especially the Scyllascion (Which is related to Scylla and looks like a black, long, serpentine sea-dragon), the Flameater (Which Achilles' Codex theorises could be related to Ladon and is just a mouth with tendrils growing from its back that feeds on fire) and the Voidstake (Which looks like a giant Sinister Stingray that swims on the Primordial Chaos itself.)
    • The Lernean Hydra returns as the Final Boss of the Asphodel region, now reduced to a skeleton. It sprungs from under the lava in various shapes and aspects and can spit Waves or Hydra Teeth.
  • Antagonist Title: While Hades's antagonism mainly amounts to varying levels of verbal and emotional abuse, the forces of the underworld are still under his control, and he's doing his level best to stop Zagreus escaping. This trope becomes more prominent when Hades decides to take matters into his own hands and faces Zagreus as the Final Boss.
  • Antepiece:
    • The elements of the boss fight in Elysium are taught over the course of the regular fights in the preceding rooms; Strongbows let you practice dealing with crosshairs appearing on Zagreus, Greatshields let you practice hurting enemies who are invulnerable from the front, and Flame Wheels let you practice making enemies crash into walls.
    • The Snakestones in the Temple of Styx teach you that the best way to evade a multi-directional laser attack is to Take Cover! — a valuable lesson when dealing with the Final Boss' version of the same attack, which has better tracking and considerably higher damage output.
  • Anti-Armor: Several of Daedalus' Hammer upgrades grants Zagreus' armory additional bonus damage to the yellow health bar of Elite Mooks and Mini Bosses. This doesn't work against the main bosses, who are just really tough.
  • Anti-Frustration Features:
    • If you switch one of your boons for another of the same type (basic attack, special, dash, cast, Call) after having already leveled it up, the replacement boon will be of the same level and have a rarity one rank higher.
    • While the location of Daedalus Hammers is random, you're always guaranteed two (no more, no less) in every run. If you avoid a room that would have had one or can't afford one in a shop, another will show up later. The only way to not get two is to intentionally miss them multiple times. If you're still displeased by the options given by one or both of the hammers, the final shop has a Daedalus Anvil that switches out one random hammer upgrade for two other random ones for 275 Obols.
    • If you try to dash across a pit or through a platform that you just barely wouldn't clear, the game spots you that little bit of extra distance to make the dash possible.
    • After the game came out of Early Access in September 2020, the game received achievements/trophies, like ones for clearing certain parts of the map. If a player already cleared those areas of the map in Early Access, they get the achievements immediately.
    • Should you find the game too hard, you can turn on "God Mode" in the options menu. This causes all damage Zagreus takes to be reduced, with the damage reduction increasing every time you die, up to a cap of eighty percent. Even if you disable the mode and re-enable it, the accumulated damage reduction won't be reset for that save file.
    • Low-end resources can be traded for more valuable ones, meaning if a player runs out of skills to unlock or useful house upgrades to purchase, they can trade keys and gems for additional Nectar or Titan Blood. Rooms that grant these resources can also be upgraded to provide gameplay benefits (e.g. Nectar rooms will also upgrade a random boon by one level) so they retain usefulness once the resource becomes less valuable.
    • Players can re-spec their mirror skills at any time at the cost of a single key, making it much easier to experiment or complete prophecies that require specific skills.
    • The Tight Deadline condition of the Pact of Punishment puts a time limit on you to clear a section of the Underworld. However, this timer will pause under certain conditions so as to not put undue pressure on you. These include fighting against Thanatos (since how long the fight will take is somewhat out of your control), while you're fishing, while you're selecting a Boon/item from a list of available upgrades, and after beating the region's boss until you climb the stairwell to the next area.
    • You can buy an upgrade for the codex that adds lists of each god's boons as well as requirements to get the Duo and Legendary boons, making getting the best options much less of a guessing game.
    • Voidstones unleash a wave that makes any enemy who gets touched by it invulnerable until the Voidstone is defeated. However, a Voidstone can't affect itself, nor can it affect any other Voidstone, in order to prevent the encounter from being Unintentionally Unwinnable.
    • The last area before the final boss, the Temple of Styx, consists of a series of small encounters, making it easy to evolve any Chaos boons you may have so they won't impede you later on. The upgrade effect of Demeter's Rare Crop boon and Persephone's Pom Blossom keepsake also trigger within these rooms, allowing it to remain useful for that region.
    • Once you complete the game's story, you no longer take the trip up to the surface after beating the final boss, with Zagreus instead suffering a Diabolus ex Machina that kills him anyway. This effectively changes the final room of each run and the fishing spot moves here instead so you can still fish.
    • Damage inflicted by a Cast from Hit Points curse of Chaos won't prevent you from earning the reward of an Erebus Gate or the buff provided by the Pierced Butterfly keepsake as long as you don't take damage from other sources.
    • Boons whose effects don't offer an immediate damage increase from the effect (i.e. Poseidon or Aphrodite) will give you a percentage-based damage increase to make them useful against enemies immune to their effects. Most of these boons will also unlock other boons that amplify damage (i.e. Aphrodite giving increased damage to opponents afflicted by Weak, or Poseidon's knockbacks applying the Rupture Damage Over Time effect). Boons that don't provide a lot of utility against bosses are also balanced to make clearing other chambers much easier so Zagreus won't lose as much health before he faces the boss.
    • The game explicitly avoids the Kaizo Trap trope, as any projectiles or attacks that remain after the final enemy in an encounter is defeated will not deal any damage. Spikes and pressure plates will also deactivate, and in the Temple of Styx, any poison effect lingering on Zagreus will be dispelled after a room is cleared. Unfortunately, though, the lava in Asphodel can still damage and kill Zagreus if he walks into it, regardless of when this happens.
    • Enemies that are too far out of bounds for Zagreus to kill will automatically die after some time.
    • When you open the Codex while standing next to a god's boon or an NPC, it will automatically open up the corresponding entry, sparing you the need to scroll to their page.
    • Some achievements/quests in the Fated List of Minor Prophecies task you to discover all boons from each deity, or all Daedalus enhancements for each weapon. If in case you haven't tried a certain boon or Daedalus enhancement yet, it will have a "Fated Choice" description hinting that picking it up will help you progress through the related prophecy.
    • The doors to the next room will not unlock until you have collected your room reward, to prevent you from accidentally leaving them behind. Just bear in mind you can still miss fishing spots (though there is a distinctive "Ding!" sound after all enemies are defeated, indicating that one is nearby if you missed seeing it beforehand), money urns or Charon's shop/purging pools.
    • If you're looking to complete a Fate's Prophecy which requires you to pick Boons or Daedalus Upgrades you haven't chosen before, they'll be marked as such so you'll know what to pick.
  • Anti-Wastage Features: Food, which heals 30% of Hit Points, can be attempted to be bought, meaning immediately used, even when at full health, but it just shakes and Zagreus says "Don't need that right now".
  • Arc Words:
    • "There is no escape". You will see this message every time Zagreus dies, and several characters (in particular Hades) use it as well, including if you beat him. The Arc Words are so ingrained into the game's narrative that the song playing on the title screen is even called No Escape. If Zagreus manages to make it to the surface but dies anyway, the line becomes "Is there no escape?"
    • Achilles', and possibly the entire Myrmidons' motto: "Fear is for the weak." They're even referenced in the post-game by Hades himself.
  • Armor-Piercing Attack:
    • Elysium has shield-bearing enemies that will block attacks from a certain direction, but attacks that pass through enemies will ignore these shields.
    • Elite enemies have armor, which acts as a second health bar that is more resistant to damage, and is visible as a golden aura. Many boons and Daedalus Hammer upgrades allow Zagreus to do high bonus damage to armor and strip it away faster.
  • Artificial Stupidity:
    • Enemies are usually pretty good at avoiding traps, but they never make any attempt to step out of the way of the arrow-shooters in Elysium.
    • Enemies occasionally get "lost" in large rooms if they spawn far enough from Zagreus, and neither move toward Zagreus nor make ranged attacks until they get unstuck, usually by drawing aggro.
  • Artificial Sun: Ixion of the Lapiths doesn't appear in person, but it's mentioned that the denizens of the underworld use the burning wheel he's bound to as a way to keep time because it acts similarly to a sun.
  • Artistic Age: Even accounting for immortality, a god's chronological age has very little to do with their apparent age, even relative to other gods. Nyx, for example, looks quite younger than many of the gods, yet is the second-oldest entity in the universe.
  • Assist Character: Bonding enough with Megaera, Thanatos, Sisyphus, Skelly, Dusa, and Achilles earns a Cthonic Companion from them. Having a Companion equipped allows Zagreus to summon its owner to aid him in a fight a limited number of times, and each character has a unique way of providing help that usually involves damaging the foes. There are exceptions to which encounters Zagreus can summon one of them to help depending on location and where the player is in the story.
  • Awesome, but Impractical:
    • The Greater Calls require a full God Gauge to use, meaning that they take 4 or 5 times longer to charge up than the regular call. To compensate, their effect is more than this many times as powerful (Poseidon's Aid, for example, lasts 6 times as long). However, in some situations, it's better to use 4 or 5 weaker Calls than one much stronger one. For example, it's rare that you'll need the whole 7.5 seconds of invulnerability that Athena's Greater Call grants you, whereas 1.5 seconds at a time can let you get much more mileage out of it. They're also prone to this against bosses, as they typically become invincible for a few seconds between phases, so players have to be careful of their timing (hopefully unleashing the Greater Call after such invulnerability, for full effect).
    • The Aspect of Guan Yu, the hidden aspect of Zagreus's spear, has a pretty powerful standard attack and a spin attack that essentially shoots out a blade rift for extra damage. It's all very cool, but it also comes with a brutal reduction to your maximum health (70 percent when you initially unlock it), and, like all the hidden aspects, it takes a lot of Titan Blood to upgrade it and make that health reduction a little less damaging. Combined with the slowness of the aspect's standard attack and the warm-up time for the spin attack, it's not easy to actually make this work.
    • Fighting the Optional Boss for the discount card in runs where Convenience Fee is active, especially when they are at higher ranks. Not only you are facing a foe that can shred your Death Defiances like paper, the discount itself is barely worth the trouble as it couldn't even remotely offset the overall price increase.
  • Awkward Father-Son Bonding Activity: Zagreus misinterprets one of Hades's bitter musings about his brothers as an invitation for one right before they engage in their usual awkward father-son bonding activity — trying to murder each other — instead.
    Hades: These waters… teeming with Poseidon's river denizens. That one there before me… it's been taunting me, I think, for quite some time.
    Zagreus: You offering to take me fishing, Father? It'd be a nice change of pace from trying to kill each other over and over.
  • Badass Boast: When Zagreus activates a Greater Call, the portrait of the Olympian flashes on screen and they give a cry characteristic of their domain and personality.
    Demeter: A wasteland devoid of life!
    Demeter: I shall take everything away!
  • Bait-and-Switch: On a newcomer's first few runs, they'll eventually come across a room that is eerily glowing green and then Thanatos appears which implies that you'll be fighting him, only it's shortly revealed that he's here to help you and the following Encounter has you both running a Body-Count Competition.
  • Battle Couple:
    • Zagreus and Thanatos become one if they officially get together. Thanatos will occasionally show up on a level to fight enemies alongside Zagreus, and can be summoned as an Assist Character.
    • Achilles and Patroclus were one of Classical Mythology's most famous pair before their post-mortem separation. They become one again and can be summoned by Achilles's companion keepsake, Antos, should Zagreus reunite them.
  • Because Destiny Says So: Zagreus's approach to the Fated List of Minor Prophecies (i.e. the list of subquests or achievements). It helps that he's basically getting bribed to fulfill them. When choosing boons or Daedalus enhancements, the prophecies will also foretell that Zagreus would pick up a newly-discovered item labeled with a "Fated Choice", though that's more of an Anti-Frustration Feature.
    Not even the Fates are above greasing the wheels of progress, then?
  • Beehive Barrier: Eurydice's acorn gives Zagreus a shield with a beehive pattern whenever he enters a boss arena.
  • BFS: The Aspect of Arthur, the final aspect of the Stygian Blade, is a longsword that has enormous wind-up time and a slow attack pattern, but it deals huge damage and has a range comparable to the Spear. The Aspect's Special leaves a zone that slows enemies and projectiles, and reduces incoming damage, both effects being linchpins to using it without leaving yourself open during wind-up.
  • Big Entrance: For all his stoicism, Thanatos has quite a flair for the dramatic. His presence will always be heralded by a flash of green light, the sound of bells, and a cool catchphrase about death.
  • Big Damn Reunion:
    • The hero Zagreus is motivated by the desire to find his mother Persephone. When he meets her for the first time, she is initially guarded but is overjoyed once she realizes it's him.
    • You can engineer posthumous reunions for Orpheus and Eurydice, as well as Achilles and Patroclus, couples who were tragically separated in life and in the Underworldnote . Though these reunions happen offscreen, the first time you happen upon Eurydice and Patroclus afterwards, their respective lovers will be present with them (and will occasionally show up in future encounters), obviously grateful and happy that they've been reunited.
  • Big, Screwed-Up Family: As expected from a game based around the Greek pantheon, one of the oldest examples of the trope. Much of the game's tongue-in-cheek humour comes from the fact that — barring the supernatural powers and dominion over realms of existence — the gods act much like you'd expect a dysfunctional family to.
    • Hades kept his son's very existence hidden from the rest of his family and isolated himself and the other Chthonic gods from them. He often speaks ill and thinks lesser of the Olympians, considering them to hate him and the others in the underworld. The Olympians themselves act friendly towards Zagreus, but still have problems with Hades. Various dialogue with both Zagreus and each of the Olympians indicate that things tend to get dysfunctional between them as well.
    • Meg says that the Fury Sisters don't actually interact much with each other, since they're each doing their own thing and have given up on trying to find understanding and common ground between themselves. When Zagreus points this out, she calls him out on the fact that his family is possibly the most messed up ever, including the fact that his father and uncles chopped up their grandparents and threw them into the underworld.
  • Bilingual Bonus: The Chthonic Companion that Achilles and Patroclus give to Zagreus when their bond levels are maxed out is Antos, a stuffed ant. This is a reference to the Myrmidons, the soldiers Achilles commanded in The Iliad; the Myrmidons' name is derived from murmekes, the Greek word for "ant".
  • Bittersweet Ending: The initial ending after escaping for the first time. Zagreus finally reunites with Persephone, but because he is bound to the Underworld, he can only be in the mortal world for a short time before dying, meaning that to keep seeing her, he has to keep fighting and escaping. This becomes subverted once you reach Persephone enough times.
  • Blocking Stops All Damage:
    • While charging up a Bull Rush with the shield, you can defend against any attack facing you.
    • The Greatshields from Elysium have their eponymous shields, that block all attacks from their fronts.
  • Blood Knight: The shades of the Elysian Fields (except Patroclus and Theseus) oppose Zagreus because they want a glorious battle, and not because they're forced to like the shades of Tartarus and the Asphodel Plains.
  • Body-Count Competition: Whenever Thanatos shows up in a chamber, he challenges Zagreus to kill more of the incoming enemies than he can and will attack with two different 9999 damage attacks on a timed delay. Beating or tieing him rewards you with a Centaur Heart.
  • Booby Trap: A variety of traps hinder Zagreus's ascent to the overworld. Some, like the pink arrows in Elysium and the spinning blades in Styx, fire automatically, but others, like the spike traps in Tartarus, the spear-wielding set decorations in Elysium, and the guillotine-like blades that drop from the ceiling in Styx, require Zagreus to step on or near them to trigger.
  • Boring, but Practical:
    • The Old Spiked Collar, Cerberus' keepsake. It boosts Zagreus' Hit Points, but given how universally useful hit points are, and the keepsake's complete absence of a luck-based mechanic, it's always universally useful. If one of the more Magikarp Power-based keepsakes doesn't work out due to bad luck or ceases to be relevant on the final floor, switching to the Collar is almost never a bad idea.
    • The Lucky Tooth, Skelly's keepsake, gives Zagreus an additional (but weaker) use of Death Defiance. Like the Collar, it's almost universally useful since it also gives another layer of survivability.
    • The Shattered Shackle, Sisyphus' keepsake, gives Zagreus damage 50/75/100% to his Attack, Special, and Cast if they're unaugmented by a boon. Not as flashy as guaranteeing your first few god boons or the Magikarp Power keepsakes, but an immediate, zero-investment doubling of all sources is quite good when starting a new run note  and reduces the chances of the RNG screwing your build regardless of heat. Once you've finished the first boss and you've attained enough boons to neutralize this keepsake, you can switch to your other keepsakes depending on what you've earned.
    • The various default weapon aspects of Zagreus. Even if they cost much less to fully upgrade than the others (they only cost 1 Blood per level, up to a maximum of 5, while other aspects add up to 15 or 16), they still give decent benefits in areas that are always relevant, like dodge chance or attack power. Maxing them out first makes getting the Titan Blood you need for the other aspects much easier.
    • Athena's boons, particularly her dash boon. They aren't flashy at all; they don't summon lightning bolts or poison enemies or do heavy damage. They simply protect you… from everything. The dash boon in particular makes you basically impervious to damage while dodging.
    • Charon's keepsake, the Bone Hourglass, makes items bought from the Well of Charon last longer, and much longer when maxed (+8 encounters) to the point of having extra healing, damage, or casts that can last an entire region instead of just a few rooms.
    • Poseidon's Ocean Bounty simply increases the chamber rewards of Darkness, Gems, and Obols which is a huge boon for farming purposes for the former two while the latter makes it easier to buy more items from Charon. It also stacks with a similar boon from Chaos.
  • Boss Remix:
    • The final boss theme, "God of the Dead", is an intense electric guitar remix of the game's main theme, "No Escape". When Extreme Measures 4 is enabled, a third stage is added to this boss, with another remix titled "Unseen Ones".
    • The Optional Boss fight against Charon adds pounding electronic beats to the shop music.
  • Bottomless Magazines:
    • The Delta Chamber (for the basic variants) or Eternal Chamber (for Igneus Eden, the Aspect of Lucifer) Daedelus Hammer upgrades for Exagryph allow you to keep on firing at the cost of either being a three-burst-only gun for the former, or forgoing damage ramp-up for the latter.
    • Coronacht, the bow, has a "Bottomless Quiver" variation. Zagreus never runs out of arrows even if he's rapidly shooting at enemies en masse.
  • Bowdlerise: The game focuses on Greek mythology, where incest between the gods was pretty par for the course. However, that doesn't necessarily mean modern audiences want to see that play out, so the game tries to downplay any incestuous relations as much as possible.
    • While Zagreus isn't actually the sibling of Megaera or Thanatos, he was still raised as such since Nyx pretended to be his mother. Steps have been taken to minimize how familial his relationship with his love interests was; one line from Hades implies that Zagreus only first met Megaera in the same instance he tried to throw them into a relationship; another one was changed to axe a mention of Hypnos and Thanatos being his siblings and instead refers to them as Nyx's sons, without referring to her as his mother. If Thanatos is romanced, he'll also mention that he discovered his feelings for Zagreus when realizing he never viewed Zagreus the same way he views Hypnos (who's his twin brother).
    • Later patches added a conversation between Zagreus and Nyx that states that Megaera (and by extension her sisters) were adopted by Nyx and not her children by blood.
    • Demeter is made the cousin of Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus instead of being their sister. Though in some dialogue, Demeter does mention Zeus spreading false stories of her being his sister, which she theorizes as an act driven out of his dislike for one of her parents, Hyperion. Also, Persephone isn't Zeus' daughter, which means Hades didn't marry his niece.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall:
    • Zagreus constantly snarks that he can hear the Narrator's voice while the latter's doing his shtick. It's Played for Laughs, even when he accidentally spills the beans that Persephone is Zagreus' real mother in a flashback sequence, and not Nyx as Zagreus was led to believe.
    • Zagreus can also hear the music that plays as the game credits roll. During the animation that plays beneath the credit scroll, he'll ask if that isn't Orpheus singing. If players talk to Orpheus in the post-credits gameplay, Zagreus will compliment the court musician on the song that played during the credits.
  • Brick Joke:
    • One of the opening dialogues against the final boss has Zagreus mocking Hades for constantly burning off his cape when the fight begins, claiming he must have a storage chamber full of the things. If this dialogue is seen before being given access to Hades' chamber, once Zagreus is given access to it, he can inspect a closet and will discover that Hades really does have a storage chamber full of capes.
    Zagreus: I knew it. It's just capes!
    • Zagreus will constantly ask Charon why he can't just take him to the surface himself on his ferry. As it turns out, Persephone managed to get a ride back to the Underworld on his boat, and she asks Zagreus to come with. He finally gets to ride Charon's boat, just the opposite way he intended and just after he had completed his journey.
    • When talking to Chaos, they might suggest for a laugh to bring their Cosmic Egg and kill the Final Boss while holding it, despite it having no use since Chaos Gates do not spawn in the final area (this also become a Prophecy). If you do so, you can hear Chaos laughing when the results screen rolls up.
  • Broad Strokes: Fittingly enough for a game based on Greek Classical Mythology. The game is a loose retelling of the story of Hades and Persephone, taking place during the time period where Demeter locked the Earth into endless winter over Persephone's disappearance. The differences from the actual story are Hand Waved through a variety of methods.
  • Brutal Bonus Level: Erebus is a domain restricted to players who have completed most of the game. The area is accessed through Erebus gates, unlocked through a costly Work Order, and even then you can't even enter them unless you're on 5 Heat at minimum. When you do, you're promised its rewards if you manage to defeat the enemies without taking a hit from them, otherwise you get an onion, which only restores one hit point. The only other way into Erebus is by provoking Charon into a fight by stealing his coin bag, and Charon is not to be trifled with.
  • Bullfight Boss: Asterius, the Bull of Minos, has elements of this. He attacks you relentlessly straight at you, and the best course of action is to simply dodge him. Especially when he's literally charging at you, because a wall or a column or a conveniently nearby king of Athens will grind him to a halt.
  • Butterfly of Death and Rebirth:
    • The Soulcatchers of Elysium release waves of butterflies that deal Scratch Damage individually, but can rapidly erode Zagreus's health if several of them connect.
    • Butterflies are also the Animal Motif of Thanatos, the God of Death. The keepsake that he gives you, the Pierced Butterfly, is also a butterfly-shaped trinket.
    • Tisiphones's death animation has her turn into a swarm of butterflies. Since you can encounter her multiple times, she never dies once and for all.
  • Cast Herd: The Codex groups the characters in this manner:
    • Chthonic Gods are those who reside in the Underworld. Most of them can be interacted with in the House of Hades.
    • Olympian Gods are those who reside in Mount Olympus. They assist Zagreus in his escape attempts, hoping that he could visit them personally.
    • The "Others of Note" section lists the non-deities, demigods, or monsters that Zagreus can encounter in his escape attempts.
    • The "Fables" section groups the Companions and their lore.
  • Casual Danger Dialogue: Crossing over with Friendly Enemy and Punch-Clock Villain. Once you've cleared the game enough times and repaired the relationships between Hades and others, including Zag and Persephone, Zagreus will sometimes have what would sound like a calm, civil discussion about what he's recently been up to with the Final Boss while they're both trying their best to murder each other.
  • Celestial Bureaucracy: The game mainly takes place in the Greek underworld, and many of the Chthonic gods have roles that contribute to running the afterlife and managing the souls of the dead. Running the afterlife apparently entails a huge load of paperwork, and the challenge conditions of the Pact of Punishment are additional applications of red tape such as deadlines, convenience fees, benefits packages for enemies, and so forth. The administrative office is staffed with pencil pushers and comes equipped with a Fauxtivational Poster and a water cooler filled with the waters of the River Styx.
  • Central Theme:
    • Much of the main story and side quests revolve around reconciliation. For instance, if the player should choose to bridge the divide, Eurydice can forgive Orpheus for dooming her at the last minute by turning around before leaving the Underworld.
    • A secondary theme (and which is pretty appropriate for a game based around Greco-Roman mythology) is that of cycles, the inevitability of fate, and the desire to establish one's own path. Most prominently, the game's Level Grinding is based around Zagreus' desire to escape the Underworld and establish himself as his own person independent of his father, and it's often questioned how much of his story is actually of his own doing or has been already decided for him by the Fates.
    • Family ties are also a theme that is explored; particularly how family is imperfect at best, and abusive at worst. For example, despite being abused by his father for years, Zagreus learns to forgive Hades, while Hades in turn makes an effort to repair his relationship with his son by being less hash and more emotionally open with him, and the two slowly but surely form a better bond.
    • Running away. Most major characters are running from something, and the central gameplay loop involves the main character running away from home repeatedly. The game also ultimately covers the futility of running away repeatedly instead of trying to confront one's problems, as facing said problems head-on is how anything in the story gets fixed.
  • Challenge Run: The Pact of Punishment, unlocked after successfully escaping from the underworld for the first time, lets you add extra modifiers to your run in exchange for more rare boss materials, among other things.
  • Choose a Handicap: Normally, the gods will give Zagreus different boons to choose from, but should he end up in Chaos' realm, he'll have to choose one of their curses to hamper him for the next 3-5 rooms. That said, if you manage to survive the handicap, it'll turn into a boon and the negative effect disappears.
  • Chromatic Arrangement:
    • The three Fury sisters and their color schemes: Megaera (blue), Alecto (red), and Tisiphone (green).
    • Three out of the four biomes of the Underworld are arranged this way. Tartarus is green, Asphodel is red/orange, and Elysium is blue.
  • The Coats Are Off: The final boss shows up for pre-battle banter in a stylish cloak before throwing it off and burning it to cinders. Zagreus comments that he must have a big stash of spares. And indeed he does, as Zagreus finds out when he enters his father's private chambers. His whole closet is full of nothing but capes.
  • Color-Coded Item Tiers: Boons are colored according to rarity:
    • Most of the boons will either be Common (white), Rare (blue), or Epic (purple).
    • Forcing an Epic boon into a higher tier will result in a Heroic boon (red).
    • Accepting a boon from a god while having a specific combination of boons from that same god gives a chance for a rare Legendary boon (orange).
    • Having the right boons from certain pairings of gods might make them offer a Duo boon (green).
    • Equipped weapon aspects and keepsakes also follow this color-coding scheme when they are inspected in the Boon List menu.
  • Combat Commentator: If Zagreus wields the shield using the Aspect of Chaos, Chaos will begin speaking to Zagreus through the shield. Occasionally, they will chime in during combat and note their approval if you're doing well.
  • Competitive Balance: The Infernal Arms form the core of Zagreus's playstyle, and appropriately, each one has both strengths and weaknesses.
  • Combination Attack: Duo Boons are boons given by certain gods if you already have one of their boons as well as one from another specific god. They usually combine the gods' unique elements (like combining Aphrodite's Weakness with Dionysus' Poison), but some have more esoteric effects based on the gods' personalities or historical relationships.
  • Comeback Mechanic: Several of the boons, such as After Party, which fills health back up to a certain minimum percentage after each encounter, Positive Outlook, which reduces damage taken when your health is low, and Boiling Point, which charges your God Gauge more than usual upon taking damage.
  • Company Cross-References: The Celestial Orb from Pyre can be found on the shelf near the entrance to Zagreus' room.
  • The Computer Is a Lying Bastard: Unlike all the other rooms, and unlike the game indicates, Quitting in the first Chamber, on the first run, only technically allows restarting there, having to re-delete, or restart the file entirely, and go through the opening cutscene to return to exactly where the Quit occurred.
  • Confess to a Lesser Crime: This is how the Underworld chooses to resolve the matter of Persephone's disappearance; Persephone explains her disappearance away as a voluntary elopement that both she and Hades were afraid to reveal, and leaves out all the messy details that would actually enrage the Olympians. While the Olympians are pretty sure they're not getting the full story, they're also satisfied enough with the end result that they don't care to probe any further.
  • Consolation Prize: If you clear a room in Erebus without taking damage, you get an extra-powerful version of an item (like a Centaur Heart that increases max HP by 50 points instead of 25). But if you take damage during the trial, you get a red onion instead, which just restores one hit point.
  • Convection, Schmonvection: Zagreus suffers no ill-effects from being in Asphodel — aside from everything being out for his blood — despite the entire place being a Lethal Lava Land. He'll only take damage if he actually touches the lava (and even then, only if he remains in contact for about a full second or so). Zagreus will even point out that he's flame-resistant, not flame-proof. Justified in that he's a demigod native to the Underworld.
  • Cosmetic Award:
    • Zagreus can speak to the Resource Director shade during the epilogue of the story to buy new titles for himself for a large amount of resources. Doing so places a fancy medal next to the health bar and gives Zagreus a fancy new title. But these provide no benefit to gameplay, no matter how far down the list he goes.
    • Beating the game with the Pact of Punishment Heat Levels at ranks 8, 16, and 32 will net you statues of Skelly for the courtyard. You complete a prophecy which rewards five Diamonds for unveiling the first statue, but the second and third give nothing at all.
  • "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Much of the conflict between Zagreus and Hades that triggers the immediate plot could've been avoided if the latter had simply been honest and upfront with his son about his birth mother.
  • Could Say It, But...: After progressing down certain relationships involving contracts with the House of Hades, Zagreus has no idea how to navigate the Records Room, so he asks Nyx 'hypothetically' how he could break/alter someone's contract. She reminds him that doing so is a horrible idea and to make sure he doesn't do it, tells him exactly where the contract in question is so he doesn't go anywhere near it.
  • The Cover Changes the Meaning: "Good Riddance" is first heard sung by Eurydice, where it is a bittersweet, yet optimistic song about her decision to move on from her relationship with Orpheus and learning to being her own person again. The song is then later heard sung by Orpheus, where it — despite having the same musical accompaniment — comes across as a much more melancholic and yearning song about how he is unable to let go of Eurydice and how he feels lost without her.
  • Critical Status Buff:
    • The Skull Earring, Megaera's keepsake, drastically buffs Zagreus' damage when on low health. Combined with the right Boons from Dionysus, it can make for the linchpin of a high risk, high reward-based playstyle.
    • Stubborn Roots, the Duo Boon of Athena and Demeter, gives you life regeneration if you have no Death/Stubborn Defiances remaining.
  • Crosshair Aware:
    • The enemies' delayed Area of Effect explosions and spells are highlighted as circles on the ground before they are set off.
    • Ranged enemies like Theseus and the Strongbows will periodically aim their attacks first, which are indicated by a pink crosshair on Zagreus.
  • Crowd Chant: If you triumph over Theseus and Asterius in the Elysium Arena, the crowd will audibly chant "ZA-GRE-US! ZA-GRE-US!" whilst cheering.
  • Culture Chop Suey: Combined with All Myths Are True and Anachronism Stew. The majority of the weapon aspects you unlock are based on Greek gods, but the final aspect of each weapon is not. They are aspects from famous figures of other cultures from different parts of the world and even from different time periods. The spear, for instance, comes from the famous Chinese warrior Guan Yu, while the sword aspect comes from Arthurian Legend.

    Tropes D-F 
  • Damage Over Time:
    • Zagreus can use Dionysus's Hangover and Poseidon's Rupture to whittle away at enemies' health for a certain period of time. Demeter has a Boon that applies Damage Over Time to all enemies if they're all afflicted with Chill. Having a number of these types of Boons can rack up serious damage even against the likes of Hades.
    • Zagreus can also get poisoned in Styx. To heal up, he has to make it to a Healing Spring located in the room.
  • Damage-Sponge Boss: The boss fights become progressively longer as Zagreus nears the surface. The final boss has many strengths, but arguably his most defining trait is having an absolutely insane amount of health. The boss is dangerous enough as-is, but the sheer length of the fight can tempt a player into getting impatient and abandoning defense and dodging in favor of getting a few extra hits in. Trading blows with the final boss will end poorly for Zagreus.
  • Dark Is Not Evil:
    • Hades is a borderline case. He's a relentless Deadpan Snarker who constantly mocks his own son and his attempts to escape, but takes his duties as God of the Dead seriously and is mostly reasonable and fair in his judgement of the shades that come before him. It turns out that he has legitimate reasons to keep Zagreus away from his mother, and he also genuinely loves Persephone. He eventually comes to mellow out when she returns and starts trying to bond with Zagreus.
    • Zagreus himself is a straighter example, being a likable if sarcastic guy who readily befriends everyone in the Underworld who isn't Hades.
    • This also applies to Nyx, the physical personification of night, who is shown to be a caring mother and whose actions in-game are purely benevolent.
    • Chaos, the primordial Anthropomorphic Personification of, well, Chaos, is also quite sympathetic towards Zagreus, even as they are fully aware of his motivation to escape the Underworld and only aids him just to see what comes of it.
  • Death as Comedy:
    • Zagreus will die, a lot. And every time he revives back in the House of Hades, he will give a snarky one-liner on whatever caused his death, and Hypnos may say something relevant in addition to that.
    • Post-game, whenever Zagreus reaches the surface, the Narrator will describe Yet Another Stupid Death as to how he dies as opposed to showing what happens. These can be everything from suddenly catching a really bad cold to assuming the narrator has run out of ways to kill him. And should Zagreus die this way, the belly flop animation is replaced with Zagreus flashing the peace sign before descending into the blood pool.
  • Death Is Cheap: Dying normally sends people to the Underworld, but the whole game is set in the Underworld, so "death" has little consequence anyway. Zagreus and the game's bosses tend to make casual comments about killing each other, since many of the characters are immortal or already dead in the first place.
  • Decomposite Character: In Classical Mythology, Zagreus and Dionysus are actually the same person,with Zagreus being Dionysus' chthonic aspect in the Orphic Mysteries (which also conflated Zeus and Hades). The game explains this away by having Zagreus convince Orpheus that he and Dionysus are the same person as a joke, to Dionysus' amusement.
  • Defeat Means Friendship:
    • Both Played Straight and Played With. The Minotaur was slain by Theseus in life, but in the afterlife, Theseus convinced Hades to let him reside in the fields of Elysium. Whilst Theseus is the Champion, Asterius the bull of Minos is his closest companion and ally.
    • Fight him often enough, and Asterius will give Zagreus one of the awakening phrases for his Infernal Arms, specifically the aspect of Gilgamesh, who slew a beast and then befriended it. He implies he wishes for a fight like that, and afterwards you are able to obtain Asterius' autograph for a different sidequest. He calls Zagreus "short one", but Asterius respects his strength and capabilities, and in general doesn't talk down to Zagreus. He will still fight him to the death, though.
  • Degraded Boss: One Mini-Boss encounter in Tartarus consists of a pair of elite enemies that become a regular enemy in Asphodel.
  • Deliberate Values Dissonance: The game is a lot closer to the original conception of Greek heroes and their eternal paradise in Elysium than more contemporary interpretations, which means people with "great deeds" get the best afterlife, despite how monstrous their day-to-day conduct and personalities may have been. Chthonic gods and even some humans have a slightly more modern sensibility and comment on the unfairness of the whole situation. For instance, Hades would rather punish Heracles in Tartarus if not for the hero's favor with Zeus, while Patroclus is disappointed to be trapped in "paradise" with bloodthirsty soldiers instead of the genuinely good people he knew in life.
  • Deliberately Accepting the Lie: Persephone suspects that most of the Olympian Gods won't fully believe her story about Falling in love with Hades, leaving out the part where Zeus kidnapped her and forced her into an Arranged Marriage with his brother. However they all accept it without asking any awkward questions, likely because they realise that what really happened would seriously piss off Demeter if she found out about it, resulting in Divine Conflict that no-one wants.
  • Destroy the Abusive Home: Zagreus's favorite part about trying to escape the Underworld is the many opportunities it provides him for ransacking and looting his father's realm out of frustration.
  • The Determinator:
    • Zagreus will die repeatedly in his quest to make it out of the Underworld, but being constantly tossed right back to the House of Hades just annoys him and gives him a chance to talk with his friends and family. And when he finally reunites with his mother, Zagreus will keep fighting and dying just to keep seeing her.
    • Similarly, all of the bosses Zagreus defeats during a run will be back for the next run, resurrected by Hades and ready for another go. All of them (except the Hydra) are sentient enough to comment upon it as well, with Asterius in particular relishing the chance to challenge Zagreus again.
  • Deus ex Machina: Deliberately invoked with God Mode, an option in the settings menu that equips Zagreus with a permanent Boon appropriately-named "Deus Ex Machina". This enables a dynamic difficulty adjustment by granting Zagreus an additional 2% damage resistance every time he dies, capping at 80%.
  • Developer's Foresight:
    • When defeated, Megaera will spend her downtime in the lounge, an area which isn't open at the start of the game. Should you defeat her before the lounge is actually re-opened, she'll instead be standing somewhere nearby where the Lounge would be open, so as not to lock you out of interacting with her.
    • Normally upon losing to Zagreus, Megaera states that the battle didn't count, as you have an advantage because of the mirror's upgrades. If you follow up by resetting all your upgrades and then beat her without them, she will acknowledge this. One of the writers also clarified that there are three different versions of the follow-up event back at the House of Hades, depending on where your relationship with her is at the time.
    • Much like in Supergiant's past games, there is a metric ton of incidental or situational dialog. For example, Hermes will acknowledge if you have the speedrun timer enabled or if you had your victory streak broken, while Zagreus's lines upon entering Chaos Gates will differ if you equipped him with the Cosmic Egg. Other triggers can include carrying certain weapons that a god approves (or disapproves) of, receiving boons from another specific god, having the Pact of Punishment enabled (with unique dialogue for a regular file vs. a Hell Mode file), getting certain rare encounters in a previous run, or dying in an unusual manner.
    • If you have Megaera's chthonic companion with you, it can't be used in the Fury boss fight, as she obviously can't attack herself and wouldn't hurt her sisters. Similarly, Thanatos can't be summoned in one of his contests, and Skelly will refuse to act as a target for Charon, his boss. Attempting to use Dusa's also won't work if you try it after she gets temporarily fired.
    • Should you use a Call from a god after angering them in a Trial of the Gods, Zagreus will note the awkwardness of the situation. There's even an achievement for using a Greater Call of a god against them in one of these trials titled "Bad Call" for doing this. The angered Gods also get special dialogue when invoking their Greater Call, which is usually much more aggressive towards Zagreus. For instance, Zeus will comment on "the sheer audacity" of using his Greater Call once you've made him mad at you.
    • If you grab a weapon from the arsenal, go back inside of the House of Hades, and attempt to attack, the game won't let you, saying that there's "no fighting in the house".
    • When you give Hades his first bottle of Nectar during the main game, he will snark at Zagreus for trying to butter him up. However, if you wait until the epilogue of the story and then give Hades the first bottle, his response will be considerably more mellow.
    • You can't quit the game at the gates of the Underworld before the Final Boss. This is to prevent Save Scumming for the power-ups you want in case a god's Boon, a hammer, or the Anvil of Fates is on sale.
    • You cannot quit in the middle of a boss fight to prevent people from abusing the save system to redo a badly done fight.
    • If you pick up a Pom of Power without having anything that can gain a level, you'll get the Spare Wealth option, which gives you some Obols. This is the only way that Spare Wealth can show up.
    • It is possible to play the game through the end credits without speaking to Nyx. On the off chance a player does that and speaks to her for the first time in the postgame, her dialogue will reflect that. Similarly, if the player reaches the end credits before Orpheus resumes singing in the house and/or without ever having visited a Eurydice chamber, Zagreus will be confused when they hear their voice(s) sing the end credits song.
    • It is possible (but also very difficult) to reach the Final Boss without Olympian boons, usually by liberal use of the Pool of Purging and avoiding said boons. Dialogue between Zagreus and said boss will change to reflect that.
    • If the Employee of the Month is either Megaera or the Shade Broker and the portrait is examined, they will respond to it (providing the former is in the lounge at least).
    • When you face Theseus as part of the third boss fight, he'll call on the Olympians for aid when he gets down to half HP. The god that Theseus invokes will always be one who Zagreus hasn't encountered during that run, to avoid any potential conflict of why an Olympian is Playing Both Sides.
    • The one time that the Final Boss is a Skippable Boss, you can just walk out the door to the surface without a fight. Should you try attacking the boss anyway, a shield pops up which prevents any damage to them, giving you no choice but to walk away.
    • If you equip a Keepsake from an Olympian God, your next boon is usually guaranteed to be from that god. The exception is if your next boon is from Hermes, who takes precedence. If Hermes shows up, he will acknowledge how you expected another god to show up, but he got there more quickly.
      • On the subject of Keepsakes, both Than and Meg will make a note of it if Zagreus is wearing Thanatos' butterfly pin; in a Body-Count Competition, Thanatos will tell Zag to stay back and keep from taking damage so as to add to the buff that it gives. Likewise, Megaera has a unique line if you fight her wearing her Keepsake.
    • Summoned allies have special dialogue when summoned in certain situations — e.g. summoning Dusa against the Megagorgon (which looks like a souped-up enemy version of her) or Achilles and Patroclus against Theseus and Asterius. In many cases, the enemy encounter will react accordingly.
    • Bosses have unique dialogue if they are placed under the Charm Status Effect.
  • Diabolus ex Machina: Invoked and played for laughs for any runs after completing the game's story. When reaching the end, the narrator gives an excuse for how exactly Zagreus ends up dying after escaping. These include, but are not limited to:
  • Dialog During Gameplay:
    • Zagreus will comment on anything that's happening during the fights, which range from generally taunting the enemies, becoming frustrated or disappointed whenever he takes damage, being surprised if the boss gains power, or being excited every time he picks up an item or a room reward. Other characters will also comment on what's happening even if they're offscreen, such as the Narrator during expositions, and Hades during Infernal Trove challenges. Zagreus will then talk back to them when it happens.
    • On the other hand, the humanoid bosses will also comment on the way Zagreus fights, mostly by mocking him if he takes damage. Theseus and Hades even have unique dialog lines if you use a Greater Call against them; the former labels you a cheater if the Call does a great deal of damage to him, while the latter has context-specific reactions depending on the Olympian represented by the Call.
  • Difficult, but Awesome:
    • The final aspects to each weapon are not overkill made awesome, but rather tricky weapons with great potential but significant disadvantages one has to practice at to work around. All of them offer big, strong hits at a much slower damage-per-second than most players will be used to, so learning to play them properly is critical to surviving, but the results can be very worth it.
    • Chaos' Boons offer stat modifiers that are higher than anything you could get through a single normal boon. To get them, however, you have to suffer through a curse for several encounters. The boons and curses are randomized each time, so the same boon can wind up behind a relatively benign curse like not seeing the next room's reward to something utterly debilitating like being damaged each time you use your basic attack. The door to the Realm of Chaos also shows up randomly, so you may have to risk fighting a boss with a curse active.
    • The Adamant Rail is the weakest starting weapon, with a lackluster standard attack and a somewhat unwieldy special. Furthermore, it's the only weapon with a fixed clip size and needs reloading, which is another thing to juggle mid-combat. However, it synergizes very well with Status Effects due to its rapid rate of fire. If you can overcome the initial difficulty, it can grow into a deadly weapon that will chew through nearly anything.
    • The Stygian Blade has a Daedalus upgrade which applies a persistent sixty percent reduction to your total health, including any future health upgrades. In return, you heal for two points with every hit. This means that a few good hits by bosses can kill you, but if you're careful in dodging and in repeatedly hitting the enemy, you're basically immortal.
    • The Twin Fists of Malphon have powerful and rapid attacks, but very short range, meaning you'll take a lot more hits unless you know when to stop attacking and start dodging.
    • Trippy Shot, Dionysus's Cast, has the highest base damage in the game, and even a build with no investment into Casting can still use it for reliable damage. The trick is actually landing the spell; it's a slow, lobbing arc, and if you miss, it takes some time for it to drop your Bloodstone. What also makes this exceptionally powerful is that there's two duo boons associated with Trippy Shot, the Zeus/Dionysus boon for extra bursts of damage for anyone in the fog and the Demeter/Dionysus boon that boosts the damage further and inflicts chill.
  • Diminishing Returns for Balance: Boon upgrades granted by pomegranates work this way, giving lesser benefits per succeeding levels in most cases. This helps make higher rarity levels valuable in a boon; they give increased benefits without getting in the way of gains earned from pom levels.
  • Discard and Draw:
    • Some Hammer of Daedalus upgrades replace your Special or Charged Attack with a completely different attack, or come with a downside. In these cases, the new attack is usually much better than the old one, or the downsides come with bonuses that more than make up for the loss.
    • The Anvil of Fates removes one of your Hammer of Daedalus upgrades, but grants two new random ones.
    • Various weapon Aspects, especially the hidden Aspects, exchange parts of your moveset for new features.
  • Disc-One Nuke: Poseidon's Duo Boons. Unlike all of the other gods' duos, Poseidon's duo boons are extremely easy to get as the requirements are bog standard for both gods involved and the odds of receiving them are much more forgiving than others. That's pretty fair, since all they do is boost Poms of Power (Aphrodite) and boost Boon Rarity (Dionysus). And yes, it is possible to get both. With these active, you can do things like pump out crazy damage or make yourself nigh-invulnerable, with far less effort and luck than would be required of a normal run.
  • Divine Punishment: Certain rooms will have a Trial of the Gods, in which you can get a boon from two different Olympian gods, but you have to choose which god's boon you want first. The god you don't pick views it as a sign of unwarranted disrespect and unleashes their wrath on you: you now have to clear the room of all enemies while the god is also trying to kill you. Should you manage to clear the room, the god forgives you and allows you to have a boon from them, too.
  • Divine Race Lift: Athena, Ares, and Zeus are notably dark-skinned, Hermes looks East Asian, Dionysus South Asian, and Persephone and Demeter Western European. Behind the scenes notes that this was because ancient Greece would not have considered their gods to be limited to Greece itself, and therefore the gods' designs are inspired by people all over the world.
  • Do Not Spoil This Ending: Supergiant Games have made it their official stance that the ending, from the final boss fight to what happens after to the True Ending, should not be revealed to anyone that has not successfully finished a run. Supergiant Games even went so far as to not include the actual ending from Early Access as to prevent any spoilers from getting out. In a meta example, the vast majority of the fandom does not spoil the same things without warning and will usually refer to the former as "redacted" or "the final boss" to avoid spoiling newer players.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: Purchasing the Aphrodite wall scroll will have Zagreus reaffirm that he can put up whatever he wants in his bedchambers. Given that Aphrodite is perpetually naked, this brings to mind a teenager putting up a pinup poster in their room and being asked about it by their parents.
  • Double-Edged Buff:
    • Boons of Chaos force Zagreus to endure a debuff for several encounters, but will transform into a buff when the debuff wears off. For example, Maimed Strike would start off by making Zagreus take damage every time he attacks, then evolve into a buff to his attack damage later on.
    • The Claws of Enkidu can inflict the maim status effect on enemies, increasing the damage they do to Zagreus by 50% while also causing them to take 25% more damage.
    • Daedalus Hammer upgrades:
      • Cursed Slash cuts Zagreus' HP by 60% but allows him to heal 2 hit points with every successful attack.
      • Double Nova allows the Stygian Blade's special attack to hit twice per use, but it no longer knocks enemies back.
      • Serrated Point allows the Eternal Spear's dash attack to hit 3 times, but cuts dash range by 25%.
      • Twin Shot reduces the Heart Seeking Bow's range but allows it to fire 2 arrows per attack.
      • Pulverizing Blow makes the Shield of Chaos lose its knockback effect in exchange for attacking twice per swing.
      • Hazard Bomb increases the damage of the Adamant Rail's explosive shots by 300%, but turns off Friendly Fireproof, meaning that Zagreus can hurt himself if caught in the blast radius.
  • Double-Meaning Title: Hades obviously refers to the god of the Underworld himself, who serves as the main antagonist towards Zagreus, but the name has also been used to refer to the Greek underworld in general. Thus, the title can serve as both an Antagonist Title and The Place.
  • Double Unlock: Many persistent upgrades and weapons have to be revealed first before they can be properly unlocked:
    • The last two Infernal Arms (Malphon and Exagryph) are revealed by unlocking the previous weapons. You can then unlock and use them after spending Chthonic Keys.
    • The hidden Aspect of each weapon must be revealed first by reciting a specific Trigger Phrase which certain NPCs will divulge, and then unlocked using Titan Blood. Even still, Achilles must give you the phrase for Varatha's hidden aspect before you can even unlock any other weapon's hidden aspect.
    • The upgrades from the Mirror of Night have to be revealed first using Chthonic Keys. They only take effect after you spend enough Darkness.
  • Do Well, But Not Perfect: The Fishing Minigame has three types of fish for each area: Common, Rare, and Legendary. The three possible outcomes to fishing (depending on how quickly you react) are failure, good, or perfect. A perfect catch cannot give a common fish, so completing the Codex requires good (but not perfect) timing.
  • Dragged Off to Hell: Even if Zagreus successfully escapes the Underworld, he only has a brief time on the surface before the Styx will well up underneath him and drag him back home.
  • Dropped a Bridge on Him: Some of the ways Zagreus dies in the Early Access endings and the post-game in the final game, including, but not limited to, slipping on a banana peel, sniffing a flower he's allergic to, or getting hit in the face with a rake, are hilariously anti-climatic, especially if you take into account just how much punishment he can take in his escape from the underworld. One death doesn't even elaborate on what happened, and Zagreus is just as surprised as the player is.
  • Dynamic Difficulty: Clearing certain bosses frequently enough will make the fights more varied, with Meg being replaced by one of her sisters and the Hydra gaining new tactics, while reaching the final boss for the first time causes new enemies to spawn at lower levels and increases the spawning rate, as well as an increase in armored foes.
  • Early Game Hell: The amount of resources available to the player is quite limited at the beginning, expanding over the course of at least a couple dozen runs as the player progressively unlocks new things that encourage experimentation, provide additional room for error, and make Zagreus more powerful. At the beginning, you have only one weapon out of six, no Keepsakes (including those that give you some control over the Random Number God), no Death Defiances, let alone more advanced abilities the Mirror of Night provides. Your capacity to get resources to make your weapons stronger and purchase items and renovations (such as fountain chambers) is limited until you unlock the Pact of Punishment and thus new heat levels that freshly provide Titan Blood, Diamonds, and Ambrosia. You can't even make use of the boons given by all Olympians in the game until you reach the surface and can thus meet Demeter.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: After clearing the game enough times, Persephone decides to return to the Underworld with Zagreus. She and Hades reconcile, and while he's still rather aloof towards Zagreus, there's a newfound unspoken respect between the two. Zagreus still continues his escape attempts, though they're now under an "official capacity" (as he now has the job of looking for any holes in the Underworld's security) and it's heavily implied that he's starting to enjoy his battles with his father, with Hades feeling much the same way. Later, Persephone decides to have Zagreus message all of the gods, including Chaos, so that Hades and Persephone can reveal their relationship, claiming that they were forbidden out of fear, but Zagreus convinced them to open up. Of course, it's a lie as to why Persephone claims she disappeared, but it works, and it's implied that all the other Olympians are aware but just want to move on.
  • Easily Forgiven: Certain rooms give Zagreus the option to pick between one of two gods' favour. The one whose favour you reject will then get mad and send a wave of boon-boosted enemies after you, and then quickly forgive you afterwards and offer you a favor. Dionysus, in particular, can entirely forget why he was mad at you in the first place. However, they will get increasingly peeved if you repeatedly choose against them, and their chambers will get correspondingly more difficult until they provide the challenge of a Mini-Boss.
  • Easter Egg:
    • Looking at the game's files to try and uncover the rest of Zagreus's Codex entry has the text call the player out for trying to spoil the surprise, and also point out that not everything in the files may be accurate.
      Listen, Mortal. You are not supposed to be reading this. You are most bold, or most unwise, to have been digging through these arcane texts, or to have gleaned the knowledge from someone who has.
    • In the unlikely event that you die after a Thanatos challenge (such as by standing in the lava in Asphodel), Thanatos will have some sort of comment as he escorts Zagreus back to the House of Hades.
  • Easy Levels, Hard Bosses: Generally speaking, the floors themselves shouldn't cause players that much grief; it's the bosses (and to a lesser extent, mini-bosses) that will kill you most of the time. However, this becomes somewhat less so at higher heat levels with the Pact of Punishment.
  • Easy-Mode Mockery: Averted. Unusually for a Roguelike, Hades has an easy mode in the form of God Mode, which gives you a stacking damage resistance buff every time you die (but not when you escape). The description of the mode encourages you to turn it on if you're having a hard time, or 'for any other reason.'
  • Either/Or Offspring: Kids of god/mortal pairings "can go either way"; while they will inherit traits of both parents, they're ultimately considered either fully immortal gods (such as Dionysus and Persephone) or mortal demigods (like Achilles).
  • Eldritch Abomination: Chaos is the oldest being in existence and the creator of all reality, as well as the Anthropomorphic Personification of the Primordial Chaos, and is omniscient and omnipotent. They look like a pile of faces and limbs fused together, speak in a Machine Monotone Voice of the Legion and are Otherworldly and Sexually Ambiguous. Hades II implies its constantly giving birth to themself in new shapes.
  • Eldritch Location:
    • The underworld's chambers and tunnels constantly rearrange themselves to deter would-be escapees, justifying the game's elements of randomization and giving some weight to Hades' warning. This was apparently the work of Daedalus, acting on Hades' orders.
    • Chaos isn't only an Eldritch Abomination, but is themself the void that preceeds reality and upon which it rests. It looks like a black, starry sea with pillars and urns scattered through, and is home to very weird fish.
  • Employee of the Month: After the Lounge is unlocked, a portrait next to the Wretched Broker's area honors an Underworld employee who has performed well, similar to Employee of the Month (it rotates every run or so). Zagreus can interact with this portrait and will often express pride for the friends who make it on there. Dusa, Hypnos, and Orpheus can get featured as Zagreus advances their character routes, and after the ending, Zagreus himself will occasionally be featured.
  • Encounter Repellant: The "Flame Wheel Release" item, which randomly appears among the temporary buffs offered in the Well of Charon shop, prevents Flame Wheel foes from spawning for a limited number of encounters.
  • Endless Winter: It is heavily implied that Demeter has caused this due to Persephone's disappearance, with several lore entries and the Gods themselves noting that Demeter has turned very bitter and violent as of late, with winters getting longer and more destructive. She finally allows for seasons to return once she learns of her daughter's whereabouts and gets to see her, though the area around the Temple of Styx will forever remain frozen as a reminder.
  • Equal-Opportunity Fanservice: All of the characters are attractive, but particularly the Gods. The bisexual Zagreus is even given the option to put up posters of both the fanservice-y Aphrodite and Dionysus in his bedroom to look at.
  • Equipment Upgrade:
    • Done with the hammer of Daedalus. The player is given a choice between three upgrades at a time, which can do things like strengthen certain attacks like Power Shots, give it more utility such as piercing attacks, or give a stat-boost to Zagreus. Certain upgrades even entirely change the functionality of your weapon, which comes with its own benefits and drawbacks.
    • There are also weapon aspects that can be unlocked with Titan Blood. Weapon aspects are alterations to the Infernal Arms that change one or more base aspects of the weapons for the entire run. An example of this is the Aspect of Achilles to the spear, which replaces its Summon to Hand mechanic to one where Zagreus teleports to where he threw it.
  • Escaped from Hell: The premise of the game. Zagreus is determined to battle out of the Underworld by any means necessary in order to find his mother Persephone, who lives somewhere on the surface world in Greece. Standing in Zag's way is his father Hades and the army of undead wretches that Hades conjures up to prevent Zagreus from escaping. Even after convincing Persephone to return to the Underworld, Zagreus continues battling out of the underworld anyway, more in an "official capacity" by showing where the gaps in security are.
  • E.T. Gave Us Wi-Fi: Or rather, Greek gods gave us firearms. It's heavily implied that, some time in the future, Exagryph will escape into the mortal world and inspire the invention of all gunpowder and explosive weapons to follow.
    Achilles' Codex: While other weapons of the gods inspired mortal counterparts, I am relieved to say the Rail's cruel design has not yet been discovered in a stroke of mortal inspiration, to conduct their wars. Let us pray for their sake that it never shall. [...] Someday, however, I imagine it shall break free from this place; for any weapon once possessed by Eris, Lady Strife herself, becomes possessed of an eternal hunger to destroy.
  • Everybody Hates Hades: Downplayed. Overall, this is one of the softest interpretations of Hades' estrangement from the rest of the gods in Olympus, but Hades is still a bitter and overworked (though just and fair otherwise) man who has a very strained relationship with his family, including his son Zagreus. His brethren's Titan-slaying days are over, and with that gone, so does his contact with them. Still, Hades isn't even close to downright evil. Meanwhile, while the other gods are happy to help their nephew Zagreus, the son of Hades, escape the underworld (if only to spite their brother/uncle Hades in some cases), as the player learns more, it becomes clear that they hold as much fault with the Big, Screwed-Up Family as Hades does, and that several of them are even worse about relationships and empathy.
  • Everyone Is Bi: After confirming a fan's question about Zagreus's sexuality (before the patch with the option to romance Thanatos was implemented), lead designer Greg Kasavin also added that, this being ancient Greek mythology and all, banging anyone regardless of sex (or species) is pretty much the default in this universe.
  • Everyone Lives: At least for a given level of "alive", since ghosts are apparently immortal in their current state, but can't leave the Underworld. Every major character begins the story in as good health as they end the story.
  • Exact Words: As Skelly explains, when Zagreus gets the first of his prizes, he specifically said to the sculptor he wanted "something that would make me look good for my bosses". While in context, he obviously meant something good looking so his superiors would like his work, the sculptor seems to have taken this literally, and sculpts a good looking Skelly in a sexy pose.
  • Externally Validated Prophecy: In his codexes, Achilles hopes that the Adamant Rail — basically an Assault Rifle with a grenade launcher attachment — is never created by mortals, for their own safety. However, he speculates that some day it will be. It definitely was.
  • Extremely Short Timespan: A post-epilogue monologue by Zagreus implied the whole adventure, from when he decided to start busting out of Hades to Persephone returning to the Underworld, happened over the course of only a few days.
  • Failure Is the Only Option: The goal of the game is to escape the Underworld. However, Hades reveals to Zagreus after his first defeat that neither he nor Zag can last very long on the surface before being taken by the Styx anyway. Even if he manages to escape, Zagreus will end up dying anyway, leading him straight back to the House of Hades, right where he started. Luckily, he has just enough time to finish up his business on the surface after ten successful escapes, bringing Persephone back to the Underworld.
  • Fake Ultimate Mook: The Wretched Thugs are about 10 foot tall, built like an ogre, and wield spiked clubs bigger than Zagreus. They also appear in the first area of the game, and aren't particularly difficult to fight.
  • Fantasy Gun Control: Played with. The Exagryph, the "Adamant Rail", is a contraption considered strange and frightful by the other Gods, being nothing like any of the other weapons that were used in the Titan War. Every God you meet comments on their distaste for it (except for Zeus and Ares), and it is explicitly kept a secret by the Olympian gods, as they fear that, if humankind discovers it and replicates it, their wars would grow even more savage and efficient. Sure enough, it's implied that Zagreus escaping with it to the surface gave us the rise of firearms.
  • Fanservice: As alluded to below under Hotter and Sexier, Hades could be retitled "Fanservice: The Game" and it wouldn't be inappropriate at all. Not only is the main character Zagreus an utter Hunk, but virtually all of the gods, goddesses, and other mythological characters in the game are immensely attractive, with Dionysus and Aphrodite being the most obvious examples among just the Olympians. It's to the point where some fans have jokingly asked if Twitch streams of the game could ever be declared Not Safe for Work.
  • Fantastic Fauna Counterpart: The Underworld has its own species of fish to inhabit its three fantastical rivers. Achilles speculates they are Shades of fish from the surface (which are your normal fare such as bass and trout).
  • Fastball Special: For their "Bullhorn" attack, Asterius throws Theseus at the player.
  • Fight Bell Hijinks: Asterius the Minotaur is a possible Mini-Boss for Zagreus to fight while traversing Elysium. Unlike most bosses in the game, he yields after being damaged for 3/4 of his health bar, and a bell sounds shortly before he declares Zag the victor and stomps out of the arena.
  • Final-Exam Boss: Not Hades himself, who is more of a Mirror Boss, but Theseus and Asterius qualify; they incorporate all of the gimmicks Elysium features. To wit:
    • Theseus combines the gimmicks of the Strongbows and Greatshields. Like the latter, he's invulnerable to attack from the front due to his shield, and like the former, he can target Zagreus from a distance for a hefty helping of damage, complete with the same crosshair effect.
    • Asterius combines the gimmicks of the Brightswords, Flamewheels and Nemean Chariots. He wields a massively amplified variant of the Brightsword's Ground Pound, using the same projectiles, and his basic attack is like an upscaled version of theirs. Like the latter two enemies, he can charge Zagreus with incredible maneuverability, requiring the player to juke him into hitting a wall or outrun him long enough.
  • Fire and Brimstone Hell: Played with. Asphodel isn't supposed to be like this — it's meant to be a faintly pleasant limbo that the majority of the non-punished but non-heroic dead can enjoy. However, the entire realm was flooded by the River Phlegethon — which is made of fire, naturally — some time before the events of the story, and Hades has been too busy to have it fixed. So by the time Zagreus treks through the region, it lives up to the trope regardless.
  • Firearms Are Revolutionary: The Adamant Rail is kept a secret by the Olympian gods for this reason, as they fear that, if humankind discovers it and replicates it, their wars would grow even more savage and efficient. Ares of course loves the idea and can't wait for humans to start using them.
    Achilles' Codex: While other weapons of the gods inspired mortal counterparts, I am relieved to say the Rail's cruel design has not yet been discovered in a stroke of mortal inspiration, to conduct their wars. Let us pray for their sake that it never shall.
  • Fire-Forged Friends: Discussed. One conversation Zagreus may have with Megaera after beating her and her sisters is on whether she feels she improved her relationship with them by taking on Zagreus together. The results are inconclusive.
  • Fishing Minigame: If you buy a fishing rod (err… "Rod of Fishing") from the House Contractor, fishing spots will start spawning randomly in the Underworld, recognizable as a white, glowing spot in any body of liquid (this includes all four biomes, the Realm of Chaos, and the surface). Activating the point starts a short minigame in which you try to catch the fish as soon as possible to the moment you see a splash. The better your timing, the better the fish you get. Any fish you catch there can be given to the house chef for various rewards.
  • Fixed Damage Attack: All weapon attacks and specials always deal a fixed amount of damage with no variance. This base damage can be increased or multiplied by the right Boons, gifts or debuffs, but it never varies between individual attacks.
  • Flaming Skulls: A repeated motif of the game, showing up as the representation of Heat (the currency of Challenge Runs, and an actual resource during Early Access), as sources of lighting, and as the form of Hades' Cast.
  • Fluffy the Terrible: After beating the Lernaean Bone Hydra boss enough times, Zagreus decides to nickname it "Lernie". The game then changes the banners for it for the remainder of the game.
  • Flunky Boss: Most of the bosses summon lesser enemies during the fight:
    • With the exception of Tisiphone, the Furies will invoke mooks to help them in the fight against Zagreus.
    • The Bone Hydra will summon other heads to fight Zagreus. Even among them, the green head will also summon Mooks to fight.
    • The Final Boss will summon dark, strong versions of the previous enemies you faced (what gets summoned is random, and can include certain minibosses if you're unlucky) each time they lose a third of their health.
  • Forced Creativity: You can release the court musician Orpheus from his punishment, given to him by Hades as Orpheus lost the will to play music after his failed attempt to save his wife and muse Eurydice from the underworld. When Hades angrily commands Orpheus to play again, he refuses, as his heart is no longer in it. He'll end up playing a melancholy and mournful song about his failed rescue on his own, though.
  • Foregone Conclusion: Classical Mythology buffs aren't going to be mystified by the question of Zagreus' parentage.
  • Formula-Breaking Episode: Hades is the first game by Supergiant Games to not take place in its own Constructed World, with it instead being set in its own take/reinterpretation of Classical Mythology.
  • Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: While Zagreus does come to understand the reasons behind Hades's behavior, he's also quick to point out that Hades isn't just spreading his misery to everyone, but ensuring his own continued misery as well. Even after they reconcile, Zagreus makes it clear to Hades that he'll likely never get over what he put him through and that the concessions he does make are to break The Chain of Harm, rather than for Hades' sake.
  • Friendly Fireproof: Your attacks can harm neither your allies nor yourself. The sole exception is the Hazard Bomb upgrade for Exagryph, which fires a much bigger and stronger bomb directly where you're standing, which will hurt you if you don't get out of the way.

    Tropes G-K 
  • Game-Over Man: Dying to a major character will usually earn you a quip during the game over screen. This isn't exclusive to bosses, either; for instance, getting killed in a Trial of the Gods will give you a commentary from the deity spurned into attacking you in the first place. Additionally, upon respawning in the House of Hades, Hypnos will usually have a context-sensitive comment about your last manner of death.
  • Gameplay and Story Integration:
    • Many gameplay mechanics, tropes, and elements are either reinforced, justified, or acknowledged In-Universe. While there are obvious Breaking the Fourth Wall situations and countless incidental dialogue lines brought upon by Developer's Foresight, even the larger, recurring Roguelike elements have their own explanations:
      • Several characters' dialogue lines may vary depending on the weapon, boons, and trinkets that Zagreus equipped. Some of them may also comment on the minor things that the player did during the current or previous escape attempts. For example, Demeter will tell you a brief story about pomegranates if you picked up a Pom of Power during your current run.
      • From the start, Hades just mocks Zagreus's attempts at escaping the Underworld because he thinks that his son's efforts are all futile. But once the player defeats the Final Boss for the first time, Hades will impose the Pact of Punishment as a way of making Zag's further escape attempts more difficult than before, hence why the game has Hard Mode Perks. The Pact is also explained as being the improvements made to the Underworld's security since Zagreus' official new job is security testing, though the conditions are entirely up to him.
      • Zagreus keeps on returning to the House of Hades every time he "dies" because he's being dragged there each time via the Pool of Styx. It also turns out that he can't remain on the surface world for too long either, simply because he's bound to the Underworld, and the Styx will take him back.
      • None of the characters permanently die because they're either deities, immortals, or already dead anyway.
      • The game has Randomly Generated Levels because the Underworld is an Eldritch Location that's designed to constantly shift itself.
      • The Mirror of Night is acknowledged as the one thing that's making Zagreus stronger every time he collects Darkness, justifying the Macrogame. Some characters such as Megaera frequently comment on this tidbit, especially when the player keeps on defeating her in Tartarus. Others will praise Zag for growing even stronger if the player buys more upgrades.
    • Certain characters will give you "Companion" keepsakes, plushies that will allow Zagreus to summon help during encounters. However, there are a number of scenarios that will not allow you to use it because it wouldn't make sense. Thanatos' Companion Mort will not summon him if he is already in the room, Meg's Companion Battie won't summon her during a fight against her or her sisters, Skelly's Companion Rib won't summon him while fighting Charon, his employer, and none of the former two, Dusa's Companion Fidi, or Achilles' Companion Antos can be used against the Final Boss Hades, because none of them would actively work against him like that, at least until the epilogue, where Hades can give them his approval to do so.
    • There are instances wherein Cerberus and/or Hades would be absent in the House, but most of these happen whenever Zagreus dies in the Temple of Styx, or when he's defeated by Hades himself. It naturally makes sense because Zagreus arrives via the pool of Styx first, and inspecting either Cerberus's post or Hades's desk will have Zag mention that the missing character is still near the surface world. But when Zagreus meets Persephone for the first time in Greece, both Hades and Cerberus already returned to the House when he came back, because as it turns out, Zag spent quite some time bonding with his birth mother.
  • Gathering Steam:
    • Thanatos' keepsake, the Pierced Butterfly, grants Zagreus an initial 1% permanent boost to attack (up to 2% should you reach the highest level) should he finish a chamber without taking damage. If you make it far enough without taking hits, the damage boost becomes significant, as it is a percentage modifier.
    • Hermes' keepsake, the Lambent Plume, works similarly to Thanatos' keepsake. But instead, it grants Zagreus a 1% boost to his move speed and dodge chance (up to 1.2% at the highest level) should he finish a chamber in under 30 seconds. Getting far enough into the game can make this dodge chance really significant.
    • Aphrodite's Aid fires a projectile that Charms an enemy for a few seconds, which is nigh useless in most circumstances. But if the God Gauge is completely filled, that projectile now deals 2500 damage, making it the most damaging single hit attack in the game.
    • Artemis' Aid fires a single homing arrow with a high critical hit chance, that costs 20% of the God Gauge rather than the usual 25%. While the critical hit chance stacks with your other critical modifiers, the arrow is still significantly weaker than other Calls, even taking the discounted God Gauge into account. Her Greater Call, however, fires a huge salvo of arrows, all of which have a high critical hit chance and stack with your other critical modifiers. With a little luck, it can tear through bosses.
  • Gimmick Level: The final level, the Temple of Styx, where instead of progressing through a series of chambers, you are placed in a central room (with Charon's shop in the corner), and are offered multiple tunnels to go through. Each tunnel contains multiple smaller rooms, which give no reward for clearing, before the final chamber, which is more like a normal room which gives the advertised reward. After clearing a tunnel, you are sent back to the main room, where you can either challenge another tunnel for its rewards, or move on to the final battle if you found the necessary item (which is randomly placed in one of the tunnels).
  • Glass Cannon: The Guan Yu aspect halves your maximum HP and halves the amount of healing you would normally receive, but in exchange hits harder than the normal spear, has a more powerful special, and has a a charged spin attack that is not only ranged, but also heals one HP per hit. This leaves it a very hit or miss weapon: If you can get the right Daedalus upgrades early on and a nice set of boons, you'll be unstoppable, but if you get unlucky, you'll be struggling just to stay alive.
  • God Mode: Zigzagged Trope. A menu option allows the player to enable something called God Mode at any time, but it doesn't in any way make Zagreus invincible: in fact, all it gives him is 20% Damage Reduction, with an additional 2% for each time Zagreus fails with the mode on, maxing out at 80% (40 failures — keep in mind that it's not unreasonable for players to make their first successful escape at 50 attempts or thereabouts). That said, the additional stacks are persistent: if you have 44% and turn God Mode off, you'll be at 44% the next time you turn it on again.
  • Godzilla Threshold: What the Extreme Measures Pact of Punishment supposedly represents, beginning with the Furies, who do not like each other at all, teaming up, up to armoring up Theseus and the Bull of Minos and giving the former a chariot loaded to bear with miniguns and explosives. Hades' own Extreme Measures has him deciding to stop holding back. You'll find out why it requires a heat gauge of 10 minimum to fight him like that real quick.
  • The Goomba: Numbskulls are one the weakest enemies in the game that show up in the first area, which die in 1-2 hits without any armor or perks and only have a weak dash attack.
  • Gone Horribly Right: As a joke suggested by Dionysus, Zagreus starts telling Orpheus a bunch of tall tales about himself (such as the fact that he and Dionysus are secretly the same person, Dionysus eggs Zag on when he learns about it). However, Orpheus takes these tales completely seriously and eventually writes a Hymn to Zagreus's honor, which is completely made up of falsehoods, such as Zagreus being Zeus' (bastard) son instead of Hades'. When Zagreus tries to tell Orpheus multiple times that everything he told him was a joke and not true, Orpheus earnestly commends Zagreus for his modesty in trying to downplay his exploits. Zagreus at this point realizes he may have made a big mistake. note 
  • Gotta Catch 'Em All: The Family Favorite perk on the Mirror of Night encourages Zagreus to diversify their god Boons by giving +2.5% damage for each individual Olympian you have a boon from.
  • Greater-Scope Villain: Demeter, Persephone's mother and the Olympian goddess of the seasons. Her My Beloved Smother qualities are why Persephone had to secretly elope with Hades, and she's trapped the surface world in an Endless Winter ever since her daughter went missing due to a particularly nasty case of Poor Communication Kills.
  • Grief-Induced Split: In the backstory, Persephone's strained relationship with Hades reaches its breaking point when their son Zagreus is stillborn. Unable to bear life in the Underworld anymore, she runs away to go into hiding on the surface. Because of this, she is unaware that her son was actually saved from death due to Nyx's intervention of. Zagreus' goal throughout the game is to reunite with her, but once he gets the whole story, he decides to repair the relationship between his parents.
  • Grief Song: "Orpheus' Lament" is part grief song and part admonishment to himself for his failure to revive his wife Eurydice. By looking back toward her just before the two made their way out of the Underworld, he sent her back to the realm of the dead.
    Hear, oh gods, my desperate plea
    To see my love beside me...
  • Ground Pound: The Stygian Blade special has Zagreus do a forward flip and slam his weapon into the ground, doing area damage.
  • Gun Acquisition Explanation: Exagryph, the Adamant Rail, is a rifle which exists in Ancient Greece. Apparently it was originally owned by Eris, the incarnation of strife and discord, and the narrator hopes that a weapon such as itself doesn't ever lands in mortal hands.
  • Guy on Guy Is Hot: Dusa has thoughts on Zagreus/Thanatos, and they are not innocent.
    Dusa: I mean, you ought to see yourselves! You're, whew...! Makes me a little woozy just remembering it now!
  • Happy Ending Override: Inverted, and how. Many of the sidequests focus on taking tragic endings from classical Greek stories and fixing things for their protagonists in the afterlife.
    • The ending of The Iliad sees Patroclus and Achilles both dead and the entire war a massive waste of life. The game demonstrates that Achilles has tempered his rage and chosen to mentor Zagreus, albeit living in an afterlife of misery due to a predatory contract, while Patroclus is depressed and broken due to being trapped in the violent Elysium without the man he loves. By the end, Zagreus barters through the contract and lets the two visit each other, making them far happier.
    • The myth of Sisyphus ends with him forced to forever roll a boulder up a hill in the underworld due to his grievous sins and repeated avoidances of death. Even when the game opens, it's explicitly indicated that Sisyphus has become a friendlier man in the afterlife, and by the end of his plotline, Zagreus has ensured he no longer has to roll the boulder, finally ending his eternal sentence.
    • The myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is one of the most famously tragic conclusions in Greek history, with Orpheus' error forcing him to leave his beloved behind in the underworld, the both of them left to suffer alone due to the mistake. In Hades, Zagreus befriends both of them and ends up bringing them back together, both physically and emotionally, where they perform a stunningly beautiful duet together and reaffirm their love.
  • Hard Mode Perks: After purchasing the related work order with diamonds, adding enough heat with the Pact of Punishment enables gates to Erebus rooms, which give big rewards if they are completed without taking damage. Completing runs with new levels of heat themselves qualify, as you receive more Titan's Blood, Diamonds, and Ambrosia each time.
  • Have a Nice Death:
    • Hypnos keeps records of the various ways Zagreus will die in his futile quest to escape the underworld, and he'll often comment on the most recent death after Zag drags himself out of the River Styx.
    • Dying in a Trial of the Gods, in one of Hades' locked rooms, while carrying a Chaos Boon, or in a Thanatos challenge will have the relevant god or goddess comment on your latest demise in the death screen.
    • In the post-game, you'll also get a variation every time you complete a run. After a few clears, the narrator will describe each of the ways Zagreus dies and returns to the underworld, from falling off a cliff, getting too close to various wild animals, to being killed by a cactus.
  • Healing Spring:
    • Fountains that restore health appear after the first three boss fights and before the final boss. They can also randomly show up as breather chambers in Tartarus, Asphodel, and Elysium if Zagreus commissions the work orders for them.
    • In Styx, Zagreus can heal from poison by drinking from fountains inside the chambers. Unlike the fountains in the first three regions, the water is disgusting and murky, but it does the job.
  • Heart Container: Centaur Hearts restore and increase Zagreus's overall health by 25 points each for the current run. Some boons also modify the amount of health increased.
  • The Heartless: Soulcatchers are burnt-out, hateful souls that have gathered together and congealed into a mass of murderous butterflies.
  • Heart of Happiness: Zagreus' platonic relationships are tracked via red hearts, with a separate (more ornate) heart used if the relationship becomes romantic.
  • Hell of a Heaven: The fact that Elysium is a Warrior Heaven and every shade in the place is out to kill Zagreus for bragging rights makes it a very unpleasant place for him despite its beauty. Patroclus is likewise miserable there, wishing he'd gone to the boring but tranquil Asphodel meadows (before they were turned into a Lethal Lava Land, of course) instead.
  • He Who Must Not Be Seen: Heracles is… somewhere around, probably in Elysium. He gets plenty of mention, though, as Zagreus is a fan and gets giddy when he thinks that the Champion of Elysium is said hero. Much to Zagreus' disappointment, Theseus is the actual Champion, and he is contemptible about the idea that Heracles is at all greater than him. And to round it out, Hades has a low view of the man, thinking of him as a personification of all the worst things in the ideal Greek hero.
  • Hit Stop:
    • Whenever you defeat the last enemy in a room, the killing blow is slowed down for dramatic effect.
    • When Theseus's health is halved or his chariot is destroyed, he calls upon Olympus, and one of the Olympian gods comes to his aid. That moment of action is slowed down.
  • Home of the Gods: Following Greek tradition, gods either dwell in the Underworld (Chthonic gods) or on Mount Olympus (Olympians). The Underworld further has a literal Home of the Gods in the House of Hades, a Big Fancy Castle that serves as both Zagreus's home and the game's Hub Level.
  • Hot God: All of the gods are designed to be attractive in some way, explicitly by the art director's design.
    Jen Zee: Greg and I even had very intellectual conversations on why this should be so, which is that the ancient Greeks, like us, were huge fans of the human form and beauty, and they celebrated it a lot. So it was kind of a carte blanche to make everyone really hot.
  • Hotter and Sexier: Compared to the previous Supergiant Games titles. There's a large amount of attractive characters (both female and male), including Aphrodite being covered by nothing but her hair and a number of male characters that show off their physique like Zagreus and Dionysus. Furthermore, while sex and romance were usually either not mentioned, or are secondary in games like Bastion and Pyre (even in Transistor, the romance between Red and "Mr. Nobody" is extremely chaste), this game allows Zagreus to romance other characters (Megaera and Thanatos, specifically) and maxing out their affection ends with a scene that implies he had sex with them. There's also the option for Zagreus to enter a relationship with both of them, which can result in a scene implying that they had a threesome.
  • Humans by Any Other Name: Humans are always referred to as "mortals".
  • Hyperactive Metabolism: Some of the health pickups in this game are food such as gyros and French fries.
  • I Don't Want to Ruin Our Friendship:
    • Should the player refuse a Relationship Upgrade with Thanatos, Zagreus sticks by his prior confession but says he can't trust himself not to rush things and hurt Thanatos again, so he wants to remain friends for the time being.
    • After purusing a relationship with Dusa, the pair will have a private conversation where Dusa says, while he is the nicest soul in the underworld, she isn't attracted to Zagreus. They both decide to remain close friends.
  • Immortality Begins at Twenty: Or rather, Eternity as a Spirit Begins At Twenty. According to Eurydice, dead souls are allowed to choose which age to remain for the rest of their...existence, with those who died of old age almost always jumping for their spry prime selves. Sisyphus is the most outstanding example, as he died of old age but appears to be middle-aged at oldest.
  • Immortality Promiscuity: Gods just don't do the monogamy thing, even gods tasked with punishing mortals for infidelity. Hades is the only known exception, and it's a trait he definitely did not pass on to his son.
  • Immortal Life Is Cheap: It is Greek mythology. Many of the characters spend a whole lot of time repeatedly killing each other, knowing that it won't result in much more than an unpleasant bath in the River Styx. Zagreus also mentions to Achilles that he feels much less comfortable slaying the rats and Satyrs in the Temple of Styx than the shades in the Underworld, as they're the first mortal things he's ever killed. Hades outright lampshades this in his first pre-fight conversations with Zagreus.
    Hades: We're gods, boy. Killing one another is our lot.
  • Immune to Flinching: Armored enemies (glowing yellow with a second health bar) cannot be stunned and are more resistant to knockback than normal enemies. Once you've broken through the armor, they become normal enemies.
  • Incurable Cough of Death: The first time Zagreus successfully escapes from the Underworld, he lets out a single cough while en route to Persephone's farm. After reaching Persephone and spending some time with her, his condition suddenly and rapidly worsens, and Persephone realises that, just like his father, Zagreus is bound to the Underworld and cannot survive outside it for long. He soon collapses and dies, ending up back at the House of Hades.
  • I Need to Go Iron My Dog: Thanatos's first reaction to Zagreus' abrupt Love Confession is to suddenly declare that he just remembered he has a bunch of mortals to fetch and immediately poof out of sight, too flustered to say whether he reciprocates enough.
  • In Medias Res: The game begins right as Zagreus makes his first escape attempt. You need to go through a few runs first before getting the flashbacks that tell you why.
  • Instructive Level Design: A variant. Keepsakes like Thanatos's Pierced Butterfly or Eurydice's Evergreen Acorn provide useful bonuses in and of themselves — the former gives you bonus damage for each room you clear without taking damage; the latter blocks the first 3-to-5 attacks you take during a boss fight — but are doubly valuable in that they teach the player useful skills, such as avoiding damage.
  • Interactive Narrator: Downplayed. Zagreus will occasionally make short responses to the narrator's descriptions. He'll also make frustrated comments if you skip past his narration during flashback scenes.
    Zagreus: You know I can hear you, old man.
  • Interchangeable Antimatter Keys: Multiple Chthonic Keys are used to unlock Infernal Arms and Mirror of Night abilities, and each are consumed upon use. The codex explicitly acknowledges how keys disintegrating upon use is consequence of them being formed from the shadows.
  • Interface Spoiler:
    • The Fated List of Minor Prophesies includes Zagreus's successful escape from the Underworld as one of the first on the list. It also includes a reward to be collected, which means Zagreus will inevitably have to return to the Underworld as well.
    • Repeatedly visiting a region updates its codex entry. Once Zagreus reaches the surface world of Greece for the first time, the update requirements for that location's codex entry hints that Zagreus would have to make ten escape attempts before he can convince Persephone return to the Underworld.
    • The story contains a rare in-universe example, as the catalyst for the plot is Zagreus finding out Persephone is his mother because he overheard the narrator describing a letter from her as "written in his mother's hand."
      Narrator: Thus did Prince of the Underworld Zagreus absorb the contents of this hidden letter, written in his mother's hand.
      Zagreus: His mother's hand, my mother's hand, wait, what?! You're saying this Persephone, that's she's my...mother...? But Father always said that Nyx was my... That liar. He lied to me, they both did. All my life!
      Narrator: Uhh... Erm... Thus did the Prince discover, inadvertently, the well-kept truth about his lineage. Entirely by chance, this did occur...
  • An Interior Designer Is You: Zagreus can purchase various decorations and cosmetic upgrades for the House of Hades with the Gemstones he collected, with Hades commenting dryly on all the upgrades you make.
  • Interplay of Sex and Violence: Frequently comes into play between Zagreus and Megaera, with Zagreus often flirting with Megaera in their pre-battle exchanges and even implying he actually quite likes getting mauled by her on the regular.
  • In the Hood: During the Early Access days, several characters originally used a placeholder portrait depicting them in hooded robes with hidden faces before the game was updated with their own artwork.
  • Isometric Projection: Much like Supergiant's previous games, Hades uses 3D models against hand-painted, tile-based backgrounds.
  • I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Deconstructed with several characters. Achilles agrees to work in the House of Hades so that his beloved Patroclus can take his place in Elysium, but it means they can never see each other again. Orpheus desperately wishes to be reunited with his muse, but his guilt at failing to save her convinces him she's happier never seeing him again. Hades doesn't tell Persephone their son survived, partly to keep her from being tied to the Underworld, and partly to spare her a war between their families. A huge part of what Zagreus does to improve things in the House and among his family is enabling various parties' reunions.
  • It Will Never Catch On: Orphism, as it turns out, was a prank on Zagreus and Dionysus's part that got a little out of hand.
    Hades: You fill Orpheus's mind with nonsense, he produces nonsense. Nonsense that, I presume, shall spread from this place far and wide so that everyone might know that I have nothing to do with you.
    Zagreus: I'm not worried. Orpheus plays for a very small audience... I hope.
  • Jack of All Stats: Varatha the Eternal Spear has a nice spread of different kinds of attacks. Rapid jabs and dashing slashes, a powerful charged sweep, and ranged special.
  • Jerkass Gods: Relatively downplayed, but this is a modern take on Greek mythology, after all. In Trial of the Gods rooms, whichever god Zagreus doesn't pick will hunt him down mercilessly for the slight, gloating if they manage to kill him. The story at large demonstrates various shades of pettiness and jerkassery from gods, especially Hades and Demeter. Dionysus mentions he severs all contact with any of his partygoers or worshippers once they die, believing them to be weird downers, and Artemis is frequently expresses a lack of empathy for the 'weak' and encourages Zagreus to do the same. They're just prey, after all.
  • Justified Extra Lives: In the sense that 'even if you die, you just restart the process all over again'. In Greek mythology, everyone, regardless of affiliation, eventually go to Hades. So even if Zagreus dies, he will just return to the House of Hades, snark at dear old dad, give Cerberus a pat, and try again. Because where else is he going to go, Detroit?
  • Kill Enemies to Open:
    • The usual Encounters require Zagreus to defeat all enemies before he can proceed to the next one.
    • Infernal Troves can only be opened after all summoned enemies are defeated.
  • Killer Rabbit: A rare encounter in the Temple of Styx can have Zagreus face-to-face with a seemingly normal Vermin that turns out to be this trope. It's every bit as fast and aggressive as its normal cousins, but has thousands of Hit Points and can (or will) bite Zagreus to death. An update even gave him the same health bar and death animation as the bosses.
    Zagreus: Uh... Oh, *chuckles* it's just a tiny vermin...
    *Vermin releases Battle Aura, roars like a lion*
    Zagreus: Oh, gods!
  • King Mook: There are "Dire" versions of several enemies as minibosses: Bloodless and Flingers, Gorgons and Stone Smashers, Soulcatchers, and come Styx, an extra possible four: the Dire Satyr, Vermin, Bother, and Snakestone. These are much tougher and stronger than their normal counterparts and come with very tough armor, too. The Tiny Vermin is an inversion, being a much stronger, much smaller version of the Giant Vermin.

    Tropes L-O 
  • Lampshade Hanging: Tons regarding the game's state while it was in early access. For example, making it to the end of a run the second time has Hades, the final boss, question why Zagreus is even bothering to try and escape when they both know he's going to inexplicably die after their fight.
  • Large Ham: True to form, nearly all of the Olympian gods are irrepressibly dramatic. Special mention goes to Zeus, Demeter, and especially Poseidon — the latter of which has No Indoor Voice. In contrast, the Chthonic gods tend to be rather reserved, though some of them can reach Cold Ham levels themselves. Of the non-Olympians, the only notable participant is Theseus, King of Elysium, who more than makes up for the lack of hamming mortals.
  • Last Grasp at Life:
    • The River Styx in Tartarus is full of drowned souls' hands reaching upwards. A trip to Charon's shop may also have an interactable spot wherein the narrator gives an exposition about the river being filled with such souls.
    • Whenever Zagreus successfully escapes and is then taken back to the Underworld, he plunges into the River Styx and raises one arm out before fully sinking.
  • Layman's Terms: One of the runs Hypnos makes it to the Featured Houseservant board, he can be found speaking with Hades, who commends him. After Hypnos runs his Motor Mouth and Hades then threatens to not only retract his statement but kick Hypnos out of the House as well, Hypnos asks him to clarify what he said in "smaller words", because he must've misheard, and that sounded kind of bad.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall: During early access, parts of the game that weren't finished were chalked up to "Ongoing Underworld Renovations".
  • Lethal Lava Land: The Asphodel Meadows, a handful of barren islands of rock surrounded by eternally bubbling and spitting lava. Convection isn't an issue for Zagreus, as he's flame-resistant (but not flame-proof, so stepping directly into the lava still hurts him). Comments from various characters indicate that Asphodel wasn't always like this, as it used to be more lush and green like Elysium before the river Phlegethon flooded the area and burned it up.
  • Let's Wait a While: Zagreus suggests waiting a bit when entering a relationship with Thanatos, wanting to prove that he's serious about this and not just acting on another knee-jerk impulse. Thanatos humors him for all of five minutes before he shows up in his bedroom and points out that neither of them actually want to wait.
  • Life/Death Juxtaposition:
    • As in the myths, Hades (god of the Underworld) was married to Persephone (a harvest goddess).
    • Demeter is the goddess of seasons both bountiful and barren, and this is referenced in her boons: while most of them are about inflicting icy damage on your enemies (and one of them will kill them outright at 10% health), others strengthen your healing.
    • Thanatos (the god of death) has a strong bond with Zagreus. Achilles speculates that this is because Zagreus is actually the god of blood and life.
  • Lighter and Softer:
    • Only in comparison to some of the darkest Greek myths, but overall, this is one of the lightest interpretations of Olympus, even with the bickering and competition between the gods (which are more akin to family squabbles).
    • The circumstances that led to Persephone and Hades marrying are a lot more consensual compared to the myths. Rather than being kidnapped by Hades, Persephone was a "gift" to Hades from Zeus but stayed with him willingly to get away from the gods of Olympus, who she viewed as far too decadent and abrasive.
    • Other controversial aspects of the myths, such as Brother–Sister Incest, are either adjusted to appeal more to a modern day audience or are outright removed, though nods to how the mythology was originally are hinted and mentioned, mostly by the gods mentioning spreading false stories or twisting facts out of either hatred or pettiness.
  • Limit Break: Calls invoke powerful effects like raining lightning bolts or becoming invincible for a limited time. They can only be used when the God Gauge fills a certain amount, and if the gauge is completely filled, you can invoke a Greater Call, which increases the duration and/or intensity of the effect.
  • Limited Wardrobe: Lampshaded. Before battling, Hades tosses his cape, which burns out in the air. Zagreus wonders how many capes he to the point that he can keep burning them dramatically. Gaining access to his father's quarters reveals that his closet is filled with identical capes, and Zagreus comments upon them triumphantly.
  • Long Song, Short Scene: Many tracks have two versions: one for when Zagreus is in combat and one for when he is out of combat, each of which are several minutes in length. For the most part, you only hear the out-of-combat versions during the few lines of dialogue before you face off against the boss, meaning you need to intentionally idle on the dialogue screen to hear the entire non-combat version of the track.
  • Lore Codex: Achilles gives Zagreus the "Codex of the Underworld" for him to carry around and fill out while he escapes. Some things, like locations, weapons, foes, and artifacts, are filled out automatically. Others, like the Chthonic and Olympian Gods, on the other hand, require some input from Zag in order to fill out their entries.
  • Loving Parent, Cruel Parent: Zagreus's father, the titular God of the Dead, regularly sneers down his nose at Zagreus and his efforts to escape the Underworld, going so far as to send monsters after him and act as the Final Boss. Zagreus's adoptive mother, Nyx, gives him the Mirror of Darkness that he uses to upgrade his skills and encourages him to fight his way out of the underworld and find his real mother, Persephone. When he does, Persephone at first disbelieves that Zagreus is her son, as he was a Tragic Stillbirth as far as she knew, being revived by Nyx after she fled back to the surface. After she gets over this, Persephone dotes on her son as much as she can during his short visits, and after ten clears of the underworld, joins him and his father in the House of Hades. After this, Hades starts to go a little easier on Zagreus in every context except for combat.
  • Luck-Based Mission:
    • You can't predict where the Satyr Sack is located within the Temple of Styx. While it is programmed to be absent from the first chamber that you enter, the sack randomly appears in any of the remaining rooms. The devs even recorded lines for Zagreus lampshading his luck of finding the sack too soon, or his misfortune if the sack happens to be in the last room.
    • Less generally, Legendary Boons and Duo boons. Even if you meet the requirements for them, you can fill your whole dashboard with boons from the same gods and still not get what you're after. Even with the Mirror of Night upgrade that makes both more likely, Legendary Boons tend to be evasive unless you pick up a lot of boons from one specific god.
    • The Fated List of Minor Prophecies contains sidequests that require you to try all boons and Daedalus Hammer upgrades. While these require multiple playthroughs, the choices are mostly up to the Random Number God. Boons are softened by a Luck Manipulation Mechanic which allows you to reroll options in search of ones you haven't tried... But Hammers are not.
    • Speedrunning with the in-game timer frequently comes down to how many shops and fountains show up (to avoid combat entirely), how many event chambers and Thanatos contests show up (during which the timer is paused), and the above mentioned Satyr Sack RNG. Truly unfortunate players might be set up for a new record time, only to crash headlong into a tough miniboss for their build or the Barge of Death.
    • Keepsakes allow you to increase the odds of encountering eight of the Boon-bestowing gods. ...There are ten such gods. The other two (Hermes and Chaos) are completely down to luck.
  • Luck Manipulation Mechanic:
    • The various gods' keepsakes. Normally, which gods will help Zagreus is chosen randomly. By equipping one of their keepsakes, however, you are guaranteed to always be offered that god's Boon as your next one (assuming you're going to be offered one any time soon). This allows Zagreus a degree of control over his build, and to aim for specific Duo Boons.
    • The late-game Fated Persuasion skill allows you to re-roll the boons a god or Well of Charon is offering, albeit only a limited number of times. The alternate skill, Fated Authority, lets you re-roll the reward for the next room to a different one of the same rarity.
  • Macrogame: There are a number of "permanent" resources in the game.
    • Darkness is used at the Mirror of Night to infuse Zagreus with permanent buffs.
    • Chthonic Keys are used to unlock new segments of the Mirror of Night, as well as new Infernal Arms.
    • Nectar, and later Ambrosia, are used to improve your relationship with various NPCs. This allows you to unlock Keepsakes which provide tweaks to Zagreus's statistics (like Cerberus's collar, giving him a HP boost) or increasing the likelihood of a certain specific god to give you a Boon. Improve your relationship with a character enough, requiring 5 or 6 Nectar and 1 Ambrosia, will also give Zagreus the option to use that character as an Assist Character during your run.
    • Titan Blood allows Zagreus to unlock and empower new weapon forms. These "Aspects" work slightly differently than the norm: the first one for the Sword, for instance, gives Zagreus a temporary Critical Hit boost after he uses his Special.
  • Magic Mirror: Nyx bequeaths Zagreus the Mirror of Night, which he uses to gradually improve his strength through Darkness.
  • Magikarp Power:
    • Poseidon's Duo Boons with Aphrodite and Dionysus do nothing on their own except permanently buffing future Poms of Power and Boons. If acquired early on, they can drastically boost your overall power level for the run if you actively hunt down Pom and Boon rooms.
    • Demeter's Rare Crop boon makes up to 3 random (depending on its rarity) of your existing boons Common rarity, then upgrades them in rarity every 3 encounters. If you're lucky enough to get it early and have it affect the boons you want, you can grow monstrously powerful over time since rarity increases boon effficacy much more than levels.
    • The Adamant Rail starts off pretty weak. The primary fire has the lowest damage of any attack in the game, and the grenade launcher can be unwieldy to use. However, it synergizes great with any stackable debuffs since the rail also has the fastest attack in the game, meaning you can hit full stacks nearly instantly. And with the right weapon upgrades, the grenade launcher can either become an RPG, able to shoot off multiple grenades in a row, or even both if you get lucky. Combine this with Artemis' Support Fire, and you get a constant stream of arrows fired off.
    • Several boons start off relatively weak and/or difficult to use properly, but they are more likely to have multiple potential buffs that can dramatically increase their power and usefulness. For example, Dionysus' cast, Trippy Shot, comes out slow and has a limited range. However, there are several boons (including several Duo boons) that increase its power, make it come out faster, and give it additional status effects, turning it into a potential Swiss-Army Weapon.
    • Even Hidden Aspects get into this. The Aspect of Gilgamesh for the Twin Fists of Malphon add a new "Maim" Damage-Increasing Debuff to your Special: enemies take 25% more, and deal 50% more. This isn't a great thing to see on the shortest-ranged weapon in the game... But a Hammer upgrade, "Rending Claws," evens it out by causing Maim victims to take a total of +50% bonus damage and move slower.
  • The Many Deaths of You: The snarky one-liners Zagreus says as he revives from one of his many deaths and Hypnos' comments though are massive, seemingly having one for every conceivable scenario.
  • A Match Made in Stockholm: Hades and Persephone, as per the myth, though somewhat downplayed in this interpretation. Even though Hades did not abduct Persephone himself and was pretty damn incensed by Zeus's unsolicited "matchmaking," he admits that he was at least an accessory to kidnapping, and let Demeter believe her daughter was dead for who knows how long and that the Olympians' presumed retaliation would not be entirely unjustified.
  • Mercy Invincibility:
    • Certain boons and keepsakes grant you temporary invincibility after being hit or using Death Defiance. Enemies can get this through the Damage Control condition, which allows them to ignore one hit for each rank.
    • Zagreus also innately receives a short moment of invulnerability if he takes a severe amount of damage in a short amount of time. This ability is removed by the pact condition Personal Liability, which only appears in Hell Mode, where it is mandatory.
  • Metaphorically True:
    • Persephone justifies the cover story given to the Olympians when Zagreus voices his concerns about lying to them. It may be lying by omission, but those omissions are all either none of their damn business, or things they honestly don't care to know anyways. The only active lie is about the pomegranate seeds, and even that can be seen as a metaphor for her son, Zagreus.
    • "Borrowing" Obols from Charon in a midway shop is effectively this, since any and all Obols you obtain return to him at the end of each run no matter what. Of course, you're borrowing without his permission, which is still by definition thievery.
  • Mighty Glacier: There are a few examples to be found, although most of them are still reasonably fast on their feet due to how fast-paced the game is.
    • Louts are big, slow and tanky, and their only attack is telegraphed and predictably carries them forwards in a straight line.
    • The Doomstone miniboss is a mix between this and a Mook Maker. It constantly spawns small, relatively-weak enemies who will connect with it to turn the arena into a web of laser death, but the Doomstone itself is huge, slow, and very, very hard to kill.
    • Zagreus becomes one when wielding the Aspect of Arthur. It hits like a freight train, boosts his health by up to 50 points and can also deploy a defensive field that slows enemies and projectiles, grants Zagreus damage reduction, and blocks trap plates. The downside is that it's one of the slowest weapons in the game, demanding careful positioning from the player. If you've built well with it, you can easily be hitting for massive chunks of damage while simply tanking anything the game can throw at you.
  • Mini-Boss: The first three areas each feature mini-boss encounters that will reward you with a boon of higher rarity than usual. In the Temple of Styx, two of the Satyr tunnels contain mini-bosses at the end. Any boons from those tunnels will be rare at worst, and any other bonuses (obols, poms, or centaur hearts) will be twice as potent as normal.
  • Minimalist Run: It's possible to complete a run without as few Olympian boons as possible by using Fated Authority to re-roll rooms and the Pool of Purging to get rid any that you're forced to pick up. The final boss even comments on this if you try it. In another sense, a fresh file save run is truly difficult since you have no Mirror perks, no keepsakes, only the sword, and several of the gods are locked.
  • Mirror Character: Try as Zagreus (and Hades) may deny it, but they really are father and son. Zagreus can be short-tempered, impetuous, impatient (such as when Hades has a solemn moment on the surface before Zagreus angrily tells him to get it over with), and insulting to anyone who vaguely inconveniences him (such as spending most of his early interactions with Asterius mocking him, even when Asterius shows him respect, or snarking at the Furies)… just like dear ol' dad. Likewise, Hades, for all his faults, is capable of genuiune kindness to strangers, shares his son's appreciation of the surface world's wonders, and shares his distrust of the Gods. It's also implied that he shared the same hatred for the Titans, just as Zagreus has for Hades. And for a cherry on top, both of them love Cerberus, which is evident when Hades would sometimes praise certain renovations that Zag ordered specifically for the dog.
  • Mirror Match: Zagreus vs the Final Boss, Hades himself — especially with the Eternal Spear equipped, and especially with the Aspect of Hades equipped, naturally enough. Not only does the boss have access to the same thrust attack, charged spin attack, and dash, but he also has his own Cast. Justified of course, since they are father and son.
  • Misplaced Wildlife: Artemis’ birds are New World quail, which, as the name implies, are only found in the Americas.
  • Modular Difficulty:
    • Upon completing your first successful run, you gain access to the Pact of Punishment. The Pact allows you to to obtain more meta resources like Titan's Blood and Diamonds if you play at a higher Heat level. Your heat is determined by what conditions you have active, including taking bonus damage, health restoration being less effective, a time limit, and much more.
    • At any pointnote  you can pause the game and activate "God Mode." It's not invulnerability as the name would imply, but it does give you 20% damage resistance which gets increased by 2% all the way up to 80% every time you die.
  • Money Is Experience Points: Chthonic Keys are mainly used to purchase upgrades at the Mirror of Night but can also be exchanged for items and other types of currency.
  • Money Multiplier:
    • Some boons increase the amount that you earn from collecting currencies.
    • One of Zagreus's weapons in the courtyard will on randomly be buffed with the Dark Thirst effect, a passive that increases the amount of Darkness received if you equip that weapon for the next run. Its Darker Thirst upgrade also boosts the amount of Gems received alongside Darkness.
  • Money Sink:
    • The House Contractor offers some extremely pricey cosmetic items for gemstones, the priciest in the thousands range, and some items require spending multiple diamonds. Once you unlock the music stand, unlocking all the associated songs costs upwards of 50 diamonds. Eventually, you can purchase new skins for certain menus, one of which costs 25,000 darkness, which is roughly two-thirds the combined costs of maxing the Mirror of Night.
    • The Resource Director, who appears in Hades' bedroom a few runs after Persephone's return, exchanges huge amounts of resources (particularly Darkness) to improve the rank of a badge that shows up to the left of Zagreus' health bar. It's even noted in dialogue that his services are purely for pride.
    • Each weapon has four aspects which, besides the vanilla Zagreus aspect, and each take a large amount of Titan's Blood to upgrade to max. After maxing out one's favourite aspect for each weapon, more Blood isn't strictly necessary, but for those seeking completion of all aspects, it takes quite a lot.
    • It takes plenty of Ambrosia to upgrade all of the companions so they can be used multiple times a run. As with the Blood, this is more for completion's sake, as only one companion can be used in a run.
    • In the Temple of Styx, Charon's shop includes a valuable currency in the upper-right corner, which is usually a Titan Blood or a Diamond. However, it costs up to 1,200 coins; quite a money sink for players who have saved up so much from the previous levels.
  • Money Spider: Enemies have a chance to drop Obols, even the more animalistic foes. Zagreus will occasionally Lampshade this.
  • Monster Compendium: The "Perilous Foes" section of the Codex serves as a bestiary of enemies that can be encountered in each biome. Compared to the usual examples of this trope, it leans more towards Flavor Text, however, since the Codex entries are written by Achilles and contain his perspectives on them.
  • Mook Maker: Tartarus Skullomats, which produce Numbskulls infinitely until dealt with. The Soulcatcher mini-boss in Elysium also produces shades infinitely until destroyed.
  • More Dakka: Some upgrades for the Adamant Rail increase its clip size or speed up its rate of fire.
  • Morton's Fork: 'The Trial of the Gods' works this way. No matter which god of the two you pick first, the other will become enraged and subject Zagreus to an extended assault that may or may not kill him.
  • Motor Mouth: Several characters, most obviously Hermes, who never slows down even when he's talking. There's also Dionysus, who is more to the tune of slurred run-on sentences, and Dusa, who babbles due to her nervous demeanor.
  • Multiple Life Bars: Armored foes have a second, yellow health bar overlaid on top of their regular one. The Damage Control condition also applies a blue health bar to all foes that blocks one hit per level of the condition.
  • Multishot: The bow's special sprays a cone of arrows in front of Zagreus. It can also be upgraded so that the normal attack fires either two or three shots at once. Artemis likewise offers a rarer boon that fires homing arrows whenever you attack with any weapon, which can quickly fill the screen with projectiles.
  • Mutually Exclusive Power-Ups:
    • You can only have one boon that affects your attack, special, cast, dash, and call each. Getting another such boon will overwrite the old one. To compensate, any levels gained from Poms of Power are retained, and the replacing boon will be of the next level of rarity.
    • Certain Daedalus Hammer upgrades are incompatible. For example, you can't apply both the Twin Shot and Triple Shot upgrades to the Heart-Seeking Bow.
    • The Mirror of Night upgrades each have two aspects that you can swap between, such as either having three bloodstones for casts, or a single bloodstone that regenerates over time. You can use either for as long as you've paid for them, but not both at once.
  • My Rules Are Not Your Rules: While your shield can protect you from the front while letting AOE attacks go through, the same cannot be said for the ones the enemy Greatshields uses.
  • Mystical White Hair: Thanatos, Hypnos, Chaos, Ares, and Zeus all sport white hair, though Ares also qualifies as White Hair, Black Heart.
  • Named Weapons: Hades himself wields a two-pronged spear called "Gigaros," and each of the Infernal Arms that Zagreus can wield have names and titles.
    • The sword is Stygius, the Blade of the Underworld.
    • The spear is Varatha, the Eternal Spear.
    • The shield is Aegis, the Shield of Chaos.
    • The bow is Coronacht, the Heart-Seeking Bow.
    • The gun is Exagryph, the Adamant Rail.
    • The gauntlets are the Twin Fists of Malphon.
  • Necessary Drawback:
    • Certain Daedalus Hammer upgrades provide extremely powerful effects with an equally debilitating downside. For example, Stygius has an upgrade which heals you for each strike, but your health is reduced by sixty percent, which applies not only to your current health, but also to every health upgrade during that run.
    • Compared to the other weapon forms, the final/hidden aspects of each weapon have powerful innate advantages combined with drawbacks and/or slower attacks. For example, the Spear's Aspect of Guan Yu adds a Life Drain effect to the weapon's spin attack (as well as changing the spin attack into a projectile), but your maximum health and the effectiveness of health upgrades are reduced.
  • Never My Fault: Averted by Hades; after you convince Persephone to return and he begins mending his relationship with Zagreus, he admits that his behavior was inexcusable, even considering the circumstances around it. Considering how genuinely baffled he is if Zagreus makes overtures to him, such as giving Nectar, he's not kidding.
  • Nightmare Hands: Tartarus' red waters are filled with spectral hands reaching out, although they pose no mechanical threat.
  • No-Damage Run:
    • Battles in Erebus reward a boss-level boon or item if you can beat them without being damaged. If you take damage, you get a Red Onion that only heals a single hit point.
    • Encouraged by the Pierced Butterfly keepsake, which gives a permanent 1/1.5/2% increase to global damage per room cleared without taking damage (except for Chaos drawback damage).
  • No Ending: The Early Access released with nothing happening after you make it to the surface and beat the Final Boss, so instead, the Narrator makes up a flimsy excuse about how Zagreus somehow died and he ends up back in the House of Hades again. Even in the full release, there's no point at which the game explicitly ends and you can't play any further (nor does the Narrator's flimsy death excuses stop), although there is additional post-game story content to be experienced.
  • No Escape but Down: All of Zagreus's escapes begin with him jumping out a large window in the courtyard beyond his room.
  • No Final Boss for You: After you've successfully escaped to the surface nine times, Hades still awaits outside the Temple of Styx. However, in recognition of Zagreus's efforts to bring Persephone home, he relents and lets Zagreus pass through without a fight. You still get all the rewards from a successful run, and it serves as a cathartic payoff right before the main story ends.
  • No Fourth Wall: The gods don't seem to really respect the idea of it, throughout both games. Zagreus can hear, and often responds to, the game's Narrator to the point a crucial plot development happens because Zagreus heard the Narrator reveal that his mother is Persephone, not Nyx, in the sequel Melinoe also makes repeated jabs against the Narrator up to calling him by his real name, Creator/Homer, and during the final battle Chronos acknowledges, mocks and undoes your pausing to resume the fight until you perform a certain invocation.
  • No-Sell:
    • The Cosmic Egg makes Zagreus immune to the damage taken by entering the Realm of Chaos.
    • Eurydice's acorn gives Zagreus a barrier that absorbs the first few blows from any boss or mini-boss.
    • Aegis can block any attack in the game while Zagreus is charging up Bull Rush, though Zagreus's back is still vulnerable. It's also notable for being the only way to destroy Hades' skull casts during his boss fight before they land; if you block them when he first casts them, they're completely obliterated, and you don't need to worry about mopping them up off the arena floor afterwards.
  • Not Blood Siblings: Thanatos is Nyx's son and Megaera was adopted by her. For most of his life Zagreus was raised to believe that Nyx was his mother by birth. Since he realized they weren't related before the game, Zagreus technically being adopted siblings with Than and Meg isn't significant in their romance routes.
  • Not the Intended Use: Stubborn Defiance is an alternative version of Death Defiance selectable at the Mirror of Night that saves Zagreus from lethal damage once per room and restores 30% HP, which recharges once per room and cannot stack. Since this HP restoration isn't affected by the Pact's Lasting Consequences healing reduction, a legitimate strategy at high heat is to deliberately take lethal damage once per room to return health back to 30% (or more with some boons/Charon items), as this is one of the only reliable ways to regain HP at all. The few hazards that still damage Zagreus after a room is cleared (notably lava in Asphodel) can be used to deliberately "heal" through SD, which is itself a case of Not the Intended Use.
  • Notice This:
    • There are audio cues that chime when a room has been completed to indicate if there is something besides the exit that Zagreus can interact with, such as a purging pool or a fishing point. In the case of a Chaos Gate, Chaos will sometimes call Zagreus over in addition to the audio cue of the gate opening up. They are also accompanied with visual glints, although they are sometimes less noticeable than the audio cues.
    • NPCs have exclamation marks above their heads to indicate that they can be talked to. Those who are instrumental to progressing the current plot have larger exclamation marks instead.
    • Pots that contain coins will not only be a different color than the rest but will also have a periodical reflective animation to further draw attention.
  • Not Rare Over There: While most areas have weird, unique versions of fish to catch, the surface has real-life fish such as bass, which fetch bounty-level collectibles when you give them to the chef in the House of Hades.
  • Oh, My Gods!: Gods will occasionally swear by other gods' names, usually either the Fates or Hades. Occasionally, Zagreus will utter "Oh gods" when faced with especially troublesome enemies.
  • One-Hit Polykill: In addition to the bow having it by default, some Daedalus Hammer upgrades give attacks the ability to pass through multiple enemies.
  • Open Secret: Megaera tells Zagreus he's forbidden from telling anyone that they got back together on pain of death, only for news of it to immediately spread all the way to Olympus. Luckily for Zagreus, Megaera gave him the ultimatum to mess with him rather than because she didn't actually want anyone to know (and even told some people herself).
  • Open Sesame: It's later revealed the front door to the House of Hades opens this way, which Zagreus didn't know since he usually leaves by jumping out of the courtyard window and gets back in via the Pool of Blood after dying. Persephone opens it for him by invoking her authority as Queen of the Underworld which also by a similar line in the sequel implies that Zagreus could have opened it himself by invoking his authority as Prince of the Underworld.
  • Optional Boss:
    • Clearing a run once gives Zagreus access to the "Extreme Measures" Challenge Run option, which replaces each of the bosses with an upgraded version that can often play very differently. Finishing the game's story adds an Extreme Measures upgrade to the Final Boss, again optional, which pulls out all the stops.
    • During a run, Zagreus will occasionally have the option to enrage the normally neutral Charon by stealing from his shop, leading to a bonus boss battle.
  • Orphaned Etymology: Characters occasionally use the term "hell" either as a general curse word or as a synonym for Tartarus. While Hellenistic Judaism and early Christianity did directly equate their own afterlife realms of eternal punishment to Tartarusnote , the word hell and the meaning thereof did not come into existence until Christianity spread into Germanic territories, long after the time in which the game takes place.
  • Our Gods Are Different: Naturally, they generally follow the Greek tradition, though some details are elaborated upon or added. The biggest difference is that there's a clearer distinction placed between the Chthonic (Underworld) gods and the Olympian gods.
  • Our Spirits Are Different: Shades are the semi-material spirits of the dead which make up most of the Underworld's population. The form they take depends on their actions in life. They can be "killed", but this simply disrupts their material forms, which they can reconstitute at a later time.

    Tropes P-R 
  • Pain and Gain:
    • One of the bosses Zagreus can be forced to fight at the end of Tartarus is the fury Alecto. Her primary gimmick is that she has a constant rage meter that builds from the damage she takes, drastically increasing her attack and movement speed and giving her access to all of her attacks once it fills to max. She even enters "Perma-Rage" below 25% health.
    • From Poseidon you can get the "Boiling Point" boon, which increases the charge rate on your God Gauge (allowing you to use your ultimate ability sooner/more often) in proportion to the amount of damage you take.
  • Painfully Slow Projectile:
    • Ares' Blade Rifts move forward slowly and constantly damage foes standing inside them. His Duo Boon with Artemis, Hunting Blades, makes them faster and gives them homing properties, but they're still impractical against the most mobile foes.
    • Athena's Phalanx Shot launches a slow-moving orb which deflects projectiles that collide with it, though it does gradually accelerate.
    • The Aspect of Arthur lets you create an area of Hallowed Ground when you use your special, which reduces enemy speed, enemy damage, and greatly reduces projectile speed as it passes through the zone.
  • Paperwork Punishment: Several dozen spectral shades are shown living out their afterlife punishment toiling in Hades' Celestial Bureaucracy.
  • Passive-Aggressive Kombat: Hades and Zagreus spend most of their arguments pettily sniping at each other on everything; from the dog, to the House of Hades's curtain color. Hades even accuses Zagreus of buying a sundial purely as a power move against him.
    Hades: Indulge me for a moment, boy. Why bother to construct a sundial there, knowing full well it was my wish to have one installed? To demonstrate your awe-inspiring authority? Or to deny me the small pleasure of doing it myself?
    Zagreus: Maybe a little of each? Or maybe you ought not second-guess my every motive and decision, constantly searching for some sinister agenda that has yet to cross my mind?
  • Parental Sexuality Squick: Zagreus does not want to think about the details of his conception. And when Persephone returns, he's quite uncomfortable with the thought that they might try for another kid.
    Zagreus: I... happened.
  • Parents as People:
    • Both Hades and Persephone are flawed parents to Zagreus in their own ways; Hades' emotional abuse and belittlement is at the forefront, while Persephone does love Zagreus but she still disregards his desire for her to come back and live with him and Hades again, eventually ordering him to not return to her garden since she'd rather stay in hiding than fix her family issues. Over the course of the game, Zag helps his parents grow and learn as much as his experiences shape him.
    • Nyx is, for the most part, a very caring and attentive mother… unless your name is Hypnos. While she doesn't love him any less, she is clearly exasperated with his Immortal Immaturity, and has more or less forbidden him from talking to her, in hopes that he would learn some independence.
    • Chaos regrets the lack of contact they have had with Nyx for a very long time and advises Zagreus to keep a closer distance if he has any offspring of his own. They are very grateful should Zagreus help re-establish their relationship with Nyx.
  • Pause Scumming: A common metagame tactic to minimize time taken (e.g. to reduce the effect of the Tight Deadline Pact) is to pause the game before making a decision such as choosing which chamber to enter next or purchasing an item in Charon's shop.
  • Permanently Missable Content: Once Persephone heads back to the Underworld, Zagreus can no longer reach Greece or her farm after defeating Hades, with the Narrator explaining that Zagreus suddenly died again. However, the fishing spots will be relocated to the arena where Hades is fought to avoid locking you out of catching a Trout or Bass.
  • Pet the Dog:
    • Both figuratively and literally! You can give Nectar and Ambrosia to Cerberus, the Hades family's pet dog and guardian of the Underworld; the House's long-suffering maid, Dusa; the long-suffering souls like Sisyphus; and even some of the bosses you defeat. With the "Big Bad" update, Zagreus is also given the option to pet Cerberus. When he reaches the Temple of Styx and realizes that Cerberus is guarding the way out again, he flatly refuses to attack Cerberus and instead raids the Satyr squatters of the Temple for a treat to bribe Cerberus into letting him through.
    • After Persephone has settled in during the Playable Epilogue, the very curmudgeonly Hades sincerely thanks Zagreus for what he did.
    • While Theseus is a pompous blowhard who refuses to believe that Zagreus is anything but an evil monster who must be defeated, he clearly cares a great deal about Asterius. Despite being the one who slew Asterius in life, Theseus willingly rescued Asterius from the depths of Erebus so they could fight side by side in Elysium, and he now treats Asterius as a genuine comrade and equal.
    • During an escape attempt, Hades may stop to ponder the surface world, admiring its beauty, just before Zagreus tells him to shut up and fight him.
    • There's a slight chance that Hades, at the start of a run, may neutrally tell Zagreus to learn about how each God grants their boons. That may not seem like much, but for a perpetual grouch like Hades, it's a lot.
  • Pinball Projectile: With certain boons, Daedalus enhancements or Aspects, Zagreus's thrown weapons or projectiles can ricochet and hit multiple targets. Some of them can also bounce off walls or seek the nearest enemy like a homing projectile.
  • Place Beyond Time: Parodied. It's a Running Gag that nobody can actually keep track of the passage of time in the Underworld, to the point where characters just say "day or night" instead of one or the other. When Zagreus commissions a sundial, it's eternally stuck at 7:48 because he didn't realize it wouldn't work without a (moving) sun.
  • Playable Epilogue: Even after Persephone returns to the Underworld, Zagreus can still attempt to escape at Hades' own urging under the justification of helping him find holes in his security systems. Also, it becomes their way of bonding with one another.
  • Player Death Is Dramatic: Whenever Zagreus is killed, the game cuts all enemies and backgrounds out to a black void, as he dies and is dragged back into the underworld. Even when he has Death Defiance charges remaining, the game will slow down and all sound will go quiet while the Defiance restores him to life.
  • Polyamory: Zagreus can have a polyamorous relationship with both Megaera and Thanatos. He can pursue them either at the same time or one after the other, and none of the parties involved have any problem with it. Once you have both in a romantic relationship, they'll show up in your room, for Zag to quickly realize what they're here for after initially believing the two are here to chew him out, followed by a Sexy Discretion Shot with the both of them. If you choose to have Zagreus pursue Thanatos after he's already in a relationship with Megaera, Thanatos will mention that Meg was the one who convinced him to act on his feelings. Since this is a game based on Greek mythology, this isn't surprising, and other characters will mention that it's common for the gods to take multiple lovers.
  • Poor Communication Kills: Hades' primary motivation for obstructing his son's escape is to keep Persephone safe and the Olympians in the dark about their relationship, in order to prevent a Divine Conflict between the Chthonic and Olympic gods. Much of the plot could've been avoided had Hades simply been honest with Zagreus about his birth mother's identity, what had become of her, and why making contact with her was so potentially perilous. However, his inability and unwillingness to communicate (due in no small part to his own terrible upbringing and grief over Persephone's departure) leads him to instead try to keep everything, including all evidence of Persephone's existence and Zagreus himself, under incredibly tight lock and key. Ironically, by keeping his son in the dark for so long, Hades only makes Zagreus more determined to leave and get his answers, and is eventually forced to address the issue after numerous repeated escape attempts.
  • Post-End Game Content:
    • Two keepsakes can be obtained after the main story is completed, as a result of being able to progress through the related characters' affinity gauges. These are the Pom Blossom keepsake from Persephone and the Sigil of the Dead keepsake from Hades.
    • The Resource Director is an NPC shade who appears after the player has viewed the end credits. He rewards you with cosmetic ranks that require further currency grinding.
  • Power at a Price:
    • Chaos' boons require you to labour under a penalty for multiple rooms before the positive effects manifest. For example, a boon from Chaos might cause your Cast gems to return to you much slower, but after clearing multiple rooms, that changes to a flat buff to your attack power. In addition, just entering the domain of Chaos requires you to give up some of your hit points. The Cosmic Egg keepsake, given to you by Chaos after giving them a bottle of nectar, is the only way to prevent this life loss.
    • The Anvil of Fates, available only in the final area of a run from Charon's shop. You gain two Hammer of Daedalus upgrades at random, but you also lose one at random.
    • The Midas' Touch item from the Well of Charon may allow you to gain obols for a "blood price" of losing some health.
    • One of the Daedalus Hammer upgrades for the sword reduces the max HP of Zagreus by anything from sixty to seventy percent, but lets him recover two HP per hit in exchange.
  • Power Echoes: Nearly all of the gods' voices have a godly reverb, the two exceptions being Zagreus and Persephone.
  • Power-Up Food:
    • Pomegranates (called "Poms of Power") level up a boon, increasing its damage.
    • Eurydice's offerings are all foodstuffs that increase your boons' power. One of them increases up to two boons to the next rarity, one of them increases up to four random boons by one level each, and the last one increases the rarity of the next boons you find.
  • Power-Up Letdown:
    • Certain boons pair poorly with certain weapons, which due to the randomized nature of the game, can be problematic if you run into limited boon choices in a run. For example, slow-firing weapons like the bow benefit from boons that grant damage modifiers, whereas abilities like Zeus's lightning require high volume of fire to reach their full potential.
    • Boons that change the behavior of casts can be this depending on your build. Some builds (such as the Aspect of Hera bow or Aspect of Beowulf shield) want casts that deal damage on impact and causes Bloodstones to dislodge quickly, which makes casts that turn your cast into a different projectile and are slow to collect (like Ares's or Demeter's casts) hard to use. Builds that wants Bloodstones to stay in enemies (to take advantage of the Boiling Blood perk, for example) don't want abilities that cause Bloodstones to dislodge. Uniquely, the Lightning Rod boon causes Bloodstones to deal damage while they remain uncollected, which pairs poorly with boons such as Greater Recall, which auto-collects Bloodstones.
    • Double-Edged Buffs aside, certain Daedalus Hammer upgrades function more as sidegrades and can be actively detrimental depending on the build. For instance, one upgrade on the fists changes your Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs into a slow three-hit sequence, which, while damaging, doesn't pair well with boons that synergize with fast attacks.
  • Practically Different Generations: Nyx has raised many children over the ages, and a number have been born so long ago that Zagreus has never even heard of them.
  • Pressure Plate: Stepping on these would activate the nearby environmental traps, which are mostly armaments that target Zagreus's position.
  • Prophecy Twist: It was prophesized by the Fates that Hades would not have a living heir. After a few defeats to Zagreus (who was stillborn but revived, and absolutely hates his father for his upbringing), Hades speculates that it was not the "living" part that he should have worried about, but the "heir".
  • Psychic Dreams for Everyone: In order to unlock the hidden aspects of Varatha the Eternal Spear and the Twin Fists of Malphon, players need to trigger specific conversations with Achilles and Asterius to get the waking-phrase they heard in their dreams. Achilles and Asterius are not otherwise known to have psychic powers:
    • Achilles reveals that while he was alive and in possession of Varatha, he dreamt of the future when Zagreus would wield it. After his death and employment at the House of Hades, he dreamed of another future wielder, Guan Yu. Repeating the waking-phrase from Achilles will unlock Varatha's Apsect of Guan Yu: the Frost Fair Blade.
    • A conversation with Asterius during his mini-boss fights in Elysium reveals that he dreamt of the confrontation between the mythic king Gilgamesh and the beast-man Enkidu from centuries past. Repeating the waking-phrase from Asterius's dream will unlock Malphon's Aspect of Gilgamesh: the Claws of Enkidu.
  • Punch-Clock Villain:
    • Megaera the Fury is one of the bosses, but she's also Amicable Exes with Zagreus. Problem is, she's also a prison warden meant to prevent any escape, and so you'll have to fight her whenever you reach her chamber.
    • Asterius isn't a bad person by any means, but he simply stands in Zagreus' way because he provides a good fight.
  • Purple Is the New Black: Darkness is depicted as a purple gem.
  • Purposely Overpowered: The Pom Blossom keepsake can be obtained once you finish the main story quest and give a nectar to Persephone in the House of Hades. Fitting for an endgame item, it upgrades a random boon for every certain amount of floors determined by the keepsake's rarity. It can effectively give you around a dozen of free boon upgrades over the entire run up to the surface world.
  • The Queen's Latin: Several characters (most notably Zagreus himself) have British accents despite being Greek mythological figures. This was intentional on the creators' part, since it's meant to be a nod to older films set in ancient Greece and Rome where everyone speaks with British accents. The accent also serves to distinguish the Olympian gods (along with Hades and Zagreus) from the Chthonic gods, who speak with American accents; at one point, Dusa asks Zagreus why he has a "surface accent" and he says it's because Hades was the one who taught him how to speak, as the Olympian gods are the ones who sound British and Hades was originally one of them.
  • Rake Take: One of the possible Diabolus Ex Machinas that Zagreus can suffer after escaping in the post-game is accidentally stepping on a farming implement and being smacked in the face.
  • Randomly Generated Levels: The room layouts and their corresponding contents are randomized for each run. However, the major regions (also known as "biomes") follow a specified order. The story justifies this gameplay element by mentioning that the Underworld shifts itself with each escape attempt that Zagreus makes.
  • Randomly Generated Loot: In general, the rewards for clearing chambers are randomly generated, and Zagreus has at best three choices as to what rewards he'll get in a given run. Furthermore, boons and Daedalus Hammers give a choice out of three possible options. While Zagreus eventually obtains ways to weight the scales somewhat to his favor (keepsakes to guarantee a given's god's boon once; the "Fated" skills from the Mirror of Night allowing Zagreus to change either a room reward or what boons a god will grant), these only work a limited number of times, so Zagreus' potential power set in a given run heavily depends on chance.
  • Ranged Emergency Weapon: The Blood Crystal is this for runs with the sword or the fists. It is the only way (outside of certain Aspects or Daedalus upgrades) for Zagreus to deal ranged damage while wielding those two weapons, but is generally an inferior option than the attacks of most weapons unless you pick Boons intended for a Cast-based playthrough.
  • Rat Stomp: Inverted. Rodents are among the last enemies you fight in the game, from small rats to huge ones, all of which can inflict a poison debuff that damages Zagreus until it's cured or he dies. Their Codex entry does lampshade the trope, however.
    Codex: The barrier between the realm of the living and the realm of the dead cannot easily be transgressed; but there are creatures adequately small and vicious as to rise up to this challenge (as well as to the challenge of being slain in great droves by would-be heroes setting forth to prove themselves, all in the name of Experience).
  • Record Needle Scratch: If Zagreus "borrows" obols from Charon's shop, the soundtrack will stop with an abrupt screech and zoom-in. When you hear this sound, prepare to be sent into a world of hurt.
  • Red and Black and Evil All Over: Red and Black are associated with death and violence.
    • This is the colour scheme of both Hades and Zagreus (beyond their pale skin). In Hades' case, this underlines his antagonistic nature.
    • Ares also uses red and black as his main colours, but beyond granting Zagreus some blood-themed and violence-related Boons, he is a helpful figure to Zagreus.
  • Red Baron: The characters, especially the deities, are sometimes referred to by their respective titles instead of their names. In particular, Chaos will commonly just call Zagreus as "Son of Hades".
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning:
    • Though he's less evil and more simply antagonistic, Hades's red eyes and black sclera give him an even more intimidating appearance. Zagreus's red right eye has a similar effect, though he's the hero of this particular story.
    • Ares, as the god of war, has red eyes. Much like the other gods though, he offers help to Zagreus.
    • The Fury Alecto's eyes are bright red, matching a bloodlust that would put Ares to shame.
  • Red Is Violent:
    • Ares is the god of the brutality of war, and has red as his signature color.
    • Alecto is the most outwardly and gleefully violent among the Furies. She's the one in a red dress and has red eyes.
  • Related Differently in the Adaptation: In Classical Mythology, Persephone is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, who are brother and sister, and is married to their brother Hades. In the game's version of this family tree, Zeus and Demeter are foster-siblings, with Demeter along with Hera and Hestia being daughters of Hyperion rather than Chronos (though Zeus has been spreading stories of them being actual siblings) and Persephone is the daughter of Demeter and a mortal, significantly toning down the incest in her relationship with Hades.
  • Relationship Values: The various NPCs in the House of Hades, as well as the Olympian gods, can be given bottles of nectar as a gift. In return, each of them will give Zagreus a "keepsake" that he can equip for special effects within the Underworld. Certain ones can be gifted ambrosia after giving them enough nectar and witnessing certain story events, which unlock companion units that provide limited but extremely useful assistance during runs.
  • Respawn Point: The Pool of Styx within the House of Hades serves as a spawn point for its denizens, including those who die repeatedly. Gameplay-wise, every time Zagreus dies, he emerges from the pool, ready to jump right back into the action (and most likely die again).
  • Resurrective Immortality:
    • Every time Zagreus dies in his attempt to escape Hades, he simply crawls out of the river Styx back at the house. After all, he is in the Underworld, where else would he go when he dies? The same thing happens to Megaera, and Hades when they are killed by Zagreus, creating less enmity between them than such an act would normally cause.
    • This also seems to be a part of the standard package for Elysium's heroic dead; Achilles implies that Zagreus is fighting some of the same shades every time he passes through. Theseus and Asterius recover every time they're defeated, without having to go through the House of Hades first, and seem to think no worse of Zagreus for slaying them (well, not Asterius at any rate).
  • Rewarding Vandalism:
    • Some underworld renovations add urns that can drop money when you break them.
    • Dusa's keepsake, the Harpy Feather Duster, gives you a chance to find a healing item when you break an urn.
  • Rodents of Unusual Size: Styx features both usually and unusually-sized rodents as recurring enemies. An especially large vermin can be encountered as a miniboss (as can a rat-sized one).
  • Roguelike: A Rogue-lite, to be precise. The gameplay and story elements are intentionally designed for Zagreus to inevitably (and frequently) die, in addition to an upgrade system that allows Zagreus and the player to improve themselves using currency retained between runs. On the other hand, it's not turn-based like the original Rogue and instead uses a much faster system of real-time action combat.
  • Running Gag:
    • Without a view of the sky, no one ever knows what time it is in the Underworld (most characters just say "day or night" when appropriate). This causes most of its inhabitants endless frustration, especially Hades himself. He constantly tries to commission a sundial, but the Contractors repeatedly refuse. Zagreus himelf always gets confused about the time, even when using figures of speech or cracking jokes that only mention night or day indirectly.
    • Many recurring jokes are character-specific:
      • Zagreus will absolutely refuse to use any chairs, and grows increasingly snarky about it over the course of the game.
      • Tisiphone and her vocabulary only consisting of the word "Murderer". At certain points, Zagreus will lampshade or make jokes about it. Over a few more fights, he eventually teaches her to say his name. It's not much better.
      Tisiphone: Zagreus... murderer!!!
      • Hypnos's commentaries on Zagreus's "deaths" also follow certain patterns. If he reads Zag's cause of death as "Redacted", it meant that Zag died in his battles against Hades. If the cause of death is read as "Natural Causes", it meant that Zag died from being forcibly dragged by Styx all the way from Greece. Over time, Hypnos wonders why such words keep on appearing in his accounting records.
  • Run the Gauntlet: Whilst many rooms operate like this, the The Barge of Death in Asphodel locks you into a small chamber with several spawn rounds, and you won't reach the end of its destination until you've beaten all the bad guys.

    Tropes S-Z 
  • Scenery Porn: Although it's optional, Zagreus can watch the backdrop from a viewpoint whenever he enters the first chamber of a biome. The camera would then momentarily focus on its visual glory, which can be accompanied by Zagreus being awed at what he is seeing at that moment. Particularly, the sunset at the surface world remains beautiful no matter how many times he looks at it.
  • Schizo Tech: Despite taking place in ancient Greece, the unmatched engineering genius of Daedalus means that more advanced technologies appear, like clockwork and gears. Exagryph is a gun that can be wielded by Zagreus, but it's treated as an anomaly that hopefully only a god and not a human could create.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here!: If you activate an Infernal Trove and decide you don't want to do the challenge, you can simply leave the room, with Zagreus giving a little I'm-leaving-now remark as he exits.
  • Sentient Weapon: All of the Infernal Arms are sentient to one degree or another. Aegis in particular is said to explicitly be a still-intelligent piece of Chaos; if you use their Aspect, they make clear that they are still fully capable of seeing through it, and they'll make occasional comments during battle.
  • Sexy Discretion Shot: Zagreus's romantic resolutions with Megaera and Thanatos culminate with a Fade to Black in Zagreus's room, with the accompanying audio implying that they were, ahem, enjoying themselves while doing it.
  • Shared Family Quirks: After Zagreus escapes from the Underworld enough times and progressing the story further, Persephone notes at one point that Zagreus is just as stubborn as his father.
  • Shield-Bearing Mook: The Greatshields encountered in Elysium wield gigantic shields that block all attacks from the front.
  • Shoplift and Die: You can't actually steal any of the wares from Charon's shop but you CAN "borrow" his sack of Obols that may spawn in a midway room (i.e., not the pre-boss shop). Doing so enrages him and sends you to Erebus for a Superboss fight.
  • Short-Range Long-Range Weapon: Coronacht the Heart-Seeking Bow, as a bow, is intended to be used at long range, sniping enemies from a distance and dashing away if they get too close. That is, unless you take the Point-Blank Shot Daedalus upgrade, which gives a massive damage boost for hitting enemies up close. You can take it even further with Twin Shot, which fires two arrows while reducing the bow's maximum range, turning what was originally a sniper into a double-barreled shotbow.
  • Shotguns Are Just Better: The Adamant Rail can be upgraded into a double-barreled shotgun, and it's just as effective against mostly close-ranged, mobbing enemies as you might expect. It helps that the shots pierce.
  • Shout-Out:
    • Appropriately for a game about fighting hellish creatures and escaping the Underworld, the track "The King and the Bull" (which plays in Elysium) heavily references the classic riff from the first level of Doom's soundtrack, "At Doom's Gate".
    • One of the keepsakes you can get is called the Harpy Feather Duster.
    • If Zagreus purchases the rug for his room, he'll note that it will "really tie the room together".
    • In one of the Tartarus rooms, the top of the walls will show dozens of ghostly arms trying to reach out of jail bars. When Zagreus leaves the room, he says "Farewell."
    • There are several to Castlevania. Lernie the Bone Hydra is a dead ringer for the White Dragon enemy. It even spits fireballs. Asphodel also has its fair share of Medusa Heads. Finally, Asterius' design bears a lot of resemblance to minotaur enemies in the franchise, complete with a huge axe.
    • One of the one-liners Hades can quip when Zagreus returns from the Pool of Styx is "And our work is never done..."
    • Upon being revived by Skelly's Lucky Tooth Zagreus will sometimes shout "By the power of Skelly!".
    • One of Thanatos' battle quotes is "You are already dead".
    • Look closely at the mural on the arena floor when you fight Theseus and Asterius. As befitting of an overly macho, testosterone-filled, fire-forged friendship, it's the "You Son of a Bitch" bicep shake.
    • Sisyphus being a significantly more sympathetic character with the very boulder he rolls being a Companion Cube with a face is quite obviously a nod to Rock of Ages. His portrayal as someone who found solace in the punishment and attraction to Bouldy are also reminiscent of his Discworld analogue from Eric. By accident, a happy Sisyphus who has come to terms with his punishment and even finds freedom in it reflects Albert Camus' take on Sisyphus' myth, though the devs said they were unaware of Camus.
    • Upon activating Extreme Measures for Asterius in Elysium, he is depicted wearing armor that is, due to the horns and the sheer amount of gold, eerily reminiscent of the armor worn by Aries Mu.
    • Upon picking up Coronacht, the bow, Zagreus may mention that "Coronacht hungers..."
    • After you've beaten the Final Boss enough times, one of Zagreus's early parting words to Persephone is "I'll be back."
    • One of Skelly's revival lines is "I live again, boyo!"
    • In one of the lines Zagreus says early in the game when his hp is low , he wishes he had a healing flask which is a feature of another popular roguelike game.
    • When Zagreus catches a Flameater with the Rod of Fishing, he will sometimes sing "Flameater!" to the tune of "Snake Eater".
    • The Aspect of Chiron of Coronacht brings to mind the replay function of the ZF1.
    • Orpheus's wild, voluminous dark Anime Hair is a nod to the similar hairstyle of Morpheus from The Sandman (1989)note .
  • Shown Their Work:
    • Zagreus is a real Greek god, although an extremely obscure and mysterious one (surviving references to him number in the single digits). As in the game, he is a Chthonic god associated with the underworld, and in some myths, is the son of Persephone and Hades, though other sources seem to suggest that he is Hades. The game explains the scarcity of sources related to him as a result of Hades and Persephone hiding his existence due to the scandalous nature of his conception, while the former is referenced in some post-game dialogue where Hades suspects Zagreus may one day replace him as ruler of the Underworld.
    • A Hellenistic Mystery Cult known as Orphism considered Zagreus a figure of rebirth and an alternative form of Dionysusnote . The game explains this anomaly as being the result of a prank Zagreus and Dionysus pulled on Orpheus, who took it completely at face value.
    • Elysium is typically understood as "Greek Heaven". While this is more-or-less true, Greek ideals of what made a "good" person deserving of Heaven often leaned towards warring and killing; the All-Loving Hero is actually fairly rare in Hellenic lore. In the game, this matter is well-understood; Hades chafes at the Greek humans' concept of a hero, saying he would rather have Heracles in Tartarus, while Patroclus bitterly comments that "paradise" isn't populated by decent people. Codex entries for the common Elysium hero enemies call them all a bunch of either sociopaths or obsessed with their weapon of choice and unable to function without it.
    • It's subtle, but Patroclus appears to be slightly older than Achilles. This was, in fact, the case in the original mythology.
    • Eurydice being a dryad nymph, as weird as it may seem, is a reference to actual myths where she's depicted as a nymph; sometimes a dryad, sometimes a naiad, but usually a nymph rather than a human.
    • Dusa as Medusa's severed head working in the House of Hades may be a nod to The Odyssey, where after Odysseus enters the Underworld, he fears that "Persephone might send forth upon [him] from out the house of Hades the head of the Gorgon, that awful monster".
  • Shut Up, Hannibal!: When facing off against the fourth area's boss, Zagreus may sometimes tell the boss to stop the poetic ramblings and just fight already.
    Zagreus: No. No mournful speeches. Now get out of my way.
  • Sibling Team: If Extreme Measures is active, the Fury sisters will work together to fight Zagreus in Tartarus. Notably, they don't usually get along, and the first time Extreme Measures is turned off, Meg will even grumble to Zagreus about being made to work with her sisters.
  • Sigil Spam: Hades' symbol—a rhombus with two pronged lines—appears everywhere: on the walls, traps, Obols, doors, tapestries and so on. Even his mustache is shaped like the symbol. Several members of the House of Hades also wear the symbol somewhere on their clothing.
  • Simple, yet Awesome:
    • By default, you have to mash the attack button to strike foes repeatedly using most weapons. However, certain Daedalus Hammer upgrades for each weapon simplify their control schemes, allowing you to spam your attacks by holding down the attack button instead. Not only that, these upgrades also come with additional gimmicks to somehow offset their benefits. Of particular note, the Delta Chamber for the Exagryph fires off 3-round bursts, but you'll never have to reload ever again.
    • Many Hermes boons fall into this category.
      • Greatest Reflex grants more consecutive dashes. This allows you to spam the effects of other dash-activated boons such as Zeus's Thunder Dash.
      • "Side Hustle" gives you +10 obols (IE gold) every time you enter a new room. A run typically consists of about 45 rooms. Considering you can buy an Extra Life for 200 obols, "Side Hustle"'s value should be obvious.
      • "Quick Favor" automatically charges your Limit Break. It does so pretty slowly — it can take a maximum of 200 seconds to get it all the way up — but in a game as hectic as Hades, anything which automates your systems and spares you a bit of brainpower is worth its weight in obols.
      • He has all the boons which say, "Your Attack or your Special happens faster." These are also conditional but also worth their weight in obols when paired with any Weapon Aspect which turns Zagreus into a Mighty Glacier (which is most of the Hidden Aspects).
  • Situational Damage Attack:
    • The bow has a Critical Hit mechanic, doing additional damage if you release at the correct time.
    • The Status Effects of the Gods deal damage based on their rarity and the attack the Boon is applied to. Slow attacks like the Bow's primary attack or the Rail's special add a lot of extra damage per strike from Doom and Hangover, while rapid-firing weapons like the Spear and Rail's primary attack add much less extra damage per hit. The gods may also give Status Curse effects (i.e. Ruptured, Exposed) to their pre-existing boons, dealing bonus damage depending on the enemy's state.
    • Some Mirror upgrades increase the damage dealt when attacking enemies from behind (Shadow Presence), when the enemy isn't damaged yet (Fiery Presence), when the enemy is struck with a blood stone (Boiling Blood), or when the enemy is inflicted with at least two status curses (Priviledged Status).
    • Some Daedalus Hammer upgrades cause the weapon to deal more damage depending on circumstances such as the target's distance from Zagreus.
  • Skippable Boss: The Final Boss can be passed by without a fight a grand total of once, and it's Played for Drama when this happens. When Zagreus reaches Hades after defeating him nine times before, Hades has admitted to himself that he's just delaying the inevitable. By this point, Zagreus knows why Hades was trying to prevent Zagreus from seeing Persephone, that Olympus may bring their full wrath down on the Underworld if they ever found out she was still alive, and that Hades (in a twisted way) was trying to protect her. But now that it's clear Zagreus is insistent on trying to patch things up, Hades just lets Zagreus go see Persephone in spite of all of the warnings, albeit with an Implied Death Threat that should any harm befall Persephone, Hades will show Zagreus no mercy. When this happens, Hades will keep his back turned and let Zagreus walk out the door, without a boss fight. You can't even fight Hades if you want to during this scene, because Hades will just summon a shield that makes him invincible until you walk out the door. It's right after this that Zagreus finds Persephone ready to come back to the House of Hades, so it all works out in the end.
  • Snark-to-Snark Combat: Hades and Zagreus do not have a very good relationship, and their dialog frequently shows that.
    Hades: Your mother is the Night; your brothers, Death and Sleep. What does that make you, I wonder? There's no god of talking back to me.
    Zagreus: There is.
  • Sore Loser:
    • The gods don't take it well when you choose the other option in a Trial of the Gods chamber. As in, they try to kill you for it. They get over it pretty quickly once you survive the challenge, at least, and go back to helping you in the usual fashion for the rest of your run.
    • When Hades is defeated for the first time, the next time he's encountered, he pretends it didn't happen and refuses to talk about the loss, annoying Zagreus.
  • Sound-Coded for Your Convenience: Extra chamber rewards (like fishing points) and the Chaos Gate have distinctive audio cues if you somehow miss them with your eyes.
  • Speaking Simlish: How the various unnamed shades communicate, along with emoticon-like speech bubbles. Most notably amongst the shades petitioning Hades (nervous or aggrieved sounding chattering) and the Wretched Broker (deep groaning harrumphs).
  • Speed Run Reward:
    • The Pact of Punishment lets you jack up the difficulty in several ways in order to get bounties, items which advance the meta-progression. One of these ways is the Tight Deadline condition, which gives you a limited time to clear each region: 9 minutes for the first level, 7 for the second, and 5 for the last one. In addition, leftover time is added to the time of the next region, granting you more incentive to go fast.
    • The Lambent Plume keepsake grants you move speed and dodge chance every time you clear a room within thirty seconds.
  • Spikes of Doom: Spike traps are an ever-present hazard in Tartarus; groundbound entities get damaged if they don't move out of the way immediately after triggering them.
  • Splash Damage: The special attack for Exagryph inherently causes damage in a radius, the special attack for Stygius damages a radius around Zagreus, while the other weapons have boon upgrades that can allow one of their attacks to gain this quality as well. Since Exagryph and Stygius already have this trope by default, they instead get boon upgrades that increase or extend their special attacks' range.
  • Stealth Pun:
    • Why do the souls that make up Soul Catchers look like butterflies? Because the Greek word for soul (ψυχή) is also an uncommon term for butterflies.
    • Dusa is the one responsible for cleaning and tending to the chores of the House of Hades. In other words, Maid Dusa.
  • Stone Wall: The shield is, of course, the best defensive weapon in the game given that you can be straight up invulnerable to most attacks so long as you're pointing the thing at them. However, the damage is typically underwhelming unless you rely on building the special on gods such as Dionysus or Ares, which deal flat damage and can stack rather than being percentage multipliers.
  • Stop Poking Me!: Poke the Bust of the Poet (who is implied to be the Narrator) enough times and you will actually get an answer... Sort of.
    Narrator: The vastly irritating Prince gets no response.
  • Stupid Sexy Flanders: Upon purchasing a portrait a young, Stripperiffic Theseus, Zagreus is horrified to discover that his attraction to men with long hair takes priority over his abject loathing of the man in question.
    Zagreus: Oh gods, am I becoming hopelessly obsessed with Theseus?
  • Summon to Hand: While wielding Varatha, Zagreus's Special lets him toss it at an enemy's direction, hitting everything in its way. Tapping Special or Attack afterwards recalls the spear to Zagreus's hand, hitting everything on the way back. Rapidly tapping Special thus lets Zagreus get a lot of backstab damage on whatever he's hitting.
  • Superhero Sobriquets: Or rather their ancient Greek precursors, Homeric epithet. Each character has at least one, and the Narrator has a particular fondness for giving Zagreus rather backhanded ones.
  • Super Move Portrait Attack: A Call move does this, but only when fully charged. A Call's ability signals the god associated with the move. Using one segment of the bar deals some sort of super move like an area-of-effect spell, a very damaging attack, or temporary invulnerability. If used when all four segments are full, the Call becomes a Greater Call, which is much more powerful and/or lasts much longer, along with the god's portrait appearing and giving a Pre-Asskicking One-Liner.
  • Surprisingly Happy Ending: Despite the established risk that Persephone returning to Hades represents, specifically the other gods declaring war on Hades in reprisal for "taking" her combined with the creeping sense that the gods that offer Zagreus boons and act friendly to him are rather two-faced, ultimately everything comes together happily. Zagreus convinces Persephone to return home, begins rebuilding a relationship with his father, and they invite the other gods down for a feast to announce that Hades and Persephone eloped and that due to eating the food of the underworld, Persephone is now bound there for most of the year, a lie that it's implied the other gods see through but accept so that they can all move on with their lives. Every other character story ends largely happily as well. About the only "sad" aspect is the fact that Zagreus is eternally bound to Hades just like his father, but with their family reunited and happy, that's not considered a big deal.
  • Surrounded by Idiots: Hades' reaction to Zagreus successfully claiming an Infernal Trove is to bemoan the quality of creatures he was able to summon to defend the trove in the first place.
  • Surveillance as the Plot Demands: The Olympian Gods are able to track Zagreus' escape attempts through Hades, but they can't speak to him directly, listen in on Zagreus' conversations, or see what happens fully within either the House of Hades or the surface, as Nyx is blocking them. However, they are able to respond to him live if offered Nectar, and their keepsakes are said outright to make it much easier for the god whose keepsake Zagreus is holding to locate him. Chaos can see Zagreus clearly for as long as he's within the Underworld and remains fully updated on his progression, especially should he carry Chaos' Aspect of Aegis.
  • Suspicious Video-Game Generosity: The Temple of Styx has a lot of Upgrades available for Zagreus. But it's odd, isn't it? Zag doesn't even want to fight the Guardian of the Temple, Cerberus. Hades, on the other hand, will give you a hell of a time once you exit the Temple.
  • Sword Beam: The Piercing Wave upgrade for the Stygian Blade allows the sword to fire these off with each attack and dash-attack.
  • Take a Moment to Catch Your Death: Since the earlier versions of the game had No Ending, Zagreus's hard-won victories to make it to the surface alive will always be immediately and unceremoniously undone, with the Narrator providing an absolutely ridiculous and arbitrary death that sends him right back to the House of Hades. They make a return in the game's full version, explaining how Zagreus dies every time he manages to escape the underworld after he's completed all of his business up on the surface with Persephone.
  • Taken for Granite: Gorgons shoot projectiles that will temporarily petrify Zagreus. They can also affect anything you deflect them into, even the Gorgons themselves, unless it's an Elite Mook.
  • Talking Down the Suicidal: Patroclus is already dead, but he's tempted to take it a step further and drink from the river Lethe (aka Oblivion) to end his misery for good. Zagreus spends many of their interactions trying to keep Patroclus from crossing the Despair Event Horizon until he amends Achilles's contract.
    Zagreus: Listen, sir, don't give in to what you're feeling now, all right? Because I won't stand for it. I won't.
  • Technicolor Toxin:
    • In a heroic example, Dionysus's Hangover debuff functions largely like poison (as it deals Damage Over Time). It's bright purple, fitting with this trope and Dionysus's domain over wine.
    • The poison that Zagreus can be afflicted with in the Temple of Styx either comes from bright green darts, bright green goo, or bright green gas. Lampshaded by Hypnos if the poison kills you.
      Hypnos: Next time you'll know it's seriously deadly stuff, because it killed you! And because it's green!
  • Tempting Fate: When Hades scolds Zagreus for filling Orpheus' head with nonsense and warns him that those lies will spread, Zagreus assures him that "Orpheus plays for a very small audience".
  • There Are No Coincidences: Both Patroclus and Eurydice will begin to speculate that the Fates are responsible for Zagreus's regular run-ins with them. Sure enough, Zagreus's assistance in their personal troubles is listed in the Fated List of Minor Prophecies.
  • Throat-Slitting Gesture: When entering Charon's Shop, you can sometimes steal a bag of coins from him, prompting Charon to pull you into Erebus and start a secret boss fight. He'll make said gesture at you before beginning the battle.
  • Throwing Your Shield Always Works: You can toss your shield at enemies and it'll bounce a certain number of times, dealing damage on the way until it returns to you. Exaggerated with the Aspect of Chaos, which throws up to five additional shields.
  • Timed Mission:
    • One of the Pact of Punishment conditions sets a timer for each floor, starting at nine minutes for the first rank and seven for the subsequent rank. If the timer expires before you beat the boss, you take 5 damage per second until the boss dies or you do.
    • Infernal Trove challenges put a twist on this by proportionally tying the reward with the timer (i.e. the faster you defeat the enemies, the more loot can be obtained from the chest).
  • Together in Death: You can make it possible for Orpheus and Eurydice, and Achilles and Patroclus, to be reunited in the afterlife for eternity after the tragedies of their respective myths.
  • Tomes of Prophecy and Fate: The Fated List of Minor Prophecies is styled as a long scroll full of prophecies In-Universe.
  • Traveling at the Speed of Plot: The Barge of Death travels continuously down the molten river, reaching its destination when the waves of enemies are defeated. The length of the journey is however long that takes for Zagreus.
  • Truly Single Parent:
    • Chaos is technically the single parent of everything; Nyx in particular refers to them as both her father and her mother. Nyx herself is the only parent of Thanatos and Hypnos— Thanatos' codex entry describes him as "fatherless", and continuing to bond with Nyx will generate dialogue from her saying she produced her children herself.
    • According to the Codex, gorgons and megagorgons were created when the blood of the original Medusa's head dripped onto the ground.
  • Twice-Told Tale: Finishing the story reveals that the whole game is a behind-the-scenes retelling of the Rape of Persephone. The well-known version of the story (Persephone being kidnapped by/eloping with Hades and eating pomegranate seeds that force her to stay in the underworld for some time, ultimately being responsible for the changing of the seasons) turns out to be a lie that she tells her family to placate them once she returns, because the actual truth is much messier.
  • Underground Monkey:
    • The witch-type enemy has 3 variants, one for each Underworld region. Tartarus has the Wretched Witches, which shoot single projectiles towards Zagreus. Asphodel has the Spreaders, which shoot spreads of projectiles. And finally Elysium has the Splitters, which shoot large projectiles that each split into smaller projectiles upon impact.
    • The Bothers and Snakestones in Styx are stronger versions of Wretched Pests and Brimstones in Tartarus. Wretched Pests and Bothers are both spirits living in urns that throw explosives. The former shoot randomly while the latter aim the bombs at Zagreus. Brimstones and Snakestones are both floating crystals that shoot laser beams at Zagreus. The former shoots a single laser while the latter shoot multiple beams that slowly converges.
  • The Underworld: The game's setting, which is divided into four parts: The abyssal Extranormal Prison Tartarus; Asphodel, which used to be a liveable limbo, but has since been flooded by the Phlegethon and turned into a Fire and Brimstone Hell; the Warrior Heaven of Elysium; and the Temple of Styx that serves as the gateway to the surface world.
  • Undignified Death:
    • The shades in the House of Hades are there after dying in various ways, including one killed by a dropped tortoise after a bird mistook his head for a rock, another who was trampled during a hunt, and another who was killed by a stampeding horse (and everyone only asked if the horse was okay).
    • After Persephone rejoins the House of Hades, any further successful escapes will have the ever-snarky narrator describing one the myriad ways Zagreus dies, many of which are sudden and rather embarrassing: stepping on a rake, interacting with a bear not realizing it's dangerous, getting mauled by a goat, etc.
  • Unreliable Narrator: The Narrator sometimes delves into this.
    • This is especially obvious when he's talking about Cerberus in your first few encounters with him; the Narrator will describe him as a vicious, cold killer while the visuals onscreen show him plainly begging Zagreus to be petted.
    • Another good example comes at the beginning of the post-game. The narrator tells you, more or less, "You've seen the garden, just assume Zagerus tended to it after he beat Hades and got out". Once you start playing again and talk to Persephone, he directly contradicts this by pointing out out that he can no longer last long on the surface without Persephone herself up there.
  • Unusual Euphemism: "Blood and darkness" is used as an all-purpose swear word. Zagreus tends to use it when frustrated, as does Thanatos and Hades, the latter especially when Zagreus beats Hades. He asks his father why Persephone left the Underworld, only for Hades to whisper the phrase before being sent back to his palace.
  • Vague Age: The game keeps the characters' ages—not only the chronological number, but also their physical maturity relative to each other—deliberately vague. According to Supergiant, this is both because Greek gods mature very idiosynchratically in myth and because nobody in the Underworld knows what damn time it is.
  • Variable Mix: In ordinary encounters, the amount of instrumentation varies depending on which chamber of the region Zagreus is in and the enemies present. When all the foes in an encounter are vanquished, the music continues, though it loses most of its layers.
  • Vetinari Job Security: Charon, Nyx, and Thanatos all provide direct aid to Zagreus in his escapes, by selling goods, allowing permanent power-ups and alerting the Olympians, and assisting him in defeating enemies respectively. Hades can do nothing about this other than rage at them, as all three are either too important to the purpose of the Underworld to be locked away (Thanatos), too powerful in their own right (Nyx), or both (Charon).
  • Video Game Cruelty Punishment: While you are Easily Forgiven by the god you didn't choose during a Trial encounter, said god will start noticing if you repeatedly reject them; not only will they get less surprised at the insult (but more openly pissed at you), but their attacks will also get faster and their enemy summons become more dangerous... so keep that in mind if you're going to keep rejecting a god.
  • Video-Game Lives: Unlocking Death Defiance at the Mirror of Night will let Zagreus come back to life after dying. Athena has several Boons based around buffing Zagreus' Death Defiance as well as restoring spent uses of it, while the mid-level shops and Patrocles offers Zagreus the ability to replenish any lost ones. Skelly's Keepsake also serves as a unique version of Death Defiance that only kicks in after you've exhausted all your other Defiance charges.
  • Video Game Vista: The game features one such location every level; in the very first room of each floor, there is a cliff that Zagreus can stare out over to look down into that level of the underworld, and a final one after beating his father Hades where he can look down into snow-covered Greece.
  • Video Game Weapon Stats: There are various weapons that Zagreus can take with him during his escape attempts, each with their own different abilities. However, considering how the game's mechanics interact with each other, the below tropes only necessarily describe the default forms of the weapons. For example, an unmodified bow does most of its damage with slow attacks that require charging, but buff the special with at least one Zeus boon, and it allows for rapid-fire attacks that can have a crushing damage output.
    • The Sword: Jack of All Stats. The Stygian Blade is the default weapon to get the hang of the controls; it has decent knockback, speed, range, damage, and crowd control, but it isn't the best at any one of those areas.
    • The Shield: Stone Wall. The Shield of Chaos allows Zag to charge up a dash move, and it's the only one of the weapons that can block (while charging the dash). But its attacks are weak and single-hit, requiring good Boons and Hammer upgrades to even come close the damage of other weapons.
    • The Bow: Mighty Glacier. The Heart-Seeking Bow is the slowest-to-fire projectile weapon, it can be fired in arcs for good crowd control, and its arrows pierce through enemies. As a trade-off, the arrows don't do much damage per hit unless charged up and fired at the right time.
    • The Spear: Fragile Speedster. The Eternal Spear has a longer range than other melee weapons, and a charge-up area-of-effect slice for crowds. However, the spear's regular attacks are focused on only one target unless upgraded. And while the spear can be thrown for long-range combat, Zag can't attack until he recalls it.
    • The Glove: Close-Range Combatant. The Fists of Malphon allow for a flurry of rapid-fire attacks, but each individual hit is weak. You also have to be up-close and personal to hit with it.
    • The Cannon: Mechanically-Unusual/Long-Range Fighter. The Adamant Rail allows for rapid-fire bullets and launching a massive area-of-effect bomb for big damage from a safe distance. However, while the gun has infinite ammo, both of its ammo types need to reload, preventing Zagreus from going all out with them. Also, Zagreus has to stand still for a while when attacking with the cannon, slowing down his movements. Finally, its attacks trigger the least amount of stun against foes, and has no knockback without upgrades from Poseidon's boons, encouraging Zagreus to stay further back than any of the other weapons to fight effectively without facing counter-attacks.
  • Villain Has a Point: Both Zagreus and Hades are bound to the Underworld and will die if they remain on the surface. There are several instances where it seems like Hades is about to just tell Zagreus this, but Zagreus blows him off before he can do so, until he eventually learns the hard way.
  • The Walls Are Closing In: Tisiphone's special ability is reducing the size of the arena she's fought in, making the fight more and more claustrophobic the more damage she takes.
  • Violation of Common Sense: The weapons' Hidden Aspects all engage in this trope to some degree:
    • Stygian Blade's Aspect of Arthur replaces fast swings and mobile movement with slow-but-heavy attacks and a defense buff ability that forces you to stay inside a set area, limiting your evasion.
    • Eternal Spear 's Aspect of Guan Yu replace your ranged spear throw with very slow moving Serpent Slash disc that Life Steal, forcing you to get up close to enemies with a weapon normally suited for safely poke foes one by one from afar.
    • Shield of Chaos's Aspect of Beowulf limits your ranged tool by altering your Cast to power up your Bull Rush instead, disregarding safety at range for extremely aggressive moveset.
    • Heart-Seeking Bow's Aspect of Rama asks you to tag as many enemies as possible with a weapon that normally is built to snipe down single targets.
    • Twin Fists's Aspect of Gilgamesh, a melee weapon, applies Maim debuff via specific attacks that causes the afflicted enemy to deal more damage to Zag, though they also take more for the duration and experience an explosion of damage when the debuff ends.
    • Adamant Rail's Aspect of Lucifer wants you to take your time setting and shooting at your Hellfire mines instead of immediate enemies.
  • Warrior Heaven: The Fields of Elysium are inhabited by the shades of the heroic dead, those who fell while performing great feats worthy of the gods' attention. Needless to say, they spend their afterlife much as they did their lives, and gleefully pounce at the chance to defeat Zagreus on his way out.
  • Warts and All: The Olympian gods initially come across as helpful, larger than life and supportive. As the story continues and you're forced into trials of the gods or simply learn more about them either through dialogue or codex entries, you see their pettier sides. However, they are still trying to help and they're still Zagreus's family so the extended epilogue involves acknowledging them for who they are and helping to reconcile the Olympian and Chthonic gods, who have had a frosty relationship for many years.
  • Weird Sun: Hades mentions that Ixion and his wheel act as Tartarus' sun. Because it doesn't move, a sundial Zagreus can commission is perpetually stuck.
  • What Does She See in Him?:
    • This is naturally one of Zagreus's many questions to Persephone when they meet.
      Zagreus: So, essentially, you ran away from home to live with him? I mean no disrespect, but... did you realize what you were getting yourself into?
    • Zagreus is similarly baffled that Asterius is loyal to a man who's not only an insufferable blowhard, but also the one who killed him in life. Patroclus tells him there's simply No Accounting for Taste. When Theseus later starts feeling insecure at Zagreus's barbs, Asterius tells him to stop fussing over it since Zagreus doesn't even understand why he likes Theseus to begin with.
  • Wham Shot: All is fine and well when Zagreus finally meets his mother Persephone, until we see an entirely-new character portrait of his: Completely downcast and sickly while his overworld model is visibly stumbling, then he dies on the spot. Since he's bound to the Underworld, he cannot live outside of it for very long.
  • What the Hell, Player?: Attacking Cerberus in the Temple of Styx can result in Zagreus becoming disgusted at himself for the mere thought of hurting the dog.
  • Who Would Be Stupid Enough?: Nyx's answer when Zagreus asks the not-so-hypothetical question of what would happen if he fought Charon to the death.
    Nyx: Why would you fathom such a ruinous idea, child?
    Zagreus: It... kind of already happened.
  • Why Don't You Marry It?: Frustrated with his stubbornness, Megaera tells Zagreus that, if he's so in love with death, he ought to just bang Thanatos instead of constantly getting himself killed through his fruitless escape attempts. Considering how Thanatos says Megaera was the one who talked him into finally acting on his feelings for Zagreus, this may not be entirely sarcastic on her part.
  • World of Muscle Men: As one would expect for a game full of Greek gods, everyone has the body of one.
  • World of Snark: In between Zagreus, Hades, Megaera and Thanatos, snarkiness seems to run in the Chthonic gods on both sides of Zagreus' parentage. Some of the Olympians can get rather snarky about each other as well, particularly the ones known not to get along in Classical mythology.
  • World of Technicolor Hair: Many of the gods have hair in unusual colors, with the Olympian gods in particular having hair colors that correspond to their abilities. No one finds this unusual, likely because they aren't regular human mortals.
  • Wronski Feint: Certain enemies in Elysium (e.g. Flame Wheels, the Minotaur) will chase you around until you can make them crash into an obstacle by swerving or dashing through at the last second.
  • You Are Already Dead: During encounters where Thanatos holds a Body-Count Competition with Zagreus, one of his attacks targets an individual enemy, and the other targets a circular area. Both attacks will kill the foe(s) instantly after a few seconds' delay. Thanatos can even say a Pre-Mortem One-Liner referencing the trope namer.
  • You Will Not Evade Me: The Aspect of Talos for the Twin Fists of Malphon upgrades the weapon's special attack into Magnetic Cutter, which can pull enemies closer. The ability is invaluable because the fists have the shortest default attack range. This effect sadly does not work on bosses, and it only works on some mini-bosses aside from a damage-amplifying effect tag. They can become a version of a Yin-Yang Bomb with Poseidon's Tempest Flourish, first pulling a foe close, then immediately pushing them away.
  • Zerg Rush:
    • Rats are the game's weakest enemies. To compensate, the game pitches a dozen of them at you whenever they appear.
    • Flame Wheels are quite weak, only taking one or two hits to go down. However, the game sends multiple of them at you whenever they show up, and they also explode when killed, necessitating staying away as much as possible.
Narrator: Having reached the end of the work's page, the trope-listing prince believes his life sufficiently enhanced and expanded by the knowledge contained within. Unfortunately, an even worse fate awaited him, one too egregious in its ferocity to describe.

Zagreus: No, wait-!

THERE IS NO ESCAPE

 
Feedback

Video Example(s):

Charon

Zagreus learns the hard way of what happens when he "borrows" stuff from Charon.

Example of:
Shoplift and Die

Zagreus is Dion...

Previous

Index

Next

  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Wide Load

Important Links

Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Go Ad Free!
Crucial Browsing
Resources
Top

Charon

Zagreus learns the hard way of what happens when he "borrows" stuff from Charon.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (10 votes)

Example of:

Main / ShopliftAndDie

Media sources:

Report

Charon

Zagreus is Dion...