Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love, has powerful options for both offense and defense. This goddess is often easily underestimated by the Hades community, but there are actually a lot of good synergies with other gods and within her own builds that you can take advantage of. If you want a god who gives you the option to build tank, build damage or build both at once, then Aphrodite is the partner for you. And if you want to build her, here is a guide to Aphrodite in Hades, detailing her boons and best builds.
Unique Mechanics
Aphrodite’s unique status curse, and her main mechanic, is Weak. This mechanic represents the power of love by making enemies do 30% less damage as if they’re holding back from damaging your beautiful face. This effect lasts for 4 seconds typically and does not stack.
Charmed is another status effect you can put on enemies with Aphrodite’s abilities. Charmed targets will attack their allies, dealing damage to your other enemies in a room, instead of you. Bosses aren’t as affected by this, but the ability still functions as a quick disruption of their attacks.
Boons
- Heartbreak Strike: Additional damage on your weapon strike and your strike inflicts Weak.
- Heartbreak Flourish: Additional damage on your weapon special and it inflicts Weak.
- Crush Shot: Turns your cast into what is effectively a shotgun burst, inflicting Weak and dealing damage in a small area with a short range.
- Passion Flare: A unique version of Aphrodite’s cast available if you unlocked the aspect of Beowulf on the Shield of Chaos. This cast deals damage to enemies around the player and inflicts Weak.
- Passion Dash: Creates a splash zone after your dash which inflicts Weak and deals damage.
- Aphrodite’s Aid: Fires a seeking heart attack that inflicts charm and deals damage. Having a full gauge has the additional effect of adding to the damage dealt by this attack.
- Sweet Surrender: You deal additional damage to enemies with Weak.
- Blown Kiss: Increases cast range and its damage against enemies with full health.
- Wave of Despair: When you take damage, this creates an explosion around you that deals damage to enemies and inflicts Weak.
- Different League: Allows you to resist some of the damage from foes based on proximity. Anyone attacking from outside a certain range is not affected.
- Life Affirmation: Increases max health gained from any chamber rewards.
- Empty Inside: Increases the duration of Weak on enemies.
- Broken Resolve: Increases the effectiveness of your Weak effects.
- Unhealthy Fixation: Affecting foes with Weak also has a chance of charming them.
Duo Boons
- Aphrodite + Ares
- Curse of Longing: Curse effects on Weakened foes will continuously trigger for as long as Weak lasts.
- Aphrodite + Artemis
- Heart Rend: Critical attacks deal additional damage to Weakened foes.
- Aphrodite + Athena
- Parting Shot: Your cast now gains whatever bonuses you have for backstabs.
- Aphrodite + Demeter
- Cold Embrace: For 4 seconds your crystal, which you get with Demter’s unique cast, will fire its beam at you.
- Aphrodite + Dionysius
- Low Tolerance: Gain bonus hangover stacks against Weak foes.
- Aphrodite + Poseidon
- Sweet Nectar: Increases the effectiveness of Poms of Power.
- Aphrodite + Zeus
- Smoldering Air: Your call is shortened to 25% of its original gauge, but it will charge up automatically.
Keepsake
Aphrodite gives you the Eternal Rose once you have given her one Nectar. This keepsake, like all the other Olympian’s signature keepsakes, will ensure the next boon your receive is for that particular Olympian, in this case, Aphrodite. In addition, those boons you do find have a chance to be rare or better. These keepsakes are useful for pursuing specific builds.
Builds and General Strategy
Aphrodite’s boons increase your damage by a lot when added to weapons and her cast also has a hefty damage increase, but at the same time she also adds a lot of survivability tools to your kit with her Weakness mechanic and boons which reduce damage dealt to you like Different League. Then there are the boons that increase damage dealt altogether to Weakened foes like Sweet Surrender and Heart Rend. This means that Aphrodite affords a lot of flexibility and a lot of power.
You’ll want to place her boons on weapons or aspects with high base damage because Hades modifies weapon damage with boons on a percentage basis. So weapons with high base damage will be buffed even more by high damage increases. In addition, because Weak doesn’t really stack, you probably don’t want it on a fast attack/low-damage weapon anyway. Arthur’s blade is a perfect example, with strong swings and strong specials. AOE abilities are also great for applying Weak, as you can spread the condition to multiple enemies at once. Adamant’s special comes to mind for that purpose or any sword special for that matter.
In terms of powerful builds, Aphrodite does a lot on her own but has some powerful duos to take advantage of. Zeus and Artemis offer exciting damage options.
With Artemis, there is the Heart Rend build, which focuses on getting crits on Weakened opponents. Boons like Pressure Points are great for this build. In general, you’ll want a weapon with a strong special and a fast attack, like Adamant Rail, to take advantage of Aphrodite’s high damage on the special and then Artemis’ crit chance on the attacks.
With Zeus, you can build to the Smoldering Air boon. You can throw out a powerful call and then charge it back very quickly. This is not necessarily recommended with Aphrodite’s call, as it gets its best damage when it can charge a full god gauge. Instead, aim for another god with a powerful call.
In building Aphrodite as your main god, it’s worth noting that her boons have a lot of internal synergy with many of her higher-tier boons granting global synergies for your abilities. Unhealthy Fixation gives you more survivability by inflicting charm and distracting enemies away from you. Broken Resolve and Empty Inside make Weak even more effective. As a result, and also because her boons offer such high base damage, it may be worth taking Aphrodite on as many damage sources as you can if you want a build focusing on maximizing survivability.
That’s all for this guide to Aphrodite’s Boons and how to build her. If you want more Hades tips, there’s a lot of useful guides on Twinfinite. You won’t want to miss out on our guide to Titan Blood and how to get it.
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