How do you build for Moonstone Axe?

[Big Mistake]

Having some trouble nailing down a setup that feels consistent with the axe. I've had some luck building around Apollo/Hephaestus and just playing safe and spamming charge special, but it feels rough to get off the ground for surface runs and pretty inconsistent in underworld runs.

That said, what aspects, hammer buffs, boons, and keepsakes do you like for the axe? Are there any essential boons you reroll for in the early game?

[AtheistPreacher]

FWIW I've been experimenting lately with taking Aphrodite instead of Demeter for attack, since Aphrodite has the highest % damage increase. That's been working out pretty well for me. It requires a little more care in mob encounters without the freeze, but your omega attack becomes so strong that it's still quite safe, with the exception of late-game mobs with really high armor (also the sub-bosses that can still be frozen). And of course it's pretty unambiguously better against guardians since freeze doesn't affect them much, and you're able to burn them down that much faster. Though you'll still definitely want Demeter's "Weed Killer."

[Sintonir]

I prefer Apollo for attack, it makes Omega a huge AOE. On the other hand, I feel like Hell Splitter actually makes it worse - it is very strong, but slow enough you can't interrupt attacks from unarmored enemies.
Otherwise I like Melting Shredder, since all -%armor abilities are OP against minibosses even if they don't help against bosses.

[Morton Koopa Jr.]

Unlock Thanatos.
Build for omega attack.
Aphrodite attack boon for maximum damage.

[Peaceful Panda]

You can just all in attack or special. For attack, since axe has good damage, % gains are better than flat damage. Apollo, Hestia, or Aphrodite are best. I like Apollo for giant swings.

For special, you want the hammer upgrade that makes it fire twice, and ideally also want to speed it up. Again I like Apollo for %damage and larger aoe. Since you will be using a lot of mana, you need good regen, and might as well get into moon. You can also use Charon's aspect, which will explode your casts with your specials. Not hard to imagine the potential there :)

My strongest run so far was with Charon axe. Constant 1-2k damage nukes across the whole screen, and you are blocking most of the time. It was brainless. Massive damage, crowd control from cast, good defense... That build has it all.

[alex.x91x]

My Build for the Axe that i really like is this:

Attack : Aphrodite (Big % Damage Bonus)
Cast: Demeter (CC for most Mobs)
Selene: Phase Shift (Your Hex makes everything else move 80% slower for 5 Sec.)
Hammer: Executioner's Chop (Last Attack Hits Double but Cost 20 Mana) and/or the one which gets 300 Power on the Attack but you lose the first 2 Attacks.
Other: Apollo Extra Dose (Your Attack has a chance to hit 2 times), Poseidon Hydraulic Might(At the start of each Encounter, your Attacks and Specials are stronger for 10 Sec.),
Bonus: Artemis Pressure Points (Any damage you deal might be a critical)

I lure the Mobs to one Point use my cast and than just Hit them until they die.
My Normal Attacks use 20 Mana which fill my Mooon Powers pretty fast for more free Attacks. At Start of any Boss i Tank a few Hits to get most of my Hydraulic Might.
The Extra Dose from Apollo is nice passiv Damage on the hit if you Trigger it.
My Artemis Boon is only a Bonus because its pretty rare to get her Power.
With my best run i got 2k per Hit and sometimes more if i Crit on Attack.

[AltPlusF4]

Most of my best axe runs either use the Poseidon surf and ignore the axe completely or Demeter attack for the freeze and Daedalus hammer for the faster whirlwind.

But mostly surfing.

[AtheistPreacher]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Peaceful Panda:

You can just all in attack or special. For attack, since axe has good damage, % gains are better than flat damage. Apollo, Hestia, or Aphrodite are best. I like Apollo for giant swings.

I think you mean Demeter? Hestia just applies Scorch, no % damage there. Unless you mean Hera, but I'm not a big fan of Hitch, at least not for Axe, it hits in a big area already.

[AtheistPreacher]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Peaceful Panda:

For special, you want the hammer upgrade that makes it fire twice, and ideally also want to speed it up. Again I like Apollo for %damage and larger aoe. Since you will be using a lot of mana, you need good regen, and might as well get into moon. You can also use Charon's aspect, which will explode your casts with your specials. Not hard to imagine the potential there :)

I've only recently come to appreciate that Apollo really does seem best for the omega special because it makes each of the three circles that fire larger, hence making them overlap more, hence making it more likely that any given enemy will be hit by two circles instead of just one.

[pandarx]

Aspect of Charon has been by far my easiest runs, Zeus Boons for sending cast out at range and for mana Regen, Apollo solar ring for Omega special, Hestia freeze on attack for when I need to make space. It makes super quick work of Chronos, but it really requires the fast channel Daedalus boon to deal with Eris because of how fast she moves around.

[[JRE] Joe Rogan]

I just spin to win with Aphrodite and the channel omega upgrade and its pretty unstoppable idk seems almost game breaking outside of bosses tbh.

[hilfazer]

For me it's Hestia > Hera > Apollo > Demeter.

Hestia on Special, Hera on attack, Funeral Pyre and Fire Extinguisher.
Also Hestia on cast, hammer that increases damage on block, hammer that melts armour with special.
Demeter or Apollo boons for the second curse to activate Origination so there's no need to use the attack. Since scorch counts as a curse when Fire Extinguisher triggers only one more is needed.
Other Arcana: Furies, faster sprint, reroll and boon rarity cards.

The playstyle is holding block and spamming dash with occasional attack for the curse.

Here's some footage: https://youtu.be/RZygUQZvoHc
I didn't play particularly well - i swung my axe too much and took some unnecessary damage.

Sometimes the best offense is defense.

[SIEGE CREEP (DEADLOCK)]

aphrodite is an easy way to DOUBLE your damage with an attack boon. But if you want an easier time take FREEZE. It will make crowd control way easier

[RinkZate]

Początkowo opublikowane przez alex.x91x:

My Build for the Axe that i really like is this:

Attack : Aphrodite (Big % Damage Bonus)
Cast: Demeter (CC for most Mobs)
Selene: Phase Shift (Your Hex makes everything else move 80% slower for 5 Sec.)
Hammer: Executioner's Chop (Last Attack Hits Double but Cost 20 Mana) and/or the one which gets 300 Power on the Attack but you lose the first 2 Attacks.
Other: Apollo Extra Dose (Your Attack has a chance to hit 2 times), Poseidon Hydraulic Might(At the start of each Encounter, your Attacks and Specials are stronger for 10 Sec.),
Bonus: Artemis Pressure Points (Any damage you deal might be a critical)

I lure the Mobs to one Point use my cast and than just Hit them until they die.
My Normal Attacks use 20 Mana which fill my Mooon Powers pretty fast for more free Attacks. At Start of any Boss i Tank a few Hits to get most of my Hydraulic Might.
The Extra Dose from Apollo is nice passiv Damage on the hit if you Trigger it.
My Artemis Boon is only a Bonus because its pretty rare to get her Power.
With my best run i got 2k per Hit and sometimes more if i Crit on Attack.

Warning- if you take those two hammer boons and don't have mana Regen you can brick your run entirely. I had a pretty good attack focused run end because I just assumed that if you didn't have enough mana it would just not double the attack. I was incorrect. It left me unable to attack at all, and without mana for omega cast or special... Had to suicide.

[Tim]

Aspect of Thanatos: Spam Omega Attack. Hera's Born Gain works for everything, so that's a no-brainer, but Lucid Gain works well, too. Take Chaos every time for Attacks/Omega-related buffs. Aphro or Hera on the attack for damage. You can put Demeter on the attack for safety, but it underperforms in the late game—put Demeter on Cast instead! Weirdly, I don't like Apollo on attack? You think it'd be a natural pair, but against bosses, it doesn't net you any free hits, and the axe swings are plenty big for rooms as it is.

You can build off the Omega Special if you get the Hammer making it faster in the first room, but it's tricky otherwise.

Aspect of Charon: Get Hera's Born Gain ASAP. From there, you can slap pretty much anything on Cast and Special and it'll work (except Zeus on Cast). You might think "I need something that empowers the Omega damage!" but you really don't; it's already massive from The Moon+The Furies+Death. If your Cast can inflict two curses in one activation for Origination, even better! Demeter's great for that (since Gale Force inflicts a curse with the Cast, but isn't a Core boon). I'll even take Aphrodite on Cast if it means I get Origination sooner.

Aspect of Melinoe: hope you get an Attack-related hammer and pray, lol. You can also try the Aphro/Zeus duo here, with Zeus on the attack. It's bad for damage at the start, but since each swipe is so massive, you get to inflict a whole room with Blitz and dash around for easy damage. Dash-strike into dash melts bosses, too.

[munderfire]

Afrodita for dmg in to close enemies
Appolo's chance for double attack
All pomegranates for this two boons

If you re lucke then Daedalus Hammer that chnges attack for 300 dmg and second hammer for making this one attack doubled (costs 20 mana) - with appolo it's a chance to deal attack 4 times (300*Afrodita)

If you're supr lucky - get 20% crit chance to enemies with health and armor above 80% to deal up to 4000+ dmg with one hit|

for quick room cleaning you can also take Poseidon - his % dmg at first N sec of the fight multiplies its value, not adds it to afrditas (so it's not 300% with heroic 200% afroditas boon, but 400%)