Are the boons bad?

[Zireael ム]

Are the boons bad?
The game is trying not to be like the first part, many are not satisfied with some aspects (for example, music and art design), but what about the gameplay?

At the 5th hour of the game, it seemed to me that no matter what boon I took, it would not change the feel of the weapon, my damage would simply increase by 1 or 10%. At that moment, I thought that I had not discovered all the gods, or they would give me an alternative, but no... At the 20th hour of the game, I still ask myself the same question.
Literally every God has become a weaker version of themselves, and the new ones are just ridiculous, especially Hestia

I wouldn't say that the game is bad, but when the main thing, why I would like to play it, makes me bored, then that's bad.

I hope the situation is still like this because of the early access, maybe the authors have an idea to strengthen the Gods when we get to Olympus, but for now...

[ninemiletree]

The boons are not bad. I'm not even sure what that means.

If you're having trouble figuring out builds, try some trial runs in the Black Stone. They start you out with a pre-configured kit that gives you ideas of what to build towards for each weapon to absolutely shred. Do the ones with the single-eye difficulty and work your way up.

They take a little more thought than the first one because they usualy require more than single-button mashing. But you can get builds that absolutely shred. Just figure out where you're lacking - DPS, AoE, survivability, etc. And then build to that.

Also, Dark Souls rules applies here - don't be afraid to build health. You need health. Stack it. Consider Aphrodite or Demeter for their health buff passives or Hephaestus for his armor buffs, if you're having trouble.

[Morton Koopa Jr.]

Yeah. You would totally beat cronos on your first try with zero boons.

[TommyEV]

Originally posted by Zireael ム:

for example, music

What? Who has complained about it?
It's probably the one single aspect we could agree is just as good as in 1

[Orzeker]

There was a lot of nerfs imo considering boons, mainly athena being absent is a huge deal it removes a lot of good defensive boons and what athena could do has been spread among other gods like hermes or hestia with their sprint, but extremely nerfed.

Hermes as well for example, he use to have a boon that gave us flat % dodge, now there's a condition to it, you have to receive damage to gain the % dodge, zeus and poseidon feels a lot less powerful as well, hestia is a worst version of dionysos.

And overall the pool of boons are a lot more diluted it seems.

[Ronald_Raygun!]

I'd say I've yet to find consistent combinations that feel good, and some weapons are highly specific. Of course I'm only starting to get to the point where I'm clearing a significant number of encounters and getting 8+ boons to really see the interactions. It's also frustrating that some are highly dependent on hammer upgrades. There's a staff upgrade that splits the special into 2 and makes it guided - that plus anything that causes the special to AOE/split further is almost enough to get through the entire first stage by itself. Then I've had runs where I've got 8 boons and still struggle to do damage against some enemy types.

I think they're missing a few options - I can stack scorch up, but there should be a boon to make it detonate. There's also some boons that are just vastly better for certain weapons. I think the axe is the worst offender, as so many boons trigger per strike.

If you want to explore further, try the Olympus path. The city has 10+ door options, most of which are boons, and you get to pick 6 or 7. The combat isn't as hard as the underworld IMO either.

[Gin]

Maybe they might seem worse at the start until you increase the chance at a better rarity?

From my experience, some boons are way better than others so it's clearly not properly balanced yet, but I wouldn't say that the others are bad.

Hephaestus has the most OP boons imo right now.

Aphro might seem more weak in terms of damage but I think some people don't notice the part where it says "close" enemies, it gives a really big percentage but you need to stay close to your target. Not to mention Aphro has the most OP heal boon in the game, you can get it lower than 50% and heal back to full after each room.

[Bearsuit]

You just need to learn the boons and how to build with them. They feel weird because they are new.

[Zireael ム]

Originally posted by Bearsuit:

You just need to learn the boons and how to build with them. They feel weird because they are new.

They are new, but they are extremely simple. I write that compared to part 1 they are boring and weak.
But okay, I'm sure I'll get used to them

[Agent Syn]

Originally posted by Orzeker:

There was a lot of nerfs imo considering boons, mainly athena being absent is a huge deal it removes a lot of good defensive boons and what athena could do has been spread among other gods like hermes or hestia with their sprint, but extremely nerfed.

Hermes as well for example, he use to have a boon that gave us flat % dodge, now there's a condition to it, you have to receive damage to gain the % dodge, zeus and poseidon feels a lot less powerful as well, hestia is a worst version of dionysos.

And overall the pool of boons are a lot more diluted it seems.

Hermes' % dodge skill is still there btw and there aren't any conditions...

Poseidon is by far one the OP one in this EA (it has flat dmg increase now)
Zeus is mostly used by few builds but remains still powerful.

Athena' boons were clearly OP honestly and being replaced by Hera'one is a good step.

I compared H1' numbers and H2' one, and guess what?
Some boons were replaced by flat number, which some % numbers were just incresed (Demeter/aphrodite got buffed as hell)

Summary, Most of boons received buffs.

[Orzeker]

Originally posted by Agent Syn:

Originally posted by Orzeker:

There was a lot of nerfs imo considering boons, mainly athena being absent is a huge deal it removes a lot of good defensive boons and what athena could do has been spread among other gods like hermes or hestia with their sprint, but extremely nerfed.

Hermes as well for example, he use to have a boon that gave us flat % dodge, now there's a condition to it, you have to receive damage to gain the % dodge, zeus and poseidon feels a lot less powerful as well, hestia is a worst version of dionysos.

And overall the pool of boons are a lot more diluted it seems.

Hermes' % dodge skill is still there btw and there aren't any conditions...

Poseidon is by far one the OP one in this EA (it has flat dmg increase now)
Zeus is mostly used by few builds but remains still powerful.

Athena' boons were clearly OP honestly and being replaced by Hera'one is a good step.

I compared H1' numbers and H2' one, and guess what?
Some boons were replaced by flat number, which some % numbers were just incresed (Demeter/aphrodite got buffed as hell)

You haven't played a lot then because hermes % dodge boon is clearly tied behind taking damage now.

And poseidon and zeus are good, but the question isn't that, they're weaker than they use to be.

Hera and athena don't even have the same mindset what are you talking about? hera isn't a defensive god at all, and yeah athena was good, wouldn't say op since she was clearly needed at high heat, and we clearly needs some better defensive boons right now.

Some gods seems pretty much the same though you're right, like aphrodite, demeter or artemis (though being so rare kinda nerf her since her boons should be a lot better now imo).

Chaos doesn't give % attack, special or cast as often anymore as well which is pretty big, and another point for a more diluted pool.

[Byza]

I think people are having trouble seeing how this game is definitely a lot less about hitting with your weapon, and more about using all of your many different attacks and powered attacks together.