Supergiant Games’ recent launch of their beautifully macabre Greek mythos-based Rougelite Hades has already been incredibly successful. We’re glad to see a lot of groundswell for a game that has been in early access and killing it for over two years now, and, in fact, it just recently crossed over a million sales! But, to get into the narrative a bit, in Hades, players take the role of Zagreus, son of the eponymous God of Death himself.
There are a couple of things helping Zag run away from home like Boons from Gods on Olympus, Weapons of ancient Heroes, and even Gifts from Chaos itself. But, one of the most crucial aspects of Hades is the Keepsake system. There are a ton of them in the game, and it takes a long time to unlock them all, but here’s how we think they stack up comparatively from worst to best
18 Distant Memory
Starting things off with a controversial pick, we have the gift from the minstrel of House Hades, Orpheus himself. Here’s the thing about Distant Memory and why its on the bottom of this list despite it seemingly having a good ability; Zagreus does more damage to “distant” enemies with this thing equipped, which is nice, but how exactly far away is “distant?” How can we tell how distant we are to each and every enemy, and why isn’t there some indicator on the screen when Zagreus is at “distance.”
Just put a mostly transparent circle beneath Zagreus to show that anything outside of it qualifies as distant, and the Keepsake immediately becomes way better.
17 Skull Earring
The Skull Earring is the equivalent of the Red Tearstone Ring from the Dark Souls games. Basically, at low health, Zag will do a bunch more damage. Specifically, at 30% or below, Zag will do 20/30/ or 40% more damage total. Now, this gift from Megara is actually pretty insane when paired with certain builds or boons like the one from Dionysus that reduces damage taken at 40% health or lower. But, otherwise, it’s just a slight buff for the moments right before players end up using a Death Defiance.
16 Harpy Feather Duster
This is another Keepsake that players likely relied upon heavily in the early game, as it’s pretty useful then. The duster from Dusa the Gorgon essentially makes it so that every Urn Zag breaks has a 3/5/6% chance to contain a healing item. But, the healing in these urns is the “Food” item that only restores like 10 health.
It’s useful when Zag only has like 50 max health in the early game, but, again, once he has the buffs to his Max Health and a bit more mastery, there are way better Keepsakes to invest in.
15 Myrmidon Bracer
The Myrmidon Bracer is a generous gift from Zagreus’ teacher and close friend, the legend Achilles himself. It’s a fantastic Keepsake for the early game when players haven’t unlocked/invested enough into the Mirror of Night to give themselves some survivability.
This bracer reduces the damage Zag takes from the front by 20/25/or 30%, but it increases damage taken from the back by 10%. So, as long as the Prince faces problems head-on, he’ll be a bit tanker, which is pretty crucial for heavy damage and slow Aspects, such as the Aspect of Gilgamesh. It’s not bad, just outclassed.
14 Shattered Shackle
The Shattered Shackle is a bit of an odd case. From the description alone, it seems like an incredibly powerful Keepsake, but we could only ever make the most of it in a run when we avoided upgrading certain abilities.
This gift from Sisyphus empowers Zag’s Attack, Special, and Cast by a large percentage as long as these abilities aren’t already empowered by a God Boon. Now, 80% at max rank is pretty substantial, but it’s just so rare to go through the game without buffing your Attack, Special, or Cast in some way with Boons.
13 Chthonic Coin Purse
Ah, the Coin Purse full of 100/120/or 150 Obol given to the Prince of the Underworld by Hypnos, the incarnation of sleep. Remember, though, that it only gives Zag a chunk of cash once per run, so re-equipping it or keeping it equipped does nothing.
That said, using it for the first level then switching off of it isn’t a bad tactic at all, as it allows players to buy most everything from Charon’s shop whenever it pops up. Or, they can use it after losing a Death Defiance so they can afford another one from the Well. It’s not a Keepsake people ever tend to rely on often, though most of the players who first got into the game back in the early access release days did rely on it quite heavily at first.
12 Broken Spearpoint
The Broken Spearpoint is a perfect example of a niche Keepsake, as it seems pretty useful, but it only really becomes amazing in certain situations. The Spearpoint is in Zag’s care thanks to Patroclus in Elysium, and it simply makes players invulnerable after taking damage.
The time they’re invulnerable changes with the rank and maxes out at 1.5 seconds, but the refresh time is the real downside. A 7-second cooldown is pretty harsh. Still, being invincible for 1.5 out of every 7 is pretty good, and is really helpful for the final boss fight or some of the Extreme Measures Pact of Punishment encounters.
11 Cosmic Egg
The Cosmic Egg is basically one of the God Keepsakes that we’ll be touching on later, but for Chaos instead of an Olympus God. Still, it is slightly different in two ways; it usually costs a chunk of health to enter Chaos Gates, but, with this equipped, it’s free.
What’s more, the God Keepsakes at max rank increase the chance of Rare boons being offered by 20%, but the Cosmic Egg increases the chance of Rare Chaos Blessings by a whopping 40% at Max Rank. So, it absolutely has a ton of worth.
10 Bone Hourglass
Charon is one of the fan-favorite characters of Hades, and it’s easy to see why. Charon has it all, and he even has Wells placed all over Tartarus that Zagreus can buy temporary buffs from.
These buffs range from attack increases, spawning fishing spots, to even stuff like replenishing a Death Defiance. Needless to say, this Well is useful, and the Bone Hourglass simply increases the duration of all items purchased from said Well by an additional 4/6/8 encounters. There are not a lot of runs where this wouldn’t be handy in some small way.
9 Black Shawl
The Black Shawl is a gift from Night itself—Nyx, to be exact. Nyx was the original being in charge of Tartarus, and she raised Zag, but, once Hades arrived, he took over, and they worked out a partnership in cohabitation.
Basically, using this Shawl causes Zagreus to do deal additional pain to undamaged foes and enemies he attacks from behind. This happens a lot more that players likely believe it does, and it absolutely comes in handy, especially at the 20% extra Rank 3 provides.
8 The Sigil Of The Dead
This Sigil, which is another spoiler, is a unique Keepsake as it actually lets Zagreus start off with a Boon—a Call, to be exact. Calls are abilities from Gods gained from Boons that are similar to “Supers” in a fighting game.
If you wait until all four sections of the bar are full, you’ll get a Greater Call, a massively improved version of the regular Call, and, to maximize the use of this Keepsake, that’s what we recommend. The Call itself that Sigil provides isn’t amazing, but its Greater Call for sure is, especially for avoiding damage.
7 Pierced Butterfly
The Pierced Butterfly is actually incredibly similar to the Lambent Plume; both Keepsakes slowly give the player extra stats depending on how their run goes, and, while clearing a room quickly for the Plume is a tad difficult, it’s not exceedingly so.
But, clearing a room without taking damage? That’s way tougher. Yet, if players manage to do this, they’ll get an additional 1/1.5/2% total damage depending on the Pierced Butterfly’s Rank. This gift from Thanatos is obviously meant for those elite players who know the game in and out, so be confident before you commit a whole run to it.
6 The Pom Blossom
This next one we’re going to keep a bit mysterious, as revealing too much about how it’s gained is sort of a spoiler for Hades. We get that this whole story is based on Greek Mythos, but we still don’t want to spoil any surprises.
In any case, the Pom Blossom is only gained vert late into the game, and it makes sense as to why because this Keepsake is insanely useful. After clearing a certain amount of encounters, the Pom Blossom will level up a random Boon Zagreus has gained, and it will keep doing this every time that threshold is crossed. At first, this occurs every six encounters, but, by max level, it’s every four.
5 Evergreen Acorn
The Evergreen Acorn was our bread-and-butter Keepsake for a while when trying to take on the final boss of Hades when he was first patched in. It’s gifted to Zagreus from Eurydice, the immaculately designed oak nymph trapped in Asphodel. Every “final encounter” in a Zone, such as Megara or Lernie, this Acorn absorbs the first couple of hits Zag takes completely free-of-charge.
Even at level 1, this thing is useful, as it blocks three entire hits, ramping up to 5 at level three. It doesn’t have a lot of versatility as a keepsake, but that shouldn’t really matter.
4 The Keepsakes Of Olympus
So, there are a ton of Keepsakes we’re bunching into one entry here, and the reason is that they all essentially do the same thing. Every God that Zagreus ranks his Bond up enough with will give him a Keepsake that makes their Boons the next one to appear (except Hermes). These Keepsakes, such as the Frostbitten Horn or Blood-Filled Vial, all need to be leveled up individually. But, each one simply forces the game to make the next God Boon encountered the one that matches the Keepsake, and it also increases the chances of said God offering better boons.
These are essential Keepsakes if players are aiming for a specific build, but be wary, as they can only be used on each God once per run, and, after that, keeping it equipped only increasing the Rarity chance.
3 Lucky Tooth
Anyone who has played Hades for at least a few hours immediately could tell you how important the Lucky Tooth is. This Keepsake is a present from Skelly, the Training Dummy near the Infernal Arms, and it’s oddly incredible considering how much of a side character Skelly is.
Basically, it gives Zagreus one additional “Death Defiance” that saves him from dying and ending a run—though, to be fair, Hades is sort of all about dying over and over anyway, it shares a lot in common with Spelunky 2 in that sense. In any case, this is likely the most commonly used boon by all players, and it should be obvious as to why.
2 Lambent Plume
The Lambent Plume is the only Keepsake given to Zagreus by an Olympus God that doesn’t make their Boon appear more frequently. Instead, this feather gives Dodge Chance and Move Speed for every encounter Zag clears quickly. If a player uses it all the way until the end of a run, they can net an astounding 30%+ Move Speed and Dodge Chance, which is incredibly good.
It’s the epitome of low-risk, high-reward, so we recommend tossing Hermes some of that sweet nectar as soon as possible to unlock this quicker.
1 Old Spiked Collar
Ending things right at the tippy top is man’s best friend—well, immortal man’s best friend with three heads. That’s right, this is the Keepsake Zag gets from Cerberus, and it’s useful in literally every situation.
The Old Spiked Collar does one thing and one thing extremely well: gives max health. While this Keepsake is equipped, Zag’s Max Health will increase by 25, 38, and finally 50 at max level. It’s perfect for runs where players get a ton of damage boons but no Centaur Hearts.
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