Primordial Chaos is one of the entities you’ll meet while traversing Hades‘ dark dungeons. In the Realm of Chaos, you’ll be able to give gifts and choose a blessing. Beware, however, because Chaos’ boons are accompanied by a curse. Here’s our guide to help you out.
Note: This guide is intended for Hades’ early access stage and certain mechanics may change in due course. For more information, check out our Hades guides and features hub.
Hades: Entering the Realm of Chaos
The Realm of Chaos can be entered via a floor panel with an eye symbol (the Eye of Chaos) in regular rooms. Clear the enemies first and you’ll be able to interact with it.
Ah, but wait, there’s a price in blood. The entry will cost Zagreus’ a chunk of HP. If you’re really up for it, go ahead.
Upon visiting this ethereal place, you can speak to Primordial Chaos. Gifting the entity nectar will net you the Cosmic Egg Keepsake. It will nullify the HP sacrifice mechanic whenever you attempt to enter the Realm of Chaos as long as you have it equipped.
Oh, and it’s also possible to fish here if the prompt is available. Don’t worry, you’ll still get regular fish instead of Warhammer 40K‘s warp-tainted stuff.
Primordial Chaos boons
Primordial Chaos’ boons in Hades are quite different from those given by the Olympians. Firstly, you don’t actually gain different types of skills or attacks. Secondly, you’ll get cursed before you receive the blessing.
Curses will last roughly two to four rooms, upon which the curse will be removed and the blessing will take effect for the remainder of your Hades escape attempt. As such, it’s better to enter get an ideal Primordial Chaos boon early on, especially in Tartarus or Asphodel. Not only are several mobs weaker, but you’ll be able to get the most out of your buffs for the rest of the run.
Regarding how Chaos’ boons work, it’s based on a combination of a prefix and a suffix. The prefix is the curse and the suffix is the attack type or utility that gains a blessing once the curse has dissipated.
| Curse/Prefix | Curse Effect | Affected Mechanic/Suffix | Blessing Effect |
| Abyssal | Significantly increased damage from traps | Strike | Significantly increased main attack damage (up to 50%) |
| Addled | Get damaged everytime you use your casting skill | Flourish | Significantly increased special damage (up to 70%) |
| Atrophic | Significantly reduce your total HP | Lunge | Significantly increased dash attack damage (up to 70%) |
| Caustic | Every enemy killed will throw an exploding bomb | Shot | Significantly increased casting skill damage (up to 50%) |
| Enshrouded | All possible room rewards are hidden; rewards will simply have Chaos Eye symbols | Grasp | Increased casting ammo capacity (up to 3 crystals) |
| Excruciating | Increased damage taken (up to 50%) | Favor | All boons can be higher rarity (up to 40% chance) |
| Flayed | Get damaged everytime you use your special attack (including dash specials) | Soul | Increased max HP (up to 40 HP) |
| Maimed | Get damaged everyime you use your main attack (including dash attacks) | Affluence | Increased amount of gold that you find (up to 60%) |
| Pauper’s | Unable to earn gold | Eclipse | Increased amount of darkness crystals that you find (up to 80%) |
| Roiling | Increased number of enemies to face | Defiance | Adds an extra charge of Death Defiance |
| Slothful | Significantly reduced movement speed (up to 60%) | Ambush | Significantly increased backstab damage/attacking enemies from behind |
| Slippery | Delayed collection of casting ammo; ammo crystals will have a ghostly outline and can’t be picked up until the time has elapsed | Assault | Bonus damage against undamaged enemies (ie. First strike) |
| Ruin | Room traps do increased damage against enemies |
Keep in mind that you can get various combinations of prefixes and suffixes, and sometimes they’ll really make your escape attempts a breeze. Here are some examples:
- If you’re heavily focused on dash attacks while ignoring your special, then you’d be lucky to spot Flayed Lunge — take damage when using special attacks for the next few encounters, then increase the damage of dash attacks afterward.
- If you already have the skills you want, then getting Pauper’s + any suffix will be very helpful since you’re not planning on buying boons anymore.
- Slippery will be useful if you’re not using projectile skills that often.
- Enshrouded is a safe pick since it won’t be very detrimental to your playthrough. You’ll still get rewards, you just won’t know that they’d be for the next couple of rooms.
- Speaking of rewards, the Favor suffix is one of the best if you can stack it along with other perks that increase boon rarity — ie. the Yarn of Ariadne, Eurydice’s buffs, or certain Duo boons.
- If you’re planning on farming for darkness crystals (for Mirror of Night upgrades), then be sure to pick up any boon with the Eclipse suffix. Hades player SlamDuncerino even managed to stack the buff to +960% to earn over 2,600 darkness crystals from the final boss.
Assuming you’ve got great casting skills like Slicing Shot (Ares) or Ice Wine (Dionysus + Demeter duo skill), plus Greater Recall (Hermes), then look out for the Shot or Grasp suffixes to further boost your projectiles. You can see an image below where I had 5 casting ammo and the crystals kept returning to me automatically. Too bad I didn’t have my ideal casting skills.
Conversely, if you’re still in Tartarus and you pick Maimed + any suffix, you’re probably screwed. If you haven’t obtained any useful dash skill, special, or cast projectile, then your main attack is your only option… and the Maimed prefix will damage Zagreus whenever it’s used. It’s basically suicidal for Zagreus if you have no other choice and you’re using weapons with extremely an high attack speed like the Twin Fists of Malphon.
Hades is available via Steam’s early access program. For more information, check out our guides and features hub.
