This will not be easy, and may take way more runs for some then others. A lot of it is dependent upon skill and learning enemy patterns, but a lot of it also depends on getting lucky with your boons and enemies/minibosses. And even sometimes whether or not you get that fountain or special room in a run
Keep these things in mind as your playing to increase your chances:
-learn enemy patterns: seems obvious but knowing what your enemies gonna do will increase your chances of survival exponentially. Each time you fight an enemy/boss you’ll get better at seeing the telegraphs for their moves and being able to dodge accordingly
-Upgrade your passive boosts thru the mirror in Zagreus’s room. Darkness will upgrade talents, and keys will unlock more options for you to use. Each ability has an alternate as well, so you can mix and match which boosts you want to find the perfect set up.
-Unlock and upgrade weapons and their aspects. keys will unlock the initial weapon and after they are all unlocked, you will gain access to 3 more traits for each weapon. These traits range from slight boosts to changing the move sets of the weapon. For a more detailed guide on the aspects and how to unlock, check the achievement guide for “Infernal Arms”
-Finding/Upgrading keepsakes. Keepsakes can be actual lifesavers on runs depending on which one you use. The first nectar that you give to every character you can talk to will reward you with their keepsake. Equipping the keepsake and clearing a certain number of rooms with enemies will upgrade these permanently. Some great early games ones are Cerberus’, which increases your total health, dusa’s creates and increases a chances that pots having healing items upon being broken, and skelly’s which gives the player another death defiance at a flat health rate.
-Upgrading with the house contractor. Don’t use any gems/diamonds on decor, aiming only to put them into underworld renovation or special items. These items will do various things for your runs, including adding a chance for special pots with gold to spawn, adding fountain rooms on certain floors, allow you to change you keepsake in between floors, and many other things. These benefits not only will help your runs, but they will also allow you to gather resources quicker to upgrade all your other various things.
-Always choose to meet the shade of the floor. These will spawn as a grey circle with an “!” Sign in the center within the rewards on a door. These rooms can be actual run savers, especially from the second floor on. Eurydice will upgrade current boon rarity’s, or the following few you run into, and Patrolcus will give you a 60% damage up for a bunch of rooms, give you mass healing for a few rooms, or straight up replenish all lost death defiances. All of them are involved in prophecies too once you have enough dialogue/ give them enough nectar, which will only give you more resources to work with.
-Find a setup that works for you. With so many different weapons, aspects, and boons, it may take a while to figure out what works for you, but after several runs and trying stuff out, you’ll start to figure out what works and what doesn’t for your play style. Some boons will just work better on a different weapon than others. Personally my favorite set up in the game is using the aspect of Zeus shield, and starting with the Zeus keepsake. This forces the first thing I find to be a Zeus boon, which I then choose to add lightning strikes to my special attack. Using the
shield toss, you can decimate the entire first floor from range, and this provides a great setup to build upon. Adding in Artemis’s “Support arrow” boon or some Poseidon boons to get a chance for the Zeus/Poseidon duo boon, and even more Zeus boons is a great strategy.
-TALK. TO. EVERYONE. Talking with characters after every run will only be helpful to you, as certain unlocks are only available after a certain dialogue conversation is triggered with someone. Not to mention as they shed some light on the story and lore surrounding your father and the Underworld.
-Watch a playthrough on YouTube/boon synergy guide. If you’re really struggling you can look up some helpful ideas, or see how someone with more hours takes on certain enemies/situations. Some of the guys with hundreds of hours can finesse the mechanics/upgrades and make really tough fights look like a cakewalk. Could give you the help to beat that tricky boss fight (looking at you Theseus)
Haelian on YouTube is a good one if you need ideas, he pulls off some insane synergies/runs because he’s so knowledgeable (and extremely lucky)
Other than that, it’s gonna come down to a lot of skill, and a lot of luck. Don’t get discouraged if you can’t beat it right away because of a tough floor/boss, or you feel like your run count is getting a little high. This game is meant to be tough as nails but it gives you just enough passive upgrades to make each run a little easier. You will get better. For reference I think it took me around 25-30 attempts to get out on my switch playthrough (The elysium boss fight really just kicked the shit out of me for a real long time), but on my current Xbox playthrough I got out on my 9th run. If you follow these tips and you should finally be able to escape the realm of Hades.