Almost every god boon layers a status curse on top of its damage, and stacking two of them turns Origination into a run-defining multiplier.
Fourteen status curses run through Hades 2, and picking which one you want ticking is the hidden layer under every boon choice.
Each Olympian, bar two, applies a signature curse: Aphrodite weakens, Hestia burns, Zeus shocks. The curse is usually more important than the raw damage number attached to it.
Buffs matter too. Melinoe gains her own effects, from Armor to Dodge, while a few debuffs like Blessing of Strife and Chthonic Fate can quietly wreck a run if you do not know how to handle them.
This guide lists every status curse by god, the buffs that keep Melinoe alive, the debuffs that threaten her, and how the Origination Arcana turns stacked curses into serious damage.
14 god-applied debuffs that only affect foes; Melinoe cannot be cursed.
Blessing of Strife and Chthonic Fate are the two debuffs that can ruin a run.Status effects split into buffs that help Melinoe and debuffs that hinder foes, and the debuff group is dominated by god-applied Status Curses.
The wiki states that every god except Chaos and Hermes has at least one boon that inflicts a Status Curse, and that Melinoe herself cannot be cursed. So curses are a tool you point at enemies, not a risk you carry, which changes how you value them at a door.
The reason to care about which curse you run is stacking. Curses from different gods layer, and the wiki specifies that having two or more Olympian curses on a foe at once feeds the Origination Arcana, marking that enemy Punished for bonus damage. That single interaction is why two-god runs hit so much harder than one-god runs.
When you pick your second god, favor one whose curse is easy to keep applied alongside your first. A Hestia Scorch that ticks constantly plus a Zeus Blitz that triggers on damage keeps most foes Punished with no extra effort, which is free Origination damage all run.
Fourteen status curses cover the roster, one or two per god, and each pushes a different playstyle.
Some curses are defensive, like Weak and Daze cutting the damage you take. Others are pure offense, like Glow and Marked amplifying what you deal. A few, like Scorch and Blitz, snowball on their own once applied. Match the curse to your weapon and the run plays itself.
| Curse | Source | Effect |
|---|---|---|
 Weak | Aphrodite | Cursed foes deal at least 30% less damage. |
 Daze | Apollo | Foes have a 20% chance to deal no damage at all. |
 Wounds | Ares | Your strike gains +50 Power while inflicting it. |
 Marked | Artemis | Foes have +30% chance to take Critical damage. |
 Freeze | Demeter | Foes are stopped for 2 seconds, reapplied after 10. |
| Gust | Demeter | Foes move 20% slower and fire ranged shots 60% slower. |
 Hangover | Dionysus | Foes take damage continuously over 4 seconds. |
 Glow | Hephaestus | Foes take +15% damage for 5 seconds. |
 Hitch | Hera | Foes take 30% of damage dealt to other Hitched foes. |
 Scorch | Hestia | A stacking burn dealing 100 accrued damage per second. |
 Froth | Poseidon | When hit, foes have a 25% chance to take 50 damage. |
 Blitz | Zeus | After a foe takes 120 damage, it is struck by lightning. |
 Morph | Selene | Twilight Curse turns foes into harmless critters. |
| Scorn | Hades | Foes take +30% Attack and Special damage for 10 seconds. |
One more god effect sits just outside this group. Aphrodite's Charmed, from her Ecstatic Obsession duo boon, turns foes against each other, but the wiki notes it is not a true Status Curse and does not feed Origination.
Buffs are the positive half of the system, and most of them are survivability tools Melinoe gains from boons, keepsakes, and Arcana.
The core defensive buffs are Armor, which absorbs damage before your health bar, and Dodge, which gives a flat chance to avoid a hit entirely. Impervious grants brief windows of total immunity, Barrier soaks a set amount of damage, and Block negates specific incoming hits.
On the offensive side, Increased Damage buffs come from Arcana, boons, Daedalus Hammer upgrades, and weapon aspects, each scaling a specific damage source like Attack or Omega Cast. Reduced Damage buffs, such as Hephaestus's Tough Gain or Hera's Brave Face, quietly lower what enemies do to you and are easy to undervalue until a boss fight.
A handful of debuffs land on Melinoe herself, and two of them are run-enders if you do not know the counter.
Blessing of Strife comes from Eris on the Underworld route in the first 10 nights. It adds +20% damage taken and another +5% per encounter cleared, lasting the whole night. The wiki specifies it is avoidable: Eris will not appear if you enter a region's first area at 50% health or less with no Death Defiance active.
Chthonic Fate is harsher. It appears the first time you reach the Surface and deals self-damage every five seconds that bypasses Death Defiance, making Surface runs impossible until you remove it. The only permanent fix is the Unraveling a Fateful Bond incantation. Stun rounds out the list, freezing your actions when enemies like Jetty, Tempus, or Chronos land specific attacks.
Origination is the reason curses are a build path rather than flavor, and it rewards you for spreading two gods' curses onto the same foe.
With the Origination Arcana Card active, any enemy carrying Status Curses from two or more different Olympians becomes Punished and takes additional damage, shown by an icon next to its health bar. It converts the two-god commitment you already made for Duo boons into a second, constant damage bonus.
In practice the best curse pairs are ones that stay applied on their own. A damage-over-time curse like Scorch or Hangover keeps ticking while a trigger curse like Blitz or Froth fires off your hits, so both stay live and the foe stays Punished. As of patch v1.0, running Origination alongside a clean two-god curse pairing is one of the strongest damage engines in the game.
Status effects are conditions that affect enemies or Melinoe. They split into buffs that help Melinoe, like Armor and Dodge, and debuffs that hinder foes. The largest debuff group is Status Curses, which every god except Chaos and Hermes can apply through their boons.
There are 14 status curses. Each is tied to a god: Weak from Aphrodite, Daze from Apollo, Wounds from Ares, Marked from Artemis, Freeze and Gust from Demeter, Hangover from Dionysus, Glow from Hephaestus, Hitch from Hera, Scorch from Hestia, Froth from Poseidon, Blitz from Zeus, Morph from Selene, and Scorn from Hades.
No. The wiki specifies that Melinoe cannot be inflicted with Status Curses. Curses are strictly an offensive tool you apply to enemies. Melinoe can still be hit by separate debuffs like Blessing of Strife, Chthonic Fate, and Stun, which are not Status Curses.
Origination is an Arcana Card that marks any enemy carrying status curses from two or more different Olympians as Punished, making it take additional damage. It turns a two-god run into a constant damage bonus, which is why stacking curses from two gods is a core damage strategy.
Blessing of Strife comes from Eris on the Underworld route in the first 10 nights and stacks damage taken each encounter. It is avoidable: enter a region's first area at 50% health or less with no active Death Defiance and Eris will not appear to apply it.
Chthonic Fate appears the first time you reach the Surface and deals self-damage every five seconds that ignores Death Defiance. The only permanent fix is performing the Unraveling a Fateful Bond incantation at the Cauldron, which is required before Surface runs become viable.
The strongest pairs stay applied on their own. A damage-over-time curse like Hestia's Scorch or Dionysus's Hangover paired with a trigger curse like Zeus's Blitz or Poseidon's Froth keeps a foe Punished under Origination with almost no effort, as of patch v1.0.
No. Charmed comes from Aphrodite's Ecstatic Obsession duo boon and turns foes against each other, but the wiki notes it is not counted as a Status Curse and does not trigger Origination. It also cannot affect Guardians or Wardens.
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Game data and character art adapted from hades.fandom.com, used under CC BY-SA 3.0. Original content remains the property of the wiki contributors and Supergiant Games.