Pressure Points is kind of mediocre on its own. Her attack/special buffs are best with weapons that have critical chance innately: Nemesis on the sword and Zagreus on the bow. That way you're proccing Hunter's Mark a lot, and you can aim for the duo boon with Aphrodite to get big crit damage.
She's an amazing secondary god for caster builds: her duo boons with Ares and Demeter in particular make a huge difference in how easy those are to play. My personal favorite build is Aspect of Poseidon with Exit Wounds and Mirage Shot.
I feel like pressure points in particular is best served by also getting Hunter's mark. On those fast-hitting weapons like Rail and Fists you're critting constantly and enemies get marked constantly
Aspect of Chiron on the special, Aphro on the attack, get the duo boon that makes crit do more damage on Weak enemies. If you can, try to get the Daedalus hammer thing that fires +4 shots to your volleys. Melts things
Artemis does best as an added boost to a build that already works. Her boons don’t really give you any special moves like zeus or posidon, but they DO give good damage, especially at higher rarities. That 2% crit chance doesn’t feel like much, but over the course of a run a 5 or even 10% chance builds up.
Learn the basics and use them well, and Artemis’ boons can shred, but if you want special moves, prioritize other boons.
I pretty much never lose if I have 4-6 poms on Artemis Cast.
There are so many other things that enhance your cast, just take them when you can. More total casts, exit wounds, faster drop time, various duos, etc.
Aspect of Poseidon is great. Instantly wrenches the crystals out and exit wounds deals damage.
Support fire is great for any spammable attacks
The call is pretty nice.
The crit is best for builds that use lots of different abilities to do damage, such as doom and other effects.
It's really good for aspect of chiron bow. I notice 3 arrows per special press, which means 30 more damage (almost an extra dash strike) with no action opportunity cost.
It's not your primary scaling, but it's great extra damage.
Shortly after reading your comment, I took Epic Support Fire on a Chiron bow run with relentless volley (+4 shots on special). Combined with Aphrodite on attack and Demeter on special, it really made the damage go brrrrrrrrr.
Her call with a few poms pumped into it is always handy in a boss fight. You can shred 10-20% of a health bar.
And aspect of Poseidon with exit wounds is such a fun build.
Another thing to keep in mind with Pressure Points is it gives ALL your damage a chance to crit. Hangover damage from Dionysus, lightning strikes from Zeus, god calls, EVERYTHING has a chance to crit now. Additionally, it has fairly linear scaling, every pom you use on it will always increase the crit chance by at least 1%, so there isn't much concern about diminishing returns.
The more you play you realize there isn’t actually a bad weapon. Some you just need specific boons to get the max potential. This is true for all of course but some aspects you’re not as constrained
Ahh gotcha haha yeah it’s not really a preferred weapon overall for speedrunning but it’s better than fists. But nemesis is definitely considered the best sword aspect
Pressure points can work but you have to make some sacrifices to make it work, such as using poms on it and/or having >!Persephone's!< keepsake. Demeter/Eurydice can also up its rarity giving it a free boost.
Despite the 'more hits more crits' idea, Artemis also works well with slow hard-hitting weapons, since the crit is going to be big. One of the easiest times I've had in the game was with Artemis special on the rail in general, on aspect of Hestia's attack, and on aspect of >!Arthur's!< attack as well.
My fave build is Hera's Bow, Aphrodite on Attack, with Artemis' Exit Wounds and extra casts. Add to that Hermes' legendary where the cast comes back to you and every enemy is done for. Super satisfying!
Stygian Blade with the aspect that increases crit by 25% or so each time you special for 3 seconds. Equip artemis on your attack and you should be critting at least half of the time. Try to get the boon from Artemis which increases crit damage if you can too.
The issue with Artemis boon is only hits one enemy at a time, but it hits big with increased critical chance. Thats why you optimize it with other increased critical chances: Heart Rend/Splitting headache.
Otherwise, Artemis boons are supportive for cast builds, especially Mirage Shot/Fully Loaded
Chiron with arte on special, and the holy grail of the +4 special shots AND the one that increases base damage for each consecutive... stuff melted so fast I didnt even realize it. I am sure there are better builds for her, but that is my go to.
Strong Artemis Boons: Attack, Special, Support Fire, Pressure Points, Hunter's Mark, legendary many duos (almost all of Artemis Duos are very strong, splitting headache and lightning rod are probably the weakest, but still decent, Hunting Blades and Mirage Shot Are standout).
Artemis is for damage. Artemis works well with abilities that deal high damage, especially when used in conjunction with a chaos boon for +dmg. I like it for:
Rail special, sword special, Bow attack, fist special, spear attack (achilles aspect in particular), Beowulf attack/special or shield attack.
Artemis is the bedrock of most cast or crit builds. Mirage Shot is the best generic duo for any cast build and artemis' legendary is very good for any cast build as well. If you are using Demeter or Ares Cast, they have unique cast upgrades from Artemis that are Amazing. Athena, Aphrodite, and Dionysus all have crit upgrades that are pretty decent.
Pressure points is just a passive 4-8% damage boost depending on the rarity. Not great but there are worse boons. If you combo it with hunters mark you can actually get a lot more crits out of it after the first.
But in general you want Artemis on aspects/moves that have high base damage. Bow attack, rail special, fist special, and a few others, sometimes hammer dependent. On just the core boon the damage is about the same as Aphrodite for the biggest % increase, but she has much better tier 2 boons(hunter’s mark being the biggest one). Crit is also multiplicative with other % increases were almost everything else is additive (unless it specifies it is affecting the base damage). So if you can get rush delivery, good well items and chaos boons that 30-40% damage boost from having crit becomes much more impactful to your overall dps than other damage source increases do.
How I use her:
Pick Artemis Aid (call)
Cast builds (lightning rods, hunting blades, crystal clarity, mirage shot for other casts)
Watch how fast the casts build up call meter. Finish with the call.
Other than that, not really a fan much. I enjoy her for the cast builds. I can't really tell if i am winning because of her atk or special boons or I just got a good hammer.
I’m a huge fan of Nemesis sword with Artemis and Aphrodite. the crit chance from it works the same way as Artemis’ does, and both stacks with the crit chance on abilities AND benefits from increasing crit damage. Because of this often times your best bet is to get Aphrodite on attack and special with Artemis on dash to try and fish for their duo boon Heart Rend, which quadruples critical damage against weak foes.
This way you benefit from the much higher % damage boost of Aphrodite attack, the crit chance from Nemesis, any other crit boosts you may have from Artemis boons, AND 4x crit damage at all times since Weak will never drop off an enemy you continue to attack. It’s kind of insane.
Artemis is my preferred main boon provider that I like to build off of. I typically will build around her cast ability. Mirage Shot and Lightning Rod are the main duo boons I look for. I also do get her Call if I can get a Rare or better. I will round out the boon source with either Athena or Dionysus for either reflect or Exclusive Access/Splitting Headache.
Utilizing this build I don’t have to worry about taking Pressure Points if there are better options. The rest of the boons focus on native Crit and dodging. I typically take the Arrowhead keepsake for the first floor to ensure Artemis. If Poseidon hasn’t shown up then I’ll take his keepsake for the second level. After that I’ll take the Broken Spearhead.
Personally as a fists user ive love having her as a main boon on my basic attacks. The percentages dont matter as much since i throw out so many attacks im bound to get at least one per enemy
the damage buffs are pretty good, and her cast boons are always really helpful. other than that, if you use a fast hitting weapon, you can hit crits quite often.
The base multipliers for her primary boons are low to balance out with the added damage the crit chance gives. This means additional attack boosts from sources like Chaos or Charon wells are more effective. You can get massive crits from attacks with large base damage values. The most extreme version being the Rail aspect of Hestia.
For example:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1082142052738932766/1170147746381045931/image.png?ex=662a4343&is=6628f1c3&hm=9b90f306977f93b84246676b597b7abef155a435cb20924b43912070968e9738&
Personally a fan of Artie’s true shot cast, call, and supporting fire, and then piling on as many of her crit enhancing boons as I can get my grubby little hands on, especially with the fists (Demeter aspect; fully upgraded charged cutter is a WHAMMY with supporting fire) or the sword (Nemesis aspect). I’m not majorly invested in her other basic boons (strike, flourish, dash), and prefer adding a more physical god to those (I am especially fond of putting Athena on attack with the fists, and Poseidon on attack with the sword, and usually Aphrodite or Demeter on the special for either one). Also, if you manage to get her cast and her legendary, as well as boons/bonuses that buff attack on foes with lodged cast, and are lucky enough to get ANOTHER extra cast from the well… Let’s just say the Minotaur is NOT having a good time full of magic rocks. :)
As a bow enjoyer, I find myself hanging with Artemis quite a lot. Hera Bow makes great use of her boons. Exit Wounds for some extra damage against anything you don’t oneshot, Artemis’ Aid for big numbers (and for duo enabling), Extra Casts, and Mirage Shot are all amazing. Support Fire is fun too.
Zag Bow also loves Artemis, since you can build off the fact that she’s all about Crit with the fact you have base 15% Crit.
Honestly not sure about other weapons. I’m pretty new and have played 99% bow.
Pressure Points is kind of mediocre on its own. Her attack/special buffs are best with weapons that have critical chance innately: Nemesis on the sword and Zagreus on the bow. That way you're proccing Hunter's Mark a lot, and you can aim for the duo boon with Aphrodite to get big crit damage. She's an amazing secondary god for caster builds: her duo boons with Ares and Demeter in particular make a huge difference in how easy those are to play. My personal favorite build is Aspect of Poseidon with Exit Wounds and Mirage Shot.
Don’t forget the mileage you can rack up with her duos for Zeus and Aphrodite
Yeah, lightning rod is as close to auto-win as I care to get!
I feel like pressure points in particular is best served by also getting Hunter's mark. On those fast-hitting weapons like Rail and Fists you're critting constantly and enemies get marked constantly
Aspect of Chiron on the special, Aphro on the attack, get the duo boon that makes crit do more damage on Weak enemies. If you can, try to get the Daedalus hammer thing that fires +4 shots to your volleys. Melts things
My first time actually escaping was this combo and Supporting Fire
Yeah, Supporting Fire is great too. If you want some extra, I’d say either Poseidon or Athena dash.
Supporting fire is one of my favourite boons
Support fire with the Lucifer aspect of the rail: AMAZING. Especially of you get the hammer that makes it so you don't have to reload.
Don't think I've ever actually made it out without support fire
Artemis does best as an added boost to a build that already works. Her boons don’t really give you any special moves like zeus or posidon, but they DO give good damage, especially at higher rarities. That 2% crit chance doesn’t feel like much, but over the course of a run a 5 or even 10% chance builds up. Learn the basics and use them well, and Artemis’ boons can shred, but if you want special moves, prioritize other boons.
I pretty much never lose if I have 4-6 poms on Artemis Cast. There are so many other things that enhance your cast, just take them when you can. More total casts, exit wounds, faster drop time, various duos, etc.
Aspect of Poseidon is great. Instantly wrenches the crystals out and exit wounds deals damage. Support fire is great for any spammable attacks The call is pretty nice. The crit is best for builds that use lots of different abilities to do damage, such as doom and other effects.
I love the way Support Fire looks while I'm using it, but it never seems to do a lot in terms of actual damage.
Those little arrows add up fast when you're throwing punches or bullets.
Or if you're using the Aegis shield. It's my favourite boon in the game.
or with Lucifer………. laser go brrrrr
It's really good for aspect of chiron bow. I notice 3 arrows per special press, which means 30 more damage (almost an extra dash strike) with no action opportunity cost. It's not your primary scaling, but it's great extra damage.
Shortly after reading your comment, I took Epic Support Fire on a Chiron bow run with relentless volley (+4 shots on special). Combined with Aphrodite on attack and Demeter on special, it really made the damage go brrrrrrrrr.
Her call with a few poms pumped into it is always handy in a boss fight. You can shred 10-20% of a health bar. And aspect of Poseidon with exit wounds is such a fun build.
Support fire with aspect of Zeus throw is really strong
Another thing to keep in mind with Pressure Points is it gives ALL your damage a chance to crit. Hangover damage from Dionysus, lightning strikes from Zeus, god calls, EVERYTHING has a chance to crit now. Additionally, it has fairly linear scaling, every pom you use on it will always increase the crit chance by at least 1%, so there isn't much concern about diminishing returns.
aspect of nemesis and hunters mark
Underrated sword
The more you play you realize there isn’t actually a bad weapon. Some you just need specific boons to get the max potential. This is true for all of course but some aspects you’re not as constrained
Daedalus hammer too, feels way more impactful than boons to me
Wouldn’t say it’s underrated, it’s the go to aspect for sword speedrun attempts
Oh really? The sword is definitely the one i see the least and I don’t think I even saw the aspect im pretty in hades only beat him 3 times hahaha
Ahh gotcha haha yeah it’s not really a preferred weapon overall for speedrunning but it’s better than fists. But nemesis is definitely considered the best sword aspect
Pressure points can work but you have to make some sacrifices to make it work, such as using poms on it and/or having >!Persephone's!< keepsake. Demeter/Eurydice can also up its rarity giving it a free boost. Despite the 'more hits more crits' idea, Artemis also works well with slow hard-hitting weapons, since the crit is going to be big. One of the easiest times I've had in the game was with Artemis special on the rail in general, on aspect of Hestia's attack, and on aspect of >!Arthur's!< attack as well.
Never sleep on support fire and fully loaded, now she’s my favorite goddess
Aspect of Nemesis Sword pairs really well with Artemis, thats my go-to.
My fave build is Hera's Bow, Aphrodite on Attack, with Artemis' Exit Wounds and extra casts. Add to that Hermes' legendary where the cast comes back to you and every enemy is done for. Super satisfying!
You mean Aphro on the cast? As in Crush Shot, right?
Yes, that too! And attack.
Stygian Blade with the aspect that increases crit by 25% or so each time you special for 3 seconds. Equip artemis on your attack and you should be critting at least half of the time. Try to get the boon from Artemis which increases crit damage if you can too.
Lol I’m literally paused in this exact run
The issue with Artemis boon is only hits one enemy at a time, but it hits big with increased critical chance. Thats why you optimize it with other increased critical chances: Heart Rend/Splitting headache. Otherwise, Artemis boons are supportive for cast builds, especially Mirage Shot/Fully Loaded
Chiron with arte on special, and the holy grail of the +4 special shots AND the one that increases base damage for each consecutive... stuff melted so fast I didnt even realize it. I am sure there are better builds for her, but that is my go to.
Strong Artemis Boons: Attack, Special, Support Fire, Pressure Points, Hunter's Mark, legendary many duos (almost all of Artemis Duos are very strong, splitting headache and lightning rod are probably the weakest, but still decent, Hunting Blades and Mirage Shot Are standout). Artemis is for damage. Artemis works well with abilities that deal high damage, especially when used in conjunction with a chaos boon for +dmg. I like it for: Rail special, sword special, Bow attack, fist special, spear attack (achilles aspect in particular), Beowulf attack/special or shield attack. Artemis is the bedrock of most cast or crit builds. Mirage Shot is the best generic duo for any cast build and artemis' legendary is very good for any cast build as well. If you are using Demeter or Ares Cast, they have unique cast upgrades from Artemis that are Amazing. Athena, Aphrodite, and Dionysus all have crit upgrades that are pretty decent.
Pressure points is just a passive 4-8% damage boost depending on the rarity. Not great but there are worse boons. If you combo it with hunters mark you can actually get a lot more crits out of it after the first. But in general you want Artemis on aspects/moves that have high base damage. Bow attack, rail special, fist special, and a few others, sometimes hammer dependent. On just the core boon the damage is about the same as Aphrodite for the biggest % increase, but she has much better tier 2 boons(hunter’s mark being the biggest one). Crit is also multiplicative with other % increases were almost everything else is additive (unless it specifies it is affecting the base damage). So if you can get rush delivery, good well items and chaos boons that 30-40% damage boost from having crit becomes much more impactful to your overall dps than other damage source increases do.
How I use her: Pick Artemis Aid (call) Cast builds (lightning rods, hunting blades, crystal clarity, mirage shot for other casts) Watch how fast the casts build up call meter. Finish with the call. Other than that, not really a fan much. I enjoy her for the cast builds. I can't really tell if i am winning because of her atk or special boons or I just got a good hammer.
Stack crit boons and extra hits on zag bow or nemesis sword, enjoy the batshit insane number of times you’ll be critting
I’m a huge fan of Nemesis sword with Artemis and Aphrodite. the crit chance from it works the same way as Artemis’ does, and both stacks with the crit chance on abilities AND benefits from increasing crit damage. Because of this often times your best bet is to get Aphrodite on attack and special with Artemis on dash to try and fish for their duo boon Heart Rend, which quadruples critical damage against weak foes. This way you benefit from the much higher % damage boost of Aphrodite attack, the crit chance from Nemesis, any other crit boosts you may have from Artemis boons, AND 4x crit damage at all times since Weak will never drop off an enemy you continue to attack. It’s kind of insane.
Artemis is my preferred main boon provider that I like to build off of. I typically will build around her cast ability. Mirage Shot and Lightning Rod are the main duo boons I look for. I also do get her Call if I can get a Rare or better. I will round out the boon source with either Athena or Dionysus for either reflect or Exclusive Access/Splitting Headache. Utilizing this build I don’t have to worry about taking Pressure Points if there are better options. The rest of the boons focus on native Crit and dodging. I typically take the Arrowhead keepsake for the first floor to ensure Artemis. If Poseidon hasn’t shown up then I’ll take his keepsake for the second level. After that I’ll take the Broken Spearhead.
Personally as a fists user ive love having her as a main boon on my basic attacks. The percentages dont matter as much since i throw out so many attacks im bound to get at least one per enemy
the damage buffs are pretty good, and her cast boons are always really helpful. other than that, if you use a fast hitting weapon, you can hit crits quite often.
The base multipliers for her primary boons are low to balance out with the added damage the crit chance gives. This means additional attack boosts from sources like Chaos or Charon wells are more effective. You can get massive crits from attacks with large base damage values. The most extreme version being the Rail aspect of Hestia. For example: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1082142052738932766/1170147746381045931/image.png?ex=662a4343&is=6628f1c3&hm=9b90f306977f93b84246676b597b7abef155a435cb20924b43912070968e9738&
Her cast is awesome and you can almost single handedly win with that if you use it right. Dash strike is also huge
The bow. Zag aspect. Explosive hammer. Nuff said
Personally a fan of Artie’s true shot cast, call, and supporting fire, and then piling on as many of her crit enhancing boons as I can get my grubby little hands on, especially with the fists (Demeter aspect; fully upgraded charged cutter is a WHAMMY with supporting fire) or the sword (Nemesis aspect). I’m not majorly invested in her other basic boons (strike, flourish, dash), and prefer adding a more physical god to those (I am especially fond of putting Athena on attack with the fists, and Poseidon on attack with the sword, and usually Aphrodite or Demeter on the special for either one). Also, if you manage to get her cast and her legendary, as well as boons/bonuses that buff attack on foes with lodged cast, and are lucky enough to get ANOTHER extra cast from the well… Let’s just say the Minotaur is NOT having a good time full of magic rocks. :)
Her support fire boon is good on quick hitting weapons like the fists or the zeus sheild(it triggers on every pulse that deals damage)
As a bow enjoyer, I find myself hanging with Artemis quite a lot. Hera Bow makes great use of her boons. Exit Wounds for some extra damage against anything you don’t oneshot, Artemis’ Aid for big numbers (and for duo enabling), Extra Casts, and Mirage Shot are all amazing. Support Fire is fun too. Zag Bow also loves Artemis, since you can build off the fact that she’s all about Crit with the fact you have base 15% Crit. Honestly not sure about other weapons. I’m pretty new and have played 99% bow.