Always go for boons that grant you 2 things: more DAMAGE (to your Attack or Special) and STATUS CURSES.


Any God will give you some boon which elevates your damage, but some, like Artemis or Ares are more generous in this regard since they offer some boons that makes your Attack, Special AND Cast deal more damage.

My personal favorite Status Curses are Doom (Ares), followed by Hangover (Dionysus), since they will continue to damage your foes substantially while allowing you to keep attacking them, doubling or tripling the damage you deal to them. Demeter can be very good since it chills your foes while also causing damage.

Once you have at least two or three Boons that deal more damage and afflict your foes with status curses, POWER THEM UP. You don't need to have a million boons —

IMPORTANT!!!

ALWAYS select PRIVILEGED STATUS on the Mirror of Nyx and pump it up with Darkness to the max.
It grants you a 50% damage buff to any target suffering from two status effects, making your attacks extremely powerful when combined with the right boons. Afflicting your enemies with 2 or more status curses while having Privileged Status on will make you (almost) unstoppable.

HERMES is your friend. Pick at least 2 of his Boons when available to gain more speed or an extra dash.

Be as QUICK as you can possibly be and also NEVER STAY IDLE during Boss fights.

DASH, DASH, DASH. Move around as often as possible WHILE ATTACKING. If possible, also pick boons that enhance your dashing with DAMAGE (Athena is my favorite for this since it deals damage while also reflecting incoming).

I guarantee that, with practice, you'll be clearing the most challenging standard chambers in under 40 seconds.

Any one you like.

Sounds like a cop out, but this guide's build can be applied to any of the Infernal Arms to great results. I've done benchmarks with each of them, and the difference in escape times hasn't been as substantial to single one out. The secret to clearing chambers FAST is damaging several enemies at the same time.

That said, Varatha and Malphon are notorious for providing very fast attacks and combos.

My personal favorite? The Adamant Rail. I've stopped using it for periods of time because it almost felt like cheating by how deadly I am with the thing (not bragging... much). Using the Aspect of Zagreus to the max, I mow down enemies quickly from afar while also bombing them to ashes with its Special, which affects a large area, meaning more foes receiving damage. All of this while they agonize with status curses. Daedalus' Hammer's also allow me to bomb them 3 times in a row, or never having to reload, or expanding its Special area even more AND increasing its damage by %300...

But, this is all my personal taste and each weapon is amazing in its own unique way, and you should always go with the weapon and aspect you like and feel the most comfortable with.

These tips are for optimizing your gameplay in general, because I am that cool:

• USE YOUR KEEPSAKES. Especially, those who guarantee a God will offer their Boons next.
  
  
• Maximize your abilities and perks at the Mirror.
  
  
• Be financially responsible. Gather as much Obol (coin) as possible, but refrain from using it on Charon's Wells unless you need to replenish your Health or a Mini Boss or Boss fight is coming up and you could use the perks it offers. Otherwise, save up until you can spend it at Styx.
  
  
• USE YOUR CALL. When available, choose a Boon that makes a God show up with their Call to aid you in battles. My favorite is Artemis' arrow, but Dyonisus' or Ares' ones are also cool since they also make foes suffer from the aforementioned Status Curses but by much more.
  
  
• When finding Eurydice in Asphodel, always go for the Pom Porridge Ambrosia Delight or Refreshing Nectar. My favorite is Ambrosia Delight, since it +1 in Rarity two of my boons.
  
  
• ALWAYS pick the Daedalus' Hammer at least once. It'll give you some super handy improvement to your weapon.
  
  
• Try entering a Gate of Chaos at least once, ESPECIALLY in Tartarus when you can afford to sacrifice Health early on in your run.
  
  
• REVENGE BOONS are great, too. Mainly the ones offered by Zeus, Demeter and Ares.

In case you don't want to bother reading the previous wall of text but your goal is to have a really fast run that ends in victory, here's the gist of it:

• Be STRONG: Pump up your Damage stats (attack, special, cast) by at least a lvl 5 or 6 to one of them and enhance it with the Hammer or boons from gods. For example, if you 'commit' to your Special, then try choosing boons, hammer improvements, and poms of power that will power up your Special so that it becomes incredibly powerful. Having 3 boons all powered up to level 6 or 7 is much better than having 7 boons all leveled up to only lvl 2 or 3.
  
  
• Be FAST: with Hermes, always add more Speed and then DASH during fights, as to avoid getting hit but also deal dash damage.
  
  
• IGNORE anything that doesn't make you any of the previous two points.
  
  
  This means you can sacrifice Health chambers, because dealing a sh*t ton of Damage (coupled with status curses and speed so you avoid getting hit) will always win you fights super fast, rather than being a 400 HP bullet sponge that deals a lot of little damage while hoping they don't kill you first.

MY PERSONAL STRATEGY

This is how I escape 99% of the time. Feel free to mimic my strategy, but keep in mind that what works best for me might not be your favorite style or with your preferred weapons, in which case any of the tips in this guide will still help you out.

• Start with the Adamant Rail (in the Aspect of Lucifer) and Demeter's Keepsake. With Demeter, choose the boon that upgrades my Special and also chills foes, and then power this boon up when I can with Poms (at least to a level 6).
  
  
• Improve weapon with HAMMER OF DAEDALUS. I always pick TRIPLE BOMB, which lets me fire my Special 3 times rapidly, and since I power up my Special a bunch it deals incredible damage in VERY short time.
  
  
• SWITCH Keepsakes in between Levels (buy this at the House Contractor guy). This is my favorite Keepsake-rotation strategy:
  
  
  • Tartarus: Demeter
    
  • Asphodel: Ares or Dionysus (whichever I hadn't found in Tarturus already) to improve my Attack with one of their Status Curses.
    
  • Elysium: Artemis or Athena, so that my overall attack is upgraded, get Artemis' call, and with Athena add her Dash (and/or Cast) which reflects incoming attacks and also deals damage.
    
  • Styx: Persephone. Her keepsake allows you to up +1 level to a random boon every 4 chambers, and since this area consists of several small chambers, many of your boons will upgrade before facing the big guy.
  
  
• Get at least 1 Hermes Boon for Speed.
  
  
• Choose the Hammer of Daedalus once again, always improving my Special.

If you still haven't unlocked all Keepsakes, or at least the ones I use, then just keep in mind that having a powerful Attack (by which I also mean Special and Cast) and dealing Status Curses to multiple enemies is your key to a speedy escape.

This guide's aim is to make you clear chambers really damn quickly. This is at the cost of Gemstones, Darkness, Keys, and even Health – anything that isn't a Boon or improvements to such boons.

Basically, if you build up on damage AND combine it with status curses (and power them up) while dashing around, you will get out of there fast with any weapon.
The rest is up to your abilities and sometimes luck, but this can be mitigated with a powerful build.

In the name of Hades, I wish you all a speedy run and hope this helps.