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Hades guide: Keepsakes

Here’s how to get each Keepsake and what it does

By Ryan Gilliam@RyGilliam
Hades guide: Choosing your weapon Image: Supergiant Games via Polygon
Ryan Gilliam (he/him) has worked at Polygon for nearly seven years. He primarily spends his time writing guides for massively popular games like Diablo 4 & Destiny 2.
Part of Hades guides

In Hades, you can foster relationships (purely platonic, sorry) with a variety of different characters in the House of Hades and the Greek Underworld. Part of how you grow these relationships is through Nectar, a gift resource that you can find in the Underworld and give to friends. Sometimes, they’ll give you a gift back. That gift is a Keepsake.

These Keepsakes are key to success in Hades. Here’s how to get them all and what they do.

How to get Keepsakes

You get Keepsakes when you give Nectar to a character for the first time.

Athena’s Codex entry in Hades, showing the bow icon indicating that you’ll get a Keepsake if you give her Nectar
The little bow (that we circled) above Athena means that she’ll give you a Keepsake if you give her some Nectar.
Image: Supergiant Games via Polygon

Once you unlock the Codex, you can use it to check your relationship with characters. If you don’t see any colored hearts but do see a little, purple bow on a character entry, it means you’ll get a Keepsake when you give them a Nectar.

The only character in the game who won’t give you a Keepsake is Hades. You can give him one Nectar at the start of the game, and then he’ll lock you out of gifts for a long time.

You can collect Nectar a few different ways. It can be a room reward while you adventure, and you can get it from certain Boons. You can also trade for it in the Lounge exchange in the House of Hades.

Keepsake Collection

Unlock the Keepsake Collection, Regional early in your Hades playthrough
Image: Supergiant Games via Polygon

In the armory, just before you leave the House of Hades, you’ll find a glass chest. This is the Keepsake Collection, and it houses and allows you to equip all of your Keepsakes.

You can also use Gems to upgrade the House of Hades Contractors with the Keepsake Collection, Regional. This will put a Keepsake Collection after every boss. This lets you swap out Keepsakes mid-run, which can be great for upgrading and giving you an advantage between floors. Note that if you swap to a different Keepsake, you won’t be able to swap back to your original one until the next run.

To upgrade your Keepsakes, you just need to clear encounters with it. Keepsakes start at one star, and you can upgrade it up to three stars. This usually just increases value, like how much health the Old Spiked Collar nets you.

Hades Keepsake list

A screenshot of Hades’ Keepsake Collection
A look at the Keepsake Collection. The dark red icons are Keepsakes we haven’t collected yet.
Image: Supergiant Games via Polygon

There are tons of Keepsakes in Hades, and each offers you something slightly different.

Here’s a complete list of Keepsakes, including who you get it from, what it’s called, and what it does.

[Warning: This list necessarily contains Hades story spoilers because you won’t meet some of these characters for several hours, and it’s not always obvious that they’ll eventually give you a Keepsake.]

Hades’ Keepsake Collection

Character (NPC) Keepsake Description
Character (NPC) Keepsake Description
Achilles Myrmidon Bracer Take less damage from the front, but more from the back.
Aphrodite Eternal Rose Her blessings have an increased chance to be Rare or better.
Ares Blood-Filled Vial His blessings have an increased chance to be Rare or better.
Artemis Adamant Arrowhead Her blessings have an increased chance to be Rare or better.
Athena Owl Pendant Her blessings have an increased chance to be Rare or better.
Cerberus Old Spiked Collar Gain increased health.
Chaos Cosmic Egg Enter Chaos Gates without losing health. Blessings from Chaos have an increased chance to be Rare or better.
Charon Bone Hourglass Items from the Well of Charon last for more Encounters.
Demeter Frostbitten Horn Her blessings have an increased chance to be Rare or better.
Dionysus Overflowing Cup His blessings have an increased chance to be Rare or better.
Dusa Harpy Feather Duster Broken urns have a small chance of containing healing items.
Eurydice Evergreen Acorn In the final Encounter in each Underworld region, take no damage the first few times foes hit you.
Hermes Lambent Plume Gain doge chance and move speed for each Encounter you clear quickly.
Hypnos Chthonic Coin Purse Instantly receive a large sum of Obols (gold) to spend as you please.
Megara Skull Earring Deal increased damage when below 30% health.
Nyx Black Shawl Deal increased damage striking undamaged foes; also striking foes from behind.
Orpheus Distant Memory Deal increased damage to distant foes.
Patroclus Broken Spearpoint After taking damage, become invulnerable for a moment. Refreshes every seven seconds.
Persephone Pom Blossom After several Encounters, gain +1 level for a random Boon.
Poseidon Conch Shell His blessings have an increased chance to be Rare or better.
Sisyphus Shattered Shackle Your attack, special, and Cast each deal bonus damage while not empowered by a Boon.
Skelly Lucky Tooth Automatically restore health when your life total is depleted (once per run)
Thanatos Pierced Butterfly Gain increased damage for each Encounter you clear without taking damage.
Zeus Thunder Signet His blessings have an increased chance to be Rare or better.

Hades guides

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