Hades Pact of Punishment Guide: Heat Levels and Bounty Rewards

So you finally did it. Zagreus fought his way out, the credits rolled, and the game answered by sliding a contract across the table. That's the Pact of Punishment, and it's the closest thing Hades has to a difficulty slider with a paycheck attached. You stack ugly conditions onto a run on purpose, the total is your Heat, and Heat is what pays out Titan Blood, Diamonds, and Ambrosia. Every weapon climbs its own reward ladder too, so this is also the game's way of nudging you off your favorite blade. Some conditions barely register. Others will delete a run in Asphodel, and the difference isn't always obvious from the menu.

Unlocking the Pact

The Pact doesn't exist on a fresh save. It shows up the first time you actually win, meaning you beat the final boss and see the escape through. Once you're back in the House of Hades, head to the courtyard: the big open window is now blocked by a scroll on a stand, and that scroll is the Pact. Poke it before any run to dial conditions up, down, or off entirely. Heat starts at zero, and zero is a legal setting.

Zero still pays the first time around, by the way. Every boss drops a bounty the first time you beat them with each weapon, even with nothing toggled on. That's why a fresh clear with a new Infernal Arm suddenly drops Titan Blood at the Furies. The Pact is just what comes after that first taste.

A few conditions start out hidden

Three entries on the menu have extra requirements before they show up:

• Extreme Measures stays hidden until you've met all three Furies, meaning Megaera, Alecto, and Tisiphone. Tartarus rotates through them, so keep escaping and you'll get there.
• Routine Inspection won't appear until your Mirror of Night is fully unlocked, because it switches Mirror talents off, and the game won't sell you that before there's a whole set to lose.
• Extreme Measures rank 4 ("Extremer Measures," yes, really) has to be bought from the House Contractor, and only after you finish the main story and then beat the final boss one more time.

Hell Mode files play by different rules

On Hell Mode, the Pact is live from the very first run and can't be switched fully off. Personal Liability, the 16th condition, is always on, so that brief invulnerability you normally get after taking a hit is just gone. Bounties also start at 5 heat instead of 1 and run up to 25 instead of 20. Everything else in this guide still applies. It's the same ladder, shifted up a few rungs.

How Heat and Bounties Work

Every condition has ranks, and every rank is worth heat. The gauge on the left of the Pact screen is just the sum of what you've toggled on. A completely maxed Pact adds up to 63 heat (64 on Hell Mode), which is way past what the bounty system even asks for. Nobody's making you go there.

Here's the full menu, numbers straight off the wiki:

| Condition | What it does per rank | Heat | |---|---|---| | Hard Labor | Foes deal +20% damage | 1 per rank, 5 ranks | | Lasting Consequences | Healing restores 25% less | 1 per rank, 4 ranks | | Convenience Fee | All prices +40% | 1 per rank, 2 ranks | | Jury Summons | +20% more foes in standard rooms | 1 per rank, 3 ranks | | Extreme Measures | One region's boss gets new moves, Tartarus first | 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 (10 total) | | Calisthenics Program | Foes get +15% health | 1 per rank, 2 ranks | | Benefits Package | Armored foes get +1 perk | 2, then 3 (5 total) | | Middle Management | +1 armored foe in mini-boss rooms | 2 | | Underworld Customs | Sell 1 boon to unlock each region exit | 2 | | Forced Overtime | Foes move and attack +20% faster | 3 per rank, 2 ranks | | Heightened Security | Traps and magma deal +400% damage | 1 | | Routine Inspection | 3 Mirror talents switched off, bottom up | 2 per rank, 4 ranks | | Damage Control | Foes ignore the first hit, 1 per rank | 1 per rank, 2 ranks | | Approval Process | One fewer choice on boon offers | 2, then 3 (5 total) | | Tight Deadline | Region timer of 9:00, minus 2:00 per rank | 1 / 2 / 3 | | Personal Liability | No auto-invulnerability after a hit (Hell Mode only) | 1 |

Which boss pays what

Bounties come from the four big fights, and each one pays a specific resource:

| Region | Boss | Bounty | If nothing is due | |---|---|---|---| | Tartarus | The Furies | 1 Titan Blood | 50 Darkness | | Asphodel | Bone Hydra | 1 Diamond | 100 Darkness | | Elysium | Theseus & Asterius | 1 Ambrosia | 120 Darkness | | Temple of Styx | The final boss | 1 Titan Blood | You still escape |

A couple of details worth knowing here. The three Furies count as one boss, so beating Megaera for the Tartarus bounty means a later Alecto kill won't pay again at that heat with the same weapon. And one rung of the ladder per weapon works out to 2 Titan Blood, 1 Diamond, and 1 Ambrosia. Run the whole ladder from 1 to 20 and that's 40 Titan Blood, 20 Diamonds, and 20 Ambrosia per weapon. Times six weapons, this is the single biggest legitimate source of those items in the game.

Target heat, and why you can't skip rungs

Each weapon tracks its own Target Heat. Hit a boss while your gauge meets or beats that target and the bounty drops. Escape at target, and the target creeps up by one for next time.

Here's the part people miss: you can't skip ahead. Say your Rail's target is 2 and you go clear the whole game at 5. You get paid for heat 2 only, and the Rail's target moves to 3. Those three rungs of extra effort? Gone. So climbing one rung per escape is the whole game. Bump the Pact by a point or two, win, repeat.

The ladder tops out at 20 heat (25 in Hell Mode). Counting the zero-heat first clear, that's 21 successful escapes per weapon to sweep every bounty on it. Sounds like a lot, until you're rotating weapons and the first five rungs feel basically normal.

Milestones that aren't bounties

Two other reward tracks hang off the Pact:

• 5, 10, and 15 heat unlock the Infernal Gates, the Erebus challenge rooms, in Tartarus, Asphodel, and Elysium respectively. Optional side rooms with decent loot inside.
• 8, 16, and 32 heat earn you Skelly statues for the courtyard. Purely cosmetic, much to Zagreus's annoyance, which is honestly its own reward.

Low-Heat Conditions to Try

Not all heat is priced fairly. Some conditions barely touch a player who's already clearing consistently, and those are where you start. The trick is picking ones that tax what you're already good at. If you rarely get hit, more damage per hit is cheap. If you shred crowds, more enemies is cheap.

The near-free picks

• Jury Summons rank 1. Twenty percent more enemies in standard rooms. You'll barely notice a fifth again as many foes. Rank 2 at +40% you start to feel, and rank 3's +60% turns Trials of the Gods and troves into scrums, but that first pip is about as close to free as heat gets.
• Convenience Fee, either rank. Prices go up 40%, then 80%. It only touches your wallet, and only Charon's stock (the Diamond or Titan Blood sold in Styx stays full price). Annoying alongside Underworld Customs, otherwise it's just math.
• Middle Management. Two heat to add one armored foe to every mini-boss room. The Wretched Sneak starts summoning Wringers, the Doomstone arena picks up chimera traps, that kind of thing. Uncomfortable, rarely run-ending.
• Underworld Customs. Two heat, and all it asks is that you sell one boon into the Pool of Purging between regions. You get the obols for it, so it's a trade, not a loss. Builds running on three or four core boons can almost always spare a dud. Cast builds should double-check what they're purging in a hurry.
• Benefits Package rank 1. Armored foes get a single perk. Some perks are spicy, like Cloner in Tartarus or Seeker's homing shots, but one at a time is very manageable for 2 heat.
• Hard Labor 1 and 2. Everything hits 20 to 40 percent harder. It's the most honest condition on the list. If you're not getting touched, it costs you nothing, and it's a great gauge of where your play actually is.
• Lasting Consequences 1 and 2. Healing gives you 25, then 50 percent less. The first two ranks are fine, especially with the Stubborn Defiance trick covered below. Rank 4 means zero healing from any pickup, period. Know where that wall is before sprinting at it.

Cheap but sneaky

• Heightened Security. One heat, traps do 400% more. Everyone takes it once saying they never touch traps, and then everyone eats a lava pool in Asphodel. Grab it for the Harsh Conditions prophecy, which just wants each condition active at rank 1 for one clear apiece on any weapon. After that, your call.
• Damage Control. Gets called free heat constantly because bosses barely care. The catch is that the blue heart eats the first hit you land, so cast volleys, empowered shots, rail bombs, and Companion bursts all lose their opener. On Zeus attack spam or Hangover builds it's genuinely cheap. On burst builds it's a trap.
• Tight Deadline rank 1. Nine minutes per region is roomy, and the timer pauses a ton: between biomes, in Thanatos rooms, with Sisyphus, Eurydice, and Patroclus, while fishing, while a boon offer is up, whenever the game is paused. If Tartarus takes you under seven minutes, this is free.
• Extreme Measures 1 and 2. Rank 1 remixes the Furies and rank 2 the Bone Hydra, costing 1 and 2 heat. Both are gentle versions of their fights. EM3 is where the wall shows up, because EM3 Asterius is a completely different athlete. The ranks cost 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 heat on their way up.
• Calisthenics Program rank 1. Fifteen percent more foe health, which is thousands of extra HP on the bosses. Fine by itself. Kind of a pain on a timer.

A sample 8-heat pact with zero boss changes

Want the first Skelly statue, the 8 heat one, without relearning a single boss fight?

• Jury Summons 1 (1 heat)
• Convenience Fee 1 (1)
• Hard Labor 1 (1)
• Lasting Consequences 1 (1)
• Middle Management (2)
• Underworld Customs (2)

That's 8, and every point of it is stuff you can out-play. No Extreme Measures, no Forced Overtime, no clock. If a run dies with this pact loaded, it was probably going to die at zero too.

Scaling Heat by Weapon

The big principle: put heat on what the weapon has to spare, never on what it depends on. And rotate. Every weapon has its own ladder, and the low rungs of a new ladder are always cheaper than the high rungs of an old one. Forcing your comfort pick through 16 while your spear sits at target 4 is just leaving money on the table.

Weapon by weapon

• Stygian Blade. The all-rounder, with no truly bad matchups. Nemesis with Artemis or Zeus on attack handles most conditions fine. EM3 is the real exam, same as it is for everyone.
• Eternal Spear. Achilles skews cast-heavy, so Damage Control and Underworld Customs both aim straight at the build. Take Tight Deadline instead, because Achilles runs are quick and TD1 is generous.
• Heart-Seeking Bow. You fight at range, you get hit less, which quietly discounts Hard Labor and Benefits Package. Hera's cast volley hates Damage Control. Rama's shared-pain special does not care about it at all, and Chiron just melts whatever stands still.
• Shield of Chaos. Blocking makes Forced Overtime more survivable than it looks, though a 40% faster room is still a lot. Beowulf's whole identity is one huge hit, so keep Damage Control away from it. Zeus aspect with chained shots laughs at Jury Summons.
• Twin Fists. Fast enough to keep pace with Forced Overtime, but you fight nose to nose, so Hard Labor stacked with FO gets rough since every trade costs real health. Merciful End lists on Talos or Gilgamesh mostly just need you to avoid taking both at once.
• Adamant Rail. Hestia's empowered shot is one of the cleanest Tight Deadline clears in the game, and also the single worst Damage Control matchup, because the blue heart can eat the entire shot. Eris rocket spam cares a lot less, since it throws out tons of small hits.

Two Mirror tricks that carry higher heat

First, Stubborn Defiance. Lasting Consequences doesn't touch what Defiances give back, and Stubborn Defiance restores 30% of your health once per chamber, every chamber, forever. High-heat players abuse this constantly, up to and including jumping into hazards on purpose to trigger a fresh restore. If Patroclus shows up in Elysium, his dark can push that restore from 30% to 80%, which is how people survive rank 3 and 4 healing penalties at all.

Second, for Tight Deadline runs, the Lambent Plume keepsake from Hermes stacks move speed every chamber you clear without taking damage. Faster Zagreus means faster rooms, and speed with no real downside is hard to argue with as long as you're not getting clipped.

A sample 16-heat pact

• Extreme Measures 2 (3 heat)
• Forced Overtime 1 (3)
• Benefits Package 1 (2)
• Middle Management (2)
• Underworld Customs (2)
• Hard Labor 1 (1)
• Lasting Consequences 1 (1)
• Jury Summons 1 (1)
• Convenience Fee 1 (1)

Adds up to 16, which is statue number two. The big adjustment is Forced Overtime 1, so expect to throw away a stack of runs relearning enemy timings. That's normal. And if FO never clicks for you, swap it for Calisthenics 1, Damage Control 1, and a second Convenience Fee rank, and you're back at the same total with a different flavor.

Avoiding Punishing Combinations

Most heat deaths aren't one bad condition. They're two conditions that each seem fine alone turning into a nightmare together. These are the stacks to respect.

Speed plus perks

Forced Overtime 2 plus Benefits Package 2 is the classic. Everything on screen moves 40% faster, and every armored foe is carrying two perks at once. Speeder plus Slugger on one enemy means fast and hits like a truck. Cloner plus Savior numbskulls means clones forever behind shields. Speeder plus Seeker witches means homing shots arriving at 40% off. Separately, each condition is playable. Together it's 11 heat of pure chaos, so pick one lane.

Heightened Security plus Forced Overtime belongs here too. When the room is moving fast, you dash on instinct, and instinct does not check for magma. That trap condition is 1 heat and can genuinely ruin half your runs on its own if you're a sloppy dasher. Add speed and it becomes a coin flip.

Timer traps

Tight Deadline plus Jury Summons plus Damage Control is the anti-speed stack: more enemies to kill, blue hearts eating your opening hits, and a clock over all of it. The overtime penalty is 5 damage per second, and nothing reduces it, invulnerability included. If you're taking a timer, keep the bigger rooms and the hit-sponge stuff off the menu.

Tight Deadline 3 also hates slow aspects. Five minutes per region is tight for Arthur's big windups, Guan Yu's charge game, or Beowulf loading shots between fights. TD2's seven minutes is usually the sane ceiling for those weapons.

The boon-eating stack

Routine Inspection plus Approval Process is the worst pairing in the game for build consistency. The first Routine rank kills the bottom three rows of the Mirror, and that's your Fated Authority and Fated Persuasion rerolls, your rarity odds, and Dark Foresight's better-room odds, all gone at once. Approval Process then cuts your choices from three to two. Worse offers, and no way to fix them. Take one, never both.

Convenience Fee 2 plus Underworld Customs squeezes the same hole differently. Boons cost about 270 obols with both ranks, and Customs needs a sellable boon in hand at every region exit. People end up scrambling for coins before each boss just to buy something sacrificial. It works, but it's a grind.

Healing math that bites

Lasting Consequences at rank 3 or 4 without a plan is how runs stall out. Rank 4 is a full 100% reduction, meaning Centaur Hearts, fountains, and every other pickup heal for nothing. The only outs left are Defiance restores and Patroclus. At 1 heat per rank it's tempting, and those last two ranks are anything but free.

Same family, different angle: Damage Control on a burst build. Watching a Companion's whole explosion land on one blue heart is a special kind of pain. That's not a difficulty spike, that's your damage budget evaporating in front of you.

The bounty math is the payoff for respecting all of this. One full ladder per weapon holds 40 Titan Blood, 20 Diamonds, and 20 Ambrosia, and there are six weapons. Rotate arms, climb one rung at a time, and let the Furies fund your next aspect. That's 240 Titan Blood sitting on the ladder, and it doesn't farm itself.