Rolled credits on this the other day, and I liked it enough that I still want to play more. Not sure if I'll stick with it through the epilogue or not because that seems like a bit of a grind to max out so many Olympian relationships, but that's also what I thought about reaching the credits, so who knows. The only one I've naturally reached that point with is Athena, because I tended to use her keepsake on the first floor make sure she was in the rotation, ensuring I had a decent chance at grabbing Divine Dash, which feels like maybe the most any single boon can lower the difficulty of a run. (I've stopped using her keepsake to do this now that she's maxed and have learned to live without it, but oh man you can feel the difference between having Divine Dash and not having it.)
One thing that I'm constantly surprised by is how many throwaway runs that I consider giving up end being really fun. I think my favorite example of this was trying out the Aspect of Zeus (slow shield that spins doing damage over time) for the first time. For the first half of the run it felt like I had nothing going for me boon wise, but in the back half I lucked into getting Zeus on the slow shield special with a bunch of lightning power up boons and also the Demeter cast lasers with a bunch of power up boons for that. So Zagreus ended up being kind of The Trap Master, setting up a lightning shield and a laser grid in place and then just getting out of the way and watching things die from a distance, for the most part. The final boss in particular does a lot of standing in place so this just eats away at its health, and also it completed defanged the small rooms of Styx, because there was nowhere to escape. A real reverse difficulty curve run.
I'm currently doing runs in the 1-3 heat range with whatever weapon has the Darkness bonus on it, setting the heat to whatever gets a bounty. (I haven't yet landed on a weapon that calls for 4 heat yet.) I guess my system doesn't actually make any sense, because if I'm doing runs for bounties I'm not actually getting that much Darkness in the first place, since the bosses are giving diamonds/blood/ambrosia instead of Darkness. But whatever, it keeps things interesting to switch weapons, and the randomness of what the Darkness bonus lands on naturally mixes things up.
Some of the heats feel weirdly balanced. Extreme Measures 2 is a 3 Heat run, but it's way easier I think than the 1 Heat run where enemies all take one more hit. The Furies are the boss that by necessity you almost certainly have mastered by the time the Pact of Punishment opens up, and Extreme Measures 1 doesn't do much to make it that much harder. Bone Hydra is the easiest boss in the game and Extreme Measures 2 seems to just make the room layout slightly more unfriendly but not in a way that seems to matter much. In contrast, one more hit doesn't sound like much, but in a hectic situation making every single enemy take 1 extra hit can add a lot of difficulty to situations where a good build can normally vaporize something instantly. Making the two easiest bosses more fun but still pretty easy for 3 Heat seems both a lot easier and more fun than basically any other way to get 3 or less Heat, honestly. (This isn't a complaint, because I'm happy to get easy rewards and the bosses are more fun!)
That being said, Theseus was the last boss I really learned (was losing lives there all the time many runs after the last boss stopped being an issue), and, although I don't die to him anymore, I'm pretty sure any additional difficulty will make me have to relearn my whole approach, whatever Extreme Measures 3 does...