I had what felt like a decent build going on with the sword last night and man, I gotta say...I really hate the sword. Even when I get good boons etc., I just can't make it work! Fuck outta here, sword.
Stygius is my least favorite weapon in the game by a longshot. I don't really know why; it doesn't FEEL bad to play, it just...isn't good? Things are harder. When I was first starting, I was having difficulty trouble too - I couldn't beat the first boss, sometimes couldn't even reach it. I switched to the spear and immediately beat the first
and second bosses and made it to the third. (I also had the flurry stab Hammer upgrade on that run, which loses the spin attack for rapid stabbing while holding the button - even now I think that makes the weapon waaaay better than the spin ever could, but ymmv).
Advice for beginners:
-Focus on collecting Darkness (purple crystals) to upgrade your talents, Keys to unlock weapons and more talents, and nectar to get keepsakes (accessories). Gems too, but at a lower priority. Coins are only good for that specific run and disappear when you die. (They're just as important as the other run-only upgrades, definitely, but separate from the other currencies.)
-I still think the best first keepsake to get is the one from
Cerberus.
-Hammers are uuuusually the best upgrades -
always take a door showing the hammer if you see it.
Just a bit of general basic boon stuff and suggestions:
--Get Athena's boon on your dash, so your dash reflects projectiles. Hands-down the best dash upgrade. I still use it almost every run.
--I find
Poseidon's cast very useful for keeping enemies away from me and keeping breathing room when I'm getting swarmed.
--
Zeus and
Dionysus work extremely well on things that hit fast/frequently, and very poorly on slow/infrequent hits. Usually this means good for main attacks and bad on specials (the
bow being an inverse of that).
--
Ares is the exact opposite - very bad on fast hits, good on less-frequent, multi-target attacks like specials
(unless you're lucky enough to get the doom-stacking boon, but that's kinda rare and tends to come pretty late in my experience).
--
Aphrodite is always a great go-to to get boons from - her debuff saves you damage and she has one of the highest damage boost modifiers.
--If you get multiple boons from the same god, you can often get pretty powerful upgrades to their effects stuff that may benefit you more than adding a new boon from a different god would. Example: To
Poseidon's knockback, you can add a powerful DoT, extra damage when wall-slamming enemies, and/or a big aoe burst when wall-slamming.