Crimson Moon Boons: effects, choices and stacking
Choose Boons by their trigger and the problem they solve. This guide distinguishes run-only bonuses from effects built into gear, then compares recovery, status and resource options using the developer-linked reference.
Temporary Boons last for the run; innate Boons belong to gear
Nexus Gates offer three choices. The official build explanation ↗ (external; new tab) says temporary Boons remain active for the rest of the run, which can span several missions. Returning to the hub between missions does not end it. The older mission-support wording should not be read as “every hub return removes all Boons.”
The Boon reference ↗ (external; new tab) distinguishes innate effects fixed to equipment from temporary effects added during a run. Purification does not permanently preserve those temporary additions. See the run sequence before replacing a build between missions.
Start with a trigger you can actually use
If ordinary enemies are draining health, an on-kill recovery effect can help between fights. If a boss has no killable adds, that same effect has fewer opportunities. If you keep running out of mana, a larger mana pool and a repeatable mana-recovery trigger solve different problems.
Read the choice in this order: trigger → resource or status → restriction. “Light hit on a Bleeding enemy” requires both the attack and the existing status; it is not mana on every hit. The examples below retain those conditions.
Selected effects and when they help
Existing entries were checked against the community reference on September 18; the Aftershock description was rechecked September 29. These are not independent in-game measurements. The last column is our interpretation of when to choose them.
| Boon | Documented effect | Selection check |
|---|---|---|
| Aftershock Technique | Ground-damage-zone Weapon Arts fire twice. | Requires a ground-damage zone; not a blanket bonus for every Art. |
| Radiant Fortitude | +50 maximum health | Immediate capacity; does not say that it heals 50 health. |
| Reaper’s Respite | Recover 15 health per enemy killed | Useful during rooms with kills; weaker as a recovery plan against a lone boss. |
| Chalice of Conquest | At zero Health Flasks, landing eight hits on enemies restores one flask | An empty-flask fallback; extra copies do not reduce the hit requirement. |
| Sanguimancer | Light hits on Bleeding enemies recover 15 mana | Bring Bleed application first; do not confuse Bleed buildup with an already Bleeding target. |
| Font of Conviction | Charged heavy hits on Marked enemies recover 15 mana | Requires a Marked target and time to land the charge. |
| Graceful Strike | Light hits on Marked enemies recover 1 Angelic Grace | A form-meter route when you can maintain Marked. |
| Guardian Angel | Entering Ascension creates a zone with 30% resistance to all damage | Partners must use the zone to benefit; no duration is established here. |
| Templar Revive | While reviving: +50% damage resistance and +50% poise-damage resistance | Helps a co-op rescue; it is not invulnerability. |
| Soulbound Might | +5% physical damage per 1,000 held Souls, capped at +50% | Spending Souls changes the bonus. At 2,000 held it is +10%; 10,000 reaches the listed cap. |
The Aftershock wording also appears in Destructoid’s September 2 Boon list ↗ (external; new tab); it is a documented effect, not our in-game measurement or a guarantee of doubled total damage. Duplicate limits still apply. For the full maintained list, use the Boon reference ↗ (external; new tab); for actual attack sequences, see named build combinations.
Does taking a second copy help?
According to the reference, numerical bonuses such as maximum health can stack. Repeated copies of most conditional status-application effects do not multiply their trigger value. Different Boons can contribute together when their conditions are met, but statuses still have their own caps.
Specific exceptions matter: Chalice of Conquest does not stack with itself. Aftershock Technique and Ascendant Auras each have a limit rather than improving indefinitely with extra copies. The reference also flags overlapping Empower effects as a known issue, so it is not a dependable doubling trick.
Prefer a complementary trigger over a duplicate whose effect does not increase. This avoids wasting a selection without imposing an unsupported universal tier list or reroll price.
A duplicate recovery Boon may need a version-specific check
A September 4 player report, still discussed September 16–17 ↗ (external; new tab) describes a weaker Reaper’s Respite selection apparently replacing a stronger gear effect. Replies disagree about which effects stack. This does not establish a universal replacement rule, and we have not reproduced the interaction.
For this exact case, do not budget your survival around adding both listed heal values. Record the game version, the item’s innate effect, the offered temporary effect and the resulting displayed effect. Distinguish an increase in maximum health from health recovered per kill: they are different bonuses.
Version 1.0.2 names Brewmaster stacking and several other effects, but does not explicitly identify this Reaper’s Respite report as resolved. Do not extend a fix for one named Boon to every recovery effect. Choose a complementary effect when the duplicate’s outcome is uncertain and survival depends on it.
For the latest released and planned Boon fixes, check the official update timeline.
Aftershock and other effects after 1.0.2
The official 1.0.2 release notes ↗ (external; new tab) distinguish several bugs that can look like the same missing bonus:
- Aftershock Technique: loss after certain equipment swaps was addressed; Epoch Cuirass also had a separate missing-description/list entry fix.
- Pyromancer plus Aftershock: applying Burn through every damage type was a bug, not a supported reason to choose the combination.
- Ground Slam: double hits without Aftershock were corrected. Do not count the old behavior as the baseline when comparing the Boon.
- Angelic Bulwark / Brewmaster: the shield’s operation, gate-triggered application and Brewmaster stacking have named fixes.
For a remaining fault, record whether the effect is missing from the list, disappears after a swap, or is listed but does not trigger. Include the exact item and Boon rather than reporting only “stacking broken.” The selected effect values above retain their original reference dates; this is a patch-specific behavior note, not a fresh damage benchmark.
Further reference: Official mission and Boon rules ↗ (external; new tab).