Hades’s Wretched Broker — a skeletal figure in the House of Hades who trades in information and rarities — offers items that appear to have no purpose beyond flavour. Purchasing the Nectar of the Gods item from him for an exorbitant Darkness cost produces no tooltip, no buff, no notification. It simply disappears from your inventory.
Players who purchased this item repeatedly discovered that after the sixth purchase, Cerberus’s pet dialogue changes — he gives Zagreus a longer greeting animation that includes a brief nuzzle. This change persists for the rest of that save file.
Supergiant built the Broker interaction as a test of player investment: spending a resource the game values highly (Darkness is used for permanent upgrades) on an item with no stated return, six times, to unlock a dog animation that most players would never have sought and cannot find explained anywhere in the game.
The Wretched Broker also offers Titan Blood at exchange rates that become absurd after the mid-game — but if you have refused to buy from him for more than fifteen runs, his opening dialogue changes once to acknowledge the relationship. Supergiant wrote lines for the non-customer.
The amount of craft that went into hiding this detail is remarkable. Pure game design artistry.
The level of craft hidden in the background of this game is genuinely moving. They made it for someone.