The House Contractor sells permanent quality-of-life and power upgrades for Diamonds, Gemstones and other resources. Many are pure convenience, but several meaningfully strengthen your runs or unlock new content — here's what to prioritise.
High-value projects
⛲ Fountain upgrades
Add and improve healing fountains in each biome — more sustain on every run.
📜 The Fated List
A one-time Work Order, paid in Gemstones, that puts the list of prophecies in Zagreus's room so its long-term goals (and rewards) track from then on.
⛏️ Resource nodes
The Pole of Extraction and biome resource upgrades passively grow your Diamonds and Gemstones income.
🚪 Run conveniences
Vents, shortcuts and infernal gates smooth traversal and add reward variety mid-run.
Buying priorities
- Fountains and the Fated List first — sustain and progress touch every run.
- Then resource nodes, which snowball your ability to afford everything else.
- Cosmetic renovations are lovely but low priority; grab them once the useful projects are done.
- Contractor work also gates some Fated List prophecies, so keep buying to keep 100% moving.
Beyond power upgrades
- The Contractor also sells cosmetic renovations that redecorate the House as you progress.
- Some purchases unlock music, wandering NPCs and quality-of-life tweaks rather than raw power.
- Buy the useful projects (fountains, slots, nodes) first, then enjoy cosmetics with spare Diamonds.
- Completing Contractor work is itself tracked and feeds a slice of 100% completion.
Don't miss: the Rod of Fishing
One Contractor purchase unlocks a whole side activity: the Rod of Fishing. Once you own it, sparkling fishing spots appear at random in the pools of each biome — cast with the prompt, then reel on the timed press. Your catches are handed in for rewards and tick off part of the completion checklist, so it's an easy one to overlook and worth buying early.
Sources
Cross-checked on 1 October 2026 against the guides of Vandal and PowerPyx. What is still unverified is the only thing reading cannot settle — nobody here has played it.
What the whole thing costs
Finishing every renovation takes 32,585 Gemstones, 123 Diamonds and 28,142
Darkness. Those numbers are worth sitting with, because the shape of them is the whole strategy: Gemstones
come in by the thousand and Diamonds come in by the handful.
| Currency | Total needed | What that means in practice |
|---|---|---|
| Gemstones | 32,585 | Plentiful. Spend them freely on the early functional upgrades — you will not run short |
| Diamonds | 123 | The bottleneck. Almost everything after the early tier costs these, and they arrive slowly. Every Diamond is a decision |
| Darkness | 28,142 | Competes directly with the Mirror of Night, which is the real cost — Darkness spent here is a Mirror talent you do not have |
What to buy first
Buy tools before decorations. The Contractor sells six categories and they are
not equal: the ones that change future runs pay for themselves, the cosmetic ones never do. Two in particular are
worth going out of your way for early — the Fated List, because a checklist
you cannot read is a checklist you cannot work, and the Rod of Fishing, which opens
fishing as a resource stream for the rest of the game.
The Work Orders category is the one that improves the escape itself, so that is where the
run-changing purchases live. Great Hall is mostly decoration and utility — good, but it can wait.
Still to verify
Cross-checked on 5 September 2026 against the Hades Wiki, which gives the same three totals (32,585 Gemstones, 123 Diamonds, 28,142 Darkness) and the same six categories — Work Orders, Great Hall, West Hall, Lounge, Bedchambers and Court Music, the last of which only appears once you buy the Music Stand. One claim was withdrawn: this page used to say the Fated List does not backdate and that runs before you own it go untracked, which no source supports. The full item-by-item list with individual prices is not reproduced here. What is still unverified is the only thing reading cannot settle — nobody here has played it.