Last month, Supergiant Games officially launched Hades 2 out of early access, and sent the princess of the underworld, Melinoe, on a quest to defeat the titan Chronos. The original ending of the game wasn’t very well-received. But in Hades 2′ first post-launch patch, the true ending may give fans a better conclusion than the previous finale.
There have been some sizable additions to build up to the true ending, including new events and voiceovers, as well as changes to the fated prophecy adjustments, and the ability to use a cauldron incarnation to take you back to an earlier point in the game. However, the true ending will require a higher number of Underworld clears than before. The game’s epilogue isn’t being changed.
The specific changes involving the special encounters have been marked as spoilers by Supergiant. Without giving any story points away, one character may appear less frequently, and one will appear more often.
Although the game’s initial ending proved divisive, GameSpot’s review for Hades 2 gave it a perfect 10/10 score. Near the end of September, Hades 2 reached a new peak of concurrent players on Steam with over 112,000. Supergiant has also thanked players for all the community feedback that led to the improvements in the first patch. The complete patch notes are included below.
Hades 2 Post-Launch Patch 1 Notes
Highlights
- True Ending Enhancements: Added new events in the lead-up to the True Ending, and some after. As part of this, increased the number of Underworld clears required, and added to and revised parts of the main True Ending scenes before the end credits. Note: The vast majority of changes are to the Underworld route; the Surface route is mostly unchanged. The Epilogue is also unchanged.
- Returning to a Real Possibility: Added Cauldron incantation lets you return to an earlier point in the story in case you wish to re-experience key events, such as the True Ending.
- Fated Prophecy Adjustments: A number of character-related Prophecies, including the one connected to the story epilogue, should unfold faster than before.
- Crossroads Renewal: Many decorative items have reduced costs in Kudos compared to before. Any excess Kudos you have already spent will be refunded.
Aspects of the Nocturnal Arms
- Witch’s Staff (Circe): Smolder Ring (Hestia) now also applies Scorch from the bonus Cast when your Casts overlap
Boons & Blessings
- Anvil Ring (Hephaestus): increased damage for Common Rarity
- Controlled Burn (Hestia): increased bonus from Poms of Power
- Ares: increased Plasma pickup range
- Sword Ring (Ares): increased damage
- Carnal Pleasure (Ares x Aphrodite): increased effectiveness
- Success Rate (Hermes): now also affects Nurture of Hera (Selene x Hera)
- Shadow Pounce (Artemis): increased effectiveness
- Gigaros Dash (Hades): no longer staggers foes when this deals direct damage
- Life Tax (Hades): increased effectiveness; restorative effect is no longer reduced by Vow of Scars (Oath)
- Last Gasp (Hades): increased effectiveness
- Howling Soul (Hades): improved aiming of the projectile
- Fight Fight Fight (Echo): increased effectiveness
- Favor (Chaos): now also raises chance of finding Duo Boons
- Various other minor fixes and adjustments
Daedalus Hammer Upgrades
- Elephant Rockets (Coat – Shiva): increased damage
- Chakra Collider (Coat – Shiva): increased damage
Keepsakes
- Jeweled Pom (Hades & Persephone): you no longer keep the bonus Hades blessing if you are not at the Fate’s Whim; fixed an issue causing this to never grant Last Gasp (Hades)
Well of Charon
- Yarn of Ariadne: now also raises chance of finding Duo Boons (as in the original game)
- Mist Veil: now restores Magick that is lost for any reason (not just from using Omega Moves)
Foes & Dangers
- Zagreus: fixed cases where he would stand still for too long
- Unrivaled Prometheus: adjusted hitboxes of certain Heracles attacks in this Encounter
- Headmistress Hecate: slightly reduced hitbox of flame attacks to better match the visuals
- Phantom (Fields): reduced effectiveness of Life-drain effect; removed this effect from some attacks
Special Encounters
- Added a preview icon for Location exits leading to an Infernal Contract (after the True Ending)
- Added a preview icon for Erebus Location exits leading to Raki (before you have bonded with him)
- Nemesis no longer can show up more than once a night while battling through the Underworld
- Circe appears slightly more often
Level Design & Environments
- Various minor fixes and improvements to several Locations
The Crossroads Renewal Project
- Added Primordial Chaos theme to the Music Maker
Crossroads Cauldron
- Disintegration of Monstrosity: you are no longer required to cast this as soon as you can afford to
- Greatest Gift of Gaia: reduced requirements for this to be revealed
Fated List of Minor Prophecies
- Melinoe, Help Us: increased priority of key events, so that this can be fulfilled faster
- Silk and Spitefulness: increased priority of key events, so that this can be fulfilled faster
- Voice and Vanity: increased priority of key events, so that this can be fulfilled faster
- Born to Win: now revealed sooner and more reliably
- Natural Talent: fixed an issue causing this to not appear in some cases
- Denier of Suitors: reduced requirements to fulfill this
Art & Visual FX
- Added artwork to some True Ending scenes before the credits
- Added animations for certain characters in some True Ending scenes
- Added portrait variant for Hecate
- Added blinking animation to Melinoë’s ‘hesitant’ portrait
- Added death animation for the Yargonaut
- Updated animations for opening or closing certain menu screens to be smoother than before
- Eidolon Eyeballs now are easier to spot
- Numerous other minor visual fixes and improvements
Voice & Narrative
- Added new events with Chronos, Zagreus, Hecate, and Hades on the path to the True Ending
- Added new events with Chronos, Zagreus, Hecate, Schelemeus, Hades, Persephone after the True Ending
- Added more contextual voice lines for Melinoë and Hecate in certain situations
- Adjusted several events after the True Ending in light of other changes
- Scylla now reveals sooner than before
- Icarus now can be persuaded to sooner than before
- Other minor fixes and improvements
Music & SFX
- Artemis’ singing in the Crossroads no longer cuts off abruptly at a certain distance
- Updated sound effects for Cinerary Circle (Hades)
- Fixed some Keepsake equip sounds playing late
- Adjusted effects on some voice lines after the True Ending
- Other minor fixes and improvements
Settings
- Danger Pulse: new! You now can toggle off the persistent flashing at critical Life levels
- FPS Limit: new! You now can limit max frames-per-second to your preference while VSync is off
Miscellaneous
- Improved compatibility with macOS Tahoe security permissions
- Inventory details for and appear sooner than before
- Updated inventory hints for several resources
- Added feedback when Keepsakes from and cannot be used in a certain situation
- Updates and fixes to translations in all languages
Bug Fixes
- Fixed not firing reliably while Melinoë is backed against a wall
- Fixed Argent Skull (Medea) text erroneously stating its passive bonus also applied to Omega Special
- Fixed Argent Skull Omega Attack sometimes being unable to reach the
- Fixed cases where you could claim rewards while simultaneously using
- Fixed unexpectedly refreshing all uses for the night after ranking up
- Fixed Back Burner (Apollo) not applying its bonus when using certain moves
- Fixed Steady Growth (Demeter) resetting its countdown after being Rarified
- Fixed Rapture Ring (Aphrodite) dragging foes after they are slain
- Fixed Seismic Servo (Hephaestus x Poseidon) not always working as expected on Boons of Hephaestus
- Fixed cases where you could unexpectedly gain Unseen Ire (Hades) twice
- Fixed Corrosion on Sight (Medea) not affecting Lubbers
- Fixed Numbness (Path of Stars) not properly applying its effect
- Fixed Mirrored Thrasher (Daedalus – Staff) disabling your Attacks in certain cases
- Fixed interaction between Inverted Blaze (Daedalus – Flames) and Dividing Blaze (Daedalus – Flames)
- • Fixed high-cost Boons of Hermes found in shops not always having improved Rarity
- • Fixed some visual effects from not appearing consistently
- • Fixed projectiles from Charybdis not splitting as expected after striking certain obstacles
- Fixed cases in which Jetty could get stuck while resurfacing
- Fixed several cases where Melinoë could end up out of bounds in a Location
- Fixed Raki occasionally swooping in to peck at already-defeated Guardians
- Fixed an issue where a slowdown effect could persist unexpectedly after Gale blocks an attack
- Fixed visual issues with Demeter’s Freeze interacting with other visual effects
- Fixed visual issues with Infernal Troves
- Fixed incorrect text sometimes appearing on the Victory Screen
- Fixed incorrect Gold preview when Nemesis wants to trade for Quick Buck (Hermes)
- Fixed cases where music could stop playing unexpectedly
- Fixed cases where the Past Deeds screen would not show the foe that put an end to your night
- Fixed cases where Odysseus and Dora could appear too close together in the taverna
- Fixed certain visual effects persisting during the Melinoë’s Return to Shadow escapes
- Fixed a visual issue where text formatting would not reset after resetting the Oath of the Unseen
- Fixed Play Screen showing your location as The Crossroads despite just having left for the night
- Fixed several text errors
- Other minor fixes
