Hades 2 Early Access Patch 5 Notes – 16 October

Our first Major Update is finally here, featuring an all-new Region to explore, a new weapon to master, more characters to meet, new decorations for the Crossroads, new Animal Familiars to bond with, new music and artwork, and much more! We hope you enjoy discovering it all. In the coming weeks, we will be looking closely at player feedback to ensure our latest changes are solid. Until then!

Highlights

· New Region: Can you reach Olympus, the mountain of the gods? And if so… can you save it?
· New Weapon: Wield the otherworldly might of Xinth, the Black Coat — last of the Nocturnal Arms
· New Characters: Track down two new allies on their home turf and earn their favor
· New Familiars: You now can bond with two new animal companions… once you find them!
· Crossroads Renewal: Unlock dozens of new cosmetic items to liven up the Crossroads your way
· Expanded Story: Discover hours of new dialogue, as the plot thickens once you reach the new Region
· World Map: Look for this new presentation when moving from one Region of the world to another
· Mac Support: The game now runs natively on Mac systems with Apple M1 or later

Nocturnal Arms & Abilities

· Witch’s Staff: reworked Special is faster and bounces between foes
· Sister Blades: reworked Special pierces foes and returns to you, potentially hitting foes more than once
· Umbral Flames: Special projectiles spin left or right depending on your movement
· Moonstone Axe: reworked Special is a rising slash that strikes several times, but no longer blocks foes
· Black Coat: new! Guard and retaliate with mighty Attacks, ensuring none escape with seeking Specials
· Your Dash is innately faster and more responsive
· You now can more reliably Dash out of hit-stun effects from certain foes’ strikes
· It should be easier to aim certain abilities using gamepad

Aspects of the Nocturnal Arms

· Umbral Flames (Moros): re-scaled upgrades; slightly reduced fully-upgraded blast damage
· Argent Skull (Medea): increased Attack & Special damage; improved upgrades; Shells now load faster
· Black Coat: added its own three different unlockable, upgradeable Aspects

Crossroads Cauldron

· Eyes of Night and Darkness: new! Makes Moon Monuments and Unseen Sigils sometimes appear in Locations, further described below
· Earthly Fortune: new! Lets you recycle unneeded resources at the Wretched Broker, in exchange for Prestige, used for decorative items
· Summoning of Musical Rhapsody: new! Required to summon the Music Maker, who lets you unlock different music to play in the Crossroads
· Spreading of Ashes: new! Lets you save multiple Arcana arrangements in the Altar of Ashes
· Favored of All Keepsakes: new! Lets you designate a Keepsake to auto-equip in the Training Grounds
· Abyssal Reflections: new! Lets you re-attempt cleared Chaos Trials, and tracks your fastest times
· Bravery of Familiar Spirits: new! Now required to upgrade your Animal Familiars
· Arisen Troves: new! Makes Infernal Troves sometimes appear in Surface Locations
· Surge of Desecrating Pools: new! Makes Pools of Purging appear between Underworld Regions
· Frozen Lifespring: new! Makes a Fountain Chamber sometimes appear in the new Region
· Adjusted requirements and costs of several Incantations
· Melinoë and Hecate now will sometimes conclude Incantations in unison

Altar of Ashes

· The Sorceress: reworked — makes Omega moves faster; prior effect now on Silver Wheel (Hecate)
· The Swift Runner: no longer makes your Dash faster, since this effect now is innate
· Death: added a new UI indicator for the effect
· Strength: reworked; now provides a global damage boost, if you have no Death Defiance effects
· Adjusted upgrade costs of various Cards
· Improved contextual hints for upgrading Grasp
· Clarified descriptive text for various Cards

Keepsakes

· Each of the two new allies you can meet has a unique Keepsake you can gain in the customary way
· Silver Wheel (Hecate): reworked — now slows everything around you while you channel Omega moves
· Gold Purse (Charon): now affected by Gold-boosting Boons such as Affluence (Chaos)
· Improved feedback and fixes for when certain Keepsakes expire for the night
· Adjusted placements of some Keepsakes in the Display Case (to make room for the new ones!)
· Clarified descriptive text for several Keepsakes

Boons & Blessings

· Each of the two new allies you can meet has their own blessings to aid in your task
· All Together (Hera): renamed from Elementary Particles; now her Legendary, no longer a Hestia Duo
:shadesmile: Cherished Heirloom (Hera x Demeter): now also improves your current Keepsake, not just later ones
· Spiteful Strength (Hera x Hephaestus): cut from game, though the effect can now be found in Wells of Charon in the new item Danaid Dagger
· Brave Face (Hera x Hephaestus): this is now a Duo and no longer offered by Hera alone
· Incandescent Aura (Hera x Hestia): new! Whenever you restore Magick, damage surrounding foes
· Frosty Veneer: reduced effectiveness (the minimum damage you can take is now increased)
· Ocean’s Bounty (Poseidon): Ash and Psyche rewards now are guaranteed; updated presentation
· Plentiful Forage (Demeter): reduced Life gain
· Snow Queen (Demeter): no longer blocks damage from Vow of Time (Oath)
· Love Handles (Aphrodite x Hephaestus): raised effectiveness
· Heart Breaker (Aphrodite): Heartthrobs now deal reduced damage and require more Magick to appear
· Smithy Sprint (Hephaestus): cut from game; replaced with…
· Stamp Rush (Hephaestus): new! After you Dash, occasionally create a blast around a nearby foe
· Mint Condition (Hephaestus): reduced invulnerability duration
· Grand Caldera (Hephaestus): fixed Heroic Rarity, which previously was not stronger than Epic
· Crispy Coating (Hestia): cut from game; replaced with…
· Hot Pot (Hestia): new! You have a chance to Dodge damage; this is doubled against Scorch-afflicted foes
· Cinerary Circle (Hades): new! Whenever you use enough Magick, summon Soul Urns around you that deal area damage when destroyed
· Last Gasp (Hades): bonus damage slightly reduced though now scales with number of Death Defiance effects used that night, not just how many you have missing
· Pom Pom Pom (Echo): new! Double the Pom Lv. of your Boon with the highest Pom Lv.
· Boon Boon Boon (Echo): now lets you choose one of three random Boons from the previous night
· Adjusted names and descriptive text for several Boons
· Other minor fixes and adjustments

Daedalus Hammer Upgrades

· Added all-new upgrades for the new weapon
· Hook Knives (Blades): cut from game, since this effect now is innate; replaced with…
· Reaper Knives (Blades): new! Your Specials have bonus Power and deal damage in a wider area
· Empowering Guard (Axe): cut from game; replaced with…
· Siege Shredder (Axe): new! Your Special strikes farther ahead and deals bonus damage
· Advancing Whirlwind (Axe): cut from game; replaced with…
· Seething Marauder (Axe): new! Each of your Attacks also deals damage to surrounding foes
· Adjusted names and descriptive text for several Daedalus Hammer upgrades

Hexes & Path of Stars

· Overflow: new! While using Lunar Ray, deal damage in an area around you
· Impact: new! Lunar Ray has bonus Power when it first deals damage each Encounter
· Saturation: new! Using Moon Water also fires your Omega Cast immediately
· Consequence: new! Whenever Total Eclipse strikes a guardian, your next use of it is partially charged
· Eminence: now a Sublime-quality upgrade for Total Eclipse, and incurs a Magick cost increase
· Tenacity: now a Sublime-quality upgrade for Wolf Howl, and incurs a Magick cost increase
· Frenzy: now a Bright-quality upgrade for Wolf Howl, and no longer incurs a Magick cost increase
· Adjusted several upgrades to use the condition After using your Hex this Encounter, instead of While your Hex is not ready
· Clarified descriptive text for various Path of Stars upgrades

Well of Charon

· Danaid Dagger: new! Your Attacks and Specials are stronger while not empowered by Boons; previously this effect was on the Boon Spiteful Strength (Hera x Hephaestus)
· Sacrificial Hymn: new! Sacrifice Boons will be offered as soon as possible, and your next is stronger; previously this effect was on the Boon Family Trade (Hera)
· Mist Veil: new! After you use Magick, restore it rapidly up to a limit; previously this effect was on the Keepsake Silver Wheel (Hecate)
· Splintered Shield: new! Gain some Armor

Shrine of Hermes

· Fresh Sustenance: new! Restores some Life
· Fresh Sustenance MAX: new! Restores even more Life
· Shield Charm: new! Gain some Armor
· Aegis Charm: new! Gain even more Armor
· Kiss of Styx: now also offered from the Shrine of Hermes (when you can use it)
· Now more likely to offer a restorative item of some sort
· Adjusted costs of various items

Foes & Dangers

· Added a variety of foes to go with the all-new Region, including new Wardens and a new Guardian
· Made various adjustments to foes on the Surface route now that it has a third Region
· Chronos: reduced downtime between phases; other minor adjustments
· Eris: various adjustments; in a surprisingly rational turn, she no longer is as prone to standing in flames
· Infernal Beast: resurfaces sooner after the battle’s first phase; various minor adjustments
· Polyphemus: no longer summons Elite foes; other minor adjustments
· Charybdis: reduced number of phases; flails with increased intensity and reduced downtime
· Headmistress Hecate: now loses invulnerability sooner after her Sisters of the Dead are vanquished
· For certain ranged-attacking foes, fewer of them will fire at you all at once
· Various other minor changes to foes and combat encounters

Special Encounters

· Moon Monuments: new! These can appear after the Incantation Eyes of Night and Darkness, challenging you to vanquish a powerful Elite foe for a special reward
· Unseen Sigils: new! These can appear after the Incantation Eyes of Night and Darkness, challenging you to vanquish a group of foes without taking a hit for a special reward
:shadesmile: Reduced duration before Infernal Trove rewards may be collected
:shadesmile: Nemesis will no longer appear in place of Echo after the first time; she is less quick about gruffly running through exits; she is less quick to purchase items from Charon
:shadesmile: Adjusted Heracles combat encounter intensity; his first victim no longer appears as often near Location entrances; he now exits sooner afterwards; he now can sometimes appear in the new Region
· Icarus is more effective against your common foes; he now can sometimes appear in the new Region
· Boons of Hermes now may be offered among the options when you set forth each night
· Chaos Gates may appear sooner than before on the Surface route after a certain point
· Adjusted intensity of Trial of the Gods encounters on the Surface; no longer occur in smaller Locations

Animal Familiars

· Raki the Raven: new! Pecks at foes and makes them vulnerable to Critical damage
· Hecuba the Hound: new! Grants more Magick, stuns foes, and digs up useful items
· You are no longer prevented from upgrading Familiars more than once a night if you have the resources
· Improved presentation for various Familiar interactions
· Toula no longer appears in Erebus before you bond with her, only somewhere farther away…
· You can no longer upgrade Frinos in the area behind the tent, only in the Training Grounds
· Adjusted names and descriptive text for various Familiar upgrades

Level Design & Environments

· Added an all-new Region and the various new Locations within it
· Added new Locations to several other Regions
· A Pool of Purging now appears in the space before Tartarus
· Fishing Points in various Locations are now easier to reach
· Various minor fixes and improvements to various locations

Fated List of Minor Prophecies

· Mistress of Battle: new! Rewards you for choosing various Boons of its namesake
· Master of Revelry: new! Rewards you for choosing various Boons of its namesake
· Mistress of the Hunt: new! Rewards you for choosing various Boons of Artemis
· The Black Coat: new! Rewards you for choosing various Hammer upgrades for the new weapon
· Home in the Crossroads: new! Rewards you for using Prestige to redecorate the Crossroads
· Bared Fangs: new! Rewards you for vanquishing foes with each of the various Vow of Fangs perks from the Oath of the Unseen
· Adjusted requirements and rewards for fulfilling certain Prophecies

Resources & Reagents

· Added several new collectable resources, especially around the newly added Region
:shadesmile: Darkness appears more frequently in Chaos; it now is offered sooner than before
· Adjusted how much Gold can be found in Ephyra and the Rift of Thessaly
· Additional minor adjustments to some resource appearance rates
· Updated inventory hints and details for some resources

Oath of the Unseen

· Vow of Panic: cut from game; replaced with…
· Vow of Fangs: new! Elite foes also gain a variety of nasty perks
· Vow of Suffering: cut from game; replaced with…
· Vow of Shadows: new! Wardens also have shadow copies to make things tougher for you
· Vow of Void (formerly Denial): now has multiple ranks, each reducing your Grasp limit
· Vow of Hubris (formerly Arrogance): reduced Fear of second rank; reduced Magick primed per rank
· Added new Testaments for the new weapon and Region
· Updated menu layout with improved feedback and more contextual hints
· Adjusted names and descriptive text for several Vows

Art & Visual FX

· Added World Map presentation when moving between Regions in the Underworld or on the Surface
· Added lots of new environment art, 3D models, animation, visual FX, and more for the new Region
· Added dozens of decorative cosmetic options to the Crossroads, unlocked through a new system
· Updated visual FX for Boons of Hephaestus
· Updated portrait art for Charon
· Updated portrait art for Echo, though Narcissus will have to wait; their 3D models are still placeholders
· Updated portrait art for Medea
· Updated portrait art for Circe; her 3D model and piggies are still placeholders
· Updated portrait art for Hades
· Updated portrait art, 3D model, and animations for Icarus
· Updated 3D model for Hermes (though if you already saw him, you won’t see him again for now…)
· Updated environment art outside the House of Hades
· Updated visual FX for various foes in the Rift of Thessaly
· Added icons for all the many different fish and fishlike things you can drag from the depths
· Updated most remaining placeholder UI icons
· Added new background artwork for dialogue scenes in Oceanus
· Added more unique visual FX for some Aspects of the Nocturnal Arms
· Some of the panoramic vista scenes near the entrance to each Region now are easier to spot
· Updated look of Fountains in various Locations
· Improved look of using Spectral Gates between ships in the Rift of Thessaly
· Improved look of captain’s wheels falling apart on ships in the Rift of Thessaly
· Added more animations for Odysseus
· Various other minor visual improvements

Voice & Narrative

· Added nearly 2,500 new voice lines, including new dialogue events for most characters
· Added more narrated Homer outcomes after a successful clear
· You can make a new attempt to rouse Hypnos from his endless slumber, after a certain point…
· Expanded subplots about Narcissus & Echo, Arachne’s curse, and Dora’s past
· Added Ambrosia gifting events for Dora and Hecate
· Updated names and descriptions of various fish and other water-dwelling creatures you can catch
· Melinoë now will identify nearby foes more often
· Melinoë now no longer takes credit when Toula catches a fish or fishlike thing
· More characters have more responses to resource interactions in their vicinity, such as fishing
· You can no longer gift Nemesis or Heracles while they are shopping (they’re busy…)
· Various fixes and improvements to various events

Music & SFX

· Added several new music pieces to accompany the newly-added Region and all its splendors
· You now can play most of the game’s instrumental music tracks in the Crossroads, once you unlock them after the Incantation Summoning of Musical Rhapsody
· Added all-new sound effects for the new weapon, some Boons of Hephaestus, and more
· Improved audio feedback for various other Boons, Aspects, interactions, and abilities
· Updated sound effects for using Spectral Gates between ships in the Rift of Thessaly
· Adjusted effect on Melinoë’s voice after choosing Circe’s Word of Smaller Stature or Greater Girth
· Updated sound effect for picking up after Eris
· Improvements to audio mix and other minor changes

Menus & UI

· Updated Main Menu to reflect this Major Update
· Updated how the contents of the Silver Pool are organized
:shadesmile: Updated each weapon’s Aspects menu, splitting progress between Underworld and Surface routes
:shadesmile: Updated Archived Trivia screen with more at-a-glance data and other improvements
:shadesmile: Updated Past Deeds screen in various ways; Chaos Trials no longer count as losses; all Keepsakes used each night now are listed
· As part of the above changes, clear times for the Surface route are reset now that it is extended
· Longer subtitles now scroll automatically, leaving room for another subtitle when needed
· Improved handling of cases when you have unusually many Boons and upgrades in the Boon Info menu
:shadesmile: Rearranged Seeds and Plants in the Inventory menu
:shadesmile: Added alternate icon for when you have sufficient resources tracked with a Forget-Me-Not
:shadesmile: Added Location Reward preview icons when Vow of Forfeit (formerly Bitterness) will take effect
:shadesmile: Added contextual tutorial about upgrading Animal Familiars and reviewing their upgrades
:shadesmile: Improved feedback on some menus whose listings extend to additional pages
:shadesmile: Reduced flashing when selling resources at the Wretched Broker
· Removed extraneous Familiar UI from the right-hand side of the in-game HUD
· Improved usability of Settings menu and its sub-menus
· Reorganized some settings in the Gameplay and Accessibility menus
:shadesmile: Improved scrolling in Recent Remarks and Credits menus
· Various other fixes and improvements

Settings

:shadesmile: Dash At Cursor: new! Alternate way to Dash using mouse-and-keyboard input
· Auto-Sprint: new! Maintain your Sprint without having to press-and-hold
· Reticle Magnetism: new! Fine-tune the degree to which aimed abilities stick to foes

Miscellaneous

· A certain companion now helps you redecorate the Crossroads after a certain point
· Ever-merciful Chronos no longer forcibly un-pauses the game during your fight, though will still let you know what he thinks in such situations
· The Victory Screen now appears if you successfully clear the Surface route, not just the Underworld
· Added Book of Shadows entries for new characters, foes, and more
· Adjusted Book of Shadows relationship gauges and hints from Empath’s Intuition (Cauldron)
· Improved presentation for starting, failing, and clearing Chaos Trials
:shadesmile: At the Wretched Broker, you now can press-and-hold to rapidly sell or recycle
· Adjusted placements of emotive animations on various character portraits
· While brooding over the family portrait in the Crossroads, you may now snap out of it even sooner
· Improved presentation when Nemesis and Heracles suddenly exit after their Encounters
· If a Fishing Point is present, you now can fish prior to talking to Arachne or other characters
· Adjusted presentation when Heracles or Icarus make an appearance
· Schelemeus now can withstand more punishment before falling to pieces
· Hecate now teaches how to access Aspects of the Nocturnal Arms in the Crossroads, not just the edge of Erebus, if you’ve been focused on the Surface route
· Improved tutorials for some Hexes
:shadesmile: Adjusted small visual continuity details in the Hades Flashback
· Minor adjustments to default settings for Dead Zone and similar
· Added compatibility and bookmarking for Steam’s Game Recording feature
· Updated Credits, including dozens of musicians who contributed to our music for the new Region
· Updated Development Roadmap to reflect our progress and plans for the next Major Update
· Updates and fixes to translations in all languages
· Improved error messaging we hope no one will ever see
· Made further optimizations to save files

Bug Fixes

:shadesmile: Fixed Glamour Gain (Aphrodite) continuing to apply its effect even after it was replaced
:shadesmile: Fixed Argent Skull Shells sometimes flying out of bounds in the battle against Charybdis
· Fixed Witch’s Staff (Momus) follow-up Omega moves firing without corresponding sound effects
· Fixed Umbral Flames (Moros) interactions with Warmth Gain (Hestia) and The Huntress (Arcana)
· Fixed Poms of Power unexpectedly removing the effect of Vow of Hubris (Oath) from Boons
:shadesmile: Fixed Deep Serpent not surfacing as expected if afflicted by Charm
· Fixed name of King Vermin not appearing correctly after a certain point
· Fixed wheat in the Mourning Fields making no sound when you pass through it
:shadesmile: Fixed various odd interactions between assorted Boons
· Fixed certain Boon effects not activating correctly in the Mourning Fields or Rift of Thessaly
· Fixed Rod of Fishing bobber not being visible while fishing in some Locations
· Fixed Pom Slice sometimes applying its +1 Lv. to Boons that do not benefit
:shadesmile: Fixed various text and voiceover errors
· Many other minor fixes

Quote of the Patch

‘The more he watched over and mingled with his creation, the more Prometheus became convinced that fire was exactly what they needed. And he knew where to find it.’

~Mythos: The Greek Myths Reimagined (S. Fry)