Enthusiasts of the acclaimed roguelike action RPG, Hades 2, are eagerly anticipating its next major milestone. Developer Supergiant Games has recently rolled out a significant update, officially dubbed the “Unseen Update.”
This patch introduces a series of crucial adjustments and refinements, setting the stage for what could be the game’s final major update before it exits its Early Access phase. The development team has hinted that this “will likely be its final patch before the v1.0 launch,” though they remain intentionally vague about the exact release date, stating “whenever that will be.” This strategic vagueness suggests a commitment to ensuring the game is absolutely polished before its full debut.
The Unseen Update, as highlighted by Rock Paper Shotgun (RPS), brings a “number of adjustments to some of the latest additions” within the game. These changes aim to fine-tune existing mechanics and content, reflecting Supergiant’s iterative approach to development. The team has also emphasized its dedication to community engagement.
They confirmed that they “will continue to monitor your feedback in the meantime.” This ongoing dialogue with players during Early Access has been a hallmark of Supergiant’s development philosophy, fostering a sense of collaboration and ensuring that player experiences directly influence the game’s evolution. The comprehensive nature of this update, encompassing everything from combat mechanics to resource management, underscores its importance in preparing Hades 2 for its eventual v1.0 launch.
Core Gameplay Adjustments: Enhancing Combat Flow
The Unseen Update brings several key adjustments to the general gameplay experience in Hades 2, primarily focusing on improving combat flow and strategic depth. These changes reflect a careful consideration of player feedback and aims to refine the core roguelike action.
A significant enhancement targets “stun-locking,” a common frustration in many action RPGs where successive enemy attacks can trap a player, preventing them from acting. Supergiant Games has “reduced further cases of successive attacks causing you to become ‘stun-locked’.” This adjustment improves player agency in combat, allowing for more reactive gameplay and reducing instances of unavoidable damage. It makes encounters feel fairer and more skill-based.
Another important change affects how Armor is managed in combat. Previously, players might have felt inconsistencies with temporary armor bonuses. Now, whenever a player “take[s] damage to Armor,” the system will first “reduce any temporary Armor” gained from sources such as the Security System (Hephaestus).
Only after temporary armor is depleted will the system begin “reducing the more-permanent kind” of armor. This prioritization provides a more intuitive and consistent layer of defense, making temporary armor boosts more strategically valuable without overriding fundamental defenses. These general gameplay tweaks aim to create a smoother, more responsive, and tactically richer combat environment for Melinoë as she navigates the perilous underworld and beyond.
Nocturnal Arms & Abilities: Weapon Refinements
The Unseen Update introduces a series of precise refinements to Melinoë’s Nocturnal Arms and their associated abilities. These changes aim to balance weapon effectiveness, address community feedback, and enhance the distinct feel of each weapon.
For the Sister Blades, the update ensures that the “Omega Attack can no longer be interrupted by foes.” This is a critical quality-of-life improvement, allowing players to fully commit to this powerful move without fear of being prematurely canceled by enemy attacks, leading to more reliable damage output.
The Umbral Flames have also received attention. Their “Omega Special projectiles” have seen their “orbit speed reduced,” making them slightly easier for players to manage and foes to react to. However, to compensate, their “damage increased.” This aims to balance their offensive potential, making them a more deliberate, impactful choice.
The formidable Argent Skull sees a minor adjustment: its “Omega Special wave projectiles no longer stagger foes.” This change likely addresses situations where the continuous stagger might have been overly dominant or created unintended combat loops, encouraging a more varied approach to its use.
Finally, the Black Coat, a unique weapon, receives multiple buffs. Its “speed of Attack sequence and damage of first strike” have both been “increased,” providing a quicker and more impactful initial engagement. The “Omega Attack channel speed” has been “slightly increased,” allowing Melinoë to deploy its effects more swiftly.
Furthermore, the Black Coat’s Omega Attack can now “block more types of incoming area-effect damage,” significantly enhancing its defensive utility and making it a more versatile tool for survivability. These nuanced changes across the Nocturnal Arms encourage diverse playstyles and ensure each weapon feels distinct and effective.
Aspects of the Nocturnal Arms: Deeper Customization
Beyond the base weapon adjustments, the Unseen Update also fine-tunes the Aspects of the Nocturnal Arms, which offer deeper customization and specialized playstyles for Melinoë. These unique variations provide distinct strategic advantages, and the latest changes aim to ensure a balanced and engaging experience across all choices.
For the Witch’s Staff (Melinoë Aspect), there’s a slight rebalancing. Its “bonus to Magick and Power” has been “reduced.” This adjustment likely aims to bring its overall effectiveness in line with other aspects, preventing it from becoming an overly dominant choice by providing too much raw statistical advantage. This encourages players to consider other aspects based on their specific build and playstyle preferences.
The Witch’s Staff (Momus Aspect), which focuses on summoned serpents, also sees a minor tweak. The update has “slightly increased how long it takes your serpents to fire successive Omega Moves.” This means a small delay between their powerful attacks, subtly adjusting their sustained damage output. This change might encourage more precise timing and strategic placement of the serpents rather than continuous barrages. These fine-tuning adjustments ensure that each Aspect offers a unique and viable path for players to explore without any single option feeling disproportionately powerful, thus enhancing the overall depth of Hades 2’s combat customization.
Boons & Blessings: Divine Intervention Rebalanced
The gods’ divine interventions, in the form of Boons and Blessings, are central to Hades 2’s roguelike progression, offering unique powers and synergies. The Unseen Update includes a comprehensive set of adjustments to these boons, directly influenced by community feedback, to ensure balance and prevent overly dominant combinations.
- Steady Growth (Demeter): This boon will now “only Rarify itself if you have no other eligible Boons.” This ensures that it doesn’t consume Rarify opportunities that could benefit other, perhaps more crucial, boons in your build, making its passive growth more strategic.
- Hestia’s Scorch Curse: A critical change for Hestia’s fire-based abilities. The Scorch Curse “can no longer deal Critical damage or similar,” nor is it “affected by Air Quality (Zeus).” This caps its maximum damage potential, preventing it from scaling uncontrollably with critical hits or specific Zeus synergies, which might have led to overpowered builds.
- Flame Strike (Hestia) & Flame Flourish (Hestia): Both of these fundamental Hestia boons, which apply Scorch, have seen their “Scorch damage slightly reduced.” This is a direct follow-up to the Scorch Curse change, further fine-tuning the overall damage output of Hestia-focused builds to ensure balance.
- Success Rate (Hermes): This boon “no longer affects the passive effect of Raki.” This clarifies its interaction with a specific familiar, ensuring that its benefits are applied as intended without unintended passive boosts.
- Incandescent Aura (Hera x Hestia): This powerful Duo Boon has been “reworked.” It now “deals damage to all Hitch-afflicted foes when you restore Magick.” This new mechanic makes the boon more active and rewarding for players who manage their Magick effectively, encouraging a dynamic playstyle.
- Natural Selection (Poseidon x Demeter): Another Duo Boon that has been “reworked.” It now “distributes bonus Lv. to your primary Boons.” This allows for more targeted power scaling of your core abilities, giving players greater control over their build optimization.
- Scalding Vapor (Poseidon x Hestia): This boon “no longer can activate the Froth Curse.” This removes an unintended synergy that might have led to excessive or uncontrolled curse applications, streamlining its effects.
- Gigaros Dash (Hades): The damage from this dash has been “reduced,” bringing it in line with other mobility-focused abilities. Additionally, a bug was fixed where “Scorn amplifying damage other than Attack and Special” was occurring, ensuring damage amplification applies correctly.
- Unseen Ire (Hades): A bug fix addresses an issue causing “the effect duration to last longer than stated.” This ensures the boon’s effects align with its description, providing clearer feedback to players.
- Crimson Dress (Arachne): This Keepsake received a significant fix: it no longer “give[s] a high damage bonus right away.” Instead, its “bonus per Encounter increased,” promoting a more consistent and balanced power curve over a run rather than an immediate, potentially overpowered, boost at the start.
These extensive changes to Boons and Blessings demonstrate Supergiant’s commitment to continuous balance and refinement, ensuring that every run in Hades 2 offers diverse and compelling strategic choices.
Daedalus Hammer Upgrades: Crafting Precision
Daedalus Hammer Upgrades provide crucial mid-run modifications to Melinoë’s weapons, allowing for significant power spikes and build diversification. The Unseen Update includes important adjustments and bug fixes to these upgrades, ensuring they function as intended and provide balanced power.
- Boosted Ignition (Skull): This upgrade will “no longer [be] offered while using” specific skull aspects or configurations. This prevents unintended or overly powerful synergies that might have trivialized certain challenges, streamlining the available choices for a more balanced experience.
- Looming Ignition (Skull): A critical bug fix addresses an issue where this upgrade was “giving its full damage bonus immediately rather than over the duration as described.” This ensures the upgrade functions as intended, providing its damage bonus gradually over time, which adds a strategic element to its use rather than an instant burst of power. This fix is crucial for maintaining the integrity of weapon scaling and preventing unintended power spikes.
These precise adjustments to Daedalus Hammer Upgrades reinforce the strategic importance of choosing the right modifications during a run. They ensure that each upgrade offers a distinct advantage without creating broken or unintended power combinations, contributing to the overall balance and replayability of Hades 2.
Hexes & Path of Stars: Cosmic Power Reworks
The Hexes and the Path of Stars system offer powerful, high-impact abilities for Melinoë, often tied to her lunar or witchcraft-based powers. The Unseen Update brings significant reworks and adjustments to these cosmic abilities, aiming to enhance their strategic value and integrate them more seamlessly into the gameplay loop.
- Adjusted Path of Stars layouts: A notable change is the adjustment of “Path of Stars layouts to make room especially for Godsent upgrades.” This indicates a redesign of the visual and functional presentation of the Path of Stars, making it easier to navigate and locate new, powerful upgrades from the gods.
- Adjusted Godsent upgrade offering: The timing for when “Godsent upgrades are offered during the story for the first time” has been “adjusted,” now appearing “later than before.” This change likely aims to better pace the introduction of these powerful boons, ensuring players have a foundational understanding of the game mechanics before unlocking advanced options.
- Twilight Curse: This Hex, along with “other Morph effects,” now consistently “block any on-death attacks when afflicted foes are slain.” This is a significant defensive buff, making these Hexes more reliable for safely dispatching dangerous enemies who might otherwise trigger hazardous effects upon defeat. However, there’s an important exception: this block does not apply to “Inferno-Bombs,” maintaining a specific threat.
- Prize of Poseidon (Moon Water): This upgrade has been “cut from game.” This removal suggests it either didn’t fit the desired balance or was replaced by a more engaging alternative.
- Pride of Poseidon (Moon Water): Replacing the removed “Prize,” this is a “new! Godsent upgrade” that “gradually restores Life and Magick over time.” This new option provides a consistent source of sustain, offering a passive recovery mechanism for longer runs.
- Zenith (Sky Fall): This Hex has also been “cut from game.” Its removal signifies a streamlining of the Hex options.
- Ambition (Sky Fall): Replacing “Zenith,” this new Hex “deals bonus damage to Guardians.” This is a powerful, specialized Hex that provides a significant advantage against the game’s challenging boss encounters, offering a more direct and impactful offensive option.
- Lineage: A brand new feature! “Your Hex can be Godsent one more time when used in Guardian Encounters.” This new mechanic introduces a unique strategic layer, allowing players to recharge their Hexes more frequently during critical boss battles, potentially turning the tide of difficult fights.
These extensive changes to Hexes and the Path of Stars demonstrate Supergiant’s commitment to refining high-impact abilities, ensuring they are powerful, well-integrated, and offer meaningful choices for players as they delve deeper into the underworld.
Keepsakes and Resources: Strategic Inventory Management
The Unseen Update also brings specific adjustments to Keepsakes and Resources & Reagents, emphasizing strategic choices in inventory management and resource gathering.
- Discordant Bell: The effect of this Keepsake now “persists for the night even after you switch Keepsakes.” This is a significant change, allowing players to benefit from its unique property without being locked into using it for the entire run. This offers greater flexibility in customizing builds mid-run.
- Resource Alignment: The update has “reduced chance of never finding the resource type aligned with your Animal Familiar in shorter regions.” This quality-of-life improvement ensures that players who choose a specific Animal Familiar for resource bonuses are more likely to find those desired resources, especially in early or shorter areas of the game, making the familiar choice more consistently rewarding.
These adjustments aim to make Keepsake choices more dynamic and resource gathering more predictable, enhancing the overall strategic depth of Hades 2’s progression.
Quality of Life & Bug Fixes: Polishing the Experience
Beyond the major gameplay overhauls, the Unseen Update includes a vast array of miscellaneous improvements, visual enhancements, and crucial bug fixes, all contributing to a more polished and immersive experience.
General Improvements
- Shrine of Hermes: The “Fresh Sustenance MAX” option at the Shrine of Hermes has seen its “Life recovery reduced.” This adjustment likely balances late-game healing options.
- Art & Visual FX: The update adds “alternate textures when using upgraded Tools of the Unseen,” providing visual feedback for player progression. “Updated visual FX when Crescent Pick Outcroppings are depleted” makes resource gathering more intuitive. A new “visual indicator in Boon Info for when Arcana are disabled due to Barren (Chaos)” enhances clarity during challenging runs.
- Miscellaneous: Melinoë can now “greet Frinos while he is in the Training Grounds,” adding a charming touch to player interactions. The “Gameplay Timer now also pauses automatically when interacting with the Path of Stars,” improving the pacing of strategic decisions. “Heracles no longer sometimes ominously just stands around after his Encounters,” fixing a humorous but immersion-breaking bug. “Updated presentation for Icarus fly-by attacks” enhances visual clarity. “Improved feedback on Life and Magick gauges after swapping Keepsakes that modify your totals” ensures players always have accurate information. “Improved feedback spending resources in the Altar of Ashes, Silver Pool, and Music Maker screens” makes resource management smoother. “Improved contextual feedback on various Boons when affected by Vow of Scars” provides clearer information during complex boon interactions. “Damage from Specials and Omega Specials is now separated for some weapons on the Victory Screen” offers more detailed post-run statistics. “Reduced cluttered damage numbers using Argent Skull (Medea)” improves visual clarity during intense combat. A “letterbox to the game intro in some aspect ratios” enhances cinematic presentation. Finally, “updates and fixes to translations in some languages” ensure broader accessibility.
Critical Bug Fixes
A major bug where “Melinoë could suddenly take 500 damage using Eruption (Path of Stars) and Night Bloom (Selene) to raise a Tempus in the battle against Chronos” has been “fixed.” This resolves a potentially run-ending interaction.
- Numerous “story events that were never playing” have been “fixed,” ensuring players experience the full narrative.
- Multiple “contextual voice lines that were never playing” are now correctly triggered, enhancing immersion.
- Fixed cases where “you would sometimes Dash-Strike unexpectedly using the Moonstone Axe.”
- Addressed “some interactions between [unspecified abilities] and Psychic Whirlwind (Daedalus).”
- Fixed “Black Coat not interacting with some abilities that improved Channeling speed.”
- Corrected “visual issues where strikes with Hidden Aspects sometimes appeared to be interrupted by foes.”
- Resolved “Wounds from Ares sometimes causing on-hit slowdowns too frequently.”
- Fixed “Sea Star (Poseidon) sometimes doubling items created by Gold Gold Gold (Echo).”
- Addressed “Personal Loan (Dionysus) giving you nothing back if it got Rarified.”
- Fixed “Heracles sometimes turning invisible while attacking.”
- Corrected cases where “Athena could unexpectedly appear more than once per night.”
- Fixed instances where “using Cast to interrupt Attacks or Specials would pause animations longer than expected.”
- Resolved the issue where the “Past Deeds screen not showing more than 36 Boons if you had that many.”
- Fixed “Satyr Supplicant Life Bars persisting after they were slain.”
- Corrected the “Ares Plasma UI indicator sometimes disappearing unexpectedly.”
- Addressed “several text errors” and other minor fixes to enhance overall stability.
This extensive list of fixes and improvements showcases Supergiant’s dedication to refining every detail of Hades 2, from core mechanics to subtle visual cues, ensuring a robust and enjoyable experience for its highly anticipated v1.0 launch.
Hades 2: An Amazing Early Access Experience
Even in its current Early Access state, Hades 2 has already garnered widespread critical acclaim. When it was released in May 2024, our early access review confidently awarded it an “Amazing” 9 out of 10 score. This high rating reflects the game’s exceptional quality and the strong foundation laid by Supergiant Games. The review stated that “Even in its Early Access state, Hades 2 is just about everything one could ask for in a sequel to one of the best roguelites of all time.” This praise highlights how effectively Hades 2 builds upon the success of its predecessor while introducing fresh and engaging elements.
The review specifically lauded several key improvements and additions
- Excellent refinements to its roguelite progression: Hades 2 enhances the genre’s core loop, offering a more nuanced and rewarding sense of progression with each run.
- A fantastic new main character in Melinoë: Players control Melinoë, Hades’ sister, who brings a fresh perspective and unique abilities to the dungeon-crawling experience. Her personality and narrative arc are compelling, immediately endearing her to players.
- Two unique sets of levels: The game diversifies its environments by having players “fighting foes on the surface and in the underworld.” This dual-world approach offers distinct visual themes, enemy types, and environmental challenges, adding significant variety to each playthrough.
Hades 2 continues the legacy of its predecessor, blending “engaging storytelling and roguelite action elements for an engaging dungeon-crawling experience.” The “Unseen Update” is a crucial step in its journey towards full release, demonstrating Supergiant’s commitment to delivering a polished and unforgettable game.
With these significant changes and the ongoing attention to community feedback, Hades 2 is poised to not just meet, but potentially exceed, the high expectations set by its acclaimed predecessor. Fans eagerly await the final v1.0 launch, confident that Supergiant Games will deliver another masterpiece.
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