Hades 2 Early Access patch 2 notes: Massive Daedelus Hammer changes, bug fixes, more

Almost exactly a month after the game’s early access release, Hades 2 has received its second patch, bringing various gameplay, balancing, and performance improvements to the epic roguelike.

Hades 2 Early Access patch 2 introduces more fixes to what is already a pretty solid and compelling game even in this unfinished state.

Like the game’s first patch, this update doesn’t add new content, instead focusing on gameplay tweaks and bug fixes.

Most of Patch 2’s changes were suggested by players, with developer Supergiant Games thanking fans for their input. This update largely adds new UI icons and weapon balancing changes, with the devs promising Boon changes in a future update.

The weapons tweaks include changes to Daedalus Hammer upgrades, as several have been replaced with new ones. Each weapon has at least a few changes, but the Staff changed the most, having three upgrades replaced.

There are also various combat and boss fight adjustments, with Supergiant noting that Chronos should be “patently unfair” less often following the update.

Hades 2 Early Access patch 2 notes

Supergiant Games

Supergiant’s patch notes can be found here.

General Gameplay

• You now can encounter up to one additional Olympian each night (as in the previous game)
• You now are likely to find one more Boon or other major reward while in Erebus
• Increased invulnerability duration after your Death Defiance effects activate
• Improved rewards of Ash and Psyche can now be found in Oceanus and the Rift of Thessaly
• You now can press-and-hold to harvest repeatedly from Crescent Pick Outcroppings
• Toula should now stay closer to you in Encounters, especially in the Fields of Mourning
• Nemesis no longer offers Death Defiance items if you do not need to refill the effect
• Reduced Gold cost of Selene’s Boon when available in Charon’s Shop
• Minor adjustments to the order in which Olympians may first appear early on
• Normalized chances of finding Fishing Points in various regions

Nocturnal Arms & Abilities

• Witch’s Staff: Special knocks foes away, but is slightly slower; Omega Special is faster 
• Sister Blades: Special staggers standard foes longer; Attack visual FX better match the hitbox
• Umbral Flames: Attacks are stronger and faster; Omega Attack channels faster and uses less magick; Special gives a speed boost, but has reduced damage; Omega Special can be channeled while moving
• Moonstone Axe: reworked Special provides a lingering barrier; Omega Attack channels slightly faster; Omega Special channels faster
• Argent Skull: Omega Attack channels faster and hits a larger area

Aspects of the Nocturnal Arms

• Witch’s Staff (Circe): adjusted activation and duration of Serenity effect; Serenity now adds Omega bonus damage that scales with this Aspect’s rank
• Witch’s Staff (Momus): reworked; each of your Omega Moves automatically fires several times in succession from where you use them
• Sister Blades (Artemis): you will Block again if the effect recharges while you are channeling; Block now takes priority over Dodge and similar effects
• Umbral Flames (Eos): reworked; Omega Attack now fires a slow shot that occasionally creates damage blasts and also copies your Specials
• Moonstone Axe (Melinoë): reworked; now adds Power and Max Life
• Moonstone Axe (Thanatos): reworked; faster Attack adds Critical chance to Omega moves
• Argent Skull (Persephone): you now earn Glory much faster, but only by using your Omega Cast; improved control responsiveness during Omega Special

Keepsakes

• Moon Beam (Selene): increased bonus to Path of Stars upgrades

Daedalus Hammer Upgrades

• Marauder Wallop (Staff): cut from game; replaced with…
• Rapid Thrasher (Staff): new! All your Attacks become faster
• Double Wallop (Staff): cut from game; replaced with…
• Wicked Thrasher (Staff): new! All your Attacks gain bonus Power
• Double Cataclysm (Staff): cut from game; replaced with…
• Mirrored Thrasher (Staff): new! All your Attacks hit twice, but you take more damage
• Rapid Moonshot (Staff): also affects Omega Special
• Dual Moonshot (Staff): also affects Omega Special; reduced range; renamed from Double Moonshot
• Shimmering Moonshot (Staff): also affects Omega Special
• Aetheric Moonburst (Staff): increased Magick restoration from Power Shots
• Concentrated Flurry (Blades): cut from game; replaced with…
• Melting Dart (Blades): new! Your Special destroys a large percentage of a foe’s Armor
• Flick Knives (Blades): new! Your Dash-Strike also fires several Special knives in a fan pattern
• Rapid Onslaught (Blades): reworked to also affect Omega Attack; renamed from Marauder Slice
• Hook Knives (Blades): slightly reduced speed of knives returning to you
• Furious Fire (Flames): cut from game; replaced with…
• Mega Spark (Flames): new! All your Attacks travel farther and deal more damage
• Inverted Spark (Flames): new! Dash to make shots from Attacks reverse direction and hit foes again
• Leaden Spark (Flames): new! Your Attacks knock foes away and have bonus Power
• Sustained Spark (Flames): also increases move speed, instead of reducing; formerly Sustained Fire
• Melting Coil (Flames): no longer fires straight; also affects Omega Special; formerly Melting Comet
• Origin Coil (Flames): also affects Omega Special
• Rapid Slash (Axe): reworked to also affect Omega Attack; renamed from Marauder Slash
• Giga Cleaver (Axe): removed two-stage channeling (it always double-fires but uses more Magick)
• Dashing Heave (Axe): removed damage bonus; instead, it now hits twice
• Sidelong Crash (Skull): cut from game; replaced with…
• Mega Driver (Skull): new! Your Specials travel farther and you take less damage while using them
• Colossus Driver (Skull): also affects Omega Special

Hexes of Selene

• Wolf Howl: reduced Magick-spend requirement
• Twilight Curse: greatly reduced Magick-spend requirement; reduced foes afflicted; reduced cast time
• Night Bloom: reduced Magick-spend requirement, effect duration, bonus damage, and cast tim
• Lunar Ray: greatly reduced Magick-spend requirement; reduced damage; reduced cast time
• Moon Water: slightly increased Magick-spend requirement; slightly reduced healing
• Dark Side: slightly increased Magick-spend requirement

Foes & Encounters

• Chronos: various fixes and adjustments; there should be fewer cases where he’s patently unfair
• Infernal Cerberus: minor adjustments to some attack patterns in the first phase
• Eris: grenade attacks no longer wildly bounce around
• Polyphemus: reduced effectiveness of Mutant Sheep
• Goldwrath: reduced accuracy and tracking of beam attack
• Queen Lamia: slightly increased Armor; increased speed; other minor changes
• Reed-Stalker: increased projectile speed and target distance; reduced rotation speed
• Mourner: slightly increased rotation speed; slightly increased speed while attacking
• Lamia: slightly increased life and Elite armor
• Dire Shambler: reduced tracking speed between attacks
• Hippo: self-destruct area should more closely match the visuals

Level Design & Environments

• Driftwood resources are more common in the Rift of Thessaly (a further increase since last patch)
• Burning Oil Slicks in the Rift of Thessaly will extinguish after Encounters, though may be reignited
• Adjusted Oil Slicks in some locations in the Rift of Thessaly
• Minor fixes to several locations

Fated List of Minor Prophecies

Clearing Original Sins no longer requires choosing the very rare Barren curse from Chaos

Chaos Trials

• Trial of Heartache: reduced difficulty and adjusted based on Aspect changes
• Trial of Haste: reduced difficulty and adjusted based on Aspect changes

Oath of the Unseen

• Vow of Forsaking: no longer helps ensure you quickly get Duo and Legendary Boons

Menus & UI

Added many new UI icons for Keepsakes, Weapons, Well of Charon offerings, and more

• Insight Into Offerings (Cauldron) now also lets you check each Olympian’s list of offerings in the Book of Shadows while choosing their Boons (or the equivalent with other characters)
• [/]With the prior change, adjusted default key binding for Rarify; some custom bindings have been reset
• Added a warning when you are down to your last use of Death Defiance
• Opening the Book of Shadows should show entries for nearby characters more reliably
• Removed the Unused Grasp notification when exiting the Altar of Ashes while at a high Grasp limit
• Updated Pitch-Black Stone screen to use Aspect-specific icons
• Adjusted input action bar layout at the bottom of the Boon Screen and similar
• Added borders to icons for Selene Hexes on the Gifts of the Moon screen
• Added informational pop-up when using F10 to report bugs
• Other minor changes

Art & Visual FX

• Reduced some full-screen flashing or strobing, such as from time-slow effects

Music & SFX

• Added SFX for when certain active abilities such as Serenity are ready to use
• Updated placeholder SFX for various Keepsakes
• Updated SFX for projectile collisions with Umbral Flames (Moros)

Voice & Narrative

• Unique voice lines should play more reliably when certain incantations are revealed in the Cauldron
• Added voice lines when using Phase Shift (Selene) vs. Chronos (or trying to…)
• More voice lines should play when confiding in Frinos in certain contexts

Miscellaneous

• While brooding over the family portrait in the Crossroads, you may now snap out of it sooner
• You now can fully control the game using keyboard only if you rebind Attack and Special
• All timers now pause while in the presence of Charon
• An Anvil of Fates will no longer be offered in Tartarus if you have not found a Daedalus Hammer
• In the Hades Flashback, adjusted timing of hint for players who don’t realize they are in control
• Reduced requirements for the incantation Power to Pause and Reflect to be revealed
• Melinoë now respawns in the center of her magick circle near her tent (she was a bit off before…)
• Improved compatibility with more types of controllers
• Updated text for various upgrades and abilities

Bug Fixes· Fixed 

• Double Up (Poseidon) sometimes doubling Mystery Boons; clarified description
• Fixed Nightmare resources dropping unexpectedly in Chaos Trials
• Fixed Omega moves occasionally becoming unresponsive after being chomped on by Polyphemus
• Fixed deadliest attack of Chronos occasionally hitting when Melinoë was in a supposedly safe point
• Fixed Umbral Flames Attack preventing Magick regeneration before channeling Omega Attack
• Fixed The Queen and Judgment (Arcana) appearing active while no others Arcana are active
• Fixed Hearth Gain (Hestia) no longer restoring Magick if chosen as a Sacrifice Boon
• Fixed certain later Oath Testaments for the Sister Blades sometimes not appearing as expected
• Fixed cases where you could go out of bounds using the Argent Skull in the battle vs. Chronos
• Fixed more cases of some visual effects vs. Chronos lingering between phases or after the fight
• Fixed Toula unceremoniously vanishing after you vanquish Chronos
• Fixed additional issues with Sun Worshiper (Apollo)
• Fixed additional issues with Dark Side (Selene)
• Fixed additional issues with Twilight Curse (Selene)
• Fixed a visual issue where Headmistress Hecate could appear to slide after snared by your Cast
• Fixed Spark of Ixion (Charon) causing a Chaos Gate to appear in Asphodel?
• Fixed Golden Boughs sometimes not marking all available rewards in the Fields of Mourning
• Fixed several narrative events that could play out of sequence
• Fixed Odysseus rather rudely walking away while in conversation with Nemesis
• Fixed Heracles sometimes leaping away forever
• Fixed Melinoë’s voice reverting during her return sequence despite certain Circe enchantments
• Fixed incorrect Echo portrait in the Book of Shadows
• Fixed incorrect music playing in some Chaos Trials, or not playing as intended in some instances
• Fixed rare cases of a looping sound playing indefinitely
• Fixed a rare instance when objectives in the Training Grounds could overlap
• Fixed several minor issues on the Victory Screen that shows when you prevail
• Fixed additional miscellaneous issues when playing in ultrawide resolutions
• Fixed a rare crash in which the effect of Winter Harvest (Demeter) could repeat forever
• Fixed various other rare crashes
• Fixed several text errors
• Other minor fixes

Quote of the Patch

‘Hecate was the Goddess of the Dark of the Moon, the black nights when the moon is hidden. She was associated with deeds of darkness, the Goddess of the Crossways, which were held to be ghostly places of evil magic.’

~Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes (E. Hamilton)