Looking back, Expedition 33 was probably my sweet spot for posting-about-a-game. It was a game that I really enjoyed, but wasn't obsessed about. I'd play for a while, hit a good story beat, take some time to collect my thoughts and jot down a post, then move on. Sometimes I just don't really click with a game and it languishes in the backlog without me ever feeling motivated enough to write about it. Or, on the opposite side, I have way too much fun with a game and would much rather play it than write about it.
Hades 2 falls squarely into the latter camp. I'd intended to have a good two or three posts up by now, and haven't even started writing about it, despite having put a good 60-ish hours into the game and reaching the credits. It's somehow even more addictive than the first Hades, to the point where I'll strategize to squeeze in a run before dinner or during a load of laundry.
I do wish that I'd written those earlier posts, because the game does change a good amount over the course of playing it. The early part of the game is focused more on unlocking things and mastering the basic mechanics, while the point I'm at now is more about overcoming challenges and optimizing builds. I haven't been playing by that long as the calendar goes, so I remember those earlier parts all right, but it isn't where my focus is on today.
First things first: Hades 2, like the prequel, is a modern action roguelike with strong RPG elements, much like Diablo, but blessed with a fantastic, deep, rich storyline and oozing with atmosphere from its Greek mythology setting. I blogged a lot about the original Hades, but hadn't mentioned here that I replayed it two years ago or so on the Playstation 5. I was slightly wary about picking up Hades 2 - I am getting older, and my reflexes probably aren't what they used to be - but it's been pretty smooth. I feel like I've retained a lot of my Hades skills, and recently playing a lot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate with my youngest brother has also helped keep my skills sharp.
Supergiant has done a fantastic job at evolving the original game. This isn't just a re-release of the original engine with new maps and monsters: they've reworked fundamental aspects of the core gameplay. It's the perfect kind of sequel: you aren't going in cold and can reuse some of your skills and learnings from the previous one, but you're also kind of in the same boat as new players in figuring out how systems work.
To pick one example nearly at random: in the original Hades, Dashes were probably the single most important skill to master. You're briefly invulnerable during a Dash, so being able to dash frequently is a huge help for survival, and prioritizing everything that helps your Dash is a smart move; Dashing also forces enemies to hesitate and re-orient to your new position, further helping you out. Hades 2 still has a Dash, but you only have a single Dash: unlike the original Hades where you could upgrade to have three or more dashes you can fire off in rapid succession, in Hades 2 you need to wait for a bit after only a single dash. But Hades 2 also adds a Sprint - or arguably upgrades it, as previously it was only an uncommon Hermes boon. You aren't invulnerable during a Sprint, but you move MUCH faster than your normal speed, can get around slow enemies, and can further upgrade your Sprint for more abilities (like leaving a flaming trail behind you, or gaining a temporary barrier that blocks incoming damage). So you no longer dash-dash-dash-dash all the time, but you still have a Dash, so... yeah. It's a learning curve, but a fun one.
The big-picture progression feels fairly similar. Each run progresses through a fixed sequence of Regions, and each Region contains a random selection of Locations for that biome, the end of each Region has a powerful Boss, and so on. In between runs you return to a home base where you can relax, chat with NPCs, upgrade equipment and so on. One major change to Hades 2 is a much more complex resource system, which I've really been loving. Hades 1 had a few basic economy currencies (gems, darkness), some rare resources (diamonds, titan blood), and very late in the game you could catch Fish as a resource to exchange for Gems. Fishing was one of my favorite parts of Hades, it's kind of just a dumb minigame but I really enjoyed it. Fishing is back in Hades 2, unlocks earlier, and is only one of a lot of new resource-gathering activities. You can also aid Lost Shades in returning home, dig up seeds, mine ore veins for metals, and so on. There are a lot more resources in Hades 2: Ashes, Psyche, Moondust, Silver, Glassrock, Lilies, Nightshade, Lotuses, Olives, Fated Fabric, Poppies, Cinders, Pearls, Golden Apples, tons and tons more. In Hades 1, the Gemstones were the core of the economy, and basically everything else upconverted from those. Hades 2 has Bones, which are kind of equivalent to Gemstones, except they aren't used for anything, just a currency for buying a few select types of things. For the most part you need various combinations of different ingredients in order to unlock things. It's complex, but I love the complexity, and it's managed really well in-game. You can clearly see the requirements, there's a handy screen for seeing where items can be sourced from (once you discover them the first time), and in-game you can set a "Reminder" that will track the items, even showing you during a run when a given chamber will have a resource you need for something you're tracking.
One side-effect of the complexity is that, once you get as late in the game as I am now, you will certainly have surpluses of some types of items and deficits of others. I could use a lot more Nectars and Stardusts and Golden Apples; but I'm drowning in a ton of Rubbish and Ashes and Psyche. Ashes and Psyche were super-useful early in the game, but not so much now. But, once you get to that point, you can recycle any items you don't want into Kudos, which are then used to unlock cosmetics at your base. In Hades 1 these were done with Gemstones, so there was a tradeoff between spending Gems on things with a mechanical reward and spending on visual/audio/story cosmetics; here, there's a clearer demarcation between currencies with mechanical rewards and the sole currency for cosmetic rewards.
One very minor niggle is finding resources. In smaller chambers you'll easily be able to see everything. You can unlock an ability fairly early in the game that will additionally notify you of nearby resources: a chime will sound, and a glowing light will float from you over to the resource (maybe a patch of dirt containing seeds or a lotus floating in a pool). But a particular late-game region has some huge areas, which look cool and have good gameplay, but can be annoying to thoroughly sweep for resources. You'll either need to spend a previous minute backtracing your steps to look for items, or press on and risk missing something you could have collected. That's really my only complaint though, and even that doesn't have a massive impact. On the whole there's so much more stuff to get than in Hades 1 and I'm really loving getting all the stuff.
As far as the actual gameplay, everything feels a little different, not just from things like the Dash/Sprint changes but the core weapons themselves. Early on I kept catching myself trying to map the Hades 2 weapons back to the Hades 1 ones, like thinking of something as "like the bow" or "like the fists", but none of them are directly comparable. For example, the skull is a little like the gun in how you load it and then shoot it, but there's much less ammo and you need to collect it back after firing. My favorite weapon in Hades 1 was probably the base Zagreus Fists; nothing in Hades 2 feels quite as fast as that, but the Flames have a somewhat similar playstyle in that you are constantly attacking the whole time, but now at mid/far range rather than melee.
Keepsakes are back, and at first glance they are the same: you get a Keepsake the first time you offer Nectar to someone, they go into your Cabinet, and you can eventually swap them in between Regions during a given run. But they all work differently this time around. The biggest collection are the "god keepsakes". In Hades 1 this would increase your odds of seeing a god and give better rarity. This time it guarantees seeing a god, but only once; and you can elect once to manually increase the rarity of a specific Boon before choosing it. Overall the game seems to much more strongly urge you to swap out Keepsakes in between Regions. Lots of them have a single-time effect (similar to Charon's Purse from Hades 1), and it will warn you in the Cabinet that the effect has expired.
Before starting to touch on some story stuff, some general tips and thoughts to share:
Don't sweat resource prioritization too much. You'll eventually need a lot of everything. If you don't have an immediate need for something, that probably means you'll save time in the future when a new requirement pops up. That said, this is where I personally would focus for early-game items with all else being equal.
- Nectar. It's a lot more limited than most other items, and is critical for getting Keepsakes that will aid your runs and unlocking Prophecies that will provide more permanent resources. It's also used as an ingredient in many recipes.
- Psyche. Increasing your Grasp lets you run with more Arcana cards, which is a huge power boost.
- Ashes. Unlocking more Arcana cards gives access to more stuff. In particular, getting the Healing and Death Defiance abilities is huge for making it further into the run, which in turn provides more resources.
- Bones. These will always be useful, but in the early game are less valuable than directly getting Psyche and Ashes.
Unlocking weapons should also be a high priority, though it's slightly less important here than in Hades 1. Unlike Hades 1, you get valuable resources from Guardians no matter what weapon you beat them with. If you're going to maximize your runs and/or enjoy a challenge, you'll want to use whatever weapon has Grave Thirst, which is roughly equivalent to Dark Thirst in Hades 1. Ideally you'll want to find a weapon you like within each category, then focus on upgrading that weapon; the base weapons use standard reagents to upgrade, while the unlocked ones all require Nightmares, the new equivalent of Titan's Blood. I've found this post a useful resource for prioritizing weapons, though of course it's important to try things out and see what feels best to you.
As a general comment, like Hades 1, you don't need to worry about making bad decisions in terms of story or dialog or build or resources or anything. The story progresses as you play the game, but it isn't possible to branch in different directions or anything. You will see a bit more story for things you invest more time into, so if there's a particular person you like or are interested in, you may want to give them more Nectar and be sure to chat with them as much as you can; but doing that won't lock you out of anything else, and not doing that now won't prevent you from doing it later.
Be aware of the Fated List of Minor Prophecies, and take options that help fulfill prophecies whenever they come up, but (in my opinion) don't go out of your way to fulfill a prophecy. Like, if you just need one Demeter boon left to finish her prophecy, just wait until you naturally see her in a run, don't take her Keepsake just to try and get that prophecy. You'll eventually fulfill all of them anyways, and I think it's more fun to achieve them as a side-effect to trying to beat the game.
As is unfortunately the case for a lot of games these days, there isn't a great single resource for information. The Fandom wiki is active and relatively up-to-date, but not always current, and more importantly is Fandom and trash. I've been prefering the fextralife one, which feels a bit better, but has some very outdated data. (Hades 2 was in Early Access for years, and the wikis still talk about things that were changed or removed long ago.) I think a lot of the community is on YouTube and maybe Twitch, but I loathe watching videos for games; that said, the one time I did watch a video to try and understand how to use a particular weapon I found it far more helpful than any amount of reading I could do. The r/HadesTheGame subreddit is probably my favorite overall resource, but again, it's important to look for information that's relatively recent, since older posts may have obsolete advice.
MINI SPOILERS
Some notes on my current loadout and preferences:
I always run Grave Thirst. I'm kind of all over the map when it comes to Fear (the new equivalent of Heat); I need to run 12+ Fear on some weapons, while others only need 2.
I usually take whatever run is lit up for my Grave Thirst weapon. There are a couple of points where I might really want to do an Underworld or a Surface run in particular, and if GT is going in the wrong direction, I'll instead do a Chaos Trial. This resets the GT weapon and gives me another shot at a target. This is also kind of a soft reset of the Crossroads. You can talk to everyone again, but they only have very brief canned responses. But you can give Gifts again, and may see some people who weren't there previously, which can be nice for advancing relations. You might be able to grow some plants, get a quick delivery or finish a quick recipe while in the Chaos Trial, so it's worth setting any of that up before popping in there.
This took me way too long to figure out, but Grave Thirst also applies to Chaos Trials! So it, say, the current GT weapon is the Staff, doing a Chaos Trial with any Staff will give you the bones and gems for completing it.
My current favorite weapons are:
Circe Staff. I like to run with Gale, which stays very close. This means I don't get much use out of the Soul Link thing, but it does mean it's pretty easy to lay a double Cast down on someone. I'll try and get as strong a Cast as possible, ideally including some Apollo and Demeter.
Artemis Daggers. This feels a little like the Zag Fists in that I end up zipping all around the battlefield, punching bad guys. I don't intentionally try to get hit to trigger Riposte, it's more like a freebie bubble that saves some health when it procs but I'm happiest if it doesn't proc. I prioritize everything that speeds up my Omegas, then stack Attacks.
Melinoe Torches. I want to try some other torches, but so far these have been super-fun. I'll usually trigger my Special, then just spam Attack nonstop, firing off a lot of Omegas. Getting a good Selene ability is great since I'll be burning through a ton of magic; the time-slowing one is usually my favorite, but anything besides Health is good. Getting something like Zeus or Hestia on attack is great, then some status curse on my Special. This is my one build that doesn't use Cast very much.
Charon Axe. Kind of the opposite of the last two, this build is slow but very powerful. At first I would run in, cast, run out, and detonate; these days I try to stay in the cast circle but still back away. As with Circe, stacking Cast boons is great, though here I prefer the one-time-damage casts like Poseidon over the DOT casts like Demeter and Hestia. This weapon rocks against Typhon.
Medea Skulls. Probably my least-used weapon. It's another zip-around build like Artemis Daggers, doesn't need nearly as much Magic, is a little squishier but seems to take enemies down quicker. I mostly just load up the Attack as much as I can.
Nyx Coat. Another one I haven't used very much, my first full clear was with Poseidon on attack, but I realized afterwards that this was kind of a waste since he doesn't proc on the split attack. I need to play with this some more. On the various aspects I often end up using the Specials, which are probably the best kiting attack in the game, a little like the Chiron Bow from Hades 1: you can line up some attacks, fire off, and then run away while they chase the enemy.
For keepsakes:
Like with Hades 1, I almost never bring god keepsakes. I head into a run with an idea of what type of god I want to see, and usually will find someone I can work with during the first region: I might prefer Aphrodite, but Demeter is totally fine, for example. If I somehow got through the first region without getting my primary boon I might take a god to fill it, but that's very rare.
I currently have my default/favorite keepsake set to Circe's Crystal Figurine. This is kind of a lottery ticket. If I'm very lucky, I will get Judgement after the first Guardian, which means that I'll get all of the Arcana by the end of the game. I'll often end up with mediocre or irrelevant arcana for my build, which is also okay.
I'll situationally take the Aromatic Phial from Narcissus after the first or second boss, if I'm low on Health and have a common Boon. It can actually be great if I have exactly one common Boon that I really want to rarify. I discovered that it doesn't work on Chaos Boons, but if you don't have any eligible boons when you first get it, you can still use it on the following Fountain and it can rarify one you've picked up in the meantime. Remember to equip the Phial before drinking from the first fountain and unequip it after drinking from the second one.
Early in my campaign, I really liked using Arachne's outfit if I was running low on health after a Guardian. The first few locations in a region tend to be easy, so I could get a lot of health refills from entering locations while keeping my armor intact. It's still a good keepsake, but I have better ones to use these days.
Echo's Concave Stone is another fantastic one. I'll try and take this after I have a boon from a god I really like. I did once shoot myself in the foot though, when the stone triggered on a Zeus boon and made me take the ranged Cast ability. This totally threw off my style and led to a Typhon defeat. Since then, I've spent rerolls if I have an unexpired Stone and see a Boon I definitely don't want.
Charon's Purse is always a great choice. In the past I would start a run with it. These days I don't, but I will grab it if I have Chaos and/or Hermes boons to boost Gold, as those will apply to the purse and can lead to 300+ gold.
For the final region, I'll usually take one of the Luckiest Tooth for the free revive, the Evil Eye if it applies to Chaos/Typhon, or the Knuckle Bones.
I've just recently picked up the Jeweled Pom but haven't used it yet, and I think there are a few other Keepsake slots, so I may have to revisit this list in the future.
Moving on to Arcana:
My must-have cards for every run include:
- Health when leaving a location
- Increase max health and magic at start
- Increase max health and magic as you progress
- Death Defiance
- 50% damage to enemies with 2 curses
Lately I've started taking the lower-left corner for more rerolls and starting gold. It's been making a bigger difference than I thought it would. That does mean giving up some things I would otherwise want, though. I'll consider my weapon playstyle and decide what I can best live without: some Cast benefits or faster Omegas or something else.
I've had all my cards unlocked for a while. I've prioritized upgrading the ones I use the most, but it will probably be a while until I have everything fully upgraded. Moon dust is expensive!
Moving on to story:
It's pretty cool to be in uncharted mythological territory. Hades 1 is a new story, but feels like it is woven in the space between existing tales. Hades 2 is completely new, though: the idea of the Titans returning and overthrowing the gods is really shocking and as far as I know has no precedence in the literature. But once again, the story is focused on the characters, and the characters are fresh and believable interpretations of their recognizable mythological origins.
Having Chronos as the main antagonist is a brilliant move. Hades 1 was great for a roguelike because of the in-universe explanation of why you keep coming back after dying. Hades 2 has a great explanation in its pocket for the alternate question, why enemies keep coming back after you kill them. So much can be hand-waved away with a being who can control the flow of time, and fortunately the Greeks already had one of those!
I like how the returning characters seem like evolutions of their previous appearance, or seeing different sides of them. Artemis in particular stands out: in the first game she was the most standoffish and reserved of all the Olympian deities, and it took a really long time for her to begin to warm up to Zagreus. But here, she and Melinoe are friendly and warm from the very start. But that makes a lot of sense, both from what we already know about Artemis and the kind of people she likes, and the "Silver Sisters" backstory to this particular game.
It was pretty fun to eventually see all of the original Olympians. I think Ares was the last one I made contact with. Dionysus might be my favorite here, just the perfect embodiment of who he is and what he would be doing in this situation.
Random note: the omniscient narrator seems to be the same voice actor as the original Hades. In an early flashback sequence Melinoe directly addresses the narrator as Homer and I went "Oh..... duh!" I don't recall him ever being identified in the first game, but it's perfect.
END SPOILERS
No mega spoilers this time, I do have some (positive) thoughts on the overall storyline, but I'll probably save those for the next post. If this is like the first game, I'll probably keep jamming on this game until I reach the epilogue; plenty of people keep playing for fun after that, but for me that will likely be a good point to pause and wind things down.
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