We said in May that Hades 2 "is absolutely worth playing in early access," and now it's even more worth playing in early access thanks to a major new patch that went live today.
The patch replaces "dozens" of placeholder icons in the interface, and makes numerous balance changes "aimed at enhancing core combat and related choices." It's now possible to encounter up to one additional Olympian each night, as it was in the original Hades, and the odds of finding a Boon or other major reward while in Erebus have also been increased.
There's no one big headline fix in this patch—instead, it's notable for the sheer number of meaningful changes it makes to levels, enemies, graphics, audio, and specific weapon and combat abilities. As with the previous patch, which reduced the hassles of resource gathering and improved sprinting, developer Supergiant credited this one to "feedback and volunteered gameplay data" from players. The studio also promised that Boon updates are coming in the next update.
As much as players are enjoying Hades 2 already, the response to this patch seems very positive. One potentially controversial point seems to be a rework to Aspect of Momus: Players had previously noted that Momus was very OP, almost to the point of being broken, and that's no longer the case—but while there's some understandable disappointment, the reaction to the change seems broadly positive. "As a Momus simp, while I'm upset my heavy machine gun is gone, I think this is overall more healthy for the game," redditor Jabroni_Balogni wrote. "Momus just far outclassed everything in the game (maybe barring pan knives)."
"I'll miss the old Momus for its ridiculous damage output, but this is a much more interesting weapon," redditor CobaltGrey added.
Some players even speculated that the reworked Momus is actually more powerful now, although also more complex to use: "Old Momus tripled the damage of an otherwise weak move," Chocolate_Rabbit said. "New Momus triples the damage of an already extremely strong move."
Supergiant said when Hades 2 launched that it expected the game to remain in early access "at least through the end of 2024," and it reiterated that time frame today on Twitter: A solid release date still hasn't been settled, but don't expect anything before 2025. That said, it seems to be going pretty well so far: Despite being unfinished, Hades 2 has notched nearly 38,000 user reviews on Steam, 94% of them positive.
The full patch notes contain quite a few hidden spoilers, so I won't post them here—you can dive in with whatever level of caution you feel appropriate on Steam.
