Patch Notes: Post-Launch Update 2

We are deeply appreciative of your continued passion for Hades II since our official v1.0 release last autumn, and for your unwavering support throughout our Early Access journey. To celebrate our community, we are delighted to introduce our second Post-Launch Patch, packed with fresh content, quality-of-life refinements, and several surprises we believe you will truly enjoy.

• Expanded Fated Prophecies: Prophecies tied to characters like Odysseus and Arachne now feature new, fully narrated conclusion scenes, accessible in the Fated List once the requirements are met.
• Endless Gifting: Once you have forged a lasting bond, most Crossroads residents will now accept recurring gifts of Bath Salts, Twin Lures, or Ambrosia, accompanied by brief new narrative interactions.
• Deepening Relationships: Melinoë may now find that characters who share a non-platonic bond occasionally seek to reaffirm that connection.
• Fresh Dialogue: We have added a wealth of new lines across the game’s cast, ensuring the narrative remains dynamic throughout your journey.
• And Much More: Discover serene new decorations for the Crossroads Training Grounds, unique alternate forms for every Animal Familiar, and a variety of hidden delights!

• Aspect of Artemis (Blades): Improved the recharge speed of the Riposte effect.
• Aspect of Pan (Blades): Now compatible with the Dancing Knives (Daedalus) upgrade.
• Aspect of Hel (Skull): Accelerated the Omega Attack channel time and improved targeting against cocoons.

• Tidal Ring (Poseidon): Enhanced targeting reliability when facing multiple enemies.
• Seismic Servo (Poseidon x Hephaestus): Now applies its benefits to a broader array of Boons.
• Snow Queen (Demeter): Barrier protection is no longer stripped by zero-damage attacks.
• Fire Away (Hestia): Now compatible with all Cast types, not exclusively Hestia’s.
• Sword Ring (Ares): Damage output has been increased.
• Grievous Blow (Ares): Improved scaling for both Rarity and Poms of Power.
• Grisly Gain (Ares): Increased the likelihood of weapon strikes spilling Plasma; Rarity and Poms now modify the Magick restored when gathering Plasma.
• Profuse Bleeding (Ares): Fully reworked—now summons a falling blade over nearby foes whenever you collect Plasma or inflict Wounds.
• Sanguinary Savor (Ares): Fully reworked—now boosts Wounds damage and automatically draws in Plasma; offering requirements have been recalibrated.
• Winner’s Circle (Hermes): Improved consistency across all Cast effects, accelerating their damage cycle; the overall effect has been re-balanced to account for this change.
• Various additional minor tuning adjustments.

• Tribulation (Moon Water): Now triggers your ‘after taking damage’ effects multiple times sequentially.
• Decline (Twilight Curse): Reworked to provide a direct damage boost to the projectile.

• Gathering Tool yields are now more consistent across runs.
• Minor refinements to the inventory descriptions for several resources.

• Sorrow-Spiller (Fields): Slightly decreased spawn frequency.
• Charybdis (Thessaly): Resolved an issue where the encounter failed to trigger promptly. Tentacles are no longer affected by Morph, maintaining consistency with the Vow of Rivals.

• General quality-of-life fixes and improvements across several regions.

• Refined several character-specific Prophecies with clearer instructions; adjusted the triggers for when these are foretold or completed.
• Melinoë, Help Us: Enhanced event priority and added the ability to re-view the narrated epilogue.
• Silk and Spitefulness, Voice and Vanity, Haunted by the Past, Unfinished Business, and Soundest of Sleepers: Added dedicated narrated conclusions and increased priority for essential events.
• Denier of Suitors & Original Virtues: Requirements for fulfillment have been lowered.
• Born to Win: Increased the priority for the introduction event with Chaos.

• Updated Fated List UI art and added new illustrations for the previously noted character Prophecies.
• Implemented new banner animations for completed character Prophecies.
• Added custom greeting animations for Infernal Cerberus at specific narrative points.
• Added new ambient animations for Hecate, Moros, and Selene in the Crossroads.
• Included a unique portrait variant for Heracles in specific scenarios.
• Visual updates for Aspect of Supay (Flames) transitions, Icarus bombing runs, and Daedalus upgrades for the Axe.
• Refined visual effects for Athena’s Mental Block, King Vermin (Oceanus), and Aspect of Circe (Staff).
• Additional minor graphical improvements and UI polish.

• Icarus is now slightly more receptive to building a bond.
• Crossroads residents now accept Bath Salts earlier in your interactions.
• Adjusted requirements for pivotal narrative scenes involving Moros and Nemesis.
• Expanded Hecate’s dialogue regarding Hidden Aspects, and added more lines for Poseidon, Eris, Odysseus, and various other characters.
• Melinoë now features new voice lines for Sacrifice Boons, Lone Shades, and specific environment interactions in the Fields of Mourning and Training Grounds.
• Added context-sensitive dialogue for Melinoë when interacting with Echo, Chaos Trials, and various narrative milestones.
• Additional lore and flavor dialogue for Hera, Zagreus, and other divine visitors.

• Updated sound design for Elephant Rockets (Daedalus – Shiva) and the Moonstone Axe.
• Added new audio cues for collecting Gifts of Night and setting the Express Route in Tartarus.
• Various volume balancing and audio polish.

• Zoom In (New!): An Accessibility option that brings the camera closer to the action—highly recommended for smaller screen sizes.

• Most narrated Homer victory summaries are now skippable.
• Archived Trivia can now be filtered by Animal Familiar.
• The Argent Skull Special now clears Erebus trees in a single hit.
• Added a “Reward Preview” icon for locations immediately preceding a Region Guardian.
• Refined text for defeat screens against Zagreus.
• Updated the Path of Stars and Seed-planting menus for better usability.
• Added more festive flourishes to the Crossroads post-True Ending.
• Various translation fixes across all supported languages.

• Fixed controller vibration issues during interaction with Cerberus.
• Addressed rare edge cases involving Hades encounters and pathing to the True Ending.
• Fixed animation and hit-detection bugs with Aspect of Nergal (Axe) and the Moonstone Axe.
• Resolved lingering status effects and unexpected boon behavior for Selene, Demeter, Ares, and Chaos.
• Fixed interaction bugs with Keepsakes, Magick regeneration, and event triggers.
• General squashing of various minor gameplay, narrative, and visual bugs.

“Sleep, you are lord of all, lord of blessed gods and of mortal men, of every living thing the broad earth nurtures, for you alone are master of all, you do visit all, building their bodies with fetters unforged.”

~The Orphic Hymns (Anonymous; A. Athanassakis translation)

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