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Hades News

Post-Launch Patch - October 13, 2020


This patch contains additional improvements, balance changes, voice lines, and fixes following our v1.0 Launch Update. We expect to deploy another patch in the coming weeks. Thank you for playing!!

Note: 📢 indicates a change inspired by community feedback!

Boons & Blessings

• Lightning Reflexes (Zeus): improved scaling from Poms
• Hydraulic Might (Poseidon): increased power scaling at Heroic rarity
• Huge Catch (Poseidon): Conch Shell Keepsake now works as a prerequisite for this to be offered
• Clean Kill (Artemis): improved scaling from Poms

Infernal Arms, Aspects, & Abilities

• Heart-Seeking Bow: reduced damage of Volley special (it retains other improvements from the v1.0 update)
• Heart-Seeking Bow (Chiron Aspect): increased arrows from Volley special (offsetting the change above)
• Heart-Seeking Bow (Hera Aspect): additional improvements to interaction with Crush Shot (Aphrodite)
• Twin Fists (Talos Aspect): increased Magnetized damage bonus

Daedalus Hammer Upgrades

• Dash Nova (Blade): increased Sturdy effect duration
• Charged Volley (Bow): increased power level (offsetting the Volley change above)
• Sniper Shot (Bow): increased size of effective area
• Flaring Spin (Spear): increased damage of pulse effect

Foes & Encounters

• 'Trial of the Gods': increased encounter difficulty in Elysium
• Minor adjustments to foe appearance rates in Tartarus

Mirror of Night

• Fiery Presence: fixed damage bonus not working correctly; adjusted bonus to compensate

House Contractor

• Added Theme, Infinite and Theme, Sonorous, two new late-game decorative themes that spruce up the Boon Info screen and Victory screen (there now are eight unlockable themes in total)

Fated List of Minor Prophecies

📢 Added a new Prophecy after the true ending, on the path to the epilogue

Art & Visual FX

• Lord Hades' luxurious mane and moustache now animate as well they ought in certain contexts
• Bloodless foes now have a start-moving animation
• Minor visual fixes and improvements to some chambers

Voice & Narrative

📢 Thanatos should make his very first appearance more reliably (once you have met the requirements)
📢 Achilles should grant the Codex more reliably early on
• Added more Charon voice lines for miscellaneous interactions with him
• Added more Asterius voice lines when entering his chamber
• Added more Zagreus voice lines in certain contexts; and a new late-game conversation with Achilles
• Added a new Inspect Point after the epilogue
• Nyx should be more inclined to greet you on approach
• Dusa has a wider variety of remarks when startled
• Fixed issues preventing some repeatable Zeus and Athena dialogue events from playing
• Fixed Zagreus no longer sometimes calling out different types of foes by name in encounters
• Minor fixes, changes, and improvements to various narrative events

Miscellaneous

• Various updates and improvements to translated content. Cheers to our heroic Community Translators!!
• Adjusted animation and presentation after a successful escape attempt after the true ending
• Added several names to Community Contributors and Special Thanks in the Credits
📢 Various minor performance optimizations
📢 Various minor text changes and fixes

Bug Fixes

📢 Fixed various additional crashes reported by players
📢 Fixed Mouse Lock not always working properly with multi-display setups
📢 Fixed Sundial, Imported sometimes not appearing as expected from the House Contractor
📢 Fixed additional cases of Codex Index screen displaying incorrect requirements for Boons
📢 Fixed Decorative Themes causing too many 'new inventory' notifications from the House Contractor
📢 Fixed Well Stocked (Achievement) sometimes not unlocking correctly
📢 Fixed Back to Work (Achievement) sometimes not unlocking in the correct chamber
📢 Fixed cases where you could give gifts to Thanatos after he had already shifted away
📢 Fixed cases where you could not interact with Thanatos in the House of Hades
📢 Fixed Orpheus sometimes switching songs when you moved between House of Hades chambers
📢 Fixed effect of Divine Protection (Athena) being visible during a key story scene
📢 Fixed Dusa sometimes embarrassingly getting stuck while flying away in embarrassment
• Other minor fixes

Quote of the Patch
'Night bore hateful Doom and dark Fate and Death, she bore Sleep, she bore the tribe of Dreams.' ~Theogony (Hesiod; M. L. West translation)

You can try the next Hades patch in the new test branch now

Do you find yourself daydreaming about Hades a lot? As in, what might developers Supergiant Games have up their sleeves for the next patch - that kind of thing. Well, now you can find out - there's a Hades test branch available now, and it has some upcoming enhancements to the lovely action RPG game ready for your perusal.


The Hades test branch is where Supergiant will stage its upcoming patches, and the version on there now includes two new decorative themes for Hades' lobby, some new voice lines for several of the characters, and a bunch of bugfixes. Those fixes include stability enhancements, the mouse lock setting not working with multiple monitor setups, the Well Stocked achievement not popping, and one that made poor little Dusa get stuck when she tries to fly away.


Our hero Zagreus, as well as Charon and Minotaur, have new voice lines, and lines for Nyx and Dusa have been fixed so you hear the ones you're supposed to hear now. A couple issues that were preventing story events and their associated voiceover lines from playing have also been repaired in the test version of Hades.


Read the rest of the story...


RELATED LINKS:

Hades gets the queer love story right with Achilles and Patroclus

Hades players aren't petting Cerberus enough

Hades review - a roguelike to remember


Hades gets the queer love story right with Achilles and Patroclus

Queer love stories in games usually come in two flavours: those that are defined solely by their queerness, and those that are just like heteronormative relationships with the serial numbers filed off. The medium still has a long way to go when it comes to portraying a diverse array of queer love stories that feel believable and distinct from one another.


That's what makes Hades' love story between Achilles and Patroclus so special. It's a classical tragedy that's defined by intense longing and a willingness to risk it all, and one that's grounded by believable dialogue.


The story of Achilles and Patroclus existed well before Hades ever came into being. A key plot line in Homer's Iliad, the story goes that Achilles withdrew from King Agamemnon's war against Troy after the greedy king insulted him. While Achilles sulked in his tent, Patroclus donned his armour and led his army in his place, and though he made headway against the Trojan forces, was slain in a duel by Troy's champion Hector.


Read the rest of the story...


RELATED LINKS:

Hades players aren't petting Cerberus enough

Hades review - a roguelike to remember

How streaming revolutionised indies like Hades and Slay the Spire