Supergiant Games’ roguelike Hades 2 was in early access for just over a week and a half and it was pretty wonderful (and disgustingly hot) time so far. However, some players have had difficulty adjusting to the main character Melinoë’s dash as well as her ability to sprint. Luckily for those folks, Supergiant Games is now on board and Hades 2The first patch addresses speed first and foremost.
As of today’s patch, Melinoë’s sprint (which felt a bit too slow) has been sped up to make her “innately faster”. Her sprinting is also much more responsive, as some players found it a bit difficult to turn while running, which certainly became a pain in some late-game areas that are positively swarming with things trying to they kill you.
Melinoë’s dash has also been changed ever so slightly so that players can exit recovery animations faster. Not that she will necessarily be stunned by damage, but I found her to be too slow to run away from enemies after being hit. Now she has to have the same urgency I have as I hit the dodge button so I don’t lose one of my death challenges in an otherwise phenomenal game performance.
Melinoe rushes in Hades 2 has been a bit controversial as it is significantly slower than Zagray’s the first game. Her rush leaves a trail that she has to recover from before she can dash again, which is quite a drastic change from Zagray, who was able to dash again pretty much instantly. He even managed to collect power-ups that gave him multiple extra hits before tiring out. While I wouldn’t mind seeing Supergiant change Melinoë’s kit, I think this difference makes them unique characters that encourage different playstyles. I would hate to see Melinoë’s imprint removed from the game due to the studio’s responsiveness to feedback.
Speaking of faster, Hades 2The first correction of is also accelerated gathering resources. The sequel introduces crafting and a host of different collectible tools that must be unlocked to obtain the resources to craft what the game calls spells, which often augment Melinoë’s abilities and add mechanics and features, such as farming. However, you can only use one resource gathering tool at a time, which means you have to choose whether you prioritize plants, fish, ores, or other materials for each run. In my experience, a good run that ends with a diabolical clash against Chronos at the very end it can take about 40-50 minutes, which means it’s a serious chunk of time not to collect other materials.
now, Hades 2 players will be able to collect from any kind resource point they find at runtime as long as they have the associated harvester unlocked. So if you’ve unlocked the shovel or pick, you don’t need to equip them to dig up seeds or ore, respectively. Switching to a specific gathering tool will allow you to earn as many of the resource points as you could before this patch, while “resources for tools you don’t prioritize will appear much less frequently,” according to the patch notes.
Elsewhere, Supergiant issued minor (but consequential) fixes, such as showing your currency when you’re in the Well of Charon, or repeating the tutorial on Grasp upgrades in Altar of Ashes. Anecdotally, a friend of mine made it to the third region of the game without upgrading his Grasp to have more passive upgrades because they just didn’t know how to do it. If you’ve been there, you know this region is pretty damn tough with upgrades and players report that the game doesn’t do a bad job of explaining the system. From this patch, we hope that more players will know how to upgrade their Grasp and strengthen themselves for their battle with Chronos.
For all of the patch notes, which mostly address the feedback the team has received since launch, check them out here. Supergiant mentions that once this first patch is out, the next one will work on the balance changes, which tells me I better fit in a win soon before the team cheats on my favorite perks/builds.
