Brace yourself: Hades 2 just got what 'will likely be our final patch' before full release

The witch Melinoe holds up her ghostly hand to conjure something magical with her staff in the other hand. A dark blue sky broods in the background with a skeleton man on the right side of the frame.

(Image credit: Supergiant Games)

On the long list of crimes for which I am responsible, a single entry is king: I have barely played more than an hour of Hades 1 in my life. Is it because I'm a bad person? Yes, but also I feel like I missed the boat on it a little bit. Gone are the days when everyone and their mum was chatting synergies and builds and how hot this or that ancient Greek god is, they've all moved onto other things. It's a very daft reason not to play a singleplayer game, and yet here I am, crushed under the burden of whatever the opposite of FOMO is.

I'm in the door in time for Hades 2, though, which remains in early access and just dropped patch 10, consisting of all manner of tweaks and adjustments for Melinoe's no-good day in the underworld.

More tantalising, though, is the patch's preamble, where Supergiant says this will "likely be our final patch before our v1.0 launch." Sharp intake of my breath. My god, Hades 2's full release is just around the corner! But wait, Supergiant does follow up that sentence with "whenever that will be!" So maybe it's not happening by sunset.

Still, patch 10 is a meaty thing all by itself. You should, for instance, find yourself getting stun-locked a lot less, which might truly be the most rage-inducing phenomenon that can ever befall you in a videogame. Supergiant's also tweaked how armour damage works—when you take it, your temporary armour will now reduce before your permanent stuff.

Melinoe, a young princess of the underworld, stares determined towards the screen with a resolved expression to slay Chronos. — (Image credit: Supergiant)

Also, the game should generally be a bit chattier now: Supergiant has put in fixes for "a number" of story events and voice lines that just refused to play for whatever reason.

Oh, and you won't find yourself suddenly wiped out by a sudden rush of 500 damage when you use Eruption and Night Bloom in the battle against Chronos. Which is good. It's good when you aren't suddenly killed like you just stepped in front of a cosmic bus. But really, I'm just desperate to know how long is left until Hades 2 releases in full.

One of Josh's first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he's been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He'll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin's Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you're all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.

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