Hades 2 patch is a smorgasbord of tiny additions, adding more closure to sidequests, an extra level of zoom, buffs to boons, and more romance

A couple of weeks ago the Xbox and PlayStation 5 port of Hades 2 was announced with a memorably thirsty trailer that doubled as a hint about an impending update, featuring a glimpse of a new scene involving Heracles in a bath. Turns out, Supergiant has been working on a lot more than new hot tub content, with post-launch patch two out now on Steam. Here are the featured additions from the top of a significant set of patch notes.

• Fated Prophecy Updates: Prophecies about characters such as Odysseus and Arachne now have new narrated conclusion scenes, which can be viewed in the Fated List once those Prophecies are fulfilled.
• Forever Gifting: Most Crossroads characters now can be gifted Bath Salts, Twin Lures, or Ambrosia indefinitely after forging a bond with them, in various brief new scenes.
• Going Steady: Characters with whom Melinoë can have non-Platonic relations may occasionally show interest in continuing to have such relations.
• New Dialogue Events: Many of the game’s characters have new things to say at various points throughout the story.
• …And More! Look for dreamy new decorative items in the Crossroads Training Grounds, a new alternate form for each Animal Familiar, and additional surprises we hope you’ll enjoy!

Those updates to the Fated Prophecies are a welcome addition, adding Homer-narrated summaries at the end of their sagas so all the work you put into advancing the stories of, say, Echo and Narcissus feel like they pay off—even if it’s in the nature of roguelikes that no character who gives you a mechanical benefit can ever change too much.

Other tweaks include an additional level of zoom in the accessibility menu, “Recommended for smaller displays”, and Icarus-romancers will be pleased to learn he is “less painstakingly reluctant when it comes to trying to forge a bond with him”. I’d earned all the achievements and made it to the post-epilogue before I finally got that boy in the bath, so thank goodness for that.

On the mechanical side the most notable balancing seems to have been buffs for Ares, who was already one of my favorite gods for Olympus runs. The Grisly Gain boon gives you boosts for picking up plasma that drops out of enemies, and while those buffs only last for one encounter in longer boss fights they add up to a significant swing in your damage output. They’re going to be even better now there’s an “increased chance of weapon strikes spilling Plasma” and other Ares boons have been reworked or, in the case of Sword Ring, had their damage increased.

Though the change that’s most likely to lure me back is a simple one: “Poseidon now becomes increasingly enthusiastic as Sea Star activates more times”. The boon that gives a chance of future rewards being duplicated was already a favorite because of the way the avuncular sea god laughs “YES!” and “ANOTHER!” every time it happens. I struggle to imagine him being more eager than he already was, but can’t wait to hear it happen.