Hades – Early Access “Beefy” Update Live

A brand new Early Access update is now live for Supergiant Games’ roguelite action-RPG Hades. This new update introduces a new biome along with new foes to the game, improves its UI, adds some story events with roughly a thousand of new voice lines, fixes some bugs and more. You can find the complete patch notes in this Reddit thread. Here are some highlights:

Highlights

• Elysium: rise up to an all-new biome of the Underworld, rife with new perils and mysteries.
• Theseus & the Minotaur: they await you in the afterlife of heroes… who else will you find up there?
• Redesigned Dash: outmaneuver your foes like never before with this newly revised core ability.
• Improved UI: all-new Boon Info display lets you track an even greater number of power-ups.
• New Foes: confront the Exalted and the Nemean Chariot, among other Elysian foes.
• New Boons: look for new God Boons, including all-new ‘Exchange’ choices.
• New Story Events: including ~1,000 new voice lines! The most added in an update since launch.

General Gameplay

• Added the third main biome after Asphodel (good luck up there).
• Boons and other power-up rewards now show up relatively more often as Chamber Reward options.
• You can now find and use more than one Daedalus Hammer per escape attempt.
• Reworked damage scaling from multiple Boons; effects are generally additive rather than multiplicative.
• Olympians will sometimes offer an Exchange of Boons; Exchanges always have a higher power level.
• Added Heroic rarity level for Boons, greater than Epic (note: used with ‘Exchange’ Boons).
• Poms of Power now yield diminishing returns when repeatedly applied to the same Boons.
• Infernal Troves requiring Skeleton Keys are rarer but yield greater rewards.
• Infernal Gates appear slightly more often.

Weapons & Powers

• Dash: redesigned for a more fluid feel.
• Wrath: reduced meter gain from dealing and receiving damage; meter no longer gained from pillars.
• Stygian Blade: slightly reduced recovery time of Nova special.
• Heart-Seeking Bow: standard shot now staggers foes on-hit; increased stagger duration of Power Shot; reduced recovery time of Volley special.
• Shield of Chaos: increased attack damage; increased knockback for Bull Rush; you are now invulnerable while using Bull Rush.
• Eternal Spear: reduced damage of Throw special; removed recovery time if you retrieve a thrown Spear by moving to it; slightly increased range of Spin Attack to match the visual.
• Adamant Rail: increased speed and reduced recovery of Bombard special; attack projectile hitbox slightly increased (making it more effective against foes’ projectile attacks).