Hades 2 Early Access Roadmap: Updates To Expect Before 1.0 Release

Summary Hades 2's Early Access roadmap includes new areas, cosmetics, and weapons, with updates planned until at least 2025.

Future updates will update unfinished areas, balance patches, new art, and additional story content.

The game doesn't have a true ending yet, with major updates expected to add new characters and story until the full release.

With the launch of Hades 2 in Early Access on Steam and the Epic Games Store, Supergiant Games, the game's developers, have provided a general roadmap for updates leading up to the official, full release. A roguelike based on Greek myth, Hades 2 is the first direct sequel to be developed by Supergiant, a studio known for its strong lineup of standalone games like Bastion, Transistor, and Pyre. As a direct sequel, however, Hades 2 represents an opportunity for the studio to more directly build on the mechanics and narrative of the first game.

Set after the events of the original Hades, Hades 2 follows Melinoë, a daughter of Hades born in between the two games, as she fights her way into the underworld to free it and her family from the Titan of Time, Chronos. Like the first game, Hades 2 was released in Early Access well before its planned release and will be in active development until that time, with the developers promising major updates that will take player feedback into account. While the full release of the game is still far off, Supergiant has provided an in-game roadmap.

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Hades 2's Early Access Roadmap

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Though the game has only just been released in Early Access, a general roadmap for future updates leading up to the full release can be found on the main menu. Notably, the roadmap specifies that Hades 2 is expected to remain in Early Access for the rest of 2024 and is unlikely to see a 1.0 release until at least next year. Additionally, the roadmap specifies that the game's first major update will likely take a few months to release, and that it may not include all the game's current major goals.

For the next major updates of Hades 2, Supergiant's roadmap outlines three major goals, the first of which is a new region to explore. Unlike the original Hades, which only initially included the first area of the game, Hades 2's Early Access already has the requisite four areas needed for complete runs. New to Hades 2, however, is the ability to take on an alternate run along a different route - the new area planned for a future update is likely planned for this alternate route, as it's currently unfinished in the game's current state.

Currently, runs that go down to the Underworld can be fully beaten, and include the four areas of Erebus, Oceanus, The Fields of Mourning, and Tartarus. On the other hand, runs that follow the alternate route currently only have two finished areas, with (presumably) an additional two to be added in future updates.

The second major goal outlined in the roadmap is the ability to decorate the Crossroads, Hades 2's between-runs hub area, with various cosmetics, presumably purchased from the broker. This feature was notably present in the first game, allowing players to decorate the House of Hades with various pieces of furniture, but it's currently unknown how it might interact with Hades 2's somewhat more complicated currency system. However, it's likely that players will just be able to use the general currency, Ancient Bones, to purchase them.

Finally, the third major goal is the addition of a new weapon for Melinoë, as well as new weapon aspects. Currently, Hades 2 has five weapons - the Witch's Staff, the Sister Blades, the Umbral Flames, the Moonstone Axe, and the Argent Skull, each of which has its own Aspects that change the properties of their movesets, like in the first game. An additional weapon would bring the second game's arsenal to match the first in number, although the first game's Early Access added weapons more gradually and didn't include Weapon Aspects at all until a relatively late update.

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New Art, Balance Patches, And Additional Story Will Likely Be Added In Future Patches

Outside the major goals outlined by the Hades 2 roadmap, future updates are likely to include improvements to already-existing areas of the game. Like in the original game's Early Access period, select characters have incomplete art and are currently represented through placeholder assets and various icons for Boons and Keepsakes are likely placeholders as well. Already, Hestia has been updated from a placeholder portrait in the Hades 2 Technical Test to a complete version of her art in the Early Access release, and more characters are likely to follow, either in minor or major updates.

Likewise, Hades 2 will probably go through a not-insignificant amount of balance tuning as the Early Access period progresses. Overall, the game seems more balanced in Early Access than the original (which allowed, among other things, for infinite Death Defiance stacking), but some players have noted a small amount of dissatisfaction with factors like certain weapons and the tuning of some enemies. In the time leading up to Hades 2's full release, the game will likely undergo significant balance changes, which may even continue after 1.0, as was the case with the first Hades.

Finally, though some individual runs can be beaten, Hades 2 doesn't have a "true ending" yet - and, according to Supergiant, won't have one until the game's full release. Major updates will add new characters and story content, but the game's narrative won't be fully finished until the game itself is fully finished. What already exists in-game, in terms of gameplay and story, already outstrips the original Hades in terms of the sheer amount of content, but players who progress especially far may find themselves waiting for a full conclusion until the time of the game's full release, presumably in 2025.

After a long wait, Hades 2 has launched in Early Access, building on its predecessor with additional content and an all-new story, which future updates promise to flesh out even further. Currently, the game is large, but incomplete, and its roadmap has promised several new additions down the line, with each major update likely to have a space of around a few months between them. Those buying into the Early Access immediately may want to pace themselves to not exhaust all of Hades 2's content before the game's full release, which likely won't be until after 2024.