Hades 2 caps off a frankly ridiculous month of gaming releases, bringing the full launch version to players on PC and Nintendo Switch 2. I spent the last year or so exercising restraint with regard to Hades 2, holding off on checking out early access in the hope that the final version would be all the more impressive after the many, many updates from Supergiant Games. I’m extremely glad I held off, as jumping into Hades 2 for the first time has been precisely what I needed to pull myself away from Hollow Knight: Silksong (for now, at least).
There’s heaps of stuff to do from the very outset of Hades 2, including a wildly varied suite of weapons that each takes a lot of practice to get to grips with. This initially threw me off balance, as I tried to decide whether I wanted to spend my early hours with the starting weapon or give the other, decidedly weirder options a go.
When it comes to weapons. I’m a fiercely stubborn player, and mostly stick to one or two favorites regardless of the kind of game I’m playing. In Hades, for example, I rarely strayed from my beloved Shield of Chaos, ignoring all advice from the community to experiment and learn each of the weapons on offer. In hindsight, this was a huge mistake.
A grave thirst
Hades 2 introduces the Grave Thirst mechanic early on, which highlights a weapon in a sort of red mist, indicating that you’ll earn bonus Bones for using it. Bones are important, especially early on, as they can be traded for other upgrade materials via a merchant in the hub area. At this point in the game, I therefore needed all of the extra resources I could get, so begrudgingly, I started to let Grave Thirst decide my weapon for the day’s excursion into the Underworld.
Apart from a particularly brutal run where I found myself underpowered while wielding the slow-attacking Moonstone Axe, I’ve never regretted taking a Grave Thirst weapon into battle with me. While the extra Bones rewarded do become less useful over time, and even though I’ve finally beaten Chronos and unlocked additional ways to play, I’m still letting Grave Thirst guide my choices.
The Argent Skull
I’m always impressed by how games like Hades 2 evolve while you play them. A couple of nights ago, I decided that maybe I just wasn’t good enough to get to the final boss, let alone beat him in a fight. Just a few runs later, those concerns were completely dispelled, as I developed a new tactic that revolved around having a Cast deployed at all times.
Not only have I now beaten Chronos, but I actually did it with a weapon that was initially my absolute least favorite in the game. The Argent Skull is a very strange weapon indeed. It’s the skull of some poor fellow that’s been imbued with magic and, for all intents and purposes, turned into a death-propelled rocket launcher. You fire four shells (glowing green fire-skulls) before your magazine is empty. You must then Special Dash to go and collect them back, whereafter the blasting can resume. The Argent Skull is slow to fire, punishing to misuse, and tricky to master.
Across the finish line
Before my first successful Underworld run, I found myself guided towards the Argent Skull by Grave Thirst. Begrudgingly, I accepted, adding in a Keepsake from Hermes that’d allow me to move faster for a bit to negate the slower attack speed I’d be working with. Several bosses later, I’d buffed the skulls to automatically return to me once fired; I’d added Lightning bolts to my Special dashes, and thanks to a hefty passive Magic-regeneration Boon from Demeter, I could fire off lofted air-strike attacks at long range.
Admittedly, Chronos did pummel me during his first phase, but for his second, I found that I could sit back, slowly strafe around projectiles, and fire an endless stream of golden skulls over and over into his smug old face. I have no doubt that I’d have eventually bested Chronos in Hades 2 without engaging in the Grave Thirst mechanic, but I certainly wouldn’t have bothered to use the Argent Skull. By giving me a little bit of extra encouragement (and some additional Bones), Supergiant Games has found a way to break even stubborn players like me out of our deep-set habits.
I’m still yet to clear the surface in Hades 2, and I’d quite like to chip away at the Chaos challenges for a while next, but I’ll absolutely be letting the will of the Grave Thirst decide my weapon for me. I’m excited to experiment with absolutely everything Hades 2’s weapons have to offer. Who knows, maybe I’ll pick up the Moonstone Axe again, buff it with impossibly high damage, and finally beat Prometheus and his pesky eagle friend? So mote it be.
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