Thanks so much to everyone who's taken the time to play Hades II in Early Access so far! We've been delving into all your impressions and feedback, and we're very excited to move forward in this new phase of development. In this post, we wanted to share our short-term plans.

Following our launch, we've deployed several small hotfixes that alleviated rare crashes and progression bugs. We typically don't provide patch notes for small technical hotfixes such as this, though they help us make sure we're building on a solid foundation. We are continuing to watch for error reports closely.

Impressions posted here on Steam, our official Discord, and beyond are letting us gauge how everyone's feeling about the game and how that aligns with our goals. With the help of our translators, we're getting feedback from players all over the world! We're also collecting anonymous gameplay data voluntarily submitted by players, which helps us identify opportunities to improve the balance of Boons, weapons, foes, and so on. This is an ongoing process that's just getting started.

Our first patch should be coming later this month, though note we don't have a more-specific timeline. With it, we're looking for improvements we can make in the near term, in a way that makes Hades II better for everyone and come closer to realizing our goals. For example:

• Resource Gathering: We want Hades II players to focus on goals that are important to them, though don't want resource gathering to feel too frustrating, such as if you didn't bring the right gathering tool along for the ride.
  
  
• Getting Around: It's important to us that Melinoë have her own distinct style, and for players to be able to navigate her battles and other interactions in a nimble, responsive, expressive way. We have ideas for how to improve her Dash and Sprint.

Our first patch will likely have a few other enhancements and fixes, and we'll have comprehensive patch notes when the time comes. So stay tuned!

If you were with us for the Early Access development of the original game, you know we love making balance changes! We're always looking for opportunities to make the content and choices in the game as interesting as we can. However, we're still gathering feedback and data that helps inform the kind of changes we like to make, so don't expect too many such changes just yet.

We will likely have at least one more patch after our first, to make additional improvements and fixes in the short term. From there, we will focus on the development of our first Major Update planned for some months from now, which will contain various new features and content.

Early Access has already been incredibly instructive to us about ways in which we might make Hades II the best it can be. We really appreciate you playing and taking the time to share your impressions with us! Death to Chronos!

After more than three years in development, our first-ever sequel is now available in Early Access!! Watch our new gameplay showcase to see it in action. Note this contains some spoilers!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1145350/Hades_II/

We hope you enjoy discovering all that Hades II in Early Access has to offer! It already includes more environments, foes, and fully-voiced characters than the full version of the original game, and we have more in the works. An in-game development roadmap provides additional details about our update plans.

Note for owners of Steam Deck, we're pleased to report Hades II is Deck Verified!

Hades II is a rogue-like dungeon crawler in which you'll battle beyond the Underworld of Greek myth using dark sorcery to take on the sinister Titan of Time. It builds on the best aspects of the award-winning original in an all-new, action-packed, endlessly replayable experience rooted in Greek myth and its deep connections to the dawn of witchcraft.

As the immortal Princess of the Underworld, you'll explore a bigger, deeper mythic world, vanquishing the Titan's forces with the full might of Olympus behind you, in a sweeping story that continually unfolds through your every setback and accomplishment. New locations, challenges, upgrade systems, and surprises await as you delve into the ever-shifting Underworld again and again. For more information, check our Hades II FAQ[www.supergiantgames.com].

This Early Access launch is an extraordinarily exciting moment for our team as we begin the process that we expect will help us realize this game's potential. As with the original, we designed Hades II for Early Access from the ground up, and look forward to hearing your feedback about all that we've built so far, and integrating that feedback into our plans for the rest of production! This is a game with many interconnected parts, and your feedback helps us ensure everything from the balance to the narrative are working as well as possible.

Should you play in Early Access, or wait for the full game? For many players, it's a good idea to wait for the complete v1.0 before diving in, as Hades II will grow and improve during Early Access, and the true ending of the story won't be available until then. But, if you like the idea of seeing the game evolve over time, and watching the story unfold more gradually, then Early Access is probably for you!

Music has always been essential to the experience of each title from Supergiant Games, and Hades II is no exception, with an original soundtrack by our award-winning composer Darren Korb crafted to fit the bewitching theme and variety of all-new characters and environments.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2950840/Hades_II_Original_Soundtrack/

Now available alongside the game, the soundtrack is already nearly as expansive as the original, with close to two-and-a-half hours of new music... and still more tracks to be added as development continues. Note: We recommend first experiencing our soundtracks in-game!

We're planning our first Major Update for later this year! Please note while we'll be monitoring feedback and reports carefully, this Major Update will take some months following our initial launch. Beyond that, we expect to be in Early Access at least through the end of 2024 in order to build out the remaining content we have planned.

As we take stock of the state of the game and what you think of it, we'll gain a clearer sense of just how close we are to the finish line. For now, it's too early to say when our v1.0 launch will be. Yet even though Hades II won't be complete for some time, we hope you really enjoy it as soon as you start playing.

Lastly: Thank you. This year our studio turns 15 years old, and for all this time we've remained small and independent, working on one major new project after another. None of this would have been possible without the support of our players over the years. So, whether Hades II is your first Supergiant game, or you've been with us since the Bastion days, we're grateful you could join us.