Hades 2, my game of the year in waiting – assuming Supergiant is able to keep its schedule of releasing version 1.0 before the end of 2025 – just dropped its third major early access update. The latest, longest set of patch notes yet unfurls to reveal hidden weapon aspects, a new variation of each major boss encounter, new character bond-deepening events, and a veritable waterfall of changes to boons, blessings, and Daedalus Hammer upgrades. But most importantly, there’s new music, "including a hot new single from a certain band.”
Mild Hades 2 spoilers ahead.
In Hades 2’s second boss fight, you come up against Scylla, a legendary man-eating sea monster, and the Sirens, known in Greek myth for using their enchanting voices to lure sailors to their horrific demises. They are in a band together. The whole encounter is a Supergiant masterclass; Scylla, Jetty, and Roxy are on vocals, guitar, and drums respectively, and when you render one of them temporarily or permanently indisposed, their instrument disappears from the soundtrack. Basically, the fight is a concert where the performers are trying to kill you with the power of music. It rules.
Previously, there were two full band Scylla songs: “Coral Crown,” a hard rock banger about drowning people, and "I Am Gonna Claw (Out Your Eyes then Drown You to Death),” a much more personal tune that Scylla begins playing sporadically as a passive-aggressive – or I guess just aggressive-aggressive – response to Melinoe’s repeated victories over her.
Now we’ve got a third: “Rock and a Hard Place,” which serves as the backing track for the new patch’s trailer. It sounds sick and – I’m guessing – triggers when you activate the new “Vow of Rivals” variation of the Scylla fight. The trailer, however, explicitly mentions “new Scylla songs,” plural, so I am expecting/hoping for at least one more secret song, perhaps an anthem even more devastatingly personal than “I Am Gonna Claw (Out Your Eyes then Drown You to Death).”
In other hyper-specific Hades 2 news that only a few of you will care about, but that I will nonetheless put under a microscope because it’s my website: Supergiant finally swapped Narcissus’ placeholder art out for a real portrait. I don’t know how to feel about this. Having a character who talks extensively about the terrible burden that is his own physical beauty enshrouded in a nondescript hood was a great bit, and I’ll miss it. But hey, I suppose this is yet another reason to play Hades 2 the way god(s) intended – in early access – while you still have the chance. After all, nobody waited around for the 1.0 version of the Greek myths of old. The story, both now and then, is in the telling.
