Hades II left Early Access on September 25, 2025 with a v1.0 launch that Supergiant described as adding the true ending, the epilogue, dozens of new story events, 50 new achievements, and a long list of balance changes across the Nocturnal Arms and their aspects. For players returning after Early Access, the most consequential part of that update is not the story — it is that the weapon and Hex landscape shifted enough to change which builds win the final region.

What changed

The v1.0 launch update carries forward the work from The Unseen Update, which had already introduced Hidden Aspects for every main weapon, Godsent Hexes that upgrade Moon magick with Olympian power, and the Vow of Rivals for stronger Guardians. On top of that, v1.0 retuned several aspects and a large slice of the boon pool. The headline changes to the weapons themselves, from the official patch notes:

  • Sister Blades — increased damage and range of the Attack sequence; the Morrigan aspect’s Special was fixed so it hits repeatedly as intended.
  • Umbral Flames — reduced Special damage (a direct nerf to the previous flamewall-centric playstyle) in exchange for a snappier fighting style introduced in The Unseen Update.
  • Moonstone Axe — increased Special speed and made it easier to Dash out of the Attack sequence; the Melinoë aspect gained bonus Attack Power and Max Life, and the Thanatos aspect gained increased Critical chance on its Mortality effect with rescaled Attack speed bonuses.
  • Argent Skull — Omega Special channels faster; the Medea aspect had a bug fixed where its damage bonus was incorrectly affecting Casts.
  • Black Coat — received further sound-effect and visual updates in the v1.0 patch notes, following the Omega-move responsiveness improvements introduced in The Unseen Update.

Supergiant also adjusted a large slice of the Olympian boon pool: Hera’s Nexus Rush was reworked to hit surrounding foes instead of only on contact, Poseidon’s Splash effects now activate more reliably, Apollo’s Nova Strike and Nova Flourish gained area, Hestia’s Snuffed Candle was fixed so its damage bonus applies to Attacks and Specials, Hephaestus’s Furnace Blast had its Heroic rarity corrected, and Hades’s Life Tax gained total Life restored. The Hex system gained new Path of Stars upgrades including a “+400 damage to Guardians” option and a Godsent variant that restores Health and Magick over time.

How it works

Each Nocturnal Arm has a base form plus several aspects, and the Hidden Aspects unlocked through The Unseen Update are the strongest fighting style on each weapon. Aspects change the core loop — for example, the Moonstone Axe’s Thanatos aspect rewards Critical Mortality procs, while the Sister Blades’ Morrigan aspect rewards repeated Special hits. Picking an aspect is really picking which resource you want to scale: Magick for Omega moves, Critical chance for burst, attack speed for hit-count builds.

Hexes sit on the Path of Stars and consume Magick to cast. The Unseen Update added Godsent Hexes, which let a Hex carry an Olympian’s power for a duration. The v1.0 Path of Stars pool includes direct Guardian damage boosts, Hex upgrades that deal bonus damage to Armour, self-Impervious frames, Magick refund on Omega moves, and a Godsent option that restores 4 Health and 50 Magick per second for ten seconds. Hex choice answers a different question than boon choice: a Hex is your emergency button or your burst window, while boons are the sustained engine of the run.

Boons layer on top. Most weapon aspects want one of three things from their boons — flat damage that scales every hit, a Cast build that uses Magick efficiently, or a status engine (Hitch, Scorn, Freeze, Blitz) that sets up combo boons. The v1.0 rebalance pushed several boon lines in different directions, which is what makes the pairings below worth revisiting even if you played Early Access.

Build path

The tier list below is grounded in the confirmed v1.0 changes rather than community opinion. S-tier means the aspect was directly buffed in 1.0 and pairs cleanly with a Hex and a boon line that were also buffed; A-tier means the aspect is strong and stable; B-tier means the aspect took a nerf or has a more conditional payoff.

S-tier — Moonstone Axe (Aspect of Thanatos, Aspect of Melinoë)

Both Moonstone Axe aspects received buffs in 1.0: Melinoë gained Attack Power and Max Life, and Thanatos gained Critical chance on Mortality with rescaled Attack speed. Thanatos wants a Critical engine, so pair it with Apollo boons (Nova Strike and Nova Flourish gained area in 1.0, and Lucid Gain now restores Magick without requiring you to stand in your Cast) and the Hex upgrade that fires your Omega Cast with a guaranteed Critical. Melinoë is the safer all-rounder — higher Max Life suits a defensive Hex like the Impervious-frames option or an Armour-gaining upgrade such as Bearing on Lunar Ray, with Hephaestus’s Furnace Blast (now correctly scaling at Heroic rarity) for chunk damage.

A-tier — Sister Blades (Aspect of Morrigan)

The Sister Blades gained Attack damage and range, and Morrigan’s repeated-hit Special was fixed. Morrigan rewards hit count, so pair it with Ares’s Grisly Gain (increased Magick restoration) or Hermes’s Mean Streak (now limited to Attacks and Specials, which is exactly the Morrigan hit pattern). A Godsent Hex that restores Magick per second lets you fire Omega Specials more often. The defensive weakness is low range, so take Arachne’s Silken Sash keepsake — its starting Armour was increased in 1.0.

A-tier — Argent Skull (Aspect of Medea)

The Argent Skull’s Omega Special now channels faster and the Medea bug (damage bonus incorrectly applying to Casts) was fixed, so Medea now behaves as a pure Omega-move scaler. Pair it with Hera’s Nexus Rush — reworked in 1.0 to affect surrounding foes — and the Magick-refund-on-Omega Hex. The risk is Magick cost, so consider Hades’s Life Tax (buffed total Life restored) for sustain.

B-tier — Umbral Flames

The Umbral Flames took a Special damage reduction in 1.0, which pulls the previous flamewall build down a tier. The fighting style is now snappier (from The Unseen Update), which favours Attack-speed scaling over Special scaling. Poseidon’s Splash effects now activate more reliably with strikes of varying speed, making Poseidon the strongest pairing here. Take an Armour-gaining Hex upgrade such as Tenacity on Wolf Howl or Bearing on Lunar Ray and lean on Nova Strike (Apollo, increased area with Umbral Flames) for clear.

Hidden Aspects

Each main weapon has a Hidden Aspect that The Unseen Update added and v1.0 slightly retuned the unlock requirements for. They are the strongest per-weapon option in most cases — for example the Aspect of Pan on the Sister Blades and the Aspect of Eos on the Umbral Flames — and the 1.0 patch notes adjusted requirements so characters reveal them to Melinoë at slightly different points. If a Hidden Aspect is available, it is almost always the right pick over the base aspect.

What it means

The 1.0 rebalance rewards pairing a buffed aspect with a buffed boon line and a Hex that covers the aspect’s weakness. Moonstone Axe is the clearest winner because both its aspects gained direct stats and its natural boon pairings (Apollo, Hephaestus) were also improved. Sister Blades and Argent Skull are stable A-tier picks whose fixes make them behave as intended. Umbral Flames is the one weapon where you should rework your build rather than port an Early Access one over, because the Special nerf changes what scales.

The Hex layer is the new decision point. Early Access runs often treated Hexes as a panic button; the Godsent variants and the Guardian-damage Path of Stars upgrades make a Hex a planned burst window. Picking the aspect that aligns its resource with the Hex you want to cast — Magick for Omega-Cast builds, Critical for the guaranteed-Critical Hex, Armour for an Armour-gaining Hex upgrade — is what separates a clean true-ending run from a stalled one.