Less than a month apart from its initial gameplay reveal and preview, SuperGiant Games have unleashed another build of Hades 2, one much closer to what players can expect once the game hits early access.

Despite its unceremoniously boring name, Hades 2 V.09017 brings a wealth of content that edges the game dangerously closer to what I’d consider ready to ship. Amongst the most significant additions, the latest build of Hades 2 now includes three new biomes on top of Erebus, the starting zone of the game.

Starting with Oceanus, the second new biome, this underwater labyrinth is filled with water jets that slow you down, schools of razor-sharp fish that hit you like a volley of darts, explosive pufferfish, and shark-like sentries that all try and bar you from facing off against the boss encounter of Oceanus: Scylla and her band of Siren songstresses in a deathly battle of the bands.

Like Theseus and Asterius, ala the original Hades, the boss battle with Scylla features multiple targets to fight. This time, they share a single pool of health, allowing Melinoë to dish out damage and focus her attacks on Scylla’s bandmates whenever she raises her shields without worrying about DPS on the trio’s main appendage.

“The House of Hades and Tartarus in Hades 2 easily earns its place as the final biome of the game, featuring a whole slew of new enemies.”

Past Oceanus, Melinoë will find herself in the Fields of Mourning, a biome that breaks the level-design convention of the series. Instead of small to medium-sized chambers, the Fields of Mourning, instead features an expansive open area truncated by trees and spirits that guide the player to multiple chamber rewards and enemy encounters, all located within the same map, requiring the player to conquer each instance before moving on. This unique approach to level design is a nice change of pace and gives the player ample room to experiment with some of the new, range-focused weapons found in the game.

Outside of its more open-ended level design, the Fields of Mourning also features a unique boss encounter that remixes an old character from the first game in a new light that fans of Hades should appreciate. Finally, beyond the Fields of Mourning, Hades 2’s final area features a remixed, or rather, a twisted and ruined take on the House of Hades, the starting area of the first game, now under the control of Chronos, the final boss and main antagonist of the game.

In spite of looking like the first area of the original game, the House of Hades and Tartarus in Hades 2 easily earns its place as the final biome of the game. Featuring a whole slew of new enemies, including some reworked and powered-up takes on existing mobs, such as the Wretched Thug, Hades 2’s final set of chambers will require mastery of the game.

Instead of a pure-RNG collection of chambers that eventually lead to the boss, Tartarus allows the player to make a bee-line to challenge Chronos, marked by special Roman-numeral etched doors that denote how close they are to the boss chamber. Of course, rushing straight to the final boss is not recommended, as Chronos is no pushover, requiring Melinoë to power herself up to stand a chance.

Taking the time to go into additional chambers before heading towards the House of Hades to make your final stand against Chronos is advised, but unlike previous biomes within Hades 2, the final area of the game features some genuinely challenging chambers, which can easily wipe out your reserve of HP or death defiances before you even get a chance to fight your Grandad.

The latest build of Hades 2 includes three new weapons for Melinoë to play with, including the Umbral Flames staff, Moonstone Axe and Argent Skull, a magick-imbued set of skulls that Melinoë can throw and retrieve similar to the bloodstone mechanic of the first game. Similarly, the Umbral Flames staff focuses on a ranged AoE style of attack that gives the player some range to chip away at enemies from a distance.

“The latest build of Hades 2 includes three new weapons for Melinoë to play with, including the Umbral Flames staff, Moonstone Axe, and Argent Skull.”

While the staff can be looked at as a death-by-a-thousand-cuts style of weapon, the Moonstone axe, conversely, is currently the slowest weapon in the game, which it makes up for with heavy hitting attacks that take out chunks of HP at a time, made even more deadly when imbued with magick, allowing Melinoë to wind up the blade and spin around ala Legend of Zelda.

I briefly touched upon the incantation system introduced in Hades 2 in my initial preview of the game, but it can’t be understated just how much Hades 2 has added to this mechanic. Hades 2 features a plethora of unlockable content that can be brewed by collecting items and tossing them into the witch’s pot that resides in the Crossroads hub area of the game. Unlockables include everything from new vendors moving into the hub area, weapon upgrades (aspects), relationship trackers that tally your current standing with the gods, and even the ability to venture out to the surface/ mortal realm.

Brand new to the game, Hades 2 now allows the player to not only delve deep into the underworld to take on Chronos but also go up to the surface to collect rare and unique ingredients used to brew powerful incantations and boons. Unlike the underworld, stepping out to the surface will almost immediatly cause Melinoë to start taking damage, quickly killing her and sending her back to the Crossroads. Although I haven’t explored everything the surface has to offer, the area seems to be in place more for the player to gather items as quickly as possible before inevitably being sent back to the hub area than trying to get to a particular end goal within Olympus.

Unlike the first game, Hades 2 places a much greater emphasis on item gathering, opening the game up for potential runs that are more about finding rare resources and valuables than simply trying to get to the end, ultimately adding to the already expansive wealth of content available.

Although still a ways away from being a complete package, namely in some narrative loose ends, missing weapon and gear slots, among other odds and ends, Hades 2 feels much closer to what fans can expect once the game becomes widely available and more people can get their hands on the highly anticipated sequel.