By Sophie Huiberts. Last updated January 20th 2025. This work is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
New game new chances, and what a game it is! Hades 2 brings fresh challenges to the fresh file category, and in this guide I hope to set you on your path to a first run clear. Since the game is still in early access, this guide will include no spoilers for anything past first run.
You might know me from my Hades 1 first run guide, or from the times when I held first place on the Hades 2 Fresh File leaderboards. This guide for Hades 2 will be similar to the first one. I will describe the leading build strategy for top-level times.
Besides this guide, it can be helpful to watch some game footage of other people clearing first run. I suggest looking at the leaderboard on speedrun dot com, since we have no reference run with all safe strats.
If you want to chat about strategies or want feedback on how to improve your play then I suggest joining the speedrunning discord server. If you have feedback on this guide, you can find me there in the #h2-fresh-file channel.
February 19th 2025: NEW PATCH. The meta is anyone’s guess at this pooint.
January 20th 2025: Major update for present day mechanics and meta.
July 25th: List of Cerberus attacks plus their damage amounts
July 24th: Minor updates for Patch 4
June 27th: Added general note about this guide’s status for Patch 3.
June 26th: Added the important message to turn off auto aim.
June 9th: Eris thresholds and boss attack damage. Sunny disposition savestate.
June 8th: replaced Chronos savestates. one has PS, one has steam.
June 7th: added fields miniboss savestates, expanded introduction.
June 6th 2024: initial version.
The below info was all written for Olympic patch and earlier. In the Warsong patch from February 19th, Poseidon’s Breaker Sprint got nerfed significantly. This boon was a central part of the meta ever since the first Early Access release, and we have yet to figure out what the new fastest and/or safest strategies are. At the time of writing, we do not even know what Apollo boon should be picked in location 2. It might be a while until a new meta establishes itself. Watch the changelog above to see when this guide gets updated.