When I first played Hades 2, way back in the mists of time that enveloped its early access launch, my entire strategy revolved around Hephaestus. The forge god's explosive Blast effects helped me smash my way through Chronos and Eris in those early builds, but then something went wrong. When I finally returned to The Crossroads for my Hades 2 review, I couldn't leverage those same boons to get the effect I needed to take out the game's toughest bosses. It was time for a change in strategy.
In my pursuit of Hephaestus' burst damage, I'd ignored most of Hades 2's new arrivals. The game tries its hardest to prevent that from happening – the very first god you meet is newcomer Apollo, and in an attempt to make space for a bigger roster, characters like Artemis have been shifted towards random encounters rather than handing out boons. But between the clang of hammer against forge and the familiarity of the likes of Zeus, Poseidon, and Aphrodite, I hadn't invested much time into Hades 2's new gods and goddesses.
