Supergiant Games
How To Romance All Characters in Hades 2: Book of Shadows, Nectar gifts, Bath Salts and more
Following in the footsteps of its predecessor, Hades 2 is full of ridiculously attractive and charming characters, and some of them seem to point to romance.
Hades 2, like its predecessor, takes inspiration from Greek Mythology by presenting a large cast of characters inspired in legends, monsters, gods and other mythical creatures. And as you yourself play as Melinoë, princess of the Underworld herself, all of these could be considered your equals. This is the perfect foundation for her to venture into romantic relationships with many of the characters, and while there is still nothing overtly romantic in the game on account of its Early Access status, everything seems to be pointing towards that direction.
And while nothing you do will directly lead you to romantic scenes with any of the characters right now, a relationship system is already in place, with many ways to improve your standing with the cast of the game.
How to romance in Hades 2
In Hades 2, you can still give Nectar to certain NPCs you meet in order to raise your relationship status with them, just as in the first game. However, now there are a variety of other gifts that can lead to special scenes and conversations with the characters, which can be bought from a specific merchant but that have to be unlocked as you progress through the game.
So far, there are three additional gifts, each of which acts as an invitation to different romantic escapades, and as such they’ll only work with certain characters:
- Bath Salts: gifting it results in a trip to the hot springs with the receiver. Unlocked by brewing the Rite of Vapor Cleansing Incantation (requires 2x Moly, 2x Lotus, 2x Nightshade)
- Ambrosia: gifting it results in a date at the Tavern. Unlocked by brewing the Rite of Social Solidarity Incantation (requires 2x Nectar, 2x Garlic)
- Twin Lures: gifting it results in a fishing trip at the pier. Unlocked by brewing the Rite of River Fording Incantation (requires 4x Driftwood and 2x Cattail)
You can track your relationships with every character through your Book of Shadows, which can be further upgraded to show relationship meters and more information through brewing the Empath’s Intuition Incantation learned from Hecate. This will cost you 1x Fate Fabric and 3 Myrtle, but results in the Book of Shadows revealing what you need to gain another heart in the relationship meter.
At the moment of writing, it is impossible to max-out any relationship, as when you’re one heart away from doing so the book will tell you that said character “Wants nothing more from you for now (perhaps in the future…)”, alluding at romances coming later down the line as the game is updated with more content.
Who are the romanceable characters in Hades 2?
As there is no explicit romance in the game so far (other than some extremely heavy flirting by basically everyone in the game), there is no way to define who is a romanceable character or not. However, judging by how there are only 6 characters right now who will accompany Melinoë to the experiences listed above, we can guess that the current list of candidates stands as follows:
- Hecate
- Dora
- Nemesis
- Moros
- Odysseus
- Eris
All of these characters can be found in the Crossroads area alongside the rest of the NPCs, but some of them may not appear until encountered through progressing the game. They also have a chance to not be present at any time in the Crossroads, so if that happens and you want to speak to them specifically, you’ll have to play a run down into Hades before they appear again.