schneefink

I'm still having so much fun with Hades. Usually I've been playing about a run each evening, and by now I have 68 clears (fastest: 19:09 with Varatha; highest heat: 12 with Aegis.) Today I finally managed to get 34% bonus damage with the Pierced Butterfly!, thanks to Chiron + Deadly Flourish. After 177 escape attempts I'm still getting new dialogue too, I'm impressed. I have bonds with all characters now except for Hypnos (I found him annoying at first so I only started giving him more nectar recently), Skelly (…I really hated that prank), and Sisyphus (I took The Long Con too seriously…)

I also fought and defeated Charon twice! I love the details of his Erebus lair.
I usually have Extreme Measures 3 enabled now, but haven't dared to try EM 4 yet… soon, probably.

Some of my favorite recent storylines:
- Nyx firing Dusa. I did not see that coming! I was very relieved when Nyx hired her again after Zagreus talked with her, even though she scolded Zagreus for advocating for Dusa, while Meg was mad at Zagreus because she blamed him and Thanatos told Zagreus not to question Nyx. But it all worked out in the end, and by now Dusa has been promoted to Chief Custodian.

- Theseus and Asterius' marriage crisis. That was simultaneously kind of touching and kind of hilarious. Theseus is so insecure *facepalm* And of course Zagreus enjoyed poking him by questioning what Asterius could possibly see in Theseus etc. But that, too, worked out in the end, with Asterius reassuring Theseus that the short one could not possibly come between them in any way, and the only one who could destroy their bond was Theseus himself.

- Ares having taken an interest in Nyx and the two of them striking up a correspondence, and Zagreus not knowing how to feel about that ^^ At first I interpreted his interest as romantic, and then Athena mentioned that she and Ares often disagree but apparently share a fondness for Night Herself, and with Athena mentioning earlier that she wished Nyx was her mother as well, now I think Ares looking for a mother figure too (maybe without even realizing at first) could be very good too.

- Speaking of shared fondness, Persephone saying that she used to have a crush on Thanatos was just slightly awkward ^^

Next goal: getting to 16 heat, with a few more weapon upgrades in the meantime. And catching a few more of the legendary fish! I only managed three times, and it was the Stonewhal each time, I need to get better at fishing. I don't know how much I'll be playing this week since I'm also planning to try out some other games during my vacation week, we'll see.
I also really should make a fanworks rec list :)