Hades: Subplots and Rare Events Guide

Narratively speaking, Hades is a sprawling game with many meandering storylines. Even if you’ve sunk countless hours into the game, have you actually seen all it has to offer? That’s what I was wondering, and thus I started this guide.

Warning: this guide contains massive spoilers.

These are subplots which will show up on the minor list of fated prophecies. For completeness, I’m listing them here, but you should chance upon all of these naturally.

The Reluctant Musician – Orpheus was imprisoned by your father for not singing; you end up freeing him via the house contractor.

Musician and Muse – Orpheus & Eurydice were separated by death; you can choose to reunite them again.

Night and Darkness – Over the ages, Nyx and her parent, Chaos, have grown distant. You upgrade a portal which allows them to see each other again.

Divided by death – In this story, you reunite Achilles with his lost love, Patroclus.

End to Torment – Sisyphus was a real bad dude while he lived and thus condemned to eternal torment. You can pardon him instead of forcing him to forever push a boulder.

Eternal Rest – Skelly asks you to end his life, permanently. (It turns out to be a joke; he comes back.)

A Place of Revelry – Nyx tasks Dusa with renovating the lounge; buy enough lounge upgrades from the house contractor to help Dusa out.

Amusing Chaos – Chaos asks Zagreus to confront Hades while using his keepsake, the cosmic egg. This amuses Chaos because the cosmic egg does not help you at all in the Temple of Styx.

Sea god’s spite – Poseidon asks you to defeat Theseus while using the Extreme Measures pact. Theseus’ upgrade is… ridiculous.

War-God’s Bloodlust – Ares asks you to kill a lot of enemies.

A Friendly Wager – Hermes asks you to defeat Charon two times in a row. You fight Charon by “borrowing” some money from him (only available when you visit his shop mid-stage, and only rarely shows up as an option).

The Gift of Song – Once you buy a lute, you need to learn how to play it. Orpheus can give you some pointers but ultimately it all comes down to practicing playing it over and over again (over 200 times in total).

The Useless Trinket – Earn Skelly’s first statue by meeting a certain heat requirement. Skelly will reveal a true work of art (and he’ll get mad at you if you try to break it).

The Queen’s Plan & Family Reunion – Become buddies with all the Olympian gods, then invite them to a feast at Hades’ house. These subplots lead to the epilogue of the story.

These are storylines which don’t affect the main story and don’t require anything too special besides talking to NPCs a lot to activate. However, it can take a long, long time to actually get to these subplots.

Hades Dating Sim – Throw enough nectar their way and you can attempt to romance Megaera, Thanatos, and Dusa. Dusa will reject your advances, but you can choose to get intimate with Megaera and Thanataos. You’re not limited to monogamy; you can romance them both and even get into a threesome with them.

Teaching Tisiphone – Once you’ve fought Tisiphone enough times, Zagreus will start teaching her how to say his name. It takes a few more interactions but she eventually gets the hang of it! (She never stops calling you a murderer, though.)

Theseus’s Lack of Faith – After you fight Theseus a bunch of times, Theseus will start panicking, thinking that you are trying to sever the heartwarming bond between him and Asterius. Theseus is eventually convinced by Asterius that their bond is unshakeable. (Note that after this storyline resolves, Theseus/Asterius` have a new combo attack, the Delta Strike!)

Skelly’s Identity – Inquire enough times and Skelly will spin some tall tales about being Schelemeus. After hearing that, you can ask Asterius about Schelemeus and learn that Schelemeus was, in fact, a real person. Confront Skelly about it and he’s rather ambiguous as to whether he’s actually Schelemeus or not.

Bouldy – Hang out with Sisyphus enough and you can eventually start having conversations with his rock, Bouldy. You can even start gifting Bouldy with nectar (gaining you a boon that ranges in benefits from miniscule to pointless).

Orpheus’ Hymn to Zagreus – At some point, you’ll start telling a bunch of tall tales to Orpheus. Dionysus even gets in on the game, suggesting some origin story to pass along to the musician. Once you’re done, Orpheus will compose the Hymn to Zagreus. (Note that all these “tall tales” are just different Zagreus mythos that aren’t present in the game.)

Hypnos Grows Up – When you start the game, Hypnos is pretty bad at his job. Dusa, Thanatos, Hades, and Nyx are all on his case to get better. Eventually, Thanatos will suggest Hypnos start making a todo list, and it cures all his work problems.

Dusa’s job – Nyx will fire Dusa at some point. Spend enough time trying to convince Nyx and Dusa will come back (though not before you have a chance to complain to everyone in the house that Dusa was fired, first). After she’s rehired, she can even go on to get a promotion from Nyx to Chief Custodian of the House of Hades.

These are rare events that only occur if you have a particularly uncommon set of circumstances that would be easy to miss.

Keepsakes and Companions – Most characters will talk about their keepsakes (or companions) if you have them equipped. For example, both Orpheus and Eurydice will talk about how the Distant Memory keepsake contains a memory of him with Eurydice.

Close to Death – Most characters during runs will have alternate comments if you are really low on health, noting how dire your situation is.

Hypnos on Obscure Deaths – Hypnos has dialog for every death in the game, even some very obscure cases such as dying very early in a run (less than a few rooms) or killing yourself with Exagryph (due to the Hazard Bomb hammer upgrade).

Mirror-less Megaera – After gaining sufficient mirror upgrades, Megaera complains that you’re only winning because of the mirror of night. Erase all your mirror upgrades then face her again. She’ll note that you are facing her on an even playing field.

Boon-less Hades – Hades has special dialog if you fight him without any Olympian boons. (This only counts Olympian boons, and is only really achievable if you sell your boons with abandon.)

Theseus + Ariadne – Theseus will grow increasingly upset each time you have the Yarn of Ariadne boon in your possession (aka NOT yet used) when you face him. He wants it to be very clear that he has no love for Ariadne.

Asterius’ Autograph – Each time you are defeated by Asterius (1v1 and with Theseus), Hypnos will bring up the topic of Asterius’ autograph. Do this enough times and you will ask Asterius (in his 1v1 fight) for his autograph. Hypnos is over the moon; Theseus gets mad that you don’t want his autograph.

Skelly’s Boss – Once you’ve reached max hearts with Skelly, and you’ve discussed Skelly with many people (Achilles, Dusa, Nyx, Thanatos, and Hermes), you can finally force Skelly to tell you who he works for (by threatening him with NON-violence). It turns out it’s Charon, for reasons unknown.

Achilles Hates Onions – After you unlock the full codex entry for raw onions (by losing Erebus gates enough times), you can talk to Achilles about why he hates them so much. (He doesn’t like that they make you cry.)

Eurydice’s Onion Lesson – If you fail an Erebus gate (thus eating a raw onion) before meeting Eurydice, she’ll smell the raw onion on you then inform you there are way better ways to eat onions than raw.

High Ranking Official – If you rank up to the highest rank (Unseen One), Hades will congratulate you. (Doing this takes a truly obscene amount of darkness so good luck.)

Did you know that all those cosmetics you can buy from the House Contractor aren’t just visual changes? Most of them net you some new dialog. Here are some of the more amusing or noteworthy upgrades.

Sundial, Imported – You can use the sundial but since you can’t see the sun in the underworld, it’s always 7:48.

Sculpture, Bloodless and Contraption, Intricate – You can poke these items for fun every time you pass by.

Bust, Old Man – This is actually a bust of the narrator. You can poke it to annoy him.

Sprucing Up NPC Areas – NPCs generally comment when you upgrade the area they hang out in. Achilles appreciates the mirror, Nyx loves the flowers, Hypnos notes how pointless his chair is, Cerberus is nonchalant about his new toys, Megaera talks about lounge changes, and Hades gets upset about his chair.

Painting, Skeletal – Activates a conversation with Skelly about going inside the house.

Portrait, Exalted Hero – Install a portrait of Theseus and you can taunt him about it next time you face him.