In an act that seemingly defies the will of the gamer gods themselves, a speedrunner has pulled off one of the most technically difficult and statistically improbable runs in history. Hades. The run – which was a 64 Heat run on an unmodified and unseeded version of the game – was previously declared “impossible” by some in the community, because the odds of rolling the right combination of powers are so low and the technical skill required is so high. Or at least, so it seemed.
In Hades, you play as Zagreus, the son of the god of the underworld. As Zagreus, you’ll slash and slash your way through a series of dungeon rooms to escape your father and hell itself. Over the course of the game, players can tinker with the difficulty by choosing different battle modifiers; someone who is less familiar with an action combat game can gain experience Hades tailored to their abilities and preferences in various ways. On the other hand, the developers have also given players the option to crank up the difficulty to near-impossible levels.
One way to do this is through the Heat level, which imposes certain Pacts of Punishment on Zagreus that increase the difficulty of the game. The maximum Heat level is 64, and changing the difficulty to this level essentially brings tons of extra challenges and nerfs for Zagreus. Some examples of added challenges are no healing, enemies that hit 100% harder, and enemies that move and attack 40% faster. Plus, Zagreus doesn’t get any revives, so any damage you take is essentially permanent.
Hades is a rogue game, so every time Zagreus dies, he has to start his escape all over again at the beginning – meaning players repeat the same set of dungeons over and over, collecting power-ups and learning more each time. Much of what keeps the gameplay varied and interesting is that each runthrough offers different modifiers and builds; Zagreus receives several power-ups, called Boons, from other gods and allies sympathetic to his escape attempts. This variation is what makes playing the same dungeons over and over again so much fun, but it’s also what makes the Heat 64 so difficult.
As YouTuber Haelian explained in a video essay, certain pacts impose restrictions that essentially require Zagreus to be rewarded with specific Boons to succeed. The Tight Deadline condition puts a time limit on each room, so you’ll need specific power-ups that help deal enough damage to complete each challenge in the allotted time.
With a condition called Approval Process enabled, you cannot choose which power-up Zagreus gets from a short list. That means you have to be lucky enough to throw the right power-ups to complete the challenge. According to Haelian’s estimates, a player has about a 0.41% chance of receiving the first two base powers needed to complete the run. If we take into account the chance that we also get another source of damage that is very useful but maybe not necessary, the chance is 1 in 1,700.
Image: Supergiant Games via Polygon
Then, on Wednesday, a Hades speed runner named Jade shared a video completing the run completely. Not only did she roll the perfect attacks to complete the run, but she was also gifted with a passable fight against final boss Hades. And she accomplished it on the first day, within hours of trying to run.
“I didn’t really believe it when it happened,” Jade told Polygon via Discord. She has been doing very hard runs of Hades for two and a half years and has about 3,000 total hours in the game. Still, she didn’t even expect to complete this challenge. Prior to this, she completed a custom run that guarantees the right favors and attempted this run to get a feel for the challenge.
“Even at the very end, Hades can spawn several mini-bosses, essentially as extra enemies to help him in the first stage. If you bypass every single RNG factor other than that, you still lose the run. At the very end. That can be heartbreaking, which has not happened to me. I essentially got a middle outcome, which was good enough.
The performance is extremely impressive. Not only because of the engineering marvel of combat on display, but also because of the combination of sheer luck and determination to make the build work. In my years of reporting on games I’ve talked to dedicated players who have spent years working on games hoping to find a super rare Pokémon or people searching games for the right bugs but getting this done is like a mix of all kinds of luck and skill.
And while this is an achievement that represents the immense achievement of a single person, Jade emphasized the importance of the greater Hades speedrunning community means to her.
“I also really want the Hades speedrun community for all the love and support over the past two and a half years. Their knowledge, their motivation, like anything you can think of, really just came from them. (…) There are no more emotions to describe what I feel. I’m just so happy to have had the honor of participating in both this community and the history of this game.