The main new thing in Hades 2 is that you have two choices of where to go when starting a run: down into the underworld, or up to Olympus. For the latter, you’ll be blocked from the start, and will need to remove wards to go upstairs in Hades 2. Here’s how to do just that.
How to Unlock Stairs Up to Olympus in Hades 2
To remove the wards and unlock the stairs up to Olympus, you’ll need to purchase the Permeation of Witching Wards Incantation from the pot in The Crossroads.
Mostly, the Incantation is easy to unlock, but you’ll need Shadows to do so, which is the tricky part. We’ll go over below what you need to do to get them.
Once you’ve unlocked that Incantation, you can head to the stairs and press RB to unlock them and head up. You may not want to initially, though, but we’ll get to that.
How to Get Shadows
To get the Shadows needed for the Permeation of Witching Wards Incantation, you need the following:
- 30x Ash
- 30x Psyche
- 3x F-Fabric
You can then move to the second tab at the Pot to craft a Shadow. It’s something you’ll want to do regularly as they’re used in a lot of more complex and important Incantations. Most of the materials required are easy to get, but you can always use Bones to buy them from the Wretched Broker if you’re running low.
How to Survive in Olympus
Once you’ve unlocked the stairs up to Olympus and gone up, you’ll soon realize that you can’t survive up there very long, as you take damage over time. However, there is another Incantation you can unlock to stop taking damage in Olympus.
That is the Unravelling a Fateful Bond Incantation, which costs the following:
- 2x Lotus
- 2x Moss
- 2x N-Shade
- 2x Thalamus
A lot of these materials are late-game materials, so you will have to wait a while until you can get them and unlock the Incantation. For example, Thalamus is a material you’ll find in the final main area of the underworld. We suggest waiting until beating or getting close to beating a run in the underworld before attempting a run through Olympus.
That’s all there is to know about clearing Wards and unlocking the stairs up to Olympus in Hades 2. For more guides on the game, check out how to unlock the fishing rod, and how to get Bronze.
