Hades 2 Competitive Speedrunning (Beta)

Race your friends through Hades II. Two to five players vote on a route, a weapon and a keepsake, then start the same seeded run at the same moment: the same rooms, foes, rewards, gods, boon offers and shop stock for everyone, as far as each build allows. First to clear wins.

Beta: it runs real races, but expect rough edges. Please report bugs on GitHub.

Features

• Find Match pairs you with another racer; a private race (a 4-character code) holds up to five. Add Bot puts the server's bot in a private race to practice on your own.
• Votes on the route (Underworld, Surface or Dream Dive), the weapon and the keepsake, then two minutes in the Crossroads to set your Arcana, aspect and familiar.
• Same seed, same run: every room has the same layout and enemies whatever doors and boons you pick; choices only change what you take.
• See your rivals: a translucent shadow Melinoë for each rival in your room, and a rival plate with their region, depth, HP and how far ahead or behind they are.
• One race clock that never pauses, with region splits and your best split for the region you're in.
• Personal bests per route, kept by the race server with your Steam or Epic account and shown on the route vote for everyone in the race.
• Results comparing the runs: time, depth, damage, foes slain, boons.
• Quick chat only (GG, Good luck!, ...): no free text, so nobody can send you anything else.
• Controller first: everything is native Hades UI; no keyboard needed.

Install

1. In r2modman or Gale, pick Hades II and install Hades 2 Competitive Speedrunning (it brings Hell2Modding and ModUtil with it).
2. Steam Deck / Linux only: in Steam, set the Hades II launch options (Library → right-click Hades II → Properties → Launch Options) to WINEDLLOVERRIDES="d3d12=n,b" %command%. Proton otherwise loads its own d3d12.dll and the mod loader never starts. Windows needs nothing here.
3. Launch through the mod manager (Start modded) and pick Play Competitive Speedrun (Beta) on the title screen. The Race Board is at the Pitch-Black Stone in the Crossroads.

Every racer needs Hades 2 Competitive Speedrunning, on the same Hades II version. Update in your mod manager when a new version is out; the Race Board says when one is.

Good to know

• Spoilers: competitive mode uses a fully completed save profile, kept in memory only: every weapon, aspect, keepsake, familiar and Arcana card at full rank. Expect late-game story and dialogue. Your own save is never loaded or written, and it earns no achievements.
• Rules: first to clear wins. Dying, Forfeit Race (pause menu) or disconnecting is a DNF: the others still have to clear to win, and if nobody clears it's a draw.
• Your name in races is your Steam (or Epic) name.
• Normal play still works with the mod installed.

About

Open source: github.com/schmidtwmark/hades2-competitive-speedrunning, where you can also report problems. AI disclosure: this mod was developed with Claude (Anthropic). Hades II and its assets belong to Supergiant Games.

Future Plans

H2CS is a beta project, released now to gauge interest. If people like this, I have lots of ideas for further improvements:

• Host / Browse architecture where host sets rules
• ELO system for persistent ranking / matchmaking
• Server-side verification for detecting cheating
• Spectate mode after you finish your run
• Fear selection
• Saved runs / racing against Ghosts
• Chat messages for boon selections
• Steam friend invites
• Option to enable respawning on death