Season 3 starts today for this cross-play fighter with its first new character and major update!
Today is a big day for Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid fans as a new ranger and a major update becomes available, kickstarting the game’s third season! Jungle Fury Wolf Ranger, Robert “RJ” James enters the battlefield as the first of three new characters. RJ plays close and personal, with a flurry of calculated strikes and blows.
For some background to the character, check out the character summary provided by its developer, nWay, below!
“Courageous as a wolf, Robert “RJ” James joins as the Jungle Fury Rangers’ mentor before revealing that he is the Jungle Fury Wolf Ranger. Originally trained under his father, Master Finn, RJ rejected the Shark Style and instead adopted the wolf spirit for combat. When he is not fighting alongside the Rangers, he runs the Jungle Karma Pizza parlor that also acts as their headquarters.
RJ, as the Jungle Fury Wolf Ranger, embodies the Wolf Animal Spirit. His fighting style derives primarily from the traditional Muay Thai style, clearly expressed through his barrage of elbow-and-knees-based attacks. As a momentum-based melee fighter, RJ overwhelms his foes with an oppressive litany of strikes, inevitably breaking their defenses.”
Another cool piece of content that has been made available to season pass holders is the Phantom Beast King skin for Dai Shi. This character was a part of the game’s second season. With every form change in Power Rangers, comes new lore!
“When Jellica freed the Phantom Beast Generals, they turned on her before using their powers to make Dai Shi the Phantom Beast King. With the Phantom Beast Generals and his new power, Dai Shi was able to defeat the Rangers time after time until finally, Jarrod was able to break through Dai Shi’s control and weaken him enough that the protectors were able to destroy the evil spirit once and for all.”
Last and certainly not least for today’s new content is the brand new Samurai Megazord and the Megazord mechanic revamp! Megazords no longer require a downed character to summon, instead, there is a new Megazord Revenge Meter that makes the comeback mechanic possible.
Want to see RJ in action? Watch his gameplay trailer below!
But wait…there’s more! nWay releases version 2.3 patch notes!
nWay also released the patch notes to go along with today’s update! Not only are there the usual character balances, but there are tons of major system changes with a big focus on the Megazord mechanic.
You can check out the in-depth version 2.3 patch notes below!
Bug Fixes
- [Online] Blocking high attacks no longer forces a standing block state.
- Fixed an issue causing inconsistent combo rules when combo-ing a leader swapping out. I.e., “Happy Birthday” combos should work consistently across the board, regardless of enemy assist takeover events.
Megazord Rework
Megazord Gauge
- A new Megazord (MZ) gauge has been added, deprecating the old Megazord Ultra activatable condition.
- MZ meter is accrued through receiving damage. Amount gained is based on a percentage of your team’s total health pool.
- Successful Swap Strikes reduce one bar of enemy MZ meter, with two exceptions: if the Swap Strike KO’s an enemy character or if the enemy has only one character remaining, enemy MZ meter is unaffected. Essentially, you have to successfully swap out their leader in order to reduce their MZ gauge.
- This adds counterplay to excess MZ meter gain (e.g., from damaging enemy assists), in addition to an extra layer of resource management.
- A common scenario is choosing to let up on a guaranteed kill combo with a Swap Strike. While you give the opponent a chance to recover, you reduce their comeback potential through depleting their MZ gauge.
Megazord Ultra
- MZ Ultra activation condition changed to simply having at least two bars of MZ meter.
- MZ Ultra depletes your entire MZ meter, with its duration scaling accordingly. I.e., activating with a full meter grants twice the duration of that of activating with two bars.
- With the new MZ meter system, it’s possible to activate MZ Ultra more than once per match.
Megazord Counter (New)
- Megazords can now be summoned as a counter attack, as a secondary option with the new MZ meter.
- To perform, hit Forward + Assist 1 + Assist 2 during block stun (similar to Pushblock timing), with at least one bar of MZ meter
- MZ Counter attacks cause a non-comboable wall bounce that deals damage, but cannot KO. MZ Counter attacks are unavailable while your own MZ Ultra is active. However, they are available during the opponent’s MZ Ultra.
Megazord Rebalancing
- MZ attacks during MZ Ultra have been improved, raising the power levels across the board. Dino Megazord, Dragonzord, and SPD Megazord should feel as effective as Mega Goldar in terms of utility and comboability.
- Dino Megazord
- Clearout – functionality reworked to pull enemies in, instead of drag enemies away.
- Ultra Power Sword – adjusted juggle hit reactions to improve utility and comboability.
- Mega Goldar
- Goldia Fist – Slight increase in recovery time.
- Dragonzord
- Tail Drill – Decreased startup and recovery time, improved comboability.
- Imbalancer – Decreased startup time, increased follow-up damage proration.
- Tail Slam – Decreased startup and recovery time.
- SPD Megazord
- Delta Arrest – against grounded enemies, inflicts stagger hit reaction on a successful hit. Against airborne enemies, inflicts a spinning knockdown. Improves comboability and utility.
- Delta Sword Taser – decreased overall damage and increased recovery time.
Universal Adjustments
- When blocked, EX Attacks are no longer cancelable with MZ Ultra.
- MZ Ultra activation now has some amount of startup and vulnerability. I.e., activating MZ Ultra is no longer a get-out-of-jail free card and its advantage on cancel is slightly reduced.
- Character health adjustments. These are aimed to improve match pacing in conjunction with the Megazord meter rework.
- Tommy Oliver 1050 > 1000
- Jason Lee Scott 1050 > 1000
- Gia Moran 1050 > 1000
- Ranger Slayer 1000
- Kat Manx 1050 > 1000
- Magna Defender 1250 > 1100
- Lord Drakkon 1050 > 1000
- Goldar 1150 > 1100
- Mastodon Sentry 1100 > 1000
- Cenozoic Blue Ranger 1050
- Udonna 1050
- Dragon Armor Trini 1250 > 1100
- Trey of Triforia 1000
- Jen Scotts 1000
- Lord Zedd 1100
- Shadow Ranger 1100 > 1000
- Quantum Ranger 1050 > 950
- Dai Shi 1050 > 1100
Characters
Lord Drakkon
- Drakkon Dash – now projectile invincible for the first 39 frames.
- Drakkon Dash ~ Wrath – now projectile invincible for the first 6 frames.
- Drakkon Dash ~ Teleport – can now be performed much earlier. Additionally, Drakkon can opt to teleport behind or in front of the enemy leader. Input forward OR back + Special to perform a crossup teleport, input Special for a non-crossup teleport.
- EX attack stuns victims in place, making the follow-up sequence much more consistent in most cases.
- Kara throw range and momentum slightly reduced.
Kat Manx
- Reduced inflation of juggle limiter penalties across most normal attacks.
- Increased crouching medium recovery by 6 frames.
Mastodon Sentry
- Reduced juggle limiter inflation penalties across most normal attacks.
- Increased forward dash and back dash startup by 2 frames.
- Crouching heavy projectile speed and damage increased.
- Crouching heavy startup decreased, making crouching medium into crouching heavy much more reliable at long range.
- Land Mine recovery reduced by 3 frames.
- Standing light 3 can now be canceled into Special attacks, normalizing its cancel rules with standing medium 2 and standing heavy 3.
Cenozoic Blue Ranger
- Reduced juggle limit inflation penalties across most normal attacks.
- Cenobolt damage reduced, but can now be used as an instant OTG attack.
- Normal attacks now properly advance Cenozoic Blue Ranger forward, making combos more consistent.
- Forward throw: increased follow-up damage proration to balance new combo routes with OTG Cenobolt.
- Kara throw range and momentum slightly reduced.
Dragon Armor Trini
- Mega Beam (leader) advantage on hit reduced significantly. Hitbox height reduced, slightly. Juggle properties are now more consistent.
- Mega Beam assist startup increased significantly, making it less obnoxious in the neutral game.
- Mega Beam assist: fixed an issue with DAT “auto-correcting” her facing direction during an assist takeover
- Dragon Pound minimum height restriction removed.
- Dragon Pound: initial 20 frames are now projectile invincible.
- Dragon Pound now inherits DAT’s jumping momentum, allowing for forward and retreating mobility, depending on the jump it’s canceled from.
- Dragon Pound now inflicts a reverse launch state, improving its utility and comboability.
- Fixed physics box issues with crouching heavy and Mega Beam, making it less likely for DAT to unintentionally cross under juggled foes.
- Fixed an issue with DAT’s Mega Beam projectile lingering when canceling with MZ Ultra and Super.
Goldar
- Fixed an edge case issue with Giant Leap causing an erroneous throw receive reaction.
Lord Zedd
- Fixed an issue with standing medium 2 receiver reaction failing to trigger in certain edge cases.
Anubis Cruger
- Crouching light now properly moves Anubis’s position forward, allowing for much more effective “kara throws”.
- EX attack stuns victims in place, making the follow-up sequence much more consistent in most cases.
Eric Myers
- Fixed an issue that caused Eric’s Quantum Power back throw hitbox to land on the enemy leader, regardless of distance.
- Forward throw now applies proper follow-up damage proration.
- Airblade startup frame increased to 10, up from 5. Anti-air invincibility startup increased to frame 7, up from frame 1.
- Crouching light: reduced hit stun.
Dai Shi
- Ultimate Dai Shi: can now be canceled by holding or pressing S during its animation.
You can unlock RJ as a part of the third season pass for $14.99 which includes two additional characters, Lauren Shiba, the Super Samurai Red Ranger, a to-be-revealed new character, and a special Phantom Beast King skin for last season’s Dai Shi. All characters can also be purchased separately for $5.99.
Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, and Google Stadia.