Author: Lance "Tarnot" Hood

System Changes

• Overdrive meter gain has been increased by 10%.
• Kinetic Advance meter gain has been reduced by 20%.
• Starting a combo with an instantly invincible or armored attack now applies 50% damage/dizzy/meter reduction to the rest of the combo.
• Instantly invincible and armored attacks now generate much less meter.

Dev Notes: The ability to make invincible reversals safe using Kinetic Advance is an extremely powerful tactic, which can feel fair if properly costed. However, Kinetic Advance meter wasn’t precious enough at the previous build rate. Also, the utility of kinetic-canceled invincible and armored attacks is simply too high for them to function as full-damage combo starters. Therefore, the damage output of combos starting from instantly invincible and armored attacks has been greatly reduced. We’ll continue to refine these systems as necessary.

• Juggle combo reduction now drops as low as 15%, rather than stopping at the 20% minimum.
• The following attacks have been marked as power hits, increasing their minimum damage reduction to 33.33% and ignoring the juggle damage penalty, similar to Overdrives:
  • Dauntless’ Dust Breaker, charged Piston Tremor, Revolving Hook, and Vandal Hook
  • Chel’s Crush Breeze ender and Soaring Wind
  • Crow’s charged Devil’s Halo and Soul Cleaver
  • Edge’s Judgment ender, Reckless Lightning ender, and Relentless Tempest
  • Talos’ Titan Smash and Titan Wreck
  • Vlad’s Revolutionary Rocket and charged Cosmonaut Liftoff.

Dev Notes: Several of our variant designs are based on the tradeoff of increased damage at the expense of reduced utility. However, Rising Thunder’s steep damage reduction curve makes it difficult for high-damage attacks to stand out during even slightly long combos. Introducing power hits gives us a way to highlight the damage potential of these attacks, without increasing their base damage.

• Kinetic Deflect meter gain is now tied to lifebar percentage loss, rather than hit point loss.
• Pre-match UI timing is more consistently timed, especially in rollback situations.

Crow

• Riposte forward dash is now invulnerable during the first 6 frames.
• Riposte backdash invincibility has been increased from 8 frames to 12 frames.

Dev Notes: While Crow players have been finding lots of uses for the neutral jump version of Riposte, the forward dash and backdash versions still haven’t seen much play. Adding a little invincibility to Riposte forward dash should open up some new avenues for innovative tricks, and extending Riposte backdash invincibility should get Crow out of some nasty situations.

• Backdash invincibility has been increased from 8 frames to 10 frames.

Dev Notes: Crow’s normal backdash invincibility has been increased slightly, since he struggles on defense without an instantly invincible attack. This should make it a little easier for Crow players to evade pressure and bait other characters’ invincible reversals.

• Charged Devil’s Halo discs no longer hit crouching opponents during their first 6 active frames.

Dev Notes: Crow players found a particularly nasty corner trap involving Crow’s c.H canceled into charged Devil’s Halo. It was especially effective against characters without invincible reversal attacks, such as Talos and Crow himself. This change preserves the intended usage of Crow’s c.H -> S1, while eliminating that loop.

• Aerial Core Slicer now has three different forward impulses, one for each jump type: forward, neutral, and back.
• Aerial Core Slicer forward reach has been reduced slightly.

Dev Notes: The forward jump version still travels far enough to retain all of Crow’s old Devil’s Halo kinetic-cancel combos. The neutral jump version stays in front of opponents more consistently at close range, so it whiffs over opponents less often. The backward jump version still travels forward, but not quite as far, because it simply covered too many options before.

Edge

• New S3 variant! Merciful Gust is an advancing strike which deals good damage and knocks opponents away, clearing some breathing room for Edge.

Dev Notes: Merciful Gust synergizes well with Tranquil Thunder, creating separation after basic combos without putting S2 on cooldown. S3v2 also synergizes with Kinetic Deflect, since it cancels directly into Overdrive without requiring a dash-cancel.

• S3v1 slide recovery has been increased by 2 frames, S3v1 overhead recovery has been increased by 1 frame, and S3v1 wallbounce recovery has been increased by 1 frame.

Dev Notes: S3v1 simply didn’t have enough drawbacks to compensate for having a built-in high/low mixup that led to significant damage. Making S3v1 slide unsafe adds more compelling risk management to the equation, and Edge still has ways to make it safe. Also, the new S3v2 is (just barely) safe on block and leaves Edge close to opponents, so he can still play the same pressure guessing game using S2 if he wants – just without the high/low mixup. These changes may finally cause Edge to surrender his title as the strongest character in the game, but we don’t expect him to drop very far – and he’ll be more interesting to play as and against!

• F+M recovery has been increased by 1 frame.

Dev Notes: Increasing Relentless Cyclone recovery necessitated this change, to retain distinct risk/reward roles for both overheads. Otherwise, F+M would be strictly better than S3v1 overhead. Anyway this move is so useful that it would remain strong even with 5 additional recovery frames.

• Standardized c.H dizzy to 150 (previously 125).

Talos

• Close s.H damage and dizzy have been increased, and pushback has been reduced slightly.

Dev Notes: Since F+H range was reduced in a previous patch, it began whiffing after close s.H -> close s.H from certain distances. This change restores Clap-Clap-Boot consistency, and gives Talos a few extra pressure options. The other upgrades are meant to improve his damage output, specifically from combos involving close s.H – because finding an opening to land such a slow attack typically requires skillful play, which should be rewarded.

• F+H damage has been increased slightly, and active area has been extended downward to reach low profile attacks such as Edge’s S3v1 slide consistently.
• Backdash invincibility has been increased from 8 frames to 10 frames.

Dev Notes: Talos’ backdash is meant to support his close-range throw mixups, by evading invincible reversals and staying close enough to capitalize with full combos. This change should make it slightly easier to execute that gameplan, without going too far overboard and making it the dominant option.

Vlad

• Revolutionary Rocket dizzy amount has been increased from 100 to 125.

GGPO Performance

• Ping calculation is a more accurate representation of actual ping during a match.
• Improved correction when the rift between two clients is high.

Bug Fixes

• Dauntless’ charged Piston Tremor now applies block stun properly.
• Spectating should no longer be desynced when joining a match that is past the first game.
• Spectating dialogs have been updated to reflect the current state of the game, and where it will send you.
• Loading screen now provides a bit more information after loads are complete.

Crash Fixes

• Received an update from Unreal to potentially fix XAudio crash that happens occasionally during gameplay.
• Dev Notes: We’ve been unable to consistently reproduce this crash, so we can’t verify that it’s fixed. We’ll be monitoring crash reports and player feedback to see if it resurfaces.
• Fixed crash that would occasionally happen when doing a ping test with potential opponents.
• Fixed crash in the UI when the escape menu was slow to come up and was brought up again.

Visual Improvements

• Corrected Crow’s disc rotation in several animations.
• Slight recovery pose improvements for Crow’s Devil’s Halo.

General:

• One additional Halloween themed color palette available for each Rival.
• You can no longer immediately air dodge when exiting a hitstun state to halt your momentum. Your character must return to a slow air speed before you can air dodge again.
• Players can perform a neutral jump out of dash by quickly hitting the opposite direction during the jump squat frames.
• Threshold for Down Hard Lowered slightly. It should be a bit easier to get Fast Falling and Dropping through platforms to trigger.

Zetterburn:

We are not changing much about Zetterburn. His Neutral Special was a little too disjointed considering it is meant to be a combo extender or close range punish. It is not meant to stuff approaches like it can currently.

• Zetterburn’s Uncharged Neutral Special Hitbox size reduced from 85 diameter to 75 diameter.
• Bug Fix: Fixed a Bug where Zetterburn’s Up Special would sometimes block projectiles during the startup when it was never meant to.
• Reflecting a Zetterburn’s projectile no longer changes the flame color to default.

Kragg:

Now that Kragg is a big pumpkin, he is definitely more lovable, but we still have some issues with his Pillar. We are making the pillar a bit more punishable by melee attacks while simultaneously making it less punishable by projectiles. This should weaken its on-stage presence slightly.

• Destroying a Pillar while Kragg is still in Up Special animation will cause Kragg to enter fall state now.
• Kragg’s Pillar can no longer be destroyed by projectiles while Kragg is still in his Up Special Animation.
• Bug Fix: Kragg’s Pillar will no longer go down or be destroyed when a player pivots away from a wall on the left side of them.
• Bug Fix: Kragg’s Rock should no longer loop between destroyed and falling which would cause infinite damage on a spinning Kragg.
• Bug Fix: Kragg can no longer Jump out of Maypul’s wrapped state when he is caught while using his Defense Ball.
• Bug Fix: Fixed a bug where two rocks descending on a pillar caused the higher rock to become a hitbox over and over.

Forsburn:

Our spooky friend Forsburn has a few changes in store. His gameplay was becoming too reliant on his Down Special and getting early KOs with it. We have stripped back some base knockback on the Down Special and gave him some reliability on his Forward and Up Strongs to level him out. We also looked at some degenerate strategies including Smoke Stalling and Clone Camping and put in some fixes to limit his camping potential.

• Reliable Capes: The Cape hits of Forsburn’s Up Strong and Forward Strong can no longer be teched and the base hitstun has been increased so opponents cannot air dodge out.
• Forsburn’s Up Strong Second Hit: Base Knockback decreased from 8 – 6. Knockback Scaling decreased from 1.1 to 1.0.
• Forsburn’s Forward Strong Second Hit: Base Knockback decreased from 8 – 7. Knockback Scaling decreased from 1.1 to 1.0.
• Forsburn Up Strong and Forward Strong: Startup increased from 12 -> 14. Recovery (End Lag) on Knife attack increased from 28 -> 32.
• Forsburn’s Down Special: Base Knockback decreased from 7 -> 4. Knockback Scaling increased from .75 -> .85.
• Forsburn Cape hitstun no longer scales with Strong Charge. This was causing issues with Cape getting opponents locked into hitstun after bouncing off a wall.
• Smoke Stalling: Forsburn can no longer Smoke Stall indefinitely. He can now teleport into two clouds before touching the ground. When attempting to teleport into the third, it will be destroyed as Forsburn reappears.
• Clone Max: The clone can now perform 10 attacks before it bursts on its own.
• Clone Deception: Getting a third smoke charge will burst your clone as you are giving up deception for your powerful combustion technique.
• Teleport Control: Forsburn teleport now takes your input when you disappear instead of right before you re-appear.

Orcane:

Orcane is a spooky ghost now. Best character in the game no doubt.

• Orcane’s Up Strong Hitbox Active time increased from 5 to 8 frames.

Wrastor:

Wrastor changes are to get his aerials a little more in line with the rest of the roster. This one percent increase won’t change his style as it does not affect knockback but it will allow him to get to kill percents slightly faster which should help in some of his harder matchups.

• Wrastor’s Forward Air: Damage increased from 5, 4 sour to 6, 5 sour.
• Wrastor’s Back Air: Damage increased from 4 to 5.
• Wrastor’s Neutral Air: Damage increased from 4 to 5.
• Wrastor’s Up Air: Damage increased from 6, 6 sour to 7, 6 sour.
• Down Special Visual Update.

Maypul:

The defender of the forest has some upgrades coming her way. Her parry is now the same as the rest of the roster and her Neutral Air can now help her get out of some aerial combos. We also looked at some degenerate strategies on Maypul including Plant Camping and Up Special > Down Special Spam. Both of these strategies are not enjoyable to go up against and can slow the pace of the match down at multiple skill levels. We want to keep Maypul fast and fun without having her rely on camping to win close sets.

• Plant Camping: Maypul’s Fat Plant now goes away after 15 seconds. You can not extend this time by feeding or taunting.
• Maypul Fat Plant only takes 3 seeds to be fully fed now.
• Maypul Down Special (Plant) Recovery reduced from 16 – 14 frames.
• Maypul’s Strong Wrap base time increased from 24 frames to 30 frames.
• Maypul’s Back Air Damage increased from 4,6 to 5,6.
• Maypul’s Neutral Air Startup Decreased from 8 frames to 6 frames.
• Maypul’s Parry active increased from 6 to 8 frames. Now all Rivals with the exception of Forsburn have the same Parry data.
• Maypul’s Sling Shot Recovery (5 Frames long) can only be cancelled when Maypul is in the air. You must wait 5 frames before doing a ground attack now.
• Maypul’s Aerial Down Special Startup increased from 10 – 13 Frames.
• Maypul’s Up Tilt hitboxes adjusted to match the visuals.
• Opponent Invincibility at the start of a Wrapped State removed.
• Bug Fix: Maypul should no longer teleport when Sling Shotting toward an opponent that dies.
• Bug Fix: Maypul should no longer go further during hitpause of Side Special.

Practice Mode:

• CPU controlled players will no longer spawn on an invincibility platform or have invincibility.
• B Button will unpause training mode.

Online:

• The timer should no longer count down in a dead lobby even if you are ready.
• We have made some adjustments to hopefully time out dead lobbies in the hopes of removing them going forward.
• Bug Fix: Leaving while your opponent disconnects should no longer cause the main menu to be unresponsive.
• Added a filter for tags online. Tags that do not meet the filter will not be displayed to opponents but will be displayed to players.
• During any three consecutive online matches, you can no longer get the same random stage.

Menu / UI:

• Added a Large Damage Option to the “HUD Damage” option in the Graphics Menu.
• Added a Display Tags Option as “HUD Names” to the Graphics Menu. You can use this to turn all tag display on or off.
• The last color you use for each character is saved to your profile save file.
• Turning on Simple Effects turns off Wrastor’s current transparency while the current is active.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a bug that only allowed players to fastfall once per air time.
• Tap Jump was updated on the keyboard controls to jump earlier.
• Fixed a bug with the default stage setting.
• Fixed a bug where Orcane and Maypul’s hurtbox was a pixel lower than the other characters.
• Fixed some lingering hitbox issues including Maypul Neutral Air and Forsburn Back Air.