&= Added/changed in update on 12/11
^= Added/changed in update on 12/10
%= Added/changed in update on 12/9
#= Added/changed in update on 12/8
$= Added/changed in update on 12/4
*= Added/changed in update on 12/3
A new experimental balance patch is here! On PC ONLY, players on the experimental branch now have access to some new mechanics and parameter adjustments. We welcome your thoughts, your feedback, and your playtesting! I encourage dedicated coaches to join us in our Discord community to discuss these changes live with other players.
^%This build is also test run of a new version of our underlying game engine. After a few hours of testing, we haven't found any issues introduced by the upgrade, but are on the lookout for any audio or graphical issues introduced by this change.
🔧 Balance Changes
- A Beastie that's WEEPY won't feel the effect of 🔺BOOSTs %
and won't be able to restore STAMINA. - WEEPY counts up after every offense turn much like SWEATY, but it goes away when the Beastie TAGS OUT.
- If a Beastie feels 4 WEEPY (or more), they will burst into tears and instantly lose 100 STAMINA.
- If a Beastie that's WEEPY tries to feel JAZZED, the feelings neutralize each other. JAZZED won't be applied, but WEEPY will be cured. The reverse is also true; if a Beastie that's JAZZED has WEEPY applied to them, the WEEPY will not be applied but the JAZZED will be removed.
- Note that WEEPY is not blocked by RHYTHM (this is the only change made after experimental testing)
- When RALLY is active, SPIRIT attacks do +15 damage (from +50%)
- MIND attacks do x3/4 damage (this is unchanged) We're experimenting with a different Rally damage calculation to see if plays a bit better. We love Rally and how it enables an all-out offensive style, but it has always given SPIRIT's highest highs an edge that made it very challenging to play into and for some players felt stronger than other types. This new iteration cuts the value of RALLY on higher-damage attacks, but increases the value of low-power attacks moreso. We hope this enables all-out offense gameplay, but not as oppressively, while also creating space for more bulky/defensive playstyles that use lower-power utility attacks. This comes alongside some corresponding POW changes to SPIRIT'S highest-utility plays.
- $(NEW!)Super Armor: DEF x1.5 when STAMINA is at least 3/4 filled
- 🔄 Given to Boldlur in place of Armored
- *(NEW!) Decoy: When at the net and not TOUGH, all attacks go to this Beastie
- 🔄 Given to Boldlur in place of Steadfast
*We're experimenting with a couple new ideas for Boldlur to help them stand out more, as a Beastie that has never had a proper clear game plan to build around
- ^
Intangible:- ^
🔻 New effect: BODY Attacks do 0 damage and change this Beastie's trait to Tangible Tangible is a non-trait that has no in-game effects&In response to some players' anxiety about the possibility to field multiple Intangible Beasties, thus invalidating the matchup against pure body attackers, we experimented with offloading Mistic's staying power from their Trait to their stats, but in practice this removed a lot of their unique character and made them feel too much like other Beasties. The potential to field multiple Intangible Beasties has been present since the day the game launched but hasn't actually come into play often enough to concern us yet. We enjoy the pressure Mistic has exerted on the meta and the way it forces Body teams to build and play creatively. We have majorly refactored their signature play Hex as that was a higher priority issue, and want to give them more time to settle before implementing additional drastic changes. For now we're shifting our focus toward giving players more interesting tools for a mono-Body team.
- ^
- Neural Net:
- 🔻 New effect: MIND attacks always go to this Beastie Walking back the EASY RECEIVE effect added in the previous patch...
- Watchtower:
*🔼 New effect: Attacks that target an adjacent ally go to this Beastie instead- $🔼 New effect: When not TOUGH, receives attacks in place of adjacent allies We're still experimenting with potential Watchtower changes for this patch. Its presence in play stats has not been a major cause for concern balance-wise, so we hope we can find an adjustment that increases its fun/interactivity while still keeping the effect simple and at the same level of balance.
- Overwork:
- 🔻 New effect: Attacks do 1.2x damage and cost 15 STAMINA
- Vampire:
- 🔼 New effect: Attacks restore STAMINA equal to 1/3 of damage dealt (from 1/4)
- Miracle Play:
- 🔼 New effect: Free Ball is an attack with 75 POW (from 60 POW)
- Determination:
- 🔼 New effect: Now also triggered by WEEPY in addition to NERVOUS, TENDER, and SWEATY.
- &(NEW) True Strike - BODY Attack, 85 POW. Ignores Traits.
- Via level up
- Deluja, Supilero
- Via friendship
- Fetcham, Magpike, Maraptor, Armantis, Conjarr, Hydrolm
&This play is now free to tutor to Beasties via the Academy. Aside from giving Body yet another answer to Intangible, it also gives a much-needed utility play with decent power to several Beasties whose offense potential has been underutilized up until now.
We removed this play from Beelb, as it doesn't work with their unique playstyle of tanking/charging and made them feel too much like a standard attacker.
- Via level up
- (NEW?) Stinger - MIND Attack, 65 POW. Target feels 1 WEEPY.
-
This play replaces Numbshot internally
- Via level up
- Illugus, Hydrolm
- Via friendship
- Garood, Platypulse, Pladion, Noizard, Varkabond, Vultoxin, Crawlurk, Debugly, Gremlur, #Shloom
- Via level up
- (NEW!) Gloom - DEFENSE. Target feels 1 WEEPY.
- Via level up
- 🔼 Mistic, Diabloceras
- Via friendship
- 🔼 Plumask, Wottle, Orgella, Squimage
- Via level up
- (NEW!) Soliloquy - DEFENSE. Every fielded Beastie feels 1 WEEPY.
- Via level up
- 🔼 Conjarr
- Via friendship
- 🔼 Hopra, Plumask
- Via level up
- &(NEW!) Hum - SUPPORT. Spirit POW +1 to self.
- Via level up
- 🔼 Hopra, Humflit, Kaleidarn
- Via friendship
- 🔼 Crabaret, Conjarr, Orgella, Scauldra
&After gradually re-tooling and re-distributing Dig and Excited Pass over the last year, we felt there was a missing space for an easy low-level play that some Beasties could use to power themselves up. While we see some applications for this on high-level teams, it isn't a super high-value play and we are hopeful that players can build with it without shaking up the current balance of spirit offense.
- Via level up
- Ricochet
- 🔄 New Effect: MIND Attack - 110 POW. Only used at net. Only used when ball is NOT hittable. Ricochet is intended to be a powerful attack that hits a bit outside the curve of typical mind attacks, and we hope to preserve that. This new iteration is meant to be simpler while also making it a bit more reliant on planning and strategy to make full use of.
- Grit
- 🔻 55 POW (from 60)
- 🔼Now activates from WEEPY in addition to NERVOUS, TENDER and SWEATY
- Thrash
- $
🔻 60 POW (from 80)- 🔼POW x2 when the user is JAZZED (from 1.5)
- $
- $Tornadoball
- $🔻 50 POW (from 60)
- $Cook
- $🔻 50 POW (from 55)
- Excited Pass
- 🔼 ^Removed the STAMINA activation requirement (Prev. 34 STAMINA)
- *Cover
- 🔼 New effect: VOLLEY. Only used at net. B/S/MDEF +1. SHIFTs self to back row.
- #Pipe
- 🔼 New effect: VOLLEY. SHIFT ally to back row. If successful: Ally feels 1 JAZZED. Pipe has basically been a filler move up until now. We're giving it its own function and niche now; in exchange, however, we had to rethink its distribution quite a bit
- Exhaust
- 🔼 Makes the user feel 3 WIPED (from 4)
- Clear Field
- 🔻 Restores 8 STAMINA to entire team (from 10)
- Torch Pass
- 🔻 Lowers max STAMINA by 20 (from 10)
- Hex
🔄 New effect: DEFENSE. Target Beastie feels 1 WIPED. Feel 4 TIRED.- $🔄 New effect: DEFENSE. Target and self trait changes to Haunted #(Always feels TIRED). The original spark for Hex was wanting a play that could cast Wiped on a Beastie. Since then, we've added it in other forms as a self-sustain tool (Exhaust) and come to realize just how wildly abusable this play could be. This new design still SHOULD be a cruel and powerful disruption, but it's less "free" to click and overall has a lower impact on both the user and target. We'll be curious to see how savvy players can find ways to exploit it, and whether it is the correct the amount of evil.
- Heat Wave
- 🔄 New effect: DEFENSE. Only used from net. Every fielded Beasties feels +1 SWEATY.
- Wall
- 🔼 No longer costs 10 STAMINA
- Kichik, Ostrisigh, Kassaleet
- 🔼 Plays Added: Shake Off
- 🔄 Tweaked level-up plays to improve their single-player experience and make them a bit less linear for new players
- Axolati Hopsong, Hopra
- ^🔻 Plays Removed: Excited Pass
- ^🔄 Tweaked level-up plays
- Shooga, Supassum, Supilero
- ^🔻 Plays Removed: Thump
- Sefren, Zefyre
- 🔻 Plays Removed: Battle Cry
- 🔼 Plays Added: Clear Field
- Woollie, Fetcham
- 🔻 Plays Removed: Faith, *
Forward Pass
- 🔻 Plays Removed: Faith, *
- Platenna, Platypulse, Pladion
- 🔻#Plays Removed: Set #(In exchange for the Pipe buff)
- Radillo, Daredillo
- 🔻#Plays Removed: Forward Pass
- 🔼 #Plays Added: Pipe
- Noizard
- 🔻80 MDEF (from 85)
- Albrax
- 🔻46 MDEF (from 49)
- 🔻 Plays Removed: Tactical Pass Players have been vocal about wanting to see this Beastie brought down a touch and we hear you. Although their Tractor Beam trait is very powerful, we still stand by it as an interesting and skill-expressive tool. What we have seen is that Albrax often is paired with mind-bulky Beasties that it can support offensively, allowing it to out-ramp the other team while keeping them boxed in. We're removing its ability to support offensive ramp in an effort to help it fit into its niche as a passive trapper that can disrupt opponents but doesn't further its own offensive gameplan, along the same line of reasoning that led us to remove Assess and Splinter in previous patches.
- Scrubbub, Grubiron, Beetlback
- 🔼 Plays Added: Dive, #Perfect Shot (Beetlback only)
- Gastic, Wisper, Mistic
- &
🔼 110 BDEF (from 105) - ^
🔼 55 SDEF (from 50) - ^
🔼 85 MDEF (from 80) - #🔼 Plays Added: Exhaust
- &
- Goofsder
- 🔻 Plays Removed: Perfect Shot
- 🔼 Plays Added: Ricochet
- Troglum, Varkabond
- 🔼 Plays Added: Ricochet
- Armantis
- *🔼75 BPOW (from 70)
- 🔻 Plays Removed: Ricochet
- 🔼 Plays Added: Perfect Shot, Splinter We weren't unhappy with Armantis' power using Ricochet, but the new experimental design actively discourages getting blocks, which makes it a terrible fit for Armantis now. We're giving them some new tools to preserve their threat level in mind offense.
- Petula, Flowish, Orgella
- 🔻 #Plays Removed: Pipe
- Leobro, Broslidon
- 🔻 #Plays Removed: Pipe
- Crawlurk
- 🔼 Plays Added: Lay Trap
- Psylusc
- 🔼 Plays Added: Freezeray, Nerve Strike
- $ Xiphosaur
- $🔼 Trait Changed: Armored
- #Updated recruit condition: Have your same Beastie receive 3+ attacks in 1 point
- Skibble, Skorock, Boldlur
- 🔼 Plays Added: Shake Off
- Millimine, Demolipede
- 🔻 Plays Removed: Tactical Pass, *
Forward Pass, #Pipe - *🔼 Plays Added: Clear Field
- 🔻 Plays Removed: Tactical Pass, *
- Beelb
- 🔼80 BDEF (from 70)
- 🔼 Plays Added: Shake Off, %Body Ready
- Froofulks
- *🔼79 BPOW (from 74)
- 🔻93 SPOW (from 98)
- Grazada
- #🔼 Plays Added: Pipe
- Druppa, Scauldra
- 🔻#Plays Removed: Forward Pass
- 🔼 #Plays Added: Pipe
- Proteos, Hydrolm
- *🔼90 BPOW (from 85)
- 🔼 Plays Added: Ego Blast
- 🔻 Plays Removed: #Pipe
- Changed name of WALL (the field effect) to BARRIER
- $Fixed a crash when updating Rank Defender team
- Many more small fixes and tweaks, but I don't want to write them all out right now.... stay tuned for full patch notes in the Milestone Update!
$Overall, this is a smaller and more iterative balance update than previous ones. When looking at broad statistics, the overall game balance seems like it's in a good place and we don't want to make any drastic changes. Our main focus is to lightly touch Beasties that are overperforming or underperforming to bring their success rates more in line. We also have a few experimental changes here that aren't intended to make Beasties strictly stronger or weaker, but just to find more unique spots in the current metagame. The most major change is one we already previewed in a previous experimental phase, and are now ready to bring into the base game:
💧 New Status Effect: WEEPY
We updated the themeing of this status effect from SAD to 💧WEEPY, emphasizing it more as a physical ailment and giving it wider flexibility for future flavor interactions. Beasties can feel WEEPY because they're sad, but also if they're overjoyed, or perhaps when they're chopping onions...
%We are testing out removal of the heal blocking effect of Weepy. Healing is already fairly challenging to exploit in this game, and we're interested in keeping it close to its current power level. We are already intorducing other light nerfs to healing effects for benched Beasties via Clear Field and Torch Pass tweaks below.