THE ETALUS UPDATE IS HERE! This giant free update doesn't just include our first new character, it's also got great new features like the new tutorial mode, rewards for Arcade mode, server reporting, the launch of our creator program, plus January's mid-month bundle, and more. Check out everything inside this patch below:
Etalus - The Glacier's Might
A Brand New Rival OUT NOW
Etalus joins the cast as our 11th playable Rival. He's a legendary warrior in his native land, the northern continent known as the Ice Barrens. As Etalus, use your brute strength and mastery over ice to crush your opponents. If you like powerful characters that can shrug off attacks with ease, give this bear a try.
- Slip and slide over the ice his abilities create to bring surprising speed to his raw power.
- Armor yourself by using his neutral special on ice to take less knockback from attacks and launch ice shards at enemies.
- Use his down special to shatter ice, freezing enemies who are standing on it, then rack up the damage once they're frozen.
Etalus also comes with his own Arcade mode and character progression track.
Beginner Playable Tutorials
Playable tutorials have been added as their own game mode! Progress through the ranks in movement, offense, and defense to learn the ropes. This is just the beginning for tutorial mode, and the Intermediate and Advanced tutorial levels are coming soon in future updates.
Mid-Month Bundle: Primal Etalus
Get prehistoric with the Primal Etalus Bundle. The January mid-month bundle features Etalus with a new primal skin to celebrate his launch, previously teased in his announcement trailer. Bundle includes the Primal Etalus skin, icon, emote, plus coins and Aether Bucks. See it in action in the trailer released today:
Server Reporting
Help US Help YOU with this new feature
If you're a player who has encountered server issues, we want to let you know we've been closely monitoring your feedback and making improvements each patch over the last few months. If you're still having issues - today we are adding another tool to help: Server Reporting.
Reporting a server let's us know that something didn't feel right for you there, and automatically sends us information we can use to troubleshoot. You can report a server easily in the character select screen, the start menu in game, or on the results screen. Only one report will be generated per session regardless of the method you use.
Please keep in mind this isn't an instant fix, and the main thing this does is help us get more consistent reporting and useful information for our team and partners to hopefully find permanent solutions for any server issues uncovered. Note there are many reasons an online connection may not feel good (see Dan's post), but in the case where you think it may be the server, this will go a long way to helping us find a fix!
Creator Program launch
Today we're also launching our creator program! We've got some great stuff planned to give back to our creators and their communities alike. Check out all of the details and apply here. The program has just opened and begun accepting applications today.
Arcade Mode Rewards
Arcade Mode now has rewards to compensate you for your hard fought efforts. Players will now earn 2000 XP for completing a difficulty for the first time. You can also unlock new Abyss palettes for each character by completing hard mode with an Abyssal medal. If you've previously achieved these feats, you'll automatically be given the rewards without having to re-clear in an update later this week.
Introducing Night Owl Fleet
During our Kickstarter last year, we had a superbacker tier that let the backer work with our team to design a skin for a character of their choice. We got 3 backers at this tier, and imagine our surprise when they all chose Fleet! The first backer-created skin is now in the game (with others coming soon) and we're starting with Night Owl Fleet by Reazy Fluff! You can pick her up in the shop today.
Patch Notes
We've got a few actual bullet-point patch notes that aren't all characters and modes, but otherwise this patch is mostly content and less numbers changes. Please give us your feedback as always on our latest Nolt board and report bugs in our discord.
- New Rival: Etalus, The Glacier's Might added.
- New Mode: Playable Tutorials added. Beginner Tutorials are included for movement, offense, and defense with intermediate and advanced tutorials coming soon.
- Mid-Month Bundle: Primal Etalus bundle released.
- Server Reporting: Help us help you! Send us reports for bad connections with the press of a button.
- New Arcade Mode Rewards: Earn 2,000 XP towards a Rival's reward track for completing a difficulty for the first time. Unlock the new Abyss Palettes for completing hard with an Abyssal medal.
- Creator Program: Content creators can apply today and take your love for the game to the next level with perks for you and your community.
- CPUs can now DI throws without hitboxes.
- Getting parried while in hitstun will no longer queue up parry stun when hitstun ends.
- This is extremely rare, but could lead to cases where a character could cancel the Tumble state with a jump/attack, but then get put into parry stun as soon as that action ended.
- Bug Fix: Fixed a bug that caused ledge grab boxes to appear 1 frame before you could actually grab ledge when the ledge grab lockout timer was expiring.
- Bug Fix: Fixed a bug that caused hurtboxes to be rotated incorrectly when a character was facing left, even if they rendered with the correct rotation.
- Bug Fix: Fixed a bug that allowed Zetterburn to turn around his Dash Attack after hitting an opponent when the Right Stick Setting was set to Attack.
We hope you enjoy the update!