Our mid-month patch for February promises to be a doozy. We have new game modes, a new skin bundle, new palettes per popular request, a healthy serving of balance adjustments, and more! Let’s dive into the new features first, then those of you hungry for data can get all the numbers in the following section.
Tailslide Wrastor
The most radical version of Wrastor debuts today - check out his trailer below! This skin is a throwback to one of our favorites from Rivals 1.
New 'Trials' Game Modes
We've added some new trial training exercises, including making Target Test its own mode per popular request! You can replay these as many times you want, so be sure to hone your skills and maybe even aim for a high score.
Three trials have been added:
- Target Test - Break the targets as quickly as you can. Now a standalone mode outside of the Arcade mode.
- Edgeguard Training - Practice edgeguarding with rapidfire scenarios. Adjust the difficulty with CPU levels.
- Eye Break - Defeat abyssal watcher eyes on the stage of your choice. You have 1 minute to break as many as you can!
White Tiger Skins
New white versions of the tiger palettes are now available in the buck/coin shop by popular demand! This includes White Tiger Zetterburn, Clairen, and Etalus.
We’ve also added a White Genesis Orcane palette as an homage to a classic Rivals of Aether skin. You can pick up this palette if you own Genesis Orcane - which can be purchased to support the Genesis prize pool here.
Other Features
- 3D Skin Preview now added to the store.
- Players can now fully view a skin before purchasing it!
- Offline skin support - Skins that players own can now be selected when offline.
- This feature has been in the pipeline for a while, and was not an easy task since the items are distributed via our servers. Now local players everywhere can enjoy their favorite skins at any time!
- Abyss Medal Difficulty Adjusted - In Arcade Mode, obtaining Abyss Medal on Medium or Hard Difficulty grants you the Abyssal Palette.
- Previously, this palette was only obtainable in Hard Difficulty. Players who already meet the new requirement will automatically obtain the palette after logging in!
- New Wrastor Voice Lines & SFX
- Wrastor was one of our earliest recorded characters, so we took the opportunity to go back and fill in the gaps on some lines he was missing. We also recorded custom audio featured in his new Tailslide skin.
- Newly recorded voice lines for the successful parry action for the following characters - Etalus, Forsburn, Kragg, and Wrastor.
Balance and Gameplay Changes
These changes have been in the works for a bit, however, we wanted to hold off on these until Genesis had passed to ensure competitors had ample time to prepare for the big stage.
In addition to containing balance changes to nine Rivals, Patch 1.1.3 notably reworks hurtbox locations, adds acceleration to run speed transition states, and changes the universal hitpause formula in our engine. Please leave feedback for this patch on our new 1.1.3 nolt board. Let’s dive right in to the good stuff:
- New control option: Double Tap Dash.
- Quickly press a direction twice to input a hard press in that direction.
- All hurtbox locations are now shifted 2/3 of the way toward the gameplay plane instead of only halfway.
- This compresses hurtbox collisions even more, reducing the frequency of z-axis whiffs significantly.
- During dash, characters will now accelerate/decelerate to their run speed throughout the dash.
- This smooths out the transition from dash to run. Characters with identical dash and run speeds are unaffected. Moonwalking is also unaffected.
- Hitpause formula is now dependent on damage instead of knockback.
- This change generally decreases hitpause for most moves, and makes upward/downward-sending attacks feel more intuitive on hit, since knockback-based hitpause made upward hits feel stronger and spikes feel weaker. Lower hitpause numbers make combos flow more smoothly and help increase the strength of DI mixups. The greatest impact of this change; however, will be in doubles, where high hitpause values can make 2v1 comebacks extremely difficult. Previously, hitting one of the opponents would have high enough hitpause to leave the attacker open to counterhits by the remaining player. Some hitpause multipliers have been adjusted to keep some moves feeling similar to the previous version.
- Voice lines are no longer shared between all instances of a character.
- This means Zetterburn A will no longer silence Zetterburn B when he starts talking.
- You can no longer hitfall on shield if you hit an object earlier in the attack.
- This was extremely rare, but led to situations where rising aerials on shield were safer than intended.
- Joystick threshold for Up/Down Special: 0.5 > 0.425
- This reduces the chance of getting accidental Forward Specials when trying to perform an angled Up/Down Special.
- Bug fix: Killing your teammate in a Time match will no longer increase your score by 1.
Zetterburn’s strong attacks are getting a change to their consume hitboxes to help them connect better.
- Grab now has a new low hitbox.
- This prevents it from whiffing when a short character lands directly in front of him.
- Sweetspot Forward Air damage: 9 > 11
- This makes it slightly better on shield and better against low damage opponents.
- All strong attack consume hitboxes now last 3 frames instead of 1.
- This should prevent the consume hitboxes from whiffing when hitting with the later active frames of the strong attack.
Ranno’s options were a bit safer than we liked, particularly on Forward Air and Up Tilt. This patch has added some commitment to those options.
- Grab now has a new low hitbox.
- This prevents it from whiffing when a short character lands directly in front of him.
- Up Special divekick no longer skips the landing recovery window when parried.
- This made parrying it not very rewarding, since parry stun was barely longer than the landing recovery window.
- Up Tilt recovery: 20 > 23
- This attack was too rewarding on hit and too difficult to punish due to the backward movement, so we're adding a bit of recovery.
- Forward Air recovery: 22 > 24
- We wanted to add recovery to this move since it is pretty large, fast, and strong. The extra recovery should make using it multiple times in a row less reliable for edgeguarding.
- Bug fix: Jump canceling Forward Special after the Tongue Sling Recovery window's IASA frame while grounded will now give a grounded jump instead of a double jump.
Wrastor is getting a rework to his Slipstream to function more like it did in Rivals of Aether. This should encourage more aggressive play and allow more stage positions for Slipstream, since it can now activate on whiff.
- Grab now has a new low hitbox.
- This prevents it from whiffing when a short character lands directly in front of him.
- Slipstream projectile is now hittable again.
- Slipstream activates automatically instead of needing to hit an opponent.
- Slipstream is now destroyed when Wrastor is put into knockback or grabbed.
- The on-hit-only version of slipstream worked nicely in some ways, but overall promoted a more campy playstyle for Wrastor. Even though the opponent had ways to stop Wrastor from getting the speed boost, it often led to Wrastor just avoiding interaction until he successfully landed a hit with it. Now, Wrastor has more incentive to approach, since he immediately gets the benefit from throwing it out, while the opponent still has ways to deny the slipstream if they intercept either the projectile or Wrastor himself.
We have a few changes to Kragg’s Pillar and early Down Special hits that should make them feel better under specific circumstances.
- Down Special hits 1 and 2 ASDI multiplier: 0 > 1
- This move was supposed to be floorhuggable, but the previous ASDI multiplier prevented that.
- Pillar will no longer put opponents into the Pillar Fall state if it breaks while rising.
- This could happen if an opponent was hit by pillar and then the pillar was broken due to someone holding ledge while overlapping it.
- Bug fix: Parry stun will no longer be halved when holding a rock.
We’ve changed Fleet’s Up Strong to allow the falling arrow to fall through platforms, similar to her Ledge Special. We’ve also changed a few damage values to be different based on travel distance.
- Dash speed: 15 > 17
- This change offsets the dash acceleration change, leaving her dash almost completely unchanged.
- Forward Special wind arrow late hit damage: 5 > 3
- Previously, it did the same damage as the early hit, which didn't seem right.
- Forward Strong mid hit damage: 5 > 8
- Previously, it did the same damage as the late hit, which didn't seem right.
- Up Strong's fully charged arrow will now fall through platforms.
- Down Strong sweetspot damage: 10 > 12
- The damage felt a little low for how strong the move is.
Maypul received changes to her wrap duration and to her tether > Up Air mechanic. Now her Up Air following a tether should behave like a true 50/50 instead of being always escapable based on her input timing. We also removed Maypuls ability to delay her Up Air on a tight timing to guarantee opponents could not escape after a tether.
- Fully charged strong attacks will now multiply the wrap duration by x1.5 instead of adding 60 frames.
- This reduces the reward Maypul gets for charging the strong attacks, making it closer to the original Rivals of Aether version, which had a x1.25 multiplier for a fully charged strong.
- Up Air's multihits now have unique knockback when performed after a tether: 3.3 + 0 @ 130 > 5 + 0 @ 150
- This means DIing straight up will raise the character higher up than before relative to no DI or DI down+away. This helps to reinstate the tether Neutral/Up Air mixup, where you must hold your joystick up to escape the final hit of Up Air or hold your joystick down+away to DI Neutral Air outward.
- Up Air will now get a vertical velocity boost when performed after a tether.
- The strength of this boost is custom for each character to ensure that the tether Up Air mixup works on them. This helps to prevent opponents from escaping tether Up Air confirms using only ASDI, regardless of their gravity.
- Opponents will now stall for as long as Maypul does when she tethers to them.
- This prevents her from getting a guaranteed inescapable Up Air by delaying the input while the opponent falls. They will now start falling as soon as Maypul does, whether that's from canceling into an attack or from reaching the IASA frame.
- Tethering to an opponent in hitstun will now put Up Special on a 30 frame cooldown
- With the changes to tether mechanics, tether Up Special became a guaranteed followup. This prevents it unless the opponent has enough hitstun remaining to outlast the cooldown and the Up Special's startup, which should be fairly rare.
- Seeds will now be ignored by enemy Lilies.
- Previously, the enemy Lily would spit the seed upward, potentially marking you with your own seed.
- Opponents will now lose chaingrab protection when they get wrapped.
- Bug fix: Seeds can now collide with enemy Maypul seeds.
- Bug fix: Wrapped enemies can now buffer aerial attacks if they were wrapped while aerial.
- This also prevents Wrastor from buffering a dash attack when aerial wrap ends.
We’ve reworked Clairen’s tipper mechanic a bit to keep opponents from taking multiple stuns in quick succession (or not at all on a successful crouch cancel). We have also reduced the strength of her sour Up Air to make repeated juggles a bit more difficult to pull off when missing the tipper.
- Grab's backmost hitbox is now larger and has been moved down.
- This prevents it from whiffing when a short character lands directly in front of her.
- Tipper stuck lockout duration: 20 > 30
- This reduces the amount of stuns in her average tipper combos, but also gives the opponent less time to DI correctly, so it can both help and hinder each player.
- Crouch canceling a tipper that doesn't send into tumble will now cancel the tipper stun.
- This makes crouch canceling a valid option against Clairen's tippers instead of always losing to them.
- Neutral Air multihit tipper stun duration: 17 > 15
- This was a side effect of the hitpause formula change.
- Up Air sourspot hitstun multiplier: 1 > 0.9
- This move linked into itself too easily when used repeatedly, allowing Clairen too many opportunities to set up for the tipper.
- Down Throw tipper stun duration: 28 > 30
- This was a side effect of the hitpause formula change.
We’ve changed how Loxodont’s hurtboxes appear to alleviate some of the strange visual interactions that would keep him safe despite appearing to be struck. We have also slightly reworked Lava Pools to be more forgiving on his Down Throw and easier for opponents to extinguish while Loxodont is in disadvantage.
- Grab's backmost hitbox is now larger and has been moved down.
- This prevents it from whiffing when a short character lands directly in front of him.
- Leg and torso hurtboxes expanded slightly.
- Ever since his hurtboxes were shrunk in a previous patch, it has caused situations where hitboxes would whiff when it clearly looked like they should hit. This problem was exacerbated by his width, often leaving his legs far enough in the foreground/background that moves would whiff due to the thinness of the hurtboxes and distance between the legs. These changes are fairly minor, but should alleviate some of the frustrations of whiffing against this seemingly large target.
- Jab 1 recovery: 16 > 19
- This move was a little too safe for its size and reward.
- Down Throwing an opponent onto an inactive lava pool will now give Loxodont a molten charge before destroying it.
- Previously, the lava pool would get extinguished without giving him a molten charge if he threw the opponent too early.
- Lava pools can now be extinguished by opponents during the 60 frame window before they become active.
- Loxodont can still prevent them from being extinguished by also standing on the lava pool. This gives opponents more counterplay to Loxodont setting up his molten charge without needing to stay near the lava pools after knocking Loxodont away from them.
- Loxodont will now extinguish lava pools if he is in hitstun or knockdown when touching them.
- This prevents Loxodont from gaining molten charge if an opponent knocks him into a lava pool.
We’ve increased the time Forsburn is in the air when performing a shorthop in order to make the action a bit more committal, and have decreased the damage on one of his favorite moves due to its high versatility.
- Shorthop speed: 17 > 18.6
- This increases the time it takes for Forsburn to reach the ground after shorthopping, adding a bit more commitment to the action.
- Down Tilt sweetspot damage: 9 > 8
- Down Tilt sourspot damage: 7 > 6
- The move is highly versatile, so we wanted to reduce the damage reward associated with it.
We’ve made it easier for Etalus to collect armor without accidentally sliding too far during his hammer wind up. We have also made tweaks to Forward Strong and his getup/ledge options to feel more natural.
- Grab's backmost hitbox is now larger and has been moved down.
- This prevents it from whiffing when a short character lands directly in front of him.
- Etalus will now have his normal friction when in the Hitstun Land state.
- This allows him to floorhug when on ice without being pushed too far from the opponent.
- Forward Strong hit 1 back hitbox knockback: 9 + 0 @ 25 > 8 + 0 @ 32
- This should help it link into the final hit more reliably at specific spacings.
- Strong Attack ice shards now deal no shield damage.
- At certain spacings, all 8 ice shards would hit the shield at once, dealing a ton of shield damage.
- Neutral Special ground friction: 0.43 > 0.86
- This helps prevent him from sliding too far to get ice armor when performing a running Neutral Special near the edge of a patch of ice.
- Up Throw release offset moved slightly forward.
- This prevents it from turning the opponent around.
- Getup Special knockback: 9 + 0.25 > 9 + 0.6
- This move lacks the startup intangibility of most getup options, so we're increasing its knockback to make it more worth using, especially when charged.
- Ledge Attack intangibility frames: 11 > 21
- The intangibility previously ended after the first active window, which was extremely early due to the move's low startup. Now it ends after the second active window, so it can be used in similar situations to other characters' ledge attacks.
- Bug fix: Forward Throw's knockback now ignores weight like all other throws