Absa Character Release
The Storm Architect is finally here! Today’s patch welcomes a classic returning character to the Rivals II roster with THUNDEROUS applause. Absa is available for FREE to all players and is available now!
Absa comes with her own progression awards, coin shop rewards, and her own Arcade mode! All of this and more is available now:
Progression Rewards: Abyss Skin, Absa Gazelle Skin, Taunt 2 / Stomp, Mint Palette, Platform, Death Effect, Emote 1 / Absa in Love, Emote 2 / Absa Evil, 3D portrait icon, Stock icon, Definitive icon, Bronze icon, Silver icon, Golden icon, Platinum icon
Coin Shop Rewards: Boer Goat, Black Palette
Absa Arcade Mode: Abyss Palette, Break the Targets, Splash Art
Absa 101
Interested in learning Absa? The brand new Absa 101 teaches you all of the basics with legendary Rivals 1 Absa main, Akashi, breaking down her moveset and mechanics!
Pool Party Event
Summer is here and boy is it HOT. It’s time to cool off with a pool party! Our July event has Pool Party Loxodont, Clairen, and Absa as featured skins with some splashing icons to match. Pool Party Absa has custom taunt and victory lines, and Pool Party Clairen has a custom victory line! The new cosmetics are paired with 25,000 Aether Coins and 250 Aether Bucks.
Our free track for June contains the Pool Party Absa emote, the Pool Party death effect, Pool Party platform, Otter Maypul icon, and the Pool Party Ranno skin. Players equipping any event skins above, or the Pool Party Fleet skin will receive 20% Bonus XP on the event track. There’s also a brand new Pink Pool Party Fleet palette in the in-game shop!
New Shop Items
In addition to the above, we’re adding two new palettes, and nine new player icons to the buck and coin shop with this patch:
Olympia Yellow Palette
Pool Party Fleet Pink palette
Fireworks DFX (Promo this for Fourth of July, also mention in patch notes as a new standalone DFX.)
Pixel Absa icon
Tear of Joy icon
Tear of Anger icon
Tear of Sorrow icon
Marinas icon
Polokai icon
Floodmingo icon
Serpensaur icon
Summer Time icon
Summer Palettes & 4th of July Bundle
We’re bringing back a seasonal favorite from the original Rivals of Aether! Summer palettes are here for every Rival as a special release similar to the Halloween palettes we released in 2024. Check em out:
These palettes are available in the Coin and Buck shop like normal, but are also available with the new Fireworks DFX in our 4th of July Bundle!
Ranked Shop Update
Champion Maypul has been added to the Ranked Shop! This includes a skin, two emotes, and two icons for the Sylvan Watcher.
Ranked Version 2 Season Rollover
Ranked mode has been given a soft reset once again! Any accrued rank-up-bonus medals will be granted to players and a UI element has been added to show off your past season ranks and to view previous ranked season leaderboards!
Replay Camera Update
Quality of life updates have been made to the replay camera, check it out in your next replay!
GC Controller Adapter Setup
We have added a new process to make GC controller support functional and easier for players getting into the game! If you’ve been holding off on using your trusty GC controller, or are just joining us with the new update, be sure to give it a try.
Usage:
If your adapter brand has a "PC/Console" switch, please ensure it is in "Console" mode.
Plug your adapter before attempting to move past title screen.
Click or press a key on title screen and the setup popup should appear, then follow on-screen instructions.
Notice: If you have already setup your adapter before with the Zadig program, then your adapter does not need any additional setup and the popup will not appear.
Balance
There are very few balance changes with Absa’s release, keeping in line with our goal to keep big patches a bit more spread out. Most of the changes listed are adjustments made following the big changes from our June mid-month patch, while some are specifically made to work with new quirks that Absa’s release adds to the engine.
Hitting a ceiling while performing a special will no longer end your vertical momentum.
This means that Kragg rock will no longer stop recovery moves in place when they collide with it before breaking it.
Environmental Collision Box (ECB) bottom will be unfrozen when starting a double jump.
This only affects Absa, since her double jump starts by going downward.
Bug Fix: Fixed a bug that caused Spot Dodge to slide further than intended when used with high velocity.
Bug Fix: Fixed a bug that allowed characters to slip off a ledge 1 frame after grabbing an opponent, canceling the grab.
Baseball Clairen the tipper hit sounds have been remade.
Up Special rising hitbox moved upward halfway between the old and new values.
After last patch's reduction to the disjoint of this move, it became a bit too susceptible to lingering hitboxes offstage, so we're partially reverting this change.
Slipstream's speed boost will now last for 20 frames after leaving the slipstream.
With the newly shortened slipstream duration, the boost would often disappear suddenly mid-attack. This was especially detrimental to Wrastor's Down Special, which is much slower outside of slipstream. This change gives Wrastor a little more leniency in maintaining his slipstream boost.
Forward Tilt innermost hitbox radius increased by 15 cm, then moved forward and downward.
This makes it reach lower so that it can more consistently hit short characters at point-blank range.
Pillar can now only be broken by players whose current and previous ECB bottom locations are below it.
Previously, it only checked the current ECB bottom, which could lead to some weird teleportation bugs when a character hit the pillar immediately after leaving it. This was most common with Absa's Up Special during testing.
Down Throw recovery: 17 > 15
Down Throw knockback: 6.5 + 0.25 @ 65 > 6.9 + 0.25 @ 60
We're partially reverting the endlag increase from the last patch, while changing the knockback to be more dynamic at low percents.
Down Strong hit 1 knockback: 4 + 0 @ 45 > 5 + 0 @ 55
With last patch's removal of early knockback gravity easing, opponents hit by this move would be able to shield the 2nd hit just by DIing away from Olympia. This counterplay made the move too unreliable, so we're making it send slightly higher to keep the opponents off the ground for longer.
Thank you so much for reading, and as always please give us your ideas and feedback! We have a brand new Nolt Board with today’s patch, so head on over and let us know what you’re thinking.