La Reina Has Entered the Ring!
The Crowd Magnet is here to take down opponents in style! La Reina’s hands-on approach to fighting centers around grabbing and throwing enemies any chance she gets. In true grappler fashion, La Reina is ready and willing to grab people out of their defensive options and make them rethink their decisions.
La Reina is available right now for free with all of the standard content included in a new Rival release. This includes local game mode updates, progression unlocks, achievements, and a slew of cosmetics available through both free progression and the shop:
New La Reina Local Modes: La Reina Target Test and Arcade Mode.
For those looking for a video tutorial for La Reina, her 101 video is scheduled to launch later this week. As mentioned above, La Reina is available NOW for FREE to all players, so get out there and put on a show!
La Lucha Infinita Event
Looks like our newest Rival has some company in the ring! The La Lucha Infinita event is here from 1/6/26 - 2/3/26 with a paid bundle that includes 3 new wrestler skins - Luchador La Reina, Luchador Kragg, and Luchador Galvan with their own masked icons to match, plus coins and bucks. The free event track includes the Luchador Ranno Skin and Icon, plus the Luchador Platform, Luchador Kragg Emote, and the Luchasplosion death effect.
Players equipping any event skins above, and any of La Reina’s default or common skins will receive 20% Bonus XP on the event track.
Underground Arena Stage Skin
Alongside the Crowd Magnet’s release, we have a brand new stage skin for Godai Delta! The new stage skin Includes a brand new track by Moonsailor to go along with the new look, and will have another track by RESOFORCE available at a later date. Check out the teaser below:
The Underground Arena bundle can be found in the bucks shop and contains three unique icons, or you can purchase it for coins.
New Shop Items
Midnight Abyss Etalus Palette
Pixel La Reina Icon
Vibe La Reina Icon
Vibe La Reina Angel Icon
Slaggo Icon
Leffox Icon
Cirriphant Icon
Meadant Icon
New La Reina Skins and Palettes:
La Reina Flower Mantis Skin
La Reina Abyss Skin
La Reina Hornet Skin (In Shop)
La Reina Abyssal Palette
La Reina Mint Palette
La Reina Cool Blue Palette
La Reina Pink Palette
La Reina Yellow Palette
La Reina Black Palette
New Ranked Shop Items
Champion Etalus has been added to the Ranked Shop! This includes a skin, two emotes, and two icons for the Glacier’s Might.
Gameplay and Balance Updates
Shield release frames: 15 > 12
This makes shield release match the frame data of wavedashing in place so beginners and intermediate players aren’t punished for not being able to wavedash OOS.
Bug Fix: Fixed a bug that allowed characters to accelerate past their maximum air speed for a brief period each time their horizontal speed went under the maximum value.
This makes air speed a consistent value instead of a rough estimate, and affects characters with low air friction the most, since they took the longest time to decelerate back down below their max air speed. In general, however, this is a mostly unnoticeable change.
Bug Fix: Wall clings will now end when the wall disappears.
Light and medium hitstun will now prevent ledge grabs for either 30 frames when they start or 10 frames after they end, whichever is shorter.
This prevents some situations where the upper range of medium hitstun would prevent ledge grabs for a bit too long, leading to some situations where the character would fall past the ledge unexpectedly.
Rooted Special Attacks will no longer transition into the aerial version when performed on the frame before leaving a ledge.
This fixes a bug where Wrastor Down Special would do the aerial version when started while his back was at the edge of a platform.
Attacks that send below horizontal will now have an increased maximum DI angle.
When the knockback angle is more than 20 degrees below horizontal, the maximum DI angle will be increased by 6 degrees. Anything less than 20 degrees will interpolate linearly from 0. Because gravity pulls downward, the difference in a character's final position after being hit downward is less pronounced than when they are hit horizontally or upward. Because of this, it was often too easy to cover multiple DIs, making followups after spikes a bit too consistent. This change increases the variation in trajectories, making DI matter more for escaping followups after spikes.
Getting hit by the same attack multiple times in a row will increase the maximum DI angle by 2 degrees, up to a max of 6 degrees.
This adds more chances to escape moves that link into themselves, especially upward-sending combo moves. This mechanic also has the potential to be used offensively by tricking your opponent into DIing even farther into the blastzone. The attack count is reset when you exit hitstun (hitstun includes tumble and the missed tech state).
Bug Fix: Outer limb hurtboxes are no longer targeted by hitgrabs instead of just standard grabs.
This removes some situations where a character would get grabbed from farther away than is usually possible if the attack was a hitgrab.
Bug Fix: Fixed a bug that made hurtboxes rotate incorrectly when performing an attack that turns you around.
In this patch we are taking a look at Zetterburn’s shine followups, since they're a bit strong for their versatility and execution. We're also increasing the scaling on some of his moves that comboed too well at high percents.
Uncharged Neutral Special active frames: 3 > 2, recovery frames: 20 > 21
Neutral Special can no longer jump cancel during the active frames and must instead wait until the 2nd recovery frame.
This delays the jump cancel by 2 frames for the uncharged version and 3 frames for the charged version, making his followups ever so slightly stricter while not changing the input timing, because of the extended buffer. The reduced active frames also make the move require a bit more precision to hit with, especially offstage.
Uncharged Neutral Special extra shield stun: 1 > 3
This preserves the shield advantage of this move now that the jump cancel has been pushed back by 2 frames.
Strong Attack consume hitboxes will now disappear after 3 frames of hitpause.
This prevents them from staying an active threat for 20 frames on hit, which could be very frustrating in doubles.
Up Strong innermost hitbox removed.
This very slightly reduces the backward range of this move.
Down Tilt sweetspot knockback: 6 + 0.5 > 6 + 0.6
Down Tilt sourspot knockback: 5 + 0.3 > 5 + 0.5
This makes it send opponents farther at higher percents so that he can't follow up quite as often.
Forward Air sourspot knockback: 5 + 0.3 > 5 + 0.44
This makes it send opponents farther at higher percents, making Zetterburn have to cover more distance to follow up afterward.
Back Air recovery: 12 > 15
This adds a bit more commitment when using this move and not landing during it.
This patch brings changes to a few situations that were frustrating to play against, such as grounded darts, forward special stalling, forward air sourspot comboing into the sweetspot too consistently, and down air being too difficult to challenge.
Grounded Neutral Special recovery: 20 > 24
This reduces the rate at which he can throw out grounded darts.
Forward Special now has a 20 frame cooldown after whiffing in the air.
This prevents him from using it to continuously stall offstage after being knocked far away and high up.
Forward Air sourspot knockback: 5 + 0.5 @ 50 > 5 + 0.55 @ 60
This makes it leave opponents more above Ranno than in front of him, making it not as good at setting up for a sweetspot Forward Air afterward.
Down Air's initial hit will now shrink in size after the first 3 active frames.
This allows opponents to challenge the later active frames more easily.
Wrastor is getting some adjustments to moves that opponents often fall out of to help with their consistency.
Down Special can now grab certain articles like Kragg’s Rock and La Reina’s Chair.
The innermost hitbox on Forward Tilt hits 1 and 2 now always send forward and have the highest priority of all the hitboxes.
This prevents enemies from falling out of the back of the move at point-blank spacings in most cases.
Getup Special now has a hitbox along the ground during the later active windows.
This prevents it from whiffing against opponents that shift toward the center. They can still escape from the top, however.
Kragg with a rock is incredibly strong, but obtaining one with Neutral Special was a bit more safe than we would like. We're increasing the commitment for pulling a rock, but at the same time making it less punishing to get hit out of rock pull's startup. We're also adjusting the size of his Down Air, since it was overcentralizing in many situations. We're also allowing him to break cancel his Up Throw when landing on his rock.
Neutral Special rock pull window length: 20 > 27
Neutral Special rock pull recovery window length: 7 > 10
Kragg with a rock is an extremely terrifying character, but getting a rock was a bit safer/easier than intended, so we're adding some startup before the rock is pulled.
Getting hit while in the rock pull window of Neutral Special will now leave Kragg with no rock.
This reduces the punishment for getting hit during the early rock pull frames.
Neutral Special rock pickup detection box shrunk slightly.
This reduces the range where Kragg can grab a rock behind him. The forward range is unchanged.
Rock can now be grabbed by command grabs that can grab articles.
Down Air active frames: 3 > 2
Removed the shoulder hitbox from Down Air.
Down Air range reduced.
Down Air wrist hitbox radius: 64 > 55
We're shrinking the whole move down significantly to make getting the high reward that it gives a bit less lenient. The recovery frames were also increased by 1 to keep the total move duration unchanged.
Down Air landing lag: 13 > 14
This makes the move very slightly more punishable and less advantageous.
Up Throw will now cancel on landing if the ground disappears from under him.
This allows him to cancel the recovery by slamming an opponent onto a rock.
We're shifting some of her power from her aerials to her specials so that her playstyle isn't overly focused on one thing. We're also toning down her Up Tilt, since combos out of it were a bit too strong.
Slow Fall joystick threshold: 0.75 > 0.7
This makes the slow fall input more responsive, especially when using diagonal-downward inputs. This value was adjusted from 0.8 to 0.75 in patch 1.0.3, but we want to make the input even more responsive than before.
Forward Special's initial wind arrow is now immune to projectiles.
This allows her to counter other projectiles with her Forward Special.
Forward Special tornado time between hits: 10 > 7
This prevents the opponent floorhug shielding/parrying after being hit.
Up Special's sourspot now reaches farther downward.
This prevents the sweetspot from hitting in awkward positions where the opponent is below and in front of Fleet.
Down Special recovery window fastfall frame: 16 > 8
Previously, fastfalling as early as possible caused Fleet to land 1 frame earlier than normal when used on flat ground. The new value causes her to land 5 frames faster, while also allowing her to mix up her movement earlier.
Down Special knockback angle: 85 > 88
This increases the reward on hit if the opponent doesn't DI out. Because of this move's high startup, getting the correct DI is often reactable, so we're making it a little better when you catch an opponent off-guard.
Up Tilt final hit knockback: 6.5 + 0.65 @ 90 > 6.5 + 0.75 @ 85
This makes it send opponents farther at high percents so that she will need to move farther to follow up.
Up Tilt startup: 8 > 10
Up Tilt recovery: 15 > 17
This reduces the advantage on hit and makes it more punishable on whiff or on shield. The extra startup reduces the ability to combo into itself again.
Neutral Air recovery: 20 > 25
Forward Air recovery: 20 > 23
Back Air recovery: 24 > 27
Fleet's ability to freely position herself offstage gives her unparalleled flexibility when edgeguarding, so we're increasing the recovery of a few of her aerials so that they're a bit more committal offstage.
Back Air landing lag: 13 > 14
This slightly expands the punish window when Fleet is throwing out Back Airs out of Slow Fall.
Down Air recovery: 29 > 39
This makes it much more committal and prevents her from continuing to fire arrows at opponents who are recovering low after the first one is unsuccessful. This change is especially noticeable when she's far from the wall, since that's where Down Air is the most dangerous.
Grab range reduced by around 8cm.
This makes it match the animation better.
Forward Throw arrows knockback angle: 45 > 40
This makes it send opponents more outward instead of upward.
Fixed a bug that prevented Back Throw arrows from applying a Stamina Tornado after using Special Pummel.
Now the Stamina Tornado application cooldown is only applied when spawned from a Back Throw arrow, and only prevents other Back Throw arrows from applying a new one for 1 second.
Getup Special meat air friction: 0.3 > 0.0
This increases the range of the move, but more importantly, makes the meat hit Fleet when parried.
Bug Fix: Arrows that hit the edge of a platform will now snap to the edge of the platform instead of being deleted
Bug Fix: Stamina Tornado will now transfer immediately on grab for hitgrabs and command grabs.
Stamina Tornado shield damage multiplier: x1 > x3
This increases the reward that Fleet gets for forcing an opponent to shield it.
Stamina Tornadoes can now be applied even if another one was just applied, unless the new one was applied with Back Throw.
This limitation was added to prevent Back Throw from applying multiple Stamina Tornadoes at once, but was applied to all methods of applying them instead of just Back Throw.
Maypul's horizontal air speed was an extreme outlier among the cast, making certain options in neutral, advantage, and recovery able to cover a bit too much distance, so we're decreasing it. It is still the highest in the game following this change. We're also cleaning up the hitboxes on some of her vine whip attacks, since they could be a bit unpredictable.
Max Horizontal Air Speed: 17 > 15
This still leaves her with the highest max horizontal air speed in the whole cast, excluding Wrastor in slipstream, but reduces the horizontal distance she can cover slightly. This impacts both her burst movement potential and her recovery. It impacts jump options and recovery more than run or dash off options, since it takes time for her air friction to slow her down to her new max.
Up Special late hit knockback: 6 + 0.93 > 6 + 0.89
Slight decrease to this move's killpower, since it can be a go to finisher to land on opponents high up in the air, due to her extreme movement stats.
Holding Up Special or Forward Special inputs at the end of hitstun will now instantly start the move when hitstun ends.
This allows Maypul to buffer tethers out of hitstun, since mashing tether inputs can lead to unintentionally using the move without canceling it into a tether.
Tether inputs performed with Special + Grab will now be successful even if the Grab input was pressed more than 6 frames ago.
This allows Maypul to buffer tether with Special + Grab out of hitstun.
Forward Strong and Down Strong hitboxes are now fully static.
Their erratic movement made the hitboxes a bit unpredictable, so we're making them fully consistent now. This decreases the range of Forward Strong slightly in all directions. Down Strong lost a tiny bit of forward range and a decent amount of upward range, making it not as good at anti-airing opponents.
Up Tilt upper and middle hitboxes shrunk and moved outward.
This allows more opponents to attack Maypul from directly above if they space their approach well.
Forward Air knockback angle: 325 > 320
We're reverting the knockback angle change for this move now that its maximum DI angle has been increased.
Up Air initial speed boost: 7 cm/f > 6 cm/f
This slightly decreases the height she gains with Up Air. This does not affect tether Up Air followups.
Maypul Up Air is a little too important to Maypul’s recovery plan and it’s not an intuitive input for new players. But it IS fun for Maypul players who have learned to use it. So we wanted to reduce its strength slightly but keep the mechanic intact.
Bug Fix: Indirect grabs will now also remove mark.
This applies to Galvan's Down Special and Ledge Special chains, since they are articles that grab instead of Galvan grabbing on his own.
Clairen is getting quite a few changes to many aspects of her kit, like higher air friction, reduced grab range, smaller jab hitboxes, a slightly slower Down Tilt, less stun on tipper Back Air, and a weaker Up Throw. These changes should shave off some of the rougher edges that players feel when fighting against her.
Air friction: 0.06 > 0.12
This means that she will slow down faster when moving above her max horizontal air speed, slightly decreasing her effective burst movement range in the air.
Standing grab and dash grab ranges reduced by around 10cm
This makes it slightly harder for her to put opponents into her powerful throw mixups. It also makes them match the animation better.
Up Special recovery window fastfall frame: 17 > 12
Up Special finisher recovery window fastfall frame: 24 > 17
This lets Clairen land earlier out of both parts of Up Special, making them a little better after hitting an opponent, as Clairen could often be punished for landing this attack.
Down Special intangibility on successful counter: 60 > 20
This makes the intangibility end as soon as she is actionable, reducing the reward on a successful counter.
Jab tipper radius: 50cm > 30cm, hitbox moved forward 20cm and stretched backward 20cm
Jab outer sourspot radius: 45cm > 40cm, hitbox moved forward 5cm and stretched backward 20cm
These changes preserve the forward range of both the tipper and the sourspot while shrinking them vertically significantly.
Down Tilt active frames: 3 > 2
This makes it require more precise timing when poking at recoveries.
Down Tilt recovery: 15 > 17
This reduces how quickly she can throw this move out and makes it slightly more punishable on whiff/shield.
Neutral Air sourspot multihit knockback: 4 + 0 > 4.4 + 0
This causes them to send opponents into medium hitstun, which makes them techable at the wall.
Forward Air recovery: 22 > 24
Forward Air hit 2 sourspot knockback: 6 + 0.55 > 6 + 0.6
This makes it harder for Clairen to combo after landing this move at high percents.
Back Air tipper hitpause multiplier: x1.05 > x0.85
This reduces the tipper stun by 4 frames (23 > 19), making followups afterward slightly less advantaged. More importantly, however, it makes shorthop instant hitfall Back Air not confirm into tipper Down Strong at high percents in most cases. Non-hitfall tipper Back Airs can still confirm into tipper Down Strong if Clairen lands immediately after it hits, but with less leniency than before.
Back Throw knockback: 7.5 + 0.3 @ 55 > 7.5 + 0.38 @ 50
This makes it send opponents farther at higher percents, reducing the potency of her 50/50 throw mixup, especially against floaty characters. The lower angle helps to make less-than-perfect DI angles less punishing.
Up Throw startup: 20 > 24
Up Throw recovery: 30 > 31
Up Throw knockback angle: 85 > 82
The strength of Clairen's up throw was a bit too high considering how good her forward and back throws are, so we're making it a little more reactable and reducing the potency of its followups slightly.
Bug Fix: Ledge Attack ledge release frame: 29 > 30
This bug was introduced when the frame data of this move was last changed.
Bug Fix: Interrupting ledge special before the 2nd hit will now prevent the 2nd hit from coming out.
This already happened if she was interrupted early in the recovery frames, but now it can be canceled any time before hit 2's active frames.
Loxodont is getting some very small changes that clean up Down Tilt's hitboxes and make the reverse hit of Neutral Air slightly better when hitfalling it.
Forward Special can now grab certain articles like Kragg’s Rock and La Reina’s Chair.
Down Tilt innermost hitbox moved 30cm forward.
This reduces the backward range of the move slightly.
Neutral Air hit 2 hitfall hitstun multiplier: x0.75 > x1
We're removing this multiplier, since the knockback and startup are strong enough for it to be unnecessary.
Bug Fix: Molten Boulders will now send players in the intended direction if they hit a player while in hitpause.
Previously, the boulder could send players in the opposite direction if it was facing that direction before getting hit.
We're doing a bit of hitbox cleanup on Down Tilt, Forward Strong, and Back Air, while reducing the strength of his Forward Air a bit, including the indirect change it got from the global DI staling change. He's also getting a few quality-of-life changes to his smoke clouds.
Down Tilt's innermost hitbox now disappears on the last active frame.
This reduces the backward range of the move, since that hitbox moved significantly back on the last active frame.
Forward Strong cape hit active frames: 5 > 3
This makes it require a bit more precision to hit, since it doesn't take up such a large space for as long. The recovery and cancel frames were also increased by 2 to keep the same overall attack duration and functionality.
Forward Air damage: 6 > 5
This move can easily chain into itself, so we're very slightly decreasing the reward for doing so.
Forward Air active frames: 3 > 2
This is a very minor change that makes the move require a little more precision to use well. The recovery frames were also increased by 1 to keep the same total attack duration.
Back Air innermost hitbox shrunk for both the early and late hits.
This reduces the area that can hit opponents in front of Forsburn.
Back Air landing lag: 12 > 14
While this already had very high landing lag, it still felt too safe to throw out due to its large size, long active frames, and Forsburn's movement properties.
Back Throw knockback angle: 40 > 35
This makes it send opponents at a more favorable angle, especially on DI out.
Smoke cloud intangibility on spawn: 10 > 20 frames
This prevents the clouds from being destroyed before they were fully formed. This also helps to prevent most attacks from hitting the clone and then destroying the resulting smoke cloud instantly.
Smoke clouds will now be destroyed if Forsburn gets hit within 10 frames of them spawning
This prevents situations where Forsburn gets hit and then a smoke cloud appears shortly afterward. The clouds are fully invisible for those 10 frames, so it will now appear as if they never spawned in the first place.
Bug Fix: Fixed a bug that caused smoke clouds to hide Forsburn as soon as they spawned instead of waiting until they were fully formed.
Etalus had a few overcentralizing moves, like Dash Attack and Forward Air, that are getting some changes to make them require a bit more precision to get full value out of them. His Forward Strong is getting a nice change that should make it much more threatening when approaching an opponent with it.
Dash Attack sweetspot knockback angle: 45 > 55
This makes inward DI put the opponent less forward than before, requiring Etalus to adjust his positioning a bit more to follow up.
Dash Attack hitstun multiplier: x1 > x0.8
This makes comboing out of it less lenient, since the jump cancel makes it quite strong.
His head is now intangible during Forward Strong's active windows.
This makes it much better at challenging opponents in front of him.
Forward Air range reduced.
This attack was a little more safe than we would like to throw out and land.
Forward Air's innermost hitbox is now a sourspot with the highest priority and knockback: 5.5 + 1.0 > 5.5 + 0.85
This makes Etalus have to space the move with more precision to land the sweetspot. The sourspot is fairly small, however, so he will still be hitting the sweetspot more often than not.
Up Air can now grab certain articles like Kragg Rock and La Reina’s Chair.
Up Air knockback: 5 + 0.5 > 4.5 + 0.5
Slight reduction to its knockback at low percent.
Up Air hitstun multiplier: x1 > x0.9
This move was a bit too good at putting opponents in a dire position. It is still extremely good on hit, but enemies won't be forced to fall so far before they can start to recover.
Down Throw knockback angle: 65 > 45
Previously, this throw wasn't useful unless Etalus was armored. The new knockback angle makes it better at sending opponents offstage.
Bug Fix: Ice Armor will no longer be removed when performing an aerial on the frame that you leave a ledge
This was happening because it was starting a strong attack and then ledge canceling it into the aerial.
Olympia's recovery was much too versatile for how powerful her onstage presence is, so we're significantly toning down Forward Special so that her options are more limited in certain positions. She's also getting higher ground friction to make her less slippery.
Ground friction: 0.5 > 0.75
The main goal of this change is to make her slide less when she is knocked into the ground, since her extremely high gravity and fall speed stats make her much more likely to land mid-combo. This also decreases the range of some of her other grounded movement options, like wavedash and dacus, although this change is mostly aimed at reducing the frequency of slideoffs.
Forward Special can now grab certain articles like Kragg’s Rock and La Reina’s Chair.
Forward Special will now go into special fall on whiff.
The lack of special fall was originally a part of this move when it was limited to once per airtime before her public release. Removing one limitation without adding the other made her recovery a bit too versatile, since she had access to two separate horizontal dashes that left her actionable afterward. With this change, she won't be able to use Forward Special freely when recovering from far offstage.
Forward Special fastfall frame moved 5 frames later.
This slightly reduces the versatility of this move as a recovery tool, especially when used right above ledge.
Absa is getting a few small changes, like making Up Special a bit easier to challenge and increasing the size of Down Tilt.
Up Special now expands her hurtbox during the active windows and the window between them.
This allows opponents to better challenge it with their own attacks.
Down Tilt hitbox radius increased by 5cm and moved 5cm upward
This increases its range in every direction except for downward.
Hitting Absa will now remove her Special Pummel static electricity.
This makes it so Absa must capitalize on the static electricity before getting hit, since it's such a strong status effect.
Bug Fix: Getup Special's lightning strike will now be destroyed if Kragg's pillar is destroyed with Absa on top of it.
Galvan is getting some small changes to Forward Special that will make it less punishable on startup and less punishing when knocking opponents into the wall.
Up Special's platform now has an offscreen indicator.
Forward Special startup: 24 > 20
This makes Galvan slightly less vulnerable when recovering and makes it slightly harder to react to in neutral.
Forward Special multihits knockback: 9 + 0.2 > 8.65 + 0
This makes them send into medium hitstun instead of heavy hitstun, preventing them from causing a wall bounce if the opponent misses the wall tech.
Added a small hitbox to the tip of Up Strong.
This makes it match the animation better and reach very slightly higher.
Send Us Your Feedback
As always, send us your suggestions on The La Reina update over on our nolt board at rivals2.com/nolt. You can submit bug and help requests by joining our Discord too. Just look for the #support-ticket channel.