Ninjala (Switch): Software updates (latest: Ver. 2.1)

2 October 20202 October 2020 Lite_Agent GungHo, Ninjala

On this page, you will find all there is to know about the various Software updates for Ninjala on Nintendo Switch (originally released on June 24th 2020 in Europe and North America, and June 25th 2020 in Japan)!

Click here for more Software updates!

Ninjala – Ver. 2.1

Release date: October 2nd 2020 (North America, Europe, Japan)
Patch notes:

Gum Weapon Parameter Adjustments

The Ninjala development team is dedicated to ensuring that players can enjoy a wide variety of battling styles.
After careful observation of winning percentages by gum weapon and weapon popularity, we have implemented a host of balance adjustments.

In addition to revising hitstop to improve the overall tempo of battle, we’ve made adjustments to the “SK8 Hammer” and “Sushi Axe” weapons, which have demonstrated a disproportionately high usage and victory rate.
We hope these refinements will allow players to better enjoy the diversity that Ninjala battles offer.

– The strength of back attacks has been reduced.

The purpose of this adjustment is to slow the speed at which drones can be destroyed.
We have determined that using Gum Grenade followed by a back attack has allowed Sushi Axe wielders to destroy drones with excessive speed right from the beginning of battles, giving them an unfair advantage particularly in Battle Royale matches.

By reducing the strength of back attacks, it will no longer be possible to destroy drones with a medium weapon simply by the combination of Gum Grenade and a back attack.
As the relative strength compared to other gum weapons balances out in the later stages when most players have big weapons, we have set the damage so that it will still be possible to destroy drones in the traditional way with a big weapon.

Their explosive strength as big weapons and benefits in team battles are still intact, so we hope players will continue to enjoy the destruction power of the SK8 Hammer and Sushi Axe.

■ All Gum Weapons
– Hitstop duration has been shortened to improve overall game tempo

Feature Additions and Adjustments

■ Addition of event-specific rules
　- The new Featured Battle mode offering special limited-time battle rules has been added.
　　For more details on the event schedule, rules, and rewards, follow the link below.

Featured Battle: Release the Beast!

■ Matching Improvements
　- It is now possible to select whether to set the matching range to Global or Regional.
　　The countries that correspond to each region of Ninjala are as follows:

Asia/Oceania: Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand

North America: United States, Canada, Mexico

Europe: Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Austria, Portugal, Russia, Switzerland, Ireland, United Kingdom, Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland, Republic of Slovakia, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Greece, Croatia, Bulgaria, Republic of Romania , Cyprus, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, Republic of Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia.

* Players residing in countries other than the above will be assigned to one of the existing regions, and will still be able to play the game.

　- It is now possible to cancel matching searches

　- Connection will no longer be cut off if you press the Home button during matching.

■ UI Improvements
　- The “Try On” feature has been added to the specialty shop.

■ Resolution of Known Issues
　- Various adjustments and bug fixes have been implemented to ensure a smooth and enjoyable gameplay experience.

Additional notes: the update is required in order to keep playing the game.
Source: GungHo

Ninjala – Ver. 2.0

Release date: August 7th 2020 (North America, Europe, Japan)
Patch notes:

About this Update

Thank you for playing Ninjala.

This update contains even more wide-ranging improvements, adjustments, and bug fixes to further enhance your Ninjala gameplay experience.

There are three main goals we hope to achieve with this update:
– Offering an ideal matching environment
– Improving player experience through UI/UX
– Further polish game balance

The Ninjala team has recognized that the current matching environment is far from ideal, and has taken player feedback deeply to heart.
In hopes of offering our players an improved matching experience, we have implemented a major update to the matching system.
Furthermore, we have updated elements of the UI that were hampering users to provide smoother, more intuitive gameplay.
Needless to say, we have also further refined weapon parameters to allow players of all experience and skill levels, from beginners to experts, to enjoy Ninjala.

Please read on if you would like to review the changes implemented with this update in detail.

Matching on a Worldwide Scale

Up to this point, matching has been broken down into four regions: North and Central America, Europe, Asia/Ocenania, and Japan.
The initial intent of this was to prevent matchups between players located physically far away, which were more likely to suffer from lag and transmission speed issues.

Since then, however, we have taken into account player feedback, in particular that it was frustrating not to be able to play with family or friends who live abroad in another region, or to find opponents in one’s own region late at night or at other times when the player base was reduced.
To address the situation, we have now made it possible to match with players of any region, provided that transmission speeds fall within defined acceptable parameters.

Now that matching has been unified across all regions, we believe it will now be possible to find worthy teammates and opponents at all hours of the day, and that Battle Royale ranked matches will be more rewarding.

In accordance with this change, player rankings—previously broken down by region—will also be unified across the entire world.
From this day forward, Ninjala will become a truly global competition.

*Please note that as a side effect, you may be more likely to experience lag depending on the location of your opponent.
Please confirm your connection speeds via the newly added lag value display and antenna icons.
As a general reference, a relatively smooth gameplay experience can be enjoyed with values of up to 150 msec, but 200 msec and beyond will result in considerable lag. Furthermore, in Ranked and Free Matches, opponents and servers with lower lag values will be prioritized.
To improve transaction speeds, we recommend that you connect with a wired connection or a stable, high-speed Wi-Fi connection.

Matching Improvements

In Ninjala, matching is configured so that you are most likely to be matched with players of the same rank as you. However, when such players cannot be found, the system allows for matching with players of different ranks to avoid situations in which no match can be made.
This was particularly an issue with Battle Royale ranked matches. With matching now conducted globally provided lag is within defined acceptable parameters, you will now be more likely to be matched with players of the same rank, reducing the likelihood of unbalanced matches. Furthermore, the matching settings themselves have also been refined so that it is less likely you will be matched with players of widely varying ranks. That said, there is a certain degree of conflict between our two goals of ensuring balanced matches and allowing for ease of matching. To ensure an optimal matching experience going forward, we intend to closely monitor the situation and make further adjustments as deemed necessary. Furthermore, there was an issue where the time until a room was disbanded was too long, resulting in long wait times after battles could be started with 6 or 7 players. To address this, we have shortened the time until rooms are disbanded, which we hope will lead to quicker-starting battles.

Gum Weapon Parameter Adjustments

The Ninjala development team is dedicated to ensuring that players can enjoy a wide variety of battling styles. After careful observation of winning percentages by gum weapon and weapon popularity, we have implemented a host of balance adjustments.

In particular, we have enhanced currently unpopular weapons such as “Iron Noise”, “Drum Beat”, “Mellow à la Mode” and “Trick Ball”, and balanced “SK8 Hammer” and “Sushi Axe”.

With this adjustment, various weapons are used more than ever before.

We hope that the result will be even more rewarding Ninjala battles for all players.

– “Charging Slash” will now have an increased chance of landing a blow.
– Charging Slash is a quick and powerful dash attack, but due to its rushing movement, attacks very often missed and came up empty.

Although the IPPON Katana and Scroll Blade are popular among advanced players as well, they are particularly widely used among beginners.
In order to give beginners an effective weapon that would not be overpowered in the hands of advanced players, we have raised the homing capability of Charging Slash to make it easier to use.

However, the team is aware of its strength when combined with Wall Shooter, and we therefore intend to monitor winning percentages closely to ensure balance among gum weapons.

– The amount players’ ninjutsu gauge increases when landing back attacks has been reduced.
Previously, it was set to offer increased ninjutsu gauge gains when successfully landing back attacks, but after observing disproportionately high use and winning percentages, we have reduced this amount.

Back attacks are still an effective way to build up your ninjutsu gauge, but due to the lower turnover rate, you will now need to attack more aggressively than before.

– The ability “Hyper Boost” will now increase movement speed even more.
– The strength of normal attacks has been reduced.
– The timing at which successful back attacks can be canceled has been sped up.
– The range of wide attacks has been reduced slightly.
– The following adjustments have been made to “Power Buster”.
　Cooldown time has been increased.
　The timing with which Super Armor is engaged has been delayed slightly.
　Attack power has been increased.
　Attack range has been reduced slightly.

With the adjustments this time, we have balanced “Power Buster” and increased the time needed to destroy drones, and made other enhancements to balance this out.

“Power Buster” is an extremely effective attack, and we observed many situations in which it was able to completely dominate a wild battle.
With this latest adjustment, it will take slightly longer for Super Armor to activate, meaning you will have to be more careful with timing when you use it.
In addition, to compensate for attacks being more difficult to land, they will now be more effective when they hit.
It will now be more effective to land finishing blows in complicated situations, as well as to take drones away from your opponents.
We believe you will observe that its “explosive power” has increased.

The combo of “Power Buster” and two normal attacks will still be effective, so we believe that this adjustment will not result in significantly altered firepower in battle.

– Normal attacks have received the following adjustments:
　Sound wave bullets will now appear more quickly.
　Sound wave bullets will now begin homing more quickly.
　The timing at which one can cancel by jumping and evading has been accelerated.

– The following adjustments have been made to “Echoing Scream”:
　You will now move further when attacking.
　You will now move earlier when attacking.
　The position of sound waves generated has been altered so that it is easier for the attack to land.

The weapons “Iron Noise” and “Drum Beat”, while effective when used for support in Team Battles, often struggled in Battle Royale matches.
These adjustments will make it easier to effectively use these weapons’ sound waves, and it will now be easier to hit opponents with “Echoing Scream”.
Use sound waves effectively and bring the beat down on your opponents!

– The second hit of normal attacks will now do more damage.
– The homing ability of back attacks has been reduced.
– The duration of gum binds inflicted with break attacks has been extended slightly.
– The warp timing for “Yo-yo Leap” has been sped up.

With the adjustments made last update, the “Ninja Yo-yo” and “Shinobi Spinner” weapons are not as powerful as they once were, but they remain highly popular.
This time, we have enhanced these weapons in some ways, with the goal of making the yo-yo even more uniquely suited for a tricky fighting style.

The reduced homing ability of back attacks will mean it will now be more difficult to hit opponents who dodge to the side.
Furthermore, we have increased the damage dealt by the second hit of normal attacks to ensure that combo damage is not reduced too much.

– The cancel timing for the second hit of normal attacks has been sped up.
– Wide attacks have received the following adjustments:
　The hit detection range for the first hit has been reduced slightly.
　The vertical hit detection range for the second hit has been expanded.

With both “Mellow à la Mode” and “Trick Ball”, the time required to transform your foe and then do damage with a combo was quite long, making it easy to be interrupted by other players.
With this adjustment, the tempo of normal attacks has been sped up, making it easier to land combos and defeat your opponents quickly.

All Gum Weapons

– The homing ability of break attacks has been adjusted so that homing cannot keep up with back attacks.
– The hitstop duration when landing a Gum Break on an opponent blowing a bubble or using an S-Burst has been shortened.
– The amount of S-Energy consumed by avoiding parries has been reduced from 4 to 3 units.

Ninja Tornado

– The time it takes to launch an attack has been shortened.
It will now be possible to attack more quickly than before, allowing weapons to be more useful in various situations.

Punishing Blade

– The reaction when a player is hit by an initial attack has been altered to make it easier to land consecutive attacks.
– The distance traveled with follow-up attacks has been increased, also making it easier to pursue opponents.
– The effect time of “Punishing Blade” has been shortened.

The weapon “Drill Beast”, which allows players to use “Punishing Blade”, is tremendously popular, particularly among players from the Apprentice to Vanguard Ninja ranks.
However, at ranks of Elite Ninja and above, both its winning percentage and usage rate drop dramatically.
This is because Punishing Blade leaves the user unprotected when being activated. As players become more experienced and aware of this, Punishing Blade is often quickly targeted, resulting in the user getting punished instead.
Even when attacks successfully hit, it could be interrupted by other players before a combo could be landed, letting opponents escape.
With this adjustment, successfully landing an attack once will make it more difficult for opponents to get away, making it easier to punish them until the end.
To offset this and ensure that it does not become overly popular among the Apprentice to Vanguard Ninja ranks, the duration has been shortened.

Gum Searcher

– Cooldown time has been reduced.
– Effect duration has been shortened.
Currently, Gum Searcher appears difficult to use, and has not been producing good results, so we have reduced the cooldown time.
With the reduced cooldown, it will now be possible to set it near drones as a diversionary tactic, allowing it to be used more widely in various situations.

All Gum Shoots

– All gum shoots can now be canceled by Specials

Feature Additions and Adjustments

UI Improvements

We have implemented a number of improvements to the Ninjala UI.

– Parry Guide HUD

– An icon has been added to indicate a big weapon wins out over a smaller weapon with the same attack. This adjustment will make it easier to tell when a parry was won or lost normally, or due to weapon size.

– When choosing your parry attack, attacks with a Super Armor effect in the event of a tie will be indicated as such with an icon.

– After choosing your parry attack, when a tie results in Super Armor being activated, this will be indicated with an icon.

Certain Yo-yo and Hammer Type weapons offer a Super Armor effect in the event that you and your opponent choose the same attack type. This UI modification will make it easier to recognize which weapons offer this effect, as well as when the effect is activated.

UX Improvements

– It will now be easier to understand the current matching situation in the Standby Dojo. The remaining number of users still preparing in the lobby will now be displayed. When everyone is ready, it will change to a message indicating that the battle will begin soon.

– The initial list displayed after selecting Room Battle has been changed to include Team Battles.

– In the event that players have formed a party, it will now be possible to see which players are currently partied with each other in the Matching Lobby and elsewhere.

– The initial cursor position for the matching confirmation screen has been switched to “Yes”.

– Yes/No confirmation windows can now be closed with the B Button.

Other Additions and Adjustments

– The remaining effect duration of “Punishing Blade” is now displayed on-screen.
– The attack range of “Echoing Scream” has been adjusted to that it matches the range of the visual effect.
– The Reverse Mode camera setting has been altered so that it no longer affects gyroscope controls.
– When crafting weapons by pressing the ZL and A Buttons simultaneously, the gum will automatically expand to the maximum possible size and create a weapon.
– At beginner levels, the message “Find a drone and defeat it!” will now appear at the start of battle.
– At times when you are unable to blow a bubble, an icon will now be displayed to indicate this situation.
– A number indicating transmission speed will now be displayed at the start of battle and on the Results screen.
– The positions of the “Standings” and “Detailed Results” buttons on the Results screen have been altered.
– The Player Info screen has been adjusted to show level/EXP and rating gauges.
– The Chapter Rewards screen in Story Mode has been changed to show obtainable rewards and the conditions for obtaining them.
– The disbanding time limit for Ninjala Battles has been reduced from 150 seconds to 70 seconds.

Resolution of Known Issues

– An issue where camera speed would unnaturally increase when performing certain actions while “Piercing Mixer” was engaged has been resolved.
– An issue with the “Mellow à la Mode” and “Trick Ball” weapons where defeating an enemy with a normal attack or back attack blast would not result in an IPPON even if the requisite conditions were met has been resolved.
– An issue where player face icons did not display properly has been resolved.
– An issue where banners did not display properly when at your base has been resolved.
– An issue where Story Mode chapter rewards were not properly displayed has been resolved.
In addition to the above, additional refinements and bug fixed have been implemented to ensure a smoother, more enjoyable game experience.

Additional notes: the update is required in order to keep playing the game.
Source: GungHo

Ninjala – Ver. 1.2

Release date: July 16th 2020 (North America) / July 17th 2020 (Europe, Japan)
Patch notes:

Gum Weapon Parameter Adjustments

Thank you for playing Ninjala.

Since the game’s release, we have observed our players researching gum weapons and becoming more and more proficient in wielding them. As a result, we have seen variations in gum weapon popularity, and are pleased to see a wide variety of gum weapons currently in use. The Ninjala development team is dedicated to ensuring that players can enjoy a wide variety of battling styles. After careful observation of winning percentages by gum weapon, ranking status, and so forth, we have implemented a host of balance adjustments.

Firstly, we have made adjustments to the massively powerful “Ninja Yo-yo,” as well as the Gum Ninjutsu “Piercing Mixer”, which had been achieving extraordinarily high scores. In addition, we have implemented some tweaks to make the Gum Ninjutsu “Dragon Lord” and “Ninja Tornado” easier to use.
We hope this adjustment will allow players to further explore the allure of the full lineup of gum weapons.

Damage dealt by the warp attack of the special “Yo-Yo Leap” has been reduced.
Yo-yo-type weapons can be tricky to use, but master them and you’ll be rewarded with high performance and a powerful gum weapon.
The warp attack was so damaging and powerful, that in Battle Royale mode with a large weapon, the “Yo-yo Leap” special and a warp attack alone were enough to destroy a DARUMA (standard size) drone.
As a result, yo-yo-wielding players were able to destroy drones disproportionately faster compared to players using other gum weapon types, leading to score disparities.

With this adjustment, we have reduced the damage dealt, so drones will take slightly longer to destroy than before.
We hope that this will serve to even the playing field against ninjas who attempt to destroy all the drones by themselves and quickly run away.

Ninja Tornado

・The attack strength of the Gum Ninjutsu “Ninja Tornado” has been increased.
“Ninja Tornado” renders the user invincible after activation and is useful for both offense and defense, but it was slightly lacking in decisive punch, so we’ve increased the attack strength a bit.
With this adjustment, in Battle Royale, KABUKI (large-type) drones can be destroyed in a single hit, giving you an advantage in the battle to destroy more drones than your opponents.
This will also require all ninja to be more careful when low on life

Dragon Lord

・The attack strength of the Gum Ninjutsu “Dragon Lord” has been increased.
The “Dragon Lord” Gum Ninjutsu offered relatively low attack power, but made up for this with a rapidly refillable ninjutsu gauge.
However, it often failed to finish off opponents, making it difficult to make effective use of in battle.
With this adjustment, the attack power has been increased so that it can now destroy a DARUMA (normal-size) drone with a single hit.
We hope it can now be used more effectively in a wide variety of situations, against opponents, drones, or both.
Dragon Lord has been reborn as a more powerful dragon. We look forward to seeing it bear its fangs in battle.

・The tracking time of the Gum Ninjutsu “Dragon Lord” has been extended.
The duration it homes against your opponents has increased, making it harder to evade.
Furthermore, it can now be effectively used to attack enemies farther away than before.

・The ninjutsu gauge capacity required to activate the Gum Ninjutsu “Dragon Lord” has been slightly increased.
To reflect the enhanced power and abilities of the “Dragon Lord” ninjutsu, the ninjutsu gauge cost has been increased slightly.

Feature Additions and Adjustments

・Tier Points have been adjusted. Players will now receive 4x more Tier Points at match end.
・Lobby waiting time has been reduced from 60 seconds to 30 seconds.
・When matching for Battle Royale, the battle can be started if there are 6 or more participants.
・When matching for Team Battle mode, battles can now be started when there are 3 players on each team.
・Player level required to unlock the Ninjala Battle and Invite functions has been reduced from level 5 to level 3.
・In-game tips information has been updated.
・Tips now display when transitioning from the Standby Dojo to the start of battle.
・Standby Dojo NPC opponents now are able to use S-Bursts.
・The Online Manual can now also be accessed from a banner in your base.
・When configuring room battles, passwords can no longer be visually recognized after input.
*To completely prevent the password from being identified on the game screen, you must have a USB keyboard connected.

Resolution of Known Issues

・An issue where extremely poor transmission speeds would cause identification of teammates and opponents has been resolved.
・An issue where extremely poor transmission speeds would cause glitches in the stage display when transitioning to the standby dojo has been resolved.
・An issue where being hit by the Gum Ninjutsu “Tenchi Muyo” would occcasionally cause players to freeze in midair has been resolved.
・An issue wherein loading favorite costumes in the Matching Lobby would cause your avatar icon to not display properly has been resolved.
・In addition to the above, other issues have been resolved to ensure a smoother, more enjoyable game experience.

List of changes:

Provides various battle balance adjustments.

Additional notes: the update is required in order to keep playing the game.
Source: GungHo

Ninjala – Ver. 1.1

Release date: June 19th 2020 (Europe, North America, Japan)
Patch notes:

No patch notes available.

Additional notes: this is the base version of the game that you get by pre-downloading it from the Nintendo eShop
Source: game

How to download updates for Ninjala for the Nintendo Switch?

To download the updates for Ninjala, you have three options:

let the console do its thing if you have automatic downloads activated, and didn’t completely turn it off

If not…

try to launch the game from the Home Menu while being connected to the internet. You should get a prompt when doing so: simply follow the instructions on screen;

select the game > press either + or – to go to the Options page > select Software update > select Via the Internet.

To check that you have the latest version installed, simply select the game on the Home Menu, and press – or + to go to the Options: the version number is displayed just below the game title.