Rivals of Aether (Switch): all the updates (latest: Ver. 2.1.5.5 / Next: Ver. 2.1.5.7 to Ver. 2.1.7.4)

Ver. 2.1.5.7

• Fixed issues with The Spirit Tree’s last stock transition.
• Fixed Absa’s Ftilt hitbox size
• Fixed Sylvanos’s Dspecial damage
• Fixed Custom stages always having The Endless Abyss as a preview image.
• The two balance fixes were accidentally reverted to an older patch with the latest update and have been changed back to their intended size and damage values.

Ver. 2.1.6.0

General

 

• Hitboxes with Priority 0 (meaning they only hit projectiles) will now appear gray when hitboxes are visible.
• Bug Fix: Fixed the D-pad being unable to perform certain actions when set to Walk instead of Run
• Bug Fix: Fixed a bug that turned characters invisible if killed while armored crystallization is active on them.
• Bug Fix: Fixed a bug where the game would not track the color players would hover/select on the newest four characters.
• Workshop: Added function: get_color_profile_slot_range(slot, hsv).
• Workshop: Added support for `wallcling.png` sprites. If this isn’t found, it’ll use `walljump.png` and the `wall_frames` variable for the duration of wallcling.
• Workshop: Fixed palette 31 for custom characters being sent as negative when online.

Mollo

Mollo is getting more and more attuned to the Rivals world with every patch. This time we focused on once again toning down his wackiness while taking a swing at his stalling capabilities and his Finisher bomb usage. We’ve also given some love to his bomb interactions, up air, and up strong.

• Up Throw: Reduced window that can cause landing lag, 12 > 6 frames
  • This should make landing during aerial up throws feel less awkward for Mollo.
• Up Air: Second hit KB Scaling increased, 0.7 > 0.8.
  • This is halfway between the strength of launch Mollo Up Air 2 and last patch. Mollo should now be able to net kills at more reasonable percents.
• Neutral Special: Pulling a bomb no longer affects falling speeds, removing frequent aerial stalls.
  • Pulling bombs in the air has been a key tactic for Mollos to slow down the game and frustrate opponents. This change will affect his offstage stalling as well, forcing Mollo players to be more decisive in their recoveries. Players could try utilizing the new right stick bomb angles to throw bombs straight down during his Up Special to achieve a vertical boost while having full range of Mollo’s motion with the left stick.
• Up Strong: Hits 2 and 3 have been extended forward and downward by 10 pixels to help the move connect into itself more consistently.
• Forward Strong: Projectile-only hitboxes have been added near the ground to hit bombs easier.
• Down Special: Projectile-only hitboxes have been added near the ground to hit bombs easier.
• Bomb Throws: You can now angle bomb throws during strong inputs and Up Special with the right stick (this input overrides the left stick).
• Bug Fix: Getting hit while holding a flashing Finisher bomb no longer resets its countdown once it has already started.
  • This bug fix was a main focus of Mollo’s portion of the patch, aiming to make Finisher a harder commitment than the current meta of using it as his main option.
• Bug Fix: Down Throw (Air): Landing while charging now immediately ends the charge instead of having Mollo slide across the ground in specific situations.
  • This fixes what the community knows as “the cha-cha slide.”
• Bug Fix: Forward Throw: Fixed bombs being thrown too early, which caused them to warp in front of Mollo.
• Bug Fix: Bombs: Fixed a bug where getting hit when holding a partially-detonated firecracker interrupts the rest of the detonations.
• Bug Fix: Bombs: Fixed a duplication bug involving buffering a throw and wavelanding to spawn extra bombs.
• Bug Fix: Bombs: Fixed bonk hitboxes being destroyed too soon, meaning they will consistently destroy solid articles like Kragg pillars.
• Bug Fix: Bombs: Bombs now explode properly when bonking against a ceiling.
• Bug Fix: Bombs: Fixed grounded bombs being stuck as an active projectile.
• Bug Fix: Dash Attack: Fixed grabbed bombs acting as if they’re on the ground, which caused some odd platform interactions.
• Bug Fix: Dash Attack: Fixed thrown bombs appearing to teleport upwards for one frame.
• Bug Fix: Dash Attack: Grabbing bombs now uses a projectile only hitbox for greater consistency.

Olympia

Dan told us to stop changing Olympia but we could help giving her some more fine tuning as we tackle a few semi-niche interactions and redistribute some power on her strong attacks.

• Gem: You can now perform jump cancels out of Forward Special and Down Special startup in an opponent’s gem field.
  • Everyone else gets to have fun in the mirror, why not Olympia?
• Down Strong: Startup reduced, 24 > 18
  • Down Strong is often overlooked despite its unique crystal spawning capabilities. We’ll be keeping an eye on this move as the meta continues to shape.
• Forward Special: The active dash window can now go off ledges during its first 3 frames.
  • We’ve heard some complaints from players that charging the move midair could result in Olympia getting stuck on a ledge/platform if released slightly too late. This change should allow Olympia players to utilize her burst more consistently in ledge scenarios.
• Down Special: Dash cancel no longer has invulnerability frames.
  • The few frames of invulnerability during her dash often caused some weird interactions and missed attacks by opponents. If you want to avoid an attack, try absorbing the hit before dashing!
• Up Strong: Decreased final hit KB scaling, 1.2 > 1.15
• Up Tilt 1: Damage increased, 5% > 7%
• Neutral Special: Her projectile now creates a gem when it hits a wall instead of disappearing.
• Bug Fix: Crystalize: The pop hitbox now only lasts 1 frame, which should fix frame-perfect hits getting overridden by it. This should remove interactions causing lost kills and shortened combos.
• Bug Fix: Fixed Down Special removing respawn invulnerability early.
• Bug Fix: Fixed Forward Special dash not moving up ledges if started against a ledge.

Pomme

Pomme is once again getting a magnifying glass brought to her special moves and stalling capabilities. We are once again reducing her ability to stall offstage while making sure she still sports one of the strongest recoveries in the game. We hope that these changes along with some balance changes and bug fixes for our favorite bodyguard, Vince, will make Pomme just as fun to fight against as she is to play.

• Up Strong: Evened out damages of sourspot and sweetspot, 10% and 14% > 12.
• Up Strong: Increased sourspot BKB to match sweetspot, 7 > 9.
• Up Strong: Evened out base hitpause of sourspot and sweetspot, 10 and 18 > 14.
  • These changes mean that there are no longer sourspot or sweetspot hitboxes. Both pre-existing hitboxes are now the same strength with the same overall properties, which should help balance out a previously underpowered Up Strong.
• Forward Air: Back hitbox now ignores projectiles.
  • This should make Pomme’s reverse Forward Air burst recovery less safe against most of the cast.
• Forward Air: Reduced width of front hitboxes, 50 and 70 > 42 and 62.
• Forward Air: Pushed out front hitboxes to account for the reduced width.
  • These changes should make Pomme’s Forward Air less of a guessing game between sweetspot and back hitbox to both players when an opponent is hit near the center of Pomme. Pomme’s Forward Air still reaches the same distance in front of her as before.
    
• Neutral Special: Added a visual for Pomme’s notes getting knocked off of her.
  • This visual has been on the Switch build since Pomme’s release, but has been bugged on PC due to visuals affected by rollback coding.
• Forward Special: Moved Vince’s grab hitbox up by 8 pixels to avoid grabbing wall clinging opponents.
• Forward Special: Vince now displays a super armor effect when fully charged.
• Forward Special: Vince stops blocking attacks once he starts fading out.
  • Updates to Vince this should help him feel more consistent and less gimmicky to all players.
• Up Special: Early hits have shockwaves and galaxy effects disabled to avoid repeated vfx playing when near blastzones.
• Up Special: Holding Dodge during the first six frames of startup allows you to cancel into the dive variant.
• Up Special: The dive variant now interrupts horizontal momentum for consistency.
• Down Special: Can now only be used once per airtime.
• Down Special: Using Up Special to restore your float now reduces the songfield’s timer to 1 second. This will reduce Dspecial’s cooldown to a maximum of 5 seconds.
  • Using the stage dive variant will not restore float or consume field.
• Down Special: Added a UI element showing if Down Special can be used.
  • Float and repeated Down Special abuse offstage has been a key offender resulting in some of the less approachable ways to play against Pomme. The rework to her Down Special and addition of stage dive variant on-command should keep Pomme’s recovery strong while introducing completely new mixups and removing the painful offstage stalling.
• Bug Fix: Forward Special: Vince no longer teleports through pillars or rocks.
• Bug Fix: Forward Special: Vince’s grab hitbox is now only destroyed by successfully grabbing players, not just hitting articles.
• Bug Fix: Forward Special: Hitting Vince should now trigger every on-hit interaction as other solid articles.

Hodan

Hodan is getting a lighter but still important cleanup of kit. We’re focusing on moves connecting better and bringing some re-balancing of his more oppressive and less frequently used attacks.

• Up Strong: Removed KB scaling from the initial upwards hits.
• Up Strong: Increased BKB of initial hits, 7 and 8 > 8 and 9.
• Up Strong: Slamming grabbed opponents should now work more reliably when solid blocks are above Hodan.
  • Up Strong should now connect with itself more consistently and slam opponents more reliably.
• Forward Tilt: Sourspot KB adjusted, 9 + 0.2 > 8 + 0.3
• Forward Tilt: Startup reduced, 17 > 14
  • Forward Tilt has been one of Hodan’s least used moves. Giving it some adjusted KB values and speeding it up should help it find a home in his kit.
• Forward Air: Added 10 frames of hit lockout.
  • The extra hit lockout should make it less common for sweatwhirls to interrupt kills.
• Up Air: Increased landing lag, 4 > 7.
• Up Air: Increased hit two KB scaling, 0.5 > 0.7
  • Up Air loops have been one of Hodan’s most devastating tools. The extra landing lag and KB scaling should allow for opponents to escape the blender much quicker, while still keeping the move as a powerful tool in his kit.
• Down Air: Increased spike hitbox height, 10 > 30
  • The spike hitbox previously sat in the middle of a sour hitbox, making it difficult at times to predict whether or not the spike will connect.
• Down Air: Increased sweetspot hitpause, 8 + 0.65 > 11 + 0.75
• Up Special: Throwing a sweatwhirl no longer puts Forward Special on cooldown.
  • The cooldown was originally added when Hodan could use Up Special into sweat spirits more than once. We’ve removed the cooldown since his previous recovery routes have been changed in a recent patch.
• Up Special: Increased hit lockout, 6 > 10
  • The extra hit lockout should make it less common for sweatwhirls to interrupt kills.
• Down Special: Removed hurtbox from of his hands at the point of impact.
  • This should help with some strange looking trades resulting from Hodan drastically extending his hurtbox as he lands.
• Sweatwhirls: On hit, sweatwhirls now reset their vertical speed and reduce their horizontal speed, making multihits more consistent.
  • This change should help his third level sweatwhirls, gained by throwing a side special through two active spirits, connect more reliably.
• Down Special: Mud wave hitboxes now start closer to Hodan, reducing blindspots.
• Down Special: Parrying a mud wave now reflects it, causing Hodan to be buried if it returns to him.
• Down Special: Mud wave hitboxes now check a much larger area to spawn on, helping niche scenarios at ledge where they would not appear.
• Bug Fix: Up Air: Fixed whifflag not applying properly to endlag.
• Bug Fix: Bury: Fixed buried characters still being counted as grounded for 1 frame when jumping out of it.
• Bug Fix: Down Special: Mud slam VFX no longer tries to snap to ledges.

Forsburn

Forsburn is getting a touch-up to his combust damage and a slight rework to his Neutral Special to address smoke camping capabilities.

• Neutral Special: Smoke clouds now become active and vulnerable 30 frames after initially spawning, or when Forsburn ends Neutral Special – whichever happens first. Previously all clouds only became active and vulnerable at once when Neutral Special ended.
  • We’ve been keeping an eye on Forsburn’s smoke camping and the versatility of Neutral Special to spawn invulnerable smoke with no intention of interacting with opponents. This change allows for smoke to be spread in a more natural manner while still keeping his three most recent clouds safe for recovery mixups. We’re excited to see how this change shakes out since opponents will now be able to clear smoke easier, but Forsburn will be able to utilize active clouds sooner as well.
    
• Down Special Combust: Damage increased, 10% > 14%
  • We are increasing the reward on landing a Combust in those very rare cases where it doesn’t K.O.

Clairen

Clairen’s in a great spot right now but we’ve found a few more Down Special bugs to clean up this patch.

• Bug Fix: Down Special: A grounded counter over Etalus Down Special ice exploding now activates the move.
• Bug Fix: Down Special now ends respawn invincibility early, allowing for the move to activate properly.

Zetterburn

Zetterburn, The Fire’s Roar!

• The golden skin coupled with the Zetterburn plush now has a darker fire outline to help with visuals on lighter stages.
• Down Tilt: Hitbox size increased by 2 pixels downward, which allows for break cancels when standing on rocks.
  • BREAK CANCELS! YES!

Wrastor

Legend has it, Wrastor’s slipstream had a very brief stint where it lost to all projectiles in the game. We’ve discovered new technology that has allowed us a middle-ground between the fabled patch and his latest anti-projectile behaviors.

• Forward Special: Projectile hitbox no longer breaks projectiles.
  • Wrastor’s Forward Special is a strong tool for interrupting moves and comes off of cooldown every five seconds. We wanted to take away some of its abilities to shut down opponent projectiles on command while still allowing Wrastor to utilize the speed boost as it passes.

Absa

Absa’s new Up Air hitboxes are getting a slight damage adjustment and she’s getting a small bugfix in the Clairen matchup.

• Up Air: Sourspot damage decreased, 12% > 10%.
  • Absa’s sourspots were doing the same damage as her main up air hitboxes and we wanted to have the damage lower to mirror the weaker nature of their KB.
• Down Special: Fixed the hitbox not working properly if activated while Absa is inside Clairen’s plasma field.

Ranno

Ranno is getting a mix of few quality of life and balance changes this patch. On the balance end, we’ve focused on taking some strength from his multi-hit confirms.

• Up Air: Hitstun multiplier on hit one reduced, 1.3 > 1.1
• Down Air: Landing lag increased, 6 > 8
• Down Air: Reduced hitstun multiplier of hits 1 and 2: 1.0 > 0.8
  • The collective changes to Ranno’s aerials should make hitfall confirms into moves such as up strong more difficult to pull off.
    
• Neutral Special: Getting hit while charging Neutral Special now creates the same needle lost VFX as getting parried.
• Forward Special: Ranno can now grab an active Olympia gem with his tongue similar to interactions with rock and pillar.
• Bug Fix: Down Air: Hitfalling once now applies to every hit, removing weird situations where momentum would stall when down air 2 or 3 started following a hitfall.

Kragg

Kragg was upset our cool new rock animations got removed from the game and he threatened to “turn us into his rock” if we didn’t make it right. We aren’t sure what that means but we knew he meant business.

• Changed how rock is drawn while Kragg carries it, allowing for skins like Genesis Kragg that change rock sprites to show properly at all times.
• Bug Fix: Fixed pratfall while holding a rock using the wrong animation.

Maypul

Someone on Twitter, sorry I mean X, said that Maypul is too easy to play. So we removed an old mechanic and now you actually need a small amount of skill to edge cancel her Forward Special.

• Forward Special: Removed a mechanic where horizontal speed is doubled when landing from pratfall after using Forward Special.
  • This mechanic was a relic from a time before Maypul’s recovery buffs. We feel that the extra slide has made ledge cancels on aerial recoveries a little too forgiving. This change will still allow for safe high recoveries, just with tighter spacing.

Ori and Sein

Ori is getting a few bug fixes this patch along with a change to address Sein charge storage abuse.

• Sein: Increased cooldown when charge is cancelled via parrying to match the cooldown of a used charged spirit flame.
  • Since the change causing Sein to go on cooldown during a parry, players have been using a parry in neutral to avoid a missed Sein explosion, resulting in Sein becoming active sooner. We wanted to tie off this exploit by making a missed parry just as punishing as a missed Sein explosion.
• Bug Fix: Landing a successful parry while charging Sein no longer puts Sein on cooldown, but it does reset Sein Charge.
• Bug Fix: Fixed Kragg pillar getting destroyed during bash’s hitpause.
• Bug Fix: Fixed armored characters going through normal hitpause while being held by bash.

Sylvanos

Sylvanos is sitting on some really nice grass right now.. We just have one change to his petal wave to allow for more consistency.

• Petal Wave (Jab 2 > Special): Petal wave now spawns 1 frame earlier and 10 pixels inwards.
  • Petal wave travels 10 pixels each frame so this move will function nearly identical to previous patches, with the exception of niche situations where characters would dodge his tail hitbox and the petal wave would spawn past them.

Elliana

In this patch, we are addressing both one of her oldest complaints about Elliana’s missiles being too good when she’s in hitstun and one of her newest complaints about mines lacking counterplay now that sticking them is easier thanks to the last patch.

• Forward Special: Missiles now turn at half speed while in hitstun.
  • Since Elliana was added to the game, we have heard complaints about her ability to break combos with her missile. This design was intended because we believed that opting for missile control instead of DI would be a worthwhile tradeoff. However, now that the game has been optimized more, the combo break is much stronger than any DI could be. Since Dan didn’t want to remove his prized mechanic entirely, we opted for giving Elliana less missile control during hitstun. It’s still possible to combo break but you’ll need to get hit with the missile in a good spot already.
• Forward Special: Missiles are now destroyed if Elliana is put into parry stun.
• Down Special: Mines now fall off of opponents if they hit Elliana with a launching melee attack.
  • Elliana has recently received more ways to attach mine to her opponents without any new ways for opponents to remove them. A common theme we have seen in Elliana matches is reversals from offstage using missiles she controls during hitstun/parrystun bailing her out, or finished combos that would normally reset to neutral where the Elliana in disadvantage comes out in a more favorable position than her opponent thanks to the threat of mine. These changes should make Elliana players more fearful of disadvantage state and more conscious of mine and counterplay available to their opponents.

Ver. 2.1.6.2

• Fixed a bashed SK rock using Kragg’s rock sprite on landing.
• Fixed Kragg’s Halloween skin not using the pumpkin idle.
• Fixed Olympia’s Nspecial not creating a gem when hitting articles.
• Fixed Olympia’s Uspecial lead-up hitboxes creating galaxy effects.
• Etalus’ Uspecial can no longer be dodge-cancelled if parried.

Ver. 2.1.6.3

• Moved the “COUNTERPICK” text on stage select up, so it doesn’t overlap with stage skin buttons.
• Fixed an edge case where Kragg was too close to a rock to create a new one, but too far away to pick up the existing rock.
• Elliana mine cannot fall off opponents until it is primed/activated.
• Elliana Up Special no longer causes mine to fall off opponents.

Ver. 2.1.6.4

Input Recording and Save States, two of our most requested Practice Mode features, are now available. These updates have been in the pipeline for a while now and should add plenty of features to help players learn the game and grind specific interactions.

If you like labbing, head into practice mode to try out the new features. There you can use save states to practice scenarios by recording inputs for a specific player slot, and then playing the inputs back.

You can also loop or randomly shuffle the input playback from the scenarios you currently have recorded. Perfect for practicing a common scenario, or trying different reactions to a situation to see what’s best.

You can also save or load the entire game state during a training mode session. Note that Workshop items are not supported. You can also use hotkeys for these new Practice Mode features, which are 1-6 by default.

And one of the best changes for practicing – you can now control other player slots without the need to have multiple controllers plugged in!

Bugfixes

• Fixed multiple Sylvanos desyncs.
  • We did a deep dive into the previously assumed “howl” desync and were able to find multiple causes after some considerable sleuthing.
    
• Golden Olympia now has the proper golden skin effects. (Unlock this skin by purchasing her adorable plush here).
• All plush skins should now properly unlock the Catnip Bravo buddy.

Ver. 2.1.7.0

Mollo

Mollo is getting a bit of love in the bug fix department and a tad more help connecting the multihits of his up strong.

• Up Strong: Hits 2 and 3 angles changed 160 > 155 to help the move connect into itself more consistently.
• Bug Fix: Flashbangs now do nothing if the target is already in flashbang stun.
  • This should fix scenarios where a second flash bang explosion would knock players out of the first stun early.
• Bug Fix: Fixed Walltech and Tech In not dropping a held bomb.
• Bug Fix: Fixed bombs disappearing in Clairen’s plasma field when they should explode in his hand (bombs will still cook in Mollo’s hand within the field, and will not explode unless he releases them or is hit).
• Bug Fix: Fixed Fspecial using an incorrect hurtbox when tossing a held bomb.
• Bug Fix: Fixed Firecrackers not applying explosion immunity to every explosion.
• Bug Fix: Fixed bombs hovering underneath platforms if they roll off of a lower platform.
• Bug Fix: Fixed bombs not reflecting back at opponents after Mollo parries a bonk hitbox.
• Bug Fix: Forward Strong: Fixed bomb toss coming out before the melee hitbox (bombs now release while the melee hitbox is active).
• Bug Fix: Dash Attack: Fixed thrown bombs appearing to teleport upwards for one frame.
• Bug Fix: Dash Attack: Grabbing bombs now uses a projectile only hitbox for greater consistency.

Olympia

This patch we decided to tackle some of the more gimmicky playstyles Olympia can implement while also making some nice QoL changes to a few of her specials.

• Jab 3: Hitpause adjusted, 7 + 2.5 > 10 + 0.55.
  • This should make the move feel more natural, particularly at higher percents. Previously, after a jab 3, Olympia and her opponent would be stuck in hitpause for longer than most strong attacks.
    
• Neutral Special: The projectile now creates a broken crystal when intercepted or parried.
  • This keeps the gem throw on cooldown longer, punishing Olympia for a failed projectile spawn by making her wait longer before re-casting.
• Neutral Special: Lowered projectile hitstun multiplier, 1.0 > 0.8.
  • This allows opponents to act out of hitstun slightly quicker after being struck by the projectile.
• Forward Special: Using the move a second time without getting hit or walljumping will now remove the move’s vertical air stall.
  • This primarily removes the ability to link multiple uncharged Forward Specials in a row. Using this and cancelling into a wall jump offstage will still allow the move to function the same as the previous patch.
    
• Down Special: Jump cancels now put Down Special on cooldown for 10 frames.
  • This removes a gimmicky edgeguarding strategy that would allow Olympia to refresh down special armor in place with a small window of vulnerability. The strategy now has more time between armor refreshes and requires Olympia to leave the ground.
• Bug Fix: Forward Special jump cancel buffer now lasts entirely through hitpause, removing instances where slight mistimed jumps due to varied hitpause would cause the input to be lost.

Pomme

Pomme is living her best life right now. She’s getting a small change to make recovering against the wall feel better and some small bug fixes.

• Neutral Special: Parried notes no longer extend their active time if already parried.
  • The lifetime of a note is long, but this change also removes the infinite parry loop that players could go for.
• Up Special: Multihits can no longer be ground-teched (players can still wall-tech these hits).
  • This should remove scenarios where players could crouch and the edge of stage and hold down to consistently tech out of the move.
• Bug Fix: Fixed Vince destroying projectiles after being parried.
• Bug Fix: Fixed being able to bypass Olympia’s crystalization by instant-floating.

Hodan

Hodan is getting an important change to his neutral special hurtboxes and a few bug fixes that should help with his consistency.

• Neutral Special: All hitboxes during the spirited and unspirited spins have been edited to form a U-shape below and to the sides of Hodan.
  • This change keeps the hitboxes on the outer edge of the move while appropriately leaving Hodan vulnerable to attacks from above. The change aims to make the move less safe to use in all aspect of play, including low recoveries.
• Bug Fix: Parrying your own reflected mudwave no longer gives you iframes.
• Bug Fix: Up Strong: Fixed the slam action placing opponents *just above* platforms, causing them to bounce off with low KB rather than fall through at full speed.

Ori and Sein

Ori is getting a few changes to address some of the overly safe options during recovery and a few specific neutral circumstances.

• Uspecial: Getting parried no longer lets you float (you can still walljump out of it).
  • This change makes Ori’s up special less safe to use prectably during recoveries since Ori cannot drift away or try to float for an edge cancel. This change also removes Ori’s ability to cancel parry stun by closing the leaf and fastfalling during landing (primarily a Blazing Hideout tech).
• Mollo’s Finisher explosions can now hit you even after you Bash them.
  • Since Mollo’s finisher bomb explodes on a delay, there would be situations where Ori would toss the bomb and run directly into an explosion and take no knockback, often looking strange to players and spectators. Ori is still protected from all other bomb explosions after bash since they can be thrown directly next to the player, exploding on impact.
• Bug Fix: Fixed Hodan’s Sweatwhirls immediately disappearing after getting bashed.
• Bug Fix: Fixed a bug that would occasionally let Ori cancel a whiffed bash 4 frames earlier than intended. Bash landing lag should be consistently 10 frames now.

Shovel Knight

More pogo fun and some rocky bug fixes!

• Down Air: Shovel Knight can now pogo off of Elliana’s mine.
• Bug Fix: Fixed the rock disappearing for a frame when thrown by various moves. (This also applies to kragg’s rock.)
•  Bug Fix: Fixed rock not bouncing off of Ranno bubble similar to Kragg’s rock.

Elliana

Elliana’s recent changes to her mine have come with a few bugs that we decided to patch up.

• Bug Fix: Fixed mines occasionally turning transparent when stuck on players.
• Bug Fix: Two Ellianas kicking a mine on the same frame no longer duplicates it.

Ver. 2.1.7.1

SK

• Down Air: Fixed bouncing off of Elli mines having too much range.
• Down Air: now has SFX and VFX when bouncing off of Lily, Elli mines and Absa clouds.
• Down Air: Can now bounce off of Mollo bombs.

Olympia

• Fixed not being able to turn around on early hits.
• Fixed the Streetwave Skateboard prop appearing small online.
• Forward Special: Touching the ground during Forward Special no longer consumes the aerial vertical stall.
• Forward Special: Being in hitstun now properly refreshes Forward Special’s vertical stall.

Ori

• Bash: Fixed a rare case with Mollobombs, punching and bahshing it at the same time.

Forsburn

• Smoke: Fixed some small artifacts appearing on smoke clouds.

Ver. 2.1.7.2

• Added a Green Screen option to replays.

Hodan

• Nspecial: Side hitboxes have angle flipper changed: 4 -> 7
  • (Flipper 4 sent horizontal towards hitbox center, 7 sends horizontal towards PLAYER center)
• Nspecial: Side hitboxes heights reduced: 80 -> 56
• Nspecial: Spirited side hitbox height reduced: 110 -> 52

Ver. 2.1.7.3

General

• Added a Screen Wrap setting. Players will wrap around blastzones and won’t be able to die by going offscreen until they hit the set percentage.

The Screen Wrap mode gives players a fun new way to play. Turn it on in the options and choose a percentage of either 300, 600, or 999. Once it’s set, instead of dying when you reach the sides of the screen like usual, you and your opponents will wrap around until you hit your chosen percent. Go wild offstage and pull off insane combos that defy the normal laws of Rivals as you chase your opponents all over the screen.

• Green Screen now hides foreground elements when hiding the entire stage.
• Added the Ghost Crab buddy from Ghost Croquet!
• Bug Fix: Fixed Green Screen not resetting when leaving a replay.
• Bug Fix: Fixed some visual issues with Early to Bed Maypul while using custom colors.
• Bug Fix: Fixed Abyss Zetterburn skin not having fire particles.
• Bug Fix: Fixed a crash when changing colors on certain workshop characters.

Hodan

• Neutral Special: Side hitboxes are now untechable.
  • This will keep opponents from teching out of the move before it finishes.
• Neutral Special: Reduced side hitbox hitstun, 1.2 > 0.7.
  • This will cause offstage spikes to be less deadly if the opponent ASDIs out of the attack.
• Neutral Special: Side hitbox angles changed, 75 > 55.
  • This will make it more difficult for opponents to fall out of the side hitboxes of the move.
• Bug Fix: Fixed sweatwhirls spawning spirits when grabbed by Neutral Special.

Ver. 2.1.7.4

General

• Bug Fix: Fixed custom color skins applying to Story Mode due to some skins causing issues in gameplay.
• Bug Fix: The Rollback Settings button is now unclickable while readied up.
• Bug Fix: Fixed various skins displaying a Santa hat for 1 frame when hit.

Wrastor

• Bug Fix: Landing during Neutral Air now gives resources back. This should only affect cases where he lands on a Kragg pillar that breaks while Wrastor still in landing lag.

Forsburn

• Bug Fix: Fixed a replay bug that would show Forsburn losing a stock on the bottom tracker if clone died in a blastzone.

Clairen

• Bug Fix: Fixed multiple instances of teammate projectiles being deleted in the Down Special plasma field. (Mollo bombs, Pomme field, Orcane bubbles).
• Bug Fix: Fixed being able to counter a Mollo bomb that wouldn’t hit Clairen normally.

Sylvanos

• Bug Fix: Parrying a petal wave over a flower now properly removes the grass around the flower.

Mollo

• Bug Fix: Bombs hitting an opponent the same moment they are parried will now apply knockback.
• Bug Fix: Parrying a bashed bomb now sends it at the Ori that bashed it.
• Bug Fix: Landing out of Tumble no longer sets off primed bombs.
  
• Bug Fix: Getting hit by a 0 hitstun move such as Ori Neutral Special no longer detonates primed bombs.
  
• Bug Fix: Kragg hitting a bomb with Forward Special now only gives him the article jump cancel window.
  
• Bug Fix: Hitting a bomb downwards through a platform now always sends it through the platform.
  
• Bug Fix: Bombs clipping into the stage the frame they’re thrown no longer teleport to the other side of the stage.
• Bug Fix: Fixed bashed firecrackers only hitting Mollo once.
  
• Bug Fix: Fixed reverse-DI from flashbang only applying to grounded opponents.
  

Hodan

• Bug Fix: Fixed the splash hitbox of Charged Down Strong not triggering if the parry landed on the last frame.
• Up Strong: The spike hitbox now buries opponents when they hit the ground. (Grounded hitbox still bounces them upwards.).
  • A general consensus was that using Hodan up Strong on platforms (on stage) could be a bit detrimental since players could simply tech out. Given the massive size of the move, having the throw bury opponents gives Hodan a chance to follow up on his attack, while not making the move too powerful.
• Bug Fix: Players grabbed by Up Strong can no longer walltech before the move throws them.
• Down Special: Dodge cancelling now works at any point in hitpause.
• Down Special: Slam hitboxes now have hit lockout for the rest of his recovery frames (24 frames).
• Down Special: Slam hitboxes no longer make opponents immune to mud waves.
  • These changes to Down Special should keep the odd double bury situations from previous patches out of the game, while fixing the side effect of getting hit, then freely moving through mudwaves across the stage.

Olympia

• Bug Fix: Fixed crystalizing appearing wrong in playtest.
• Bug Fix: Crystalizing now must be moving downwards to break off the ground. This fixes a rare case where Kragg could avoid crystalizing by being inside a rock on that frame.
• Bug Fix: Fixed aerial stall decay not being applied if cancelled in-field.
• Bug Fix: Fixed being able to use Neutral Special during a parried gem’s break animation.
  
• Bug Fix: Neutral Special projectile no longer has hitpause scaling.
  
• Bug Fix: Gem now gets bashed properly.
• Bug Fix: Fixed being unable to turn around when cancelling the windup of Down Special.

Pomme

• Bug Fix: Bombs now bounce off of Vince.

• Additional notes: none.
• Source: official Twitter account / official website / official Twitter account / official Twitter account / official website / official website / official Twitter account / official Twitter account / official website / official website

• Fixed an issue that caused a game crash when choosing an alt stage online.
• Attempting to view replays from online matches using certain character/custom color combinations should no longer cause a crash.
• Custom colors should now show up properly for both players online.
• Fixed various Abyss Mode rune issues related to Orcane rune M, Maypul rune C, and Mollo runes G, D, and J.

Ver. 2.1.5.6

General

 

• Several stages now have visual changes for last stock: Neo Fire Capital, Treetop Lodge, Blazing Hideout, Tempest Peak, Forest Floor, Spirit Tree, and The Endless Abyss.
  • A last stock variant for Troupple Pond was also added into the game in a recent hotfix.
• Added large variants for Crystal Oasis and Highdive Hideaway for doubles and 4-player games

Bugfixes

• Teching off of the ceiling now clears the dodge buffer, which will prevent unintended airdodges after teching.
  • Previously, holding a direction while ceiling teching off of Kragg rock, Air Armada, etc would force an air dodge while having no directional input would allow players to act normally out of a tech.
• Fixed a visual bug that made Summit Kragg’s snow appear too low in playtest.
• RoA/CEO Ring no longer displays old versions of character profiles on the big screen.
• Selecting a random stage no longer selects banned stages.
• Fixed a visual bug on Forsburn’s portraits.

Ver. 2.1.5.3

Custom colors are getting even more custom today with the release of patch 2.1.5.3. Though small in size, this patch packs a BIG feature for players who like to craft their own custom colors.

Starting today you can personalize any premium skin you own in the custom color menu. When making a new custom color, simply select the skin in one of your custom color slots and get creating.

This applies to all alternate skins from milestones like Ayala and Bradshaw, as well as free premium skins like ones from the Champion series or Early Access backing. Show off your style by pairing your favorite taunts with your favorite custom colors.

If you’re looking to snag a few more skins (with 100% of the profits going towards Rivals esports) make sure to check out the RCS shop. It will be closing for season 7 at the end of January so pick up any of your favorites while you still can.

Ver. 2.1.5.0

General

• Bug Fix: Fixed a ranked bug that would cap players scores at 2147.
• Bug Fix: Fixed a bug that turned characters invisible if killed while armored crystallization is active on them.

Forsburn

Forsburn is still in an overall great place in our meta, with just a few adjustments coming his way. This patch is aimed at adding a little more risk to cape and at adding some reward to opponents that successfully parry clone up special.

• Forward Strong: Endlag for the cape swipe increased, 14 > 16 (cancel window unchanged)
• Up Strong: Endlag for the cape swipe increased, 14 > 16 (cancel window unchanged)
  • Adding endlag to both cape swipes while leaving the cancel window unchanged will make the moves slightly more committal in neutral without affecting his punish game too much.
• Clone Up Special: Parrying a clone’s Up Special now causes him to disappear without leaving a smoke cloud, instead of putting the clone into parry stun.
  • Opponents parrying clone will still need to successfully follow up on the real Forsburn, but being able to parry his clone will yield a greater reward. Situations where a lingering hitbox breaking a parried clone will no longer leave behind a safe smoke cloud for the real Forsburn to take advantage of.

Clairen

Clairen got some really cool changes to down special in our last balance patch, practically reworking how the move functions in every match-up. This patch includes a small change that should make stun times feel more natural at all percents.

• Down Special: The last field hitbox plasma stun hitpause reduced, 10 + 0.7 > 8 + 0.5
• Bug Fix: Fixed a bug where Elliana’s steam wouldn’t fully disappear from Clairen’s field, allowing Clairen to re-activate the field at the spot the steam was created.

Orcane

He’s just a funny little guy trying to make his way in the world.

• Down Strong: Hitbox heights increased by 1 pixel, which allows for break cancels when standing on rocks.
  • BREAK CANCELS! YES!

Etalus

Etalus is getting some nice quality of life changes to a few of his multi-hits this patch, adding some consistency and removing some vulnerability respectively.

• Forward Tilt 1: Hitbox moved forwards by 4 pixels.
• Forward Tilt 1: Added a sweetspot hitbox to its center that has a higher base knockback than its counterpart (4 vs. 3)
  • These changes should allow Etalus to connect hit 1 into the rest of forward tilt more reliably.
    
• Down Air 1 & 2: Hitbox active frames increased to better match animation, 2 > 3

Ranno

• Forward Strong: Trimmed the hurtbox on his arm when it’s extended before active frames of the attack.
  • This creates less vulnerability as Ranno unleashes his attack.

Kragg

Kragg is getting some cool new options with rock and back air that should give him more interactions when standing on rock and elevate creativity in his combo game.

• Down Tilt: Changed the hitbox shape to match Kragg’s arm better while also allowing the move to break cancel when standing on top of rock.
  • The new hitbox is slightly larger in all aspects.
• Back Air: Hitbox width increased, 62 > 72
• Back Air: Hitbox moved inwards by 4 pixels.
  • These changes should allow Kragg to use the reverse hitbox more often, opening the door to tricky DI mixups in more situations.
• Down Strong: Performing the move on top of rock now break cancels at the beginning of the move instead of the end.
• Down Strong: Performing the move on top of rock now send rock shards straight up
  • The new angle should give Kragg more options to use rock shards in offensive and recovery situations.
    
• Bug Fix: Fixed a rare bug where moves that throw Kragg’s rock wouldn’t work.

Maypul

Maypul got off scot-free last patch, but unfortunately Lily doesn’t have legs so she couldn’t run out of the way. This patch aims to build off the changes Lily got in 2.1.4.0 by punishing marked players for getting bit.

• Lily: Landing a bite no longer removes their mark. Missing a bite or wrap will still remove it.
  • This should make our last patch’s change to mark a little more forgiving to Maypul when an opponent is hit, while keeping new counterplay aspects such as air dodging or rolling through Lily.

Ori and Sein

Ori is getting a few bug fixes this patch, one for a bug introduced recently, and another that has been a visual conundrum for a long time.

• Bug Fix: Fixed a bug where parried Sein charge would reflect into Ori instead of inducing parry stun.
• Bug Fix: Fixed a bug where landing during bash launch would put Ori into prat lag instead of landing lag (this change is visual as the total frames of lag have not changed).

Shovel Knight

Shovel Knight loves to collect treasure, so it was especially disturbing when a sound effect bug made the experience less fun. We’ve fixed that! For Shovelry!

• Bug Fix: Gem collection sound effects have been fixed when in online rollback matches.

Mollo

Mollo got a pretty hefty list of changes on the last go, so this time we’re keeping things simple and tuning up his jab while making bonk hitboxes a little more straightforward.

• Jab 1: Base knockback increased, 3 > 4
• Jab 1: Increased tilt cancel window, frame 7 > 6
  • These changes will allow Mollo to cancel into his tilts more consistently out of jab.
• Bombs: Bonk hitboxes are now marked as Transcendent, meaning hitboxes can’t destroy them without hitting the bomb too.
  • This should make bonk hitboxes more predictable for players expecting to get hit or parry them when hitboxes from attacks like slipstream intersect bombs.

Hodan

Hodan’s specials are under the microscope in this patch as we aim to fix a strange bug and knock his stalling capabilities down a peg.

• Up Special: Grabbing a sweatwhirl will only keep Hodan from entering pratfall once per airtime.
  • Fixing the various exploits that have allowed Hodan to stall with up special has been a constant game of cat and mouse. This change should put to bed the cheesy strategies that practically gave him more air time than the air characters.
• Bug Fix: Fixed an issue where inputting side special during the move’s cooldown would delete an active sweat whirl touching Hodan.

Olympia

Olympia got a pretty cool and initially unintentional buff last patch that we decided to keep after reviewing community feedback, discussing with our beta team, and conducting an internal review. This patch aims to reign in the buff but keep the spirit of it by bringing down special cancel’s distance right between where it originally was, and where it landed in 2.1.4.0. We also noticed down tilt was active for 6 frames, so we did something about that too.

• Down Tilt: Reduced active frames, 6 > 3
• Down Special: Dashcancel speed adjusted to 14.
  • This adjustment to an initially unintentional change has reached a happy medium to her old dash cancel distance and the distance gained from patch 2.1.4.0.

Ver. 2.1.4.0

General

• Walltechs are now always considered to be in the air, even if you’re touching the ground.
  • This means grounded characters hit next to a wall can do a jump out of tech without going through jumpsquat frames.
• Parrying an aerial move now adds their whiffed landing lag to the stun time.
  • This will make it so aerials that are parried as the player lands go through a more natural amount of parry stun, instead of counting 40 frames from the moment they land.)
• Getting parried during wallcling now ends the wallcling and removes your walljump.
  • This will make Ori’s that have Sein parried during wallcling drop into pratfall as intended.
• Bug Fix: Hurtboxes no longer display any time the player is invincible, even during attacks.
• Bug Fix: Fixed a bug where hitpause on trades would differ depending on port priority.
• Bug Fix: Fixed a bug where characters would get stuck on a ledge when being sent upwards.

Zetterburn

Zetterburn has been a gem in competitive play, making several appearances at our biggest and most competitive stages and showing that even the best players in the world should fear The Fire’s Roar. We feel that Zetterburn is in a pretty nice spot overall and we’ve decided to fixate on some of the more niche situations that just required a small tune-up.

• Forward Tilt 1: Hitpause scaling reduced, 10 + 1.0 > 10 + 0.5
• Forward Tilt 2: Hitpause scaling increased, 6 + 0.5 > 6 + 1.0
  • The increased hitpause should allow players to react better when only struck by hit two.
• Down Strong: Hit 2 angle changed, 361 > 40
  • Removing the 361 angle means the non-fire attack will consistently send at 40 degrees, instead of occasionally at 45 degrees without fire when an opponent is in the air.
• Up Special: Added a hitbox on his environmental collision box that only hits projectiles.
  • This stops rare situations where Zetterburn gets stuck without breaking rock at very specific angles and collisions.
• Bug Fix: Fixed an issue where parrying Zetterburn’s Down Special on specific frames would still spawn the fire puddle.

Forsburn

Forsburn is quite the deception character, with a lot of players being deceived to believe that he’s bad! It goes without saying but we’ve watched in awe as CakeAssault has absolutely DOMINATED the Rivals world as solo Forsburn, proving himself to be the undisputed best player in the world. Despite CakeAssault’s success, we really do not believe the character is stronger than the rest of the cast – Cake is just that much better than all of you. We’ve decided to mostly leave Mr. Deception untouched, with some love given to clone behavior in doubles and a very small buff to Super Clone – maybe we’ll see it on the big stage one day next to Cake!

• Forward Special: Super Clone can now survive projectiles that deal less than 8%.
• Clone AI now targets the original Forsburn that created it if there is no living opponent to target.
• Bug Fix: Clone AI now ignores dead and respawning players when finding targets.

Clairen

Clairen has been in and out of the spotlight throughout the years, with several Clairen mains from AZ, FL, and EU making big waves on numerous occasions. Clairen is in a solid spot in the meta, having clear weaknesses to whiff-punishing and ledge traps, while boasting clear strengths in her punishes and edgeguards. We’ve had quite a bit of hands on experience, feedback, and live streams to help us understand what makes her tick. While most of Clairen’s overall kit is being left alone, her neutral air is getting a nice QoL buff to better break projectiles, and her down special is getting a big rework to make it a more useful tool in all match-ups. Finally, her jab is getting the ability to cancel into tilts, a change that all three single-hit jab characters have received this patch.

• Jab: Can now be cancelled into tilts starting on frame 11.
  • Previously, Clairen could would be actionable on frame 12 when hitting opponents, so this is more of a buff on whiff while normalizing her jab with the rest of the cast regarding the ability to cancel lag into tilts.
• Neutral Air: All hitboxes can now break projectiles.
  • Previously, Clairen neutral air would only break projectiles on tipper, meaning any overlap with the sour hitboxes would cause Clairen to get hit. This change allows for Clairen to break projectiles in a way that makes visual sense, while still having off frames that leave her partially vulnerable.
• Down Special: Parrying the field hitboxes no longer places Clairen into parry stun.
  • While this had interesting counterplay, we don’t want Clairen getting punished for landing a successful high-commitment counter.
• Down Special: The last field hitbox upon a successful counter now causes plasma stun.
  • The values match Clairen forward tilt tipper stun – 10 + 0.7
• Down Special: Counter field now reflects projectiles. It still destroys projectiles if they start inside the bubble or have been reflected twice.
  • Opponents who parry a reflected projectile do not gain invulnerability.

Orcane

Orcane has been a funny little guy since the game’s inception, being called “perfect” at one point, and can we blame Dan? Yes. Yes we can. Over time we’ve seen players such as DolphinBrick and now Xaro pilot the character to consistently new heights, making a home in the Top 5 of our annual RCS rankings, even peaking at number 1 in our 2020 season. We’ve taken a microscope to Orcane this patch and have identified a few imperfections to polish, while also tackling some of the more eyebrow raising situations like bubble edgeguards and his down strong recovery time.

• Forward Tilt: KB scaling increased, 7 + 0.6 > 7 + 0.7
• Forward Tilt: Damage increased, 9 > 10
• Forward Air: Bubblebutt hit-lockout increased, 3 > 8
  • This should help avoid accidental bubble saves on higher damaged opponents while traveling at rapid velocities.
• Down Strong: Recovery increased, 21 > 23 (32 -> 35 with whifflag)
  • This makes down strong on and off puddle identical in their recovery values.
• Down Special: Activating the puddle puts neutral special on cooldown for 30 frames.
  • This should make looping edgeguards with bubbles on ledge more difficult and should encourage more expressive ledge trapping scenarios for Orcane.

Etalus

Etalus is another character with inconsistent tournament representation. We’ve seen him push the best players in the world to the brink, seeming unstoppable with proper momentum. We’ve taken notice of his offstage struggles and have given him a potentially nasty tool for recovery and combo extensions that we will be keeping a close eye on as the meta develops.

• Up Special: Minimum actionable speed decreased, -8 > -11.5
  • This allows Etalus to act sooner out of up special, giving him more protection when recovering and more possibilities when comboing or edgeguarding.
• Bug Fix: Etalus can now hitfall aerials during up special rising momentum.
• Bug Fix: Up Special’s hurtbox is now properly aligned.
• Bug Fix: Aerial neutral Special’s hurtbox is now properly aligned.

Ranno

Ranno has been a frequent hopper in our top player collection, having as many as 10 different competitors using him in Season 4. We’ve noticed a particularly chilling meta developing as of late, where multiple bubble uses offstage can help Ranno save himself more often than we would like. We’ve decided to add more counterplay to placed bubbles and take a shot at forward air’s frame data in order to make the move slightly more committal offstage.

• Fair: Startup increased, 6 > 7
• Down Air: Hits 2 and 3 now have a max falling speed of 2.
  • If Ranno lands hit 1 of down air and whiffs the rest, he won’t fall as far, causing less self destructs as a result.
• Neutral Special: Added a visual effect to losing darts from parries.
• Down Special: Opponents hitting the bubble will now send it 1.5x as far, and lock it out from being controlled by down special for 60 frames.
  • This should give Ranno’s offstage recovery more counterplay, while allowing the same control over his bubble when left alone by the opponent.
• Bug Fix: Fixed a bug that removed landing lag if only hits one or two of down air were connected.

Wrastor

Wrastor is just so cool that we wanted to polish up some of his less appealing quirks so we could bring him closer to Orcane levels of perfection. Most changes here stem from odd situations or wishlist QoL changes from the community.

• Forward Tilt: Jumpcancelling now only requires landing the last hit on a player; hitting articles (such as rock or flower) with any hit of forward tilt, will allow Wrastor to use the same jump cancel window.
  • This should normalize Wrastor’s tilt behavior since he can already jump cancel off articles using up and down tilt.
• Up Tilt: Cut off the top of the leg hurtbox during startup.
  • This should remove weird cases where his hurtbox would leave him vulnerable above platforms for a few frames before his attack comes out.
• Up Tilt: Spike hitbox width and height increased, 8 x 8 > 10 x 10
• Up Tilt: Spike hitbox lowered by 1 pixel.
  • Both changes to the spike hitbox should let him break cancel when standing on top of rock.
• Up Air: Hitbox 2 now comes out at the same frame as hitbox 1.
  • This will allow his hurtbox and hitboxes to overlap, causing trades in niche but surprising situations that he would previously lose. Hit two comes out one frame sooner and has lower priority than hit one.
• Forward Strong: Moved sweetspot forward by two pixels: 85 > 87
  • This means the sourspot no longer sticks out slightly further than the sweetspot.
• Down Strong: Can now be cancelled into up special during the existing jumpcancel window.
  • This change mimics a recent quality of life improvement that Ori’s down air received in a previous patch.
• Neutral Special: Normalized hitstun multiplier of all hitboxes, 0.65/1.0 > 1.0/1.0
• Down Special: Aerial endlag can now be walljump cancelled.
  • This brings the move in line with other specials in the game and should prevent accidental self destructs, while still keeping Wrastor in a committed state for the entire active frames of the move.
• Down Special: Hitting articles now has 5 frames of hitpause.
  • This fixes situations where Wrastor could break Kragg’s pillar, then accidentally walljump during its destruction.

Absa

Much like Forsburn, Absa has been a staple in our Grand Finals at Majors for several years thanks to another top player, Penguin. We’ve taken aim at a few of her larger hitboxes, and have added an emphasis on spacing (no more back-tilts!) and timing. Overall, Absa should not feel too much pain at higher levels, while some of the easier or accidental hits will be more difficult to land without the precision Absa should have.

• Forward Tilt: Reduced hitbox width by 12 pixels and moved it forward by 6 pixels.
  • The new hitbox should reach a similar distance in front of Absa, while removing the portion that hits inside and often catches opponents positioned behind her.
• Dash Attack: Hit 2 damage reduced, 8 > 6 (Total damage 11 > 9)
• Up Air: Reduced size of the sweetspot, 80 x 80 > 64 x 64
• Up Air: Added 4 sourspots to the tips of the lightning bolt effect. The new hitboxes are lower priority than the sweetspot but have identical stats except for the following: KB: 7 + 1.2 > 6 + 1.0, Hitstun scaling: 1.0 > 0.9
  • Overall, up air is slightly larger, but the sweetspot has been shrunk and it will be difficult to drift into the powerful hitbox after the first frame, making timing even more important.
• Cloud: Cloud pop hitbox size reduced and positioning adjusted, 95 x 94 > 87 x 87
• Cloud: Cloud now despawns when Absa loses a stock.

Elliana

Elliana easily fits the description of “glass cannon,” with her rough disadvantage state and seemingly touch-of-death punish game. In this patch, we decided to target some of her more reliable bread and butter setups like up tilt, forward air, and confirms into up strong. We’d like some of these setups to be a little tighter on spacing, timing, and DI follow-ups. On the other hand, while we were under the hood, we decided to let you kick around the mine like a hacky sack, so be sure to make some cool clips while you’re taking the new ride for a spin!

• Jab: Endlag can now be cancelled into tilts starting on frame 8.
  • This normalizes her jab with the rest of the cast regarding the ability to cancel lag into tilts.
• Up Tilt: Increased endlag scaling with heat used, 9-18 > 9-24
  • This should emphasize the use of high heat up tilt as an outright kill move, while keeping lower heat usage as a combo tool.
• Down Tilt: Hitting a grounded mine with the first kick of down tilt now pops it straight up into the air.
  • This allows for more mine setups and air juggles.
• Down Tilt: Hit one extra hitpause removed, 6 > 0
  • The extra hitpause was to help it connect better with hit two, but with the following patch notes, it is no longer needed.
• Down Tilt: Hit 2 width increased, 44 > 64. The hitbox has also been moved inward, 48 > 45
• Down Tilt: Hit 2 now has an additional square hitbox covering most of her center. This hitbox has the same stats as the existing Hit 2.
• Forward Air: Final hit KB scaling increased, 6 + 0.4 > 6 + 0.55
  • This should make DI out at higher percents much more effective at avoiding an overheat follow-up.
• Up Air: Reduced hitstun scaling, 1.0 > 0.9
  • This should make chaining several up airs into each other slightly more difficult for the Elliana.
• Up Strong: Sourspot KB decreased, 7 + 1.0 > 6 + 0.9
  • This should make stocks taken off the top require better spacing, with an emphasis on the main explosion hitbox.
• Down Special: Sticking a mine on a parried opponent no longer auto-arms it.
  • This forces Elliana to get more creative with parry punishes, which are already one of the best ways to set up a long string or kill confirm.
• Down Special: Hitting a destructible article (like Sylvanos’ flowers or Olympia’s gem) now instantly detonates it.
• Down Special: Adjusted angles that mine can be hit by Elliana to allow for more control during juggles.
  • With the addition of Elliana’s new down tilt mechanic, we thought it would be fun if she had more control over where the mine gets sent. Previously the range of angles were preset based on the strength of the hitbox.

Kragg

Kragg has been the rock of the Rivals Esports scene. Always there, always ready. As of late, we’ve noticed a dramatic shift in his gameplan at all levels that focuses a large portion of his combo game into the use of neutral air. Neutral air allows for unreactable DI mix-ups that confirm into pretty early kills. In this patch, we decided to take aim at the over-centralization of neutral air, and take another crack at hurting Kragg’s offstage stalling capabilities with pillar.

• Up Tilt: Removed part of the hurtbox on his arm during active frames.
  • The new hurtbox will no longer poke above standard height platforms, decreasing trades when sharking opponents from the stage.
• Neutral Air: Damage changed on each hit: 6, 6, 6, 6 > 4, 4, 4, 8
  • This gives more power to the later hit while making quick hitfalls on the first few hits less powerful.
• Neutral Air 1: Moved hitbox closer to Kragg’s center
• Neutral Air 2: Moved hitbox closer to Kragg’s center and reduced size: 70 x 70 > 60 x 60
  • These hitbox adjustments should give Kragg a similar reward for landing early neutral air hits, while making them a little closer to his body and more difficult to land.
• Pillar: Re-landing on an unoccupied pillar now increases the time it falls by 5 frames in a linear fashion (First it falls for 20 frames, then 25, then 30, and so on).
  • This should make extended stalling offstage a less potent tool for Kragg.
• Pillar: Projectiles hitting the top of pillar will no longer break it when near the bottom blastzone.
  • Some extra pillar protection should offset some of the pain received in the stalling nerf.
• Bug Fix: Projectiles parried by Kragg will not break his own pillar.
• Bug Fix: Cancelling rock pull on the final frame can no longer buffer a parry.
• Bug Fix: Down special spikes now stop spawning if Kragg is in pratfall.
  • This scenario usually occurs when pillar is destroyed beneath him during the move.

Maypul

Maypul has been a character in the limelight lately due to superstar, Soulrifle211, bursting onto the scene with his electric gameplay and furious punish game. While Maypul’s normal attacks are in a good place, we recognize that Lily does a bit too much, being able to both protect Maypul and set up for strong kill confirms. We’ve reduced the speed of placing Lily and the duration of wraps done by Lily while also making the watcher’s mark easier to remove to help make wraps and tether situations require a bit more planning from the Maypul.

• Lily: Plant startup increased, 20 > 28
• Lily: Despawn time reduced, 10 > 8 seconds
• Lily: Mark is now removed on whoever triggers her attack, even if it does not wrap or get parried.
  • This should make the counterplay to becoming marked more interesting. Maypul must now consider the opponent’s status when planting Lily since opponents can now remove mark in more ways than landing a committal parry.
• Lily: Wrap time now scales with distance from Maypul. (At 0 pixels it’s * 0.75, then goes up to 1.0 at half a screen.)
  • This reduces the reward on point blank Lily wraps which previously had noticeably better followups than Maypul’s more committal Strong Attacks.
• Bug Fix: Fixed a bug where planting Lily would not trigger Ranno poison damage.

Sylvanos

Sylvanos is widely known for his ability to tech chase and rack up damage in an instant, while also making up for any trouble killing with methodical stage control and juggles against opponents in perpetual disadvantage. The goal of this patch is to chip away at some of his damage output and tech chasing ability, while giving his kill moves a bit of love.

• Up Tilt: Damage decreased, 2/3/5 > 2/2/4
• Up Tilt: Endlag increased, 12 > 13 (18 > 20 with whifflag)
  • Up tilt “blenders” should require a bit tighter timing now, while also outputting a bit less damage during the loops.
• Forward Tilt: Projectile initial damage decreased, 6 > 4 (Total damage for all hits 10 > 8)
• Forward Strong: Increased hitstun multiplier on hits 1 and 2: 1.2 > 1.5
  • This should make it less likely for opponents to fall out of the move.
• Down Strong: KB scaling increased, 7 + 1.0 > 7 + 1.05
• Neutral Special: Projectile initial damage decreased, 6 > 4 (Total damage for all hits 10 > 8)
• Forward Special: Airborne seed projectiles can now be destroyed to cancel off of them.
  • This should be a fun buff that could open up some more unique combo routes and finishers.
• Up Special: Burrow KB adjusted, 7 + 0.2 > 8 + 0.15
  • As one of Sylvanos’ most potent kill options, we wanted to give it a bit more love against the entire cast, since the previous version was noticeably less scary against heavy characters.
• Down Special: Damage increased, 2 > 4
• Down Special: Adjusted grass so it can no longer disappear while waiting for down special’s howl to reach it.
• Bug Fix: Sylvanos now immediately regains his airdodge and doublejump when appearing on stage after a burrow.
  • The situations affected by this bug fix came up most often when Orcane bubbles would hit him as he emerged from burrow.

Ori and Sein

Ori has been making a consistent appearance in Top 8s for years now, using speed and Sein to outmaneuver opponents. Most of our changes are aimed at reducing scenarios where there is little counterplay, while also reducing some of the more silly things Ori can surprise people with – now you will take 33% less damage when failing to DI out of parasol taps!

• Jab 1: Jab 1 is now techable for airborne opponents, and forces flinch on grounded opponents.
  • This normalizes jab one behavior with the rest of the cast.
• Up Tilt: Endlag increased, 10 > 11 (15 > 17 with whifflag)
• Down Tilt: Endlag reduced, 16 > 14 (24 > 21 with whifflag)
  • We decided to redistribute power among tilts, which should make Ori players less reliant on up tilt, while making down tilt see more usage.
• Up Strong (Tag team): KB reduced, 9 + 1.05 > 7 + 1.1
  • Tag team up strong has become Ori’s main parry punish, doing a bit too much heavy lifting as the opponents get pulled to the final hitbox before a strong finisher can net stocks at low percents.
• Neutral Special: Edited the windup of Sein’s spirit flame to be more visible against bright backgrounds.
• Neutral Special: Sein cancels charging and goes into cooldown if Ori parries.
  • This removes situations where ori could have an active hitbox while also parrying for extra safety.
• Up Special: Reopen damage decreased, 3 > 2
• Bug Fix: Fixed a bug with buffered hitfall during up special causing the floating window to descend rapidly.
• Bug Fix: Fixed an up special momentum bug where pressing down while in hitpause to cancel the feather wouldn’t limit vertical speed.
• Bug Fix: Fixed opponents getting ledge cancels while being carried by tag team forward strong.
  • This is tied to the above ledgesnapping fix in the General section.

Shovel Knight

Shovel Knight is one of the more puzzling characters in the community, not seeing a lot of high level use, but being extremely effective when he does. Players like Soulrifle211, Seggo, and Mentos have piloted Shovel Knight with great success over the last few years, showing off a lot of his more dangerous capabilities. We believe that while Shovel Knight is in a pretty good spot in life with a new game and everything, we believe he is also in a good spot in Rivals and is only seeing minor adjustments.

• Jab: Endlag can now be cancelled into tilts starting on frame 8.
  • This normalizes his jab with the rest of the cast regarding the ability to cancel lag into tilts.
• Down Air: Can now bounce off of Lily (making her bite) and Absa’s cloud (pushing it down slightly).
• Ghost Gloves: Reflected gloves turn transcendent, causing them to break new gloves and hit Shovel Knight.
  • This change will make a parry on ghost gloves more effective, since he could previously just block the reflected projectile and run away by throwing another out.
• Down Special: Anchor’s hitbox is now visible in training mode.
• Shop: Now displays an item’s price as 0 if it has already been bought.
  • If multiple Shovel Knights are in the shop, items will only display as 0 if each player puchased them.

Mollo

While we have previously set our sights on toning down some of Mollo’s tools, this patch is aimed at normalizing some hitbox sizes and stats. Most of our changes to Mollo have consistency and gamefeel for players and opponents in mind, with a few power balances here and there.

• Techroll: speed reduced, 11 > 9
  • This will bring Mollo’s distance traveled during a techroll from the longest in the cast to the same distance as Shovel Knight and Forsburn.
• Bombs: Firecracker hitboxes are now transcendent like the rest of his bombs.
• Bombs: Increased the minimum speed bonk hitboxes will ignore players at, 6 > 8
  • This should reduce scenarios where Mollo wants to hit with a bomb during a combo, but it passes through. Now they have to be moving a bit faster before they ignore the bonk.
• Bombs: Parrying your own bomb no longer grants invulnerability (it will protect from the rest of the firecracker’s hitboxes though).
  
• Bombs: Parrying your own bomb no longer removes status effects like leaf marks or poison.
  • The parry mechanics kept Mollo safe in higher risk situations, allowing for a get out of jail free card anytime he held onto a bomb for too long. Removing these options will still allow Mollo to drop his own bombs, just with less of a reward for doing so.
    
• Bombs: Finisher damage reduced, 22 > 20
• Bombs: Hitting bombs no longer counts as a whiffed move. (For workshop folk, it sets has_hit to true.)
  • Since players are encouraged to strike his bombs, it did not feel right to count those moves as whiffs. Now Mollo and his opponents will be rewarded with their strikes by having the same endlag they would have when hitting an opponent.
• Bombs: Hitting an article (like Sylvanos flowers or Olympia gem) now makes the bomb bounce as if it hit a player.
• Bombs: All bombs now work in an allied Clairen’s plasma field.
  • This makes bombs function like other projectiles in doubles when a Clairen is on screen.
• Forward Tilt: KB scaling increased, 10 + 0.3 > 10 + 0.45
• Dash Attack 1: Removed the reversed KB decay.
• Dash Attack 1: Increased KB scaling, 8 + 0 > 8 + 0.4
  • The changes to dash attack should make higher percents more difficult for Mollo to get a simple tech chase on.
• Neutral Air 1: Hitbox sizes reduced, 80 x 54 > 70 x 50
• Neutral Air 2: Hitbox sizes reduced, 100 x 70 > 90 x 50
• Up Strong: Pre-charge startup increased, 8 > 10 (Release lag is still 3)
• Up Strong: Now has lower-priority hitboxes on his chest that copy the explosion hitboxes, but aims towards where the final explosion is to help the move connect better against grounded opponents.
  • In this patch we wanted to give Mollo a more reliable set of strong attacks, but recognized the startup on up strong was a tad low for how large and rewarding the up strong hitboxes can be.
• Down Strong: Pre-charge startup increased, 6 > 8 (Release lag is still 4)
• Down Strong: Getting parried now disables sliding out of it.
• Down Strong: Added whifflag to the standing hitbox.
  • Whifflag is not applied to the slide out window, to prevent him from moving further out since distance is tied to the total frames of the move.
• Forward Special: Getting hit before the explosion comes out now cancels the explosion.
  • This makes the move consistent with moves like Etalus icicles and Absa forward special placement.
• Forward Special: The muzzle flash hitbox now only hits projectiles, not players.
  • This should allow opponents to call out the move from the front of Mollo in more scenarios, instead of successfully avoiding the explosion and getting caught by the muzzle. A frequent scenario that occurred was a player dashing in as Mollo started side special, dodging the large explosion only to be knocked back by the muzzle hitbox. This hitbox could also be used to stall and kill opponents at low percents in the side blastzones.
    
• Forward Special: Reduced horizontal tilt influence on the reticle, 4 > 1
  • This makes the reticle travel at a much more consistent speed, making counterplay such as parries more consistent.
• Forward Special: The reticle now takes longer to start moving forwards, 15 > 20 frames (same as the startup)
  • This allows the reticle to spawn closer to Mollo, removing a gap where the explosion would not reach in front of Mollo, but the old muzzle hitbox would generally cover.
• Forward Special: Hitting a bomb with the explosion no longer gives the bomb a bonk hitbox
  • This fixes an issue where players would parry the forward special but instead land a parry on a new bonk hitbox, allowing Mollo to avoid parry stun.
• Bug Fix: Fixed enemies getting stuck via ledge-snapping when getting hit by forward strong.
  • This is tied to the above ledge-snapping fix in the General section.
• Bug Fix: Fixed a late button press causing Jab 3 to start even when the button was only pressed twice.
• Bug Fix: Fixed bombs not auto-aiming and changing ownership on parrying the bonk hitbox.
• Bug Fix: Fixed bombs clipping off the side of stage corners.
• Bug Fix: Fixed a bug where Mollo could get bonked by his own bomb on the first frame he pulls it out (Frame six of neutral special).
• Bug Fix: Forward Special’s hurtbox in the bomb-toss variant is now properly aligned.

Hodan

Much like our approach to Mollo, our balance pass on Hodan this time around had a heavy focus on tweaking some things that could leave players wondering how an interaction happened, whether that be hitbox size, lack of knockback decay, or even launch angles. We’ve also seen some advances to Hodan’s meta that have really begun to optimize his recovery, so we’ve worked to distribute that wealth by giving side special some love and removing some of the safety Hodan gets from aerial neutral special.

• Spirits: You can now pick up any other Hodan’s spirits.
  • Have fun in the ditto!
• Sweatwhirls: Parried whirls can no longer be grabbed.
• Sweatwhirls: Grabbed whirls will dissipate if you stop attacking before throwing it (ex: walljump).
• Jab: First hitbox active frames reduced, 6 > 4
• Jab: Multi-hit hitbox active times reduced, 8 > 4 (Multihits one and two now start on frames 13 and 21)
  • The changes to jab should give the opponent openings to contest the move without trading. He was previously difficult to contest safely from anywhere other than below him.
• Up Tilt (Charged): Sweatboxes now have angle flipper 6.
  • This will cause opponents behind Hodan to be sent backwards instead of in front of him, making follow-ups on poorly spaced up tilts more difficult.
• Dash Attack: Early hit base hitpause increased, 7 > 8
• Forward Strong 1: Hitpause Scaling increased, 0.5 > 0.75
• Forward Strong 1: Knockback and scaling increased, 7.5 + 1.0 > 8.0 + 1.05
• Forward Strong 1: Width reduced from the hitbox’s back side, 96 > 72.
• Forward Strong 2: Hitpause Scaling reduced, 0.75 > 0.5
  • These changes should make forward strong feel more natural when hit, while giving some love to the kill power and removing situations where players get caught from behind Hodan.
• Up Strong: Cut off the top of the hurtbox so it doesn’t extend above platforms.
• Down Strong (Parried): Inner hitbox KB Scaling increased to match the non-parried version, 8.5 + 1.05 > 8.5 + 1.15
• Down Strong (Charged): Parry window reduced by 1 frame.
• Neutral Special: Non-empowered hitboxes now lose to all projectiles.
  • This move has crept up in the meta and has proven to be a pretty safe recovery option due to the hitbox size. This change will give opponents some more counterplay to a recovering Hodan.
• Forward Special (Uncharged): Endlag reduced, 28 > 23
• Forward Special (Uncharged): Added a 10 frame cooldown.
  • These changes should make recovering with forward special into up special feel a little better, while keeping projectile spam in line.
• Up Special (Uncharged): Late hit now has KB decay, 7 – 5
• Up Special (Charged): Late hit now has KB decay, 8 – 6
  • Decaying knockback should make getting hit by the end of the move feel more natural given its speed.
• Up Special (Charged): Increased hitpause scaling of the sweetspot to match uncharged version, 0.45 > 0.75
• Bug Fix: Fixed the early hit of charged up special not having hit lockout as previous patch notes stated.
• Bug Fix: Fixed a bug where hitfall was disabled until landing if down special was cancelled.
• Bug Fix: Fixed the splash hitbox of neutral air not coming out if the physical hitbox hits late enough.
• Bug Fix: Landing during neutral air now destroys the aerial hitboxes.

Pomme

We’re pretty happy with Pomme’s normal attacks, but we feel they get overshadowed by her notes and her infamous bodyguard, Vince. In this patch we’ve attempted to slightly rework how specials can be used by making notes more focused on mid combo usage and by giving Vince the ability to be destroyed like a good bodyguard.

• Float: Getting parried now instantly ends your float.
• Dash Attack 1: Larger hitbox moved up by 5 pixels.
  • This matches the animation better and will scoop player below the stage less often.
• Up Strong: Damages reduced. Sweetspot: 16 > 14, Sourspot: 12 > 10
• Down Strong: Spike hitbox now has lower priority than the strong hitbox.
  • This hitbox was mostly meant for offstage opponents and break cancels on rock. The swap in priority makes it so players partially through platforms still get launched by the strong hitbox.
• Down Strong: Cleaned up the endlag animation.
• Neutral Special: Reflected notes are now transcendent and break new notes thrown by Pomme.
  • Previously this was only true for notes thrown in her song field.
• Neutral Special: Increased note summon time, 12 > 15 (the time it takes for the final note to spawn is 41 > 50)
• Neutral Special: You can no longer manually throw notes while they’re being auto-fired.
  • This should drastically affect projectile spam during recoveries while steering players toward the intended use of notes as combo resets.
• Forward Special: Vince can now be knocked away if struck by projectiles or melee hitboxes unless he is fully charged. Fully charging makes him inVINCEible.
• Forward Special: Vince now only destroys non-transcendent projectiles.
• Forward Special: Vince blocking a projectile counts as it hitting something.
  • This will activate things like Sylvanos flower projectiles.
• Forward Special: Vince now moves up when hitting ledges, up to 16 pixels.
• Up Special: Multi-hit hitboxes are now flipper 2. (Sends towards Pomme’s center.)
• Down Special: Now has an off-screen HUD indicator.
• Bug Fix: Pomme will now lose her notes when crouch canceling attacks, and when being hit by Orcane’s bubbles.
• Bug Fix: Pomme is now considered to be in the air when doing a grounded float.
  • This fixes issues like being frozen by Etalus ice while floating.

Olympia

Olympia, much like Pomme, is in a pretty good spot and is receiving a bit of fine-tuning on her specials, with focus on her gem and crystallization interactions.

• Crystalize: Super armoring through a Crystalizing attack will “store” it on you, immediately shattering when your attack ends. If you’re hit after super armor ends then it triggers the full crystallization.
• Crystalize: Getting hit by a Mollo flashbang while crystalized now acts as if you were super armored (30 frames of hitpause that transitions into full crystalization when it ends).
• Jab 1: Reduced active frames, 5 > 3
  • We also adjusted window timings to match the animation.
• Back Air: KB decay reduced, 6 – 4 > 6 – 5
  • This should make the decay more predictable on a move with few active frames.
• Forward Strong: Late hit damage reduced, 17 > 14
• Gem: Gem no longer has an invincibility period when forming.
• Gem: SK can now bounce off of gem with down air.
• Gem: Sylvanos can now cancel off of gem with forward special.
• Gem: Kragg’s Rock now bounces off of gem.
  • These changes should bring Olympia’s gem more in line with other articles in the game regarding interactions with specific special situations in game.
• Neutral Special: Hitting non-player articles (such as Sylvanos flower) now creates a gem.
• Forward Special: Damage now scales with charge, 10 > 6 – 16
• Bug Fix: Down Special aerial dashcancel now refreshes on death.
  • Now you can dash right off the respawn platform!
• Bug Fix: Fixed the doublejump cancel on forward special sometimes losing height if you’re up against a wall.
• Bug Fix: Crystalize breaking will no longer create a hitbox if it was broken by being hit by another attack.
  • This change prevents people from getting saved from death by crystalize
• Bug Fix: Pressing special to create a gem now only works if you’re still using neutral special.
  • Creating a gem after the attack is no longer needed since the projectile creates one on-hit now.

Ver. 2.1.3.2

Patch 2.1.3.2 Hotfixe

• Workshop items can now have ssl=”1″ in their config.ini to set it as an SSL item.
• Fixed results_pre_draw.gml crashing if you use sprite_get on the first frame.
• Fixed css_draw_portrait.gml not setting portrait_x/y on the winner.
• css_update.gml no longer runs if any submenus are open (i.e. not displaying the actual charselect portrait).

• Fixed Zetterburn’s Steampunk taunt not working.
• Added the fonts folder to the whitelist when uploading a workshop item.

• Fixed attack_end not affecting custom articles.
• Fixed dev mode making characters tiny and inverted.
• Fixed dev mode not creating files for the newcomers.
• Fixed dev mode not giving hitboxes to newcomers.

• Mollo’s O rune now resets on death. (Mostly to stop it beeping if you die during co-op abyss.).

General

• Improved rollback performance and stability!

• Buddies now run the scripts init.gml and draw_hud.gml. They will draw hud over their characters.
• Added the hitbox property HG_VISUAL_EFFECT_DISTANCE which lets you adjust how far away from the player hit FX spawn.
• Added the following scripts to characters: css_init.gml, css_update.gml, results_pre_draw.gml, results_post_draw.gml, results_portrait_draw.gml.
• Also noteworthy is that the css scripts now have the variable cursor_id, referring to the cursor that player is controlling.

• Custom articles now have the variable is_hittable, which lets them run article#_hit.gml when a hitbox touches it. (This includes the players’ own hitboxes!)
• Custom articles also have the variables hittable_hitpause_mult, enemy_hitboxID, hit_player_obj, hit_dir, hit_player, and the arrays can_be_hit and attack_can_hit to support being hittable.
• Added the variable small_djump to characters. Setting this to true uses the smaller double jump VFX Wrastor uses.
• Added custom wait animation support, using the variables wait_time, wait_length and wait_sprite.

• The random generator now uses a different seed per match.
• Fixed a memory leak with storing custom hit FX.
• Fixed camera_obj’s coordinates not updating.

• The Stage Editor now has a “Take Full Screenshot” option. With this you’ll be able to save a screenshot of the entire stage’s layout to “full_layout.png” in the stage’s folder.
• The screen in Neo Julesvale now grabs colors from a reference sprite. (Technical change, but it means texture mods can change the screen colors).
• css_update.gml now has the variable suppress_cursor, which disables most CSS functionality every frame it’s set to `true`, which lets workshop characters have custom menu options without the color change or playtest functions getting in the way.

• Custom (monospace) fonts are now supported. You can now add a fonts folder to your character with a .ini file of the font properties, and it will use a specified sprite from the sprites folder.
• Added support for a select sound. Adding charselect.ogg to your character’s main folder will play it on load.
• You can now press Backspace on keyboard or Back/Select on controllers while selecting a workshop character in the CSS to search for characters with specific names.

• New functions: get_synced_var() and set_synced_var(). This will set a global variable each player has that persists between menus and matches, as well as being saved in replays.
• New function: article_destroy(). This lets you destroy any base cast article using its ID, and sets destroyed in custom articles to true.
• New function: set_ui_element(). This wraps up all existing sprite/sound functions into one (such as set_victory_bg). This function can now also set hud.png, hud_hurt.png and offscreen.png.
• New functions: get_hitstun_formula(), get_hitpause_formula() and get_kb_formula(). These functions use the same formulas used in hitbox collision, letting you simulate those parts of a hit.
• New function: get_player_name(). Returns the player’s current nametag, or a simple “P1”, “P2”, etc. if not.

The new functions can be viewed here in the Workshop Technical Manual:

• get_player_name
• get_kb_formula
• get_hitstop_formula
• get_hitstun_formula
• get_synced_var
• set_synced_var
• article_destroy
• set_hud_element

Mollo

• Rune B: Reworked to be less niche, even though the original roman cancel mechanic made a great pun for Mollo. It now turns him into a meteor when dodging with a bomb.
• Rune D: Now works on Up and Down throws.
• Rune G: Fixed a crash caused by being hit by its second hitbox.
• Rune J: Fixed the missiles not moving.
• Rune N: Fixed being able to buffer a regular strong when you should be throwing your next queued bomb.

Hodan

• Rune A: Fixed the visual effect not appearing when charged by a spirit.
• Rune N: Changed description to be clearer.
• Rune O: Nair’s splash hitbox now sets fire.

Pomme

• Rune D: Fixed collision and alignment issues with the alternate songfield.
• Rune E: Pomme herself no longer falls slowly in the songfield.
• Rune I: It now buffs attack types on hit instead of on perform. Also added a visual effect to see which attack type is buffed.

Olympia

• Rune L: Landmine crystals no longer trigger when Olympia herself gets close to them, meaning crystals spawned via other methods will stay dormant.

Ver. 2.1.3.0

Mollo

Mollo has really begun to settle into his role of an all-around threat.  Our goal for this patch is to fix some critical counterplay related to his bombs, while also reducing some of the power in his stronger normals. This patch should bring a balance to the risk/reward associated with Mollo’s bombs.

• GENERAL BOMBS
  • When parried, all bomb explosions now put Mollo in parry stun.
    • Initially, we were worried that parrying bomb explosions would be a bit too easy. We’ve found that Mollos tend to mix things up pretty well, with the majority of bomb explosion parries coming on easier to time moves like Down Special and Forward Special. This change adds some extra risk to these high reward options, and even adds counterplay to Mollo parrying his own bomb, since an opponent reading this option will put him in parry stun rather than allowing him to get I-frames.
  • Parrying firecracker’s explosion no longer sends the bomb itself back to Mollo.
    • The change to parry stun would cause the firecracker to hit Mollo out of his stun, making the explosion parry less rewarding for opponents.
  • Bug Fix: Getting hit while charging a throw will no longer drop the bomb.
    • A Mollo starting a bomb throw should still be holding onto it, making the act of charging a throw a little more risky. Now, Mollo won’t drop his bomb when an opponent sneaks in there just in time.
      
  • Bug Fix: If a held bomb primes while in hitstun, it will now explode at the end of hitstun.
    • Previously, bombs would only explode in Mollo’s hand if he was struck with a cooked bomb in hand. This lead to a lot of situations where the bomb would flash right after a hit, and neither player would be sure if the explosion would trigger. This change also adds intended risks for a Mollo holding onto bombs a little too long. Getting caught in a combo with one in hand should be even more dangerous now.
      
  • Bug Fix: Bombs can now be hit multiple times per airtime.
    • Players should now be able to use multi-hits on bombs and juggle them to their hearts content.
      
  • Bug Fix: Fixed parried bomb trajectories so they should now more accurately launch toward the Mollo that threw them.
• FIRECRACKER
  • Early damage decreased, 2 > 1
  • Final damage decreased, 4 > 3
    • Firecracker already does a good job holding opponents in place and controlling space. We wanted to tone down the overall damage that Mollo secured from it, which coincidentally helps him take less damage while using Firecracker as a recovery tool.
      
• JAB
  • Jab 1 startup increased, 3 > 5
  • Jab 1 cancel frame increased, 3 > 7
  • Jab 1 active frames decreased, 3 > 2
  • Jab 2 cancel frame increased, 6 > 8
  • Jab 3 endlag increased, 4 > 7
    • Last patch removed whifflag from the early hits of jab. This change meant the endlag of jab on hit and whiff were now a bit lower than they should be. The new endlag values, and updated startup values should make Mollo’s jabs fit in a bit better with where we want him to be.
• UP AIR
  • Up Air 1 startup increased, 5 > 8
  • Up Air 1 hitstun multiplier decreased, 1 > 0.8
  • Up Air 1 KB scaling removed, 0.1 > 0
  • Up Air 2 KB scaling decreased, 0.9 > 0.7
    • Up air had some pretty powerful kill potential when combined with Mollo’s extra jump and low startup. This change should make chaining super low percent kills more difficult, while adding more counterplay to Up Air 1 juggles and allowing the move to connect to the second hit better at higher percents.
• DOWN AIR
  • Startup increased, 8 > 10
  • Grounded sweetspot angle changed, 280 > 270
  • Aerial sweetspot angle changed, 290 > 270
    • • Mollo down air was a bit less of a risk than we wanted for a move with lingering active frames. The extra startup should make Mollo players commit more to the option, while the new spike angle will help with counter-play at the ledge, allowing opponents more opportunities to wall-tech.

Hodan

We have a few in-depth bugs that we are working on fixing behind the scenes, but for now we’ve adjusted a few of Hodan’s aerials and tackled one of the most frustrating bugs for Hodan mains at the moment.

• NEUTRAL AIR
  •  
  •  All hitboxes now have flipper 6 (horizontal knockback sends away from player).
    • This change should allow some more interesting counterplay to Hodan’s main and splash hitboxes of the move. Now, opponents behind Hodan will be launched away from him in the opposite direction than if they were in front of him. Having the ability to DI another direction should add depth to both counter-play and to Hodan’s combo tree.
      
• BACK AIR
  • Back Air 1 hitstun multiplier reduced, 1 > 0.6
    • Hodan’s Back Air 1 had a similar issue as Olympia and Mollo Neutral Airs in previous patches. The hitstun multiplier reduction should make looping the first hit into itself less rewarding at middle percents on most characters, while still having a reliable link into hit 2 should he not hitfall.
      
• DOWN SPECIAL
  • Bug Fix: Fixed an issue where cancelling Dspecial and hitting someone on the same frame still puts you into pratfall.

Pomme

Pomme’s meta is starting to take form pretty quickly now. Her frame data across the board is pretty strong, and her specials still have some ironing out to do. We like her aerial game as it is, but recognize her grounded normals can be a little silly. In this patch we’ve taken a swing at her frame data for jab and every tilt, with slight hitbox adjustments on jabs 1 and 2. Another huge focus for Pomme this patch is her camping ability with notes. Reduced hitstun and higher commitment should help level the playing field for now.

• JAB
  • Jab 1 startup increased, 2 > 4
  • Jab 1 width decreased, 75 > 50
  • Jab 1 X increased, 25 > 38
  • Jab 2 width decreased, 83 > 57
  • Jab 2 X increased, 25 > 38
    • Pomme’s jab was tied for fastest in the game, with a hitbox that snatched up players standing behind her a bit too often for our liking. Her new frame data is toned down a bit, with hitboxes that do a better job at focusing on players directly in front of her.
• UP TILT
  • Startup increased, 4 > 6
• DOWN TILT
  • Startup increased, 3 > 4
  • Endlag increased, 9 > 11
• FORWARD TILT
      
  • Startup increased, 6 > 7
    • We hit Pomme’s tilts across the board to level out some of her weaknesses. Her access to float and fast aerials seemed a bit too strong when combined with some of the best grounded options in the game.
• NEUTRAL SPECIAL
  • Note hitstun multiplier decreased, 1.2 > 0.8
  • Summoning notes now cancels float. Notes may still be thrown while floating.
  • Parrying Pomme now destroys notes around her.
• GENERAL
  • Reduced double jump protection when floating, 8 > 3

Olympia

Olympia is still fighting the good fight, so we decided to fix up a weird interaction and also add a few nice QoL changes to her neutral special.

• UP TILT
  • Up Tilt’s stomp hitboxes have been simplified: The smaller one (with 1.1 kb scaling) has been removed, and the larger one (with 0.7 scaling) can now hit aerial players.
    • Some strange interactions resulting from grounded spikes could occasionally cause deaths across the map. While it was a little funny, this change should balance that out without changing too much of the move’s functionality.
      
• NEUTRAL SPECIAL
  • Neutral special projectile Y lowered, -50 > -40
    • Olympia’s gem throw looked a bit off visually while also allowing some bigger characters to duck right underneath it. The new height should normalize it with other projectiles in the game with the added bonus of allowing more grounded hitboxes to hit a gem spawned from a default height.
      
  • Added an off-screen indicator for gem field.
    • This QoL change should help Olympia mains keep track of gems in the fringe cases where they may have spawned in the blastzone.
      

General

• Olympia’s J rune now also extends crystalized time by 1.5x.
• Olympia’s O rune reworked: it now teleports to the gem when breaking it by holding Special.
• Olympia’s L rune reworked: Crystal spikes are now landmines that last a couple seconds and trigger when an opponent steps on it.
• Fixed Ori’s O rune having a large sprite.
• Fixed Hodan’s A rune hurting Hodan like it would with opponents.
• Fixed Hodan’s B rune not spawning anything.
• Fixed Hodan’s L rune only working when facing right.
• Adjusted Hodan’s M rune to only activate sweatspirits that are idle, and fixed a lingering hitbox on them.
• Changed Hodan’s O rune to act more consistently to Zetter’s fire-consuming attacks.
• Mollo’s thunder bomb (via the I rune) is reworked to actually do something unique instead of just having a weird flipper. (it summons lightning!)
• Nerfed Mollo’s salvo bomb (via rune J) so it’s not as unfun to play against.
• Fixed Mollo’s G rune not applying the changed bomb type to his first equipped bomb.
• Fixed Mollo’s D rune not doing anything.

• Additional notes: none.
• Source: official website / official website / official website / official website / official website / official website