Welcome to the last week of our the Heatwave event! It’s been three weeks since we began celebrating, but we’re not done yet! In this patch we’re adding an awesome new Brawl of the Week (comes with giant explosive water balloons), two new skins, balance changes, and a number of other fixes. Let us know how your last week of the Heatwave goes!

Mallhalla

• Sobek Ragnir – “Fury of the Nile unleashed on Asgard!”
• Dawnwalker Cassidy – “Riding into the sunset is the quickest way to find vampires.”

Last Week of the Summer Heatwave!

• Last week for bonus gold, summer skins and heatwave colors. Get ‘em while they’re hot!

Brawl of the Week – Water Bomb Bash!

• Water Bomb Bash!
• 6 Player FFA
• 3 Minute Timer
• Score the most points to win!
• Now with giant water bombs!

Animation

• Minor animation tweak to Cassidy’s character select.
• Minor adjustment to Artemis select screen animation FX.

Balance

Continuing with your requests from the Forge, we have a few changes for hotly debated powers on some key weapons, such as Spear’s Down Air and Gauntlets Neutral Air, that are aimed at reigning in those that are slightly overperforming expectations, while also lifting the underperforming weapons. The community’s excellent work on Signature feedback has resulted in a continued stream of updates, in both attack interaction and risk/reward. We look forward to your continued feedback that helps shape Brawlhalla!

Spear

With discussion largely centering around Spear’s Down Air, particularly with repeated use, we have shifted some of its power into Spear’s other downward aerial attack. Players should find an increased window provided by both a shift in stun and time to hit on the Down Air, as well as delaying its use as a counter-attack after being struck. The rehitboxing has also resulted in reduced coverage that should increase the accuracy required by the user when attacking with a Down Air.

• Spear Down Air: Rehitboxed to better match the animation, resulting in less coverage near and towards the back of the user; Increased Time to Hit from 10 to 11; Decreased Stun from 13 to 12.
• Spear Ground Pound: Increased Stun from 17 to 19.

Sword

With speed increases to Brawlhalla over time, a couple of lunging attacks have been trailing behind and left wanting for an increased ability to keep up with opponents. We have altered the travel speed of the Side Light to have a softer drop-off, making it more reliable as an approaching attack.

• Sword Side Light: Softened the speed decrease during the last half of the power, resulting in slightly increased distance.

Katars

Similar to the Sword, the Katar Side Light also called for an increase to travel speed. We have updated this power to have a more significant starting lunge to better track down elusive targets.

• Katars Side Light: Increased the initial burst of speed during this power, resulting in slightly increased travel distance.

Axe

Following the requests for Axe Side Light to have varied followup options that shift as the target’s damage increases, we have altered the force of the attack to increase the window during which aerial attacks are viable. Players should find the target left in range for aerial strings at even moderately high damage ranges.

• Axe Side Light: Changed Force from 20 Variable/54 Fixed to 13 Variable/65 Fixed.

Gauntlets

The Gauntlets have received some updates to their hitboxing on two key powers. Both the Neutral Light and the Neutral Air will have slightly shifted coverage that should prove significant during play. The Neutral Light’s stacked coverage has shifted to be more in front of the user, while the Neutral Air has significantly reduced coverage below the user. Both of these should increase the need for proper facing and spacing to land these attacks.

• Gauntlets Neutral Light: Rehitboxed to better match the animation, resulting in less coverage towards the back of the user, but slightly more coverage in front of the user near the end of the power’s duration.
• Gauntlets Neutral Air: Rehitboxed to better match the animation, resulting in less coverage below and behind the user, but slightly more coverage above the user.

Scythe

As the Scythe strings have shifted to allow for appropriate dodge windows, there has been a concern over opponents jumping out of those strings without the need to use their dodge. We have shifted some power from the powerful off-stage presence of the Recovery attack in order to bolster the on-stage use of the Side Light. With a lower setup location, players will find followups such as Neutral Light, Neutral Air, or Side Air improved at catching jump attempts.

• Scythe Side Light: Lowered knockback on the final hit of the neutral version, resulting in certain strings no longer being jumpable, while still being dodgeable.
• Scythe Recovery: Decreased Force from 40 Variable/57 Fixed to 40 Variable/53 Fixed.

Cross

The fire that sprouts from Cross’ feet as he lunges toward the opponent no longer strikes opponents, by popular request. This delays the overall time to hit of the attack by a slight amount, as the active frames now begin with Cross’ flying leap. Players will find an increased need for proper spacing to land this attack, as well as proper facing on startup.

• Cross Side Blasters: Rehitboxed to better match the animation, resulting in loss of initial hitbox just before the leap.

Gnash

We have updated Gnash’s Side Hammer to better match the animation, which results in a smaller strike zone when stacked. Players standing stacked or slightly behind Gnash will no longer be struck, requiring target’s to be slightly in front of Gnash or stacked near his front.

• Gnash Side Hammer: Rehitboxed to better match the animation, resulting in slightly more coverage overhead but less coverage towards the lower back.

Orion

Orion’s Neutral Spear has been hotly debated in the Forge, with the overall feedback that it leads to off-stage knockouts too early. We have reduced the Force significantly be in range with other similar powers.

• Orion Neutral Spear: Decreased Force from 49 Variable/68 Fixed to 46 Variable/64 Fixed.

Scarlet

We have reduced the recover time on Scarlet’s Down Lance to bring the risk/reward better in line with other similar powers. Coupled with the previous change to recover time behavior of this power, the Down Lance is punishable with improper use while not feeling overly stiff in use.

• Scarlet Down Lance: Decreased Recover time from 0 Variable/20 Fixed to 0 Variable/17 Fixed.

Kor

We have shifted some power from Kor’s Neutral Hammer into his Down Hammer, due to Neutral Hammer’s fairly early knockout potential and great use as a followup from Hammer Down Light. The Down Hammer was previously unrewarding compared to its lengthy duration, so we have moderately increased the force for both the ground and air finish.

• Kor Neutral Hammer: Decreased Force at the start of knockback from 55 Variable/60 Fixed to 52 Variable/60 Fixed.
• Kor Down Hammer: Increased Force of final hit on the ground from 49 Variable/60 Fixed to 51 Variable/60 Fixed; Increased Force of final hit in the air from 46 Variable/53 Fixed to 48 Variable/54 Fixed.

Val

Val’s Neutral Sword is a reliable anti-air, however it would score knockouts later than most other similar attacks, so we have shifted some power from her versatile Side Sword into the Neutral Sword’s knockout potential.

• Val Neutral Sword: Increased Force from 55 Variable/70 Fixed to 57 Variable/72 Fixed.
• Val Side Sword: Decreased Force of the ground version from 55 Variable/65 Fixed to 53 Variable/65 Fixed.

Yumiko

Similar to Val, the reward for landing Yumiko’s anti-air Neutral Bow was sub-par given its relatively thin trajectory and tight hitbox coverage. We have shifted some of the knockout potential from her Side Bow into her Neutral Bow, as well as increased the damage for better reward at all health ranges.

• Yumiko Side Bow: Decreased Force from 48 Variable/73 Fixed to 47 Variable/73 Fixed.
• Yumiko Neutral Bow: Changed Force from 55 Variable/73 Fixed to 56 Variable/73 Fixed; Increased Damage from 21 to 23.

New Legend Rotation

This week’s Legend Rotation features Orion, Scarlet, Val, Ragnir, Nix and Yumiko.

Bug Fixes

• Cassidy Down Hammer: Fixed a case where the target could be dropped before the final hit. (Credit: Snackxs, NoviBliss)
• Sword Neutral Light: Fixed a case where the target could be dropped before the final hit. (Credit: Meme-Soul)
• Cassidy Side Hammer: Fixed a case where the target could be dropped before the final hit. (Credit: Jaximus)
• Fixed a bug that could cause the hit react animation not to play if hit during certain animations.
• Fixed typo on the Error Screen.
• Fixed a -multikeyboard bug where the game would crash on the Controls screen if all keyboards AND all controllers were disconnected while the screen was open. It will now close the Controls screen if all devices are removed while it’s open.
• Fixed a bug where the camera would pop at the beginning of matches on certain maps with certain player counts.
• Fixed memory leaks in the character picker when changing between colors.
• Fixed bug where sometimes after a disconnect you would get stuck with only the Blue UI Background screen showing.