Welcome to Patch 2.31! We’ve added a bunch of new avatars alongside an amazing new Flag taunt that will display whatever avatar you currently have equipped. That’s right, you can now display your national pride or strong sense of comedic timing during matches. Taunt away! We’ve also added a number of new test features, balance changes, and client / server improvements. Good luck out there in Season 2 and we hope you enjoy this patch!

Flag Wave Taunt!

• The Flag Wave taunt is now available in Mallhalla.
• The Flag Wave taunt will display whatever your currently equipped avatar is.

New Avatars!

• Avatars are now available for purchase in Mallhalla.

Community Request

• Made a change to the colors in the HUD so that once a player starts going past 150 damage, the shade of red will continue to get deeper and darker all the way up to 300 damage (which should never reasonably be reached in normal play). This should help give an idea as to how “deep” in the red a player has gotten.
• Improved the method of shading the damage bar in the HUD to make the color blending noticeably smoother.

Client and Server Performance

• Fixed memory leak in level system.
• Improved rendering system performance.
• Improved core server networking.
• Improved core server packet parsing.
• Optimized packeting routing on the core servers.
• Fixed core server memory leak.
• Improved core server database performance.
• Improved core server performance during transfers.
• Reduced spikes in core servers when lots of people log in at once.

Animation Adjustments

• Changed startup animation frames on Sword Recovery so that it is less stiff.
• Updated Hammer running animations to match hurtboxes more closely.
• Updated Katar running animations to match hurtboxes more closely.
• Updated Spear running animations to match hurtboxes more closely.
• Updated Axe falling animations to match hurtboxes more closely.
• Reworked rendering to remove the occasional pixelation on some body parts.

UI Interface

• The randomize podium option displays are now hidden for users with an account level under 5.

Controller Support

• PC support for ThunderStrike Speedlink SL-6542

New Legend Rotation

This week’s Legend Rotation features Ada, Bodvar, Diana, Queen Nai, Sir Roland, and Teros.

Graduated Test Features

Thanks everyone for your feedback. After a bunch of testing we’re ready to put some of the test features from last week live.

• Throws: Increased Recover Time when throwing a Weapon or Gadget from 14 to 18; Increased Stun Time of thrown Weapons and non-explosive gadgets from 17 to 21; Throws that hit a target that is not already stunned have their Stun Time reduced from 17 (now 21) to 16. Snowball and Water Balloon throwing is unaffected.
• Same Move Directional Influence: gives a player some Directional Influence when hit by a combo that uses the same power more than once.
• You can now charge a Gravity Canceled signature for up to 10 additional frames.
• Previous test features not listed here remain as test features.

New Test Features

Reminder: you can enable test features in custom lobby menu settings or by playing in the Experimental 1v1 Queue.

• New test feature available in customs and the Experimental 1v1 Queue: Chain Dodging. You can chain up to three chase/speed dodges in a row as long as the first one started on the ground and with a maximum of one aerial chained dodge.
• Standing on the ground is no longer a requirement to perform a Jump Sig, but they are still not possible when Gravity Canceled.
• Increased the Recover Time of Jump Sigs by 15% of their normal Recover Time.
• Signatures with hitboxes during the charge are no longer able to perform a Jump Sig once they reach their first hitbox.
• Instead of Cooldowns preventing a power from being used again, the Cooldown Time will be added to the startup of the repeated power. (Note that Signatures cannot jump during Cooldown startup frames.)

• Unarmed Neutral Light – Decreased Cooldown Time from 16 to 9.
• Unarmed Side Light – Decreased Cooldown Time from 10 to 9.
• Unarmed Down Light – Decreased Cooldown Time from 13 to 7.
• Unarmed Neutral Air – Decreased Cooldown Time from 7 to 6.
• Unarmed Side Air – Decreased Cooldown Time from 12 to 7.
• Unarmed Down Air – Decreased Cooldown Time from 9 to 6.
• Unarmed Recovery – Decreased Cooldown Time from 12 to 7.
• Unarmed Ground Pound – Decreased Cooldown Time from 19 to 11; No longer ignores gravity during startup; Changed downward movement on first cast from 0 to 30.
• Sword Neutral Light – Decreased Cooldown Time from 16 to 11.
• Sword Side Light – Decreased Cooldown Time from 17 to 13.
• Sword Down Light – Decreased Cooldown Time from 16 to 10.
• Sword Neutral Air – Decreased Cooldown Time from 15 to 9 on miss, 19 to 12 on hit.
• Sword Side Air – Decreased Cooldown Time from 18 to 13 on a hit.
• Sword Ground Pound – Decreased Cooldown Time from 18 to 11; No longer ignores gravity during startup.
• Lance Neutral Light – Decreased Cooldown Time from 16 to 9 on miss, 20 to 14 on hit.
• Lance Side Light – Decreased Cooldown Time from 13 to 10 on miss, unchanged on hit.
• Lance Down Light – Decreased Cooldown Time from 16 to 11.
• Lance Neutral Air – Decreased Cooldown Time from 9 to 7.
• Lance Side Air – Decreased Cooldown Time from 18 to 12.
• Lance Down Air – Decreased Cooldown Time from 16 to 11.
• Lance Recovery – Decreased Cooldown Time from 15 to 10.
• Hammer Side Light – Decreased Cooldown Time from 11 to 7.
• Hammer Neutral Air – Decreased Cooldown Time from 11 to 6 on miss, 15 to 8 on hit.
• Hammer Down Air – Decreased Cooldown Time from 10 to 8.
• Hammer Recovery – Decreased Cooldown Time from 15 to 12
• Blasters Neutral Light – Decreased Cooldown Time from 10 to 8.
• Blasters Side Light – Decreased Cooldown Time from 15 to 8 on miss, 15 to 10 on hit.  
• Blasters Down Light – Decreased Cooldown Time from 10 to 8.
• Blasters Side Air – Decreased Cooldown Time from 18 to 14.
• Blasters Neutral Air: Stun Time on first shot changed from 25 to a range between 25 and 20; Stun Time on second shot changed from 20 to a range between 20 and 15; Cooldown decreased from 12 to 9.
• Blasters Down Air – Decreased Cooldown Time from 10 to 8.
• Blasters Recovery – Decreased Cooldown Time from 10 to 8.
• Blasters Ground Pound: Decreased Cooldown Time from 15 to 13; No longer ignores gravity during startup; Minimum time to cancel into the shot on ground collision increased from 0 to 17. (Previously not possible because of canceled gravity)
• Spear Neutral Light – Decreased Cooldown Time from 11 to 9.
• Spear Side Light – Decreased Cooldown Time from 10 to 8.
• Spear Neutral Air – Decreased Cooldown Time from 12 to 9.
• Spear Side Air – Decreased Cooldown Time from 8 to 6 on miss, 11 to 9 on hit.
• Spear Recovery – Decreased Cooldown Time from 11 to 9.
• Spear Ground Pound – Decreased Cooldown Time from 12 to 10; No longer ignores gravity during startup.
• Katar Neutral Light – Decreased Cooldown Time from 8 to 7.
• Katar Side Light – Decreased Cooldown Time from 14 to 9.
• Katar Down Light – Decreased Cooldown Time from 22 to 12.
• Katar Neutral Air – Decreased Cooldown Time from 9 to 6.
• Katar Side Air – Decreased Cooldown Time from 12 to 8.
• Katar Down Air – Decreased Cooldown Time from 13 to 10.
• Katar Recovery – Decreased Cooldown Time from 10 to 7.
• Katar Ground Pound – Decreased Cooldown Time from 22 to 12; No longer ignores gravity during startup.
• Axe Neutral Light – Decreased Cooldown Time from 9 to 4.
• Axe Side Light – Decreased Cooldown Time from 11 to 9.
• Axe Down Light – Decreased Cooldown Time from 10 to 8.
• Axe Neutral Air – Decreased Cooldown Time from 15 to 9.
• Axe Side Air – Decreased Cooldown Time from 15 to 6.
• Axe Down Air – Decreased Cooldown Time from 15 to 10.
• Axe Recovery – Decreased Cooldown Time from 13 to 8.
• Bow Neutral Light – Decreased Cooldown Time from 25 to 14.
• Bow Side Light – Decreased Cooldown Time from 17 to 9 on miss, 29 to 13 on hit.
• Bow Down Light – Decreased Cooldown Time from 19 to 9.
• Bow Neutral Air – Decreased Cooldown Time from 15 to 13.
• Bow Side Air – Decreased Cooldown Time from 16 to 14.
• Bow Down Air – Decreased Cooldown Time from 19 to 12.
• Bow Recovery – Decreased Cooldown Time from 16 to 12.
• Bow Ground Pound – Decreased Cooldown Time from 14 to 11.
• Gauntlets Neutral Light – Decreased Cooldown Time from 13 to 10 on miss.
• Gauntlets Down Light – Decreased Cooldown Time from 14 to 9 on miss, 19 to 16 on hit.
• Gauntlets Neutral Air – Decreased Cooldown Time from 15 to 11 on miss, 19 to 18 on hit.
• Gauntlets Side Air – Decreased Cooldown Time from 14 to 10.
• Gauntlets Down Air – Decreased Cooldown Time from 13 to 9.
• Gauntlets Recovery – Decreased Cooldown Time from 15 to 11.
• Gauntlets Ground Pound – Decreased Cooldown Time from 16 to 12.

Balance

Throws

This change is designed to prevent throws into combos while stacked with your opponent.

• Thrown items do not become active until after 10 frames.
  

Unarmed

The Side Air had an overly generous hitbox, so it has been updated to better match the animation, but we have slightly reduced the Time to Hit to compensate for the loss in strike area.

• Unarmed Side Air: Decreased Time to Hit from 15 to 14; Rehitboxed to better match the animation.

Sword

The Sword is an extremely solid weapon with good options in most scenarios, so we are tempering the reward slightly, focusing mostly on the Recovery attack. There will now be a brief dodge window between a Neutral Air and a Recovery attack, due to Neutral Air’s decreased Stun and the Recovery’s increased Time to Hit. The Down Air has been brought in line with other similar powers for Recover Time on miss, but some of that power is shifted to slightly increased Stun on the Neutral Light.

• Sword Recovery: Increased Time to Hit from 6 to 9; Decreased total Damage from 24 to 20.
• Sword Neutral Air: Decreased Stun from 20 to 18.
• Sword Down Air: Increased Variable Recovery on miss from 21 to 24.
• Sword Neutral Light: Increased Stun from 18 to 20.

Spear

The Side Light has received a reduction in Variable Force and Fixed Force, as well as a slight drop in knockback angle for more consistent behavior into subsequent attacks.

• Spear Side Light: Decreased Variable Force from 25 to 10; Decreased Fixed Force from 60 to 50; Slightly lowered angle of knockback.

Lance

Some power has been shifted from the Neutral Air into the Side Air. The Lance Side Air has received slight reductions in both Time to Hit and Recover Time on miss for a more fluid feel, whereas the Neutral Air has received a slight reduction in Damage.

• Lance Side Air: Decreased Time to Hit from 15 to 14; Decreased Fixed Recovery on miss from 1 to 0.
• Lance Neutral Air: Decreased Damage from a range of 19~22 to a range of 18~21.

Katar

The Katar Down Air can be great for starting or continuing pressure, but the Recover Time when colliding with the ground on miss rotated into other attacks a bit too quickly. The Fixed Recovery on miss for the Down Air on miss when colliding with the ground has been slightly Increased to allow more time to retaliate.

• Katar Down Air: Increased Fixed Recovery on miss when colliding with the ground from 2 to 3.

Axe

The Axe has regained a stacked option in the air in the form of the Side Air, as well as a little more coverage on the back end of the Neutral Air to compensate for the recent decrease of their generous hitboxes. The Neutral Light has been made more fluid from slight reductions to both Time to Hit and Recover Time on miss.

• Axe Side Air: Restored a portion of stacked hitboxing.
• Axe Neutral Air: Rehitboxed to slightly extend coverage on the back end of the swing.
• Axe Neutral Light: Decreased Time to Hit from 10 to 9; Decreased Variable Recovery on miss from 12 to 10; Decreased Fixed Recovery on miss from 1 to 0.

Bow

The Bow Ground Pound was still a bit too powerful at lower damage ranges, so we have shifted some power within the attack from the Fixed Force into its travel speed.

• Bow Ground Pound: Decreased Fixed Force from 86 to 76; Slightly increased travel speed.

Gauntlets

The Gauntlets Recovery felt weak in comparison to other similar attacks, so we are slightly increasing the Damage to make it a bit more rewarding.

• Gauntlets Recovery: Increased Damage from 15 to 17.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where the Test Maps never actually showed up in the Experimental 1v1 Queue.
• Holding down to fall through a soft platform with an aerial attack is no longer possible once a power cancels into its landing animation. Fixes some related bugs.
• Fixed a bug where some animations like picking up a weapon could delay the dodge invulnerability animation from displaying on the correct frame. (Credit Nerex7)
• Fixed a bug that could cause bots on the same team to intentionally attack each other. (Credit Bliffity, Thor)
• Renamed Ragnir’s base katar skins to “Dragon Scale Katars” to avoid naming conflict with the Dragon Tooth Katars that appear in the store.
• Fixed an issue where a dodge animation could play instead of a charge throw animation when throwing immediately after a dodge.
• Fixed a bug where the 2v2 ranked screen would say “Requires a teammate to play ranked 2v2” if the second player had never played Ranked 2v2 before.
• Fixed a bug where the personal 2v2 season rating would not show the correct Elo for a player who hasn’t played 2v2 Ranked yet, and wouldn’t show a personal rating at all if that player was the 2nd player. Also fixed a bug where default personal 2v2 rating info would appear for the first player for spectators if there were no actual players in the lobby.