The Crowd Magnet is here to take down opponents in style! La Reina’s hands-on approach to fighting centers around grabbing and throwing enemies any chance she gets. In true grappler fashion, La Reina is ready and willing to grab people out of their defensive options and make them rethink their decisions.
La Reina is available right now for free with all of the standard content included in a new Rival release. This includes local game mode updates, progression unlocks, achievements, and a slew of cosmetics available through both free progression and the shop:
New La Reina Local Modes: La Reina Target Test and Arcade Mode.
For those looking for a video tutorial for La Reina, her 101 video is scheduled to launch later this week. As mentioned above, La Reina is available NOW for FREE to all players, so get out there and put on a show!
La Lucha Infinita Event
Looks like our newest Rival has some company in the ring! The La Lucha Infinita event is here from 1/6/26 - 2/3/26 with a paid bundle that includes 3 new wrestler skins - Luchador La Reina, Luchador Kragg, and Luchador Galvan with their own masked icons to match, plus coins and bucks. The free event track includes the Luchador Ranno Skin and Icon, plus the Luchador Platform, Luchador Kragg Emote, and the Luchasplosion death effect.
Players equipping any event skins above, and any of La Reina’s default or common skins will receive 20% Bonus XP on the event track.
Underground Arena Stage Skin
Alongside the Crowd Magnet’s release, we have a brand new stage skin for Godai Delta! The new stage skin Includes a brand new track by Moonsailor to go along with the new look, and will have another track by RESOFORCE available at a later date. Check out the teaser below:
The Underground Arena bundle can be found in the bucks shop and contains three unique icons, or you can purchase it for coins.
New Shop Items
Midnight Abyss Etalus Palette
Pixel La Reina Icon
Vibe La Reina Icon
Vibe La Reina Angel Icon
Slaggo Icon
Leffox Icon
Cirriphant Icon
Meadant Icon
New La Reina Skins and Palettes:
La Reina Flower Mantis Skin
La Reina Abyss Skin
La Reina Hornet Skin (In Shop)
La Reina Abyssal Palette
La Reina Mint Palette
La Reina Cool Blue Palette
La Reina Pink Palette
La Reina Yellow Palette
La Reina Black Palette
New Ranked Shop Items
Champion Etalus has been added to the Ranked Shop! This includes a skin, two emotes, and two icons for the Glacier’s Might.
Gameplay and Balance Updates
Shield release frames: 15 > 12
This makes shield release match the frame data of wavedashing in place so beginners and intermediate players aren’t punished for not being able to wavedash OOS.
Bug Fix: Fixed a bug that allowed characters to accelerate past their maximum air speed for a brief period each time their horizontal speed went under the maximum value.
This makes air speed a consistent value instead of a rough estimate, and affects characters with low air friction the most, since they took the longest time to decelerate back down below their max air speed. In general, however, this is a mostly unnoticeable change.
Bug Fix: Wall clings will now end when the wall disappears.
Light and medium hitstun will now prevent ledge grabs for either 30 frames when they start or 10 frames after they end, whichever is shorter.
This prevents some situations where the upper range of medium hitstun would prevent ledge grabs for a bit too long, leading to some situations where the character would fall past the ledge unexpectedly.
Rooted Special Attacks will no longer transition into the aerial version when performed on the frame before leaving a ledge.
This fixes a bug where Wrastor Down Special would do the aerial version when started while his back was at the edge of a platform.
Attacks that send below horizontal will now have an increased maximum DI angle.
When the knockback angle is more than 20 degrees below horizontal, the maximum DI angle will be increased by 6 degrees. Anything less than 20 degrees will interpolate linearly from 0. Because gravity pulls downward, the difference in a character's final position after being hit downward is less pronounced than when they are hit horizontally or upward. Because of this, it was often too easy to cover multiple DIs, making followups after spikes a bit too consistent. This change increases the variation in trajectories, making DI matter more for escaping followups after spikes.
Getting hit by the same attack multiple times in a row will increase the maximum DI angle by 2 degrees, up to a max of 6 degrees.
This adds more chances to escape moves that link into themselves, especially upward-sending combo moves. This mechanic also has the potential to be used offensively by tricking your opponent into DIing even farther into the blastzone. The attack count is reset when you exit hitstun (hitstun includes tumble and the missed tech state).
Bug Fix: Outer limb hurtboxes are no longer targeted by hitgrabs instead of just standard grabs.
This removes some situations where a character would get grabbed from farther away than is usually possible if the attack was a hitgrab.
Bug Fix: Fixed a bug that made hurtboxes rotate incorrectly when performing an attack that turns you around.
In this patch we are taking a look at Zetterburn’s shine followups, since they're a bit strong for their versatility and execution. We're also increasing the scaling on some of his moves that comboed too well at high percents.
Uncharged Neutral Special active frames: 3 > 2, recovery frames: 20 > 21
Neutral Special can no longer jump cancel during the active frames and must instead wait until the 2nd recovery frame.
This delays the jump cancel by 2 frames for the uncharged version and 3 frames for the charged version, making his followups ever so slightly stricter while not changing the input timing, because of the extended buffer. The reduced active frames also make the move require a bit more precision to hit with, especially offstage.
Uncharged Neutral Special extra shield stun: 1 > 3
This preserves the shield advantage of this move now that the jump cancel has been pushed back by 2 frames.
Strong Attack consume hitboxes will now disappear after 3 frames of hitpause.
This prevents them from staying an active threat for 20 frames on hit, which could be very frustrating in doubles.
Up Strong innermost hitbox removed.
This very slightly reduces the backward range of this move.
Down Tilt sweetspot knockback: 6 + 0.5 > 6 + 0.6
Down Tilt sourspot knockback: 5 + 0.3 > 5 + 0.5
This makes it send opponents farther at higher percents so that he can't follow up quite as often.
This makes it send opponents farther at higher percents, making Zetterburn have to cover more distance to follow up afterward.
Back Air recovery: 12 > 15
This adds a bit more commitment when using this move and not landing during it.
This patch brings changes to a few situations that were frustrating to play against, such as grounded darts, forward special stalling, forward air sourspot comboing into the sweetspot too consistently, and down air being too difficult to challenge.
Grounded Neutral Special recovery: 20 > 24
This reduces the rate at which he can throw out grounded darts.
Forward Special now has a 20 frame cooldown after whiffing in the air.
This prevents him from using it to continuously stall offstage after being knocked far away and high up.
This makes it leave opponents more above Ranno than in front of him, making it not as good at setting up for a sweetspot Forward Air afterward.
Down Air's initial hit will now shrink in size after the first 3 active frames.
This allows opponents to challenge the later active frames more easily.
Wrastor is getting some adjustments to moves that opponents often fall out of to help with their consistency.
Down Special can now grab certain articles like Kragg’s Rock and La Reina’s Chair.
The innermost hitbox on Forward Tilt hits 1 and 2 now always send forward and have the highest priority of all the hitboxes.
This prevents enemies from falling out of the back of the move at point-blank spacings in most cases.
Getup Special now has a hitbox along the ground during the later active windows.
This prevents it from whiffing against opponents that shift toward the center. They can still escape from the top, however.
Kragg with a rock is incredibly strong, but obtaining one with Neutral Special was a bit more safe than we would like. We're increasing the commitment for pulling a rock, but at the same time making it less punishing to get hit out of rock pull's startup. We're also adjusting the size of his Down Air, since it was overcentralizing in many situations. We're also allowing him to break cancel his Up Throw when landing on his rock.
Neutral Special rock pull window length: 20 > 27
Neutral Special rock pull recovery window length: 7 > 10
Kragg with a rock is an extremely terrifying character, but getting a rock was a bit safer/easier than intended, so we're adding some startup before the rock is pulled.
Getting hit while in the rock pull window of Neutral Special will now leave Kragg with no rock.
This reduces the punishment for getting hit during the early rock pull frames.
Neutral Special rock pickup detection box shrunk slightly.
This reduces the range where Kragg can grab a rock behind him. The forward range is unchanged.
Rock can now be grabbed by command grabs that can grab articles.
Down Air active frames: 3 > 2
Removed the shoulder hitbox from Down Air.
Down Air range reduced.
Down Air wrist hitbox radius: 64 > 55
We're shrinking the whole move down significantly to make getting the high reward that it gives a bit less lenient. The recovery frames were also increased by 1 to keep the total move duration unchanged.
Down Air landing lag: 13 > 14
This makes the move very slightly more punishable and less advantageous.
Up Throw will now cancel on landing if the ground disappears from under him.
This allows him to cancel the recovery by slamming an opponent onto a rock.
We're shifting some of her power from her aerials to her specials so that her playstyle isn't overly focused on one thing. We're also toning down her Up Tilt, since combos out of it were a bit too strong.
Slow Fall joystick threshold: 0.75 > 0.7
This makes the slow fall input more responsive, especially when using diagonal-downward inputs. This value was adjusted from 0.8 to 0.75 in patch 1.0.3, but we want to make the input even more responsive than before.
Forward Special's initial wind arrow is now immune to projectiles.
This allows her to counter other projectiles with her Forward Special.
Forward Special tornado time between hits: 10 > 7
This prevents the opponent floorhug shielding/parrying after being hit.
Up Special's sourspot now reaches farther downward.
This prevents the sweetspot from hitting in awkward positions where the opponent is below and in front of Fleet.
Down Special recovery window fastfall frame: 16 > 8
Previously, fastfalling as early as possible caused Fleet to land 1 frame earlier than normal when used on flat ground. The new value causes her to land 5 frames faster, while also allowing her to mix up her movement earlier.
Down Special knockback angle: 85 > 88
This increases the reward on hit if the opponent doesn't DI out. Because of this move's high startup, getting the correct DI is often reactable, so we're making it a little better when you catch an opponent off-guard.
Up Tilt final hit knockback: 6.5 + 0.65 @ 90 > 6.5 + 0.75 @ 85
This makes it send opponents farther at high percents so that she will need to move farther to follow up.
Up Tilt startup: 8 > 10
Up Tilt recovery: 15 > 17
This reduces the advantage on hit and makes it more punishable on whiff or on shield. The extra startup reduces the ability to combo into itself again.
Neutral Air recovery: 20 > 25
Forward Air recovery: 20 > 23
Back Air recovery: 24 > 27
Fleet's ability to freely position herself offstage gives her unparalleled flexibility when edgeguarding, so we're increasing the recovery of a few of her aerials so that they're a bit more committal offstage.
Back Air landing lag: 13 > 14
This slightly expands the punish window when Fleet is throwing out Back Airs out of Slow Fall.
Down Air recovery: 29 > 39
This makes it much more committal and prevents her from continuing to fire arrows at opponents who are recovering low after the first one is unsuccessful. This change is especially noticeable when she's far from the wall, since that's where Down Air is the most dangerous.
Grab range reduced by around 8cm.
This makes it match the animation better.
Forward Throw arrows knockback angle: 45 > 40
This makes it send opponents more outward instead of upward.
Fixed a bug that prevented Back Throw arrows from applying a Stamina Tornado after using Special Pummel.
Now the Stamina Tornado application cooldown is only applied when spawned from a Back Throw arrow, and only prevents other Back Throw arrows from applying a new one for 1 second.
Getup Special meat air friction: 0.3 > 0.0
This increases the range of the move, but more importantly, makes the meat hit Fleet when parried.
Bug Fix: Arrows that hit the edge of a platform will now snap to the edge of the platform instead of being deleted
Bug Fix: Stamina Tornado will now transfer immediately on grab for hitgrabs and command grabs.
Stamina Tornado shield damage multiplier: x1 > x3
This increases the reward that Fleet gets for forcing an opponent to shield it.
Stamina Tornadoes can now be applied even if another one was just applied, unless the new one was applied with Back Throw.
This limitation was added to prevent Back Throw from applying multiple Stamina Tornadoes at once, but was applied to all methods of applying them instead of just Back Throw.
Maypul's horizontal air speed was an extreme outlier among the cast, making certain options in neutral, advantage, and recovery able to cover a bit too much distance, so we're decreasing it. It is still the highest in the game following this change. We're also cleaning up the hitboxes on some of her vine whip attacks, since they could be a bit unpredictable.
Max Horizontal Air Speed: 17 > 15
This still leaves her with the highest max horizontal air speed in the whole cast, excluding Wrastor in slipstream, but reduces the horizontal distance she can cover slightly. This impacts both her burst movement potential and her recovery. It impacts jump options and recovery more than run or dash off options, since it takes time for her air friction to slow her down to her new max.
Up Special late hit knockback: 6 + 0.93 > 6 + 0.89
Slight decrease to this move's killpower, since it can be a go to finisher to land on opponents high up in the air, due to her extreme movement stats.
Holding Up Special or Forward Special inputs at the end of hitstun will now instantly start the move when hitstun ends.
This allows Maypul to buffer tethers out of hitstun, since mashing tether inputs can lead to unintentionally using the move without canceling it into a tether.
Tether inputs performed with Special + Grab will now be successful even if the Grab input was pressed more than 6 frames ago.
This allows Maypul to buffer tether with Special + Grab out of hitstun.
Forward Strong and Down Strong hitboxes are now fully static.
Their erratic movement made the hitboxes a bit unpredictable, so we're making them fully consistent now. This decreases the range of Forward Strong slightly in all directions. Down Strong lost a tiny bit of forward range and a decent amount of upward range, making it not as good at anti-airing opponents.
Up Tilt upper and middle hitboxes shrunk and moved outward.
This allows more opponents to attack Maypul from directly above if they space their approach well.
Forward Air knockback angle: 325 > 320
We're reverting the knockback angle change for this move now that its maximum DI angle has been increased.
Up Air initial speed boost: 7 cm/f > 6 cm/f
This slightly decreases the height she gains with Up Air. This does not affect tether Up Air followups. * Maypul Up Air is a little too important to Maypul’s recovery plan and it’s not an intuitive input for new players. But it IS fun for Maypul players who have learned to use it. So we wanted to reduce its strength slightly but keep the mechanic intact.
Bug Fix: Indirect grabs will now also remove mark.
This applies to Galvan's Down Special and Ledge Special chains, since they are articles that grab instead of Galvan grabbing on his own.
Clairen is getting quite a few changes to many aspects of her kit, like higher air friction, reduced grab range, smaller jab hitboxes, a slightly slower Down Tilt, less stun on tipper Back Air, and a weaker Up Throw. These changes should shave off some of the rougher edges that players feel when fighting against her.
Air friction: 0.06 > 0.12
This means that she will slow down faster when moving above her max horizontal air speed, slightly decreasing her effective burst movement range in the air.
Standing grab and dash grab ranges reduced by around 10cm
This makes it slightly harder for her to put opponents into her powerful throw mixups. It also makes them match the animation better.
Up Special recovery window fastfall frame: 17 > 12
Up Special finisher recovery window fastfall frame: 24 > 17
This lets Clairen land earlier out of both parts of Up Special, making them a little better after hitting an opponent, as Clairen could often be punished for landing this attack.
Down Special intangibility on successful counter: 60 > 20
This makes the intangibility end as soon as she is actionable, reducing the reward on a successful counter.
Jab tipper radius: 50cm > 30cm, hitbox moved forward 20cm and stretched backward 20cm
Jab outer sourspot radius: 45cm > 40cm, hitbox moved forward 5cm and stretched backward 20cm
These changes preserve the forward range of both the tipper and the sourspot while shrinking them vertically significantly.
Down Tilt active frames: 3 > 2
This makes it require more precise timing when poking at recoveries.
Down Tilt recovery: 15 > 17
This reduces how quickly she can throw this move out and makes it slightly more punishable on whiff/shield.
This causes them to send opponents into medium hitstun, which makes them techable at the wall.
Forward Air recovery: 22 > 24
Forward Air hit 2 sourspot knockback: 6 + 0.55 > 6 + 0.6
This makes it harder for Clairen to combo after landing this move at high percents.
Back Air tipper hitpause multiplier: x1.05 > x0.85
This reduces the tipper stun by 4 frames (23 > 19), making followups afterward slightly less advantaged. More importantly, however, it makes shorthop instant hitfall Back Air not confirm into tipper Down Strong at high percents in most cases. Non-hitfall tipper Back Airs can still confirm into tipper Down Strong if Clairen lands immediately after it hits, but with less leniency than before.
This makes it send opponents farther at higher percents, reducing the potency of her 50/50 throw mixup, especially against floaty characters. The lower angle helps to make less-than-perfect DI angles less punishing.
Up Throw startup: 20 > 24
Up Throw recovery: 30 > 31
Up Throw knockback angle: 85 > 82
The strength of Clairen's up throw was a bit too high considering how good her forward and back throws are, so we're making it a little more reactable and reducing the potency of its followups slightly.
This bug was introduced when the frame data of this move was last changed.
Bug Fix: Interrupting ledge special before the 2nd hit will now prevent the 2nd hit from coming out.
This already happened if she was interrupted early in the recovery frames, but now it can be canceled any time before hit 2's active frames.
Loxodont is getting some very small changes that clean up Down Tilt's hitboxes and make the reverse hit of Neutral Air slightly better when hitfalling it.
Forward Special can now grab certain articles like Kragg’s Rock and La Reina’s Chair.
Down Tilt innermost hitbox moved 30cm forward.
This reduces the backward range of the move slightly.
Neutral Air hit 2 hitfall hitstun multiplier: x0.75 > x1
We're removing this multiplier, since the knockback and startup are strong enough for it to be unnecessary.
Bug Fix: Molten Boulders will now send players in the intended direction if they hit a player while in hitpause.
Previously, the boulder could send players in the opposite direction if it was facing that direction before getting hit.
We're doing a bit of hitbox cleanup on Down Tilt, Forward Strong, and Back Air, while reducing the strength of his Forward Air a bit, including the indirect change it got from the global DI staling change. He's also getting a few quality-of-life changes to his smoke clouds.
Down Tilt's innermost hitbox now disappears on the last active frame.
This reduces the backward range of the move, since that hitbox moved significantly back on the last active frame.
Forward Strong cape hit active frames: 5 > 3
This makes it require a bit more precision to hit, since it doesn't take up such a large space for as long. The recovery and cancel frames were also increased by 2 to keep the same overall attack duration and functionality.
Forward Air damage: 6 > 5
This move can easily chain into itself, so we're very slightly decreasing the reward for doing so.
Forward Air active frames: 3 > 2
This is a very minor change that makes the move require a little more precision to use well. The recovery frames were also increased by 1 to keep the same total attack duration.
Back Air innermost hitbox shrunk for both the early and late hits.
This reduces the area that can hit opponents in front of Forsburn.
Back Air landing lag: 12 > 14
While this already had very high landing lag, it still felt too safe to throw out due to its large size, long active frames, and Forsburn's movement properties.
Back Throw knockback angle: 40 > 35
This makes it send opponents at a more favorable angle, especially on DI out.
Smoke cloud intangibility on spawn: 10 > 20 frames
This prevents the clouds from being destroyed before they were fully formed. This also helps to prevent most attacks from hitting the clone and then destroying the resulting smoke cloud instantly.
Smoke clouds will now be destroyed if Forsburn gets hit within 10 frames of them spawning
This prevents situations where Forsburn gets hit and then a smoke cloud appears shortly afterward. The clouds are fully invisible for those 10 frames, so it will now appear as if they never spawned in the first place.
Bug Fix: Fixed a bug that caused smoke clouds to hide Forsburn as soon as they spawned instead of waiting until they were fully formed.
Etalus had a few overcentralizing moves, like Dash Attack and Forward Air, that are getting some changes to make them require a bit more precision to get full value out of them. His Forward Strong is getting a nice change that should make it much more threatening when approaching an opponent with it.
Dash Attack sweetspot knockback angle: 45 > 55
This makes inward DI put the opponent less forward than before, requiring Etalus to adjust his positioning a bit more to follow up.
Dash Attack hitstun multiplier: x1 > x0.8
This makes comboing out of it less lenient, since the jump cancel makes it quite strong.
His head is now intangible during Forward Strong's active windows.
This makes it much better at challenging opponents in front of him.
Forward Air range reduced.
This attack was a little more safe than we would like to throw out and land.
Forward Air's innermost hitbox is now a sourspot with the highest priority and knockback: 5.5 + 1.0 > 5.5 + 0.85
This makes Etalus have to space the move with more precision to land the sweetspot. The sourspot is fairly small, however, so he will still be hitting the sweetspot more often than not.
Up Air can now grab certain articles like Kragg Rock and La Reina’s Chair.
Up Air knockback: 5 + 0.5 > 4.5 + 0.5
Slight reduction to its knockback at low percent.
Up Air hitstun multiplier: x1 > x0.9
This move was a bit too good at putting opponents in a dire position. It is still extremely good on hit, but enemies won't be forced to fall so far before they can start to recover.
Down Throw knockback angle: 65 > 45
Previously, this throw wasn't useful unless Etalus was armored. The new knockback angle makes it better at sending opponents offstage.
Bug Fix: Ice Armor will no longer be removed when performing an aerial on the frame that you leave a ledge
This was happening because it was starting a strong attack and then ledge canceling it into the aerial.
Olympia's recovery was much too versatile for how powerful her onstage presence is, so we're significantly toning down Forward Special so that her options are more limited in certain positions. She's also getting higher ground friction to make her less slippery.
Ground friction: 0.5 > 0.75
The main goal of this change is to make her slide less when she is knocked into the ground, since her extremely high gravity and fall speed stats make her much more likely to land mid-combo. This also decreases the range of some of her other grounded movement options, like wavedash and dacus, although this change is mostly aimed at reducing the frequency of slideoffs.
Forward Special can now grab certain articles like Kragg’s Rock and La Reina’s Chair.
Forward Special will now go into special fall on whiff.
The lack of special fall was originally a part of this move when it was limited to once per airtime before her public release. Removing one limitation without adding the other made her recovery a bit too versatile, since she had access to two separate horizontal dashes that left her actionable afterward. With this change, she won't be able to use Forward Special freely when recovering from far offstage.
Forward Special fastfall frame moved 5 frames later.
This slightly reduces the versatility of this move as a recovery tool, especially when used right above ledge.
Absa is getting a few small changes, like making Up Special a bit easier to challenge and increasing the size of Down Tilt.
Up Special now expands her hurtbox during the active windows and the window between them.
This allows opponents to better challenge it with their own attacks.
Down Tilt hitbox radius increased by 5cm and moved 5cm upward
This increases its range in every direction except for downward.
Hitting Absa will now remove her Special Pummel static electricity.
This makes it so Absa must capitalize on the static electricity before getting hit, since it's such a strong status effect.
Bug Fix: Getup Special's lightning strike will now be destroyed if Kragg's pillar is destroyed with Absa on top of it.
Galvan is getting some small changes to Forward Special that will make it less punishable on startup and less punishing when knocking opponents into the wall.
Up Special's platform now has an offscreen indicator.
Forward Special startup: 24 > 20
This makes Galvan slightly less vulnerable when recovering and makes it slightly harder to react to in neutral.
This makes them send into medium hitstun instead of heavy hitstun, preventing them from causing a wall bounce if the opponent misses the wall tech.
Added a small hitbox to the tip of Up Strong.
This makes it match the animation better and reach very slightly higher.
Send Us Your Feedback
As always, send us your suggestions on The La Reina update over on our nolt board at https://rivals2.com/nolt. You can submit bug and help requests by joining our Discord too. Just look for the #support-ticket channel.
This is part 2 of our Winter Holidays 2025 events!
Changes & Additions
Added 6 new festive sprays to Santa's Workshop
Added 3 new collectible, festive Catsacks to Holiday events
Added new "Accessory Pedestal" type items to D.I.Y.: Accessory Display and Physics Pool Tube. These items can display owned accessories in your Condos, with more display options coming in the future
Added new item to Central Circuit: Text Ticker, an alternative version of the Theatre Ticker that takes text input
Added more Super Weapons to Kalarry's Warez: Grenade Launcher, Rocket Launcher, Chaingun
Replaced the Decimator milestone slot with the Chaingun Jetpack (Decimator has been moved to Kalarry's Warez with other Superweapons)
The D.I.Y. store attendant's hat spinning light is more noticeable
Reworked how seating poses are applied internally. This will allow players in special poses (via a Hidden Seat) to blend their animation with Emotes and look around
Adjusted various offsets for the special seating poses to more closely match the head's position
Bug Fixes
Fixed SDK3 Workshop models not sitting on the Santa Throne
Fixed collision issue with scaled Modular Catwalk items
Fixed default playermodels not animating properly on the RC Sleigh
Fixed colouring issues on wooden barrel items: Barrel, Barrel (Physics), and Prop Barrel
Fixed Adrenaline not appearing in the Weapon Pickup selection popup
The tonemapper no longer turns off on low post processing settings
Fixed a minor graphics settings scalability bug that was causing the post process settings to change the radius of the post process ambient occlusion.
Fixed material regression on certain golden accessories: Dog Collar, Gold Pumpkin Clock, Gold Tube, and Gem Crown
The nutcrackers at the game world ports no longer cover up the screens.
Fixed Item properties not working for Twin Cabinet and Upper Cabinet items
Fixed Holiday Coins not being granted by Holiday Visitors
Corrected Pool Tube idle 4 being incorrect on SDK3 and Default player models (it was a duplicate of idle 2)
Fixed spray activating when pressing G over top items/games that have G prompt
Fixed material regression on Strainer accessory
Optimizations
Broke the boardwalk up into chunks that can have improved LODs to improve overdraw and tri counts at a distance
Improved the performance of anti-aliasing across all graphical settings with no noticeable visual impact
Optimized the night lighting throughout the plaza and is now much more performant
Fixed a massive performance issue that was caused by a bug which doubled up dynamic lights on top of each other in the stores areas, improving the performance in this area significantly
Improved performance, render distances, etc. for numerous misc. lights throughout the Plaza
Set up ocrohedral LODs for several foliage meshes
Happy Holidays from the TU Team!
We hope you all have a great time in the game and out of it, and we thank you guys for your support this year! It’s meant the world to us! :]
It’s not every day that the tree can cut YOU down instead. Our midmonth bundle includes the Yuletide Galvan skin, emote, icon, and the jolly new “sleigh!” critical hit! The bundle also includes 25,000 coins and 250 Aether bucks. Yuletide Galvan also features a custom win jingle and custom sfx on his Forward Special, Neutral Special, Getup Special, Galvanized Up Special, and on his intro.
Advanced Tutorials
Advanced tutorials are here! Level up your game by checking out and completing the new Advanced Movement, Advanced Defense 1 & 2, and Advanced Offense 1 & 2 lessons!
Steam & Discord Rich Presence
Rich Presence has been added so you can see what your friends are up to in Rivals II on Discord and Steam. On Discord, this means you will also be able to invite or join your friends in a public lobby using various Discord features (overlay, chat, friend profile, etc). You can invite or request to join a private lobby as well.
Please note that the Discord setting “Share my activity” must be enabled if you want to use these features.
New Bundles
On top of our mid-month bundle, we have a few new bundles to celebrate the holiday season as well! Check them, and our new shop items out:
Winterfest Etalus Bundle ($4.99)
Etalus is getting a Grizzly skin, since you can't be an ice-themed Rival without also loving the holiday season! This small bundle comes with the Grizzly Etalus base skin, plus Winterfest palette and icon.
Holiday Palette Bundle ($4.99)
By popular request we're adding Winter Festival palettes for some of the cast that didn't have seasonal looks yet, so even Rivals without a holiday skin can join in on the fun. This bundle includes 11 palettes:
Wrastor Winterfest Palette
Absa Winterfest Palette
Fleet Winterfest Palette
Zetterburn Winterfest Palette
Clairen Winterfest Palette
Forsburn Winterfest Palette
Kragg Winterfest Palette
Olympia Winterfest Palette
Maypul Winterfest Palette
Orcane Winterfest Palette
Ranno Winterfest Palette
New Shop Items
Midnight Abyss Forsburn Palette
Yellow Snowman Kragg Palette
White Krampus Forsburn Palette
White Santa Zetterburn Palette
Mini Plush Fleet Icon
Mini Plush Ranno Icon
Mini Plush Maypul Icon
Avatar Bradshaw Icon
Avatar Hailhog Icon
New Audio for Clown Ranno and Franken Etalus
New to this patch are custom sfx in the taunts for Clown Ranno and Franken Etalus. We’ve also added custom sound effects to Clown Ranno’s Intro, Forward Strong, Up Strong and both the Sweetspot hit of Forward Strong and the pie hit of Forward Strong.
Balance Updates Next Month
We've seen lots of players asking when the next balance update is planned. We've answered this question elsewhere, but thought it best to include in the notes as well: You can look forward to a balance update that includes most of the cast with the release of La Reina on Tuesday January 6th, 2026!
This was announced yesterday during the Evo announcement show, here's the Steam News post for the announcement, including the trailer.
Next Rival Revealed - La Reina
The Crowd Magnet joins the roster on January 6th!
Our first character release for 2026 has been revealed! Get the first look at La Reina in her official trailer here - that just premiered moments ago LIVE during the Evo Announcement Show:
La Reina joins the roster on January 6th in our fifth free character update. This update is going to be a big one, including gameplay changes across the cast, so mark your calendars for The Crowd Magnet's premiere in Rivals II in just a few short weeks.
Introducing La Reina's Voice Actress
Paola Del Castillo brings her talent to the ring this January via our open casting call! Please join us in welcoming Paola as the voice of La Reina in Rivals 2. You can follow her at @paodlcastillo on Twitter.
Rival Backstory
Learn more about La Reina's past:
Nestled on the western edge of the Archai Mountains sits the hollow mountain city of La Gran Colina. At the heart of the city lies a gladiatorial stage, the Arena de Campeones. This is where the city founders settled disputes. This is where wars between gangs, businesses and nations were decided. “Truth Through Strength” was the motto of La Gran Colina - but that was in simpler times.
The escalating hostilities between the Air Armada, Flame Imperium and Water Trade Company had seen a spike in mining orders. Pressure from outside competitors like Badger Co. led to in-fighting and cut-corners in the mines of Gran Colina. One humble worker saw the decay of her culture and society and said “no more.”
La Reina put on her mask and came to the ring to take on all challengers. She fights in the Arena de Campeones to remind her people of their pride and indomitable spirit. Wherever she goes she promotes Gran Colina’s strength, but always returns home to defend her title and the honor of her people.
2025 WINTER QUESTS AND HOLIDAY EVENTS HAVE STARTED!!
2025 Winter Holiday Events are here!
There are three exciting Holiday Quests to participate in!
Spread holiday joy and help Santa Claws deliver gifts to the hardworking Plaza staff, share the joy of hats, and find the missing reindeer!
Find the quest-givers in the Central Fountain area!
In addition, the usual Holiday cheer has swept through Tower Unite! Enjoy beautiful holiday decorations in the Plaza, earn Holiday Coins from playing games, and deck yourself out with some new festive gear at Santa Claws’ store!
New Holiday Items!
This update includes new festive items to coincide with the Winter Holidays event.
Santa’s Workshop:
Krampus Horns
Ice Crown
Peppermint Horns
Peppermint Glasses
Tinsel Scarf
Santa’s Sackpack
Ice Wings
Stocking Stuffer
Toboggan Backpack
Sack on your Back
Sack on your Neck
Santa Throne
Celebrations:
Tinsel String
Yard Light Snowman
Yard Light Toy Soldier
Yard Light Candle
Yard Light Candy Cane
Yard Light Catsack
Aluminum Tree
Simple Wooden Sled
Sack on a Rack
Snowflake Decoration
SDNL Milestones
SDNL has received its long-awaiting Milestones, including memorable weapons from the Game World and some special treats.
Toy Hammer
Retro Gun
Crosshair Halo, a unique Accessory
Telepuncher
Mystical Katana
Super Shotty
Decimator
Kalleira Grenade
SDNL Motion Potion, grants the player double jumping and sliding from SDNL
Raptor Potion, transforms the player into a Raptor from SDNL: Dino Battle
New Less Festive Items
This update also includes some decidedly less festive miscellaneous items.
Toy Stop:
Baseball Bat
Wooden Baseball Bat, a hotbar weapon
Popstop:
Squizz Grape Soda
Squizz Orange Soda
Red Spring Diet Soda
Pepper, PhD. Soda
Tower Threads:
Sackpack, purchasable after reaching 500k experience in Casino
XxF3RR3TxX’s Customization Station:
Frostbite Background
Hinderance Background
Meadows Background
Catzek Background
Hospital Background
Overtime Background
Solar Background
Corrosion Background
Subway Background
Desertion Background
Rob’s Imports:
Royal Throne
Kalarry’s Warez:
Handheld Cannon
Central Circuit:
Soda Vending Machine Secret Door
Winter 2025 Plaza Update
Adjusted the smoothie store entrance to have a scale that is larger and doesn't feel like you're going to bonk your head on it in VR.
The back plaza area behind the casino now has proper snow trails for the winter plaza.
Theater Condo Art & Editing Update
An art pass to the concessions counters, screens, and canopy sign
You can now edit the concessions sign and toggle off and on various aspects of it.
The concessions menus now have a default texture displaying a generic menu when not overridden by a Canvas.
You can now edit the theaters themselves! Every surface, railing, and chairs can now be fully edited and customized.
An art pass to the theater rooms, adding Surface customization, toggle-able lights, and projection rooms (unfurnished).
Handrails, curtains, seats, and speakers can now be toggled on or off.
An art pass to the seats, which carry over to their item equivalents
There are new animated “now playing” tickers above each theater entrance. These are available as an item as well. Using a persistent IO connection to a Media Player, this item can display the video title of what’s currently playing. The Theater Condo art pass will include a unique version of this for each viewing room, built into the hallway outside.
Other fixes and changes include:
Updated the theater screen and projector lights so they only turn on when Media Dynamic Lights is enabled.
Longstanding errors with the normal maps on the pre-built light switches were fixed.
The built-in Theater doors can now optionally take you back to the Condo Hub.
Changes & Additions
Winter 2025 Plaza Update!
Start of Winter Holidays 2025 Events!
Added new items to Santa's Workshop
Increased amount of pickups spawned during the "Presents from the North Pole" event from 10 to 25
SDNL: Added Milestones!
SDNL: Buffed Payouts!
Condo IO: You can now use the Tower Glove while inside Location Volumes that have No Weapons rule enabled
Collection Book: Added crab category to Unlockables
Collection Book: Added hovering over items to see more details on the item
Collection Book: Added hints to Hidden items you don't own.
Added new Profile Backgrounds based on maps original to Virus and SDNL (unlockable with the Hidden Animal and CCTV achievements respectively)
New Sodas Added to PopStop (Vendy): Squizz Grape, Squizz Orange, Red Spring Diet, Pepper PhD.
New Item Added to Tower Theatre: Theater Ticker, a unique item that displays the title of the currently video on a connected Media Player
New Item Added to Tower Threads: Sackpack (only purchasable after reaching 500k Casino exp)
New Items Added to Celebrations: Simple Wooden Sled, Sack On A Rack, Yard Light Snowman, Yard Light Toy Soldier, Yard Light Candle, Yard Light Candy Cane, Yard Light Catsack, Aluminum Tree
New Items Added to Toy Stop: Wooden Baseball Bat, Baseball Bat (Weapon)
New Item Added to Rob's Imports: Royal Throne
New Item Added to Electronics: Soda Vending Machine Secret Door
Minigolf: Improved look of customization menu
Condo: Art passed fountain item
Optimizations
Reduced material permutations, optimizing materials across the game
Accessories: Optimised Materials
Plaza: More shadow-pass optimization by further expanding the Plaza's shadow proxy system.
Plaza: Purged several materials and converted their material instances into another master material to reduce shader permutations
Plaza: Simplified rendering inside of the music store and vehicle store to reduce draw calls
Plaza Foliage System: Reduced density, and set up an improved LOD system.
Plaza: Fine Foliage optimization - set up adaptive alpha cutoff to reduce overdraw on foliage that has a lot of fine details/edges (grass, ivy, etc)
Plaza: Optimized the water refraction effects in the ocean to only render on the closest water plane to the player, significantly optimizing the distortion process (GPU based)
Plaza: Optimized the underwater post process effects, and they no longer have any cost when not underwater
Plaza: Set up improved LODs for casino exterior and arcade exterior to decrease overdraw from fine trim-sheeting at a distance
Plaza: Changed the adaptive alpha cutoff settings in the foliage master from a static switch to a lerp switch to decrease shader permutations
Plaza: Fixed some of the palm trees in the boardwalk area from not being in the landscape foliage system, causing them to not swap LODs properly
Plaza: Improved the geometry and LODs of the casino back Plaza area to be more performant
Bug Fixes
SDNL: Fixed hosts not spawning with weapons often
SDNL: Fixed respawn issues (players being invisible on respawn)
SDNL: Fixed weapons still firing after death
SDNL: Fixed being able to switch weapons while dead
SDNL: Fixed recoil issues with single shot weapons
SDNL: Plushy Grenade now visually reappears when ammo is replenished
SDNL: Fixed arms T-posing when sliding without an active weapon (such as after throwing the Chainsaw)
Condo: Theater's built-in door now actually takes you back to the Condo Hub
Condo: Fixed longstanding normal error with pre-built lightswitches
Condo Hub: Fixed mirrored poster on the doorway for the Theater
Condo - Underwater: Fixed satellite elevator cars not moving
Condo - Underwater: Fixed underwater features not toggling on/off properly (fixes lighting tint issues)
Condo - Underwater: Fixed underwater post processing features not toggling on/off
Condo - Underwater: Fixed second set of surface water existing for no real reason
Condo - Underwater: Fixed surface water visual pop in bug
Condo IO: Fixed OnSoundEnded not firing when a Sound Emitter is set to Play Once
Arcade - Ice Cave: Fixed balls oftentimes disappearing while throwing
Accessories: Fixed coloring issues on Candy Bucket Hat, Candy Backpack, Bag of Roses, Bag of Clovers, and Reindeer Bells
Accessories: Fixed scaling issues on Cat Ears, Earmuffs, and Devil Horns (noticeable on workshop models)
Accessories: Fixed Catpack's colouring and fading breaking after running
Fixed collisions on throwable projectiles
The Infection milestone now deals PVP damage
Throwable Shrimp milestone now follows the rules like other throwable food items
Popcorn Bucket item now appears in the correct category in the Theatre store
Fixed bug with Festival Lights items where the "Animation Intensity" property was overwriting the "Animation Speed" property
Happy Holidays from the TU Team!
This isn’t the last of our holiday fun this year, but we did want to wish you all a Happy Holiday season!
MORE HOLIDAY FUN & ITEMS ARE ON THE WAY!!!
We hope you all have a great time in the game and out of it, and we thank you guys for your support this year! It’s meant the world to us! :]
Time to bring out the blankets and sip on some hot chocolate as the season arrives for our Winter Festival 2025 event! From 12/2 - 1/6, earn free holiday cosmetics like the Reindeer Absa Skin and Icon, the Christmas Platform, Elf Clairen emote, Christmas death effect, plus coins and bucks. The paid bundle includes 3 new winter skins - Santa Zetterburn, Elf Clairen, and Artic Fleet with their own icons to match, plus coins and bucks.
Artic Fleet comes with custom sounds for her Forward Special and empowered Strong Attacks, while Elf Clairen has holiday swipes and custom tippers sounds.
Players equipping any event skins above, and any of the following holiday skins will receive 20% Bonus XP on the event track: Snowday Ranno, Snowman Kragg, Krampus Forsburn, White Elephant Loxodont - all of these skins besides the White Elephant Loxodont have been added to the Feature Store for Aether Coins (White Elephant Loxodont can still be earned for free from the 2024 Winter Event).
To celebrate Platfight joining the R2CS, we’ve added the brand new Platfight Lovers Zetterburn palette bundle to the shop!
Similar to the previous Hungrybox Qualifier Events, participants will receive the HungryBox Baseball Clairen palette for free.
Europe will be hosting their final regular season event at No Time To Tilt 2025 in Deutschland, where the current top 2 players Dia and Neylax will be sure to provide a show!
We have added the No Time To Tilt Slam Dunk Ranno bundle to the shop for players to pick up and represent the event!
If you purchase any event bundles but already own the base skins, you’ll receive an Aether Bucks refund to make it even just like with our other bundles. These palettes are FREE for all players attending the respective events.
You can check out upcoming & past events and the region leaderboards on our official league page.
New Shop Items
Midnight Abyss Orcane Palette
Purple Winter Stoat Maypul Palette
Pink Forsburn Palette
Black Snowday Ranno Palette
Mini Plush Zetterburn Icon
Mini Plush Kragg Icon
Mini Plush Wrastor Icon
Capychilla Icon
Brutice Icon
Hornfrost Icon
Zetterburn Neutral Special Icon
New Ranked Shop Items
Champion Forsburn has been added to the Ranked Shop! This includes a skin, two emotes, and two icons for The Exiled Flame.
Audio Updates
Clown Ranno, Franketalus and the Low Poly skin will receive custom SFX for the first time/again in the near future but we're keeping them in the oven for a bit longer to ensure they're positive additions and won't be disruptive for players who already bought them.
Fixed a bug that made Fleet's strong attack charging sound silent when she was empowered by NSpecial.
Controller Updates
We know controllers are still in a tough spot for some people, and wanted to reassure everyone that we're working hard on all of the different complications that have come up in our controller overhaul. We'll continue to improve issues from this transition until everything is fixed, so please continue to share bugs and your hardware information with us. Since we’ve rolled out SDL, we have updated the game with several hotfixes:
Past fixes include:
11/21 Steam Article focusing on Steam Controller glyphs, deadzones, mappings and more.
11/26 Steam Article focusing primarily on GameCube controllers and controllers copying existing ones on plugin, with a few other changes as well.
11/26 hotfix that allows players to use RPS in tournament mode once again.
New to this patch:
Fixed a bug where GCCs with alternatively installed digital only trigger modifications would not release shield.
Fixed a bug where unplugging and re-plugging in a controller would create a new playerslot instead of taking over the now empty playerslot.
Fixed a bug for playerslots 2 and up where controller glyphs would not update if a new controller was bound.
Fixed a bug where mouse could open a playerslot. Now only a keyboard can open a playerslot and the mouse will funnel its input via the first player with keyboard.
Note: If a keyboard player is player 2 in a local match the mouse hover and click will effect player 1 in the css. However, in a match inputs from the mouse will funnel to the keyboard player if mouse buttons are bound.
As All Hallows' Eve approaches, we have a small little part 2 to our Halloween events!
New Halloween Items & Updates
More Ghoul Coins!
Since it's almost ghoul time, we've massively increased the drop rate for Ghoul Coins from sacrificing Remains!
We also added a couple new Halloween items...
New to Cauldron
Gleeby Catsack (rare)
Spooky Catsack (rare)
New to Halloween Characters
Gleeby Catsack (rare)
Spooky Catsack (rare)
Added more new Victorian furniture available in Rob's Imports and Sweet Suites
Victorian Writing Desk
Victorian Rolley Desk
Victorian Executive Desk
Nimbus Art Pass & Bonus Level
Nimbus was our first Ball Race map, and it has gotten some love finally! The artwork for the tiles, objects, and more have been redone and we've added a bonus level that was missing from Nimbus.
Condo Optimizations
We went through a lot of the systems in Condo IO and optimized them to improve performance for Condos that have intense usage of Condo IO. We're hoping the optimizations we did will reduce CPU usage overall.
Changes
Added new items to Rob's Imports: Victorian Writing Desk, Victorian Rolley Desk, and Victorian Executive Desk
Added new decorative Catsacks to Halloween Visitor and Cauldron drop pools: Gleeby Catsack and Spooky Catsack
Halloween: Increased the drop rate for Ghoul Coins from sacrificing Remains
Increased Laser Tag payout: Winning Team 500 > 2500 units
Increased Laser Tag payout: Gained Points (per point) 2 > 4 units
Increased Laser Tag payout: Didn't Get Tagged 500 > 1500 units
Increased Laser Tag payout: Didn't Get Eliminated 800 > 1250 units
Ball Race - Nimbus: Continued art pass on Nimbus, updated the art on the pillars, hammers, moving platforms, and boost ramps
Ball Race - Nimbus: Added more Melon pickups to Nimbus
Ball Race - Nimbus: Added a Bonus Level to Nimbus (Level 11)
Optimizations
Condo IO: Condo IO tick operations moved to a separate subsystem that handles all the IO latent connections and delays more efficiently (while reducing overall tick overhead)
Condo: Optimized Volumes (including Push Volumes) (overall reduction in player checks)
Condo: Optimized Timer (no longer updates timer text if the timer is not visible)
October is a massive month for us here at Aether studios, with both our 1 year launch anniversary coming up and the release of Galvan, our first completely new character to the Aether universe in Rivals II. Read on for everything included in patch 1.4.0 today:
Galvan Character Release
Galvan is an absolute beast. With hard hitting moves, a dash of setplay, and ferocious voice lines, Galvan’s a totally new flavor added to Rivals II that we think players are going to love.
Galvan is available right now for free with all of the standard content included in a new Rival release. This includes local game mode updates, progression unlocks, achievements, and a slew of cosmetics available through both free progression and the shop:
New Galvan Local Modes: Galvan Target Test and Arcade Mode
New Galvan Skins and Palettes
Galvan Dozer Skin
Galvan Abyss Skin
Galvan Skink Skin (In Shop)
Galvan Abyssal Palette
Galvan Mint Palette
Galvan Black Palette (In Shop)
Galvan Purple Palette Twitch Drop (shown in Twitch Drop section)
Galvan Spooky Palette (shown in shop update)
For those looking for a video tutorial for Galvan’s launch, its 101 video is scheduled to launch later this week. As mentioned above, Galvan is available NOW for FREE to all players, so get out there and unleash your primordial rage!
Tiers of Terror October Event
It’s October and it is time to get spooky! Our October event bundle features Blowup Galvan, Witch Absa, and Mummy Maypul as the featured skins with haunting icons to match. The bundle also includes an animated Galvan emote plus 25,000 Aether Coins and 250 Aether Bucks.
Our free event track for October contains the Skeleton Forsburn Emote, the Treatsplosion death effect, Grave Plot platform, and the Skeleton Forsburn skin and icon. Players equipping any event skins above, or the Slasher Clairen, Black Widow Ranno, or Vampire Zetterburn skin will receive 20% Bonus XP on the event track. There’s also a brand new Purple Slasher Clairen palette in the in-game shop!
Galvan Twitch Drops
Celebrate Galvan’s launch with new Twitch drops available on any Rivals II streams with drops enabled! Watch your favorite Rivals streamers from 10/7 - 10/21 to collect Aether Bucks, a Purple Galvan Icon, and a Purple Galvan Palette as rewards.
Rewards - Watch Time
100 Aether Bucks - 1 Hour
Galvan Purple Drop Icon - 2 Hours
Galvan Purple Drop Palette - 3 Hours
Once you've earned a Drop, you'll see a notification in your Twitch Inventory in the top right where you can claim your item. Visit your Twitch Drops Inventory to claim your item. Then follow the link to this page, where you can log into your Aether Account, then click the "Unlock your Twitch Drops items in ROA2" button. Make sure you link your correct account or you won't receive your drops in game. If you're not sure what your Aether Account email address is, just press start on the main menu of Rivals II to see your account email.
Metal Graveyard Stage Skin
Alongside the Ferrous Fossil’s release, we have a brand new stage skin for Aetherian Forrest! Includes 2 new metal tracks to go along with the new look by RESOFORCE and Moonsailor. Check out the teaser below:
The Metal Graveyard bundle can be found in the bucks shop and contains three unique icons, or you can purchase it for coins.
New Shop Items
Olympia Spooky Palette
Etalus Spooky Palette
Absa Spooky Palette
Galvan Spooky Palette
Pink Otter Maypul
Yellow Panther Zetterburn
Midnight Abyss Olympia Palette
Purple Slasher Clairen Palette
Skoal Icon
Babidon Icon
Cliffroach Icon
Vibe Galvan Icon
Vibe Galvan Mock Icon
Blowup Galvan Bones Icon
Emberu Sadness Emote
Next R2CS Events: PRGE, Arrival 3, and Somnio Noctem
October is a packed month with events for both the North American and the European regions!
Coming up on October 17th is the next NA R2CS event, Portland Retro Gaming Expo in Oregon. This event is sporting a $4,000 Pot Bonus and sports some top talent ready to duke it out for their cut of the cake. To compliment this event, we’ve created the PRGE Zetterburn palette available now in the shop!
If you buy this bundle but already own the base skin, you’ll receive an Aether Bucks refund to make it even just like with our other bundles. Keep an eye out for more circuit palettes in the future as the second half of the R2CS is just beginning! These palettes are FREE for all players attending the respective events.
Moving over to Europe, we have two different exciting events closing out October, with their own palettes coming in our October mid-month update. First, on October 25th, we have ARRIVAL 3 in London, a Rivals only event with 67 entrants ready to prove their worth. Then on Halloween day we have Somnio Noctem in the Netherlands, a huge multi-game event also featuring Rivals II.
You can check out upcoming & past events and the region leaderboards on our official league page.
New Ranked Season and Shop Items
The new Fall Ranked Season is live! Player ranks have undergone a soft reset and any unclaimed medals have been awarded based on your previous season’s accolades. The grind starts now, good luck out there!
Make sure to also check out the ranked shop for our newest addition - Champion Loxodont! This update includes a skin, two emotes, and two icons for the Endless Emperor.
Feature Update: Magnifying Glass Improvements
The in-game magnifying glass has been updated to show actual characters offscreen instead of just their portraits.
This was previously implemented early by mistake with incomplete optimization, but the finished product is finally here!
Although this feature has been ironed out by our team, this function does have the ability to be switched off for performance purposes if needed.
Balance and Gameplay Updates
In this patch we’ve taken aim at some of the most hot button topics in the community, including the overcentralization of grabs and how they can simultaneously feel clunky out of shield stun, and the strength of floorhugging. The changes in this patch are significant and we will be monitoring the effect they have at all levels of play as the changes get a chance to settle in.
We also have a few changes to a small percentage of the cast, since the primary character focus of today’s patch, beyond the release of Galvan, is to clean-up some of the rough edges on Loxodont’s moveset so he can be easier to balance moving forward. These Loxodont updates can be found below and include making his hitboxes better match his visuals, while also giving some love to Neutral Special and Forward Tilt.
A special note about this patch and why only one character is getting a set of changes:
We mentioned in a previous update that we’ve recognized the need for more focused and less sweeping patches based on community feedback. This means that we are aiming to work on a handful of characters per major patch to ensure that changes based on feedback, our intended direction, and fixes of launch issues can more definitively get compiled all at once as opposed to piecemeal over several patch cycles.
You may recall that we first implemented this ideology with Zetterburn, Ranno, Wrastor, and Kragg already and may be wondering why it is limited to one character this go-around. If that’s the case, you are right to question it! The simple answer is that we originally planned this patch to include updates for the characters that hadn’t seen a focus over the summer - Loxodont, Fleet, Forsburn and a stretch goal of Absa, … but our Gameplay Lead and his wife just had their first child born a little earlier than we expected! We still have updates planned for the other three characters, but for now we are focusing solely on Loxodont.
Now, with all of that out of the way, let’s jump in:
Shield grabs are now bufferable again.
Standing grab startup for every character: 6 > 7
Standing grab recovery for every character: 23 > 26
Grab cooldown after wavelanding: 2 frames > 1 frame
Not being able to buffer shield grabs made it too difficult to take advantage of small gaps in shield pressure compared to how easy it was to consistently have frame perfect offense, so we're reverting that change and instead just slightly adjusting the frame data of grabs in general to be slower and more laggy. This also helps to balance grabs in other situations, like when used after a floorhug. One of the key counterplay options against grabs is using low-startup attacks to interrupt the grab before it comes out, but because a lot of our faster attacks have similar startup to grabs, that was less effective than intended. This also makes spot dodges more effective against grabs, as the spot dodging character will now be frame-positive even on the latest possible dodge.
You can no longer floorhug non-tumble attacks while performing a grab
Since interrupting grab startup with a quick attack is part of the intended counterplay, we want to make sure it's effective at doing that without the risk of getting floorhug counterattacked. This works the same way that floorhug-prevention mechanics do during flinch and parried states.
Floorhugging medium-strength hits while in the KnockdownStart and Knockdown states will now force another knockdown instead of sending into HitstunLand
This prevents floorhug counterattacks from knocked-down opponents, making it much safer to apply pressure to them.
Ground friction will no longer be doubled when floorhugging.
This makes horizontal hits push floorhugging characters slightly farther away, reducing their counterattack options.
Entering jumpsquat will now clear the shield buffer
This prevents accidental wavedashes when using both shield buttons. Pressing jump and shield on the same frame will still perform a wavedash.
Salaryman Kragg now has a chance to play voice lines from his base skin in addition to his skin lines on attacks.
Forward Tilt hit 1 hitstun multiplier: 1 > 1.2
Previously, hit 2 could be shielded after floorhugging hit 1 at max range. This change makes hit 2 only floorhug shieldable if you crouch cancel hit 1, no matter the range at which you hit it.
Bug fix: Up Special will no longer start spinning when holding the right stick in a direction
This was intended to be fixed in the previous patch, but only worked when canceling during the Recovery window, not the Rising Active window.
Grabbing an opponent will reactivate slipstream.
Previously, doing Down Special or Down Throw would not reactivate slipstream.
Loxodont is a character with extremely powerful strengths: enormous hitboxes, the heaviest weight in the game, and a relatively straightforward combo game with powerful finishers. In order to balance these strengths, he has to have equally extreme weaknesses: slower attacks/movement, a large hurtbox, and a fairly linear recovery. Because of his polarizing nature, he can sometimes struggle against characters that excel at taking advantage of his weaknesses, such as those that can quickly move in and out of his threat area and bait him to throw out his slower moves. While his strengths can often make up for his shortcomings if he plays patiently, we want to give him a few more tools to deal with overly evasive opponents. To do this, we're increasing the threat range of his Molten Boulder and making his longest-range poke tool (Forward Tilt hit 2) a bit safer on shield. Since his attacks cover so much space, we want to make sure that the directionality of his attacks is clearly defined, so we're rearranging some hitboxes to make sure they don't hit in unintuitive or awkward places.
Hitting Molten Boulder will now increase its launch speed and charge value relative to the damage of the move hitting it.
Anything dealing 8% or less will still have the same launch speed and will still increase the charge value by 0.1, while moves that deal 15% or more will multiply the launch speed by 1.5 and increase the charge value by 0.5. The launch speed and charge value increases interpolate linearly for anything in between 8% and 15%. This means the Molten Boulder will get launched much further and inflict more knockback when hit by stronger attacks, allowing Loxodont to control more space with it. Weaker moves will still function the same as before, so many of his boulder juggling setups should be unaffected.
This move was very slightly weaker than intended after the last time its knockback was nerfed, so we're increasing the knockback scaling a little bit.
Up Special falling hit knockback against grounded opponents: 10 + 0.1 > 6.5 + 0.1
This makes it flinch opponents at low percents and bounce them a shorter distance upward at high percents. Previously, the falling hit would launch grounded opponents high enough to land on nearby platforms, which would often lead to a guaranteed followup from Loxodont if he grabbed ledge on the way down and instantly ledgedashed. This situation was fairly common for opponents barely trying to edgeguard him on specific stages, and would frequently lead to their death if they mistimed their edgeguard at all, skewing the risk reward for this interaction heavily. Loxodont will still be rewarded for this interaction, but not with a strong attack.
Down Special will now restore his walljump on hit.
The non-magma version already did this, since it's a physical hit, not a projectile, so we're making the magma versions restore it too for consistency.
Down Special level 2 hitbox radius: 160cm > 140cm and Down Special level 3 hitbox radius: 200cm > 160cm
The hitbox sizes were a bit too large when combined with the move's quick startup and extreme combo potential.
Jab 1 innermost hitbox duration 3 > 2, also moved 20cm forward:
This move hit a bit further inward than we wanted for how large and disjointed it is, especially on the last active frame.
Jab 2 recovery: 21 > 24
His jab 2 was a bit more safe to throw out in neutral than we would like, making his stationary playstyle harder to punish than intended.
Dash Attack hitboxes are adjusted: early sweetspot hitbox radius: 75cm > 70cm, late sweetspot hitbox radius: 70cm > 65cm, middle sourspot hitbox radius: 60cm > 55cm, middle sourspot moved a bit further toward the axe head and innermost hitbox removed.
These changes clean up the arc of the hitboxes so that they follow the motion of the axe more accurately and reduce the backward range of the move on the last active frame since he is lunging forward.
Slight increase to the knockback scaling since it comboed a little too well for our liking at extremely high percents. It will still have followups on suboptimal DI, but Loxodont will have to move a bit more to continue the combo. This change also makes it beat floorhugging earlier.
Forward Tilt 1 tipper hitbox is now a sweetspot with knockback: 6 + 0 @ 160 > 6.8 + 0 @ 135 and ASDI mult: x1.5 > x1.0
This makes it much better when not floorhugged, since previously any followup that wasn't Forward Tilt 2 could usually be shielded. When hitting an aerial opponent, they will still be able to shield followups if they DI and SDI to land earlier, but otherwise it will be better at converting into tilt followups.
These changes make Forward Tilt 2 less punishable at max range, going from -29 on shield to -23. This does not affect the first active frame of Forward Tilt 2, since that sweetspot doesn't come out til the second active frame.
Forward Tilt 2 middle sourspot moved 15cm forward.
Now that its strength has been increased, this decreases the sweetspot's area slightly so it's a bit more strict to land.
Up Tilt inner hitbox moved a bit further toward the axe head.
This reduces the inward range, making the directionality of the move more intentional.
Forward Strong early sourspot and innermost hitbox removed.
The arc of this sourspot made hitting the sweetspot extremely inconsistent and it wasn't serving much of a purpose, so we're removing it entirely. This also makes the late hit sweetspot area more consistent, since the sourspot doesn't interpolate from an awkward position. The innermost hitbox was already only active on the later active frames, and its removal makes the arc of the hitboxes more intuitive and intentional.
Up Strong innermost hitbox removed.
This helps the Up Strong hitbox match the visual of the axe swing better and the move already covers a large area without the innermost hitbox.
Neutral Air all hits outer hitbox radius: 70cm > 65cm, all hits inner hitbox radius: 65cm > 55cm, and all hits inner hitbox moved a bit further toward the axe head.
The hitboxes on this move were a bit too large for our liking, making it cover a bit more space for a longer duration than we felt it should. These changes also reduce the inward range of each swing slightly.
Forward Air middle hitbox moved a bit further toward the axe head.
This makes it follow a smoother arc and reduces the inward range slightly.
Forward Air innermost hitbox removed from the last 2 active frames.
This hitbox was already removed from the first 2 active frames, and gave the move a bit too much backward range during the later active frames for our liking.
Back Air inner hitbox is now a sourspot for the first 2 frames with knockback: 4.5 + 1.13 > 3.5 + 1.11 and damage 12 > 10
One issue with Loxodont is that his Back Air can be an all situations aerial and hits at the same strength, regardless of the part of the axe it hit with. This brings back an element of spacing required to get the sweetspot of this incredibly powerful aerial. This new sourspot is still fairly strong, just not quite as strong.
Back Air inner hitbox radius: 65cm > 55cm and moved 20cm more inward during the first 2 active frames.
This increases the area for the sweetspot.
Up Air inner hitbox radius: 60cm > 55cm and moved a bit further toward the axe head.
This reduces the inward range, making the directionality of the move more intentional. It also makes the sweetspot slightly more strict to hit.
Getup Attack inner hitbox moved a bit further toward the axe head.
This cleans up the hitboxes so that they follow the axe in a more intuitive way and make the directionality of the move more intentional.
Ledge Attack innermost hitbox removed, middle hitbox moved a bit further toward the axe head and added a new shoulder hitbox.
These changes clean up the hitbox arc a bit, since it was a bit erratic previously. The shoulder hitbox was added to make sure it doesn't whiff against opponents right on top of the ledge.
Back Air range reduced.
This move controlled a bit too much space for how powerful and long-lasting it is. It already has very high landing lag, so we're opting to decrease its threat range instead of making it even more laggy.
This small update addresses issues with the latest Halloween event update!
Changes
Moved Cape items to be Back accessory items instead of Neck
Based on user feedback, all profile backgrounds in the Ghoulcery have been permanently discounted
Dark Voyage: Added 20 more targets to the Lab (and made all the potions destroyable)
Dark Voyage: Added 12 more targets to the Blood Kitchen
Dark Voyage: You can now shoot the eyes of the skull before the cave segment in Hell
Chat: Achievements and EXP Rank ups now always display in Awards tab
Chat: Achievements earned on local server now displays in local chat again
Plaza Scaling Fixes for VR:
Adjusted various plaza NPCs to have a more reasonable height/size
Adjusted doorways for the appearance store to be larger and the correct scale
Adjusted doorways for the vehicle store to be larger and the correct scale
Adjusted doorways for the furniture store to be larger and the correct scale
Adjusted doorways for the electronics store to be larger and the correct scale
Fixed the smoothie store cups being gigantic
Adjusted how many workshop player models are stored in cache to prevent hitching in Plaza and hopefully resolve issues with respawning workshop players in Ball Race
Halloween Staves are now tagged as "Magical"
Ball Race: Minor art pass to Nimbus' tiles
Optimizations
Plaza: Ferris Wheel mesh rendering optimization
Plaza: Optimized Arcade leaderboard screen logic
Plaza: Texture memory optimizations in the Plaza
Plaza: Set up shadow proxy system in the central plaza and stores areas to reduce shadow calculation costs
Temporarily disabled Dress physics simulation as it was causing horrible FPS issues (we're looking into it)
Bug Fixes
Plaza: Fixed broken lighting issues in the Arcade
Plaza: Fixed remains spawning under the Halloween maze bridge sometimes
Condo: Fixed various issues with Vault Door and Safes (and improved their textures)
Condo: Fixed Caution Tape item being weirdly-centered
Dark Voyage: Fixed post processing effects not kicking in fast enough for the Mansion segment
Accelerate: Fixed Workshop Accelerate vehicle type pose not working on first load in
Accelerate: Fixed end results score sorting being incorrect
Dark Voyage: Fixed time doors not always opening/closing properly or showing levels unstreamed
Dark Voyage: Fixed various sounds being hearable from large distances when you shouldn't
Dark Voyage: Fixed end game taking way too long to return back to the station
Condo Hub: Fixed video rentals not returning to the shelves sometimes
Plaza: Fixed the floor from the tower lobby slightly intruding into and z-fighting with the appearance store's floor
Plaza: Fixed the stools in the appearance store having the wrong player sit offset
Plaza: Fixed pop-in for Minigame Arena signs
Condo Hub: Fixed workshop rentals getting stuck not respawning properly
Minigolf: Filled invisible collider near the end of Hole 11 in Oasis
ZM SDK: Fixed activation radius for zombie spawners not working properly
Our Halloween events have begun! Enjoy the Halloween festivities and fun as well as some new items that can be found at the Ghoulcery at the center fountain! All Halloween items from 2017 to 2024 are unlockable during these events!
Ghoul Coins
Earn ghoul coins to exchange for Halloween items! You can earn ghoul coins by playing Plaza minigames or Game Worlds, Crusty Remains, as well as in the Arcade and through Fishing!
Crusty Crustacean Remains
Collect Crusty Remains and put them in the Cauldron. You can earn various items and some of the new items with the remains!
New Halloween Items
This year we've added over 48 new Halloween items, including new Sprays and Profile Backgrounds!
New Items
New Sprays
New Pets
Halloween Items (Full List)
Ghoulcery Store
Ram Horns
Pharaoh's Nemes
Broodsac Eyes
Mutagen Injections
Ritual Dagger
Flaming Eyes
Slime Cube
Deadwood Branch
Nocturnis Sceptre
Skull Staff
Player Sprays
Witch's Brew
Ghostly boo!
Trick-or-Treater
Trick-or-Treat
Werewolf Family
Vampire
Happy Halloween 1, 2, 3
Ghostly Eyes (+ Foiled)
Monster Eyes (+ Foiled)
Cat Eyes (+ Foiled)
Player Profile Backgrounds
Dark Voyage (Hell)
Dark Voyage (Mansion)
Dark Voyage (Western)
Moon (Blood)
Moon (Blue)
Moon (Dark)
Moon (Foggy)
Moon (Werewolf)
Thorns (Black)
Thorns (Blue)
Thrown (Crimson)
Thorns (Orange)
Thorns (Purple)
Thorns (Red)
Webs (Green)
Webs (Orange)
Webs (Purple)
Celebrations
Pumpkin (Destructible)
Rob's Imports
Cobweb
Second-Hand Ritual Dagger
Tower Threads
Crab-On-The-Head
Cucumber Eyes
Central Circuit
CryoCasket
Specimen Tank
Cat Cafe (Pets)
Cat (Wicked)
Cat (Angelic)
Dog Park (Pets)
Slime Dog
New to Cauldron
Zombie Crab
New to Trick or Treat
Zombie Crab
Ghoul Coin
Added new Victorian furniture Set available in Rob's Imports and Sweet Suites
Wardrobe, Chaise
Armchair (High-Back)
Dresser
Accent Table
Console Table
Hutch
Sofa
Coffee Table
Pew
Changes
Start of Halloween 2025 Events
Added new Halloween 2025 items (about 48 items)
Renamed "Block One Way" to "Ignore"
Added dynamic text keyword support to Text 3D (%name%, %time%, counters, etc.)
Working a 9 to 5 isn’t for everyone, but someone’s gotta put rocks on the table. Make winning look like another day in the office with the Salaryman Kragg bundle - including the Salaryman Kragg skin, emote, icon, and platform! The bundle also includes 25,000 coins and 250 Aether bucks.
This skin comes packed with custom voice lines on Neutral Special, Up Special, both taunts, self KO, Getup Special, and two more on his victory screen.
New Shop Items
Midnight Abyss Zetterburn Palette
Purple Bandit Maypul Palette
Pink Ranno Palette
Joltbeak Icon
Chillamari Icon
Avatar Kinguin Icon
Avatar Suttlebub Icon
Party Time Death Effect
New Player-hosted Lobby Feature: Fair Lag for Host
We’ve added a new feature to player-hosted lobbies called "Fair Lag for Host". When enabled, this setting reduces host advantage by adding a delay for the host.
This is off by default but can be turned on from the bottom right of the lobby screen when listen-server is toggled on (where the region preference option normally is), alerting players in the lobby of the change. More details:
This feature sets a delay and rollback frame that is determined to be fair based on the other players' connections in the lobby. Likely 1 frame above the connected player in a 1v1 to account for jitter.
For Lobby sizes 2-4. Players can create a public lobby on their machine and cap the player size if they are looking for nearby opponents.
Listen servers will now show local player NAT type and hosting player connection type (wired/wifi).
Training Mode Bugfixes
Fixed menu state being out of sync after load state.
Fixed menu state not resetting on match restart.
Fixed bug where CPU floorhug was not working due to floorhug logic change.
Right now we have several fun projects in motion for you all: the Arcade Phase: 3, Cooking, Halloween, Optimizations, and VR Support!
Cooking Development Progress
Cooking is the next major feature on our roadmap, and we’ve got some work to do to get it up to par! We’ll be finalizing the recipes for the initial cooking update, which will feature a broad assortment of basic recipes using the cooking items we have currently!
Future cooking updates will spice up the variety even more, as we hope to tackle some more basic cooking ingredients as well as more seasonal foods to create and enjoy!
Arcade: Phase 3: Development Progress Update!
Arcade: Phase 3 is moving along steadily! Johanna has completed and continued 3D modeling artwork on several new machines, including the baseball game, the ball drop game, a car-push game, and more!
wheezwer has completed the 2D artwork for “Raptor Rampage,” and will be starting work on the baseball cabinet next.
In recent updates, we’ve also fixed unreleased items having a purchase prompt in the arcade prize area!
Halloween 2025: Upcoming Items Sneak Peak!
We’re gearing up for Halloween in Tower Unite, which is one of our favorite times of the year! This year we’ll have some new items, like placable cobwebs and updates to the Victorian furniture set, as well as some other exciting items we can’t wait to share.
Additionally, we’ll be doing some new Halloween Sprays and Profile Backgrounds!
VR Development
We’ve been getting back into some VR work recently, too. We’d like to get a couple fixes done for some existing VR issues, as well as tackle other desired features and necessary changes to the game like sizing issues and the like, along with IK arm movement and networking.
VR support is a dizzying process both technically and physically with having to remove the headset for development, but we’re really excited for its potential! We’ll keep you all posted on progress with VR as it moves along.
Recent Development Highlights
New Items
Tons of new items and fixes for old items have been included in the most recent update!
Cafe & Pets Items
Tower now offers lots of very cute and sweet food options with the Cafe update, as well as various structural and furniture pieces to build your own Cafe settings in the Condos!
There are also quite a few new pet furniture items to play around with as of the most recent update, so be sure to check those out to make sure your pets are comfy cozy!
Game Worlds Port Panel
An addition you may have missed in the most recent update was the Game World Ports Panel: a placable panel for your Condo so you can queue up for Game World servers with friends!
Item Tweaks and Fixes
With the most recent updates, we’ve done an art pass on the chainlink fence item, as well as added some new features you should be sure to check out! Similar additions were added to the rope and cable items.
We also have done various fixes to lighting, coloring issues, icon clarity, animations, sounds, and camera offsets!
Global Chat
With the release of Global Chat, we’ve been seeing a lot of use of the new feature, and we’re happy to say its been stable and running well since! We’ve recently updated it to fix quotation marks and are currently looking into adding unicode support.
Optimizations
We’ve done plenty of optimization work with the most recent updates, including optimizing network load-in, collision meshes all throughout the Plaza, occlusion culling, and object counts!
UI Fixes
Various fixes were completed for UI and menu issues, mostly in the Workshop and Waiting for Players menus, but there were also some fixes to use prompts and loading screens as well! We're working on improving the UI for Steam Deck and fixing smaller elements on Steam Deck being hard to see.
That’s a Wrap!
That’s going to do it for this week’s dev log! Be sure to keep an eye out for the next one!
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Please report bugs & submit suggestions on our forums. We're active everyday & here to help.
For bug reports: Bug Reports
For suggestions: Submit a Suggestion
Update 1.3.0 released earlier today, and here are the the full patch notes patch notes:
Absa Character Release
The Storm Architect is finally here! Today’s patch welcomes a classic returning character to the Rivals II roster with THUNDEROUS applause. Absa is available for FREE to all players and is available now!
Absa comes with her own progression awards, coin shop rewards, and her own Arcade mode! All of this and more is available now:
Progression Rewards: Abyss Skin, Absa Gazelle Skin, Taunt 2 / Stomp, Mint Palette, Platform, Death Effect, Emote 1 / Absa in Love, Emote 2 / Absa Evil, 3D portrait icon, Stock icon, Definitive icon, Bronze icon, Silver icon, Golden icon, Platinum icon
Coin Shop Rewards: Boer Goat, Black Palette
Absa Arcade Mode: Abyss Palette, Break the Targets, Splash Art
Absa 101
Interested in learning Absa? The brand new Absa 101 teaches you all of the basics with legendary Rivals 1 Absa main, Akashi, breaking down her moveset and mechanics!
Summer is here and boy is it HOT. It’s time to cool off with a pool party! Our July event has Pool Party Loxodont, Clairen, and Absa as featured skins with some splashing icons to match. Pool Party Absa has custom taunt and victory lines, and Pool Party Clairen has a custom victory line! The new cosmetics are paired with 25,000 Aether Coins and 250 Aether Bucks.
Our free track for June contains the Pool Party Absa emote, the Pool Party death effect, Pool Party platform, Otter Maypul icon, and the Pool Party Ranno skin. Players equipping any event skins above, or the Pool Party Fleet skin will receive 20% Bonus XP on the event track. There’s also a brand new Pink Pool Party Fleet palette in the in-game shop!
New Shop Items
In addition to the above, we’re adding two new palettes, and nine new player icons to the buck and coin shop with this patch:
Olympia Yellow Palette
Pool Party Fleet Pink palette
Fireworks DFX (Promo this for Fourth of July, also mention in patch notes as a new standalone DFX.)
Pixel Absa icon
Tear of Joy icon
Tear of Anger icon
Tear of Sorrow icon
Marinas icon
Polokai icon
Floodmingo icon
Serpensaur icon
Summer Time icon
Summer Palettes & 4th of July Bundle
We’re bringing back a seasonal favorite from the original Rivals of Aether! Summer palettes are here for every Rival as a special release similar to the Halloween palettes we released in 2024. Check em out:
These palettes are available in the Coin and Buck shop like normal, but are also available with the new Fireworks DFX in our 4th of July Bundle!
Ranked Shop Update
Champion Maypul has been added to the Ranked Shop! This includes a skin, two emotes, and two icons for the Sylvan Watcher.
Ranked Version 2 Season Rollover
Ranked mode has been given a soft reset once again! Any accrued rank-up-bonus medals will be granted to players and a UI element has been added to show off your past season ranks and to view previous ranked season leaderboards!
Replay Camera Update
Quality of life updates have been made to the replay camera, check it out in your next replay!
GC Controller Adapter Setup
We have added a new process to make GC controller support functional and easier for players getting into the game! If you’ve been holding off on using your trusty GC controller, or are just joining us with the new update, be sure to give it a try.
Balance
There are very few balance changes with Absa’s release, keeping in line with our goal to keep big patches a bit more spread out. Most of the changes listed are adjustments made following the big changes from our June mid-month patch, while some are specifically made to work with new quirks that Absa’s release adds to the engine.
Hitting a ceiling while performing a special will no longer end your vertical momentum.
This means that Kragg rock will no longer stop recovery moves in place when they collide with it before breaking it.
Environmental Collision Box (ECB) bottom will be unfrozen when starting a double jump.
This only affects Absa, since her double jump starts by going downward.
Bug Fix: Fixed a bug that caused Spot Dodge to slide further than intended when used with high velocity.
Bug Fix: Fixed a bug that allowed characters to slip off a ledge 1 frame after grabbing an opponent, canceling the grab.
Baseball Clairen the tipper hit sounds have been remade.
Up Special rising hitbox moved upward halfway between the old and new values.
After last patch's reduction to the disjoint of this move, it became a bit too susceptible to lingering hitboxes offstage, so we're partially reverting this change.
Slipstream's speed boost will now last for 20 frames after leaving the slipstream.
With the newly shortened slipstream duration, the boost would often disappear suddenly mid-attack. This was especially detrimental to Wrastor's Down Special, which is much slower outside of slipstream. This change gives Wrastor a little more leniency in maintaining his slipstream boost.
Forward Tilt innermost hitbox radius increased by 15 cm, then moved forward and downward.
This makes it reach lower so that it can more consistently hit short characters at point-blank range.
Pillar can now only be broken by players whose current and previous ECB bottom locations are below it.
Previously, it only checked the current ECB bottom, which could lead to some weird teleportation bugs when a character hit the pillar immediately after leaving it. This was most common with Absa's Up Special during testing.
We're partially reverting the endlag increase from the last patch, while changing the knockback to be more dynamic at low percents.
Down Strong hit 1 knockback: 4 + 0 @ 45 > 5 + 0 @ 55
With last patch's removal of early knockback gravity easing, opponents hit by this move would be able to shield the 2nd hit just by DIing away from Olympia. This counterplay made the move too unreliable, so we're making it send slightly higher to keep the opponents off the ground for longer.
Thank you so much for reading, and as always please give us your ideas and feedback! We have a brand new Nolt Board with today’s patch, so head on over and let us know what you’re thinking.
Patch 1.2.5 is out now, for me it was a 170.9 MB download on Steam. Below is an abridged/summarized version of the non-balance changes, which can be seen in full on the Steam announcement.
New Bundle: Baker Olympia
In this update comes a new skin for Olympia, Baker Olympia. You can check out the trailer for the skin on YouTube here.
Baseball Clairen Skin and Palette for Get On My Level: Forever
A new palette for a new skin, Baseball Clairen, has been released for the GOML: Forever LAN event. If you attend the event you'll get a free code for the skin via email, otherwise you can buy it for $9.99 USD.
Practice While in Queue
Now while you're waiting in queue, you can select "enter training" to enter a training room.
New Animations
New animations have been added for jumping backwards as well as teeter animations for being on ledge.
Stage Blastzone Updates
Fire Capital: Sides down from 2824 to 2680
Godai Delta: Top down from 2230 to 2030
New Shop Items
This update adds three new palettes and eight new icons. The Steam page says six but I'm assuming the Diet Cola Orcane and Baker Olympia ones are also new since the corresponding skin/palette for each of those were added this update as well.
Lastly I'll include this message from the bottom of the post:
These are some big changes that we're sure people will have opinions on, and we encourage that! Our new Nolt Board is live and ready for feedback. We hope you enjoy this patch, and are looking forward to Absa's release in just 2 weeks!
The 1.2.4 patch is out and includes the new monthly event, Food Fight, new skins, palettes, icons, emotes, post-match emotes, the ability to turn off video lines and the announcement of a new plushie.
The post also mentions that a mid-month balance update is planned ahead of the launch of Absa, who was announced late last month and is to be released July 1st.
Announced with the 1.2.4 patch notes, Orcane is going to be the first character to get a plushie by Symbiote Studios using their updated design from Rivals 2. Like with the plushies for the original Rivals of Aether, these come with a code for an in-game item and a pin. The store page doesn’t actually mention a pin as far as I can tell, but that’s what the announcement says on Steam…
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