Hey everyone,

It has been a LONG road, but the final character of the Season 1 Pass is finally here. Marie makes her grand official release simultaneously on all systems TODAY Tuesday 26th March!

Read on for the full details of this release, including features that were previously only available in the Beta builds on Steam, and updates on the remaining contents of the Season 1 Pass.

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If you own the Season One Pass, or purchase Marie’s DLC individually, here's what you get:

• NEW STAGES
  The Skullgirl herself arrives with not one, but TWO new stages!
  
  
  Hilgard’s Castle is the former home of Marie, but its once majestic walls have crumbled and been overtaken by nature.
  
  
  The Nightmare version of the stage reimagines the stage in unsettling shades and is haunted by the ghosts of Marie’s past.
  
  
• NEW MUSIC TRACKS
  Each of the new stages comes with their own music. Hilgard’s Castle is accompanied by “All That Remains”, and the Nightmare stage wails with the guitars of “All That Endures” Both tracks were composed by Darren Malley and can be listened to on our Youtube channel.
  
  
• STORY MODE
  The impossible has happened: the Skull Heart has been destroyed while Marie has been spared. Where will Marie's new lease on (un)life lead...?
  
  
• PALETTES
  A maid of Marie’s high standards can’t just have one outfit - she comes with 29 color palettes!
  
  
• TUTORIALS/TRIALS
  Become a master of the undead in Marie’s personalized tutorials & combo trials.

For those who have purchased the Season One Pass you also get:

• ALTERNATE "GOTH MARIE" VOICE PACK
  Let the bodies hit the floor with this exclusive alternate voice pack!
  
• SEASON ONE BONUS PALETTE
  An extra bonus palette is available for Season One Pass holders.

• NEW PALETTES
  
  
  New palettes first introduced in Skullgirls Mobile have been added to 2nd Encore with this update!
  Double, Robo-Fortune, Cerebella, Squigly, Parasoul, Filia, Annie, Umbrella, Ms. Fortune, Peacock, Valentine, and Beowulf all get new colors.
  
  
• STAGE UPDATES
  
  Over the years many stages have been added to 2nd Encore, including alternate versions of existing stages. To make it easier to scroll through the full stage list, stages that share the same music but with slight visual differences are now selectable by pressing UP or DOWN on the stage selection screen.
  
  
  Speaking of alternate stages, to celebrate the launch of the Skullgirls Championship Series 2024, a new stage has been added!
  
  Additionally the stage "SGCS Arena (2021)" can no longer be rolled when using RANDOM to select a stage. You can still select it manually by going to the NMO Arena Stage and using the new Up/Down buttons.
  
  
• NEW SOVIET ANNOUNCER VOICE PACK
  As a replacement for a voice pack that was removed last summer, enjoy a brand new “Soviet Announcer” voice pack by none other than the voice of the TF2 Heavy himself - Gary Schwartz!
  
  
• SOUNDTRACK AND DIGITAL ART COMPENDIUM
  The Soundtrack has been updated with the new track "All That Endures", from Hilgard’s Castle (Nightmare). You can get the soundtrack here:
  https://store.steampowered.com/app/1542600/
  
  The Digital Art Compendium has also been updated with all of Marie’s thousands of animation frames, concept art and other production art. We recently made the Compendium completely free if you own Skullgirls 2nd Encore on Steam, so download your copy today!
  https://store.steampowered.com/app/1549100/

• Added new visual effects to "Push Block Guard Cancels" to indicate when a PBGC window is possible, and when it is successfully activated.
  Watch out for the green shield flash here:
  
  
• Fixed a bug where some characters were not using idle hurtboxes during landing frames. The following characters are impacted: Beowulf, Big Band, Eliza, Annie, and Umbrella.
  
• Updated VFX for Valentine's Vial Hazard special move to now use different art for the three debuff types.
  
  
• Adjusted visual effects and lighting when characters are impacted by palette adjusting VFX, such as Parasoul's fire effect, Annie's galaxy space dust effect, Robo-Fortune's electrification effect, Black Dahlia's freeze effect, etc, to no longer be impacted by stage lighting conditions. Flickering lights involved with these effects should be less distracting.
  
• Integrated some previously unused voice lines for old characters when fighting against Marie, both for her boss form and her playable form.
  
• Fixed a bug where Black Dahlia would not flinch like other characters when being hit during some throw attacks, like Cerebella's Pummel Horse.

• Added a new section to the Art Gallery for Marie, with new unlockable art.
  
• When declining a match in Quick Match, or recently finishing a match with a player, you will no longer match with that player again for a few minutes.
  
• Kicked players can no longer rejoin the lobby that they are kicked from.
  
• Adjusted the position of the timer on character select when playing online, to prevent it from covering up Marie's newly added square.

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As we mentioned in the {LINK REMOVED}2024 Roadmap Post, with the SG2E Season 1 Pass winding down, the obvious question is - what comes next? While it’s tempting to dive right into a Season 2 Pass - we’ve instead opted to pause for a moment to step back and recalibrate our efforts a bit. What does that mean exactly?

In addition to what’s already been released (including free bonus voice packs for Umbrella, Black Dahlia, and Marie), there is still a significant amount of VO that we were planning to include in the Season Pass that has not been added yet, including:

• ANNIE ALTERNATE VOICE PACK (English)
  
• SEASON PASS CHARACTER STORY MODE VO (English)
  
• SEASON PASS CHARACTER COMBAT VO (Japanese)

As it turns out, the logistics for all of these has proven to be a bit more involved than we had originally anticipated. As such, in order to ensure that everything is done to the quality level that we (and the community) expects, we unfortunately are NOT planning to release this content in 2024.

Nonetheless, while the timetable isn’t what we originally hoped for, we take our commitments seriously, and we are still planning to release it in 2025. As always, we appreciate your patience, support, and understanding!

As noted earlier, some palettes first introduced in Skullgirls Mobile have been added to 2nd Encore with this update. While the release timing is a little up in the air, we are planning to provide future Mobile palettes FOR FREE to every Skullgirls 2nd Encore player too!

Now that Marie has been released we’ll be taking a look at some of the rest of the cast and making some balance adjustments. Keep an eye out for updates to the Beta build on Steam soon!

Although we don’t currently have news on what to expect on this front at this time - just know that we are still intending to support both the console and mobile versions of Skullgirls for years to come. Stay tuned for more details in the coming months!

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The Skullgirls Championship Series 2024 is fully underway!

Compete in online regional events to qualify as one of the 8 lucky competitors to be flown out to Combo Breaker 2024 to compete in the Grand Finals!

Check out start.gg/sgcs2024 and be sure to register for one of many events in your area! Interested in hosting an SGCS point earning event? Check out the site for details - it’s easier than you might think!


We are currently planning to attend two live events this year – Combo Breaker (Chicago area, May 24-26) and Evo (Las Vegas, Jul 19-21). If you’re planning to attend, be sure to swing by the Skullgirls booth to meet us in person and score all kinds of FREE booth exclusive giveaways and prizes. We hope to see you there!

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Just in case you missed it, we recently announced that brand new characters will be added to Skullgirls Mobile this year as Guest Stars - summonable Assist type characters that can help out in fights. The first of these Guest Stars will be the adorable Minette!


Rough animation of one of Minette's Guest Star attacks.​

Guest Stars are currently planned for SGM only, but there’s always a chance they may make their way to SG2E one day!

It’s been an incredible journey, but after 3 years the final character in the Season 1 Pass is complete! We absolutely could not have hit this milestone without the support of our fans and players. A sincere thank you to everyone who’s stuck it out with us for 12 years of Skullgirls! Here’s to many more!

Stay tuned on our social media pages (Twitter, Facebook) for the latest info on all things Skullgirls!

- All of us at Hidden Variable Studios and Future Club <3

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(Steam Build version 3.6.9)

Today's update is a very small patch to address an issue regarding online spectating on Steam.

If you feel you are still experiencing this particular issue, you can report bugs in our official Discord, or our official forum in the Marie section.

Discord: https://discord.com/invite/skullgirls

Skullheart Forums: https://skullheart.com/

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SPECTATING

• Fixed an issue where spectating online would sometimes disconnect abruptly before a match ended.

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(Build version 3.6.8)

To ring in the new year, we’re excited to share these FREE gifts for everyone in the community!

NEW SOVIET ANNOUNCER VOICE PACK
As a replacement for a voice pack that was removed last summer, enjoy a brand new “Soviet Announcer” voice pack by none other than the voice of the TF2 Heavy himself - Gary Schwartz!

The new announcer pack is now available in both versions of Skullgirls 2nd Encore available on Steam (Retail & Marie Alpha), and will be coming to console platforms with Marie’s full release.

NEW PALETTES
Many of you have seen some of these palettes in Skullgirls Mobile, now you can enjoy them in Skullgirls 2nd Encore!

The new palettes are in both versions* of the game on Steam (Retail & Marie Alpha), and will be coming to console platforms with Marie’s full release.


* For now, the new Double and Filia palettes will only be available in the Marie Alpha due to technical limitations.

NEW STAGE - SKULLGIRLS CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES 2024
In celebration of the Skullgirls Championship Series starting up again in 2024, the NMO Arena is now gilded in gold! Try out this new stage first in the Marie Alpha build along with a small update to the stage selection system - stages that share the same music are now grouped in the stage selector, and you can press UP and DOWN to select from different variants of the same stage.




DIGITAL ART COMPENDIUM
Many players (including those who purchased the Season Pass on other platforms) have asked us about how they can get access to the DAC.

We've decided to make the Digital Art Compendium on Steam FREE for all players!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1549100/Skullgirls_Digital_Art_Compendium/
(Note: You must own a copy of Skullgirls 2nd Encore on Steam to access the Art Compendium.)

Thanks so much once again for an amazing 2023 – we can’t wait to reveal everything we have in store in 2024 and beyond!

Here’s to a new year of Skullgirls from all of us at Hidden Variable and Future Club!

The full update notes with other changes can be found below:

UPDATE NOTES:

3.5.16 (Retail)
• Added a total of 10 new palettes across multiple characters.
  
• Added new Soviet Announcer voice pack.
3.5.17 (Beta)
• Added a total of 12 new palettes across multiple characters.
  
• Added new Soviet Announcer voice pack.
  
• Added Marie’s Tutorials and Trials (English Only).
  
• Added the new SGCS 2024 Stage.
  
• Added a new Lobby Title for Black Dahlia.
  
• Added a new Lobby Title for Marie.
  
• The Hilgard Castle stage now has different variants for the animals and weather present.
  
• Stage Selection Sets
  
  • Updated stage select to now support stage sets.
    
  • Stages in the same set are now accessible using up/down inputs.
    
  • Stages in sets are identifiable by up/down arrows around the stage name.
    
  • The following stages are impacted: NMO Arena, SGCS Arena (2024), Evo Arena, SGCS Arena (2021), Little Innsmouth, Little Innsmouth (Night), Lab 8, Lab 8 (Empty), Grand Cathedral, Grand Cathedral (Night).
• Updated the look of the PBGC visuals that hint when a PBGC is possible.
  
• Characters now flash green again when performing a successful PBGC.
  
• Fixed a bug where Annie's Star Power music wasn't playing on activation.
  
• Fixed a bug where Annie's Gravity Crash still required 1 bar of Dramatic Tension to activate mid air.
  
• Fixed a bug where some characters were not using idle hurtboxes during landing frames. The following characters are impacted: Beowulf, Big Band, Eliza, Annie, and Umbrella.
  
• Marie
  
  • Hilgard's Haymaker now has higher priority than Hop To It, if inputting QCF + LP/MK, etc.
    
  • Fixed a bug where Marie's intros that were not the piano intro were not playing.
    
  • Increase Suction Obstruction (whiff) recovery by 4F.
    
  • Reduced Marie Go 'Round armor hits from 2 to 1.
    
  • Repetitive Skeleton Impact provides better protection from "while rising" unblockables after being avoided.
    
  • Reduced damage by 50 on the following moves: jMP, sMP, Marie Go 'Round (H), sMK, sLK, sHK, jMK, cLK, cHP.
    
  • Reduced cHK damage from 1100 to 1000.
    
  • Reduced Hilgard Haymaker damage from 700/950/1200, to 650/850/1000.
    
  • Hilgard Haymaker now forces a minimum of 70% damage scaling on hit.
    
  • Hop To It
    
    • Reduced number of hits from 9 to 7.
      
    • Reduced initial launch distance from Marie's vacuum on the M and H strengths.
      
    • The bunny jumps less far.

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(Version 3.6.7)

This update addresses 2 bugs in the Marie Early Access Release

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MARIE DLC

• We addressed an issue where Marie was not properly unlocking for users who purchased Marie's individual DLC.

ANNIE

• Updated Annie's command list to better reflect Star Power changes.

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(Build version 3.6.6)

Hey everyone,

Marie is now entering her Early Access phase! This is a huge development milestone as it means she is on the final road to full completion.

Here’s a preview of what to expect below:

• MARIE
  
  • Skullgirls 2nd Encore - Early Access
    
  • Skullgirls 2nd Encore - Full Release
    
  • Skullgirls 2nd Encore - Story Updates
• VFX & CHARACTER ADJUSTMENTS

Enough intro! IT’S SHOWTIME!

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Skullgirls 2nd Encore character development usually falls into four distinct phases:

Pre-Alpha: Work is being done on the character, but is not fit for public release.Alpha: The character is now publicly playable in an Alpha build on Steam, though they are still unfinished. Probably missing lots of animations, sound design, etc.Early Access: The character is now mostly complete, but still needs final balance tuning and other polish.Full Release: The character is fully complete, including all additional features like their Story Mode.

We have now moved onto Early Access, so we’re approaching the finish line of Marie development!


Marie is now 100% animated and colored. No more sketchy black and white animation frames!
She also has all her voice lines and sound effects fully tuned. She also gets a bunch of new palettes!



For the remainder of Marie’s development we'll be focusing on final balance adjustments and bug fixes.

You can give balance feedback and report bugs in our official Discord, or our official forum in the Marie section.

Discord: https://discord.com/invite/skullgirls

Skullheart Forums: https://skullheart.com/



Now that Marie is in Early Access, her individual character DLC is available to purchase on Steam! If you own EITHER the Season 1 Pass or the individual Marie DLC you will be able to try her out.

Once you have the Season 1 Pass or Individual DLC, launch the game in BETA mode by pressing the green PLAY button on Skullgirls 2nd Encore from your Steam library page, then selecting "Skullgirls Beta (Marie Alpha)". You can also launch the game in BETA mode by navigating to the in-game Options menu, and pressing "Switch To Beta".

In BETA mode, you can pick Marie on the character select screen as normal!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1557981/Skullgirls_Season_1_Pass

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Once Marie is fully completed, she will be released on all systems roughly simultaneously.

We’re aiming to release Marie in Q1 2024.

Full Release will come with all the usual bells and whistles:

• Marie will be fully complete!
  
• Marie’s new Stage(s?) will be fully complete with final music.
  
• A brand new story mode for Marie.
  
• Final Marie balance pass.
  
• A full set of 30+ palettes.
  
• Character tutorials.
  
• A new alternate voice pack.

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When Marie gets her full release she will come with her own Story Mode that delves deep into her relationship with the Skull Heart. After Marie’s story mode is released all of the Season 1 Pass character story modes will be updated with full voice acting in an independent update.

The full voice update will not be until after Marie’s release because we are still organizing recording sessions for the LARGE returning cast that we need to voice the myriad of characters that appear across Skullgirls 2nd Encore’s 18 Story Modes.

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Note that these changes only apply to the BETA version of the game.

EFFECTS

We've got some new effects entering this update to help highlight and demonstrate an advanced mechanic known in the community as "Pushblock Guard Cancel" (PBGC). If you're not sure what that is, you can check the in-game tutorial to refresh yourself, which will be updated at a later date to reference these effects.

Our goal is to make it more clear to new players where PBGC windows are, and when they are being successfully executed. This should also make the mechanic easier to explain to new players.

When a PBGC window is available, green sparks will fly by the character, seen below. This effect will only show itself if performing a PBGC would have actually reduced the amount of time spent in blockstun.



When performing a successful PBGC, a force field effect will appear on the character, seen here:

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MARIE

• Fixed a bug introduced in the last update where "Suction Obstruction" command throw (QCF+LP+LK) was starting a combo at IPS stage 3 instead of stage 2.
  
• Fixed a bug where Marie's Air Throw would start a combo at IPS stage 1 instead of IPS stage 2.
  
• Marie Go 'Round [H] no longer reduces damage and removes the stagger opportunity when used more than once in a combo. This allows Marie to perform a grounded Marie Go 'Round [H] and stagger even if the airborne version connected in the same combo. You can still only stagger an opponent once per combo, per global rules.
  
• Reduce active frames of "Weight of our Will" (QCB+PP) when landing and exploding.
  
• Tweaked hurtbox during falling hitstun frames to make Double's Cilia Slide routes (and other combos) slightly more consistent on her.

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VALENTINE

Valentine has new effects for her different Vial Hazard types so that you can easily distinguish which type of vial she is loading, beyond just looking at the color of it. This is especially helpful for colorblind players.

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ANNIE

While we'd normally prefer to release balance changes for multiple characters at once, Annie's Star Power rework has become intertwined with Marie's Early Access release due to engine and code changes required to support its parallel development. As such, Annie's balance changes are arriving early and will be available in this update.

Please note we have balance changes coming down for the pipe for other characters beyond Annie, but those changes aren't finalized just yet. You can expect more patches soon with additional balance changes in a future update!

• Crescent Cut
  • The projectile will now end if Annie is interrupted before the attack goes active. After the attack is active, it will still trade and stick around even if Annie is hit.
    
  • Crescent Cut [L] adjusted from +0 to -1 on block, point blank.
    
  • Crescent Cut [M] adjusted from +4 to +2 on block, point blank.
    
  • Crescent Cut [H] start up increased by 6F.
    (... We're lowering the effectiveness of throwing out a Crescent Cut while near the opponent in a variety of situations, and lowering the odds of Annie receiving an extremely favorable trade. For H Crescent, we're electing to only adjust the start up of it to keep it just as effective as a neutral and approach tool as she chases behind it.)
• Star Power
  
  • Star Power now costs 3 meter to activate.
    
  • Star Power now works off a timer instead of draining Annie's meter to perform attacks. Metergain is reduced to 33% during Star Power. When Annie performs a move that is boosted by Star Power (summoning a star or performing a boosted Special Move), it drains a large chunk of her remaining Star Power time. Annie's rainbow shadow silhouette effect will shrink and pulse faster as time runs out. Similar to Painwheel, Star Power will not run out of time if Annie is performing a combo, for now.
    
  • While in Star Power, and only once, Annie can perform a new move, "Star Cancel", to cancel an attack at any point and quickly enter an idle state. This can be triggered by simultaneously pressing three punches, or three kicks, or LP + LK plus one other button.
    
  • Star Power activation no longer ends super freeze early when used as a DHC, making it considerably safer and easier to DHC into.
    
  • Annie can now use all of her other previously disabled Blockbusters (Sagan Beam, Meteor Right, etc) during Star Power.
    
  • Star Power deactivation, "Gravity Collapse" knocks up higher than before, and no longer costs any meter to use while Annie is the point character. Using it as a DHC costs one bar.
    
  • Annie's normals no longer produce stars by default. All heavy attacks (except cHK) can be charged to summon stars by holding HP or HK. Charging adds extra start up to the attack.
    
  • Adjusted various visual effects related to Star Power and stars.
    
  • cHK will always cause a red bounce instead of a blue bounce if Annie is in Star Power.
    
  • The following Special Moves have new properties:
    
    • Crescent Cut [H] hits three times, and will not vanish even if Annie is hit out of the start up.
      
    • North Knuckle [H] follow-up slam deals bonus damage, hitpause, and will wall bounce the opponent.
      
    • Re Entry performs a new type of kick that starts faster, travels faster, hits overhead, and performs a hit on landing.
      
    • Destruction Pillar can be used in the air, and will always knock down even when used for the second time in a combo. Destruction Pillar (ground and air) will not drain any additional time off Annie's remaining Star Power timer.
  • Photo Bop can now be used at any time, for 5 meter. The input has been changed back to the older version, using the same input as her taunt but with two punches instead of one.
    
  • Photo Bop deals slightly more damage, and has an added camera flash that deals a hit.
• Other
  
  • Adjusted hurtbox on cLP.
    
  • Destruction Pillar
    
    • When blocked as an assist, Annie will stop moving forward to ensure she lands in front of the opponent instead of behind them.
      
    • Once Annie is airborne, the hitbox size is reduced, similar to Filia. Initial hitboxes unchanged.
  • Damage Tuning
    
    • cHP: 1200 → 1000
      
    • cLP: 300, 300 → 150, 150
      
    • jHP: 875 → 750
      
    • jMP: 250x4 → 180x4
      
    • fHP: 1300 → 1100
      
    • sHK: 950 → 750
      
    • sMK: 400, 500 → 400, 300
      
    • sLK: 200, 200, 300 → 100, 100, 200
      
    • sLP: 300, 300 → 300, 200
      
    • Destruction Pillar [H]: 1100 → 1000
      
    • Meteor Strike: When used as a DHC, scaling is set to 50% instead of 70%.
  • If Annie has used all three of her Re Entry kicks in a combo and is airborne when the combo resets, her next Re Entry kick will be the first one, instead of the worse version that prevents combos.
    
  • Tweaked palette 7 and 30 rainbow colors to be consistent with all other Annie palettes.
    
  • Tweaked star colors on all palettes.

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That’s a wrap for today!

We’re excited to see what you can do with Marie now that she’s on the road to full completion! Don’t be shy on leaving us feedback on any of these changes on the Discord or Forums. We want to know what you think!

Thanks so much again for all of your support, and stay tuned here and on our social media pages (Twitter, Facebook) any upcoming news and events.

- All of us at Hidden Variable Studios and Future Club <3

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(Version 3.6.5)

Today's update is primarily focused on an Mac bug fix with a few other small bugs being addressed as well.

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MAC CRASH FIX

We have found and addressed the issue caused by the macOS version increase in the last update. Users experiencing crashes on older versions of macOS (v12 and older) should now be able to play Skullgirls 2nd Encore again. We appreciate your patience as we investigated the issue.

MARIE

• Hilgard, when spawned from Hilgard's Haymaker, spawns a little closer to Big Band, to prevent some unintended drops, such as cHP Hilgard's Haymaker [L] using OTG against him.
  
• Hilgard, when spawned from Hilgard's Haymaker, has a maximum distance he can spawn from Marie, to prevent some situations where he would appear too far behind.
  
• Fixed a bug where Dust Bunny could activate Undizzy in the middle of its hits in some edge cases.

GENERAL

• Fixed a rendering issue with ASG Lab's when playing with Big Band with 2D Backgrounds enabled.

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(Build version 3.6.4)

Today's update focuses on a Mac requirement update and Marie combat bug fixes.

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Mac OSX Required Version Increase

As of October 31st, 2023, Apple requires us to update some of our tools used to build the Mac OSX version of the game. This has resulted in us needing to increase the minimum Mac OSX version required to run Skullgirls 2nd Encore from 10.9 (Mavericks) to 10.13 (High Sierra). Since 10.13 (High Sierra) is the lowest version supported by Steam as of September 2023, we are hopeful this change will not make the game unplayable for any current Mac OSX users. If you experience any new bugs on Mac OSX as a result of this, please report them in our official Discord or Forums. Thank you!Discord: https://discord.com/invite/skullgirlsSkullheart Forums: https://skullheart.com/

MARIE

• Suction Obstruction (QCF+LP+LK) when used to start a chain at max Undizzy now triggers a burst.
  
• Reduced Carpel Pummel (QCF+PP) damage from 2500 to 2000.
  
• Reduced Repetitive Skeleton Impact (QCF+KK) base damage from 800 to 650.
  (As before, each new slam adds an additional 100 damage than the last.)
  
• Reduced Air Throw recovery on whiff.
  
• Fixed a bug where Dust Bunny (QCF+P) would add wrong (15) Undizzy amounts and activate Undizzy in incorrect situations.
  
• Hilgard's Haymaker
  
  • Fixed numerous bugs where Hilgard could not be defeated if attacked (with or without armor) during the end of his punch from Hilgard's Haymaker.
    
  • Hilgard spawns further backwards if Marie is close to the opponent, and the distance Marie has to be to the opponent to be considered "close" is more lenient now. After performing a sHP or jHP that make contact, he spawns even further backwards.
    
  • Hilgard continues falling towards the floor more reliably even when performing an airborne punch.
    
  • Hilgard slows down from his charge towards the opponent more reliably now if he's in range to punch.
    
  • Hilgard retains a bit more of follow-through momentum when punching.
    
  • Hilgard will spawn further backwards if there is a wall in front of Marie.
• Tag In
  
  • Marie now travels faster while riding the vacuum.
    
  • Marie now has to wait a little longer before she can manually dismount early (press P or K) from the tag in.
    
  • Fixed a bug where Marie could go off camera with tag in some cases.
    
  • Marie dismounts earlier than before if she approaches the stage edge while riding.
• Tweaked VFX on Marie Go 'Round [H] (QCB+HP) to be larger and easier to see.
  
• cLP (first hit only) blockstun reduced by 1F, increased recovery by 2F.
  
• Fixed a bug where Hilgard could follow Marie's position and float up with her if she cancelled quickly into Weight of our Will after he appears.
  
• Removed screen darkening effect from Weight of our Will (QCB+PP).
  
• Fixed skeleton voice lines getting cut off when Marie blocks hits or performs a pushblock.
  
• Made numerous improvements to the flow of how Hilgard performs his win pose, and fixed a bug where he could fly away off screen during it.
  
• Fixed an issue where Marie could cancel into a Blockbuster on the frame she is hit with an armor breaking move, when using Marie Go 'Round [H].
  
• Fixed a bug where Air Throw wouldn't kill opponents unless the first three hits did enough damage to kill.
  
• Adjusted crouching hurtboxes during idle, block, and hitstun to be slightly larger.
  (Ms. Fortune's sHP x L Fiber confirm is now universal again)
  
• Fixed a bug where Marie couldn't get as close to walls when dashing into them compared to other characters.
  
• Fixed a bug where using Repetitive Skeleton Impact (QCF+KK) with Marie's back too close to the wall could cause some odd behavior on larger characters.
  
• Fixed a bug where the second hit of jHP could activate Undizzy unexpectedly if the first hit started a chain and filled the victim's Undizzy bar.
  
• Fixed a bug where Dust Bunny could be oddly rotated during its (not so secret) win pose.
  
• Fixed a bug where Marie could trigger the Dust Bunny to fly forward with cLK from unintended ranges.
  
• Carpel Pummel (QCF+PP) now has higher input priority over Weight of our Will (QCB+PP).
  
• Marie Go 'Round [L] (QCB+LP) no longer causes preblock.
  
• Fixed a bug where Marie did not make a noise when landing during a sliding knockdown.
  
• Fixed a visual bug where two versions of Marie could show up rarely if dashing towards the opponent after dashing away from them.
  
• Fixed secret bugs for secret behavior of a certain standing heavy normal.

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(Build version 3.6.3)

Today's update aims to address some networking bugs that were discovered after yesterday's Steam Client update released, which prevented some players from playing online.

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CHANGES

• Fixed a bug where some players would not be able to connect to one another, and would disconnect as soon as the round started.
  
• Adjusted logic for displaying connection bars and their colors (for Steam only), which are present at round start for online fights.
  
  • Green bars are direct connections, where the number of bars filled represent different methods of forming a direct connection.
    
  • Yellow bars are relay server connections used as a fallback when Steam can't establish a direct connection.
    
  • A single red bar means an error has occurred.
• Added a new launch option, -disableHueShift, for disabling all rainbow color changing effects. This affects Double palette #19 & Marie palette #29. (-disableRainbowDouble still works and should have the same affect.)
  
• Fixed a bug where loading screen text was not translated to match the chosen language.

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(Version 3.6.2)

Hey everyone,

This update is focused on addressing some issues discovered in Marie's initial Alpha release, and also brings Marie's Alpha to Linux and Steam Deck platforms. Thanks for your patience!

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• Adjusted vsync settings to fix an issue where some players were experiencing performance and screen tearing issues in the Beta mode.
  
• Attempted a fix for an issue preventing Beta mode from launching on Windows 7/8.1.

• Reduced blockstun on jLK, jLP, jMK, and jMP.
  
• Added missing chip damage on Marie Go 'Round (QCB + P) [M] and [H], and Carpel Pummel (QCF + PP).
  
• Carpel Pummel's giant fist no longer clashes with projectiles, losing its active hitbox.
  
• Fixed a bug where the armor frames were not displayed correctly for Marie Go 'Round (QCB + HP) in the frame data bar when Attack Data was set to "Advanced" in training mode.
  
• Fixed a bug where Marie would get stuck in her summoning animation as an assist if Hilgard was attacked and defeated before he could finish certain animations.
  
• Fixed a bug where Marie could get stuck in her commanding pose if the hand from Repetitive Skeleton Impact's (QCF + KK) grabbed opponents with 1 life.
  
• Fixed a bug where Marie was not considered to be in a counter hit state after throwing the orb from Weight of our Will (QCB + PP).
  
• Fixed a bug where the second hit of jHP and sHP could trigger a burst in the middle of a chain if the first hit caused the Drama bar (Undizzy) to fill up to 240 or above.
  
• Fixed cMP, sHK, and jMK having lower than intended metergain.
  
• Fixed jHP granting slightly more meter than sHP.
  
• Reduced jLP metergain.
  
• Reduced Hilgard's Haymaker (QCF + K) metergain.
  
• Added metergain to Hilgard's Howl (QCB + K), since it was zero before.
  
• When an opponent blocks Hilgard's attacks (QCF or QCB + K), they gain bonus meter.
  
• Fixed Marie Go 'Round (QCB + P) [M] strength granting far more meter than the [H] strength.
  
• Suction Obstruction (QCF + LP + LK), Ground Throw, and Air Throw now correctly grant meter.
  
• Fixed a bug where Marie can could cancel the start up of JHP into JHK before JHP hit, if bones from a previous JHP were still visible and hitting an opponent.

Thank you to everyone who has been reporting bugs so we can get them fixed in a timely manner. We hope you're all enjoying Marie so far!

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(Build version 3.6.1)


10/20/023 [UPDATE]
2nd Attempt at fix for an issue preventing Beta mode from launching on Windows 7/8.1. No new version number.

The Skullgirl herself is finally here - Marie is now playable in her Alpha state for Season Pass holders!

NOTE: The Linux version of Marie's Alpha is not available just yet due to some final bug fixing and polishing that is needed for that build. As soon as that build is ready, Marie will be available on Linux too. Thanks for your patience.

In classic Skullgirls tradition, Marie will arrive in an unfinished state with a few work-in-progress "sketchy" frames. As mentioned in our "State of the Game" post shared earlier, Marie is much further along compared to previous characters due to her fully releasing on Skullgirls Mobile first before the Steam alpha.

Read more details about her release and other changes below!

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Marie has all of her moves, voice acting, and sound effects in this build. Some of her moves still don't have fully cleaned up frames, but everything should be pretty functional. We expect she will need additional tuning, bug fixing, and balancing just like every other character during their Alpha period.

You can report bugs in our official Discord, or our official forum in the Marie section.

Discord: https://discord.com/invite/skullgirls

Skullheart Forums: https://skullheart.com/

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Characters in their Alpha phase are currently only available to Season 1 Pass holders. If you don't own the Season 1 Pass DLC, you won't be able to use Marie yet. You can pick up the Season 1 Pass here:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1557981/Skullgirls_Season_1_Pass

Once you have the Season 1 Pass DLC, launch the game in BETA mode by pressing the green PLAY button on Skullgirls 2nd Encore from your Steam library page, then selecting "Skullgirls Beta (Marie Alpha)". You can also launch the game in BETA mode by navigating to the in-game Options menu, and pressing "Switch To Beta".

In BETA mode, you can pick Marie on the character select screen as normal!

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Once Marie's Alpha phase is over, her individual character DLC will go live in Early Access on the Steam store. This will allow you to play Marie during her Early Access Beta phase without owning the Season 1 Pass.

For Marie, we expect her Alpha phase to end and her Early Access (Steam only) phase to start once all of her animations are fully complete and colored. We're currently targeting December 2023 for this date.

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While we were originally targeting December 2023 for Marie's full release on all platforms including consoles, it is likely that her release will be pushed back to sometime early in the new year of 2024.

The finalized version of Marie with all her bells and whistles needs to be submitted to all console platforms much earlier than December 1st in order to have a chance at releasing before the holidays, since most platform support teams will be unavailable. It's very unlikely that all of her art will be fully finalized by that date, so Q1 2024 is our anticipated release date at this time.

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You may have noticed a lot of buzz about balance changes on our official forums or in various online communities. The balance patch discussion is humming along and we're making changes as we speak to prepare the first build that will contain them.

We don't have enough of these changes ready at this time for a substantial first balance patch build, so we're going to wait a little bit longer until we have more changes to release all at once. You can expect to see changes start to arrive before the end of the month.

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Marie

• Added Marie as a playable character.
  
• Added 19 color palettes for Marie, with many more to arrive in future updates.
  (... Note that since palette 7 is unlocked by completing her story mode, it cannot be obtained at this time, and is just a duplicate of her original palette for now.)
  
• Added Marie's stage, Hilgard's Castle.
  
• Added Marie's stage music, "All That Remains" composed by Darren Malley.

Other

• [BETA ONLY] Adjusted visual effects and lighting when characters are impacted by palette adjusting VFX, such as Parasoul's fire effect, Annie's galaxy space dust effect, Robo-Fortune's electrification effect, Black Dahlia's freeze effect, etc. Flickering lights involved with these effects should be less distracting, and character's themselves are no longer impacted by stage lighting conditions.
  
  
  
  
• When declining a match in Quick Match, or recently finishing a match with a player, you will no longer match with that player again for a few minutes.
  
• When kicking a player from a lobby, kicked players can no longer join the lobby again immediately after.
  
• [BETA ONLY] Integrated some previously unused voice lines for older characters when fighting against Marie. Some are used for boss Marie, playable Marie, or both.
  
• [BETA ONLY] Fixed a bug where Black Dahlia would not flinch when getting punched in the face by Cerebella during pummel horse. She's tough, but not THAT tough.
  
• Adjusted the position of the timer on character select when playing online.

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(Build version 3.6.0)