Hey everyone, Rivals of Aether comes out on 3/28 in just 6 days! I've been seeing a lot of questions lately about what the full launch means for Rivals of Aether, especially with people already feeling like they've been playing the full game for quite a while.  Whether you're fairly new or a seasoned veteran, there should be plenty of changes coming that interest you.  As a reminder, if you're a player who has already purchased the game during Early Access, you'll automatically get the full version of the game on 3/28 through Steam.  Read on to find out some of the things that will be included with that version next Tuesday.

Our single player modes are getting the bulk of the updates for launch.  More than just story mode, this means all kinds of features that give the game a high level of polish and players a chance to have fun offline in a non-competitive environment.



Story mode starts off by digging into the background and relationships between the Rivals through traditional arcade style fights. Once you've began to uncover the mysteries of Aether you can jump into Abyss mode.

Abyss mode is where things start to get crazy, letting you play cooperatively with up to 4 people and advancing through waves of different challenges and enemy types. You and your friends will jockey for experience points to level up your Rival so they can equip powerful runes that augment their attacks. You can also take these leveled up Rivals into Abyss versus and compete directly against your friends.

In addition, these modes will all have leaderboards, so you can climb to the top with the best times in story mode or the furthest waves in abyss.



Here's a quick rundown of some of the things you can look forward to in single player:

• Story Mode
• Abyss Mode
• Leaderboards
• Currency / Unlockables
• Collectible Trading Cards / Badges
• Music (stage music, victory themes, and more)
• Achievements

Even though the core multiplayer mechanics for Rivals haven't changed in awhile, this update will still shake up competitive play. For starters, the stage count will be increasing from seven stages to eleven. We'll be implementing a neutral and counterpick system to accommodate the larger stage list and also raising the bans from one to two. We're excited to see which stages are most popular in tournament play.



For launch we'll also be doing a ranked ladder reset. This means on the 28th, everyone will be reset to 1000 ELO. The old ladder will still be memorialized on Steam (Ralph OP), but this gives all of the new and old players alike a fresh start. We'll also be implementing seasons (which will each last 3 months) so the ladder doesn't get stale.

Lastly, people have asked about it, but I wanted to confirm that the RCS (Rivals Championship Series) will be back for a season 2. You can look forward to more regions, bigger tournaments, and a new points format. Rewards are in the works for the new ladder seasons and RCS S2, but I'll save those for a later post.

---------------------

All of these things (and a few others) will come together for our launch on 3/28. Even if you've played the heck out of Rivals in Early Access it's definitely going to be a great time to share it with your friends who haven't played yet as the game will look and play the best it ever has.

To see all of the new gameplay above in action, make sure you tune in this Sunday to our pre-release party on http://twitch.tv/RivalsOfAether at 12PST/3EST. We'll be doing a summit style event - playing different games with Washington locals and a few out of state guests.

We look forward to seeing you all online on launch day!

Final note: If you were hoping for additional characters at launch you're going to have to wait a little bit longer. You can keep speculating for a few more weeks before our first is revealed ;)

 

Hey everyone, Rivals of Aether comes out on 3/28 in just 6 days! I've been seeing a lot of questions lately about what the full launch means for Rivals of Aether, especially with people already feeling like they've been playing the full game for quite a while.  Whether you're fairly new or a seasoned veteran, there should be plenty of changes coming that interest you.  As a reminder, if you're a player who has already purchased the game during Early Access, you'll automatically get the full version of the game on 3/28 through Steam.  Read on to find out some of the things that will be included with that version next Tuesday.

Our single player modes are getting the bulk of the updates for launch.  More than just story mode, this means all kinds of features that give the game a high level of polish and players a chance to have fun offline in a non-competitive environment.



Story mode starts off by digging into the background and relationships between the Rivals through traditional arcade style fights. Once you've began to uncover the mysteries of Aether you can jump into Abyss mode.

Abyss mode is where things start to get crazy, letting you play cooperatively with up to 4 people and advancing through waves of different challenges and enemy types. You and your friends will jockey for experience points to level up your Rival so they can equip powerful runes that augment their attacks. You can also take these leveled up Rivals into Abyss versus and compete directly against your friends.

In addition, these modes will all have leaderboards, so you can climb to the top with the best times in story mode or the furthest waves in abyss.



Here's a quick rundown of some of the things you can look forward to in single player:

• Story Mode
• Abyss Mode
• Leaderboards
• Currency / Unlockables
• Collectible Trading Cards / Badges
• Music (stage music, victory themes, and more)
• Achievements

Even though the core multiplayer mechanics for Rivals haven't changed in awhile, this update will still shake up competitive play. For starters, the stage count will be increasing from seven stages to eleven. We'll be implementing a neutral and counterpick system to accommodate the larger stage list and also raising the bans from one to two. We're excited to see which stages are most popular in tournament play.



For launch we'll also be doing a ranked ladder reset. This means on the 28th, everyone will be reset to 1000 ELO. The old ladder will still be memorialized on Steam (Ralph OP), but this gives all of the new and old players alike a fresh start. We'll also be implementing seasons (which will each last 3 months) so the ladder doesn't get stale.

Lastly, people have asked about it, but I wanted to confirm that the RCS (Rivals Championship Series) will be back for a season 2. You can look forward to more regions, bigger tournaments, and a new points format. Rewards are in the works for the new ladder seasons and RCS S2, but I'll save those for a later post.

---------------------

All of these things (and a few others) will come together for our launch on 3/28. Even if you've played the heck out of Rivals in Early Access it's definitely going to be a great time to share it with your friends who haven't played yet as the game will look and play the best it ever has.

To see all of the new gameplay above in action, make sure you tune in this Sunday to our pre-release party on http://twitch.tv/RivalsOfAether at 12PST/3EST. We'll be doing a summit style event - playing different games with Washington locals and a few out of state guests.

We look forward to seeing you all online on launch day!

Final note: If you were hoping for additional characters at launch you're going to have to wait a little bit longer. You can keep speculating for a few more weeks before our first is revealed ;)

 

CEO Dreamland is coming up soon and we can’t wait to head to Florida to play. If you’re unfamiliar with the CEO series, it’s a huge fighting game tournament with a wrestling theme. Top players even have their matches in the middle of a wrestling ring. This year organizer Alex Jebailey is showing his love for the scene with his take on a platform fighter/brawler specific CEO event – and that's where CEO Dreamland comes in.

Since Rivals will be a main event at the tourney we wanted to show our support with an awesome stage skin you can pick up in the compendium right now – The CEO Ring.



This stage skin replaces the Rock Wall with brand new art, animations, and even has a remixed version of the Rock Wall theme music by flashygoodness. The majority of the funds also go straight back to the players as a pot bonus for the Rivals bracket, so it’s a great way to support the community.

If you’re able to make it we’d love to see you at the event, so make sure you stop by the Rivals area and say hi! Stay tuned for more announcements this month including the full launch of the game out of Early Access on PC with brand new game modes, stages, and more.

CEO Dreamland is coming up soon and we can’t wait to head to Florida to play. If you’re unfamiliar with the CEO series, it’s a huge fighting game tournament with a wrestling theme. Top players even have their matches in the middle of a wrestling ring. This year organizer Alex Jebailey is showing his love for the scene with his take on a platform fighter/brawler specific CEO event – and that's where CEO Dreamland comes in.

Since Rivals will be a main event at the tourney we wanted to show our support with an awesome stage skin you can pick up in the compendium right now – The CEO Ring.



This stage skin replaces the Rock Wall with brand new art, animations, and even has a remixed version of the Rock Wall theme music by flashygoodness. The majority of the funds also go straight back to the players as a pot bonus for the Rivals bracket, so it’s a great way to support the community.

If you’re able to make it we’d love to see you at the event, so make sure you stop by the Rivals area and say hi! Stay tuned for more announcements this month including the full launch of the game out of Early Access on PC with brand new game modes, stages, and more.

Hey everyone,

We want to share a few announcements today regarding Aetherboards and where we're focusing our community efforts during 2017. Read on and let us know what you think of the news.



We will officially be retiring Aetherboards at the end of this month.  With the full game launch on the horizon we want to focus our community efforts and meet you where you're most active.

You don't have to worry that closing Aetherboards will make it harder to get in touch with us. We have quite a few popular hubs that we frequent that are also teeming with players. Check out the communities below if you want to discuss Rivals or find players.


Our discord server is a great place to find opponents and meet other players.  It's growing exponentially, and just this week we were selected for the official discord partner program. This means we get a few perks to buff our awesome community like VIP voice servers, custom invite screens, a sweet partner badge, and a couple other extras to make us stand out.

A big shoutout to all of our players who call the server home, Zam who founded it and the rest of the mod team who keeps it from being buried in memes.  We're just shy of reaching 2k members so hopefully we'll reach that milestone soon. Discord is also home to a bunch of other great Rivals communities like the RoA Academy, NCS Tournament server, EU Rivals, and too many more to mention. Check out the #rules-and-about channel in the main discord to find your way to the other discord servers.



Share this link to invite your friends: https://discord.gg/RoA



Most of the dev team are redditors so you'll definitely be able to find us over on /r/RivalsOfAether.  Our sub normally has the most up to date news and events and looks beautiful to boot with a custom Rivals design by /u/kenxftw.

Our Steam forums have always been active and we don't expect that to change any time soon. With Aetherboards leaving the picture, we're taking this opportunity to reorganize the Steam forums and bring over some of our useful posts from Aetherboards. We've recently added subforums and our news and announcements will continue to be cross-posted in Steam News. If you're a lover of traditional forums we hope you'll make the move over to Steam.

Xbox players are always welcome anywhere, but if you're looking for an Xbox specific group then check out some of the Xbox clubs on your console or the Win10 app. Just search for "Rivals" and it should give you a list of the top ones to join. Our favorites are the 'Rivals of Smash Bros' and the 'Rivals Competitive and Casual Club'. There's tournaments, LFG, clip sharing, and more.

Wrapping it up, I don't want to leave out the obvious social networks but also don't think you need an example of what Facebook is at this point ;)

Rivals Facebook/ Twitter / YouTube / Twitch

We're always keeping a watch over all of these channels and make a point to answer your questions and help troubleshoot issues. You can also contact us directly at contact@rivalsofaether.com. Thanks for reading, and we'll see you online!

-Etalus

Hey everyone,

We want to share a few announcements today regarding Aetherboards and where we're focusing our community efforts during 2017. Read on and let us know what you think of the news.



We will officially be retiring Aetherboards at the end of this month.  With the full game launch on the horizon we want to focus our community efforts and meet you where you're most active.

You don't have to worry that closing Aetherboards will make it harder to get in touch with us. We have quite a few popular hubs that we frequent that are also teeming with players. Check out the communities below if you want to discuss Rivals or find players.


Our discord server is a great place to find opponents and meet other players.  It's growing exponentially, and just this week we were selected for the official discord partner program. This means we get a few perks to buff our awesome community like VIP voice servers, custom invite screens, a sweet partner badge, and a couple other extras to make us stand out.

A big shoutout to all of our players who call the server home, Zam who founded it and the rest of the mod team who keeps it from being buried in memes.  We're just shy of reaching 2k members so hopefully we'll reach that milestone soon. Discord is also home to a bunch of other great Rivals communities like the RoA Academy, NCS Tournament server, EU Rivals, and too many more to mention. Check out the #rules-and-about channel in the main discord to find your way to the other discord servers.



Share this link to invite your friends: https://discord.gg/RoA



Most of the dev team are redditors so you'll definitely be able to find us over on /r/RivalsOfAether.  Our sub normally has the most up to date news and events and looks beautiful to boot with a custom Rivals design by /u/kenxftw.

Our Steam forums have always been active and we don't expect that to change any time soon. With Aetherboards leaving the picture, we're taking this opportunity to reorganize the Steam forums and bring over some of our useful posts from Aetherboards. We've recently added subforums and our news and announcements will continue to be cross-posted in Steam News. If you're a lover of traditional forums we hope you'll make the move over to Steam.

Xbox players are always welcome anywhere, but if you're looking for an Xbox specific group then check out some of the Xbox clubs on your console or the Win10 app. Just search for "Rivals" and it should give you a list of the top ones to join. Our favorites are the 'Rivals of Smash Bros' and the 'Rivals Competitive and Casual Club'. There's tournaments, LFG, clip sharing, and more.

Wrapping it up, I don't want to leave out the obvious social networks but also don't think you need an example of what Facebook is at this point ;)

Rivals Facebook/ Twitter / YouTube / Twitch

We're always keeping a watch over all of these channels and make a point to answer your questions and help troubleshoot issues. You can also contact us directly at contact@rivalsofaether.com. Thanks for reading, and we'll see you online!

-Etalus

Alpharad has concluded his Excalibur trilogy, and now the Excalibur Zetterburn skin is available for everyone! Unlock your Excalibur today by following the link in the description of Alpharad's video below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da9ZxooG9CQ

Alpharad has concluded his Excalibur trilogy, and now the Excalibur Zetterburn skin is available for everyone! Unlock your Excalibur today by following the link in the description of Alpharad's video below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da9ZxooG9CQ

Hey Everyone!

Love is in the air today, even in the world of Aether, and we’re back with our second update of 2017. Now you can grab your best friend or lover and hop online to battle against other players! We’re adding several cool additions this patch (including team battles) which have long been a requested feature. We’re also tweaking the balance after our amazing Genesis 4 tournament as we gear up for the full launch on Steam next month. You can find the major features in patch 0.15.9 below. There won’t be very many more updates before 1.0 now!




Team battles are here! You and another friend at your computer can now play 2v2 online by going to Online > Team Match. If you’re comboing alone this Valentine’s day you can also play with a CPU partner (we’ve programmed them to be extra romantic this patch). This mode is in beta so please make sure you let us know about any bugs/issues you encounter so we can get them fixed up.




You can now view the profile of your opponent with a simple press of a button under their name on character select. This will open up their profile in a separate browser window. While it doesn’t sound like a big deal, this will make it way easier to add a friend and keep playing with them if you’re enjoying an opponent you found online.





The Genesis 4 seasonal skins have been rotated out to make room for Valentine’s Day skins and the entire cast is looking extra lovey-dovey. If you’ve ever wished the world of Aether had more fluorescent animals, then this is the update for you. Read on for all the fine details on character balance and engine changes.

• You and another friend at your computer can now play 2v2 online by going to Online > Team Match. Note – this mode is in beta so please make sure you let us know about any bugs/issues you encounter so we can get them fixed up.
  
• The Genesis 4 seasonal skins have been rotated out to make room for Valentine’s Day skins.
  
• You can now view the profile of your opponent on Steam by opening up their profile page in a browser with a simple press of a button under their name on character select. This will make it easier to add a friend if you enjoy playing with someone.
  
• Hitstun duration is now slightly more dependent on weight. Lighter characters will have a few more frames of hitstun, heavier characters will have less. The change is fairly minimal, so don’t be too worried.
  ASDI (Auto Smash Directional Influence) has been replaced by SSDI (Single Smash Directional Infleunce). You must now time your SSDI inputs during hitpause. You can use either the left or right stick to input a direction, but only one input is accepted per hit.
  
• Since SSDI is now more manual, its effectiveness has been increased from 8 > 14 pixels.

Zetterburn’s charged Neutral Special is pretty hard to deal with and doesn’t exactly line up with the visual. So we are tweaking it to make it feel better. We are also making Forward Strong a little bit faster to promote using it along with his other strong attacks.

• Charged Nspecial sourspot hitbox removed
  
• Charged Nspecial sweetspot active frames increased from 2 > 3 (effective active frames 7 > 3 after sourspot removal)
  
• Charged Nspecial size increased from 160 to 170 to better match the visual
  
• Forward Strong startup decreased from 15 > 13 frames.

We have a new animation for Forward Special and a new hitbox to balance out the move at both high and low level play.

• Forward Special (non-puddled) now has a smaller hitbox, making it harder for opponents to cover/punish multiple distances with a single parry, but also harder for Orcane to hit with. This gives the moves more strength as a high level recovery option while stripping some of its power away from low to mid-level play where spamming it is a decent strategy.
  
• Bug Fix: Jab 3 hurtbox now lines up with the animation again.

Wrastor is a powerful character but he takes skill and good spacing to be successful. We are stripping away some base knockback from the sour spot of Up Strong to reward good spacing more.

• Ustrong sourspot base knockback decreased from 7 > 6

Kragg’s hitstun gravity in the last update was pretty insane. Making him a monster in teams as he rarely dies off the top. We like the idea of him being heavier but wanted to find a middle ground. We also buffed his Forward Tilt and Forward Air because he likes to knock things forward.

• Kragg Hitstun gravity decreased from .55 to .525 (.50 in 0.15.7)
  
• Ftilt startup decreased from 12 > 10
  
• Fair hitbox extended 10 pixels inward
  
• Fair knockback angle changed from Sakurai Angle (40 ground 45 air) to 35. This makes it KO earlier but also reduces the amount of Fairways to Heaven.

Forsburn has the biggest changes in this update. He has been sneaky for so long but not this time. First of all, we did not like how the empowered specials were playing out as really only Combust and Super Clone actually felt worthwhile of a new “attack”. We have decided to keep those attacks the focus of getting smoke while removing charged Neutral Special and charged Up Special. To balance out his recovery, we are letting him wrap through walls with more leniency on Up Special. Finally, we have tweaked some of his damage and knockback angles to spread power around his kit.

• Down Air hit 1 knockback scaling increased from .5 > .6
  
• Down Air hit 1 knockback angle changed from 40 > 35
  
• Down Air hit 2 knockback scaling increased from .5 > .7
  
• Combust knockback scaling decreased from 1.0 > 0.9
  
• Combust sweet spot added with knockback scaling 1.1.
  
• Forward Strong hit 2 damage increased from 8 > 12.
  
• Up Strong hit 2 damage increased from 8 > 12.
  
• Back Air sweetspot damage increased from 10 > 13.
  
• Down Air damage increased from 10 > 12.
  
• Up Special vertical leniency now allows for more maneuverability 50 > 96.
  
• Up Special landing lag increased from 16 > 20.
  
• Up Special landing lag reduced to 10 frames if you reappear in the air.
  
• Empowered Neutral Special and Up Special removed.
  
• Getting parried now removes your smoke charges.
  
• Super Clone now leaves 4 clouds of smoke when destroyed.

For such a rushdown character, Maypul can use Lily to camp pretty effectively. We have decided to prevent Maypul from freely moving Lily around after placing her and made some downtime for when Lily gets parried.

• Can not plant a new Lily when one already exists (as a result, Fat Lily had to be removed).
  
• Parrying Lily’s attack now puts Lily in a stunned state for 4 seconds. Lily still disappears after being parried.

Forward Tilt has been a contentious move since Absa was added to the game. We think by redesigning it to a two part attack we have a chance to make it useful both at short range and long range.

• Forward Tilt changed into a two-part move. Seeing the first part will be a good tell for dodging the second.
  
• Down Strong endlag decreased from 21 > 18 frames (on hit: 14 > 12).
  
• Waveland friction lowered slightly for longer wavelands.
  
• Down Special charge reduced from 45 > 35 frames.
  
• Absa Charged Neutral Special Hitstun factor increased from .6 > .7.

For Etalus, we wanted to tweak his Armor to make it more reliable. The Super Armor comes out earlier on his Armored Strongs but he also loses his Armor when his Forward Special is parried now. Finally we buffed Down Air as it is one of the least used moves in the game.

• Etalus Armor Strongs – Armor now comes out on frame 7 (11 > 7) on Up
• Strong and Forward Strong and frame 9 on Down Strong.
  
• Jump Squat reduced from 6 > 5 frames (now the same as every other character)
  
• Down Air final hit base knockback 4 > 6
  
• Down Air final hit knockback scaling .6 > .5
  
• Down Air Damage increased from 2,2,8 > 4,4,8
  
• Etalus can now hold down to prevent Down Air from stalling his momentum
  
• Forward Strong hit 1 hitstun modifier 1.0 > 0.5 (only matters if hit 2 doesn’t hit). Allows players to escape if the attack does not connect.
  
• Down tilt second hit angle changed from 65 > 75
  
• Down Tilt hitbox heights increased from 20 > 30 and 30 > 40.
  
• Etalus now loses armor as intended when his Forward Special gets parried

-------------------------------

Thanks as always and please let us know of any new issues you encounter here or in the reddit thread!

Hey Everyone!

Love is in the air today, even in the world of Aether, and we’re back with our second update of 2017. Now you can grab your best friend or lover and hop online to battle against other players! We’re adding several cool additions this patch (including team battles) which have long been a requested feature. We’re also tweaking the balance after our amazing Genesis 4 tournament as we gear up for the full launch on Steam next month. You can find the major features in patch 0.15.9 below. There won’t be very many more updates before 1.0 now!




Team battles are here! You and another friend at your computer can now play 2v2 online by going to Online > Team Match. If you’re comboing alone this Valentine’s day you can also play with a CPU partner (we’ve programmed them to be extra romantic this patch). This mode is in beta so please make sure you let us know about any bugs/issues you encounter so we can get them fixed up.




You can now view the profile of your opponent with a simple press of a button under their name on character select. This will open up their profile in a separate browser window. While it doesn’t sound like a big deal, this will make it way easier to add a friend and keep playing with them if you’re enjoying an opponent you found online.





The Genesis 4 seasonal skins have been rotated out to make room for Valentine’s Day skins and the entire cast is looking extra lovey-dovey. If you’ve ever wished the world of Aether had more fluorescent animals, then this is the update for you. Read on for all the fine details on character balance and engine changes.

• You and another friend at your computer can now play 2v2 online by going to Online > Team Match. Note – this mode is in beta so please make sure you let us know about any bugs/issues you encounter so we can get them fixed up.
  
• The Genesis 4 seasonal skins have been rotated out to make room for Valentine’s Day skins.
  
• You can now view the profile of your opponent on Steam by opening up their profile page in a browser with a simple press of a button under their name on character select. This will make it easier to add a friend if you enjoy playing with someone.
  
• Hitstun duration is now slightly more dependent on weight. Lighter characters will have a few more frames of hitstun, heavier characters will have less. The change is fairly minimal, so don’t be too worried.
  ASDI (Auto Smash Directional Influence) has been replaced by SSDI (Single Smash Directional Infleunce). You must now time your SSDI inputs during hitpause. You can use either the left or right stick to input a direction, but only one input is accepted per hit.
  
• Since SSDI is now more manual, its effectiveness has been increased from 8 > 14 pixels.

Zetterburn’s charged Neutral Special is pretty hard to deal with and doesn’t exactly line up with the visual. So we are tweaking it to make it feel better. We are also making Forward Strong a little bit faster to promote using it along with his other strong attacks.

• Charged Nspecial sourspot hitbox removed
  
• Charged Nspecial sweetspot active frames increased from 2 > 3 (effective active frames 7 > 3 after sourspot removal)
  
• Charged Nspecial size increased from 160 to 170 to better match the visual
  
• Forward Strong startup decreased from 15 > 13 frames.

We have a new animation for Forward Special and a new hitbox to balance out the move at both high and low level play.

• Forward Special (non-puddled) now has a smaller hitbox, making it harder for opponents to cover/punish multiple distances with a single parry, but also harder for Orcane to hit with. This gives the moves more strength as a high level recovery option while stripping some of its power away from low to mid-level play where spamming it is a decent strategy.
  
• Bug Fix: Jab 3 hurtbox now lines up with the animation again.

Wrastor is a powerful character but he takes skill and good spacing to be successful. We are stripping away some base knockback from the sour spot of Up Strong to reward good spacing more.

• Ustrong sourspot base knockback decreased from 7 > 6

Kragg’s hitstun gravity in the last update was pretty insane. Making him a monster in teams as he rarely dies off the top. We like the idea of him being heavier but wanted to find a middle ground. We also buffed his Forward Tilt and Forward Air because he likes to knock things forward.

• Kragg Hitstun gravity decreased from .55 to .525 (.50 in 0.15.7)
  
• Ftilt startup decreased from 12 > 10
  
• Fair hitbox extended 10 pixels inward
  
• Fair knockback angle changed from Sakurai Angle (40 ground 45 air) to 35. This makes it KO earlier but also reduces the amount of Fairways to Heaven.

Forsburn has the biggest changes in this update. He has been sneaky for so long but not this time. First of all, we did not like how the empowered specials were playing out as really only Combust and Super Clone actually felt worthwhile of a new “attack”. We have decided to keep those attacks the focus of getting smoke while removing charged Neutral Special and charged Up Special. To balance out his recovery, we are letting him wrap through walls with more leniency on Up Special. Finally, we have tweaked some of his damage and knockback angles to spread power around his kit.

• Down Air hit 1 knockback scaling increased from .5 > .6
  
• Down Air hit 1 knockback angle changed from 40 > 35
  
• Down Air hit 2 knockback scaling increased from .5 > .7
  
• Combust knockback scaling decreased from 1.0 > 0.9
  
• Combust sweet spot added with knockback scaling 1.1.
  
• Forward Strong hit 2 damage increased from 8 > 12.
  
• Up Strong hit 2 damage increased from 8 > 12.
  
• Back Air sweetspot damage increased from 10 > 13.
  
• Down Air damage increased from 10 > 12.
  
• Up Special vertical leniency now allows for more maneuverability 50 > 96.
  
• Up Special landing lag increased from 16 > 20.
  
• Up Special landing lag reduced to 10 frames if you reappear in the air.
  
• Empowered Neutral Special and Up Special removed.
  
• Getting parried now removes your smoke charges.
  
• Super Clone now leaves 4 clouds of smoke when destroyed.

For such a rushdown character, Maypul can use Lily to camp pretty effectively. We have decided to prevent Maypul from freely moving Lily around after placing her and made some downtime for when Lily gets parried.

• Can not plant a new Lily when one already exists (as a result, Fat Lily had to be removed).
  
• Parrying Lily’s attack now puts Lily in a stunned state for 4 seconds. Lily still disappears after being parried.

Forward Tilt has been a contentious move since Absa was added to the game. We think by redesigning it to a two part attack we have a chance to make it useful both at short range and long range.

• Forward Tilt changed into a two-part move. Seeing the first part will be a good tell for dodging the second.
  
• Down Strong endlag decreased from 21 > 18 frames (on hit: 14 > 12).
  
• Waveland friction lowered slightly for longer wavelands.
  
• Down Special charge reduced from 45 > 35 frames.
  
• Absa Charged Neutral Special Hitstun factor increased from .6 > .7.

For Etalus, we wanted to tweak his Armor to make it more reliable. The Super Armor comes out earlier on his Armored Strongs but he also loses his Armor when his Forward Special is parried now. Finally we buffed Down Air as it is one of the least used moves in the game.

• Etalus Armor Strongs – Armor now comes out on frame 7 (11 > 7) on Up
• Strong and Forward Strong and frame 9 on Down Strong.
  
• Jump Squat reduced from 6 > 5 frames (now the same as every other character)
  
• Down Air final hit base knockback 4 > 6
  
• Down Air final hit knockback scaling .6 > .5
  
• Down Air Damage increased from 2,2,8 > 4,4,8
  
• Etalus can now hold down to prevent Down Air from stalling his momentum
  
• Forward Strong hit 1 hitstun modifier 1.0 > 0.5 (only matters if hit 2 doesn’t hit). Allows players to escape if the attack does not connect.
  
• Down tilt second hit angle changed from 65 > 75
  
• Down Tilt hitbox heights increased from 20 > 30 and 30 > 40.
  
• Etalus now loses armor as intended when his Forward Special gets parried

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Thanks as always and please let us know of any new issues you encounter here or in the reddit thread!