It’s 2025 and we are fresh off our holiday break to bring you a brand new balance patch as we prepare for Etalus’ arrival on January 21st! We hope everyone had a great holiday, and we’re all looking forward to an exciting new year of Rivals II.

Patch Rundown

This month’s event is the PRIMAL event. Check out the trailer below:

This article will walk you through matchmaking and results screen changes that aim to improve player experiences across the board. Most notably in this patch, new matchmaking changes that affect server and match selection should help improve the online experience for users. On the balance side of things, we’ve also implemented a few universal changes that aim to make knockback feel more natural and recoveries feel a bit more manageable to deal with.

Patch Notes 1.0.5

If you would like to leave feedback on the current build of the game, we encourage you to make suggestions on our nolt board, and report issues and bugs in our official discord.

Alright, let’s take a look:

GLOSSARY

• Knockback numbers are represented as: Base Knockback + Knockback Scaling @ Knockback Angle.
  • e.g. 7 + 0.6 @ 45 has 7 Base Knockback and 0.6 Knockback Scaling and sends at 45 degrees.
  • Base knockback is the starting point for the attack’s strength.
  • Knockback Scaling is how quickly the strength increases as the opponent’s percent gets higher.
  • Knockback angle is measured from 0 degrees at straight forward, with 90 at upward, 180 at backward, and 270 at downward.

We have a few quality of life changes for players in-game, in matchmaking queues, and in the menus:

Matchmaking:

• Accept Match modal adjustments.
  • If match is found and the server spun up is not in the user’s Region Preferences the Accept Match modal is triggered.
  • Modal has a 10 second timeout, timing out acts as selecting the Keep Searching/Cancel option.
  • User can Accept Match (Join the server) or Keep Searching (denies match and re-qeueues).
• Improved matchmaking server selection, two-step matchmaking flow.
  • Alongside the Accept Match modal the matchmaking process now should place you in a location matching your region preferences more often, only falling back to our existing load-balanced method if unable to spin up a server on one of the matching locations.
  • If your match falls back and is load balanced, the accept match modal allows you to accept/deny the load-balanced server choice.

Results:

• Some minor results fixes.
  • Fixed being able to cycle between Xp/Stats before you’re in the Viewing Stats state.
  • Fixed someone going back to matchmaking before you’re in the Viewing Stats state putting focus on the Next Match button early.
  • Won’t allow pressing start to ready you up if you should be locked out of Readying up / Next Match (another player left).

Event:

• Primal Event and Primal Bundle content added.

• FREE Primal Unlockable Event Track Includes:
• Civet Maypul Skin
• Vibe Maypul Civet Icon
• Primal Platform
• Bonesplosion Death Effect
• Primal Forsburn Emote
• & Coins + Bucks!
• PLUS – play as any Primal event skin or the Primal Loxodont skin to earn 20% bonus event track xp.

• The paid Primal event bundle Includes:
• Primal Orcane Skin
• Primal Kragg Skin
• Primal Forsburn Skin
• Primal Orcane Icon
• Primal Kragg Icon
• Primal Orcane Icon
• 25,000 Coins & 250 Bucks

Universal Gameplay Changes:

• Many moves have had their knockback scaling increased, most of which also had their base knockback decreased.
  • A major problem we’ve noticed is that most attacks are unable to secure KOs at higher percents without very specific setups or positioning. This ends up making matches last way too long when a character can’t get those specific setups or positioning. This change aims to make medium-strength moves viable kill options at high percents. We’re also decreasing the base knockback of some of these moves to make sure they don’t lose their mid-percent combo utility or KO too early. Affected moves will be listed individually in the corresponding character’s section, including the percent where the new knockback becomes stronger than the old knockback (against a 100 weight character).
• Ledge grab boxes have been shrunk for every character.
  • One of the most common pieces of feedback that we receive is that recoveries are too strong. Many factors contribute to this, but one of the most significant is the generosity of the ledge grab boxes. By shrinking ledge grab boxes, we hope to give players more options when edgeguarding, since the opponent will be more vulnerable when grabbing the ledge. The only moves that didn’t get ledge grab box changes are Kragg Up Special, Loxodont Up Special, Loxodont Forward Special, Orcane Forward Special, and Forsburn Up Special (while traveling).
• Many recovery moves are now locked out of fastfalling until later in the attack.
  • Overall, recoveries are universally a bit more strong than we would like, so this change aims to reduce the potency of recovery mixups after committing to an option. Affected moves will be listed individually in the corresponding character’s section.
• B-Reverses will now always happen on a specific frame.
  • This happens on frame 4 unless the attack has a custom B-Reverse frame (i.e. most Up Specials). Previously, you could B-Reverse any time before those frames. You can still turn around any specials on frame 1 by holding backward when starting the move.
• You can no longer reverse Up Specials on frame 1 when using them out of the Shield Release or Jump Squat states.
  • This prevents reverse Up Specials out of shield. You can still B-Reverse them normally.
• The bottom blastzone is now 1 meter lower if you are not in hitstun.
  • This makes it less likely for a player to die first when spiking an opponent near the bottom blastzone. This also reduces the chance of self destructing when performing a slow attack after falling from the ledge.
• Medium hitstun can now be wall teched on the frame you get hit.
  • Unlike heavy hitstun, you cannot wall tech during hitpause or during the knockback trajectory. This change adds counterplay to situations where characters are repeatedly using weak moves to hit their opponents against a wall.
• You can no longer input a wall tech during the last 6 frames of hitpause.
  • Now you must input the tech before getting hit.
• The logic for pressing Grab to release ledge is now processed after the logic for releasing ledge with backward/down inputs.
  • This allows for buffered actions with the Grab button when releasing ledge.
• Jump inputs will now take priority over parry inputs while in the shield release state.
  • This allows you to buffer your AirParry option out of shield consistently.
• “No Impact Landing” can no longer be performed if an aerial lands outside of its autocancel windows.
  • No Impact Landing gives you zero landing lag if you land with nearly zero vertical momentum. Being able to do this mid-attack was often confusing and reported as a bug, since the landing lag animation would be cancellable instantly. Now you must land during the first 4 frames of an aerial or after the IASA frame in order to trigger a No Impact Landing while attacking.
• Fastfalling after dropping through a platform will now require your joystick to be below -0.8 instead of -0.2875.
  • This means you will not fastfall while holding the walk modifier after dropping through a platform.

We’ve made Up Strong less ferocious by reducing its active frames and increasing its recovery frames. We also made it easier for opponents to extend into fire puddles without getting burned.

• Up Special now retains 20% of its momentum when transitioning into the Recovery window instead of stopping immediately.
  • This increases the distance of Up Special by an extremely small amount, but makes Zetterburn more committed to the movement direction, since drifting backward after traveling horizontally will be less effective, and fastfalls will be delayed when traveling upward.
• Aerial Down Special can no longer fastfall until it enters the looping Cancel Fall window.
  • This is part of the universal recovery move fastfall change.
• Aerial Down Special now restores his double jump on the same frame he can jump-cancel it instead of 10 frames before.
  • This gives the opponent more reward for intercepting the dive.
• Flame puddles will no longer light opponents on fire if their ECB center is below the puddle.
  • This prevents situations where an opponent would reach upward into a flame puddle with an attack and get burned.
• Forward Tilt knockback: 5.5 + 0.725 > 4.5 + 0.825
  • Stronger around 84%.
• Forward Air sweetspot knockback: 7 + 0.7 > 5 + 0.88
  • Stronger around 93%.
• Forward Strong hit 1 shield stun increased by 1.
  • This prevents opponents from dropping shield between the hits.
• Up Strong shoulder hitbox moved further down his arm.
  • This reduces the backward range of this move.
• Up Strong active frames: 5 > 3
  • This makes landing this devastating attack require more precise timing.
• Up Strong recovery: 30 > 34
  • In combination with the active frame reduction, this increases the effective endlag of the move by 2 frames, making it slightly more punishable on whiff. This applies to both the normal and empowered versions.

We’ve made Up Tilt less safe on shield, and we adjusted Down Air’s hitbox to better match the animation.

• Forward Special can no longer fastfall during the whiff recovery window.
  • This is part of the universal recovery move fastfall change.
• Up Tilt early hit shield pushback multiplier: 1.0 > 0.5
  • The natural movement of this attack was combining with the shield pushback to make it very safe even when spaced poorly.
• Neutral Air sweetspot knockback: 4 + 0.8 > 3.3 + 0.92
  • Stronger around 49%.
• Up Air hit 2 sweetspot knockback: 6 + 0.75 > 5 + 0.9
  • Stronger around 56%.
• Up Air hit 2 sourspot knockback: 5 + 0.5 > 5 + 0.75
  • This move is now stronger at all percents.
• Down Air hit 1 hitboxes shrunk slightly.
  • This move had a lot of disjoint for how active it is, so we’re cleaning up the hitboxes to match the animation better.

We’ve primarily reworked Wrastor’s knockback values and recovery in accordance with our universal changes.

• Neutral Special can no longer fastfall until it enters the looping Special Fall window.
  • This is part of the universal recovery move fastfall change.
• Up Special recovery frames before entering Special Fall: 19 > 25
  • This prevents Wrastor from drifting or fastfalling for longer
• Up Special max horizontal air speed during Special Fall window: 13.2 > 11.0
  • This makes it more possible for this move to be punished when Wrastor launches himself away from the opponent.
• Neutral Air hit 2 sweetspot knockback: 6 + 0.75 > 4.5 + 0.875
  • Stronger around 101%.
• Back Air sweetspot knockback: 5 + 0.8 > 4 + 0.9
  • Stronger around 84%.

We’ve made Kragg’s Down Strong a little less active in order to make tech chasing require more precision.

• Forward Special Cancel duration before entering Special Fall: 16 > 24.
• Forward Special can no longer fastfall until it enters the looping Special Fall window.
  • This is part of the universal recovery move fastfall change.
• Up Special can no longer fastfall until it enters the looping Special Fall window.
  • This is part of the universal recovery move fastfall change.
• Forward Tilt knockback: 8 + 0.5 > 6.25 + 0.7
  • Stronger around 73%.
• Forward Air sweetspot knockback: 5 + 0.85 > 5 + 0.9
  • This move is now stronger at all percents.
• Up Air sweetspot knockback: 7 + 0.8 > 5.5 + 0.925
  • Stronger around 101%.
• Up Air sourspot knockback: 6 + 0.75 > 5.5 + 0.8
  • Stronger around 84%.
• Down Strong active frames: 6 > 3
  • This move is extremely good at covering an entire platform, so we’re making it require more precise timing to do so.

We’ve adjusted Fleet’s Forward Strong to be better at mid range, while losing some range on her backwards hitbox.

• Neutral Special cancel window length: 23 > 16
  • This makes it the same length as normal Neutral Special, for consistency.
• Down Special can no longer fastfall until frame 16 of the Recovery window.
  • This is part of the universal recovery move fastfall change.
• Forward Tilt knockback: 6 + 0.6 > 3.5 + 0.85
  • Stronger around 84%.
• Neutral Air sweetspot knockback: 5.5 + 0.75 > 4.25 + 0.85
  • Stronger around 105%.
• Neutral Air sourspot knockback: 4 + 0.6 > 2.6 + 0.7
  • Stronger around 117%.
• Forward Air multihits hitstun multiplier: 0.7 > 0.8
  • This gives them 1 more frame of hitstun to increase the move’s resistance to floorhug shielding by 1 frame.
• Back Air sweetspot knockback: 7 + 0.85 > 5.3 + 1.02
  • Stronger around 84%.
• Back Air sourspot knockback: 6.5 + 0.75 > 4.75 + 0.92
  • Stronger around 90%.
• Up Air early hit knockback: 6 + 0.88 > 4.5 + 1.02
  • Stronger around 90%
• Up Air late sweetspot knockback: 6 + 0.75 > 4.5 + 0.88
  • Stronger around 97%.
• Up Air late sourspot knockback: 5 + 0.5 > 4.5 + 0.55
  • Stronger around 84%.
• Forward Strong now has a middle-strength hitbox for 5 frames between the sweetspot and sourspot with knockback: 6 + 0.75 @ 45
• Forward Strong release hitbox moved 15cm forward.
  • This increases the power of this move at mid ranges while reducing the backward range.

We’ve brought back a Rivals of Aether mechanic that would slide Maypul forward when using her Forward Tilt.

• Up Special hit 2 sweetspot knockback: 8 + 0.9 > 6 + 1.08
  • Stronger around 93%.
• Up Special hit 2 sourspot knockback: 7 + 0.85 > 6 + 0.93
  • Stronger around 105%.
• Up Special can no longer fastfall until it enters the looping Special Fall window.
  • This is part of the universal recovery move fastfall change.
• Forward Tilt now boosts her lightly forward during the active frames.
  • This was unintentionally removed during Maypul’s transition from Rivals of Aether to the sequel. While this does give the move a little more range, it also means Maypul must advance forward when using it, which can put her closer to the opponent when it gets shielded or closer to the ledge when edgeguarding with it, reducing its potency when repeatedly used at ledge.

We’ve improved the feel of Clairen’s Up Special, aiming to help the move connect into itself better and remove frustrating situations where the move would whiff towards the end of the first swing.

• Up Special part 1 final hit knockback: 9 + 0 > 7 + 0
  • This should make it more reliably link into the 2nd hit.
    
• Up Special part 1 active frames increased by 1.
  • This allows her to threaten opponents on stage slightly better when recovering, as this new active frame reaches higher than the rest. The innermost hitbox disappears on this frame to make sure she isn’t too well-protected against attacks from above.
• Up Special can no longer fastfall until it enters the looping Special Fall window.
  • This is part of the universal recovery move fastfall change. This applies to both parts of Up Special.
• Forward Special can no longer fastfall until it enters the looping Special Fall window.
  • This is part of the universal recovery move fastfall change.
• Jab tipper can now be auto-floorhugged.
  • This property is now universally applied to all jab 1s in the game.
• Forward Tilt tipper knockback: 6 + 0.85 > 5 + 0.95
  • Stronger around 84%.
• Forward Tilt sourspot knockback: 7 + 0.5 > 5.5 + 0.68
  • Stronger around 70%.
• Up Tilt tipper knockback: 7 + 0.85 > 5.7 + 0.97
  • Stronger around 91%.
• Neutral Air final tipper knockback: 7 + 0.7 > 4.5 + 0.95
  • Stronger around 84%
• Forward Air tipper knockback: 6 + 0.7 > 4 + 0.86
  • Stronger around 105%.
• Forward Air reverse tipper knockback: 6 + 0.65 > 3 + 0.86
  • Stronger around 120%.
• Back Air tipper knockback: 8 + 0.85 > 6.2 + 1.0
  • Stronger around 101%.
    

We’ve primarily reworked Loxodont’s knockback values in accordance with our universal changes.

• Forward Special can no longer fastfall until it enters the looping Special Fall window.
  • This is part of the universal recovery move fastfall change.
• Jab tipper can now be auto-floorhugged.
  • This property is now universally applied to all jab 1s in the game.
• Forward Tilt will now allow for the 2nd Attack input 6 frames into the startup window.
  • This should eliminate the situations where you press Attack twice but Forward Tilt 2 doesn’t come out.
• Forward Air sweetspot knockback: 6 + 0.55 > 4 + 0.72
  • Stronger around 99%.
• Back Air sweetspot knockback: 6 + 1.0 > 4.5 + 1.13
  • Stronger around 97%.
• Back Air sourspot knockback: 4 + 0.8 > 3 + 0.9
  • Stronger around 84%.
• Up Air early sweetspot knockback: 5 + 0.85 > 4.2 + 0.92
  • Stronger around 96%.
• Up Air late sweetspot knockback: 4 + 0.75 > 3 + 0.85
  • Stronger around 84%.
• Forward Strong early sweetspot knockback: 7 + 0.85 > 6.5 + 0.89
  • Stronger around 105% (Applies to both normal and empowered versions).
• Forward Strong late sweetspot knockback: 9 + 1.0 > 7 + 1.185
  • Stronger around 91% (Applies to both normal and empowered versions).
• Up Strong sweetspot knockback: 7.5 + 1.05 > 6.5 + 1.135
  • Stronger around 99% (Applies to both normal and empowered versions).
• Up Strong empowered sourspot knockback now matches normal Up Strong’s sourspot knockback.
• Down Strong early sweetspot knockback: 8 + 0.95 > 7 + 1.04
  • Stronger around 93% (Applies to both normal and empowered versions).
• Forward Throw hitpause multiplier: 1 > 2
  • This removes a visual quirk where the opponent would get launched in the middle of the critical hit effect.

We’ve given Orcane back his aerial Down Special stall, with both a limitation AND an option to not use it. We have also increased the size of Back Air 2’s sweetspot and fixed a few bugs!

• Neutral Special recovery: 22 > 20
  • Slight increase to this move’s overall utility.
    
• Forward Special recovery frames before he can grab ledge: 10 > 7
  • This makes his recovery slightly harder to intercept from on-stage.
• Down Special now stalls in the air once per airtime unless you hold the Shield button.
  • This brings back Orcane’s old Down Special utility without letting him repeatedly stall to avoid interaction. This also preserves the new ledge cancel tech that was added when the stall was removed if you hold Shield.
• Forward Tilt knockback: 6 + 0.77 > 5 + 0.86
  • Stronger around 93%.
• Neutral Air sweetspot knockback: 5.5 + 0.7 > 4 + 0.825
  • Stronger around 101%.
• Back Air sweetspot radius: 18 > 25
  • This should make it link into the 2nd hit slightly better.
• Up Air sweetspot knockback: 8.5 + 0.9 > 7.5 + 0.99
  • Stronger around 93%.
• Up Air sourspot knockback: 8 + 0.7 > 6.8 + 0.8
  • Stronger around 101%.
• Bug Fix: Performing a jab right before his bubbles get parried will no longer prevent Orcane from going into parry stun.
• Bug Fix: Fixed a bug that would cause bubbles to ignore their hit lockout if the game was rolled back to the frame the bubble was spawned, causing them to hit when they shouldn’t be able to.

Forsburn is getting some more fine tuning to his clone and aerials, while losing some stacking speed to his jab slides out of speed boosts.

• Forward Special startup: 14 > 20
• Forward Special recovery: 3 > 7
  • This adds more commitment to this move, allowing opponents to more feasibly punish it. It can still cancel into Forward Special’s clone toss on frame 3 of recovery, so as to not change the timing of his recovery move. The recovery is still 3 frames if Forsburn creates a super clone.
• Forward Special (both versions) can no longer fastfall.
  • This is part of the universal recovery move fastfall change.
• Up Special air acceleration in Recovery window: 0.72 (default) > 0.36
  • This reduces his mixup potential when teleporting above the stage. His air acceleration goes back to the default value when he enters the Special Fall window after falling a medium distance.
• Clone explosion is now auto-floorhuggable.
  • This does not apply to super clone explosion.
• Parrying Forsburn will now destroy his clone.
• Jab 2 and 3 speed boosts are no longer additive, and will instead set Forsburn’s velocity directly.
  • This reduces the distance he can cover when doing a full jab combo after an action that gives him a speed boost, such as a wavedash or babydash. The speed boost values were increased to keep standing jab combo feeling the same.
• Back Air sweetspot damage: 13 > 11
• Back Air sweetspot knockback: 6 + 0.95 > 5.2 + 1.025
  • Stronger around 89%.
• Back Air sourspot knockback: 6 + 0.3 > 5.2 + 0.4
  • Stronger around 67%.
• Up Air early sweetspot knockback: 6 + 0.65 > 4.25 + 0.85
  • Stronger around 73%.
• Up Air early sourspot knockback: 6 + 0.55 > 4.25 + 0.75
  • Stronger around 73%.
• Up Air late sweetspot knockback: 4.5 + 0.5 > 4 + 0.55
  • Stronger around 84%.
• Down Air front hit knockback: 6.5 + 0.55 > 4.8 + 0.7
  • Stronger around 95%.
• Down Air spike damage: 13 > 11
  • This reduces the shield advantage of these attacks by 2 frames. They were a bit too safe to throw out, since they have decent range and good shield advantage.
• Down Air’s 3 active frame no longer has spike hitboxes on the dagger tip and hilt.
  • This prevents situations where Forsburn would spike opponents in front of him by hitting them with the lowest-reaching part of the swipe. The elbow and shoulder hitboxes will still spike on this frame, to prevent it from reverse hitting with the early hit too frequently.
• Forward Strong dagger knockback: 7 + 0.925 > 6.15 + 1.0
  • Stronger around 95%.
• Bug fix: Getup Special can no longer create a fully functional clone if used by the right edge of a platform..
• Bug fix: Fixed a bug that would prevent clone from being destroyed if Forsburn instantly wall-teched an attack.

Known Issues

While we continue to squash bugs and implement feedback from the community since launch, be sure to check out the feedback board we made for the community to leave feedback and suggestions!

If you encounter any bugs, please report them and let us know over in our official Discord.