IT’S LAUNCH DAY! Thanks so much for your support as we celebrate the official release of Rivals of Aether II!

Launch Day Patch Notes

This article will walk you through the changes made from last week’s Next Fest open demo. The changes listed here are very detailed, so be warned, we spare no details and the list can be tricky for those not versed in the language of patch notes. These are a holdover from our fast-paced 2024 development cycle. Future patch notes post-launch will be available on Steam and designed to be more digestible. If you would like to leave feedback on the 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, now that we have the intro out of the way, let’s dive in:

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.

• Players now receive coins as they gain XP, allowing additional Aether Coins to be earned outside of character levels and event progression.
  • We want to make sure players are getting enough coins, so we’re adding a new way to earn coins via XP and keeping an eye on these values. Reminder: Events also give players coins and our first event doesn’t start until November. Keep in mind the normal rate you earn coins at will be higher once our final system for earning them is live.
• Tap jump joystick threshold lowered while dashing/running.
  • This allows you to tap jump with full forward momentum.
• Landing after being launched downward will no longer cut your hitstun in half.
  • Previously, spiking aerial opponents would often end up leaving the attacker disadvantaged. This change should make aerial spikes feel much better to land.
• You will no longer incur 25% extra hitstun when spiked off the ground.
  • The reward for landing a grounded spike was disproportionate to how easy it was to find, often leading into a charged strong attack at low kill percents.
• Early-knockback gravity reduction frames are now dependent on the character’s hitstun gravity instead of always being 5 frames.
  • This means floaties will reach full gravity faster, while fastfallers will take longer to reach full gravity. It’s a very small change, but the goal is to make floaty characters slightly more susceptible to being comboed while also helping fastfallers not get juggled quite as bad.
• Shield DI can no longer cause you to leave a platform.
  • This removes the ability to shield DI a recovery move at ledge to automatically ledgehog it.
• If all four players are on the same team when readying up on the character select screen, then they will be assigned random teams.
  • There will be an actual “Randomize Teams” setting for this eventually once we have a more fleshed out match settings menu, but this workaround will allow players to randomize teams for now.

We’ve adjusted Zetterburn’s weight and the game feel of a few of his moves.

• Weight: 100 > 95
  • Slight reduction to his survivability.
• Forward Strong hit 1 shoulder and elbow hitboxes removed.
  • This slightly reduces the backward range of the attack.
• Neutral Air final hit knockback: 6 + 0.7 > 6 + 0.6
  • This makes the move less likely to KO an opponent after mixing up their DI while also making it combo a little better.
• Neutral Air now has a large circular hurtbox in the center.
  • This makes the amount of disjoint consistent throughout the active frames.
• Uncharged Neutral Special will now force knockback against knocked-down opponents.
  • This prevents it from jab resetting opponents and confirming into Ustrong before they could even start their getup option.

Wrastor is getting a few changes to Forward Air to encourage players to try out some of his other amazing moves.

• Forward Air animation adjusted so the first active frame doesn’t hit as high.
• Forward Air middle and outer hitboxes slightly shrunk.
  • This move was very good in a lot of ways, but the hitbox coverage often made it the right move to choose in too many situations. It’s still going to be an extremely strong attack, but there will be some situations where good DI should prevent it from hitting.

A couple fixes to specific interactions with Poppy and Wrap.

• Poppy can no longer be activated twice in a row.
• Bug Fix: When wrapping an opponent, Lily will now restore all of their resources as if they had touched the ground.

We’ve adjusted a few attacks to feel better for her, her allies, and even her enemies!

• Up Special multihits are now auto-floorhuggable.
  • It was previously auto-floorhuggable due to having less than 0.2 knockback scaling, but wasn’t adjusted when the new auto-floorhug property was added.
• Plasma Field will no longer destroy teammates’ projectiles.
• Ledge Special hit 1 will now stun grounded opponents.
  • This prevents them from bouncing above hit 2.

We’ve changed up a few of his specials to behave more favorably. Tossing his Neutral Special and recovering should feel better this patch thanks to new options opening up.

• Molten Boulders will now fall through platforms for a short duration after the apex of their trajectory.
  • Previously, the boulder would land on low platforms when Loxodont angled the Nspecial forward. Now the boulder will pass through the low platforms on most stages.
• Holding shield during Down Special’s startup will use up a single molten charge to perform the no-charge version of the attack.
  • This allows Loxodont to use his normal Down Special stall while recovering even when he’s powered up.

Forsburn saw his first real battles during Next Fest, so we were able to take a look at community feedback regarding his recovery and a few other moves such as Down Tilt and Cape Attacks.

• Weight 94 > 95
  • He just wants to be like his brother.
• Down Tilt’s inner sourspot radius: 60 > 50
• Down Tilt’s center sourspot is now a sweetspot.
  • This makes spacing for the tipper slightly easier.
• Forward Strong and Up Strong cape hits will now force knockback against knocked-down opponents.
  • Previously, they would act as a jab reset, which would cause the dagger hit to whiff. Now they will take regular knockback instead.
• Back Air sweetspot knockback: 6.5 + 0.9 > 6.5 + 0.95
  • Slight increase to the killpower at high percents.
• Up Special travel speed: 28.3 > 30.0
  • Slight increase to his recovery distance when resorting to Up Special.
• Up Special will now go full distance if your joystick is tilted past 90% in any direction.
  • This alleviates some issues with controllers that don’t naturally reach 1.0 in cardinal directions.
• Forward Special clone toss backward ledge grab box extended.
• Forward Special clone toss can now drift during the Recovery window.
  • This move would sometimes end right before touching a wall, and Forsburn’s lack of drift meant he couldn’t walljump until after.
• Down Special inhale recovery: 18 > 24
  • He could get full smoke charge too easily after taking a stock.
• Ledge Special now has a large hurtbox during the first active window.
  • This removes the disjoint from this part of the attack.
• Bug fix: Forward Special will no longer play a sound when used behind smoke.
• Bug fix: Clone can no longer airdodge.

Known Issues

As you can see we’ve been hard at work last week during Next Fest, but that doesn’t mean we’ve ironed out every bug just yet. Our recent roadmap video goes into our plans for post-launch priorities and support. We are also tracking Steam Deck lobby issues and controller/mouse and keyboard support issues to address.

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