Fall Balance Patch Notes - 1.5.0
Overview
For this patch we wanted to target some moves we thought weren’t living up to the hype
That being said the most work has been done on a very fine level, primarily dealing with frame data and hit properties. You’ll find that the reworks will not majorly impact the playstyle of most characters, instead either altering the risk, reward, or execution of certain moves.
The Big House:
Skins for Velora and Weishan are now live! Purchase here: https://www.start.gg/tournament/the-big-house-11/shop/merch-store-70
(Note: These are sold as Steam codes and must be redeemed via Steam)
UI Changes:
Healthbars now mirror again
Combo Counters are back
Misc Polish and Fixes:
Debug Keys no longer instantly repeat when pressed
Steam Achievements:
We’ve added 3 Steam achievements to the game
Biggest Changes:
AnG has some QoL changes to bring certain things in line with the rest of the cast, as well as better benefit the swap-heavy playstyle.
Urdah has a reworked Side Special (last one, we promise)
She also has some move tuning to lean further into grabs and less into massive active moves
Velora has slightly modified hitboxes to encourage new players to post a little less in their dojo
Ashani has a notable nerf to Up Special
Kidd has a couple fine tune changes to combo links and some minor physics changes.
Reina has had a pass on Aerial Whifflag, and has been increased to be comparable to Weishan or Kidd
Reina also has a nerf to Air Acceleration in Chain Stance that was supposed to be in 1.0, but didn’t make it in due to an oversight
Keeping an eye on this
Several designated “poke” moves have been given increased Shield Push Multipliers across the cast
Made adjustments to a few buffer systems, which should help some instances of moves buffering the wrong direction. This should be most noticeable out of rush and jumpsquat.
Fixed several issues with crossup offset on high-movement attacks
Fixed some inconsistencies across the cast with attack and grab timings out of Rush
Added blastzone intangibility to the startup of every recovery move that didnt have it
Added blastzone intangibility to the beginning of air rushes
General
Projectiles can once again be pushblocked
Undone because it caused more bugs than it fixed
Note: pushblocking a projectile applies force to the opponent, not the projectile.
Afi
Up Strike
First Active Frame: f13 →f10
Last Active Frame: f15 → f17
Early active frames of Strong and Weak hits increased in height to better match the VFX
Strong
Knockback Growth: 60 → 72
Can zoom with a little charge
Weak
Angle: 80 → 60
Forward Air
Landing Lag: 13f → 10f
Fixed issue that caused it to appear green on shield
Up Air
Has a slight downward force when firing projectile. Scales with charge
Max projectile size increased at full charge
Down Strike
Last Active Frame: f11 → f13
Slightly pulled in forward hitbox to reduce disjoint.
Added Combo Only hitbox to head for easier use in combos
Shield Push Mod: 4 → -4
Merry Crossups
Pushblocking will still keep Afi in front
Neutral Air
Ground Only hit divided into Strong and Weak versions to better match Air to Air hits.
Cleaned up Hitstun Mutlipliers on all hits. All increased and normalized to 0.9x.
Strong
Shield Stun: 10f→11f
Weak
Shield Stun: 8f→7f
Up Special
Reworked into an article to better match the fireblast vfx
Galu
Down Strike
Startup: f14→f12
Endlag reduced by 8f
Shield Push Mod: 1 → -4 (Shield Pull)
Forward Strike
Reduced Range to better match the animation
Endlag reduced by 7f
Down Angle
Shield Push Mod: 1 → 2
Up Angle
Shield Push Mod: 1 → 0.5
Up Strike
Slightly increased size and moved forward to better match VFX
Down Air
Tweaked animation slightly to give it some more oomph
Strong
Activity Increased by 2f
Neutral Air
Ground Only hit divided into Strong and Weak versions to better match Air to Air hits.
Cleaned up Hitstun Mutlipliers on all hits. All increased and normalized to 0.9x.
Forward Air
Angle: 63 → 55
Hitstun Multiplier: 0.8 → 0.9
Ashani
Air Rush
Fixed an issue where Neutral Air Rush would not reset X Force
Up Special
Slightly Decreased the size of the highest hitbox
Removed the lowest hitbox (Left Foot)
This should make this move easier to contest from directly above or below, but it still has very large sides.
Fixed a bug that let this move always auto-cancel
Slightly decreased length of stall at the apex
DP
This move was known to frequently crossup form the front
Increased Crossup Offset significantly.
Side Special
Air
Adjust hitboxes to better match impact frames
Neutral Air
Reduced hitbox size to better match the animation
Reduced shield push for a better single/double hit mix on block
Slightly increased crossup offset on both hits
Back Air
Shield Push Multiplier: 1.0 → 1.25
Ezzie
EXPERIMENTAL: Ezzie must now hold the rush button to float.
Side Special
Window for drift: f11 → f13. This should make it easier to input intentionally.
More changes in the pipeline, just not included in this patch. Expect a mid-season or end of season patch with some much-needed changes.
Kidd
Overview
We feel Kidd is in a good spot as a hyper aggressive threat, but also felt some of the movement and input required to link moves was a awkward feeling compared to the rest of the cast.
We are experimenting with slightly more bkb to make early band combos a little more lenient
We are tuning his jump heights to better line up with the height his moves generally send at. Experimenting with a higher double jump to help his vertically challenged strings, but of course, only once per air time
Like Ezzie, we are trying out a better input for float
EXPERIMENTAL: Kidd must now hold the rush button to float.
Physics
Jump heights modified to better fit the flow of his combo game
Full Hop is slightly shorter
Super Jump and Double Jump Heights slightly increased
Jab 1
Startup increased by 1 frame
Hitbox length reduced
Shield Push Modifier: 1 → -8
This give it very slight pull. The idea is that it should make jab 2 whiff less on block
Neutral Special
Increased Startup by 1f to separate the 0 and 3 pip input a little more
Cleaned up reverse windows
0 Pip and all Ground versions can now all be reversed
There is a bug that allows some versions to double reverse. Looking in to a fix, no solutions yet.
Air
Slightly increased the length of the lowered gravity to fix an issue that caused easy accidental SDs.
Side Special
Empty sSp can cancel into uSp slightly earlier than other actions.
This should prevent sSp being very poor as an early recovery
Neutral Air
Base Knockback: 50 → 45
Knockback Growth: 55 → 50
Fixed an oversight where the middle hit had a really high DI mod
Middle Hit
DI Mod: 1.3 → 1.0
Forward Air
Disabled Reverse Hitboxes
Back Air
Sour
Base Knockback: 35 → 40
Up Air
Slightly adjusted animation to match hitbox better. Frame Data unchanged
Fixed an oversight that made the weak hit reversed
Weak
Base Knockback: 30 → 40
Angle: 100 → 80
Strong
Base Knockback: 45 → 55
Knockback Growth: 75 → 70
Raymer
Raymer didn’t get a lot of love this patch, but we have some plans in the works for some interesting new tools
Back Air
Shield Push Multiplier: 1 → 1.5
Reina
General
We think that while Reina is close to an appropriate top-tier, we also feel like certain elements don’t mesh well in the online format.
Targeting the startup on her moves, so that she is worse in a scramble
Adjusting jump heights to weaken the effectiveness of shorthop aerials, however this also opens up new combinations of double aerials or auto-cancels
Took a pass on Air Whifflag for aerials. We felt some of her aerials should have similar risks to that of Wei, Torment, or Kidd when being thrown out offstage. Don’t let the numbers scare you, its low-impact for the good players out there.
Fixed more issues with chain moves having very small DI windows. All Chain moves should properly have ~6 frames of hit pause at minimum
Affected moves: dSt, fSt, Jab, uAir
Physics
Fixed an oversight that did not properly give Chain Stance lower Air Acceleration
Effective Air Accel: 38m/s → 25m/s
Blade Air Accel unchanged
Increased short hop height in both stances significantly
EXPERIMENTAL: Decreased Combo Weight to be closer to that of Zhurong or Raymer
Decreased Weight: 105 → 95
Side Special
Air
Dissatisfied with this move taking over the role Kunai was supposed to play. Reduced horizontal kill power significantly.
Knockback Growth: 70 → 60
Angle: 45 → 65
Fixed a bug that would allow the move to turn around much later than intended.
Neutral Special
Startup: f15 → f17
We still believe that proper TDI is the solution to making this link difficult for Reina. In the mean time, enjoy one more frame of travel time!
Attacks are now 2 frames after
Up Special
Shrank hitboxes to be less disjointed
Startup increased by 1 frame to better match the animation
Throw
DI Modifier: 1.5 → 2.5
Hitstun Capped at 25f
Chain
Chain Up Strike
Slightly increased the reliability of the launcher, but decreased the total width of the spike hitbox
Launcher
Angle: 110 → 100
DI Modifier: 1 → 0.8
Spike
Rotated animation slightly; hitbox width reduced by about 30%
Chain Down Strike
Startup increased by 3f
Chain Forward Air
Shield Pushblock Mod: -7 → -6
Shield Stun: 13f → 11f
Stun scales more with charge
Attacker Only Hitpause: 2 → 4
Auto Cancel Window: f40 → f44
This should make the AC window tighter on full hop usage. It’s about a 4f leniency on earliest input, up from 8f.
Air Endlag: +4f
Note: This is not Landing Lag, this only applies to fully airborne
Air Whifflag: +4f
Chain Neutral Air
Landing Lag reverted back to 10f (from 7f)
Air Endlag: +3f
Air Whifflag: +3f
Chain Up Air
Startup increased by 2f
Air Endlag: +2f
Air Whifflag: +6f
Chain Down Air
Landing Whifflag: +1f → +6f
Air Whifflag: +4f
Chain Back Air
Startup: f9 → f11
Air Endlag: +4f
Air Whifflag: +4f → +6f
Blade
Blade Jab
Reduced window to self-loop for less delayed-timing mixes
Loop Cancel Window: 5f-25f → 5f-18f
Blade Forward Strike
Startup increased by 3f
Blade Up Strike
Startup increased by 3f
Blade Forward Air
Air Whifflag increased by 3f to compensate for shorthop change
Blade Neutral Air
Air Whifflag: +5f
Blade Up Air
Knockback Growth: 60 → 70
Blade Down Air:
Air Whifflag: +8f
Blade Back Air:
Air Whifflag: +4f
Seth
Up Special (Air)
Adjusted animation timings, forces, vfx, and sfx to make the effect of the move clearer
Slightly adjusted the placement of the lightning hitboxes
Hitbox startup: f22 → f20
Forward Air
Slightly improved the size of the outermost hitbox
Shield Push Multiplier: 1.0 → 1.25
Back Air
Fixed a visual issue where tipper was Yellow on block instead of Red
Jab
Adjusted the animation so that Seth’s fist is now fully extended when the hitbox becomes active on f5.
Increased base hitlag: 2f → 3f
Torment
Down Special
Fixed an issue with crossup offset. Should be more consistent to block
Up Special
Fixed an issue with crossup offset. Should be more consistent to block
Urdah
Forward Air
Shield Push Multiplier: 1.35 → 1.5
Neutral Air
Strong
Shield Push Multiplier: 1 → 0.75
Shield Stun: 11 → 9 (+4 → +2)
Max Bonus Shield Stun from Charge increased by +5. Maximum of +7 on block
Back Air
Fixed an issue that caused this move to have no landing lag during charge
Down Air
Landing Lag: 7f→ 12f
Shield Stun: 11f → 14f
Fixed bug that caused shield color to always appear red
Forward Strike
Trimmed 2 last active frames to better match the animation
Down Special
Ground
Cleaned up earliest hitboxes on combo hit
Startup of raw hit reduced by 1 frame to better match reach animation
Endlag reduced by 8 frames
Air
No longer acts differently for grounded and aerial opponents. Now will always proc into Backbreaker.
Toned down the backwards force applied as the Backbreaker throw begins
Side Special
We think that the last iteration was a decent idea, but not one for the current meta.Grab and travel reworked again to be closer to the old version.
The throw brings the opponent downwards and slams them into the ground.
The ground version will launch and the air version will force a tricky tech
Feint removed, replaced with a counter
Counter
Feint has been significantly reworked, and functions closer to a counter.
By pressing shield, you can counter during the travel. This is a smaller window than the previous feint.
Movement has been reduced but you still have some horizontal control.
Similar to parry, hitpause is greatly increased. The opponent still gets spark but they are behind in actionability
Upon a successful armor “counter”, Urdah becomes actionable instantly
Neutral Special
Blastzone throw
Damage: 6 → 15 (kb unchanged)
Velora
Jab
Attempt to fix overshooting links on block. Still overshoots at closest possible spacing
Jab 1
Shield Push Multiplier: 8 → 9
Jab 2
Shield Push Multiplier: 5 → 7
Forward Strike
Uncharged
Slightly increased hitbox height on first two active frames. Should be a very strong anti-air
Shield Push Multiplier: 2.3 → 1.5
Down Strike
Charged
Fixed an issue where damage would change based on charge time
Added a single frame of hitstun
Up Strike
Uncharged
Added training-wheels baby hitbox to upper torso
Down Air
Adjusted landing lag to vary the feel of her landing lag. Increased Landing lag by 2 frames, but compensated with -2 landing whiff lag
Charged
Fixed an issue where damage would change based on charge time
Back Air
Adjusted landing lag to vary the feel of her landing lag. Increased Landing lag by 3 frames, but compensated with -4 landing whiff lag
Tipper
Shield Push Multiplier: 1 → 1.5
Sour
Shield Push Multiplier: 1 → 0.5
Forward Air
Charged
Fixed a bug where the second hit would sometimes put opponents into a grounded stagger state.
Down Special
Increased Speed of targeting projectile by about 10%
Side Special
Removed first active frame so it better matches the animation of her holding the sword ahead of her. This is going to create a slight up close deadzone where she can be easily challenged
Dash endlag increased by 7 frames. Ending animation slightly changed
Weishan
Forward Air
Sweetspot
Shield Push Multiplier: 1.25 → 1.5
Side Special
EX
Added an endlag animation
Endlag effectively increased by about 10f
Zhurong
Forward Air:
Shield Push Multiplier: 1.75 → 2