BALANCE PATCH 1.8.1

# BALANCE PATCH 1.8.1 #

## PALETTES ##

added extra colors to everyone to match the amount sarissae has. i do plan on making more and improving them again in the future. just wanted to even the playing field!

## EUREKA ##

this son of a witch simply refuses to not be overpowered. HOWEVER, i still don't believe in drastic changes, and to be honest, eureka feels very close to the ideal version of the character. she's just overtuned in a few areas, so i chose to nerf a couple things, and plan to buff characters from here on out to try to bring them to her level, because while she IS insanely good....she's fun. and i don't want to take that away. nerfing her movement or her combo game too heavily removes the entire purpose of the character, so hopefully these changes fix the combos that are a little TOO easy to pull off, and allow you to edgeguard the character more effectively. - JAB: reduced damage on jab1 and jab2 - NEUTRAL AIR: -5 active frames on the lingering hitbox - UP SMASH: base damage reduced - UP SPECIAL: after teleportation, your aerial drift is reduced and you cannot fastfall until the move has completely finished

## KNOCKT ##

knockt simply has moves that didn't work correctkly, so just by adjusting hitboxes to make them connect more frequently, birdman gets a pretty decent buff without strengthening the gameplan. knockt mains, especially at a higher level, are probably going to want more done, but i simply cannot accidentally over-tune this character, and they already have tools to deal with almost anything i add to this game. hopefully these changes lead to some previously frustrating moments happening far less frequently, and reward well placed and well timed attacks. - JAB: reduced damage on jab1 and jab2. altered angles on certain hitboxes and removed the ability to DI the second hit, making the move connect more consistently when finishing the full jab combo - FORWARD TILT: added set hitstun to the first hit, ensuring the second hit connects as a true combo - BACK AIR: damage and knockback reduced, scaling increased (prevents tumbling at 0%) - NEUTRAL AIR: endlag reduced - FORWARD AIR: first hit damage reduced, decreasing the amount of hitstun during dragdowns. scaling for the first hit is also reduced - DASH ATTACK: the multihit section is no longer able to be di'd, making the move connect more consistently

## REND ##

this might not seem like a very drastic change and i'm sure i'll get some jokes for not nerfing my main harder (again) (even though i literally do not have time to play the game), BUT similar to eureka, i feel rend is close to the ideal version of the character, and i would rather buff others to bring them to this level rather than nerf characters who feel really great to play. but i mean.....sorry rend mains a few things have to go LOL. - NEUTRAL SPECIAL: fixed an issue where the aerial hitbox was lingering even after the sword was stabbed into the ground, creating an active hitbox for far longer than intended - UP SPECIAL: intial hitbox size of the faster version is reduced, increased endlag to both slightly. (i'm still not 100% sure how to balance this up special so expect at least one more change in the future) - FORWARD AIR: strong hits knockback reduced, weak hit (final hitbox) unchanged because it was already significantly weaker

## NINJA ##

ninja is in a pretty great spot overall, especially at a higher level of play, but these changes aim to tighten up his gameplan a bit more and add some flexibility around his shuriken, making it more useful of a tool in more situations (he is a ninja after all). AIRDASH: speed increased from 8 to 9 JAB: removed infinite jab, and made it possible to quick cancel after the second hit NEUTRAL SPECIAL: set hitstun increased from 25 to 30, and endlag greatly reduced to increase combo potential and make the move more prevelant FORWARD SPECIAL (GROUNDED): increased distance traveled when launching forward, so your punch hits a bit in front of where you started originally BURST: you can no longer quick cancel out of burst

## SARISSAE ##

sarissae's changes are quite drastic and experimental, but i believe they are positive adjustments, heavily incentivizing players to throw the spear more and engage with the mechanic. this may be a bit of an over-tune, but i can easily make more adjustments to balance these features, or revert the spear if it ends up being too much of an issue. we are also aware of the desync during the sarissae mirror match, and are actively working on a fix! i also plan on adding a new down-special to spearless, but i wanted to get this balance update out as soon as i could.

### SPEAR VERSION ###

SPEAR

when you throw the spear and hit an opponent, the spear now takes longer to come back to you, and travels at a bit of a wider arc. this allows you to purposefully dodge the spear to get hits with spearless sarissae in between grabbing the spear again.

JAB

removed infinite jab, and made jab1 true combo into jab2, aligning it with the rest of the cast NEUTRAL SPECIAL: endlag reduced, allowing for more combo potential with the new spear changes FORWARD SPECIAL: endlag greatly reduced, allowing you to easily throw the spear into walls and have time to meditate before dying, as well as easier combo potential. you still have to tech if you use the move grounded, but the aerial version is greatly buffed.

UP SMASH

short cooldown added so you can't spam the move into an infinite FORWARD SMASH: added a new, large hitbox that will ONLY hit players in hitstun, allowing 2nd hit to connect more consistently if you land the 1st hit

### SPEARLESS VERSION ###

JAB: removed infinite jab DOWN AIR: knockback reduced slightly UP SMASH: reduced knockback of 1st hit, increased hitbox size of 2nd hit (should make the move connect more consistently if hitting an aerial opponent MEDITATION: you can now only meditate for a maximum of 4 seconds before the move ends. this prevents camping indefinitely in certain situations with meditate

...game would be so easy to balance if i just added weight......

## TRAINING MODE ##

• fixed various crashes involving pausing the game after swapping between characters / loading savestates / setting the CPU to attack