We have a patch focused on fun updates to share with everyone today, adding some really cool changes to several stages! You may have noticed our favorite fishy monarch, The Troupple King, hanging out and judging you during last stock situations recently over on Troupple Pond. This patch builds on that by adding last stock visuals to seven more stages to add to the excitement.
We’ve also updated Olympia’s and Hodan’s stages with new large variants, along with addressing a niche but important ceiling teching bug. Check out our stage focused update in all of its glory:
Several stages now have visual changes for last stock: Neo Fire Capital, Treetop Lodge, Blazing Hideout, Tempest Peak, Forest Floor, Spirit Tree, and The Endless Abyss.
A last stock variant for Troupple Pond was also added into the game in a recent hotfix.
Added large variants for Crystal Oasis and Highdive Hideaway for doubles and 4-player games:
Bugfixes
Teching off of the ceiling now clears the dodge buffer, which will prevent unintended airdodges after teching.
Previously, holding a direction while ceiling teching off of Kragg rock, Air Armada, etc would force an air dodge while having no directional input would allow players to act normally out of a tech.
Fixed a visual bug that made Summit Kragg’s snow appear too low in playtest.
RoA/CEO Ring no longer displays old versions of character profiles on the big screen.
Selecting a random stage no longer selects banned stages.
Our major update for the Workshop Four-Pack is out now on Nintendo Switch. In addition to the latest bugfixes, this update also includes the latest balance updates for the four newcomers. Check out the balance changes for versions 2.1.1.0 and 2.1.2.0 that have been added to Switch from previously released updates for PC.
Switch Bugfixes and Improvements
Entering Abyss mode after reaching level 10 with a character will no longer crash the game.
Fixed a crash that could occur when adding/removing joycons or other controllers in the console menu.
The stats menu should no longer cause a crash when scrolled through.
Portrait and other various menu and victory art has been updated to correct odd shader behavior and/or stray pixels.
Multiple tutorial improvements made for the four newcomers. Improved descriptions, controls, and reduced difficulty of some steps.
Fixed multiple rune and gameplay related issues in Abyss mode.
Fixed odd animations when moonwalking as Olympia, Pomme, Mollo, or Hodan.
Fixed Olympia, Pomme, Mollo, and Hodan not getting an animation when you unlock their milestone.
The Random Stage button should now be able to choose from any stage skins you’ve unlocked.
Closed up a gap in collision boxes on Neo Blazing Rail that let players go under the main ground.
Fixed dash dancing desyncing replays.
Multiple small visual bugs in menus and gameplay have been fixed.
Fixed Kragg’s pillar persisting under the bottom blastzone.
Addressed various other bugs.
Mollo balance changes included in this Switch patch can be found at 2.1.1.0 and 2.1.2.0.
Adjusted how Mollo bombs blow up in his hand, which also fixed a crash. (The fuse does not tick down during hitpause if it triggers this way, so moves that modify hitpause afterwards like Bash don’t desync the bomb’s timer.)
Bomb and explosion readability has been improved.
Super armor now armors through Mollo’s flashbang, but will be put into the same amount of hitpause as the flashbang normally does.
Bug Fix: Fixed the Flashbanged double-visioned effect not displaying correctly.
Bug Fix: Fixed various issues with Ori bashing Mollo bombs.
Hodan balance changes included in this Switch patch can be found at 2.1.1.0 and 2.1.2.0.
Increased BKB of Hodan’s Ustrong grab hitboxes: 0.1 -> 4. While this doesn’t really affect the move’s balance (slam hitboxes have their own BKB), this fixes crouch-cancelling it on platforms.
Things that destroy projectiles (Vince/flowers/etc.) will now destroy sweatwhirls instead of only destroying their hitbox.
Fixed Hodan keeping a grabbed sweatwhirl after respawning.
Fixed Hodan’s O rune not being able to consume fire on some strongs.
Pomme balance changes included in this Switch patch can be found at 2.1.1.0 and 2.1.2.0.
Bug Fix: Updated Pomme’s portrait colors to match shaders better. (Also got rid of a red pixel on her custom color sprite.)
Olympia balance changes included in this Switch patch can be found at 2.1.1.0 and 2.1.2.0.
Olympia’s crystal now has an additional color option in the custom colors menu.
Adjusted Olympia’s tutorial so hitting bair into another aerial should be easier.
Bug Fix: Olympia’s walljump should no longer cause a crash.
Bug Fix: Olympia’s crystalized effect should now use consistent colors instead of blinking between swapped colors.
Bug Fix: Mollo’s flashbang no longer causes Olympia to zoom offstage if she armors a flashbang.
Bug Fix: Fixed a bug allowing Ori to bash Olympia’s Crystal repeatedly.
The time has come! Last April, we announced the inclusion of four community-created characters into the base cast of Rivals of Aether. After an intense year of development we’ve worked internally, with the original creators, and with our closed beta team to finally bring these characters to life in our next free update on February 3rd, 2022 on PC and Nintendo Switch.
What’s Included
Our latest FREE update.
The workshop character pack is filled to the brim with new content. Each of our four new characters come with their own stages, music, and Abyss Runes right out of the gate. Players familiar with their Steam Workshop versions will find updated kits, animations, sound effects, and much more.
Players who already own Rivals of Aether on Steam or Switch will automatically receive the Four-Pack update for free.
Check out that fancy new Character Select Screen!
Mollo
The Smoldering Rage from the future is here! Mollo is taking a break from the rebellion against the treacherous Loxodont to utilize his explosive arsenal of weapons in an all new battlefield. Item management and stage control are key to mastering this moth, as he can do serious damage from a distance, or up close and personal.
Hodan
The Hot Springs Sage cannonballs into Rivals of Aether! Hodan uses his expert technical abilities to empower himself when the time is right. Build charge by holding a downward directional input, then unleash the beast with powerful secondary versions of key moves.
Pomme
The Superstar Songstress has arrived on the scene and is ready to put on a show! Pomme’s unique understanding of sound waves allows her to quite literally float through the air, making her a potent threat in even the hardest to reach corners of the battlefield.
Olympia
The Amethyst Fist puts her deep understanding of martial arts to the test as she brawls her way through Aether! Olympia is a fundamental warrior with a clear game-plan of hitting her opponents hard and making each hit count. Stand your ground and strike fear into your opponents, because this one is going to hurt.
Rollback Netcode
Finally for those playing on Steam, we are excited to announce that Rollback Netcode is leaving our open beta branch to officially become part of the base game with the February 3rd update. Experience the Workshop Character Pack in all its glory with the launch of the long awaited rollback netcode update on PC.
We hope you check out the newest additions to Rivals of Aether this Thursday on Switch and Steam. Thank you to our wonderful community for being with us on this journey. These new characters would not have been possible without the fantastic Workshop community that has blossomed over the years. We hope everyone will have as much fun with them as we have.
October is the first month where we’ve diverged from our usual new Rival card release for the battlepass. However instead of new cards this month, we have two big additions coming to the game to get excited about – a brand new mode called Dungeoneers and tons of new Puzzle Challenges.
Read on for a preview of what’s coming later this month to Creatures of Aether, as well as a quick look at the top of the ladder from September’s season.
Shop Rotation
As there’s no new Rival this month, the shop has rotated back to our very first Rival card and features Zetterburn. Since Zetterburn originally came out in beta, this means October is the first time that he has an accompanying Rival Pass, complete with his own dungeon and emote.
Season 15 Ladder Recap
We hope you enjoyed blowing up the ladder with Mollo last month. Here’s a peek at the top players and their decks from last season if you’d like to try them out yourself:
New Mode – Dungeoneers
Dungeoneers is a brand new game mode coming to Creatures of Aether! This mode is a single-player deckbuilding mode with abilities that combine and scale as you play. We showed off multiple playthroughs of it with developers Dan and Tom last week. If you missed it you can check out the full gameplay video on twitch. For those wanting the short version, here’s the basics:
At the start of a Dungeoneers run, you can pick one Rival from a group of 4. Each Rival has a unique rune that grants them special benefits. These are usually tied to their element as well, with each focusing on a particular strength.
You’ll enter a battle with your chosen Rival and add more cards to your deck as you go. After each match, you can purchase new cards for your deck at the shop. You earn currency for the shop by winning matches or selling cards, and can even upgrade the shop to have a larger selection and more powerful cards.
If you see a card you like but can’t purchase, you can freeze the cards and they’ll stay until you come back from your next match. You can also see your CPU opponent’s progress before the match on this screen to size them up. Even though this is a single player mode, the bots will use decks that real players built and played in their previous runs. So you might recognize some names and decks as you battle.
You can upgrade a card by getting it to level 4 or using the forge. The forge is a special area you find 3 times throughout the run. You can either instantly upgrade a card there, or obtain an additional powerful rune. Upgraded cards have more powerful abilities and shop spells.
That’s the basics of dungeoneering! To start delving yourself keep an eye out for the release later this month.
New Additions – Puzzle Challenges
Some challenging puzzles are in the works outside of the standard character and gameplay mechanic categories. Fifteen new puzzles are coming later this month and should be some fun brain teasers for players who want to ponder.
These puzzles will also grant more rewards when completed for the first time. We’re also excited to share that many of the boards were designed or co-designed by our own community members.
A new puzzle board designed by community tester Ridlay.
Additionally Slade, Guadua, and Mollo all have their Rival challenges and challenge matches added to the game. Now these are complete for every Rival!
That wraps up the patch preview for October. We’ve also got a few standard bugfixes and small QoL changes coming. These will be released with the first half of the content update in October, beginning with the updates to Puzzle Challenges with Dungeoneers following afterward.
It’s April Fools Day and that means our team just spent a massive amount of time on an elaborate holiday spectacle. This year, we came back with our third Rivals Direct. But because we constantly have to keep one-upping the previous year, we couldn’t just simply do another plain, boring direct. We had to push ourselves to the limit.
And that’s how Twitch Plays Rivals Direct was born. The fans who joined in the Twitch Stream were able to influence the direct itself and even play both Rivals and Creatures through voting in chat.
We also returned to the world of Lovers of Aether but two years have passed since our last visit so instead of Aether High, we stop at Aether University. Adam Carra was the host again but this time as Adam Capybara as he found himself inside the Lovers world. Viewers helped Adam make dialog decisions, complete minigames, and navigate Aether University as he tried to uncover content trailers from the game’s characters. Inputs from Twitch chat controlled the experience to create an out-of-the-ordinary direct that was loaded with Aether reveals.
Tales of Aether
The first reveal was a new trailer for Tales of Aether, a comic series set in the Aether universe. As many fans were expected, we’re confirming that the first comic series will follow the story of Clairen, the Flame’s Salvation. The comic will be released later in 2021 and you’ll have to wait just a little longer to find out how to get your hands on it.
Rivals Workshop Character Pack
Since we launched Steam Workshop support for Rivals of Aether in 2019, we have been amazed at the sheer amount of creative and wild characters that creators have posted to our workshop. There have been over 1600 characters posted and we set our eyes on four of the best original creations to bring into the Rivals of Aether universe. These four characters will officially be joining the roster in an update later this year – both on Steam and on Nintendo Switch!
Grassroot Elements
Your favorite Youtuber Adam Carra is back and he’s about to outdo even himself. Adam is working on a new documentary focused on the development of Rivals of Aether and its competitive scene. You’ll get to see how the journey started along with some fantastic interviews with players, developers, organizers, and other community members. The documentary is sure to get you hyped as local competition eventually returns!
Creatures of Aether
Creatures of Aether has made a ton of progress on iOS and Android since its launch in September 2020. We have increased the Rivals from 5 to 11 adding a new one each month. The newest Rival, Fleet, is a protagonist from our upcoming title Dungeons of Aether. We also announced today that Creatures of Aether is coming to Steam this summer so you can play it with your favorite mouse and keyboard. We are hoping to get more players into the game with the Steam release. Join the Official Discord today if you are interested in Creatures of Aether.
Rivals Rollback Netcode
For those of you who have been following Rivals development, you know that Rollback has been a long time coming. Thanks to the work of YellowAfterlife and Zach Reedy, we have finally gotten to the point where the game state is saving and loading in a reasonable time. We’re hunting down desyncs and feel confident that we can get players into a 1v1 Open Beta on Steam sometime this Summer™. Follow Rivals of Aether on Twitter for updates on how the rollback netcode is progressing.
Dungeons of Aether
We announced today the genre of our upcoming game Dungeons of Aether – it’s a turn-based roguelite. We have an amazing team working on this pixel-perfect adventure in Aether and we can’t wait for you to get your hands on it in 2022. We also revealed another protagonist today named Artemis. She’s an elite warrior who is part of the Fire Mora and is sent on a secret mission by Loxodont that lands her in Julesvale. We have two protagonists left to reveal before the game launches so stay tuned!
Aether Studios
The Direct ended with Adam finally getting his hands on the 3D folder revealing a new project that our team is working on. We have graduated past the humble Dan Fornace LLC and a new team is building the next big adventure in Aether. We don’t have a ton more news to share on this project just yet but enjoy the teaser and follow Aether Studios on Twitter to get more updates.
Wrap-up
And that was everything. It was an amazing experience being able to play with fans and reveal all this content. All I know is that next year, April Fools Day needs to be canceled.
Our latest FREE update.
Check out that fancy new Character Select Screen!
