Genesis X Workshop Roster

By SBS — February 1, 2024

This year we’re doing something new for the workshop roster at Genesis X! We’re taking as many of the characters submitted for the Rivals Workshop Character Creation contest as we can, and having players battle it out with only these brand new community creations. This decision was made as a way to show off the countless hours of work put in by creators across the community for the contest, giving them their own event to celebrate crossing the finish line.

Download the collection of characters right here and start practicing for Genesis today:

With the help of workshop community leaders, we worked through the 100+ characters submitted in order to get an understanding of each character’s potential power levels, whether or not they have game breaking bugs, and if they have been completed to a playable standard. We would like to emphasize that any characters not in the collection for the above reasons are not disqualified from the Character Contest itself, they have just been removed from the playable Genesis X roster. We have also worked with Workshop Community leaders to allow custom stages related to their creations as an option for players to go to – both players must agree to play on Workshop stages in order to play on them in bracket. The Workshop stages eligible for competition at Genesis X are included in the Official Collection. If you have questions regarding the list, please contact us via Twitter and we would be happy to answer.

This collection includes a healthy variety of characters and stages that competitors will be able to use throughout the bracket. Given that this character list is a showcase of developer contest submissions, a lot of these characters were recently released to the public and may not have every detail ironed out. With that in mind we are banning any infinite combos and infinite stalls that may be found leading up to the event. Should any players break these rules, they will be automatically given a game loss on a first infraction, then a set loss on a second infraction.

Genesis X is just on the horizon and aims to be a celebration of the Workshop Community’s dedication to creation. We hope you’ll join us either in person or at home as the entire workshop bracket will be streamed on February 16th!

Categories: Announcement, Community, Esports, Events, News | Comments: 1

Rivals of Aether Balance Patch 2.1.7.3

By SBS — January 31, 2024

We’ve got some changes to Hodan and our new Green Screen feature in today’s patch, along with a BRAND NEW gameplay feature that will surely get the community wrapped up in all its glory. There’s also a friendly new crossover buddy visiting from Ghost Croquet, a multiplayer platformer by friends of the studio ampersandbear and YellowAfterlife.

Read on for the full patch notes.

Introducing Screen Wrap mode!

We’ve got a brand new feature, a new buddy, and several bug fixes!

Added a Screen Wrap setting. Players will wrap around blastzones and won’t be able to die by going offscreen until they hit the set percentage.

The Screen Wrap mode gives players a fun new way to play. Turn it on in the options and choose a percentage of either 300, 600, or 999. Once it’s set, instead of dying when you reach the sides of the screen like usual, you and your opponents will wrap around until you hit your chosen percent. Go wild offstage and pull off insane combos that defy the normal laws of Rivals as you chase your opponents all over the screen.

Green Screen now hides foreground elements when hiding the entire stage.
Added the Ghost Crab buddy from Ghost Croquet!
Bug Fix: Fixed Green Screen not resetting when leaving a replay.
Bug Fix: Fixed some visual issues with Early to Bed Maypul while using custom colors.
Bug Fix: Fixed Abyss Zetterburn skin not having fire particles.
Bug Fix: Fixed a crash when changing colors on certain workshop characters.

This patch we took a swing at balancing Hodan Neutral Special around the new hitboxes added last patch.

Neutral Special: Side hitboxes are now untechable.
- This will keep opponents from teching out of the move before it finishes.
Neutral Special: Reduced side hitbox hitstun, 1.2 > 0.7.
- This will cause offstage spikes to be less deadly if the opponent ASDIs out of the attack.
Neutral Special: Side hitbox angles changed, 75 > 55.
- This will make it more difficult for opponents to fall out of the side hitboxes of the move.
Bug Fix: Fixed sweatwhirls spawning spirits when grabbed by Neutral Special.

Categories: News, Patch notes | Comments: 3

The RCS Finals are Here!

By SBS — January 26, 2024

We’ve once again got two separate RCS Finals events this year to support both the NA and EU regions. Here’s a preview of what’s in store:

North American RCS Finals

The North American Finals for RCS Season 8 comes to a head at a familiar battleground. Genesis X (Feb 16th-18th) in beautiful San Jose, California aims to cap off another competitive year of Rivals, with multiple attendees collecting Major championships and several more competitors right on their heels.

The top NA pointholders heading into the season finals.

CakeAssault sits on an insurmountable point lead resulting from his consistent awe-inspiring performances throughout 2023. As such, he has earned a $500 travel voucher to Genesis X, where he aims to win his fourth Genesis in a row and fifth overall.

No matter what happens next month, one thing is for certain: the winner will walk away with the lion’s share of a huge pot bonus. The Genesis X prize pool is just under $8,000 at the time of this article’s release and will continue to rise as we approach Season 8’s conclusion. Keep an eye out and help contribute to the Finals Pot Bonus as we introduce one of our most ambitious Genesis skins of all-time.

Genesis X will also be a momentous occasion for another reason. Over the course of the weekend, we will be simultaneously running the first ever publicly available Rivals 2 bracket, which reached its entrant cap of 256 attendees within just the first few days of its announcement. Be sure to tune in as we aim to stream plenty of matches. While there is no monetary prize, honor and the players’ chance to engrave themselves in the history books are on the line in what promises to be an exciting celebration of our upcoming title.

European RCS Finals

Across the world we have another exciting RCS Finals brewing on February 10th-11th. This features 2 days of events including Singles, Doubles, and Workshop. The EU Rivals of Aether scene has been hard at work in Season 8, building a community-funded Finals Pot Bonus while blowing past each of its three stretch-goals with $3,300 raised and counting.

The EU rankings has a favorite of their own with Fireicey commanding a near-perfect season. Fireicey has only three set losses total across the season, and a full sweep of every bracket he has attended. He’s also won five out of six EU RCS events, including all four online brackets and the larger of the two offline events.

The top EU pointholders heading into the season finals.

Of the EU funds raised, $250 will be allocated to each side event – Doubles and Workshop. The EU community also had unique stretch goals in the RCS shop this year. Through reaching these they added the November and December Online Majors, unlocked player interviews by community leaders, and also unlocked a combo video to highlight their scene.

After chatting with EU community leaders, we’re excited to announce that seven different interviews will be posted to our site, ranging from current/former stars to the hard working volunteers holding up the scene from behind the curtain! For the combo video – plans are also in the works to collect clips from each major for a greater community showcase to be released when ready. We have seen what the EU scene can do with their annual PR videos and cannot wait to see how it turns out.

Categories: Community, Esports, Events, News | Comments: 0

Rivals of Aether Balance Patch 2.1.7.0

By SBS — December 18, 2023

Edit 12/19/23: This post has been updated to reflect the 2.1.7.1 changes (listed with a 2.1.7.1 hotfix note).

After the conclusion of the last events of 2023, we’ve got a fresh new balance patch to address some focal points we’ve noticed throughout the year. This patch once again focuses primarily on our four newest characters, while taking a brief pass at our two Guest Characters and a few bug changes to our favorite snake. Let’s dive in:

Mollo is getting a bit of love in the bug fix department and a tad more help connecting the multihits of his up strong.

Up Strong: Hits 2 and 3 angles changed 160 > 155 to help the move connect into itself more consistently.
Bug Fix: Flashbangs now do nothing if the target is already in flashbang stun.
- This should fix scenarios where a second flash bang explosion would knock players out of the first stun early.
Bug Fix: Fixed Walltech and Tech In not dropping a held bomb.
Bug Fix: Fixed bombs disappearing in Clairen’s plasma field when they should explode in his hand (bombs will still cook in Mollo’s hand within the field, and will not explode unless he releases them or is hit).
Bug Fix: Fixed Fspecial using an incorrect hurtbox when tossing a held bomb.
Bug Fix: Fixed Firecrackers not applying explosion immunity to every explosion.
Bug Fix: Fixed bombs hovering underneath platforms if they roll off of a lower platform.
Bug Fix: Fixed bombs not reflecting back at opponents after Mollo parries a bonk hitbox.
Bug Fix: Forward Strong: Fixed bomb toss coming out before the melee hitbox (bombs now release while the melee hitbox is active).
Bug Fix: Dash Attack: Fixed thrown bombs appearing to teleport upwards for one frame.
Bug Fix: Dash Attack: Grabbing bombs now uses a projectile only hitbox for greater consistency.

This patch we decided to tackle some of the more gimmicky playstyles Olympia can implement while also making some nice QoL changes to a few of her specials.

Jab 3: Hitpause adjusted, 7 + 2.5 > 10 + 0.55.
- This should make the move feel more natural, particularly at higher percents. Previously, after a jab 3, Olympia and her opponent would be stuck in hitpause for longer than most strong attacks.
Neutral Special: The projectile now creates a broken crystal when intercepted or parried.
- This keeps the gem throw on cooldown longer, punishing Olympia for a failed projectile spawn by making her wait longer before re-casting.
Neutral Special: Lowered projectile hitstun multiplier, 1.0 > 0.8.
- This allows opponents to act out of hitstun slightly quicker after being struck by the projectile.
Forward Special: Using the move a second time without getting hit or walljumping will now remove the move’s vertical air stall.
- This primarily removes the ability to link multiple uncharged Forward Specials in a row. Using this and cancelling into a wall jump offstage will still allow the move to function the same as the previous patch.
Down Special: Jump cancels now put Down Special on cooldown for 10 frames.
- This removes a gimmicky edgeguarding strategy that would allow Olympia to refresh down special armor in place with a small window of vulnerability. The strategy now has more time between armor refreshes and requires Olympia to leave the ground.
Bug Fix: Forward Special jump cancel buffer now lasts entirely through hitpause, removing instances where slight mistimed jumps due to varied hitpause would cause the input to be lost.
Hotfix 2.1.7.1 Fixed the Streetwave Skateboard prop appearing small online.
Hotfix 2.1.7.1 Down Special: Fixed not being able to turn around on early hits.
Hotfix 2.1.7.1 Forward Special: Touching the ground during Forward Special no longer consumes the aerial vertical stall.
Hotfix 2.1.7.1 Forward Special: Being in hitstun now properly refreshes Forward Special’s vertical stall.

Pomme is living her best life right now. She’s getting a small change to make recovering against the wall feel better and some small bug fixes.

Neutral Special: Parried notes no longer extend their active time if already parried.
- The lifetime of a note is long, but this change also removes the infinite parry loop that players could go for.
Up Special: Multihits can no longer be ground-teched (players can still wall-tech these hits).
- This should remove scenarios where players could crouch and the edge of stage and hold down to consistently tech out of the move.
Bug Fix: Fixed Vince destroying projectiles after being parried.
Bug Fix: Fixed being able to bypass Olympia’s crystalization by instant-floating.

Hodan is getting an important change to his neutral special hurtboxes and a few bug fixes that should help with his consistency.

Neutral Special: All hitboxes during the spirited and unspirited spins have been edited to form a U-shape below and to the sides of Hodan.
- This change keeps the hitboxes on the outer edge of the move while appropriately leaving Hodan vulnerable to attacks from above. The change aims to make the move less safe to use in all aspect of play, including low recoveries.
Bug Fix: Parrying your own reflected mudwave no longer gives you iframes.
Bug Fix: Up Strong: Fixed the slam action placing opponents *just above* platforms, causing them to bounce off with low KB rather than fall through at full speed.
Hotfix 2.1.7.2 Hodan Neutral Special updated again to remove the ability to spike opponents with its outer hitboxes.

Ori is getting a few changes to address some of the overly safe options during recovery and a few specific neutral circumstances.

Uspecial: Getting parried no longer lets you float (you can still walljump out of it).
- This change makes Ori’s up special less safe to use prectably during recoveries since Ori cannot drift away or try to float for an edge cancel. This change also removes Ori’s ability to cancel parry stun by closing the leaf and fastfalling during landing (primarily a Blazing Hideout tech).
Mollo’s Finisher explosions can now hit you even after you Bash them.
- Since Mollo’s finisher bomb explodes on a delay, there would be situations where Ori would toss the bomb and run directly into an explosion and take no knockback, often looking strange to players and spectators. Ori is still protected from all other bomb explosions after bash since they can be thrown directly next to the player, exploding on impact.
Bug Fix: Fixed Hodan’s Sweatwhirls immediately disappearing after getting bashed.
Bug Fix: Fixed a bug that would occasionally let Ori cancel a whiffed bash 4 frames earlier than intended. Bash landing lag should be consistently 10 frames now.
Hotfix 2.1.7.1 Bash: Fixed a rare case with Mollo bombs, punching and bashing it at the same time.

More pogo fun and some rocky bug fixes!

Down Air: Shovel Knight can now pogo off of Elliana’s mine.
Bug Fix: Fixed the rock disappearing for a frame when thrown by various moves. (This also applies to kragg’s rock.)
Bug Fix: Fixed rock not bouncing off of Ranno bubble similar to Kragg’s rock.
Hotfix 2.1.7.1 Down Air: Fixed bouncing off of Elli mines having too much range.
Hotfix 2.1.7.1 Down Air: now has SFX and VFX when bouncing off of lily, Elliana mines, and Absa clouds.
Hotfix 2.1.7.1 Down Air: Can now bounce off of Mollo bombs.

Elliana’s recent changes to her mine have come with a few bugs that we decided to patch up.

Bug Fix: Fixed mines occasionally turning transparent when stuck on players.
Bug Fix: Two Ellianas kicking a mine on the same frame no longer duplicates it.

We have a small bug fix added in Hotfix 2.1.7.1.

Hotfix 2.1.7.1 Bug Fix: Fixed some small artifacts appearing on smoke clouds.

We have a new replay feature added in Hotfix 2.1.7.2.

Hotfix 2.1.7.2 Added a Green Screen option to replays.

Categories: Community, News, Patch notes | Comments: 6

Patch 2.1.6.4 – The One That Revamps Practice Mode

By SBS — October 19, 2023

Today we have a new patch for you that’s focused on fixing a few small bugs, an elusive desync, and also adding some great new features to our Practice Mode!

Input Recording and Save States, two of our most requested Practice Mode features, are now available. These updates have been in the pipeline for a while now and should add plenty of features to help players learn the game and grind specific interactions. Be sure to let us know if you find any bugs since we expect this feature isn’t perfect yet with all types of controllers. Let’s dive in to patch 2.1.6.4:

If you like labbing, head into practice mode to try out the new features. There you can use save states to practice scenarios by recording inputs for a specific player slot, and then playing the inputs back.

You should be able to practice all kinds of different scenarios right in game, but if you want to get extra fancy, the inputs are saved to files in your %AppData%/RivalsofAether/training folder. This means you can even share practice scenarios with other players by sharing input files.

You can also loop or randomly shuffle the input playback from the scenarios you currently have recorded. Perfect for practicing a common scenario, or trying different reactions to a situation to see what’s best.

You can also save or load the entire game state during a training mode session. Note that Workshop items are not supported. You can also use hotkeys for these new Practice Mode features, which are 1-6 by default.

And one of the best changes for practicing – you can now control other player slots without the need to have multiple controllers plugged in!

Bugfixes

Fixed multiple Sylvanos desyncs.
- We did a deep dive into the previously assumed “howl” desync and were able to find multiple causes after some considerable sleuthing.
Golden Olympia now has the proper golden skin effects. (Unlock this skin by purchasing her adorable plush here).
All plush skins should now properly unlock the Catnip Bravo buddy.

Categories: Community, News, Patch notes | Comments: 4

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