Rivals of Aether Balance Patch 2.1.1.0

A few weeks ago we added a whopping FOUR new characters to the PC and Switch versions of the game for free. Since then we’ve been able to collect feedback and bug reports from the community, allowing for our first balance patch since their release!

While this is by no means the final balance patch these characters will see, our intention with this round of changes is to hit the big troublemaker moves of each of the four. Buckle up, this is a big one.

Mollo is really close to how we want him to play – an aggressive and unpredictable character who can rushdown or zone while using everything at his disposal. Our main goal when updating Mollo was to add more counter play to his bombs – particularly the finisher bomb. We also fixed some bugs and updated a couple of his normals.

• FINISHER BOMB
  • Finisher Bomb countdown increased, 30 -> 50
    • Spamming a massive kill move was never the intention of the finisher. A longer fuse means Mollo players will need to set up for the big reward.
  • Finisher Bomb reduced weight, 1.25x -> 1.6x
    • For reference, other bombs take 1.8x base knockback.
  • Adjusted explosion VFX layers of Finisher Bomb to primarily appear behind players.
    • This allows players to see where they are in relation to the explosion, helping with reactionary DI.
  • Bug Fix: Finisher Bomb now puts Mollo in parry stun on successful parry.
• FLASHBANG
  • Increased Flashbang damage, 0% -> 5%
    • This bomb should not have been dealing 0% in the first place but it was particularly noticeable when Mollo could use it to stall off stage.
  • Bug Fix: Fixed flashbangs not applying full hitpause to attacking players.
• DEFAULT BOMB
  • Hitpause increased, 6 + 0 -> 8 + 1.0
  • BKB 10 +1.0 > 8 +1.0
    • Default bombs were killing light characters a bit too early off the top. Peeling off some base knockback allows us to reduce those surprise KOs while still keeping it a KO option when your opponent passes 150%.
• GENERAL BOMB FIXES
  • Primed bombs now properly explode in Mollo’s hand when hitstun ends.
  • Held bombs will now continue their timer when Mollo is in hitstun.
    • One of the goals of Mollo’s bombs was inspired by Kragg holding a rock. Mollo should feel more powerful with a bomb in hand but also at risk. Due to some bugs and timing, this goal was muddy at launch. We have made some adjustments so opponents can effectively use Mollo’s bombs against him. If you can catch him with a bomb, you can combo him while it primes and now effectively use the explosion to extend your combo or even KO Mollo!
  • Bombs will not bonk players in hitstun moving faster than 6 pixels per frame.
    • It was a frustrating experience to land a KO attack on Mollo only to have an errant bomb bonk him and negate all the knockback. We introduced a hitstun velocity where once above the threshold, characters will ignore the bonk. You can still use bonks for cool combos at lower speeds but bonks won’t be invalidating your hard work when it comes to KOs.
  • Bug Fix: Bombs that explode on bonk should now assign the hitboxes to the last player that hit it, and not just the Mollo that made it. (Meaning bonking a mollo with their own bomb should properly blow them up.)
    • Mollo finally gets a taste of his own medicine.
  • Reduced bonk hitpause, 12 -> 7
    • Bonks had enough hitpause to lock opponents in place for too long. This was especially problematic getting hit by a bomb whose fuse was running low causing a likely KO with a finisher bomb. The hitpause has been adjusted to better reflect the bonk and reduce those sticky situations.
  • Down Special now causes bomb detonations 1 frame earlier
    • Bat hits shouldn’t be overridden by bomb explosions anymore.
  • Bug Fix: Fixed a bug causing bombs to occasionally float in the air.
  • Bug Fix: Fixed a bug that allowed several unique explosions when Mollo’s primed bombs blew up in his hand.
• FORWARD TILT
  • Bug Fix: Fixed a bug that allowed opponents to crouch cancel at any percent.
    • It was pretty funny though.
  • Hitpause increased, 6 + 0.6 -> 8 + 0.9
    • Reactionary DI should be much easier now.
    • A few properties leftover from an older version of the move have been snuffed out.
• UP STRONG
  • Cleaned up Ustrong’s animation.
  • Reduced KB on the last hit, 10 + 1.0 -> 8 + 1.0
  • Increased Ustrong’s endlag, 12 -> 17
    • Up Strong is a great anti air tool and Mollo’s strongest grounded KO option. The attack was designed with a large and long-lasting active window to catch fast moving aerial opponents. But the final hit was too strong for his kit and the attack lacked the recovery frames to be able to punish it. We have remedied both of these.
• DOWN STRONG
  • Bug Fix: Center hitbox hitpause increased, 5 + 0.5 -> 10 + 0.5
    • The strongest hitbox had less hitpause frames due to the attack’s previous functionality. Now the hitpause has been updated to reflect the attack’s knockback and improve DI opportunity.
• RAPID JAB
  • Repeated attack inputs should keep spraypainting more reliably.
  • Removed hitpause scaling to prevent stunlocking (was at 0.6x previously).
    • The move should feel better to use and to get hit by.
• DASH ATTACK
  • Hit one now breaks Kragg’s rock.
    • The hitbox meant to grab bombs did not function as a normal hitbox, making interaction with rock a bit puzzling.
• NEUTRAL AIR
  • Fixed an error causing hitboxes to be arranged incorrectly.

Hodan certainly is a funny monkey. His playstyle is surprising and wacky and unlike anything Aether has seen. Hodan’s unique charge mechanic is a hit but it has been hurting hands and driving players to unusual control setups – we saw that taped down dpad! Our changes to charge have made it easier to use it optimally without feeling like you could be charging more. We also looked at Up Special, Forward Air and Forward Special which were his 3 charged moves causing the most monkey frustration.

• CHARGE FUNCTIONALITY
  • Charged moves now reset the charge amount as long as you’re using one.
    • Charging takes 15 frames, so now back to back charge moves will require those extra 15 frames to execute.
  • Starting a charged move disables the ability to charge until you let go of Down.
    • This excludes down strong due to the direction of the move matching the direction required to charge.
  • Starting a dash disables charging until you let go of Down.
    • These last two changes make sure that Hodan can be played optimally with either the standard controller settings, the dpad or the keyboard. To be able to dash with a standard controller, you have to let go of down. But a keyboard or a dpad could hold down through that motion and retain the charge easily without having to move the stick back down like a controller would. These requirements for a new down press get all the controllers on the same playing field and also make it easier on your hands for players who were tempted to claw both the analog stick and the dpad for their monkey madness.
• UP SPECIAL
  • Charged variant early hit BKB and KB scaling reduced, 10 + 1.2 -> 9 + 1.1
    • For how fast this attack is and the places you can use it, it was KOing too early. This change should bring the kill power to a healthier level.
  • Charged variant early hit active duration reduced, 6 -> 2
  • Uncharged variant early hit active duration reduced, 6 -> 3
    • The start of up special is the sweet spot but with how long it lasted, it didn’t feel very sweet to get hit by it. We reduced the duration on both versions. Charged and uncharged variants travel at different speeds, meaning the active frames cover different distances. Both variants now reach similar distances. Example: A grounded up special’s first hit can no longer hit Tower of Heaven’s top platform.
  • Late hit angle changed, 50 -> 60
    
  • Charged late hit angle changed, 50 -> 80
    • We updated the angles on the late hits of each Up Special to match the angles of the sweet spots which makes DIing the attacks more consistent.
• FORWARD SPECIAL
  • Forward Special endlag increased, 20 -> 28
    • We are increasing the recovery of Forward Special to reduce Hodan’s spam and also to remove his stalling technique when combined with Up Special. We opted for a recovery hit over a cooldown implementation because we want Hodan to be punished for using his projectile in inopportune situations rather than being able to parry or move away.
  • Charged Forward Special endlag increased, 14 -> 28
    • While Forward Special spam was formidable, the amount of sweat you could swirl by repeating Charged Forward Specials was devastating. This recovery change brings both versions in line.
  • Sweatwhirls can now only absorb new spirits after 40 frames, once the spirit’s spawn animation has finished.
    • This helps players escape several whirls being chucked at them in a row.
  • Bug Fix: Spirited sweatwhirls are no longer transcendent.
    • Attacks that beat projectiles can now destroy all sweat whirls.
  • Bug Fix: Fixed sweatwhirl hitboxes lingering outside blastzones.
    • A moment of silence for the Kraggs that lost their pillars to this bug.
• FORWARD AIR
  • Charged Forward Air landing lag increased, 8 -> 10
  • Charged Forward Air endlag increased, 14 -> 16
    • The move is meant to be big and strong, so we targeted endlag in conjunction with the new charge mechanics to make it much harder to combo more than one in a row.
• UP TILT
  • Bug Fix: Charged variant’s (Splash Kick) final 2 hitboxes moved to the correct window, removing the four hitbox overlap it had before.
    • SPLASH YA LATER!
• UP STRONG
  • Bug Fix: Fixed a bug where players under very specific platform heights (Treetop Lodge’s upper platform) would not be thrown properly.

Pomme is a flashy popstar who introduced a float double jump to Rivals of Aether! Pomme didn’t require too many updates in this first balance patch. We did target some of her problematic stalling options in addition to her lack of recovery frames on her strong attacks.

• FLOAT MECHANIC
  • Getting hit while floating now removes any remaining float time.
    • There is a 6 frame forgiveness window at the beginning of a float.
  • Up Special now only restores float time to a maximum of 45 frames.
    • Pomme leaves the ground with 150 frames of float time. If her remaining float time is above 45 frames when using Up Special, the remaining time will be available as a second float.
  • Fixed being locked out of fastfalling when using a move out of float.
• FORWARD AIR
  • Lowered Forward Air’s sourspot angle, 45 -> 40
  • Forward Air sweetspot KB reduced, 7 + 1.1 -> 6 + 1.0
    • In addition to a sweet spot KB nerf, the sour spot and sweet spot angles are now identical, making DI less of a guessing game.
  • Bug Fix: Fixed a momentum bug related to a floating Forward Air in Pomme’s Harmony Field.
• FORWARD SPECIAL
  • Increased Forward special damage, 0% -> 8%
    • We told Vince to stop holding his punches. The Rivals aren’t fans of Pomme. Well except for Kragg. He owns all her albums. This should also prevent crouch-cancelling causing some odd trajectories.
  • Forward Special Cooldown has been increased from 15 frames after Vince disappears to 55 frames after Vince disappears.
    • Now that Vince is not holding back, we have to deal with those times when Pomme is too reliant on him. This cooldown increase should keep Vince as a combo starter while reducing him as a spam option.
  • Vince’s whiff endlag reduced, 40 -> 30
    • This change makes Vince block projectiles for a little less time but also allows Pomme to use Vince sooner effectively reducing the increase in cooldown above from 40 frames to 30 frames.
• DOWN SPECIAL
  • The harmony field now moves towards the stage if it’s far away enough from solid ground.
    • We saw the videos of the Pomme stalling from launch week. This attempted solution should keep a floating Pomme away from the edges of the blastzone, while also giving the Harmony Field more utility near stage.
• STRONG ATTACKS
  • Fstrong endlag increased, 12 -> 18
  • Ustrong endlag increased, 10 -> 15
  • Dstrong endlag increased, 10 -> 15
    • Pomme’s strong attacks were incredibly hard to whiff punish especially considering they pack quite the punch for an Air character. These changes should bring her closer in line to the rest of the cast.
• UP TILT
  • Bug Fix: Removed an extra hitbox from Utilt that was spawning later.
    • A relic from an older animation that added a lot of disjoint to her attack.
• MISCELLANEOUS
  • Slightly increased harmony field opaqueness.
  • Bug Fix: Fixed crouching using the standing hurtbox.
  • Bug Fix: Up Special now has a walljump cancel window during active frames.

Olympia is a fan favorite! But more importantly, she is a Dan favorite. He told us not to nerf her so please don’t link him these patch notes. We took a good look at her Forward Special and a couple of her aerials for this first balance patch.

• NEUTRAL SPECIAL
  • Reduced Neutral special’s break hitbox size, 284 x 284 -> 270 x 270
    • This should remove scenarios where someone gets crystalized while barely touching the field.
  • Nspecial’s projectile now resets its despawn timer when parried.
    • A parried projectile will now reach the Olympia that threw it.
  • Crystalized sprite is now bi-colored.
• FORWARD SPECIAL
  • Forward Special now includes the gauntlet as the hurtbox.
  • Forward Special’s hitbox moved inwards, 12 -> 6
  • Forward Special’s endlag is now 28 to 36 frames, depending on charge – was 20 to 36.
    • These changes to Forward Special will make contesting the move less dangerous and whiff punishing the move easier at low charge. Forward Special still has IASA frames on hit and it starts 25% of the way through the recovery which means the IASA at low charge is slightly slower now.
  • Reduced the amount Forward Special can push up when hitting a ledge, 40 -> 32 pixels
    • Olympia will still get a boost onto stage, but now it won’t be so much that it’s visually jarring when she pops up onto the ground when hitting the wall.
• UP AIR
  • Uair landing lag increased, 5 -> 8
  • Uair endlag increased, 7 -> 10
  • Uair 2’s base knockback increased, 6 -> 7
    • Up air should now be a little less powerful when used in hitfall strings, while also sending opponents further out, making follow-ups a little more difficult.
• DOWN AIR
  • Dair sourspot knockback reduced, 6 Base + 0.8 Scaling -> 4 Base + 0.6 Scaling
  • Dair sweetspot knockback reduced, 10 Base + 1.0 Scaling -> 7 Base + 0.8 Scaling
  • Dair sourspot hitpause reduced, 6 Base + 0.8 Scaling -> 6 Base + 0.6 Scaling
  • Dair sweetspot hitpause reduced, 20 Base + 1.0 Scaling -> 12 Base + 1.0 Scaling
    • Those Down Air numbers were pretty intense, huh? It turns out when sending downward, gravity only adds to your speed. The numbers have been adjusted to be in line with other powerful spikes in the game.
• BACK AIR
  • Reduced Bair’s second hitbox active frames, 14 -> 11
  • Reduced Bair’s active window, 14 -> 11
  • Increased Bair’s endlag, 2 -> 5
    • Back Air’s hitbox now ends when Olympia’s art changes, giving the move more endlag while keeping the total frames the same.

• Adjusted Pomme’s tutorial so hitting all 4 nspecial notes should be easier.
• Adjusted Olympia’s tutorial so hitting bair into another aerial should be easier.
• Fixed a typo in Mollo’s tutorial.
• Bug Fix: Updated Pomme’s portrait colors to match shaders better. (Also got rid of a red pixel on her custom color sprite.)
• Bug Fix: Fixed Olympia’s custom color screen only having one color slot on the diamond.
• Bug Fix: Olympia’s crystalized effect should use consistent colors instead of blinking between swapped colors.
• Bug Fix: Removed a black line on Mollo’s landing sprite while holding a bomb.
• Bug Fix: Removed a white pixel on the start of Mollo’s parry.
• Bug Fix: Fixed the Flashbanged double-visioned effect not displaying correctly.
• Bug Fix: Fixed various issues with Ori bashing Mollo bombs.
• Bug Fix: Fixed a bug allowing Ori to bash Olympia’s Crystal repeatedly.
• Bug Fix: Ranno’s Dspecial hitboxes now ignore rock as per hitbox properties instead of being hardcoded. While this doesn’t actually change how ranno interacts with kragg’s rock, some newcomer articles (like Mollo bombs and Olympia gem) rely on this property when checking for hitbox collisions.
• Bug Fix: Fixed odd animations when moonwalking as Olympia, Pomme, Mollo, or Hodan.
• Bug Fix: Fixed Olympia, Pomme, Mollo, and Hodan not getting an animation when you unlock their milestone.
• Bug Fix: The Random Stage button should now be able to choose from any stage skins you’ve unlocked.
• Bug Fix: Closed up a gap in collision boxes on Neo Blazing Rail that let players go under the main ground.
• Bug Fix: Fixed workshop buddies crashing on load.
• Bug Fix: The RCS Season 5 name color now has its trim back.
• WORKSHOP
  • Added the following macros for characters: CH_MOLLO, CH_HODAN, CH_POMME, CH_OLYMPIA
  • Added the following macros for player states: PS_FLASHED, PS_CRYSTALIZED, PS_BURIED