Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 update announced (version 1.3), patch notes

Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 has announced its next major update, version 1.3.

The team says this “will be our largest early gameplay directional adjustment update” in response to player feedback. Ranked Mode, Training Mode, and community requests are also included.

Here’s the full rundown:

Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 update version 1.3 patch notes

DIRECTIONAL ADJUSTMENTS

MATCH TIMING: 

We’ve seen high level play become centered around very fast, one combo KO setups while simultaneously seeing players struggle to KO opponents at mid and higher %s. We have done small adjustments to the majority of light attacks in the game to smooth out match timings across the board: increasing knock back power on high % opponents to speed up KOs at higher %s and to simultaneously tone down low % KO setups.

GROUNDED VS AERIAL PLAY: 

While aerial options will still remain very strong, we’ve shifted some KO power on aerial charge attacks to grounded charge attacks to both tone down early KO combos and incentivize grounded play a bit more, as well as toned down particularly polarizing aerial options of some characters to address aerial over-prioritization over grounded options across the cast. We’ll be paying particular attention to how these options and aerial vs grounded play develops over time for future updates!

SLIME BURST: 

Our intention for slime meter has been to incentivize creativity, player expression and exploration into this mechanic. While slime burst was intended to provide an occasional, high cost defensive option that prevented extremely early KO setups, we have seen particularly strong playstyles center entirely on slime burst that can prolong games and be frustrating to play against. We have decided to leave slime burst un-touched for now as our adjustments to KO power and less guaranteed early combo routes are intended to incentivize more meter usage in other ways, but we are keeping a close eye on it for future updates!

UPDATES

CORE GAMEPLAY

• To tone down low % KOs, the knockback soft cap after slime cancel was changed. The threshold was lowered from 30 to 25 and reduction increased from 50% to 65%. 
• Lowered base knockback and increased knockback growth in moves across the cast so those moves are more effective at killing at higher damage values.
• Wall techs now take 9 frames and grant 14 frames of intangibility. You can also hold up to do a wall jump after the tech.
• Ceiling techs intangibility increased from 26 frames (the duration of the state) to 34 frames.
• Jump back now overrides horizontal run/dash momentum.
• The maximum shield health, as well as the depletion and regeneration rates have been decreased by 10%.
• Tech roll intangibility duration reduced from 28 frames to 20.
• Perfect block is no longer bufferable.
• The block VFX now changes color during the perfect block window.
• Turnaround specials buffer increased to 15 frames
• Ultimate attacks end lag is not intangible anymore
• Decreased slime block per-frame cost from 0.8 to 0.4.
• Fixed bug that made it impossible to DI slime charge moves
• Time out now happens when counter is at 0 instead of 1.
• Slime cancel freeze frames no longer affect characters who are in Land Hard state.
• Fixes to ultimates SFX.
• Rematch option after selecting random stage in stage select now keeps going into random stages instead of the first randomly selected stage.
• Rematch option after selecting random character in character select keeps randomizing characters instead of keeping the same character that was randomly selected first.
• Fixed an issue where you were able to trade with grabs leaving the grabbed player airborne for a few frames
• Reversible toggle added to multiple hitboxes across the cast.
• Directional Influence (DI) Multiplier on attacks that send downwards increased from 1 to 1.5
• Edge Actions can no longer be bufferable while holding the Edge.

CONTROLS

• D pad can now be set to movement on controllers
• C stick implementation for keyboard players.
• Ability to separately modify if C stick does charge or light moves on ground or in air. 

TRAINING MODE

• Training mode DI visualizer and CPU DI Options.
• Training mode Hitstun visualizer.
• Training mode now saves settings when exiting to switch characters.

ONLINE

• Ranked mode is now best of three matches.
• Ranked rating can now go above 1000.
• Can now see the opponent’s rank in the character select screen and loading screen in Ranked mode.
• Rematch button is now at the top of the menu options in lobby matches.
• Added AFK detection to results screen.
• Added ability to boot people from an online lobby.
• Added descriptions/unlock requisites for unlockable banners/icons on the profile menu.

OPTIONS

• Crossplay options no longer restart whenever the game is closed.
• Added option to disable Screen Shakes.

CAMPAIGN

• Added all difficulties in the difficulty selector in campaign, and added difficulty selector to pause menu in the HUB.
• Blimps are now given to the player if they skip the power up select stage.
• Added campaign save slots
• Quitting in the middle of a campaign run no longer changes controls profile.

CHARACTER CHANGE OVERVIEWS: 

In addition to general changes to light and charge attacks across the board, we’ve made the additional directional updates to the following characters:

SPONGEBOB: 

We’ve made adjustments to light forward air, neutral air, and bubble attacks to give better opportunities to play against some of Spongebob’s more powerful options,

PATRICK: 

With some small damage tweaks to Patrick’s charge up air, less space coverage on dash attack, and adding reflecting properties to his neutral special, we’re looking to tone down how scary Patrick is to those without projectiles while giving him an extra tool against those with them.

APRIL: 

We’ve made significant adjustments to how April gains ratings to push players to focus on raising ratings with more intentionality.

DANNY: 

Adjustments to fireball and up special recovery are intended to let players have some breathing room against some of Danny’s more oppressive offensive options.

DONATELLO: 

Donatello needed some smaller quality of life changes to interact with smaller characters

SQUIDWARD: 

Alongside general updates, we’ve toned down Squidward’s ability to repeatedly spike opponents even at low %s.

REN AND STIMPY: 

While light back air and early up special attacks are meant to be powerful options for Ren and Stimpy, we’ve made small adjustments to how difficult they were to play around.

JENNY: 

Adjustments to light back air alongside general updates to Jenny’s attacks should add some additional counterplay to this attack

REPTAR: 

With additional startup on light up air and added recovery on back air, opponents should now have some additional windows to get past Reptar’s far reaching normals.

RAPHAEL: 

We’ve added some additional recovery to shuriken to help address this frustratingly powerful defensive tool on a character built for offense.

NIGEL: 

Alongside small quality of life updates and general updates, we’ve made Nigel’s charge down air a riskier option in non-combo situations by giving more opportunity to attack Nigel back when blocked.

EL-TIGRE: 

With strong combo routes and early KO options adjusted via general changes, we’ve made playing around El-Tigre’s light forward air and recovery tools a bit easier to fight against.

GERALD: 

With a much easier time getting KOs, we’ve made some small adjustments to how advantageously Gerald could attack shields with light forward air and light down attacks.

LUCY: 

Early KO power and guaranteed combo routes via general updates tone down Lucy’s oppressive one touch combo game.

MECHA PLANKTON: 

KO confirms via light neutral air into slime powered sauce combos have been slightly toned down to be sauce and % specific. 

EMBER: 

QoL adjustments to grounded options and improvements to cheer metered attacks should give Ember more flexibility in how she plays around opponents and spends her meter.

JIMMY: 

Alongside some bugfixes and QoL adjustments, slight adjustments to KO power and light forward air strength give Jimmy a bit more oomf. 

THE ANGRY BEAVERS: 

We’ve limited Dagget’s aerial mobility with tweaks to charge forward air alongside assist timing windows to further differentiate the strength and weaknesses between Dagget and Norbert.

GARFIELD: 

With strong combo routes and incredible offense and movement even without use of meter or sugar rush, we’ve made significant movement and food meter changes aimed at incentivizing Garfield to play more directly around his signature mechanics.

AANG: 

We’ve removed air up special’s ability to cancel into air dodge that was proving to be an abusable, powerful stall tactic that could time out matches and create little counterplay to Aang’s recovery options.

ROCKO: 

A duplicate Spunky bug was proving to be an interesting but oppressive setup option that has been fixed alongside his increased KO power and added light down air speed to give round out his offensive tools 

KORRA: 

Increased light forward speed alongside some adjustments to side special and it’s common followup aerial options are aimed at adding counterplay to Korra’s powerful approach options while giving her some better grounded tools.

AZULA: 

While Azula is intended to be a high speed character with a strong offense, her neutral tools allowed her to play defensively a little too effectively. Side special tweaks and added recovery on some of her attacks give opponents better windows to approach Azula.

ZIM: 

QoL updates, bug fixes, GIR improvements and bomb changes alongside general KO power improvement should make Zim a little more fearsome.

GERTIE:

With a very powerful combo game, recovery options and burst mobility, we’ve toned down some of Gerties difficult to interact with burst options to compensate for her additional power via general updates.

The Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 version 1.3 update will be released soon on Switch, so keep an eye out.

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