Nix, the Freelance Reaper arrives in Patch 2.48! Nix is a Scythe and Blasters wielding legend with great speed and defense, and deadly signatures. We’ve also made performance improvements, adjusted game balance, and more in this patch!

New Legend – Nix!

Title: Freelance Reaper
Weapons: Scythe and Blasters
Stats:  4/5/7/6

Nix Launch Skins!

• Scarecrow Nix – No crows to be seen…lots of vultures though.
• Lockdown Nix – Serving her sentence…and giving you yours.
• Grim Reaper Nix – Like sands of the hourglass… Bonus: Soul gaze and toothy menace with expressions.

Odin’s Spear

In today’s patch we’re introducing Odin’s Spear, another way for us to say thank you to the awesome players who follow Brawlhalla outside of the game. This time we’re sending you a code for liking us on Facebook as a thank you for your amazing support!

• You may now claim a code for Odin’s Spear by liking Brawlhalla on Facebook. Follow this link to do so: http://woobox.com/kqotpx

Ancient Chest!

• The Ancient Chest is now available in Mallhalla.
• Exclusive skins in the Ancient Chest are White Fang Gnash, Winged Serpent Nai, and Fangwild Fawn Ember.

Last Week of Valhallentine’s

We hope you’ve enjoyed the holiday! This is your last chance to collect up colors, bonus gold, skins, avatars and anything else Valhallentine related!

• Valhallentine ends after this patch.

Performance Improvements

• Reworked the render cache to be more efficient and use less memory.
• Improved animation system memory and performance.

User Interface

• Client should now display better error messages when a file loading failure occurs. Solution is still to verify game files in Steam.

Gameplay Improvements

• Adjusted some pickup behavior to be more consistent with expectations. Gadgets no longer receive extra pickup priority from being picked up before by the same user.

Balance

With several Circuit events on the horizon, we are focusing this round of balance changes on two weapons that have had a significant presence in the competitive scene. We are pruning some of the more oppressive capabilities of these weapons, while still leaving most of their tools intact.

Katars

With players becoming increasingly comfortable with the more complex game mechanics, the Katars have seen a rise in tournament play. A significant portion of this usage has centered around string routes that rely on keeping the target airborne, so we have redirected the Force on the Down Air to allow a faster dodge reset for the target.

• Katar Down Air: Increased Time to Hit from 8 to 9; Decreased Stun of final hit in the air from 14 to 13; Decreased maximum Damage from 21 to 18; redirected angle of Force on ground hit to be more horizontal.
• Katar Recovery: Decreased maximum Damage from 21 to 20.
• Katar Side Air: Decreased Force from 43 Variable/57 Fixed to 41 Variable/57 Fixed.

Axe

The aerial Heavy attacks on the Axe command a great deal of air space, making them some of the most difficult attacks to avoid in the game. The Damage and Force now decrease more significantly throughout their duration, causing late frame hits to have reduced reward.

• Axe Recovery: Decreased Damage on the latter half of the swing from a range of 18~14 to a range of 15~11; Decreased Force on the latter half of the swing from a range of 40~26 Variable/66~56 Fixed to a range of 38~22 Variable/66~50 Fixed.
• Axe Ground Pound: Damage and Force now decrease over the duration of the attack; Damage is changed from 22 to a range of 22~16; Force is changed from 45 Variable/50 Fixed to a range of 45~40 Variable/50~45 Fixed.

Bow

The Bow has been struggling to confirm knockouts in the current competitive landscape, so we have slightly increased the Force on the Neutral Air to enable more reasonable knockouts on and above the stage.

• Bow Neutral Air: Increased Force from 30 Variable/87 Fixed to 32 Variable/87 Fixed.

Scythe

As players have become more practiced with the Scythe, we are seeing strings that cycle between the Neutral Air and the Side Air increasing in popularity. We have reduced the Stun on the forward release of the Neutral Air to allow a slightly larger dodge window in which the target may also use a jump to escape.

• Scythe Neutral Air: Decreased Stun on the forward release from 26 to 23.

Ember

As the speed of competitive play has increased significantly, some of Ember’s options can leave her struggling to find knockouts, primarily on her Bow kit. We have increased the response time and reward for her Side Bow to open up a more reliable knockout option.

• Ember Side Bow: Decreased Minimum Charge time from 10 to 9; Increased Force from 49 Variable/65 Fixed to 52 Variable/65 Fixed.

Azoth

Much like Ember, Azoth can struggle to find knockouts in a number of matchups. We have slightly increased the reward on his Neutral Axe to compensate.

• Azoth Neutral Axe: Increased Force from 53 Variable/71 Fixed to 54 Variable/71 Fixed.

Lucien

Many of Lucien’s Signatures have great utility, however the reward is slightly out of line with other similar Signatures. We have adjusted his most used Signature to be in line with other similar powers.

• Lucien Neutral Blasters: Decreased Force from 58 Variable/72 Fixed to 55 Variable/72 Fixed.

Jhala

Jhala has been slightly underperforming in most tiers of play, so we are increasing her potential Damage to bring her up to par with other Legends.

• Jhala Neutral Sword: Increased total Damage from 21 to 24.

Hattori

With a versatile Signature kit that houses some high utility attacks, the reward on Hattori’s farther reaching attacks is slightly too high. We have reduced the base Damage value to match the utility of this attack.

• Hattori Side Sword: Decreased Damage from 30 to 27.

New Legend Rotation

This week’s new Legend rotation features Brynn, Cassidy, Koji, Lucien, Val, and Ulgrim.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where a stunned player could slow more than intended when bouncing off of a surface at specific speeds.
• Fixed a bug that caused sigs to beat thrown items due to clashing logic. Thanks for the replay /u/AisuHusky.
• Fixed a bug where in the event of an Accident, the knocked out player plays the KO FX of whoever hit them last rather than their own.