Brawlhalla Patch 3.08 – Kaya Update!

Welcome to the first big patch of 2018! We’re excited to introduce Kaya, a bow and spear wielding warrior from the icy north. Many players in the community have been asking for a bow/spear Legend for some time, and we hope that you’re as excited as we are to finally have Kaya in the game. We’re also adding a number of performance improvements, balance adjustments, drop fixes, and more in this patch!

New Legend – Kaya

Kaya has entered Brawlhalla!

Weapons: Bow and Spear

Stats: 4 Strength, 4 Dexterity, 7 Armor, 7 Speed.

Kaya Launch Skins:

Huntress Kaya – “Can track a snowshoe rabbit through a blizzard.”

Aurora Kaya – “Setting the sky ablaze in the spirit world.”

Snow Stalker Kaya – “Gliding over the frozen terrain on the prowl.”

Mallhalla – The Sunken Chest Recovered!

Recently retrieved from the the depths of the sea off the sunken shores of Atlantis, the Sunken Chest enters Mallhalla with a treasure trove of skins and three chest exclusive skins to obtain:

Atlantean Ada

Dreadnought Lucien

Dark Depths Ragnir

Brawl of the Week – Brawlball!

3v3 Brawlball

Queue up solo or with a team!

Performance Improvements

We’ve overhauled the way Brawlhalla handles much of the art in the user interface. The goal of these changes are to reduce install size, patch file size, and to provide an overall increase in performance. Below are a list of many of the assets affected by this change.

UI Background

Play, Ranked, Custom, and Offline play options.

Brawl of the Week image

Main Menu Tiles

News Page and Esports Page

Store banners

We are making continued improvements to map file size and performance, starting with a rework of the platform art and some midground elements.

Improved performance and reduced file size for platform art on all maps.

Improved quality of Shipwreck Falls -noskulls map art and optimized file size.

We’ve also optimized the way animation data is handled on the PC client. This change should increase performance and lower the overall memory usage of the game.

PC – Added animation data optimizations to increase performance and lower memory footprint.

Art & Animation

Improved animation so that Legend’s heads better line up with the Valkyrie Horn gadget during its Sidekick summon animation.

Balance

The first balance pass of 2018 is here, and with it we’re adjusting unarmed, a number of weapon kits, and a few signatures that needed a bit of attention. We work actively with our players in The Forge to work on balance, and if you’d like to be a part of the discussion you can join The Forge Discord here.

Unarmed

Unarmed’s Neutral Light has received a bit more recovery time to balance out its fast startup. Down Air and Recovery have had their hitboxes adjusted for better visual consistency.

Unarmed Neutral Light: Increased Recover time on miss from 0 Fixed/9 Variable to 2 Fixed/9 Variable.

Unarmed Down Air: Reduced stacked threat near the rear of the user.

Unarmed Recovery: Area of threat for the later portion of this attack is now focused near the top; the beginning of the attack still maintains its previous area of threat.

Sword

The Sword’s Down Light has received a slightly different form of setup, for more consistent routes into lower height strings and combos. The Down Air has received increased stun to go along with this shift, allowing more variety in combo choice and possible string routes.

Sword Down Light: Decreased vertical knockback.

Sword Down Air: Increased Stun from 15 to 17.

Hammer

We have increased some of the base damage and force on commonly used attacks to afford the user slightly quicker damage build and greater threat on its closer ranged options. While still having weaker combo and string options at stacked range, this slightly closes the gap to help the Hammer feel like a hard-hitting threat.

Hammer Down Light: Increased Damage from 8 to 10.

Hammer Down Air: Increased Force from 50 Fixed/ 43 Variable to 50 Fixed/45 Variable.

Spear

A quality of life shift on the beginning of the Ground Pound now sees the target always knocked horizontally, for more consistent interactions off-stage. Users can now rely on close-range use of the Ground Pound, similar to other weapons, and not risk sending their target in an unintended direction. We have also opened up gaps in attack rotations that use the Side Light, as they could be used rather quickly and result in overly difficult counterplay for too many matchups.

Spear Ground Pound: The first active frame of the attack now has horizontal knockback instead of its previous vertical knockback.

Spear Side Light: Increased Recover time on miss from 0 Fixed/8 Variable to 1 Fixed/10 Variable.

Blasters

Blasters see a minor reduction in damage build on their quick aerial option, the Neutral Air. It still retains its speed and utility, however it was too rewarding of a deterrent when recovering to the stage or when used from the wall.

Blasters Neutral Air: Changed Damage from a range of 18~15 to 16.

Gauntlets

The Gauntlets have had a couple attacks brought in line with other similar options seen from other weapons. The Neutral Light has received decreased damage in accordance with its very fast time to hit and its robust hit window. This will slow the damage build during neutral gameplay and scramble situations. We have also increased the recover time for the manual release of the Ground Pound, making this attack less advantageous and slightly more committal.

Gauntlets Neutral Light: Decreased Damage from 17 to 15.

Gauntlets Ground Pound: Increased Recover time for the manual release version from 2 Fixed/19 Variable to 3 Fixed/19 Variable.

Cannon

Given the slightly overlapping threat area of Cannon’s grounded attacks, along with the combo-starting nature of the Down Light, we have increased the risk of this attack to match the potential reward. This makes the choice of its use more meaningful, especially when compared to the similar threat range and significantly lower advantage of other options like the Side Light.

Cannon Down Light: Increased Recover time on miss from 2 Fixed/10 Variable to 2 Fixed/13 Variable.

Signatures

Several Signatures have received shifts in their risk vs. reward; notably some of the oft-seen staples like Ember Side Katars and Lucien Neutral Katars being reined in on their force and speed, respectively. Lesser used attacks like Ragnir Down Axe and Xull Side Cannon have received increases to their utility, enabling users to more effectively and safely use these Signatures.

Ember Side Katars: Decreased Force from 65 Fixed/53 Variable to 65 Fixed/51 Variable; Decreased Damage from 27 to 25.

Lucien Neutral Katars: Increased Recover time from 12 to 15; Decreased Damage of final hit from 15 to 12.

Ragnir Down Axe: Increased Force from 75 Fixed/49 Variable to 75 Fixed/51 Variable; Increased threat area of the fire breath.

Xull Side Cannon: Decreased Recover time on miss or release from 26 to 23.

Sidra Neutral Sword: Increased Damage from 22 to 24.

New Legend Rotation

This week’s new Legend Rotation features Brynn, Cassidy, Ember, Mordex, Sir Roland, and Xull.

Bug Fixes