Look, it’s a patch notes blog! You know what that means, right? The 3.9 patch is coming. Soon™. A tiny bit of bad news now: we thought we had things fully ready to deliver but sometimes life throws things at you at the 11th hour and plans change. We were targeting yesterday but now we’re hoping to have the content update out sometime between now and September 5th. If something comes up, we’ll let you know.

In the meantime, we’ve got some reading material for you. The change logs are outlined below so take your time and read up! Or, if you’d rather, you can watch the video. Dealer’s choice.

Enjoy!

3.9

System Changes:

Fixed an issue preventing Opener -> Instinct Cancel -> Ultra from working if the move you performed had a non-hitting “landing” (recovery) sequence your character is forced into immediately on hit. Jago Wind Kick.

Fixed an issue that caused damage from some throws to not reset the potential damage healing process as expected.

Fixed an issue that could cause a reset into an opener attack to sometimes have followup manuals be unbreakable.

Fixed an issue that could cause your gravity to get stuck at a lower value if your opponent was hit out of the early frames of a ground-to-air Counter Breaker attempt.

Thunder:

Shortened the window for inputting an Ultimate after starting Thunder’s Ultra to avoid a situation in which the characters could become misaligned.

Sadira:

[Sadira was a very strong character in both Season 1 and Season 2, and throughout Season 3 we tried to increase her fun factor without making her too overwhelming. While we are happy with where her fun factor ended up, we saw the need for her to hit just a bit harder in some key areas in order to help her compete with the current cast.]

Instinct Webs no longer gain a first hit damage bonus.

Instinct Web damage raised 500% (from 2 to 10)

Instinct Webs now deal 1 chip damage (was 0) [These three changes combine to give Sadira much higher damage from webs both upfront and in combos, without the upfront damage being overly high due to the first hit damage bonus.]

[These three changes combine to give Sadira much higher damage from webs both upfront and in combos, without the upfront damage being overly high due to the first hit damage bonus.] Web Cling (Damage) Ender damage increased by 25% [Sadira’s damage ender doesn’t hit much harder than her exchange ender, which gets her better setups, so we amped this one up a bit to make it more worth it]

[Sadira’s damage ender doesn’t hit much harder than her exchange ender, which gets her better setups, so we amped this one up a bit to make it more worth it] Fixed a bug that let Sadira cancel early jump frames into auto doubles and linkers outside of instinct.

Fixed a bug that could cause Lv1 Blade Demon ender to drop in some situations.

Spinal:

[Spinal is difficult to adjust because of how strong his momentum can be. We noticed that many of his bad matchups include strong air priority characters, so we wanted to give him some slightly better ways to handle characters at awkward air angles without buffing his ground game.]

Jumping LP hitbox extended to cover more space above Spinal.

Jumping MP range extended to reach farther away from Spinal.

Jumping MP is now active for 2 additional frames.

Fulgore:

[Fulgore has been pretty difficult to balance. We’ve adjusted his rushdown, his zoning, and his instinct during Season 3 and he is still an extremely powerful character, which shows how tricky it is to find the sweet spot for him. Now that the dust has settled a bit, the team feels confident that Fulgore now has the weaknesses we intended him to have, but on the journey to this spot, we went a little far in a few areas. These buffs will not send Fulgore over the top again, but should help with some small quality of life aspects of his game.]

Raised Energy Bolt damage by 42% (from 7 to 10) [This gives him more zoning damage and more damage on his Energy Bolt into Teleport mixups]

[This gives him more zoning damage and more damage on his Energy Bolt into Teleport mixups] Raised Light Cyber Uppercut damage 33% (from 15 to 20)

Raised Medium Cyber Uppercut damage 16% (from 12 to 14) [Usually, you’d expect the heavy version of a move to do the most damage, but in this case we wanted the reverse. The benefit of the light uppercut is the highest damage and most invulnerability, while the benefit of the heavy version is more potential damage left behind and multiple hits.]

[Usually, you’d expect the heavy version of a move to do the most damage, but in this case we wanted the reverse. The benefit of the light uppercut is the highest damage and most invulnerability, while the benefit of the heavy version is more potential damage left behind and multiple hits.] Light and Medium Eye Lasers can now be Pip Cancelled into Energy Bolts. Heavy Eye Beam still cannot be. [This is a big buff to pip cancels and these versions of Eye Lasers, and as a result, his instinct mode as well.]

[This is a big buff to pip cancels and these versions of Eye Lasers, and as a result, his instinct mode as well.] The minimum reactor spin speed has been increased slightly. It now takes about 10 seconds at the lowest speed to build one pip, instead of 12.5 seconds. [Fulgore’s weakness should be the odd way in which he gains meter. The old instinct mode gave him so much free meter per game that this weakness didn’t matter. Now that we have things functioning the way we want, we feel his default ‘slow’ meter gain is just a hair too low. Over the course of an average match, this should result in 3 to 5 more pips than you used to get.]

TJ Combo:

Reduced the combo breaker window on a successful Tremor by 4 frames. [The tremor moves have one of the largest breakable windows in the game, even after this change. This just tightens it up a bit.]

Kan Ra:

[Another character with a very complex moveset that has proven difficult to balance, especially due to how much he benefits from training mode experimentation. After watching Season 3 Kan-Ra players, we decided that he struggled just a bit too much up close, now that getting closer to him is slightly easier than it was in Season 2. We adjusted some frame data on his close normals that should allow him to fight back without having to always commit to a negative on block special move.]

Standing LK is now 0 on block (was -2) [This is a big change for Kan-Ra, as it lets him use his fastest normal to try to push enemies away from him with much less risk.]

[This is a big change for Kan-Ra, as it lets him use his fastest normal to try to push enemies away from him with much less risk.] Standing LP is now +1 on block (was -2)

Standing LP is now +1 on hit (was -1)

Fixed a bug causing standing LP to deal less hitstun on counterhit than normal

Crouching LP is now -1 on block (was -4)

Crouching LP is now 0 on hit (was -2)

Crouching MK is now -2 on block (was 0)

DownBack + MP range increased [We did a review of the rest of his frame data and attack boxes after changing standing LK to be 0 on block to make sure the rest of them made sense around that change. Slower normals are better on block or have increased range to compensate so you aren’t just pressing standing LK and nothing else.]

[We did a review of the rest of his frame data and attack boxes after changing standing LK to be 0 on block to make sure the rest of them made sense around that change. Slower normals are better on block or have increased range to compensate so you aren’t just pressing standing LK and nothing else.] Wall Splat enders are now +23 (was +13), allowing new combos and setups, and making it easier to land them consistently on different sized opponents. [Some characters could not be thrown before recovering from a Wall Splat, so adding more time fixed this issue and made Kan-Ra’s options off of a Splat more versatile.]

Riptor:

Fixed an issue preventing Riptor from using her run forward or back to avoid Shin Hisako’s Creepy Hands.

Fixed a bug causing the final hit of Shoulder Charge Enders levels 2-4 to add 10 KV.

Fixed a bug causing close standing HP to deal less hitstun on counterhit.

Fixed a bug that caused crouching HP to cause a hard knockdown on juggled opponents.

Aganos:

Fixed an issue that could cause Payload and Ruin enders to fail if a wall already existed at just the right (wrong?) ranges.

Hisako:

Increased the range from which Hisako can trigger an Ultra. [Hisako’s ultra would not trigger off some of her far manuals, so we increased the range at which this is allowed to happen.]

Cinder:

Reduced the PD output of Inferno on block by 20%

Reduced the PD output of Shadow Inferno on block by 22% [Cinder has made great use of the PD/Breaker changes, and is in a good place overall. We wanted to reduce the PD he generates from his Inferno moves a bit to reduce the pressure on his opponents slightly, but we’ve left the PD on his Burnouts the same. He still won’t have any trouble generating Level 4 enders.]

[Cinder has made great use of the PD/Breaker changes, and is in a good place overall. We wanted to reduce the PD he generates from his Inferno moves a bit to reduce the pressure on his opponents slightly, but we’ve left the PD on his Burnouts the same. He still won’t have any trouble generating Level 4 enders.] Increased the range at which Cinder can trigger his Ultra.

Fixed an issue that could cause his throw to whiff its final hit against Mira in the corner.

Fixed an issue that could cause manuals after Pyrobomb explosions in some situations to be unbreakable.

Aria:

[Most players agree that Aria is incredibly strong in Season 3, but because she promotes so many interesting decisions on offense and defense, and because she can often be quite fragile, we didn’t want to adjust any of her most interesting mechanics. In this patch we touched on just one of the moves that seems to cause many characters trouble, while keeping the rest of her very strong gameplan intact.]

Reduced the range of Jumping MK

Reduced how far back Jumping MK pushes Aria

Reduced the blockstun from Jumping MK by 8 frames [This move is a key reason why Aria, in any body, can be extremely frustrating to fight against for a large part of the roster. This change weakens the move just enough that Aria players will need to be more thoughtful about when and where to use it.]

[This move is a key reason why Aria, in any body, can be extremely frustrating to fight against for a large part of the roster. This change weakens the move just enough that Aria players will need to be more thoughtful about when and where to use it.] Both medium auto doubles now last 6 frames longer, making them more similar to the speeds of other medium auto doubles. [People complained for a long time about Aria’s Medium Punch Auto Double being very fast, but her Medium Kick one was just as fast. We’ve slowed them both slightly.]

Shadow Jago:

Dark Fury (Damage) ender damage increased by 20% [The damage on this ender wasn’t much higher than his hard knockdown and exchange enders, which both give him better setups. We’ve increased the damage to make this ender more worth it.]

Rash:

Fixed a bug causing his Exchange Ender to do the damage of his Splat Ender, and his Splat Ender to do the damage of his Exchange Ender. [Rash’s wall splat pressure is very strong, so this bug fix which slightly lowers wall splat damage to its intended value will help players survive the onslaught just a little bit longer.]

[Rash’s wall splat pressure is very strong, so this bug fix which slightly lowers wall splat damage to its intended value will help players survive the onslaught just a little bit longer.] Fixed a bug that could cause the Lv2 and Lv3 Big Bad Boot enders to drop when cancelled late after a light auto double.

Fixed a bug causing auto doubles to fan the flames incorrectly when burned out by Cinder.

Fixed an issue causing Big Bad Boot to deal less damage than expected on counterhit.

Arbiter:

Fixed a bug that caused Arbiter to get cursed when parrying certain status-effect inducing attacks, and could let Jago heal with Instinct Endokukens even if Arbiter parried them.

Fixed a bug that caused the whiff version of Shadow Mercy’s Demise to not spawn its attack box. You may now be able to catch someone trying to jump over this now.

Extended the duration of the force block box on Medium, Heavy, and Shadow Truth Seeker to fix an issue preventing the Random Block option in training from being able to block this move.

Fixed an issue causing Jumping F+HK to push back farther on counterhit than expected, and deal less hitstun than expected.

Fixed an issue causing the counterhit versions of all Gunbutt attacks to deal less damage than expected.

Fixed an issue preventing Arbiter from Shadow Countering projectiles while shielded.

Mira:

[Our main change to Mira this patch has been to slightly adjust her control over the neutral by giving her slightly less access to meter, making decisions on spending meter more important, and making perhaps the best shadow move in the game work in slightly fewer situations. Overall, we are happy with how the rest of Mira’s strong gameplan is meshing with her crucial blood health weakness.]

Reduced the meter gain from Bat projectiles by 23% [It used to take 7 full sets of bats to build a meter, and now it takes 9. Overall this is a pretty minor change, as Mira can simply go in on her opponent to gain meter as needed.]

[It used to take 7 full sets of bats to build a meter, and now it takes 9. Overall this is a pretty minor change, as Mira can simply go in on her opponent to gain meter as needed.] Shadow Bats now starts up in 16 frames (was 12) [This is a bigger change for Mira. Shadow Bats are not a true block string from all the same attacks as before; notably, canceling from medium normals and both medium and heavy Reaping will leave a gap to launch a projectile invincible attack, while light Trephine and all heavy normals work as before. Mira has to take slightly more risks to ensure Shadow Bats will be blocked so she can mix up behind their cover.]

[This is a bigger change for Mira. Shadow Bats are not a true block string from all the same attacks as before; notably, canceling from medium normals and both medium and heavy Reaping will leave a gap to launch a projectile invincible attack, while light Trephine and all heavy normals work as before. Mira has to take slightly more risks to ensure Shadow Bats will be blocked so she can mix up behind their cover.] Standing HP can be cancelled on hit/block 1 frame sooner. [We also moved the cancel window up so it would be a true block string into the new slowed down version of Shadow Bat]

[We also moved the cancel window up so it would be a true block string into the new slowed down version of Shadow Bat] Increased the range at which Mira can trigger her Ultra.

Gargos:

Izzik’s special now does 1 chip per hit (was 0)

Dretch’s special now does 3 chip damage (was 0) [We reduced a lot on Gargos over the last few updates. We felt that the minion special moves doing chip was a good reward for Gargos protecting his minions for a while, which is now harder due to their expanded vulnerable boxes, so we put this back the way it was.]

[We reduced a lot on Gargos over the last few updates. We felt that the minion special moves doing chip was a good reward for Gargos protecting his minions for a while, which is now harder due to their expanded vulnerable boxes, so we put this back the way it was.] Medium Reckoning damage increased by 20% [Adding just a little more reward back to the anti air version of Reckoning will reward Gargos players who have great defense.]

Shin Hisako:

Spirit Orbs will now be destroyed if they go off screen for more than one second. [Shin Hisako’s ability to run away was very powerful against a lot of the cast. This change ensures that when she teleports behind you, it must be pretty quickly after the orb goes off screen, and the farthest she can appear behind you is the screen edge.]

[Shin Hisako’s ability to run away was very powerful against a lot of the cast. This change ensures that when she teleports behind you, it must be pretty quickly after the orb goes off screen, and the farthest she can appear behind you is the screen edge.] Fixed a bug allowing Shin Hisako to cancel out of her Linker Shadow Shin On Ryo Zan after the fourth hit, causing the final fifth hit to not come out.

Increased the range from which Shin Hisako can trigger an Ultra. [Hisako’s ultra would not trigger off some of her far manuals, so we increased the range at which this is allowed to happen.]

Eagle:

All air arrow shots will no longer auto correct to face the opponent.

Hitstun on Lv2 and Special arrows reduced by 2 frames. [This removes his corner Arrow Rain loop.]

[This removes his corner Arrow Rain loop.] Any bird attacks in progress will be cancelled immediately if you input a Counter Breaker or a Shadow Counter. [This removes safe Counter Breaker attempts]

[This removes safe Counter Breaker attempts] You can no longer command the bird while attempting a Shadow Counter. [This, along with the above change, removes safe Shadow Counter attempts]

[This, along with the above change, removes safe Shadow Counter attempts] You can no longer command the bird while teching a throw or having your throw teched. [This removes throw tech punishes]

[This removes throw tech punishes] Added 4 more frames of hitstun on Wingspan’s Surprise Knee followup, making comboing off of this on a grounded opponent more consistent.

Fixed a bug that could cause the charged up arrow state to get stuck and carry over to Rain Shot, Scatter Shot, or Throws.

Fixed a bug causing Air DF+HP Arrow to mess up Eagle’s air momentum if he jumps over his opponent.

Fixed an issue causing Cinder’s flames to fan any time Eagle aimed his bow or released an arrow, instead of just on the initial button press.

Fixed a bug that could cause Bird attacks to not count as openers.

Fixed a bug causing his Shadow Counter to hit on frame 10 instead of the intended frame 8.

Fixed a bug that could cause Eagle to dash away from his opponent using a broken animation when attempting a Counter Breaker from certain frames of his Wingspan Linker.

Fixed a bug causing the bird to go farther away from Eagle than expected when performing Sonic Screech with his back to the corner.

Fixed an issue that could cause a force block hitbox to get stuck on the bird when performing the QCB+3K command to trigger Bird Magnet.

Fixed an issue preventing the player from kara canceling into Shadow Scatter and Shadow Rain when the quiver was empty.

Fixed an issue preventing kara cancels into Shadow Rain from working.

Fixed an issue preventing kara cancels into Shadow Bird Magnet from working.

Fixed a bug causing Sonic Screech to build 3x as much meter as expected.

Fixed a bug that allowed Eagle to perform a linker after a Shadow Slide linker.

Fixed a bug that caused arrow projectiles to inherit to hit properties (stagger, sweep, etc) of Eagle’s whiffed attacks.

Fixed a bug preventing Skyfall from blowing out a combo, which allowed a between rounds infinite loop.

Fixed a bug that could crash the game if Kim Wu reflected Scatter Shot.

Fixed a bug that caused Arrow Fetch and Bird Magnet to remove Aganos Chunks on block.

No Changes:

Jago

Sabrewulf

Glacius

Orchid

Maya

Omen

Kim Wu

Tusk

General RAAM

Eyedol

Kilgore

Oh and don’t forget to stop by the forums and let us know what you think. In the meantime….FIGHT ON!

Discuss: https://forums.ultra-combo.com/t/3-9-patch-notes/22156