In order to achieve this, we replaced the game’s lighting system with a new one that runs much faster and looks much better. We hand-tuned every stage to look as good as possible with this new system. In addition, we use a new method to draw character shadows on the ground. These shadows are now more accurate and run 600% faster than before.

In addition we further optimized CPU usage to reduce occasional frame rate spikes where the CPU suddenly has to do a large task on certain frames. Last patch we reduced this as well and we did even more optimization on that in this patch.

NEW MODE

There’s now a new 1p mode called “Single Match.” You pick your character, the CPU character, then play one game against their AI, then automatically return to character select afterwards.

SEASON RESET

The second pre-launch season has ended. It lasted about 3 months. Your rank is now reset to the lowest possible (bronze E), but you get bonus stars based on your best rank last season. You get one bonus star for each RANK up you achieved. For example, if your best rank last season was Silver C, then you’ll get 7 bonus stars immediately at the start of this new season (the 7 rank ups you achieved were to Bronze D, then C, then B, then A, then Silver E, then Silver D, then Silver C). Also, the crown markers showing which survival modes you beat are reset for this new season.

CHARACTERS

GRAVE

--New sound effects when the air parry super successfully parries, so that’s sounds more exciting. Also, the sounds at the end of this move when the lightning dragon is shown now work better in the case where the move causes a KO.

--Grave’s projectile clouds no longer get too dark on some stages.

JAINA

--Jaina’s back+A kick has 4f less recovery. (Still slightly minus on hit or block.)

--The sounds at the end of a successful ground super now work better in the case where the move causes a KO.

ROOK

--Rook’s C throw armor highlight now correctly turns off when he gets hit during the attempt.

--Added armor to rook’s combo C throw (back+A -> C) to match his regular C throw.

SETSUKI

--Slightly improved shading on several alt colors. The shadows are less dark on bright costumes.

LUM

--Changed the shading on Lum’s fur to remove (possibly weird) shadows on his face. This also much improves the shading on his belly during gameplay, which used to have a large horizontal shading artifact.

--Lum’s walk-in intro no longer has an animation pop at the end where his feet are suddenly in a different place.

--Improved graphics on Lum’s cloud, more cartoony and matches Grave’s clouds.

--When Lum’s coin hits an opponent or the ground, it now blinks as it disappears. (No gameplay change.)

--Fixed a visual bug where Lum’s slot machine would wrongly appear at the top of the screen during the startup cinematic for his ground super.

--Replaced the slot 2 costume with a more interesting looking color set.

MIDORI

--While in dragon form on the 2p side, we think(?) we fixed the issue where sometimes his wings vibrate rapidly for no reason. (This is just a graphic fix, does not affect gameplay.)

ARGAGARG

The following are bug fixes for bugs accidentally introduced in the last update:

--Argagarg's fA can once again punch under an Argagarg blue fish, rather than always lose to it at any range.

--Argagarg's fA can once again punch under a Geiger gear, rather than always lose to it at any range.

--Argagarg's water wave will once again NOT negate Geiger's gear.

MISC

--Fixed the profile screen not showing the "time played" section correctly for a master-ranked player.

--Fixed master rank computation and display, to fix the bug that sometimes multiple master rank players could appear to have exactly the same rank (e.g. two different players each displaying as the 2nd best player overall).

--Player levels over 100 now display a star for each 100 levels, plus a number. For example, 234 now shows two stars + 34.

--Better handling of networking checks when players try to get into the online matchmaking queue. In cases where the server is missing some information from the player, rather than silently fail, as if your button press to get in the queue did nothing, it now tries to get the necessary information to put you in the queue. If it can’t, it now shows a popup error message about what happened.

--Fixed "ghost spectators" that could stick around in your spectator list even after they stopped spectating.

--Raised volume of "Shadow Boss" and "Metal Boss" voice lines in Survival Mode. Also raised the volume of the announcer saying "Draw" a little bit.

--Armor moves (the ones with a blue highlight) now have a special sound effect for the armor.

--Menu sounds now have subtle “whooshes” on the main menu, mode select screen, character select screen, and ladder screen. These are especially for players who have the music off, so that the sound effects are a bit “fuller”.

--Fixed the friends screen showing incorrect dropdown options for a friend that you just added through a friend invite during this session (screen was accessing the "sent request" for the friend request by accident, thinking it was a challenge or watch request).

--Fixed a crash that could happen when very rapidly going back and forth between the main menu and practice mode character select. (Why are you very rapidly doing that over and over?)

--Fixed a crash that triggered when you voluntarily disconnected from an online ranked match.

--There’s now a fade from black when gameplay starts as you enter practice mode and at the beginning of round 1 in all modes. (There already was a fade from black for rounds after round 1.)

--When quitting gameplay and returning to the main menu, the main menu background stage is now the same one as the gameplay stage you were just on, rather than a random one. This allows menu graphics to load faster any time you quit from gameplay to main menu.

--When choosing “change character” and returning to the character select screen, the characters load even faster than before.

--Reduced loading time of the tutorial.

--The story sequences in arcade mode load 10x faster than before.

--In all stages with grass, leaves, plants, etc, those things now slightly sway over time, rather than always being frozen in place.

--New spiffy images for all stages during stage select. (The previous ones were looking pretty old!)