Hey all!

We know you’ve been eagerly awaiting the launch of 3.5, and we are happy to say that the latest Killer Instinct Update will come on November 22nd – just a few short days from now! There are a ton of changes to go over, so we’re going to break these out in to two separate updates. Today you will get notes on Shadow Lords, and Monday (the day before the patch) you will get competitive balance notes. Sound good? Awesome.

As we prepare to dive in to the Shadow Lords portion, allow us to remind everyone of one major change that is coming with 3.5 on Tuesday – Windows 10 PC players will be REQUIRED to be on the Windows 10 Anniversary Update for Killer Instinct to function. For more details on this change, give the following article a read: https://www.ultra-combo.com/ki-november-update-windows-anniversary-required/

Alright, back to business. Let’s dive in to 3.5

High-Level 3.5 Feature Additions

Added Daily Loot Reward System to Main Menu

Added Shadow Missions in Shadow Lords Mode!

Moved Shadow Activity Auto Check from Shadow Lab to during DLC Check

Added Unlockable Shadow Character Skins to Store and Shadow Lab

Updated Shadow Point Tiers

Added new “Top Shadow” Leaderboard

Improved Shadow Lords In-Game functionality to show other players

Streamlined Shadow Lords First Time User Experience

Updated Shadow Lords missions

Updated Shadow Lords character-specific buffs

Added New Guardians (Coming Soon)

Added 11 New Consumables

Added 11 New Artifacts

Full 3.5 Combat Balance Pass

Added New Shadow Lords End-Game Rewards

SHADOW LORDS UPDATE DETAIL

New Shadow Lords Quests

You must defeat Shadow Lords at least once before you can see these quests

Shadowborn

You must complete the Relic Hunt quest before Shadowborn will show. This quest will unlock a 4-part quest line that unlocks new Mission types.

Kan-Ra’s Request

*Editor’s Note* I specifically removed the names of the rest of the quests that were listed here to leave some intrigue as to what they are. Yes, we are referring to this Update as “Eyedol Awakens” for a specific reason.

Character Specific Buffs

The following characters have permanent Artifacts equipped to them:

Tusk

Immortal Spirit – Tusk always returns to War Room gravely injured when defeated *Only Gargos can actually Kill Tusk

Kim Wu

Dragon Spirit – Kim Wu’s Dragon Canon deals 20% more damage

Mira

Vampiric Spirit – Mira’s projectiles drain the opponent’s Instinct meter

Eyedol

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11 New Artifacts

Common:

CorrodedDemonTalisman For 3 Turns: 10% chance to deal Critical Hit damage

MoldyLizardFoot For 3 Turns: Opponent’s attacks drain their own Shadow Meter



Rare:

RustyDemonTalisman For 3 Turns: 15% chance to deal Critical Hit damage

OdorousLizardFoot For 5 Turns: Opponent’s attacks drain their own Shadow Meter



Epic

SuperbScrollOfFocus For 3 Turns: Start Match with 100% Instinct

PristineSpiderTalisman For 3 Turns: Start with Full Shadow Meter

PristineDemonTalisman For 3 Turns: 25% chance to deal Critical Hit damage

EmbalmedLizardFoot For 3 Turns: Opponent’s attacks drain their own Shadow and Instinct Meter



Killer

SuperbScrollOfResurrection Revive member with 50% health

LifeEmber For 3 Turns: Return to War Room gravely injured when defeated in battle

FulgorePlating For 3 Turns: Take No Chip Damage



11 New Consumables

Common:

Adrenaline Stim Alpha MkI 10% increased damage for 15 seconds and generate full Instinct Meter

Adrenaline Stim Beta MkI 10% increased damage and restore 20% health over 15 seconds

MoldyWolfHeart Full Attack Damage On Block for 15 seconds



Rare:

ARES Battle Stim Mk II Shadow Meter Regen for 30 seconds

Adrenaline Stim Alpha MkII 20% increased damage for 15 seconds and generate full Instinct Meter

Adrenaline Stim Beta MkII 20% increased damage and restore 20% health over 15 seconds

OdorousFingernail Immune to Combo Breakers, Melee Damage Increase by 10%



Epic:

Adrenaline Stim Alpha MkIII 30% increased damage for 15 seconds and generate full Instinct Meter

EmbalmedFingernail Immune to Combo Breakers, Melee Damage Increase by 20%

Embalmed Wolf Heart Unblockable and prevents opponent from gaining Shadow Meter for 15 seconds



Killer

FusionTissuePrototype Regenerates Health, Shadow, and Instinct Meter until hit



Updated Consumables and Artifacts

Gibraltar Shield MkIII is now a Rare item

Odorous Wolf Heart is now a Rare item You no longer receive “FREE” Shadow Moves. Instead, Shadow Meter regenerates quickly. This prevents infinite combos from occurring during round end.

Hammer of Sol is now a Rare item

Embalmed Calf Liver is now an Epic item

Elixir of Stoneskin no longer gives “FREE” Shadow Moves. It now regenerates Shadow Meter quickly over time.

Blade of Ritual Sacrifice now reduces Shadow Meter cost by half, but also causes you to very slowly take Potential Damage over time

New Dossiers

Adrenaline Stim Alpha

Fusion Tissue Prototype

Demon Talisman

Lizard Foot

Life Ember

Fulgore Plating

Shadow Lord (Artifact)

Immortal Spirit

Dragon Spirit

Vampiric Spirit

New Shadow Lords Rewards!

Gem rewards are given to the player whether they win or lose versus Boss Gargos in the Match Summary screen. The number of Gems given is based on Playthrough Score.

New End Game Points Mechanic: Defeat Gargos with all Buffs Normal: 50,000 Challenging: 75,000 Godlike: 100,000

Updated End Game rewards to give out New Artifacts and Consumables





3.5 Shadow Lords Balance Tweaks

Boss Gargos

Slightly reduced chances for Minion Summon

Minions no longer attack during Resurrection

Resurrection – Changed the way Resurrection functions per difficulty All difficulties – Reduced Health Regen Speed Normal – Health regen reaches a cap near 60% health instead of 100% Challenging – Health regen caps at 100% Godlike – Health regen caps at 100%. Additional attack performed if full Resurrection occurs.



The intent behind Resurrection is to keep players on their feet and figure out ways to stop him from resurrecting. Since Gargos is in an armored state, the idea is that you use a Heavy Attack to get a free hit off of him, stopping the Resurrection altogether. These changes will give players more time to come up with a strategy that works on easier difficulties.

The new changes also make it possible to slow the process of Resurrection down with something like a Shadow Fireball, which then gives you even more time to land a Heavy Attack.

AI Tweaks

Reduced number of attacks that the AI performs on lower difficulties

Slightly reduced the AI’s chances for blocking attacks, especially after mixups

Fixed an issue that caused Omen to spam crouching attacks from incorrect ranges

Slightly reduced the AI’s chances for performing Combo Breakers in higher mission difficulties This was really something that only affected Omen and Gargos. This was temporarily patched in 3.4.2 but an improved solution was added in 3.5.



There’s still more to go over between now and Tuesday, so keep it locked here for the juicy information. Let us know what you think in the forums, and we’ll catch you later.

FIGHT ON!

Discuss: https://forums.ultra-combo.com/t/3-5-patch-notes-shadow-lords/16191