Hello, Today we have a small update addressing a few additional bugs on Steam. While there have been some small patches for Skullgirls on Steam which have already included some of these changes, the following is a complete list of every combat and gameplay change made since the last version released on other platforms for easy reference. If there are no immediate issues with this build, we will be releasing it on all other platforms as soon as we are able. Of course, if you discover any issues, they can can be reported using the following channels: Discord: https://discord.com/invite/skullgirls Skullheart Forums: https://skullheart.com/ [hr][/hr]

Combat

• Fixed a bug where blocking a hit on the last frame of a Reaction Shot (Push Block) would cause undesired movement.
• Fixed a bug where Beowulf could lose access to throwing his chair as an assist (such as when using Hurting Hurl) if he performed a Blockbuster Ensemble (DHC) before catching his chair from EX Take a Seat.
• Fixed a bug where Beowulf and Cerebella could not perform super jumps using 360 or 270 motions when they had less than the Dramatic Tension (Meter) required to activate their 360 moves.
• Fixed a bug where performing Beowulf's taunt as one character was defeated and as the next one arrived could cause his next EX Grapple Stance moves to deal less damage unexpectedly.
• Black Dahlia's "Tea Slip" (QCB + K when doily is placed)
  • Now has extra recovery when teleporting far away. Extra recovery is between 0F to 11F depending on the distance. The extra recovery does not apply if the opponent is in hitstun.
  • After teleporting to a doily, Black Dahlia has a 4 second cooldown before she can throw another doily with "Tea Time" (QCB + K when doily is not placed)
  • Feathers from her cape will appear at the teleport location. The feathers will vanish when the cooldown period is over.
  • The maximum distance that Black Dahlia can teleport has been reduced to about one screen length instead, down from two screen lengths.

Misc

• Fixed a bug where Annie didn't have any sounds, including voice acting. (PS4 ONLY)
• Fixed a bug where Double's 4th trial combo wasn't able to be completed.
• Fixed various translation issues.

Hello, A small update today to address reports related to spectating since the last patch. [hr][/hr]

Steam Networking Update

• A small additional change to the last update to, hopefully, address issues being experienced when spectating fights.

Hello, This update contains one major upgrade to Skullgirls 2nd Encore's networking on Steam and a small handful of bug fixes. Read on for more details: [hr][/hr]

Steam Networking Update

• The game disconnecting in the middle of gameplay after playing with the opponent for some amount of time. Usually a handful of rounds.
• The game disconnecting in between rounds or when loading into the very first round from the character select screen.
• Other issues where connections cant reliably be established between two players for whatever reason.

BUG FIXES

COMBAT

• Fixed an issue where getting hit on the last frame of Pushblock could result in strange fighter velocities.

MISC

• Fixed an issue where Double's 4th Trial was Incompletable
• Fixed an issue with Umbrella's 1st Trial where the incorrect inputs were being shown
• Fixed an issue with the Diamond Dynamo tutorial in Brazilian Portuguese

Hello everyone! With Combo Breaker 2024 and the 2024 Skullgirls Championship Series concluded, the long awaited balance adjustments update for Skullgirls 2nd Encore is now available on all platforms! This update also includes Valentine's new cross design and other recent updates from the playable Beta on Steam. Check out the full details here: https://bit.ly/skullgirls-may-update At this time, the Skullgirls 2nd Encore beta launch option is also being closed down. We thank everyone for all the feedback they provided during the crucial beta periods! Sincerely, Hidden Variable Studios [hr][/hr] (Version number 3.7.10)

Hello Today's update resolves a small bug for Eliza, and contains some miscellaneous fixes. [hr][/hr]

MISC

• Fixed translation errors for recently updated tutorials.
• Updated the 2D version of Hilgard's Castle (Nightmare) to match the recently updated 3D version.
• Fixed a visual artifact on the floor in the SGCS 2024 stage.
• Added a few more pieces in the Art Gallery with Valentine's new design.

• Fixed a bug where using Crimson Scourge from Eliza form would sometimes have invincibility last too long on Sekhmet.

Hello This morning's update contains some minor bug fixes and tweaks to last nights update. [hr][/hr]

PARASOUL

• Egret Dive no longer has an invisible health bar when taking projectile damage, and will block an unlimited amount of projectiles. (... It was extremely rare to cause the move to end early from projectiles in the past. Now that the dive lasts longer, it is more common to trigger, but was confusing and unpredictable.)

UMBRELLA

• Fixed a bug where Umbrella's new Taunt while used when Starving would not activate if pressing LP before pressing LK.
• Reduced total animation time for Umbrella's new Taunt while Starving.

Hello Today's beta update contains final tweaks and bug fixes to prepare for releasing this balance update on consoles soon. This is likely the final patch for this balance patch cycle. Full update notes will be compiled on our official forums closer to the release date after Combo Breaker 2024. [hr][/hr]

MISC / ALL

• Reduced saturation and improved visibility on Hilgard's Castle Nightmare per player feedback.
• Minimum scaling for starting a combo at max Drama (Undizzy) is now 45% instead of 35%. (... Crossing over into max Undizzy during a combo still immediately scales damage to 55% just as before in Retail)
• Reverted armor damage reduction experiment from last update back to retail values. (... The differentiation is as follows: Armored normals take 100% incoming damage, and armored Special Moves and Blockbusters take 50% of the incoming damage. An exception is being made to Painwheel's Buer Overdrive Blockbuster so that she can reflect the full incoming damage back at attackers. Eliza's cHK and Sekhmet also do not follow these rules as an exception.)
• Fixed a bug where the Drama / Undizzy bar would not update properly in rare occasions when Undizzy switched from a negative value to a positive value if both values had the same absolute value.

BEOWULF

• While without his chair, The Hurting, he no longer takes damage from blocking bursts.
• cMK no longer interacts with projectiles - Ms. Fortune's head no longer blocks the body from being grabbed off the ground by this move.
• Mid-air finishers from Grab Stance no longer apply hitpause to Beowulf when hitting nearby assists. This ensures consistent timing when doing finisher + assist call combos, even if another enemy assist is nearby and struck by a finisher.

BLACK DAHLIA

• Increased delay between the two hits of Ice Shot, making it more advantageous on block and freezing the opponent for a little longer.
• When the first hit of jHK connects against a point character, the second hit will launch assists less high. (... This helps shots fired after jHK connect against the point character instead of having the assist character absorb the blow. Big Band is big (and band) and will likely still block shots from time to time.)

DOUBLE

• Updated all moves that feature Valentine with her new updated design. Impacted moves: cHK, sLK, jMK, Nightmare Legion.

ELIZA

• Fixed a bug where hitting Sekhmet with an outtake would not have her bounce off the wall after the last update.
• Fixed a bug where Squigly's Daisy Pusher would not work correctly after hitting Sekhmet in the last update.
• Fixed a bug where using Eliza's taunt with specific timing could cancel a friendly assist call.

MARIE

• Extended sLK hitbox all the way down to the floor, to prevent it from whiffing against characters on the ground.
• Improved Marie Go 'Round hitbox by extending it downwards towards the floor.
• Improved sMP hitbox by extending it downwards towards the floor.
• Reduced Marie Go 'Round (M) startup by 2F.
• Fixed an issue where Marie was using some old temporary unfinished art when being bounced off the ceiling from Black Dahlia's Buck Shot.

MS. FORTUNE

• Air Throw now properly starts Ms. Fortune off at IPS Stage 3 instead of Stage 2, which was not working correctly last update. This now only occurs if Ms. Fortune has her head removed.

PARASOUL

• Reduce how long the Egret stays on the screen by 13F, when using Egret Dive.

ROBO-FORTUNE

• When Robo-Fortune explodes from Systemic Circuit Breaker, her body double lands 6F faster to ensure she is safe from "PBGC" attempts which were made easier as a result of the Reaction Shot (pushblock) changes.

UMBRELLA

• s.F+HP (Grow) damage reductions: 250x3, 400 200x3, 300
• s.F+HP (Slam) damage reductions: 1100/1400/1700 1100/1250/1500
• Slurp n Slide is now +1 on block when Umbrella is Satiated, down from +2. (... Reminder that Umbrella does not have a buffer to attack as soon as possible after this move ends.)
• When using Tongue Twister or Salt Grinder in the same combo where the Hunger Meter was already raised, these moves deal 20% less damage.
• When performing Taunt while Umbrella is in the Starving state, she will now feed Hungern a snack and enter the Satiated state. (... Unlike other taunts, this taunt cannot be cancelled - it is intentional.)
• The following moves now launch heavier characters higher than before: Bobblin' Bubble, jHP (Overstuffed), Salt Grinder (Overstuffed).
• Reduced the range of the initial command grab hitbox of Tongue Twister.
• Reduced duration (80F 40F) of Wishmaker capture when done while Ravenous.
• Reverted a change where Umbrella would dismount further forwards when doing Slurp n Slide while Ravenous, since it was making some combos harder than intended.
• Fixed a bug where the Satiated version of Slurp n Slide did not receive the damage boost listed in the last update notes.

VALENTINE

• Reverted 4F increase in hitstun on jHK[1] back to retail values.

SGCS Curtain Call's feature the strongest Skullgirls competitors from around the globe. Watch them compete for a trip to Combo Breaker and the Skullgirls World Championship.

• Europe - 12PM US Central Time ( Local: 6PM British Summer Time, 7PM Central European Summer Time, 8PM Eastern European Summer Time)
• South America - 4PM US Central Time (Local: 4PM Colombia/Peru/Ecuador, 5PM Chile, 6PM Argentina)

SGCS Curtain Call's feature the strongest Skullgirls competitors from around the globe. Watch them compete for a trip to Combo Breaker and the Skullgirls World Championship.

• Brasil - 2PM US Central Time (Local: 4PM Brasilia Standard Time)
• North America - 6PM US Central Time (Local: 4PM US Pacific Time, 5PM US Mountain Time, 7PM US Eastern Time)
• East Asia - 10PM US Central Time (Local: 12PM Sunday 5.5.24 Japan Standard Time)

Hello, Today's update includes more tuning and bug fixing, as well as updates to tutorials to reflect some of the latest changes. Note that translations and new text is only in ENGLISH for now - but please let us know if you spot anything missing or incorrect! This is very close to a potential version that could be finalized and released on consoles sometime after COMBO BREAKER 2024 (May 24th). Please let us know if you see issues, bugs, or have feedback about this patch. Bug reports are best left in the #2e-bugs channel of the official Discord: https://discord.gg/skullgirls Feedback is best left on our official forums: https://skullheart.com/ [hr][/hr]

BLACK DAHLIA

• Expanded hurtbox during generic air hitstun (the one that restands) and hitstun from "trip" style attacks.
• Fixed a bug where the visual placement of special ammo during Another Round (M) and (H) didn't align with where the ammo was loaded in a gun.
• Fixed a bug where the second hit from Ice Shot was still breaking armor.
• Fixed a bug where Black Dahlia could cancel into a Special Move while getting hit during the recovery of cMK, and ignore the incoming attack.

CEREBELLA

• Cerebella is now closer to her "origin point" when falling in an knockdown animation.
• Dashing or button dashing from the recovery of j.D+MP now buffers the dash instead of LP.
• Fixed a bug where Diamond Deflector would fail to hit an enemy if the enemy previously armored through a stagger hit (unchained sMP), and hadn't been hit again since.
• Cancelling from Cerecopter into Diamond Dynamo will now only prevent autocorrects if done after the final hit. Dynamo cancels from before the last hit of Cerecopter will autocorrect as before to allow combos that rely on that side switch to work.

MARIE

• Fixed a bug where Hilgard would vanish awkwardly if Marie died and the round was over.
• Using jMK now puts Marie in a super jump state, preventing assist calls.
• Using Hilgard's Haymaker or Hilgard's Howl during a super jump state will now restore less momentum after the summon finishes.
• Adjusted hurtboxes during knockback animation.

MS. FORTUNE

• If hitting with the landing hit of Feral Edge against an opponent behind Ms. Fortune, that hit will now knock the opponent down and in front of her. (... This still doesn't allow for a great combo opportunity, but she does not get punished on hit anymore.)
• After failing to activate the last hit of Feral Edge, or blocking the final hit of it, Ms. Fortune can no longer command her head until the attack ends to make it easier to punish. This also now happens if the enemy blocks the last hit of Cat Scratch Fever when she is headless.
• Landing air throw against an opponent with full Undizzy will now force the combo stage to start at stage 3.

PAINWHEEL

• Reverted collision behaviour on Buer Reaper back to retail. Painwheel has collision when delivering the final blow of Buer Reaper and prevents victims from sliding through her, and she herself can be pushed around. (... The follow-up Buer Reaper hits already have increased hitboxes from last update, so they should still be more reliable at hitting opponents.
• Reduce Buer Reaper bonus metergain from last update from 2% to 1%.
• Hatred Install
  • Minimum scaling for level 1 Blockbusters during Hatred Install is now 37.5% instead of 30%
  • Hatred Install Buer Reaper no longer deals less damage than regular Buer Reaper. It still scales to 50% instead of 70% (like in Retail) when Hatred Install is used as a DHC.
  • Reverted increased Hatred Install recovery back to Retail values.
• jLP is now only 2F faster when done from flight.
• Reduced length of L Buer Reaper hitbox slightly, but it is still longer than Retail.
• Pinion Dash and Buer Overdrive no longer end early when touching the edge of the screen or corner.
• Once per combo, landing Buer Thresher will refresh Painwheel's flight, ensuring that she can always convert off of it even if flight was previously used.

ROBO-FORTUNE

• Fixed a bug where using Danger! Flailing Arm Hazard! (M Danger) would sometimes not stagger if done very low to the ground after using an air normal.
• Fixed a bug where Catastrophe Cannon could not hurt Double while she was transformed into a Barrel.
• Magnetic Trap can no longer pull Double while she is performing the beginning Nightmare Legion.

UMBRELLA

• Reduced hitbox range of cMP while in Ravenous even further.
• Reduced jump distance forward when using d.F+MP (Overbite) during Ravenous.
• d.F+MP (Overbite) start up increased in Ravenous: 16F 17F
• Salt Grinder and Hungern Rush now have physical hits that increase Hunger Meter when used against Boss Marie, so that she doesn't get stuck in the Starving state against her.

Hello, Today's beta update includes balance changes, Valentine's new cross redesign, and fixes for an ancient defect with character lighting. UPDATE: A new patch (3.7.5) has been released after these update notes were initially posted. This patch includes a few bug fixes, which are as follows:

• Fixed a bug where Umbrella's puddles would vanish instantly in some circumstances.
• Fixed a bug where Umbrella's jLK and jLP could not be buffered during prejump.
• Fixed a bug where Lenny could still hit assist characters after they leave hitstun (during their landing frames) which was not intended.
• Fixed a bug where Hatred Install had extra recovery even when used as a point character.

VALENTINE

CHARACTER LIGHTING

HUD

MULTIPLE CHARACTERS / SYSTEM

• When using a burst against a combo that started at max Drama (Undizzy), it is no longer guaranteed to be safe and invincible during the recovery, and it can be baited. However, Undizzy is preserved and does not drain when bursting in this situation, but will drain when being punished since it is a Counter Hit state. (... Instead of there being zero risk for the defender to take the burst in this situation, the burst can be baited per usual with reduced reward.)
• We've standardized armor damage reduction so everyone consistently takes 100% of incoming damage instead of reducing it. Big Band, Cerebella, Fukua, and Marie now take 100% damage during their armor moves - Umbrella, Robo-Fortune, Painwheel, and Beowulf already took 100% damage. Eliza's cHK still takes 50% against projectiles, and Sekhmet takes 75% damage, both as intentional edge case exceptions.
• Adjusted some "OTG" hurtboxes for characters to make it less likely for low hitting attacks to slip under them. This impacts Ms. Fortune, Robo-Fortune, Filia, and Fukua.

UMBRELLA

• Umbrella can now cancel jMK into any normal on whiff (if floating) or contact, just like her sister Parasoul.
• Fixed a bug where Tongue Twister only added 15 Drama (Undizzy) instead of the usual 20 from Special Moves.
• Extended cMP hurtbox. Reduced hitbox range in Ravenous.
• Overstuffed sHP armor now starts 3F later than before.
• Increased Tongue Twister hitbox to make it easier to hit airborne targets without spending OTG. (... It also ends up being tall enough to destroy Peacock's sHP and BANG BANG BANG! (H) projectiles now.)
• When using Retina Reflector in Ravenous, it now has 2 extra hits and lasts longer, like in retail.
• Overstuffed Damage Tuning:
  • Hungern Rush: Reduced damage from 800/800 to 500/600. Adjusted knockdown on the final hit to require OTG to continue a combo.
  • sMP (2nd Hit): 500 400
  • Bobblin' Bubble: 700 600
  • Salt Grinder: 1100 1000
  • jMP: 850 750
  • jHP: 1100 1000
  • cHP (2nd Hit): 750 650
• Bobblin' Bubble Damage (Satiated): 600 650
• Slurp n Slide damage (Satiated): 650 750
• Slurp n Slide damage (Satiated, puddle boosted): 750 900
• In Satiated, Slurp n Slide is now +2 on block again instead of -2.
• In Ravenous, Slurp n Slide dismounts with more speed forwards.
• Ravenous can now use bubble Special Moves (Cutie Ptooie, Bobblin' Bubble, Wish Maker), but with worse properties.
• Overstuffed no longer loses Hunger Meter for using bubble Special Moves, or using Under The Weather. (... Entering Overstuffed now requires that you commit to playing the mode in neutral for a short while instead of immediately exiting it by using Bubbles.)
• Increased Satiated and Overstuffed Hunger Meter drain over time.
• When entering Satiated or Overstuffed in a combo from an "eating" type move, Hunger Meter will continue to drain instead of freezing for that combo, at a reduced drain rate.
• When using "eating" type moves in Ravenous, Hunger Meter will fill a little over halfway into the Satiated section, instead of at the max of the Satiated section. (... This last two changes should make it a little bit easier to stay in the bottom half of the Hunger Meter if desired, for more Ravenous opportunities.)

PAINWHEEL

• Adjusted almost every hitbox Painwheel has to bring them in line with more recent characters. Many are simplified, and some attacks have more range than before. Adjusted attacks are as follows:
  • sLP, sLP, cMP, cLK, cLP, cMK, sHK[1], sHP, jMK. Death Crawl.
  • s.F+HK (each hit has more range than the last, to ensure all blades connect easier)
  • sMP (improved hitbox, but also reduced hurtbox height before active to help anti air)
• Buer Thresher (QCF+KK) has a larger hitbox for the first active frame. (... This is the hitbox that is covered by hitstop, making it post flash unblockable if you were not already blocking, and preventing reversals from coming out immediately. Buer Thresher is now much less likely to get Painwheel immediately countered by reversals and such and must be respected more than before.)
• Buer Reaper
  • Increased size of the physical hit performed at the end of Buer Reaper, to ensure it hits characters when assists are nearby and trying to block Painwheel.
  • Painwheel is no longer pushed around by nearby characters when delivering the ending hit of Buer Reaper, to prevent her from being pushed out of range.
  • (L): Reduced recovery by 5F on whiff/block, and increased blockstun by 1F.
  • (All Buer except L): Reduced recovery on whiff/block by 4F.
  • (L): Extended hitbox range.
  • (H): Removed extended hurtboxes before active frames, making it a much better anti air.
  • When using Buer Reaper, Painwheel now gains an extra 2% meter, like most throw type moves.
• cMK now pivots forward to help connect from longer cLK ranges.
• cLK: Reduced startup by 1F.
• sLK: Startup reduced to 7F, giving her a 7F normal like every other character.
• sMP: Startup reduced by 1F.
• jLP: Startup reduced by 2F. Hitstun and blockstun increased by 2F to maintain frame advantage. (... This also hastens her fastest possible overheads from Flight.)
• jHP: Reduced knockback vs airborne opponents to prevent victim from falling out between hits. Hitstun on the last hit increased by 3F.
• cMP now pulls the victim down for all hits except the final one. (... Last hit still knocks them up and away, so cancel before it if you want to stabilize a ground confirm. This mostly prevents them from falling out unexpectedly in between two hits.)
• When using fully charged Hatred Guard normals, armor has been extended one frame to fully protect her from potential trades. (... This was an intended change made several updates ago before this current beta cycle, but it wasn't working correctly without this.)
• Reduced startup of Gae Bolga Stinger (L) by 3F.
• When using Pinion Dash (L) as a Stunt Double (Alpha Counter), it is now a knockdown hit. (... Previously she was +1 right against the opponent, which is a bit awkward for her with her slow buttons and lack of movement.)
• Hatred Install (QCB+KK)
  • When used as a DHC, Buer Reaper hits deal 10% less damage, and scales to 50% instead of 70%.
  • Level 1 Blockbusters no longer scale to 55% during Hatred Install, and now scale to 30%.
  • Increased recovery by 8F when used as a DHC.
  • Increased damage per hit on Death Crawl during Hatred Install to match the regular version of Death Crawl (220).
  • When used while Painwheel is the point character, she has an additional 3 seconds (216F) of uptime regardless of health, but cannot exceed the old max duration of 1300F.
• Accidental Flight:
  • Adjusted air Buer Reaper inputs so that ending in an upwards input when inputting the QCF motion doesn't extend the window the motion can be entered. This was causing situations where the same QCB used to input Flight (autocorrecting towards the opponent) could be used to trigger air Buer Reaper on button release (negative edge) giving an unintended Buer Reaper input.
  • Painwheel will now never turn around to auto correct when using jLK. If super jumping past the opponent, pressing LK early could cause her to perform an autocorrect jLK, which then turned a QCB into a QCF and performed Buer Reaper. From now on, you can use jLK as your button to input flight and ensure this never happens. Of course, jLK no longer autocorrects, but hopefully that is alright!

VALENTINE

• Fixed a bug where the last hit of EKG Flatliner would not play the finisher effect right away if the last hit killed an opponent.

FUKUA

• Inevitable Snuggle and Tender Embrace now grant Dramatic Tension (meter) for whiffing them, like all other Special Moves.
• Holding Forever a Clone (Shadows) now drains health again, but does not drain red life.
• When Shadows successfully hit a character, Fukua heals for the amount of health that they drained.
• Successful hits from Love Dart now heal Fukua up to 200 health, from health that has been removed from holding Shadows.
• When Fukua heals, she now briefly glows.
• The amount of life that Fukua restores (from recoverable Shadow drain life) when using certain has been increased.
  • Twice Shy: 55% 100%
  • Inevitable Snuggle: 33% 75%
  • Taunt: 20% 50%
• Hitting, or being hit by an Outtake (Snapback) will now remove all potential recoverable health from drained Shadows.

BIG BAND

• When using the following Big Band assist options, the first portion (31F) of his assist taunt is now a Counter Hit state. Note, this doesn't extend the recovery of any of his assists or change them functionally, it only extends the duration of the window where you can counter call or attack the assist and still benefit from bonus counter hit damage.
  • Take The 'A' Train (M and H strength)
  • Beat Extend (All strengths)
  • Brass Knuckles (H strength)
• Previously, when Big Band caught an assist with Beat Extend, the assist would drop to the ground sooner than the point character to make it trickier to combo both at the same time. This has been adjusted further in this update.
  • Assists drop 4F sooner than before.
  • Assists drop with more velocity towards the ground than before.

ANNIE

• Reduced Crescent Cut (H) start up by 2F.

PEACOCK

• Argus Agony pellet damage increased. Max damage increased from 1350 1440.
• Lonesome Lenny no longer has a hit when placed that interacts with assist characters. Instead, Lenny's explosion will never hit airborne assists that are recovering from hitstun. (... These changes have always been aimed at removing a particular reset against assists with Lenny, and this is a different approach at that.)

PARASOUL

• sLP: Increase hitstun on both hits by 3F.
• s.F+LP: Increase hitbox height to match the animation.
• Extended ground throw hitbox slightly.
• Inferno Brigade (QCB+PP): Now pulls victims down into the barrage of bullets if they are too high above Parasoul.
• Egret Dive jumps further and is active for longer. When landing, he recovers and exits the screen faster than before.
• Egret Charge
  • Speed (before grabbing) increased from 30 to 31. This makes him fast enough to grab Big Band miscreen from most Egret Charge combos.
  • Reduced period (20F 17F) where the Egret will continue with the grab even if Parasoul gets hit during the start up.
  • Fixed a bug where the grab would scale to 50% instead of the intended 55%.

MARIE

• Extended hurtbox downwards during knock up frames, to ensure Double's Beast of Gehenna grabs her correctly after Robo-Fortune's magnetic trap.
• Adjusted physical collision during "OTG" frames to prevent some characters from being able to slide under her.
• Hilgard's Haymaker (L) no longer scales follow-up damage to 70%.
• Increased taunt recovery by 10F.
• The Dust Bunny spawned from Hop To It no longer jumps infinitely if Marie has taunted. It now jumps a maximum of 3 times.
• Adjusted Marie's ground throw against Black Dahlia to ensure Marie Go 'Round connects without spending OTG in the corner.

BLACK DAHLIA

• Fixed a bug where Parting Gift could sometimes not be detonated if it fell off of an assist character that died while on the stage.
• cMK
  • Now triggers shortly after the point character enters hitstun.
  • If hitting a character after the point has entered hitstun, damage scaling is set to 50% to lower the reward of the follow-up combo.
  • Reduced hitstun by 5F.
  • No longer teleports characters to the position of the trap
• Empower no longer can hit characters that are dead.
• Ice Shot is now two hits, has tweaked damage and chip damage, and no longer breaks armor.
• Rail Shot now breaks armor and has had hitstop on successful hit increased by 8F.
• Order Up! (H) now places special shots in the 3rd and 5th position of her gun, instead of 3rd and 6th.
• Order Up! (M) now places the special shot in the 2nd position of her gun, instead of the 3rd.

CEREBELLA

• Fixed a bug introduced last update that made jHP no longer hit overhead in some situations even after gliding.

DOUBLE

• Fixed a bug where the projectile hits from jHK could allow the opponent to burst even if first hit connected below 240 Drama (Undizzy).

ELIZA

• Reduced crouching height so that she can duck Robo-Fortune's Theonite Beam (H). She's now the same height as Black Dahlia when crouching.

Hello, Today's update features a new debug feature for those using debug replays, and continued balance changes for characters. In case you missed it, our last update featured a large rework for Umbrella. You can read the update notes for that update here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/245170/view/7817760904371395868 EDIT: A small update was released to resolve an issue with Umbrella's Overstuffed Tongue Twister. The version number is now 3.7.3. [hr][/hr]

DEBUG REPLAYS

• Everything below assumes you are using the debug launch option command: -enablereplays
• Added a new debug feature, "Replay Takeover", which can be used to temporarily take over controls for a character when watching a replay. You can use this feature to test how to escape or win against certain situations that are difficult to recreate in training mode, use it to test if there was a better combo or conversion you could have done, and more!
• Press SELECT to activate Replay Takeover and assume control of P1 for 10 seconds. You can take over P2 by holding RIGHT as you press Select.
• After a brief pause, the replay will continue and your inputs will control the character you have selected.
• Pressing SELECT will jump back to the point where you started Replay Takeover. This also occurs if the match ends while Replay Takeover is active.
• Holding SELECT will end Replay Takeover and carry on as normal.
• As a refresher, here are the controls available in replays: (... Apologies, at this time we don't have availability to update replays with proper UI.)
  • LP: Toggle Hitboxes
  • MP: Toggle Health & Attack Data Display (Currently bugged, will be fixed next update)
  • HP: Rewind time (Hold LEFT to rewind even further)
  • LK: Toggle Input Display
  • MK: Toggle Slow Motion (See also: -debugkeys launch option to advance frame by frame)
  • HK: Fast forward (Hold RIGHT to fast forward faster)
• While we'll try and address any critical bugs found with this feature, our time spent supporting this feature will be limited. Please let us know if you find any issues in our official Discord, in the #2e-bugs channel.

UMBRELLA

• Reduced Ravenous Hunger Meter drain by 40%.
• Overstuffed Hunger Meter drain now matches Ravenous' new value.
• Ravenous and Overstuffed drain at half speed when the opponent is in hitstun.
• Ravenous and Overstuffed drain at half speed when Umbrella is in hitstun or blockstun.
• Hunger Meter no longer drains during a "Double Snap" or "Assist Kill" situation.
• In Ravenous, df+MP (Overbite) jumps much further towards the opponent.
• df+MP (Overbite) now carries momentum before the jump happens, if used while moving forwards.
• cMP in Ravenous is now a low again. (... In Ravenous, cMP is a low again and df+MP has extended range. Between these options and a surprise Tongue Twister, she should be threatening from further away.)
• Slurp n Slide (Back, Forward + MP) no longer activates if holding Down + Forward at the end, to avoid overlap with df+MP (Overbite).
• Hungern Rush and Salt Grinder no longer increase the Hunger Meter when used as an assist. (... Tongue Twister still does, for now)
• Tongue Twister is never a command grab when used as an assist, and can always be blocked.
• Tweaked launch trajectory of Overstuffed Hungern Rush to leave the victim closer to Umbrella. As an assist, the second hit launches victims less high.
• Fixed a bug where using punch normals would drain Umbrella's Hunger Meter faster, which was supposed to be removed last update.
• If Umbrella is struck with an Outtake, all bubbles summoned from Under The Weather (QCB+KK) will pop immediately.
• Fixed a bug where Overstuffed Tongue Twister didn't apply forced damage scaling when used as an assist.
• Fixed a bug where Umbrella wasn't using the proper reversal window timings out of blockstun and hitstun.

ROBO-FORTUNE

• Tweaked the beginning frames of Robo-Fortune's normal jump animation so that she doesn't tuck into a ball the moment she leaves the ground. This is the same change Ms. Fortune received.
• Reduced active frames on cMK by 6.

PEACOCK

• Removed extra recovery when placing Lonesome Lenny which was not working correctly most of the time last patch.
• The red flash on Lonesome Lenny before he is about to explode now starts earlier.

ELIZA

• Sekhmet's JH (Signature Attack, AKA "Cartouche") now avoids the extra landing recovery from last update if it successfully hits the point character.

CEREBELLA

• Fixed a bug where jD+MP (Unbreakable Elbow) had more start up than intended from the last update.

Hello, Today's update focuses on bug fixing and tuning from the last update, and introducing a fairly substantial "rework" for Umbrella. [hr][/hr]

SYSTEM

• Fixed a bug where characters would take no chip damage during the last frame of a Pushblock, and attackers would behave as if the hit did not connect. (... This fixes a bug where Umbrella connecting with Slurp n Slide on this frame would have her slide much longer than she should have, for example)
• Fixed a bug where Pushblocking in between two attacks before hitstop for the first hit ended would prevent the Pushblock from happening. Pushblocking during these scenarios should feel drastically more responsive. (... This happens most commonly when pushblocking in between a point character hit, and a secondary hit from a projectile or an assist.) (... Please let us know if you see any weirdness or issues with pushblocking and report them to us in our official Discord in the #2e-bugs channel, thank you!)
• When assists counter hit another assist, damage scaling will be set to 90% on them instead of the new 70% to ensure "counter calls" are as damaging as before.

UMBRELLA

• Umbrella's "eating" assists (Tongue Twister, Salt Grinder, Hungern Rush) will now raise the Hunger Meter on success, which is a change in behaviour that may not be desired.
• Tongue Twister, when in Overstuffed, does not apply any scaling when used as an assist.
• It is difficult to predict where Umbrella's damage and routing will take her after all of these changes. Please expect damage tuning depending on how things shake out.

• Umbrella's Hunger Meter drains during most actions now instead of freezing momentarily during Special Moves, Normals, etc.
• Umbrella's Hunger Meter no longer drains faster for landing hits with "punch" (Hungern) normal attacks.
• Tweaked Hunger Meter loss rate in different Hunger States individually. In Satiated, it is drastically faster than before for example.
• Hunger Meter no longer drains naturally over time in any combo where it increased. Landing Salt Grinder for example will halt all Hunger Meter drain for the rest of the combo.
• Hunger Meter will also freeze when a combo starts if Umbrella is in the Overstuffed state.
• Creating Bubbles with Cutie Ptooie, Bobblin' Bubble, Wish Maker, no longer drains Hunger Meter, except when used during the Overstuffed state.
• Under The Weather no longer drains Hunger Meter unless it's used in Overstuffed.
• Umbrella can now transition from Overstuffed into Satiated during a combo, instead of needing to wait for it to end.
• Increased how much Hunger Meter is lost from taunting, and shortened the minimum time that Umbrella must perform her taunt before being able to stop. (... To drain Hunger Meter quickly, you'll have to taunt instead of looping Bobblin' Bubble like before.)
• Ground Throw and Air Throw no longer adjust Hunger Meter.
• Major eating moves (Salt Grinder, Hungern Rush, Tongue Twister, and Feeding Time [LV3]) all force Umbrella up one single Hunger State on success, regardless of chews, chomps, etc. (... In Starving or Ravenous, she will always become Satiated. In Satiated, she will become Overstuffed. We're doing this to force Umbrella to commit to cashing out and changing Hunger States when the Hunger Meter is low.)
• When using Cutie Ptooie (QCB+LK), the butterfly can no longer be spared or eaten manually by holding LK, and it no longer adjusts Hunger Meter. (... With the removal of being able to eat the butterfly to fill the Hunger Meter, entering the Starving state is very bad news for Umbrella. When enjoying the benefits of playing in the Ravenous state for a prolonged time, Umbrella will need to keep a close eye on how much time she has left before she must land a "eating" style move to prevent the Starving state. Note that as before, the Ravenous state will not enter the Starving state during a combo, so take your time once you've landed a hit! We may add another method of gaining Hunger Meter during the Starving state if needed, but for now we're trying to introduce an element of risk and urgency.)

• In Ravenous, Under The Weather performs an underwhelming version.
• In Ravenous, Retina Reflector is no longer improved with an extra two hits.
• Changed Blockbuster inputs:
  • Retina Reflector: Contact Lens is now QCF + PP.
  • Retina Reflect is now QCF + KK.
  • Under The Weather is now QCB + KK.

• Added a new normal, down forward + MP, called "Overbite". This is an overhead that can be used in every state. It's faster in Ravenous, and slower in Starving and Overstuffed. (... We're giving Umbrella an overhead to increase her consistency and power level across all Hunger States without relying on being in Ravenous to open the opponent up.)
• Slurp n Slide is now -2 on block when done in Satiated. (... We're delegating Slurp n Slide pressure on block exclusively to Ravenous, since Ravenous has lost other tools and is mostly about sticking close to the opponent.)
• Ground Throw has been adjusted to only chomp the opponent once, and then trap them inside of a bubble much like Air Throw. Ground Throw damage has been adjusted.
• Tongue Twister
  • Is now only a command grab for a single frame when used up close. After that, it is a hitgrab.
  • After victims bounce off the wall, you can combo opponents easily off the ground when the land. (... You can use this in combos now and confirms for far away hits, and it can still catch people by surprise just as before. However, it is no longer a command grab at those ranges, so it can be blocked and should be a bit less frustrating to deal with. She can now perform combos afterwards without using Retina Reflector in exchange for these changes.)
  • Reduced damage and number of chomps based on Hunger State. Chomps are now automatic instead of requiring LP+LK presses.
  • Reduced the speed that the tongue retracts, increasing recovery if it was stretched far away.
  • Adjusted hitbox.
  • If used for the second time in a combo, the opponent will become invincible and the combo will end.
  • Fixed a bug where the wall bounce hit applied an extra hit of damage scaling despite doing no damage. Damage scaling is now properly 55%.
• Set priority of taunt input above Salt Grinder.
• Increased Salt Grinder active frames by 1F, and expanded hitbox.
• When Starving, Umbrella's red life now drains faster than before.
• jMP: Reduced hitbox size in all states.
• cHP: Start up of the second hit is reduced by 1F if the first hit whiffs, to help it connect after far cMP hits.
• sHK
  • Improved hitbox.
  • Increased start up by 2F.
  • Landing recovery on failure is now fully vulnerable.
  • Damage increased: 975 1200.
  • Doing it a second time in a combo performs a worse version.
• sLK: Now slides forward slightly, and has a slightly larger hitbox.
• cMK: Added vulnerable hurtboxes under her while she jumps, and removed throw invincibility.
• cLK: Increased hurtbox height, and reduced hitstun.
• Air Throw: Reduced hitbox horizontal reach.
• Hungern Rush: Reduced start up in all hunger states, except for Starving.
• Adjusted stagger hurtboxes to be closer to idle.
• Increased hurtbox size during some air hitstun and air knockdown states so that she is easier to combo.

• Bubble creating moves (Cutie Ptooie, Bobblin' Bubble, Wishmaker) no longer work in Ravenous.
• Hungern Rush is now fully invincible (instead of strike invincible) when in the Ravenous state.
• Hungern Rush is no longer unblockable while rising (when Umbrella is the point character) unless she is in Ravenous mode.
• Dash forward, dash backwards, and dash jump are now faster in Ravenous.
• Reduced Feeding Time (LV3) damage in Starving and Ravenous from 6750 6000.
• cMP: In Ravenous, this is no longer a low hit.
• jMP: In Ravenous, now starts up slower than before. (... Instant jMP in Ravenous no longer reaches crouching characters after these changes)

• In Overstuffed, sHP now has armor that starts up a little bit into the move.
• Fixed a bug where the wall bounce hit of sHP (Overstuffed) applied an extra hit of damage scaling despite doing no damage.
• Salt Grinder, when Overstuffed, now performs a powerful damaging bite that staggers, instead of a throw type hit.
• Hungern Rush, when Overstuffed, now starts up faster, and now hits again on the way down with a powerful knock up hit. This can be cancelled into Blockbuster on HIT only.
• Tongue Twister, when Overstuffed, now pulls the victim towards Umbrella and trips them, instead of eating them. (... The trick is that while this hit does not do any damage, it doesn't force any combo scaling, giving Umbrella some scary combo damage from a command grab when she's up close.)
• Adjusted all Overstuffed normals:
  • They are now much faster than before, and are only two frames slower than their Satiated versions. (Exceptions exist on sHP and jMP which are still slower than 2F, but still faster than before.)
  • Reduced hitpause on almost all hits, to speed up the general flow of attacks and combos.
  • Fixed a bug where sF+HP was not any slower in Starving or Overstuffed.
  • Reduced jMP damage: 950 850.
  • Reduced jHP damage: 1200 1100.
  • jHP jumps less high and falls faster.

MS. FORTUNE

• Adjusted jLK hitbox enough to hit all crouching characters in the corner when done from a headless instant air dash.
• Decap attack damage 100 > 200. (... This alone increases Ms. Fortune's headless corner combo damage quite a bit.)
• sHK (headless) damage: 950 975.
• Feline Allergies cooldown reduced from 80F to 60F. (50F in retail).
• Head lockout from hitstun: 60 35. (15F in retail).
• Cat Scratch metergain (head on) per whiffed swipe: 1.5% 1%.
• Cat Scratch metergain (head on) per swipe contact: 4%/3%/2% 3.5%/2.5%/1.5%.
• El Gato and Cat Slide when cancelled from Cat Scratch (head on) have reduced metergain for whiffing (1%) and reduced metergain for making contact (2.5%).

CEREBELLA

• jD+MP (Unbreakable Elbow) no longer floor bounces when done as an instant overhead, but now always starts in "IPS Combo Stage 1", and it now has a 5F buffer into light normals after it finishes to help with confirms.
• Pummel Horse now leaves Cerebella a bit closer to the victim, to help with some confirms on some characters.

ELIZA

• Sekhmet Axe (air) damage: 900 1000.
• Sekhmet jump: Reduced start up 6F 4F (back to retail values).
• Sekhmet landing: 6F recovery 7F recovery.
• Sekhem Rebound (backflip) is no longer impacted by extra landing recovery, the frame data on this should be back to retail values.

ANNIE

• Increased air hitstun hurtbox size to make it easier to combo Annie.
• Adjusted knockdown on the star spawned from charged sHP, in Star Power.
• Reduced blockstun on large stars summoned during Star Power.

BLACK DAHLIA

• Lowered the position of Dahlia during her air knockback hitstun animation to fix some combos not working against her.

PEACOCK

• Lonesome Lenny
  • Lenny now flashes colors right before he is about to explode.
  • Fixed a bug where Peacock could not DHC out from this move in some situations which was introduced last update.
  • Lenny now hits assists further away with a different type of a knockdown. (... It should be a bit harder to call an assist as you place Lenny down to continue a combo on two characters at once.)
  • Lenny now always has increased start up and recovery when being placed. This is the same frame data from the last update when Lenny was placed after BANG! (M).
  • If using Lenny from BANG! (M) on successful hit, it uses the old placement and recovery speed from retail to allow for the old BANG! (M) x Lonesome Lenny, Argus Agony conversions.
• George now properly flashes on Mac and Linux systems if Peacock is hit while they're out.
• Adjust how long it takes for George to explode if Peacock goes into hitstun.
  • L: 60 50.
  • M: 15 12.
  • H: 20 15.

Hello, A small patch to address two outstanding issues that have been reported by the community. If you are still experiencing the issues described below, you can report bugs in our official Discord or on our official forums. Discord: https://discord.com/invite/skullgirls Skullheart Forums: https://skullheart.com/ [hr][/hr] ACHIEVEMENTS

• Fixed an issue preventing the Toil and Trouble achievement from triggering.

• Further performance optimizations for some new graphical effects that were implemented in the last update.

Hello, Today we are continuing with some experimental balance changes for the cast. This is just the first update of many, and more system / character changes should be expected. Characters that have gotten changes may still receive more of them later. Characters that have no changes are most likely still being worked on, such as Black Dahlia, Umbrella, Painwheel, etc. While we do our best to monitor all hot spots of discussion around character balance, the best place to discuss these changes where we can see them is our official forum. Feedback in Discord and Steam Forums / Comments for example are seldom checked. Bug reports are welcome in the official Discord and our forum! Discord: discord.gg/skullgirls Skullheart: https://skullheart.com/ [hr][/hr]

SYSTEM / ALL

• Counter hit assist calls now scale combo damage to 75%, instead of the 90% in retail. (... Most notably, this slightly reduces the reward off DP assist calls and requires a cleaner hit for characters to reach their max damage potential.)
• Starting a combo on a character that has 240 Drama (Undizzy) or higher will now scale the combo damage immediately to 35%. (Hits against opponents at entering or starting at 240+ Undizzy continues to scale to 55% just as it does in previous versions)
• When using a Burst to escape a combo that started at 240 or higher Undizzy, that Burst will be forced to a Super Gold Burst. (... Super Gold Burst is the one denoted by gold Burst sparks, which keeps all of your Undizzy on activation, and can not be punished. Currently it triggers when a Burstable combo goes on for longer than 90F, or when activating a Burst against a throw that started a new chain... that one! It doesn't have a name, so let's try Super Gold Burst?) (... Carrying on the tradition of adding more layers to IPS and Undizzy systems when they are not protecting players effectively, we are stepping in and stopping sluggish, long, looping combos at 240+ Undizzy that end in a Burst Bait / Throw (back into itself) in a pretty heavy handed way. Consider a different strategy that is more "two player" and interesting for players and spectators.)
• Fixed a bug where characters could perform a dash out of punch normal assists when they were used as a Stunt Double.
• Fixed a bug where the OTG bounce color on sliding knockdown would sometimes show a red bounce ring instead of a blue bounce ring.

ANNIE

• Star Cancel is input now LP + LK instead of LP + LK + One other button, in addition to the existing 3K and 3P inputs. This should be easier to trigger with all input devices.
• Star Cancel can no longer be done unless Annie is attacking.
• Star Cancel can no longer be done for the first handful of frames of LP and LK normals to prevent accidental use.
• Increased cHK slide recovery (without making contact) by 7F.
• Reduced hitstun on jMP against airborne opponents only by 2F.
• Reverted most damage nerfs, new damage values compared against RETAIL are as follows:
  • cHP: 1200 1000.
  • sfHP: 1300 1200.
  • Destruction Pillar [H]: 1100 1000.
  • Meteor Strike: Forced 50% scaling on DHC still, from last patch.
  • Star Power damage from stars on normals is increased to old values. 550 for jHP, 650 for others.
• Added VO to the Star Power version of Re Entry.

BIG BAND

• Tympany Drive
  • The very first hitbox frame has been shrunk, for a single frame. (... This is the frame that is post flash unblockable if you were not already blocking before the Blockbuster started.)
  • The two landing frames from Tympany after Big Band blocks are now in a counter hit state, and tracked by frame data display in training mode. (... It's now more obvious if the move was punished or not, and using the counter hit bonus is more reliable.)
  • Reduced blockstun of the looping hits before the final hit.
  • Added 6F of extra recovery to the move if it was blocked. (... Up close, Tympany is now -19. Previously, Tympany could be made safe by hitting with the last active frames of one of the looping hits before the final hit, since the looping hits had significantly higher blockstun. Using this strategy is still possible, but it will only be -14 now at best on block.)
• Noise Cancel (Parry)
  • Parry window (tap): 17 15.
  • Parry window (hold): 12 10.
  • Parry window (leaving hitstun, blockstun, wakeup, etc, tap): 18 16.

CEREBELLA

• Unbreakable Elbow (jD+MP)
  • Fixed a bug where pressing down + MP on the exact frame Cerebella left the ground from a jump would cause jMP to start instead of jD+MP.
  • When jD+MP is performed as an instant overhead after leaving the ground, it will now floor bounce for a combo that is easy to convert from, which doesn't use OTG. (... In place of the often discussed JHP overhead conversion, jD+MP is becoming a more powerful overhead instead as a compromise.)
• jHP: Now an overhead if done after a glide of any length, or if done while not ascending.
• jHP: Increased max glide speed by 20%.
• jHP: Increased momentum Cerebella keeps after gliding by 50%.
• If Cerecopter successfully touches the enemy point character, cancelling into Diamond Dynamo will never autocorrect to avoid Cerebella turning around unintentionally and getting punished for it. Does not apply on whiff or when hitting assists.

ROBO-FORTUNE

• H Beam: As an assist, it can only do a maximum of 4 hits (the amount of hits it does when far away) regardless of her range to the opponent.
• H Beam: Increased recovery as an assist by 26F.
• Magnetic Trap is no longer unblockable while rising when done as a DHC.

ELIZA

• Eliza can now use Crimson Scourge without being in Sekhmet form, after performing her taunt, Scarlet Ladies. Most notably, this gives her a powerful DHC option that allows for combos afterward.
• Crimson Scourge no longer drains life or creates blood droplets if it connects with a character that has no life.
• Taunt (Scarlet Ladies) no longer pulls in nearby blood droplets.
• Osiris Spiral [M] now pulls in blood droplets, using her old taunt behaviour.
• Throne of Isis now performs a red bounce instead of a blue bounce, allowing OTG pickups.
• Sekhmet
  • Sekhmet can now be counter hit out of attacks if she is hit with an armor breaking move. She will take bonus damage, and lose Drama (Undizzy) appropriately.
  • Increase Sekhmet jump landing recovery by 6F.
  • Increase Sekhmet jump / super jump startup by 2F.
  • If Sekhmet sH (Axe) is blocked by the point character, Sekhmet can no longer use Sekhem Rebound (backflip) even if it hit an assist or some other object like Lenny.
  • Adjusted jM damage: 1000 900.
  • Adjusted sH damage: 1100 900.

DOUBLE

• Catellite Lives (Cat Heads):
  • Reduced knock up on forward advancing hits.
  • Increased hitstun by 2F. (... Both of these changes combined should make it much less likely for the victim to fall out of the hits for longer range Catellite Lives confirms.)
• Flesh Step projectile invincibility starts 3F earlier, and it now builds a small amount of meter like every other special move on whiff.
• Hornet Bomber [L]: Increased height of the physical collision box, and hitbox, during the first hit of the move. (... This move should be more consistent about hitting opponents right in front of Double and less likely to whiff or pass over the opponent in awkward ways.)
• Luger Replica
  • L: Knockback against air reduced to 11, from 12. (Leaves victim closer)
  • L: Knockup against air increased from 12 to 12.5. (... These values are half way between the older versions of Luger, and the last version of Luger live in retail, for context.)
  • M: Increase blockstun by 4F.
  • H: Decrease blockstun by 2F. (... M Luger is now +0 on block like H Luger was before, and H Luger is now -2 on block. The powerful combo starting bullet ends Double's turn more consistently, and the lower reward bullet can be spaced to be plus if she is playing her range effectively.)

FILIA

• cMK: Adjust pattern of alternating between push back and vacuuming, such that the final hit is now the vacuum hit.
• Increased the landing DHC window after Fenrir Drive by 3F, to make it a little easier to get the full damage off this Blockbuster without accidentally missing the DHC window.

FUKUA

• Forever a Clone (QCB+K) no longer drains Fukua's health while she is holding her shadow. (... We'll start with this experiment for now and see if we need more changes at a later date.)

MS. FORTUNE

• Adjusted Ms. Fortune's normal jump animation. Her feet are now stretched downwards for a handful of frames (like almost every other character) after she leaves the ground, to prevent her from tucking into a tiny ball on the very first frame prejump is completed.
• Adjusted Cat Scratch (QCF+P) metergain for whiffing each strike, when the head is on: 2.5%x3 1.5%x3.
• Adjusted Cat Scratch (QCF+P) metergain per swipe: 5%/5%/5% 4%/3%/2%
• Head
  • When Ms. Fortune's head is struck with a light attack and Decap Attack triggers, it will launch the opponent less high, and has 2F less hitpause on contact, compared to M and H normals. (... With this, head loops should be effectively removed, and headless Decap Attack pressure with cLK, etc, is slightly less powerful on block.)
  • Fixed a bug where Feline Allergies (Sneeze) could be used shortly after Ms. Fortune was in hitstun.
  • When Ms. Fortune goes into hitstun, the head immediately goes into hitstun even if it was performing or recovering from an attack. This does not apply to Sneeze once it has started. (... This notably removes the ability for Ms. Fortune to trade with the opponent while also hitting her own head, and getting a full combo off the Decap Attack trade.)
  • Increased head lockout time on Feline Allergies from 50F to 85F.
  • Increased head lockout time when hit by opponent non-projectile attacks from 15F to 60F.
  • When Ms. Fortune's head is near the camera edge or corner, the hurtbox will be wider. This only applies when it's idling, on cooldown, or being hit. (... This should make it easier to hit the head with moves like cLK when it's right under and behind you, and it is easier to lock the head repeatedly.)
  • OMNOMNOM now triggers a blue bounce instead of a red bounce, preventing OTG follow ups.
• Damage Tuning:
  • Headless sHK: 1050 950
  • Head on sHP: 1000 975
  • Airborne El Gato: 900/1000/1100 800/950/1000
  • Grounded El Gato (From Cat Scratch / Headless): 1100 975
  • Final Cat Scratch Hit: 950/1100/1250 800/900/1000
  • Decap Attack: 300 100
• Fiber Upper
  • All versions are now only strike invincible when the head is on, and fully vulnerable when the head is off.
  • Added 2F of extra recovery to M Fiber Upper, and 4F of extra recovery to H Fiber Upper.
  • Adjusted pushback on block.
  • On whiff only, Ms. Fortune must wait an additional 2F to jump away from M Fiber, and 4F to jump away from H Fiber.
• Cat Strike (Head Bowl)
  • Increased invincibility by 1F to prevent it from trading.
  • Increased the window for the head to stagger the opponent, fixing issues where the first hit would connect but the second hit wouldn't stagger.
  • Lowered the hitbox height for the initial strike to make it easier to evade by jumping.
  • Forces 75% scaling.
• jLK
  • Adjusted hitbox to have a smaller hit region directly under her.
  • Can no longer hit cross up in any circumstances.
  • Increased recovery by 4F.
  • Is now a mid while rising, instead of overhead.
• sLP
  • Added two frames of recovery
  • Added a hurtbox to match the hit region during active frames.
  • Reduced range of the hitbox slightly.

VALENTINE

• Fixed a bug where Acquisitive Prescription (counter time stop) against Sekhmet would not revert Sekhmet to Eliza form when Sekhmet was hit afterwards.
• All versions of Savage Bypass (Air) will now produce a hitbox for at least one frame, improving consistency and ensuring the move always hits when opponents are nearby. (... This does allow for new routes, especially in the corner, and may require damage adjustments.)
• cHP
  • Increased physical extent height to prevent Valentine from sliding under airborne opponents and whiffing.
  • cHP will no longer move Valentine forwards if the opponent is right next to her.
  • Slightly extended the top of the hitbox backwards. (... We're sacrificing some of Valentine's niche cross under resets with cHP to make the move more consistent and a better anti-air.)
• cLK: Increase hitstun by 1F to make it combo into the second hit of cMK, in the event the first hit of cMK whiffs.
• cMK: Second hit now vacuums back towards Valentine.
• cMP: Reduced startup by 2F.
• jHK: Increase hitstun on the first hit by 4F.
• jLP: When performed from a backdash cancelled into air dash (BDAD), it now has a taller physical collision box to prevent her from crossing over the opponent, much like Filia's jLK.
• sMP: The first slash downwards now pulls opponents down further.
• sMP: Increased hitstun on the first slash, and the follow-up sawing hits slightly, to prevent unlucky cancel timings into other moves uncomboing.
• Added 4F of hitstop (up from 0) to the final hit of EKG Flatliner so that there's a longer window to perform a DHC on the final hit without performing an unintended side switch.
• Extended the hitbox of Forbidden Procedure backwards a little bit so it's possible to revive every character when they are dead in the corner if Valentine's back is to the corpse.
• Vial Hazard Type C, AKA: Orange Vial.
  • Input delay values per level are reduced - Lv1/2/3: 4/6/9 3/5/7 frames of delay respectively.
  • The level 3 version now goes away if Valentine is hit at all, and no longer requires her to be hit with a Blockbuster.
  • The level 1 and 2 version now go away if Valentine blocks a hit. (... We are giving Valentine some reasonable buffs and "QoL" while reducing the effectiveness of looping Orange Vial on victims. If a victim under the effects of input delay manages to fight back against Valentine while she's in control of the situation, they are rewarded for their bravery more than before.)

PEACOCK

• Added a new intro! You can force it to happen by holding two punches or two kicks during the fight loading screen.
• Victims gain more meter from blocking or being hit with Peacock's projectiles, equivalent to how Robo-Fortune's lasers work. This impacts Item Drop, Georges, and BANG! BANG! BANG! (H).
• Reduce damage of Argus Agony bullets: 180 150. Max damage 1530 1350.
• Reduce block advantage on cHK by 3F.
• Shadow of Impending Doom will lose its hitbox if Peacock goes into hitstun, to prevent it from trading in her favor long after she is hit.
• Georges
  • Reduce advantage of L George by 2F on block. Now -4 on block.
  • If Peacock is hit with a physical attack (non projectile), all active George bombs will begin to blink and count down to an automatic explosion. (NOTE: There is a known issue where the blinking is not visible on Mac and Linux - we're working on it!) The time it takes for each type of George to explode varies and is as follows:
  • L: 60F.
  • M: 15F. (... Due to the speed at which Boxcar George travels, this still may be too long...)
  • H: 20F.
  • If George hits an opponent after these timers have started, it will force 50% combo scaling. (... Using George early to cover Peacock has always been a huge part of her defensive game, and using George to force a trade or making the opponent back off is still possible even after these changes, but when this does happen, the reward has been reduced in the form of forced scaling. Calling a M/H George a single frame before going into hitstun however will no longer save her, and L George will no longer walk across the entire stage to interrupt a combo. Let's experiment with these changes and see if this is a reasonable middle ground.)
• BANG! (M)
  • Now has 8F of extra recovery in any situation where it does not successfully hit the enemy point character.
  • Reduced blockstun by 3F.
  • Now pulls the victim towards her if they block it while grounded.
  • Reduced the length of the hitbox slightly.
  • Increased Peacock's hurtbox after active frames so it's slightly easier to punish her. (... These changes, combined with the Lenny frame data changes when done from M Bang described below, should make this definitively unsafe as other DP type moves. No more awkwardly hitting them with the tip of the sword and having it be awkward to punish, no more whiffing M Bang and doing another one if they aren't in position to whiff punish, no more cancelling into Lenny at will to reduce the risk, etc. The powerful zoner needs to commit to her reversal, and if it doesn't work, she should be punished, full stop.)
• Lonesome Lenny
  (... After reading discussion, we opted to give Lenny numerous adjustments while still keeping it a level 1, rather than leaving it as is and making it a level 2.)
  • Damage: 3800 2750.
  • Chip: 800 600.
  • Lenny will hit nearby assist characters and push them away when placed, forcing them to drop out of the combo in most situations.
  • No longer deals any bonus damage on counter hit.
  • Reduced how far forward Lenny moves when hit by allied attacks and projectiles by 15%.
  • Peacock now builds zero meter while Lenny is out and she is the point character.
  • Peacock has more startup when the move is canceled into from BANG! (M).
  • Peacock has more recovery when the move is used as a DHC or when cancelled into from BANG! (M).

Today's update is a small patch to address a few issues on Steam since Marie's full release. If you are still experiencing the issues described below, you can report bugs in our official Discord or on our official forums. Discord: https://discord.com/invite/skullgirls Skullheart Forums: https://skullheart.com/ [hr][/hr] ACHIEVEMENTS

• Fixed an issue where achievements were not unlocking for Steam.
• Verified achievements should be re-triggerable.
  • Most achievements track progress in the game's save file. Doing the action associated with the achievement should prompt it to unlock if the criteria have been met. EG: If you should have "The Kitchen Sink" achievement unlocked, hitting an opponent with Peacock's "Shadow of Impending Doom" once should retrigger the achievement.
  • Some achievements don't track progress in the save data and must be completed again. We apologize for the inconvenience.

• A specific situation with legacy Steam DLC could cause Story VO not to play. This issue has been fixed.

• Optimized performance for some new graphical effects that were implemented in the last update. Even further optimizations are arriving in one of our next updates.

Hey everyone, It has been a LONG road, but the final character of the Season 1 Pass is finally here. Marie makes her grand official release simultaneously on all systems TODAY Tuesday 26th March! Read on for the full details of this release, including features that were previously only available in the Beta builds on Steam, and updates on the remaining contents of the Season 1 Pass. [hr][/hr]

MARIE

• NEW STAGES

  
  The Skullgirl herself arrives with not one, but TWO new stages!
  Hilgards Castle is the former home of Marie, but its once majestic walls have crumbled and been overtaken by nature.
  The Nightmare version of the stage reimagines the stage in unsettling shades and is haunted by the ghosts of Maries past.

• NEW MUSIC TRACKS

  
  Each of the new stages comes with their own music. Hilgards Castle is accompanied by All That Remains, and the Nightmare stage wails with the guitars of All That Endures Both tracks were composed by Darren Malley and can be listened to on our Youtube channel.

• STORY MODE

  
  The impossible has happened: the Skull Heart has been destroyed while Marie has been spared. Where will Marie's new lease on (un)life lead...?

• PALETTES

  
  A maid of Maries high standards cant just have one outfit - she comes with 29 color palettes!

• TUTORIALS/TRIALS

  
  Become a master of the undead in Maries personalized tutorials & combo trials.

SEASON ONE PASS EXCLUSIVES

• ALTERNATE "GOTH MARIE" VOICE PACK

  
  Let the bodies hit the floor with this exclusive alternate voice pack!

• SEASON ONE BONUS PALETTE

  
  An extra bonus palette is available for Season One Pass holders.

OTHER CHANGES

• NEW PALETTES

  
  
  New palettes first introduced in Skullgirls Mobile have been added to 2nd Encore with this update! Double, Robo-Fortune, Cerebella, Squigly, Parasoul, Filia, Annie, Umbrella, Ms. Fortune, Peacock, Valentine, and Beowulf all get new colors.

• STAGE UPDATES

  
  
  Over the years many stages have been added to 2nd Encore, including alternate versions of existing stages. To make it easier to scroll through the full stage list, stages that share the same music but with slight visual differences are now selectable by pressing UP or DOWN on the stage selection screen.
  Speaking of alternate stages, to celebrate the launch of the Skullgirls Championship Series 2024, a new stage has been added! Additionally the stage "SGCS Arena (2021)" can no longer be rolled when using RANDOM to select a stage. You can still select it manually by going to the NMO Arena Stage and using the new Up/Down buttons.

• NEW SOVIET ANNOUNCER VOICE PACK

  
  As a replacement for a voice pack that was removed last summer, enjoy a brand new Soviet Announcer voice pack by none other than the voice of the TF2 Heavy himself - Gary Schwartz!

• SOUNDTRACK AND DIGITAL ART COMPENDIUM

  
  The Soundtrack has been updated with the new track "All That Endures", from Hilgards Castle (Nightmare). You can get the soundtrack here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1542600/ The Digital Art Compendium has also been updated with all of Maries thousands of animation frames, concept art and other production art. We recently made the Compendium completely free if you own Skullgirls 2nd Encore on Steam, so download your copy today! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1549100/

COMBAT

• Added new visual effects to "Push Block Guard Cancels" to indicate when a PBGC window is possible, and when it is successfully activated. Watch out for the green shield flash here:
  
• Fixed a bug where some characters were not using idle hurtboxes during landing frames. The following characters are impacted: Beowulf, Big Band, Eliza, Annie, and Umbrella.
• Updated VFX for Valentine's Vial Hazard special move to now use different art for the three debuff types.
  
• Adjusted visual effects and lighting when characters are impacted by palette adjusting VFX, such as Parasoul's fire effect, Annie's galaxy space dust effect, Robo-Fortune's electrification effect, Black Dahlia's freeze effect, etc, to no longer be impacted by stage lighting conditions. Flickering lights involved with these effects should be less distracting.
• Integrated some previously unused voice lines for old characters when fighting against Marie, both for her boss form and her playable form.
• Fixed a bug where Black Dahlia would not flinch like other characters when being hit during some throw attacks, like Cerebella's Pummel Horse.

MISC

• Added a new section to the Art Gallery for Marie, with new unlockable art.
• When declining a match in Quick Match, or recently finishing a match with a player, you will no longer match with that player again for a few minutes.
• Kicked players can no longer rejoin the lobby that they are kicked from.
• Adjusted the position of the timer on character select when playing online, to prevent it from covering up Marie's newly added square.

THE FUTURE

ADDITIONAL VO

• ANNIE ALTERNATE VOICE PACK (English)
• SEASON PASS CHARACTER STORY MODE VO (English)
• SEASON PASS CHARACTER COMBAT VO (Japanese)

FREE SGM PALETTES

BALANCE PATCH

NEW FEATURES / CONTENT / CHARACTERS

SKULLGIRLS CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

LIVE EVENTS & GIVEAWAYS

Today's update is a very small patch to address an issue regarding online spectating on Steam. If you feel you are still experiencing this particular issue, you can report bugs in our official Discord, or our official forum in the Marie section. Discord: https://discord.com/invite/skullgirls Skullheart Forums: https://skullheart.com/ [hr][/hr] SPECTATING

• Fixed an issue where spectating online would sometimes disconnect abruptly before a match ended.

To ring in the new year, were excited to share these FREE gifts for everyone in the community! NEW SOVIET ANNOUNCER VOICE PACK As a replacement for a voice pack that was removed last summer, enjoy a brand new Soviet Announcer voice pack by none other than the voice of the TF2 Heavy himself - Gary Schwartz! The new announcer pack is now available in both versions of Skullgirls 2nd Encore available on Steam (Retail & Marie Alpha), and will be coming to console platforms with Maries full release. NEW PALETTES Many of you have seen some of these palettes in Skullgirls Mobile, now you can enjoy them in Skullgirls 2nd Encore! The new palettes are in both versions* of the game on Steam (Retail & Marie Alpha), and will be coming to console platforms with Maries full release.
* For now, the new Double and Filia palettes will only be available in the Marie Alpha due to technical limitations. NEW STAGE - SKULLGIRLS CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES 2024 In celebration of the Skullgirls Championship Series starting up again in 2024, the NMO Arena is now gilded in gold! Try out this new stage first in the Marie Alpha build along with a small update to the stage selection system - stages that share the same music are now grouped in the stage selector, and you can press UP and DOWN to select from different variants of the same stage.

DIGITAL ART COMPENDIUM Many players (including those who purchased the Season Pass on other platforms) have asked us about how they can get access to the DAC. We've decided to make the Digital Art Compendium on Steam FREE for all players! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1549100/Skullgirls_Digital_Art_Compendium/ (Note: You must own a copy of Skullgirls 2nd Encore on Steam to access the Art Compendium.) Thanks so much once again for an amazing 2023 we cant wait to reveal everything we have in store in 2024 and beyond! Heres to a new year of Skullgirls from all of us at Hidden Variable and Future Club! The full update notes with other changes can be found below: UPDATE NOTES:

3.5.16 (Retail)
• Added a total of 10 new palettes across multiple characters.
• Added new Soviet Announcer voice pack.
3.5.17 (Beta)
• Added a total of 12 new palettes across multiple characters.
• Added new Soviet Announcer voice pack.
• Added Maries Tutorials and Trials (English Only).
• Added the new SGCS 2024 Stage.
• Added a new Lobby Title for Black Dahlia.
• Added a new Lobby Title for Marie.
• The Hilgard Castle stage now has different variants for the animals and weather present.
• Stage Selection Sets
  • Updated stage select to now support stage sets.
  • Stages in the same set are now accessible using up/down inputs.
  • Stages in sets are identifiable by up/down arrows around the stage name.
  • The following stages are impacted: NMO Arena, SGCS Arena (2024), Evo Arena, SGCS Arena (2021), Little Innsmouth, Little Innsmouth (Night), Lab 8, Lab 8 (Empty), Grand Cathedral, Grand Cathedral (Night).
• Updated the look of the PBGC visuals that hint when a PBGC is possible.
• Characters now flash green again when performing a successful PBGC.
• Fixed a bug where Annie's Star Power music wasn't playing on activation.
• Fixed a bug where Annie's Gravity Crash still required 1 bar of Dramatic Tension to activate mid air.
• Fixed a bug where some characters were not using idle hurtboxes during landing frames. The following characters are impacted: Beowulf, Big Band, Eliza, Annie, and Umbrella.
• Marie
  • Hilgard's Haymaker now has higher priority than Hop To It, if inputting QCF + LP/MK, etc.
  • Fixed a bug where Marie's intros that were not the piano intro were not playing.
  • Increase Suction Obstruction (whiff) recovery by 4F.
  • Reduced Marie Go 'Round armor hits from 2 to 1.
  • Repetitive Skeleton Impact provides better protection from "while rising" unblockables after being avoided.
  • Reduced damage by 50 on the following moves: jMP, sMP, Marie Go 'Round (H), sMK, sLK, sHK, jMK, cLK, cHP.
  • Reduced cHK damage from 1100 to 1000.
  • Reduced Hilgard Haymaker damage from 700/950/1200, to 650/850/1000.
  • Hilgard Haymaker now forces a minimum of 70% damage scaling on hit.
  • Hop To It
    • Reduced number of hits from 9 to 7.
    • Reduced initial launch distance from Marie's vacuum on the M and H strengths.
    • The bunny jumps less far.

This update addresses 2 bugs in the Marie Early Access Release [hr][/hr] MARIE DLC

• We addressed an issue where Marie was not properly unlocking for users who purchased Marie's individual DLC.

• Updated Annie's command list to better reflect Star Power changes.

Hey everyone, Marie is now entering her Early Access phase! This is a huge development milestone as it means she is on the final road to full completion. Heres a preview of what to expect below:

• MARIE
  • Skullgirls 2nd Encore - Early Access
  • Skullgirls 2nd Encore - Full Release
  • Skullgirls 2nd Encore - Story Updates
• VFX & CHARACTER ADJUSTMENTS

MARIE

SKULLGIRLS 2ND ENCORE - EARLY ACCESS

Pre-Alpha: Work is being done on the character, but is not fit for public release. Alpha: The character is now publicly playable in an Alpha build on Steam, though they are still unfinished. Probably missing lots of animations, sound design, etc. Early Access: The character is now mostly complete, but still needs final balance tuning and other polish. Full Release: The character is fully complete, including all additional features like their Story Mode.

HOW COMPLETE IS MARIE?

HOW DO I SELECT MARIE?

SKULLGIRLS 2ND ENCORE - FULL RELEASE

• Marie will be fully complete!
• Maries new Stage(s?) will be fully complete with final music.
• A brand new story mode for Marie.
• Final Marie balance pass.
• A full set of 30+ palettes.
• Character tutorials.
• A new alternate voice pack.

SKULLGIRLS 2ND ENCORE - STORY MODE UPDATES

VFX + CHARACTER ADJUSTMENTS

• Fixed a bug introduced in the last update where "Suction Obstruction" command throw (QCF+LP+LK) was starting a combo at IPS stage 3 instead of stage 2.
• Fixed a bug where Marie's Air Throw would start a combo at IPS stage 1 instead of IPS stage 2.
• Marie Go 'Round [H] no longer reduces damage and removes the stagger opportunity when used more than once in a combo. This allows Marie to perform a grounded Marie Go 'Round [H] and stagger even if the airborne version connected in the same combo. You can still only stagger an opponent once per combo, per global rules.
• Reduce active frames of "Weight of our Will" (QCB+PP) when landing and exploding.
• Tweaked hurtbox during falling hitstun frames to make Double's Cilia Slide routes (and other combos) slightly more consistent on her.

• Crescent Cut
  • The projectile will now end if Annie is interrupted before the attack goes active. After the attack is active, it will still trade and stick around even if Annie is hit.
  • Crescent Cut [L] adjusted from +0 to -1 on block, point blank.
  • Crescent Cut [M] adjusted from +4 to +2 on block, point blank.
  • Crescent Cut [H] start up increased by 6F. (... We're lowering the effectiveness of throwing out a Crescent Cut while near the opponent in a variety of situations, and lowering the odds of Annie receiving an extremely favorable trade. For H Crescent, we're electing to only adjust the start up of it to keep it just as effective as a neutral and approach tool as she chases behind it.)
• Star Power
  • Star Power now costs 3 meter to activate.
  • Star Power now works off a timer instead of draining Annie's meter to perform attacks. Metergain is reduced to 33% during Star Power. When Annie performs a move that is boosted by Star Power (summoning a star or performing a boosted Special Move), it drains a large chunk of her remaining Star Power time. Annie's rainbow shadow silhouette effect will shrink and pulse faster as time runs out. Similar to Painwheel, Star Power will not run out of time if Annie is performing a combo, for now.
  • While in Star Power, and only once, Annie can perform a new move, "Star Cancel", to cancel an attack at any point and quickly enter an idle state. This can be triggered by simultaneously pressing three punches, or three kicks, or LP + LK plus one other button.
  • Star Power activation no longer ends super freeze early when used as a DHC, making it considerably safer and easier to DHC into.
  • Annie can now use all of her other previously disabled Blockbusters (Sagan Beam, Meteor Right, etc) during Star Power.
  • Star Power deactivation, "Gravity Collapse" knocks up higher than before, and no longer costs any meter to use while Annie is the point character. Using it as a DHC costs one bar.
  • Annie's normals no longer produce stars by default. All heavy attacks (except cHK) can be charged to summon stars by holding HP or HK. Charging adds extra start up to the attack.
  • Adjusted various visual effects related to Star Power and stars.
  • cHK will always cause a red bounce instead of a blue bounce if Annie is in Star Power.
  • The following Special Moves have new properties:
    • Crescent Cut [H] hits three times, and will not vanish even if Annie is hit out of the start up.
    • North Knuckle [H] follow-up slam deals bonus damage, hitpause, and will wall bounce the opponent.
    • Re Entry performs a new type of kick that starts faster, travels faster, hits overhead, and performs a hit on landing.
    • Destruction Pillar can be used in the air, and will always knock down even when used for the second time in a combo. Destruction Pillar (ground and air) will not drain any additional time off Annie's remaining Star Power timer.
  • Photo Bop can now be used at any time, for 5 meter. The input has been changed back to the older version, using the same input as her taunt but with two punches instead of one.
  • Photo Bop deals slightly more damage, and has an added camera flash that deals a hit.
• Other
  • Adjusted hurtbox on cLP.
  • Destruction Pillar
    • When blocked as an assist, Annie will stop moving forward to ensure she lands in front of the opponent instead of behind them.
    • Once Annie is airborne, the hitbox size is reduced, similar to Filia. Initial hitboxes unchanged.
  • Damage Tuning
    • cHP: 1200 1000
    • cLP: 300, 300 150, 150
    • jHP: 875 750
    • jMP: 250x4 180x4
    • fHP: 1300 1100
    • sHK: 950 750
    • sMK: 400, 500 400, 300
    • sLK: 200, 200, 300 100, 100, 200
    • sLP: 300, 300 300, 200
    • Destruction Pillar [H]: 1100 1000
    • Meteor Strike: When used as a DHC, scaling is set to 50% instead of 70%.
  • If Annie has used all three of her Re Entry kicks in a combo and is airborne when the combo resets, her next Re Entry kick will be the first one, instead of the worse version that prevents combos.
  • Tweaked palette 7 and 30 rainbow colors to be consistent with all other Annie palettes.
  • Tweaked star colors on all palettes.

Today's update is primarily focused on an Mac bug fix with a few other small bugs being addressed as well. [hr][/hr] MAC CRASH FIX

We have found and addressed the issue caused by the macOS version increase in the last update. Users experiencing crashes on older versions of macOS (v12 and older) should now be able to play Skullgirls 2nd Encore again. We appreciate your patience as we investigated the issue.

• Hilgard, when spawned from Hilgard's Haymaker, spawns a little closer to Big Band, to prevent some unintended drops, such as cHP Hilgard's Haymaker [L] using OTG against him.
• Hilgard, when spawned from Hilgard's Haymaker, has a maximum distance he can spawn from Marie, to prevent some situations where he would appear too far behind.
• Fixed a bug where Dust Bunny could activate Undizzy in the middle of its hits in some edge cases.

• Fixed a rendering issue with ASG Lab's when playing with Big Band with 2D Backgrounds enabled.

Today's update focuses on a Mac requirement update and Marie combat bug fixes. [hr][/hr] Mac OSX Required Version Increase

As of October 31st, 2023, Apple requires us to update some of our tools used to build the Mac OSX version of the game. This has resulted in us needing to increase the minimum Mac OSX version required to run Skullgirls 2nd Encore from 10.9 (Mavericks) to 10.13 (High Sierra). Since 10.13 (High Sierra) is the lowest version supported by Steam as of September 2023, we are hopeful this change will not make the game unplayable for any current Mac OSX users. If you experience any new bugs on Mac OSX as a result of this, please report them in our official Discord or Forums. Thank you! Discord: https://discord.com/invite/skullgirls Skullheart Forums: https://skullheart.com/

• Suction Obstruction (QCF+LP+LK) when used to start a chain at max Undizzy now triggers a burst.
• Reduced Carpel Pummel (QCF+PP) damage from 2500 to 2000.
• Reduced Repetitive Skeleton Impact (QCF+KK) base damage from 800 to 650. (As before, each new slam adds an additional 100 damage than the last.)
• Reduced Air Throw recovery on whiff.
• Fixed a bug where Dust Bunny (QCF+P) would add wrong (15) Undizzy amounts and activate Undizzy in incorrect situations.
• Hilgard's Haymaker
  • Fixed numerous bugs where Hilgard could not be defeated if attacked (with or without armor) during the end of his punch from Hilgard's Haymaker.
  • Hilgard spawns further backwards if Marie is close to the opponent, and the distance Marie has to be to the opponent to be considered "close" is more lenient now. After performing a sHP or jHP that make contact, he spawns even further backwards.
  • Hilgard continues falling towards the floor more reliably even when performing an airborne punch.
  • Hilgard slows down from his charge towards the opponent more reliably now if he's in range to punch.
  • Hilgard retains a bit more of follow-through momentum when punching.
  • Hilgard will spawn further backwards if there is a wall in front of Marie.
• Tag In
  • Marie now travels faster while riding the vacuum.
  • Marie now has to wait a little longer before she can manually dismount early (press P or K) from the tag in.
  • Fixed a bug where Marie could go off camera with tag in some cases.
  • Marie dismounts earlier than before if she approaches the stage edge while riding.
• Tweaked VFX on Marie Go 'Round [H] (QCB+HP) to be larger and easier to see.
• cLP (first hit only) blockstun reduced by 1F, increased recovery by 2F.
• Fixed a bug where Hilgard could follow Marie's position and float up with her if she cancelled quickly into Weight of our Will after he appears.
• Removed screen darkening effect from Weight of our Will (QCB+PP).
• Fixed skeleton voice lines getting cut off when Marie blocks hits or performs a pushblock.
• Made numerous improvements to the flow of how Hilgard performs his win pose, and fixed a bug where he could fly away off screen during it.
• Fixed an issue where Marie could cancel into a Blockbuster on the frame she is hit with an armor breaking move, when using Marie Go 'Round [H].
• Fixed a bug where Air Throw wouldn't kill opponents unless the first three hits did enough damage to kill.
• Adjusted crouching hurtboxes during idle, block, and hitstun to be slightly larger. (Ms. Fortune's sHP x L Fiber confirm is now universal again)
• Fixed a bug where Marie couldn't get as close to walls when dashing into them compared to other characters.
• Fixed a bug where using Repetitive Skeleton Impact (QCF+KK) with Marie's back too close to the wall could cause some odd behavior on larger characters.
• Fixed a bug where the second hit of jHP could activate Undizzy unexpectedly if the first hit started a chain and filled the victim's Undizzy bar.
• Fixed a bug where Dust Bunny could be oddly rotated during its (not so secret) win pose.
• Fixed a bug where Marie could trigger the Dust Bunny to fly forward with cLK from unintended ranges.
• Carpel Pummel (QCF+PP) now has higher input priority over Weight of our Will (QCB+PP).
• Marie Go 'Round [L] (QCB+LP) no longer causes preblock.
• Fixed a bug where Marie did not make a noise when landing during a sliding knockdown.
• Fixed a visual bug where two versions of Marie could show up rarely if dashing towards the opponent after dashing away from them.
• Fixed secret bugs for secret behavior of a certain standing heavy normal.

Today's update aims to address some networking bugs that were discovered after yesterday's Steam Client update released, which prevented some players from playing online. [hr][/hr] CHANGES

• Fixed a bug where some players would not be able to connect to one another, and would disconnect as soon as the round started.
• Adjusted logic for displaying connection bars and their colors (for Steam only), which are present at round start for online fights.
  • Green bars are direct connections, where the number of bars filled represent different methods of forming a direct connection.
  • Yellow bars are relay server connections used as a fallback when Steam can't establish a direct connection.
  • A single red bar means an error has occurred.
• Added a new launch option, -disableHueShift, for disabling all rainbow color changing effects. This affects Double palette #19 & Marie palette #29. (-disableRainbowDouble still works and should have the same affect.)
• Fixed a bug where loading screen text was not translated to match the chosen language.

Hey everyone, This update is focused on addressing some issues discovered in Marie's initial Alpha release, and also brings Marie's Alpha to Linux and Steam Deck platforms. Thanks for your patience! [hr][/hr]

Other

• Adjusted vsync settings to fix an issue where some players were experiencing performance and screen tearing issues in the Beta mode.
• Attempted a fix for an issue preventing Beta mode from launching on Windows 7/8.1.

Marie

• Reduced blockstun on jLK, jLP, jMK, and jMP.
• Added missing chip damage on Marie Go 'Round (QCB + P) [M] and [H], and Carpel Pummel (QCF + PP).
• Carpel Pummel's giant fist no longer clashes with projectiles, losing its active hitbox.
• Fixed a bug where the armor frames were not displayed correctly for Marie Go 'Round (QCB + HP) in the frame data bar when Attack Data was set to "Advanced" in training mode.
• Fixed a bug where Marie would get stuck in her summoning animation as an assist if Hilgard was attacked and defeated before he could finish certain animations.
• Fixed a bug where Marie could get stuck in her commanding pose if the hand from Repetitive Skeleton Impact's (QCF + KK) grabbed opponents with 1 life.
• Fixed a bug where Marie was not considered to be in a counter hit state after throwing the orb from Weight of our Will (QCB + PP).
• Fixed a bug where the second hit of jHP and sHP could trigger a burst in the middle of a chain if the first hit caused the Drama bar (Undizzy) to fill up to 240 or above.
• Fixed cMP, sHK, and jMK having lower than intended metergain.
• Fixed jHP granting slightly more meter than sHP.
• Reduced jLP metergain.
• Reduced Hilgard's Haymaker (QCF + K) metergain.
• Added metergain to Hilgard's Howl (QCB + K), since it was zero before.
• When an opponent blocks Hilgard's attacks (QCF or QCB + K), they gain bonus meter.
• Fixed Marie Go 'Round (QCB + P) [M] strength granting far more meter than the [H] strength.
• Suction Obstruction (QCF + LP + LK), Ground Throw, and Air Throw now correctly grant meter.
• Fixed a bug where Marie can could cancel the start up of JHP into JHK before JHP hit, if bones from a previous JHP were still visible and hitting an opponent.

The Skullgirl herself is finally here - Marie is now playable in her Alpha state for Season Pass holders! NOTE: The Linux version of Marie's Alpha is not available just yet due to some final bug fixing and polishing that is needed for that build. As soon as that build is ready, Marie will be available on Linux too. Thanks for your patience. In classic Skullgirls tradition, Marie will arrive in an unfinished state with a few work-in-progress "sketchy" frames. As mentioned in our "State of the Game" post shared earlier, Marie is much further along compared to previous characters due to her fully releasing on Skullgirls Mobile first before the Steam alpha. Read more details about her release and other changes below!
[hr][/hr]

HOW COMPLETE IS MARIE?

HOW DO I SELECT MARIE?

HOW CAN I BUY HER DLC SEPARATELY?

WHEN WILL MARIE BE FULLY RELEASED ON ALL PLATFORMS?

WHEN WILL BALANCE PATCH CHANGES START?

Full Update Notes

• Added Marie as a playable character.
• Added 19 color palettes for Marie, with many more to arrive in future updates. (... Note that since palette 7 is unlocked by completing her story mode, it cannot be obtained at this time, and is just a duplicate of her original palette for now.)
• Added Marie's stage, Hilgard's Castle.
• Added Marie's stage music, "All That Remains" composed by Darren Malley.

• [BETA ONLY] Adjusted visual effects and lighting when characters are impacted by palette adjusting VFX, such as Parasoul's fire effect, Annie's galaxy space dust effect, Robo-Fortune's electrification effect, Black Dahlia's freeze effect, etc. Flickering lights involved with these effects should be less distracting, and character's themselves are no longer impacted by stage lighting conditions.
  
• When declining a match in Quick Match, or recently finishing a match with a player, you will no longer match with that player again for a few minutes.
• When kicking a player from a lobby, kicked players can no longer join the lobby again immediately after.
• [BETA ONLY] Integrated some previously unused voice lines for older characters when fighting against Marie. Some are used for boss Marie, playable Marie, or both.
• [BETA ONLY] Fixed a bug where Black Dahlia would not flinch when getting punched in the face by Cerebella during pummel horse. She's tough, but not THAT tough.
• Adjusted the position of the timer on character select when playing online.

Hey everyone, Its time for an update on all the Skullgirls projects weve got cooking currently, specifically some details on Maries upcoming releases! Heres a preview of what to expect below:

MARIE

• Skullgirls Mobile
• Skullgirls 2nd Encore - Playable Alpha
• Skullgirls 2nd Encore - Full Release

OTHER 2ND ENCORE UPDATES

• Balance Adjustments
• Story Mode Updates

SKULLGIRLS GLOBAL DOMINATION

• Skullgirls Championship Series 2024
• Eighty Sixed Merch
• Skullgirls x Webtoon

MARIE

• ANNIE released first on Skullgirls Mobile, then went straight to Full Release a few months later on 2nd Encore.
• UMBRELLA had a full Alpha, Early Access and Full Release in 2nd Encore before she released on Mobile.
• BLACK DAHLIA started her Alpha very early, followed by her SGM release, then her Full Release in 2nd Encore.
• MARIE will launch first in SGM, followed by her Alpha, then her 2nd Encore Full Release.

SKULLGIRLS MOBILE

SKULLGIRLS 2ND ENCORE

PLAYABLE ALPHA

• Marie will be partially complete, with some temporary art and not completely tuned gameplay.
• A partial set of palettes.
• A new stage (with music!) - Hilgards Castle.
• Additional features will be added to the Alpha over time.

SKULLGIRLS 2ND ENCORE

FULL RELEASE

• Marie will be fully complete!
• The new Stage - Hilgards Castle - will be fully complete with final music.
• A brand new story mode for Marie.
• Marie will be available as stand-alone DLC separate from the Season 1 Pass.
• Final Marie balance pass.
• A full set of 30+ palettes.
• Character tutorials.
• A new alternate voice pack.

OTHER 2ND ENCORE UPDATES

BALANCE PATCH

STORY MODE UPDATES

SKULLGIRLS GLOBAL DOMINATION

SKULLGIRLS CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES 2024

EIGHTY SIXED MERCH

SKULLGIRLS X WEBTOON

- All of us at Hidden Variable Studios and Future Club <3

Skullgirls Content and Revisions Update [6/26/2023] As part of a global Skullgirls content update, we have adjusted several art assets in Skullgirls 2nd Encore and the Digital Art Compendium on all platforms. You can find the full list of changes in this update here: Skullgirls 2nd Encore Content Updates Notes You can read the full details and rationale behind these changes here: SKULLGIRLS CONTENT UPDATES & REVISIONS [hr][/hr] (Build version 3.5.13)

Hey everyone, We're happy to announce that the Digital Art Compendium & Soundtrack are getting updates today, releasing a lot of new content related to Black Dahlia. We know this usually comes out when a character gets their full retail release, and we apologize for the delay. But there's so much new content to enjoy! [hr][/hr]

BLACK DAHLIA

• Character Art, which includes a wealth of behind-the-scenes move concept sketches.
• Character Poster
• Bunny Burrow 2D Stage Art + Development Concepts
• Exported Frames - Nearly 3,000 individual frames!
• Story Mode Art - New Fullscreen Cinematics & Talking Heads

PRODUCTION ART

• Black Dahlia Stream Art
• Umbrella Stream Art
• Valentine Redesign Announcement Art

SKULLGIRLS MOBILE

• Bookie App Icon
• Dahlia Relic Shard Icon
• Lots of new mail banners
• Lots of new Relic images, including Dahlia's Character Relic!

Soundtrack

• "Down The Rabbit Hole" track added.

Hey everyone, This update is focused on addressing some small issues discovered in Dahlia's release. [hr][/hr]

BLACK DAHLIA

• Dahlia will no longer be poisoned if she counters Valentine's Counter Venom or Vial Hazard
• Dahlia's Counter, Strike! after image and some aspects of her teleport should now always have the proper PalFX if she is affected by something like Valentine's poisons before starting the move.
• Made improvements to the reliability of ice shot's hitstun scaling when used multiple times in a single combo.
• Fixed an issue where Dahlia's Parting Gift detonation could cause a soft lock during the round reset of 1v1 matches.
• Fixed a bug where Parting Gift's stagger hit vs airborne targets didn't have enough hitstun to reliably guarantee the character would land and become staggered before the hitstun ran out.
• Fixed a bug where Parting Gift wasn't reliably igniting oil and/or the oil barrel when in the corner.
• Fixed visual issues with Dahlia's Railgun VFX on palettes 8, 28, & 30

MISC

• Fixed some reported typos in Black Dahlia's story.
• Fixed some missing characters for Japanese news items.
• Updated Dahlia's TH for the news feed.
• Fixed a small graphical issue with Dahlia's banners on the various arena stages.

[previewyoutube=QH1GVCoCHNo;full][/previewyoutube] Ready to paint the town red, Black Dahlia has departed beta and is now fully released in Skullgirls 2nd Encore. If you've been participating in the open beta, all these changes will be familiar to you. If you've just joined us, or want a refresher on all the things that have changed over Black Dahlia's development, we've compiled a comprehensive set of update notes. You can view these notes over on the Official Skullheart Forums: Skullheart Forums | Black Dahlia Release Update Notes Thank you, everyone, for your continued support of Skullgirls 2nd Encore! There's a lot more in store for this year. Be sure to keep an eye on our social media accounts for the latest info on Marie, including the start of her Alpha period for Season 1 Pass! - Hidden Variable (Build version 3.5.11)

Hey everyone, Today's update is mostly focused on final bug fixes for Black Dahlia's impending release on consoles. This update also includes all of her colors - enjoy! Further tuning for Black Dahlia isn't out of the question, but any changes, nerfs, or bug fixes will likely arrive with her final release alongside her story mode on consoles and Steam instead of in continued beta updates. [hr][/hr]

MISC

• Fixed a bug where Beowulf could become invincible sooner than expected during his crumple state.
• The crowd will now "boo" Beowulf instead of cheering for him if he is fighting Black Dahlia on her own stage.
• Adjusted palette 30 colors for Umbrella so that Hungern is not impacted by lighting.
• Fixed a bug where catching Big Band with Tongue Twister at max distances could cause the camera to pan rapidly in his direction.
• Fixed a bug where the eyeballs in Umbrella's "Under The Weather" Blockbuster would not rotate when she was Overstuffed.
• Fixed a bug where the Skullheart from Umbrella's 30th palette for would follow the enemy around if they defeated her using Umbrella's "Feeding Time" Blockbuster.
• Fixed a bug where Umbrella would sometimes fail to stagger her target with a s.F+HP (Cliff Hanger) if she also hit or traded with some projectiles.
• Fixed a bug where Umbrella could perform a puddle boosted version of Slurp 'n' Slide at a later time without being near a puddle if she previously ended Slurp 'n' Slide near a puddle in the past.
• Resolved most instances where two Umbrella's performing Retina Reflector at roughly the same time could cause the IPS combo stage to become stuck. Final fixes to resolve all instances of this will be in an update for Black Dahlia's full release, or an upcoming hotfix.
• To prevent accidental taunts, Ms. Fortune can no longer perform her taunt for 60 frames after performing an Air Dash, or jHP.
• Tweaked layering from Eliza's time out pose to avoid conflicts with Dahlia's win pose.

BLACK DAHLIA

• Added 4 new palettes for Black Dahlia. Dahlia's 32nd palette is available for Season Pass holders, and features unique effect on her cape, and a bonus effect when she is Empowered.
• Tweaked Black Dahlia's intros and intro voice lines to prevent long pauses after she was finished but before the game started.
• Performing "Order Up!" during Onslaught start up, or during the grounded portion of Dahlia's back dash, will perform the move once she is airborne and able to act by buffering it.
• Fixed a bug where Dahlia could not cancel into Stage Hazard when landing from cMK.
• Fixed a bug where the snowman easter egg would show up almost every time from hitting Ice Shot.
• Fixed a bug where performing Special Moves after using an Infinity Breaker (burst) low to floor with Dahlia could cause her to briefly float above the ground.
• Dahlia's Outtake can no longer ignite Stage Hazard's Oil, but will still cause the barrel to detonate.
• Dahlia's Outtake has one extra invulnerable frame to make sure it will trade post flash with hits, instead of losing.
• Fixed an issue where trading blows when using an Outtake to hit Bunny Girl from "Girls' Night" would prevent them from dying immediately.
• Fixed a bug where "Parting Gift" would unreliably have invulnerability from the first frame on start up. It now properly never has invulnerability on start up.
• "Parting Gift" detonation now puts the victim in hitstop until the explosion hits if the opponent is in hitstun. (... This fixes a bug where it could sometimes fail to reliably launch the opponent if they were just about to land into an OTG state when Dahlia performs the detonation)
• Minor art fixes.
• Adjusted text in Dahlia's tutorials and trials that had outdated information.
• Fixed an issue where Dahlia's tutorial and trials had issues preventing them from being completed.

Hi everyone, Another update is available for the beta version of Skullgirls 2nd Encore. This update includes a lot of tuning and bug fixes for Black Dahlia to get her ready for her release. It also includes 12 new Black Dahlia color palettes - please enjoy! Please note that this may be one of the last gameplay updates for Black Dahlia before her final release on consoles. Further changes from here on out will likely be more reserved. Please continue to report bugs in our official Discord or our forum so we can address them. Thank you! [hr][/hr]

3.5.9 Hotfix Update

• Fixed a bug where Dahlia's intro animations could cause the game to wait for a long time before starting a round.
• Fixed a bug where Dahlia would not react to hits sometimes at round start and would get stuck idling.
• Fixed a bug where Ice Shot VFX would not appear on the victim if they traded blows with Dahlia.
• Fixed an issue with the HUD portrait of one of Dahlia's colors.

GENERAL

• Fixed a bug introduced last beta update where pushblocking some projectiles would not push the enemy point character backwards. Apologies for how long this one took to fix!
• Attempted to fix a bug where lobby sizes were not being set correctly for some players, preventing them from joining large lobbies.
• Added a rare chalkboard variant on Black Dahlia's stage, The Bunny Burrow.
• Fixed an issue where keyboard bindings wouldn't be saved in some situations.
• Fixed an issue with the "End Match" text in online training mode.
• Fixed NMO Arena stages using incorrect Black Dahlia art.

BEOWULF

• Fixed a bug that allowed Beowulf to perform hopdash attacks back to back faster than intended. (... This was a newly introduced bug when increasing the leniency of button dashing (two punches pressed at the same time) to not require a same frame press, and it is not an intended part of Beowulf's gameplay.)

BLACK DAHLIA

• Added a new alternate voice for Black Dahlia, Good Granny! This is available right away for all Season One Pass holders. As a reminder, Season One Pass holders will also get one extra bonus palette for Black Dahlia - more news on that will be coming soon!

• Now staggers opponents when attaching to them.
• Detonating Parting Gift no longer costs one bar of Dramatic Tension (meter), but you can no longer use a Blockbuster Ensemble (DHC) from it.
• Damage reduced (3000 1750). Chip damage reduced (400 200). Minimum scaling reduced.
• No longer breaks armor when detonating.
• Now pulls characters out of the "OTG" state when detonating, like Valentine's level 5 Blockbuster.
• Parting Gift will only stick to allies if Heavy Punch is used in the input for the Blockbuster, to avoid accidents.
• Allied characters with the Parting Gift attached to them won't remove it by performing a successful outtake anymore.
• Adjusted "detaching" logic when Black Dahlia dies while Parting Gift is stuck to assists.
  • If stuck to an ally assist, it will fall off and arm itself when the character arrives on incoming, to protect them.
  • If stuck to an enemy assist, it will fall off immediately from the camera edge behind the point character and arm itself.
• Misc bug fixes.

• Bunny Girl attacks force damage scaling to 75% if it's currently higher.
• Bunny Girl attacks deal no bonus damage or Drama (Undizzy) drain on counter hit.
• If the point character is hit with an Outtake, Bunny Girls will now leave.
• If a Bunny Girl is hit with an Outtake, they will instantly die.
• Damage tuning: Pistol 500 400. Knife 850 600. Shotgun 1000 850.
• Swapped position of Shotgun and Knife Bunny Girl when spawning in.

• The kick inputs used to input Stage Hazard will now kick it different distances. MK+HK is the old distance.
• Oil explosion damage reduced from 150 to 100, but minimum scaling has increased to deal more damage at lower damage scaling.
• Fixed a bug where Annie's Pillar of Creation and Peacock's Item Drop would sometimes knock the barrel in unexpected directions.
• Fixed an issue where oil could detonate unexpectedly if cancelling into "Order Up!" while attacking the oil with a normal like cLK or cHK.
• Fixed an issue where a friendly Umbrella Retina Reflector could interrupt the oil explosion chain reaction.

• No longer advances the combo stage twice. (... This change required some modifications to the IPS system, but the changes should only impact Ice Shot. Please let us know if you see any bugs with Ice Shot interacting with IPS or Undizzy)
• Now forces damage scaling to 75% if it is higher.
• Reduced hitbox size.
• Reduced gap between hits one and two, and two and three, by 2F each.
• Reduced freeze time by 8F.
• Ice Shot chip damage: 175x3 (525) 125x3 (375).

• Standard Shot no longer has reduced hitpause, advantage, and launch height when used for the second time in a combo.
• Standard Shot will now always knockdown when fired from Tag In.
• Standard Shot chip damage: 425 400.
• Buck Shot chip damage: 325 250.
• Rail Shot chip damage: 450 500.
• Ice Shot chip damage: 175x3 (525) 125x3 (375). (Listed twice)
• Increased Lightning Shot hitpause on hit by 5F to make some conversions easier.
• Fixed a bug where Order Up! (L) Buck Shot damage was lower than other strengths after using Last Call.

• Counter now fails against bursts, to make it more clear that it will not punish it like other counters.
• Counter (H) can only be done if Tea Time's doily has been placed on the ground now.
• Counter (H) now works vs projectiles.
• Counter (H) is now much faster when teleporting and recovering.
• Counter (H) will teleport in place when done while calling an assist, to prevent cross up teleports.
• Counter (L+M) attack blockstun increased by 3F and reduced recovery.
• Cancelling standing throw into Tea Slip (Teleport) has less start up and recovery to facilitate throw conversions.
• Tea Slip (Teleport) invulnerability starts sooner (in 10F).

• cHP and sHP Empower blast damage: 750 500.
• jHP Empower blast damage: 300 400.
• Empowered Throw blast damage: 1500 1750.
• Empower (Special Move) deals 50 damage when Dahlia pulls her hand out of the victim.
• Empower (Special Move) has increased recovery on whiff / block.

• sLK must now be blocked low.
• cHP start up decreased by 1F. (... This was done to reduce chances of the "Double OTG" occurring during her confirms)
• Increased sMK vertical hitbox slightly.
• cMK is now considered grounded during the backflip and will always start a combo at stage 2 instead of stage 1.
• "Counter, Strike!" is now higher priority than "Order Up!", so that DP ending in forward properly gives "Counter, Strike!" + Assist instead of "Order Up!" + Assist, if using an assist call input to trigger the Special Move.
• Ending DP motion in a straight down input gives cLK instead of "Counter, Strike!" (L). (... This is the same "huggies" fix [community term for getting L DP instead of dashing cLK] for Double's L Hornet Bomber)
• Using "Tea Time" and "Tea Slip" should no longer instantly advance the combo stage.
• Dahlia's can adjust the trajectory of her thrown glass during her taunt, "It's Apple Juice", by holding forwards or backwards.
• Dahlia can now use a Forward, Forward input to cancel into Onslaught from her backdash.
• Fixed a bug where Onslaught under rare circumstances would travel in the wrong direction.
• Fixed a bug where Onslaught's velocity was not consistent when facing left compared to facing right. (... This would sometimes cause jLK jHP (Empowered) to not work when expected.)
• Fixed a bug where buffering backdash from Tea Slip could cause Dahlia to forward dash.
• Dahlia can now use "Another Round?" (Reload) during the downtime of Solo vs Solo fights.
• Dahlia now randomly picks between different drinks to hold when captured in Umbrella's bubbles.
• Minor art changes and fixes.

Hey everyone, Today's update is mostly focused on fixing some bugs that were discovered in our latest release. Please note that this is likely our final update until the new year. Happy holidays, everyone! [hr][/hr]

KNOWN ISSUES

• IPS stages are not consistent when detonating Parting Gift near the start of a combo.
• Parting Gift may stick to the point character on block if a nearby assist character is also touching it.
• Detonating a Parting Gift while the victim is being thrown causes the bomb to explode in the wrong location when the throw releases.

MISC

• Tweaked Ms. Fortune's newest palette to better resemble the Webtoon design.
• Fixed a bug where some controllers were not properly identified as PS4 style controllers, leading to unexpected control bindings. This may require a remapping of combat inputs for some players to fully resolve the issue.
• Fixed a bug where some controllers could have duplicated inputs and appear in controller lists twice.
• Fixed a bug where Eliza's staff would errantly appear when she was thrown by Fukua's air throw.
• Fixed a name being spelled incorrectly on the chalkboard on Dahlia's new stage.
• Added Dahlia's stage music to the music player in the Art Gallery.

BLACK DAHLIA

• Updated command list and tutorial text to reflect the correct inputs for "Last Call" (Super Reload) and Empowered Throw.
• Fixed a bug where using Girl's Night as a Blockbuster Ensemble (DHC) would spend an 3 bars if available instead of costing 2.
• Tweaked palette #2 empower colors.
• Fixed unfinished and sketchy frames when Dahlia bounces off the ceiling when getting hit by another Dahlia's Buck Shot (H). (... On that note, Dahlia's unfinished and sketchy frames should now all be colored a bright debug pink to make them easier to spot. If you see any sketchy frames please continue to report them as bugs. Thank you!)

Hey everyone, As promised in our 2022 State of the Game update, the long awaited next update for Black Dahlia is finally here! If you haven't read that post, be sure to check it out! There are a LOT of big Skullgirls announcements! Here's a look at everything coming in this update: [hr][/hr]

KEY UPDATES

• Button icons used on UI menus can now be changed to different platform button icons, instead of LP MP MK LK. You can change this at any time in the button configuration screen.
• Added Black Dahlia's stage, "The Bunny Burrow", along with her new stage theme "Down the Rabbit Hole".
• Added 9 new palettes for Black Dahlia, with many more to come later!
• Added a new palette for Ms. Fortune based on her design in the Skullgirls comic on Webtoon.
• Added Black Dahlia's tutorial and four trials.
• Implemented Black Dahlia's CPU AI.
• Finalized Dahlia's sound and VO.

BLACK DAHLIA

• All of Black Dahlia's art is fully clean! That means no more temporary white "sketchy" frames. If you see a frame that is not colored in properly, please let us know in a bug report.
• Last Call (Super Reload) input has changed from Down Down PP to Quarter Circle Back KK.
• Added COUNTER, STRIKE!
  • A lightning fast counter that works against physical attacks. Throwing it deals bonus damage like all counter style moves.
  • LK version will teleport in front of the opponent on success.
  • MK version will teleport behind the opponent on success.
  • HK version will teleport using Tea Slip to any doily (if one exists) to escape a situation, on success.
• Added PARTING GIFT
  • The first use will throw a bomb that can stick to allies and enemies alike as it travels, or it will just fall to the ground.
  • The second use will enter the bomb detonation stance, where you can press any button to detonate the bomb. You can delay detonating the bomb for "fun", but Dahlia will drain up to one meter by doing so.
  • When the bomb is attached to an assist character (either your own, or the opponent's), Dahlia can only trigger the bomb when they are performing their assist action or during the recovery of it.
  • Performing a successful outtake will remove the bomb from a character.
  • The bomb will automatically explode after a short duration if Dahlia dies.
• Added GIRL'S NIGHT (... This is a very unique super that will require opponents to think about a strategy to mitigate the benefits that it offers. While it does very very low damage as a level three super, the neutral control that it offers is unmatched. We'll be keeping a close eye on this super to see if it is too effective, and tune accordingly.)
  • Summons three of Dahlia's henchbunnies to do her dirty work. Each one has a different weapon and behaves differently.
  • Bunny girls will attempt to attack the opponent on their own - Dahlia cannot influence their actions.
  • Bunny girls can be hit by projectiles and physical hits. Physical hits will knock them down, and projectile hits will briefly stun them.
  • Bunny girls will leave if:
    • They are hit by separate two physical hits. They must stand up first to lose health again.
    • They attack three times.
    • Enough time has passes.
• FIRE SHOT
  • Fire Shot has been heavily reworked. It can now hit opponents before it lands while travelling, which will cause it to drop down and explode on the ground as before. If hitting the ground before hitting an opponent, it will also explode as before.
  • Fire Shot now vanishes like all other shots if Dahlia is hit.
  • Explosion now launches opponents, and no longer creates fire burning on the ground. (... We've received a lot of feedback about Fire Shot being difficult to work into combos and in some circumstances hurting her routing without careful planning or quick thinking. This refactor is meant to make Fire Shot feel simple to use and powerful up close like every other shot, while giving it new opportunities to use in resets and combos. Some of the on block proficiency of Fire Shot will be moving to Ice Shot - more on that below!) (... You may even find the new version of Fire Shot more powerful than the last one! Here are some uses below.) (... cHP x Fire Shot, Onslaught jLK > Explosion Hits, to set up a fast overhead.) (... cHP x Fire Shot, cLP x Another Round? + Explosion Hits, to set up a mid combo reload)
• ICE SHOT
  • Now hits three times (which all freeze) to hold opponents in place on block while dealing high chip damage. (... Fire Shot's strength of lockdown on block and high chip damage are moving over to Ice Shot, which was previously pretty underwhelming on block. The slow multihits are especially effective at restricting movement and hitting assists.)
  • Removed forced damage scaling.
  • Frame data heavily refactored.
  • Reduced freeze time by the amount of time it takes to get to the third and final hit, to keep overall hitstun consistent.
  • When breaking out of the ice mid air, character's now keep their falling momentum.
• LIGHTNING SHOT
  • Damage reduced from 500 per hit to 375.
  • Meter gain reduced (bug fix).
  • Hitstun reduced from 45 to 35. (... Lightning Shot has a lot going for it, but the highest damage (1500) is no longer one of them. Hitstun from stray hits has been reduced to lower her time to confirm, but is still high enough to keep her dash under mix up when used against airborne victims.)
• BUCK SHOT
  • No longer an overhead when used from tag in.
  • Fixed a bug where Buck Shot bouncing characters off of walls would build meter for Dahlia.
  • Lowered grounded L version hitbox to reliably OTG characters.
  • All strengths now deal 1100 damage, instead of dealing varying amounts of damage based on strength. After using a strength of Buck Shot in a combo, that strength deals less damage until the combo ends. (... You aren't penalized for using one strength over another until you've already used it once before. Creatively use all six Buck Shot strengths in a combo to maximize damage instead of looping a single strength.)
• RAIL SHOT
  • Hitstop when hitting grounded characters now matches airborne characters (14 > 16)
  • Knockup increased when hitting grounded characters.
  • Knockback slightly increased.
  • Hitbox size on all beams increased.
  • Active frames increased from 3 to 4.
  • Increased VO clarity for Rail Shot easter egg.
• TEA SLIP
  • Reduced Tea Time (placement) animation length by 3F.
  • Reduced teleport start up by 2F.
  • Considerably reduced teleport recovery. (... The last bit of the teleport animation is cancellable into any action. If no input is pressed, the full animation will play.)
• EMPOWER
  • Reduced blockstun and blockstop, and increased recovery when not successful. It is now -12 on block.
  • Reduced recovery on success, making it plus enough to link cMP after.
  • Reduced victim pushback on success.
  • Tweaked empowered jHP hitboxes to match the final art.
  • Tweaked launch height and hitstop on Empowered sHP so that Empowered sHP > Another Round > Rush Order > cLP is universal without spending OTG. (... This allows Dahlia to reload mid combo from any confirm without using OTG.)
  • Dahlia now loses her Empower state when dying, as long as it isn't a "down" from a solo vs solo fight.
  • Fixed a bug where Dahlia's fingers would vanish inside of the opponent's body when they blocked Empower. This now only happens on hit.
  • Fixed a bug where hitting an opponent with Empower while they were facing the wrong direction would not face them back towards Dahlia.
• Empowered Throw
  • Can be triggered by holding LP LK as well as holding HP as before.
  • Tuned window for when HP can be held to make it easier.
  • Reduced launch height.
  • Reduced recovery.
• STAGE HAZARD
  • When oil puddles or the barrel from Stage Hazard explode off screen, they no longer shake the screen.
  • Improved reliability of oil puddles from Stage Hazard detonating nearby puddles to continue the chain reaction.
  • Fixed incorrect VFX location for barrel bouncing into the left stage wall.
  • Oil explosion hits are now all sliding knockdown instead of knockback. (... Opponents falling out of the explosions will now at least give Dahlia time to prepare instead of having them tech away.)
• Reduced crouching hurtbox enough for her to duck Robo-Fortune's H Theonite Beam.
• Reduced cHK hurtbox height so be usable under Robo-Fortune's H Theonite Beam.
• Lowered collision box when dashing, to make it easier to dash under opponents.
• Dahlia can now chain LP normals into LK normals.
• Dahlia can block during the recovery of Onslaught after she has performed her somersault. Landing from Onslaught also allows blocking immediately instead of leaving her vulnerable.
• When performing Last Call (Super Reload) in a combo, all metergain is disabled from Order Up (shooting the gun) until the combo ends. Performing a regular reload (Another Round) will remove the penalty mid combo.
• Standard Shot frame advantage on hit increased to +10, so Dahlia can link LK after in addition to LP.
• Order Up! (L) pushes Dahlia's collision box forward with her stance. Opponents will be pushed farther away when used too close.
• Reduced cMK trap lifetime.
• Fixed a bug where Dahlia could cancel her dash into another dash before it had entered the recovery portion of the move. Fixed a bug where the button dash input was stricter than intended (same frame only) when cancelling dash recovery into another dash. (... Dahlia must wait for her feet to touch the floor again and land from the previous dash before she can start another one.)
• sHP start up increased by 1F.
• sMK start up decreased by 1F.
• cMP start up decreased by 1F.
• Increased sLP hitbox vertically and adjusted the art to show it.
• Backdash start up reduced by 1F. Airborne backwards loop duration reduced by 3F. Speed increased by 7%. (... Backdash is faster, snappier, and less detrimental to whiff accidentally.)
• Dahlia now has extra recovery on her tag in unless the opponent is in hitstun when she lands. (... This is required to make sure that her tag in is always punishable for every shot type, while still making sure that she can combo into some of her shots as before.)
• jHK saw metergain reduced to match that of a single heavy attack, instead of two heavy attacks.
• cHP metergain increased to be the usual heavy amount.
• Removed character flash when hit by a particular one of Dahlia's random jLP knives, to reduce distractions.
• Big Band can now parry cMK trap high or low. Hitpause reduced for Band when parrying cMK. (... Parrying in mid air against the trap with a forward input was unreliable - depending on his fall speed, he would land before the trap activates making him forced to low parry)
• Standard, Lightning, Ice, and Fire Shots can now strike targets with their first produced hitbox, instead of using that hitbox to detect if a target is nearby and causing them to explode one frame later.
• All shots (except for Buck Shot and Rail Shot) can now be reflected by Umbrella.
• Extended crumple state length to be closer to other characters. (... Average is ~84 and Dahlia is 80)
• Extended Rush Order timing window even more. (... Try erring on the side of being early instead of late if you're still struggling with it.)
• Dahlia's doily from Tea Slip vanishes when she dies, as long as it isn't a "down" from a solo vs solo fight.
• Fixed a bug where shooting two shots back to back could cause one shot to not add Undizzy in some rare scenarios.
• Fixed an issue where Black Dahlia could cause online play to desync between two players.
• Fixed broken pieces from jHK saw not having a shadow.
• Fixed a bug where bursting after hitting a wall from Buck Shot would trigger a safe Gold Burst. This burst is now blue. (... If bursting before hitting the wall, this would be a Blue Burst. If bursting after hitting the wall, it would be a Gold Burst. This is now all a Blue Burst for consistency.)
• Fixed a bug where Stage Hazard barrel explosion could hit characters long after it had exploded.
• Fixed a bug where VFX would display using the wrong color when Lightning / Ice shot bounced off the left stage edge.
• Fixed a bug where Lightning Shot VFX would appear in the wrong place briefly if they were shot off screen.
• Fixed a bug where Ice Shot snowman easter egg could appear in an incorrect location.
• Fixed a bug where the ammo in Dahlia's gun on character select was the wrong color for numerous palettes.

MISC

• Robo-Fortune has been reverted back to her retail iteration, this removes Theonite Beam changes. (... As mentioned in our 2022 State of the Game post, a general character balance patch will be started as soon as possible after Dahlia's FULL release so we can give it the attention it deserves - even before Marie if we're able to!)
• Fixed a bug where damage scaling was incorrect in beta when dealing with grab style hits.
• Fixed a bug where the Art Gallery screen would not respond to controller inputs.
• Removed "Restore Defaults" from the top of the button configuration menu.

Hi everyone! This is Jesse, and I hope you're having a good day! We have some small bug fixes and adjustments for the Black Dahlia alpha before the weekend. [hr][/hr]

Black Dahlia

• Updated Ice Shot ammo UI icon.
• Fixed a bug where cHP would delay its hit against the opponent if it also struck her barrel.
• Using QCB + Assist now triggers Another Round for easier reloads while calling assist, instead of Tea Time / Tea Slip.
• EMPOWER
  • Reduced start up by 2F, and greatly expanded hitbox. This makes sHP > Empower universal on all characters.
  • Visual VFX bug fixes when Dahlia is hit with a burst after connecting with empower successfully.
  • Stand throw becomes cancellable into empower later than before, preventing universal midscreen throw combos.
• Ice shot now breaks all armor types.
• Ice Shot has reduced freeze time when used multiple times in the same combo.
  • 1st Use: 130* frames.
  • 2nd Use: 75* frames.
  • 3rd Use: 20* frames.
  • * In addition to the short break out animation, which adds more hitstun overall.
• Fixed an issue where Tea Slip could cause the camera to shift the opponent's position. Teleport distance is now constrained based on the opponent's position.

Hello, Liam here. Today's update includes a lot of new tools and moves for Black Dahlia to use. The command list should be updated with all of these new moves, so don't forget to check it out if you can't remember everything new. [hr][/hr]

MISC

• Fixed a bug where Double's 19th palette wasn't working correctly.
• Fixed an issue where lobby names wouldn't always display the correct title. (Ex: SGLOBBYNAME37)
• Fixed an issue where the game would crash when hovering over Black Dahlia in retail mode on character select.

BLACK DAHLIA

• Added a work in progress AMMO HUD INDICATOR. Please note that this is not created using our usual UI and HUD tools, as this is just a prototype. You may notice it shake and shift during gameplay. After we have time to process feedback and ensure there are no issues, it will be updated - thanks for your understanding!
• Updated Dahlia with even more cleaned up animations and more voice acting.
• NEW AMMO TYPES
  • RAIL SHOT - A straight beam that knocks down on hit.
  • ICE SHOT - An arcing shot that freezes opponents on contact, allowing time to set up and reload.
  • LIGHTNING SHOT - A shot that fires straight forward unaffected by gravity with plenty of hitstun and blockstun.
• NEW MOVE - EMPOWER (QCF + LP LK)
  • Performs an attack that "empowers" Dahlia's actions when it connects. You can activate an empowered move by holding HP during any HP normal, or holding HP quickly after landing a ground throw. Using an empowered move removes the empower buff.
• NEW MOVE - TEA TIME & TEA SLIP (QCB + K)
  • Place a doily on the floor with the first use of the move, and perform the same strength (LK/MK/HK) to teleport to that doily location. Performing a different strength will replace the last thrown doily with a new one.
  • Hold K during Tea Slip to feint it, teleporting in place.
  • Tea Slip (feint) will be performed automatically if teleporting while an assist is traveling on screen or landing.
• NEW MOVE - LAST CALL (D, D + PP)
  • After performing this Blockbuster, press any of the six attack buttons to flick and load ammo types matching the corresponding button. Check the in-game command list for more details.
  • Completing the Blockbuster will also "empower" Black Dahlia.
• ANOTHER ROUND (QCB + P)
  • Can now receive Rail, Ice, and Lightning shots from the MP and HP version.
  • (... Technical: The order in which Rail, Ice, Lightning, Fire, and Buck shots are chosen is now randomly determined at the beginning of the round. Ammo types will be drawn in that order until they have all been chosen. Once the ordered list is empty, another randomly determined order for special ammo types will be created again to be chosen from. The only exceptions are that you cannot load two of the same special ammo types with HP reload, and you cannot load any special ammo types that were loaded in the previous reload. Using these rules you can often predict the next special ammo types that will be loaded next.)
  • Removed super cancel window while ammo has been tossed upwards.
• STAGE HAZARD (QCF + KK, Barrel)
  • If the barrel is broken (too many hits against the opponent) and struck again, it will detonate. This allows another avenue for allies (or Dahlia herself) to trigger the barrel explosion without Dahlia being the point character.
  • Dahlia's JLK will now ignite barrel and oil, since it's a fire attack.
  • Buck Shot ammo type will now ignite the barrel, like her Snapback.
  • The barrel begins rolling and creates a hit after 8 frames of being kicked, instead of instantly.
  • Most hits from Blockbusters and Special Moves now trigger a "hard" barrel rolling hit reaction (the knockdown one) instead of the "medium" one.
  • Hard hits against the barrel now roll slightly further and faster.
  • If the barrel hits the stage edge after Dahlia kicks it initially, it will retain its hitbox and velocity for a little bit to ensure combos in the corner.
  • Expanded the range at which Dahlia's cHP can detonate the barrel's oil.
  • A well placed Dahlia cHP can now immediately detonate the barrel.
  • Tweaked barrel hitboxes when rolling.
  • Robo-Fortune's Catastrophe Cannon is no longer blocked by the barrel.
  • Increased initial barrel velocity when kicked by Dahlia.
  • Tweaked projectile collision rules between the barrel and other projectiles.
  • Fixed a bug where hitting the barrel with an allied cHP would not send it forward with a hit.
  • Increased width of oil puddle explosions to help ensure the chain reaction of explosions never ends unexpectedly.
  • Fixed a bug where the "jumping over the barrel" secret would trigger unexpectedly.
  • Fixed a bug where performing a DHC out of the Blockbuster too early would cause the barrel to vanish.
  • The barrel is no longer invincible when kicked initially. This allows it to be struck earlier to stop its hit, but it also will block attacks sooner.
• BUCK SHOT
  • Increased Buck Shot frame advantage on block. Now +7.
  • Reduced Buck Shot frame advantage on block as part of her Tag-In to ensure it's not safe on block.
  • Increased length and size of Buck Shot range. Completely reworked hitboxes to match the art closer. (... Buck Shot range is drastically increased)
  • Increased Buck Shot hitstop on wall collision, and slightly increased launch height.
• Decreased air "Order Up!" (air QCF + P) start up to match that of the ground version.
• Increased sMK start up by 2F
• Decreased cLK hitstun and recovery by 2F.
• sHP now performs a floor bounce against airborne opponents.
• Increased tag-in landing recovery by 4F.
• Fixed a bug where Dahlia wasn't using the latest reversal buffer rules like everyone else. Performing reversal actions out of hitstun, blockstun, and wake up is now easier.
• Fixed an issue where Dahlia's broken off pieces from her JHK saw would inherit her hitstop, stopping their animations unexpectedly.
• Taunt buffs the next Ice Shot.

Hi, everyone! This is Jesse. Hope you're having a good day! Small update to fix some UI bugs introduced yesterday. Some Black Dahlia Alpha UI configurations spilled into Skullgirls 2nd Encore's main build. Apologies for the inconvenience. [hr][/hr]

UI

• Reverting erroneously modified Button Config and Options screens.

Hi, everyone! This is Jesse. Hope you're having a good day! This retail update brings a small slate of bug fixes as well as a new stage to Skullgirls 2nd Encore. In celebration of Skullgirls being a main stage game at Evo 2022, we're proud to present the Evo Arena stage! The NMO Arena decks itself out in blue to celebrate this momentous year, and this new stage is free to all players. Thank you again, everyone, for supporting Skullgirls these past 10 years and making all this possible.
What about the Black Dahlia Alpha and PS4? We're working hard to get the bug fixes and new stage out on PS4 and in the Black Dahlia Alpha before Evo so that everyone can celebrate together. The next Black Dahlia Alpha build will also contain several new features for the Medici murderess. Keep an eye on our social media pages (Twitter, Facebook) for further updates! [hr][/hr]

GENERAL

• Evo Arena stage added
• Using -beta to switch from Retail to Beta build should no longer lose other command line arguements

UMBRELLA

• Overstuffed j.HP now tagged as CounterHit
• j.HP, like other multi-hit moves, switches to mid-hits after the first hit makes contact
• Fixed an issue where her taunt was able to interact with her OTG state in rare situations
• Overstuffed Under the Weather bubbles no longer generate meter on hit
• Ensure that Hungern doesn't visually glitch after using Feeding Time
• Tag-In no longer deals chip damage when blocked

BEOWULF & SQUIGLY

• Beowulf's outtake during grab mode ("Into The Trash") now properly removes Squigly's Inferno of Leviathan Projectile.

Hello, Liam here. Today's update adds Black Dahlia's first Blockbuster (STAGE HAZARD) in addition to other tuning. [hr][/hr]

ROBO-FORTUNE

• The grounded version of Theonite Beam (H) has had its hitbox adjusted slightly so that it does not hit Black Dahlia when she is crouching. This also impacts Eliza, and it's possible to "low profile" it with more moves.
• The grounded version of Theonite Beam (H), when used as an assist, has 20 extra frames of recovery.

BLACK DAHLIA

• New Blockbuster - STAGE HAZARD.
  • Black Dahlia summons and kicks out a barrel that leaves oil behind it as it rolls.
  • She can ignite the oil with cHP or her fire shot to cause a chain reaction of explosions that eventually ignite the barrel, causing it to explode.
    • The list of attacks that can set off the oil will be expanded in the future to include moves such as Parasoul's Napalm Pillar, Peacock's cMK, Squigly's cHP, etc. For now, only Dahlia herself can set it off.
  • Dahlia (and her teammates) can attack her team's barrel to cause it to roll forward with a hit. The distance it rolls and the strength of the hit is impacted by the attack that hits it.
  • After the barrel has touched an opponent several times, it will break and no longer be able to roll.
• Another Round (Reload)
  • Changed input from QCB + Kick to QCB + Punch, since it is the opposite of Order Up, and her upcoming Special Moves are better suited for her kicks. Rush Order can now only be performed with a Punch input. ... Apologies for destroying everyone's muscle memory! This input is unlikely to change again in the future, so hopefully this is the only time this happens.
  • Dahlia flicks up all six shots at once, instead of needing to flick twice. This greatly reduces start up and recovery.
  • Recovery is reduced even further than before when performing Rush Order.
• Buck Shot Ammo Type
  • Increased blockstun and blockstop. Is now plus on block.
  • Increased damage of all versions by 200.
• Normals Key Takeaways: All of Dahlia's lights are now plus on hit and block, except for cLK which is still negative on block. sMK is faster, easier to convert off of and use, and can now combo from sLK.
  • cHP - Increased hitstun by 2F.
  • cHK - Increased blockstun.
  • cLP - Increased hitstun by 3F.
  • sHP - Reduced start up to 19F.
  • sLK - Increased hitstun and blockstun.
  • sLP (second hit) - Increased hitstun to match the first hit.
  • sMP - Tweaked hitbox to allow it to reliably OTG very close characters
  • sLK - Fixed a bug where the "kara throw" window was smaller than intended.
  • sMK
    • Reduced start up.
    • Reduced sliding speed and movement change before going active.
    • Reduced hitstop.
    • Reduced damage from 800 to 600.
    • Increased hitstun by 2F.
    • Dahlia no longer halts her momentum when making contact with an opponent, allowing her to carry that momentum into the normal she cancels into.
    • Increased blockstun.
    • Increased recovery.
    • Tweaked dust visuals while sliding.
• Forward Dash
  • Reduced dash start up by 2F.
  • Removed several instances of dash momentum not being 100% carried into normals. For example, cLP would previously cut dash cancel momentum in half. sLP still reduces dash cancel momentum as before.
  • Increased dash cancel normal momentum by 15%.
• Adjusted ground throw hitstop, recovery, and launch trajectory, to better facilitate Stage Hazard and Order Up (L) conversions.
• Flipped art when captured inside of Umbrella's bubbles so you can see Dahlia's face.
• Fixed a bug where performing "TK" Order Up (air) was stricter than intended compared to other characters.
• Fixed a bug where the second hit of jMP was still an overhead even if the first hit made contact.
• Fixed a bug where Standard Shot ammo would sometimes not detonate if the projectile was overlapping a point character and a nearby enemy teammate's corpse.
• Fixed a bug where Dahlia's position would shift when hit with trip style attacks.

MISC

• Fixed a bug with stage lighting on River King Casino (and likely other stages) for Mac and Linux players.
• Attempted a fix for an issue where some players would not have online training mode lobbies start correctly.
• Fixed an issue where some launch options were not applying correctly.

Hello, Liam here. Today's update is focused on Black Dahlia bug fixing and tweaks before we head into the weekend.

VERSION 3.5.2

BLACK DAHLIA

• Fixed an issue where Onslaught could be used more than once per jump.
• Fixed an issue where Onslaught would come out intentionally when trying to dash jump.
• Fixed an issue where Dahlia would not reload special ammo when running out of ammo when using "Order Up!" assist.

VERSION 3.5.1

BLACK DAHLIA

• Different strengths of Another Round (Reload) now influence the number of unique ammo types loaded. (... Again, Another Round (Reload) mechanics are subject to change and are still work in progress.)
  • (LK) - No special ammo.
  • (MK) - 3rd ammo slot is a special ammo.
  • (HK) - 3rd and 6th ammo slot are special ammo. This is the reload from the previous patch.
• Increased the time allowed between two kicks to trigger Onslaught. It is now more lenient and easier to trigger if two buttons aren't hit at the exact same time.
• Onslaught can now be triggered mid air using regular "stick dash" inputs, such as tapping forward twice.
• Forward Dash
  • Reworked her dash to resolve an issue where cancelling it into attacks would not carry over momentum using the same rules as other characters.
  • Velocity and dash distance ever so slightly reduced.
  • Dash start up (before she starts moving forward) reduced by 2F.
• Fixed a bug where sHP has considerably more hitstop on block than intended. (... Still a true blockstring into Order Up! (L) up close)
• Fixed a bug where Onslaught wasn't keeping Dahlia in a Super Jump (preventing assist calls) state as intended after the initial thrust happens.
• Fire Shot
  • Reduced burning fire lifetime from ~4s to ~3.5s
  • Burning fire dissipates between "downs" in 1v1 fights.
• Slightly adjusted the Standard Shot "trigger" hitbox which determines if an enemy is close enough for it to explode.
• Fixed a bug where Standard Shot would explode when hitting Parasoul's set tears.
• Fixed a bug where air Onslaught could sometimes turn Dahlia around backwards unexpectedly.
• Added Black Dahlia's missing "dessert" when she defeats herself. (... A new dessert enters the ring! Please update your win pose dessert tier lists.)
• Fixed a bug where Dahlia would not always be held in the correct position when being thrown.
• Tweaked some art on Dahlia's Standard Shot ammo type.

In classic Skullgirls tradition, Black Dahlia will arrive in an unfinished state with some work-in-progress "sketchy" frames. Keep an eye out for frequent updates during this Playable Alpha as we bring her closer to completion!

HOW COMPLETE IS BLACK DAHLIA?

• One of Dahlias major unique features is her ability to load different ammo types into her gun. To begin with this will only have 3 types of ammo implemented, but therell be more coming in the near future. Her method of loading ammo is also still a work in progress and subject to change at any time - don't get to attached to how it works currently! She will also get several more Special Moves and Blockbusters as time goes on.
• Most of Dahlias animations are still unfinished and uncolored sketchy frames. Some of her VFX like explosions and sparks are colored, but these are still temporary and will change in the future.
• While Dahlia has some voice work and general sound effects implemented, she is far from complete. Expect many more voice lines and updates to the sound effects already available.
• Her visuals and existing toolkit will all get a general tuning and improvements over the coming months.

HOW TO SELECT BLACK DAHLIA

WHEN CAN I BUY HER DLC SEPARATELY?

WHEN WILL BLACK DAHLIA BE FULLY RELEASED?

WHEN WILL BLACK DAHLIA BE AVAILABLE ON EACH PLATFORM?

STEAM

PLAYSTATION 4

SWITCH & XBOX ONE / SERIES X

NON-DAHLIA RELATED CHANGES

• Added a new Photosensitivity Warning on game start-up. This is not related to any new additions, but refers existing flashing imagery that has always been there, like the white flash during SHOWTIME at round start.
• Fixed a bug where some lobby related text wouldn't appear correctly. (Ex: NewType36)
• Addressed some localization and translation errors.
• Improved stability when switching audio devices on Windows to mitigate crashes.
• Fixed a bug where the laughter sound when landing a "Happy Birthday" KO would sometimes be cut off in certain situations.
• Implemented some minor UI control improvements for the Art Gallery screen.
• Fixed some bugs related to Quick Match after the recent multiplayer refactor.
• Fixed a bug where a lobby region would not update to match the current host's region if the previous host left.
• Fixed a bug where UI related to "Play Again" would appear briefly in a "Queen Of The Hill" lobby if there were only two players in it.

WRAPPING UP!

DAHLIA MAKES HER GRAND DEBUT!

Check out her Alpha Release trailer here:

GAMEPLAY SYNOPSIS

DAHLIA RELEASE ROADMAP

Alpha (June 2022)

Early Access Beta (Q3 2022)

Full Release (Q4 2022)

HOW TO SELECT BLACK DAHLIA

WHEN CAN I BUY HER DLC SEPARATELY?

WHEN WILL DAHLIA BE AVAILABLE ON EACH PLATFORM?

STEAM

PLAYSTATION 4

SWITCH & XBOX ONE / SERIES X

DLC CHARACTER 4

WRAPPING UP

Hello everyone, this is Jesse! I hope you're having a good day! We have a small patch this morning to address some of the bugs reported by the community from the networking refactor. We're still investigating and working on some of the other reported issues, but we thank you for your patience and your support! [hr][/hr]

MULTIPLAYER LOBBIES

• Attempted to address some underlying issues with the p2p communications before players connect via GGPO.
• Added additional logging to p2p communications to better diagnose any remaining issues.
• Win counts should now properly update for 2-player lobbies when the rematch options appear.
• Accepting an invite for a lobby from a different version of the game should properly kick the player back to the lobby search screen and display a warning popup.

MULTIPLAYER QUICK MATCH

• Fixed issue where you could see your opponents name in the ping display, before you should.

UI

• Fixed issue that was causing all the story talking heads to be misaligned.

• 2e-bugs channel in the official Skullgirls Discord
• Bug-Reports thread(s) on the Skullheart forums.

Hello everyone, this is Jesse. I hope you're having a good day! We have a small patch before the weekend to address one small issue in the Multiplayer Refactor Beta while we actively investigate other issues that have already been reported. Please remember you can report any issues related to the Muiltplayer Refactor Beta either in the 2e-bugs channel in the official Skullgirls Discord OR in the Bug-Reports thread(s) on the Skullheart forums. [hr][/hr]

STEAM

• Fixed an issue with Steam DLC permissions.

Since taking over Skullgirls 2nd Encore development in January 2021, Hidden Variable and Future Club have been working hard to bring you, the players, the four new characters that are part of our Season 1 Pass DLC. And don't worry, you'll be able to get your hands on Dahlia soon! (First playable demo will be at Combo Breaker 2022) But that's not all we've been doing. The patch today is the result of a lot of hard work behind the scenes. Today, in the Beta build, we're testing out large scale refactors of the online multiplayer and the UI systems. These refactors are meant to improve the stability and reliability of our online lobbies, quick match, and spectating, fixing issues that have been longtime thorns in the community's side. While most of these changes will not be readily noticeable, these codebase upgrades pave the way for us to make more substantial improvements to the multiplayer experience in the future. They will also make console development easier going forward, and not just for PS4. More news on that coming soon! Of course, with refactors this big, there is a chance that new bugs have been introduced. That's why these changes are in the Beta build of Skullgirls 2nd Encore. There are no functional combat changes between Retail and Beta, but we still hope everyone will pop over to the Beta environment to test out these changes and enjoy the smoother multiplayer experience. And should you experience any bugs, these refactors should also make it easier for us to diagnose and fix the issues. Please report bugs experienced either in the 2e-bugs channel in the official Skullgirls Discord OR in the Bug-Reports thread(s) on the Skullheart forums. We monitor those areas constantly for bug reports, so that's the best way to let us know something is wrong. These are exciting times for Skullgirls 2nd Encore as both new characters and the old engine get lots of TLC, and we wouldn't be able to do this without the support of such an amazing community! - Hidden Variable [hr][/hr]

Retail Change Log

Tech

• New Beta logic to allow for separate Retail/Beta builds

Stages

• Fixed lighting bug on Class Notes

Art Gallery

• Added in updated Final Atrium 2D Art
• Added in Boardwalk Stage 2D Art (Prototype & Final)
• Added in No Man's Land 2D Art
• Updated Class Notes 2D Art
• Added Alt Class Notes 2D Art

Beta Change Log

Multiplayer

• Large scale UI refactors to improve reliability of navigating around the game
• Large scale networking refactors to improve reliability of lobbies and quick matches
• Large scale networking refactors to improve reliability of spectating
• Lobby Host now shown in Lobby UI
• Steam Profile Pics reliability improvement

UI

• Fixed stuttering when fast-forwarding credits
• Improved transition from Art Gallery to Main Menu
• Fixed logo screens not being skippable after a certain point
• Other miscellaneous fixes

Sound

• New "Master Volume" control that influences all in-game volumes.
• New "Mute When Unfocused" option that will mute the game when you switch to other programs.

Hello everyone, this is Jesse. I hope you're having a good day! A small patch this morning to fix a few small things from yesterday's big Umbrella release. Hope everyone is enjoying Umbrella! [hr][/hr]

UI

• Fixed Umbrella's icon being missing on the "Trials" screen.
• Remove "Switch to Beta" from the "Help & Options" menu... for now.

After a lot of spit, polish, and more spit (from Hungern), Umbrella's official release is here! Umbrella is stepping out of our "Beta" environment, and she arrives with a bountiful buffet of gameplay and balance adjustments for the rest of the cast. If you've been participating in the open beta, all these changes will be familiar to you. If you've just joined us, or want a refresher on all the things that have changed over Umbrella's development, we've compiled a comprehensive set of update notes. You can view these notes over on the Official Skullheart Forums: Skullheart Forums | Umbrella Release Update Notes Thank you, everyone, for your continued support of Skullgirls 2nd Encore! There's a lot more in store for this year. Be sure to keep an eye on our social media accounts for the latest info on Black Dahlia, including the start of her Alpha period for Season 1 Pass, and the reveal of the final character for the Season 1 Pass! - Hidden Variable (Build version 3.3.22) [hr][/hr] P.S. Included in this update is new content for the Digital Art Compendium (DAC). The changes to the DAC are as follows:

• Addition of Umbrella Character Art
• Character Posters moved to their own folder + Added Umbrella Character Poster
• Boardwalk 2D Image + Concepts added to Environment folder
• Umbrella Frame Dump added
• Added Bubble throw frames for all characters
• PS4 Physical Box Art added to Key Art
• PS4 Physical Manual Cover Art added to Key Art
• PS4 Japanese Physical Box Art added to Key Art
• PS4 Theme Art added to Production Art
• Grand Cathedral Stained Glass Art added to Production Art
• Umbrella Story Mode Content added
• New Umbrella, Parasoul, Cerebella Talking Heads added
• Updated existing Black Egret Talking Heads.

Hello everyone, this is Jesse. I hope you're having a good day! We have a small update here that addresses a notable bug from yesterday's release. We're also adding one of the final pieces of content for Umbrella's full release: her Season 1 Pass exclusive palette! [hr][/hr]

THE BOARDWALK

• Fixes a bug where Boardwalk was causing the game to crash on Mac/Linux.

UMBRELLA

• The Season 1 Pass Exclusive Palette for Umbrella added! Palette 30 - Skullgirl Umbrella
• Special logic for Umbrella becomes active if you use Alt VO and Palette 30 at the same time. Get the full Skullgirl Umbrella experience!

Hello, Liam here. Today's update is one of the final beta mode updates as everything begins to be finalized for release on PS4. [hr][/hr]

THE BOARDWALK

• Umbrella's stage has been updated with a brand new look, complete with new animations and NPCs - check it out!

VISUALS

• Fixed a bug where glows from lightning, flames, and such would still shine even if characters were invisible from being thrown, stuffed in a bag, chewed by Hungern, etc.

UMBRELLA

• Added an alternate voice pack as a Season One pass bonus - Skullgirl Umbrella! (... Her Season One pass bonus palette will be arriving very soon.)
• Salt Grinder (QCF + LP)
  • Redistributed (and lowered) overall damage from grinds during Salt Grinder.
  • Removed assist damage scaling penalty, and removed SATIATED damage scaling penalty.
  • As an assist, Salt Grinder always does the maximum amount of assist grinds possible in previous beta versions.
• Tongue Twister ([Back], F, LP + LK)
  • Redistributed (and lowered) overall damage from chomps from Tongue Twister.
  • Removed SATIATED damage scaling penalty.
• Bobblin' Bubble (QCB + MK)
  • OVERSTUFFED damage increased from 650 to 700.
  • Hunger gain reduced from 1 pip to 1/2 a pip.
  • Will no longer be popped by Umbrella's bubbles created from Under The Weather, Cutie Ptooie, or Wish Maker. Projectiles from other characters (assists) or sources (Retina Reflector) will still pop it as before.
  • Now ignores hits from Ms. Fortune's head when she tags in.
• OVERSTUFFED damage from Hungern Rush increased from 800 to 900.
• Wish Maker (QCB + HK) no longer hits anything but the enemy point character, again. Projectiles and assists will not interact with it. (... This bubble still vanishes if Umbrella is hit, but it will always attempt to favorably trade for a few frames when this happens.)
• Cutie Ptooie (QCB + LK) bubble travels considerably slower. (... This allows Umbrella to more easily move in behind it, control the air space in front of her for a longer time, and gives the projectile more time to ramp up its frame data, which increases the longer it travels as mentioned in other patch notes.)
• Umbrella can only have a maximum of 3 puddles out at once. The oldest puddle is replaced when she exceeds this limit. Puddle lifetime increased from 12 seconds to 25 seconds. (... This gives Umbrella substantially more time to play around placed puddles while making sure she can't coat the entire stage in them.)
• Slurp 'n' Slide activates nearby puddles for the boosted version from slightly further than before.
• Slurp 'n' Slide, when boosted, will now continue to consume any puddles that she slides over.
• Fixed a bug where pushblocking reflected projectiles from Umbrella would push characters the wrong direction.
• Fixed a bug where after reflecting an enemy projectile, allied projectiles could still destroy it despite it being friendly now.
• When Umbrella tags out during a combo, her hunger state will change instead of being locked until that combo ends. (... Ensures that calling an assist will perform the correct hunger state version based on her true hunger level when she tagged out.)
• Updated the visuals on Retina Reflector: Contact Lens, to differentiate the startup from Retina Reflector.
• Fixed a bug where one of the rising hits from s.F+HP could hit tall standing characters.
• Fixed a bug where failing to hit with sHK would cause Bobblin' Bubble and Wish Maker to vanish prematurely.
• Fixed a bug where characters weren't reacting with the proper VO line when caught by Wish Maker, if they were using alternate VO. Alternate VO lines are used for Peacock, Double, and Painwheel.
• Fixed a bug where Slurp 'n' Slide did not have a kara cancel window into Outtake.
• Fixed a bug where starting a chain with sHK at less than 240 Undizzy could cause a burstable Undizzy hit if it crossed the 240 threshold. sHK now sets off IPS and Undizzy on the grab hit, allowing them to burst immediately after being released.
• Minor sound and visual adjustments.
• Fixed a bug where Hungern could vanish during Umbrella's "Feeding Time" Blockbuster.

ANNIE

• Fixed a bug where Meteor Strike scaling while point was errantly removed compared to retail in the last update. (... It does apply forced scaling in retail)
• Meteor Strike scaling is now a flat 70% across the board, with no exceptions based on being used as a DHC or not. (... Up from 45% compared to the last beta update for a considerable damage boost.)

Hello, Liam here. This is a small update which adds the remaining projectile reflection functionality to Umbrella's sHP, and her Retina Reflector blockbuster. This update also adds almost all of Umbrella's palettes! [hr][/hr] Note that even if a projectile is not listed below, Retina Reflector will still absorb hits and usually protect Umbrella from it. If Umbrella is standing behind or inside of Retina Reflector, she will be protected from projectiles that are hitting both her and Retina Reflector at the same time. The most common case for this is against Robo-Fortune's beams, or projectiles with wide hitboxes like Annie's Sagan Beam. If you find a bug with projectile reflecting, please let us know on Skullheart, or in #2e-bugs channel in our official Discord.

UMBRELLA - PALETTES

• Added new Umbrella palettes. Now she has 29! (She will receive one more palette in a later update that will only be available to Season Pass owners, like all other characters.)

UMBRELLA - REFLECTABLE PROJECTILES

• Annie - Crescent Cut, Stars, Gravity Slingshot
• Beowulf - Hurting Hurl (L/M/H)
• Cerebella - Diamonds Are Forever
• Double - Luger, Cattelite Lives, Megalith Array
• Eliza - Throne of Isis, Dive of Horus, cMP [2nd hit]
• Fukua - Forever A Clone (L), Love Art, Blown Kiss
• Painwheel - Gae Bolga Stinger
• Parasoul - Motor Brigade, Inferno Brigade, Napalm Shot
• Peacock - All Georges, sHP [2nd hit], Argus Agony's small bullets, cMK [Ant]
• Robo-Fortune - JHP, Headdrone RAM
• Squigly - Squigly Battle Opera, Inferno of Leviathan
• Umbrella - Cutie Ptooie, Wish Maker, Under The Weather
• Valentine - Dead Cross, Vial Hazard, Checkmate Incision

ELIZA

• Updated palette 18 with a new effect.

Hello, Liam here. This update fixes some bugs introduced in yesterday's patch. [hr][/hr]

UMBRELLA

• Fixed an issue where Slurp 'n' Slide wasn't adding Undizzy or being tracked by IPS.
• Fixed an issue where a single Slurp 'n' Slide could hit twice when passing through a puddle after it hit the opponent.
• Fixed an issue where the camera would pan higher than intended when capturing large characters in Wish Maker's bubble.
• Fixed an issue where Undizzy could activate when Umbrella kicked a puddle with cMK or sMK to start a chain when near max Undizzy.

ANNIE

• Fixed a bug where Annie's Gravity Slingshot would home in on her own height instead of the opponents height.

Hello, Liam here. It's been awhile since our last update! Here's what we've been working on:

• Creating and testing Umbrella's character tutorial and her trials.
• Polishing up the new version of Umbrella's stage.
• Finalizing all of Umbrella's palettes.
• Finishing Umbrella's gameplay, per all of the update notes that you'll find below.

STORY & OTHER

• Added Umbrella's tutorial and her 4 trial combos. Please note that this early release of these features are available in ENGLISH only. Translations are not available in other languages yet, but they will be for the full launch.
• Updated character select UI to make it more clear which characters have alternate VO packs, and how they can be selected.
• Updated key art and cinematic animations in Umbrella's Story Mode. The Art Gallery has been updated to reflect the new art. (Note: Some of the old versions of the art have been archived in the Art Gallery)
• Fixed a bug where some characters weren't visible in Parasoul's Story Mode.

UMBRELLA

One of the larger changes in this update is that Umbrella can now convert from Tongue Twister and ground throw by sliding through a nearby puddle after using Slurp 'n' Slide. As a result of this, her damage had to be adjusted. As part of her general gameplan, Umbrella is encouraged to lower her hunger into the RAVENOUS (red) section in order "cash out" with her full damage from Salt Grinder, and Tongue Twister, which now do reduced damage when starting from SATIATED or OVERSTUFFED. With Cutie Ptooie (L Bubble) being usable without increasing her fullness, and Bobblin' Bubble (M Bubble) having reduced recovery, she should be able to hold her ground a bit better while working on pushing her hunger level towards RAVENOUS. As for her assists, her full assist damage potential (Salt Grinder, Tongue Twister, Hungern Rush, etc) is gated behind intentionally getting her into the RAVENOUS state before tagging out. You'll need to come up with a strategy to accomplish this. Outside of possible last minute tuning, bug fixes, and implementing projectile reflection for more enemy projectiles, this is likely the final version of Umbrella. If you have feedback or discover a bug, please consider posting on our official forums.

• Updates to her voice over have been implemented. Look out for new voice lines, a full audio and volume balance pass, and more!
• Updated the look of some of her palettes already included in the last update. Brand new palettes will be arriving very soon - thanks for your patience!
• Slurp 'n' Slide ([Back], F + MP)
  • Can now slide through puddles to receive a boost in speed, damage, and an alternate hit type. (She trips if doing this while STARVING.) (... This is a pretty large change. Using the boosted version of Slurp 'n' Slide allows Umbrella to convert from new attacks with the right puddle positioning and set up. For example, midscreen combos from ground throw, Tongue Twister, sHP, etc... Due to these new conversions, her damage has been adjusted.)
  • Lowered collision box height while sliding to ensure she can slide under characters without them getting stuck against her, and increased collision box height right before active to help with some corner combo stability.
  • RAVENOUS damage 900 800
  • OVERSTUFFED damage 1100 1000
  • OVERSTUFFED hit launches opponents further and faster.
  • Fixed a bug where Umbrella would slide backwards when landing from Slurp 'n' Slide instead of forwards.
  • Fixed a bug where Umbrella would pass through opponents in the RAVENOUS version before she hit them. This fixes some difficulties hitting some characters in the corner.
  • Increased hitstop on SATIATED and STARVING version to help give more time to confirm into a super on hit.
  • Reduced super cancel duration. (... Super cancel window ends at the point where the new L+M Retina Reflector would have not been a true combo.)
• Salt Grinder (QCF + LP + LK)
  • When starting Salt Grinder in SATIATED or OVERSTUFFED, a 25% and 50% damage penalty is applied on follow-up grinds, respectively.
  • When used as an assist, grinds now have a flat 25% damage penalty, and this replaces previously implemented assist damage reduction, for clarity. This damage multiplier stacks with the damage reductions above.
  • As an assist, Salt Grinder can only grind as many times as she would have been able to if she was point, with respect to being unable to grind further because Hungern is completely full. (... Assist TL;DR - Get Umbrella into the RAVENOUS state and tag out, and then the assist will function as it did before.)
  • Reduced active frames from 5 to 2.
  • Fixed a bug where Umbrella herself did not experience any hitstop on block. Reduced frame advantage on block.
  • The very first grind (left or right) is now buffered like other grinds.
  • Reduced max time allowed between grinds before Hungern automatically spits the opponent out.
• Tongue Twister ([Back], F + LP + LK)
  • When starting Tongue Twister in SATIATED or OVERSTUFFED, a 25% and 50% damage penalty is applied on follow-up chomps, respectively.
  • When used as an assist, grinds now have a flat 25% damage penalty, and this replaces previously implemented assist damage reduction, for clarity. This damage multiplier stacks with the damage reductions above.
  • Increased recovery on Tongue Twister whiff by 7F.
  • Fixed a bug where characters could be hit briefly when Hungern chomps his own tongue pile to begin chewing, if Umbrella was not the point character.
  • Lowered hitbox on the tongue while rolling to prevent it from interacting with certain projectiles.
  • Slightly tweaked character wall bounce velocity.
  • Reduced recovery on success by 2F.
  • Fixed a bug where comboing into Tongue Twister would incorrectly advance the combo stage more than intended.
  • Fixed a bug where you could call assists in the middle of the grab while the tongue was retracting.
  • Added a normal buffer after Tongue Twister ends to help time corner combo follow-ups.
• Hungern Rush ([D], U+HP)
  • Hungern Rush is now strike invincible (can be thrown), instead of fully invincible.
  • Fixed a bug where blocking Hungern Rush grab while rising would not display the new shield block effect, even if you blocked due to rising unblockable protection.
  • STARVING version jump height slightly reduced.
  • OVERSTUFFED version jump height and active frames increased. Removed super cancel window on landing during this version.
  • RAVENOUS version now scales to 55%, like all hit grab style attacks.
  • As an assist, the first hit while rising scales to 55%, instead of scaling to 55% on the second landing hit. (... This reduces the damage to be more in line with other DP assists.)
• Retina Reflector (QCF + PP ... DP + PP)
  • "Retina Reflector: Projection Lens" is now known as just, "Retina Reflector". The physical hit version (DP + PP) is now known as "Retina Reflector: Contact Lens". For clarity, our hope is that referring to them as "Retina Reflector" and "Contact Lens" separately makes it easier to discuss and differentiate between the two moves.
  • Retina Reflector now vanishes if Umbrella is hit with a physical hit or thrown, but not when hit with a projectile.
  • Removed logic where L+M version of Retina Reflector would always shatter if Umbrella was hit briefly after the start up, due to the above.
  • Retina Reflector now vacuums opponents towards the projectile if they are grounded, to prevent them from falling out of it.
  • Various improvements to the reliability of reflecting projectiles as the projectile is spawning.
  • Increased L+M version start up time before active frames begin after the projectile has spawned.
  • Retina Reflector (but not the Contact Lens version) is now projectile invincible on startup. L+M version has more projectile invincibility after spawning the shield. (... Can be used to reliably counter various projectile attacks while leaving Umbrella safe.)
  • Reduced gap between hits against opponents for the ground and air versions.
  • Against airborne opponents, Retina Reflector bounces opponents lower than before.
  • Retina Reflector: Contact Lens damage reduced from 2000 to 1750.
  • Retina Reflector eyeballs now always show veins when they're about to explode, if they're attached to the opponent. (Bug Fix)
  • Fixed a bug where the eyes shooting off Retina Reflector could get stuck on other projectiles and fail to reach enemy character.
  • Increased size of hurtbox (for reflection) and hitbox (for hitting).
  • Adjusted and polished other non-gameplay related eyeball behaviour.
  • Retina Reflector (and sHP) can reflect additional projectiles. More projectiles will be reflectable in the next update!
    • ALL projectiles for Annie, Painwheel, Double, and Fukua. If you can't reflect one of their projectiles, it's probably not going to be reflectable in the final version.
    • Valentine - Air / Ground Checkmate Incision.
    • Robo-Fortune - JHP and Headrone RAM.
• Under The Weather (QCF+KK)
  • There are eyeball(s) inside of the bubbles, and they are looking respectfully. This is just a visual change.
  • No longer uses any randomization for Bubble placement and pathing. It is now the same each time to help set ups stay consistent.
  • Chip damage on regular bubbles reduced from 100 to 75.
  • Damage reduced on regular bubbles from 200 to 175.
  • OVERSTUFFED version now produces larger bubbles that knockdown. Less bubbles are spawned in this version. (12 9)
  • Bubbles now interact with other projectiles and pop when touching them.
• Cutie Ptooie (QCB + LK)
  • There are eyeball(s) inside of the bubbles, and they are looking respectfully. This is just a visual change.
  • Total animation length reduced.
  • The projectile will no longer vanish when Umbrella is hit.
  • OVERSTUFFED version has had its size and hitbox increased slightly.
  • Frame data (which has always scaled based on how long the bubble has traveled) improved for all versions.
  • Bubbles now interact with other projectiles and pop against them.
  • Adjusted launch angle.
  • OVERSTUFFED damage reduced from 650 500.
  • If LK is held throughout the entire animation up to the point where the projectile is created, the butterfly will not be eaten. (... You can use Cutie Ptooie more freely while still trying to increase Hunger, if desired.)
• Bobblin' Bubble (QCB + MK)
  • Drastically reduced animation length.
  • The bubble now vanishes if it goes off screen, or Umbrella is hit. (... This only happens midscreen, since it slides back on screen if it touches the corner.)
  • Slides back on screen faster than before, if it is touching the corner.
  • No longer puts the opponent in preblock.
  • Default damage 850 500. OVERSTUFFED damage 1000 650.
  • OVERSTUFFED hitstop on hit reduced from 24 18.
  • Fixed various visual bugs related to the bubble being inside of Hungern's mouth when created.
  • The projectile will vanish when Umbrella is hit. If Umbrella has already hit it, it won't vanish and continues to pop.
  • Added a normal buffer after Bobblin' Bubble ends to help hit the bubble as fast as possible.
• Wish Maker (QCB + HK)
  • Wish Maker will now pop when touching assist characters, but it will not capture them.
  • Wish Maker will now pop when touching other projectiles.
  • Wish Maker (all versions, before capture) travels a shorter distance before popping.
  • The projectile will vanish when Umbrella is hit, unless it has already captured the opponent.
  • Fixed a bug where Wish Maker would fail to capture opponents if they were too high up when touching the bubble.
  • Fixed a bug where Umbrella would create another bubble as an assist even if one was already out. She now leaves immediately if a Wish Maker bubble is already active, like her other bubble assists.
  • The bubble now vanishes if it goes off screen.
  • Captured opponents will no longer be pushed into the corner, if the corner is already occupied.
  • Fixed a bug where hitting the opponent at the same time the capture naturally ended would cause the hit to not function correctly. (Applies to air throw capture bubble as well)
• sHP (Reflection)
  • Will no longer interact with projectiles that are not reflectable.
  • Removed projectile invincibility on start up.
  • Fixed a bug where projectile reflection continued even after Umbrella was hit or interrupted.
• sHK
  • Damage reduced to 975.
  • Start up decreased by 5F, and she runs and jumps slightly faster.
  • Fixed a bug where under some rare circumstances the follow-up slam hit would not connect.
• Puddles
  • When Umbrella interacts with multiple puddles at once using J[MK], sMK or cMK, only a single splash is created for one source of damage.
  • Fixed a bug where splashing a puddle in the middle of a string could activate Undizzy.
  • sMK puddle splash damage reduced from 600 400.
  • sMK puddle splash range slightly increased.
• Feeding Time (QCB + PP)
  • Fixed a bug where it would not pause the match timer.
  • Fullness increase from chomping reduced from 3 pips to 1 pip. Swallowing the opponent no longer grants any fullness. (... This is meant to help keep Umbrella closer to the hunger state she wants to be in when finishing off a character and preparing to fight the next one.)
  • Bonus RAVENOUS threshold increase granted per eaten character is now 2, instead of 1. This still caps at 3.
  • Added extra water visual effects.
  • Umbrella slides backwards a little bit when firing the opponent out of Hungern.
• Miscellaneous
  • Fixed a UI bug with Umbrella's hunger meter on P2 side.
  • Standardized visual effects on Umbrella's eyes when she activates any Blockbuster.
  • JMP - Hitbox improved, again. In RAVENOUS, it is one frame faster (11F 10F startup).
  • Added VO to Egret Soldier during her timeout animation.
  • JHP - Reduced landing hit frame advantage.
  • Improved visuals on backdash wind twirl.
  • cMP - Increased hitstun by 2F when SATIATED and STARVING.
  • Various other visuals and audio tweaks.

ANNIE

Annie is getting some of her powerful tools back that were adjusted in the last beta update. However, her DHC damage potential is drastically reduced, and her Star Power mode will require more meter commitment to activate.

• JMP behaves as it does in retail, but with two extra frames of recovery.
• Dash speed reverted back to retail values.
• Re-Entry hitstop adjusted from 10 back to 13 on the first two kicks. (... This was just meant to speed up combos, but people preferred the oomph it had before.)
• Expanded air dash backwards collision box to fix a bug where Annie could air dash backwards through a crouching opponent, while technically being grounded.
• Pillar of Creation (QCB + KK)
  • Bonus DHC scaling on the first hit reduced from 70% 40%.
  • Hitpause on the second hit (fist clench) increased from 10 25, when not used as a DHC. (... Enables Annie to confirm at long distances when using Pillar of Creation on point.)
  • Hitpause on the second hit (fist clench) reduced from 10 5, when used as a DHC. (... Annie can't convert easily from fullscreen when this is used as a DHC.)
  • Knockback reverted to retail values, leaving the opponent slightly closer.
• Meteor Strike (QCF + KK)
  • Now applies the same amount of super hitstop regardless of if the opponent is in hitstun or not. Increased hitstop value to 4, up from 2 in the last update. (It is 6 in retail) (... This super can hit characters from longer distances without them having a chance to block or reversal, again, but it's still not quite as good as it is in retail.)
  • Applies bonus damage scaling (45%) when used as a DHC.
  • Damage reduced from 2250 2000. (... These changes are required to prevent Meteor Strike in the corner from being the new DHC Pillar of Creation, in terms of damage.)
• Star Power (D, D + KK)
  • Star Power requires that you have at least two bars of meter to activate. Even to use it as a DHC, you must still have two bars of meter.
  • When Star Power activates, it consumes one bar of meter immediately, up from zero.
  • Since Star Power uses meter to activate, you can now DHC out of it.
  • Stars from Star Power now deal chip damage. (!)
  • Gravity Collapse (D,D+KK in Star Power) now deals a lot of chip damage. (!)
  • Annie displays in front of Crescent Cut when performing the activation animation.
• North Knuckle now performs the follow-up slam on block, on all versions, when used as an assist. However, the H version slam has reduced blockstun and blockstop as an assist, like Big Band's H Brass assist, or all DP assists.

ELIZA

Eliza receives some buffs and quality of life changes. While the power of Sekhmet is reduced, base Eliza's power is increased as a trade off.

• Sekhmet now has a generous buffer when her supers are ending to perform a fast as possible return to the anchor. When returning to the anchor using this buffer, she won't lose life as she retreats.
• Extended the DHC window for Crimson Scourge after Sekhmet dismounts from the opponent.
• Forced scaling applied from Crimson Scourge adjusted to 45%, from 55%.
• If Sekhmet's Carpenter's Axe is blocked (grounded H), she cannot perform Sekhem Rebound (backflip). (... This opens up punishes from previous versions of the game when Sekhmet attempts her fast overhead and it fails. A very well timed throw will grant you a scaled combo (or a counter hit JM in the face if mistimed), or you can attempt an Outtake for a lower risk punish with damage scaling. Sekhmet can still get numerous mix-up attempts or simply retreat to safety using her low (2L) combined with Sekhem Rebound. She can also still use Sekhem Rebound after the slower overhead option, (JM) Ptahxe)
• sHK start up reduced by 3F.
• sHP start up reduced by 3F. (... Note, the above two changes also allow Eliza to chain lights into heavies)
• cHK armor against projectiles starts 4F earlier.
• Fixed a bug where Weight of Anubis (QCF + HK) and Nekhbet Breaker (J.QCF + KK) incorrectly scaled to 50% instead of 55%.
• Throne of Isis (QCF + LK)
  • Hitpause increased by 2F on hit only.
  • Reduced knockback by 20%
  • Slightly reduced the extended hurtbox on the chair, making it less likely to be nullified by opponent attacks.

ROBO-FORTUNE

• Theonite Beam (H) reverted back to retail functionality. It's no longer pulled harshly with the camera.
• Fixed a bug where Robo-Fortune couldn't perform Homing Directory after sHK hit Ms. Fortune and her head at the same time.

PEACOCK

• Reverted all changes back to retail, except:
  • Shadow of Impending Doom (level 2 charge) still has 20 extra frames of recovery, from the last update.
  • Four extra invincible frames from the start up and four extra invincible frames from the recovery of all versions of The Hole Idea (Teleport) are now vulnerable.

DOUBLE

• Cattelite Lives length when used as a DHC lasts for 33F longer.

MS. FORTUNE

• Reverted all changes back to retail.
• Fixed a bug where headless "rekka" moves (Cat Scratch, El Gato, Cat Slide) would not auto correct to face the opponent.

FILIA

• Expanded air dash backwards collision box to fix a bug where Filia could air dash backwards through a crouching opponent, while technically being grounded.

Hello, Liam here. Welcome to day 1 of the next beta balance patch cycle. IMPORTANT NOTICE: As you know, weve been providing fairly frequent updates over the past couple of months. However, in light of the holidays, the next update likely wont occur until late January. Thanks for your patience! [hr][/hr] This first update focuses on the changes that are likely to be the most contentious, to give players more time to adapt and discuss these changes. Since Annie is the newest complete character, she will be the focus for this update. Expect other changes in the future! Also, to make some of these changes easier to read for existing players, we'll be using some community nomenclature instead of some in-game terms for mechanics. (Blockbuster Super, etc)

UMBRELLA

• Fixed a bug where Bobblin' Bubble's bobble jump was not possible.
• Fixed a bug where Cutie Ptooie's butterfly eating was increasing fullness even as an assist.
• Adjusted trip and wallsplat hurtboxes to fix some combos not working on Umbrella.

ANNIE

• North Knuckle
  • As an assist, Annie will no longer perform the follow-up slam on block, unless it's the L version.
  • Hitstop and blockstun reductions for all North Knuckle punches, and follow up slams.
  • Increased recovery of North Knuckle (H) slam. (.. Yes this impacts corner combos)
  • As an assist, the first punch of North Knuckle applies 1 extra hit of damage scaling, like Big Band's similarly hard hitting Brass Knuckles (H) assist.
• Pillar of Creation
  • Moved 250 damage from the first hit to the second hit. (750 500, 1000 1250)
  • On DHC only, the first hit scales to 70%. (The second hit continues to scale to 70% on point just as it did before.)
  • Reduced active frames on the first hit.
  • Increased start up before Super Flash freezes time.
  • Increased recovery, and recovery is increased further if the opponent blocks it. Advantage on block reduced.
  • On DHC, the Super Flash freeze ends slightly earlier, giving the opponent a bit more time to recover or act. (... Note, hitstop was never applied on DHC, but hitstop from the previous super could sometimes carry over. This change makes that less likely.)
  • Second hit has had its hitstop reduced and velocity adjusted.
• Reduced Meteor Strike hitstop if the opponent is not in hitstun, reducing the extreme range that the opponent is completely unable to act before Annie hits them. Combos and conversions should be unchanged.
• Sagan Beam (air version) goes into a vulnerable (but not counter hit) falling state if the opponent blocks it, much like Big Band's Tympany Drive. If the opponent is hit after blocking, she can still act.
• JHP hitbox has been normalized to be more in line with other arcing swing hitboxes like Parasoul, Valentine, etc.
• JHP only spawns stars during Star Power once per jump.
• Reduced JMP hitstun.
• Reduced sMP hitbox to match the art shown during active frames.
• cHP damage adjusted: 1300 1200.
• sHP [2nd Hit] damage adjusted: 700 600.
• s.F+HP damage adjusted: 1500 1300.
• s.F+HP step forward before swinging slightly reduced. (~20%)
• Slightly reduced movement during dash start up, and reduced second phase dash speed by 5%.
• QOL - s.F+MP no longer produces a star during Star Power, allowing her to get the Stagger.
• QOL - cHK in Star Power now has a buffer into sLP, making the link much easier.
• Re Entry has slightly less hitstop than before. (... Mostly intended to speed up her Re Entry combos slightly)
• Fixed a bug where Destruction Pillar VFX could show up in the wrong location for a moment when Annie is thrown.
• Fixed a bug where Annie couldn't cancel cLP into itself during the active frames of the first punch, like every other self repeating normal.
• Fixed an issue where Annie's Destruction Pillar blockstun and hitstop values were not adjusted correctly as an assist, like all other DP assists (Updo, Napalm Pillar, etc). Blockstun and hitstop is reduced across all versions as an assist.

ROBO-FORTUNE

• Increased Instant Air Dash (IAD) lockout from 5 frames to 8 during Systemic Circuit Breaker.
• Reduced Air Theonite Beam (M) bonus recovery speed from Systemic Circuit Breaker. (8F > 5F)
• Reduced knockback on Theonite Beam (M) during Systemic Circuit Breaker, for both air and ground versions.
• Theonite Beam (H), as an assist, will now remain on camera as Robo-Fortune is firing, instead of hiding off camera firing from off-screen if the point character is moving forward quickly.

PEACOCK

• Adjusted "The Hole Idea" (H), AKA "H Teleport"
  • H Teleport will become M Teleport if an assist is being called and has not landed, just as before.
  • However, H Teleport will also now become M Teleport up until:
    • The assist attacks the enemy point character and puts them into blockstun or hitstun. An assist hitting armor does not count.
    • The assist performs their assist taunt and begins to leave.
    • The assist enters hitstun.
    (.. This allows Peacock to switch sides, escape, or combo using the blockstun or hitstun of her assists, but does not allow it before the assist makes contact, outside of a few telegraphed set ups with projectiles.)
• Boxcar George appears 5 frames later into the summoning animation.
• George at the Airshow appears 1 frame later into the summoning animation. (.. These last two changes revert Peacock's M and H George start up back to what they were during Robo-Fortune initial's release patch.)
• If Peacock goes into hitstun at any point during L, M or H George travelling, that George now forces follow-up damage scaling to 70%.
• Shadow of Impending Doom (level 2 charge) lasts for 20 additional frames before Peacock can perform the special move again.

MS. FORTUNE

• Fiber Uppercut (all versions) are now strike invulnerable, and can be thrown.
• Fiber Uppercut (all versions) has no invulnerability when headless.
• JLK - Adjusted animation timing so that Ms. Fortune's leg is stretched out for longer immediately before and after the active frames. Frame data completely unchanged.
• JLK - Adjusted hurtbox to fill in the empty space between her legs.
• JLK - Removed hitbox from the tip of her toes. (.. Ms. Fortune's ever oppressive JLK should hopefully feel slightly easier to contest.)
• Expanded Ms. Fortune's jumping hurtbox while she is tucked into a ball.
• Added hurtbox around her tail below her for the first few frames after jumping off the ground.

Umbrella's Season Pass alpha period has concluded, and she's now entering Early Access! Note that to access Umbrella and any of the Early Access and work in progress features she has to offer, you will still need to launch the game in "beta" mode. You can always access the option to switch from the in-game Options menu. Umbrella and her stage can be unlocked by owning the Season One Pass, or her individual DLC which is now available. Her DLC is also 10% off for the first 7 days of her Early Access launch - act fast! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1744550/Skullgirls_Umbrella/ [hr][/hr]

NEW STAGE + MUSIC

STORY MODE (WORK IN PROGRESS)

UMBRELLA CHANGES

• Added new Umbrella palettes, and more will be added in the future. Note that palette #7 and #8 are unlocked by completing Umbrella's Story Mode and Arcade Mode respectively.
• Added Umbrella's voice lines! These are still work in progress, so expect some of these to change and have more variety (especially with her different hunger states) in other updates.

• Slurp 'n' Slide
  • Start up decreased across all versions.
  • Improved hitbox.
  • No longer trips when Umbrella is in the Starving state.
  • Advantage on block and hit increased.
  • Reduced dismount recovery length.
  • Knockback on block slightly reduced
  • Umbrella now dismounts forwards into the opponent instead of jumping backwards.
  • Satiated version has had its duration shortened, but it moves slightly faster at the beginning of the slide.
• Bobblin' Bubble
  • When attacked, it will now move towards the opponent for a brief moment before popping.
  • Tweaked scale before exploding, which adjusts the hitbox slightly.
  • Hitspark now spawns when attacked by an ally.
  • Will now pop if hit by allied projectiles.
  • Reduced movement speed. (2.85 to 2.0)
  • Reduced up and down sway when moving.
  • Will now sway back onto the screen if it touches the corner.
  • Removed forced scaling.
  • Adjusted block pushback.
• Hungern Rush
  • While Satiated, opponent velocity on landing has been adjusted. In combination with cLK changes below, she can combo on everyone after if OTG is available.
  • Forced damage scaling while Ravenous is now 75%, up from 55%.
  • No longer trips while Umbrella is in the Starving state.
• JLK
  • If Umbrella is rising, velocity change (up and down) is reduced.
  • Increased forward momentum on the kick.
  • Active frames increased by 2F.
• Tongue Twister
  • Reduced recovery by 8F.
  • First active frame hitbox appears further away from Umbrella, increasing immediate range.
  • Umbrella slides back slightly further from the corner if she's too close, helping her position for follow-ups.
• Puddles
  • Will now drop further away from the corner if they're too close. This allows them to always be interacted with using her MK buttons.
  • Increased width and interact distance on Puddles slightly.
  • Randomized art direction on the floor. (Visual change only)
• Hunger Mechanics
  • All hunger changes (except Taunt assist!) are completely disabled if Umbrella is not the point character.
    (...This allows Umbrella to "lock in" a desired hunger level when tagging out, and continue using assists that would normally influence hunger, opening up new team building strategies. As a result of these changes, Salt Grinder and Tongue Twister behave differently when chosen as an assist.)
  • Hunger build over time in all states except Ravenous has been reduced by 25%.
  • Hunger build while in the Ravenous state is reduced by 50%.
  • Hunger build during Wish Maker, Bobblin Bubble, and Cutie Ptooie is locked.
  • Cutie Ptooie bubble hunger build reduced from 1 pip to 0.5 pips.
  • Cutie Ptooie hunger reduction from eating the butterfly increased to 1.5 pips.
  • Reduced hunger build (by about ~25%) on Under The Weather bubble spawning.
• If cLK is performed from a dash, Umbrella will slide into it with a boost of speed.
• Modified Umbrella's dash. Each lunge moves faster, but landing between lunges is slower while she switches legs. VFX updated.
  (... Dashing into attack range from a single lunge should feel more viable, especially in combination with cLK slide. Repeated dashing will still feel somewhat sluggish.)
• Can now have two bubbles (Wish Maker, Cutie Ptooie, Bobblin' Bubble) out at the same time, similar to Peacock's George projectiles.
• Salt Grinder startup is now impacted by hunger state, like every other special. It is slightly slower when Overstuffed and Starving, and slightly faster while Ravenous.
• sMP sliding velocity tweaked. Now travels slightly less far, but velocity is retained again after the hit.
• sHP is no longer projectile invincible during the attack active frames.
• Improved vertical reach and hitbox on sMK splash from kicking a puddle.
• Salt Grinder, Tongue Twister, and Cutie Ptooie can now cancel into Taunt early in the moves to fix Taunt being harder than intended to perform.
• Fixed a bug where Wish Maker would always knock opponents back in the same direction regardless of its facing direction. Also adjusted (fixed) air blockstun velocity.

BEOWULF

• Is also in these update notes?!
• Added missing VO to super jump.

GENERAL BALANCE CHANGES

• Will not be arriving in this update, but should hopefully be arriving before the end of the year!

Hello, Liam here. This update fixes some bugs. [hr][/hr]

MISC

• Fixed a bug where characters would slide around all over the place when grabbed by numerous moves... Whoops!

UMBRELLA

• Fixed a bug where Umbrella's water drip effects on opponents weren't working correctly applied from P2 side.
• Fixed a bug where Under The Weather still required you to have more than one bar of Dramatic Tension to activate, even though it only used a single bar.
• Fix issues with s.F+HP VFX.
• Fixed an issue with Umbrella's shadows during Tongue Twister.

Hello, Liam here. This update adds Umbrella's final special move in addition to a few minor and major tuning changes. Also, ALL of Umbrella's animations should now be fully finished as of this update. If you see any unfinished animations or frames, they will now show up as BRIGHT PINK instead of the usual paper white - please let us know if you see one! We're very close to finishing all of her voice over implementation, but it will not be included in this update. Note: The next update (arriving before the end of the year) will likely be the start of Umbrella's "Early Access" DLC launch. This will contain additional palettes for Umbrella (more will be added over time), her voice acting, a very early version of her stage, and if time serves us well, the start of the general beta balance changes. You can Wishlist her DLC here early if you like! Remember that Season Pass owners already have Umbrella without needing her individual DLC. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1744550/Skullgirls_Umbrella/ Anyway, on to the changes! [hr][/hr] Note: Numerous inputs for Umbrella's moves have changed in this version. Please consult the in-game command list for the latest. KNOWN ISSUES, which will be fixed very soon!

• Overstuffed Hungern Rush doesn't cause preblock, even though it should.
• Umbrella's water dripping effects applied to the opponent aren't working correctly from P2 side.
• Shadows on Tongue Twister don't always match the length of Hungern's tongue.
• Inconsistent combo stage rules from Tongue Twister.
• Some characters do not have fully finished art when captured in Umbrella's bubble, and most characters do not play a VO line when captured.
• Cutie Ptooie takes priority over performing a taunt if the 360 direction passes through the QCB direction. (Please use the opposite 360 direction for now, as you can do it both ways regardless of facing direction. Apologies for the inconvenience.)

UMBRELLA

• Added Wish Maker. (Quarter Circle Back + HK)
  • This move creates a slow moving bubble which captures characters it makes contact with. It can be blocked. The bubble travels further if Umbrella is Overstuffed.
• All bubble creation moves (Cutie Ptooie, Bobblin' Bubble, and now Wish Maker) use K instead of P for activation. (QCB + K)
• Salt Grinder input is now QCF + LP. Her punch special moves now consistently use different inputs. This also removes overlap between Salt Grinder her s.F+LP normal.
• Retina Reflector
  • Projection Lens projectile damage no longer scales as a Level 3 Blockbuster. Physical hit version unchanged.
  • Projection Lens follow-up is now QCF + PP, where the punches used determines Projection Lens distance, similar to Squigly's Squigly Battle Opera. This version has no invincibility on start up.
    • LP + MP - Close Distance Lens
    • LP + HP - Medium Distance Lens
    • MP + HP - Long Distance Lens
  • The input to for the physical hit version is now DP + PP. This version retains invincibility on startup.
  • TIP: Remember that pressing "back" before inputting QCF will prevent a DP motion from being valid. This is helpful to dash into Projection Lens without activating the DP version. Using a half circle input will also take full priority over the DP motion.
  • (... The purpose of these changes are to prevent Umbrella from being able to react to what the opponent is doing during the super flash and pick the correct option to stay safe. Umbrella must commit to the physical hit as a reversal.)
• Under The Weather (QCF + KK) is now a level 1 Blockbuster. Fall speed of Bubbles slightly increased.
• Hungern Rush
  • Now goes more diagonal and further forward while rising.
  • Hitbox greatly improved while attempting a rising bite.
  • All versions are faster.
  • EXPERIMENT: The chomp is unblockable while rising while Umbrella is the point character. This does not apply to assists. No longer triggers preblock.
  • Adjusted blockstun and blockstop while point and assist, separately.
• s.F+LP hitstop increased by 1F. Hitstun increased by 3F. Knockup on air hit is drastically reduced, mostly pulling opponents down for consistent follow-ups.
• JMP hitbox size increased. Now sends opponents at more of a downward angle.
• JLP hitbox size increased.
• Puddles can now be interacted with sooner, fall to the ground slightly faster, and last longer before drying up.
• Starving Tongue Twister tongue can no longer be held. The range is now as short as Overstuffed.
• Tongue Twister has received a small refactor to accommodate its fully completed animation frames. Please let us know if you see any issues.
• Bobblin' Bubble jump now creates a puddle where it happens. Fixed bugs and tuned visuals related to Bobblin' Bubble jump.
• Adjusted frame data on s.f+HP when stagger is already used. This also fixes a bug where the hitstun bar would not be visible in training mode.
• Fixed a camera position issue with Salt Grinder.
• Slightly extended how long Hunger gain over time is disabled after landing Air Throw and Ground Throw.
• Slightly tweaked VFX when Hungern's state changes.
• Fixed a bug where the frame data display in training mode could have red active frame squares visible at all times with Umbrella.
• Added VFX to s.f+HP to communicate charge level.

Hello, Liam here. Happy November, everyone. Today's update includes two new moves for Umbrella. [hr][/hr]

OTHER

• Hopefully resolved an issue where save data and progress was not being saved when the game was closed.

UMBRELLA

• Added another Blockbuster, "Under The Weather". (QCF+KK) [Level 2]
  • You can influence the direction of the storm and bubbles by holding forwards or backwards.
• Added another Special Move, "Cutie Ptooie". (QCB+LP)
  • The frame data of the bubble improves the longer it travels before touching an opponent.
  • Fullness added from Hungern eating the butterfly is increased if Hungern is Starving. This will pull him out of the Starving state into the Ravenous state, but you're vulnerable during the animation.
• sHP now reflects projectiles back at the opponent, if you can time it correctly. (... please note projectile reflection only works against Peacock at the moment as we iron out any bugs with the system.)
• Umbrella can now perform a unique "Bobble Jump" off of Bobblin' Bubble. She can jump in three directions, and steer her jump afterwards until she lands or attacks.
• Bobblin' Bubble (QCB+MP) is now slightly slower as it moves forward.
• s.F+LP active frames increased by 2F. Recovery reduced by 2F.
• sLK hitstun increased by 3F. Recovery increased by 2F. (... now combos into Starving and Overstuffed sMP and cMP.)
• sMP slides much farther forward while attacking. The slide stops on contact with something.
• Fixed a bug where cHP cancelled into Hungern Rush could start a new combo chain if a jump cancel was performed between them. (... now uses the same rules as Parasoul performing cHP cancelled into Napalm Pillar.)
• jHP (while Overstuffed) now has a fixed jump velocity and cannot be influenced. (... velocity is the same as if you were holding forward during it before.)
• Reflected projectiles can now be reflected (infinitely) back and forth if Umbrella is on both teams. (... please note projectile reflection only works against Peacock at the moment as we iron out any bugs with the system.)
• Fixed two bugs with Retina Reflector's projectile reflection VFX. Now only appears if a projectile is properly reflected, and in the correct position for P2 side.
• Hungern Rush adds one pip of fullness on successful landing, and it applies the wet dripping effects like her other eating grab moves.

Hello, Liam here. Today's update focuses on fixing some bugs with Umbrella. Also, the integration of Umbrella's VO is going well, but it will not be included in a build until it is fully finished. [hr][/hr]

UMBRELLA

• If a character swallowed from Feeding Time (Lv3) is no longer dead (often triggered by training mode settings, or a solo vs solo down period), Umbrella will be forced to perform her taunt for Hungern to spit up the character. (... Yes, this prevents all the fun training mode stuff, but it kept getting reported as a bug. It also fixes a soft lock during 1v1 downs.)
• Added a new reflect effect when Retina Reflector's Projection Lens reflects a projectile. (... Note: This doesn't work correctly for projectiles that aren't currently reflected, so this will only work correctly for Peacock right now.)
• Fixed a bug where Hungern Rush could release opponents the wrong way after the throw finished.
• Fixed a bug where Hungern Rush would always do the boosted damage from the Ravenous version even in the Satiated state. (... Final hit damage reduced from 1000 650)
• Fixed a bug where Feeding Time (Lv3) errantly triggered preblock, preventing it from throwing opponents holding back. (Whoops!)
• Salt Grinder now causes preblock, and the recovery of Tongue Twister no longer triggers preblock.
• Fixed a bug where Bobblin Bubble could be out multiple times under some circumstances. She can now only have one out at a time, as intended.
• Fixed a bug where only 1 bar of Dramatic Tension (meter) was required to Blockbuster Sequel (DHC) into Feeding Time (Lv3).
• Adjusted the priority order for Umbrella's special moves. The order in highest to lowest priority is now [Down Up Charge > Quarter Circle Back > Back Forward Charge.]

Hello, Liam here. This update includes 2 new moves for Umbrella, and includes all of her remaining sound effects! [hr][/hr]

RETAIL MODE

• Fixed an issue where Peacock's frame data on Lonesome Lenny was not consistent between P1 and P2 side. In order to adjust this as safely as possible, the recovery of Lonesome Lenny has increased by 2 frames, but hitstop has been adjusted accordingly to keep things as close as possible to the previous version. This is live immediately for PC tournaments.

UMBRELLA

• Added Umbrella's Level 3 Blockbuster, "FEEDING TIME".
  • A fast long range command grab that deals more damage the hungrier Hungern is.
  • If it kills an opponent, they will be swallowed*. Each swallowed opponent expands the threshold for activating Ravenous mode by 1 pip.
  • Swallowed opponents are spit up when Umbrella dies, or when she performs her taunt. (Her taunt is now her default win pose if Hungern has eaten someone.)
  • * I am required by the narrative team to mention that Hungern does not digest people and kill them. Hungern is MERELY PRETENDING to eat you alive - don't worry about it.
• Added another Special Move, "Hungern Rush". You can pick this one as an assist!
• Added unique frames for when Hungern is Overstuffed.
• Added new food items for Hungern to eat during his feeding intro animation.
• All of Umbrella's sounds have been added, hurray! (Voice acting is in the recording and integration phase. Thank you for your patience.)
• Fixed a bug where Umbrella could block hits without reacting to them during the recovery of her back dash, and the recovery of Slurp 'n' Slide when Overstuffed.
• Fixed Slurp 'n' Slide adding incorrect Drama (Undizzy) values.
• s.F+HP now has a max charge time before it is forced to release.
• Fixed the ground slam hit on sHK interacting with assists.
• Hungern no longer makes idle sounds when dead, or when the round is over.
• Most of Umbrella's throws involving Hungern apply wet dripping effects to the opponent now.
• Assists can no longer set off Projection Lens to fire the eyeballs forward.
• Added new effects (and sounds) for when Umbrella changes between various hunger states, for clarity.
• Slurp 'n' Slide and Bobblin Bubble can now be used as assists. (Hungern Rush too!)
• Bonus damage from sHP when Overstuffed now only activates once per combo.
• Crouching height reduced. (... She can now duck H Beam, avoid Robo-Fortune / Squigly rising jLP, etc.)
• sMK puddle splash hitstop increased by 1F to combo into s.F+HP again.
• Bobblin' Bubble adjusted to always be in front of the point character, even when Umbrella is no longer point.

PEACOCK

• Fixed a bug where the newly adjusted "Bang Bang Bang!" (QCF HP) projectiles would still keep their hitbox when destroyed in some circumstances.

CEREBELLA

• Fixed an issue where under the RAREST of circumstances, Cerebella's Grab Bag could fail to kill the opponent by releasing them early.
• Fixed an issue where performing a whiffed air normal into a double jump could cause instant jMP to knock an airborne opponent down as if it was chained into. (... Cerebella's double jump now restarts a chain correctly. Cerebella players, feel free to make sure this didn't adjust any of your tech)

SOUND

• Fixed a bug where the Wall Splat sound could be cut off by other sounds.

STAGES

• Added a proper banner for Umbrella in NMO Arena. The old temp art (pictured below) has been retired:
  

Hello, Liam here. Today's update adds two new moves to Umbrella's moveset.

Slurp 'n' Slide

Bobblin' Bubble

GENERAL

• Fixed some issues with the back stage banners on NMO arena not being properly aligned with some characters.
• In training mode, health settings have been split into "Health Level" (1-100%) and "Health Setting" (Refill, Start With, Hold). (... For example, you can now quickly set the health to 20% and then prevent it from refilling, instead of needing to set it to 20%, unpause, pause again, then adjust the health back to "Normal"... )

UMBRELLA

• Added a new Special Move, "Slurp 'n' Slide", performed with (B), F + MP.
• Added a new Special Move, "Bobblin' Bubble", performed with QCB + MP.
• Retina Reflector's projectile, "Projection Lens", now reflects Peacock's projectiles back towards her. This impacts H Bang, sHP, Argus Agony, L/M/H George, and most importantly, her ant spawned from cMK. Projectile reflection ONLY works on Peacock at the moment as a test. If there are no bugs, reflection will be added to work with other projectiles in future updates.
• Umbrella's temporary frame color has been changed from blue to white, like paper.
• Fixed Tongue Twister not always rewarding the opponent with a counter hit if she is interrupted.
• Lowered pushback on L and M Projection Lens hits.
• Projection Lens expires faster when Umbrella is not the point character.
• Fixed a bug where Tongue Twister's tongue could get behind Umbrella if the camera moved very fast while she was performing it as an assist.
• Tongue Twister tongue now stops when it hits the corner.
• Adjusted hit type, hitpause, and velocity on sHP. (Satiated, Ravenous, Starving)
• Fixed numerous issues where Lenient Button Dash was not working correctly for her.
• Fixed a bug where the puddle interactions with sMK and cMK could have the splashes face the wrong direction.
• Projection Lens (light version only) will vanish if Umbrella is hit before it goes active.
• Ground Throw (single chew) launch trajectory adjusted to combo into Projection Lens.
• Greatly reduced blockstun on sMK puddle splash.

PAINWHEEL

• When Painwheel performs a Fly (air or ground) that causes her turn around to face her opponent, air Buer Reaper is locked out and can't be performed for 7F to prevent K normals from activating Buer using the same quarter circle that was used to input fly.
• The 8F buffer that applies to her air normals at the start of Fly now also applies to Buer Reaper. (...Fly into instant Buer is more reliable and won't give you a buffered normal if you're early.)

BEOWULF

• The crowd yells even louder along with Beowulf's hits during his double snap combos.

PEACOCK

• Fixed an issue where Peacock's projectiles from sHP and H Bang wouldn't be cleared if they were hit at the same time as another projectile. (...This most commonly comes up when Robo-Fortune's Beams will not destroy them if they hit George at the same time.)

Hello, Liam here. Today's update is mostly focused on bug fixing and tweaks to Umbrella's latest HUD updates.
[hr][/hr]

UMBRELLA

• HUD - Adjusted Starving glow animation.
• HUD - Fixed numerous issues with Umbrella's HUD on Player 2 side.
• HUD - Adjusted transition animation when Ravenous becomes Starving.
• Reduced c.MK and s.F+HP blockstun advantage.
• Umbrella's normal move names on Character Select now correctly list the command in them.
• Adjusted training mode Hunger level settings to line up with her new HUD style.

MISC

• Fixed an issue where the Character Select timer was in the wrong location.
• Stagger Recovery is set to "ON" by default in training mode.

Hello, Liam here. Today's update includes some new moves for Umbrella, and various bug fixes and game improvements.

KNOWN ISSUES:

• Valentine's Level 5 can cause the game to abruptly close. (Fixed in 3.3.6.1, which is now live if you're reading this!)
• Umbrella's HUD isn't working quite right on P2 side.

VFX

• When characters are suffering from bright hit visual effects, they will now emit a flickering light. This includes Parasoul and Squigly's fire, Annie's space dust, and Robo-Fortune, Valentine, and Umbrella's electricity.

UMBRELLA

• After player feedback, we've decided to try out some updates to Umbrella's HUD. In this build, Umbrella's HUD bar is now "fullness meter" instead of the previous "hunger meter". It now drains over time, and the location of the Ravenous and Overstuffed sections have swapped. We've also made some general improvements to it for clarity. After everyone has a chance to play with it, we're earger to hear your feedback! This is by no means final yet - we're just trying this on for size to get feedback on both approaches.
• Added a new optional follow-up to Retina Reflector (formerly Super Move A) performed holding LP, MP, or HP. This will fire a projectile called Projection Lens. NOTE: We hope to have this eventually reflect projectiles back towards the attacker, but this mechanic is not ready yet. For now, it blocks projectiles and prevents Umbrella from getting hit if she is standing behind it.
• Retina Reflector non follow-up hit recovery greatly increased. Damage reduced from 2500 2000.
• The puddle spawned from Air Throw's bubble can now be interacted with using cMK, sMK, and JMK. She will have more ways to create bubbles and puddles with her future moves.
• Some work in progress unique sounds have been added for Umbrella. Expect new sounds and sound tuning to be arriving with future updates.
• Updated move names (character select) and her command list.
• Adjusted the hit effect and damage (1300 1400) for sHP during Overstuffed state.
• Fixed a bug where some effects spawned from her Hunger states were happening while she was dead.
• Fixed an issue where Tongue Twister (formerly Special Move A) would miss thin characters if performed very close to them.
• Slightly improved dash speed.
• sMK active frames reduced from 3 to 2.
• Slightly reduced start up of Starving and Overstuffed light attacks. (cLP, sLP, sf+LP)
• Air Throw now places the opponent in IPS Stage 2 instead of forcing Stage 3. Damage reduced from 750 500.
• Adjusted Fukua's Air Throw bubble pose. The old one is used for only one of her palettes.
• Air Throw has a rare chance to do something...
• sHK Changes:
  • Increased start up by 4F.
  • Increased punishable landing time by 4F.
  • Adjusted landing location on success.
  • Is no longer an overhead.
  • Blockstun advantage considerably reduced.
• Hungern always closes his eyes when he is dead.
• Fixed an issue where two Hungern's were visible when Umbrella was thrown by some characters.
• Hurtbox adjustments to be more in line with other characters:
  • OTG hurtboxes vertically and horizontally extended.
  • Air hitstun shape adjusted to extend towards the attacker.
  • Knockback hurtbox extended towards attacker.
  • Standing hitstun hurtboxes increased towards the attacker by a few pixels to make sure Ms. Fortune's sHP x L Fiber Upper works on her.
• Air chains now allow JLP JLK, and JMP JMK. Chain type is LL MM H.
• Fixed a bug where cancelling into a Special Move when landing from JHP at the right time could leave her floating a bit above the ground.
• Fixed a bug where JMK would adjust her air momentum even if she didn't hold it. Float descent speed slightly decreased.
• Fixed a bug where Super cancels were possible from Salt Grinder (formerly Special Move B) before they were spit out.
• Salt Grinder now spits the opponent out lower to the ground if Stagger is already used.
• Salt Grinder has more recovery on success.
• Fixed a bug where Salt Grinder directional grinding inputs were less responsive than intended after the previous update.
• sf+HP (Cliff Hanger) is now an overhead when partially or fully charged.
• Salt Grinder hitbox size reduced.
• Tongue Twister (formerly Special Move A) can now be used as an assist. Thank you for waiting!
• Salt Grinder, Air Throw, Ground Throw, and Tongue Twister correctly build meter for both teams.

PARASOUL

• Napalm Pillar camera shake slightly increased on hit to allow the stage and its NPCs to react. Parasoul was the only character who couldn't activate this, but now she can!
• Fixed a few minor edge cases where Napalm Shot would not place a tear on contact with another projectile.

ANNIE

• Fixed a bug where Sagan could be seen twice when Annie was crossed up during her walk backwards.

ROBO-FORTUNE

• Reverted Beta change where Catastrophe Cannon would stop hitting after she DHCs out. (It was causing issues with some projectiles - we'll try again for a future update!)

MISC

• Fixed some issues with Annie's portrait on her HUD on MacOS and Linux.

Hello everyone, this is Jesse. I hope you're having a good day! Today's update is a render-code-only change. With the help of the wonderful Skullgirls Community, who did some quick testing with me, we believe we've got a fix for the character color tinting issue. So yeah, another super small patch, but don't worry, more Umbrella content is right around the bend. Check out what's coming soon in this forum post! [hr][/hr]

GENERAL

• Fix for issue where characters would flash or get stuck tinted different colors.

Hello everyone, this is Jesse. I hope you're having a good day! Today's update is a render-code-only change. We're trying to pin down the cause of the recent issue where characters will flash or get stuck tinted to different colors. If you are able to reliably cause the issue to occur, we'd love to hear from you! You can reach out to HVS about bugs via: - The #2e-bugs channel on the Skullgirls Discord - The Skullheart Forum's Bug Report Thread Thank you everyone for your patience as we're trying to address this issue! And don't worry, more new content for Umbrella is coming down the pipe! Check out what's coming soon in this forum post! [hr][/hr]

GENERAL

• Rolling back some render code changes to try and isolate the cause of the recent character color tinting issues.

Hello everyone, this is Jesse. I hope you're having a good day! We have a small update today adjusting balance and a few bugs. [hr][/hr]

UMBRELLA

• Better aligned Umbrella when captured by Valentine's ground throw.
• Fixed a bug where Taunt wouldn't work unless Umbrella had at least one bar of Dramatic Tension.
• Special Move B no longer sets of "Blockbuster KO Finish" effects.
• Fixed issue where some palette effects (Poison, Fire, Electricity, etc) were incorrectly masking if there was an Umbrella on each team.
• Added chip damage to Special Move B and Super Move A.
• When Hungern is Starving, Umbrella will slowly lose red life.
• Special Move B teeth grinding won't start if you are already holding a direction.
• Special Move B teeth grinding can be performed with LP and HP in addition to tapping left and right.
• Adjusted the color of Hungern's eyes during the Starving state.

BIG BAND

• Fixed a bug where H Brass Knuckles was missing a hit sound effect in retail mode.

HUD

• Fixed an issue where the veins in Hungern's eye in Umbrella's HUD could get stuck in an incorrect state.

GENERAL

• An attempted fix for a bug some players experienced where characters would flash different colors during gameplay.

Hello, Liam here. This update is focused on fixing bugs and issues. Changes are below... [hr][/hr]

UMBRELLA

• While the tongue from Special Move A is rolling out, it will destroy projectiles it collides with.
• Temporarily disabled Umbrella's additional taunt effect that would adjust her Special Move A functionality. This will likely return later.
• Taunt now builds Hunger over time instead of all at once, and it builds less Hunger overall.
• Fixed a bug where JLK could cancel into Air Throw at any time.
• JLK adjusts upwards and downwards momentum further along in the animation compared to before.
• Fixed a bug where hitting Umbrella as she caught the opponent with Special Move A's tongue would not release the victim.
• Fixed a bug where heavy air normals were building incorrect Drama (Undizzy) values.
• Fixed a bug where her Burst was not correctly tagged as a Counter Hit state.
• Fixed a bug where some of Umbrella's effects would not be adjusted by vibration during heavy hitstop.
• Umbrella's dash jump speed has been increased by 10%.
• All chewing and chomping (Throw, Air Throw, Special Move A and B) can now kill the opponent and will play their death scream, instead of waiting for them to be spit out.
• Air Throw will no longer trap dead characters in the Bubble.
• Fixed a bug where cHK would spin characters around during blockstun.
• Umbrella starts with 4 hunger pips, down from 5 and a half.
• JMP hitbox extended slightly downwards, to reliably hit all characters crouching if she is in the Ravenous state, as originally intended.
• Adjusted Hungern's eating intro animation.
• JLP now hits Big Band while he's crouching even if she is rising, but it is still mid while rising against all other characters. [spoiler]Sorry Ben... she learned this one from her sister.[/spoiler]

BIG BAND

• Fixed a bug where H Brass Knuckles hit sound effect was not playing.

It's finally time... everyone's favorite salty sister is playable for the first time in Skullgirls!
As is tradition, Umbrella will be arriving in an unfinished state with some work in progress "sketchy" frames. Keep an eye out for frequent updates during this "Alpha" as we work on finishing her up.

HOW TO SELECT UMBRELLA

As mentioned before, characters in their Alpha phase are currently only available to Season 1 Pass holders. If you don't own the Season 1 Pass DLC, you won't be able to use Umbrella yet. Lucky for you, it's on sale right now if you still haven't picked it up! This launch celebration sale will only last until Tuesday September 7th, so don't delay.

Once you have the Season 1 Pass DLC, launch the game in BETA mode by pressing the green PLAY button on Skullgirls 2nd Encore from your Steam library page, then selecting "Skullgirls Beta (Umbrella Alpha)". You can also launch the game in BETA mode by navigating to the in-game Options menu, and pressing "Switch To Beta". [spoiler](You can also use the -beta Steam launch option, if you prefer.) [/spoiler] In BETA mode, you can pick Umbrella on the character select screen as normal! Linux Users: The In-Game "Switch To Beta" functionality is not working. We hope to address this for the next alpha build, which will be very soon. In the meantime, you can launch into Beta mode using the Steam Launch Options OR using the "-beta" in the launch arguments.

WHEN CAN I BUY HER DLC SEPARATELY?

Once Umbrella's Alpha phase is over, her individual character DLC will go live in Early Access on the Steam store. This will allow you to play Umbrella during her Early Access Beta phase without owning the Season 1 Pass. A character's Alpha phase is over once they have voice acting integrated, unique sound effects, and all of their attack animations fully complete.

HOW COMPLETE IS UMBRELLA?

Umbrella has almost everything functionally integrated except for several of her Special Moves and Blockbusters. During the Alpha period, expect to see ~5 new Specials and ~2 new Blockbusters added to her arsenal. We will also be tuning and polishing her visuals and existing toolkit over the coming months. Note that Umbrella's hunger mechanics will take some extra time to tune until it's feeling just right, so expect to see plenty of changes, as they are currently work in progress. We'd love to hear your feedback on how she's shaping up (and any bugs you've come across), so don't be shy in joining the official Discord (discord.gg/skullgirls) and the official forums (skullheart.com)!

WHEN WILL UMBRELLA BE FULLY RELEASED?

Umbrella is slated to have her full release on Steam, PS4 and Mobile in 2021. The other characters in the Season 1 Pass will follow in 2022. We can't get too specific with our planned dates quite yet, but stay tuned for more info!

WHAT ABOUT OTHER BALANCE CHANGES AND OTHER STUFF?

At the moment we've got our hands full with finishing Umbrella, but non-Umbrella related changes will be arriving at some point in the future. That said, there are some changes in this build that were finished a long time ago, so these will be included in BETA mode:
• ANNIE - Throw range slightly reduced.
• ANNIE - JHK no longer refreshes OTG (Off The Ground) when it connects outside of Star Power.
• ROBO-FORTUNE - Catastrophe Cannon (all versions) will never hit and consume a team's assist action after Robo-Fortune exits the screen when performing a Blockbuster Sequel (DHC).
• ENGINE (ALSO RETAIL MODE) - Hopefully resolved a low level issue where some VFX and projectiles would not vanish at the right time. This was most common on Mac and Linux with Squigly's jMK and cHP, and Valentine's tag-in curtain. This should hopefully also resolve any remaining desyncs between versions when playing online.

PLATFORM AVAILABILITY

We know plenty of you are clamouring for information on Umbrella and the Season 1 Pass's release on other systems, so here's a mini-update on those fronts:

What about Nintendo Switch or ?


Unfortunately due to unique technical complications regarding the Nintendo Switch port, we still can't provide much information on when the Season 1 Pass will appear on the system. We will provide an update as soon as we have an updated timetable on Switch availability. We are not planning on releasing any future updates for the Xbox 360, PS3, or PS Vita versions.

What about Xbox One / Series X?


We are still interested in bringing Skullgirls to the Xbox One / Series X in the future, but we do not have any further details we can share at this time. Stay tuned!

WRAPPING UP

We cant wait to hear your thoughts on Umbrella now that she's finally made her big (alpha) debut! Thanks so much again for all of your support, and stay tuned here and on our social media pages (Twitter, Facebook) for the announcement when the update is live. The Skullgirls Launch Party never ends! <3 All of us at Hidden Variable and Autumn Games

Hello everyone, this is Jesse! Hope you're having a good day! Today we have a small functionality patch for Skullgirls 2nd Encore. This is addressing a couple of crash bugs and some achievement issues. We hope this will smooth things out a bit for everyone, especially with the finals for Skullgirls Championship Series Summer Blockbuster this weekend! It's an exciting time for Skullgirls! [hr][/hr]

General

• Two crash bugs have been addressed.

Achievements

• The Beau-coup de Grce achievement has been adjusted so it will only prompt steam overlay updates if you gain progress on the achievement.
• You can no longer gain progress with the Beau-coup de Grce achievement while spectating an online match.

Hello everyone, this is Jesse! Hope you're having a good day! We've released a small, content-only patch for Skullgirls 2nd Encore. [hr][/hr]
The Skullgirls Championship Series has made its way to New Meridian. The NMO Arena has been decked out in full SGCS regalia and is ready to host the Skullgirls Championship Series Summer Blockbuster in just a few weeks. You can play this new stage variant, the SGCS Arena, right now in Skullgirls 2nd Encore! [hr][/hr] (Build version 3.2.1.1)

It's been a long journey, but after months of testing and tuning, the official release of Annie of the Stars is finally here! And as much as Annie loves the spotlight, this update also comes with a mountain of gameplay and balance adjustments for the rest of the cast. If you've been participating in the open beta these changes will be familiar to you, but if you've just joined us, or want a refresher on the staggering amount of updates that have been made, we've compiled a comprehensive set of update notes, which you can view over on the Official Skullheart Forums: Skullheart Forums | Annie Release Update Notes We couldn't be happier with how Annie and this first major update to 2nd Encore has turned out, so thank you to everyone who's supported and continues to support us in this new era of Skullgirls! Keep an eye on our social media accounts for the latest info on Umbrella and the other characters in the Season 1 Pass! -Hidden Variable

Hello everyone, this is Jesse! Hope you're having a good day! This is a small patch meant to address a few bugs from 3.2.0. As we lock things down for Annie's final release, we felt it was worthwhile to get these bug fixes out sooner rather than later. As a reminder, Annie's final release (and her departure from Early Access) will coincide with her full release on PS4. On that day, the last piece of Annie's remaining content, her story mode, will be released here on Steam. After all, we know how hard it is to dodge spoilers on the internet these days. The full update notes for this version are below! [hr][/hr]

General

Beta Mode Disabled

Linux Build Restored

Misc

• Restored one of Double's talking heads that somehow slunk away.
• Localization and translation bug fixes in Trials, Tutorials, and a few other places.
• News Feed bug fixes.
• The buildings in the background of the Medici Tower stage should be rendering properly again on OpenGL platforms (Mac/Linux).
• Small texture updates to Medici Tower, both 3D and 2D.

Characters + Gameplay

Big Band

• Satchmo Solo (Lv. 5) will always wall bounce the point character on the last hit, even if the final hit is the only hit.

Parasoul

• Krieg's eyes are a proper purple color for Parasoul's Palette 25 on character select again.

Annie

• Annie's stage, Sound Stage 15, changes to 2D mode when that option is selected.
• Annie's command list is accessible from the Command List menu.
• sf+MP - Andromeda and sf+HP - Luminous Supergiant appear properly when being set as the assist actions in character select.

Hey everyone! Today's update is aimed at getting everything as ready as possible for Annie's impending release on Steam (beyond her current Early Access form) and PS4. Her full release on Steam, which includes her Story Mode, is still planned to be released alongside her big debut on PS4. As such, the Beta character and balance changes are now part of the main "Retail" version, and the Beta version of the game has been temporarily retired. (The Beta mode option will return once Umbrella enters her alpha phase sometime soon.) The full update notes for this version are below! [hr][/hr]

NEWS FEED

TUTORIALS + TRIALS

• Added Annie's tutorial and 4 trials. (Note: Per community feedback, Annie's trials maybe a bit more challenging than other trials, as they are focused on giving players full combos that are both practical in matches and also show what she is capable of. Please let us know what you think!)
• Updated tutorials for Eliza, Robo-Fortune, and Beowulf, to teach their new mechanics.
• Updated Eliza's AI.

GAMEPLAY

• As mentioned above, all Beta character changes are now live in the main version of the game. The beta mode has been retired.
• The Hurting is no longer invisible on Beowulf's back if it returns to him while Beowulf is performing chairless jHP or sHP.
• Updated the position of the " Leader " text above the lifebars to its intended location.
• Fixed a bug where Big Band's 26th palette wasn't unlocking correctly.
• Fixed a bug where Painwheel, Beowulf, and Robo-Fortune could lenient button dash immediately after absorbing a hit with armor to avoid damage.
• Updated the layering and masking on Annie's ground throw so the opponent is correctly inside Sagan's mouth before the hit is delivered.
• Fixed an issue where Double was not using the latest reversal timing out of blockstun, hitstun, and wake up. Her buffer windows are now the same as other characters.
• Fixed an issue where button dashing while leaving hitstun or blockstun could unreliably give a normal over a dash.

MISC

• Added NPCs to the background of Annie's stage, Sound Stage 15!
• Updated the city background at the top of the Medici Tower stage.
• Added a "Practicing New Characters!" lobby title.
• Added a -screenCapture launch option which will hide "Beta" and "Debug Key Slow Mo / Paused" text, and will hide the green playback arrow during Dummy playback. (This is for use when recording videos or taking screenshots.)
• Fixed a TON of translation and localization issues across all languages.
• Fixed a few issues with tutorials.
• Fixed Double's command list referring to being able to do Cilia Slide by pressing F + KK.
• Fixed some fights in Story Mode and Challenges where Peacock would accidentally use Charged Shadow of Impending Doom over Shadow of Impending Doom.
• Hopefully fixed an issue where a lobby name could display as LobbyName0.
• Fixed floating character sigil art on P1 side during a solo vs solo on character select.
• Fixed an issue where some of the UI screens related to lobbies could overlap each other.
• Added and adjusted words in the "Typing Of the Skullgirls" game mode.
• Updated credits.

SKULLHEART

Hello, Liam here. This is a small update that focuses on some final polish. This is likely the final gameplay and balance related update before Annie's full release. [hr][/hr]

PALETTES

• Updated Parasoul, Peacock, and Cerebella's palettes that reference Annie of the Stars to have their colors more closely match that of Annie. Also, some effect colors (and other cool things you will want to look for...) have been updated for these palettes. Note, these palettes are NOT updated on character select or in the retail version of Skullgirls. This a beta only update for these palettes while we test them out.

ANNIE

• Bonus hitstop on Crescent Cut (M) is also now applied to airborne targets. (... Most notably, she can now link into sLK against airborne opponents.)
• Fixed a bug where Annie's jMK gave meter gain equivalent to a light normal, instead of a medium normal.
• Star Power activation input is no longer valid if a forward input is between the two down inputs.

BEOWULF

• The Hurting will now correctly appear on Beowulf's back if it returns to him while he is performing chairless cHK or cHP.

PEACOCK

• Fixed a bug where Peacock's sword during Bang! (M) would become detached from her gun if it was countered by Annie's taunt. (... This required a large refactor of how this move is displayed, please let me know if you see anything strange with it!)

VALENTINE

• Valentine's Savage Bypass adjustment from last update no longer applies to the air version of the move. Only the ground version will make sure to create a hitbox if it touches the corner. (... This change was primarily focused on preventing Savage Bypass assist failing to spawn a hit sometimes, but not change what corner routes are possible or stable. The air version may be adjusted again in a future update as "Quality of Life" improvements, but this is too risky to leave in for now.)

Hey everyone! While there have been no shortage of updates as of late with the recent Umbrella announcement and various Beta mode updates on Steam, with the end of May right around the corner, we wanted to quickly provide some updated info regarding when you can expect the full DLC (including Story Mode, etc) to be live on Steam and PS4.

SO, ABOUT MAY

WHY THE DELAY?

WILL STEAM GET THE DLC UPDATE FIRST?

WRAPPING UP

Hello, Liam here. This update focuses on some final Annie tuning, and other changes. As a heads up, this is likely one of the last beta mode updates before Annie's official release. [hr][/hr]

ALL CHARACTERS

• Added "Lenient Button Dashing" for all characters. When using two punches to dash, you can now press those two punches one frame apart instead of needing to press them on the same frame. (... Over a thousand changes all for one bullet point! Please let us know if you see any strange behaviour surrounding dashing with any character.)

ANNIE

• Simplified JHK assist call rules - can now call assists at any point during JHK.
• Annie will now forget her Re-Entry sequence and go back to the first kick if she DHCs out and the combo she was involved in ends. (... Fixes some confusing sequences where Annie immediately performs the third Re-Entry kick on incoming.)
• When cHK connects against Sekhmet, she will omit the follow up swipe to provide a more consistent conversion like all other characters.
• sHP hitbox slightly improved.
• sHP start-up reduced by 1F.
• sMK active frames reduced from 6F to 4F.
• sMK recovery reduced by 5F. Hitbox and blockstun adjusted to maintain previous frame data on hit and block.
• sMP start-up reduced by 2F.
• sMP active frames reduced from 3F to 2F.
• sLK hitbox improved.
• sLK first two hits pull the opponent in closer, and the pull in effect has been increased.
• sLK pulls the opponent down quicker on the final hit.
• Adjusted eye patch star, and projectile star colors for better visibility on palettes #19, #25, and #26.
• Crescent Cut (L) knockback slightly decreased.
• Crescent Cut (M) knockback vs air slightly decreased.
• Crescent Cut (M) bonus hitstun vs air from the previous update has been reverted. General hitstun has been increased by 1F on both air and ground instead.
• Crescent Cut (H) knockup slightly decreased.
• Crescent Cut (H) hitstop increased by 2F. Hitstun increased by 3F.
• Star Power passive meter drain over time greatly reduced. Now drains 1 bar every 15 seconds, previously 1 bar every 10 seconds. (... Annie can play a bit more patient in neutral without bleeding too much meter, and getting hit leads to a smaller amount of meter lost over the course of the combo.)
• Fixed a bug where Sagan would not inherit effects like Valentine's poison when separated from Annie.
• Fixed VFX bug with tag-in.

BEOWULF

• Beowulf's collision box is extended forward during Hurting Hurl (M and H), to prevent him from stepping out of throw range.
• EX Hurting Recall can no longer be reflected, like other Hurting hits.
• EX Wulf Blitzer damage reduced, it now deals damage equal to half way between the last and not-last hits of the regular non-EX version.
• Improved visibility, brightness, and contrast of Beowulf's most recent #28 palette.

DOUBLE

• Fixed an issue where Double's outtake would not always wall bounce the opponent when appropriate. (... This was especially noticeable when Double uses an outtake on Sekhmet.)

ELIZA

• Fixed a bug where Eliza would not play her death KO scream when dying in Sekhmet form to an armor breaking move.

MS. FORTUNE

• Fixed a bug where JHK would still hit overhead when chained into even after using the recently adjusted "Instant Double Jump Cancel" technique.

PARASOUL

• Attempt to fix Parasoul's version of "huggies" - Egret summons and Napalm Shot now must end in a forward input (not down forward) if Parasoul has recently used a forward dash. (... Dashing into cLK or cMK shouldn't give Egret, most notably.)
• Fixed a bug where Parasoul was unable to use Egret Summons while a Napalm Shot was traveling on screen.

PEACOCK

• Fixed a bug where Peacock's "George's Day Out" assist would build meter even if could not throw it because George was already on screen.

VALENTINE

• Fixed a bug where Savage Bypass would sometimes fail to produce any hitbox if Valentine touched the corner as the hit should have been delivered.

Hello everyone, this is Jesse! I hope you're having a good day! This is a small patch for a few issues discovered with the Season 1 Pass Palette Pack update. [hr][/hr]

ANNIE

• Annie's HUD Portrait has been touched up to address an issue with her sleeves.
• An errant black frame in Pillar of Creation has been fixed.

BEOWULF

• The collar color on the new Season 1 Pass Palette Pack palette (#28) has been updated. This affects both Retail and Beta.

In case you missed our Teaser Trailer FINALLY, everyones favorite salty sister is getting her time in the spotlight! Ice cream for everyone!

GAMEPLAY SYNOPSIS

WHEN? WHENNNNN?!!

BONUS: SEASON 1 PASS PALETTES - NOW AVAILABLE!

2ND ENCORE + SEASON 1 PASS SALE

STAY TUNED FOR MORE DETAILS!

Hello, Liam here. This is a small update that introduces the Season 1 Palette Pack, exclusive to the Season 1 Pass. You can read more about in our recent announcement. This update also sneaks in a few extra changes for gameplay tuning, but the rest of the changes will be arriving later. [hr][/hr]

ALL CHARACTERS

• Anyone who owns the Season 1 Pass on Steam now has access to one more palette color for each character. If you don't own the Season 1 Pass, it's on sale right now!

ANNIE

• Crescent Cut (M) and (H) have 5 extra frames of hitstun against airborne opponents.
• Crescent Cut (H) knocks the opponent back slightly less far compared to before.
• Fixed a bug where Annie's jMP would sometimes prevent the opponent from pushblocking it.
• Photo Bop (QCB+PP during Star Power) now scales as a level 5, instead of a level 3, greatly increasing its damage at high scaling.

VFX

• Based on community feedback, the new shield block indicator has been adjusted to be more visible. Its size, animation timing, color, and lighting have been tweaked.

MS. FORTUNE

• If Ms. Fortune double jumps within the first two frames of her leaving the ground, her air normals will hit mid for the remainder of the jump. (... This removes her "IDJC" jLK mix up, but keeps "IDJC" usage in combos (where it is considerably easier to execute) the same as before.)

VALENTINE

• Vial Hazard type C (Orange Vial) no longer drains at half speed when Valentine is being hit. (... It will now always vanish in the usual 8 second duration instead of sometimes lasting up to 16 seconds if Valentine is hit. Managing to hit Valentine with input delay isn't met with this punishment anymore. Both players should be able to more accurately estimate when the effects will wear off while hitting her.)

Hello, Liam here. This update is focused on Annie and Beowulf tuning. [hr][/hr]

VFX

• You are performing what is known in the community as "absolute guard" (pushblock high, switch guard to low, or vice versa), and use it to protect yourself from a high or low hit.
• You jump a command grab and are hit with a "unblockable while rising" style attack (Magnetic Trap, A-Train, Excellabella, etc) shortly after, allowing you to block it when you normally can't.
• You activate high low unblockable protection and are protected from blocking the second hit without needing to switch your guard manually.

ANNIE

• Adjusted the presentation and visuals for Annie's "Sagan Beam" super. With this, all of Annie's visuals are complete. (... If you're enjoying Annie's over the top effects, make sure to send a huge thank you to @Persona for putting these amazing visual updates together!)
• Reduced recovery of North Knuckle (H) follow up slam slightly. Provided a small buffer into normals after to make heavy links not 1F timing on characters like Big Band and Double. (... Still requires her to be a bit closer to the corner to convert after on average, but shouldn't remove any of her previous corner routes which were more flexible.)
• Ground throw damage increased from 900 to 1300.
• Pillar of Creation second hit hitstop increased, and it now launches heavier characters higher (... She always has enough time to convert from anywhere even after using OTG now. For example, Meteor Strike Pillar of Creation Dash Combo.)
• Reverted meter drain during Star Power to one bar every 10 seconds, instead of one bar every 7 seconds. (... The previous Star Power jHP meter drain increase does enough here without this.)
• Annie now keeps the majority of her momentum again after ending her Air Dash without cancelling it.
• Gravity Collapse (Star Power deactivation) damage increased from 1350 to 1600.

BEOWULF

• EX finishers activated from hype gained in the same combo (see previous patch notes) now deal 70% of their original damage, up from 50%.

Hello, Liam here. This update focuses on more Beowulf and Annie tuning, primarily. Also, while the qualifiers for the Skullgirls Championship Series were last weekend, this weekend it's time for the MAIN EVENT!
Make sure to tune in tomorrow, Saturday April 24th at 1PM PT to catch the action on https://www.twitch.tv/SkullgirlsGG. [hr][/hr]

ANNIE

• Massively overhauled the presentation and audio for Annie's air throw, "Gimbal Lock".
• Updated jMK VFX, again.
• Updated autograph picture presentation during "Photo Bop".
• sF+HP (Forward + HP) animation timing slightly adjusted so that Annie gets to an identifiable frame quicker, so players can notice the overhead is coming.
• sF+HP used to have Annie slide on one foot forward before delivering the hit, despite her not changing animation frames. This was adjusted so her footing and movement are in sync. For gameplay impact, she travels slightly less farther forward before delivering the hit.
• Updated hit and whiff sounds on sF+HP to be more dramatic.
• Fixed a bug where Annie could get stuck tilting left or right when using Re Entry.
• Fixed a bug where sF+MP wouldn't stagger if used immediately after Crescent Cut from a previous chain.
• Annie's air dash correctly adjusts momentum when it ends without her cancelling into an action, like all other characters.
• North Knuckle (H):
  • The wall splat only happens once per combo, like other non Blockbuster wall splat moves.
  • Reduced the knock back against assists when using the follow up slam even further.
  • First hit damage reduced from 700 to 650.
  • Increased recovery on slam follow up on successful hit to require Annie to be closer to the corner to convert. (... If you want more time for follow up options or dashing up to the opponent after, use North Knuckle (M) instead.)
• Adjusted jHP hitbox. (Small reduction)
• Adjusted jLK and jMK hitbox. (Improvement)
• Pillar of Creation knocks opponents higher, but no longer drains meter. The screen flash during the grip has been removed.
• Re Entry first and second kick damage reduced by 100. Final kick damage increased by 100.
• When using jMK immediately after jumping and performing an air dash, Annie's air dash lockout period is much longer than usual. (... This prevents low to the ground air dash jLK from hitting crouchers - she doesn't need this fast overhead option)
• Sagan Beam damage per hit reduced from 290 to 250.
• Star Power passive meter drain increased from 1 bar per 10 seconds to 1 bar per 7 seconds.
• Star Power jHP meter drain increased by 2% of 1 bar.
• Ground throw recovery increased by 9F. (... Universal throw confirms midscreen are still easy, try using Crescent Cut M if you weren't already)

BEOWULF

• Fixed a bug with Wulfshoot where universal throw unblockable protection that allows characters to block Excellabella, A-Train, H Buer, etc, while rising, would only activate once where Beowulf starts Wulfshoot. It now activates as Beowulf moves, preventing unblockables that could be set up by starting Wulfshoot from anywhere but a close distance.
• Chip damage when blocking normals without the chair reduced from 50 to 35 damage.
• Held s[LP] hype build slightly increased. (1/40 each frame to 1/35).
• Taunt grants three hype immediately again, just like in retail. Recovery slightly increased from last update, but total recovery is less than retail still.
• Taunt gains 3 hype in the middle of Beowulf's howling, rather than at the end. (... Hint: sHK [Stagger] Taunt [Get 3 Hype] Gigantic Arm is practical [Solo!] to build 3 hype and combo after if you spend the bar... Getting interrupted with a projectile is also less likely to prevent Beowulf from getting 3 hype. This might be too strong, we'll see!) Beowulf gaining 3 hype on his own and being able to combo after, in addition to him being able to acquire hype more easily, comes with some changes:
• Hype acquired mid combo from s[LP], Taunt, or non-EX finishers (and any hype acquired in the same combo afterwards), will make any EX finisher it is spent on deal half damage. This does not apply to Super finishers, and it does not reduce Geatish Trepak's damage since it's not boosted during the EX version. TL;DR - Spending hype gained mid combo on EX finishers does less damage. (... EXAMPLES: If you have two hype, and gain one hype in a combo from taunt, then your first two finishers in the combo deal full damage, but the last one will deal half... If you have one hype, and taunt to gain two more hype, then your first finisher deals full damage, and the last two will deal half damage... If you start a new combo, none of this applies.)

ELIZA

• Reduced variance in how far away the blood spawned from Sekhmet's new super can land.

PAINWHEEL

• Fixed a bug where Painwheel couldn't fly around during the mid round downtime of a solo vs solo match, like she could in Retail.
• Added "Lenient Button Dashing" for Painwheel. Two punch inputs can be pressed one frame apart while still getting a button dash. (... This change will continue to be rolled out for more characters in the future, as stated before.)

ROBO-FORTUNE

• Warranty Extension starts self inflicted damage at 300, and increases self inflicted damage by 100 for each head consumed, maxing out at 1000. (... Now that she cannot regain the health since the damage provides no red life, this should feel appropriately fair for 3 meter while still making sure attempting to stay in Circuit Breaker indefinitely is very costly and risky.) So far, feedback seems to indicate sHK feels fair for the defender and the attacker, and people seem to be enjoying it. So, continuing the trend of improving sHK as serviceable overhead after her loss of IDJC overheads, here are a few more changes:
• Overhauled the presentation for Robo-Fortune's new homing jump after sHK.
• Fixed a bug where Robo-Fortune couldn't perform her new homing jump when hitting sHK in a reset after using it in the previous combo.
• Removed animation recovery added when the opponent blocks sHK, it now only plays on successful hit against the point character.
• Tuned sHK blockstun and recovery. With the above changes it is now -13 on block. (... Certainly punishable up close, and punishable from far away by various character specific tools.

Hello, Liam here. This update is ONLY for the championship_series branch, to be used with the upcoming Skullgirls Championship Series tournament happening tomorrow (Saturday, April 17th) at 4PM PT [hr][/hr] Note, this update contains NO gameplay balance changes.

BETA MODE

• "BETA" text from the top of the screen has been removed in this build, even when in the Beta version of the game.

ANNIE

• Updated Annie with all of her latest VFX and audio improvements from 3.1.16. This includes Re Entry, JMK, and Crescent Cut.

Hello, Liam here. The bulk of this update is about improving Annie's visual effects and presentation on some of her moves. As a separate reminder, the sign-ups for the first event for the Skullgirls Championship Series close in less than 4 hours. If you still haven't signed-up (for FREE) for a shot at this event's prize pool - get on it!
REGISTRATION & INFORMATION: https://smash.gg/tournament/spring-blockbuster-skullgirls-championship-series Just looking to spectate? Make sure to tune in April 16th for the qualifiers on https://www.twitch.tv/skullgirlsgg, and watch for updates on https://twitter.com/skullgirlsgg. [hr][/hr]

ANNIE

• Fully overhauled the visuals, audio, and presentation of Annie's "Re Entry" special move.
• Brightened Crescent Cut's visuals.
• Adjusted and brightened jMK's visuals.
• Adjusted sf+HP's hitbox to more closely match the art. This was a slight hitbox reduction.

ROBO-FORTUNE

• Robo-Fortune's sHK can now cancel into a jump that chases after the opponent when they hit the wall. Hold up or up forward after the hit to perform it. This requires and spends one of her heads. (... For context, this was meant to be Robo-Fortune's new universal overhead option that allows for combos after her loss of vastly superior "IDJC" overheads originally in the first beta update, which I know some players are sad about her losing... Since the work for this was already done months ago, and enough people have been asking us about it, we're going to try it for at least one patch. This is still WIP and very experimental, so don't get too attached to it!)

Hello, Liam here. This update is actually TWO updates for the (free) price of one. Wow! The first update, v3.1.14, is now live in the beta version of Skullgirls that you've been playing with so far. It contains ongoing balance changes for some of Friday's new additions. The second update, v3.1.15, is now live in the championship_series branch. Per community feedback, this is the version of the game that will be used for the upcoming Skullgirls Championship Series qualifiers on April 16th, and the main event on April 24th. You can access it by right clicking "Skullgirls 2nd Encore", then going to Properties... then Betas, then selecting it from the drop down.
Note: The championship series will be held in the "Annie Early Access" version in the championship_series Beta branch, which means Annie will be available for tournament play. Make sure the version number on the lower right of the title screen says 3.1.15 - that means you're in the right place! If you still haven't gotten around to registering yet (it's FREE!) for a shot at this event's prize pool of $2,500, get in quick - sign ups for the first event close in 3 days! With a total series prize pool of $17,500, the sooner you start competing, the better your chances at making it into the final Skullgirls 2021 Championship event. REGISTRATION & INFORMATION: https://smash.gg/tournament/spring-blockbuster-skullgirls-championship-series/details Now then, on to the update notes... [hr][/hr]

VERSION 3.1.14 (BETA)

• Adjusted Annie's North Knuckle Slam for strengths M and H against Big Band so that all hits of Sagan Beam connect afterwards.
• Adjusted Annie's Pillar of Creation knockup height and delay on the second hit.
• When Valentine performs Counter Venom as a DHC, she always delivers the level 1 strength of the loaded Vial Hazard instead of the currently loaded strength.

VERSION 3.1.15 (CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES)

• Adjusted Annie's North Knuckle Slam for strengths M and H against Big Band so that all hits of Sagan Beam connect afterwards.
• Adjusted Annie's Pillar of Creation knockup height and delay on the second hit. The following changes need more time to be tested before they're viable for tournament play, so they are reverted for the Championship Series build only.
• Reverted Beowulf to his retail (not beta) version.
• Reverted Valentine to her retail (not beta) version.
• Annie's Pillar of Creation no longer drains the opponent's meter.

Hello, Liam here. This is a small update that focuses on fixing a few bugs and issues. [hr][/hr]

GENERAL

• Fixed an issue where Annie could DHC out of Pillar of Creation before the projectile spawned.
• Fixed an issue where Beowulf's newly added double snap crowd sounds would trigger on Ms. Fortune's head.
• Beowulf's EX Chair Recall special does not break armor anymore.
• Fixed an issue where Beowulf maintained two hype when performing a double snap.
• Fixed an issue where EX Chair Recall would cancel assist actions.
• Fixed an issue where sHK would not build 1/3 hype when staggering the opponent unless it was the first sHK used in a combo.
• Fixed an issue where Big Band's level 5 wasn't wall bouncing opponents correctly, even if it hit the point character.
• Fixed an issue where Valentine could use Counter Venom in the wrong direction as a DHC.

Hello, Liam here. This update focuses primarily on Annie and Beowulf, and has some other adjustments along with it. [hr][/hr]

ANNIE

• Now hits the opponent twice, holding the opponent in place for a much longer time allowing for full conversions from anywhere on the screen.
• Now deals less damage.
• Adjusted hitboxes to hit higher up.
• Now has hitstop until the active frame on point only, preventing the opponent from using a reversal to escape if they were in the middle of something. You can block before it hits as long as you weren't performing an action.
• The second hit from Pillar of Creation will drain 1 meter from the opponent if it hits the point character. This value is halved when used as a DHC.

• L version keeps the opponent close, allowing for confirms. Deals low damage. Safe on block.
• M version behaves like the previous version of North Knuckle's Slam. Deals less damage than H.
• H version is now a wall splat. ... (This brings an entirely new type of conversion assist to the table for team building. It can help you convert off almost all projectiles (Beams, Dead Cross, Napalm Shot, Bombs, etc) with ease, build midscreen resources (Robo heads, midscreen Vial Hazard TK Bypass...), and just generally adds great damage. This assist may be toned down in the future, but for now it's the full package.)

• Adjusted sMP hitbox slightly downwards to hit all characters OTG.
• During Star Power, jHK's star will only ground bounce the opponent up once per combo. ... (This only triggers if the blade touches the opponent, so you can still get a second ground bounce from a stray jHK star confirm.)
• Fixed a bug where Sagan Beam would pull Peacock's Lonesome Lenny the wrong direction towards Annie if Lenny was facing the same direction as Annie.
• Reduced recovery of cMP and tuned hitstun and blockstun now that it is not her stagger button. Still -2 on hit. It's now -5 on block, previously was -6.
• Slightly extended Gravity Collapse DHC window.
• Updated attack FX colors on Annie palettes 18, 27, 28, and 29.
• Fire themed palettes (8, 17, and 28) light the opponent on fire (instead of creating sparkles) when hitting with her normally purple galaxy style attacks.
• Added sounds to Gravity Collapse.
• Tuned FX stars spawned from jLK.
• Annie builds meter during Star Power if her assist is caught in a double snap, instead of losing meter. ... (This is required, or else the optimal thing to do is the longest double snap combo imaginable to drain her meter to zero.)
• Greatly reduced hitstop on block for Destruction Pillar.
• Adjusted Annie's OTG hurtbox to prevent her from falling out of some combos, like Squigly's Throw Silver Chord.
• Dash start up speed (before Sagan's jets are active) slightly reduced.
• Adjusted Annie's position when hit with knockback style attacks to prevent some Annie specific combo drops.
• jHP stars during Star Power last for 3 less frames before fizzling out and losing their hurtbox. Stars from jHP and sHP have had their blockstun reduced by 7F and hitstop reduced by 2F.

BEOWULF

• Provide more consistent hype gain per combo.
• Open up new ways to spend hype.
• Narrow the gap in team effectiveness between picking resource building assists that revolve around taunt, and those that don't.

• Fixed a bug where moves that spent more than one hype would display the wrong color flash on Beowulf.
• Entering grab stance in the middle of a combo will advance the combo stage to at least combo stage 3 and begin building Undizzy. Grab stance combo starters (Throw, Chairless sHP, Wulfshoot, etc) still start at combo stage 2.
• Beowulf's taunt effect has changed. It now buffs his next non-ex grab stance finisher to build 3 hype immediately if he has less than 3 hype, even if he has already used an ex move in the same combo. It will also build 1 hype if he has less than 1 hype. Taunt recovery reduced by 17F.
• Added EX Chair Pickup for 3 hype, (Down, Down + KK) which pulls the chair towards Beowulf and delivers a hit if opponents happen to be the in way. Beowulf can hold K to continue the stance, catching The Hurting when it arrives, which builds 1 hype.
• Added Sound Stage 15 to the list of stages that support Beowulf's crowd cheering.
• On stages which have the crowd and audience present (NMO Arena, Innsmouth, Sound Stage, etc), the crowd will now yell along with Beowulf's hits during double snap combos that he starts. The crowd will go crazy if Beowulf finishes it, and be disappointed if he drops it. ... (I miss seeing all of you at offline events and screaming screaming "AY AY... AY!" along with you all during double snap combos, so this will do for now... ;_;)
• Added a version of EX Blitzer, as an experiment. Press KK or PP during Wulf Blitzer to spend 1 hype to perform another normal Wulf Blitzer. With 3 hype, you can do up to 6 Blitzers. This EX version ignores the blockstun reduction rule that usually comes with using the last Blitzer, so Forward, Forward, Forward, EX + Down will still be -2. EX Blitzer can also be used 5 frames earlier from the previous Blitzer compared to the non-EX version.
• Gigantic Arm min scaling increased to 45%, from 27.5%.
• Mic Drop (hold sMP) now builds 1/3 hype once per combo, up from 1/4.
• When sHK staggers the opponent, it builds 1/3 hype once per combo. ... (Beowulf can now build 2/3 hype every confirm, greatly increasing hype gain.)

PEACOCK

• Peacock's "The Hole Idea" (H) behaviour has been reverted back to the retail version. She can teleport behind the opponent after her assist has touched the floor again.
• Bang! (M) recovery has been greatly reduced, but still has more recovery than retail. Blockstun has been reduced. Now -16 on block, but with much faster recovery on whiff and will feel less sluggish.
• Bang! (M) knockback distance reverted to retail values, allowing corner wall bounce confirms from the same distance.
• Peacock has received significant combo damage reductions via reduced damage on her normals. She now deals average combo damage (relative to the cast) using her previously optimized midscreen and corner combos. All of her zoning damage and zoning chip damage tools are the same as before.
• All versions of Shadow Of Impending Doom now scale to 60%, previously 80%.

ROBO-FORTUNE

• Reverted all Theonite Beam hitbox sizes back to their retail versions.
• Air L Theonite Beam during Systemic Circuit Breaker knocks grounded opponents slightly higher and closer towards her.
• Fixed a bug where Air L Theonite Beam in Circuit Breaker against grounded opponents wasn't activating her once per combo beam rules.
• Ground L Theonite Beam in Circuit Breaker pulls opponents closer to her the closer she is to them. From far distances, it will push the opponent away instead.
• Circuit Breaker beam damage reduced from 1100 to 1000.
• Robo-Fortune can double jump again during the first two frames of her jump, but all air normals will hit mid for that jump after.
• Warranty Extension damage is all non recoverable. Damage increased from 750 1000. Timer extension reduced from 6s 5s. ... (In light of the recent changes that made every Circuit Breaker timer second longer than a normal human second, time added from Warranty Extension even at 5 seconds is still even longer than time added previously at 6 seconds. 450 frames [current] vs 432 frames [first version])

BIG BAND

• Level 5 will only wall bounce characters if it successfully hits the the point character.
• Fixed a bug where taunted Tympany Drive was more safe on block than expected. The final hit of Tympany on BLOCK now properly applies hitstop on himself, keeping the frame data the same as the non taunted version.

CEREBELLA

• Follow up hits from jLP are no longer buffered, reverting them back to the way they were in retail instead of being buffered. The first follow up hit on jLP is still buffered a bit, but not as much as before.

ELIZA

• Sekhmet's Backflip health cost increased from 600 800.

FILIA

• Fixed a bug where Filia could button dash directly from a low to the ground air dash when using the new lenient button dash addition.

MS. FORTUNE

• Fiber Upper's hitboxes were ever so slightly extended forward around opponent head height to hit standing Annie and Cerebella during combos.
• Fixed a bug where some moves had one extra frame of unintended recovery when they ended. Applies to sHK, Cat Call, and Cat Scratch.

SQUIGLY

• Squigly Battle Opera hits function as they do in retail now, and the previous changes have been reverted. ... (Making Squigly Battle Opera use the new logic without removing any of the old SBO conversions that players were using earlier isn't possible, so we're erring on the side of not breaking anything people are used to.)

VALENTINE

• Can now DHC into Counter Venom if she has Vial Hazard loaded. This DHC version has different properties then when used on point. It has increased recovery on block, it is not invincible on block or plus on block obviously, it deals less damage, and it doesn't automatically upgrade her loaded Vial Hazard to level 3.

VFX

• Reduced intensity of white palette flash on characters when recovering from hitstun.
• Removed green faint tint when characters exit a Reaction Shot (pushblock) with blockstun remaining. This puts us back to the retail behaviour.

Hello, Liam here. This update reverts the previous beta mode patch, rolling back to v.3.1.10. [hr][/hr]

ANNIE

• Reverted VO lines back to what they were previously.

Hello, Liam here. This update focuses on improving the game immensely. As such, we're rolling out some new changes. [hr][/hr]

ANNIE

• Adjusted Annie's VO for a more pleasing gameplay experience.

Hello, Liam here. This small update focuses on Annie's VFX and a small Peacock adjustment. [hr][/hr]

ANNIE

• Fixed a bug where North Knuckle's new VFX could get stuck on Annie in some instances.
• Added in some new VFX when certain purple "galaxy" attacks connect with the opponent, and made some small tweaks to Destruction Pillar VFX.

PEACOCK

• Removed new assist lock out from last patch while George from "George's Day Out" is active.

Hello, Liam here. This update focuses on bug fixes and gameplay tuning. [hr][/hr]

GENERAL

• Fixed a bug where you could see players using the wrong Annie palette in game if you didn't own the Season Pass or Annie's DLC.
• Fixed a bug for MacOS where using the in-game "Switch To Beta" or "Switch To Retail" logic wouldn't close the already running instance of the game.

ANNIE & PEACOCK

• EXPERIMENT - When using Annie's "Crescent Cut" or Peacock's "George's Day Out" as an assist, assist calls will be locked until one second after the projectile has hit or vanished.

ANNIE

• Added VFX for North Knuckle, and updated VFX for Destruction Pillar. More VFX updates will be arriving in the future! =)
• Reduced knockback on cHP against airborne opponents and slightly increased opponent only hitstop to leave them closer for easier confirms.
• Crescent Cut (L) accelerates much faster than before.
• Crescent Cut (M) hitstop increased by 2F, allowing links into LK buttons after and helping with OTG confirms that use it such as after Throw or cHP.
• Annie's ground dash starts picking up speed sooner than before, and is also ever so slightly faster.
• Added additional effects and sound to Annie's dash to make it clear when you've held it long enough for her to reach her full dash speed. This mechanic already existed, but now it's more obvious when it activated.
• While in Star Power, creating stars costs slightly more (~1% more per star) meter.
• While in Star Power, meter drains at full speed even if Annie is in hitstun now.
• Fixed an issue where Annie could get an unintentional flipped Special or Super input after landing from Re Entry for 1F if she had to turn around.
• Adjusted animation on Annie's falling knockdown to loop properly.
• Removed a floating hurtbox from one of her knockdown frames.
• Fixed a bug where Annie's 29th palette was missing her space effects on Destruction Pillar and Pillar of Creation.
• Fixed a bug where Annie could slide forwards or backwards during grounded Gravity Collapse.

DOUBLE

• Slightly increased knockback (-10 -12) and reduced knockup (13 12) on Double's Luger Replica (L) against airborne opponents so that she must be closer to confirm off the OTG hit.

ELIZA

• Fixed a crash involving Sekhmet.
• Improved effects when collecting blood as Eliza.
• Sekhmet doesn't slide back as far when her armor is broken by an armor breaking move, and she bounces slightly higher.
• Sekhmet correctly bounces when her armor is broken by Annie's cHK, allowing Annie to combo again.

FUKUA

• Ground Throw and Platonic Drillationship (M) behave as they do in the Retail version of Skullgirls again.

PAINWHEEL

• Refactored Hatred Guard again to resolve a inconsistencies when returning Hatred Guard damage back to an assist and point character on the same hit. (Please let me know if you see any issues with this one!)
• Hatred Guard armor ends 1F after the first active frame if a normal is fully charged, rather than lasting several frames after compared to the last Beta update. (Exception: sMP has Hatred Guard armor through all active frames if fully charged)

SQUIGLY

• Can now always use Fallen Woman (Divekick) after Air Throw, even if she's extremely close to the ground. This fixes some instances where you can't combo from it, in Retail.
• Fixed a bug where Squigly's "Rage of the Dragon" required both charges to be performed as a DHC. It now only requires one charge when done as a DHC, just like the requirements to use it while point.
• Inferno Of Leviathan no longer knocks down airborne opponents, reverting back to its previous Retail logic. NOTE: I'm keeping an eye on Squigly Battle Opera knockdown changes, but with the way the wind is blowing, it's likely it will be reverted back to Retail logic as well to make sure her old use cases aren't removed.

Hello, Liam here. Today's update focuses on some more Eliza tuning for the weekend, and a Painwheel bug fix. [hr][/hr]

Eliza

• sMK damage increased from 175, 175, 175, 250 to 225, 225, 225, 325. (1000 damage total)
• Sekhmet's back flip input is now relative to her facing direction, like Specials and Supers.
• Sekhmet can back flip multiple times per outing again.
• Back flip life cost increased to 600 from 550.
• Back flip auto corrects on start up to make sure she always jumps away from the opponent.
• Speed at which Sekhmet's health loss over time ramps up has been increased by about 15%. (Remember, successfully hitting the opponent with any Sekhmet attack resets the health drain back to the minimum of 1 life per frame.)
• Sekhmet can no longer recall to the anchor from a blocked hit anymore. (Reverted to retail logic)
• Sekhmet no longer makes blood when attacking dead characters.
• Sekhmet blood healing increased back to 200, from 170. (Reverted to 3.1.6)
• Sekhmet heals for 75% of the damage dealt from her new super, and it creates 8 drops of blood again, up from 6 in the last patch.
• If Sekhmet is hit with an armor breaking move that pulls her in towards the attacker (Robo-Fortune's cMK, Double's Cilia Slide...) or Beowulf's L Hurting Hurl, she will retain the original hit launch trajectory instead of overriding it.
• Fixed a bug where Eliza could collect blood while offscreen, such as right when she's snapped in.

Painwheel

• Fixed a bug where Painwheel would only return stored Hatred Guard to an assist, if she hit an assist and the point character at the same time. Now, both characters receive bonus Hatred Guard damage.

Hello, Liam here. This is a small update that addresses some things from the patch yesterday. [hr][/hr]

Squigly

• Numerous improvements were made to improve the consistency and reliability of Squigly Battle Opera compared to the previous update. Most notably, it will hit quickly against OTG opponents to pull them off the ground. (Note, there will still be some expected differences between what is or isn't possible between Retail and Beta)

Fukua

• Adjusted trajectory and recovery of ground throw (again) to prevent unintended follow ups on many characters from the previous changes.

Ms. Fortune

• Fixed a recently introduced bug where Ms. Fortune couldn't attack an opponent as they were being bitten by her head during Om Nom Nom,

Hello, Liam here. This update focuses on bug fixes and gameplay tuning. [hr][/hr]

Annie

• Fixed a bug where Annie could perform Re Entry low enough to the ground for a hit not to come out.
• When using JHK in Star Power, OTG is no longer restored for the opponent if they are hit.
• Fixed an issue where performing a low to the ground JMK could advance the combo stage for IPS earlier than expected.
• Added more variance to Annie's JHP voice lines when used after an Air Dash. When used during a normal jump, followed by another Air Dash Cancel JHP, she will still always say "Rolling" followed by "Maneuver".
• Fixed an inconsistency between P1 and P2 side when using JHP against Valentine.
• Star Power no longer drains meter during the down period of a 1v1.
• Fixed an issue where Annie would stand up too quickly after Beowulf's Canis Major Press, making Beowulf -1 on success.

Eliza

• sMK damage reduced from 300, 300, 300, 400 to 175, 175, 175, 250.
• Modified Sekhmet's VO during her new Super.
• Fixed an issue where returning to the anchor during Sekhmet mode could cost Eliza her perfect lifebar in some instances.

• Blood collection heal reduced to 170, from 200.
• Sekhmet's grounded M attack spawns blood every other hit (5 hits), rather than every hit (10 hits).
• Sekhmet's new bite super (QCF+KK) damage reduced to 2000, from 2250. Number of blood drops spawned reduced from 8 to 6, and it no longer heals for 100% of the damage dealt. (Remember it still heals her for 1020 if you collect the blood, and will reposition the Eliza anchor behind for the best Sekhmet combo confirms)
• Sekhmet can only backflip once per outing, use it wisely!
• Sekhmet can now cancel blocked attacks (in addition to attacks that connect, just as before) into Hathor's Return.

Fukua

• Fixed a bug where Fukua's Level 3 (QCB+PP) would deal non-recoverable damage.
• Platonic Drillationship (M) hitstun, recovery, and blockstun increased by 5F. Advantage on hit and block unchanged. (It can combo into Best Friends Forever now.)
• Fukua's Ground Throw is now a hard knockdown, like her Air Throw, differentiating it further from Tender Embrace (QCF LP+LK). She cannot combo off it without BFF, as before, but she does get Oki.
• Forever a Clone (M) doesn't slow down as much before grabbing the opponent if they're in hitstun, fixing drops where it wouldn't grab correctly in some confirms (ex: cMP cHP) despite the opponent being very close to Fukua.

Painwheel

• If any of Painwheel's grounded charge normals are charged fully until their active frames start, they will be armored through the start of the active frames, preventing trades and having Painwheel always win the exchange. Armor ends before active as before if Painwheel releases them early.
• Fixed a bug where Painwheel's JHK would come out 2F earlier than expected when done from a forward jump.
• Level 3 (QCB + PP) recovery reduced by 4F so that L Buer Reaper is possible on all characters for a stable pick up.
• Added a buffer after Level 3 ends to help make the above link consistent on heavy characters.
• Fixed a bug where Buer Reaper inputs after Level 3 could accidentally become Flight with frame perfect timing.
• Added a visual blood effect for when Painwheel performs her somewhat hidden "Unfly Block" mechanic which is done by using Unfly just before blocking an airborne attack.

Robo-Fortune

• Robo-Fortune's timer during Systemic Circuit Breaker no longer counts down during a 1v1 down.
• Each second on Robo-Fortune's Circuit Breaker timer is x1.25 longer than a normal second.
• By holding any K during the leap portion of Magnetic Trap while Robo-Fortune is in Systemic Circuit Breaker, she will always explode after slamming the opponent just as before.

Squigly

• When performing Fallen Woman (divekick) out of Air Throw, it will ignore assists and only target the point character to prevent assists from ruining Air Throw confirms.
• Level 3 (QCB + PP) is now a knockdown, to prevent opponents falling out of it. (If Squigly players prefer the old version, please let me know)
• Squigly Battle Opera (QCB + KK) now pulls opponents slightly towards the center of the orb with each hit.
• Squigly Battle Opera now always delays its airborne hits (giving Squigly more time to do things like charge) consistently rather than requiring specific or lucky bounces. When blocked, or hitting a grounded opponent, it behaves as before. (Squigly players REALLY need to tell me if they prefer the old version =] )
• Cancelling out of cHP into Silver Chord (uncharged) will always connect instead of dropping with unfortunate timing, via increased hitstun on the hits before the last.
• Fixed a bug where Daisy Pusher would scale to 50% instead of 55%. Now scales to 55%.
• Squigly will stop charging her stances during a 1v1 down now.

VFX

• Burstable projectile hits use green (Undizzy) and red (IPS) burst sparks instead of always being Gold burst sparks, going back to the way they are in retail. Gold Burst sparks now only appear 90 frames after the first burstable hit to signal (as they did in Beta already) when it is safe to burst and keep your Undizzy.

Hello, Liam here. This a small update focuses on gameplay tuning for Annie. [hr][/hr]

Annie

• Gravity Collapse (Down Down + KK during Star Power) now always drains at least 1 full bar on use, rather than reducing Annie's meter down to the nearest full bar.
• Gravity Collapse no longer adds Undizzy to the opponent.
• sF+MP now staggers when used to start a chain, like the old cMP. Rejoice, lovers of stagger!
• North Knuckle M has had its knockback and knockup reverted to its old v3.1.3 values.
• North Knuckle damage reduced:
  • L: 550 450
  • M: 700 550
  • H: 900 700
  • Slam (All Strengths): 1300 900
• Ground Throw has had its release trajectory modified again, universal throw conversions are still possible.
• The first hit of sMK is now +3 on hit, down from +5.
• The second hit of sMK will now auto correct, like all other double button press normals.
• The first hit of sHP will now drag opponents down towards the floor.
• The first hit of sHP has had its hitstun increased by 4F.

Hello, Liam here. This update is focused on Annie tuning, some other gameplay tuning, and a bug fix for Quick Match. NOTE: This update won't be available for Mac and Linux users until sometime tomorrow morning, PST. Apologies for the inconvenience. [hr][/hr]

Quick Match

• Fixed a bug where some players weren't able to find matches in Quick Match, even during busy times.

Annie

• cMP no longer staggers when used to start a chain.
• Star Power now drains at 50% speed when Annie is in hitstun, greatly reducing the risk (of meter loss) when getting hit during it.
• Annie can now chain MP buttons into MK buttons. Her chain type is now L > M > M > H.
• Annie's throw leaves the opponent slightly closer to her.
• North Knuckle (M) first hit launches airborne opponents at a different trajectory to allow better confirms.
• Adjusted push back on North Knuckle and cMP for more consistent confirms, especially during Happy Birthday combos.
• The previous two listed changes allow Annie to convert off her throw, midscreen, universally. Let's try it!
• sF+MP start up reduced to 16F, previously 18F.
• sMK advantage on block changed from -6 to +3. Advantage on hit changed from -1 to +5.
• Sagan Beam recovery increased. Advantage on block changed from -14 to -26 on ground at point blank, and -6 to -18 for the air version at point blank.
• sHP hitstun reduced by 2F.
• sHP's second hit launches the opponent higher for even MORE consistent cancels into Re Entry in the corner. This should also help prevent Annie from being too low to complete an Air Dash Cancelled jHP out of Re Entry during her combos.
• jHK will ground bounce the opponent in Star Power to ensure the star always bounces the opponent rather than hit as an OTG hit.
• Star Power activation start up increased by 2F.
• Fixed a bug where Annie was missing hurtboxes on jMP immediately before the active frames.
• Fixed a bug where JLK star effects would leave lingering hurtboxes on Annie after she recovered.
• Fixed a bug where the DHC input for Pillar of Creation (QCB+KK) would require the input to end on a back input.
• Fixed a bug where Annie's taunt would sometimes grant the opponent unexpected amounts of meter, including 5 bars.
• Fixed a bug where cHK would add lower Undizzy than expected.
• Sagan Beam now pushes the opposing Lonesome Lenny away from Annie, like Robo-Fortune's Catastrophe Cannon.
• Annie's L and M Destruction Pillar strengths are now safe on hit. L hitstun increased by 5, M hitstun increased by 10. Launch height for both L and M slightly increased.
• Fixed a small clean up coloring error in her intro frames where Sagan brings her the sword.

Eliza

• Eliza can no longer pick up blood (from Sekhmet) while she is in hitstun.
• Sekhmet health drain should no longer ruin Eliza's perfect. (There's a known bug with Eliza picking up blood cancelling her perfect sometimes.)
• Eliza can use QCF + P or QCF + K to recall Sekhmet again.
• Eliza's Sekhmet assists all drain a flat 800 life, instead of their usual values when she is the point character.
• Blood spawned from Sekhmet expires after 10 seconds, down from 15 seconds.
• Blood bounces off the corner walls earlier than before, preventing blood from clumping up behind the opponent's feet in the corner where she can't collect it.

Parasoul & Filia

• Fixed a bug with lenient button dashing activating when calling an assist. Lenient button dash will not activate if any kick input is used. (As an update, we're getting close to being able to implement this for all characters, but please us know in our Discord if you see any other issues with it!)

Robo-Fortune

• Fixed a bug where cancelling from sMK or cMK had incorrect input priority and could lead to unintentional special moves, or even an outtake.

Hello, Liam here. Today's update focuses on bug fixes and some extra tuning before the weekend. [hr][/hr]

Linux

• In case you missed it, the Linux build was released late last night and should be available for all! If you're running into any issues with the Linux build, let us know in our Discord in the #2e-retail-bugs channel.

Beta Mode

Sound Stage 15 (Annie's Stage)

• Now properly plays Annie's stage theme, "The Stars and Stage are Set!" composed by the brilliant Vincent Diamante!
• Added a 2D background variant for those playing with 2D backgrounds on.

Annie

• Fixed a bug where her outtake VFX could get stuck on screen if she was hit out of it at the perfect time.
• Fixed a bug where Annie could call assists during her taunt.
• Fixed a bug where the landing recovery of Destruction Pillar would activate preblock.
• Fixed a bug where JMP was only adding 5 Undizzy during Star Power combos.
• Removed the ability to DHC out of Star Power activation. This is likely to see more tuning in the future and possibly return, but it has been disabled for the weekend.
• sHP's 2nd hit launch trajectory and hitstop have been tuned to allow for almost universal conversions into Re Entry in the corner. (It will still drop on Peacock)

Cerebella

• JdMP no longer forces the combo stage to stage 3.

Double

• Cattelite Lives, as a DHC, has half the amount of time to command the heads compared to when it is used normally.

Eliza

• Fixed a bug where Eliza could revive after dying if she fell into a blood drop. This also fixes a soft lock that could occur during the downtime between a health bar reset in a solo vs solo match.
• Eliza's blood drops now vanish when she dies.
• Fixed a bug where Sekhmet would not fly backwards and bounce of the wall when hit with an outtake.
• Fixed a bug where Sekhmet would not transition into Eliza form if she was hit with an armor breaking move while crouching.

Move List

• Fixed a small localization issue with Trichobezoar in Filia's move list.

Ms. Fortune

• Fixed a bug where a Gold burst spark would appear during the first hit of Nom Nom Nom even if you didn't trigger IPS or Undizzy.

Peacock

• (L) George is thrown at the old height when used while the opponent is in hitstun, to keep her combos the same as before.
• (L) George assist now has Peacock arrive in front of the point character FOR REAL this time, the previous build didn't have this change despite listing it, but this one does!

Hello, Liam here. Welcome to the first Early Access Annie patch! This patch includes Annie, and the first round of changes for the upcoming balance patch. You can play with all of these changes in the BETA version of the game. The main (retail) version of the game is unchanged right now. For more details about how the beta mode works, check out the previous Hidden Variable post.

MAJOR CHANGES

• Updated hurtboxes on the ant spawned from Peacock's cMK to be more accurate.
• The ant spawned from Peacock's cMK can now be destroyed by Robo-Fortune's cMP, and her Air Theonite Beam (L).
• Fixed a bug where Peacock's ant spawned from cMK would vanish before it was fully off camera.

OTHER CHANGES

• Added Annie.

LINUX SUPPORT UPDATE

GENERAL BALANCE & TUNING - DAY 1

REVERSAL WINDOWS (EXPERIMENTAL!)

• When exiting hitstun or waking up from a knockdown, the reversal window (which only impacts Specials, Supers, and Throws) has been increased from 3F 4F, back to its original value before it was changed in 2014. That's a 4F buffer, plus the 1F where you gain control, for a total of 5F.
• Heavy normals now have a 3F* reversal buffer from hitstun and wakeup. For medium normals, it is a 2F* buffer. For light normals, it is a 1F* buffer.
• When exiting blockstun or performing a PBGC, the Special, Super, and Throw reversal buffer has increased from 1F to 2F.
• All normals have a 1F* buffer from exiting blockstun or performing PBGC, up from 0F.

VFX

• "Stab" hitsparks (the straight line one) are now randomly rotated slightly.
• When exiting hitstun on the ground or in the air, the recovery spark is more pronounced and easier to see. In addition, characters now flash white briefly.
• When ending a pushblock with blockstun remaining, characters will faintly tint green to point out the PBGC window.
• Any burstable hit which is always safe to burst after (a projectile, or 90F has passed since the first burstable hit started) will now be GOLD instead of green or red.

BURSTS

• Bursts taken 90F after the first burstable hit started (which are always safe) will now keep your Undizzy instead of clearing it.

FILIA & PARASOUL

• First pass at implementing "lenient button dashing" has been done for Filia and Parasoul. During the first frame of any (P) normal, you can press another (P) to cancel into a dash as long as you would normally be able to dash using the previous logic.
• Numerous bugs and exploits have been taken care of up front, including meter gain being moved to frame 2 instead of 1 for affected normals, plink dashing being impossible, etc.
• If this implementation has no bugs or issues, I'll do it for all characters. Please let me know if you come across any exploits or differences in dash behaviour for these two!

PAINWHEEL

• In the spirit of the above lenient button dash changes, Unfly now has 1F leniency when hitting PP as well.

CEREBELLA

• Fixed a bug with Diamond Deflector where the projectile would pass through opponents without hitting them.
• Diamonds are Forever is now post flash blockable on DHC by clearing hitstop from the opponent on DHC if they are not attacking, blocking, or in hitstun.
• Added a buffer for the first follow up punch in JLP, making it feel like other chained normal cancels.
• JdMP always goes through its start up before going active, removing a bug where J2MP could come out in a single frame if done too close to the floor.
• JdMP advances the combo stage to stage 2, making the follow up hits stage 3.
• JHP's forced damage scaling (75%) has been removed and restored to 100%, but it is now a mid hit.
• Normal throw leaves Peacock and Valentine closer to Cerebella.
• Pummel Horse hitbox slightly lowered to hit all characters OTG reliably.
• Note: The previous two changes give Cerebella universal midscreen normal throw conversions. Throw Pummel Horse connects on everyone.

ELIZA

• cMP recovery reduced by 4F. -6 -2 on block. 0 +4 on hit.
• Osiris Spiral (M) metergain greatly increased.
• The 2nd hit of sMK is a restand rather than a knockdown.

SEKHMET (GENERAL)

• Sekhmet no longer drains meter over time when attacking. Instead, she drains life over time, and loses chunks of health when using attacks.
• Her life drain over time starts small but ramps up the longer Sekhmet is active. Hitting the opponent with any Sekhmet attack resets the drain back to its minimum value.
• As an assist, she will always lose life at the fastest rate, and this also locks her assist out for longer as if it was hit.
• Any hit from an armor breaking move (Sweeps, Cilia Slide, etc) revert Sekhmet to Eliza form and put her in a special trip state that allows combos. This also applies to her assists.
• The recall to anchor input is now QCB only, instead of QCB or QCF.

SEKHMET (NEW MOVES)

• Sekhmet can now backflip to safety during any normal that makes contact (hit or block) with a backdash input. This drains a huge chunk of life, but can be used to keep her attacks safe. (Play Sekhmet neutral for as long as you want, but the longer you go without getting a hit, and the more your hits are blocked and cancelled into backflip, the more life you'll lose. If that's not your style, just using Sekhmet moves to bait opponents is safer at the cost of health.)
• Sekhmet has a new Lv1 Super (QCF+KK) that performs a jumping hitgrab neck bite, crumpling the opponent, creating blood, and healing for the damage dealt. It also repositions the anchor nearby so she can convert into Eliza combos even if she was far from the anchor previously.

SEKHMET (BLOOD MECHANIC)

• Any Sekhmet attack involving her red blood weapons creates blood if it hits a character, which flies somewhere behind them. Blood can go off camera, but not off stage.
• Only 25 blood drops can be out at once, and each one lasts for 15 seconds. Collecting a blood drop restores 200 health to Eliza. (Tips: Use LLL and M to make a lot of blood to create health positive combos and situations at the cost of damage and granting meter to your opponent. Opponents, try and stop her from getting to the blood to heal!)
• Eliza's taunt pulls all blood in front of her for easy collection, as long as it's within 1400 units. All other taunt effects are removed.

PEACOCK

• Lonesome Lenny's hitstop doesn't carry over on DHC anymore.
• While Lonesome Lenny is active and Peacock is the point character, meter gain is reduced to 33% like Painwheel's Hatred Install, Robo-Fortune's Systemic Circuit Breaker and Double's Cattelite Lives.
• The Hole Idea (H) will become The Hole Idea (M) and teleport in front if used while any of Peacock's assist are on screen attacking, removing cross-up teleports for all assists rather than only keeping it for slow ones.
• Bang! (M) recovery increased. It's now -17 on block, previously -9. Knockback on block reduced. Knockback on hit slightly reduced.
• Bang! (M) hitbox lowered to prevent characters low profiling it.
• George (L)'s very good hitbox reaching far behind only appears for 1F when George spawns. If the opponent is in hitstun, the good hitbox stays out to keep her combos (ex: GDO loops in the corner) the same as before.
• George (L)'s lob height slightly reduced. As an assist, Peacock spawns in front of the point character instead of behind.
• Fixed a bug where Peacock's bombs would only vanish if they hit something, not when they are hit. Most notably, this fixes a bug where two bombs couldn't be destroyed by a single projectile.
• Peacock's Air Throw leaves the opponent slightly closer for more consistent and stable conversions.

ROBO-FORTUNE

• Robo-Fortune has a two frame double jump lock out when jumping, this removes her "Instant Double Jump Cancel" overheads. (This change will come for other characters as well later)
• Increased Magnetic Trap's hitstop before active frames from 4F 6F. Opponents can't act before the active frames now if it's released immediately.
• Danger! (M) will stagger when it is used outside of a chain, like Beowulf's sHK or Cerebella's sMP.
• Danger! (M) is now -17 on block, previously -12.
• Danger! (M) has bonus hitstun against assists, allowing them to be hit by Catastrophe Cannon after.
• All hits of Danger! (L) knockdown now.
• Grounded (L) Theonite Beam, and ground and air (M) Theonite Beam are 25% wider.

SYSTEMIC CIRCUIT BREAKER

• She loses access to her double jump but gains access to an air dash.
• Her remaining time until detonation is displayed on new art over her head.
• Once per combo, Magnetic Trap will floor bounce the opponent for a combo opportunity, and she no longer automatically explodes at the end of it.
• L and M Beams (Ground & Air) have less recovery and tuned frame data.
• L and M Beams (Ground & Air) have special hit properties once per combo, similar to Painwheel's Hatred Install Buers.
• Fixed a bug where one second on her timer was 70F instead of 72F.
• Circuit Breaker's timer counts down at half speed if the opponent is in hitstun, reflected by the slower animation on the timer. (I suspect this will be too much, but we'll start with it.)
• The explosion vacuums opponents towards Robo-Fortune on hit, instead of knocking them away.
• IPS and Damage scaling are reset on her explosion if she's hit out of the recovery, but Undizzy is still frozen.

WARRANTY EXTENSION

• QCB + P during Systemic Circuit Breaker will make Robo-Fortune consume one head and self inflict 750 damage.
• Each consumed head adds 6 seconds to her detonation timer. The detonation timer cannot exceed 20 seconds.
• LP / MP / HP determines the number (1 / 2 / 3) of heads consumed at once.
• Robo-Fortune's meter gain penalty (x0.33) increases towards x1.0 by 0.15 for each head consumed. After consuming 5 heads, her meter gain penalty will be fully removed for the remainder of Circuit Breaker.

Hello from all your friends at Hidden Variable! You guessed it, the Annie DLC release is almost upon us! As such, were excited to share some big news and updates...

RELEASE TIMELINE

HOW DOES THE BETA WORK?

HOW DO I PLAY WITH ANNIE?

IS THE BETA BALANCE PATCH ARRIVING WITH ANNIE?

WRAPPING UP

Hello, Liam here. A small update for today... This update does not contain Annie or any balance changes.

MacOS

Other Changes

Hello, Liam here. This update does not contain Annie or any balance changes. Now then, a new update has just been released!

What's Changed?

DLC

Linux Support

Other Changes

• Updated the opening splash screen.
• Robo-Fortune and Fukua have updated banners in NMO Arena and NMO Arena (Empty).
• Fixed a small coloring issue with the SonicFox NPC in Class Notes.
• Simplified palette unlock logic by removing unlock conditions for all palettes except for ones earned for clearing Story Mode and Arcade Mode. Big Band's 26th is an exception.

With Annies impending release for Skullgirls 2nd Encore right around the corner, we wanted to answer a number of questions that have arisen and provide a complete and thorough overview of what to expect surrounding the release and our plans for the remainder of 2021 (and beyond)!

ANNIE DLC AVAILABILITY

SKULLGIRLS 2ND ENCORE - SEASON 1 PASS

• DLC: Annie
• DLC: TBA Character 2
• DLC: TBA Character 3
• DLC: TBA Character 4
• Season Pass Exclusive Palette Pack
• DLC: Skullgirls OST (including the new Annie Track)
• DLC: Skullgirls Digital Art Compendium (Fully Updated!)

FUTURE CHARACTERS

BALANCE PATCH

STEAM STORE UPDATES

PRICING

FAQ

RELEASE DATE

Early March? Why no firm release date?

PLATFORM AVAILABILITY

What about Nintendo Switch or ?

What about Xbox One / Series X?

Will 2nd Encore get full crossplay between platforms?

ANNIE

Who is involved with designing Annie and the new character? What will be included in the balance patch?

Why isnt Annie Free DLC like ?

Will Annies Story mode have VO?

FUTURE CHARACTERS

Will new characters be released on Mobile before 2nd Encore, similar to Annie?

Can you reveal who the next character is?

MISC

What kind of updates should we expect for the Digital Art Compendium?

Will the existing cast get new color palettes in the future?

Will Mobile exclusive palettes like Beast King Beowulf be added to 2nd Encore?

How can I help support the ongoing development of Skullgirls?

WRAPPING UP

That last one didn't work. :^(

• Hopefully fixed one MORE mac-vs-other-OSes desync, by guaranteeing the update order of sprites. YAY!
• Took another shot at fixing the Quick Match post-fight menu crash. Maybe this one works! :^P
• Re-enabled the -log Launch Option, which writes lots of output to [the save data folder]/skullgirls.log and usually slows the game down a lot, so unless you're trying to find bugs make sure you DON'T have it on! :^)
• Fixed a bug in Tournament Mode where if Player 1 made a choice before people unplugged their controllers, the game would follow P1's choice instead of going back to the controller select screen. This bothered me for YEARS.

This was the last big thing we were scouting!

• Hopefully FIXED the random crash on the post-match menu in Quick Match!
• Fixed a localization error in French.
• Fixed a visual bug displaying palette effects in Windows.

Compatibility

• Fixed a bug that occasionally led to different hit-check order between sprites on Mac and Windows/Linux, causing extremely rare desyncs between them. The order is now guaranteed to be the same on all platforms. Thanks, and sorry, both to Lawnba!
• Hopefully fixed a code-signing issue affecting Skullgirls on macOS Yosemite.

Bugs

• Fixed a bug that prevented Beowulf and Fukua from doing air specials using assist inputs right after jumping. (Note that Squigly has a height limit on Fallen Woman, which is why this doesn't work with her. She was not affected by this bug.)
• Fixed a bug that would cause Big Band's Cymbal Clash to hit overhead instead of mid if done as a frame-perfect reset after Sound Stun was already used.
• Reordered which Robo-Fortune intro is chosen by which behind-the-scenes random number to match other characters' script order. Nobody will notice, but I did. :^P
• Fixed a localization error in the Art Gallery in French.

Graphics

• Fixed one more shader interpolation bug that made teeny holes in sprites at resolutions higher than 720p.
• Fixed an old shader bug that made occasional incorrect horizontal lines in shadows at resolutions higher than 720p.
• Fixed VERY minor cleanup errors in Eliza's standing idle and walk back, and Cerebella's tag out.
• Fixed shadows on macOS that we broke with this shadow fix. Sorry! :^)

• Second (probably final) pass on death VO! Big Band's now properly plays, Valleywheel has her own, removed the 'regular' get-hit versions of sounds that became death VO, and redid the effect on all of them. Thanks, mix master Vince!
• Fixed Fukua's pupil color in her HUD portrait.
• Updated Fukua's character select VO with a line that suits her better.

Also, the PS4 patch is in progress!

• Added new intros for Fukua, Ms. Fortune, and Robo-Fortune!

  
  They were feeling left out, so now everyone has at least three!
• Updated lobby matching code again, to match you with the person you've played least recently, instead of fewest-total-times. This should fix cases where someone new joins a lobby and is repeatedly matched with the same person. We hope it works!
• Copying lobby URLs should now work on Mac and Linux with Command-C / Ctrl-C!
• Fixed the small visual bugs in the Undizzy bar and the edge of the healthbar in 1v1 at higher screen resolutions, we hope.

Throw your hands in the air!

• I had a goal, but not that many... And I reached one! FIXED the throw-vs-hits P1/P2 difference! P1 Death Crawl and SSJ no longer lose to a P2 meaty throw. Yay? Yay! (This involved a substantial reorganization of the code for handling hits, so please report any NEW weirdness that doesn't work like OLD weirdness. :^) (FIXED a bunch of new weirdness that didn't work like old weirdness, from 16906. Heh.)
• Pressing Ctrl-C in a Windows PC lobby will now copy the "join this lobby" URL to the clipboard! Thanks Mr. Peck!
• Added fast-forward and rewind to Replays! Press HP to rewind by 1 Skullsecond, or Left+HP to rewind 5 Skullseconds. Hold HK to fast-forward, and additionally hold left or right to go slower or faster. Thanks again Mr. Peck!
• Hopefully FIXED the crash going from Quick Match to Lobbies, [strike]and also quite possibly the crash at the end of a Quick Match game if your opponent quits,[/strike] (nope, aww) and also maybe the weirdness going from lobbies to Quick Match, all of which were likely the same thing. If any of these still happen to you on this build, please report it!
• Reassigned the button shortcut for Class Notes to be what it used to be (i.e. swapped the shortcuts for No Man's Land and Class Notes).
• Fixed the lobby All-Play matching code EVEN MORE, to further ensure players don't repeat matchups until they have exhausted all other options. Thanks again-again, Mr. Peck!
• Fixed death VO not playing if you got chipped out while pushblocking. Oops.
• Fixed a bug where trading with Cerebella's s.MP would cause a stagger as P2 but not as P1. This was unrelated to the other P1/P2 difference.
• Improved the framerate of the lobby search and in-lobby screens a bit. There's more to go.
• Hopefully fixed avatars not showing up in lobbies sometimes.
• Fixed stray middle-of-nowhere pixels nobody will EVER notice in Valentine's standing idle pose. Thanks Gelato, who apparently noticed them.

• Fixed the color of the first lifebar in 1v1.
• Squigly #29 flame color edited slightly because the flame flickering was causing problems for some players.
• Added Launch Option -socdlikehitbox which will handle Up+Down as Up, for people who play on keyboard but prefer that behavior.
• Added missing 20-30% range for Health in Training Mode. :^P

• Choosing "Play Again" now updates which variation of the stage you're on, if it has any. (!)
• Attempted to fix the random crash after playing in Quick Match and returning to the main menu or proceeding to lobbies. Don't know if it worked.
• Changed "Pushblock" to "Reaction Shot" in the Training Mode menu.
• Fukua (in full Filia costume) is now the one on the train in the background of Meridian Area Rapid Transit. Previously it was Double. Thanks, comment section yesterday!

We've finally finished a project that our UI guru Ashuraou began a long [spoiler]loooooooong[/spoiler] time ago:

Skullgirls' UI, HUD, character select screen, and menus have all been remastered in full HD using 1080p art and fonts!

And more fixes!

• The Windows version correctly switches audio output devices - and doesn't outright crash - if your sound output device changes! HECK yeah!! Thanks Mr. PECK yeah!!
• Fixed Double's Lv5 having the highest input priority during special->super cancels ONLY, where it should have been the lowest. Thanks Mao!
• In Training Mode settings, added all the health values 1%-100%, moved "Normal" from before "1 pixel" to after "100%", and changed the Drama setting from 10%-100% to an actual value (0-240) by 5s.
• Autoscrolling on all options speeds up if you keep holding the direction for a while. All those new numbers made this a real thing that needed adjusting. :^P
• Fixed the position of Robo's small character select sprite, thanks SkullgirlsRussia!
• Fixed a very minor old bug where characters went into post-block animation after recovering from blockstun, instead of the block-idle loop. It looked a bit worse, now it looks a bit better. :^P
• And, for everyone who expressed opinions about the SonicFox NPC, good news! [spoiler]We fixed his* feet, the shadow is correct now. :^)[/spoiler]

This has gone up by ~200 in the past few days. I don't even know how to check whatever it is. :^P
Anyway:

• Fixed a bug where in certain circumstances Lenny explodes earlier than it should(!) ever since the bugfix where it doesn't get lifted into the air. :^P Thanks Mr. Peck!
• Fixed missing character shadows on random types of graphics cards since the last update.
• Fixed missing palette effects and lighting on Ms. Fortune. Get back here!
• Fixed graphical lines in front of Fukua's drill and Painwheel's taunt. (They had always been in the source art, but only the graphical update made them show up, hahaha.)
• Attempted to fix..."huggies"? Ending Double's Hornet Bomber motion with any of B/DB/D+K (4/1/2+K) will now always give the normal attack instead of a Hornet Bomber, similar to (but different from!) the protection provided to Fortune and everyone else with a DP, which Hornet Bomber didn't have. Dash crouch Light Kickers rejoice!
• Fixed some more bugs in Double's VO set.

General:

• Added every number between 0-100 for all the "volume" options. Numberrrrrrsssssssss!
• Reduced overall game volume by 20%, because Skullgirls is a very loud game.
• Replay Theater now doesn't crash on Mac! Sorry about that...
• Fixed multiple graphical issues with sprites when running at resolutions higher than 720p - even some very old bugs. Skullgirls quite literally looks better than it ever has! (This'll be a big download again, sorry.)
• Enabled crash dumps in an extra case that might not have had them. If your game was crashing without making one, maybe now it will.
• More credits updates. I know what you're really here for!

Online related:

• FIXED the last remaining audio issue with rollbacks! Sounds should no longer be occasionally skipped. Bursts - and most importantly Big Band's trumpet - should work great now! :^)
• Online color choice conflicts are now resolved separately on each side during loading, in favor of the local player on either side, so you can no longer steal the other player's color via hacking (or bugs). Character select can look all kinds of weird, but the match will look correct. :^P
• Hopefully fixed some people being unable to set a name for their lobby!

Gameplay related:

• Fixed every character being able to do an Outtake on the first airborne frame of a jump. (Oops, that's been there since 1.0.)
• Fixed a bug where Squigly playing her (updated) original intro would allow her to tech the first knockdown of the game. Thanks Shakyfingers!
• Fukua is now armored on the first active frame of Inevitable Snuggle, to prevent her armored grab losing to a frame-perfect trade only as P1. All other interactions are unaffected.
• Cerebella can no longer wrongly do an airborne ground-preblock after Magnet vs whiffed Battle Butt.
• Fixed a bug in Valentine and Double's s.LK where motions were accepted backwards for 1f right before it hit.
• Beowulf's grab hits and finishers now make the enemy play hit/death VO.
• Fixed Death Crawl playing multiple death VOs, and other similar instances of this bug. Sorry, everyone who memed about it...
• Fixed another edge case where death VO wouldn't play on...death.

This weekend would have been Combo Breaker 2020. (;_;)7 Since the very first year, Combo Breaker has been the Skullgirls tournament, embracing the game and welcoming the community with open arms*. Combo Breaker is the very definition of a "player-centric major", and the cancellation of this year's event due to current world circumstances was a great sadness for all of us. ...but that doesn't mean nothing's happening. In fact, quite the opposite! Combo Breaker always had some amazing apparel, and this year is no different! We're honored to present this dope [url=https://combobreaker.org/product/skullgirls-tee/]CB x SG Eliza shirt:
(Proceeds from shirt sales benefit Combo Breaker!) And for those of you sitting at home, [spoiler]i.e. everyone reading this,[/spoiler] Team Spooky is running a Combo Breaker retrospective stream all weekend! Which brings us to the reason for these patch notes... In honor of Combo Breaker's commitment to the Skullgirls community, we're proud to present

The SG x CB 2020 Update!

Added:

• New intro animations for Beowulf, Double, and Squigly, courtesy of Skullgirls Mobile!
• A SonicFox NPC [spoiler]!!!!!!!![/spoiler] and associated update for the Class Notes variation!
• KO screams for all characters when they're KO'd in the air!
• Rebuilt character art with those all-important extra pixels!

Added to the 2nd Encore Upgrade Steam DLC:

• Two new colors per character from Skullgirls Switch, courtesy of Skybound Games!
• Even more extra colors for various characters, also courtesy of Skullgirls Mobile!
• A new stage, No Man's Land, also-also courtesy of Skullgirls Mobile! [spoiler]Seriously, try SG Mobile. It's free, and it has PvP using GGPO on your phone for cryin' out loud![/spoiler]
• Several more revived, previously-removed colors for various characters. (We did what we could, but much has been lost to time...)

And, of course, fixes and improvements:

• Removed the cap of 3 wins in Quick Match - now you can rematch forever!
• The first hit of Beowulf's snapback no longer wrongly breaks all hyper armor. It still correctly breaks Sekhmet.
• Beowulf's Geatish Trepak correctly deals only recoverable damage.
• Cerebella's Grab Bag now properly scales followups to 55%, if you somehow manage to follow up.
• Fixed the frame of Grab Bag recovery where Cerebella would not go into hitstun if she got hit.
• Double's airthrow correctly deals only recoverable damage.
• Added half-circle-forward (41236) overrides to Double's Lugers, so dashing forward and performing a half-circle using an assist input correctly gives Luger instead of Hornet Bomber.
• Increased the size of the hitboxes on snapbacks for Filia, Fukua, Painwheel, Parasoul, and Peacock, in order to better match the animation and/or be able to properly OTG opponents during certain frames.
• Remove the last possibility of a Happy Holidays after hitting Fukua's air Drill of my Dreams.
• Fixed the bug where Painwheel's Hatred Install would not end after a properly-timed sliding knockdown.
• The last hit of Peacock's Lv3 correctly deals only recoverable damage.
• Peacock's Lonesome Lenny can no longer be lifted off the ground by certain attacks, e.g. Big Band's Cymbal Clash.
• Robo's Magnetic Trap no longer affects opponents after a snapback, removing a timeout exploit.
• Removed extraneous DP (623) motions for Robo's Danger specials and Magnetic Trap, they are now properly QCT (236) only.
• Added electric palette effect on opponents hit by Robo's s.HK because it looks cool.
• Reduced the duration of Robo's taunt by 20f to bring it more in line with other taunts. Even with the reduction, it is still the longest taunt in the game.
• Squigly can now cancel held stances between Downs in a 1v1 fight.
• Squigly's Seria Sing->SBO now properly activates air-unblockable protection on the opponent, removing the unblockable Seria Sing setups using the choice of Daisy Pusher or SBO+(antiair grab).
• Solo Squigly's Inferno of Leviathan properly disappears if she is snapped by a duo or trio.
• Reduced the duration of Squigly's taunt by 15f to bring it more in line with other taunts.
• Added ground-tech voice lines for Double.
• Headless Fortune properly plays tag in/out voice lines.
• Fixed the button functions in Replay Theater to match the rest of the game.
• Fixed a bug where Cilia Slide, Updo, Fiber Uppercut. and Countervenom could become airborne under extremely specific circumstances.
• Fixed a rare bug where characters who were KO'd, hit a wall, and then got revived were no longer able to be juggled the next time they were KO'd.

...it means I'm being weird again. No other significance. :^) Have some more fixes, courtesy Mister Peck and the Bushels: - FIXED the way All-Play lobbies assign matches, so that it'll really match you up against the person you've played least. At long last! [spoiler]We hope.[/spoiler] - Definitely FIXED the bug where someone who just joined the lobby would duplicate the in-game win streak count of the first person they fought. Here's the music I've been listening to during work today, why not: [previewyoutube=luH9NQ0aqN8;full][/previewyoutube] (You can, y'know, buy it here. Support those artists!) Title screen build ID 16677.

Ladies and Gentlemen, thanks to blammit [spoiler]and their about-two-hours of Skullgirls play so far, but also their specific internet connection :^)[/spoiler] I am proud to present a possible

Fix for "Lobby Fungus"!

- Hopefully fixed another random crash that was common when Fortune won the last game in a Quick Match set. Thanks to several community members for providing crash dumps. Keep sending 'em in! - Thanks to Mr Peck, ping times and jitter won't spike anymore when another person's game loads into character select, etc. Title screen build ID 16664

Two important things happened tonight:

• The game now makes crash dumps* if it crashes! These are useful files that help programmers pinpoint why something crashed. They go in [your Steam games folder]/Skullgirls/crash_dumps...if you get one, find me on Discord/Twitter/Steam and I can possibly fix the bug easily!
• Because someone sent me a crash dump, the new lobby crash (since jitter) is now FIXED! :^)

Today we present some excellent small fixes!

• Thanks to Lab Zero's very own Mr. Peck(tm), unplugging or inserting a controller no longer causes a giant hiccup in the Windows version! [spoiler]You're gonna have to put in more effort if you want to be a jerk online now, person who definitely knows I'm talking to them. :^)[/spoiler]
• After a suggestion from someone very else's Mocktopus, Training Mode now displays both players' exact numerical Dramatic Tension values, as well as the amount built or spent during the last combo. [spoiler]Getting a bit crowded in that info box, but I did the best I could...[/spoiler]
• Thanks to Lab Zero's very adjacent Liam, if you are using -ascendhigher and you play online, the amount of chosen GGPO delay is now subtracted from any Ascend Higher extra delay. This means that, if you choose a GGPO delay, as much as possible of the Ascend Higher delay becomes GGPO delay instead, so it goes into reducing rollbacks instead of just adding local lag. [spoiler]I didn't have anything snarky to say after this one, but it felt inconsistent with no spoiler section.[/spoiler]

The GGPOtest updates are now in THE REAL GAME!

• Much improved netplay!

  
  Play people from farther away, with better quality connections than mid-range players used to have. Green/yellow/red ping time thresholds and the Recommended Delay for Ping values have been adjusted to reflect the improvement.
• Fixed sounds playing/duplicating/not cutting off properly during rollbacks! THIS IS SO EXCITING!
• Lobbies and Quick Match now show continuously updated ping values, as well as displaying the jitter, or fluctuation in ping values over the last fifteen seconds. They also make an attempt to determine if your opponent is playing on wireless, but that is definitely less useful than just looking at the jitter. [spoiler]Really, just look at the jitter for a while. It's the only thing that matters. The 'wifi' part is for information only. There is no parking in the red zone.[/spoiler]
• If you yourself are playing on easily-detected wireless, there will be a teeny little red dot in the upper-left corner during all online modes. If you don't like it, you can use the Launch Option -disablewifidot
• Reduced the online character select timer to 50, stage select timer to 20, and end-of-match timer to 50, to speed things up a bit.
• Fixed an old exploit to grief online opponents by softlocking the character select screen. [spoiler]NYAAAAH! :^P[/spoiler]
• With the window unfocused, by default the game now keeps playing. If you want it to stop like it used to (except during online play), you can use the Launch Option -oldunfocusbehavior
• Fixed negative-damage bug in Training Mode information display.
• [spoiler]Added new feature: slightly crashier lobbies. :^P We'll get to it, I promise.[/spoiler]
• Replays (saved via the Launch Option -enablereplays) will now automatically embed useful netplay-debugging data. If you have a problematic netplay match, you can just send me replays! You can also press Start and it'll get recorded to the replay file to help me fine problem spots. [spoiler]This way I can tell you "it's your internet, there's nothing I can do" with complete confidence. :^)[/spoiler]
• You can use the Launch Option -ggposhowinfoto show onscreen GGPO debugging info during online play. If you see white text, it means "they haven't sent you the input you needed over 40 frames", which is now the most common problem. Blame the internet. :^)
• The GGPOtest branch has been RETIRED. It ought to automatically set you back to the regular game.

The information overload is HERE in the GGPOtest branch!

Skullgirls now displays the most important information about your connection:

The "jitter" (variance in ping time) between you and other players.

Hello! I was on a podcast today talking about online tournaments, and one of the questions reminded me that there was a feature Skullgirls didn't have that'd be really helpful for said online tournaments. So now it's got it in the GGPO test branch! Skullgirls community: "Is it lobbies that don't randomly crash?" Ha ha ha, very funny. No it is not, you wonderfully supportive people. The lobby code is scary and depressing. Instead, it is....

A "wireless internet" indicator for your opponents!

(WF)

Down to the end of the netcode fixes! [spoiler]And fixes for things I broke during this process. :^)[/spoiler]

This is the final build candidate, folks.

Provided it runs with no new problems, this will become the Real Game this weekend on Steam!

• Training mode Max Combo Damage and Last Combo Drama numbers are no longer wrongly reset when you load a savestate. Whoops. Thank you to the person that pointed that out!
• By long-ago request, added the Launch Option -disablerainbowdouble which disables the hue shifting on Double #19 for everyone who is really boring out there.
• Re-added a very important -ggposhowinfo line of logging that I accidentally deleted in the last build. :^P
• Added one more framerate fix from an unlikely source! In the event that a frame takes a really really long time to finish, the game won't skip frames trying to "catch up" to where it should be, it'll just pretend everything is fine. This improves performance by not having a bunch of skipped frames after a big slowdown event like an OS hiccup.

Sick of these yet? Almost done, I promise. :^) In response to useful replays sent to me today, I made two small adjustments designed to help recovering from your game being either starved for opponent inputs, or behind by more than 14 frames, work better. Hopefully they don't make the rest of it work worse! As usual, any problems, send me replays with -ggposhowinfo ! Title screen build ID 16512

Small update, small text and too lazy to make a nicely-formatted list: - Hopefully fixed the menu-movement and "another game" sounds sometimes being played as off-to-one-side instead of centered. :^P - Made the -ggposhowinfo text smaller so it's easier to play with it on. - Added a missing piece of logging info to that log. - Updated some values after some more low-ping testing, hopefully this improves low-ping online performance. Maybe it even doesn't break high-ping performance! :^P Let me know, and give me replays (or videos!) with -ggposhowinfo on if there's something weird! Press Start when the weirdness happens to put a mark in the replay file, too. :^) Title screen build ID 16482

UPDATED at 1:20AM May 1st Alrighty, I fixed some extra bugs and added one more small improvement:

• Added a person to the credits who got left out of them for the whole eight years. WE'RE REALLY SORRY! >.<
• Doubled the size of the sprite decompression atlas, which fixes sprite-flickering issues when you have, for example, two Big Band assists, Lenny, and a full Inferno Brigade onscreen at once. [spoiler]I couldn't have done this during the PS3 days, but those days are loooooong gone. :^)[/spoiler]
• Update - Fixed Peacock's SoID shadows that I broke.
• Update - Made the longer PS4-style super shadow trails the default on PC. If you don't want 'em, use launch option -disableextrasupershadows to go back to the old boring version. :^P
• Fixed the negative-damage training mode display bug after loading a savestate during a combo.
• The IPS display now gets saved along with your savestate in training mode, why not.
• Raised the thresholds for green/yellow/red ping times, as well as the updating the recommended-delay-for-ping numbers now that the netcode has been improved. :^)
• Update - the camera thing below was kinda annoying in practice, so I both improved it and made it opt-in. Use launch option -enablerollbackcamera to enable it. Improved the camera after rollbacks! Most likely you won't notice, but it does help some. Since this is a 2D fighting game, basically the only thing that we can nicely interpolate to hide jitter is the camera. This does not affect the position of the in-game walls, so it will not cause desyncs, it's only fixing where the screen draws. Here's a video with intentionally cruddy internet and a better explanation: [previewyoutube=tqzr8NRdQ0o;full][/previewyoutube]

• It needs a new EXE to run, that should happen later today. Sorry!
• Note to our fellow devs: [spoiler]OpenGL Quads have been taken care of. Rejoice![/spoiler]

If this build has no further problems, it will become the Real Game in a couple of days.

I will look into what is required to update PS4 and Switch after that, but no promises.

Thanks to diligent feedback from several players* plus tireless testing help from our Linux maven and a certain yung rat, we're on the home stretch...!

• Hopefully COMPLETELY fixed(!) the weird hitches that some people were getting during online play, especially in low-ping matches. They were due to not properly updating what the FPS-throttling code thought when GGPO told the game to wait for the opponent to catch up, before the match started. [spoiler]I TOLD you I didn't know how to write frameskip code![/spoiler]
• Greatly improved the speed of rollbacks by removing a bunch of things it didn't need to do during a rollback.
• Improved the L&G/Showtime/KO screens in online play, rollbacks no longer erase them from existence. :^P
• Fixed the 49281263778 ping-time bug, now it shows "---".

If you still experience problems, now you can help me find them!

• It puts a bunch of obnoxious colored text on the screen during online matches any time anything happens with GGPO syncing or other useful info. So only use this for diagnostics. :^)
• If you have replays enabled (using -enablereplays), all that text will get SAVED INTO THE REPLAY FILE when the match ends. That way, if there's a match with a problem and you have this option on, you can just post (or send) the replay file and I can look at it.
• If you're in an online match and you press Start, it adds a "player pressed Start" message into the log. (Only for the local player, not the online player.) So if something weird happens, please press Start a few times to mark the spot and make it easier for me to find the problem! Please note that a rollback itself does not qualify as "something weird". :^S

I won't mince words:

This build MASSIVELY improves netplay.

I also fixed the volume options not working properly.

Here is a small amount of text:

• Addressed the issue of the game dropping frames after a rollback, which also greatly improves netplay responsiveness and reduces dropped inputs. [spoiler]It had nothing to do with rollbacks themselves being slow, and everything to do with me not knowing how to write frameskip code. :^P[/spoiler]
• Addressed how sounds are handled during rollbacks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm not done! There are still occasional dropped sounds, but this is the lion's share of fixing the problem.
• Fixed the problem of weird hitches while playing a long set on Random stages, from the previous build.
• Fixed the music restarting when staying on the same stage if there was a rollback to frame zero. :^P
• Fixed the fact that some sounds didn't listen to your options volume settings. OOPS.

Linux and MacOS notes:

• Good: The sound code also got a big upgrade and is now using Ethan Lee's FAudio library!
• Not-as-good: Unfortunately, for platform support reasons 32bit support on MacOS is a thing of the past...so it is no longer possible for us to continue 32bit support for future Mac builds. :^(

Title screen build ID 16229 It addresses the possible issue of slowing down over longer online sets on Random Stage, and the weird freezing before matches that have good ping. I'm not sure there's much more I can do to improve the reponsiveness of online play at this point, so please post feedback. High or low ping, both are important! ::yawn:: Goodnight!

I updated the GGPOtest branch to fix the bug with jarring repeated zooming if there are rollbacks during a superflash. Join the ggpotest branch and test it! - In your Steam Library, rightclick Skullgirls -> choose Properties -> choose the "Betas" tab at the top -> in the box, type goodgamepeaceout and CLICK "Check Code". PRESSING ENTER WILL JUST CLOSE THE WINDOW WITHOUT DOING ANYTHING, so don't do that. :^P -> it will say "access code correct" -> in the "opt into" dropdown menu right there, choose "ggpotest" And you're all good! Go play online! If the build number is wrong, you may have to restart Steam. Title screen build ID 16190 If this build is good for a couple of days I'll update the main game to it.

Hello, Skullfans! [spoiler]Yes, hello. It's me! Did you miss me? :^)[/spoiler]

WHAT

HOW

WHAT again

because WHY, WHO, and WHERE didn't really seem appropriate

At CEOtaku, a number of people approached me and asked if I would add an option to the PC version to increase the input lag by 1 frame so they could practice for PS4 tournaments on PC. Well, I done did it. If you use the launch option -ascendhigher [spoiler](which, you may remember, existed before)[/spoiler] it will now add the option EXTRA Frame Delay (0 to 10) to the Settings menu in-game, below GGPO Frame Delay. This will let you choose from 0 to 10 extra frames of input lag at all times, and you can even change it from the pause menu. (That's 3-13 frames of total input lag, because the base amount is 3f.) Online GGPO delay will be modified by this setting as well - if you choose 1f of EXTRA delay and 1f of GGPO delay, the actual GGPO delay will be set to zero so you still experience 1f of total lag. If you choose less GGPO delay than your local lag, GGPO delay will be set to zero. Making it work the other way around was impossible, sadly... [spoiler]To those of you hoping for more: I'm going back to working on Indivisible now, ya louts. :^P[/spoiler]

Hot on the hooves [spoiler]Oh c'mon you knew I would![/spoiler] of the launch of Them's Fightin' Herds, we have a patch fixing one last Skullgirls bug!

General

Them's Fightin' Herds, the second game to use Lab Zero's Z Engine*, is now released on Steam! For the next Two Weeks™, Skullgirls owners get 25% off purchasing TFH...and owners of GGXrd, BlazBlue [spoiler]whatever the latest one is now[/spoiler], and Skullgirls all get exclusive unlockable cosmetics for TFH's "pixel" characters! [url=http://store.steampowered.com/app/574980/Thems_Fightin_Herds/]
Them's Fightin' Herds' store page is here.

And if you haven't yet registered for Combo Breaker 2018, do it! * [spoiler]Mad props to the dev team for wading through my code, fixing it, and somehow still managing to make a game. :^)[/spoiler]

[ 2018-02-23 05:35:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

It's been a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG time! [spoiler]...Lenneth.[/spoiler] Ladies and gentlemen, over four years after the initial PC release I am proud [spoiler]and sad [spoiler]really mostly sad[/spoiler][/spoiler] to present the final Skullgirls PC patch! It addresses a major bug, a minor bug, and a launch option - no gameplay changes, don't panic. :^)

General

Combo Breaker is NOW!

Skullgirls Mobile is out!

An update about the Limited Run Games physical version

** The Windows build is now fixed. If ya didn't get the update, exit and reopen Steam! Wouldn't be Skullgirls if something didn't go wrong. :^S **

Japanese Voices added!

Launch Option added

General Bug Fixes

Linux

MacOS X

Overall Gameplay Changes

Big Band

Beowulf

Cerebella

Double

Eliza

Robo-Fortune

Valentine

Frosty Faustings is RIGHT NOW!

Combo Breaker is in May, in Illinois [spoiler]and always in my heart[/spoiler]!

Salty is every week!

And lo, the Beta becometh Retail; the transformation is complete. Prepare the rites, my brethren and sistren, for now is the moment of truth!

SG2E+ is live!

We've partnered with XSEED Games for a special holiday deal! For a limited time, anyone who owns Skullgirls on Steam can purchase Nitroplus Blasterz: Heroines Infinite Duel for 25% off! This offer applies from December 8th to December 18th, and stacks with the Nitroplus Blasterz: Heroines Infinite Duel 10% launch week discount, for 35% off total! And if you own Nitroplus but not Skullgirls (and yet are somehow reading this in your news feed), Nitroplus owners get 75% off Skullgirls during the same period! [spoiler]For those who just got the gleam of a pedantic question in their eyes, I do not know whether that is a flat 35% off Nitroplus, or "10% off and then 25% off the remaining 90%", but the difference between those two things is only 75 cents. $This\; academic\; distinction\; does\; not\; change\; which\; way\; you\; want\; to\; go\; about\; purchasing\; both\; games\; if\; you\; own\; neither.\; It\text{'}s\; always\; cheaper\; to\; buy\; Skullgirls\; at\; full\; price\; and\; get\; Nitroplus\; discounted,\; rather\; than\; the\; other\; way\; around,\; with\; or\; without\; the\; 75-cent\; difference.\; You\; save\; almost\; the\; full\; purchase\; price\; of\; Skullgirls.$[/spoiler]

The short version of this is, Story Mode text advance got broken a while ago. You can see it in things like Filia's intro, or Double's intro, where long scenes don't play properly. It is fixed in the Beta, but I can't make a new build of the real game without any Beta changes, so it won't get fixed here until the Beta changes come to the real game. My sincere apologies. :^(

I have nothing clever to say.

Bugfixes!

Replay Playback

Bug Reporting

:^)

General

The game now correctly reports a win only for the player that won, all the time.

Welcome to Some Improvement! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zbWLMvd_48 I said SOME! SOME!

General

YOU?! ...oh, we've been through this. Fine.

General

You? ....oh. You? ....oh. YOU?! ....look, let's just pretend you nodded, okay? Okay.

General

Registration closes tonight at 11:59PM (MDT, I assume). If you haven't registered yet and are going, DO SO! https://combobreaker.org/register Additionally, I'll finally have time this weekend to look at why the game started running worse for people, and maybe be able to make a new build. Yay? Yay. [spoiler]Yes, this was worth a Steam announcement - Skullgirls has over 160 entrants, which is huge for any game that doesn't end in "V". :^P[/spoiler]

Mac crossplay vs PC/Linux is now fixed, and it once again hopefully runs on all old MacOS versions it used to run on. Update your game, Mac users!

New Prices

General

Other Platforms

-- Footnotes --

You better believe this gets an announcement here!

If you play Skullgirls, YOU SHOULD GO TO COMBO BREAKER.

According to steamspy there are over 600,000 people that own Skullgirls on Steam. ::suddenly gets very nervous:: Er, h...hello. [spoiler]...everyone...[/spoiler]

Indivisible is on Steam

Skullgirls tutorial videos

Skullgirls is out in Japanese arcades!

An apology for delayed fixes

Ey look, it's a patch notes!

Thanks to our wonderful friends at Humble, some bugs have been fixed:

(We've tried to keep Indivisible stuff out of this group as much as possible, but this one's directly related.) Did you miss out on the Skullgirls VA "voicemail" tier from the Skullgirls campaign? Did you not even know there was such a thing? [spoiler]Were you confused last time and thought it had to specifically be a voicemail? It doesn't have to be one.[/spoiler] Well...we brought it back! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64amFt7vTYc (A sample request from before, thank you Sarah Williams!) Spend some of your hard-earned dosh and, in addition to the usual $350 tier rewards, get one of these voice actors to say...er...pretty much anything you want, within reason: Rich Brown - Big Band Christine Marie Cabanos - Filia Erin Fitzgerald - Parasoul Kyle Hebert - Leduc, Vitale, Irvin, others Kai Kennedy - Beowulf Cassandra Lee - Minette, Umbrella, others Danielle McRae - Painwheel Erica Mendez - Annie Matt Mercer - Zane Laura Post - Valentine Patrick Seitz - Samson Christopher Smith - Albus, others Kaiji Tang - Black Egret C, Politician Double, others Kimlinh Tran - Ms. Fortune Josh Tomar - Announcer Cristina Vee - Cerebella Sarah Williams - Peacock [spoiler]and Mike Z - Tommy Ten-Tons, that terrible Russian announcer. Yes, really.[/spoiler] If you missed it last time, now's your chance to un-miss it. We're also happy to announce that the Indivisible prototype is now available for Linux thanks to community hero cybik, who was also responsible for a ton of the early work on the SG Linux and Mac ports. And now back to your regularly-scheduled sleeping. Or possibly eating. Maybe sleep-eating? Or eat-sleeping, but I am not sure how that would even work...

This isn't strictly Skullgirls news, but it's Lab Zero news and I run this account so yeah. :^P

The Indivisible crowdfunding campagin is live!

Hey, how 'bout a brief news recap to go with your mid-evening breakfast? (If you're me, anyway.)

Skullgirls is now out for Mac and Linux!

Skullgirls is part of the current Humble Bundle!

The Indivisible prototype is now available for all Skullgirls IGG backers!

Didja miss me? Here's a full list of the current updates, for all platforms! (Note: The X360 art gallery crash bug has been identified! There is not yet a patch for it, though.)

PC:

All Platforms:

PS3:

PS4:

Welcome to Skullgirls 2nd Encore!

PC-only bugfixes - Too late for console patches, will be in the Lobby update for consoles:

Added Replays! This feature is not even close to complete. If you have any problems, you're on your own.

LP and MK are unresponsive during gameplay? Alrighty.

How do I fix it?

OK, so what's the problem?

Save 80% on Skullgirls during this week's Midweek Madness, and PLAY FOR FREE, now until Sunday June 7th at 1pm Pacific! Discount offer lasts until Monday at 10am Pacific.

Skullgirls is a fast-paced 2-D fighting game that puts players in control of fierce warriors in an extraordinary Dark Deco world. Featuring all-new game systems which test the skills of veteran fighting game fans while also making the genre enjoyable and accessible to newcomers.

Skullgirls is a modern take on classic arcade fighters with a hand-drawn high-definition twist. It’s a one-of-a-kind, action-packed competition complete with awesome combos and an intriguing backstory.

Beowulf is now available, go grab him for FREEEEEE! [spoiler]Heh, grab, cuz he's a wrestler, see...[/spoiler] ** Mid-day update: Fixed Fortune's tutorial; tutorial dummy jumps vs Painwheel's HK Buer; fix !! showing up when you hit the tutorial dummies with mid attacks. Thanks Ryin for ALL THAT!

If you haven't yet registered for Skullgirls at Combo Breaker, it's coming up on May 22-24th, so go enter! This'll be the version of the game played there - practice up.

Today's Deal: Save 75% on Skullgirls!*

Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are!

*Offer ends Wednesday at 10AM Pacific Time

Today's Deal: Save 66% on Skullgirls!*

Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are!

*Offer ends Tuesday at 10AM Pacific Time