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.