Beastieball News

* = Fixed in hot patch on 08/12
This is another smaller monthly update fixing a few issues and adding a few small requested features.

We're currently quite far along on developing major features, content, animations and major game balance changes for our next milestone update which we anticipate shipping next month, in September. We aim to have some things to test in the Experimental branch before the end of this month in advance of that... so stay tuned! :)

For now, please enjoy these few new little things.

• After completing the main story, when highlighting the icon for a Ranked boss who can be rematched, the day that they are available for rematches is now displayed.
  
• An audience is now generated in the stands for online matches and replays. The characters that appear will vary based on your progress in the main story and in the Contacts menu.
  
• Raremorph Humflit has unique geographic-based logic for determining what form it takes when it metamorphs; the valid region for one of these forms has been extended to include Garcinia Meadow, an area that can be visited before completing the main story.
  

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• Fixed several issues with paused and resumed post-game challenges, particularly around the Tower Tourney and Super Tower Tourney which could lead to Super Tower runs being mistaken for regular Tower, and saved teams sometimes not loading correctly
  
• Fixed a few issues with the schedule and story flags for post-game boss rematches that prevented some players from rematching Riven, and also made the date checking logic occasionally inconsistent.
  
• Fixed an issue with titles unlocking after a certain post-game match which opened a menu that was obscured by a cutscene fade to black, making it appear as if the game had frozen
  
• Made it so Craig won't call you offering a certain reward item if the player has already collected it from him
  
• Adjusted a couple small level layout issues mostly leading to visual bugs
  
• Fixed an issue with how Beasties on Valerie's team are generated, specifically in how certain very obscure player choices can impact her team data.
  
• Slightly adjusted Beelb's level-up move learn order so that is is less likely to Exhaust itself when encountered in the wild
  
• Adjusted spacing on the stat box that pops up when a Beastie levels up
  
• Fixed a few typos (how are there still typos......)
  
• *Fixed broken ground collision on a few screens, including progress blocking issues in the Party Pirate stadium
• *Fixed broken story state flags in the questline for the Magic Moons
• *Adjusted a couple levels with bouncy mushrooms; some puzzles broke due to an unrelated physics fix/change

This past weekend there was a BIGMOON BASH, where Beasties got fired up to play and coaches around the world could challenge each other for a limited time!

This Bash was an "Open" format where any Beastie was allowed. In the past we've had major balance patches between open bashes, so each one has had a different meta. This time around we've been letting the meta sit and develop without updates to see where things settle. Let's take a look!

[h2]👑 Top-Scoring Players[/h2]

1. Scy (The World-class Tacos) | Bash Score: 2892
2. Score (The Jamming Ballers) | Bash Score: 2880
3. Dino (The Raging Tides) | Bash Score: 2868
4. Astra (The Tiny Girls) | Bash Score: 2860
5. • Bolimar (The Crimson Angels) | Bash Score: 2844
   • Parranah (The Cosmic Friends) | Bash Score: 2844
6. N/A
7. Kaz (The Raging Blazes) | Bash Score: 2840
8. Stardust (The Starbound Dinosaurs) | Bash Score: 2820
9. Zonk (The Exploding Enigmas) | Bash Score: 2788
10. AshleyETA (The Musical Girls) | Bash Score: 2772
11. Darc Tech (The Arcane Robots) | Bash Score: 2748
12. Boolerex (The Giant Flowers) | Bash Score: 2744
13. MochaTeehee (The Hello Fishes) | Bash Score: 2724
14. Arc Tech (The Arcane Machines) | Bash Score: 2680
15. Theta (The Cosmic Cryptids) | Bash Score: 2668
16. Knight (The Newborn Lights) | Bash Score: 2632
17. Mateobow (The Violet Waves) | Bash Score: 2576
18. • Kaybee (The Shining Wings) | Bash Score: 2572
    • NukFur (The Soggy Dreamers) | Bash Score: 2572
19. N/A
20. Mistle Thaw (The Wrong Squad) | Bash Score: 2536
21. Nalathni (The Tiny Dragons) | Bash Score: 2496

Congratulations to the top-scoring players! I see a few new names quite near the top of the list - very exciting to see new competitors rising up! Arc Tech is keeping me on my toes by scoring high with two accounts again, so once again I've added an extra user to the rankings here. I think the biggest upset here is The Raging Blazes scoring so high. Aren't they, like, the worst team? The Beastieball League will surely be launching an investigation into this dubious result.

The median Bash Score this time was 1876. A touch lower than the previous Bash again - likely because we have lots of new coaches still jumping in. A couple players reported scoring much-much lower than they expected this time around, in a way that appeared erroneous. We're still inspecting that issue to see if it is genuine and what steps we can take to make sure it doesn't reoccur.

[h2]📊 Beastie Usage Stats![/h2]
As has become tradition, we've collected a ton of data on Beastie usage during this event and we're happy to share that data with you for further investigation!
[h3]> Check out the STATS here![/h3]

With a regular tide of old players leaving and new players joining in, it can be hard to pick apart what is actually rising to the top at the highest level. Internally we maintain more metrics on different Beasties' performance, though. I mentioned in a past update that Beastie performance is overall more even than it's ever been and that stand-out performances are harder to see without more data; that's still true, although with a few Bashes of data we're now starting to see a few things pop up that are suspect for balance tweaks.

We have a number of ideas cooking in the background, but our plan for now is to hold back balance changes for a bit longer while we take some more time to refine our ideas. I know some players will be disappointed since we've set the precedent for balance changes coming very frequently. For the next Bash, we'll try a theme that may mix things up a little bit.

[h2]🙇 Thank you!!![/h2]

Another BIGMOON BASH is beginning soon in Beastieball! During Bigmoon Bashes, coaches can challenge each other in open matchmaking for a limited time.

When: August 2, 2025 00:00 UTC to August 4, 2025 00:00 UTC (equivalent to Friday, August 1 @ 4PM PST to Sunday, August 3 @ 4PM PST) Theme: NONE! All Beasties are allowed!

During the event you'll have a Bash Rank, which will improve based on your performance. After it's over, you'll receive in-game rewards based on your participation, such as Social Battery and Sports Points.

Players of all skill level are invited! All you need to do to participate is to play the game on that day and join the Bash on SportNet! SportNet is typically unlocked within the first 2 hours of your adventure, after beating your first Ranked boss. And if you aren't confident in your own Beastie team, you can use a randomly generated one instead - just go to Team Setup and set "Random Team" as your current team.

[h3]Official Game Rules:[/h3]
First to 2 Points wins
Standard time limit on move selection
No Undos allowed
No duplicate Beastie species allowed
Relationship Combos are disabled
All Beasties are set to Level 50

This weekend we held the Starter REMATCH Bash! Players could challenge each other, representing their favorite starter Beastie. Before I share the results of this Bash, let's review the results from the first Starter Bash!
Back then, Kichik was declared the winner - by the narrowest of margins! Bildit was by far the most popular, and Kichik the least, but they made up for it with an impressive match record. How did things shake up in the sequel?

[h2]🏆 Final Results![/h2]
Axolati comes out on top this time! The match record between Axolati and Kichik was about as close as it can get - but Axolati's greater popularity was the tiebreaker this time. There were points during the Bash where Kichik's victory score surpassed Axolati's, but with Axolati's lead in popularity it was tough for Kichik to actually overtake them in the overall Bash Score calculation.

Bildit fans - and there are a lot of you! - I sympathize for the disappointing results in both Bashes. This time, the victory rate was more even between all Beasties, and that combined with Bildit's standout popularity made them a very close 2nd, so they came a lot closer this time. Before there are calls to give more buffs to Bildit in the next balance patch, let me just say: these statistics do not show the full picture of a Beastie's strengths. Bildit's family in particular demonstrates one of the largest divergences in success rate based on the coach, trait and plays utilized... in other words, in the right hands they are still easily among the best Beasties in the game. They may have struggled to get the top spot in this Bash, but you can be certain you'll continue to see them in fan tourneys and other high-level matches.

Hey, speaking of. Let's take a look at the coaches who scored highest this time around!
[h2]👑 Top-Scoring Players[/h2]

1. Satoros (The Diamond Ducks) | Bash Score: 3064
2. Kim (The Happy Hearts) | Bash Score: 2976
3. Arc Tech (The Arcane Machines) | Bash Score: 2972
4. Darc Tech (The Arcane Robots) | Bash Score: 2888
5. Astra (The Tiny Girls) | Bash Score: 2808
6. Scy (The World-class Tacos) | Bash Score: 2776
7. Ket (The Sea-faring Lovers) | Bash Score: 2760
8. Skarme (The Feral Birds) | Bash Score: 2756
9. Boris (The Rutile Lights) | Bash Score: 2704
10. Valerie (The Radical Queens) | Bash Score: 2700
11. Boolerex (The Evil Flowers) | Bash Score: 2684
12. MochaTeehee (The Hello Fishes) | Bash Score: 2672
13. • Bolimar (The Crimson Angels) | Bash Score: 2640
    • Knight (The Newborn Lights) | Bash Score: 2640
14. N/A
15. Vega (The Dancing Dragons) | Bash Score: 2628
16. Litt (The Jamming Aliens) | Bash Score: 2600
17. Dino (The Evil Hearts) | Bash Score: 2584
18. Sakura (The Pure Breath Mints) | Bash Score: 2564
19. Sparks (The Goofy Scoundrels) | Bash Score: 2544
20. Charge (The Crimson Kings) | Bash Score: 2532
21. Score (The Jamming Ballers) | Bash Score: 2528

The median Bash Score this time was 1892. For those keeping track, this is actually lower than before! - but it's likely owing to more casual and early-game players jumping in who recently picked up the game on sale. In general, it's really exciting to see more Bash participation. :) We're still cooking up lots of new features to support players interacting and participating in PvP, so I hope to continue growing the pool of active coaches.

As always, it's exciting to see a mix of new and returning coaches grab the top spots. It's an honor to see Valerie Stride herself participate in our humble tourneys here, taking a very impressive 10th place out of hundreds of participants. Actually, hey - aren't 3rd and 4th place the same person?! I guess if you play on multiple save files, it's possible... but since it took up someone else's spot, I'm listing 21 coaches this time.

[h2]📊 Beastie Usage Stats![/h2]
As has become tradition, we've collected a ton of data on Beastie usage during this event and we're happy to share that data with you for further investigation!
[h3]> Check out the STATS here![/h3]

As always, we'll be looking at these stats and more to assess how we can improve the balance of things in coming updates. We're aware that there are some Beasties and strategies attracting more ire than others right now, but after several months of frequent balance changes we'd like to let the current meta settle for a little while longer and see how players adapt to the current shape of things.

Statistically speaking, we're seeing fewer meta-destroying exploits emerge, and the performance of Beasties across the board has become a lot more even. That also means that it takes more time and data for us to actually see what's standing out in analytics. I'd encourage players to continue sharing their experiences and thoughts on what's feeling a little too good... or not good enough!

[h2]🙇 Thank you!!![/h2]
Running these events is always a blast thanks to all the players who build creative teams, play their best, and support one another in the community. I'm grateful to get to make this game and already looking forward to the next thing...

[p]* = Fixed in an update a few hours later ^ = Fixed in an update on 7/10 @ = Fixed in an update on 7/11 [/p][p]This is mostly a bugfix update correcting issues reported since the Milestone update, as well as a few nice QOL things particularly for postgame players. We're working on more Big Cool Things in the background... :) (Note: Mac build will be updating roughly 12 hours after PC) [/p]

• [p] Added the ability to sort the Beastiepedia and Team Reserves by whether a given Beastie can metamorph or not
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• [p] Resized some gui elements and changed some render order so that key info is not obscured when navigating UI during a sports match in Detail View
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• [p] Fixed the new issue with Riven's display name after localization was added
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• [p] Fixed an issue where Thriller didn't trigger Noizard's recruit condition
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• [p] Fixed an issue where the top of tall hats would be cut off on the player render
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• [p] Fixed a layering issue with hands when a player with Vibe 05 is holding a phone
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• [p] Fixed text spacing on post-game results cards, particularly in Russian
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• [p] Fixed some crashing issues from frame-perfect pauses/replays at the same time as a cutscene trigger
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• [p] Improved text language detection and rendering for names in the credits of various languages
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• [p] Improved the auto-nickname feature for downloaded Beasties such that Beastie specie names now won't be substituted in place of a custom nickname
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• [p] Made it impossible to receive a phone call while viewing replays/in an online match/in matchmaking
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• [p] Made a change such that when viewing a replay, the "match end" music never plays; this makes it so that you can freely scrub forward and back even after viewing the end of a match without interrupting the BGM.
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• [p] Fixed an issue where downloading corrupted away team data prevented future away teams from appearing
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• [p] Added a fallback wherein Craig will unlock the Beastiepedia if you interact with him and have skipped obtaining it somehow (speedrunners....)
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• [p] Fixed a couple more edge cases with bad save/load locations around Jack in some areas
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• [p] Fixed an issue with certain secret Team Titles not appearing in the list of options after discovering them
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• [p] The previous patch was uploaded using the wrong engine runtime, which meant there were a few previously fixed memory-related crashes that were mistakenly re-introduced. This has been corrected, so "random" crashing should happen a lot less often now.
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• [p] Fixed various obscure crashes
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• [p] Fixed misc. typos
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• [p] *Fixed a new issue preventing entry to Crown Stadium
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• *Fixed a new issue with Free Ball damage
  
• ^Fixed a crash when resuming a Tower Challenge and the next opponent is a boss
• @Fixed an issue with Tower Tourney progress mixing with Super Tower Tourney, preventing the latter from being unlocked
• @Added the ability to back out of Super Tower Tourney difficulty selection
• @Fixed a debug localization string appearing outside Neptune Stadium
• @Adjusted spawn point when exiting Crown Stadium, fixing a visual bug
• @Adjusted logic on Kaz's hangout gameplay, as an attempt to fix a hard-to-reproduce issue where he doesn't react to certain events
• @Fixed a save data corruption issue that could arise when pausing an Expedition run, then submitting, then recruiting a Beastie from the saved team