Rivals of Aether II News

[p]Ever since players first got their hands on Rivals 2 our competitive flame has been alive and burning bright. As fans of the competitive scene know, the North American Rivals 2 Championship Series has already kicked off. The R2CS is our official developer-backed circuit where players fight their way to the top of the standings. So far for Rivals 2 we've only had one region, but today we're excited to announce that European events are entering the fray as well! [/p][h2]New Region: Europe[/h2][p]We've been teasing it for some time now, but the European scene has been alive and well, with community members eager to get involved in the planning. The R2CS EU kickoff brings two Online events, and two LAN events for the summer, with more to come. [/p][p]Buckle up! The first Online EU event is right around the corner, on July 19th, a perfect way to kick off the leaderboard! Then the first LAN, Citilab Smashfest 2025, follows shortly after. Then the second online event is slated for August 23rd. Our final event to announce today as part of the EU circuit is UFA, or Ultimate Fighting Arena 2025. Registration for all four of these events is live right now, with more announcements to come![/p][p][/p][h2]CIRCUIT SUPPORT[/h2][p]With European events comes the European leaderboard that players can battle on over the season to become the points leader. At the end of the season, this leader for EU will earn a $2,000 voucher to attend the live finals currently scheduled for 2026 in the United States.

LAN events in Europe are also receiving €500 pot bonuses to up the stakes in the top 8s. Attendees will also receive themed palettes for these LAN events, and others can pick them up in the store if they'd like to rep the event in-game.

Online events will be streamed and ran by talented community members with amazing track records with the original Rivals Championship Series, and we're excited for these onlines to once again become a place to highlight the European scene.

[/p][h2]RANKINGS[/h2][p]The EU community has historically determined their own requirements and ranking system, so stay tuned for more information on this region's ranking. Until then, we recommend EU players attend what they can in order to cultivate an exciting first season![/p][p][/p][p]European and North American events can all be found on the R2CS landing page here, so be sure to sign up and let's have an amazing year![/p]

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• [p]Bug fix: Poppy will now be invisible when the attached player is invisible.[/p]

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• [p]Bug fix: Mint palette added.[/p]
• [p]Bug fix: Charging a Neutral Special immediately after hitting with Forward Special will no longer prevent the cloud from despawning.[/p]
• [p]Bug fix: Down Special's shock bomb hitting an opponent will no longer prevent Absa from hitting players on the same frame.[/p]
• [p]Bug fix: Touching the ground while charging Down Special will now cancel your double jump acceleration.[/p]

[h2]Absa Character Release[/h2][p]The Storm Architect is finally here! Today’s patch welcomes a classic returning character to the Rivals II roster with THUNDEROUS applause. Absa is available for FREE to all players and is available now![/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p][/p][p]Absa comes with her own progression awards, coin shop rewards, and her own Arcade mode! All of this and more is available now:[/p]

• [p]Progression Rewards: Abyss Skin, Absa Gazelle Skin, Taunt 2 / Stomp, Mint Palette, Platform, Death Effect, Emote 1 / Absa in Love,  Emote 2 / Absa Evil, 3D portrait icon, Stock icon, Definitive icon, Bronze icon, Silver icon, Golden icon, Platinum icon[/p]
• [p]Coin Shop Rewards: Boer Goat, Black Palette[/p]
• [p]Absa Arcade Mode: Abyss Palette, Break the Targets, Splash Art[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]Absa 101[/h2][p]
Interested in learning Absa? The brand new Absa 101 teaches you all of the basics with legendary Rivals 1 Absa main, Akashi, breaking down her moveset and mechanics![/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p][/p][h2]Pool Party Event[/h2][p]
Summer is here and boy is it HOT. It’s time to cool off with a pool party! Our July event has Pool Party Loxodont, Clairen, and Absa as featured skins with some splashing icons to match. Pool Party Absa has custom taunt and victory lines, and Pool Party Clairen has a custom victory line! The new cosmetics are paired with 25,000 Aether Coins and 250 Aether Bucks.[/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p][/p][p]Our free track for June contains the Pool Party Absa emote, the Pool Party death effect, Pool Party platform, Otter Maypul icon, and the Pool Party Ranno skin. Players equipping any event skins above, or the Pool Party Fleet skin will receive 20% Bonus XP on the event track. There’s also a brand new Pink Pool Party Fleet palette in the in-game shop![/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]New Shop Items[/h2][p]In addition to the above, we’re adding two new palettes, and nine new player icons to the buck and coin shop with this patch:[/p]

• [p]Olympia Yellow Palette[/p]
• [p]Pool Party Fleet Pink palette[/p]

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• [p]Fireworks DFX (Promo this for Fourth of July, also mention in patch notes as a new standalone DFX.)[/p]
• [p]Pixel Absa icon[/p]
• [p]Tear of Joy icon[/p]
• [p]Tear of Anger icon[/p]
• [p]Tear of Sorrow icon[/p]
• [p]Marinas icon[/p]
• [p]Polokai icon[/p]
• [p]Floodmingo icon[/p]
• [p]Serpensaur icon[/p]
• [p]Summer Time icon[/p]

[p][/p][h2]Summer Palettes & 4th of July Bundle[/h2][p]We’re bringing back a seasonal favorite from the original Rivals of Aether! Summer palettes are here for every Rival as a special release similar to the Halloween palettes we released in 2024. Check em out:[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]These palettes are available in the Coin and Buck shop like normal, but are also available with the new Fireworks DFX in our 4th of July Bundle![/p][p][/p][h2]Ranked Shop Update[/h2][p]Champion Maypul has been added to the Ranked Shop! This includes a skin, two emotes, and two icons for the Sylvan Watcher.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]Ranked Version 2 Season Rollover[/h2][p]Ranked mode has been given a soft reset once again! Any accrued rank-up-bonus medals will be granted to players and a UI element has been added to show off your past season ranks and to view previous ranked season leaderboards![/p][p][/p][h2]Replay Camera Update [/h2][p]Quality of life updates have been made to the replay camera, check it out in your next replay![/p][p][/p][h2]GC Controller Adapter Setup [/h2][p]We have added a new process to make GC controller support functional and easier for players getting into the game! If you’ve been holding off on using your trusty GC controller, or are just joining us with the new update, be sure to give it a try.[/p][p]Usage:[/p]

• [p]If your adapter brand has a "PC/Console" switch, please ensure it is in "Console" mode.[/p]
• [p]Plug your adapter before attempting to move past title screen.[/p]
• [p]Click or press a key on title screen and the setup popup should appear, then follow on-screen instructions.[/p]

[p]Notice: If you have already setup your adapter before with the Zadig program, then your adapter does not need any additional setup and the popup will not appear.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]Balance[/h2][p]There are very few balance changes with Absa’s release, keeping in line with our goal to keep big patches a bit more spread out. Most of the changes listed are adjustments made following the big changes from our June mid-month patch, while some are specifically made to work with new quirks that Absa’s release adds to the engine.[/p][p]
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• [p]Hitting a ceiling while performing a special will no longer end your vertical momentum.[/p]
  • [p]This means that Kragg rock will no longer stop recovery moves in place when they collide with it before breaking it.[/p]
• [p]Environmental Collision Box (ECB) bottom will be unfrozen when starting a double jump.[/p]
  • [p]This only affects Absa, since her double jump starts by going downward.[/p]
• [p]Bug Fix: Fixed a bug that caused Spot Dodge to slide further than intended when used with high velocity.[/p]
• [p]Bug Fix: Fixed a bug that allowed characters to slip off a ledge 1 frame after grabbing an opponent, canceling the grab.[/p]
• [p]Baseball Clairen the tipper hit sounds have been remade.[/p]

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• [p]Up Special rising hitbox moved upward halfway between the old and new values.[/p]
  • [p]After last patch's reduction to the disjoint of this move, it became a bit too susceptible to lingering hitboxes offstage, so we're partially reverting this change.[/p]

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• [p]Slipstream's speed boost will now last for 20 frames after leaving the slipstream.[/p]
  • [p]With the newly shortened slipstream duration, the boost would often disappear suddenly mid-attack. This was especially detrimental to Wrastor's Down Special, which is much slower outside of slipstream. This change gives Wrastor a little more leniency in maintaining his slipstream boost.[/p]
• [p]Forward Tilt innermost hitbox radius increased by 15 cm, then moved forward and downward.[/p]
  • [p]This makes it reach lower so that it can more consistently hit short characters at point-blank range.[/p]

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• [p]Pillar can now only be broken by players whose current and previous ECB bottom locations are below it.[/p]
  • [p]Previously, it only checked the current ECB bottom, which could lead to some weird teleportation bugs when a character hit the pillar immediately after leaving it. This was most common with Absa's Up Special during testing.[/p]
• [p]Down Throw recovery: 17 > 15[/p]
• [p]Down Throw knockback: 6.5 + 0.25 @ 65 > 6.9 + 0.25 @ 60[/p]
  • [p]We're partially reverting the endlag increase from the last patch, while changing the knockback to be more dynamic at low percents.[/p]

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• [p]Down Strong hit 1 knockback: 4 + 0 @ 45 > 5 + 0 @ 55[/p]
  • [p]With last patch's removal of early knockback gravity easing, opponents hit by this move would be able to shield the 2nd hit just by DIing away from Olympia. This counterplay made the move too unreliable, so we're making it send slightly higher to keep the opponents off the ground for longer.[/p]

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Thank you so much for reading, and as always please give us your ideas and feedback! We have a brand new Nolt Board with today’s patch, so head on over and let us know what you’re thinking.[/p]

[p]Tune in today for another weekly dev stream on your choice on either YouTube or Twitch!

Start Time: 2PM PT / 4PM CT / 5PM ET / 11PM CET

For this week's dev stream we're going to be chatting Absa again since she'll be out in just five days. We'll be focusing specifically on animation since we'll have one of our animators on to talk about how we bring our characters to life. We'll also do a few questions from chat along with showing off fan submitted animal skin guesses.



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• [p]Bug Fix: Fixed a bug that would reset the shield drop lockout when your shield was hit.[/p]
• [p]Bug Fix: Getting hit by a weak attack while grabbed will no longer clear your pummel break input.[/p]
• [p]Previously Hotfixed: CSS crash resulting from the controls menu being open when the online timer reaches 0 (and pressing "A" afterwards).[/p]
• [p]Previously Hotfixed: Baseball Clairen missing SFX properly added to the skin.[/p]

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• [p]Bug Fix: Fixed a bug that caused Neutral Special to walljump when jump canceling near a wall after hitting an opponent.[/p]

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• [p]Neutral Special can now fastfall during the cancel window.[/p]
  • [p]This brings back some of the movement tech he had with dart cancels.[/p]
• [p]Forward Special will now freeze his ECB bottom during the startup window.[/p]
  • [p]Previously, he could get a grounded Forward Special after dropping through a platform.[/p]
• [p]Down Special's bubble resource will now be consumed at the end of the Summon window instead of the beginning.[/p]
  • [p]If Ranno is hit during this window, the bubble is destroyed, so the resource will not be consumed.[/p]
• [p]Bug Fix: Poison bubbles can now capture players in the Wall Bounce and Ceiling Bounce states.[/p]

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• [p]Bug Fix: Fixed a bug that caused upward DI to fail to escape her tether Up Air followup for all characters.[/p]
• [p]Bug Fix: Fixed a bug that caused her Forward Special to get stopped by the ledge on Hyperborean Harbor without being able to grab it.[/p]

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• [p]Bug Fix: Getup Attack recovery frames: 19 > 24[/p]
  • [p]All Getup Attacks last 50 frames total now.[/p]