Super Animal Royale News

Every day at the S.A.W. Research Labs, there’s a question that grows ever-closer to being answered: “has science gone too far?” Until today the answer has always been a resounding, company-approved “absolutely not.” Now, it’s just a “probably not.”

There’s a new breed of Super Chicken (available at level 20) in the lab: the Super Turducken! With the distinguishing features of the Super Chicken, Duck, AND Turkey, this animal's got layers and is sure to be a big hit at Thanksgiving later this month.

We hope you all got your fill of candy corn this Howloween, Super Animals! You'll have another week to spend any remaining candy corn before it expires for this year. We wanted to thank you for the tricks and treats, and to remind you: sometimes, the scariest things of all are the genetic anomalies we’ve made along the way.

Keep up with us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit and Discord to make sure you don’t miss any of our upcoming announcements! We’ll see you on the island, Super Animals.

Tuesday, October 11th to Tuesday, November 1st at 10:00am PDT

They’re heeeeeere… It’s time for the Super ghouls and Super ghosts of the island to rise once again for a graveyard smash! Get your candy bags ready, and watch your back, because Howloween has descended upon the Island, bringing an undead army of cosmetic items and two new Super Animals who are very into the spirit of things.





The Lab Labs have cooked up two new Super Animals that will continue to haunt the Research Lab year round, so you can unlock them at your own pace:

• Super Spooky Teddy Bear (Super Bear breed available from level 1)
  
• Super Alebrije Lizard (Super Lizard breed available starting at level 20)
  

The Super Spooky Teddy Bear has been brought to life with a penchant for the Royale, and it’s not much for child’s play. Just be careful when shooting it: rumors of it being a voodoo doll have yet to be confirmed or denied by S.A.W. representatives…

The newest alebrije animal visiting us from the land of the permanently respawning is the Super Alebrije Lizard! Inspired by the painted animal figures used to celebrate the Day of the Dead, this coldblooded and colorful combatant is ready to score some candy corn.





As with past Howloweens, candy corn has been scattered around the island, ready to be scooped up! You can use it to purchase event cosmetics in the Howloween shop, and it’ll also net you a small heal. Additional candy corn is also rewarded upon completing a match. Grab as much as you can, and don’t forget to brush the sugar off your teeth before bed. We’re looking at you, Super Beavers.

8 new cosmetics have been conjured up for the Howloween event this year:

• Green Witch Dress
  
• Howloween Suspenders
  
• Bat Tophat
  
• Bat Glasses
  
• Black Cat Glasses
  
• Howloween Bandana
  
• Bone Melee
  
• Skeleton Bow & Sparrow
  

As always, you can also use candy corn to claim legacy items from previous years.

Spectator ghosts have been seen rising from the graves of fallen combatants and the island is dressed for the holiday, with jack-o'-lanterns and a spooky Welcome Center fountain with Howloween music. S.A.W. legal just asks that we remind all Super Animals to refrain from tasting the orange water.





New SAW Shop items have been added as well, so make sure you check in with Ms. Macawsome!

• Cleaver
  
• Hatchet Hat
  
• Bwoking Deagle
  
• Mummy Sniper
  

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

After many years of requests to make a Super Fox plush, we’re partnering with the folks over at Makeship to make it happen!



This plush is a limited-time exclusive, only available for purchase until Thursday, October 27th, so make sure to place an order if you’d like one. We’re super happy with how the plush turned out, and it even comes with a detachable gun for when you want your Super Fox to look more or less trigger happy.



Every purchase also comes with a code for an in-game emote that lets your Super Animal walk around with its own plush! We’re super excited to bring the Super Fox to life with Makeship, and hope you all enjoy your new Super Fox friend.

We have more surprises in store for the Howloween event, so be sure to keep up with us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit and in our Discord server to make sure you don’t miss anything. Happy Howloween, Super Animals!

In the next SAR update later this year we’ll be debuting a new netcode for SAR that has been in the works since early 2021, so we’re looking for your help testing it in a Public Test Realm (PTR) to make sure it’s working as intended!

The main goal of the new netcode is to provide more stability in matches, less desynchronization, and an overall more polished experience. The PTR will be running from now until this Monday at 5pm PDT and everyone will play together, with the PTR automatically switching between regions based on prime times in each region:

• NA: 2pm PDT to 11pm PDT
  
• AS: 11pm PDT to 7am PDT (aka 15:00 to 23:00 in JST, UTC+9)
  
• EU: 7am PDT to 2pm PDT (aka 16:00 to 23:00 in Central European Summer Time)
  

Each time you hit play the game mode will be randomized, switching between all modes including mystery mode.



Participants in the PTR will be rewarded with 3,000 Carl Coins shortly after it ends!

To opt in, follow these steps:

1. Right click SAR and go to Properties.
   
   
   
   
2. Go to the Beta tab and select "netptr - test" from the dropdown.
   
   
   
   
3. Download and begin playing! The version number in-game will be 1.6.1. Feel free to leave feedback and report bugs to this form here and in the #ptr-feedback Discord channel.
   

The current netcode has served SAR well for bringing together 64 players in action-packed matches. However, with lag and unstable connections, it can struggle to reconcile players in a way that appears smooth and expected. As well, players who might be experiencing packet loss have no real indication of this themselves, while other players will see them jitter and stutter.

The new netcode remedies this by using a fixed timestep, clientside prediction and rollback. While the old netcode used clientside prediction, the new netcode is able to do a much better job synchronizing between client/server and making a smooth experience for all players.



The game should feel the same as before, but under the hood it is running the game engine on fixed time intervals whilst interpolating visuals so that they look smooth. Things such as seeing other players in hamster balls or riding emus as a passenger will look more natural and fluid.



The new netcode operates by having your client simulate ahead of the server by ping/2 + one buffer frame. Your inputs are simulated locally and then sent to the server just before it reaches the same frame. The server runs its logic with all gathered inputs from players, and then snapshots are sent back to clients and reconciled. For the most part you won’t notice this reconciliation, unless the server’s simulation differs. It should also be noted that the netcode will detect if you are experiencing packet loss or ping spikes and will add buffer frames so that your inputs still arrive on time.

In the PTR you will be able to see server and client tick numbers in the top right of the screen:



These numbers reflect the last server tick you have received, and how many ticks ahead your client is simulating. If your tick lead needs to speed up or slow down you will see it briefly change colors to green and red respectively.

It is important to preface this netcode change by saying that lag itself will not go away. Being hit in the past is still a function of ping and clientside movement. However, dealing with unpredictable warping and other player lag issues will be fixed for the most part. High ping mode will also still be functioning the same as before.

Here's a list of many of the changes and fixes to look forward to:

• Parachute diving is now clientside predicted and immediate.
  
• Other parachuting players no longer rubber-band at edges of the screen while you are in the eagle.
  
• Emoting is predicted and immediate.
  
• The bug where people appear to stutter in the lobby or have the sit emote canceled is fixed.
  
• Banana slipping is clientside predicted (so no sliding backwards into the banana).
  
• No more sliding through wall issues when viewing laggy players.
  
• Emus and unoccupied hamster balls will no longer have player collisions.
  
• Exiting hamster balls is clientside predicted. May include entering as well in a future update.
  
• Hit registration will be more reliable and have less occurrences of shots rejected by the server.
  
• Healing and taping are both clientside predicted (not waiting on server to start).
  
• Double taping sound from other players is fixed.
  
• Healing is smooth rather than on 0.5s intervals.
  
• Rare bug where players could get stuck drinking health juice is fixed.
  
• Bots can now move while healing.
  
• Bots will not roll while trying to reload (they were canceling reloads too often).
  
• Fixed rare desync of eagle flight if you had a period of game lag.
  
• Fixed the bug where you would see people shoot while holding a melee weapon.
  
• Player movement state (standing, walking) is predicted properly as shown below:
  

We hope you all have a good experience testing the new netcode in the PTR! If you have feedback or discover any bugs please post them in this form or in the #ptr-feedback channel in our Discord.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Get ready to show your colors, Super Animals, the Season 5 update has arrived alongside the season finale of SAR Tonight! A flock of colorful surprises are migrating to the island including Super Peacocks, the scenic and serene Murre Woods, Dogna’s Dartfly Gun, updates to the Bwoking Dead game mode, an upgraded emote wheel, and so much more. Let’s glide right into the patch notes!



[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

• Super Animal Royale Tonight’s season finale is here, with the conclusion of the nearly 2-year journey of intrepid reporter Joe Cluck and his rebel friend Peep.
  
• Season 5’s Friends of a Feather pass offers colorful bird-themed items (including many seen on SAR Tonight), and the new Mini Chicken pet!
  
• Super Peacocks join the fight, flaring their fans with four unique breeds!
  
• A new biome centered around a sprawling redwood forest: Murre Woods, featuring new lighting effects and Peep’s Camp, as seen in the season finale of SAR Tonight.
  
• A new weapon: Dogna’s Dartfly Gun is an upgraded, epic and legendary version of Dogna’s Dart gun, designed in collaboration between S.A.W. weapons expert, Thomas Sledison, and S.A.W. Lab Lab, Dr. Jennifer Dogna.
  
• The Bwoking Dead game mode has been reworked, with explosive results!
  
• The emote wheel has been overhauled: now EVERY emote you have can be accessed in-game, with the ability to set 8 as favorites for easy access.
  
• A new neck cosmetic slot, mini animal dances, and more!
  

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

It’s been a long and winding road, but the nearly 2-year journey of SAR Tonight’s second season has come to a close in the season finale! In case you missed any of the previous episodes, check out the SAR Tonight playlist on YouTube so you can catch up.

After the finale, the show will now be taking a break to give us time to plan and write the next big chapter of Super Animal Royale’s story. In the meantime we’ll be continuing to release game updates, short videos and Animal Pass seasons, with a new chapter of the show planned for 2023!





Inspired by the season finale of SAR Tonight, the Friends of a Feather Pass celebrates friendships and birds of all kinds. It contains dozens of flashy and feathery cosmetic items that are sure to grab attention, including the Splits emote and the pass’s exclusive new pet, the Mini Chicken! With unique animations and sounds, the Mini Chicken is a fantastic battle buddy, even if the weapons team has been grumbling about a shipment of BCGs that never got made. It’s a worthy sacrifice.

• During Season 5, the Friends of a Feather Pass will be available for a discounted price of 550 S.A.W. Tickets.
  
• As always, you can continue working on passes you own from previous seasons on your second track for as long as you need, and you can purchase them from The Archive for 750 S.A.W. Tickets.
  

Additionally, for Xbox and PlayStation players: new outfits, umbrellas, BCG skins, and Sparrow Launcher skins are available now for Game Pass and PS Plus subscribers, so be sure to claim yours before the end of the season!

[h2]Season 5 Starter Pack[/h2]



Split the sky with the latest purchasable DLC, the Season 5 Starter Pack! It’ll be available for the duration of Season 5, and includes the following electrifying cosmetics and currency:

• Super Marble Skullcat
  
• Zeus Outfit
  
• Lightning Bolt melee weapon
  
• 600 S.A.W. Tickets
  

[h2]Streetwear Bundle in the S.A.W. Shop[/h2]



Ms. Macawsome has really outdone herself this time, with a new and trendy look available in the S.A.W. Shop: the Streetwear Bundle! And of course, no self-respecting fashionista would turn down a CRISPR Frappé: it’s not a milkshake, it’s a marvel of genetic engineering.

The Streetwear Bundle includes the following hot-to-trot items:

• CRISPR Frappé (melee weapon)
  
• Pink Streetwear (outfit)
  
• Pink Streetwear Glasses
  

An ostentation of overtly ostentatious avians has arrived in the Research Lab: Super Peacocks! You can unlock them at level 70:

• Super Peacock
  
• Super Green Peacock
  
• Super Purple Peacock
  
• Super White Peacock
  

Take a hike… to the scenic Murre Woods, a new location to explore on the island! Fight amidst tall sequoia trees and on mossy forest floors, enjoying the occasional beam of light peeking through the canopy. A prime camping location, plenty of tents and wild forageable mushrooms can be found here, as well as rebel caches for a nice arsenal upgrade to get you back in the fray.



Near its heart is a key location seen in the season finale of SAR Tonight: Peep’s Camp. Be sure to check it out, and maybe give the Mini Chicken a couple pets for good luck.





We hope you bought some super bug spray for your Murre Woods getaway: the Lab Labs’ newest invention is here and it’s got a sting!

Dogna’s Dartfly Gun is a new, upgraded version of Dogna’s original Dart Gun that comes in epic and legendary varieties and fires a pair of intertwined dartflies. Once the gun’s projectile hits an enemy or teammate, the second dartfly will choose the closest additional target to bounce towards, spreading even more healing or poison to nearby friends and foes.

• The bounce will only occur if an enemy or damaged teammate is within 50 SAU of the first target, and within line of sight of where the target was hit. The second dart is also able to go from a teammate to an enemy, and vice versa.
  
• The dartfly projectile bounce can be dodged, as it does not home in on its target, but it’s pretty accurate so you’ll need to be quick if you want to get out of the way.
  
• The second dartfly dart has reduced damage/healing compared to the first dart, with 50% effectiveness at the epic rarity, and 75% effectiveness with the legendary version of the gun.
  
• Existing Dart Gun challenges can also be completed with the Dartfly Gun, including the “Dart the (not a) Rat” milestone.
  
• Dogna’s Dartfly Gun has its own kills stat and 8 colored milestone skins to unlock, as well as a Paint Splatter skin in the Friends of a Feather Animal Pass.
  
• The initial hit damage of the original Dogna’s Dart Gun has been slightly lowered to 10/11 for uncommon and rare varieties respectively, while the Dartfly guns do 12 and 13 initial damage for their epic and legendary varieties. All dart guns still take 3 shots total to kill a player from max health.
  
• The new gun will be available in the S.A.W. vs Rebellion mode too, as part of the Medic II class, which you can read more about below.
  

The Cluckles are still running rampant on the island, infecting Super Animals and turning them into Zombie Joes in The Bwoking Dead infection-style game mode. In this update, we’ve revamped the mode to make for a more engaging (and explosive) experience for both sides of the brutal conflict.

• Zombie Joes can now explode on death to damage survivors caught in the blast! Zombies will be able to fill a green explosion bar by hitting survivors and emus or eating mushrooms and coconuts. Once the bar is filled, they’ll be visually ready to burst with green goo, and their next death will result in a small explosion that deals between 30 and 45 splash damage depending on the recipient’s proximity to the blast. Those lucky enough to have body armor will be protected from half the damage.
  
• To reduce the amount of time that Zombie Joes have to spend wandering around, and to make the survivor experience more engaging, the match will now begin with a pre-made Skunk Gas circle. This means that the match length will be a bit shorter and take place within a smaller playing field. As such, loot spawn rates have been increased, so survivors can get kitted up and start mowing down the horde faster than before.
  
• Additionally, during certain parts of the match, zombie respawn times have been increased a little to accommodate the smaller play area.
  
• Survivors using Dogna’s Dart Gun or the new Dartfly Gun can now see teammate health bars.
  

We also heard your feedback about how getting unlucky with randomness and being infected in a single hit can be frustrating, so we’ve adjusted the way infections work to make it feel fairer for survivors while also balancing to avoid putting zombies at a disadvantage.

• If you don’t have body armor, or your armor is fully broken, your infection chance when getting hit is the same as before (10% for regular Zombie Joes and 15% for red Super Zombie Joes) and you can still get infected on the first hit if you’re unlucky.
  
• However, if you have any undamaged body armor equipped, the first hit from a zombie can no longer infect you.
  

For body armor above level 1, infection chance is also reduced per tick of armor as follows (the first percentage being a hit from regular Zombie Joe and the second being a hit from red Super Zombie Joe):

• If you’re hit 2x in a row while wearing level 2 armor, the 2nd hit has a 4% / 6% infection chance (the first hit with armor always has no infection chance).
  
• With level 3 armor, the 2nd hit has a 2% / 4% infection chance and the 3rd hit has a 4% / 7% infection chance.
  

[h2]S.A.W. vs Rebellion Updates[/h2]
With Howloween right around the corner and the past two updates featuring major SvR updates, we focused more on Bwoking Dead updates this season, but we still managed to include some nice quality of life updates for SvR as well, including one highly requested new feature:

• By popular demand, we’ve added class counters in SvR on the class selection screen, so you can see how many players on your team are playing as each class and help balance the team with your own selection.
  
• The Medic II class gains an epic tier Dogna’s Dartfly Gun in place of the rare Dart Gun, but its secondary weapon has been changed from the Thomas Gun to an SMG to help balance the class’s offensive power.
  
• Bots no longer pick up ammo, Super Tape, or health juice in SvR so that there’s more available for players. To balance this, Super Tape and health juice now despawn after 30s like ammo, and repeated flag captures within 20s no longer drop items.
  
• Bots in SvR will also no longer ditch a flag capture to fight someone or to flee from damage if the flag is within 1.5 seconds of capture.
  

As always, the modes will continue to rotate weekly, but we’re giving Bwoking Dead a few back to back weeks so you have time to dig into its larger updates.



[h3]Emote Wheel Update[/h3]
​​You asked for more emote slots, so not only are we upgrading the wheel from 6 to 8 emotes that you can set as favorites (as well as optional keyboard bindings for all the slots) we’re also letting you access and use ANY emote you own at any time, using the mouse wheel or controller bumpers!

Additionally, your 8 favorite emotes are now saved globally to your account rather than tied to specific presets, so all your loadouts will share the same equipped emotes without needing to edit your favorites for every preset.

[h3]Mini Animal Dancing[/h3]
If you thought Super Animals were the only ones getting new moves, you’d be cri-mini-ally uninformed – Mini Animals will now dance with you! They have two variations depending on the type of dance being performed. This works in both the main menu and matches, so get groovin’, because you’ve got a backup dancer now!

[h3]Neck Cosmetics[/h3]
We’ve also added a new character customization slot: neck cosmetics! Several existing clothing items such as bowties and scarves have been moved to this category, so you can now mix and match them with your regular outfits for extra fashion freedom.

• The Cardinal Bow & Sparrow has a new custom projectile, custom sparrow tracker, and custom feathery impact. These effects are client side to avoid any risk of competitive impact. The Cardinal Bow & Sparrow’s price has been increased slightly in the S.A.W. Shop due to the new effects, but players that already purchased it can enjoy the updates for free!
  
• The walls of SMOMA have been updated to feature the winners of the “War!” Super Fanart Contest. Take some time to check out all the amazing and poignant pieces made by the community!
  
• The T-pose emote now allows you to move while emoting. We’ve also improved the idle/walk animations that mix with the T-pose, Hungry, and Point emotes.
  
• Added footstep sounds when walking in BCG yolks. Squelchy.
  
• Added a footstep effect for players walking out of BCG yolk splats: for 2s they will leave behind footsteps visible to everyone through line of sight. Ninja Booties prevent this effect.
  
• The clip sizes for the AK and M16 are now 25, down from 30. This is to rein in their overall ability to sustain automatic fire, while not changing the core functionality of the guns.
  
• In accordance with the rifle changes, the carrying capacity for big bullets is now 80, down from 90. However, in the Bwoking Dead and SvR game modes, it will remain at 90.
  
• The Thomas Gun’s clip size is now 35, down from 40. While not a huge change, this is meant to help keep it in line with the rifle changes and reduce its oppressiveness slightly.
  
• Moved railings inward a bit at the top Beaver Construction HQ dam walkway to help players avoid getting stuck near the shallow water.
  
• The recoil indicator hotkey (F6 by default on PC) now also applies to BCG charge markers.
  
• Triggering a campfire while riding an injured Giant Emu now contributes to the “use campfires” challenges and milestones too.
  
• Improved posture of the Super Border Collie, Super Raven, Super Rat, Super Duck, and Super Parrot. Don’t forget to improve yours, too. We see you slouching.
  

• Moved controller hotkeys for unlocking animal breeds to display along the bottom of the screen rather than directly on the 'Create' button. This fixes translation and text spacing issues and helps clean up the UI a bit.
  
• The end of match report button no longer displays if you die to the Skunk Gas or yourself. That’s on you.
  
• Fixed a bug where melee attacks and Giant Emu pecks could break boxes through walls occasionally.
  
• Reduced character flickering while rolling and aiming up with a controller.
  
• Fixed a bug where BCG aim markers would appear while using the Scout class in SvR after having charged a BCG in the lobby.
  
• Fixed a rare bug where looting weapons in a certain way could cause your aim to be stuck until rolling or reloading.
  
• Fixed dart and sparrow projectiles having trails visible through line of sight.
  
• Improved the visual of dart trails to make it cleaner and avoid breaks in the line.
  
• Fixed a bug in the "pick up legendary weapons" challenge where it wouldn't count if you looted the same type of weapon later on in a match.
  
• Fixed pets flipping left and right when following an emu vertically.
  
• Fixed a bug in SvR where dying while creep zooming with a sniper caused the camera to be briefly zoomed out upon respawn.
  
• Fixed a bug where emus would sometimes still spawn in private matches after using the command to turn emus off.
  
• Fixed a misaligned grass patch at the Welcome Center.
  
• Fixed an issue on MacOS where the news box would fail to load.
  
• The Snakeskin Hat is now allowed in the Wild West Mystery Mode.
  
• Fixed mohawks on the Super Goat.
  
• Repositioned the blue beanie on the Super Ferret.
  
• And finally, we’ll leave you with some huge news: the dot at the Welcome Center docks is now gone. Whatever you were, wherever you are now, little dot… you will be remembered.
  

We hope you all enjoy the Friends of a Feather update! We have more exciting news coming up in October, including this year’s Howloween event and Twitch Rivals tournaments in Thailand and Japan on October 1st and 7th respectively with an exclusive Twitch Drops item during the streams, so be sure to keep up with us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit and in our Discord server to make sure you don’t miss anything! We’ll see you on the island, Super Animals.

With a new Season around the corner, it’s time for another Double XP Weekend!

From now until the end of Monday, September 12th, all XP gains from dailies, weeklies and matches are doubled. It’s a great chance to take a chunk out of your currently active Animal Passes and maybe snag a new gem rank or two. Flock together with your friends for a late-summer showdown this weekend!





Our Friends of a Feather (Season 5) update is coming to the island with a Major Update on Tuesday, September 27th!

Season 4’s Animal Pass will be headed into The Archive at that time to make room for the newest pass, but since Animal Passes are timeless, you can always re-activate previous passes that you own to make progress on them alongside the current season.

Double XP applies to Archive passes too, so if you own or purchase any Archive passes this weekend and activate them on your second track you can make double the progress, double as fast! And if you don’t own Season 4 yet and are interested in it, be sure to pick that up before the season ends to grab the discount.





Even in a frantic fight for survival, it’s important to find the time to take it easy and enjoy the island, so that’s what our latest fanart contest is all about!

The top 21 peaceful pieces will earn a place in the Super Museum Modern Art (found in the lower right of the Welcome Center) as well as an exclusive cosmetic item, and Rabbita will also select one grand prize winner who will get the coveted Golden Paintbrush.

All entries will be showcased on the contest website where you can also view the entries from previous art contests: artcontest.animalroyale.com

For all the details and to participate in the contest, visit the link below and submit your art by Sunday, September 25th:



[Submission Form]

We have lots of surprises to reveal about the Friends of a Feather update, so keep your eyes on our Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit as its release draws closer, and join us in our Discord!