Hey everyone!
We've got a BIG update this month - much bigger than the usual you'd see without a new character release. It includes huge features like the Workshop 1.0 FULL LAUNCH with custom characters and items, new Halloween cosmetics and titles up for grabs in the shop, a brand new move list feature for every character in the game, an engine update that we've been working on behind the scenes for a while, AND MORE! Check out the full notes below for all of the details:
Workshop 1.0 Out Now with Custom Characters and Custom Items
Rivals 2 Workshop is officially out! Follow along as Dan introduces it all here in our Workshop 1.0 fireside:
Even though the full launch is today, characters and items from our beta are already available to play now. Check out the Workshop menu and hit browse to see everything you can try right from in game.
Make sure to check the browse menu periodically and keep an eye out for both more new characters and old favorites. We've added support for creators to import Rivals 1 characters over to Rivals 2. Try ours by downloading Hodan!
In the Workshop menu, you can join the new Workshop online queue, or create both public and private lobbies to play with friends. Workshop characters also work with items, and creators can even make their own custom workshop items. Speaking of...
To celebrate the launch of Workshop 1.0, we're holding a Workshop Item Creation Contest. Upload your version of the coolest, craziest, or most fun item you can imagine and then submit it via our contest form. We'll pick our top 3 favorites to be added to the base game as default items, plus 30,000 Aether Bucks for each winning creator.
Creators have 2 months to work on and submit their item before judging begins on 12/7/26. Read the full details on the our submission form here: rivals2.com/itemcontest
If you want to get started making your own mods for the first time, make sure to check out our documentation website as well as the community Rivals of Aether 2 Modding Discord server.
We're looking forward to seeing everything the community makes and we hope everyone has fun playing with the Rivals 2 Workshop!
New Shop Items
Halloween 2026 Bundle
Fleet and Gouie are going trick or treating! Pick up our brand new Halloween bundle in the shop to grab the Werefleet and Booie skins, along with their icons, coins, and bucks!
Halloween Titles
10 new titles are included in the buck and coin shop this update. Enjoy the spooky season by mixing and matching your favorites.
New Feature: Move Lists
Players can now access a move list right in game! In the extras menu and in training mode, players can view a move list for each character that explains what their moves do with an accompanying video.
The menu can also be accessed in local and online modes as well, but it will only show the characters present in the current match. This is for performance reasons so the game doesn't have to load in ALL the move lists during a real game. Use this feature to learn more about your character, or your opponent's. You might learning something new!
Steam Autumn Sale
As part of the annual Steam Autumn sale, Rivals 2 is 50% off. If you've been waiting for a great time to hop in or share the game with a friend - this is the deepest discount you'll get!
[dynamiclink href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/2217000/Rivals_of_Aether_II/"]
Game Engine Update
We've updated our game engine to Unreal Engine 5.8. This was a big undertaking for us and we've been working on it behind the scenes ever since this new Unreal Engine version released this summer.
We have gotten reports from beta testers and other game developers that this new version of Unreal can improve game performance on certain hardware, especially in the shaders and stuttering department. Give it a test and let us know if you experience any improvements performance-wise. We still have more directed optimizations coming in future updates.
If you run into any bugs on the new update, please report them on our discord or other social media channels so we can get them fixed up as soon as possible.
Shop Quality-of-Life Updates
This patch includes a couple quality of life update for the shop. The shop will now load the Featured Tab first to speed up load times. It will then load other tabs after the Featured Tab is loaded. This should prevent a long hang time when first selecting the shop. We have also added two new slots to the Coin Shop to rotate in the new titles that we've added since that new cosmetic type was introduced in June. You can now purchase titles that show up here as well if you want to save your hard-earned bucks!
Adjustments to the Shader Warming process
You will notice that the shader warming process on the title screen, which can be quite long depending on your hardware, now happens less. When the process completes, we save a flag and the game knows it doesn't need to do it again. The game will also know when it needs to run the warming process again, these scenarios will clear the flag:
Changing graphics settings
Changing renderer (DX11 or DX12)
A new game update
A change in hardware
A change in GPU driver
Gameplay Updates
All characters (except Gouie) have had their hurtbox sizes increased slightly.
This change lessens the effect of the character's animation on their hittable area, reducing the frequency of situations where precise hitboxes will unexpectedly whiff.
Weight multiplier formula changed to normalize knockback values slightly.
Prior to this change, heavy characters were a bit too resistant to knockback even after the recent Hitstun Max Fall Speed changes, so we're adjusting the weight formula so that characters with more extreme weights aren't frustratingly difficult to KO.
The weight multiplier is multiplied against an attack's knockback scaling to get the final knockback value. The formula changed from ( 200 / ( weight + 100 ) ) to ( 255 / ( weight + 150 ) ), which makes anyone heavier than Maypul take more knockback and anyone lighter take less knockback. The effects of this change are felt more drastically for the more extreme weights, like Loxodont and Gouie.
Full list of the exact weight multiplier changes:
Loxodont: 0.952 > 0.981
Kragg: 0.962 > 0.988
Etalus: 0.971 > 0.996
Big Gouie: 0.976 > 1.0
Galvan: 0.980 > 1.004
La Reina: 0.995 > 1.016
Slade: 1.015 > 1.032
Zetterburn/Forsburn/Orcane: 1.026 > 1.041
Ranno: 1.053 > 1.063
Clairen: 1.070 > 1.076
Fleet: 1.081 > 1.085
Maypul: 1.099 > 1.099 (unchanged)
Absa: 1.111 > 1.109
Olympia: 1.124 > 1.118
Wrastor: 1.170 > 1.154
Gouie: 1.190 > 1.170
Wavelanding will no longer put grab on a 1 frame cooldown.
This cooldown was introduced when waveland was shortened from 10 frames to 8 frames as a way to prevent waveland grab from being too strong against opponents shielding on platforms. As the game's meta has evolved, shielding on platforms has proved to be quite strong, so we're less concerned with that interaction and have decided to remove the cooldown entirely.
The shield hurtbox now matches the visual size of the shield much more closely.
This helps to improve visual clarity regarding the actual size of the shield.
The shield hurtbox is no longer grabbable.
Added a new grabbable shield hurtbox that is a vertical capsule with a smaller radius than the normal shield hurtbox. Parrying will now use this new hurtbox instead of the larger shield hurtbox.
Both shield hurtboxes will now appear instantly when shielding, instead of waiting until after the Shield Start state.
Previously, characters that lean backward while shielding (i.e. Clairen) could dodge grabs during their Shield Start state when it looked like the grab should have connected. This new grabbable shield hurtbox makes grabbing characters more consistent, regardless of the character's Shield Start animation. It is also slightly thinner than the old shield hurtbox, preventing the weird grabs that were originally addressed by delaying the appearance of the shield hurtbox in patch 1.2.2.
Perfectly horizontal joystick values will no longer prevent floorhugging.
Previously, you could bypass this restriction by calibrating your joystick to rest at a Y value very slightly below zero, so we're removing it to make sure the default controls aren't objectively suboptimal in this scenario.
Bug Fix: Fixed a bug that caused the shield to shake excessively when hit by a strong move at low shield HP.
Monitoring: We have seen the discussion about the reduced buffer on Shield Stun and Floorhug. The buffer reduction is intended to nerf both of these defensive options without removing the possibility of well-timed reversals. We know that some players would prefer to have a consistent buffer so we are exploring options to reduce the power and consistency of floorhug and out-of-shield options without nuking them entirely.
Up Special multihit extra shield stun: 0 > 1
This prevents opponents from dropping their shield between the hits.
Forward Strong hit 1 extra shield stun: 1 > 2
This prevents opponents from dropping their shield between the hits.
Up Air (all hitboxes) hitfall hitstun multiplier: x1 > x0.9
This reduces the potency of his Up Air hitfall combos, which were a bit too consistent at early/mid percents regardless of which hitbox connected.
Channeling Down Special can now control bubbles with players inside of them, with reduced effectiveness.
The bubbled player will be able to counteract this movement with their own inputs, but this allows Ranno to keep players closer or move them farther.
Neutral Special multihit extra shield stun: 0 > 1
This prevents opponents from dropping their shield between the multihits.
Ledge Special's falling active window now has the same knockback as the landing active window.
This move could be unreliable when hitting with the spike, so now it will always have the same knockback regardless of which hit connects. This also makes it extremely deadly when hitting an opponent near the top blastzone.
Holding Special while at the peak of Ledge Special can now delay the dive by up to 15 frames.
This gives Wrastor more control of the timing of the dive. He also moves horizontally while at the peak, so delaying the descent also moves the landing position forward.
Jab 2 hitboxes are now clamped to the gameplay plane
This allows it to more easily hit a rock on a platform above him.
Dash Attack speed boost: 20 > 22
Dash Attack Active window ground friction: 0.025 > 0.25
We're partially reverting the speed boost nerf from patch 1.6.0 to increase the range of the first active frame, but increasing the active window's friction to keep the total range nerfed compared to pre-1.6.0 Dash Attack. The increased friction also decreases Kragg's residual speed when canceling the later active frames into another attack on hit.
Up Tilt hit 1 extra shield stun: 0 > 1
This prevents opponents from dropping their shield between the hits.
Holding Special + Attack/Strong/Grab on the frame Maypul becomes actionable while she has a potential tether target will now buffer a tether.
This previously only applied to Up and Forward Special inputs held at the start of the Tumble, FallStart, or Fall states, but now it applies to all states and doesn't depend on your joystick's position. The previous version would also buffer an Up Special even if Maypul had no potential tether targets, which could lead to accidental Up Specials when hit by an attack with low hitstun.
Added 2 new hitboxes to Up Tilt and shrunk/moved the existing ones to match the animation better
This also widens the gap in the center so that opponents can more easily attack Maypul from that deadzone.
Up Tilt bottom and middle hitboxes knockback: 6 + 0.85 > 5 + 0.85
Up Tilt top hitbox knockback angle: 80 > 85
Up Tilt now has a small sourspot in the center that can only hit grounded opponents with knockback: 4 + 0.85 @ 67
This makes Up Tilt require spacing to get the normal grounded hit, which had its base knockback lowered to make it knock opponents down slightly later. It also gives Maypul the opportunity to space for the top hitbox to keep opponents closer with its new higher knockback angle.
Bug Fix: Fixed a bug that caused Neutral Special's hitbox to appear at the end of hitpause when the attack was interrupted by a grab 1 frame before the Active window.
Up Special multihit extra shield stun: 0 > 1
This prevents opponents from dropping their shield between the hits.
Neutral Air multihit sourspot extra shield stun: 0 > 1
This prevents opponents from dropping their shield between the hits.
Neutral Air multihit tippers will no longer activate the 30 frame tipper stun lockout.
This makes sure the final hit will always stun the opponent, even if a multihit tipper hit them previously, giving them more time to recognize that they've been hit by the final sweetspot.
Tipper stun will no longer stack on top of preexisting hitpause, and will instead always have the same stun, no matter what your previous hitpause value was.
Without this change, Neutral Air would gain excessive stun duration when hitting multiple tippers in a row.
The big bad elephant in the room is getting toned down in a few ways - from Down Special confirms, which were a bit too easy to cover multiple options, to Forward Air frame data, which was slightly too fast for how much space it takes up, as well as a few more minor changes. Overall, we want to make sure to preserve Loxodont's intended strengths, like his dominant punish game and far-reaching attacks, while making sure the rest of his kit doesn't push those strengths too far.
Down Special level 2 knockback angle: 65 > 70
Down Special level 3 knockback angle: 60 > 70
This makes the opponent end up further behind Loxodont on DI in, while also not sending them as far forward on DI out. The goal of this change is to make it harder for Loxodont to react and cover every option, but it may end up being stronger in certain scenarios. We will be keeping an eye on it to see if the change has the intended effect.
Jab 1 sourspot damage: 4 > 3
Jab 2 startup: 3 > 4
This makes a perfectly-timed shield grab beat a poorly-spaced jab 1 on shield, even if jab 2 is buffered.
Down Tilt sourspot damage: 12 > 10
Previously, the sourspot dealt the same damage as the sweetspot, and was also just as good on shield. This change makes spacing for the sweetspot more important when the opponent is shielding.
DACUS speed multiplier: x0.7 > x0.6
This reduces the range of his DACUS by around 30cm, as the size and power of this move were making it a bit too good with the boosted range, especially when confirming out of Up Throw.
Forward Air startup: 10 > 12
This attack covers an extremely large area with high reward on hit, making it Loxodont's go-to aerial in many situations. We're increasing the startup to balance out this move's strengths, slightly reduce its ability to combo into itself, and to make it harder to time when trying to hit opponents recovering to ledge.
Forward Air landing lag: 11 > 12
This slightly increases the commitment of landing with Forward Air and makes it 1 frame worse on shield.
Up Air sourspot knockback: 4 + 0.5 > 4 + 0.7
This makes it send opponents farther at mid-high percents, letting opponents put more horizontal distance between them and Loxodont if they DI correctly.
After testing the infamous puddle timer change a bit more, we've decided it shall not see the light of day, and will instead be implementing a tradeoff where Orcane must choose between his quick and versatile Up Special cancel and his infinite-range teleport. We're also adding some knockback scaling to his Up Throw so that it loses some effectiveness at high percents like other characters' throws.
Interrupting Orcane's Up Special will now destroy his puddle.
Canceling Up Special's teleport by holding the Shield button will now destroy Orcane's puddle.
This makes Orcane sacrifice his puddle when he is forced to use his non-teleport Up Special to recover, removing it as a backup if his recovery is intercepted or he gets knocked offstage again.
Fully charging a strong attack will now have increased range and damage as if it absorbed a puddle.
Up Throw initial toss knockback: 6 + 0 > 6 + 0.25
Previously, the followups from this throw were the same regardless of percent. Now, followups will be much less consistent at high percents, where Orcane will need to match the bubble angle to the opponent's DI in order for the bubbles to connect.
The mighty bear is getting a few new toys to play with, such as new armored Neutral Special mechanics, fully charged strong attack shards, and a slight buff to his grab range.
Neutral Special now has a single hit of super armor when Etalus has ice armor.
Neutral Special will now get rid of Etalus' ice armor at the beginning of the Recovery window.
This gives the attack new utility when armored, as opposed to only being used to reapply armor.
Fully charging a strong attack will now fire ice shards as if Etalus had ice armor.
Forward Strong hit 1 extra shield stun: 4 > 5
This prevents opponents from dropping their shield between the hits.
Up Strong hit 1 extra shield stun: 1 > 2
This prevents opponents from dropping their shield between the hits.
Down Air hit 2 now inflicts 1 extra frame of hitpause on opponents.
This fixes an inconsistency that allowed opponents to shield hit 3 after floorhugging hit 2 at specific horizontal spacings.
Standing grab range increased slightly.
Due to his wide idle stance, his grab range felt particularly short even though it was the 4th largest in the game, behind only Kragg, Big Gouie, and Loxodont. He now has the 2nd largest in the game, just barely shorter than Kragg's. While it will still feel short relative to his idle pose, it will at least reach farther than his idle head hurtbox.
This patch brings quite a few quality-of-life changes to Olympia, who should see increased consistency with her strong attacks, a bit more leniency in performing her gem dash, and less punishment when using Forward Special away from the stage.
Holding Special + Attack/Strong/Grab on the frame Olympia becomes actionable while she can Gem Dash will now buffer a Gem Dash.
This simplifies the inputs for performing a Gem Dash, especially when attempting to use it immediately after manually placing the gem field. Previously, this technique's difficulty was too high for how important it is for her recovery, so we're making it a bit easier to perform.
Forward Special's grab box is now split into 2 grab boxes offset vertically.
This increases the vertical range of this attack, making it less likely to whiff due to Olympia being slightly too low/high.
Forward Special air acceleration increased on aerial recovery windows.
This allows Olympia to drift back toward the wall after going offstage with this move.
Up Special multihit extra shield stun: 0 > 5
This prevents opponents from dropping their shield between the hits.
Fully charged strong attacks will now crystalize opponents on hit.
Up Strong and Down Strong hit 1 no longer have the autofloorhug flag
This makes them send floorhugging opponents into knockdown instead, preventing some weird situations where a character's hitstun land pose would dodge the 2nd hit, allowing them to punish Olympia directly.
Down Strong hit 1 knockback: 5 + 0 @ 55 > 4 + 0 @ 67
This should make it less likely to knock opponents too far away for hit 2 to connect.
Down Strong hit 1 hitstun multiplier: x1 > x1.25
This keeps the hitstun the same as before.
Bug Fix: Down Strong hit 1 full-charge knockback multiplier: x1.3 > x1.0
This linking hit was not intended to scale with charge, since that makes it worse at connecting into hit 2.
Forward Air inner hitbox radius: 30 > 40, moved 10cm forward.
This makes the spike hit require more precise spacing.
Some of Absa's changes in the last major patch ended up hurting her a bit more than intended, so we're adjusting other parts of the affected moves to further refine their intended usage and help her out in situations that she previously struggled with. She's also getting a few quality-of-life changes to her aerials that will help reduce some inconsistencies in her offense.
The last 2 active frames of Up Special 2 are now a sweetspot that deals 2% more damage and has 6 more frames of extra hitpause for the opponent (4 > 10)
This allows Absa to space her Up Special 2 for extra reward on hit.
Jab 1 and 2 extra hitpause for opponent: 0 > 2
Now that jab is riskier to throw out, we want to increase the reward for when it hits. This change makes it 2 frames more advantaged on hit, but not on shield, allowing it to combo better into jabs/tilts in most cases.
Forward Strong multihit extra shield stun: 0 > 1
This prevents opponents from dropping their shield between the hits.
Up Strong multihit extra shield stun: 0 > 1
This prevents opponents from dropping their shield between the hits.
Down Strong multihit extra shield stun: 0 > 4
This prevents opponents from dropping their shield between the hits.
Neutral Air's multihits now have a sourspot at the top with weaker knockback.
This prevents it from launching opponents too high when rising below them.
Forward, Back, and Down Air sweetspot radius: 12 > 15 (all hitboxes moved 3cm inward to preserve maximum range)
In a similar vein to 1.7.0's Wrastor Up Special hitbox size increase, this makes these moves slightly less likely to whiff in odd scenarios where hurtboxes contort in specific ways.
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Landing a Special Pummel while you have your cloud attached to you will now transfer the cloud to the opponent.
Bug Fix: Holding jump while performing an item throw will now retain her double jump acceleration, just like it does when performing an aerial.
Our main focus with Galvan this patch is toning down his offstage power by adding a few recovery frames to some of his aerials, making them slightly more risky when whiffed and making comboing afterward a bit more strict.
Forward Special multihit extra shield stun: 0 > 2
This prevents opponents from dropping their shield between the hits.
Up Special multihit extra shield stun: 0 > 1
This prevents opponents from dropping their shield between the hits.
Down Strong final hit knockback: 8 + 1.1 > 7.7 + 1.1
Very slight nerf to the kill power of this move to prevent it from overshadowing his other strong attacks, since it already has long active frames and relatively low recovery.
Neutral Air recovery: 16 > 19
This makes it more committal to use offstage.
Forward Air recovery: 15 > 17
This makes it more committal to use offstage and reduces its ability to combo into another Forward Air.
Forward Air landing lag: 12 > 13
Very slight increase to the time it takes to throw out multiple short hop Forward Airs in a row.
Forward Air damage: 8 > 10
Reinforced Forward Air damage: 10 > 12
This increases the advantage on shield and makes it feel more like a heavy punch.
Back Air recovery: 11 > 13
This makes it more committal to use offstage and reduces its ability to combo afterward, especially when used after dropping from ledge.
Your favorite shark is getting a bit of a redistribution of power, putting more emphasis on his movement and normals while taking away his ability to freely throw out projectiles at minimal cost. To compensate for his increased shuriken cost, we're giving him a new way to make money as well as increasing the duration that coins stay on stage before disappearing.
Dash duration: 10 > 14
Run speed: 16.5 > 18.15
This increases his long-distance mobility significantly and slightly buffs his short-range speed as well.
Parrying a physical attack will now spawn treasure relative to the damage of the parried hitbox.
This gives Slade another way to build treasure.
Treasure lifespan increased by 1 second.
This gives Slade more chances to pick up treasure before it despawns.
Shuriken price: 20 > 50
Shurikens can no longer be spawned when Slade cannot afford them. Attempting to do so will cause Slade to go into a new Fail window that stalls him in the air on first use. This can also be performed by holding the Shield button during Neutral Special.
Slade's ability to quickly pull items is strong enough to force the rest of his kit to be balanced around it, which limited the effectiveness of his non-item-heavy playstyles. We're significantly increasing the cost of his cheapest item and removing his discount when funds are low in order to reshuffle some of his power budget away from item spam and into other more interesting places, like his movement speed.
Bomb damage: 10 > 15
More bang for your buck.
Forward Special 1 Recovery cancel frame: 3 > 0
This makes hit 2 come out 3 frames faster, helping to reduce the risk if hit 1 gets shielded or floorhugged.
Forward Special 2 Downward now flinches grounded opponents
Forward Special 2 Downward knockback: 5.5 + 0.2 > 3.5 + 0.2
Forward Special 2 Downward knockback angle: 75 (inner), 90 (outer) > 60 (both)
This makes the downward hit 2 much better against grounded opponents and much worse against aerial opponents, giving it a clear niche and enhancing Slade's options against floorhugging.
Grounded Up Special late hit knockback: 6 + 0.4 > 6 + 0.5
Slight buff to the move's scaling so that it sends opponents farther offstage at high percents.
Forward Tilt's tip hitbox damage: 7 > 9 and knockback angle: 45 > 35
Forward Tilt's middle hitbox damage: 7 > 8
Forward Tilt's inner hitbox knockback angle: 45 > 55
This makes Forward Tilt more deadly and safer at max range, while making the inner hit combo better at mid-high percents.
Forward Strong can now be angled up or down.
Bug Fix: Treasure Chest’s hitboxes are now treated as projectiles
In this patch, we're increasing the potency of Gouie's biggest strength (his air mobility) to further offset his extreme weaknesses. We're also significantly decreasing the time it takes to eat things with Neutral Special, as using the move for its intended purposes was often a huge detriment to Gouie, frequently leading to his own demise.
Air Acceleration: 1.5 > 2.2
Air Acceleration (Big Mode): 0.75 > 1.0
Air Acceleration when double jumping (Small and Big Mode): 0.4 > 0.6
This increases his ability to weave in and out in neutral.
Neutral Special article suck speed: 9 > 25 cm/f
This significantly reduces the travel time of articles that get sucked up.
Neutral Special Eat Startup (Small and Big) window length: 30 > 15
This makes the window to interrupt Gouie before he fully eats a player/article much smaller, reducing the risk for doing so significantly.
Neutral Special Ate Article Small window length: 12 > 8
Neutral Special Ate Article Big window length: 30 > 8
These changes make eating articles with Neutral Special significantly safer, and normalize the frame data regardless of whether eating the article will make Gouie big or not. These changes do not apply to Gouie eating a held item directly out of his hand, otherwise running away to get big would be too safe.
QoL: Down Special can now also be canceled by pressing Jump instead of just Special.
Jab 3 can now cancel into anything on hit instead of just aerials or double jump.
Forward Strong hit 1 hitbox moved forward 10cm, radius increased 5cm
This removes the negative disjoint from this move.
