The Brawlout Community Balance Update (2.5.61)

Greetings, Exemplars!

• Ashla - For being one of the most reliable and proactive TOs we've ever met and for organizing feedback.
  
• Leescano13 - A fantastic lab monster who discovered genuinely hilarious Paco tech we never even dreamed of.
  
• Puglord - Good lord that is a scary Condor X you got there
  
• BlueShadow - For organizing the Jungle League for our console players.
  
• TheStarmanX - For what the events they've done for the platform fighter scene as a whole.
  

PATCH NOTES

Under the hood:

Menus and Settings

• Added a new option in the Gameplay Settings menu to remove the Seek Bar from replays. Streamers rejoice! You can now wiggle your cursor as much as you want without giving away how much time is left in the replay.
  
• Removed stages that are not tournament-legal from the stage list when in Competitive Mode
  
• Default online match settings for Timed Stock have been adjusted to be the tournament standard
  

Controls

• Native support for the Sony Dualsense (PS5 controller) and Xbox Series controllers.
  
• Slightly increased the size of the joystick dead zones.
  

General Movement

• Meteor cancels are now available after frame 30 instead of 17. We want players to have to use burst at some point, and to know when they can meteor cancel instead of bursting to save meter. Players were surviving too many dunks at high percents for free.
  
• Ledge attacks can now be activated with any attack button
  

Dodges

Character Changes

Olaf and Variants

• Jab special has greater stun/knockback during the multihit portion of the attack to allow it to connect more reliably. Should help reduce the chance that Olaf will pass through low percent opponents.
  

Chief Feathers

• Featherflame total knockback and knockback growth has been slightly reduced
  
• Featherflame knockback angle has been changed to be more horizontal
  
• Featherflame now sets enemies on fire, dealing 7 damage over 2 seconds.
  
• Up Air - Minor buff to knockback growth.
  

King Apu & Variants

• Grounded Side Special animation length increased by 4f (16 -> 20)
  
• Endlag on whiffed Side Special grab increased (20f -> 30f)
  
• Reduced hitbox size of Side Special’s grab by 40%
  
• Up specials no longer autocancel when used to ascend to platforms above Apu.
  
• Setting Sun (AKA Dair Special, AKA Crescent Strike) has landing lag now.
  
  • 20f landing lag if grounded before frame 15
  • 7f landing lag if grounded after frame 15
    
  • Apunaut will always get 20f landing lag.
  • Setting Sun’s hitstun has been reduced by 40%
• Funkmaster’s Forward Tilt was 2 frames faster than Apu’s. It has been slowed down to match Apu’s.
  
• Dair now only hits 2 times instead of 4
  
• Forward Charge attack endlag increased
  

Paco

• Sourspot added to Forward Charge. Strong hitbox size reduced.
  
• Paco's suplex is no longer techable
  
• Paco's suplex can now be used on the ledge
  

Juan

• The charge attack button no longer performs special moves. When grounded, the charge attack button will perform a grab instead.
  
• When airborne, the charge attack button will perform a normal aerial.
  
• Juan's suplex is no longer techable
  
• Juan's suplex can now be used on the ledge
  
• Juan can now use his grounded specials via a standard Charge Attack input
  
• Special Attacks still consume Rage, but Rage is no longer required to charge them.
  
• Rooster Uppercut is now upper-body invulnerable.
  

Yooka and Laylee

• Forward Charge locks player input for 30 frames, creating a minimum travel distance for the move, reducing its spam potential and opening up the move for punishes.
  
• Forward Charge knockback, speed and damage falls off over time, becoming slower and less powerful the longer the attack goes on.
  
• Forward Charge automatically transitions into dash attack after 35 frames
  
• Down Charge endlag increased by 20f
  
• Starting projectile (the bubble) no longer has a "no rage" version for the sake of consistency.
  
• Yooka's bubble no longer has a cooldown after being destroyed. A new bubble can now be fired immediately after the one on-screen is destroyed or hits a blast zone.
  
• Reduced the disjointed hitboxes on Flappy Flight to make it trade with aerial attacks more often.
  
• Stats on stolen projectiles now exactly match the stats of the base characters Yooka steals them from.
  

Dead Cells (Beheaded)

• Tweaks to Sprint Attack to remove its multihit properties and prevent DC from passing through opponents on hit.
  
  • Increased active frames on the move's downswing
    
  • Removed most hitboxes on the upswing, buffed knockback and damage on remaining hitboxes
    
  • Base knockback on the final hit of the attack reduced
    
• Back air now has significantly more startup on its animation. Can no longer be used out of a shorthop.
  
• Back air also has landing lag now.
  
• Added an extra hitbox on Down Charge across the hilt of the hammer. Players standing inside of Dead Cells should now get hit.
  
• Initial dash time cut roughly in half. Can now Sprint Attack 7 frames earlier than before
  
• Stun on Frontline Shield parry has been increased to 50 frames, up from 40. This gives a maximum of 20 frames to punish on a successful parry, making more counterattacks on parries true combos.
  
• Minor reduction to the knockback growth on Forward Air part 2.
  
• Side Special now has a sourspot
  
• Side Special now has increased endlag on whiff. On hit the frame data is unchanged.
  

Sephi’ra and variants

• Nair knockback slightly reduced
  
• Nair now has a sourspot.
  
• Bair now has a sourspot
  
• Bair knockback slightly reduced
  
• Divekick damage slightly reduced
  
• Ledge Attack knockback angle changed
  
• Downtilt base knockback increased
  
• Downtilt knockback growth decreased
  

Natu’ra

• Natu’ra’s Side Special projectile has been replaced with a Flash Kick-inspired move.
  
• Shorthop height has been reduced to below the side platform height on Jungle
  

Nightma’ra

• Nightma’ra’s projectile is not longer breakable after casting.
  

The Drifter

• Up Tilt and Up Air have had their hitboxes modified to prevent smaller characters like Yooka or Feathers from falling out of the attacks after the first hit.
  

Ripjack

• Minor reduction to Back Air knockback growth.
  
• Still outscales base Volt’s bair knockback, just not as quickly as before.
  

Stages

The Eyrie

• New Stage Select menu image
  
• Competitive Mode Only: Smaller side blast zones, the breakable platforms are removed.
  

Oasis Palace

• New Stage Select menu image.
  
• New lighting.
  
• Competitive Mode Only: Smaller blast zones
  

Golden City

• Competitive Mode Only: Smaller side blast zones and frozen platforms
  

Festive Jungle

• Adjusted character lighting to make characters stand out from the background better
  

Fire Temple

• Adjusted character lighting to make characters stand out from the background better
  

Blazing Jungle

• Adjusted character lighting to make characters stand out from the background better
  

Moonlight Jungle

• Adjusted character lighting to make characters stand out from the background better
  

Sunset Eyrie

• Adjusted character lighting to make characters stand out from the background better