Beta Mode Update [4/15/2024]

Hello,

Today's update focuses on bug fixing and tuning from the last update, and introducing a fairly substantial "rework" for Umbrella.

SYSTEM

• Fixed a bug where characters would take no chip damage during the last frame of a Pushblock, and attackers would behave as if the hit did not connect.
  (... This fixes a bug where Umbrella connecting with Slurp n Slide on this frame would have her slide much longer than she should have, for example)
• Fixed a bug where Pushblocking in between two attacks before hitstop for the first hit ended would prevent the Pushblock from happening. Pushblocking during these scenarios should feel drastically more responsive.
  (... This happens most commonly when pushblocking in between a point character hit, and a secondary hit from a projectile or an assist.)
  (... Please let us know if you see any weirdness or issues with pushblocking and report them to us in our official Discord in the #2e-bugs channel, thank you!)
• When assists counter hit another assist, damage scaling will be set to 90% on them instead of the new 70% to ensure "counter calls" are as damaging as before.

UMBRELLA

We're making Umbrella more consistent in all of her Hunger States without relying on entering and maintaining Ravenous for the entire match. This means buffing how she handles in Satiated and Overstuffed, and nerfing some of the most egregious parts of playing Ravenous. We're also making changes to how she adjusts her Hunger Meter up and down so that Umbrella players are forced to engage with all of the different Hunger States more often. Lastly, since we're buffing many elements of Umbrella's kit, we're also nerfing some of the more frustrating parts to play against when facing her.

If you need a quick refresher on her terms, Starving is when the bar is empty and purple, Ravenous is when the bar is low and red, Satiated is the middle section that is yellow, and Overstuffed is the blue section when full. When we mention her Hunger Meter going up or filling, that means it's closer to Overstuffed. When we mention her Hunger Meter going down, draining, or being empty, that means it's closer to Starving.

KNOWN ISSUES

• Umbrella's "eating" assists (Tongue Twister, Salt Grinder, Hungern Rush) will now raise the Hunger Meter on success, which is a change in behaviour that may not be desired.
• Tongue Twister, when in Overstuffed, does not apply any scaling when used as an assist.
• It is difficult to predict where Umbrella's damage and routing will take her after all of these changes. Please expect damage tuning depending on how things shake out.

HUNGER METER / HUNGER STATES

• Umbrella's Hunger Meter drains during most actions now instead of freezing momentarily during Special Moves, Normals, etc.
• Umbrella's Hunger Meter no longer drains faster for landing hits with "punch" (Hungern) normal attacks.
• Tweaked Hunger Meter loss rate in different Hunger States individually. In Satiated, it is drastically faster than before for example.
• Hunger Meter no longer drains naturally over time in any combo where it increased. Landing Salt Grinder for example will halt all Hunger Meter drain for the rest of the combo.
• Hunger Meter will also freeze when a combo starts if Umbrella is in the Overstuffed state.
• Creating Bubbles with Cutie Ptooie, Bobblin' Bubble, Wish Maker, no longer drains Hunger Meter, except when used during the Overstuffed state.
• Under The Weather no longer drains Hunger Meter unless it's used in Overstuffed.
• Umbrella can now transition from Overstuffed into Satiated during a combo, instead of needing to wait for it to end.
• Increased how much Hunger Meter is lost from taunting, and shortened the minimum time that Umbrella must perform her taunt before being able to stop.
  (... To drain Hunger Meter quickly, you'll have to taunt instead of looping Bobblin' Bubble like before.)
• Ground Throw and Air Throw no longer adjust Hunger Meter.
• Major eating moves (Salt Grinder, Hungern Rush, Tongue Twister, and Feeding Time ) all force Umbrella up one single Hunger State on success, regardless of chews, chomps, etc.
  (... In Starving or Ravenous, she will always become Satiated. In Satiated, she will become Overstuffed. We're doing this to force Umbrella to commit to cashing out and changing Hunger States when the Hunger Meter is low.)
• When using Cutie Ptooie (QCB+LK), the butterfly can no longer be spared or eaten manually by holding LK, and it no longer adjusts Hunger Meter.
  (... With the removal of being able to eat the butterfly to fill the Hunger Meter, entering the Starving state is very bad news for Umbrella. When enjoying the benefits of playing in the Ravenous state for a prolonged time, Umbrella will need to keep a close eye on how much time she has left before she must land a "eating" style move to prevent the Starving state. Note that as before, the Ravenous state will not enter the Starving state during a combo, so take your time once you've landed a hit! We may add another method of gaining Hunger Meter during the Starving state if needed, but for now we're trying to introduce an element of risk and urgency.)

BLOCKBUSTERS

• In Ravenous, Under The Weather performs an underwhelming version.
• In Ravenous, Retina Reflector is no longer improved with an extra two hits.
• Changed Blockbuster inputs:
  • Retina Reflector: Contact Lens is now QCF + PP.
  • Retina Reflect is now QCF + KK.
  • Under The Weather is now QCB + KK.

• Added a new normal, down forward + MP, called "Overbite". This is an overhead that can be used in every state. It's faster in Ravenous, and slower in Starving and Overstuffed.
  (... We're giving Umbrella an overhead to increase her consistency and power level across all Hunger States without relying on being in Ravenous to open the opponent up.)
• Slurp n Slide is now -2 on block when done in Satiated.
  (... We're delegating Slurp n Slide pressure on block exclusively to Ravenous, since Ravenous has lost other tools and is mostly about sticking close to the opponent.)
• Ground Throw has been adjusted to only chomp the opponent once, and then trap them inside of a bubble much like Air Throw. Ground Throw damage has been adjusted.
• Tongue Twister
  • Is now only a command grab for a single frame when used up close. After that, it is a hitgrab.
  • After victims bounce off the wall, you can combo opponents easily off the ground when the land.
    (... You can use this in combos now and confirms for far away hits, and it can still catch people by surprise just as before. However, it is no longer a command grab at those ranges, so it can be blocked and should be a bit less frustrating to deal with. She can now perform combos afterwards without using Retina Reflector in exchange for these changes.)
  • Reduced damage and number of chomps based on Hunger State. Chomps are now automatic instead of requiring LP+LK presses.
  • Reduced the speed that the tongue retracts, increasing recovery if it was stretched far away.
  • Adjusted hitbox.
  • If used for the second time in a combo, the opponent will become invincible and the combo will end.
  • Fixed a bug where the wall bounce hit applied an extra hit of damage scaling despite doing no damage. Damage scaling is now properly 55%.

• Set priority of taunt input above Salt Grinder.
• Increased Salt Grinder active frames by 1F, and expanded hitbox.
• When Starving, Umbrella's red life now drains faster than before.
• jMP: Reduced hitbox size in all states.
• cHP: Start up of the second hit is reduced by 1F if the first hit whiffs, to help it connect after far cMP hits.
• sHK
  • Improved hitbox.
  • Increased start up by 2F.
  • Landing recovery on failure is now fully vulnerable.
  • Damage increased: 975 → 1200.
  • Doing it a second time in a combo performs a worse version.

• sLK: Now slides forward slightly, and has a slightly larger hitbox.
• cMK: Added vulnerable hurtboxes under her while she jumps, and removed throw invincibility.
• cLK: Increased hurtbox height, and reduced hitstun.
• Air Throw: Reduced hitbox horizontal reach.
• Hungern Rush: Reduced start up in all hunger states, except for Starving.
• Adjusted stagger hurtboxes to be closer to idle.
• Increased hurtbox size during some air hitstun and air knockdown states so that she is easier to combo.

• Bubble creating moves (Cutie Ptooie, Bobblin' Bubble, Wishmaker) no longer work in Ravenous.
• Hungern Rush is now fully invincible (instead of strike invincible) when in the Ravenous state.
• Hungern Rush is no longer unblockable while rising (when Umbrella is the point character) unless she is in Ravenous mode.
• Dash forward, dash backwards, and dash jump are now faster in Ravenous.
• Reduced Feeding Time (LV3) damage in Starving and Ravenous from 6750 → 6000.
• cMP: In Ravenous, this is no longer a low hit.
• jMP: In Ravenous, now starts up slower than before.
  (... Instant jMP in Ravenous no longer reaches crouching characters after these changes)

OVERSTUFFED SPECIFIC

• In Overstuffed, sHP now has armor that starts up a little bit into the move.
• Fixed a bug where the wall bounce hit of sHP (Overstuffed) applied an extra hit of damage scaling despite doing no damage.
• Salt Grinder, when Overstuffed, now performs a powerful damaging bite that staggers, instead of a throw type hit.
• Hungern Rush, when Overstuffed, now starts up faster, and now hits again on the way down with a powerful knock up hit. This can be cancelled into Blockbuster on HIT only.
• Tongue Twister, when Overstuffed, now pulls the victim towards Umbrella and trips them, instead of eating them.
  (... The trick is that while this hit does not do any damage, it doesn't force any combo scaling, giving Umbrella some scary combo damage from a command grab when she's up close.)
• Adjusted all Overstuffed normals:
  • They are now much faster than before, and are only two frames slower than their Satiated versions. (Exceptions exist on sHP and jMP which are still slower than 2F, but still faster than before.)
  • Reduced hitpause on almost all hits, to speed up the general flow of attacks and combos.
  • Fixed a bug where sF+HP was not any slower in Starving or Overstuffed.
  • Reduced jMP damage: 950 → 850.
  • Reduced jHP damage: 1200 → 1100.
  • jHP jumps less high and falls faster.

MS. FORTUNE

• Adjusted jLK hitbox enough to hit all crouching characters in the corner when done from a headless instant air dash.
• Decap attack damage 100 > 200.
  (... This alone increases Ms. Fortune's headless corner combo damage quite a bit.)
• sHK (headless) damage: 950 → 975.
• Feline Allergies cooldown reduced from 80F to 60F. (50F in retail).
• Head lockout from hitstun: 60 → 35. (15F in retail).
• Cat Scratch metergain (head on) per whiffed swipe: 1.5% → 1%.
• Cat Scratch metergain (head on) per swipe contact: 4%/3%/2% → 3.5%/2.5%/1.5%.
• El Gato and Cat Slide when cancelled from Cat Scratch (head on) have reduced metergain for whiffing (1%) and reduced metergain for making contact (2.5%).

CEREBELLA

• jD+MP (Unbreakable Elbow) no longer floor bounces when done as an instant overhead, but now always starts in "IPS Combo Stage 1", and it now has a 5F buffer into light normals after it finishes to help with confirms.
• Pummel Horse now leaves Cerebella a bit closer to the victim, to help with some confirms on some characters.

ELIZA

• Sekhmet Axe (air) damage: 900 → 1000.
• Sekhmet jump: Reduced start up 6F → 4F (back to retail values).
• Sekhmet landing: 6F recovery → 7F recovery.
• Sekhem Rebound (backflip) is no longer impacted by extra landing recovery, the frame data on this should be back to retail values.

ANNIE

• Increased air hitstun hurtbox size to make it easier to combo Annie.
• Adjusted knockdown on the star spawned from charged sHP, in Star Power.
• Reduced blockstun on large stars summoned during Star Power.

BLACK DAHLIA

• Lowered the position of Dahlia during her air knockback hitstun animation to fix some combos not working against her.

PEACOCK

• Lonesome Lenny
  • Lenny now flashes colors right before he is about to explode.
  • Fixed a bug where Peacock could not DHC out from this move in some situations which was introduced last update.
  • Lenny now hits assists further away with a different type of a knockdown.
    (... It should be a bit harder to call an assist as you place Lenny down to continue a combo on two characters at once.)
  • Lenny now always has increased start up and recovery when being placed. This is the same frame data from the last update when Lenny was placed after BANG! (M).
  • If using Lenny from BANG! (M) on successful hit, it uses the old placement and recovery speed from retail to allow for the old BANG! (M) x Lonesome Lenny, Argus Agony conversions.

• George now properly flashes on Mac and Linux systems if Peacock is hit while they're out.
• Adjust how long it takes for George to explode if Peacock goes into hitstun.
  • L: 60 → 50.
  • M: 15 → 12.
  • H: 20 → 15.

(Version number 3.7.1)