What changed

The big ones

1. 1

   Play with no account

   Start the game, type a name, play. No Epic account and no invite needed.

   Anyone you share the game with can join you right away. Level, outfits and stats start fresh with this build.

2. 2

   The hub stays up

   When the hub's host leaves for a match, the hub moves to another player.

   Nobody gets dropped from the hub every time a match starts.

3. 3

   A stuck match search recovers

   If your opponent cannot connect, the match is called off in under a minute and the search starts again by itself.

   No more waiting screen for minutes with nothing happening.

4. 4

   A clearer first ten minutes

   The keyboard question shows the move keys (WASD or ZQSD). The optional training is the basics only.

   New players reach the hub knowing how to move, jump, attack and dash.

5. 5

   Enemy health bars always visible

   At any distance, unless a wall hides the enemy.

   You always know who is low and who to chase.

Fire

• New

  Lightning stun you can see. A stunned enemy crackles with electricity for as long as the stun lasts.

• Changed

  Shift follows your aim. It flies exactly where you look, up and down too. Look up on the ground and you take off. In the air you fly the line you look along.

• Changed

  Shift forward goes farther. On the ground it lasts 1 s longer and carries you about 26 m. It slows down at the end and you come out at running speed.

• Changed

  Time to pick your finisher. After beat 2 you have 0.65 s to choose (was 0.3 s), and your direction counts when the finisher starts. Holding the button chains as fast as before.

• Changed

  E and F in the air. Both can start while you are in the air.

• Changed

  Shot range. 43 m, was 48 m.

• Fixed

  Lightning breaks rock and ice. The bolt's blast and the ring of F (Thunder Heel) break earth rocks, pillars and walls and ice walls at once, like every finisher.

• Fixed

  E on cooldown. It no longer throws a jab.

Water

• New

  A + RMB, the wave. Aim at your ice wall and press RMB: the wall becomes a wave that rolls forward.

• Changed

  A + LMB. After the wall shatters, the ice shards follow your crosshair much longer. Steer them onto your enemy.

• Changed

  E whips (LMB). Slower, with a slow gather and a fast strike, so each one lands like a big hit. After the last whip you can move or attack right away. C puts the water arms away, like E again.

• Changed

  Faster ice. The Ice Sniper (RMB) is ready again after 4 s (was 6 s). The crouch flurry (C + LMB) sends its shards 1.5x faster, same damage.

• Changed

  Double Space. The water spout carries you slower and the tornado around you is much bigger.

• Changed

  Shift left, right and back. The side slide carries you 5 m to the side you pressed and lays an ice road you can skate, like Shift forward. Shift back pushes you off a small ice block, half the size.

• Changed

  R, the Octopus. The whip (LMB) lands under your crosshair and reaches 7 m (was 5 m). One whip every 0.35 s, pressed or held. The camera sits further back and higher, so you see what you aim at.

• Fixed

  E grapple in the air. RMB with the water arms out grapples in the air too. It no longer throws a water shot.

• Fixed

  Ice wall against fire. One fire shot melts only the piece it hits. A bigger hit still melts the whole wall. Shards and the wave come only from the pieces still standing.

• Fixed

  Ice that sits right. A spike that hits an enemy bursts at full size, and the ice stays on the body where it hit. An ice road that reaches a wall ends flat, with no steep ramp.

Earth

• New

  Rock plate on Shift forward. A rock plate rides in front of you, up to your shoulders. It stops shots from the front. Three light hits break it. A heavy hit, a finisher or an ability breaks it at once.

• Changed

  Shift forward has weight. The ride starts slow and gets faster the further you go. At the end the rock digs in and brakes you to running speed. Hold Shift to ride up to 2.1 s, about 31 m. A tap is a short push. It turns slower at speed.

• Changed

  Shift ram. Ride into an enemy and you carry them back along your ride: 2 m if you just started, up to 8 m at top speed. It was about 1 m.

• Changed

  What ends the Shift. A jump: you leave the ground at running speed. A hit that pushes or launches you: the rock crumbles and you are pushed on foot.

• Changed

  A walls. No more wall spam: 3 s between raises, and a pillar charge comes back every 4 s (was 1.2 s).

• Changed

  Rocks you can read. Rocks you can use are outlined. The crosshair no longer changes colour for them. The double Space rock sinks back into the ground right away. The crouch flurry (C + LMB) has a new two-palm push.

• Removed

  Shift ramp. The rock ramp is gone. Earth stays on the ground.

• Fixed

  Burrow Dive. Under the ground nothing can hit you, you cannot shoot or pull rocks, and ice walls stop you.

• Fixed

  A pillars. A pillar you send breaks the enemy pillar it hits (both break) and no longer flies through your own wall. RMB pulls a block out of your own wall. Ice walls and ice roads stop your pillars, and take the damage.

• Fixed

  E, R and RMB. The Stone Spears (E) burst under the first enemy on their line. The R slam shows its warning before it lands. You stay planted during the second RMB hit.

• Fixed

  Rocks in the right place. Your rocks always come out of the ground: not on top of objects, not over an edge, not inside a wall. A rock sent into fire's flame guard no longer costs you health.

Air

Air got only a few fixes in this build. A full pass on the whole air kit is coming.

• Changed

  A, the Wind Guard. Hold A and the shots you catch keep circling you. Press LMB to throw them all at your crosshair. Let go of A and they fly out at your crosshair too.

• Changed

  Shift. The wind ball breaks wood cover it rolls into.

• Fixed

  F, the Forward Tornado. It throws off enemy shots for its whole run, fast shots included, and pushes everyone in its path from the first moment.

• Fixed

  A and crouch. You can no longer throw crouch gust palms while your Wind Guard is up.

• Fixed

  Shift on other screens. Other players no longer see the air ball sunk in the ground.

Game and hub

• New

  Play as a guest. No Epic account, no invite. Type your name when you reach the hub. Change it later in Esc > Settings > Player name. The Epic friends list and friend invites are not there for guests.

• New

  Shoulder swap. Press Left Ctrl to move the camera to your other shoulder. It stays there until you press again. Ctrl + mouse wheel still zooms.

• Changed

  Enemy health bars. Always shown, at any distance, unless a wall hides the enemy.

• Changed

  Element select. Nothing is picked for you any more, before a match or a rematch. Your last element is only marked: pick one and press READY. The match starts when everyone is ready. After 60 s (was 10 to 15 s) players who are not ready get their picked or marked element.

• Changed

  Spell bar. The Shift slot shows its cooldown. Every slot shows its kind of limit: a sweep with seconds for a cooldown, small blocks for charges, a bar for a tank or a held move. Water and earth get three arrows for the Shift directions that are ready.

• Changed

  Crosshair charges. Small clean marks in your element's colour. Filled is ready, an outline is spent, the next one fills up and pulses when it is back.

• Changed

  Round start. Each number of the 3 / 2 / 1 lands with a pop, and FIGHT! stays on screen for a moment.

• Changed

  Hub healing. Health refills by itself only in the peace zone, no longer inside the hub arena.

• Fixed

  Hub host leaves. The hub moves to another player instead of dropping everyone. With three or more players, everyone follows the same new host.

• Fixed

  Match search. If your opponent cannot connect, the match is called off in under a minute and the search starts again by itself. You are not matched with that player again for a few minutes.

• Fixed

  Your character in the hub. Everyone keeps their own character after a match. A second body can no longer appear on top of you. The banner at the top no longer stays after a rejoin.

• Fixed

  Offline. With no connection the game opens your own hub at once, and VS AI starts from Esc > PLAY.

• Fixed

  Health and stun. Nobody stays alive at 0 health, and a knocked-out body goes down on every screen. The stun mark shows only on stunned players, and a stunned player cannot attack, dodge or jump.

• Fixed

  Walls take damage. Rolled and sent rocks, area attacks and close hits now damage ice walls and stone walls by the element rules.

• Fixed

  Camera. No more jumping when you back into a rock or a wall.

• Fixed

  Slow connections. Other players no longer sink into the ground on your screen after a jump, an air attack or a landing.

• Fixed

  Hub map. The invisible wall next to the earth village has no gap any more. The dark patches sliding over the ground near the fire arena are gone. You can land on the sky whale.

Menus and first steps

• New

  Switch element from Esc. SWITCH ELEMENT is on every page of the Esc menu. In the hub your element changes at once, right where you stand. In First Steps it works once the master gave you your first element. In a match your element is locked, and the menu says so.

• New

  Pick the AI's elements. VS AI: pick each AI fighter's element under the PLAY cards. ANY lets the AI choose, and it avoids an element its side already has. In a custom room the host picks them in the team list.

• Changed

  First Steps: keyboard question. It shows the move keys of each layout (WASD or ZQSD) and starts on the keyboard your PC uses.

• Changed

  First Steps: optional training. The basics only: move, double jump, light attack, heavy attack, dash, one ability. A big TRAINING COMPLETE title shows when you are done.

• Changed

  First Steps: Esc menu. Only what you need there: what to do next, the element switch, settings and quit. Matches, friends and outfits open once you reach the hub.

• Changed

  Hub masters. A master's choices are cards you click, as in First Steps. BACK or Esc closes them.

• Changed

  Ways out you can see. Outfits has a BACK button with its key, Esc, at the top left. The quest log shows its key, Tab, also while it is hidden.

• Changed

  Names in the hub. Bigger, with an element dot and the earned title. Far away you see only the name. Your party shows in green, and the player you look at stands out.

• Changed

  Mouse sensitivity. The slider goes much lower: from 0.025x to 2x (it stopped at 0.5x). Your saved sensitivity stays the same.

• Fixed

  Dojo dummy. The training dummy walks back to its spot after you knock it away.

• Fixed

  Region. A region the game does not know falls back to AUTO. The REGION button's tip says what a click does.

Water

• New

  Ice you can read. Ice hits show on the body. Ice shots burst into patches you can slide on.

• Changed

  Side finisher. The kick comes on the side you press. Spikes add up: one slows, two slow more, three root for 1 s.

• Changed

  F. Faster cast, new wave. Press F again to freeze the road from its start: anyone the wave touched is rooted when the freeze arrives.

• Changed

  Ice lasts. The surf road, Ice Line spikes and ice patches stay about 25 s.

• Changed

  Side dodge. A short evade that leaves a small ice patch under you.

• Changed

  Surf. Any attack ends the surf, then plays.

• Removed

  Air heavy. Gone. You can no longer attack during Shift.

Earth

• Changed

  Double jump rocks. 1 s between pops. One charge comes back every 3 s on solid ground.

Game and hub

• New

  Bots per team. The host adds or removes bots on each team from the Esc room panel.

• Fixed

  Custom games. You land in warm-up, ready to fight.

• Fixed

  Teams and spawns. Teams stay as arranged and each side spawns on its own end.