We're here in 2024, a full 10 years after Dan's first trailer for Rivals of Aether. I don't think anyone ever thought this game would carry on as long as it has. We're excited to present a new balance patch to kick off the second half of 2024!

We intend to catch up the Switch version of the game in the coming weeks. Updating the console can be tricky due to a number of reasons so a hard date is not guaranteed, but rest assured, we are working diligently to bring it up to date!

Without any further adieu, let's dive in:
Now that development on Rivals of Aether is slowing down, we have heard many new fans asking about skins. We have been releasing skins for events for years. Many are inaccessible now that there is not an active RCS running and others have been retired for a long time. We want these new players to be able to obtain these skins while celebrating the long-term players who got them when they were new.

Therefore we are introducing Skin Packs to Steam. There are nine new packs that contain a varying amount of skins at a deeply discounted price. If you own a skin through a Skin Pack instead of the original skin, then you will get a much less prestigious cardboard box icon on the Character Select Screen instead of the standard premium star icon. This way you can pick up packs for just the skins that you missed while still feeling like the veteran star that you are when using your original skins.

These skin packs are available as Steam DLC today and are even on sale for 30% off for launch! But if you are a completionist and still want your stars for any remaining Steam skins, we are leaving the individual Steam skins up until the end of July so you have one last chance to grab them.

Here are the 9 new Skin Packs that you can grab today:
ARCADE SKIN PACK

• Includes all Arcade skins originally created for summer events.
  
• Includes Arcade Clairen, Mollo, Maypul, Elliana, plus the Kraggling Buddy.
  
• Each skin has a unique taunt and look.
  
• Some Arcade taunts are playable minigames!

CHAMPION SKIN PACK

• Pack includes all Champion Skins created since 2016 (16 total) excluding guest characters.
  
• Includes Champion Mollo, Clairen, Zetterburn, Forsburn, Pomme, Wrastor, Absa, Elliana, Olympia, Sylvanos, Maypul, Kragg, Hodan, Orcane, Etalus, and Ranno.
  
• The Champion skins for our two guest characters have been added to the game for all players, free of charge.
  
• Each skin has a unique taunt and look.

COMMUNITY SKIN PACK

• Includes various Community event character skins, buddies, plus a stage skin.
  
• Includes Excalibur Zetterburn, Grassroots League Orcane, the Tony Tailslide buddy, the Frostbear cub buddy, and the CEO Ring Stage Skin.
  
• Each skin has a unique taunt and look.

GENESIS SKIN PACK

• Includes all Genesis skins originally created over 7 years of Genesis events (Genesis 4 - X).
  
• Includes Genesis Clairen, Etalus, Forsburn, Hodan, Kragg, Sylvanos, and Zetterburn.
  
• Each skin has a unique taunt and look.

HEAT WAVE SKIN PACK

• Includes Heat Wave Clairen, Forsburn, Olympia, Wrastor, plus the Sunbert Buddy.
  
• Each skin has a unique taunt and look.

LEGACY SKIN PACK

• Includes hard-to-find skins from a wide range of events.
  
• Includes Shine Zetterburn, Tuxedo Ranno, High Roller Absa, Dreamscape Forsburn, and Collegiate Wrastor.
  
• Each skin has a unique taunt and look.
  
• Tuxedo Ranno features a full resprite so he's suited up in every sprite, not just his taunt!

POOL PARTY SKIN PACK

• Includes all Pool Party skins originally created for summer events.
  
• Includes Pool Party Etalus, Kragg, Orcane, Pomme, and Ranno.
  
• Each skin has a unique taunt and look.

STEAMPUNK SKIN PACK

• Includes all Steampunk skins originally created for Rivals esports events.
  
• Includes Steampunk skins for Absa, Orcane, Sylvanos, and Zetterburn, plus the Loxobot Buddy.
  
• Each skin has a unique taunt and look.

SUMMIT SKIN PACK

• Includes all Summit skins originally created for early Rivals esports events.
  
• Includes Spangled Wrastor, Summit Orcane, Summit Kragg, Panda Maypul, and Panda Etalus.
  
• Each skin has a unique taunt and look.

• NEW Tower of Heaven music from flashygoodness to celebrate a decade of Rivals of Aether development. This song can be found in menus by normal means, but it can be found in-match by clicking the Aether High variant of Tower of Heaven rapidly five times, then selecting Endless Abyss to play a new platformless variant of Tower of Heaven that features the new song.
  
• The game now attempts to force GPU usage instead of the OS defaulting to integrated graphics, which should help lower end PCs run the game better.
  
• Bug Fix: Fixed a visual bug with Golden Etalus’s sprite on the Custom Colors menu.
  
• Bug Fix: Fixed Arcade Mollo not using the unique explosions when using a custom color.
  
• Bug Fix: Fixed a visual bug with Orcane’s portrait in Story Mode leaderboards.
  
• Workshop: Added the variable “ignore_camera” to players, which makes the camera not follow them.
  
• Workshop Bug Fix: Fixed a bug making certain palettes of certain characters unselectable.
  
• Workshop Bug Fix: Fixed a bug when searching workshop characters while selecting one for a CPU.
  
• Workshop Bug Fix: Fixed the workshop mod list appearing to cap at 999 per category.
  
• HOTFIX Added the script "pre_update.gml" to players. This runs before most other per-frame update code.
  
• HOTFIX Added the script "set_state.gml" to players. This runs every time the player's state is changed.
  
• HOTFIX Fixed Dreamscape Forsburn being available to everyone with the bundle stamp.
  
• HOTFIX 2.1.8.1 Fixed some skins not being included in bundles.

Wrastor is one of the strongest characters in the game, with a unique and expressive combo game that we love to watch. We took the opportunity to really dive into some of his most problematic behaviors and take a crack at making his disadvantage state just a bit more punishing.

• Walljump: Horizontal and vertical speeds changed, 6 hsp 7 vsp > 7 hsp 6 vsp. to make Wrastor's Walljump less viable as a recovery option when other resources are depleted
  There's something disheartening about seeing a Wrastor use every jump and airdodge just to walljump backair onto stage without committing to a resource. We are putting the heart back into Rivals of Aether.
  
• Forward Special: If Wrastor is hit by a physical attack or by a projectile that does 8% or more damage while in his own air current, the current is destroyed and Forward Special’s remaining cooldown is set to 2.5 seconds.
  This change aims to make Wrastor a little more careful with his slipstream usage due to the risk of losing his resource. This will also help attacking enemies keep Wrastor offstage since he will lose his airspeed boost the get back quickly.

• Bug Fix: Fixed a bug in which nairbouncing restored double jumps.

• Bug Fix: Fixed a bug in which landing on the pillar for one frame before it breaks would restore airdodge but not double jumps.
  
• HOTFIX 2.1.8.1 Increased the cooldown on Wrastor's Forward Special if destroyed early, 2.5 > 5.0 seconds
  
• HOTFIX 2.1.8.1 Fixed a bug where multihits would repeatedly destroy Wrastor's windcurrent.

• Down Air: Landing lag changed to previous values, 8 > 6
  
• Down Air: Lowered Hit 1 and 2's hitstun modifier, 0.8 > 0.7
  These changes will bring back the speed associated with comboing the early hits of Ranno Down Air, while reducing hitstun on opponents to allow for better escape options than they had before the initial endlag nerf a few patches ago.

Shovel Knight is getting a couple fun additions to his kit this patch with a way to secure previously unattainable treasure and a cool new way to combo off of dust knuckle.

• Neutral Special: Getting a purple screen on a guaranteed K.O. while you have the Coin Capture Neutral Special now auto-triggers it at triple range to help collect offstage gems.
  This buff will help Shovel Knight line his wallet and purchase items quicker since a lot of his K.O.s come from ledge and offstage combos, where gems would be previously unattainable despite a well timed strike.
  
• Forward Tilt: Shovel Knight can now cancel Forward Tilt into other tilts and jab on hit while maintaining a small amount of momentum.
  
• Forward Air: Shovel Knight can now cancel Forward Air into other aerials on hit while maintaining a small amount of momentum. This does not cancel into Dynamo Mail strong attacks.
  Because Shovel Knight has a single hit jab that often knocks away, we wanted to add more variety to his punish game through dust knuckle. He also gets a fun movement tool and new combo trees for Shovel Knight mains to master.
  
• HOTFIX Fixed being unable to cancel Forward Air into Back Air via the right stick if it's set to Strong.

Mollo is getting some help with his up strong connectivity and a small QoL for dealing with Kragg's rock.

• Up Strong: Added a body hitbox to the final hit to help it connect better in some cases.
  
• Jab 1: Angle changed, 40 > 361
  This change allows for rock shards to be sent directly forward, while keeping the utility of the move against opponents.
  
• Bug Fix: Fixed a crash involving using the paint bomb abyss rune while online.

Hodan is in a pretty good spot overall right now, with players like Plushy Panic! really pushing him to his boundaries. This patch is primarily focused on making his sweatwhirls more useful, while squashing a few bugs along the way.

• Forward Special: The Level 2 and 3 sweatwhirls are now projectile-immune.
  While the upgraded versions of Forward Special add utility as multihits, we wanted to make them feel more powerful for Hodan. These projectiles will no loger break to weak projectiles such as Maypul's seed and Elliana's default missiles.
  
• Forward Special: Reduced cooldown, 10 > 5
  Since removing Hodan recovery infinites once and for all, we realized the previous cooldown to Forward Special could be partially removed. The new cooldown allows Hodan players to buffer the next throw during endlag, while making sure the move itself is not too spammy in neutral or edgeguarding.
  
• Bug Fix: Fixed a bug where walljumping out of Up Special would not destroy a grabbed spirit in some cases. This also causes Down Special to properly remove spirits when moving through a sweatwhirl.
  
• Bug Fix: Fixed the ability to instantly cancel Neutral Air on hit in certain frame windows.
  
• Bug Fix: Fixed a crash when a sweatwhirl gets bashed as it is created.

• Jab 1: Angle changed, 35 > 361
  This change allows for rock shards to be sent directly forward, while keeping the utility of the move against opponents.
  
• Down Strong: Hitbox extended slightly lower so it now break cancels.

Pomme has been a difficult one to balance when it comes to her projectiles. In this patch we are attempting to rework Neutral Special to be more fun for her AND her opponents.

• Neutral Special: You now only lose notes on hit if charging or firing them, similar to Ranno needles.
  
• Neutral Special: After throwing a note or losing notes, there is a 30-frame cooldown before you can summon more notes.
  This note rework is an attempt at making notes more committal to use, while reducing the spammyness often associated with them. Pommes will no longer have to fear losing charges to stray hits, but they will lose the ability to dominate an edgeguard with a constant stream of music.
  
• Bug Fix: Fixed notes not being knocked off when hit by Orcane bubbles.
  
• HOTFIX 2.1.8.1 Fixed a bug that would not apply Neutral Special cooldown properly on single note throws.