* = Changed in quick patch on the same day

*This experimental update is currently built using a new version of our game engine, GameMaker. This engine update has allowed us to greatly optimize the game's texture usage, meaning a big boost to framerate AND a big reduction in memory usage, meaning fewer unexpected crashes during long sessions. This engine update also means anything in the game may be ever-so-slightly different in ways we can't anticipate, so we'll be looking for bug reports related to this!

After our pause on balance updates, the next one is (finally?!) on its way! By allowing for more time between changes, we were able to collect a lot more data and see more clearly how different Beasties stacked up; it also helped us to identify more subtle underlying problems that only became clear after sifting through the noise.

We welcome your thoughts, your feedback, and your playtesting! I encourage dedicated coaches to join us in our Discord community to discuss these changes live with other players. Please note these changes are currently live on PC only for now.

🔧 Balance Changes

[list]

Taken at face value, the changes we're making here may seem overly extreme OR not far enough, depending on how you've felt about PvP gameplay across previous updates. I thought it may be helpful to outline the larger problems we're seeing, and how we hope to address them.

📜 Theory and Intentions

Beastieball generally has very "squishy" matchups which make it more fighting-game like; different Beasties represent different playstyles, which give them more rich and subtle interactions, rather than being hard counters for each other. For all its strengths, this paradigm is often tested by teams that are optimized to the extreme in either offense and stall. If you have a Beastie with the best offensive stats in the game, and pair it with the best offensive support, and use the strongest attack, you should reasonably expect it to do high damage to all possible targets. If we added more defense to some Beasties such that they could tank hits like that, those same Beasties would become invulnerable to nearly everything else in the game. The margins we're designing around are just that tight.

The result of this (supported by consensus of analytics data across many PvP events) is that Beasties who are good at creating fast, one-turn kills tend to be more effective than others. The other Beasties that tend to succeed are either ones who best support offense, or those who are extremely tanky and stally and able to survive extremes, with less space for Beasties in-between. This is not an absolute in all cases, and the range of winrates across all Beasties is still surprisingly narrow, but as the player-base optimizes their team builds this is the direction we've seen things slide.

In the past, we've tried to address hyper-offense edge cases by looking at the most powerful options and adding complexities to their usage, or reducing their power level when there was no other viable option. We'll continue to look into and address problems like this as they emerge, but as the game balance tightens we've started to feel like the game needed a more fundamental internal tool to help keep extreme offense in check. In an ideal vision, hyper-offense should still feel like hyper-offense, but savvy players who anticipate what their opponent is going to do should have a way to call them out and gain a defensive advantage.

To that end, one of our main focuses for this update went to buffing Blocking. We have been careful not to take things too far; the balance of offensive and defensive power is critical to the game's fun and flavor. If it were just a little too optimal to focus on defense, then high-level games would easily grind to a halt. So ultimately: the actual list of changes isn't terribly long. But we're excited to see what impact they'll have on the balance going forward!

⚙️ Mechanics

BLOCK
- 🔼 BLOCK can now be stacked multiple times on the same Beastie.
- Higher stacks of block reduce the damage of the next attack using math very similar to negative BOOSTs (2/3 > 1/2 > 2/5 > 1/3 > etc).
- All stacks of BLOCK clear off a Beastie after they make any attack or tag out
- Additional plays are being added to take advantage of this new mechanic as well.
❗New Universal Play: Double Block
- Effect: DEFENSE. Only used at net. If ally joins the BLOCK: Target feels +2 BLOCKED.
- Block, the universal defensive play, now changes to Double Block if both your Beasties are at the net and able to Block.
- When a Double Block action is queued, if one of your Beasties is disrupted such that they can't join in (ie. they're made ANGRY or TIRED by the opponent) then the play down-grades to a regular Block, utilized by the remaining able Beastie.
SWEATY
- 🔄 Sweaty now resets to 1 stack when the Beastie is on the bench
  With the change from Team Chant to Chant, Sweaty lost a major counter-play option, and has proven to be difficult to play into. Considering we're now pushing for changes that will advantage bulkier Beasties, we don't want to see Sweaty and aggressive stall become a centralizing strategy at the high level. This change will slightly reduce its efficacy/punishment without requiring players to build more anti-meta checks into their teams.
RALLY
- 🔻 ...Fixed a bug which made it so that MIND attacks had -33% POW instead of -25%
  This one is embarrassing, but, um, yeah, we were testing some stuff out before the previous balance patch and didn't properly disable it before letting it loose. We only found out this issue was in the game about a week before this post! We only got one feedback report about it, which was how we found out. ...Sorry!

🍄 Traits

(NEW!) Roaring: Feels 1 NOISY when they attack
- 🔄 Given to Maraptor in place of Clamor
  Oh, Maraptor. What can we do with you? We them Clamor for thematic reasons, long before the game came out, but that trait's centralizing power has always since complicated the balance of this Beastie and, by proxy, Magpike. From the data we have, Maraptor wound up underperforming unless they were using a Trait Dance + Clamor combo, in which case they were vastly overperforming and disruptive. We couldn't find a way to manage the mix of these ingredients, so we're giving Maraptor an all-new trait (but not entirely out of left field) and focusing on giving them and Magpike a much-needed glow-up.
(NEW!) Tangled: Loses 10 STAMINA when they MOVE or SHIFT.
- 🔻 Given to Leobro (Miracle Play is now a recessive trait)
(NEW!) Smooth: Restores 25 STAMINA when they MOVE or SHIFT.
- 🔄 Given to Broslidon (Miracle Play is now a recessive trait)
Captain:
- 🔻 New effect: When they volley at the net: SHIFTs ally to the net
  Across the board, Captain Beasties have overperformed in every event since the game's release. We love this Trait and wanted to find ways to let it exist at its previous power level, but in practice it has proven to be a deadly multiplier on any scary offensive Beastie, and the most common element in every overpowered tool that's surfaced. We hope this tweak will keep the trait's gameplay interesting and powerful while also requiring more intentional team-building to take advantage of. Captain Beasties are already quite bulky, so it works to encourage them to play more at the net and enable Double Blocks.
Mischief:
- 🔼 New effect: Can use SUPPORT plays while holding the ball and during Defense
Cleanup:
- 🔼 New effect: Resets all FIELD EFFECTS and BOOSTS when they TAG OUT
Moist:
- 🔼 New effect: When this Beastie is SWEATY, they restore 10 STAMINA each turn instead
Neural Net:
- 🔼 New effect: MIND attacks always go to this Beastie and give an EASY RECEIVE
Study:
- 🔼 New effect: When hit with a BODY, SPIRIT, or MIND attack: +2 to the corresponding DEF
Tractor Beam:
- 🔻 New effect: On turn start, the nearest non-WIPED opponent is beamed, preventing use of TAG OUT.
  A slight tweak which means Albrax can't change their Tractor Beam target mid-turn. This stops frustrating strategies around using Quick Tag or mid-turn movement to unexpectedly cancel out the opponent's defense action. When we first found these interactions, we thought they were a fun and deep consequence of the game mechanics, which they are, but once they started seeing broader adoption and usage the novelty wore off and we had to contend with how unfun they are to actually play against.
Watchtower:
- 🔻 New effect: Attacks that target an adjacent ally go to this Beastie instead and do 1.2x damage
  Watchtower, similar to Clamor and Slippery, has proven to be difficult to balance around and creates extremely swingy matchups. In particular, it's great at enabling frail offensive Beasties like Servace, Psylusc and Squimage, and we want to see that continue - but it worked a little bit too well for too many matchups. We're pairing this change with some other buffs and stat changes, such that we hope to see struggling Beasties like Fetcham perform better; this change also makes your targeting choices INTO Watchtower more relevant, creating more interesting counterplay that isn't purely dependent on team-building choices.

🏃 Plays

(NEW!) Wall - DEFENSE. Only used at net. Target feels +2 BLOCKED. -10 STAMINA to self.
- Via level up
  - 🔼 Bandicraft, Armantis
- Via friendship
  - 🔼 Broslidon, Opposur, Deluja, Yamyth, Servace
(NEW!) Menace - DEFENSE. Target feels +2 BLOCKED. Feel 2 ANGRY.
- Via level up
  - 🔼 Hydrolm, Crawlurk
- Via friendship
  - 🔼 Mistic, Tortanchor, Boldlur, Yamyth
(NEW!) Thrash - Spirit attack, 80 POW. POW x1.5 if user is JAZZED.
- Via level up
  - 🔼 Fetcham
- Via friendship
  - 🔼 Skulkapi, Yamyth
(NEW!) Mimic - ? attack, ? POW. Changes to the ally's first attack. POW x1.2.
- Via level up
  - 🔼 Squimage, Diabloceras
- Via friendship
  - . . .
(NEW?) Fall Back - DEFENSE. +1 BODY,SPIRIT,MIND DEF to front row active team. SHIFT team to back row.
- Via level up
  - 🔼 Beetlback, Skulkapi
- Via friendship
  - 🔼 Zefyre, Servace, Psylusc, Beelb, Gremlur, Blitzwift, Hydrolm
(NEW?) Whoosh - SUPPORT. SHIFT self to net. +1 ACTION.
- Via level up
  - 🔼 Zefyre, Broslidon
- Via friendship
  - 🔼 Cherrily, Mascurry, Skulkapi, Blitzwift, Deluja
Hyperspike:
- 🔄 New effect: Body attack, 125 POW. Charges each turn on field, up to 3. Feel 3 TIRED.
  Hyperspike can now be used anywhere, but we've added a charge-up meter to delay how often it can be used. Yep, an entire new mechanic just for this play! It's always been a little too big of a number that's too easy to get the full impact of a little too often. We want plays this powerful to exist, but this new mechanic adds a new layer of cooldown to it that makes it fun to play around. We hope you like it as much as we do.
Perfect Shot
- 🔻 New effect: Mind attack, 125 POW. Requires 2 ACTIONS. POW x3/4 if user has any FEELINGS.
Exert
- 🔄 New effect: Spirit attack, 60 POW. Feel 2 TOUGH + 2 SWEATY.
  Last patch we debuted Exert with the self-Sweaty effect. Everybody complained about it. We changed it to a stamina cost instead. And then nobody used it. So... you know what? I think we were right. We're putting the sweaty back on it.
Nerve Strike
- 🔻 POW to 50 (from 55)
Provoke
- 🔻 New effect: Target feels 2 ANGRY. -1 BODY,SPIRIT DEF to self.
  We're a little scared of this one. But we want to try it out. Provoke has simply been one of the absolute most centralizing plays in the game possibly before it even came out. The utility of ANGRY to prevent all ranges of offensive and defensive strategies makes it very valuable, and that may not be a problem to be solved, but even so, we want to see what might happen if the play was a little harder to click.
Excited Pass
- 🔻 New effect: VOLLEY. If STAMINA is over 50, +1 SPOW to self.
Call Out
- 🔼 New effect: +1 BODY,SPIRIT DEF to ally. +2 MIND DEF to ally.
Hunker
- 🔼 New effect: +1 SPIRIT, MIND DEF to self. +2 BODY DEF to self. Feel 1 NERVOUS.

👹 Beasties

Albrax
- 🔻73 BDEF (from 83)
*Armantis
- 🔻 *Plays Removed: Quick Set
- 🔼 *Plays Added: Set
Bandicraft
- 🔻25 SPOW (from 30)
- 🔼 85 SDEF (from 80)
Blitzwift
- 🔄 Tweaked level-up plays learned to be higher value
Conjarr
- 🔼 Plays Added: Chant
Daredillo
- 🔼 65 MDEF (from 55)
Demolipede
- 🔼 88 BDEF (from 78)
Fetcham
- 🔼 75 BPOW (from 70)
- 🔼 83 SPOW (from 80)
- 🔻 35 MPOW (from 40)
- 🔼 55 MDEF (from 42)
Grazada
- 🔼 Plays Added: Chant
Hydrolm
- 🔻25 SPOW (from 30)
- 🔼 60 BDEF (from 55)
Magpike
- 🔼 69 SDEF (from 60)
- 🔼 99 MDEF (from 95)
- 🔼 Plays Added: Chant
Mudslee
- 🔻80 BDEF (from 86)
Opposur
- 🔼 95 BPOW (from 90)
- 🔻90 SPOW (from 95)
Platenna, Platypulse, Pladion
- 🔼 Plays Added: Ricochet, Set
Platypulse
- 🔼 46 BDEF (from 38)
Collarva, Wormask, Plumask
- 🔼 Plays Added: Chant
Riplash
- 🔻80 SDEF (from 90)
Gullit, Skiffrig
- 🔼 Plays Added: Chant
Turogue, Turtaneer, Tortanchor
- 🔼 Plays Added: Chant
- 🔻Plays Removed: Frazzle, Numbshot
Trat
- 🔼 Plays Added: Tough Front
Varkabond
- 🔻30 SPOW (from 50)
- 🔼 80 SDEF (from 70)
- 🔼 100 MDEF (from 90)
Maraptor
- 🔼 93 BPOW (from 89)
- 🔻 21 SPOW (from 29)
- 🔼 91 BDEF (from 81)
- 🔼 59 SDEF (from 49)
- 🔼 Plays Added: Chant

🚧Other Fixes and Changes

More strict memory management of 3D models to reduce memory usage and reduce the likelihood of random crashes
*Game engine updated and new texture compression algorithms implemented, massively reducing texture memory usage and boosting render speed.
Some changes to have the first serve is determined in private lobbies, to prevent desyncs
Made it so characters you're playing a story match against don't fade away when the camera zooms in before the game
Starter Beasties were meant to have a unique recruit event in their memories, but this event wasn't being recorded until now
Fixed issues with Tower Tourney state preventing research of extinct Beasties
Fixed an issue that removed "100+" difficulty selection from the Tower Tourney
Fix for rounding errors on money display in different menus
Fix for rounding errors on Beastie coached % eliminating the number after the decimal
Fix for multiple copies of Riley appearing in the crowd of PvP/replay games in some circumstances
Added new racing behaviour for Radillo and Daredillo on the overworld
Changed fallback animation behaviour for some Beasties when moving but not in their "move" pose, to use some tweens
Increased the length of time music is paused after a certain story scene
Adjusted some logic for accessing the Zip Station in Domain Park to prevent strange teleporting behaviour
Fixed an issue in Chinese that prevented you from backing out of selling something
Fixed a broken texture triangle which often appear off-screen in screens with water
Various small level layout tweaks
Changed some Bindiva mechanics with attract spray, to create more recruitable variation and also not modify non-recruitable Bindivas
Fixed typos
*Fixed crashes and issues related to new traits/plays
*Optimized some logic on startup to reduce load times (still more work to be done here!)

*There might be some other insignificant new things floating around, since this is a stripped-down version of the upcoming Milestone Update. Full patch notes on new features will be revealed when the update is released!

Beastieball » Patches

Experimental Balance Changes for upcoming Milestone #2