MultiVersus gets huge number of balance changes in 1.03

MultiVersus, the new free-to-play platform fighter from Warner Bros. has quickly taken the esports world by storm, already having a tournament at EVO 2022 earlier this year. We’ve also seen local tournament organizers pick up the game, and it continues to grow at a fast pace.

For the competitive player, new characters and balance changes are essential. Rick Sanchez from Rick & Morty has entered the battle with the 1.03 update, and he is pretty strong. With the recent 1.03 update, the developer also made several character balance changes that you need to know about.

MultiVersus patch 1.03 balance changes

First up, the developer did decide to nerf XP gains and progression, so if you are wondering why you seem to be levelling up slower, now you know. Alongside the release of Rick Sanchez as the latest fighter, a bunch of fight balance changes occurred.

Below, you can find all the MultiVersus balance changes in the 1.03 update as per the official patch notes. Please note that some characters have received bug fixes. Further, a + means a buff, and a ~ means a nerf.

Arya

• Bug Fix: Fixed issues where Arya could deal much more damage than intended.
• Bug Fix: Neutral Special: Fixed issues that were causing hit boxes on stolen attacks to not hit reliably.
• We are still looking at updates to Arya’s up special, but could use more time to make it right. Expect an update in the near future.

Bugs Bunny

• ~ Down Air Attack: Hitbox is slightly smaller to better match the visuals

Finn

• Bug Fix: Side Air Attack: Can no longer ignore air special limits when branching into the attack.
• ~ Air Down Attack: Instant cancel on hit removed.
• ~ Ground Side Attack: Instant jump cancel on hit removed.

Garnet

• + Ground Down Attack: Garnet now retains some of her velocity moving into the attack.
• + Ground Up Attack: Recovery reduced by 3 frames on hit. This change should improve Garnet’s ability to follow up on a successful attack.
• + Air Down Attack: Hitbox active frames start 2 frames earlier. Side Attack 1 combos better into Side Attack 2.
• + Air Neutral Attack: Recovery reduced by 3 frames on hit. This change should improve Garnet’s ability to follow up on a successful attack.

Gizmo

• + Jump Speed: Increased jump speed to 3700 from 3400.
• + Air/Ground Neutral Special: Music note lifetime extended to 10 seconds from 9.
• + Ground Side Special: Car now classified as a heavy projectile
• + Air Slide Special: Recovery reduced by 5 frames
• + Air Down Special: Can now jump cancel out of the attack

Harley

• Bug Fix: Down Special: Fixed an issue where jack-in-the-box would sometimes not hit overlapping enemies

Iron Giant

• Bug Fix: Neutral Special: Bolts will no longer be destroyed when they exit the blast box but Iron Giant is not KOed

Jake

• ~ Air/Ground Down Special: While in the House and on the ground, Jake will no longer bounce grounded opponents.
• ~ Ground Down Attack: Recovery increased by 4 frames on whiff(miss).

LeBron

• Change: Experimental Tag removed.
• Bug Fix: Fixed a bug that would cause the ball to disappear when thrown close to the enemy.
• + Air/Ground Neutral Special: When an ally receives a pass, they emit a small explosion to knock away enemies. No-Look pass basketball speed increased to 3200 from 3000.
• ~ Air/Ground Down Special: No longer blocks heavy projectiles
• ~ Basketball Air Neutral Attack: No longer breaks armor on first hit.

Morty

• Change: Experimental Tag removed.

Shaggy

• ~ Air Slide Special: Recovery increased by 3 frames on whiff (miss).
• ~ Air Neutral Attack: No longer breaks armor on first hit.

Steven Universe

• Air/Ground Up Special: Smoothed out movement so the attack won’t hitch
• + Ground Side Attack 1-3:
  • Smoothed out movement so the attack won’t hitch
  • First attack can now branch earlier into the second attack
  • Second attack can now branch earlier into the final attack
  • Forward movement during attacks increased so that they hit more reliably.
• + Air Side Attack: Increased knockback scaling to 14.5 from 13.5. Steven’s horizontal kill power was very low. We hope this change will help him in this aspect.
• + Air/Ground Side Special: Increased projectile speed slightly.
• + Air Down Attack: Hitbox active frames start 2 frames earlier. This change makes the active hit frames more accurately match the animation.

Superman

• ~ Ground Up Attack:
  • Reduced charged knockback scaling to 1.5x from 2.0x.
  • Charge cancel reduced by 4 frames
  • This should make the attack slightly more of a commitment
• ~ Ground Neutral Attack: Charge cancel reduced by 4 frames.
• ~ Air Up Special:
  • Recovery increased by 12 frames on whiff(miss).
  • Lowered base knockback of down throw.
  • This should help make the wall camping strategies less effective.

Tom And Jerry

• Ground Side Attack 1:
  • Hitbox active frame window increased by 2 frames
  • Recovery increased by 4 frames on whiff(miss)

• ~ Ground Side Attack 2: Recovery increased by 4 frames on whiff(miss)
• + Air Side Attack:
  • Recovery reduced by 3 frames
  • Recovery land cancel reduced by 7 frames
• + Air Down Attack:
  • Recovery reduced by 3 frames
  • Recovery land cancel window moved forward by 3 frames.
  • Pushed knockback angle to be more horizontal
• + Air/Ground Neutral Special: Jerry returns back to Tom if he is killed when attached to an ally.

Velma

• Bug Fix: Ground Up Special: Fixed a bug where Velma’s vial wouldn’t apply stacks of ice reliably
• Air/Ground Neutral Attack: Bug Fix: Toodles speech bubble no longer consumes 1 additional ammo. Ally Enhanced Speech bubbles no longer apply 1 stack of weaken.
• Air Down Attack: Pushed Knockback angle to be more horizontal
• ~ Air/Ground Up Air: Recovery increased by 3 frames.
• ~ Air/Ground Neutral Special:
  • Ally enhanced beam no longer applies 1 stack of weaken
  • Ally enhanced beam base knockback reduced from 1750 to 1600.

Still with us? Because that was one big list of MultiVersus balance changes. Sure, there are a lot of changes, but that means the developer cares deeply about character balance, which is another great sign for MultiVersus as a future esports title.

Header image via Warner Bros.