MultiVersus January 16 patch notes: new map, 21 character changes, more

With the start of the new year, MultiVersus is bringing about a massive list of changes, including a brand new map and a staggering amount of character balance. Here’s a full rundown on the latest patch notes.

The brand new year marks a new year of MultiVersus as well. To celebrate the start of 2023, the developers provided massive balance changes, implementing updates to almost every character in the game. In addition, there’s a brand new map as well, which is sure to diversify play.

This new map is catered towards four-player matches, namely the 2v2 game mode. Treefort Single Plat has a bunch of “lumping-bun-punching space.” In the developer’s words, “there ain’t no way you’ll be able to ‘cram your tram!’ on this map.” In addition to the new map, Scooby’s Mansion (roofless) received a cosmetic revamp.

You can find all the latest MultiVersus changes with the full patch notes below.

Full MultiVersus January 16 update patch notes

General gameplay changes

• Fixed an issue where applying armor from multiple sources would incorrectly time out the armor early.

• Increased the knockback multiplier when players are at specific damage thresholds:
  • 115+ damage results in an increased multiplier of 1.075 knockback applied to hits, up from 1.05.
  • 150+ damage results in an increased multiplier of 1.125 knockback applied to hits, up from 1.1.
  • 175+ damage results in an increased multiplier of 1.25 knockback applied to hits, up from 1.2.
  • Developer’s Note: This change is aimed at making players more successful when knocking out opponents at higher damage.

• Enemies that are affected by the Shocked debuff no longer take additional ticks of damage when suffering knockback.

Character Updates

Arya

• General
  • Fixed a bug with Arya’s disguise where if Arya stole Ultimate Warrior Shaggy and used nair, it would cause a brief freeze.
• Air Up Attack
  • Fixed a timing issue that was causing on-hit cancels to be delayed by 2 frames.
• Air Neutral Attack
  • Added 2 frames of whiff lag to Needle Strike.
• Air Side Attack
  • Adjusted the hitbox on Aerial Alash so that it no longer hits behind Arya as much
• Ground Side Attack
  • Increased whiff lag of Jab 1 by 4 additional frames.
• Ground Up Attack
  • Added 4 frames of whiff lag to Upward Slash.

Batman

• Air Up Special
  • Fixed a bug that would prevent Clear The Air from canceling into other attacks on hit
• Air / Ground Special (Precision Grapple Signature Perk)
  • Explosion moved to be centered on Batman instead of the grapple hook
  • Explosion now triggers after Batman arrives at his destination, instead of after a fixed delay time
  • Reel-in travel speed up on Grapple Snipe increased to 7500, up from 5000.
• Air Neutral Attack
  • Increased Aerial Batarang’s startup by 7 frames, before the batarang comes out
• Ground Neutral Attack
  • Added 5 frames of start-up on ground Batarang throw
  • Added 4 frames of end lag that can be removed with a hit of the Batarang.
• Ground Neutral Attack
  • Batarang pick up returns 9.45 seconds of cooldown, down from 10.15 seconds
• Ground Side Attack
  • Jab 1 and Jab 2 can now be canceled into a jump on hit earlier in order to allow for more combo routes
• Ground Down Attack
  • Batman’s ground slide, Crime Sweeper, can now combo into any other attack on hit instead of only his down attack 2 (forward kick)

Black Adam

• Developer’s Note: Black Adam’s Ground Neutral Special threatened opponents from too far away and when it hit, it was causing too much damage. Black Adam’s ground up attack was also extremely safe, while having the ability to lead into significant follow-up damage. In order to address some of these issues, we are attempting to bring these two attacks back in-line with the following changes so that they feel less oppressive and more fair to fight against.
• Air Up Attack
  • Shrunk the Hitbox on Arc Lightning by 25%
• Ground Neutral Special
  • Lightning Surge’s throws trigger quicker (0.6->0.2)
• Ground Neutral Special
  • Reduced Lightning Surge’s minimum length by 15%
  • Lowered the amount of shocked debuff from Lightning Surge to 1 stack
  • Removed all damage on Lightning Surge’s throw
• Ground Down Special
  • Fixed an issue with Shu’s Protection where it would apply many stacks all at once.
• Ground Down Special
  • Shu Protection’s bubble forcefield now blocks superman’s lasers, Superman’s lasers will now explode on the surface of the forcefield
• Ground Up Attack
  • Increased the cooldown on Call The Heavens’ lightning bolt to 19s, up from 12s.
  • Added 14 frames of recovery on whiff
  • Reduced the amount of hits from Call The Heavens to 3, down from 4
  • Shrank the hitbox on Call The Heavens by 25%
  • Startup on armor’s application to Call The Heavens is now delayed by 2 frames and is no longer instant.
• Ground Down Attack
  • Fixed bug where Black Adam’s Ground Blast wouldn’t hit enemies that were polymorphed or turned into a chicken

Finn

• General
  • Weight: Reduce Finn’s weight to 51, down from 55
• Air Down Attack
  • Shifted the active frames on Finn’s Ground Chop by 2 frames and adjusted the hitbox in order to better align with his sword’s animation
• Ground Up Attack
  • Delayed jump and dodge cancel at the start of Slasher! by 5 frames.
  • Added 2 frames of whiff lag
  • Slasher!’s active frames now start 1 frame later and end 2 frames earlier. This change will better align Finn’s active hitboxes with Slasher!’s animation and reduce lingering hits.
• Ground Down Attack
  • Removed the hitbox on Finn’s hand, on Low Blow, Bro!

Garnet

• Electric Groove Signature Perk
  • Updated Electric Groove to have a chance to apply rhythm, before it worked a bit differently and the perk text was incorrect.
  • Addressed an issue where certain attacks that applied shocked would not be affected by Electric Groove
• Air Up Special
  • Improved the vacuum knockback on Garnet’s Rising Gauntlet Strike, this should allow for Garnet to see greater consistency on the first hit of this move and allow the first hit to lead into the second hit more reliably.
• Ground Up Special
  • Garnet’s electric zone’s explosion now applies additional stacks of Shocked
• Ground Neutral Special
  • Fixed a bug where Stronger Than You’s bubbles would be too large around certain projectiles
• Ground Down Attack
  • Garnet’s shockwave now better accounts for the Z-axis

Gizmo

• General
  • Fixed a bug where Gizmo could fall through the map if he got knocked back as he was attached to an ally

Harley

• Developer’s Note: We know that Harley’s camping and zoning behind her Jack-in-the-box is not fun to play against. We wanted to address this by reducing the availability of her Jack-in-the-box. In order to balance out these changes, we’re allowing Harley to explore new offensive combo routes through the ability to cancel out of her slide as a means to encourage Harley to be more offensive and add a layer of additional skill expression to the character.
• Air/Ground Side Special
  • Added 8 frames of whiff lag to Prank Shot
• Air / Ground Down Special
  • Fixed an issue where Whack-In-A-Box could not be blocked by projectile-blocking effects
• Air / Ground Down Special
  • Increased Whack-In-A-Box’s cooldown to 18s, up from 9s
  • Reduced Whack-In-A-Box’s life span to 12s, down from 16s
• Air Down Attack
  • Added 21 frames of whiff lag to Boxing Ringer
• Ground Up Attack
  • Adjusted the hitboxes on Heads Up so that it doesn’t hit behind Harley as much anymore
• Ground Neutral Attack
  • Fixed Whack’s hammer-cancel infinite
• Ground Down Attack
  • On hit, Slider will now combo into other attacks 6 frames earlier
• Ground Down Attack
  • Added 3 frames of whiff lag to Slider

Iron Giant

• General
  • Fixed a bug where Iron Giant could eat Gizmo’s car

Jake

• Ground Up Attack
  • Added 5 additional frames of commitment before Jake is able to dodge-cancel out of You Axe’d For It!. You Axe’d For It! is currently too safe and lacks any sort of commitment on Jake’s part. Our goal with this change is to help insure that this move has an appropriate risk-reward when players commit to using it.
  • Added 2 frames of whiff lag to You Axed For It!.

Lebron

• Air Side Special
  • When landing, L-Train! (dunk) now has 16 frames of whiff lag
• Air Ground / Down Special
  • Reduced Denied!’s basketball’s max number of bounces before the ball is destroyed to 4, down from
• Air Side Attack (No Basketball)
  • Removed 1 active hit frame at end of Check in order to reduce the chances of linger occuring.
  • 4 frames of whiff lag added to Check.

Marvin

• General
  • Marvin Spaceship can no longer be destroyed by Wonder Woman’s Shield of Athena perk.
• Signature Perks
  • Signature perks can now be selected in local play and will be saved in online play.

Morty

• Developer’s Note: Currently, Morty’s Temporal Back-Up’s Save Point is saving his allies and influencing the outcome of matches a bit too much. We wanted to prevent situations where Morty could use Save Point to save an ally, be rungout, and then immediately Save Point again upon respawning. As is, we felt this was too much to play against and created circumstances that were too safe for Morty and his ally while not appropriately rewarding his opponents for making meaningful plays against the duo. In exchange, we have given Morty some new combo possibilities from Air Down Attack and Side Air Attack. We hope that these changes will balance out Morty’s risk-benefit ratio.
• Air/Ground Neutral Special
  • Morty’s grenades can no longer be detonated by light projectiles
• Air/Ground Neutral Special
  • Reduced Morty’s grenade ammo to 2, down from 3
• Air / Ground Down Special
  • Removed healing on Temporal Back-Up’s Recall.
  • Tempora Back-Up’s cooldown no longer refreshes on respawn
• Air Down Attack
  • Armothy Assault can now cancel much earlier, on hit.
• Air Down Attack
  • Added 1 frame of Whiff Lag and 1 frame of end lag to Armothy Assault
  • Increased spike’s downward angle
• Ground Side Attack
  • Jab 3 of Morty’s Hammer Morty’s hitbox size reduced by 20%
• Ground Down Attack
  • Increased the hitbox size on Plumbus Time! by 10%

Reindog

• Ground Side Special
  • Increased knockback scaling on Flounce Pounce to 11.5, up from 9.
  • Increased knockback scaling on Flounce Pounce’s sweet-spot hit to 12, up from 14.
• Air Up Attack
• Flying Chomp’s vacuum knockback now chains the attack’s first hit into the second hit more reliably

Rick

• Air / Ground Side Special
  • Fixed a bug causing the portal aimer distance on Portal Theory and Aerial Portal Stunts to be different depending on the direction Rick was facing
• Ground Side Attack
  • Adjusted the velocity of jab 3’s rocket based on charge time
• Ground Down Attack
  • Yeah, Fart Bomb!’s fart bomb will now be destroyed if Rick is knocked back before the fart bomb activates

Stripe

• General
  • Badge(s): fixed a bug causing Stripe’s wintracker badge to not work

Superman

• Developer’s Note: Superman’s frost breath was leading to really passive play. The frost breath does too much currently (freezes projectiles, freezes enemies, slows enemies, does damage, windboxes enemies away.) We wanted to remove the windbox element to allow opponents an approach option.
• Air/Ground Neutral Special
  • Weight: Lowered Superman’s weight to 88, down from 93
  • Wavedash: Reduced Superman’s wavedash distance to 700, down from 800
• Air Down Special
  • Fixed a bug where eye lasers would stop exploding on the ground after hitting certain projectiles
• Air / Ground Neutral Special
  • Removed Ice Breath’s knockback wind box

Taz

• Air/Ground Up Special
  • Removed the projectile trait from Dogpile in order to prevent School Me Once from blocking it
• Ground Up Attack
  • Slam-Wich now has 2 more active frames.

Tom and Jerry

• General
• Emote: Fixed an issue where Tom & Jerry’s Nap Time emote could not be equipped after unlocking it in the battle pass
• Ground Up Special
• Added 3 frames of startup to Rocket Mouse before the rocket will come out

Velma

• Ground Down Special
• Fixed a bug on Spread The Knowledge where Velma’s book projectile would not do any hitstun to opponents after passing through an ally

Wonder Woman

• General
  • Wonder Woman’s Shield of Athena perk can no longer destroy Marvin Spaceship
• Air / Ground Down Special
  • Fixed a bug on Defense Of The Gods that would trigger Wonder Woman’s shield twice when she was hit
• Down Normal Attack
  • Fixed bug where Amazon Shout’s vfx would not match hitbox scaling.