Bleeding Edge's recent update is its biggest one yet

Ninja Theory's Bleeding Edge has added welcomed additions such as a new character, new map, more customization options, leaderboards, and more.  Among the most prominent additions would be the new healer support character: Azrael.  Think debonair attitude and looks of a Abercrombie & Fitch model with meld bionic wings.  Along with that, the new Facility 665 map is more expansive than the previous Hydrocore and has more verticality than seen in any other map.  The "meme-tank" known as Makutu has been reworked to be a damn-near unstoppable wrecking ball. 

(Above: Default skin of Azrael)

Despite one new map, Ninja Theory's added randomized map modifiers that can change your team composition and tactics.  It's funny to think of a simple "the floor is lava" rule can make you think how to tackle critical objectives or how drastically atmosphere changes with simple lighting changes.  Speaking as the guy who's become the site's default cheerleader for Bleeding Edge, there's clearly a lot of passion that's gone into since launch and would recommend anyone to give it a shot.  But enough of that editorializing.  Click the link if interested in seeing a comprehensive list of every addition & alteration.

NEW THIS PATCH

NEW FIGHTER: AZRAEL

Born in Beirut Lebanon, Azrael has made his way to New York and joined Bleeding Edge as their newest Melee Support fighter.  Having risen through the ranks of the most extreme thrill-seeker sports on offer, Azrael is looking for a new way to get his adrenaline pumping.  His base jumping wings allow him to glide safely across the battlefield, but become brutal weapons in melee combat.  His unique Soul Eater passive requires him to build damage stacks on enemies to feed his healing ablities.  The relocator portals he designed to reach cliff ledges provide Azrael and his team exciting new engage and traversal opportunities. 

CUSTOMISATIONS

Azrael comes fully equipped for a battle, complete with mods, emotes and 9 skins.

NEW MAP: FACILITY 665

Having sabotaged a nefarious H.A. research facility, the Bleeding Edge crew have repurposed it to their own ends.  Set in a dark, remote, undisclosed location, the brand-new arena “Facility 665” is battle ready. Be careful though, there’s a good reason this facility has been abandoned…

 

LEADERBOARDS

Competitive ranking as been one of our most hotly requested features, so we’re happy to finally release Leaderboards where you’ll be able to fight for worldwide rank and weekly top spots across 3 categories.

OVERALL RANK LEADERBOARD

Contains Leaderboards for all-time worldwide ranks.

• Your Rank – Shows your current world-wide rank.
• Worldwide Leaderboard – Shows the top ranked 100 players worldwide.
• Friend Leaderboard – Shows a ranked board of you and your friends.

WEEKLY TOP LEADERBOARDS

Displays Leaderboards for best performance in different areas.  You can toggle between current week and last week views.

• Win Rate – Shows top 5 players by win-rate this week.
• Killing Blows – Shows top 5 KBs in a single match this week.
• Top Damage – Shows top 5 damage dealt in a single match this week.
• Top Healing – Shows top 5 healing done in a single match this week.
• Best in Class – Shows the top performance for each Fighter in a single match this week.  This score is calculated based on…
  • Your Stats (damage, healing, damage taken) where more weighting is given to the stat matching your class type (e.g. damage for Daemon, healing for Miko).
  • Objective Score.
  • Kill Blows and Assists.
  • Deaths.
  • Match Achievements (e.g. best damage, best healing, etc)

WEEKLY TOTALS LEADERBOARDS

Totals Leaderboards calculate the sum total for different stats and scores across all games played that week.  You can toggle between current week and last week views.

• Total Wins – Shows the 5 players who won the most matches this week.
• Total Killing Blows – Shows the 5 players who accumulated the most killing blows all week, across all games and fighters.
• Total Damage – Shows the 5 players who accumulated the most damage this week, across all games and fighters.
• Total Healing – Shows the 5 players who accumulated the most healing this week, across all games and fighters.
• Total Class Score – Shows player who accumulated the most points for each Fighter over the whole week.

Calculated using the same stats as “best in class” table above, except that Fighter win-rate is also taken into account.

Dev Notes – We know that having a competitive mode is something many players have been thirsting for, so thanks for your patience while we’ve been working through this new feature!  Can’t wait to see who rises to the top!

CUSTOM QUEUE

• Custom Queue allows any number of players to join a private matchmaking queue with others who’ve entered matching passwords.
• Custom Queue ignores Matchmaking Skill but will respect pre-made parties, so you can group up before searching Custom Queue if you want to arrange specific teams.
• Since Custom Queue also ignores ping, please be aware that network performance may be affected, but the system will do its best to choose the most appropriate server based on all players’ locations.
• While playing in Custom Queue, you cannot earn rewards or complete quests, and stats do not contribute toward Leaderboards or player profile stats.

Dev Notes – We were so inspired watching players setting up and running their own tournaments, and we wanted to do more to support organising events and playing prearranged games with friends or rivals!  This is where the idea for Custom Queue came from.  We wanted to get something into your hands as quickly as possible, but also give you the flexibility to create anything from a 4v4 prearranged match to a 48-player solo-Q fight night!  We’re looking forward to seeing more great games and tournaments being played and streamed 😊

MAP MODS

At the start of each match, there is a chance for a Map Modifier to be applied at random.  Map Modifiers do not change the fundamental win conditions of the match, but augment some of the rules or introduce new mechanics.

Full list of Map Mods active in the new patch:

• Glass Cannon: Damage powerups grant 50% extra damage and the duration is doubled, but damage taken is also increased by 30%.
• Super Charged: Super abilities charge twice as fast.
• Kill Streaks: Gain 4% damage bonus on killing blows. This effect can stack up to 10 times. All bonuses are lost on death.
• Dying Gift: Fighters drop a bomb when killed.
• Hot Potato: Each Power Cell held increases damage done by 1.5%, but also increases damage taken by 3%.
• Open Season: All Objectives are always active.
• Cell Mates: Cages spawn periodically around Objectives, trapping Fighters inside for a short time.
• Zones of Power: Power Zones appear intermittently, granting Fighters standing inside a 25% damage bonus.
• King of the Hill: Only one Objective is activated each round.
• Slime-O-Rama: The water is now toxic slime that damages anyone standing in it (only appears on Aqueducts and Hydrocore).
• Speed Phreak: Pads appear around the map that grant a temporary speed boost.
• VIP: Fighters take turns to be randomly selected as VIP. The VIP does 25% extra damage, but also takes 25 % extra damage. The VIP is worth extra points when killed.

Dev Notes – We received a lot of requests for more variety in game modes, and the team got really excited about the potential of Map Mods for addressing this.  Not only do the map mods mix up existing strategies in terms of game mode and team comps… they also introduce some new and novel tactical opportunities.  In testing, we saw teams that had previously dominated matches being thrown by scrappy new tactical choices, such as stacking cells or killstreaks along with specific mod builds and team comps to facilitate a hard carry.  We hope you enjoy the fresh twist that Map Mods brings to matches!

NEW CUSTOMISATIONS

BOARDS

New boards include the Zeta, Enforcer & Swamp Runner, each with a variety of paint jobs!

EMOTES

• Buttercup – Bye Bye Sugar
• Daemon – Say Hi To My Blade
• El Bastardo – My Pleasure
• Kulev – Healing Over Here
• Maeve – Pensioner’s Wrath
• Makutu – Show Me The Love
• Mekko – Majestic Bow
• Miko – Glory
• Níðhöggr – Strum
• ZeroCool – Laterz

SKINS

New skin for every Fighter!

Full list includes:

• Buttercup – Retro
• Cass – Caique
• Daemon – Nightwalker
• El Bastardo – El Magico
• Gizmo – Construction
• Kulev – Pinstripes
• Maeve – Tangerine
• Makutu – Golden Boy
• Mekko – Gizzo
• Miko – Sleek
• Níðhöggr  – Casual
• Zero Cool – Hot Stuff

NEW LIGHTING SCENARIOS

Most locations now feature different times of day.

MAJOR REWORKS

MAKUTU

Dev Notes- A while back we asked you for your feedback on Makutu.  While many players were really digging him as a character, he wasn’t viable in competitive matches and we wanted to address that.  Overwhelmingly, your feedback was that you saw Makutu filling a survivable/support tank role – able to hold objectives and bully enemies off your squishier teammates.  This really gelled with our own goals for Makutu, so we went about this rework with the aim of enhancing that style of play and plugging some of the holes that made him a tough sell in competitive team comps.  We hope you enjoy the new and improved Makutu!

GENERAL

• Makutu now moves at the same base speed as other Fighters. This means that in Ora Stance, he can keep up with other players.

Removed Stance – Pepeke

• Pepeke Stance has been removed and is replaced by Huaki Stance.

New Stance – Huaki

• Huaki Stance is a new offensive stance.
• Increases all outgoing damage by 20% (+10% with new default mod “Killa”).
• Increases movement speed by 10%.

COMBO

• Damage increased by 11%.
• Combo chain is slightly faster to execute.
• Makutu slides further towards his target when attacking, helping him stick to targets.
• Makutu can break out of combo attacks into movement earlier.
• The launching uppercut (executed by holding the button down on the final combo hit) now launches tanks and shielded enemies if used in Huaki Stance.
• In both stances, the launching uppercut can also be used to parry Charging attacks (E.g. Mekko’s Surge, Buttercup’s Launch, etc).
• Information about Makutu’s held basic attack functionality (called Quick Fists) has been added to his ability info page.

Dev Notes – One of Makutu’s biggest issues was his inability to “stick” to enemy fighters, and the subsequent ineffectual damage he was dealing.  Increases to his move speed, combo damage, stance damage, combo speed and step distance make Makutu a real threat at close range.

Barge

• Improved steering.
• Hit box size increased slightly.

Dev Notes – This was one of Makutu’s favoured abilities, so we didn’t change much.  The increased steering and hit box make it slightly easier to land.

Leg It

• Makutu gets a more substantial speed boost when using Leg-It.
• As well as applying a cleanse, allies and Makutu now also become immune to movement impairing effects for a short time.

Dev Notes – Given the quick pace of Bleeding Edge, it was hard to use Leg-it effectively to cleanse CC.  With the post-use cleanse and the extra move speed, Makutu can do much more to get his allies out of trouble.  It also provides Makutu a more reliable escape, given he lacks evade and parry.

Repellent 

• Now only available in Ora Stance (changes to Attractive in Huaki Stance).
• Increased range.
• Enemies are pushed back further.
• Enemies are now slowed for a short time after being pushed.
• Reworked vfx and animation to make Repellent feel more satisfying to use.

New Ability – Attractive.

• Replaces Repellent while in Huaki Stance.
• Sucks in surrounding enemies and slows them for a short time.

Dev Notes – In many ways the initial Repellent felt at odds with the rest of Makutu’s kit, because it pushed enemies away rather than bringing them into fighting range.  However, many players also appreciated the utility of being able to peel for their allies or push enemies off ledges.  Having both a push a pull move was an idea floated by many players during Makutu discussions, and we think this works well for him.  It provides an offensive option when he wants to be aggressive in attack, and a defensive option when trying to escape or peel for his allies.

Katamāori !!!

• Increased hitbox size
• Speed increased
• Damage increased
• Enemies are knocked back further.
• Cooldown reduced

Dev Notes – Katamāori !!! got an all-round buff since its pick-rate was very low compared with Can’t Touch Us.

MODS

Dev Notes – Changes to Makutu’s mods were made mainly in response to changes in the rest of his kit

• REMOVED: The Little Engine That Could (players who owned this mod will receive Killa instead)
• REMOVED: Bad Influence (players who owned this mod will receive Step Off instead)
• ADDED: Killa – Huaki Stance receives a further 7.5% to its damage bonus. This is a new default mod.
• ADDED: Step Off – Repellent pushes enemies back 50% further.
• ADJUSTED: Chill Out – now increases the slow amount for both Repellent and Attractive. This is now a default mod.
• ADJUSTED: Lickety Split – now reduces cooldown of both Repellent and Attractive.
• ADJUSTED: Big Hurt – enemies hit by Attractive now take 5% more damage from all sources for the next 5 seconds.
• ADJUSTED: In The Zone – Fixed an unintended behaviour allowing every slap of Quick Fists to trigger cooldown reductions. Impacts from held inputs now yield a smaller cooldown, commensurate with their attack speed. The mod description has been updated to reflect this change.
• New Default Mod Build:
  • Meat Shield (unchanged)
  • Killa (replaces The Little Engine That Could)
  • Chill Out (replaces Big Hurt)

BUG FIXES

• Fixed issue where Makutu’s aerial kick could KO Tanks who are standing on the floor, leading to unrecoverable knockdown loops.
• Fixed issue allowing Makutu to break his mount up cast animation 1 frame before it was complete.

BALANCING AND BUG FIXES

Fighters

“Charge” head-to-heads

• It has previously felt a bit arbitrary which Fighter will win where two charge attacks go head-to-head (e.g. Makutu Barging into Mekko’s Surge.) We’ve made some changes so that head-to-head charges result in both Fighters taking damage and bouncing off each other.

These moves include:

• Buttercup – Launch
• Buttercup – Slide
• Cass – Swoop
• Makutu – Barge
• Makutu – Katamāori (note that a head-to-head will not completely cancel Katamāori, but will bounce Makutu backwards)
• Mekko – Surge
• Níðhöggr – Powerslide

BUG FIXES

• Fixed an exploit allowing many heroes to chain cancels from melee attack → special ability → mount → melee attack to lock the target into an infinitely irredeemable hit-stun.

BUTTERCUP 

Burnout

• Takes 10% longer to charge up.

CASS 

Swoop 

• Increased distance travelled by 20%

Rake

• Increased damage by 25%

Dagger Spray

• Decreased damage by 4%

Mods

• Rush: Reduced extra Swoop distance from 30% to 20% (though the overall distance travelled is greater than before, due to the increase in base travel distance this patch)

Bug Fixes

• Fixed issue where Cass’s Feathered Darts could slide along floors and over ledges, hitting enemies she did not have line of sight to.
• Fixed bug where Cass could use Dive Bomb to enter spawn point whilst holding power cells

DAEMON

Combo

• Damage increased by 4%

Stealth

• Bonus damage after leaving stealth reduced from 55% to 30% but active buff will last for 2 seconds rather than ending after 1 hit.

Dev Notes – Daemon has always been a Bleeding Edge favourite, but we found at higher levels he just didn’t have enough burst to be effective, especially against double healer comps.  With this change, Daemon becomes much more viable in stalking and eliminating back line healers and squishy dps.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed bug causing Shadow Strike to be unaffected by power-ups and other damage modifiers.

GIZMO

Bug Fixes

• Fixed issue where burning caused by Mini Mech’s flame thrower could prevent delivering Power Cells.

KULEV

Acid Spit

• Damage reduced by 9%

Dev Notes – We’ve taken the edge off quite a few of our healers’ damage, so there’s more of a team-wide damage sacrifice when running multi-healer comps.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed issue where Kulev could cast shield while in a reaction if he instigated the press before the reaction started.
• VFX improvements to Lucky Charm Aura.

MEKKO

Lifeline

• All players can now cancel Mekko’s lifeline by pushing “Cancel Ability” (DPAD UP by default.)  If you’re in the process of aiming an ability (e.g. Gizmo’s Vortex) then the first DPAD UP press will cancel your ability, and the second will cancel Mekko’s Lifeline.

Safety Zone

• Damage mitigation reduced to 25% (was 50%).

Bug Fixes

• Enemies inside Exclusion Bubble can no longer collect Power Cells or contest Objectives.
• Fixed issue allowing Sonic Barrage to hit enemies behind walls.
• Fixed bug preventing Mekko from handing in Power Cells while Bubble Block shield was broken.
• Fixed bug causing incoming projectile impact VFX to spawn at the wrong position on Mekko.

MIKO

Combo

• Combo damage reduced by 10%

Chain Heal

• Decreased main target heal by 5%
• When self-casting Chain Heal, Miko receives the smaller heal value (equal to that of the bounce heal)

Dev Notes – We’ve always aimed for Miko to be a self-sustaining support, but we felt her self-healing was so strong she could become tedious to fight against.  By reducing the effectiveness of self-heal, we make her a little less tanky without impacting her viability as a solo healer.  Meanwhile Miko remains a strong dualist with her Regenerator on-hit heal and Stasis CC.  Overall, we feel these changes make Miko more fun to play against, and a little more tactical to play with, since Miko players will now need to think more about positioning to get the best value from her heals.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed issue where player could infinitely combo cancel with an out-of-range Life Force cast, allowing them to trap an enemy into an unrecoverable hit-stun loop.

NÍÐHÖGGR

Bug Fixes

• Fixed issue allowing Shredder to hit enemies that Níðhöggr did not have line of sight to.
• Fixedan exploit allowing players to cancel their combo with Shredder using a timing that granted infinite hit-stun against their enemy.  Shredder can still be used to combo cancel, but timings have been adjusted so that target players have escape opportunities via specials & evade.

ZERO COOL

Arcade Gun 

• Basic attack damage reduced by 7%

Recharge

• Minimum healing reduced by 21%

Bot

• Bot damage reduced by 10%

Dev Notes – As with other healers, we’ve nudged down Zero Cool’s damage so there’s more of a damage sacrifice when picking multiple healers on a team.  The reduction to Zero Cool’s minimum healing will allow more options when approaching team fights against a strong or well protected ZC – rather than take him out directly, forcing a long fight will reduce ZCs ability to sustain healing, eventually allowing you to out-damage him.

Leaver penalty

• Fixed an issue where players would disconnect during end game screen and receive leaver penalty, players will now earn rewards correctly at the end of matches and will not receive leaver status if disconnected during this phase.
• Players leaving matches by exiting the application or pulling network cables will now have the leaver penalty applied.

General fixes

• Fixed rare bug causing crashes during a Death Replay.
• Improved server connection management, resulting in fewer disconnects.
• Fixed several collision issues in Boneyard and Skygarden.
• Edits to Skygarden minimap for readability.
• Fixed the “reset to default positions” button in the Dojo.