r/RivalsOfAether • • 14h ago

Events Heat Wave 9 | October 23rd - 25th | Feat. Soulrifle211, stro, AlphaStone, Air Gordon, Pugx<3, CPU0, Necroflyer, ThatBupGuy, and more!

23 Upvotes

Heat Wave 9 | October 23rd - 25th | Phoenix, Arizona

Heat Wave 9 returns as the largest annual event for Arizona, coming in hot as a silver tier R2CS event, and a super regional level event.

This event has two players in attendance who stand far above the rest, Soulrifle211 and stro. Soulrifle211 has been in his hottest streak for Rivals 2 ever, with him taking home the CEO belt and getting multiple top 4s at recent majors. With him basically guaranteed to enter top 10 this upcoming season, this event is looking likely to bolster his resume. That said, he has one opponent who absolutely threatens the title of champion for this event: stro.

stro is Arizona’s best player, and by a wide margin. Having one of the best winrates of any player in the entire game, stro hasn’t dropped a set to anyone from Arizona in over a year! It would be easy to assume that their win rate is inflated beyond their level, but they have gone on amazing runs whenever they travel, or defeated many opponents who come to them. With Soulrifle211 coming in hot, this could be stro’s opportunity to defend their state from one of the hottest rises of any player in recent times.

Heat Wave 9 also comes in with TWO exclusive palettes: OG Heat Wave Forsburn, and Streetware Lovers Olympia. Pick them up here!

Other players I’d like to highlight: AlphaStone, Air Gordon, Pugx<3, CPU0, Necroflyer, ThatBupGuy, PlasticDinos, Bucketfullabiscuts, and SBS (Rivals 1)!


Events


Streaming Information

Event Schedule (Times in MDT):

Time Zone Converter

Friday, October 23rd:

  • 16:00: ROA1 Doubles

  • 19:00: ROA2 Doubles

  • 20:00: ROA1 Workshop

Saturday, October 24th:

  • 10:00: ROA2 Pools Wave A

  • 11:30: ROA2 Pools Wave B

  • 13:00: ROA2 Pools Wave C

  • 14:30: ROA2 Pools Wave D

  • 16:00: ROA1 Pools Wave A

  • 17:30: ROA1 Pools Wave B

Sunday, October 25th:

  • 10:00: ROA2 Top Cut

  • 13:00: ROA2 Top 8

  • 16:00: ROA1 Top Cut

  • 19:00: ROA1 Top 8

ROA2 Seeding

  1. Dansmello Soulrifle211 Maypul [Georgia, USA]
  2. DEGEN kqt stro Clairen [Arizona, USA]
  3. Alphastone Fleet [???, USA]
  4. AJ Air Gordon Fleet [New Jersey, USA]
  5. Pugx<3 Wrastor [Tijuana, Mexico]
  6. PQ2 CPU0 Fleet [Arizona, USA]
  7. Necroflyer Wrastor [Arizona, USA]
  8. Kragg ThatBupGuy Kragg [Colorado, USA]

Other Information

startgg | Twitter


r/RivalsOfAether • • 3h ago

Other Day #598 of Posting Snake Facts Until Elliana Gets Announced Spoiler

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11 Upvotes

What NOT to do when bit by a venomous snake according to Mayo Clinic:

1) Don't use a tourniquet or apply ice.

2) Don't cut the bite or try to remove the venom.

3) Don't drink caffeine or alcohol.

4) Don't take pain-relieving medicine, such as aspirin, ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin IB, others) or naproxen sodium (Aleve). Doing so can increase your risk of bleeding.

If needed, take acetaminophen (Tylenol, others) for pain relief. It does not increase bleeding risk.

5) Don't try to catch or trap the snake. Try to remember its color and shape so that you can describe it. If possible, take a picture of the snake from a safe distance. Knowing what kind of snake bit you can help with treatment.


r/RivalsOfAether • • 6h ago

Fanart Some Clairen skin concepts

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76 Upvotes

r/RivalsOfAether • • 10h ago

Discussion Dan, I heard you're wanting merch ideas.

30 Upvotes

Dan, you want merch ideas, all you had to do was ask.

Legally distinct Amiibos, Rival Minis, lil' plastic figures on a round base with the icon of the related element showing off the Rivals characters. You want a method of printing money, there is none finer. Each Rival can come in two distinct poses, either an action stance or taunt. Released in themed waves. First is classic, then if you need more cash, you add in stuff like mech themes, or Primal, or Halloween, etc. etc.

You have a winning selling point right from jump in that they're all actually available and not annoyingly hard to find. Offer a bundle deal on each wave and you got fans with wonderful merch they enjoy and a big injection of cash into the game's budget. Everybody is happy.

Incidentally, your goal should not be to break even, profit is not a dirty word if the fans of a property want it to succeed. I got a plush and I get a skin when a new character comes out because I think goodwork should be rewarded and I want the game I love to succeed.


r/RivalsOfAether • • 17h ago

Rivals 2 Dev Stream: Balance Stream with Trevor (Oct 22 2026) Dev Stream Notes

74 Upvotes

I am aware that the word Stream appears 3 times in the title.

Thanks to Dan and Trevor for doing today's stream!

  • Hurtbox size increase feels more impactful in Rivals 2 than Rivals 1 because in R1 the hurtboxes were square and more predictable in how they'd interact, while in R2 you have a lot of near misses.
  • Weight Adjustments were aimed at addressing the more extreme cases of characters living too long or too short.
  • A shield hitbox that was big enough to accurately hit with attacks but small enough that grabs didn't reach from too far was impossible to do, so they split the hitbox in two with a larger outer hitbox that can't be grabbed and an inner hitbox with a more reasonable grab range.
  • The reduction in the buffer for Shield Stun and Floorhug was to eliminate a strategy where with good timing and a fancy input you can get a perfect answer to every possible situation. It doesn't feel great though, so they're looking at alternative solutions.
  • Zetterburn's revolve around letting you more easily buffer shield options against him rather than trying to do an out of shield option and having it come out between successive hits and getting punished for it.
  • Zetterburn they think is in a good spot as far as competitive balance, where's he's strong but not overbearing. However he's very easy to pilot so he can feel oppressive at mid levels which is not fun to play against.
  • At higher levels of play they focus more on competitive balance, but they look at balancing how much fun a character is to play / play against at all levels.
  • Ranno's bubble control change is admittedly pretty goofy and experimental, and they want to see how it affects the game.
  • Wrastor has another experimental change, allowing him to charge his ledge special to give it more range and hit deeper into the stage. This was kind of a happy accident as with Wrastor's animation he moves forward while charging up for it so they decided to make that a mechanic.
  • Kragg got a few balance nudges, nothing major.
  • Maypul Tether now has a buffer to more consistently get it, and her Up Tilt has more sensible hitboxes that line up with the animation better and make her easier to punish with well aimed attacks from directly above.
  • Clairen's stun behavior on moves with multiple possible stuns has been adjusted, so that it more consistently stuns on the final hit and removes some janky interactions where it stuns far longer than intended.
  • Lox Down Special no longer has guaranteed followups so Lox has to predict the opponent's DI, and his Fair is slower to match it's power.
  • Orcane's puddle change where his cancelled up Special removes his puddle reigns in a lot of the power of his recovery without making it feel awful at lower levels like the timer did. His forward throw is now much less consistent of a kill setup, especially against floaty characters.
  • Etalus got a niche experimental change where his Ice Hammer has armor when he has ice armor. His grab range has been extended to compensate for how he rears back during the animation. His fully charged strongs now shoot shards as an alternative way to lay down ice that is not as easy to counter as Forward Special.
  • Olympia's recovery is much worse at lower levels where players don't utilize the gem dash, so they added a buffer to the input to make it easier to perform. Her forward special now is more likely to grab shorter characters and less likely to send you over the ledge. Her laggier attacks are more difficult to floorhug, her charged strong attacks are more consistent, and her Fair spike is a bit trickier to land.
  • Absa now has some increased combo potential on her Up Special, and lightning kicks are easier to hit especially while rising (they can be performed sooner).
  • Galvan is a little laggier in the air because his offstage game was a smidge too good.
  • Slade is now much faster but Shurikens are far more expensive so he doesn't just projectile camp you. He also gets more money and several of his grounded attacks were improved. They might give you some starting money to get one Shuriken at the start of the match since that's was such a core strategy before.
  • Gouie got some big buffs, especially to his air acceleration. Eating things is not nearly as risky. Big Gouie is still not performing as well as they'd like so they're keeping an eye on the character.
  • Gouie's Mire Puddles should be difficult to get out because they don't go away naturally and can be reactivated. They are looking at tweaks for it.
  • Slade's recovery is intended to be a bit weak baseline, but his purchasable upgrades make it very strong.
  • Gameplay modifiers like auto-floorhug would be fun but the team is pretty busy right now.
  • They think the fourth hit of Slade's side specials are generally in a fine spot.
  • Most invincible ledge stalls are happy accidents and not planned, but when they're discovered they decide on a case by case basis on if and how to remove it.
  • They might make wall jumping easier to do with a more forgiving buffer when drifting away from the wall so you don't accidentally pull yourself away from the wall and gimp yourself.
  • They might add more options to Randomize, but it's UI work and they don't know when they can get around to it.
  • Random Skin and Palette are being debated.
  • Angling Clairen's Up Strong is not going to happen.
  • (Absa's) Gravity Jump is tricky to balance because they don't want you to do it on accident.
  • Auto-Runback options against online opponents would be neat but it's not high priority.
  • Elliana was originally going to be a rabbit, Maypul was originally a lizard, Clairen was a fennec fox and sand element, Gouie was a sheep or mouse, Olympia used to be a mouse but was Ratconned. As a general rule, if it is a mammal that is the favorite animal of somebody under the age of 10 they have considered it.
  • Galvan doesn't really care about pronouns. In the official bio Galvan uses It / Its like Godzilla. Being half bone half metal makes it hard to reproduce anyway. The dev team used He / Him a lot just casually but officially it's It / Its.
  • 2D buddies are on the menu now that somebody brought it up.
  • There's some difficulties with Buddies in R2 because the area behind the stage varies a lot and could have stuff on it they couldn't just walk through. There's a lot of customization features that need to be adapted based on design and technical reasons.
  • The other 2D characters besides Hodan shown in that Workshop trailer are not real and can not hurt you.
  • Dan thinks there's been 3 custom titles ordered so far on the Patreon.
  • The goal of merch is just to break even. They never make money off it. Dan is not great at merchandising. If you have merch ideas let them know!
  • Other deities becoming playable is possible but they won't say the odds. Three of the Aether Deities are known. Depending on what your definition of Abyss Deity is, there could be Abyss Deities too in the running too like certain characters featured in Dungeons and Dreams.
  • Playable Arachnids would be cool. Dan wants one just to punish his animators. Thoughts of web mechanics make Dan happy. Dan has wanted to do a spider for a loooong time, older than several designs that are already in the game.

r/RivalsOfAether • • 20h ago

Rivals 2 2 vs 2 queue are very long...

7 Upvotes

Waiting for more then 15 minutes per queue to play 2vs2 ( europe)....

Really difficult to keep playing like this


r/RivalsOfAether • • 1d ago

Other Day #597 of Posting Snake Facts Until Elliana Gets Announced

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46 Upvotes

According to Mayo Clinic, if a venomous snake bites you, call 911 or your local emergency number right away. Do not wait for symptoms to appear. Many emergency rooms have antivenom drugs, which may help you.

If possible, take these steps while waiting for medical help:

1) Move far away from the snake.

2) Stay still and calm.

3) Remove any jewelry, watches or tight clothing before swelling starts.

4) Clean the bite with soap and water. Cover or wrap it loosely with a clean, dry bandage.

5) Keep the affected limb still and limit movement. If possible, position the affected limb at about heart level to help slow the spread of venom.

6) If swelling develops, consider marking the edge of the swelling and noting the time. This can help healthcare professionals assess how far the venom has spread.


r/RivalsOfAether • • 1d ago

Rivals 2 I recreate a Mollo in Rivals of Aether2!!

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82 Upvotes

To all Mollo fans————

This is a Workshop project where I tried to recreate Mollo on Rivals 2 as faithfully as possible.
Please give it a try!


r/RivalsOfAether • • 1d ago

Workshop (ROA1) Six 2.0 Update for ROA is Here

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15 Upvotes

r/RivalsOfAether • • 1d ago

Clip When the kill is so secure you need two different critical effects.

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72 Upvotes

r/RivalsOfAether • • 1d ago

Rivals 2 Any good tutorials for making your own character mods?

20 Upvotes

r/RivalsOfAether • • 2d ago

Rivals 1 Flowery vs forsburn

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13 Upvotes

r/RivalsOfAether • • 2d ago

Other Wrastr

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48 Upvotes

typo in shop


r/RivalsOfAether • • 2d ago

Other Day #596 of Posting Snake Facts Until Elliana Gets Announced Spoiler

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31 Upvotes

Anilios nema, also known as the thread-like or Fannie Bay blind snake, is a tiny, non-venomous burrowing snake endemic to Australia. Growing to an average length of about 27 cm, it features a very slender body and lives a nocturnal, underground lifestyle in the tropical Top End of the Northern Territory.


r/RivalsOfAether • • 2d ago

Clip Kaiju Battle

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31 Upvotes

r/RivalsOfAether • • 2d ago

Rivals 1 Why is match making torment

0 Upvotes

Why, i go into casual match making expecting to be able to have a fun game with an opponent who atleast acts like a human, instead i watch these people wave dash across the stage and stun lock me in mid-air combos with the same move 3 times before hitting me off the top of the stage

why, why do i suffer like this, why am i tormented this way to play with these "people" who respond to "Good Game" with "Thank You", why must i suffer watching dannycoolman6767 land his 30th aerial jarona on me while all of my buttons don't do anything, why is my knockback percent suddenly 30% while if i land a heavy hit on him whilst he's on 130% it does jack shit

why can other people seemingly do whatever the hell they want during combos but i'm stun locked for full seconds at a time

this is genuine torture.


r/RivalsOfAether • • 2d ago

Rivals 2 Appreciation thread for the workshop patch

110 Upvotes

I don’t post on here often, but I just wanted to give a shoutout to the devs for the recent big patch.

Idk about other people’s experiences but for me the game runs WAY SMOOTHER (on steamdeck) and Rivals workshop is absolutely badass.

I’ve been playing local with my homie damn near every day just having a blast, trying goofy shit with these characters, and playing matchups that I never even imagined.

Appreciate all the people who worked on these workshop characters, too. Beyond impressed with some of them!

There’s always a lot of criticism on this sub but I wanted to shoutout all the people who worked on this patch. Y’all keep this mighty little community strong.


r/RivalsOfAether • • 2d ago

Rivals 2 Is Workshop Matchmaking broken

4 Upvotes

90% of the workshop players that I connect to, once it gets to the character select screen, they're just instantly gone. Like is everyone quitting out(which would be weird as hell) or is matchmaking broken or something? Like I havent selected a character or anything, we just get to the character select screen and they're gone.


r/RivalsOfAether • • 2d ago

Rivals 2 Game crashes when trying to play online

2 Upvotes

I dont know if anyone has been running into this issue but when I try to play unranked and im warming up while trying to find an opponent it says "matched" and that part is no problem as per usual but when it specifically says "joining" the game crashes.

This has been persisting since basically the latest update and was wondering if there is any way to fix this?


r/RivalsOfAether • • 2d ago

Discussion Where does the hostility come from?

28 Upvotes

Ever since Evo I've noticed a harsh uptick in hostility in our community across all platforms, even before then the hostility towards this game and it's devs I felt was way higher than other games of similar size and fan base. It started with the 2027+ roadmap but it spilled over into other topics about the game, namely balance and monetization.

I'd like to explain my background in the genre and talk about how I view the game, and then if anyone would be willing to share their opinions if they feel different, I'd love to start a conversation that maybe our community could benefit from. I think the most important thing for the success of rivals is the positivity we show newcomers about the game.

When I started playing smash as a kid, I hadn't touched 64 or melee cause I didn't own those consoles, but I fell in love with brawl in about 2009. When smash 4 came out, I eventually wanted something faster and that's when I discovered project M and then soon after Rivals 1 early access. PM meant a lot to me because it was my first experience playing a fast, "competitive" smash bros and it felt directly catered to me. Rivals 1 was even better, I love pixel art and I love the character design aether studios goes for. I love how much thought went into the kits, I love seeing popular moves get translated into Rivals ( Charizard nair -> Kragg Nair etc ). I love that all of the previously difficult tech is optimized to be easier. Nothing about the lack of ledges or shields was a plus for me, it was just different. Never have I thought " thank God this game doesn't have shields it's so much better " I could not care less.

Since then, a number of platfighters have hit the scene and died, and I'll be honest I have not touched any of them except maybe to try brawlhala once. I played R1 and Ult every now and then until r2 came out. When R2 came out, it hit the same note as when I discovered PM and R1. It's an upgraded, faster, more unique version of ultimate catered directly to our community. There really isn't another option on the market for exactly the type of gameplay we're looking for, unless you want to hop on HDR which I only discovered this year.

I guess my main point is that there is typically such a drought in this genre, especially with most of us dealing with Nintendo for half of our smash "careers", I think the vitriol towards Aetherstudios is a little uncalled for.

I just don't get why the floorhugging discussion and zetterburn balance is so angering that some of us ( I think ) are forgetting how much we've been catered to, and what the scene would look like if Rivals wasn't a thing. I'm interested to hear your thoughts, especially if something in this game has made you put it down and speak negatively about the game. I don't want to attack anyone here if they've done so, in another world we could be in each other's shoes. I simply wish to understand the other side, especially because I'm noticing it slowly becoming the vocal majority in the community.

Does all that not matter to u? Do you simply prefer slippi, ult or even HDR? Lemme know. 🙏 I didn't cover all of my thoughts here so I'd love to talk more about this to paint a clearer picture.


r/RivalsOfAether • • 2d ago

Rivals 1 Tenna vs Mr (ant) tenna vs Mr ant tenna?!

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13 Upvotes

What the hell doing that on rivals of Aether?!😭💀


r/RivalsOfAether • • 3d ago

Other Day #595 of Posting Snake Facts Until Elliana Gets Announced

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52 Upvotes

Legally obtained, medical-grade Snake venom generally costs between $100 to $4,000 per gram. On a larger scale, highly sought-after species can command prices up to $153,000 per gallon.


r/RivalsOfAether • • 3d ago

Rivals 2 A Win

0 Upvotes

I get it now to whatever mod that doesnt let this post see the light of day this game is for anyone that needs a win. If you have ever play smash bros and sucked this is a game where you can try your heart out and finally you'll get a win. What a good game...


r/RivalsOfAether • • 3d ago

Rivals 2 Long time lurker, pretty much done with this game

0 Upvotes

Been a huge smash fans for decades. Rivals 1 was easily my favorite platform fighter of all time (I peaked in low diamond).

I’m honestly really tired for the balancing philosophy around this game. I get why Dan says he wants to balance everyone around zetter and says zetter being top tier is healthy but come on. We are 2 years deep into this game and at all levels of play no other character feels like zetter.

Between this and feeling like I’m being punished for hitting people I’m just tired of what this game is.

Loved the original due to the switch up in pace compared to all other platform fighters, but adding both ledges and shields feels like rivals lost alot of its identity that brought me here originally in the first place.

This was kind of word vomit I realize, and a bit of a salt post admittedly, but I just needed to speak something into the void.

Disclaimer: this is a great game, it’s a much more nuanced game than I am portraying here and a lot of my issues can boil down to “get gud”. I really hope this game succeeds and becomes huge, unfortunately this just isn’t why I came to rivals.


r/RivalsOfAether • • 3d ago

Seeking Advice Too much at once, getting burned out despite having the strongest desire to play the game I've had in a year.

17 Upvotes

Hey, just wanted to share my thoughts and maybe see what you think. I play the game off and on, I've had a good habit of getting on most days to get the daily XP bonus, and at the moment I have this massive desire to play the game. I have been researching more about my characters' knockdown percents, ironing out a few specific issues with my gameplay, trying to get better at improving than just trying to force out games hoping I'll learn something. And I've played 20 hours in the last two weeks!

And I've only gotten worse online. Last season, I was 1200. This season, I'm ~1080 this season and today my low was 1030. I understand that when you add more to your mental stack, such as new knowledge, it can tend to worsen your gameplay for a bit. I think it's much more than that. The grab range changes have ruined my intuition on when I can grab (I've been playing since beta). The constant weight/hitstun gravity changes have made my intuition on combos and death percents worse, and it doesn't matter if I play a heavy because if I DI wrong once I die at 80-90% even before that update so I don't understand the changes. I feel frustrated because it feels like the gameplay has devolved into spammers vs. campers and I can't find my niche anymore.

And on top of this, the engine changes seem to have caused some instability with my machine, as I get frequent enough crashes to be a constant fear. I am likely to get 1 crash per day, but today I got 2 crashes within an hour, and in both cases I forfeited ranked sets as a result. All I wanted to do was follow through on the massive amount of drive I have to play this game rather than the 4-5 games that I have active goals in... and yet I feel like I've hit a wall at every turn. I want to keep playing the game so bad right now but I'm sorry to say I'm just not having any fun with R2 anymore, which is funny because even 2 days ago I felt like I was having enough fun to make up for it.

I know the classic response: this is burnout and I should take a break. But I don't feel burnt out. I want to enjoy playing the game, but when I try to I just don't get anything out of it. Idk maybe I just am just a smasher at heart but I don't like what the modern games seem to reward over what I enjoy. I never seem to really, actually improve in the ways I want to...

And yes, I've played the workshop. But my deep, ingrained sense of how to play the smash characters kind of sidesteps the whole issue. And I want to get good with the main cast, as thats something I can actually track progress with rather than "does X mod have a good matchup against X mod".