MultiVersus Open Beta Update Nerfs Taz's Tornado, Here Are the Patch Notes

The MultiVersus open beta kicks off for all starting today, and following a week of early access, developer Player First Games is making some adjustments as part of today's game update.

The major addition being made in this patch is of course LeBron James as a brand new playable character, but there's a little more to take note of, especially for those who've been terrorising the game as a tornado-happy Taz. Yes, Taz's side special, which sees him whip up into the character's signature tornado, has been far too powerful during the early access portion of the beta, so the studio has made some adjustments to bring it down a peg. What's interesting is that the team is looking at rebalancing Taz completely — today's changes are more of a quick fix.

Elsewhere, Bugs Bunny's baseball bat swing has also been nerfed, as has Batman's batarang, and various bugs on Iron Giant have been addressed. We've included the full patch notes below:

Open Beta

• Lebron James has arrived! He is our first basketball-wielding character!

New Free Character Rotation (7/26 to 8/8)

• Finn
• Garnet
• Superman
• Reindog

New Open Beta Warp Event:

• For a LIMITED TIME Gold earned from matches has increased by 25% from 7/26 to 8/8 as an Open Beta Welcome Event!

Characters

Batman

• - Air/Ground Neutral Attack: Cooldown on Batarang increased from 13s to 14s. Pick up of Batarang returns 11.55 second up from 11.05. This means that the minimum time between Batarang throws is 2.45s up from 1.95s.
• Batman’s Batarang pick-up cooldown created very small windows where the Batarang wasn’t in play. This change should make it so opponents of Batman have a larger window between Batarang attacks to gain advantage.
• Bug Fix: Air/Ground Side Special: Fixed a bug where Grapple would sometimes shoot you off the map.

Bugs Bunny

• - Air Up Attack: Startup window increased by 2 frames, active window decreased by 2 frames
  • The hitbox made it so that Bugs Bunny hit nearly all around himself. This should make the up air a bit more reasonable to deal with.

Iron Giant

• Bug Fix: Air Down Attack: can no longer combo into itself
• Bug Fix: Air/Ground Down Special: can no longer repeatedly hit and lock opponents in place forever
• Bug Fix: Air Up Attack: Can no longer repeatedly hit opponents

Steven Universe

• - Air Neutral Attack: Knocks opponents up and away to prevent an infinite attack caused by alternating Air Down Attack and Air Neutral Attack.

Taz

• Bug Fix: Fixed a bug that was preventing Taz from doing any aerial attacks once he reached his air special limit.
• - Air/Ground Side Special:
  • If you have been following early access, Taz’s Tornado has been dominating his character kit and presenting a non-obvious knowledge check for newer players. By reducing its effectiveness we hope to improve his gameplay health and loop and bring the game to a healthier state for newer players.
    • A decrease to the tornado's duration and the additional duration gained by passing an ally.
    • Removing one of the multi-hits of the tornado.
    • Decreasing the hit pause of all the hits in the tornado.
    • Reduced knockback from the final hit in the tornado from 1375 to 1275.
  • Right now, our plan is to transition the Tornado to a cooldown move in an upcoming patch. The tornado is Taz's signature move so we want to keep it as one of his most powerful attacks, with the cooldown forcing more intentional use of it. These nerfs will reduce Taz's strength, especially at higher levels of play, so expect some buffs to the other moves in his kit in the near future. Thank you for your patience and we will continue to evaluate Taz’s gameplay health.

Velma

• - Weight: reduced from 70 to 63
  • It was an oversight on our part that Velma is one of the heaviest characters in the game. This change should bring her more in-line with where we originally envisioned her.

Will you be playing the MultiVersus open beta on PS5 and PS4? Tell us in the comments section below.