Patch Notes

Since the game’s release, we have observed our players researching gum weapons and becoming more and more proficient in wielding them. As a result, we have seen variations in gum weapon popularity, and are pleased to see a wide variety of gum weapons currently in use.

The Ninjala development team is dedicated to ensuring that players can enjoy a wide variety of battling styles. After careful observation of winning percentages by gum weapon, ranking status, and so forth, we have implemented a host of balance adjustments.

Firstly, we have made adjustments to the massively powerful “Ninja Yo-yo,” as well as the Gum Ninjutsu “Piercing Mixer”, which had been achieving extraordinarily high scores.

In addition, we have implemented some tweaks to make the Gum Ninjutsu “Dragon Lord” and “Ninja Tornado” easier to use.

We hope this adjustment will allow players to further explore the allure of the full lineup of gum weapons.

Damage dealt by the warp attack of the special "Yo-Yo Leap" has been reduced.

Yo-yo-type weapons can be tricky to use, but master them and you’ll be rewarded with high performance and a powerful gum weapon.

The warp attack was so damaging and powerful, that in Battle Royale mode with a large weapon, the “Yo-yo Leap” special and a warp attack alone were enough to destroy a DARUMA (standard size) drone.

As a result, yo-yo-wielding players were able to destroy drones disproportionately faster compared to players using other gum weapon types, leading to score disparities.

With this adjustment, we have reduced the damage dealt, so drones will take slightly longer to destroy than before.

We hope that this will serve to even the playing field against ninjas who attempt to destroy all the drones by themselves and quickly run away.

#### Ninja Tornado

* The attack strength of the Gum Ninjutsu "Ninja Tornado" has been increased. “Ninja Tornado” renders the user invincible after activation and is useful for both offense and defense, but it was slightly lacking in decisive punch, so we’ve increased the attack strength a bit. With this adjustment, in Battle Royale, KABUKI (large-type) drones can be destroyed in a single hit, giving you an advantage in the battle to destroy more drones than your opponents. This will also require all ninja to be more careful when low on life.

#### Piercing Mixer

* Reduced the attack power of Gum Ninjutsu "Piercing Mixer". The piercing mixer has the weakness of rendering players vulnerable while activated, but this was made up for by tremendous power that could overwhelm multiple drones and opponents. With this adjustment, attack strength has been reduced, so it will now take longer to defeat drones and opponents. As a result, the overall scores obtainable with the Piercing Mixer will decrease, giving it less of a disproportionate advantage over the competition.

#### Dragon Lord

* The attack strength of the Gum Ninjutsu "Dragon Lord" has been increased. The “Dragon Lord” Gum Ninjutsu offered relatively low attack power, but made up for this with a rapidly refillable ninjutsu gauge. However, it often failed to finish off opponents, making it difficult to make effective use of in battle. With this adjustment, the attack power has been increased so that it can now destroy a DARUMA (normal-size) drone with a single hit. We hope it can now be used more effectively in a wide variety of situations, against opponents, drones, or both. Dragon Lord has been reborn as a more powerful dragon. We look forward to seeing it bear its fangs in battle.
* The tracking time of the Gum Ninjutsu "Dragon Lord" has been extended. The duration it homes against your opponents has increased, making it harder to evade. Furthermore, it can now be effectively used to attack enemies farther away than before.
* The ninjutsu gauge capacity required to activate the Gum Ninjutsu "Dragon Lord" has been slightly increased. To reflect the enhanced power and abilities of the “Dragon Lord” ninjutsu, the ninjutsu gauge cost has been increased slightly.

#### Feature Additions and Adjustments

* Tier Points have been adjusted. Players will now receive 4x more Tier Points at match end.

* Lobby waiting time has been reduced from 60 seconds to 30 seconds.

* When matching for Battle Royale, the battle can be started if there are 6 or more participants.

* When matching for Team Battle mode, battles can now be started when there are 3 players on each team.

* Player level required to unlock the Ninjala Battle and Invite functions has been reduced from level 5 to level 3.

* In-game tips information has been updated.

* Tips now display when transitioning from the Standby Dojo to the start of battle.

* Standby Dojo NPC opponents now are able to use S-Bursts.

* The Online Manual can now also be accessed from a banner in your base.

* When configuring room battles, passwords can no longer be visually recognized after input.

\*To completely prevent the password from being identified on the game screen, you must have a USB keyboard connected.

#### Resolution of Known Issues

* An issue where extremely poor transmission speeds would cause identification of teammates and opponents has been resolved.

* An issue where extremely poor transmission speeds would cause glitches in the stage display when transitioning to the standby dojo has been resolved.
* An issue where being hit by the Gum Ninjutsu “Tenchi Muyo” would occasionally cause players to freeze in midair has been resolved.
* An issue wherein loading favorite costumes in the Matching Lobby would cause your avatar icon to not display properly has been resolved.
* In addition to the above, other issues have been resolved to ensure a smoother, more enjoyable game experience.

\* Updating to Ver1.2 is mandatory for all players.

\* To download the update, sufficient free space is required in your console’s internal storage or an installed microSD card.

\* All information is accurate as of the time of posting.

## Ver 2.0

### About this update

Thank you for playing Ninjala.

This update contains even more wide-ranging improvements, adjustments, and bug fixes to further enhance your Ninjala gameplay experience.

There are three main goals we hope to achieve with this update:

* Offering an ideal matching environment
* Improving player experience through UI/UX
* Further polish game balance

The Ninjala team has recognized that the current matching environment is far from ideal, and has taken player feedback deeply to heart. In hopes of offering our players an improved matching experience, we have implemented a major update to the matching system. Furthermore, we have updated elements of the UI that were hampering users to provide smoother, more intuitive gameplay. Needless to say, we have also further refined weapon parameters to allow players of all experience and skill levels, from beginners to experts, to enjoy Ninjala.

Please read on if you would like to review the changes implemented with this update in detail.

#### Matching on a Worldwide Scale

Up to this point, matching has been broken down into four regions: North and Central America, Europe, Asia/Ocenania, and Japan. The initial intent of this was to prevent matchups between players located physically far away, which were more likely to suffer from lag and transmission speed issues.

Since then, however, we have taken into account player feedback, in particular that it was frustrating not to be able to play with family or friends who live abroad in another region, or to find opponents in one’s own region late at night or at other times when the player base was reduced. To address the situation, we have now made it possible to match with players of any region, provided that transmission speeds fall within defined acceptable parameters.

Now that matching has been unified across all regions, we believe it will now be possible to find worthy teammates and opponents at all hours of the day, and that Battle Royale ranked matches will be more rewarding.

In accordance with this change, player rankings—previously broken down by region—will also be unified across the entire world. From this day forward, Ninjala will become a truly global competition.

\*Please note that as a side effect, you may be more likely to experience lag depending on the location of your opponent. Please confirm your connection speeds via the newly added lag value display and antenna icons. As a general reference, a relatively smooth gameplay experience can be enjoyed with values of up to 150 msec, but 200 msec and beyond will result in considerable lag. Furthermore, in Ranked and Free Matches, opponents and servers with lower lag values will be prioritized. To improve transaction speeds, we recommend that you connect with a wired connection or a stable, high-speed Wi-Fi connection.

#### Matching Improvements

In Ninjala, matching is configured so that you are most likely to be matched with players of the same rank as you. However, when such players cannot be found, the system allows for matching with players of different ranks to avoid situations in which no match can be made. This was particularly an issue with Battle Royale ranked matches. With matching now conducted globally provided lag is within defined acceptable parameters, you will now be more likely to be matched with players of the same rank, reducing the likelihood of unbalanced matches. Furthermore, the matching settings themselves have also been refined so that it is less likely you will be matched with players of widely varying ranks. That said, there is a certain degree of conflict between our two goals of ensuring balanced matches and allowing for ease of matching. To ensure an optimal matching experience going forward, we intend to closely monitor the situation and make further adjustments as deemed necessary. Furthermore, there was an issue where the time until a room was disbanded was too long, resulting in long wait times after battles could be started with 6 or 7 players. To address this, we have shortened the time until rooms are disbanded, which we hope will lead to quicker-starting battles.

### Gum Weapon Parameter Adjustments

The Ninjala development team is dedicated to ensuring that players can enjoy a wide variety of battling styles. After careful observation of winning percentages by gum weapon and weapon popularity, we have implemented a host of balance adjustments.

In particular, we have enhanced currently unpopular weapons such as “Iron Noise”, “Drum Beat”, “Mellow à la Mode” and “Trick Ball”, and balanced “SK8 Hammer” and “Sushi Axe”.

With this adjustment, various weapons are used more than ever before.

We hope that the result will be even more rewarding Ninjala battles for all players.

* “Charging Slash” will now have an increased chance of landing a blow.
* Charging Slash is a quick and powerful dash attack, but due to its rushing movement, attacks very often missed and came up empty.

Although the IPPON Katana and Scroll Blade are popular among advanced players as well, they are particularly widely used among beginners. In order to give beginners an effective weapon that would not be overpowered in the hands of advanced players, we have raised the homing capability of Charging Slash to make it easier to use.

However, the team is aware of its strength when combined with Wall Shooter, and we therefore intend to monitor winning percentages closely to ensure balance among gum weapons.

* The amount players’ ninjutsu gauge increases when landing back attacks has been reduced.

Previously, it was set to offer increased ninjutsu gauge gains when successfully landing back attacks, but after observing disproportionately high use and winning percentages, we have reduced this amount.

Back attacks are still an effective way to build up your ninjutsu gauge, but due to the lower turnover rate, you will now need to attack more aggressively than before.

* The ability “Hyper Boost” will now increase movement speed even more.
* The strength of normal attacks has been reduced.
* The timing at which successful back attacks can be canceled has been sped up.
* The range of wide attacks has been reduced slightly.
* The following adjustments have been made to “Power Buster”.

　Cooldown time has been increased.

　The timing with which Super Armor is engaged has been delayed slightly.

　Attack power has been increased.

　Attack range has been reduced slightly.

With the adjustments this time, we have balanced “Power Buster” and increased the time needed to destroy drones, and made other enhancements to balance this out.

“Power Buster” is an extremely effective attack, and we observed many situations in which it was able to completely dominate a wild battle. With this latest adjustment, it will take slightly longer for Super Armor to activate, meaning you will have to be more careful with timing when you use it. In addition, to compensate for attacks being more difficult to land, they will now be more effective when they hit. It will now be more effective to land finishing blows in complicated situations, as well as to take drones away from your opponents. We believe you will observe that its “explosive power” has increased.

The combo of “Power Buster” and two normal attacks will still be effective, so we believe that this adjustment will not result in significantly altered firepower in battle.

* Normal attacks have received the following adjustments: Sound wave bullets will now appear more quickly. Sound wave bullets will now begin homing more quickly. The timing at which one can cancel by jumping and evading has been accelerated.
* The following adjustments have been made to “Echoing Scream”: You will now move further when attacking. You will now move earlier when attacking. The position of sound waves generated has been altered so that it is easier for the attack to land.

The weapons “Iron Noise” and “Drum Beat”, while effective when used for support in Team Battles, often struggled in Battle Royale matches.

These adjustments will make it easier to effectively use these weapons’ sound waves, and it will now be easier to hit opponents with “Echoing Scream”.

Use sound waves effectively and bring the beat down on your opponents!