Skullgirls 2nd Encore

Black Dahlia fully released on March 29, 2023, ending her beta period and completing her addition to Skullgirls 2nd Encore’s roster. Her rollout added The Bunny Burrow, Down the Rabbit Hole, and new combat tools including GIRL’S NIGHT and PARTING GIFT.

• Black Dahlia’s launch package: The character received her stage, stage theme, tutorial, four trials, CPU AI, finalized sound and voiceover, and a large set of palettes. Season One Pass holders also received the Good Granny! alternate voice.
• New combat tools: GIRL’S NIGHT summoned three henchbunnies as a Blockbuster Ensemble, while COUNTER, STRIKE! countered physical attacks and PARTING GIFT attached a detonating bomb to allies or opponents. Fire Shot was reworked to hit before Dahlia landed, Ice Shot gained three hits and heavier chip damage, and Last Call received a new input.
• Balance and gameplay tuning: PARTING GIFT had its damage and chip damage reduced, Bunny Girl attacks were toned down, and Ice Shot, Standard Shot, and Buck Shot received chip-damage reductions. Counter, Strike! no longer worked against bursts, Outtake gained an invulnerable frame, Empower lost blockstun and recovery, and Robo-Fortune returned to her retail iteration.
• Follow-up additions and fixes: February and April updates refined Black Dahlia’s move interactions, poison responses, tutorials, and intro timing. They also fixed the PARTING GIFT round-reset soft lock and unreliable corner ignition, added customizable platform button icons, and introduced a Webtoon-inspired Ms. Fortune palette.

The GGPO netplay overhaul was the year’s biggest change, substantially improving rollback speed, responsiveness, dropped-input recovery, and long-distance connections. No Man’s Land, a full-HD interface refresh, and a broad set of character presentation additions also gave Skullgirls 2nd Encore a notable content and visual lift.

• GGPO netplay overhaul: April and May builds improved rollback speed, reduced online hitches and dropped inputs, adjusted frame-skipping behavior, and raised ping thresholds so players could connect from farther away with better quality. The changes also addressed long-set slowdowns, rollback audio problems, and several Quick Match and lobby crashes.
• New content: The No Man’s Land stage arrived alongside a SonicFox NPC, new intros for Fukua, Ms. Fortune, Robo-Fortune, Beowulf, Double, and Squigly, and additional character colors from Skullgirls Mobile and the Switch version. Every character also received air KO screams, while rebuilt character art added pixels across the roster.
• Full-HD presentation: The 1080p UI and HUD remaster upgraded the character-select screen, menus, and interface art with new fonts and assets. Fukua also replaced Double on the train background in Meridian Area Rapid Transit, and Robo-Fortune’s s.HK gained an electric palette effect.
• Training and replay tools: Replay Theater gained fast-forward and rewind controls, while replays automatically embedded netplay-debugging data. Training Mode added exact health values from 1% to 100%, numerical Dramatic Tension tracking, the missing 20–30% health range, and improved savestate behavior.
• Character and match tuning: Squigly’s Seria Sing, Inferno of Leviathan, held stances, and taunt duration received targeted changes; Fukua’s Inevitable Snuggle gained armor on its first active frame; and Double’s Lv5 input priority was corrected. Quick Match also removed its three-win rematch cap, while Cerebella, Beowulf, Peacock, Painwheel, and Robo-Fortune received notable move and damage corrections.

Extra Frame Delay Option was the main addition, giving PS4 tournament players control over practice input lag from zero to 10 extra frames. The setting also influenced Online GGPO Delay Modification, while a pause-menu adjustment let players change the delay without leaving a match.

• Extra Frame Delay Option: Players adjusted up to 10 extra frames of input delay for PS4 tournament practice, with the setting changeable from the pause menu.
• Online GGPO Delay Modification: GGPO’s online delay responded to the selected extra frame delay and GGPO delay settings.

Tracked sources for Skullgirls 2nd Encore were limited between 2017-08-22 and 2018-08-22, with only 2 verified changes captured in this window. The recorded activity centers on Fix for Training Lobby Bug and Fix for Training Lobby Issue and sits between Fixed frequent disconnects on character select on 2017-06-02 (bug_fix) and Added Extra Frame Delay Option on 2018-10-01 (gameplay), making this a light but still readable period in the game's history.

• Verified activity: 2018-02-26 - Fix for Training Lobby Bug: Resolved the issue where Training lobbies would sometimes function as normal lobbies for one player.; 2018-02-26 - Fix for Training Lobby Issue: Resolved the issue where Training lobbies would sometimes function as a normal lobby for one player..
• What stands out: The period is defined more by a small number of isolated updates than by a large roadmap beat or expansion-sized release.
• Before this window: The closest earlier tracked activity was Fixed frequent disconnects on character select on 2017-06-02 (bug_fix).
• After this window: The next tracked activity was Added Extra Frame Delay Option on 2018-10-01 (gameplay).

Skullgirls 2nd Encore Official Release transitioned SG2E+ from beta to retail on January 24, 2017, bringing the upgraded build to its official launch. The April 3 gameplay update added Japanese combat voices and story-language options alongside a major Undizzy and combo-system overhaul, while the release marked the end of gameplay updates.

• April 3 gameplay update: Damage above 240 Undizzy received an extra 45% scaling penalty, the Undizzy bar waited four frames after hitstun before draining, attacker and victim meter gain used fixed minimum and maximum values, and snapping a trio character out disabled both assists and DHCs.
• April 3 character balance:
  • Big Band: A-Train became IPS-tracked, while Taunted Super Sonic Jazz lost 190 damage.
  • Cerebella: Pummel Horse became IPS-tracked, Excellebella assist damage and follow-up damage were force-scaled to 33%, and j.HP damage scaled to 75%.
  • Beowulf and Valentine: Canis Major Press became IPS-tracked, and Purple Poison determined its Undizzy scaling when the syringe hit.
• Japanese Voices and 2nd Encore Upgrade DLC: Japanese combat voices became free for all players, while Japanese story dialogue arrived in the 2nd Encore Upgrade DLC; players could selected Japanese or English combat voices per character and Japanese or English story dialogue.
• June 2 update: Character-select disconnects affecting players with strict firewalls or poor connections were fixed, the -debugkeys launch option added extra functionality to Training Mode and Replay Theater, and the Salt character returned after Squigly’s Level 5 win.
• Steam and Linux support: The Steam build aligned with the US PS4 and Vita patches, while SDL 2.0.5 addressed Linux framerate problems and the -disablelighting option reduced in-game lighting for lower-end systems.

2nd Encore Features DLC arrived on April 13, 2016, adding all DLC characters, an English-voiced Story Mode, Challenges, character Trials, and Survival Mode. Quick Match later gained longer sets, while Mac/Linux support broadened the PC release and restored cross-platform play for Mac users.

• 2nd Encore Features DLC: Added the major single-player and training features, including Challenges, Trials for every character, Survival Mode, and English voices for Story Mode. The base game dropped to $9.99, individual DLC characters to $1.99, and the feature pack to $15, with bundle discounts available.
• Quick Match: Allowed players to continue into three- or five-match sets after the opening game. Follow-up leaderboard changes corrected win reporting and restored Quick Match submissions after the new set structure caused scoring problems.
• Mac/Linux release: Added Steam versions for Mac and Linux, with Mac crossplay against PC and Linux restored alongside compatibility improvements for older macOS versions. The release also addressed crashes when spectating cross-platform matches and in the 32-bit Linux Video Settings menu.
• Combat and competitive tuning: Robo-Fortune received five additional frames of hitstun on c.HK, while the retail game gained the fix for mcpeanuts’ projectile-combo-start IPS bug. Combo resets also restored assist usage even on zero-frame resets, and Beowulf’s Referee Pin and Canis Major Press received behavior corrections.
• Replay and input tools: Replays gained 25% slow motion and a simplified Attack Data display, while crash replay files could be saved automatically when a fight failed. Tolk was added to the main game, and the opening menu became easier to navigate with two or more controllers.

Eliza Character Release added Eliza as a playable fighter with her own story and multiple new stages. Replay Feature also returned from the Beta, while Peacock #21 received its completed Bob-ombs and Kuribo’s shoe features.

• Eliza Character Release: Eliza joined the roster with her story, stages, and several character-specific fixes, including the corrected Lady of Slaughter DHC and Sekhmet’s return between Downs. Her tagging-out voice clip for Fukua was added as well.
• Replay Feature and Training Mode:
  • Replay Feature: Replay saving and playback returned through the -enablereplays launch option.
  • IPS Moves-Used Display: Advanced attack data showed the number of moves used under the Infinite Prevention System.
  • Training Mode Dummy Recording: Dummy recordings increased from 20 seconds to 60 seconds.
  • Player 2 Input Display: Training Mode’s input display began showing Player 2’s inputs.
• Character Gameplay Changes:
  • Painwheel Installed: Installed Painwheel’s attacks caused the super KO effect, including when she served as an assist, while LP Stinger no longer suffered incorrect 50% damage scaling.
  • Ms. Fortune’s Cat Spike: Cat Spike stopped missing the head after pushblocked moves, in unusual situations, and when Ms. Fortune faced left.
  • Squigly’s SBO: Squigly’s SBO disappeared correctly after being hit by certain moves, and her stance moves and DP regained their PBGC reversal behavior.
  • Eliza’s Taunt: Eliza no longer gained health from trades that killed her after taunting.
• Peacock #21 and Gallery Content: Peacock #21 was completed with Bob-ombs and Kuribo’s shoe, while Gehenna’s Theme (Caverns Below) was added to the Art Gallery music player. New IGG backer colors also arrived for Peacock, Cerebella, and Double.