Patch 9.0

Raise your sails and gird your galleons, because Legend of Gearbeard is here! We’re anticipating Patch 9.0 to be our last major patch to Knockout City before live servers shut down on June 6th, 2023. In this comprehensive list, read up on every change and improvement coming to Knockout City in Season 9: Legend of Gearbeard!

Just another loud-and-clear reminder: Season 9 is the final season of Knockout City’s live services! Read here for more information on what to expect for the future of Knockout City, public servers closing on June 6th 2023, and the exciting plans we have for the future. 

New Features and Improvements

Season 9: Legend of Gearbeard!

• Join Captain Madeline “Mads” Ortiz on a high-seas adventure to become the most famous pirate that ever lived! 
• New 100-Level Brawl Pass will hook you up with new Weekly Brawl Pass Contracts and special rewards at every level including Outfits, Gliders, Poses, Holobux, and other pirate-themed cosmetics to stash in your treasure trove.
• New Events are arriving every two weeks through the end of Season 9! Check out our roadmap in the Season 9 announcement blog.
• New Deep Space Dispatches introduces a brand new cast of characters and a story following the fabled treasure of Gearbeard, the fearsome pirate marauder of ages past!
• New Weekly Crew Contracts with pirate-themed Crew Cosmetics all Season long for you and your Crew to commandeer.
• Chonky’s hiding out to avoid the pirate parade! Keep one eye(patch) open for all his new hiding spots in each map!

New Map: Dueling Docks

• The bustling harbor, Dueling Docks, has been added to all Playlists in Street Play, League Play, and Private Match.
• This map takes place in the harbor of Knockout City, where freight operations are being scuttled by a frighteningly large pirate ship!
• Two massive conveyor belts transport randomized cargo box formations, which brawlers can use as mobile cover or to get a leg up on their peg-leg foes. Just watch your step where the belts end, or you’ll be taking a dive!
• To sharpen your steel against other swashbucklers on Dueling Docks, check out the Dockside Dustup Playlist featured in Street Play during the first two weeks of the Season, or all Season long in Private Match.

Monetization Changes

As covered in our special announcement, all options for purchasing Holobux, the Deluxe Edition Upgrade, and the TMNT Bundles are disabled in Patch 9.0. However, we want to allow for every brawler in Season 9 to not only enjoy all the amazing content our dev team has created, but to help them achieve their fashion dreams in our final season. We’re making the following changes to help brawlers dig up everything there is to “sea” in Legend of Gearbeard:

• Brawlers can earn thousands of Holobux in every Event through generous Event Contracts, available to complete throughout the season.
• Brawl Pass: Price reduced to 50 Holobux to unlock the Premium Brawl Pass, which contains 100 levels of rewards, including more Holobux.
• New Bundles offered throughout Season 9 have much higher discounts than previous Bundles have offered.
• New Event Shops will accompany each Event, rotating nearly every cosmetic ever sold in the Brawl Shop for deeply discounted prices. If you’ve been waiting to pick up a specific item in the Brawl Shop, now’s the time to reel it in!
• Increased XP and Holobux rewards from the Daily Login Bonus. Check in every day to earn some sweet rewards!

Hideout Changes

• After a cloudy, dark and dreary Hideout in the previous season, you’ll be able to enjoy an early-morning dawn with soft pink lighting in Legend of Gearbeard.
• New Hideout Ball: Cannonball added to the Brawl Shop. This heavy physics ball will test your dribbling skill and make for some raucous soccer matches!
• Savvy brawlers may spot a new radio in the Hideout. Huh… wonder why it doesn’t seem to work? Guess we’ll have to wait and see what it does…

New Playlists

• “Dockside Dustup” will be available in Street Play for the Legend of Gearbeard launch event, and throughout the Season in Private Matches. Play Team KO rules exclusively on Dueling Docks to get your sea legs!
• Seasonal Event Playlists will appear every two weeks to keep the final Season feeling fresh!

New Band: The Loose Cannons

• Three new songs are now added to the DJ’s setlist for brawls: Battle of Holocove, Brawler’s Voyage, and Do it for the Beard.
• These songs and more will be available in the Brawl Shop to add to your Jukebox collection. Be sure to check in every week for new items!

League Play Changes

• Season 9 adds a new set of League Play Rewards for brawlers to battle for. Brawlers who win big in Season 9 League Play will earn a trophy for their case and a shipful of cosmetics to use during the Thanks for the KOs! Event.
• Dueling Docks is now added to the rotation of maps in the League Play Team KO Playlist.

Special Event: Thanks for the KOs!

• Season 9 concludes on May 23rd, 2023. Following the end of the Season, a final two-week special Event titled “Thanks for the KOs” will kick off!
• Play on the Superpowers: Power Grab Playlist, browse the Three Cheers Shop, and complete Big Hug Contracts for special cosmetics and two final trophies to round out your Hideout’s trophy case.
• Stay tuned for other exciting activities outside of the game as we build towards our last celebration!
• On June 6th, 2023, public servers will be closed, and the live version of the game will no longer be playable. Dedicated fans can download the Private Hosted Server Edition of Knockout City for free from knockoutcity.com to play in community-run servers or peer-to-peer with friends on Windows PCs. Stay tuned for more information on the Private Hosted Server Edition later this Season.

Other New Features and Improvements

• Bot support for all Playlists: As of Patch 9.0, all Street Play Playlists will have Bots enabled, and Bots will be available as an option for all Playlists in Private Match Settings. 
• Matchmaking Improvements: We have adjusted the volatility scaling for players with lower matchmaking ratings (MMR) to help accelerate their ability to find matches. 
• Street Play UI: The “Daily” and “Featured” distinctions above Playlists in the Street Play Menu are removed in 9.0, allowing us to dynamically and more easily make changes to the Playlist offerings throughout the Season.

Additional Fixes

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Gameplay:

• Fixed an issue where Border Warnings would fail to appear when targeting a player in the Hideout who swaps team colors.
• Fixed an exploit allowing the Fake Throw animation to cancel into other actions faster than intended.
• Fixed an exploit where players could charge a Ballform teammate faster than intended if dropping a charged dodgeball then immediately picking up a teammate.
• Fixed an issue where the Soda Ball’s effects could be cleared by going into Ballform during Mutation Rotation’s “Big Boned” Mutation.
• Fixed an issue where a join-in-progress brawler would be placed on a null team when loading into a match.
• Fixed an issue where the Poison Ball’s damage over time was negated by Super Healing Powers in Superpowers-related Playlists.
• Fixed an issue preventing Super Double Jump audio from playing when using spins or flips between jumps.
• Fixed an issue in the Bank Ball Playlist where a brawler could score more than 40 Points with a single Bank Ball by knocking out an opponent with a Bank Ball of a point value less than 5.
• Fixed an issue with Mutation Rotation’s “Vampire Teeth” mutation, where a player would receive double the healing if an opponent is damaged from the Bomb Ball exploding in their hands after catching a separate ball thrown by the player.
• Fixed an issue with Mutation Rotation’s “Vampire Teeth” mutation where health would not be replenished after using a tackle to KO an opponent out-of-bounds.
• Fixed an issue where a Boomerang Ball would return to a KOd player that’s launched in the air as an Ultimate in the Ultimate Experience Playlist.
• Fixed an issue where passes would occasionally not target the nearest teammate if map geometry blocked partial line-of-sight to the teammate’s feet.

Bots:

• Fixed an issue where Bot difficulty would not scale properly during a match in the Super Mutant Playlist.
• Fixed an issue where Bots would often fail to fully charge a Sniper Ball before throwing.
• Improved Bot behavior around retrieving loose dodgeballs where Poison Ball knockout gas is present.
• Fixed an issue on Galaxy Burger where Bot players would ignore human players on the outside corners of the Ice Cream area.
• Fixed an issue on Alien Smash Site where Bots would fail to navigate out of the lower Silos area when no saucer is present.

Maps:

• Fixed an issue where brawlers would not take damage while in Ballform under taxis in Jukebox Junction.
• Fixed a rare issue where Border Warnings would fail to appear when targeted by a turret on Lockdown Throwdown.
• Fixed an issue where brawlers could get stuck in map geometry in the Café area of Jukebox Junction during Mutation Rotation’s “Baby Brawlers” Mutation.
• Fixed an exploit on the Sludge Works map where a brawler could clip inside the center pipe’s pouring sludge pillar with a Moon Ball or the “Moon Genes” mutation.
• Fixed an issue on the Lockdown Throwdown map where security drone spotlights in the Courtyard area could still detect players standing behind a wall in the Lockers area.
• Fixed several collision issues on the Holowood Drive-In map, including areas where players could clip into the Bridge scene geometry.
• Fixed an issue on Holowood Drive-in where players could get stuck on the top of some buildings in the City scene.

Audio:

• Fixed an issue where teammates catching a ball would have their VO play across the map and heard by faraway brawlers when equipped with certain Voices. 
• Added “Coin here” audio callouts for “The Beast”, “Vicious Vigilante”, and “Commissioner Chase” Voices in the Coin Hoarders Playlist.
• Fixed an issue preventing charged ball audio from playing after certain actions.
• Fixed an issue where the “Brawling in the Moonlight (Bonus)” Jukebox Track would fail to play when activated in the Hideout.
• Fixed an issue in the Jukebox customization screen where the preview audio clips did not match the correct Jukebox tracks.
• Fixed an issue preventing menu music from playing after the MVP Pose “Red Carpet Wrap-Up” is played during the match outro.
• Fixed an issue where Taunt SFX failed to play for certain Voices when repeatedly Taunting.
• Fixed several taunts to play the correct audio when using “The Beast” Voice.
• Fixed an issue where opponent and teammate Taunt Audio played twice for specific Taunts.
• Fixed an issue where looping Taunt SFX would loop indefinitely if the player is picked up in Ballform during the Taunt.
• Fixed an issue where Ballform players shared the same sound effects with Basic Balls when landing on the ground.
• Fixed an issue where Menu music would delay, cut, or become quieter when the Main Menu is opened in the Hideout.
• Fixed an audio balance issue with the “Pow” Taunt and “Electric Blue Pow” Taunt.
• Adjusted the audio balance for several Crew Horns to be the same consistent volume levels when triggered in the Hideout by throwing a ball at the Crew Vehicle.
• Fixed an issue where the DJ’s dialogue in the Hideout would continue if the player returned to the Title Screen.
• Fixed an issue where “Throw me” VO would play after leaving Ballform when “Toggle Ballform” is enabled.
• Fixed an issue where the DJ would not interrupt current dialogue to say “Next point wins” at the correct time.

Visual Effects:

• Fixed several face-clipping issues with the “Note 2 Self” Glasses.
• Fixed an issue where the “Five O’Clock Shadow” and “Sleep Mask” Faces would apply Makeup on the “No Makeup” setting.
• Fixed an issue where the Chrome “Skull Splitter” Ultimate Hologram would not fade out properly after use.
• FIxed a visual bug in the Hideout affecting the building spotlights by the skyline.
• Fixed an issue where buses flying overhead in the Hideout would occasionally fly backwards.
• Fixed several display errors affecting Radio-Bot light rings in Training.
• Fixed a rare issue where Ultimate Throw animations would loop if the player thrown walks through the point of impact a second time.
• Fixed an issue with the “Midnight Poodle” Outfit where the Midnight Madness VFX would disappear at long distances.
• Fixed a clipping issue with the “Kickflip Kid” Outfit in a Menu UI idle pose.

UI:

• Fixed a tracking issue with the “Energy Drinks Chugged” Brag.
• Fixed several issues leading to missing selection cursors in the Brawl Shop and Bundles tabs.
• Fixed a display error for Songs in the Jukebox UI
• Fixed an issue where the “Shoot The Moon” Crew Logo was missing the Back portion on the Crew Logo customization screen.
• Fixed a rare issue where auto-completing a Crew Contract would cause the previous Season’s League Play Rewards sequence to play again.
• Fixed an issue with the League Play Team KO Playlist in Private Match where the Special Ball could be assigned if set in a different Playlist in Private Match.
• Fixed a rare issue where Main Menu text would be shifted to the right permanently after hovering over them with the cursor.
• Fixed an issue where Private Match settings would be ignored in some circumstances when swapping between Playlists with fixed Special Ball or Map settings.
• Fixed a display issue with icons in the Bundles tab of the Brawl Shop.
• Fixed an issue where Respawn Tips would not disappear from the screen if the option to disable them is accessed during a match.
• Fixed an issue with the Mutation Rotation Playlist where Spectators who join the match cannot see the Mutation type in their gameplay UI.
• Fixed a rare issue preventing players from drinking an Energy Drink from the Match Setup screen.
• Fixed a display issue with the preview image of the “Into the Neon Light (Rise Up)” Jukebox track.
• Fixed an issue preventing the “Opponents Forfeited” text from displaying when all opponents on the enemy team(s) leave an active match.
• Fixed an issue with the Super Mutant Playlist’s match UI incorrectly displaying team colors.
• Fixed an issue where point notifications are not shown when an opponent is thrown out-of-bounds for a KO in point-on-hit style Playlists such as Super Mutant.
• Fixed an issue with the Bank Ball Playlist where spectators would see two point indicators simultaneously for the Bank Ball.
• Fixed an issue where player card background colors were not present in the team selection screen for 8-player free-for-all Playlists in Private Match.

Other:

• Fixed an issue where favoriting Jukebox tracks while in a group would cause other players in the current group to unequip their customizations.
• Fixed an issue preventing Steam Achievements from unlocking when completed for Steam players.
• Fixed a rare issue where servers would fail to recognize when the Crossplay settings were changed.
• Fixed an issue causing a crash when loading into a second match while browsing the Energy Drink tab.
• Fixed an issue where Private Match settings on the Super Mutant Playlist would fail to apply properly on certain maps.
• Fixed an issue where the Interact function in the Hideout would ignore non-default key binding settings.
• Fixed an issue where dodgeballs in the Hideout would become invisible if the Group Leader left the current Group.
• Fixed an issue where brawlers would randomly switch brawler slots while connecting to a new match.
• Fixed a rare issue where players would get signed out for inactivity while joining another player’s group.
• Fixed an issue where Epic Games friends could not see each other in the Platform Friends list in the Social Menu.
• Fixed an issue with the Jukebox not properly shuffling favorite songs after being activated and deactivated rapidly.
• Fixed an issue affecting randomization of Brags displayed when playing in a group.
• Fixed a rare issue where auto-completing a Crew Contract would not grant rewards.
• Fixed an issue where accepting a group invite would occasionally display error code 13.20#6 upon entering the group.
• Fixed an issue where blocking a player but leaving them as a friend still removes them from the player's friend list.

As always, we appreciate those of you who take the time to notify Support when you encounter something strange in the game. These reports help us track down and reproduce the issues you’re seeing, and lead to better gameplay for everyone. You can get help at help.knockoutcity.com through the end of Season 9. Thanks, brawlers, for helping make Knockout City the best it can be!