Guilty Gear Strive Patch 2.03 Adds New Battle Pass and Balance Changes

Previously, the time window to activate Counter Blitz after a counter hit was short, making it difficult to use unless the counter hit was anticipated in advance.

In this adjustment, Counter Blitz can now be activated until the recovery of the move that caused the counter hit ends.

This makes it easier to visually confirm the counter hit before deciding to activate it, while also expanding the situations where it can be utilized, such as following moves that incur recovery upon landing, such as Zato-1's → + HS or Leo's Jumping D.

Additionally, because the extended activation window increases the likelihood of the move being blocked by the opponent, we have also improved the situation when it is blocked.

We have removed directional inputs from the command, allowing it to be activated using only P + D or K + D simultaneously.

In addition to making it easier to input, this change makes it more useful as a defensive option against attacks that force players to switch between guarding forward and backward.

In the Ver. 2.00 major update, we re-evaluated the risk and reward of various actions throughout the game, aiming for a balance where the results of mind games are more accurately reflected in the match progression.

In this update, while maintaining this fundamental policy, we reviewed how matches have played out since Ver. 2.00 and adjusted specific characters, focusing on areas where performance exceeded expectations or where characters struggled to express their intended strengths.

In Ver. 2.00, the recovery time for certain invincible moves was increased to heighten the risk upon being blocked.
As a consequence, for some multi-hit invincible moves, even if the first hit connected, subsequent hits would sometimes fail to connect, leaving the attacker vulnerable to a punish.
In this patch, by adjusting the blowback of the first hit, follow-up hits will connect more reliably when the initial attack hits normally, reducing unintended punishes.