In May of last year, Hidden Variable Studios brought a special mobile version of cult classic fighting game Skullgirls (Free) to the App Store. It captured all the fun and skill of the full-blown Skullgirls but in a more touchscreen-friendly manner reminiscent of other popular mobile “swipe-fighters" like Marvel Contest of Champions and Injustice. For the past year plus Hidden Variable has added all sorts of content to Skullgirls Mobile, including new fighters, new story elements, new modes, and more tweaks and balances than you could shake a stick at. Go ahead, just try to shake a stick at them, you can’t. We last checked in with Skullgirls Mobile this past May when the version 2.3 update hit and new fighter Squigly was added to the mix, but there have been a couple of capital M Major updates to the game since then (more on that in a bit). However, right now I want to focus on the forthcoming version 2.6 update which should be hitting later this month, and its biggest feature: Ms. Fortune!
So if you recall when Squigly came to the game, she brought with her an entirely unique mechanic called Dragon Charges which allowed her to perform a variety of different kinds of moves outside of the standard set of game mechanics. Similarly, Ms. Fortune brings her own unique mechanic to the game that should help her get A-HEAD of the competition (that’s a Bart vs. The Space Mutants pun, fyi). In case you are unaware, Ms. Fortune has the strange ability to detach her own head and have it fight right alongside her like a small helper character. This means she has a whole set of “head on" moves and “head off" moves, making for some serious variety in terms of combo possibilities. Below check out a combo where she has her head on, followed by an even more impressive combo that she puts together thanks to the help of her detached head.
As you can see in that second video, a whole new set of buttons slide onto the screen when Ms. Fortune takes off her head, allowing you to control the tiny head like a puppet. In fact, this type of character in the fighting game world at large is known as a puppeteer for this very reason. As Hidden Variable puts it when describing the type of fighter Ms. Fortune is overall, “Ms. Fortune’s role is a “tank buster." She takes down “tanky" high health opponents with ease through Signature Abilities and Moves that deal damage based on lifebar percentages. She heavily focuses on crit activation, and crit damage boosting as well. When you’re playing Ms. Fortune perfectly, you’ll be firing off short controlled bursts of massive, unprecedented damage." Basically she’s a bad ass and she’s also part cat so… win win?
While Ms. Fortune is the headline of the version 2.6 update, there’s plenty more in store for Skullgirls Mobile players in addition to the new character. Hidden Variable has been teasing many of these features over on the official Skullgirls Mobile Twitter account, so I’ll highlight some of the biggest new features in version 2.6 using their helpful tweets.
Valentine’s new inescapable “Mortuary Drop" grab move:
In our next update, Valentine has some new tricks up her sleeve… Her new Special Move "MORTUARY DROP" has a % chance to STUN the opponent if she is benefiting from REGEN! pic.twitter.com/ahFF4FCj1u
— Skullgirls Mobile (@sgmobile) August 21, 2018
Valentine’s new Character ability that allows her to regain the “scratch damage" portion of her life bar:
Valentine is getting a new Character Ability! She will now be able to regenerate SCRATCH DAMAGE (the red part of the lifebar) with every hit. Unlike every other character, a greater % of the damage she takes will be SCRATCH DAMAGE as well. pic.twitter.com/kCmZ4ucaLE
— Skullgirls Mobile (@sgmobile) August 22, 2018
Eliza’s new “Chaos Banish" Special Move:
Eliza's previously unobtainable Special Move "Chaos Banish" will be available to all players in our next update. Chaos Banish now removes all BUFFS from the opponent and inflicts a lengthy HEAL BLOCK on hit! pic.twitter.com/QhYwBc1u46
— Skullgirls Mobile (@sgmobile) August 23, 2018
TWO new Special Moves for Parasoul, the “Egret Dive" and the “Napalm Trigger":
"I got this one!" Parasoul's "Egret Dive" Special Move will be available to all players in our next update! This desperate Egret will ABSORB projectile hits, and STUN anyone who attacks him with a melee hit for a short duration. pic.twitter.com/WhJP0pxvW4
— Skullgirls Mobile (@sgmobile) August 24, 2018
MORE Special Moves?! You bet! In our next update, you can acquire and use Parasoul's new "NAPALM TRIGGER" Special Move to instantly detonate all TEARS on the field, which will also activate the effects of her various tear detonation related Signature Abilities. pic.twitter.com/RD5B9IBv8k
— Skullgirls Mobile (@sgmobile) August 25, 2018
Of course, there’s a lot more in version 2.6 that will include the ability to expand your Character and Moves storage using the game’s premium in-game currency Theonite, as well as a change to how using the “Power Up" feature to level up your characters works. Now your character that’s being powered up will gain a percentage of the total experience from the character that you’re sacrificing rather than just a flat rate like before, so there will actually be a benefit to sacrificing a leveled up character compared to just a stock one.
I also mentioned before that there’s been a couple of big updates in the time since we last talked about Skullgirl’s version 2.3 update, so I wanted to make sure I at least hit on the major points in those. Version 2.4’s biggest feature was introducing a new Diamond tier for characters, which really shook things up. Upgrading a character to Diamond is no small task. First you’ll have to earn 1000 Elemental shards for a particular character’s element: Air, Fire, Water, Light, or Dark. Earn 1000 of them and you can make a whole Elemental Essence, and if you can make THREE full Elemental Essences of the same element you can evolve a maxed out Gold character to Diamond. Oh, but you’ll need five Gold versions of that character to sacrifice, though thankfully it’s just five of any type of that character and not five of any specific version. At any rate Diamond tier is a rough road to travel but should give the highest level players something to chew on for a while.
The version 2.5 update was released last month and contained a long-awaited new Origin Story to complete, this time for Parasoul. These Origin Stories are additions to the main single-player story campaign and, as you could probably guess by their name, they delve deeper into the lore behind each character and how they came to be. The entire Skullgirls universe is very fascinating to me so I appreciate these glimpses into the past. Those are kind of just the major features of the past two updates, but if you want the real nitty gritty then head over to the official Skullgirls forums where you can find a detailed post about version 2.4 here and a similarly detailed post about version 2.5 here.
If you’re already a big Skullgirls Mobile fan then you’re likely already very aware of the previous updates, and probably even aware of Ms. Fortune’s imminent arrival thanks to the teasing Hidden Variable did yesterday. However, if you haven’t dove into this crazy fighting game yet then you can read up on why I love it so much in our Game of the Week post from when the game originally launched as well as my somewhat long-winded love letter to the game when we introduced Squigly back in April of this year. Or you could just download the game and try it because hey, it’s free. Those official forums I mentioned above are also a great place to learn the many ins and outs of this excellent fighter, as well as get some tips or help from the very involved community. I know that version 2.6 won’t be the last update for Skullgirls Mobile so look for it to arrive towards the end of this month and look for even more updates coming in the future.
