Killer Instinct Gets Major 2024 Update Adding New Stage, Features, and More

Killer Instinct was first released on Xbox One way back in 2013, but in 2023 developer Iron Galaxy brought the fighter to Xbox Series X/S. Alongside the port, the team dropped a new update, changing up the meta with balance changes and improving matchmaking. Earlier this year, Iron Galaxy revealed that the final update for Killer Instinct: Anniversary Edition, would launch on April 2. While that’s still a day away, the team recently dropped the patch notes, giving fans a better look at what’s coming in the final update. As previously announced, the big addition is ranked cross-platform play between Xbox consoles and PC, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg.

Players will also be happy to see that Iron Galaxy has implemented a new blocking feature that they can use to keep their online playspace safe through a mute function and other options. They’ve also opened up more cosmetics for everyone and have upped the level cap to 65 for both characters and player levels. Of course, the team has also dropped in one last set of balance changes, tweaking how characters like Thunder, Maya, and Hisako play.

Below, you’ll find the full patch notes for the 3.11.15 Update. Killer Instinct is available now on Xbox and PC platforms. 

Killer Instinct Update 3.11.15 Patch Notes

Hello again, Killers! Today’s update only has a few gameplay tuning changes, as the team is very happy with how the new game balance is shaking out. We’ve made some adjustments to Shadow Lords to make it more rewarding, and we’ve made a few other oft-requested changes, including the permanent introduction of Ranked Crossplay! As a thank you to the community, and to continue the celebration of the historic 10-year anniversary of Killer Instinct (2013), we also have a colorful surprise gift for you. Read on to learn more! 

Due to a reorganization of some game files, players on all platforms will see a roughly 6 GB download for this patch. The total game file size is roughly the same as the previous version. 

General 

• Ranked Crossplay is fully live! You can now enjoy ranked matches between Steam and the Xbox/Windows ecosystems. Please note that both versions still have their own Ranked Leaderboards.
• We want to keep Killer Instinct a safe place for all players. To this end, we’ve implemented a new Blocking system to restrict interactions with other players you select. Blocking works differently depending on the mode you’re in.
  • In Exhibition, blocking a player means you will not be able to find a player who you have blocked, or has blocked you.
  • In Ranked, blocking only restricts communication between players by muting their voice chat.
  • In the Lobby, you won’t join a lobby hosted by someone who you’ve blocked, nor will you admit someone into the lobby whom you have blocked. However, you may find yourself in a lobby with someone you’ve blocked, given they’re not the host.
  • For more information on our community guidelines, keep an eye out for a new code of conduct we’ll be sharing soon.
• We’ve unlocked access to previously exclusive Ultimate Source™ Figures colors for all players on all platforms! We wanted to unlock these all at the same time, but an issue unlocked them early on Steam only, which forced us to fix that issue so we could roll this out properly.
• We’ve increased the character level cap from 50 to 65!
  • We’ve added 3 additional unlockable remix colors per character to celebrate KI’s anniversary. That makes 87 additional color options! You can unlock these at character levels 55, 60, and 65!  
• We’ve increased the player level cap from 50 to 65!
  • We’ve added two stage unlocks tied to your player level. At level 60, you’ll unlock the Training Room. At level 65, you’ll unlock the Debug Void. 
    • These stages will not appear in Random Stage Selection.
    • Debug Void cannot be used in Ranked mode for accessibility considerations. 
    • Debug Void is called Debug for a reason… you can sometimes see things in it that you ordinarily are not supposed to. Have fun with it!
• The Steam hot-mic issue is resolved! We added a voice chat option in the audio settings that will allow you to turn off all voice chat, which includes your own microphone.
• We’ve added an option to adjust the amount of camera shake played during combat. This option will not affect camera shake during cinematics but will affect all other types of camera shake used for impacts in normal combat.
• Improved overall game stability.
• Fixed some very rare instances of players losing save data.

Shadow Lords 

• We’ve made a number of adjustments to Shadow Lords in order to reduce friction and make it more rewarding. 
  • Boss Gargos’ resurrection has been adjusted to fill slower with reduced health regeneration given to Normal and Challenging difficulties. 
  • Boss Gargos’ modifiers have been tuned to have less damage, less Potential Damage, slower health regeneration, and less Instinct and Shadow Meter Drain.
  • Shadow Lord Artifacts have been tuned and themed with new names to make the tiers stand out: 
    • Shadow Lord Heart (Normal): Significant Health and Defensive increase to help with survivability. 
    • Shadow Lord Bloody Lungs (Challenging): Increased Shadow Meter Drain on hit and during a Shadow Move, and Instinct Meter Drain during a Shadow Move.
    • Shadow Lord Fanged Wings (Godlike): Huge damage boost and small increase to Potential Damage. 
• Increased rewards for completing Shadow Lords.
• Refactored scoring and rewards for Shadow Lords to make speed running it on subsequent playthroughs much more rewarding. This should also make it easier to unlock Mimic skins.

 Gameplay 

• The fail safe we tried last time to prevent characters from mirroring incorrectly was causing much bigger problems than just leaving it the way it was, so unfortunately, we’ve reverted that change. Thank you to everyone who tested around this and reported the new issues.

Thunder 

• When landing from a Sammamish that has hit the opponent, you can now move or take actions 5 frames earlier. This prevents an issue where Thunder could be negative on hit after using his Surprise Knee. If your Sammamish does not land a hit, you will still suffer the full recovery time, even if the Surprise Knee or Dropkick lands a hit.

Maya 

• Fixed an issue causing her Crouching Heavy Punch to do less hitstun on counterhit than on a normal hit.

Hisako 

• Hisako has been on our radar for a while as a potential candidate for strongest in the game. With many of her other challenging match ups getting a little easier, we wanted to make a small adjustment to one of Hisako’s scariest moves in the hopes that things stay nice and balanced for many years to come.
• Reduced damage on Influence special moves.
  • Light now deals 27 damage (was 40)
  • Medium now deals 33 damage (was 48)
  • Heavy now deals 39 damage (was 60)
  • Shadow now deals 50 damage (was 60)
• Added additional recovery time when whiffing an Influence special move.
  • Light now recovers in 40 frames (was 34)
  • Medium now recovers in 44 frames (was 38)
  • Heavy now recovers in 48 frames (was 42)
  • Shadow now recovers in 52 frames (was 45)
• These two changes mean that there is a higher risk when missing Influence, and a lower reward for landing one. Because it can start combos at full wrath, which it often does, we feel that the lower reward up front makes a lot of sense for this move.

Gargos 

• Fixed an issue causing his Standing Heavy Kick to deal less damage on counter hit than on a normal hit.