GPO • Balance Patch — Apr 21, 2026

up coming balance patch
not published yet, but will be tonight

GPO • Balance Patch — Apr 21, 2026

BALANCE CHANGES

Combat

• Can no longer reset stat points while stunned or mid-skill.

Devil Fruits

Dragon:

• Full Form:
• Draconic Tempest Spiral — Hitbox reduced by 20%, now tags targets with outside-damage reduction.
• Draconic Cyclone — Per-hit stun reduced from 0.4 to 0.25 seconds, now tags targets with outside-damage reduction.
• Draconic Ascension — Flight speed reduced by 25%.

Soul:

• Nimbus Ride — Speed now scales with HP loss (less HP = less speed).
• Prominence Ray — No longer floats the user in the air when cast during combat, matching Pika Ray behavior.

Tori:

• Half Form:
• Phoenix Brand — Cooldown reduced from 18 to 14 seconds, damage scaling increased by 10%.
• Phoenix Burst — Cooldown increased from 12 to 14 seconds, damage scaling increased by 12.5%.
• Flight Speed — Increased by 25%.
• Full Form:
• Full Form — Mode bar requirement increased from 25% to 50%.
• Transformation — Animation speed increased by 50%, endlag reduced from 1.5 to 1.0 seconds.
• Phoenix Burst — Burn duration reduced from 4 to 3 ticks, per-hit stun reduced by 25%.
• M1s — Now match Pteranodon M1s. Stun increased from 0.51 to 1.11 seconds, damage scaling now matches Talons.
• Immortal Thistle — Base stamina drain reduced from 3 to 2 per tick, each blocked hit permanently adds +1/tick (Bari Sphere pattern).
• Phoenix Dive Bomb — Peak-hover before descent reduced from 1.2 to 0.9 seconds (startup unchanged).
• Hitbox — Reduced. See attached image (red = old, pink = new).
• Flight Speed — Increased by 25%.

Pteranodon:

• Full Form:
• Full Form Requirement — Mode bar requirement reduced from 75% to 50%.
• Flight Speed — Increased by 25%.
• Hitbox — Wings now properly register on attacks that clip the wingspan.

Fighting Styles

Dragon Claw:

• Dragon Breath — First-tick stun increased by 20%. Second-tick combo is now true (previously escapable with Geppo).

Iron Fist:

• Galaxy Impact — Endlag increased from 0.8 to 2.0 seconds, final pillar tick now punts targets up and outward with unEvadeable knockback. C → Z (Fusillade Fist) is no longer a true combo.

Kamishiki:

• Shigan Barrage — Tap-release no longer guard breaks, guard break threshold increased from 6 to 10 hits.

Weapons

Blood Scythe:

• Reaping Grasp — Wind-up reduced by 0.1 seconds, damage reduced by 20%.
• Reaping Strike — Startup reduced by ~0.4 seconds.

Crab Cutlass:

• Cutlass Lunge — Sword Mastery requirement reduced from 75 to 30.
• Cutlass Ladder — Sword Mastery requirement reduced from 90 to 55.

Iceborn Gunblade:

• Frost Blast — Hyper armor now applies for the full cast.

Kraken Blade:

• Eternal Flow — Hit count now exactly 10 (was ~21 via time window), per-hit damage doubled. Charge cap reduced from 5 to 3 seconds. Animation and VFX resynced to the damage window.

Pitchfork:

• Pitchfork Impale — Cooldown increased from 13 to 15 seconds.

Snowcap Scepter:

• Scepter Snowball — No cooldown between uses 1-2, chain 3 as fast as animation plays, 15s cooldown after the 3rd. Hitbox radius increased by 10%.
• Scepter Storm — Damage scaling increased by 25%.

Vera's Whip:

• Whip Slam — Cooldown now starts after the grab ends on successful hits (previously burned ~3s of the 14s cooldown during the grab).

Private Servers

• Stamina Pad — Now refills all mode bars, Inferno Rocket Blade damage, etc., and the Evasive bar when No Cooldowns is enabled.

M1 PERFECT BLOCKS — 1-WEEK TRIAL

M1 PBs have become a major competitive problem across all forms of gameplay — they happen too often, feel undeserved on either side, and end fights before a single move gets cast. The root cause is that the M1 hitbox now triggers the instant the player M1s, whereas in the past there was a brief delay between the input and the hitbox firing. Reverting isn't feasible because several newer weapons depend on the current timing.

M1 PBs are now disabled for a 1-week trial. At the end of the week, a poll in #gpo-updates will decide whether the change stays.

• PvE unaffected — M1 PBs remain enabled against NPCs and Bosses.