January 20th Patch Notes - Super Counter/Perception/Wildsense Nerf

[Shou]

### Official Links:
https://en.bandainamcoent.eu/dragon-ball/news/update-dragon-ball-sparking-zero-changes-and-adjustments-features-and-battle

Major changes that stand out:
Player Match:
‐ Quick Match has been changed so that you do not enter a room and instead
get immediately matched with an opponent.
‐ We have also added "Quick Room Search" for Quick Match.
Ranked Match: A wait time has been added before matching begins as a penalty based
on the number of times you have disconnected.

- Grand Slash: Hitting an opponent that is falling from a Grand Slash with another
Grand Slash will now cause them to be blown away spinning. - Harder to do leg loop sweeps or impossible now

- Super Counter: Time between being able to perform an input has been increased
after unsuccessfully performing the move.

Perception/Super Perception:
‐A certain amount of Ki will now be consumed upon activation.
‐After finishing the move, the time until the next action is able to be performed has
been increased.

Overall Automatic Avoidance Skills (e.g., Wild Sense): The opponent will no longer
be able to use these skills when performing a combo and continuing the combo with a
Rush-In.
Wild Sense: Attack damage has been reduced.
Kaioken: Skill Count consumed has been reduced (only for Goku (Z - Early)).
Ta-dah!: Skill Count consumed has been reduced.
All I Need Is Five Seconds!: Ki will be fully recovered.

Read the patch notes for full changes

Impact Recovery:
‐When blown back from Lift Strike, holding the button down will activate Impact
Recovery once you hit the ground.
‐Also, when blown back and spinning, holding the button down will activate Impact
Recovery once you hit the ground.

###Old Thread:###
Dragon Ball is all about fast-paced action and a diverse range of fighting styles, Sparking zero needs to accelerate the neutral game, discourage passive play, and make combat feel fast-paced and dynamic, staying true to the series' signature style, the current speed of the game has slowed down since the last patch, one play style is being rewarded heavily vs others

- You can force opponents to drop combos spamming Vanishing Assault (Bug)
- Health bug is still in the game
- Being locked out of vanish wars (Bug)
- A bunch of other bugs I didn't list.

New Proposed changes

Crossplay - Xbox/PC/PS5 for the health and longevity of online

Movement
• Wall/Character Bounces
• Added wall and character bounce mechanics.

Flying Movement
• Default flying movement speed increased by 200%.

Z Burst Dash
• Ki usage for non-giant characters reduced to 0.75 Ki.
• Giant characters still use 2 bars of Ki.

High-Speed Dragon Dash (New Action)
• Now 50% faster than Z Burst Dash.

Dragon Dash
• Speed increased.
• Ki cost significantly reduced.

Short Burst Dash
• Now consumes 0 Ki.
• New Feature: Chain consecutive Short Burst Dashes back-to-back with no Ki use

High-Speed Evasion
• Now works on Charged Ki Blasts.

Combos
• Fixed Rush Attacks dropping at certain angles.
• Grand Slash now ends the combo string unless followed-up upon.

Super Counter
• The input window has been shortened.
• Super Counter will become more difficult to perform if performed consecutively. (Just like Z Counter)

Perception
• Perception will lock the user into a stance upon use unless cancelled by another action.

Grabs
• Grabs are no longer able to be broken during animations.
• Reduced the window for the grab break input.

Revenge Counter
• You will now be able to Revenge Counter while being hit from the back.
• Revenge Counter will now be plus on hit.
• Fixed tracking issues at long range.

Ranked Mode
• Following disconnection changes, ranks have been reset.
• Ranks will now be reset on a seasonal basis, every major update a final leaderboard will be announced and all player ranks will be reset to D5 (with a reward for players in the top 10).
• Players must now play 10 placement matches to determine their initial rankings upon season reset.
• NEW RANK: G (God) - Reserved for the top 100 players.

Bugs
• Fixed characters regenerating to full health after any type of form change or switch.
• Fixed game freezing in character selection if timer runs out in the forms menu.

Previous Thread:
After playing, reading other people feedback and reviewing the patch notes, I’ve been comparing the December patch and have some feedback on what the game still needs post-December 12th update.

### High Priority
1. Full HP at < 60s after character swapping (new bug from December 12th Patch)
- Status: New bug, you gain full health back after swapping characters when timer starts from 60s

2. Fix communication errors preventing online play or disconnecting during online
- Status: Being worked on.

3. Keyboard Controls Bugged can't switch characters
- Playing on Keyboard, the panel shows up but is unresponsive when switching characters.

4. Mouse to move the camera, there is no option to move the camera using keyboard

5. Cross-play and better netcode
- Status: No news.

6. Rage quitters now lose points and can derank, and winners gain points
- Status: Not yet addressed.

7. Input delay issues addressed
- Status: Reportedly fixed

8. Instant queue for casual games (similar to ranked)
- Status: No change.

9. Slower skill stock gain
- Status: You gain fewer skill stocks from vanish wars.

10. Skill gauge punishment for interrupted skills
- Suggestion: Lose skill points if interrupted. Use crowd control or distance to activate skills safely, now you have to really smart about when you choose to use instant sparking / regeneration or you will lose your skill points.

11. Vanish battles (Z Counter): Increased ki cost and speed for subsequent vanishes, with a QTE impact after four consecutive vanishes
- Status: Vanish wars are slightly faster and now cost 0.5 ki bars.
- Desired Change: Increase vanish cost to 1 ki bar, boost speed further, and add QTE after 5 vanishes.

12. More options in the training room (record CPU inputs, playback features)
- Status: No updates.

13. More map variety (DLC)
- Status: Most likely coming in DLC update Q1 2025.

---

### Lower Priority
1. Instant Sparking now causes ki exhaustion
- Status: Cost increased from 3 to 4 skill stocks.

2. Afterimage Strike now has an activation animation and UI display
- Status: Nerfed to 10 seconds; can now be shutdown by perception.

3. Unblockable ultimates can now be blocked
- Status: Blasts and long-range attacks are slower and easier to react to.

4. Saveable team presets and longer time to pick teams in online mode
- Status: Implemented in the new patch.

5. Search bar for custom text in custom battles
- Status: Custom Battles can now be ordered alphabetically.

6. Filter settings remembered when selecting characters
- Status: Implemented in the new patch.

7. Lower DP for certain characters
- Characters like Goku Daima, Dabura, Base Future Gohan, Goku Base Mid, Goku Base Z End, Android 17 (DBS/DBZ), should have had their DP reduced.

8. 2v2/3v3/all filter for DP battles
- Status: Giants heavily nerfed, DP Battle winner is based on team total hp/damage dealt this heavily nerfs stall teams you can technically win 1v5 but it will extremely hard

9. Full voiceovers and cinematic cutscenes for every story mode, including "What If" scenarios
- Status: Single-player content still lacking.

---

### Optional
1. Perception vs Beams
- Perfect Perception deflects beams for free; non-perfect costs skill points.
- Status: Optional.

2. More transformations
- Requested forms: Cell to Super Perfect Cell, Mid Vegeta to Majin Vegeta, Adult Gohan to Utlimate Gohan

3. More 1 DP characters added
- Examples: Mai, Cheelai, Chi-Chi, Pilaf, Oolong, Frog Ginyu, General Blue, Mech Suit Bulma, etc.

4. Buff beam clash mechanics
- Suggestion: Add incentives for beam clashes over blocking or vanishing.
- Status: Not a priority.

5. Cleaner UI for easier navigation
- Status: No change.

The new patch had alot of changes from the community feedback form so the devs and game director are listening, but also introduces new problems. The next patch will improve the game further, bringing it to the quality it should have had at launch this why buying games at launch is a scam, you get a better quality game with more content for cheaper if you just wait months/years

### Official Links:
-December 20th Hotfix:
https://x.com/DBSparkingNews/status/1869698972346101897
https://dbsz.bn-ent.net/information/?p=40
- December 12 Patch Notes:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1790600/view/535461877640069156?l=english
- Sparking Zero Survey https://survey.bandainamcoent.co.jp/jfe/form/SV_5i5uAvdupwjgTHM
- Community Feedback Document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SXB_nb2YPdrREtRosgiMqb5vIAqYuJqHbVTAjfoZOpE/edit?tab=t.0
---

[Tyrone Biggums]

why are you surprised its a story based game and the story is bad

more than half the people who bought this was for story mode rather than pvp and since they fumbled that i doubt most even finished all of it

[Shou]

Originally posted by Tyrone Biggums:

why are you surprised its a story based game and the story is bad

more than half the people who bought this was for story mode rather than pvp and since they fumbled that i doubt most even finished all of it

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot primarily focus was on delivering the main story, Sparking Zero is custom battles, "What If" scenarios, and online PvP. These three are supposed to be the core of the game, but one feels underdeveloped and the other is being neglected. Kakarot only peaked at 25k players, and once people finished the story, most moved on—and it's understandable. Sparking Zero, the players are voicing the same complaints, but the devs seem to ignore the feedback, more and more people just giving up on the game and moving on.

[Nyto]

the game just loses players, because you can't play online, communication error with the server!

[D.T.]

I'd imagine it wouldn't be much different if you compare it to the other Tenkaichi games, had we had the ability to see player numbers back then. It's not something that people will play consistently, and only. It's game play, fast paced combat, combat mechanics, and high skill ceiling will ultimately keep players returning for years. New and veteran players alike will learn not only new mechanics but new tactics and strategies. I played BT2 and 3 back when they were still new, and went through BT3 a couple years ago, again. I even still have my BT3 physical disk, which I used for emulation and upscaling on my PC. I had practically mastered it to the point I downloaded a cheat software to boost the difficulty of the AI to a fun level for myself. It was to the point I was making them almost gods, with so much health and stats... It was then I started to develop and learn new methods of taking on enemies. The fun returned, and I continued to play it for several months.

Same things gonna happen with SZ. It's basically an updated BT3, on a modern scale. As niche as it is, it'll still have it's fanbase and cult like status will come over time.

[Darth Fentanyl]

i agree about needing more maps.

[Revenant]

Originally posted by nxt:

On steam alone, over 100,000 players have quit this game, the number speaks for themselves, the game is losing players every week and isn't even a month old

It's needs updates and fast

• 20 new maps
• Cross play & better netcode
• Super counter now beats vanish
• Instant queue for casuals (like ranked)
• Rage quitters only match with other rage quitters
• Perception vs beams: no cost now, gives 2 skill points instead
• afterimage strike removed, replaced with the normal afterimage
• Super counter now costs half a skill point or half a ki bar (uses skill points first then ki bar)
• More transformations: Cell to Super Perfect Cell, Mid Vegeta to Majin Vegeta etc
• Instant sparking has ki exhaustion (Need to charge back to full to use Instant sparking)
• Vanish battles: increased ki cost and speed after each one & QTE impact after 4 in a row
• Most unblockable ults removed from the game (except GoD Toppo/Beerus & Spirit Bombs)
• Lower DP for some characters: Goku Daima, Dabura, Android 17 (DBS/DBZ), End Goku Z etc
• Add all OG characters: DB, GT, movies, games, Chi-Chi, Mercenary Tao, Android 21, Zangya etc
• More 1 DP characters: Mai, Cheelai, Chi-Chi, Pilaf, Oolong, Frog Ginyu, General Blue, Mech suit Bulma etc
• 2v2/3v3/all filter for DP battles, no time limit, 7DP or lower/all option for singles (Choose to ban or play with giants)
• Full voice overs and cinematic cutscenes for every story mode including what ifs
• Buff beam clash: winner gets 50% ki & max skill points (Every impact in the game is worth except this, blocking/vanishing is a better option than beam clash, need people want to use beams clash more)
• skill gauge: any skills interrupted, you lose the skill points (unless it's a defensive skill explosive wave etc) - use cc or distance to use skills safely, similar to supers; if you whiff, you don't get the ki gauge back until you land it?? you get punished by missing damage and losing ki.

these still dont scratch the surface of the actual problems in the game, these are additive features which will help.

Problems
Controls still have input delay
controls still have bugs (transforming and switching chars)
-communication error still exists online
-ban of mods
-the game needs an anti cheat, are they crazy?
-theres nothing punishable in the game right now as long as you have ki.

[Darth Fentanyl]

Originally posted by Revenant:

Originally posted by nxt:

On steam alone, over 100,000 players have quit this game, the number speaks for themselves, the game is losing players every week and isn't even a month old

It's needs updates and fast

• 20 new maps
• Cross play & better netcode
• Super counter now beats vanish
• Instant queue for casuals (like ranked)
• Rage quitters only match with other rage quitters
• Perception vs beams: no cost now, gives 2 skill points instead
• afterimage strike removed, replaced with the normal afterimage
• Super counter now costs half a skill point or half a ki bar (uses skill points first then ki bar)
• More transformations: Cell to Super Perfect Cell, Mid Vegeta to Majin Vegeta etc
• Instant sparking has ki exhaustion (Need to charge back to full to use Instant sparking)
• Vanish battles: increased ki cost and speed after each one & QTE impact after 4 in a row
• Most unblockable ults removed from the game (except GoD Toppo/Beerus & Spirit Bombs)
• Lower DP for some characters: Goku Daima, Dabura, Android 17 (DBS/DBZ), End Goku Z etc
• Add all OG characters: DB, GT, movies, games, Chi-Chi, Mercenary Tao, Android 21, Zangya etc
• More 1 DP characters: Mai, Cheelai, Chi-Chi, Pilaf, Oolong, Frog Ginyu, General Blue, Mech suit Bulma etc
• 2v2/3v3/all filter for DP battles, no time limit, 7DP or lower/all option for singles (Choose to ban or play with giants)
• Full voice overs and cinematic cutscenes for every story mode including what ifs
• Buff beam clash: winner gets 50% ki & max skill points (Every impact in the game is worth except this, blocking/vanishing is a better option than beam clash, need people want to use beams clash more)
• skill gauge: any skills interrupted, you lose the skill points (unless it's a defensive skill explosive wave etc) - use cc or distance to use skills safely, similar to supers; if you whiff, you don't get the ki gauge back until you land it?? you get punished by missing damage and losing ki.

these still dont scratch the surface of the actual problems in the game, these are additive features which will help.

Problems
Controls still have input delay
controls still have bugs (transforming and switching chars)
-communication error still exists online
-ban of mods
-the game needs an anti cheat, are they crazy?
-theres nothing punishable in the game right now as long as you have ki.

You do understand that the mod-ban is for custom battles only, right? (or maybe for any online mode)

[Joker]

not a single jester award? but your post is obviously bait, how hasnt anybody called u out for it

[Revenant]

Originally posted by Gamer Gaming:

Originally posted by Revenant:

these still dont scratch the surface of the actual problems in the game, these are additive features which will help.

Problems
Controls still have input delay
controls still have bugs (transforming and switching chars)
-communication error still exists online
-ban of mods
-the game needs an anti cheat, are they crazy?
-theres nothing punishable in the game right now as long as you have ki.

You do understand that the mod-ban is for custom battles only, right? (or maybe for any online mode)

Who knows what its for...... go read the japan post on that...

Illegal tampering of your game will result in a ban. - I asked them which version they are going with, and they stated directly to me, that they do not know.

[Joker]

Originally posted by Revenant:

Originally posted by Gamer Gaming:

You do understand that the mod-ban is for custom battles only, right? (or maybe for any online mode)

Who knows what its for...... go read the japan post on that...

Illegal tampering of your game will result in a ban. - I asked them which version they are going with, and they stated directly to me, that they do not know.

screenshot?

[Revenant]

Originally posted by Joker:

Originally posted by Revenant:

Who knows what its for...... go read the japan post on that...

Illegal tampering of your game will result in a ban. - I asked them which version they are going with, and they stated directly to me, that they do not know.

screenshot?

ohhhhh one sec ill paste it to you.

[Revenant]

--------
Greetings,

This is GM XXXX from the Bandai Namco Entertainment America Player's Experience Team.

I understand how important it is to resolve the communication error you've encountered, and I appreciate your questions about the application of sanctions related to mods.

While we currently do not have definitive information on these matters, I will make sure to include your inquiries in our report to the relevant team for further review.

In the meantime, I encourage you to visit our official website and follow our various social media channels. If you have any further inquiries or concerns that require attention, please do not hesitate to reach out.

-------

they made the post and do not know which one they will use..

https://x.com/dbgame_official/status/1851462564376682640 - This twitter is japans version of Dragonball games twitter.

"Appropriate measures will be taken against any users found to be illegally tampering with game data in this product. In addition, please note that we cannot respond to any malfunctions or inconveniences caused by acts such as tampering with game data."

[Joker]

what do you mean "which one they will use"?

[Revenant]

Originally posted by Joker:

what do you mean "which one they will use"?

They told players two different things for the same thing, You do see how japans version does not mention custom battle, the english one does.

Both imply two different sets of rules..... japans implies do not mod at all....... because any mod illegally modifies game files. The english one just says dont do it in custom battle....... knowing which one they will use to ban players is kinda important no?

[LegendaryMcShits™]

It's because of 3 reason.

1. They're attacking the modding community, that BT3 so dearly cultivated and loved.

2. Ranked (DP/Singles) has a bug with Keyboard users to not allow them to swap or transform unless they're the host, allowing for EXTREMELY unfair battles
This guide: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3359281183
has a workaround, but having a work around doesn't mean ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ if they ignore the game and don't fix it themself.

3. The Story was incredibly lackluster an mirrored Raging Blast/Raging Blast 2 more than BT3's sagas, and the production quality of the game's cutscenes are horrid compared to BT3.

This game felt more like a robbery, and i'm disappointed in it.