Bandai Namco Games has announced details on its emergency patch for Tekken 8, which is being rolled out later this week and comes with a number of significant changes to help quell some of the backlash to Season Two of the fighting game. Chief among these changes include a reduction in chip damage, as well as an overall boost to characters’ health. Future balance changes are also on the way, but won’t arrive until a later date. You can read more details about Tekken 8 update 2.00.02 below.
Tekken 8 was released in January 2024 for PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X/S. The game received four DLC characters as part of its first season, namely Eddie, Lidia, Heihachi, and guest character Clive Rosfield from Final Fantasy XVI. Season Two launched on April 1, but was met with overwhelming criticism from fans and pro players alike, who accused the game of failing to deliver defensive buffs in favour of overpowered attacks with little counterplay.
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Health and Damage Adjustments:
- Increased the maximum health value to reduce the impact of high-damage momentum shifts and make matches more balanced in duration and outcome.
Adjustment of Overly Rewarding Attacks:
- Tweaked various high-reward moves across multiple characters to ensure better alignment with their risk.
- Reduced the dominance of attacks that consistently led to advantageous setups and repetitive, one-sided gameplay.
Heat System Rebalancing:
- Heat Dash now features revised damage scaling, reducing overall combo damage output while retaining offensive utility.
- Adjusted the frame advantage for Heat Engagers on hit, ensuring attackers still benefit but giving defenders more chances to respond.
- Reduced the additional chip damage dealt during the Heat state.
- Moves that already cause chip damage no longer gain extra chip damage while in Heat.
Notes on Future Adjustments:
- Mid-May update will further reduce damage from air combos and rebalance Heat Burst performance.
- Ongoing reviews are underway for attacks that create frequent advantages with minimal risk and for characters or systems that result in consistently one-sided matches.
- The development team intends to adopt a phased update strategy, guided by player feedback and long-term observation of match data.
[Source – Tekken 8 Update 2.00.02 Patch Notes]