Hidden Variable has announced that all previous Skullgirls DLC is to be made free for all players. The Free 2nd Encore Update brings extra characters, more features for the game's modes, and color palette options. If you haven't previously purchased this DLC, you'll now find it included in the base game.
What Skullgirls DLC has been made free?
This news comes via a Skullgirls Steam news post. In the post, Hidden Variable designer and coder Liam Orr confirms that all previous Skullgirls DLC is now free for all players. This includes fighters Squigly, Big Band, Eliza, Beowulf, and Robo-Fortune, all of whom will be unlocked by default. In addition, all 2nd Encore-only features - voiceovers in the story mode, trials, and challenges, plus all other features - are now part of the base game. You'll also find all previous color palette DLC included in the update.
It comes as part of a new build that Orr and Hidden Variable hope will change "very little" about Skullgirls. It's worth noting that the latest update doesn't contain Annie, who will be released for the game in March and for whom you'll still have to pay. There also aren't any balance changes in the update; it's mainly focused on switching the build to "newer tools and a slightly different build pipeline", according to Orr.
What else is in this Skullgirls update?
As well as the aforementioned DLC, you'll also find a few minor changes in this update. Skullgirls isn't supported on Linux yet, but Orr and Hidden Variable say they're hoping to get this build operational "in early March, or even earlier". A number of other minor changes have been made in this update, too, which you can check out right here:
- Updated the opening splash screen.
- Robo-Fortune and Fukua have updated banners in NMO Arena and NMO Arena (Empty).
- Fixed a small coloring issue with the SonicFox NPC in Class Notes.
- Simplified palette unlock logic by removing unlock conditions for all palettes except for ones earned for clearing Story Mode and Arcade Mode. Big Band's 26th is an exception.
As you can see, it's not a huge update for Skullgirls. However, after last year's controversy surrounding original Skullgirls developer Mike Z - which continued to have repercussions well into the later part of the year - stability may well be all Hidden Variable is hoping for from their fighting game. We'll bring you more on Skullgirls as soon as we get it.
Are you looking forward to checking out the newly-free Skullgirls DLC? Let us know in the comments below!
