UPDATE: The patch/change notes have been released. You can find them at the bottom of the article, below the video.

Today, developer Boss Key Productions -- which is notably headed up by Cliff Bleszinksi creator of Gears of War -- announced that LawBreakers is set to receive its second closed beta, starting May 18th and running to May 21st.

As you may know, it's been two months since the last closed beta back in March, and according to Boss Key it has been working on changes based off beta feedback since then, citing that it wasn't just a "marketing beta."

Featuring in the beta, will be a new role called the Wraith, who is described as a cyber-ninja character. Wraith is said to be able to triple jump, wall jump all over the map, and has a "really fun fly." Further he boasts a silenced pistol you'll want to fire in small bursts, the ability to stab people with an exploding knife, and most notably can slow down time. According to Bleszinksi, he is a very high skilled character.

There is also a new map called Reactor, which is described as a "map that kind of takes the boiling ocean that happened after the shattering and kind of reconstitutes it into hydronium," which is the element that allows for all the whacky gravity stuff that is at the center of the game.

A new mode is also inbound called Blitz Ball, which according to Bleszinksi is the team's take on sporty FPS game mode, where you need to pick up a ball in the middle of map and bring it to the enemy team's base. Additionally, the ball itself has a countdown where it can eventually explode. In it, the first team to eight wins.

Lastly, custom games and a spectator mode are being implemented.

Meanwhile, the Overcharged mode has been revamped so matches happen quicker, and the Vanguard character has received many balance changes. A full change list will arrive soon. You can sign up for the beta here.

Below, you can check a newly released developer update video that touched on all of the above news/updates. For those that don't know LawBreakers is in development only for PC; however, console versions have not been ruled out.

New Additions:

  • New Role! - "Wraith"
  • New Map! - "Reactor"
  • New Mode! - "Blitzball"
  • New Feature! - "Custom Game Mode"
  • New Feature! - "Spectator Mode for Custom Games"
  • New Customization! - "Kick Decals"

Role Changes:

Assassin -

"Assassin has turned out to be one of the trickiest roles to balance. Right now she's too strong

against new players and too weak against experienced ones. Consider these tweaks a nudge in

the right direction while we work on some deeper changes. We've slightly reduced the damage

on her first combo attack to make her a bit less frustrating while also bumping up the viability of

grapple by rewarding longer range skill shots"

Gameplay Adjustments:

  • Removed Arc Blades healing per hit. healing now only occurs while Frenzy is active.
  • Reduced damage on Arc Blades first combo attack from 75->50
  • Increased grapple projectile speed 8000->9000
  • Increased grapple range 3000->3600
  • *NEW* grapple attack now charges up bonus damage while reeling in, from 150→250

Battle Medic -

"Battle Medic is performing in line with our expectations right now, so we're just polishing some rough edges"

Gameplay Adjustments:

  • Reduced Lobber knockback impulse 50%
  • Reduced Defense Grid cooldown 120->90
  • *NEW* Defense Grid cooldown is further reduced by healing your team

Enforcer -

"Enforcer was too strong at long range, so we're pulling back a bit on his damage falloff. We're also cleaning up some excess power in his kit by removing the Bloodhound Rocket ammo drops and the EMP zone from Electromag"

Gameplay Adjustments:

  • Reduced Aerator damage falloff range 5000->3000
  • Increased fuel regen delay 0.2->0.75
  • Removed Electromag Charge persistent zone
  • Removed Bloodhound Launcher ammo drops

Gunslinger -

"Gunslinger is most powerful in the hands of high skill players who can maximize his combination of ranged burst damage and combat mobility. While we're happy with how he's performing overall, we want to nudge down some of his ability to lock down long sight lines."

Gameplay Adjustments:

  • Reduced Omega full charge damage 160->140
  • Reduced Omega damage falloff range 3000->1750
  • Reduced Omega clip size 8->6
  • Reduced TAC Knife damage on hit 200->100
  • Reduced TAC Knife headshot multiplier 2.0→1.5

Juggernaut -

"Juggernaut needed more access to his Armor in order to do his job as a close range tank, so we've reworked his Ultimate into a toggle ability that consumes fuel. Toggling on Armor will give you damage reduction at the expense of move speed,so it should be great for contesting objectives and soaking damage for your team. We've also cleaned up some animation issues with the Instigator shotgun that end up giving him a faster rate of fire."

Gameplay Adjustments:

  • *NEW* Armor Protocol rework
  • Removed 75s cooldown
  • Armor now consumes fuel over time
  • Armor now provides increased damage reduction from the front
  • Armor has 5s cooldown when fuel hits zero
  • Reduced Super Jump fuel cost 50%
  • Instigator rate of fire slightly increased
  • Instigator can now be held to fire instead of press to fire for every shot.

Titan -

"Titan needed a way to poke at ranged hitscan users, so we've bumped up the range on his rockets. We also slightly reduced the explosion self damage, so hopefully we'll see even more gutsy low health rocket jumps! Berzerk mode continues to be in the 'ridiculously strong' category, so we're hitting the duration to make it's use a bit more tactical while we keep an eye on how Titan is performing overall."

Gameplay Adjustments:

  • Increased Hammerhead Rocket range 2800->3500
  • Reduced Hammerhead Rocket self damage 50%->40%
  • Reduced duration on Berzerk 15s->10s
  • Removed Berzerk area damage

Vanguard -

"Vanguard's performance was well below our target, mostly due to the unreliability of her primary weapon and punishing cooldowns. We've buffed up her gatling gun and gave her the ability to shoot while flying to cement her as the go-to role for chasing"

Gameplay Adjustments:

  • *NEW* Hydra can now be fired while using Afterburners
  • *NEW* Hydra now fires 3 shots at a time
  • Reduced Hydra damage per shot 38->13
  • Reduced Hydra spin-up time 2s->1s
  • Reduced Pulsar fuel cost 60%->40%
  • Increased Afterburners top speed 2100->2500
  • Removed Afterburners 10s cooldown
  • Increased fuel regen delay 0->0.75
  • Reduced Meteor Shells cooldown 15s→9s

Map Changes:

All Maps -

  • Enemy spawn barriers are now fully opaque, masking enemy team’s movements to help combat spawn camping.
  • Implemented a spawn exit heal buff (400 + bonus HP for 2 seconds after leaving the spawn barrier).
  • Various quality of life improvements (collision, exploit fixes, etc.) throughout all maps.

Station -

  • The central area above the aquarium has been remodeled - it should be more defensible with the added cover and interior location

Mode Changes:

Overcharge -

  • Battery charge timer lowered, it now takes only 60s to reach full charge.
  • The score limit to win was increased from 2 to 3 points.
  • The entire team now earn additional points for holding the battery at 25, 50, and 75% charge intervals.
  • When depleted, the battery shield begins to recharge after 10s if it has not been touched.
  • The battery shield recharges at a rate of 10% per second.

Turf War -

  • Score limit required to win increased to 16.

Bug Fixes:

  • Fixed a bug where Flux grenade could sometimes cause knockback without damage
  • Fixed a bug where fully charged Omega Kills were registering as headshots
  • Fixed a bug where Titan couldn't fire or swap weapons after Pulverize
  • Fixed a bug where reloading could sometimes fail to give ammo
  • Fixed mouse sensitivity setting with too many digits
  • Fixed auto-join voice rooms option not working when set disabled

General Additions/Improvements:

  • Improved pause menu
  • Improved matchmaking
  • Improved discord voice chat integration
  • Improved game pad support
  • Improved GPU and CPU performance
  • Improved menu fluidity and performance
  • Improved movement and firing netcode
  • Improved in-game chat
  • Improved end of match winning team visuals
  • Improved end of match progression screen
  • Improved clarity and prioritization of in-game scoring event announcements
  • Improved HUD for all game modes to increase clarity
  • Added more weapon skins, character skins and account portraits to Stash Drops
  • *NEW* Teammate icons to top of HUD
  • *NEW* Settings option to show/hide teammate icons
  • *NEW* Hit-crosshair settings to choose between new and "classic fill" styles
  • *NEW* Role icons to in-game scoreboard
  • *NEW* Option to "Stay on server" between matches. If less than 7 players vote, player will re-queue to find a new match

Known Issues and Bugs:

Spectator Mode -

Spectator mode is still a work in progress feature, so there may be several bugs with information not updating or displaying incorrectly.

Menus -

  • Level icons may appear misaligned during the end of match menus.
  • Players may experience hitching during the end of match menus.
  • Next match information may display Game Mode or Map as UNKNOWN.
  • Certain settings menu options may not reset to default.
  • A crash may occur when mapping keys to Num Pad inputs.
  • Certain characters assets may appear as low resolution in the Customize menu.
  • Profile screen may hitch when switching between information tabs.
  • A crash may occur when adjusting Anti-Aliasing settings during a match.

Gameplay -

  • Certain achievements may not be tracking for some classes.

  • All Modes: Joining a match in progress may display the current objective status incorrectly.

  • Battle Medic: Healing brackets may display incorrectly over enemies heads during a match.

  • All Roles: Animation popping may occur during reload or ability use.