There's a new mechanic in the game that affects how fast the ball is allowed to gain speed, preventing a single player from being able to send the ball to extreme speeds on their own. This mechanic doesn't seem to have a name, so for now I'l giving it the tenative name Speed Scaling. This short guide will explain briefly on what Speed Scaling is, and how it forces players to not spam smashes all the time.

Each time a player uses a smash or a charged hit on the ball, the ball's speed normally doubles. However, Speed Scaling is in place to prevent that from happening constantly via a modifier on the ball's speed gain.

After the first smash, Speed Scaling will reduce the modifier of the ball's speed gain by 25% each time the ball is smashed by the same player. For example, if the ball was smashed once and is at a speed of 16, Speed Scaling will cause the next smash to inctease the ball's speed to 28, instead of 32.

This modifier is reduced by 25% each time this happens, and is multiplicative. So on the third smash, the modifier goes from 75% to 56%, then 42% on the 4th smash, 31% on the 5th, 23%, 17%, 13%, and finally, 10%, at which point speed scaling will stop. In a normal game, it's highly unlikely that speed scaling will ever cause the speed gain modifier to hit 10% (as you'd need to have smashed the ball 9 times before another player takes it), but it is possible. You can observe these effects youself by going into Training and spamming smashes on the ball over and over again.

Yes, you can. It's possible to reset Speed Scaling in 2 ways:

1.) Use a downward aerial swing.

Hitting the ball with a Dair will reset the modifier to 100%, allowing you to double the ball's speed with a smash again. Keep in mind that you'll have to use them every so often if you want to be increasing the speed a lot. This is the only way that you can reset speed scaling, so you'll want to get familiar with that attack if you want to be doubling the ball's speed often.


2.) Lose control of the ball.

If another player takes the ball from you, or if a new Burst starts, Speed Scaling will also reset to 100%.

In effect, Speed Scaling serves to prevent a single player from being able to reach kill speeds all by themselves, and as a whole makes matches last a bit longer, to add extra tension and give opponents more opportunities to get the ball without it hitting very high speeds. Alongside the new HP and throwing mechanics, they give players options in any situation that can reasily turn the tide of a match around.

Thanks for reading! This is the first guide I've ever written on Steam, so forgive me if I've forgotten anything regarding this guide. Hopefully this guide will help you understand how some of the new mechanics in Lethal League Blaze come together, and bring you one step closer to the major league!