What’s New in Alpha Lab 2

A comprehensive list of updates coming in 2XKO’s next playtest.
Game Updates
Audrey “Riot Fooey” Miano

2XKO’s next playtest is just around the corner, and with it comes a new champ, new Fuses, and a ton of other gameplay changes made in response to Alpha Lab 1 feedback.

Since Alpha Lab 2 is only available in the US, Canada, and Brazil, this article outlines everything available in the latest build so you can stay up-to-date on the game’s development whether you’re able to playtest this time around or not. Our goal is to make additional playtests available in more regions, so keep an eye out for those opportunities in the future.

All right. This one’s a long one, so let’s get right into it.

Champions

First off, Jinx will be playable for the first time in Alpha Lab 2! Check out her full movelist here.

Just like in Alpha Lab 1, Braum, Ekko, Yasuo, Darius, Ahri, and Illaoi will also be available in this playtest. Expect to see some balance and quality of life updates for each champ.

Fuses

Alpha Lab 2 will also feature two new Fuses: Sidekick and Juggernaut. As a reminder, Fuses are different playstyle modifiers you choose from at the beginning of each match. Some grant your team unique abilities, while others influence your team’s overall combat strategy.

Sidekick

With Sidekick Fuse, your point and assist champions never switch places. Instead, your point champ gets a health boost as well as a defensive boost while below 30% health. Meanwhile, your assist champ stays on the sidelines, supporting their teammate with assists and other abilities unique to the Fuse. These include:

  • Access to Double Down, allowing them to perform their Super immediately after their teammate’s

  • Access to Super Assist and Fury Break at the start of each round

  • Ability to press attack buttons in time with the opponent’s attacks to reduce damage to their teammate

  • Starts with one bar of Super meter and can store up to five

Juggernaut

Juggernaut Fuse allows you to focus on one champion at a time by removing your assist abilities entirely. You also won’t be able to switch champs, except at the very beginning of each round. Luckily, your point champ gets some powerful buffs to make up for their lack of teammate:

  • Increased overall health

  • Defensive boost while below 30% health

  • Access to Fury Break at round start

  • Access to Eject, a unique mechanic that costs one bar of meter and forces your opponent’s assist champ to tag in

  • Access to self-Double Down, allowing them to perform two Supers back-to-back, or a Super and Ultimate back-to-back

  • Starts with two bars of Super meter and can store up to five

Both Sidekick and Juggernaut work great if you wanna focus on learning one champ at a time or ease your way into 2XKO’s tag mechanics. Sidekick is also a great pick if you want to duo with a friend who’s new to the game, since it allows them to impact gameplay without having to actually carry.

Pulse Combo

Pulse Fuse has been removed and replaced with Pulse Combo, an autocombo feature that each player can toggle on or off during champion select. Activating Pulse Combo allows you to repeatedly hit either L, M, or H to perform powerful autocombos, and doesn’t prevent your team from choosing another Fuse.

Fury Break

Similarly, Fury Fuse has been removed and replaced with Fury Break. Once one of your champions gets knocked out, you can press (S1 or S2 + T) to activate Fury Break, which grants you a 25% damage boost and 25% damage reduction. Activating Fury Break also regenerates grey health, and has different effects depending on when you activate it:

  • If activated when you are in hitstun or blockstun: On successful hit, Fury Break blows the opponent back, just like Break does. If blocked, you’ll be able to act before your opponent. Damage boost and reduction last for 10 seconds.

  • If activated when your opponent is in hitstun: Fury Break wall bounces the opponent. Damage boost and reduction last for 10 seconds.

  • If activated when neither player is in hitstun or blockstun: On successful hit, Fury Break blows the opponent back, just like Break does. If blocked, you’ll be able to act before your opponent. Damage boost and reduction last for 20 seconds.

Dash canceling normal or special attacks while Fury Break is active reduces the duration of your damage boost and reduction by 5 seconds.

Ranked

Alpha Lab 2 is also the first time we’ll be testing Ranked lobbies, competitive lobbies that group together players of similar skill levels. Win Ranked matches to earn points and climb the Ranked tiers, which include (from lowest to highest tier):

  • Aspirant

  • Iron

  • Bronze

  • Silver

  • Gold

  • Platinum

  • Emerald

  • Diamond

  • Master

  • Grandmaster

  • Challenger

For more information on Ranked, check out our Player Support article.

Core Gameplay

Since Alpha Lab 1, our primary focus has been on refining core gameplay based on the feedback you all provided. Almost all of the adjustments in this section were made with one or more of the following goals in mind:

  • Improve control simplicity and consistency

  • Increase player agency and reduce the amount of time spent stuck in a corner, in long combos, or unable to get up from the ground

  • Improve gameplay visual clarity and excitement

  • Provide additional opportunities for players to make interesting decisions during combat

Push Assist

Pushblock is now an assist action that we’re calling Push Assist. Just press T while blocking to have your assist champion push your opponent away. You can press T again while your assist champ is onscreen to Handshake Tag. When playing in a duo, the player controlling the assist champion will need to initiate the Push Assist. Unlike Pushblock, Push Assist doesn’t cost meter—but it does share a cooldown timer with your other assists.

KO’d & Super Assists

In Alpha Lab 1, after one of your champions died, they could perform a powerful assist called Last Stand that had a 10-second cooldown, but didn’t cost any meter. This meant that most of the time, the best strategy was to use Last Stand, run away to regenerate assist health, and then try again in 10 seconds—which didn’t make for very interesting matches. So, Last Stand has since been removed and replaced with the following assist adjustments:

  • Assist champions can now use assists even when KO’d. This makes comebacks a little easier and gives assist champs a bigger impact on the outcome of the match, even if they died early. Getting hit while performing a KO’d assist increases its cooldown.

  • Assist champions can now also perform Super Assists, powerful attacks that cost one bar of meter. Perform a Super Assist by pressing (↓ + T) when one of your champions has been KO’d.

Limit Strike

In Alpha Lab 1, certain attacks created specific “reactions” such as a ground bounce, wall bounce, or tumble—and after performing a second reaction of any type with the same champion, your combo would end. This was originally intended to prevent infinite combos, but made the end of your combo feel underwhelming. So, to give you some more exciting options to choose from, we’ve introduced a Limit Strike system which creates a unique effect depending on the situation:

  • Ground Bounce Limit Strike = Extra Damage

  • Wall Bounce Limit Strike = Extra Meter

  • Tumble Limit Strike = Hard Knockdown

Additional Changes

These smaller changes should be more self-explanatory. But for more information about how these adjustments work or why we made them, check out our latest dev update.

  • Dynamic Save is now called Break.

  • Ultimates now cost three bars of meter instead of two. Supers still cost one.

  • Meter gain is no longer determined by damage dealt. Instead, each attack generates a set amount of meter.

  • Air tech is now automatic. You can still hold (→ or ←) or remain in neutral to move in that direction when you air tech successfully, and negate automatic air tech by holding Down. 

  • New ground tech allows you to hold (→ or ←) while knocked down to perform a roll that can pass through your opponent.

  • You can now hold (→ or ← or ↓) to drift during a super jump.

  • Getup attacks now break armor.

  • In an effort to reduce combo length, it’s no longer possible to call an assist after using Tag Launcher or to tag after performing Double Down.

  • Hitpause has been reduced across the board to reduce combo and overall match length.

  • Charged/running assists are no longer a universal mechanic, and are now only available when using Sidekick Fuse.

  • You can no longer Handshake Tag while your assist champion is getting hit.

  • Incoming assist speed has been slightly increased.

  • Grey health regenerates faster.

Controls

Outside of core gameplay, we’ve also updated our default control scheme to work better on certain peripherals, plus consolidated a few inputs to help avoid confusion.

  • Supers and Ultimates no longer use the ↓↓ input. They are now performed as follows:
    • Super 1 = S1 + any attack button (L, M, or H)
    • Super 2 = S2 + any attack button (L, M, or H)
    • Ultimate = S1 + S2
  • Tag Launcher is now (↓ + T) instead of T.
  • Simply tap T to perform a Forward Assist. (→ + T) still calls Forward Assist as well.
  • Anti-air and launcher have been combined into a single launcher with anti-air properties, which is performed by pressing (↓ + H).
  • In Alpha Lab 1, overheads and sweeps required different inputs on different champions. Now, most overheads are performed by pressing (↘ + M), and sweeps are performed by pressing (↘ + H).
  • You can no longer perform a parry into a parry on a physical hit, which should prevent accidentally performing (and subsequently whiffing) a second parry.

Visual Clarity

These visual updates should help combat feel clearer and more exciting:

  • Champion collision pill size (the setting that dictates how big champions are and how close they can be to each other) has been increased, so champions are more visually separated during combat.

  • The assist cooldown timer is now closer to the match timer, instead of on the edge of the screen.

  • Wall bounce animations have been updated and slightly slowed down.

  • There is now a “bad block” visual indicator. This effect displays if you were trying to block low but got hit by an overhead, or got hit low while in standing block.

  • Parrying successfully and punishing an opponent’s Retreating Guard with a low attack now come with new visual effects to make outplays clear for everyone watching.

Lobbies

  • Creating a private lobby grants you ownership powers, which allow you to kick players, set a max player cap, change lobby privacy settings, and adjust the number of rounds and games per set.

  • Walk-up spectate now also allows you to watch in fullscreen.

Tutorials & Training

  • Ahri, Ekko, and Braum have a lot more to say in the newly updated tutorial.

Network & Settings

  • The controller input screen now allows you to set different key bindings for different controller types.

  • For games where one or more players are experiencing poor network quality, we added a suite of improvements to make gameplay smoother and more consistent.

  • Menus and screens got a massive overhaul to improve navigation and make it easier to get in game.

Cosmetics

Alpha Lab 2 will also feature new skins, avatar accessories, and champion mastery rewards. Each player will automatically receive 8500 free KO Points to use at the in-game store. This won’t be enough to purchase every single Alpha Lab 2 cosmetic, so you’ll have to pick and choose which items seem coolest to you. We’ll use that info to inform what kinds of cosmetics we add in the future. And remember: currency and cosmetic content won’t carry over after Alpha Lab 2, so spend those points and enjoy your loot while it lasts.

Missions & Battle Pass

The Alpha Lab 2 Battle Pass is free for everyone, but you’ll still have to remember to unlock it from the in-game store. Then, play games to complete missions and receive free Battle Pass rewards, including:

  • Annihilator’s Reach Stage

  • "Pleaseee!" Sticker

  • Techwear Shoes

  • "Lionheart" Title

  • Avowed Illaoi Skin + Chroma 1

  • Techwear Pants

  • Avowed Illaoi Chroma 2

  • 2XKO Player Card

  • Avowed Illaoi Chroma 3

  • Rift Quest Illaoi Chroma 5

  • Techwear Jacket

  • Avowed Illaoi Chroma 4

  • "Galloping" Avatar Emote

  • Rift Quest Illaoi Chroma 5

  • "Sir Ekko" Taunt

  • Lionheart Braum + Chroma 1

  • Lionheart Braum Chroma 2

  • Lionheart Braum Chroma 3

  • Lionheart Braum Chroma 4

  • Lionheart Braum Chroma 5

  • Rift Quest Finisher

Pool Party Megabundle

The new Pool Party Megabundle can be redeemed directly from the in-game store, and includes:

  • Skin Set: Pool Party Ahri (contains chroma, avatar item, sticker, and player card)

  • Skin Set: Pool Party Darius (contains chroma, avatar item, sticker, and player card)

  • Skin Set: Pool Party Jinx (contains chroma, avatar item, sticker, and player card)

  • Chroma Pack: Black & Gold (contains 3 chromas)

  • Chroma Pack: Pool Party Ahri (contains 4 chromas)

  • Chroma Pack: Pool Party Darius (contains 4 chromas)

  • Chroma Pack: Pool Party Jinx (contains 4 chromas)

  • Finisher: Coast to Victory

Additional Skins

These skin sets also come with a chroma, avatar item, sticker, and player card, and will be available at the in-game store on a rotating basis:

  • Skin Set: Sandstorm Ekko

  • Skin Set: Foreseen Yasuo

  • Skin Set: Zombie Slayer Jinx

  • Skin Set: God-King Darius

  • Skin Set: Dynasty Ahri

Champion Mastery Rewards

Complete champion-specific missions to unlock unique rewards for your favorite champs. In Alpha Lab 2, you’ll be able to earn the following rewards for each champion:

  • 1 avatar outfit

  • 4 static stickers

  • 1 animated sticker

  • 3 taunts

  • 2 player cards

  • 4 titles

  • 1 mastery chroma

Avatar Accessories

Alpha Lab 2 also comes with new customization options for your player avatar, including:

  • 15 new clothing items

  • 8 new hairstyles

  • 4 new facial hair styles

  • 3 new eye shapes

  • 11 new face decals

More Information

That was a lot of info. But in case it still wasn’t enough, check out the following resources for more on Alpha Lab 2 or any of the changes we mentioned here:

That’s all for now! Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you in game.