Hey, Zoobsters!

We’re kicking off the first of many item updates coming your way. This round is all about giving defensive items some love, with a mix of buffs, tweaks, and a couple of reworks. Jungle Shoes is also getting a small rework.

We’re also making some balancing changes to characters; from now on, you can expect monthly balance patches. 

Big and very news: Duo will be enabled for players below 1800 trophies! More details in the blog.

Quick reminder: balancing is an ongoing journey. Our team will keep a close eye on how these changes play out and keep adjusting to keep the Zoo fair and fun for everyone.

Alright, enough talk. Let’s dive in!

Items Balance Patch

Jungle Shoes

We rethought the speed burst you get when leaving the bushes, and yes, it now comes with a cooldown.

Jungle Shoes should stay a strong item, but we want it to shine at what it’s meant for: a burst of speed for escapes and chases, and a real game-changer for slower characters.

Right now, players can spam it almost non-stop, especially around the central area of Zoo Rail, which cranks fights into hyperspeed and leaves snipers at a big disadvantage. That’s why we’re adding a cooldown.

On top of that, the old flat speed boost made everyone fast, turning already-speedy characters into blurs. So we’re switching it to a “max speed” bonus: it brings your character’s speed up to a set range, making it far more meaningful for slower picks.

We know touching Jungle Shoes is always a hot topic, but we believe this puts fight pacing in a healthier, more balanced spot while keeping the item powerful.

In short:

  • The speed bonus is now way stronger (nearly double!)
  • Boost duration is now fixed (no longer scales with level)
  • Added a cooldown between uses

Guard’s Badge

Guard’s Badge has so much fun potential, but your guard buddy needed a little more pep to truly be your ally.

Your converted guard is now smarter and stronger:

  • More aggressive AI: chases and protects you better
  • On top of the speed bonus, the guard now gets bonus damage and bonus healing
  • Speed bonus doubled (50% → 100%)
  • Damage bonus now scales with item level

Happy Treats

Let’s be honest: standing still is boring, and it’s not something we want to reward mid-match. So Happy Treats now heals you after a few seconds out of combat (no using abilities, attacking, or taking damage).

  • Before: only healed if you stayed completely still
  • Now: heals whenever you’re out of combat
  • Healing pauses when you take damage, shoot, or use an ability
  • Heal rate per second and the interval between heals stay the same as before

In-game description: “Regenerates health while out of combat”

Doctor’s Coat

Doctor’s Coat has always been super situational, pretty much only useful in team modes. We’re giving it more all-around value: it now periodically drops a health kit into your inventory.

  • Automatically creates a health kit every few seconds
  • The interval shrinks as the item levels up
  • Tooltip updated: now shows the recharge time between kits (the radius info was removed from the display)

In-game description: “Creates a health kit every few seconds. Health kits heal nearby allies”

Everything else about the item (healing effectiveness and radius) stays the same.

Tool’s Kit

We love the idea behind Tool’s Kit, but its shield was way out of line compared to other shields in the game.

  • Shield amount massively increased (several times higher)
  • Pickup time is now standardized across all levels

Bandage

A little balancing pass on heal-per-second and the time it takes to start healing.

  • Damage-to-heal conversion is now more consistent across levels (was 33-75%, now 50-60%)
  • Heal per second is higher and more uniform
  • The wait time before healing kicks in after taking damage went up: 1.5s → 3s (same at every level)

Gummy Vitamins: Full Rework

A healing-amplification bonus can be powerful, but it easily tips healing out of balance, and it ended up being a confusing, very situational item for newer players. So we’re reworking it to turn overhealing into shield.

  • Before: amplified all healing you received (the value below was that heal bonus)
  • Now: when a heal pushes you past 100% HP, the excess becomes shield (the value below is the % converted into shield)
  • Medkits are also blocked when you’re already at 100% HP and full shield, so you never waste a charge

In-game description: “Healing beyond full HP becomes shield”

Heads up: the old and new values aren’t directly comparable. They’re completely different effects (heal amplification vs. shield conversion).

Characters Balance Patch

These are the character tweaks for this patch: a few buffs for picks that needed some love, and some nerfs to rein in the ones that were running the show. As always, we’ll keep a close eye on how it plays out and keep adjusting.

Earl

Earl’s grab now covers a bigger area, making it far more reliable for locking opponents down.

  • Grab radius (Gentleman’s Grasp): 1.20 → 2.0 (+66.7%)

Mr. Ping

Mr. Ping was struggling to stay alive and relevant. We’ve boosted its durability, speed, and the range on all three of its weapons so it can back up the team with more safety and presence.

  • HP: 1150 → 1300 (+13.0%)
  • Ground speed: 5.2 → 6.2 (+19.2%)
  • Range — BombRoll: 13 → 15 (+15.4%)
  • Range — ShotgunBurst: 10 → 15 (+50.0%)
  • Range — SpearFocusThrow: 15 → 25 (+66.7%)

Tai Lung

Tai Lung has been dominating the kill feed, so we’ve reined in its arsenal a bit to ease the pressure without stripping away its hunter identity.

  • Bomb cooldown: 3s → 4s (+33.3%)
  • Machine gun damage: 180 → 115 (-36.1%)

Po

We’ve toned down Po Kung Fu combo and passive effect to make its early-game presence a little fairer.

  • Combo damage (first hit): 400 → 350 (-12.5%)
  • Combo damage (finisher): 500 → 400 (-20.0%)
  • Passive attack bonus (per tier): 20 → 15 (-25.0%)

Iris

Iris’s venom finally bites for real. We’ve massively increased its poison damage so she can finish the kills she starts, honoring her venomous identity.

  • Poison damage: 35 → 90 (+157.1%)

Duo for characters below 1800 trophies

We are removing the trophy requirement for playing Duos. We know this is a big request since we did this change, but we wanted to make sure this was the best move. First of all, the changes from January had a big positive impact in our matchmaking, becoming more balanced and with more liquidity, which allows for faster matchmaking. This was driven by many factors: splitting the matchmaking above 1800 trophies, having fewer game mode slots, and the change in the trophy reset mechanics. After careful investigation, we are confident we can sustain a healthier matchmaking (in terms of balance and waiting time), while keeping a third game mode slot. 

 

We will keep tracking matchmaking metrics and matches overall, our priority is to have more competitive and balanced matches rather than having multiple game modes. So more changes might come in the future, such as reducing Duo to 5 teams instead of 10. However, we will begin with the current game mode that is enabled for characters on 1800+ and work from there.

I hope you enjoy it. See you in the Zoo!