This update is scheduled to go live Tuesday, March 31st. This will require no downtime.

MCS Spring Open Qualifiers: That’s right, the Metalstorm Championship Series is just a few short weeks away. If you weren’t already aware: 50,000 Gold and more on the line, with the Top 8 earning their spot into the Spring Major. Hosted now on Matcherino, get your stack together and join the Spring OQ today at https://matcherino.com/p/metalstorm/series.

It’s time to #showusyourmetal

A-4 Skyhawk (Nerf)

Making this dominant close-encounter beast a little more susceptible to enemy firepower with an ever so slight health decrease.

• Base Stats

  • Health decreased from 155 to 145.

F-4 Phantom (Shift)

Giving this maybe not so friendly ghost some Rocket Pods and more Hunter Manuals for a very unique overall kit.

• Loadout

  • Replaced IR Missiles with Light Rocket Pods.

  • Medium Range Manual Missile ammo count increased from 4 to 6.

• (NEW) Light Rocket Pods

  • Ammo: 76

  • Range: 1.5 km

  • Damage: 25

  • Speed: 3,420 km/h

  • Blast Radius: 7 m

  • Rate of Fire: 8.0/s

• Medium Range Hunter Missiles

  • Lock FOV Start reduced from 8° to 7°.

  • Lock FOV End increased from 8° to 11°.

  • Continuous Guidance FOV increased from 8.5° to 11.5°.

F-106 Delta Dart (Buff)

This iconic plane got a little love to help it get its popular nuclear weaponry online more consistently. Reducing the passive generation rate to make it more about performance and not time.

• Base Stats

  • Health increased from 135 to 150.

• Loadout

  • Now has External Fuel Tanks.

  • Ammo Count increased from 4 to 6.

• Medium Range Manual Missiles

  • Lock FOV End increased from 7 to 11°.

• Special Ability: Nuclear Launch

  • Passive Generation Rate reduced from 2/s to 1/s.

J-20 Mighty Dragon (Nerf)

Our lone stealth interceptor has been a tricky skill check for many to overcome. Reducing some of the effectiveness of their long range missile spam behavior, and giving their IR alternatives some quality of life to offset a bit.

• Loadout

  • Ammo Count reduced from 6 to 4.

• Long Range Radar Missiles

  • Reduced End Interpolation Rate 8.0 to 7.5°/s.

  • Max Damage Radius reduced from 5 to 1 m.

  • Damage Percent at Max Radius reduced from 25 to 20%.

• Short Range IR Missiles

  • Lock FOV Start increased from 7 to 10°.

  • Lock FOV End increased from 12.25 to 14°.

J35 Draken (Buff)

The Draken has been underperforming for a while, so we’ve made a number of changes across the board to increase sustainability and lethality of this once-popular aircraft.

• Base Stats

  • Health increased from 135 to 145.

  • Afterburner Max Speed increased from 1,249 to 1,350 km/h.

  • Afterburner Acceleration increased from 45 to 50 m/s².

  • Idle Speed increased from 655 to 666 km/h.

• Loadout

  • Short Range IR Missile count reduced from 4 to 2.

  • Medium Range Manual Missile count increased from 2 to 4.

• Medium Range Manual Missiles

  • Damage increased from 85 to 90.

  • Speed reduced from 3,600 to 3,240 km/h.

  • Lock Range increased from 7,000 to 7,500 km.

  • Lock FOV End increased from 7 to 11°.

  • Continuous Guidance FOV increased 11 to 11.5°.

• Special Ability: Pair Fire

  • Cooldown reduced from 10s to 5s.

• Passive Ability : Need For Speed

  • Max Turn Rate increased from 5° to 8°.

MiG-19 Farmer (Nerf)

Old Macdonald has been terrifying the airspace for many with its top of class combat and flight capabilities. We’re some of these in line just a tad to give some of our other fighters a better fighting chance.

• Base Stats

  • Health reduced from 110 to 100.

  • Turn Rate reduced from 39 to 38°.

• Beam Riding Missiles

  • Fire Rate reduced from 1.0 to 1.2/s.

  • Speed reduced from 5,400 to 4,680 km/h.

• Precision Cannons

  • Cannon Shot Spread increased 0.5 to 0.65.

MiG-21 Fishbed (Buff)

We know, we know #nerfthefishbed. Sacrilege aside, the MiG-21 is receiving some shine to its abilities effectiveness to get you in range for a DPS so high we may actually end up agreeing with the meme in the future!

• Short Range IR Missiles

  • Added Percent Lock After Launch at 33%.

  • Damage reduced from 65 to 60.

• Special Ability: Super Afterburner

  • Cooldown Multiplier reduced from 3 to 2 seconds.

  • Max Cooldown reduced from 20 to 15 seconds.

  • Reduced Fuel per second consumption from 15 to 12.5%.

Mirage F1 (Buff)

The once-dominant Light Fighter of old has fallen off the meta for a while now. Its iconic escapability is receiving some new tuning to make you go faster, further, and easier than ever.

• Special Ability: Escape Artist

  • Increased Max Rear Angle Trigger from 60 to 80°.

  • Increased Max Rear Angle Active from 70 to 90°.

  • Increased Acceleration Bonus 140% to 160%.

  • Increased Effect Duration 5s to 6 seconds.

  • Reduced hitbox against Missiles from 1.0 to 0.75.

Mirage M.III (Buff)

Everyone has their first love in Metalstorm, and for many - the M3 is right up there! Giving this fast-flying fighter some needed help with their Manual Lock FOVs so it can keep up the pace.

• Medium Range Manual Missiles

  • Lock FOV End increased from 7 to 11°.

  • Continuous Guidance FOV increased from 7 to 11°.

Su-25 Frogfoot (Nerf)

Believe it or not, the Frogfoot is still exceptionally well at what it does despite multiple nerfs in the past. Making some minor adjustments here among the more global changes to see how it stakes up.

• Heavy Rockets

  • Fire Rate reduced from 0.8 to 1.0/s.

• Special Ability: Fire Everything

  • Cooldown increased from 40 to 45 seconds.

  • Missile Spread increased from 4.0 to 4.5°.

Su-47 Berkut (Buff)

This plane has secretly had a lot going for it in terms of heavies, but it’s not so beloved trait which made you lose control was a constant pain point. With that removed, we are very excited to see this prototype aircraft take flight once more!

• Loadout

  • Removed the “Forward Swept Wing” trait.

Tornado ADV (Nerf)

You know it, we know it. The ADV has been dominating the skies of Metalstorm for far too long and it has been doing everything exceptionally well. We’re shifting the decoy a bit, and tuning its flight model down a tad.

• Base Stats

  • (Swept Forward) Afterburner Max Speed reduced from 1,275 to 1,250 km/h.

  • (Swept Forward) Turn Rate Low Speed reduced from 13.6 to 13.0°/s.

  • (Swept Forward) Turn Rate Corner Speed reduced from 38 to 37°/s.

• Special Ability: Towed Decoy

  • Decoy Health reduced from 2 to 1.

  • Cooldowns reduced from 50/38/25 to 30/22.5/15 seconds.

Ability: Damage Control (Shift)

We’re shifting up this ability a tad to make its powerful sustainability a bit easier for others to play around.

• Removed 3 Charges per life.

• (NEW) Cooldown: 45 seconds.

• Duration reduced from 4 to 3 seconds.

• Planes Affected:

  • A-10

  • Su-27

  • Su-34

Mod: Blast Resistance (Buff)

Carefully adding some additional DR to increase survivability, without overturning this to the point where nobody can get eliminations.

• Damage Resistance increased from 16 to 20%.

Mod: Daredevil Agility (Nerf)

Part 1 of “the meta mod combo”. 20% TR is a massively powerful stat increase, and at its original tuning it might as well always been active. This is being reduced to make a benefit you have to consider and earn when dogfighting.

• Terrain Trigger reduced from 300 to 150 m.

Mod: Disruptive Flares (Nerf)

Part 2 of “the meta mod combo”. Reducing some of the frustrations on the receiving end of this to be a little less difficult to play against.

• Cannon Aim Range Reduction reduced from 80 to 60%.

• Duration reduced from 0.5 to 0.4 seconds.

Role: Attack Aircraft (Nerf)

Attackers, while maybe not as popular to some, have been performing at the top of the charts across all skill levels. These changes are to make them a little more approachable, but still retain their core identity: get in close, and shoot everything on sight.

• Cannon Damage Resistance reduced from 65 to 55%.

• Cannon Lead Reticle Range reduced on most aircraft:

  • A-4 reduced from 1.2 to 1 km

  • A-6 reduced from 0.9 to 0.85 km.

  • A-10 reduced from 0.9 to 0.8 km.

  • GR3 reduced from 0.9 to 0.8 km.

  • Su-22 reduced from 1.2 to 1 km

  • Su-25 reduced from 1.2 to 1.1 km.

Weapon: Assault Cannons (Buff)

In a game where time to kill is critical, the time required to reach optimal DPS on these styles of cannons left much to be desired. We’re cutting that time down across the board to give the aircraft more consistent DPS to play off of. Let it rip!

• Reduced spin-up time by 33%.

• Planes Affected

  • A-4

  • A-10

  • F-4

  • F-14

  • F-15

  • F-16

  • F-22

  • F-35

  • F-106

  • F/A-18

  • F/A-18F

  • MiG-23

  • MiG-31

Please report any game or player-related issues, and share your feedback with us at https://support.playmetalstorm.com/. Thank you for keeping our skies clear, and thank you for helping us make Metalstorm the best game it can be!

We also want to remind everyone to wishlist Metalstorm on Steam! Growing this campaign is essential in ensuring we get this game in as many pilots’ hands as possible come release.

Full steam ahead🚂 https://store.steampowered.com/app/2453200/Metalstorm/