Mobile Legends 1.5.88 patch notes: New skins, free heroes, battlefield adjustments, and more

Mooton, the developers behind Mobile Legends, has released the latest update 1.5.88 for their popular MOBA.

The update revamps a few heroes, including Karina, Minotaur, and more. In addition to this, X.Borg, Natalia, Lunox, and a few more heroes have received a buff in their skills, and brand new skins have also been added to the game with the MLBB 1.5.88 patch. 

Not only this, but the developers have also made adjustments to Damage Calculation, Equipment Purchase and more to balance out the game even more. Here are the Mobile Legends 1.5.88 update patch notes listing all the latest additions and adjustments in the game.

Mobile Legends 1.5.88 update - patch notes

In this update, we've brought you revamped Karina - the most anticipated hero in the "Reforge Your Legend" event! We've also optimized the overall quality and gameplays of Alpha, Minotaur, and Sun.

Equipment Adjustments

• Removed the pre-existing Roaming and Jungling Equipment.

• Added Jungling Footwear. Jungling Footwear has the same attributes as Common Footwear but also the effects of Jungling Equipment. Killing 5 creeps can upgrade the corresponding Retribution skill.

• Added Roaming Footwear. Roaming Footwear has the same attributes as Common Footwear but also the effects of Roaming Equipment. Collecting 600 Gold can unlock the corresponding advanced skill.

• We've added 3 new equipment items: the War Axe that's well-suited for Fighter heroes, the Shadow Twinblades for Mage/Assassins, and the Radiant Armor that reduces sustained Magic Damage.

• We've adjusted the values and logic of more than 20 pre-existing equipment items. In doing so, we hope that the functions and roles for each item are as clear as possible.

New Heroes & Revamped Heroes

Mobile Legends 1.5.88 update revamped Heroes. (Picture: Moonton)

Revamped Hero: Karina, the Shadow Blade

As the most eagerly anticipated hero in the "Reforge Your Legend" event, Karina's revamp was certainly no small challenge for us. Her role focuses more on "agility and assassination", so we've decided that this revamp should retain 'assassin' as her main feature while her agility needs to be strengthened, too.

• Passive - Shadow Combo: Extra damage will be dealt to a target when they are hit 3 times. Triggering Shadow Combo at hero targets reduces the cooldowns of Karina's Skill 1 and Skill 2.

• Skill 1 - Dance of Blades: Karina keeps flourishing her twin blades to defend against all Basic Attacks as she increases her Movement Speed. She launches a spinning slash when hit by a close-range Basic Attack, or throws a shadowblade at the attacker when hit by a long-range Basic Attack. During the "Dance of Blades" state, Karina's next Basic Attack will be enhanced, with which she can charge at the target and slow them down. This state ends when the enhanced Basic Attack or Shadow Assault is cast.

• Ultimate - Shadow Assault: This skill still locks on to and charges at the target as before, but can now also summon a Shadowform that lingers behind it, too. Use the skill again to quickly return to the Shadowform's location. In addition, Karina leaves a Shadow Mark on enemies hit by her Shadow Assault, and its cooldown is reset when a target with a Shadow Mark dies.

Revamped Hero: Blade of Enmity - Alpha

• Passive - Beta, Advance!: Each time Alpha uses a skill, he summons Beta to attack and mark the target. Beta will launch 3 laser strikes upon reaching 2 marks. Each of Beta's first two laser strikes deals an amount of True Damage and briefly reduces the target's Movement Speed, and the final one is an AOE attack that deals even more True Damage.

• Skill 2 - Force Swing: After charging the skill for a while, Alpha strikes forward in a fan-shaped area, dealing Physical Damage. Each hit restores HP. Then Beta strafes the enemies within the area, dealing Physical Damage.

• Ultimate - Alpha, Charge!: Alpha commands Beta to smash down at a set location, dealing Physical Damage and inflicting stun. At the same time, Alpha flies over to the area and deals Physical Damage to targets in his path, knocking them airborne toward his destination, and then smashing down to deal Physical Damage and slow them. After Alpha smashes down, Beta launches 5 AOE strikes upon the target area, each dealing Physical Damage.

Revamped Hero: Son of Minos - Minotaur

• Passive - Rage Mode: Adjusted. All his skills' cooldowns now reset whenever he enters the Rage State.

• Skill 2 - Motivation Roar: New Effect, Minotaur, enhances his Basic attacks for 5s each time the skill is cast.

Revamped Hero: Monkey King - Sun

• Skill 1 - Endless Variety: Sun hurls his Golden Staff in a designated direction, dealing damage to enemies along its path and slowing them. Upon hitting heroes or creeps, it transforms into a Doppelganger that pursues the enemy. The Golden Staff will transform into a Doppelganger at the end of its path if no heroes or creeps are hit.

• Skill 2 - Swift Exchange (New): Sun hurls his Golden Staff in a designated direction, dealing damage to enemies along its path and slowing them. At that point, Sun will create a Doppelganger to confuse the enemies, while he enters stealth and sends himself and his Golden Staff flying. When it reaches the destination, he catches it and reappears. Hitting an enemy hero on its path will end its flight and make Sun appear. This skill is learned together with his Skill 1, and shares the same cooldown and skill level bonuses.

• Skill 3 - Instantaneous Move: Sun and his Doppelgangers launch an instantaneous attack against a designated enemy, dealing damage to the target and enemies behind it. Doppelgangers created with Skill 1 and 2 now cast this skill when Sun uses it. Optimized the AI of Sun's Doppelgangers. Now it's smarter. Optimized the rules of HP inheritance for Sun's Doppelgangers. Now they inherit Sun's current HP and show an HP Bar identical to Sun's.

Hero Adjustments

Argus (~)

• Passive (↓): Physical Attack Bonus for enhanced Basic Attacks: 100% → 80%

• Skill 2 (↑): New Effect: Triggers a bleeding effect on creeps.

• Ultimate (↑): Reduced the cooldown by 5s for all levels.

Zhask (↓)

• Skill 3 - Fusion Enhanced (↓): Damage after the fifth swarm of Nightmaric Clone decays.

• Ultimate (~): Slightly reduced Basic Attacks' Base Damage after Nightmaric Spawn is enhanced. Greatly increased Nightmaric Spawn's Base HP after it is enhanced. Fixed an issue where, in some situations, Nightmaric Spawn's HP would be reset to full after it is enhanced.

X.Borg (↑)

• Skill 1 (↑):

  • Base Damage: 30-100 → 40-100

  • Total Physical Attack Bonus for Damage: 50% → 60%

  • Damage to Minions:75% → 75%-100%

• Ultimate (↑):

• • Base Fire Damage: 200-300 → 200-250

  • Extra Physical Attack Bonus for Fire Damage: 100% → 130%

Natalia (↑)

• Attributes (↑):

  • Base HP: 2589 → 2639

  • HP Growth: 154 → 164

Lunox (↑)

• Skill 1 - Chaos Assault (↑):

  • Additional damage dealt to normal creeps: 1.5%-3.5% of their Max HP → 3%-7% of their Max HP

Esmeralda (↑)

• Skill 2 (↑):

  • Base Damage of Each Hit: 210-410 → 240-440

Chang'e (↓)

• Skill 1 (↓):

  • Base Damage: 300-500 → 300-450

• Ultimate (↓):

  • Movement Speed Boost: 20% → 10%

Jawhead (↓)

• Skill 2 (↓)

• • Base Shield: 350-800 → 250-600

  • Total Physical Attack Bonus for the Damage Absorption of the Shield: 140% → 180%

Weekly Free Heroes & New Skins

• Connie "Strawberry Cone" will be available on June 24th (Server Time) for 599 Diamonds. Launch week 30% OFF.

• Little Commander Connie and skin "Strawberry Cone" will be in a bundle and available on June 24th (Server Time). Launch week 30% OFF.

Fragment Shop Adjustments on June 16th (Server Time):

Rare Skin Fragment Shop

• Will be available: Freya "Dragon Hunter", Roger "Anubis", Fanny "Royal Cavalry", Grock "Grave Guardian", Minotaur "Sacred Hammer”

• Will be unavailable: Alucard "Viscount", Natalia "Phantom Dancer", Gusion "Cyber Ops", Gord "Professor of Hell", Minsitthar "Gilded King"

Hero Fragment Shop

• Will be available: Lunox, Leomord, Esmeralda, Zhask, Mathilda, Sun

• Will be unavailable: Wanwan, Ling, Claude, Selena, Dyrroth, Angela

• 8 Free Heroes: Server Time 6/18/2021 05:01:00 to 6/25/2021 05:00:00: Lylia, Johnson, Sun, Zhask, Esmeralda, Moskov, Kimmy, Rafaela

• 6 Extra Starlight Member Heroes: Kaja, Khaleed, Pharsa, Luo Yi, Martis, Akai

• 8 Free Heroes: Server Time 6/25/2021 05:01:00 to 7/2/2021 05:00:00: Cecilion, Vale, Minsitthar, Alice, Hylos, Ling, Diggie, Lylia

• 6 Extra Starlight Member Heroes: Yve, Benedetta, Hanzo, Lunox, Selena, Alucard

• 8 Free Heroes: Server Time 712/2021 05:01:00 to 7/9/2021 05:00:00: Atlas, Hilda, Sun, Roger, Terizla, Estes, Kaja, Rafaela

• 6 Extra Starlight Member Heroes: Harley, Benedetta, Karrie, Yu Zhong, Mathilda, Chou

• 8 Free Heroes: Server Time 7/9/2021 05:01:00 to 7/16/2021 05:00:00: Esmeralda, Chou, Argus, Angela, Grock, Cyclops, Granger, Karina

• 6 Extra Starlight Member Heroes: Wanwan, Ling, Brody, Uranus, Kagura, Paquito

• 8 Free Heroes: Server Time 7/16/2021 05:01:00 to 7/23/2021 05:00:00: Bruno, Yu Zhong, Lolita, Grock, Harith, Hanabi, Badang, Guinevere

• 6 Extra Starlight Member Heroes: Akai, Jawhead, Franco, Lunox, X.Borg, Lylia

Battlefield Adjustments

Damage Calculation Adjustments

• Minimum Physical/Magic Defense against enemy heroes: 0 → -60

• When both percentage and fixed-value Penetration are in effect, the algorithm will now prioritize the percentage before the fixed value.

• All heroes' Base Magic Defense increased by 5.

• Magic Penetration provided by "Arcane Boots" and "Genius Wand": 15 → 12

Equipment Purchase Adjustments

• Jungling/Roaming Equipment was replaced with Jungling/Roaming Footwear: Movement and advanced effects from Jungling/Roaming Footwear are exactly the same as those from Common Footwear; all that has been added are Jungling/Roaming-exclusive skills.

• New Restriction: Players can buy one Footwear item only. (If you are equipped with Retribution, you can buy Jungling Footwear only; in other cases, only common or Roaming Footwear is available).

• New Restriction: Players can buy one active equipment item only.

• New Restriction: All Footwear's selling price should be 20% of its purchase price (60% for other equipment).

Jungling Equipment Adjustments

Retribution

• New Effect: If you are equipped with Retribution, your creep rewards will be greatly increased, while more minion rewards will be reduced. The minion reward reduction effect stops after 5 min.

• New Effect: When your kills/assists and the creeps you killed add up to 5, a corresponding advanced skill (determined by the Jungling Footwear purchased) will be unlocked. When the number reaches 15, extra Physical Attack and Magic Power will be granted.

• Even without kills, completing 3 assists can change the status from continuous deaths to normal now.

• The respawn time changes as time goes on and is capped at 90s now.

• Optimized equipment-related icons, special effects, descriptions, UI layouts and other functions. Added equipment stories, tips and special effects display.

• Added a function to skills that have different forms. When a skill is changed from one form to another during its cooldown, the remaining cooldown will still be. displayed. This function applies to the following heroes: Roger, Beatrix, Lunox and Kagura.

• Optimized the display of the HP Bar. Added Hanzo's HP Bar next to clone's HP after Hanzo summons it. Added an HP Bar next to Popol that shows Kupa's HP after Popol summons Kupa.

• Now Roaming Equipment no longer takes effect in Custom 1v1 mode.

• The "Assisted Aiming Mode" now supports location-targeted skills. Currently applicable to the following heroes: Miya, Nana, Alucard, Akai, Minotaur, Freya, Gord, Kagura, Estes, Aurora, Lapu-Lapu, Vexana, Gatotkaca, Diggie, Zhask, Helcurt, Pharsa, Jawhead, Gusion, Uranus, Johnson, Chang'e, Selena, Claude, Vale, Hanzo, Thamuz, Kadita, Guinevere, Esmeralda, Terizla, Ling, Lylia, Silvanna, Popol and Kupa, Luo Yi, Yve, Beatrix, Phoveus

New Functions & Events

Kaja “Crow Magician” skin. (Picture: Moonton)

Ranked

• S20 will end at 23:59:59 on 06/18/2021 (Server Time).

• Players at Master or higher ranks can claim Kaja's skin "Crow Magician" as a Season Finale reward.

• S21 will start from 02:00:00 on 06/19/2021 (Server Time).

Custom Action System

• Added a Custom Action System for heroes. Can be used by tapping or dragging the Chat Button on the battlefield.

• Custom Actions can be edited via Preparation - Performance.

• Chou's Custom Actions can be obtained from the rebate event on June 15th.

System Adjustments

Protection Points and Star-up Points Optimization

In this new update, we made the following adjustments to Star-up Points and Protection Points:

• Star-up Points for the Winning Team:

• 7 Winning Streaks: 100 → 200

• MVP: 50 → 100

• Triple Kill: 0 → 50

• Maniac: 20 → 100

• Savage: 30 → 150

• Legendary: 10 → 50

• Protection Points for the Winning Team:

• MVP: 50 → 0

• Gold Medal: 30 → 0

• Silver Medal: 20 → 0

• Bronze Medal: 8 → 0

• Protection Points for the Defeated Team:

• MVP: 155 → 155

• Gold Medal: 30 → 45

• Silver Medal: 20 → 30

• Bronze Medal: 10 → 12

• Triple Kill: 0 → 50

• Maniac: 20 → 100

• Savage: 30 → 150

• Legendary: 10 → 50

Starlight

• Upgraded the Starlight Member Border. Purchase Starlight Membership to use it for free. Available after the update.

• Added a Starlight Exclusive Elimination Effect. Reach Lv.3 Starlight Member to use it for free. Available at 00:00:00 on 07/01/2021 (Server Time).

• Added a Starlight Exclusive Display. Background for Starlight Skins and the. Starlight page. Further upgraded the art assets for the Starlight page. Available at. 00:00:00 on 07/01/2021 (Server Time).

• Changed the discount for the first purchase of Starlight Membership from 30% to 50%, and it will be available once to all players after the update, from 00:00:00 on 07/01/2021 (Server Time).

In-battle Effects System Update

• Added a simulated battlefield environment to the Preparation interface, which allows you to directly preview the display of effects on battlefield.

• You can now set effects separately for each hero you own.

• You can now decide whether to use an exclusive effect when obtaining it.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where Lifesteal attributes could apply to direct damage from equipment, Emblems and Battle Spells.

• Fixed Turrets, so that all immunity effects toward Basic Attacks no longer apply to Turrets' attacks.

• Fixed an issue where Turrets would often prioritise their attacks on summoned units even when minions were nearby. (Affected heroes: Popol and Kupa, Sun, Zhask, Vexana.)

• Fixed an issue where heroes that were invisible due to skills didn't enjoy the Conceal effect from Roaming Equipment.

• Fixed an issue where, after killing a creep when auto-attacking with Basic Attacks, heroes wouldn't auto-attack nearby creeps.

• Fixed an issue where Bane and Silvanna's Basic Attacks would ignore damage from Turrets.

• Fixed an issue where Hayabusa would cast his Ultimate a wrong number of times after he was hit by Silvanna's Ultimate. Now, if Silvanna's Ultimate is still. effective after hitting Hayabusa and he finishes an Ultimate, he will be pulled back to his original position.

• Fixed an issue where enemies could see Rafaela jungling due to the. position-revealing effect of her skill "Light of Retribution" on creeps.

• Fixed an issue where Bruno's Football would disappear when his enhanced Basic Attack hit a dead target or an enemy unit immune to Basic Attacks.

• Fixed an issue where Angela's view wouldn't stay locked on to the target. when casting her Ultimate.

• Fixed an issue where, in certain situations, Gloo's vision would be hindered while casting its Ultimate.

• Fixed an issue where the opponent's Marks could be used to refresh skill cooldowns if both sides had Selena.

• Fixed an issue with Zilong's movements when he returned to his original form after being transformed by Nana.

• Fixed the type of Phoveus' skin attribute. (It now increases Magic Power. instead of Physical Attack.)

• Fixed an issue with Beatrix's movements when Cyclone Eye was triggered when she was casting "Need Backup".

• Fixed an issue where Atlas' Passive "Frigid Breath" might take effect at wrong locations when he returned to his Mecha after ejecting from it.

• Fixed the display video of Kaja's Ultimate.

• Fixed the skill sound effects of Wanwan.