This Slap Battles Automaton Glove Update Guide adds the Automaton glove and a new mastery for the Stalker glove while tuning a wide range of gloves, items, and systems. Below you’ll find what changed, why it matters, and how to adapt your play so you get the most out of Stalker mastery and the broader meta.
Stalker Mastery
The Stalker mastery gives the Stalker glove distinct long-term progression and meaningful power spikes as you invest in it. Expect the mastery to reward stealthier playstyles: longer ambush windows, bonus effects on successful stalk slaps, and possibly utility that encourages toggling between stalking and hitting.
How to play Stalker mastery effectively:
- Use vision control. Stalker benefits when you can approach unseen — use map cover, doorways, and cluttered spawn zones to mask movement.
Prioritize single-target engagements. Stalker mastery typically buffs isolated hit damage or grants follow-up effects on a confirmed slap. Look for isolated opponents rather than large skirmishes.
Convert surprise hits into resets. If mastery grants cooldown or mobility resets on successful stalk slaps, chain them to maintain pressure and escape.
Pair with movement-enhancing items or cosmetics that improve stealth approach speed; the quicker you close, the more value you extract from mastery.
Countering Stalker mastery:
Stick with teammates and avoid lone roaming; Stalker thrives on single victims.
Use zoning gloves, long-range options, or stun mechanics to interrupt approach patterns.
Place traps or camp obvious chokepoints where stalkers are likely to ambush.
Automaton glove
Automaton is a new glove that likely emphasizes mechanical / summoned effects or automated utility. Typical successful strategies with Automaton:
- Treat Automaton as a support-offense hybrid: position it to create pressure while you play positional control.
- Combine with gloves that force opponents into predictable paths so Automaton abilities land cleanly.
- If Automaton summons or deploys hazards, use those to deny space around objectives like Hitman’s office or the moai cube.
Hitman’s Basement changes
Hitman’s office is now open and functional; Eggdog is displayed on a shelf inside.
Display Trophies can appear, up to nine displays based on Hitman-related badges.
Why this matters:
The office becomes a new high-value zone for fights and trophy-hunting. Expect players to contest the area for bragging rights and Eggdog access.
If teleports or quest rewards are tied to Hitman, the office will become a frequent hot-spot for PvP encounters.
Tactics:
Control sightlines into the office to deny stalkers and Automaton placements.
Use the trophy displays as bait: players who want trophies will visit predictably, making ambushes and zone-control plays profitable.
Leash changes
Jumping while leashed causes a “flop” with a cooldown. After a certain number of flops you break free.
Slapping your own or other leashed players can break the leash.
Implications:
Leash is less of a guaranteed lockdown. Aggroed players now have an active escape method, and teammates can intentionally break each other free if coordinated.
Leash users must manage flop counters and time their grabs, since repeated jumps chip away at the leash.
How to adapt:
If you play leasher, bait jumps and force opponents to waste flops before committing to a kill. Time your follow-up so the target has used their break attempts.
If you get leashed, use jumps tactically to force the leash to expire or have a friendly slap free you. Avoid predictable escape runs; mix movement to preserve the limited flop budget.
Joust adjustments — offensive tuning
- I-frames during windup removed.
- Ability power reduced by 10.
Implications:
- Joust users have fewer guaranteed safe windows; the windup is now punishable.
- Timing becomes far more important — you can no longer rely on invulnerability during charge-up.
How to adapt:
- Play Joust more conservatively. Use feints and bait movement rather than charging blindly into crowds.
- Opponents should punish windups aggressively — interrupt or sidestep to exploit the now-exposed windup frames.
Riftshot teleport restrictions
- You cannot teleport other players to Moai island.
- You cannot teleport players directly onto the cube of death.
- You cannot teleport players to the grass edge to make them fall into the void.
Why it matters:
- Riftshot can no longer be used for cheap deaths or map-exploits. Teleport griefing is heavily limited, improving fairness.
How to adapt:
- Riftshot remains a powerful reposition tool for yourself and teammates, but you must adjust if you relied on teleport-kills. Focus on utility teleports (escape or flank) rather than instant kills.
Mastery and cooldown
Booster (Mastery): spawn cooldown added — 8 seconds.
Shard (Mastery): slap-on-shard increases cooldown by 4 seconds.
Blackhole: cooldown increased by 5 seconds.
Implications:
Masteries that previously allowed rapid or spammy activations are now gated by stronger timers.
Players must plan usage windows and can no longer rely on near-constant spawns or shard interactions.
How to adapt:
Time your Booster spawns carefully; create value from one well-placed spawn rather than frequent small spawns.
With Shard mastery, weigh whether slapping shards is worth the longer cooldown in a fight; sometimes holding off reduces vulnerability.
For Blackhole users, compensate for the longer cooldown by combining Blackhole with follow-up crowd-control or high-damage windows.
Dual slap multiplier change
- Dual now treats slap multipliers as: added slap amount = 1 × multiplier + 1 (instead of 2 × multiplier).
Implications:
- Dual’s raw added slap amount is reduced relative to the previous formula; it’s been softened to make stacking less extreme.
- Builds that relied on explosive slap multiplication have reduced ceiling damage.
How to adapt:
- Dual specialists should lean into more consistent multi-hit rotations, not single huge multipliers.
- Pair Dual with cooldown reduction, attack-speed effects, or critical multipliers to regain throughput rather than relying on stacking.
Trialing and UI polish
- Error glove cannot be trialed (anti-scam precaution).
- Trial button color changed from green to yellow in the inventory info frame to reduce accidental trials.
Why it matters:
- The update prevents scams where players trial dangerous or misleading gloves on strangers.
- The UI color change makes trial actions feel more deliberate and less “go” like green, reducing accidental trials.
How to adapt:
- If you frequently trial items, notice the UI change and confirm intent; if you were scamming or trying odd trials, that path is now restricted for Error glove.
This update nudges the meta toward smarter positioning, cleaner anti-grief protections, and more deliberate mastery usage. Stalker mastery rewards patience, positioning, and single-target execution, while the Automaton glove and Hitman’s office create new tactical opportunities on the map. Cooldown increases and teleport restrictions reduce exploitability and force tighter decision-making in fights.