Straight from the launcher
Patch notes
What changed in every version of VHL, newest first: the same notes the launcher shows.
0.9.9127 Oct 2026Latest
The intro in every match, team colours and a livelier puck
The intro in every match
Every match now opens with the arena's show: the ice decodes, the circuit lights up and each player is lit in on their own faceoff spot.
Tournament walk-out
Tournaments open with a new walk-out: each player is called on their own faceoff spot with their card, then HOME and AWAY crash together.
Team colours
Every skater and goalie now glows in their side's colour: the suit's own light lines run red or blue. A skin or a paid jersey keeps its own colours, and SETTINGS > INTERFACE > Team lines on suits turns the lines off on your screen.
The puck
The boards and the glass give back more of the puck's speed, a hard shot straight into the boards comes straight back out, and the boards light up where the puck hits them. A one-timer struck out of the air now tumbles and wobbles as it flies - a mid-air hit is never quite accurate. A tap chip no longer spins wildly, and a puck stuck on top of a net is shocked off it - behind the net or into its back corner, never out in front.
The armed one-timer
With your one-timer armed you can now skate on at half speed - your legs keep striding under the wind-up - so you can drift onto the pass instead of standing frozen. A slow puck at your stick is one-timed at once.
No catching your own shot
A one-timer can no longer redirect your own shot as it leaves your stick.
Fairer hits
A charged crosscheck you saw coming and then turned your back on is no longer called checking from behind. A hit on a player without the puck is still interference.
The penalty box
With two players of one side in the box, each now has their own name and time under the score bug.
MY GOALS by the day
Your clips are grouped by the day you played and by match, with its score - the newest match opens by itself. Clips you haven't watched yet are marked NEW with a glowing tag (CAREER and MY GOALS say how many); clicking a clip clears its tag, and MARK ALL SEEN clears them all. Kept and recent clips are one list now, each saying whether it's kept or how long it stays.
Menus
The locker's spray view, the BACK TO YOURS and WEAR ALL buttons, the slot arrows and MY GOALS are fixed and quicker; long names end in "...".
Starting the game
If your PC is missing Microsoft's Visual C++ runtime, the game now offers to install it.
The intro and the net
The intro's hologram logo is sharp, long names fit the tournament card, and the net shock's cloud no longer stays on the net.
Safer servers
The servers now refuse old commands a modified game could have abused.
0.9.8926 Oct 2026
Smarter bots, three-tag penalties and a puck that flies like a disc
Smarter bots
Bots stop scoring on themselves. Each side has a striker who picks real shots - a snap shot, a deke in tight, the laser from range - goalies read a slapshot, the last two back hold the gap, and bots react with a person's timing. Rookie and Prospect bots now teach new players as they play, in quick matches and custom lobbies.
Penalties
A delayed call now ends with three tags from the drone's laser, one a second, counted on the score bug as TAGGED 1/3 - then the offender is sent off. A second player from the same side now goes in beside the first (never a side's last skater), and each goal against a side frees one of its players, the one with the least time left. Every player sees the same craft carry the offender away.
The shield holds the stick
No shot, pass or one-timer while your own force field is up, for players and bots alike. A field that goes up round a loose puck pushes it aside, never into its own net.
After the match
The final horn screen is gone: after VICTORY or DEFEAT you go straight to the line-up, then land over the menu with your skater on the stand in his selection ring, the summary beside him at full brightness. BOX SCORE gets a screen of its own on full black.
The puck
New puck physics: the puck plays off the boards, the glass, the posts and the netting by new rules, spins and flips in the air, and comes back off the back of the net. In the air it meets the world as a thin disc - on its edge it can clip the crossbar - and a spinning puck slides farther. A hard shot into the boards loses a little speed, and one along the ice pops up and tumbles off their bottom edge.
The boards and the glass
The dasher boards wear the circuit look in every match and the academy. GOAL, FACEOFF, FINAL MINUTE and OVERTIME light them only at stoppages and fade at the drop, a skater hitting the boards sends a shock along them, and the glass flexes a little more.
The locker
Skins load faster, and switching between goalie and skater no longer waits.
Locked for leaving
While a lock for leaving matches is on, PLAY and FIND RANKED MATCH turn red and say BANNED with the time it ends, and the search corner shows when it was issued and when it ends. Both turn back to blue when the lock lifts.
0.9.8825 Oct 2026
Slapshot bots, circuit glass and shield saves that count
Smarter bots
Bots set up one-timers and no longer pass back on a breakaway. Pro and better bots bank passes off the side boards and take slapshots; Elite and Legend bots add a chip over a man in the lane, V + slapshot and slide stops on hard turns. One bot always stays goal-side of the deepest attacker, and Pro and better goalies raise the shield on a shot and use their boost.
Shield saves count
A shot on net turned away by the goalie's shield is now his save and a shot on goal, so goalies' stats - and their points - come out right.
The arena
The rink's glass wears a circuit pattern in every match, the academy and the menu: a hit surges along it and flexes the glass, and a goal turns it the scorer's colour. The hanging roof banners now show the VHL logo.
The goal card
A goal's close-up now ends on the same card as your clips, low on the left in place of the old bar: the event word in the team's metal, the score and the scorer lit.
After the match
VICTORY and DEFEAT get a new entrance and sounds of their own. Over the menu the match's screen no longer greys everything out - it is dark only behind the board and your skater stands in full light - and the MVP line-up's camera holds still, so names and upvotes no longer float; the upvote circles are drawn smooth.
Leaving a match
Where leaving counts against you, LEAVE MATCH now warns MAY RESULT IN A PENALTY before its second click.
The academy
ESC says SETTINGS, the match's cards and the CALLS notice no longer show on the academy's rink, and the AIR CATCH tip opens THE CATCH. FIRST STEPS' end card fits its buttons again.
0.9.8725 Oct 2026
VICTORY or DEFEAT, team-playing bots and live upvote counts
Team-playing bots
Pro and better bots now play as a team, each with a role: they break out, rush, forecheck, backcheck and cover their own zone, marking open men. Their goalies read the angle, seal the near post and hold the top of the crease when the puck is in tight. Prospect bots play a lighter version; Rookie bots are unchanged.
VICTORY or DEFEAT
At the final horn VICTORY in teal or DEFEAT in red slams across the screen with the score. Watchers see BLUE WINS or RED WINS, and a tie says DRAW.
The MVP line-up
Upvote counts now move live as players click, in a circle under each name. The ice goes black and decodes out from the MVP, and everyone stands as he played - a goalie as a goalie - in what he wore.
Clips and an FPS counter
Turn on SETTINGS > GAMEPLAY > CLIPS > Background recording and F8 saves the last 45 seconds of any moment as a clip in MY GOALS; it stays on your PC. VIDEO > FPS readout shows NUMBERS or a GRAPH: FPS and the 1 % LOW with a frame-time strip in a match, and the same in the menus' bottom bar.
A price for quitting
Leaving a quick or ranked match early now costs that match's XP and pass progress, and leaving often locks you out of quick and ranked matches for a while - 5 minutes, then 15, then an hour, up to 24 hours over a week. A crash is forgiven if you are back in the match within 5 minutes, and custom lobbies never count.
The search corner
While PLAY searches for a match, its clock sits in the top-left corner and you can keep using the menus. The x cancels, and MATCH FOUND lights up when it is ready.
In the match
A crosscheck that stuns now lands with a short freeze and the head snapping back. In a custom lobby with bots, a bot takes a leaving player's seat until someone on that side takes it back, and a tournament's start sound now plays at the first faceoff after the walk-out.
Fixes
Fixed a crash after goals while wearing an X effect such as VORTEX. Goals no longer stutter, a teammate's one-timer ending no longer switches yours off, the game keeps its full frame rate while another window on a second monitor has the focus, and coming back after a crash puts you in your own seat, side and name.
0.9.8624 Oct 2026
THE BRAWL, a clearer locker and an academy that starts on your move
THE BRAWL
When the gloves drop, the two fighters circle in a ring on WASD: LMB jabs (hold it for a haymaker), RMB grabs, SPACE leans back, F shoves, Z lunges and V lets THE OVERCHARGE go. Hit points and stamina run on a tape across the top, the fight's keys take over the ability band, and after 20 seconds it is decided ON POINTS. Every ending is replayed, and the winner keeps it as a clip.
THE ACADEMY
No more START button: your first move (or SPACE) starts a lesson, and every lesson starts you right by its scene. Finished skills can be replayed level by level, goalie lessons put you back in your net every try with the coach in pads and untaught keys off, and hold F is CHARGED CROSSCHECK everywhere. Fixed: the coach spinning on a pass, a puck that vanished on a retry, a boost effect that stuck after a double boost, and an ability bar that twitched as a drill began.
The locker
Every slot says what is yours, what is on the pass and what is left to earn, new items are marked NEW, and one window tells you where each item comes from. Click a picked tile again to wear it, try on today's store wall, switch SKATER or GOALIE over your skater, and preview your goal with PLAY THE GOAL. New skins and sprays show sharp at once, and the preview camera moves in to a spray or your goal boards.
On the ice
A small tap ahead is yours again as you close on it, a puck let go on the ice counts as a shot only if it could reach the net, and a one-timer now fires on a pass crossing your body to the blade. Air catches take a dropping puck more reliably, penalties are called in tournaments too, and in REDLINE the F hit lands only on the puck carrier. The referee drone flies a different craft each match.
On screen
VIDEO now has a MOTION BLUR switch. Names fade in and out at the screen's edge and no longer jump over each other, the replay's second take no longer pauses, the Tab table's totals glow on the digits themselves and its player menu closes on a click outside, and REDLINE's GOAL uses the new metal letters. In tournament matches each player's locker banner hangs over his team's end.
After the match
The final horn's three stars are gone, the MVP line-up's words hold steady, an upvote's click pops with a ring, and a click off the board or ESC continues. Clips open on the goal's metal words low on the left, and the line-up's sticks no longer show a grey grid.
Lobbies and settings
A custom lobby's host picks one bot level for the room, ROOKIE to LEGEND, under MATCH, and players from a lobby no longer join your party on the menu. SETTINGS > ABOUT lists the build and the credits.
0.9.8523 Oct 2026
THE DISSOLVE penalty, the cool-down screen and smoother matches
THE DISSOLVE
Called for a penalty, the referee drone hunts you down and zaps you with its new beam - a white-hot core, crawling arcs, a burn left on the ice. The camera comes in, PENALTY fills the middle of the screen, you come apart in glowing hex cells and leave the ice; 3 seconds before your time is up you form again at the penalty box's door on a glowing hex pad under a 3, 2, 1 and skate off at full stride. After a goal you form at your faceoff spot instead.
The cool-down screen
While you sit out, dark glass hexagons glow round the screen's edges and your seconds count down in a metal badge low in the middle, amber bars draining in, as the play goes on.
Smoother matches
A goal's replay cut short by the faceoff no longer freezes the picture, a replay starts without a hitch, and the drone, the puck and the ability icons stay loaded between goals. Skaters and goalies far from the camera use lighter models - more frames on weaker PCs.
Turning without the puck
Your body now turns with your facing straight away, as it does with the puck - no slow turnaround animation.
First steps
THE WELCOME greets you on the very first start. Every lesson has a way out - R AGAIN, ESC PAUSE, slow motion or MOVE ON after two lost duels - the keys a lesson is not teaching dim, and every key has one name everywhere: X SLIDE STOP, F CROSSCHECK, B GOALIE PULL, C ONE-TIMER.
The menus
Every SIGN IN is a button, PLAY shows YOUR WELCOME GIFT if you skipped it and GOT A FRIEND'S CODE? in your first five matches, RULE TIPS explain your first penalty, power play, goalie turn, fight offer and shootout, QUIT asks first and RETRY appears when every server is busy. WHAT'S NEW is rewritten for players, CAREER's pages switch without lag, the LOCKER's jersey pictures show the suit you wear, and the menu comes back after a match without a freeze.
Upvotes
Upvote the players you liked on the MVP line-up; your upvotes go to the league when it closes.
0.9.8423 Oct 2026
Bots make real chances, cleaner replays and sharper clips
Bots make real chances
When a Pro or better bot's shot would meet a set goalie, he passes across the slot to a mate, who shoots quickly at the side the goalie slides away from. No goalie got weaker.
Cleaner replays
No more names over empty ice or effects from the live game left behind, and a one-timer's trail keeps its team's colour. In a fight the referee drone now waits until it is over.
The HUD
Names over the players now sit under the HUD, never over the score bug or the big GOAL. A cooling ability counts in tenths under ten seconds, its numbers a size smaller, and the quick wheel's key G lights up on the band while the wheel is open.
The Tab table
The match line shows its marks alone; put the mouse on one to see who and when - a goal's scorer, time and assists, a penalty's player, a big save's goalie.
Clips
Your goal is kept even when the faceoff cuts its replay short, and clips are sharper (14 Mbit/s).
The menus
PREMIUM's card opens its own page, a pack's pieces can be tried on, LOCKER and PASS open without a freeze, and the store's wall is kept between visits.
Settings
In BORDERLESS, VIDEO's Resolution row shows your screen's own size.
0.9.8323 Oct 2026
A smoother first match, graphics fitted to your PC and better bots
A smoother first match
The effects the game draws while you play - the shot's ribbon, the grasp's ring, the skate marks on the ice - are prepared while the arena loads instead of stuttering the first time they appear. The loading card stays up until your PC is ready, 25 seconds at most, and never hides the puck drop.
Graphics fitted to your PC
On the first launch the game measures your PC once, picks the quality for it and tells you so; change it any time in SETTINGS, VIDEO.
Calm menus
The menus, the lobby, the store, the locker and the after-match screens run at 60 frames at most (VIDEO > Calm menus), and the game runs at 30 behind another window and 5 when minimised - a match is never dropped for it.
Better bots
Bots shoot on net from places that can score, never from beside or behind the net, and pass up the ice instead of back to their own end. Elite and Legend bots really shoot now, a bot goalie never leaves his net to hit a shooter, and the Legend's charged hit lands on the carrier it was aimed at, only from the front.
Earlier updates and the story behind them are in News.