This patch delivers on a lot of different goals: reworking several items, increasing player engagement, and introducing some new game elements along the way. As a patch that’s primarily focused on items, this patch delivers the largest change to the item shop ever, so be sure to pay attention when spending your hard-earned AP.

Other than that, enjoy– This will be the last major patch before the Character Update, so sit tight!

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GENERAL: 

MORE POWERUPS – Powerup spawn rate increased by 20%.

DE-ENERGIZE – Default max energy reduced from 12 –> 10.

FRUGALITY – Starting AP reduced from 100 AP –> 25 AP.

 

MAD CHEMIST – The “Mad Chemist” Quest now requires the user to consume 14 items to complete it. (Up from 10).

 

NEW MECHANIC – Fatigue

This isn’t really a new mechanic, but rather an addition to exhaustion. Exhaustion penalties now apply out of combat as well:

• When a player’s energy reaches zero, they will now gain a “Fatigue” debuff.
• While Fatigued:
  • Roll modifiers of any kind cannot be used.
  • Damage taken from all sources is increased by 20%.
  • Energy does not regenerate at the end of the turn.
• Fatigue can be removed by using the “Recover” roll action, or after 2 turns of not having zero energy.

 

QUALITY OF LIFE:

• Upon death, negative damage dealing effects (Such as Curse) are removed.
• Item tooltips now display what the item will sell for.
• Several UI’s have had their appearances updated.
• When players have taken all possible actions on their turn (besides using items), their turn will automatically end after 5 seconds.

 

BATTLE:

Miscellaneous balance updates, tweaks.

NEW – COMBAT TRAINING: Upon landing on a Battle Square, players now have the option to perform Combat Training instead of dueling another player.

• Combat Training costs 10 AP, and permanently grants +1 Attack, +1 Defense, and +1% Crit Chance to the player.

CHANGE – LEVEL REQUIREMENT: To declare battle, players must now be at least level 2.

 

 

Duels and Brawls can go pretty long, so round limits have been shortened.

Round limit for Duels reduced from 15 (21 past halftime) —> 10 (12 past halftime).

Round limit for Brawls reduced from 13 (19 past halftime) —> 13 (15 past halftime).

 

ABILITY CHANGES:

Last Stand:

• Immunity duration reduced to 1 round. (From 2).

Lethal Advance:

• Base damage increased from 14 —> 16

Rewind:

• Energy cost reduced from 4 –> 2.

Siphoning Slash:

• Healing from this attack is doubled when below half health. (Up from 33% health).

Deathbloom:

• Base damage increased from 3  –> 4.
• Attack scaling increased from 45% attack –> 55% attack.

LESS EXHAUSTING – All Intermediate and Ultimate abilities have their energy costs reduced by 1.

 

DAMAGE ADJUSTMENTS

CHANGE – MINIMUM DAMAGE: The minimum attack damage has been increased from 4 (6 after halftime) —> 6 (7 after halftime).

CRITICAL – Crit damage scaling reduced by 15%.

ATTACK DAMAGE – Standard attacks now deal between (60% -75% of attack) —> (55%-72% of attack).

 

STAT CAPS

To help alleviate the pain of snowballing, stat caps have now been added.

• Attack and defense are now capped at 50. Any additional attack or defense after this point will have no effect.

EXHAUSTION CHANGES:

• While exhausted in combat, players take 2 damage at the end of their turn. Each time this damage is applied, the damage amount increases by 2.

 

BOARD:

MORE POT – Pot Squares are 3 times more likely to appear on the board.

LESS POWAH – Meditation Squares are 33% less likely to appear on the board.

WHAT THE HEX- Hex Squares are 10% more likely to appear on the board.

OMNIAUCTION – Shopping can no longer be done from Omni Squares. Instead, this option has been replaced by “Start Auction”.

 

NEW MODIFIERS

Several new roll modifiers have been added this patch!

Roll Modifier: Moneybags

• Gain +10 bonus AP. 30 AP is added to the pot.

Roll Modifier: Travel Lightly

• Lose a random item in your inventory. Permanently gain +5% evasion.

Roll Modifier: Sightseeing

• Gain +4 experience.

Roll Modifier: High Stakes

• 100 AP is added to the pot.

Roll Modifier: Quickmend

• Heal for 30 HP, and restore 3 energy.

Rest Modifier: Zen

• Permanently increase max energy by 1.

CHANGED – RestModifier: High Alert

• Now grants +5 Attack and Defense for 2 turns. (Up from 3).

CHANGED – Rest Modifier: Hit the Gym

• Now grants +3 Attack permanently, but causes resting to not restore energy.

 

 

 

ITEMS:

The primary issue with the item shop and choosing abilities is that they take a while for players to get through, making turns take longer. These are uninteractive decisions for other players, so it made sense to have players perform these actions simultaneously, to minimize wait times. Enter Intermissions, a way that the game pauses to allow all players to think about their next move. 

 

NEW – INTERMISSION: “Round Intermissions” will now happen periodically, which will allow players to choose combat abilities and visit the item shop.

As of this patch, intermissions will be the only way to visit the item shop directly.

Intermissions generally happen every 3 rounds, but will also happen on the 2nd and last rounds of a game.

 

ITEM SHOP:

Randomness in the item shop has been an issue for a while now– more often than not, players are forced to scrape up whatever the item shop offers rather than what they really want to buy, leaving most players with essentially random assortments of items. These changes to the shop address this by presenting more items at a time and giving players the choice of which stats they want to focus on, allowing for highly specialized builds.

ITEMS GALORE – The item shop now displays a maximum of 18 items at a time. (Up from 15).

NO SEPARATION – Upon visiting the shop you’ll no longer choose a category of item– all categories will be shown simultaneously. Level restrictions on specific categories still apply however.

BREAKDOWN – When visiting the shop you’ll see 5 consumables, 5 benign, 5 combat, and 3 heroic items at max level.

NEW – ITEM PREFERENCES: You can now select which stats you’d prefer to see on combat and Heroic items. Doing this will greatly increase the likelihood of getting whichever stats you want.

Can’t decide? — By default, your item preferences will be set to support your combat aspect, but you can change this when you visit the shop.

 

REMOVED: Shop Squares will no longer appear on the board. To compensate, auction squares will now replace them.

 

Because items are now a lot more accessible, prices have gone up against all industry wisdom of supply and demand.

COSTLIER:  ALL items have had their costs increased by 20%.

 

CRIT ITEMS:

As it turns out, there’s a serious lack of crit items for players who want to try bursting their enemies for a change. Previously, this was because crit was supposed to be a supplemental stat to Attack, but as the item pool grows full crit builds become more and more viable. As such, injecting a few more crit items into the game should provide some interesting options for players who want to double-down on this strategy. 

NEW ITEM- Plunderblades

COST: 140 AP

:: +20% Crit.

:: Whenever you land a critical strike, steal 10 AP from the target.

NEW ITEM- Giant’s Bane

COST: 150 AP

::+3 Attack, +15% Crit.

:: Your crits deal 25% less damage, but deal bonus damage equal to 12% of your target’s max health.

NEW ITEM- Lucky Clover

COST: 85 AP

:: +10% Crit, +10% Evasion

NEW ITEM- Dragontruth Glaive

COST: 55 AP

:: +10% Crit.

:: Deal damage equal to 20% of your crit chance to target. This damage can crit.

NEW ITEM- Knuckleduster

Auction Exclusive item.

COST: 80 AP

:: +5 Attack. +10% Crit.

:: Your attacks in combat have a 10% chance of stunning the target for 1 turn.

 

OTHER ITEMS:

Meanwhile, some other new items will be entering the pool:

NEW ITEM- Magic Clay

COST: 60 AP

:: Consume: Gain a copy of a random item in a target player’s inventory.

NEW ITEM- Invisibility Incense

Cost: 25 AP

:: Consume: Drain 4 energy, and become untargetable for 1 round.

NEW ITEM- Infinity Potion

COST: 55 AP

:: Consume: Gain +1 Attack and +1 Defense permanently. After 2 turns, add this item back to your inventory.

NEW ITEM- Care Package

COST: 100 AP

:: Consume: Fill your inventory with random consumable items.

NEW ITEM- Foxlight’s Grace

COST: 70 AP

:: +1 Defense

:: After being targeted by an enemy, heal for 10 HP.

NEW ITEM- Earthmother’s Root

COST: 140 AP

:: +20 Max Health

:: In combat, your attacks deal bonus damage equal to 5% of your max health.

NEW ITEM- Fortification Rune

COST: 50 AP

:: +20 Max Health

NEW ITEM- Sorrow

COST: 80 AP

:: +2 Max energy

:: Whenever you damage a player out of combat, they take 5% of their max health as bonus damage.

ITEM CHANGES — BALANCE TWEAKS

CHANGED-  Staff of Demons

• Is now auction-exclusive, and grants +2 Max Energy.

CHANGED –  Cleansing Trinket

• Renamed to “Fearless Trinket”
• Now only removes haunt effects from the player who uses it.
• Base price reduced to 20 AP.

CHANGED –  Ryan’s Piercer

• Cost increased from 110 AP to 125 AP.

CHANGED –  Purging Wand

• Cost increased to 90 AP (From 40).
• Now removes untargetable effects from ALL players, not just one target.
• Cooldown increased from 4 rounds to 6.

CHANGED –  Alien Shield

• Now reduces damage from all sources by 2. (From 1).

CHANGED –  Dovan’s Dog Whistle

• Damage dealt reduced to 15 (from 20). This damage is double against targets below half health.

CHANGED –  Das’Kai Blood Tome

• Renamed from Dashkai’s Blood Tome
• New Effect: Your power is 30% stronger. Activate to restore 6 energy. (3 round cooldown).
  • No longer grants max health.

CHANGED –  Berserking Blade

• Attack damage doubling happens when below half health. (Changed from 4o% health).

CHANGED –  Riot Shield

• Active damage no longer scales with max health. (Still scales with defense score).
• Effect now reads: Deal damage to a target equal to your defense score.
• No longer grants max health. Defense bonus increased from 4 –> 6.

CHANGED –  Steadfast Spaulders

• No longer grants defense.
• New Effect: You are immune to stuns in combat.

CHANGED –  AG II Pistol

• Cost increased to 40 AP (From 20).
• New Effect: Activate: Deal damage equal to 50% of your attack to a target.
• Grants +4 Attack (Up from 2).
• Cooldown increased to 3 rounds (From 2).

CHANGED –  Jason’s Shield

• Cost increased to 50 AP (From 20).
• Now grants +4 Defense (Up from 2).
• New Effect: Reduces damage taken while out of combat by 20%.

ITEM REMOVALS:

These items leave this patch, mostly because they didn’t offer enough strategic diversity. RIP Pizza.

REMOVED – Gold Dagger, Sword of Reaping, Spartan Helmet, Basic Tunic, Chainmail Armor, Omen of Death, Prime Pendant, Fresh Pizza

 

BUG FIXES:

• Fixed a bug where Villain’s Cape was not awarding the proper AP bonus.
• Fixed a bug where item tooltips would not display on the targeting UI.
• Fixed a bug where a player disconnecting could freeze the battle UI.
• Disconnected players should no longer appear in Brawls.