tldr;
Five things from patch notes review. Bare with me as I didn't sleep last night and I'm sick, but here's my take:
- If this doesn't change, moving the 140 faction bonus to 90 is insanely awesome. The special faction is gonna be BONKERS, particularly for farming.
- The massive increase in hero star levels is gonna cause a bunch of the faction bonuses to get crazy strong (Warrior). I'm going from 18 to 25 as an example.
- By adding 1 and 2, the 4* warlord is going to be (relatively) common AND HUGE.
- Faction Wars just got a massive buff, but it was already very strong IMO. Those Diamond passes are now an outrageous value.
- The 140 bonuses to Santa and Werebeast stand out to me as awesome. Everyone else gets like a 20% damage buff at 140.
And on the content side, the Hard Mode Arena looks amazing.
All around awesome for late-game players, I'm not sure how it impacts early-game players' resource allocation.
New tool created by @Poopa and @Wave to calculate the conversion for your current set of hero resources into the new one.
⭐ Massively Reduced Hero Upgrade Costs!
When we first introduced the hero system, we had around 15 heroes in the game. Now, there are over 50, and we're adding more all the time! 🏆
Over time, we've seen that the cost to max out a hero has become too high. Most players don't engage with the shard system beyond star rank 2, and Faction Wars doesn't feel worthwhile because the rewards don't allow for meaningful progress.
On top of that, many players don't feel that upgrades beyond star rank 1 or 2 are worth it. We're here to change that! 🎉
🔥 Hero Star Rank Costs - Drastically Reduced!
To make hero progression more engaging, we've massively reduced the cost to max out a hero:
📌 Shards Required per Star Rank (Cumulative):
- Rank 1: 10 → 10
- Rank 2: 75 → 50
- Rank 3: 375 → 150
- Rank 4: 1225 → 450
- Rank 5: 2725 → 1050
That's a huge 61% reduction at star rank 5! 🚀
With this significant cost reduction, we've made a few small adjustments to ensure a fair balance between different shard sources:
- End of Adventure chest: Now yields 50 shards instead of 100
- $15 shard offer: Now grants 50 shards instead of 100
Don't worry - just like before, those shard amounts will get your hero to 2-star.
These tweaks help maintain a healthy balance between paid and free progression, ensuring that hero upgrades feel fair and rewarding across all playstyles.
💡 No changes have been made to Faction Wars shard rewards, as we believe they are already in a great spot with the reduced requirements. This means Faction Wars becomes one of the best ways to farm hero shards efficiently! 🎯
These adjustments allow us to deliver huge shard cost reductions without making certain sources disproportionately strong. In the end, you'll still be able to level up heroes faster and more affordably than ever before! 💪
📚 Skill Book Requirements - Drastically Reduced!
A hero's true strength comes from their skills, but we've seen that skill upgrades are often overlooked within the community due to their high costs. To make skill progression more accessible and rewarding, we've significantly reduced the number of skill books required for each level!
📌 Skill Books Required Per Skill Level (Cumulative):
- Level 2: 15 → 5
- Level 3: 50 → 20
- Level 4: 125→ 50
- Level 5: 275 → 100
That's a massive 64% discount! 🎉
⚡ Hero Orb Requirements - Also Reduced!
Hero Orbs Required Per Level (Cumulative):
- Level 50: 1934 → 1934
- Level 100: 19549 → 18649
- Level 125: 49389 → 40074
- Level 150: 108889 → 74949
- Level 175: 210889 → 129199
At level 175, that's a 39% reduction! While orb cost weren't reduced as much as shards (since they are universally useful and heroes can be reset), this will still be a noticeable improvement.
🔹 What this means for you
Leveling heroes is now much more achievable!
You can now build multiple heroes without breaking the bank 💰
Faction Wars is actually worth doing, as it now plays a major role in star rank progression
💎 And here's the best part
You will keep all resources you've invested so far! 💯 If your hero was star rank 3 in the old system, you will get refunded the shards and can level up your hero to get closer to star rank 4.
No losses, only gains! The same for hero orbs and skillbooks. You will get any hero orbs or skillbooks you've invested in the old system back into your inventory after the update so you can freely distribute them.
⚖️ More Meaningful Progression
To ensure hero progression feels rewarding and balanced, we're making a couple of necessary tweaks:
- The first skill now unlocks at level 40 (star rank 0) instead of 20 (star rank 0).
- The second skill now unlock at level 80 (star rank 1) instead of 40 (star rank 0).
- The ultimate ability now unlocks at level 100 (star rank 2) instead of 80 (star rank 1).
- Faction bonus unlocks at 90 (star rank 2) instead of 140 (star rank 4).
- The third global ability now unlocks at level 120 (star rank 3) instead of 100 (star rank 2).
- You still have 2 globals until star rank 1, which you get automatically through Adventure.
- There is a new strong stat boost that unlocks on level 140 to make star rank 4 more powerful.
Forge upgrades now require certain star ranks to unlock:
- Forge level 1 → Requires star rank 0
- Forge level 2 → Requires star rank 1
- Forge level 3 → Requires star rank 2
- Forge level 4-5 → Requires star rank 3
We want higher star ranks to feel truly powerful, and right now, they don't stand out as much as they should. These changes create a stronger connection between star ranks and your hero's strength.
💡 Important: You won't lose any ultimates or forge upgrades you've already unlocked - even if your hero no longer meets the new requirements!
🎯 Why This Is a Win for Everyone
Our goal with these changes is to make star ranking feel rewarding, farmable, and worthwhile. You can now realistically progress multiple heroes, Faction Wars is worth your time again, and higher star ranks actually matter.
We know change can take time to adjust to, but we truly believe this will make hero progression more engaging, strategic, and satisfying in the long run.
🏯 Arena Hard Mode - A New Power Benchmark!
Reaching Arena Stage 20 has long been a major power milestone for many players. It's satisfying, and the rewards are strong. However, since the arena was introduced a while ago, many players now consistently clear Arena 20, and we know you're looking for a new challenge.
That's why we're excited to introduce Arena Hard Mode! 🎉
🔥 What's New in Arena Hard Mode?
- Weapon Token Choice - The main purpose of Hard Mode is to give you more control! Instead of receiving random weapon tokens, you'll now get to choose between 3 different weapon tokens.
- Better Rewards - While we believe the overall amount of tokens is in a good spot, we're increasing all rewards by 10% on average to provide an extra incentive. The real focus, however, is on choice and progression rather than just quantity.
- Bragging Rights! - Compete with others and show off how far you can push in Arena Hard Mode! Who will conquer the toughest stages? 🏆
🎯 How It Works
✔ Unlocks automatically once you beat Arena 20 for the first time.
✔ Once unlocked, your arena will always start in Hard Mode by default.
✔ If Hard Mode becomes too tough, you can switch to Normal Mode at any time and continue from the stages you haven't beaten yet.
✔ Important: If you switch to Normal Mode, you can't go back to Hard Mode for the rest of the week - so choose wisely!
🎟️ Improved Hero Passes & Adventure Passes
🏆 Battle Passes - More Valuable Than Ever!
We've made significant improvements to the Hero Pass and Diamond Pass to make them more rewarding and customizable for all players.
🔹 Choose Your Hero Shards!
Instead of receiving neutral pet currency, you will now get hero shards of your choice as the first reward in both passes. This reinforces our commitment to making the star rank system more accessible, giving you more control over which heroes you want to invest in.
🔹 No more items you don't need in passes!
Some players mentioned that the Battle Pass doesn't feel as valuable anymore due to the abundance of scrolls and keys they no longer need. To fix this:
✔ For players that have full heroic: All scrolls and keys have been replaced with dust and runestones. The legendary gear piece has been replaced with 100 hero shards of your choice. The epic gear piece has been replaced with 10 hero shards of your choice.
✔ For players that are VIP6+: All scrolls have been replaced with dust (we are assuming here that VIP6+ does not need scrolls anymore - we might change this condition based on feedback).
✔ This ensures that you never have to pay for a resource you don't need!
These changes make the passes a great investment again, ensuring that all rewards are useful no matter where you are in your progression.
🏹 Adventure Passes - Reach the End Faster!
With the major improvements to hero progression, reaching the final adventure chest is more rewarding than ever. To make it easier and more exciting, we've improved Adventure Passes as well:
- Gold Pass → Now skips 10 adventure stages.
- Diamond Pass → Now skips 40 adventure stages (instead of just 20) AND instantly grants 50 hero shards upon purchase! That means instant hero unlock on star rank 2. 🎉
- We have replaced scrolls from the Adventure rewards with dust for people that have progressed equipment to an extent they have excess scrolls to make the Adventure loot more meaningful.
These changes help you progress faster, focus on the most meaningful parts of the game, and get the rewards you actually care about. 🚀
🔥 Upcoming Features & Improvements
A brand-new game mode that takes full advantage of your broad hero roster, making team-building more important than just stacking global stats. This mode is still in development, but the announced star rank and hero progression changes are laying the groundwork for it.
Portal System Overhaul - We're looking into a way to better earn shards for specific heroes, giving you more control over hero progression.
Guild Overhaul (Later This Year!) - We know that community & teamwork are a huge part of the game, but right now, guilds don't reflect that as much as they should. Expect:
- Exciting new cooperative & competitive guild modes
- Permanent guild progression & upgrades
- More ways to play & interact with your guildmates!
We will continue our internal discussions on how to make obtaining older adventure heroes more reliable. One idea we are considering is a staged system, where acquiring heroes becomes progressively easier as they age. This approach would allow us to reward players who invest time and money to obtain heroes at launch while ensuring that new players are not locked out.
We're incredibly excited for the future, and we're so grateful for your passion, feedback, and dedication to the game.
⚔️ Patch 3.4.0 - Hero Level 140 Stat Unlocks (1/4) (Stats might change until release)
Following the community Letter, we're adding a list of all new strong stat boosts that will await you with the upcoming update.
At Level 140, every hero gains a new powerful stat boost to empower their gameplay identity and strength.
All values use + notation and are marked as (Additive) or (Multiplicative).
| Hero | Lvl 140 Stat |
|---|---|
| Arcane Mage | +4 Arcane Wand Projectile Penetration (Additive) |
| Knight | +30 Armor (Additive) |
| Dark Ranger | +15% Critical Hit Chance (Additive) |
| Crazy Tinkerer | +3 Starting Upgrades (Additive) |
| Fire Wizard | +20% Extra Damage to Burning Enemies (Multiplicative) |
| Frost Wizard | +20% Extra Damage to Frozen Enemies (Multiplicative) |
| Blade Master | +15% Critical Hit Chance (Additive) |
| Spirit Shaman | +20% Max Health (Multiplicative) |
| Paladin | +20% Bonus XP (Additive) |
| Reaper | +30 Evasion (Additive) |
| Pirate Girl Gunslinger | +5% Instant Kill Chance (Additive) |
| Warlock | +3 Magical Extra Projectiles (Additive) |
| Barbarian | +1 Extra Damage per 1% Missing Health (Multiplicative) |
| Big Game Hunter | +30% Extra Damage to Bosses (Multiplicative) |
| Clockwork Mage | +20% Extra Damage to Slowed Enemies (Multiplicative) |
| Monk | +20% Projectile Speed (Additive) |
| Tide Warden | +20% Projectile Speed (Additive) |
| Santa | +5% Chance to Earn a Gold Key on Chapter Completion (Additive) |
| Assassin | +20% Weapon Status Effect Multiplier (Additive) |
| Frost Queen | +20% Extra Damage to Frozen Enemies (Multiplicative) |
| Oracle | +30% Weapon Duration (Additive) |
| Dragon Empress | +15% Reduced Weapon Cooldown (Additive) |
| Artificer | +3 Projectiles (Additive) |
| Dark Paladin | +4 Soulburst Projectile Penetration (Additive) |
| Bomber Pilot | +3 Projectiles (Additive) |
| Leprechaun | +10% Coins Bonus (Additive) |
| Rose Mother | +20% Extra Damage to Poisoned Enemies (Multiplicative) |
| Bunni | +10% Chance to Deal 4x Critical Damage (Additive) |
| Hoplite | +20% Physical Weapon Damage (Multiplicative) |
| Warlord | +20% Physical Weapon Damage (Multiplicative) |
| Druid | +20% Max Health (Multiplicative) |
| Necromancer | +20% Max Health (Multiplicative) |
| Geomancer | +3 Physical Extra Projectiles (Additive) |
| Energy Mage | +4 Weapon Max Penetration (Additive) |
| Sentry Specialist | +3 Projectiles (Additive) |
| Werebeast | +20% Max Health (Multiplicative) |
| Astral Mage | +20% Magical Weapon Damage (Multiplicative) |
| Void Raven | +20% Physical Weapon Damage (Multiplicative) |
| Shield Warden | +15% Weapon Damage (Multiplicative) |
| Paper Sage | +20% Magical Weapon Damage (Multiplicative) |
| Lionheart | +20% Physical Weapon Damage (Multiplicative) |
| Steam Sentinel | +3 Physical Extra Projectiles (Additive) |
| Bavarian | +10% Extra Orbs (Additive) |
| Pumpkin | +3 Physical Extra Projectiles (Additive) |
| Crystalmancer | +3 Magical Extra Projectiles (Additive) |
| Circuit Breaker | +20% Magical Weapon Damage (Multiplicative) |
| Glacier Sentinel | +15% Weapon Damage (Multiplicative) |
| Nutcracker | +20% Physical Weapon Damage (Multiplicative) |
| Runemaster | +50% Weapon Status Effect Duration (Additive) |
| Snake Emperor | +20% Extra Damage to Poisoned Enemies (Multiplicative) |
| Echo | +10% Chance to Deal 4x Critical Damage (Additive) |
| Bombardier | +3 Projectiles (Additive) |
| Plaguekeeper | +3 Starting Upgrades (Additive) |
| Blossom Ronin | +15% Weapon Damage (Multiplicative) |
