Greetings Survivors,

For this Public Beta release, you will have access to our latest feature: Arenas.

Arenas are a new league-based solo competitive PvP experience, found in the “Versus” menu. Arenas have different rules for combat and scoring than other features, and you’ll need to take advantage of them in order to beat your competition and earn unique rewards.

Each week of a League Season will feature many different Arenas. Rank highly in any Arena or enter enough Arenas throughout the week and you’ll earn entry into the weekly Champion’s Arena. The first Entry into every Arena is always free, while subsequent Entries are possible with additional Arena Tickets, which will be available in-game.

Note: we are working on many of the improvements to existing features in the game as outlined in a recent post 96. While this work is happening in parallel with the Arenas feature, you will not see any of these improvements in Public Beta. We anticipate some of these improvements will be available in conjunction with Arenas when it is released live.

Arena Combat Rules:

Arenas feature a set of new Combat Themes in which the rules of combat and team construction are changed. Come up with new strategies to beat your opponents!

  • Trait Mania Theme: Thought you knew how Trait Advantage works? Not Anymore! No Leader Skills, Bigger Trait Advantage Buffs, and reshuffled Trait Advantages!
  • Old School Theme: Do you miss 2017? Well, now it’s back! Old School features 5-Star characters and below only!
  • Draft Theme: Select your team from a pool of characters and lead them to victory! All characters on offense and defense are auto-maxed. Leader Skills and Mods are disabled. Bring your own weapons! Draft a new team every Entry.
  • Role Squads: Each Role (Tank, Damage, Support, Medic) will have their own Arena with specific buffs to that role. Stack your team with those characters to really roll over the competition.
  • Classic Theme: Why mess with a good thing? Same normal rules as Raid and War.

Arena Scoring Modes:

Arenas feature two new scoring modes which determine how you earn points:

  • Domination Mode: Compete over who can have the highest single-Entry score in a single Arena.
  • Endurance Mode: Compete over who can accumulate the most points across Entries in a single Arena. In this mode, some of the fighters in your attack team will be Worn Out after each Entry completion, and you can save only a subset of them for future use. The remaining Worn Out fighters will not be available to use for the remainder of that Arena. Choose wisely!

Domination and Endurance scoring modes will be combined with the different Combat Themes to create a different competitive experience through each League Season!

Veteran Promotion Levels & Veteran Gear:

Arenas introduce a new way to advance your fully tiered and leveled 6-star fighters through Veteran Promotion Levels. Promotion Levels, which require Veteran Gear, increase the base stats for each Veteran Level attained. Veteran Gear can only be earned through Arenas.

This feature is currently in Development and all information is subject to change prior to launch.

FAQ: Arenas

Who am I competing against?

  • During normal Arenas, players compete against other players in their Solo League. These players make up the leaderboard as well the opponent selection options. In Champions Arena, players compete across divisions and potentially Leagues.

What is an Entry and how many battles do I get per Entry?

  • An Entry is how you begin competing in Arenas, and is framed by a set number of battles. During Public Beta, each Entry will consist of 4 battles, and you will be able to choose your opponents from a selection of 8 potential opponents of differing team strength. Opponent options are selected from your League and will be different each Entry.

What do I do if I don’t have any Arena tickets?

  • The first Entry for each normal Arena is free to all players, and Arena Tickets will be available in-game through various means. Alternatively, coins can be spent for Entries. There are no free entries for Champion Arenas. In order to access the Champion’s Arena, you must earn at least one Champions Ticket to gain access.

Can I change my fighter team before each battle in an Entry?

  • No. Once you enter an Arena, you’ll be able to see your potential opponents. At that point, you must select and finalize your team before your first battle, and you will use that same team for all battles in that Arena Entry. Choose your team wisely to maximize your chances of winning all 4 battles! You will be able to choose a new team for future Entries to that Arena.

How does the “Entry Boost” system work?

  • In Endurance Arenas, you will be able to spend multiple tickets on an entry to earn a score multiplier. Entry Boosts must be made prior to seeing your opponents and selecting your team.

How are “Worn Out” Fighters determined in Endurance Arenas?

  • At the end of an Entry in an Endurance Arena, a subset of the fighters you used in that Entry are randomly selected to be Worn Out. Worn Out is not based on combat performance. You will then have the choice of which to save for use later if you want to enter that Arena again. In Public Beta, 3 fighters will be selected to be Worn Out at the end of each Endurance Entry, and you will be able to select 1 to save.

How is Entry Score calculated?

  • Entry Score is calculated from your battle scores, win streak multiplier, and Entry Boost multiplier (Endurance mode only). You cannot win against the same opponent more than once per entry, but you can retry against opponents who’ve defeated you. Retries, however, will use additional battles
    • Battle Scores: Win you win a battle, you will earn a Battle Score based on the best historical team grade of your opponent and the Star Rating you earned that battle. Star Rating is determined by the number of your fighters remaining at the end of the battle.
    • Streak Bonus: Every battle you win within an Entry increases your Streak Bonus. Your battle score at the end of each battle is increased by your Streak Bonus multiplier. A lost battle resets your Streak Bonus multiplier to 1.
    • Entry Boosts: In Endurance Mode, you have the opportunity to Entry Boost with multiple tickets when you enter. This will increase your score by a certain multiplier (which may not be the same as the number of tickets spent). This multiplier is indicated when you make your Entry Boost decision.

How does defense play into Arenas?

  • Players can set their defense team according to the rules of the Arena. Defense teams are set inside of the Arena feature, and you can have a different defense team for each Combat Theme.
  • If you are presented as a potential opponent during another player’s entry but they do not choose to battle your defense team, you receive league trophies for being skipped. The strength of the defense team you set for that Arena doesn’t influence the max score your opponents can receive by defeating you; that score is based off your historical best team grade.

What are the rewards for playing Arenas?

  • Players who play Arenas can earn Rank Rewards based on their ranks at the end of each Arena. Players can also earn Entry Milestone Rewards, which track the number of Arena entries across the week of a League Stretch.

Do all Arenas have the same rewards?

  • No. Arenas might have different Rank and Entry milestone rewards depending on Combat Theme, Score Mode, and League of the Arena. Higher Leagues generally offer higher rewards. At launch, all Arenas will award Veteran Gear as well as other prizes, though this may change over time.

Entry Improved Rewards – what are they? How do I know what’s happening?

  • Entry Improved Rewards are a special kind of rank reward that you may see in some Arenas that improve as players across your Arena begin additional Entries. Entry Improved Rewards will be indicated by a special icon on the header of a reward column. Tapping on this icon will show how many entries are needed to reach the next reward tier if available. Entry Improved Rewards will improve when each new reward tier is reached. Note that only the rewards under that single column will improve. For Arenas in which Entry Boost is possible, each ticket spent against the Entry Boost will count towards the leaderboard-wide Entry Improved Rewards (every ticket counts, even multiple from the same player)

What is Fog of War?

  • In certain Arenas, your opponent’s positions and scores will be hidden until you enter that Arena. Once you enter, you will be able to see the name and scores for those opponents who have scored less than you, as well as a certain number of opponents who are directly above you in the leaderboard. Move farther up the leaderboard to reveal more names.

How does Drafting work?

  • When you enter a Draft Arena, after seeing your opponent options, you will be able to draft your team one by one from a series of randomly selected groups of fighters chosen from a select list. Once you draft a Fighter, you will not be able to change your selection. You must draft and confirm a Fighter in order to reveal the next set of options. Don’t forget that leader skills and mods are disabled for both Offense and Defense. Both Offense and Defense can use their own weapons, if applicable, and both teams will be automatically brought to max tier, max level during battles.

Does Worn Out happen during Endurance Draft Arenas?

  • No. Since you are playing with drafted Fighters, and you re-draft your team every Entry, Worn Out does not take effect.

Do all fighters require the same amount of Veteran Gear to be Promoted?

  • No, different fighters might require different amounts of Veteran Gear (as well as other costs) in order to be promoted.

How does Champions Arena work?

  • Champions Arena is a special Arena with heavier competition and greater prizes. It is available at the end of every week and will feature one of the combat and scoring modes. In order to qualify, players must earn at least one Champion Ticket any time during the week. Players will compete against others that have earned Champion Tickets in an expanded leaderboard that includes players from other divisions and potentially Leagues.

How do I earn Champion Tickets?

  • Champion Tickets can be earned in two ways
    • Ranking highly in any non-Champions Arena – this will be distributed to your Rewards Inbox after the Arena’s conclusion
    • Entry milestones – various rewards can be earned by entering enough Arenas throughout the week, including Champion Tickets. These will also be sent to your Rewards Inbox when earned

I earned Champion Tickets and other Entry Milestone Prizes, where did they go?

  • Entry Milestones Prizes, including Champion Tickets, are sent to your Rewards Inbox when earned. These rewards must be claimed to get added to your inventory. Champion Tickets need to be in your inventory to be used in Champions Arena.

I earned Champion Tickets last week and didn’t use them, why are they no longer in my inventory?

  • Champion Tickets expire at the end of every week, so make sure you use yours in Champions Arena before it ends!

How do I know what scoring system and combat rules a particular Arena is using?

  • In the leaderboard screen of each Arena, the Mode frame will indicate whether that Arena is Domination or Endurance scoring, while the Rules frame will have icons for each of the rules impacting combat and team construction. You can also see those modifications in the team edit screen.

Where to find the information regarding the Public Beta Program


Below is the list of the changes coming in the 21.0.0 game update.

New Features

  • Arenas – Introducing a brand new PVP mode! Battle against your League opponents each day for great rewards!
    • Combat with a Twist – Experience combat in a fresh way with new combat rules and team requirements
    • First Entry is Free – The first entry to each Arena is free, so all players can participate
    • Become a Champion – Play Arenas to earn your way into the Champions Arena at the end of each League Stretch, and win even greater rewards
  • Choice Boxes – A new box type that gives you control over what you get from it!
    • strong text Choose the rewards you want – When opening a choice box, a number of reward options are presented, and you get to choose which ones you get

Bug Fixes

General

  • Fixed an issue where the War Leaderboard was not visible during War.
  • Fixed a bug where the Next Milestone field of a Level Up Tournament wasn’t displaying properly.
  • Fixed a bug that could happen when saving a Walker Hordes defense team

Combat

  • Fix a bug that causes the game to crash during Walker horde combat
  • Fixed some scenarios where the Guardian Shield icon would show on a character that no longer has a Guardian Shield buff preventing them from getting a new Guardian Shield buff in some instances.
  • Fixed a targeting issues with Jackson’s active skill

Improvements

  • Added a way to send a support request after retrying to enter the game on a Content 2 error
  • Updated Edit Team UI to indicate the character stats that will be present in combat via weapon effects and leader skills