EpicDuel PVP Game Design Notes

May 28, 2021

Infernal Quest

The sage of the forgotten mines beneath the Wasteland Minetower, Kraggor has plans for a new, improved Infernal Slayer, but he needs your help to complete it! 

Visit the mighty mecha himself to being the Infernal Quest Part 1 with the starting mission Infernal Malfunction! These 22 missions will require a keen eye and adept skills to complete, but at the end new weapons and a new achievement await!

Varium Bonus

For a limited time, the 10,000 AP Varium packages will include more Varium! The Sea King Set now includes 12,000 Varium and the Varium-only package includes 15,000 Varium! These deals won't last forever so log in and power up today!

Tags: Nightwraith

May 21, 2021

POWER UP...with Credits?!

For awhile several power cores have dominated PvP. Unfortunately for many, these cores were only available for Varium. We want those who spend money to support EpicDuel to get a good value for their generous contributions, but if the game becomes too tilted in favor of Varium players, it can become a boring, if not hostile, experience for players who love the EpicDuel but cannot buy Varium. Walking this fine line between empowering Varium users without alienating Credit-only players has been a challenge as old as EpicDuel itself.

To help restore a bit of power to Credit-only players, we've made cores that had previously been Varium-only available for Credits. Please note that some of these cores are slightly less powerful than their Varium counterparts so there will still be a distinction for those who choose to purchase Varium. If this feature is popular enough, we can do the same for more Varium-only cores.

Now available at the War Memorial in the Infernal Mines:

• Om Nom Bomb P x25: Summon a swarm to attack target and absorb 20% Physical damage to HP.
• Om Nom Bomb E x25: Summon a swarm to attack target and absorb 20% Energy damage to HP.
• Magma Grenade P x25: Physical grenade that lowers defenses by an increasing amount (0.8 per level) for 4 turns.
• Magma Grenade E x25: Energy grenade that lowers defenses by an increasing amount (0.8 per level) for 4 turns.
• Short Circuit Grenade P x25: A grenade that deals 75% Physical damage and puts a random skill into Cooldown.
• Short Circuit Grenade E x25: A grenade that deals 75% Energy damage and puts a random skill into Cooldown.
• Crystal Grenade x25: A grenade that reduces the target's energy by 25% of normal strike damage.
• Stalagrenade P x25: Hardened Physical grenade that ignores 15% Defense with 10% Crit chance.
• Stalagrenade E x25: Hardened Energy grenade that ignores 15% Defense with 10% Crit chance.
• Hammer Grenade P x25: 60% Physical damage that removes armor for 2 rounds.
• Hammer Grenade E x25: 60% Energy damage that removes armor for 2 rounds.

Now available at VendBots across Delta V:

• Health Reserve x25: Restore health based on your armor’s defense (2.7 points of HP for every point of Defense)
• Energy Reserve x25: Restore energy based on your armor’s resistance (2.7 points of Energy for every point of Resistance)
• Thrown Shot x25: Throw away your shot, destroying your sidearm for 300 HP

Now available from Kraggor:

• Revitalization: Sacrifice Armor's Defense / Resistance and an extra 25% for 6 turns for up to 800 HP.
• Focused Fury: Attack with fury, dealing primary damage plus 8% of your target's max Health (Max 350).
• TrueShot (Gun): Deal 75% Sidearm damage, increasing by 5% per round, (115% max).
• Mana Burst: Reduce enemy energy by 25% of normal auxiliary damage.

Now available from Titan:

• Infinity Power Strike x25: Same as Varium
• Infinity Mind Spears x25: Same as Varium
• Infinity Power Strike: Spend 95 HP for 105% strike damage. Blockable.
• Infinity Mind Spears: Summon a piercing barrage, ignoring 15% of a target's Defense.

Other Core Adjustment

Infernal Surge: 6 turn cooldown; reusable

New Achievement! 

View your achievement shops to grab the limited Heroic Memorial 2021 achievement! 

Bug Fix

Soul Siphon: no longer gives target rage.

Tags: Nightwraith

May 14, 2021

Hear that? That's the sound of hundreds of core slots unlocking on a host of rare items from throughout EpicDuel's history! Dust off your favorite weapons from your crowded inventory or BankBot and assemble the build and aesthetic of your epic dreams!

New Dread Weapons!

The Exile Leader and Administrator 10 have crafted a new generation of Dread weapons to help you previal.

• Dread Phase Edge P
• Dread Phase Edge E
• Dread Phase Blaster P
• Dread Phase Blaster E
• Dread Phase Cannon P
• Dread Phase Cannon E

Core Unlocked!

For years many EpicDuel weapons and armors of coveted rarity were locked to one or two cores. Though this gave the items unique attributes, they were often left to rust as the PvP meta shifted to new builds. Now, finally, most of these restrictions have been lifted as these Passive and Active core slots have been unlocked!

Armors Unlocked

• Platinum's Pride
• Botanical Battle Suit M
• Botanical Battle Suit F
• Blood Hawk Armor
• Hazmat Suit
• ProtoSartorium Armor CC
• ProtoSartorium Armor

Weapons Unlocked:

• Ghoul Cannon 2018
• Spectral Blaster 2018
• Vampiric Boomstick P (active only)
• Vampiric Boomstick E (active only)
• Ishmael's Impaler P
• Ishmael's Impaler E
• Stun Cannon
• Stun Blaster
• Stun Cannon 2018
• Stun Blaster 2018
• Infernal Interdictor
• Bionic Battlegear
• Omega Obliterator
• Omega Slayer
• Omega Onslaughter
• Omega Impaler
• Omega Obliterator 2018
• Omega Slayer 2018
• Omega Onslaughter 2018
• Omega Impaler 2018
• Azrael's Bane
• Azrael's Annihilator P
• Azrael's Annihilator E
• Azrael's Reaper
• Azrael's Spirit
• Botanical Battlegear P
• Botanical Battlegear E
• Exile Battlegear P
• Exile Battlegear E
• Legion Battlegear P
• Legion Battlegear E
• Dread Desolator P
• Dread Desolator E
• Black Abyss Battlegear P
• Black Abyss Battlegear E
• Black Abyss Slayer P
• Black Abyss Slayer E
• Blood Hawk Slayer P
• Blood Hawk Slayer E
• Blood Hawk Battlegear P
• Blood Hawk Battlegear E
• Lionhart's Carnage
• Lionhart's Knowledge
• Kartherax's Destroyer P
• Kartherax's Destroyer E
• Kartherax's Reaper P
• Kartherax's Reaper E
• Frozen Fury Destroyer P
• Frozen Fury Destroyer E
• Frozen Fury Scythe P
• Frozen Fury Scythe E
• Frozen Fury Blaster P
• Frozen Fury Blaster E
• Frozen Fury Annihilator P
• Frozen Fury Annihilator E
• Bio Berserker P
• Bio Berserker E
• Bio Slayer P
• Bio Slayer E
• Bio Blaster P
• Bio Blaster E
• Bio Hunter Rifle P
• Bio Hunter Rifle E
• Azrael's Evolution P
• Azrael's Evolution E
• Azrael's Bloodletter P
• Azrael's Bloodletter E
• Azrael's Punisher P
• Azrael's Punisher E
• Infinity Titan Sword P
• Infinity Titan Sword E
• Infinity Titan Axe P
• Infinity Titan Axe E
• Infinity Titan Daggers P
• Infinity Titan Daggers E
• Infinity Titan Maul P
• Infinity Titan Maul E
• Infinity Titan Staff P
• Infinity Titan Staff E

Welcome New Testers!

This release was especially exciting as it was the first task of our new batch of testers! I'm pleased to welcome them all to the team, and they will be formally announced once their official AE personas have been chosen!

Tags: Nightwraith

May 04, 2021

The Tyrant's Trial, EpicDuel's first tournament of 2021 has concluded. Congratulations to all the 50 finalists, including the grand prize winner, Daddy!  Maintaining that dueling momentum for 2 weeks isn't easy, but you were able to rise to the challenge! Thank you everyone who participated in this anticipated introduction of EpicDuel's Tournament system.

The following prizes were awarded to the top 50 winners! Each tier receives all the awards from the lower tiers:

• Platinum Tier
  • Alydriah's Armor
  • Alydriah's Avarice CC P
  • Alydriah's Avarice CC E
  • Alydriah custom hairstyle
• Gold Tier
  • Alydriah's Arsenal P
  • Alydriah's Arsenal E
• Silver Tier
  • Alydriah's Arbiter P
  • Alydriah's Arbiter E
  • Alydriah's Annihilator P
  • Alydriah's Annihilator E
• Bronze Tier
  • Alydriah's Avarice P
    Alydriah's Avarice E

Tournament Post Mortem

Throughout this tournament we learned a few lessons and will make some changes for future tournaments. Botting, an issue in all online games, reared its ugly head here. This was expected, and we increased our regular patrols to identify and ban as many botters and dummy accounts as we could. We understand the temptation: logging off means missing out of duels which means fewer points. This is exacerbated by a longer tournament which can create dueling fatigue.

To help reduce the temptation and pressure, subsequent tournaments will be shorter, likely a week or less in length. We may also need to adjust scoring to discourage botting in Juggernaut, if not removing it from the tournament scoring completely. Juggernaut has been in a weird place for awhile in which it's the mode most susceptible to botters, while also being a safe-haven for players who need to grind XP and credits before facing the high rank Legendary players. We don't want to remove an entire battle mode, but adjustments will need to be made to ensure a PvP tournament is actually PvP and not AI vs AI.

Thanks to the flexibility of the Tournament system, we can introduce tournaments exclusively for single battle mode, like an all 2v2 tournament which could bring in new players to the mode who exclusively build for 1v1. 

May the Fourth

Like last year on the 4th of May, EpicDuel staff Twitter accounts will be distributing codes for "Star Saber" weapons! You'll need to be quick if you want to collect them all. Not all of them will drop today so you'll need to keep an eye on Twitter if you want to collect them all!

Tags: Nightwraith