EpicDuel PVP Game Design Notes

November 30, 2023

Are you ready? Ready for Gifting? It's hard to believe the biggest EpicDuel event of 2023 is nearly here (I'm as surprised as some of you!), but on Monday December 4th the servers will shut down for an update to activate Gifting! This will happen as soon as possible, but it could be pushed later in the day if any last-minute problems emerge that need stamped out. When the Gifting update is live, the 50,000 Varium package along with the Legendary Epic Supporter 2023 achievement will leave the game. You still have a few more days to stock up, but once this unprecedented package is gone, it's gone!

UPDATE 12-1-2023

It was our intention to have the Gifting Bonus rewards (The Cyber Wolf Collection) ready to preview so everyone could make an informed choice before buying Varium to participate in Gifting, but I've sadly fallen behind my own deadlines. To allow more time to finish the previews and show off the potential rewards, the 50,000 Varium package along with the Legendary Epic Supporter 2023 achievement will remain in the game for another week, leaving the game on December 11th instead of December 4th. Gifting will still go online on December 4th as planned.

Gifting Rules Update

Since many have been asking about a particular aspect of this year's Gifting guidelines, I've decided to issue an amendment: If you are in the top 15 Gifters and you ask for the Physical (P) or Energy (E) version of a Legacy rare, you may also receive the corresponding version of the opposite damage type. For example, this means if you ask for the Bunnyzooka, you may also have the Energy Bunnyzooka.

An important restriction to this amendment is that if an opposite damage variant does not exist, another item will NOT be created to fulfill the request. If you request a Physical damage item with no corresponding Energy variant, you're limited to the Physical version. You also cannot request the Physical version of one item and the Energy version of a completely different item. Armors don't have P or E versions so if you ask for an armor, you only get one armor. You don't get an armor + and item.

It's also worth noting that these rares will not be customized as in previous years, aside from a name to distinguish it as your own such as Player X's Bunnyzooka. I was reluctant to make the above changes because of possible loopholes and confusion, but since the rares won't be customized, the workload shouldn't be increased substantially.

The Challenger Approaches

After being teased in a previous update many months ago, The Challenger is finally being added to EpicDuel. This new NPC will sell old Battlepass items about a year after the Battlepass was initially offered. When the game updates Monday, the NPC will be equipped with items from the Sanguine Showcase and the Frost Revenant Showcase. To maintain the exclusivity of the Battlepass items, the Enhanced Battlepass items will be Varium only, while the Basic items will be offered for Credits / Varium. Cores and Bots will be sold all year while the other Battlepass content will return around when the items were initially offered. Also, starting with the Frost Revenant Showcase items, cores will come pre-equipped with their corresponding items. Since we did not do this with the Sanguine Showcase, we will not pre-equip cores to items to be fair to those who already purchased cores with Varium.

Additionally, for those craving Battlepass styles, the hairs and helms of the Sanguine and Frost Revenant Showcases will be sold in the Style Change interface. As with the items, Basic Battlepass styles will be sold for Credits while Enhanced styles will be Varium only. Battlepass home items and achievements will remain rare.

This approach should be a fair way to acquire Battlepass items for players who were not able to play while the Battlepass was initially offered or discovered the game after the Battlepass expired. If this approach is unpopular, we can adjust our release strategy in future updates.

Seasonal Rares Return

As in past Gifting seasons, seasonal rares will return to shops until the conclusion of Gifting. If you've been away from the game for awhile, Gifting is a great time to stock up and boost your rarity score!

Tags: Nightwraith

November 09, 2023

In addition to the other prizes offered by this year's gifting event, we will be introducing a new batch of prizes for Gifters who manage to achieve certain thresholds for gifts given. The main theme for these prizes will be the Cyber Wolf Set, but there will be some other bonus prizes scattered throughout the tiers. This is designed to provide an opportunity for prizes for those who aren't necessarily aiming to land on the final leaderboard. The hope was that there would be a cool GUI in game to track the scores and automate prize claim, but in due to the heavy workload, we'll be awarding the prizes manually at the conclusion of gifting.

Unfortunately, we don't have many previews to show as the items are still in progress, but we can show you the tier levels as well as the names and types of items we plan to offer for each tier. We will post more previews as the items are completed!

10,000 Gifts (over 150 Gifters attained this level in 2021)

• Cyber Wolf Dagger P
• Cyber Wolf Dagger E
• Festive Classic Armor

15,000 Gifts

• Cyber Wolf Greatsword P
• Cyber Wolf Greatsword E

20,000 Gifts

• Cyber Wolf SMG P
• Cyber Wolf SMG E

25,000 Gifts

• Cyber Wolf Shotgun P
• Cyber Wolf Shotgun E
• Festive Omega Default Armor

50,000 Gifts

• Jack Frost P (Robot)
• Jack Frost E (Robot)

75,000 Gifts

• Cyber Wolf Bow P
• Cyber Wolf Bow E

100,000 Gifts

• Cyber Wolf Arsenal P
• Cyber Wolf Arsenal E
• Frostbane CC
• Ember Bane CC

125,000 Gifts

• Cyber Wolf Bazooka P
• Cyber Wolf Bazooka E

150,000 Gifts

• Cyber Wolf Morph
• Cyber Wolf Morph CC

175,000 Gifts

• Cyber Dragon Morph
• Morph CC

200,000 Gifts

• Cyber Wolf Armor
• Cyber Wolf Armor CC

225,000 Gifts

• Savage Cyber Wolf Armor
• Savage Cyber Wolf Armor CC

250,000 Gifts (28 Gifters attained this level in 2021)

• NightBot 3000 P (Robot)
• NightBot 3000 E (Robot)
• NightBot 3000 Morph

That's all for now. We apologize for the delay in updates, but getting a new Battlepass ready in addition to preparing hundreds of new items for Gifting is stretching us to the limit. Next week, with luck and elbow grease, we should be back on track!

Tags: Nightwraith

November 03, 2023

We're almost a month away from the return of biggest event: Gifting! This season is now planned to last from December 4, 2023 to January 8, 2024. Starting and ending the event on a Monday rather than a Friday works better logistically since it will be easier and quicker to address any problems on a weekday rather than a weekend.

For now, we are pleased to present a preview of the Gifting prizes for winners of each tier of the upcoming event! We wanted to present these rewards in advance so you'll know exactly what you're competing for and can plan accordingly.

Gifting Chest Prize Preview

Below is a comprehensive list of prizes that will be awarded to Gifting finalists. These prizes do not include the Legacy Item award that the top 15 Gifters will be eligible for or the Custom Item that the #1 Gifter will be eligible for. These rewards will be manually added at the end of the competition so please allow some time to receive all your rewards after Gifting concludes.

Bronze Chest Winners (26th - 50th place)

• Shadow Shinobi Armor
• Shinobi Magnum P/E
• Shinobi Assault Rifle P/E
• Shadow Shinobi Katana
• Shadow Shinobi Bike

Silver Chest (11th - 25th place)

• Moon Shinobi Armor
• Shinobi Armor CC
• Bio-Ronin Armor A
• Bio-Ronin Armor B
• Bio-Ronin Armor A CC
• Bio-Ronin Armor B CC
• Shinobi Magnum P/E
• Shinobi Assault Rifle P/E
• Shadow Shinobi Katana P/E
• Moon Shinobi Katana P/E
• Shinobi Katana CC P/E
• Shadow Shinobi Katana P/E
• Shadow Shinobi Bike
• Jack Frost Morph

Gold Chest (1st - 10th place)

• Sun Shinobi Armor
• Moon Shinobi Armor
• Shinobi Armor CC
• Shadow Shinobi Armor
• Bio-Ronin Armor A
• Bio-Ronin Armor B
• Bio-Ronin Armor A CC
• Bio-Ronin Armor B CC
• Apex Bio-Ronin Armor A
• Apex Bio-Ronin Armor B
• Apex Bio-Ronin Armor A CC
• Apex Bio-Ronin Armor B CC
• Shinobi Magnum P/E
• Shinobi Assault Rifle P/E
• Shadow Shinobi Katana P/E
• Moon Shinobi Katana P/E
• Sun Shinobi Katana P/E
• Shinobi Katana CC P/E
• Bio-Ronin Katana P/E
• Shinobi Assault Rifle CC P/E
• Shinobi Magnum CC P/E
• Apex Bio-Ronin Bloodstar / Apex Bio-Ronin Soulstar
• Shadow Shinobi Bike
• Shadow Shinobi Bike CC
• Jack Frost Morph
• Jack Frost Morph CC

Secret Package Preview

Thanks to Acatriel's hard work, we have a preview of the Secret Package rewards well before the Gifting competition begins!  

Silver Secret Package

For those that need a refresher, Silver Secret Packages are given to the first five places of Daily Gifting leaderboard at the end of each day and to anyone who gives out more than 15000 gifts in a day. If you place among the top 15 Gifters at the end of the competition, you may distribute any additional Silver Secret Packages you receive throughout the competition. This means if you win 4 Silver Secret Packages, you may distribute 3 to friends.

• Frostborn Archdemon A
• Frostborn Archdemon B
• Frostborn Archdemon A CC
• Frostborn Archdemon B CC
• Frostborn Slayer Sword P/E
• Frostborn Hand Cannon P/E
• Frostborn Archdemon Bike

Secret Package

For those that need a refresher, Secret Packages are given to the Top Daily Gifting leaderboard at the end of each day. Those who place in the top 15 Gifter but somehow did not receive a Secret Package will receive one at the end of the competition. If you place among the top 15 Gifters at the end of the competition, you may distribute any additional Secret Packages you receive throughout the competition. This means if you win 4 Secret Packages, you may distribute 3 to friends.

• Ascended Frostborn Archdemon A
• Ascended Frostborn Archdemon B
• Ascended Frostborn Archdemon A CC
• Ascended Frostborn Archdemon B CC
• Frostborn Slayer Scythe P/E
• Frostborn Destroyer / Frostborn Dominator
• Frostborn Archdemon Bike CC
• Jack Frost Morph
• Jack Frost Morph CC

Olympus' Wrath Battlepass Coming Soon

The Draconic Warlord Battlepass is leaving in a couple weeks to make way for the final battlepass of 2023: Olympus' Wrath. It might just be one of the best-looking yet! This battlepass will run concurrently with Gifting to provide another incentive to keep dueling between major giving sessions.

Tags: Nightwraith