EpicDuel PVP Game Design Notes

August 29, 2025

EpicDuel is live with new skill augments, balance changes, and bug fixes! 

New Skill Augments

Experiment with these new skill augments for all classes! Some are fairly straightforward, offering adjusted damage values or an alternative damage type, while other drastically change the skill's effect, like reducing healing effectiveness instead of defense ignore. Expect another round of skill augments next week also focusing on offensive abilities.

• Bounty Hunter:
  • (UA) Cheap Shot: Ignore % of defenses; steals Energy based on 25% damage.
  • (UA) Cheap Shot: Ignore % of defenses; unblockable.
• Mercenary:
  • (EA) Double Strike: Attack for more dmg., defense reduction based on 50% dmg. bonus; -50% block/deflection.
  • (PA) Double Strike: Opposite dmg. type attack for more dmg., defense reduction; -50% block/deflection.
• Tech Mage:
  • (PA) Plasma Bolt: Fire a bolt of plasma at an enemy target, dealing physical damage and ignoring 15% defense.
  • (UA) Plasma Bolt: Fire a bolt of plasma at an enemy target, dealing energy damage; 15% lifesteal.
• Cyber Hunter:
  • (UA) Neural Scythe: Launch a scythe of primary damage type, ignoring Defense/Resistance by skill level.
  • (PA) Neural Scythe: Launch a scythe opposite of primary damage type, increasing damage by skill level.
• Tactical Mercenary:
  • (EA) Crippling Strike: Attack for 105% damage. Reduces % Defense / Resistance for #DUR turns.
  • (UA) Crippling Strike: Attack for 100% damage. Reduces % Healing for #DUR turns.
• Blood Mage:
  • (PA) Fireball: Inflict energy damage, reducing target's Defense and Resistance 15% for 2 turns.
  • (EA) Fireball: Inflict physical damage, reducing target's Defense and Resistance 30% for 2 turns.

Balance Changes

• Deadly Aim (Primary/gun): 9%-20% --> 3%-12% more primary/sidearm damage
• (UA) Hybrid Armor: 7% --> 5% damage to Energy conversion
• (EA) Hybrid Armor: 20% --> 12% damage to Energy conversion
• Cyber Armor (HP bleed): 60%-96% --> 75%-120% boost to armor's defenses; 40 --> 30 HP bleed
• (UA) Mineral Armor: 10% --> 5% Energy drain
• (EA) Mineral Armor: Flat Defense boost, +43 Defense at level 1, +3 per level; flat +20 Resistance boost
• (EA) Reroute: 10%-35% --> 8%-30% Energy conversion
• Mania (defense reduction): 13%-30% --> 15% --> 35% lifesteal/Rage gain
• Infernal Blessing: 150 --> 165 HP gain per turn (readjustment since Medical Mastery no longer applies to it)

Battle Draw

Not a new battle mode, but a new battle state: If someone disconnects or refreshes the game before the first turn completes, the duel ends in a draw with 0 rewards, but no impact on the battle record for the person remaining. In the event of a 2v2 or Juggernaut match, the battle will only be a draw if both members of a team leave before the first turn completes. We are implementing this to counteract rapid disconnects used to boost wins and rewards for characters. Players who disconnect from battle will still face with the normal loss and run penalty.

Bug Fixes:

Challenges don't work while the chat filter is active. It seems crazy, but last week's chat filter changes broke challenges for people with the filter enabled. It's wild how changes to one system can completely break another seemingly unrelated system.

Coming Soon: Gamma Pirate

We're currently developing a new pirate/Gamma-themed promo back that we're pleased to share: The Gamma Pirate! Prepare to sail the irradiated seas with new weapons, armors, bots, and cores coming soon!

Tags: Nightwraith

August 22, 2025

Language filter

In Settings, you now have the option of disabling the language filter. This reduces restrictions on chat, but doesn't remove them entirely. Certain language and topics are still prohibited despite the removal of the filter. Additionally, other text-based elements such as names and Faction titles are still filtered regardless of setting. If you choose to leave the filter in place, you will be unable to use inappropriate language and any inappropriate language in messages you encounter will be replaced with asterixis.

Although this feature grants more freedom for expression and communication, don't use this newfound freedom to be abusive and disrespectful to your fellow players. This feature was implemented because we believe our playerbase is mature enough to handle the looser language restrictions. We would hate to be proven wrong, but if this feature causes a flood of toxicity and harassment, it will be reverted!

Such Convenience

Class and gender change now dynamically unequip gear based on your class/gender requirements. If you have class-neutral weapons or armor, they will not be unequipped. This will be very convenient if you frequently change classes.

Bug Fixes

• PMs sometimes failed to work after a name change.
• Mastery cores displaying the incorrect % bonus.
• Dark Omen could not be used on a target with Curse applied.

Progress

• Skill Augments: Next week, we expect to introduce at least another 12 skill augments, focusing on the upper portion of the skill trees.
• Gifter Prizes: More Gifter prizes are also expected to be completed next week. I can't believe it, but we're finally below double digit prizes remaining.
• New Promo: We should have prizes for promo items available next week as well.

Tags: Nightwraith

August 15, 2025

New Augments

This week, we added augments to all the class passives! Some of these skills have drastically different functionality from their base forms so you should have a lot of fun experimenting! Be warned, however, some of the passive power boosts now come with debuff tradeoffs so be sure to read the descriptions and plan your builds carefully!

• Bounty Hunter:
  • (UA) Blood Lust: Passively add a percentage of all damage inflicted to health and Energy.
  • (UA) Blood Lust: Passively add a percentage of all dmg. inflicted to HP; drain 5% target's Energy.
  • (EA) Shadow Arts: Boosts Robot damage by a percent; +10 dmg. to Primary, Sidearm, and Auxiliary.
  • (EA) Shadow Arts: Boosts Primary, Sidearm, and Auxiliary damage.
• Mercenary:
  • (EA) Hybrid Armor: Boosts Def/Res; converts 20% of outgoing dmg. to Energy; unaffected by stat changes.
  • (UA) Hybrid Armor: Boosts Def/Res; converts 7% of outgoing dmg. to Energy; gain 25% more Rage.
  • (UA) Deadly Precision: Passively increase the damage of your Sidearm.
  • (UA) Deadly Precision: Passively increase the dmg. of your Auxiliary; reflect 25% melee dmg.
• Tech Mage:
  • (EA) Concentration: Convert % of dmg. received into energy; +70 HP per over 50 dmg. attack.
  • (EA) Concentration: Convert % of dmg. received into energy.
  • (UA) Deadly Aim: Passively increase the damage of your Auxiliary.
  • (UA) Deadly Aim: Passively increase the damage of your Sidearm and Primary.
• Cyber Hunter:
  • (UA) Cyber Armor: Passive shield increases your armor's Def/Res values; 12% lifesteal.
  • (UA) Cyber Armor: Passive shield increases a % of your armor's Def/Res values; 40 HP loss per turn.
  • (UA) Cyber Edge: Passively increases Sidearm and Primary damage.
  • (UA) Cyber Edge: Passively increases Sidearm and Auxiliary damage; 40% Rage gain.
• Tactical Mercenary:
  • (EA) Mineral Armor: Passively boosts Defense; Resistance debuff based on 20% Defense boost.
  • (UA) Mineral Armor: Passively boosts Defense; drain attacker's Energy by 10% incoming dmg.
  • (UA) Reroute: Convert a percentage of all dmg. received into Energy; +30 Sidearm dmg.
  • (EA) Reroute: Convert a percentage of all dmg. received into Energy.
• Blood Mage:
  • (UA) Mania: Passively add a percentage of all damage inflicted to HP and EP; increased Rage Gain.
  • (UA) Mania: Passively add a % of all dmg. inflicted to HP; increased Rage Gain; 20% Def/Res debuff.
  • (UA) Red Vision: Passively increase the damage of your Auxiliary.
  • (UA) Red Vision: Passively increase the damage of your Sidearm and Auxiliary.

Balance Changes

• General:
  • Medical Mastery no longer applies to healing cores (i.e. only to Field Medic).
  • Critical Heal only applies to Field Medic (all versions) and Health Booster.
  • All robot damage bonuses standardized to 175.
• Skills and Cores:
  • Double Strike: +10 Energy cost to all levels.
  • Crippling Strike: +30 --> +20 Energy cost per level.
  • (UA) Field Medic: +1 HP per 1.2 --> 0.8 Support.
  • Infernal Blessing: 175 --> 150 HP per tick.
  • Absorption: 35% --> 25% incoming robot damage to user's Energy.
• Azrael's Doombringer Beauty P/E (NPC) added to The Challenger.

Other Changes/Fixes

• Seasonal rares reset to their normal schedules.
• New Settings option: disable battle backgrounds.
• Pulse Punch: wouldn't add brace to target in the event of a stun.

Progress Report

• Skill augments: I didn't take my own advice and spent too long building 24 new skill augments, plus building support for future augments. Next week, I will actually pause the augment rollout to address other items on this list. This will also give us time to address any balance issues or esoteric bugs that emerge from this update.
• Gifting Rewards: Once again, update ate into work on the prizes due to the unexpected time allocation to the new skills and fixes for the previous week's update. Next week, I will clear my schedule to focus on Gifting prizes with as few distractions as possible.
• Chat Filter Toggle: I am working on a change to EpicDuel's language filter that will allow people to disable the strict chat filter. A more permissive filter will remain, but it will still block the most extreme language and account security topics. That said, abusive language will still be moderated so it will be as important as ever to be respectful to each other.
• Gamma Pirate Promo Pack: Acatriel's new promo package is currently in-progress.

Tags: Nightwraith

August 08, 2025

Skill Augments

With this update EpicDuel is introducing 24 new skill augments for ultimate and AOE skills. These add alternative damage types and secondary effects to the base skills. Some skill augments exchange effects like extra defense reduction and critical chance for lower base damage and scaling. These skills are accessed by clicking the left and right arrows that appear on the skill icon when the tree has been unlocked up to that point. It wasn't clear in the last update, but you must be at least level 10 to access the skill augments. This is to diminish confusion for new players in the tutorial.

• Bounty Hunter:
  • (PA) Multi-Shot: Physical dmg.; 90% dmg. against 2 targets; gain 15% damage to Energy.
  • (UA) Multi-Shot: Energy dmg.; 90% dmg. against 2 targets; 20% damage to target Energy.
  • (UA) Massacre: Unleash a fury of blade strikes; 100% crit chance; 15% defense ignore. (Damage bonus reduced by 30%)
  • (UA) Massacre: Unleash a fury of blade strikes; reduce target healing by 25% for 2 turns.
• Mercenary:
  • (UA) Artillery Strike: Physical dmg.; 85% dmg. against 2 targets; 20% dmg. to target Energy.
  • (PA) Artillery Strike: Energy dmg.; 85% dmg. against 2 targets.; 20% def. ignore.
  • (PA) Surgical Strike: Physical air strike that reduces target's Rage by 50%; 30% lifesteal. (Damage reduced by 25%)
  • (UA) Surgical Strike:Energy air strike that steals 50% targets Rage; 30% lifesteal.
• Tech Mage:
  • (EA) Plasma Rain: Energy dmg.; 50% Resistance ignore; 85% dmg. against 2 targets. (Damage reduced by 20%)
  • (PA) Plasma Rain: Physical dmg.; 20% Defense ignore; 85% dmg. against 2 targets.
  • (PA) Supercharge: Fire a physical charge ignoring 30% of the target's Defense; 30% lifesteal.
  • (UA) Supercharge: Fire an energy charge; reduce target Def/Res 30% for #DUR turns; 30% lifesteal.
• Cyber Hunter:
  • (UA) Adaptive Offense: Primary dmg. type; 20% defense reduction for 2 turns; 85% dmg. against 2 targets.
  • (EA) Adaptive Offense: Primary dmg. type; 50% defense ignore; 85% dmg. against 2 targets. (Damage reduced by 20%)
  • (UA) Proton Cannon: Fire beam based on primary dmg.; 50% crit chance.
  • (EA) Proton Cannon: Fire beam based on primary dmg.; 200 HP gain; 200 Energy gain. (Damage reduced by 30%)
• Tactical Mercenary:
  • (EA) Suppressing Fire: Physical dmg.; 50% defense ignore; 85% dmg. against 2 targets. (Damage reduced by 20%)
  • (PA) Suppressing Fire: Energy dmg.; 15% defense ignore; 85% dmg. against 2 targets.
  • (PA) Annihilation: Concentrated energy beam that reduces target's Rage 50%; 30% lifesteal.
  • (UA) Annihilation: Concentrated physical beam that reduces target's Rage 50%; 30% defense ignore.
• Blood Mage:
  • (UA) Fire Rain: Physical dmg.; 20% dmg. to target Energy; 85% dmg. against 2 targets.
  • (PA) Fire Rain: Energy dmg.; 20% defense ignore; 85% dmg. against 2 targets.
  • (UA) Maelstrom: Call a firestorm stealing Energy equal to 26% dmg. inflicted.
  • (PA) Maelstrom: Energy firestorm ignoring 30% of the target's defenses; reduces Energy by 26% dmg.

Seasonal Reset Delay

Due to popular demand, our seasonal rare reset has been delayed until next week!

Fixes and Changes

• Legendary bonus applies to skills that offer healing over time like (EA) Field Medic and Infernal Blessing.
• Critical Heal also applies to healing over time skills on subsequent turns if the HP threshold is met.
• Reduced frame counts of several skills and attacks. Less waiting, more action!
• Expanded text fields for skill rollovers.
• Earning XP through mission rewards or Battlepass prizes will now trigger the Legendary Rank Up email with rewards.

Progress

• Skill augments: This round of skill augments took a bit longer than anticipated since nothing new needed to be built to implement them. I may need to limit the updates to 12 augments per week to leave room for other changes.
• Gifting Rewards: This update ate into work on the prizes due to the unexpected time allocation to the new skills and fixes for the previous week's update. With a better understanding of the time required per skill, this should not be an issue going forward. It is crucial these prizes are completed soon.
• Chat Filter Toggle: I am working on a change to EpicDuel's language filter that will allow people to disable the strict chat filter. A more permissive filter will remain, but it will still block the most extreme language and account security topics. That said, abusive language will still be moderated so it will be as important as ever to be respectful to each other.
• Gamma Pirate Promo Pack: Acatriel's new promo package is currently in-progress.

Tags: Nightwraith

August 01, 2025

The Hephael Knight Showcase Battlepass is NOW LIVE! Login now to earn the latest collection of Hephael-themed weapons, armors, morphs, bots, and more crafted with care by Acatriel!

Who or what is Hephael? When the first colonists arrived on Delta V, they brought the myths of the old worlds with them, laying the foundation for new legends to emerge. To the superstitious of Delta V, Hephael is the god of the son and god of the forge, offering aid to followers and desolation to non-believers. Though the dominance of technology suppressed such beliefs during Delta V's peak, desperate times have caused the citizens to seek salvations through more primitive, but no less potent, means.

So you all know what you're getting into with the new bots available in this season, the skill descriptions are listed below:

• Hephael's Avatar P
  • Hephael's Slash P: Summon Hephael's Avatar to inflict Physical Damage.
  • Hephael's Incantation P: Lock all target's skills that require Energy for 2 rounds.
• Hephael's Avatar E
  • Hephael's Slash E: Summon Hephael's Avatar to inflict Energy Damage.
  • Hephael's Incantation E: Lock all target's skills that require Energy for 2 rounds.
• Hephael's Frenzy: Convert 5% of outgoing dmg. to Energy if dmg. is over 50. 
• Twilight Strike: Increases Primary Critical chance to 75% when HP is below 30%.
• Twilight Aim: Increases Sidearm Critical chance to 75% when HP is below 30%.
• Twilight Blast: Increases Auxiliary Critical chance to 75% when HP is below 30%.
• Twilight Shield: Increases Defense/Resistance 15% when HP is below 30%.

New Skill Augments

This update, we're starting the grand implementation of skill augments. Eventually each skill will have at least 2 augments. If you're interested in the math, that means each class will have up to 531,441 potential skill combinations! Augments will come in one of four different varieties:

• Duration Augment (DA): Changes the duration of the effect of the skill, and either strengthens or weakens the effect accordingly.
• Utility Augment (UA): Changes one or more of the effects of the skill to another effect.
• Polarity Augment (PA): Changes the damage type of the skill to the opposite of its base version.
• Efficiency Augment (EA): Makes the skill weaker in one way and stronger in another.

For this release we're starting small with a skill that all 6 classes possess: Field Medic. This essential skill will receive 2 augments.

• (EA) Field Medic: Heal yourself or an ally over 2 turns. Cures poison.
• (UA) Field Medic: Heal yourself or an ally and remove debuffs. Cures poison.

To access these augments, retrain your character, then reduce your points in Field Medic to 1. That will reveal left and right arrows you can use to choose the augments. All skill augments will work this way when they are eventually introduced.

Please be patient as we fill out the class skill trees with new augments in the coming weeks, creating 144 new skills. We'll do our best to balance the updates so all classes get equal attention without overwhelming balance with too many options at once.

Special thanks are due to the community that suggested and contributed to these new skill augment ideas! This would definitely not be possible without your dedication and input. With great persistence and a little luck, this change could lead EpicDuel into an exciting new era of PvP action!

Seasonal Rare Reset

Next week, all seasonal rares will reset to their normal schedule, meaning this is your last chance to collect any remaining out-of-season seasonal rares you had your eye on!

Epic To-Do:

Here's a taste of what we have cooking up in the coming weeks:

• Skill Augments: As stated above, completing the 144 (132 after today) skill augments will be the main focus of the coming weeks. 
• Gifting rewards: Hopefully this is the month all prizes are complete! Will the latest Battlepass out of the way, progress should be much faster.
• New Promo: It's been ages! Acatriel is steadily working on an epic new promo!

Tags: Nightwraith