EpicDuel PVP Game Design Notes

October 18, 2024

It’s that time of year again: time for an official announcement of Gifting 2024! The new Gifting Even will go live Monday December 9 and last until Monday January 13! This year’s event will include many of the changes we made last year with some additional bonuses! For this post, we will provide a list of updated rules and prizes so please please PLEASE read these changes carefully if you're thinking of participating in Gifting!

Mailbox Bloat

Last year was a very successful event – so successful that the volume of gifts caused the servers to crash every few hours! This year we’re going to try to mitigate that issue with some changes. To start, the possible gifts will be limited to Credits and Arcade Tokens. Items that were formerly in the prize pool will be available for purchase at a holiday shop. While this is less exciting than opening a package to find a new rare item, awarding Credits streamlines the process and prevents inventories from being jammed with thousands of duplicate items.

Rewards

Last year we made some major changes to the Gifting rewards to mitigate the prize creep that accompanied the prize-creation phase post Gifting. This was largely successful as most rewards were fulfilled within a few weeks as opposed to 6 months or a year later. 

This year, we are adding back some previous reward options like hairstyles and replica items. Though the rewards are more generous, please read this section carefully. We don't want anyone to feel disappointed at the end of the event. We also don’t want to engage in any post-Gifting negotiations to find loopholes or other unreasonable requests. Also, this year, like last year, there will be no prize codes provided for the top prize.

The Top 15

The top 15 Gifters in this event will be eligible to receive one Legacy item. Additionally, they will be able to receive an extra Legacy item for each 1,000,000 points past the first 1,000,000. This means that if you end Gifting with a score of over 3,000,000, you would be eligible for 3 Legacy items.

*A Legacy item is any EpicDuel item aside from Founder Armor that is no longer available in-game. It could be something from a phase like the Gamma Bot or a permanent rare like the Bunnyzookas. Participants in the top 15 at the end of the event may choose 1 Legacy item. These items may have light personalized touches to them. A class-changing weapon counts as 1 item.

Please note: Personalizations that include CPU-taxing effects may affect the in-game performance for you and other players. We will try our best to optimize the items, but there are limitations to Flash’s rendering capabilities. Please consider this when conceptualizing your prize.

The #1 Gifter at the end of the event will be eligible for a Legacy item AND a custom item. The custom item grand prize can be an item from any existing category. If it's a category of item that has P and E variants, the opposite variant can be created as a recolor. Customization requests can be refused if they're deemed unreasonable or illegal (copy-written material, offensive, etc...) or if they exceed the limitation of the game (creating excessive lag, too large, too complex). Unlike last year, cores attached the custom item or robot attacks CAN be customized, but their effects in-battle must have in-game equivalents.

Finally, we will be retaining the bonus awarded to the player or players with the most Top Daily Gifter: The option for an additional Legacy item (non-Founder). If there is a tie for the most Top Daily Gifter achievements, the tied players will all receive the bonus.

Founder Armor Rule

As in previous years, those who achieve a Gifting score of at least 1,000,000 AND place in the top 15 may request Founder Armor as a prize. Hypothetically, your score is greater than 1,000,000 but you're still in 16th place, you will unfortunately not be eligible for the Founder Armor. Additionally, though this is a rare scenario, if you place in the top 15, and have the original Founder Achievement, but not the armor, you may request Founder Armor as your Legacy item.

Sharing

A very popular feature of the most recent Gifting Event was the ability to share prizes with a select list of friends. Since there was no restriction, lists quickly got excessive. This year, the top 15 will be permitted to share their rewards with up to 20 other players. This includes custom hairstyles.

If someone wishes to share rewards with more than 20 other players, they may opt to offer their items or styles in-game for a price. They may also choose to have replica items created to be sold in-game while maintaining the uniqueness of the original. These replica items may have very minor changes to distinguish them.

Reward Efficiency

Last year we had multiple reward systems including a tiered structure based on rank and one based on placement on the Gifting leaderboard. This year, we would like to consolidate the Chest rewards with the score-based rewards. To clarify, there will be no more Gold, Silver, or Bronze Chests: there will only be score-based rewards, like the Cyber Wolf Collection. The new reward tiers will go from scores of 10K to 1 million. We are currently working on concepts for the new reward items with the theme of Alpha-Omega Valkyrie. We hope this change makes it easier to understand exactly what you’re getting for your Gifting contributions.

New Epic Supporter Achievements

Since the Epic Supporter achievements have been active for most of 2024 already, we’d like to refresh these achievements with special variants for Gifting. These new achievements will be introduced late in November to replace the current Epic Supporter achievements for the duration of Gifting. Because the Varium package quantities were so popular, they will remain at their current quantities throughout Gifting.

Reward summary:

• Choose carefully! Winners will be restricted to 1 item as a prize. Mutating items and mutating armors count as one item.
• The #1 winner may have a customized core animation with their prize.
• Top 15 Gifters are eligible for 1 Legacy item with light personal modifications.
• Personalizations may be refused for being excessive in terms of scope or impact on game performance.
• Those in the top 15 may also request a custom hairstyle. This style may be kept as a personal or offered in-game for a price. It can be given to up to 20 other players by request.
• Those in the top 15 may also request an item/achievement transfer from one character they own to another owned character. The number of transfers is equal to the number of legacy items the winner qualifies for.
• Winners may offer their prizes to up to 20 players.
• Replicas are returning! Winners may request replica versions of their prizes to sell in-game. These replica items may have small changes (or none).
• No prize codes will be offered to the winner this year.
• If you request a Physical variant of an item you may also receive an Energy variant and vice versa. For example, if you request the Bunnyzooka, you may also have the Energy Bunnyzooka.
• If you request a Physical variant of an item and the Energy version does not exist, a new Energy version will NOT be created.
• If you request a Physical variant of an item you may NOT request the Energy variant of a completely different weapon.
• Armors do not have P or E variants, but you may NOT request an armor + an item.
• The prize item can be any sword, sidearm, auxiliary, home item, armor, vehicle, mutation, bot, or class-specific item that has ever been available in-game. Founder Armor may be requested as long as the one placing in the top 15 has a score of over 1,000,000.
• The item must have been available in EpicDuel at some time. Items from other AE games are not permitted.
• You may NOT request the custom reward of a Gifting winner from a previous year or this year.
• If your requested item originally included an achievement (i.e. Infernal Slayer), you will NOT also receive the achievement if you request the same item.
• The item may have any core available in-game equipped to it as long as it's of the proper category (i.e. no auxiliary cores on primary weapons, etc...).
• Core graphics and animations for Legacy items will NOT be customized.
• For balance reasons, skills cannot be modified (i.e. additional damage, % effectiveness, cooldown, damage type, cost, etc...).
• Please consider your prize carefully because once the item is in-game, there will be no revisions permitted except for bug fixes. 

We will work with all winners to help create the best rewards possible, but these limitations are necessary to prevent the scope of the rewards from expanding to far and eclipsing the rest of EpicDuel’s development. Last year, all top Gifters were cooperative and understanding of these goals so we hope to continue that trend for this next event. We tried to include as much information as possible for this post, but there still may be more changes (or things we forgot) before Gifting begins.

Tis the Season to Be Wary

Gifting is a joyful time in EpicDuel, but it also brings out nefarious scammers who want to take advantage of other players. Don't risk your account or bank account for a complete stranger online who promises you great rewards or free Varium. Though times and technology change, the old adage holds true: if someone is promising you something that seems too good to be true, it probably is! 

Progress Report

Updates will be slower to arrive leading up to Gifting as we’re preparing the new Battlepass + the new Gifting reward items. To tantalize you, here’s a preview of concepts for the Alpha-Omega Valkyrie set. These are just concepts and not a guarantee of the final rewards.

Tags: Nightwraith

October 11, 2024

New Hallowed Seasonal Rares

Spooky season is here in EpicDuel with returning seasonal rares and brand new seasonal rares available at Bido!

• Bido's Hallowed Greatsword P
• Bido's Hallowed Greatsword E
• Bido's Hallowed Scythe P
• Bido's Hallowed Scythe E
• Bido's Hallowed Blades P
• Bido's Hallowed Blades E
• Bido's Hallowed Axe P
• Bido's Hallowed Axe E
• Bido's Hallowed Staff P
• Bido's Hallowed Staff E
• Bido's Hallowed Spear P
• Bido's Hallowed Spear E

Other seasonal rares are also available at Snork and Caden!

HalloWarrior 4.0

The new HalloWarrior 4.0 achievement is now available from the seasonal section of the achievement shop!

Deltamancer Preview

The Kaiju Slayer Battlepass is still fresh, but the next Battlepass is currently in development. Look for the Deltamancer set to release early in December!

If you haven't started the latest Battlepass, don't worry! You should still have plenty of time to complete the current one before the next goes live (but don't wait too long, of course!).

Tags: Nightwraith

October 04, 2024

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

For this season, we're giving those who can only complete the basic Battlepass more opportunities to collect items previously reserved for the Enhanced Battlepass such as robots and color custom items. The Enhanced Battlepass will offer these items sooner, but those dedicated enough can claim them through the Basic Battlepass eventually.

Good luck and happy dueling to reach level 60 of EpicDuel's latest Battlepass season!

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

• Kaijuzilla P
  • Kaijuzilla Tail Slash P: Physical tail slash with 20% defense ignore.
    Kaijuzilla Nuclear Breath P: Beam dealing 150% MP dmg., 20% MP gain. Target MP recovers 50% over 5 rounds. The idea behind this skill is to act as an MP nuke that hits hard initially, but recovers over time. Initial MP damage is based on actual damage, while recovered MP is based on gross damage so it's possible for the target to eventually recover more MP than was initially taken.
• Kaijuzilla E
  • Kaijuzilla Tail Slash E: Energy tail slash with 20% defense ignore.
  • Kaijuzilla Nuclear Breath E: Beam dealing 150% MP dmg., 20% MP gain. Target MP recovers 50% over 5 rounds. The idea behind this skill is to act as an MP nuke that hits hard initially, but recovers over time. Initial MP damage is based on actual damage, while recovered MP is based on gross damage so it's possible for the target to eventually recover more MP than was initially taken.

Balance Changes

• Cores:
  • Health Booster: 350 HP -- > 400 HP
  • Energy Storm: Single use
  • Tranquility: 450 HP -- > 550 HP
• Blood Mage:
  • Fire Scythe: 105% damage ---> 110% damage
  • Energy Parasite: Depletes initial 150 Energy instead of 50 Energy
• Tech Mage:
  • Malfunction: Improves with Dexterity instead of Support
  • Assimilation: 85% damage
• Tactical Mercenary:
  • Toxic Grenade: Improves with Strength instead of Support
  • Crippling Strike: 115% damage

Other Changes

• NPC-only skills now available for 20,000 Credits.

Tags: Nightwraith

September 20, 2024

Progress Report

This week has been a busy one keeping up with requests to distribute Gifting items while working on the new Battlepass, but we're finally ready to announce the launch date for the next BP: The Kaiju Slayer Battlepass will launch Friday, October 4th. If you're still grinding through it or haven't started yet, you still have time to complete the current Nanotech Nightmare showcase!

Balance Changes

With this update, EpicDuel has ungone a massive update to item stats. We are essentially reverting the change made years ago that allows someone to allocate all points into one stat when upgrading and item. Previously, the limit was 40% of the stats available stats for an update. While this update was certainly interesting and changed balance dynamics, it led to out-of-control stat stacking. To revert this change, we will have to do a few major changes to roll back to the old system. Please pay attention, because this will probably affect you!

1. All upgraded items will be reset to 0 stats. This is inconvenient, especially if you've upgraded 100s of items, but it is the only way to do this change.

2. All items will be unlocked to the current level of their owner. This will allow all affected items to be upgraded for 100 Credits.

3. Everyone level 15 and over will be given 25,000 Credits to allow them to upgrade their items with minimal additional cost.

We apologize for this inconvenience, but this update will allow us to limit the impact of stat stacking going forward.

After logging in after this update, remember to update your equipped items so you can redistribute their stats before you battle!

Other core changes that have been implemented:

• Unbreakable heart: +45->+30
• Unbreakable Spirit: +45 -> +30
• Eternal Protection: +20 -> +15

Tags: Nightwraith

September 13, 2024

EpicDuel's latest update contains core/robot balance changes, war item influence changes, and new achievements, but it's only a appetizer for the main course: the Kaiju Slayer Battlepass which will be releasing at the end of September/early October.

War Item Influence Boost

War Bomb influence has been increased to a 50 point base (42-57 range) for regular drops. This should make using war items more impactful on influence scores while making super war items much more powerful.

Friday the 13th Returns

Friday the 13th seasonal rares are back! Visit Snork, Caden, and Dage to complete your collection!

Achievements

The following achievements have been added to the achievement shop:

• Big Show 2024
• Friday The 13th 2024

These new achievements will appear in the Seasonal section of the achievement shop for a limited time.

Balance Changes

Phantasm Blast: 25% Energy damage, increasing by 5% per turn, max 50%

Pyro Fly: Take any random active skill instead of just top 3

infernal Offering: 2 --> 1 turn duration (initial MP gain on use + 1 additional turn), increase mana from 150 to 180

infernal Prism: 3 --> 2 turn duration

Remember, you only have a few weeks left to complete the Nanotech Nightmare Battlepass before it's replaced with the Kaiju Slayer!

Tags: Nightwraith

September 06, 2024

EpicDuel is back with a new addition to its ArcadeBots: Jaguar Warrior! Will you be the first to claim all the new gear and reach the top of the Arcade's leaderboard?

NEW Jaguar Warrior Arcade

Seek out your nearest ArcadeBot (many are concentrated in Valestra's shop in Fortune City) to play the latest Arcade game: Jaguar Warrior! Use your Arcade Tokens to win the 20 new prizes!

• Jaguar Warrior Armor A
• Jaguar Warrior Armor B
• Jaguar Warrior Armor A CC
• Jaguar Warrior Armor B CC
• Jaguar Warrior Sword P
• Jaguar Warrior Sword E
• Jaguar Warrior Sword CC P
• Jaguar Warrior Sword CC E
• Macuahuitl P
• Macuahuitl E
• Jaguar Warrior Blades P
• Jaguar Warrior Blades E
• Jaguar Warrior Axe P
• Jaguar Warrior Axe E
• Jaguar Warrior Staff P
• Jaguar Warrior Staff E
• Jaguar Warrior Gun P
• Jaguar Warrior Gun E
• Jaguar Warrior Bow P
• Jaguar Warrior Bow E

Since this is a new Arcade game, it also comes with a new evolving achievement. Spend those Tokens to max out the new achievement to level 20! As you accumulate more rating points, you'll creep ever closer to the 10 new rating tiers!

Jaguar Warrior Styles

To complement the new Jaguar Warrior gear, we've added styles 805 - 810 to the style shop! Check them out to complete your look!

Tags: Nightwraith