May 16, 2025

Become the Nightmare:

Everyone who has ever successfully defeated on of EpicDuel's extreme Nightmare bosses knows it can be a slog. To aid those who wish to grind out wins against Nightmare bosses for achievements and drops, we're adding new anti-Nightmare cores to the drop pools. These cores will have a 15% drop chance. Nightmare boss drops will also come equipped with anti-boss cores. If the Nightmare boss shares a drop pool with a non-Nightmare boss, those drops will also have anti-boss cores equipped where applicable.

The power increase for these cores are defined below:

• Primary (Bane): +400
• Sidearm (Shot): +200
• Blast (Auxiliary): +200
• Guard (Defenses): +300

The followed new cores have been added to their respective boss' drop pools:

• Nightmare Kartherax Bane
• Nightmare Kartherax Shot
• Nightmare Kartherax Blast
• Nightmare Kartherax Guard
• Nightmare Capt. Shoggoth Bane
• Nightmare Capt. Shoggoth Shot
• Nightmare Capt. Shoggoth Blast
• Nightmare Capt. Shoggoth Guard
• Nightmare Nightwraith Bane
• Nightmare Nightwraith Shot
• Nightmare Nightwraith Blast
• Nightmare Nightwraith Guard
• Nightmare Charfade Bane
• Nightmare Charfade Shot
• Nightmare Charfade Blast
• Nightmare Charfade Guard
• Nightmare Dage the Evil Bane
• Nightmare Dage the Evil Shot
• Nightmare Dage the Evil Blast
• Nightmare Dage the Evil Guard
• Nightmare Abyss Spider Bane
• Nightmare Abyss Spider Shot
• Nightmare Abyss Spider Blast
• Nightmare Abyss Spider Guard
• Nightmare Pumpkin Lord Bane
• Nightmare Pumpkin Lord Shot
• Nightmare Pumpkin Lord Blast
• Nightmare Pumpkin Lord Guard
• Nightmare Adjudicator Bane
• Nightmare Adjudicator Shot
• Nightmare Adjudicator Blast
• Nightmare Adjudicator Guard
• Nightmare Azrael Bane
• Nightmare Azrael Shot
• Nightmare Azrael Blast
• Nightmare Azrael Guard
• Nightmare Acatriel Bane
• Nightmare Acatriel Shot
• Nightmare Acatriel Blast
• Nightmare Acatriel Guard
• Nightmare Luthiel Bane
• Nightmare Luthiel Shot
• Nightmare Luthiel Blast
• Nightmare Luthiel Guard
• Nightmare Azrael's Guardian Bane
• Nightmare Azrael's Guardian Shot
• Nightmare Azrael's Guardian Blast
• Nightmare Azrael's Guardian Guard

Grab these cores today and make the Nightmare fear YOU!

Balance Changes:

• Crippling Strike: 22% (level 1) to 40% (level 10); removed Strength scaling
• Deadly Precision: auxiliary boost 11% (level 1) to 20% (level 10).
• Reroute (TLM): static auxiliary boost of 15% for all levels.
• Azrael’s Doombringer Beast P/E: reduces defences ~50% for 1 turn, 100% damage; blockable.

Bug Fixes / Changes:

• You can now purchase Battlepass levels all the way up to 60.
• Win rates are now hidden on PvP leaderboards.
• Bosses that use custom animation timelines such as Kartherax or Azrael are now able to use Brace instead of freezing when trapped by a skill that locks melee like Tentacle Prison or Permafrost.

Tags: Nightwraith

May 09, 2025

It's only been a week since Smoking Shadow made his appearance as a genuine Delta V boss battle, and I thought you might be interested in some stats!

As of this post people have claimed victory against his Legendary form 1920 times (170 uniques) while his Nightmare form has only been bested 1330 times (139 uniques). The very first teams to win against his Nightmare form were:

• Kratos Style -- MapWarCyber
• I Anubis I -- KingOfTheDay
• CactusChan -- Despair

It's hard to say exactly how quickly people will take down a new EpicDuel boss, if they can at all, but I suspect people were especially motivated by the generous drops! Some drops will still remain after this latest update so there's still a reason to Smoke the Shadow after today.

Those lucky and skilled enough to defeat either the Legendary or Nightmare bosses will receive the corresponding Legendary and Nightmare Smoking Shadow Slayer Achievements.

Giting Prize Progress

It's hard to believe, but we are finally nearing the end of the Gifting reward list. My hope is that we will be finished before the official start of summer. I always jinx myself with these declarations, but I'm confident in our ability to deliver the remaining gifts in an efficient manner. Thank you again for all your patience as we navigate this unprecedented wish list!

Balance Changes

• Azrael's Annihilation P/E: 100% --> 85% damage
• Plasma Grenade: Matched Energy cost with Barbed Grenade
• Skull Cracker/Smasher: 90 --> 100 Energy cost
• Sea King's Curse: Unusable --> Usable when Revitalization is active on target. Other armor-removing skills will now work against Revitalization as well.
• Hunter's Mark: 3 --> 2 turn duration

Tags: Nightwraith

May 02, 2025

NEW BOSS INCOMING: SMOKING SHADOW

A new boss has emerged from the shadows of Central Station and he's itching for a fight! As a wish from the most recent Gifting event, Smoking Shadow wanted to become a boss NPC in EpicDuel. I was happy to grant this request as it is sure to provide an ample challenge and enjoyable experience for the entire EpicDuel community! This boss will feature 3 modes: basic, Legendary, and Nightmare, each with their own achievements. Legendary and Nightmare modes will have their own exclusive drops with some only lasting a week! A few of Smoking Shadow's fellow Gifting winners were even generous enough to include their items as low percentage drops!

Legendary Drops:

• Kaidou --> 1%
• Yoru's Legend --> 3%
• Lele's:
  • Nika --> 1% (1 week only)
  • Enel --> 1% (1 week only)
• Alonzo Harris':
  • Brigade’s Inferno --> 5% (1 week only)
  • Alonzo’s Pulse --> 5% (1 week only)

Nightmare Drops:

• Draconic Igris --> 1% (1 week only)
• Yoru's Nightmare --> 3%
• Lele's:
  • Enma --> 1% (1 week only)
  • Shusui --> 1% (1 week only)
• Alonzo Harris':
  • Brigade’s Guardian --> 5% (1 week only)
  • Alonzo’s Shadow --> 5% (1 week only)
    
    

Those who are able to defeat Legendary or Nightmare Smoking Shadow before the update next Friday will also receive new achievements commending their alacrity and determination!

NPC Drop Improvements

Since this update features NPC drops so heavily, I decided to make some improvements to the NPC drop system. NPCs can now drop more than 1 rewards at a time! Also, each item now rolls for it's own independent drop chance. Previously, if we set item A to have a 50% drop chance and item B with a 50% drop chance, nothing else would ever be able to drop and you could only receive one drop at a time. Now an NPC can drop as many 50% drop items as we want! This should help ease frustrations when farming for low percentage drops since each item in an NPC's drop pool receive it's own drop chance, meaning it is possible, if unlikely, to receive multiple low percentage drops from one battle.

Restrictions have also been placed on NPC drops in other battle modes they may appear in aside from challenging them directly.

PvP and Arcade Drop Improvements

Good news! PvP drops, aside from mission/miscellaneous items (like Arcade Tokens and various shards/gems), will now auto-convert to 150 Credits, accumulating into one Credit prize at the end of battle if multiple duplicates are obtained.This will be joyous news for people who frequently use the Arcade games or play PvP battle modes extensively. Sellback on PvP drops that can be auto-converted have been normalized to 150 for drops going forward.

It's still possible to win a duplicate item if you upgrade the item you already have with Credits. This is to allow people to have multiple versions of the same item in different configurations if they wish.

This functionality has been extended to Arcade games as well. Duplicate rewards will skip the spin animation and provide a small notification box indicating the duplicate credits awarded. The duplicate rewards are configured to match the sellback of the items, saving you a trip to a nearby merchant.

This isn't quite as good as batch sellback, but I feel we're getting closer!

HeroMart STAR LORES Bundle

May the Fourth be with you… and the Fifth, and Sixth, too! The Star Lores Episode IV: A New Hype poster is an epic parody tribute to Star Wars, featuring original artwork by Crulon printed on premium heavy gloss stock. Measuring a stellar 24x36 inches, this collectible is signed (digitally, ofc) by the artist himself and certified FSC, making it the perfect piece for wall-art warriors and pun-loving padawans alike!

When you pick up this poster, you’ll also unlock in-game rewards across AdventureQuest 3D, AQWorlds, DragonFable, EpicDuel, and AdventureQuest Classic!

Tags: Nightwraith

April 25, 2025

This latest update will introduce many more balance changes, rollbacks, and Legendary reward bonuses! Plus, there is a major change to Simulation mode.

Balance Changes

•  General:
  • Increased super war item drop rate for 1v1 from 20% to 50%
  • Focus damage: Reverted back to +40 robot damage per focus level

• Mercenary:
  • Reactive Armor: Replaced with new skill, Deadly Precision: Increase auxiliary damage by a percentage of the weapon's damage bonus (min. 10%, max. 25%)

• Cyber Hunter:
  • Plasma Grenade: +1 damage per 0.3 --> 0.32 Technology

• Cores: Changed cooldowns on the following aux cores after use of normal aux from 4 to 3 turns:
  • Cold Ignition
  • Convergent Exsanguination
  • Sea King's Corruption
  • Skull Smasher

• Cores: Changed cooldowns on the following gun cores after use of normal sidearm from 3 to 2 turns:
  • Skull Cracker
  • Sea King's Venom
  • Corrosive Shot
  • Core Corruption
  • Darkeater's Insanity
  • Exsanguinating Spear
  • Blood Shot
  • Piercing Shot
  • Energy Shot
  • Pacify

• Blood Mage:
  • Fireball: Remove Technology requirement
  • Red Vision: Requires 24 --> 16 Dexterity at level 1, +2 per level

• Tactical Mercenary:
  • Reroute: -2% to all values; add effect that boosts auxiliary damage by a percentage of weapon bonus
  • Barbed Grenade: Scales with Dexterity --> Technology; scaling value 0.28 --> 0.32; removed stun chance
  • Annihilation: +1 damage per 0.3 --> 0.32 Technology

• Robots:
  • Necrosis: 2.5 --> 1.8 def/res reduction per target level (max debuff 130 --> 100); 85% --> 100% damage
  • Azrael's Affliction P/E: User gains 100% --> 50% of poison as HP
  • Azrael's Affliction P/E (NPC): 200 --> 500 max poison per tick; user gains 100% --> 40% of poison as HP
  • Deltamancer Disintegration P/E: Remove stun; add effect that grants user 20% of target's current energy (no energy drain, just gain)
  • Minotaur's Rage P/E: Removable --> Not removable by Cleanse/Saevussax Heart/Forbidden Pact

• Bug Fixes/QoL:
  • Destruction (aux) gives +6 str instead of +3
  • Limited-use stat cores no longer drop from PvP victories or daily rewards

Simulation Mode Changes

Simulation mode was a battle mode introduced years ago as a way for struggling players to climb their way back to victory after a nasty losing streak, earning Credits and experience through relatively easy NPC battles to gain much needed levels and Credits without hurting their win/loss ratio. This mode, however, was unlimited, and it was possible to battle infinitely. The buff to battle rewards awhile ago made it very lucrative to camp out in Simulation mode to the exclusion of all others. This was not the intention of this mode. AE has plenty of other games where you can stop AI-controlled enemies for fun and profit, but when presented with hard, unpredictable PvP battles or easy, predictable PvE battles, gamers will often choose the path of least resistance.

To address this, we've implemented a daily limit to Simulation victories. This limit will work in a similar way to NPC and Juggernaut battles. You will earn rewards for 300 victories, but after that, the rewards will stop entirely. This might seem like a huge nerf to rewards, but 300 NPC wins + 300 Simulation wins + 300 Juggernaut wins can still earn one a decent daily haul.

Legendary Rank-Up Rewards

As a final addition to this week's update, you will receive a bonus of 20,000 Credits for every new Legendary Rank obtained. Much like level-up rewards, you will receive this in your mailbox. Unfortunately, this rewards is not retroactive.

Tags: Nightwraith

April 18, 2025

EpicDuel is now live with a major update to the Name Change functionality! Plus, a sprinkling of balance changes and quality of life improvements for good measure!

Name Change

This has been on the to-do list for quite awhile, but we were finally able to implement it! The Name Change interface now displays all your previously owned names, including your current name. You can use your mouse wheel to scroll the list if it's too long. You might surprised by how many aliases you've purchased throughout the years!

The best part of this update is that changing your name to a previously owned name is now FREE! To start, there is a five day cooldown to prevent abuse and confusion from frequent name changes.

Since name change to an previously owned name is now free, the price for a new name has been increased to 2500. This is to account for the increased value in a name -- you keep it forever and can always change back to it for FREE. For the longest time people assumed that if you changed your name, someone else could purchase your old one. That was never the case. People never knew because of the lack of a functional name log! Plus, Varium is easier to obtain now through free methods. Even new characters start with Varium. The relatively low price of 1,100 made it easy to name camp. People can still technically name camp, but it will be much harder, and more expensive!

It's possible we could expand this feature in the future to allow other players to view the most recent names of their friends or even sell back old names they don't want to use anymore.

Balance Changes

• Artillery Strike: +30 damage to all levels
• Concentration: The +40 HP gain stacks with lifesteal effects
• Proton Cannon: HP gain is no longer being affected by Legendary points
• Blood Shield: 5 → 4 turn Cooldown
• Brace (Stunned): New version created to allow more granular control of different Brace applications and to add visual clarity.

Quality of Life

• Style Change Interface: Input the number of the style you want and press "enter" to jump directly to it.
• Custom Color disabler toggle: All CC items will display default colors when enabled. Normally, the game iterates through every single piece of equipment you have, searching through the 100s of Flash symbols that compose them to find any pieces with CC tags applied. This setting will bypass that check and can offer a performance boost. This may lead to some janky results, but low performance modes aren't made for the game to look pretty -- they're made to help the game run faster! Maybe I should make a "Potato" mode that sets everything to its default setting? Think of the glorious frames-per-second!

Tags: Nightwraith

April 11, 2025

EpicDuel is back with a truly EPIC balance update covering everything from damage ranges to core balance. If that's not enough, we even threw in some bug fixes and quality-of-life changes for good measure!

Balance Changes

General 

• x30 cores: Reverted all to the same values as their permanent versions. Removed all from shops except the following:
  • Absolution (armor) x30
  • Destruction (armor) x30
  • Domination (armor) x30
  • Fortitude (armor) x30
  • Infinity (armor) x30
  • Supremacy (armor) x30
  • Vigor (armor) x30
• Damage ranges reduced by slighting increasing the lower values (Divisors) and reducing the range multiplier. Divisor changes:
  • Resistance = 0.29, 0.39, 0.48, 0.48
  • Defense = 0.29, 0.39, 0.48, 0.48
  • Bot Damage = 0.39, 0.48, 0.58, 0.58
  • Primary Damage = 0.44, 0.56, 0.62, 0.82
  • Auxiliary Damage = 0.37, 0.56, 0.64, 0.81
  • Gun Damage = 0.37, 0.64, 0.64, 0.84
  • Reduce the multiplier that determines maximum damage/defense from 1.2 to 1.1
• Improved robot damage bonus for lower focus levels:
  • Focus 1: +90 robot damage
  • Focus 2: +120 robot damage
  • Focus 3: +150 robot damage
  • Focus 4: +180 robot damage
  • Focus 5: +210 robot damage
  • Focus 6: +240 robot damage 

All Classes

• Field Medic: Requires +3 → +2 Technology per level

Bounty Hunter:

• Shadow Arts: Removed Dexterity boost
• Venom Strike: 4 → 3 turn cooldown; remove support scaling: Flat 80 poison damage at level 1, +10 per level

Mercenary:

• Hybrid Armor: Removed highest stat boost; Add effect that converts 7% of all outgoing damage to user’s Energy; +2% def/res boost to all levels
• Bunker Buster: +20 damage to all levels
• Surgical Strike: +20 damage to all levels

Tech Mage:

• Concentration: Removed damage reduction; added effect that grants user flat +40 HP for every outgoing attack
• Deadly Aim: Removed Support boost
• Assimilation: Removed Strength scaling: Flat -110 Energy at level 1, +10 per level
• Overload: Improves with Support → Dexterity; 2 → 1 turn cooldown
• Plasma Rain: Improves with Dexterity → Support

Cyber Hunter:

• Plasma Grenade: Add 20% lifesteal
• Proton Cannon: 25% lifesteal → Flat +100 HP gain; 20% energy drain → Flat -100 Energy
• Venom Strike: Removed Support scaling: Flat 80 poison damage at level 1, +10 per level

Tactical Mercenary:

• Tactical Grenade: Removed Support scaling: Flat -110 Energy at level 1, +10 per level; 150 → 170 Energy gain
• Mineral Armor: Remove highest stat buff
• Barbed Grenade: +30 damage to all levels
• Suppressing Fire: +30 damage to all levels
• Annihilation: +30 damage to all levels
• Field Commander: Removed Support scaling: Flat +40 Support boost at level 1, +3 per level; removed increased Rage gain; added effect that grants lifesteal based on 50% of Support boost
• Toxic Grenade: +20 Energy cost; 85% → 100% damage; remove Strength scaling: Flat 80 poison damage at level 1, +10 per level

 Blood Mage:

• Fireball: Removed stun chance; add 15% def/res debuff for 2 turns; +1 damage per 0.32 → 0.3 Strength
• Red Vision: Removed Strength boost
• Blood Shield: 5 → 4 turn duration; 90 → 75 Energy gain; remove Technology boost; remove Support scaling: Static resistance increase values 40%, 43%, 46%, 48%, 50%, 52%, 54%, 56%, 58%, 60%
• Blood Instinct: +1 Dexterity per 3 → 5 Technology; 90 → 75 Energy gain 

Cores:

• Mega Stun Blast: 25% → 20% stun chance
• Paralysis Coating: 25% → 15% stun/crit chance; 15% → 20% defense ignore
• Screaming Soul Spears: 85% → 100% damage; 3 → 2 turn duration
• Ballistic Shield: 13% → 6% deflection chance increase
• Deflection Shield: 13% → 8% deflection chance increase
• Ninja Reflexes: 13% → 8% block chance increase
• Lucky Strike: Multiplicative instead of additive
• Lucky Strike/Aim Assist/Laser Sights/Super Scope: Effects apply to all attacks instead of only basic attacks
• Primary/Gun/Auxiliary Mastery: Remove crit chance increase; +10% weapon damage on basic attacks → Flat +25 weapon damage for all attacks

Robots:

• Azrael’s Affliction P/E: 30% → 20% of current HP as life-stealing poison
• Infernal Overload P/E: 95% → 85% initial damage; 130% → 125% max damage; peaks at round 9
• Asgard’s Fury P/E: 4 → 3 turn cooldown
• Dino Fire P/E/PxE/ExP: 4 → 3 turn cooldown; 10% → 8% of target’s max HP as damage bonus
• Rusted Dino Fire P/E/PxE/ExP: 4 → 3 turn cooldown
• Dragonblade Familiar Drill P/E: 4 → 3 turn cooldown; 20% → 17% of damage to HP and Energy
• Flesh Demigod Judgement P/E: 4 → 3 turn cooldown; 25% → 15% lifesteal
• Infernal/Plasma Super Beam: 91% → 97% initial damage
• Shadowlord’s Severance: P/E: 4 → 3 turn cooldown; 35% → 30% defense ignore 

Bug fixes / Changes:

• Description for Darkeater’s Impaler reads 3 turns instead of 2.
• Descriptions for Ninja Reflexes and Deflection Shield read 50% max block/deflection chance instead of 30%.
• Description for Dualism reads 100% damage instead of 110% (105% AOE).
• Azrael’s Annihilation is sometimes applying the debuff to the user for 2 turns instead of 1. The skill is now tracked via turns instead of rounds so in a 1v1 each player has a chance to react or retaliate. This also helps balance the skill in Juggernaut and 2v2 since the debuff will expire before a character can be attacked twice. This was a unique problem because it was the first skill ever to apply a debuff to both the target and attacker in the same turn.
• Azrael's Doombringer Beauty P/E (NPC): NPC version with a maximum HP drain/gain of 200 and 6 turn cooldown. Added to level 56 and 57 of the Basic Battlepass. Those who already claimed those levels of prizes will receive the bot manually.
• All seasonal robots will now have a permanently available version for Varium-only while the seasonally available one will have a Credit option.
  • Baby Yeti
  • Dark Yeti
  • Ballistic Bunny Bot
  • Electro Bunny Bot
  • Botanical Hazard
  • Dark Botanical Hazard
  • Blood Hawk P
  • Blood Hawk E
  • Lionhart's Avatar P
  • Lionhart's Avatar E
  • Kartherax's Darkspawn P
  • Kartherax's Darkspawn E
  • Cyber Yeti P
  • Cyber Yeti E
  • Monkakazi P
  • Monkakazi E
  • Pirate Bot P
  • Pirate Bot E
  • Phantasm Droid P
  • Phantasm Droid E
  • Cyber Shark P
  • Cyber Shark E

Tags: Nightwraith