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EpicDuel PVP Game Design Notes

Behind the scenes information about EpicDuel's development and releases, a real-time PVP MMO that you can play online in your web browser.
Nightwraith

May 21, 2026

Star Saber Surprise!

EpicDuel is LIVE with an unexpectedly early release! Login now to check out new rares and some significant quality of life improvements!

 

TheAlonzoHarris' Shop Update

Visit TheAlonzoHarris in Titan's Peak to browse his expanded inventory!

  • Alonzo’s Rage
    • Crimson Son P: Physical strike for 15% defense ignore.
    • Blood Bend E: 110% Energy damage, removing all buff effects on an enemy.
  • Labelleium’s Beauty
    • Crimson Son E: Energy attack for 15% defense ignore.
    • Blood Bend P: 110% Physicaldamage, removing all buff effects on an enemy.
  • Techstalker Railgun CC P
  • Techstalker Railgun CC E
  • Diamond Star Saber P 2026
  • Diamond Star Saber E 2026
  • Legendary Star Saber P 2026
  • Legendary Star Saber E 2026
  • Legion Star Saber P 2026
  • Legion Star Saber E 2026
  • Exile Star Saber P 2026
  • Exile Star Saber E 2026
  • Draconic Star Saber P 2026
  • Draconic Star Saber E 2026
  • Dragonoid Star Saber P 2026
  • Dragonoid Star Saber E 2026
  • Cosmic Star Saber P 2026
  • Cosmic Star Saber E 2026
  • Necrotic Star Saber P 2026
  • Necrotic Star Saber E 2026
  • Royal Star Saber P 2026
  • Royal Star Saber E 2026
  • Azrael Star Saber P 2026
  • Azrael Star Saber E 2026
  • Mech Star Saber P 2026
  • Mech Star Saber E 2026
  • Dage Star Saber P 2026
  • Dage Star Saber E 2026
  • SepulStar Saber P 2026
  • SepulStar Saber E 2026
  • Frozen Star Saber P 2026
  • Frozen Star Saber E 2026
  • Legion Draconic Star Saber P 2026
  • Legion Draconic Star Saber E 2026


Changes

  • Notification when your ally is ready for a 2v2 or 2v1 battle + a button to jump to the NPC.
  • New attack animation for bow and book-type weapons. Not all tomes have been converted to this new animation.
  • Finder has new filters for active cores and passive cores and mutating weapons.
  • Weapons in finder are color-coded for damage type
  • Robot abilities should now be purged from showing in the finder

 

Progress Report

It's been a minute since last checking on the progress of our mid-term goals so let's dive in!


Finder Overhaul:

With this week's minor changes to the Item Finder, we've opened up the possibility of evolving it into a better central hub for information on all of EpicDuel's available items. It's no surprise to veteran EpicDuelists that the Item Finder is plagued by bad data: items that should be hidden, placeholders items, and miscategorized items. It's long overdue for a proper audit.

Also, you'd be surprised how many people login to EpicDuel and have no idea what to buy or where to find it. The Wiki is helpful, but it takes time to keep the thousands of item entries up to date. Why not have that information available in-game immediately? This would be particularly useful when searching for cores and robots, which can have a major impact on combat performance.


Battle Mode War Separation:

This is admittedly taking longer than anticipated. It involves not only splitting the drop type into 3 types for super and basic war drops and also splitting up the tracking and leaderboard functionality. Any one of these tasks would be challenging, but doable, but altogether they combine to form a major task with numerous dependencies. Timing is also important, as we don't want to introduce this change into a war that is already in-progress. TLDR: we're working on it, but it's more difficult than anticipated.

 

Gifting:

Gifting items are still in progress. Every week we make at least some progress, but it often seems like the longer we work on the rewards, the further we get from finishing them. Just know if you haven't received your item yet: we haven't forgotten you, and we appreciate your patience.

 

One in a Million Restored

I didn't want to announce anything until I was sure it was working, but the One-in-a-Million achievement is re-enabled, and the first new recipient is Sr.Renato, earned in a Juggernaut match vs. 2 Ebil Hazards! This achievement will continue to be awarded for every millionth battle. It's not retroactive since we didn't have the tracking necessary to determine the battle numbers until recently.

 

Power Weekend

Since this is a long weekend for many, we're activating Power Weekend until the end of Monday May 25th!

Tags: Nightwraith


Nightwraith

May 15, 2026

Anubis Zealot Battlepass Is Now Live

The Anubis Zealot Showcase Battlepass is NOW LIVE! Login now to earn the latest collection of weapons, armors, morphs, bots, and more based on the ancient Egyptian god of the afterlife.

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

  • Anubis Incarnation P:
    • Anubis Incarnation Slash P: Physical slash marking target so next attack will be Critical for 1 turn.
    • Anubis Incantation P: The 3rd tick of this lethal, incurable poison detonates for the target's current Energy (1000 max). Can be Cleansed. (Poison cannot be cured by Field Medic. It can only be cleansed. It can kill the target on the final tick)
  • Anubis Incarnation E:
    • Anubis Incarnation Slash E: Energy slash marking target so next attack will be Critical for 1 turn.
    • Anubis Incantation E: The 3rd tick of this lethal, incurable poison detonates for the target's current Energy (1000 max). Can be Cleansed. (Poison cannot be cured by Field Medic. It can only be cleansed. It can kill the target on the final tick)

 

TheAlonzoHarris Shop Update

New color custom Techstalker weapons have been added to TheAlonzoHarris' shop!

  • Techstalker Repeater P CC
  • Techstalker Repeater E CC

 

Changes

  • NPC Crusher (Legendary NPC Damage boost) restricted to NPC battlemodes. It will no longer boost damage against NPC opponents in 1v1, 2v2, or Juggernaut. This is consistent with NPC Armor, which doesn't work in PvP modes.

Tags: Nightwraith


Nightwraith

May 08, 2026

Epic Inferno 2026 Part 2

EpicDuel is online with new rares, bug fixes, and essential quality-of-life additions to make your EpicDuel experience as pleasant as possible!

 

TheAlonzoHarris Shop Update

  • Techstalker Terminator CC P
  • Techstalker Terminator CC E
  • Infernal Slayer Star Saber CC P
  • Infernal Slayer Star Saber CC E
  • Infernal Guardian Slayer CC P
  • Infernal Guardian Slayer CC E
  • Infernal Guardian Greatsword CC P
  • Infernal Guardian Greatsword CC E
  • Artix Star Saber 2026 P
  • Artix Star Saber 2026 E
  • Alpha Star Saber P 2026
  • Alpha Star Saber E 2026
  • Beta Star Saber P 2026
  • Beta Star Saber E 2026
  • Gamma Star Saber P 2026
  • Gamma Star Saber E 2026
  • Delta Star Saber P 2026
  • Delta Star Saber E 2026
  • Omega Star Saber P 2026
  • Omega Star Saber E 2026

More rares will be added to the shop next week! Be sure to stop by every week to check out the latest inventory update!

 

Battle UI Overhaul

As an ongoing effort to improve user experience of EpicDuel, we've added the following features:

  • Check boxes replaced with toggle buttons.
  • Skill trees now indicate the damage type of a skill with a green or blue frame where applicable.
  • Notification popup when limited use cores expire.
  • NPCs now display a complete skill list when you view the NPC's vital's page.
  • New Battle Log: A running display of all major battle actions.

 

Anubis Zealot Battlepass

The Anubis Zealot Battlepass is coming next week so time is running out to collect the last few ranks of Azrael's Viceregent Showcase!

 

Fixes / Changes

  • Battle freeze in the event of a draw.
  • Credits/Experience no longer rewarded for a draw condition in a Challenge battle.
  • Bonebreaker achievement tier number corrected.
  • Removed drops from CactusChan boss fight.
  • Removed Legion PumpkinLord items from PvP drop pool.
  • Removed April Fool's items from PvP drop pool.

Tags: Nightwraith


Nightwraith

May 01, 2026

Epic Inferno 2026

Cactus Conquered

The recently CactusChan Boss was a big hit, introducing new boss battle mechanics. Thought this wasn't the most difficult boss ever introduced, it was surely the most interesting with some ingenious tricks and strategies conjured from the mind of CactusChan (the human, not the monster).

Thus far 240 players have defeated CactusChan, but the first to figure out his lethal patterns were the following champions:

  1. family salman 2
  2. Marina
  3. CactusChan
  4. Daemon Targaryen
  5. Brask Von Krieger
  6. MapWarCyber
  7. Berseker shadow
  8. S A T E L L A
  9. Paige
  10. Xx code xX

The player who crushed the cactus the most was A Vingadora with an astonishing 193 defeats!

With this update the Cactus Slayer achievement has been removed, but the drops will remain for another week, leaving May 8th.

 

Infernal Return

Infernal Guardian items and other Infernal seasonal rares are now available at Kraggor in the Infernal mines.


TheAlonzoHarris Shop Update

TheAlzonoHarris' shop has been updated with new and returning gear!

  • Itachi's Pride - added back permanently
  • Zeus's Legacy - added back permanently
  • Izanagi - added back
  • Izanami - added back
  • Techstalker Sword CC P
  • Techstalker Sword CC E
  • Techstalker Star Saber CC P
  • Techstalker Star Saber CC E
  • Infernal Slayer 2 CC P
  • Infernal Slayer 2 CC E
  • Infernal Slayer 3 CC P
  • Infernal Slayer 3 CC E

For the persistent Weekly Mission grinders, we added tiers 11-20 to the Weekly Mission Achiever.

 

Battlepass Delay

This is disappointing news, but the upcoming Battlepass will be delayed until May 15th. I really wanted to push to get May 8th, but I'm just not confident I'll have enough time to get that finished along with EpicDuel's other infinite pending tasks.

 

Changes

  • Details added to Battlepass prize descriptions including item type and damage type.
  • Increased time for NPC fill in 2v2.
  • Scrollbar added to Item Finder.
  • Cactus Slayer achievement removed from CactusChan boss
  • Suspicious battle activity is tracked and flagged daily. As flags accumulate, penalties will be enforced.
  • Increased penalties for flagged botters:
    • All rewards, drops, and wins stop for all PvP battle modes.
    • PvP wins will count as losses.
    • PvP achievements stop accumulating.
    • PvP Battlepass challenges are disabled.
    • Faction wins stop accumulating.
    • Bans can be issued depending on severity.
    • Rewards will return after a period of good behavior.

Tags: Nightwraith


Nightwraith

April 24, 2026

An Epic New Challenger Approaches

EpicDuel is LIVE with an absolutely stacked update with new content, returning rares, new quality of life features, and more!


A New Challenger Approaches: CactusChan

The most exciting aspect of this update is an epic new boss fight against 2025 Gifting winner CactusChan. As part of his grand prize, he requested a new, unique boss fight. This was a monumental task, but fortunately, CactusChan is always prepared with detailed documentation regarding his intentions and designs. This greatly helped us create the boss to his specifications much more quickly than if we had to guess through it.

The result is the most ambitious prize request ever, but one we were happy to deliver since CactusChan has always been a respectful and generous representative of the community. It was a pleasure to collaborate to create this event, and I hope it is thoroughly enjoyed by all EpicDuelists.

To encounter this NPC, visit his location in the Wasteland. You'll notice he has a shop option. Not so fast! You'll need to defeat him at least once to unlock the shop. In the shop you will find:

  • Cactus Crusher P
  • Cactus Crusher E
  • Ionized Gamma Cactus
  • Quasistellar Gamma Cactus

In addition to granting access to the shop, defeating this boss offers a chance to receive the following drops:

  • Ionized Gamma Cactus - 5% for 2 weeks
  • Quasistellar Gamma Cactus - 5% for 2 weeks
  • CactusChan (morph) - 1% for 2 weeks

The Cactus Slayer achievement will be awarded to all who defeat CactusChan within the first week!

 

New Meta Achievement

To round out the meta achievements we added a couple weeks ago, we've added a new Epic Deflector achievement that you can upgrade by deflecting attacks in PvP battles. 

 

New Battlepass Challenges

The recent addition of meta achievements gave us the idea to add more Battlepass challenges to increase variety.

  • Win a PvP match with a Sword equipped
  • Win a PvP match with Wrist Blades equipped
  • Win a PvP match with a Club equipped
  • Win a PvP match with a Staff equipped
  • Deal an amount of Sword Damage in PvP
  • Deal an amount of Wrist Blade Damage in PvP
  • Deal an amount of Club Damage in PvP
  • Deal an amount of Staff Damage in PvP
  • Deal an amount of Sidearm Damage in PvP
  • Deal an amount of Auxiliary Damage in PvP
  • Deal an amount of Robot Damage in PvP
  • Deal an amount of Critical Damage in PvP


TheAlonzoHarris' Shop Update

The following Epic Rares have been added to the shop for 10k Varium / 10 Balance Tokens.

  • Uncensored’sGamma Bot Replica
  • Weirdos Replica Aunt Cindy
  • Neptune

Additionally, fan favorite prize-code items have been added to the shop.

  • Heavy Junker Armor 2026 - Original Heavy Junker Armor tagged as Rare
  • Fallen Bean 2026
  • Regal Fallen Bean 2026

New hairstyles 968, 969, and 970 have been added to the style shop to accompany the release of the Heavy Junker Armor 2026.

 

New War Token Items Added to Morzyd

Since it's been long enough, we've added last year's Serpent-themed War Prizes to Morzyd' shop.

  • Serpent Warlord Spear P (WS)
  • Serpent Warlord Spear E (WS)
  • Serpent Warlord Spear CC P (WS)
  • Serpent Warlord Spear CC E (WS)
  • Serpent Warlord Slayer P (WS)
  • Serpent Warlord Slayer E (WS)
  • Serpent Warlord Slayer CC P (WS)
  • Serpent Warlord Slayer CC E (WS)
  • Serpent Warlord Arsenal P (WS)
  • Serpent Warlord Arsenal E (WS)
  • Serpent Warlord Arsenal CC P (WS)
  • Serpent Warlord Arsenal CC E (WS)

War Tokens are not longer required to browse Morzyd's shop. After all, what incentive would you have to get a War Token if you can't browse the shop?

 

Changes / Bug Fixes:

  • Turn time increased to 20 seconds from 15.
  • Skill icons under character vitals will begin to flash white when they have one round left on their durations.
  • Notification text wil pop up over player characters when skills expire.
  • Search functionality added to Achievements interface.
  • Scrollbar added to Achievements interface.
  • No more dancing X on battle over!
  • Added option in Settings to hide battle over interfacce and instantly leave battle.
  • If you attempt to Retrain, but don't change your skills or stats, you can simply "Save" to exit retrain mode without spending currency or exiting your character stats.
  • You can now cycle through skill augements without meeting the prerequisites.
  • Character nameplates on the leaderboards will now display the character's Faction.
  • Faction nameplates on the Faction leaderboards are now clickable to view the Faction's page.
  • NPC stats will no longer show negative numbers for weapon stats.
  • NPCs will now accurately reflect their database values such as Primary/Sidearm/Auxiliary damage, Defense, and Resistance.
  • NPCs that play sound files for in-battle dialog will no longer show file names in their chat bubbles.
  • To make NPCs more competative in 2v2 matches, the following NPCs have been given Spreadfire for Sidearms and Auxiliaries:
    • Nightwraith (Level 40)
    • Titan (Level 40)
    • Big Tuna (Level 38)
    • Charfade (Level 40)
    • Bido (Level 40)
    • Brachylagus (Level 40)
    • Rabblefroth (Level 40)
    • Exile Soldier (Level 39)
    • Legion Soldier (Level 39)
    • Transcendence (Level 38)
    • Immanence (Level 38)
    • Deuce (Level 40)
    • Necronaut Clemek (Level 39)
    • Necronaut Paz (Level 39)
    • Acatriel (Level 40)
    • Big Tuna (Level 40)
    • Necronaut Clemek (Level 40)
    • Necronaut Paz (Level 40)

 

Progress Report

In the coming weeks, we hope to build upon our quality of life improvements, sanding away as many pain points in the user experience as possible. Any one of these changes may be perceived as unimportant or even a waste of time for veteran players, but when added up over time, they can make a huge impact on game experience for all players.

We will also need to hit the Battlepass hard in order to meet the May 8th deadline. The timeline will be reevaluated next week, and if we need more time, I'd rather delay it a week rather than rush it out.

The Gifter rewards remain an ongoing task. Completing a major reward like we did this week was a huge leap forward for our progress, but there are many more items outstanding. If you're still waiting on your reward, we appreciate your patience and understanding! I would be thrilled if we could complete our backlog by Summer, but I know better than to underestimate the complexity of the process.

In the meantime, I hope everyone enjoys this epic release as it has a little bit of something for everyone!

Tags: Nightwraith


Nightwraith

April 14, 2026

Epic Meta Achievements

New Meta Achievements

The big change in this update is meta tracking achievements that will track damage inflicted with various weapon types, stuns, amount healed, and more! These achievements only track PvP battles, which includes 1v1, 2v2, and Juggernaut battle modes.

  • Sword Master: Upgrade by winning PvP battles with a sword equipped.
  • Blade Master: Upgrade by winning PvP battles with wrist blades equipped.
  • Club Master: Upgrade by winning PvP battles with a club equipped.
  • Staff Master: Upgrade by winning PvP battles with a staff equipped.
  • Weapon Master: Achieve Tier 20 on all Weapon Master Achievements (Sword Master, Blade Master, Club Master, and Staff Master).
  • Epic Gunslinger: Upgrade by dealing damage in PvP battles with a sidearm.
  • Epic Artilleryman: Upgrade by dealing damage in PvP battles with an auxiliary.
  • Epic Roboticist: Upgrade by dealing damage in PvP battles with a robot.
  • Epic Swordsman: Upgrade by dealing damage in PvP battles with a sword.
  • Epic Fleshripper: Upgrade by dealing damage in PvP battles with wrist blades.
  • Epic Bonecrusher: Upgrade by dealing damage in PvP battles with a club.
  • Epic Spellbinder: Upgrade by dealing damage in PvP battles with a staff.
  • Epic Medic: Upgrade by healing in PvP battles. Counts HP healed even if it exceeds your max HP.
  • Epic Defender: Upgrade by blocking damage in PvP battles.
  • Epic Discombobulator: Upgrade by inflicting a stun in PvP battles.
  • Epic Assassin: Upgrade by inflicting critical damage in PvP battles.

 

Changes:

  • The Dire Depot mission chain is now rare.
  • Auxiliary Armory Key sellable.

Tags: Nightwraith

 

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