EpicDuel PVP Game Design Notes

October 31, 2026

ELO Explainer

Since we introduced ELO in the most recent update, we've stirred a lot of curiousity in how it works. As of this update, 1v1 and 2v2 ELO ratings should display in the in-game character pages.

Starting Rating, Floor and Peak:

• Starting (new player) rating: 800
• Floor: Technically no floor; enough losses can take a player below 0.
• Peak: There is no cap. A rating can climb as high as the results take it, but the "no gain for punching down" rule means the top is limited by strength of opponent.

Gaining or Losing 0 ELO:

• Can you gain 0 for beating a much lower-rated opponen? Yes. The pure math never gives exactly 0. 
• The favorite's gain is K × (1 − E), which shrinks toward 0 without reaching it: Stored ratings keep 2 decimals, so a gain only rounds to 0.00 at a gap of about 1,450 points.
• Ratings are shown as whole numbers, so a gain under 0.5 looks like no change once the gap passes about 640 points (1v1, K=20). The decimals still add up behind the scenes.
• Anti-farm rules force 0 in these cases:The 400-point rule: if you're 400+ points above your opponent (team averages in 2v2), you gain nothing. The pure math would have given you about +1.8.
• New accounts: you're established and the other side has a player still in their first 15 games.
• Dummmies (feeders): the loser was flagged as a dummy (feeder) in the last 30 days.

Can you lose ELO by losing to a much higher-rated opponent?

• Almost never.  The 400-point rule only blocks the winner's gain. The underdog still loses their small amount: about −1.8 at a 400 gap and −0.6 at 600. In whole numbers that looks like 0 past about 640  points, the same rounding as above.The one real 0-loss case is the new-account rule: an established player beaten by a player still in their first 15 games loses nothing (both in 1v1 and 2v2).
• This one-sidedness is deliberate: farming a much weaker account gives nothing, but the weaker account still loses a little. It's also part of why the average sits below the starting rating.
• The same rules apply to 2v2 with K = 16 and the team averages. Players in their first 15 games use K = 40, so their swings are twice as big.

Automod Explained

By now enough of you have seen the Automod messages in game that they merit a more detailed explanation. Automod is an automated message that asks 1 of many randomly generated questions to verify the player is actually controlled by a human and not an automated 3rd party program. These questions are translated based on your language in Settings. It typically triggers after a number of battles in any mode, but also checks for total time online outside of battle to target fame botters (now VERY important since fame can be given hourly).

Automod DOES NOT AND CANNOT BAN. If you receive a punishment, it's because your case was reviewed and met the criteria for punishment by an actual human moderator. Flubbing a question a couple times or leaving your session open while you get a snack is not nearly enough to meet the criteria for a ban. 

An Automod message DOES NOT mean you've broken any rules. Simply receiving a message is not a punishment or an indication you have been flagged as a cheater. It's simply a friendly check to see if there's an actually a human behind the keyboard or touchscreen. If you're a legit player, you have nothing to fear from this. If you're using a 3rd party program to play, you should be very, very concerned. Not just because of bans: many of these programs contain malware like keyloggers that can feed your info directly to program's creator. 

Some people have also noticed they cannot earn rewards for battle for some reason. This feature has been disabled as this was due to automation limiting battle rewards for players with "suspicious" dueling patterns. This was too vague and had too much potential to punish players erroneously.

There has also been concern that remote reporting using /report is being abused. Based on all we've seen, it has not. Reports with no context or supporting evidence are never enough to warrant a punishment. Also, EpicDuel already has many safeguards against mass reporting, including limiting visibility of reports from players found to be abusing the system. Once again, punishments are not issued automatically: Every mute/ban/reset is only issued after a human review.

Tags: Nightwraith

October 31, 2026

Oni Slayer Weapons on Snork

Snork just received a new stash of epic Oni Slayer seasonal weapons! 

• Oni Slayer Demon Wakizashi
• Oni Slayer Spirit Wakizashi
• Oni Slayer Demon Katana
• Oni Slayer Spirit Katana
• Oni Slayer Demon Naginata
• Oni Slayer Spirit Naginata
• Oni Slayer Demon Claws
• Oni Slayer Spirit Claws
• Oni Slayer Demon Axe
• Oni Slayer Spirit Axe
• Oni Slayer Demon Staff
• Oni Slayer Spirit Staff
• Oni Slayer Demon Scythe
• Oni Slayer Spirit Scythe
• Oni Slayer Demon Slasher
• Oni Slayer Spirit Slasher
• Oni Slayer Demon Orb
• Oni Slayer Spirit Orb
• Oni Slayer Demon Cleaver
• Oni Slayer Spirit Cleaver
• Oni Slayer Demon Bow
• Oni Slayer Spirit Bow
• Hollowborne Morph
• Hollowborne Morph CC

Also, the Balance Token Ghoulzookas will be available until November 2nd so you have one more weekend to get them!

Gifting 2026

EpicDuel's Gifting 2026 event will go LIVE Monday, December 7 and runs for 36 days, ending Monday, January 11. Read this thorough post for more information!

Hourly Fame

It seems that one of the cruelest things a dev can do is make an achievement out of reach, such as the top Fame achievement. Though this wouldn't be an insurmountable bar at EpicDuel's peak, it's a bit too steep to climb at the current population. To address that, Fame can now be given hourly instead of daily! Fame is counted per-player and resets an hour after fame is given. That means if you Fame someone at 1:50 PM, you can fame them again at 2:50 PM.

Epic Elo

It's long overdue that a competitive PvP game introduce a meaningful ranking systems, eh? Wins have always been a prominent way to measure success in EpicDuel, but wins alone don’t tell the whole story. Under the current system, beating a top player and beating a brand-new account count exactly the same. To truly measure a player's dueling prowess, we’ve added ELO Ratings for 1v1 and 2v2. They measure how strong the opponents you beat are, not just how many times you won.

What is ELO?

ELO is a rating system first made for chess and now used in many competitive games. Every player has a rating. When you battle, the system first works out how likely you were to win, based on the gap between your rating and your opponent’s:

Expected Score = 1 / (1 + 10^((Opponent’s Rating − Your Rating) / 400))

If you and your opponent are rated the same, you’re expected to win 50% of the time. If your opponent is rated 200 points higher, you’re expected to win about 24% of the time.

After the battle, your rating moves based on how the result compared to that expectation:

Rating Change = K × (Result − Expected Score)

Result is 1 for a win and 0 for a loss. K controls how big each step is.

An example: You’re rated 1000 and face an opponent rated 1200. Your expected score is about 0.24. For an established player, K is about 20.

You win: 20 × (1 − 0.24) = +15 for the upset.
You lose: 20 × (0 − 0.24) = −5, since you were expected to lose.

Flip it around. If the 1200-rated player beats you, they gain only about 5 points, because that win was expected. Beating stronger players earns a lot; beating much weaker players earns very little. That’s what makes ELO a much better measure of skill than wins alone.

What else goes into your rating?

1v1 and 2v2 are rated separately. Being great at one says nothing about the other.
In 2v2, your team’s rating is the average of both partners. Your team’s chance of winning is worked out from that, and both partners gain or lose based on the result.
Placement battles: your first few rated battles in each mode move your rating in bigger steps, so you reach your true level quickly.
Runs count as losses. Leaving a battle early counts as a loss for your side, same as it always has.
Only 1v1 and 2v2 auto battles are rated. Juggernaut, challenges and battles involving NPCs don’t affect your rating.
Inactivity: if you stop playing a mode for a while, your rating slowly drifts down until you return. The leaderboard reflects who’s strong now, not who was strong months ago.

Ratings update every hour.

Fair play

ELO naturally limits farming: easy wins earn almost nothing. On top of that, we’ve added several protections:

• Weaker opponents: wins against them, or against brand-new accounts, count for little or nothing.
• Repeat opponents: wins earn less and less each time you battle them.
• Flagged accounts: accounts our systems flag for win-trading don’t feed anyone’s rating.

The short and simple version: the only reliable way to raise your ELO is to beat strong players.

The Leaderboards

You’ll find 1v1 ELO Rating and 2v2 ELO Rating in the All-Time section of the Leaderboards. To appear on a board you need 50 rated battles in that mode, and you must have played it within the last 30 days. If you qualify but aren’t in the top 20, your own rank is shown at the bottom of the board.

Ratings were calculated from existing battle history, so your rating already reflects the battles you’ve fought in recent months.

We’re excited for ELO to give real recognition to players who rise to the challenge. It also gives us a strong base for future features that might use ELO for placement and balance (i.e. REAL Tournaments).

ELO rating parameters are subject to change and may shift as we change the criteria over time. When that happens all current ratings will be cleared with recalculated ratings added. When this happens, we'll announce it so nobody panics if their score jumps up or down a few hundred points.

Varium Shop

We've updated a few things in the Varium shop for your convenience and clarity.

• All packages have names. The confirmation screen will now ask if you wish to purchase the specific "Package Name" rather than a generic point value.
• When cycling the large Varium packages, the details panel now resets as you page through so you'll never purchase the wrong package by accident.
• Scroll bar added to the details panel. This now makes it obvious that there's more to a package since not everyone uses a mousewheel.

Tags: Nightwraith

October 27, 2026

Gifting 2026 Announcement

It’s that time of year again! The Gifting 2026 event will go LIVE Monday, December 7 and runs for 36 days, ending Monday, January 11. This year brings big changes to the rewards, so please read the rules carefully if you’re thinking of participating. If this year’s rewards aren’t to your liking, you’re welcome to sit this one out.

Master Policy

As with last year (and all years) final word on all rules and regulations for Gifting is Nightwraith. If something isn’t explicitly covered here, Nightwraith has final say to approve or deny any request. These rules apply only to the 2026 season. They are not retroactive and they override rules from previous seasons. If someone could do or get something in a previous year, it doesn’t matter, because only these rules apply.

What Is Gifting?

If you're new to EpicDuel or been away for a year or ten, here's a quick guide to EpicDuel Gifting in 2026. Gifting is a yearly event in EpicDuel, typically running from December to January, in which players can spend Varium to give gifts to other players in the same room. These gifts can be Credits, Arcade Tokens, or rare drops like Omega Wolf Shards! In more recent years, we added the ability to build up streaks from consecutive gifts given, which builds up a chance for a "Global Gift" that sends a gift to every player on the server! You can give a Gift by pressing the big button at the bottom middle of the big Gifting menu or type "/buygift325varium" in chat.

These Gifting Scores are tracked on a leaderboard. At the end of Gifting, players will receive special prizes based on their final scores. Players can also receive special items based on their daily scores, such as the coveted Secret and Silver Secret Packages. 

No Varium? No problem! You can still receive gifts for free! Many players end intense Gifting sessions with thousands of Arcade Tokens and millions of Credits! You just have to be in the right place at the right time so keep an eye on where players congregate! Also, remember to login daily to click the big CLAIM PRIZE button on the Gifting bar! These daily prizes include Credits, rare items, and even Varium!

Level Requirement

Last year, to combat bot farms designed to inflate Gifting scores, we introduced a level requirement to receive gifts.This year, we've upgraded that system to make the new minimum level to receive gifts 25. Likewise, players below this level will not be counted towards the Gifter's score. I wish I didn't have to add measures like these that could dissuade new players from participating, that Gifting could be open and easy for everyone, but every year bad actors take it upon themselves as a personal challenge to ruin the experience.

What's a Gifting Streak?

Give consecutive gifts to build up a Gifting Streak! Each streak tier awards a new achievement and an increased chance of a Global Gift: a gift that everyone on the server receives at the same time! Global Gifts offer a huge boost to Gifting scores.

Streak tiers and Global Gift chances are as follows:

Tier 11: 75%
Tier 10: 60%
Tier 9: 50%
Tier 8: 40%
Tier 7: 30%
Tier 6: 25%
Tier 5: 20%
Tier 4: 15%
Tier 3: 10%
Tier 2: 5%
Tier 1: 0%

A NEW addition to streaks is a visible streak timer. Now you can see exactly how much time is left in your Gifting streak so you won't accidentally send a Global Gift if you were shooting for a specific meme score (no, I will not manually adjust your score).

How Do I Open Gifts?

Gifts remain separate from player mail, with a button inside the mail interface to open them, to keep login lag down. Gifts are limited to Credits, Arcade Tokens, and item drops like Omega Wolf Shards. Holiday items formerly in the prize pool are available at various NPCs in Frystland. 

You can open all your gifts by clicking the "Open Gifts" button from your mail interface or typing "/openallgifts". You may need to do this several times as the command only opens 1000 gifts at a time and gift amounts can reach the millions by the end.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

REWARDS!!!

Of all the aspects of Gifting, this area received the most changes from last year, so please read carefully! We have a lot of exciting developments on the horizon for EpicDuel in 2027, and cannot afford to extend the workload of Gifting prizes into the new year, especially since there are still Gifter rewards in progress from last year.  If you review the prizes, and they don't seem exciting, please don't Gift under the assumption that you can negotiate yourself a better prize afterwards, or you'll be gravely disappointed.

The End of Custom Rewards

Last year we announced that Gifting 2025 would be the last event with custom prizes, and we’re committing to that: There will be no custom prizes this year. We know this will be controversial, even though we made it clear that we cannot justify the development time custom items demand, and that time would be better spent improving EpicDuel for everyone, especially with so much exciting developments on the horizon.

What will we offering instead of custom items?

Epic Legacy Tokens

Instead of custom rewards, every Gifter earns Epic Legacy Tokens based on their final score:

• You receive 1 Epic Legacy Token for every 500,000 gifts given.
• Tokens will be awarded as soon as Gifting concludes.
• There is no partial credit. A score of 1,200,000 earns 2 Tokens.
• Anyone who reaches 500,000 gifts can earn a Token, not just the top 15.
• Tokens are spent at a Rare Shop that stocks the rarest items in EpicDuel’s history, such as Alpha gear, Beta Gear, and, of course, Founder Armor. There may even be some never-before-seen prizes!
• Many weapons in the shop will priced 1 item per Token, so getting the Physical and Energy versions of a particular rare will cost 2 Tokens in many cases. Most armors will cost  2 Tokens. Founder Armor will be available for 4 Tokens.
• We are still compiling a list of rares to include in the shop and will publish a more complete list as Gifting approaches. We may also add to the list after Gifting starts based on player requests.
• Tokens do not expire so the shop will be available for the rest of the year.

In addition to reducing the development overhead at the end of Gifting, this change also reduces the heat of the daily and overall races, without eliminating the competitiveness completely. Your reward depends on your own total, so there’s no risk of being sniped at the last minute by another Gifter. Daily rewards and final placement still offer extra rewards, but there is not as much of a disparity as before. Another benefit of this system is that the rewards will be instant: no more months (or years) of waiting for rewards!

Secret / Silver Secret Packages

Secret Packages are awarded to the person who has the highest score at the end of a day during Gifting. We've expanded this to also reward Secret Packages to players who score over 500,000 in a day. Silver Secret Packages are awarded to those who place in the top 5 each day and/or achieve a score of over 15,000. These packages open after Gifting ends to become a set of new rare items! 

This year, since packages cannot be shared, we created a new incentive for earning extra packages. Special Gifting NPCs will be added that will allow you to redeem extra Secret or Silver Secret packages for the package items from previous years! For example, you can exchange a Secret Package from this year for the Secret Package contents from 2020! You will need to retain at least one Secret or Silver Secret Package if you want the 2026 prizes be careful when selecting which packages you wish to exchange. 

Top 15 Secret and Silver Secret Package Bonus

Although the top 15 rewards are different from past Gifting events, we will still offer some compelling bonuses for top 15. Additional Secret Packages, Silver Secret Packages, and Epic Legacy Tokens will be awarded based on placement in the top 15 at the end of the event:

1st = 5 Secret / 10 Silver Secret Packages + 4 Epic Legacy Tokens
2–5 = 4 Secret / 6 Silver Secret Packages + 3 Epic Legacy Tokens
6–10 = 3 Secret / 4 Silver Secret Packages + 2 Epic Legacy Tokens
11–15 = 2 Secret / 2 Silver Secret Packages + 1 Epic Legacy Token

Again, packages cannot be shared, but they can be converted into the package items from previous years at a designated Gifting NPC. 

Good Standing

You are only eligible for a prize if your account is in good standing. If you are permanently banned during or after Gifting, you will not receive your prizes, even on your alternate accounts. Account sharing, cheating, or trying to pre-sell prizes outside the game may also negate eligibility.

No Ties

There will be no ties. If scores are tied, the tie is broken in favor of the first person to reach the score, as determined by receipt logs.

Score Tier Prizes

As in previous years, score-based tier prizes unlock at the end of Gifting. The tiers will be 10,000 / 100,000 / 250,000. This Year the theme will be the Delta Demigod Collection!  

Faction Prize

Like last year, we will track the Gifting contributions of entire Factions. The Faction with the highest total Gifting score receives 1 Epic Legacy Token for every member who joined that Faction before this post going live on October 27, 2026. The Faction must have at least 100,000 Faction Influence to be eligible. Anyone who joins a Faction on or after this post going lvie October 27, 2026 is not eligible. This rule exists to prevent the selling of Faction slots.

To add some incentive for Factions to participate in Gifting aside from the leading Faction, we're offering incentives for the 2nd and 3rd place factions. We will also try to add a place to display top Factions on the Gifting leaderboard before the end of Gifting.

1st Place - All eligible members receive 1 Secret Package and 1 Silver Secret Package + 1 Epic Legacy Token
2nd Place - All eligible members receive 1 Secret Package
3rd Place - All eligible members receive 1 Silver Secret Package

Daily Gift Leader Bonus

The player with the most Daily Gift Leader achievements at the end of the event receives a bonus Epic Legacy Token. If two or more players tie, the winner is the player with the highest combined score across the days they earned those achievements. For example, if Player 1 and Player 2 each have 4 Daily Gift Leader achievements, but Player 1 scored 500,000 on each of those days and Player 2 scored 100,000, Player 1 receives the bonus Token.

No Prize Sharing

Prize sharing is removed this year. Tokens and Packages cannot be shared or transferred. This completely closes the market for selling or pre-selling rewards outside the game.

Daily Gift Legend Achievements

Some of the most esoteric achievements go to players who finish in the top 15 and also win top Daily Gifter across multiple years. Players who won top Daily Gifter in multiple seasons between 2018 and 2026 are eligible for these special achievements:

• Daily Gift Mythic Legend: Won top Daily Gifter in 8 Gifting seasons between 2018–2026.
• Daily Gift Mythic Epic Legend 2026: Placed top 15 in 2026 and won top Daily Gifter in 8 Gifting seasons.
• Daily Gift Cosmic Epic Legend 2026: Placed top 15 in 2026 and won top Daily Gifter in 7 Gifting seasons.
• Daily Gift Eternal Epic Legend 2026: Placed top 15 in 2026 and won top Daily Gifter in 6 Gifting seasons.
• Daily Gift Ultimate Epic Legend 2026: Placed top 15 in 2026 and won top Daily Gifter in 5 Gifting seasons.
• Daily Gift Supreme Epic Legend 2026: Placed top 15 in 2026 and won top Daily Gifter in 4 Gifting seasons.
• Daily Gift Epic Legend 2026: Placed top 15 in 2026 and won top Daily Gifter in 3 Gifting seasons.
• Daily Gift Epic Champion 2026: Placed top 15 in 2026 and won top Daily Gifter in 2 Gifting seasons.

New Epic Supporter Achievements

Special Gifting variants of the Epic Supporter achievements will be introduced in late November and will replace the current Epic Supporter achievements for the duration of Gifting.

Fameall

Did you know there is a way to get Fame FAST? Type /fameall into the public chat field to fame all eligible players on your screen!

Gifting Concierge

Even though this year's changes should limit the problem of sniping, we'll still rely on the help of our steadfast Gifting concierge to keep Gifting events from conflicting with each other. If you’re interested in hosting a major Gifting event, get in touch with Smoking Shadow:

In-game: Smoking Shadow
Discord: mihawk98
Twitter: Mihawkplayss

Tis the Season to Be Wary

Gifting is a joyful time, but it also brings out scammers. Don’t risk your EpicDuel account or your bank account for a stranger promising great rewards or free Varium. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

EXPERIMENTAL, NEW, FASTER LAUNCHER! 

This year, the best way to experience Gifting will be on the brand-new Ruffle Launcher! It's still in the testing phase, but by the time Gifting arrives, it'll make the Gifting experience infinitely better than the current slideshow most players experience in the crowded rooms. We encourage users with older computers & devices to help us test. Check this page daily for the latest updates! 

Tags: Nightwraith

October 23, 2026

Surprise! Ghoulish delights arrive early on Delta V with a NEW Grand Ghoulmaster Promo Package, featuring brand new 2026 Ghoulzookas! Every time we iterate on the concept, we face a huge challenge to outdo the previous generations, and I personally think this latest stacks up pretty well. Plus, since we had so many good ideas for spooky, spectral robots, this package will feature 4 bots! Take a look at all this new promo offers!

Weapons

• Ghoul Cannon 2026
• Spectral Blaster 2026
• Ghoul Revolver
• Spectral Revolver

Robots

• Ghoulmaster Phantom P
  • Ghoulmaster Cannon P: Blast target with hand cannons and fiery pumpkin seeds for 10% Energy drain.
  • Ghoulmaster Possession P: Infest with dark spirits, forcing target to use a random skill on next turn.
• Ghoulmaster Phantom E
  • Ghoulmaster Cannon E: Blast target with hand cannons and fiery pumpkin seeds for 10% Energy drain.
  • Ghoulmaster Possession E: Infest with dark spirits, forcing target to use a random skill.
• Ghoulmaster Wraith P
  • Ghoulmaster Swipe P: Slash with blazing ethereal daggers for 10% Energy drain.
  • Ghoulmaster Immolation P: Incinerate target's Energy, reducing it, and your own, to 0 for 3 turns. Energy removed by this skill returns after 3 turns.
• Ghoulmaster Wraith E
  • Ghoulmaster Swipe E: Slash with blazing ethereal daggers for 10% Energy drain.
  • Ghoulmaster Immolation E: Incinerate target's Energy, reducing it, and your own, to 0 for 3 turns. Energy removed by this skill returns after 3 turns.

Cores

• Blood Echo (Primary): Reverse damage of most recent attack based on current Rage. Does not recover poison damage or EP damage.

• Phantasm Shroud (Armor): Gain 500 EP. Damage reroutes to Energy pool for 3 turns. Excess dmg. inflicted on HP. Health regen skills like Blood Lust do not work against players using this ability. Only poisons are skill able to reduce HP. EP regen like Concentration only trigger when damage hits HP while ability is active.

• Haunted Shot (Sidearm): Causes target to take dmg. from Energy spent for 3 turns. Applies after heals.

• Ectoplasmic Explosion (Auxiliary): Infest target. Use again to detonate target's Energy based on aux. dmg., increasing 10% each turn (max 5/70%).

Both the 15,000 Varium and the Gear-Only Grand Ghoulmaster packages also contain rare achievement: Grand Ghoulmaster! We hope you enjoy these latest additions to EpicDuel's ever-growing epic arsenal!

NEW! Download the Experimental Artix Games Launcher (Modified Ruffle)

The latest version of Artix Entertainment's Ruffle launcher is now available! Play EpicDuel at a framerate never thought possible! I haven't seen the game this smooth since the early days when the art was much simpler. Now you can really enjoy the detail and smoothless of the animations like few have seen! Try the Ruffle Launcher now!

Tags: Nightwraith

October 16, 2026

Pirates of Doom

It's been awhile since our last Arcade game, yeah? This was intended to launch in September but some other issues got in the way and it was tabled for a bit. I didn't want to wait a whole year to release it so Pirates of Doom is now available at all ArcadeBots across Delta V!

• Gold Tier
  • DoomTech Pirate Arsenal P
  • DoomTech Pirate Arsenal E
  • DoomTech Pirate Moglin
  • Shadowscythe Pirate Moglin
• Silver Tier
  • DoomTech Pirate Cannon P
  • DoomTech Pirate Cannon E
  • Shadowscythe Pirate Cannon P
  • Shadowscythe Pirate Cannon E
• Bronze Tier
  • DoomTech Pirate Rapier P
  • DoomTech Pirate Rapier E
  • Shadowscythe Pirate Rapier P
  • Shadowscythe Pirate Rapier E
  • DoomTech Pirate Cutlass P
  • DoomTech Pirate Cutlass E
  • Shadowscythe Pirate Cutlass P
  • Shadowscythe Pirate Cutlass E
  • DoomTech Pirate Blunderbuss P
  • DoomTech Pirate Blunderbuss E
  • Shadowscythe Pirate Blunderbuss P
  • Shadowscythe Pirate Blunderbuss E

New Home Items

• DoomTech Pirate Rune Rug
• Shadowscythe Pirate Rune Rug
• DoomTech Pirate Wall Runes
• Shadowscythe Pirate Wall Runes
• Sepulchure Statue Right
• Sepulchure Statue Left 

More Alpha-Omega Valkyrie Items

We've just rolled out more long awaited rewards from the 2024 Gifting event! If you qualified, check your inventory for a pleasant surprise!

• 50,000 Gift Score
  • Alpha-Omega Valkyrie Slayer P
  • Alpha-Omega Valkyrie Slayer E
• 75,000 Gift Score
  • Alpha-Omega Valkyrie Bow P
  • Alpha-Omega Valkyrie Bow E
• 175,000 Gift Score
  • Alpha-Omega Valkyrie Scythe P
  • Alpha-Omega Valkyrie Scythe E
• 275,000 Gift Score
  • Alpha-Omega Valkyrie Spear P
  • Alpha-Omega Valkyie Spear E
• 450,000 Gift Score
  • Void Frostbane P
  • Void Frostbane E
• 700,000 Gift Score
  • Cosmic Frostbane P
  • Cosmic Frostbane E

Balance Changes

• Cores:
  • Ares’ Revenge: 90 energy → 0
  • Infernal Fortitude (Armor): 3 → 4 turns
  • Frost Shards: 100 energy → 80
  • Malware: 85% → 100 dmg
  • Overclock: + 100 HP heal on use
• Robots:
  
  • Anubis Incantation: Basic attack 100% → 85% dmg
  • Botanical Borg/Shadowlords Avatar: Special ignores 27% → 30% defense
  • Botanical Hazard: Basic attack ignores 15% defense
  • Minotaur: Initial special attack ignores defense + Special Duration 2 → 3 turns, 30 → 25% def ignore and reduction
  • Monkakazi: Basic attack 105% → 100% + 15% defense ignore; Special Uses 1 → 2 times; 3 turn cooldown
  • Ultra Corsair Bot: Normal attack: 25% crit chance → 10% crit chance + 10% defense ignore; Special attack: 70% → 80% dmg
• Skills:
  
  • (UA) Reroute: +30 → +50 sidearm dmg
  • (UA) Energy Parasite: 75 EP initial drain; at max level, drain 45 EP subsequently per 3 turns; 1.5x EP gain → 2x.

EXPERIMENTAL, NEW, FASTER LAUNCHER! 

We just unveiled a new official new version of Artix Entertainment's Launcher that allows you to play all of our Flash games FASTER than ever before on your Android mobile device, or Windows/Mac/Linux Computer. Updates are going to be fast and furious as we begin the journey that will take all of your favorite, original, Artix Entertainment games to Steam and the App Stores. We encourage users with older computers & devices to help us test. Check this page daily for the latest updates!

Tags: Nightwraith

October 09, 2026

EpicDuel is back online with new features, new balance changes, and more!

Boss Buddies

Bosses that you are forced to fight with an NPC ally after meeting mission requirements now allow you to challenge solo.

• Dravax the Harbinger
• Saeva Lionhart
• The Endless
• Alydriah
• Edgar Boothe
• Kartherax
• Chairman Platinum

This update also shifted hundreds of lines of reduntant boss code into server-driven functions. This is a good thing because previously, if we wanted to add a new boss, it had to be added to a number of places in the server and client code, bloating the code needlessly.

Balance Changes

• Cores:
  
  • Deep Plague: Triggered by clicking on core slot after application instead of basic strike. Max dmg → 140% 
  • Botanical Wrath: Costs 100 → 80 Energy
  • Radiation Burn: 15% chance → 35% chance to reduce melee attacker's def/res by 15%
  • Darkeater's Overcharge: Spend 110 HP to mini rage & destroy target's armor for 1 → 2 turns
  • Botanical Infestation: Costs 90 → 0 Energy; Reset target's Rage and restores 40% -> 50% HP from damage
  • Astral Projection: 50% → 60% dmg stolen to Energy
  • Frost Aura: Buff Aura to -40 energy reduction ?????????
  • Wolf's Fury: Uses: 1 → 2; 3 turn cooldown
  • Frozen Fist: Deal 105% primary damage increasing by 5% per round, 140% max
  • Phase Shift (Primary/Gun/Aux): Inflict 100% → 105% damage of the opposite type; Uses: Unlimited + 2 turns cooldown(Gun and Primary), 3 turns(Auxiliary)
  • Screaming Soul Spears: 2 → 3 turns; 80 → 100 energy cost
  • Hatchling Rush: Attack same as primary damage type for 100% lowering all healing effects by 20% → 30%. Hatching Rush P/E and Minor Hatchling Rush P/E consolidated.
• Robots:
  
  • Botanical Borg: Special's Defense ignore 25% → 27%
  • Lionhart's Avatar: Special grants 60% → 100% Rage to all allies
  • Technomancer Hexabot: Special increases effectiveness of poison by 25% → 50% for 3 turns 
• Skills:
  
  • UA Energy Shield(Tactial Mercenary): Removed Energy Drain, increases Deflection Chance by 15%

Bug Fixes/Changes

• Cyber Yeti P/E: Skills were not properly set into cooldown.
• Nightmare CactusChan: Charon's Obol could deflect High Noon damage for a quick skill. This has been fixed. Best Times from players who took advantage of this will be reset. Also, Delirium would not be blocked be Charon's Obol as it wasn't setup as a debuff. This would cause the affected player to timeout if they tried to use a skill. It is now labeled as a debuff.
• Charon's Obol: Max reflected damage capped at 1000.
• All damage-reflecting skills capped at 1000 to pre-empt possible future interactions like this.
• Azrael's Will: Set as debuff (blocked by Charon's Obol).
• Text in PMs and Faction Chat can be highlighted and copied/pasted.
• Your character's language preference in Settings is now saved, even after you clear your cache.

Epic Downtime

Last night EpicDuel was down for about 9 hours, starting after the midnight restart. In some ways, this takes me back to the bad old times. EpicDuel used to crash at least once daily, even before the AE-fueled player influx. Titan and I would wake up every day (when we remembered to sleep) not knowing if the servers would still be alive or not. It was a bad time then, but it's even worse now that my ancient, decaying body is not as resilient to sleep deprivation as it used to be. 

In this case, the problem was a pesky daily job that was stuck. EpicDuel has a list of jobs it runs every day like awarding daily achievements, resetting the daily leaderboards, choosing a new NPC bounty, etc... If any part of the job gets stuck, the process locks up and the game can't sustain regular play. I identified the problem, but couldn't do anything about it (I'm a game lead, but the council does not grant me the rank of network admin). As of this writing, the problem seems to be resolved, and I've added new failsafes that should prevent something like this from happening in the future. For the sake of my sanity, I certainly hope so!

Tags: Nightwraith