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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

June 19, 2026

A Critical Update

EpicDuel is live with new rares, new quality-of-life features, and a major change to damage calculations!

 

Quality of Life / Other Changes

We've made some significant changes to the Inventory and Finder interfaces to make sorting and finding items easier than ever. 

  • Favorite and Mutating Weapon filter buttons added to Inventory interface.
  • Mission/Miscellaneous items are now searchable in the item finder.
  • Finder now shows core type and core description on rollover.
  • Finder now shows bot thumbnails with skill descriptions on rollover. Ideally all categories will soon show an item thumbnail to preview items before jumping to the shop.
  • Data cleanup to hide deprecated items that can no longer be acquired. Data cleanup is ongoing to properly tag items based on rarity and method of acquisition. There were and likely are still many items that are available in shops that are incorrectly tagged and thus hidden from the Finder.
  • Spreadfire core added to Dage the Evil.
  • Spreadfire (Aux) core added to Alydroid. 

 

Faction Alts Removed

As stated in a previous post, all alts in Factions have been removed. For the purposes of this update, an alt is another character that is on the same account that is a member of the same faction. If you had 5 alts in an account (including your main), then 4 will be removed, leaving the account with the lowest character Id (first created). This has been a rule for a long time, but only recently have we had the means to enforce it directly and dramatically. Attempts to get around this rule will be harshly enforced against the player and faction involved.

 

TheAlonzoHarris' Shop

TheAlonzoHarris' Shop has been updated with the following items:

  • Darkeater Breaker CC P
  • Darkeater Breaker CC E
  • Darkeater Annihilator CC P
  • Darkeater Annihilator CC E

 

Critical Strike & Rage Interaction Update

Due to ongoing complains about high damage from certain skill combinations, we've made several adjustments to how critical strikes interact with other damage mechanics to reduce their upper limits from their present extremes. These extremes became especially pronounced after new skills were introduced that guarantee critical damage. However, rather than a targeted nerf to the force-crit skills, we opted to reduce the overall impact of crit/defense ignore stacking with some mechanical changes.

Defense Ignore Cap:

Critical strikes now have a maximum combined defense ignore of 50% across all sources. Previously, equipping cores and skills that each independently stripped defense could stack beyond this threshold. The 50% cap applies to the sum of the base crit ignore (30%), passive core bonuses (Massive Strike), and active skill defense ignore (Icy Overkill) combined.

Damage Percent Adjustment:

Skills that deal bonus damage via a percentage modifier (such as 115% damage skills) will no longer have that bonus reflected in the critical strike damage ceiling. The crit calculation now uses the base damage value before percentage bonuses are applied, meaning crit and damage percentage bonuses each do their own independent work rather than amplifying each other.

Rage and Critical Strike Interaction:

Critical strikes and Rage attacks will now be evaluated independently. When a Rage attack already deals more damage than a critical strike would produce, the Rage damage is preserved without an additional critical bonus on top. When a critical strike would deal more damage than the Rage attack, the critical damage is used instead. Whichever is stronger wins, but they no longer combine to push damage beyond their individual limits. A critical Rage used to be an unexpected bonus, but predictable crits made this combination too powerful.

I fell asleep. What does this all mean?

Stacking crit-boosting cores with defense ignoring skills will be less effective, especially when combined with Rage.

Formula:

For the Wiki folks those who love to deep dive into the formulas, here is a detailed breakdown of damage before and after this change.

Scenario: An attack does 115% damage with 30% defense ignore. This attack crits on a Rage. A passive boosts critical defense ignore by 15% (additive).

Before:

Gross damage = (596 × 1.15) = 686
Defense = (0.70 × 337) = 235
Defense after Rage = 235 - (0.4233 × 235) = 235 - 99 = 136
Damage = 686 - 136 = 550
Defense ignore = 30 + 15 = 45 (uncapped)
Crit adjusted defense = (0.55 × 136) = 75
Damage post Crit = 686 - 75 = 611
Crit dmg. increase = 611 - 550 = 61
Min. Crit increase = 30 + 26 = 56
(61 > 56, use Damage post Crit)
Final damage = 611 


After:

Gross damage = 596 (pre-damage percent)
Defense = (0.70 × 337) = 235
Defense after Rage = 235 - (0.4233 × 235) = 235 - 99 = 136
Damage = (596 × 1.15) - 136 = 686 - 136 = 550
Defense ignore = (30 + 15) = 45
Defense ignore  = (45 + 30) = (capped at 50)
Defense ignore cap = 0.50
Crit adjusted defense = (0.50 × 136) = 68
Damage post Crit = 596 - 68 = 528

Rage comparison:
Damage post Crit (528) <= damage (550) → 550
(Higher damage is chosen, rather than stacking)
Final damage = 550

 

Coming Soon

We've got some amazing content in the works for release this Summer including new epic boss battles, new mission, npc AI enhancements, and more quality-of-life features!

Tags: Nightwraith


Nightwraith

June 11, 2026

EpicDuel Faction Rules Update

EpicDuel is live with new item, new achievements, and some important announcements regarding Faction rules and enforcement.

 

TheAlonzoHarris Shop Update

TheAlonzoHarris' shop has been updated with color-custom Darkeater gear and a special Undead Legion surprise!

  • Darkeater Katana CC P
  • Darkeater Katana CC E
  • Darkeater Greatsword CC P
  • Darkeater Greatsword CC E
  • Darkeater Star Saber CC P
  • Darkeater Star Saber CC E
  • Legion Necrophoenix Scythe CC P
  • Legion Necrophoenix Scythe CC E


Epic Legendary Shop Update

Two new mounts have been added to the Epic Legendary Shop in Titan's Peak.

  • Golen War Horse Mount
  • Derpy War Horse Mount


War Shop Update

War Prizes Godeater CC (WS) and Voideater CC (WS) have been added to Morzyd the Scavenger.

 

New Achievements

New Achievements World Cup 2026 and Emancipation Day are available from the seasonal Achievement shop!

 

Faction Alts

Having multiple characters from the same account in the same Faction has been against the rules for a long time. To encourage compliance, we've send an in-game mail to all members of factions who have multiple member characters from the same account. These accounts in violation will be purged from the faction rolls on June 18th. This means, if you have multiple characters from your account in the same faction, all but one of those characters will be allowed to remain. The character chosen to remain by the automated system will be either the Faction founder or the character with the lowest ID (first created). You can avoid this consequence by removing all but one of your owned characters from the Faction.

To clarify, your characters will not be deleted from your account, they will just be removed from the Faction. A Faction is a group of players organized to fight for one of the two alignments: Legion or Exile. There's no rule against having multiple characters in the same alignment as long as they are in different Factions. We've had some folks write in confused about these terms.

Again, this has been a rule for a very long time so "I didn't know!" is not a valid excuse. If you are in violation, you have until June 18th to take corrective action before we do it for you.

Attempts to circumvent these restrictions will be met with harsh punishment.

 

Faction Punishment

I really didn't want the moderation to escalate to collective punishment, but the continued coordinated cheating could not be ignored. Punishing individual players is less effective when they can just be rotated out as they're caught and banned, but Faction punishment will encourage better adherence to the rules and hold Founders accountable.

For the Faction Founders, members of your Faction who are found cheating will incur the following penalties:

  • Removal of all daily Influence and wins from whatever battle mode the player was punished for (1v1,2v2,Jugg).
  • The player loses personal daily Influence and wins for the battle mode they used to cheat.
  • In-game mail will be sent to the punished player and Faction Founder to let them know about the infraction.
  • If a Faction has member using alts, and the alts are removed by a mod, the faction will lose the total influence the player contributed over the lifetime of their membership. This total will also be deducted from the daily overall influence.

Hopefully this will encourage Faction Founders to choose their recruits responsibly and encourage fair competition amongst their members. Founders that continue to violate the rules may face additional punishment, including complete destruction of their Faction.

Finally, from now on, players that have their wins reset in any battle mode will also lose Domination achievements in the relevant battle mode, including Total Domination and War Hero achievements.

Announcements like these always have a chilling effect on the community as people rush to tell me these new measures are too severe, and we should reconsider lest these strict rules cause players to quit. Consider that if you're not breaking the rules, you have nothing to fear. If you suspect your members are cheating or encouraging others to cheat, they are a toxic liability that can crush your Faction's record and reputation permanently.

Tags: Nightwraith


Nightwraith

June 08, 2026

EpicDuel Maintenance Update

EpicDuel is LIVE with a minor maintenance update in preparation for the start of the new war system. There were a couple bugs such as the ability to sell Super Items required a reboot to fix.

 

Quality of Life

Despite this not being a major update, we've included a small improvement that will present the option to sell one of an item or all if you have duplictates.

 

Faction Alts

Having multiple characters from the same account in the same Faction has been against the rules for a long time. To encourage compliance, we've send an in-game mail to all members of factions who have multiple member characters from the same account. These accounts will be purged from the faction rolls on June 18th. This means, if you have multiple characters from your account in the same faction, all but one of those characters will be allowed to remain.

Again, this has been a rule for a very long time so "I didn't know!" is not a valid excuse. If you are in violation, you have until June 18th to take corrective action before we do it for you.

Attempts to circumvent these restrictions will be met with harsh punishment.

Tags: Nightwraith


Nightwraith

June 03, 2026

EpicDuel War Update

EpicDuel is LIVE with returning rares, new leaderboards, and a major change to the War system! I know a Wednesday update is unusual, but the unusual nature of this update meant we had to wait for the War to end before publishing the changes. It is also preferable to find and patch bugs on a weekday rather than a weekend, just in case such a fix is needed.

To expedite the process of experiencing the new War changes, the next War will being Monday June 8 at noon!

 

Battlepass Items Available at The Challenger

Since the last 2 Battlepasses are now firmly in the past, their most valuable and PvP-relevant components are now available at The Challenger NPC.

  • Hephael's Avatar P
  • Hephael's Avatar E
  • Azrael's Viceregent Shadow ExP
  • Azrael's Viceregent Shadow PxE
  • Azrael's Viceregent Shadow E
  • Azrael's Viceregent Shadow P
  • Hephael's Frenzy
  • Twilight Shield
  • Twilight Strike
  • Twilight Aim
  • Twilight Blast

For those who missed out on the Battlepass styles, 901 - 908 and 956 - 964 are now available!

 

Seasonal Rares Return!

Since we're nearly about the halfway point of 2026, we've returned the Seasonal Rares! This is a bit earlier than usual, but probably more accurate since our other mass seasonal restock happens in November. Grab the rares while you can before they leave in July!

 

TheAlonzoHarris Shop

TheAlonzoHarris' shop has been updated with returning rares, for this weekend only!

  • Zelicaon Replica
  • Polyxenes Replica


War Battle Mode Separation

To reduce incentives to cheat while increasing the incentives and recognition in each individual battle mode, we have split the War system into 3. From now on, 1v1, 2v2, and Juggernaut battles will drop their own War drops. Each of these drops will be tracked independently, so you can have up to 20 of each battle mode's items (60 War items total).

All currently-owned War drop items will be converted to 1v1 War drops.

As these War drops are used, they will increase the Influence in each respective battle mode for the War. This Influence will still count towards the overall war progress and Faction Influence, but it will also be tracked on 1v1, 2v2, and Juggernaut Influence leaderboards, each with their own individual and Faction rewards. The maps have been updated with new flags to show the leading flags and player portraits in these battle modes.

1v1, 2v2, and Juggernaut Super War items can be purchased from the regional Ammo Depots.

To expedite the process of experiencing the new War changes, the next War will being Monday June 8 at noon!

 

New Achievements added

To accommodate the new War Influence categories, we've added new achievements that will be obtainable when the next War goes live:

  • World Domination 1v1: Awarded to factions with the most 1v1 Influence at the end of the day.
  • World Domination 2v2: Awarded to factions with the most 2v2 Influence at the end of the day.
  • World Domination Jugg.: Awarded to factions with the most Jugg. Influence at the end of the day.
  • Total Domination: Awarded to factions with the most daily Influence in all PvP modes.
  • War Hero 1v1: Awarded for having the most 1v1 Influence in a day.
  • War Hero 2v2: Awarded for having the most 2v2 Influence in a day.
  • War Hero Juggernaut: Awarded for having the most Juggernaut Influence in a day.
  • Total War Hero: Awarded for having the most Influence in all PvP modes in a day.

New Leaderboard categories added:

  • All-time Faction 1v1 Wins
  • All-time Faction 2v2 Wins
  • All-time Faction Juggernaut Wins
  • All-Time 1v1 World Dominations (Empty until the next War)
  • All-Time 2v2 World Dominations (Empty until the next War)
  • All-Time Juggernaut World Dominations (Empty until the next War)
  • All-Time Total World Dominations (Empty until the next War)

 

Fixes / Changes:

  • War drop counter at the end of battle now displays the war item count for each region. The counter will also include the drop from the current battle in the count.
  • Legendary NPC Crusher and NPC Armor boosts now work in Juggernaut mode.

Tags: Nightwraith


Nightwraith

May 29, 2026

Epic Star Saber Restock

EpicDuel is LIVE with a colossal cache of returning rare star sabers to end the month of May! Plus, Power Weekend is once again activated!

Epic Star Saber Restock

TheAlonzoHarris has been stocked with the remaining rare star sabers. If you didn't find something to catch your eye in previous updates, you'll definitely find something in this massive cache of weapons!

  • Flesh Demigod Star Saber P 2026
  • Flesh Demigod Star Saber E 2026
  • Darkeater Star Saber P 2026
  • Darkeater Star Saber E 2026
  • Infernal Samurai Star Saber P 2026
  • Infernal Samurai Star Saber E 2026
  • Frost Revenant Star Saber P 2026
  • Frost Revenant Star Saber E 2026
  • Honor Guard Star Saber P 2026
  • Honor Guard Star Saber E 2026
  • Paladin Chronomancer Star Saber P 2026
  • Paladin Chronomancer Star Saber E 2026
  • Sanguinomancer Star Saber P 2026
  • Sanguinomancer Star Saber E 2026
  • Apocryphal Demigod Star Saber P 2026
  • Apocryphal Demigod Star Saber E 2026
  • Cosmic Eviscerator Star Saber P 2026
  • Cosmic Eviscerator Star Saber E 2026
  • Necrotek Star Saber P 2026
  • Necrotek Star Saber E 2026
  • Azrael's Scorn Star Saber P 2026
  • Azrael's Scorn Star Saber E 2026
  • Nightmare Hunter's Star Saber P 2026
  • Nightmare Hunter's Star Saber E 2026
  • Chrono Knight Star Saber P 2026
  • Chrono Knight Star Saber E 2026
  • Pandora's Fate Star Saber P 2026
  • Pandora's Fate Star Saber E 2026
  • Darkwraith Star Saber P 2026
  • Darkwraith Star Saber E 2026
  • Bido's Toxic Star Saber P 2026
  • Bido's Toxic Star Saber E 2026
  • Botanical Knight Star Saber P 2026
  • Botanical Knight Star Saber E 2026
  • Botanical Herald Star Saber P 2026
  • Botanical Herald Star Saber E 2026
  • Infernal Slayer Star Saber P 2026
  • Infernal Slayer Star Saber E 2026
  • Darkwraith Dual Star Saber P 2026
  • Darkwraith Dual Star Saber E 2026
  • Outland Warchief Star Saber P 2026
  • Outland Warchief Star Saber E 2026
  • Divinity Star Saber P 2026
  • Divinity Star Saber E 2026
  • Wrath Blade Star Saber P 2026
  • Wrath Blade Star Saber E 2026
  • Sea King's Star Saber P 2026
  • Sea King's Star Saber E 2026
  • Living Sin Star Saber P 2026
  • Living Sin Star Saber E 2026
  • Darkwraith Star Saber CC P 2026
  • Darkwraith Star Saber CC E 2026
  • Celtic Hunter Star Saber P 2026
  • Celtic Hunter Star Saber E 2026
  • Infernal Fantasy Star Saber P 2026
  • Infernal Fantasy Star Saber E 2026
  • Black Abyss Star Saber P 2026
  • Black Abyss Star Saber E 2026
  • Abyss Acolyte Star Saber P 2026
  • Abyss Acolyte Star Saber E 2026
  • Dage's Desolation Star Saber P 2026
  • Dage's Desolation Star Saber E 2026
  • Infernal Overfiend Star Saber P 2026
  • Infernal Overfiend Star Saber E 2026
  • Lionhart Star Saber P 2026
  • Lionhart Star Saber E 2026
  • Biotic Star Saber P 2026
  • Biotic Star Saber E 2026
  • Overfiend Star Saber P 2026
  • Overfiend Star Saber E 2026
  • Titan's Triumph Star Saber P 2026
  • Titan's Triumph Star Saber E 2026
  • Tyrant Titan Star Saber P 2026
  • Tyrant Titan Star Saber E 2026
  • Nightwraith's Avatar Star Saber P 2026
  • Nightwraith's Avatar Star Saber E 2026
  • Legion Overfiend Star Saber P 2026
  • Legion Overfiend Star Saber E 2026
  • Ancient Doom Star Saber P 2026
  • Ancient Doom Star Saber E 2026
  • Voidborn Star Saber P 2026
  • Voidborn Star Saber E 2026
  • Voidborn Star Saber CC P 2026
  • Voidborn Star Saber CC E 2026

 

In Progress: War Revamp

I am currently in the process of separating the War system into 3 battle modes: 1v1, 2v2, and Juggernaut. This will entail separate war drops for each battle mode. Those drops will increase influence for the respective battle mode while contributing to the overall progress in the War. The intention is to prevent one battle mode from dominating the War rewards while giving more players and Factions chances for recognition for their efforts.

The good news is that the changes are almost complete and ready to launch! The bad news is we cannot launch the changes while a War is still active so this update will probably go live next week after the current war is complete.

 

War Weekend

Since the major part of this update is delayed until next week, we're activating Power Weekend once again!

Tags: Nightwraith


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

 

 EpicDuel Game Design Notes Archive