EpicDuel PVP Game Design Notes

September 10, 2025

More Combat Skill Augments

This week offers yet another big update to combat skills with 12 new skill augments. There aren't many skills like these left on the trees so I think the next area of focus will be damage-over-time skills (i.e. Venom Strike).

• Bounty Hunter:
  • (EA) Static Grenade: 80% primary dmg.; drains target's energy; absorb 120% of drained energy.
  • (UA) Static Grenade: 65% primary dmg.; drains target's energy; absorb 90% of drained energy; no Rage gain.
• Mercenary:
  • (UA) Bunker Buster: Fire a rocket that grants 20% lifesteal; 15% chance for critical strike.
  • (PA) Bunker Buster: Fire an energy rocket that ignores 15% of the target's defense; 15% chance for critical hit.
• Tech Mage:
  • (PA) Bludgeon: Energy attack with defense ignore via the weapon's blunt end; 20% crit chance.
  • (UA) Bludgeon: Physical attack with lifesteal via the weapon's blunt end; 20% crit chance.
• Cyber Hunter:
  • (EA) Plasma Grenade: Throw an energy grenade inflicted massive damage.
  • (PA) Plasma Grenade: Throw a physical dmg. grenade, ignoring 15% Defense; 20% lifesteal.
• Tactical Mercenary
  • (EA) Frenzy: Deal 110% damage and heal based on damage.
  • (UA) Frenzy: Gain health and Energy based on damage.
• Blood Mage:
  • (UA) Plasma Cannon:Fire a plasma cannon dealing energy damage; 25% Energy steal.
  • (PA) Plasma Cannon: Physical dmg.; ignore 20% target's Resistance; 15% crit chance; gain 10% dmg. to Energy.

There's bound to be potential for balance tweaks after so many back-to-back skill updates so we'll go into a cooldown on new skills for next week as priorities shift to the new Gamma Pirate Promo!

Changes and Fixes:

• Added measures to combat the suspected source of increased lag after last week's update.
• (UA) Overload: Cooldown increased from 2 to 3.
• (UA) Stun Grenade: Cooldown increased from 2 to 3. 
• Maul (Rage drain) will now correctly reduce Rage by the % amount.
• When a player self-applies Infernal Offering, Infernal Blessing, or EA Field Medic, and they are stunned before the last tick of healing applies, the last tick never occurs. This bug was always possible but rare, and only became reproducible after 100% augments were introduced.
• The asset for Conductor Armor (WS) not loading correctly.

Tags: Nightwraith

September 05, 2025

New Augments

For this latest round of skill augments, we're again focusing on offensive skills. Originally the intention was to focus only on skills with stuff change, but not all skills have stun chance so the the augmented skills might seem a bit random w/re skill tree location.

• Bounty Hunter:
  • (UA) Stun Grenade: Inflict physical damage with a 100% stun chance; disables sender's offensive abilities.
  • (PA) Stun Grenade: Inflict energy damage with a 15% base chance to stun the enemy.
• Mercenary:
  • (UA) Maul: Strike, draining % of target Rage with a 15% stun chance.
  • (UA) Maul: Unblockable strike, ignoring % of defenses.
• Tech Mage:
  • (UA) Overload: Summon lightning with a 100% stun chance; disables sender's offensive abilities.
  • (EA) Overload: Summon lightning ignoring 15% of target defenses.
• Cyber Hunter:
  • (UA) Pulse Punch: Reduce target Rage rate by % with 50% initial Rage steal.
  • (UA) Pulse Punch: % lifesteal with 50% initial Rage reduction; ignore 20% defense.
• Tactical Mercenary:
  • (PA) Barbed Grenade: Energy damage with 15% base chance to crit; ignores 10% defense.
  • (EA) Barbed Grenade: Throw a spiked grenade inflicting Physical damage.
• Blood Mage:
  • (PA) Bludgeon: Energy attack with defense ignore via the weapon's blunt end; 20% crit chance.
  • (UA) Bludgeon: Physical attack with defense ignore via the weapon's blunt end; 15% Energy drain.

We will continue working through the offensive skill augments before moving on to buffs and debuffs since they are more complex and generally take longer to develop. We hope you are enjoying the new augments so far as it has been thrilling to expand upon EpicDuel's battle engine after so many years of relative stasis. I can promise you that the most interesting augments are still yet to be released!

Balance changes:

• (EA) Hybrid Armor: 4%-13% --> 1%-8% Defense/Resistance boost.
• (UA) Hybrid Armor: Boosts Defense/Resistance by a flat value instead of a percentage, +17 def/res at level 1, +2 per level; keeps 25% Rage gain bonus and 5% damage-to-energy conversion
• Deadly Precision (damage reflection): 25% --> 15% melee damage reflection.
• Deadly Precision (sidearm): 6%-15% --> 10%-25% more sidearm damage.
• Mania (defense reduction): Reduces 10% stats instead of 20% defense.

Bug fixes:

• (EA) Double Strike: Level 10 is correctly set to 52%.
• Healing-reduction effects dynamically affect heal-over-time (HoT) skills like Infernal Blessing.  HoT ticks are affected if a healing-reduction debuff is active when the tick occurs.
• The counter for remaining jugg battles was off by 1.

Tags: Nightwraith

September 02, 2025

A few days ago, we introduced a new battle end state: Battle Draw. This state applies if the battle ends before the first turn is completed -- most commonly when the opponent instantly disconnects, either unintentionally or intentionally. Currently, in a Battle Draw, the remaining player(s) earns no Credits, Experience, or drops and the battle record is unaffected. This was deemed too punative so we have revised Battle Draws to grant a win as well as reward a small set amount of Credits and Experience. Battle Draws will still reward no drops and wil not deduct limited cores or boosts.

In summary, Battle Draws:

• Grant a win
• 75 Credits
• 20 Experience
• Do not reward war or PvP drops
• Do not deduct a boost
• Do not deduct a core
• Do not factor Power Hour

We may adjust the rewards further if we see rapid disconnects continue to be abused. We are also investigating excluding Faction wins from Battle Draws, eliminating another incentive to boost wins.

Tags: Nightwraith

August 29, 2025

EpicDuel is live with new skill augments, balance changes, and bug fixes! 

New Skill Augments

Experiment with these new skill augments for all classes! Some are fairly straightforward, offering adjusted damage values or an alternative damage type, while other drastically change the skill's effect, like reducing healing effectiveness instead of defense ignore. Expect another round of skill augments next week also focusing on offensive abilities.

• Bounty Hunter:
  • (UA) Cheap Shot: Ignore % of defenses; steals Energy based on 25% damage.
  • (UA) Cheap Shot: Ignore % of defenses; unblockable.
• Mercenary:
  • (EA) Double Strike: Attack for more dmg., defense reduction based on 50% dmg. bonus; -50% block/deflection.
  • (PA) Double Strike: Opposite dmg. type attack for more dmg., defense reduction; -50% block/deflection.
• Tech Mage:
  • (PA) Plasma Bolt: Fire a bolt of plasma at an enemy target, dealing physical damage and ignoring 15% defense.
  • (UA) Plasma Bolt: Fire a bolt of plasma at an enemy target, dealing energy damage; 15% lifesteal.
• Cyber Hunter:
  • (UA) Neural Scythe: Launch a scythe of primary damage type, ignoring Defense/Resistance by skill level.
  • (PA) Neural Scythe: Launch a scythe opposite of primary damage type, increasing damage by skill level.
• Tactical Mercenary:
  • (EA) Crippling Strike: Attack for 105% damage. Reduces % Defense / Resistance for #DUR turns.
  • (UA) Crippling Strike: Attack for 100% damage. Reduces % Healing for #DUR turns.
• Blood Mage:
  • (PA) Fireball: Inflict energy damage, reducing target's Defense and Resistance 15% for 2 turns.
  • (EA) Fireball: Inflict physical damage, reducing target's Defense and Resistance 30% for 2 turns.

Balance Changes

• Deadly Aim (Primary/gun): 9%-20% --> 3%-12% more primary/sidearm damage
• (UA) Hybrid Armor: 7% --> 5% damage to Energy conversion
• (EA) Hybrid Armor: 20% --> 12% damage to Energy conversion
• Cyber Armor (HP bleed): 60%-96% --> 75%-120% boost to armor's defenses; 40 --> 30 HP bleed
• (UA) Mineral Armor: 10% --> 5% Energy drain
• (EA) Mineral Armor: Flat Defense boost, +43 Defense at level 1, +3 per level; flat +20 Resistance boost
• (EA) Reroute: 10%-35% --> 8%-30% Energy conversion
• Mania (defense reduction): 13%-30% --> 15% --> 35% lifesteal/Rage gain
• Infernal Blessing: 150 --> 165 HP gain per turn (readjustment since Medical Mastery no longer applies to it)

Battle Draw

Not a new battle mode, but a new battle state: If someone disconnects or refreshes the game before the first turn completes, the duel ends in a draw with 0 rewards, but no impact on the battle record for the person remaining. In the event of a 2v2 or Juggernaut match, the battle will only be a draw if both members of a team leave before the first turn completes. We are implementing this to counteract rapid disconnects used to boost wins and rewards for characters. Players who disconnect from battle will still face with the normal loss and run penalty.

Bug Fixes:

Challenges don't work while the chat filter is active. It seems crazy, but last week's chat filter changes broke challenges for people with the filter enabled. It's wild how changes to one system can completely break another seemingly unrelated system.

Coming Soon: Gamma Pirate

We're currently developing a new pirate/Gamma-themed promo back that we're pleased to share: The Gamma Pirate! Prepare to sail the irradiated seas with new weapons, armors, bots, and cores coming soon!

Tags: Nightwraith

August 22, 2025

Language filter

In Settings, you now have the option of disabling the language filter. This reduces restrictions on chat, but doesn't remove them entirely. Certain language and topics are still prohibited despite the removal of the filter. Additionally, other text-based elements such as names and Faction titles are still filtered regardless of setting. If you choose to leave the filter in place, you will be unable to use inappropriate language and any inappropriate language in messages you encounter will be replaced with asterixis.

Although this feature grants more freedom for expression and communication, don't use this newfound freedom to be abusive and disrespectful to your fellow players. This feature was implemented because we believe our playerbase is mature enough to handle the looser language restrictions. We would hate to be proven wrong, but if this feature causes a flood of toxicity and harassment, it will be reverted!

Such Convenience

Class and gender change now dynamically unequip gear based on your class/gender requirements. If you have class-neutral weapons or armor, they will not be unequipped. This will be very convenient if you frequently change classes.

Bug Fixes

• PMs sometimes failed to work after a name change.
• Mastery cores displaying the incorrect % bonus.
• Dark Omen could not be used on a target with Curse applied.

Progress

• Skill Augments: Next week, we expect to introduce at least another 12 skill augments, focusing on the upper portion of the skill trees.
• Gifter Prizes: More Gifter prizes are also expected to be completed next week. I can't believe it, but we're finally below double digit prizes remaining.
• New Promo: We should have prizes for promo items available next week as well.

Tags: Nightwraith

August 15, 2025

New Augments

This week, we added augments to all the class passives! Some of these skills have drastically different functionality from their base forms so you should have a lot of fun experimenting! Be warned, however, some of the passive power boosts now come with debuff tradeoffs so be sure to read the descriptions and plan your builds carefully!

• Bounty Hunter:
  • (UA) Blood Lust: Passively add a percentage of all damage inflicted to health and Energy.
  • (UA) Blood Lust: Passively add a percentage of all dmg. inflicted to HP; drain 5% target's Energy.
  • (EA) Shadow Arts: Boosts Robot damage by a percent; +10 dmg. to Primary, Sidearm, and Auxiliary.
  • (EA) Shadow Arts: Boosts Primary, Sidearm, and Auxiliary damage.
• Mercenary:
  • (EA) Hybrid Armor: Boosts Def/Res; converts 20% of outgoing dmg. to Energy; unaffected by stat changes.
  • (UA) Hybrid Armor: Boosts Def/Res; converts 7% of outgoing dmg. to Energy; gain 25% more Rage.
  • (UA) Deadly Precision: Passively increase the damage of your Sidearm.
  • (UA) Deadly Precision: Passively increase the dmg. of your Auxiliary; reflect 25% melee dmg.
• Tech Mage:
  • (EA) Concentration: Convert % of dmg. received into energy; +70 HP per over 50 dmg. attack.
  • (EA) Concentration: Convert % of dmg. received into energy.
  • (UA) Deadly Aim: Passively increase the damage of your Auxiliary.
  • (UA) Deadly Aim: Passively increase the damage of your Sidearm and Primary.
• Cyber Hunter:
  • (UA) Cyber Armor: Passive shield increases your armor's Def/Res values; 12% lifesteal.
  • (UA) Cyber Armor: Passive shield increases a % of your armor's Def/Res values; 40 HP loss per turn.
  • (UA) Cyber Edge: Passively increases Sidearm and Primary damage.
  • (UA) Cyber Edge: Passively increases Sidearm and Auxiliary damage; 40% Rage gain.
• Tactical Mercenary:
  • (EA) Mineral Armor: Passively boosts Defense; Resistance debuff based on 20% Defense boost.
  • (UA) Mineral Armor: Passively boosts Defense; drain attacker's Energy by 10% incoming dmg.
  • (UA) Reroute: Convert a percentage of all dmg. received into Energy; +30 Sidearm dmg.
  • (EA) Reroute: Convert a percentage of all dmg. received into Energy.
• Blood Mage:
  • (UA) Mania: Passively add a percentage of all damage inflicted to HP and EP; increased Rage Gain.
  • (UA) Mania: Passively add a % of all dmg. inflicted to HP; increased Rage Gain; 20% Def/Res debuff.
  • (UA) Red Vision: Passively increase the damage of your Auxiliary.
  • (UA) Red Vision: Passively increase the damage of your Sidearm and Auxiliary.

Balance Changes

• General:
  • Medical Mastery no longer applies to healing cores (i.e. only to Field Medic).
  • Critical Heal only applies to Field Medic (all versions) and Health Booster.
  • All robot damage bonuses standardized to 175.
• Skills and Cores:
  • Double Strike: +10 Energy cost to all levels.
  • Crippling Strike: +30 --> +20 Energy cost per level.
  • (UA) Field Medic: +1 HP per 1.2 --> 0.8 Support.
  • Infernal Blessing: 175 --> 150 HP per tick.
  • Absorption: 35% --> 25% incoming robot damage to user's Energy.
• Azrael's Doombringer Beauty P/E (NPC) added to The Challenger.

Other Changes/Fixes

• Seasonal rares reset to their normal schedules.
• New Settings option: disable battle backgrounds.
• Pulse Punch: wouldn't add brace to target in the event of a stun.

Progress Report

• Skill augments: I didn't take my own advice and spent too long building 24 new skill augments, plus building support for future augments. Next week, I will actually pause the augment rollout to address other items on this list. This will also give us time to address any balance issues or esoteric bugs that emerge from this update.
• Gifting Rewards: Once again, update ate into work on the prizes due to the unexpected time allocation to the new skills and fixes for the previous week's update. Next week, I will clear my schedule to focus on Gifting prizes with as few distractions as possible.
• Chat Filter Toggle: I am working on a change to EpicDuel's language filter that will allow people to disable the strict chat filter. A more permissive filter will remain, but it will still block the most extreme language and account security topics. That said, abusive language will still be moderated so it will be as important as ever to be respectful to each other.
• Gamma Pirate Promo Pack: Acatriel's new promo package is currently in-progress.

Tags: Nightwraith

August 08, 2025

Skill Augments

With this update EpicDuel is introducing 24 new skill augments for ultimate and AOE skills. These add alternative damage types and secondary effects to the base skills. Some skill augments exchange effects like extra defense reduction and critical chance for lower base damage and scaling. These skills are accessed by clicking the left and right arrows that appear on the skill icon when the tree has been unlocked up to that point. It wasn't clear in the last update, but you must be at least level 10 to access the skill augments. This is to diminish confusion for new players in the tutorial.

• Bounty Hunter:
  • (PA) Multi-Shot: Physical dmg.; 90% dmg. against 2 targets; gain 15% damage to Energy.
  • (UA) Multi-Shot: Energy dmg.; 90% dmg. against 2 targets; 20% damage to target Energy.
  • (UA) Massacre: Unleash a fury of blade strikes; 100% crit chance; 15% defense ignore. (Damage bonus reduced by 30%)
  • (UA) Massacre: Unleash a fury of blade strikes; reduce target healing by 25% for 2 turns.
• Mercenary:
  • (UA) Artillery Strike: Physical dmg.; 85% dmg. against 2 targets; 20% dmg. to target Energy.
  • (PA) Artillery Strike: Energy dmg.; 85% dmg. against 2 targets.; 20% def. ignore.
  • (PA) Surgical Strike: Physical air strike that reduces target's Rage by 50%; 30% lifesteal. (Damage reduced by 25%)
  • (UA) Surgical Strike:Energy air strike that steals 50% targets Rage; 30% lifesteal.
• Tech Mage:
  • (EA) Plasma Rain: Energy dmg.; 50% Resistance ignore; 85% dmg. against 2 targets. (Damage reduced by 20%)
  • (PA) Plasma Rain: Physical dmg.; 20% Defense ignore; 85% dmg. against 2 targets.
  • (PA) Supercharge: Fire a physical charge ignoring 30% of the target's Defense; 30% lifesteal.
  • (UA) Supercharge: Fire an energy charge; reduce target Def/Res 30% for #DUR turns; 30% lifesteal.
• Cyber Hunter:
  • (UA) Adaptive Offense: Primary dmg. type; 20% defense reduction for 2 turns; 85% dmg. against 2 targets.
  • (EA) Adaptive Offense: Primary dmg. type; 50% defense ignore; 85% dmg. against 2 targets. (Damage reduced by 20%)
  • (UA) Proton Cannon: Fire beam based on primary dmg.; 50% crit chance.
  • (EA) Proton Cannon: Fire beam based on primary dmg.; 200 HP gain; 200 Energy gain. (Damage reduced by 30%)
• Tactical Mercenary:
  • (EA) Suppressing Fire: Physical dmg.; 50% defense ignore; 85% dmg. against 2 targets. (Damage reduced by 20%)
  • (PA) Suppressing Fire: Energy dmg.; 15% defense ignore; 85% dmg. against 2 targets.
  • (PA) Annihilation: Concentrated energy beam that reduces target's Rage 50%; 30% lifesteal.
  • (UA) Annihilation: Concentrated physical beam that reduces target's Rage 50%; 30% defense ignore.
• Blood Mage:
  • (UA) Fire Rain: Physical dmg.; 20% dmg. to target Energy; 85% dmg. against 2 targets.
  • (PA) Fire Rain: Energy dmg.; 20% defense ignore; 85% dmg. against 2 targets.
  • (UA) Maelstrom: Call a firestorm stealing Energy equal to 26% dmg. inflicted.
  • (PA) Maelstrom: Energy firestorm ignoring 30% of the target's defenses; reduces Energy by 26% dmg.

Seasonal Reset Delay

Due to popular demand, our seasonal rare reset has been delayed until next week!

Fixes and Changes

• Legendary bonus applies to skills that offer healing over time like (EA) Field Medic and Infernal Blessing.
• Critical Heal also applies to healing over time skills on subsequent turns if the HP threshold is met.
• Reduced frame counts of several skills and attacks. Less waiting, more action!
• Expanded text fields for skill rollovers.
• Earning XP through mission rewards or Battlepass prizes will now trigger the Legendary Rank Up email with rewards.

Progress

• Skill augments: This round of skill augments took a bit longer than anticipated since nothing new needed to be built to implement them. I may need to limit the updates to 12 augments per week to leave room for other changes.
• Gifting Rewards: This update ate into work on the prizes due to the unexpected time allocation to the new skills and fixes for the previous week's update. With a better understanding of the time required per skill, this should not be an issue going forward. It is crucial these prizes are completed soon.
• Chat Filter Toggle: I am working on a change to EpicDuel's language filter that will allow people to disable the strict chat filter. A more permissive filter will remain, but it will still block the most extreme language and account security topics. That said, abusive language will still be moderated so it will be as important as ever to be respectful to each other.
• Gamma Pirate Promo Pack: Acatriel's new promo package is currently in-progress.

Tags: Nightwraith

August 01, 2025

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

Who or what is Hephael? When the first colonists arrived on Delta V, they brought the myths of the old worlds with them, laying the foundation for new legends to emerge. To the superstitious of Delta V, Hephael is the god of the son and god of the forge, offering aid to followers and desolation to non-believers. Though the dominance of technology suppressed such beliefs during Delta V's peak, desperate times have caused the citizens to seek salvations through more primitive, but no less potent, means.

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

• Hephael's Avatar P
  • Hephael's Slash P: Summon Hephael's Avatar to inflict Physical Damage.
  • Hephael's Incantation P: Lock all target's skills that require Energy for 2 rounds.
• Hephael's Avatar E
  • Hephael's Slash E: Summon Hephael's Avatar to inflict Energy Damage.
  • Hephael's Incantation E: Lock all target's skills that require Energy for 2 rounds.
• Hephael's Frenzy: Convert 5% of outgoing dmg. to Energy if dmg. is over 50. 
• Twilight Strike: Increases Primary Critical chance to 75% when HP is below 30%.
• Twilight Aim: Increases Sidearm Critical chance to 75% when HP is below 30%.
• Twilight Blast: Increases Auxiliary Critical chance to 75% when HP is below 30%.
• Twilight Shield: Increases Defense/Resistance 15% when HP is below 30%.

New Skill Augments

This update, we're starting the grand implementation of skill augments. Eventually each skill will have at least 2 augments. If you're interested in the math, that means each class will have up to 531,441 potential skill combinations! Augments will come in one of four different varieties:

• Duration Augment (DA): Changes the duration of the effect of the skill, and either strengthens or weakens the effect accordingly.
• Utility Augment (UA): Changes one or more of the effects of the skill to another effect.
• Polarity Augment (PA): Changes the damage type of the skill to the opposite of its base version.
• Efficiency Augment (EA): Makes the skill weaker in one way and stronger in another.

For this release we're starting small with a skill that all 6 classes possess: Field Medic. This essential skill will receive 2 augments.

• (EA) Field Medic: Heal yourself or an ally over 2 turns. Cures poison.
• (UA) Field Medic: Heal yourself or an ally and remove debuffs. Cures poison.

To access these augments, retrain your character, then reduce your points in Field Medic to 1. That will reveal left and right arrows you can use to choose the augments. All skill augments will work this way when they are eventually introduced.

Please be patient as we fill out the class skill trees with new augments in the coming weeks, creating 144 new skills. We'll do our best to balance the updates so all classes get equal attention without overwhelming balance with too many options at once.

Special thanks are due to the community that suggested and contributed to these new skill augment ideas! This would definitely not be possible without your dedication and input. With great persistence and a little luck, this change could lead EpicDuel into an exciting new era of PvP action!

Seasonal Rare Reset

Next week, all seasonal rares will reset to their normal schedule, meaning this is your last chance to collect any remaining out-of-season seasonal rares you had your eye on!

Epic To-Do:

Here's a taste of what we have cooking up in the coming weeks:

• Skill Augments: As stated above, completing the 144 (132 after today) skill augments will be the main focus of the coming weeks. 
• Gifting rewards: Hopefully this is the month all prizes are complete! Will the latest Battlepass out of the way, progress should be much faster.
• New Promo: It's been ages! Acatriel is steadily working on an epic new promo!

Tags: Nightwraith

July 25, 2025

Unleash the unstoppable power of Infinity! Feel the pulse of legendary battles where every second counts the very moment your power level shatters the limits of time itself! Channel your inner champion, harness the forces of the universe, and push beyond Infinity!

Get this gorgeous poster today to claim Epic rewards many AE games, including your favorite post-apocalyptic Flash-based PvP MMO, EpicDuel!

• Achievement - Phantom Chronomancer
  • Weapon - Phantom Chrono Scythe
  • Weapon - Phantom Chrono Bow
  • Weapon - Phantom Chrono Blaster

(Collector's Edition Exclusive)*

• Achievement - Phantom Time Wielder*
  • Weapon - Specter Chrono Scythe*
  • Weapon - Specter Chrono Bow*
  • Weapon - Specter Chrono Blaster*

*NOTE: Collector's Edition Exclusives are not included with a purchase of a Regular Edition.

Content Creators Unite!

For ages EpicDuel has offered special achievements for creating Youtube videos. At the time, this was the best way we could think of to reward and encourage content creators (I think the achievements are so old that "content creator" wasn't even a widely used term yet) in the community to produce videos featuring EpicDuel. Awarding these achievements was a very cumbersome and time-consuming manual process that was very antiquated and unsustainable, especially with limited resources to review dozens, if not hundreds, of videos for quality and content. 

Fortunately, Beleen has helped establish a new content creator program that serves the same purpose as our existing Youtube video achievement, but centralized and more efficient. Although this system has been available for awhile, I wanted to highlight it here to make EpicDuel's community aware that this new system has fully replaced the old Youtuber achievements. If you didn't catch the original Design Notes post, I'll repost it below for you now:

What are the rules/qualifications?

• The Content Creators must actively make videos for, or stream, one or more Artix Entertainment games.
• No jerks: We will not grant badges to Hacking/Cheating/Trolling/Bullying/Illegal/Harassment creators.
• That rule above deserves additional clarification. We 100% support free speech & constructive criticism while ensuring a positive, respectful community.
• The "THEY DID WHAT!?" Rule: If a formerly great creator turns out to be... uh.... not great. The badges will be removed from them.
• If a content creator hits a major milestone... certain number of years making videos, or a certain number of hours streamed, send us a tip so we can give them (or make) a badge for it!

In case you missed it, here is the link to the nomination form:

Nominate video makers and streamers to receive a Content Creator Badge!

More War Shop Armors

Morzyd's War Shop has been stocked with additional War Prize armors! 

Bug Fixes / Changes

• Super War items can be purchased in unlimited quantities from the ammo depots.
• Updated vitals bar to show Critical Health threshold
• Armor-destroying skills can still be used with armor-destroying skills that have additional effects. For example, you can use Sea King's Curse against an opponent that has already been hit with a Hammer Grenade. The armor debuff doesn't stack, so this won't conflict with already applied skills.
• Gender-specific armors can be purchased regardless of the character's current gender.

Hephael Knight Battlepass

The Hephael Knight Battlepass is scheduled to be released next Friday. If you still have some items you need to collect on the current Battlepass, you still have some time! I know it seems silly to comment on this when the current Battlepass has been out since April, but somehow we always get a few emails from people mystified that the Battlepass that was in game for over 3 months is suddenly GONE! 

It might be better to have a countdown timer to show the exact amount of time remaining for each Battlepass, but I prefer to keep the dates flexible depending on when the next Battlepass items are ready. 

Tags: Nightwraith

July 18, 2025

Rare Cores Return (Kind of)

Some cores in EpicDuel have remained time-gated for over a decade. Since this is a PvP game, it's inherently unfair to restrict crucial abilities based on rarity. Thus, we have made some of those previously rare cores available to new players (*new* as in players who started playing after 2014) with a new coat of paint! While these cores have the same functionality as the rare cores, they are visually distinct. While this may seem like a bad thing to those who already possess the rare cores, please understand that it is impossible to balance a PvP game if certain cores are permanently unavailable to the general population.

New Items on Nightwraith:

• Nightwraith's Curse
• Nightwraith's Curse Aura
• Nightwraith's Override

New Item on Ylwa:

• Ylwa's Way: Omega Baby Yeti normal and special attack dmg. increased by 10%.

New Item on Captain Murdoc:

• Murdoc's Method: Omega Dark Yeti normal and special attack dmg. increased by 10%.

War Shop Update

Morzyd the Scavenger's War Shop was updated with many new armors. This is excellent timing since the current war is ending soon. Do you have enough influence to claim the Emperor Prize with 2 War Tokens?

Balance Changes

Before we introduce new additions to the skill trees, we have a new round of balance changes for you!

• Deadly Precision: 10% - 25% --> 6% - 15% auxiliary damage boost
• Reroute: 15% --> Flat +30 aux damage boost
• Double Strike: Removed Dexterity scaling; base values 25% at level 1, +2% per level
• Malfunction: +1 Technology per 4 --> 5 Dexterity
• Plasma Grenade: -25 Energy cost to all levels
• Crippling Strike: +30 Energy cost to all levels
• Concentration: Added a minimum damage threshold for HP gain (over 50 damage)
• Incensory: 120 --> 105 Energy cost; 3 --> 2 turn duration
• Omega Override: 110 --> 100 Energy cost

In Progress / Coming Soon

• Skill Tree Expansion
• Gifter Prizes
• Battlepass

Tags: Nightwraith

July 11, 2025

Skill Tree Overhaul

In perhaps the biggest change to EpicDuel since Omega phase started, EpicDuel is introducing expanded skill trees for all class! This means that all skills will be able to have two or more alternate skills that you can choose when retraining, opening up nearly infinite potential for build combinations. With this latest release we updated the live database to support these new changes. If everything is works fine with no major crashes or explosions, we will proceed to build and introduce new alternative skills for all classes. This process will probably take awhile, as skills take time to develop, test, and balance, but it's an exciting step towards breathing new life into EpicDuel's aging battle engine.

To reiterate, you will not see the new skills yet after this update!  The primary goal of this update is to lay the groundwork on the live database and test stability. If you don't notice any changes...that's a good thing! I means the update is stable and didn't break our existing skill systems.

Also, since this update contains substantial changes to the server and client code you should clear your launcher or browser cache to make sure you have the latest version!

War Shop Expanded

Morzyd's War Shop has been expanded yet again with classic War Prize armors!

Quality of Life Changes

Buff tooltips below player vitals now display the duration of active buffs and debuffs.

NPC Rage has been reverted.

Battlepass in Progress

The new Hephael Knight Battlepass is currently in progress! Enjoy this preview of the upcoming items.

Tags: Nightwraith

July 04, 2025

EpicDuel is celebrating the 4th of July with some major quality of life upgrades and the addition of dozens of mutating War Prizes to Morzyd's War Shoppe.

Home Inventory Update

The home editing interface now has a toggle to select sell mode. This will help prevent instances of accidentally selling items and make it easier to see the smaller home items for placement.

As the final update to Homes for awhile, home items can now be sold in bulk. This only applies to Credit items. Varium items must still be sold one at a time.

HP Diminishing Returns

All HP above 2,000 will start increasing at a slower rate per point, capping at 2,490 instead of the current 2,700.

NPC Rage

EpicDuel's many NPCs have plenty of pent up aggression from being dunked on for years. Now they are fighting back, as they can now gain Rage and use Rage attacks.

More War Rares

Morzyd's War Shoppe has been updated to include all the mutating War Prizes.

HeroMart Summer Deals

Summer Savings are LIVE at HeroMart! Buy 3 items and get a 4th eligible item for FREE!

Pending Projects

Skill Tree Upgrade: We are currently working on an update to skill trees that will add a new dimension to the classes. Each node on the skill tree could have an option to select one or more alternative skills. This is the biggest update to EpicDuel's core battle engine in ages and has the potential to add nearly infinite depth to the existing classes.

Next Battlepass.

Gifting Prizes, now and forever.

Tags: Nightwraith

June 27, 2025

EpicDuel is live and alive with a massive overhaul to housing, new War rewards tiers, and dozens of balance adjustments!

Bido Birthday Weapons

Bido has a new batch of limited birthday rares available at, you guessed it, Bido!

• Bido's Toxic Reaper P
• Bido's Toxic Reaper E
• Bido's Toxic Greatsword P
• Bido's Toxic Greatsword E
• Bido's Toxic Lance P
• Bido's Toxic Lance E
• Bido's Toxic Greatsword CC P
• Bido's Toxic Greatsword CC E
• Bido's Toxic Reavers P
• Bido's Toxic Reavers E
• Bido's Toxic Axe P
• Bido's Toxic Axe E
• Bido's Toxic Staff P
• Bido's Toxic Staff E

Home Interface Overhaul

• Items of the same type are now stacked.
• Slight buffer applied to clicking and dragging items to prevent misclicks.
• Clicking items to place them from inventory will automatically place them near the center of the room.
• Items now return to inventory instantly after removing them.
• Items equipped to the room are tracked visually show how close to the cap you are.
• To maintain data integrity, you must save before purchasing.
• Multiple timers have been added to prevent data desynchronization from rapid actions. When in doubt, saving your configuration will fully synch your home layout.
• Bulk home item selling is coming soon.

Seasonal Return

It's that time of year again! EpicDuel is maintaining it's tradition of restoring all the seasonal rare for a limited time during the Summer. Stay cool with some Frysteland rares from Torgan or adopt spooky autumn vibes with Snork's Halloween rares.

The Price of War

The War Token shop pricing has been adjusted to reflect the rarity and desirability of the prizes. We will be adding more over time so hold onto your War Tokens if you don't see your coveted War Prize yet.

We've also added a new 50,000 Influence tier to war participation: Emperor.This tier offers 100,000 Credits, 100 Arcade Tokens, and 2 War Tokens. All other tiers have been shifted downward, with the Private Tier now being the 1,000 Influence tier. The tiers now look like this:

• Emperor - 50,000 Influence
• Warlord - 25,000 Influence
• Commander - 15,000 Influence
• Sergeant - 5,000 Influence
• Private - 1,000 Influence

Balance Changes

This week we're implementing a ton of changes to address runaway stat inflation, class balance, and Legendary points.

• Core Changes
  • Absolution (Armor): +5 Technology, +5 Support.
  • Absolution (Primary): +2 Technology, +2 Support.
  • Absolution (Sidearm): +2 Technology, +2 Support.
  • Absolution (Auxiliary): +2 Technology, +3 Support.
  • Domination (Armor): +5 Strength, +5 Dexterity.
  • Domination (Primary): +3 Strength, +2 Dexterity.
  • Domination (Sidearm): +2 Strength, +3 Dexterity.
  • Domination (Auxiliary): +2 Strength, +2 Dexterity.
  • Infinity (Armor): +5 Strength, +5 Technology.
  • Infinity (Primary): +3 Strength, +2 Technology.
  • Infinity (Sidearm): +2 Strength, +2 Technology.
  • Infinity (Auxiliary): +2 Strength, +2 Technology.
  • Destruction (Armor): +5 Strength, +5 Support.
  • Destruction (Primary): +3 Strength, +2 Support.
  • Destruction (Sidearm): +2 Strength, +2 Support.
  • Destruction (Auxiliary): +2 Strength, +3 Support.
  • Fortitude (Armor): +5 Dexterity, +5 Technology.
  • Fortitude (Primary): +2 Dexterity, +2 Technology.
  • Fortitude (Sidearm): +3 Dexterity, +2 Technology.
  • Fortitude (Auxiliary): +2 Dexterity, +2 Technology.
  • Vigor (Armor): +5 Dexterity, +5 Support.
  • Vigor (Primary): +2 Dexterity, +2 Support.
  • Vigor (Sidearm): +3 Dexterity, +2 Support.
  • Vigor (Auxiliary): +2 Dexterity, +3 Support.
  • Supremacy (Armor): +2 Strength, +2 Dexterity, +4 Technology, +2 Support.
  • Supremacy (Primary): +2 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Technology, +1 Support.
  • Supremacy (Sidearm): +1 Strength, +2 Dexterity, +1 Technology, +1 Support.
  • Supremacy (Auxiliary): +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Technology, +2 Support.
  • Prime Dexterity Boost (Sidearm): +4.
  • Prime Support Boost (Auxiliary): +4.
  • Prime Strength Boost (Primary): +4.
  • Prime Technology Boost (Armor): +7.
  • x30 Boost cores match the Prime cores
  • Strength Boost (Sidearm): +3 Strength.
  • Strength Boost (Armor): +3 Strength.
  • Strength Boost (Auxiliary): +3 Strength.
  • Dexterity Boost (Primary): +3 Dexterity.
  • Dexterity Boost (Armor): +3 Dexterity.
  • Dexterity Boost (Auxiliary): +3 Dexterity.
  • Technology Boost (Primary): +3 Technology.
  • Technology Boost (Sidearm): +3 Technology.
  • Technology Boost (Auxiliary): +3 Technology.
  • Support Boost (Primary): +3 Support.
  • Support Boost (Sidearm): +3 Support.
  • Support Boost (Armor): +3 Support.
  • Primary/Gun/Auxiliary Mastery: +10% damage on basic attacks, removed +25 damage boost.
  • Eternal Enhance: +3 Strength, +3 Dexterity, +3 Technology, +3 Support.
  • Infernal Prism: added 200 HP heal.
  • Infernal Offering: 340 EP total gain, 2 turns 170 EP each turn.
  • Health reserve: Flat +450hp does not scale with armor (does not stack with crit heal).
  • Bido's Bitters: Duration increased to 6 from 4.
  • Shadowlord's Severance P/E: 27% def ignore.

• Legendary Rank Boosts
  • Primary Damage Bonus: +30 to +20
  • Gun Damage Bonus: +40 to +20
  • Aux Damage Bonus: +30 to +20
  • Bot Damage Bonus: +30 to +20
  • Defense Bonus: +30 to +20
  • Resistance Bonus: +30 to +20
  • NPC Armor: +40 to +50 defense against NPCs
  • NPC Crusher: +40 to +50 damage against NPCs

• General 
  • Focus boosts: Focus level 1/2 = 0 boosts; Focus level 3/4 = +1/1/1/1, Focus level 5 = +2/2/2/2; Focus level 6 = +3/3/3/3.
  • Agility/encumbrance: Removed from game. We're still investigating better ways of addressing extreme HP builds in PvP.

• Class Changes
  • Reflex Boost: 80 EP level 1, +5 EP per level  , flat +42 Dexterity at level 1, increasing by 3 per level.
  • Energy Shield: +20 EP per level  to +10 EP per level.
  • Defense Matrix: +20 EP per level  to +10EP.
  • Blood Instinct: flat +42 level 1, increasing by 3 per level.
  • Terrify: flat -42 level 1, increasing by 3 per level, scaling removed; 15 EP per Level to +5 EP.
  • Plasma Grenade: 10% ignore to 15%.
  • Proton Cannon: Revert to 20% lifesteal and 26% Energy drain.
  • Maul: +5 EP per level.
  • Intimidate: 15 EP per level to +5 EP. Removed scaling. 36 flat Strength Debuff at level 1, increasing by 3 per level..

Coming Soon

Next week we hope to roll out more improvements to housing, while finally catching up on the Gifting prizes. Plus, we have more War Token items to release! Plus, Acatriel is hard at work on the next Battlepass, and it's already looking amazing!

Tags: Nightwraith

June 20, 2025

War Token Shop Preview

Visit Morzyd the Scavenger in The Bazaar (the huge crashed battleship in The Barrens) to browse her inventory of past War Prizes. The shop requires at least one War Token to access the shop! The items are temporarily priced at 5 War Tokens for now while we work on a fair pricing model that applies the proper value to coveted War Prizes. Also, the shop is still being populated with prizes so there are still many more armors and mutating items that are yet to be stocked in the shop. Save those precious War Tokens if there's still an item you want to see featured.

War Prizes purchased from this shop, when they can be purchased, cannot be sold. Additionally, only one of each item can be purchased and owned. This is to make sure nobody accidentally "wastes" their War Tokens on accidental purchases.

Homes UI Update

• "Clear All" button below the "Save" button to allow you to instantly remove all items from a home at once. This is great for when you accidentally drag some awkward items partially off-screen.
• Items in your inventory are now sorted based on most recently purchased, then grouped by ID so all your duplicates will be grouped together. This is the first step towards item stacking in Homes.

Arcade 10x Follow Up

With this update we have corrected the bug that prevented the 10x multi-spin option from updating the Arcade score correctly. It's always fascinating to check the data to see what features are appreciated purely based on data, because sometimes player feedback alone undersells how much a feature is used.

For example, thus far over 32,000 items have been Locked and 5,000 items Favorited using the new inventory options. Clearly there was a ton of demand for those features.

More recently, the day before we introduced the 10x option to Arcades, 8,818 Tokens were spent, with a value of 576,860. The day we launch 10x, the number jumped to 41,030 spins with a value of 20,818,560! Those number seem impressive, but then I realized that the tracker was not updated to recognize the 10x spin, so those numbers could be up to 10 times higher! 

I know these quality of life features aren't as exciting as flashier (pun not intended) battle-centric features and improvements, but it's crystal clear that those features are not going unused or unnoticed.

Fixes, Changes, and Balance

• All time win rates restored to the Leaderboards.
• First strike: Everyone but the the starting player will start with 20% Rage.
• Critical Heal: Threshold increased to 30% from 25% to match the kneeling animation.
• Static Grenade: Set to 90% damage instead of 80%

Tags: Nightwraith

June 16, 2025

Glow-in-the-Drake T-Shirt

Because true heroes shine brightest in the dark.

Channel your inner dragon spirit. By day, it’s sleek, iconic Artix logo. But when the lights go out, the real magic begins. Infused with glow-in-the-dark enchantments, it radiates with arcane energy, glowing bright as if summoned from the heart of Lore’s deepest dungeons. Perfect for late-night raids, shadowy side quests, or just flexing your legendary status in the real world.

Visit HeroMart to order the epic Glow-in-the-Drake T-Shirt today!

Bonus Digital In-Game Rewards

When you pick up this product, you’ll also unlock in-game rewards across AdventureQuest Worlds, AdventureQuest 3D, DragonFable, EpicDuel, and AdventureQuest Classic! Exclusive rewards in EpicDuel include:

•  Achievement - Glow-in-the-Drake
• Weapon - Glowing Dragon's Blade P & E
• Weapon - Cyber Dragon's Blade P & E
• Weapon - BackLight Dragon's Blade P & E
• Weapon - Cyber Battleon Blade P & E

Tags: Nightwraith