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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

April 24, 2026

An Epic New Challenger Approaches

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


A New Challenger Approaches: CactusChan

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

New Meta Achievement

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

 

New Battlepass Challenges

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

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


TheAlonzoHarris' Shop Update

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

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

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

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

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

 

New War Token Items Added to Morzyd

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

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

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

 

Changes / Bug Fixes:

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

 

Progress Report

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

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

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

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

Tags: Nightwraith

 

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