EpicDuel PVP Game Design Notes

November 20, 2023

The Olympus' Wrath Battlepass is NOW LIVE! Login now to earn the latest collection of olympian/spartan-themed weapons, armors, vehicles, morphs, bots, cores, and more crafted with care by Acatriel!

Good luck and happy dueling to reach level 60 of EpicDuel's latest Battlepass season!

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

• Minotaur P
  • Minotaur's Charge P: Charge to deal damage according to the % of Rage you currently have.
  • Minotaur's Rage P: Smash target to inflict 25% defense debuff with 20% stun chance.
• Minotaur E:
  • Minotaur's Charge E: Charge to deal damage according to the % of Rage you currently have.
  • Minotaur's Rage E: Smash target to inflict 25% defense debuff with 20% stun chance.
• Cores
  • Achilles' Phalanx: Summon spears, inflicting damage if target uses melee attacks.
  • Medusa's Gaze: Paralyze target, destroying armor and disabling melee for 2 turns and inflicting 70% dmg.
  • Zeus' Might: Summon lightning for 85% damage with a 40 pt. Tech debuff, 10% stun.
  • Ares' Vengeance: Attack with vengeance, dealing primary damage plus 12% of target's max HP (Max 500).

Gift-A-Geddon 2023!

Today, Monday November 20th, we've launched a massive mega-pack of 50,000 Varium for 20,000 Artix Points. Those who purchase this pack will also be awarded a one-time Legendary Epic Supporter 2023 achievement! This is an incredible value, but it will only be around for a limited time: the promotion will officially end when gifting begins on December 4th!

Because our 10,000 AP promotional packages have had inflated sale quantities of Varium for a long time, these packages will NOT have the customary increase in included Varium. However, these packages will still award the Epic Supporter 2023 achievement which will evolve if the packs are purchased multiple times! The 50,000 Varium pack will also count towards the Epic Supporter 2023 achievement. If you purchased a 10,000 AP package on Wednesday November 1st up to just before the new update took effect today November 20th, you will be awarded the appropriate achievement and tier.

Gifting Prizes

If you didn't already know, the gifting prizes and rules have changed this year! Please review the Design Notes posts covering the prizes and changes thoroughly before participating: September 22, 2023 and November 3, 2023. We don't want to let anyone down at the end of the competition because they didn't understand or were misinformed about what the final prizes would be. Also, don't count on the rules changing after the competition is over or nearly over.

Perhaps, if this Gifting season proves to be more sustainable in terms of overall workload, we can expand it in future seasons, but for now, the rules are what they are. We apologize to anyone who was disappointed, but our hope is this season can be more rewarding for more participants while also providing a suitable reward for the top Gifters.

Techstalker Items

The Techstalker Promotional package and items have been out of the game for over a year, and although most of the the items are Rare, we're adding the cores and bots to Acatriel's in-game shop as we have with promotional cores and items in the past.

Additionally, cores and robots from last year's Sanguinomancer Battlepass have been made available on Acatriel temporarily. In the future, we will consolidate Battlepass cores and robots on one new NPC so they can be retrieved more easily. 

Tags: Nightwraith

November 09, 2023

In addition to the other prizes offered by this year's gifting event, we will be introducing a new batch of prizes for Gifters who manage to achieve certain thresholds for gifts given. The main theme for these prizes will be the Cyber Wolf Set, but there will be some other bonus prizes scattered throughout the tiers. This is designed to provide an opportunity for prizes for those who aren't necessarily aiming to land on the final leaderboard. The hope was that there would be a cool GUI in game to track the scores and automate prize claim, but in due to the heavy workload, we'll be awarding the prizes manually at the conclusion of gifting.

Unfortunately, we don't have many previews to show as the items are still in progress, but we can show you the tier levels as well as the names and types of items we plan to offer for each tier. We will post more previews as the items are completed!

10,000 Gifts (over 150 Gifters attained this level in 2021)

• Cyber Wolf Dagger P
• Cyber Wolf Dagger E
• Festive Classic Armor

15,000 Gifts

• Cyber Wolf Greatsword P
• Cyber Wolf Greatsword E

20,000 Gifts

• Cyber Wolf SMG P
• Cyber Wolf SMG E

25,000 Gifts

• Cyber Wolf Shotgun P
• Cyber Wolf Shotgun E
• Festive Omega Default Armor

50,000 Gifts

• Jack Frost P (Robot)
• Jack Frost E (Robot)

75,000 Gifts

• Cyber Wolf Bow P
• Cyber Wolf Bow E

100,000 Gifts

• Cyber Wolf Arsenal P
• Cyber Wolf Arsenal E
• Frostbane CC
• Ember Bane CC

125,000 Gifts

• Cyber Wolf Bazooka P
• Cyber Wolf Bazooka E

150,000 Gifts

• Cyber Wolf Morph
• Cyber Wolf Morph CC

175,000 Gifts

• Cyber Dragon Morph
• Morph CC

200,000 Gifts

• Cyber Wolf Armor
• Cyber Wolf Armor CC

225,000 Gifts

• Savage Cyber Wolf Armor
• Savage Cyber Wolf Armor CC

250,000 Gifts (28 Gifters attained this level in 2021)

• NightBot 3000 P (Robot)
• NightBot 3000 E (Robot)
• NightBot 3000 Morph

That's all for now. We apologize for the delay in updates, but getting a new Battlepass ready in addition to preparing hundreds of new items for Gifting is stretching us to the limit. Next week, with luck and elbow grease, we should be back on track!

Tags: Nightwraith

November 03, 2023

We're almost a month away from the return of biggest event: Gifting! This season is now planned to last from December 4, 2023 to January 8, 2024. Starting and ending the event on a Monday rather than a Friday works better logistically since it will be easier and quicker to address any problems on a weekday rather than a weekend.

For now, we are pleased to present a preview of the Gifting prizes for winners of each tier of the upcoming event! We wanted to present these rewards in advance so you'll know exactly what you're competing for and can plan accordingly.

Gifting Chest Prize Preview

Below is a comprehensive list of prizes that will be awarded to Gifting finalists. These prizes do not include the Legacy Item award that the top 15 Gifters will be eligible for or the Custom Item that the #1 Gifter will be eligible for. These rewards will be manually added at the end of the competition so please allow some time to receive all your rewards after Gifting concludes.

Bronze Chest Winners (26th - 50th place)

• Shadow Shinobi Armor
• Shinobi Magnum P/E
• Shinobi Assault Rifle P/E
• Shadow Shinobi Katana
• Shadow Shinobi Bike

Silver Chest (11th - 25th place)

• Moon Shinobi Armor
• Shinobi Armor CC
• Bio-Ronin Armor A
• Bio-Ronin Armor B
• Bio-Ronin Armor A CC
• Bio-Ronin Armor B CC
• Shinobi Magnum P/E
• Shinobi Assault Rifle P/E
• Shadow Shinobi Katana P/E
• Moon Shinobi Katana P/E
• Shinobi Katana CC P/E
• Shadow Shinobi Katana P/E
• Shadow Shinobi Bike
• Jack Frost Morph

Gold Chest (1st - 10th place)

• Sun Shinobi Armor
• Moon Shinobi Armor
• Shinobi Armor CC
• Shadow Shinobi Armor
• Bio-Ronin Armor A
• Bio-Ronin Armor B
• Bio-Ronin Armor A CC
• Bio-Ronin Armor B CC
• Apex Bio-Ronin Armor A
• Apex Bio-Ronin Armor B
• Apex Bio-Ronin Armor A CC
• Apex Bio-Ronin Armor B CC
• Shinobi Magnum P/E
• Shinobi Assault Rifle P/E
• Shadow Shinobi Katana P/E
• Moon Shinobi Katana P/E
• Sun Shinobi Katana P/E
• Shinobi Katana CC P/E
• Bio-Ronin Katana P/E
• Shinobi Assault Rifle CC P/E
• Shinobi Magnum CC P/E
• Apex Bio-Ronin Bloodstar / Apex Bio-Ronin Soulstar
• Shadow Shinobi Bike
• Shadow Shinobi Bike CC
• Jack Frost Morph
• Jack Frost Morph CC

Secret Package Preview

Thanks to Acatriel's hard work, we have a preview of the Secret Package rewards well before the Gifting competition begins!  

Silver Secret Package

For those that need a refresher, Silver Secret Packages are given to the first five places of Daily Gifting leaderboard at the end of each day and to anyone who gives out more than 15000 gifts in a day. If you place among the top 15 Gifters at the end of the competition, you may distribute any additional Silver Secret Packages you receive throughout the competition. This means if you win 4 Silver Secret Packages, you may distribute 3 to friends.

• Frostborn Archdemon A
• Frostborn Archdemon B
• Frostborn Archdemon A CC
• Frostborn Archdemon B CC
• Frostborn Slayer Sword P/E
• Frostborn Hand Cannon P/E
• Frostborn Archdemon Bike

Secret Package

For those that need a refresher, Secret Packages are given to the Top Daily Gifting leaderboard at the end of each day. Those who place in the top 15 Gifter but somehow did not receive a Secret Package will receive one at the end of the competition. If you place among the top 15 Gifters at the end of the competition, you may distribute any additional Secret Packages you receive throughout the competition. This means if you win 4 Secret Packages, you may distribute 3 to friends.

• Frostborn Archdemon A
• Frostborn Archdemon B
• Frostborn Archdemon A CC
• Frostborn Archdemon B CC
• Ascended Frostborn Archdemon A
• Ascended Frostborn Archdemon B
• Ascended Frostborn Archdemon A CC
• Ascended Frostborn Archdemon B CC
• Frostborn Slayer Scythe P/E
• Frostborn Slayer Sword P/E
• Frostborn Hand Cannon P/E
• Frostborn Destroyer / Frostborn Dominator
• Frostborn Archdemon Bike
• Frostborn Archdemon Bike CC

Olympus' Wrath Battlepass Coming Soon

The Draconic Warlord Battlepass is leaving in a couple weeks to make way for the final battlepass of 2023: Olympus' Wrath. It might just be one of the best-looking yet! This battlepass will run concurrently with Gifting to provide another incentive to keep dueling between major giving sessions.

Tags: Nightwraith

October 27, 2023

Celebrate Halloween early with new Gothic Vampire armors, weapons, and styles while you experiment with new balance changes!

Gothic Vampire Styles

Visit Snork to check out his stock of returning Halloween seasonal rares plus an all-new stock of Gothic Vampire weapons and armors crafted by artists Bido and Acatriel!

• Gothic Vampiric Sword P
• Gothic Vampiric Sword E
• Gothic Vampiric Blades P
• Gothic Vampiric Blades E
• Gothic Vampiric Axe P
• Gothic Vampiric Axe E
• Gothic Vampiric Staff P
• Gothic Vampiric Staff E
• Gothic Vampire Armor A
• Gothic Vampire Armor B
• Gothic Vampire Armor C
• Gothic Vampire Armor A CC
• Gothic Vampire Armor B CC
• Gothic Vampire Armor C CC

In addition to new weapons and armor, over a dozen new vampiric styles have been added!

Balance

Along with new content, this update brings new balance changes to class skills and numerous cores with a major skill cooldown duration overhaul.

• Cyber Hunter
  • Nanotech Shield: Support requirement, starting at 16 and increasing by 2
  • Cyber Edge: Dexterity requirement, starting at 16 and increasing by 2
• Tactical Mercenary
  • Force Field: removed Support scaling
• Mercenary
  • Intimidate: Support debuff removed
• Gamma Bot and all variants: Increased damage from 108% to 111% damage
• Chronopact: Removed Rage gain, 4 turn Cooldown.
• Incensory: Removed heal debuff
• Necrosis/Magma Grenade P and E: Scaling changed from 4 to 3.5 defense/resistance removed per target's level.
• Growth Serum: Support boost increased from 50 to 100 points; cost reduced from 120 to 110.
• Minor Growth Serum: Support boost increased from 40 to 60 points; cost reduced from 120 to 110.

To improve consistency and increase the utility of buff and debuff removing skills, the Cooldown of some skills and cores have been increased to match their durations. Skills with Cooldowns that were already longer than the duration were unchanged. The following skills and cores have had adjustments to their Cooldowns:

• Reflex Boost: Cooldown increased to 4
• Defense Matrix: Cooldown increased to 3
• Smokescreen: Cooldown increased to 3
• Energy Shield: Cooldown increased to 3
• Field Commander: Cooldown increased to 4
• Intimidate: Cooldown increased to 4
• Technician: Cooldown increased to 4
• Malfunction: Cooldown increased to 3
• Force Field: Cooldown increased to 4
• Blood Commander: Cooldown increased to 4
• Blood Instinct: Cooldown increased to 4
• Adaptive Armor: Cooldown increased to 3
• Blood Shield: Cooldown increased to 5
• Kernel Panic: Cooldown increased to 3
• Terrify: Cooldown increased to 4
• Thorns: Cooldown increased to 4
• Deep Plague: Cooldown increased to 5
• Pacify: Cooldown increased to 5
• Molten Bullet: Cooldown increased to 5
• Molten Shrapnel: Cooldown increased to 5
• Sea King's Corruption: Cooldown increased to 4
• Hunter's Retribution: Cooldown increased to 5
• Botanical Infection: Cooldown increased to 5

Tags: Nightwraith

October 20, 2023

The Cosmic Carnage 2 Tournament has officially ended! Visit The Endless or the Tyrant Totem to view the final leaderboard and the final winners of this latest test of endurance and skill! Over 377 Cosmic Carnage 2 Tickets were sold making this the tournament the largest EpicDuel has had since the Golden Yeti Tournament.

 All prizes, including the prizes for all participants have been distributed. If you do not see a prize item you should have based on your tier, you may need to log out then back in again.

The tournament leaderboard, like all other leaderboards in EpicDuel, updates at regular intervals (usually about a minute) so the numbers you see during the tournament aren't the absolute latest real-time scores. Because this was an extremely close tournament for some placement tiers so you may have noticed some rankings shift by the time of the final update of the leaderboard. This is normal, but rarely results shifting ranks. In this case, it resulted in at least one participant moving to a higher tier in the final update.

Naval Yard War Bonus

If you were able to claim the Kartherax Larva Cannon P in the West Naval Yard War, you will be awarded a complementary Kartherax Larva Cannon E! You may need to relog if you don't see the new weapon in your inventory.

Tags: Nightwraith

October 13, 2023

Friday the 13th (the Second One)

It's Friday the 13th on EpicDuel which means it's time to collect seasonal rares visit Snork and Caden to view returning seasonal rares! This also means we've added a new 2nd Friday The 13th 2023 achievement available from the achievement shop.

Changes/Fixes

• Nightwraith (40): Added Venom Strike, increased sidearm damage to 350
• Titan (40): Added Bareknuckle Breaker E auxiliary, auxiliary damage 380, increased sidearm damage to 350
• Charfade (40): Primary damage increased to 350, sidearm damage increased to 350, auxiliary damage increased to 380, defense increased to 75, resistance changed to 75, Charfade's Launcher E added as auxiliary weapon
• Rabblefroth (40): Added Bareknuckle Breaker E auxiliary, Sidearm damage increased to 340, auxiliary damage increased to 380
• Added/restored simulation versions of NPCs who were defeated during their storylines.
• Iron Husk: New Husk Buster Sim. achievement
• Nightmare Husk: New Nightmare Husk Buster Sim. achievement
• Alexis: Achievement is now a tiered achievement
• Anti-Iron Husk cores added to Nightmare Vendbot in the Afterlife (requires Nightmare Titan quest completion to view)
• Chained Blood: No longer conflicts with passive Bloodlust skills.

Cosmic Carnage 2 Reminder

A new tournament is nearly upon us! Visit The Endless in Frysteland or the Tyrant Totem in Fortune City to purchase a Cosmic Carnage 2 Ticket to guarantee participation in Delta V's latest test of might and endurance! This final tournament in our tourney trilogy will have a similar duration to the previous tournament, lasting from Tuesday October 17 at 4:00 PM (EST) to Friday October 20 at 4:00 PM (EST). The scoring per victory will be as follows:

• 1v1: 10 points
• 2v2: 15 points
• Juggernaut: 4 points

2v2 points are lower than they have been in past tournaments due to the increased likelihood of encountering NPCs in 2v2. However, we didn't want to make the points too low because 2v2s take longer to queue and play on average.

It should go without saying, but please play fairly and honorably during this tournament or risk losing your tournament standing and chance at the rewards.

Tags: Nightwraith