DUELYST II PATCH 0.2.8

Patch 0.2.8 will go live at around 10:30PM UTC/6:30PM ET

This patch introduces a Quest revamp, updates to The Gauntlet, an increased maximum deck size, 16 card changes, and QoL changes/bug fixes!

General:

• As the most upvoted feature suggestion, we’ve implemented a UI to view your progression track and expected rewards for each faction on the Profile ➝ Faction Levels screen. You can now see the full track in-game and where you are with each faction. Vote on more features here!

• Users will now be able to change and verify their emails directly from the Settings menu. We’ve received many support tickets from users unable to login after forgetting their password, and often this is because they entered an incorrect email when signing up. New accounts will need to verify their email accounts before playing PvP matches, but all current users won’t need to go through this process (it’s still a good idea to double check your email though to make sure it’s correct!).

• Some users have reported that the rightmost card bucket in Gauntlet was hidden behind the deck list – we’ve slimmed down the UI to show “card slots” instead of full cards when picking buckets.

Quest update:

As part of our efforts to modernize Duelyst II’s systems, we’ll be pushing out our first wave of changes to the Quest System. While taking in feedback, we identified a few core issues with quests that we’re aiming to address, these being:

• Quests take too long to complete.
• There’s little protection against even a day of inactivity.
• They force players into strategies/factions they don’t enjoy.
• There’s very little variety in their objectives.

So here’s what we’re changing.

Quests Generation:

• Number of quests received per day: 2 -> 3
• Total number of quests a player can hold: 2 -> 6
• Average quest completion time: 6 Games -> 4 Games

New/Changed Quests:

• Adventurer (25g): Play 4 games.
• Ultimate Aggressor (25g): Deal 75 damage to enemy Generals.
• Assassin (25g): Destroy 25 minions.
• Apothecary (25g): Heal units for 25 health.
• Time Twister (25g): Play through 50 turns.
• Battle Master (25g): Deal 50 damage with your General.
• Devastation (25g): Deal 150 damage.
• Giant Tamer (25g): Play 10 cards that cost 5+ mana.
• [Faction] Explorer (25g): Play 6 games. Games as [Faction] count for 2.
• Gauntlet Initiate (30g): Play 4 Gauntlet games.

Removed Quests:

• Faction Challenger
• Welcome Back

Players now have a full day of leeway before missing out on new quests, and while there is more to do per day, each quest should take less time to complete individually. Quest objectives have also been made more generic. We want to allow those that heavily engage with quests to complete them fast, but not lock you out of rewards if you want to play Duelyst II some other way.

While the maximum daily gold gain from quests is going down slightly (80 Gold to 75 Gold), players whose schedules are a bit more sporadic and who can’t play on a daily basis should see their gold gain go up significantly.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be tracking the effects of these changes and listening to your feedback.

Deck size limit increase:

Historically, decks across Duelyst and Duelyst II have always consisted of 40 cards, including a General. As of patch 0.2.8, that limit has increased to 55 cards.

Want to play 3 copies of every Lyonar spell with enough room left over for 3 Serpenti? Well now you can! While we expect most competitive decks to stay around the 40 card minimum, we’re excited to see what people will do with this added degree of freedom.

Card changes:

Lyonar:

• Sundrop Elixir: Heal a unit for 5. ➝ Heal a unit for 4.

The massively efficient healing from Sundrop Elixir can allow Lyonar to shrug off damage whilst executing their game plan unimpeded. While 4 points of healing for 1 mana is still efficient, your General’s Health total should be more of a consideration when playing against strategies that can threaten it.

Songhai:

• Mask of Shadows: Your General has +1/+0 and Backstab (2) ➝ Your General has +1/+0 and Backstab (3)

Mask Of Shadows has failed to stand out among Songhai’s other low cost tools, so we’re increasing the Backstab portion of its damage as to not directly benefit Cyclone Mask.

Vetruvian:

• Siphon Energy: Dispel an enemy minion. ➝ Dispel a minion.

Before launch, many spells that could only target enemies or allies were changed to allow them to target anything, for those moments where buffing an enemy minion and attacking it with Eclipse was the only path to victory. Siphon Energy didn’t get this treatment originally, but now it has.

• Entropic Decay: 4 Mana ➝ 3 Mana | Destroy a minion nearby an ally. ➝ Destroy all minions on the same row as your General.

Most removal spells costed over 2 mana aren’t in a great spot, so we’re showing a few of them some love this patch. Entropic Decay now works as a positional, global ranged removal option – and a way to easily trigger your own Dying Wish effects.

Abyssian:

• Void Pulse: Deal 2 damage to the enemy General and heal your General for 3 ➝ Deal 1 damage to a unit and heal your General for 2.

Void Pulse is trading raw efficiency for a lot of flexibility – while it can still act as a weaker version of its old self, the ability to cleanly answer 1 Health minions or set up for Nightsorrow Assassin shouldn’t be overlooked.

• Soulshatter Pact: Give allied minions +2/+0 until your next turn. ➝ Give an enemy minion -2/-0. Give allied minions nearby it +2/+0.

We hope that by moving away from raw damage, Soulshatter Pact stands out more next to the other swarm payoffs in Abyssian. Duelyst veterans may recognize this as a Void Steal with 3s turned into 2s, because that’s exactly what it is!

• Nightsorrow Assassin: 3/3 ➝ 4/2

Bloodtear Alchemist into Nightsorrow Assassin has cemented itself as one of the strongest turn two plays in the game, though unlike most Opening Gambit removal effects, Nightsorrow doesn’t care how much Attack or Health its target has. With this degree of versatility on a 3 drop, also surviving a General attack was often overbearing for the opponent.

• Dark Terminus: Destroy a minion and summon a Wraithling for its owner on that space. ➝ Destroy a minion and summon a Wraithling on that space.

Continuing the trend of buffing more expensive removal spells, Dark Terminus is returning to its previous effect of always giving control of the newly summoned Wraithling to the player who cast the spell.

Magmar:

• Plasma Storm: Destroy minions with 2 or less Attack. ➝ Destroy minions with 3 or less Attack in a 3×3 area.

While we expected the last change to Plasma Storm to leave it overall weaker, we also expected it to have more of a niche next to Metamorphosis. The latter didn’t end up happening, and our final 4 mana removal spell of the patch is now more powerful with an added positional requirement.

Vanar:

• Draugar Lord: 6 Mana ➝ 5 Mana | 7/6 ➝ 6/5

Draugar Lord and his Vespyr friends have struggled to find a place in the meta lately, so he’s been given a cost reduction to enable both earlier plays with Ice Drakes, and combos with Razorback at 9 mana.

• Ice Drake: 2/7 ➝ 2/6

Now that their lord costs 5 mana, Ice Drakes have slimmed down a little as well.

• Frosthorn Rhyno: 5 Mana ➝ 6 Mana | 6/5 ➝ 6/8

Sensing that Vanar was about to be without a 6 mana minion, Frosthorn Rhyno stepped up to the plate. Previously a side-grade to Arctic Displacer in Spirit Of The Wild decks, Rhyno is now a bulky, imposing threat all by itself. It’ll still mess you up with Spirit Of The Wild though.

Neutral:

• Jaxi: 2/1 ➝ 2/2

Jaxi has largely been crowded out by other 2 drops, so we’re giving him a small boost by returning him to his original statline.

• Thorn Needler: When this takes damage, this gains +2/+0 until your next turn ➝ When this takes damage, it gains +2/+0.

Thorn Needler isn’t so quick to forgive and forget anymore, so be careful how you treat it.

• Twilight Sorcerer: 4/6 ➝ 3/7

Shedding the classic Hailstone Golem body, Twilight Sorcerer now has a more defensive statline, and one that better synergizes with Inner Focus. 

• Jax Truesight: (Rework) 6 Mana ➝ 7 Mana | 1/1 ➝ 3/2

While Jax offers unique gameplay and a positional challenge, for some factions, preparing for it by 6 mana just isn’t feasible. Coming online one turn later should give decks without single card answers more opportunity to block or threaten corners, and find an answer to Jax himself.

Shop:

The shop has 5 new skins!

• Frostbone Naga – Eldritch
• Keeper Of The Vale – Void (Designed by: Kertic)
• Red Synja – Death Matriarch (Designed by: Cropolite)
• Manaforger – Energized (Designed by: Robnoo)
• Prophet Of The White Palm – Eldritch

Gauntlet update:

The following changes have been made to card weights in The Gauntlet:

53% Faction / 44% Neutral / 3% Cross-faction -> 52% Faction / 42% Neutral / 6% Cross-faction