Hey, I’m Blatm and I did most of the initial Gauntlet design for Duelyst II. The patch releasing along side this devlog comes with the following changes to Gauntlet:
- You can now see exactly which cross-faction cards started in your opponent’s deck.
- MMR has been implemented for gauntlet games.
- 4-0 runs give an additional random reward.
- Many weights have changed.
I got tons of feedback from the community, and the changes above aim to improve Gauntlet in the ways that were most often requested. As always, the individual parts of the game mode and the mode as a whole I view as a work in progress and inherently dynamic. I prioritize being in tune with the rest of the community and making something together that we can enjoy together, and I’ve had lots of fun collaborating like that!
CROSS-FACTION VISION
The most consistent bit of feedback I’ve gotten in the month since Gauntlet released was that players feel apprehension and anxiety around cross-faction cards. As mentioned in the first devlog, I was definitely mindful of cross-faction cards blindsiding players and I preemptively made the sorts of cards that can do that much less common. My impression is that, as players played more and more games, their consternation over cross-faction cards diminished. However, those feelings were still clearly present, and there are many cards that would be exciting when appearing cross-faction which are much less common purely because of this blindsiding effect.
I’m very excited for the change that comes with this patch, which completely solves the blindsiding issue. Now, you can hover over an icon in game, as pictured above, and see exactly which cross-faction cards your opponent had in their deck at the beginning of the match. In the future my aim is to leverage this to promote decks that revolve around completely novel synergies. Huge thanks to Suraako for implementing this change.
MMR
The second most common bit of feedback I got from the community regarding Gauntlet is that players would like more achievements for them to take pride in. This month, Maser integrated BlatMMR into gauntlet, and Nangert made a website, https://duelystranks.deno.dev/GauntletTop50, where you can see the current top50 Gauntlet players. The MMR system is the same one that’s used for ranked – enable “Experimental MMR” in in-game settings. The MMR system is described in the academic paper preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.14857; the Gauntlet implementation uses beta = 0.7 instead of the beta = 0.8 for ranked. Going forward, I hope to further integrate MMR into Gauntlet, and to give competitive players even more they can strive for. Thanks very much to Maser and Nangert for their dev work!
EXTRA 4-0 REWARD
The community, in addition to wanting more overarching goals, told me that they wanted perfect runs to be a bit more exciting. This is a little trickier than it sounds because of the principles outlined in the first devlog, but this is an easy improvement. I also wanted to be a bit cautious to not overreact to feedback; I think players are realizing that the current rewards are quite generous.
WEIGHT CHANGES
I changed a bunch of weights, i.e. the probabilities with which individual cards were offered. Different cards had their weights changed for different reasons. I’ll list a couple reasons here, and give the updated weights below. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m very keen on changing weights often and dramatically, so these changes should be thought of as temporary and primarily about shaking stuff up for the sake of it.
- The most common motivation for weight adjustments came from asking random people to suggest changes for the sake of change. I did this throughout the month, mostly in the main discord discord.gg/duelyst and in various twitch chats. Changes like a bit more Manaforger and a bit less Wings of Paradise come purely from someone somewhere requesting that for no particular reason. I really like the spirit of this kind of community involvement and the chaos and ephemerality it injects into the weights.
- Some people complained that certain cards were consistently somewhat annoying. This was my motivation for decreasing the weights of cards like Widowmaker and Zen’rui, and increasing the weights of cards like Siphon Energy and Bloodtear Alchemist.
- Some weight changes were made with the aim of making the draft feel a bit smoother in some places, since some players told me they didn’t like being compelled to play cards they perceived as lackluster, and wanted to see a bit more of some solid bread-and-butter cards. Examples of this are Azurite Lion, Crystal Cloaker, and Frostbone Naga (which increased in weight), and Bluetip Scorpion, Spelljammer, and all 1-drops (which decreased in weight). Sometimes these came about by considering the cards in a vacuum (e.g. people told me they didn’t like playing with Spelljammer, independently of whatever else was going on in the format), and some came about because of considerations to context (e.g. in Lyonar people told me it was a bit harder than they’d like to draft 2-drops, which motivated the increase in Azurite Lion’s weight).
- I was seeing that aggressive Songhai decks were quite powerful and had the potential to be a bit unfun for players because those decks had a tendency to be less interactive. Because of this, I made cards like Saberspine Seal slightly less common, and cards like Rock Pulverizer and Archon Spellbinder a decent amount more common. Some players enjoy playing aggro Songhai decks so I wanted to leave them largely intact, and I prefer when most of the adjustment comes in the form of giving players means of counterplay.
- Vetruvian’s Dervish archetype felt substantially more powerful than alternatives, to the point where it made drafting the faction a good bit less interesting. Many of the Vetruvian changes are aimed at promoting their other archetypes.
- Golems went up in weight a bit because I never saw anyone care about Golem synergy ever.
- Windrunner went up in weight a lot because this card is very strong in Gauntlet and very skill testing, and I think it’ll be fun to have this be a meaningful segment of the meta for a while.
- A lot of the duty of cross-faction cards was to ensure that the format overall had a sufficient supply of cards promoting fair decks. Some players mentioned to me that this duty seemed to fall a disproportionate amount on Vanar, which in turn undermined some of the appeal of drafting them. I’ve further shifted this duty away from Vanar and into other factions.
- Some cross-faction multipliers were increased to promote unusual and unique synergies that can’t be experienced elsewhere. Cards like Skywind Glaives, Four Winds Magus, and Portal Guardian are examples of this. I want to do this a lot more going forward, now that the opponent’s cross-faction cards are displayed in game.
- A couple weights changed as a result of rounding, and aren’t things I did manually. Storm Kage’s very slight weight change is an example of this.
Below are the weights of all the cards in the game, at the time of writing. Exactly how this works was explained in the first devlog, but I’ll present the information in a slightly different format to hopefully alleviate some confusion some people told me they had last time.
There are six columns per card:
- Card name
- New “base weight”
- New “cross-faction multiplier”
- Old base weight
- Old cross-faction multiplier
- An asterisk if the base weight or cross-faction multiplier has changed, and blank otherwise.
The base weights are normalized so that they average to 100. For in-faction cards and neutral cards, this number dictates the relative frequency with which cards appear. For example, Silverguard Knight has a base weight of 100, and Grandmaster Z’ir has a base weight of 68, so Lyonar drafters will see 100 Silverguard Knights for every 68 Grandmaster Z’irs they see on average.
The cross-faction multiplier scales the base weights specifically when the cards are appearing cross-faction. For example, Silverguard Knight’s cross-faction multiplier is 1.00 and Grandmaster Z’ir’s is 1.30, which means that, for drafters of a faction other than Lyonar, they’ll see 100 x 1.00 = 100 Silverguard Knights for every 68 x 1.30 = 88.4 Grandmaster Z’irs they see on average. Note that these are all relative frequencies; Grandmaster Z’ir is overall seen quite infrequently cross-faction, since only 3% of cards shown during a draft are cross-faction, and they’re pulled from among all five other factions. Grandmaster Z’ir is offered to Lyonar drafters about 69 times more often than it is to Songhai drafters.
NAME NEW OLD CHANGED?
Silverguard Squire 95 1.00 100 1.00 *
Azurite Lion 138 1.20 115 1.00 *
Lightchaser 138 1.00 115 1.00 *
Sunstone Templar 92 1.50 92 1.00 *
Windblade Adept 115 1.00 115 1.00
Arclyte Sentinel 110 1.70 100 1.00 *
Silverguard Knight 100 1.00 100 1.00
Lysian Brawler 100 1.00 100 1.00
Sunriser 100 1.00 100 1.00
Suntide Maiden 100 1.00 100 1.00
Ironcliffe Guardian 100 1.00 100 1.00
Second Sun 100 1.00 100 1.00
Elyx Stormblade 84 1.00 84 1.00
Grandmaster Z'ir 68 1.30 68 1.30
Beam Shock 100 1.00 100 1.00
Lionheart Blessing 80 1.90 100 1.70 *
Aegis Barrier 80 1.00 80 1.00
Aerial Rift 100 1.90 100 1.90
Auryn Nexus 100 1.30 100 1.30
Magnetize 100 1.00 100 1.00
Sundrop Elixir 120 1.50 120 1.50
True Strike 100 1.30 100 1.30
Lasting Judgement 120 1.00 120 1.00
Martyrdom 135 1.80 135 1.80
Sun Bloom 100 1.00 100 1.00
Tempest 128 1.28 120 1.00 *
War Surge 100 1.40 100 1.40
Divine Bond 100 0.60 100 0.60
Decimate 73 0.45 80 0.45 *
Holy Immolation 100 0.40 100 0.40
Circle of Life 100 1.90 100 1.90
Sunstone Bracers 100 1.00 100 1.00
Skywind Glaives 100 1.70 100 0.70 *
Arclyte Regalia 88 0.70 100 0.70 *
Heartseeker 86 1.00 100 1.00 *
Chakri Avatar 144 1.00 144 1.00
Kaido Assassin 138 1.00 138 1.00
Tusk Boar 109 1.00 115 1.00 *
Celestial Phantom 80 1.30 80 1.00 *
Gore Horn 100 1.00 100 1.00
Jade Monk 110 1.60 110 1.20 *
Lantern Fox 113 1.70 100 1.20 *
Widowmaker 56 1.00 70 1.00 *
Four Winds Magus 100 2.00 100 1.00 *
Keshrai Fanblade 60 1.00 60 1.00
Hamon Bladeseeker 100 1.00 100 1.00
Scarlet Viper 88 1.00 87 1.00 *
Storm Kage 43 1.00 42 1.00 *
Inner Focus 130 1.25 125 1.25 *
Juxtaposition 137 0.89 130 1.00 *
Mana Vortex 120 1.00 120 1.00
Ancestral Divination 120 2.10 120 1.80 *
Artifact Defiler 50 1.00 50 1.00
Ghost Lightning 120 1.68 120 1.58 *
Mist Walking 75 1.50 100 1.00 *
Saberspine Seal 93 1.00 100 1.00 *
Deathstrike Seal 64 1.00 70 1.00 *
Eight Gates 100 1.00 100 1.00
Mist Dragon Seal 80 0.50 80 0.50
Phoenix Fire 140 1.00 140 1.00
Killing Edge 100 1.00 100 1.00
Onyx Bear Seal 100 1.67 100 1.00 *
Twin Strike 120 1.50 120 1.50
Heaven's Eclipse 90 1.50 90 1.50
Spiral Technique 54 0.40 60 0.40 *
Bloodrage Mask 100 1.00 120 0.80 *
Mask of Shadows 110 0.70 95 0.80 *
Cyclone Mask 40 1.00 70 0.40 *
Dunecaster 115 0.30 115 0.30
Ethereal Obelysk 167 1.50 167 1.00 *
Imperial Saboteur 151 0.70 144 0.70 *
Orb Weaver 115 1.30 115 1.00 *
Pyromancer 102 1.00 115 1.00 *
Fireblaze Obelysk 130 1.00 130 1.00
Portal Guardian 120 1.76 120 1.20 *
Windstorm Obelysk 130 1.00 130 1.00
Mirage Master 66 1.30 60 1.00 *
Sand Howler 100 1.00 100 1.00
Wind Shrike 100 1.00 100 1.00
Starfire Scarab 90 1.00 90 1.00
Aymara Healer 56 1.00 56 1.00
Oserix 68 1.35 68 1.20 *
Fountain of Youth 60 2.34 60 1.00 *
Siphon Energy 170 0.60 140 0.80 *
Auroras Tears 115 0.85 110 0.80 *
Blindscorch 108 1.00 100 1.00 *
Scion's First Wish 123 1.50 100 1.50 *
Bone Swarm 100 0.70 100 0.70
Rasha's Curse 132 1.30 130 1.30 *
Sand Trap 100 1.50 100 1.50
Scion's Second Wish 110 2.00 100 2.00 *
Astral Phasing 50 0.50 50 0.50
Inner Oasis 133 1.25 128 1.00 *
Scion's Third Wish 100 1.00 100 1.00
Entropic Decay 100 1.00 100 1.00
Syzygy 111 1.00 100 1.00 *
Stars' Fury 116 0.50 116 0.50
Dominate Will 75 0.50 75 0.50
Time Maelstrom 69 0.50 63 0.50 *
Staff of Y'Kir 139 0.70 130 0.70 *
Wildfire Ankh 86 0.68 70 0.70 *
Hexblade 113 1.40 110 1.40 *
Abyssal Crawler 108 0.50 118 0.50 *
Blood Siren 104 1.00 115 1.00 *
Darkspine Elemental 100 0.36 92 0.50 *
Gloomchaser 163 1.40 161 1.40 *
Nightsorrow Assassin 130 0.86 128 1.00 *
Shadow Watcher 105 1.18 100 1.00 *
Abyssal Juggernaut 122 1.00 115 1.00 *
Aphotic Devourer 103 1.00 100 1.00 *
Bloodmoon Priestess 100 1.00 100 1.00
Black Solus 88 0.50 89 0.50 *
Reaper of the Nine Moons 78 1.48 76 1.40 *
Shadowdancer 89 1.34 100 1.20 *
Vorpal Reaver 68 1.20 69 1.20 *
Spectral Revenant 69 0.50 68 0.50 *
Darkfire Sacrifice 100 1.00 100 1.00
Grasp of Agony 107 0.50 100 0.50 *
Void Pulse 108 0.85 100 0.85 *
Consuming Rebirth 94 1.13 100 1.00 *
Daemonic Lure 150 1.50 150 1.50
Soulshatter Pact 90 1.00 90 1.00
Deathfire Crescendo 95 1.00 100 1.00 *
Rite of the Undervault 63 1.85 60 1.60 *
Ritual Banishing 120 1.00 120 1.00
Shadow Reflection 75 1.00 75 1.00
Wraithling Fury 90 0.30 90 0.30
Wraithling Swarm 140 1.00 130 1.00 *
Breath of the Unborn 83 1.26 78 1.00 *
Dark Seed 70 0.70 70 0.70
Dark Terminus 130 1.50 130 1.50
Nether Summoning 86 0.50 100 0.50 *
Shadow Nova 115 1.00 115 1.00
Horn of the Forsaken 133 1.20 130 1.00 *
Spectral Blade 94 1.00 100 1.00 *
Soul Grimoire 73 1.00 70 1.00 *
Kujata 115 1.88 115 1.60 *
Phalanxar 127 1.60 115 1.00 *
Young Silithar 136 0.85 132 0.85 *
Earth Walker 90 1.00 100 1.00 *
Primordial Gazer 100 1.00 100 1.00
Vindicator 100 1.00 100 1.00
Elucidator 70 1.00 70 1.00
Grimrock 90 1.00 100 1.00 *
Veteran Silithar 100 1.00 100 1.00
Kolossus 90 1.00 100 1.00 *
Spirit Harvester 80 0.70 80 0.70
Makantor Warbeast 93 0.50 93 0.50
Silithar Elder 60 1.20 59 1.20 *
Unstable Leviathan 68 1.00 85 1.00 *
Amplification 80 1.00 80 1.00
Dampening Wave 80 1.00 80 1.00
Flash Reincarnation 110 1.60 100 1.30 *
Greater Fortitude 100 1.00 100 1.00
Mana Burn 70 1.00 80 1.00 *
Diretide Frenzy 90 0.60 100 0.60 *
Mind Steal 50 1.50 50 1.50
Natural Selection 130 1.50 130 1.50
Tremor 100 1.00 100 1.00
Chrysalis Burst 100 1.30 100 1.00 *
Kinetic Equilibrium 100 1.00 100 1.00
Earth Sphere 100 1.40 100 1.40
Egg Morph 130 1.40 130 1.40
Plasma Storm 120 0.60 120 0.60
Metamorphosis 130 0.60 130 0.60
Fractal Replication 80 1.00 80 1.00
Bounded Lifeforce 80 0.60 80 0.60
Iridium Scale 80 1.00 80 1.00
Twin Fang 100 1.30 90 1.00 *
Adamantite Claws 100 1.00 100 1.00
Snow Chaser 104 1.29 100 1.00 *
Borean Bear 143 0.40 144 0.40 *
Crystal Cloaker 124 1.00 115 1.00 *
Crystal Wisp 81 2.10 80 2.10 *
Hearth Sister 127 1.00 115 1.00 *
Fenrir Warmaster 130 0.70 130 0.70
Glacial Elemental 110 0.40 110 0.40
Wolfraven 81 1.00 81 1.00
Razorback 133 1.20 131 1.00 *
Voice of the Wind 100 1.50 100 1.50
Arctic Displacer 96 1.00 100 1.00 *
Frosthorn Rhyno 92 1.00 92 1.00
Draugar Lord 94 1.00 87 1.00 *
Ancient Grove 68 1.20 68 1.20
Flash Freeze 120 1.50 120 1.50
Polarity 100 1.00 100 1.00
Aspect of the Fox 108 1.00 108 1.00
Bonechill Barrier 127 1.00 127 1.00
Boundless Courage 90 1.00 90 1.00
Chromatic Cold 140 2.00 136 2.20 *
Frostfire 100 1.00 100 1.00
Hailstone Prison 172 1.00 172 1.00
Mark of Solitude 86 1.00 86 1.00
Mesmerize 149 1.00 149 1.00
Blazing Spines 120 1.00 120 1.00
Cryogenesis 100 0.75 100 0.75
Gravity Well 128 1.50 120 1.50 *
Aspect of the Wyrm 75 1.00 75 1.00
Avalanche 80 0.50 80 0.50
Spirit of the Wild 100 0.30 100 0.30
Aspect of the Mountains 110 0.70 100 0.70 *
Winterblade 130 2.00 130 2.00
Coldbiter 80 1.00 80 1.00
Snowpiercer 100 1.00 100 1.00
Dragonlark 95 100 *
Fire Spitter 48 50 *
Helm of MECHAZ0R 86 90 *
Komodo Scavenger 95 100 *
Maw 95 100 *
Moebius 105 120 *
Planar Scout 95 100 *
Prophet of the White Palm 95 100 *
Swamp Entangler 95 100 *
Aethermaster 115 115
Araki Headhunter 115 115
Azure Horn Shaman 115 115
Bloodtear Alchemist 209 195 *
Bluetip Scorpion 71 92 *
Crossbones 115 115
Dreamgazer 150 149 *
Ephemeral Shroud 140 140
Flameblood Warlock 92 92
Ghost Lynx 190 190
Golem Metallurgist 167 149 *
Healing Mystic 243 230 *
Jaxi 196 195 *
Manaforger 173 161 *
Piercing Mantis 92 92
Primus Fist 173 161 *
Rock Pulverizer 133 115 *
Rust Crawler 138 138
Silvertongue Corsair 101 101
Skyrock Golem 115 115
Vale Hunter 81 92 *
Wings of MECHAZ0R 104 103 *
Alcuin Loremaster 112 100 *
Blaze Hound 88 100 *
Bloodshard Golem 100 100
Cannon of MECHAZ0R 80 80
Chaos Elemental 100 100
Crimson Oculus 84 70 *
Golem Vanguard 100 100
Lady Locke 129 129
Mindwarper 80 80
Mirkblood Devourer 100 100
Mogwai 120 120
Prismatic Illusionist 130 130
Putrid Dreadflayer 100 100
Repulsor Beast 138 120 *
Saberspine Tiger 120 120
Sand Burrower 60 80 *
Sarlac the Eternal 115 115
Shield Oracle 145 145
Sojourner 100 100
Spelljammer 30 50 *
Sun Seer 100 100
Sword of MECHAZ0R 100 100
Sworn Avenger 70 80 *
Syvrel the Exile 110 100 *
Venom Toth 80 100 *
Void Hunter 90 100 *
Wind Runner 140 75 *
Wings of Paradise 70 100 *
Artifact Hunter 90 100 *
Black Locust 40 40
Captain Hank Hart 80 80
Chassis of MECHAZ0R 100 100
Cinderbeast 65 100 *
Dioltas 100 100
Emerald Rejuvenator 210 198 *
Frostbone Naga 112 100 *
Hailstone Golem 138 130 *
Hollow Grovekeeper 100 100
Keeper of the Vale 130 130
Lightbender 100 100
Owlbeast Sage 130 130
Primus Shieldmaster 80 80
Purgatos, The Realmkeeper 100 100
Silhouette Tracer 100 100
Songweaver 50 50
Sun Elemental 100 100
Tethermancer 100 100
Thorn Needler 70 100 *
White Widow 40 40
Young Flamewing 85 100 *
Archon Spellbinder 122 100 *
Ash Mephyt 100 100
Brightmoss Golem 107 100 *
Dagger Kiri 100 100
Dancing Blades 124 115 *
Flame Acolyte 90 100 *
Lux Ignis 40 40
Rogue Warden 40 40
Sworn Defender 70 70
The High Hand 100 100
Twilight Sorcerer 109 100 *
Zen'Rui, the Blightspawned 30 70 *
Bonereaper 47 46 *
Deathblighter 56 74 *
Eclipse 73 82 *
First Sword of Akrane 93 93
Jax Truesight 28 28
Rook 74 74
Serpenti 93 93
Storm Aratha 74 74
Stormmetal Golem 103 99 *
War Talon 56 65 *
Astral Crusader 26 25 *
Dark Nemesis 43 42 *
Dragonbone Golem 51 51
Grailmaster 51 51
Paddo 43 42 *
Pandora 81 72 *
Red Synja 60 59 *
Whistling Blade 34 68 *
Khymera 43 42 *
Zurael, the Lifegiver 43 42 *