At this point, you guys should have seen all the robotic Build minions and are probably wondering "with all this war tech, where are the Mechs?"
Well, this week we'll be focusing on the brand new Mechs coming out with Immortal Vanguard!
Before we dive into the spoilers, we have a few Mech changes we'd like to make with the expansion - including changes to MECHAZ0R itself, and a change to how the process of completing MECHAZ0R works in the game.
These changes will allow us to better integrate Mechs into Duelyst, and allow us to create new exciting cards to enhance your Mech arsenal!
MECHAZ0R Updates
Chassis will be changed to the following:
Removed "Cannot be targeted by ANY Spells"
Gained "Forcefield"
Stats changed from 5/4 to 2/4
The big Mech itself (MECHAZ0R) is going through several changes:
Removed "Cannot be targeted by ANY Spells"
Gained "Forcefield"
Stats changed from 8/8 to 6/6
Mana cost reduced from 7 to 4
Have you ever felt weird playing more Mech cards after they've destroyed your MECHAZ0R?
Another change we're doing is allowing you deploy multiple MECHAZ0Rs!
After your MECHAZ0R build progress reaches 100%, subsequent cards that build MECHAZ0R will contribute to the process of another MECHAZ0R.
Now every time you hit 100% build progress, a new MECHAZ0R is ready to hit the battlefield!
Hey Duelyst fans! We have a new mechanic coming with the next expansion: Build.
Build is a keyword that will appear on minions followed by a number, for example - Build: (2)
When you summon a minion with the Build keyword, it comes into play as a 0/10 Structure.
At the beginning of your turn, your minion's build counter decrements by one: this occurs every turn until the build counter reaches zero.
Once the build counter reaches zero, the Structure will transform into the minion you played from your action bar!
At this point, the minion is fully active and can begin to move and attack.
Learn more about Build
As you may have noticed, there are different colors for Build Structures.
In fact, every faction will sport its own unique color scheme for their Build minions!
But wait, there's still more to learn!
While a minion is "Building," you cannot dispel the fact that it is building and will transform at the end of its build countdown.
This means that you can treat buildings as regular Structures - you can target them with spells, heal them, damage them, transform them, destroy them, etc.
They will however eventually transform into their final form if not destroyed or removed (this includes transform effects). In the case that a Build structure is returned to the action bar, the owner will receive a copy of the original minion - not a 0/10 Structure. This means you can play your minion again and start the Build process from the beginning.
Any buffs that are applied to a Build minion while the card is in your action bar will apply to the final/transformed version after it is done Building.
And finally, a "Building" is considered a token, so it is not a viable target for revive effects (you can, however, revive the final product).
Now that you've learned about how Build works, let's get ready for some Build spoilers coming out this week!
We're excited to announce the new expansion: Immortal Vanguard.
This will be a large set due to release mid-November with new game mechanics and over 100 cards. As always, we'll be doing a spoiler season leading up to expansion release, so get ready for daily spoilers every weekday!
YOUR EYES DO NOT DECEIVE YOU, WITNESS THE NEXT GENERATION OF GENERALS
We're also extremely happy to introduce the first new Generals to the game since launch! Coming in fresh to the battlefield are six new Faction Generals, each with their own unique Bloodbound spells. We have a small preview of them now, with more news about them to come in the future!
STREAMER SCHEDULE
In addition to our personal spoilers, let's not forget about our awesome community members! We have another Streamer Schedule ready for you guys to tune in and enjoy the fun. Please note that this is a tentative schedule based on the streamer’s availability and thus is subject to change.
There are 94 new cards coming in hot with our next expansion - Unearthed Prophecy! We're introducing more of the tactical Duelyst you know and love, along with some new Tiles and a brand new mechanic - Sentinels.
Check out a few of the new cards below, and see the full set here
The Following cards and expansion sets have had their names changed:
Altered Beast is now Aspect of Shim'zar
Aspect of the Drake is now Aspect of the Wyrm
Aspect of the Fox is now Aspect of the Ravager
Beastmaster is now Beastbound Savage
Bloodborn spell is now Bloodbound Spell
Bloodletter is now Facestriker
Bloodmoon Priestess is now Bloodtide Priestess
Dragonbone Golem is now Drybone Golem
Furosa is now Furiosa
The "Rise of the Bloodborn" expansion is now the "Rise of the Bloodbound" expansion.
Duelyst Patch 1.86 is expected to deploy June 22nd around 11AM Pacific Time
Card Changes
Circulus – Health decreased from 3 to 1.
Circulus doubles down on Arcanysts’ strength of creating additional cards, in addition to being an early-turn play to contest mana tiles. By decreasing Circulus’ Health to 1, we’ve made playing Circulus more of a risk, and players will have more options to answer it on an undeveloped board. This change will weaken the Arcanyst Vanar deck a bit in short-term, and also impact its eventual strength alongside our upcoming expansion.
Stun – Now dispellable.
Stun has always been a bit of an odd mechanic in action. We’ve seen numerous new players expect stun to be dispellable – either because of their previous digital card game experience, or because other buffs and effects in Duelyst are dispellable. It wasn’t as much of an issue when Stun effects were rarely used, but as we’ve added more stuns to the game, it’s time to clean it up! Now that stun is dispellable it’ll behave in the same way as other buffs and debuffs in Duelyst, and you’ll find some situations where dispelling a minion or your General is exactly the play you needed.
New Wave of Bosses!
We’d like to take a moment and thank the community for all their enthusiasm and feedback to our last wave of Bosses.
These new challengers have more AI improvements ready to test your skills (or memes) on the battlefield.
Collection Updates
Coming to a collection page near you, we’ve now included a deck importer/exporter!
This new feature lets you save and share your decklists with your friends with the touch of a button.
You can find this new tool at the bottom right of your deck-building screen.
In addition to this, we’ve also included the ability to filter decks before queuing into battle.
You can search by Faction, Color tag, or both!
Upcoming Roadmap
Android Alpha still in testing. Working towards a functioning Beta
iOS Beta now going through parallel development with Android
Continuing card expansions throughout the year Next expansion coming up real soon™
Duelyst Patch 1.85 is expected to deploy June 1st around 2PM Pacific Time
Return of Gauntlet
We’re super excited with the end results of the experimental mode The Rift, but as promised we’re bringing back The Gauntlet. During its downtime, we managed to sneak in a few enhancements for our Gauntlet enthusiasts!
A popular feature from The Rift, you can now choose from 1 of 4 Generals
New Gauntlet-only cards! Pick up one of these minions to help shape your Gauntlet draft
We’ve added a bonus reward when completing a 12 win run – a guaranteed Common Crate Key with a chance for it to be Rare or even Epic!
And we’ve added the ability to play your Gauntlet decks with friends! Any deck you draft in Gauntlet can be used in friendly challenges for up to 2 weeks after drafting.
Craving for more Lore?
Chapters 36-41 have been added to the Codex
Bug Fixes and Misc Updates
We’ve made some tweaks to the AI for bosses and practice matches to make it react a little more intelligently to certain board states.
Fixed an issue that could allow minions who couldn’t move to be able to move when movement buffs were applied in certain orders.
Upcoming Roadmap
Android Alpha in testing. Working towards a functioning Beta
iOS Beta now going through parallel development with Android
Continuing card expansions throughout the year Next expansion coming up near the end of this quarter!
April 27th marks one year since we left Beta and officially launched Duelyst, and we’re excited to celebrate this anniversary with you. Thank you everyone for being part of this community, building decks, playing matches, climbing the ranks, streaming and watching streams, competing in tournaments, memeing memes, and everything else we Duelysts do. We’ve got lots more Duelyst coming, so here’s to another great year of gaming!
With this patch we’re launching our first new game mode since The Gauntlet debuted back during Duelyst Beta!
Rift Mode
We’ve temporarily replaced The Gauntlet with a new experimental game mode for you to try out – a continuous draft with cross-faction card choices! This mode will be active for the month of May, and afterwards The Gauntlet will return along with any Gauntlet runs you had in progress.
Choose a General from 1 of 4 choices
Level up and evolve your deck including cards from ANY faction.
Gain deck rating when you win… and lose rating when you lose. Make crazy decks, go for the highest score, and let us know what you think of this mode!
Anniversary Quest
To celebrate with all of you, we’ve added a special quest. Log in before May 12th and win one match in the new Rift game mode to receive your gift box. Oooh what could be inside??
Note: this quest does not replace your regular monthly quest, in May you’ll still be able to complete 15 daily quests for a common crate key as usual.
Weekly Boss Battles Continue
We’ve got a whole slew of new challengers loaded, and they’ll continue to show up with new unique mechanics and fights. Check in weekly to see them all!
How About Some More Lore?
Chapters 31-35 have been added to the Codex
Upcoming Roadmap
iOS Beta currently in limited testing, ramping up to wider testing soon.
Duelyst Patch 1.83 is expected to deploy on April 19th around 4PM Pacific Time
We have some wide reaching balance changes coming with this patch, making adjustments to cards from all previous sets. But first, a note on our design philosophy with new cards and balance changes.
If you’ve been keeping track of our patch notes over the past few expansions you probably noticed us making changes for “design space” reasons as each new set rolled out, as well as various other changes we would make periodically. This is something we’d like to avoid in the future. We don’t want to break your existing decks or decks you are building towards, we don’t want to squash your ideas about upcoming card combos by changing an existing card you own as new cards come out. Metagames continually evolve and adapt, both through deckbuilding innovations and through new expansions. We want to encourage this type of organic exploration and innovation, rather than driving the meta with our own changes. We think Duelyst is most fun when you get to play with your cards, grow your collection and experiment with new decks, rather than us telling you how to play.
We will however continue to monitor the state of the game, and still have the ability to step in and make balance changes in the short term if needed, though our goal is to do this rarely.
That being said, there are a number of card changes we’ve been testing for quite some time that we are rolling out with this patch. We’re confident that these changes will allow us to take a step back and give the meta more room to grow on its own, and make more room for exciting new cards to be added to Duelyst in the future.
Enfeeble – Cost changed from 3 to 5.
Enfeeble allows Vanar to trivialize hard-fought board advantages, especially in combination with other cards, a bit more easily than we are comfortable with going forward. By increasing the mana cost to 5, Enfeeble can keep its board-clearing identity but will require a larger investment to do so.
Shadow Sister Kelaino – Stats changed from 2/5 to 3/3.
When a Shadow Sister Kelaino sticks on an Abyssian board, her healing grants tremendous long term impact. We’re reducing her stats to 3/3 to make it easier to remove her from the board, opening up a wider variety of cards to be viable options when playing both with and against Abyssian.
Thumping Wave – Cost changed from 3 to 4.
Thumping Wave’s versatility makes it a staple card in Magmar decks, but it is simply too effective as both a finisher and removal spell. We’ve increased its cost from 3 to 4 to shift the focus back onto its flexibility, rather than strictly outperforming its competition.
Flash Reincarnation – Ability changed to “If the next card you play this turn is a minion, it costs 2 less and takes 2 damage.”
With this change, Magmar can no longer play two Flash Reincarnations back to back to summon an end game minion in the first few turns of the game. They’ll still be able to ramp big minions onto the board early, but the more egregious edge cases will be removed.
Chrysalis Burst – Cost changed from 4 to 6.
The large amount of randomness on Chrysalis Burst when played at key moments in the mid-game created swingy and hard to predict board positions for both players. Often Chrysalis Burst would single handily win or lose the game for its caster, depending on where the eggs spawned and what minions came out of them. Additionally, Chrysalis Burst continues to be the most powerful egg effect by a good margin.
By moving Chrysalis Burst to 6 mana, players will have more time to prepare for it, and we’ll be able to support eggs in much more interesting and powerful ways going forward.
Windblade Adept – Ability changed to “Zeal: Gains +1 Attack.”
Windblade Adept is a widely played minion with no equal in Lyonar. By decreasing its Zeal from +2 Attack to +1 Attack, it will remain a powerful option without preventing other two-cost minions from seeing play.
Grandmaster Nosh-Rak – Cost changed from 7 to 8. Health changed from 7 to 8.
Grandmaster Nosh-Rak has an extremely powerful and often immediate effect that ends the game quickly for Vetruvian players. At 7 mana, it’s difficult to give Vetruvian new high-impact minions when their damage could effectively be doubled the following turn. By moving Nosh-Rak to 8 mana, there will be a bit more breathing room before the Grandmaster comes online.
Meltdown – Cost changed from 7 to 8. Stats changed from 7/7 to 6/6. Ability now deals 6 damage.
While we still believe randomness can produce interesting and dynamic gameplay, Meltdown is too frequently being used as the finisher of choice and deciding the outcome of close games. We’re increasing its mana cost and decreasing its stats to lower its power level a bit and make room for a wider variety of late game card choices. <blockquote class="part" data-startline="61" data-endline="61"> For roughly 1 week after these changes, Thumping Wave, Flash Reincarnation, and Chrysalis Burst will be disenchantable for full spirit value. Disenchant values are not applicable to the other changed cards, as non-Prismatic cards from small expansions and basic cards are not craftable/disenchantable. (Prismatic versions for small expansion cards are still disenchantable for full value). </blockquote>
Continuing the Story – Chapters 25-30 added to the Codex
Enter the Alcuin Library and hear more tales from Mythron’s historia
Bug Fixes and Minor Updates
Adjusted turn timer behavior to better handle actions submitted in final few seconds of your turn.
Fixed a bug where Boulder Breacher’s Bond effect would not activate when hatched from an egg at the start of turn.
Compressed multiple stat changes within a short window into a single stat change visual (+1,+1,+1,+1 = +4)
Upcoming Roadmap
iOS Beta currently in limited testing, ramping up to wider testing soon.
Android build being prepped for initial testing.
Additional game modes including continuous draft with cross-faction decks.
We have 39 new cards arriving in this expansion with a focus on tribal synergies between minions with a unique type like Arcanysts and Golems, a new Keyword “Bond” that triggers when minions of the same tribe are played to the board, and a variety of new strategies and effects to try out in your decks. Check out a few of the new cards below, and see the full set.
These new cards can be collected from Ancient Orbs purchased through the in-game Armory. Ancient Orbs are a special type of Spirit Orb, similar in structure to Bloodborn Orbs from our previous Rise of the Bloodborn Expansion. Each Ancient Orb contains a full playset (3 copies) of 3 unique cards from the Ancient Bonds expansion and will never contain duplicates of any card you have already owned. This means that after opening 13 Ancient Orbs you will be guaranteed to have added 3 copies of all 39 new Ancient Bonds cards to your collection.
Ancient Orbs cost 300 gold or $2.99 each. Alternatively, the entire Ancient Bonds set can be purchased for $19.99 by buying a one-time purchase 13 Ancient Orb bundle.
Balance Changes
Cards that have a mana cost of 0 are uniquely powerful, as they don’t limit the other actions you can take on your turn. We are increasing the cost of two 0-mana cards, Inner Focus and Slo, as they were proving to be too efficient and were limiting the strength we could give new cards going forward.
Inner Focus (Songhai Spell – Core Set) – Cost changed from 0 to 1.
There are so many stylish combinations of spells that Songhai players use to burst their opponent, with Inner Focus acting as the centerpiece of some of the more egregious cases. We’ve increased the cost of Inner Focus to 1 in order to up the cost of some of the more destructive turns, especially those involving multiple casts of Inner Focus or otherwise full turns with Inner Focus added in for free.
Slo (Lyonar Minion – Denizens of Shim’Zar set) – Cost changed from 0 to 1.
Slo accomplishes a lot in the early game. It could snag a mana tile to let Lyonar play more expensive cards a turn earlier, take over the board alongside other minions, or allow Lyonar to cast Holy Immolation with only 4 mana. We’ve increased Slo’s cost to 1 to curb these early power plays.
For roughly 1 week after the change, Slo will be disenchantable for full spirit value. Disenchant values are not applicable to Inner Focus, as basic cards are not craftable/disenchantable.
Other Changes with Ancient Bonds
Kara Winterblade (Vanar General – Core Set) – Bloodborn Spell changed to “Friendly minions summoned this turn gain +1/+1”.
Kara’s previous rework left her trailing behind the other Generals, and many of the tools she wanted to use to catch-up didn’t quite work when you had to cast your Bloodborn Spell before summoning them. Now, Kara’s BBS will work both before AND after you’ve summoned minions for the turn, allowing you to keep your options open while making a number of select cards much more appealing.
Diamond Golem (Neutral Minion – Core Set) – Stats changed from 4/11 to 5/11.
Diamond Golem wants to prove its worth in Ancient Bonds. Thankfully, this extreme pressure has the friendly Golem looking sharper than ever!
Upcoming Roadmap
iOS Beta currently in limited testing, ramping up to wider testing soon.
Android build in development.
Additional game modes including continuous draft with cross-faction decks.
Weekly boss battles.
Continuing card expansions throughout the year, including sets of different sizes (expect the next expansion to be larger than Ancient Bonds 39 cards!)
39 New cards coming mid-month. Check out our sneak peek for more info and see the latest spoilers for the upcoming expansion.
Here are a few of the cards we’ve revealed so far:
Monthly Quest – Common Crate Key
The Montly Quest returns in March – earn another Common Crate Key for completing your Daily quests!
Even More Bosses!
We’ve ramped up production on boss battles with 3 new bosses who will be appearing in the upcoming weeks. Are you ready to face these new challengers?
iOS Beta
Thank you to everyone who has already applied to help us test our iOS build. We’ll be sending out the first wave of invites to try the Beta iOS app in the next couple days!
Check out our iOS Beta announcement for more info or to apply for a future Beta test slot.
Bug Fixes and Minor Changes
Fixed an issue with Lyonar unit Excelcious where his buff was proccing when your minions or General were healed rather than when you trigger a heal (for friendlies or enemies)
Fixed an issue where sometimes Shadow Creep damage numbers wouldn’t update immediately when increased / decreased (ex. Darkspine Elemental)
Added and updated various spell FX in preparation for Mobile release