If you missed the March Nova Cup, check out the VODs here:

• Playoff qualifiers
  
• Semi-final #1
  
• Semi-final #2
  
• Grand final

We’re excited to announce some HUGE changes for the game. This will fundamentally change the way Legion TD 2 is played, and we can’t wait to hear your thoughts. Without further ado…


Anyone who has played Legion TD 2 has experienced the beauty of a symmetric build and the pain of seeing your ally build like this. The new NiceBuild™ system will buff (or debuff) your fighters depending on aesthetic conditions being met:



The Symmetry: All fighters gain +5% attack speed.
The Smiley Face: All fighters gain +5% damage reduction. All other emojis available in-game are also currently supported, too!.
The Full Aura: The aura’s effectiveness is amplified by 10%.
The Awkward Gap: Each fighter with a half-space gap results in -3 income received.
The Eggplant: Reduces mythium generation by 15%

As usual, buffs with different names are fully stackable, while buffs with the same name don’t stack with themselves.

The Game Coach will also comment on your build aesthetics to help you along. "It’s simple. Want to hold your lane? Make a beautiful build. Beauty is in the eye of the be-HOLD-er after all."




Legion TD 2 has always been faithful to having no pay-to-win mechanics. Now, the game is taking that philosophy even further, as we’re proud to introduce the world’s first pay-to-lose gameplay.

Every time a card is bought with real money, complex calculations are performed, causing your computer processor to overheat. (CPU only. Don’t worry, that fancy GPU is fine.)

For each skin owned, fighters will deal 10% less damage and take 10% more damage. The penalty scales proportionally with skin cost, for balance. If you reach 5 stacks of a type of card, you can no longer use that fighter.

The only winning move… is not to pay.




Gone are the days of your perfect build being wrecked by pathing RNG! After years of development, players will finally be able to get their hands on this revolutionary feature:

When units are unsure about which target to prioritize or which path to take, the game will now pause and you’ll be presented with a pixel-precise, VR-compatible interface for controlling that unit’s exact movements and decisions.

The same applies for the King’s targeting, but in addition, a team-wide vote is taken to ensure that everyone on the team feels aligned with each decision. If the team can’t come to a consensus, a Community Helper is automatically assigned to your game via Spectator Mode, and they will make the final decision.

The current anti-stucker will still be kept in-game as an homage to the Warcraft 3 mod.


-->

Wale's old icon was too cute and made players underestimate his power. This caused players to push to 5 workers on wave 2 even when they didn't get a 20 send on wave 1. "No way they'll send me here" is commonly heard on wave 2 before getting Dragon Turtled.




Long Saving
Any mythium saved will now carry over to wave 1 of your next game.


Shutdowns
The game is still too snowbally, so we're pumping up shutdown bounties. For every 1 gold advantage you have, you will accrue a 1 gold bounty. This ensures the game is perfectly fair.


Power Score
The top Power Score player now gains +16 bonus rating each game. The bottom Power score player now loses 16 rating each game. We anticipate this will have no negative side effects on the game.



Cash Out
- Bonus starting gold: 22 --> 30

Wave 1 Eggsack? Check
Wave 1 Banana Bunk? Check



NEW! Militia
- Your workers now stop mythium gathering and attack your opponents instead


NEW! Transmute
- Convert all of your gold into mythium


NEW! Wall Street Bets
- Pay 100 gold for a 10% chance to gain 1000 gold



Safety Mole
- Replaced by Game Coach
- Now makes your teammate play better


Bone Crusher
- Health: 1140 --> 2000
- No longer regenerates 3 + 3% missing health per second
- Now degenerates 3 + 3% missing health per second


Trinity Archer
- Number of attacks: 5 --> 3

Now consistent with its name.


Great Boar / Red Eyes
- Removed from the game

Unbeatable units with zero counterplay, so we decided it's best to remove them from the game.


Sovereign
- Splash damage now hits the entire map



Brute
- Mythium cost: 60 --> 40

Hate Brute on wave 3? Get ready for Brute on wave 2.



All waves now have 1 unit instead of 6, 12, 18, etc. This is to reduce variance and make sure every battle is now perfectly consistent.

The patch will go live sometime soon™, which means between Friday, April 1 and April 2030 or maybe never. Happy April Fools everyone!

But while we’re at it, we do have some actual patch notes (for real):




Brutes are friends, not foes.


From now until April 3 (11:59 pm UTC):

• All Brutes will use the Friendly Brute skin, regardless of whether you have it equipped.
  
• All players who win a matchmade game (ranked, classic, or featured) during the event will permanently unlock the Friendly Brute skin for free! You will keep the skin even after the event ends. For anyone who misses out, the skin will be available for purchase after the event.
  
• Game Coach will tell a random dad joke instead of his usual greeting.
  
• 3x essence gain
  
• 3x card drop rate
  
• Steam sale. The game will be 20% off, so tell your friends if they don’t have the game yet! (Are they really your friends until they do?)
  
• 1v1 featured game mode

Teammates holding you back? No more excuses. From Friday to Sunday, put your 1v1 skills to the test. Climb the 1v1 Event Points (EP) leaderboard! Gain and lose EP by winning and losing games. Additionally, +3 EP each game, so play as much as you can to climb.

Rewards:

• Top 10 finish: 10,000 essence
  
• Top 100 finish: 5,000 essence
  
• Top 1,000 finish: 1,000 essence
  
• Reach 150 EP at any point: 500 essence

• Rank 1 league points (LP): 2000 -> 1600
  
• Fixed a bug where Divine Blessing was not properly restored in Weekly Challenge

Seadragon
- Heal amount: 200 → 100
- Self-damage: 100 → 50
- Casts 62% more frequently (overall healing reduced by 19%)


Lifebinder
- Heal amount: 600 → 300
- Self-damage: 300 → 150
- Casts 75% more frequently (overall healing reduced by 13%)

These changes:

• Reduce overall power. Seadragon’s win rate has climbed as players are learning to use it.
  
• Improve responsiveness. They now cast smaller heals more frequently, which also decreases the impact of a missed heal.
  
• Increase viability with low health units by reducing over-heal.
  
• Shift power from Seadragon to Lifebinder.

We hope you enjoy the patch!

Sincerely,
Lisk, Jules, Curing, & Dani

We're excited to launch the official Legion TD 2 API v2! This is a major part of our efforts to empower the community to make Legion TD 2 even better.


The API gives everyone the power to look up player profiles, game data, unit win rates, etc. This makes it possible for anyone to develop Legion TD 2 apps and websites of their own! For example, https://ltd2.app and ltdstats.com

The v2 update is a complete rewrite, which offers significantly improved performance, reliability, and maintainability compared to our older v1 service. It also has much greater potential for new features.





Getting Started

• Get an API key: http://developer.legiontd2.com
  
• API Documentation: https://swagger.legiontd2.com

Support

• Support tickets: https://legiontd2.com/support
  
• Support chat: https://discord.gg/legiontd2 --> See the #api channel

Updates

• The API will continue to receive updates alongside the game
  
• Use the support links above to report bugs & request features

Important information for anyone using the older API (v1)

• The v1 API will be disabled one month from now, on April 21, 2022.
  
• All old API endpoints (api.legiontd2.com and portal.legiontd2.com) will then be pointed to the v2 API.
  
• The v2 API is better in every way and it should be fairly straightforward to upgrade your apps. See the support links above if you need any help with migration.

Sincerely,
Lisk, Jules, Curing, & Dani

Fixes
• Fixed a rare bug where the game wouldn’t start up when running on an uncommon operating system configuration
• Fixed a bug where Guild War didn’t tally scores

King
• Health buffed by 10-15% on waves 2-14
Encouraging workers and reducing long saves in the early and mid game

Seadragon & Lifebinder
• Reduced mana regeneration by 5%
• Fixed a bug where Leviathan’s Aerial command increased their heal amount
• Fixed a bug where they showed up in rolls less frequently than average

Centaur
• DPS: 188 -> 195
— Damage: 92 → 84
— Attack speed: 2.04 → 2.33
Now higher DPS and more efficient at killing cheap (10-25 gold) units

Battle Scars
• Tweaked Power Score calculation

Congratulations to the winners of the February Nova Cup!

Division 1: Aviator & SSP
Division 2: Eliwood & fine
Division 3: Warchampien & xemnas
Division 4: Skilmen & PhantomX8

The next Nova Cup takes place March 26-27. Sign-up begins now. First come, first served.

• Sign-up begins now and ends March 25 at 10am PDT / 6pm CET.
  
• To sign up, find a teammate and log into Legion TD 2. Both players should join a unique chat lobby by typing /join team name (e.g. /join Snail Kings) in Global Chat. After you're both in the lobby, have one player type /signup.
  
• The first 16 teams to sign up in each division can participate. Other teams are waitlisted. There are usually no-shows, so waitlisted teams are encouraged to be present in the Discord and ready to play. {LINK REMOVED}View the team list to see your sign-up position and division.
  
• Both players must join the new Legion TD 2 Official Tournaments Discord. Set your server nickname to match your in-game name.

Saturday, March 26

• Check-in window: 8:45 - 9:15am PDT / 4:45 - 5:15pm CET
  
• Games: 10am - 1:30pm PDT / 6 - 9:30pm CET
  
  • Round of 16 (Best of 3)
    
  • Quarter-finals (Best of 3)

Sunday, March 27

• Check-in window: 9 - 9:30am PDT / 6 - 6:30pm CEST
  
• Games: 10am - 1:30pm PDT / 7 - 10:30pm CEST
  
  • Semi-finals (Best of 3)
    
  • Final (Best of 5)

Check-in

• Teams must check in via the tournament website Challonge. Waitlisted teams should also check in. Instructions will be provided in the Legion TD 2 Official Tournaments Discord.
  
• Any team that fails to check in will be disqualified. The next team on the waitlist that checked in will earn a spot.

Format

• Mastermind 2v2
  
• Hybrid is banned
  
• Single elimination
  
• Best of 3. Best of 5 final
  
• Teams are seeded based on average peak rating this season

Divisions are assigned automatically, primarily based on your peak ranked rating.

Division 1

• 1st: $300 + 3 League Points (LP)
  
• 2nd: $150 + 2 LP
  
• 3rd/4th: 1 LP

Division 2

• 1st: $150 + 3 LP
  
• 2nd: 2 LP
  
• 3rd/4th: 1 LP

Division 3

• 1st: 15,000 premium essence ($100) + 3 LP
  
• 2nd: 2 LP
  
• 3rd/4th: 1 LP

Division 4

• 1st: 7200 premium essence ($50) + 3 LP
  
• 2nd: 2 LP
  
• 3rd/4th: 1 LP

The total prize pool this tournament is $750. Prizes are split between the players on the team. $ prizes are sent in USD via PayPal. If PayPal is not an option, the prize will be converted to Premium Essence.


League Points
The 10 players with the most league points after the December 2022 Nova Cup will receive exclusive in-game badges, numbered 1-10 based on ranking.

Division Rules

• Ratings are calculated at the time of sign-up.
  
• Players must sign up with their highest-rated account. If a player signs up with a smurf, they will be banned from this Nova Cup and the next 2 Nova Cups.
  
• Divisions are assigned automatically, primarily based on your peak ranked rating.
  
• A team may be moved up or down a division at the discretion of the tournament director at any time. This can occur if a player has a high win rate or previously got 1st in their division, or if it will improve the overall fairness of the tournament.

Substitution
Substitute players are not allowed. If a team cannot present both players in a timely fashion, that team forfeits the next game.

Lobby Creation and Position Priority

• The team with the better seed has position priority in the first game of each match. Position priority then goes to the team that lost the previous game.
  
• The better seed team always creates the custom game lobby and selects “Tournament” as the custom game mode.
  
• The better seed always plays on the west team.
  
• The team with position priority chooses the sending order.

Reporting Results
The team that wins the match should report the match result to the match results channel in Discord. For example, "Banana Boys beats Brute Gang 2-1."

Remakes

• In general, we will not honor remake requests. Remakes cause delays that compromise the entire tournament's schedule.
  
• You should not request a remake, unless it's an obviously critical bug, such as being unable to build fighters. To request a remake, notify staff that you are requesting a remake immediately at the time of the game-impacting bug. Staff will make a decision based on (1) the severity of the bug, (2) the state of the game, and (3) implications on the tournament's schedule. If it is determined that the bug critically impacted the team's ability to win and if remaking wouldn't disrupt the tournament's schedule, a remake may be granted.
  
• Remakes will never be granted if either player on your team leaked >= 40% on any wave (and either player on your team isn’t on fire) before the critical bug or if either opponent is on fire.

For questions, please @Seraphin in the Discord.

See you on March 26th! The Nova Cup will be casted and streamed at https://twitch.tv/ltd2

Sincerely,
Lisk, Jules, Curing, and Dani

Expected patch release: March 16, 17, or later




Seadragon
Gold cost: 95
Health: 900
Damage: 37
Attack speed: 0.91
Range: 450
Attack type: Magic
Defense Type: Natural


Life Exchange
Heals a nearby ally for 200 health, but deals 100 damage to itself. Cannot be cast on itself or other Seadragons/Lifebinders.



Lifebinder
Upgrade cost: 195
Health: 2700
Damage: 111
Attack speed: 0.91
Range: 450
Attack type: Magic
Defense Type: Natural


Soul Transfer
Heals a nearby ally for 600 health, but deals 300 damage to itself. Cannot be cast on itself or other Seadragons/Lifebinders.



Battle Scars
After each wave, the fighter with the highest damage taken that wave permanently gains +400 health and 3% attack speed.


Divine Blessing
Gives a fighter +2400 health and +18% attack speed. If the fighter dies, the buff is permanently lost.










Visit the Card Trader to see which game event can trigger a drop!




Supercharged supply chain! The Card Trader now changes cards every day, instead of every week. Additionally, there is now greater variance in rarity. For example, he can offer 3 legendaries some days, instead of the usual 2.


Players are now better rewarded for reaching and staying at the top of the ladder throughout the entire season!

Ladder Points (LP) are earned by the top 100 ranked players each week as follows:

• Rank 1: +2000 LP
  
• Rank 2-10: +800 LP
  
• Rank 11-25: +400 LP
  
• Rank 26-50: +200 LP
  
• Rank 51-100: +100 LP
  
• An additional 1-100 LP is awarded based on your exact rank

Ranks are calculated and LP is awarded every Monday at 12:00am UTC.

At the end of the season, a special badge is given to the top 100 cumulative LP earners:

• GOAT: Rank 1
  
• Raidboss: Ranks 2-10
  
• Champion: Ranks 11-25
  
• Pro: Ranks 26-50
  
• Elite: Ranks 51-100

Announcement coming soon!

Shout-out to https://ltd2.app/. View the Elo graph, playstyle chart, wave 1 tendencies, and stats of any player.




Speed Up
The battle phase in all modes now plays 10% faster, including mythium generation.

Reducing game time without impacting gameplay.

Guild War
New Hours: 2-10pm UTC (previously was 5-9pm UTC)

This gives players more time to complete Guild War goals and is fairer to players in different time zones.

Major Improvements & Fixes

• Audio: New voices for Angler, Bounty Hunter, Kingpin, Grarl, King Claw, Ocean Templar, Mimic, Pack Leader, Bazooka, Berserker, Azeria, Daphne, Disciple, Imp, Lioness, Priestess of the Abyss, Ranger, Starcaller, Witch. Thanks to Gibby, Alice, Shadi, and Austin for their amazing work!
  
• Fixed a bug where a party would be mistakenly split up in-game after a match was found
  
• Fixed a bug where +2 gold was being given instead of +3 gold for leaked Hoppers (Wave 3)
  
• Fixed a major targeting priority issue with Guardian Angel

Minor Improvements & FIxes

• Players with Medium+ toxicity alert level now can no longer send whispers to non-friends
  
• Graphics: Mimic now glows and grows larger whenever it gets a kill due to its Plunder ability
  
• HUD: Mastermind playstyle icon now shows up in the bottom-left of the HUD
  
• HUD: Autosend (“AUTO”) now shows in the bottom-left of the HUD while toggled on
  
• Fixed a bug where Mastermind cards didn’t show up in your collection
  
• Fixed a bug where Eggsack would hatch in Weekly Challenge mode
  
• Graphics: Fixed a bug where flying units didn’t fall to the ground when playing their death animations
  
• Graphics: Fixed a bug where units would sometimes appear to flicker when teleporting (after clearing a wave)

King
Health increased by ~15% on waves 2-11

Shutdowns
- Players are slightly less likely to go on fire on and before wave 11 when playing Cartel or against Castle
- Players are slightly less likely to go on fire when the enemy team is saving mythium

Early game mythium saving is currently dominant in high Elo. King buffs make early game saves less threatening, and shutdown tweaks make it less likely for long-savers to be rewarded with a shutdown. These changes increase the viability of income sends and king upgrades in the early game.

Leak Gold
When the enemy team leaks, you are now guaranteed a minimum of 1 gold per leak (instead of 0)

This nerfs Fiesta in Classic, notably on waves 1 and 3.

Sprint 2v2
- Bonus movement speed: 150 → 100



Chaos
- Bonus income: 6 → 5

Chaos is performing statistically well in low Elo and is also a point of frustration in high Elo.



Magician
- Mana regeneration: 0.42 → 0.44


Protector
Now transfers the aura on revival (but does not double-dip on the bonus health). Currently, this interaction only applies to Eternal Wanderer/Samurai Soul



Proton / Atom
- Attack speed: 1.09 → 1.12


Oathbreaker
- Health: 1110 → 1130


Angler
- Junior Fisherman: Mana gained per stack: 1.75 → 2


Harpy / Sky Queen
- Attack speed: 1.65 → 1.72

The above units have low pick and win rates.


Windhawk
- Attack speed: 1.26 → 1.23


Violet
- Attack speed: 0.9 → 0.93

Shifting power from Windhawk into Violet because:
- Windhawk is over-performing and is the highest win rate roll in the game
- Violet doesn’t feel rewarding enough to get early game


Warg
- Health: 960 --> 950


Lioness
- Attack speed: 1.11 --> 1.09


Alpha Male
- Dominion: Damage and damage reduction debuff: -5% --> -7%

Warg has a high pick and win rate. Its tank-DPS versatility and strong stats crowd out other rolls.


Infiltrator
- Health: 730 → 710
- Attack speed: 1.04 --> 1.03


Orchid
- Health: 2530 → 2500
- Attack speed: 1.04 --> 1.03

Two patches ago, we slightly over-buffed Infiltrator and Orchid.


Radiant Halo / Arc of Justice
- Solar Flare: Now stacks up to a maximum of 5 times

Less overpowered with Sacred Steed / Pegasus spam.


Berserker
- Health: 1880 → 1900
- Attack speed: 2 --> 2.04


Fatalizer
- Health: 5340 → 5400
- Attack speed: 2 --> 2.04


Hydra
- Health: 2730 → 2700
- Hydraling: Health: 910 → 900
- Attack speed: 0.83 → 0.82

Hydra is overpowered now that players have become more skilled at when and where to build Eggsack.


Holy Avenger
- Damage: 100 --> 96
- Aegis: 5% attack speed + 2% damage reduction → 4% attack speed + 100 health


Sovereign
- Damage: 236 --> 226
- Final Judgment: 5% attack speed + 2% damage reduction → 4% attack speed + 250 health

Holy Avenger and Sovereign were intended to be off-tanks, rather than raw DPS units. Increasing their tankiness and power on their own but decreasing their oppressiveness with lifesteal.


Attack projectile speeds of all ranged mercenaries increased by ~20%


Imp
- Health: 780 → 760

We hope you enjoy the patch!

Sincerely,
Lisk, Jules, Curing, and Dani

Teammates holding you back? No more excuses. Prove yourself in our 1v1 featured game mode!

From this Friday to Sunday, put your 1v1 skills to the test and enjoy triple essence and card drop rates. The event starts Friday at 8am PDT / 5pm CET!

Climb the 1v1 Event Points (EP) leaderboard! Gain and lose EP by winning and losing games. Additionally, +3 EP each game, so play as much as you can to climb.

Rewards:

• Top 10 finish: 10,000 essence
  
• Top 100 finish: 5,000 essence
  
• Top 1,000 finish: 1,000 essence
  
• Reach 150 EP at any point: 500 essence

Let us know what your favorite Mastermind playstyle is in 1v1. Cartel gang rise up!

Good luck and have fun.

Sincerely,
Lisk, Jules, Curing, and Dani

Small maintenance patch. New content is in the works for March. 🙂

Game Balance
• Sprint movement speed on 2v2 map: 300 → 150
We’re still evaluating ways to reduce average game time without changing strategies too much. While we evaluate, we’re scaling back Sprint by 50%.

Major Fixes
• Fixed a bug where summoned units (Froggos, Blobs, etc.) didn’t receive the Sprint buff if they were summoned after Sprint was activated (when both sides finish fighting in lane)
• Steam friends/Discord integration now no longer displays Mastermind playstyle information in Ranked/Custom games since it gave away too much information

Minor Fixes
• Fixed a bug where developer names weren’t highlighted in chat

Expected release: February 14-16



The February Nova Cup will be casted and streamed this weekend at https://twitch.tv/ltd2. 64 teams, 4 divisions, and $1310 prize pool. Tune in to watch some competitive Legion TD 2 at 10am PDT / 7pm CET this Saturday and Sunday.

The goal is to host the next Nova Cup in late March. We recommend having a teammate ready, so you can sign up right away when it's announced.




You see Crab every game, so it was time for a glow up. New model, animations, and sounds.

Crabs may have hardy pincers, but to protect their soft, exposed abdomens, they search for abandoned Snail shells all over Nova.


New secret card! Visit the Card Trader to see which game event can trigger a drop.



If you’ve unlocked any Secret Card, you can now use it as an emoji in chat. For example, you can type :tommyissus : (with no space). It will auto-populate as you type it.







New Emoji: Sadge



Major Improvements

• Audio: New voices for many units! A huge thank you to LegendaryGibby and Austin
  
• Bug Detection: Added an automatic bug report message & Essence compensation when a game with major server bugs happens

Minor Improvements

• Bots are now smarter about mercenary sends
  
• Captain Jack, Juniper, and King Dan on Hard difficulty no longer overbuild in the early game. This rewards early game aggression and makes the game more fun
  
• Audio: Now smarter about not playing too many unit selection sounds at once
  
• Chat: Secret card emojis and meme emojis are bigger in chat when that emoji is the only thing you typed
  
• Steam status now shows your Mastermind playstyle and queue type
  
• Graphics: Added new visuals for Proton/Atom’s Ionic Force ability
  
• Hybrid: After you place a fighter, now shows a +/- floating text showing how much gold you saved/lost
  
• MVP Score improvements

Fixes

• Fixed a rare bug where an enemy unit would get stuck in the spawn area
  
• Fixed a rare bug where an enemy unit would get stuck in unplayable areas between lanes
  
• Fixed a bug where Power Score wasn’t being recomputed after each wave of Wave 21, which occasionally caused undeserved shutdowns
  
• Fixed a bug where Lock-In fighter Aura filter wrongly grayed out some aura units

Classic 4v4
- Starting workers: 1 --> 2
- Mythium gather rate: 100% --> 96%

The goals of this change are to make the early game more dynamic and fun, and to create an additional lever for adding/removing resources from the game. Late game, you'll have slightly lower mythium rate than before, but 1 extra worker on wave 1 is huge and has a snowballing effect. It means more workers, mythium, income, and gold in the early and mid game, which leads to higher worker counts late game.

Over the years, there has been resource creep, which throws the game out of balance. We now have a lever to make marginal adjustments, rather than doing dramatic things like removing a starting worker or buffing late game waves by 10%.

Sprint
- Sprint is now enabled in all game modes. When every lane battle is over, leaked enemies are given the Sprint buff which causes them to run faster. This was already enabled in 1v1 and 4v4.

The goals of this change are to combat resource creep and speed up the game. Over the years, average game time has crept up by a few minutes.



Cartel
- Income penalty after wave 10: -40 → -38


Cash Out
- Extra starting gold: 20 → 22



Investment
- Income: 36 → 34

Investment encourages too much income sending and passive play. It also has the second highest pick rate and a high win rate.


Loan
- Income penalty: -36 → -34


Magician
- Mana regeneration: 0.4 → 0.42

Low win rate


Pulverizer
- Attack speed bonus: 8% → 6%


Villain
- Now half effectiveness against bosses, making it less of a free hold against Maccabeus


King
- Attack speed: +13%
- Attack projectile speed: +100%
- Attack damage: -10%
- Giant Slayer: 16% → 14%
- Health on waves 8, 11, and 19: -1.5%
- Immolation: Damage: +3%
- Judgment and Lightning Hammer: Damage: -10% (but casts 13% more often)
- Chain Frost: Damage increase per bounce: 3% → 0%
- Chain Frost: Damage in the early game: +5%
- Chain Frost: Bounce speed: +100%
- Lightning Hammer: Bounce speed: +100%

The king now has faster attack speed and projectile speed to make him snappier and miss fewer attacks. He's also buffed slightly overall to compensate for adding Sprint to all game modes.



Looter
- DPS: Unchanged
— Damage: 7 → 5
— Attack speed: 0.77 → 1.06


Pack Rat
- DPS: 45 → 42
— Damage: 59 → 41
— Attack speed: 0.77 → 1.02

Despite perfect attack/defense typing, Pack Rat was unexpectedly weak against wave 2 due to bad thresholds. It’s now strong against wave 2. Otherwise, we’re nerfing Pack Rat due to its 55% win rate.


Oathbreaker
- Health: 1090 → 1110

Slightly underperforming as an opening due to last patch’s Snail buff.


Harpy / Sky Queen
- Attack speed: 1.59 → 1.65


Pyro
- DPS: Unchanged
— Damage: 32 → 36
— Attack speed: 1.51 → 1.31

Less hard-countered by Safety Mole.


Grarl
- Health: 1400 → 1350


King Claw
- Attack speed: 0.82 → 0.85
- Shell Shock: Damage: 75 → 80

Shifting power from Grarl to King Claw, yet again.


Ocean Templar
- Damage: 165 → 180
- Resonance: Magic damage reduction: 20% → 15%

Less of a hard counter to magic waves, but otherwise stronger.


Elite Archer / Trinity Archer
- Attack speed: 1.04 → 1.05


Gatling Gun
- Full Throttle: Attacks up to 80% faster → 70%


Vulcan Cannon
- Bullet Rain: Attacks up to 100% faster → 90%

54% win rate. Too stronk.


Soul Gate / Hell Gate
- Health and damage of summons: -25%
- Spawn rate: +33%
- Summons no longer degenerate
- Tweaked mana values to remain similarly powerful with mana regeneration effects

Stronger baseline, but weaker with healing effects and when overbuilt. Hellions are now less likely to be focused because they no longer degenerate.


Great Boar / Red Eyes
- Stampede / Thunderous Charge: Attack speed reduction removed

Too oppressive late game.



Hermit
- Damage: 38 → 40


Witch
- Attack speed: 1.58 → 1.54


Centaur
- Attack speed: 1.96 → 2.04


Ghost Knight
- Health: 4000 → 4050


Kraken
- Ancient Power: 0.75% → 0.85%



(12) Mantises
- Health: 1230 → 1250


(13) Drill Golems
- Health: 3190 → 3210


(17) Metal Dragons
- Health: 3270 → 3300
- Attack speed: 1.72 → 1.74


(18) Wale Chiefs
- Attack speed: 1.67 → 1.64

We hope you enjoy the patch!

Sincerely,
Lisk, Jules, Curing, and Dani

Congratulations to the winners of the January Nova Cup!

Division 1: XGod37 & Ashton Butcher
Division 2: HighestIncome & Colt
Division 3: DustOff & Yumsclan
Division 4: Thilon & Evillordy

The next Nova Cup takes place February 12-13. Sign-up begins now. First come, first served.

• Sign-up begins now and ends February 11 at 10am PDT / 7pm CET.
  
• To sign up, find a teammate and log into Legion TD 2. Both players should join a unique chat lobby by typing /join team name (e.g. /join Snail Kings) in Global Chat. After you're both in the lobby, have one player type /signup.
  
• The first 16 teams to sign up in each division can participate. Other teams are waitlisted. There are usually no-shows, so waitlisted teams are encouraged to be present in the Discord and ready to play. {LINK REMOVED}View the team list to see your sign-up position and division.
  
• Both players must join the new Legion TD 2 Official Tournaments Discord. Set your server nickname to match your in-game name.

Saturday, February 12

• Check-in window: 8:45 - 9:15am PDT / 5:45 - 6:15pm CET
  
• Games: 10am - 1pm PDT / 7 - 10pm CET
  
  • Round of 16 (Best of 3)
    
  • Quarter-finals (Best of 3)

Sunday, February 13

• Check-in window: 9 - 9:30am PDT / 6 - 6:30pm CET
  
• Games: 10am - 1pm PDT / 7 - 10pm CET
  
  • Semi-finals (Best of 3)
    
  • Final (Best of 5)

Check-in

• Teams must check in via the tournament website Challonge. Waitlisted teams should also check in. Instructions will be provided in the Legion TD 2 Official Tournaments Discord.
  
• Any team that fails to check in will be disqualified. The next team on the waitlist that checked in will earn a spot.

Format

• Mastermind 2v2
  
• Hybrid is banned
  
• Single elimination
  
• Best of 3. Best of 5 final
  
• Teams are seeded based on average peak rating this season

Divisions are assigned automatically, primarily based on your peak ranked rating.

Division 1

• 1st: $500 + 3 League Points (LP)
  
• 2nd: $300 + 2 LP
  
• 3rd/4th: 1380 premium essence ($10) + 1 LP

Division 2

• 1st: $250 + 3 LP
  
• 2nd: 1380 premium essence ($10) + 2 LP
  
• 3rd/4th: 1380 premium essence ($10) + 1LP

Division 3

• 1st: 15,000 premium essence ($100) + 3 LP
  
• 2nd: 1380 premium essence ($10) + 2 LP
  
• 3rd/4th: 1380 premium essence ($10) + 1 LP

Division 4

• 1st: 7200 premium essence ($50) + 3LP
  
• 2nd: 1380 premium essence ($10) + 2 LP
  
• 3rd/4th: 1380 premium essence ($10) + 1 LP

The total prize pool this tournament is $1310, up from $600, due to a sponsorship from Nexus and from one anonymous sponsor.

Prizes are split between the players on the team. $ prizes are sent in USD via PayPal. If PayPal is not an option, the prize will be converted to Premium Essence.


League Points
The 10 players with the most league points after the December 2022 Nova Cup will receive exclusive in-game badges, numbered 1-10 based on ranking.

Division Rules

• Ratings are calculated at the time of sign-up.
  
• Players must sign up with their highest-rated account. If a player signs up with a smurf, they will be banned from this Nova Cup and the next 2 Nova Cups.
  
• Divisions are assigned automatically, primarily based on your peak ranked rating.
  
• A team may be moved up or down a division at the discretion of the tournament director at any time. This can occur if a player has a high win rate or previously got 1st in their division, or if it will improve the overall fairness of the tournament.

Substitution
Substitute players are not allowed. If a team cannot present both players in a timely fashion, that team forfeits the next game.

Lobby Creation and Position Priority

• The team with the better seed has position priority in the first game of each match. Position priority then goes to the team that lost the previous game.
  
• The better seed team always creates the custom game lobby and selects “Tournament” as the custom game mode.
  
• The better seed always plays on the west team.
  
• The team with position priority chooses the sending order.

Reporting Results
The team that wins the match should report the match result to the match results channel in Discord. For example, "Banana Boys beats Brute Gang 2-1."

Remakes

• In general, we will not honor remake requests. Remakes cause delays that compromise the entire tournament's schedule.
  
• You should not request a remake, unless it's an obviously critical bug, such as being unable to build fighters. To request a remake, notify staff that you are requesting a remake immediately at the time of the game-impacting bug. Staff will make a decision based on (1) the severity of the bug, (2) the state of the game, and (3) implications on the tournament's schedule. If it is determined that the bug critically impacted the team's ability to win and if remaking wouldn't disrupt the tournament's schedule, a remake may be granted.
  
• Remakes will never be granted if either player on your team leaked >= 40% on any wave (and either player on your team isn’t on fire) before the critical bug or if either opponent is on fire.

For questions, please @Seraphin in the Discord.

See you on February 12th! The Nova Cup will be casted and streamed at https://twitch.tv/ltd2

Sincerely,
Lisk, Jules, Curing, and Dani

Expected patch release: Friday, January 28 (sometime after 7am PDT / 4pm CET)

This is a small patch with balance changes, bug fixes, and Builder Stats. View your performance with each Mastermind playstyle and legion under Profile --> Game Stats --> Builder Stats. Note that these stats do not contain data before this patch.


Major Fixes

• Fixed a bug where units would stutter/jump/rubberband across the screen when there were ~800+ units in the game
  
• Fixed a rare case where a player would get stuck on the Ready Players popup before entering the loading screen
  
• Fixed a rare case where a player would be unable to build fighters
  
• Fixed a display-only bug where Essence/Premium Essence was displayed incorrectly after making a purchase, then finishing a game
  
• Fixed a bug where restoring default options would break the UI
  
• Various infrastructure fixes

Major Improvements

• Profiles: In the Game Stats tab, added a new dropdown: Builder Stats, which displays your stats with each Mastermind playstyle/legion type. Note that these stats do not contain data before this patch.
  
• Profiles: In the Match History tab, you can now see which mastermind playstyle/legion you picked.
  
• Tutorial: In some missions, units attack faster than normal to speed things up

Minor Fixes

• Season Goals: Fixed a rare case where a player would be mistakenly shown a message that they unlocked Water Spirit Nekomata after only achieving the first season goal
  
• Season Goals: Fixed a bug where achieving the exact rating needed for a season goal didn’t unlock the goal
  
• Graphics: Fixed a bug on lowest graphics settings where projectiles would disappear when zoomed very far out
  
• Tooltips: Fixed Adapt tooltip for Devilfish/Seraphin
  
• Menu Backgrounds: Fixed a bug where changing menu backgrounds would sometimes play the last played special theme music
  
• Shop: Fixed a bug where finding a matchmade game while in the middle of buying a card from the Card Trader would lock up some parts of the UI

Gameplay Fixes

• Gold From Leaks: Fixed some cases where a player was mistakenly marked as an eco player, which resulted in not receiving the correct bounty from leaks
  
• Sell: Fixed a bug where selling certain fighters (like Grarl) would round 0.50 down instead of rounding up when computing the refund. So Grarl, for example, will now sell for 131 gold instead of 130 (145*0.9 = 130.5)
  
• Sacred Steed/Pegasus: Fixed a bug where it wouldn’t cast its self buff if a full-mana Firelord/Fenix was nearby as the only nearby mana user

Cartel
- Income +10 → +9
- Income after wave 10: -43 → -40

Win rate: 56% (#1)
Pick rate: High (#4)


Castle
- Income after wave 10: +43 → +40

Win rate: 53% (#2)
Pick rate: High (#3)


Yolo
- Rerolling now costs 1 income

Win rate: 52% (#3)
Pick rate: Very high (#1)

This change encourages Yolo players to play with their given roll, rather than rerolling on wave 1, and to only reroll in case of emergency or in the mid/late game.

Cartel, Castle, and Yolo were power creeping over Greed and crowding out other playstyles. Chaos is not being nerfed because it has a lower win rate, and we believe its high popularity stems from it being fun, not OP. We'll continue to monitor and make changes as needed.

Sincerely,
Lisk, Jules, Curing, and Dani