Oct 12, 2023

Zekus Forgate and Lilahammer Join Last Cloudia! ＆ 4.5 Year Anniversary Promotion

LAST CLOUDIA - naotohatakeyama

On October 12, post-maintenance, the Descent of Heroes Festival and the Step Up Descent of Heroes Festival will be released!

New Unit
Zekus Forgate (Voice: Ryota Osaka)

New Ark
Lilahammer (UR)

Ark Trait (Ark Lv 15)
All-enemy attack magic damage +30%.
Cut physical/ magic damage taken (max -40%; each wave, gradually cut effect).
When casting magic, boost the magic’s damage cap based on amonunt of MP used (max +6000 at 200+ MP used).
*Excludes magic that regularly deals damage.

100% Ark Ether Reward

Daily Free 10-Spin Gacha Released!

This is a free 10-spin gacha that you can spin once per day!
Don’t forget to spin every day!

[Points]
• This is a free 10-spin gacha that you can spin once per day, for up to 250 times!
• Descent of Heroes Festival-limited units and UR arks are also in the draw pool for this gacha!
• Each time you spin the gacha, you’ll get 100 4.5 Year Anniv Medals, which can be exchanged for various items!

[Period]
Oct 12, post-maintenance – Nov 8, 10:59 pm (PT)

Event 4.5 Year Anniversary Festival Released!

This quest celebrates the 4.5 year anniversary of Last Cloudia.
If you clear it, you’ll get 3000 crystals, so don’t miss it!

[Period]
Oct 12, post-maintenance – Nov 8, 10:59 pm (PT)

4.5 Year Anniversary Special Gift

The 4.5 Year Anniversary Special Gift will appear on the upper left of the Home screen!
Claim this gift to receive a ★4.5YearAnniv UR Ark Trade Ticket, which can be used to trade for a UR ark of your choice in the lineup.
Once you get it, use it in the 4.5 Year Anniversary UR Ark Trading Space!

[Period]
Oct 12, post-maintenance – Nov 8, 10:59 pm (PT)

Event Anniversary Match Released!

In this event, you can play quests that help with training your units.
When you clear these quests, there’s a chance that bonus quests which support multiplayer will appear! Take them on to get various materials and ★Cadet Tickets to train your units!

For a limited time only during this event, certain Celebratory series equipment from past anniversary events will be able to be godforged and enhanced.
This will be the first redux for incredibly powerful equipment like Celebratory Ring and Celebratory Medal, so you won’t want to miss this chance!

[Event Period]
Oct 12, post-maintenance – Oct 25, 11:59 pm (PT)

Collect 4.5 Year Anniv Medals!

During the event, you’ll be able to get 4.5 Year Anniv Medals from various locations.
Amazing rewards like ★4.5 Year Anniv Gacha Tickets and Crystal Ultraclusters of each color have been added to the Trading Space lineup!
Collect lots of medals and exchange them for items!

[Period]
Oct 12, post-maintenance – Nov 8, 10:59 pm (PT)

4.5 Year Anniversary Last Cloudia Popularity Poll Prelims Released!

The Last Cloudia Popularity Poll is split up into two rounds: prelims and finals. The prelims will begin on Oct 12, and the finals will begin on Oct 26.
The finals will include the ten most popular units from the prelims. The most popular unit from the finals will get a shift that will be released at a later date.

[Voting Period]
Oct 12, post-maintenance – Oct 22, 7:59 am (PT)

4.5 Year Anniversary Login Bonus Pt. 1

A login bonus celebrating Last Cloudia’s 4.5 year anniversary will be released!
You can get a Luminous Soul (a rare item used for ◆7+ awakening) and ★4.5 Year Anniv Gacha Tickets, so you’ll definitely want to log in every day to get all of the magnificent items in this login bonus!

New Story Added

Log in daily for rare and useful gifts from this login bonus!

[Period]
Oct 12, post-maintenance – Oct 25, 11:59 pm (PT)

Thank you for your continued support of Last Cloudia.
The Last Cloudia Team

Oct 12, 2023

Wargroove 2: What’s Next?

Wargroove 2 - Keevahh

Hey everyone!

What a week! Thank you all so much for the amazing response to Wargroove 2 - if you’ve missed it, our Discord has been buzzing with activity and excitement for the return of Wargroove 2, and we’ve loved hearing all the feedback you have to share!

EGX

Don’t forget! We’re at EGX this weekend with a new demo. If you’re coming to the show, you can try the Campaign Prologue, Conquest Mode or try your skills in Multiplayer! You'll find us in the Rezzed Zone under the Chucklefish Banner.

Bugs & Feedback

Thanks to everyone in the community who has been helping us scout out those pesky launch-period bugs. Our primary focus right now is to get these out to our players as soon as possible. We will also be focusing on accessibility and quality of life changes to make Wargroove 2 a better experience for all players. All patches will be pushed to PC & Nintendo Switch simultaneously to maintain crossplay compatibility, which means we have to wait for some certification approvals before these fixes can go live.

If you’d like to try out the latest changes any sooner, we’ve created a preview branch on Steam where the developers are fixing all the latest reported fixes. Simply go to your Steam Library and right click Wargroove 2 > Properties > Betas and select “preview - Public preview version from the dropdown.

In the long term, we are planning to continue to address balancing and implement feedback from the community - especially when it comes to multiplayer and conquest mode balancing and improvements. We’re watching all the discussions happening on the Steam Forums and in the Wargroove Discord so if you have any feedback, please be sure to let us know in either of those places!

Features - what’s next?

While the next couple of patches will be focused on ironing out the last of the bugs and getting people into the game & editor with as little friction as possible, we’ve also already decided on some features we’d be excited to bring to the community in the coming months.

We’ll be giving the multiplayer a lot of love. We hear you, and we think Wargroove 2 could become one of the best TBS multiplayer experiences out there. We’re planning updates in future that give players more timer options, show players their current rankings and improved matchmaking functionality.

We’ll also be giving some more love to Conquest. On top of balancing changes, we’ve got some other bits planned to improve the overall experience of Conquest and make it more engaging to players. We’re prioritising multiplayer for the time-being, but we’ll be back soon with some exciting updates in the future! Also Modders, we’ve not forgotten about you. Watch this space for some updates soon!

Fan Art

Some players in the community have also started creating some fan art - check out our Discord to see how they’re coming along!

Oct 12, 2023

DevBlog #11 - Biome Features

Darfall - Wrymn

Hello, everyone!

It's me Lukas and I’m excited to delve into the biome features that are in the works for our Early Access release. Our aim is not only to offer visual diversity across biomes, but also to enrich gameplay by introducing unique challenges and interactive environments.

The three starting Early Access biomes are:

1. Grassland
2. Desert
3. Swamp

Each biome is designed to offer more than just eye candy, they integrate unique natural obstacles or events that compel you to adapt your gameplay strategies.

Grassland - Navigate Through Storms

In the Grassland biome, prepare yourself for heavy storms, accompanied by rain, fog, and lightning. These weather conditions are random and will sporadically occur as you progress through the map.

- Lightning Strikes: Not only do these add a visual spectacle, but they can also be dangerous for your city. Lightning can strike randomly across the map, causing damage to whatever it hits.
- Spread of Fire: To make things more challenging, lightning strikes can ignite fires. These fires will spread and last for a certain duration, posing a risk to both units and structures in their path. Fire damage is currently mild, as there's no fire defense mechanism in place. We plan on evolving fire mechanics in future updates.

More about Fire

Fire will play a larger role in the game. Our plans involve allowing you to use fire as an additional defensive line by igniting a flammable surface, such as oil, just before the undead wave reaches you.

One scene that comes to mind is the famous Battle of Winterfell in Game of Thrones, for those of you who have watched it:

In Darfall, each tile and object has a flammable level, which determines how quickly fire can spread to that tile if there is already a fire nearby. For example, grass tile has a flammable level of 1, while in the desert, it may be just 0.5, preventing the spread of fire on sand.

To recreate a flame wall similar to Game of Thrones, we can introduce buildable flammable oil tiles with a high flammable level, such as 10. Igniting just one of these tiles will rapidly spread the fire to the rest of the connected oil tiles.

Here is a quick preview of some flame wall tests we plan to integrate into the game in the future:

So for now, the only way how the fire can be created is via lightning strikes, as there are still unanswered design questions regarding the fire, particularly how to ignite it and how to combat it when it spreads into your city.

Any ideas will be much appreciated! Feel free to share them on our Discord.

Desert - Survive the Heat Waves

The desert biome has its own environmental obstacle: heatwaves. At any moment, the temperature can soar, affecting your workers' efficiency.

- Adapting to Heat: You can counter the impact of heatwaves by crafting specific building upgrades—a refreshing mug of beer for your workers. This innovative mechanism will negate the adverse effects of the heatwave entirely for that structure.

Swamp - Tread Carefully Through Mud

In the Swamp biome, mud is the primary natural obstacle. Although it doesn't trigger like other events, mud patches are present right from the start.

- Reduced Mobility: These mud patches slow down the movement speed of any unit—friend or foe—that crosses them.
- Counteracting Mud: You can build roads over these patches to eliminate the slowdown effect. Road construction becomes a strategic necessity in this biome.

What's Next?

That sums up the features of our initial three biomes. Post Early Access, expect to see even more biomes, each teeming with its own set of unique features and challenges.

So, stay tuned for more exciting updates from us!
- Lukas

Oct 12, 2023

A Look Back at Season Nine Community Weekend

Sea of Thieves: 2025 Edition - a-faddison

There may be a lot to get excited for around the corner with Season Ten boasting three headline updates, the promise of game health fixes and fresh cosmetics in equal measure and the allure of colourful Rowboats, but for a brief 48 hours, from September 30th–October 2nd, we proved that there was still some life left in Season Nine yet.

Which ‘we’ are we talking about? Why, the ‘we’ that refers to all of us, of course! The ‘we’ that includes us, you, your friend and even said friend’s cat if they have a penchant for pirates and pilfering precious possessions. Yes, for as many hours as it would take to walk from Lincoln to London without stopping for as much as a cheese and pickle sandwich, we all enjoyed the good vibes and handsome bonuses of a Community Weekend on the waves.

Image credit: @Taaaaamas

And what a Community Weekend it was! While the foundation of the offering remained quite similar to the shindigs we’ve hosted before, with pirates invited to set sail and enjoy boosted rewards while also grabbing a free flag and emote – the Season Nine Community Weekend Flag and Touch Grass Emote, in this case – the cladding applied was notably different.

First, the Community Emissary Grade was no longer fuelled by hammering out hashtags as we instead asked pirates to enjoy the stories of their fellow filibusters by tuning in to anyone showcasing their skulduggery on Twitch, with the cumulative watch time being responsible for the increasing Grade. You could even watch our own Community crew’s incredibly professional broadcast as we got involved in the fun!

And it wasn’t just rewards that increased with each Community Emissary Grade increase, as another brand new feature debut was initially tied to these in the form of Pop-Up Plunder. This is a system that sees a shared dig spot appear for all crews playing Sea of Thieves, creating a race in every session of the game as crews dash for the cache within the hour that it remains available.

To add to the allure of the spontaneous stash, this edition of the feature saw every spot offering something of a loot roulette, from a collection of Siren Gems to a Chest of Fortune – well, every spot except one, hit upon reaching Community Emissary Grade Five, which boasted a Box of Wondrous Secrets.

To complement the buzz of camaraderie over Community Weekend, the clues for the 12 Pop-Up Plunder spots were shared via our social channels. Not only did this give us some extra flexibility in the challenges we could present – breaking the shackles of mere spot-marked maps to task players with additional decoding, skeleton glyph interpretation and even time-based trailer trawling – these posts also became beacons for pirates to share solutions, spoils and stories.

From Phuzzybond’s brawl over the stash on Smuggler’s Bay to Freyline’s persistence and flabbergasted response to unearthing Wondrous Secrets at Mermaid’s Hideaway, it’s been thrilling to see the community’s response to this first iteration of Pop-Up Plunder.

Also gorgeous to see were the piles of pirates rushing to stand in front of the Picture Walls present at every Outpost! Building on the success of the Anniversary Weekend’s attraction at Port Merrick, the painted planks of these grog-boasting monuments to freebooter friendship were a common, energising sight throughout the weekend.

The energy didn’t end with posing either, if the impressive stats have anything to say about it, with plenty of big numbers suggesting lots of action on the waves – especially for a Season entering its sixth month. Let’s start with the headlines: 32,313,348 cannonballs fired. 2,615,501 grogs guzzled. 166,587 instances of foliage fondling. 14,935,481 skellies smashed. 12,751 Alliances formed. 486,741 pirates sent to the ferry by Gunpowder Barrels. 1,384 burnt leeches also eaten, meaning the Anniversary Weekend’s record remains unbeaten for now…

Now for some more exciting, head-to-head stats! Play along at home if you fancy. Did pirates prefer bananas or coconuts? Despite what you may think, the classic cronch remains superior with 4,383,958 potassium boomerangs devoured versus 4,282,041 coir skulls. And which big beasties sent more pirates to the Ferry, Megalodons or Krakens? If you said the large squid posted the larger numbers, you’re wrong, sorry: while our favourite oversized cephalopod did dispatch 2,472 hapless sailors, members of the Meg family were responsible for 6,354 journeys to the Ferry.

Last one, who do you think won more Hourglass bouts, the Servants of the Flame or Guardians of Fortune? Seems those that fighting in Flameheart’s name have a bit more bite to their bark, given that they chalked up 125,710 victories compared to the 109,667 in Ramsey’s name. We’d say nobody was keeping count so don’t take it personally but, well, we were. Maybe next time, eh?

Less stat-based celebrations came in the form of the Hat of Unfeasibly Glorious Fame, bestowed on many pirates throughout this Event thanks to nominations from others. Pirates such as Gilbot81 for their endless help with the Sea of Thieves UK community group, El Gato Pub for bearing the burden of several thousand excitable pirates when we raided them at the end of our own stream, Unporkable for some outstanding, unique craftsmanship and OrigamiStefan for their impressive Sea of Thieves D&D project. As always, there were more outstanding nominations than we had time to squeeze in, but seeing the outpouring of passion and affection is endlessly heartwarming.

There was plenty of social fun to be had as well, between invitations to misremember quotes and show us your Community Weekend fits to full-on catwalk challenges with a special crew-based #StyleOfThieves contest, even if you weren’t sailing the seas you were bringing a smile to our faces in plenty of other ways.

Oh, and Sea of Thieves also managed that little feat of entering the top 10 games ranked by Twitch viewership, unlocking the Obsidian Captain’s Rugs as a bonus Twitch Drop (and the Obsidian Ship’s Crest, to be delivered later to pirates who redeemed the aforementioned Drop during Community Weekend). We knew this was an ambitious target when we set it, and it means everything to us that our players came together to help hit this goal. Pat yourselves on the back, you all deserve it. Just be careful if you have a hook, please.

Wrapping up now, as we do really need to go and glare at all that newness waiting just around the corner. But before we go, one last cheers to you – thank you for continuing to surprise us with the ways you find to have fun with Sea of Thieves, from playing the game to your many creative endeavours, and thank you for embracing these Events and their ideas with unwavering passion and affection for the seas we share. We aren’t blowing hot air when we say that these Events inspire and fuel us, and that’s all down to you.

We probably don’t need to remind you, but there will be another Community Weekend in Season Ten, so loiter around our social channels to find out when that’s happening. Just don’t loiter too much, else we’ll have to ask you what you’re doing and that might start to get awkward. To avoid this article itself getting uncomfortable, we’re going to end now by simply saying thank you for being the best community there is. Till next time, see you on the seas!