Changes to Cedric's Rewards

Hello Adventurers,

We wanted to share with you some changes/improvements we have made with Cedric Sparklesack’s (and King Cedric’s) rewards. Most of this will have very little effect on your experience, but we like to be transparent about changes, so here they are.

We have 2 issues we wanted to address:

  1. Sometimes Tarot Cards do not go into the Vault when expected, due to us having to handle the release process manually.
  2. Because of the manual process above, and the increasing number of Tarot Cards and Gnomes, it was becoming increasingly difficult to manage their drop chances from Cedric Sparklesack.

For the first issue, we have updated our system to automatically add Tarot Cards (and Gnomes) into the Vault. This is similar to how we automate other areas of the game (like Chests). When we no longer have to do things like this manually, they’re much more reliable.

This means Tarot cards will automatically be added to the Vault Rewards 4 weeks after the event they first appear in has ended.

For the second issue, and as part of this automation, we have made a change to Cedric’s loot table. Currently Gnomes and Tarot Cards come from the same “pool”, which was a 20% chance to drop whenever Cedric was defeated in The Vault. This pool was a mix of Gnomes and Tarot that would constantly change every time one of them was added. It sat around 10% for Gnomes and 10% for Tarot though, and might vary up and down by one percent at different times.

In the updated version, we have separated Tarot cards into their own separate pool from the Gnomes. Now Gnomes are always exactly 10%, and Tarot Cards are always exactly 10%. The chance of getting any Tarot card is roughly equal to the chance of getting any other Tarot Card with a small bonus for the latest one released into the pool. As for Gnomes, newer Gnomes are actually a bit rarer than the older Gnomes, and over time, as we add MOAR GNOMEZ! that will change with the NEW Gnomes becoming the rarer ones. The difference between new Gnomes and old Gnomes remains close to what it was before with most old Gnomes appearing about three times as often as Vault rewards.

More Gnome details for our number crunchers

The drop rates for each Gnome will change every time more Troops are added to the Gnome pool, so while we aren’t posting exact drop rate chances for each Gnome, we can share how the drop pool for Gnomes works.

4 Gnomes will be considered “new” at a time. Currently the Gnomes that are considered new, and therefore slightly rarer are:

  • Hoagi Humbucker
  • Baz Bonebeater
  • Cursed Gnome
  • Dragonite Gnome

The older Gnomes are:

  • Treasure Gnome
  • Pet Gnome
  • Soul Gnome
  • Glory Gnome
  • Jewel Gnome

Any Gnomes not listed here + the Heart of Rage are considered to be “middle ground”, so new Gnomes are rarer than them and older Gnomes are more common than them.

When new Gnomes are added, enough of the currently listed “new” Gnomes will be shifted to the “middle ground” to maintain the number of 4 “new” Gnomes.

The Heart of Rage will appear in the Gnome Pool, as it did before, rather than the Tarot Card pool (since it isn’t a Tarot Card).

These changes only affect Cedric Sparklesack’s reward pool.
Gnome and Battlecrasher appearance rates throughout the game have not been changed.

16 Likes

So where does Cedric Sparklesack’s drop rate fit in all this? That drop rate could use some adjustments too.

28 Likes

Exciting.
Curious about their possible loot.

Also glad to know it doesn’t affect orbs and other stuff.

1 Like

This just window dressing and dies nothing really to help the players. There are many useless drops in the pool (minor traitstones), the fact Cedric has such a hugh drop rate which is a nonsense as it quickly becomes a pointless drop aswell as the fact you keep diluting the pool witb more troops so it’s even harder to get the ones you need

10 Likes

The gnomes, tarot cards, and Cedric need to be treated like guardian troops from guild chests. Once we have 4 copies of each unique troop, they should no longer drop, so that we have an increased chance of getting better rewards.

Nothing more needs to be said. We have been requesting this for a long time, and this issue needs to be addressed.:beer:

51 Likes

For the more cautious among us, how is The Hermit getting added, manually or automatically? :woozy_face:

8 Likes

thx for clarifying @Dwuemka

1 Like

This is not affecting battlecrashing gnomes, just drops of troops from Cedric/King Cedric in Vault battles, as per the last line of the announcement.

3 Likes

This one is manual and has already been pushed to the live server ready for tonight’s weekly reset!

5 Likes

Ah, nice, then I just misunderstood the whole thing.
thanks again for clarifying.

Isn’t it ironic and sad though, that this misunderstanding could’ve been equally believeable?

Could we get a little rework on the Epic Vault drops also? The Cursed Gnome there means Epic Vault always drops some Chaos Shards; not a particularly desirable reward.

(On edit: ah, it’s a Daemon Gnome not a Cursed Gnome; point stands though.)

5 Likes

agreed, should be daemon, curse, dragonite or a verse gnome on rotation.

3 Likes

What about the tarots from kingdom passes? Is their release schedule also changed to 4 weeks, or is it the same 2-3 months?
When should we expect Queen of Wands?

5 Likes

verse gnome would probably create too big a conflict with vault weekend GaP key gathering, but agreed, it should at least rotate the rarer gnomes.

Really need Cedric drops to stop at Mythic+4

17 Likes

Yes, getting SO many Cedrics is not a reward anymore, it is punishment!

Please scale his drop rate down!

Getting hundreds of copies of him is just horrible.

16 Likes

Really fun play 3 epic vault battles in a row and get 4 Cedrics each. It should be renamed as Cedric Sparklemmings.

4 Likes

“minor traitstones” - EXACTLY. Why do gnomes even drop these? Should at a minimum be runic stones. What an insult to us all that this extremely common item is given as a drop for what should be a reward.

7 Likes

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17 Likes

There actually was a minor traitstone shortage many years in the past, which even got addressed. The shortage ended about a year later, I guess that particular feedback is still getting processed.

5 Likes