[PREVIEW] 5.0.0 Update Breakdown and Discussion

Spoilers
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After several hours of snipping and clipping, here is my breakdown of the 5.0.0 update, based on the Preview Stream and Taran’s World!

  • The update will likely go live on July 14th, 2020.
    • This is based on updates typically being on a Tuesday a week after a dev stream, plus Kurandara is being added on July 20th, indicating that is when the first Campaign starts.
    • The update may come as early as July 7th.
  • The following new achievements will be added: Source
    • You Just Have To Task: Complete your first task in any Campaign
    • The Journey Begins…: Get your first Artifact to Level 1
    • Quarter Pounder: Complete 25 Tasks in any Campaign
    • Hard Taskmaster: Complete 100 Campaign Tasks in a single Campaign
    • …This Journey Ends: Get your first Artifact to Level 10
  • CAMPAIGNS!
    • Campaigns are long-term events spanning 10 weeks, split into ten one-week-long segments. Source
    • Each week marks a new chapter; this provides a snippet of lore, and is centered around a specific kingdom. Source
    • Campaign adds a menu accessible from the left side where the Adventure Board and Chat is. It requires player level 35 to access (super low). Source
    • Each week, players will receive a specific set of Gold, Silver, and Bronze tasks, similar to those from the old Daily Task system. Completing these rewards Stars to contribute to progress through the campaign. Source
      • “You’ll complete these through normal play anyway, they aren’t particularly difficult.”
      • Campaign tasks can be skipped using Gems.
      • Once the assigned tasks for the week are completed, no more tasks will be available until the next week starts.
      • Tasks from the previous week will accumulate over the campaign; players can let the tasks build up then complete them all at once. Be warned, some may not be possible (such as completing Dungeon battles), and the tasks become unavailable once the campaign ends. Source
      • Gold tasks reward 15 Stars and cost 150 Gems to skip.
      • Silver tasks reward 10 Stars and cost 100 Gems to skip.
      • Bronze tasks reward 3 Stars and cost 50 Gems to skip.
    • Task difficulty will increase over the course of the campaign. Source
    • Notable difficult tasks include:
      • Defeat 20 Gray Kings in any battle except Training. Source
      • Completing Treasure Hunt to Turn 60 Two Times Source
      • Open 2 Event Keys
      • Complete a Delve Level 30 or Higher Source
      • Complete All Battles of a Pet Rescue Source
      • Win 6 Dungeon Battles
        • You have a whole week to complete this, or you can skip it with Gems.
      • Craft 1 Purple Summoning Stone (uses Amethysts) Source
      • Gold Task: win 50 battles using a Mace weapon Source
      • Kill enemies of a color, use troops from a certain kingdom or troop type, kill certain numbers of a certain troop type, win battles using a specific banner or hero class…
    • Stars measure progress through the campaign, they are not a currency. They do not carry over between campaigns. Source
    • Campaign tasks are notably identical for all players. For example, if the weekly task requires killing The Gray King, players can use it in their PVP defense teams. Source Source 2
      • Side note: The Gray King has a 50% chance of appearing in the Mythic battle in Ghulvania Explore.
      • There will be “more ways” to find specific enemies in battle. Source
  • ARTIFACTS!
    • Artifacts are provided by campaigns. They gain in levels as you collect Stars (1 level per 100 stars, for a maximum of Level 10).
    • The Seal of Kurandara campaign only lists stats, but the functionality within the game is present for Artifacts to include traits and affixes as well. Source
    • Artifacts include lore, which is hidden until you unlock the relevant level. Source
    • Artifact bonuses, like Medal bonuses, apply EVERYWHERE but Arena. Source Source 2
    • Artifact bonuses expire when the campaign ends. Source
    • Previewed Artifact buffs were:
      • Level 1 (100 Stars): +5 Life
      • Level 2 (200 Stars): +10 Life
      • Level 3 (300 Stars): +10 Life, +2 Magic
      • Level 4 (400 Stars): +10 Life, +2 Magic, +3 Attack
      • Level 5 (500 Stars): +10 Life, +2 Magic, +3 Attack, +5 Armor
      • Level 6 (600 Stars): +15 Life, +2 Magic, +3 Attack, +5 Armor
      • Level 7 (700 Stars): +15 Life, +4 Magic, +3 Attack, +5 Armor
      • Level 8 (800 Stars): +15 Life, +6 Magic, +3 Attack, +5 Armor
      • Level 9 (900 Stars): +15 Life, +6 Magic, +6 Attack, +5 Armor
      • Level 10 (1000 Stars): +20 Life, +6 Magic, +6 Attack, +5 Armor
    • Players can view old artifacts, their EXPIRED bonuses, and their lore through the Inventory screen. Source
      • All lore is accessible once the campaign ends, even if it wasn’t unlocked. Source
  • CAMPAIGN PASSES
    • Through the campaign pass, reaching certain Star milestones provides various rewards, primarily resources.
    • The full set of rewards was shown, someone will have it written down somewhere.
    • Similarly to Battle Passes in other games such as Fortnite, the campaign has two tracks of rewards; the Free and the Elite Pass. Purchasing the Elite Pass grants the additional rewards from the second track retroactively (even if you completed those parts of the Free Pass already). Source
    • The Elite Pass costs $10, lasts for the full ten week campaign, and cannot be obtained otherwise. Source
      • This averages to $4 per month.
      • You can upgrade to an Elite+ Pass later.
    • The Elite+ Pass costs $25 and grants access to the Elite Pass rewards, along with some Major Orbs and a bonus of 20 Stars per week (for a total of 200 bonus stars).
      • This averages to $10 per month.
      • This means that the rewards which other players would access on Week 10 will be available on Week 9. This is notable as seen in the Exclusive Mythic section below.
      • Elite+ Pass players who complete all tasks will eventually reach 1200 stars; beyond 1000 stars, additional resources will be rewarded.
  • SEAL OF KURANDARA
    • The Seal of Kurandara Campaign (the first campaign) includes the Mythic Rare troop Kurandara as the 1000 Star reward of the Elite Pass track. Source Source 2
      • This requires significant effort on top of a $10 in-app purchase.
      • This is not accessible by players with the Elite Pass until the 10th (final) week of the campaign, and it is not accessible by players with the Elite+ Pass until the 9th week of the campaign.
    • Kurandara will later be obtainable through Keys and the Soulforge, but notably it will NOT be granted to players who do not purchase the Elite Pass (which cannot be obtained with Gems). Thus, at least for the period following the last weeks of the campaign, Kurandara will ONLY be available to players who spent money on the Elite Pass.
    • “The Mythic will be available in Chests and the Soulforge rotation a few weeks after the campaign ends.” Source
      • It will notably not have a period of “Mythic Exclusivity” in chests.
      • F2P players are advised to “complete the free campaign pass, then pull the Mythic in chests later” Source
        • The 21st century “Let Them Eat Cake”
    • The campaign also includes an exclusive cosmetic Pet (the Kurandaito), several weapons, and cosmetic titles and portraits.
      • The weapons will later be available in the Soulforge.
  • CAMPAIGN RESET AND WEEKLY EVENTS
    • Campaigns last for 10 weeks, with a 1 week break between. At the end of a campaign, you will be locked out of tasks, and any rewards will be sent to your mail. The Artifact bonus will expire Source
    • Guild Wars will still play every 4 weeks, alongside the existing weekly event. Source
    • As Raid Bosses have now included one Godslayer for every kingdom, Raid Boss events will now be retiring to weekends alongside Invasions. Source
    • For the forseeable future, the schedule will include 10 World Events, interrupted with a Tower of Doom event, with Guild Wars every four weeks parallel to that. So some weeks you may have Guild Wars and Tower of Doom in the same week, others you will have Guild Wars and World Event, and others just World Event.
  • EPIC WEAPONS
    • While a kingdom questline is incomplete, the button that accesses explore will instead provide an exclusive offer. Source
    • New players will see a paid offer for an Epic weapon, which is from the relevant kingdom, and deals increased damage to troops of that kingdom.
    • This is to aid players who are struggling with questlines.
    • The Epic weapons (there will be one for each kingdom) will be available in the Soulforge with rotation. They are also available in Flash offers.
    • They’re Epic weapons, they don’t matter too much.
  • HELP SCREEN
    • The help center now directs you to the Zendesk website, and you can submit tickets through there instead. Source
      • This is meant to reduce load related to easily resolved tickets.
  • Boss Troops will receive a red border; this will apply to World Events (where extra traits apply) as well as in Raid Boss or Dungeons. Source
    • Player owned Zuul’Goths will have this effect as well.
  • The Artifact weapon type will be renamed to Relic. Source

A quick TL;dr paragraph to send to people:

During a Campaign, complete Tasks each week (similar to the old Daily Tasks) to earn Stars. Tasks will accumulate so you can complete them all at once. Earning Stars provides progress to your Campaign Pass, which has a free and paid tier. Notably, the paid tier’s final reward includes an exclusive Mythic rare troop (which will be available in chests and Soulforge a few weeks later), and the paid tier cannot be obtained with Gems, only a $10 purchase. Additionally, completing tasks improves your Artifact, which provides stat buffs for the duration of the Campaign (the maximum bonus was shown to be +20 Life, +6 Magic, +6 Attack, +5 Armor).

TL;dr of the TL;dr:
Fortnite Battle Pass with stat buffs and an exclusive Mythic.

Several notes:

  • Where did ads go?
  • The list of available tasks in the game’s files is mixed in with the tasks at the top of the Adventure Board, so it’s hard to say what types of tasks may be available based on that.
  • Guild Wars running alongside World Events with Invasion on the weekend, Campaigns running throughout, sounds daunting.
  • Rune font generator when.
  • Taran’s World spoilers for the exclusive Elite pass stuff:
  • Elite+ Pass players get the new Mythic during Week 9, along with the Artifact Level 10 bonuses, providing 5 additional Life to all troops. Elite Pass and Free Pass players will catch up to this the following week (again, Free pass players don’t get the mythic).
  • Note that Guild Wars will be suspended for the duration of the campaign; it’s all World Events.
  • All campaign rewards were previewed, screenshots are probably transcribed somewhere. There’s like 200 of them to transcribe that’s a lot of work and I’m tired. A digital thumbs up to whoever replies with a list first.
  • Some bonus fun clips, this was a pretty fun stream:

Please be patient if I made a mistake here, it took several hours of work to compile all these clips and I’m very tired good night.

60 Likes
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which one is it?

1 Like
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Guild Wars will run every 4 weeks regardless of whether or not there is another event running.

14 Likes
4

So the artifact Bonus differs very much for guild wars…

5

So we get artifact to max near the end of the campaign then the buffs go away very soon after?

3 Likes
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For those who TL:DR, the 5.0 update boils down to:

“We’ve complicated things for you just to sell a mythic for 10$ every 10 weeks.”

32 Likes
7

tldr;

5.0: We renamed the old daily tasks to Campaigns!

12 Likes
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@UKresistance

and changed “daily” to “10weeks” long :wink:
waiting for hates of tresure hunt/arena modes to start off
also with kill 20 of %put_a_mythic_name_here% there will be either lots of them showing up in pvp or lot’s of grinding lvl 12 explore…

5 Likes
9

There 2 problems post-5.0 with GW if a player cares about it:

  • Motivation to finish all weekly campaign tasks as early as possible (ideally on Monday) to get stat bonuses before GW matches.
    It’s not healthy, it’s pressure on the player, it’s not a good design.
  • P2W advantage: If GW lands on the week 5-9 of the campaign, Elite+ Pass buyers will have an additional tier of Artifact compared to others (2 magic or 3 attack or 5 life). For example, GW which should start on August 24 will be during Week 6 of the campaign. Elite+ Pass buyers will have Artifact lvl7 compared to Artifact lvl6 for others which means +2 magic in all fights.
    We can argue how big this advantage but it still a blatant P2W bonus in GW and GoW never had such P2W before.
42 Likes
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@Kafka

  1. will this mythic be available to craft for 4k diamonds like the standard mythics?
  2. will the weapons be craftable?
  3. will the pet (which will affect kingdom progression) be obtainable in any other way?
5 Likes
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I don’t like spend key tasks.

I spend keys once a month to get the new mythic, and event keys once a month to get the new legendary.

11 Likes
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this is actually directing players, removing them from their farms (like gold in pvp or medals in explore) and somehow forcing players to do task, the punishment of not doing task is less stats on GW and loss of mythics (temporarily)

5 Likes
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Exactly! This whole 5.0 update is completely redundant from the point of view of players. It does not even add any fun factor unless you are into lore. It’s just there to slow players’ progression even further plus spend more money. Another disappointing and punishing update!

12 Likes
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@Potemkinz
you wont get mythic, if you dont pay for the pass
you will have to craft it in soulforge/drop it from chests after campain is over

and stat loss for GW → you will also be behind in stats, if you dont pay extra…
“the punishment” for not paying will be even greater than for not doing mini games (especialy that you can skip doing them for gems, if you realy hate these mods)

@Bhaya,

like farming same explore lvl 12 or doing repetitive pvp battles was fun at all…
at least there will be some brake from grinding… (not obligatory → you can always skip these tasks…)

5 Likes
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Oh good. You can pay so you don’t have to play. Uhm… hang on?

You mean grind through ~20-40 explores or get lucky with opponents? Hard pass!

Hooray! More grind for no rewards (or maybe the campaign rewards will compensate?)

Please waste your limited resources on worthless junk.

Because GW wasn’t quite yet enough in favor of veterans and paying players instead of skill.

So there is pressure to be quick about it and after the campaign you have nothing permanent?

:rage:

More like let them eat C…

We are giving up all pretenses that players with a fulltime job are allowed to get full rewards.

I’ve left this game in the past because I felt too much pressure to keep up while mostly just grinding.
If this update is half as bad as it looks I may delete my account because it has really turned into a hand reaching for my wallet with some pretty colors slapped on.

9 Likes
17

I’m gonna need patch notes to say for sure, but the concept of a Mythic troop that is behind a pay-wall for months, that other people can use and I can’t, is something that will make me leave.

Either the Mythic is good enough that its game-breaking and P2W, or its pathetic and the devs are just making a system that offers nonsense for money. Realistically, anywhere in between is still bad.

For all we know, weapons from this system may be in the same situation as well.

25 Likes
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I’m surprised that it took this long to implement big pay-walls to the game. But I’m not surprised that it is happening. :unamused:

3 Likes
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It seems I’m the odd one out here, but I’m pretty OK with 10$ for the campaign pass. It is $1 per week, I do get 2 or 3 weapons, 16 troops, 1 mythic, a pet and the usual trash. For me this is a fair deal and worth an investment, unlike all the other rip-offs in the shop.

Also the stat bonus is not really concerning me that much. I’m a fairly new player in GW bracket 13, I’m basically always fighting a much higher stat bonusses because most of my opponents are just way more seasoned players with much more kingdom bonusses. And I still reliably score 50k+ the GW.

It might make a difference for the very top players in bracket 1-3 or so, where every grain counts, but I guess those people up there aren’t F2P gamers anyways.

9 Likes
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No ads on steam if you’re wondering due to the stream.
On mobile I’m sure it’ll just be another tab on the left of the screen after 5.0

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FYI for any newer players not familiar with Arena, Runic Blade and Dawnbringer destroy the competition.