I did the firebird phoenxia team which can clear 6 with both firing and had a suncrest bonuses because it gave 6 health and 3 attack. I upgraded the kingdom to increase the bonus, but instead it was 6 attack and zero life for sunbird. I really wish you could preview upgrades to see the new bonus. Totally backfired on this good team.
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That is really unfortunate!! Totally agree on the benefits of being able to preview upgrades, esp. when it involves a trade-off as in this case.
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Yes, it doesn’t help to not know what you are getting from kingdom upgrades. It might be something we have to do ourselves I guess. Not sure if anyone has a spread sheet for them.
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I put in a request for a feature, but a spreadsheet is something that can be done in the meantime if enough people get bit by this to care.
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Are you certain the Life bonus was from Dawnbird (Suncrest), and not Magmapillar (Elemental)? I have yet to upgrade Suncrest on my Alt, and both it and my Main have Dawnbird at Lvl 10. Neither gets a life bonus from team of 4 Stryx. 4 elemental do tho.
It would be good to have a spreadsheet with all the added bonus, but it would vary by kingdom as well as by pet upgrade lvl. I will add my numbers to your forum thread as I get them. Thank you.
I took screenshots before I upgraded. So I did get it mixed up. It was only armor I missed out on. I’m too scared to upgrade Bright Forest as that would probably not have more life. Does anyone have bright forest upgraded? I’m scared to upgrade without knowing the updated bonus.
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My Kit Sith is Mythic, kingdom at 13 gives 9 health and 3 shield for Team IV. I took screenshot, but not at my laptop. I will try to upload shortly. Edit: Done. gl hf
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I’ve found that Thrall / Will of Nysha / Purple weapon / Ish (Unicorn Banner) can take on lvl 9 explore quickly. Fill Nysha & Weapon. Cast Nysha. Fill Nysha. Cast Nysha, cast weapon. Game over. Once both Nysha and weapon are full, you can cast in any order (Nysha, Hero, Nysha) (Hero, Nysha, Nysha) ect. 3 trophies per match & still have a small chance at the best tokens.
Aren’t Nysha tokens only available at Level 10+?
Difficulty 9 is listed as having 0.5% chance in the datamined token drop rate thread. 0% at 8 and below.
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Awesome! Thanks for that info— I was indeed mistaken 
But now, I am better-equipped to advise young-and-growing accounts in my guild family, so yay 
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Instead of saying “average tokens per run” it should say “average tokens per boss kill” There’s a big difference. On difficulty 6 you need to do about 5 “runs” just to get enough mythstones to unlock the boss.
On that note it would be really good info to take into account the average mythstones each difficulty gives and then work out actual tokens per run. Knowing which difficulty gives the most tokens per hour would help people going the the Geoff achievement.
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New spoilers, as expected with the update finally releasing.
Before we begin, pour one out for our fallen comrade, the Sunspear hero class. You were actually good once and now you are average.
I’m wondering if I should start outraged or relaxed… and apparently my only choice is outraged. oi.
- Depth of Maraj troops have their abilities in. I’m shaking my head here.
Tartarus
Hellish Rebuke
Deal [Magic + 6] damage to an Enemy, boosted by their Attack. Gain 10 Souls. [1:1]
Mana Color: Yellow, Purple
Mana Cost: 16
Trait #1: Deep Magic
Gain 5 Magic when attacking Delves.
Trait #2: Daemon Shield
Allied Daemons gain 2 Armor.
Trait #3: Darken Souls
Gain an extra Soul when matching Purple Gems.
Just… why? Did someone in R&D decide, hey Necromancer’s 3rd trait of an extra soul on a 4/5 gem match was great, lets do a purple version of it! Necromancer’s 3rd trait needed a serious rework, not a variation.
Soul farming needs more love and this ain’t it chief. I’m not a fan that a Mythic troop (Pharos-Ra) increases the Soul cap as now it limits what Legendaries can do.
So lets get this straight, this is a 4 mana more expensive troop of the hero’s Cursed Blade that adds magic + 6 and gives 10 souls. Is that good?
Sorta? Not really? Its one of those I’m 3-4 casting to kill one troop.
The Infernal Machine
Create 8 Skulls or 8 Doomskulls, boosted by my Souls. Summon an Ironjaw. [0.1]
Mana Color: Blue, Purple
Mana Cost: 12
Trait #1: Deep Shield
Gain 9 Armor when attacking Delves.
Trait #2: Warded
Immunity to Death Mark.
Trait #3: Armored
Reduce damage from Skulls by 25%.
I think that boost ratio is 10:1? That’ll be insane with Pharos-Ra and kinda average in this delve. The summon Ironjaw actually defeats the purpose of this troop…
Ironjaw
Jaws of Destruction
Destroy all Skulls. Gain [(Magic / 2) + 1] Life and Armor, boosted by Skulls destroyed. [2:1]
Mana Color: Red, Purple
Mana Cost: 12
Trait #1: Deep Shield
Gain 9 Armor when attacking Delves.
Trait #2: Aflame
Burn enemies when doing Skull damage.
Trait #3: Stoneskin
Reduce damage from Skulls by 50%.
Well, you’re less likely to get hit by a skull with this troop. So that previous troop is confusing.
Deminaga
Scales of Sin
Create 8-12 Purple Gems, and give quarter mana to all Purple Allies.
Mana Color: Green, Red
Mana Cost: 11
Trait #1: Deep Vitality
Gain 9 Life when attacking Delves.
Trait #2: Sturdy
Immune to Poison.
Trait #3: Infernal Armor
Reflect 25% of Skull damage.
Not a single one of these troops have Necromancy. A soul based team with no Necromancy. Sigh.
The pure faction delve team will probably be TIM (no color block with Deminaga) or Lockjaw (colorblock on red, but more useful), Deminaga, Tartarus, Tartarus, but man am I disappointed at what this could have been. Tartarus’s 3rd trait just leaves me so disappointed.
Not for long though…
2, Zilopochtli
Troop Type: Stryx, Undead
Troop Role: Assassin
Death Nectar
Deal [Magic + 5] damage to an Enemy, boosted by Purple Gems. If there is a Storm, deal double damage. If the Enemy dies, create 12 Skulls. [2:1]
Mana Color: Blue, Green, Purple
Mana Cost: 24
Trait #1: Death Touch
Inflict Death Mark when doing Skull damage.
Trait #2: Undying
Immune to Poison, Disease, and Death Mark.
Trait #3: Dawn Slayer
Deal 10 damage to the first Enemy when matching Yellow Gems.
I guess Phoenicia really was too strong because lol this is a load of 
Where do I even start?
- Deal [Magic + 5] damage to an Enemy, boosted by Purple Gems.
It hits one target. I feel like we’re heading into Shade of Zorn territory already. At least Umenath actually hits hard.
- Boost Ratio [2:1]
Even Phoenicia is [1:1] and that hits 4 targets.
- If there is a Storm, deal double damage
At least Phoenicia hit 4 targets, this only hits 1 target.
- If the Enemy dies, create 12 Skulls.
At least Umenath hit hard to trigger this. What does this troop have?
5.Trait #1: Death Touch
Is this going in first slot? nope. So… .?
- Trait #3: Dawn Slayer
Deal 10 damage to the first Enemy when matching Yellow Gems.
Boost ratio off purple, 10 damage to the first enemy when matching Yellow. Sometimes troops are being designed by dartboard, I swear.
Recap: On paper, the main spell feels like junk. Phoenicia has this double damage effect and can hit 4 people. 12 skull creation feels out of place with a recent troop that does it better (I get the Hummingbird of Death motif, which I’m guessing most that don’t read the spoilers will know about. I’d almost say Death Mark all enemies would be more flavorful, but people would probably hate that. Well, Life and Death does a good enough sharing that joy as is.)… Does this 3rd trait make the lackluster spell worthwhile as is?
I don’t like it. There’s so many more troops that do double damage in a more interesting way, like the new Guild Guardian troop.
Or am I expected for the Stryx Guild Guardian troop to bail this out? The Tauros ones make some good troops better, the Stryx one would make a mediocre troop, okay?
Also [2:1] boost ratio compared to Phoenicia is kinda lol.
- The Mistralus Mythic got changed from Mana Colors: Blue, Green, Purple to Mana Colors: Blue, Yellow, Brown
Ya know, Mountain Crusher is quite good at filling and getting an extra turn for Brown right? and recap:
Mistralus
Troop Type: Elemental, Fey
Deal [Magic + 3] splash damage to 1 - 4 random Enemies. Then jumble the board and gain an extra turn.
Mana Color: Blue, Yellow, Brown
Mana Cost: 24
…? I have no words. Neither does The Maraji Queen and Elemental friends.
- The Depths of Maraj weapon, once renamed Bone Necklace, is now renamed The Eighth Sin:
The Eighth Sin
Pull an Enemy and myself to the front. Create 6 Skulls, and 6 more if my Life is higher.
Red, Purple 14
It isn’t soul based. Well, that’s a goofy design.
- Deep Hive looks to be a 4 room faction.
- Depth of Maraj looks to be a 3 room faction. Weird. This faction looked *decent enough to not be a 3 room. Okay then.
*not really
Another day on Gems of War I suppose
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My guess would be that Zilopochtli is aimed at new players?
10 damage on yellow matches can wipe lower level teams in no time at all while requiring no particular aid, and truly done in a blaze with a storm.
It doesn’t remotely hold up at higher levels though and I agree that creating skulls, (low damage) spell boosted by purple and trait triggered by yellow is really a silly dartboard design.
Yeah, I leveled Sin of Maraj last week, but reading these troops I’m starting to wonder if I did the right thing.
The weapon is tied to Sin of Maraj and historically, most delves don’t actually match their overworld kingdom. There’s nothing unusual about this
Oh I know the kingdom/faction links are vague at best. I’m just a bit sad that I may have gambled wrong.
Mythics shouldn’t be aimed at new players or to only have practical application in the early stages of the game. I’m okay with some being more practical to use around different opponent stat totals (punch down vs equal footing vs punch up), but its just really silly to design a troop from a rarity group where only a fraction of a fraction of a percent of the playerbase will both own the troop and have the conditions right for it being usable over any one of dozens of legendaries with a cohesive design.
I think the worst part about this one is that it has a boost ratio off purple (a poor one at that its role), does damage match trait off yellow (which it doesn’t even use as a mana color), and has a kill condition to create skulls. More than likely way too much work to set up this thing to do what you want, which I’m not even sure what that is supposed to be with all these scattered things it is doing - you’ll whittle away at the first troop if you are generating yellow, but won’t have mana to finish it off, you’ll be able to generate more skulls if you are using skull spam while generating its own color, but have trouble filling it to get that final hit and continue the chain (especially without something to persist the storm), and if you use pure color generation you won’t have enough skulls to get an extra turn and get hit hard back for your troubles. Umenath makes sense to generate skulls on a kill, you can actually use this to set up a win condition with just one cast of her, its just really finnicky to set up. This one, I’m not really seeing it at all.
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I didn’t say that I thought it was smart design or anything. Just musing about what the thought (singular 
) behind the design could be.