Strange arena experience

So I wanted to do an arena run.

Usually I go through arena on Normal so I switched the difficulty and picked a team. If I don’t like my team, I retire and re-pick and if I get a loss in the first two games, I retire and restart.

I went through, I think, five different teams. Some of them were good teams, too. I had a team with Chimera. I had a team with Giant Spider and Creeping Death. Like, teams where I’d normally count on at least making it to six or seven wins. But I kept losing–and not close losses, either. My last troop would die while the other team was at full health.

And I thought, okay, well, maybe I am bad at this game. (Possible!) Or maybe this is bad luck (Possible, and a more comforting conclusion!) Or maybe I’ve been spoiled by all my big fancy cards with their fancy traits and I’ve forgotten how to deal with more equal match ups (Not only possible but likely).

Still, the whole thing was strange and embarrassing.

Then I decided… one more try. I switched the difficulty back to Hard & tried again. First team I picked I made it through eight matches without a single loss.

My initial guesses might be the right ones, but I figured I’d post a topic anyhow. Switching the difficulty flips the combo breaker so there might be something funny going on. Maybe it was a coincidence but maybe not.

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I’d say both luck and skill have something to do with it. I’ve found playing the arena is more about denying my opponents then using my cards to wipe them. I’ve yet to not finish the arena with 8 wins, but I’ve only done it about 8x, and I’ve definitely had some luck wins. Not sure what teams you were trying to run, but I’ve found tank teams are definitely the strongest. Have mulitple colors (like 5) is a big thing too.

Did you miss the part where I upped the difficulty & then won 8 times in a row without a loss?

I’ve gone through the arena hundreds of times. This was unusual (though that doesn’t mean it wasn’t my own bad play).

I made the post because changing the difficulty does actually change the way gems drop. Playing with the combo breaker off is generally not easier than playing with the combo breaker on.

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I don’t think difficulty changes the way gems drop personally. I’ve haven’t seen anything that actually shows anything worth while that shows it does.

Normal is the only difficulty that features the combo breaker. So it would be the only difficulty that would change the way gems drop.

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Honestly people talk about combo breaker, but even on normal I’ve had computer get these 10 turns with proper setups and get them on purpose. Not sure if it just stops affecting after level 15 like I heard it used to, but the AI plays just as ‘brutal’ on hard as it does on normal, in my experience.

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I’m not suggesting that the game is set up to let the AI win. And I really don’t think that the gem drops are at all designed or intentional–I gather it’s some sort of formula that simulates randomness to a greater or lesser degree.

If I’d gone another round on normal and won I wouldn’t have left the post, and maybe that’s what I should have done; just kept it up until I had a decent go.

But I also remembered reading a thread here on the forums (I couldn’t find it on a quick search) where a couple of other people said that arena seemed wonky and I wondered if maybe it was true.

When the weapons had +5 magic the arena could be brutal, or at least it was until I got my own fancy +5 AOE weapons & started breezing through effortlessly. But at least I knew what was going on with that change, there was an obvious explanation.

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Hmm, from what the devs wrote about difficulty:

  1. It doesn’t affect the Arena.
  2. The combo breaker is on at the beginning of an Arena run and is “gradually” - whatever that means exactly - turned off as you progress.
    It should have worked like that since 1.0.9, but for some reason didn’t, definitely should work like this since 2.0. So either your experience was a coincidence or it still doesn’t work as intended.
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