Back Issues #4: Waning Moon

Once upon a time, a rogue hero took matters into his own hands, seeking to dispel evil by any means. The Collector sought to return him to The Contest... via some unlikely allies.

Introducing Back Issues #4: Waning Moon

Available 10am PT, Wednesday December 11th!

As the Contest has grown and evolved we’ve introduced many Event Quests, each with their own unique stories, and many that have expanded on the mythos of The Battlerealm and The Contest of Champions. We want to give Veteran Summoners a way to relive those moments, and newer ones that weren’t with us at the time a chance to experience the stories of the Contest that they had missed out on!

This Event Quest is available in TWO difficulties:

CLASSIC difficulty is a recreation of the original quest. While not completely 1:1, the layouts, difficulty, and dialogue are all the same as you remember. Take a stroll down memory lane and see how far you've come, or experience a quest you never got the chance to play!

VARIANT difficulty is a new spin on the quest, available for Summoners level 45 and up. This version features extreme challenge, new opponents, some minor map layout updates, and Champion Requirements that will ask you to reach deep into your roster and pick up some old favorites. This quest will test even the mightiest of Summoners, so be prepared!

The Variant Challenges!

With each Back Issue Variant Difficulty, we aim to shake up the Summoners Roster, either through implicit, or explicit Champion Requirements. This time, we’re making Summoners dig deep into their Rosters, and reviving some of your old favourites through the use of Rarity Restrictions!

Each Quest will require you to bring only certain Rarity Champions. Remember, this is permanent Content, so if you’ve lost your lower Rarity Champions over time, you’ll have time to rebuild that Roster. To assist in this, Summoners over level 45 will regain access to the “Hero Crystal” in the Misc. tab of the store, which contains 1 and 2-Star Champions.

Quest 1: 5 and 6-Star Champions Only
Quest 2: 5-Star Champions Only
Quest 3: 4-Star Champions Only
Quest 4: 3-Star Champions Only
Quest 5: 2-Star Champions Only
Quest 6: 1-Star Champions Only

New Buffs
In addition to some challenging Buffs that you’ve probably already seen around the Contest, this Variant Difficulty will introduce 4 new Buffs:

Crackling Energy:
Striking the Defender with a Contact attack puts a Passive Energy Damage over time effect on the Attacker dealing 0.5% of their max health every second for 10 seconds, stacking up to 10 times. Striking the Defender with a Non-Contact attack Removes all stacks.

Fundamentals:
The Defender has a -100% chance to use Special Attacks, instead they gain a bonus based on their Current Power:

Less than 1 Bar: Reduce all incoming Damage by 95%
1 Bar: Gain +2100 Block Penetration
2 Bars: All Attacks are Unblockable
3 Bars: All Attacks are Unblockable and Charging a Heavy Attack deals 50% of the Defender's Attack as Direct Physical Damage.

Will of Konshu:
All of Moon Knight’s passive abilities are activated, regardless of the current lunar phase.

Echo Barrier:
Defender gains an energy barrier with 15 charges. Striking the Defender, applying a Bleed effect, or applying an Armour Break effect removes a charge. The Defender is immune to all damage while the barrier has charges remaining. Charges are restored to 15 every 20 seconds.

Rewards:

Like Back Issue #3, this Quest features 6 Individual Quests over 3 Chapters, unlike Back Issues #1 and #2, which featured 9. Quest Rewards reflect this.

For completing and exploring all of the Classic quests, you earn:
Tier 2 Generic ISO x3
Tier 3 Generic ISO x16
Tier 4 Generic ISO x9
Gold x9575
Units x150
Premium Hero Crystal Shards x8000
3-Star Hero Crystal Shards x2000
Stony Core x1

For completing and exploring all of the Variant quests, you earn:
5-Star Rank 2 → 3 Gem Crystal x3
5-Star Rank 3 → 4 Gem Crystal (2015/2016 Champs Only) x3
5-Star Rank 3 → 4 Gem Crystal x1
5-Star Rank 4 → 5 Gem Crystal x1
5-Star Awakening Gem Crystal x1
5-Star Crystal x2
Tier 5 Basic Catalyst Fragments x27000
6-Star Crystal Shards x2250
5-Star Signature Stone Crystal x42
Gold x2,100,000
Units x270

EDIT: Clarified the Collector Crystal is only available to Summoners: Level 45+

EDIT: There is a typo on the Fundamentals node that is displaying the wrong damage value for when the defender charges a Heavy Attack at 3 bars of Power. The actual damage value is 50% of the Defender's Attack. We have corrected that in this announcement and are working on getting this visual error corrected within the game as well.

Comments

Tehsigzorz

A little concerned about 1 star gates but I hope you all know that and tune the content for the most common 1 stars

BeroMan

So how we getting those 1 stars. I don’t have any lol
We're bringing back the Hero Crystal. It's a special Crystal with 1 and 2 Star Champions. It will live in the Store somewhere, but you can purchase them for more 1 and 2-Star Champions.

Note that this is NOT the Collector Crystal, which includes "Exclusive" 2-Star Champions.
Will there be anyway to not have to purchase these crystals? Like do quick match? I don’t like using my units on champ crystals. I buy cavaliers Cuz im a gambler sometimes (not often) but I don’t want to use my units to try and pull a 1 Star but end up with 2s. Or will the drop rate be worth it where I buy 10 crystals and actually pull a decent amount of 1 Star champs?

Thanks for responding to me Miike!
Not yet, but maybe during special events in the future. This is permanent content, and we don't want to change the 1v1 Prize permanently, but do like having it change for special events from time to time.

Right now, the only way will be the Hero Crystal, which will be available in the store for players level 45+ for 50 units.

So we have to spend 50 units to get champ that we can only use once?! And it's not even guaranteed since as you said that crystal will include not only 1* but as well 2*...This seems quite annoying. I am sure unlike cavalier crystals where I almost always get lower-tier champs on this time I will get all 2* instead of 1*. Why anyone would enjoy this.

P_R_I_M_E

Why are you punishing players who don’t have 1* heroes ? So now I have to spend few thousands units to get a 1* champions that will not help me anywhere but in V4 ? Or I should just not play new content at all ? That’s a horrible treatment for a lot of players.
Please give us opportunity to get 1* now from 1vs1, at least for a week or 2. Or even if you so greedy make only 1* crystal for 10-20 units.
50 units to get 2* over and over it’s insane.

Markjv81

So how we getting those 1 stars. I don’t have any lol
We're bringing back the Hero Crystal. It's a special Crystal with 1 and 2 Star Champions. It will live in the Store somewhere, but you can purchase them for more 1 and 2-Star Champions.

Note that this is NOT the Collector Crystal, which includes "Exclusive" 2-Star Champions.
Will there be anyway to not have to purchase these crystals? Like do quick match? I don’t like using my units on champ crystals. I buy cavaliers Cuz im a gambler sometimes (not often) but I don’t want to use my units to try and pull a 1 Star but end up with 2s. Or will the drop rate be worth it where I buy 10 crystals and actually pull a decent amount of 1 Star champs?

Thanks for responding to me Miike!
Not yet, but maybe during special events in the future. This is permanent content, and we don't want to change the 1v1 Prize permanently, but do like having it change for special events from time to time.

Right now, the only way will be the Hero Crystal, which will be available in the store for players level 45+ for 50 units.
So we have to spend 50 units to get champ that we can only use once?! And it's not even guaranteed since as you said that crystal will include not only 1* but as well 2*...This seems quite annoying. I am sure unlike cavalier crystals where I almost always get lower-tier champs on this time I will get all 2* instead of 1*. Why anyone would enjoy this.

Who says there won’t be 1* based content in the future? If you don’t want to spend on those crystals wait till they are free in the versus arena.

unknown

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BAMF1980

Several of you seem to have missed the information, but Kabam has said that they're going to make 1* champs available again to those that lost, sold, or no longer have access to them. With it being permanent content, you'll have plenty of time to rebuild your rosters.

Kabam Miike

Why are you punishing players who don’t have 1* heroes ? So now I have to spend few thousands units to get a 1* champions that will not help me anywhere but in V4 ? Or I should just not play new content at all ? That’s a horrible treatment for a lot of players.
Please give us opportunity to get 1* now from 1vs1, at least for a week or 2. Or even if you so greedy make only 1* crystal for 10-20 units.
50 units to get 2* over and over it’s insane.

Our definitions of "Punishing" must be very different. You'll have the opportunity to get 1-Stars again from Crystals, or there may other opportunities in the future.This is permanent Content, and having the choice to get crystals now, or waiting for other opportunities in the future is not a Punishment for content that isn't going anywhere.

DalBot

That’s your problem, not the team’s problem. You chose not to do that and now your complaining that you have to use the catalysts to rank up champs.
So it's my problem and not the teams that I chose to not waste resources on champs that have been mostly outdated for 2-3 years compared to my better champs, and now would need them for a single event, taking resources from more worthy champs?
You're saying you didn't rank up your champs because you felt like it was a waste of materials that you can use on 5/6* champions, as if T4B does not come a dime a dozen. You can literally get 18K T4B fragments from the Glory Store. At the end of the day, it does sound like a YOU problem, cause I have several R5 5* champs and multiple R5 4* champs

Cool. I have 13 R5 5*, 4 R2 6*, 24 R4 5* and over 130 5* total...

I think I'm doing ok but here I am now having to use the T4B on 4* instead of the dozens of 5* I have waiting in rank ups.

But thanks for the lecture.

BeroMan

So how we getting those 1 stars. I don’t have any lol
We're bringing back the Hero Crystal. It's a special Crystal with 1 and 2 Star Champions. It will live in the Store somewhere, but you can purchase them for more 1 and 2-Star Champions.

Note that this is NOT the Collector Crystal, which includes "Exclusive" 2-Star Champions.
Will there be anyway to not have to purchase these crystals? Like do quick match? I don’t like using my units on champ crystals. I buy cavaliers Cuz im a gambler sometimes (not often) but I don’t want to use my units to try and pull a 1 Star but end up with 2s. Or will the drop rate be worth it where I buy 10 crystals and actually pull a decent amount of 1 Star champs?

Thanks for responding to me Miike!
Not yet, but maybe during special events in the future. This is permanent content, and we don't want to change the 1v1 Prize permanently, but do like having it change for special events from time to time.

Right now, the only way will be the Hero Crystal, which will be available in the store for players level 45+ for 50 units.
So we have to spend 50 units to get champ that we can only use once?! And it's not even guaranteed since as you said that crystal will include not only 1* but as well 2*...This seems quite annoying. I am sure unlike cavalier crystals where I almost always get lower-tier champs on this time I will get all 2* instead of 1*. Why anyone would enjoy this.
Who says there won’t be 1* based content in the future? If you don’t want to spend on those crystals wait till they are free in the versus arena.

I would have waited but he does not say anything specific about time or date. And he is not even sure that there definatly will be such kind of event. He just says maybe there will be such event in indefinite future, like for 10 years anniversary of the game.

Markjv81

That’s your problem, not the team’s problem. You chose not to do that and now your complaining that you have to use the catalysts to rank up champs.
So it's my problem and not the teams that I chose to not waste resources on champs that have been mostly outdated for 2-3 years compared to my better champs, and now would need them for a single event, taking resources from more worthy champs?
You're saying you didn't rank up your champs because you felt like it was a waste of materials that you can use on 5/6* champions, as if T4B does not come a dime a dozen. You can literally get 18K T4B fragments from the Glory Store. At the end of the day, it does sound like a YOU problem, cause I have several R5 5* champs and multiple R5 4* champs
Cool. I have 13 R5 5*, 4 R2 6*, 24 R4 5* and over 130 5* total...

I think I'm doing ok but here I am now having to use the T4B on 4* instead of the dozens of 5* I have waiting in rank ups.

But thanks for the lecture.

Then the decision is pretty simple for you, are the 4* ranks worth the rewards? Probably not for you and an account your size won’t miss them anyway.

MΛSSΛCRE

So how we getting those 1 stars. I don’t have any lol
We're bringing back the Hero Crystal. It's a special Crystal with 1 and 2 Star Champions. It will live in the Store somewhere, but you can purchase them for more 1 and 2-Star Champions.

Note that this is NOT the Collector Crystal, which includes "Exclusive" 2-Star Champions.
Can you clarify if there’s a way to acquire champs that don’t require units?
Not right now, but we've run those crystals in other places in the past. They may come back in the future, but I don't know when/if that will happen.

They should be rewards for 1v1 arena, needing to buy 1* champs for 50 units is absurd. It’s getting milked for a useless champ. I’m fine with needing to use your roster but asking us to pay for 1* champs because we can’t access them is ridiculous.

LibertyPrimeV1

Is the Attacker Buff for this Variant really only going to be for Moon Knight? ...nothing for Deadpool X-Force or a certain Variety of Champions? I loved how V2 focused on Several XL Champions Good and Bad for each Quest instead of just one single Champion for the whole thing, but with V3 and now what seems like V4 all the focus is going on one single champion that will have the same Buff/Buffs going for the Whole Event instead switching it up with different Buffs for Multiple Champions dotted around to promote Variety...
That's not an Attacker Buff, that's for the Moon Knight that you'll be facing off against.

Wait what? Ok, sorry but that probably should've been specified. I was looking at it like how the Sentinel Attacker Buff was revealed in Variant 3's Post.

Ebbtide

Is the Attacker Buff for this Variant really only going to be for Moon Knight? ...nothing for Deadpool X-Force or a certain Variety of Champions? I loved how V2 focused on Several XL Champions Good and Bad for each Quest instead of just one single Champion for the whole thing, but with V3 and now what seems like V4 all the focus is going on one single champion that will have the same Buff/Buffs going for the Whole Event instead switching it up with different Buffs for Multiple Champions dotted around to promote Variety...
That's not an Attacker Buff, that's for the Moon Knight that you'll be facing off against.

This is extremely disappointing that we, the attackers, won't gain this bonus. Moon Knight is an underwhelming character in this game. His abilities are time cycles, and rely on so much chance to occur that he never gets to shine. The only previous time Moon Knight could have been something amazing was during the Champion's Challenge, where it was intended to launch when Moon Knight would have been on his Stun Phase. Then it was delayed to instead start a week later, avoiding that phase.

Back on the bench he goes.

This would have made 6, 5, 4, 3 and even the rare 2-Star Moon Knight awesome in this quest if he had access that all of his abilities at once, allowing people to make use of an otherwise less used and popular character in this game. Imagine if there was a reward of a 1-Star Moon Knight for the first completion of this Variant, allowing players an option to fight with him as their 1-Star Required champ.

The ideas of using previous content is neat, but it feels like there's missed opportunities in connecting it to the champions they should feature to conquer them (like the mutant variant where instead Techs gain a bonus, or the Ant-Man Quest where larger champions instead gain a bonus).

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Kabam Miike

So how we getting those 1 stars. I don’t have any lol
We're bringing back the Hero Crystal. It's a special Crystal with 1 and 2 Star Champions. It will live in the Store somewhere, but you can purchase them for more 1 and 2-Star Champions.

Note that this is NOT the Collector Crystal, which includes "Exclusive" 2-Star Champions.
Can you clarify if there’s a way to acquire champs that don’t require units?
Not right now, but we've run those crystals in other places in the past. They may come back in the future, but I don't know when/if that will happen.
They should be rewards for 1v1 arena, needing to buy 1* champs for 50 units is absurd. It’s getting milked for a useless champ. I’m fine with needing to use your roster but asking us to pay for 1* champs because we can’t access them is ridiculous.

You don't have to do this right now. In the future, we may have events like we have had in the past that gives access to 1-Star Champions. I don't have a timeline or a definitive answer on if that will be happening, but this is permanent Content and is not going anywhere.

unknown

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LibertyPrimeV1

So how we getting those 1 stars. I don’t have any lol
We're bringing back the Hero Crystal. It's a special Crystal with 1 and 2 Star Champions. It will live in the Store somewhere, but you can purchase them for more 1 and 2-Star Champions.

Note that this is NOT the Collector Crystal, which includes "Exclusive" 2-Star Champions.
Can you clarify if there’s a way to acquire champs that don’t require units?
Not right now, but we've run those crystals in other places in the past. They may come back in the future, but I don't know when/if that will happen.

Ooo you could add them to the Rewards of the Classic Difficulty, or make an Objective for completing that Classic Difficulty that gives the Crystals!

DalBot

Then the decision is pretty simple for you, are the 4* ranks worth the rewards? Probably not for you and an account your size won’t miss them anyway.

Actually those rank up gems are quite handy now that they include 2016 and there are maybe 2 AGs I wouldn't mind getting (especially tech for my Warlock)

Kenny292

To those complaining because you sold champs and would need to spend units for 1* and 2* champs, you only have to spend units because of YOUR decision to sell champs. Just because you didn’t have any use for them for a long time didn’t mean you had to sell them. It’s not like it was ever hurting you to keep those champs. Even before this Variant, not selling champs has always been the smart decision for long-term progress. I get that it may have been an early-game progression mistake, but at least you’re getting a chance to fix that mistake at all, just for a price.

EpicGOAT

I don't have any 1*.... Will I be completely screwed?

Markjv81

Then the decision is pretty simple for you, are the 4* ranks worth the rewards? Probably not for you and an account your size won’t miss them anyway.
Actually those rank up gems are quite handy now that they include 2016 and there are maybe 2 AGs I wouldn't mind getting (especially tech for my Warlock)

Ok so now you’re just contradicting yourself, saying that it’s a waste of resources but you also want the rewards. Can’t be both.

RiderofHell

Havent done any variant and aint planning to do any at all...even when i finish EQ i just enjoy my free time and only log on during AQ and AW.

Wait i think i will finally be able to max all my 3* and 4* once i obtain all the champs in the game oh wait they are added every month lmao

Deacon03

So how we getting those 1 stars. I don’t have any lol
We're bringing back the Hero Crystal. It's a special Crystal with 1 and 2 Star Champions. It will live in the Store somewhere, but you can purchase them for more 1 and 2-Star Champions.

Note that this is NOT the Collector Crystal, which includes "Exclusive" 2-Star Champions.

So these will be the basic champs from the Pnc and the old daily crystal??? @Kabam Miike

Kabam Miike

Oh! Something that I've notice that a lot of Veteran players might not be aware of is that you can score 2-Star Champions from Completion of the Normal Difficulty of the Event Quest, and some of them are Rare 2-Stars. For instance, this month is Captain Marvel.

Now, I don't have her as a 3-6 Star, so I'm hoping that I can use her in this Variant.

onebeyondall

OMG ! 2015/2016? all my 5* mytic already max r4. There are only limited amount of 2015/2016. Kabam should do a cap on the gem we can get!

Championcritic

Can we expect the opponents of the later chapters to also be of lower tier? I certainly hope you don't expect us to use a 1* to fight a 6* opponent in the last quest of variant 4

Hammerbro_64

Oh! Something that I've notice that a lot of Veteran players might not be aware of is that you can score 2-Star Champions from Completion of the Normal Difficulty of the Event Quest, and some of them are Rare 2-Stars. For instance, this month is Captain Marvel.

Now, I don't have her as a 3-6 Star, so I'm hoping that I can use her in this Variant.

3*?

Idk I feel like people should realize by now selling 1-2* is a bad plan seeing we have had a couple 2* arenas already.

Laksh1995

In the fundamentals node: under one bar of power
Will quake's damage count towards the reduction?

Liss_Bliss_

In the fundamentals node: under one bar of power
Will quake's damage count towards the reduction?

Less than 1 Bar: Reduce all incoming Damage by 95%

From the description I’d say yes