Back Issues #2: Mystery in the Microrealm

Once upon a time, an intrepid thief followed the trail of mysterious happenings in The Battlerealm. Little did he know this tiny curiosity would lead to some of the biggest changes in all of The Contest!

Introducing, Back Issues #2: Mystery in the Micro-Realms!

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 40 and up. This version features extreme challenge, new opponents, updated map layouts, and new combat effects for the boss fights. This quest will test even the mightiest of Summoners, so be prepared! You can find out more about the challenges you will face in Variant Difficulty in our latest Dev Diary post here: https://playcontestofchampions.com/dev-diary-added-difficulty/

The Variant Challenges!

Variant Difficulty will test not only your skills, but your knowledge of Champion abilities, immunities, resistances, and counters! Those who rely on only a few Champions will find the need to diversify.

Unlike Back Issues #1, there will not be explicit gates (like Class or Rarity), but instead we’ll be applying Global Buffs that strongly encourage the use of certain Champions. In this case, it’s XL Champions. All quests will make use of Micro-Reflect, Size Matters, and Particle Protector; effects you might remember from Evangeline Lily’s Champion Challenge last year. (But appropriately souped up.) On top of this, the new Runaway Express and Cultivating Mass Buffs will give XL Champions further advantages beyond their ability to ignore Particle Protector. Finally, Quests 1-3 through 3-3 will also feature Buffs that will benefit bringing in certain XL Champions!

Take a look at the new Buffs you’ll be combating or benefiting from:

Remember Summoners, Variant Difficulty is going to be HARD! The good news is that Back Issues are permanent content, so if you’re not able to take Variant Difficulty on right now, take all the time you need and come back to it when you feel you are better equipped!

Rewards:

For completing and mastering all of the Classic quests, you earn:

Tier 2 Basic ISO x4
Tier 3 Basic ISO x22
Tier 4 Basic ISO x6
Gold x12250
Units x225
Tier 1 Alpha Catalyst x1
Premium Hero Crystal x3
3-Star Hero Crystal x1

For completing and mastering all of the Variant quests, you earn:

5-Star Rank 2 → 3 Gem Crystal x3
5-Star Rank 3 → 4 Gem Crystal (2015 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 x1
Tier 5 Basic Catalyst Fragments x27000
6-Star Crystal Shards x2250
5-Star Signature Stone Crystal x48
Gold x2,100,000
Units x360

This Quest will be available starting Wednesday, April 10th at 10 am PST! Remember, this is permanent content, so you can take your time completing this throwback!

Comments

RagamugginGunner

Cant wait for the XL champ FGMCs they'll release in the next few days.

Wakandas_Finest

Just once I’d love to have a thread where there are not a bunch of Whiners complaining about free stuff
Free stuff? How is this free stuff? It’s not given to us by logging in and collecting from the calendar.
Free in the sense that you don’t have to spend real money on them. I suppose you have to spend time. But as the saying goes if you don’t like it don’t waste your time doing it.

Besides let’s be real no one is running these back issues for the 2015 gems. If they weren’t included people would still run them for the t5b shards 4-5 gem and 5* awakening crystal
In the first Variant, there actually was a reason to run the quests for the 2015 gems. There are a lot of solid champs that people would like to rank but not use their resources. Luke, Hawkeye, WS, Magik, and SL are just a few examples. The precedent has already been set already too. They can’t make Back Issues 2 less lucrative than 1. That would just be illogical. And to continue to give 2015 champ rank up gems when a lot of them aren’t even available as a 5* is silly.

Couple of things. What if you ran the first variant and still didn’t get the class rank up you needed here is another opportunity to rank up those champs. This was originally a 2015 quest why would you expect 2016 gems? Obviously the theme is to match the gems with the year the quest originated.

Cosmicatastrofi

The problem I have with limiting these rank up gems to only 2015 champs is that I no longer am willing to rank up 2015 champs by standard means. I just awakened my starlord but will not rank him up because I dont need him, even though he'd be nice to rank up, if i pull a tech gem all other options are not good options.

unknown

This content has been removed.

RagamugginGunner

85% chance to glance and get damage back if you don't use an XL, but Kabam said they didn't want us to feel like we HAD to have certain champs to get through the content.

unknown

This content has been removed.

V1PER1987

Just once I’d love to have a thread where there are not a bunch of Whiners complaining about free stuff
Free stuff? How is this free stuff? It’s not given to us by logging in and collecting from the calendar.
Free in the sense that you don’t have to spend real money on them. I suppose you have to spend time. But as the saying goes if you don’t like it don’t waste your time doing it.

Besides let’s be real no one is running these back issues for the 2015 gems. If they weren’t included people would still run them for the t5b shards 4-5 gem and 5* awakening crystal
In the first Variant, there actually was a reason to run the quests for the 2015 gems. There are a lot of solid champs that people would like to rank but not use their resources. Luke, Hawkeye, WS, Magik, and SL are just a few examples. The precedent has already been set already too. They can’t make Back Issues 2 less lucrative than 1. That would just be illogical. And to continue to give 2015 champ rank up gems when a lot of them aren’t even available as a 5* is silly.
Couple of things. What if you ran the first variant and still didn’t get the class rank up you needed here is another opportunity to rank up those champs. This was originally a 2015 quest why would you expect 2016 gems? Obviously the theme is to match the gems with the year the quest originated.

The complaint was that another set of these gems, especially as a class version is awful. Maybe I missed out but oh well, that’s RNG. Why subject others with worthless items so I have another shot? The original argument was that the community wants items it can use and you made a sarcastic comment about people not whining about “free items”. The whole point is these quests are very challenging and they’re not free. Why make it a possibility that someone gets screwed with 6 mutant 2015 rank up gems when only 4 exist at all to be ranked? It’s an asinine decision.

Ganui01

Just once I’d love to have a thread where there are not a bunch of Whiners complaining about free stuff
Free stuff? How is this free stuff? It’s not given to us by logging in and collecting from the calendar.
Free in the sense that you don’t have to spend real money on them. I suppose you have to spend time. But as the saying goes if you don’t like it don’t waste your time doing it.

Besides let’s be real no one is running these back issues for the 2015 gems. If they weren’t included people would still run them for the t5b shards 4-5 gem and 5* awakening crystal
In the first Variant, there actually was a reason to run the quests for the 2015 gems. There are a lot of solid champs that people would like to rank but not use their resources. Luke, Hawkeye, WS, Magik, and SL are just a few examples. The precedent has already been set already too. They can’t make Back Issues 2 less lucrative than 1. That would just be illogical. And to continue to give 2015 champ rank up gems when a lot of them aren’t even available as a 5* is silly.
Couple of things. What if you ran the first variant and still didn’t get the class rank up you needed here is another opportunity to rank up those champs. This was originally a 2015 quest why would you expect 2016 gems? Obviously the theme is to match the gems with the year the quest originated.

Well, I got three skill 3-4 rank ups. Used on Hawkeye, ws bit can’t really do anything with the third one yet. I wld absolutely hate to get one or two more. Elektra was already at r4 and bp and mn are still at r1 and not going to waste resources to take them to r3

Wakandas_Finest

Just once I’d love to have a thread where there are not a bunch of Whiners complaining about free stuff
Free stuff? How is this free stuff? It’s not given to us by logging in and collecting from the calendar.
Free in the sense that you don’t have to spend real money on them. I suppose you have to spend time. But as the saying goes if you don’t like it don’t waste your time doing it.

Besides let’s be real no one is running these back issues for the 2015 gems. If they weren’t included people would still run them for the t5b shards 4-5 gem and 5* awakening crystal
In the first Variant, there actually was a reason to run the quests for the 2015 gems. There are a lot of solid champs that people would like to rank but not use their resources. Luke, Hawkeye, WS, Magik, and SL are just a few examples. The precedent has already been set already too. They can’t make Back Issues 2 less lucrative than 1. That would just be illogical. And to continue to give 2015 champ rank up gems when a lot of them aren’t even available as a 5* is silly.
Couple of things. What if you ran the first variant and still didn’t get the class rank up you needed here is another opportunity to rank up those champs. This was originally a 2015 quest why would you expect 2016 gems? Obviously the theme is to match the gems with the year the quest originated.
It still sets up the risk of someone having a gem that can never be used.

Give me a trade in system for those situations and I'll retract the complaint but if that restriction stands it's a pretty weak deal for those players

Make them generic now cause if they follow the order polar opposite is next also 2015 and we cant sustain random gems to that stack if they cant be used miceorealm was july 2015 which leaves 5 more for 2015

Assuming that kabam won’t rectify a situation where a person has more rank up gems than they can use. It hasn’t happened yet so why worry over what if’s? Also assuming kabam plans to rerun every single quest ever

Thecrusher_9756

Just once I’d love to have a thread where there are not a bunch of Whiners complaining about free stuff
Free stuff? How is this free stuff? It’s not given to us by logging in and collecting from the calendar.
Free in the sense that you don’t have to spend real money on them. I suppose you have to spend time. But as the saying goes if you don’t like it don’t waste your time doing it.

Besides let’s be real no one is running these back issues for the 2015 gems. If they weren’t included people would still run them for the t5b shards 4-5 gem and 5* awakening crystal
In the first Variant, there actually was a reason to run the quests for the 2015 gems. There are a lot of solid champs that people would like to rank but not use their resources. Luke, Hawkeye, WS, Magik, and SL are just a few examples. The precedent has already been set already too. They can’t make Back Issues 2 less lucrative than 1. That would just be illogical. And to continue to give 2015 champ rank up gems when a lot of them aren’t even available as a 5* is silly.
Couple of things. What if you ran the first variant and still didn’t get the class rank up you needed here is another opportunity to rank up those champs. This was originally a 2015 quest why would you expect 2016 gems? Obviously the theme is to match the gems with the year the quest originated.
It still sets up the risk of someone having a gem that can never be used.

Give me a trade in system for those situations and I'll retract the complaint but if that restriction stands it's a pretty weak deal for those players

Make them generic now cause if they follow the order polar opposite is next also 2015 and we cant sustain random gems to that stack if they cant be used miceorealm was july 2015 which leaves 5 more for 2015
Assuming that kabam won’t rectify a situation where a person has more rank up gems than they can use. It hasn’t happened yet so why worry over what if’s? Also assuming kabam plans to rerun every single quest ever

Kabam... rectify... lol do we play the same game?

unknown

This content has been removed.

Eb0ny-O-M4w

"Supernova" and "heavy machinery" nodes seem to have something wrong there.

I've already talked about tye "heavy machinery" node and the potencial mistake you did there by using the word "buffs" instead of "effects".

But about "Supernova" , how will that benefit Thing? The only buff he procs is his unstoppable if I'm not mistaken (maybe he triggers other by using some sinergies). What would be the benefit of having 2x unstoppable buffs going on at the same time?

unknown

This content has been removed.

unknown

This content has been removed.

unknown

This content has been removed.

V1PER1987

"Supernova" and "heavy machinery" nodes seem to have something wrong there.

I've already talked about tye "heavy machinery" node and the potencial mistake you did there by using the word "buffs" instead of "effects".

But about "Supernova" , how will that benefit Thing? The only buff he procs is his unstoppable if I'm not mistaken (maybe he triggers other by using some sinergies). What would be the benefit of having 2x unstoppable buffs going on at the same time?
Doesnt thing get fury's? I may be way off my knowledge of him isnt that strong

He gets passive furies, not the same thing as buffs. It wouldn’t be counted in the Supernova buff giving him two for one.

TheSquish671

Will we be allowed to do this variant without completing the ultron one first? I want to try out some of those nodes

Marzipan87

Was there only one difficulty when this quest originally came out? Just curious...
There's two difficulties same as the last one. Classic and Variant
Oh, no, I meant when this originally came out back in 2015.

yes originally there was only one difficult in 2015 (thats the reason why it is a 2015 rank up gem)

unknown

This content has been removed.

Frivolousz21

Once again kabam dangles carrots in the form of awakening gems and ranking tokens but we gotta strain ourselves to get them, rank who they intend for us to rank, use up supplies and goods at their whim in advance of having the things we need to raise truly playable champs? (i.e. dupes) It is becoming more and more obvious they want us ranking locked champs and not duped ones so we start running through more supplies that many of us have probably been sitting on and therefore not buying! And getting too deep in the endgame with our 4s...

What is your roster like?

Greifmaster911

That dimensional dominion node thing makes me slightly hopeful for a thanos endgame that anyone can own, even though it most likely means only the very rare thanos that almost no one has.

IKON

The community sucks the joy out of every announcement

unknown

This content has been removed.

MattMan

Why keep the terrible 2015 gems? Gross

Duke_Silver

“That’s how black ISO mafia works” is probably the most hilarious thing I’ve seen in a while 😂😂😂 Props to Kabam on that one!

Buttehrs

Why keep the terrible 2015 gems? Gross

Because the quest was in 2015. What's so hard to understand about that?

V1PER1987

Why keep the terrible 2015 gems? Gross
Because the quest was in 2015. What's so hard to understand about that?

So why do they use champs that were made after 2015 as defenders?

unknown

This content has been removed.

Vale84

Why keep the terrible 2015 gems? Gross
Because the quest was in 2015. What's so hard to understand about that?
So why do they use champs that were made after 2015 as defenders?

Ouuff. He won't come back from this.

unknown

This content has been removed.