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

xNig

It’s to show players how far the game has progressed. Read the announcement on Variant #1.

LoPresti

Damn that list is pathetic lol, can't believe we're getting ANOTHER set of 2015 gems. Let's hope for some reworks I guess

Ebbtide

With old events coming back, will the prior Celebrity Challenges ever return with similar designs, one classic and another with a harder difficulty?

OKAYGang

Yeah this a problem, I am running out of Cosmic 2015 champs to rank Because of Kabam's Crappy RNG. Would be nice if it were 2016 champs or later this time or if Kabam would release OG Thor as a 5* so I have something to use the inevitable Cosmic 2015 gem coming my way when I complete this.

OKAYGang

So new players can see what those of us who have been here since the beginning had to deal with three-four years ago. And you thought the monthly quest rewards were bad now? Welcome to the past. Yes these were the actual monthly quests and the actual rewards then. There was no difficulty above heroic either.

Longtimegamer

Have the rewards been bug tested so that the 0.08% gem problem from the 1st back issues doesn't happen again?

unknown

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IKON

You guys are so right, these gems are such a waste, i would never rank up Luke Cage, Spidergwen, Hulk, spiderman, Magik, Guillotine, Venom, Drax, Captain Marvel, Symbiote spiderman, Star Lord, Ultron, Hawkeye, Winter Solider, or Storm. All these characters suck.

unknown

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IKON

Yea, lets make decisions because of fringe cases that are incredibly unlikely to play out. Thats how you invest your time wisely.

IKON

Its hard to fight an entire community, but someone has to fight the good fight.

unknown

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Gamer

The reward is good but ther shuldt be rng depends. You can end op with 6 mutant gym and only 4 is arund to rank op

IKON

Anecdotal account is not actually useful data. Fringe cases exist, but you don't make decisions around them.

I do agree the mutant gems are a problem, and I'd hope the 5th would be exchangeable should you be that ridiculously unfortunate. Won't know until that actually happens.

IKON

I disagree to an extent, first variant should have had 1 of 2 classes in each crystal. #2 isn't limited by class, but they could do the same thing here. In the end though, 90% of gems will find a good purpose.

The entire idea of the gems are to build your roster depth, as more end game content requires a varied roster. The first round helped immensely in having a full 4/55 team for all questing when AQ and AW were on.

The meat of the rewards remains the 4-5 gem. This is all really silly being so focused on the lesser tier rewards. Even if you straight remove the 2015 gems, its STILL worth completing for the 4-5 gem.

CammonRo

Man I still haven't finished the first variant quest. I find it crazy hard and I don't have the right champs yet. So for someone like me achieving the "lesser tier" reward is a big achievement. Getting a gem you can't use is a total drag. Also if you've already ranked up your 2015 champs you're out of luck. These things could potentially sit in your inventory indefinitely with no value whatsoever.

Personally I stopped ranking 2015 champs once the first quest came out. Guess I'll be sitting on my Magik for a long time. Introducing more 2015 rank up gems only increases the chance of pulling gems you'll never use.

Gamer

I’m don’t mind the 4 to 5 gym is randoms only the 2015 gym mean the class alest make them gerinco from 2015 gym not bad. Right and most wild be happy

unknown

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Gamer

Like I’m said I’m stil like the reward don’t get me wrong ther is amazing. Only the randomness I’m don’t like

IKON

I'm gonna do something super rare, admit I was wrong on the internet.

If your argument is the 2015 gems are a problem cause of mutants, i can get behind that. Would love to see them capped or excluded some way.

Sn1pes130

Will you be giving a couple day grace period again where the first people to 100% the quests get to use their 2015 rankup gems on any champ despite when they were released?

unknown

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Tasty_Yum_Yums

Variant 1 was a good challenge with good rewards. A year later, the rewards should go up a little as there have been a lot changes in that time. That doesn’t mean rewards should double but they could be improved. For example, instead of 3x 2015 rank up gems there could be 1x 2015, 1x 2016, 1x 2017 rank up gem. That’s not game breaking for the player base (or kabam), and a positive update with new content....

unknown

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RagamugginGunner

This is just their way of making it look like they're giving everyone a bunch of t2a when in reality they're just keeping people from ranking good champs that can beat content.

I'd 100% trade all those 3 2015 gems for 1 normal 3-4 gem.

I haven't used a singe champ I ranked from last time outside arena, and I won't use the new three either. Thanks Kabam!

unknown

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unknown

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OKAYGang

You're missing the point. Problem is most people in a position to get these gems already have most or in some cases all of those characters at R4.

OKAYGang

This is a great idea, players like myself who've actually been playing since 2015 already had quite a few 2015 champs ranked up even before the first Variant. We are running out of options, especially in the mutants. Storm was my first ever R4 5* and I never ranked her down when I had the opportunity because as many have already said she is actually quite good. SL was immediately taken to R4 when I finally duped him, and I r'4d Rocket too because back when I did it there just weren't many better 5* tech options around. MoonKnight is another I had at R4 from a really long time ago and never had the opportunity to rank down because I missed the RDT at Christmas in 2017. Last Variant I pulled two Cosmic Gems and skill Gem. R4'd Venom, Ronan, and WS with those. I have LC, Magneto, YJ, Storm and Daredevil as 6* now also. I know poor me right but seriously 2015 gems are not all that exciting to me as my options in most classes are extremely limited. I know players in even worse positions than me with this particular issue. At some point these 2015 gems become completely useless, and for Mutants in particular that time is now for a good portion of the player base that can actually take on Variant. Why not start incorporating other years in now slowly as Tasty Yum Yums suggested here? Great idea imo.