DATES

Enlistment Live

• Monday, March 10th 2025
  

Season & Raid Event Live / Playable

• Monday, March 17th 2025
  

OVERVIEW

• We are excited to reveal some of the newest things we’ve been working on with AQ & Raids.
  
• We know a lot of you enjoy Raids. Still, the single difficulty may have been a little too high for some of our lower progression summoners, so we're introducing a new Nightmare map for our more engaged summoners and making the current difficulty more approachable. This difficulty is targeted at Valiant summoners.
  
• Regular AQ is getting a boss update, and we have removed variations moving forward. (The mode will now receive updates with each Saga update, including at least new bosses.)
  

RAIDS V1.4

A New Difficulty - Nightmare Raids

• A new difficulty has been added for summoners seeking additional challenges for better rewards.
  
• The new map will have different bosses than the regular map, with some added challenges to the regular fight flow. See the “Buff/Role Boost Updates” section below for more details.
  

Enlistment Changes

• You will enlist for Nightmare Raids the same way you select different maps in regular AQ.
  
• Entry to the new map will cost the same ticket amount as the regular Raids map.
  

Boss Changes

Regular Raids

This round is a blast from the past, mixing up some bosses from different Sagas to come together for a fresh challenge!
This update features:

• Final Boss - Professor X
  
• Mini Bosses - Medusa, Thor (Ragnarok), and The Hood
  

Nightmare Raids

A brand new set of bosses featuring:

• Final Boss - Apocalypse
  
• Mini Bosses - Wolverine (Weapon X), Jabari Panther, and Korg

Notes -

• Jabari's Cleanse now goes on cooldown whenever it removes ANY debuff instead of only Stun.
  
• Korg's Purify in his sig has been tuned to 0, and his Thorns have been tuned down.
  

Buff/Role Boost Updates

Regular Raids

With the addition of Nightmare Raids we wanted to make regular Raids more approachable. As such we’ve added a new node that doubles Role Charges gained to help you Ramp yourself, and your teammates even faster!

Raids - Roles - Increased Charges

• Completing Raids - Missions grant an additional Role Charges.
  

We hope that this will encourage even more players to give Raids a try!

Nightmare Raids

Boss Phases!
With Nightmare Raids, bosses will get even scarier over the course of a fight with newly added Phases.

Raids - Phases - Indestructible:

• Effects from this node are unaffected by Ability Accuracy.
  
• Every 4% HP that a Raid boss loses causes them to enter their next Phase. The effects of these phases come from “Raid - Phases” Nodes.
  
• Whenever the Defender enters a new Phase, Gain a 15 second Indestructible and Unblockable Passive. Striking the Defender with a Striker removes these Passives. While either is active, the Defender is more aggressive, and Attackers gain 50% increased Spirit Rate.
  
• End the Current Influence Timer and Gain an Additional Influence.
  

Raids - Phases - Potent Penance:
Effects from this node are unaffected by Ability Accuracy.
The First Hit of a Striker removes 5 Penance Charges.
Phase 1:

• Increase the amount of Penance Charges Defenders gain by 5 and Reduce the Duration of Penance timers by 25%.
  
• While a Penance effect is active, reduce the Potency of Attackers Role Force by 25%.
  

Phase 2:

• Increase the effects of Phase 1 by 100%.
  
• While a Penance effect is active, Attackers gain 50% less Raid Fervor.
  

Phase 3:

• Penance Timers are no longer paused during Special Attacks, and instead Tick 50% faster During Defenders Special Attacks.
  

New Penance

• Phases are scary, but we feel they aren’t quite enough to truly challenge you all. We’re also adding a slew of new Penance’s to pair alongside them.
  

Raids - Penance - Explosive Inexorable:

• Whenever a Penance Timer expires, defenders gain a 10% Inexorable Passive for 12 seconds, increased by 1 second per Penance charge. While active, Defenders are stun immune during Medium and Light Attacks and deal a burst of 20% of their Attack as Direct Damage on Contact.
  

Raids - Penance - Mighty Special:
Whenever a Penance Timer expires, defenders gain a 50% Power Efficiency Passive for 12 seconds, increased by 1 second per Penance charge. While Active Defenders inflict a 100% Agility Passive during their Special Attacks. While this Agility is active Attackers gain a .5s Steadfast Passive when they Block.

Raids - Penance - Stalwart:

• Whenever a Penance Timer expires, defenders gain a Stalwart Passive for 12 seconds, increased by 1 second per Penance charge. While active defenders become Unstoppable during the last hit of incoming Heavy, Special Attacks, and for .5s after Blocking an Attack. Whenever these Unstoppables trigger, inflict a burst of damage equal to 25% of Defenders' attack.
  

Raids - Penance - Crush:

• Whenever a Penance Timer expires, defenders inflict a Crush Passive for 12 seconds, increased by 1 second per Penance charge. While active, defenders are unstoppable during their Dash Attacks.
  

New Boons
For Those scary Raids + Bosses we’ve cooked a fresh boon for you to help with their challenging kits

Raids - Boon - HealBlock:

• Whenever the Attacker finishes a Raid - Mission the Defender is inflicted with a 15 second healblock.
  

New Boss Buff

Raids - Boss - Protection:

• Bosses Cannot Take more than .25% of their Max Health In a Single Hit. This Protection is removed for 5 Seconds when finishing a “Raid - Mission” Prompt, paused for 1 second When Striking the Defender.
  
• Rewards
  

Rewards

Nightmare Raids will be the best place to go for our Competitive AQ Valiant summoners for the most valuable rewards. The map will feature a new reward structure that will provide more predictability in rewards.

Chest based reward identities:

• All chests have a small chance of obtaining Units or Valiant crystals but consist of a specific reward identity to reduce variance when you obtain them.
  
• The 1st mini-boss chest is mostly catered to horizontal progression (T6 Basic Catalysts, T3 Alpha Catalysts, T6 Class Catalysts)
  
• The 2nd mini-boss chest is mostly catered towards vertical progression (T4 Catalyst fragments or T7 Basic Catalyst Fragments)
  
• The 3rd chest is catered towards 7-star champion acquisition.
  
• Raids+ will feature upgraded completion and exploration rewards
  
• Both Raid maps will also include Eidol Essence rewards after the final boss.
  

FOR A FULL BREAKDOWN OF REWARDS AND ADDITIONAL AQ CHANGES, CHECK OUT THE WEBSITE LINK HERE: https://playcontestofchampions.com/news/nightmare-raids/