Introducing: Champion Requirements
Kabam Goggy
Moderator Moderator › Posts: 10
Something we’ve been asked more than once is if we have any plans for getting more usage out of 2 and 3-Star Champions as the game moves forward. To get the answer out of the way: Yes, we do! We’ve been working on a system for a while now and are excited to share it with you.
In the coming days we’ll be rolling out a new system called Champion Requirements that will only allow specific Champions into quests, using things like class, rarity, and the character’s status as a hero or villain to determine entry.
Before I get into specifics I want to talk a little bit about what we hope to get out of highlighting those lower rarities, and what it means for all of you.
Champion Variety and Collection Value
As you might imagine, one of the biggest benefits of this system is shaking up Champion variety a bit. Right now it can get stale relying on the same team to cut through most situations, and we know there are a few Champions out there who are excellent counters to most situations when played optimally.
The new rulesets from Champion Requirements will mean having to shake up how teams are used, and might even have you adding Champions you’ve never used before to your team! Many of us have (lots of) 2 and 3-Star versions of Champions that we never touch because they just aren’t at the same power bracket as our higher rarities, even if they’re very unique in their own right. This will give them a chance to shine! We want there to be value in reaching back in to your collection to bring out your old (or new!) Champions that haven’t seen action in a while.
Known Limits
It’s no secret that there is a gap between our most hardcore players and new Summoners. While this isn’t something we have a problem with, and is natural in any kind of progression-based RPG, it does mean that we’re often trying to create “one-size fits all” content for groups of players that may have disparate strength in their own right.
We will still offer various difficulties under these restrictions to serve players of different collection sizes and skill levels to keep things interesting and to prevent new players from running into brick walls, but the kind of enemies you see will have their bounds controlled by the limits of the rarities themselves.
Recontextualized Difficulty
Limiting the rarity of Champions used in a given quests means A ) we can make it available to more players, and B ) we know the exact power limit of the teams being brought into the quest. This means we can more tightly tune encounters and fights, without the added burden of trying to reach multiple categories of players within a single slice of difficulty. It also means we can do crazy things not normally seen in the game, like paring 2-Stars with buffs previously only used in Act 5, or Uncollected difficulty.
Function
Briefly above we explained the goals and examples of how we can use this new tool, but we also want to touch on how it will function once in-game.
When you enter the Event Quests screen, you may see the triangular Champion Requirements icon attached to a quest set’s banner. This will let you know that the quests within that set will have requirements, either on a per-Act basis, per-Chapter basis, and/or per-Quest basis. By tapping this icon, you can see what requirements are present at each level; an Act-level requirement, for example, will be applied to every quest within that Act, versus Quest-level which will only be applied to the quest in question.
These requirements for now are going to be pretty broad: Classes, Rarities, and whether or not the Champion is a Hero or Villain is all we’re looking at right now. (Though we plan to add more!) When you proceed to enter a quest, the game will automatically filter out Champions that don’t meet the requirements to prevent the process from being a scavenger hunt, and will tell you if anyone on your currently active team is ineligible for the quest.
From there, you can build a team around whatever requirement is present, and proceed to the quest itself!
Your first chance to try these out is coming up next month in our new Danger Room quests! Find out all about those in this post here.
In the coming days we’ll be rolling out a new system called Champion Requirements that will only allow specific Champions into quests, using things like class, rarity, and the character’s status as a hero or villain to determine entry.
Before I get into specifics I want to talk a little bit about what we hope to get out of highlighting those lower rarities, and what it means for all of you.
Champion Variety and Collection Value
As you might imagine, one of the biggest benefits of this system is shaking up Champion variety a bit. Right now it can get stale relying on the same team to cut through most situations, and we know there are a few Champions out there who are excellent counters to most situations when played optimally.
The new rulesets from Champion Requirements will mean having to shake up how teams are used, and might even have you adding Champions you’ve never used before to your team! Many of us have (lots of) 2 and 3-Star versions of Champions that we never touch because they just aren’t at the same power bracket as our higher rarities, even if they’re very unique in their own right. This will give them a chance to shine! We want there to be value in reaching back in to your collection to bring out your old (or new!) Champions that haven’t seen action in a while.
Known Limits
It’s no secret that there is a gap between our most hardcore players and new Summoners. While this isn’t something we have a problem with, and is natural in any kind of progression-based RPG, it does mean that we’re often trying to create “one-size fits all” content for groups of players that may have disparate strength in their own right.
We will still offer various difficulties under these restrictions to serve players of different collection sizes and skill levels to keep things interesting and to prevent new players from running into brick walls, but the kind of enemies you see will have their bounds controlled by the limits of the rarities themselves.
Recontextualized Difficulty
Limiting the rarity of Champions used in a given quests means A ) we can make it available to more players, and B ) we know the exact power limit of the teams being brought into the quest. This means we can more tightly tune encounters and fights, without the added burden of trying to reach multiple categories of players within a single slice of difficulty. It also means we can do crazy things not normally seen in the game, like paring 2-Stars with buffs previously only used in Act 5, or Uncollected difficulty.
Function
Briefly above we explained the goals and examples of how we can use this new tool, but we also want to touch on how it will function once in-game.
When you enter the Event Quests screen, you may see the triangular Champion Requirements icon attached to a quest set’s banner. This will let you know that the quests within that set will have requirements, either on a per-Act basis, per-Chapter basis, and/or per-Quest basis. By tapping this icon, you can see what requirements are present at each level; an Act-level requirement, for example, will be applied to every quest within that Act, versus Quest-level which will only be applied to the quest in question.
These requirements for now are going to be pretty broad: Classes, Rarities, and whether or not the Champion is a Hero or Villain is all we’re looking at right now. (Though we plan to add more!) When you proceed to enter a quest, the game will automatically filter out Champions that don’t meet the requirements to prevent the process from being a scavenger hunt, and will tell you if anyone on your currently active team is ineligible for the quest.
From there, you can build a team around whatever requirement is present, and proceed to the quest itself!
Your first chance to try these out is coming up next month in our new Danger Room quests! Find out all about those in this post here.
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