Version 1.8 - Frostival 2019

Minion Masters!

This year’s Frostival will feature a special mayhem as well as seasonal shop offers.
It’s been a great year with tons of new players joining us, and we’re even more excited about the future of Minion Masters in the coming years!

And don’t forget to claim your calendar gifts from the shop :)

Frostival Event

• The arenas have been decorated as everyone is getting into the holiday spirit!
• A special Skin and Emote will appear in the shop during the event!
• New Mayhem: Giftpocalypse - Gifts appear randomly in the Arena every 15 seconds. Better open it before your opponent does!

Balance

Placement Auras

• Mordar’s Tombstone now has a placement aura.
• Apep’s Totem now has a placement aura.

Arcane Ring

• No longer has a limited duration.

Cannon Roller

• Attack speed increased from 2 to 1.8.

High-Mage Leiliel

• Attack speed increased from 2 to 1.7.

Ravenous Swarmers

• Cost increased from 2 to 3 mana, unit count increased from 2 to 4.

Shars'Rakk Twins

• Trigger requirement changed from a 5 mana spell to a 5 or greater mana spell.

Spawn of Fury

• Now reduces the health and damage of both copies by 25% instead of only health by 50%.

Werewolves

• Damage reduced from 45 to 40.
• This affects all sources of werewolves, including Once Bitten, Lone Wolf, Wolf Among Sheep and Howling Moon.

Woodsman

• Now gains Rage instead of Haste. (still applies Slow to enemy minions)

Zeppelin Bomber - Rework

• Speed reduced from 7 to 5.
• Damage reduced from 250 to 100.
• Now drops a bomb every 3 seconds damaging all ground units and buildings in the affected area.
• No longer has a basic attack but still flies towards buildings.

Misc

• Stunning a Guardian under the effect of Glenn's Brew no longer makes its shield permanent.
• Prowler will no longer jump at an Assasin spawned inside its range.
• Gor'rakk's Sacrifice works again. Thanks Excaliber80!
• Conquest contribution now gets counted in total contribution even if you don’t place in the top 15 in your guild for a cycle.
• Scott and the Troubadour now don highlander appropriate attire.

Happy Frostival from BetaDwarf!

Minion Masters Thursday

Minion Masters!

How have you been enjoying The Quest for Mountainshaper so far? Have you tried out our new mode Adventures? How far have you been able to get to, and have you beat Hard Mode? We'd love to hear from you about them, so make sure to take part in our discussions on Steam, Discord and Xbox Clubs.

In the meantime, we have one last Update we'd like to do before we sign off for the year.

Version 1.8

Version 1.8 is planned to be released on the 18th of December. It'll contain a new Mayhem, some exciting balance changes, and a Frostival makeover for some of your favorite arenas for the holiday period.

Frostival Arenas

Our special Frostival arenas bring all that holiday spirit to Minion Masters, with trees, presents and lights. Here's a look at some of them:

Which arena are you looking forward to most? Let us know!

Mayhem

We've also got a brand new Mayhem coming in this update! Giftpocalypse is a chaotic Frostival themed game mode where gifts will drop in the arenas randomly every 15 seconds. This interval decreases every minute by 2 seconds until we truly reach the Giftpocalypse! There's a whole host of crazy Minions, Spells and Buffs inside them. It's been a ton of fun to test internally and we can't wait for you to try it out!

Balance Changes

Next, let's take a look at one of those balance changes:

• Zeppelin Bomber - Rework
• No longer has a basic attack (Will still target Buildings, meaning it flies towards them)
• Now drops a bomb beneath itself every 3 seconds that damages Ground minions
• Damage 250 > 100
• Speed 7 > 5
• Developer Comments
• Zeppelin Bomber was a card that very rarely saw use outside of cheese strategies due to its highly volatile nature of being an excellent burst damage card... If it ever reached its target. With this rework we want to reinvent the identity of Zeppelin Bomber to fulfill a new role of a difficult to use but highly rewarding AoE damage dealer that can still be easily dispatched to make up for its potential.

Candy Cane Milloween

Coming to the Shop for this Holiday period only is the brand new Legendary Candy Cane Milloween skin! She's getting in the Frostival mood, bringing her special festive cheer to the arenas with gratuitous magical violence. You can get her in the Shop from the 18th to the 21st of December, so don't miss out!

---------------------

Due to vacations and the new Update releasing next week, this will be the last Blog Post for the year. It's been a wild ride, with our release, a new office, and tons of exciting opportunities for expansion within the Minion Masters community. We want to extend our personal thanks to all of you for supporting us, and we hope 2020 can be just as awesome for Minion Masters!

Happy Holidays from all of BetaDwarf!

Version 1.7 - The Quest for Mountainshaper

Minion Masters!

Compelled by cryptic visions of impending evil, Milloween has ventured deep into the frozen Highlands in search of the reclusive Stoutheart tribes to help her in the search for the ancient Mountainshaper artifact. She can only hope that they find it before it falls into the clutches of evil...

New Game Mode - Adventures

In Adventures you go on bold single-player journeys with unique mechanics, content and story!

The Quest for Mountainshaper

Journey with Milloween on a daring adventure to find the powerful artifact Mountainshaper,  an ancient and powerful magical weapon sought by a shadowy threat.

With dangers every step of the way, she will need to enlist the aid of likely and unlikely Masters.

• 3 chapters - Chapters 1 & 2 are available at release. Chapter 3 releases on the 13th of December.
• Build your deck as you go. Start with a Master-specific deck and with each victory, you get a choice of cards to add to your deck.
• 5 unique masters with completely new perks and with unlockable “Affinity cards”.
• Unique Boss fights - Encounter 23 Boss fights in the Frozen Highlands, each with new perks and personalities.
• Powerful relics and treasures to empower your deck as you play.
• Rewards - Across all the chapters you’ll earn tokens, xp, exclusive avatars and even a Legendary card!
• Completing hard mode awards an exclusive rare and supreme avatar.
• Price - Chapter 1 is free, with Chapters 2 & 3 costing 1400 rubies as a package, or 1000 individually. You can play owned chapters as much as you want.

Also featuring 10 new cards:

New Faction: Stouthearts

The burly tribe from the Highlands arrive in Minion Masters! Known for their strength and uproarious nature, they bring the all-new Revelry faction mechanic to the game. Notable Stouthearts include Fergus Flagon Fighter, Scott the Sensitive Savage, and the Troubadour!

New Mechanic: Revelry

If summoned close to another Stoutheart unit - or if another Stoutheart unit is summoned nearby, the card will receive a powerful benefit.

New Mechanic: Slow

Units affected by Slow have their Attack and Movement Speed slowed by 25%. Removes Haste (previously known as Frenzy) when applied. Conversely, applying Haste removes Slow.

New Mechanic: Mana Freeze

Lock X Mana Crystals. The next time you would gain mana, instead unlock a mana crystal. The Crystal Elves use their mastery of magic to push themselves far beyond their normal limits, though this power comes at a cost.

• This Expansion will last until February
• 10 new cards have been released!
• Three new skins have been released - Stoutheart Milloween, King Cool and Mountainshaper Volco!
• An entirely new Singleplayer gamemode has been added - Adventures!

Misc

• A new Conquest has started! Special items you can claim for your guild include a Vengeful Dead avatar and Spectral Morellia!
• A new Tri-Team Tourney has begun - Earn your choice of Netherstep, Wizard Puff or a random Legendary Card!
• Frenzy has been renamed to Haste to better contrast it with the new Slow mechanic.
• Scott the Sensistive Savage and Troubadour have had their Faction changed to Stoutheart.

Bugs

• Fixed Resort Ravager not showing up in the skin selection until you own it.
• Fixed an issue where Xbox clients reconnecting to the server without closing the client causing timeouts.
• Fixed Arcane Bolt’s description omitting that it only targets Ground units.
• Fixed some weird formatting on Crakgul Doomcleaver’s description.
• Fixed Spectral Essence incorrectly stating it requires 20 Essence in the tooltip.
• Fixed various card localization issues.

Cheers from BetaDwarf!

Frostival Fanart Contest!

Minion Masters!

It's time to get in the holiday spirit with a Frostival Fanart Contest! Our winner will be receiving an amazing prize of 5000 Rubies with two runner-up prizes of 1000 Rubies - Here's how you can enter to have a chance of winning!

1. Make what you think is the best Minion Masters Holiday artwork ever created.
2. All entries must be Frostival/Holiday/Winter related.
3. Head on over to our Official Discord at http://discord.gg/minionmasters and post your entry in the #frostival-contest channel.
4. Once the Contest entry period ends on the 24th of December, a community vote will be held between 3 entries selected by the BetaDwarf staff, running until the 28th of December. The Winner will receive codes worth 5,000 Rubies, while second and third place will win 1,000 Rubies each.

As always, all entries need to be original artworks! You can use any medium you like - Sketches, digital, 3D, but they need to be your own work to be eligible for the contest.

The contest runs from the 3rd of December to the 24th of December, 0900 UTC. Good luck, Masters!

Cheers from BetaDwarf!

Minion Masters Thursday

Minion Masters!

We're changing up our blog schedule to release on the same day as our new E-mail Newsletters - Thursday! Our main reason for doing this is to avoid major content overlaps between them and to align better with future Update days.

Developer Stream Incoming!

The Quest for Mountainshaper is releasing next week, Masters! After the short delay for our Mini-Update in Malshaar's Malicious Malediction, the new release date of the 5th of December is almost upon us. Have you been keeping on top of all of the latest reveals from our Update Site?

We've got a Developer Stream coming up on Monday the 2nd to show off all of the new content you'll be able to play with, including all the new cards and a live demonstration of Adventures. You can find it on our official Twitch Channel at 1900 CET - We hope to see you there!

Fan Card Suggestions - Aymeri

Thanks for all the submissions we've received regarding your card ideas so far! A lot of them have been really interesting to read through, and today we're highlighting Aymei's set of Accursed cards, including a new mechanic:

New Mechanic - Accursed Bones: Bones are dropped from certain Accursed cards, like the Undying Skeleton. It is used as a resource to cast certain abilities.

Corpse Explosion - 3 Mana Spell. Destroy bones in the target area, dealing 100 damage to ALL units. Can only be used in your arena.

Ghoul - 5 Mana Minion. Consumes all bones on the map, getting bigger and stronger. Gains 75 HP and 10 damage per bone consumed. Base 150 HP and 20 Damage.

What we like most about this set of suggestions is the idea of creating a long term win condition through the new Bones mechanic and creating powerful cards that take advantage of them, but with major drawbacks to including them in your deck to offset their lategame potential. Corpse Explosion for instance would do nothing without any Bones in your field, requiring you to set it up first, while Ghoul only becomes valuable when there's a large number of Bones on the field, making your strategy predictable to your opponent in exchange for the raw potential.

Want your card suggestions featured on our blog? Send your ideas to thatsprite@betadwarf.com !

Mysterious Teaser

Lastly, we've got a little bit more to show off regarding that Crossbow Dude and the Priestess from a few weeks ago. 10 seconds more, in fact:

The keen eye will notice this Priestess looks a little different to what we currently have in game. What could it all mean? You'll find out soon!

Cheers from BetaDwarf!

Minion Masters Friday

Minion Masters!

The Mini-Update has just dropped containing the balance changes from Version 1.7 as well as the new Mal'Shaar's Malicious Malediction Mayhem. Are you having fun with them? Let us know! In the meantime, there's two weeks until The Quest for Mountainshaper releases, and this week we'd like to look back at the past.

Summer 2016 Minion Masters Footage

Long time Minion Masters player Ecke brought this video to our attention from the BetaDwarf Archives. What you see is one of the first Minion Masters prototypes from its early infancy back in Summer 2016, using lots of early graphics and models from our previous project Forced Showdown. Lots of weird animations back then, too - Check out that sway on Ratbo, and how Sniper Scrat doesn't even take aim. It even features Ratbo's old second perk where he could attack at global range if he had more than 10 minions summoned at a time.

It's great to look back at old footage like this and see how far Minion Masters has come since then. Thanks again to Ecke for pointing us to this!

Remote Play Together in FORCED!

Forced was the first game BetaDwarf made out of university, for which you can read our incredible startup story here. Forced was acclaimed for its great co-op gameplay in a time where games had begun to focus on more solitary, less social experiences. With our next project having that same focus of connecting people together with Friendshipping, it's great to look back at where it all started for inspiration.

Steam Remote Play Together allows you to play local multiplayer games with your friends online across the world, as if they were sitting next to you with their controller plugged in. For Forced, this could mean you'll have less connection issues when trying to play with your friends as you're using Steam's new and improved feature rather than our old and non-optimized multiplayer setup.

To celebrate the release of Remote Play Together, Forced is currently on sale until November 25th on Steam. We hope you'll take this opportunity to play through BetaDwarf's first adventure into the games industry as we prepare to expand in new and exciting directions!

Version 1.8 & First ranked season of The Quest for Mountainshaper

We decided we'd like to get ahead on communicating upcoming content around the Christmas period, so we have some information for you about what we'll be up to. Version 1.8 is currently scheduled for the 18th of December and will include a Christmas Event, Balance changes and a couple of things that didn't make it into Version 1.7.

Additionally, the first ranked season for The Quest for Mountainshaper will have a longer duration than normal. The current season has been extended to the 5th to coincide with the release of our new expansion, and because Version 1.9 won't be until the 16th of January (as currently planned) the next ranked season will end there. 

BadAsAFish80's 2v2 Tournament

Following a recent string of tournaments he's hosted, BadAsAFish80 is back and venturing into the relatively untapped realm of 2v2 Tournaments. Here's what he had to say on Reddit:

Many of you have asked for me to provide a 2v2 tournament therefore I'm excited to announce that we are doing it! Since this is the first of our 2v2 tournaments it will be designated as a test event so that we can see how the scheduling and rules are applied to this game mode, therefore I need your help to get as many people into the tournament as possible. There is no cash prize pool for this event but the first "proper" 2v2 tournament will be supported by BetaDwarf providing a $200 prize pool with registration starting for that event on the 1st of December.

https://www.toornament.com/en_GB/tournaments/3055972701168066560/information

I'm really excited to get the 2v2 tournament scene up and running and I hope that you all can join me in this and future events to have a lot of fun, to support the community and of course win some prizes!

Many thanks

Fish

Cheers from BetaDwarf!

Mayhem Mini-Update - Mal’Shaar's Malicious Malediction!

Minion Masters!

As previously announced on our Blog and Newsletter, we unfortunately had to delay the release of The Quest for Mountainshaper. However, we don’t want to leave you with nothing for the next two weeks, so we put together this Mini-Update containing all the balance changes from Version 1.7, a brand new Mayhem, and extensions to the Conquest and Battle Pass deadlines. There will also be a free Shop Offer in the store once the deals change today, make sure to pick it up!

New Mayhem: Mal'Shaar's Malicious Malediction

Replacing Two for Free for this week is this brand new Mayhem teasing the upcoming community voted card Mal’Shaar! In this Mayhem, all minions are granted Stealth when summoned. You’ll need to tool your deck up with ways to detect or reveal enemy minions, otherwise they’ll walk straight past each other. As part of this update you can also complete a special Quest of playing a Mayhem match to earn yourself the Banshee Morellia skin.

Balance

• Accursed Ascension
• Spectral Essence required from 20 to 15
• Developer Comments
• We felt Accursed Ascension required too much dedication to play properly, especially outside of Morellia decks. With this change, you have more deck options while still being able to reach Ascension.

• Boomer
• Now has Voidborne Wound: Reduce Mana Cost by 1
• Developer Comments
• Boomer has felt underpowered for a while, this change should bring it up to speed while bolstering Voidborne decks.

• Bridge Shrine
• Duration decreased from 60 to 45 (Still generates the same amount of total XP)
• Developer Comments
• We like the dynamic Bridge Shrine adds to the game, but the recent change to building placement affected Bridge Shrine too much. With this change, Bridge Shrine should become more of a threat that your opponent has to deal with faster.

• Caged Prowler
• Health increased from 300 to 400
• Developer Comments
• It was too difficult to get decent value out of Caged Prowler because it could be stopped by spells easily. With this change, you are forcing your opponent to deal with it with Minions, or using a more expensive spell.

• Chain Lightning / Stormy
• Now has a maximum of 10 bounces
• Developer Comments
• Chain Lightning is infamous in 2v2 especially because it could bounce around the entire arena. This change stops those situations while retaining Chain Lightning’s intended power

• Diona
• Decoy Trap Mana Cost reduced from 1 to 0
• Developer Comments
• Diona has fallen behind the other Masters lately. This change should make her Decoy Trap easier to use and combine with other cards.

• Dragon Nest
• Dragon Whelp Mana Threshold decreased from 5 to 4
• Duration decreased from 35 to 30 seconds
• Developer Comments
• Dragon Nest is a fun card to build a deck around. This change should give you more freedom of choice when picking spells for your Dragon Nest deck. 

• Morellia
• Basic Attack no longer slows enemy Minions
• Damage 5 > 6
• Developer Comments
• Morellia’s slow can feel extremely punishing to play against, especially in the early game, so we opted to remove it.

• Netherstep
• Now only affects Ground minions
• Now has Voidborne Wound: Reduce Mana Cost by 1
• Developer Comments
• This change should add a new tool to the Voidborne tool kit that embraces an aggressive playstyle.

• Nyrvir the Fallen
• Damage per Second decreased from 50 to 40
• Health decreased from 2200 to 2000
• Developer Comments
• Nyrvir has been extremely hard to deal with, especially for newer players. This should make her less overwhelming.

• Ratbo
• Perk 1 & 3 now summon Armored Scrats if the minion costs 5 or more Mana
• Developer Comments
• Ratbo has always been forced to play with cheap Minions. This change should give Ratbo players some more interesting options to choose from, as they will now benefit from adding higher-cost minions to their decks.

• Ritual of Servitude
• Mana Cost increased from 2 to 4
• No longer has a cap on the minion summoned
• Developer Comments
• RoS was intended to add value to high-cost decks to make up for their lack of bridge control. Due to the low cost however, it added too much value. With this change, 7+ mana cost are still an option, but with less free value gained from this card. 

Misc

• The Battle Pass and Conquest end dates have been extended to reflect the new release date for The Quest for Mountainshaper.

Cheers from BetaDwarf!

Minion Masters Friday

Minion Masters!

Version 1.7 Release Changed

We've got good news and bad news - Let's start with the bad. We try to align expansions with promotional opportunities because they enhance the opportunities we have to bring more players to the game. Unfortunately, a lot of things are conflicting currently, meaning our opportunity doesn't align effectively, meaning fewer players. It's important to us that the game keeps growing, so we have to delay Version 1.7 and The Quest for Mountainshaper to the 5th of December. We know you've been excited about things, but we truly believe it's better for the game if we wait just a bit longer.

To make up for it, we're releasing a new mayhem mode on the 21st, as a teaser for the upcoming community-voted card, Mal'Shar! We'll have a special prize for playing the Mayhem, and the Mayhem is replacing the "Two For Free" one currently scheduled. We'll also be doing a mini-update on the 21st that includes all of the balance changes that were intended for 1.7. The ranked season will not, however, be resetting until Version 1.7's release. Here's one of the balance changes we intend to be making:

• Ritual of Servitude
• Summoned Card cap removed
• Mana Cost 2 > 4
• Developer Comments
• With our previous change to Ritual of Servitude we wanted to ensure that we could limit the power level of the high cost decks that made the most use of it without harming the effectiveness of the lower cost decks that were less explosive in their usage of the cards. Unfortunately, some times balance changes don't work out, and it ultimately had less of an impact on the metagame as we had hoped for. We determined that a mana cost increase to 3 wouldn't be significant enough either due to the mana advantage gained. We're hoping that 4 mana is the right place for the card to be.

The Conquest and Battle Pass will also be prolonged, meaning you have more time to get any last rewards you have to collect. Additionally, the last few reveals on the Update Site for the expansion are having their reveal dates changed to reflect the delay. The release of the third chapter of Adventures and the intended December 1.8 patch are also delayed - More information will follow soon.

We want to hear about your card ideas!

We'd like to start a new feature on our future Blog Posts where we can highlight some of the brightest creative minds in the community - And what better way to do that than to hear what kind of cards you think should be added to the game? 

• Mail your card ideas with as many details as you want to thatsprite@betadwarf.com 
• It can be about anything - Existing factions, or maybe something new? Building up on existing cards in a clever way or adding something entirely unique to the game. 
• We'll try to pick out our favourite submission each week to showcase on the blog. 
• (Please note that we're unlikely to actually implement the cards into the game even if they're featured on the blog - This is something we're doing just for fun :) )

We're looking forward to see what you can come up with!

Streamer Spotlight: DoctorZox

Today we're featuring the remarkable story of Twitch streamer DoctorZox!

Zox earned his PhD in Kinesiology; Master’s in Psychology and a Bachelor's in Philosophy almost 20 years ago. His path was set until this all changed in 2009, when a life changing accident left him disabled and unable to work.

In a struggle to find a new path, he turned to gaming to take his mind on a new, and never ending journey. World of Warcraft followed by Hearthstone was the start.

Achieving PVP Gladiator in WoW Arena and Legend multiple times in Hearthstone with a high rank of Legend 69 left him wanting more.

He found his way to Twitch Affiliate July 9th 2018 streaming Hearthstone. Then transitioned to Minion Masters full time on July 1st 2019, where he was able to achieve GrandMaster in just 2 short weeks! He is known in the wonderful Minion Masters community as DoctorZox to his Twitch family and friends, where you can find him live with his faithful and loyal companion Kiaya!

Check out DoctorZox's twitch stream here!

Cheers from BetaDwarf!

Minion Masters Monday

Minion Masters!

Welcome to a special edition Minion Masters Monday! We've got lots to talk about in terms of our upcoming brand new game mode, Adventures! Let's not waste any time and get right into it:

Adventures

Adventures is a brand new PvE game mode where you play a single-player story with unique mechanics and content!

The Quest for Mountainshaper

In our first Adventure, you join Milloween as she attempts to recover the Mountainshaper, an ancient artifact required to save the world from an unknown but terrifying threat.

With plenty of dangers along the way, she’ll need to enlist the aid of likely and unlikely heroes.

Features: 3 chapters - Chapters 1 & 2 available at release, Chapter 3 will be available on the 4th of December.

Build your deck as you go. Start with a Master-specific deck and with each victory, you get a choice of cards to add to your deck. 5 Unique Masters with completely new perks and unlockable "Affinity cards". 23 NEW Boss fights Powerful relics and treasures to earn

Unlockable Hard Mode - Unlocked by completing Chapter 1, challenge yourself against even tougher opponents packing special modifiers! Earn special rewards to show off your Adventures mastery against other players! Earn Rewards - Through all the chapters you'll earn plenty of tokens and experience, as well as 5 Rare, 3 Supreme & 1 Legendary cards. Completing hard mode awards an exclusive rare and Supreme avatar. Price - Chapter 1 will be free forever, while Chapters 2 & 3 cost 1400 Rubies as a package, or 1000 individually. You can play owned chapters as much as you want.

Let's take a closer look at two of the Masters that will be available, Milloween and Fergus Flagon Fighter and their unique perks:

Milloween

Basic Attack - Fires 3 Arcane Sparks for 8 damage each. Mana Surge (+50% Attack Speed if you have 6 or more Mana).

Perk 1: Arcane Synergy - Add an Arcane Missiles card to your deck for every two spells in your deck.

Perk 2: Crystal Escort - All Ranged Minions you play are accompanied by a Crystal Sentry.

Perk 3: Arcane Overcharge - Your Spells are cast twice.

Fergus Flagon Fighter

Basic Attack - Uses his regular Minion attack, but can hit both Flying and Ground.

Perk 1: Go Big - Whenever you play a 5+ cost minion card, give nearby friendly minions Frenzy  (+50% Movement and Attack Speed, removes Slow) and nearby enemy minions Slow (-25% Movement and Attack Speed, removes Frenzy).

Perk 2: Bigger is Better - The minion card in your deck with the highest health gains double health and Rage (+50% Damage) permanently.

Perk 3: Clan Loyalty - Summon 4 random Stoutheart minion Cards.

Interview with a PTR Tester

Today, we have an interview with one of our PTR Testers Jamez28 from the Official Minion Masters Discord. We wanted to ask him personally what he thought about our new Adventures feature.

BD: Thanks for taking the time to be interviewed. Can you introduce yourself and how long you've been playing Minion Masters for?

Jamez28: Heyo, Im Jamez28, moderator and tournament competitor and ive been playing Minion Masters since early 2017 so around 2 years at this point.

BD: So, you were among the first to test Adventures for us in the PTR. What did you enjoy most about playing it?

Jamez28: I really enjoyed discovering all the different bosses you could encounter during the adventure, many familiar faces from expeditions but tons of new and interesting ones.

BD: Do you have any general advice to give new players getting started in Adventures?

Jamez28: Yeah, adventures are gonna be tough and sometimes they might even feel unfair but then you're gonna have some runs where you sweep the floor vs the bosses and you'll feel like a strategic mastermind.

BD: Who was your favourite of the five masters you could play as?

Jamez28: If I had to make a choice it'd be Jolo, the Hero Scrat, stealing cards from your opponent was phenomenal in establishing tempo and really wrestling control of the game back to you.

BD: Thanks again for your time. Do you have any shoutouts you'd like to make?

Jamez28: Yeah, I'd shoutout the TCL, theyre putting on a lot more tournaments regularly and its a great way to play versus some of the best of Minion Masters and earn some nice rewards along the way, i'd recommend anyone to sign up even if you think you aren't good enough.

Cheers from BetaDwarf!

Minion Masters Friday

Minion Masters!

The Quest for Mountainshaper Reveals

Our new Battle Pass Expansion is rapidly approaching, and we've got lots of juicy details about new cards and our Adventures mode to talk about.

First up is the Legendary card Fergus Flagon Fighter. This 7 cost beer brawler likes his Frostberry Brew so much that he turned his mugs into weapons! He'll go for crazy spin attacks while he pushes his way through hordes of enemies, but all the inebriation will cause him to get dizzy. Playing other Stoutheart cards near him while he's dizzy will allow him to get back on his feet again and get right back to it.

On a similar note, we've also revealed the Supreme card Glenn's Brew. This 2 mana Stoutheart spell packs quite a punch and is sure to revitalize anyone in the middle of combat. A random minion in the small area the spell uses will gain 100 Max health and be healed for 400. After 6 seconds, however, the minion will mysteriously vanish, never to be seen again...

View more revealed cards such as Frostfeathers, Woodsman, Caber Tosser, Leiliel's Vortex and more at our Update Site!. Next week we'll be spilling all the details on Adventures!

Fan Interview

This week we're interviewing Steven from the Minion Masters Discord. Steven is one of our oldest players and contributes to the community in a variety of ways, and we figured we'd return the favour and let you know how awesome he is.

BD: Thanks for taking time to talk to us. Please introduce yourself and what you frequently do in the community.
Steven: Hello, I am Steven, also known as StevenEven. I am the main contributor  on the official Minion Masters wiki and I also am the one who keeps FFA's data spreadsheet up to date. You might also know me from: Moderating the official MM discord, the developer stream recap posts or my previous position at KPC.

BD: How long have you been playing Minion Masters for?
Steven: I have been playing the game since June 2017, so for about 2 years and 4 months. Time flies.

BD: What does editing the wiki usually entail?
Steven: Depending on the task it can be less or more complicated.

For example, when I first started I added "history" on each and every card and master, this meant i had to go trough all patch notes from all time and then write that information on the wiki in a structured manner. I am really proud of the result as new players can always get to look at how the cards used to be. Back when I started playing, I loved hearing the history of certain cards.

Other than that, i usually just need to add the cards and update others due to the balance changes.

When adding cards i just create a new page and copy another's card page, then edit it accordingly. When updating cards it's simply the addition of some text and tweaks of some numbers. It's actually really simple and anyone who knows how to type could do it.

I do however always make sure that all information is correct and integral, and that the history is updated.

BD: Which expansion has been your favourite so far?
Steven: It's kind of a tie between Guardians of the Crystal Spire (since it was the first season with brand new mechanics and minions), Rise of the Howling Moon (since it was the first time a master was added after I started playing and i also liked the theme) or Battle for Light's Reach (since it introduced factions, a feature i wanted and suggested from long before)

BD: Any shoutouts you'd like to make?
Steven: Shoutout to Videogamer77 and his group for being my friends since I started playing, they helped me integrate in the community and reach the point where I am. Also shoutout to FFA for, besides also being a friend, helping me evolve and improve myself both withim the community and in real life, as a person.

Steven can frequently be found hanging out on the Official Minion Masters Discord. Here's to you, Steven!

E-Sports Galore this week!

We've got tons of Minion Masters tournaments happening this weekend! The Challenger League will be running their Volco Cup 3 with a Halloween Edition on November 2nd at 1400 UTC.

Additionally, BadAsAFish80 will be hosting their 5th tournament on the 4th of November. Here's the details on that:

Building on and learning from the success of his previous 4 tournaments BadAsAFish80 is excited to announce that his 5th tournament is now open for registration.

$100 Prize Pool split $50 - First, $25 - Second, $12.50 - Third and Fourth

Top performers get invites to the next Sinobii's Battleground Invitational featuring even more cash prizes! (The number of invites awarded depends on the number of participants).

In game content available to top performers including the Morellia Dynasty Skin to the winner.

Format is Best of 3 Double Elimination.

Registration is currently open and matches are scheduled to begin on the 4th of November.

You are given 3 days for each round to complete it at your and your opponent's convenience.

Choose a master to ban for your opponent for each round.

https://www.toornament.com/en_GB/tournaments/2985229237972811776/information

BadAsAFish80 is looking forward to seeing you in the tournament and wishes you the best of luck and should you have any questions encourages you to reach out to him on Discord (BadAsAFish80 :fish:#0275).

Meanwhile, behind the scenes...

We got these two to put on some funny looking costumes you might recognize. What could that be for?

Cheers from BetaDwarf!

Minion Masters Friday

Minion Masters!

Ready for Minion Masters to get spooky?

Halloween is right around the corner, and we've got the perfect way to celebrate:

• ALL your favourite arenas have been given a special seasonal look! 
• The elusive Pumpking Puff will be available in the store.
• Free special Halloween avatar in the shop!
• Free cards via the shop offers!
• A Special Halloween Quest!

The arenas will be coming with special lighting, lanterns, cobwebs and pumpkins, and our Accursed and Voidborne DLC bundles will be discounted throughout the event. Check out the Altar of the Almighty Apep arena complete with its makeover!

What arena are you most excited to see decorate? Let us know! Our special Halloween Event will be starting on next Monday the 28th of October until the 4th of November. Make sure to log in, join in with the fun, and collect your free goodies!

COMING SOON: The Quest for Mountainshaper

Last week we launched the webpage for our upcoming expansion, The Quest for Mountainshaper! We've got lots of reveals planned in the run-up to Version 1.7, and we've created a special Steam Event that you can sign up for to be reminded of when the update goes live!

In her search for the ancient artifact Mountainshaper, Milloween treks through the frozen Highlands. Here she comes upon a village of big burly humans known as Stouthearts.

After proving herself to their clan, Milloween and her elven companion Leiliel Brightfeather are welcomed with open arms, and invited to join in their revelry. The eager young would-be hero, Fergus Flagon Fighter, promises to guide Milloween as they embark on a dangerous journey through the Mountains.

Awesome Harbinger Fanart

It's no secret that we love to see some of the inspiring creativity our Community. We've frequently held fanart competitions on our own Discord server after all, where some of our most artistic players come together to show off their Minion Masters creations. So we were very happy to see u/HeavyLantern 's take on our favourite flying Slither menace, Harbinger!

We caught up with HeavyLantern and asked him about this cool reimagining.

BD: How long have you been playing Minion Masters for?
HeavyLantern: I've been playing Minion Masters for about 2 months now. One of my best friends introduced me to the game and I instantly became addicted.

BD: What inspired you to draw Harbinger like this?
HeavyLantern: I've always thought Harbinger had a really neat design and motif. Because of his occupation, I thought it would be cool if I could take a darker approach on his concept.

BD: Do you have any social media or art portfolios for people to follow you on?
HeavyLantern: I've made a Tumblr (https://heavylantern.tumblr.com), but I haven't really posted anything there yet. Otherwise, I mostly post art on Reddit (https://www.reddit.com/user/HeavyLantern).

BD: Do you have any other comments?
HeavyLantern: Thank you for putting so much love into this game! I'm really looking forward to the Mountainshaper expansion.

If you liked his art as much as we did, make sure to check him out!

TCL C-Sar's Challenge 2

TCL has been working really hard to get the highest quality tournaments, not only for the participants, but also the viewers. Our Artists, Salbei and Morbid Wisp, have done such amazing progress on the visuals, as well as some cool features that Twitch spectators will be able to see, such as live results of other matches from the same stage, Player Stats (Win Rates) updated live, and rotating visual assets to always have something vibrant and different. 
We're hoping all viewers can enjoy these additions, to make their experience watching our events even better. 

Check out the Rules for their upcoming C-Sar's Challenge Tournament here, and be sure to tune in for the main event happening on their Twitch stream here on Saturday the 26th at 1400 UTC!

Cheers from BetaDwarf!

King Puff Cup Closure

You may have noticed KPC hasn't been operating to the same standards of quality we set for ourselves years ago.

This has been due to some internal problems, mainly regarding the interest and activity within our team. As an organization in its third year, we were evolving rapidly. Some of our most dedicated members found new opportunities as a result of KPC, while others had college or work schedule changes take priority. Life happens. We simply didn't have the manpower support to keep doing tournaments regularly.  Of course, we already had a prior commitment to our community. Unfortunately, maintaining the tournament schedule while maintaining a sufficient level of quality for our expectations has proven impossible.

KPC is closing. The season will be cut short and no more tournaments will be held by KPC. Any KPC related material leftover will be backed up and some will be repurposed.

Huge thank you to everyone who was part of our community. We couldn't have done it without you!

Version 1.6

Minion Masters!

This Update we've got a big Quality of Life improvement coming through the much-anticipated Reconnect feature, and an assortment of Balance Changes such as the removal of Double Masters for Premade 2v2 teams.

Apologies for the slightly weird formatting on our blog this week, as there's been some technical difficulties with the Editor.

Apep Redesign

Our favourite Supreme Slitherer, Apep, has received a complete visual redesign in this update. Looking more vicious and cunning than ever, the self-proclaimed Serpent God comes with all-new sound effects and animations to match his new form. We’re super excited to release him to the playerbase, so please let us know what you think of his new design!

Reconnect

Coming in this update is a feature we’ve wanted to implement for quite some time - The ability to reconnect to ongoing matches! When the server detects that you have an unfinished match when you reach the Main Menu, you will be prompted to reconnect to load back into that game. This feature works for both 1v1 and 2v2 matches, and the match will continue as normal while you’re disconnected (albeit without your Master playing any cards). This also fixes the annoying circumstance of teammates disconnecting during the victory animation causing you a defeat.

Balance

2v2 Premade Duos can no longer queue with the same Master.

Arcane Bolt

Now has an indicator if it will kill or stun a unit

Now refunds 1 Mana if it stuns a unit

Developer Comments

Arcane Bolt often felt like a card that would simply remain “dead” in your hand if you couldn’t find a good application for it while playing against your opponent, and the specific health threshhold could sometimes be unclear as to the outcome of the spell. By adding a QoL indicator and a refund upon stunning a unit, we hope it improves the usability of the spell significantly.

Bahra the Witchwolf

Bahra's ability no longer roots units that are played after he is summoned.

Developer Comments - This was a particularly frustrating interaction with Bahra as it would often result in units you play as a counter being rooted helplessly. While we don't view this as a huge nerf, it should make counterplaying Bahra a great deal less frustrating.

Crystal Arcanist

Damage 35 > 40
Developer Comments - Having long been outshined by its peers, we decided to give it a little bump up.

Defenso Chopper

Shock damage 100 > 75
Developer Comments - As one of the most played cards for a while, it had a tendency to shut down entire strategies on its own.

Demon Warrior

Mana Cost 6 > 5

Health 450 > 300

Damage 110 > 100

Now gains triple Health and Damage from the 5th time she is played and onwards.
Developer Comments - Demon Warrior has struggled a lot since her rework due to how hard it could be to activate her ability. Matches generally started getting faster and her excessive damage was often unnecessary, meaning that she was hard to justify using at the 6 Mana slot. By rescaling her like this we intend to keep her HP total when activated the same, but scale back her damage in return for making her significantly easier to activate over the course of a game.

Disruptor Puffs

Now known as Disruptor Puff

Mana Cost 2 > 1

Unit Count 2 > 1

New Ability: When Disruptor Puff reaches the middle of the bridge, it teleports to the other bridge, then teleports back every 6 seconds.
Developer Comments - Disruptor Puffs had a particularly problematic design where it would significantly hinder your opponent's ability to play the game, and in certain circumstances could snowball to unfair levels. However, the card didn't see much play due to its low power level outside of the dream scenarios, and we were reluctant to buff it because of its oppressive potential. This new design aims to fill the gap of a 1 mana card that can capture both bridges left behind by the change to Scrat Pack, but keeping it distinct with the removal of the versatility that made the Scrats too effective.

Gambler’s Ball

Now has a 20% chance to cast both Healing Fireball and Fireball at the same time.
Developer Comments - Gambler's Ball, while a fun concept, was often completely ineffective in most scenarios, requiring a specific scenario (tanky minions fighting other tanky minions) to guarantee you any sort of value. We saw an opportunity to reinforce the identity of the card and its "Gambling" effect with this new third effect, and we're hoping it makes the card more fun to play with overall.

Lost Legionnaires

Now have Empyrean Army: Gain Rage.
Developer Comments - One of the least played, worst performing cards. This certainly needed a buff, and we wanted to focus on the damage they would deal in direct encounters rather than improve their survivability, having a decent health pool for a 3 mana card already.

Magma Cannon

Health 300 > 350
Developer Comments - Magma Cannon was a low performing card that we felt needed a slight lift in order to perform at an acceptable level. We opted to increase its health so that it could perform direct trades a little better, but it still remains vulnerable to cards that could output significant damage to it quickly.

Milloween

Perk 1 changed: Now adds a single-use Arcane Golem to the deck every 30 seconds.

Arcane Golem Speed 2 > 3
Developer Comments - One particularly problematic element of Milloween was that she could focus on creating a high cycle focused deck that relied very little on spells, and hoping to draw the game out to Perk 3, at which point she would be able to drop Level 5 Arcane Golems onto the field at a rapid rate. This would create insurmountable walls of damage and health that were extremely difficult to push past, with most high cycle decks being able to get multiple Golems onto the arena at a time. This was a far cry from her intended design as the Spell-based Master as it was the objectively superior way to play her, whereas lower cycle decks that wanted to make as much use of Spells as possible would have Milloween's key minion on the field less often. With this change we hope to buff the lower cycle, spell-heavy Milloween decks significantly while significantly reducing the benefits of cycle on her.

Ritual of Servitude

Summoned units have a maximum mana cost of 6.
Developer Comments - This card certainly took the meta by storm, as it provided an immense power boost to high cost decks with its huge discount. We’ve opted for this change to try and reign in the extreme decks somewhat without hurting the more reasonable mid-range variations.

Spawn of Fury

Now targets a random Minion within a small AoE.
Developer Comments - One core issue that held Spawn of Fury back from being an effective card was its requirement to have a completely empty board state before it could be used reliably. This often left you open to removal spells, or just created a very predictable push that could be either dealt with or simply ignored as the opponent pushed down the other lane with the knowledge that you had spent all your mana on a Spawn of Fury combo. With this targeting change we hope to alleviate that scenario and make the card easier to play.

Stun Lancers

Health 150 > 130
Developer Comments - Stun Lancers were one of the most successful cards in recent patches after their various buffs, providing a huge amount of value for their mana cost. With this change we’re hoping the added vulnerability can help make them a bit less reliable without the proper support.

Sun Burn

No longer damages friendly units, but still grants them Rage.
Developer Comments - The friendly fire damage of Sun Burn often made it unappealing to play in its optimal scenarios where you remove enemy units (usually a pesky Dragon Whelp) while buffing up your Minion at the same time. Outside of some niche combinations such as Blood Imps with Lycanthropy, the damage was too much for everything but the largest units to be worth the tradeoff.

Werewolves

Attack Speed 1.0 > 1.1
Developer Comments - The Werewolves proved to be very explosive units, and could be hard to defend against if you didn’t have the right defensive tools. We’re hoping this slight nerf should make it a little easier to deal with them without having the perfect answers in hand.

Misc

Altered Ritual of Servitude’s wording to further clarify that its effect includes other copies of Ritual of Servitude.
Added search terms for Bronze, Silver and Gold to find Cards with the respective Glory Frames.
Modified the News screen to better support variable amounts of items.

Bugs

Fixed Stormbringer incorrectly having 40 damage.
Fixed the Card Collection counter on the Profile screen being missing.
Fixed Conquest Cards counting towards a card’s Glory.
Fixed Xbox users not being able to scroll through league ranks with LB.
Fixed Cursebearer’s Aura visually lasting 5 seconds still.
Fixed Hypnotize disabling Wreckinator’s Slam and Bam.
Fixed Crystal Archers’ description in German being broken.
Fixed an instance where Morellia’s Book of the Dead could break Armored Escort.
Fixed an instance where Wreckinator could moonwalk after being stunned.
Fixed an instance where Wreckinator could become stuck after destroying a building - Thanks FingersTitan!
Fixed Lycanthropy transformation removing Haunting Hugger - Thanks Omicron666!

Cheers from BetaDwarf!