Minion Masters!
v1.0 is here and the game is released!
As we look back at our time in Early Access, we see a long list of planned and unplanned features that took shape with your help!
We'll remember major experiments such as Expeditions - if you haven’t heard Videogamer77 shout “Baguettes!” on stream, you really should check him out. The introduction of Team Battle brought a whole new group of players into the fold, and the various events we've iterated on throughout the 1½ years of Early Access turned into a dependable way for Streamers and the community to share rewards.
v1.0 is a major milestone. We’ve finished the core of Minion Masters - and we'll use that to build the future.
Guilds was the last big thing to iterate on, and we've ironed out many issues and successfully completed Conquest (for now - we still have plenty we want to do!).
Quite importantly however, is the fact that Minion Masters releases on Xbox One today, and a whole new community joins us to enjoy the game!
Of course, there’s no 1.0 without a good batch of new things, so with this update comes the Battle Pass Bones & Bravery, balance and more!
As mentioned, v1.0 is but a milestone. It's not the end, it's not even the beginning. But it is a beginning.
From here we will keep updating the game with new Battle Passes, iterations on old features, possibly new platforms, and of course a bunch of new and exciting features!
There's still much to do in optimizing, bug fixing and balancing, and it'll all come along the way.
With your help we'll keep gathering information about every obscure (or obvious) bug in existence, and we'll thank you for your contributions!
As a great way to kick off this new evolving period - we've revealed a brand new Master coming to the game - Morellia, the Lich Queen!
You can check her out on the update site.
And without further ado, let's get into the changelog:
Bones & Bravery
Accursed Ascension
Collect 20 Spectral Essence to activate Accursed Ascension.
Spectral Essence is gained from Accursed Minion and Spells.
- This content season will last until August
- 8 new cards have been released!
Twitch Extension and Twitch Drops
With v1.0 we’re also releasing an upgraded version of our Streamer integrations. Now, when a Streamer wins a Watch & Win fight while streaming, every member of their audience who has linked their in-game and Twitch accounts will receive the prize via Twitch Drops instead of the shareable code system.
Twitch Extension - Streamer Audience
- The Streamer Audience is now integrated with a Twitch Extension interface
- Viewers on Twitch get their own character in-game to cheer the Streamer on!
- Read more about it on the Streamer Boost website
Twitch Drops - Legendary House Event
- Starting with v1.0 is a new Legendary House Event! Collect 15 keys for the house of your choice to earn a copy of Ghost, Howling Moon or a Random Legendary Card. You can only claim the reward for one House, so choose wisely!
- Keys are earned through Prize Fight events while playing that will appear at random when a match starts. Win the match to earn a key!
- Keys are also earned through watching Streamers that complete Watch & Win events. Make sure you have your in-game account linked to Twitch to receive Twitch Drops!
Balance
- (Mechanic) Spirit
- Health Bonus 100 > 200
- No longer stacks
- Grants one Spectral Essence to the buff’s owner once the unit dies
- Developer Comments
- Check out our Blog Post on the Spirit rework on our blog
- Spirit Vessel
- Mana Cost 3 > 2
- Health 250 > 50
- Damage 40 > 25
- Attack Speed 1.1 > 2.0
- AIM Bot
- Now also gains Shield when Summoned
- Developer Comments
- AIM Bot's original intention was to trade off the increased Mana Cost by making it a safer supportive card through the use of Marksmanship, but the increase in range simply was never useful enough to justify paying the premium for it over Drone Walker. We'd like to reinforce the "safe" aspect of the card by making it much more durable against removal through the addition of a Shield, while not removing its weakness against cards that can close the distance quickly such as a Prowler or Incubus.
- Rampage
- Mana Cost 3 > 2
- Area of Effect 8 > 6
- Developer Comments
- Rampage is a card that has been in a weak spot ever since the Rage nerf removed its volatile nature. Increasing the usability of the card as such should make it an easier inclusion in the types of decks that would effectively make use of the Damage increase while hopefully not being as explosive to play against as the status effect was in its prime.
- Caeleth Dawnhammer
- Mana Cost 9 > 8
- Developer Comments
- This change to Caeleth is fairly straightforward - He was too difficult to make use of at 9 mana, with his Divine Shield effect, while strong, not being enough of a justification to include in most decks. Hopefully this change will give him the boost he needs to be useful for play.
- Demon Warrior
- Attack Speed 2.5 > 2.2
- Developer Comments
- One noted weakness of Demon Warrior was when she had to face off against multiple units. Even as a win condition, she would suffer against even the smallest groups of swarm due to her slow Attack Speed - So we're giving that aspect of her a significant boost, but not to the extent that it removes her primary weakness. This change should make her more of an immediate threat that you have to answer.
- Dragon Ball
- Mana Cost 5 > 6
- Mana Cost to activate Dragon Ball’s effect 6 > 6+
- Developer Comments
- Dragon Ball has been a particularly efficient card ever since its inception, finding a home in aggressive decks of all shapes and sizes. We've tried to keep it at 5 Mana so that it met two particular goals; that it didn't feel too bad to play unactivated, and to be a viable activator for Shars'Rakk Twins. However, the value provided from the Dragon Whelp ultimately proved to be too much regardless of what mana cost the Activator was at, merely shifting around what kind of deck could make the most of the card. As such we're opting to push it to the 6 Mana mark, but in exchange make it slightly easier to activate in a deckbuilding sense by expanding the range of options you have to combo it with.
- Shieldguard of Light
- Mana Cost 6 > 7
- Developer Comments
- Shieldguard has been a powerhouse card for a while, and how best to change him was a frequent topic of discussion internally after our previous smaller adjustment didn't have an effect on his prominence. Suggestions included lowering his health or cutting his damage and focusing on his charge, and while we did consider and work with these changes at first, we iterated into focusing on the "One Man Army" identity of the card. We wanted him to be powerful, and thus we are instead opting to put him at a higher mana cost without particularly reducing his effectiveness on the battlefield.
Misc
- The Leaderboard has been reverted from Top 150 to Top 20 to help reduce server load.
- Health Bonus 100 > 200
- No longer stacks
- Grants one Spectral Essence to the buff’s owner once the unit dies
- Mana Cost 3 > 2
- Health 250 > 50
- Damage 40 > 25
- Attack Speed 1.1 > 2.0
- Now also gains Shield when Summoned
- Mana Cost 3 > 2
- Area of Effect 8 > 6
- Mana Cost 9 > 8
- Attack Speed 2.5 > 2.2
- Mana Cost 5 > 6
- Mana Cost to activate Dragon Ball’s effect 6 > 6+
- Mana Cost 6 > 7
Misc
- The Leaderboard has been reverted from Top 150 to Top 20 to help reduce server load.
