Minion Masters Friday

Minion Masters!

We're back to our regularly scheduled blog posts after some dwarven Summer vacation. Version 1.5 is coming up swiftly, and we've got lots of exciting news for Minion Masters, both patch related and external!

Production Building Insights

Production Buildings such as Bridge Shrine and Crossbow Guild have been integral parts of Minion Masters since the start of our journey. Loved by some, disliked by others, they've always been a hot topic of debate when it comes to the balance of the game, having defined the metagame at several points in Minion Masters history. A core part of what made these strategies so powerful at times was the ability to slot the buildings in a small "pocket" next to the Master Tower, rendering them immune from most direct pushes the opposing Master could make, needing to rely on spells such as Beam of DOOM! and Infiltration to get the job done.

This ultimately meant Production Buildings could feel very uninteractive at times as there was little commitment needed to maintain their presence on the board, allowing a constant stream of reliable Crossbow Dudes or the ability to gain a huge XP advantage with some enemy decks having no real opportunity to contest them. This was doubly so with dedicated Building-target minions like Rammer and Bazooka Scrat who could only target the Master due to their targeting mechanics. With the release of Might of the Slither Lords, we introduced a "Placement Aura" mechanic to Caged Prowler to make it a more involved card, requiring proper commitment from its owner in order to get its payoff.

We believe that, going forward, this is a desirable trait to have on Production Buildings and will enable better balance considerations for how impactful they can be. As such, Bridge Shrine, Crossbow Guild, Swarmer Totem, and Dragon Nest will all be receiving the Placement Aura mechanic in Version 1.5, along with some other balance changes to compensate for this. We'd love to hear what you think about this upcoming change to Production Buildings, so keep us informed on our usual channels!

Minion Masters for iOS

We're proud to announce that we're currently exploring the opportunity of getting Minion Masters onto your phone! We want to make sure everyone in the world can enjoy Minion Masters, and as the game grows we can do crazier things with the game that wouldn't have been possible before. We're particularly fond of the idea of making it accessible enough that you can invite your friend over, and have him download Minion Masters and jump right into a Team Battle with you. Minion Masters for iOS is an exciting opportunity for the game, so stay tuned in the future for updates as we progress!

Match Re-connect Feature Delayed

As many have noticed, our Minion Masters Roadmap estimated Version 1.5 to have a Match Reconnect feature. Unfortunately, due to a number of Dwarves taking Vacations after the big release of Version 1.4 and our choice to prioritize the investigation (and fixing) of various server issues that came up after the patch, we weren't able to fit it into this patch. It's still very much on our list of features we want to make, but there just isn't the time to include it in this patch. Hopefully we'll have more news about it soon.

We're looking for more PTR testers!

We're opening signups for the Minion Masters PTR groups again! Selected users will be able to help us balance future content and engage in behind the scenes discussions with like-minded players. To sign up, simply follow this link here and follow the instructions: https://forms.gle/5y43SVMtjQR991Lt7

Sinobii's Battleground Invitational

Coming this Sunday is the first Sinobii's Battleground Invitational tournament! The conclusion to his thrilling Battleground Ladder, Sinobii offers an exciting tournament full of the top players from this Competitive season competing for real cash prizes and an all-new Dynasty Morellia skin. You can read up on all of the details for the Tournament here - We'll certainly be tuning in to check out the action. And if you enjoy the experience, maybe you too should consider entering the next series of Ladder matches to compete with the best.

Sinobii's Battleground Invitational will be held on Sunday, September 1st, with the stream starting at 1200 Noon EST.

BadAsAFish80's Minion Masters Tournament

BadAsAFish80 is holding his 2nd Minion Masters Tournament and would love for you to join.  There are in game prizes including a rare skin and Big Dwarf packs available plus invitations to Sinobii's Battleground Invitational which has actual cash prizes to be won!  The tournament has a very flexible set up and is scheduled over a 2 week period (Registrations open 27 August 2019 - Tournament starts when we have enough entrants) to maximise the number of people that can participate. This is a Double Elimination tournament featuring no wildcards.

To find out more and to register check it out right here!

If you have any questions please reach out to BadAsAFish80 🐟#0275.

Cheers from BetaDwarf!

King Puff Cup 36 - Rebooted

KPC 36 is back!

King Puff Cup 36 Rebooted signups are open!
King Puff Cup 36 will take place on August 31st, 14:00 UTC, 7:00 PST, 10:00 EST, 15:00 CET

Read the full Rulebook:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dqCJNxDQny8wginuTxppLrsrSJTyYNWnY-H-fJcrvmA/edit?usp=sharing

Register after reading the above rulebook:
https://www.toornament.com/en_US/tournaments/2801052141214007296/information

The tournament will consist of a Double-Elimination Bracket with Sideboard. Players will submit 4 decks (Master + 10 cards), and an additional list of up to 8 cards, used to Sideboard in any of their games.
Winner's Semifinals, Finals, Losers Finals, and Grand Finals will be Best of 5.
All other matches will be Best of 3.

New KPC Rule, inspired by the decision made for the last King Puff Invitational.
Season Card Restrictions - KPC 36 and 37
Any Supreme or Legendary Season Cards released in the last twenty-eight days may not be submitted in any form. Registrations violating these rules will be rejected. 
The following Season Cards ARE allowed:

• Slitherbound
• Poison Strike
• Sewer Scrat
• Caged Prowler
• Scratillery

The following Season Cards ARE NOT allowed:

• Slithering Summons
• Boom Buggy
• Ritual or Servitude
• Herald Ah'Mun
• Wreckinator 9000

KPC Update - KPC 36 rescheduled, PPC canceled

Hello Masters! We have some updates regarding King Puff Cup.

KPC 36 rescheduled

As you may already know, KPC 36 was supposed to happen on 17th of August, however, due to some technical issues on our side, the tournament was canceled in the last moment. 

We are sorry for the inconvenience, and we fixed the problems we encountered.
We now confirm that the tournament will be rescheduled for the 31st of August. Everyone who previously signed up for KPC 36 will have to sign up again if they still want to compete. An announcement with full details and instructions for signing up will follow up soon.

PPC canceled

Prince Puff Cup was a special kind of tournament with fun rules and in-game rewards. It was a passion project organized by some of the KPC staff who simply volunteered to do it.

Due to this, we have to announce a cancellation, as there is no longer enough staff volunteering in order to organize it.

We can't say for certain whether or not we will bring back this kind of tournament, but we certainly can't do it at the current moment.

Note: anyone interested in spearheading a resurrection of PPC, give a private message to FFA#4526 (our head admin) on discord. 

Twitch Prime + Minion Masters

Twitch Prime In-Game Loot for all Minion Masters players

Claim your Voidborne Onslaught DLC for Minion Masters with Twitch Prime. Start your collection with a Legendary Colossus!

Available Free with Prime from Aug 20 – Oct 21

Includes: 

• 3x Colossus (Legendary) 
• 5x Succubus (Supreme) 
• 20x Rammer 
• 40x Nether Bat 
• 40x Morgrul's Ragers 
• 5x Power Tokens (Get 5 extra random surprises) 
• 1x Legendary exclusive Voidborne Avatar - Animated Colossus! 
• 1x Legendary exclusive Voidborne Emote - Animated Doompuffer! 

This is the latest addition to all the other awesome Twitch features. Make sure to connect your Twitch account in-game to get Twitch Drops while watching streams. While you are there, use the extension to become an in-game spectator that can cheer, throw things and much more!

Cheers from BetaDwarf!

Roadmap - August 2019

Sand Wars

Minion Masters!

Version 1.4

War! The Scrat factions have waged an all-out assault on the Slither Dominion with their new contraption of carnage, the Wreckinator 9000, to fulfill their insatiable desires for more “Shinies”. The Slither Lords are swift to retaliate, with Apep’s most formidable Herald, Ah’Mun, leading his army of Slitherbound on a mission of pest control…

Sand Wars is a new Expansion packed with new content.

Featuring 10 new Cards:

New Mechanic: Poison

Deals 20 damage per Second. Extra applications of Poison extend the Duration, but do not stack the Damage. Cannot be applied to Masters or Buildings.

New Faction Mechanic: Call Slitherbound

Adds a Slitherbound Minion to a Slither card in your hand. Summon all Slitherbound when played. Max 3.

New Faction Mechanic: Sacrifice

Kill all Slitherbound you command.

The following Slither minions now have Call Slitherbound:

• Empowered Soulstealer
• Hypnotise
• Living Statue
• Musketeer
• Rabid Prowler

This Expansion will last until November
10 new cards have been released!
Two brand new skins have been released - Scrattsu and Stormfeather!
Get your hands on Minion Masters’ first Legendary Arena - Altar of the Almighty Apep!
Scrat and Armoured Scrats have received a completely new model!
All existing Slither Cards have had their models and textures updated to create a new, cohesive art style for the Slither faction, inspired by Aztec and Egyptian culture. Learn more about it.

Contender League & Season Roll-over Changes

A new summit for the most skilled of Minion Masters players has appeared!

• Achieve Contender rank by earning 2000 Ranking Points while in the Grand Master League.
• Contender rank players earn a special in-game chat icon to signify their achievement.
• Your ranking points are now always displayed for Grand Master and Contender ranks.
• Contender has a Conquest Glory modifier of 250%.
• It is now possible to drop out of the Grand Master and Contender Leagues if your Ranking Points drop below 0.
• The amount of points required to rank up from Silver and above have been increased.
• The Season Roll-over now gives players a higher rank in a new season than before. For example, Grand Master and Contender players will start a new season at Platinum 5.
• Season Roll-overs now happen during Update downtime, rather than at the start of the month.

Friend Gifting

Share the love!

• When purchasing Shop Offers for rubies, you now have the option to Gift the offer to a friend or a member of your Guild instead for the same price.
• The other user will receive their Gift instantly.
• Gifting cannot be used to buy a user the same Shop Offer more than once, or buy a Shop Offer the user has already purchased.

Balance

• Beam of DOOM!
• No longer deals 50% damage to non-Master buildings
• Brothers of Light/Caeleth Dawnhammer
• Damage 130 > 140
• Demon Warrior
• Damage 100 > 110
• Fire Imp
• First tick of damage removed
• Gax the World Bomb
• Damage 175 > 200
• Haunting Hugger
• Damage 20 > 40
• Lord-Sentinel Thelec
• Health 500 > 600
• Mythic (Keyword)
• You can no longer have two of the same Minion with the Mythic keyword in play on your team at a time.
• Developer Comments
• For example, you cannot have two Nyrvirs on your field at the same time.
• Rabid Prowler
• No longer activated by having a friendly Minion with Rage on the field.
• Now has the Sacrifice keyword - Rabid Prowler gains Rage if you control any Slitherbound Minions, and kills all of them.
• Scrat Tank
• Health 700 > 650

Misc

• A new House event has started. Collect all the keys for your House of choice and choose a Legendary card as a reward!
• Our Twitch Extension is fully functional again! Enable it on your Twitch Streams to streamline your viewers’ audience interactions.
• The Conquest retry price has been adjusted from 100/500 Rubies to 100/300.
• Added Master Damage and Cast Time stats to certain Spell cards.
• Various improvements and changes to Card Descriptions to clarify mechanics.
• Added new VFX to Gax the World Bomb.
• Added the ability to sign-up for the Newsletter directly in-game.

Bugs

• Fixed an issue where Morellia’s Basic Attack would stop working - Thanks Kyoshiro!
• Fixed Bridge Buddies’ tooltip being outdated - Thanks Steven!
• Fixed Empowered Soul Stealer still having Marksmanship in his preview - Thanks TomatoMato!
• Fixed Guardian protecting Milloween - Thanks Joel Jones!
• Fixed the Red Dot indicator for Deck Building remaining on if you didn’t own a card that had the “Changed” status - Thanks... everyone!
• Fixed Nether Bat being able to blink while Stunned.
• Fixed an issue where a Jungle Jumble discounted by Morellia would grant more than 3 cards.
• Fixed in-game Chat showing the wrong emoticons.
• Fixed freezes caused by Reporting a bug in Challenge mode.
• Fixed the Recruit Friend button on the Colossus avatar not doing anything.

We’ve got loads more planned in the future for Minion Masters. Keep your eyes peeled on our Road Map for hints at future content and updates!


Cheers from BetaDwarf!

King Puff Cup 36

King Puff Cup 36 signups are open!
King Puff Cup 36 will take place on August 17th, 14:00 UTC, 7:00 PST, 10:00 EST, 15:00 CET.

Read the full Rulebook:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dqCJNxDQny8wginuTxppLrsrSJTyYNWnY-H-fJcrvmA/edit

Register after Reading the above rulebook:
https://www.toornament.com/en_US/tournaments/2727177732472193024/registration/

The tournament will consist of a Double-Elimination Bracket with Sideboard. Players will submit 4 decks (Master + 10 cards), and an additional list of up to 8 cards, used to Sideboard in any of their games.
Winner's Semifinals, Finals, Losers Finals, and Grand Finals will be Best of 5.
All other matches will be Best of 3.

A reminder that any Cards & Masters released in the 7 days prior to the tournament will be banned, as per our rules. (This means that any cards from the new Sand Wars update will NOT be allowed)

Registrations close on August 16th, 14:00UTC (one day before the event)

Masters on free rotation during the tournament:
 - Ravager

 - Mordar

 - Settsu

 - Ratbo
If you don't own 4 masters in total, don't be afraid to use any of the mentioned ones.

Be aware: An update is coming next week. If the deadline passes and changes are made to Masters/cards you previously submitted, we will review the Masters/cards as-is. Attempts to resubmit
after the deadline will be rejected

Minion Masters Friday

Minion Masters!

Introducing the Contender League

Coming in Version 1.4 is a brand new Ranked League for those that want a challenge beyond Grand Master. There'll be changes to the existing Grand Master league, where your ranking points within Grand Master are now visible on a scale of 0 to 2000. It's now possible to drop out of Grand Master, much like other ranks, and once you achieve 2000 points within Grand Master you will be promoted to the brand new Contender rank. Keep in mind that there are no Win Streaks in Grand Master and full rank loss for defeats, meaning reaching this new League will be a testament to your prowess as a true Minion Master.

While you're in Contender league, you'll receive a new icon next to your name in the in-game chat to represent your accomplishment. However, it's still possible to drop out of Contender if you lose too many matches, so stay on your toes!

The Contender League is just our first step in our ranked changes, and we have many plans for the new rank such as E-sports related interactions. This also of course comes hand in hand with our new changes to the rank roll-over being at the start of every new patch to ensure the entire season is played on the same set of balance changes.

Sharing is Caring

Starting with Version 1.4, you will also be able to buy gifts for your friends and Guildmates! Any Shop Offer item can be instead sent to a friend of your respective platform or any member of your guild, paying the usual costs. A user cannot be gifted the same Offer more than once however, and if you are gifted a Shop Offer you cannot purchase it for yourself from the store. Get out there and spread the love!

Balance Changes coming in v1.4

On top of the upcoming Sand Wars battle pass, Version 1.4 will be holding host to a number of Balance Changes we've been working on. It won't be the truly crazy roster of 20+ changes we had in Version 1.3, but some adjustments to existing cards that need an extra nudge to be effective, or perhaps a tuning down in regards to their power level. We also have a change coming to the Mythic mechanic that only allows a singular copy of a Mythic Card to be in play on your team at a time. You'll be able to read all about these Balance Changes as we get closer to the release date of Version 1.4 on the 16th of August.

That's all for today, Masters. We're super excited to bring these features and more in Version 1.4, and we're looking forward to your feedback as always!

Cheers from BetaDwarf!