Previously Kingdoms would unlock by level which had several unfortunate side effects for new players. To address these issues, we have changed how Kingdom Progress works.

* Rather than becoming available when your Hero reaches a certain level, Kingdoms will now unlock in small groups whose main quest lines must be completed before the next group unlocks.

* The gold cost for unlocking a Kingdom has not changed significantly from the previous version. Adana now only costs 50 Gold.

* As mentioned, Kingdoms will become available to unlock in groups. Completing the quest line of all Kingdoms in a group will unlock the next group and give a reward.

* Any players who have already unlocked all the Kingdoms will not be affected by this change (i.e. they will not have to unlock Kingdoms a second time).

* After updating, Players who have already unlocked all Kingdoms or completed quest lines will receive Kingdom group rewards based on their completed quest lines via the in-game mail.

* Mini Games will now unlock as part of the reward for completing a Kingdom group. (This includes Dungeons and Soulforge, whose unlock quests have been removed).

* Quest difficulty will now scale with the Kingdom Group.

* Players will be able to see Kingdoms from the next Kingdom group. Tapping on them will display a new popup explaining what quest lines need to be completed before that kingdom is available to be unlocked.

* As part of this change, the “Gorgotha Unleashed Event” quest chain will be removed from Khaziel.

• o Anyone who has completed it or is in the middle of completing it should not have any issues as their quest progress will be updated to reflect these changes.
• o War and Peace has been moved to be one of the rewards for completing a Kingdom group (it is now the Kingdom Group reward for the group with Khaziel in it).
If you want to read about how this affects new/early game players further, we have put together a game guide that explains how kingdoms will unlock in greater depth here: https://gemsofwar.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360001119975.

When selecting a Kingdom, players will notice that the menu has undergone a few changes that will make managing Kingdoms easier.

* The Kingdom Popup Menu has surfaced several items that were previously only accessible from the Kingdom menu, including:

• o Kingdom Power – Players can now view how many tasks they have currently completed at a glance, or open the Kingdom Power menu directly.
• o Kingdom Level – Players can see the Kingdom’s current level here and interact with this button to upgrade it directly.
• o Setting Home Kingdom – Players can set Home Kingdom from the Kingdom Popup menu. (More about these changes below).
• o Kingdom Info – Kingdom Lore, Tribute and Gold Information can be found here.
• o Class Quest – Class Quest (if available) can be seen here.

* The options of Set Home Kingdom, Kingdom Info, and Class Quests are not available until Players complete the Kingdom’s quest line. This means that quest lines need to be completed before players can set a Kingdom as their Home Kingdom.

* We have removed the gold cost for changing Home Kingdom.

* Home Kingdoms will gain a special border around the Quest area to show that this Kingdom is the Home Kingdom (as well as the regular visual change on the world map). The ‘Set Home Kingdom’ button will also disappear if a kingdom is already set as the Home Kingdom.

* Instead of the Kingdom Class Quest starting after completing the quest line, we have separated it out (to ensure the end of a quest line is clear to player). If a Class Quest is available, Players can now tap the Class Quest button on the Kingdom Popup menu and be taken straight to the class quest.

* Tapping on Kingdom Level button will take players to the Kingdom leveling menu (more on the changes there further down).

* Tapping on the Kingdom Power button will bring up the current tasks require to earn the next level of Kingdom Power, as well as being able to view the Kingdom Bonuses.

* The Challenge Button has been updated to match the changes to Challenges (more on that further down too).

* Kingdom Leveling has had an upgrade to improve rewards given to players at each level.

* Kingdoms can now be leveled to 15, and for thematic purposes, each level now has a building name related to the bonus it gives (to give more of a sense of upgrading a castle).

* Kingdoms will continue to need gold for leveling, but will also require a new resource called Deeds to go beyond level 10.

* Tribute and Gem Mastery rewards will be the same as they previously were. However, they will not increase after Kingdom Level 10.

* There are 7 types of Deeds, 1 for each color and the Imperial Deed.

* Kingdoms will use Deeds that match the color of the Gem Mastery they give, but all will need Imperial Deeds to reach the final levels.

* Deeds can be found from the Adventure Board or in Flash Offers.

• o We will be sending everyone in the game some free Colored Deeds, which will only be available to be received for the first 2 weeks of the update.

* Kingdoms can now be upgraded multiple levels at once, if you have sufficient Gold (and Deeds for levels over 10).

* The Kingdom Leveling Menu has been updated so players can see the rewards given for each level and the cumulative costs for leveling a Kingdom.

* The Kingdom Leveling Menu also displays a list of bonuses unlocked so players are able to see their current bonuses for that Kingdom.

* The Kingdom Leveling Rewards are as follows:

* Team Bonus Upgrades give a special Kingdom Team Bonus (for unique groups of 2,3 and 4 troops). The exact bonus is based on what Skill Point the Kingdom gives.

* Kingdom Team Bonus Pets will also multiply the Kingdom Team Bonus Upgrade as well as the regular Kingdom Team Bonus.

* The Faction Hoard Bonus increases the Skill Point bonus that is given in the Kingdom’s sister Faction from its Hoard Level (if the Faction is available).

* If you would like to read about the changes to kingdom leveling in more depth, you can read our game guide here: https://gemsofwar.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000491816.

We are changing Challenges to actually be… CHALLENGES (with worthwhile rewards).

* Challenges are now split into 10 Tiers, each Tier getting progressively harder.

* Tiers must be played in order from Tier 1 – 10.

* Each Challenge in a Tier must be completed before players unlock the next Tier.

* Each Challenge in a Tier will gain 1 level from the previous Challenge.

* Each Challenge only needs to be played once to complete a Tier (so 7 battles completes a Tier).

* Players who have 5-starred ALL their Challenges in a Kingdom will start at Tier 2 for that Kingdom.

* Players who have NOT 5-starred ALL their Challenges start at Tier 1 with any 5-starred Challenges marked as complete.

* Each Tier will give a reward for both completing an individual Challenge and for finishing the entire Tier.

* Challenge battles are not replayable once completed, and will only give their reward once.

* Once a player completes Tier 10, they will no longer be able to play Challenges in that Kingdom.

* Some Challenge battles have changed what troops are in them, to better reflect newer troops that have been released, or to balance the difficulty for when players encounter it (e.g. Gob-Chomper was a little too tough for newbies in the first Broken Spire Challenge).

* Challenge battles will give 2 Champion XP to the Class of any Hero playing them (up from 1 Champion XP in the previous system).

* The Challenge Menu has been updated to reflect these Challenge changes.

* The Challenge Rewards for battles and Tier can be found below:

The Difficulty system is in the middle of a rework which players will notice over the next couple of Updates. In this update, you will notice:

* Quest Battles now have auto-scaling, based on the Kingdom Group in which they unlock (see Kingdom Progress for the Group List).

* Challenge Battles have a new mechanic that unlocks harder versions, but they also have more appropriate & more useful rewards for the levels at which players complete them.

We have a new Status Effect – Reflect. After a troop takes damage, Reflect will take 50% of that damage (from Skulls, Spell, and Traits) and reflect it back to the Enemy who caused it. Reflect will dispel once damage has been taken (so it only activates once). Reflect does not protect its troop from any of the damage taken.

Reflect damage is rounded down, however Reflect will always deal a minimum of least 1 damage (even if the damage that triggered it was 1). Reflect damage is counted as special damage, so damage reduction traits such as Armored or Spell Armor will not apply to the damage dealt by Reflect.

Reflect only applies if an Enemy deals damage. Allies dealing damage will not trigger Reflect, nor will Status Effects. Positive Effects and Healing have no interaction with Reflect.

Spell Term Change – Eliminate
Eliminate refers to the spell effect that decrease an Enemy’s Skill Points. We’ve added in some spell help text for the new term, and several troops’ spells will be updated to reflect this new term. The spells themselves will not change, only the text.

Ser Cygnea
* Mana Color has been changed from Blue/ Purple to Purple/ Brown

We’ve done a pass on early game weapons to improve the progression experience for new players.

Sword of Heroes
We’ve made some changes to Sword of Heroes so upgrading to the other common/ rare weapons is more rewarding.
* Spell damage now scales off half Magic

Knight’s Sword
* Base spell damage has been increased from 2 to 5

Scout’s Bow
* Base spell damage has been increased from 2 to 4

Warrior’s Axe
* Mana cost has been reduced from 9 to 5
* Base spell damage has been increased from 3 to 5
* Spell damage now scales off half Magic

Hunter’s Spear
* Base spell damage has been increased from 2 to 5

Wizard’s Wand
* Base spell damage has been increased from 2 to 5

Priest’s Hammer
* Base spell damage has been increased from 2 to 4

Crude Club
* Base spell damage has been increased from 2 to 6
* Spell damage now scales off half Magic

Black Dagger
* Base spell damage has been increased from 4 to 6
* Mana cost has been reduced from 8 to 7

Avenging Falchion
* Base spell damage has been increased from 5 to 6
* Mana cost has been reduced from 9 to 7

Icy Glaive
* Base spell damage has been increased from 2 to 3
* Mana cost has been reduced from 10 to 8

Daemonic Khopesh
* Base spell damage has been increased from 3 to 6

Silver Sword
* Base spell damage has been increased from 3 to 6

Phoenix Crossbow
* Base spell damage has been increased from 1 to 3
* Mana cost has been reduced from 10 to 9

Sunbolt Javelin
* Base spell damage has been increased from 2 to 5

Elder Bow
* Base spell damage has been increased from 3 to 5

Guardian Halberd
* Base spell damage has been increased from 6 to 10
* Mana cost has been reduced from 8 to 7

Giant’s Mace
* Base spell damage has been increased from 2 to 4
* Mana cost has been reduced from 10 to 8

Bloody Axe
* Base spell damage has been increased from 4 to 6
* Mana cost has been reduced from 10 to 7

Wicked Scythe
* Base spell damage has been increased from 0 to 1
* Mana cost has been reduced from 12 to 10

Piercing Lance
* Base spell damage has been increased from 4 to 7

Spirit Staff
* Base spell damage has been increased from 5 to 6
* Mana cost has been reduced from 8 to 7

Axe of the Spire
* Base spell damage has been increased from 1 to 5

* We have improved the Mail popup when viewing individual Mail received.

* The Gnome Vault menu will now display the number of Vault Keys owned in the top right corner of the screen.

* The Soulforge will now display the amount you currently own for any resource you can craft.

* The Pet Info tab of the Pet Rescue menu will now display how many copies of that Pet you own, and its current level.

* Raven Towers have been added to Invasions. They have a chance to replace a Tower instead of a normal Valraven spawning.

• o This means if a Valraven would replace a Tower, a Raven Tower will appear instead
• o Raven Towers give the same Sigil rewards as a Valraven
• o Raven Towers will count as a Tower for Invasion Scores
• o Raven Towers can only replace Towers

* There is a known visual bug that will effect Cat Burglar and Street Thief. When they use their spells, the particle effect that indicates gold has been gained will trigger whether any gold has been taken or not. This is only a visual bug, and you can check the correct amount of gold you have received in-game with the gold counter. We will be fixing this in 4.6. If you want to read about it further, you can do so here: https://gemsofwar.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360001123575-Visual-issue-on-Troops-that-steal-Gold.

* We have fixed an issue with the Daily Login Rewards that was showing VIP Rewards 1 level higher than the actual VIP level. (This also addresses the crash that VIP 20 players were receiving for a short time after the 4.4 update).

* We have fixed an Issue being able to paste in extra copies of troops into the Team Selection Display when they are copied from another player (e.g. you own 1x Infernus, but can copy 2x Infernus into a team).

* We have fixed an issue with some menus displaying UI elements off screen on 4:3 resolutions.

* We have fixed an issue where player names were incorrectly changing color in chat when sharing a team via Guild Chat.

* We have fixed an issue where players in 4:3 resolutions, including iPads, were unable to close the Guild Admin menu.

* Several minor Bug Fixes