Warbands are a pre-designed team that players can use straight away in battles (similar to a Starter Deck in TCGs). Warbands are primarily aimed at newer players or players who wish to start dabbling with team building but want an existing team to build off. They also contain extra banners and team slots, so there is something there for experienced players too!

• Players can view Warbands in the new Warband tab in the Shop Menu
• Warband bundles cost 50 War Coins and contain the following:
• 1 Team Slot
• 1 New Banner – This banner is unique to the Warband and different from any existing banners
• 1 Epic Troop
• 2 Other Troops – These will be Common ,Rare, or Ultra-Rare rarity
• 1 Ultra-Rare Weapon
• Players will be able to earn the Ultra-Rare Weapon from Warbands from Gem Mastery, though they will need a high level to do so (100+ Gem Mastery in a Color).
• Once a player purchases a Warband team, the team’s bundle in the shop will change to a “Booster Pack” for that team
• Booster Packs cost 15 War Coins, and will contain 3 different rewards, all of which are meant to help improve the Warband team. These rewards include
• Souls
• Ultra-Rare Ingots
• Copies of the Warband’s Troops (the amount of copies will vary based on rarity)
• Minor Traitstones – Traitstone Colors will be based on the Mana Colors of the troops in the Team.
• Major Traitstones
• Runic Traitstones
• Arcane Traitstones
• Celestial Traistones
• Players can earn War Coins in a few ways:
• New Player Login Calendar – We have replaced the Treasure Map rewards on Day 6 with some War Coins
• To celebrate the release of 5.3 Update, we will also be running a special Login Calendar that will contain some War Coins for existing Players
• Completing Questlines for each Kingdoms (e.g. for Broken Spire)
• As Warbands are aimed at newer players, we will not be giving any War Coins to players who have completed Kingdom Questlines previously
• Adventure Board – There are 2 Adventure Board Tasks with War Coins (Epic + Legendary) that players may encounter.
• Daily Deals – There are 2 different daily deals that players may encounter. 1 VIP Offer + 1 Player Level Offer.
• There is War Coin purchase available in the Shop
• Warbands are set up so that we can add or change Warbands in the Shop with game updates, allowing us to rotate Warbands around from time to time.

Because it is a Guild Wars week, we will delay the release of Warbands and War Coins available until the update is out everywhere and we can prompt players to update to the 5.3 update. (We expect this to be only for 24-48 hrs).

• Shrines are a new system that gives players extra means to gain resources while playing the game.
• The Shrine menu contains Shrines, each Shrine will be tied to a different Resource or Collectible in the game.
• The first Shrine will be focused on Gold – The Shrine of Cunning
• With this first Shrine, for each Gold coin won in battle, the Shrine of Cunning will also receive 1 Gold Coin
• This is bonus Gold and is not taken from any Gold earned in battle.
• Gold must come from Battles, so Gold earned from other areas such as Tributes will not affect the Shrine.
• Once the Shrine reaches 50% of the maximum amount it will trigger a timed offer allowing players to purchase the Gold. Players can continue playing the game to fully fill the Shrine before purchasing.
• Once the Shrine is full, the Shrine Offer will only run for 48hrs after which the Shrine will reset and players will have to begin again.
• Purchasing the offer will also reset the Shrine back to the beginning again.
• The maximum amount of a resource in a Shrine varies based on a Player’s level. These different level ranges not only affect the max amount of the Shrine, but also the cost and the bonus rewards given in the offer.
• Level 1-50: $1.99 USD, 20,000 Gold (max) + 1 Orb of Chaos
• Level 51-100: $4.99 USD, 50,000 Gold (max) + 2 Orbs of Chaos
• Level 101: $9.99 USD, 100,000 Gold (max) + 2 Major Orbs of Chaos
• If a player levels up into a new level range while filling up a Shrine, they will continue with the Shrine’s existing max amount. Once the Shrine resets, it will then use the new level range.
• We will add new Shrines in the future, though these Shrines may only be available for a limited time.

We have made some changes to early tutorials to help new players.

• When starting the game for the first time, players are asked if they have some experience with Match-3 RPGs. This will adjust some of the tutorials during the introductory battles
• We have improved the tutorial text for Leveling Up Troops so it’s shorter and easier for new players to understand
• We have improved the tutorial text for Unlocking Traits on Troops so it’s shorter and easier for new players to understand.

We have made a change to VIP Chests to remove Traitstones from their core drop pool. This means that VIP Chests will always give either 2 Epic Troops, 1 Legendary Troop or 1 Mythic Troop.

Players will still have a chance to earn Traitstones, as VIP Chests will have a 30% chance per key to earn 2 bonus Arcane or Celestial Traitstones (Traitstone rewards are the same as what was available in VIP Chests in the previous version).

We have made some quality of life improvements to the Arena.

• We have changed the Troop Draft Order in Arena so players will pick the Epic Troop first then Ultra-Rare, etc.
• After players have chosen all their Troops, they will be given the option of a free reroll. The reroll will start the Arena draft back at the first Troop, with a new set of Troops to choose from.
• This allows players to reroll their team if they have some bad luck.
• If a player selects reroll they will lose all troops from their current team, and will not be able to undo this selection
• Players can only reroll their Arena team once per Arena run – they must use the new team after the 2nd attempt.
• We’ve added a confirmation popup to Arena Offers to prevent players accidentally purchasing an Offer while trying to navigate through menus quickly.

We have a few Troop changes for this update related to helping out new players.

Warhound
The Warhound is a troop players earned very early in the game, but once the first enemy ran out of Attack, he wasn’t able to help his team out further. We’ve given him a little mana generation just so he can continue to help his team even after there is no more Attack to remove.

• Changed Attack Debuff from 0 + Magic to 1 + ½ Magic
• Spell now also explodes 2 random Gems when cast
• Mana cost increased from 7 to 8

Salamander
Salamander was one of the early burning troops to be released. At the time burning was considered more dangerous due to the continuous damage. With its addition to the Fire and Fury Warband, we felt it was time to give this burning lizard a little reptilian love.

• Mana cost reduced from 13 to 11

• One Time at Warband Camp… – Unlock a Warband
• My Time to Shrine – Fill a Shrine completely
• Well, I’m very happy for you – Reach 40,000 Total Underworld Renown

• We have added new Holiday themed art for the season.
• We have increased some of the rewards or adjusted some rewards for Rewarded Ads
• We have added recipes to the Soulforge that consume Orbs of Growth and Greater Orbs of Growth. These recipes will give a treasure troop that can be used on Faction Treasure Hoards:
• Orbs of Growth – Rare Treasure
• Greater Orbs of Growth – Epic Treasure

• We have fixed an issue in Tower of Doom where the game could crash if trying to use a scroll to defeat a Doom Room or on the room that held the Unlock scroll.
• We have also fixed an assortment of smaller issues.