arabikaa

Map Balance Changes

PvE Map Changes
Behind Enemy Lines: increased initial power wells from 2 to 3. All three have a capacity of 1200, equivalent to a 40 min lifetime.
Behind Enemy Lines is a map with a high failure rate with non-Nightguard strategies, and is none to have substantial periods where the player is forced to wait. The primary goal is to keep the map strategic and difficult, while removing the tedious moments. A secondary goal is to buff non-Nightguard strategies in preparation for the upcoming changes to mind control. Convoy: buildings are now properly blocked from being built in the canyon in the center of the map in all locations.
Nightmare Shard: increased initial power wells from 2 to 3 and increased the capacity of the T2 & T3 power wells from 600 (20 min) to 900 (30 min). Once the goal is activated to destroy the infected Twilight spawns (which occurs either after the player has reached the Shard or the first Twilight Witch spawns, whichever is first) the fog of war over each infected camp is cleared in a 35m radius.
The average completion time for this map on expert is 48 minutes. The idea is to increase early power generation to reduce waiting, and to increase well capacity in-line with how long the map actually takes. Additionally, many players do not have a good idea of the strength of the various Twilight camps. The choice to remove the fog of war over the camps should help the players to make a better informed decision of where next to attack. Nightmare's End: increased initial power wells from 2 to 3 and increased initial well capacity from 900 (30 min) to 1200 (40 min). Increased the capacity of the T2 power wells from 600 (20 min) to 900 (30 min). 
Nightmare's End has an average completion time of 72 minutes. This makes it the longest map in the game, and it is notoriously frustrating, leading to low replayability. Initial power generation and well capacity does not match the map's actual difficulty or length, so we are hopeful these changes can help bring about a smoother gameplay experience. There are other issues with the map in need of changing, but they will need to wait for a future patch. The Dwarven Riddle: added a monument and 3 power wells on each side of the map, regardless of number of players. 
This change will allow both players to go T4. It should only affect players who play the map in a more "standard" method, in contrast to the speedrun method.   Standardized all official single player campaign maps to have 4 gold chests.
Defending Hope: added 2 gold chests to match the standard.  Ocean: removed 2 gold chests to match the standard. The Soultree: added 1 gold chest to match the standard Introduction: added one gold chest to introduce new players to the concept of gold chests.

PvP Map Changes
While PvP has been moving steadily towards a more and more balanced state, a major issue we still face is the maps themselves. Just like we previously made changes to the 1v1 maps, we are happy to finally unveil our changes to all the 2v2 PvP maps (and Yrmia). These changes should create a more competitive and fair play environment, with many existing imbalances and cheese opportunities removed. All minimaps have been adjusted to reflect the changes and to be more accurate in general.
[ 1v1 Maps ]
Yrmia / Yrmia (Spectator Map):
Decreased the capacity of all power wells with 900 capacity to 600 capacity (1). Decreased the capacity of all power wells with 1500 capacity to 600 capacity (2). [ 2v2 Maps ]
Danduil:
Removed the 4 fortification walls surrounding the Monuments on both sides. Added 1 power well of 600 power capacity at each of the 4 monument positions in the corners. Fixed an issue where it was not possible to spawn non-S-sized units by the ground presence solely provided by the outer power wells (2 and 3). Swapped the starting positions including the power wells and monuments of the teams, whilst preserving previous symmetry. Fyre:
Increased the construction cost of the 4 outer fortification walls from 25 to 50 energy. Decreased these wall's distance to the power wells. These walls can no longer be built by enemies if the player or ally own the power well closest to the wall. Additionally, slightly narrowed the layout of the respective area around the wall in the bottom left to enable the same effect there. Added flying blocking at the 2 big lakes in the center to prevent sieging across them with long-ranged flying units. This is now visualized by permanently present clouds in the area. The power wells in the top left of the upper starting base now provide spawn presence for units and buildings. The power wells in the bottom right of the lower starting base now provide better spawn presence for units and buildings. Fixed various other minor blocking issues. Swapped the starting positions including the power wells and monuments of the teams, whilst preserving previous symmetry. Gorgash:
Increased the construction cost of the fortification walls at each starting position from 25 to 50 power. These walls are no longer pre-built at the start of the game. Increased all player's starting void power from 400 to 425 to compensate for wall changes. Decreased the power cost of the walls at the central northern and southern bases at the border of map from 75 to 50 energy. Adjusted the position of the monuments and power wells in all 6 bases in the north and south of the map to decrease distance to the wall. These walls can no longer be built by enemies if the player or ally owns the power well or monument closest to it. Removed the 2 walls around the northern and southern bases in the center of the map. Changed the layout of power wells and monuments in these bases by rotating each cluster by 180 degrees. Moved the power wells and monuments in these bases outwards, hence further away from the center of the map. Removed the northern and southern power well in the well cluster in the middle of the map. Moved the 4 power well clusters near the outer left and outer right bases closer to the center. Swapped the starting positions including the power wells and monuments of the teams, whilst preserving previous symmetry. Koshan:
Swapped the starting positions between players, whilst preserving previous symmetry. Added 2 ramps to the sides of the new start positions, granting access to the plateau behind. Opened up the plateaus in the corners by creating connecting ramps towards the diagonal of the map. Adjusted the positions of wells, so that they are further away from the nearby wall, and thus hostile units mounted on the wall cannot attack the wells anymore. Nadai:
Added 1 power well of 1200 capacity at each side of the center monument position. Adjusted the positions of monuments and walls, so that 4 of the walls cannot be taken anymore if an enemy has taken the adjacent monument. Adjusted the positions of monuments, so that they are further away from the nearby wall, and thus hostile units mounted on the wall cannot attack the orb anymore. Swapped the starting positions including the starting power wells and monuments only within teams for consistency, whilst preserving map symmetry. Turan:
Opened up the middle of the map by creating 4 connecting paths between the power well clusters and the central monument. Swapped the starting positions including the power wells and monuments of the teams, whilst preserving previous symmetry. Yshia:
Adjusted the positions of the 4 outer fortification walls to prevent offensive walling, by moving them outwards and thus closer to the power wells and monuments there. Opened up the plateaus by adding 2 ramps to each of them. Widened one of the ramps leading up to the two small plateaus. Increased the cost of the plateau walls from 25 to 50. Moved the well clusters more towards the center of the plateau, but keeping them close to the wall to prevent offensive walling. Moved the monuments previously located off the plateau to add to each of them 1 power well of 600 power capacity. Swapped the starting positions including the power wells and monuments of the teams, whilst preserving previous symmetry. Zahadune:
Added flying blocking at various places at the borders of the bodies of water to prevent sieging across them with long-ranged flying units. This is now visualized by permanently present clouds in the area.
Fire Random PvE Balance Changes
Fire was added as an enemy faction in rPvE in our Anniversary Patch. While we are currently working on adding Nature as the next faction to fight against, we have been keeping a close eye on the balance and player experience against Fire among all skill levels. With this patch, we will be making some changes to improve the experience. 
[ System Changes ]
    - Significantly reduced the difficulties 6 and below.
    - Volcano now only spawns in level 4 camps and beyond.*
    - Incoming attack waves should now be less oppressive on higher difficulties.
[ Bosses ]
Removed fire class from all fire boss units - Protector's Seal no longer blocks the damage of Fire bosses.
Abaddon: 
   - Rage:
       - Reduced the damage bonus from the second stage from 300% to 200%.
   - Gates of Hell: 
       - Reduced the initial damage from 800 (2400 in total) to 400 (1200 in total).
       - Reduced the eruption damage from 2000 (6000 in total) to 1000 (3000 in total).
Aspect of Summer:
   - Global Warming: No longer prevents ice shield from being applied to target units.
Brannoc:
   - Reduced life points from 65000 to 60000.
   - Fire Sphere:
       - Increased channeling time from 3 to 5 seconds.
       - Reduced damage from 2000 (10000 in total) to 1500 (7500 in total).
       - Reduced the radius from 25m to 20m.
       - Reduced the casting range 30m to 25m.
Fireback:
   - Increased life points from 30000 to 40000.
Fiend of Fire:
   - Flamethrower: Reduced damage per second from 600 to 500.
Molten Golem:
   - Blazing Surface: Reduced damage returned from 50% to 25%.
Vulcanos:
   - Unit is now XL.
   - Can now damage air units.
[ Units ]
Emberstrike:
   - Fire Lance
       - Reduced damage from 1200 (3100 in total) to 1000 (2500 in total).
       - Only deals 50% damage to structures.
Firesworn:
   - Fixed a bug that prevented the unit from attacking units other than L-sized units.
Fire Dragon:
   - Rage: Reduced the damage bonus from the second stage from 300% to 200%.
Fire Worm:
   - Earthquake:
       - Reduced the damage per hit from 1000 to 500.
       - Now properly deals L counter damage.
Magma Spore:
   - Ground Blast: 
       - Reduced the damage from 720 (1120 in total) to 350 (1050 in total).
       - Reduced the area Radius 15m -> 10m.
Spitfire:
   - Fire Bomb: Reduced range from 50m to 35m.
[ Buildings ]
Pyromaniac:
   - Reduced the duration of the damage over time debuff from 10 seconds to 3 seconds.
Tower of Flames:
   - Volcanic Ground:
       - Reduced the damage from 6 times 200/1000 to 6 times 150/750.
       - Reduced the range from 25m to 20m.
Volcano:
   - Reduced life points from 5000 to 3500.
   - Reduced the size by 10%.
New Building: Flame Crystal - Spawns in Level 4 and Level 5 camps* and will periodically remove debuffs and cc effects from allied units
Fire can be extremely strong, but due to its high attack and low defense, it is extra vulnerable to Crowd Control spells. We want to counter this weakness with a brand-new building, while some major enemy damage dealers have been rebalanced
* Level 3 camps are usually right behind the T3/T4 camp; Level 4 camps are the row behind Level 3; Level 5 is always the last row.

Map Editor Changes
Increased maximum allowed file size of community maps from 64 to 512 megabytes. Added optional verbose logging for LUA. This is relevant for mapmakers and can be enabled in the debug section of the configuration file at `/Battleforge/config.json` using the `lua` configuration. The logs can be found in the `/Battleforge/Diag` folder. Increased max brush size in the map editor. Fixed crashes for the height map generation for Random PvE in the map editor in certain cases. Allowed selection of the fire Random PvE preset in the map editor.
Bugfixes
Fixed issue related to character names becoming too long with the added `{GM}` prefix and not being able to be whispered. Fixed issue with deleting community maps while they are being downloaded by another player. Fixed incorrect ordering for all time rankings in the leaderboards. Fixed ability to add 21 cards or 21 boosters to trade, instead of 20. Fixed too large scroll step size for upgrade view when trying to scroll through the upgrades. It now scrolls with the same steps as the cards scroll view. Fixed inconsistencies in the Amii card frames. Card descriptions will no longer overflow into the card artwork. Fixed walk speed mismatch between respawned squad members and existing ones, causing the group as a whole to move at an unfavorable speed. This could be noticed for example with Werebeasts and Strikers. Fixed wrong displayed remaining card charges for Offering in rare cases Fixed incorrect handling of overkill stampede damage when destroying buildings. In general, this has a nerfing effect on stampede. Improved error handling and logging for issues related to starting BattleForge with DirectX10. and many more!

Greetings Skylords!

We are very excited to tell you about our newest patch. Welcome to this special Community Update! 

• Patch Release

We are currently hard at work finalizing the upcoming patch, which is planned for release later this weekend. We do not have a specific time yet, but we expect the patch to hit the live servers this Sunday. We have also created a special video for this patch, be sure to check it out! 
In this community update, we will show some of the changes that will be included in this patch. For a full list of changes, please check out the patch notes, as there are many changes not mentioned here. 
If you start the game after the patch has released, you will be greeted by a new loading screen. This is a combination of the wallpapers drawn by our former artist Nano, and additions and alterations by Tweeto. We hope you notice all the attention to detail and love they poured into it!

• New Cards

We are excited that you will finally get your hands on the cards we have been working on for the past months. With this patch, three new cards will be added to the game:

Wasteland Terror
Wasteland Terror is finally here! This awesome Bandit-take on the dragon model fires streams of sand that will lay waste to your enemies.
This card has been long in the making, check out the original announcement for an overview of its abilities. 


Transcendence
Transcendence is our first Amii spell, and provides a powerful buff or debuff as long as you keep its target alive, rewarding careful management of the fight. Check out the original announcement for more information.


Burning Spears
Burning Spears joins the Fire faction to battle an age-old weakness of its pure deck: L and XL units in the early game. 
Check out the original announcement, for more information and an artwork spotlight.



• New Promo Card: Mana Wing

Alongside our new cards, we have also added a new promo card to the game. Every player will be able to get a promo Mana Wing by completing the new achievement "A Force of Nature". The promo will not be available in boosters, but it will be trade-able. 


• New Achievements

This patch will add 18 new achievements into the game. Those are aimed at improving the new player experience, while also giving our more veteran players something to work towards. Please note that if you have beaten specific maps previously, they do not count towards these new achievements.  
 
[ Infinitely Scaling Achievement ]

Reborn in Fire  [1 Mini-booster]
Reforge Cards (Unlocks every 20 reforges, scales infinitely)

[ Beginner Achievements ]

Just a Story  [1 Twilight booster]
Complete Viridya and Brannoc's story on standard difficulty or higher (Encounters, Siege of Hope, Defending Hope, Soultree, Crusade, Sunbridge, King of the Giants, Titans, Ascension)
The Most Dangerous Game [1 Bandits booster]
Complete Mo's story on standard difficulty or higher {Mo, Ocean, Oracle, Slave Master, Convoy, Blight, Raven's End, Empire)
A Debt Unpaid  [20,000 gold]
Complete the story related to the Treasure Fleet on advanced difficulty or higher. (Bad Harvest, Treasure Fleet, Mo, Blight, Slave Master, Convoy) 
A Mile in His Shoes  [2 Stonekin boosters]
Complete Rogan's story on advanced difficulty or higher (Encounters, Siege of Hope, Defending Hope, Crusade, King of the Giants, Titans, Dwarven Riddle, Guns of Lyr, Empire)
A Wrinkle in Time  [250 bfp]
Win the 4-player map Empire spawning at least 5 different Lost Souls cards from a deck containing only frost, shadow, and Lost Souls cards.
Godslayer  [250 bfp]
Win the 2-player maps Sunbridge and Insane God on any difficulty. 
Apprentice  [1 booster]
Win 20 randomly generated PvE matches of difficulty 5 or higher. 
 
[ Veteran PvE Achievements ]

The Road Not Taken  [3 boosters]
Win 20 randomly generated PvE matches of difficulty 9 or higher.
Turn Back All Ye Who Enter Here  [6 boosters]
Win 20 randomly generated PvE matches of difficulty 10.
Nevermore  [2 Bandit boosters]
Complete Blight's story on expert difficulty (Blight, Raven's End, Slave Master, Ocean, and Oracle)
Make it Double  [2 Amii boosters]
Complete all 2-player maps on expert difficulty. (Crusade, Sunbridge, Nightmare Shard, Nightmare's End, The Insane God, Slave Master and Convoy)
Never Thought of Him  [100,000 gold]
Complete the story of Mo becoming the new king of the fire tribes on expert difficulty with all players in the map using decks containing only Fire cards.  (Mo, Ocean, Oracle, Slave Master, Convoy, and Raven's End)
The Long Journey Home  [2 Frost boosters]
Complete the story re-establishing the Kingdom of Lyr on expert difficulty using decks containing only frost cards. (Encounters with Twilight, Siege of Hope, Defending Hope, Bad Harvest, Dwarven Riddle, and Guns of Lyr)
Not Even My Final Form  [Rogan Kayle Card]
Win the 1-player map Encounters with Twilight on expert difficulty without using T3 or T4 cards.
Forest for the Tree  [Viridya Card]
Complete the 1-player map The Soultree on expert difficulty using only Nature cards from T1 and T2.
A City Strongly Compact  [Stronghold Card]
Win the 1-player map Defending Hope on expert difficulty with a deck containing only spell and building cards.
A Force of Nature   [Promo Mana Wing]
Complete all 1-player and 2-player scenarios on expert difficulty with all players in your team using decks containing only Nature cards.

• Map Changes

Campaign Maps
We have made adjustments to a couple of campaign maps. These changes include standardizing gold chests (adding or removing them on maps that break the standard) and adding extra power wells or additional capacity of current wells to improve the early game of maps like Nightmare Shard and The Dwarven Riddle. For a full list of changes, please reference the patch notes.


Rebalanced 2vs2 Maps
The rebalanced 2vs2 maps can now be played on the live server. Changes include removal (or adjustments) of walls, wells, slight changes to the layout, and making certain areas immovable for flying units. This should result in a better play experience and more balanced maps. These maps also have observer versions, and we have updated the minimaps to be accurate. 


• PvP changes

We have implemented multiple changes that should make playing PvP easier and more rewarding. If you need any help to get started, remember that you have access to free and fully upgraded PvP decks, and we have a great guide available, written by top players. The following changes have been made:
New Player Protection
To protect new players from facing top players when they are just getting started in ranked play, it is no longer possible to get matched with players with a base ELO above 135.000, if your own base ELO is below 102.000.

Made Player Names Anonymous
To prevent players from dodging bad match-ups, player names have been anonymized in the ranked lobby. This does not affect the sparring lobbies. 

Losses Are Now Hidden
It has been proven in other competitive games that showing losses on the ranked ladder results in demotivation and higher entry barriers. We have therefore removed losses from the ladder. The information is still accessible on your profile if you so desire. 

Updates To The Free PvP Decks
We have made some changes to the cards contained in the free PvP decks to compete with the new meta. If we made updates to the free PvP decks you have currently selected, you will now have the option to either swap to the new cards, or keep your current set up. Changes have been made to Pure Nature (Parasite over Shrine of Memory), Twilight (Twilight Minions over Ghost Spears), Pure Shadow (Executor over Nightguard) and Pure Fire (Burning Spears over Scorched Earth). 

Improved Rewards
We have removed the gold penalty that was currently active for playing sparring games. Quests that require you to play 2vs2 games, now also count 3vs3 games for completion. 

We have also allowed you to drain the reserve while looking for a match. If you queue for at least 5 minutes, even if you don't find an opponent, you will earn BFP as if you were ingame, meaning you get BFP not just for playing, but also while searching for matches. 

Happy Hours
Happy Hours are specific time periods where players will receive additional gold and BFP for playing PvP. During Happy Hours, there will be an in-game announcement and the icon on the world map will indicate Happy Hours are active. 

Happy Hours will take place during the following times:
- 1vs1 happy hours: 7pm-9pm CET
- 2vs2 happy hours: 9pm-10pm CET
- 1vs1 happy hours: 4am-5am CET
By clustering players together during certain time frames, players will have an easier time finding matches more frequently. 

• rPvE Fire Balance Changes

We have rolled out some balance adjustments to the fire faction for rPvE. The Fire faction in rPvE can be extremely strong, but due to its high attack and low defense, it is extra vulnerable to Crowd Control spells. We tried to counter this weakness with a brand-new building that removes Crowd Control effects from nearby units.
Some major enemy damage dealers have been rebalanced, which should result in an improved experience for all skill levels. For more information on exactly what was changed, please reference the patch notes. 
We have also expanded the wiki to contain information regarding the various bosses you might encounter.

 
• Balance Changes

This patch also contains rebalancing of over 40 cards, with a large focus on Nature cards. These changes follow the mindset written out in our Nature Deep Dive. While already a great step forward, our work on (Pure) Nature is not yet finished, with some of the more complicated changes (f.e. Abyssal Warder and Grove Spirit) still being worked on. Regardless, these changes should have a positive impact on the faction. 
Players will enjoy seeing a Forest Elder on the battlefield, since the card now has a mobile Breeding Grounds effect, reducing the cost of friendly units spawned by its side. Promise of Life has gone down a tier, now requiring only 3 Nature orbs, while Shrine of Memory has gone up a tier, now costing 2 Nature + 1 Neutral orb but increasing its effect greatly.
These are just a couple of examples from the many changes that will be included. You will be able to check out all the details in the patch notes soon. 

• Tournaments / Events

• NEW - Official PvE Contest #6: The Soultree Faction Battle - Until 19.06.2022
In this event, you can show off how much you like your favorite faction. Beat the single player map 'The Soultree' on advanced difficulty using only mixed-colored units and buildings! The event will start after the new patch is live. More information.

• NEW - Skylords Battleship Kahoot Quiz - June 12th 2022 16:00 CEST
Dallarian and Volin are hosting a Skylords Reborn knowledge quiz! The quiz will be streamed on Twitch and use Kahoot, which is easy to access by phone or PC. There are a ton of prizes up for grabs, so the majority of players should win something. More information.
 
• NEW - The Skylords Open #15 - June 19th 2022 - 14:00 CEST
The new balance changes and addition of Burning Spears should shake up the PvP meta, so what better time to host another Skylords Open? This 1vs1 tournament is open for all players, and will be streamed live on Twitch. If possible, please sign-up in advance. More Information.
 
• FINISHED - CCC #5 - Prophecy, Prophecy, PROPHECYYY!
Kapo hosted another successful Crappy Community Contest© on an altered Oracle map. Players had access to 16 orbs and 10.000 power to beat the map as fast as possible. As with all CCC, the more players attend, the better the prizes are, resulting in a free booster for the whole community. View the event and the code.

• FINISHED - Skylords Bounty: Spring Forge
A Skylords Bounty is an open-source task for the community to create something needed in one of the departments of Skylords Reborn. For this Bounty, we asked the community to help us create a spring-themed Forge. We got multiple submissions, and will now work together with the most promising candidate. Every serious attempt will also be rewarded with a Nature booster. If you participated, you will hear from us in the coming week. 

• Host your own tournament / event
Want to host a tournament or event? Please reach out to our Event Organizers Hiko and/or Metagross to have your event prizes sponsored by us. If you have a cool idea for a PvE event, or want to host a PvP tournament, please don't hesitate to reach out to us, we will gladly assist you. 

• Team Changes

Hirooo has joined our team as Faction Designer / Balance Developer. He has already been helping us a lot with testing and balancing PvP, so we are happy to welcome him to our team!

Sadly, MarcoMaar (UI Developer) and RookieN (Map Designer) will leave the team due to long inactivity. We do want to thank them for their contribution to the project!
 
• Contribute To Skylords Reborn

We are currently looking for more people to help us create new content. Many upcoming features are on hold or take a long time due to a lack of volunteers, so we encourage you to take a look at our open positions. 
For example, we are looking for a Map Artist to help us with Defense rPvE, and a Map Designer to work on creating new Campaign Maps. And we could always use more developers to improve the game in general. 
If you want to help with creating new cards, we encourage you to consider our Artist and Balance Developer roles. We can always use more people in those departments to speed up progress. Adding voice lines to our new cards is currently on hold due to us missing an Audio Editor. 
We would also like to improve our marketing; you can help out as a Marketeer, but also a Video Editor, creating short card reveal videos and exciting trailers would be greatly appreciated. 

If you don't want to join the staff, you can still help with proofreading, testing our maps or creating a community event. 

• In Conclusion

We really hope you will enjoy our latest patch "Force of Nature"! 

To celebrate the release, and to help you out with your Nature decks, we have a special scratch code for you. 
This code will reward you with two Nature boosters! SOIL-ROOT-TREE-LEAF
Feel free to share this code, but please do so by pointing players towards the Community Update instead of sharing the code itself. 
The code is valid until July 1st, when we will bring you our next Community Update.
Going forward, we will bring you these Community Updates monthly, on the first day of every month.

What changes are you most excited for? What decks will you build around the new cards? We would love to hear in the comments!  

Archive
• Skylords Reborn Documents (Deep Dives, Behind the Scenes, PvP Guide)
• Overview Community Updates
• Community Update #23

New Record for Treasure Fleet 14.47.8

Welcome to this guide on how to construct and pilot the Batariel deck. This guide will go over all the ins and outs of the deck, what to do in certain situations, and general tips and tricks for both beginning and more advanced Batariel players. Let’s open the Gates of Purgatory and jump in.
 
What does Batariel do?
Batariel is a Tier 4  card. It is a rare card and got two affinities.
 Its first ability is Gates of Hell.

ACTIVE: Activate to smash Batariel's giant mace onto the ground, dealing damage to enemies in a 10m radius. The impact will crack open the ground, allowing an enormous cleft to emerge that will erupt fountains of red-hot lava after 5 seconds. Reusable every 30 seconds. Affects ground targets only.

The second ability is Infused/Tainted Purgatory.
PASSIVE: Unit enters stages of rage in battle depending on how much damage it has recently dealt. Either it does more AoE damage around himself, or he shreds the enemy’s armor, depending on the affinity. But if there is no damage dealt for 4 seconds, the flames will abate again.

For this deck we will only be using the fire affinity, and all future references, unless explicitly stated, will refer to the fire affinity Batariel. The fire affinity is used because his passive does more damage, and the shadow affinity reduces the armor of the enemies. Reducing the armor is only relevant if you have other units to do damage as well, in a pure fire deck for example.
How is the Batariel summoned if you do not have four Fire orbs? Enlightenment. Enlightenment is three orbs, two of which nature, and it allows you to use any card for the next 20 seconds without orb restriction. You do still have to pay the cost, 300 power in this case. 

 
The Deck
Let’s start with the Tier 1 options this deck has. When playing a Batariel deck, you have three factions to choose from. Either you start with fire, nature, or shadow. Frost is by all means the worst faction to start with, as a general Batariel deck does not contain a single frost orb.
 
Fire start
With fire, most of the time you want to start with 3 Nomads (Nature affinity). An alternative could be Sunderer in some cases where you try to speedrun certain maps, but Nomads are recommended over Sunderer as they heal themselves and can hit air with their ability and are in general more flexible.
The second card you want is Mine. Mine is an excellent card to take out the enemy units at your t2 camp. In bandits and Twilight maps, often one Mine should be enough. If you are fighting Fire you could use only one Mine, but if you are less experienced or are not as comfortable with a fire start, you can use two mines. When you encounter Lost Souls, you always place one mine and wait with engaging the camp until a second mine is off cooldown. The reason for this is that you may encounter Tier 3 units like Mana Beasts, one mine if often not enough. If there are also units that give shields, then two Mines might not be enough, and you need to place a third one.
The third card you want to bring is Eruption. This card is excellent in taking out pesky (flying) units or to help out your opponents when they are in trouble. Eruption has one other very important use, which is to take our crucial spawn camps. One eruption does 300 damage for 75 power. All small spawning camps have 1200 health, so four eruptions will take out the camp and will set you back 300 power. This tactic is the mostly used in RPvE difficulty 10, but can also be utilized, and encouraged, in RPvE difficulty 9 when you try to clear the Tier 3 camp. In difficulty 9 and below, one to two Eruptions are often enough as you have your Nomads hitting the camp as well.

Blaster Cannon an optional card. This card is not necessary in RPvE difficulty 9 and below, but is almost a must-have in difficulty 10. The reason for this is that there can be flying enemy units on your Tier 2 location, which does not happen in difficulty 9 and below. Blaster cannon fire affinity does insane damage versus flying units and because of that it is preferred over the shadow affinity. The shadow affinity also hits air, but traded extra damage against flying units for extra damage to ground units, but that damage is negligible.
Sunstriders can be a nice addition too as they could replace blaster Cannon, they are inferior, but more versatile.
 
Shadow start
Shadow starts are very straight forward. The first card you want to bring are Forsaken. Forsaken do insane damage and have an awesome ability to do even more ridiculous damage at the cost of dying after the ability wears off.
Nox Trooper is a decent alternative to Forsaken, and is far superior against Crystal Fiend camps, where Forsaken get destroyed. Also, they have a better trapping capability as they shoot each unit in a squad one by one. And base damage output is higher than Forsaken, even when they lose overall to frenzied Forsaken especially when getting rid of the spawner. Dreadcharger also a decent alternative, but very situation.
Motivate is a card shadow can not go without. This card gives a near-dying unit a new purpose by allowing the same units to do more damage for the next 30 seconds.
For Soul Splicer, we want to have the Nature affinity. You want to build this shrine outside the enemies range, as it takes some time to construct it. When constructed, it can collect corpses around itself and a select area. These corpses can be used to heal your Forsaken when they are within the range of the Soul Splicer.

A general tactic when approaching the Tier 2 orb is to construct your Soul Splicer and wait until you have 6-8 Forsaken, depending on how comfortable you are. With the Forsaken you want to lure the enemy towards the Soul Splicer, so it can collect their corpses whenever they die. When fighting the enemy, use motivate on one of your Forsaken to allow the others to do more damage, and to have your first corpses inside the Soul Splicer.
You want to bring an Embalmer’s Shrine if you bring Shadow Phoenix as your Tier 2 unit. You want to construct two Embalmer’s Shrines before doing anything else.
If you play a shadow start in RPVE difficulty 10, then it is recommended to bring 9-11 forsaken, Lost Souls can require more, 3-4 squads gets frenzied and immediately attack the spawner. The remaining units clear the units with the help of a Soul Splicer and Motivate.
 
Nature Start
Nature t1 is relatively effective, in some cases better than fire, especially in solo. Basic composition is Windweavers + Dryad (Blue affinity) + Ensnaring Roots, for difficulty 10 Hurricane and Mark of the Keeper are very strong as well, and may be essential. Root is preferred over Hurricane is because it also helps vs non-S-units up to Tier 4. The edge that nature has over fire is solely not having to build a fire orb until an orb switch, with access to cultists + furnace and breeding grounds (especially useful with Shadow Phoenix against stronger t3-t4 camps)
Windweavers is the go-to damage dealer for Nature Tier 1. They are versatile and can shoot multiple enemies at once, which makes them excellent in clearing early camps. 
Dryad provides the units around her with a damage reduction buff. One Dryad is often enough, but keep in mind that she does not buff herself. Having a damage reduction buff on your units allows you to use less heals. 
Surge of Light is great. It is super good to heal your low health Windweavers, and  it scales super good into the later stages of the game as you can still use it to heal your Batariel. 
Ensnaring Roots is a must have. This spell can create distance between the enemy and your Windweavers. This card is also very effective when you need to take out a spawner in difficulty 10. 

Mark of the keeper is a must have in difficulty 10, but in difficulty 9 or lower it is not needed.
No Shaman? Yes, Shaman is not used in Batariel decks. Shaman is a unit that rarely attacks, and it binds power. For every Shaman you have, you have one Windweaver less. There are only 20 deck slots, and Shaman should not be in there.
 
Tier 2 options
On Tier 2, there are a couple options to choose from. When you start with Fire, you are generally safe to use your Nomads + Mine and use Eruptions on the spawning camp. In difficulty 10, you can bring Gladiatrix (Nature affinity) with Curse of Oink, or you can bring Shadow Phoenix with Embalmer’s Shrine. If you start with Shadow, your best option is to bring Shadow Phoenix. You need three Shadow Phoenix to kill a small spawning camp.

or

When you are playing difficulty 10, if you start with fire and want to use Phoenix, you will need to do an additional orb swap for your Batariel. This sets you back some power, but might be required sometimes.
 Less optimal, but alternative options are Bandit Minefield and Lavafield.
 
Core of a Batariel deck
The core of a Batariel deck are Life Weaving and Unholy Hero. Life Weaving keeps Batariel alive, and Unholy hero allows the Batariel to do insane amounts of damage.

Heals are important in every deck, Batariel decks are no exceptions. You should bring at least one heal spell, such as Regrowth. It is recommended to bring a backup heal in case you run out of Regrowth charges or the card is on cooldown. Two options are Surge of Light and Equilibrium (Frost affinity). It is totally fine to bring all three heal spells, as even some veteran players do.

Very important spells to bring are both Frenetic Assault’s (one is mandatory, the other is quality of life), Infect (mainly quality of life, you can do without) and Disenchant (depending on the enemy faction). Frenetic Assault makes sure the enemies are not attacking your Batariel, but each other, which gives Batariel more survivability. Both Frenetic Assaults are recommended as they have a long cooldown between casts, and you might need more than one in a difficult camp. Infect serves a similar purpose and cleans up remains. After the enemies kill each other with the Frenetic Assault effect, two Nightcrawlers will spawn from each corpse, up to 10 corpses. 20 extra units to soak up damage and to do more incremental damage.

Batariel needs to have his burning passive ability active as soon as possible. He does this be damaging enemy units or buildings. If Batariel is not able to attack, due to a paralyze effect, the chances are the Batariel will die. To solve this, Disenchant is a must-have when you fight enemies like Bandits and Twilight. Those otherwise annoying Willzappers and Windhunters are now useless when you bring Disenchant. Bandits have one boss that permanently reduces the attack by 50% when it does damage: the Equestrian Twins. This debuff can also be nullified with Disenchant.

There are two more must have cards in every Batariel deck, which are Curse of Oink and Nether Warp. Curse of Oink was mentioned earlier as well in the Tier 2 section, but it is also an all-star when Batariel is out already. Curse of Oink is an instant CC (crowd control) spell. Whenever Disenchant is on cooldown, or whenever there are scary enemy units, Curse of Oink can keep incoming damage to a minimum. Keep in mind, this has no synergy with Frenetic Assault.

When entering an enemy camp, you want to position your burning Batariel in a location where it can either hit as many enemies as possible, or where it can take out a spawner. Nether Warp is the solution for this. After you Batariels AoE burning is active, you can warp him further into the camp. Keep in mind, all the enemies will be able to target him, so make sure you have some heals ready and Life Weaving active. Recommended is the Nature affinity Nether Warp because the Frost affinity debuffs your Batariel with a slow effect. Yes, the Nature affinity heals your opponents units too, but that heal is insignificant compared to the damage output of the Batariel.

When you have your core, there are one, two or three spots left for other cards. Thunderstorm is the one that is most recommended bringing as it is such a versatile damage spell. The second card is Soulshatter, as it can decimate smaller camps on its own, but you need to be careful as the damage also damages friendly units. The third option is Earthshaker. This card can take out crucial enemy buildings. This is optional, as Batariel should not have any problem taking out buildings on its own, but can be a quality of life.
 
 
Void return
Because spells are cycled non-stop in this deck, void return is of utmost importance. There are two options available for a Batariel deck. Either Shrine of War, or Cultist Master + Furnace of Flesh.
Shrine of War is the best void return card in the game for multiplayer maps. You use spells whenever you want to kill enemy units, and whenever enemy units die, the Shrine of War gives back void power. It is the perfect synergy, there is however a big downside. Shrine of War costs 150 power and has no continuous upkeep. You will need two to be able to keep it running constantly. You will need to invest 300 power, which delays your Batariel immensely. Shine of War is recommended in fire starts.
Shrine of War has been nerfed and now require 2 fire orbs, which forces you to play either the alternative option with Furnace of Flesh and Cultist Masters, or rely on a teammate. 

The ability of the Cultist Master is free, and it summons three Nightcrawlers that die after 20 seconds. When they die near a Furnace of Flesh, it gives back void power. Similar to Shrine of War, you will need to maintain the upkeep of this. It is recommended to have around three Cultist Masters to give reliable void return. If you have more than four, then consider building a second Furnace of Flesh or to alternate between the activations, but this requires way more micro. This option is preferred in Batariel decks that start with Shadow or in solo RPvE maps. If a teammate has a Shrine of War, you can kill the Cultist Masters and the Furnace of Flesh, as Shrine of War is superior to them.

 
Fallen Skyelf
Fallen Skyelf can play a critical role in certain scenarios, vs bosses like Twilight Hulk or Abaddon, which have very high damage output, or Hellhound who will eat all your units if you don’t kill him quick enough. And helps overall vs bosses.

 
Plague
Double Shadow starters sometimes gravitate towards triple shadow instead of switching to fire. These decks require more precise play due to the lack of cards like Disenchant or Earthshaker, but end up being significantly faster upon being executed well, given how strong Plague is. The spell speeds up camp clears in general and sometimes even allows very powerful pathing advantages as a spell combo around Plague + Infect (+ Frenetic) sometimes removes T4 camps on its own (ideally this even works against small boss camps i.e. Umbabwe/Bandit Lancer). Sometimes Disenchant cannot be removed upon facing factions like Twilight, but whenever there is an angle to cut the fire orb Plague should be your go-to choice when considering the orb swap with a double Shadow start.

 
How to kill a camp
When entering a camp best to attack a unit, preferably flying, because Batariel doesn’t dance around those, like he may sometimes when trying to attack ground entities. Also, because Batariel does more damage per hit with his normal attacks against flying units. If power levels/refund permits, then Batariels ability is a great way to enter, use it on a building cluster or a boss. Best to warp after front buildings are destroyed or nearly destroyed (possibly finished by infect). Infect should also be used when entering the camp to maximize the crawlers spawned, after the buffs with frenetic, not necessary, but can be useful, plays an especially important role vs Lost Souls and Twilight bugfest.
When playing vs Lost Souls always have at least two Batariels for later camps, keep one in front to tank all the debuffs and for ground presence to cast cc spells against spellbreakers, and teleport second Batariel in the back line, who will take care of the camp. Preferably, use infect to soak up the damage and all the debuffs as well. In case of 2 Lost Bane presence, drag the camp out use spells (with infect) and try to either use Batariels ability on Lost Bane closest to the spawner, and then warp, or if possible just warp in. Can also try to power through after dragging the camp after getting rid of Lost Banes and having crawlers, enemies won’t pose as much threat even if they respawn, just keep eyes on Spellbreakers.
Against Twilight Infect is crucial, especially against difficulty 10, where Twilight gazers are bugged and reflect huge damage back to Batariel if not careful, crawlers soak up that damage. Best wait to approach them is to use Batariels ability and maybe even port them together in a bunch, then frenetic/oink and use Batariels ability. But be careful as you won’t have nether warp available to get close to the camp.
 
Bosses
Against Bosses, either focus them with Skyelf support, if they can be killed within the ability right away, or warp in the backline and deal with a boss after taking out the majority of the camp. Raven ship is very tricky to kill with a Skyelf, she most likely will get focused, must use infect and possible defensive spells on her, or be on a safe side and deal with the boss without, it’s not too dangerous to Batariel, just have to oink gunner when it spawns. Twilight Dragon boss also takes a while to kill, and Skyelf will heal it if used too early, so it’s better to used when more than half hp is depleted. Nyxia debuff can be disenchanted, which means that the Batariel can freely attack her. Hellhound is best if approached with at least two Batariels like all late game LS camps, and infect must be used. Try to get rid of him asap, before your Nightcrawlers die and he starts eating Batariels. Killing him is not a problem, surviving is.
Due to the Lost Spellbreakers Disenchant, engaging with Frenetic Assault (both work here) or Curse of Oink may save you a lot of trouble. Can be tricky, especially in non-motm maps where you don't know exactly where they're located. Against higher tier Souls camps with Banestones:
1 Banestone: Try to disable the Lost Spellbreakers as mentioned above, engage with Batariel ability onto the Banestone and port into the camp. Can be hard with Lost Dragons and such where the Batariels ability couldn’t be used, in that case Disenchant (G) works well.
2 Banestones: From my experience it's best to just wait for the camp wave to spawn into your direction, use Infect on it and engage the camp with the Nightcrawlers before Batariel to distract the Lost Spellbreakers.  Try to get one Banestone down as fast as possible and use Frenetic Assault + Nether Warp into the camp (hoping that Bata burns at this point)
Fire Bosses: Abaddon, you must avoid his ability at all costs, either send a unit in front to take it, or just dodge/warp in the backline and deal with Abaddon when you have taken care of the camp. Golem should be attacked with ability for the majority of HP, auto-attacking is dangerous.  Magma Fiend boss is the most difficult to deal with as a Batariel deck. Must have at least 2 units, if only playing Batariel in t4, have 1 or 2 extra when approaching it, go in with a single Batariel without any buffs and instantly warp in the back line and cc the camp, infect will help as well, then buff Batariel and take care of the camp. After the majority of the camp is gone, send in other Batariels to tank debuff, and buff the one not being attacked. For all these bosses Skyelf is crucial, may not be mandatory. Keep Fallen Skyelf in a distance from Abaddon, she will die very quickly if she is close.
 
General tips
You might be asking, but what about Unholy Power? That increases the damage of Batariel too, right? Simple answer, no. Unholy Power is basically a dead card in your deck, as it does not stack with the burning of Batariel.
When you fight Lost Souls or Fire, Disenchant is not needed, as these enemies has no way of stopping your Batariel via cc. When you start with Shadow, you can stay and you do not have to switch an orb to fire.
If you spawn your Batariel at Tier 3, it is recommended not to build the two wells at your Tier 4 orb location. This will set you back 200 power, and will only pay off when you are floating in power anyway.
Batariel does more damage with an attack than against non-flying:
XL Ground: 481
L Flying: 697
XL Flying: 1045
This is due to the longer animation when attacking flying units and as the damage per 20 seconds is fixed, attack types with different execution durations deal different damage.
 
@Volin has a in-depth Twitch Stream about Buffed Batariels, where you can see some gameplay: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1423615481?t=00h06m39s

Special thanks to the following people for helping out with this guide!
@arabikaa @Damo @Donaar @Kapo @Mocaak @RadicalX @Volin
 

I really wonder why there was no thread for Mo 😃

There is one point I would heavily suggest to change: If you kill the Walker, it shouldn't respawn - no matter which difficulty. It is presented on this map as a "special boss" option, and once you kill it, it shouldn't come back.

I think the reason for this is so the soulhunter can use its minefield immeadiatly. Normally the soulhunter will attack you until he sucked up a certain amount of corpses, after which he will place his minefield. If you go to him, you will notice him using his minefield immediatly, which is supposed to make this part a little more difficult.

Hey Skyladies and Skylords,
to give you a little update: We crossed 40 participants for the league today! Pretty much all the divisions are coming together quite nicely and I am very happy to see a lot of new names there. Signup will stay open for another ~4weeks until we go to Phase III which will be a tournament to kick things off and publishing of the Division lists. 
 
See you in the Forge,
Toggy

I think the reason for this is so the soulhunter can use its minefield immeadiatly. Normally the soulhunter will attack you until he sucked up a certain amount of corpses, after which he will place his minefield. If you go to him, you will notice him using his minefield immediatly, which is supposed to make this part a little more difficult.

Greetings Skylords!
Every three weeks, we give an update on the things going on behind the scenes of Skylords Reborn. Welcome to another Community Update!

• Nature Deep Dive

After Frost and Bandits, it is now time for a Deep Dive into one of the more popular factions among (new) players: Nature. In this Deep Dive we will look into the faction's strengths, weaknesses and upcoming changes. You can expect more incentive to play pure Nature, adjustments to the root network, important changes to cards like Abyssal Warder and Forest Elder and a sneak peek into two upcoming Nature cards. We are currently testing the changes, and you can expect most of these changes to hit the live server with our next content patch. 

We have also opened up multiple forum posts about the proposed changes. 
From the beginning of the project, community involvement has been, and continues to be, important to us. We have thus decided to institute a change in the structure of our balance discussions. Going forward, balance discussions will be transitioning from discord to the forums with the hope of facilitating better discussion and involving more people.
 
• Introducing Skylords Bounty: Seasonal Forge

We are aware there are quite a few players who want to contribute to Skylords Reborn, but don't have the time or motivation to fully apply as a team member. Today we introduce an alternative: Skylords Bounty! 

A Skylords Bounty is a task for the community to create something needed in one of the departments of Skylords Reborn. If your entry gets chosen, you can win a great prize; in this case a Promo Razorleaf! Even if your entry is not chosen, everyone who applies with a serious attempt will earn a participation reward.
For our first Skylords Bounty, we have selected the task to help us create the next Seasonal Forge. During our December update, we gave the Forge a snowy look. We are now looking to give the Forge a spring make-over. This is your chance to get your work into the game!

Please check out this forum post for more information and a short tutorial video on how to create a Forge. We hope we can count on your contributions! 
 
• Mana Wing Promo

It is time to reveal our latest promo! A few months ago players were able to vote for their favorite card to get the promo treatment, and Mana Wing was the clear winner. Joining Snapjaws, here is the second Skylords Reborn promo: 

A huge thanks to everyone involved. From artwork to model adjustments and special effects, multiple people spent weeks on getting everything just right. The wings have a shining glow, and as icing on the cake there are also golden dots when the unit is flying around. We are very proud of the result, and hope you will like it as well!
We will reveal how you can get your hands on this promo in the next community update, so stay tuned for that!
 
• Artwork

The artwork behind the promo was a team effort from three talented artists. The starting point was the Mana Wing wallpaper from ArtRhino. A great piece of art, but it shares the same colors as the original Mana Wing. To give it that promo feel it thus needed some changes. Our two artists, Spirit Alpha and Tweeto, then worked together to create a new look and color palette for our feathery friend.  


• Survey: Events

Once again, we would like some feedback on our events. What do you like about them? Which ones were your favorite? And most importantly: Why? 


We use this information to provide better events for you, so please take a few minutes to complete the survey. If you have never joined one of our events, please let us know in the survey why that is the case. Thanks a lot in advance!

• Tournaments / Events

You will now also be able to find the events on our Forum Calendar! We hope this will make it easier to keep track of them, and tease future events in advance! 

• NEW - PvP League - Register now
The PvP League has been a project long in the making, but sign-ups are finally open! 
The league will consist of small groups (divisions) of about 8 players who will fight each other, one opponent per week. A season ends when everyone played everyone in the group. Players should be roughly equal in skill level and can move up or down in groups depending on their results. This makes the league a perfect place to play PvP; both for new and experienced players! More information and sign-up.

• NEW - Official PvE Contest#5: They See Me Walkin', They Hatin' - Until 14.04.2022
For this challenge, we want to see you succeed in playing the map Convoy on Advanced difficulty while using pure colored decks.
Depending on what color deck you use, you will be able to get different rewards. If you want to increase the challenge, you can also try to tackle the map on your own or on expert difficulty for some bonus rewards. More information and sign-up. 

• FINISHED -  Official 1 Player  rPvE Contest#3 The Minimalistic Firewatch
This event was very popular; we received exactly 120 different replays! In this event, people had to beat the map of the month on difficulty 7 but with an interesting twist: use as few cards as possible! Check out the results here. 

• Host your own tournament / event
Want to host a tournament or event? Please reach out to our Event Organizers Hiko and/or Metagross to have your event prizes sponsored by us. If you have a cool idea for a PvE event, or want to host a PvP tournament, please don't hesitate to reach out to us, we will gladly assist you. 
 
• Team Changes

Welcome aodpi! He's our new Tool Developer. He will create and improve various tools which aim to optimize the user experience and also speed up the internal development process. He is currently helping out with our new updater. 
We also have a new webdeveloper: nkmol! He is mostly helping back-end wise for the web interface. Welcome, and thank you for your contribution!
We are always looking for more help and support for the project. Please look over our open positions and apply if you see a role you like! We have multiple positions open, from development to audio or visual editors.  
 
• In Conclusion

And that's it for this Community Update, thanks for reading! 
As is tradition, this community update comes with a scratch code. 
The code will reward you with a nature-booster: DEEP-DIVE-MANA-WING

The code is valid until April 23rd, when we will bring you another Community Update. 
As always, we are open to feedback, so please let us know if you have any questions, suggestions or comments! 
 

Archive
• Skylords Reborn Documents (Deep Dives, Behind the Scenes, PvP Guide)  
• Overview Community Updates
• Community Update #20
Nature_Deep_Dive.pdf
 

Treasure Fleet is not the easiest map to complete, but now there is a video online with a t3 only run, with only commons, Amazon, and Thunderstorm. 
My newest video on YouTube:
 

Okay Skyladies and Skylords, it is time to advance to Phase II of the PvP league and that includes more info on the whole thing and opening of the signup page!

Format
The league will consist of small groups (divisions) of about 8 players who will fight each other, one opponent per week. A season ends when everyone played everyone in the group. Players should be roughly equal in skill level but be aware that the first seasons(s) might be a little of a wildcard to get that sorted.
To give you an example of how the structure of the league may look:
• 1a: the target audience are the top players, platinum rank
• 2a, 2b: the second tier of players, probably higher gold ranks
• 3a, 3b, 3c, ...: lower gold players to high silver
• 4a, 4b, 4c, ...: new players and silver players
Divisions with the same number are supposed to be roughly equal in skillevel.
At the end of a season the top players will have the chance to promote in division while the bottom players will have the chance to be demoted to lower divisions.
 
Rules
General Rules:
-To participate you need a Skylords Reborn account and be present in the official PvP discord server
-You play versus one opponent each week, as shown by the playchart of your division
-Display sportsmanship, listen to admins
-Not showing up to a match or disconnecting results in a default loss, though rematches are recommended
-Contact your opponent to schedule a matchday and time during your playweek, you can do this via the PvP Discord
-If you cannot agree on a day and time, default day/time is Sunday at 7pm CET
Matchrules:
-Each player picks either 1 or 0. Use /roll 1 to determine who wins the coinflip. The winner can decide if he wants to ban a map first or if he wants to be able to lock in the deck last.
-Mapdraft: There are 6 maps in the pool: Haladur, Simai, Elyon, Lajesh, Uro and Yrmia. Everyone bans 2 of those maps (1-2-1, /roll 1 to determine who goes first). The remaining two maps will be played with the map of the cointoss loser first
-Play two matches versus your opponent, one on each map left after the drafting
-You can change decks between matches, free PvP Decks are allowed (and even recommended), the one with the higher base elo would have to lock in first if you cannot decide
-Save the replays, they act as proof. Admins are allowed to ask for replays anytime
-Report the score to your league admin
-Gain 1 point for a 1-1 (draw) and 2 points for a 2-0 (win), losing 0-2 or losing via default lose does not result in any points
Signup
You can sign up for the league using this link or the button below
You will be asked for you Forum name, ingame name, prefered league to start in and Discord account.


The official PvP discord will be mainly used for communication and updates. 
Please join it using this link.
 
 
As always, if you have any questions reply in this thread. Keep in mind that neither the format nor the rules are set in stone yet, and while the signup lasts (about ~4 weeks) there might still be changes.
See you in the forge,
Toggy
 

@Kapo Look at him not even tagging us 🥺

Thanks again to everyone who played in this contest, everyone who helped to make it possible and everyone who joined the stream yesterday!
I am still overwhelmed by the large amount of submissions and positive feedback I received - I have received exactly 120 different replays, that were valid and counted towards the rankings in the end.
Since I forgot to show you the full rankings during yesterday's stream, here it is:
 
In case you are interested in which card has been used how many times, here is a list of that:
 
And finally, all submissions are attached to this post for download, so you can watch and analyze them yourselves.
I will send out the rewards soon, but it may take some time, becausue there are so many mails to send out.
Make sure to read the upcoming Community Update and stay tuned for more events!
 
Official_rPvE_Contest_3.zip

So we buff eruption to be as strong as surge of light 😇

I'm in for that 😋

So we buff eruption to be as strong as surge of light 😇

I'm in for that 😋

So we buff eruption to be as strong as surge of light 😇

I'm in for that 😋

Hello Skyladies and Skylords,
As hinted before and announced recently on stream, we will have a PvP league starting within the next two months. But all in order:

What?!
A league like a football league will start for every PvP-player who is interested. You will have one opponent per week (rules not yet completely finished). The exact model will be presented soon, but imagine it like this: A league system consisting of different divisions (1-4) each consisting of groups of about ~8 players. The top players will be in division 1a, the new players in 4a-z. After every season (~8 weeks) you can rise in league if you are in a topspot or drop down if you are in a bottom spot.
All this wll be organised via a few excel sheets since a webpage is out of my skillset atm. But stay tuned for a final draft of the rules and system!
 
When does it start? Where can I sign up?
No fixed date is set yet, signup will start in Phase II.
Edit: Phase II is now live. Sign-ups are open. 
 
Timetable!
• Phase I : Official announcement of the league, recruiting admins (~1week)
• Phase II(we are here): (click here) Open the signup and showcase the rules and format (~4-6 weeks)
• Phase III: Hosting a tournament to determine the participants in the top division and start of the league (1 weekend)
 
So right now...I need YOU!
To host this league, Hiko and I need people to help us out, especially for managing the different league groups (divisions) and to help me manage a Discord. So the open positions atm look like this:
• League Admin
• Discord Admin
And whatever roles we might need. If you want to help us do this reach out to me via Discord ( Toggy#8400 ). And yes, you can be an Admin and still participate in the league, it is not a problem.
 
Thats it pretty much for Phase I, if you have any question respond in this channel or hit me up on stream ( where I will be tlaking about the league) and Discord.
See you in the Forge,
Toggy

new all-time 😜

(For players who have no sense of humour, please ignore this post)

Fight in the past and present of Lyr to undo the invasion of lost souls. Do you struggle to beat lost souls? Does Mo or Rogan die and you don't know why? Do you know what to do with the Red King? Let us show you how to beat the map Empire!
 
When & Where
• Sunday 6th March 2022 at 1pm CET
• Voice channel Room 1 on the main Skylords Reborn Server
 
What the sessions involve
• Tutorial about the map mechanics, layout, important trigger events and how to approach the map with efficiency
• Break out groups with helper mentors to help with making modifications to your deck/s to optimize it
• Applying the knowledge ingame
• Feedback from both participants and mentors
• Question time
 
Basic Rules
• Must have access to Discord and a headset as the sessions are conducted in Discord live
• Must have a booking to participate
• Arrive on time
• Be respectful to our mentors and other participants 
 
How to Join
Book yourself in via https://discord.gg/XHpFSQDz 
 
Who?
Our mentor and session facilitator is Arabika from Germany. Arabika has been playing Battleforge since the old EA days for about 9 months before it was taken down. Since starting again with Skylords Reborn he primarily focuses on rPVE and campaign PVE. Arabika and his team (Donaar, Gam3over and co.) consistently place top 5 in monthly ranking in a wide variety of campaign maps such as Empire, Blight, GoL & Dwarven Riddle. He and his team love to explore many different decks on the different maps and try to achieve the fastest times possible. During the last year he has gotten  to know many different players and was able to gain a lot of experience with most of the campaign maps. Now he would like to pass on his  knowledge to all players who want to do the same, and hopefully inspire a new generation of campaign PVE players.

Hello Skylords, Skyladies and other Skybeings.
Welcome to the third official rPvE event!
We hope you will have a lot of fun with this event!

What kind of event will it be?
rPvE/Battlegrounds singleplayer - Map of the Month - Difficulty 7
For this challenge, we want to test your deck building skills. A deck normally consists of 20 cards. We decided that we should go back to the beginning, back to where it all began: The Tutorial deck! However, it would not be fun if everyone played the same deck, so we gave it a little spin. In previous rPvE events there were restrictions on colour or ground presence, this time there will be a slot restriction. This event is not entirely based on speed tough, so read on to find out how you can succeed in this event!


When will it start?
We will be accepting entries starting today.
The event will run for about two weeks, specifically until 17.03.2022 23:59 CET.
You can send your replays through DM to me on Discord (Metagross31#1103) or through a PM to me on the forum (@Metagross31).


How can I participate?
You just have to send in your replay with which you want to participate, including the player name, the number of cards used and your reached time.

For example: "Metagross31_10cards_time_00h20m30s"

You can send in your replays until the 17.03.2022.
You can find your replays here: Documents=>Battleforge=>replays

Please note:
You are allowed to send in different replays, but only your fastest replay per league will be counted. You can submit replays to multiple leagues, but you can not be drafted for a random draw in a lower league, if you already won something in a higher league.
Your entry has to be a victory!


What is the objective?
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The goal is to beat the current singleplayer rPvE map of the month with a deck consisting of as little cards as possible. Depending on the number of cards used, your replay will be part of one of the following leagues:
Rookie League - Up to 15 cards
Advanced League - Up to 10 cards
Iron League - Up to 7 cards
Master League - Up to 5 cards
Insanity League - Up to 3 cards



Sounds fun! What's the prize pool?
There are different prize pools for the different leagues, with the "higher" leagues having bigger rewards. Also, you not only get rewards for having the fastest run, but there are also some rewards for competing, which get distributed between the people in a certain league. Additionally, the fastest time in each league gets an additional reward. In the lower leagues, these rewards will only be given out to people below a certain rank.
Rookie League:
1 general booster for 1/3 of submissions in this league (33.3%), distributed randomly
3 general boosters for the fastest run in this league (Maximum rank to get this reward: Strategist (6) or lower)
Advanced League:
1 general booster for 1/2 of submissions in this league (50%), distributed randomly
4 general boosters for the fastest run in this league (Maximum rank: Lord (9) or lower)
Iron League:
1 general booster for 3/4 of submissions in this league (75%), distributed randomly
4 fire/frost boosters for the fastest run in this league (Maximum rank: Skylord (12) or lower)
Master League:
1 general booster for every submission in this league
6 general boosters for the fastest run in this league (No maximum rank)
Insanity League:
1 general booster + 150 bfp for every submission in this league
8 general boosters for the fastest run in this league (No maximum rank)
5 general boosters for the 2nd fastest run in this league
3 general boosters for the 3rd fastest run in this league
1 general booster for the 4th and 5th fastest runs in this league

Additionally, there will be a reward of a non-promo Ultra rare card of your choice for the three fastest runs across all leagues.

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In conclusion
This event focuses on your deck building skills, flexibility and speed on this month's rPvE 1p map.

To summarize the event in simple steps:
- Choose which league(s) you want to participate in.
- Build your deck according to the restrictions
- Come up with a strategy for your run.
- Beat the current map of the month, difficulty 7 while being as fast as possible.
Satisfied? Send the replay to me! (Metagross31#1103 on Discord or via PM in the forums @Metagross31).

When will we stream ?
We will announce the winners on stream.
Date: 19th of March, 2022 6pm CET



Future events
If you are interested in helping with these kinds of events for the community, or want to host one yourself, don't be afraid and simply reach out!
Send me or @Minashigo Hiko a PM on the forum, or direct message via Discord (Metagross31#1103, Minashigo Hiko#1126).
We are happy to assist you with upcoming events and with sponsoring your prize pool!
We hope you have a lot of fun with this event. We are looking forward to seeing all your replays!
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.
Best regards,
Skylords Reborn Team

Yes! A lot

This is how I would rate the decks from personal experience

Hey everyone,
I just created a template for rPvE deck tierlists. You can access it here:
https://www.tierlists.com/create/skylords-reborn-rpve-decks
Feel free to create your own tierlists and post them in this thread :)
Note however that this is more meant as a place to share your toughts and let it be. It is not supposed to start discussions about the lists of others. So if you have a different opinion (such as "why did you place deck X in tier Y? I think it is better than deck Z and should be placed higher"), feel free to discuss it with the people directly via dm.
Also, the deck themes are on purpose chosen to be kind of vague, so some of them are up for interpretation and thus might vary hugely in were people place them depending on how they interpret the image.

To start things of, here is what I came up with:
 
 

Hey Radi, thank you so much for correcting this. My first thought on the numbers was: plain numbers don't lie, Eirias is trustworthy, my gut must be wrong here. But the 85% robbed me of an hour or two of my sleep. 🙂 
This is much more plausible and your postscript here is very important, the 22% is distorted by speed runs alone - but this is true for all 3 modes (1p, 2p and 4p).
Still, it's not quite as simple as Eirias presented the difference between 1p and 4p. Yes, solo rpves are basically much harder due to the layout. And that good players on a 4 player map can pull less good ones along is of course correct, but:
This does happen, at least in the random groups in which I play, not very often. In fact it is even seen almost never. One good player is not able to pull a full group here, if not every player has a minimum strength. Even 2 VERY good players (speaking here of our very best ones) would hardly be able to pull a whole group here on an average map, this would only be possible on the most easy maps. Else time is the limit here.
That is partly correct of course, but as I stated before: Even for some smaller mistakes it can take the effort of a whole group to keep the player in the game at all. He is still behind after that and this is something where the proposed 2-3min more would come in very handy in my opinion.
I remember the bail out in a match a few weeks ago, where Gameover, Treim and another good player saved my ass because I pulled accidently a close camp on position 4. I was drowing in waves and lost 3 or 4 wells and my T1 for two times. If I did not share the side with Treim this would have been a lost game. It took the guys 20-40 spells only to keep me in the game - and I lost so much energy that I was NO help in the late match at all. Just as an example. And damn, I am not that bad myself in BGs usually 😄
If one player dies, this is usually not covered that easy. If for example player1 drops out, player 2 is confronted with 2 additional waves at least - in the worst case (he hit the t3) it may be up to 5 additional waves for the remaining player. As there are enough wells and orbs on a 4player map to do your job in a full group this may be covered by the remaining player, but usually that comes with A LOT extra effort. This is only a no-brainer on the super easy 10s.
 
 
Just want to add the thoughts that all this is not so easy to judge. And please don't get me wrong Eirias, I want to emphasize that there is some truth in each of your statements. Only there is just also to consider what I have written to the individual facts.
If we now still have the 22% in mind, that here partly of the groups that play the 10 4 player mode the worst players are sorted out, who simply would have no chance to pass this mode, then this speaks in my opinion even more for the proposal of Ky here to put the time a teeny tiny bit up.
What I'm saying is: In 4p very often only groups compete that have any chance at all, while the threshold to start a 1p to have a look (which is a fantastic option ofc) is very low
I want to reiterate here, a good 10% more time would not just make the mode 10% easier. It would make it a little easier and a little fairer, yes, but it truly would not be a trivialization of 10s.
 

Greetings Skylords!
Every three weeks, we give an update on the things going on behind the scenes of Skylords Reborn. Welcome to another Community Update!



• Teaser rPvE Nature

As decided (quite overwhelmingly) by vote, Nature will follow up Fire and be the next faction to become available as a new rPvE enemy.
We are still in the early stages of both design and balance, so it will still take quite a while before you can fight your way through a new challenge, but we wanted to give you a little teaser of what to expect. 


• Expectation management

For these community updates, we always carefully decide what to share with the public already. We aim to strike the right balance between giving an insight into what we are working on while not giving false expectations about their expected release. When deciding on what to share, our rule of thumb is that it should be something that is definitely happening, even if it might still take quite a while.
For example, Wasteland Terror and PvP Happy Hours are still happening, although in hindsight we probably revealed them too soon. Another example would be the Tower Deepdive from the last community update. This has lead to multiple questions expecting these changes to hit the server soon, even though we are still in early iterations. In this case, the reason we shared the Deepdive already was to let the community join into the discussion and provide feedback about our intended changes.
In other cases, we are sometimes just excited about what we are working on and want to share them with you already! We hope you are patient while we work on our next patch, even if it will probably not include Nature rPvE already. Rest assured that we are hard at work on other exciting things though! 
 
• New artwork reveal

On the day of our previous community update, SpiritAlpha has joined the team as a 2D artist. Since then, he has been hard at work and we can already show you two pieces of his artwork. The first is our new art for the Banzai Birds, spawned from our new card Banzai Lord. Since the card is quite popular, we felt the birds deserved a proper artwork, instead of a recolor of the old artwork. 
                   
The second artwork is an icon for Stronghold's new ability "Bombardment", as mentioned in our Tower Deepdive. Bombardment will become an active ability with a power cost and a long cooldown. It deals area of effect damage with knockback and has a long range to enable Stronghold to counter siege units on its own.
Icons will be quite small in the game, but we still like the details that went into this one. We plan to add more icons to other missing abilities, like Thug's and Lost Shade's Unity buff, so look forward to those!
 
• New tools for new players

Skylords Reborn is an awesome game, but it can be quite hard to get the grasp of it when you are starting out. Various community members have been trying to help newer players get started or improve, including a recently started tutoring program.
• NEW - Volin's Random Rushhour
Every Thursday, Volin hosts a new stream series focused on helping players improve in rPvE. Every week covers different topics, and of course players are encouraged to ask questions and interact. Follow Volin on Twitch, or keep an eye on the stream-channel on our Discord to be notified when the stream starts. 

• NEW - Workshops
The recently started community project REBORN hosts special workshops for new players looking for guidance. In these workshops, you get supported by a mentor guiding you through various topics like deck building, spawn mechanics, power management and of course gameplay. You will get helpful feedback from participants and mentors and get advice on your deck and applying the knowledge on the battleground with one of the mentors. The workshops are not a lecture and one-sided, you are highly encouraged to openly engage in discussions with the mentors. The workshops take place every Sunday, if you are interested, be sure to sign-up. 


• PvP - Toggy's Fightclub
Every Wednesday, Toggy hosts a PvP Fightclub, where players can train and get commentary on their matches. Whether you are a veteran PvP player wanting to put on a show or a new player in need of some helpful feedback, Fightclub is where you want to be. Starting around 18:30 CET every Wednesday, you can watch the Fightclub live on Twitch, while joining the games in the sparring lobby. You are encouraged to spectate and join the fun! Follow Toggy on Twitch, or keep an eye on the stream-channel on our Discord to be notified when Fightclub starts. 

Need more help on PvP? Be sure to check out the Tutor and Apprentice Discord, and the PvP guide written by two of the best PvP players; RadicalX and Hirooo. 

• Patreon update

Skylords Reborn is being worked on by a team of volunteers. The game is free to play, and we do not make any profit of it. We have been able to pay for our server through the donation of generous Patrons, and our current savings are high enough to support server upkeep costs for years to come. Since we are currently not allowed to spend money on other areas (like marketing), we decided to put the Patreon donations on pause. Should this situation change, we will open it up again.
Thank you so much for supporting Skylords Reborn over the years!
 
• Skylords Reborn Wallpapers

Now that the Patreon is not available anymore, we have decided to release our previously Patreon exclusive wallpapers to the public. Our former artist ArtRhino has created 38 great wallpapers with a new take on various units, spells, buildings and area's in the game. You might have seen some of them already during our stream or as banners for the Community Update. Now you can look at them in all of their glory and tell that coworker glancing at your screen about our great game! 
You can find all the wallpapers here.

 
• Tournaments / Events

• NEW - Community Map Challenge #4: “Lyr’s Distress Call” - UNTIL 21st February 2022
Dallarian has hosted another winter themed event! The event will be run on a brand new one-player community map, “Aeglos Fortress”. Complete the map with a few restrictions and win some prizes! Be sure to check it out, since there are also prizes for the less experienced players. 

• FINISHED - Official 2p rPvE Contest#2: The Bandit Alliance
We were looking for the fastest time with only one rule: each player could only spawn one single unit with ground presence through the whole run!
You can rewatch the stream and find out the winners on our official twitch channel. 
 
• SOON™ - PvP League
Some exciting news for our PvP players. Toggy is hard at work on creating a PvP league, where players can compete against opponents from the same skill level over the duration of multiple weeks. More info in the coming weeks! 

• Host your own event / tournament
Want to host a tournament or event? Please reach out to our Event Organizers Hiko and/or Metagross to have your event prizes sponsored by us. If you have a cool idea for a PvE event, or want to host a PvP tournament, please don't hesitate to reach out to us, we will gladly assist you. 
 
• Team changes

Our team has seen quite a few changes in the past weeks. 
Pascal has left the team as our Lead Moderator. Dutchy will take over his role and is our new Lead Moderator. 
Our Global Moderators DragonOfTime and Lontzek have also left the moderation team. To fill in these spots, Dallarian and Naturee are our new Global Moderators. 
We would like to thank each of them for their contributions. Moderation has always been a very important part of the Skylords Reborn project, and we wouldn't have the community we have now without their help! 
As mentioned above, SpiritAlpha has joined the team as 2D-artist, working alongside Tweeto to add new artwork into the game. 
Lastly, Killbuster has joined the PvP taskforce. He helped us greatly with the testing process while providing very constructive feedback and suggestions.
 

• We need your help

Unfortunately, we currently do not have enough volunteers to continue implementing any further voice lines and sound effects into the game.
Now that we are able to implement voice lines and audio into the game (thanks to some great voice actors helping us out!), we are looking for someone to help us with audio post-production and quality control.
• Open Position: Audio Editor
We would love to continue adding voice lines for more cards and narration for new maps. As an Audio Editor, you will be responsible for selecting and extracting the best takes, doing post-production and making sure the overall quality is high enough to be implemented into the game. If you have more skills, you will also be able to design new sounds for the game as Audio Producer. Click here to read more and apply.
 
We are also still looking for a new Community Manager, who can help us with these Community Updates. If you are interested or have any questions, please reach out to us. 
• Open Position - Community Manager
As a community manager, you are responsible with aiding the communication to and from the community. You will work closely with the Project Coordinator (previously Community Manager) to communicate staff and project decisions to the community through, for example, The Community Updates and self-written announcements. Furthermore, you will act as a contact person for the community to share project feedback and suggestions and are expected to keep the staff informed and be up-to-date with the state of the community. Click here to read more and apply.

• In Conclusion

And that's it for this Community Update, thanks for reading! 
As is tradition, this community update comes with a scratch code. 
The code will reward you with a mini-booster: COMM-UNIT-YNEW-S19B
The code is valid till March 12th, when we will bring you another Community Update. 
As always, we are open to feedback, so please let us know if you have any questions, suggestions or comments! 

Archive
• Skylords Reborn Documents (Deepdives, Behind the Scenes, PvP Guide)  
• Overview Community Updates
• Community Update #18