SunWu

You can also motivate them for more damage, feels quite statisfying. Won't work that well against willzappers or mark of the keeper though.
Another deck i found to be fun, relatively strong and reliable is skydancer spam + 2 - 4 fallen skyelfs. You fly to a camp, ,,mark'' the biggest threats with fallen and melt them with dancers. After that you can take care of the spawn and clean up. Because of the high amount of charges and cheap powercost you can perma motivate the dancers wich produces really decent damage for an air only / L unit deck. Thanks to the auto heal you probably won't even need any healing spells.

Greetings Skylords!
A new month; a new Community Update! It's time to bring you up to speed with everything going on in Skylords Reborn!

• Continue the Story

Our new patch has released! With it comes two brand-new campaign maps, 15 years after the original story concluded. We are thrilled to continue the legacy of BattleForge, and we created a special video to celebrate to occasion. 

• Patch Overview Video

Our latest patch has a lot to offer, so we also have a Patch Overview Video for you. 
  Because we are extremely limited in what we can do on the marketing side of things, we would highly appreciate it if you can give it a like and share it with your friends!
    You can read the full patch notes here. 
We are very happy that the response from the community to these maps has been very positive, and we want to thank everyone who dropped in to share some kind words. We have spend a lot of hours on balance, map art, voice-overs and playtesting, but nothing can quite prepare you for the whole community exploring them.
We are collecting all the feedback and will make sure to take it into account for our next maps as well. We have more maps in the works, but we will talk about them in another community update! 
 
• New Card Reveal - Simulacrum

We hope you are all enjoying the new Amii units released in our last patch. Many of you are wondering where the character in the middle of the key-art is. Today we are ready to reveal Simulacrum. Let's break down the card.
Please note: We are still working on the card. While we are generally happy with it, numbers and effects might still change before release. 


Elemental Wrath
Every second unit unleashes a hail of primal energy that deal 70 damage to enemies in a 5m radius its target, up to 105 in total. Attack slows enemy units who may only move at walk speed. Lasts for 10 seconds.
 

Relocation
Unit relocates to another spot within a 50m range. Requires the target location to be within a 15m range of at least one other own ground entity. Reusable every 20 seconds.
 
Elusive
The duration of the immobilizing effects of Freeze and Paralyze are reduced by 20%.
 

Design notes:
When we decided upon adding some golem-like units to the Amii faction, we thought that the Tempest model was perfect alongside the models used in Amii Sentinel and Energy Core. The issue is that we did not want the Tempest playstyle where the player would need to walk Simulacrum forward, root, attack, unroot, move, then re-root, ad infinitum. This playstyle already exists with Stone Tempest and Tempest and neither see much play because of how tedious it is. So we decided to move in a different direction and give Simulacrum a teleport ability which is usable while it is rooted. This will make Simulacrum play similarly to a T3 Phase Tower, but easier to micro because units can be grouped unlike buildings and Simulacrum can benefit from spells affecting units. Alongside this teleport ability, we gave its auto-attack a slow effect, allowing both PvE and PvP players to use the slow and teleport in combination to kite their enemies with Simulacrum's long range of 40m. 
Simulacrum will release alongside our next content patch, date to be announced. 
 
• Interview Regarding New Campaign Maps

We hope everyone has had a chance to try out the new campaign maps already. Now that they are finally released to the public, we thought it would be a nice moment to sit with WindHunter and R4bitfoot, two team members who were heavily involved in their creation, and ask them what the design process was like to create Into the Jungle (ItJ) and Unexpected Visitors (UV). 
 
Lets start with introductions, for those who do not know you, what is your role on the Skylords Reborn team?

Hello! I am R4bitF00t and my official designation is Lead Map Artist, but in the end I do pretty much anything on new maps, starting from initial layout, scripting functionality, balance changes and ending with map art.
 

Hello, I am WindHunter. I am Skylord Reborn’s lead designer, a role I have had since January 2022. Generally speaking, anything that affects how a person plays or experiences the game comes under my purview and needs my stamp of approval before it gets added to the game. That includes things like new card design, balancing, the economy, achievements, and map design.
 
What is your favorite original campaign map?

My favorite is absolutely Encounters with Twilight, the map just feels so alive and is split into several very clean, and well-thought out chunks, it is by far my most played map.
 

Behind Enemy Lines. I enjoy the slow build out from the center that makes you feel like you are conquering the map, compared to many maps where you feel more like a saboteur than a conqueror. 
 
And what was your involvement with the new campaign maps specifically?

I started work on Into the Jungle - the original concept and layout came from the community map made by Emmaerzeh, Lebovim and other contributors. When we turned it into a campaign map, we wanted to keep the original idea and improve upon it. To achieve that, we made changes to the map's layout and introduced some new mechanics. So my job was to implement all the layout and script changes, and make the map pretty. After that, I designed the map concept for Unexpected Visitors with Emmaerzeh and WindHunter, made the functional prototype of the map, and then came in later to do some finalizations and balance changes with WindHunter.

Besides balancing the maps, I did a lot of writing. I am in charge of the lore, so I wrote the storybook entries and the map outcries, and I also wrote two design documents which have become the basis, or template, for how we design new campaign maps.
 
When did work first start on a new campaign map?

The idea for new campaign maps was here long before I joined the team. There were some attempts at official maps at that time, but since we didn't have proper guidelines, we ended up scrapping or repurposing them into community maps, like the Restoring Lyr map. Work on ItJ started shortly after I joined the team, so around two years ago.
 
What were some of the challenges to overcome?

As I mentioned before, we didn't have proper guidelines when we started work on ItJ, we fought with the most basic things, like designing enemy camps properly.
We made some changes based on tester feedback, but once implemented, they were not happy with them, so we had to go back to the drawing board. We just had to try and try again to capture that old-school BattleForge feel, and there is a lot that goes into that. For anybody interested, I recommend WindHunter's design documents, which were a massive help: Spawn Design and Camp Design.

These are not the first two PvE projects we have undertaken. Previously we had another “official” map called Restoring Lyr from a former team member RookieN which we have recently polished and released as a featured community map. We also were deep into developing a defensive random PvE mode, but we ran into major design issues we did not think we could easily fix, causing us to postpone further work on the project. The fact is that we really did not know what we were doing and we had significantly underestimated how much went into making something worthy to be called an official campaign map. These issues and the early work on ITJ, which we did not want to fail, forced us to step back and really examine what went into making a campaign map. 
I came into the map design department at around this point and the first thing I did was pause further map development. We were changing things so rapidly and reactively it was wearing out the map testers and designers alike. At that point, I went back through all 26 existing campaign maps and I started documenting what made BattleForge maps distinctive and what made the good maps good. This is similar to what we did with faction design when we started making new cards. Eventually, this study culminated in two large design documents, one on camp design and one on spawn design. With these in hand, we restarted map development in-line with our new design principles and made rapid progress. We also took this time to outline everything a new map needed and to develop the kind of workflow we needed to make continual map development possible. So, I would say the biggest challenges were systematic ones and with these under control it was amazing how fast new maps could develop.
 
Both maps are two-player maps, was there a specific reason for this? Can we expect other player sizes in the future?

Into the Jungle was originally a speedrun challenge map from one of our map designers Emmaerzeh that required two players. So we started with ITJ as a two player map. The issue is that ITJ is the second map in the story, so when we decided on UV’s design, we thought it was only right that it was also a two-player map. Players can definitely expect new 1p and 4p maps in the future, though probably not any new 12p maps.
 
Campaign Maps always have some kind of twist, did you have hard time coming up with one for these two?

The original ItJ design was a simple map - go from point A to B and destroy things along the way. While every map in BF does some variation of this, I felt it needed that "hook" or "twist" as you call it, and I thought that adding secret passages through the jungle would be nice, make the map more exploratory and open it up from the original linear design. Luckily, I was not the only one who liked the idea so we got to see it on the map.
For UV, we knew we wanted to have a defensive portion on the map, but BattleForge's mechanics really struggle with having one static defensive location - there is no resource, worker or base management, so we decided we need to break up the defense by giving players an incentive to sally out and conquer extra parts of the map. 
But pushing through enemy attack waves is in most cases too annoying, so we added the day/night cycle to make it clear for players when to attack and when to defend. So this map "twist" came organically from the map's design.

I would say no. In the case of both maps, the twist developed organically as we designed them. In ITJ, you have the secret passages and the Amii well-building mechanic. The first came from experimentation and the second flowed from the lore. In UV you have the portal and Amii Monument charging mechanics. These were part of the map’s original design, and then we ended up creating the day/night cycle as a response to the design issues caused by the player turtling around the portal shrine. We were conscious of the need to differentiate these maps from existing maps, and the story we wanted to tell with both maps led naturally to the different mechanics each map has that sets it apart.
 
What is your favorite part about each map?

After all this time working on the maps, I am pretty numb 😀 so I’ll leave this one to WindHunter.
 

I enjoy the secret passages on ITJ a lot, especially because of how much they change how you approach the map’s early game. 
For UV, I like that we get to fight Frost units for the first time. I am very happy with their design, and I think they provide an interesting contrast to the factions the player usually encounters in campaign maps.
 
What about the story? How did you decide on that?

One of the major problems of making campaign maps is obviously the campaign aspect. While we could just release good maps disconnected from the existing lore, having a cohesive narrative adds to the enjoyment of the map by letting the player enter into the game’s universe. So we wanted to make sure the narrative fit the Skylords universe. In this case, we really wanted to fill in the Empire storyline. 
Skylords Reborn tells stories through action more than exposition. The exception to this is Empire, which skips over a ton of in-game events which would otherwise be standalone maps in an attempt to give the story a conclusion. This happened because the original devs knew they would not be able to add anymore maps. What we are doing with ITJ and UV is filling back in the Empire storyline in a way the original devs were unable to do, so that the players can be part of that story, and not just read about it.
 
How long did you spend on each of the maps?

Oh, that’s a tough one, I am pretty sure I spent well over a hundred hours on ItJ.
It will be a bit less for UV, since Damo and Kayrie took over at some point and made most of the map art.


Several dozen hours per map.
 

Can you tell us something about balancing the maps?

Well, it is not easy. It is easy to get feedback and then make a change and think you fixed the problem and move on. But it rarely works. It is harder to sit down, gather a lot of feedback and then try to figure out the root causes behind the issue before making a decision. I mean sometimes the camp is just too strong and you tone it down, but other times the solution is less obvious. As an example, on ITJ we did not have any patrolling units or attack waves beyond the event spawners at the beginning. Testers told us the map felt lifeless, so we added attack waves. Then next iteration they told us that the waves felt designed just to destroy them and that they felt unfair. We toned them down but the same feedback kept recurring, so we eventually removed them, only to return back to the first problem. 
The answer I think is that good balance comes from good design. While we want the maps to respond to the tools the players might bring, for example, we cannot add too many ground units at T1 because they just become Mine fodder, we also want the camps to feel like more than a video game. The goal then is that the map feels organic, like the enemies really live in the map, but while also tailoring each map to the player’s expected strength. We might add certain challenges to the camp, like a Mark of the Keeper or a Lost Dragon, but they should feel like they are meant to be there. On Into the Jungle in particular, you can look at a replay without fog of war enabled and just scroll over the camps. Each one is unique. One is a bug infested temple, another is a Ghostspear village, and yet another is a beast taming ground for Amazons. We came up with these ideas first, and then we asked ourselves how these units would position themselves and how they would respond to hostile threats nearby. Then we tuned from there.
 
What about the visuals?

Luckily, I got to practice map art on other maps before ItJ - namely the yet unreleased drPvE and both of the Battle Arenas that dropped with this patch. I learn a bit more with every map I create, but in the end I am happy with ItJ visuals, I feel they are unique in the game and I had fun coming up with different points of interest in the jungle and enemy camps. My favorite place on ItJ is the top-left camp, it features a giant stone statue, a nearby volcano and an Amazon temple. I just wish we could have added a waterfall coming out of the mouth of the statue.
Damo and Kayrie worked on the art for UV so I cannot comment on that, but my favorite place from that map is definitely the Ami city. Damo did a great job with the layout and making it feel like a real city, but still fitting BattleForge. I also really like the Lost Souls siege camp in front of it.
 
What took the longest time in the whole process?

When talking about pure hours spent working on the map - that would be map art (I’d say ItJ art took me about 80 hours).
But while map art can take a couple of weeks to finish, actually testing the map - balancing and improving upon mechanics is what drags on the most.
Both maps have spent months in testing periods, where we took feedback from testers, discussed it and implemented it. Going back and forth and trying different versions of mechanics. Having so many people involved, it takes quite a while to chisel out the final vision for the map.

In terms of total time, probably the testing phase. There is a lot of waiting for feedback, playing the maps yourself, and then watching replays. Then you need to figure out how to turn all that data into something which can change the map, and that is very difficult to do correctly when you want to change a lot of things at once. So instead we usually change 1-2 big things, and then we need to wait all over again to see if it worked. It is a draining process.
 
What can players expect in the future?

We want to keep expanding the story and making new maps. The team has several other map projects currently in-progress, not just of new campaign maps, and a few of them are nearing the point where we can almost start showing them off.
 
Is there anything else you'd like to share with our players?

Just to enjoy the game and the new campaign maps we have created.
Shameless plug incoming: If you’re interested in creating maps of your own, check out our official map editor tutorial!


We worked hard to make sure that each map had more than one way to complete it, and that different decks would have different strengths at different points. So, I would encourage players to view the maps as a kind of sandbox where they can try different strategies and different decks, instead of just viewing the map as a once and done experience.
 
• We Want Your Feedback

We want to hear what you think about the new maps Unexpected Visitors, Into the Jungle, and Battle Arena!
Do you like them or not? What would you like you see more of in the future and what less?
What would you leave the same and what would you improve? Let us know here:
Unexpected Visitors - Discussion Thread
Into the Jungle - Discussion Thread
Battle Arena - Discussion Thread
 
or on our Balance Discord
September Patch Feedback
New Maps Feedback
 
• Get Ready For Halloween

By now it has become tradition for Skylords Reborn to have a Halloween-themed event, and this year will be no different!
Be sure to check in on the 31st of October for a spooky event with a very special reward! 

 
• Events

In between our monthly Community Updates, we host various events and tournaments, so be sure to keep a close eye on the in-game event tab and the forum calendar to stay informed and not miss out on any exciting events!
 
Current events:
• NEW - Release Event
To celebrate the release of the new campaign maps we have a special event. All you have to do is upload your replay of completing Unexpected Visitors and/or Into the Jungle for a chance to win some prizes! More information.
 
• NEW - Seven Strategy Showdown 4 - Guardian Skylord
Rogan is on the run again, and will need your help. Again.. Help Rogan to finish a round as fast as possible. Support him exclusively with spells and each spell can only be cast once. More information. 
 
• FINISHED - Seven Strategy Showdown 3 - Wrecking Time
The 3rd event in the series has concluded! This time Skylords were the ones destroying buildings. Players had to destroy as many buildings as possible within the time limit for a chance to win some great prizes. More information. 
 
• IN PROGRESS - Seven Strategy Showdown
Every two weeks there will be a new event in this series of seven events, each bringing a fun handcrafted challenge or mechanic! Be sure to check them out, as there are some great prizes to be won! More information.
 
 • SECOND PHASE - PvP AI programming contest
Get ready for an AI Programming Tournament, where the submitted programs will face off in an epic showdown to find the ultimate AI strategist! Players are still able to join this programming contest. More information.
 
• Host your own tournament / event
Want to host a tournament or event? Please reach out to our Event Organizer @Metagross31. We can help you out with various topics and are glad to discuss potential ideas. We can also sponsor the prize pool for your event. 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.
 
• Contribute to Skylords Reborn

Skylords Reborn is a community-driven project fueled by the passion and dedication of over 50 volunteers. We are always on the lookout for like-minded individuals. If you have a passion for gaming, programming, design, or marketing, we invite you to have a look at our open positions!
 

 
Don't have time to formally join the staff, but still would like to help out? Please check out this guide on how to support Skylords Reborn as a community member.
 
• In Conclusion

That's all for this Community Update! We appreciate you taking the time to read through it.
As is tradition, we're including a scratch code as a small token of our appreciation for your support.
The code will reward you with a General booster: AMII-AMII-AMII-AMII
The code is valid until November 1st, when we will bring you another Community Update. 
We're always looking for ways to improve and value your feedback. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please don't hesitate to share them with us. We'll be back next month with more updates on our ongoing projects and upcoming features.
You can also sign-up to our e-mail newsletter here.

Archive
• Skylords Reborn Documents (Deep Dives, Behind the Scenes, PvP Guide)  
• Overview Community Updates
• Community Update September 2024
 

You still have the option to play on the newly released legacy server, where Amii Monument still functions the same way it did previously. The team has also buffed a number of T3 cards already with more improvements to the T3 experience in the working.
Not sure what you are talking about with the nonexisting economy. There are currently over 4500 auctions listed in the auction house with most prices being relatively stable after the team introduced features like reforging and Rebirth boosters. Tou also have other options for trading, such as the ingame trade chat and the trade channel on the official Discord. In my experience as a player the only thing, which can require some time to find good offers for are rare promos, such as Ravenheart.
The team has already introduced around 25 new cards to the game and did major buffs and reworks to countless others. Meanwhile, there are very few deck archetypes and strategies, which have been severely nerfed. I would really suggest you check out all the options you have for deckbuilding right now and compare them to what is possible on the legacy server before coming to such a conclusion.
 

Skydancer artwork 10/10

Patch #400048 - Echoes of the Amii
Welcome to our newest patch. This update contains our fourteenth balance patch for the game, 4 brand-new cards, 2 new campaign maps, a new PvP mode, four new achievements, and much more!

Patch Preview
Four new cards are now available! Jump in-game to collect Amii Sentinel, Skydancer, Energy Core, and Umbabwe! Added two new campaign maps! Continue the story of Skylords Reborn in the first two maps of our new campaign. BattleArena has arrived! Play against your friends in 2v2 or 3v3 battles in this casual PvP mode. Four new achievements and cosmetics to go along with the new maps and game mode. A few balance changes and major card reworks mostly to previously unviable cards.
General Changes
The Shadow enemies found on the summoning menu in the Forge have been swapped with their NPC versions. Amii enemies have also been added to the Forge's summoning menu. A new section has been added to PvE leaderboard to account for potential speedrun changes arising from changes to Amii Monument without wiping the rankings.  Upgrades have been redistributed, you can find more information in-game by using the "Show Upgrades" option on each map. All Rebirth edition cards have had their U2 and U3 upgrades moved to the new maps. The Lost Souls Forge skin is now available. Complete the new achievement "After All These Years" on expert difficulty to unlock it.  Deleted players are now displayed as <deleted> rather than empty. New setting "Force create unit group when holding SHIFT key" added to options. Reverted previously undocumented changes to attack-move command (shortcut Q), that were causing issues with unit responsiveness. Added Map of the Day info to the "Daily Rewards" section. When a player completes the Map of the Day in a given day, the flame on the world map will be grayed out. This change is to help players remember if they have already completed a particular Map of the Day for achievement progress. Players can continue to play the Map of the Day for extra upgrade rewards as normal.  Re-enabled the chat command export collection. Re-enabled the explore replay button.
New Campaign Maps
At long last the Skylords Reborn story continues with the addition of two brand-new fully-voiced (in English) campaign maps. These maps continue the story after Dwarven Riddle and are the product of hundreds of hours of our team's artists, designers, community map testers, translators, and voice actors. Both come with new achievements and rewards to encourage you to dive-in and explore. 
Unexpected Visitors, 2-player campaign map
Journey into the northern wastes to find the secrets hidden within the Riddle of Gnaur. Discover the last enclave of the elusive Amii and save them from certain destruction.

Into the Jungle, 2-player campaign map
Brave the jungles of Viridya's island to find a new home for your Amii allies. 


New Cards
Amii Sentinel - 260p T4 Amii Unit 
You will find the upgrades for this card on the map "Into the Jungle."
Our goal for Amii's T4 is to create a micro-intensive deck where most of the damage is unit-based. With Amii Sentinel in particular, our goal is to create a frontline tank that functions as a perfect conduit for Shadow's single-target buff cards. Volatile Body's 120% reflect turns Sentinel's health into a damage resource, which synergizes perfectly with cards like Regrowth, Transcendence, and Skydancer. 
 
Energy Core - 140p T4 Amii Unit 
You will find the upgrades for this card on the map "Unexpected Visitors."
Energy Core's original design came from the Community Card Contest we held over a year ago. The idea behind Energy Core is to create a unit which is more of a mobile spell than it is a traditional unit. It has no auto-attack, but it has two active abilities. Both abilities damage Energy Core, one more significantly than the other, requiring the player to pay close attention to unit health and weigh their options over what is possible for them and whether or not risking losing the unit is worthwhile. 
 
Skydancer - 120p T4 Amii Unit 
You will find the upgrades for this card on the map "Unexpected Visitors."
While Sentinel and Energy Core fit the roles of tank and damage dealer respectively, Skydancer functions as the supporter. Skydancer has two different mode-changes, one debuffing enemies and one buffing allies. The debuff functions as a kind of anti-rage effect, while the buff increases allied life points by a set amount. The health buff effect directly synergizes with Sentinel and Energy Core who both has health-based damage mechanics. 
 
Umbabwe - 200p T4 Legendary Unit 
You will find the upgrades for this card on the map "Into the Jungle."
Blight's infamous witch doctor is finally making his player card appearance. As a standalone legendary unit, he is intended to function as a spellcaster type unit. To accomplish this, the card has a lot of built-in flexibility via its spells. Umbabwe has an auto-attack which is a meteor from Inferno, the ability to cast his signature spell Oink, and an active ability to summon a fiery tornado which applies a painful burn effect. 
 

BattleArena - New PvP Mode
For a long time, we have been developing an alternative PvP mode called BattleArena which we feel is finally ready to release. In this game mode, players do not use cards from their deck. Instead, they are given spell devices and progressively stronger creatures which they must use to overcome their enemies. The mode can be played 2v2 or 3v3 and comes with a new achievement to reward players for trying it out. Go to Sparring Grounds in-game to play BattleArena.


Voice Actors
Many of the above new features would not be nearly as enjoyable without the help of our volunteer voice actors. In this patch, the following players have lent their voices to liven up the Skylords Reborn universe. We thank them greatly for their help!
Vox - Gaeron (new Frost Skylord) Ultralord - Burning Spears Edgelord - Skydancer Edgelord - Amii Phantom (includes the card's voice lines and the unit's appearance in the new maps) Elijah - Amii Sentinel Dreamlord - New map loading screen narration
Achievements
As part of the release of the two new campaign maps and BattleArena, we have released four accompanying achievements. There is a normal achievement just for beating the new maps, which rewards the player with the new Amii Sentinel on advanced and the Lost Souls forge on expert, as well as two achievements for mastering the maps. BattleArena has a new progressive achievement for playing the mode. We are also adding new Amii borders to the existing endless achievements for playing Amii decks in PvE and PvP.
[ New Achievements ]
After All These Years [Card: Amii Sentinel; Forge: Lost Souls]
Win the 2-player scenarios Unexpected Visitors and Into the Jungle on Advanced / Expert difficulty or higher.
Evacuation Expert [Progressive Banner: Bronze rank ➜ Ember rank]
Win the 2-player scenario Unexpected Visitors on Expert difficulty in under 35 / 33 / 31 / 29 / 27 minutes.
Earth, Wind, Fire [Avatar: Tribal] 
Win the 2-player scenario Into the Jungle on Expert difficulty after defeating all 3 bosses in a single match.
Honor Bound [Booster: 1 General; Avatar: Mo Ocean] 
Play BattleArena [3 matches & 10 matches]
[ Existing Achievement Changes ]
Giver and Taker of Life (PvE) & Path of Insight (PvP)
Both achievements now grant progressive Amii borders in line with the requirements of other faction borders. Borders will be added to the player's account retroactively based on achievement progress.
 

Legacy Server
While we are happy with the game's development since its revival, we understand that there are some parts of old BattleForge that players might miss. In response to this feeling, we have created a legacy server. This legacy server is equivalent to BattleForge the day it was shut down, with none of the balance changes, new cards, or new maps that have occurred as part of Skylords Reborn's continued development being included. The legacy server functions similarly to the public test server in that the player already has all cards and upgrades. To access the legacy server navigate to the game folder, in standard installations the game folder is be found at C:\Games\Skylords Reborn, and start StartBattleForgeLegacy.bat. From there, you login with your normal account information. 

Game Balance Changes
[ Global Balance Changes ]
 Amii faction passive scaling: Amii's faction passive Elusive now scales based on the unit's tier.
Tier 2: 10% less Freeze and Paralyze duration.  Tier 3: 20% less Freeze and Paralyze duration.  Tier 4: 30% less Freeze and Paralyze duration.  Legendary building restrictions: Legendary buildings are now one-per-player, not one-per-team.
Random PvE 1p starting void power: Starting void power has been changed to account for the Amii Monument changes.
Standard / Standard+ (Difficulties 1-2): 600 starting void power Standard++ to Expert+ (Difficulties 3-8): 700 starting void power [ Card Changes ]
 Amii Monument:
1. Power Cost: 250p ➜ 125p
2. Ability Cost: 140p ➜ 100p
3. Orbs granted by Amii Monument no longer increase a player’s tier. Players still gain access to cards within their current tier that require the orb granted by Amii Monument. For example, if a player has 3 Fire orbs via normal Monuments, and builds a Nature orb via Amii Monument, they will still be T3, but will be able to summon Juggernauts and heal them via Equilbrium.
   A. Description - “Switch into this mode to gain one tierless Shadow Orb. This orb will not increase a player's tier, but will allow the player to play cards within their current tier that would require this Orb. The Orb will be ready and functional after 10 seconds. It cannot be switched back for 30 seconds.”
Amii Monument in its existing state is a cheat card. It breaks a map's design, allowing players unfettered access to T4 cards when the map is balanced around the player only having access to T3 cards and creating a persistent toxic effect on the normal game experience.
Amii Monument removes an entire tier from the game. This has a disruption impact on the game experience by changing deckbuilding at its core. In decks without Amii Monument, the player needs to consider how many cards they can budget for each tier and choose accordingly. With Amii Monument in a deck, the player can simply remove all T3 cards from their deck besides Amii Monument itself (spells like Infect which scale well into T4 are the exception), opening up more deck slots for T1, T2, and T4 cards. Consider also that nearly all PvE maps are functionally finished before the player ever reaches T4. Combined with the fact that T4 cards are significantly stronger than T3 cards (the power difference between T4 and T3 cards is the single largest increase in card strength between tiers) means that the player requires fewer T3 and T4 cards in their deck, allowing the use of more card slots for T1 and T2. This heavily warps the game experience by making the player stronger than the map is designed to account for at all tiers, not just once the player reaches T3. 
There is also the psychological effect Amii Monument has upon players. Since we first started balancing cards in Skylords Reborn, players have asked us to nerf Amii Monument, not just because of the balance issues, but because they felt compelled to always include it in their deck regardless of the situation. This is unsurprising as many game studios have recognized that players in general will choose the most efficient option, even to the detriment of their own enjoyment. And who of us have not experienced this? How many of us have not used mind-numbingly boring methods to grind in games just because it is the fastest way to procure loot, even if it ends up making us hate the game? Who has not included Amii Monument as a default deck option at some point in their time playing Skylords Reborn?
To briefly summarize, Amii Monument undermines map design, deckbuilding, and possesses a factor that makes players feel compelled to include it in their decks, even when they know it undermines their own enjoyment. While designing our new maps, including not just the two maps releasing with this patch but the multiple additional maps currently in development, we found ourselves face to face with these issues in a way that made the card's problems no longer ignorable. For all these reasons and more, we felt that the time had finally come to nerf Amii Monument. Yet we do not want to destroy the card. The new design is tailored towards enabling unique, previously impossible, deckbuilding possibilities, in direct opposition to its previous design. We also realized that many T3 cards were not generally strong enough to be satisfying to use, so we dedicated almost the entire last patch to adding new T3 options through buffs, reworks, and new cards, and we are dedicated to continuing this project next patch. 
Lastly, we understand that this change will upset many people, but we hope you will see that we did not make this choice lightly. We do not enjoy nerfing cards players like, but we do it because we think it is the best choice for the game. At the same time, we think that the time of major nerfs is now at an end with these changes to Amii Monument, and we as a team commit to no further nerfs on the scale of Amii Monument or the previous Batariel nerf from 2 years ago to existing cards going forward.
 Dying Breed:
1. Power cost: 100p ➜ 90p
2. Orb cost: 1 Fire, 2 Neutral (T3) ➜ 2 Fire, 1 Neutral (T3)
2. Tainted Plunder (p):
   A. Description - Target enemy unit is filled with plunder. If the target enemy dies within the next 30 seconds, all friendly fire units in a 25m radius gain Looter for 25 seconds. Units with Looter harvest the bound power of enemies. Up to 10% of an enemy's original power costs can be harvested relative to the amount of its maximum life points received as damage. Reusable every 30 seconds.
3. Gifted Plunder (g): 
   A. Description - Target enemy unit is filled with plunder and takes 30 damage per second. If the target enemy dies within the next 30 seconds, all friendly fire units in a 25m radius gain Looter for 25 seconds. Units with Looter harvest the bound power of enemies. Up to 7% of an enemy's original power costs can be harvested relative to the amount of its maximum life points received as damage. Reusable every 30 seconds.
4. New FX to go with the new card effect.
One of our long-term design projects is trying to give other factions besides Pure Shadow, with its Resource Booster, the ability to accelerate their power in higher tiers. We started this with changes to Nature's power flow via Forest Elder and Promise of Life, and now we are turning our eyes to Fire. Most Fire players are responsible for building 2 Shrines of War as soon as they get T3, immediately putting them behind by 300 power. Combined with high power cost units in T4, this gives Fire a painfully slow start with a frequent reliance on hoping your allies brought a Breeding Grounds for you to use. After carefully considering our options to accelerate Fire's power gain, we decided to bring back the Looter mechanic, but have it applied only temporarily with moderate percentages. We choose Dying Breed as the rework target because its previous effect was unsalvageable. The changes should allow Fire to use Dying Breed in early T3 to accelerate the transition into T4, or to payoff the bound power invested into Shrine of War, without being so strong as to cause Fire's power gain to grow out of control. 
 Fire Force (Formerly Girl Power):
1. Change name: Girl Power ➜ Fire Force
2. Power cost: 50p ➜ 80p
3. Blessed Morale (b): 
   A. Description - Target own melee unit will be designated the champion of Fire. All friendly melee units in a 30m radius will take 20% less damage. If at least 2 enemies die within a 30m radius of the champion within a 10 second period, the damage reduction increases to 50% for 15 seconds. Lasts until the champion dies, or until a different champion is chosen. There may only be one champion of Fire per player at a time. Reusable every 60 seconds.
4. Infused Morale (r):
   A. Description - Target own melee unit will be designated the champion of Fire. All friendly melee units in a 30m radius will deal 25% more damage. If at least 2 enemies die within a 30m radius of the champion within a 10 second period, the damage buff increases to 50% for 15 seconds. Lasts until the champion dies, or until a different champion is chosen. There may only be one champion of Fire per player at a time. Reusable every 60 seconds.
5. New FX to go with the new card effect.
Girl Power was an odd card that did not fit within the game. It was never clear to the player what cards were men, which were women, and which were neither. We did not see a way to salvage the card as it was, so we reworked it into a tool to enable new melee based strategies in Fire decks. The newly minted Fire Force is a permanent spell effect that you apply to a single unit which transforms that unit into a leader type unit. Allies around the leader are buffed, either with increasing damage reduction or increasing damage dealt, when enemies around the leader unit die. Our hope is that this card enables previously niche T2 and T3 melee units to become viable options in PvE.
 Grove Spirit:
1. Movement speed: 4.8 m/s ➜ 6.4 m/s (normal L/XL-speed)
2. Life points: 1100 ➜ 1600
3. Healing Song cost: 90p ➜ 60p
Grove Spirit has found itself a niche in a deck which uses it alongside Offering to cycle Mind Control. The idea of this deck is to use Grove Spirit as ground presence while you build yourself an army out of your enemy's units. The issue is that Grove Spirit itself is slow and dies in one-shot to artillery buildings. We have given the unit a booster shot of life points and made her undulate her tentacles faster, alongside a discount to the Healing Song ability. Pending any further rework to the unit, we hope in the meantime that this helps the unit in the one niche it has found for itself.
 Lost Dancer:
1. Tainted Blast affinity effect: 50% more damage against humans ➜ 30% more damage against humans
Lost Dancer has proven too strong in PvP and we are toning down the extra damage against humans to bring her back in-line. 
 Lost Manabeast:
1. Immortalize requirement: 7 enemy life essences ➜ 3 enemy life essences
Immortalize's enemy requirement is too strict, making it overly difficult to make good use of the ability. We are substantially reducing the requirements to hopefully give Lost Manabeast a better synergy with Revenant strategies. 
[ NPC & Map Changes ]
 Spearmen (NPC):
1. Toggle ability Defensive Formation: 25% damage reduction now applies properly
 Fire Emitter (Slavemaster version):
1. Power cost: 2000p ➜ 200p
New NPC Entities: Available for use by official and community mapmakers.
Added Frost NPC entities: Units: War Eagle, Tremor, Mountain Rowdy, Northland Drake, Icespike, Avatar of Frost, Construct, Dreadnought, Core Dredge, Dredgling, Mountaineer, Tempest, Winter Witch Buildings: Ice Launcher, Frost Crystal, Frontier Keep (large spawner), Kobold Inc. (small spawner) Added Amii NPC entities: Amii Crossbowmen, Amii Paladins, Amii Phantom, Amii Sentinel, Amii Keep Bad Harvest: Both orbs near the Treasure Wagon now spawn when a player in position 3 is playing solo.
The Soultree: The map now requires all 5 normal orbs to be built or under construction to fulfill the map's victory requirement. Amii Monument no longer counts towards this goal. 
[ Bugfixes & Miscellaneous Changes ]
Fixed card descriptions in various languages. The longstanding issue which caused players' games to slowdown substantially when they destroyed multiple frozen air units at once, has now been fixed. The most well known occurrence of this bug was connected to Shatter Ice.  Dropdowns for rankings are no longer scrollable.

Greetings Skylords!
A new month; a new Community Update! It's time to bring you up to speed with everything going on in Skylords Reborn!

 
• Echoes of the Amii

Nearly 15 years have passed since the original BattleForge story concluded. When we revived the game through Skylords Reborn, two questions kept coming up: Will we get new Amii cards, and will we see new story or campaign maps?
One of the final cards released for the original game was Amii Phantom, offering a glimpse of what might have been. Over the years, our team has carefully expanded the mysterious Amii faction with new cards like Amii Paladins, Tranquility, and Transcendence, gradually shaping a distinct faction identity. With our upcoming patch, we're accelerating this effort by introducing three late-game units: Amii Sentinel, Skydancer, and Energy Core. These new units provide players with exciting options for building a dedicated Amii deck.
We are incredibly proud of how far this project has come, and we're grateful for the opportunity to expand the Amii faction with these new cards. Rest assured, we have more cards in development for the faction, some of which you can expect to see before the end of the year.
In addition to new cards, our next patch marks a significant milestone by adding new campaign maps. And what better way to do so than by properly integrating the Amii into the story? These new maps take place during the original story's timeframe, filling in some of the gaps and answering lingering questions, while also introducing a new Skylord and bringing the ancient Amii into the present-day narrative.
Our next patch will feature two new maps, with more in development. We've dedicated significant time and effort to these campaign maps, carefully refining the balance, map art, story, and gameplay. We hope players will appreciate the passion that went into their creation. After all this time, we want to ensure that these maps stand proudly alongside the original campaign. These maps are the product of hundreds of hours of our team's artists, designers, community map testers, translators, and voice actors. We hope you are looking forward to them!

We are excited to announce Echoes of the Amii will release on September 21st.
 
• New Card Reveal - Energy Core

With the patch release imminent, we have another new card to show you that will be included. Crackling with energy, Energy Core is powerful, but unstable. By overloading the core, it can deal massive amounts of damage, but doing so comes at a heavy cost. Let's break down the card!

Please note: We are still finalizing the card. While we are generally happy with it, numbers and effects might still change before release. 


Pulse 
Activate to unleash an electric shock through enemies in a straight line that deals 1200 damage to enemies in a 20m radius, up to 3000 in total. The shock damages Energy Core by 1150 life points points. Must have at least 1000 life points to activate. Reusable every 15 seconds.
 
Overcharge
Activate to overload the unit, dealing 2000 damage to enemies in a 25m radius, up to 6000 in total. The overload damages Energy Core by 2300 life points. This self-inflicted damage ignores damage modification and cannot be warded off with the help of damage reducing abilities because it is able to circumvent every buff or protective shield. Must have at least 2000 life points to activate. Reusable every 30 seconds.



Elusive
Units with Elusive have the duration of the immobilizing effects of Freeze and Paralyze reduced by 30%.
 
 
Sharp eyes might have noticed a change in the percentage of the Amii passive ability "Elusive". Starting with our next patch, the Elusive ability will be different depending on the tier of the unit. The current cards, Amii Phantom and Amii Palladin, and any future tier 2 Amii units will remain at 10%. Meanwhile, tier 3 will move the percentage up to 20%, and tier 4 units will have a 30% reduction to the duration of Freeze and Paralyze. 
 
Design notes: Energy Core's original design came from a player in the Community Card Contest we held over a year ago. At the time we were fleshing out the basic design of Amii's T4 and we thought that Energy Core was the perfect fit for what we envisioned regarding this faction's playstyle. The idea behind Energy Core is to create a unit which is more of a mobile spell than it is a traditional unit. It has no auto-attack, but it has two activatable abilities. Both abilities damage Energy Core, one more significantly than the other, requiring the player to pay close attention to the unit's health and weigh their options over what is possible for them and whether or not risking losing the unit is worthwhile. It synergizes directly with Skydancer, whose buff increases a unit's base health, allowing Overcharge to be used without directly killing Energy Core. The damage to enemies is modifiable by Shadow's buffs, allowing the card to work directly with Shadow's buffs and Nature's healing spells. 
Energy Core will release alongside our next content patch on the 21st.
 
• Art Spotlight - Energy Core

As the creators of Monuments and Powerwells in Nyn, the Amii seemed like the perfect faction for a unit embodying the essence of a monument's core. For the initial concept of the card, our artist, SpiritAlpha, took the model of Magma Spore, and incorporated faces in its design—a direction we've explored before with the spell Tranquility.
From the start, we knew we wanted to move away from the iconic chains of the Magma Spore, aiming to make the design feel more distinctive. While we're limited to the models from the original game, it was important to us that this unit didn’t come across as just another simple reskin.

We were drawn to this next concept art, evoking the feeling of soldiers stumbling upon an ancient construct in a temple-like setting. However, we were concerned that it resembled a spell too closely and weren’t entirely convinced by the facial design.
To refine the concept, we revisited other Amii structures in the game for inspiration. We noticed that the Amii Shrines featured a unique eye in their design, which we felt was worth exploring further. We paused work on the card art to ensure this idea could be executed well in the model. Once the model was finalized, we resumed work on the card artwork.
  
We were thrilled with the direction we took. The core not only looks powerful, but it also brings a distinct personality to what could have been a rather plain model. With its ominous eye watching over the battlefield and its rhythmic hum, the Energy Core is something truly unique in the lineup. We hope you love it as much as we do!

 
• Amii Monument Changes

One of the most anticipated—or depending on your perspective, feared—changes will be implemented in our next patch. After careful consideration and years of discussion, we have decided to change the card Amii Monument. We are fully aware of the controversy surrounding this topic, so we want to take the time to explain our reasoning and the thought process behind it.     The following changes will be made to the card:  1. Power Cost: 250p ➜ 125p
2. Ability Cost: 140p ➜ 100p
3. Orbs granted by Amii Monument no longer increase a player’s tier. Players still gain access to cards within their current tier that require the orb granted by Amii Monument. For example, if a player has 3 Fire orbs via normal Monuments, and builds a Nature orb via Amii Monument, they will still be T3, but will be able to summon Juggernauts and heal them via Equilbrium.
   New Description - “Switch into this mode to gain one tierless Shadow Orb. This orb will not increase a player's tier, but will allow the player to play cards within their current tier that would require this Orb. The Orb will be ready and functional after 10 seconds. It cannot be switched back for 30 seconds.”
4. Once built, Amii orbs attack as if they were a normal orb.
5. Legendary buildings are now one-per-player, not one-per-team.
Reasoning
Amii Monument in its existing state is a cheat card. It breaks a map's design, allowing players unfettered access to T4 cards when the map is balanced around the player only having access to T3 cards and creating a persistent toxic effect on the normal game experience. Amii Monument removes an entire tier from the game. This has a disruption impact on the game experience by changing deckbuilding at its core. In decks without Amii Monument, the player needs to consider how many cards they can budget for each tier and choose accordingly. With Amii Monument in a deck, the player can simply remove all T3 cards from their deck besides Amii Monument itself (spells like Infect which scale well into T4 are the exception), opening up more deck slots for T1, T2, and T4 cards. Consider also that nearly all PvE maps are functionally finished before the player ever reaches T4. Combined with the fact that T4 cards are significantly stronger than T3 cards (the power difference between T4 and T3 cards is the single largest increase in card strength between tiers) means that the player requires fewer T3 and T4 cards in their deck, allowing the use of more card slots for T1 and T2. This heavily warps the game experience by making the player stronger than the map is designed to account for at all tiers, not just once the player reaches T3. 
There is also the psychological effect Amii Monument has upon players. Since we first started balancing cards in Skylords Reborn, players have asked us to nerf Amii Monument, not just because of the balance issues, but because they felt compelled to always include it in their deck regardless of the situation. This is unsurprising as many game studios have recognized that players in general will choose the most efficient option, even to the detriment of their own enjoyment. And who of us have not experienced this? How many of us have not used mind-numbingly boring methods to grind in games just because it is the fastest way to procure loot, even if it ends up making us hate the game? Who has not included Amii Monument as a default deck option at some point in their time playing Skylords Reborn?
To briefly summarize, Amii Monument undermines map design, deckbuilding, and possesses a factor that makes players feel compelled to include it in their decks, even when they know it undermines their own enjoyment. While designing our new maps, including not just the two maps releasing with this patch but the multiple additional maps currently in development, we found ourselves face to face with these issues in a way that made the card's problems no longer ignorable. For all these reasons and more, we felt that the time had finally come to nerf Amii Monument. Yet we do not want to destroy the card. The new design is tailored towards enabling unique, previously impossible, deckbuilding possibilities, in direct opposition to its previous design. We also realized that many T3 cards were not generally strong enough to be satisfying to use, so we dedicated almost the entire last patch to adding new T3 options through buffs, reworks, and new cards, and we are dedicated to continuing this project next patch. 
Lastly, we understand that this change will upset many people, but we hope you will see that we did not make this choice lightly. We do not enjoy nerfing cards players like, but we do it because we think it is the best choice for the game. At the same time, we think that the time of major nerfs is now at an end with these changes to Amii Monument, and we as a team commit to no further nerfs on the scale of Amii Monument or the previous Batariel nerf from 2 years ago to existing cards going forward. 
 
• Battle Arena

Next patch will also bring the release of a new PvP mode called Battle Arena.  In this game mode, players do not use cards from their deck. Instead, they are given spell devices and progressively stronger creatures which they must use to overcome their enemies. The mode can be played 2v2 or 3v3 and will come with a new achievement to reward players for trying it out. 
 
• Events

In between our monthly Community Updates, we host various events and tournaments, so be sure to keep a close eye on the in-game event tab and the forum calendar to stay informed and not miss out on any exciting events!
 
Current events:
• UPCOMING - Release Event
Once the patch is out, we will have an event to celebrate the release of the new campaign maps. In this special event, you'll have a chance to win some of the new cards or boosters! More details will be shared on patch day. 
 
• NEW - Seven Strategy Showdown 3 - Wrecking Time
The 3rd event in the series is now live! The tables have turned, and this time Skylords are the ones destroying buildings. Destroy as many buildings as possible within the time limit and win some great prizes. More information. 
 
• IN PROGRESS - Seven Strategy Showdown
Every two weeks there will be a new event in this series of seven events, each bringing a fun handcrafted challenge or mechanic! Be sure to check them out, as there are some great prizes to be won! More information.
 
• FINISHED - Seven Strategy Showdown 1 - The Salesman Problem
For this event players had to kill all the units on the event-map as fast as possible. It wasn't long before people broke the one minute mark, but after that the real competition kicked off. You can now watch the winners on Twitch. More information.
 
• FINISHED - Seven Strategy Showdown 2 - The Last Fortress
One building is all that stood between players and the leaderboard. Watch how the fierce competition concluded in the winner reveal stream on Twitch! More information.


 • SECOND PHASE EXTENDED - PvP AI programming contest
Get ready for an AI Programming Tournament, where the submitted programs will face off in an epic showdown to find the ultimate AI strategist! Players are still able to join this programming contest. More information.
 
• Host your own tournament / event
Want to host a tournament or event? Please reach out to our Event Organizer @Metagross31. We can help you out with various topics and are glad to discuss potential ideas. We can also sponsor the prize pool for your event. 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

Two team members have concluded their roles; Piskr as Client Developer, and Xanatoss as Card implementer. We would like to thank them for their contributions to Skylord Reborn.   Meanwhile, Titan has transitioned to help us with audio, alongside the role of 3D-artist.   
• Contribute to Skylords Reborn

Skylords Reborn is a community-driven project fueled by the passion and dedication of over 50 volunteers. We are always on the lookout for like-minded individuals. If you have a passion for gaming, programming, design, or marketing, we invite you to have a look at our open positions!
 

 
If you have any experience with e-mail newsletters, we could especially use your help as we move towards the release of our latest patch. Please take a look at this new role. 
Don't have time to formally join the staff, but still would like to help out? Please check out this guide on how to support Skylords Reborn as a community member.
 
• In Conclusion

That's all for this Community Update! We appreciate you taking the time to read through it.
As is tradition, we're including a scratch code as a small token of our appreciation for your support.
The code will reward you with an Amii booster: ISPY-WITH-AMII-EYES
The code is valid until October 1st, when we will bring you another Community Update. 
We're always looking for ways to improve and value your feedback. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please don't hesitate to share them with us. We'll be back next month with more updates on our ongoing projects and upcoming features.
You can also sign-up to our e-mail newsletter here.

Archive
• Skylords Reborn Documents (Deep Dives, Behind the Scenes, PvP Guide)  
• Overview Community Updates
• Community Update August 2024

So there's:
- crystal fiend, playable Stonekin T2 unit
- AI crystal fiend
- critters, T3 deepfang sidekick
so at least that model shouldn't be used in stonekin any more to avoid more confusion.
I don't think you have to rely on a flying unit for any PVE situation. There's maps like nightmare shard where you can cheese a little, but also perfectly doable with ground units only. In my opinion stonekin having less air force than other faction is fine, cause it's the most ,,down to earth'' faction by design. If you would want to introduce a flying unit for T2 (besides crystal fiend), it would also be a balancing nightmare for PvP cause stonekin already has one of the most well rounded unit lineups to chose from. Air units in particular are hard to balance cause they can be positioned over cliffs, are very mobile and can't be damaged by most melee units. I won't stop you from dreaming though, maybe one day stonekin dragon :P

It was part of the amii edition, wich was released when EA already gave up on BF. Phenomic, the guys wich created BF had only limited resources at that point and the result were reskinned/reused models with not much love put into them. For example treespirit, also part of the amii edition, is just viridias summons released as its own card. They destroyed a good part of pvp balance when they were released.

People have offered a few different suggestions for how to achieve this over the years, as it really is a very commonly reoccurring suggestion, and while it could probably be done in a way that bypasses the game's technical limits, I do not see what it adds to the game in a real sense. Yes, now you can play a specific hybrid faction from T1-T4, but the units we would introduce as part of this would need to be purposefully underpowered, and therefore no one would actually want to start with them. I think players significantly underestimate how fine-tuned of a machine T1 is in both PvP and PvE. This is the part of the game where we take the most care in making any changes, because nearly every card is theoretically usable in all game modes.
Consider then what adding a T1 Bandit unit to the game would actually mean. It would need to be balanced in both T1 Fire and T1 Shadow, simultaneously, in every game mode. This is just not realistic. It is more likely it would be balanced in one but not the other, overpowered in one but not the other, overpowered in both, or most likely, underpowered in both because we do not want to destroy what we have spent 4 painstaking years fixing. There is also the fact of how many dev resources this would require. To make this something worthwhile, we are talking 2-3 new units for each hybrid faction, because we would not be moving almost any T2 units down to T1, which means 8-12 new artworks, FXs, and card designs. Is this really what the community wants us to focus our energy on? 
So I get the reason why people want this to happen and why it would be cool, but for pragmatic reasons it just never will. We are not going to upend our carefully constructed T1 balance or shift our focus to introducing T1 cards which ultimately the game does not need. We would rather continue to flesh out existing factions with new tools, continue building the Amii faction to the point where it is actually on-par with Lost Souls or Stonekin, and hopefully in the farther future introduce a new Fire/Frost faction.  

Once everyone used curse well, now nobody does - and it's a good thing. It's really obvious amii monument was only added as a desperate OP cashgrab by a studio having to milk a dying game for it's last drops,

Since RadicalX is busy and wont be able to reply to this topic personally yet, I have a short statement on the concerns for now;
Lost Dancer (p) will get a small nerf in the upcoming patch, we will reduce human bonus from 50% to 30% and plan on doing further adjustments in December.

Once everyone used curse well, now nobody does - and it's a good thing. It's really obvious amii monument was only added as a desperate OP cashgrab by a studio having to milk a dying game for it's last drops,

Anyone has any idea how to counter her in stonekin T2? Seems oppressive cause you only have S-sized M counters or human stormsinger.

Thank you but i was talking PvP 🙂
Came to the conclusion i have to use razorshard in my T2 only stonekin deck and accept another weakness in T3 stonekin decks. I still think lost dancer got overbuffed, lost souls getting a superstrong ranged S counter wasn't needed in my opinion.

I was semi joking because he was rambling about bugs/abuse of mechanics and then referring to amii monument with the argument: you can ignore it, i thought starting my next paragraph with ,,but seriously'' made that clear. It is of course a stupid argument, if you wanna have anything resembling balance, ,just ignore OP stuff'' is not an argument.
What is more alarming is definetly subjective. A lot of people consider amii monument gamebreaking. If you consider amii monument gamebreaking, it's defeintly more important because a lot more people use it day to day in every PVE there is.
 
Mine to T2 wouldn't be too crazy considering how strong it is. But the crucial difference is that mine isn't a neutral card wich let's you skip T1 completly and you have 19 slots for T2-T4 cards, there's levels to imbalance. Playrate is still a good indicator if something is too strong, one card leading to 30% of players discarding a whole tier of possibilies is just sad.

Reason: Lore Accuracy.
The whole text, found in Legends, page 11 of Shadow, quite literally is describing a sentient zombie. To be a Forsaken you need to die 4 times, and seeing that they are ascetic, dont drink nor eat and don't feel emotional attachments, well, one can very much call these guys undead. Following logic the Rifle Cultists, who are Monks of the Church of the Rifle, should also be undead.
 
As for Nox Trooper, it is clearly described as an artificial zombie, since it was "created", in a dialogue between Father Moore and Prior Cayle, (Legends, Shadow, page 15) both titles used in churches, and seeing how they created a marksman it is safe to assume they belong to the Church of the Rifle, meaning they also died several times and have the characteristics of a sentient zombie.

Once everyone used curse well, now nobody does - and it's a good thing. It's really obvious amii monument was only added as a desperate OP cashgrab by a studio having to milk a dying game for it's last drops,

Once everyone used curse well, now nobody does - and it's a good thing. It's really obvious amii monument was only added as a desperate OP cashgrab by a studio having to milk a dying game for it's last drops,

Once everyone used curse well, now nobody does - and it's a good thing. It's really obvious amii monument was only added as a desperate OP cashgrab by a studio having to milk a dying game for it's last drops,

Greetings Skylords!
A new month; a new Community Update! It's time to bring you up to speed with everything going on in Skylords Reborn!

• Update regarding antivirus programs flagging Skylords Reborn as unsafe

For the past two months, we have received multiple reports of antivirus programs flagging Skylord Reborn files. We have been working hard to resolve these issues and are pleased to share some promising developments.
Our efforts to formally sign the DLL files and update our automation tools appears to have resolved several of these problems. Additionally, we have been collaborating with antivirus companies to whitelist the flagged files, and the initial results are promising.
We are continuing to monitor the situation closely, and we would appreciate your feedback if you are still experiencing any issues. The easiest way is doing so directly through our technical support channel on discord, but you can also make a topic on the forum. 

• New Card Reveal - Umbabwe

Today, we have a very exciting card reveal: Blight's infamous witch doctor will make its appearance as a playable legendary card! Players have been asking for this ever since it appeared during the boss battle on Oracle, and we are happy to announce that you won't have to wait much longer for this classic character. Let's break down the card.
Please note: We are still working on the card. While we are generally happy with it, numbers and effects might still change before release. 


Skyfall
Every 4 seconds, unit calls down a meteor that deals 400 damage to enemies in a 15m radius around its target, up to 1600 in total. Has a long range of 40m. Knocks back small and medium units.
 

Storm Caller
Activate to create a fiery tornado at a target location for 10 seconds, that deals 160 damage per second to enemies in a 10m radius, up to 480 in total per second. Additionally, affected hostile units are set on fire for 3 seconds, and take 280 damage per second. Reusable every 15 seconds. 
 
Oink Oink
Activate to transform up to 10 hostile units at a target location of 20m radius into pigs for 15 seconds. Affected units may neither move nor attack. After 5 seconds they will be retransformed if being attacked. After the effect wears off, targets are immune against Oink for 10 seconds. Reusable every 20 seconds.
 
Steadfast
Cannot be knocked back. 
 
 
Design notes: Umbabwe is one of the more colorful characters in the Renegade campaign and the last of the Raven-based cards to become a player card. While we were designing Umbabwe we decided early on not to tie him into the existing Raven squad system but to make him a standalone entity. We wanted to design a spellcaster type unit which relied heavily on low cooldown abilities. This should allow Umbabwe to function as a good T4 starting unit which can then transition into a spell supporter for several decks.
Umbabwe's auto-attack is unique because it is a meteor from Inferno. Its large splash radius and splash damage should allow him to stun-lock small and medium units. The Storm Caller ability provides a potent anti-unit tornado, which unlike other tornados, does not travel but remains in place. Additionally the tornado is capable of being buffed when cards like Unholy Hero are used on Umbabwe. Its low cooldown means it can potentially be used multiple times per camp. Finally, we had to give Blight's Witch Doctor an equivalent of Oink, as Umbabwe, or at least his tribe, seem to be the inventors of this iconic spell.
Umbabwe will release alongside our next content patch, expected in September.
 
• Art Spotlight

We made a few changes to the original artwork of Umbabwe, now that he will become available as a player card. Our artist, Tweeto, started by changing the background to better reflect the fire magic Umbabwe is known for. He also adjusted the way Umbabwe holds his staff and ensured the staff better fits the in-game model. There are many other minor changes—can you spot them all?
     
 
• New Campaign Maps - September

Many players are eagerly looking forward to our new campaign maps. Expanding on the original campaign is an exciting moment for the project, and we can't wait for you all to experience them firsthand. Today, we are happy to announce that work has progressed nicely, and we currently expect the first two maps to be released next month, through a content patch sometime in September.
While we have already done extensive testing, we are exploring new territories here, so we can't yet provide a concrete release date. However, we are confident we will be able to share more info in the next community update.
We hope players will appreciate what we have put together, and we are excited for this new chapter of Skylords Reborn.

 
• New Voice Lines

It's been a while since we requested voice actors to apply for voicing both old and new characters, and we are happy to share that it won't be long until you can hear the results of everyone's hard work.
With our next content patch, you can expect voice lines for the following cards: 
• Burning Spears
• Amii Phantom
• Amii Sentinel
• Skydancer
• Umbabwe (taken from the game)
• Deep One (alteration to Sunderer)
There will also be loading screen narration and voiced outcries for our new campaign maps, including our new Skylord; Gaeron. 
We are very excited to flesh out these characters and hope you will appreciate the work that went into creating them!

 
• Critical: Artist Needed

Skylords Reborn has a team of volunteers from all over the world. Unfortunately, this also means we can be greatly affected by real-world events, as is the case with our art team. Both of our artists are located in countries currently affected by war. While we have managed so far by working through our backlog, we have reached a critical point where we will soon face a bottleneck in producing new cards and characters.
We will not be able to bring you new cards if we do not find additional artists soon.
If you are a talented artist able to draw in the BattleForge art style, please contact me through the Forum or discord (majora5222), or apply directly.
 
• Event Spotlight: Seven Strategy Showdown by Ultralord

We have a very special community event to spotlight today: Ultralord took it upon himself to run not one, but seven events. Inspired by Kapo's ''Crappy Community Contest'', these small scale events are easily accessible and have fun twists, while also taking inspiration from Ducky's PvE league in regards to an overreaching ranking. Each event will have a fun handcrafted challenge or mechanic to explore.      Every two weeks there will be a new event waiting for you all, with great prizes to be won! Be sure to check out the overview post for everything you need to know, and be on the look-out for each separate event in the event-calendar and in-game news-tab. 
  • Events

In between our monthly Community Updates, we host various events and tournaments, so be sure to keep a close eye on the in-game event tab and the forum calendar to stay informed and not miss out on any exciting events!
Current events:
• NEW - Seven Strategy Showdown
Every two weeks there will be a new event in this series of seven events, each bringing a fun handcrafted challenge or mechanic! Be sure to check them out, as there are some great prizes to be won! More information.


 • SECOND PHASE IN PROGRESS - PvP AI programming contest
Get ready for an AI Programming Tournament, where the submitted programs will face off in an epic showdown to find the ultimate AI strategist! Players are still able to join this programming contest. More information.
 
• FINISHED - 2p PvE Event - Save energy to restore Lyr
For this event, players had to compete on the new featured community map "Restoring Lyr'', using as little power as possible. Check out the winner reveal stream here!
 
• Host your own tournament / event
Want to host a tournament or event? Please reach out to our Event Organizer @Metagross31. We can help you out with various topics and are glad to discuss potential ideas. We can also sponsor the prize pool for your event. 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.
 
• Contribute to Skylords Reborn

Skylords Reborn is a community-driven project fueled by the passion and dedication of over 50 volunteers. We are always on the lookout for like-minded individuals. If you have a passion for gaming, programming, design, or marketing, we invite you to have a look at our open positions!
 

 
Don't have time to formally join the staff, but still would like to help out? Please check out this guide on how to support Skylords Reborn as a community member.
 
• In Conclusion

That's all for this Community Update! We appreciate you taking the time to read through it.
As is tradition, we're including a scratch code as a small token of our appreciation for your support.
The code will reward you with a General booster: HERE-TAKE-YOUR-CURE
The code is valid until September 1st, when we will bring you another Community Update. 
We're always looking for ways to improve and value your feedback. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please don't hesitate to share them with us. We'll be back next month with more updates on our ongoing projects and upcoming features.
You can also sign-up to our e-mail newsletter here.

Archive
• Skylords Reborn Documents (Deep Dives, Behind the Scenes, PvP Guide)  
• Overview Community Updates
• Community Update July 2024

How is fire weak, compared to bandits, for example? I find the towers to be the strongest among all the rPVE factions and often see unexperienced players struggling when they encounter a close base next to their T4. Pyromaniacs seem to have no damage cap, wich means that only high HP / T4 units survive and infect becomes useless. Later you encounter Volcano in every base, wich does a lot of damage even to T4 units and the disenchanting crystals are something you don't encounter anywhere else.

Each attack of Razorleaf has a damage potential of 1530 right out of the box. 1275 averaged. That is 5100 DP20. Without any support. Though the damage is spread out over a relatively big area so single target damage is usually only around 450-500.
Fully supported it's 35700 DP20. Somewhere around 13000 DP20 on single targets. Plus artillery range and ability to hit air. Assuming Thornbark support and a Root Nexus you pay 530p for that. Breeding Grounds knocks that down to 405p.
A fully supported Sporelauncher has 18375 DP20. Slightly higher single target of about 14700 DP20. That means Razorleaf is almost twice as strong. Plus is can hit air. Only downside being that with Root Nexus B it's "only" 4275 EHP, while Spore Launcher virtually cannot die.

Some of you may be aware that the DP20 values that you find on ranged entities are not always reliable. While it is fine that they are rounded, some cards have values that are impossible for these cards to achieve.
It's been a topic for some time and I started compiling all values the other day in order to finally tackle this problem with the goal of updating tooltips, DP20 values and formulas used to calculate those. Let's begin by establishing what works.
Current formulas
Generic
The typical ranged attack in Skylords has an amount of damage it inflicts on the main target as well as an upper limit of damage it simultaneously inflicts in an AoE. And of course a time between attacks.
There are different ways to write this and still come to the same result but it's essentially this.
You take the damage the attack deals to a single target and add the total damage the attack can deal in an AoE. You then average that value out by dividing it by 2. Finally you take the time between attacks and divide it by 20 to get the amount of times the entity can attack within 20 seconds. Divide the previous result through this and you have your DP20.
Alternatively divide 20 by the time between attacks and multiply the previous result by this.
This formula works for the vast majority of ranged entities in the game. Unfortunately It just sometimes uses inaccurate values.
Ranged attacks without AoE and Flamethrowers
Used for any ranged attack that either does not have an AoE component or is purely AoE, in that the fixed damage value is distributed among all affected targets.
In that case "time between attacks" should technically be "Interval between damage application" but same difference.
Squads
Used for ranged Squads. There are no ranged squads with AoE but if there were they would use the generic formula multiplied by the number of entities in the squad.
You calculate the damage value as usual and then multiply it by the number of entities in the Squad. This is also the reason why damage output from a squad drops if individual squad members were killed.
 
Inconsistent values
Usually the AoE value of a ranged attack is 150% of the single target damage. So for example, an attack that deals 100 damage to the main target would consequently have an upper damage cap of 150 for its AoE.
Pretty straight forward but unfortunately far from consistent. Many entities in the game are off by a few digits, so they range from 148% - 152% on their AoE. Some of them because the single target damage value doesn't have a clean 150% value, which is fine. The recently released Bedrock for example has 633 single target damage on U3, the AoE being rounded from 949.5 to 950. But in many other instances the numbers are simply off. For example, Armored Tower has 110-170 damage but really it should be 110-165.
Another inconsistency is the attack time. After extensive testing there seem to be three internal values that define this. Cast Steps (the wind-up part of the attack animation after which the projectile fires), Resolve Steps (the wind-down part of the attack animation) and Recast Steps (independent balancing lever and cooldown between attacks), all expressed in milliseconds. The actual attack time appears to be:
But take Cannon Tower as an example. It has 200 Cast Steps, 1000 Resolve Steps and 2300 Recast Steps. The highest value being Cast Steps + Recast Steps, which is 2500ms. But the description and DP20 calculation assumes an attack speed of 2000ms, or 2s. Which is of course completely wrong.
Additionally, there is a small random delay added to every attack. This is an important aesthetic choice as it makes ranged battles feel much more frantic and organic. But it obviously affects DP20 and should be included in the calculation. Interestingly, this RNG delay doesn't affect entities that have higher Resolve than Recast Steps. Most airborne entities are in that category.
Abilities
As a general rule of thumb the DP20 calculation ignores abilities like Multishot or effects applied by the attack, like poison or debuffs that increase damage taken. Windweavers are notoriously powerful because their on-paper DP20 is doubled when they get to attack two targets. Same goes for Lost Horror or Rioter's Retreat. Other units like Gemeye P or Spirit Hunters have a powerful DoT attached to their abilities that drastically elevates their damage output.
This makes some entities look worse on paper than they are. Going back to Spirit Hunters, their measly 192 DP20 is actually 792 or 692 depending on the affinity. And that doesn't even consider the ability to attack multiple targets one after another in order to apply the poison to several enemies simultaneously. For Gemeye P the actual DP20 is somewhere around 5250 instead of 3250. But that assumes targets stay within the AoE.
Considering the huge variance it would introduce to DP20 calculations in addition to some affinity-variants getting different base stats they are simply not factored in. Sucks for cards that would get more attractive numbers but it's the most straight forward approach.
 
Outliers
This is where the real fun is. Ignoring abilities is simple enough but what if crazy variance is built into the attack itself?
For these entities there is no established norm as to how to even approach the calculation. The formula has to somewhat reflect the expected damage output when using the card. But how?
Let's look at all the relevant Outliers that are currently in the game and consider their damage output in various scenarios.
Single Target: Only one target available
Small AoE: Multiple targets available, all in one direction. Meaning while AoE is applied the same amount of turrets are active as if there was only one target.
Split Single Target: Multiple targets available, surrounded. Meaning all turrets are active (where applicable) but no AoE is applied.
Average AoE: Multiple targets available, surrounded. Average AoE overlap (Single Target DMG + AoE DMG) / 2)
Max: Full damage application
Battleship

4 directional turrets, each dealing 100-150 damage every 2 seconds. 2 turrets can attack a single target simultaneously. All turrets can attack if surrounded.
Single Target: 2000
Small AoE: 2500
Split Single Target: 4000
Average AoE: 5000
Max: 6000
Ravenship (Ravenheart summons)

4 directional turrets, each dealing 70-120 damage every 2.5 seconds. 2 turrets can attack a single target simultaneously. All turrets can attack if surrounded.

Single Target: 1120
Small AoE: 1520
Split Single Target: 2240
Average AoE: 3040
Max: 3840
Corsair

6 directional turrets, each dealing 25-38 damage every 2 seconds. 3 turrets can attack a single target simultaneously. Except when the Big Fat Cannon cycles through. At which point all 6 turrets can attack a single target simultaneously. All turrets can attack if surrounded.
Single Target: 1125
Small AoE: 1417
The above values are already wonky because they assume 4.5 turrets firing, as the average between the 3 drive-by turrets and all 6 blasting while Big Fat Cannon cycles.
Split Single Target: 1500
Average AoE: 1890
Max: 2280
Big Fat Cannon (regular formula)
Single Target: 580
Average AoE: 725
Max: 870
Ravenheart

6 directional turrets, each dealing 90-120 damage every 2 seconds. 3 turrets can attack a single target simultaneously. All turrets can attack if surrounded.
Single Target: 2700
Small AoE: 3150
Split Single Target: 5400
Average AoE: 6300
Max: 7200
Spitfire

8 directional turrets, each dealing 75-110 damage every 2 seconds. 2 turrets can attack a single target simultaneously. All turrets can attack if surrounded. Only affects air targets.
Regular ranged attack with an AoE component, dealing 466-700 damage every 5 seconds. Only affects ground targets.
Single Target: 1500
Small AoE: 1850
Split Single Target: 6000
Average AoE: 7400
Max: 8800
Ground Bomb (regular formula)
Single Target: 1864
Average AoE: 2332
Max: 2800
Lost Spirit Ship

8 directional turrets, each dealing 80-100 damage every 2 seconds. 2 turrets can attack a single target simultaneously. All turrets can attack if surrounded.
Single Target: 1600
Small AoE: 1800
Split Single Target: 6400
Average AoE: 7200
Max: 8000
Howling Shrine

4 directional turrets, each dealing 750-1125 damage every 11 seconds. 1 turret, rarely 2, can attack a single target simultaneously, depending on positioning. All turrets can attack if surrounded.
Single Target: 1705
Small AoE: 2131
The above values assume 1.25 turrets firing.
Split Single Target: 5455
Average AoE: 6818
Max: 8182
Primeval Watcher

Chain attack dealing 660 - 330 - 220 - 165 - 132 damage as it affects up to 5 targets. Can only hit each target once per attack.
Single Target: 4400
Second Target: 2200
Third Target: 1467
Fourth Target: 1100
Fifth Target: 880
Max: 10047
Rocket Tower

4 omni-directional shots, each dealing 75 damage every 4 seconds. Cannot attack a single target simultaneously. Can shoot all if 4 or more enemies are in range.
Functionally similar to Multishot.
Single Target: 375
Max: 1500
Stronghold

8 directional turrets, each dealing 164-246 damage every 2 seconds. 3 turret, rarely 4, can attack a single target simultaneously, depending on positioning. All turrets can attack if surrounded.
Single Target: 3553
Small AoE: 4442
The above values assume 3.25 turrets firing.
Split Single Target: 8747
Average AoE: 10933
Max: 13120
Thunder Wagon

1 turret, dealing 350-525 damage every 4 seconds. 1 flamethrower dealing 150 damage every second.
Thunder Bomb (regular formula)
Single Target: 1750
Average AoE: 2188
Max: 2625
Flamethrower (regular formula)
AoE: 3000


What now?
A big problem with some of these outliers it the drastically different damage output depending on how many turrets can shoot at any given time, as they are directional. How do you account for that sort of variance in a static formula? Thunder Wagon is the most straight forward with its current design: Just add up the two AoE values. Rocket Tower could get a nasty low number like 375 DP20 or the rounded average between single target and max, which is 940.
There can be different formulas depending on the setup but ideally several outliers should be covered by one formula.
The questions to solve are:
Once the RNG delay is considered in the DP20 calculation, many ranged entities will end up with a lower DP20 value. This wouldn't affect their functionality at all though. Would that still be something to be concerned about?
Should the relation between single target and AoE be updated across the board to get as close to 150% as possible?
Which formulas could express the DP20 value of the outlier cards most accurately? They are clearly more tailored towards AoE clearing but a needlessly inflated DP20 value would give a false impression about their actual strength.
Do the outliers need expanded tooltips to clear up their mechanics or is the DP20 value enough?
How should the DP20 value be rounded? Single digit? Even 10? Even 100? Different rounding depending on the tier of the card?
Important to keep in mind that this is all just about the visual representation of numbers. The actual mechanical values are untouched (aside from potentially minor changes to achieve the 150% AoE value). But depending on which formulas you use you get a higher or lower number printed on the card. Which is certainly important for the "feel" and first impression.
If you have any ideas or opinions regarding this topic, feel free to share. Especially potential formulas for the outlier cards that can be used going forward would be valuable.

Greetings Skylords!
A new month; a new Community Update! It's time to bring you up to speed with everything going on in Skylords Reborn!

• Update regarding antivirus programs flagging Skylords Reborn as unsafe

Last month we informed our players of issues regarding Anti-Virus programs flagging Skylords Reborn files as unsafe, preventing the launcher and installer from working correctly. Because the issues are still ongoing, we'd like to take another moment to talk about the situation. 
Many players have been confused why the issues are now popping up, 3 years after release. While we can not confirm our theory due to AV-programs being vague about their reasons for flagging files, one theory we have is that experimental features regarding replays and SMJ export collection we rolled out a while ago triggered the AV response. This feature would allow players to directly go into their folder to find their replays. This might have triggered the AV response but, sadly, reverting the changes does not suddenly remove the unsafe flag. AV-programs also tend to share their databases, so even though we reverted the changes, the damage was already done and multiple AV-programs now continue to flag SR-files as unsafe. 
It is worth noting this situation is not unique to Skylords Reborn, as we have also seen reports of the popular game "Palworld" undergoing similar issues. While unrelated to our current issues, it goes to show Anti-Virus programs are very complicated and time consuming to deal with, even for bigger companies.
We are currently trying to get our files marked as safe again by getting the right certification, but these steps take time. While we are still hard at work to fix the issues, the rest of our team continues their work on new content, like the new patch we have released this weekend. We had hoped to fix the AV issues before its release, but also don't want to hold back our content due to the uncertainty of the situation.
This currently leaves players with two options to play Skylords Reborn; wait for the situation to resolve, or manually exclude the files from your AV-program. 
We have seen some confusion regarding the issue also happening to players without a dedicated Anti Virus program like Norton or McAfee. Please note that Windows automatically comes with the AV-program Microsoft Defender, which also blocks the installer/updater. 
While we continue to search for solutions for the current situation, here is a explanation on how to add an exception to Microsoft Defender. Excluding the Skylords Reborn folder (not just the file) should also prevent players from constantly having to manually exclude the file every time we patch the game.  
We have also updated the Forum-post to include this explanation on how to add an exception to Microsoft Defender, the default Anti-Virus program that comes with Windows. 
We know asking players to add an exception to their Anti Virus is a big ask, and we are still trying to solve the problem in a way that does not require this. We hope for your understanding and patience, this situation is affecting us all. 
 
• New Patch Release

On to a brighter note! Our latest content patch released this weekend, bringing with it two new cards and a ton of balance changes. The majority of these changes are to tier 3 units, making sure the game is in a great place to explore our new campaign maps scheduled for later this year.
Balance changes include long awaited ones like the Colossus rework. Other notable changes are found on Lost Dancer and Banditos, but with so many changes, we highly suggest you check out the patchnotes for the full list of adjustments. 

This patch also brings two exciting new cards for the Frost and Nature factions. 
The first new card is Icespike. 
Icespike can apply a weak 800-strength Ice Shield to up to 5 allied units. This shield can be strengthened up to 2000 total strength by Ice Age. This gives Frost T3 a new sustain option in addition to Ward of the North. Icespike will also freeze any unit it attacks on contact. This kind of auto-attack CC is common among NPC enemies, but as of yet it is not a feature of any player card. We thought this was thematically fitting, turn enemies to ice while using ice to protect allies, and it makes the unit a bit more interesting than being just a walking Ice Shield generator.  
We also have a short Card Spotlight video showcasing the card:

Our second new card is Swarm. 
While Nature decks have a lot of flexibility, one of Nature's persistent weaknesses is buildings. None of Nature's damage spells affect buildings and the faction lacks long-range siege abilities that would allow players to target important buildings in the backline. While we have tried multiple solutions to this problem that were not just adding a Nature version of Earthshaker, we also recognized that Nature does need a specific anti-building spell. Still, we wanted to give this spell a unique twist that fits the Nature faction and so we settled on a spell which spawns burrowers unconditionally, allowing you to directly target buildings with siege bugs.
We also have a short Card Spotlight video showcasing the card:
 
There are also some nice quality of life changes in this patch. For example, you can now use the text search in the achievements window to look for missing maps and cards. For example, if you search ''Crusade'', it will return all achievements related to the PvE map Crusade that are still incomplete. 
We have also added more information to logs when getting errors or crashes, which should help us better diagnose the cause of game instabilities. If you run into any issues, the best way to reach us is through our discord. 
We hope you will enjoy the changes this patch brings, be sure to share your feedback! 
 
• PvP Maps

While the majority of our map department is finalizing new campaign maps, we did not forget about the PvP players. The latest patch brings a long requested change to the map Uro: the removal of the fortification walls that led to many heated arguments. 

The Skylords Reborn team has been tweaking the official PvP maps since release, and doing so resulted in a good understanding of what makes a good PvP map. We are therefore excited to announce we have started work on our first brand-new PvP map!
While terrain and minimaps are still subjected to change, we asked RadicalX to share design thoughts about the map:
Hey everyone, I am very excited to share a few thoughts on our upcoming PvP map project.
We want to create a unique theme, that isn't already covered by the existing map pool. Therefore, our new map will feature a teleporter, providing lots of unexplored possibilities to play out the game. It will cover a large diagonal and unlocks new possibilities to outmaneuver the enemy. That said, its importance is also affected by player choices. You can always choose to expand towards safer areas in the early game and avoid the fast paced teleporting area.
Our main goal for map balancing is to create different viable approaches for each playstyle and faction, while providing a fun experience with room for a lot player interaction. Terrain and resource locations are supposed to be meaningful (balancing spell efficiency with choke points, map control relevance, late game economy) while preventing disruptive strategies, which proved to be troublesome on existing maps (T1 exploits, long range cliffing, aggressive walls).

We will share more details once the core design is finished.
 
• New Featured Community Map

Some of you might be familiar with the map "Restoring Lyr". This map dates back all the way to 2021, and has seen numerous changes and tweaks by multiple map designers since then. We even set out to turn it into the first official new Campaign Map, going as far as sketching ideas for the loading screen, and do a test recording for the loading screen introduction. After a ton of hiccups in the design process, we ended up scrapping the map as an official campaign map candidate, and instead moved onto Unexpected Visitors and Into the Jungle as our new candidates, but many of us found it a waste to discard all the progress that went into designing and balancing the map. 
We are therefore happy to announce Restoring Lyr saw another batch of changes, including a visual rework and some balance tweaks, and can now be played as a new Featured Community Map. 

This map tasks two Skylords with a mix between Defense and Offense, and will be a fun and challenging experience for Skylords eager for new PvE content. A big thank you to everyone who worked on the map over the years. We hope players will give it a try, while we finalize our official campaign maps. 
We would like to remind you that you can also complete quests and earn gold + BFP by playing community maps. 
 
• Events

We are currently understaffed in the Event Department, which has become clear by the lack of events the last few months. If you are interested in helping out, please consider applying for the Event Manager position. In the past, many non-staff players have also come up with fun events, so please note that you are not required to join the staff to host an event. 
• Host your own tournament / event
Want to host a tournament or event? Please reach out to our Event Organizer @Metagross31. We can help you out with various topics and are glad to discuss potential ideas. We can also sponsor the prize pool for your event. 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.
 
Current events
 • SECOND PHASE IN PROGRESS - PvP AI programming contest
We are gathering players for a new type of event. Get ready for an AI Programming Tournament, where the submitted programs will face off in an epic showdown to find the ultimate AI strategist! More information.
 
 
• Contribute to Skylords Reborn

Skylords Reborn is a community-driven project fueled by the passion and dedication of over 50 volunteers. We are always on the lookout for like-minded individuals. If you have a passion for gaming, programming, design, or marketing, we invite you to have a look at our open positions!
Sadly, both of our artists are located in countries that are effected by war, so our art output is currently heavily impacted. If you are a talented artist able to draw in the BattleForge art style, please contact us. 

Don't have time to formally join the staff, but still would like to help out? Please check out this guide on how to support Skylords Reborn as a community member.
 
• In Conclusion

That's all for this Community Update! We appreciate you taking the time to read through it.
As is tradition, we're including a scratch code as a small token of our appreciation for your support.
The code will reward you with a General booster: ICES-PIKE-ANDS-WARM
The code is valid until August 1st, when we will bring you another Community Update. 
We're always looking for ways to improve and value your feedback. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please don't hesitate to share them with us. We'll be back next month with more updates on our ongoing projects and upcoming features.
You can also sign-up to our e-mail newsletter here.

Archive
• Skylords Reborn Documents (Deep Dives, Behind the Scenes, PvP Guide)  
• Overview Community Updates
• Community Update June 2024

Patch #400047 - Summer Swarm
Welcome to our newest patch. This update contains our thirteenth balance patch for the game and two brand-new cards!

Patch Preview
Two new cards are now available! Jump in-game to collect Swarm and Icespike! A large amount of balance changes, mostly to T3 cards, in preparation for our release of the new campaign maps later in the year. 
General Changes
Synced Map of the Day reset with Daily Quests, the achievement tip for Map of the Day now displays the full date with time when last completed. Added the statistic "time spent in matches" to the in-game profile.  Using the text search in the achievements window will now also look for missing maps and missing cards. For example, if you search "Crusade," it will return all achievements related to the PvE map Crusade that are still incomplete.   Added friend list and ignore list capacity indicator to the UI. Increased the friend list limit from 200 to 300 total accounts. Added more information to logs when getting errors or crashes, which should help us better diagnose the cause of game instabilities.  Added "Don't show again" to multiple Yes/No dialog boxes in the game.  General Fixes
Fixed game connections not being properly closed when the match ends. This should hopefully improve game stability. Fix AFK players BFP reserve drain considering more playtime than up to the last action. Fixed context menu items showing as white when clicked. Fixed visual bug of charge count not decreasing when removing upgrades.
New Cards
Icespike - 110p T3 Frost Unit 
You will find the upgrades for this card on the map "Siege of Hope".
 
Active - Frozen Blanket:
Activate to bestow up to 5 friendly units within a 20m radius with an Ice Shield. Each Ice Shield absorbs up to 620/620/680/800 damage for 30 seconds and can be strengthened to absorb up to 2000 damage. Reusable every 30/20/20/20 seconds.
Passive - Brrrr!:
Attacked units are frozen for 15 seconds. After freeze wears off, targets are immune against Freeze for 10 seconds.
For more information, check out Community Update - May 2024.
Swarm - 90p T3 Nature Spell 
You will find the upgrades for this card on the map "Titans".

Spell - Beetle Infestation:
Summons a swarm of 4 Burrowers at the target location. The Burrowers have a lifetime of 20 seconds and do not provide ground presence to play out cards or claim structures next to them. Additionally, they are immune to revive effects and cannot be infected with the Twilight Curse. Reusable every 25 seconds.
For more information, check out Community Update - June 2024.

Card Balance Changes
[ Tier 1 Changes ]
 Mark of the Keeper:
1. Removed enemy player card play block.
Since the introduction of Tectonic Shift, Mark of the Keeper + Tectonic has become a PvP combo capable of completely disabling the enemy player's ability to respond and defend themselves. We are removing the card block ability to allow players to still summon cards inside a MotK aura. This will have no effect on PvE and this change does not affect the NPC version of Mark of the Keeper. 
 Thugs & Strikers:
1. Add "Marauder" tag to the game and add to Thugs and Strikers.
2. Change "Gang Up!" from "orcs" to "marauders."
We have been quite happy with the Gang Up! ability on Strikers and Thugs, but it currently has some weird interactions with Twilight Minions who are orcs but not part of the gang. We would also like to expand the Gang Up! ability to other cards, so we are swapping the effect from the species tag "orcs" to the new "marauder" tag both Thugs and Strikers already possess. 
[ Tier 2 Changes ]
 Banditos (incl. Corsair summons):
1. Alliance friendly unit requirement: 3 per stage ➜ 2 per stage
2. Blessed Alliance Rework:
   A. No longer based on nearby enemies
   B. Now grants increasingly more damage reduction based on number of friendly units nearby.
   C. Description - The unit will be incited to resist more damage when being surrounded by friendly units within a 25m radius. Per every 2 friendly ground units around them Banditos will receive 20% less damage up to a maximum of 6 units that will spur them on.
Part of our focus in the next 2 patches is to enable melee-based PvE strategies in the lower tiers. As part of this, we are enhancing Banditos' swarm identity by reducing the total number of Banditos needed to activate their bonuses. This will also indirectly buff Corsair. The new Frost affinity will grant scaling defensive bonuses, allowing Banditos (b) to act as a powerful frontline for Bandit armies.
 Befallen's Curse:
1. Power cost: 100 ➜ 90
2. Tainted Disease (p) damage reduction: 25% ➜ 40%
3. Both affinities: Fix the last infection's damage to properly match infection duration (180 dmg ➜ 200)
  Burrower:
1. Active ability Tunneling:
 - Change availablity from only U1/U2/U3 ➜ all upgrades.
2. Active ability Acid Spit:
 - Decreased damage from 850/850/1000/1100 (2550/2550/3000/3300 in total) ➜ 800/850/950/1100 (2400/2550/2850/3300 in total).
 - Fixed incorrect handling of overkill damage.
 - Fixed missing damage against mounted units on affected wall segments.
 - Added a preview of the ability radius that is displayed on hover over the activation button.
 - Changed display order on card visualization and tooltip from first ability to second ability to match activation icon order.
 Deep One:
1. Tainted catch debuff strength: 25% ➜ 40%
 Gladiatrix:
1. Sobering (both affinities) cooldown: 20 seconds ➜ 10 seconds
 Icefang Raptor:
1. Blessed Reserve (b) damage reduction: 30% ➜ 35%
2. Infused Reserve (r) damage reflection: 35% ➜ 60%
 Knight of Chaos:
1. Chaos range increased 20m ➜ 25m
2. Life Points: 900/900/950/950 ➜ 970/970/1020/1020
3. Fixed an issue where the aura would not affect units currently already affected by another instance of the debuff.
4. Added a preview of the ability radius that is displayed on hover over the unit, but only while the ability is active.
Pure Shadow is on the weak side in the current PvP meta. As a result, we are buffing Knight of Chaos to provide more reliable crowd control and to function as a better high health target for spell/ability combinations such as nasty surprise, mage bomb, and corpse explosion.
 Lost Dancer:
1. Blast damage: 80, up to 120 in total (670 dp20) ➜ 100, up to 150 in total (830 dp20)
2. Blast auto-cast range: 30m ➜ 40m
3. Tainted Blast human damage: 100% ➜ 50%
4. Infused Siege: 50% ➜ 30%
The +10m auto-attack range increase and +25% damage increase should improve Dancer's viability in both PvP and PvE. We reduced affinity specific damage bonuses to compensate for these other buffs, though the specific damage to structures and humans relative to each affinity remains largely the same. 
 Lyrish Knight:
1. Surge of Strength frozen damage buff: 50% ➜ 80% more damage
 Rageclaws:
1. Class: "Human Soldier" ➜ "Human Marauder"
2. Add "Gang Up!" to Rageclaws
3. Add “Group Pressure” to Rageclaws
Rageclaws now have Gang Up! and combo with Thugs and Strikers. 
 Revenant's Blessing:
1. Infused Immortal (r) damage buff: 30% ➜ 50% more damage
2. Bugfix: Now properly stacks with Lost Manabeast's Immortalize ability. 
Previously Revenant's Blessing, when combined with Manabeast's Immortalize ability, would cause Lost Wanderers and Lost Shades to instantly die. While we have fixed this instant-death issue, we have introduced an alternative issue where Immortalize, when combined with Revenant's Blessing, now makes the revenants of Lost Wanderer and Lost Shade live forever. While neither issue is ideal, we think it is better for the bug to benefit the players until we can figure out a permanent solution to the problem.
 Stone Shards:
1. Blessed Fury: Ignore freeze damage reduction ➜ Ignore freeze damage reduction and deal 50% more damage to frozen targets
 Stone Tempest:
1. Stone Wrath damage:  30/32/36/41 (45/48/54/62 in total) [840/890/1000/1140 dp20] ➜ 35/37/41/46 (52/55/61/69 in total) [870/920/1020/1150 dp20].
[ Tier 3 Changes ]
 Aura of Pain:
1. Power cost: 100/100/100/90 ➜ 90/90/90/80
2. Duration: 30 seconds ➜ 40 seconds
3. Card charges: 6/8/10/12 ➜ 10/14/17/20
Slight changes to Aura of Pain to encourage stacking the spell on own melee units. 
 Backlash:
1. Power cost: 120p ➜ 110p
2. Cooldown: 30 seconds ➜ 25 seconds
Small buff to Backlash to allow Fire decks to counter Swarm in T3. 
 Corsair:
1. Assistance cooldown: 90 / 90 / 60 / 60 seconds ➜ 45/45/30/30 seconds.
- Toggle ability Concentrate of summoned Commandos (Shadow):
  - Increased the activation cost from 10 power ➜ 20 power.
 Infect:
1. Total targets: 7/7/10/10 ➜ 6/6/8/8 enemies affected
Infect is one of the strongest spells in the game. We are slightly reducing the total targets to reduce its strength in ideal scenarios. 
 Lost Banestone:
1. Bugfix: Everlasting: No longer extends the lifetime of other temporary entities, but only Revenants.
 Lost Manabeast:
1. Bugfix: Increase attack speed to 3 seconds
Lost Manabeast has a slower attack speed than listed on the card, making the card deal around 25% less damage than originally intended.
 Lost Vigil:
1. Celestial Blast damage: 90, up to 135 (1125 dp20) ➜ 108, up to 162 (1350 dp20)
2. Invigoration damage: 135, up to 200 (1675 dp20) ➜ 162, up to 243 (2025 dp20)
Lost Vigil has languished ever since its nerf soon after the release of the Lost Souls edition in Phenomic times. It was nerfed at the time due to being overpowered in PvP. Since then, we have significantly buffed T3 anti-air units in PvP, so we now feel safe to give her a 20% damage buff.
 Magma Hurler:
1. Life points: 975/1000/1130/1270 ➜ 900/940/1020/1140
Slight tamper down on Magma Hurler’s life points. Magma Hurler has long been the go-to unit for Fire in T3 and it became more so when we buffed its damage several patches ago. While we are buffing up other Fire options in this and the next patch, we are slightly nerfing Magma Hurler to make space for those other options without killing the card.
 Northland Drake:
1. Tornado general changes:
   A. Duration: 15 seconds ➜ 8 seconds
   B. Damage per second: 108, up to 162 ➜ 232, up to 348
   C. Tornado length: 30m ➜ 35m
2. Blizzard power cost: 70p ➜ 50p
3. Blessed Blizzard (b) freeze speed: Every 3 seconds ➜ Every 1.5 seconds
4. Infused Blizzard (r) extra damage: 100 damage ➜ 200 damage.
The goal with these changes is to double the speed of the tornado and to adjust the other numbers accordingly to maintain existing damage and freeze numbers. The hope is that this will make the tornado more usable through higher responsiveness.
 Nox Carrier:
1. Infused Necrostrike (r) Ripper count: 2 ➜ 3 Rippers summoned
2. Tainted Necrostrike (p) poison damage 40 ➜ 50 damage per second
 Sandstorm:
1. Power cost: 140p ➜ 100p
Sandstorm remains well outside of general viability despite the previous buffs. Instead of increasing card damage, we have reduced the card’s power cost again to encourage using it as a crowd control alternative.
 Shadow Insect:
1. Damage: 1200 dp20 ➜ 1440 dp20
 Sleet Storm:
1. Spell duration 10 seconds ➜ 15 seconds
 Soulhunter:
1. Minefield damage: 80/80/100/100 against units and 21.25/21.25/25/25 against structures (240/240/300/300 in total) ➜ 160/160/200/200 against units and 20/20/25/25 against structures (480/480/600/600 in total).
Buffing up Soulhunter's ability to not be outcompeted by its T2 spell equivalent. 
 Spitfire:
1. Ground Bomb damage: 270/290/320/350 (405/435/480/530 in total) [5510/5610/5760/5920 dp20] ➜ 376/396/426/466 (565/595/640/700 in total) [5880/5980/6130/6330 dp20]
2. Siege: 100% ➜ 50%
Move damage out of siege and into the ground bomb itself to improve Spitfire’s usability outside of building siege situations. Damage to buildings remains identical while damage to non-buildings increases by 33%.
 Stronghold:
1. Power cost: 200p ➜ 230p
2. Passive ability To the Last!:
   A. Both stages of internal damage buff and damage reduction are now stackable with external sources of damage modification.
   B. Both stages of internal damage reduction can no longer be disenchanted.
Since the buffs and the release of Tectonic Shift, Stronghold has been too strong in both PvP and PvE. We are slightly increasing its cost to fit its new strength.  
 Tectonic Shift:
1. Initial spell application timer (cooldown): 20 seconds ➜ 10 seconds
   A. This is the spell application timer, not the teleport ability timer.
Allow players to apply Tectonic Shift to multiple towers more quickly. 
 Transcendence:
1. Orb cost: Shadow, Nature, Neutral, Neutral (T4) ➜ Shadow, Nature, Neutral (T3)
Give players access to Transcendence earlier, enabling more T3 army strategies.
 Unity:
1. Card charges: 6/8/10/12 ➜ 8/11/14/16
 Unstable Demon:
1. Demonic Rage:
   A. Movement speed bonus and acceleration 60% ➜ 100
   B. Duration 5 seconds ➜ 4 seconds
   C. Cooldown 15 seconds ➜ 5 seconds
2. Critical Mass damage : 560/700/900/900 (2000/2500/3000/3000 in total) ➜ 560/700/900/900 (4000/5000/6000/6000 in total)
  - Fixed incorrect handling of overkill damage.
 Virtuoso:
1. Trumpet of Jelicoo building damage:  600/675/750/825 (1700/1800/2000/2200 in total) ➜ 600/675/750/885 (1700/1800/2000/2200 in total)
We are currently reworking Girl Power into a melee-support card, and once it releases, it will, alongside this minor buff, allow Virtuoso to one-shot small spawn buildings with its ability. 
 Vulcan:
1. Flamethrower damage: 120 per second (2400 dp20) ➜ 140 per second (2800 dp20)
2. Conflagrate damage: 265 per second ➜ 280 per second
 Wrathgazer:
1. Power cost: 220p ➜ 200p
2. Disintegration speed: 150/150/150/165 ➜ 170/170/170/185 life points per second
[ Tier 4 Changes ]
 Colossus:
1. Thunderous Roar Rework:
   A. Releases a bloodcurdling roar that riles up Colossus. The unit will deal 75% more damage for 25 seconds. Additionally, Lumbering Step is activated for 25 seconds. Reusable every 30 seconds.
2. New ability, "Lumbering Step":
   A. Turn Speed - Increase turn speed by 50% for the duration.
   B. Damage: 200, up to 1000 in total.
   D. Description: "While moving around unit knocks back small and medium units dealing 200 damage, up to 1000 in total to enemies. Affects ground units only. "
3. New Ability, "Colossal Birth": When being spawned the unit is undazed and displaces the earth, knocking back small, medium, and large units. Can be spawned nearby enemy units and structures excluding walls. Affects ground units only.
Colossus's rework design was previously decided upon with community help, but the final implementation never managed to happen due to a lack of implementation capacity and a later shift in priorities towards other factions. This rework will finally see the light of day and provide the long promised melee-partner for Forest Elder (b). Colossus's Roar gives it a major self-damage buff, allowing it to kill bosses quickly, while the Lumbering Step gives it a Thunder Wagon-esque ability to damage enemies just by walking through them. 
 Kobold Inc.:
1. Orb cost: 3 Frost, 1 Neutral ➜ 2 Frost, 2 Neutral
2. Blessed Speed-up (b):
   A. Speed-up & Description: 50% faster ➜ Construction time is reduced by 66%
3. Tainted Speed-up (p) drawback: 400 damage ➜ 25% of maximum life points lost on spawn
4. Add Construction Hut cost reduction effect (-25% power cost) to both affinities.
5. Initial cooldown: 60 seconds ➜ 0 seconds
As part of our continual focus on creating a new building archetype, we want to propose several changes to Kobold Inc. As a T4 Frost building, Kobold Inc. should be the ultimate building support. One issue is its orb requirements. All other Frost buildings and their support requires only 2 orbs (this is similar to how all root network cards are available for 2 orbs), but Kobold Inc. uniquely requires 3 orbs. We think this unnecessarily constrains the card and limits what is actually available to use with Kobold Inc, which right now it really only Stronghold or WBG unless Kobold Inc is enlightened. After this change, other cards like Volcano, Deepgorge, Hatecaster, Artillery, or Comet Catcher when player's orb swap for Sages will become available for use with Kobold Inc.
Next, we want to equalize the different affinities. We are increasing the frost affinity's speed-up while making the shadow affinity's penalty percentage based. This will make it a choice between rapid construction or instant construction with health loss. It also removes edge cases like U0 Altar of Nihil which is instantly destroyed by Kobold Inc. because it only has 400 life points. Additionally, we are adding Construction Hut's discount to Kobold Inc., which seems like an obvious addition. T1 cards shouldn't outcompete T4 cards in the same role. Last, we are removing the initial cooldown from the card as it functions as an unneeded time penalty. This is only step one of the changes to Kobold Inc., as we have more changes planned for the frost affinity to ensure it is a compelling choice instead of players defaulting to the shadow affinity. 
 Lost Evocation:
1. Power cost: 140p ➜ 110p
2. Blessed Revenant damage reduction buff: 50% ➜ 60%
3. Infused Revenant damage buff: 100% ➜ 120%
4. Affected units can now receive the buff again if they re-enter the area of effect and the previous buff's duration has expired.
 Lost Warlord:
1. Add affinity effects to revenant's spawned by Revenant's Doom.
 Spore Launcher:
1. Remove slow, now moves at normal XL speed (6.4 m/s).
2. Remove Siege, add XL-counter
3. Add L-knockback to Explosive Spores
We are trying out a minor identity change for Spore Launcher, making it more mobile with stronger built-in crowd control. We realize this is unlikely to make it the preferred choice for root network absent changes to Razorleaf. 
 Tortugun:
1. Eruption:
   A. Remove affinity effect from Eruption, change both Eruption affinities to current Fire affinity with the Fire affinity description (50m range).
2. New Devour Affinities:
   A. Blessed (b) Devour: "Additionally, unit receives 50% less damage for 20 seconds after consuming a unit."
   B. Infused (r) Devour: "Additionally, unit deals 100% more damage for 20 seconds after consuming a unit."
Tortugun's affinities are wildly unequal with one having 30m range and the other having 50m range. We are making both affinities have 50m range and moving the affinity effects to Devour. Players are now encouraged to strategically time feeding their Tortuguns to gain access to a large damage reduction or damage increase buff for a short time. 
 

Map Changes
Uro (PvP Map):
Removed both red-colored fortification walls (incl. official spectator version of the map).

King of the Giants (PvE Map):
1. The unlikely event of Jorne dying now results in game over instead of soft-locking the players into the map.
2. Increased the detection range for both Rogan and Jorne near the final cave to end the map by 15m. This should decrease instances of players failing to complete the map despite successfully guiding Rogan to his objective.
Blight (PvE Map):
Fixed a rare crash that occurred when players were destroying the objective spawn buildings as the timer ended.