Metagross31

I Hope you all had fun playing the new Map.
109 Player joining with 275 Tickets.
Prizes has been send out.
Stay tuned for the next big PvE Event -> Battle of Tactics #10  

Was originally meant to be a fire booster, but in the Q&A someone requested twilight, forgot to change the description 🙂
Mana wing and worldbreaker gun also dont drop from boosters though.

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!

• Q&A with Windhunter and Majora

Last Friday we hosted a live Q&A on Twitch. With the introduction of seasons, modifiers, and a new campaign map, we figured it was a great time to sit down and go a bit more in depth about the creation of our latest content, and of course answer your questions! 
You can rewatch the Q&A below. It contains a lot of information about campaign maps, card design and our season structure. We also talk about our second season and which new cards you will be able to collect. 

• Season 1 - Primordial Fire: Month #4/4

Today marks the start of the final month of our first season: Primordial Fire. 
This month won't add any additional challenges. It is meant as a break and/or catch-up for players to complete any challenges they might have missed or failed to complete the past 3 months. Once September ends, so will the Primordial Fire season. This will lead to the following:
- Seasonal Quests for Season 1 will be de-activated and can no longer be completed. 
- Players can still view the quests and leaderboards of the season, including their progress. 
- Final leaderboard standings will be updated and distribute rewards accordingly. 
- All completed but unclaimed challenges will automatically be claimed, and progress rewards accordingly. 
- Scorchlings, Hellhound and Treasure Wagon will drop from boosters.
- The promo Sunderer, if not yet earned, will be purchasable with Relics in the Relic-shop.
- Unearned cosmetics (titles, borders, banners and the Forge-skin) will be purchasable with Relics in the Relic-shop.
- You can continue to earn Relics through Season 2, or by beating the infected map of the week. 
We hope players enjoyed the first Season, and were able to earn the rewards they were playing for. While we have already incorporated feedback from Season 1 for our future seasons, we will continue to monitor feedback and adjust to make the system as enjoyable as possible for everyone involved. 
But for now, good luck with your final challenges Skylord!
 
• Season 2 - Natural Selection

Meanwhile, we are preparing the start of our second season, which was announced during our Q&A: Natural Selection!
This season will be focusing on the Nature and Twilight factions. It will once again last 4 months, and is currently scheduled to start October 1st. 
Players will be able to earn 3 new cards, and a unique promo card. Today, we are revealing which new cards players will be able to collect during the season, but we will keep the promo card a surprise until the season starts. With it being the most requested promo in our Feedback Survey last year, and great work done by our artists, we are sure players are going to love it! 

For Season 2, we've made changes to the challenges and reward track based on player feedback. Some of these adjustments were already discussed during the Q&A, and we’ll share more details in the next Community Update. For now, let’s talk about the new cards!
 
• New Card Reveal: Twilight Whisperer

There are already many Twilight cards in the game, but one of the most frequently requested has always been the Twilight Whisperer. First appearing as a powerful enemy on the very first map, Encounters with Twilight, the Whisperer has long been the bane of Skylords relying on ranged units. Its unique blind effect makes it a formidable foe, and soon you’ll be able to add it to your own line-up. After all this time, making its debut as a player card: Twilight Whisperer!


 
Rejuvenate
Every 5 seconds, unit triggers a heal chain that may affect up to 3 friendly units. The first one will be healed for 150 life points while each of the following targets will be healed for 40 life points less.
 
Blind
 Every 10 seconds, unit casts a ball of light that blinds enemies in a 12m radius around the target for 10 seconds. Has a long range of 40m.
 
Shhhh!
If the unit is transformed, it will create an anti-magic zone of 20m where enemies can neither use ranged attacks nor special abilities. Lasts for 10 seconds.
 
Transformation
The unit is infected with the Twilight Curse, activate to start the mutation process and choose a Twilight unit from the current deck to be transformed into after 0.5 seconds. The current deck must contain at least one other Twilight unit whose orb requirements are met! Has a 10 seconds cool-down after the card was played out or previously transformed.

Design notes:
Twilight Whisperer is an iconic enemy we have long wanted to add to the game. The question was always where it might fit. Twilight's T2 cannot have a strong ranged attacker due to PvP concerns, and an M-sized support would likely be lackluster in T3 & T4. We finally solved the riddle by giving the unit its iconic blind effect but without it dealing any damage. This way the unit is a pure support unit. To facilitate its role as a backline healer who can also CC enemies, we have given it a 40m range for its Blind attack. This way Whisperer can sit safely behind its allies while still reaching enemies it wants to disable. Lastly we wanted to give it a fitting Transformation ability and we thought a temporary Mark of the Keeper effect fit the unit's overall identity well.
Twilight Whisperer will release as a season reward for our second season. 
 
• New Card Reveal: Twilight Infestation

Summon-buildings are quite popular among the player base. After the positive reception to Bandit Hut, we began exploring other potential candidates that could make a good fit. With the existing Twilight unit line-up already being quite large, and with no plans to release separate player cards for Twilight Dancers and Twilight Devastators, we saw this as the perfect opportunity to put them into players’ hands regardless. We’re excited to reveal: Twilight Infestation!

 
Summon Devastator
Activate to summon a Twilight Devastator. Will no longer summon units once a population of 150 would be exceeded. Reusable every 60 seconds.
 
Summon Dancers
  Activate to summon 2 Twilight Dancers. Will no longer summon units once a population of 150 would be exceeded. Reusable every 60 seconds.
 
Transformation
Infects an own ground unit with the Twilight Curse. During the next 40 seconds the unit can transform at will into any other Twilight unit in the current deck whose orb requirements are met. Reusable every 3 seconds.
 
Design notes:
Bandit Hut proved to be a popular addition to the game and a fitting one, especially because most T3 Bandit units are lackluster. We think that a spawner also fits Twilight's identity but in a slightly different way. While Bandit Hut is a swarm building, Twilight Infestation is more designed to work as a supplement to Twilight's other T3 options. For this reason, Infestation's spawns are stronger but with longer cooldowns between usage. The new Twilight spawner also has the Twilight Infection ability from Skycatcher, which will allow players to transform their leftover T1 and T2 units into T3 or T4 Twilight units. In this way, the player no longer needs to kill off lower tier units to get access to their void power, but the player can instead decide to evolve them into ever more perfect forms, properly fitting the theme of Twilight.
Twilight Infestation will release as a season reward for our second season. 
 
• New Card Reveal: Woodland Watch

The Root Network mechanic from the Nature faction enables extremely powerful defensive setups. However, we felt there was still room to explore other defensive options that don't require players to commit to Root Network cards. Woodland Watch is a unique new tower that allows the player to send in a single Elf squad, adapting its attack based on the unit placed inside. 
Let’s talk a bit more about Woodland Watch!
Please note: The card is still in development. Artwork is in progress, and stats or effects may change before release.

 
Bow Shot
Every 3 seconds, the tower launches arrows each dealing 102 damage to enemies within a 8m radius, up to 153 in total. It may attack two targets at once.
 
Call the Elves!
  Activate to send the chosen friendly small elf unit within a 25m radius into Woodland Watch. The tower is strengthened and gains a different buff depending on which unit has entered. Only one elf unit can enter the tower at a time.
 
• Range Increase
The tower gets a 10m range increase if a Sunstrider or White Ranger squad is inside. 
 
• Multi-shot
The tower can fire at an additional target if a Windweaver or Twilight Slayer squad is inside. 
 
• Poison
Enemies damaged by Woodland Watch take 30 damage per second for 10 seconds if a Spirit Hunter or Darkelves squad is inside. 
 
Design notes:
T2 Nature has a problem defending in T2 behind walls. While it has a strong defense unit in Spikeroot, the problem is that Spikeroot cannot attack through walls nor can it hit flying enemies. Players must therefore default to Living Tower, which often then necessitates other root network cards and even then, Living Tower is not a good option when used in mass due to how the support mechanic works. We therefore wanted to add a new T2 Nature tower which was not root network dependent. Woodland Watch is that tower. It has multi-shot and good stats, allowing it to fill a similar role to other T2 towers.
At the same time, it can be empowered by absorbing an elf unit, thereby taking on new traits. The idea here is that the elves reinforce the tower and add new traits to it similar to their individual unit or faction traits. Sunstriders and White Rangers give +10m range, Windweavers and Twilight Slayers give an additional multi-shot attack, and Darkelves and Spirit Hunters provide a poison effect. Some of these elves are obviously not Nature cards, which allows Woodland Watch to provide unique splash options, something we are always trying to do more of. Additionally, Woodland Watch can absorb allied units, so you can work together with your Fire, Shadow, or Frost ally to bolster your Woodland Watch and make your defense well suited to the situation.
Woodland Watch will release as a season reward for our second season. 

• 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.
 
• 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 - Battle of Tactics #10: Friendly Fire -> STARTS: 05.09.2025
Have you ever wondered how Skylords Reborn would play with Friendly Fire enabled? Find out this month with the latest Battle of Tactics in which you and a fellow Skylords ''team-up'' to beat the map Into the Jungle. Starting on September 5th!
 
• NEW - Egg-Ball Tournament - 21.09.2025 18:00 CEST
Back in July 2024, we introduced a Football/Soccer game-mode with The Seven Strategy Showdown #7. We are excited to host a PvP tournament of this silly but interesting way to play the game. The tournament will be live-streamed. Please sign-up in advance.
 
Recent events:
• FINISHED - Q&A with Windhunter and Majora
Our Q&A contains a lot of information about campaign maps, card design and our season structure. We also talk about our second season and what changes we are making. You can rewatch the Q&A on YouTube.
 
• FINISHED - Dealing with Trouble
To celebrate the release of our new campaign map "Heart of Trouble", players could send in their replay for a random draw of boosters. If you have done so, you should receive your booster soon. 
 
• FINISHED  - The Skylords Reborn Summer Cup 2025 - 17-08-2025
The 3rd 1vs1 PvP tournament of the year was hosted and live-streamed by Ultralord and co-host Toggy. Most of the matches were recorded with commentary and can be rewatched on YouTube. 
 

• Host your own tournament / event
Want to host a tournament or event? Please reach out to our Event Organizers @Metagross31 or @Ultralord. 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.
 
• 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 Twilight booster: NATU-RALS-ELEC-TION
This 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 2025

But it doesn't include Wheel stacking

Hey, so we have an official tutorial, the tutorial includes a chapter on setting up the scripting software, that includes pretty much all the script actions and conditions 🙂

alternatively, here is the newest script reference wiki with all the commands
https://skylords-reborn.fandom.com/wiki/Script_Documentation

For card IDs, I'd search the forums, or you can use the Skylords Reborn map making discord - https://discord.gg/RZQbJPdA to ask for card IDs 🙂
Somebody there probably has the file

Hi everyone,
I’d like to get back into mapping, but unfortunately I deleted the files from the old forum that contained all the script commands. I also deleted the file that had all the card IDs.
Does anyone still have these files by any chance?
Greets! 🙂

Only 5 days left to upload your replay and win a Booster 😉

Welcome to the 2nd Official Card Design Contest!

"Only that which dreamt of or written about by mortals,
only that which had journeyed into the realm of legend,
could be created." (Lands and Regions, page 3)
 
In this contest, you are called to submit your idea for a new card,
which will be presented to high-ranking jurors for judgement.
THE CONTEST HAS ENDED. RESULTS SEE BELOW.


The jurors for the contest will be @RadicalX, @WindHunter and @Bini Inibitor – for those who don't know, these are the SR team members with real decision-making power about what makes the cut for new content.
Important note: Of course there is no obligation for the SR Team to make any entry into a real card – but a good idea that really fits into the game has a lot of power. All card designs will be heard, seen and judged anonymously and without any barrier of entry.  
The contest begins with the publication of this post and ends on the 25th of October 2025, 23:59 CET. Submit your entry…
as a comment on this thread, through Discord (direct message to Kapo#0116), or a Forum direct message (to @Kapo). I will anonymize the entries, present them to the jury, and after a voting and discussion phase, the grand winners will be revealed on a stream 16th of November. Additionally, all other winners and entries will be revealed here on the forums.
As seen in the video, we mean serious business: Three entries of the first card design contest made it into the game, and the designers valued the creativity and ideas of several other entries. You might want to check out the previous card design contest for inspiration.
 
                    
 

Rules:
You are limited to a maximum of TWO entries - if you win on both, you will receive the higher prize. In case you submit more than two, the last two received entries will enter the contest (unless you state otherwise)
  Your idea must be a NEW card idea/concept  (NOT a rework of an already existing card or a Promo card), be aware that this the main criterion for jurors 
  ONE of your submissions may be a Meme card, but be advised that the winners on the Meme tier are highly limited and not the focus of this contest 
  Units and buildings MUST be fitting for an already existing model (this is a technical limitation, but re-texturing can do wonders)
  Unfortunately, we also can't allow for Fire/Frost or Rainbow-cards (or any other outside the known factions, due to technical and/or conceptual limitations)
  You are asked to create the fully upgraded version (see below: Things you don't need to add)
  By entering, you are giving away your card idea with permission to modify it  – the final design may differ from your submission here, and may be used in any way the team sees fit
  You are asked to use the following template:  
 
Things you don't need to add or care about:
Hit points and attack-numbers Rarity Upgrade Levels (submit a fully upgraded design) Number of Charges Artwork for the card (you may provide one, but this does not affect your winning chance) At the end of the contest, we may make a compilation of the entries – by participating, you automatically agree to be included in that.
 
Suggestions:
In preparation for this contest, we asked the jurors to drop some hints on what is needed for a good design.
You might not want to create a new super-powerful card, but a card that's interesting. Maybe it fills a special niche case in a faction (like Burning Spears), or it is special or meme-worthy (like Easter Egg). Balance is important! The best cards are useful, fill essential roles, and are not overpowered. If you design a T1 or T2 card, think about PvP implications. You might want to check out the first card design contest and its entries to be on top of previous, already submitted ideas. Fit the card to the faction: Think about the intentional strengths and weaknesses of each faction. Potentially, you see an extremely missing card in an arsenal, but that could be part of that faction's design. Also, breaking core rules of the game requires a very, very, very good reason. For both topics, see: Design Philosophy Document. You are allowed to submit a legendary (neutral) card, but please note those are much harder to design and balance properly. You may present some optical aid to the jurors: On https://smj.cards/creator, you can easily create your own card-mockup: 
                      
(But please be aware, even in AI image generating times, a cool presentation will not help you win. It's the idea that counts!)



Voting Criteria and Prize Tiers:
PLATINUM TIER
Platinum tier are creations that will actively be considered to be implemented into the game. They must not be all-around perfect, since someone who is not on the SR team is unaware of all the steps required when implementing cards. Platinum entries are cool, captivating and would be a great addition to the game.
Platinum tier winners will win a low-grade promo of choice (e.g., Fallen Skyelf, Lyrish Knight or Rogan Kayle) or Ultra-Rare of their choice of similar value (Infect, Forest Elder etc.). Should your card someday make it into the game, you will get a copy for your own collection.
 
GOLD TIER
Gold tier suggestions are cool and interesting suggestions, but are lacking significantly in ONE (but only one!) way:
Unbalanced design with no way to repair that Clearly impossible to implement  Too niche to be worth the implementation Not fitting for any faction or into the game Not really a fitting, existing model in the game Too draining on SR team resources etc. Gold tier winners will win two booster-packs.
 
SILVER TIER
Silver Tier suggestions are solid suggestions, but are lacking in more than one way to make it into the game. For examples of what could cause issues, see the mentioned list above.
Silver tier winners will win a booster-pack.
 
  MEME TIER
While it is not the focus of the contest, even fierce Skylords value some funny memes. Very few selected, exceptional meme entries will be presented as Meme tier winners.
Meme tier winners will win a Mini Booster and a Juice Tank.
          

We are looking forward to your designs! If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

Best regards,
Kapo and the Skylords Reborn Team.

 

Please don't be surprised, many of my questions are not essential for you to answer, but I've just always wondered about them.
 
1. Why does the login screen still say “Welcome to BattleForge” and not “Skylords Reborn” and why is the currency still called “BattleForge Points”?
Are you not allowed to change that, is it technically complicated, is it for nostalgic reasons or is the answer simply “Why not?”
 
2.  Have you ever heard anything from the original developers of the game, or do you know if any of them are aware of the game's continuation and impressive further development?
 
3. Is it just me, or is the time it took to complete the match no longer displayed in the post-game statistics?
 
4. Is it possible to optimize the deck search so that you can enter the card name and then all decks containing that card are listed?
 
5. Is it intentional that the colors of the first and last rank rymbols are so similar?
 
6. Was there ever any consideration of adding further ranks and, for example, reintroducing the golden boots as a symbol for them?
 
7. Why does it take so long to load the replays? 
Okay, I just discovered that there are 5000 replays in my replay folder, but why is it not technically possible for it to simply load the relevant replay when you want to play it? It seems as if it loads them all first (which would explain the long wait after clicking on “Replays”) and only then can you play a replay.
 
8. Is it technically feasible (without too much effort) to implement automatic login (after 2 seconds without interaction) in addition to the “Save password” function on the login screen?
 
9. We all know that it was the epitome of overpowered, but can I hope for a feature in the future that will allow us to enjoy the "Wheel of Gifts stacking bug" like we used to?
 
10. And as the tenth question, the tenth unimportant question: Did anyone else notice that, in addition to the new fire unit, there was already the Lost Souls Leader, which is also called “Hellhound”?
 
 
- disclaimer -
I would like to emphasize that I have no knowledge of programming and apologize if my questions seem too demanding.

I personally enjoyed the very specific challenges (e.g. Ravens End/Empire with fire + only t2+ neutral units only or rpve with only t2) way more than the "play 10 maps with/without ...."
I felt like the latter type of quests mostly lead me to just complete them quickly on the ever same quick and easy maps (Encounters, Crusade, Sunbridge, Insane God, Soultree, KotG,..). I admit that is partly my own fault aswelll though.
>> Do you already know what type of quests you want to add more/less in future seasons? Do you have any data on what was popular and whats not?
Are there any plans for a "play the whole campaign with specific deck restrictions type quests" (maybe for Nightmare?) in the future?
 

Some good questions so far, I am looking forward to answering as many as possible during the stream. 

Great greetings, People of the Sky
The SR-Team, as well as the Team of Phenomic back then, did a great job in balancing the PvE Maps.
But have you ever asked yourself, how it would feel to do a solo map with 4 Players?


The Challenge:
Play and win the Community map "TEAM - Behind Enemy Lines" on advanced or higher
It's that simple 🙂 

The Ranking:
Main Ranking:
   Beat the map as fast as possible on a difficulty you feel comfortable with.
   An Expert run always ranks higher than an Advanced one.
Synchronisation Ranking:
   The cost of all played cards will be compared to each other, and the biggest difference will be used to rank your run.
   The lower the difference, the better the ranking. Example:
       Player 1 = 1.000
       Player 2 =    800
       Player 3 = 1.500
       Player 4 = 1.200
   The highest difference is between Player 2 and Player 3, so the Score would be 700.
   -> YOU CAN ONLY JOIN THE RANKING AS A 4-PLAYER TEAM <-
 

Changes to the Map:
- 1 Player -> 4 Players
- Starting wells 3 -> 2
- Starting Power / Void increased
- Reposition Buildings in camps
- Removal of 2 Power Wells in the middle
- More Wells and Orb at camps
   Each Player can only have one Orb in each of the base groups - so Max T3 
- Ban of Enlightenment 
- Player get Power when completing Tasks

 

The Event Timeline / Send in your Replay:
Map:                   TEAM - Behind Enemy Lines
Difficulty:            Advanced / Expert
Goal:                   Beat the map quickly
Until when:         30.11.2025 23:59 CET
Winner Stream:  05.12.2025 19:00 CET via my Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/ultralord_t1421)
How to join:        Upload your Replay at https://t1421.de
                            You can upload as often as you like. The page keeps the best in the ranking.
                            Replays can be found in your Documents folder (C:\Users\xxx\Documents\BattleForge\replays\)
Note:                   The community map will be featured during the event. So you can use it for Season Challenges.
How to play the map:
 

The Prizes:
Prizes are awarded to all players.
If you join with multiple teams, you will only receive the Prize of your highest ranking.
 
Main Ranking:
Place 1:  + Firedancer          Place 2:  + Avatar of Frost     Place 3:  + Harvester     Place 4:  + Volcano     Place 5:  + Ironclad [R]     Place 6:  + Church of Negation     Place 7: + Power Shrine     Place 8: + Mindweaver     Place 9: + Promise of Life [B]     Place 10: + Rageflame [R]     Place 11 - 15:               Synchronisation Ranking:
Place 1:  + Twilight Warfare      Place 2:  + Lost Evocation     Place 3:  + Artillery     Place 4:  + Stone Warrior     Place 5:  + Santa Claus                 Random Draw:
For every 10 Players in the event, 5 Fire Boosters will be added to the random draw.
So 10 Players = 5 Boosters, 20 Players =10 Boosters, etc.
 -> And more?
 
A New Star Is Rising:
Every Player with a PvE Rank below or equal to Level 10  will receive a Wrathgazer.

 

Thank you to:
SR-Team                                             For Boosters
Map-Testing-Team                             For checking the Map
Port                                                    For x20 Boosters (Place 11 - 15)
@ElementG                                    For the Wrathgazers
Anonymous 1                                    For 2x Avatar of Frost
NIP                                                     For 1x Harvester
Wanky                                                For 4x Santa Claus
Ultralord 🙂                                      For 4x Firedancer, 4x Volcano, 3x Harvester, 4x Church of Negation, 2x Avatar of Frost, 4x Ironclad [R]
                                                                 4x Mindweaver, 4x Promise of Life [B], 4x Power Shrine, 4x Rageflame [R], 4x Moon
                                                                 2x4 Twilight Warfare, 2x4 Lost Evocation, 2x4 Artillery, 2x4 Stone Warrior

The map feels so different with 4 players. I hope you will have as much fun as I did during testing.
If you want to host your own event, feel free to contact me or @Metagross31
See you in the forge, fellow Skylords
Ultralord 🎩

FAQ:
 

This event was solong on hold, so just ignor the creation date from December 2024, SINCE ITS HAPPANING NOW!!!!

Ahh - Thanks for the info. It appears that I had completed all on adv back in 2022.
It's the three new maps I need to tick off! 😉

Greetings Skylords,

It has been a good while since we had a stream! With the introduction of seasons, modifiers, and a new campaign map, we figured now would be a great time to sit down and go a bit more in depth about the creation of our latest content, and of course answer your questions! 
Our Lead Game Designer Windhunter and me as Project Coordinator will go over various topics, like map design, our thoughts behind seasons, how our first season has been received, and what changes we plan to make for future seasons. While the focus of the stream will be Q&A, we will also be revealing some of the new content coming with our second season. 
The stream will take place on our official Twitch channel on Friday the 29th of August at 20:00 CEST.
While we will also take some questions live, be sure to leave your questions below!

We hope to see you there!

Hope you all are ready for tomorrow
and i hope you have tested the new map 😉 )

Amazing work as always guys, always lovely to see more campaign maps coming out! 
Keep it up! 

Small Update
- Map pool now with the new PvP map Taros
- Fire Worming ban removed (im wondering if players will play the new Scorchlings)

Head Up - Skylords
Its time to deal with some trouble!!

Welcome to this guide on how to make and play a hero deck. This guide will go over all the ins and outs of the deck, how to play & pilot it, as well as more advanced tips on this deck.

But 1st :

What is a "Hero" deck ?
A hero deck is a special kind of deck based on playing legendary units instead of normal ones. It revolves around 2 main synergies :

1) Giant shelter : Jorne allows all your other legendary units to take -50% damage while being around him. It is a really powerful ability, halving damage taken and making your sustain 'twice' as effective (1 damage healed require 2 taken to be negated) but is even more powerful with :

2) Promise of Life B + nasty surprise / dreadcharger.
 + 

This combo allows you to kill your legendary units under the effect of promise of life. But what for, and why the "weaker" B affinity you might ask ?

Because this combo allows you to suicide your heroes under the effect, and because there's a delay of 10s before resurrection, you can in the meantime summon a new copy of your hero units, bypassing the 1 unit limit on legendary creatures.

Furthermore, the resurrected units still send 90% of its power back to the void. This is what we call in BF "unbinding" a unit, which is an extremely powerful effect. Since the power dedicated to the unit is freed & sent back to the void, it is the equivalent of having a unit & gaining power equivalent to 90% of its value.
 
We now have our basic synergies, an army of doubled legendary units, half unbinded, and under the permanent effect of Jorne's Giant shelter. Note that because you have 2 Jorne, each will benefit from the buff of the other one, while normally Jorne cannot benefit from its effect.

Now time to make a deck :  is the best orb order for our deck.

T1 :
As of writing this guide, Nature start is superior to shadow start in rPvE.
The heart of any good nature start in rPvE is composed of this combo of cards :
+++
 
Windweavers are the main damage dealers of nature at T1. Though their kill speed of spawners is a bit low for their cost, they more than make it with their multishot ability when comes the time to clear the remaining enemies NPC.
1 Dryad B + surge of light gives your group of windweavers the tankiness they require to do their job.
You will notice there's no shaman at T1. For less experienced players, you must know that shaman are only good in long T1 phases where their continued healing over times make up for their high binding cost. But in rPvE they are a liability. Each shaman is 1 less winweaver to kill stuff, and more importantly to kill spawners which can respawn infinite number of units unless dealt with.
Last, the outburst of surge of light is, in this scenario, far superior to the long drawn out benefit of shaman.

The core idea of nature start in rPvE exp & exp+ is 1 dryad and a pack of 6-7 windweavers.

Which now bring us to ensnaring roots. Roots is ideal to give time to your pack of windweavers to "rush" and take down the spawner, by rooting enemies in the meantime. Though you can still get shot by ennemies, a number of dangerous melee units can be kept at bay while you focus on the spawner. This card also has applications in different scenario (delaying waves at T2-T3, giving you an escape root at T1, ...).

I advise ensnaring root over hurricane : hurricane is only useful against S units. In rPvE, the faction against it is the most useful are bandit, twilight, and bandit+stonekin. The thing is, these 3 factions are the easiest to deal with at T1. When facing fire, nature or lost souls, root is better, and since those factions are harder to take down at T1, it means root > hurricane.

In general I save 6 slots for nature at T1.

I always save 1 for mana wing :     
The card is important for 1 reason only : Lost soul. As the hardest enemies, you need to be able to deal with them. And unfortunately LS npc units have access to a bunch of S knockback effects, making your windweavers completely useless, even more when you are trying to focus a spawner.
Against, them, the "best solution" is a big pack of mana wings supported by 1 or 2 surge of light. You rush the spawners & focus it, then try to leave. Let's be clear, with treefiend and Lost vigil being M counter ranged units, your pack will melt in instant, but it is the "least bad option" we have in nature against such a foe.
It is also not bad to deal with lost dancers & the explosive ground beetles, as well as the manabeast, during the inevitable counter attack, since those can't reach your air units.

That leaves us with 1 more slot. This slot is a bit of a flex, you don't have to take it for a T1 card and can try to save it for another tier, but I find it more important there as a good support in many situations.

For me, the 2 best choices are :

1) Primal defender. The card offers you an answer to air units, for both the T1 & T2 phase. It is also good to save time when expecting a counter attack after sniping a spawner, and is overall a good T1 tower. It is my favoured option.
2) Fountain of rebirth. Now that one is far more team dependent. The idea is this : if you have fire allies which play packs of strikers at T1, and are willing to support you with their spells, it is worth it to build fountain to support them, particularly in 4 players set up. Having 3 fire players with their strikers supported by your fountain can help them a lot, and in return, once they have dealt with their camps, you can expect all 3 players to support you with their spells, speeding up the overall clearing process. So in this configuration, it is worth it.

Players often take mumbo jumbo R in their deck at that slot. I'm not found of it in this deck. We got ways to deal with boss, so the spell is less useful in later tiers.
At T1, it is worth 300 damage on a spawner, but it can't be stacked, and it is useless against Lost soul since mana wing doesn't grant you ground presence.

Lastly,  or  must be added to the deck for later. I prefer nasty surprise over dreadcharger, but both work.

T2 :

Best option as of now is the good old shadow phoenix + embalmer's shrine combo :
 

The shrine basically "reduce" the corpse requirement of the phoenix resurrection ability from 2000 down to 625 (technically it is corpses are worth +220%, but the result is the same).
You need to construct the shrine ASAP at T2. Then summon a pack of 5+ phoenix (depends how tough the camps are), wait until the shrine ability is up, charge the camps, use the ability, and banzaï !!!
You can probably wreck the whole camp with little support, and even take down the second one (in that case build 2 shrine for permanent effect).
Nothing more to say really.

The deck does have this card however :

 
Power shrine is a strong void return card quite useleful for later, and you can start building it at T2. The alternative (and worst) option is shrine of memory. It isn't as good as power shrine in our deck, but it is a viable replacement.
If possible, try to build power shrine at T2, so it is up when you need it later.
T3 :

Best option as of now is the good old shadow phoenix + embalmer's shrine combo :
 

But Wait ! You already wrote that for T2, we're T3 now no ?
Well, turns out the combo is so strong that you can abuse it in T3 also. And if there's another camp next to your T4, you can also use it there too !

But yes, we also have some T3 cards.


With access to power shrine, enlightenment allows you to instantly spawn a T4 unit.
Though I will review them below, the best unit of your roster to summon is Umbabwe in 99% of the time. The shaman of blight is insanely powerful, and as long as your ally provide some frontline, he can take down a camp by himself. His fire tornado will make quick works of XL units and named boss at your T4 orb.

We also start to add some healing in our deck for later, but it can still be useful at T3, and  is a great card for our deck. Of course,  must also be added for our combo.
T4 :
That's where the magic begins. We rely on 4 T4 heroes :



Now you should have 1 umbabwe at T4. If not start with him.

Combo is this one : summon your T4 unit, activate power shrine, cast promise of life B, cast nasty surprise, wait ~4 seconds, summon the same T4 unit again. All 3 cast will benefit from power shrine, allowing you to consume your void pool instead of your power pool. And since you refill this void pool with the power of your own sacrified units, you can imagine how beneficial this is.

We got 3 remaining deck slot :
1) Regrowth is our main sustain option at T4.
2) Unholy hero. It is there to combo with 1 of your Umbabwe fire tornado. Both umbabwe fire tornado can do up to 10k dmg. With unholy hero, you are looking at 20k, ideal to deal with a boss. And against building, a fire tornado with Unholy hero will deal 4800 dmg to it. There's a more advanced combo with raven archwalker ability, unholy hero, and 1 of our spell like regrowth or enlightenment, allowing you to deal around 20k damages in a huge area, since unholy hero does increase the damage of our archwalker ability.

3) This slot is a flex one. I have added creeping paralysis as a crowd control in our deck, notably against units like twiligh evil eyes or Lost dragon. Other cards which can be added include : Incredible Mo, Mind control, green peace, healing garden, revenge, thunderstorm, transcendance, ...

In term of strategy, you must summon 2 umbabwe & 2 jorne, they are the anchor & damage dealers of the deck. After that, you can start pushing and clearing.
Ravenheart & raven archwalker can be added later, and will benefit from the fleet support mechanic to move at normal speed (2 raven archwalker, or 2 ravenheart can benefit from each other).
I personally prefer to add the archwalker 1st, but it is a preference at this point.

Use your 2 main heals, regrowth and equilibrium, to keep your units alive. It shouldn't be too hard with Jorne passive.
Umbabwe is your main damage dealer, and can provide needed cc if the situation requires it.
Jorne ability gives you an easy way to deal with buildings.
Late boss can be killed quickly : 2 fire tornado + unholy hero + 2 harpoon shots, and you are over 25k in single target damages.

After all that, let's answer a few remaining questions you might still have :

Do I need promo card for this deck ? What about promo jorne & promo ravenheart ?

No you do not need promo cards for the deck. 1st, we don't really have the slot for that. We would have to cut the combo, but the combo is what is interesting because of the unbinding process.
We also want 2 jorne, for the passive, and 2 umbabwe for his insane dmg. Promo jorne brings nothing to the table there, 2 jorne is enough.
Ravenheart "could" be interesting because 1 ravenheart limits you to 3 summoned ships. Since the promo is a different card, we could have up to 6 ships.
2 problems however : 2 jorne + 2 umbabwe + 2 archwalker + 2 ravenheart and 3 ships is already 96 population. We would be limited to 2 additional ships anyway, not 3. Furthermore, ravenheart is often the last unit summoned, by the point you get to summon ravenheart + promo ravenheart, you won't have the time to use the ability twice before the map is over, limiting you to 4 ships.
Is it worth it to sacrifice part of our combo for +1 raven ship which stats aren't amazing anyway ? By experience, I can tell you no, it isn't.

So original + promo is out of the question in the deck, for practical reasons (now if you prefer the look of the promo over the original, it's something else).

Why only these 4 heroes ? Why not Mo or Lord Cyrian ?
We are limited to 4 charges on promise of life B, and in term of deck slot. The 4 heroes chosen are the strongest we have access to. Jorne & umbabwe are essentials, 2 ravenheart + 3 ships is better than 2 Mo or 2 Cyrian, and raven archwalker range attack is insane, both to snipe buildings with unholy hero, and to use its ability.
Furthermore, since we have access to power shrine and enlightenment, there's no need for a weaker hero at T3.

Is this deck any good in expert ? It looks like a sympathetic off-meta deck, but nothing more.
When I started the deck, it was. But power shrine, umbabwe and the change to the support fleet mechanic in Patch #400050 have made the deck a viable option for expert and expert+.
I would estimate the power of the deck to be around pure nature forest elder G + primeval watcher with promise of life G combo on the 1st elder.
The deck is no S tier, but it can hold it's own.
Power shrine helps your teammates, and getting 2 jorne and 2 umbabwe is slower than single units deck, but as fast as getting 2 batariel with 1 under fire force B + some spare energy for a dying breed and unity cast, or getting your forest elder killed and summoning a bunch of primeval watcher just after.
 
So starting speed at T4 is good enough, and clearing speed is too. The deck does show some limits when faced with a post T4 camp with a strong boss early on, as well as against some of the strongest late game camps, or when 2 strong post T4 camps are merged. But outside of the hardest configurations, the deck is good. It isn't too slow to push, and clear at a reasonable speed.

I hope this guide will have helped you discover and appreciate this hidden gem that I call :

"The Hero Deck"
 

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To honor the work of love that was put into the wormlings, and the game in general, I hereby declare August the Month of Honour (or Month of Honor, for our fellow Amercan Skylords out there).
I thank everyone who contributed to this project. I've been working in a voluntary setting for years as well and might have an understanding of what many of you go through. So many improvements and additions. How you managed to do all this, whithout even having access to the source code, is beyond my comprehension. I hope that one day you get that access, even if it's just limited to bugfixing purposes.
One of the latest additions to the game, the Fire Wormlings, caused alot of headache, yet are a really cool unit. They represent many aspects of voluntary work. And sometimes, no matter how much love you put into something, it can't be fixed.
For this whole month, August 2025, I will change my ingame profile picture to honour the work that all the volunteers put into this project. And I encourage everyone to do the same. Pick a picture of any of the changes that were made to the original. Pick one that speaks to you. For me it's the wormlings. The cute little buggers deserve a place in the game. Despite the model causing technical problems that would need source code access to fix, I hope that you decide to keep them in the game wherever they don't cause problems, like artwork. In memoriam of the work that went into them.
 
May the big Skylord grant access to the code one day. Until then, rest in peace, little buggers ❤️
And to all SR contributors, past and present: Thank You ❤️

Great Stream and Great Replays
If you missed it -> here is the recording:

The final Ranking looks like this:


And here are all replays:
CrystalEvent.zip 
I hope you all had fun, and i see you in the next event.
Ultralord 🎩

Oh god, the profile picture was my idea! It means a lot to be heard, really. This is a cool salute for the wormling, so thank you very much! At least this way it won't be forgotten.

Honestly so grateful for all the people making this game happen. Bringing back some of my best childhood memories and continuing it is truly something I am incredibly grateful for. Thank you very much ❤️