Community Update - May 2025

[Majora]

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!

• Development Update

Since its release in 2020, Skylords Reborn has added a ton of new content and features to the original BattleForge. We overhauled the old micro-transaction economy, added quests and achievements, and implemented various balance changes and bugfixes. Being able to bring BattleForge back was our primary goal, and it was lovely to see players enjoying reliving nostalgia and being able to play their favorite game once more. 

However, part of BattleForge's DNA was the constant exploration and new experiences that come with a Trading Card Game / Multiplayer RTS. In June 2021, 6 months after the public release, we therefore announced we were starting development on completely new cards through our Rebirth edition, wanting to expand on the content the game was offering. Alongside balance changes and reworks, we started working on making sure each color combination was competitive and fun to play, with various options to choose from. We introduced a new enemy rPvE faction to play against, and the team introduced Reforging, as a way to keep the economy in check in the long run. 

The next step for Skylords Reborn was obvious but would not be easy; adding new campaign maps. The many moving parts proved a challenge, especially with the structure of a volunteer team. While work on the maps happened in the background, we explored other ways to keep players engaged throughout 2022 and 2023. We (and the community!) hosted a variety of events and tournaments for players to compete in. The team added new achievements, (promo) cards, and cosmetic rewards (banners, borders, Forges) to give players something to work towards. We also continued to take on quality-of-life feature requests like in-game drop locations that smoothened the play-experience, always carefully balancing our workload versus the enjoyment of the playerbase. 

2024 finally saw the release of new campaign maps, and to great reception! Players old and new checked them out, and we saw an increase in player activity during the months surrounding their release. While we do our best to release patches on a regular basis, many players had clearly been waiting for concrete new content to explore, and this was definitely a marketable event. Work on more campaign maps is already in development, and while we feel confidant you wont have to wait another 2 years for their release, it will still be a while before we can share more. 

Which brings us to the point of this trip down memory lane. The team behind Skylords Reborn is constantly working on new content, but the player-base consumes it at a rapid pace. Releasing a few new cards that cost months to complete, often results in players spending just a weekend or two to check out a patch, and then either returning to their daily grind, or getting bored and moving on to other games while waiting for the next patch. With some features taking quite some time to get to release, we started looking at ways to keep the player-base engaged while we work on more content like new campaign maps. After a lot of preparation, we think we have come up with a exciting way to experience Skylords Reborn, and make sure the game continues to evolve and feel alive, even in the downtime between patches.

Today we are excited to announce that Seasons are coming to Skylords Reborn!
 

• Announcing Seasons

Seasons combine everything we have learned during the years developing Skylords Reborn. They provide thematic challenges that players can tackle for cool rewards, which include cosmetics, Forges, boosters, and new cards! 

While season rewards will not contain only mono-colored cards, they will be tied to one or more of the various factions, which will also determine the special promo card that can be earned during the season. Our first season will be centered around the element of Fire, and we are excited to reveal its promo card: Sunderer! 

New timed exclusive cards
Players will also be able to earn 3 new cards, including additional charges for those cards spread out over the progression track. For our first season, those cards will be Fire Wormlings, Hellhound and Treasure Wagon. Those cards will be exclusive to the season for its duration, but will be made available in boosters after the season has concluded. However, these cards will be trade-able from the beginning, should players decide to do so. 
 

     

Challenges for all skill-levels
We have prepared a variety of challenges for players to explore, taking into account the differences in skill-level among our player-base. We have made sure players can pick and choose challenges without being locked into ones that aim to provide a challenge for our most experienced players. During the season, players will earn seasonal points by completing these challenges, which will unlock a variety of rewards in return. 

To prevent players from blasting through the season right away, these challenges will gradually be unlocked during the season. More challenges will automatically unlock throughout its four month duration, resulting in a new batch of fresh challenges.

 

New currency: Relics
With seasons, we are also introducing a new currency players can collect in addition to gold and BFP. Relics will be used to purchase certain rewards in a new Relic shop. Here, players can find special rewards, including seasonal content. They also act as a kind of insurance for players, covering past and future seasons. Let's say you don't participate in the first season but come back for Season 2. The relics mean you can purchase at least some of the Fire cosmetics you desire from the first season. Same for if you participate in Season 1 but not Season 2, the relics then allow you to grab some cosmetics you missed by not participating in that season. Relics will also be earnable outside of seasons, but more on that next month!

We feel its very important to find a good balance between giving players something rewarding to play towards, while also respecting their time and not lean into the FOMO-approach many games take these days. We will monitor feedback during the first season, and take this into account for future seasons.

F.A.Q.
How long will seasons last?
- Our current plans are for seasons to last 4 months. Our intention is for the next season to start soon after Season 1 has concluded. 

What is the difference between a Season and a large achievement like Force of Nature?
- Seasons bundle together various thematic challenges that players can choose to pursue. With an achievement like Force of Nature, we are forced to make a choice regarding difficulty; if we make it too easy, our veteran players rush through the challenge, but if its too hard, we lock out a large amount of the player-base. Seasons allow for a lot of flexibility, allowing for different challenges. Additionally, its timed nature pushes the community as a whole to play together and face these challenges together. 

Why are the new cards exclusive to the season?
- We feel its important for players to have exciting rewards to play towards. Many players have already accumulated an abundant amount of BFP, Gold, and boosters, making these lackluster rewards. We feel that by making the cards timed exclusives, that there is a nice balance between worthwhile rewards and general availability once the season is over. Additionally, similar to f.e. Promo Mana Wing, players can still decide to get the cards from other players, since the cards will not be trade-locked, if players decide to sell their rewards. 

Will seasons replace content patches?
- While seasons create a returning patch window every four months or so, they are not intended to replace general patch content. We are still going to add new content, features, and cards to the game, which are not tied to seasons. Our goal for seasons is to always have something to do in Skylords Reborn. 

Why do the challenges unlock in four stages, instead of all at once? 
- We do not want players to blast through four months of content at the very start of the season. Players might have felt they needed to do so to keep up, and get the rewards as soon as possible. By spreading out the challenges, we give players something to return to every month, which is very important to keep the game exciting and fresh, even while we are between patches.   

Do I need to complete every challenge of the season to earn rewards? 
- No. Challenges provide season points which will unlock seasonal rewards. The more points you have, the more rewards you get, but even a few points will already get you some Fire boosters and the new card Fire Wormlings. Promo Sunderer is meant as a special reward, and will be in the high-end of seasonal points required. 

What will the challenges and reward structure look like?
- We will share more about the seasonal rewards and challenges in the next community update. 

When will Season 1 start?
- We expect Season 1 to start in June, exact date to be announced. We will share more information in the next Community Update.

We hope you are as excited as we are about the new challenges Seasons will bring. Do you have any additional questions? Be sure to ask them in the comments below, and we'll make sure to update our F.A.Q. for the next Community Update. 

 

• New Card Reveal - Fire Wormlings

In the Community Update from March 2023, we shared our struggles with adding Fire Wormlings, a potential new archer-type unit for the Fire faction. Turns out that adding worms on walls is not an issue easily fixed, as it has now been over 2 years since we last mentioned the unit. 

People did like the idea of these small worms, so we decided to completely rework the unit, letting go of the restriction of them being units to put on walls. Today, we'd like to share the new card design for Fire Wormlings. Let's break down the card!

 

Worm Fire
Every 2.5 seconds, unit launches spittle at enemies that deal 67 damage to enemies in a 8m radius around its target, up to 100 in total. The affected area around the target will ignite for 10 seconds dealing 10 damage every second to enemy units.
 

Primal Resonance
Within a 30m radius of a Primordial unit, Fire Wormlings will deal 60% more damage. Does not trigger from other Fire Wormlings.

 

Earth Dive
While moving around unit takes 50% less damage and deals 30 damage to enemy units in target area, up to 120 in total. Affects ground targets only.

Design notes:

Two major issues facing Pure Fire's T2 are a lack of scaling and a lack of sustain. Fire Force helps with the sustain option, but it lacks good targets in Pure Fire T2. Scythe Fiends and Enforcer are good PvP cards but struggle in PvE. On the ranged side, Gladiatrix and Skyfire are good, but ultimately too fragile, especially for maps which require a robust T2. The parts of Fire's T2 functioning well are therefore its siege units and its damage spells. Given the upcoming season will strongly encourage playing Pure Fire, we wanted to take the opportunity to introduce a new PvE focused T2 unit which still fits Fire's core identity without being overly fragile. Enter Fire Wormlings.

Fire Wormlings are a 2-unit M-sized ranged squad. Their initial stats are mediocre at best, but each attack causes a damage over time area to be created, similar to Gemeye (). These burning areas stack, meaning that groups of Fire Wormlings can create highly destructive locations on the map similar to a Fire Emitter or a Mine. At the same time, the Wormlings move fairly quickly, allowing the player to use them for hit and run tactics. In addition to the burn effect and the normal worm earth dive, they have an effect which makes their damage scale around other Primordials. This makes for good synergy with Nature in T2, specifically Deep Ones, and allows for any leftover Wormlings to scale well into T3 when used alongside the new Hellhound card.

Fire Wormlings will be part of the seasonal rewards of Season 1. 
 

• Skylords Mega Quiz

Players who have participated in one of Ultralords many events, know he loves asking quiz questions on his live streams. Find out what happens if we give him access to a bunch of Prizes and the official Skylords Twitch channel! 

Join us on May 3rd for the Skylords Mega Quiz, live on Twitch! 

Test your knowledge of BattleForge and win prizes while doing so! There are a bunch of boosters and BFP up for grabs, so even if you don't win the whole thing, chances are you are walking away with a good time and something to show for it!

We hope to see you there!

 

• Team Changes

Our video-editor Ultralord, responsible for our various trailers and card spotlights, is no stranger to events. Even before joining the team as video-editor he already hosted a variety of community events. After reassurance that he will be able to continue hosting wacky events, even in an official role, he has now formally joined the team as event manager. Nothing will change for the players, but we are glad to finally be able to credit him with the role! 

The marketeer role for Skylords Reborn has been infamously challenging to fill, and unfortunately RainZy did not beat the odds. Due to a long period of inactivity, we have decided to restart our search. RainZy has been removed from the team. 

• 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:

• STARTING SOON - Skylords Reborn Mega Quiz - 03.05.2025 at 20:00 CEST
Win prizes with your knowledge of BattleForge! Join the Mega Quiz live on Twitch for a chance to win BFP and boosters. Come hang out with us, win some prizes, and perhaps learn a new thing or two! More information. 

 

• NEW - A Fresh New Start - 02.05.2025 
This event will test your skill with the cards that we all start with! Beat the first single player campaign map “Encounters with Twilight” on advanced difficulty and win some great prizes! More information. 
 

• NEW - Legacy Tournament - 11.05.2025 17:30
Travel back to 2013 in this Legacy PvP tournament! Played on our Legacy server, experience BattleForge before the Skylords Reborn team added any balance changes. The tournament will be streamed live on Twitch. Please sign-up in advance. 

 

• 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 general booster: JOIN-MEGA-QUIZ-MAY3

This code is valid until June 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 April 2024

[Majora]

Edit: The original Community Update incorrectly listed Fire Wormlings as tier 3. It is a tier 2 unit. 

[Ultralord]

1 hour ago, Majora said:

Find out what happens if we give him access to a bunch of Prizes and the official Skylords Twitch channel! 

UNLIMITED POWER!!!

 

Cant wait to test the Wormlings. They say the are for PvE but it will not stop me from putting them in my PvP Deck 🙂

[sylvix95]

ah great, with that there will be some point when we finally get a promo for each factions that didn't have one, amii phantom deserves it for being the OG

[Carofex]

Are the Relics tradable?

[Carofex]

check out filter "class name:primordial" for all units which can buff Fire Wormlings ability Primal Resonance.

[Majora]

48 minutes ago, Carofex said:

Are the Relics tradable?

No, Relics will not be tradeable

[Armatores]

The upcoming changes look fantastic, great job, Skylords Reborn team 🤩

[Redmark]

Looks incredible as always, stellar work

Edited May 4 by Redmark

[fShark]

Congratz. I will play it but I am looking forward to Lost Souls SEASON already. 💙💜

[klaussone]

All great news, not very relevant to people who cannot longer play, due to the recent launcher changes, that over a few patches have been blocking some to play. But since the requests for help are either ignored or belittled, a portion of an already diminishing community are kept out.  It must certainly be a complicated thing, its still a shame such a barrier limits both old and new players to even join. I for once even changed OS recently and made no difference. the relic shop sound interesting though. and opens  a number of possibilities I imagine.  I myself  maybe be done trying to play the game. But maybe in a few years I'll be motivated enough to try again, if the project is still floating by then.  Keep up the good job ! this patch looks very promising for the future.

[Majora]

14 hours ago, klaussone said:

All great news, not very relevant to people who cannot longer play, due to the recent launcher changes, that over a few patches have been blocking some to play. But since the requests for help are either ignored or belittled, a portion of an already diminishing community are kept out. 

Considering this is your first post on the Forum, I can't find the request for help that is being ignored or belittled, care to elaborate? Issues with the launcher is obviously not something we want, and are sometimes related to issues completely outside of our control, yet we always try to help, even for players who, for example, play on outdated operating systems. 

As for a ''diminishing community'', I'm not sure where that is coming from either. Besides the peak we saw around the new campaign maps (as mentioned in the CU above) player counts have been fairly stable. We hope seasons will give a nice fresh boost, but its not like the game is dying.

[Jolares]

yes, seasons is a big W - this will bring back many players at once making the overall experience better for everyone when the points in which people return get clustered. so that finding players to play will be faster.

great change!

[Stippy]

Seasons seem cool. An important point for me is that: "Those cards will be exclusive to the season for its duration, but will be made available in boosters after the season has concluded."
Great way to introduce challenges but not leave everyone behind, if their playing time slot has not been matching a season!

[JH24]

Thank you for another amazing update! I love the idea of seasons and that they will give a feeling of progression and a goal to work towards.

The new cards look awesome. The flavor works so well. Primordial rage unleashed! I'm definitely going to make a pure fire deck sometime in the future.

Two things I wanted to ask and my apologies if I missed the answers:

1. Is the pvp AI for Skylords still being worked on?

2. Are you planning to show the new season cards in a video when the first season starts?

Many heartfelt thanks to the entire Skylords Reborn team for all their amazing work!

 

Edited 20 hours ago by JH24