Community Update July 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!

• Season #1 - Primordial Fire - Month #2

Last month, we released a patch that kicked off our very first Season, and the reception has been largely positive! Player numbers have gone up, and Skylords are enjoying the fresh challenges the season brings. This season will last for four months: June, July, August, and September.

Unfortunately, with so many moving parts, some bugs were inevitable. Our team has worked hard to fix as many of them as quickly as possible. We've addressed these issues through several hotfix patches, which you can find in the patch notes here. Some of these hotfixes include minor touch-ups related to the season, such as description clarifications and small UI improvements. The update from June 29th also included minor balance changes, so be sure to check out the patch notes.

We'd like to take this opportunity to address a few topics that have come up frequently since the season's release:

 

Connection Problems for Russian Players

We've noticed that some Russian players are experiencing issues connecting to our server, which is located in Germany. Although these issues began around the time of our patch release, they are actually the result of sanctions outside of our control.

We're currently exploring alternatives, such as hosting a VPS in another region to forward traffic. We expect to have more information within the next 1 to 3 months. In the meantime, we advise affected players to use a VPN to connect.

 

Nightmare Challenges

We’ve seen some players expressing frustration about not being able to complete certain challenges or finding them too difficult. We want to emphasize that Nightmare challenges are intended for the highest-level players and are not required to earn the top rewards. You will be able to unlock Promo Sunderer this season without completing any Nightmare missions. However, you will need to complete the second and third batches of challenges (along with most repeatables), which will be released today and in August.

We highly advise players not to burn out on a specific challenge if you are not having fun. We’ve tried to include content for everyone this season. That means some challenges may feel too easy, while others may feel too difficult, depending on your playstyle. But remember: you don’t need to complete everything. We do encourage you to try strategies outside your comfort zone, but at the end of the day, it’s all about enjoying the game. And if you do want to conquer a particular challenge, the community is more than happy to help. Be sure to check out our Discord if you're looking for advice or teammates!
 

Dwarfen Stronghold

Challenge 2.5 requires players to complete two community maps. It reads: 
Win the 4-player featured community maps Dwarfen Stronghold Rework and Twisted Legends on advanced difficulty or higher, with all team members using decks that contain 10 or more Fire, Twilight or Bandits cards.

Some players experience a crash or error when trying to host the map Dwarfen Stonghold Rework.
To fix this, close the game, go into your doc/BattleForge/map folder and delete all instances of Dwarfen. After restarting the game, you should now be able to download the correct map and host your match.

 

Filtering for Twilight Edition

Challenge 2.8 has caused some confusion among the player base. It reads:
Complete 5 different campaign maps or featured community maps on advanced difficulty or higher, with all team members using decks that contain only Fire, Twilight or Bandits cards, none of which are from the Twilight edition.

Back when the original BattleForge came out, cards were released in expansions, with the base set being called the Twilight Edition, and cards were purchasable in boosters from specific expansions. When we overhauled the economy to free-to-play, we actually removed those edition-boosters, and replaced them for faction-boosters instead. While this was a great improvement, it also means that non-veteran players were never really exposed to the "Twilight Edition'' naming. This was an oversight on our part when we created this challenge. 

 

To clarify; cards from the Twilight Edition all have the Sunrise Icon, are only Nature, Shadow, Frost and Fire (so no hybrid/neutral), and have no affinities. Even though the name might imply it, the Twilight Edition contains no cards from the Twilight faction.

For this specific challenge, there is actually a filter you can use to exclude every card from the Twilight Edition. If you write the following text into the search bar of your inventory, you are left with all cards that are not included in the Twilight edition:
!(edition=twilight)

Just remember that challenge 2.8 also restricts you to Fire, Bandits or Twilight (the faction, not the edition!) cards, though you can easily filter for those with the elemental buttons on the left. 

If you want to know more about filtering options, have a look at our Advanced Filtering document. It goes into detail what is possible with the search bar, and how it came to be. 

 

Fire Wormlings

Fire Wormlings, unfortunately, hold the questionable honor of being the most problematic card in the history of this project. Initially intended as a new type of archer to be placed on walls, it had to be completely redesigned after model issues made that original concept impossible. Then, after finally being released, the card caused lag spikes when played for extended periods. Thankfully, we were able to fix those lag issues relatively quickly, but soon after, another problem surfaced: players began reporting widespread desync issues.

Unfortunately, we have not yet been able to identify and fix the root cause of these desyncs.

To better understand the complexity of the situation, consider the following:
- Fire Wormlings is a resized version of an XL model.
- It's a squad unit, based on a model that was never originally intended for use in a squad.
- Its attack lays down a unique visual effect that deals damage over time.
- It has a buff that checks for specific unit classes nearby, activating and deactivating accordingly.
- It uses the worm model, which moves in a very unique way, basically teleporting across the map while appearing to burrow underground.
- Desyncs are reported in most matches where Fire Wormlings are played.
- In single-player matches, the desync warning does not appear, but replays are often out of sync with the actual match.
- None of our tests so far have been able to pinpoint the issue with certainty.

We’ve been testing a variety of solutions, including removing the passive ability, resizing the worm, or converting it to a single unit. While we still lack a definitive answer, current evidence suggests the desyncs are related to the movement behavior of the worm model. Similar reports have occurred for the original XL worms in the past, but those units are played less frequently, and later in matches, due to them being Tier 4. Additionally, those issues have been rare and hard to reproduce consistently. We suspect that the combination of smaller size and squad mechanics increases the likelihood of movement-based desyncs. For instance, if the squad moves over uneven terrain or is knocked around, parts of the squad can get separated or stuck, increasing instability.

We considered temporarily restricting the card in multiplayer, until we discovered the same issue also affects single-player matches. Adding to the challenge is the open in-game market. While Fire Wormlings is part of the season rewards, some players have paid a significant amount of BFP to acquire it. Simply removing the card and refunding players isn't viable, since that also raises questions about how to handle those who sold the card. We obviously don't like players not being able to use their new cards. At the same time, players are currently asking each other to stop using the card, basically banning it from play anyway. 

We considered replacing the model entirely and reworking the card from scratch, but this would also require new artwork, effectively meaning we’d need to remove the Wormlings and create a completely new unit. This would be a months-long process and would seriously disrupt our planning. Fire Wormlings is also heavily featured in our marketing for the season, so removing it is something we hope to avoid.

So, where does that leave us?

We are currently testing a version of Fire Wormlings that removes the squad mechanic, and results so far have been promising. However, we still haven’t found a consistent fix for the desyncs, and we’re increasingly concerned that the worm model itself might be inherently problematic. 

Because of this, we’re also exploring the option to rework the burrow movement, potentially replacing it with a more generic movement style while maintaining a similar visual through existing animations. However, we are limited in our options here, considering we don't have the source code and can not create new models or animations yet. 

We hope this breakdown helps players understand why Fire Wormlings is still not fixed and why solving the issue has been so challenging. Due to our limited testing capacity, we are now considering deploying the most promising version of the card to the live server soon, to collect feedback and data from the broader player base. We would also like to expand our internal testing, so if you want to help out as a tester, consider reaching out. 

With your help, we hope to finally identify the exact cause and deliver a stable version of the card for everyone to enjoy.

 

Changes mid-season

Many of you have already shared what you like and dislike about various aspects of the season. From challenges and rewards to UI and descriptions, your feedback is incredibly valuable in helping us determine whether we’re on the right track. While we’ve already been able to implement some quality-of-life improvements based on your input, not all suggestions can be incorporated mid-season. That said, we are carefully observing what works and what doesn’t, and we will take this into account for future seasons.

Common feedback includes the option to play Standard difficulty on certain challenges, less restrictive deck-building, and the concern that neutral/legendary cards are not playable in any future season with the current setup. We’ll definitely keep this feedback in mind as we prepare for Season 2. 

 

Non-seasonal content

We’re also hard at work on a new patch unrelated to seasonal content. While we believe it’s important to offer exciting rewards through the seasonal track, you can still expect new cards and new map releases through content patches, just like we did before the introduction of seasons.

While we don’t have anything concrete to share just yet, we expect to have more to announce soon!

 

• Seasonal Challenges Batch #2

As we enter the second month of this season, a batch of additional challenges is now available!
The following challenges are now active:

 

20+10 1	3.1 - Survive until the end on the survival community map, The Last Soultree on advanced difficulty or higher, with all team members playing only Fire cards.
20+10 1	3.2 - Win the 1-player scenarios Behind Enemy Lines and Siege of Hope on advanced difficulty or higher, with you playing only Fire cards and no building cards.
20+10 1	3.3 - Win the 2-player scenario, Crusade and the 1-player featured community map Spooky Encounters on advanced difficulty or higher, with all team members playing only Fire cards of Tier 2 or below.
20+10 1	3.4 - Win the 4-player scenarios Empire and Raven's End on advanced difficulty or higher, with all team members playing only Fire or Neutral cards, with units of Tier 2 and above being Neutral units.

 

We hope you enjoy the current batch of challenges! The final set of challenges (including new Nightmare missions) will release in August. Players will then have the entire month of September to complete any remaining challenges before we wrap up this first season.

After the season concludes, players will be able to use the new Relic resource to purchase any missed seasonal cosmetics rewards, including the Promo Sunderer, through the Relic Shop. Relics can be earned during the season by completing challenges and by beating the weekly map affected by a map modifier. The Fire Boosters and the cards Fire Wormlings, Hellhound and Treasure Wagon will not be purchasable with relics however. The new cards will drop from boosters after the season has concluded. 

Our next season will also feature relics that can be used to purchase rewards from Season #1 – Primordial Fire.

 

• New Card Reveal - Amii Ashrider

While players continue with the first season, we are constantly working on additional content and are once again able to give you a sneak peek into a future new card. We have already expanded the Amii unit roster with various new cards: Amii Paladins, Amii Sentinel, Skydancer and Energy Core. Now that Elkondo has settled into our art department, we are able to create a new tier 2 unit for the faction.

Let's take a look at Amii Ashrider!

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

 

Ride of the Amii
When the unit is surrounded by 3 other friendly Ashriders in a 25m radius, it moves at high speed (8.0 m/s) and knocks back small and medium units dealing 25 damage, up to 100 in total.

 

Elusive
Units with Elusive have the duration of the immobilizing effects of Freeze and Paralyze reduced by 10%.

 

Design notes:

There are several cards in the game with movement knockback mechanics that deal damage. These are mostly confined to the higher tiers and besides the reworked Colossus are found on ranged units like the Worms or the hybrid melee-ranged unit Thunderwagon. When we were thinking of a new Amii T2 unit, we thought it was time to finally put the movement damage effect on a lower tier unit. Particularly, we thought it would fit with a horse-based Amii unit, therefore allowing players to simulate performing a cavalry charge. As can be seen with the new Treasure Wagon card, having a perpetual M-sized trample effect in T2 provides a substantial amount of crowd control.

Ashrider is our first non-T4 Amii unit made specifically for PvE. Other Amii units, towers, and spells are on the way to flesh out the faction's T2 and T3 arsenal in PvE and allow players to enjoy a full Amii deck from T2 onwards.

Amii Ashrider will release in an upcoming content patch, date to be announced. 

 

• Art Spotlight - Amii Ashrider

Amii Ashrider was drawn by our artist Elkondo. Below, he will share what went into creating the new unit. Take it away Elkondo!

 

"The first challenge was to come up with a clear and distinct pose for the unit. Since Skylords Reborn already features multiple horseback units, it was important to differentiate it with a unique silhouette as well as colors."

 

    

 

"After some exploration, the pose was quickly decided, and with a quick paint-over, the general vision for the artwork became clear."

 

 

"At this stage all that was left was cleanup. The 'Ride of the Amii' skill causes the unit to leave behind a trail of green smoke - this was something we wanted to show in the artwork."

 

"As cool as it was, however, it looked too much like flames. At the same time, we wanted to simplify the background to make the unit stand out a bit more. It took a few attempts to finally find contrast that works best."

 

    

 

"With the background done, it was time to polish the main subject a bit and add some much-needed details. We realized the attempted strong perspective on the rider didn't really work any more. The green flames were also removed to try a different look later."

 

 

"Lastly, alongside additional polish and new smoke effect, the lance was simplified and moved, as the previous intricate design didn't really fit the Amii aesthetic."

 

And that is how our latest Amii unit got its artwork! We hope you are looking forward to Amii Ashrider! 

 

• Team Changes

 

We are happy to announce that two new members have joined our volunteer team!

 

First off, VicRattlehead has joined our team as a Discord Moderator, while also showing interest in helping out with development in the future. 

 

Secondly, Arphox has already offered a lot of help in regards to improving our updater, and has now properly joined the team as a Tool developer with the goal of making more improvements. 

 

 

Thank you both, and welcome to 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:

• STREAM - WINNER REVEAL: Battle of Tactics #9: The Great Mage Magician - 04.06.2025
Find out who is the greatest of the Great Mage Magicians and their mighty generals in the winner reveal stream of this 3-player event. Join Ultralord on July 4 at 7:00 PM on Twitch.

 

• FINISHED - The Skylords Reborn Spring Cup 2025
The Spring Cup was our second PvP tournament of the year, and it included some great matches. The tournament was hosted and livestreamed by Ultralord, and you can watch the action here. 

 

• NEW - PvP Tome Tournament - 06.07.2025 15:00 CET
Tome was a PvP game mode in the original BattleForge where players had to build their decks with cards from boosters. With everyone playing with random cards, there are bound to be some unconventional strategies! Please sign-up in advance. 

 

• COMING SOON - Crystal Solid Defence - PvE Event - Starting 11.07.2025 until 27.07.2025
While we arent ready to reveal this event just yet, be sure to check back in on the 11th for a new PvE Event!

 

 

• 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 Fire booster: HEAT-LAVA-FIRE-CARD

This 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 2025

[Hrdina_Imperia]

Hype! Lot of challenges in front of us, but I say we will prevail! 

[sylvix95]

aaaah finally, ranged mounted cavalry, still hoping to see some as a squad someday but that is still more than great

[This Is Halloween_2]

Ashrider is supposed to be ranged with a charge effect right ? Does it gets slow down in melee ?

[Majora]

I'm really sorry guys, I made a mistake in the card image of Amii Ashrider. It is a Melee unit, image has been adjusted. 

[This Is Halloween_2]

47 minutes ago, Majora said:

I'm really sorry guys, I made a mistake in the card image of Amii Ashrider. It is a Melee unit, image has been adjusted. 

🤣🤣🤣

[sylvix95]

aaaah finally, another reason to drink lots of alcohol to drown the despair inside

1 hour ago, Majora said:

I'm really sorry guys, I made a mistake in the card image of Amii Ashrider. It is a Melee unit, image has been adjusted. 

 

[This Is Halloween_2]

At 1st glance, the unit ain’t impressive. In term of stats, it is not that great.

The unit is not immune to slow in close combat, and not immune to knockback.

So 100% of its viability will be charging mainly S based ennemies at T2. Could be strong enough vs bandit ennemies, less so vs LS, nature or fire.
The true question will be how strong the charge effect is.