Community Update - December 2025

[R4bitF00t]

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!

 

This month, we have reached another major milestone in the Skylords Reborn journey, we are celebrating 5 years since the release! Join us for our first community-wide challenge in the game to get some boosters and a celebratory profile border!
We wanted to do something different, it's been quite a while since we last gave you an insight into our map making efforts. As such, we have decided to give you a retrospective into the development process of our latest campaign map - Heart of Trouble.

 

 

• Five Year Anniversary

Happy Anniversary, Skylords! This December 18th marks the fifth year since the release of Skylords Reborn. It's been quite the journey these past five years, as we continued and built upon the legacy of the original BattleForge. We have introduced new features, like Reforging, profile cosmetics and free PvP decks. We released new campaign maps, cards and many balance changes, with even more yet to come. We also hosted a variety of tournaments and events, most of them with help from the amazing community. 

To celebrate this occasion, we are starting our first community-wide challenge in the game! Starting 1st of December 2025, there will be a counter on the world-map. 
Every win of a campaign map, featured community map, PvP or rPvE scenario will be added to the global counter and rewards will be unlocked at certain milestones for the whole community!

• At 10 000 wins, we will give away a General Booster
• At 20 000 wins, we will give away a Rebirth Booster
• At 30 000 wins, we will give away a unique profile border
• At 40 000 wins, we will give away 30 Seasonal Points

Anybody who participates by winning at least one scenario will receive all the rewards unlocked by the community.
Thank you for your support over the years, we couldn't have gone so far without you. 🎉

Now, go win some matches, Skylords!

 

• Heart of Trouble Retrospective

We wanted to try something new and give you some behind the scenes into campaign maps, both released, and in development.
We will start off slow with our latest campaign addition - Heart of Trouble.

The initial design came to life back in 2023 and was done by our map designer Hrdina Impéria. Here are his insights.

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The idea for the map came from an amalgamation of two thoughts: wanting a 1P map with an active NPC ally, and enjoying playing a small, fortified position, that is besieged on all sides. The latter came from playing Defending Hope and the community map King's Ridge. The first map concept was quite similar in layout to the final map, though it was smaller and Ragged King's base was to the west of the fort. The Player would start in the central fortress. This we later changed - the bandit base served little actual purpose, even though we had to protect the Ragged King in his camp, all the attacks came at the player's fort. The central start also felt a bit too sudden of a jump into the action. So, we moved the player start to the west, which is very similar to what we have today.

Another problem was the presence of the orbs within the walled central section. It is nothing new per-se, but it proves to be very hard to balance. On Defending Hope, the players can rush to T3 very fast, without much pressure, which skips whole two tiers. In this regard, we figured out that the Monuments should be unlocked in more traditional fashion and thus the idea with Inhibitor crystals was born. Players had to venture out and attack, if they wanted to gain the next tier, without losing the "defense" identity of the mission and the compact feeling of small, besieged Fort.

Lastly, a big hurdle was the final boss fight. These can be, to say it bluntly, not very interesting when it comes to old BattleForge maps. At first, I tried giving the boss some spells, but it still felt quite lackluster. So we decided to lean more into the defensive aspect of the map - thus was born the Challenger's horn. You could call the boss towards the fort and finish it in such style, if you so wanted. This is very similar how it works in Encounters with Twilight with the north-eastern Twilight area.

 

• Initial Designs
The initial design was made to be a very compact map, small in scope and short in playtime. The objective was to destroy all the spawners of all the enemy tribes while protecting the Ragged King. If the player took too long, Bandit Battleships would start spawning from the tribal areas, slowly advancing towards the fort.
To allow having all the monuments in one centralized area, we opted to lock them behind destroying crystals in the tribal areas, thus ensuring correct map progression.

  

However, since the Ragged King was not in any danger, the objective felt disjointed from what was actually happening on the map. You were protecting yourself, not the Ragged King. The spawning Bandit ships had a feeling of unfairness, as the player's run could be cut short at the last minute by the attacking Bandit Battleships.
With the objective being "destroy all spawners" the map lacked some deeper tactical decision making and it came down to a complete map clear as an objective. The map size also proved to be a problem when aggro issues started popping up - defenders from several positions aggroed to the player at once, which led to more frustration. 

We attempted to fix these issues in the following iterations.

• Early Stages
By the end of 2023, we greenlit the map design and started iterating on it further.
The first issue we needed to tackle was the small map size that prevented us from making any major changes. So we exported the map from 256x256 to a 512x512 map, which gave us much more room to work with.
We then moved the Ragged King to the actual fort, and put him inside a Bandit Shanty building. Having the Ragged King as a unit could lead to him getting pulled outside of the fort by the enemy attackers and would frustrate the players (think Rogan on Encounters with Twilight).
We also added the option to decide where the player wants to send the allied attack waves, giving him a feeling of control and a useful ally. But this ran into a problem with map progression. Since both tribes could be cleared with either T2 or T3, it meant that one of the tribes would be too easy once the player destroys one of the crystals. So we introduced a unique mechanic, where a tribe's defenders grow stronger as you clear more of the opposing tribe, leading to a more natural and balanced map progression.

   

To alleviate the feeling of unfairness, we removed the spawning Bandit Battleships and instead introduced scaling attack waves, that got harder over time. While the player could still fall behind on the difficulty curve, it fixed the sudden, unexpected loss condition appearing 20+ minutes into the map.
Now the most pressing issues were fixed, we needed to add some more tactical decision making into playing the map. This came in the form of changing the main objective, and adding some optional ones.

• Final Stage
Around the middle of 2024, we changed the main objective from destroying the spawners to killing the tribal leaders. And added the option to taunt the final boss to your fort, adding a risk vs. reward factor - you can meet the boss with the defenders advantage, but if you cannot kill him, you lose.
We added an optional objective in the form of the enemy artilleries. These introduced a minor RNG element into the map and intensified the feeling of being under pressure and constant threat. You could capture the artilleries, but they kept randomly bombarding the area surrounding the fort, rarely hitting the enemies. As such, capturing them felt like a very small reward to actually interact with the mechanic, so we gave them the ability you know today. Giving the players a powerful, targetable ability, that could help with defending, and attacking.
Up until this stage, the tribal attack waves came from a cave at the end of each tribal area. This however, was also disjointed from the events on the map. If the attacks are coming from those caves, why does destroying the spawners stop the attacks? It made little sense, so we made a custom spawning script, that allowed us to spawn parts of the wave from multiple locations and used the already existing spawners for spawning the attacks. Thus giving them another reason to exist, apart from being an obstacle in your way.

   

While testing, we ran into an issue that the Black and Yellow tribes were too similar. Since they were practically identical, the decision which side to push was pretty much inconsequential. After a brief discussion, it was clear we needed to differentiate them heavily. Thus the Black tribe was given a strong ground presence with artilleries, but weak AA. The Yellow tribe, on the other hand, was composed of a lot of flying units and heavy AA, but was weak to long range siege. This gave each tribe a unique identity and introduced new deck building strategies.
With the changed main objective, control of the allied waves, changes to the enemy wave spawning and tribal compositions, we introduced a lot of decision making into the map. The players could choose to use the allies to help them push the tribes, or help defend against the attacks from the other side. If the player is skilled enough, he can choose to leave the spawners alive and focus on killing the bosses quickly. Will he taunt the boss to fight on advantageous ground, or kill him in his own camp without risk.

As you can see, developing maps is lengthy work, we could not share all the trials and errors we had to go through to find the final version of the map. While we are getting closer to better understanding the fundamentals of map design, we are far from perfect. Each new map introduces new and unexpected challenges to overcome, but we are making every effort to deliver you the best experience possible.

   

This is all the information we could share in a community update; many more details and decisions happened, but writing about all of them would befit its own forum post. If you enjoyed this little dip into our map making efforts, and are interested in more behind the scenes of our maps, please let us know in the comments.
Maybe next time we will share something not shown before. *wink* *wink*

 

• New Seasonal Challenges

As the new month dawns, new seasonal challenges have been unlocked.
Let's take a closer look at them now.
 

4.1 - Win different campaign maps or featured community maps on advanced difficulty or higher. All units played must be S-units. All cards played must be Nature, Fire, or Twilight cards. These restrictions apply to all team members.

 

4.2 - Win the 1-player scenarios Oracle and Siege of Hope on standard difficulty or higher. All cards played must be Nature or Twilight cards. Additionally, all cards played T2 and above must be Twilight cards.

 

4.3 - Win the 4-player scenario Dwarven Riddle on advanced difficulty or higher. No Fire Altars may be activated. All cards played must be Nature, Twilight, or Neutral cards. These restrictions apply to all team members.

 

4.4 - Win the 2-player scenario Crusade and the 2-player featured community map Army of Darkness on advanced difficulty or higher. Only Nature, Twilight, and Neutral cards of uncommon rarity are allowed. These restrictions apply to all team members.

 

The following nightmare challenges have also been unlocked.

6.1 - Be among the 100 fastest times at the end of the season on the 1-player scenario Behind Enemy Lines on advanced difficulty. All cards played T2 and above must be Twilight cards.

 

6.2 - Win 3 different campaign maps on advanced difficulty or higher. All cards played must be Nature or Twilight cards. These restrictions apply to all team members. Completing the challenge with less cards in each team member's deck awards progressively more points.
 

6.3 - As a solo player, win the 4-player featured community map Spooky Giants on advanced difficulty or higher. No flying units are allowed. All cards played must be Nature or Twilight cards.

 

6.4 - Win a 4-player randomly generated PvE scenario Infected Map of the Week on Adv+ (5) difficulty or higher. Only cards of Tier 3 and below are allowed. All cards played must be Nature or Twilight cards. These restrictions apply to all team members. Completing the challenge on higher difficulties awards progressively more points.

 

As usual, the challenges remain available until the end of the season.

 

• Nature Faction Overview Video

We have been working tirelessly on new video content to help players explore the game. This month, our efforts came to fruition and we are proud to release our first faction deep dive video. We're starting with the Nature faction.
Learn about the strengths and weaknesses of the faction throughout the tiers and get some tips for building your Nature decks, both for PvE, and PvP.

 

• Event Shoutout - Tome #4 Reforged!

Tome was a PvP game mode in the original BattleForge where players had to build their decks with cards from boosters. That means - random cards.
We have revived this game mode with these events, as its random nature also gives beginners a chance to compete with stronger opponents. So join us for the last PvP event of the year!

The event is split into two stages.

• Stage 1 is 4 Rounds of Swiss, which means you will play 4 matches, regardless of whether you win or lose.
• Stage 2 is a Single elimination for the Top 4 players from Stage 1

Every player who plays all four of his Swiss rounds will receive a Nature booster as a reward.
In addition, for every won Swiss round, the player will receive 500 BFP!

If you are interested, read the details of the event here. To sign-up, contact @Ultralord. The event starts on the 14th of December.
Best of luck to all the participants!

 

• Voice Actors Search #3 - Update

Last month, we announced that we are looking for new voice actors. The search is going well, with quite the few applicants. This month, we will be concluding our search. If you are interested, you still have time to apply until the 8th of December. after that, we will close the applications.

 

 

The trial scripts with instructions will be sent out to all applicants in the following days. so stay tuned and be sure to check the email you provided in the application form.

 

• 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!

Upcoming events:

• NEW - It's Christmas time! -> Starting 20th of December till 6th of January
Play 1 match of any gamemode between December 20th and January 6th to get the Promo Santa card.
The reward can be claimed only once per account.

 

• NEW - Save Christmas! -> Starting 20th of December till 6th of January
Win the featured community maps Elfmaster, Christmas Fleet and Naughty Harvest on expert difficulty between December 20th and January 6th to get the Promo Frost Mage card.
The reward can be claimed only once per account.

• NEW - TOME #4 - Reforged! -> Starting 14th of December
A PvP event with TOME rules, where you can make a deck from random cards taken from boosters. Now with the option to reforge unwanted cards! The event will happen on the 14th of December at 14:30 CET on Ultralord's Twitch Channel.

Recent events:

• FINISHED - Happy Halloween! -> Ended 4.11.2025
The achievement will be back next year for Halloween.

 

• FINISHED - Frankenstein's Monster -> Ended 10.11.2025
The achievement will be back next year for Halloween.

 

• FINISHED - Card Design Contest #2 -> Ended 16.11.2025
The card design contest has concluded with 97 cards submitted. Watch the stream recording here.

 

 • FINISHED - TEAM - Thrilling Epic Action Mission -> Ended 30.11.2025
An exciting 4 player event with edited Behind Enemy Lines map. The winner stream will happen on 5th of December.

 

 • FINISHED - Autumn Cup 2025 -> Ended 09.11.2025
An exciting evening filled with PvP action! Thanks to all the participants and congratulations to the winner!
You can watch the event recording here.

 

• 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: ANOT-HERF-IVEY-EARS

This code is valid until January 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 November 2025

[Hrdina_Imperia]

Happy to share some insight on the maps + glad you found the old pictures. Really shows how much the map has changed (or not) over the years. 

[Nerokin]

[Metagross31]

[R4bitF00t]

The voice acting applications are now closed.

For those who applied after 5.12. - the scripts will be sent out this evening, at around 19:00 CET.
To re-iterate, the deadline to send-in your sound files is the 1st of January 2026.

There was also a question about using special effects - Please, do not use any special effects on your audio files, we need un-edited recordings..

Looking forward to hearing from all of you.