Shadow Arena News

Greetings, this is Shadow Arena.



Here are the updates made to Shadow Arena during the client update on July 23 (Thu).

* Patch Size: 340.59kb (Approx)



Please launch the game client to receive the latest update to apply the changes below.

Check out all the details below, and we will see you in the arena!




[h3]■ Fixes & Improvements [/h3]
- Fixed an issue where hitting an opponent caused their nickname to be displayed.





Thank you.

Surprise! We’re hosting event matches for our players!

1st place gets a Hero Selection Coupon! So why not give it try?

Surprise Event Match!


■ Schedule



■ How to Participate

① Before you can participate, you need to first login to Shadow Arena.

② 10 minutes before the event match, there will be an in-game notice announcing the custom room’s name and password.

③ Enter the event match room with announced the name and password.

④ Claim 1st – 3rd to get the rewards below!



Event Notices

- The placement rewards will be sent by in-game mail on the same day as the end of the event match.

- The event match room will accept up to 40 participants at a first come first served basis.

- Pearl Abyss reserves the right to change/cancel the event depending on mitigating circumstances. If changes are made, they can be found on this event page.

- If your account is restricted for violating the Terms of Service, you may be disqualified and have any prizes withdrawn even after becoming a winner.

- If you have any other questions or concerns related to the event, please contact us via [Support].

- Any matters not listed on this page will follow the [Shadow Arena Event Rules].

Greetings, this is Shadow Arena.

Shadow Arena’s main formats are a “Solo” mode where you fight alone and a “Team” mode where you party up with a team member to overcome your foes. As a result, intentionally teaming up/cooperating with another player in Solo mode or another team in Team mode can impact the experience of other players by disrupting the fairness of the game and even result in “match-fixing”.

Shadow Arena recognizes the importance of “Fair Combat” and took aggressive action in accordance with our Terms of Service whenever such behavior was discovered during the Beta Season Round 1 after the start of Early Access. Nevertheless, due to a lack of a point of reference to the criteria and action we apply for such behavior, we understand players may feel some confusion regarding the results of our actions.

We understand with the number of experienced players increasing during 2 months of Beta Season Round 1, there may be more commonly/tacitly accepted gameplay strategies and unique circumstances that occur. As a result, we came to the conclusion that we needed to also change our internal criteria for determining “match-fixing” behavior, and we want to give you clearer guidelines on our criteria and scope for defining such behavior for the 2nd round of the Beta Season.


1. Continually playing in a cooperative manner with the same player from the start of a match

Unlike just trying to take down a dangerous player when a small number of players are left, playing together and cooperating from the beginning of the game can be seen as intentional “match-fixing” behavior.


2. Continually playing in a cooperative manner with the same player over multiple matches

Even if it’s a game-specific strategy, playing in a cooperative manner with the same player over multiple matches can be seen as intentional “match-fixing” behavior.


3. Encouraging cooperative play through chat, pre-agreed social actions, etc.

Behavior such as pointing out a specific player for cooperative play can be seen as hampering the fairness of a match.


Of course, beyond just the criteria we’ve described so far, there may be other cases of “match-fixing” and hampering the fairness of a match, so the scope of our guidelines that we’ve set internally for violations may change depending on the future accepted game strategies, match flow, and new content. Also, please note that the guidelines above apply to general game matches, and our guidelines for competitive events may differ as intentional cooperative play will be determined by a separate set of competitive rules and the decision of the admins/event organizers.

We are also considering reverting the June 18th update that “removed other players’ nicknames from being displayed during a match”, so you can more easily identify players and report inappropriate behavior such as intentionally teaming/cooperating.

If you ever encounter or see intentional/consistent cooperative play during a match, please report the player through the in-game Report feature in the results screen and provide details such as the time and circumstances. Along with this, if you send us the corresponding video evidence through our Customer Support or official Discord channel, it’ll help us investigate more quickly, so we hope you will provide us with all the information you have.

The Shadow Arena team will strive to check your reports quickly and root out any violations of the Terms of Service with our 24/7 monitoring. We ask everyone for your cooperation in creating a healthy and fair gaming community by refraining from any acts that may interfere with this goal.

Then, we will look forward to everyone’s amazing battles in the 2nd round of the Beta Season, thank you.

The Earth Guardian, Gorgath, is here!



We’re celebrating his arrival by sending everyone an All-Hero Pass, so take this chance to choose Gorgath today!



To celebrate the release of the new Hero Gorgath, we’re giving all our players an “[Event] All-Hero Pass (1 Day)”, so make sure to check your in-game mailbox!

* Mail Expiration Date: July 30, 2020 (Thu) 23:59 (UTC+9)

- Please note the item enclosed in the mail will disappear if you fail to receive it before the expiration date.



◆ How to use the item enclosed in the mail

1) Select [Mailbox] at the bottom-right of the Lobby screen.
2) Receive the [Event] All-Hero Pass enclosed in the mail.
3) Select [Storage] at the top of the Lobby screen.
4) Select [Shop Storage].
5) Right-click the [Event] All-Hero Pass to use it.

[h2]Event 1. Gorgath, I Choose You! [/h2]
■ Event Period

- July 23, 2020 (Thu) after maintenance – July 30, 2020 (Thu) before maintenance



■ How to Participate

① Login to Shadow Arena.

② Play one match of Solo, Team, or King of Hill mode with the new Hero Gorgath to participate in the event!



■ Event Rewards
* Sparring Grounds, AI matches, and Custom matches will not be counted for the event.

* Players must fully complete a match to be counted as completing the event requirements. If you leave during a match, it will not be counted as fully completing it.

* If you do not have the [Hero] Gorgath, please check your mailbox for an [Event] All-Hero Pass (1 Day) that will allow you to participate in the event.





[h2]Event 2. 40 Gorgath Event Match! (Asia Server)[/h2]


■ Event Match Date and Time

- July 28, 2020 (Tue) 21:00 (UTC+9)



■ Server

- Asia



■ How to Participate

① Login to Shadow Arena Asia server before the match time.

② Before the match begins, there will be an in-game notice announcing the custom room’s name and password for the event match.

③ Enter the event match room with announced the name and password as the [Hero] Gorgath and enjoy the match!



■ Event Rewards


[Gorgath] Self-Proclaimed Archmage



* You may only participate in this event match with the [Hero] Gorgath; if you enter the event with a different Hero, you may be kicked from the room.

- If you participate in the event match as a different Hero than the [Hero] Gorgath, you will not be eligible for any of the event rewards regardless of your match placement.

* If you do not have the [Hero] Gorgath, you can use the [Event] All-Hero Pass (7 Days) sent to your in-game mailbox to participate in the event.





※ Additional Notices

[Event 1] The event reward will be sent by in-game mail after the maintenance on July 30, 2020 (Thu).

[Event 2] Event rewards will be sent by in-game mail on the same day as the end of the event match.

[Event 2] The event match room will accept players in a first-come, first-served basis for up to 40 participants.

[All]

- Pearl Abyss reserves the right to change/cancel the event depending on mitigating circumstances. If changes are made, they can be found on this event page.

- If you violate the Shadow Arena Terms of Service and have your account banned/restricted even after becoming a winner, your reward may be cancelled or withdrawn.

- If you have any other questions or concerns related to the event, please contact us via [Support].

- Any matters not listed on this page will follow the [Shadow Arena Event Rules].

Greetings, this is Shadow Arena.

Here are the updates made to Shadow Arena during the maintenance on July 23 (Thu).
* Patch Size: 502.41 MB (Approx.)


Check out all the details below, and we will see you in the arena!

■ Tier Structure Revamp
- Player Tiers were revamped for the Beta Season Round 2.
> Tier Points will be updated based on the results at the end of each game and will determine if a promotion/demotion match takes place for changes in Tier.
> A player can qualify for a promotion match to a higher Tier when they reach 100 points,
> If a player’s Tier Points reaches 0, a tier demotion will occur.
> After the start of each round, the results of the first 5 games will determine which Tier placement a player receives.

- Please refer to the link below for more details on how the Tier structure was revamped including information about Tier points and promotion requirements.
▶ Learn more about Player Tiers 


As previewed in the Dev Note on July 17th, the upcoming Round 2 will be 1 month long. The reason why this round is shorter is to see and add upon the many changes we made to the tier’s structure, since we plan to adjust the structure and length of round 3 based on the results of round 2. And the reason why we changed the way tier promotions work is due to how in the previous structure there were times where your ranking would be stuck and then you’d suddenly be rapidly promoted at one go until you’d return to being stuck again, so we want to maintain the tension players feel by showing them their next goal instead.


■ New Hero ‘Gorgath’
- Gorgath, a new Hero, was added.
> Gorgath is a Hero that summons rock and boulders to take control of an area.
▶ Learn more about Gorgath
- Added Titles for achieving Gorgath’s Mastery levels.
> Gorgath Rookie
> Gorgath Expert
> Gorgath Master
- Added a new item “Energy Recovery Potion” which can be obtained by using the skill Forbidden Alchemy (4).
> Energy Recovery Potion: Fully recover stamina over 0.5 seconds.


Gorgath is a Hero designed with very unique mechanics. He calls forth rocks and boulders with his Inherent Skill (RMB) and either shoots these rocks out as projectiles or wreaks havoc by creating a whirlwind with them, making him a Hero that offers a different kind of fun by having truly unique skill combos from other Heroes. Since Gorgath can summon up to 4 rocks at a time, you’ll have to carefully use his skills by strategically placing and preparing his rocks for battle against his foes, so you can position yourself to claim victory.

■ Clan
- Added a Clan Flag teleport feature.
> The Clan Flag can only be summoned in the Sparring Grounds by the Clan Master. It can be summoned with a button and allows fellow clan members to instantly teleport to the flag’s location.
> The Summon Clan Flag ability has a cooldown of 10 minutes.
> Clan members can instantly teleport to the flag’s location with the P button.
- Added a UI to the Clan window where you can view your clan members’ current Tiers.
- Added the ability to use the Clan Chat feature in a game.


We want to make the Sparring Grounds a place where clans can meet up by introducing an ability to call clan members to one place with a Flag. Once a Flag is placed, clan members can instantly teleport to that location. We’ll continue to add various features to the Sparring Grounds to make it a place where players can practice and play around.

■ Dark Shift (Q) and Blink (E)
- Added a cooldown reduction system to Dark Shift (Q) that will reduce the cooldown time whenever you are debuffed by a Crowd Control (CC) skill.
> Stiffness: 2 seconds
> Knockback: 3 seconds
> Grab, Freeze, Knockdown, Stun: 4 seconds
> The cooldown reduction is more for skills that inflict debuffs multiple times such as Gerhard Shultz’s Bestial Howl or Venslar’s Radiant Pursuit.
- Blink (E) can now be used regardless of the situation (excluding while being CC'd by Knockdown, Stiffness, etc.).
- Dark Shift can now be used regardless of the situation.
- Dark Shift (Q) will now push back based upon the hit point.


This change is one of the major changes developed for the start of round 2. By changing Dark Shift, we want to encourage continued fights since Dark Shift will be available more often in long drawn out engagements or after an intense battle, and as well as when you are attacked by multiple enemies or to penalize combos that are too long/hit too many times.

Additionally, we believe you’ve probably had cases where you were mashing the Q/E button because you wanted to avoid an enemy’s attack with Dark Shift or Blink, but it wouldn’t activate when you wanted it to. In the previous round, there were situations where Dark Shift and Blink were not usable during certain actions, which probably caused many players to be frustrated as they didn’t know when it was restricted. That’s why with this new round, we’ve improved Dark Shift to make it usable in any situation and made Blink usable as long as your Hero’s actions are not restricted.

As these changes can have an immense impact on the game’s landscape, we’ll keep a close eye on how they pan out and make any necessary adjusts next week.


■ Jump Gate
- Changed Jump Gates to appear in 6 fixed locations in the center and north of the map.
> A Jump Gate will also randomly appear in one location at the bottom of the map.


This is another major change for round 2. Along with the Ancient Altars, which activate in order, the location of the Jump Gates was an important factor for setting the tactical flow during a match, but the Jump Gates’ random locations often made establishing a clear, repeatable strategy somewhat useless.

Also, the northern area of the map didn’t have as many advantages as a starting point compared to the center and southern areas of the map, which have many Ancient Altars and good monster zones. So, we’ve placed the Jump Gates in the north as a contrast to the Ancient Altars in the south. We hope this will let players create more diverse strategies for all stages in a match.

However, to keep a surprise factor in a match, one Jump Gate will be in a random location in the south.


■ Heroes
- Heroes will now display a visual effect above their heads when a Super Armor, Defensive, or Invincibility buff is active.
> Note: Skills that make a Hero disappear (Rolling, Ahon Kirus’ Phantom Raven, Haru’s Mirage, Yeonhwa’s Red Moon, etc.) will not display this visual effect even if it has an Invincibility or Super Armor buff.
- Fixed an issue where Lahn, Yeonhwa, Ahon Kirus, Herawen, Haru, and Venslar using a Kick (F) backwards while not moving appeared as if they were kicking in their original direction from the perspective of other players.
- Removed the visual effect when a Hero gets the Aal's Eye buff.
- Fixed an issue where the DP +8% buff was not applied when hit by a Stun or knocked down in place.


We understood and deliberated quite a bit about how difficult it was for players to see when the Super Armor or forward guard was active. With the introduction of a visual effect for Super Armor and forward guard in this update, we believe you’ll have that difficulty.

We also discovered and fixed an issue where the temporary DP buff you’d get for being repeatedly CC’d was not being applied when Stunned or knocked down in place. The impact of this change will reduce the damage of several skills (e.g. Bestial Howl) and combos that stun or knock down a Hero in place and rapidly deal consecutive hits.



- Sun of Destruction - Ultimate Level (4): Fixed an issue where the graphical effect of skill would linger above her head when interrupted by being attacked immediately after using the skill.
- Sun of Destruction (4): Fixed the max damage in the skill description to match the actual damage dealt.
> Level 1: 810 → 972
> Level 2: 972 → 1166
> Level 3: 1296 → 1555
> Ultimate: 1296 → 1555


While we only fixed a simple bug for this update, we are still keeping a close eye out to make sure Ahon Kirus isn’t too strong, and we might make some minor adjustments next week if we feel it is necessary.



- Rock Smash (2): Fixed the max damage in the Level 1 skill description to match the actual damage dealt.
> Level 1: 328 → 560


We’ve fixed the skill description of level 1 Rock Smash since it stated the damage as lower than the actual damage. (Only the skill description was changed, and the actual damage remain unchanged.)



- Fixed an issue where using Natural Marksman (RMB) without any stamina caused Orwen to stop moving.



- Sleeve Tangler (2) - Ultimate Level: Adjusted the 3rd strike to activate a little bit faster than before.
- Sleeve Tangler (2) - Ultimate Level: Fixed an issue where damage would sporadically not be inflicted.


There were cases where the strike of the Sleeve Tangler’s Ultimate Level wouldn’t land if the timing was slightly delayed or you were behind a wall, so we’ve adjusted the strike's timing to make it land more reliably.


- Reduced the base damage of crouching attacks from 2.5 times to 2 times.
- Corpse Cut (2) - Ultimate Level: Fixed an issue where the DP buff was not applied when using the skill.
- Blood Flurry (4): Fixed the max damage is in the skill description to match the actual damage dealt.
> Level 1: 2851 → 2794
> Level 2: 3706 → 3666
> Level 3: 5132 → 5053
> Ultimate Level: 5132 → 5053



We’ve fixed the skill description of Blood Flurry, since it stated the damage as lower than the actual damage. (Only the skill description was changed, and the actual damage remain unchanged.)

In addition, while most Heroes’ crouching attack is set to be 2.5 times the basic attack damage, Goyen’s basic attack is much higher due to his slower attack speed, so we felt 2.5 times this higher damage was too much and reduced the damage his crouching attack.



- Hell Flower (2): Reduced the casting time of all levels by 30%.
- Nimbus Stride (4): Changed all levels of the skill to activate a spinning attack as a combo after the stab attack.


As Lahn has a unique characteristic of being able to fly through the air, we kept her combat abilities at a lower end for her launch. However, she has had low win/kill rates for the past 3 weeks, so we’ve significantly improved Hell Flower by lowering the casting time to allow you to string combos together with other skills.

■ Monster
- Fixed an issue where the –50% DP reduction effect in the Dark Fog was not taking effect.
- Defeated Ruins Golems will no longer drop Lightstones.
- AI Bots will now use the skills Dark Shift (Q) and Blink (E) less frequently in combat.
- Fixed AI Bots to be knocked down the same amount of time as normal Heroes when inflicted by a Float debuff.
- Changed AI Bots to gradually gain more DP as time goes by in a game.
- Fixed an issue where projectiles would sporadically be blocked in the Dark Fog.


We apologize, but there was an issue where the DP reduction effect in the Dark Fog wasn’t being applied. Due to this fix in this round, we believe that players can turn the tide by fighting outside of the Dark Fog or tracking down the enemy while the safe zone gets smaller even if farming doesn’t go well.

■ Item
- The Red Dragon compass and map icon will no longer be displayed when the Red Dragon’s Offering is used.
- Changed the damage dealt by the Red Dragon’s flame breath from fixed damage to normal damage that is affected by DP.
- Fixed an issue where too little Guard Capacity was consumed when attacked by a Red Dragon.


In order to raise the surprise and use of the Red Dragon, we’ve made changes to make it harder to know the location of the Red Dragon in advance. We also fixed the Red Dragon’s fire breath so it will no longer be completely blocked by a guard.


■ Event
- [Gorgath, I Choose You!] event has started.
> Event Period: July 23, 2020 (Thu) after maintenance - July 30, 2020 (Thu) before maintenance > Get an [Event] All-Hero Pass (1 Day) that lets you freely play all the Shadow Arena Heroes for 1 day.
▶ Go to the [Gorgath, I Choose You!] Event


- [GET 3X SILVER!] event has started.
> Event: July 23, 2020 (Thu) after maintenance – August 6, 2020 (Thu) before maintenance
> Get 3 times the silver from Solo/Team/AI matches during the event period.
▶ Go to the [GET 3X SILVER!] Event


■ Fixes and Improvements
- Changed the AI match difficulty options to Easy and Hard.
> Hardcore mode is now only playable in Custom mode.
- Changed the basic setting for pressing the Storage button in the Lobby to open the Shop Storage.
- Changed the in-game Skill window to display skill descriptions for all levels even if the Chat window is opened.
- Changed the Hero Selection screen to have Gorgath be displayed at the top.
- Changed the Hero Selection UI as follows.
> Slots at the bottom of the Hero list will now only display half the slot.
> Added a scroll bar to the left of the Hero list.
> Added an arrow to the bottom of the Hero list.
- Changed the message that appeared when failing to enter a Custom room due to an incorrect password.
- Added informational text to the Report UI asking players to fill out the reason for sending their report to help us perform a better investigation.
- Changed the match results screen to always display the placement, kill score, and ranking point categories even if the page is turned.
- Changed the text of the Clan tab to have the same color as the chat when on the in-game Chat window.
- Fixed an issue where the Voice Chat UI would sporadically behave abnormally when entering a Team match.
- Changed the Combo Guide to behave normally even if a skill is leveled up in-game.
- Changed the text of the in-game Chat type settings button from “Guild” to “Clan”.
- The Friend UI will now be displayed when receiving a Friend Request.

Thank you.