Minion Masters News

Minion Masters!

We've got some extra followup from last week's Apep redesign reveal and some details of Minion Masters for Steam China:


Last week we showed off Apep's brand new look. We're ecstatic at all of the positive feedback we received from all of you, and there were quite a number of requests to show off what all of his previous skins look like with the new model. Well, they've just been completed and we're ready to reveal our new Snake God's outfits:



The Molten, Toxic and Blood Apep skins will retain their animated emission vfx, which we'll hopefully showcase on the next Developer Stream. Which one is your favourite?



Minion Masters has always had a healthy Chinese audience, which is why we were super excited to be one of the first titles confirmed for the platform's release. We're hard at work making sure everything is in the right place for the future release, and while it's a significant time away before anything concrete happens, the possibility to spread Minion Masters to another audience is a fantastic prospect.

For those who've already followed the news and voiced concerns, we want to emphasize that no existing in-game content will be affected by our plans for Steam China. While there will be alternative models, art etc. to meet Chinese regulations, they will be exclusive to the Steam China edition.

To those Chinese Minion Masters players who have been playing already, we want to thank you for showing your support and hope we can bring you an even better experience over the coming months!



You've only got a couple of days left to get your entries in for the Minion Masters Emote Contest! Entries will be closing this Monday at 0900 UTC+2, at which point we'll be selecting 5 entrants to be polled by the community for the winners! We've got some fantastic entries so far - Will yours be among them?


Don't forget to tune into the brand new grassroots Minion Masters tournament happening on Saturday at 1300 UTC! It's a Sideboard Double Elimination format with over $200 in cash alone up for grabs as well as the brand new Dynasty Morellia skin! Join the TCL server for all the information on the event as it happens: https://discord.gg/qNCEtRG

Cheers from BetaDwarf!

Minion Masters!

With the balance changes of Version 1.5 hitting the game, it's time to get to work on Version 1.6, and we've already got quite a bit to share. So let's not waste any time:


As many of you no doubt saw on the roadmap, we've been tinkering away at a visual upgrade for Apep the Almighty behind the scenes for a while now to bring him up to the better standard of our other masters. The model he currently uses is from our previous game Forced Showdown, where his design was to be somewhat brutish and arrogant, resorting to direct approaches to a fight. A more modern Apep is a much more sinister and cunning figure however, manipulating his devoted followers for his own gain. Here's what our redesigned Slither Lord looks like:



As with the Slither visual upgrades, we've incorporated a healthy dose of Aztec mythology into this new look. We're looking forward to hearing what you think!





Don't forget to enter our second Minion Masters Discord Emote Contest! There's still plenty of time to enter, with the deadline being the 23rd of September. Three lucky winners will be having their emotes permanently added to our server, so if you think you've got what it takes to make some cool icons, check out our blog post here and read how to enter!


1.4 saw the release of our new ranked league, the Contender League, a new height to reach requiring players to prove themselves in the Grand Master ranks by attaining 2000 Ranking Points without the aid of win streaks. It's been a lot of fun seeing those that push themselves above and beyond the others, and we've got some statistics to share from its first ranked season.

Of all Grand Masters in each rank, the following amount of players proved themselves to reach the prestigious rank of Contender:

• Solo 1v1: 1.74%
  
• Solo 2v2: 3.11%
  
• Premade 2v2: 4.42%
  

We're very interested to see how those numbers change in future seasons! Could you be skilled enough to be in that top percentile of Minion Masters players?



A new Competitive Minion Masters League will be starting very soon! The Challenger League, headed by long time Minion Masters veteran Julaiwnl will be featuring its first Double Elimination Tournament on the 21st of September. Here's what they have to say:

Exciting news, Masters!

A few passionate community members are now going to be hosting monthly tournaments for all of you to enjoy, whether you are a casual player, or a really competitive one!

The Challenger League is now open to the public, and looking for its first champion!

The TCL: Volco Cup 1 will be hosted on September 21st, 13:00 UTC.

It will consist of a Double-Elimination Bracket (Best of 3 & Best of 5), with people submitting 4 decklists + Sideboard.

All participants must join the TCL Discord to compete: https://discord.gg/qNCEtRG

Prize Pool of $200 + In-Game Prizes, check on Rulebook below!

Take a look at the full rulebook of the event here: http://docs.google.com/document/d/1SpQc4yC4G0ngJVUwKMbWDZlAsNY68wO9xkpXBQVWS_A

Register to the TCL: Volco Cup 1 on challonge: https://challonge.com/TCLVolcoCup1

The TCL Staff wishes you all good luck!

We're certainly looking forward to more tournament play, and we hope you'll be there to support this new grassroots league!

Cheers from BetaDwarf!

Minion Masters!

It’s been a hectic month for Minion Masters after the release of Sand Wars with Version 1.4, and it’s time for a small spot of house cleaning with Version 1.5 bringing you balance changes and bug fixes. Initially we had planned to include the Reconnect feature as indicated on the Roadmap, but with vacations being taken to enjoy the last bits of summer we’ve had to push it back for now, though it’s still high on our list of ideas.


Bridge Shrine

• Health 250 > 300
  
• Now has Placement Aura (I.E. Caged Prowler, cannot be placed in the gap beside the Master Tower)
  

Chain Lightning

• Radius 8 > 7
  

Combustion

• Duration 2 > 2.5
  
• Cast Delay 1 > 0.5
  
• Targets are now stunned for the duration of Combustion
  
• Master damage 15 > 50
  

Crossbow Guild

• [BUG FIX] Production Speed 4.2 > 4.8
  
• Now has Placement Aura
  
• Spawn Radius 4 > 3
  

Crystal Sentry

• Damage 55 > 60
  

Cursebearer

• Curse Aura persistence after death 5 > 4
  

Dragon Nest

• Health 250 > 350
  
• Now has Placement Aura
  

Guardian

• Protection Range 8 > 9
  

Herald Ah’Mun

• Damage 175 > 200
  
• Sacrifice healing 50 > 75
  

Illusory Cleaver

• Damage on death 30 > 20
  

Morellia

• Book of the Dead cooldown 25 > 30
  

Rock Rivals

• Enemy Living Statue now spawns further away from the Master tower
  

Shars’Rakk Twins

• Mana Cost 7 > 8
  

Snake Druid

• Now has Call Slitherbound
  

Stun Blast

• Cast Delay 1 > 0.5
  

Styxi

• Depression Time 6 > 5
  

Swarmer Totem

• Swarmers spawned 2 > 3
  
• Production time 6.6 > 7
  
• Gets Placement Aura
  
• Duration 60 > 50
  

Wreckinator 9000

• Slam and bam damage 110 > 150
  

Misc

• Created new advanced tooltips for some Minion Abilities to better clarify their statistics.
  
• Added a notification for a player coming online in the Guild Chat.
  
• A new House Event has started! This time you can collect keys for your house and earn your choice between a Radiant Morellia skin, 10 copies of Fire Imp, or 10 copies of an unknown Rare card. Additionally, for this event we’ve doubled the rewards from Twitch Drops!
  

Bugs

• Fixed the number of Total Wins not being displayed - Thanks everyone!
  
• Fixed Lord-Sentinel Thelec not properly having Mana Surge in his description - Thanks Steven!
  
• Fixed being able to purchase shop offers of cards you had at Max Glory - Thanks FFA!
  
• Various fixes to Localizations, including tooltips that were previously set to English to prevent bugs.
  
• Fixed Daily Quest progress being visually granted even if you lose
  
• Fixed an issue that could cause mass freezes.
  
• Fixed Caged Prowler Avatar’s “Z”s being too large on the leaderboard.
  
• Fixed being able to buy items you already own from the Shop.
  
• Fixed Lone Scout not being highlighted if she started the match in your hand.
  
• Fixed an issue where Call Slitherbound would sometimes display on a card, but not summon any additional units.
  
• Fixed a case where Wreckinator could continue attacking after death.
  
• Fixed Grand Master ranks not displaying at the start of a match.
  
• Fixed Cursebearer Aura particles becoming far too large when applied to certain minions.
  

Cheers from BetaDwarf!

Minion Masters!

We're back to our regularly scheduled blog posts after some dwarven Summer vacation. Version 1.5 is coming up swiftly, and we've got lots of exciting news for Minion Masters, both patch related and external!



Production Buildings such as Bridge Shrine and Crossbow Guild have been integral parts of Minion Masters since the start of our journey. Loved by some, disliked by others, they've always been a hot topic of debate when it comes to the balance of the game, having defined the metagame at several points in Minion Masters history. A core part of what made these strategies so powerful at times was the ability to slot the buildings in a small "pocket" next to the Master Tower, rendering them immune from most direct pushes the opposing Master could make, needing to rely on spells such as Beam of DOOM! and Infiltration to get the job done.

This ultimately meant Production Buildings could feel very uninteractive at times as there was little commitment needed to maintain their presence on the board, allowing a constant stream of reliable Crossbow Dudes or the ability to gain a huge XP advantage with some enemy decks having no real opportunity to contest them. This was doubly so with dedicated Building-target minions like Rammer and Bazooka Scrat who could only target the Master due to their targeting mechanics. With the release of Might of the Slither Lords, we introduced a "Placement Aura" mechanic to Caged Prowler to make it a more involved card, requiring proper commitment from its owner in order to get its payoff.

We believe that, going forward, this is a desirable trait to have on Production Buildings and will enable better balance considerations for how impactful they can be. As such, Bridge Shrine, Crossbow Guild, Swarmer Totem, and Dragon Nest will all be receiving the Placement Aura mechanic in Version 1.5, along with some other balance changes to compensate for this. We'd love to hear what you think about this upcoming change to Production Buildings, so keep us informed on our usual channels!



We're proud to announce that we're currently exploring the opportunity of getting Minion Masters onto your phone! We want to make sure everyone in the world can enjoy Minion Masters, and as the game grows we can do crazier things with the game that wouldn't have been possible before. We're particularly fond of the idea of making it accessible enough that you can invite your friend over, and have him download Minion Masters and jump right into a Team Battle with you. Minion Masters for iOS is an exciting opportunity for the game, so stay tuned in the future for updates as we progress!



As many have noticed, our Minion Masters Roadmap estimated Version 1.5 to have a Match Reconnect feature. Unfortunately, due to a number of Dwarves taking Vacations after the big release of Version 1.4 and our choice to prioritize the investigation (and fixing) of various server issues that came up after the patch, we weren't able to fit it into this patch. It's still very much on our list of features we want to make, but there just isn't the time to include it in this patch. Hopefully we'll have more news about it soon.



We're opening signups for the Minion Masters PTR groups again! Selected users will be able to help us balance future content and engage in behind the scenes discussions with like-minded players. To sign up, simply follow this link here and follow the instructions: https://forms.gle/5y43SVMtjQR991Lt7



Coming this Sunday is the first Sinobii's Battleground Invitational tournament! The conclusion to his thrilling Battleground Ladder, Sinobii offers an exciting tournament full of the top players from this Competitive season competing for real cash prizes and an all-new Dynasty Morellia skin. You can read up on all of the details for the Tournament here - We'll certainly be tuning in to check out the action. And if you enjoy the experience, maybe you too should consider entering the next series of Ladder matches to compete with the best.

Sinobii's Battleground Invitational will be held on Sunday, September 1st, with the stream starting at 1200 Noon EST.



BadAsAFish80 is holding his 2nd Minion Masters Tournament and would love for you to join. There are in game prizes including a rare skin and Big Dwarf packs available plus invitations to Sinobii's Battleground Invitational which has actual cash prizes to be won! The tournament has a very flexible set up and is scheduled over a 2 week period (Registrations open 27 August 2019 - Tournament starts when we have enough entrants) to maximise the number of people that can participate. This is a Double Elimination tournament featuring no wildcards.

To find out more and to register check it out right here!

If you have any questions please reach out to BadAsAFish80 🐟#0275.

Cheers from BetaDwarf!

Get the new $15 Might of the Slither Lords DLC 100% off this weekend!



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BetaDwarf