Heroic encounters is unlocked after 1st chapter. Pvp and events will be unlocked a week or 2 after worldwide launch. You can check the official forums for more details.
I sure hope not. It needs at least a month to clean up the glitches and errors and the UI. Maybe less. I mean the core is there but slot of the stuff isn't registering and there isn't that much explanation on certain abilities and stuff. Just my opinion Although some things need to be fixed by no means is this a bad game or not playable it just needs a few fixes which is understandable being in soft launch. I ain't mad at them.
So I beat 3 of the 5 heroic challenges. A win gets you 50,000 stones and the other quests give you gold or packs. Pretty cool so far. Got my ass creamed by the first two but beat the last 3 on my first try. Btw if anyone is curious I'm playing Chandra and she's awesome! First ability does 3 to the hero and 2nd ability does 2 to a minion for now but will be more later as I level. Chandra is level 27 right now and I'm sitting on almost 200k stones. Can't decide if I just want to keep leveling her up or not. At my level it's like 70k to level up
This is brilliant. With the given exception of Puzzle Quest 1, I don't think I've ever seen a match 3 hybrid with so much depth, customization and progression. And I'm actually kinda playing a beginner's game of MTG with match 3 trappings. My only concern is the freemium model. There doesn't seem to be a way to buy boosters/gain new cards without premium currency. This is where you make me very happy by telling me I'm shamefully wrong
Actually in my game Heroic encounters were locked till I beat chapter 3 part 1. Don't worry Ayjona, you can buy boosters with the gold you earn playing. Not much, but I was able to buy the big 600 pack (a ton of cards) and I'm already at 300 gold, so I assume you can buy 2 playing normally. You get cards and boosters here and there too via missions. We will see about pvp. Game is truly awesome but I must say that besides chapter one I think I never died. I do not know if it's because they have to unleash the AI (and everyone is level 1 but in the Heroic Encounters) but the biggest problem I see is that very few enemies summon creatures. They spam spells and supports, but few creatures and only when it's too late imho. Sometimes (1 out of 10 after chapter 1) they do summon creatures and those are the best games. That or I'm too good (which is not obviously the case...I love match 3 games but I'm an average Magic player at best). Only other worthy opponent are fire based (Chandra like) with all those countermeasures to my summons. Once you have 3 creatures on the board with 1-2 defenders, it's only a matter of stacking up attack power and unleashing it.
That's splendid news! Thanks, Pitta! Are the missions that give boosters or cards repeatable, or is there some other infinite, free source of the premium currency? (Even when the pace of premium income through grind is dreadfully slow, I always feel more secure in investing into a freemium title when I know there is an infinite source of either the IAP currency, or that which it purchases.) As for your concerns over the difficulty, sounds like the kind of thing the debts might tweak before the worldwide launch. So, devs... time to go a-tweakin'! And yeah, as a source of premium currency or not, I've high hopes for PvP with mechanics this clever...
The game has 2 currencies. The first one which I call 'stones' are given when you win the fight and some extra missions (win in less than 15 rounds, win 3 times...) is used to level up your planes walker and to buy additional ones. I'm sitting at 2 millions stones right now (a planes walker costs 15K, leveling up ranges from 250 to 70K at level 25). Last encounters gives you over 100K stones. BUT....you can't repeat them...or better, you can, but you are given the prize only the first time. The sequent wins grants you 250 stones or so as far as I saw. So I would say the game is generous first time, but not so much after that. Gold is used to buy boosters. This is more rare but as I said (I'm in the last part of last chapter) I think you can buy 2 big 600 gold packs, which is plenty. Beware that every planes walker share the same game...so you can use the stones to level them up or focus on just one to have him at a higher level. It's up to you. I'm playing right now...if the opponent starts summoning creatures...the game is now hard and really enjoyable. If it just ammass spells for some reasons....I can easily win without even a scratch. The battles when the AI properly summon creatures and then spells and supports (there are TONS and TONS of interactions) are probably the best thing I saw in a match 3 game in a LOOOOOONG time. Also...this is the best blend I saw since years too. I would even say that the game is much more Magic 'lite' than a match 3...becasue after you get cards and loyalty powers that grants you mana....gem matching is negligible and even not that important (just match something to unleash the attack). Also, a FIRST in every match 3 game I ever played, it seems to me that those super satisfying massive gem matching chain reactions happened to me much more than to my opponents
Sounds like a decent game trapped beneath a layer of freemium. I guess the money pit model at least fits the game since that's the Magic the Gathering model.
To be honest the freemium aspect was non existent so far. Dunno if they will tweak anything...but so far I could play 4 days long for hours straight and I had to wait just 10 minutes once (first chapter ending 'boss'). The 5 full HP recharges provided are plenty enough if you do not really suck bad at the game. (Levelling up grants you even HP regeneration and full HP). As for currencies...I'm sitting on a pile of stones which will probably level up 2 planes walkers to max. As for booster....it took me half an hour just to open the packs I was able to buy playing normally (I didn't even cared to do the extra gold missions). YMMV but keep in mind that.
The devs must read this thread LOL or it's a weird coincidence....but all of a sudden in chapter 3 second part the opponents spam creatures, spells and supports like there was no tomorrow and I took quite a beating. I've noticed the server version was updated to 1.0.0 too. I still have many placeholder mission texts in last chapters and 1 or 2 'placeholder' images tough. This is very good actually....I had to really sweat and tweak slightly my deck with Nissa to beat that mission (I'm just level 26 with 45 HP, enemies have 90 and up...but I refuse to level up waiting for the global launch before deciding which character to focus on...I must say that I grew really fond of Nissa now, with all those creatures). Anyone knows if multiplayer will be async or live? Hoping for friends lists (or even better use of Game Center, but I'm not counting on it...being crossplatofrm makes sense they use Facebook...I gave up long ago and made a FB account just for games that use it. Actually it works really well, syncs all my devices without issues).
Like Pitta said I think the freemium is very fair so far. I haven't been able to buy the big pack yet with the gold from in game but I have 410 at the moment at it costs 600. Will there be whales in this game I'm sure there will but that's any game. Since I DL this from Singapore I can't buy anything anyways. I've opened at least 7-10 packs just by doing the quests and missions. Also like he said you do get stones when you replay the level but it is about maybe on average 10% of what you initially get which is somewhat fair IMO. I replayed one level to get the endurance mission done and was getting 1400 every retry. Now mind you that's not much but I got a pack out of my struggles and I got 2 rares in that pack. I also noticed there are some AI interactions where they could kill my minion with a 3 damage spell but instead hit my face with it. I don't expect the AI to play like a human but it is convenient for me to keep my stuff on board. I think the game is very well put together and when they fix some of the booboos they made when it comes to quest completion then it will be solid. I can't wait for the PvP to hit and the events. @Pitta I wonder what happens after you ebat all the chapters? Since the enemy heroes so far for me are all lvl 1 I wonder if they get harder or something?
i'm still on chapter 1 part 1 and have a weird issue, can't collect the endurance prize (is it a card?) in the battle against Kothophed(7), having already beaten him more than ten times! have you guys the same issue?
I think I'll complete everything today...I'm 4-5 mission short to complete last chapters. Everyone is at level 1 for me too, but imho it's an error because they have over 80 HP (no abilities tough). Today I started to see cards played I never saw before. Heroic Encounters are all level 50 and they DO use all 3 abilities A LOT. I've defeated the first one (was a close game). I want to complete the game before fighting against the others....looking forward Chandra. As for the AI...now it's pretty great (today on chapter 3-2 at least). But for all chapter 2 was pretty easy and sometimes it won't ever summon a creature for some reason...they are probably tweaking this. When you will play against real opponents, this will be moot point and I'm expecting the game to be awesome if I can play with friends...even if I fail to see how buying a ton of packs with real money could give you any real advantage...this is a game you master by playing and knowing the interconnections between the cards of your deck, like the real Magic. The chance factor is minimal compared to other match 3 games. The worst that can happen to you is drawing always support cards and no creatures for some consecutive turns. Happened to me once in maybe 20-30 games or so. Massive chain reactions are still a reality in this game...but so far I got them much more often than my opponents that always seem to go for longest immediate chain of their color.
Yeah I would say....don't bother. Some extra missions are broken for me too....sometimes you will get the reward even if you didn't really complete it too.
It's a known issue Gwarmaxx. they are supposed to be fixing it. There are at least 5 that I've run into that cannot be completed.
Pitta, I feel you on how the game seems very easy except chapter 1. I beat all of the missions and chapters with level 26 Chandra and without having to wait for any timers. Game difficulty needs tweaking. I'm sitting at 5 million stones and 1k gold by just completing the missions 1 time. I still have to go back and complete them to 100%.
Yeah Chandra is a blast to play isn't she! I have her at level 27 atm. I think I'm going to max her out just to see her full potential
