Dragon Slaying

By Damien Dufresne

It was February 2011 in Orlando, Florida. A few of us had gathered around to witness the unveiling of a new Player-versus-Environment-esque deck to challenge the attendees of the event taking place, which was the Darkmoon Faire, a major competitive tournament for the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game. While the pilot of this deck was very much a human being, we considered it PvE due to the very nature of the deck itself. Developed strictly for the purpose of thrashing poor unsuspecting players with stronger-than-average special cards, the deck served as a makeshift dragon-slaying experience, representing a high-level character within the online MMO game itself in TCG form. Defeating the deck was by no means a simple task. While most of the players trying their luck were content in being incinerated by dragon flame, a small group of us were ready to rise to the challenge.

After watching many failed attempts by other players at conquering the beast, we set out to build the deck that would act as the proverbial silver bullet. Taking a conventional “best deck” attitude towards building the perfect sixty-card combination would not suffice, as our rival in question did not play the game by conventional rules. We had to adapt. Only by knowing the intended functionality of the PvE deck, how the cards within the deck itself worked, the synergies of those cards in the deck, and also how we were expected to play the game against it, would we even have a remote chance of building something dragon-slaying worthy. Absorbing all of this information via previously observed games gave us the tools we needed. After much debate and consideration, our final deck was ready.

We sent in our best champion and watched with great glee as our creation succeeded in its intended task! Specifically chosen cards countered the PvE deck’s combos and abilities, and after much effort… the dragon had been slain! We cheered. Granted, there was no glory to be won here outside of a sense of accomplishment. After all, there was no Top 8 finals bracket, and there was no trophy. Even still, as competitive and prize-driven as we were, we had enjoyed ourselves. Which, at the end of the day, is really all that matters. It was not long before pairings for the next round were posted, and we scuttled off to continue on slaving through the rounds of the main event.

The Path to Glory

Flash forward to April of this year. I sat in a dark, projector-lit conference room within the Cryptozoic offices, bearing witness to the new MMOTCG HEX in all its digital glory. A part of me couldn’t help but think back to my experiences in Orlando, as Cory Jones thoroughly explained the complexity of the PvE offered within the dungeons of Entrath. While the competitive beast within me was satiated with details regarding the planned structure of PvP tournaments and prizes to come, the truth was that the PvE elements on display for me really whetted my appetite. In playing collectible trading card games for many years, I had seen my fair share of finals brackets, draft pods, and trade binders. But a fully functional PvE system within a TCG? This was something new entirely.

For me, well-polished PvE exists as a puzzle for those willing to take the time to solve it. Now, I admit, I wasn’t always as inclined to believe I’d have any interest in this; in fact, there was a time where my membership in a PvP-centric guild within an online MMORPG led to many, many circumstances of bashing the “PvE Glory Gods” in forum posts and in-game taunts. After all, who were these cowards that thought hiding in dungeons fighting AI-controlled creatures was a testament to player skill!? The only real determination of a player’s worth was in combat against other actual human players! At least, that was my mindset, until the time came when I decided to actually venture out with my friends to see what all the hype was about. It was time to slay me some raid bosses!

If any of you have raided seriously in a guild of PvEers, then you can probably guess what happened next: we were bashed into the ground like nails into wood. Our skills and innovations within the arenas and battlegrounds had little to any relevance whatsoever when it came to fighting the well-polished and carefully designed raid dungeon bosses. While some of my group laughed it off and immediately ran back to the PvP areas of the game, similar to a child jumping back into a warm pool after hopping out and practically freezing to death on a cloudy day, myself and some others decided to instead embrace the chilly breeze and reach for the towel. We had seen the PvE light, and we were in. This was fun!

This same realization was quite similar to our determination in defeating the PvE deck that day in Orlando, and if any of you out there reading this think you have no hopes of ever realizing the fun in store for you in accepting the challenges of PvE in HEX… I assure you, many of you will. All of the play testing and meta-game predicting in the world will do you little good against high concept PvE dungeon design. Both Equipment drops and PvE-unique cards will inevitably be required in your brainstorming and deck concept scheming. In a similar manner to those players currently playing pre-existing MMORPG games, you can endlessly fine-tune your character’s weapons and armor in a never-ending pursuit of item-level perfection. It’s a long, gear-repair-filled road, but in time… you will find item set harmony.

(Until the next dungeons and sets are released, anyway…)

The Spoils of War… Against the AI

Additionally, PvE within HEX offers up a few slices of value pie to those more inclined to spend their gaming hours in combat with other players. For example, consider the fact that all items dropped by creatures while playing the single-player campaign in HEX (Equipment, Crafting Materials, Currency and Cards) can be sold on the Auction House. Your efforts in turning a profit on these items can then be used to purchase cards for your PvP decks. Who says PvE can’t help the PvPer? Sure, we could just shell out money to purchase the packs, but hey… I don’t mind considering my HEX PvE a part-time job, paying my way to PvP tournament glory! Being able to “work” in my pajamas is surely a plus.

Also, there will be PvP-PvE tournaments as well! Yes, you’re reading that right: PvP tournaments in which you play other players using your PvE-acquired cards and wearing your PvE-acquired Equipment! These tournaments are sure to be wild, as the deck possibilities are practically endless. All of those insanely powerful interactions you’ve been seeing in card previews so far using a card’s matched up equipment will be usable on very real opponents! Sure, these events won’t hold the same prestige as regularly held PvP tournaments, and the prizes are expected to be far less… but regardless, participation and eventual success requires one to be an avid PvE participant! Expect more detail on these in the future, but know for now that they are coming!

A lot of you may think that all was lost when the Pro Player Tier on the Cryptozoic Kickstarter sold out, but let me give you a piece of advice: go back and reconsider the Raid Leader Tier.

The Raid Leader tier offers you and your fellow adventurers a much needed bonus. Starting out with an extra card in hand at the beginning of a raid can mean the difference between a smooth dragon-slaying or a series of unfortunate events for your raiding party. The Raid Leader tier gives you some added insurance so that you are most likely to finish a raid with everyone receiving loot. Why risk a raid wipe when you can start out with a little advantage?

If you’re a PvPer that has taken a strict “I’ll likely never be PvEing in my life” stance, I really can’t stress enough how much you will be missing. If you think PvE is simply playing a normal game of HEX against the same ol’ decks you’re used to seeing your friends build, you’re in for quite a surprise! It’s a very common practice for PvPers to embrace PvE as a way to facilitate the necessary tools required to PvP at the top of their game, and as mentioned, the ability to turn PvE rewards into very real PvP-playable cards will help in doing just that. The fact that PvE can reward you with a hard earned sense of achievement only serves as an added bonus!

As I’ve mentioned, PvE is commonly designed with a puzzle-solving emphasis in mind, putting incredibly high concept ideas and innovations in place for a one-of-a-kind feel in many instances. Each dungeon and raid will have its own feel to it, and in a lot of situations you may find that a deck that trounces one raid falls flat on its face against another! Speaking of raids, Chris Woods, the lead designer for the single-player experience in HEX, was kind enough to share information with me regarding the basics of raiding in HEX. Let us delve deeper into the dark recesses of Entrath, and begin to get a sense of what we’re up against…

(Please keep in mind that this is an early preview, and all terms and keywords listed here may end up being considerably different from the final versions!)

Basic Raid Mechanics

The raid boss functions as a number of champions. These champions represent the various stages a group progresses through while attempting the raid, and progressing from one champion to the next is determined entirely on the raid in question. (For example, in the “Kraken” raid, Stage 1 represents sailing to the Kraken’s location, Stage 2 represents surviving a whirlpool to get to its lair, and Stage 3 finally represents the Kraken itself.)

The number of cards drawn by a raid boss is equal to its respective stage. (One card at Stage 1, two at Stage 2, 3 at Stage 3.)

If the raid boss would ever draw a card while he has no cards in his deck, he shuffles up his graveyard and uses that as a new deck.

This outline sets up the basics for what we can come to expect from raiding in HEX. While drawing up to three cards a turn can obviously seem incredibly powerful, keep in mind that a raid boss is facing up to three players at once. It needs to compensate for this disadvantage!

The Chaos Key Raid

In the Chaos Key raid, players are attempting to stop a horrible void demon from entering into the world. Starting at Stage 2, the raid boss is represented as “Partially Through the Portal,” and the battle kicks right off with your group doing everything in its power to ensure it doesn’t finish emerging from the void!

The raid boss is represented with a progression meter, ranging from 0 to 200, and starts at 100. Whenever the raid boss is dealt damage, the progression meter ticks down by 1. The actual amount of damage is not relevant, only that it is dealt any damage at all. Essentially, a Troop attacking for 10 will give -1 to the meter just as a Troop attacking for 2 will give the same. By the same token, whenever the raid boss deals damage to a Champion, his meter will tick up by 1. Again, the actual amount of damage does not matter, so any amount to a Champion will give the meter +1.

The Raid Boss will never die by actual damage dealt, and has no printed life total. Your group, however, will suffer defeat if dealt lethal amounts!

Once the raid boss has been chiseled down to 50 on his progression meter, it will enter Stage 3, “Desperate”. This will see him begin to draw 3 cards over his previous 2, and you can expect this stage to be considerably more difficult as you get closer to the raid’s completion. However, if the boss begins to defeat you, and his progression meter manages to hit 150, he will back down into Stage 1, “Overconfident.” This essentially allows you to regroup and recover, and begin to regain board position.

The raid boss is not without his unique tricks, though, and will introduce a series of cards on you referred to as “phobias”. These cards, played directly on a Champion in the raid, limit the player’s choices of action while in play, and can be dealt with by all players of the raid at once. For example, Ophidiophobia (the fear of snakes) is a card that affects the Champion with the inability to declare attacks as long as the raid boss controls a snake troop. The card goes away once 5 snakes are destroyed, and the card checks for this regardless of which member of your group kills a snake via combat or direct removal. After 5 snakes have died, the card leaves play. All phobias have circumstantial limitations and specific instructions for helping to “snap out of it,” and will require preparation and haste. Working together is the key to success, as some phobias will be noticeably difficult to eliminate on one’s own. The limitations in question are designed specifically to make eradicating it off yourself nearly impossible. This, of course, will have an increasingly strong effect if one or more of your group should meet their demise!

Once the creature has been pushed back through the void, your group’s members will be showered with rewards. An important detail to note is that, like dungeons in online MMORPGs, each dungeon and raid within HEX will have its own specific loot table, and while common, uncommon, and rare drops will sometimes be shared amongst various loot tables, the Legendary drops only come from one specific loot table! There are several different Legendaries per table as well, meaning multiple trips through a raid will be required if you’re chasing multiples of a specific card! Yikes!

I’ll leave you with some previews of cards dropped in the Chaos Key raid. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my article on Player-versus-Environment gameplay, and look forward to seeing all of the challenges in store for us when HEX launches! The Chaos Key raid preview is but a taste of the types of scenarios you can expect to see out of raiding, and if you’ve never experienced the “end-game” bosses of an MMORPG, you could consider giving them a try in this MMOTCG! You may be surprised with how much you enjoy it.

Until next time!

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Card Previews!

(note: all of the following card previews are for the PvE experience only)

Normally, taking your opponent’s cards from their graveyard and shuffling them into your own deck is not exactly commonplace in physical TCGs, as players tend to play with varying card protector sleeves. Thankfully, the digital aspect of HEX makes de-sleeving and re-sleeving your opponent’s troops an instantaneous effect!

Small towards the beginning of a game, but potentially insane in later turns!

Troops for low cost that gain an ever-increasing boost to their stats on damage dealt will prove a viable threat in many situations. Some games may boil down to an opponent’s inability to quickly eradicate this troop before his stats explode out of control!

Representing one of the Legendary drops unique to this raid, this card has an effect on my thought process that tends to be one of my favorites, as it immediately makes me think of a deck concept from an entirely new angle. Maybe you swarm the board with token troops, and assume the doubling-down is more beneficial for you than your opponent’s few regular cost troops? Perhaps you construct a deck heavily built on troop synergies that boost each other when in play? I could go on and on with the potential ideas this card instantly brings to mind, but one thing is for sure: seeing cards as powerful and interesting as this Legendary raid drop only further increases my desire to kill the bosses in my way of acquiring them!

Bonus Preview: Two Pieces of Equipment That Drop In This Raid!

Gear up your champion with the Spectral Breastplate, a legendary drop from the Chaos Key raid, and watch with glee when Hallowed Fields is in play while your legendary armor is equipped! Watch as each fallen troop, no matter the owner, rises as a spirit, ready to serve your cause!

Enter the Clone Zone! Obtain the Matrix of Conversion, a legendary equipment drop unique to the Chaos Key raid, and equip it to your champion to give troops of yours that transform some added firepower!