Patch v826 Breakdown

Another week, another patch! What does Patch v826 have in store for HEX fans?

Well, you’ll find an assortment of gameplay fixes, some new cards, and some general quality-of-life improvements…

…oh, and also…DRAFT TOURNAMENTS are finally here!

NEW FEATURES

• Draft tournaments are ready for testing! Please see our Draft Overview article for details on this exciting new tournament format!

• Mail is now ready for testing. You can send in-game mail to other players, but note that this system is not yet feature complete.

• The Store and Pack Opening screens are in game, and in the future we’ll give you the ability to test these systems.

IMPORTANT NOTE

• Players that disconnect during the card drafting portion of a draft tournament can cause their round 1 opponent to not leave the deck manager screen correctly. Please don’t intentionally close out the game during this time. Once you are in the deck building screen it is okay to close the client, as removing you from the tournament is handled correctly in the deck builder.

• During deck construction of a limited tournament (Draft, Sealed), right-clicking to add cards to your deck can cause an invalid deck that cannot be saved. Your only recourse will be to drop from that event. Double left-clicking and left-click+drag are still working correctly.

GENERAL

• The tournament interface has been upgraded.

• Open tournament queues have been moved to the top of the tournament list.

• Tournament filters have been introduced to help you navigate.

• The Defeat screen has been upgraded.

• Players now receive messages normally in chat.

• Text strings have been fixed throughout the game.

• Cards that both revert and transform another card no longer cause a card to “dance” for a short time.

• Fixed messaging when hitting “Esc” while resolving Shards of Fate.

• The chat box text scales correctly when you maximize the chat window.

• Players are now notified when a player mulligans, and to how many cards.

• The socketing hit box is now correctly aligned.

• Gem particle effects have been improved for maximum bling.

• Plan C’s card linking now works.

• Tournament player ranks are now updated in real time.

• You can now rebuild your Limited (Sealed, Draft) deck in between rounds of a tournament.

• Corrected a typo in Inferno’s game text.

• Stormcall now visually shows that it exhausts all opposing troops at the same time.

• Removed duplicate text from Princess Victoria.

• Removed duplicate text from Wailing Banshee.

• Removed duplicate text from Corrupt Harvester.

• Fixed grammatical error in Pact of Life’s game text.

• Chat now correctly notifies if a player has received a message.

• Clicking in an empty area of the Sealed Deck card manager no longer can cause a player to be unable to build a deck.

• Shift+Enter will now minimize the chat window.

• Simple profanity filter has now been added to chat…but please don’t go nuts testing this out just yet.

• Card strings have been removed from buttons when you view more than one card

NEW CARDS

• Shrine of Prosperity

• Angel of Dawn

• Hero of Adamanth

• Solitary Exile

• Crushing Blow

• Elimination Specialist

• Gore Feast of Kog’Tepetl

• Master Theorycrafter

• Eye of Creation

• Plant Garden // Venus Fly Gorger // Spore Stalks // Vine Goliath

• [GEM] Prime Blood Orb of Brutality

• [GEM] Prime Sapphire of Subterfuge

• [GEM] Prime Blood Orb of Cruelty

GAMEPLAY

• Secret Lab will no longer prevent the game from completing while you have Sadistic Castigator in play.

• Crown of the Primals now reverts when the troop it targeted leaves play.

• Zombies put into play by Corrupted Afterlife now correctly can be reverted.

• Burning Skarn will no longer deal extra combat damage.

• Kindling Skarn’s stat modification now correctly resolves before the action resolves.

• Honeycap will no longer automatically change stats under certain conditions.

• Ingenuity Engine can now correctly create an Effigy of Nulzan.

• Air Superiority now correctly modifies cards that gain the Flight keyword mid-game.

• Evolve no longer will grant its effect to cards that come into play after it has resolved.

• Prime Diamond of Solidarity no longer incorrectly applies modifiers to troops that come into play after its affect went off.

• Cards that come into play from Cosmic Transmogrifier now work correctly in all cases.

• Unmerciful Tormentor no longer will incorrectly apply its modifier twice.

• Wall of Corpses now correctly takes into account modified defense on troops in the graveyard.

• Flock of Seagulls now correctly absorbs all Crush damage.

• Bird o’ Plenty now correctly absorbs all Crush damage.

• Lixil, the Deathless Gem now correctly gains immortality.

• Spawn of Othuyeg’s ability on burying 5 cards will now correctly start to trigger at 10 cards in the opponent’s graveyard.

• Polymorph: Dingler now works correctly with troops that have native 0 defense. (Honeycap, High Tomb Lord, etc…)

• Spirit Dance will now correctly permanently modify cards in your deck.

• Rune Ear Commander’s that are generated from Uzume, Grand Concubunny will no longer die as soon as they enter play.

• Activating Battle Beetle’s power will no longer incorrectly progress the game to the next phase.

• Activating Hellhound’s power will no longer incorrectly progress the game to the next phase.

• Puck, Dream Bringer no longer incorrectly counts actions in your hand as viable cards.

• Mystic Spiritwalker now correctly passes priority to your opponent when triggering its power.

• Fahrny now deals the correct amount of damage when you activate his power.

• Attack and Defense modifiers now apply last when a card’s Attack and Defense are self-modified.

• Adaptable Infustion Device now reads: “When this artifact enters play, choose a standard resource from among those currently in your deck. Gain the threshold that resource provides. (4), Sacrifice this artifact à Draw a card.” (this is just a templating change)

• Chaos Key now reads: “[BASIC] (5), Void this artifact à Void target card.” (this is just a templating change)

• Slaughtergear, Renegade War Factory now reads: “(3) Exhaust another target artifact you control àTransform that artifact into a War Hulk.” (this is just a templating change)

• Hop’hiro Samurai now reads: “When a troop you control is sacrificed, add a bushido counter to Hop’hiro. Then, if there are three or more, remove them all and transform him into Hop’hiro, Elite Samurai. (1), Sacrifice another troop à Target troop gets -1[ATK]/-0[DEF] this turn. (this is just a templating change)

• Incantation of Ascendance now reads: “When you draw a card, add an incantation counter to this constant. Then, if there are five or more incantation counters on this constant, transform it and all other Incantations of Ascendance you own in all zones into Lightning Armada.”

• Mistborn Wendigo now reads: “(1) à This troop gets +2[ATK]/-2[DEF] this turn.”

• Mutate now reads: ”Target troop gets permanent -1[ATK]/+1[DEF]. Draw a card.”

• Mesmerize now reads: “Target troop gets permanent “This troop can’t ready during its controller’s ready step.””

• Prime Ruby of Destruction now reads: “When this troop enters play, it deals damage equal to its [ATK] to target opposing champion.”

• The missing text from The Kraken has returned.

• The missing text from Replicator’s Gambit has returned.

• The missing text from Lixil, the Deathless Gem has returned.

• Phoenix Guard Trainer is now a common.

• Cerulean Grand Strategist is now an uncommon.

• Imp Hoodlums is now an uncommon.

• Removed the extra instance of Steadfast from Lord Adam, the Powerful.

• Removed the extra instance of Flight from Spawn of Othuyeg. He doesn’t fly THAT high…

KNOWN ISSUES

• The pack count indicator in draft is incorrect

• Rounds for matches in tournaments are not currently correct

• The mouse over zoom in Draft tournaments has been temporarily disabled

• The victory animation is missing some text, can you guess what it is?



Do you like to invest into the future? The Shrine of Prosperity ensures each turn that the top card of your deck is going to be a little sweeter than it initially was, whether it’s enhancing a troop, gaining an extra boost out of resources, or simply making your actions, constants, and artifacts a little cheaper. Get this card into play early and ensure the game goes late, and your draws will be far more prosperous than what your opponent’s deck will be coughing up!



Flight and steadfast are already two solid abilities, but when you have a chance to get these on a troop that is free to play, it gets even better. Angel of Dawn is already a fine card, but if you can achieve a diamond threshold early on, your chances to play this avatar of hope for free will increase!



The Hero of Adamanth is one Human that love company, even if that company is approximately 20 feet behind him or 7-10 cards deep into your deck. He just requires that he is at least close to his home’s people. However, if you build around the Hero of Adamanth appropriately, you’re looking at a troop that can cleave through an opposing champion in a mere one or two hits.



Is a troop giving you a hard time? Perhaps an artifact is throwing off your ability to fight back? Is a constant keeping you down? Lock it in this box, and then throw away the key! Actually, wait a second…there is no door on this prison. How did the prisoner even get in there? Oh well. The point here is that whatever you trap inside this diamond-version of solitary confinement is staying there for a long time, assuming you can keep this constant in play.



A cheap, quick combat trick that will leave unsuspecting troops dead on the arena floor. It may or may not be required of you to shout “BRUTALITY!” whenever you catch your opponent off guard during your own combat step with this powerful ruby action.



Is your armory stocked with artifacts? Then this specialist is going to love working with you. The Elmination Specialist is a pay-off card for loading up your play area with cheap artifacts, because once this Dwarf makes an appearance, he is going to start blasting opposing troops and champions left and right. Controlling a large number of artifacts when the Specialist makes his entrance gives you added flexibility on where this troop’s rockets are going to go.



Double the combat phases, double the attacks, double the rage triggers, double the fun! The Gore Feast of Kog’Tepetl, aside from having a name fit for a bloodthirsty warlord, is a relentless beating against any unsuspecting opponent who has no way to deal with your army of deadly warriors. Play this with a board filled with troops and transform your opponent into a real glutton for punishment.



Master Theorycrafter has an accurate name, as it’s going to take some serious theorycrafting to explore the best possibilities on what this dwarven warlock is capable of. The major gem socket gives this troop some serious flexibility. As with all socketed cards, the Master Theorycrafter is capable of sporting a lot of different text boxes, and these abilities all grandfather down to the War Bots that he produces, giving you plenty of possibilities and combinations to try out!



The Eye of Creation allows you to do some serious work with your resources, giving you the ability to bury your opponent in troops with a big turn if you sink all of your resources into the Eye. Play this with cards that ramp up your resource total and overwhelm your opponent with a new-found army of troops!



Our final new card with this patch is Plant Garden, a fun little constant that will heal your champion for six health over the course of three turns. The fun power however is when the Plant Garden hatches. Will your garden grow a Venus Fly Gorger, a Spore Stalks , or a Vine Goliath?

We have a couple of new features that were implemented with this patch update.

Drafts!

One of our long-awaited features, Draft Tournaments, have finally been implemented! Draft tournaments allow players to battle against each other with decks created during a Draft. To join a Draft Tournament, simply join an 8 Man Draft Queue in the Tournament Lobby.

For those unfamiliar with drafting, when a tournament begins, eight players will open up a pack. Then each player selects one card from that pack. That card will be added to the pool of cards that you can build a 40-card deck from at the end of the draft. Then, the rest of the cards are passed to your neighbor in the draft.

You will then get your other neighbor’s remaining cards, and will select a card out of that pack. The cards you do not pick are passed again to your other neighbor, and this repeats until all cards from all packs opened have been drafted.

Then, you do this again with two more packs. At the end of the draft, players will have drafted 45 cards, which they must build a 40-card deck out of. Players in the tournament will then use the deck they build in the tournament.

Draft Tournaments are a highlight feature for HEX: Shards of Fate. It allows players to play against each other in casual-play or competitive-play without having to own hard-to-obtain cards. Everyone is on an even playing field, since all players are making a new deck from scratch out of the cards that they take in the draft.

For more information on Draft Tournaments, as well as a more detailed overview on how to jump into a Draft, check out game designer Phil Cape’s article to learn more.

You’ve Got Mail!

The Mail feature has also been added, allowing you to send in-game mail to other players, making communication between players while you’re logged in a lot easier.

Please note, however, that not all features have been implemented just yet. Despite this, go ahead and get to mailing, and as always, if something seems to be having a hiccup, be sure to let us know with a Bug Report.

That’s all this time. We look forward to seeing you in the Draft queues!

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