Season 3 Is Coming, With A Potential $100k Prize Fund & Some Big Improvements
Following the culmination of Season 2, our development team took the opportunity to analyze what did worked well and look at where improvements are needed. They’ve been hard at work on server improvements for increased stability, better ping tolerance and faster/more responsive actions in game.
Season 3 sees the release of the New Beginnings set (24 new cards that add a huge amount of viable new strategy to deck building). This set will be free to all for the entire season, being locked and minted to NFTs once the season is over.
Be sure to pick up some booster packs before the sale ends to make sure you have access to these powerful cards in later seasons!
This season will also see the introduction of all currently available Vulcanites as playable heroes. Alongside the ability to use rented Vulcanites in game. This should massively increase the number of players with access to hero powers, further improving the balance of matches.
Berserk Subscription Pass
The initial version of the Berserk subscription pass will also be live beginning in season 3. Passes can be purchased from Vulcan’s Vault — as an introductory celebration all active users will receive a free 1-day pass to try it out. Initially the pass will provide access to a curated list of NFT cards, and a 10% XP boost to Berserk earnings, with exclusive cosmetics being made available during a later stage of rollout. More detail will be available in the coming weeks on what cards will be available initially and how to activate your subscription.
Improving Balance
To further close the first turn advantage, and to encourage different deck building metas, we are making a change to the card draw rate. Card draw has been reduced to 1 per turn, accelerating to 2 per turn from Turn 7 onwards. In testing with the new cards this system has resulted in a better balance, with more comeback opportunity, and has reduced the frequency at which players deck themselves (play all 30 cards before the match ends). This change makes slower strategies more viable and places additional importance on deck construction, as it is no longer guaranteed that you will see all 30 cards you add to the deck. We’re curious to see what strategies emerge this season as the dominant meta!
Improved Matchmaking
Based on recent testing and the expectation of the improvements in competitiveness brought by the subscription system and Vulcanite rentals, we have made the decision to combine the Starter and Mythic Leagues.
We believe a free/rental player should now have a competitive chance against the majority of NFT owners. This means that for now, there is no daily cap on $LAVA earnings as there was previously in Starter League, and we’re hopeful that these player pools (along with the previously mentioned prize restrictions) should facilitate more matchmaking opportunities for players at most levels.
XP Earning Increase
We’re also making some tweaks to the XP rate in Berserk.
Based on comparisons within the ecosystem we will be permanently increasing the XP in berserk to 20–6 W/L. As well as introducing a daily XP bonus of 100XP for 10 wins. We believe this should result in similar levels of XP per effort for the average player compared to the other options out there. We will continue to monitor the XP rates though and will adjust if necessary.
Prize Structure Changes
Based on feedback from the previous seasons we’re continuing to make tweaks to the prize structure. This season the prize pool is starting at 50k, but with the potential to unlock higher payouts as the level of community activity hits certain thresholds.
In order to encourage more consistent play, we are changing the restrictions on prize eligibility as well.
- Players must have a Level 2 (Senior Wormling) My Forge account to be eligible for prizes.
- Individual prizes will be reduced on the following schedule (rounded down):
Tier 0 Prize: Less than 20 games played — 0%
Tier 1 Prize: Play at least 20 Games — 30% of stated value
Tier 2 Prize: Play at least 50 Games — 70% of stated value
Tier 3 Prize: Play at least 85 Games –100% of stated value
We look forward to seeing your scores on our Berserk Season 3 leaderboards!
Status of Prereqs to launch Season 3:
V3.2.2 stable and approved ⏳
Card draw balance change ✅
MMR Balance change ✅
Remove Starter League ✅
Vulcanite Rental, Card rental, addition of missing Vulcanites as heroes ✅
Test rental systems and balance changes ✅
Approve new Prize structure ✅