Balance week! This week we talk about the upcoming balance patch. We know that a lot of the long-timers are quite excited about this one since it should shake up the metagame.

Our Approach

When it comes to balance we use a few things to decide what to change:

• User feedback: like most things, we constantly gather feedback from players and use this to narrow our focus.
• Gameplay statistics: We have the ability to collect and report on various things about games being played. Things like how often various cards are used, win percentage, etc.
• Math: We have an internal calculator we use to determine the cost (energy) of a card. This isn’t an exact science but the more we use it, the better it gets.

The Actual Changes

So we have a pretty massive list of things to investigate. So far we’re about ½ way through. The approved changes so far include:

• Party Crasher comes-into-play damage increased from 10 to 20, and attack reduced from 35 to 30.
• Shogun health increased from 85 to 90.
• Leather Daddy armor increased from 5 to 20, health reduced from 105 to 90.
• Land Mine damage increased from 45 to 50.
• Banana Peel damage increased from 25 to 30.
• Silly Monkey health reduced from 85 to 70 (and benefits from Banana Peel buff).
• Snake Basket changed from 10 damage per turn for 5 turns to 15 damage per turn for 3 turns, initial damage increased from 10 to 15.
• Engulfing Flames damage increased from 40 to 50, energy cost increased from 35 to 40.
• Spike Pit energy cost reduced from 50 to 35.
• Replicator energy cost reduced from 30 to 25.
• Trampoline energy cost reduced from 30 to 25.
• Electrocute base energy cost increased from 10 to 20.
• Molotov Cocktail damage reduced from 60 to 50.
• Combustible Lemon damage changed from 50 to the target and 25 to surrounding pieces to 35 to target as well as surrounding pieces.
• Warp energy cost increased from 25 to 30.
• Holy Rain energy cost reduced from 30 to 25, number of effects reduced from 4 to 3.
• Skyhook energy cost reduced from 45 to 20, number of uses reduced from 2 to 1.
• Disgruntled Mailman movement range increased from 2 to 3.
• Origami Shop energy cost reduced from 45 to 35.
• Extra Life now gives a +20 health buff as well as healing to full health.
• Energy Drink energy cost increased from 30 to 50, energy gain changed from current base energy to fixed at 75.
• Resurrection energy cost reduced from 25 to 20.
• Witch Doctor health increased from 85 to 90, attack increased from 35 to 40.
• Deranged Mime energy cost reduced from 65 to 50, health reduced from 120 to 100, armor reduced from 10 to 0, attack reduced from 30 to 20, Mimery ability extended to clone attack range, movement range, and armor as well as attack damage.
• Intern health increased from 90 to 100, attack increased from 55 to 60.
• King Cobra health reduced from 105 to 90, movement range increased from 2 to 3, attack power reduced from 10 to 1, poison damage changed from 25 for 3 turns to 30 for 3 turns.
• Piggy Bank energy cost reduced from 30 to 20.
• Bunker armor buff increased from 10 to 15.
• Magnet energy cost increased from 35 to 40, health decreased from 60 to 50, effect range increased from 2 to 3.

In addition to core card changes, we’ll also re-examine and possibly change:

• Minimum deck size
• Maximum number of cards per deck
• Function of ‘token’ units in combination of cards like big red button

This all of course may change before we release it, but we thought it made sense to show you the direction of things to come.

Random Thing of the Week

We like to celebrate our failures. With that in mind, here’s a pretty funny bug report (now fixed) that involved Bully pushing a unit into a Wormhole. The pushed unit would then travel back across the map, and in this case, hit every trap on the way: