Hello, Raiders!

We know many of you have asked for clarification about the balance changes coming to the Hydra, Shield buffs, and Trunda Giltmallet. In response, our Community Managers have gathered up some of the most frequently asked questions and passed them to our development team, so you can get answers directly from them. We’ve compiled all their answers in a comprehensive Hydra Balance Update FAQ! Check it out! 

• Hydra just seems to become a harder boss for everyone, especially due to the modified Devouring mechanic, 100% DMG decrease for the [Serpent's Will], and limited HP bar for Hydra heads. Why did you decide to increase the level of difficulty? - These changes are intended, first and foremost, to cap the performance of teams that endure very long battles by abusing specific Hydra vulnerabilities, especially by decapitating new heads as soon as they grow back. Also, we intended the battles to finish with all the Champions either dead or devoured instead of reaching the turn limit. Thus, avoiding Champion devouring becomes increasingly more difficult. By the way, the limited HP bar for an exposed neck creates a good opportunity for Champions whose DMG scales up based on the enemy's Max HP.
  
• My modest Hydra teams might be severely affected. Will I be able to achieve even minimal Hydra rewards? - The changes are specifically designed to cap immense amounts of damage certain teams dealt by far surpassing 100 turns, roughly speaking. It is the competitive aspect of Hydra Clash that we aspire to make fairer with these rebalances. If your team manages to deal enough damage for a certain Chest, we expect it to continue doing so with minimal adjustments.
  
• Why not just nerfing one single specific Champion instead? -  We consider the issue of overpowered Hydra teams a complex one. By changing the boss's mechanics, we want to prevent new overpowered teams from appearing in the future. We aim for a better balance in this game mode in the long term.
  
• Will Trunda become useless? - We want Trunda to remain a good and useful Champion, but at the same time, we want to bring her damage output against Hydra in line with that of other Champions.
  

i

• Why change Shields? - We think that infinite Shields bring imbalance to the battle gameplay to such a degree that some cap is necessary. Still, we decided on a cap that would allow Wixwell to shine when fighting Demon Lord. However, we will be closely monitoring in case the Shield cap or any other change listed here needs any adjustments.
  
• Why Change the way Taunt interacts with Mark of the Hydra? - As is briefly mentioned above, we intended Hydra battles to finish with all the Champions either dead or devoured instead of reaching the turn limit. That is why, for considerations of consistency, we are going to change the interaction between Taunt and Mark of the Hydra and also to make sure there are no specific strategies that provide a large advantage over the others or pave the way for abusing Hydra mechanics.
  

i

• We might need to readjust some gear on our Champions after the rebalance goes live on October 16. Will there be anything to help us with it? - Yes, we decided to reschedule this month's Free gear removal event to October 16-20 so that you will have an easier time tweaking your Hydra teams, if necessary.
  
• Will you reset Badge achievements after the rebalance is activated? - No, all your badges and achievements will remain in place.
  
• Will there be changes to milestones for Hydra Chests or Hydra Clash Chests? - Most of the changes are designed to make a larger impact on the later stages of a battle, so it is scoring hundreds of millions of damage that is going to become more challenging. We expect that securing Hydra and Hydra Clash chests won't become considerably harder for those who have already been able to earn them. However, we are ready to reconsider Hydra Clash point multipliers if necessary.
  
• Will the excessive damage dealt to an exposed neck count toward the total score? - Yes, if you manage to deal more damage to an exposed neck than it has HP in one blow, all the damage will count toward the total score.
  
• In light of new changes, some players think Trunda will remain overpowered. Alternatively, others presume she will become nearly useless. What fate awaits Trunda, actually? - We never wanted to make Trunda irrelevant, but instead, we wanted to make her DMG capabilities correspond to those of other Champions across the board. For instance, we expect her A3 to become more relevant against Hydra due to HP burn, not dependent on Stun, and also in PvP due to an increased effectiveness against Stone Skin. If her damage is still far beyond the reach of any other champion, we will take further action to rebalance her.
  
• Will the rebalanced [Serpent's will] with 100% DMG reduction make it harder to cease devouring a Champion by a newly grown Head, especially considering that devouring becomes increasingly more difficult to stop over the course of battle? - No. The [Serpent's will] buff lasts only one turn, and swallowing a Champion requires the Head to make a turn, after which it loses the protection of the [Serpent's will].
  
• If two new Hydra Heads appear at once, only one receives the [Serpent's will] buff. But what if I manage to kill more Heads at the same time? - If you cut down 3 exposed necks at a time, 2 of the 3 new Heads will have the [Serpent's will] buffs. If you dispose of 4 necks at once, still only 2 of the new Heads will have the [Serpent's will] buffs. If you kill exposed necks one by one, this rule doesn't apply, and they might all end up with the [Serpent's will] buffs. However, we expect that facing all the 4 heads at once with the buffs will be a rare occasion.
  

The mentioned rebalances will be applied starting from the next Hydra rotation on October 16.

Thank you for taking a look! We hope that the introduced changes will make Hydra a fair mode in the long run. However, we are ready to consider further tweaks if necessary.