The Hydra is here!

Once thought to be no more than legend, the long-lost capital city of the Empire of Dragons has been uncovered from beneath the seas, and with it, the cruelest monster Teleria has ever known has reemerged - the Hydra. 

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Only through the combined might and strength of your Clan will you have any chance of defeating the Hydra. But survive the challenge, and the treasures within can make you powerful beyond measure.

The Hydra is our second Clan Boss, and is only available to Clan Members of Level 45 and above.

Similar to the Demon Lord, Hydra battles are a fight for your team to survive as long as possible and deal as much damage as you can along the way - but for Hydra fights, you get to take 6 Champions into battle.

The first Hydra Rotation will start on Wednesday, December 8 between 08:00 and 13:00 UTC. Note: The time will vary slightly for each Clan, but it will be within that time frame.

Meet the Hydra!

The Hydra takes 6 Heads into battle, but you’ll only be fighting 4 at once - starting with the 4 “Starter Heads”. You’ll be trying to deal as much damage to those Heads as possible to increase your score.

If you deal enough damage to a single Head during a battle, you’ll chop off that Head, and you’ll expose the Neck, giving you a great opportunity to boost your damage score. But you’ll need to be quick, because another Head will grow back soon. It might be the same Head you chopped off, or one of the other available Heads. You’ll need to be prepared for every possibility.

During each Battle, the Hydra will be trying to eat your Champions. First, the Hydra will mark one of your Champions with a [Mark of the Hydra]. A short countdown will begin, and once that countdown hits zero, one of the Heads will gobble up your Champion. You’ll have a short window to free your Champion before they’re digested and consumed, and if you can’t free them, they’ll be completely gone from battle - for good.

But that’s not all. Each Head also has a completely unique set of skills and mechanics, along with a whole host of new buffs and debuffs. A [Poison Cloud] that cloaks the Hydra, a [Pain Link] debuff that shares the suffering with your team, and a special [Life Barrier] buff that can throw your whole game plan out of the window. There’s a lot to discover, and you’ll need to learn them all if you want to truly master the Hydra.

To learn more, take a look at the in-game guide for more information on each Hydra Head, along with the in-battle skill descriptions by tapping on the portrait of any Hydra Head.

Here’s how the Hydra feature breaks down:

Monthly Rotations

The Hydra’s monthly Rotation defines the Head selection & each Head’s Affinity. Here’s how it works:

• The Hydra works in monthly Rotations and weekly reset cycles.
• Every month, 4 of the Hydra’s total available Heads will be chosen as the “Starter Heads” for that month.
• The 2 remaining Heads will be chosen as the “Substitute” heads for that month.
• Each Head will also be assigned an Affinity for that Rotation.
• In every Hydra battle that month, the 4 Starter Heads and 2 Substitute Heads (and their Affinities) will be the same.

Weekly Cycles

Players will then fight the Hydra across weekly cycles to win Hydra Chests. 

You need 1 Hydra Key to fight the Hydra, and you’ll receive 3 Hydra Keys per week. You’ll be given your 3 Keys every Wednesday between 08:00 and 13:00 UTC. The time will vary slightly for each Clan, but it will be within that time frame.

The Hydra also resets every Wednesday between 08:00 and 13:00 UTC, at which point, each Clan will be given their rewards in the form of Hydra Chests. Which Hydra Chests players receive depends on the outcome of that week’s Hydra battles.

If the Hydra is damaged but survives, each contributing Clan Member will receive one Hydra Chest according to the damage they dealt individually. If your Clan defeats the Hydra, your rewards will be doubled.

IMPORTANT: Each Champion can only be used in one Hydra battle per week, so you’ll need to utilize your entire Collection if you want to master the Hydra.

Clan Members must work together to deal damage to the Hydra. Each Clan Member fights individually, but their damage scores are added together to wear down the Hydra’s HP. Once the Hydra’s HP has been fully depleted on any given difficulty, the next difficulty will be unlocked. 

Rewards - Hydra Chests & Artifact Sets

Fighting the Hydra on higher difficulties gives you access to the best Hydra Chests.

Hydra Chests contain some Clan resources such as Clan Gold and Clan XP, but most importantly, they are the only way of winning Stone Skin and Protection Artifact Sets. 

Both Stone Skin and Protection Artifacts are special in a couple of ways:

• They are both Variable Sets. This means you will gain extra bonuses depending on how many of them you equip.
• Both are available in the new Mythical Rarity, which is even rarer - and stronger - than Legendary.

Stone Skin Artifact Set:

• Equip anywhere from 1 to 6 pieces to get up to: +40 RES; +8% HP; +30% DEF; [Stone Skin] buff for 2 turns at the start of the Round (with a 50% chance of preventing Stone Skin from being removed or stolen. This prevention is rolled each time an enemy attempts to remove or steal the Stone Skin buff, so repeated attempts may succeed).
• The [Stone Skin] buff removes all debuffs from the recipient and makes them immune to all debuffs except Bombs. It also decreases all damage received by 85%. Except for Bombs, which deal quadruple damage while the buff is active. If you damage a Champion with Stone Skin by 50% of the Champion’s MAX HP while the buff is active, they’ll lose the buff.

Protection Artifact Set:

• Equip anywhere from 1 to 6 pieces to get up to: +20 RES; +15% HP; +24% SPD; 30% chance of Protecting buffs cast by the wearer.
• Protected buffs cannot be stolen or removed in any way. Protected buffs will be indicated by a yellow border in battle. You’ll also now see these yellow outlines throughout the game for other buffs or debuffs that can’t be stolen or removed, such as Cardiel’s [Revive On Death] buff.

And that’s not all! Hydra Chests also contain Fragments of an exclusive new Champion. Introducing…

Mithrala Lifebane

• Rarity: Legendary
• Type: Support
• Affinity: Void
• Faction: Dark Elves

Mithrala is the only Champion in the game that can harness the power of a brand-new debuff - [Petrification].

The [Petrification] debuff will remove all buffs from the recipient, then block them from receiving any more buffs while the debuff is active. However, they can still receive other debuffs. While the debuff is active all incoming damage is reduced by 60%, except for damage from [Bomb] debuffs, which is quadrupled. If that’s not enough, Champions under [Petrification] debuffs will skip their turns and their skill cooldowns won’t count down. Ouch!

This unique debuff will open up a wide variety of new strategies, and we think you’re going to have a lot of fun experimenting with Mithrala.

Other Changes

• Champion rebalance - Inquisitor Shamael

[Skill 1 – Wreak Revenge (Ascended)]

If there are multiple Champions in the team with this Skill, only one Champion's counterattack will activate.

• Added immunity to the [Petrification] debuff to various “immunity” skills throughout the game (typically alongside immunity to [Stun], [Sleep], [Fear], [True Fear], [Freeze]), along with multiple other skills that affect multiple crowd control debuffs.
• [Weaken] debuffs and [Strengthen] buffs now affect the damage from [Bomb] debuffs.
• Reduced the tappable area on the Chat icon in Hydra Battles.

One last thing - we’re instating a temporary Silver Cost Reduction. For two weeks, starting today, we're halving the amount of Silver it takes to remove or swap Artifacts and Accessories to give you all a chance to test out some new gear and team combos for the Hydra. Have fun!

And that’s everything. The Hydra’s a huge update, and we can’t wait to hear what you think - so head on over to our forums and let us know!