Hello, Raiders!
Update 8.00 will be released soon, along with one of our biggest features to date - the Cursed City game mode. We’ll release dedicated videos to explain the core mechanics and guide you through the battle with Amius the Lunar Archon (the Big Bad of this mode), but the Update Highlights below contain an abridged version that you can check out now.
Cursed City is a massive new game mode that becomes available to players of Level 52 and above. You’ll have a new map to explore, with 101 Stages of different kinds and varying difficulty. Unlike the Doom Tower, you can plot your own course through the Cursed City of Sintranos and even skip some Stages if you want to! Not that we would suggest doing that: each Stage will provide some interesting rewards, but more on that later.
You’ll have a month to complete the Cursed City and beat its main boss - Amius the Lunar Archon - before a new rotation begins and all your progress gets reset. And although the map itself won’t get revamped, each new rotation will bring changes that make a new playthrough different from the previous one.
The game mode will come with 2 Difficulties: Normal and Hard. By default, you start on Hard but can switch to Normal and back at any point. Just remember that entering any Cursed City Stage (the Eclipse Tower excluded) requires Cursed City Keys, and you get a set amount of those daily. Although you’ll have enough Keys per month to complete both Difficulties, planning your progress is usually a better idea.
There are 4 Districts of progressing difficulty on the Cursed City map, each comprised of 25 Stages:
The Eclipse Tower rises above it all, protected by arcane gates that won’t open until you find 3 Eclipse Keys in the City. And though you will always start your path in Cobblemarket, you can wander Sintranos as you wish and choose your own path through the Districts, taking whatever shortcuts you wish or facing every challenge available.
Each District will always have the same number of specific Stages: 16 Regular Stages, 3 Awakened Stages, 3 Boss Stages, and 3 Double Boss Stages. Here is how they work:
Finally, there is the Eclipse Tower, where Amius the Lunar Archon resides. As mentioned above, you need to find 3 Eclipse Keys to enter - these Keys can be found on Double Boss Stages. The location is random and changes with each rotation, but it’s always 1 per District (except Soulcross), and you can see that Eclipse Key in the Stage rewards. Once you have the Keys, it’s time to face Amius and bring an end to his madness!
Of course, that means you don’t technically have to visit Soulcross, but some of the best loot is hidden in that final District in addition to the toughest challenges.
All Stages in the Cursed City mode, including Boss Stages, will have one of several Restrictions required to access. These will change with each rotation and depend on the Difficulty you’ve chosen, but the overall list can be found below:
Awakened Stages always require a specific number of Awakening Levels on your Team to access the Stage on top of the other randomized restriction.
You will receive several Cursed City Quests in each rotation. These center around completing a specific number of overall Stages, completing Awakened Stages, defeating Amius the Lunar Archon, and so on.
Completing Cursed City Quests on Hard gives you access to a unique chain of one-time rewards, including a new Mythical Champion - Karnage the Anarch. Afterward, you keep earning Occult Cursed Candles (on Hard) to open Cursed City Chests with various rewards. If you play on Normal, you get Cursed Candles instead and have no access to the one-time reward chain; instead, you get Cursed City Chests with a different reward pool than their Hard Difficulty counterpart.
Beating Cursed City Stages for the first time will provide various goodies as well, including Cursed Remnants (gather these to summon Epic and Mythical Champions), a new Charm to craft Mythical Artifacts in the Forge, and Chests that contain new Gear Sets. These rewards reset when the current rotation ends and can be obtained again in the following playthroughs.
Super Sonic and Merciless are Variable (9) Gear Sets that provide new bonuses for each Artifact or Accessory equipped by the Champion.
Supersonic Set
Merciless Set
Mythical Charm is a new special Charm that will receive a separate slot in the Forge. Adding it to the recipe will give you a chance (but not a guarantee) that the Artifact in question is crafted in Mythical Rarity. Rarity Charms can be used together with Mythical Charms to increase that chance.
As mentioned above, you can find Mythical Charm among Cursed City Stage rewards, and you can use them when crafting any and all Artifact Sets in the Forge. However, you can only use Mythical Charms when crafting Artifacts of Rank 5 and 6.
We are also adding Mythical Chaos Ore that will allow you to rework Mythical Artifacts. The general principle is the same as that of normal Chaos Ore, but you can check the in-game guide upon release to learn every little intricacy.
Karnage the Anarch, whom you can recruit by completing the one-time reward chain in the Cursed City mode, will have a brand-new debuff in his arsenal: Seal. The Seal debuff blocks effects from Gear Sets and Masteries, except Stat boosts granted by Artifacts and Accessories, as well as Masteries that only boost Stats like Blade Disciple, Flawless Execution, and so on.
Master Seal is an enhanced version of this debuff, which additionally blocks the effects from Blessings (except for Stat boosts).
The Seal and Master Seal debuffs don't block effects that were activated before these debuffs were placed.
P.S. Although these debuffs are introduced with update 8.00, it will take some time for you to recruit Karnage and see them in action - consider this an early heads-up.
Raid's Official What's Next video discussing this update and Sinatros here:
So far so good.
I'm thrilled and really really really looking forward to this! IT looks fantastic 😍
Perhaps it can give something to all those, who are super frustrated, with the state of Classic Arena and Hydra Clash.
Perhaps it can free some time for Plarium to fix the things that are in the game already and has the potential to be both fun and engaging.
Please Plarium - Now that this project is nearly done - Fix Classic Arena and Hydra Clash. And can you please also make it more transparrent on how matchmaking works with both Hydra Clash and CvC? It seems noone knows.
My last plea ...
Do a weekly or a fortnight review or even a monthly review on 1-2 champs where you tweak/nerf/boost. Saying you have a "nerf/buff" for Fortus and Angar and then let us wait 2-3 months for it is just bad. We want to love you and the game, but its still very very hard.
Still excited for this new content.
Haven't seen any concrete information about this. I will ask and see if we can find out.
Looks like they'll be perfect souls so starting out right at 3*. Keep in mind though this is from a video from the test server so may not be the case when it goes live, though I don't expect it to be different.
Looks like a top-shelf addition to the game. New challenges to face and rewards that make it worth the time/effort. High Five Plarium.
Now that this has been knocked off the list, how about a 4th rotation for Doom Tower? You don't need to make new bosses. There are 8 bosses already and a 4th rotation gives us the opporunity to face all 8 twice.