As you may already know, yesterday one of the dragons was able to get to the first spot on the leaderboard with just 9 battles won.
The owner of this dragon also has two more dragons on the leaderboard and several other strong dragons which are on the 10th level already.
So, what's happened?
To begin with, we can confirm that there was no hack of our smart contracts or front-end. This dragon master gained this huge advantage not because of some sophisticated hacking technique, but because he or she is a good player who has played the game a lot and has found a flaw in our game logic which was described in the whitepaper and could be found in the code by anyone curious enough.
The flaw is connected to the combination of the XP reward model and special peaceful skills logic.
The original idea behind XP reward model was to reward those dragons which took their chances and battled stronger opponents. As the chance to win stronger opponent decreases - the reward in terms of XP earned increases therefore incentivising risk takers.
Special peaceful skills on the other hand allows players to receive a boost to one of its basic skills. This boost is available to use for only one battle; however, it increases the possibility to win stronger opponents.
At the same time XP earned is calculated based on the original skills of the dragon and not on the boosted skills. Therefore, a dragon with boosted skills will have high chance to win much stronger opponent and consequently get a lot of XP points.
Additionally, a player has the possibility to apply several special peaceful skills at once thus increasing chances for an additional XP rewards.
How bad the things are?
Well, the dragon master in question was able to get to the leaderboard easily, however we think that considering all possible consequences, the damage to the overall game balance is very small.
This dragon master has 3 dragons on the leaderboard, and several other strong dragons which are on the 10th level and therefore cannot produce an offspring or move to the top positions on the leaderboard.
So, the damage to the game balance is limited and no further damage can be done.
What's next?
Yesterday we have paused battles smart contract. This was done to give us some time to come up with the solution to the problem.
Now we can confirm that the solution is ready, but we want to make sure that it will not only fix the flaw but will keep game experience as engaging as possible.
Important notice
All players who have their dragons listed on the services marketplace are advised to delist their dragons, as there is a possibility of value change of offered skills once new rules come into effect.
Please bear with us while we remodel the game. The show must go on!