So, yesterday Splinterlands had a series of updates mainly to the ranked rewards system, but not only. The full list of the updates can be consulted here, as always.
I talked about the ECR formula change in my post yesterday and about other changes in a previous post on the topic.
What I didn't want to touch on yesterday were the new focus missions that were introduced, the bonus for using cards that fit the focus mission, and anything more that I could have only noticed after playing the game for a while.
New Focus Missions
14 new ability-based focus missions were added, to add to the existing 5 splinter-based missions.
This is the official image presenting them:
Here's a table of their names, and the abilities they focus upon:
| Focus Mission | Abilities |
|---|---|
| Anti-Magic | Void, Phase, Void Armor |
| Reflect | Backfire, Return Fire, Magic Reflect |
| Slealth | Sneak, Snipe, Opportunity |
| Anti-Melee | Thorns, Retaliate |
| Buffs | Swiftness, Inspire, Protect, Strenghen |
| Defend | Shield, Repair |
| Flying | Flying |
| Disable | Piercing, Stun |
| Exploits | Opress, Giant Killer, Death Blow, Knock Out |
| Fatalities | Bloodlust, Life Leech, Redemption, Scavanger |
| Healing | Tank Heal, Heal, Cleanse, Triage |
| Ailments | Poison, Affliction, Weaken |
| Impair | Demoralize, Silence, Headwinds, Blind |
| Nullify | Shatter, Cripple, Dispel |
10% Bonus for Using Cards that Fit the Focus Mission
This change in the ranked rewards mechanics, combined with the fact the focus splinter is not guaranteed to be active from now on, can change the strategies significantly.
First, I'd like to quote something here from the release updates, so we have a reference to talk upon:
- The Daily Focus mechanics have been updated and each Ranked battle win will contribute rshares toward the Daily Focus chests, even if no daily focus cards are used. However, each card used that follows the daily focus will give a 10% bonus to the amount of focus points earned for that battle.
* Rshare distribution has been implemented that will allow both Summoners and Monster Units to contribute to bonus rshare earnings, but only monster units that naturally have the required ability will qualify for this bonus (a monster unit that receives the required ability through summoner buffs will not qualify).
A few ideas that can be drawn from here:
- both the summoner and monsters contribute with bonuses toward the FP and SP
- question here, because I haven't tested something like this: for example, does a summoner that adds Magic Reflect to friendly monsters (Owster) offer a 10% bonus on a Reflect focus mission or not? Because technically, the summoner itself doesn't have this ability.
- abilities received from the summoner (or from the ruleset) do not count for bonuses
- the maximum focus mission bonus you can receive is 70%, if all your monsters and the summoner have the daily focus requirements
- for a splinter focus, using neutral cards reduces your potential bonus; at the same time, you can use a dragon summoner and mainly cards from the focus splinter to benefit from both the dragon summoner and the splinter focus
Additional Remarks
When I opened my focus reward chests today I had a surprise. I'm still in Diamond League, so my focus chests were diamond chests. And my surprise was regarding the potions. The other rewards were very bad, but look at those potions, at 11 chests:
At least I won't have to buy potions. No Merits yet in the rewards, not that I'm anxious about them as a replacement for DEC.
Closing Thoughts
As I played a splinter-based focus mission (so not yet an ability-based one), I like that I didn't feel somehow pressured to use the same splinter, because you win even when you don't use the focus elements, just without the bonuses.
I think I even did better than the day before. Plus, I noticed some accounts which gave up without a fight. Might've been bots which didn't know how to handle the situation of a focus mission that isn't active, or might've been someone who only rented a splinter and that one wasn't active.
How do you find the new changes so far?