Last issue game development news we said that the developers are working on a new system of heroes. Today we are happy to announce that the changes will be included in Update 8.00! 

MORE HEROES, MORE COMBINATIONS

There are currently three slots in the Hero Squad: Hero, Support, and Tactical Operative. There are seven such elements in the new layout of heroes: one commander, five support squad members, and a team skill. Heroes no longer have a fixed set of skills that define their play style, leaving one specific skill. With the help of the layout of the heroes, you can combine skills in different ways and play the way you like. Let's explore the layout in detail!

COMMANDER

The Commander is the hero you play as during the mission. The available abilities, class skills (about them a little later) and the skill of the commander depend on the hero. The Commander skill is unlocked when the hero reaches 2 stars and significantly improves the standard skill. The commander occupies an important place in the layout due to his powerful skills. Use it to make your layout as cool as possible!

SUPPORT Squad

The Support Squad is the backbone of your layout. Any hero added to a support squad gives you their standard skill and 8% of their stats. You can create the most unexpected combinations using your collection of heroes. There are 5 slots in the support unit - you will have a lot of possible layout options: from a constructor who prefers sniper rifles to a soldier with the most advanced “Weapon of Victory!”. The choice is yours.

CLASS SKILLS

Each class has several skills common to all heroes of that class. It is important for us that you feel the specifics by choosing, for example, a constructor, but at the same time retain your own style of play. Skills form the basis of each class of heroes, but they do not impose unnecessary restrictions. For example, the "BASE" ability is now a constructor class skill, available to all constructors through the trap menu.

You are probably familiar with most of the class skills - they have been in the game before, just in a different form. We've tweaked these skills to better suit the task. Some needed only minor adjustments, while others had to be completely redesigned or provided with additional features. For example, the class skill “On the Hit”, intended for travelers, also includes the functions of the old skill “Diamond Eye” by default. 

TEAM SKILL

Team skills reflect how strong the fighters in your collection are. Among these skills there are very powerful ones that can become the hallmark of your layout. These skills are not tied to a hero - you simply choose them from the list of available team skills. The first time you unlock a Command Skill slot, you will immediately gain 4 Command Skills. We can't wait to see your ingenious layouts! 

These are special skills: you can only use them if the support unit meets certain conditions. Team skills have a significant impact on your play style, but you have to choose the right layout for them! Below are a few examples. 

• "Soaring Mantis": Praying Mantis Leap allows you to make 2 more jumps. Requires: 3 ninjas.

• "Double punch": For each Hero with 2 stars or more, your next Heavy Attack costs 20% less Power after using an ability.

Together with the layout of the heroes, 20 team skills will appear in the game. Some of these will be familiar to you, as we've turned a number of existing skills into team skills.

If the heroes do not have team skills, then how to get them? Here is one way: 

MYTHICAL HEROES

Mythical heroes have a special role in the layout. They are notable for the fact that together with such a hero you always get a new, unique team skill. In the future, you may need to complete a special task before the mythical hero teaches your team new combat techniques. This is not the only way to acquire team skills, but one of the main ones. 

SWITCHING BETWEEN LAYOUTS

Now you have several layouts available at once! You can create and save multiple hero layouts and quickly switch between them. Additional layout slots are unlocked during the Don't Retreat! campaign. 

NEW SKINS FOR OLD HEROES

Almost all new heroes will have a unique skill. Old heroes will have a new skin if those heroes were sold for real money (for example, heroes from the Founder's Pack) or were temporary rewards (for example, Birthday Commander Ramirez). We will extend this rule to all existing heroes, so many heroes that differ only in appearance will become unique! For example, Eight Bit Demo and Bull Destroyer will gain unique skills. This also applies to alternative variants of the same subclass - Destroyer Ox and Destroyer Penny will have different sets of skills. 

HEROES OF PAST EVENTS

We understand that this massive overhaul will affect every hero. You've probably turned down some of the heroes that were presented as participating in LTMs because they were just new skins of the heroes you already had, or their skills didn't fit with your play style. One of our long-term goals is to make sure that you can earn the heroes of past events again. We have some great ideas, but we're not ready to talk about them yet. In the meantime, we're giving each player a few Hero Hire Coupons, which you can use to recruit heroes from past events in the Collection Book. 

NEW HEROES

The new layout is a great opportunity to replenish your collection of heroes! We have added 8 quests to the game, for completing each of which you will receive a hero. These quests continue the class-specific quest chains and become available after defending the Storm Shield for the second time in Canny Valley. 

REWARD SYSTEM UPDATE

We've made changes to some of the Heroes that you receive as rewards from regular quests to reduce the number of repeatable Heroes and help you expand your collection. Players who have already completed these tasks will receive new rewards the next time they log into the game. 

FAST ADAPTATION

We want you to be able to start creating new Hero Loadouts and testing them in the game right away. To do this, we will give each player a certain amount of experience for heroes and materials for development, depending on the level of the account. We will also be giving out recruitment materials (tutorials and transmuters) so you can recruit some new heroes from the collection book. Start experimenting! 

ECONOMIC RENEWAL

We want to make sure that you try out different pickups more often and experiment with new heroes. We felt that the existing mission rewards made this more difficult, so we will significantly increase the amount of experience for heroes, blueprints and survivors received from completing normal and urgent missions in Plankerton, Canny Valley and Lynch Peaks. 

RESETTING ITEM DATA

You value your collections very much, and we do not want to devalue the time you have spent adding and expanding the collection. The new system is changing heroes drastically, so we've made the new data reset feature available to all of your heroes. 

Here is the first version of the layout of the heroes, and we will constantly work on improving it. We can't wait to please you with this update and see amazing and unusual layout options!