This post will be updated with June hotfixes, with the most recent at the top.
Hotfix 2 (v11.08.1)
(September 18)
Fixes - Matchmaking Scouter: Fixed some tooltips for clarity - Fixed a bug where Double Down wrongly only applied on losses when the Shop was temporarily disabled - Fixed various other issues when Shop was temporarily disabled
Platinum and ruby borders are now unlocked at 20x/40x card copies! (100x/200x for Guilds)
Monuments have also been reworked! Monuments now determine their silver/gold/platinum/ruby status based on how many cards you have of the type, rather than how many monuments are equipped.
This means you can have multiple different silver, gold, platinum, and ruby monuments at the same time!
Thanks to Danwulfe for the suggestion.
The Profile → Collection menu presentation has also been improved: glows are based off of your border instead of card rarity, and gems have been added to show rarity.
Avatar borders have been polished as well!
New Feature: Purchase & Donate Multiple Cards
At long last, the tech is here! This was a commonly requested feature that we’re happy to finally deliver.
New Feature: Matchmaking Scouter
Enables you to see whether any of up to 10 specified players are queued or in lobby before you enter matchmaking. You may use this to reduce your chances of matching with certain players. Can be unlocked permanently in the shop.
First, customize the list of players in the shop.
Then, when you queue up, you will receive this popup if any listed players are in queue or in lobby.
Note that (due to technical limitations), once you’ve entered matchmaking, the confirm matchmaking popup will not reopen if your scouted players enter queue after you.
New Secret Card: Housecat Nekomata
Like and subscribe for financial advice.
There may or may not be a Pack Rat-themed card next patch ;)
Dual Building - Bonus attack speed to waves and mercenaries: 3% → 2%
Giga Mercs - Fixed a bug where Giga Mimic was giving +12.5% gold per stack (supposed to be +0%) - Fixed a bug where Giga Shaman was giving +40 damage per stack (supposed to be +25)
This will increase variety of sends in Giga Mercs and make the mode more fun.
Tower Defense - Now shows up in rotation 67% less often
This mode is polarizing (some love it and others hate it), so we're reducing the frequency.
PvE - Improved variety of sends
Masterminds
Champion - Attack speed and damage reduction: 9.25% → 9.5%
We missed the mark with Champion’s balance, in part because we were anchored by feedback that it was strong at 8%. We should have been more aggressive with previous buffs.
Seadragon / Lifebinder - Mana regeneration increased by 4%
Low win rate.
Infiltrator / Orchid - Shuriken: Damage: 35 → 37
Slightly low win rate and pick rate.
Pirate Skeleton - Health: 780 → 760
Spectral Scallywag is intended to be strong, but it's currently too safe and easy to get it with 2x Pirate Skeleton opening. This change makes it riskier.
Slime Siren - Attack speed: 1.34 → 1.32
High win rate and pick rate.
Canopie - Health: 4050 → 4150
Low win rate.
Honeyflower Attack speed: 1.03 → 1.01
High win rate and pick rate.
Crab Warlock / Crabomancer - Mana regeneration increased by 4%
Low win rate and pick rate.
Warp Wing / Void Manta - Attack speed: 0.77 → 0.73 - Plasma Decay: Damage debuff to bosses: -2 → -1.5 - Fixed a bug where Plasma Decay was wrongly debuffing bounced targets based on the boss status of the initial target
Wave 18: Wale Chiefs - Attack speed: 2 → 1.82 - New ability: Feast: Restores 0.1% health and grants 0.5% attack speed when a nearby enemy dies
Wave 19: Dire Toads - Attack speed: 2.22 → 2 - New ability: Feast: Restores 0.1% health and grants 0.5% attack speed when a nearby enemy dies
Wave 21 - New ability: Feast: Restores 0.1% health and grants 0.5% attack speed when a nearby enemy dies - Inferno (splash damage): Removed
Balance Watchlist
The dev team is constantly monitoring game balance, between looking at data and listening to community feedback. If anything is being more closely monitored than usual, it will be listed in this Balance Watchlist section. For this patch, the following are on the watchlist:
Double Lock-In, Redraw, Fiesta, and Castle are performing better than expected, but they are indirectly nerfed by the wave buffs and nerfs to Manta and Honeyflower this patch.
Giant Snail continues to look strong compared to other offensive spells, but waiting another patch to further evaluate.
Improvements & Fixes
Auras and self-buffs now increase model scale to better visually communicate the buff
Fixed a display-only bug where a stack of Double Down would appear to be used after a match was canceled
Community Updates
Game Translations
Legion TD 2's translations continue to be improved, thanks to major contributions from community members! If you'd like to contribute to improving the game's texts further, visit the following link:
HUGE thank you to everyone who has helped up to this point!
Closing Remarks
This patch introduces some long-awaited features, as well as meaningful balance and meta improvements.
As always, with any major patch, we'll keep a close eye on things and rapidly hotfix as long as needed.
Thank you again for playing Legion TD 2! We hope you continue to enjoy the game.
If you've enjoyed the game, but haven't left a review yet, please consider posting a short (hopefully positive ) review for the game! If the game reaches 90% positive, Steam will give it more visibility = more players = more freelo better matchmaking!
If you enjoy these updates, please give it a Thumbs Up, too!
If you have constructive criticism, let's chat about it. Discord and /r/LegionTD2 on reddit are our main channels of communication, and aside from the development team, there are community helpers who can ensure your feedback is heard, as well as answer pretty much anything you've ever wanted to know about the game. If you want a guaranteed answer from the devs, the monthly AMAs on /r/LegionTD2 are your best bet.
Sincerely, The Legion TD 2 Team
Sign Up for the September Nova Cup!
Last Month Recap
Congratulations to the winners of last month's Nova Cup! - D1: Secret Agents (Drachir & Aatrocity) - D2: The Crows (W1TCH0R & 1nc0.o) - D3: Team Cono (SebAx & Tiburcio) - D4: Bananas forever (dada007 & Sapal) - D5: NeroTheLightning_shiwaseki (NeroTheLightning & shiwaseki)
Missed the action? Check the brackets, team lists, & VODs for all divisions on the Legion TD 2 eSports portal!
This Month
The upcoming September Nova Cup takes place September 21 - 22.
$875 in prizes and sign-up is free - first come first served! There are up to five skill divisions, so no matter what your rating is, you have a chance to win. Participation prize: Every participant who plays all of their matches will receive a FREE random card. If you haven't played a tournament yet, this is a great time to join.
Requirements
- Everyone that is level 3 or higher can join for free! First come, first served. So even if you recently joined the game, feel free to participate!
Twitch Drops
When you watch Nova Cups on the official channel, aside from enjoying shoutcasted top-tier Legion gameplay, you'll also receive in-game rewards based on how long you watch!
Watch the official Legion TD 2 Twitch stream during a Nova Cup to earn the following rewards: - Watch for 60 minutes: 2,000 essence - Watch for an additional 90 minutes: 4,000 additional essence - Watch for an additional 120 minutes: Random card
In other words, if you watch the Nova Cup both days, you'll earn 6,000 total essence and a random card!
IMPORTANT: You'll need to link your Twitch account to your Legion TD 2 account in order to earn the rewards. Link Your Twitch Account
Team Sign-up Instructions
Sign-ups are open from NOW until September 21 9am PDT / 6pm CEST.
To sign up, find a teammate and form a party. After you're both in the party, have one player type "/signup [team name]" (e.g. /signup Snail Kings) in chat. You should see a confirmation message that your sign-up went through. For those who participated in previous Nova Cups, you no longer need to do /join to signup.
The first 16 teams to sign up in each division can participate. For division 1 and 2 the top 8 teams are drafted per division. Other teams are waitlisted. There are usually no-shows, so waitlisted teams are encouraged to be present in the Discord and ready to play. View the team list to see your sign-up position and division.
If there are more than 32 teams checked in, there will be an additional best-of-1 qualifying round to allow more teams to participate. It is a best-of-1, rather than a best-of-3, to keep the event from running overly long.
You may sign-up as a solo with a suggested team name using the "/signup [team name]" command. Solo teams will be added to the Public Teams list, then be formed into teams on the day of the tournament. Solo teams will be randomly assigned a team name from either of its members.
If there is a waitlist, team sign-ups will always take priority over solo sign-ups
If you sign up as a solo, but then you find a teammate, you can re-sign up as a team any time before check-ins start. Just use the /signup command again with the new teammate. The tournament organizer will void your old solo signup after they process your new team signup.
After check-ins are over, all checked-in solo players will be randomly formed into teams by the tournament organizer. You cannot request a specific teammate at this point; if you want to play with a specific person, you should have signed up as a team instead.
It is still strongly recommended to sign-up as a team to guarantee your spot in the tournament and to give you time to practice with your teammate beforehand.
Any team that fails to check in will be disqualified. The next team on the waitlist that checked in will earn a spot.
Game Format
The custom game room creator should enable Tournament Mode in the room. This will ensure the following settings:
2v2
Mastermind only
Hybrid disabled
Division 1 & 2 Only - Conquest rules apply. (Once you win with a Mastermind playstyle, you and your ally can't use that playstyle again for that series)
Final Remarks
For a full list of rules, prizes, and other details, visit the following link: Nova Cup Rules & FAQ
See you on September 21st! The Nova Cup will be casted and streamed at twitch.tv/ltd2. Check the Tournament Discord on the event day for links to the other casts.
Sincerely, Your Legion TD 2 Tournament Staff
Sign Up for the August Nova Cup!
Last Month Recap
Congratulations to the winners of last month's Nova Cup! - D1: abrasiert (Kingdanzz & Widderson) - D2: hmm (Turnixtheus & Valas) - D3: Pyro (Snow193 & Shiyuna) - D4: FLIP (CRiddle & CybY) - D5: Russian Book(s) (iliksh- & 4Siris)
Missed the action? Check the brackets, team lists, & VODs for all divisions on the Legion TD 2 eSports portal!
This Month
The upcoming August Nova Cup takes place August 24 - 25.
$875 in prizes and sign-up is free - first come first served! There are up to five skill divisions, so no matter what your rating is, you have a chance to win. Participation prize: Every participant who plays all of their matches will receive a FREE random card. If you haven't played a tournament yet, this is a great time to join.
Requirements
- Everyone that is level 3 or higher can join for free! First come, first served. So even if you recently joined the game, feel free to participate!
Twitch Drops
When you watch Nova Cups on the official channel, aside from enjoying shoutcasted top-tier Legion gameplay, you'll also receive in-game rewards based on how long you watch!
Watch the official Legion TD 2 Twitch stream during a Nova Cup to earn the following rewards: - Watch for 60 minutes: 2,000 essence - Watch for an additional 90 minutes: 4,000 additional essence - Watch for an additional 120 minutes: Random card
In other words, if you watch the Nova Cup both days, you'll earn 6,000 total essence and a random card!
IMPORTANT: You'll need to link your Twitch account to your Legion TD 2 account in order to earn the rewards. Link Your Twitch Account
Team Sign-up Instructions
Sign-ups are open from NOW until August 24 9am PDT / 6pm CEST.
To sign up, find a teammate and form a party. After you're both in the party, have one player type "/signup [team name]" (e.g. /signup Snail Kings) in chat. You should see a confirmation message that your sign-up went through. For those who participated in previous Nova Cups, you no longer need to do /join to signup.
The first 16 teams to sign up in each division can participate. For division 1 and 2 the top 8 teams are drafted per division. Other teams are waitlisted. There are usually no-shows, so waitlisted teams are encouraged to be present in the Discord and ready to play. View the team list to see your sign-up position and division.
If there are more than 32 teams checked in, there will be an additional best-of-1 qualifying round to allow more teams to participate. It is a best-of-1, rather than a best-of-3, to keep the event from running overly long.
You may sign-up as a solo with a suggested team name using the "/signup [team name]" command. Solo teams will be added to the Public Teams list, then be formed into teams on the day of the tournament. Solo teams will be randomly assigned a team name from either of its members.
If there is a waitlist, team sign-ups will always take priority over solo sign-ups
If you sign up as a solo, but then you find a teammate, you can re-sign up as a team any time before check-ins start. Just use the /signup command again with the new teammate. The tournament organizer will void your old solo signup after they process your new team signup.
After check-ins are over, all checked-in solo players will be randomly formed into teams by the tournament organizer. You cannot request a specific teammate at this point; if you want to play with a specific person, you should have signed up as a team instead.
It is still strongly recommended to sign-up as a team to guarantee your spot in the tournament and to give you time to practice with your teammate beforehand.
Any team that fails to check in will be disqualified. The next team on the waitlist that checked in will earn a spot.
Game Format
The custom game room creator should enable Tournament Mode in the room. This will ensure the following settings:
2v2
Mastermind only
Hybrid disabled
Division 1 & 2 Only - Conquest rules apply. (Once you win with a Mastermind playstyle, you and your ally can't use that playstyle again for that series)
Final Remarks
For a full list of rules, prizes, and other details, visit the following link: Nova Cup Rules & FAQ
See you on August 24th! The Nova Cup will be casted and streamed at twitch.tv/ltd2. Check the Tournament Discord on the event day for links to the other casts.
Sincerely, Your Legion TD 2 Tournament Staff
v11.07 Major Update
Expected patch release: Tuesday-Wednesday, August 13-14 (Pacific Time)
Check out Drachbot to see mastermind, unit, and spell win rates and pick rates
Major Updates
New Fighter: Warp Wing
Warp Wing
Tier 4 (Cost: 145g)
Role: Supportive
Ranged / Pure / Arcane
Plasma Decay Reduces the damage of up to 3 nearby enemies by 4, stacking up to 30 times.
New Fighter: Void Manta
Void Manta
Tier 4 (Upgrade Cost: 270g)
Role: Supportive
Ranged / Pure / Arcane
Plasma Overwhelming Each target of Plasma Decay now receives 2 additional stacks.
New Secret Card: Dank Dino
Dank Mage has gone too long without friendly competition.
Double Down
Price reduction: 10,000 essence → 5,000 essence
Weekly purchase limit: 4 --> Unlimited!
Double Down was initially released at a higher price point and with a weekly limit to guard against being too disruptive on the ranked ladder. Now that things are stable, we feel good about the new price point and removal of the weekly limit.
Game Balance
Classic
Reverted nerf to AOE damage
Reverted health and damage nerf to Hydra
Reverted the change that prevented Sakura from gaining stacks and Bankers from gaining gold on waves 21+ (Eggsack can still no longer be built on waves 21+)
Initiate operation Make Everything Fun Again! We tried being responsive to community feedback about balance issues in Classic, but realized that only moved the problem. By reverting these nerfs, we create more competition for the currently dominant raid boss Lioness build.
Friendly reminder that Classic is an unranked mode with no skill-based matchmaking, and it will be less balanced than Ranked.
Systems
Leak Gold
Leaking is now less punishing on waves 1-10 and more punishing on waves 11-21.
The exact numbers vary by wave, but in the early game, the leaker will get, on average, 12% more compensation gold, and the opposing team will earn 18% less breaker gold. In the late game, the leaker will get 9% less compensation gold, and the opposing team will earn 11% more breaker gold.
This encourages risky worker pushing in the early game and makes split sending / breaking your opponent for gold more rewarding in the late game.
Attack Speed Bug Fix
A few patches ago, a bug was introduced that made certain units attack too fast. To our knowledge, the only units that were affected were Granddaddy (wave 10), Killer Slug (wave 14), Gatling Gun, Vulcan Cannon, and Champion Gatling/Vulcan. In recent patches, these units were nerfed and balanced around the existence of the bug.
This patch fixes the bug, so we’re adjusting the attack speeds of wave 10, wave 14, Gatling Gun, and Vulcan Cannon to remain unchanged. These fixes are not shown in patch notes to avoid clutter and confusion.
Substantively, the only changes you should notice are (1) Champion Gatling Gun/Vulcan Cannon is no longer attacking faster than expected, and (2) wave 14 is getting independently nerfed. If there are other, unexpected effects of the bug fix, we’ll address them in hotfixes as needed. Apologies for this bug.
Masterminds
Castle - Bonus income on wave 11: 45 → 47
Low win rate.
Champion - Attack speed and damage reduction: 9% → 9.25%
For such a unique and fun Mastermind, Champion's pick rate is lackluster. And now that Champion Gatling Gun is properly balanced, Champion deserves a small buff.
Fiesta - Gold from leaking: Reduced by 2 on wave 1 and 3 on waves 2-21
Compensation nerf for the changes to leak gold, which are an indirect buff to Fiesta.
Lock-In - Random: Bonus gold: 7 → 8
Low pick rate and win rate.
Redraw - Gold cost for Redrawing: 1 to 30 → 1 to 25
Low pick rate and win rate.
Legion Spells
Battle Scars / Divine Blessing - Attack speed bonus now affects summons and clones - Battle Scars can now be applied to Soul Gate and Hell Gate
This makes these spells consistent with Hero and Champion and more versatile.
Hero - Attack speed and damage reduction: 4.25% → 4%
This change was supposed to go out last patch, but it slipped through the cracks.
Lizard Army - Retired from the game
This spell is overshadowed by Robo Squad and has historically been difficult to balance and make fun. RIP Lizard Army: 2018 - 2024
Thanks to Schakara for the icon.
Magician - Mana regeneration: 0.57 → 0.55
High pick rate and win rate.
Vampire Life steal and ability vamp: 23% → 24%
Low win rate and pick rate.
Fighters
Whirlybird - Damage: 40 → 39
High win rate.
Angler - Health: 380 → 360 - Damage: 17 → 16
Bounty Hunter Damage: 78 → 77 Max mana: 120 → 180
The mana change is mostly a ForFun change for players that want a giga chad Kingpin, but in most competitive games, it won’t change much, as it’s usually optimal to upgrade your Kingpin before it reaches max stacks.
Wave 17: Metal Dragons - Attack speed: 1.681 → 1.69
Balance Watchlist
The dev team is constantly monitoring game balance, between looking at data and listening to community feedback. If anything is being more closely monitored than usual, it will be listed in this Balance Watchlist section. For this patch, the following are on the watchlist:
Howler, Sunfang, Antler, and Whitemane are statistically strong, but their power isn’t flashy (compared to units like Whirlybird and Azeria), so players tend to perceive them to be weaker than they are. Perception is important, so we’re holding off on nerfs for now.
Wave 21 Inferno (splash damage) may be on the strong side, but it’s also good for the game when builds with high tier units fare better than cheap unit spam.
Cheap unit spam is stronger than expected on waves 15-19, and we’re still thinking of a good way to address this. Thanks to Kidk and Julian for feedback and discussion.
Improvements & Fixes
Smurf Boosting There was a recent incident of top players duoing with smurfs to boost to the top of the ladder. It's impossible for us to police smurfing, but as this is a matter of ladder integrity, we are responding as follows:
Reduce the rating and peak rating of the players involved
Modify the duo rating formula to further penalize large gaps in rating. At 2800+ rating, it will now be impossible to smurf boost. This may also penalize legitimate duos with a rating gap, but it's the only way to prevent smurf boosting at scale - without the mod team constantly making subjective judgment calls.
To compensate for the above change, slightly reduce the flat penalty for duoing. This makes duoing slightly better for players that are very close in rating.
Improvements & Fixes
Double Down: Fixed a display-only bug where the Double Down message didn’t display properly in the tab scoreboard
Double Down: Fixed a display-only bug where purchasing Double Down didn’t show a confirmation popup
Double Down: Fixed a few cases where the Double Down counter wasn’t updating after finishing a game
Double Down: (Workaround) Double Down is no longer purchasable while in queue, to fix some bugs that resulted when a match was found a split second after being purchased.
Spectator: Fixed a bug where attempting to use -ff as a spectator would crash the game
FairPlay: Fixed a case where players would be mistakenly still marked as suspicious players (the “[!] in postgame”) in the case where no players were able to connect properly. Instead, the punishment is ignored since it is likely the server’s fault in those cases.
Tutorial: Disabled pause/unpause in most tutorials, since players who accidentally paused the game had trouble advancing
Tutorial: Fixed a bug in the Attack Types tutorial that prevented players from advancing
Community Updates
Game Translations
Legion TD 2's translations continue to be improved, thanks to major contributions from community members! If you'd like to contribute to improving the game's texts further, visit the following link:
HUGE thank you to everyone who has helped up to this point!
Closing Remarks
This patch has some exciting meta improvements by buffing risk-taking in the early game and introduces new supportive units to the game - Warp Wing and Void Manta!
As always, with any major patch, we'll keep a close eye on things and rapidly hotfix as long as needed.
Thank you again for playing Legion TD 2! We hope you continue to enjoy the game.
If you've enjoyed the game, but haven't left a review yet, please consider posting a short (hopefully positive ) review for the game! If the game reaches 90% positive, Steam will give it more visibility = more players = more freelo better matchmaking!
If you enjoy these updates, please give it a Thumbs Up, too!
If you have constructive criticism, let's chat about it. Discord and /r/LegionTD2 on reddit are our main channels of communication, and aside from the development team, there are community helpers who can ensure your feedback is heard, as well as answer pretty much anything you've ever wanted to know about the game. If you want a guaranteed answer from the devs, the monthly AMAs on /r/LegionTD2 are your best bet.
Sincerely, Team Legion
Design Philosophy: Game Balance
I'm Jules, and one of my jobs is balancing Legion TD 2. In this dev blog, I share our design philosophy on game balance and some of our secret sauce.
Principles
Trust the data Every time you play the game, your decisions and the resulting outcomes generate valuable data. Data captures information from hundreds of thousands of games and tens of thousands of players, not just from players who give feedback. It's also always recording, not just when players choose to give feedback (after being tilted by a loss ). For balance data, we recommend Drachbot, which closely matches our internal data.
Listen to the community Community feedback fills in the gaps when data is lacking or if a unit's design is problematic. If there's feedback that conflicts with data, that might mean a unit is frustrating or situationally unbalanced, even if it's balanced on average. We often make systemic changes based on community feedback, but not everyone speaks English or chooses to give feedback, and it's unrepresentative of the player base at large.
Balance for Ranked Most of our effort goes towards balancing Ranked because it is our competitive mode with skill-based matchmaking. In Classic, we only balance outliers if they are heavily degrading the meta.
Balance for top ladder One great thing about Legion is that the meta is similar at all levels of play. However, some units are stronger in top ladder because they are more decision-making-intensive (e.g. Pack Rat, Eggsack) or positioning-dependent (e.g. Priestess of the Abyss). We default to balancing for top ladder, which means that some of these high skill cap units are balanced or slightly strong in top ladder but slightly weak otherwise.
Balance for the present Anyone can theorize about how strong a unit, combo, or strategy should be or will be once the community learns it. While their prediction might be correct, our philosophy is to balance for the current state of the game. If the prediction becomes reality, it will be reflected in the data and subsequently addressed.
Game balance is one of many tools for making the game fun More balanced doesn't always mean more fun. It's more fun having exciting moments where you occasionally high roll a strong combo or win the game on wave 7, mixed with low moments where you have no tanks in your Yolo roll, than to always have a neutral experience.
Rolls
When balancing fighters, we primarily look at a unit's roll data - how often players pick and win with a unit in their roll, regardless of whether they build it. That's because when a unit is built, its win rate becomes confounded by the state of the game. For example, building a Doomsday Machine has a >50% win rate, not because it is overpowered, but because players that build it tend to already be winning. Because Doomsday Machine is the most expensive unit in the game, only players who have a lot of gold (and who are likely already in a winning position) can afford it.
Win rate and pick rate are both important variables.
In low-rated games, win rate is predictive of how strong a unit is (in that rating bracket). As you climb the ladder, players are more informed and play optimally. They are deliberate about what units they pick. This makes pick rate the more predictive variable and win rate less predictive.
One way to think about it: On the far left of the rating distribution, players are effectively picking randomly or based on what art looks most exciting. On the far right of the rating distribution, players are sweatily drafting the comp that will maximize their chance of winning and counter-picking against the meta.
Because of this, win rates flatten out towards 50% once the meta has stabilized. Here's a good example:
Take the game of rock-paper-scissors, but instead of rock always beating scissors, scissors always beating paper, and paper always beating rock, imagine rock beats scissors 75% of the time, scissors beats paper 75% of the time, and paper beats rock 90% of the time.
In low-rated games, where players pick randomly, paper has the highest win rate, scissors in the middle, and rock the lowest.
However, in high-rated games, something interesting happens. Players take into account the different win rates and adjust the frequency at which they throw rock, paper, and scissors. At equilibrium, the win rate of all three choices is 50%. Win rate loses all predictive power.
This example doesn't perfectly describe Legion, as Legion is a much more complex game with an ever-evolving meta, but it illustrates why we can't only consider win rate and why we must also consider pick rate for game balance.
If a unit is high appeal or especially fun, this will affect pick rate. We do our best to factor that in. For example, Sacred Steed is fun to use, so we tolerate her having a higher pick rate than normal.
Upgrades
Roll data helps us determine which rolls are strong or weak, but it doesn't tell us about the balance of individual units (base unit vs. upgrades). To determine that, we consider two factors:
Unit stats Consider Sand Badger. If roll data shows Sand Badger is too strong, we can compare the HP/gold and DPS/gold of Sand Badger and its upgrade Iron Scales, given they have identical typing, range, and utility. If their HP/gold and DPS/gold are roughly the same, it's likely that Sand Badger and Iron Scales are both strong and in need of a nerf. When a base unit has different typing, range, or utility than its upgrade, we can make reasonable approximations about the power budget of those differences or compare against other similar units. Additionally, we can consider unit usage and win rates.
Usage and win rates In this context, usage rate is how often a unit is built, and win rate is how often players win when they build that unit. For example, compare Devilfish and its counterpart Seraphin. If the data shows Devilfish is used more than Seraphin and has a higher win rate when built, we'd consider shifting power from Devilfish to Seraphin. Remember that with unit usage and win rates, we run into the confounder problem (where the ability and choice to build a unit reflects your position in the game), so we have to be smart about adjusting for this.
Openings
We don't worry specifically about opening balance too much. That's because if rolls are balanced, it usually means openings are also balanced. If an opening is strong, players will pick and win with that unit more often, which is captured in roll data.
If too much of a unit's power budget is in its strength as an opening, we'll consider damage threshold adjustments to nerf it as an opening, while buffing or maintaining its power elsewhere. An example of that is Fire Elemental, which used to perfectly 2-shot wave 3, making it a powerful and low interaction opening. By lowering its damage slightly and compensating it with increased attack speed, we kept its DPS the same while making it a weaker opening.
Mercenaries
For mercenary balance, we primarily consider usage and win rates, then make adjustments for the following:
Cheaper mercenaries are used more often
More expensive mercenaries have higher win rates (the same confounder we talked about earlier when building Doomsday Machine also applies when sending Kraken)
Power mercenaries have higher win rates (players that are already in a winning position are more likely to send power mercenaries)
Waves
In Ranked, our target end-wave distribution is a bell curve centered around wave 15 or 16. This accomplishes the following:
Makes average game time 20 minutes and 95% of games between 10-30 minutes
Avoid spikes in wave power and makes all waves viable to send on
Makes the lethality of a wave (the conditional probability that the game ends, given that you reached that wave) monotonically increasing, which means tension increases as the game goes on. For example, even if more games end on wave 16 than 17, the probability of the game ending on 17 (given you reached wave 17) is higher than then probability of the game ending on 16 (given you reached wave 16).
Closing Thoughts
We care a lot about game balance in Legion TD 2. It's why every major patch has balance changes and why we respond quickly with hotfixes if something is breaking the meta.
When we buff or nerf a unit, the magnitude of the change is usually small, on the order of 1-3%. That's because the game's balance has been finely tuned over the years, and tiny changes make a big difference in a strategy game like Legion. For example, one patch, Sakura went from one of the top performing units to one of the bottom performing units after a 1.5% nerf to her attack speed.
On a personal note, game balance is one of my greatest joys. I grew up being obsessed with game balance and numbers and would often rebalance board games and theorycraft about how to improve game balance in video games. In 2013, I graduated with a degree in statistics from Harvard. From 2012-2015, I worked as a data scientist and game designer at Riot Games, focusing primarily on game balance for League of Legends. I built most of League's game balance frameworks and dashboards, some of which are still in use today 10 years later. After leaving Riot Games, I began development on Legion TD 2 with Lisk, and the rest is history.
Sincerely, Jules from the Legion TD 2 Team
Sign Up for the July Nova Cup!
Last Month Recap
Congratulations to the winners of last month's Nova Cup! - D1: rampampam (Paweded & fine) - D2: u wnt sum? (Danwolf & robie) - D3: anma - tool_cereal (AnMa - TooL & cereal) - D4: [maesdafoca] (ZeMariano & Jp199) - D5: backshotbeach (Showduck & Ellipse)
Missed the action? Check the brackets, team lists, & VODs for all divisions on the Legion TD 2 eSports portal!
This Month
The upcoming July Nova Cup takes place July 27 - 28.
$875 in prizes and sign-up is free - first come first served! There are up to five skill divisions, so no matter what your rating is, you have a chance to win. Participation prize: Every participant who plays all of their matches will receive a FREE random card. If you haven't played a tournament yet, this is a great time to join.
Requirements
- Everyone that is level 3 or higher can join for free! First come, first served. So even if you recently joined the game, feel free to participate!
Twitch Drops
When you watch Nova Cups on the official channel, aside from enjoying shoutcasted top-tier Legion gameplay, you'll also receive in-game rewards based on how long you watch!
Watch the official Legion TD 2 Twitch stream during a Nova Cup to earn the following rewards: - Watch for 60 minutes: 2,000 essence - Watch for an additional 90 minutes: 4,000 additional essence - Watch for an additional 120 minutes: Random card
In other words, if you watch the Nova Cup both days, you'll earn 6,000 total essence and a random card!
IMPORTANT: You'll need to link your Twitch account to your Legion TD 2 account in order to earn the rewards. Link Your Twitch Account
Team Sign-up Instructions
Sign-ups are open from NOW until July 27 9am PDT / 6pm CEST.
To sign up, find a teammate and form a party. After you're both in the party, have one player type "/signup [team name]" (e.g. /signup Snail Kings) in chat. You should see a confirmation message that your sign-up went through. For those who participated in previous Nova Cups, you no longer need to do /join to signup.
The first 16 teams to sign up in each division can participate. For division 1 and 2 the top 8 teams are drafted per division. Other teams are waitlisted. There are usually no-shows, so waitlisted teams are encouraged to be present in the Discord and ready to play. View the team list to see your sign-up position and division.
If there are more than 32 teams checked in, there will be an additional best-of-1 qualifying round to allow more teams to participate. It is a best-of-1, rather than a best-of-3, to keep the event from running overly long.
You may sign-up as a solo with a suggested team name using the "/signup [team name]" command. Solo teams will be added to the Public Teams list, then be formed into teams on the day of the tournament. Solo teams will be randomly assigned a team name from either of its members.
If there is a waitlist, team sign-ups will always take priority over solo sign-ups
If you sign up as a solo, but then you find a teammate, you can re-sign up as a team any time before check-ins start. Just use the /signup command again with the new teammate. The tournament organizer will void your old solo signup after they process your new team signup.
After check-ins are over, all checked-in solo players will be randomly formed into teams by the tournament organizer. You cannot request a specific teammate at this point; if you want to play with a specific person, you should have signed up as a team instead.
It is still strongly recommended to sign-up as a team to guarantee your spot in the tournament and to give you time to practice with your teammate beforehand.
Any team that fails to check in will be disqualified. The next team on the waitlist that checked in will earn a spot.
Game Format
The custom game room creator should enable Tournament Mode in the room. This will ensure the following settings:
2v2
Mastermind only
Hybrid disabled
Division 1 & 2 Only - Conquest rules apply. (Once you win with a Mastermind playstyle, you and your ally can't use that playstyle again for that series)
Final Remarks
For a full list of rules, prizes, and other details, visit the following link: Nova Cup Rules & FAQ
See you on July 27th! The Nova Cup will be casted and streamed at twitch.tv/ltd2. Check the Tournament Discord on the event day for links to the other casts.
Sincerely, Your Legion TD 2 Tournament Staff
v11.06 Hotfixes
This post will be updated with June hotfixes, with the most recent at the top.
Hotfix 1 (v11.06.1)
(July 17)
Double Down - Fixed a bug where it was mistakenly giving 7 charges instead of 3 (We had a miscommunication on the final numbers - apologies to everyone for the confusing communications on this! 3 is the final number. For now.) - Fixed a bug where purchasing Double Down the moment a match was found didn't apply the stacks (the stacks should now be recovered after you finish the game and reconnect to the lobby)
When we had posted the patch notes originally, we had mistakenly communicated that Double Down would give 7 charges instead of 3. This has now been fixed & restored to the original, intended design. Double Down is meant to be something special, used on occasion, rather than the norm.
Mini & Wumbo - Fixed a bug where it was giving the same Mastermind-only rolls every time by mistake
v11.06 Major Update
Expected patch release: Tuesday, July 16 (Pacific Time)
Top-20 player and caster, Ofma, is offering FREE Legion coaching. Join his Discord to sign up!
Legion Posters
We recently launched official Legion posters! Bring Legion TD 2 from the screen to your walls with high-quality, durable metal posters.
Major Updates
Feature: Double Down
Cut down the grind and get to the Rank You Definitely Deserve™ twice as fast. Results may vary.
Doubles your rating changes for your next 7 ranked games.
Affects both rating gains and losses, so be careful!
Stacks are not used if any other rating multipliers are active (such as Ranked Placement matches). Stacks are also not used if Match Canceled
Can be unlocked in the Shop: Account tab for 10,000 essence or 270 premium essence
Purchase limit of 2 per week
Mini & Wumbo 2.1
Your initial roll is now expanded to include all fighters that cost between 255 and 300 gold!
This means you can roll, for example, a Tree of Knowledge, Alpha Male, or Big Wig on wave 1.
Secret Card: Baby Imp
Hold or hold not, there is no try.
Skin: Underworld Fiend
Ma, he's got a good personality I promise or They say his eyes have never closed since the day he was born.
Oooh he fast.
Player Happiness Poll
We love all the feedback from our Discord, Reddit, and Steam communities, but know many players aren't active there. To better hear from everyone, we’re launching an in-game Player Happiness Poll!
We plan to run these polls once a month to gauge community reception to patches and general player happiness.
Coming Soon
New units coming next month!
Game Balance
Masterminds
Kingsguard - Attack speed and damage reduction: 10% → 11%
Low pick rate.
Redraw - Redraw gold cost: 1-40 → 1-30
Low pick rate.
Legion Spells
All Out Assault - Mythium: 100 → 125
Low win rate and pick rate.
Counterattack - Mythium on wave 11: 60 → 65 - Mythium when leaking: Unchanged
Glacial Touch - Movement speed reduction: 95% → 97% - Unchanged against bosses (80%)
Low win rate and pick rate.
While this looks like a small buff, a 97% slowed unit takes 67% longer to reach a certain point than a 95% slowed unit. Math is cool.
Hero - 4.25% damage and damage reduction → 4% attack speed and damage reduction
Now more versatile and stronger on units such as Deathcap, Sovereign, Doppelganger, Sky Queen, Daphne, Slime Siren, Shadow Dancer, Spectral Scallywag, Berserker, and Azeria.
Lizard Army - Mythium: 50 → 55
Very low pick rate.
Press the Attack - Mythium: 80 → 85
Low win rate and pick rate.
Protector - Regeneration: 0.6% --> 0.5%
High pick rate and overshadowing Titan and Guardian Angel.
Villain - Damage amplification: 22% (11% for ranged) → 20% (10% for ranged)
The dev team is constantly monitoring game balance, between looking at data and listening to community feedback. If anything is being more closely monitored than usual, it will be listed in this Balance Watchlist section. For this patch, the following are on the watchlist: - Grarl and upgrades - Crab Warlock - Eggsack - Wave 21
Improvements & Fixes
Improvements
Rotation time for Classic game modes: 6 hours --> 5 hours and 45 minutes. This disrupts the cyclical pattern, so they don't occur at the same times every week, which prevented some players from playing certain modes
Lizard Army & Robo Squad are no longer ever rolled in the same game, since they fill a similar role
Nerfed Floating Isles campaign boss chaoslord2468 slightly
You now gain 15 essence each time you vote for or against a mode in Classic (instead of a one-time 25 essence for voting). This means players will earn 5 more essence per game if they vote.
Fixes
Fixed some issues with Match Canceled awarding the wrong amount of elo in some circumstances
Fixed a rare bug where Match Canceled would wrongly overwrite a previous game’s rating changes if they happened in quick succession
Fixed a bug where voting “no” in Classic didn’t properly reward bonus essence as intended
Fixed a bug with Eggsack not prematurely hatching into Hydra if it died (immediately) after clearing the wave, most commonly when building solo Eggsack vs. Robo on Wave 2
Fixed a bug where Takeover Bots often missed income since they sent too late
Fixed a bug in the Floating Isles campaign where Declan Stormhammer wouldn’t build properly when facing against a party (non-solo match)
Fixed a bug where stacks of Indomitable weren't stacking correctly in Classic
Community Updates
Game Translations
Legion TD 2's translations continue to be improved, thanks to major contributions from community members! If you'd like to contribute to improving the game's texts further, visit the following link:
HUGE thank you to everyone who has helped up to this point!
Closing Remarks
We know Crab Warlock has been a balance concern, particularly in Classic, and hope the changes this patch will improve balance, increase build diversity, and reduce lag.
As with any major patch, we'll keep a close eye on things and rapidly hotfix as long as needed.
Thank you again for playing Legion TD 2! We hope you continue to enjoy the game.
If you've enjoyed the game, but haven't left a review yet, please consider posting a short (hopefully positive ) review for the game! If the game reaches 90% positive, Steam will give it more visibility = more players = more freelo better matchmaking!
If you enjoy these updates, please give it a Thumbs Up, too!
If you have constructive criticism, let's chat about it. Discord and /r/LegionTD2 on reddit are our main channels of communication, and aside from the development team, there are community helpers who can ensure your feedback is heard, as well as answer pretty much anything you've ever wanted to know about the game. If you want a guaranteed answer from the devs, the monthly AMAs on /r/LegionTD2 are your best bet.
Sincerely, The Legion TD 2 Team
Official Posters for Legion TD 2!
We’re thrilled to announce the launch of our official metal posters, produced by Displate! Bring Legion TD 2 from the screen to your walls with high-quality, durable metal posters. We (Lisk, Jules, and Dani) have each individually ordered a bunch of posters and hung them up on our walls to make sure they're good. They're good, trust us.
) review for the game! If the game reaches 90% positive, Steam will give it more visibility = more players = 
$875 in prizes and sign-up is free - first come first served! 
There are up to five skill divisions, so no matter what your rating is, you have a chance to win. 
Participation prize: Every participant who plays all of their matches will receive a FREE random card. If you haven't played a tournament yet, this is a great time to join.
$875 in prizes and sign-up is free - first come first served! 
There are up to five skill divisions, so no matter what your rating is, you have a chance to win. 
Participation prize: Every participant who plays all of their matches will receive a FREE random card. If you haven't played a tournament yet, this is a great time to join.
) review for the game! If the game reaches 90% positive, Steam will give it more visibility = more players = 
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