Genre: Strategy, Turn-based strategy (TBS), Card & Board Game
The Elder Scrolls: Legends
Chaos Arena this weekend!
Get ready to think on your feet, because Chaos Arena is back!
In this event, players draft a deck on the fly before heading into the fray. However, unlike your average Versus Arena, Sheogorath added his own little twist to things and is forcing players to contend with randomly selected scenarios and lane conditions.
These shakeups require a mix of skill, luck and wits to survive, whether it’s playing in the Library lane – which lowers the costs of actions – to even swapping decks with your opponent at the start of the match!
The Chaos Arena begins Friday, February 16 at 12PM EST and ends Monday, February 19 at 11:59am EST. Each entry costs either 150 Gold or 1 Event Ticket.
New to Chaos Arena? Brush up with our Enter the Chaos Arena article as well as check out the Madhouse Collection, a special set of cards inspired by the Daedric Prince of Madness’ take on Arena.
Game Update 70.1: Patch Notes
Bug Fixes
Balmora Spymaster no longer gives negative stats and costs to some cards (such as Ancient Giant).
Embassy Disguise no longer gives Cover to a Guard.
Time is Running Out! has improved wording in non-English languages.
The ongoing Skeleton buff from Bone Colossus is now properly removed when the Colossus leaves play.
Gauntlet Leaderboard timer properly displays GAUNTLET ENDED when time runs out.
Happy Friday!
Rumble Gauntlet: February 3 - 5
Time to show off your skills – it’s time for another Rumble Gauntlet!
As always, the rules are simple: select your favorite deck and make your way through the Gauntlet until you either earn nine wins or suffer three losses.
The Rumble Gauntlet begins Saturday, February 3 at 6am EST and ends Monday, February 5 at 6am EST. Each entry into the Gauntlet costs either 150 Gold or 1 Event Ticket. Good luck, and happy Rumbling!
For full prize table info, visit the official Legends site.
https://legends.bethesda.net/articles/rumble-gauntlet-feb-3-5
Game Update 70: Patch Notes
Here's a look at the newest update going live today!
Forgotten Hero Collection To commemorate our very own Forgotten Hero of Tamriel, we have 12 exclusive new cards. You’ll receive a full playset of each, and a wide variety of exciting cards to shake up your decks. Full details are in this article.
Card Backs Bling up your deck! Special card backs are now available so you can fill your opponents with envy. All the new info can be found here.
Cards In Hand When you mouse over your deck on the playmat, you’ll now also get a count of your Cards In Hand. It’s easier to see if you’re going to lose a draw due to overflow.
Card Changes
Worm King’s Agent can now target friendly creatures, to make its gameplay more in line with other similar effects. (There will be no special sellback for this change.)
Bug Fixes
The Black Dragon has revised text that properly refers to card titles.
Shimmerene Peddler no longer draws a card after your hand is discarded with Hit and Run.
Mecinar’s Will now properly steals creatures buffed by Sanctuary Raid.
Dwarven Colossus no longer gets keywords from previous Power Spheres after being replayed.
Serpentine Stalker is no longer blocked from attacking the opponent when a Grandmaster Delphine with Guard is in the other lane.
Underforge now keeps a creature’s old type in addition to adding Werewolf.
Daring Heist can now be played if Breakthrough creatures damaged the opponent and then died.
Fabricate (premium version) now creates a premium Custom Fabricant.
Cog Collector now summons a creature with proper cost when it is killed by a creature with a Slay ability that draws a card.
Skeevaton and Stealer of Secrets now track their bonuses with dynamic text using the +X/+X format.
Unrelenting Force now properly increments quests for unsummoning creatures.
Eclipse Baroness now draws an Out of Cards when the owner’s deck is empty.
Hunter-Killers now properly functions as two abilities which can be interrupted.
Arcaneum Librarian now properly receives its buff if the card drawn is then discarded.
Full-lane sacrifice prompt no longer has a targeting arrow.
Spectator icon now shows properly for user watching a match.
Forgotten Hero campaign now allows skipping final voiceover after a story choice.
Issues with daily quests and the Mage Guild Associate title have been fixed.
Queue tip about unique cards has been rewritten for clarity.
The Master Wizard title now progresses properly.
In the Store, the names of the titles awarded with purchases are now displayed.
Creatures without Cover stolen from the Shadow Lane no longer receive Cover.
Redrawing cards during mulligan no longer gates the client on Phone.
Movie issues on iOS phones and tablets have been fixed.
Known Issues
Balmora Spymaster gives negative stats and costs to some cards
Bone Colossus does not properly remove the buff that is placed on Skeletons once they are unsummoned.
Wolves do not receive Alpha Wolf’s buff if they received it once before, then were re-summoned
Summon abilities triggered by Ulfric’s Uprising do not increment quests that require the use of Summon abilities.
Doppelganger does not copy creatures correct stats whose dynamic stats are set to a specific power and health.
High King Emeric's Summon ability will deal no damage when brought into play by Transforming a creature.
Introducing the Forgotten Hero Collection for Legends
"Drip, drip, drip. Memory melts. I've futilely tried to freeze what I can, but what is Forgotten cannot be recalled. Only drips, glimpses of stories untold, remain. Memory melts into legend, but legend never dies." - Kellen
This month, join us in celebrating the end of the Forgotten Hero’s saga with a new set of promotional cards for The Elder Scrolls: Legends!
Available Thursday, February 1 for USD $9.99 or 1,500 Gold, the Forgotten Hero Collection includes 12 new collectible cards, including three unique legendaries, three epics, and six rares.
When you purchase the Forgotten Hero Collection, you'll receive one copy of each Unique card and 3 copies of each other card in the set. Like the stories behind these cards, much of the set will have to go untold for today, but we can provide a few glimpses.
For those willing to meet his demands, Morokei promises incredible power. "Restore a rune" is a newer effect first seen on The Mechanical Heart, giving you both another card and another chance at a Prophecy when the rune gets re-broken. Couple this extra card with gaining 5 health and a 5/5 body, and you are getting far more than 5-magicka worth of value out of Morokei. When you are being pressured, Morokei is likely to be the best possible card at turning the game back in your favor. But what of those demands? Only getting to play a single copy of the best cards is a price to pay, but how large of one? Is Morokei alone worth the cost? Fortunately, not all questions need answering, as though Morokei may be unique, he is not alone.
If you're looking to crush your opponents, you can expect this card to have a giant (heh!) impact. While particularly potent at clearing out swarms of smaller creatures, Cradlecrush Giant will prove to be quite effective even when dealing 2 damage to a single enemy. The Giant doesn't ask a lot of you or your deck; it just asks for enemy creatures to smash. If you are interested in building around Cradlecrush Giant, though, you'll find that you can do that too:
Ulfric is summoning creatures to his cause, and there's no shortage of spectacular Summon abilities in Legends. In addition to Morokei and Cradlecrush Giant, some of the biggest Summon effects you can find include stealing multiple creatures with Miraak, stitching together an army of Abominations with Mecinar, and of course using Laaneth to keep the Uprisings flowing.
To best use Uprising you want to get several creatures with Summons into play. To that end, cheaper utility creatures such as Murkwater Witch and Thieves Guild Recruit will also work well. Kagouti Fabricant and Golden Saint are doubly effective at producing bodies with Summons to take advantage of. Whether using it to Slay enemies, draw all the cards, fill your lanes, or something else entirely, Ulfric’s Uprising is sure to trouble Imperials and your opponents alike.
Before you heed Ulfric’s summons, however, you may want to wait and see what Tulius has to offer...
New Card Backs for The Elder Scrolls: Legends!
Now you can show off your deck with one of several unique card backs. In total, Legends now has five different card backs available!
Selecting Your New Card Back You’ll find a new tab in your Collection that shows all the card backs available. Choose one of the card backs you own, and you can favorite that card back to be the default for all of your decks. Here are all the new card backs coming to the game right now (and how you can get them).
Dark Brotherhood Show your devotion to The Night Mother! If you have already purchased the Triple Bundle for The Fall of the Dark Brotherhood campaign, the Dark Brotherhood card back will be automatically granted to your account. It’s also been added to any future purchase of the Dark Brotherhood Triple Bundle. For a limited time, this card back will be available separately for purchase in the Store.
Clockwork City Look what Mecinar has made especially for you! It’s available in all the same ways as the Dark Brotherhood card back. You’ll receive it if you’ve already purchased the Return to Clockwork City Triple Bundle, and it’s been added to future purchases. It’s also available separately in the Store for a limited time.
Elden Root If you’re from Valenwood, this is the card back for you! When you make your next in-game cash purchase, the Elden Root card back will be automatically granted to your account. There’s no other way to obtain this special card back.
Atronach Bundle For all you conjurers out there, there are both a Storm Atronach and a Flame Atronach card back as part of the new Atronach Bundle special offer in the Store. In addition to the two new card backs, you’ll also receive five Core Packs. This bundle will also be available for only a limited time.
We’ll be adding lots of new card backs to the game in the near future. We’re making plans to show off many aspects of Tamriel and its inhabitants, as well as featuring special achievements that you’ve owned as a player.
A New Gauntlet Mode: Noble!
From humble to Rumble, it’s time for a new kind of event: The Noble Gauntlet!
Expanding on The Elder Scrolls: Legends’ Pauper format, the Noble Gauntlet requires players to use decks made exclusively of Common and/or Rare cards – no fancy Epics or Legendaries!
From there, players will make their run through the Gauntlet until they hit seven victories or three defeats. As always, the prizes you walk home with get better the more you win. For more details, visit https://legends.bethesda.net.
Your first three runs through the Gauntlet also contribute to an overall event leaderboard, with extra goodies going out to the players who secure their spot at the top. Prizes based on leaderboard ranking will be divvied out as seen below:
The Noble Gauntlet begins Saturday, January 27 at 6:00am EST and ends Monday, January 29 at 10:00am EST. Each entry costs either 150 Gold or 1 Event Ticket. Good luck!
January Dev Update: Who Goes First?
Welcome to our January dev update for Legends. Today, we’re exploring an important and often overlooked aspect of the game: the start of the match. We’ll dig into how we arrived at our current start-of-game ruleset, and how they are working for us.
Brainstorming
When we were creating our initial rules set we knew we wanted to come up with something that was simple. Legends features a deep gameplay experience, so we didn’t want to pile on with complicated “who goes first” rules. To that end, we knew we wanted to make our rules to limit the differences between the player going first and second. The more differences between the player who goes first and the player who goes second, the more difficult it is for players to understand what’s happening.
For example, we decided each player would begin the game with three cards. We started with each player drawing a card on turn one as the simplest implementation. Throughout testing, we tried things like giving the player going second an extra card, and having the first player skip their draw, but neither felt great. Receiving an extra card while having less access to Magicka often led to the second player getting beat down, which also presented the risk of having an overstocked hand because of the rune system. Starting with three cards and not drawing on turn one led to too many awkward starts for player one, so we ended up reverting back to the original setup.
We also knew that if Magicka also grew by one each turn without any compensation for the player going second, the first player would have too large an advantage. To start, we gave the second player a two-use activated support called the Elixir of Magicka to begin the game. Players would have to learn about activated supports anyway, so this didn’t add too much complexity.
Testing
With a rule set in place that we wanted to try, we began the part of the job that designers love most: playtesting! After testing a ton of games with the two-use Elixir, we found that it simply wasn’t enough to overcome the consistent extra magicka the player going first gets. We experimented – trying ideas such as giving player two an extra three health on top of the two-use Elixir, but this helped control decks much more than aggressive decks.
Thus, the three-use Elixir was born. It seems like a lot, but the three-use Elixir both felt good to play with and put up nearly perfect numbers in testing: win rates of the player going first were less than one percent over 50%. Three uses also lined up with the number of uses our other Elixirs had. We decided to go ahead with the three-use Elixir for the open beta.
From Elixir to Ring
One defining characteristic of the Elixir of Magicka was that it counted as an activated support card. This meant that it could be destroyed by support destruction effects, and combined with cards like Tower Alchemist to never run out of charges. We found that having your elixir destroyed by cards like Shadowfen Priest was a frustrating experience. With that in mind, we considered exploring a version of the Elixir that was indestructible. That way, it could still do the cool combos with Tower Alchemist, and would hopefully be a little easier to understand since it has a normal card type.
Eventually, we decided that the Elixir should just be a separate game piece – a ring -- because at the end of the day, its function is unlike other cards in many ways. Even though the Alchemist combos are cool, it is a little strange for Alchemist to be way better when you’re going second. Indestructible is also not a concept we use very often, and it was nice to not have to use it for the Ring.
Balance
Overall, the numbers on the first/second rules have consistently been right around 50%. In the past month in ranked, the player who goes first wins 52.2% of the time. This gap is reduced for our highest rated players, where the player who goes first wins 50.3% of the time. This difference may be due to more experienced players being more comfortable using the Ring of Magicka, or metagame differences.
More aggressive classes tend to have relatively higher win rates with the Ring of Magicka. Their games are generally shorter, so they are ahead on magicka for a larger percentage of turns with the ring. Classes like Crusader and Warrior that tend to be aggressive have similar win rates with or without the ring, whereas slower classes like Mage and Scout prefer going first by just under three percent. With such a small difference, we’re comfortable with where things are at.
In most card games, the player who goes first gets off to a faster start, whereas the player who goes second has access to more cards, either with a larger starting hand, or the first player skipping their turn-1 draw. In Legends, it’s almost the opposite. The player who goes first is not down a card, but the player who goes second gets to pick three crucial turns to be ahead on magicka. This means that, in general, the player who goes second is more likely to win a shorter game, whereas the player who goes first is more likely to win a long game. This subtle difference contributes to a lot of the confusion about the Ring’s power level.
Risks and Costs
While we are happy with the simplicity and balance of our current rules, there are risks with any rules set, and the Ring is no exception. With a perfect curve, the player going second can spend three extra magicka over the first three turns. This can create some games where one player takes over the game very early on.
We considered having the ring “cool down” for a turn to mitigate this, but ultimately decided that the additional complexity was a big cost, and that Prophecy already mitigates the risks of one player coming out to a super-fast start. In addition, the win rates currently lean slightly towards the player going first, so making the Ring even weaker would be dangerous.
Final Thoughts
There’s your look at how we came to the starting rules you are playing with now. We’ll continue to monitor both data and feedback on the setup, but for now, we are quite happy with where things are at. Until next month, good luck on the fields of battle, whether you go first or second.
Chaos Arena: January 19 - 22
Get ready to think on your feet, because Chaos Arena is back!
In this event, players draft a deck on the fly before heading into the fray. However, unlike your average Versus Arena, Sheogorath added his own little twist to things and is forcing players to contend with randomly selected scenarios and lane conditions.
These shakeups require a mix of skill, luck and wits to survive, whether it’s playing in the Library lane – which lowers the costs of actions – to even swapping decks with your opponent at the start of the match!
The Chaos Arena begins Friday, January 19 at 12PM EST and ends Monday, January 22 at 11:59am EST. Each entry costs either 150 Gold or 1 Event Ticket.
Please Read: TES Legends Daily Awards (Jan 1 - 4)
As many of you noticed, we had an issue with Daily Awards being granted on New Year's Day and today. To correct the matter, we're doing the following::
For anyone that logged into the game on Jan 1 or Jan 2, you will receive 5 Gold and 5 Gems, respectively. If you logged in on both days, you'll get both.
We're also not going to hold playing Jan 1 or Jan 2 against you. If you login on Jan 3, you will be granted 100 Gold. And for logging in on Jan 4, you will be granted 100 Gems.
On behalf of the team, thanks for your patience and happy new year!!
