Gems of War (All Platforms) Update 7.3: Battlegrounds (2023 December 13)

The PvP system has not seen a major update since it was changed in the 2.0 Update (May 2016). As Gems of War has evolved since then we’re giving the PvP System a big overhaul, 7.3 is the first part of this overhaul with expansions to the system planned for future updates.

The PvP World Map

• PvP now takes place on a new World Map
• When players tap the PvP Button they are taken to an alternative version of the world map for PvP.
• The left 3 buttons change to PvP Shop, Ladders, and Alliance replacing PvP, Games, and Guilds.
• The left side buttons Adventure, Campaign, and Events have been replaced with PvP Goals (it looks a little lonely right now, but we have more buttons planned to appear in future updates).
• All other buttons on the World Map remain the same.
• Players can return to the regular World Map menu by tapping the central buttons (similar to returning to the world map from the Underworld).
• On the new PvP Map, players will see 10 Regions. This is where PvP takes place – more on that below after we explain VP, Silver Marks, and Gold Marks).

Victory Points (VP)

• Players now earn Victory Points (VP) from PvP Battles instead of “PvP Score”.
  • VP will be used for 2 separate things
  • VP will be a measure of your progress in weekly PvP
  • VP totals as they accumulate week-by-week will unlock things in the PvP Shop
  • In a future update, we will introduce PvP Seasons, and your VP will reset (not back to zero though – there will be ways to get a headstart)
  • For now, we are treating version 7.3 as “Season Zero” – it’s the season you get when there’s not really a season!
• All PvP battles have a base amount of VP (based on a player’s progress through the game) with bonus VP that can be earned from battles if players meet certain conditions.
  • Bonus VP can be seen applying to base VP in the post-battle menu alongside the battle MVP.
  • A series of slide-ins will show the exact amounts of Bonus VP and what they are earned from.
• When you lose a defense battle, there is no loss of VP (like there was with the old PvP Score). There may be a mode in a future update where VP can be lost, but in 7.3 (with Quick Battle as the only mode available) there is no VP loss at this time.

New Currencies (Gold Marks and Silver Marks)

• The PvP system contains 2 new currencies that can only be earned from PvP
  • Silver Marks – You earn these as rewards from playing PvP Battles every day, as well as for completing other various simple objectives.
  • Gold Marks – These are a little harder to obtain, and come from completing weekly goals. They can also be purchased in the PvP Shop.
• Both Gold and Silver Marks can be spent in the PvP Shop (see details of what is available below)

Regions

• There are 10 Regions on the PvP World Map.
• To play PvP, players simply select a Region, and then choose Quick Battle – this will allow them to choose 1 of 3 enemies, just like the old system.
• Players may also select a Region and view info on their battles in that region.
• More features and modes will be added to the Region Menus in future updates.
• The 10 Regions are divided into 3 sections: Center Ring, Inner Ring, and Outer Ring.
  • Central Ring (1 region): Central Spire
  • Inner Ring (3 regions): Aidania, Southwild, Geheron
  • Outer Ring (6 regions): Winter’s Reach, Ancient Khet, Bay of Stars, Maraji Expanse, Summer Isle, Broken Lands
• Each of these Regions is related to 3-4 kingdoms that fall within its borders – exactly how that affects gameplay is described below.
  • Central Ring (Central Spire):
  • This is available to all players
  • There are no restrictions on teams
  • Playing PvP in Central Spire is very much like playing the old PvP system.
• Inner Ring (Aidania, Southwild, Geheron)
  • Teams are restricted by troop/weapon color
  • Only players in Silver League and above may play PvP here
• Outer Ring (Winter’s Reach, Ancient Khet, Bay of Stars, Maraji Expanse, Summer Isle, Broken Lands):
  • Teams are restricted by troop type or kingdom
  • Only players in Gold League and above may play PvP here
• Team restrictions for Inner & Outer Rings will change every week, and are related to the Kingdoms found “within” that region.
• Restrictions are displayed on the PvP World Map, the Region Menu, and the Pre-Battle Menu
• More information on Leagues can be found below.

Regional Bonuses

• In much the same way that some Kingdoms give bonus Mythstones for Explore, PvP Regions can give bonus Silver Marks for PvP
• If a Region has a Silver Mark bonus, then winning 5 PvP battles there will grant you some Silver Marks, and will move the bonus to a new region. The base Silver Mark values are:
  • Central Ring: 10 Silver Mark bonus
  • Inner Ring: 15 Silver Mark Bonus
  • Outer Ring: 20 Silver Mark bonus
• Starting in Sapphire League the amount of Silver Marks earned from a Region Bonus will increase by +1, up to +5 in Diamond League.
• The bonus will always remain within the Regions you have unlocked
• There are limitations to how many Silver Mark bonuses you can collect in a day, based on your league. These limits relax the higher you go.
  • 2 for Bronze League
  • 3 for Silver League
  • 4 for Gold League
  • 5 for Platinum League
  • Unlimited for Emerald League and beyond (there are 10 Leagues)

PvP Goals

• The old PvP Weekly Ranks have been replaced with a new system called PvP Goals.
• PvP Goals are a weekly series of VP milestones to work towards
• There are 20 Ranks in the PvP Goals, which each give a reward when they are reached
• Both Silver Marks and Gold Marks can be earned here each week.
• PvP Goals introduces 2 new timed Boosters – Gold Boosters and Soul Boosters. Like XP Boosters, these timed boosters will give bonuses for Gold or Souls in battles (for 15 minutes).
• PvP Goals can be viewed from the PvP Goals button on the left
• To collect completed goals, a player must go into the PvP Goals Menu and select the Collect button.

Talismans

• Talismans are a new collectible item that can give a 1-time buff in a PvP Battle, much like Trinkets give a 1-time buff in Underspire.
• To activate a Talisman, select a blank slot on the left side of the Choose-An-Enemy Menu in Quick Battle mode – that type of Talisman will continue to be used in each subsequent battle until you turn it off)
• Talismans are purchasable from the PvP Shop
• Currently, Talismans will only help the Attacker, but we have plans for Talismans to help Defenders in a future update

PvP Ladders/Leagues

• There are 2 types of ladders in PvP – PvP Leagues and Global Leaderboard.
• Global Leaderboard functions very similarly to the old Global Leaderboard, tracking the overall leaders (but with VP now, rather than PvP Score)
• PvP Leagues are new and should give all players something to aim at every week, not just the very top players
• There are 10 PvP Leagues: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Emerald, Sapphire, Amethyst, Topaz, Ruby, and Diamond
• When 7.3 launches, players will be placed into a league based upon the “Path” they are on:
  • Adventurer’s Path (Levels 1-100): Bronze League
  • Guardian’s Path (Levels 101-250): Silver League
  • Champion’s Path (Levels 251-500): Gold League
  • Paragon’s Path (Levels 501-1000): Platinum League
  • Exalted Path (Levels 1001+): Emerald League
• Each week, you will be given 29 other players from your League to compete against and rank via your VP (in the rare case of a tie, the older account wins).
• Each League has a “Promotion Zone”… finish in the promotion zone to go up one league (unless you are in Diamond)
• Each League has a “Demotion Zone”… if you finish in there you will drop one league (unless you are in Bronze)
• Promotion Zones get smaller as the leagues get higher, but average around 7 players.
• Demotion Zones vary too, but are more consistently around 7 players.
• If you finish in the top 3 players in your League, you win some Gold Marks (with more marks available in higher leagues)
• You will not drop down a league if you do not play for the entire weekly event.

It’s important to note that these groups of players in Leagues are not symmetrical – just because a player is in your group of 30, does not imply you will automatically be in their group of 30. While we are seeding people into Leagues, in the early days of this system, you may find that some players in your group of 30 are actually in a different League to you – this is expected and should resolve after some time has passed.

PvP Shop

• The PvP Shop is a new style of Shop for PvP, with 5 different tabs
  • Home Tab: This is where you start – it will always highlight one of the main PvP offers.
  • Premium Tab: Players can purchase offers with real money transactions
  • Talismans Tab: Spend Marks to purchase Talismans that can help you in PvP Battles
  • Pets Tab: Spend Marks to purchase PvP Pets, only 4 Pets will be available each week, along with an Orb of Minions
  • Other Tab: Spend Gold Marks to purchase some rarer resources, including a random Book of Deeds.
• Players can view their current VP and Marks in the top right corner of the PvP Shop Menu
  Many offers in the PvP Shop have VP requirements, the better the reward the more VP will be required to have access to it. Note that this VP is not “spent” upon purchasing the office, your VP total simply unlocks it
• Some Offers like the Gold Mark pack or Pets have limitations for how many times they can be purchased within a timeframe, for example
  • The Gold Mark Pack can be purchased only once per Day
  • The Pet Pack can be purchased only once per week

PvP Pets

• PvP Pets are new Pets whose bonuses only apply to teams within a defined Region.
• Each region currently has 2 possible PvP Pets
• We will add more PvP Pets in future updates.

Miscellaneous PvP Changes

There have been some other changes to PvP necessitated by the new design. These are listed below:

• Ranked PVP has been renamed Quick Battle, while Casual PvP has been removed.
• Players no longer define a PvP Defence Team – the team you attack with will be the team that other players face.
• PvP Revenge battles have been removed.
• We have made improvements to matchmaking which take higher team scores into account
  • We will be monitoring this and will make adjustments on the server after update 7.3 releases
• The old PvP System gave some Glory every day for logging in based on your Rank. This was implemented at a time when there were far fewer ways to obtain Glory. This has now been changed so that you will receive Silver Marks every day instead, based upon the League you are currently in (from 1 per day in Bronze League, up to 10 per day in Diamond).

With all the PVP changes in the 7.3 Update, we will be currently delaying the next Guild Wars. This will allow us to make sure the new changes have not caused issues in Guild Wars.

We have added a new Status Effect: Terror.

Troops affected by Terror have a small (10%) chance at the start of each turn to move down 1 spot in their Team (this is resolved from bottom most Troop to the Troop in first position). If a Troop is already in the last position when the Terror triggers, they will run away from the battle…
Cowards!

Terror has a chance to cleanse at the start of each turn similar to other negative status effects (such as Burn or Death Mark). Troops with Impervious or Invulnerable traits will be immune to Terror.

New Spells and Traits based on Terror will be coming as part of an upcoming kingdom release.

We have added a new set of Cosmic Dragons, and their weapons, to the Soulforge for crafting using Dragonite. Like the Gem Dragons, there is a Cosmic Egg that will randomly give 1 of 6 possible colored Cosmic Dragons. There are also 2 Legendary Weapons, 1 Mythic Weapon, and a new Prismatic Dragon which can only be obtained from crafting in the Soulforge.

These new Dragons cost a little more than their Gem Dragon counterparts, but they are a little tougher too.

Cosmic Dragons will only be encountered in Soulforge for now but will appear as potential battles for Dungeons and Underspire in a future update.

We have 2 new Achievements for this update:

• Up All Night to Get VP: Earn 1,000 VP in a Season (Season Zero counts for this)
• Ranks for the Memories: Earn all 20 ranks in the Weekly PvP Goals

We have also made some changes to previous achievements that were related to the old PvP System:

• Gladiator: Reach rank 5 in Weekly PvP Goals
• Reaver: Reach rank 10 in Weekly PvP Goals
• Champion of PvP: Reach rank 15 in Weekly PvP Goals
• Defender: Win a PvP Defence battle

We have added in 2 new Heroic Gems for future Campaigns and content.

• Campaign Tasks were not counting towards the Hard Taskmaster Achievement.
• Players on iOS were seeing an error message when they tried to collect rewards from Guardian Chest.
• Glory being earned from battles other than PvP was not counting towards the Glory Hound task.
• The green “!” icon would only appear for the first initial mail in a play session and wouldn’t notifying players when they got additional mail.
• We have fixed an assortment of smaller issues.