Twilight Tactics
The battle for the Dark Forest is about to begin!
The time for battle has come! The Shadowcorns have amassed a powerful army and are sending their minions into the Dark Forest to defend their territory. The Unicorns are prepared to fight, now forming parties that venture together with a designated Guide Unicorn to lead the way. The battle for the Dark Forest is about to begin!
November 10 and 13 marks the second major release related to the Shadowcorn arc, now introducing battles between Unicorns and Shadowcorn Minions for the first time with Twilight Tactics! ✨
In this release, Shadowcorn players will be able to arrange their Minions into armies and stake them into Twilight Tactics for battle. Then a few days later, Unicorn players will be able to assemble their Unicorns into parties and pick fights with Minion Squads in the Dark Forest.
Goals
As we continue to roll out more utility for Shadowcorns, it’s important to make sure we’re aligned with the goals of each specific release.
Five primary goals for Twilight Tactics:
Player Agency - Give Unicorn players the ability to choose their opponents and enable strategic decision-making when setting up Unicorn parties and Minion squads.
Control over Unicorn Death - Allow players to choose which Unicorn dies when a death event is triggered in this new battle system.
Minimize Unlocked Unicorns - Reduce the amount of Unicorns required to be unlocked from the core game to participate in battles.
Lower Barrier to Entry - Provide options for deploying multiple squads at once, and no additional costs beyond gas fees, which we cover the majority of, to participate in battles.
Introduction to Squad Combat - Shadowcorn and Unicorn players can create squads to engage in stat- and element-based combat to conquer the Dark Forest.
Overview
Twilight Tactics will introduce a battle mechanic that will run for 1 month and be followed by a 2 month period of tranquility before the next battle begins.
During war times when battles are active, Shadowcorn will be more relentless in their attacks on Unicorn Lands and there will be a higher chance of carts and farms being attacked by the Shadowcorns. Once tranquility is restored, the Shadowcorn attacks will be reduced or increased based on which faction won the last battle; the stat requirements will revert to their baseline values once the battle period is over and then slightly adjusted based on whether the Unicorn or Shadowcorn Faction won.
These battles introduce the first time that Unicorns can be killed, creating an important burn mechanic to help keep the growing Unicorn population under control.
Both Shadowcorn and Unicorn holders participating in Twilight Tactics will be rewarded with Domination Points, which will be used to distribute rewards via leaderboards for both factions.
Regions
There are 5 regions in the Dark Forest, each one associated with a different Shadowcorn class — Slime, Volt, Soul, Fire, and Nebula.
Players will have to choose a specific region when staking their Minions or attacking with their Unicorns.
Unicorn parties and Minion squads will fight better in some regions over others. Each region will have a set of bonuses for all Unicorns and Minion squads that are fighting there.
Similarly, each region of the map carries its own magic and power, only some of a Unicorn’s stats will be relevant in a given region. These stat limitations, combined with class bonuses, will help you decide which region(s) will be best suited for your Unicorns to pick a fight.
To reinforce the Unicorn Stats used in each region, each region will offer class bonuses to classes that specialize in those Stats.
The exception is the Nebula region. The Nebula region offers no class bonuses but instead allows 4 Stats to be used instead of 3. In addition, Mythic Unicorns receive an additional bonus when used in the Nebula Region.
Additional Buffs
The Dark Forest can be a dangerous place and the oldest Unicorns know it well. Genesis Unicorns, armed with the knowledge of the Dark Forest from their previous ventures on it (Shadowcorns Act I - The Dark Forest), will receive a 50% bonus to their applicable stats in any given region of Twilight Tactics.
Similarly, Mythic Unicorns will also receive a bonus to their relevant stats with scaling benefits for each additional Mythic part:
Single Mythic: +5% Stats
Double Mythic: +11% Stats
Triple Mythic: +18% Stats
Quad Mythic: +26% Stats
Epic Mythic: +35% Stats
Legendary Mythic: 45% Stats
Unicorn vs Shadowcorn RPS Bonuses
To add additional layers to the combat mechanics, specific classes of Unicorns will have a 10% bonus against specific classes of Shadowcorns and vice versa.
Keep in mind that Unicorns will battle in groups of 3, with no limitations on the combination of classes that can be used.
Cloud/Omnom Unicorns are strong against Volt Minions and weak against Slime Minions.
Candy/Crystal Unicorns are strong against Soul Minions and weak against Fire Minions.
Rainbow/Star Unicorns are strong against Slime Minions and weak against Volt Minions.
Heart/Flower/Moon Unicorns are strong against Fire Minions and weak against Soul Minions.
Nebula Minions are neutral–neither strong nor weak against any class.
Shadowcorn Players
Shadowcorn Holders will begin the War by filling the 5 Regions of the Dark Forest with their Minion squads.
Minions will be deployed first and a few days later, Unicorns will be able to start the battles. During Twilight Tactics, Shadowcorn players will be able to sit back once their Minion squads are staked, as Unicorn squads will initiate battles and choose which squads to attack.
A squad is formed by adding up to 10 Minions and a Shadowcorn together and staking them into 1 of the 5 regions of the Dark Forest. Although Minion squads must be accompanied by a Shadowcorn, Shadowcorns can command multiple squads at once, without limit.
The assigned Shadowcorn gives bonuses to the Minions in the Squad, but the Minions themselves will do the fighting and dying. Shadowcorns, on the other hand, can’t be killed.
Deploying Minion Squads
Once you form your Minion Squad, you can deploy up to 10 of that Squad in one transaction.
When you deploy a Minion Squad, you will get Domination Points immediately for each Minion in the Minion Squads that were deployed.
Right now, a Minion in a deployed Minion Squad gives 10 Domination points when Deployed. Higher Tier Minions will give more Domination Points in the future. Since the Shadowcorn Faction will have a three-day lead over the Unicorn Faction when it comes to deploying their squads, the Shadowcorn Faction will receive all of the rewards for the first three days since they are the only faction that can earn Domination Points. Shadowcorn Faction players can then form strategies on how they want their rewards to be spread: they can deploy all of their Minion squads in one of the three days and generate a lot of Domination Points for that day but receive little for the other two days, or they can spread the deployment of their Minion Squads over the three-day period and earn a relatively equal amount of Domination Points over the course of three days.
All active Minion squads will be viewable in your dashboard and provide insight into their remaining health.
NOTE: Once a Minion is staked into Twilight Tactics, it cannot be removed and will persist until the Minion’s squad is fully defeated or the season has concluded. At the end of the season, all remaining Minion squads will be available to unstake.
Unicorn Players
Unicorns will drive the battle, as players on the Unicorn side will get to choose which Minion squads they want to attack.
To begin, they will select the region where they want to mount an attack and then be presented with 3 opponent Minion squads to choose from.
If you don’t like any of the opponents or don’t have any favorable match-ups, you can choose to pay 10 $RBW to re-roll your opponents entirely.
You can also wait, as other Unicorn parties might match against those same Minion squads and clear them out for you!
Unicorns that participate in a Twilight Tactics battle will have to wait 1 hour before being able to battle again. This is to ensure that there is a diversity of unicorns being used and provides extra benefits to players that hold a large amount of unicorns.
Unicorn Squads
Unicorn squads consist of one Unicorn Guide and two Unicorn Companions. The Guide must be airlocked out of the core game, while the other two Companions can be used while locked into the core game.
The two accompanying Unicorns can also perform tasks in the core game while battling in the Dark Forest!
Once your Unicorn Squad is assembled, the two sides are ready to battle. A blockchain transaction will be required to start the battle. During this time, the combined stats of the Unicorn Squad will be converted into Damage and the combined stats of the Minion Squad (stats of the minions plus 2% of the stats of the Shadowcorn assigned to the Minion Squad) will be converted into Damage.
At the end of the Battle Transaction, the squad that has the most remaining Stamina wins! Even though both squads will get Domination Points, the winning squad will get a lot more.
When a Unicorn squad is defeated in battle, there is a chance for the Unicorn Guide to be killed. Unicorn Companions are always safe from death, even if a Unicorn squad is defeated. Any time a Unicorn squad wins a battle, the Unicorn Guide won’t be killed.
When a Unicorn Guide is killed, the owner will be entitled to a Unicorn Soul that will be available to claim in a future release. Unicorn Souls will be useful in the upcoming Gemworks building (Tribes release), which will allow players to craft Gems that will increase the stats of a Unicorn when equipped. Eventually, crafting these valuable Gems will require plenty of Unicorn Souls!
Minions can be killed even when a Minion squad wins; however, whenever a Minion squad loses, all the Minions are burned. The amount of Minions killed during victory depends on the amount of Stamina lost in battle.
Gas Mechanics
To kickstart Twilight Tactics, we’re covering gas costs!
In response to feedback from the release of Shadow Forge, we have implemented a feature to automatically reimburse a large portion of gas spent in Twilight Tactics.
Once a transaction has been confirmed, a large portion of the MATIC players spent on the transaction will be automatically transferred back to their wallet.
Assuming reasonable market conditions, we have a maximum amount that we will reimburse. Most Twilight Tactics-related transactions are eligible for gas rebates; however, rebates do not apply to RBW rerolls when choosing opponents.
This gas rebate is unique to the first season of Twilight Tactics — make sure you make the most out of it!
Maximum gas rebates are outlined below and have been calculated using 150 GWEI as a baseline:
Transaction and Max Gas Rebate
Deploying Minion Squad - up to .5 MATIC
Attacking with 1 cached Unicorn - up to .35 MATIC
Attacking with 2 cached Unicorns - up to .2 MATIC
Attacking with 3 cached Unicorns - up to .1 MATIC
Attacking no cached Unicorns - up to .45 MATIC
In addition to reimbursing most of the gas fees for Twilight Tactics, we have also introduced new a caching mechanism that will reduce the overall gas consumed by this feature. The cache works by storing a Unicorn’s data after the first time it is used, saving us from needing to call additional queries when it’s used in battle again.
This means that the first time a Unicorn is used for Twilight Tactics, the initial transaction will require a higher-than-average cost in MATIC; however, after the initial transaction, gas fees for future battles will be greatly reduced.
Rewards
When Twilight Tactics battles are active, you’ll receive daily rewards based on Domination Points earned by Minion Squads and Unicorn Squads that day.
The amount of rewards you earn is in proportion to your Domination Points and all of the Domination Points earned by your faction in each region.
Daily rewards for Unicorn players will be $UNIM and Rift Crystals, while Shadowcorn Players will receive Dark Marks in addition to $UNIM and Rift Crystals.
The amount of daily rewards a faction receives for any given region is based on which faction controls the region. The winning faction of each region will get 75% of the daily $UNIM and Rift Crystals within that specific region. The losing faction will get the remaining 25% of the daily rewards.
End of Season, Beginning of Tranquility
At the end of the 1-month battle period, the faction controlling the most regions will win. In each season of wartime, Unicorns and Shadowcorns will each have their own leaderboards to reward participants.
In addition to those leaderboards, the faction that wins will receive additional rewards for finding victory in the Battle for the Dark Forest!
To raise the stakes even more, Unicorns will experience a lingering effect during the 60-day periods of tranquility until the next cycle begins.
If the Unicorn faction wins, the baseline stat requirements to successfully fend off a Shadowcorn attack on carts and farms will be decreased for the next 2 months, making it easier for Unicorns with lower stats to be efficient.
Conversely, if the Shadowcorn faction wins, the baseline stat requirements to successfully fend off a Shadowcorn attack on carts and farms will be increased for the next 2 months, making it harder for Unicorns with lower stats to be efficient.
Leaderboards
Note: The Twilight Tactics Leaderboards will launch on November 13 PST, coinciding with the opening of Unicorn deployment phase. Domination Points earned by Shadowcorn players when setting up their Minion Squads between November 11 to 13 PST will be counted and reflected once the leaderboards are launched. Shadowcorn players will lose no points but will not be able to see them until the Leaderboards are active.
Badges
Each Faction’s top performers get a Faction Badge for Twilight Tactics. There will be new ones for every season.
The top 50 Shadowcorn players will get the Twilight Tactics Shadowcorn Season 1 Badge.
The top 100 Unicorn players will get the Twilight Tactics Unicorn Season 1 Badge.
Shadowcorn Player Rewards
The rewards for Shadowcorn players are Shadowcorn Lootboxes and $RBW.
Total Shadowcorn $RBW Pool - 300,000
Unicorn Player Rewards
The rewards for Unicorn players will be the different tiers of Unicorn Lootboxes and $RBW.
Total Unicorn $RBW Pool - 300,000
Faction Rewards
The winning Faction will receive an additional reward of 500,000 $RBW for its participating players.
The $RBW distribution is based on a percentage of Domination Points each player earns relative to the winning side as a whole.
If an individual player earned 50 Domination Points, and the entire Faction earned 500 Domination Points, that player would get 10% of the $RBW pool.
The 500,000 will be distributed to the Faction’s players based on the top 100 Shadowcorn contributors and the top 200 Unicorn contributors to each side.
Battles, Begin!
Twilight Tactics is an exciting new battle loop that officially opens up the battles between Unicorns and Shadowcorns! The Unicorn Metaverse is becoming more scarce for resources, and both sides are hungry to expand their camps.
Let the Battle of the Dark Forest begin!
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