Greetings from the Summoners War development team!
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In today's note, we're excited to provide more information about the Rune and Artifact revamp, which was briefly mentioned in the previous dev note.
Our team worked hard on this update to significantly improve the usability and management of Runes and Artifacts.
Please continue reading to explore the new update details.
■ Rune Advanced Settings System
A Rune Advanced Settings feature will be added, a new system designed to help you fine-tune and optimize your Rune setups.
In previous updates, we improved the Rune acquisition by increasing drop rates in Cairos Dungeon, adding new Abyss floors, and allowing Legendary Rune crafting with Rune Essences. We understand that as the supply of high-quality Runes grew, so did the need to manage and use them more effectively.
The Rune Advanced Settings lets you specify desired Rune properties and get recommendations for the best Rune compositions that meet your needs. This eliminates the need for manual Rune comparison, allowing you to easily create more optimized, strategic setups.
You can configure far more detailed settings than the current Rune management system, making it easier to find the ideal Rune combinations for your Monsters or strengthen your existing Runes. This will give you more flexibility and control over your Runes.
Now, we'll go over how to use the Rune Advanced Settings feature.
First, navigate to the Rune Advanced Settings menu. This new feature will be added to the existing [Rune Management] menu, as shown in the screenshot below.
To use Rune Advanced Settings, you need to go over the following steps.
▶ [Rune Advanced Settings] Preparation Steps
Step 1. Select the Monster for the Rune setup.
Either select a Monster from the Rune Management Menu or select a Monster first before entering the Rune Management Menu.
Once you have selected your Monster, enter the [Rune Advanced Settings] menu.
You will see the following screen when you enter Rune Advanced Settings.
Step 2. Select the desired Rune Sets.
First, select the Rune Sets you want to use. You can combine different sets such as Rage + Blade, or select the same set repeatedly, such as Guard + Guard + Guard.
You can also select only one set and leave the other slots open for any Rune combination. However, you must have four slots (four Runes) selected at the minimum. This means that 4-slot Rune Sets such as Violent or Swift don't require additional selections, but 2-slot Rune Sets such as Shield or Will would need another 2-slot set selected.
Step 3. Set the main property for slots 2, 4, and 6.
For slots 2, 4, and 6, where the main properties are critical, you can pick properties such as ATK, DEF, HP, or SPD based on what your Monster needs. At least two Runes must have a designated main property, while the third Rune can be set to “Any” to allow for more flexible combinations.
Step 4. Set the target stats.
You can set target stat values based on the combined total of your Monster's base stats and equipped Rune stats. These target stats act as a guide for the system to find the most optimized Rune combinations and will help recommend setups that meet your preferred goals.
Step 5. Decide whether to include equipped Runes.
You can choose whether to include Runes already equipped on other Monsters. If you decide to include equipped Runes, the system will be able to offer a wider range of possible options.
This may look a bit confusing at first, but we are sure that this will become easy and handy once you try it out.
Now that we have everything set up, it's time to look at the results.
Press the [Start] button at the bottom of the Rune Advanced Settings screen. The system will then analyze various conditions to recommend the optimized setups.
▶ [Rune Advanced Settings] Results
The screen above shows a large number of recommended Rune combinations.
If you press each recommended Rune combination, the selected combination will be displayed in the [After] section on the left side of the screen, allowing you to review the details.
The monster's thumbnail is displayed as well if the Runes are equipped on other Monsters.
We are currently preparing to recommend up to 1,000 optimal Rune combinations using Rune Advanced Settings. After reviewing the various combination results, you can select the optimal combination.
We hope this Rune Advanced Settings update will significantly reduce the inconvenience of comparing Runes and designing the best combination one by one.
■ Monster & Rune & Artifact Share and Recommendation Feature
All Summoners who play Summoners War have most likely sought advice from those around them when they were unsure about the Rune combinations for their Monsters.
We figured that if we could help with these decks or Rune settings in the game, it would be a huge help for new Summoners to enjoy Summoners War even more.
This new feature will allow you to share your Monster, Rune, and Artifact status 1:1 and receive deck or Rune/Artifact recommendations.
Summoners can get recommendations for Monster combinations and Rune/Artifact settings that suit them from friends, guild members, and mentors/mentees.
When you're not sure which Monster combination is best for battle or need the best Rune settings for a specific situation, use the "Deck Recommendation" feature to get advice and recommendations!
We'll walk you through the new deck recommendation UI step by step, with images.
▶ Requesting Deck Recommendations
Press the new Deck button added to the [Community] menu. This will send a request to receive deck recommendations to friends, guild members, and mentors/mentees.
You will see the following screen when you press the Deck button.
Here, the menu presents two tabs: Sent and Received.
The more detailed your request, the better advice the Summoner receiving the request will be able to provide.
▶ Replying to Deck Recommendation Requests
A Summoner who receives a deck recommendation request can review the requesting Summoner’s Monsters and equipped Runes and Artifacts. After that, the Summoner can set up a deck for recommendation.
You can set up the deck and Runes for the Monsters in a format like this.
Up to 6 Monsters can be recommended in a deck, but you can also suggest just one, allowing for flexible responses based on the situation.
▶ Using Completed Deck Recommendations
You can view completed deck recommendations in the Community menu as shown below.
Press the menu to check the recommended deck composition and Rune/Artifact setup, and then immediately apply the recommended settings to your deck.
You can send up to 5 deck recommendation requests at a time.
We hope this new feature will be another helpful and fun feature for those who are looking for different setups and recommendations and those who like sharing their strategies to help other Summoners.
■ Rune & Artifact Score System
A new score system that shows the performance of Runes and Artifacts at a glance will be added.
You can check the score in the info pop-up of Runes or Artifacts.
This system assigns a score to each Rune and Artifact based on its property values, allowing Summoners to easily assess its quality.
Many of you will agree that it's important to carefully evaluate how the property values are applied when obtaining Runes and Artifacts.
You can now quickly evaluate the quality of the Rune/Artifact using the score instead of comparing each property individually.
When you acquire or power up Runes, those with higher property values receive higher scores, while ones with lower property values receive lower scores.
This will help you easily decide whether to sell or power up a Rune based on its score. It will also help you manage your inventory more effectively by organizing low-score Runes and keeping high-score Runes.
This will distinguish the difference in Rune quality after powering up a high-score Rune, allowing you to quickly assess how much the Rune has improved from the power-up.
Next, we will discuss the changes to crafting in the Craft Building.
■ Legend Rune Crafting Revamp
Since its introduction in the 2023 RELOADED update, the Rune Essence crafting item has been extremely useful for crafting Legend Runes.
To make better use of these valuable Rune Essences, we’re excited to announce improvements to Legend Rune crafting.
The upcoming update will allow you to gain more control over Legend Rune crafting. You can now select not only the Rune Set but also the Rune slot number and main property by using additional Rune Essences. This update aims to provide more options, enabling you to craft more specific Runes that match your needs.
You can either craft a Rune with random properties as before or, by using more essences, craft a Rune with your desired set, slot, and main property.
As shown in the image below, you will still use the Legend Rune crafting menu in the Craft Building.
The amount of Rune Essences will differ according to the options you select. The more options you select, the more essences you will use to craft.
■ Legend Artifact Crafting and Artifact Essence
The addition of Legend Artifact Crafting comes with the new material, Artifact Essences. Artifact Essence works similarly to Rune Essence and can be obtained by selling Rare or higher-grade Artifacts with a fixed chance. When selling Legend Artifacts, you will be guaranteed to earn 10 Artifact Essences.
Like the revamped Legend Rune Crafting, Legend Artifact Crafting allows you to select specific options, and the crafting cost increases based on the options you choose. You can select a desired attribute or type of Artifact, then specify one category within that, and even select the main property to craft.
Please note that like the Rune crafting, you will need to use more Artifact Essences if you have more options selected.
The cost for crafting Legend Artifacts is as follows:
■ Mid Rune Crafting Removed
With the most recent update, 5★ Runes will no longer appear in [High Rune Crafting] and [Ancient Rune Crafting], making it easier for Summoners to obtain higher-grade Runes.
As a result, the role of [Mid Rune Crafting] has become increasingly ambiguous, and the frequency in which it is used has decreased significantly.
To simplify the crafting system and provide a better experience for Summoners, we have decided to remove the [Mid Rune Crafting] function.
■ New Ancient Gem/Grindstone Crafting
Summoners can now craft Ancient Gem and Ancient Grindstone with Ancient Magic Stones from the 2nd Awakening Dungeon and Rune Ores from each dimension area.
The new Ancient Gem/Grindstone crafting method is the same as the current Ancient Rune crafting method. Because existing Ancient Rune materials are also used as crafting materials, it is important to focus on resource management for efficient crafting.
■ [Dimension Hole] Rune Drop Rate Increased
We received a very positive response from our Summoners after introducing Harpu's 2nd Awakening and the Dimensional Hole Charge Increase update in the v.8.5.0 update.
We'd like to boost Rune drop rate to make this content even more meaningful.
5★ Ancient Runes will no longer drop from Lv. 5 Dimension Dungeons, leaving only 6★ Ancient Runes. The chances of dropping a higher-grade Ancient Rune will increase.
■ MAX Slots for Runes, Gems & Grindstones, Artifacts, and Engraved Conversion Stones Increased
The v8.1.4 update in November 2023 increased the number of repeat battles in Cairos Dungeon to 30. We also improved the drop rate, resulting in a significant increase in the acquisition of Runes and Artifacts, particularly 6★ Hero+ Runes.
After nearly a year, we have taken into account Summoners' higher expectations and believe it is time to shift our focus away from simply increasing quantity to improving the chances of obtaining high-quality Runes. In addition, we wanted to make it easier to equip Monsters with desired Runes and Artifacts as well as manage unnecessary Runes and Artifacts.
The main goal of this update is to improve the quality of Rune acquisition and management. However, we acknowledged that storage slot expansion is critical to alleviating the stress caused by limited slots, regardless of how much the quality improves.
As millions of Summoners farm and store items, the strain on servers increases. Thus, we’re introducing paid slot expansions alongside free expansions to better manage this load.
We plan to expand Runes by 300 slots, Artifacts by 500 slots, and Gems/Grindstones and Engraved Conversion Stones by 1,000 slots for free.
Crystal expansions are additional to these free slots.
For Runes, you'll receive 1,500 free slots and can expand 500 more using Crystals.
This is all we have for today's dev note.
The coming update will offer more improvements that were not discussed in this note, so please look forward to it.
The update discussed today will be released by the end of October.
We will be back with more exciting news!
Thank you.