Raid PvP is here in Update 1.011!
The waiting is over! We're thrilled to announce the launch of Async PvP, a new competitive game mode that puts your strategy, build, and gem combinations to the ultimate test against other players around the world.
How It Works:
Challenge the Leaderboard — After beating 30 waves in the new map, raid other player caves that finished their runs with the wave you selected and with the health equal to the damage you dealt!
Fight Real Players — Start at the middle of the board and work your way up or down to discover your true rank. Each fight loads a genuine opponent save. Their miner, skin, theme, gems, augments, and final wave setup are all theirs. Can you outsmart their defense?
Climb or Defend — Win to move up the ranks. Lose, and you'll be placed just below the player who beat you. Every match shifts the ladder.
Upload & Rise — After your raids against other players, your save data is uploaded and you're placed on the leaderboard.
You're not just surviving waves, you're building a challenge so tough that another miner can't beat you. Study the leaderboard. Adapt your build. Outthink the competition.
The map is just 30 waves instead of 40 for faster runs with trap creating Gems banned as they are used in very powerful advanced strategies that would storm the leaderboard. Feedback is very much appreciated!
Other Changes
Implemented a per-sound-ID throttling system to coalesce high-frequency audio triggers (like mass gem attacks by Spike Traps) into single plays that significantly reduce overhead and volume stacking.
Fix & performance: giving large amount of buffs happen instantly in bulk instead of freezing the game.
Fix: prevent NaN/Infinity in buff visualization for gems with 0 attacks or range that made the sprite black and glow very bright.
Other: buffs on the gem info panel now pivot from bottom left instead of middle (doesnt go on top of stats below like damage), fixed buff transferring not updating the enchant sparkle effect correctly, diagnostics fixes.
What's next? Why did the patch take so long?
To be honest, this update was supposed to arrive much earlier. After launch, I hit a slight burnout, and had to spend time updating my older mobile games to work with modern systems.
The upside is that I've gained a lot of experience from that work, which will help when I bring Gem Miner TD to mobile later this year.
Going forward, I want to focus on improving the new player experience, expanding the ways to play, shake the "meta", and possibly reducing overall run length (Endless will always be there!). The new PvP map in this update is only 30 waves, and I'm really interested in hearing what you think about that. Personally, I think shorter runs make the game more enjoyable and easier to jump into, but I would love to hear your feedback.
I'll be watching your comments, fixing issues, and improving the game. Even with a broken leg slowing me down, I'm ready so send me your feedback! :)
Super excited how PvP turns out, can you beat my AoE Ruby build?
Thank you for all the support, stay tuned!
-iFeral