Update 1.5 Patch Notes

Update 1.5 Patch Notes


This update releases on Tuesday 10th 00:00 UTC

The Season begins at daily reset (00:00 GMT) on the 17th January*


Values in bold are affected by the rarity or element of the item.

Lightbringer’s Blade (Weapon)

Summary

Long sought after by Agarian Paladins, these blades are definitely a status symbol.

  • On matching this item’s Gem color, there is a 20-50% chance to create 2 Gems of this item’s Gem color.

Lightbringer’s Tabard (Body)

Summary

The sun emblem is one of the earliest holy symbols of the Allfather.

  • When you match skulls, there is a 4-10% chance to gain Haste for 2 turns.

Lightbringer’s Leggings (Legs)

Summary


Heavy and solid, these leggings provide great protection, but poor mobility.

  • At the start of my turn, if I have Haste, gain 1-2.5% Armor and Resistance.

Lightbringer’s Treads (Boots)

Summary

These boots were made for fighting, not walking.

  • If there are 11-8 Yellow Gems on the board, gain +50 Speed.

Lightbringer’s Protector (Shield)

Summary

Some shields can be both beautiful AND functional.

  • When taking damage, there is a 5-20% chance to Blind the Enemy for 2 turns.

Lightbringer’s Symbol (Necklace)

Summary

The pendant is a powerful holy ward of the Allfather.

  • Add +0.6-1.5% to all Masteries for each Yellow Gem on the board.

Lightbringer Set Bonus

Holy I (2 piece set bonus)

  • 5-25% chance to start the battle with Haste for 1 turn.
  • Gain 5-30% All Elemental Damage Reduction if facing Season 1.5 enemies.

Holy II (4 piece set bonus)

  • When dealing Light damage, there is a 6-10% chance to apply Blind for 2 turns.
  • Gain 5-30% Melee & Missile Damage Reduction if facing Season 1.5 enemies.

Holy III (6 piece set bonus)

  • If the Enemy is Blinded, gain 10-20% Power.
  • Gain 5-30% Power if facing Season 1.5 enemies.

Available only in the Cache items in the Season shop, this item will drop at Legendary rarity.

Originally crafted by Dragons, these rings were rare and priceless gifts to their mortal allies.

Gain 1-4 Ultimate Spell Power when you match 5 or more Gems in a turn.

Values in bold are affected by the rarity or element of the spell.

Burst of Light (110 Yellow Mana)

Summary

Create 2-7 Yellow Gems, and have a 10-35% chance to gain Haste for 1 turn.

    • Level: Haste Chance
    • Rarity: Gem Creation

Beam of Light (140 Red Mana)

Summary

Destroy a Row. Deal 1x Fire damage +5-10% for each Red Gem Destroyed.

  • Level: Damage
  • Rarity: Bonus Damage

Ray of Light (135 Green Mana)

Summary

Heal myself for 0.5x, +25-50% if I have Haste.

    • Level: Healing
    • Rarity: Bonus from Haste

Sword of Light (125 Blue Mana)

Summary

Destroy a Column. Deal 1x Ice Damage +5-10% for each Blue Gem Destroyed

    • Level: Damage
    • Rarity: Bonus Damage

Hypnolisk

Summary

  • Speedy
  • PvP Spell: Spit Venom (70 Mana)
    Deal 1x Poison Damage, + 50% if the enemy is poisoned. Poison the Enemy for 4 turns
    Poison: Poisoned characters take extra damage each turn.

Sandheart

Summary

  • Mighty
  • PvP Spell: Ancient Sands (60 Mana)
    Blind the enemy for 4 turns, Heal 1x Armor and Resistance.

Bombino

Summary

  • Cunning
  • PvP Spell: Kaboom! (55 Mana)
    Deal 1x Fire Damage, to anyone who is Burning.
    If no one is burning, burn everybody for 4 turns!

Minticore

Summary

  • Speedy
  • PvP Spell: Dark Venom (70 Mana)
    Deal 1x Dark Damage and Poison the enemy for 4 turns

Oh what a day. What a lovely day!

We’ve introduced a new way to play Puzzle Quest 3 – Action Points!

Very much in keeping with other changes we’ve been making, we believe Action Points is a very authentically Puzzle Quest way to play. We’ve been playing with it for a little while now and it’s quickly become our favorite way to play!

All players on our existing platforms can continue to enjoy Timer mode, but Action Points will be the default option for new players to enjoy the game, without the pressure of the timer.

Players will be able to swap between Timer or Action Points through the General tab of the settings menu. (If you’re already in a battle, the setting will take effect in the next battle.)

  • You start with a number of action points based on your hero’s Speed stat. You start with 3 Action Points with 100 Speed.
  • Further Action Points are gained at 150, 225, 325, 450, and 600 Speed.
  • Each move costs one action point
  • Spells don’t cost an action point and can be cast between moves
  • Matches of 5 or higher award an action point for the following turn
  • Matches of 10 or higher award 2 AP
  • You can have up to 10 AP at the beginning of a turn.
  • Your AP will reset back up to your base AP value at the start of your turn, plus any bonus AP you earned from the previous turn. If your turn ends with more AP than your base amount, no additional AP will be gained.

We’ve made a number of other changes to the existing game in order to balance Action Points including:

  • Increasing the size of the board and adding a new Cleanse effect on a full column match
  • Enemies now generate mana the same way players do and take their own turns for more intuitive and interactive gameplay
  • Chip damage has been removed
  • Heroes will now get a speed increase as they level-up

You can find the full details in our dedicated Action Points post!

We will continue to keep an eye on the balance of Timer and Action Points after release, so please let us know what you think!

Northelm

Northelm’s ready to help carry even more items for the player – he now lets you craft additional inventory space!

  • Crafting for Northelm unlocks at Level 50
  • Northelm’s Crystals can be spent alongside Ore to create additional space for Gear, Spells, or Minions
  • Crafting each type of inventory space will get slightly more expensive the more you craft of that type

Northelm_Crafting

We heard your feedback that Story battles could’ve been much smoother. Going in and out from the Hero Menu can be a lot of moving around when you just want to get to the next thing.

  • Continue Buttons have now been added to the end of Story Battles

Since we’ve launched, players have been mentioning to us that they would like to see the map in more places.

  • The world map is now in place in story mode with better visibility of where you’re off to!

With the addition of a new game mode, we were going to need new tutorials, but we thought it was time for a bit of a refresh!

  • Tutorials will be brighter, more visual and remain accessible to players to review!
  • We’ve updated some of the early-game tutorials, but expect to see this format rolled out through more of the game in future updates.

Most enemy spells will now destroy gems instead of removing them. Effects which buff based on removing gems will still remove them. Affected spells:

  • Hellfire
  • Frozen Blade
  • Dark Draught
  • Harpy’s Curse
  • Hide In Shadows
  • Iron Strike
  • Midnight Roar
  • Noxious Roar
  • Radiant Roar
  • Scorching Roar
  • Spray Web
  • Virulent Blade
  • Winter’s Roar
  • Excavate
  • Ghastly Cleave
  • Great Cleave
  • Chill Lance
  • Dire Gore
  • Horn Lance
  • Steam Blast
  • Trick Shot

Affected passive abilities:

  • Nest of Bones
  • Thievery
  • Belch
  • Corrupted Rainbow

With the addition of AP mode, Speed has received some adjustments.

  • Increased Speed cap from 400 to 600
  • Increased Speed gained from Attribute level from 2 to 3.

Spells will now have their mana capped at 80% at the beginning of battle, in line with the cap on the Starting Mana stat.

Flametree Helm:

In response to player feedback regarding the over-performance (turn 0-1 wins) of Flametree Helm in PVP we have made some changes:

Previously:

Gain 10/15/20/25 starting mana for purple and red spells

New Version:

Gain 5/8/11/14 starting mana for purple and red spells

Fallen Staff:

Fallen Staff required a small buff for balance after the Action Points update

Previously:

When dealing [elemental damage that matches the element of this weapon], there is a 25-40% chance to apply Freeze for 4 turns to the enemy.

New Version:

When dealing [elemental damage that matches the element of this weapon], damage, there is a 35-65% chance to apply Freeze for 4 turns to the enemy.

Adventure

Adventure difficulties can now be lowered if it becomes too difficult.
Your progress will persist but you will need to start the higher difficulty from the beginning if the adventure is replayable.

  • Added new “Alternate” Control Scheme
    • Alternate control scheme swaps the D-Pad and the Analog Stick, meaning that the Analog Stick will be used to snap between buttons, and the D-Pad will control the Virtual Mouse Cursor
    • This can be changed on the Settings Menu in the General Tab
  • Added improvements to Scroll Lists when using a controller
    • Added new Settings Menu to change how fast/slow the Right Stick scrolls in Scroll Lists
    • The Right Stick now interacts properly with scroll lists, and can be used to scroll horizontally and vertically
    • Scroll Lists when using the Right Stick no longer go past the last item, making them easier and better to use
  • Improved the controller responsiveness and feel throughout the game
  • Sliders can now be incremented/decremented using the D-Pad Snapping mode
    • Cursor will now snap to the current fill position on the Slider
  • Added Controller Shortcuts and Callouts into the following menus
    • Upgrade Menus
      • Bumpers can now be used to increment/decrement the target level
      • Cursor now defaults to the Upgrade button when the menu opens
    • Shop Menu
      • Added Bumper Callouts to tell you can change tabs
    • Season Menu
      • Added Bumper Callouts to tell you can change tabs
    • Inventory Menu
      • Pressing Y/Triangle on an item in your loadout that can be upgraded will directly open the Upgrade Menu
    • Battles Menu
      • Pressing Y/Triangle on a Battle Menu item will set it as your favorite
    • Hero Select Menu
      • Can now cycle through the Heroes using the bumpers
      • Can swap characters in the same class using the X/Square Button
      • Can now open the Preview Character button using the Y/Triangle Button
  • Start button will now open the Pause Menu, then the Settings Menu (except in battles)
    • Pressing Start in the Settings Menu will close the Settings Menu

  • To accommodate for the Action Point UI, the Timer diamond and bar has been moved to the top left of the board, and takes up half the board width.

  • Elemental Channel Spells will now apply their debuffs for 4 turns, rather than being permanent.

  • All Adventures no longer show ‘Persistent Health’ as ‘Yes’ when health does not persist through multiple battles

  • The game no longer crashes when the Adventure mode timer runs out after beginning an Adventure

  • Using Darkhunter to craft a random rune will now give the expected rune instead of a rune one rarity higher

  • Hunt Gearscore will now accurately display the intended gearscore instead of Season/Regular battle gearscore

  • Enemies dying via the burning effect will prevent the following opponent from appearing/the battle from ending

  • Flaming Skulls will now convert the correct amount of Purple Gems to Skulls

  • Filtering Minions by ‘Might, Speed & Cunning’ does not sort/re-organize the collection.

  • ‘Mass Salvaging’ Minions will now correctly display a dissolve effect and reduce the players current ‘minions owned’ amount to the expected amount in their collection

  • Swapping selected Hero from the Adventure menu will no longer display a black/missing background

  • Matched or Destroyed (Staged) Skulls displayed above the puzzle board disappear upon restarting the game

  • Cannot Cast pop-up no longer appears for everyone in Party

  • Changing your currently active hero while in the Tavern (Followers, Minions or Goals Tab) does not change the displayed character to the expected selected hero

  • Global Mail with No Rewards still shows Rewards to Collect

  • Sound effects delay in sped up battles

  • Full board state causes imp gems to be unselectable

  • Gold total in gear/spell upgrade pop-up does not update, preventing upgrade if player collects mail while in the gear screen

  • Can be resolved by exiting and re-entering the screen

  • Changing your ‘Favorite Minion’ does not update the chosen favorite in your collection until changing current minion selected

  • Filling the puzzle board with any Heroic Gem (and only heroic Gems) causes the game to crash and produce an error

  • Oberron’s Belt power boost is only giving 1% instead of the expected 10% power boost

  • ‘Dark Ice, Cold Snap, Channel Ice, Darkness and Channel Dark’ Spells are converting power Gems into regular Gems instead of expected power into power gems

  • ‘Rooster’s Crow’ passive is not triggering when 10+ yellow gems are matched

Note from Jeto: Some images/text I believe are missing from the blog/post, they may be added in later.
Also, if you have any feedback in regards to Action Points, please post those in the Action Points thread itself.

1 Like

It was included in the AP blog!
But this was one of the items I mentioned at the bottom of the patch notes, that was missing that I would be adding in later :sparkles:

2 Likes

I’ll wait and see, but this looks like it will push me out the door. Ugh.

what will happen if enemy cannot make a match, under such situation: board is filled with unable-to-be-matched special gems?

These sound like really awesome changes! This might potentially get me to start playing again.

You and the enemy become best friends and you gain a new minion :laughing:

4 Likes

@Hagane your question is tied to this under known issues

We are looking to have this resolved in 1.5.5, where the board will clear and mana drain both sides’ spells. This is subject to change.
Also expect with a larger board this should occur less in the meantime, but y’all are crazy good at loading up on Gems!

2 Likes

Can enemy “click” and trigger our ‘special’ gems? Merc treasure gems, necro skull spawning gems, warlock imp gems?

2 Likes

I do believe I’m owed a bug bounty for this! :slight_smile:

RE:Too many clicks!

3 Likes

The enemy will match gems on their own? … Holy crap, this is awesome! … If this will work with the same “intelligence” like on auto-play we are screwed :rofl:

2 Likes

Counterpoint: If it works like autoplay, the enemies wont match gems fast enough and will forget to cast their spells when full!

3 Likes

I was honestly wondering if this action point system would work on auto play at all?

Sure, pretty straightforward tracking of moves

I know what you mean but you also know what I mean - when I first saw this “automated moves” I was like “that leads to nowhere so back to manual matching”. When “I” am not able to code some sort of “intelligence when it comes to matching” it is not worth implementing it.

I would like to ask, what about inventory space?
There will be 7 new items soon, and inventory is everybody’s problem. Not just the top players need space, who has Northelm level 50 already, and have crystals from him to spare.
Also I would like to see the cost table - the ever increasing cost suggests, that you can create only a few extras, before the ore cost will be more than Auri can hold.
Please consider adding some extras freely.

4 Likes

Please let things such as the bone gloves and other such items that depended on defeating an enemy be updated to account for one-fight skirmishes…

3 Likes

It is going to be interesting to see how the removal of chip damage combined with all of the various spell/mana gain nerfs done over the past, plays out. I’m trying to imagine being a brand new player and only being able to damage enemies with skulls or spells (that will take forever to fill with the base action points), while the enemy can damage me every turn. :thinking:

Chip damage accounts for very little damage output for new players since they are usually running variable color spells (therefore no spell bonuses) and their masteries are quite low. I suspect they actually end up being advantaged with this change compared to older players who will see a much bigger damage loss due to mono-color optimization

I was speaking more in terms of the psychology of it. If it ends up being: Match match match, not much happens. Enemy match match match, things happen. Match match match, not much happens… would that hold my interest if I was new? I don’t know.

I’m sure (well, at least I would hope) it will be balanced in a way to not roll over newbies. But there is more to enjoying a game than simply not losing. A bigger board might mean more skull match opportunities, so there is that, at least.

I’m just very interested to know how the system would feel for someone on a day one account. I might even try it out. It sounds boring. But who knows? :woman_shrugging:

It is really interesting playing with Action Points. I found that once I got used to switching my brain over to just playing without the Timer (had so many early moments of forgetting that I could take my time and that I had limited moves :woman_facepalming:) that I got to learn a whole different approach to the game. It kind of emphasizes different things.

The changes we’ve made to the story flow and some of those early tutorials make a big difference at the start of the game too.

Keen to hear what you think!