🧪 The Beta Beat (v27) – Season 3 Heroes, Provinces & Gameplay, Valhalla Summon Portal; Mar/Apr HOTM – Sharing the Big Picture on What's Going on in Beta

Gameplay Help & Tactics
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NOTE: Please do not, under any circumstances, share IMAGES OR VIDEOS from Beta in this or any public Forum thread. Violations can cause players to lose their Beta accounts, or threads to be closed down.

:thinking: What’s this all about?

Click Here for Details About This Thread's Intention & Format

Often players on the Forum wonder about what’s going on in Beta.

If you’re a regular reader of the Forum, then you’ll find that there’s actually abundant conversation about what’s going on in Beta at any given time.

And that’s actually allowed!

What’s restricted is images and videos — but discussion is ok:

The challenge is that information is often scattered around the Forum. I’ve created The Beta Beat to help centralize it for those who are interested.

The Beta Beat is a series of threads which are evolving as I get feedback on what’s helpful to players.

My main focus is giving some high-level guidance of what’s going on in current testing, so players outside of Beta can be better informed.

Like Beta itself, this thread is experimental and will evolve based on your feedback.

Information from Beta is frankly often mostly useless, so don’t get too attached.

Details from Beta, especially brand-new Beta content, don’t tend to be very reliable for actual release.

It’s incredibly common that heroes and features are changed during Beta testing, or sometimes even after testing but before release.

That is, after all, the purpose of Beta testing.

So I wouldn’t get too attached to any information from Beta — it’s not unheard of for entire portions of hero skills to be removed or reworked, or for radical changes to hero stats to be made, or for large chunks of new functionality to be completely changed.

Often Incomplete Information Circulates

Many of us have seen screenshots and other information shared on LINE, Discord, Facebook, and other groups — often without context or explanation.

These can lead to confusion and misunderstanding.

Often, early Beta information — the least reliable or useful — is circulated…and then updated information is missed.

I’m hoping centralizing some high-level information on the Forum may help to reduce this as well.

What’s Going on in Beta Right Now

IMPORTANT: I wouldn’t get too attached to any information from Beta — it’s not unheard of for entire portions of heroes or functionality to be removed, reworked, or radically changed beyond recognition.

Season 3 Heroes

Discussion thread: 🧪 Early Information on Season 3 Heroes [Part of The Beta Beat V26 & V27]

please see above thread for all info and discussion

Season 3 Provinces & Gameplay

Discussion thread: 🧪 Early Information on Season 3 Provinces & Gameplay [Part of The Beta Beat V27]

please see above thread for all info and discussion

Season 3 Valhalla Summon Portal

Discussion thread: 🧪 Early Information on Season 3 Valhalla Summon Portal [Part of The Beta Beat V27]

please see above thread for all info and discussion

March and April HOTM

Discussion threads:

please see above thread for all info and discussion

:left_speech_bubble: Feedback?

I’d love to hear thoughts on whether this information and format is useful, and how you’d like to see information presented in the future. Any thoughts or ideas?

Thanks! :slight_smile:

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First for the first time?

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Any clues as to when S3 will drop? How about more Stronghold levels? The S3 heroes are interesting and all, but I have trouble imagining that’s all that is happening in Beta – no new costumes? Nothing else looming?

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No, but my guess is we’re still a while away, based on what we’ve seen in Beta so far.

The animations for this new round of heroes aren’t finished yet, which seems like a bit of an indicator that there’s some development time left.

We also will likely see a second round of testing of the first group of Season 3 Heroes before release.

There may also be some testing of Season 3 content — so far all we’ve seen are the Heroes.

Nothing yet.

Beta just reopened a couple hours ago, and the new Season 3 Heroes are all that’s in this current testing cycle.

It’s typical that each testing cycle has one content focus, at least until a release is imminent, so we’ll likely see other new content come to Beta in the coming weeks.

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2 posts were merged into an existing topic: :test_tube: Early Information on Season 3 Heroes [Part of The Beta Beat V26 & V27]

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Thanks! I didn’t know that Beta ran in cycles; that explains why the Beta-beats are numbered (I had assumed it was just when you decided that enough had changed that you needed to start a new thread). I look forward to seeing this thread grow.

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It’s actually even a little more convoluted than that.

The Beta Beat numbering is based on the Version Number that Small Giant assigns to the app. I group everything into a Beta Beat around that Version, and create a new thread like this one for each app Version.

Separately from that, I create a thread for each group of content, e.g. the Season 3 Heroes.

It’s also common that there are multiple testing cycles for both each Version, and for each piece of content…and they don’t always really align, which is part of why I separate the threads. A lot of testing of a particular chunk of content will end up spanning multiple Versions in testing, like Path of Valor spanning 25 and 26, and Season 3 spanning 26 and 27.

Eventually, when something is finally ready for release to the live game, the last Version it was tested in during Beta will also match the live game release number — like Path of Valor releasing in Version 26.

tl;dr

There’s a “main” Beta Beat thread for each app Version number, and a separate Beta Beat thread for each chunk of new content. And some part of the content tested in any given Version will be part of the next live release, while the rest will continue with further testing.

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Agree. But Man… so much patience is required to wait for the hero to reach full mana… at raids it’s worst, unless it has a tank role.

I would be more for power reduction and increased speed. :wink:

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Beta Update

Beta has reopened, with the return of the Season 3 Heroes, as well as the introduction of the first Season 3 Provinces and gameplay.

@DaveCozy has offered to update the Season 3 Heroes and the upcoming HOTM threads (Telluria and Malosi) with the balance changes in this Beta, so those will come as he completes them.

In the meantime, I’ve added a new thread for the Season 3 Province & Gameplay (also linked in the top post of this thread for easy reference):

=> 🧪 Early Information on Season 3 Provinces & Gameplay [Part of The Beta Beat V27]

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Beta Update

Season 3 Beta 4 is now closed.

Another round of Beta is planned shortly, aiming for as early as later today.

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Beta Update

Beta has reopened, with balance changes and additional Season 3 content.

@DaveCozy will be updating the information on Malosi and the Season 3 Heroes accordingly.

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Beta Update

Beta is now closed, while a new Build is prepared.

Beta is expected to reopen later today or tomorrow for testing of the updated version.

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Beta Update

Beta has reopened, with balance changes to Heroes and several other updates.

The Season 3 Valhalla Summon Portal has also been updated with “fixed” Appearance Rates — as such, I’ve now detailed it here:

=> 🧪 Early Information on Season 3 Valhalla Summon Portal [Part of The Beta Beat V27]

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Beta testing has closed this morning.

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Official Release Announcement & Notes

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The amount of Loot Tickets received from War Loot and Wanted Chests has decreased slightly.

Ah, because they were soooo plentiful what the hell sgg

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Doesn’t this give you hope that those amazing suggestions in the “New ascension mats for s3 heroes” thread might be implemented someday too? :rofl:

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How many days will Valhalla last?

27-02 to ???

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That’s one of the things I’m trying to find out.

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Plz run into March, plz run into March, Plz run into march.

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