Hello, Summoners! Before we start, please watch a video of 2vs2 Team Battle first!

[▼Watch Video▼]​

: https://youtu.be/oMxlocYY7RQ

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Greetings from the Summoners War Dev Team!

It's been a while since our last dev note.

As promised, we are back with another exciting update news - a new battle mode in World Arena!

We plan to introduce this new mode via the next update, v6.4.0.

Please continue to read below as we will be talking about how we designed this new content and many more details.

▶ [World Arena] New Mode! 2vs2 Team Battle

[2vs2 Team Battle] is a new battle mode where you team up with another Summoner to play in the World Arena.

Two Summoners will team up to fight against another team of two Summoners, having four Summoners in total to fight in one battle. In this PvP content, a team that stays alive until the last wins.

As the team support and cooperation will be the important factors, we believe that this new mode will bring different fun to all users.

It has been about five years since we first introduced the World Arena content. During this time, special events such as SWC, Legend Tournament, and improvement updates such as world arena season achievement addition have been made. And over the time, our team has discussed the following topics.

Wouldn’t it be great if we can team up with a friend to play the real-time PvP content?

Real-time PvP that requires a bit different strategy compared to the current World Arena.

We believe that teaming up with a friend to discuss details from selecting monsters to choosing skills to use, and supporting each other’s weakness to build up a tactic to win in battles could become a new type of fun that you may have not experienced in the existing PvP battle.

Thus, we set our goal to provide a new strategic gameplay experience to our Summoners and started to design the 2vs2 Team Battle.

Since this is a new type of PvP content, we believe that there may be many changes and improvements.

So we would like to have a trial service period first, and then release the official service afterwards. This way, we would be able to listen to your feedback and improve the 2vs2 Team Battle content before the official service.

No invitations will be required to enter the 2vs2 Team Battle during the trial period and no rankings will be available, so please enjoy the 2vs2 Team Battle without the burden of losing and try out many unique strategies with your friends or other fellow Summoners! 2vs2 Team Battle Event will be held with the update so you can try out the new battle mode with more fun.

Now, we would like to explain more about the 2vs2 Team Battle.

Please take a look at the image below to learn how to create a party and participate in battles.

▶ 2vs2 Team Battle Details

Here is an image of the World Arena standby menu.

You will notice the new icon added next to the special league icon.

The 2vs2 Team Battle menu will be added to the world arena lobby screen as above.

You can enter the 2vs2 Team Battle menu by tapping this icon.

2vs2 Team Battle has two functions - [Quick Battle] and [Invite].

You can team up with a random Summoner of the same server via [Quick Battle] function, or with a friend or guild member via [Invite] function.

This screen shows a Summoner waiting for a team member to join.

You can check the Summoner’s battle record and the information of the deck that was recently used in 2vs2 Team Battle, and the matchmaking will begin when both team members tap the [Ready] Button.

There will be a chat system for your team’s communication, and you will be able to discuss each other’s preference on monsters and decks.

Now, let’s talk about the battle preparation after your team is matched with the opponent team.

▶ 2vs2 Team Battle Preparation

Here’s an UI of monster selection.

As you can see, two players form one team each, and each Summoner will use three Monsters in a battle.

Summoners will pick four monsters first, and one Monster will get banned, having a total of 3 Monsters left on their deck.

The ban & pick process will be slightly different in 2vs2 Team Battle with the details of the following.

① Pick Monsters

When the first-pick player is decided, players will pick four Monsters each in order, having 16 Monsters picked in total.

The Monster pick will proceed as follows.

The Monsters that other Summoners picked cannot be picked again, so you will have to consider not only the opponent Summoners but also the ally Summoners when picking your Monsters.

After the Monster pick process, the Monster ban process will follow.

② Ban Monsters

We will continue with the table given above.

Each Summoner will ban one Monster of the opponent player that’s in front of each other.

For example, Player A will ban a Monster of Player C, and Player B will ban a Monster of Player D. Team 2 will also ban one Monster of the player that’s in front of them.

After banning Monsters, each Summoner will be left with three Monsters.

③ Select Leader Monsters

Each Summoner will select a leader Monster among the Monsters they have.

The ally’s leader skill effects will be shared with the team member, just like in the Rift Raid.

However, if two Summoners pick the leader skill that increases the same stats, only the leader skill with greater value will be applied.

Example) If the Light Ninja that increases the Attack Speed of Light Monsters by 30% and the Fire Pioneer that increases the Attack Speed of all ally Monsters by 24% are selected as leader Monsters, all ally Light Monsters will have their Attack Speed increased by 30%, and ally Monsters of other attributes will have their Attack Speed increased by 24%.

You and your team member will need to build strategy continuously from monster picks to leader skills. Teamwork will play a critical role in winning battles!

▶ 2vs2 Team Battle Method

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As you can see, the ally formation and enemy formation are divided, and the Monsters of each player are placed for a battle.

At this time, the Monsters of the enemy player who was on the opposite side during the ban & pick will also be placed on the opposite on the battlefield.

Because Player C was located opposite of Player A in the ban & pick shown as an example earlier, Player C's Monsters, such as Fire Anubis, Wind Lightening Emperor and Water Desert Queen, will be located on the opposite side of Player A on the battlefield.

Now the battle begins in this state and the monsters will use their skills.

In 2vs2 Team Battle, the targeting skills such as attack and recovery will basically target one player.

For example, if the Wind Joker uses [Amputation Magic] to attack the enemies, the skill will be used on the monster deck of one player, not on the entire enemy team.

In addition, beneficial effects such as healing allies will be used on the monster deck of one ally player.

However, as you all know, there are skills that get activated without selecting specific targets.

We discussed how the Water Oracle’s Daydream skill that puts enemies to sleep or the Water Fairy King’s passive skill that inflicts damage on all enemies upon his revival will be used to which enemy deck.

We first reviewed these effects to be applied on the entire enemy team or ally team, but this will have too high efficiency compared to the targeting skills. After consideration, we decided to have the following rule.

- In the case of a non-targeting skill effect whose target is not clear, the effect is applied to the player on the opposite side of you.

Here’s an example for your better understanding.

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You can see the Fire Anubis, Wind Lightening Emperor and Water Desert Queen are located opposite of the Water Oracle.

If you use the Water Oracle’s [Daydream], the monsters located opposite of you will receive the sleep effect.

The skill range of the effect for 2vs2 team battles can be summarized as follows.

- In the case of targeting skills, you can choose one enemy player to use. The AoE targeting skill is also applied to all Monsters of the selected player.

- In the case of a non-targeting skill, the effect is applied to the player's monster located on the opposite side of the battlefield.

We have looked at how the battle progresses in 2vs2 Team Battle.

In 2vs2 Team Battle, you can work with your team member to attack one player of the enemy team or other strategies that are slightly different from the existing 1vs1 PvP. Or your team member can use a revival skill on your team to revive the monsters for another attack chance! We look forward to seeing unexpected strategies of our Summoners.

Once the battle is over, you will see the following result screen.

The win/loss information for each team with the team members who played together is accumulated and saved, and this win/loss information will reset when the new season starts.

It would be fun to try and see how many wins you can achieve with who you teamed up with during the season!

We would like to end today’s dev note by going over the 2vs2 Team Battle progress and features.

▶ Summary of 2vs2 Team Battle Progress and Features

1. Create a team.

- You can create a team using the [Quick Battle] or [Invite] Menu through the 2vs2 Team Battle Icon at the top of the World Arena lobby.

2. Proceed with matchmaking with an opponent team after completing team preparation.

3. After the matchmaking, two teams proceed with the ban & pick in the given order.

- Each Summoner picks four Monsters, and bans one Monster of the opponent located on the opposite side.

4. Select a leader skill.

- It's similar to the application of the rift raid leader skill that the skill is shared with your team member. However, if the leader skills with the same effect are picked, only the one with the higher value will be applied.

5. Proceed with the battle.

- In the battle, the Monsters are placed in the same position as the player placement in the ban & pick phase.

- Basic skill use is the same as the existing World Arena (target monsters).

- AoE skills are applied per player.

- Non-targeting skills are applied to the Monsters located on the opposite side.

6. The team with the last surviving player wins.

- The team win/loss results are accumulated until the World Arena season resets.

As we mentioned earlier, we plan to introduce the [2vs2 Battle Mode] through the next update (v6.4.0).

Starting with the trial service, we will continue to develop the [2vs2 Battle Mode] such as adding spectator features or Goodwill Contest, so please share your valuable feedback on this new content.

We promise to improve [2vs2 Team Battle] in a better way by reviewing your feedback and opinions.

This is all we have for today! We hope you are excited about this new update on its way.

We will do our best to polish the new content with your valuable feedback, so please share your thoughts and suggestions via available channels.

(The developer's note is intended to help you understand the upcoming updates in advance.

As development and testing are still underway, we ask you to understand that the actual update may be different from what we have shared in this note.)

We would like to end today's note with the SWC2021 news.

First of all, we would like to thank everyone who has shown great interest in the SWC2021 tournament despite the current situation with COVID-19.

All of the preliminaries have ended, and the regional cups to determine the world finalists will be held in order!

Please stay tuned for the upcoming SWC2021 regional cups and World Finals.

In addition, the upcoming v6.4.0 update not only offers the World Arena 2vs2 Team Battle but also various content improvements and events.

We are currently working on the update, so please stay tuned.

And many of you are wondering when the next balance patch will take place.

As mentioned earlier, SWC2021 is live at the moment and we are expecting to have the Asia-Pacific Cup on Oct. 2nd KST. We would like to have the next balance patch after this regional cup, on Oct. 4th KST. But before the balance patch, we plan to provide the balance patch pre-notice in the last week of September.

Many of you have shared your feedback regarding the cycle of balance patches. Starting with this one, we plan to have a balance patch once every two months, so more Monsters can be utilized in diverse contents. Please stay tuned for the balance patches as well.​

We will be back again with another exciting dev note.

Thanks!​