Version 82: Titan Hunters, Leveling Overhaul, and Dragonspire Tweaks

Version 82 has arrived in Empires & Puzzles, bringing with it a mix of content expansion and some highly requested quality-of-life improvements. While new heroes are always expected, the headline feature for many long-time players will likely be the significant changes to hero leveling and the utility of duplicate heroes.

Here is a breakdown of everything coming in this update.

Hero Leveling Improvements

This update introduces a massive overhaul to how duplicate heroes are handled during leveling. Previously, feeding a duplicate hero provided a decent boost, but Version 82 turns duplicates into premium experience resources.

XP Bonus for Duplicates

The XP gained from sacrificing a duplicate Hero (a card of the exact same hero) has been increased drastically across all rarities:

• Rare Heroes: +900% XP bonus (Total: 6,300 XP)
• Epic Heroes: +2400% XP bonus (Total: 22,500 XP)
• Legendary Heroes: +4900% XP bonus (Total: 60,000 XP)

This change makes pulling duplicates far less painful, as they now act as super-trainers for their twin copies.

Special Skill Increases

Alongside the raw XP boost, the odds of increasing a Special Skill when feeding duplicates have been maxed out.

• Special Increase Chance: Now 100% per duplicate character (up from 25%).
• Multiplier: The multiplier per sacrifice rarity has increased from 1% to 5%.

For players working on costumes or secondary copies of heroes, this guarantees skill progression without the need for feeders or manuals, streamlining the process significantly.

New Content: Titan Hunters & Costumes

The Titan Hunter Family

A new family of heroes is entering the game specifically designed to combat Titans. The Titan Hunter family will appear in a specialized summon portal. This portal features these new specialized heroes alongside a "hand-picked" pool of existing heroes known for their utility against Titans. Expect high attack stats, elemental defense down, and tile-altering abilities to be prominent here.

5th Costumes for Classic Heroes

The Classic (Season 1) heroes are receiving yet another wardrobe update. A new round of 5th Costumes is being released. While the patch notes describe them simply as "stylish," players can expect these costumes to push the stats of Season 1 heroes even closer to modern standards, likely accompanied by new costume bonuses.

Bazaar Summon Updates

The Bazaar Summon continues to evolve, offering another chance to acquire Mimic Heroes. The update introduces new Rare and Epic Mimic Heroes to the pool. A key feature of this summon is the ability to target specific featured Mimic Heroes, giving players slightly more control over their chase targets.

Dragonspire Updates

The Dragonspire game mode sees several structural changes aimed at increasing engagement and hero utility.

Tournament Schedule

Dragonspire Tournaments will now occur on a bi-weekly basis (every other week). A new icon has been added to the interface to clearly indicate when sign-ups are open, ensuring players do not miss the window.

Dragon Rider Buffs

The limitations on Dragon Riders have been lifted, and their impact on PvP has been heavily increased.

• Cap Removal: The cap on stat boosts provided by Dragon Riders has been removed. Heroes assigned as Riders now contribute their full Attack, Defense, and Health stats to their Dragon.
• PvP Boost: In Dragon Raids and Dragonspire Tournaments, Riders now provide a 4x bonus to Defense and Health. This multiplier applies to both attacking and defending teams, likely slowing down the pace of dragon combat and placing a premium on high-stat Riders.

UI Tweaks

• The "Travel to Dragonspire" button will still display notifications for new Quests or full Chests.
• The "Assist Dragon" button in the Edit Team view has been improved.
• More space has been allocated for Assist Skill information in the Dragon Info view.

Seasonal Event: Season of Love

The annual Season of Love event returns with a refresh.

• Valentines Brawl: A new Raid Brawl mode has been added, featuring specific buffs for the Cupid Family heroes.
• Quest Update: The Season of Love Quest and its seasonal booster have been updated, likely with adjusted difficulty or rewards to match the current meta.

Improvements & Fixes

General Improvements

• Status Effects: An "Additional Info" view has been added to owned Status Effects, providing clearer details on buffs and ailments during battle.
• Premium Pets: The Onyx and Crystal Dragon pets are now both unlocked via the Premium Timesaver VIP. Their display order and descriptions have been swapped to correctly reflect their unlock criteria.

Bug Fixes

• Mystic Vision: Fixed a visual glitch with the Mystic Vision Tower when seasonal decorations were active.
• Nine Realms Family: Fixed a display issue where the family bonus hero count was missing.
• Ransack Skill: Fixed a logic error where Ransack failed if the target had a buff that could not be reallocated (undispellable buffs). It now checks buff types correctly.
• Life Steal: Fixed an issue where "Greed" was not correctly blocking Life Steal healing.
• Taunt Bug: Fixed a critical issue where heroes with Taunt active were not taking damage when targeted by a Special Skill.
• Summon Preview: Fixed the Max Power preview not displaying extra Passives unlocked via Costumes.
• Costume Bonus: Fixed an issue where partially ascended costumes received from Summons displayed incorrect costume bonus values.