Devblog: Dungeons 2.0 27/05/2022 - 16h00

Dungeon Types

In the Osamosa and Shhhudoku Kingdom content expansions back in 2020, we decided to reduce the number of rooms in dungeons. Our goal was to provide a slightly faster experience than a traditional dungeon in order to give the level 201+ content a unique signature of its own. The traditional 4 rooms were therefore reduced to 3, and this change was fairly well received by the community.

In designing the dungeons for the Shustuft Crust, we tried to go even further with this "fast but tough" approach by reducing the dungeons to just two rooms. The most important thing was to have the first room use a mechanic a lot like the Boss's mechanic, in order to establish a higher level of difficulty than what you'd encounter outside of the dungeon.

In the player satisfaction survey for the Shustuft Crust update, we asked the community how many dungeons they'd like to see switch to this new format. Two of the options came out on top: "Several dungeons" finished first, and "All dungeons" in second place. So the overall trend was in favor of switching to the new format.

For this update, we decided to reduce about 40% of the dungeons in the game to 2 rooms, and another 40% to 3 rooms. We thought about each dungeon in terms of the monsters' specific mechanics and the dungeon's level (the higher its level, the more likely we were to change it to 2 rooms).

So at this point, the different dungeon types are as follows:

• Unchanged dungeons
  • These are dungeons with 4 or more rooms that have a story, challenge or unique mechanic (like alternative paths).
  • A bonus of 40 Wisdom and Prospecting is applied when you play through these dungeons at your level.
• Three-room dungeons
  • ​​​​​​​A bonus of 20 Wisdom and Prospecting is applied when you play through these dungeons at your level.
• Two-room dungeons
  • ​​​​​​​These dungeons have a boss mechanic in the first room, making them harder than the 3-room dungeons.
• Three-player dungeons
  • ​​​​​​​This type of dungeon can only be played with an adjusted level, and only has one room.
  • You need to have an incantation of the appropriate level in order to start the fight.
  • As with Ultimate Bosses, only one incantation is needed to start the dungeon for the whole group of players.
• Ultimate Bosses
  • ​​​​​​​This type of dungeon can only be played with an adjusted level.
  • Each Ultimate Boss lair now requires a key. This key can be crafted from fragments dropped by Bosses in regular dungeons. Only one key is needed to start the fight against the Ultimate Boss.
  • As with Rushu and Ogrest, there is no longer any limit on the number of tries or amount of loot per week.
  • You can now fight Ultimate Bosses at Stasis 1, but you cannot obtain the boss's resource as loot at this level of difficulty.

A table summarizing the different dungeon types is available: click here.

Note: Certain Bosses, and Ultimate Bosses in particular, have had some changes to their mechanics, but we'll let you discover those in-game for yourself…

We hope that these changes will make WAKFU accessible to more players and groups. This update to the dungeon system allows us to vary the content available in the game. For example, some players prefer three-person dungeons because they are simple and dynamic, while others enjoy more immersive and extensive content.

In any case, this will make it less necessary to spend lots of time playing dungeons, which distinguishes this type of content from the Dimensional Rifts which are intended to be longer. The various PvE activities thus form a coherent whole in which each part has a newly strengthened identity to meet the needs of multiple player profiles.
 

Stasis

We've been thinking for a while now about increasing the maximum for adjustable Stasis levels in the dungeons. However, since the curve is already divided into 50 brackets, the difficulty increases were not especially easy to understand.

Therefore, we decided to modify the Stasis difficulty curve to make it simpler. We think that the increase in simplicity makes up for losing the ability to micro-manage the difficulty.

• New level 1 = Old level 1
• New level 2 = Old level 11
• New level 3 = Old level 21
• New level 4 = Old level 31
• etc., up to level 10 which is the highest level.

 

So epic, relic and legendary items can now be obtained starting at Level 3.

We're also making changes to the curve itself:

• Mechanical archetypes are added starting at certain Stasis levels (5 and 8). These archetypes change the way you'll have to approach the fight.
• Different difficulty and reward curves are applied, depending on the type of content.
  • A "normal" curve is used for most of the content, following the curve currently found in the 201+ dungeons.
  • A different curve specific to 2-room dungeons and 3-player dungeons offers faster progression.
  • A curve specific to the Ultimate Bosses incorporates a Stasis level 1 that doesn't compromise on the spirit of these fights, and uses values that fall between the other two curves.

Ranking

The competition system adds a social aspect to the dungeons by pushing players to try and perform better than others. However, it has a few problems that we wanted to resolve.

The upcoming changes are as follows:

• What chests you obtain will now depend on what Stasis level you reach, not on your ranking. Everyone can pick up a chest at the end of the month, regardless of their placement in the rankings.
• The contents of the chests will change. Each dungeon has its own chest with resources or equipment from that dungeon, along with a few shared items. The amount will vary based on the Stasis level you've reached over the course of the season.
• Epic and relic sublimations are removed from the chests. Recipes will now be the main way of obtaining these. It will still be possible to acquire Stasis fragments in chests, but they will be rare.
• The top three teams have a rank (gold, silver, bronze) that will grant them a significant number of shards as a reward for their ranking.
• Teams are still sorted by Stasis level, then number of turns, then "first team signed up" (i.e. the same way as before).

 

The value of epic and relic sublimations is too high, which was driving players to enter competition in an unfair way. Therefore, we've changed the way they are obtained to be a simple crafting recipe. Note: the main ingredient in an epic or relic sublimation is a "dungeon stone". These stones are very rare rewards which can only be obtained from bosses when playing at the same level as the dungeon (e.g. by adjusting your level). These dungeon stones will allow us to maintain the spirit of the previous system while encouraging level-adjusted play with a unique reward.

To promote interactions between all players, each dungeon type will offer a different stone.

• Unchanged dungeon → Stone of Adventure
• Three-room dungeon → Stone of Balance
• Two-room dungeon → Stone of Speed
• Three-player dungeon → Stone of Companionship
• Ultimate Boss → Ultimate Stone

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We're also taking this opportunity to revise and enhance certain epic and relic sublimations, while also adding new sublimations to increase the variety of available options.

FAQ

Can we expect a reset of the Dungeon leaderboard?

• All entries in all leaderboards, including the permanent one, will be deleted when the update is rolled out.

 

If the leaderboard entries are deleted, then what happens to the rewards from the month when the update comes out?

• When we deploy this update, we will end the season currently in progress. We will not inject the rewards (still in the old format).
• The leaderboard will be closed at the start of the month when the update is scheduled, and will then open normally when the update is actually rolled out.

 

What happens to my chests and Stasis purses?

• All items, chests, purses etc. will stay the same. There are no changes, so you can open them whenever you want without losing anything.

 

Are there any changes on the way for the Ultimate Bosses' gameplay mechanics?

• We will be making major changes to the oldest of the Ultimate Bosses. We can't say anything more about this for now, and they won't be testable in the beta… Start sharpening your blades for the update!

 

Are you planning any changes to the challenges?

• For this update, we wanted to concentrate on the developments we've presented here.
• Challenges are an interesting game mechanic that we hope to develop further at some point. But for the time being, we don't have any specific plans in mind.

 

How will we know which dungeon uses which format?

• Because the dungeon formats are all very different, with each format also being associated with a specific stone, we decided it was important to make it clear which format each dungeon uses.
• A small icon will be shown in the dungeon interface, on the world map, and in the entrance interface.

 

Are there any changes coming for Dimensional Rifts?

• No changes are planned for the Rifts in this update.

 

Are you planning to improve the level adjustment mechanics?

• We aren't planning any ergonomic improvements to the level adjustment system in this patch. Although we'd like to simplify the approach to level adjustment at some point in the long term, this is a major technical issue that will take time to address.
• Nevertheless, we definitely want to give players more ways to compete in the dungeons. So when this update is released, the total initial number of equipment, spell and ability pages for all of your characters will be increased from 5 to 15.
• It will still be possible to increase this number through the shop, up to a maximum of 25. We won't be compensating players for purchases made beforehand: the shop items will remain available to provide even greater convenience and flexibility. If you've already bought pages, they will automatically be added to your new initial total.