Developer Diary: Endgame and Activities

Commanders!

One of the most important aspects of every game is for players to simply have something to do. After all, when you earn that last vehicle you’ve always wanted, you will want to put it to good use, won’t you? Today, we’d like to tell you more about the activities and changes we are preparing for the future updates in order to allow you to do just that.

No doubt you’ve already heard about the upcoming Age of Rage Battle Path Premium campaign, but that’s not the only thing we are working on – far from that. Today, let’s take a look at three new things you’ll be able to do or participate in soon.

One of the things we’d like to address is the amount of options available for unlocking in exchange for Experience and Credits, which is why, in the future, we will be adding extra options for high-Tier vehicles that many players consider to be the “endgame” of Armored Warfare.

We’ll start with upcoming French branch. Apart from the standard progression that we already disclosed in the previous article, the Tier 10 Leclerc will feature additional progression unlockable items such as additional Active Abilities.

Another element of this system will be the Mastery mechanism. Simply put, completing several difficult achievements will set your vehicle to the Mastered status, rewarding you with a very special unique skin that everyone will recognize on the battlefield. We are planning this option for the Tier 10 Leclerc upon its introduction and for more high-end vehicles in the future.

But that’s still not all. Level 3 retrofits will become available in the future. Unlocking them will require, much like the Mastery system, the completion of a certain achievement.

The first of these will be available for unlocking from the Tier 9 Leclerc Azur and will combine the reload speed and accuracy bonuses from the two Level 2 and Level 1 retrofits respectively. It’s worth noting that it will not be possible to combine Level 2 and Level 3 retrofits that offer the same bonuses (in this case, the reload speed).

While the abovementioned part uses the Leclerc series as an example, we do intend to add such additional vehicle progression elements to other, already introduced, vehicles as well.

War Games are a name for a series of time-limited new modes and activities that we will be gradually introducing in the upcoming seasons. These activities will be periodically available alongside the standard modes and will provide you with additional challenges in exchange for extra rewards.

And, since we haven’t introduced new repeatable PvE content in quite a while now, we will be introducing a new PvE mode as a part of the War Games system in Update 0.29 – the Labyrinth.

In the Labyrinth mode, a team of players will have to capture bases that will appear one after another in a maze of city streets. The appearance of each base will be tied to a timer and capturing it will extend the limit, allowing you to fight your way towards the next one.

Speaking of fighting, groups of constantly appearing AI opponents do their best to prevent them from achieving the objective. Will you be able to navigate through the deadly streets until the timer runs out?

For the future seasons following the next one, we will be working on more such special modes. For example, the Cargo Collection mode will see a team of players control their own desert base. From time to time, a cargo plane will appear, air-dropping its precious goodies for you to collect. Picking them up will be, however, no small feat as the base will be under siege by relentless waves of enemies.

In order not to overwhelm you too much, only one War Game mode will be available at any given time and they will switch periodically with other time-limited activities such as the re-run of older Special Operations.

And last but definitely not least, we are working on a new Contract Mission campaign with a number of improvements compared to the last one. The campaign will consist of two stages, each with its distinctive reward.

• First stage contract will allow you to obtain a unique vehicle, the ZUBR PSP Tier 7 Premium Tank Destroyer – directly, no more blueprint collection; once you complete the contract, you’ll have it
• Second stage contract kicks in after the first stage is completed, will be repeatable and will consist of the same missions, but the main reward will change to a very special Seasonal Loot Crate (more on that below)

The mission mechanism will change as well. Three mission categories will be available:

• Easy Daily Mission (small amount of contract progress, possible to complete in a battle or two, 24 hour cooldown)
• Medium Daily Mission (average contract progress, possible to complete in a few battles, 24 hour cooldown)
• Hard Weekly Mission (significant contract progress, require skill, 7 day cooldown)

But that’s not all. The daily missions will be possible to complete in both PvP and PvE, making them more comfortable. The Hard missions will come in two categories – PvP (including Global Operations) and PvE. We’ve also tuned the requirements so that the Premium vehicle will be obtainable in a few weeks of active gameplay.

And last but not least, there will be synergy between these missions and the Repeatable Battle Coin missions we’ve unveiled earlier for the upcoming Battle Path – by completing these Contract Missions, you’ll also be able to obtain a serious number of Battle Coins. And, of course, Contract Missions and Battle Path missions with compatible goals will be possible to work towards at the same time.

But that’s still not all. After the ZUBR contract is completed, the second stage activates with its main prize being a Loot Crate. Now, you might be thinking – a single Loot Crate for an entire contract that is as long as the original ZUBR one?

Well, we’ll have you know that this will be a very special Loot Crate. Because it will always drop a Tier 6 to Tier 8 Premium vehicle and a visual customization item (skin or camouflage from the large pool of existing ones as well as some new ones). Additionally:

• Tier 7 Premium vehicle drop will come with a Tier 9 temporary vehicle
• Tier 6 Premium vehicle drop will come with a Tier 10 temporary vehicle
• If you own any item from this crate’s drop list, you’ll receive Gold instead
• Temporary vehicles, if you have their permanent version already, will also grant you Gold upon activation instead

In other words, you’ll have the chance to receive a lot of Premium content by just playing the game.

We hope that you will enjoy these new features and are eagerly looking forward to your feedback.

See you on the battlefield!