In Development: Eclipse Battle Path

Commanders!

Today, we’d like to tell you more about the upcoming Eclipse Battle Path campaign as a whole along with the changes and improvements we’ve prepared for you.

Unlike the previous Battle Paths, the Eclipse is storytelling-based and represents more an evolution of the concept than a revolution. What that means is the mechanics will remain familiar to you but, at the same time, some things are different. Let’s start with the biggest addition, which is the Diary feature.

The core of the Eclipse Battle Path is its story. It starts like this:

The year is 2028 and the world order is slowly unraveling. The United States of America, once an undisputed leader of the free world, is wracked by internal strife after more than a century of prosperity. The Russian Federation, having fully recovered from the Soviet Union era that ended in 1997, is a rising power once again. Further to the east, the mysterious land of China is closed to all but selected few, its ambitions as strong as Russia’s. Europe’s fortune is closely tied to that of America with their issues similar – the influence of nation states clashing with that of power-hungry corporations.

It is an age of upheaval and you are smack in the middle of it – a young mercenary down on his luck, presented with an offer he can’t possibly refuse, to train a security branch of a Chicago-based company by the name of Perihelion, its purpose as enigmatic as its founder, an investor by the name of David Murdoch. In June 2028, you have joined Perihelion’s forces in their Arizona camp.

Sounds familiar? Indeed, a fraction of Eclipse is a re-telling of the Perihelion story and, more importantly, its continuation. If you are familiar with the Perihelion event, you’ll feel right at home from the start. And if you are not, you’ll have the chance to experience this Armored Warfare story right from the beginning. But what does it all mean?

It’s rather simple.

As you progress through the Battle Path, you’ll be able to unlock new diary entries in the new Diary window, written in the form of a diary of the main protagonist, Samuel Thorpe.

Unlocking each new level of the Battle Path unlocks new entry, which contains not only text but also related pieces of art. Likewise, prizes for each level are related to that respective entry.

Additionally the prizes you receive have their own descriptions that allow you to learn more about the world of Armored Warfare and the Eclipse Battle Path.

There are secrets hidden in the entries – or perhaps some of the descriptions? Who knows? Up to you to find them and receive additional prizes. But beware – these are anything but easy to discover save for the most attentive of players.

And last but not least, for those of you living and breathing Armored Warfare, there will be additional contests, portal events, bonus missions and extra lore bits appearing on the game’s portal and social media. There will be a lot to digest over the next couple of months story-wise.

Stories are great for whenever you just feel like taking a rest from blasting tanks but let’s face it – you’re here for the prizes, right? Not to worry, there will be plenty of those.

Prize-wise, the concept of this Battle Path is a bit different. We’ve thrown out the most basic of prizes and have added multiple prizes to each level in the form of several assets related to each respective story entry. Unlocking each level should therefore feel like a celebration!

As an example, the Diary entry for Level 2 contains the description of the main character’s trip to Dubai. Correspondingly, you’ll receive all the following items for reaching Level 2:

• UAE camouflage
• Decal: Dubai Coat of Arms
• Banner: Flag of Dubai
• Battle Coin boost token

The main prizes of the Battle Path will be, as usual, four vehicles, all of them highly requested:

• Flakpanzer Gepard Tier 8 Premium AFV for reaching Level 19
• Otomatic Tier 9 Premium TD for reaching Level 34
• TOS-1M Buratino Tier 10 Premium TD for reaching Level 50
• Object 787 Gadyuka Tier 6 Premium TD obtainable by collecting 100 parts (blueprints) either by completing missions or from the Battle Coin Shop
• Commander Samuel Thorpe for reaching Level 49

Yes, that’s right, an epic TOS as well as a new commander. The TOS-1M rocket launcher is the top prize of this Battle Path with its rather crazy firepower that includes 220mm rockets.

A few words about the new commander.

The story’s protagonist, Samuel Thorpe, is an inexperienced commander and starts with a fairly bland set of skills similar to those of other commanders. However, as the story progresses, he’ll gain experience and his future skillset will reflect that.

In practical terms, this means that at some point during or after the Battle Path, we’ll rebalance Samuel Thorpe. At this moment, his skill plans are related to his favorite vehicle, the BMPT, but you’ll have a chance to change that. Make sure you follow the portal to find out how!

And the requirements?

The main Battle Path progression will consists of 50 levels (down from 60) and the duration is extended to 6 months. The levels (ranks) will cost 6.000 Battle Coins each (to a total of 294.000 Battle Coins for reaching Level 50) but fear not, we’ll be compensating this increase as follows:

• More boosters as prizes with additional ones available in the Shop
• More income from chain missions
• Easier repeatable missions

As things are, if you are earning your Battle Coins by playing, you’ll be progressing faster than in the previous Battle Path.

Additionally, those of you having participated in the Perihelion event will have a distinct advantage as some of the prizes of this Battle Path were used previously in that event. If you have such a prize already, you’ll be compensated in bonus Battle Coins (22.000 Battle Coins in total in case you have all the Perihelion prizes). All in all, given the extension and the changes to income and missions, you should have an easier time completing this Battle Path.

This is a returning concept that we had in the past Battle Paths, although this time it’s a bit different. The Eclipse Battle Path will feature 10 “overprogression” levels (51 to 60) that are a bonus for the most hardcore of players.

The top prize of these levels is an additional Tier 10 Premium vehicle – EBRC Jaguar, but that’s just one aspect of it as the prizes get very valuable indeed, more so with each level obtained:

• Levels 51 to 58 will feature special Eclipse Loot Crates (one each)
• Level 59 will feature a Flag unlock (or 25.000 Battle Coins if you have it unlocked already)
• Level 60 will feature the coveted Jaguar

The Eclipse Loot Crates work as follows. Each of these Loot Crates will “scan” your vehicle pool and award you one vehicle that you don’t have already – with certain limitations. Each of these crates is marked with a Tier, starting with Tier 3 on Level 51 all the way up to Tier 10 on Level 58. Each crate awards vehicles of its Tier but may award you with a vehicle up to two Tiers higher. A few examples:

• Level 51: Tier 3 Loot Crate may award you with Tier 3, Tier 4 and Tier 5 vehicle that you don’t have
• Level 52: Tier 4 Loot Crate may award you with Tier 4, Tier 5 and Tier 6 vehicle that you don’t have

And so on. Level 57 crate only awards Tier 9 and Tier 10 vehicles, Level 58 crate awards Tier 10 vehicles. In other words, you may earn up to three Tier 10 vehicles from this system alone. However, please note that as we stated above, these Loot Crates will only award you vehicles you don’t have. In the unlikely case you have literally everything the crate can offer (some vehicles are excluded, much like in the BP shop), you will receive bonus Battle Coins.

Each of these overprogression levels will cost 18000 Battle Coins.

We are overhauling the Battle Path shop to work a bit different. First things first – the bonus Battle Coins are staying and we aren’t nerfing them. Here’s how things will be set up:

• The first slot will offer the abovementioned Battle Coins with the same amounts and chances as at the end of the Rise of the Dragon Battle Path.
• The second slot previously offered a single type of blueprints (parts) depending on the Battle Path. In the Eclipse Battle Path, the slot will offer three types of blueprints – Object 787 Gadyuka, 2S38 Derivatsiya and CV90120T Ghost. That way, you’ll be able to assemble all three vehicles without having to wait for the right drop in the vehicle slot.
• The third slot will offer the same vehicles as before (minus the Ghost and Derivatsiya) but will feature nearly all vehicles there are in the game, including T-62M, T-15 Kinzhal, the Rise of the Dragon vehicles, Object 225 and Object 287.
• The fourth slot lost the “trash” drops (insignia, Credits) but will now offer most of the camouflages and base paints available in the game, including some really rare ones. We’ve prepared some real unicorns for you here and it’s up to you to find them!
• And finally, the fifth slot also lost its “trash” drops and will now offer skins. Just how many skins? Pretty much all of them. Yes, that’s hundreds of new items you can purchase for Battle Coins if vehicle visuals are something you get into. Some of our skins are famously epic and we want to offer you the chance to also get them for Battle Coins.

As usual, already owned skins, camouflages and paints will not be available for repeated purchase.

And that’s about it, commanders. We hope you’ll enjoy this Battle Path as much as we enjoyed designing and writing it for you. We hope you’ll allow yourselves to look beyond simple numbers and enjoy it as the epic adventure we’re planning it to be. For the future, we’ll give you more opportunities to influence the direction of the story as well as the vehicles you’ll be able to earn, the Eclipse is just the beginning.

See you on the battlefield!