Greetings, Adventurers! Announcing a big update to Puzzle Quest 3; Update 0.36 (Events).

This update unveils a brand new feature: Events! We are excited to share two Events; Daily Sieges and Event Dungeons. We also have a variety of other changes to explore; including an update to the game chat, consolidating Dungeons and Skirmishes into “Challenges” and a variety of optimizations to the game.

Changes in Update 0.36 (Events)

There are a number of changes in this update, and we have outlined the major ones below. Where possible we have included the reasoning and intention behind these changes. 

The game has had some new animation, effects, and polish. 

• New effects and animation sequences happen when:
  • Upgrading Followers
  • Upgrading items (such as gear)
  • Completing a Story Chapter
• A virtual pointer shows if you are playing the game using a controller
• Icons – a number of existing icons including Goals, Relics and Crystals and Party icons have been implemented in the game and undergone a visual rework 

In a future update, we’ll be sharing some tantalizing new puzzle gameplay environments!

Introducing a new feature: Events – Daily Sieges and Event Dungeons.

We felt that the game needed some other game-modes and features to return to the outside of the story, and so – introducing Events. Events add a series of time-based activities into the game to compete for unique rewards… Fight in battles with unique “modifiers” that add a twist to the game. Collect Medals to climb Tiers in Events and earn more rewards.

Accessing Events 

• Events can be accessed from the “Events” tab in the game after reaching Level 7
• There are 2 types of Events.
  • Daily Sieges (every 24 hours)
  • Event Dungeons (over several days)  – Contain Leaderboards to compete against other players 
• Events are based on a Mastery Element and have unique Event Modifiers which make the battles more difficult 

Fighting in Events

• Spend Event Tokens to fight in battles. Up to 2 Tokens can be earned and they reset daily. Additional Tokens can be purchased via the Event Shop
• Event Modifiers contain Buffs and Debuffs that can be applied to you or the Enemy
  • These buffs affect battle as status effects do, but they are permanent and cannot be removed during battle
• Progressing to higher Tiers will unlock more points, however, Enemies will also get harder
• Tiers can be changed and selected once they have been completed and unlocked
• A ‘Rest point’ (menu) is available after every second enemy is defeated to help you continue in the battle. Rest points offer the chance to use Potions to heal or Essences to gain Mana.

Collecting rewards

• Collect Medals for winning battles to progress in Events and earn better rewards
• Reaching a certain number of battle Wins will grant special rewards such as Materials or Armor 
• You can gain up to 8 rewards from battle, depending on the number of Enemies you defeat. These can drop rewards such as Materials and Armor and are rewarded at the end of each battle
• Completing a Tier in an Event will earn a number of rewards, including a Chest, Horns for the Battle Pass, and more Event Medals

We are excited for you to enjoy the new Events in Puzzle Quest 3! The team is considering adding more Events in the future.

We have added a new type of pack to the Shop and optimized the way VIP Rewards are received.

• Small and Large Key Packs can now only be purchased once per day
• Clarified that the VIP Rewards and Loyalty points are not gained unless VIP pass is owned
• Daily Deals have been modified and we have added new Deals containing Crystals and Relics. You may need to refresh your Daily Deals to see these new deals
• Changed menu UI flow for the Gem top-up purchase menu
  

VIP Rewards

VIP Rewards were being delivered in multiple ways. To make things simpler we’ve consolidated the rewards to be collected from inside the in-game Shop. Don’t worry – If you had uncollected rewards these will be sent via the in-game mail!

• Daily VIP Gems have been increased from 10 to 25 Gems 
• The first available VIP Level now displays as 1 rather than 0 
• The “Free Daily Offer (VIP)” Deal has been removed, and compensation has been mailed for each day if you have any remaining. 
  • Previously rewards for VIPs were being collected in 2 separate places – via mail and via the shop. This was an error. There were only intended to be one set of rewards. We have removed the mail rewards but kept the shop rewards (and increased the Gems in it slightly). As mentioned, if you had purchased VIP, ALL of the rewards you would have been able to collect in the mail, for the entire duration of your current VIP subscription, will be mailed out at once.
• All VIP Daily Rewards are now collected from the shop rather than the in-game Mail
  • When you collect VIP rewards it will give you all the VIP rewards you may have missed if not collected on previous days.

Flash Offers

New special deals called “Flash Offers” are available for purchase to add more variety to the types of shop packs available and give an opportunity to purchase harder-to-gain resources. Flash Offers will be available for Gems, Relics, and Follower Crystals and we plan to add more types in the future.

Challenges: An update to consolidate the Dungeons and Skirmishes game modes and improve the rewards.

We’ve reviewed Dungeons and Skirmishes to make them interesting and valuable to play! They have been into one menu called “Challenges” and the rewards have been changed. There is now a small chance to earn Relics. It is easier to access both game modes, select battles you want to fight, and determine the Difficulty.

• Moved Dungeons to the ‘Skirmish’ tab, renamed it “Challenges”. Dungeons can still be accessed from the World-map
• There are now 6 extra battles to choose from (3 for Dungeons, 3 for Skirmishes) that reset every day
• Select from a set up of existing Chapters or choose a custom difficulty. Each battle has a chance to now also earn Relics
• Uncollected rewards will be sent to your mail at Daily Reset
• Dungeon Chest icons and shields are indicated across the UI

We are planning more changes to the Challenges feature in a future update to improve the menus and fine-tune the rewards.

To help you feel safe when issues arise, if you see inappropriate behavior you can now block and report other players from in-game.

We want everyone to have a positive experience playing Puzzle Quest 3. It is now possible to both block and report players.

Block 

• Players can be blocked by selecting their profile in chat and selecting “Block”. Blocked players will not have their messages visible in the in-game chat
• View and unblock players that have been blocked through the blocklist

Reporting

• Report other players for one of four offenses by selecting their profile, then select “Report”
• There are four types of reports that can be made:
  • Inappropriate chat – Rude, discriminatory, or disruptive behavior that causes harm to others in the game
  • Offensive name – A player-name that is offensive
  • Chat spam – Excessive messages or content spam in the chat
  • Hacking or cheating – Exploiting, modifying, or otherwise hacking or cheating in the game to gain an unfair advantage
• Reports made can be viewed by the Puzzle Quest 3 Support team

Earning Gear and Loot is an important part of the game, so we’ve taken steps to improve the menu flow when you need to open Chests and earn loot but your Vault is full.

Previously, having a full Minion, Spell, or Gear (Weapons, Armor, and Accessory) Vault meant that you couldn’t open any Chests. It’s now possible to open chests regardless of your Vault and you can ‘overflow’ your Vault until you’re ready to free up space. Don’t forget to clear some space so you can return to battle!

Chest changes:

• Chests can now be opened even if your Vault is full
• Continuing to collect items (Minions, Gear, and Spells) when your Vault means they will ‘overflow’ past their storage limit
• Check your Vault Storage limits in the Gear menu, in the rewards after a battle, or when opening a Chest
• If your Vaults overflows you won’t be able to start any battles or use Loot Tickets until you make more room in your Vault
• Improved filtering and sorting options for Minions, and the options selected will save when returning to the menu
• Added a warning prompt before purchasing Chests in the Shop if you have no available chest slots
• Salvaging a chest will show a notification in the top right-hand corner of the menu

In the future, we are considering other ways we can improve the usability when handling Chests, such as giving you options to salvage, store or action multiple items in menus. We are open to feedback and ideas.

To keep the wider world of Etheria at balance we sometimes need to tweak a few things across the game. This means that some things might get a bit harder – and sometimes, easier. 

This time we discovered both Heroes and Enemies were just a bit too overpowered with their Spells. To counter this, Items like Weapons and Gear will also give you an extra Attribute (effect) at Mythic Rarity and their statistics have changed. We’ve increased and decreased the costs of some Spells.

Enemy & Hero spell cost adjustments

• Some Spells have decreased in Mana cost
• Dragon Enemies now require more Mana to charge up their spells, so will take more time to cast in battle. In the future, we’re taking steps to balance Dragons in battles further and check they’re not more difficult than they should be as Bosses
• Most Spells have had a mana cost increase for balance purposes for both Heroes and Enemies. For Heroes, this mostly applies to Spells that could be shared between Classes
• This cost is more significant on spells that create gems

Unfortunately, due to the volume of changes made we are unable to list all of them here.

Changes to Collectible Items and Followers

With the help of players, we found that Upgrading Relics was very difficult, so we have made some changes that will make this easier. On the other hand, while investigating the game’s design we discovered that Followers were giving out WAY too much Food and Ore, so we’ve halved the amount they are producing to balance things in the world a little. We will continue reviewing the availability and balance of resources as we move towards worldwide launch.

• Items now earn an extra Attribute (effect) on some Rarities
  • Attributes are now earned at Levels 0/1/2/3/5/8 (rather than 0/1/2/3/4/8)
  • Each Attribute now gives more Power, Vitality, and Mastery
• When gaining a Level of Rarity Items will increase their base stat (e.g. Damage, Armor, Resistance) by a bonus 30% (rather than 5%)
• Enemies are sometimes easier as we removed the calculation that meant they would do extra Damage 
  • Previously, Enemies with a higher Score would do extra damage
  • To counter this, some Enemies have had their stats (Life/Armor, etc) increased
    
  • Shields now use Accessory shards instead of Weapon Shards to upgrade
  • Shields will now count towards Accessory Bounties as well, and have therefore been removed from the “Gear up” and “Next Level arms” Bounties tasks

• Followers – Unfortunately, there was an issue causing Followers to produce double the Food and Ore so we have halved this in the game

• • Food output halved from 36 + 4 (per level) to 18 + 2 (per level)
  • Ore also halved from 18 + 2 (per level) to 9 + 1 (per level)
• Fewer Relics are required to upgrade items
  • Common –> Uncommon Rarity: 1 Rune/Scroll (was previously 4)
  • Uncommon –> Rare: 2 Runes/Scrolls + 1 Relics (was previously 4/4)
  • Rare –> Epic: 3 Runes/Scrolls + 2 Relics (was previously 4/4)
  • Epic –> Legendary: Reduced the Relics required to 3 (was previously 4)

We’ve added a new menu and looked at ways we can make it easier to find items and resources in Etheria. 

We have created a new “Material Finder” pop-up for the Upgrade menu. This will show you where to earn Resources like certain Relics. We’ve checked some menus for clarity and wording.

Selecting a material such as Gold or Relics while upgrading an Item or Follower will open the Material Finder, which explains how to find it in-game. If you have access to that area of the game (such as Challenges) you can select that button for it to take you there in the game.

Other menu improvements

• If there are no Gems available on the board after casting a Spell a warning notification will appear. For example, if there are no Skulls available for the “War Cry” Spell
• Added various tool-tips to the game and updated the “?” question-mark menu with new help articles
• When typing a name code it now defaults to Uppercase letters
• Any Attributes (eg. Parry has a Max of 80%) that have a maximum capacity are now indicated in the Tooltip
• Locked Spell slots are now indicated for better inside battles. A lock icon shows on locked Spell slots, and there’s a new tutorial that appears on reaching Level 4

Connect a controller to play on your mobile in Puzzle Quest 3! 

Use the Settings to fine-tune your controller – try it out to control the Gems in the Puzzle Gameplay battles or maneuver through menus in the game. NOTE: Depending on your mobile device, the operating system you may not be able to use a controller in the game.

Use your controller inside the Puzzle Battle to control the board to:

• Swap gems using the Right Stick
• D-Pad: Switch between Gems, or hold it down to rapidly move in that direction
  • Adjust D-pad Speed in the Settings Menu
• R-Trigger: Speed up cursor movement
• L-trigger:  Slow down cursor movement
• Settings menu changes: You can adjust or disable the following:
  • Controller Vibration
  • Controller Stick Inversion (for Left and Right sticks)

We have made gameplay optimizations to the graphic resolution and framerate to help with the performance of Puzzle Quest 3.

Adjust or decrease your Display Settings in the game to “Very Low” or “Low” to change the resolution and improve the performance of the game. Previously, some Graphics Quality Settings like Normal had poor quality graphics and the game would default to a lower resolution even if the performance was average.

• • The default FPS setting is now 30 FPS for all Android devices and 60 for iOS devices
  • Changing your Display Settings may improve the graphics quality of the game
    • If you are using 30 FPS, the game will show higher-resolution graphics
    • The ‘Very Low’ graphics settings and ‘Low’ will decrease art quality significantly 
    • The puzzle battle Gems now appear in a higher resolution on ‘Very low’ graphic settings

• If the game detects a low “frame rate” it will adjust the resolution to improve the frame rate, without decreasing it too much
• For new players, the game asset downloads have been moved to after the Prologue Tutorial and now shows when creating a Hero
• Returning players will be prompted to download assets when signing in again
• Some downloads will continue in the background

Miscellaneous quality of life changes and improvements to the game.

Thank you for your ongoing suggestions and ideas on the game. We’ve addressed a number of miscellaneous issues and updated the game in small ways. Here are just some of those changes:

• Enemies now show their “Type” in the Battle Summary menu (hamburger icon) or when selecting their Portrait during Battle. Hopefully, this helps with Bounties!
• Gear, Spells (except Ultimate Spells & Weapons), and minions can now be unequipped as well as swapped
• When salvaging items, a pop-up notification appears showing the number of resources gained on the reward list
• Features are now unlocked at different levels after we created the new Events feature:

• • Level 3 – Social Tab 
  • Level 6 – Skirmishes 
  • Level 7 – Events (Daily Sieges and Event Dungeons)
  • Versus unlocks
    • Level 9 – Versus (Previously level 8)
    • Level 10 – Open Tourney
    • Level 14 – Restricted Tourneys
    • Level 50 – Elite Tourneys (Previously required a Level 50 Hero)
    • All Tourneys were previously unlocked at Level 10.

• New login menu design 
  • Updated button styles and reviewed graphics and icon layout
  • Tapping the Start Game Button will start a new game account
  • Play Puzzle Quest 3 by starting a new game or restoring from an existing account
• An in-game pop-up will appear if a purchase has been completed when you are not inside the purchase menu process
• New support help articles are available in the “?” help menu based on the location of the game you are viewing. 

To contact our support team or read more information and guides on the game please visit our help center here.

We have fixed a number of issues where:

• • When taking Missile Damage in battle it may be registered as Melee Protection rather than Missile Damage Protection
  • Dungeon Level X/10 Difficulty Looting issue:
    • In Update 0.35 there was a problem where it was not possible to loot some Dungeons that had been completed using Loot tickets
    • In an attempt to fix this for Update 0.35 we pushed a fix to the servers
    • The fix did not work, and to avoid further problems we have adjusted the text to help clarify which Dungeon level you are on

• To workaround this issue, please complete the Dungeon on the same difficulty level in order to be able to spend loot tickets again.
• When starting a Battle, Mana did not always match the percentage of Starting Mana indicated. To fix this we have needed to adjust the code that calculates the starting Mana, so starting Mana is now capped at 80%
• Fixed issue with Terror and Wither were not correctly applying some Status Effects 
• The VIP Pass had an issue where the last day of rewards was not always earned. We’ve fixed the VIP Pass so that you can take advantage of the full 30 Days and ensure you get the chest slot and Daily Deals for the last day
• Casting the Frozen Blade Spell to kill the final Enemy in a battle will cause the game to soft-lock
• Mount Gobknocker Dungeon Goals Title has changed from Knock-Off Time to Mount Gobknocker
• An server error “RE” can appear when entering the Kingdom Chat Error from Versus (PVP) screen
• Fixed an issue where status effects that were applied permanently could lose their permanent status. This was happening in cases where the same status effect was cast with a specific duration
• Fixed an issue where Gems that were locked after using the Gravedigger spell were also Transformed as part of the spell, resulting in unmovable Gems
• Mass Salvage doesn’t play a sound
• Gear Loadouts were moving when swapping between Hero characters
• Various menu and layout issues on iOS devices with notches where the menu or graphics may appear cut off or in the wrong position
• When viewing the Citadel Starting Mana Bonus it read as “Ice Starting Mana”. This was a visual issue and the text now displays “All Starting Mana” as the Citadel bonus applies to all Mana

Known issues

• The player profile preview pop-up may not update with another player’s information
• In Event Dungeons the text below the number of Tokens you have says that the “Event Ends in X” rather than the “Tokens refresh in X”. The timer is correct but refers to Event instead of Tokens