Update 11.7 is around the corner and it will introduce the biggest Card Drop of 2023.
The Tide Rises releases July 11th and bring 6 new cards per faction!
This article will tell you exactly where and when the new cards will be revealed and reveal assets will be added after they have been revealed.
We kicked things off during the GWENT Mid-Season tournament with the first 4 Monster cards on Saturday, and the first 4 Scoia'tael cards during the Developer Update on Sunday. Reveal Schedule:
All times are in CEST.
01.07 SATURDAY - Monsters
1 King Chrum
2 Girdle of Giant Strength
3 Ogre Warrior
4 Lord Riptide 02.07 SUNDAY - Scoia'tael
5 Riordain
FYI: The second part should read: "Elf - Play a Trap from your deck."
At the start of the game, increase the base power of all units in your deck by 14 minus their provisions.
Banished 13.06 - 20.06
After mulligan Banish both players decks. Whenever a card appears in any deck, banish it.
Bearly Balanced 20.06 - 27.06
Your deck is replaced with 16 Elder Bears with different power. Leader abilities are disabled.
Double Down 27.06 - 04.07
Whenever you play a unit from your hand, play a unit with the same Provision Cost from your deck. Your starting deck is doubled in size at the start of the match.
Poor man's Gwent 04.07 - 11.07
At the start of the game, Transform all gold cards into random bronzes from your faction.
This season is planned to end on July 11th, 10:00 A.M. CEST.
Hey everyone and welcome to the Patch Notes for 11.6!
This is another patch in between card drops so we are bringing the next batch of reworks and updates to existing cards.
This time there is a general nature theme but every faction gets some attention.
For an overview of this patch, check out the Developer Update with Molegion, Ola, and Ryan: New Features Introducing the Cycle Progression System - Kicking off our new progression system is the Summer Cycle. Each Cycle promotes different card sets, and in order to complete quests and unlock new rewards in this system, you will need to play Ranked mode using decks made from cards in these Cycle-specific sets.
The Base set, Starter set, Thronebreaker, and Novigrad cards are supported by all Cycles. The Summer Cycle additionally supports cards from Crimson Curse and Way of the Witcher.
The Summer Cycle starts with update 11.6, and is available until the end of update 11.8. ChangesNeutral Musicians of Blaviken - Power changed from 6 to 4.
Provision cost changed from 6 to 4.
Ability changed to:
If you have no other 4-provision cards in your starting deck, start on your Ranged row.
Phoenix - Added new part of ability:
Deploy: Gain Vitality (5).
Ragh Nar Roog - Is now an artifact.
Spell tag replaced with Scenario.
Provision cost changed from 9 to 13.
Ability changed to:
Doomed.
Scenario: Progress whenever you play a gold unit.
Prologue: Spawn Cataclysm on both enemy rows for 2 turns.
Chapter 1: Damage an enemy unit by 5.
Chapter 2: Spawn and play Clear Skies.
Saer Qu'an - Ability changed to:
Deploy: Damage an enemy unit by the number of units you control.
Scepter of Storms - Added new part of ability:
Order: Increase the row effect duration on an enemy row by 1 turn.
Skellige Storm - Now has the Nature tag.
Tempest - Now has the Nature tag.
Provision cost changed from 5 to 6.
Ability changed to:
Play all copies of Biting Frost, Impenetrable Fog, or Torrential Rain from your deck.
Wolfsbane - Now has the Organic and Alchemy tags.
Ability changed to:
Set an enemy unit's power to 1.
Biting Frost - Now has the Nature tag.
Clear Skies - Now has the Nature tag.
Provision cost changed from 5 to 4.
Impenetrable Fog - Now has the Nature tag.
King Cobra - Power changed from 3 to 2.
Armor changed from 1 to 0.
Provision cost changed from 5 to 4.
Spring Equinox - Now has the Nature tag.
Provision cost changed from 4 to 5.
Ability changed to:
Boost an allied unit by 0.
Increase the boost by 1 for each Nature card in your starting deck.
Torrential Rain - Now has the Nature tag.
Wolf Pack - Power changed from 2 to 1.
Ability changed to:
Deploy: Boost self by 1 for each allied unit on this row. Monsters Morvudd - Beast tag replaced with Relict.
Power changed from 6 to 1.
Provision cost changed from 8 to 12.
Ability changed to:
At the end of your turn, while in hand, deck, or graveyard, increase own base power by 1.
Fiend - Beast tag replaced with Relict.
Power changed from 3 to 8.
Ability changed to:
Deploy: Decrease own base power by 1 for each unit on the opposite row. Skellige Delirium - Provision cost changed from 5 to 8.
Ability changed to:
Echo.
Choose between a random bronze Skellige Beast and a random bronze Skellige Human that were not in your starting deck, then Spawn and play the one you chose, and Spawn the other in your graveyard.
When Doomed, choose between gold ones instead.
Gigascorpion Decoction - Ability changed to:
Damage a unit by 1 six times or split 6 damage randomly between all units on an enemy row.
Ulfhedinn - Power changed from 4 to 6.
Provision cost changed from 7 to 10.
Added new part of ability:
Bloodthirst 3: Damage an enemy unit and units adjacent to it by half their power instead. Northern Realms Falibor - Power changed from 7 to 6.
Ability changed to:
Whenever this unit receives a boost, damage a random enemy unit by the same amount.
Keira Metz - Provision cost changed from 9 to 12.
Ability changed to:
Patience.
Order: Play [0] unique bronze Spell(s) from your graveyard and give it/them Doomed. Scoia'tael Telianyn aep Collen - Order ability changed to:
Spawn and play Backup Plan. If this unit is Doomed, damage an enemy unit by the number of Doomed units you control instead.
Cargo - Order ability changed to:
Replay a non-Neutral Agent, Bandit, or Soldier that wasn't played this turn and give it Doomed. Nilfgaard Duny - Power changed from 7 to 6.
Added new part of ability:
When entering the battlefield, boost self by 1 for each Spying enemy unit.
Mangonel - Starting Charges changed from 1 to 2. Syndicate Tatterwing - Power changed from 6 to 1.
Provision cost changed from 7 to 11.
Ability changed to:
Immunity.
At the start of the game, set the power of all other units in your deck to 1 and own power to 25.
Oxenfurt Guard - Cooldown removed. Game Fixes
Certain Order abilities with Cooldowns no longer become selected at the start of the turn.
Emhyr var Emreis can no longer target Immune units.
Playing Kelpie can now correctly be canceled.
Naiad Fledgling can no longer trigger Vitality when Symbiosis only appears on the opponent's side.
It's May and Update 11.5 breathes new life into our roster of dragons!
You can also expect another event to return and other changes to existing cards.
May your lineage help you to victory! New Features The Shupe Event returns! - Shupe has returned from his adventures. Complete contracts for exclusive rewards, or visit his Shop to see what he has to offer. Just make sure to gather Sparkly Rocks for him, which you can find by playing GWENT! Also, Shupe will be giving special deals to all his favourite umans during the event! Get 30% off on select vanities during this sale!
This event will be active from May 12th to May 26th.
New Keyword - Lineage - At the start of the game, boost self by the number of Dragons in your starting deck.
New Defender VFX - Whenever selecting a target, when there is a Defender on your opponent's side, this new effect will highlight the status effect, as well as mark any available targets on that row more clearly. ChangesNeutral Myrgtabrakke - Power changed from 5 to 4.
Provision cost changed from 7 to 12.
Ability changed to:
Lineage.
Deploy: Draw a Dragon, then move a card from your hand to the bottom of your deck.
Order: Damage an enemy unit by 1.
Charges: 0
At the start of the game, set the number of Charges to match your Lineage [0].
Ocvist - Provision cost changed from 10 to 12.
Ability changed to:
Lineage.
Deploy: Spawn Cataclysm on the opposite row for 2 turns.
Timer 3: Damage all enemy units by 1.
Roach - Provision cost changed from 9 to 10.
Saesenthessis: Blaze - Power changed from 5 to 1.
Provision cost changed from 10 to 12.
Ability changed to:
Lineage.
While in hand, deck, or on the battlefield, whenever an enemy unit is destroyed or Banished during your turn, boost self by 1.
Villentretenmerth - Provision cost changed from 11 to 13.
Ability changed to:
Lineage.
Timer 3: Destroy the highest-power unit(s) on the battlefield, excluding Dragons you control. Monsters Acid Spit - Provision cost changed from 8 to 6.
Kikimore Worker - Removed the Melee condition. Skellige Coral - Provision cost changed from 9 to 8.
Dagur Two Blades - Provision cost changed from 10 to 9.
Dire Bear - Now triggers a VFX whenever it blocks a boost.
Kraken - Deathwish ability changed to:
At the end of this turn, Summon self to the opposite row and boost self by the number of unique allied Beasts.
Magic Compass - Provision cost changed from 9 to 10. Northern Realms Inspired Zeal - Ability changed to:
Order: Boost an allied unit by 2. If it's a non-Neutral unit, also give it Zeal.
Charges: 3
Drakenborg - Provision cost changed from 9 to 8.
Ability changed to:
Resilience.
Deploy: Summon a unit from your deck to this row and Lock it.
Order: Give an allied unit Vitality 0. Increase this value by the amount of boost that was on the Summoned unit. Scoia'tael Quarixis - Provision cost changed from 13 to 11.
Saskia - Power changed from 5 to 6.
Ability changed to:
Deploy: Spawn an Elven Deadeye, Rowdy Dwarf, or Young Dryad on this row.
Gain an Order ability based on the unit you Spawned:
Elven Deadeye - Order: Spawn and Play Waylay.
Rowdy Dwarf - Order: Spawn and play Tempering.
Young Dryad - Order: Spawn and play Dryad's Caress.
Saskia: Commander - Power changed from 4 to 3.
Provision cost changed from 13 to 14.
Mahakam Defender - Ability changed to:
Barricade: At the end of your turn, boost self by 1. Nilfgaard Combat Engineer - No longer has the Soldier tag.
Mangonel - Ability changed to:
Zeal. Order: Damage an enemy unit by 1. For each Spying unit adjacent to it, increase the damage by 1.
Charge: 1
Rot Tosser - Ability changed to:
Order: Spawn and play a Cow Carcass.
Charge: 1 Syndicate Blood Money - Provision bonus changed from 16 to 15.
Casimir Bassi - Now also has Profit 3.
Madame Luiza - Added VFX to the Order ability.
Vivaldi Bank - Provision cost changed from 9 to 10.
Profit amount changed from 3 to 4.
Explosives - Damage changed from 2 to 3.
Starting Fee changed from 2 to 3.
Oxenfurt Guard - Now has the Soldier tag. Game Fixes
King Henselt no longer reacts to the Cooldowns of artifacts.
Sandor de Baccalà no longer shows the player's deck in order.
Backup Plan now specifies that it can only Create bronze Scoia'tael Elves.
April Season is here and brings a new Card Drop with it! Claw and Dagger includes 24 brand-new cards but we also have balance changes, a returning Event, and much more!
Make sure to check out the Seasonal Modes down below!
Claim what's rightfully yours, through patience and perseverance, with claw and dagger!
“Claw and Dagger” features 24 new cards with new and existing mechanics alike, sharpening your tools for you to gain the upper hand in the fight for glory!
You can find a list of all the new cards right here: LINK
The card drop is available for free as part of the latest update!
The Claw and Dagger Pack includes all premium cards from the Claw and Dagger card drop and the new Borsodi Brothers' Auction House Board.
It is found in the in-game shop until the July Season starts.
The first card drop of 2023 is releasing tomorrow and we can not wait for you to get your hands on the 24 new cards.
As usual, there are also some changes to existing cards and we also celebrate 2 birthdays this month!
For the 4 final reveals, a rundown of the most important balance changes, and a personal message from Jean, make sure to check out the latest Developer Update:
New Features Claw and Dagger - It is the time of trickery, concealment, and deceit, of carving your own path, no matter the cost. After all, who's going to be able to stop you?
This card drop introduces four new cards to each playable faction.
Yen and Ciri's Birthday Event - Join the birthday party and unlock special vanities by completing time-limited contracts. But that's not all! Visit the Shop to find even more themed goodies!
This event will be live from April 25th to May 9th. Changes Neutral
No changes.
Monsters
Armored Arachas - Power changed from 6 to 5.
Ability changed to:
Deploy: If there is another card on this row, Lock self.
Timer 3: If this row is full, boost self by 12.
Endrega Queen - Deploy ability changed to:
Consume an allied unit and gain Armor equal to its provision cost.
Idr - Provision cost changed from 7 to 9.
Ability changed to:
Whenever your opponent plays a unit on their side of the battlefield, damage it by 1 and gain a Charge.
Order: Spawn a Drone on this row.
Charges: 0
Kikimore Queen - Has a new part of ability:
Whenever you pay an Organic card, trigger own Thrive.
Nilfgaard
No changes.
Northern Realms
No changes.
Scoia'tael
No changes.
Skellige
Corrupted Flaminica - Ability changed to:
Deploy: Boost self by 2 for each unique beast in your graveyard.
Tuirseach Bearmaster - Power changed from 4 to 2.
Ability changed to:
Deploy: Boost self by the number of unique allied beasts.
Order: Damage self by own boost, then damage that many enemy units by 1.
Syndicate
Boris - Ability changed to:
At the start of your turn, wherever this card is, randomly change own Fee to a different cost between 1 and 9.
Fee 1: Move self to the other row, then boost self by the Fee cost. If you have 0 Coins, also gain 1 Coin for each allied unit on that row.
Cooldown: 1
Game Fixes
Stockpile, King Henselt, Rivian Pikeman, Siege Support, and Winch now work correctly with Fee cards that Cooldowns.
Dwimveandra no longer grants Zeal to Locations
The contracts for the Master Mirror evolving cards now count the number of times you play the final evolution, rather than how many times you reach the final evolution.
Update 11.4 is around the corner and it will introduce the first Card Drop of 2023.
In Claw and Dagger, each faction will receive 4 new cards for you to get the tactical edge over your opponent. If you're looking forward to checking out the cards before they release on April 13th, just take a look down below for the official reveal schedule! Reveal assets will be added after they have been revealed.
Kicking things off are Jean and Ryan revealing the first two cards with a very (in)famous face making a return! Reveal Schedule:
All times are in CEST.
05.04 WEDNESDAY - Northern Realms
1. 02:00 PM - Included in the video above
2. 02:00 PM - Included in the video above
3. 02:30 PM - NaoNao: https://b23.tv/6H5gxxv
4. 03:00 PM - GaBane: twitch.tv/GaBane22 06.04 THURSDAY - Monsters
March Season is here and Bandits have gotten a fresh look (and will steal your wallet if you don't watch out) while Draft is now quicker and more fun than ever!
Make sure to check out the Seasonal Modes down below!
Whenever you play a non-Spying unit, move a random enemy unit with the same power to the opposite side.
Even Fight 14.03 - 21.03
At the start of the game, increase the base power of all units in your deck by 14 minus their provisions.
Banished 21.03 - 28.03
After mulligan Banish both players decks. Whenever a card appears in any deck, banish it.
Bearly Balanced 28.03 - 04.04
Your deck is replaced with 16 Elder Bears with different power. Leader abilities are disabled.
Double Down 04.04 - 11.04
Whenever you play a unit from your hand, play a unit with the same Provision Cost from your deck. Your starting deck is doubled in size at the start of the match.
This season is planned to end on April 13th, 10:00 A.M. CEST.
While the first card-drop of 2023 is only one more month away, we are introducing some keychanges with Update 11.3, specifically to Draft and bandits like Gascon!
Before jumping into the update, make sure to check out our Developer Update for more thoughts on the changes.
Changes
Draft Mode: GWENTFINITY update - Introducing several key changes to future-proof Draft Mode, and make the experience more distinct overall:
-The drafting process has been changed. After drafting the leader ability, players draft packages of three cards, eight times, and then draft their stratagem. Players will receive the option to add, and then remove a single package after each match.
-The packages are no longer manually built, but randomly generated from the ownable card pool. Each package is assigned a faction faction, and has a total provision cost ranging from 20 to 26.
-The in-game timer has been reduced from the usual 60 seconds to 25 seconds.
These changes aim at making Draft a more varied environment and to future-proof the game mode in the context of GWENTFINITY. The change of the turn timer also aims at making matches quicker, further differentiating Draft mode from standard matches. For more info, tune in to the developer's video!
Neutral
Angoulême - Provision cost changed from 10 to 11.
Ability changed to:
Deploy: Create and play an artifact from your opponent's starting deck. If your opponent has no artifact in their starting deck, boost self by 6 instead.
Free Company - Armor changed from 1 to 0.
Provision cost changed from 8 to 10.
Ability changed to:
Order: Choose an allied Bonded unit, then play its top copy from your deck.
Cooldown: 3
Gascon - Power changed from 1 to 2.
Ability changed to:
When in hand, deck, or on the battlefield, whenever you play the second copy of a Bonded unit this match, boost self by 3.
Gimpy Gerwin - Power changed from 3 to 5.
Armor changed from 0 to 1.
Provision cost changed from 7 to 9.
Ability changed to:
Whenever you play another unit, damage all enemy units with the same provision cost by 1.
One-Eyed Betsy - Power changed from 4 to 7.
Provision cost changed from 10 to 8.
Ability changed to:
Deploy: Draw up to 2 Bonded units, then shuffle the same number of cards back into your deck.
Order: Replay an allied Bonded unit.
Renfri, Renfri's Gang - The Deploy abilities now also trigger when all cards in the deck are units. This is a change for Draft Mode, where the starting deck size is reduced to 24.
Bomb Heaver - Provision cost changed from 5 to 4.
Cutthroat - Power changed from 3 to 5.
Provision cost changed from 4 to 5.
Ability changed to:
Deploy: Destroy an enemy unit with 2 or less power.
Bonded: Destroy an enemy with 4 or less power instead.
Highwaymen - Power changed from 4 to 1.
Provision cost changed from 4 to 5.
Ability changed to:
When you play a Bonded unit that you already control a copy of, Summon self from your deck to your Melee row.
Exposed: Move self to the top of your deck.
Iron Falcon Infantry - Power changed from 4 to 3.
Ability changed to:
At the end of your turn, boost self by 1 if this is the only card on its row.
Bonded: At the end of your turn, boost self by 1 instead.
Iron Falcon Knife Juggler - Power changed from 2 to 4.
Provision cost changed from 4 to 5.
Ability changed to:
Zeal. Order: Damage an enemy unit by 1.
Bonded: Also give it Bleeding (1).
Whenever you play a Bonded unit, refresh the Order.
Iron Falcon Troubadour - Ability changed to:
Deploy: Spawn a 1-power Locked copy of a Bonded unit from your starting deck on this row.
Sapper - Bandit tag changed to Soldier.
Power changed from 5 to 2.
Armor changed from 0 to 2.
Provision cost changed from 5 to 6.
Ability changed to:
Deploy: Play a Bomb from your hand, then draw a card.
Barricade: Whenever you play a Bomb, damage a random enemy unit by 1.
Scout - Power changed from 5 to 4.
Ability changed to:
Deploy: Move a unit to the other row.
Strays of Spalla - Provision cost changed from 5 to 4.
Ability changed to:
Deploy: Shuffle a gold card from your hand to your deck, then draw a bronze card and boost self by 4.
Bonded: Boost self by 4 instead.
Wagon - Power changed from 4 to 5.
Armor changed from 0 to 3.
Provision cost changed from 4 to 6.
Ability changed to:
Deploy: Banish the bronze unit to the right, then gain Resilience.
Order: Transform self into a base copy of the Banished unit.
Exposed: Purify self.
Monsters
Carapace, Caranthir Ar-Feiniel, Lilit's Omen, The Manor's Dark Secret, Witches' Sabbath - Ability restrictions changed from Monsters to non-Neutral.
Plumard - Ability changed to:
Deploy: Give an enemy unit Bleeding (2).
Bonded: Give an enemy unit Bleeding equal to its base power instead.
Skellige
Blaze of Glory, Eist Tuirseach, Fucusya, Magic Compass, Sigrdrifa's Rite, Svanrige Tuirseach, Tyr: Master of An Skellig, Freya's Blessing - Ability restrictions changed from Skellige to non-Neutral.
Harmony, Call of the Forest, Dana Méadbh: Provider, Dana Méadbh: Caretaker, Dunca, Ithlinne Aegli, Mysteries of Loc Feainn, Pavko Gale, Saskia: Commander, Circle of Life - Ability restrictions changed from Scoia'tael to non-Neutral.
Nilfgaard
No changes.
Syndicate
No changes.
Game Fixes
Certain players are no longer blocked from creating decks with specific leader abilities (mainly from the Monsters faction).
The deckbuilder search bar now recognizes all special characters. Certain diacritics were previously unrecognized.
Guillaume de Launfal no longer ignores the self boost by the number of allied Knights, if there is no enemy target available.
Traveling Priestess' Order no longer becomes temporarily disabled when being boosted from an injured state to another non-boosted power level.
Love is in the air, together with the smell of freshly made Chocolate Hearts. You can collect these treats by playing the game, and then spend them on either special vanities in Shupe's Shop, or on resources in the Reward Book.
Make sure to visit Shupe’s Shop for some lovely deals!
While it is still cold outside (at least here in Poland), February is here to warm our hearts with a brand new Love Event and balance changes to our (not so) friendly witchers!
There are also some fresh Seasonal Modes for you to enjoy!
At the start of the match, sort players' decks from highest to lowest provision.
Banished 14.02 - 21.02
After mulligan Banish both players' decks. Whenever a card appears in any deck, banish it.
Double Down 21.02 - 28.02
Whenever you play a unit from your hand, play a unit with the same Provision Cost from your deck. Your starting deck is doubled in size at the start of the match.
Patience is a virtue! 28.02 - 07.03
At the start of your turn, transform all cards in your hand into random ones that cost 1 provision more.
This season is planned to end on March 7th, 10:00 A.M. CET.
Hello and welcome everyone to the Update 11.2 Patch Notes!
In the spirit of February, we are giving our Witchers a bit of love, which fits right in with our new event starting very soon!
Check out the Developer Update for a rundown of the most important changes and our thoughts behind them.
New Features
Love Event- Love is in the air, together with the smell of freshly made Chocolate Hearts. You can collect these treats by playing the game, and then spend them on either special vanities in Shupe's Shop, or on resources in the Reward Book.
The event starts on February 8th and ends on February 22nd.
Changes
Updated the icons and ability types for four leader abilities: Deadeye Ambush, Tactical Decision, Uprising, and Ursine Ritual.
Neutral
Berengar - Power changed from 9 to 12.
Ability changed to:
At the beginning of your turn, if there are no other Witchers on this row, destroy self.
Commander's Horn - Provision cost changed from 8 to 7.
Has a new part of ability:
Boost bronze units by an additional 1 for each gold unit adjacent to them.
Geralt: Axii - Power changed from 5 to 3.
Provision cost changed from 10 to 11.
Ability changed to:
Deploy: Seize a unit with power up to the number of allied Witchers on this row.
Geralt: Professional - Ability changed to:
Deploy: Damage 3 units by 1. If you control another Witcher, also gain Zeal.
Order: Damage an enemy unit by 3. If its power is a multiple of 3, destroy it instead.
Trial of the Grasses - Ability changed to:
Set a unit's power to 13. If it's not a Witcher, damage it by 6 and Infuse it with the Witcher category first.
Vial of Forbidden Knowledge: Unsealed - Now has Doomed.
Monsters
Necromancer's Tome - Has a new part of ability:
Zeal, Order: Trigger a bronze allied unit's Deathwish.
Yghern - Power changed from 13 to 15.
Skellige
Magic Compass - Provision cost changed from 8 to 9.
Sove - Provision cost changed from 11 to 12.
Terror of the Seas - Power changed from 5 to 4.
Feral Bond - Provision cost changed from 4 to 5.
Northern Realms
Griffin Witcher Mentor - Power changed from 5 to 4.
Scoia'tael
No changes.
Nilfgaard
Assassination - Ability changed to:
Damage a unit by 6. Decrease the damage by 1 for each adjacent non-Spying unit.
Syndicate
Blood Money - Provision bonus changed from 15 to 16.
Fabian Hale - Power changed from 5 to 6.
Graden - The Deploy ability now targets the unit with Bounty automatically (Similarly to The Scoundrel).
Pulling the Strings - Provision cost changed from 5 to 6.
Shady Vendor - No longer has the Blindeyes tag.
Game Fixes
Melitele can no longer: attempt to Spawn a unit on a full row; reset its Counter after being shuffled to deck; move from board to deck on round transition.
Fixed a bug where Melitele would move to the top of the deck at the end of the round.
Fixed the Maiden effect not buffing Immune targets.
Svanrige Tuirseach now correctly resets the boost value on round transition.
Torres var Emreis: Highest Priest no longer lets you Create specials or artifacts.
Playing Duchess's Informant through Syanna and Letho: Kingslayer no longer terminates the match.
Trained Hawk now correctly limits its damage to enemy units.
With the GWENT Masters series coming to an end, here is everything you need to know about its final Fifth season starting on January 10th!
We've updated the official ruleset to reflect the changes that were introduced between S4 and S5, as well as clarified and extended some rules.
New format
Following the other changes the game is going through and by analyzing the feedback from pro players about the previous season's format, we introduced a number of changes to the season 5 schedule and structure. Let’s see them!
Mid-Season Tournament
Instead of multiple Opens each with its own qualification path we’re introducing a new type of event - the Mid-Season Tournament. As you can guess from its name, it’s going to happen in the middle of the year - in early July. Prior to the playoff stage which will be played exactly like Opens of the past (8 players, single elimination), 16 players will battle it out in the Dual Tournament (also commonly known as GSL) format. In this format, 4 players will be randomly seeded into 4 groups which then will use a double elimination bracket to define the top 2 players from each group that will be invited to participate in the Mid-Season Tournament play-off stage. These 16 participants to play in the group stage will be invited from the winners of the top 16 and the top 64 qualifiers using the same rules as previously.
The prize pool of the Mid-Season tournament will be 20 000 USD + 50% of the proceeds from sales of special esports bundles that will be available in the shop prior to the tournament. 2 000 USD out of the sum will be distributed among 8 players who will make it to the group stage, but fail to advance to the playoff.
In addition to the monetary prize, the winner of the Mid-Season tournament will automatically reserve a spot in World Masters at the end of the year.
World Masters
Similar changes in the qualification path are introduced to World Masters S5. 12 winners of the August-October qualifiers will be placed in 3 groups with 4 players each and play in the same Double Tournament format as the participants of The Mid-Season tournament to determine 6 best players to join the final stage of the competition. Who will be the other players?
Well, we already mentioned that the winner of the Mid-Season tournament will receive a direct invitation to the World Masters playoff. The final available spot will go to the player with the most Crown Points accumulated throughout the whole season. If a player with the most Crown Points will qualify through other means (for example by winning Mid-Season Tournament), they will be replaced by the next player with the highest number of Crown Points in the global rankings.
Similar to the Mid-Season tournament the total prize pool will consist of the guaranteed prize (40 000 USD) and extra 50% of funds generated by sales of esports bundles. 1 500 USD out of this sum will be distributed among 6 players who will make it to the group stage, but fail to advance to the playoff.
Changes in Crown Points distribution
The end-of-season Crown Points rewards for the top 200 players in Pro Rank will remain the same as in season 4.
Crown Points rewards for online qualifiers will be removed.
Mid-Season Tournament participants will be eligible for Crown Points rewards based on:
Successful qualification to the group stage - 5 points
Group stage placement: 3rd place (in each group) - 3 points, 4th place - 2 points
Play-off stage placement: 2nd place - 10 points, 3rd and 4th places - 5 points, 5th-8th places - 4 points
Players who will qualify for World Masters will receive rewards based on successful qualification to the group stage - 5 points.
We are starting this year off with balance changes which mostly focus on Neutrals, Skellige and Syndicate.
Jean and Burza go over the most important changes and our thoughts behind them: ChangesNeutral Black Blood - Now has the Alchemy tag.
Chironex - Provision cost changed from 8 to 9.
Has a new part of ability:
If you have Unicorn in your hand, play it, then draw a card.
Unicorn - Provision cost changed from 8 to 9.
Has a new part of ability:
If you have Chironex in your hand, play it, then draw a card.
Decoy - Now has the Warfare tag.
Lady of the Lake - Now has the Relict tag.
Ornate Censer - Now has the Alchemy tag.
Sangreal - Ability changed to:
Purify and boost a unit by 12, then Infuse it with "Once both players have passed, damage self by 12".
Summoning Circle - Now has the Spell tag.
Bone Talisman - Now has the Organic tag.
Epidemic - Provision cost changed from 5 to 4.
Now has the Organic tag.
Petri's Philter - Now has the Alchemy tag.
Thunderbolt - Now has the Alchemy tag. Monsters Lilit's Omen - Provision cost changed from 12 to 11. Skellige Axel Three-Eyes - Ability changed to:
Deploy (Melee): Spawn and play Crow's-eye Rhizome.
Deploy (Ranged): Transform adjacent Crows into Crow Messengers.
Dracoturtle - Power changed from 5 to 6.
Armor changed from 5 to 6.
Crow Clan Druid - Power changed from 3 to 4.
Ability changed to:
Zeal. Order: Banish an allied Crow, then play a 4 provision Alchemy card from your graveyard and give it Doomed.
Feral Bond - Ability changed to:
Spawn Skellige Wolves on an enemy row and damage it by 1, then Create a bronze Skellige Warrior that was not in your starting deck.
Bloodthirst 3: You may Spawn and play any bronze Skellige Warrior that was not in your starting deck instead. Northern Realms Melitele - Provision cost chaged from 14 to 13.
Crone effect changed to:
Boost self by 1, then increase this card's ability values by 1.
Vandergrift's Blade - Now has the Cursed and Warfare tags. Scoia'tael Malena - Power changed from 4 to 5.
Milva - Ability changed to:
Immunity.
Whenever an allied unit moves, boost self by 1.
Treant Boar - Power changed from 5 to 6.
Vrihedd Dragoon - Ability changed to:
Deploy: Move a unit to the other row. If it's an enemy, damage it by 1. If it's an ally, boost it by 2. Nilfgaard Torres var Emreis: Highest Priest - Ability changed to:
Doomed.
Assimilate.
Deploy: Return a non-Doomed allied unit that is not from your starting deck to your hand, excluding self, boost it by 2 and give it Doomed, then play a card.
If there is no valid target, Create and play a bronze unit from your opponent's faction and boost it by 2 instead. Syndicate Blood Money - Provision bonus changed from 16 to 15.
Ability changed to:
Order: Damage an enemy unit by 6, then gain Coins equal to any excess damage dealt.
Whenever an enemy unit with Bounty is destroyed, increase the damage by 1. If the Order is used up, refresh it and set its damage to 1 instead.
Count Reuven's Treasure - Provision cost changed from 12 to 11.
Now has the Crime tag.
Fabian Hale - Power changed from 4 to 5.
Ignatius Hale - Power changed from 12 to 18.
Provision cost changed from 6 to 9.
Ability changed to:
At the beginning of the game or when Spawned, set own power to 1.
While in hand, deck or on the battlefield, whenever an enemy unit with Bounty is destroyed, Heal self by its base power.
Octavia Hale - Fee ability changed to:
Fee 2: Boost an allied Witch Hunter by 2. If you destroyed an enemy unit this turn, boost by 3 instead.
The Brute - Ability changed to:
Profit 0.
Deploy: Boost self by 0.
The boost is equal to the base power of the highest-power enemy unit with a Bounty you destroyed this game.
Whenever you place a Bounty on an enemy unit, increase the Profit by 1.
Confession Extractor - Provision cost changed from 5 to 4.
Profit amount changed from 5 to 4.
Scapegoat - Power changed from 1 to 2.
Profit amount changed from 6 to 7. Game Fixes Tyr: Master of An Skellig's ability no longer triggers during the opponent's turn.
Vandergrift's Bladeno longer destroys itself without boosting a unit if that unit was killed after being played (e.g. through An Craite Longship).
Introduction
The announcement of a community voting feature regarding balancing in the horizon of 2024 has generated many reactions, some of excitement and some of fear as well as many questions and suggestions over how such a feature would work.
Today, let’s explore our current design for this feature as well as the reasoning behind it. Please do keep in mind that while we feel good about this design, things can still change at this point in particular any number you might see is susceptible to being tweaked. Design
The voting feature will be integrated into the game and will be available to eligible players for about a week before a patch rolls out. The eligibility condition is still to be determined, but our intention is mostly to protect the voting process from being manipulated by bot accounts and to ensure voters are active players. When entered, the feature will look like a kind of modified deckbuilder where players can make and submit their vote.
To vote players will have to elect 3 cards in each of the 4 groups: Provision buff, Provision nerfs, Power buff & Power nerf. The Provision groups accept Units, Artifacts, Specials & Leader Abilities while the Power groups only accept Units. Only cards available in the deckbuilder can be voted for, not tokens.
The same card cannot be put in two different groups and players cannot submit an incomplete vote, so one player always ends up voting for 12 cards at the same time. Inside of a group, cards are ranked with the first card being worth more points than the second which is worth more than the 3rd.
Before the patch, the system will gather the votes of all players and create one ranking per group. If a card appears in multiple rankings, only the entry with the most points will be kept while the others are discarded. The system will take the top 15 cards of each ranking, giving us a total of maximum 60 changes per patch, and will change power and provisions by 1 accordingly. The balance changes and the players' votes will then automatically be made public via an article on playgwent.com.
To keep changes relevant and prevent manipulation if the game's population changes, the system will also include a point threshold under which any card is discarded. This means that as the population becomes smaller, the total amount of changes might diminish. To prevent it going too low, we will also guarantee a minimum of changes making it into patches regardless of the point threshold. The exact value of those is to be figured out and will depend on observations on the first months of the feature being live. Intentions
With the design out of the way, let’s now delve into the reasoning behind these choices. First of all let’s talk about our goals. With developer support for Gwent ending after 2023, our desire was to keep providing players one way or another with stuff to look up to and prevent Gwent from just becoming a still environment.
For that to happen, we believe that Gwent and more particularly the way it is played, its metagame, must keep evolving and changing. As this cannot be done by us, we want to empower you, our playerbase by letting you directly influence and decide on these changes so that Gwent can keep evolving and keep offering new grounds to be explored. Limitations & Reasoning
The main issue we face when it comes to opening up the possibility for the community to change the game is who should be making the changes and how? Assembling a select group of individuals that decide and implement the changes in our stead could be done, but leaves the question of these persons are selected and held accountable.
More importantly, the tools we use to work on cards were made for internal use and would require a lot more resources and time than we have available to be made safe and accessible to use. In general, opening a game to be modded can require a lot of development time, especially when it wasn't developed with that perspective in mind. In Gwent we face particular troubles due to the way the game is operated with central servers running the game logic rather than player's clients.
As such, we have to turn to more automated solutions, as well as a more democratic process. By doing so however, we now face the issue of representativeness of the changes and of building consensus. It is one thing for people to agree on what must change, for instance which card should be nerfed.
But if we can't get them to agree on what exactly this change should be (for instance an ability tweak, a variable change, removing 2 power, increasing provisions by 1, etc…) then we have a problem. And even if we can get them to agree on the exact solution, one change isn’t enough for the game to feel different, we need a multitude of them. And to ensure these changes are valid, we need enough votes to ensure they are representative.
Multiple solutions and processes exist when it comes to voting, but commonly solutions that attempt at being more representative and precise also end up being more complex and importantly introducing more overhead. The more things are asked of you and the more complicated it seems, the less likely you are to bother. We've all been through surveys that were way too long and just dropped them when they started asking to write an actual sentence instead of just ticking boxes.
The proposition for the voting system aims to maximise this compromise between overhead and number of changes. Restricting what can be changed allows us to more easily build consensus and limit overhead.
While we understand that the limitations in regards to what can be changed can be disappointing, we believe that these restrictions are necessary to limit the divergence of opinions and keep as many players as possible involved in the process. Furthermore, while the idea of creating a perfectly balanced game may be enticing, to keep being interesting a game needs to be fresh and to keep changing.
Obviously a more balanced state is more pleasant and lasts longer due to its variety, but in card games it’s only a matter of time before it ends up feeling stale. As such, the feature focuses on enabling a continuous organic evolution.
In that regard, having people submit 3 cards for each group rather than 12 cards where they get to specify the exact change they want allows us to heavily limit overhead and has the added benefits of having a more even spread.
You might have some pretty strong feelings about 3 cards you want to see nerfed, but casting your vote also requires you to fill the other spots. It's not so overwhelming that you might quit, but it still gets you to sit back and think a bit more, leading us to receive more votes about buffs notably than we'd get if we just let people vote freely. More generally, these restrictions also allow us to make the development time way more manageable, especially in terms of UX.
The reason we're building this feature inside of the game is that it allows us to touch a far greater portion of the playerbase than we'd get elsewhere, leading to more representativity. We also believe that it can serve as a great engagement feature. Having your opinion be asked feels good and we hope that getting to see it have a direct impact on the game will feel motivating.
We believe that this process of iteration with a medium number of changes every patch, even if they are 1 point at a time, has the unique property of letting an organic evolution take place that could make Gwent into an environment people would be intrigued to come back to.
The last question to answer is the frequency of the changes which plays into the much larger topic of balancing what very active players might desire as they consume new content faster against what is reasonable for more occasional players so that they don’t end up feeling overwhelmed.
Our default frequency will still be the monthly balance patches we currently have, but this is not a resolved question and it is one on which we are open to experiment. While we definitely won't go for changes happening every week, we might test 2 or 3 weeks, especially in the first months of the feature. Conclusion
We hope this answers your question and makes our reasoning as well as the particular restrictions we are working with clearer. More importantly, we hope it allows you to look toward the future with brighter eyes. We are excited in the ways Gwent will keep evolving under the influence of this community voting feature!
As 2022 comes to an end, we want to give our community as much knowledge about our future plans as possible. This will be a long article recapping our roadmap video, which you can watch below. In the near future, we will release another article, which will deliver a more detailed look at our planned community balancing system. What happened in 2022:
4 card drops adding 86 new cards to the game
All 8 Journeys re-released in the eternal format
88 reworks of old cards
Around 30 different “game strategies” were targeted (Multigang SY decks, Selfwound and NR Knights are examples of such strategies)
A new mechanic allowing us to further increase interactions - infusion
We’ve introduced a sink for excess scraps in the form of a fast travel purchase option in Journeys as well as added the converter of Reward Points to other resources. There are more things on the way.
As always, we had a bunch of fun seasonal events, including some new additions such as Shupe’s-themed one in September.
This year seasonal modes got some love with unpopular or “solved” modes being rotated out, while a few brand new ones were added. A special mention here deserves “Trial by fire” - a seasonal mode in which players could play new cards without owning them.
GWENT Masters S4 is in the books with a total number of 17 official events organized by CDPR, including the qualifiers done with the great help of our great community partners from Claymore and ESC Gaming.
We were happy to share great conversations with our beloved community members at the CDPR 20th anniversary party in Warsaw and its follow-up in Lucca.
What did not happen in 2022: Premium tokens. The truth is we were unable to move forward with our initial plan to premify every token in game and release them all as one happy package. Whenever we're facing the choice between making new premium cards or premifiying existing tokens, we are opting in for new cards. With no real progress on this topic in 2022, we’ve decided to wrap up the tokens that were ready or almost ready to be released and make them available ASAP. It means that over 20 previously static tokens will become premium in the few next upcoming patches, but we can’t really commit to premifying all of them.
Draft rework. It’s quite obvious that Draft mode got stuck in the past with packages no longer relevant after the reworks and we’re not happy with its current state. With the way the current iteration of Draft was developed, it’s extremely inefficient to keep it the same way it is and just try to keep up with the updates. Therefore, our design team put an effort to rework it significantly and solve some gameplay issues along with the maintenance issues. Even though we managed to create a working prototype of a new draft system, putting these final new design concepts into the game is not a simple and quick task. With the understanding that the most popular game mode (constructed ranked) should be our major focus, as of now, Draft isn’t fitting into our development plans for 2023. With that being said, we’re not abandoning the hope to finish other features earlier to be able to come back to draft, but this chance isn’t huge.
All archetypes are valid. While quite a lot of old archetypes and game strategies got a new life in 2022, it’s worth noting that we still see room for improving some of the existing archetypes including those that weren’t touched at all yet or those that didn’t get where we wanted them to be despite receiving some support earlier. Therefore, our work on this goal will be continued in full force in 2023 and we’re aspiring to completely finish this process by the end of the year. What are our plans for 2023?
We’re aiming to release a total of 72 cards between 3 card drops.
The period between the last drop to be released between 11.9 and the end of the year is reserved for the balancing and various “final touches” aimed at ensuring that new cards' impact on the meta is aligned with our ongoing mission of bringing more variety to GWENT.
We will continue to provide monthly updates including balance changes.
Through targeted balance changes we will continue to manage the gap between the top competitive decks in each faction and its competitors, but our main efforts still will be aimed at expanding the pool of viable strategies.
We are planning 2 major competitive events next year.
GWENT Masters will go into its last competitive season - Season 5 in 2023. The competitive structure will be changed to have a Mid-Season tournament and the World Masters (+qualifiers). For now, we’re only announcing the quantity and timing of these events, but in the upcoming weeks before the start of the new competitive season, we’d like to involve the top pro players in a discussion about the details of the format to agree on the best solutions. What are our plans for 2024 and beyond? Cards
There will be a significant change in the way we’re operating the game starting from the beginning of 2024: After releasing the last drop of new cards in 2023, we do not plan to add any more cards to GWENT. Big change, obviously, but it’s important to look at it in the grand scheme of things.
With the cards added to the game in 2023, we plan to complete the card pool with every idea/mechanic or archetype that we wanted to see in GWENT.
We don’t resign from updating the game in 2024, on the contrary - we want to do something special here and give power to the people. We will let you - the GWENT community - directly decide what balance changes are needed every month. We already started working on the feature that will allow players to vote for the desired changes in-game and thus steer the meta in the direction favored by the majority. While this functionality can’t be as robust as the tools available to the developers, we strongly believe it will have a positive impact on keeping the game fresh.
Obviously, only balance changes won’t be enough to keep things interesting for active players. That’s why we are also developing a new progression system that will encourage players to experiment more with their decks throughout the seasons to unlock special rewards and achievements. We see this system as a softer alternative to rotation which allows players to have their card collection always usable, but rewards following some deckbuilding restrictions to spice things up and get more goodies.
Events
We don’t plan to have CDPR-organized events after 2023, but we hope that it won’t be the end of the competition and players will be organizing tournaments of various sizes and formats on their own like it happens for many old multiplayer games already. Our tournament platform will continue to be available.
GWENTfinity
We call this set of initiatives aimed at ensuring that the game can exist without our active input - project GWENTfinity. The name reflects our intention to allow players to enjoy this game for years from now. We believe that it is the most player-focused solution to empower the community this way.
Still, in order to make GWENTfinity work, we need support from GWENT’s true fans. None of this will make sense without players who want to continue their GWENT journey and are willing to make the game better. I know that we do have such players and GWENTfinity is made with you in mind.
We’re making this announcement about our long-term plans now, because it’s the right thing to do and because we believe in transparent and honest communication. We came a long way together. There were ups and downs. We made memories, we saw friendships being forged, and even marriages being made over the years. You deserve to know what the future holds for our favorite game and how you can be a part of this future. With all that being said, let’s have another great year of GWENT together. The future of the game was always in players’ hands and it still is.
Thank you for reading and make sure to watch this space for Part 2 in which we will explain our current plans for the community-based balancing system.
