Update 15.2

Your guide to the gameplay changes in 15.2

ST Disclaimer: As part of the Kabam Creator Program we were given the chance to access a preview build of the update before it went live which is where the below images and information was obtained.

Introduction

This article covers the features and changes that 15.2 has brought to the game. For information about new content like the Lunar New Year Content Pass, Dragon Pet, King Schedule, etc… see the v15.2 Release Notes.

Elemental Barrier Redesign

The big mechanic change feature in update 15.2 is the redesign / simplification of the elemental barrier system.

• Before 15.2: Barriers reduce hero damage by 80% at full strength. This reduction decreases as the barrier is damaged. Each hero or Champion deals their Element total in damage to the barrier every turn before their normal attack.
• After: If the party’s total element score exceeds the barrier, it is immediately disabled. If the party has a lower element score than the barrier strength, it will provide the full 80% mitigation for the entire battle.

Essentially, this turns the barriers into a binary yes or no when it comes to enemy damage mitigation. You’ll be able to see on the quest screen when you select the party how strong the barrier is and if your team exceeds it or not. You can see in the screenshot below that Void Dimension on Extreme has a barrier strength of 170. I only have 165 total Light element in this first one, which is less than the barrier strength. This means that the barrier will be at the full 80% mitigation power for the entire quest. It doesn’t matter any longer that I have a Light unit on the team – that barrier will stay up the whole time.

In this second scenario, I do exceed the 170 for the same zone. You can easily see the difference because the number changes color from white to green and the cute little monster icon changes as well.

(seriously, this lil’ guy is kind of adorable)

How characters apply their barrier damage has not changed, thankfully. A hero still contributes their total Element score towards breaking it. Additionally, a couple class / Champion specific interactions have been preserved.

Spellknights / Spellblades will continue to contribute 30% of their element power due to their ability to hit every barrier. You can see in the screenshot below that my Spellknight with 195 total Element is providing 58.5 (rounded down) damage towards the barrier.

Rudo’s leaderskill has been updated to provide the 50% bonus on the team selection screen instead of providing the extra barrier breaking power for the first few turns (since that mechanic has been changed). This allows him to remain a pretty good pick if your roster is short on elemental coverage and can afford to dedicate the Champion slot to him.

• Note that the bonus effect of his leaderskill appears to be bugged and is providing a slightly lower bonus than it should. My Acrobat has 170 Element in this example. Rudo’s 50% bonus should put it to 255, but the amount displayed is slightly lower.

Samurai / Daimyo still ignore the barrier on the first turn.

An important caveat of this change is that the new barrier values are surprisingly low (see charts below). These range from 10 (Sunken Ship / Chest FQ) all the way up to 350 (Terror Titan).

15.2 Barriers (Normal Zones)

15.2 Barriers (Bosses)

15.2 Barriers (Flash Quests)

15.2 Barriers (Tower of Terror)

This mechanic change has two major ramifications.

1. If you currently use a Spellblade / Spellknight as your sole barrier breaker, you’re gonna have a bad time. This can be mitigated in most zones by also using a Champion rank 14+ if they have their own element on their Familiar and / or Aurasong.
2. Most content now requires only one dedicated barrier breaker. HOWEVER! This is not actually that different from the current system where a well-built team can get away with only having one breaker (aside from true endgame content like the Ascension Shard FQ and Tower of Terror where dropping the barrier ASAP is much more important).

Before you get out the pitchforks or retire a chunk of your roster to optimize for this new system, remember that big mechanical changes like this don’t just happen for no reason. This change is likely only the first step in a larger plan to expand on the barrier system in future updates.

With that huge shakeup out of the way, let’s go over some of the more straightforward changes that 15.2 brings us.

Rack Management

The rack management feature allows players to easily filter what item lines can be stocked on each rack. There is even a button to apply the filter to all racks in your shop. Any gear that does not match the current filter is immediately removed. When manually adding gear to a filtered rack you will only see item lines that match the current filter. That applies to restocking from the market as well.

Antique Store Expansion

Two new slots have been added to the Antique Store that runs during Kings Caprice. Before 15.2, we had a slot for low tier blueprints (T5 and below), a slot for the rest of the possible antique blueprints (T6+), a slot for decorations / avatar items / flooring & wallpaper, and a slot for all of the above, a Jack of All Trades slot, if you will.

The new antique store raised the low tier blueprint pool to include T6 blueprints, split the decorations, avatar items, and flooring & wallpaper into their own slots, and made the Jack of All Trades slot exclusive to Royal Merchants.

Champion Requests

Starting with 15.2, Champion requests will now reward players with the full gold (and merchant XP!) for the items they request. The gold value is the base amount you would normally sell the items for, similar to donating items to the Airship during Dragon Invasion.

Kabam has marked this feature as “experimental” in case they need to change, or remove the feature to avoid unexpected market shenanigans that could destabilize the game’s economy.