Gameplay Guide

Since the launch of the Epochal Odyssey,

 

many Commanders have voiced their queries and advice on the new gameplay system.

 

So today, we're bringing you a gameplay guide, along with some future optimizations!

 

 

The core mechanic of the Sands of Illusion fantasy realm revolves around summoning Einherjar to break the enemy's shields, significantly weakening them.

 

Currently, Einherjar come in two elements: Fire & Water, which break correspondingly colored shields: Fire - Red Shield; Water - Blue Shield.

 

 

After spending Elemental Power to summon an Einherjar, it will last for 2 turns. Up to 3 Einherjar can exist on the battlefield at the same time.

 

 

Einherjar can interact with special devices on the map. These devices are called Elemental Enigmas. When an Einherjar of the corresponding color ends its turn within 1-ring range of an Elemental Enigma, it can initiate an interaction.

 

While interacting, the Einherjar will lose its invincible status. If the Einherjar is killed at this time, the interaction will fail, and you won't gain a increase to your maximum Elemental Power.

 

 

During interactions with Elemental Enigmas, enemies or a Slime may appear nearby. If the Einherjar interacting with the Elemental Enigma survives to their next turn, the interaction will be deemed as completed, and successfully killing the Slime will grant an additional increase to your maximum Elemental Power.

 

 

 

Different Einherjar cost varying amounts of Elemental Power when summoned, and are divided into 3-cost, 6-cost, and 9-cost Einherjar. Initially, only 3-cost Einherjar can be summoned.

 

At the start of each turn, Elemental Power automatically regenerates based on the current turn's recovery rate. However, this rate has a limit and cannot exceed your maximum Elemental Power:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Every time you successfully complete a stage, you'll obtain Scorching Essence and Wavescorn Essence, which can be used to enhance Einherjar skills as well as the stats of your heroes and soldiers in the Elemental Codex.

 

Pro Tip: When your Elemental Codex is below Lv. 60, focus on the active skills of 3-cost and 6-cost Einherjar, as they show up and use their skills the most in battle. As for the passive skills of 3-cost Einherjar, you'll find they're not so high-priority, so you can consider working on them later.

 

 

We have received a lot of feedback, such as the mechanics are too tricky, the difficulty's too steep, and there's not enough freedom. To address these issues, we will introduce a series of gameplay optimizations in the October major update, including but not limited to:

 

1. Reducing the overall difficulty and complexity of Sands of Illusion stages and the difficulty of completing feats.
2. Improving the tutorial stages for beginners.
3. Optimizing the ATK and INT of Einherjar to both take the highest values of the equipped heroes.
4. Optimizing the logic for unlocking stages, unlocking corresponding normal stages when strong enemy stages are unlocked.
5. Einherjar will gain immunity to all debuff.
6. Einherjar will inherit 200% of the hero's HP.
7. Some stages will incorporate new features: "Hero healing effects increased by 15%" or "Hero AoE skill damage increased by 10%."

 

Although not yet implemented, many players are also interested about the effects of Sigils. Here's some info on this new feature:

 

"Unlike Covenants, Einherjar Sigils only provide skill-like effects and do not include stat buffs."

 

Firstly, the effects of the Sigils mainly fall into two categories: One grants the bearer abilities such as unrestricted movement on all terrain, increased Unit Mobility, and the ability to move again after attacking.

 

The other category involves summoning Einherjar for combat, with skills such as: Dispelling a certain number of enemy buffs and causing them to attack after their enemy in the next battle. However, Einherjar summoned through Sigils will not last for 2 turns—they must take action immediately and will disappear after doing so.

Moreover, Sigils will not be effective at all in existing PvP modes, such as the Apex Arena and the World Arena.