Blog #13: Update 0.21 including Sanctum, Favor, bug fixes, roping changes

A big update has been released some hours ago, and everyone is talking about The Sanctum and Favor. So what is all this about?

The Sanctum and Favor: hotly debated

The biggest change is the Favor system. Right now, you can earn Favor during a match for attacking your opponent or killing their monsters. The exact numbers etc. can be found here. The Sanctum is a card pool that is shared with your opponent, and both you and your opponent can pull cards out of it in the respective turn, as long as enough Favor is available. The available cards change whenever someone pulls a card.

On the right side of the image you can see the Sanctum, and the amount of Flux both players collected so far.

This system is advertised as making the game more complex and skill-based, but lots of people on reddit and the official Discord server did not like this innovation. They argue that the system as it is right now is too impactful, and whoever leads the game will win even higher thanks to the Sanctum. It was also mentioned that the wrong cards were chosen for the Sanctum and that you can earn Favor too fast.

I for the most part like this system a lot. It adds something new, that no other TCG has to Gods Unchained. It is a good compromise between randomness and skill. Of course some balancing has to be done, but it loosens up the otherwise quite rusty meta. And I think most of the community agrees that after careful balancing, this will be a great addition to an already great game.

Other Changes

Besides the Sanctum, other "quality of life" improvements have been made. The graphics are better, even though I have to admit that it's hard to distinguish looked from unlocked small mana crystals. Tons of bugs were fixed, and this might be the best thing of this update. A polished game is much more likely to gather a steady player base. And last but not least the roping system has been reworked. Every time you perform an action like playing a card or attacking, you get a small time bonus. If your time ran out in the previous turn, you will get much less time this turn. This rewards active players and unnecessary or excessive roping is prevented. All in all, these are undeniably great improvements that change the game for the better.

What do you think about these changes? Would love to discuss it in the comments :)