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Hello r/ClashRoyale!For those who don't know me I'm Seth, Game Designer for Clash Royale.
We hope you are enjoying the new update!
The newest card to Clash Royale has been rumbling through Challenges and Trophy Road – EARTHQUAKE!
Today we wanted to take some time to talk about how and why we decided to bring this anti-Building spell from Clash of Clans into Clash Royale. If you would like to read past card design blogs here on reddit, check out:
• [Breaking Walls, Not Hearts]
• [Three Musketeers and Mortar]
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SPELL DIVERSITY
One of the biggest design/balance concerns the team had when I joined the balance team is maintaining the diversity of Spells in the game. When the choice of Spells is very narrow then deck-building as a skill suffers. For example, if Zap and Poison are far and away the best Spells in the game and every deck runs both – which was the case in mid-2016 during the famous Giant-Poison summer – then you only have six cards to build a deck with. Two spots are taken because you would not consider the other Spells.
Balance challenges aside, we think the game is in a much more interesting state when players have to choose between Arrows, Zap, The Log, Barbarian Barrel, and Giant Snowball as a small Spell. You have your core attack strategy and must consider which vulnerabilities you have, and pick the appropriate Spells to counter those weaknesses in your strategy.
In order for this to work, the Spells need to be different enough from each other to make the choice between them meaningful. While discussing Fireball vs. Poison, we drew this triangle on the board:
• Fireball: Upfront damage, knockback effect, can’t kill wizards/musketeers
• Poison: Over-time damage, area denial, can kill wizards/musketeers
• Earthquake: Good vs. buildings?
We realized that we had an opportunity for a new Spell – Poison was both the best Spell for fighting swarms (like Goblin Gang) and medium health ranged attackers (like Ice Wizard). It was ALSO a top tier Spell against many buildings like Furnace, Elixir Collector, and Tombstone. Poison is meant to be an anti-Troop Spell by design, but it was also taking up slots in decks that might prefer a more targeted anti-Building answer. Introducing an anti-Building Spell could increase the interesting choices in deck-building AND give us the freedom to design more Buildings in the future (since a strong counter would exist).
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EARTHQUAKE’S DESIGN
Initially, Earthquake started as a 5-cost card but did not last long at that cost. The problem with a 5-cost anti-Building Spell was that it was an equal or negative Elixir trade with the buildings you were most likely trying to counter. Being 5-cost also made it hard to combo with win conditions like Miner or Graveyard.
We decided to bring it down to 3 cost and balance it with the idea that it could be played as a Small or Big spell in decks, filling the role of Zap or Poison in the right circumstance:
• Log + Earthquake (Log for the small swarms, Earthquake to clear the path for your tank)
• Earthquake + Lightning (Earthquake for swarms, Lightning to remove wizards/musketeers)
When we bring over a card concept from Clash of Clans, we try to keep it as close to the original design as possible while differentiating it from the other Spells. We decided on a short duration (3 seconds) so that Poison’s 8 seconds was better for area control. Like The Log, Earthquake would not affect Air Troops (to protect Arrows), and did very little damage to Troops.
A new card needs unique effects though, so Earthquake will deal full damage to Crown Towers and bonus damage to other Buildings. This creates some all-new interactions that did not exist to players before: the ability to hard counter Furnace and Elixir Collector for a positive Elixir trade. This creates new ways for clever deckbuilders to attack metagames that contain Royal Giant/Furnace decks or Three Musketeer/Elixir Collector decks.
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WAIT WHAT ABOUT THREE MUSKETEERS?!
When we nerfed Three Musketeers to 10 Elixir, it was to sideline a really problematic archetype and allow us to analyze the meta without them. As stated in a recent interview, we aren’t thrilled with their performance and intended to bring them back to 9 cost, after we had introduced more counters. The new Barbarians were changed with this in mind. Since 3M decks don’t run Fireball generally, they could be a positive Elixir trade with the 2 Musketeer side.
Earthquake also fit into this plan. The problem with 3M decks was you only had one Fireball/Poison, and needed to hold it for three very different cards: Three Musketeers, Minion Horde, and Elixir Collector. With Earthquake able to fill the role of a small Spell, we hope players can Earthquake the Collector and still have Poison for the Troops.
With Earthquake out now, we feel much more comfortable returning Three Musketeers to 9 cost… so that will be happening next month!
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That’s all for this week! Enjoy playing the new Dragon Hunt mode over the weekend, and if you have any suggestions for future design blogs, please leave them in the comments below!
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