Images on website: https://marvelstrikeforce.com/updates/preview-2023-part1

Greetings, Marvel Strike Force players! If this is the first Preview blog you’ve read, welcome! Twice annually, the dev team gets the opportunity to lift the fog of war and give you a look farther into the future, to assist in planning your progress for the year.

This game has such an amazing community and it’s our privilege to get a bit more in-depth into how the team is thinking about your feedback and using it to make improvements and create new content. The most satisfying part of our jobs is releasing exciting content and hearing how much you enjoy it. We’re always listening.

We have a number of topics we’re eager to share with you, which is just some of the content you can look forward to. Please remember that everything discussed here is subject to change before release.

Reflecting on the Past Year

It’s an almost surreal experience to be on the other side of the finale of the Apocalypse Saga. The team has been focused on this new journey for well over a year, and we’ve learned a lot along the way. The team has read over a lot of player feedback and used it to help guide how the game will take shape in 2023 and beyond.

There are few high priority topics. First, is to keep the game feeling fresh. We want to experiment more often with existing modes like Alliance War and Cosmic Crucible. We’re iterating on game modes like Raids to bring new experiences. With all of the forthcoming updates and improvements, we’ll be listening to your feedback along the way to make further refinements.

Second, we will be more deliberate in making quality-of-life improvements. We have a long list of your requests and we’re carving out more production time this year to address pain points and squash bugs.

Third, we’re investing even more into the development of the official website, MarvelStrikeForce.com. Unifying the functionality of MSF.gg this year was just the start of a number of tools improvements designed to enhance your daily play. Our goal is to make the website the destination for the best information, tools, strategies, and general support for your in-game experience.

The Next Legendary Character

We’re excited to announce that the next Legendary Event will feature Nova! This is the first new character we’re announcing, with the new team trait, “Knowhere.” You can probably make a few guesses about the next Knowhere characters that will be announced, and a few of those guesses will likely be correct.

One piece of feedback from the community is that they enjoyed the overall experience of the Scourges immensely, as they provided a satisfying challenge while offering customization elements. We also heard the feedback that during the year-long journey towards Apocalypse, players felt like they lost some agency in the characters and teams they wanted to invest their resources in.

With that in mind, in 2023, you’ll see a return of the Scourge-type events with some interesting new twists to the designs and revamped rewards! These will be similar to the traditional Legendary Events in that they are treated as standalone encounters and won’t all chain into requirements for additional future content as with the Apocalypse Saga. They will be part of a grander story being told going into next year but not all characters released along the way will be required for the narrative.

With the incredible power possessed by Nova including access to the Nova Force, he will be the second character ever (after Red Hulk) to wield an impressive battlefield effect. Once again, we’re highly curious to hear your speculation on what the battlefield effect can do.

To participate in the Legendary event and unlock Nova, you’ll need to be at Player Level 50+ and have at least five characters in any combination of the following:

• Masters of Evil
• X-Factor
• Quicksilver

Dark Dimension VI

Yes, it’s back! While there was a lot of fun with Scourges and Sagas last year, the community expressed a longing for the annual excitement around the adventure that is Dark Dimension. Also missed was the ability to have more agency with team compositions, which leads to more personal customization and riveting theorycrafting. We hear you and are currently in production on the sixth installment of the popular game mode.

One of the defining associations with Dark Dimension has been the marquee reward of unlocking an infamous Villain from the Marvel Universe. In keeping with that trend, we’re delighted to announce that the marquee reward for Dark Dimension VI will be none other than the enhanced Skrull warrior, Super Skrull! The character model is not final yet, but we can show you this sweet concept art:

Here’s the essential info to start preparing for the future challenge:

Below are the character trait requirements, but keep in mind that the order of the mission nodes has not yet been finalized:

• Non-Legendary City
• Non-Legendary Global
• Non-Legendary Cosmic
• Non-Horsemen Legendary
• Legendary and/or Apocalypse

Gear Requirements:

• Gear Tier 18

Iso-8 Requirements:

• None

Gear Tier 18

It’s time to power-up your roster and explode into the next level with the exciting upcoming release of Gear Tier 18! If you’re finding existing content to be more challenging than anticipated, the power of GT18 will help you bust through those roadblocks.

This will be your master key in unlocking access to battle through the epic Dark Dimension VI and unlocking Super Skrull. Get ready because your first opportunity to start collecting pieces and crafting this powerful new gear is expected to arrive sometime in the month of May. One of the primary methods of acquiring the mighty Gear Tier 18 will be an exciting adventure through…

Incursion Raid

The grand follow-up to the Doom Raids is on the way in the form of the new Incursion Raid. In the Marvel Universe, Incursions refer to colliding realities with potentially cataclysmic results if not kept in check. It will take the combined might of S.T.R.I.K.E. to answer the Incursion threat and prevent the destruction of Nexus Earth.

Before we get into the details of the Incursion Raid, check out this recent blog entry (read for full details), where we announced two new event types that act as preludes:

• Showcase Events - short events running in tandem with a new character release
• Epic Events - Invaders: Incursion - a longer event that runs during the release of several new characters of the same team/trait

These events will feature characters of teams/traits that will be designed for use in the Incursion Raid. Like the Doom Raids, the mission nodes will allow you to bring your choice of characters with respective origin traits. However, the challenges you will encounter in the Incursion Raid will be crafted with the new characters in mind and will be best suited for the battles.

Making progress in Incursion Raid is extremely important as it will be the primary method of earning Gear Tier 18 pieces, which you’ll need to enter Dark Dimension VI.

The Rebirth and Invader teams will be extremely powerful and are critical to your success in this Incursion Raid. More characters/teams will be released later in 2023, designed for use in Incursion Raid. You’ll know which characters these are as they’ll have Showcase Events and Epic Events running alongside their release.

Spread the word to your Alliance and start preparing now for Incursion Raid!

New Alliance War Events

You’ve told us that Alliance War is one of your favorite game modes, and we’ve received a lot of suggestions on how to keep it feeling fresh. The dev team is excited to take action on your ideas by trying out a number of rewards changes and limited-time events.

Reward Changes

Get ready to accelerate your Teal Gear progression into high gear to prepare for the forthcoming Gear Tier 18! Coming first around the end of April will be a highly-requested Teal War Orb containing items, including coveted Gear Tier 16 Mini-Uniques. Additionally, there will be more slots of Teal Uniques in War Supplies for Level 80+ players to satisfy your need for shopping therapy.

Another War Reward Update will add more Gold and a lot of Iso-8 Blue Ion T2 L1 + L4 + L5. This will significantly help players to unlock and upgrade the mighty Apocalypse.

Limited-time Event: Knowhere Siege

From the darkest reaches of space, the Knowhere team is coming to the rescue of S.T.R.I.K.E. - and they're bringing the worst of the cosmos along with them! The Knowhere Siege will offer a different perspective on War gameplay. This is a limited-run event with temporary configuration where we can test and optimize different rules and mechanics. Player feedback provided during this event will significantly help guide any future events.

The first new limited-time spin on Alliance War is being created with upcoming Knowhere characters in mind. There will be updated room rules, strategy changes, and new mechanics.

Updated Room Rules:

• Knowhere characters will get bonuses on offense
• Cosmic Villains will replace Military in existing room bonuses
• Black Order & Thanos will be receiving buffs on defense

Strategy Changes:

• Defeating the opponent's Armory and the Hangar will no longer affect the stats of the opponent's attacking characters. Instead, defeating the opponent's Armory and Hanger will affect the stats of your attacking characters. This should reduce the necessity to attack at specific times of day.
• Players will receive all 10 Energy at the start of War and no longer accumulate energy over time. Players can still purchase an additional 4 War Energy for each War.

New Mechanics

• A new Attempt Bonus will award points for clearing a room with the fewest attempts possible. Canceled combat will not decrease the Attempt Bonus but will still consume the spent War Energy. This is the secondary win condition to clearing the most rooms.
• As a tiebreaker only, there will be a new Full Clear Bonus. If both Alliances have cleared the same number of defensive squads and have the same Attempt Bonus (identical number of attack attempts), the Alliance that fully clears the Helicarrier first will win.
• Exhausted - each time a defensive squad is attacked and isn’t fully defeated, a stack of this new debuff will be applied to them, making them weaker in some way. Exhausted is only applied if the attack attempt is finished, not when combat is canceled. More details on Exhausted will be announced closer to the release of this update.

We’ll have more details to share closer to the start of the event.

New Cosmic Crucible Tournament

We’re going to throw some spice into the Cosmic Crucible gumbo in Version 7.1.0 with a new twist on the classic format. For one week only before Season 3 begins, instead of the regular 8-person tournament, there will be a massive battle in the form of an epic 32-person tournament! Your tactics and strategy will be put to the test with new custom stage rules and it will all be worthwhile when your victories pile up to earn you rank and season rewards! With the added player count, there will be five rounds (days) instead of the typical three, so don’t let your guard down for a second.

The 32-person tournament will be an extremely limited time event that you don't want to miss! We will be very interested to hear player feedback after the tournament to help influence the future of the 32-person tournament and other possible variations.

On a more permanent basis with Version 7.1.0, Cosmic Crucible Supplies will have additional slots for Gear Tier 16 and 17 for increased availability.

Quality of Life Improvements

The theme of the day is “player feedback” because we have a slew of improvements you’ve been requesting to streamline and improve your daily experience. Quality-of-life improvements are a high priority for the team this year, and there are even more planned for this year in addition to what’s listed below.

• Equip multiple gear levels at once - via a popular player request you can now instantly zip through all those early gear tier equips with one tap!
• Raids auto launcher: you won’t have to worry about being online at reset time anymore, it will launch for you automatically! This will also come with a trial of a change to Raid Keys, which will be delivered collectively to the Alliance, without the need for all the members to individually claim them.
• More Sim - We're looking to expand the Sim feature beyond Raids and into other game modes, to streamline the experience with easier content.
• Autocomplete function for additional repeating events - to save your valuable finger-tapping strength for other modes.
• Inbox improvements - there are several streamlined updates to help you more effectively navigate your Inbox.
• > First, the Inbox will be separated into two tabs, one for Messages and another for Rewards, to provide clearer separation between the message types.
• > Second, the Read and Unread tabs will be merged into one tab with the option to toggle “Show Read” messages, for improved flow.
• > Third, when tapping on the Claim All button, a pop-up message will ask you to confirm the action before actually claiming all the items, to help mitigate accidental item claims.
• Improvements to avatar & frame selection, to change up your player profile and express your fandom.
• Clearer communication of the minimum requirements necessary to qualify for Leaderboard rewards in Milestones.
• Mojo’s Mayhem Revamp - extending the options of earning rewards by participating in modes you're already playing, like War and Cosmic Crucible, in addition to Blitz and/or Real-Time Arena to complete the Pass.
• Overhauling the Store in-game to make it a more modern experience, with features for convenience and personalization.

Website Improvements

We’re continuing our commitment to making MarvelStrikeForce.com the absolute best companion possible for the game. We’ve heard your feedback and are making some exciting improvements:

• Squad Sync - want a quick and easy way to share your Saved Squads with friends and Alliance members? Coming soon, you’ll be able to import your Saved Squads and then generate a code you can share with your buddies, so they can import your squad settings. This will be especially helpful for Alliances looking to unify War offense and defense teams across all members' rosters. Or, if you’ve discovered the ultimate Blitz saved squad rotation, share your codes with the community and watch the kudos roll in.
• Recruiting Tools - finding an Alliance that fits your playstyle isn’t always easy, but we’re going to make it easier for you to find that particular Alliance that works best for you, and for that Alliance to find you.
• Additional API support, including Saved Squads (mentioned above), Iso-8 Confidence, T4 Confidence - if you haven’t seen it, the “Confidence” feature is a useful tool that displays the percentage of players that have unlocked a character and chosen to make certain upgrades (abilities, gear, Iso-8, etc…).

Wrapping It Up

There’s definitely a lot more excitement coming than what is mentioned here. The sheer volume of content planned for the year is above and beyond any year prior, with all levels of players in mind. In addition to improving existing game modes and limited-time events, the dev team is also planning a brand new game mode, currently targeting release in early 2024. Yeah, it’s going to be a big deal. We hope to share more details on that with you in the second Preview 2023 Blog later this year.

We greatly appreciate the passion and dedication to the game you’ve shown in the game’s five-year life. As players and fans ourselves, we share your passion and, along with our partners at Marvel, are committed to bringing you an unparalleled daily experience. The well of characters, events, and features is virtually endless, and we are beyond thrilled that you’re with us on this epic journey.

And now, we gotta do our Daily Objectives and War attacks. See you in-game!

External link →