Arena mode allows trainers to engage in battles against each other for rewards and prestige. To gain a competitive advantage, trainers must have a comprehensive understanding of card and game mechanics, team composition, and be able to craft the right runes and charms.
In the Arena, trainers join a queue and are then paired with other trainers of similar ranking.
Once a match has been found, the play order is determined through a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors (RPS). The winner of RPS will decide who plays first. If both players agreed on the turn order by choosing different options from each other, or one of the players chooses the 'No Preference' option, the RPS system is skipped and the players play according to their chosen turn order.
Each turn, trainers will be given 45 seconds to make their play before the turn is automatically ended.
If a trainer has been inactive for 2 turns, they will be given an additional 10 seconds to become active again before they are forced to surrender.
There are currently 2 permanent Arena modes: Practice, Ranked and Gauntlet. However, there may also be special, limited-time modes that appear occasionally, such as Arcade mode.
Practice Mode
Practice mode has no ranking system or limitations, and allows trainers to freely test new team compositions and strategies at any time.
When matchmaking in Practice mode, the system will always prioritize pairing trainers with other trainers. However, if none are found, trainers will battle against bots.
Please note that trainers cannot earn rewards in Practice mode.
Ranked Mode
Ranked mode has the same battle system as Practice mode, but it introduces a ranking system. The ranking system is divided into 9 ranks: Egg - Chick - Hare - Boar - Wolf - Bear - Tiger - Dragon - Challenger.
Each rank, excluding Challenger, is divided into 4 Tiers [IV, III, II, I].
Ranks in Ranked mode (Egg -> Challenger)
For each battle won, trainers will collect Victory Stars that will increase their rank and allow them to climb the leaderboard.
| Rank | Win |
Draw |
Lose |
| Egg | 20 | 10 | 0 |
|
Chick |
20 | 10 | 0 |
|
Hare |
20 | 10 | 0 |
| Boar | 20 | 0 | -10 |
| Wolf | 20 | 0 | -10 |
| Bear | 20 | 0 | -10 |
| Tiger | 10 | 0 | -10 |
| Dragon | 10 | 0 | -10 |
| Challenger | Calculated by ELO Formula based on the difference in Victory Stars between 2 players | ||
All Victory Stars in a trainer’s current rank must be collected before they can climb to the next rank.
For example:
Egg IV has 40 Victory Stars and a trainer must acquire all 40 before they are promoted to Egg III.
|
Rank |
Egg |
Chick |
Hare |
Boar |
Wolf |
Bear |
Tiger |
Dragon |
|
Tiers / Rank |
4 |
4 |
4 |
4 |
4 |
4 |
4 |
4 |
|
Stars / Tier |
40 |
40 |
50 |
50 |
60 |
60 |
70 |
80 |
Excess Victory Stars acquired at a current rank will be counted towards the next rank. A trainer will be demoted one Tier if they lose the next match after reaching 0 Victory Stars.
For example:
If an Boar III Trainer with 0 Victory Stars loses their next battle, they will be demoted to Boar IV with 30 Victory Stars.
Bonus Victory Stars can be acquired by:
- Reaching a winning streak of 3 or more victories: +10 Victory Star per winning streak win. Note that this is only applied to Dragon rank and lower.
- Finishing a previous season at a higher rank. Based on your rank in the previous season, you will receive a bonus for each win in the current season. This bonus is reduced by 1 each time a trainer is promoted to a new rank.
|
Rank |
Egg |
Chick |
Hare |
Boar |
Wolf |
Bear |
Tiger |
Dragon |
Challenger |
|
Bonus Star |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
10 |
20 |
30 |
40 |
50 |
At the beginning of a new season, a trainer’s rank will be reset to Egg IV, and their Victory Stars will be reduced to 0.
Seasons
Ranked mode operates on a seasonal basis. Each season will last approximately 2 months, with a short break between seasons. The period in-between a past season and a new season is considered the Off-Season.
Trainers can receive 2 types of rewards during a season:
- First-Time Rewards - Received each time a trainer is promoted to a new rank [Moon Shard and crafting ingredients].
- End-of-Season Rewards - Received at the end of the season [generally comprised of seasonal in-game items and AXS].
During the Off-Season, trainers can still compete against each other but there will be no first-time or end-of-season rewards.
Eras
Within a Season, there are four Eras: Rare, Epic, Mystic, and Final, each lasting two weeks.
During every Era, players may earn Season Leaderboard rewards by reaching the required ranks. Rewards for specific ranks, as well as the end date of each Era, can be viewed by clicking the Play > Leaderboard button.
The rarity of Runes and Charms that players can craft depends on the active Era:
• Rare Era: up to Rare Runes and Charms
• Epic Era: up to Epic Runes and Charms
• Mystic Era & Final Era: up to Mystic Runes and Charms
When upgrading Runes, you can only upgrade them to the maximum rarity allowed in that Era. For example, during the Rare Era, Rare Runes cannot be upgraded to their Epic rarity versions.
Challenger Sphere & Leaderboard
Once promoted from Dragon I, trainers will enter the Challenger rank. There are no tiers in the Challenger rank. Instead, trainers are matched based on an ELO system. A trainer's rank is based on their ELO from Challenger rank matches.
If two trainers have an equal number of ELO/Victory Stars, then win rate will be used as a first tie-breaker, followed by the total number of Victory Stars collected. The time required to reach the highest star rank will be used to determine a winner in the rare case of a tie for the first two tie-breaking methods.
NOTE: If a player of a lower rank gets matched against a Challenger-ranked player, the match result will follow the ELO system instead of the Victory Stars system for both players. This allows for the lower-ranked player to get the full MMR/ELO gain if they win, and a reduced MMR/ELO loss if they lose.
Victory Stars Decay
To prevent trainers from halting gameplay once they have reached the Boar rank and above, there is a star decay system. Trainers in said rank who do not play a couple of ranked match per day, depending on their rank, will lose a certain points of ELO until they fall to lower rank. Please see the table below for more details.
Match requirements per day, for each rank bracket:
- Boar to Bear - 1 match per day
- Tiger - 2 matches per day
- Dragon - 3 matches per day
- Challenger - 5 matches per day
For example:
If you last played on November 6th - 17:00 UTC and you are in Challenger rank, you will need to play 5 matches before November 8th - 00:00 UTC (server reset).
Leaderboard Rules
At the start of each season, all players who participate in Ranked battles are automatically included on the leaderboard. Player rankings are determined by the total number of Victory Stars earned through these Ranked battles. The higher the ranking, the better the rewards.
Tie-breaker Rules
In order to avoid issues and make sure rewards are not duplicated should there be two players with the same number of Victory Stars at the end of an era:
- The first tie-breaker will be their win rate.
- If the tie still remains, the second tie-breaker will be the time it took for each player to reach their current number of Victory Stars.
Arcade Mode
Arcade mode is a fusion experiment of Classic and Origins! You can find more details in this article.