Monthly Archives: May 2016

SMITE Patch 3.9 Viking Invasion Patch Notes Revealed

SMITE Patch 3.9 Viking Invasion Patch Notes Revealed

This week, Hi-Rez has revealed the upcoming patch notes for SMITE Update 3.9, Viking Invasion.

The name of the update comes from the new Viking Invasion event. This event brings new skins, an Announcer Pack, and more, as part of a promotion for the Dreamhack Masters tournament. More info on the event can be found here.

The update also stars a long-awaited Ratatoskr update. The wily rodent’s new skill set is as follows:

Passive: Acorn of Yggdrasil

Ratatoskr spawns with a powerful Magic Acorn from the World Tree in his inventory, replacing his item slot for boots. He can upgrade this acorn through the item store from anywhere on the map to increase his Power and Movement Speed. The fully upgraded acorn adds self healing (20 + 40% of your Physical Power) to his abilities.

Dart

Ratatoskr dashes forward, damaging (100/140/180/220/260) to 80% of your Physical Power) and slowing enemies (20/25/30/35/40%) for 3s. Dart pierces through minions and stops at the first god hit. Also, Dart’s cooldown is reduced by 2s for each enemy god hit by Flurry or Acorn Blast. Cost: 50/55/60/65/70. Cooldown: 12s.

Flurry

Ratatoskr spins around in a flurry of attacks, damaging nearby enemies (25/40/55/70/85 + 20% of your Physical Power) and reducing their Physical Protections (2/3/4/5/6%) up to 4 times. Cost: 60/65/70/75/80. Cooldown: 12s.

Acorn Blast

Ratatoskr shoots a blast of three acorns forward in a cone, each dealing (50/65/80/95/110 + 30% of your Physical Power) damage. Enemies hit by more than one acorn will take additional damage and enemies hit by all 3 acorns are stunned for 1s. Cost: 60. Cooldown: 10s

Through The Cosmos

Ratatoskr charges up then leaps from the ground to a branch above his head. He may jump to 2 more branches before choosing a landing location. Upon landing he deals (200/260/320/380/440 + 70% of your Physical Power) damage and Knocks up enemies. Through the Cosmos can be canceled or timed out from any of the branches, causing Ratatoskr to strike down at the current target location. Cost: 100. Cooldown: 90s.

The patch also brings beta support for MAC OSX platforms. Read the full patch notes for more details, including new achievements and balance changes.

Defiance Boosts In Game Economy with The Exchange

Defiance Boosts In Game Economy with The Exchange

Due to fan demand, Trion Worlds’ action MMO Defiance is getting the biggest update to its online marketplace since launch, The Exchange. With easy search, sort and filtering functions, The Exchange will allow players to buy the items they need and sell items they don’t want with one another.

Additional details about The Exchange:

 

  • Patron Defiance players will automatically receive 4 exchange sell slots with a maximum of 6 additional purchases

  • Non-patrons will be able to purchase exchange sell slots from the Defiance store for bits

  • Once an item is purchased or sold, players can collect items and proceeds from The Exchange interface in the My Orders or My Items sections

  • A 10% scrip fee is deducted from proceeds for all sales as a transaction fee

  • In order to post an item on The Exchange, a scrip fee is required up front depending on listing duration, rarity, and asking price

 

You can read more about The Exchange in Defiance on the official Trion blog here.

TOUCH

TOUCH is a client & browser-based music and rhythm game created by 3Claws. Players can enter a hipster music world and enjoy the latest K-Pop music, fashion trends, and more.

Features:

K-Pop Action: Enjoy songs from tons of Korean music artists including Girls Generation, Infinite, Rain, Taeyang, Exo and more.

Dance with friends: Compete with and against friends, or make new ones in various game modes.

Dress up: Deck out your avatar in tons of different fashions.

Dating: Find love on the dance floor with the in-game dating system.

Prominence Poker Now Live on Early Access

Prominence Poker Now Live on Early Access

505 Games and Pipeworks, the developer of the upcoming multiplayer poker RPG Prominence Poker, just pulled a ‘royal flush’ of big news as both companies announced that the game entered Steam’s Early Access program. Players can now play their way to the city of Prominence on Windows PC.

In Prominence Poker, players seek the thrill of high stakes poker as they visit the city of Prominence, a gambling utopia founded by crooked goons, in search of underground games. After creating their poker alter ego, players will challenge a number of unique personalities and colorful bosses across four cunning factions.  As they boost and refine their abilities through successfully reading and beating their colorful opponents, they will earn a chance to play against with “The Mayor,” the mysterious town founder, in a final showdown.

With each pot win, players level up their characters and gain access to tables with bigger buy-ins, unlock backroom games and face off in heads-up play with faction leaders, providing them with a robust poker RPG experience. Players will need to outplay ruthless card sharks in a deep multiplayer experience in no limit ring, tournament and head to head games to turn their short stack into critical all-in hands to win it all.

“With the insightful feedback gained during earlier Closed Beta, we want to further grow the community by releasing Prominence Poker into Steam’s Early Access program, allowing players to grind for Prominence and provide further feedback during the game development process,” said Lindsay Gupton, President of Pipeworks. “As a AAA poker experience based on Texas Hold ‘Em, Prominence Poker puts players in control with a great combination of single-player experiences like character customization and RPG elements along with multiplayer options such as live events and tournaments for competitive play.”

Prominence Poker’s key features include:

  • Gesture / bluff mechanics, letting players read opponents’ hand and fools them to make a wrong move.
  • Versatile character creator for players wanting to create their poker alter-ego from head to toe.
  • In-depth multiplayer matches with regular scheduled events, tournaments and more at launch.

Prominence Poker is now available for Windows PC on Steam’s Early Access Program. The game’s full launch on Windows PC (Steam), PlayStation®4 and Xbox One is expected later in 2016.

Total War: Warhammer Pre-Launch Review

By Jason Parker (Ragachak)

 

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WAAAGH!!  That’s the last sound the victims of the Greenskins tend to hear. But what makes Total War: Warhammer so special, so deserving of notice?  Total War is a well-established franchise, but what makes this one truly unique is that it is the first dip into fiction, particularly high-fantasy, the fantasy world of Warhammer. I’ve always wanted a Lord of the Rings or Wheel of Time Total War, so perhaps if this is a success, we’ll see just that. This particular addition to the franchise does a few new things, and spends a little less on other things. You don’t spend quite as much time balancing nobility and marriages, things of that nature. This one’s more focused on combat, assassination, magic, and carnage.  The end goal is to rule the land, and to do that you control one of the major Warhammer factions: Greenskins, Empire, Vampire Counts, and Dwarves. There’s also going to be the Chaos faction, which I’m incredibly upset I did not have access to straight away in my review copy. From a variety of stances, cool missions, differing faction and faction heroes… there’s so much on offer here.

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For the most part, I’ve been thrilled with Total War: Warhammer.   Depending on what faction I’m playing, there is a very different approach that has to be taken. For example: The Greenskins [Goblins/Orcs] have “Fightiness”, and need to be in constant battle. That’s going to make a lot of enemies if you have a few lords going around picking brawls with other Greenskin tribes.  But there is a positive to this: The stronger your faction is, the greater the chances the other, weaker tribes will surrender to you, making your own territory swell. Yell WAAAGH and charge forward! But all the long-term goals tend to be the same. Control X Territory, Control or Destroy X Territory, et cetera.  The quests are interesting [historic battles taking place in the Warhammer franchise] and the leveling of these encounters appears to balance with your current progress. I do like that each faction plays differently, but I don’t know that they are all that balanced.

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Sure, Total War fans might complain that “Vampires have no ranged units!”, but that’s just how the tabletop is. It’s been pretty accurate to what I remember of the tabletop.  Going into this with the Traditional “Total War” mindframe isn’t going to be as efficient as you might think. Lords and Heroes can stand on their own, and fight in the middle of the fray. It’s advisable to have them near your troops, and casting spells/abilities. Like most of the Total War game, it’s a pretty challenging game, and each faction has its own difficulty rating listed on top of the campaign/battle difficulty. There is a differing challenge per faction because they play differently and not always in a good way. I hate to keep talking about Greenskins, but they’re a prime example, with their “Hard Rating”.  If their “Fightiness” rating drops too far, from losing battles/ not fighting, they might just rebel! You could lose a huge army due to not fighting.

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One of the best things about Total Warhammer is the Quest Battles. Quest Battles are the secrets to unlocking Real Soviet Power.  Ridiculous weapons, etc. Do you want to play Warhammer without spending hundreds of turns getting to specific quests/historic battles?  Under “Battles”, in addition to all the other options, you can just jump into whichever of the Quest Battles you desire! The game gives you a set amount of units under a particular faction lord, and it puts you right into the battle! There’s no auto battle here, or in regular [campaign] quest missions either.  I really appreciate being able to just do the specific battles anytime I want, but I don’t always agree with the unit choices they give me, since my playstyle might be different from what they apply to the battle. But I love this because it’s a challenge. Performance in this battle comes down to strategy and skill [and whatever difficulty you apply to the quest…] Of course, then there are “Custom Battles”, where you can set any map in the game and set whichever attackers/defenders you want to practice against. That’s how I treat it: Practice. Is there a campaign or multiplayer scenario you want to work against? Do you know how your best friend plays, and want to prepare for unit set ups they use? This is a fantastic way to do just that. Then there’s quick play and multiplayer which has individual battle as well as campaign choices.

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Combat still works the same as it always has; real time, moving units, flanking, things like that. Units that are near your leader tend to have a buff or boost, so it’s useful to move your army pretty close together with the occasional flank. You can cast spells, fire siege engines, and pre-battle you can siege using engines to batter down the enemy’s defenses.  The downside to this is you can be ambushed by Lords/Heroes in Ambush Stance. Once in combat, it’s a good idea to focus the enemy leader, if possible. If they are weakened, flee or are destroyed, the morale of the enemy force falters, and you can simply mop them up with ease. I tend to push units until they retreat away [briefly], then focus something else. Figure out what units makes them tick, and push them out of your way.

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What makes Total War: Warhammer special?  Magic! The ability to cast spells, split the sky with horrific storms, raise the dead, melt enemy armor, you name it. Even Greenskins can WAAAAGH to decimate their foes. But it’s not instant and not completely unstoppable. Not to mention, there’s a feature called “The Winds of Magic”. The Winds of Magic blow and howl, shifting across the landscape seemingly at random. It can make your magical powers stronger or more plentiful, depending on the circumstances. However, certain battle stances and heroic actions will allow you to adjust this, thankfully. I don’t like that it’s random at all, but I do like being able to have some modicum of a say-so.  If you see a foe casting a spell, or have someone on your side casting, damaging them will interrupt it, so that’s a definite sign that you need to get to work and stop them. Depending on how your army is put together, you have only so much magical power, so don’t spam them either!  The style of spells vary, and each of them has their place. Personally, my favorite spell is “Raise the Dead” by the Vampire Counts. You can use it to resurrect an army behind your opponent and flank, or raise them in front of a fleeing unit. The options are virtually endless. Instead of bombarding you with tons of facts, here’s a few of those options:

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Augment: Healing, Buffing, Giving Stat Buffs that can also have very sneaky purposes.

Ward Save:  Powerful barriers that can protect or nullify enemy spells. Pay attention to what the enemy does and plan accordingly.

Breath:  A cone shape of magical damage.  Think Dragons.  Use it to blast a hole in an enemy formation and charge in with your own units.

Magic Missile:  Enchant a unit [preferably a flying or powerful tanky unit] to cast ranged magical bombardment. Mobile Battery Go!

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Factions are important. You won’t get far in campaign mode without knowing each faction’s power points. Personally, my favorite are the Vampire Counts, followed by the Chaos Army [even though I can’t play them yet]. I’m personally miffed that the Dark Elves aren’t represented, but that’s neither here nor there. Don’t war with everyone, all the time. Sometimes you need to make peace and trade agreements to get more steady income flowing in. Factions can’t rule all cities of all factions though, so these trade agreements are key. Vampires can’t live in Greenskin cities, for example. Greenskins can only live in Greenskin or Dwarf settlements, et cetera. So, they have things you want? Sometimes you have to let them go so you can prepare to smash them to pieces.  It’s also important to note that while there are “Hero” units, you have to have some sort of requirement in order to get them, typically a building crafted. Each campaign gives you two different characters that offer bonuses to their own play style. Pick whichever suits you best.

 

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Empire:

Rejoice! A Knight of Bretonnia provides your shield.

The Empire is now ruled by Karl Franz: Prince of Altdorf. Untested in his new capacity as ruler, he mixes both might and magic in an attempt to unite the people. The Empire has six Hero types to recruit: Empire Captain, Witch Hunter, Warrior Priest, Light Wizard, Bright Wizard, and Celestial Wizard. The main game mechanic of the Empire is “Confederation”; the main objective for the Empire is to gather the humans in a confederation, building relations through truce or force to form a larger, more powerful, singular entity.

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The Empire has one, lofty goal: the destruction of the Vampires, the eradication of the Greenskins, and keeping the threat posed by the forces of Chaos at bay. The humans of the Empire have some of the more diverse units in the game. Demigryphs, for example, are possibly the most powerful cavalry available. The Luminark of Hysh does insane AOE damage, but if you can’t keep it defended, its efficiency is lost. Their tech trees are also similarly diverse; focus on infrastructure and armory technology to ensure your potentially low-defense units are well armed-and-armored against any onslaught.

 

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Dwarven Kingdom:

A Grudge born too long is no good. A united front and firepower will win this war.

Thorgrim Grudgebearer is honestly just an amazing name.  I may not care for Dwarves, but I love that name. Dwarves have Grudges, and that is your game mechanic. There are Dwarven Strongholds across the map, and you have to free/acquire them for yourself. The “Great Book of Grudges” is on your screen [lower-right corner icon of the Campaign Screen].  As you go forward, even the slightest thing can wind up in the Book of Grudges, and you don’t want them to accumulate. There are consequences to leaving Grudges unfinished. But your ultimate goal is to forge the Dwarven Kingdom back into one giant fighting force.  And to probably destroy those damn Greenskins.

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They don’t care to be called “Stunties” after all. Ungrim is the Slayer King and joins Thorgrim, and he’s excellent at slaying things. Monsters in particular. Their heroes are typical Dwarf things: Runesmith, Master Engineer, Thane.  They have so many great ranged and flying units too. Irondrakes, Gyrocopters, Gyrobombers, etc. They can use flamethrowers, torpedos, and just make people absolutely miserable from a nice distance. But don’t forget powerful Dwarven armor! They also make terrific melee units.  They are likely to utilize their income multipliers to become rich and forge impressive armies, and ally up with other Dwarves as well as Humans to fight the local Greenskins.

 

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Greenskins:

Waaagh!

I can’t say it enough: WAAAGH!!  Greenskins are a collective of Orcs and Goblins under Grimgor Ironhide, a mighty Orc with the Fightiness to do the job at hand. That leads me to their main game mechanic: FIGHTINESS. Low Fightiness leads to animosity, and units might fight each other instead of the enemy. To improve Fightiness, you enter Raiding Stance, or you win fights.  At the maximum Fightiness, a WAAAGH state is entered, and an AI Unit will join you.  It’s powerful, it acts on its own, and as long as you stay in WAAAGH state, it will kill/support for you.  You want it. You NEED it. SO START KILLING.  But you don’t want to alienate all your neighbors though… Downside?

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You can’t have a Tech Tree to research until you build the right building, which you can’t do until you have a level 3 Main Base. So it takes quite a bit of time, but it’s worth it.  Greenskins have access to three Hero Types: Goblin Big Boss, Night Goblin Shaman, and Orc Shaman. Boar Boy Big ‘Uns and Black Orcs are the meat and potatoes, if you will, of your army.  One of the coolest things about Greenskins are Doom Divers though.  Being able to FPS snipe units is amazing, if you practice with it enough. Build alliances with a few neighbors, then smash the other Greenskin clans. Just because Greenskins aren’t that smart, doesn’t mean you don’t have to be. Take it slow, win your fights, and crush them one at a time, until you have the heavy hand it takes to obliterate the Dwarves.

 

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Vampire Counts:

Unlife is power; Carsteins are the only ones fit to wield it.

The Dead rule in Sylvania, and the Carsteins are fractured. Mannfred Von Cartstein teamed up with Heinrich Kemmler to put the relatives in check before spreading Vampiric Corruption across the land.  In addition to Chaos Corruption that spreads across the land, Vampire Counts have their own: Vampiric Corruption. Certain heroes as well as buildings generate this corruption, and if it spreads into enemy territory, they will be weakened by plagues of Vampires. Yes. Plagues of Vampires can spread into your opponents’ lands. But Vampires take damage in non-corrupted lands, so you want to send Vampiric Heroes to spread the evil before your army marches forward into the light. Corruption also lowers public safety in non-Vampiric territory, so those Vampiric rebellions are very much in your favor. Vampires also have zero ranged units, matching the tabletop.

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To make up for it, their flying units are second to none, and are definitely a force to be reckoned with. Wight Kings, Necromancers, Banshees, and Vampires are the heroes to recruit in this force. One of the best things about Vampiric forces, is Ethereal. The Hex Wraith is a mounted Ethereal unit, which means they all but ignore Physical armor, and non-magical damage isn’t even relevant against them. Black Knights, Vargheists, and Cairn Wraiths are all very powerful and should be utilized often. The Tech Tree consists of four ancient Grimoires, each with their own purpose. But here’s a tip: The fourth book is primarily for stuff in the campaign. Growth, Corruption, et cetera. Once you have a province, you can settle in and build your forces, preparing to spread corruption. You gain income [Dark Magic] pretty steadily with a few cities under your thumb. I’d consider allying with the Humans or Dwarves, but probably not both. You’ll want something to corrupt after all. . .

 

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Score: Great – Allies, Action, Excitement

So it’s not alliteration. I tried, damnit. All told, this is a surprisingly powerful addition to the Total War Franchise. Is it perfect? No. But it doesn’t need all the factions right away. I hope more show up though, to really muck up the waters. But there are so many things I probably didn’t cover here. Is it easy? Probably not to non-Total War vets. Is it accurate to the Warhammer franchise? I’d like to think so. Looks like they did their homework, and it’s a relief. I’ve seen some awful Warhammer games in my day. There’s been a lot of footage going around for this game, and for good reason. One of the big things that stopped me from immersing myself into the Warhammer franchise was money. I don’t have 1200 bucks to spend on a ludicrous army, not to mention the time to sit down and paint them to look fancy and shiny. It’s just too much. I can spend roughly half that time on playing a PC game where I can combine tactical, turn-based strategy with real time strategy, using some of my favorite Warhammer styled units to battle computers or other players. Stances, powerful magic, corruption, alliances, betrayal. This game has it all. My greatest fear is that the Dark Elves, Lizardfolk, Ogres, etc will come out, cost money, and be ridiculously powerful. While sure, I WANT my favorite factions to be gross, I don’t want people to be able to pay to win online matches. Please don’t.

 

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Story:

+ A pretty simple to follow story; each faction has their own drive to conquer, their own enemies. Historic Battles take the form of Quests, which emulate actual battles in their “history”. Don’t let history repeat itself!

  • Cutscenes only really appear in Quest Battles; I feel like the long/short term goals are the same for every faction. That’s gonna get boring. Thankfully the factions are pretty different. . .

 

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Factions:

+ Each faction feels unique and individual in their own right, without being ridiculously broken or worthless. Some just take more work than others.

  • Only four factions out of the gate. That’s a little bit of a let down. Chaos Army won’t be out til launch of the game as DLC, but at least they’ll be free at the start. If they wind up charging and Chaos Army is more powerful than other factions, that won’t be good.

 

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Combat and Magic:

+ Real Time Combat does this game serious favors: The Total War engine is a good one for Warhammer; a combination of the turn-based strategy mixed with action that you can slow down or speed up is great. The addition of Magic to the game engine is amazing.

  • However, not having Magic will probably be a serious damper. If you aren’t using a powerful Lord that has access to magic, you could be crippled.

 

 

One Troll Army to be Released May 20th for Free

 One Troll Army to be Released May 20th for Free

Once again, tinyBuild has underestimated the clever skill of the Twitch Chat. After five hours of hard-fought battle, Twitch Chat has emerged victorious, defeating tinyBuild at their own game in order to liberate One Troll Army for the masses.

As a reward, One Troll Army will be released to all, May 20th, completely free of charge.

A ‘Stream First’ game, One Troll Army puts you in the roll of a giant troll defending your base against hundreds of minions. Kick, knock, quake, taunt, jump, ram and loot your way through the horde. Build your fort, upgrade your troll, and outfit yourself with the latest in troll fashion.

League of Angels II Officially Launches in Europe on May 19th

League of Angels II Officially Launches in Europe on May 19th

League of Angels II, GTArcade’s newest free to play fantasy MMORPG, has been out since early April and has already amassed an international fanbase. While the LoA2 development team has been focused on expanding content, bringing the game to more fans around the world has always been a top priority. Following the launches in North America and Oceanic region, the game will officially launch in Europe on May 19th (servers will be online at 9:50AM UTC±0)! This will mark the 3rd regional launch of LoA2 and extend the game’s global reach to 4 continents.

 

Name Your Server!

 

“Europe is an essential market for us and has always been a top priority for GTarcade,” says GTArcade. “Since the game’s initial launch, we’ve received an overwhelming amount of requests for European servers, and today we’re extremely happy to announce that European servers will go online May 19th! For all our fans in Europe, the wait is over!” The first European server will be S100, but it’s name has not been set yet. GTArcade plans to give the “Best Rookie” player on S100 the privilege of choosing the server’s official name.

 

Multi-Language Update Coming Soon

 

The LoA2 localization team has been working nonstop to bring the game to players around the world. Currently German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Turkish language packs are near completion and will be available before the end of the month. Once released, players will be able to change their in-game languages. More localization is in the works so stay tuned.

 

More Ways To Play Than Ever

Since the North American launch over a month ago, LoA2 has continuously expand its features and content. Just this week the new Aptitude System, Animate System, and Anima’s Path Dungeon were added to the game. A new week-long event called Golden Week is also taking place within the game as of this moment, where players are encouraged to show appreciation to one another and compete in “Charm Rankings”. With the European launch, there will be many new things to experience for players both new and old!

 

League of Angels II is the next-generation of browser games. The game combines a refined 3D engine, spectacular visuals, and rich storytelling to create an immersive and action packed experience. The game’s innovative take on classic turn-based RPG gameplay, surprisingly deep strategy elements, and satisfying progression system will have players hooked right from the start. This is the third stop in LoA2’s global journey, but far from the last! The team is determined to bring LoA2 to all fans around the world, and plans to double their efforts towards that goal.

Champions Online Nightmare Invasion Event Begins

Champions Online Nightmare Invasion Event Begins

Millennium City has been invaded by unearthly creatures, and it is up to the Champions to stop them and protect the city! Champions Online introduces a new event – the Nightmare Invasion event – today until June 2. This two week event will see players team up together to stop the invasion and find out who is behind the influx in enemies attacking Millennium City.

The newest event for Champions Online also brings brand-new rewards. Players will work together with Golden Seraph, a mysterious stranger who has appeared in Millennium City, to find and stop the invading forces. As players complete missions, they will receive new rewards including vehicles, an archetype, costumes and more.