Update 11.90 eases Faction Wars Hard 3-Star Challenges

Update 11.90 changes the 3-Star Challenges in Faction Wars Hard Mode. Plarium says some of the more restrictive Challenges are being reworked and others will have their requirements reduced, giving you more flexibility when building teams for the Faction Crypts.

The broad changes

• More turns: certain Challenges now allow up to 125 turns instead of 100.
• More room for error: some Challenges that allowed no Weak Hits now allow up to 10.
• Lower requirements: several Challenges involving debuffs, buffs, killing blows and skill effects now ask for smaller numbers.
• More flexibility: certain HP thresholds and limits on enemy actions are relaxed.

Only changed Challenges are affected. Stage numbers below refer to the Faction Crypt stages.

Changes that appear in almost every Crypt

Stage 7 now allows 125 turns instead of 100 in every Faction listed. Stage 17 changes from no Weak Hits allowed to up to 10 Weak Hits allowed in every Faction except Lizardmen-style exceptions: Lizardmen, Banner Lords, High Elves, The Sacred Order, Barbarians, Ogryn Tribes, Skinwalkers, Orcs, Demonspawn, Undead Hordes, Dark Elves, Knights Revenant, Dwarves, Shadowkin and Sylvan Watchers all get this change.

The Challenge to defeat all enemies without buffs becomes defeat 10+ enemies without buffs in most Factions. Where it appears it sits at Stage 11, 12, 13, 9 or 8 depending on the Faction.

The Stage 20 survival Challenge, where Champions must not drop below 75%, now asks that they stay above 50% of their MAX HP. This applies to Banner Lords, The Sacred Order, Barbarians, Ogryn Tribes, Lizardmen, Orcs, Dwarves and Sylvan Watchers.

Some examples of lower counts

• Banner Lords Stage 2: Provoke debuffs go from 10+ to 7+, and Stage 9 from 15+ to 10+.
• High Elves Stage 9: Freeze debuffs go from 15+ to 12+.
• The Sacred Order Stage 2: Poison debuffs go from 20+ to 15+.
• Ogryn Tribes Stage 11: enemies killed with Bombs go from 10+ to 3+.
• Demonspawn Stage 4: enemies killed with Bombs go from 5+ to 1+.
• Shadowkin Stage 5: hits against enemies under Leech go from 40+ to 25+, and Stage 11 from 60+ to 40+.
• Dark Elves Stage 4: Sleep debuffs go from 10+ to 7+.
• Knights Revenant Stage 16: killing enemies under Fear I or Fear II debuffs goes from 10+ to 7+.

Several Kill 3+ enemies affected by 10 debuffs Challenges now ask for 7+ debuffs, and Ally Attack or Counterattack kills drop from 3+ to 1+ in a number of Crypts.

Restrictions on enemies

Challenges that banned enemy Active Skills now let enemies use them up to 5 times. This covers Barbarians Stage 16, Skinwalkers Stage 19, Orcs Stage 19, Demonspawn Stage 16, Undead Hordes Stage 19 and Shadowkin Stage 20. The no-healing Challenges for Undead Hordes and Dark Elves at Stage 20 now let enemies heal up to 3 times.

What to do

If you have been skipping a Hard Crypt because one 3-Star Challenge needed a very particular team, check it again. The Stage 17 change should help most with teams that hit hard but cannot avoid Weak Hits, and the extra turns at Stage 7 help slower teams. Pick the Crypt whose changed Challenges match the debuffs your team already applies.