The First Horsemen family grows stronger!

Pestilence (First Horsemen) joins MARVEL Puzzle Quest as the latest 4-Star character, reuniting with War and Famine as another of Apocalypse’s ancient children enters the fight.

With disease and decay at her command, Pestilence is ready to spread her influence across the battlefield and bring the Four Horsemen one step closer to completion.


Color: Purple
AP Cost: 7

Let loose a Plague of Arrows on those beneath the Greatness of Apocalypse. Deal 1160 damage to the target enemy. If the enemy is stunned, consume up to 2 turn(s) of their stun and deal 1069 additional damage.

(PASSIVE) At the start of the turn, if the same target is in front, increase the base damage dealt by Plague of Arrows by 3% up to a max of 9%.

Color: Black
AP Cost: 7

The herd grows fat and lacking. If no friendly Pestilence Trap tile exists, create one and a 63 strength Attack tile.

Otherwise, if a Pestilence Trap tile already exists, increase the Attack tile’s strength by 48 and deal 730 damage.

If the Trap tile is matched, create another Pestilence Trap tile and increase the Attack tile strength by 63.

Color: Blue
AP Cost: 0

Rules are made by the winners.

(PASSIVE) At the start of the turn, if there are 7 or more of the same type of enemy SAP tile(s), reduce 63 strength from them and gain 272 health.

*All character abilities are subject to change.

It’s that time of year again, when ISO Hunters from around the world gather to celebrate another anniversary for MARVEL Puzzle Quest!

Many of you have been playing for all 13 years since we launched and have experienced the game’s evolution firsthand. This past year was another transformative one for MPQ with not only a new engine, but a new development team at Infinity Plus 2 spearheading the future of the game. They came onto the project with some tough challenges to tackle, but we’re starting to see the fruits of that labor take shape!

For this year, we’re ready to celebrate in style with another month packed with special events, rewards, new characters, and a few surprises including the debut of our biggest new feature to date. So without further ado, let’s take a look at what’s in store for MPQ’s 13th Anniversary!

In addition to daily play tokens that are unlockable every day, players can also log in every other day throughout the month to claim Vault Tokens, valuable resources, covers for fan-favorite characters, and more. With new gifts and activities waiting around every corner, check in regularly so you don’t miss a thing!

Our Fan Favorites Vaults return with weekly refreshes, giving players another chance to pick up covers, resources, and some familiar faces from throughout MPQ’s history. And, as is tradition, it wouldn’t be a proper one without Devil Dinosaur stomping his way back into the festivities.

October will also feature a full lineup of events with double ISO, special Boss Events, and a few seasonal surprises along the way.

Our 13th Anniversary Season will run with special rewards, and events designed to give players even more reasons to put their rosters to work.

Perhaps one of the most exciting parts of this past year has been seeing the incredible work from our new artists, who have embraced the distinctive MPQ style and continued pushing it in exciting new directions. That work has been especially fun to see across some of the characters we’ve introduced throughout the year, and there may have been a little more connecting some of those releases than first met the eye.

With War and Famine already causing their share of turmoil across the MPQ roster, their remaining siblings will soon join them to complete the First Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

And that story is still building. Throughout the year, we’ve been planting a few pieces that all lead toward October 29th, when a special new 6-Star character arrives to spearhead an important story arc that will shape some important narrative in MPQ moving forward.

Not to be overshadowed by his Horsemen, Apocalypse’s Boss Event returns in the opening week of our Anniversary celebration. Later in the month, Quandary makes another return to MPQ, bringing back her unique mix of puzzles, challenges, and unconventional encounters.

As the Anniversary festivities carry right into Halloween, we’re excited to bring a familiar face back from the dead in a very literal way. Punisher (Beyond the Grave) joins MPQ as a new 3-Star character, marking the return of this rarity to our character release schedule after lying dormant for quite a while.

We’re excited to bring 3-Star releases back into the mix, with more planned for the future. For now, Punisher (Beyond the Grave) is a special one-off release, and we’ll share more about our plans for additional 3-Star characters at a later date.

Not to be out-done on Halloween, 5-Star Frankencastle (Amalgamation) is also getting even more into the spirit with his own Zombie costume!

Our biggest feature to date, Alliance vs Alliance, will help cap off this year’s Anniversary as we pit Alliances against one another in an entirely new way to play MARVEL Puzzle Quest.

Starting on October 22nd, AvA marks a momentous milestone in the game’s history and we’re really excited to see how players come together, strategize together, and put their growing rosters to the test in this brand-new experience.

Need a refresher on what to expect from AvA? Head over to our Alliance vs Alliance Overview Blog[forums.505go.com] for a full rundown of the feature, including how Operations, Offensives, Fronts, and more will work.

And to give everyone even more reasons to take part in this year’s Anniversary, we’ll also be bringing the community together for another community challenge centered around our first Alliance vs Alliance operation.

More details will come as we get closer toward the start of the first AvA, but one of the exciting rewards is a highly sought after gem that we haven’t given out previously.

Whether you’re jumping into Anniversary events, chasing Fan Favorite Vault rewards, adding new characters to your roster, or preparing your Alliance for its first AvA battle, there will be plenty happening throughout October and beyond.

We’re incredibly excited to celebrate another Anniversary with you, and even more excited for some of what you’ll get to experience during it.

Here’s to 13 years of MARVEL Puzzle Quest and everything still to come!

Power Man (Víctor Álvarez) is the latest 5-Star to make his mark in MPQ, ushering in a new generation to carry the Power Man mantle. With his mastery of Chi, Victor can build up his power to protect his team and unleash devastating attacks, putting him in good company alongside familiar faces like Luke Cage (Power Man) and White Tiger (Ava Ayala).

Color: Black
AP Cost: 10

Power Man channels all the Chi of those he’s held onto to unleash a devastating blow. Deal 4295 damage to the target. For each Chi point, consume it, and deal an additional 297 damage (max of 3).

(PASSIVE) On battle start, and if no friendly Chi tile exists at the start of his turn, create a Chi 3-turn Repeater tile. On completion, gain 2 Chi point(s). If Power Man gains 8 or more points he explodes, deals 404 damage to the enemy, stuns himself for 2 turn(s), and consumes the stored Chi.

Color: Red
AP Cost: 7

Sometimes all you need is a little Power and precision. Select and destroy 1 basic tile(s). For each tile destroyed, deal 1590 damage to the enemy team.

(PASSIVE) Power Man’s ability damage is increased by 5% for each Strike, Attack, or Protect tile that is on the board, to a maximum of 2 tile(s).

Color: Blue
AP Cost: 8

Focusing on the energy around him, Power Man creates a powerful protective field. Create 1 strength 205 Protect tile(s). If Power Man is in front, the resulting Chi shock wave stuns a random enemy for 1 turn(s).

(PASSIVE) Reduce Chi Repeater Tile timer by 1 turn(s) for every friendly Black, Red, or Blue ability fired.

*All character abilities are subject to change.

Firebird (Bonita Juarez) heats up the gem board as the latest 4-Star character to enter MPQ. From her fiery origins in the New Mexico desert to her time alongside the West Coast Avengers, Bonita brings a unique kit that radiates when things get too hot to handle.





Color: Yellow
AP Cost: 8

Bonita absorbs heat from all that surrounds her, using it to defend herself and her allies.

Firebird goes Airborne for 2 turns, and Fortifies 1 random friendly special tile(s). On return, heal the team for 1188 health each.

For each West Coast Avenger on your team, heal for an additional 396 health.


Color: Blue
AP Cost: 9

Firebird lends aid with her mastery of flame. Create 1 Blue strength 32 Protect tile(s).

(PASSIVE) Every new tile dropped on your turn has a 15% chance to be in your team’s strongest color.

Reduce colors appearing in the enemy team’s strongest color by 5% on the enemy’s turn.


Color: Red
AP Cost: 7

Firebird unleashes an awesome burst of fire, engulfing her enemies. Deal 1505 damage to the target. If Airborne, deal 1188 damage and return from Airborne.

(PASSIVE) Heal Firebird for 396 health every time they are damaged by an enemy’s Red ability.

*All character abilities are subject to change.

Having been in the works for quite some time alongside our other developments for MARVEL Puzzle Quest, our newest and biggest feature, Alliance vs Alliance, is finally ready for the spotlight! Today, we’re diving into its mechanics and everything you need to know as we march toward its planned October release.

We’ll start by giving you a quick overview of what AvA is, our design aspirations, and then give you a full breakdown of the AvA system.

Alliance vs Alliance is a new competitive mode where Alliances go head-to-head over Domains during 6-week Operations, working together to defend their own Fronts while attacking and capturing those held by their opponents in Offensives. AvA is built around strategy, coordination, and how your Alliance uses its collective roster in both offense and defense.

Over the course of an Operation, Alliances will face multiple opponents and shifting territorial control as players climb the leaderboards to earn individual and Alliance rewards.
Now that you’ve got a high level overview, let’s talk a little bit about its game design and what players can expect from the new feature.

We’ll go into all the details of AvA in the Walkthrough below, but this is AvA in a nutshell:

• AvA is played as a 6-week Operation
  
• During an Operation, Alliances face off in Offensives (matches) where they attempt to take over a Domain by taking control of Fronts
  
• An Offensive is a series of Engagements (rounds) where players assign characters to defend their Fronts, while their opponents attempt to attack and take them
  
• There are both individual rewards and an Alliance leaderboard
  
• The top placed Alliance at the end of the Operation chooses an Operational Condition (a buff or restriction) for the next Operation as part of their rewards

Alliance vs Alliance was built around the idea of giving Alliances a more meaningful way to play together, compete, and strategize beyond the existing MPQ experience. With that foundation in mind, we wanted to take a moment to explain some of the thinking behind the feature before getting into the full system breakdown.

Some kind of Alliance vs Alliance feature has been requested and mulled over for a while in MPQ, and we felt that a true communal feature was really missing from the game. Combine that with a need in MPQ for new content and things to do, AvA made the most sense to us as the focus for a new feature.

We want to give more space for a new type of combat strategy around team composition with wave-based PVP battles that requires strategic thinking and coordination in both offensive and defensive roles.

Another key goal is to change the dynamics of the game’s meta by removing the concept of time slices, not having rewards attached to speed, and giving players agency into how they want to play.

AvA should also have a very distinct and more dynamic feeling, with the winning Alliance getting to shape the next Operation with their own choice of Conditions.

Even though this system is aimed more generally at mid-to-late game players, we wanted to leave it open with enough space for just about any player at any level to engage, no matter the star level they’re able to contribute at.

Ultimately, we would love to see more community engagement and coordination between members of an Alliance to strategize taking on other Alliances. The goal is to create a space for friendly competition with a leaderboard and competition for top spots that doesn’t prioritize speed.

Note: There are some numbers or finer details of AvA that may change between now and release based on testing and feedback, but this is the system as it stands now, and we don’t expect the broad strokes to change.

At the core of an AvA event are Operations, the six-week competitive cycles where all AvA activity takes place. Throughout an Operation, Alliances are matched against one another across a series of Offensives, competing for territory, earning points, and climbing the Alliance leaderboard before the Operation comes to a close.
Operations run for 6-weeks broken into:

• A 24-hour initial opt-in phase for Alliance Commanders
  
• 8 Offensives (rounds) where Alliances are paired against each other
  
• A 36-hour Blessing Phase where the winning Alliance chooses the Operational Condition for the next Operation
  
• A 36-hour Cooldown Phase

Alliances of 10+ players may join an Operation in the opt-in phase. Alliances may join mid Operation and will be included in the following Offensives, but will lose out on any prior scoring opportunities from previous Offensives.
Commanders may opt-out of an Operation at any time and they will not be matched in the next Offensive. As well, Alliances that have opted-in but took no actions at all will be opted out automatically.

An Offensive is a round where one Alliance is matched against another to take control of a Domain. Each offensive is broken into a short matchmaking phase followed by 3 battle phases where players battle over each of the Fronts in the Domain.

An Offensive is won by whichever Alliance controls the most Fronts at the end of the Offensive.
Each Offensive is broken into:

• A 2-hour matchmaking lock-in phase
  
• 3 matches played out as:
  
  • A 12-hour Mobilisation Phase where defenders are placed at Objectives to protect Fronts
    
  • A 24-hour Engagement Phase where each Alliance attacks the opponent’s Objectives

AvA is a battle for territory within a Domain, with each representing an area where two Alliances compete for control across 11 areas called Fronts.
The simple breakdown of a Domain is a chunk of a map that contains Fronts. Inside the Fronts are Objectives where the battles actually take place.
Each Domain has 11 Fronts that correspond to different rarities. These represent the maximum rarity character that can attack or defend the Objectives inside that Front. At the beginning of each Offensive, each Alliance begins with control of 5 Fronts each with an 11th Front that unlocks later on in an Engagement.

A Front has been captured when all 5 of its Objectives have been taken, at which time the attacking team may immediately start placing defenders if they win an Objective.

• Each Domain has 11 Fronts that correspond to rarities:
  
  • 4x 1→2 Star Fronts
    
  • 2x 3 Star Fronts
    
  • 2x 4 Star Fronts
    
  • 2x 5 Star Fronts
    
  • 1x 6-Star Front
• The star rarity represents the maximum rarity character that can either be assigned or defend the Objectives inside that Front
  
• At the beginning of each Offensive, each Alliance begins with control of 5 Fronts each
  
• The 11th Front (6-Star) remains locked until the final Mobilisation Phase, where it is assigned to the Alliance controlling the most Fronts at the end of the first 2 Engagements
  
• A Front has been captured when all 5 of its Objectives have fallen
  
  • Once a Front has been captured, the Attacking team may start placing characters on its Objectives immediately, even if the next Mobilisation Phase hasn’t started
    
  • Your Alliance cannot place defenders on an Objective unless all 5 Objectives in a Front have been won

Objectives are the 5 individual pins contained inside each Front to be defended or attacked.

• They can have up to 9 characters placed to defend them during the Mobilisation Phase
  
• An Objective has fallen when all defending characters have been downed by the Attacking team

During the Mobilisation Phase, Alliances assign up to 9 characters to defend each Objective in preparation for the wave-based battles their opponents will face during the Engagement Phase.

• Characters are placed to defend Objectives during the Mobilisation Phase or once control of the Front has changed
  
  • Defending characters cannot be altered or healed outside of these times
• Anyone from the defending team may place characters on one of the 9 slots at an Objective
  
  • If a player selects a slot but does not place a character, any other player may use that slot after 10 minutes has elapsed
• Alliance Commanders may remove characters they do not want to be placed in any given slot
  
• Character placement is guided by rarity maximums for a given Front, team restrictions, and any Operational Conditions

Resolve determines how many different Objectives a character can be assigned to defend during an Offensive. A character with no Resolve remaining can’t be placed on another Objective until it resets at the end of the Offensive.

• Each character has an amount of Resolve that can be spent to place them as Defenders on Objectives
  
  • Example: If a character has a total of 3 Resolve, they can be sent out to defend 3 different Objectives
• The Objectives do not have to be in the same Front
  
• Resolve is shared by all copies of a character owned by a player
  
  • Example: An Ascended 5-Star Black Widow (Modern) and a 1-Star Black Widow (Modern) will share the same total Resolve. They will not get an individual limit each
• Resolve resets at the end of each Offensive

During the Engagement Phase, Alliances attack opposing Objectives, battling through the defending characters placed during Mobilisation in an effort to capture Fronts and gain control of the Domain.

• Anyone from the Attacking Alliance may enter and attempt to take an Objective
  
  • All other players in the Alliances are locked out of the Objective until the Attacking player either takes the Objective or is defeated in the attempt
    
  • Objectives will also be unlocked if a player has not either won or been defeated in a battle they have started within 30 minutes
• Attacking an Objective follows normal character use rules
  
• A player can only start a Battle if they have at least 1 Morale remaining
  
• Any damage dealt to defending characters persists for the duration of the Engagement
  
  • Defending characters do not heal between battles
• Wave battles during the Engagement Phase will proceed in the order the defending characters were placed in the slots
  
  • The 3 characters in the top row will be Wave 1, middle row is Wave 2, bottom row is Wave 3
    
  • If any row is not filled, or defenders have been downed leaving fewer than 3 in a row, waves will be adjusted accordingly

Morale determines how many battles a player can start during the Engagement Phase. Each battle uses one Morale, which gradually restores over time up to a maximum of three.

• Each player in an Alliance has Morale that is spent each time they start a Battle to attempt to take an Objective
  
• Each player begins an AvA Operation with 3
  
• Morale is restored at a rate of 1 Morale every 12 hours to a maximum cap of 3

Points in AvA are earned at 3 different times: at the end of Combat, Engagement, and Offensive.

Alliances receive points at the end of every Battle whether the attacking player has lost or won.

• Attacking Alliance receives:
  
  • 100pts for each 1% of the total combined health of all characters defending an Objective taken
• Defending Alliance receives:
  
  • 1000pts for each 1% of the total combined health of all characters defending an Objective remaining

At the end of each 24hr Engagement, Alliances receive points for:

• Fronts controlled
  
• Total remaining Morale across all players in the Alliance
  
• 250pts per Defending character remaining on Objectives
  
• 1000pts per Objective controlled by the Alliance
  
• 5000pts per Front controlled by your Alliance

See Appendix below for a full breakdown of points.

At the end of each Offensive, the Alliance controlling the most Fronts receives 100,000pts.

For an Alliance to receive points or receive an Elo ranking, they need a minimum of 20 actions, consisting of assigning defenders and attacking Objectives. An Alliance that has met this threshold will be listed in green on the Leaderboards.

A live leaderboard is maintained throughout the entire Operation with running scores all the way until the end of the Operation. Alliances are separated into Tiers.

Personal rewards are received at the end of each Engagement, with Alliance rewards at the end of each Operation based on Alliance Leaderboard placement.
See Appendix below for a breakdown of rewards.

At the end of an Operation, the top-ranked Alliance earns the right to select an Operational Condition, which will apply to all AvA matches for the duration of the next Operation.
Operational Conditions are chosen by Alliance Commanders on behalf of the top ranked Alliance. Commanders will select:

• One of 3 random Affiliations from a list
  
• One of 3 random mechanical conditions

Example:
The top ranked Alliance could choose an Affiliation from:

• Guardians of the Galaxy
  
• Mutant
  
• Dark Avengers

And a mechanical condition from:

• Each match creates a locked tile
  
• Immune to Stun
  
• Cannot be sent away

The Alliance chooses:
Mutants are Immune to Stun

AvA uses a typical Elo Rating system for matchmaking. Elo is a numerical rating system used to represent an Alliance’s competitive standing and help match Alliances against opponents of similar levels.

• At the beginning of the very first AvA Operation, each Alliance entering AvA will begin with a rating of 1500
  
• Any Alliance entering AvA for the first time after this point is given an Elo rating based on the average of other Alliances of similar power
  
• Elo is only received once an Alliance has met the Minimum Interaction Threshold for the first time in an Operation

To help make sure AvA launches as solidly as possible, we’ll be running a Closed Beta ahead of its full release.
AvA gives us the opportunity to build and stress-test things we’ve been working on for running Betas in general, so we hope that it will be the beginning of something we can use as an ongoing Beta program for MPQ’s updates and content releases moving forward.

As such, this initial AvA Beta will be a closed Beta, and relatively limited in terms of player numbers, so we can make sure the infrastructure holds up, and we can maintain the Beta focus on the single feature.
We will have more details about a wider Beta program in future.

Note: We will continue to add to this FAQ section.

No. AvA will not use time slices.

No. Alliance Commanders must actively opt-in to an Operation.

If a player leaves an Alliance, they will not receive Engagement Rewards or Operation Rewards.
If they assigned characters to defense, those characters will remain in those spots but can be removed as normal by Alliance Commanders.

If they join during the Opt-In Phase, they will be able to play as normal.
If they join while an Offensive is already in progress, they will not be able to play until the next Offensive begins.

At the end of each Engagement, Alliances receive points based on the number of Fronts they control.

• 1 Front: 10,000
  
• 2 Fronts: 15,000
  
• 3 Fronts: 23,000
  
• 4 Fronts: 35,000
  
• 5 Fronts: 44,000
  
• 6 Fronts: 55,000
  
• 7 Fronts: 69,000
  
• 8 Fronts: 83,000
  
• 9 Fronts: 91,000
  
• 10 Fronts: 96,000
  
• 11 Fronts: 101,000

Alliances also receive points at the end of an Engagement based on the total Morale remaining across all Alliance members.
Morale 1–10

• 1 — 1,000
  
• 2 — 1,300
  
• 3 — 1,690
  
• 4 — 2,200
  
• 5 — 2,860
  
• 6 — 3,720
  
• 7 — 4,840
  
• 8 — 6,290
  
• 9 — 8,180
  
• 10 — 10,600

Morale 11–20

• 11 — 11,870
  
• 12 — 13,290
  
• 13 — 14,880
  
• 14 — 16,670
  
• 15 — 18,670
  
• 16 — 20,910
  
• 17 — 23,420
  
• 18 — 26,230
  
• 19 — 29,380
  
• 20 — 32,910

Morale 21–30

• 21 — 34,230
  
• 22 — 35,600
  
• 23 — 37,020
  
• 24 — 38,500
  
• 25 — 40,040
  
• 26 — 41,640
  
• 27 — 43,310
  
• 28 — 45,040
  
• 29 — 46,840
  
• 30 — 48,710

Morale 31–40

• 31 — 50,660
  
• 32 — 52,180
  
• 33 — 53,750
  
• 34 — 55,360
  
• 35 — 57,020
  
• 36 — 58,730
  
• 37 — 60,490
  
• 38 — 62,300
  
• 39 — 64,170
  
• 40 — 66,100

Morale 41–50

• 41 — 67,420
  
• 42 — 67,420
  
• 43 — 68,770
  
• 44 — 71,550
  
• 45 — 72,980
  
• 46 — 74,440
  
• 47 — 75,930
  
• 48 — 77,450
  
• 49 — 79,000
  
• 50 — 80,580

Morale 51–60

• 51 — 82,190
  
• 52 — 83,830
  
• 53 — 85,510
  
• 54 — 87,220
  
• 55 — 88,960
  
• 56 — 90,740
  
• 57 — 92,550
  
• 58 — 94,400
  
• 59 — 96,290
  
• 60 — 98,220

Alliance leaderboard placement at the end of an Operation determines the Alliance Reward Tier.

• Rank 1: Tier 1
  
• Ranks 2–10: Tier 2
  
• Ranks 11–50: Tier 3
  
• Ranks 51–100: Tier 4
  
• Ranks 101–200: Tier 5
  
• Ranks 201–500: Tier 6
  
• Ranks 501–1,000: Tier 7
  
• Ranks 1,001–2,000: Tier 8
  
• Ranks 2,001–5,000: Tier 9
  
• Ranks 5,001–10,000: Tier 10
  
• Ranks 10,001+: Tier 11

Personal rewards are earned at the end of each Engagement based on Morale used, Resolve used, and the Fronts controlled by your Alliance.
Morale Used

• 3–5: 6,000 ISO-8
  
• 6–10: 10,000 ISO-8
  
• 11+: 15,000 ISO-8

Resolve Used

• 3–5: 6,000 Red ISO-8
  
• 6–10: 10,000 Red ISO-8
  
• 11+: 15,000 Red ISO-8

Fronts Controlled

• 1★ / 2★: 1 Elite Token
  
• 3★: 20 Favorite 3★ Shards
  
• 4★: 15 Favorite 4★ Shards
  
• 5★: 10 Favorite 5★ Shards
  
• 6★: 20 Random 6★ Shards

At the end of each Operation, players receive rewards based on their Alliance’s final Reward Tier.

• Choice of Operational Condition
  
• Winner’s Costume
  
• 1-Star Infinity Stone of the season in which the AvA season began
  
• 500 Random 6-Star Shards
  
• 10 Random 5-Star Covers
  
• 10 Random 4-Star Covers
  
• 20 CP
  
• 100,000 ISO-8
  
• 100,000 Red ISO-8
  
• 1 Roster Slot Token

• 500 Random 6-Star Shards
  
• 10 Random 5-Star Covers
  
• 10 Random 4-Star Covers
  
• 20 CP
  
• 100,000 ISO-8
  
• 100,000 Red ISO-8
  
• 1 Roster Slot Token

• 10 Random 5-Star Covers
  
• 10 Random 4-Star Covers
  
• 20 CP
  
• 100,000 ISO-8
  
• 100,000 Red ISO-8

• 5 Random 5-Star Covers
  
• 5 Random 4-Star Covers
  
• 10 CP
  
• 50,000 ISO-8
  
• 50,000 Red ISO-8

• 3 Random 5-Star Covers
  
• 3 Random 4-Star Covers
  
• 10 CP
  
• 50,000 ISO-8
  
• 50,000 Red ISO-8

• 3 Random 4-Star Covers
  
• 5 CP
  
• 25,000 ISO-8
  
• 25,000 Red ISO-8

• 3 Random 4-Star Covers
  
• 2 CP
  
• 20,000 ISO-8
  
• 20,000 Red ISO-8

• 5 Random 3-Star Covers
  
• 1 CP
  
• 10,000 ISO-8
  
• 10,000 Red ISO-8

• 3 Random 3-Star Covers
  
• 1 CP
  
• 10,000 ISO-8
  
• 10,000 Red ISO-8

• 5 Random 2-Star Covers
  
• 5 Random 1-Star Covers
  
• 10,000 ISO-8
  
• 10,000 Red ISO-8

• 5 Random 1-Star Covers
  
• 10,000 ISO-8
  
• 10,000 Red ISO-8

Let’s make some noise for Banshee as he flies into MPQ with his signature sonic scream and powerful mutant abilities!

Color: Red
AP Cost: 7

Banshee lifts into the air with his powerful vocal cords, in preparation to deliver a deadly attack. Deal 772 damage to the target, Banshee goes airborne for 2 turns, dealing 521 damage to all enemies upon landing.

Color: Blue
AP Cost: 8

Using his impressive voice, Banshee creates a Sonic Shield to deflect incoming attacks! Select and Fortify 1 tile(s). If Banshee is Airborne, convert up to 1 enemy Strike tile(s) to your own, if any are present.

(PASSIVE) If Banshee or a teammate is to be Stunned, consume 12 AP of your weakest color and negate the Stun if enough AP is available. Create 1 strength 105 tile(s).

Color: Purple
AP Cost: 9

Banshee flexes his vocal might, shrieking from the depths of his incredible range. Select and destroy a tile; the resulting shockwave destroys 1 AP in the enemy team’s second-highest color. Deal 2569 damage. If the destroyed tile is a special tile, deal 574 additional damage.

We’ve identified several bugs in the R345 update that require a new R346 build to resolve. Our team is working quickly to address these issues, with R346 currently targeted for early next week.

In the meantime, please DO NOT update to R345 until R346 is released.

We’ll share another update as soon as R346 is ready. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate everyone’s patience as the team works to get these fixes out as quickly as possible.


We have continued to maintain our efforts on generally improving the performance of MPQ. For 345, we focused on what could be done to improve the initial load time, as well as attempting to reduce the number of softlocks and crashes the game experiences.

• We found that there were inefficiencies in the initial game loading, so we have utilized some more efficient and modern techniques for handling initial loading, as well as tightening up existing data structures to be more efficient, which we hope will also generally improve efficiency throughout the game.
  
• We also found that during the initial load of the game, there were processes running that were causing the game to not only take longer to process the data, but was also using far more RAM than it should have. We have reduced the wastage in this initial load. (And who wants to waste RAM… in this economy. -Hadleigh)
  
• Additionally, we have made changes to the general Saving and Loading of data to improve performance and filesizes. Marvel Puzzle Quest has been around for a while and technologies in this area have improved, so we’ve just brought this part of the game more up to the modern day.

In our investigation of performance issues, we found that there were a lot of instances where, due to MPQ requiring an active internet connection, the game would softlock or otherwise get into an unrecoverable state if an internet connection became unstable and the game quietly gave up on retrying.
While we can’t impact network stability, what we could do was at least have the game communicate that something had gone wrong, give players a chance to recover, and improve systems to stop the game from just sitting around without trying to do anything.

• If the game is unable to download an asset, then a new Popup will be displayed allowing it to retry downloading the asset.
  
• An error message is also displayed which explains what has gone wrong. If the text gets too long, a Copy to Clipboard button will become available to view the whole text.
  
• Assets which must be downloaded will pop up with the error message immediately.
  
• Any assets which the game can still function without (e.g. Images) will now show a Notification message in the bottom left corner of the screen showing that it will retry automatically.
  • If this continues to retry without succeeding, it will show the full popup. This will also provide an Ignore button. Pressing Ignore will stop the popup from showing up again for an extended period of time for any of these optional assets.

We are still investigating other areas to apply this to, because there are definitely other systems that get into a similar state.

• Added a loading bar to the Marvel loading screen to show loading progress
  
• The loading percentages on the initial load screen should now be more granular, and more accurate showing the actual progress
  
• Roster and Team Select sorting filters now have more fallback search criteria - e.g. if you have duplicate comics, they will be further sorted by:
  • Level
  • Then number of covers
  • Then number of shards

• Removed BCS logo from the loading screen

• Rebalanced characters - including those from pre-344 release (e.g. Green Goblin (Norman Osborn)) - should no longer have health or healing issues:
  • Characters whose max health was increased - if they were full health in the Team Select screen, they will be at full health in the Battle screen, not pre-damaged
  • Characters whose max health was decreased - using health packs will heal them to full health, not partially heal them, or waste health packs with no effect
  
• A few less issues with the new character headshot images:
  • The headshots of non-playable characters are no longer missing
  • Team Up character headshots are more in-frame now, in the pre-battle Versus screen.
  
• Mojo (Mojo Master)’s Drama tiles will render as Drama tiles in a battle with Mephisto (Lord Of Hell), not (sometimes) Hellfire tiles.

• Added gradient behind season pass time remaining for visibility
  
• Fix white box when viewing supports equipped to no characters
  
• Tutorial prompts should be appearing again.

• Fixed the images needing to reload and redraw if it has already been loaded before

Note: The following were all fixed during the live release of 344 via data patches and are summarized below.

• Teams at full AP in their strongest color won’t lose AP when making matches in that color while Celestial BrawnBuster is on the board.
  
• Doop (Green One)’s Crescent Darts ability description says the number of turns rather than NumTurns.
  
• Spider-Horse (Widow) has the Spider-Verse affiliation.
  
• Spider-Man (Original)’s number of stun turns now increases by 1 at ability level 3.
  
• Doctor Octopus (Otto Octavius) now has the Spider-Verse and Spider-Foes affiliations.
  
• Arnim Zola (Digital Scientist)’s Head Of The Hydra ability no longer changes from Black to Green.
  
• Scorpion (Brand New Day)’s face is visible in the team-up image.
  
• Ghost (Quantum Thief) has the Thunderbolts affiliation.
  
• Boomerang (Frederick Myers)’s Major League Pitcher ability now:
  • Activates for allies, not just Boomerang.
  • Reduces damage dealt from the initial attack.
  • Does not rebound damage, including when Downed.
  
• Miles Morales (Spider-Man) and Miles Morales (Spider-Fit) have the Spider-Friends affiliation.

• The tutorial hand on the Roster screen points to the comic, rather than above and to the left of it.

Meet Boomerang, the latest Aussie preparing to make his mark on MPQ this year!

A former professional pitcher turned supervillain, Fred Myers puts his throwing arm to work with an assortment of high tech boomerangs. He can intercept enemy abilities, set up Strike tiles with his MultiRangs, and send razor sharp Razerangs flying across the battlefield. Pair him with some fellow Sinister Six members to strengthen his defenses and deal even more damage across the enemy team.


Color: Yellow
AP Cost: 0

Boomerang always looks out for the Sinister Six, even if it’s currently the Sinister Five.

(PASSIVE) Whenever an enemy fires an ability that will deal damage, Boomerang deflects it with a boomerang, create 1 strength 174 Protect tile(s), and the target takes 75% of the original damage.
If a member of the Sinister Six is in your party, create 1 additional strength 174 Protect tile.

Color: Black
AP Cost: 7

That’s not a boomerang … THIS is a boomerang. Create a 3-turn Black MultiRang Countdown tile. On completion, create 2 strength 150 Strike tile(s) around it. If a MultiRang Countdown tile already exists, complete it instead.

Color: Red
AP Cost: 8

Sharp enough to cut through steel with their razer-edges, look out for a throw from down unda! Deal 1331 damage to the target, and hit an additional random enemy for 507 damage for every additional Sinister Six member in your party.

(PASSIVE) Deal 475 damage to enemies returning from Airborne, if there are more than 12 Red tiles on the board, deal an additional 158 damage.

*All character abilities are subject to change.