Popular play-to-earn game Axie Infinity just announced new changes for players as the game’s popularity grows. In a Substack post, Sky Mavis detailed several key changes and adjustments happening for Axie Infinity in the latest Season 19 update. Check them out:
Axie Season 19 Update Changes:
- MMR reset
- Balancing patch
- Updated Crit and Skill formulas
- The (possible) meta for Season 19
MMR Reset
Occurring every time a new season starts, an MMR reset to 1200 means everyone starts at the same level to fight up the leaderboards. The prize pool for Season 19 is currently set at 3,000 AXS rewards, which is valued at over $400,000 (approximately Php 20 million) as of writing.
MMR resets are a common thing for competitive games, and it is the developer’s means to start off a season with a clean slate and encourage players to grind their way to the top. Do note that the MMR reset is seasonal, and does not apply to off-season MMR ranking.
Balancing Patch
Like with all games that get updated by patch or season, Axie’s latest implementation of a balancing patch aims to boost certain cards and balance their power. This change also means changing the meta of the game and prompting players to change strategies that ultimately preserve the game’s competitive balance.
You can check all the balancing changes Axie has made for the Season 19 update here.
Updates to Crit Formula and Skill Formula
Games like Axie factor in damage points, and the formula for crit strikes is crucial to determine how fast a certain Axie can beat another. For Season 19, Axie Infinity acknowledged that crit strikes tend to be too random in the game due to Axies that have high speed and HP having a higher average number of cards played per game. Because of this, the developers note that the Axies involved tend to crit too much “relative to their morale as they had more opportunities, on average.”
Just like the purpose of the balancing patch, the updated crit formula ensures that the game is balanced across all layers. The developer’s solution to this issue is by adding bonus damage on crit strikes–dependent on morale. “We believe this will also balance high speed/high hp Axies which were becoming a bit too powerful.”
Aside from crits, the developers also updated the formula for calculating extra damage from skill combos to help increase the utility of skill as a stat. Again, this is a move to balance things out and to change the meta of the game.
The (possible) meta for Season 19
Since we’ve mentioned meta here a few times, it is important to explain the new meta in Season 19 of Axie. The main change for Season 19 is letting players focus on breeding Axies that have better skill and morale stats. In the previous season, players are more focused on breeding Axies with high HP and Speed stats, which led to a lack of diversity and the overpopulation of certain Axies.
As a means of balancing things in the leaderboards, the buffs and debuffs made in certain cards (the majority of them focusing on changes in damage and shields) would mean that powerful teams like those with Terminator Builds and those that will inflict poison will deal less damage in Season 19.
In a nutshell, this means that the possible new meta for Season 19 will be focused on bug and beast Axies since they are the ones that have high morale stats by default. Back in Season 18, the meta involved Axies that inflict poison to the opponent.
