Summoners War: Sky Arena

Summoners War: Sky Arena
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Developer(s)	Com2Us
Publisher(s)	Com2Us
Platform(s)	iOS, Android
Release date(s)	WW: June 12, 2014 (2014-June-12)
Genre(s)	Turn-based Strategy, MMO

Summoners War: Sky Arena, created by South Korean game developer, Com2Us, is a mobile turn-based strategy MMO. The game was announced and released at the Electronic Entertainment Expo on June 12, 2014 for iOS and Android devices. Summoners War has performed successfully with 50 million downloads worldwide.^[1]

Gameplay

Players assume the role of a summoner, opening scrolls in order to acquire monsters to fight in battle. Newly summoned monsters can range from a 1-star grade to a 5-star grade, with 5-star monsters being almost impossible to get.^[2] Using monsters in battle raises their experience level, and they can be evolved to a higher star grade, with the maximum being a 6-star grade.

Cairos Dungeon is a critical element in the game. It is where players farm the majority of their runes, all awakening essences, and a variety of others. These dungeons range in difficulty from B1 being the easiest, to B10 as the most challenging.

Monsters come in five elements: water, fire, wind, light, and dark. In terms of attack, water monsters have an advantage over fire, fire has an advantage over wind, and wind has an advantage over water. Light and dark have advantage over each other, but deal regular damage to the other three types. In addition, each monster also has a specific class, such as support, defence, health points, and attack.^[3]

In addition to evolving to a higher star grade, another gameplay mechanic is awakening', which transforms the monster. The process requires "essences" of the element of the monster: fire, water, etc. Monster's that are naturally higher stars, or summoned at higher grade require more essences. Awakening a monster changes its appearance and name, boost its innate stats, and may allow it to gain a new skill.^[4]

Runes

A core mechanic of the game is the use of runes. Each monster can accommodate six runes, which helps boost its innate stats. These can be upgraded using mana (in-game currency), which increases the stats runes provide. Similar to monsters, runes come in different grades, ranging from one to six stars. Higher-grade runes offer better stats, but cost more mana to upgrade.^[5]

All runes provide an additional bonus if the player attaches a complete set to a monster. For example, attaching two Energy Runes will give the monster a 15% health bonus, while attaching four Violent Runes gives the monster a 22% chance to attack again after its turn.

The Next Stage

On November 21, 2015, Com2Us held a press conference called Summoners War: The Next Stage.^[6] During the event, the developers highlighted major features that would be introduced in the upcoming patch:

• Rift of Worlds: (See § Rift of Worlds, below.)
• World Boss: This is an enemy that has a single health bar and is attacked by all participating summoners. Players use three teams of 20 monsters that must be level 30 or higher. Earning a higher ranking by doing more damage to the boss results in increased rewards.^[7]
• Transmogrification: Shapeshifting Stones was introduced, which allows players to change the costumes for certain monsters. These are aesthetic changes only and have no effect on the monster’s skill or stats.

Homunculus Update

On August 25, 2016, Com2Us announced the Homunculus Update^[8] for Summoners War: Sky Arena featuring the 'Homunculus', an all new craft-able monster. The Homonculus Update includes:

• An all new craft-able Homunculus monster.
• Five new raid dungeons (fire, water, wind, dark, and light).
• New crafting system (runes, buildings, decorations).
• Player MAX level increased.

Homunculus Features

The features of the Homunculus are:

• Homunculus is a natural 5 star Attack Type Monster with 3 Active Skills and 1 Passive Skill.
• Players can summon the Homunculus through the new crafting building with materials obtained through new rift dungeons.
• You can name the Homunculus. (It doesn't have a name in its awakened form). You can select the skill you want and Evolve the Homunculus via Skill Evolution, and each stage of the Evolution requires materials.
• You can Level up, Evolve, Awaken, and Power-up the Homunculus the same way as you did for the previous Monsters.
• You can reset the Skill Evolution and select the skills again.
• The Skill Reset requires a designated amount of materials.
• You can Evolve without using additional materials after the reset up to the level where the skill has been Evolved.
• The Level, Evolution status, Awakening status, Skill Level, and Runes will be kept even when you reset Homunculus. The Awakening status will be kept even if you change the attribute.
• Homunculus will possess the Fire Attribute when you first summon it, and you can change the attribute at the 1st stage of the Skill Evolution (Only Fire/Water/Wind Attribute exists).
• Homunculus will acquire the Passive Skill through Awakening and the Skill Evolution only applies to the 3 Active Skills. Homunculus doesn't have a Leader Skill.

Homunculus Attribute and Skill Evolution

THe Homunculus monster comes with a skill tree, accessible to players as they level up the monster. The skill tree facts are:

• 1st Stage: Skill 1 will be Evolved during this stage, and you can also decide the attribute at this stage. You can either keep the Fire Attribute as it is, or change to the Water/Wind Attribute.
• Ex) Skill 1 of the Homunculus that's summoned for the first time is Magic Ray. You can either Evolve this skill to Flame Ray without changing its attribute, or you can also change the attribute to Water and Evolve the skill * to Frost Ray.
• 2nd Stage: You can Evolve Skill 1 from the previous stage once again. (New effect)
• Ex) You can Evolve the Frost Ray skill to Frost Ray - Fluctuate that possesses a wide-range freezing effect with a designated success rate, or Frost Ray - Purify that can remove the buffs and freezes the enemy with a designated success rate.
• 3rd Stage: You can Evolve Skill 2 to one of 2 skills which will determine the direction of the future Evolutions.
• 4th Stage: You can Evolve Skill 2 to one of 2 skills again.
• 5th Stage: You can Evolve Skill 3 to one of 2 skills.

Homunculus Restrictions

You can only possess 1 Homunculus per type.For instance, you can't possess 2 Attack Type Homunculus and Evolve them in different ways. However, a different type of Homunculus might be added to the game one day! Homunculus can't be used for Defense in the Arena or in the Guild Battle. It's a shame that you can't use Homunculus in all content, but it might be a stress for the users to check the Homunculus Skill every time they are confronted with it. Additionally, both you and your opponent won't be able to use Homunculus in the Live Arena Test Service to minimize the confusion as the Live Arena is still in the testing phase.

New Raid Dungeon (Fire/Water/Wind/Light/Dark)

Five new dungeons will be released around the Rift of Worlds and they will drop five new Runes type for end game players.

Crafting System

It will be a new panel made for upgrading Buildings, Runes, Decorations, Homunculus and other brand new Content using materials and items droppable from the Scenario Hell Mode, Cairos Dungeon (5F or higher), and the Rift Dungeon. The craft building required to access the new content will be available from Level 19 and it will be called School of Magic Research Center

Multiplayer

Although the main storyline is single-player, Summoners War offers many cooperative and competitive multiplayer modes.

Arena

In this competitive game mode, players can select up to four monsters to attack other players' defences. Participating in arena battles allows players to earn glory points, which can be used to purchase in-game items. Winning battles also increases the player's rank and at the end of each week, additional rewards can be earned.

Guilds

On July 1, 2015, Com2Us announced an update introducing guilds to the game.^[9] Although this early update only allowed players to join guilds in order to chat directly with other players, a larger update on March 9, 2015 added battling capabilities and a rewards shop.^[10] Players in a guild set a defence consisting of two teams with three monsters each. Guilds battle against a randomly selected guild of similar ranking to earn points, which can be used to purchase prizes.

Rift of Worlds

Rift of Worlds is a cooperative raid mode unlockable after completing a World Boss battle at least once,^[11] that pits teams of three players, each using a team of six monsters, against a three-headed boss. Players can position their monsters in the front row, where they'll receive more damage, or the back row, where they'll be safe from some incoming attacks.^[6] The battle commences in auto-mode, meaning the player has no direct input on what skills their monsters use.

Unique rewards that can be earned after winning a raid include rune grindstones and enchanted gems. Rune grindstones are used to boost a rune’s substats, while gems can be used to change a substat to a different one.

Reception

The game has achieved top-10 status in over 84 countries in the Apple App Store and over 54 countries on Android.^[12] By November 2015, the game had reached over 50 million downloads.^[13]

As part of the developer's push to develop a global market, the game includes extensive language support and is available to play in 14 different languages.^[14] To increase brand awareness, Com2Us has launched large marketing campaigns in overseas markets, such as North America.^[12]

Reviews

Summoners War has received positive reviews. Brittany Vincent gave the game 4 out of 5 stars, praising its high production value and interesting mechanics.^[2] Noting the oversaturation of the game genre, Vincent Haoson notes that Summoners War has "considerably superior graphics and production value".^[4] On a similar note, Nick Shively applauded the style of gameplay, stating, “What really separates Summoners War: Sky Arena from the rest of the mobile MMORPGs is the combat".^[15]

Shively also complimented the 3D rendering of the fights and monsters during combat. “I thought this was a pretty cool aspect, since most mobile MMORPGs feature card systems and you never actually get to see your creatures moving in 3D".^[15]

However, both Shively and Vincent point out that the high degree of grinding could put off many players.^[2][15] Speaking about the nature of collecting the strongest monsters, Vincent argues, “The game is clearly geared toward collecting as much money from its players as possible, but it's just as enjoyable without spending a dime".^[2]

Another criticism is the game’s generic story. While Haoson awarded Summoners War a perfect score, he describes the plot as “a mediocre and linear storyline to give the notion of progress and development as it takes the player from one map to the next".^[4]

References

External links

• Com2Us Games