Board Thread:News and Announcements/@comment-26822753-20171010062714

This day is a big step for Clash Royale because the Epic Quests October 2017 Update has finally been released! When the Clash Royale developer team said it was "the biggest update ever," they couldn't be closer to the truth.

The Free Chest is gone, Touchdown has been added, and Clash Royale looks much nicer overall! What with all of these new features, let's dive right in! Here's what's new from this update!

Touchdown
Touchdown is a new game mode that has just arrived to Clash Royale, and it is unlike anything we've ever seen before! As of now, the only form in which we have seen Touchdown being played is as a 2v2 Draft event. It takes place in a unique Arena made specifically for Touchdown. This Arena has no bridges or Arena Towers. It is grassy and there are five areas. At each end of the Arena, there is a blue or red goal zone depending on which team's side it is. The objective of the game mode is for one team to get one of their troops to cross over into the enemy team's goal zone, which will award them with a Crown. These zones are bordered by white lines. There are two zones past the goal zone, also bordered with white lines. These and the goal zones are the only places where either team can deploy troops. The middle section has a shield with a crown on it, and belongs to no team.

As previously stated, the only way to win a match of Touchdown is to get a troop into the opponents' goal zone, which awards the team whose troop got in with a Crown, after which all units will self-destruct. At the start of the match and after a Touchdown is scored, a Goblin referee announces the start of each match, after which players can deploy troops. If a team wins three Crowns, they win the game. There are two minutes of match time and one minute of Double Elixir time. Three minutes of Overtime, where the next team to score wins, occur if neither team has won by then.

There are special rules in place for every Touchdown match: Touchdown also has a few cosmetic effects. They are as follows: Touchdown comes with its own Quests and Special Event Challenges. It is also available to play in Friendly Battles, so do it while you can!
 * Troops will walk in a straight line towards the enemy's end zone.
 * Miner, Goblin Barrel, The Log, and Graveyard can be deployed up to halfway in the middle zone.
 * Any other spell's deployment restrictions are the same as in the other gamemodes.
 * There are no Arena Towers or any other form of automated defense. Players must make every move.
 * Elite Barbarians wear football helmets in Touchdown.
 * There are spectator stands all around the Arena, with Archers, Barbarians, and Goblins spectating. They dance under certain conditions.
 * By the top and bottom spectator stands, there are two Tesla trapdoors. When a team scores a Touchdown, they will all open and spew confetti.
 * There are statues of the Touchdown version of the Elite Barbarians in all four corners.

Mirror Battles
Mirror Battles are a special game mode coming later to Clash Royale. In this game mode, both players will use the same deck. No other details have yet been revealed.

Gold & Gem Rush
Gold & Gem Rush are a pair of special events coming later to Clash Royale. During these event, every Arena Tower destroyed awards Gold or Gems, no matter what the outcome of the match! Arena Towers use a special gold skin during these events. No other details have yet been revealed.

Shop
The Shop has been revamped. It is mostly the same as before, but it now contains six offers under the Cards section instead of the three daily cards. There can sometimes be free Gold, Gems, or even Chests! On Epic Sunday, every player can collect free Epic cards. This section of the Shop has also been redesigned to look better, and all of the old Shop offers are still here. They take up one of the six slots, however.

In the new Shop, cards are sold in stacks. Currency can be spent to buy the whole stack instead of buying the cards one at a time. Cards normally cost Gold, but can sometimes cost Gems. The number of each card in a stack is also inconsistent and changes between days.

Tournaments
Tournaments have been revamped. They are now cleaner and spread out instead of being all bunched up. For Special Event Challenges, there is both a Daily Practice, short events with small prizes where losses do not count that can be replayed, and the Challenge itself, which works the same as before.

Custom Tournaments have just had a few words added on to them and otherwise remain unchanged.

Quests
Quests are now in Clash Royale! They have replaced the Free Chest, to the chagrin of many players. Quests are tasks that players can do. When Quests are completed, they add to the Quest Points which eventually unlock the Chest at the top of the Quests list. One Quest is added per day, and one Quest can be replaced per day. Supercell has also mentioned programming a new system where they do not have to update the game every time a new Quest is released.

A particular Quest is the Daily Gift, which awards a gift and Quest Points for logging in and collecting a gift which includes Gold, Cards and Gems. Quests can be anything from playing a certain Card enough times to collecting enough Cards from Chests. Special Quests are sometimes released with certain effects, such as the Touchdown Quest which is happening right now, and the Chest reward can range from the small Golden Chest to the precious Super Magical Chest.

Cards
The Skeleton Barrel is not out yet, and is the next Card to be released. Supercell has stated that they have "a better system for releasing new cards, so each new card will be a real surprise". No new Cards are known for the future, although Supercell has said that they have been "toying with the idea of the Ghost".

Balance Changes
This update comes with a round of Balance Changes. This time, Supercell has been looking at fixing a few bugs, Sparky(!!!) and a few other under- or overused Cards.

Card Changes
Sparky: Hit speed to 4sec (from 5sec), damage -15%. Sparky will no longer one-shot another Sparky. Tesla: Damage +41%, hit speed to 1sec (from 0.8sec). Tesla will one-shot Minions and Goblins. Electro Wizard: Damage -4%, first attack comes 0.2sec slower. No major interaction changes. Graveyard: Duration to 10sec (from 9sec), radius to 4 (from 5), first Skeleton spawns 0.5sec slower, Skeletons spawn less randomly. No major interaction changes. Cannon Cart: Hitpoints +5%, shield hitpoints +5%. Cannon Cart's shield will survive a Mega Knight jump and hit. Lightning: Damage -3%, radius to 3 (from 3.5). No major interaction changes. Spear Goblins: Hit speed to 1.1sec (from 1.3sec). This affects the Goblin Hut and Goblin Gang. Valkyrie: Damage +5%. Valkyrie will one-shot Princesses and Dart Goblins, and take down Barbarians in three attacks.

Bug Fixes

 * Bandit, Mega Knight: Bandit and Mega Knight would sometimes initiate their special attacks at a shorter distance than they should.
 * Cannon Cart: Troops occasionally stopped targeting the Cannon Cart and very occasionally would get stuck behind a broken Cannon Cart.
 * Inferno Dragon, Inferno Tower: Damage used to not reset after destroying a shield.
 * Troop Pathfinding: Troops steering towards an unexpected lane. Behavior should be more as expected now.

Other
Clash Royale's visuals have been revamped. The Tournament icons now have their own images now, the loading screen has been changed, and the Shop has been changed. Quests have been added, the Touchdown Arena now exists, and a lot of small visual inconsistencies have been fixed here and there. There are also a lot more minor visual changes, which should make Clash Royale better than ever.

2v2 Challenges can now be played with Friends and Clan members. They are not available to play with a Friend or Clan member who has already completed the challenge.

Afterword
This is one long summary of one massive update. This update should give us Clashers a lot to look forward to in the future and then some!

Clash on! 