MARVEL Puzzle Quest: Alliance vs Alliance

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 Overview

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

Game Design

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.

Why AvA?

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.

What are our design intentions with AvA?

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.

What do we want to see come out of AvA?

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.

Walkthrough

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.

Operations

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

Joining/Leaving an Operation

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.

Offensives

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

Battle for Territory

Domain

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.

Fronts

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

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

Mobilisation Phase

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

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

Engagement Phase

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

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

Scoring

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

Combat Scoring

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

Engagement Scoring

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.

Offensive Scoring

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

Minimum Interaction Threshold

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.

Alliance 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.

Rewards

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.

Operational Conditions

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

Matchmaking

Elo Rating

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

Player AvA Beta

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.

FAQ

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

Will there be time slices in AvA?

No. AvA will not use time slices.

Are Alliances opted-in by default?

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

What if someone leaves an Alliance?

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.

What if someone joins an Alliance after an AvA Operation has started?

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.

Appendix

Front Scoring

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

Remaining Morale Scoring

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 Reward Tiers

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 (Per Engagement)

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

Alliance Rewards (Per Operation)

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

Tier 1

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

Tier 2

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

Tier 3

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

Tier 4

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

Tier 5

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

Tier 6

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

Tier 7

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

Tier 8

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

Tier 9

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

Tier 10

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

Tier 11

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

This announcement was written and published by the developers/publisher of MARVEL Puzzle Quest on Steam; it is mirrored here unedited for readability, with full credit and a link to the original above. © the respective rights holders. Rights holder and want it removed? Email us — we take it down promptly.