Brand New Supports Feature! (4/5/18)

LakeStone

Hi Everyone –

We are excited to share a brand new feature we believe you will enjoy called Supports. Supports will be arriving in Marvel Puzzle Quest next week. What is Supports you ask?  In brief, Supports brings all the elements of the Marvel Universe to Marvel Puzzle Quest in the form of bonus items, vehicles, locations, and sidekick (companion) characters, which will be equipped to your 3, 4, and 5-star characters, giving them access to increased stats and new powers and abilities! 

But of course you want to know more than just that.  Please check out our helpful FAQ below and stay tuned to the FAQs and/or our forums as we release more details about Supports in the near future.

We will launch this feature with 14 new Supports starting on Tuesday with more to come all year long.

What are Supports?

Supports are places, people, vehicles, gear… anything that helps make a Marvel hero or villain who they are.

 

They’re collectible, durable items that you equip to characters. Supports get stronger as their rank and level increase.

Who can equip Supports?
3-Star or higher characters can equip supports.

Some Supports can only be equipped to certain types of characters. This is displayed at the bottom of the screen when viewing a Support.

 

How do Supports make your characters better?

Perks give bonuses and extra powers to the characters who equip them. Each rank that a Support gains, an additional Perk unlocks.

 

Perks only affect Story missions right now.

(Please note that some values in images may not be final)

How do you get Supports?

Once you get a 3-Star or higher character, Supports will become available to you. At that point, you’ll receive a handful of Supports and some Red Iso-8 to start you off. (If you already have a 3-Star or higher character, you’ll get the initial Supports and Red Iso-8 when you log in to the new build.)

 

When you receive a Support you don’t already own, it’s automatically added to your collection of Supports. Supports don’t take up roster slots.

 

You can earn additional Supports by redeeming Support tokens. Support tokens can be earned in Season rewards (starting with the upcoming Reality Season which begins May 3rd) and found in vaults and bundles.

Where do you see your collection of Supports?

You can see all the Supports that you own from the Supports screen. This can be accessed from the main screen next to the Roster button. When equipping a Support to a character, you will be taken to this screen as well.

 

What Is Red Iso-8?

Red Iso-8 is an all-new resource that is used to level up Supports. Red Iso-8 is earned through event rewards, special offers, and when receiving additional Supports that you already own.

What happens when I receive a Support that I already have?

When you receive a duplicate Support of equal or lesser rank to a Support you already own, the Support is converted to Red Iso-8 automatically. When you receive a duplicate support of a higher rank, your Support immediately has its rank increased and you receive some Red Iso-8.

How do you make your Supports better?

For every Rank a Support has, an extra Perk is enabled. To increase the rank of your Support, you have to find a copy of that Support of higher rank. For example, if you have a rank 1 Vintage Shield and receive a rank 3 Vintage Shield, your Vintage Shield will be increased to rank 3.

Leveling your support will make the Perks better. For every rank, the level of the Support can be increased by 50 levels. Rank 5 Supports have a maximum level of 250.

What If I want to change which character is using the Support?

After equipping a Support, it is locked for 2 hours. During that time, the Support cannot be unequipped from the character. After the locked duration has elapsed, however, the support is able to be removed and equipped to any other valid character.

 

(This is to avoid a situation where the best strategy is to change your support setup between every fight.)

What’s Coming Next For Supports?

Supports only work in Story missions right now, so that you have a chance to collect and explore them, and we have a chance to respond to your feedback, before we add them to Versus events.

 

We expect that we might need to make balance adjustments to this first batch of Supports in response to your feedback. We’ll also be experimenting with different ways to get Supports and Red Iso-8. Let us know what you think!

Here is a sneak peek of the Supports coming next week!

 

Moon Roach

Most cool.  Will our opponents in PVE also have supports?

veny

Nice, i am just bit worried what it may do to PvP...

Demiurge_Will

Moon Roach said:

Most cool.  Will our opponents in PVE also have supports?

Not initially, but we think they could make for interesting encounters in the future.

JHawkInc

Well hot damn.

That's awesome. It's almost a no-brainer to include them, as there are plenty of things (Pizza Dog, BlackBird, Avengers Tower, etc) that aren't characters that are still iconic Marvel things, but it's awesome that you guys were able to figure out how to actually make it happen and work in the game.

Can't wait to see what other things can be added. Let the speculation begin now!

I'm hoping for some Doctor Strange artifacts (Cloak of Levitation? Wand of Watoomb? Orb of Agamotto?), some Iron Man tech (you could theoretically do an entire suit, but I think variations that might not work as a full character, like a spacefaring suit or stealth tech, could be fun). And the Fantasticar. And maybe Thor things (Jarbjorn? Toothgnasher? etc?). Oh, and any Agents of Shield characters. Rad that we got Coulson, this would be a good way to add May or FitzSimmons from the show. And Jarvis! JARVIS!

Okay, I'm going to take a break from the hype train until I get a chance to actually try these out.

Brigby

veny said:

Nice, i am just bit worried what it may do to PvP...

Supports won't be available in Versus Tournaments in the beginning, mostly because we want to see how they play out in-game, as well as review any player feedback, in case any adjustments or balance changes need to be done.

Hopefully Supports will allow for greater variety in Versus Tournaments, and allow players unique ways to get that slight edge over your opponents!

DarthDeVo

This definitely seems like a major change, and I can see why other updates have been postponed. This looks like it will be fun to try! 

Most of the supports previewed here look like they apply to in-match effects only (AP gain, increased damage, healing, etc.)

Any word on whether there could be some supports that affect out-of-match resources? (PleaseLetThereBeAnISOMultiplier, PleaseLetThereBeAnISOMultiplier, PleaseLetThereBeAnISOMultiplier)

Player1575

Will the initial supports we receive after the patch be determined by our current roster (5*s get higher/more to start) or does everyone with a 3* or better get the same things when they go live?

Demiurge_Will

JHawkInc said:

Can't wait to see what other things can be added. Let the speculation begin now!

Yeah, our brainstorming list for Supports that would be cool to add is verrrrrrry long!

Looking forward to hearing who & what you all would like to see.

Punter1

Seems a pretty convoluted feature that doesn't address any of the many sensibly requested changes that have been discussed to death in the forums over the past few months.

I'm all for new content and don't want to be totally negative on this prior to implementation but nothing here really screams great gameplay improvements.

ejmus

Super exciting news! I just hope that the individual perks will affect in-battle matching strategy somewhat, not just changing stats around. Thanks!

Moon Roach

Demiurge_Will said:

JHawkInc said:

Can't wait to see what other things can be added. Let the speculation begin now!

Yeah, our brainstorming list for Supports that would be cool to add is verrrrrrry long!

Looking forward to hearing who & what you all would like to see.

Dazzler, obviously.

Demiurge_Will

ejmus said:

Super exciting news! I just hope that the individual perks will affect in-battle matching strategy somewhat, not just changing stats around. Thanks!

Yeah, that was definitely our aim when designing the feature - our goal was to add something that impacts gameplay in a meaningful way. When you get your hands on them, let us know if we hit the mark!

Brigby

Player1575 said:

Will the initial supports we receive after the patch be determined by our current roster (5*s get higher/more to start) or does everyone with a 3* or better get the same things when they go live?

All players with a 3-Star character or better will receive the same 3 Supports when they go live

veny

Support stuff looks really cool, but i am afraid that its just new level of game, that will push regular heroes on lower level (plus maybe decrease your income of ISO and covers, since red ISO and support cards will be part of event rewards and vaults).
I would prefer if Supports and Characters would be tied together - Red ISO gained per shield level, some supports gained from promoting rewards (propably character specific supports), BUT same with supports - they could be promoted for aditional bonus rewards, just like regular characters (ISO-8, red ISO, covers, tokens, CPs), and they could provide small health boost to character (lets say 0,25% HPs per champion level of Support, capped at 100 champ levels for 5* rarity providing 25% boost to HPs).
Hm, maybe SCL 10 for PvE should be tied with Supports (since we all will definitely need them for SCL 10)
Btw. what would we do with maxed Supports and sulprus red ISO (if this is even possible due to price or rarity of supports)?

broll

Punter1 said:

Seems a pretty convoluted feature that doesn't address any of the many sensibly requested changes that have been discussed to death in the forums over the past few months.

I'm all for new content and don't want to be totally negative on this prior to implementation but nothing here really screams great gameplay improvements.

The pessimist in me agrees, but it does seem like it could be cool/fun as long as it doesn’t dilute other rewards into oblivion (which seems like it would be super easy to do). Hopefully this largely replaces 2* and ST rewards rather than higher rewards. 

Demiurge_Will

Player1575 said:

Will the initial supports we receive after the patch be determined by our current roster (5*s get higher/more to start) or does everyone with a 3* or better get the same things when they go live?

Everyone with a 3* or better gets the same starter batch of Supports.

Over time, though, folks with better rosters should have an easier time doing well in the ways that let you earn more Supports and strengthen them more quickly.

DeNappa

While I'm enjoyed to see a new feature announced, I'm also a bit skeptical. Seems micro-managementily complex. But, let's wait and see.

Demiurge_Will

DarthDeVo said:

Any word on whether there could be some supports that affect out-of-match resources? (PleaseLetThereBeAnISOMultiplier, PleaseLetThereBeAnISOMultiplier, PleaseLetThereBeAnISOMultiplier)

There won't be Iso-8-multiplying Perks at launch, but it's definitely an interesting idea.

supergarv

Please let me convert all that 3* dupe covers of maxchamps to red iso. All those dupes and extra iso is really annoying and wasteful for progress... this would be nice to do something with all that extra 3‘s without needing to roster so many irrelevant dupes.0

RemoDestroyer

Brigby said:

veny said:

Nice, i am just bit worried what it may do to PvP...

Supports won't be available in Versus Tournaments in the beginning, mostly because we want to see how they play out in-game, as well as review any player feedback, in case any adjustments or balance changes need to be done.

Hopefully Supports will allow for greater variety in Versus Tournaments, and allow players unique ways to get that slight edge over your opponents!

Lol.

Is this the first time a new feature has been rolled out in something that is not a test and we have been told they will likely be broken and we are asked to find the bugs?

Very nice to have this clear communication and set expectations early.