We've got some news from Riot this afternoon with regards to Legends of Runeterra's expedition system and its shutdown coming in May 2022.
- Patch 3.2.0, which arrives this week, free play in expeditions is being removed.
- The weekly cap on fully-rewarded runs is being removed.
- Expedition Tokens will no longer be available through the Weekly Vault or 7-day New Player Login Bonus.
- Draft buckets for this patch will be added for the new cards.
- Patch 3.8.0 in May will remove Expeditions.
Riot spoke about why Expeditions is being shut down.
- The system is being shutdown to let Riot go back to the drawing board to figure out what draft should be in Runeterra.
- Players inside of Expeditions was lower than they had hoped for.
- Overtime, other systems in Runeterra competed for the same feeling they had for Expeditions and did so with greater success.
- There's still room for competitive draft in Legends of Runeterra, just not Expeditions.
Quote From More Synergy Tl;dr - Starting in patch 3.2.0, we’re beginning to sunset Expeditions by removing the weekly cap on fully-rewarded runs, which also means Free Play is no longer available due to the lack of a weekly cap. Expedition Tokens are also being removed from the Weekly Vault and the new player 7-day login bonus. In May, with the release of patch 3.8.0, Expeditions will no longer be accessible, so be sure to spend your remaining Expedition Tokens before then.
We designed Expeditions as Legends of Runeterra’s take on a draft-based PvP experience; as a way to experiment with new strategies on the fly with a less-predictable card pool.
We were thrilled to see that some players ended up loving Expeditions, but the player count was lower than we had hoped for. As the game has continued to evolve, other modes have ended up competing for the same type of feeling that Expeditions offers, with greater success. The Path of Champions competes with Expeditions to provide a similar draft-like experience, and currently accounts for a majority of the total play hours spent in LoR, while Ranked PvP provides a competitive landscape for players to flex their skill & creativity in deckbuilding.
We still think there’s room in Legends of Runeterra for a competitive draft experience, but it’s become clear that Expeditions isn’t it. So as of patch 3.8.0 in May, we’re removing Expeditions to make room for the resources and creative space we need so that we can reimagine a truly compelling competitive draft experience in the future. Right now though, our resources are focused in other areas like The Path of Champions & future expansions, so we likely won’t have another update on this until next year.
Until then, there’s still time to get more Expeditions runs in before the mode’s removal. Draft buckets are being added for the new champions added in A Curious Journey, and starting in patch 3.2.0 on February 16, we’re removing the weekly cap on fully-rewarded runs so you can spend any Expedition Tokens you’ve been holding on to, or you can continue to enter as many times as you’d like using Shards or Coins. Once patch 3.8.0 goes live, Expeditions will no longer be accessible, and Expedition Tokens will no longer be usable or transferable for other in-game items or currency, so be sure to use them all before then.
Whether you went 7-7, 0-0, or anything in between, we want to thank everyone who enjoyed Expeditions. It might be a while as we go back to the drawing board, but we’ll keep you all updated on our plans for a draft PvP experience as they come into shape.
Comments
For those of you who stockpiled tokens and don't know, even with 0 wins you get an Epic capsule. 7 wins gets you epic capsule + 2000 shards.
I don't waste time and just retire immediately without firing a shot.
The observation that Path of Champions has superseded Expeditions in the drafting space is very much on point for me. Something Blizzard has yet to realise: it's more fun to draft decks with random OP synergies without being subjected to the same. They practically invented the genre with Dungeon Runs then botched it with Duels.
Anyways, I'm looking forward to more content for PoC: more Champions, more bosses etc.
This is a good thing, guys. They are not permanently removing a Draft gaming experience. They are going to re-create it in a different way later.
Yes, there will be a gap where nothing exists in that space, but hopefully when it comes back, it will be a much better version of draft.
MTG and Eternal did draft in a way that was significantly more compelling than Expeditions (and in Eternal, you even got to keep any cards you drafted as a permanent part of your collection - not saying the LoR should do that part though - especially not with champions).
That’s a damn shame. I know that the player base was turning against Expeditions, but I really loved them. It was exactly what I want from a draft mode, and what Hearthstone’s Arena failed to provide: A streamlined drafting experience that helped you make a decent deck while still giving you real choices, the ability to improve your deck throughout the run, and enough free entries to keep me coming back. I think the free entries are why you could meet players of all skill levels in Expeditions. Unlike Arena, where the only players were dedicated ones who could crush me, Expeditions had good competition among normal players.
Yea, expeditions improved upon HS's arena mode in a lot of ways. (In fact I feel like Duels is the natural evolution of HS's arena mode in some ways, sans the treasures of course.) There is still a charm in getting random champions and trying to make them work, and getting some semblance of a deck working with what you're drafted. It's a fun challenge, which at the end of the day was the reason I played Arena/Expeditions: For the challenge.
The rewards were just icing, the real reward was the friends we made along the way was having fun attempting to make things work with random cards.
Yeah, any draft mode is about the challenge of building a decent deck from random stuff. But it happens too often in expedition that your random stuff just doesn't work.
Duels is very far from Arena. Having a deck from your own cards is diametrically different starting grounds. Im not sure about "natural" or "evolution", but those game modes play very differently.
Was more referring to how you build your deck after each battle in duels. I felt like that was the natural evolution of Arena to have a small starter draft deck that built up over each battle. I'm fully aware of how duels differs from Arena Sinti.
Why does it seem people hate draft modes? Arena is not popular in HS, and now expeditions is being removed from LoR. Yet, the most fun I've ever had in both physical and digital games is draft modes. Draft mode forces you to be creative and judicious with your choices/resources because it's not "the perfect deck" (aka standard play).
I also find this kind of gamemode fun, getting away from standart and facing the same exact deck 20 times in a row
Maybe the problem in these modes is just its too random, some times we have to pick one of the worst cards ever while may end facing an opponent with perfect synergy, also likely many players are not interested into learning these gamemodes, like cards that are terrible in standart but good in draft, and lastly its the rewards, i don't think anyone other than a veteran will ever achieve high rewards, combined with the last factor (No interest in learning) they may never open again after first try.
I literally just had this happen to me. Opponent had a deck that was literally all just puffcap synergy. The 4/4 that gives two puffcap spells - he played that guy three times. Peddler. At least two copies of Hexcore Foundry, etc. The turn before I was going to attack for lethal, he pumped a bazillion puffcaps into my deck, and I went from nearly full health to -20 during the next turn. Freaking absurd to have to deal with that kind of junk in a draft-style format.
Expedition can be summed up quite easily as this: Get offered puffcaps, or lose.
I don't hate the mode but I do find it frustrating when you lose because the game keeps giving you cards that have no synergy with your initial deck.
Because majority of the time you lose to random bullshit. Literally that. Random. Bullshit. Enemy deck can have anything in it, at any point in time they can whip out a perfect card to destroy all your hard earned lead. And your deck majority of the time is made of shitty cards. For every ok deck you'll draft 10 garbage ones.
Expeditions were f2p so it was ok, but i'm not gonna waste 150g in hearthstone for a near guaranteed frustration.
So can yours. So...I fail to see the exact problem there. I think this is just a form of confirmation bias, where you remember the really bad losses against the guy who drafted 3 legendaries, but you don't recall the ones where you won because you just curved better than your opponent
Please don't talk about biases when you're defending your favorite mode.
You absolutely can have a random Op card in your deck that carries you just like the opponent yes, and that is the problem. In that case it's the enemy who gets frustrated. You do everything right yet loose purely because of rng. And you're not being "creative and judicious with your cards", you're just picking the obvious best one of the ones offered, rarely maybe trying to go for some synergy.
And again the game mode is fine on its own but a 150g barrier is honestly unacceptable in these days. The vast majority of players hoard gold for the new expansion/miniset, so you paying for a pack of the current expansion is disadvantageous unless you pump money into the game. If they had a free option with no rewards like duels has, it would be much more popular.
Still, as you said, most people hate draft modes. That means there is something inherent about this format that does not appeal to most people, and in my opinion is very simple. People don't like to be forced to play with bad cards.
Excuse me? Pot meet kettle. You're just doing the exact opposite if you wanna go down that particularly "uncivil" method of discussion Mr. "Random Bullshit". But since you opened that can of worms, I'm happy to fish with them. RNG is the POINT of the entire draft mode. So if you're getting angry at RNG in a DRAFT mode in the first place, perhaps you're in the wrong place.
You can do everything Right, and still lose. You can also do everything WRONG, and still win. The people who inherently do better, are the people who know how to leverage the resources given to them, even if they don't get "super overpowered legendary to carry them", there are (and HAVE BEEN) players who made 12 wins arena or 7 wins in expeditions off of cards that seemed weak considered on an individual basis, but managed to make it work.
Complaining that 150g is a "barrier to entry" seems like an odd complaint too. Me personally I spend about 1/2 my gold per new set release on packs. Gold is NOT hard to earn in hearthstone, unlike early on the battlepass change has severely increased my gold income and I'm left with 10k to spare after each expansion (not including miniset releases which cost 2k).
Lastly, no-one is being "forced" to play with bad cards. You CHOOSE to enter into arena (or duels) for that matter. But since this is a runeterra thread...THAT ARGUMENT doesn't even apply: Runeterra has been giving weekly expedition tokens out for free for ages. That's a sight better than hearthstone, and doesn't cost the players ANYTHING.
So .... if the player takes their FREE weekly token (for just playing the game at all) and then goes 7-0 with it in expedition, they come out of that with a ton of rewards. And the best part of that is that you have two trials, so you get TWO CHANCES to get to 7 wins in LoR.
What exactly are you complaining about again? Oh right *hearthstone's* version of arena. So the only basis that your argument has a weak leg to stand on is that "arena/expeditions has RNG. RNG is bad". K, got it. Well I got news for you. Even standard game modes have RNG, so....yea about that. Hate to break it to ya...but card games are built on RNG. Arena/Expeditions just increases that level of RNG in a voluntarily manner. (i.e. you choose to play that mode)
THE ONLY thing that you said that wasn't complete whining or had some semblance of reasonability was that Arena doesn't have a free option like casual duels. I do agree that one particular feature would increase arena's popularity. Beyond that. Your complaint sounds like the rest of r/hearthstone: "I got RNG in muh card-game! /cry"
Yeah, i don't like hearthstone's arena, i thought it was pretty clear. Runeterra was f2p and i said it's ok in that case. Hearthstone's has a ton of annoying problems in it's design.
I'm not sure why you went off the rail there, you were the one to accuse me first of bias, i just pointed out you have it too. We both do, like all humans. I'm just stating my opinion, no need to fluff out your feathers like i'm attacking your prized egg.
All card games have RNG built in but there are different levels of RNG. In constructed you pick the cards, so a random draw from your deck doesn't feel bad. In drafted you will have at least a couple of really awful cards that when you get you feel bad. Card games are almost always built on synergy between individual cards, drafted cannot have synergy unless... well, RNG blesses you. I'm not hating the idea of the format in general, duels is a version of drafted i love because you can lessen the initial RNG by having a base of your choice to build on. All my "whining" is towards HS Arena.
In Runeterra you can add more cards as the run goes, in Arena you're stuck with the initial 30 cards. Arena has a mandatory barrier of entry that by it's very existence changes the mode from something fun into something "high stakes". No one plays arena for fun cause now you have a sunk cost into it and if you do bad you lose currency. Unless you're one of the few that considers it their main mode but even they have a pressure to get to a certain number of wins to go infinite. Perhaps you can get 10k gold with ease each expansion but i guarantee the average player only gets 4 or 5k.The vast majority of runs end very early and only 10% make it past 6 wins i think. For sure only like 1% get it to 12. That means the vast majority of players draft bad decks, only the lucky or Arena enthusiasts get good decks and even they do so rarely.
And i think everyone hates when you get 15 gold or 25 gold, a subtle push to play more Arena to fix your gold count.