Lost Arsenal Preview 4: All the Balance Changes to Monster Train 2, Part 2

Hi, everyone!

This is the second part in a two-part series about all the balance changes coming to *Monster Train 2! *If you have not read the first part and would like to do so, you can find the post here !

Now, onto the rest of the balance changes! But first, please know that the following text does contain some spoilers for Monster Train 2 so only keep reading if you are alright with that.

**Challenges **

Reworking existing and beloved cards can pose the risk of turning what was once an interesting card to one that is worse or less fun. We ran into this, for example, in the case of **Hallowed Halls.  **We experimented with making it into a Room Card, instead of killing units and reforming them to fill your room when you used it, it would do the same effect automatically at the end of each combat. Testers found that it simply wasn’t as fun to play. Ultimately that change never made it through. 

However we decided to update a card, we had to be cognizant of not straying too far from the card’s original identity. Consumer of Crowns, for example, need to have something to do with imps, if not just to match with the pre-existing theme and lore for the card, but also to continue to prop up Imp builds. With certain cards that didn’t have a strong identity, such as Husk Hermit or Lady of the House, we felt more freedom to give them a unique identity.

Another challenge we ran into was with addressing infinites. There are plenty of infinites that exist that we’re aware of, and there’s probably way more that we aren’t aware of. There is even a wiki page for infinites that players have found. When they’re too easy to achieve, infinites can trivialize the game and completely remove the tension of a run. 

But, sometimes stumbling into an infinite can be fun, especially ones that require a really specific combination of cards that you’re unlikely to run into again. And other times, the solution to removing an infinite can lead to something less fun in the majority of use cases, in exchange for fixing a really small set of interactions. Fixing infinites can be a bit of a game of whack-a-mole, so our approach is to try to address the most egregious and reliable infinites, while taking less of a hard-line stance on the more niche or esoteric ones.

For example with Deep Offering, one of the ways to achieve an infinite is to upgrade it with Eternalstone and Smolderstone, and duplicate it, which could be achieved quite reliably in a run. To address it, we tried adding “This card’s Consume cannot be removed.” However we quickly realized that an effect that essentially negated a spell upgrade felt too restrictive, and a bit antithetical to Monster Train’s ethos. So instead we increased its cost, making this specific combo of upgrades no longer infinite. But, It’s still entirely possible to achieve an infinite with Deep Offering, you could simply use Entropic Energy instead of Smolderstone, but it would be a bit more difficult to reliably pull off.

The List

Awoken

Animus of Speed

Added ability:

“Swiftshot: Attack any enemy immediately.”

Awake

Converted from a Spell to a Room card. Renamed to “Awkening Thicket”. 

“Restore 40 health. Apply Regen 3.” >>> "Friendly units have +20 max health and restore 10 health on Resolve."

Awoken Hollow

15 HP >>> 25 HP

Awoken Railspike

Added effect “Cannot draw additional cards this turn.”

This is to address a long-standing infinite that was slightly to easy to run into.

Edge Prior

Healing spell cost reduction now also applies to Regen spells.

Ensnare

Can now target friendly units. 

There were situations where the player might have wanted to use Ensnare for card draw, but with no way to use it if there were no enemies on the floor.

Focused Growth

"Restore 25 health. Draw +2 next turn" >>> "Restore 20 health, twice. Draw +2 next turn."

Husk Hermit

We wanted to touch up Husk Hermit and differentiate them a bit more from Shattered Shell. HP increased from 30 >>> 35. Added new effect: "Revenge: +3 attack.

Razorsharp Edge

10 atk >>> 12 atk.

Restore

Regen 1 >>> Regen 2.

Restoring Retreat

Cost increased from 1 >>> 2. Heal increased from 10 >>> 25.

At 1 cost, Restoring Retreat was an easy way to overstack a floor, making it extremely valuable to use with Awoken units.  Reverting it back to its MT1 cost but increasing its healing.

Sharpen

+4 ATK and Spikes 5 >>> +6 ATK and Spikes 6

Spreading Spores

Regen 2 and Spikes 2 >>> Regen 3 and Spikes 3. Now also restores 3 health

Steelsinger

Permanent 1 attack on Rejuvinate >>> Permanent 3 attack on Rejuvinate

Thorned Hollow

15 HP >>> 25 HP. Rejuvenate: Gain Spikes 3 >>> 4.

Thornlord Wyldenten

Converted effect into an ability.

“Summon: Add 3 Sting spells with Frozen to your hand.” >>> “Ability: Needlebloom. (Add 3 Sting spells to your hand).”

Vinemother

Converted effect to an ability

"Resolve: Add a Sting spell to your hand" >>> "Ability: Vinewrath (Add 2 Sting Spells to your hand. CD 2.). Resolve: Sting Spells in your deck gain +4 magic power."

Wildwood Sap

“Apply Regen 5” >>> “Apply Regen 4 and +4 max HP”

Banished

Penitent's Bloodsuit

1 cost >>> 0 cost

Penitent’s Bloodsuit had been underperforming in terms of pick rate and win rate. It’s quite strong early, but falls off due to a lack of scaling. Needed a decent bit of extra help to be useful.

Spike of the Banished

3X Valor >>> 4X Valor At 3 cost it gave you less Valor than Divinity, needed to be made comparably stronger.

Hellhorned

Imp-olate

20x imps >>> 25x imps

Alloy of the Ancients

25 armor >>> 30 armor.

Branding Rite

Deal 5 damage >>> Deal 3 damage

Consumer of Crowns

Converted effect into an ability.

Cost reduced from 8 >>> 4. "Costs -1 EMBER per Imp unit in your deck." >>> Ability: Warlord's Tithe. "Sacrifice Imp. Attack immediately."

Consumer of Crowns needed to be updated from MT1 to MT2 due to its old effect not working well with Deployment Phase. We weren’t entirely happy with the new effect though, and took a playtester’s idea to update it into a more interesting ability.

Fortify

Converted from Spell >>> Equipment card. Renamed to "Fortified Pauldrons". 

"Apply Armor 8" >>> "Armor 6. Resolve: Gain Armor 6."

Hornbreak

5 dmg >>> 8 dmg

Hornbreaker Prince - Reaper

Added ability.

"Culling: Attack immediately." Cooldown 6/3/1.

Hornbreaker Prince - Wrathful

Stats updated from 15/15, 25/25, 40/40 >>> 25/25, 35/50, 45/75.

 "Revenge: Gain Rage 3/4/6 >>> 4/5/6."

Inferno

100 damage  >>> 120 damage

Molting Imp

8 damage >>> 10 damage

Shardtail Queen - Royalty

Stats updated from 10/10, 10/20, 10/40 >>> 10/15, 15/30, 25/60.

Shardtail Queen - Imperialist

Effect converted into an ability.

"Action: Kill all Imp units. Deal 20 damage per Imp to enemy units." >>> “Ability: Queen's Culling. CD 1.(Kill all Imp units. Deal 20 damage per Imp to enemy units).”

Spike of the Hellhorned

3X Armor and Rage >>> 4x Armor and Rage

Vent

3 damage >>> 5 damage

Lazarus League

Baron Grael - It Hungers

Baron Grael It Hungers HP reduced from 25/45/85 >>> 20/40/80

Baron Grael - Learning Limb

Stats updated from 15/25, 30/40, 60/60 >>> 10/25, 20/45, 40/80. 

Permanent attack granted to equipment increased from 2/4/6 >>> 3/6/9.

It’s Alive

+10 ATK >>> +7 ATK.

Was one of the strongest common cards, at 10 attack was objectively a better Razorsharp Edge.

Organ Harvester

Ember cost increased from 1 >>> 2

Pincushion

6 ATK/6 HP >>> 12 ATK/12 HP

Test Subject Alpha

Cost increased from 2 >>> 3

Luna Coven

Arduhn - Hierophant

"Silent units gain double armor" >>> "Silent units gain +1/2/3 atk."

Ekka - Silver Empress

15/10, 20/15, 30/20 >>> 20/20, 25/25, 30/30. Silver Empress I conduit increased from 15 >>> 20.

Silver Empress was slightly too difficult to play in earlier rings, so giving her a slight boost in her 1st tier.

Hexscalation

Cost reduced from 2 >>> 1

Nightingale

New Moon: Multistrike 1 >>> Multistrike 2.

Melting Remnant

Rektor Flicker - Dark Calling

Converted effect into ability.

"Resolve: Reform 2 random units and apply +10/15/25 atk." >>> Ability: Cryptcall. "Reform 3 random units and apply +10/15/25 atk."

Draff

10 ATK >>> 15 ATK.

Hallowed Drippings

"Apply Burnout 5 to friendly Burnout units." >>> "Apply Burnout 5 and +5 attack to friendly Burnout units." Cost increased from 0 >>> 1.

Hallowed Drippings was one of the lowest picked cards, since just straight Burnout application was a bit niche. Burnout is still important for certain Melting Remnant builds, hopefully with a more broadly useful buff, and the Lady of the House change, it’ll be less of a niche card to use.

Hallowed Halls

Cost increased from 2 >>> 3.

Lady of the House

Added effect “+5 attack for every stack of Burnout”.

Base health reduced from 45 >>> 25.

Similar to wanting to differentiate Husk Hermit from Shattered Shell, we wanted to differentiate Lady of the House from Lady of the Reformed a bit more.

Legion of Wax

Base stats increased from 8/8 >>> 16/16

Little Fade - Little Icarus

Spikes 5 >>> Spikes 7.

Memories of the Melted

Convert to Room card. Renamed to “Memorial for the Melted”.

"Gain 1 EMBER for each friendly unit death this battle." >>> "Friendly units have Endless." Cost increased from 0 >>> 1.

Resin Removal

Cost 1 >>> 2. One of the most picked cards, solves a lot of problems for very cheap. Want to gently push to needing to invest an upgrade or two to get the most value out of it.

Votivary

"Extinguish: Draw 1." >>> "Extinguish: Draw 2 next turn."

This was updated to address an infinite by upgrading with Endless and using Surgical Strike.

Pyreborne

Devilish Details

Pyre damage decreased from 10 >>> 8.

Pyreblooded

Cost reduced from 2 >>> 1.

Pyreblooded has a strong effect, but needs investment (pyregel). Want to keep it slightly niche (not bump up its base stats), but still a valuable pick for pyregel runs.

Pyre Hearts

Heart of the Pact

HP increased from 55 >>> 65.

Wyngh's Spirit

HP increased from 70 >>> 75.

Stygian

Cuttlehex

Converted effect into ability.

 "End of Turn: Apply Frozen to a random card in hand" >>> "Ability: Freeze Ray: Apply Frozen to a card in hand."

Deep Offering

Cost increased from 2 >>> 3.

Energy Siphon

Can now also target friendly units.

This is to address a niche scenario where there are no enemies on the floor but the player still wants to trigger incant.

Gifts for a Guard

Added Consume.

Offering Monument

"Incant: -5 hp. Draw 1." >>> "Incant: Draw +1 next turn."

Updated to prevent existing infinites with Reform mechanic, and to prevent infinites with Awoken’s new and updated cards granting Max HP.

Siren Song

Converted from Spell >>> Room card.

Effect now happens at the start of combat and only affects non-boss units. Cost increased 1 >>> 2.

Tethys Titansbane - Handheld Totem

Added ability.  

"Runespeak: Draw a damage spell and apply +5/10/20 magic power."

Titan's Gratitude

35 damage >>> 60 damage

Unnamed Tome

Mute 5 >>> Mute 3.

Solgard the Martyr - Titanchannel

Converted effect into ability.

"Incant: Gain Shard 1. At 4 Shard stacks, remove Stasis." >>> "Incant: Gain Shard 1. Ability: Resurgence. (Remove Stasis and gain +6/10/15 atk/hp per shard.)".

Base stats reduced from 60/60, 120/20, 250/250 >>> 0/5, since it gains scaling stats based on Shard stacks now.

Umbra

Alloyed Construct

Starts with Fuel 2

Blazing Bolts

Damage at all tiers increased from 40 damage >>> 60 damage.

Crucible Collector

20 HP >>> 35 HP.

Crucible Extension

Converted from Spell >>> Room card. 

“+1 capacity on this floor” >>> “+4 capacity”.

Engine Upgrade

Converted from Spell >>> Room card.

Cost reduced from 1 >>> 0.

Forever Consumed

40X >>> 80X damage

This is a big buff, but the card needed it, considering how much healthier certain frontline enemies are compared to MT1.

Mine Collapse

Can now also target friendly units.

Morsel-made

Gorge: +2 attack and +2 health >>> +4 attack and +4 health

Overgorger

25 HP >>> 35 HP

Teeth of Gold - Artifact

Updated from hitting the “back enemy unit” >>> “lowest health enemy unit”.

Penumbra - Glutton

Stats increased from 20/20 (all ranks) >>> 20/20, 35/35, 50/50.

Glutton needs time to scale, and at 20 HP, it would die too quick in later rings before it can feasibly scale up.

Primordium - Stalwart Snack

Stalwart Snack III stats updated from 3/3 >>> 10/10

Underlegion

Bolete - Executioner

"Harvest: Gain Regen 2/3/5 and Rage 2/3/5." >>> "Siphon: Spawn 2/2/3. Funguy gain +0/2/3 health per stack.”

Stats updated from 10/30, 30/60, 50/120 >>> 30/20, 50/50, 80/100.

Bolete - Headsman

Headsman III attack increased from 100 >>> 160.

Madame Lionsmane - Sporesinger

Sporesinger III: "When a unit gains Decay, it gains 4 >>> 5 stacks."

Conclusions & Thanks

We’re really excited for you all to experience these balance changes firsthand once Lost Arsenal goes live. Our hope is that they will make your Monster Train favorites feel fresh again and will provide new strategic opportunities. Please let us know what you think about these changes in the comments or in the Shiny Shoe Discord server.  

To those who are wondering, “What about new cards? Are those going to be revealed?” The answer is *yes *but they’ll be next week!

Want even more *Monster Train 2 *content? Sign-up for the Shiny Shoe newsletter to see which card designs were not used and other behind-the-scenes tidbits. Click here if you would like to sign-up!

Finally, as always, thank you so much for supporting the Shiny Shoe team and for playing Monster Train 2!