Update 14.0 Overview

Your guide to the gameplay changes in 14.0

Disclaimer: As part of the Kabam Creator Program we were given the chance to access a preview build of the update before it went live which is where the below images and information was obtained.

Introduction

This article covers the features and changes that 14.0 has brought to the game. We’ll level with you it’s just the talent tree really with a couple of lines about the other misc. changes but the talent tree is a pretty big feature and has some game changing effects.

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The Talent Tree

The headline feature for 14.0 is the introduction of the new Talent Tree mechanic. Starting at level 42 this system allows you to specialise in up to 3 different trees to complement your playstyle. The 3 talent trees available are:

• Bartering
• Crafting
• Questing

You advance along each tree by using talent points (more on how you acquire them later.) Each node on a talent tree (outside of the initial start ones) has a requirement for you to have spent X talent points in connected nodes. Let’s take a look at them in more detail.

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Bartering

Master the art of commerce and getting the most out of each customer!

Terminology
Pricn = Points Required In Connected Nodes

No.	Pricn	Name	Ranks	Effect
1	0	Energetic	5	Maximum energy is increased by +10/20/30/40/50.
2	5	Charismatic	5	Every sale grants an additional +2/4/6/8/10 energy.
3	5	Double or No Deal	5	City workers have a +10/25/40/60/100% chance to bring twice as many items. Does not apply to resource workers.
4	5	Warmart	2	+100/200% chance for customers to be Warriors. Note: can be cancelled out by Rogues R' Us and Spell, Robe, & Beyond
5	5	Rogues R' Us	2	+100/200% chance for customers to be Rogues. Note: can be cancelled out by Warmart and Spell, Robe, & Beyond
6	5	Spell, Robe & Beyond	2	+100/200% chance for customers to be Mage (spellcasters.) Note: can be cancelled out by Warmart and Rogues R' Us
7	5	Sound Sleeper	5	Generate +50/150/300/500/1000 energy per hour whilst offline.
8	4	Cargo to Go	5	Trade slots can hold +3/6/9/12/20 items.
9	3	Tax Not Included	5	Discounted items sell for +3/6/9/12/20% more.
10	5	One-Day Delivery	5	Resource workers bring +50/100/150/200/300% more resources.
11	5	Hyper	5	Maximum energy is multiplied by +2/4/6/8/10%.
12	5	Friendly Favor	3	Champions request -1/2/4 items in exchange for Champion Coins.
13	5	Cooking The Books	1	Completed bounties give +1 bonus trophy.
14	5	Brand Loyalty	5	Customers have a +2/4/6/8/10% chance to surcharge themselves upon reaching the counter.
15	2	Best of the Best	2	Items sold by workers always have +1/2 enchants on them.
16	5	Royal Advisor	3	Suggest a different item to King Reinhold at x10/5/1 energy cost.
17	3	Return of the King	3	King Reinhold has a +5/10/15% chance to return immediately.
18	5	Enchantment Establishment	5	Items with 2 enchantments are worth +1/2/3/4/5% more when surcharged.

One of the (many) cool things here is that with Royal Advisor you need not leave your bait on display – you can keep it locked away and put it on display when Reinhold arrives:

And you can make him have a chance to come round again without waiting:

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Crafting

Master the art of crafting, fusion and its resources!

Terminology
Pricn = Points Required In Connected Nodes

No.	Pricn	Name	Ranks	Effect
1	0	Bottomless Bins	5	Increase capacity for common resources by +4/8/12/16/20%.
2	0	Tamas Alliance	5	Increase regen rate for common resources by +3/6/9/12/15%.
3	4	Eco-Friendly	3	Increase resources gained when dismantling items by +5/10/15%.
4	4	Mentorship	3	Worker experience boosted by x1.5/2/3.
5	3	Warehouse Aesthetics	5	Increase capacity for uncommon resources by +4/8/12/16/20%.
6	3	Mass Produced	3	Increases multicraft chance of tier 3/4/5 and below by 10% however they will always be normal quality.
7	3	City United	5	Increase regen rate for uncommon resources by +3/6/9/12/15%.
8	4	Zero Waste	5	Crafting an item has a +3/6/9/12/15% chance to not consume resources.
9	5	Forklift Certified	5	Increase inventory space by +10/20/30/40/50.
10	4	Crafter's Trick	5	Crafting an item has a +3/6/9/12/15% chance to not consume components.
11	5	Common Sense	1	Fusing a Superior item requires 1 less Common item.
12	5	Just Wing It	5	Reduce the minimum worker level to craft a blueprint by -2/4/6/8/10. You still need to hire them first.
13	1	Flawless Process	1	Fusing a Flawless item requires 1 less Superior item.
14	3	Ether Containment	5	Increase capacity for Ether by +4/8/12/16/20%.
15	3	Top Security	5	Increase capacity for Jewels by +4/8/12/16/20%.
16	3	Serene's Blessing	3	Increase regen rate for Ether by +5/10/15%.
17	3	♪ Fey Friend ♫	3	Increase regen rate for Jewels by +5/10/15%.
18	1	Energy Infusion	2	Unlock the ability to rush fusions with energy for 100%/50% cost.
19	5	Bare Essentials	3	Increase capacity for Essence by +5/10/25%.
20	3	Extra Crafty	1	Gain +1 Craft Slot. Does not increase the cost of craft slots you don't own.
21	3	Waking the Dead	3	Increase regen rate for Essence by +5/10/25%.

Some examples of the Energy Infusion talent:

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Questing

Master the art of adventure and the wealth of loot gathered by heroes!

Terminology
Common Component = 1st component of a quest area (Elven Wood, Silver Dust etc.)
Pricn = Points Required In Connected Nodes
Rare Component = 3rd component of a quest area (Glow Shrooms, Precious Gems etc.)
Uncommon Component = 2nd component of a quest area (Iron Pine Cones, Webbed Wings etc.)

No.	Pricn	Name	Ranks	Effect
1	0	Common Farmer	5	Increase quantity of common components found by +5/10/15/20/25%.
2	0	Unusual Ingredients	5	Increase quantity of uncommon components found by +5/10/15/20/25%.
3	0	Refined Tastes	5	Increase quantity of rare components found by +5/10/15/20/25%.
4	6	Ashley's Drive	5	Reduces the quest time for Boss quests by -5/10/15/20/25%.
5	3	Argon's Finest	5	Heroes that you hire start at level 5/8/10/13/15.
6	6	Bjorn's Trails	5	Reduces the quest time for Flash Quests by -10/20/30/40/50%.
7	3	Singular Focus	1	Never find equipment bundles as rewards during quests. You'll be more likely to receive other rewards. (Does not apply to Flash Quests)
8	1	Shiny Only	1	Superior quality equipment found as rewards from quests are upgraded to Flawless.
9	5	Packrat Method	1	Never find quality items as rewards during quests. You'll be more likely to receive other rewards. (Does not apply to Flash Quests)
10	1	Double Bundle	5	+3/6/9/12/15% chance to DOUBLE the quantity of an equipment bundle found in quests.
11	3	Freyja's Prayer	5	Rest time for heroes who fall during a quest reduced by -5/10/15/20/25%. THIS TALENT IS MARKED FOR REWORK.
12	5	Roadside Wholesale	5	Increases the gold gained for overflow quest rewards by +5/10/15/20/25%.
13	5	Sia's Touch	5	+3/6/9/12/15% Chance to DOUBLE component rewards found in quests. Affects unusual components like Moonstones and Runestones, but not Pure Gold.
14	5	Treasure Hunters	5	+3/6/9/12/15% chance to find a bonus chest in quests that can drop them. NOTE: This talent is due to be moved earlier in the tree at a later time.
15	5	Coincidental Preparations	5	Any quest you start has a +3/6/9/12/15% chance to instantly complete. Does not affect rest time.
16	5	Key to Success	5	When you find a key in a quest there's a +5/10/15/20/25% chance to find a second copy.
17	5	We Be Lootin'	3	Polonia has a +30/60/100% chance to steal items one tier higher than her cap. NOTE: There will be edge cases where this steals two tiers higher or same tier as her current cap.
18	5	Extra Questy	1	Gain +1 Quest Slot. Does not increase the cost of quest slots you don't own.
19	5	Titan Attunement	1	The final boss in Tower of Titans will drop an extra soul.

Here is a short clip of a hero being hired whilst having the Argon’s Finest talent (welcome to the new era of the retire/rehire strategy):

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Talent Points

To advance in the talent trees you’ll need talent points – for every merchant level you gain (starting at level 40) you have the ability to buy 1 more talent point for gold. You can also bypass this limit with gems if waiting isn’t your style. This is how much each talent point will cost you:

So in total you are looking at:

• 199,046,000,000 Gold or
• 59,275 Gems or
• Some combination of the two.

As for the reasons behind these high costs:

It is possible to refund your talent points if you’re unhappy with how you have placed them. It costs a scaling amount of gems to do so which is based on how many points you invested into the tree (and the entire tree has to be reset, it’s not possible to only reset 1 or 2 talents.)

Should Kabam do a rework of any of the trees/major talent adjustments they will provide players with reset tokens that allow for a free reset of that tree. Players will be given some free reset tokens in a hotfix due to land after 14.0 launch.

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Miscellaneous Changes

• The Collection Book got a couple of extra milestones to flesh out the run between 20-50k.

• Fresh Spirit now indicates it reduces the rest time of the equipped hero (this has always been an effect of it, it was just unlisted before.)

• Familiars no longer appear as a valid target for Dragon Invasion when supplying through the market window (should hopefully help clear up confusion around this.)

And that about covers it. If you want to know more about the quest tree talents continue reading. If not, go forth and be talented! Or cry at the talent point costs and realise you should have been saving.

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Appendix: Quest Talent Tree Testing

Rei note: With the resources we were provided on the preview build I decided to try out some different configurations of the questing talent tree to see what each route might mean in terms of drop changes. Below you can see the results of my findings.

A few things to note before you start looking at this data:

• All of this data was obtained by running Void Dimension (Extreme.)
• I did not include any runs where I met a mini-boss or used Polonia (as both would have an effect on the loot outcome.)
• Every quality t12 item you see in the following data was an enchant. Quality item drops in Shop Titans drop at a tier lower than the quest area normally gives (enchants are exempt from this rule.) I have been informed this rule will be changed with the release version so quality items will be able to drop at a higher tier like normal items do. See, Kabam does listen to suggestions.

Baseline Run

This was with zero talent points invested in the questing tree so I had a baseline I could compare my other results to.

No Normal Items Can Drop, Only Flawless+

For these runs I took the Singular Focus talent (normal items cannot drop, increased chance of other drops) and the Shiny Only talent (any quality item that drops will be at least flawless quality.)

• Whilst that is a lot of low tier items dropping please remember the rules for quality drops are going to be adjusted so this should not be as common/possible in the near future.
• There was a significant increase in the amount of stones/chests/gems that dropped compared to baseline.

No Quality Items Can Drop, Chance To Double Normal Items

And for these runs I took the Packrat Method talent (no quality items can drop, increased chance of other drops) and the Double Bundle talent (a chance to double the quantity of a normal item stack.)

• Yeah that was lots of loot and was my favourite of the layouts I tested.
• Thanks to our Void Dimension project on our discord I was able to determine when the ability triggered (as any stack larger than 15 was outside of what we had recorded before.) Kabam have said there’ll be some effects added so you can tell when a quest tree talent activated though I’m unsure if this will be in place when the update rolls out.

Chance For Bonus Chests To Drop And Keys To Double

These were ran with the Treasure Hunters talent (chance to find a bonus chest in quests) and Key To Success talent (chance when finding a key for it to double.)

• It dropped a lot more chests.
• When the Key To Success talent triggers the extra key appears in the same slot as the first key.
• I recorded the amount of times the key dropped in the Royal Merchant slot. I do not recommend using Key To Success if you are a non-RM player as there’s a high chance it’ll pop in the premium slot and double there.

No Items Can Drop

So this was ran as a curiosity experiment which I think turned out quite well. I took both Packrat Method and Singular Focus talents (meaning no common items could drop nor could any quality items.) Affectionately known as The Forbidden One

• Without the ability for items to appear in the drop table you can see I obtained lots more stones, chests and keys. The key drop rate was pretty awesome.
• This of course does mean you won’t make a lot of gold as there’s no items to sell but if you wanted to quest and not fill up inventory (as maybe you’re maxed out) this is an idea you can run.

No Items Can Drop, Extra Chests and Keys

Of course after conducting the previous test there was only one thing to do – take it to the next level by (along with Packrat Method and Singular Focus) also taking the Treasure Hunters and Key To Success talents. Affectionately known as The Forbidden One (Extreme.)

• If you wanted to farm keys for blueprints this is the best way to go about doing so.
• Be careful doing this without being a royal merchant (the keys duplicating in the RM slot might cause unhappy feelings.)
• I had a chance to test this loadout in a Lost City of Gold that was ran on the preview build. Whilst I didn’t test it as extensively (cause at that point I’d logged over 1,300 quests on the build) it was starting to rain Platinum chests.