Hi Holotable Heroes,

Welcome to the July 2023 Road Ahead! Today we’re going to discuss so many amazing things we can’t even contain ourselves. On the docket we have: Leviathan + Journey Guide, Galactic Legend Leia Organa, a new Raid featuring Star Wars: Return of the Jedi™, Princess Kneesa, and a new character Captain Drogan!

So grab a drink, sit back, and put on your readers. LET’S GO!

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First up, let’s talk about the all new, top-of-meta Capital Ship, Leviathan!

Here is what the Lead Designer of Leviathan has to say about the new Capital Ship,

“Designing Leviathan was definitely challenging. Profundity and Executor are the best of the best, so how do we create a Capital Ship that’d surpass them both? Then it became obvious, just take the enemy’s Capital Ship for yourself!”

We’ve also seen your questions popping up asking how it will do against Executor and Profundity and we’re confident in saying Leviathan will execute… profoundly. Inside Leviathan’s kit there will be anti-breach and anti-crit mechanics to help its survivability and in addition to that, Leviathan has the ability to destroy enemy reinforcements. Not to mention it will have lots of Ferocity! 

In short, you will use your Special abilities to progressively take over the enemy’s Capital ship. Yes, that’s right, you heard correctly - you will be taking over your opponent's Capital ship. 

What are the full requirements for Leviathan?

• R9 Darth Revan
• R9 Darth Malak
• R7 Sith Empire Trooper
• R7 Sith Trooper
• R7 Darth Maul
• R7 HK-47
• R7 Bastila Shan
• R5 Sith Assassin
• R5 50R-T
• 7* Fury-class Interceptor
• 7* Mark VI Interceptor
• 7* TIE Dagger
• 7* B-28 Extinction-class Bomber
• 7* Scimitar
• 7* Sith Fighter
• 7* Ebon Hawk

Unlocking the event will require ships at 4*, but in order earn enough shards to unlock Leviathan you will need the ships at 7*.

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LEVIATHAN KIT

ABILITIES:

BASIC: Apocalyptic Fusillade

Final Text: Deal Special damage to target enemy and inflict Shock for 2 turns, then all Sith allies gain 1 stack of Ferocity for 2 turns. If target enemy already had Shock, inflict Doubt for 2 turns on 2 random enemies who don't have it. If Seize the Bridge has been used in this encounter, dispel all buffs on target enemy and inflict Fear for 1 turn, which can't be dispelled or resisted.

SPECIAL 1: Sabotage the Hangars (Requires the player to inflict 15 debuffs, one time use)

Final Text: Limit one use per battle. Sith allies gain Critical Hit Immunity and 5 stacks of Ferocity for 2 turns, and target ally recovers 40% Health. Increase the cooldown of Call Reinforcement by 1 on the enemy Capital Ship if they're Light Side, and inflict Capital Ship Sabotaged on all enemies until the end of the encounter, next enemy reinforcement, or Seize the Bridge is used.

Capital Ship Sabotaged: The next allied ship called to Reinforce is immediately destroyed upon deployment

This ability can't be used unless other allied Sith ships inflict 15 debuffs.

Special 2: Sabotage the Engines

Final Text: Limit one use per battle. Reduce the enemy Capital Ship's Speed by 30% for the rest of the encounter and remove 30% Turn Meter, which can't be resisted. Sith allies gain Critical Hit Immunity and 5 stacks of Ferocity for 2 turns, and target Sith ally gains Breach Immunity for 3 turns.

SPECIAL 3: Seize the Bridge (Can only be used if both Special 1 and Special 2 was used, one time use, 5 turn cooldown)

Final Text: Limit one use per battle. Take control of the enemy Capital Ship, reset its cooldowns, and grant it a bonus turn. While controlled, you can't use Call Reinforcement and the cooldown of the Ultimate ability is set to max at the start of each turn. Allies recover 50% Health and have their cooldowns reset, and all enemies are inflicted with Fear for 1 turn, which can't be evaded, dispelled, or resisted. This ability starts on cooldown. The first time Sith allies are inflicted with 50 debuffs, reduce the cooldown by 1.

This ability can't be used unless Sabotage the Engines and Sabotage the Hangars were used in the same encounter.

CREW: Wrath of the Sith (Darth Revan)

Final Text: Sith allies gain 15% Max Health. Sith Ships gain Critical Hit Immunity for 1 turn, 1 stack of Ferocity, 1 stack of We Have Returned for 2 turns, and Sith Empire ships gain an additional stack of We Have Returned.

Whenever an enemy is summoned, reduce their Max Health by 50% until the end of the encounter. Enemies attacking out of turn deal 50% less Critical Damage to Attacker Sith allies.

Whenever an enemy's debuff expires, a random Sith ship gains 1 stack of Ferocity for 2 turns (limit once per turn). Mark VI Interceptor gains an additional 10 stacks of Devouring Swarm when starting its first turn after it's deployed.

Whenever an enemy reinforces, inflict Daze on all enemies for 1 turn. Sith ships are immune to Max Health reduction. Reinforcement Bonus: Reinforced Sith ships attacks can't be evaded, they gain 5 stacks of Ferocity, and they ignore Taunt effects until the end of the turn, and Stun target enemy for 1 turn, which can't be resisted when deployed.

The Leviathan is expected to release on 7/19/2023

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Leia Organa - Galactic Legend

Our second big piece of news is about our new Galactic Legend, Leia Organa! While we are a little ways out from releasing Leia, we wanted to give you a quick rundown of the character. 

Our lead designer for Leia Organa had this to say:

“While designing Leia I was trying to create a character that would be leading a tactical assault against an enemy. Leia was always a vocal and visible leader of the Rebel Alliance and her being in charge of the battlefield should be reflected in her in-game strategy. Each ability allows the player to pick the best target to accomplish a goal. This could mean based on the enemy role, a high priority target, or using one of your allies to deliver a powerful blow. Also, by being such a notable target, she is naturally drawing the attention of the enemy and if they fail to accomplish their goal of prioritizing her they will be punished."

• Part 1 of Character Requirements:
  • Captain Rex (Relic 7)
  • Princess Kneesaa (Relic 7)
  • Wicket (Relic 3)
  • Lando Calrissian (Relic 5)
  • Admiral Ackbar (Relic 3)

We will be releasing the second part of character requirements at a later date, so be sure to keep a lookout on the forums! Please see her basic ability information below:

• Deal Physical damage. Rebel allies gain Retribution for 2 turns. 
• On her turn, deal bonus True damage to target enemy equal to 10% of the damage other Rebel ally's received since her last turn and deal additional effects based on the target enemy's role: --Connection Lost--

GL Leia Event & RotJ Raid 

But wait, there’s more! That’s right, we wanted to give you a sneak peek at the upcoming new Raid. Without further ado, we’re going to some thoughts from our Lead Game Designer:

“As promised, we are looking to bring a brand-new featured raid to Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes after the release of Galactic Legend Leia Organa. This is because she will be a featured player in the Raid, much like Jabba the Hutt was for the Krayt Dragon Hunt.

But what will this raid entail? With the 40th Anniversary of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi in full swing, we thought it would be great if we could bring our own unique spin to the classic Speeder Bike pursuit from the movie.

Using the motion tech we pioneered for the Dash Rendar level in the Starkiller event, we will bring to Galaxy of Heroes a brand new way of viewing and playing the game. Your squad will be racing through the forest of the moon of Endor, dodging trees, avoiding rocks, and skimming over the ground at breakneck speeds in pursuit of the Imperial Scout Troopers.

You will be asked to bring three characters from the list below. These characters will have their abilities changed for the Raid as they will all be zooming along on the 74-Z speeder bikes as seen in the movie. There are 8 new abilities, a unique Basic shared by all characters, and 7 Special abilities that characters will get 1 or 2 of based on their current abilities in their kits.

Additionally, all of these replacement abilities will not be doing traditional damage, but scoring points in the raid via applying different types of stacking effects onto the enemies. When any of these stacks reach a certain level the enemy will be defeated, scoring you an even larger amount of points. We are working hard to bring these defeats to you as epic cinematic moments, a visual payoff for your strategic gameplay.

For example, Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker gets his Repulse ability replaced with Divert Attention. Using this during the Raid will apply stacks of Distract on the enemy Scout Trooper. When the Scout reaches a certain threshold of Distract stacks (based on your Raid difficulty level and the type of Scout you are facing), the trooper will look back and be oblivious to the obstacle in his path that they will inevitably crash into, defeating them.

Don’t think we forgot about how your mods and Unique abilities will work either, increasing Luke’s Potency will increase the amount of Distract stats applied with each use. Different stats will affect different abilities, and we’ll have a full list available to everyone before the Raid is released, as we know there will be some deep theory-crafting and optimization made for the three-person squads you will be bringing into the raid.”

Currently planned allowed characters include:

• Admiral Ackbar
• C-3PO
• Chewbacca (Journey Guide version)
• Han Solo (Raid reward version)
• Hera Syndulla
• Lando Calrissian
• Wedge Antilles
• Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker
• Chief Chirpa
• Ewok Elder
• Ewok Scout
• Logray
• Paploo
• Teebo
• Wicket
• Admiral Piett
• Imperial Stormtrooper
• Iden Versio
• Moff Gideon
• Range Trooper
• Magmatrooper
• Death Trooper
• Shoretrooper
• General Veers
• Col. Starck

So when can you expect to experience this new Raid? The team is driving towards the Fall/End of this year. 

We’re excited for you to tackle this Raid in the near future! 

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Outside of those 3 major announcements, we have a few additional items we’d like to discuss.First a tidbit from the Designer working on the tiny-but-mighty Princess Kneesaa!

“Working on Princess Kneesaa has been fun, my heart nearly exploded when I found out I was going to design her. Ewoks have always been my favorite creatures/species in the Star Wars galaxy. Without giving away too much, expect Kneesaa to raise Ewoks’ power level and lift their meta rankings.”

Next up, we are thrilled to introduce a new original character into the Star Wars galaxy: Drogan, a Rebel Captain who fought with the Rebellion on Endor and is a key part of the GL Leia squad! Since birth, Drogan has not just had a limb difference, but also sense of justice and passion to help those in need. From the start, we focused on designing Drogan to not only be authentic, but also a character that feels part of broader the Star Wars universe. We are excited to welcome Drogan to the squad and look forward to other ways we can broaden inclusive design in our game.

Thanks for reading this month’s Road Ahead. A reminder that many of these announcements are still in development and details are subject to change. We hope you are excited for the new Raid and everything else we announced today!

See you on the Holotables,

- Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes Development Team