“Clash Royale” has been in a tough spot the last few months, as many players were seemingly giving up on the game in light of Supercell’s slow progress in its development. A major additional problem was the state of the game’s economy, which many players saw as exploitative and geared too heavily towards those willing to spend a lot of money.
The sharp contrast between this system and the more user-friendly ones found in “Clash of Clans” and “Boom Beach”, also by the same developer, made some players question Supercell’s motives. The studio did claim that they were working towards making cards more accessible for everyone, but players’ trust was waning.
The most recent update for the game seems to have completely revived interest in it however, and Supercell are apparently finally on the right track. Some of the changes were aimed at making the economy more balanced towards “free” players, while at the same time making it more viable to spend money on the game.
The update also brought four new cards and various balance changes, and so far many players seem quite excited with what they received. The cards aren’t all out yet, as they will be released with two-week delays in between.
The first card of the bunch – the Mega Minion – is already out, but it looks like players are more interested in what’s coming up next, a new Legendary card which combines the Baby Dragon and Inferno Tower.
What most players seem truly excited about though, are the new purchasing options. Players can now buy an optional “value pack” upon reaching a new arena, which offers them significant discounts off cards, gems and gold, but can only be bought with real money and is available for the first 24 hours after reaching a new arena.
On the other hand, there are now new types of tournaments called “challenges”, where players can spend some gems for a chance to win a nice pack of cards and gold. All in all, it looks like players will be spending a lot more gems in the near future, which is obviously great for Supercell.
It’s a much more viable option to spend money on the game now as well, and fans of “Clash Royale” have actually been joking that there will be no more free players after this update. Hopefully the situation won’t negatively affect those who actually don’t want to spend money on the game, but so far it doesn’t seem like this is a real risk.
There are still some issues with the game, of course, and a title like this will never be truly balanced in the eyes of its players. The main issue some seem to have right now is the Giant/Poison combo, and even though the last update specifically addressed the Giant’s damage, it looks like the developers will need to put a little more effort into rebalancing this unit.
The new units will obviously need some balance adjustments as well, so we expect a new update in a month or two.
Most likely, Supercell will take some time to reevaluate the game’s balance after they’ve released the last card, after which they will release a patch to address whatever issues players have noticed in the last few weeks. And we’re sure that there will be plenty to fix.