Patch 8.0 Preview – Cursed City – Raid Shadow Legends

Hello, Raiders!

Update 8.00 will be released soon, along with one of our biggest features to date – the Cursed City game mode.

We’ll release dedicated videos to explain the core mechanics and guide you through the battle with Amius the Lunar Archon (the Big Bad of this mode), but the Update Highlights below contain an abridged version that you can check out now.

Basics

Cursed City is a massive new game mode that becomes available to players of Level 52 and above. You’ll have a new map to explore, with 101 Stages of different kinds and varying difficulty. Unlike the Doom Tower, you can plot your own course through the Cursed City of Sintranos and even skip some Stages if you want to! Not that we would suggest doing that: each Stage will provide some interesting rewards, but more on that later.

You’ll have a month to complete the Cursed City and beat its main boss – Amius the Lunar Archon – before a new rotation begins and all your progress gets reset. And although the map itself won’t get revamped, each new rotation will bring changes that make a new playthrough different from the previous one.

The game mode will come with 2 Difficulties: Normal and Hard. By default, you start on Hard but can switch to Normal and back at any point. Just remember that entering any Cursed City Stage (the Eclipse Tower excluded) requires Cursed City Keys, and you get a set amount of those daily. Although you’ll have enough Keys per month to complete both Difficulties, planning your progress is usually a better idea.

Districts and Stage Types

There are 4 Districts of progressing difficulty on the Cursed City map, each comprised of 25 Stages:

• Cobblemarket (Easy)
• Deadrise (Medium)
• Plagueholme (Medium)
• Soulcross (Hard)

The Eclipse Tower rises above it all, protected by arcane gates that won’t open until you find 3 Eclipse Keys in the City. And though you will always start your path in Cobblemarket, you can wander Sintranos as you wish and choose your own path through the Districts, taking whatever shortcuts you wish or facing every challenge available.

Each District will always have the same number of specific Stages: 16 Regular Stages, 3 Awakened Stages, 3 Boss Stages, and 3 Double Boss Stages. Here is how they work:

• Regular Stages consist of 3 rounds where you fight teams of enemy Champions. You should know the drill well by now, albeit Cursed City Stages will offer greater challenges than what you might be used to.
• Awakened Stages have the same basic principle, but you must match specific Awakening Level requirements to access them. For example, if you need Awakening Level 5, you can either bring 1 Champion with Awakening Level 5 or 2 Champions with Awakening Level 3 and 2. These Stages are not necessary to complete the Cursed City, but they offer some interesting rewards and an alternative route through Sintranos.
• Boss Stages will feature the magical reflections of Teleria’s toughest Bosses. Don’t slack, though – reflections or not, they still hit just as hard! Fortunately, the difficulty of these Bosses scales with the District, so you won’t have to face the worst of them until you reach Soulcross.
• Double Boss Stages are unique to the Cursed City game mode and, just as it says on the tin, will pit you against a team of 2 Bosses at once! The difficulty will scale with Districts as well, but even Cobblemarket Boss teams won’t be easy to beat.

Finally, there is the Eclipse Tower, where Amius the Lunar Archon resides. As mentioned above, you need to find 3 Eclipse Keys to enter – these Keys can be found on Double Boss Stages. The location is random and changes with each rotation, but it’s always 1 per District (except Soulcross), and you can see that Eclipse Key in the Stage rewards. Once you have the Keys, it’s time to face Amius and bring an end to his madness!

Of course, that means you don’t technically have to visit Soulcross, but some of the best loot is hidden in that final District in addition to the toughest challenges.

Stage Restrictions

All Stages in the Cursed City mode, including Boss Stages, will have one of several Restrictions required to access. These will change with each rotation and depend on the Difficulty you’ve chosen, but the overall list can be found below:

• Rarity. Only Champions of a specific Rarity can enter the Stage.
• Affinity. Only Champions of a specific Affinity can enter the Stage.
• Faction or Alliance. Only Champions belonging to a specific Faction or Alliance can enter the Stage.
• Type. Only Champions of a specific Type can enter the Stage.

Awakened Stages always require a specific number of Awakening Levels on your Team to access the Stage on top of the other randomized restriction.

Cursed City Quests & Rewards

You will receive several Cursed City Quests in each rotation. These centre around completing a specific number of overall Stages, completing Awakened Stages, defeating Amius the Lunar Archon, and so on.

Completing Cursed City Quests on Hard gives you access to a unique chain of one-time rewards, including a new Mythical Champion – Karnage the Anarch. Afterwards, you keep earning Occult Cursed Candles (on Hard) to open Cursed City Chests with various rewards. If you play on Normal, you get Cursed Candles instead and have no access to the one-time reward chain; instead, you get Cursed City Chests with a different reward pool than their Hard Difficulty counterpart.

Beating Cursed City Stages for the first time will provide various goodies as well, including Cursed Remnants (gather these to summon Epic and Mythical Champions), a new Charm to craft Mythical Artifacts in the Forge, and Chests that contain new Gear Sets. These rewards reset when the current rotation ends and can be obtained again in the following playthroughs.

Super Sonic and Merciless are Variable (9) Gear Sets that provide new bonuses for each Artifact or Accessory equipped by the Champion.

Supersonic Set

• (1) RES +20
• (2) HP +15%
• (3) SPD +10%
• (4) +2% Turn Meter per buff placed by the enemy
• (5) SPD +10%
• (6) -30% Reduce Turn Meter effects
• (7) RES +20
• (8) SPD +12%
• (9) +30% Increase Turn Meter effects

Merciless Set

• (1) ATK +10%
• (2) C.DMG +15%
• (3) SPD +5%
• (4) 30% chance to reduce random Skill cooldown
• (5) ATK +15%
• (6) Ignore DEF 35%
• (7) SPD +5%
• (8) C.DMG +15%
• (9) 15% Extra Turn chance on dealing damage

Mythical Charm is a new special Charm that will receive a separate slot in the Forge. Adding it to the recipe will give you a chance (but not a guarantee) that the Artifact in question is crafted in Mythical Rarity. Rarity Charms can be used together with Mythical Charms to increase that chance.

As mentioned above, you can find Mythical Charm among Cursed City Stage rewards, and you can use them when crafting any and all Artifact Sets in the Forge. However, you can only use Mythical Charms when crafting Artifacts of Rank 5 and 6.

We are also adding Mythical Chaos Ore that will allow you to rework Mythical Artifacts. The general principle is the same as that of normal Chaos Ore, but you can check the in-game guide upon release to learn every little intricacy.

Karnage the Anarch, whom you can recruit by completing the one-time reward chain in the Cursed City mode, will have a brand-new debuff in his arsenal: Seal. The Seal debuff blocks effects from Gear Sets and Masteries, except Stat boosts granted by Artifacts and Accessories, as well as Masteries that only boost Stats like Blade Disciple, Flawless Execution, and so on.

Master Seal is an enhanced version of this debuff, which additionally blocks the effects from Blessings (except for Stat boosts).

The Seal and Master Seal debuffs don’t block effects that were activated before these debuffs were placed.

P.S. Although these debuffs are introduced with update 8.00, it will take some time for you to recruit Karnage and see them in action – consider this an early heads-up.

Let us know what you think of the Patch 8.0 Preview in the comments!