Building the Arena

Hello, Agents!

From the start, there was one question we wanted to answer: "My squad is strong, but how strong is it against another agent's squad?" The Arena is our answer. In this PvP mode you are no longer holding back waves of citizens. You put your squad up against another agent's, one on one.

We chose the auto battler format. You buy agents, arrange them on the board, and the fight plays out on its own. Wins come from planning and positioning, not fast fingers. A match runs over many rounds, and the last one with HP left standing wins.

In this devlog we share how the Arena came together, from picking the units to tuning the sound of the round bell.

From agents to Arena units

The first step was choosing who steps into the Arena. We took 37 agents, the new ones included, and gave each a cost from 1 to 5 gold. Cheap agents are easy to find early on. Expensive ones show up rarely and shine in the late rounds.

Every agent brings their personality along. Their skills and passives were reworked for a grid board: some shoot from the back, some hold the front line, some pull enemies in, and some silence a whole area.

To make every purchase count, we added two systems:

• Stars. 3 copies of the same agent combine into a 2-star, and 3 of those into a 3-star. A 3-star agent is far tougher, but collecting one takes patience.
• Traits. 15 traits, split into 8 sectors (Energy, Food, Digital, Bureaucracy, Infrastructure, Field, Logistics, Public) and 7 classes (Controller, Guard, Inspector, Orator, Volunteer, Treasurer, Marksman). Field several agents that share a trait and its bonus lights up.

The result: there is no single best squad. You can chase one agent all the way to 3 stars, or spread out to stack trait bonuses.

Making fights fun to watch

Every round has two phases. In the shop phase you get about 30 seconds to buy, sell, and move agents between the board and the bench. In the combat phase both squads fight on their own, and you watch your plan play out.

Since players only watch, a fight has to be easy to read. We added damage numbers, HP bars, skill effects, and ultimate cut-ins so every big moment stands out.

Internal playtests taught us one important lesson. In an early build, HP dropped before the fight had finished playing, so you knew who won the round before it even started. It felt like watching a match with the final score already on screen. Now HP, gold, and level only change once the fight is over, and the match result waits until the last round has played out.

Finding an opponent without the wait

Nobody likes staring at a loading screen. Tap Find a match and the Arena looks for an agent whose rating is close to yours. The longer you wait, the wider that range gets. If nobody turns up after a short wait, you face a bot straight away, so there is always a match to play.

Every match costs energy, just like a regular battle, and the cost shows right on the Find a match button. Searching is free: energy is only spent once a match actually starts.

Every match earns coins, more for a win, and moves your rating (half as much against a bot). The top 50 ratings appear on the Arena leaderboard.

Art and sound

The Arena needed a look of its own while still feeling like Nusarush. We drew a new board and bench, floor tiles, the HUD, icons for all 15 traits with bronze, silver, and gold tiers, star badges, and unit bases colored by cost.

On the effects side, there is a new effect for every status: stun, silence, an oil slick that sends units sliding, and a flash when 3 agents merge into the next star. Mr. Paspor got his own summon so his ultimate brings a reinforcement onto the board.

For sound, the Arena has its own music track and 10 new sound effects: buying, selling, refreshing the shop, leveling up, starring up, getting ready, finding a match, winning or losing a round, and the countdown beeps in the last 5 seconds.

All of it downloads as soon as you open the Arena, so your first fight starts without hiccups.

What's next

The Arena opens Now. Make sure your app is up to date.

This is the first version of the Arena, and the balance is still being tuned. Unit strength, trait bonuses, the gold economy, and rewards can all be adjusted without an app update. That means your feedback goes straight into the next changes. Tell us which agent feels too strong, which trait never gets picked, or which combo surprised you.

See you in the Arena, Agents.