Hey there Zoobsters!

We are super excited the time has come to reveal more about the Character Progression we’ve been mentioning for a long time. There is a lot of change coming in update 3.0 and we thought it’d be great to break down the Progression System for you before it is released! So the first question a lot of you may be asking is “Why do we want to revamp the Character Progression System?”

 

The main premise is that we can make character progression in Zooba be significantly deeper and more engaging. We believe Zooba’s mechanics offer many opportunities to make character progression more interesting and compelling. And now, let’s get to the details!

 

The Upgrade Tree 

 

Character progression will be based on an “upgrade path”, in which players will be able to enhance different aspects of their characters (life points, damage, speed, items, etc). Unlocking one upgrade unlocks the subsequent upgrade, according to the path. The path consists of Level Upgrades and Mini Upgrades. 

 

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Level Upgrades

 

Level upgrades will cost characters tokens. Buying a Level Upgrade will level up the character and upgrade their Life Points.

 

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Mini Upgrades 

 

The Mini Upgrades will cost coins. Buying a Mini Upgrade will give whatever that Mini Upgrade represents, and there’s a wide variety of possibilities (increasing the damage of a specific weapon, unlocking item slots, etc).

 

There are 7 Mini Upgrades between most Level Upgrades. The four going in the straight line are the “critical path” for the next Level Upgrade, while the other three are optional. Some Mini Upgrades will be very frequent (e.g: damage upgrades) and some will be very special and unique (e.g: unlocking the new “Primal Instinct” system). Players will be able to go back in the upgrade tree to buy optional Mini Upgrades that were previously left behind. This new system will allow for YOU to make choices that best benefit your gameplay. 

 

Maximum Level Update

 

The new maximum level is now 17! You should be at the same level you were before this update, but now with mini upgrades to complete to go to the next level. All mandatory mini upgrades will be already completed, but you can buy the additional ones if you want them!

 

Unlocking Primal Instincts

 

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Primal Instincts are a new special power available to your characters. To be able to unleash it, you first need to unlock the Primal Instinct slot, which will be available to each character as the second additional mini upgrade on level 12 on their upgrade tree.  To unlock it, you will have to do at least all mandatory mini upgrades until you reach this one.

 

The only crates and toolboxes you will be able to find Primal Instincts in are listed below and you find your chances on each right beside them. 

 

Emerald Crate: 25%

Emerald Toolbox: 35%

Legendary Crate: 60%

 

The Revised “Items System”

 

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Now, instead of unlocking/ upgrading items and having all the characters have access to them, items will have to be unlocked/ upgraded individually per character. That means, for example, that instead of opening a crate and “unlocking Holy Sandals” a player might “unlock Holy Sandals for Bruce”. Reminder: Item upgrades will no longer require coins, only item tokens!

 

Upgrading Weapons In the Upgrade Tree

 

While you are in the upgrade tree, you will be able to upgrade each one of your weapons in two ways: damages and attributes.

 

Damage Upgrades

 

Damage upgrades are as simple as they state, the more mini upgrades you purchase for each of your weapons, the more damage you will cause to your opponent. Each level will have at least two mandatory damage upgrades, which guarantees the same rate of damage you had with the previous upgrade system, but now focused on a specific weapon.

 

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Items Being Taken Out of the Game

 

We will be having some items disappear from the game (Nitro Bow, Nitro Spear, Nitro Shotgun, Knockback bomb, Knockback Spear), and these are going to become the weapon attributes. You will already start with some weapon attributes in this update, depending on the level you’re at right now. From there you can decide how you want to distribute them out. And, of course, you will be receiving coins in your account as a compensation for your investment in these items!

 

Attribute Points

 

The attribute points are also aimed at each one of your weapons separately, but they have a different purpose. During your progression on the tree, you will be able to collect points and exchange them by tapping the Weapons button on the left bar of the upgrade screen. You will be able to change these points at any time between the different stats. In the end, each weapon will have 3 or 4 stats that can be upgradable. There you will be able to distribute the points according to the following options:

 

  • Knockback: the ability to send your opponent farther away from you when they are hit
  • Velocity: how fast the projectile will travel to your opponent
  • Range: how far from your opponent you have to be to hit them
  • Cooldown: how long you have to wait between shots
  • Radius: how big is your hit circle range

 

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The attributes are distributed between the weapons considering the way your character uses it. For example, the Spear 360º Swing can be upgraded in Knockback, Range, and Cooldown while the Spear Single Shot additionally has Velocity.

 

The more attribute points you collect from the upgrade tree, the bigger the percentage you will be able to upgrade in each attribute of your weapon. This allows you to create different gameplays for each character and also test different approaches.

 

You can distribute and redistribute your points as much as you want. Remember that they are linked to each of your characters, so it’s not possible to collect Bow points from Pepper and try to use them on Duke!

 

Change in Item Slot Unlocking Levels

 

We moved the commonly used weapon items into the Attribute System (e.g: now you can have all the benefits from “Nitro Shotgun” without the need of using an item slot to equip this item), which will be available to most players at any level. We rebalanced the system for the remaining items and slots to unlock at the new levels of 3, 6, 9, and 14.

 

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Final Thoughts

 

We are looking forward to seeing you using your own unique strategies at the Zoo and expect you to have lots of fun testing new ways to play with your favorite characters! We also would love to hear your feedback on this so make sure to join the discussion on our Facebook Group and Discord channel! Hope you are as excited as we are in this new journey and that you are more powerful than ever!

 

See you at the Zoo!