Marvel: Crisis Protocol – Core Set Character Updates

We recently announced several Marvel: Crisis Protocol characters would be receiving updates to their stat cards. Today, Head of Product Development Will Shick is here to discuss those changes and show off the updates to some of your favorite characters. Join him as he takes a look at the future of Marvel: Crisis Protocol!

Avengers Assemble!

Welcome to the first in a series of articles that will be exploring some of the character changes that will be coming to Marvel: Crisis Protocol later this year.

The TLDR version is that over the course of 2022, Crisis Protocol will be localized for various languages. While we couldn’t be more excited to offer the ever-growing global community better access to the game in their own language, in order to accomplish this, we had to go back and redesign the original stat cards into a format that was built for localization in multiple languages.

Changing the stat cards across the game presented our development team with an opportunity to go back and take a second look with more seasoned eyes at many of the characters originally designed before the public even knew Marvel: Crisis Protocol existed. While we have taken every effort to maintain a fair and consistent balance since those initial characters, as our skill and understanding of the game grew with more and more time spent developing, it was inevitable that early efforts be just a bit shy of where they’d be if we were to design them today. Given that so many of those early characters are true icons in the Marvel Universe, the move to localization and the eventual reprinting of all the current characters into the new gave us a chance to dive back in and make adjustments so that these beloved characters could continue to be valuable and fun options for both old and new.

And what better place to start this series than with the characters being adjusted in the Core Set. When looking at Captain America, we realized that he was slightly underperforming for his 4-threat value compared to others in his weight class. While he has always boasted one of the most powerful Leadership abilities in the game, Steve Rogers was always meant to be much more than just a leadership. Moving his displacement abilities to allow him to deal with characters at Size 3 instead of Size 2 not only gives him more scenario play, it also dramatically increases the danger presented by his Shield Slam attack, especially given its low cost of 2 Power.

The biggest change, though, was with his Shield Throw attack. This version of Captain America really reflects his best qualities as a leader. He makes everyone better around him, but also steps in to protect his team as well. Adding a flat 1 Power to the Shield Throw attack lets him more consistently use his Bodyguard and Vibranium Shield abilities more often. Additionally, moving the strength of the attack from 4 to 5 gave him that offensive punch he needed to feel like a true threat 4 character.

You can’t really talk about Captain America and the Avengers without talking about Iron Man. While there are about as many interpretations of Iron Man as there are people who know who Iron Man is, this version of billionaire Tony Stark was designed to work with his fellow Avengers in the Core Set as the primary ranged attacker of the group. While the rest of the team would charge forward, Tony would be able to hang out on a flank or rear objective and contribute through his range 4 Repulsor Blasts, which themselves would be augmented by Friday AI. Being able to push out effectively strength 6 ranged 4 energy attacks that also generated back power at the time was quite potent. However, looking back, it became clear that as the pool of characters widened and the questions being asked of characters became broader, Iron Man’s ramp up was just a little too much to ask from a more focused character.

You’ll see that in this case we only adjusted one number. Friday AI has gone from 3 Power to 2 Power. This means under Cap’s leadership he can start blasting with Friday AI on Round 1, and even outside of Steve’s leadership it doesn’t take nearly as much for Iron Man to get to the point where he can double tap with Friday AI every activation, and still be building a bit of power for a timely Helios Laser Bombardment or a massive Unibeam attack on his Injured side.

The last of the Avenger characters to receive an update in the Core Set, Captain Marvel was a character that suffered from similar issues as Iron Man. An absolute terror once able to tap into Binary Form, the issue with Carol was really with the premium placed on getting to Binary Form.

Once again, a simple number tweak bringing Binary Form’s cost from 5 to 4 really let’s Carol Danvers feel like the powerhouse she is meant to be. Under Cap’s leadership or part of She-Hulk’s A-Force, getting into Binary by Round 2 is very easy, and from there keeping it going is well within a player’s grasp depending on tactical situation.

Additionally, we made one other simple number change to Captain Marvel (that has big implications to her effectiveness) and that was to change the Size restriction on her Danver’s Special to allow her to now throw Size 4 characters and terrain. With several other characters seeing Size restrictions of their Pushes and Throws coming down to Size 3, having Captain Marvel have access to a Size 4 throw gives her even more tactical flexibility and more meaningful choice between Binary Form or Danver’s Special. Last but not least, Captain Marvel also gained Immunity: Incinerate, to better help represent her energy absorption abilities and have a nice parallel to a character we are going to talk about next!

The final Core Set character to be adjusted is definitely not an Avenger. In fact, you might call him the anti-Avenger. We are talking of course about everyone’s favorite robot, Ultron.Similar to Captain America, as the field of characters expanded Ultron simply found himself left a little behind by new characters that filled his offensive role just a bit better. With Ultron we wanted to really put some polish and make him shine beyond just being a great Ultimate Encounter. There were a number of substantial changes to bring Ultron back in line and worthy of his 4-threat cost and position as fearsome Avenger foe.

The first thing we did was give a stronger reason for players to use Ultron’s strike. At strength 6 and granting 1 power, this attack is no longer just filler. It’s a potent attack and puts Ultron in rare company among his 4 threat “peers.” The next change was to give his Energy Blast Wild Incinerate. Easily one of the best special conditions, Incinerate not only lets Ultron be more effective, it also synergizes really well with Red Skull’s Cabal leadership and the Cabal’s Dark Reign team tactic card by making it that much easier to deal damage to those pesky opposing characters.

The next big change was another little number tweak with plenty implications. Kinetic Field Generator went from being able to throw Size 3 terrain to throwing Size 4 terrain. Now, throwing Size 4 terrain is pretty great, but Ultron gets to throw this terrain from Range 3 away. This means he’s almost always guaranteed to have something to hurl at his foes as he monologues away.

Finally, we completely reworked his superpower Analyze and Annihilate. No longer a Reactive superpower, Analyze and Annihilate is now innate and simply lets Ultron reroll one die in his attack roll for each Critical in the opposing defense roll.

And that wraps up all the adjustments to the Marvel: Crisis Protocol Core Set characters. Keep your eyes peeled on our Social Media for the next installment of this series and prepare yourself for the next phase of Crisis Protocol!