Friday, January 3rd Design Notes: Arena at the Edge of Time: Betrayed Bonds

Friday, January 3rd Design Notes: Arena at the Edge of Time: Betrayed Bonds (Full Version)

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GodJank -> Friday, January 3rd Design Notes: Arena at the Edge of Time: Betrayed Bonds (1/2/2026 22:08:37)
quote: [image]https://dragonfable.com/images/DF/author/Verlyrus.png[/image] Friday, January 2, 2026 Arena at the Edge of Time: Betrayed Bonds Hey there, heroes! Starting off the new year, the Lessons Learned board has been updated with its final challenge: Betrayed Bonds! [image]https://cms.battleon.com/DF/images/2026-01-02-LESSONS3dn.png[/image] Deep within a crypt in Doomwood, a trio of adventurers seek a long lost power... and they're not making it out alive. Sir Malifact and his friends, Trelix and Stabina, await your challenge! The DeathKnight and his former allies will prove a formidable challenge, but if you can take them all down at once, you'll earn a new cosmetic weapon with a new On-Demand special! The Revenant's Remnant's On-Demand special consumes mana to purge effects from you, and can also heal you. Specifically, it will consume up to 100 MP* to purge all effects besides Stuffed and Doomed (from DoomKnight's Favor), and heal you for HP euqal to your level for 5 turns. However, each effect purged will reduce the turns healed by 1. For example, if you purge 5 effects, you will not get any healing. *If you have less than 100 MP it will jsut consume all remaining MP. Thre has also been a minor engine update to fix some functionality with certain effects. Do you dare take on the DeathKnight and his former allies? Head over to the Inn at the Edge of Time to try! Also this week, January seasonal specials have returned! [image]https://cms.battleon.com/DF/images/promo-dcjan2026dn.png[/image] The Guiding Wish cosmetic helm is also now available for 300 Dragon Coins! Check it out along the other January seasonal items in the Book of Lore shops! And that's all for this week!

GodJank -> RE: Arena at the Edge of Time: Betrayed Bonds (1/2/2026 22:12:56)
Let me be the first one to say that this is a REALLY nice start to 2026, imo. I forgot about Trelix and Stabina but man, this challenge has been very fun so far. It's nice to finally have a trio back in DragonFable, and the mechanics lends itself for some really bold gameplay, like turtling with SW and lining up your rotation so you can burst down Trelix and Stabina back to back, while Malifact chips them down. The new On-Demand sounds very interesting too. The thematic of the fight is really fun and novel too: two adventurers entering a dark crypt to save their friend who is too far gone, sapping their life to strengthen himself. This is the type of stuff I like to see!

TFS -> RE: Arena at the Edge of Time: Betrayed Bonds (1/3/2026 0:44:44)
One of my new favorite fights, this release really knocked it out of the park imo. I loved seeing a classic DragonFable monster return, with its story told through the boss mechanics. There are tons of super interactive mechanics here that I love to play against. Combos that build up through hitcheck are great - punishes the player for not respecting each enemy, while still offering counterplay in an interactive way. Same thing with managing Subtle Abyss; Malifact's heavy attacks are very punishing, but you're given multiple channels for preventing them. Burst is rewarded, but because the battle is split across three enemies and five HP bars you can't just skip past huge swaths of the fight. Trelix and Stabina enraging when their partner falls, but having the enrage be avoidable through both defensive and offensive channels rewards careful gameplay and punishes unga bungaing. That's really the throughline of this fight; there are a ton of moving parts and punishing combos, but everything has interactive counterplay; careful gameplay is rewarded in a way that feels fair. Love to see it! I'm also a big fan of Malifact's glow-up; there was clearly a lot of respect for the original art and the most recognizable parts of it were retained (the coffin being the center of the arena, plus Malifact's original aura farming pose) while still polishing individual sprites and animation assets up to modern standards. This could not possibly have been done better. spoiler: Malifact calling Stabina and Trelix back into the fight as undead minions was also an extremely cool second phase. Malifact's spirit being freed as he died was also a cool ending! The reward is also a super meaningful tool that will have a visible impact on strategies going forward. On-demand purge is obviously going to have the greatest impact upon offensive classes that can't already reliably purge or have a lot of shield uptime, but these classes are also the most reliant on self-buffs and it'll be tricky to fit a move like this into the rotation. As a result I can't imagine this being a balance issue, though some older fights that layer a ton of debuffs like Chaos Slayers will likely become easier as a result. Loved this release. Absolute cinema

Aethervic3 -> RE: Friday, January 3rd Design Notes: Arena at the Edge of Time: Betrayed Bonds (1/3/2026 0:57:28)
I have got to agree with the comments above, this release was excellent. I appreciate the return of an old favorite of mine from bk1. This fight reminds me of Drakath with its storytelling and flavor elements while managing to make a fight that can be tackled in a lot of different ways while also avoiding feeling unfair or using overtuned mechanics. I did not realise what would happen in the later part of the fight, but the signs were there for a more attentive player and I was delighted when it happened. A strong start to the new year!

Deurzz -> RE: Friday, January 3rd Design Notes: Arena at the Edge of Time: Betrayed Bonds (1/3/2026 16:01:43)
Cool release! Having actual df characters in the inn is always appreciated, especially when they get other cool flavour i.e. art & music! Mechanically it's also a cute fight! The different stacking on hit effects are very punishing, but they don't feel impossible and can be solved in various ways depending on the class mechanics (unless you're a glass cannon like chw, in which case gl to whomever wants to try) - overall I think the different mechanics blend well together and have a decent balance in difficulty where it doesn't feel unfair or forced into doing x y z to resolve the mechanics.

Laeon val Observis -> RE: Friday, January 3rd Design Notes: Arena at the Edge of Time: Betrayed Bonds (1/4/2026 1:22:21)
In a while I haven't managed to conquer some of the previous challenges, but it was gratifying that I finally took down the trio after around a dozen attempts. Could've brought it lower, but one of the misplays I committed resulted in Stabina and Sir Malifact stunlocking me. Anyways, is there some sort of quiet modification done to the trio fight? All my runs behaved in the same manner: When Sir Malifact goes Phase 2, it seems to that his party siphon gimmick is not being used. That is, he gets the appropriate DoT/Hot plus the anti-player infliction attempts, but the reanimated Mage and Rogue do not have their HP depleted during the entire process.

LoreQuester -> RE: Friday, January 3rd Design Notes: Arena at the Edge of Time: Betrayed Bonds (1/4/2026 10:01:06)
The reanimated Mage and Rogue don't have their HP depleted because they're already dead Duh

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