Jousting
Wonderful Winter tidings, Uni Fam! With the release of Jousting on the horizon, we thought it was high time to provide some more details as promised. Hopefully, you brought a winning attitude, because the path of the Joust ‘corn is best traveled by those stout of spirit and broad of horn!
Right up front, we want to make it clear to folks that Jousting is meant to be a fun activity for anyone with a Unicorn — that’s all you need! Land NFTs and participation in the Farming game loop are not required to Joust, although some players will surely want to do both!
First, we’ll be diving into just how easy it is to Watch or Join a Joust Bracket, then rolling up our sleeves and getting into the Anatomy of a Joust where we look at everything that makes up a Joust, before finally taking a moment to discuss Brackets and Rewards.
Please take note that all UI images are a work in progress, there are temporary assets in place, the art isn’t necessarily final everywhere, and there is still plenty of polish to complete! We will have iterations throughout the rest of the development of the feature and will review feedback in Discord to incorporate into our iterations.
How to Joust
Join
Getting started in your first Jousting Bracket is easy! After clicking the Joust button from the main CU screen, you’ll see the Joust Registration panel with a list of all upcoming Brackets that have open spots in them.
This panel will list the Joust Bracket’s title, the Rewards for 1st place, the Cost to join, and how many spots remain unfilled. Once all slots in a Joust Bracket are full, it will be locked in and scheduled! If for some reason, a Bracket doesn’t fill up in time, it is canceled and all players’ Unicorns, entry fees, and items are returned automatically. Keep in mind that some Brackets have special Restrictions, so not all Unicorns are eligible for all Jousts. For more information, see What’s in a Bracket? below.
Once you’ve decided on a Bracket, simply click the Join button. Once you’re looking at the detailed view of a Bracket, you can see all of the possible rewards! Now it’s time to get your ‘corn ready to Joust! First, click Choose Unicorn to select your contestant.
Then, make sure to pick which Stance you want your Unicorn to use for the Bracket. Each Stance provides a bonus against Unicorns using one other Stance:
- Reckless: Bonus vs Clever
- Clever: Bonus vs Cautious
- Cautious: Bonus vs Reckless
Once your Stance is chosen, the last thing to do is pick an optional consumable Buff like a Potion. Don’t worry, Buff effects will last for the entire Bracket.
After choosing a buff (or deciding to go without), click the Confirm button to lock your choices in.
Watch
Once you’ve registered your Unicorn to Joust, you’ll have to wait until the Bracket is filled and scheduled. Even if you don’t have any Unicorns Registered, you can still pick a Bracket to watch just for fun!
Clicking the Watch button will take you to a preview of all the Matches in the Bracket, from where you can click the Play buttons to watch any Match you like!
Anatomy of a Joust
So far we’ve mentioned Brackets and Matches, the last image even showed something called Waves! Let’s take a moment to go over the component parts of a Joust before going further:
- Joust Bracket: A group of Registered Unicorns organized into pairs, competing until there is a single winner. Joust Brackets are divided into Waves.
- Wave: In each Wave, all Unicorns pair off with an opponent (randomly seeded for Wave 1, then winners from previous waves) to determine this Wave’s winners that will move on to the next. Waves are composed of Matches.
- Match: In each Match, two Unicorns compete head to head with each other until a winner is determined. Each Match is composed of three Rounds.
- Round: In each Round, two Unicorns take a single pass downfield and attempt to hit each other!
How do I Win?
In each Round, Unicorns are given Points for each successful Hit they land. At the end of 3 Rounds, the Unicorn with the most Points wins! Of course, if either Unicorn is Knocked Out before 3 Rounds, the Match is over. If the Points are tied at the end of a round Round, a Sudden Death Round is played to determine the winner. In the event of a Double Knockout, a Lightning Round is played to determine the winner.
For more information, see Hit Scoring and Knockout Tests below.
What Happens in a Match?
Now that we’ve got a solid understanding of how a Joust Bracket fits together, it’s time to get into the meat and potatoes of Jousting — the Match. This is where the action happens, so let’s break it down step by step!
Match Start
Before any of the three Rounds can start, at the very beginning of each Match, both competitors are introduced, assume their selected Stance, and use their Buff item. Take note of each, because these will be key in understanding the results!
Keep in mind that Stances and Buffs last for the entire Bracket, so make sure your selections are ones you’re happy with across all Waves.
After both Unicorns are introduced, it’s time to start Joustin’!
Round Start
The first thing that happens in any Joust Round is that both Unicorns take off as fast as they can!
Acceleration Test
As both Unicorns charge, they start off by performing an Acceleration Test. Depending on how well they perform, there are three potential results:
- Stumble: Ack! Sometimes you get nervous, eat too much spaghetti before the Joust, or even hit a rogue banana peel! It happens to the best of us! If you end up with a Stumble, your Unicorn’s Speed Score will be reduced for the Round.
- Steady: Steady isn’t as good as getting a Speed Burst, but it’s also not as bad as Stumbling, so it could be worse, right?
- Speed Burst: Unicorns with lots of fast-twitch muscle will probably get used to earning Speed Bursts, which increase your Unicorn’s Speed for the Round.
Note: The Acceleration Test does not take into account the opponent’s Scores, unlike the rest of Jousting.
Bonus Acceleration Test
Depending on your ‘corn’s stats and how your first Acceleration test turns out, they may get to take a Bonus Acceleration Test! While this may sound great, remember that it’s another opportunity to get a Speed Burst, but also to Stumble!
Hit Test
After Acceleration is complete both Unicorns reach each other, lower their horns, and try to knock each other silly! Every textbook approach to knocking out a Unicorn begins the same way — hit 'em! The chances for each Unicorn’s “roll to hit” are determined by their relative Scores, so the better your ‘corn, the better your chances to hit!
Impact Test
If a Unicorn scores a Hit, then it’s time to see just how solid of a connection they made! The striking Unicorn rolls an Impact Test, which determines the chances of each potential outcome based on each ‘corn’s Score. There are three types of Hit:
- Glance: This is technically a hit, but don’t expect to get as many Points for them as other types. Still, if your opponent Missed, this will keep you moving along the Scoreboard.
- Stagger: A solid hit, but not strong enough to take your opponent off of their hooves.
- Knockdown: Whoa! You smacked ’em so hard they tumbled to the ground! Knockdowns are scored the highest of all hit types.
Each hit is also awarded an Impact value, which rates the overall power generated by the Unicorn’s hit. This is displayed on-screen as floating text after an Impact.
Knockout Tests
Unicorns that are unlucky enough to suffer a Knockdown aren’t out of the Match just yet — they can still get up! Each Unicorn is given a standing 10-count to recover. Hopefully, your ‘corn will get up, but be warned — it takes a tough, gritty Unicorn to come back from the depths of wooziness!
Unicorns that are unable to recover after the 10-count are Knocked Out and immediately lose the Match!
Hit Scoring
Assuming neither Unicorn is Knocked Out, their Hits are awarded points based on how hard they hit and the type of hit landed. The points from each Round are added to a running total throughout the Match.
Round End
After Points are awarded for each Hit, the ‘corns reset and Joust the next Round.
Match End & Winner Declared
Once all Rounds are concluded or a Knock Out occurs, the Match ends and the Winner is declared! The Winner then moves on to the next Wave, while the Loser is eliminated from the competition.
Brackets & Rewards
Now that everyone understands what a Bracket is composed of and how each Match goes down, let’s take a look at some of the details surrounding Brackets…
What’s in a Bracket?
When you’re browsing through various Jousting Brackets to Join or Watch, there are a few key pieces of info that you should keep an eye on:
Entry Fee
Each Joust Bracket costs an Entry Fee to register. Each Bracket will cost either UNIM or RBW, never both. Note that this also determines the currency of your reward payout, as 90% of it will be paid out to contestants in the form of winnings.
Ticket Requirement:
Each Bracket also requires a Joust Ticket. At launch, there will be 5 types of Ticket:
- Beginner Ticket: Used for low-end competition, these tix can be Crafted, bought/sold on the RMP, and are also granted as Joust Rewards.
- Intermediate Ticket: Used for mid-tier Jousting, these tix can be Crafted, bought/sold on the RMP, and are also granted as Joust Rewards.
- Advanced Ticket: Used for the highest echelons of Jousting, these tix can be Crafted, bought/sold on the RMP, and are also granted as Joust Rewards.
- Winner Ticket: Used for exclusive Champion’s Brackets, Winner Tickets are awarded for… well… winning Brackets! Winner Tickets cannot be bought/sold on the RMP.
- Loser Ticket: Similar to Winner Tickets, these allow access to special Consolation Brackets. These can only be acquired by losing at Jousting Brackets. Loser Tickets cannot be bought/sold on the RMP.
Restrictions
Make sure to check if a Bracket has any Restrictions before trying to join! They can stipulate a specific Class of Unicorn, Mythic Status, or even Statistic Minimum to compete! Typically, the higher the level of competition and Rewards, the more stringent the Restrictions will be.
Rewards
Once a player has chosen a Bracket to Register for, they will be shown a preview of the Rewards at all potential places. For each, the Rewards will be a mixture of a currency payout (same currency as Entry Fee) and static items such as Jousting Tickets, Buff Potions, Crafting Materials, and Jousting Lootboxes. The specific rewards will vary depending on the Bracket.
What are the Different Kinds of Brackets?
The main bulk of Brackets will be available to play at all times and offer something for Unicorns of all ability levels, from Jr. Trotter all the way to Supercharger, as shown below:
In addition to the “core” brackets, there will be other Brackets that are either more exclusive and/or selectively scheduled. While “core” Brackets will be rewarding, these will be worth keeping an eye open for!
Champion’s/Consolation Brackets: These require Winner or Loser Tickets respectively, and will be scheduled less frequently than other Brackets, but have a higher potential reward.
Class-based Brackets: We will be running a rotating schedule of Class-based Brackets, allowing for competition within each class to see who the toughest of each really is!
Special Event Brackets: When running special events (such as holidays or seasonal events), we will also run exclusive Jousting Brackets for limited times, often with special or unique rewards!
We’ll be posting another article with more detail on the specific Brackets we intend to run closer to the launch of Jousting. The design team will be experimenting with different types of scheduled/exclusive Brackets, so feel free to post your suggestions in Discord. Let us know!
