AFK Journey: New Journey Unfolds!

Published today, a new video for the upcoming season “Song of Strife” showcases its new characters and game modes, adding more details to what is to come. In this blog post, we will go over a summarized version of the video, and clear up some questions players may be wondering about.

“Song of Strife” will begin to roll out on May 10th for servers who are 42 days old.

GIFT CODES: (Valid until June 30th)

• AFKJUPDATE (100 Diamonds, 10k Gold)
• AFKJCCPROGRAM (100 Diamonds, 10k Gold)
• AFKJCREATIONFEST (200 Diamonds, 50k Gold)

New Hero: Alsa

• Faction: Mauler
• S Tier Mage
• Magic Attack Type, with a range of 6

Alsa is a Control focused mage, who can create terrain and balance attack and defense by making use of teleportation and shields.

Ultimate: Twirling Rocks

Cooldown 0, Rage 6, Energy 300.
Enters [Combat Stance], gaining flexibility in dealing damage and dodging attacks.

Skill 1: Stone Barrier

Cooldown 8s, Range 6
Alsa deals damage to an enemy and creates earth pillars on the field.

Skill 2: Rolling Boulder

Cooldown 12s, Range 6
Alsa deals damage to all enemies who recently suffered from control effects.

Exclusive Skill: Don of Terra (Mythic+)

The more Alsa rolls in the [Combat Stance] state, the stronger the subsequent impact, and the more she avoids damage.

Character Overview

Alsa is a character who can make the most of her kit on control-focused teams, regardless of the other heroes being melee or ranged. That’s thanks to her skill 2, “Rolling Boulder”, being her biggest source of damage.

The rest of her kit isn’t to be taken lightly, either. “Stone Barrier” creates stone pillars behind the target, occupying 3 tiles and dealing damage. These pillars can be destroyed, but will certainly be useful to disrupt enemy formation, as well as in combo with certain other heroes.

Meanwhile, when triggered, “Twirling Rocks” will move Alsa to the target’s location, dealing damage within range. She then enters [Combat Stance] and gains access to two new abilities. The first allows her to curl into a ball, stunning the target before returning to her original location. The second, costs energy but grants Alsa a shield and relocates her after taking a certain amount of damage.

At Mythic+ Alsa’s exclusive skill stacks bonuses the more she uses her [Combat Stance] abilities. This makes Alsa well suited for long-duration clashes.

New Hero: Soren

• Faction: Mauler
• A Tier Rogue
• Physical Attack Type, with a range of 1

Ultimate: Whirlwind Swing

Cooldown 0, Rage 2, Energy 0
Rushes to the selected target and knocks back nearby enemies, dealing extra damage and stunning them if they collide with other entities.

Skill 1: Repel Sweep

Knocks down the target enemy, stunning them. (More details TBA)

Skill 2: Deflecting Swing

When Soren receives a single-attack damage that exceeds 10% of his max HP, reduces the damage from this attack by 70% and triggers Repel Sweep. This trigger doesn’t affect the cooldown of Repel Sweep.

Exclusive Skill: Dusk Rejuvenation (Mythic+)

Increases Haste and recovers HP and Energy when his HP is low.

Enhance Force (Supreme+)

Increases the knockback distance of the next Repel Sweep when triggering Deflecting Swing, dealing extra damage.

Character Overview

Soren is a defensive hero who plays similarly to Korin, in the sense that he’s able to deal damage while protecting his teammates through displacement abilities. His kit has perfect synergy with Alsa’s, with Whirlwind Sweep, Repel Sweep and Deflecting Swing all enabling Alsa’s “Rolling Boulder”.

On the other hand, Alsa’s kit enables Soren’s capabilities as a DPS as well. Soren deals more damage when an enemy collides against any other entity, be it other heroes, walls or even the edge of the arena. With Alsa constantly creating new earth pillars, the siblings are able to keep the enemy team under high pressure while maintaining their own survivability.

New Game Modes

Bestial Brawl

Bestial Brawl is a new puzzle type triggered whenever the player encounters monsters called ironjaws around the map. Ironjaws can’t be fought directly, and will charge towards the player until the player leaves their territory. This can be used to lure the ironjaws into destroying obstacles and giving access to hidden areas with treasure chests.

Treasure Quest

Another new puzzle gameplay mode. Whenever players find Treasure Hamsters around the map, they can trigger “Treasure Quest”. In this mode, it’s possible to add a limited number of Loot Detectors in a determined area. Thus, revealing the location of a buried treasure.

Raging Duel

In this new battle mode, both teams have a “Rage” bar, that can be filled by fulfilling specific conditions. Once full, it will give the entire team a set of buffs until the battle ends. This mode will only be triggered in some levels, not all battles will feature this mechanism.

Dura Trials and Magic Charms

Each hero can equip up to 3 charms, each of which can provide Extra Bonus Stats. Magic Charms come in five qualities: Rare, Elite, Epic, Legendary or Mythic. By equipping the charms of the same or higher quality, you can activate the hero’s [Seasonal Prowess], a passive that will be unique for each season. Higher Quality charms also mean a stronger passive.

Charms can be acquired through the Dura’s Trials PVE mode. A tower that drops chests specific to each class. Finishing all floors also grant additional rewards.

Supreme Arena

In this new PvP mode, open from Wednesday to Sunday, you can set up 3 teams and challenge players from other servers in a “best of three”. Servers will be grouped into Districts, and unlike the current PvP modes, in Supreme Arena, you won’t lose points when losing a match. Another distinctive feature are the new maps, some with asymmetrical tiles, while others have tiles that allow “hiding heroes” (first team in the screenshot below).

Seasonal Skills and Artifacts

Both being brand new and exclusive to each season, Seasonal Skills and Artifacts intend to keep things fresh. [Season Skill] gets unlocked at Seasonal Level 51, and will gradually increase with the Season Level. At the end of the season, all Season Levels will be cleared and converted into Essence, which can be used for upgrading Resonance Synergy.

Meanwhile, each season will also introduce 8 new artifacts exclusive to that season, and they can be obtained through Season Journey and various game modes. Like Season Skills, they will also be limited to use only within the season.

The Future

The infamous “Fear of Missing Out” (FOMO), powercreep and the inability to access older event content and stories are probably the three biggest worries in the gacha gaming landscape. AFK Journey attempts to address these issues through its Seasons system. Although seasonal content only becomes available after a server is 42 days old, all seasonal content will remain available in the “Temporal Nexus”.

That means that even if you take a break from the game or join a newer server in the future, you will still have access to past seasons and content any time you want. The only thing “missed” are the limited-time rewards.

On the other hand, we have Magic Charms and Seasonal Skills addressing both the possibility of powercreep and shuffling the meta during the game’s lifespan. How much the developers will be effective on that objective, however, remains to be seen. If you wish to know more about the season, you can check out the Dev Update and Q&A [HERE].