Bosses, a new Hub and a lot more to do between matches

Version 3.7 is our biggest content update since the Hub arrived. There are proper boss fights waiting in Hardcore Adventures, the Hub itself has been completely rebuilt, and there is now a reason to hang around between matches. Here is what is new.

Boss waves in Hardcore Adventures

Push deep enough into Hardcore Adventures and the wave counter steps aside for something bigger.

A boss is a single enormous creature with its own artwork and its own animations. A big health bar appears at the top of your screen, and the wave does not end until the boss goes down. The kill target does not matter here. The fight does.

What makes them dangerous is that they fight back in ways zombies never did:

• Energy orbs fired at you, sometimes in a spreading fan you have to run around
• A ground slam that damages everyone standing in a circle around the boss
• Summoning extra zombies to swarm you while you try to focus the boss
• A charge that sends the boss racing straight at whoever is closest

Every attack has a wind up, and the boss stands still while it swings. That is your window. Learn the tells, stay out of the circle, and punish it while it recovers.

Drop a boss below a certain amount of health and it enrages: faster, hitting harder, and the health bar turns red to let you know the easy half is over.

A brand new Hub

The Hub has been redrawn from scratch. It is now a torchlit town square with a market stall, a dungeon gate, banners, and a ring of portals around a central fountain.

Two destinations that were missing finally have their own portal: Last Man Standing and the Mystery Wheel. And as before, every portal shows a live player count above it, so you can see where everyone is before you walk over.

The Bomb House

The big bomb shaped building in the middle of the square is the Bomb House, and stepping inside brings everything you do between matches into a single window:

• Challenges with your daily progress and rewards you can claim on the spot
• NPC requests, including which items you still need and the chest that follows
• Tournaments that are running right now
• Inventory showing your craft items and how many of each you carry
• Poll so you can vote without leaving the Hub

A bank of your own

The banker keeping watch at the top of the stairs now looks after a private vault for every player.

Your bank sits on the left, your inventory on the right. Click an item to move it across, and choose whether each click moves one, five, ten, everything, or an amount you type in yourself. Once your vault starts filling up you can search it by name.

Weekly tournaments

This is the one we are most curious to see you play with.

Tournaments run per game mode, and you enter from the Bomb House by paying Mystery Orbs. After that you simply play the mode as you normally would. Your results count automatically.

How you score depends on the tournament. Some rank on total kills, some on wins, some on games played, and the Hardcore ones rank on your single best run of the week. A live top ten shows exactly where you stand.

When the week ends the top three are paid out automatically and the next edition starts right away. Prizes can be BomberCoins, Mystery Orbs, craft items, skins, crates or an XP boost.

So pick your mode, pay your entry, and go make a name for yourself.

See you in the Hub.