UPDATE 8/6/20– Kabam is working on a fix to allow Summoners to receive rewards for running a quest multiple times as intended.
Here’s all the info you need to maximize your resource gain from the August Side Quest, Heralds of Galactus, in Marvel Contest of Champions. This Side Quest has a couple of very important features that you need to keep in mind before you get started.
You will only get 28 Entry Tickets (Galactus’s Favor) over the course of the month from a special login calendar. Entry Tickets can be used to enter 1 difficulty level of the Side Quest. If you back out of a quest, or select the wrong difficulty level, you will lose your ticket and you will not get it back. Be very careful with how you use your tickets!
DIFFICULTY LEVELS
Heralds of Galactus has 5 difficulty levels: Normal, Heroic, Master, Epic, and Herald Difficulty. Herald Difficulty is this month’s Canadian Difficulty and is tuned to Cavalier Players. You must be Level 55 to access Herald Difficulty.
As your tickets are limited to just 28, you can’t play all the difficulty levels of the Side Quest. Instead, you should focus on the highest level of difficulty you can reasonably complete.
ROTATING CHALLENGES
There will be a rotating set of challenges that will reset daily at 1pm EST.
The Wednesday/Friday/Sunday challenges will reward Hero Crystal Shards, while the Thursday/Saturday/Monday quests will reward rank-up materials. The Tuesday quest rewards a combination of shards and catalysts.
What’s exciting is Heralds of Galactus has a “Choose Your Own Adventure” aspect to the rewards. If you wish, you can spend your tickets just on the shard days, or just on the catalyst days, it’s totally up to you. You can save up your tickets and run the same quest multiple times in a single day. Just remember to spend all your tickets before Heralds of Galactus ends on Wednesday, September 2 at 1pm EST.
If you need help deciding how to spend your tickets, DOWNLOAD THE REWARDS SPREADSHEET. It has the rewards matrix for all 5 difficulties, and you can customize your ticket spend to see how your rewards will stack up over the course of the month.
Here’s your Marvel Contest of Champions news brief for Monday, August 3, 2020.
Schedule Notes: Round 2 of the 4-Star Basic Domino and X-23 Featured Arenas at 1pm EST. Summoner Sigil Owners, your Solo Event, Gold Quest, and items on a 7-day timer and the 5-Star Featured Crystal in the Black-ISO Market reset at 1pm EST. 100% Roster Availability until Alliance War attack resumes at 2pm EST. UMCOC Podcast, Live on Discord at 8pm EST.
Next week in Marvel Contest of Champions features Longshot as the Basic Arena Champion, and the second Boss Rush of the summer goes live!
I hope you and your family are staying safe during these difficult times.
Alliance Wars Seasons We are currently in Alliance Season 19, which ends on Tuesday, August 4. Per the latest forum post on Alliance War, you must complete 2 wars with the alliance you end the season with to be eligible for Season Rewards.
Full Roster Availability (No AW/AQ): 100% champion availability starting at 3pm EST on Sunday, August 2 through Monday, August 3 at 2pm EST. There will be a second window beginning on Tuesday, August 4 at 2pm EST through Wednesday, August 5 at 3pm EST.
Sunday, August 2: Sunday Arenas begin at 1pm EST. 100% Roster Availability beginning at 3pm EST following the conclusion of the Alliance Quest Series.
Monday, August 3: Round 2 of the 4-Star Basic Domino and X-23 Featured Arenas at 1pm EST. Summoner Sigil Owners, your Solo Event, Gold Quest, and items on a 7-day timer and the 5-Star Featured Crystal in the Black-ISO Market reset at 1pm EST. 100% Roster Availability until Alliance War attack resumes at 2pm EST. UMCOC Podcast, Live on Discord at 8pm EST.
Tuesday, August 4: 100% Roster Availability beginning at 2pm EST, following the conclusion of the final war of Season 19.
Wednesday, August 5: Week 2 of the Summoner Smackdown Boss Rushes kicks-off at 1pm EST, along with the August Event Quest and Side Quest. Canadian Potions (Maple Syrup and Poutine) also convert to regular health potions and revives at 1pm EST. The Alliance Quest series begins at 3pm EST, ending 100% Roster Availability. The Alpha Arena begins at 6pm EST.
Thursday, August 6: Round 1 of the 4 Star Basic Longshot and To Be Announced Featured Arenas begin at 1pm EST. Incursions Milestones and Top Zone Bonus rewards reset at 2pm EST. The Tier 4 Basic Arena begins at 6pm EST.
Friday, August 7: No schedule notes.
Saturday, August 8: The Tier 4 Basic Arena begins at 6pm EST.
Here’s your Marvel Contest of Champions news brief for Friday, July 31, 2020.
Schedule Notes: New Alliance War Season 19 Rewards cut-off date. You must be in an alliance by 6pm EST for matchmaking, and play two wars with the alliance you finish the season with to be eligible for Season Rewards.
Pledge yourself to Galactus in August’s Side Quest, which includes the new Herald Difficulty.
Kabam also announced a number of changes to Map 7, going live on August 13.
Here’s your Marvel Contest of Champions news brief for Thursday, July 30, 2020.
Schedule Notes: Round 1 of the 4 Star Basic Domino and X-23 Featured Arenas, and Round 2 of the 4 Star Basic Annihilus and Sasquatch Featured Arenas begin at 1pm EST. The Tier 4 Basic Arena begins at 6pm EST.
Lots of Summoner Smackdown Boss Rush content to enjoy today! Katy Candy had a bit of a rough time, while Seatin identified Havok as one of the best options for the Week 1 Alpha Quest. Lagacy relied heavily on Guillotine 2099, and finally RichTheMan has a whole list of counters.
Here’s some info to get you prepped for what’s happening in Marvel Contest of Champions next month. Expect to see the v28.0 update available for download around August 3. Read the Full Release Notes.
NEW CHAMPIONS
A former member of the Nova Corps, Gabriel Lan is now infused with the Power Cosmic (thus making him a Cosmic Champ) as Air Walker, Herald of Galactus. As with many Cosmic Champions, Air Walker becomes more powerful by gaining Buffs, in his case Power Cosmic Buffs, which actually act as Persistent Charges. He starts the quest with 1 Power Cosmic Buff, and gains one for each fight he wins, up to a max of 3. What is unique about Air Walker is that he doesn’t have access to his SP3 until he has 3 Power Cosmic Buffs. He also has a Dark Tide Debuff which will cause damage to the opponent when they are also suffering from Armor Break. Additionally, if the opponent has 10 Dark Tide Debuffs, they are combined into a passive effect that lasts for the remainder of the fight, and the next two fights that champion participates in (making it a cross-fight ability). Air Walker has a number of synergy partners, including Silver Surfer, Terrax, Nova, Green Goblin, Phoenix, Ebony Maw, Mr. Fantastic, Thing, Human Torch, Invisible Woman, and a “coming soon” Herald of Galactus.
Dragon Man is an android brought to life by Diablo, and has often been a pawn of both Heroes and Villains of the Marvel Universe. He is a Mystic Champion that relies on Power Gain and Unblockable to spam specials and deal big damage, making him sound a bit like a mystic Hyperion. He also has a new feature called Ineptitude, which inverts the potency of Fury, Armor Up, Cruelty, and Precision Buffs. He is a robot so he is immune to Bleed and Poison, but he is also immune to Armor Shattered. If he suffers from Armor Break, he can Degen the opponent, with an extra bonus against Cosmics so be careful bringing Medusa against him. Dragon Man has synergies with Diablo, Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Tigra, Punisher, Punisher 2099, and Elsa Bloodstone.
EVENT QUEST In August’s Event Quest, the ever helpful H.E.R.B.I.E. needs your assistance to track down Dragon Man before the ISO-8 of the Battlerealm corrupts him and returns him to a monstrous state. H.E.R.B.I.E. is also investigating who or what has been mentally controlling so many in the Battlerealm over the past few months.
SIDE QUEST This month there will be a special login calendar that will grant you “Galactus’ Favor” which will allow you to enter the Side Quest. Rewards change from shards to catalysts on alternating days. If you wish to acquire just one of these resources, you can save your entries and run the same quest multiple times on a single day.
For the most powerful Summoners, Canadian Difficulty makes way for Herald Difficulty. You must be Level 55 or higher to enter, and Cavalier players will have the chance to unlock special Solo Objectives that contain T5CC fragments.
BACK ISSUES #5 – BLOOD AND VENOM We’ve waited a long time, but it’s finally here. Take on the classic version of Blood and Venom, or try the new Variant difficulty. As always, Variants have a theme. Blood and Venom requires you to bring Mystic, Spider-Verse, and Symbiote Champions, and each chapter will have a difficult Global Buff enhancing one of these three groups.
NEW FEATURES& UPDATES Daily Quest Auto-Complete is here! Once you have explored a given difficulty of a Daily Quest, you can auto-complete the quest going forward in exchange for energy.
The changes for the Act 6.2.6 Champion fight are set to go live. As previously announced, No Retreat is being removed, The Champion’s Block Penetration is being reduced from 25% to 2%, Nullify Damage is being reduced from 10% to 2% of Modified attack, and the number of Dexterity charges in the final phase is being reduced from 5 to 3. Further changes to Act 6 are still to come.
The fix for split-map Alliance Quest ticket cost will go live, allowing Alliances to share the entry cost of Maps 6 & 7.
The Inequity Mastery will now use the defender’s modified attack instead of base attack.
Platinumpool is dropping hints that he may finally become available as a playable character, if we can just put the pieces together. Read the Platinumpool Champion Spotlight now!
FINAL THOUGHTS Air Walker and Dragon Man are two champions I have barely any knowledge of from the comics, so I can’t say I’m excited for them, but I’m looking forward to testing them out all the same. While there is a lot of content coming in August, for me it’s all about Variant 5. I’ve been waiting for Blood and Venom for a long time, and hearing about buffs that may make Symbiotes, Spider-Verse champs, and Mystics potentially OP for this piece of content has certainly raised my level of excitement. It will also give me a reason to make more guides, so I’m looking forward to that as well.
Frontline: MCOC 