Finalizing Renewal 2026 & the Path Ahead
Note: Full change logs can be found on our support site
Over the past four weeks, our entire community has engaged in a comprehensive gameplay evolution for Empires & Puzzles. Renewal 2026 was designed to address a few objectives, such as continuing to promote long-term tactical depth, enabling viable counterplay in every battle format, and curbing dependency on only a few family passives or 5 copies of any one Hero. More specifically, the aim was to bring diversity to the forefront in a way that celebrates synergy and distinctive Hero personality.
Following a month of live data, extensive testing, and direct community input, we are rolling out a new balance based on learnings from Renewal.
Rather than letting dominant families and supercharged passives narrow your choices to a handful of uniform team compositions, we have set a stable baseline where synergy, timing, and diversity clearly impact the outcome of every match.
Refining the Baseline: What Your Input Helped Shape
Throughout Renewal 2026, your gameplay and feedback drove real-time refinements to ensure these adjustments rewarded active strategy rather than completely blunting hero utility.
Standardizing Combat Mechanics: Various game mechanics were recalibrated to regulate power variance between different effects, to function more consistently, and to make them more easily understood. Some of these changes went through multiple iterations during Renewal, based on player feedback, such as Ghost forms.
Restoring player agency: This balance update shifts the power to decide battle outcomes back to players. Passive play and self-triggering effect loops are dialed back. The player choosing Heroes to counter abilities and making tactical moves during combat is king.
Repositioning passive skills: Several powerful passive skills that had too great of a direct impact on battles were tuned down, but significant effort went into identifying opportunities to add situational utility and to remove unnecessary restrictions. For example, the Valiant Vegetables’ Blossom Mega Fiends have refocused on absorbing healing by having their HP boosted, and Rare and Epic Veggies got a double boost with harder-hitting Mega Fiends and the removal of the summon cap per turn.
These adjustments proved that high-stakes matches are won through deliberate team assembly, positioning, and board control.
Recalibration Supplies
We recognize that every Hero represents dedicated time, focus, and resources. Transitioning to this new state might require rediscovering how your Heroes contribute to your battle strategies. To encourage rotation of your top teams, the following recalibration supplies will be arriving in your accounts today and can be claimed from your in-game inbox:
Aether Reset Tokens
A library of Legendary Tomes
Master Trainer Heroes
XP Booster
And more!
Take this time to test new combinations, reallocate your resources, and align your defense and attack teams!
Core Questions Answered
Will there be more balance changes of this scale in the immediate future? Renewal 2026 was a comprehensive recalibration that was far outside the purposes that our standard monthly balance updates normally serve. We always aim to proactively identify and remedy any features or mechanics that break out of their intended scope or begin to perform unexpectedly. How does this change the value of future hero releases and existing rosters? Future hero designs will continue to expand strategic breadth and align with our goal of always making battles both fun and challenging. By keeping your focus on individual Heroes and less on family passive play, it allows for you to find synergies that you might have otherwise missed.
The Future of Adventure
Renewal 2026 has reset the stage for what Empires & Puzzles does best: tense, skill-driven tactical combat where sharp team synergy outplays brute force.
With the new general balance locked in, our full focus shifts forward with a multitude of exciting things like Season 6, which is already deep in development! This new season will bring both excitement and surprises. The end-of-year holiday season will also feature community challenges, giveaways, and exclusive in-game rewards! More on this to come but, to kick things off, let's check out what’s happening this week:
2 extra Aether Quests on Monday and Friday
A week of Alliance Appreciation sharing offers
7 days of Gem Summon Challenges that unlock with only 5 Summons!
Collect your recalibration supplies from your inbox, test your new defensive setups, and take your place on the battlefield!