Season 8 has been a fun one with many new Runes and some new arhcetypes as well. The meta has been pretty diverse for the Mystic Era but there are always room for improvement. Giant Bubble was probably is mistake in the Rare Era. Certainly Runes are still overused, while others are underused. Some sort of shake up with the power levels of Runes an Charms will be fun for the next Season. Let's hope we will have an even more fun season in Season 9!
tldr:
Poison (with Sleep) looking to win the Final Era
9 archetypes viable in the top 100
Player Base Statistics
Rank # Players Rankings
Challenger 6619 1-6619
Dragon 8318 6620-14937
Tiger 9730 14938-24667
Bear 5839 24668-30506
Wolf 5607 30507-36113
Boar 11342 36114-47455
Hare 10723 47456-58178
Chick 16655 58179-74833
Egg 18892 74834-93725
Other 600 players managed to climb up to Challenger, with the top 2 players over 2500 Victory Stars. Overall player base increase by around 7000 players in the past week. It seems like this season we will be just shy of 100k players but hopefully Axie Origins can reach even high numbers when the crypto bull market comes again.
Archetype Usage
Overall archetype usage
Only 2 players were at 2500+ VStar at the time of data collection playing Poison and Brutal Claw. It seems like Poison (with Sleep) could be the winner for the Final Era. Feather, Brutal Claw, Poison, Healing Pulse are the big 4 at the top with Fury Aggro, Perch, Jinx, Eggshell Mavis, and a bit of Mit Sleep in the fix as well.
Even though the meta is diverse, it does not mean all is well. There are certainly mechanics that can be improved as some are still quite overpowered while others are underwhelming. One good example would be Cuckoo where the 1-Energy cost effect can be mostly removed by a 3 PP Rare Charm. Will it be too strong if it cannot be dispelled? If so, can the power level be lowered while not being dispelled by just a 3 PP Rare Charm?
Another aspect of course is change. Having a diverse meta is good but nobody wants to play the same meta again and again for many seasons. I hope there will be some big nerfs and buffs to shake up the meta every season to make it more fun. Having said that, as a Web3 NFT game, there is an additional factor to consider when making such changes as the values of assets can change a lot due to balance changes.
Archetype Win Rates and Matchups
Overall Archetype Win Rates
The meta is pretty settled in terms of win rate. Mit Sleep is the main new one that came up during the Final Era, which is not very common as it is effectively the third week of this format. Cuckoo and Spikes continue to fall as lower ranked players are starting to learn how to play against these archetypes.
Archetype Matchups
The archetype matchup is similar as last week with most archetypes having some sort of weakness. One important new one to highlight is Mit Sleep, which is good against Feather and Brutal Claw, but struggle against Healing Pulse, Fury Aggro, and Poison.
Healing Pulse is still very good and possibly too good. Many archetypes do not stand much of a chance against Healing Pulse, which feels bad from the player experience point of view. Knowing that you are mostly likely going to lose even before the match starts just does not feel good. Let's hope further balance changes can eliminate such polarising matchups. Perhaps an unpopular opinion but I wish there can be more RNG in Axie Origins so that there is also hope to win during every match.
Conclusion
I must say, Season 8 has been a big improvement from last season. Of course this is not to say that we should just play Season 8 forever, but I hope the Axie team can continue to improve Origins gameplay and player experiences. Let's hope there will be more fun stuff ahead in the next Season.
Thank you so much for your support! If you have any comments and/or suggestions, please feel free comment or reach out to me on X (Twitter) or Discord @mauriceccy.
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Additional Data
# Matches Played in Days 3-5
2500+ 28
2400-2500 3102
2300-2400 12773
2200-2300 21965
2100-2200 35615
2000-2100 57029
