Ongoing Games Overview 11-03-26

Greetings, Alchemists!

We meet once again this week to discuss the current status of the matches in progress. Just as we did in last week's blog, we will comment on what has been happening using the public information available to all players. This ensures the game's balance remains intact, as in the world of Cladia, information is more valuable than talisman fragments.

This week, the active matches are "Nuevitos y tranquilitos", "True Tryhards", "Novato Party", and "Partida Masiva". Meanwhile, "Machanguito Jam" and "Masacre Locotrona" have already concluded.

Index

1. True Tryhards
2. Nuevitos y tranquilitos
3. Partida Masiva
4. Novato Party
5. Masacre Locotrona
6. Machanguito Jam
7. Conclusion

1. True Tryhards

As with last week, this is the "competitive" match, so it’s the first one we’ll discuss. Although the most interesting events have taken place in Machanguito, let’s not get ahead of ourselves—let’s see what is happening in True Tryhards.

This is the graph representing player threat levels throughout the 35 turns of the match so far.

* Color legend showing player threat levels at turn 35.

Since we analyzed turns 1 through 23 last week, this week we will only focus on the following 12 turns.

This is what the threat level graph looks like when filtered specifically for turns 23 through 35:

* Color legend per player, filtering only for the players still alive at turn 35.

Last week, we left the match with Salchiperro holding 3 talismans taken from Toboteb, Jaxun with 2, and Rezo with 1.

As shown in the graphs, Salchiperro achieved the impossible: snatching the talismans from the evil Jaxun. This brings Salchiperro to a total of 5 out of the 6 talismans.

Since acquiring them, Salchiperro has been exhaustively hunting for Rezo, but luck was not on his side; he couldn't find him in time. Meanwhile, Toboteb was preparing to begin his march of vengeance.

Toboteb chose to hand over the talismans to Salchiperro without a fight, sending his dragons far away so Salchiperro couldn't kill them. As a result, Toboteb preserved his entire dragon force and has staged a massive comeback... He has built a truly impressive army that Salchiperro himself fears. Now, Salchiperro is fleeing from region to region while Toboteb hunts him down, and Jaxun helps Rezo stay hidden—facilitating Rezo’s relocations while sabotaging Salchiperro by destroying towers where he plans to move or hiding information about Rezo’s whereabouts.

Meanwhile, Aarón is still healing from his wounds following the battle against Jaxun... He attempted to take down Kanendulas without success; defeating Kanendulas would have granted him a fortune in gold, ingredients, and the precious Dracolich spell.

It seemed the match would be decided between Salchiperro and Toboteb, but as we’ve seen... Jaxun appeared to be helping Rezo while plotting a new, wicked plan to seize Salchiperro's talismans.

In the end, Jaxun fooled us all and managed to take the talisman from Rezo after an aerial dogfight with Salchiperro. Both players had the same idea: sending "gofiado" dragons through a Portal to ensure they arrived first... The problem was that since they both cast Portal, they collided mid-air at the gates of Rezo’s tower. After a bloody combat, Jaxun emerged victorious and proceeded to strike Rezo, stripping his Contingency and taking the talisman.

Following this defeat, the future of the match is highly uncertain. Salchiperro might manage to take the talisman back from Jaxun, but Jaxun or Toboteb could just as easily seize the talismans from Salchiperro. At this point, synthesizing the final talisman fragment no longer seems viable...

Salchiperro’s avatar—without a doubt, the true protagonist of this "True Tryhards" match.

2. Nuevitos y Tranquilitos

As we mentioned last week, Nuevitos y Tranquilitos is a match for Alchemists who aren't complete beginners—having already played a few games—but who still find themselves outmatched in advanced Alchemist tiers. These types of matches provide the perfect environment for novice Alchemists to develop and expand their knowledge of the world of Cladia, improving their skills so they can one day participate in battles alongside the legendary Alchemists.

* Color legend showing player threat levels at turn 46.

The match is on track to become one of the longest in the history of Cladia. It seems the only players currently active are Jonay, Rumomo, and Grace. The threat ranking follows that exact order; however, if we look at the talisman count, Jonay holds 5, Grace has 1, and Rumomo has 0.

Everything seems to be leaning toward Jonay declaring himself the winner. That said, we have seen time and again in Cladia how even the most favorable situations can end with a victory for the person who seemingly had no chance.

It is worth noting that there are still talismans fragments across the world waiting to be claimed... Out of a total of 9 fragments, players have only gathered 6. This means 3 remain hidden somewhere in the depths of the continent of Cladia, waiting for a greedy Alchemist to find them.

It is surprising to see 2 AIs in the Top 5 players... It is also remarkable that Jonay has nearly double the threat level of the next player in the ranking.

3. Partida Masiva

"Partida Masiva" is a record-breaking game: it is the match with the highest number of human players in Cladia’s history to date. With a total of 22 humans and 2 AIs, spanning 6 regions and 1 neutral region. This means 4 human players per region, except for two regions where there are 3 humans accompanied by an AI. This match shows great promise, as the old legends of Cladia face off against rising stars... It is time for the new players to prove their mettle.

Due to its scale, this is expected to be a very long match, both in terms of turns and real-time. We have set a limit of 1 single turn of inactivity to avoid unnecessary delays, as with so many players, the chance of someone going AFK is much higher. Since the match is only on Turn 2, there isn't much more to report yet.

4. Novato Party

"Novato Party" was designed for those who have yet to experience a full match. These are new Alchemists fresh out of the Alchemy Academy, still unfamiliar with the deepest secrets of Cladia. It is the perfect arena for newcomers to compete against each other and master the game mechanics.

Presumably, this will be a high-turn count match, similar to "Nuevitos y Tranquilitos," as it is paused on weekends. The game features 8 regions with 3 players per region, meaning each rookie only has to face 2 AIs. With 2 neutral regions, there are 10 regions in total... We shall see throughout March if a new prodigy emerges from this match. Since we are only on Turn 2, we will leave the analysis here for now.

5. Masacre Locotrona

"Masacre Locotrona" was a lightning-fast match. It was created and finished in just 4 days—so fast that it didn't even make it into the previous summary and enters this one as already concluded.

For the newcomers: Massacre matches are those where all players start in a single region. Consequently, deaths occur very quickly because resources are scarce. This match was no exception, lasting only 10 turns—three times shorter than the average match duration.

On this occasion, there were only 2 deaths: Marc the Veteran took the life of the semi-rookie Manu on Turn 8, and the wicked Jaxun ended the life of the intrepid Raimon, a kill that granted Jaxun the victory. Because yes, once again, the winner was Jaxun.

You might wonder: How did Jaxun manage to gather the talismans so quickly?
The answer is simple: with the involuntary help of the other players. Basically, Raimon started the match by spotting 2 of the 3 talismans in the region—highly likely since, in a single-region map, talismans often spawn on the starting settlements. Like any true Alchemist, Raimon succumbed to greed and snatched those 2 fragments as fast as he could. A few turns passed until he finally located the third. Raimon was already tasting victory (one of the fastest in Cladia’s history).

However, the talisman was in a cave with a very high difficulty level. He launched his starting dragon with everything he had, even though the win probability wasn't very optimistic... But who wouldn't have tried? If he succeeded, he’d get the final fragment and win at the end of the turn. So he took the risk and failed the exploration... giving the rest of the Alchemists a crucial clue: Raimon, the owner of 2 talismans, had attempted to explore a site (a rare move for such a passive player) and failed. Therefore, that site must contain a prize so great that he was willing to risk it all.

Both Aarón and Jaxun raised an eyebrow, suspecting that the site Raimon targeted held the final fragment he craved. They prepared their Dimensional Portals and their "gofios" and charged in.

For the new players: Dimensional Portal allows your dragon to move instantaneously to its target (regardless of distance) before any other dragons even start moving. If no one else uses it, you will always arrive first. Since the first person to win a combat at a talisman site claims the prize, both Alchemists intended to grab it before Raimon could try again. Poor Raimon hadn't developed his alchemy enough to know the recipe for Dimensional Portal.

What happened? Aarón's and Jaxun's starting dragons clashed right as they exited their respective portals, fighting at the cave entrance to decide who would go home and who would explore the promising cave. In the end, as usual, Jaxun's superiority was decisive, and Aarón’s dragon stood no chance. Jaxun won the duel, explored the cave, defeated the site's guardians, and claimed the talisman. At that point, Jaxun went into "hunter mode," and it took only a couple of turns to find the unfortunate Raimon’s lair... where Jaxun finished him off, stole his two fragments, and secured a Turn 10 victory by completing the talisman.

This was the threat level throughout the match:

* Color legend showing the threat levels of all players in the final turn.

As observed, Jaxun stood out from the rest as early as Turn 3, although by Turn 5, he was nearly matched by Alchemists Aarón and Toboteb. Later, on Turn 7, Marc briefly managed to overtake him in threat, but Jaxun quickly reclaimed his throne and maintained a significant lead thereafter.

6. Machanguito Jam

This time, we’ve saved the best for last. You’ll remember from last week’s blog that Juanlu was just one Synthesize away from victory. A single talisman stood between him and glory, but the rest of the players were lurking, waiting for the slightest oversight to snatch it away... Like a "Chronicle of a Death Foretold," the impossible happened. The giant Juanlu fell into a trap set by the wicked Jaxun, teaching a lesson to all inhabitants of Cladia: it seems nothing is impossible in this wonderful world.

Basically, if Juanlu had cast Synthesize the moment he gathered the talismans, he would have won. Aarón and Jaxun were completely out of the game with no dragons left; Rezo had not yet hatched the monstrous mutant eggs in his incubator; and Toboteb... well, he tried to take the talismans from Juanlu but didn't stand a ghost of a chance. Hindsight is always 20/20, but at the time, no other player could really do anything. Rezo didn't have enough time to hatch, grow, and relocate for a proper fight; Toboteb gave it his all and failed; and Jaxun and Aarón simply had no dragons.

However, Juanlu let too many turns pass. Furthermore, he spent his time chasing Toboteb and Jaxun across the map, which allowed Jaxun to set a trap and banish Juanlu’s fearsome dragons to the Limbo. With Juanlu's capital left defenseless, Jaxun marched in and stole the talismans in the process.

Then, Jaxun gave us all a masterclass. He simply hid, moving to a new region where he hadn't been discovered yet. Even though the remaining players—Toboteb, Juanlu, Rezo, and Aarón—coordinated to track him down, they couldn't locate his lair in time. This gave Jaxun the window to destroy the other players' towers, securing an automatic victory because they couldn't reach him. They had to rebuild their dens and relocate their dragons, but by the time the dragons arrived, Jaxun would have already completed the synthesis... they were always one turn too late. Without a doubt, a masterstroke worthy of the quintessential "Master of Cladia."

It was certainly an ending that very few would have bet on a week ago.

Jaxun’s avatar, winner of the Machanguito Jam match.

Juanlu’s avatar, the protagonist of the Machanguito Jam match.

7. Conclusion

We still have several very interesting matches in progress. We’ve seen one match conclude with a movie-like ending, and we’ve kicked off the match with the highest player count in Cladia’s history. Without a doubt, the coming weeks in Cladia promise to be legendary.