April Fools

Strike battles and the Isla Event during April Fools are one of the highlights of JWA in the past few years. From the almighty Lord Lythronax to the stingy goats, the wacky All-Powerful Dodo, ambitious Ailurarctos and the sluggish Beelzebufo. They had all brought us joy from every aspect, like their enormous sizes and ridiculous moves, and one should also mention those highly attractive Epic incubators as well. Many players didn’t really care about this much, because it’s April Fools, so everything can go as bizarre as it could. But if one could compare this year’s April Fools, it's rather different from the others. From what the fun event was before has completely turned upside down with this whole new change, combining the results and player base altogether, it is something that can’t be erased.

Let’s begin with the brighter side of this year’s April Fools: The Isla Event. In this year’s April Fools we were introduced to a triple threat: Tiny T-Rex and her tiny twin, as well as a Mini Mortem. One could laugh out loud when seeing their ‘mini’ sizes compared to the rest of the roster. Who wouldn’t burst out in laughter when the tyrant lizard king has been shrunk into something smaller than a Compsognathus? Still, don’t let their miniature sizes fool you, because they can be hard bosses to be beaten up. Fortunately Tiny T-Rex and Tiny T-Rex Twin are comparatively easy to be beaten with the combined work of several creatures exclusively used on raid strats, but Mini Mortem on the other hand, requires a bit of luck to defeat it until the end. To beat something with a priority group stun on the 1st turn can be horrific to be fought against, but when you take a look at the final prize: An Apex incubator that guarantees 300 DNA of raidable Apex. The whole experience seemed worth the time. That was my initial reaction when taking a look at the Isla Event, so I used a total of 50 minutes to finish the whole event, which I used up my team of underdogs: a level 25 Indoraptor Gen 2, a level 21 Nomingia, a level 21 Parasauthops and a level 21 Spinoconstrictor in order to achieve a sweet victory. Although the fight was hilarious, (One instance all my creatures were stunned by Stunning Roar at the same exact moment) I still managed to win with none of my creatures getting knocked out. At long last, I managed to unlock one of my favourite Apexes: Imperatosuchus just because of this event. In fact, after a bit of fact-checking, the best Apexes you can get from the event are either Pteranokyrie, Alacranix or Imperatosuchus. A 30% chance of getting either one of the 3 unlocked for newer players, a pretty satisfying start for sure. Probably the best Isla Event we’ve gotten in a long time, and so I didn’t have any problem with April Fools. But it turns out I was wrong.

Days after the Isla Event, we were introduced to 2 Epic strike tower events related to the aforementioned event. One of which is a 1 way round on getting an Epic incubator by defeating an Allosaurus Gen 2, a Giganotosaurus and a Sonorasaurus. That one was fine, but the second one wasn’t. It was the same exact bosses I encountered a few days earlier. When I took a look at the stats of the level 26 Mini Mortem, it had 75000 health BY DEFAULT. At first I realised that it’s April Fools, so it’s just normal for JamCity to think of something nonsense for us to fight against. But after I took a look at the resistances, I almost jumped off my sofa. Not only because they are all RNG based, but 80% affliction resistance like in the Isla Event? Totally unacceptable. I can’t believe the game literally just copied and pasted the whole boss from the Isla Event to the strike event like it’s nothing. This is not just proof of showing how lazy the developers are, but rather the fact they don’t care about how the player base would feel about this. 

Moving on my battle montage towards this strike event, it was an immense disaster. A battle that is supposed to be fought with 4 creatures at the same time now became one head to head fight. You may say that the Isla Event had a restricted amount of creatures from the roster to be chosen from, but the strike event is included for every creature in the game. But you thought wrong. Even with my own battle experience, not even my trusty Skoonametrodon, Allodrigues, Thylos Intrepidus and Pyrorixis can defeat this monstrosity. The internet has also spoken with this whole issue, and even top players have expressed their frustration on even going past the FIRST level when there are still 9 more to go through, which will just be the same ones but with even harder stats. I tried the same event 10 more times, and none of them proved success for me. You might beat Tiny T-Rex and her tiny twin in the strike event, but Mini Mortem? It’s an almost impossible task. I have to admit, I am a persistent person, but this event is in fact one of the few times I gave up on something. The reward wasn’t worth the time as well. An Epic incubator is obviously not the best choice for such a challenge. Why not make one with something exclusive to make it much of a difference?

Ever since the event was released, more and more players from the community have expressed their voices across various platforms. Ranging from anger to disappointment. And from all these huge issues the player base has voiced upon, NOTHING has been done to alleviate the problem. We get that this is supposed to be an April Fools' joke, and everything can be obscure as it could be, but I don’t think the reality lives up to our expectations. If you were to release the bosses from the Isla Event to the strike towers, it’ll at least make sense that you would tone down the stats a bit more manageable towards the players. It’s not like everyone who could defeat Mini Mortem in the Isla Event could also do so in the strike towers. From what the stats of these 3 bosses in the strike tower tell me, only the top 50 players, or perhaps even fewer can beat all 10 rounds straight to the end. Even though I might be saying that they could beat it, it is not without any lucky RNG as well. Now imagine the results if it weren’t for the trusty RNG. 

Did it have to go this way? I don’t think so. But this reflects how much the player base has been in agony at this point. From what the community has mentioned on potential ways to win in this strike event, most of them suggest using top tier creatures, like Skoonametrodon, Concatoloch and Stegosaurus Ungulatus, while some also suggest creatures with cloak like Indonemys. While some of these creatures might work, it is not without these creatures being boosted, enhanced or having some certain moves unlocked. What is required in order to have these creatures upgraded? A ton of in-game resources. What do most players do to obtain these resources? You might expect that you’ll require a huge amount of time to obtain them, but this is another example of how the pay-to-win method in this game has gone out of control. I cannot help myself but to say once again: The game’s about fun, not relying on real-life currency to win everything. Overall speaking, this is a strike tower gone wrong.

With this event being ruined with the introduction of the new bosses, I can humbly say that it definitely needs to change. Even if April Fools might be an exception. The same applies to other events as well. This is another lesson of how developers can restore the game to be a better place much like it was before. Thanks for reading and have a happy April Fools and Easter!