Warcraft Arclight Rumble is an upcoming mobile game from Blizzard, set within the Warcraft universe where collectible Minis come to life to battle in frantic melee skirmishes. The game is a cross over between a tower defense and a Clash Royale-type game.
Warcraft Arclight Rumble features both PvP and PvE gameplay, with a massive PvE campaign that consists of maps, dungeons and raids. Players can join friends in co-op and battle with them or against them in PvP.
The game is created by a team with deep roots in the franchise, and intended to invoke authentic Warcraft vibes.
Warcraft Arclight Rumble Characters
At the time of release, there are over 65 Warcraft characters which make up the game’s core Mini’s selection. Each Mini has unique abilities you’ll use to counter enemy Troops, and players can mix and match Minis to form your strategy. All of them are modeled as tabletop-style miniature figures.
All of the characters fall into one of the five distinct Families that exist in Warcraft Arclight Rumble: the noble Alliance, savage Beasts, necromantic Undead, powerful Horde, and searing Blackrock.
Of course, some of the collectible characters are special and they are called Leaders:
- Alliance Leaders support defense, healing, and stealth tactics, as well as heavy use of Spells. Tirion Fordring, Maiev Shadowsong, and Jaina Proudmoore devote their skills to the Alliance.
- Horde Leaders like Grommash Hellscream, Sneed, and Cairne Bloodhoof encourage building momentum through earning additional gold, fast attacking Troops, and enemy control with area of effect stuns.
- Beast Leaders like Charlga Razorflank can disable enemy defenses, helping your numerous bestial allies stampede and overwhelm them quickly. Others like Hogger are right at home with a flurry of fast troops swarming your enemies.
- Blackrock Leaders, including Rend Blackhand and General Drakkisath, reward you for playing heavy-hitting flying Troops and searing elemental magic users to burn opponents to a crisp.
- Undead Leaders use powerful necromancy on the battlefield. As Bloodmage Thalnos uses Spells, he grows stronger with every cast. Baron Rivendare can summon endless armies of the dead to haunt the battlefield.
Characters can be levelled up by collecting experience, and they are customisable via simple talents. Each character Mini has up to three talents, one of which can be active at a given time.
After each battle, you’ll gain experience and level up your Minis. Level up to unlock the ability to use game-changing talents.
Warcraft Arclight Rumble gameplay and screenshots
The game features multiple modes include Conquest, Dungeons, Raids, Co-Op and PVP. Maps are replayable with new combinations of Leaders and Minis for additional rewards, which adds a longterm element for the game.
We already mentioned it, but Minis can be customizable using talents, which allows their abilities to be augmented in different directions.
There are 70-plus playable maps that take place all over Azeroth. Some maps feature special character like King Mukla in the Gurubashi Arena, apes in the Un’Goro Crater, Devilsaur Queen makes an appearance and more.
The developers shared that there will be varied content every single day, every single week. The team aims to have a new playable Dungeon every week, all of which can be solo played or in the Co-op mode.
The Co-op mode is a bit of a mystery at the moment, but it does allow players to join a guild, do Dungeons and Raids together and to PvP together.
Raids are also a thing, but we need to stay tuned for more information, as nothing substantial was shared during the initial game preview.
GameSpot had the chance to play around with an early build of the game, and they have a surprisingly positive opinion about the game:
According to GameSpot, all of the WAR gameplay can be enjoyed without paying a single cent of real-world money:
…the army I was able to amass just through normal gameplay and in-game currency got me through the majority of the missions I played in one try, even if some of those wins were nail-biters that weren’t decided until the final seconds. While you can buy units, doing so is more for adding some variety to your army rather than paying to win; units purchased aren’t vastly superior to ones already in your army or those earned with in-game currency.
GameSpot
No loot boxes, gacha, or NFTs
Despite being a hero collector, it has been confirmed that Warcraft Arclight Rumble is not a gacha game and will not have loot boxes.
Players will be able to purchase any unit they choose either with their own money or by saving up in-game units:
“There’s no loot box mechanics or anything like that in the game. If you want to purchase a unit, you basically scroll down to the bottom of the store, we have various different bundle sizes, you buy a bundle coin and spend it exactly on what you want because it is already in your store and you can buy it right then. So there’s no conjecture on what you’re getting at the end of the day.”
Blizzard (via Gamerbraves)
Information from developer interviews
Warcraft Arclight Rumble developers did a series of interviews with different media outlets, sharing a metric ton of information that didn’t make it into the initial preview of the game:
GameSpot Hands-On Preview
GameSpot released a video about their experience with the title.
- Blizzard is attempting to bring the franchise back to its strategic roots with this game.
- The depth and complexity of previous Warcraft strategy titles is not part of this game. These is only one currency to collect, and no buildings to create.
- The core gameplay feels a lot like the old school RTS.
- Each unit is fully autonomous when summoned, but arrows can appear at points to allow lane changes.
- There are two units that can attack anywhere on the map and must be utilized strategically.
- Each victory awards a skull. Unlocking more of these over time opens up new missions and PvP maps.
- There are purchasable units, but they are not pay to win or vastly superior to the options earned in game.
- In-game currency comes at a steady rate and there was nothing locked behind a timer. There were no common mobile tropes shown during the preview.
- Launch is later this year.
- Game is off to a strong starting impression.
GamerBraves Preview
GamerBraves released a preview for the title with some new information.
- The developers have confirmed that there are no NFT or gacha mechanics in the game.
- If you want a certain character you can simply purchase it with real-world money or the in-game currency earned from playing.
Gamerant Developer Interview
Gamerant released a interview with technical director Monte Krol and vice president/executive producer Vik Saraf with some new information as well.
- The design philosophy was to draw inspiration from the early Warcraft strategy games.
- The formula here differs somewhat, but the core of Blizzard strategy games have always centered around building a base and defending a strategic point while making offensive pushes.
- Instead of researching upgrades, units can be trained over time to become stronger, forming greater synergies within their armies.
- The three collectibles are Leaders, Troops, and Spells.
- You can mix and match different Families. You are not limited to only using one type in a fight.
- There is a rock-papper-scissor element to combat.
- Flying is strong against melee
- Melee is strong against ranged
- Ranged is strong against flying
- Family categories do not have a rock-paper-scissor advantage over each other. The team did not want players to be at a disadvantage simply based on their Family choice.
- Units gain experience through battle, or buy earning XP Tomes through quests or bought in the store.
PressStart Australia Developer Interview
PressStart Australia sat down with game director Tom Chilton and 3D artist Justine Hamer to discuss the mobile title.
- The team was inspired to make a Warcraft mobile experience by their time spent playing fun mobile games in the past.
- The game doesn’t lean on any sort of narratives from prior games.
- The artists took a sort of “pinball approach” in their map design.
- The team also wanted to include some characters from across the games that are lesser known or appreciated, including Princess the Pig from Elwin.
- The game will become devilishly challenging the further you progress.
- They have gotten great feedback internally about the way the game ramps up and develops different mechanics for the players.
- The main challenges during development were transitioning to this miniature artstyle and creating a large number of maps.
- The team learned a lot from the Hearthstone team as both games are developed on the Unity engine.
- The team has discussed a PC version, but they don’t know if they will do it yet. They will base it on player feedback.
- The maps are created for a specific intended screen size and not intended for widescreen.
- Diablo Immortal is a landscape game, and so it carries itself over visually for PC more than a portrait game.
- Tablet tends to port well for portrait games.
- There is a map where an alchemist throws different potion buffs around and you can strategically focus on which ones you want.
- Some maps have more three-dimensional gameplay with overpasses.
- The game will receive new maps, dungeons, raids, and modes after launch.
Closed Beta is coming soon
Warcraft Arclight Rumble closed beta is scheduled to start soon, in limited regions of the world. Players need to preregister for access on the official website via Battle.net.