Cross Server Arena - Qualifying Period

The best of the best across servers can enter the fray to battle it out in the Cross Server Arena!

Cross Server Arena is very different from your normal Dressrosa Arena. A good deck does not guarantee you a spot in the Cross Arena rankings. This is because the system is largely point based, and to earn more points you simply need to spend Gold. It seems like this feature is made to benefit cash players, and FTP players hardly stand a chance at all, unless you have plenty of Gold stashed beforehand. However FTP players can still reap many freebies and rewards from the event.

The in-game guide on Cross Server Arena is... beyond terrible.  Like seriously... *shakes head* Yea I guess there is a lot to explain, so it may be hard to put them all in words, but the game copywriters could really do much better for the guide!

For easier reference, I am breaking the my guide for Cross Server Arena into 2 sections, Qualifying Period, and the Elimination Stages.



Overview of Cross Server Arena

Cross Server Arena opens to all players who are Lvl 12 and above.

Check the Server Entry list to see the list of participating servers for your group.



Qualifying Round

In the Qualifying Round, there are 5 stages. You start from Rookie, and move on to Set Sail, then Wave Slasher, Unique Prestige, and finally Golden Body.

In each stage, players battle each other for points. In order to proceed to the next stage, you need to collect enough points for that stage.

• Rookie - 1500 points
• Set Sail - 1680 points
• Wave Slasher - 1840 points
• Unique Prestige - 1980 points
• Golden Body 

When you hit the number of points required for each stage, you will be brought to the Promotion Round. There, you need to defeat 3 of the 5 enemies listed before you are 'promoted' and move on to the next stage to continue your point collection. 

After the server resets at midnight (+8GMT), if you are still unable to be promoted, the number of wins required will be reduced by 1. (Eg. You need 3 wins at first, but after midnight you now only need 2 wins.) However, it is required that you win at least 1 battle in the Promotion Round.

Each battle attempt costs 1 stamina.

Each day you have 20 free attempts to battle other players, as well as 1 free chance to refresh your opponent list. You can purchase more attempts or refreshes with Gold. 

You can also click on Last Stand instead of the normal Challenge to gain a temporary 20% stat boost for your team, however, this will cost you 4 attempts instead of 1, as well as 5 stamina.

For each battle you initiate, a win earns you 75 to about 150 points, 3 Orbs and 2 Gold. A loss gives you 1 Orb and 1 Gold. 

When another player attacks you, you keep your points if you defend successfully, or lose points if you are defeated. According to the in-game guide, "if the attacker uses windstorm, you won't lose points." I am assuming that they meant if your opponent had used Last Stand to battle you, you will not lost points even if you lose. 

Last Preliminary Round - Golden Stage

From here onwards, it's basically point farming all the way! Similar to the previous stages, you fight other players to accumulate points until the Qualifying Period ends.

As usual, you get 20 free attempts and 1 free refresh daily. You need to purchase extra attempts/refreshes with Gold.

Top 32 players with the best scores will proceed to the Elimination Stage.



Rewards

Rewards will be sent everyday, and what you receive depends on which stage you are in. The rewards will be available for collection till the end of the Cross Arena Battle, so don't forget to claim it before it poofs!

Random things to note:

• The cost to purchase extra attempts and refreshes resets every midnight (+8GMT). If you are a cash player aiming for the top 32 spots, do bear this in mind and plan your spendings.
• For each stage at the Qualifying Round, you cannot get negative points. Hence, for FTP players, in order to avoid getting attacked too often in the beginning stages, you can consider to camp in Promotion Rounds most of the time, while timing your attacks properly.
• If you are aiming for top 32, remember to note what time the Qualifying Period ends. 
• Right at the end of the Qualifying Round, the system will start to capture the decks of the top 32 players and save the details of their team formations for the first upcoming Elimination match. The server does this between 9 to 10PM (+8GMT). We cannot pin point the exact timing which the server will save your formation, but one of our alliance member has estimated that the game saved his deck at about 9.05pm while he was in the midst of swapping out some of his heroes for his Adventure deck. 
• Once a player's formation is saved into the system for the upcoming match, that formation will be kept and used for next the Elimination match in Cross Server Arena. Any further changes you make to your team later in the day will NOT be be reflected at all. Therefore it is important to set your deck by 9pm server time DAILY and leave it untouched till 10pm when the system is done sorting out the match-ups. Or else, you may have to risk using a wrong team for your upcoming match. 
• Just in case you are confused by what I just wrote, let me summarise the previous 2 pointers again. You need to:
• Set your formation by 9pm (+8GMT)
• Let the system capture and save your deck between 9 to 10pm
• 10pm onwards, the game reveals the match-ups for the Elimination Stage and your formation for Cross Server Arena is set. Any changes you make to your team now will not affect this match. Wait for the results the following day at 10pm.

Update: There seems to be a bug ever since the beginning of Cross Server Arena. For your cheering team stats, the formations in the leaderboards will only display Lv 0 for all your cheering slots no matter how much you have leveled them.

Not sure if this bug only affects the display of player's formation, or the effects are carried over into actual battle. We'll find out once the Elimination Stages start.


This guide is continued in Cross Server Arena - Elimination Stages.