Marvel Snapis powerful – and controversial – Galactus card has finally been nerfed… somewhat.
After a patch rolled out on Tuesday, Galactus is still able to destroy all locations except his own, but now the player must win his location (with Galactus as the only map there) to destroy the others.
Previously, Galactus was a 6-cost 2 power card, and if you played it in a location where you had no other cards, it would destroy the other two locations. After the update, Galactus is a 6 cost card with 7 powers – not enough power to guarantee you can win a location with him alone.
Developer second dinner gave a detailed explanation for the change in patch notes published Tuesday. The studio said it had been eyeing Galactus since launch, noting its power had warped games from their original goal of claiming two locations “to waging war around maps that ‘counter’ him/his finishers and priority.”
“Galactus’ pace of play exceeded the thresholds we set for determining both competitive diversity and how often the game is reduced to that state,” Second Dinner added. The studio noted that Galactus can be countered and wanted to make time for that Marvel Snap‘s metagame to find out how players can interact with Galactus.
“[B]but that’s not the case,” the studio said. “Galactus’s popularity has grown, his win rate has only grown, and many players don’t even enjoy beating him – these are problems worth solving.”
After considering other changes, the developers settled on the winning limitation. “Winning like this allows players to challenge Galactus at the core of fun snap – Using power to challenge locations,” they wrote. If this change goes too far, or even not far enough, they still have resources to fine-tune it further, they said.
Tuesday’s patch also brought in a new game mode, Conquest Marvel Snapand made minor adjustments to the Maria Hill and Dazzler maps. Marvel Snap is a free-to-play game, available for iOS and Android devices, as well as Mac and Windows PCs.