Merci is nothing if not tenacious. After four years of trying to find a match for a Valentine's Day outing, he's still game to try and try again with help from his ever growing collection of friends.

This year he's bringing in the big guns: a professional Matchmaker!

It's time for Merci's Mix-Up 5!

Merci's Mix-Up 5 runs until Wednesday, February 26th at 12PM PST, introducing Alacrity the Matchmaker and bringing back Rocky the Rockstar, Sally the Succubus, Warwick the Warlock, Katie the Cupid, Frankie the Demon Crooner, and Ishtar!

New Tier 5 Crusader: Alacrity the Matchmaker

Alacrity the Matchmaker isn't your stereotypical demon. They're bubbly, vivacious and willing to help out your team with their skills, and some help from their impish friends.

The flow of magic in your formation will affect Alacrity with the Metamorphosis Mastery upgrade. When you have more magical than non-magical tagged Crusaders next to Alacrity, they'll change into their female self. When it's more non-magical than magical adjacent, Alacrity will switch to their male self. If there's a even amount of magical and non-magical Crusaders around them, they'll remain their bubbly Non-Binary self.

Alacrity is so friendly, that they're able to summon 3 Imp friends to help them, and you, out:

• Summon Scamp - If Alacrity is adjacent to at least 2 Support tagged Crusaders, they'll summon Scamp. When Scamp is active, monster spawn speed is increased by 50%. This is buffed when Alacrity is in their male form, and can be buffed by their Love Meter equipment.


• Summon Trickster - When there are at least 2 Angel or Demon tagged Crusaders in the formation, Trickster will be summoned. While Trickster is around, they'll summon a special Imp monster every 10 seconds, which counts for area progress and drop extra gold when killed. Spawns will double when Alacrity is in their Non-Binary form and you can reduce the summoning timer by collecting Alacrity's Letterhead gear.


• Summon Scoundrel - When Alacrity is adjacent to at least 4 other Crusaders, Scoundrel will show up. Scoundrel provides the formation with a 50% global DPS buff per each adjacent Crusader, which is increased when Alacrity is female.


• Familiarity - The imps continue to help out with this upgrade, providing an extra buff to the gold find provided for having Crusaders who share tags with Alacrity in formation.

When you want to add Alacrity to your formation, you can find them in slot 31 on the bench, swapping with Bridget and Xygallix.

New Tier 5 Objectives

• Recruit Alacrity | Alacrity is chilling out in a slot in the formation and reduces all Crusaders DPS to 0 if there are an unequal number of Male and Female Crusaders in it.
  Reach area 400.


• Pairing Off | If any Crusaders have more than 1 Crusader adjacent to them, all DPS is zero.
  Reach area 450.


• A Pox on Commercialism | Only Valentine's hating Crusaders are available. Check the in-game Restrictions for the list of the available Crusaders.
  Reach area 475.


• 'Match' Maker | A fiery spirit occupies a spot in the formation. It deals damage over time to the highest and lowest DPS Crusaders in the formation, if there are two or more Crusaders in formation.
  Reach area 500.


• Valentine's Day | A bitter heart occupies a spot in formation and disables Crusaders if you hurt its feelings.
  Reach area 525.

Help! Where’s the Loot?

Equipment for event Crusaders can be found in Silver and Jeweled Valentine's Chests, which you can earn from objectives and the free play or buy in the shop. Each non-recruitment objective will drop a chest for its given tier of Crusaders, and free play will drop All Tier chests. Gear for Tier 2, Tier 3, Tier 4 and Tier 5 Crusaders will only appear in All Tier chests once you've unlocked the respective Crusaders. You can select the tier of chest you buy in the shop when you go to purchase chests with real money or event currency.

What About Older Event Crusaders?

Previously-available Merci's Mix-Up Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3, and Tier 4 Crusaders are once again available to unlock as part of Merci's Mix-Up 5. For more information about those Crusaders, check out our Event Blogs from previous years:

• Rocky the Rockstar & Sally the Succubus (Tier 1)


• Warwick the Warlock & Katie the Cupid (Tier 2)


• Frankie the Demon Crooner (Tier 3)


• Ishtar (Tier 4)

Players will have until Wednesday, February 26th at 12:00PM PST to complete Merci's Mix-Up 5.

Today we're introducing 14 new objectives to the game for you to enjoy! Plus we've made some long awaited changes to one objective in particular, and revamped The Washed Up Hermit to go along with it.

We've updated World's Wake with the Tier 4 11th objective, and the five Tier 5 objectives. We've also added the Tier 4 11th objective for Descent Into Darkness and the seven Tier 5 objectives, plus we've finally changed up Get Me Out of Here so it's easier to get to the content it guards.

New World's Wake Objectives

New Tier 4 11th objective - Washed Up - The Washed Up Hermit occupies a slot in your formation and is the only one who can do DPS. Beat area 1000 with increased area difficulty scaling. Awards the new maximum number cap being 1e700. This means with maxed Arithmagician, your maximum number cap will be 1e900.

New Tier 5 objectives

• Run Away - Beat area 400 with a back column full of rabbits, and increased area difficulty scaling. Awards 250 rubies.


• Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch - Protect the Hand Grenade to area 450 with increased area difficulty scaling. Awards 300 rubies.


• Inflation - It's your toughest challenge yet: not just leveling up Nate Dragon any longer, but instead doing your best to get the entire formation to level 1000 in order to complete the objective. Awards 350 rubies.


• Your Mother's A Hamster - The Trojan Rabbit needs your escort skills again, as chickens and cows rain from the sky. Beat area 450 with increased area difficulty scaling. Awards 350 rubies.


• Top Tier - Beat area 450 with just half your Crusaders available and increased area difficulty scaling. Awards 350 rubies.

New Descent Into Darkness Objectives

Tier 4 11th objective - Inner Darkness - A seer occupies a slot in the formation and moves every 100 areas. She reveals the dark side of Crusaders adjacent to her, though The Shadow Queen is immune to this effect. If any Crusader dies, the formation wipes and goes back an area. Beat area 1200 with increased area difficulty scaling. Awards Bonus Boss Idol drops on the weekly Challenge objectives.

New Tier 5 objectives

• Grond! Grond! Grond! - Escort the vicious battering ram and beat area 450 with increased area difficulty scaling. Awards 300 rubies.


• Get Me Out of Here! - Beat area 450 with increased area difficulty scaling. Awards 300 rubies.


• Lone Descent - It's a solo walk for a Crusader to beat area 500 with increased area difficulty scaling. Awards 350 rubies.


• Double Trouble - Beat area 500 with increased difficulty scaling, as the hoards of monsters and quest items rush at you. Awards 400 rubies.


• Dual Descent - Pair up your favourite Angels or Demons as two of them take a stroll to beat area 550 with increased area difficulty scaling. Awards 400 rubies.


• Demolition Derby - Escort the explosive demolition experts to area 500 with increased area difficulty scaling. Awards 350 rubies.


• Slow Descent - Try beating area 250 this time. Awards 400 rubies.

Changes to Get Me Out of Here

This update brings changes to Get Me Out of Here, specifically in that it is no longer a timed objective. As we continue to add content to the game, including the higher tier objectives, we feel that while the old version of Get Me Out of Here was a unique piece in the game, at the higher levels of difficulty it would be a blocker to all the new content.

Get Me Out of Here is now set up in the following manner:

• Tier 1 - Monsters can't be damaged by DPS as you try to beat area 150. Awards 200 rubies.


• Tier 2 - An escort takes up the middle slot in the formation. If it dies, the formation wipes backwards an area. Beat area 350. Awards 250 rubies.


• Tier 3 - Escape is even further away as you need to beat area 550. Awards 300 rubies.


• Tier 4 - You need to beat area 750 without the help of your Legendary effects. Awards 300 rubies.

But how do new players complete Get Me Out of Here if there's no projectile Crusader in the original 20 Crusaders? That leads on to the next section.

Changes to The Washed Up Hermit

We are fans of The Washed Up Hermit's old mechanic of not having a Crusader directly in front of him, but if he wasn't in the front of your formation, it meant leaving an empty spot in your formation to get the power out of him, and most of the time, having another Crusader with Group DPS upgrades was more important than his boost.

So we've changed up his Craziness ability to require 2 or less adjacent Crusaders to the Hermit to get the boost out of it. Plus, since he is a bit crazy and he had the Arrow Attack ability sitting right there, we've changed it so that he's now a projectile firing Crusader. That way, he can help new players tackle the improved Get Me Out of Here, and for other objectives that would require a projectile Crusader before they've had a chance to recruit one from an event or the mission system.

But wait, wasn't his Arrow Attack a boost for The Bush Whacker? Don't worry! The Washed Up Hermit still boosts The Bush Whacker. We've moved the Swordplay boost to the Hermit's Dark War Stories upgrade. To accommodate the loss of that Self DPS upgrade, we boosted his remaining Self DPS upgrades. Now the Hermit is ready to help you out in your formations with his brand of crazy!

We hope you enjoy this update!