Greetings everyone!
Welcome back to the second season of Mana Echoes — the article series where we share insights into the behind-the-scenes process of developing existing and upcoming features for Magic: Puzzle Quest.
In this week’s episode, we’re excited to talk about a major change coming with version 7.5.0: the new Story Mode!
Why We’re Making This Change
We decided to update Story Mode to make it more engaging, rewarding, and relevant to the current state of the game. Here’s why:
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Many cards and enemies were outdated compared to the latest sets and systems.
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Player engagement with the previous Story Mode was low.
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Fewer than 25% of players reached the end of Chapter 1.
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The chapter structure made later story content inaccessible to most players.
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Difficulty progression was inconsistent — some fights were too easy, while others were too difficult.
TL;DR – The New Story Mode Arrives in Version 7.5.0!
- Story Mode is being completely reworked to offer a weekly, replayable, lore-driven experience.
- Each week, you’ll face a new sequence of battles — culminating in mini-boss and boss encounters — tied to stories inspired by Magic’s rich universe.
- Rewards will refresh weekly, encouraging players to return regularly while offering valuable prizes for both new and veteran players.
- Five new stages will launch with version 7.5.0, with more coming later — including special holiday events like Halloween and Holiversary!
- The old Story Mode (Battle for Zendikar and Heroic Encounters) will no longer be accessible after October 14th, so be sure to finish them before then.
- Get ready for a more dynamic and rewarding Magic: Puzzle Quest experience — and stay tuned for the next Mana Echoes, arriving around Halloween!
A Message from the Dev Team
Hi folks!
Before starting a deep dive into the feature, we would like to give you a short and sweet explanation of the goals and how we incorporated them into it.
The new story mode follows a series of goals, which we started introducing with the quest improvements, and will be followed by future feature releases.
These goals are:
- Create weekly ritual activities for players
- Reward players for active engagement
- Discover new stories by playing every week
- Make a game that feels alive and changing
Now, let’s get a quick rundown of the new story mode, so you can see how each goal is applied in it.
The new mode will be a weekly activity, where players engage in a series of battles that culminate with a mini-boss and main boss fight.
You can play them at your own leisure, just make sure you finish by the end of the week to get all the rewards.
Players will discover a new story each week, grounded in the Magic Lore, with its enemies, location, and scenario tailored towards the narrative.
Each story has an arch by itself, with a beginning and an end, so you don’t need to finish one to understand the next.
In terms of difficulty, we will have the normal mode at launch, which is tailored towards being comfortable to play by any player, but we have plans in the future to introduce more challenges to veteran players.
Nevertheless, the rewards you gain, which are earned after each fight and at the story completion, give great rewards, in line with the ones from daily/weekly quest completion.
The new story mode structure will enable the team to create more stories regularly, including special ones prepared with care for holidays like Halloween and Holiversary, which will be explained in another Mana Echoes.
We can’t wait to get this new story mode into your hands and get your feedback!
Story Mode Overview
The new Story Mode aims to create a more engaging and rewarding experience, giving players a fresh way to enjoy Magic: Puzzle Quest’s rich lore.
Each Story Mode stage consists of a series of sequential nodes, each containing one or more enemies that must be defeated before progressing.
Victories will award players with unique rewards both for the first completion and for any successful replay attempts.
Defeating all enemies in a stage grants additional completion rewards.
These rewards are designed to help new players progress through the early stages of the game while also giving veteran players a consistent way to earn resources through recurring weekly activity.
Each stage will remain active for one week, so make sure to complete it before the timer runs out and the next stage becomes available.
Replayability and Rewards
One major improvement over the old Story Mode is the incentive to replay content.
In the previous version, once players completed the available chapters, there was little reason to return.
With the new Story Mode, whenever a stage becomes available again, its rewards will reset, allowing players to earn them once more.
This gives the entire community a reason to revisit the feature regularly and continue earning valuable in-game resources.
Additionally, we’re introducing new daily quests tied to completing specific actions within Story Mode — plus a special surprise in the Weekly Rewards, which we’ll discuss in the next Mana Echoes episode.
The Normal difficulty has been balanced to offer a gradual increase in challenge, allowing new players to progress comfortably while still providing engaging battles leading up to the boss encounter.
Launch Details
At launch, the reimagined Story Mode will feature five new stages, each exploring different moments in Magic: Puzzle Quest lore and offering a steady stream of fresh PvE content.
More stages will be added in future updates, including special limited-time stories for holidays like Halloween, which will feature unique encounters and rewards.
Important Disclaimer
As with the launch of other features, such as the rework of the quest system, the new story mode is being released as a beta version. We’ll be monitoring the specific indicators for this feature, and may push adjustments on an “as-needed basis”.
What About Training Mode?
Don’t worry — the Training Area isn’t going anywhere!
It can now be accessed directly from the main menu.
Important Dates
If you’d like to complete the stages from the old Story Mode (Battle for Zendikar and Heroic Encounters), please do so before the release of version 7.5.0 on Tuesday, October 14th.
After that date, they will no longer be accessible.
Coming Next
That’s all for today’s episode!
We’ll be back around Halloween with the next Mana Echoes, where we’ll be talking about Planeswalkers — both old and new!
In the meantime, we’d love to hear your thoughts — are you excited for this new version of Story Mode?
Share your feedback in the discussion below!
