This Anniversary marks the official launch of Draft Mode into the regular event rotation.

While we had an early preview of Draft during the Skulls celebration in May, it was very much a test run for the real thing. That first event, together with all your feedback, gave us what we needed to refine the mode before bringing it into the regular event rotation.

Draft will have a home in the Crusades tab alongside Campaigns, and for now will run for 5 days during the third week of every Season, while we work out the best format for it long term.

We’ve upgraded Draft in a number of ways since you last saw it, so here’s a sneak peek at all the new features and improvements you can expect going forward.

Choose Your Faction

One of the most requested new features was the ability to choose between multiple factions, and we’ve done exactly that. When starting a multi-faction Draft, the first step will be selecting which faction you want to play.

You will be presented with a choice of two factions when entering a Draft. If there are only two playable factions, this will always be a fixed choice. However, when more than two factions are available, the options presented will be randomised, just like every other choice during the Draft.

This lets you play the factions you enjoy most while also increasing replayability as you master different factions against different opponents. It also gives you a little more control over the randomness of each run, allowing you to choose the faction that’s best suited to the opponent you’re facing.

Combined Token and Plasma Entry

Another key area of feedback was the cost of entering a Draft and the rewards available. We’ve made changes to both.

Previously, a Draft entry cost 50 Tokens or 1,000 Plasma. If you had fewer than 50 Tokens, you had to pay the full 1,000 Plasma to enter. Now, your Tokens will always be used first, with the remaining portion of the entry cost paid in Plasma.

Before, if you had less than 50 Tokens you would have to pay the full 1,000 Plasma, but now for example entering a draft with 48 Tokens would only cost 40 Plasma and use all your tokens.

So where starting a draft with 48 Tokens would mean the cost remained the full 1,000 Plasma, it will now only cost 40 Plasma, while also using your remaining Tokens.

Which brings us nicely to the rewards.

Improved Rewards

The cosmetic focus of the first Draft was always intended to be a one-off while we tested the mode and balanced entry costs, opponents and difficulty. That said, it’s still early days, so we’ll continue to stay flexible and make adjustments as we gather more data from future Drafts.

For this iteration, all rewards will come in the form of Cards and Tokens.

Cards will be drawn from the pool of all playable factions in the event. In this upcoming Draft, players can choose either Necrons or Aeldari, while facing the Tyranids, so rewards will be drawn from all three factions. The distribution is completely random, with no guaranteed allocation between factions.

The new rewards table is as follows:

(Rewards are based on the highest level reached, rather than the cumulative total of every previous reward.)

Match Difficulty	Easy				Medium			Hard			Champion
Wins	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Cards	5	15	20	25	35	40	45	60	70	75	100
Tokens	2	3	6	8	19	23	26	38	42	47	58

As you can see, we’ve significantly increased the number of Cards available. We’ve also reduced the Token rewards slightly to make room for more Cards, following player feedback and alongside the new combined entry system.

The top prize now awards 100 faction Cards alongside 58 Tokens providing a full-value return on the entry free with a little extra on top.

Additional Difficulty Level – Champion Difficulty

The eagle-eyed among you may have noticed there’s now a fourth difficulty listed: Champion.

The final battle will now be against a new Champion difficulty. This is best thought of as a Hard+ rather than being a whole order of magnitude more difficult than the current Hard difficulty.

Champion difficulty will only feature a single deck for each Warlord (where every other difficulty has three), allowing us to build the strongest possible version of each deck. Every Champion deck will also feature full Gold Enhancements.

Each deck will still follow the same rarity restrictions as the player’s Draft deck. We saw a number of questions about how enemy decks were built during the first Draft, so we’ve laid out the rules for each difficulty below.

Max Rarity

• Legendary: 0
• Epic: 2
• Rare: 4
• Common: 4

Enhancements: Bronze / Silver

Max Rarity

• Legendary: 1
• Epic: 2
• Rare: 4
• Common: 4

Enhancements: Bronze / Silver / Gold

Max Rarity

• Legendary: 2
• Epic: 3
• Rare: 4
• Common: 4

Enhancements: Silver / Gold

Max Rarity

• Legendary: 2
• Epic: 3
• Rare: 4
• Common: 4

Enhancements: Gold

As mentioned above, every difficulty includes every available Warlord, with three decks per Warlord at each difficulty, except Champion, which has just one.

Within each difficulty, no individual card can appear in more than one deck for the same Warlord. For example, if one of Logan Grimnar’s Hard decks contains Astorath the Grim, the other two Hard Logan Grimnar decks cannot.

We’ve also adjusted the Enhancement pools at each difficulty to create a broader spread, with guaranteed full Gold Enhancements now reserved exclusively for Champion.

Quality of Life Improvements

Alongside the gameplay changes, we’ve also added a number of quality of life improvements to make playing Draft smoother and more enjoyable. 

Improved Draft UI

We’ve updated the Draft UI to include a top-level preview of each card’s cost, along with all of its rolled Enhancements.

This should save a fair bit of mental maths, while also reducing the need to constantly open full card views just to check Enhancement rolls. It also makes it much easier to spot cards with exceptional rolls, or cards that would normally be auto-picks but have rolled weaker upgrades.

The existing card inspection functionality is still there, so you can still view the full card details and stats at any point during the Draft.

We’ve also added your Draft Token balance to the top of the Draft campaign header, allowing you to see how many Tokens you have available without opening the Draft event—or even when Draft isn’t currently running.

Draft Forfeit 

The most requested feature after the first event was the addition of a Forfeit button, allowing players to cash out after a difficult run rather than having to play through matches they knew they were unlikely to win.

You can now end your Draft run at any point. After confirming, you’ll immediately receive the rewards for your current progress and be able to start a new Draft straight away.

Drafts and Missions

The final improvement is that Draft kills now contribute towards Missions, meaning Draft progresses Missions just like any other Campaign.

Some players felt that choosing to play Draft came at the expense of Mission progress, making it feel like they were leaving rewards on the table. That should now be much less of a concern, giving you more freedom to choose how you want to play—whether that’s Draft, Campaigns, or a bit of everything.

Concluding Thoughts

Needless to say, a lot has gone into getting Draft ready for its full release and into the regular event rotation.

That said, we’re certainly not done yet. We’ll be keeping a close eye on every aspect of Draft and will continue making improvements and adjustments as more players get experience with the mode.

We’re incredibly excited to see Draft become a regular event for Warhammer Combat Cards, and we hope you’ll be just as excited to jump in.