Welcome to the March update "Whatever happened to Captain Ruddero?". We bring some gameplay changes, and begin a long-awaited rework of Cycle of Evil. Stick around, as there's something to enjoy for players of all levels.

Two new features have been added to ease new players into Boom Beach.

Commanderʼs Crash Course teaches the basics of base management and map exploration, while Training Grounds focuses on the finer art of combined arms amphibious assaults, also known as base battles.

The Crash Course is available straight after the tutorial and consists of four sets of missions, designed to rapidly get the player up to HQ 5. Completing the Crash Course unlocks the Seasonal Campaign. If not completed, Crash Course is removed at HQ 7.

Training Grounds is a set of battles designed to teach unit selection and handling as well as gunboat ability use. These battles use the playerʼs ready troops. Instead of normal rewards, victory is rewarded with gold and Time Savers.

Training grounds remain available until completed.

Dr. T's island challenges now scale according to player progress. Completing the bases increases the challenge. This increase is unlimited, and the toughest players can compete for the top spots on the new leaderboards.

THREAT

Threat is a new concept used to indicate the difficulty of a challenge base. Each base in Volcano and Tropical challenges has a Threat rating, with a higher Threat indicating a more difficult base. Threat 1 is roughly meant to be a challenge for an HQ 5 base, and each increase in Threat corresponds to one HQ level. Threat 23 would correspond to a challenge for HQ 27.

When the event first starts after the update, each player is assigned an initial Permanent Threat rating. Players with HQs 5 - 11 will be assigned a Permanent Threat of 1. Higher HQs will have a Permanent Threat of HQ level minus 10. Tropical and Volcano events have their separate Permanent Threat.

ROTATION

Each time the event starts, each player can still beat seven bases.
The first base will have a Threat level equal to the playerʼs Permanent Threat. Each successive base will increase Threat by one.

If the player beats all bases, their Permanent Threat is increased by one. Thus next time the event starts, the bases will be harder. The rewards gained from bases will be correspondingly greater. There is no limit to how high a base Threat can go, but the rewards stop increasing after Threat 26.

LEADERBOARD

Both events have their own leaderboard. A playerʼs position on the leaderboard is determined by the base with the highest Threat they have defeated. To resolve ties, a destruction percentage is calculated from the following base.

Since the rewards stop increasing after Threat 26, some players might prefer not having the challenge continually increase, instead focusing on gaining maximum resources. Once these players achieve Permanent Threat 27, there will be an option in the leaderboard menu to downgrade their Threat. This downgrade can be selected even if some bases have already been defeated.

Downgrading sets the playerʼs Permanent Threat to 26 for the day and adjusts the available bases accordingly. Once selected, downgrading can not be reversed for the day. If downgrading is selected, beating all bases will not increase the Permanent Threat.

• SIMO has received a targeting upgrade, which allows it to target troops with Stealth;

• Improved Boom Pass UI error display when the player can't see the reward track due to connection issues;

• Added a timer to the base showing the remaining dive time for the Submarine;

• "Reinforce all troops" button is now available from HQ. Previously, the "Reinforce all troops" button did not appear if the player had a new landing craft that had never had troops assigned;

• The button should now be visible in all situations. 3X fast-forward button in battle is now available from HQ 1;

• To improve low-level gameplay, Heavies have a scaling training time based on level. Exact changes below.

Buttons previously shown on the left edge of the screen have been moved to a collapsing panel, accessible by tapping the player level indicator in the upper left corner.
This panel also contains the Path of Glory and Building Suggestor buttons. The Helper icon remains on the screen but now only opens the Standing Orders list.

Residence 2nd level HQ4 → HQ2
Residence 3rd level HQ4 → HQ3
Sawmill 2nd level HQ4 → HQ3
Vault 2nd level HQ4 → HQ3
Guard tower 2nd and 3rd level HQ4 → HQ3
Gold storage 2nd level time 25 min → 30 min
Guard tower 3rd level time 20 min → 15 min
Hero Hut repair time 2m 3s → 5 sec

• Battle correctly ends if the player has undeployed troops if there is no GBE to deploy them;

• Attack plans can be used to speed up mine upgrades;

• Removed music fade out when opening the map;

• Fixed UI issue that erroneously showed HP boosts affecting shield amounts;

• Fixed UI issue for Explosive Drone showing damage per second instead of damage per shot;

• Added screen darkener to reroll mission popup in boom pass screen to prevent crash that happens due to pressing multiple buttons simultaneously;

• All units have once again gone through “How to follow Flareˮ training;

• Warships: Shield Generators will be correctly destroyed when Engine Room shields are depleted instead of getting set at very low HP.