LoL rival Supervive is a must-play, but its progression system needs a rethink

A few days ago, MOBA battle royale Supervive pulled out its glider and swooped into 1.0. Many, myself included, bounced off the open beta as the gameplay loop gradually became stale. To keep things fresh, developer Theorycraft Games has made sweeping changes between the end of its open beta and final release, especially to how progression works. This bold switch up spawned the Armory, which has unsurprisingly yielded mixed reviews from players.

As I wrote back on launch day, Supervive has the chops to be one of the best battle royale games and best MOBAs out there. Having spent a little bit of time with 1.0, my enthusiasm hasn't waned, though my fears over its new progression system appear to have materialized. The Armory utilizes a new currency called Prisma, earned through racking up kills, farming creeps, and completing missions. This can then be used to purchase gear from the rotating shop, or to try your luck on cheaper, gacha-style loot capsules.

Though the Armory isn't a pay-to-win system (Prisma is entirely earned), it incentivizes not only a heavy amount of grinding to eventually accrue copies of top-tier gear, but also a selfish in-game playstyle. This is because a portion of your spoils are lost should you die. As you can imagine, self-preservation is the optimal way to play in order to get a chance to progress.

The grind shouldn't be so bad if the rate at which you earn Prisma is high enough. This seems to be the case from what I've played so far, but the kicker is that all of your progress gets reset each season.

The Armory has, justifiably, left a sour taste in the mouths of some. Already, high elo and 1,000-hour-plus players are dunking on newcomers in casual lobbies to min-max their Prisma farming. Should the current system make onboarding miserable for newbies, it'll become a slippery slope that could accelerate Supervive into a playerbase consolidation phase long before it's due. This has certainly been felt over on Steam, where the game's recent reviews are currently mixed.

"I can't in good faith recommend this game to others with its currently implemented system," writes one player. "This game at its best is such an incredibly special experience and it really does pain me to not be able to recommend it to others," they conclude.

"Liked the game before and was excited to come back with 1.0 release, but the itemization changes ruined the game for me," writes another. "Why would you ever need to open boxes to have all the items to choose from in a game like this?"

Fortunately for Theorycraft, despite the grumbling, newcomers and veterans alike are praising how fresh and fun the game is, as well as the sheer amount of build variation the Armory brings with it.

"Before, I didn't feel like I had much choice in my weapons and I didn't really care about weapons," says one Redditer. "[In] 1.0, I feel like I have a real choice and build path. I can tailor my character to my play-style and that's sick."

I am certainly having a blast getting to grips with 1.0 and how it impacts my boy Felix, but whether or not I commit to the grind remains to be seen. Regardless of how good Supervive 1.0 is, it's clear that there are some teething issues with the Armory that need to be salved.

If you're jumping back in, keep an eye out for shiny new Supervive Twitch drops.

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