MSF Sagas - Everything you need to know

Two days ago, in the “Sagas and Awakened Abilities” blog, Scopely announced its long-term plans for the game’s future. There is a lot of information given with brief explanations that could mislead you. That is why I will try to explain everything in simple words so you can fully understand the mechanics and an approximate time for clearing all new features.

Let’s start.

Important: rules, requirements, and rewards can be subjects of change in the future.

Sagas Concept

Horseman Sagas are new Campaign-like game features. Instead of the current Dark Dimension window, we will get a new “Epic Campaign” window in the upcoming 6.3 Update. Everything will remain the same (from Epic Campaign you can pick Dark Dimension difficulty as it is now), except there will be new Sagas as well.

The concept of Sagas is quite simple. There will be Saga for each Horseman:

Pestilence Saga
Famine Saga
War Saga
Death Saga

Each of those 4 Sagas will become available for playing after the second Scourge of the Appropriate Horseman. For example, after the end of the upcoming Pestilence Scourge, we should be able to start Pestilence Saga.

The progression mechanics are also already known – there will be five nodes but unlike in DD, Scourges, and Raid, you won’t need to worry if you don’t have full HP at the end or if someone dies. Each new node will grant you a fresh start like in Campaigns (It is important to say that those rules can be changed in the process)

Sagas will have three difficulties. You need to clear Difficulty 1,2 or 3 for all Horseman Sagas to unlock appropriate difficulties for:

Apocalypse Saga

Apocalypse Saga will be the main goal of your progression and there you will have a chance to unlock the mighty Apocalypse after clearing Difficulty 2.

Sagas Requirements

Each Saga has a specific character and difficulty requirements:

Pestilence Saga

Morgan Le Fay, Doctor Strange [Heartless], Agatha Harkness, Wong, Scarlet Witch
Difficulty 1 – all characters on Gear T13
Difficulty 2 – all characters on Gear T15
Difficulty 3 – all characters on Gear T17

Famine Saga

Rogue, Gambit, Fantomex, Sunfire, Dazzler
Difficulty 1 – all characters on Gear T13
Difficulty 2 – all characters on Gear T15
Difficulty 3 – all characters on Gear T17

War Saga

Red Hulk, Hulk, She-Hulk, Brawn, Abomination
Difficulty 1 – all characters on Gear T13
Difficulty 2 – all characters on Gear T15
Difficulty 3 – all characters on Gear T17

Death Saga

Death Horseman and his team (will be announced in the future)
Difficulty 1 – all characters on Gear T13
Difficulty 2 – all characters on Gear T15
Difficulty 3 – all characters on Gear T17

Apocalypse Saga

Morgan Le Fay, Rogue, Red Hulk, Death Horseman, all characters from their teams, and several additional characters that will be announced in future
Difficulty 1 – all characters on Gear T13 Level 5, completed Pestilence, Famine, War, and Death Saga on Difficulty 1
Difficulty 2 – all characters on Gear T15, completed Pestilence, Famine, War, and Death Saga on Difficulty 2
Difficulty 3 – all characters on Gear T17 and ISO-8 T2, completed Pestilence, Famine, War and Death Saga on Difficulty 3, Costumes for all 4 Horseman

Since unlocking Apocalypse will require clearing Apocalypse Saga on Difficulty 2, you will need approximately thirty characters on Gear Tier 15 at least. This means that you should fully focus on all available Horseman members starting now!

Sagas Rewards

Aside from the obvious (unlocking Apocalypse), those new features will award players with the current most valuable resources and more:

Gold,
Orange Gear,
Armory 16 Orb Fragments,
ISO-8 T2 materials,
Appropriate Awakened Abilities
Appropriate Costumes
ISO-8 T2 Level 5 Ions and Crystals

Each Horseman (MLF, Rogue, Red Hulk, Death) will have so-called “Awakened Abilities”. This means that those four characters will have +1 additional level for at least two abilities. To unlock those levels, you will need specific materials exclusive to the appropriate Saga.

For example, to unlock Morgan Le Fay’s special ability Level 8 and passive ability level 6 you will need to clear certain nodes on certain difficulties.

For the first time, Costumes will be needed as requirements for the game feature – for starting Apocalypse Difficulty 3 you will need costumes of all 4 Horseman. Costumes will be gained for clearing Difficulty 3 of Horseman’s Sagas. For example, after you finish Pestilence Saga Dif 4 you will get a new costume for Morgan Le Fay.

Apocalypse level 3 will also require all Horsemen at ISO-8 T2 Level 5. The last level of ISO-8 T2 grants some amazing additional abilities to every class. ISO-8 T2 Level 5 Ions and Crystals will be available on Difficulty 3 of each Horseman Saga. Clearing the difficulty will grant enough Ions for upgrading one character, meaning that you will be forced to use those materials on Horsemen.

Overall, the progression in Sagas should slowly build your characters to fulfill the requirements for the Apocalypse Saga. All of this suggests that your progression will be straightforward because you will be forced to improve the characters needed for Sagas. How it will affect the progression of the other 180 characters available in the game remains to be seen.

Conclusion

When we summarize all the gathered information, we can conclude two important things.

The first and most important thing is that if you didn’t finish Dark Dimension 5 you should focus all available resources on bringing Horsemen members on T16 and use them in DD5 instead of those you’ve already planned.

I cannot predict the price and availability of T17 gear, but I am quite sure from existing MSF experience that you should start saving immediately. Since you’ll need Darkhold and Unlimited X-Man on T17 for Sagas, there is no excuse to spend Mutant and Mystic Gear on anyone else but mentioned characters.

In practice, that means that if you are about to improve Secret Avengers for Global Nodes, just stop and focus on Darkhold and Unlimited X-Man. You will have to do it either way and it is better to do it sooner rather than later. The same concept goes for all players, even those who are just starting the game. In short, Marvel Strike Force started to be a linear game.

Second, you should have in mind the time span required for reaching Apocalypse Saga. Even though we got all the needed information about mechanics that doesn’t mean that we will be able to challenge Apocalypse any time soon.

There are 4 Sagas, and you will need to play 2 Scourges for each Horseman before unlocking the appropriate Saga. The interval between Pestilence and Famine Scourge was three full months. The interval between the first Pestilence Scourge and the second will be at least 4 months. If Scopely continues to release content at the same pace we can expect to unlock Death Saga in about a year, at best. To be clear I am speaking about Difficulty 1.

In the best-case scenario, Apocalypse Saga will be available in September 2023. In the meantime, you will have to improve new upcoming characters for War and Death Scourge. This means that your focus can’t be only on Horseman teams, but you will have to be active all the time and build all new characters in the process. In other words, you should be prepared for a Marathon.

Honestly, it is good that we know in advance what the new game concept and the end game are. It indeed narrows our focus and prevents freedom in deciding who to improve and when, but at this point, I can’t think of a better way to keep old players occupied.

The good news is that Scopely is fully drawn to improving the overall gaming experience and prolonging the life of the game. During the last 6 years, the Marvel Strike force has had its good and bad moments and this one is good. If it will be good enough to keep old players engaged, we can only wait and see.