Web3 game developer Mythical Games has announced a large set of big changes coming to Year 3 of NFL Rivals, designed to improve the overall gameplay experience and make it fairer and more accessible for new players to start playing this free to play mobile sports game.

What Is NFL Rivals?

NFL Rivals is a officially licensed sports game in which you build your dream team out of collectible player cards and compete in 3D PvP matches. As you enjoy arcade-style gameplay, you get to unlock various digital cards and upgrade them to boost their stats. Take part in weekly events and climb leaderboards to earn in-game rewards as you buy, sell, and trade player cards as NFTs through the user-friendly Mythical Marketplace.

The game is available as a free to play title and has amassed more than 6 million downloads across Android and iOS on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. If you haven’t tried it yet, now might be the time to start playing in order to get a head start at enjoying the many big changes coming soon to Year 3 of this blockchain-powered title. Let’s see what’s in store for the game and its community in August this year.

What Big Changes Are Coming to Year 3?

Throughout Year 2, the team has noticed that new players were not staying engaged in the game, but would instead quickly stop playing due to how large of a divide there is in the playerbase between skilled veteran players and newbies just starting out. This significant skill gap has also made it seem like you would have to invest a significant amount of money from the get-go if you were to have some sort of decent chance at competing against the better players.

As a result of all these issues that have plagued the second year of the game, the developers are introducing a number of big changes to Year 3 in order to resolve all these problems and create a balanced playing environment that everyone can enjoy.

Once Year 3 kicks in from August 20 and onwards, you can expect to start seeing the following changes being made:

  • Base Cards are retiring,
  • Locked Cards and Mint Tokens will be introduced,
  • Synergy rows will be reset (including Year 2 Captains),
  • Upgrade system overhaul,
  • New Stadiums Mode, 
  • Leagues will be revamped and events improved,
  • Changes to Crafting, Synergy, and Squads, and
  • 800+ new cards are coming to 32 teams

Base Cards are said to be “dragging down the experience” due to their age and old stats while being on wrong teams. As a result, all base cards will be automatically converted into Training Points when you log in after August 20, while Training Tokens will be transformed into Rank Up Tokens. Blueprints will continue to remain as they will be quite useful for the new upgrade system, though the announcement doesn't seem to state how they’ll exactly be used yet.

In Year 3, the team is adding in Locked Cards and Mint Tokens. This means that most cards you earn from packs will now actually be locked, meaning you can’t trade them nor sell them, effectively making them off-chain cards that you can still level up and use for yourself. If you want to turn them into tradable NFTs, you will need Mint Tokens, which won’t be card-specific, but instead only based on rarity. Making this change will allow the team to lower pack prices and even put more or possibly better cards in those same packs, all while creating “smoother, more rewarding onboarding for new users.”

Synergy rows are getting reset, including the Year 2 Captain row, in order to pave the way for new tactics and new ways to grow with minted cards, essentially starting off a new chapter where everyone has a fresh start.

As a result of retiring Base Cards, the upgrade system is getting an overhaul. Now, instead of using training points, cards will now train with Card XP (CXP). This means that upgrading a player card will now require you to burn other cards, including LEs. If you burn minted cards, those will take more time to be consumed due to being on the blockchain, but they will award higher CXP than locked cards. Instead of having Milestones, the upgrade system will now consist of Ranks, which are unlocked by using Rank Up Tokens or cards of the same name. You can even mix up cards and Rank Up Tokens together if you want to. Season 3 minted cards are said to be receiving 5 bonus levels alongside an extra rank and special star.

Stadiums Mode is a new game mode that will allow you to enjoy wagered, real-time PvP matches in skill-based matchmaking. There will be 10 stadiums of varying difficulty levels, coupled with unique environments and modifiers. There will be an entry fees in Coins, while Trophies will be used to unlock new Stadiums. You can look forward to earning Crates depending on your wins, Stadium progress, and League standing.

“We heard your feedback about wanting to play more so we added this central mode that has unlimited play. No fuel, play as much as you want"

Speaking of Leagues, they’re getting revamped as well. For Year 3, Leagues will no longer have daily games, but will instead be based on the number of Coins you win in Stadiums and Events. The more Coins you win from Stadiums and Events, the better your League standing will likely be. You will also be able to boost your League rank depending on the amount of bonus cards you earn from Crates. Leagues will now also be 7 days long, as requested by the community. The higher the League you’re in, the better rewards you can expect to earn.

As for Events, nothing drastic is changing for them, but the team is improving segmentation to be better in line with your League tier. You will also needs Coins to enter Events, and as mentioned before, the Coins you win will help improve your League rank. The League Division you’re in will also affect which Event difficulty you can choose to compete in.

Crafting is set to become a more important feature in Year 3 thanks to the introduction of locked cards. Synergy will be reset again, with Y2 Synergy Cash set to not carry over into the third year, so only minted cards will have Synergy in Y3. Squads are getting some slight tweaks due to the new systems, meaning that squad ranking will now be based on each squad member’s performance in Stadiums and Events.

Last but not least, you can look forward to the developers releasing the Launch Set, which is a new roster of 800+ cards spread out across all 32 teams. Every card will be locked, and each of them will represent “the new standard of what an NFL Rivals card should be.” Each team will also have one special legendary card with 145-150 PWR.

On August 20 at 3 AM ET, you can expect the game to go down for maintenance in order for the team to introduce all or most of these big changes and get this relaunch up and running, one that will hopefully re-energize the web3 title and bring in a steady stream of new and engaged players to enjoy what could end up being a much-improved blockchain gaming experience.

How to Play and Earn in NFL Rivals

To play and earn in NFL Rivals, you have to collect NFT player cards. You can do this by playing the game and by participating in various events, all while climbing competitive leaderboards. While the game is free to play, you will likely want to purchase NFT cards as well in order to create a stronger team that has a better chance at competing against skilled players and thus a likelier chance of winning better rewards.

With Year 3, the cards you earn from gameplay will now be locked, requiring you to mint them using the new Mint Up Tokens. Details on how Mint Up Token are acquired and how much of them you’ll need have not been revealed at the time of writing, so be sure to keep an eye out in the coming weeks for more info as the team prepares for the huge Year 3 launch.