Update History

This page summarizes the update history of The Battle of Polytopia. For a complete record, please consult the game's pages on the App Store and Steam.

Version 1: Adobe AIR

Version 1.0 was released on iOS only in February 2016. It used the Adobe AIR system.

Version 1.1, released on March 23, 2016, was named "Bunny" and introduced the Hoodrick and Luxidoor tribes.

Version 1.2, released on May 4, 2016, introduced the Domination game mode and ambience sounds.

Version 1.3, released on June 22, 2016, introduced the Vengir tribe. In this update, the game's name was changed from Super Tribes to The Battle of Polytopia.

Version 1.4, released on August 4, 2016, was named "Summer" and introduced the Trade and Whaling technologies, the Zebasi tribe, and the Scout land unit. The latter has since been removed; its name has been repurposed for a naval unit.

Version 1.5, released on October 6, 2016, was named "Dawn" and introduced separate leaderboards for each tribe, the three-star rating system, and the "sunrise" Easter egg.

Version 1.6, released on November 30, 2016, was named "Myriad." It introduced Pass and Play multiplayer and the Ai-Mo tribe and saw the release of the game on Android.

Version 1.7, released on March 31, 2017, was named "Power." It was the first update to significantly change game mechanics to balance gameplay. It introduced the Philosophy technology, the Battleship and Mind Bender units, and the Destroy and Disband abilities. It also gave the Knight the persist unit skill and nerfed the Catapult.

Version 1.8, released on June 8, 2017, was named "Atlantis" and added the Aquarion tribe.

Version 1.9, released on October 18, 2017, was named "New World" and added the Quetzali tribe.

Version 1.10, released on Feburary 15, 2018, was named "Multitopia A" and introduced online multiplayer.

Version 1.11, released on May 24, 2018, was named "Rainbow A" and added the ∑∫ỹriȱŋ tribe.

Version 1.12, released on December 25, 2018, was named "Snappy A." It added the Yădakk tribe and used a new multiplayer server.

Version 1.13, released on April 8, 2019, was named "QoL and Design." It did not include any major content updates, focusing on design changes instead.

Version 1.14, released on June 14, 2019, was named "Freeze" and added the Polaris tribe. Version 1.14.1, released on July 5, 2019, balanced the Polaris tribe by increasing the maximum level of the Ice Bank from 8 to 10 but reducing the population that the Outpost produces from 2 to 1. Version 1.14.2, released on October 7, 2019, added the mixed tribes Easter egg.

Version 1.15, released on January 7, 2020, was named "Língua" and added a Portuguese translation. Version 1.15.1, released on April 14, 2020, added a German translation and the ∑∫ỹriȱŋ language Easter egg. Version 1.15.2, released on June 4, 2020, added French, Italian and Spanish translations. This was the final major update to the Adobe AIR version of Polytopia.

Version 2: Moonrise

Main article: The Battle of Polytopia: Moonrise

Version 2, named Moonrise, is the most recent version of Polytopia. It is written in Unity. It was initially released as the first version of the Steam port on August 4th, 2020. It was later released on mobile on November 23, 2020.

Version 2.0.20, released on October 1st, 2020, increased mountain and metal spawn rates as follows:

• General mountain spawn rate: 0.15 → 0.2
• General metal spawn rate: 0.5 → 0.85
• Xin-xi mountain spawn rate: 1.5 → 2
• Xin-xi metal spawn rate: 1 → 1.5
• Quetzali metal spawn rate: 0.1 → 1

Version 2.0.31, released on December 3, 2020, allowed all units to capture cities. Previously, the Mind Bender and units with the fly skill could not capture cities. Also, the Sanctuary no longer counted animals that live in forests with a Lumber Hut.

Version 2.0.38, released on January 26, 2021, allowed tribe encounters to be triggered by revealing an enemy city, even if the city has no enemy unit in it.

Version 2.0.44 (version 40), released on February 17, 2021, introduced the Cymanti tribe, increased the Literacy discount (part of the Philosophy technology) from 20% to 33%, and gave the Polytaur the independent unit skill.

Version 2.0.49, released on April 21, 2021, was named "Balance Pass 1." In this update, whales were restricted from spawning adjacent to a city or another whale, the Clear Forest ability was moved from the Forestry technology to Free Spirit, the income from Clear Forest was reduced from two stars to one, and Luxidoor's capital was reduced from a level 3 city with a city wall to a level 2 city.

Version 2.0.53, released on June 9, 2021, introduced the "Battle Preview" feature, allowed capturing a level 5+ city to finish the Metropolis task, and made players more likely to spawn further apart from each other.

Version 2.0.58, released on September 8, 2021, was named "Balance Pass 2." This update restored the income from Clear Forest to two stars, increased the price of the Knight to 10 stars, lowered the cost of the Burn Forest ability to two stars, removed ∑∫ỹriȱŋ's access to Burn Forest, changed the land unit ruin reward from a super unit to a veteran Swordsman, allowed ruins to spawn next to villages, made ruins more likely to spawn on mountains, standarized the tribe encounter reward to a star reward based on the encountered tribe's score, moved the mountain defence bonus from the Meditation technology Climbing, introduced an in-game Elo multiplayer rating system, and modified the Oumaji headscarf to be more realistic. This update also included balance changes for the Cymanti tribe: the defence reduction due to poison was increased from 20% to 30%, poison can now be removed by healing once instead of healing to maximum health, the movement penalty imposed by Fungi was removed, any boost effect is now removed by defending against an attack or exploring a ruin, a Segment can now be converted to convert the entire Centipede, the Phychi gained the surprise unit skill, the Raychi's price was increased from five to eight stars, the Hexapod's price was increased from two to three stars, the Algae's population was removed, and the Algae now connects cities.

Version 2.2, released on May 24, 2022, introduced the Diplomacy technology and its associated mechanics, including the Cloak and Dagger units and the Embassy building. Accordingly, the Shields technology was renamed to Strategy, as it now unlocks the Peace Treaty. Also, Clear Forest had its income once again reduced to one star but was moved back to the Forestry technology, the Knight had its maximum HP reduced from 15 to 10 but its cost restored to 8 stars, the Kiton had its maximum HP reduced to 15, and the Algae had its population restored to one.

Version 2.2.9, released on Oct 10, 2022, adjusted Cloaks by allowing all units to detect them and giving them the Scout and Creep abilities. Infiltration's design was improved and causes damage to defending units. Cities can only be infiltrated once per turn, and an infiltrated city's income is stolen by its attacker. Additionally, Daggers now have a naval form, the Pirate. To balance special tribes, Crabs' movement was increased, along with decreases in explosion and fungi damage. Ice Banks and intertribal healing have been tweaked.

Version 2.8 was the Path of the Ocean update which released on November 21, 2023. This version completely reworked the polytopia naval system. All old naval units were removed and replaced with Rafts, Scouts, Rammers, Bombers, and Juggernauts. We saw new resources with Aqua Farms and Starfish, and new buildings with bridges and markets. The naval tech tree was reshuffled a bit with the most notable change being that ports were now available on a tier 1 tech. Specials got some minor adjustments to make them work with the new naval system. This patch also saw the addition of the new Pangea map type and lighthouses were added to all maps. Finally, this patch also nerfed roads, lumberhuts, and swordsmen.

Version 2.8.5 was designated "Patch of the Ocean" and was released on February 26, 2024. This patch saw the removal of Aqua Farms, a rework of the markets, some more shuffling of the tech tree, changes to bridges, a bomber nerf, a starfish nerf, and some more tweaks.

Version 2.10.0 reworked the Aquarion tribe. The update replaced all of their land units with amphibious mermaid counterparts, their land with flooded tiles that incur movement penalties onto naval units, the Scout with a melee Shark, the Bomber with an area-damaging Jelly, the Catapult with a ranged naval Puffer, Roads with Atolls that connect to cities within 3 tiles, and Burn Forest with the ability to fertilize fields. It also allowed Aquarion to access Aqua Farms, Lost Cities from Ruins, and the ability to build land improvements on water. Tridentions received the persist skill in place of escape, lost the fortify skill, and had their attack reduced to 2.5. Crabs received the auto flood ability and a visual improvement. All other tribes gained the ability to manually disembark naval units on bridges and flooded tiles as well as the "Landfill" ability to counteract flooding. The float skill was also split into water and amphibious to better explain its function.