The fourth season of SMITE was announced today at the Hi-Rez Expo’s opening ceremony. The popular third-person MOBA will see several major changes, including the addition of Celtic Gods. The new Pantheon of Gods will debut with The Morrigan, who can be seen in the trailer above. That wasn’t all of the announcements as a new Egyptian-themed map was also announced, and Hi-Rez Studios announced that they’ll be adding episodic events called SMITE Adventures. On top of all that, the team also outlined several gameplay changes that are detailed below.
“SMITE has progressed a great deal over the years and we’ve been able to get more creative with gods, abilities, and special events,” revealed the game’s lead designer A.J. Walker. “With Season 4, we wanted to push the limits of what we can do in the game even further. As always, we believe in iterating continuously based on player feedback, so we look forward to our fan’s feedback as they get their hands on Season 4 in the public test servers.”
Here’s the full list of announcements (descriptions courtesy of Hi-Rez Studios):
- CELTIC EVENT – Today, Hi-Rez unveiled The Morrigan, the first goddess in the newly unveiled Celtic Pantheon. One of the game’s most ambitiously designed gods yet, this deceptive mage can take the form of any god on the battleground, turning the enemy’s strength into weakness. To celebrate the newest SMITE pantheon, the Path of the Phantom Queen event was announced. This event features several Celtic themed skins and in-game items that players can unlock by completing various achievements as they play. As a bonus, Twitch Prime members will be able to unlock the event for free. For full details on how to unlock the new Celtic rewards watch the Celtic event video.
- NEW EGYPTIAN CLASH MAP – Clash has been updated with a whole new map themed around the Egyptian Pantheon, complete with new structures, statues, and a backdrop featuring the Pyramids of Egypt. Clash also sees significant gameplay changes. The Fire Giant and Gold Fury have been removed and the map has new walls, directing people towards the center of the map where they face a new threat: Apophis. Apophis is a new boss battle, exclusive to the new Clash Map. As the battle rages on, Apophis spawns, ready to give his favor to those who best him in combat. Beware: he is no pushover.
- RITUALS – Rituals are a new type of consumable that players can use for powerful effects. One use is quite expensive, though, so players are cautioned to utilize judiciously. These consumables provide players with late-game power and utility at a high price. Designed to have a high skill cap, we expect these items to bring a new level of strategy to late-game play.
- RANKED IMPROVEMENTS – In Season 4, Ranked play will be built to align better with the overall structure of competitive esports in SMITE, adapting a Spring/Summer/Fall Split format similar to the SMITE Pro League. Season 4 will begin fresh, with all players’ divisions and hidden MMR reset. As each Split comes to an end, players will be rewarded for their achievements and the ladder will see a soft reset, giving players a new chance to climb the ladder. In addition, players should expect a variety of enhancements to Ranked play to help bring SMITE’s competitive scene to the next level:
- Adding back our Masters tier. The Grandmasters tier will now have new rewards based on your performance.
- New achievement based rewards for each split (spring, summer, and fall) played.
- Additional leaderboards will rank you by god, with special frames based on your god tier!
- The top players for each god will be given special rewards.
- Ranked players will be able to pause matches through a vote process that works similar to the surrender vote process. Game will unpause automatically after a fixed time period. Each team receives only one pause.
- Improvements to the Qualifying process to better qualify you into the division that matches your skill.
- Promotion matches will be removed. Players that get to 100 TP or greater are moved to the next division.
- Improvements to the Ranked Match Lobby.
- Significant updates to the Ranked UI to make it easier navigate the leagues and leaderboards.
- ITEM UPDATES AND BALANCE ADJUSTMENTS – One of the big focuses of item changes for Season 4 is how players build at the start of the game. A lot of time and thought went into adjusting starter and tier 1 items. Players will also see some new items that will help them customize their starting builds. Players will also see some big changes to Relics. A new feature allows players to upgrade their chosen relics in exchange for gold. The first level of all relics will remain free to purchase. A few new relics were added to complement the existing ones, and a few relics that did not fit well in Season 3 were removed. In addition to those changes, two new types of items were added to the game on player request. One is a new consumable type called Containers which are refillable when a player returns to base. Rituals, described above, were the other new item type.
- CONQUEST JUNGLE CAMP ADJUSTMENTS – Conquest adjustments to Season 4 were designed to make the experience more exciting. Boars are being retired and replaced with a new type of buff camp. All of the buff camps have had their gold, xp, and respawn times adjusted for a more fluid and dynamic feel for the jungler and lane rotations. This will help facilitate more strategic options for Season 4 players. Season 4 will also feature new objectives. Gold fury oracles will add a new strategic element for dual lane and the jungler role that will give temporary visibility for the team that secures it. Another new objective for the Solo, Mid, and Jungler inhabits an area near the Fire Giant. Securing this objective will open a one way portal from base to the Fire Giant pit.
- UI UPDATES – Later in Season 4 Hi-Rez will be launching a revitalized UI that will help streamline actions that players regularly have to perform and also amp up the look and feel of the overall presentation.
- FULLY INTEGRATED VOICE CHAT – Fully integrated voice chat will be coming to SMITE on PC later in Season 4. SMITE voice chat will allow a new level of team coordination, as well as new ways to coordinate with your team, your party and your clan.
- SMITE ADVENTURES – Building on the success of the Xing Tian’s Mountain and Fafnir’s Winter Wonderland events, SMITE will be introducing SMITE Adventures in Season 4. These are episodic events that players participate in for exclusive rewards unique to each adventure. More details on SMITE Adventures will be announced soon.
- SEASON TICKET UPDATES – The Season Ticket will go through major updates in Season 4. For starters, all players will be able to earn Fantasy Points for victories (and through some event quests, etc), and participate in the Season Ticket for free. However, there will be bonus packages that can be purchased for each Split to participate in more features and earn content faster. More details will be announced soon.
- MULTI-QUEUEING – Multi-queuing will allow players to select multiple queues they are willing to play in. The match manager will then find the one it can put the player into with the best match the fastest. Watch for more details soon. This feature will be coming later in Season 4.
- FACE-IT COLLABORATION – One of the missing components in competitive SMITE has been easy, clearly defined ways for players wishing to take the next level in competitive play on the path to pro. Through Face-It, amateur players will have more ways to demonstrate and build their skills and climb the SMITE competitive ladder. Watch for additional details soon.
- NEW SMITE TIE-IN GAMES – In addition to Season 4 changes, Hi-Rez announced additional information today about two other games set in SMITE’s godly universe: SMITE Rivals and SMITE Tactics.
More details on the SMITE Season 4 changes are expected to be announced in the coming weeks. The first new additions of Season 4 will be coming to the game’s public test server soon, and will eventually make it to the main game.
