Marvel Snap will release a new mode on January 31 that will let players battle friends. The long-awaited Battle Mode, as developer Second Dinner has called it, has been in the works since the popular and addictive mobile game launched in October 2022. Marvel Snap has been a rousing success for Second Dinner, quickly becoming one of social media's most talked-about games.

Battle Mode was originally announced shortly after Marvel Snap’s release. Second Dinner had its sights set on launching the update sometime before the end of 2022. Though, plans were pushed back to allow for more development time. Battle Mode is just one of several modes Second Dinner has been toying with behind the scenes. Whether single-player or additional multiplayer modes will be added to Marvel Snap remains to be seen.

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Battle Mode was originally detailed in a December content roadmap. It functions a bit differently than usual bouts found through the game’s matchmaking system. Players will be able to create a match, which generates a code that can be shared with friends. Once both players are in the room, they’ll encounter a different match style than they’re used to. One game against a friend in Battle Mode comprises a series of matches with a health system. Each player begins with 10 health. After each match, a player will lose two to four health, depending on whether they raised the stakes by snapping. Matches continue until a player loses all of their health. Retreating to survive another round only costs one health.

Where matchmaking games last for a few minutes at most, Second Dinner estimates that Battle Mode games will run around 20 minutes as the rounds unfold. High-stakes rounds kick in at round 5, increasing damage from one to two. Decks will be locked from the start of the match, meaning players won’t be able to swap out a deck at the beginning of a new round. After the first round, opponents will know what’s coming and will be able to plan accordingly. In a blog post on the official Marvel Snap website, Second Dinner suggests that this added element of familiarization with an opponent’s deck will place a greater emphasis on utilizing cards that were not drawn in previous rounds to maintain the element of surprise. Additionally, no matches in Battle Mode will result in a tie. Second Dinner did not give specific details on the rewards for winning matches.

The long-promised Battle Mode finally grants players the chance to battle players in the same room, who can duke it with actual trash talk that goes beyond Marvel Snap’s current limited pool of text and sticker-based responses. Marvel Snap’s previous update nerfed and buffed several cards, added artist attributions, and added a fast-forward feature to speed up long-winded card effect animations.

Marvel Snap is available for PC and mobile devices.

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