Squad Busters in China (爆裂小队)

Authors:

Alpe (Head of Content at RoyaleAPI)

The local mobile game market in China is very peculiar and isolated from the rest of the world, but that doesn't mean it isn't relevant; many game developers still want to participate in it. Squad Busters, like other games from Supercell, will also be adapted for launch in this region.

Supercell is a company based in Finland, but they have offices in other parts of the world, including China (Shanghai). In addition, Tencent (a Chinese conglomerate) holds more than 80% of Supercell's shares. It's unclear if this relationship pressures them to have the localised version of the game, but based on their other games, it seems clear that it gives them enough tools to publish and maintain it.

What are localised games?

Localised versions of games start as a branch from the original game, but add specific changes that aren't seen in the global version of the game. The most relevant changes for players are those to comply with local regulations. Examples of this are age gating, content moderation, ID verification...

For other Supercell games in China, these are some of the changes we've seen:

• Not available in Google Play, but in alternative local stores instead
• Local and separate servers
• Local leaderboard only
• Different game economy and loot boxes
• Asset changes to avoid depictions of blood or death
• Chinese is the only available language

Local server announcement

A few weeks ago, on July 9th, Squad Busters published a sign-up form to recruit players who wanted to participate in the first server test. On July 15th, there was a bigger announcement with details of this test. The announcement had the following 5 slides:

Slide 1

Squad Busters, the latest masterpiece by Supercell. The server test will start on July 30th and last until August 19th, a total of 3 weeks. This is a test exclusively for Android devices, so iOS devices are not eligible.

Slide 2

Innovative exploration of casual battles

1. Battle rules: innovative gameplay never seen before.
2. Casual fun: 4 minutes for a quick blast.
3. Trendy: easy to use, versatile and strategic.
4. Friend teams: a captain and 4 friends play in 5v5 mode.

Slide 3

At first, only 5,000 players will be invited. Each of these players can invite 4 more friends, to play together during this summer.

Slide 4

Hundreds of millions of players have already joined the global version.

QQ Official Channel: 106853781 QQ Community Channel: 337544281

Slide 5

Gameplay introduction

New features and changes

The first thing to note it that it's not uncommon for local versions to diverge from the global one. Sometimes new features are added and tested, but never make it to the global version due to market differences. Still, developers are aware of these tests and it's interesting to see how they can influence the future of the game.

5v5 Mode

Global SB has group parties and a few social activities, but not much direct collaboration. This team format could drastically change that.

UI Changes

Aside from the slides we shared earlier, there are also some brief gameplay demos that show some differences with the current global version. These are the ones we noticed:

• Gems as the core game currency. This was also the case during previous betas of the global version, but eventually Gold Coins replaced it.

• Witch has her magic staff censored; the skeleton staff is covered by a clover.

• Troop fusion indicators change from purple to green.

• The Battle Bag has an orange background.

• Bosses and big monsters have a special indicator.

• Skeletons (small monsters) are replaced with Goblins.

• HP red hearts are replaced by blue stars.

5v5 Details

On 2024-07-25, another clip was published by official sources, this time showcasing the new 5v5 feature. It's just 26 seconds in total, but it gives us quite a lot of relevant information. You can watch it here.

Let's take a closer look at the most relevant frames:

5v5 Mode: Global early access

Team up to play and the war begins

Here you can see a player room that looks just like a normal party.

The difference shows up when you are about to start a new battle. Instead of the normal single button, a new 5v5 option is available, labelled as "hot".

After the battle starts, you see a peaceful Mavis collecting carrots, but 4 player indicators stand out; showing where your teammates are. Note that opponents aren't highlighted.

It also seems that players within a team are evenly distributed across the map; so it's not team blue on one side and red on the other. By matching it with the Green World map simplification, a distribution of this kind seems likely.

Strategic collaboration and endless fun

Next we see very clear team action, with 5 blue-team players surrounding a red-team player.

Infinite resurrection to reverse the situation of the battle

This frame is wider and shows much more than the rest. A few things that stand out:

• Players vs Players counter in the top left.

• Team gems and status of each player in the left.

• Shared (?) gold in the top right.

Sources and details

Information and assets were published by the official Weibo and TapTap pages.