User blog:PeppermintSoda/The Dragon Has Awakened, and Season 8 Has Arrived!

The past season, Tower of Frozen Waves, was a really unexpected season. We did not know when it will pop up because of the lack of announcements. However, this time, this season was one that was really anticipated for. Let's hear it for—

"Cookie Run: Wrath of the Dragon"!
The title was based on the Tom & Jerry Kids episode The Wrath of Dark Wolf.

Just like the title of this season, the loading screen is all about fire, fire, and more fire! and dragons. There are also two new Cookies featured in the loading screen, which I will talk about later on in this article.

Akrie has also made a similar blog like this. Go check it out!

How the Heck Did All This Start?
There is a backstory to every season of Cookie Run. The first season comes with a backstory about Brave Cookie willing to lead the Cookies out of the oven, Edge of the World being finding the edge of the world, literally, and the Tower of Frozen Waves season comes with the story of the Sea Fairy. That is Peppermint Cookie's mother

Narrated by Knight Cookie, the dragon has awakened from its long slumber, and the Cookies are in trouble. It all started when some idiot burnt the Red Dragon's nose hairs, and made the dragon so angry it made everything around it on fire. Now the Cookies must save the Cookie Continent from being on fire. Let's go!

1. New Secret Code.
Again, we have a new secret code to retrieve for a certain amount of Crystals every season. The Crystal amount for this season is 200. Unlike the other secret codes in Kakao, you can get the full secret code directly from the game. The code is shown to the right of this text, hidden.

Layout
When I first looked through the game, I was surprised that there was no new episode to try out. However, the map layout has been changed, just like back in the City of Wizards update. Only this time, the background has been changed for Dragon's Valley when you go through the game.

I should say that the layout has made the game harder in all episodes of the game, even Escape from the Oven, in which you can't even get to the last stage without first having the Random Boost at Slower Energy Drain and/or using Kiwi Biker Cookie. Nevertheless, the harder layout has actually made the game more challenging and fun to try out. Those who have been used to skill in the first three seasons should come back and challenge their skills again!

The background for the world map is also different. The entire sea is full of lava (even though Soda Cookie would not care), and the background music has changed from a calm feeling to a dramatic one with the use of classical instruments.

Balance
When I first heard about the balancing, I was expecting the points to go down so that players can obtain up to 300M points in total, but when I tried it out, it's very hard even to get 50M! Only experienced players with the right combi can get over 50M and maybe even 100M. Yes, most of the Cookies and Pets have been nerfed down to make them equal. Even the boosts and Treasures have been nerfed. However, there might be a hope of a buff in the near future. More details will be explained below.

3. Nerfing of Cookies, Pets, Treasures, and Boosts
In accordance with the balance, most of the Cookies we have have been nerfed down to meet the standards. This means that the points these Cookies and Pets give, and the bonuses from the Treasures have decreased, and possibly their cooldown time has increased.

Some examples include Cinnamon Cookie, which the points for each Card Jelly has gone down from 19,519 points to a whopping 1,000. Another example is Herb Cookie, which its Jelly has gone down from 26,000 to just 2,000. For Pets, Brain Gum's SED has gone down from 25% to 15%, and Cozy Yarn's cooldown time has increased.

The full details about the nerfing are described here. However, it is in Korean. I advise that you click the little button at the top right of your screen in the address bar (if you are using Google Chrome) to view the translated page. It may not be accurate, but it can be correct enough to understand.

I will talk about the random boosts though.


 * The most underestimated nerf of all is the Slower Energy Drain boost: it has been nerfed from 25% to 15%.
 * Potions recover from 25% to 20% more.
 * Increased base speed has dropped from
 * There is more chance of getting a Double Coins boost now.
 * The Fast Start boost has been removed from the Random Boost selections.

4. New Cookies and Pet
Oop, didn't I tell you about this one yet? Sorry. Anyway, meet the two new Cookies: one is L-grade, and the other one is S-grade.





Also known as McWolf by, Dinosour Cookie is one of those few Cookies that don't have the word "맛" before "쿠키", just like all the chocolate Cookies and the L-grade Cookies. His ability is to create Jellies upon landing in Giant Mode, just like the Jumpy Jelly Bouncy Ride. During his ability, he also emits a Mini Magnetic Aura, which can be used to collect the generated Jellies. His pet, Popping Dragon Egg, creates Giant Jellies, and when activated, creates Popping Candies randomly around the game in tightly closed groups, unlike Kiwi Bird, which generates more Jellies upon destroying obstacles.

"Highly sour from being enriched with dissolved sour jelly. The important thing when making Dinosour Cookie is securely putting on the sour cream mousse hair. Style is the core. Due to a love of thrilling adventures and dinosaurs, they make frequent trips from their home to the Dragon’s Valley. Once in a deep canyon untouched by cookies, they accidentally broke a fossil, and out jumped a chubby jelly dinosaur! This is because jelly does not decay. Now they’re good friends who can go on even more exciting adventures together."

His unlock requirement is. Go make some friends now!







Sea Fairy Cookie happens to have melted as a result of 100 warm hearts of the Cookies! Well, the Red Dragon might have helped her break a curse a little bit.

To find these hearts, you have to search through the Mystery Boxes. I have got only six so far, so I am safe to say that the hearts can only be found very rarely, only in the Rainbow Mystery Boxes with a low chance. Looks like she won't get a Halloween costume this year

Her ability allows her to create Jellies and destroy obstacles using her "Wave Sprint." This means that she summons waves (possibly from Tower of Frozen Waves) to guide her way. Her Power+ lets Cookies restore Energy after a collision, similar to Restoration Pendant of Water.

"The Red Dragon’s heat began to slightly melt the cold curse that was placed on the Sea Fairy. However, because of a bitter heart, her soul was frozen and not so easily melted. If it weren’t for the cookie’s warm hearts, she would have chosen to remain there forever. Now she is fighting against the Red Dragon with frost and water, and Sea Fairy Cookie has become a strong reinforcement fighter alongside the cookies. Behind her endlessly flowing hair, her eyes are still sad, but she still stands up to fate with intensity. So as to not disappear, she never lets the sword leave her hand…"



5. League System
What is the League System exactly? The League System is just another way to obtain medals. It's similar to the Medal System, but unlike it, there's no use of Absolute and Relative Evaluations.

When you first join the game (or first log into the game upon updating it), you will be asked to type in a name to be used for the league rankings. This can be your existing KakaoTalk display name, or a custom name. Here, my name to be used in the league system is "맥울프", which is the Korean name for McWolf. Maybe one day my league name in LINE is McWolf

The league ranking is just based on your worldwide rank, which can be seen when you tap on the right tab of your score rankings section. The medals you might get may range from 0 to  7, depending on your ranking. The medal for the rank also affects the medals you will get at the end of the week. A higher and better rank medal means more medals at the end of the week. Also, the price for rewards in the Medal Exchange Center has inflated a lot from the last season. The Medal icon has also been redesigned.

With the rank medal and score in place, you have your league.

Change of Explanation of Features
To keep up with new ways of obtaining things, Devsisters decided to add a variety of Cookies to explain about certain features. You might have remembered Adventurer Cookie being in the explanation of almost all of these features. Now, they're replaced with the following:

Mystical Pieces and Their "Blessed" Powers
When I first heard of these mystical pieces, I always thought they would be like ingredients: with different designs and different properties. And I said to myself, "Hey! I bet they're going to make use of the unknown treasure slots in the game files!"

But that turned out to be wrong.

Actually, they are used for a way different thing: turning evolved Treasures into blessed Treasures. However, they come with a costly price: 1000 Mystical Pieces as well as 100. It's even worse when you look at the amount of Mystical Pieces you would get from extracting S-grade Treasures only: 20~80 Mystical Pieces depending on the Ingredients used, and whether or not the evolve Treasure is blessed.

Trivia Time!
Devsisters decided to add a little bit of fun into the loading screens: trivia and tips about the game! Replacing the "Preparing the escape..." message, we have different messages coming up every time we start a new game. These could range from general tips to trivia about the game. Here are some I collected:

General


 * If you do not participate in the league, the reward will not be compensated.
 * Fortune Dough can be obtained through events or as mission rewards in Tower of Frozen Waves.
 * Ingredients can be obtained through Mystery Boxes, the Medal Exchange Center, Fortune Doughs, and events.
 * You can check your daily attendance at the top of the mailbox.
 * Weekly rankings end at 9pm every Sunday.
 * Your league ranking depends on the previous league results.
 * If you level up more and more in the league, you will go up a level further (Lord, King, Legend, God).
 * Cookies' Flaming Hearts can be obtained from.
 * You can extract Treasures and Ingredients for Magic Powder.
 * Rockstar Cookie and Mint Choco Cookie have their own wonderful music, as opposed to the normal background music.
 * Gather Ingredients to evolve Treasures.
 * Game rankings reflect your league ranking as well as your friends' rankings.
 * When you complete a Cookie Army, you will get a freedom frame for that army.
 * In S-grade Evolve Treasures, you can extract Mystical Pieces.
 * Increasing the skill levels increases the Energy level.
 * You can store your own combination of Cookie + Pet + Treasures.
 * By upgrading the Treasure using Coins or Crystals, you can make the Treasure more powerful.
 * Random Boost can be bought for 50% off continuously after the first Random Boost.
 * In the Friends menu, you can see the all-time best score by a combination used by your friends.
 * The 8-level Pets (the max-level Pets) do not appear anymore in the Pets Lucky Draw.
 * If you have equipped a revival Treasure, when you run out of Energy, you will revive.
 * If you do not collect the rewards, the rewards will fade within a certain period.
 * Generally, Winged Jellies cannot be attracted with magnetic aura.
 * Prophet Cookie's prophecies seem like they come out of his beard. (?!?!)
 * The more stars, the more difficult the episode.
 * When your Energy is low, a special Bonus Time will show up.
 * If you received a new Fortune Dough and your baking tray is full, see the Mailbox for those doughs.
 * When play is not smooth, try using the low-resolution option.

Escape from the Oven

Primeval Jungle


 * Tiger Lily Cookie can be obtained as reward from collect Mystery Jewels.

Dragon's Valley


 * Fire Spirit Cookie can be obtained as reward from collect Mystery Jewels.
 * Unlock "The City of Wizards" by completing 50 achievements and getting the rewards.

The City of Wizards


 * Moonlight Cookie can be obtained as reward from collecting Mystery Jewels.
 * Dark Moon Jelly gives you a very high score, but cannot be attracted with magnetic aura.

Ghost Pirate's Island of Coins


 * You can buy a key from the key store using lives. (Up to 5 per day)
 * In Ghost Pirate's Island of Coins, the Cookies' skills are not activated.

Tower of Frozen Waves


 * If you tap on a mission, you can play the mission again.
 * You can buy a key from the key store using lives. (Up to 5 per day)
 * Frozen Wave Drop can be obtained upon earning 300.
 * After the 50th floor, Jellyco missiles will be frozen off.

Sorting Treasures!
This is one of the features that I liked, and that is the ability to sort Treasures by their abilities. This helps me to look for the right Treasures faster. If I were to look for, say, a good slower energy drain Treasure, then I would just choose "Health" (labeled 체력 in the picture), and find the Treasure I need. Treasures are sorted by the following:


 * Grade (등급순, this is the default setting right now)
 * Magnetic Aura (자력)
 * Coin (코인)
 * Lifts from Holes/Revives (구출/부활)
 * Health (체력, revives and SEDs)
 * Anything to do with obstacles (장애물)
 * Extra points for special Jellies (젤리점스)
 * Passive Effect (보유효과)

Redesigned Daily Bonus Pop-up Screen
The heading says it all.



New Mailbox Layout
I did not actually see this coming. In my opinion, the new mailbox layout is used for placing the most important updates and events first (as banners), and the miscellaneous events on the bottom. Here, the most important events can be inferred as the season update and the new Cookie and Pet. There might be a button for the newsletter for some events, and no button for some others.

The new layout also categorizes events using icons. These are explained below.

Star Ratings
The words "Easy", "Normal", and "Hard" in the episode descriptions have been changed to star ratings, depending on how hard the episode is. Two stars mean the episode is easy, three stars mean normal, and four stars mean hard. Here are each episode's ratings as shown below.

Please note that the special episodes are still called "Special".