Fellow Snappers, Mastery, the exciting new feature is finally in Marvel Snap! I’ve been doing some research and I’ll walk you through on how the system works, how to progress and what to expect of it. Without further ado, let’s get to it!
What Exactly is Character Mastery?
Character Mastery is a progression system tied to each individual card in your collection. As you collect different variants and splits of a card, you gain experience points, or XP, toward that card's Mastery track. This unlocks new never-seen-before visual effects that will make your cards look even more unique. Or they’ll look extremely silly. Toss a heavily weighted coin towards silly to find out.
How to Earn Mastery XP
To advance in Character Mastery, you'll gain XP by obtaining new card variants and infinity splits. Here’s how XP is awarded:
- 15 XP – Infinity Split
- 25 XP – Rare Variants
- 75 XP – Super Rare Variants
- 125 XP – Season Pass Variants, Conquest Variants, Spotlights, Album & Bundle Variants
- 125 XP – Event Variants
- 250 XP – Ultimate Variants
Simply upgrading your favorite cards will naturally help you progress through the Mastery system, although it might take a while. I did some napkin math and realized that to reach Level 30, the highest level, you would need to split a single card 87 times. That is a lot! It is a bit weird that the “Mastery” system doesn’t progress by actually playing or winning games with a card.
Understanding the Mastery Track
Like I mentioned, each card in your collection has a unique Mastery track that consists of different reward tiers. Here’s the details on how it works:
- As you open Mystery Caches, you unlock a selection of finishes and flares.
- Mystery Caches 1-9 grant the first set of finishes and flares.
- Mystery Caches 11-19 unlock the second set.
- Mystery Caches 21-29 unlock the third set.
- At tiers 10, 15, 20, and 25, you receive guaranteed special rewards. Those are: Refraction, Cosmic, Gold Metallic, Fire.
- Reaching Mastery Level 30 earns you a Gold Diamond Flare and a full reaction set for that character.
- Some characters like King Eitri finish their Mastery Track on level 29 thus have no Reaction set nor Gold Diamond Flare.
Once a new finish or flare is unlocked, it is added to the pool of potential Infinity Split upgrades, allowing for even more customization.
If you’re curious about any Reaction Set or the new effects. You can find them all right here:
https://snap.fan/reaction-sets/
https://snap.fan/cosmetics/reveal-effects/
https://snap.fan/cosmetics/split-effects/
How to Check and Claim Rewards
When browsing your collection, keep an eye out for a gold gem icon in the bottom-right corner of a card. This indicates that you have rewards to claim. Simply enter the Mastery tab of that card to unlock new levels and open reward caches.
Is Character Mastery a Slam Dunk?
I’d say that it is a mixed bag in general. Although the system provides new flares, new combinations and new reaction sets, the system is bogged down by not allowing us to combine what we had before with what we got with its debut. Meaning that if you already have a perfect split for a card, you’ll find little to no incentive to keep splitting it. And if you don’t, good luck on actually splitting a good combo. The sheer amount of different combinations that have arrived quite frankly make any desired combination seem impossible. If you don’t believe me, take a good look at the list:
Not every finish and flare is weighted the same way, the game uses Rare, Super Rare and Ultimate to define the effects. The chances of getting a so-called “God Split” is heavily favored towards those with Mastery Level 30. So you’d better sit down with your credits and your favorite card in hand to hunt for your coveted split because it might take a while.
The system is a great first step but it needs to have some way of targeting your ideal splits. Hopefully they are already planning a way to do that. If I get any news about it, you’ll be the first to know.
Which Card Will You Master First?
But most important, what's your opinion on Mastery? Did you have any amazingly cool new splits? Who is the card that you’ll mastered first or are planning to? Let me know all about your Mastery Journey in the comments below!
Happy snapping!