Gwent Players Will Choose Future Card and Ability Changes

Highlights

Gwent players now have the power to decide on all balancing changes to cards and leader abilities.
The new system, called Balance Council, allows eligible players to propose and vote on changes once a month.
Only experienced players who have reached Prestige 1 or Pro Rank can participate, ensuring the council consists of active veterans of the game.

Gwent: The Witcher Card Game players have been given the reins of the CCG's future. The game's fandom will hence be able to decide on all balancing changes to Gwent cards and leader abilities moving forward.

This turn of events has been a long time coming, having originally been announced in late 2022 as part of CD Projekt Red's confirmation that it's ending support for Gwent. Instead of continuing to work on new contents and tweaks, the developer decided to put together a system that would allow community to vote on future balancing changes to the popular collectible card game.

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That feature has now debuted as part of the 11.10 update for Gwent: The Witcher Card Game, which rolled out just a few days shy of the CCG's five-year anniversary. The system is called Balance Council and can be accessed from the main menu in the latest version of Gwent. Its underlying concept is fairly straightforward: once a month, eligible players will get to propose changes to up to three leader abilities and cards which make some of their stats or effects more or less powerful. The feature implements a weighted election system, giving three votes to the player's first choice, two to their second proposal, and one to their final suggestion.

In order to keep this power of the electorate in the hands of the most seasoned community members, CDPR restricted Balance Council access to players who reached Prestige 1, which is awarded at level 61. And while this requirement prevents new accounts from voting on the changes, the developer also came up with a way to ensure that only active veterans of the game get to participate in the council by locking monthly votes behind the Pro Rank, also known as Rank 0. Alternatively, anyone who completed 25 ranked games in a given season will also be able to vote on that month's balancing changes irrespective of their win rate.

The system is only meant to govern the original version of the game, while the standalone Gwent expansion that CDPR released in 2022 will keep adhering to the CCG's existing rules. That shouldn't pose a competitive meta issue, as the said expansion—Gwent: Rogue Mage—is single-player only.

While the 11.10 update for Gwent technically signals the end of its active support period, this plausibly won't be CDPR's final take on the popular CCG that first debuted in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt; the developer currently has three Witcher titles in the works, with each one of them being a potential candidate for hosting yet another version of the collectible card game.

Gwent: The Witcher Card Game Update 11.10 Patch Notes

New Features

Balance Council - With the advent of GWENTFINITY, we are leaving the future balance of GWENT in your hands. Be sure to check out the FAQ, or read the in-game information sheet in the Balance Council page to learn more.

Changes

iPhone and iPad users will now be able to override the default notch area through the Options menu under Screen.

Neutral

Ale of the Ancestors - Now has the Alchemy tag.

Ciri: Nova - Added new part of ability:

Ciri: Nova and Golden Nekker are excluded from this condition.

Colossal Ifrit - Corrected the tooltip to reflect the ability (the ability targets 3 adjacent enemy units, not the opposite row).

Golden Nekker - Added new part of ability:

Ciri: Nova and Golden Nekker are excluded from this condition.

Regis: Bloodlust - On the battlefield effect changed to:

Banish the top 3 cards from your deck.

Sangreal - Now has the Alchemy tag.

Tainted Ale - Now has the Alchemy tag.

Can no longer target allied units.

Crow's Eye - Boost changed from 3 to 4.

Thaw - Boost changed from 4 to 5.

Monsters

Vereena - Boost restriction now only affects enemy units.

Archespore - Now has the Cursed tag.

Nilfgaard

Affan Hillergrand - Ability changed to:

Once all leader Charges are used up, Summon self from your deck to a random allied row. If you control at least 4 units with Flanking, play self instead and gain Zeal.

Order: Boost all allied Soldiers with Armor by 1.

Rosa and Edna var Attre - Updated tooltip to reflect that only unique Aristocrats are counted, and that Spawned copies gain Doomed.

Deithwen Arbalest - Now has Counter: 6

Northern Realms

Princess Adda - Ability changed to:

Deploy (Devotion): Gain Immunity.

The first time a Cursed unit enters the battlefield during your turn, boost self by its base power.

Radovid: Judgment - Added new part of ability:

Order: Damage an enemy unit by 0. Increase this value by 1 for each time you used your leader ability this game.

Seltkirk of Gulet - Now has the Cursed tag.

Vandergrift - Now has the Cursed tag.

Scoia'tael

Angus Bri Cri - Updated tooltip to reflect that all Elven Deadeyes appearing on your side of the battlefield are boosted (not just those who were Spawned).

Mahakam Pass - Can now Create any bronze Scoia'tael Dwarves (not only Mahakam Dwarves).

Pavko Gale - Now has Harmony.

Skellige

Otkell - The Deploy ability is now limited to the Ranged row.

Now damages self by instances of 1.

Svalblod - Damage required to Spawn a Svalblod Fanatic changed from 6 to 8.

Syndicate

Ixora - Vice requirement changed from 6 to 8.

Novigrad - Provision cost changed from 10 to 12.

Game Fixes

Recommended cards in the Deck Builder once again display their tooltips.

The Shield VFX should no longer remain on the board in rare cases, after the unit it belonged to leaves play.