At a high level, players will now earn medals by defeating other players in their rank and above. Medals denote your position on the leaderboard for your rank. At the end of a season, prizes are awarded based on leaderboard ranking, and players are moved up or down ranks based on their performance.

Medals are no longer transferred between players. They are simply earned by defeating a player in the same rank or higher. The better the victory the more medals earned. The chart below indicates the number of medals earned in the various situations.

Note:

• If a player destroys all Objective buildings, the combat immediately ends in a victory (after a 5 second countdown). No more waiting the timer out, retreating, or having to destroy all of the opponent's base.
• No damage is recorded or base protection granted unless the attacker earns at least 1 star.
• If a player retreats, they earn no medals, and no damage is recorded on the defender.
• If the defender destroys the attacking fleet, the defender earns a medal.

Base damage is only recorded if the attacking player earns at least 1 medal and does not retreat. Building repair times have also been significantly reduced, with no building taking longer than 8 hours to repair.

• Blue bubbles now only last 8 hours, which is sufficient to cover your base repair.
  (Changed from 2-Hours)
• Red bubbles will last 5 days outside of Vengeance, and 24 hours during Vengeance.
  (Reduced from 7-days)
• Red bubbles are gained if the attacker achieves any star win, they retreat 5 times, or the attacking fleet is destroyed

Players will be divided across 5 ranks in PvP, based on their current medal score. In the first season, no players will be in the top rank, Diamond. At the beginning of Season 2, players will be promoted if they are at the top of the leaderboard for their rank or demoted if at the bottom, according to the following rules.

You can see your current rank in the top left of the HUD in your base. You will also be able to see the ranks of other players on the worldmap, next to their name. You can see your current position in your rank on the leaderboards, as well as look at the other leaderboards.

Note: We have removed level restrictions on attacking another player base. With the coming of ranks, fledgling bases should be fairly well protected while opening up more opportunities to hit where appropriate in the higher ranks.

A new season begins at the end of the March Vengeance event and runs for approximately 1 month to the end of the next Vengeance event. When a season finishes, rewards are paid according to a player's rank and position, and players are promoted/demoted depending on their ranking at the end of the season. Medals are then reset to ensure a level playing field for each rank in the new season.

1. Can I attack players who are not in my rank?
   Answer: You can still attack players of any rank, you simply do not earn medals from them if they are not in your rank or higher.
2.  I have more medals than a player in a higher rank, am I guaranteed to be promoted?
   Answer: Medals only determine your position in your own rank. The number of people demoted and promoted is a fixed amount, as there are fewer players in higher ranks and it may be harder for them to earn the same volume of medals as a lower rank.
3.  If the attacker retreats just before they are destroyed, I won’t get my defending medal?
   Answer: Correct, however, if the attacker retreats they will not get any medals. I.e. if they choose to retreat to deny the defender a medal, they will be giving up any medals they would have potentially earned.

1. Question: "2-hour bubbles....do guard fleets repair automatically now? ”
   Response: We are considering that. In the meantime, we’ve heard your feedback and are temporarily setting blue bubbles to 8 hours.
   
   
2. RE: 7-Day Bubbles. Attacker achieves a 3-star win.
   Question: "How does this work at higher tiers when there are few bases and those few bases are spread out across the 5 worlds and quite a few will end up being in your own alli. When you can only hit a 1 time per week win or lose. That is 4 total base attempts per month, per target base."
   Response: The first thing to remember is that you’re only competing against others in your rank. A diamond player doesn’t need to earn more medals than a gold player, only other diamond players. During Vengeance, Red Bubbles will reset every day so you’ll have more opportunities to hit. The keen observer will note that fewer available hits makes the quality of each hit more important at higher ranks. It’s possible that a single medal makes the difference. In the new season, retreating too many times (5) will grant a red bubble, so captains will have to balance the risk of getting no medals with the importance of pushing for more stars. Another thing to note is that there are no longer level restrictions, so hopefully finding valid targets will be a little easier.
   
   
3. Question: "If you go in a base, kill 2-3 objectives, time out. As this is a draw and not a 3-Star victory which would result in a 7-day bubble you can do this 5 times. Scenario: I load an orion and BB enter a base – drop orion & BB on 2 wh's and GH and sit there for 5 min, I win 1-2 meds and there is no bubble. I do this 5 x, that is 5-10 meds. If I win 3 star, I get 3 meds and cannot return to this base for 7 days. If I sink I get 0-2 medals and also cannot return for 7 days.”
   Response: Excellent point of clarification. A timeout currently results in bubbles regardless of victory or defeat. The only case the defender doesn’t immediately get a red bubble is if the attacker retreats, however on the 5th retreat the bubble will be triggered.
   
   
4. RE: Attacking fleet is destroyed
   Question: If I go into a base, and don’t use the “2 Rocket Exploit” and actually try for a 3-star victory and fail with my fleet sinking. You are honestly telling us that base will get a 7-day bubble. That we cannot go out and swap out a hull for an evade hull, or try a different flag, or try a quick pinch instead of a long pinch or whatever and give it another go? Do you want us to only hit with 4 hulls? Always leave one hull outside out of range, so if we fail, we can retreat and try again?”
   Response: There is no restriction on retreat while in combat (i.e. the retreat button is available even if you are under fire), so if your fleet is about to go down, simply retreat and try again.
   
   
5. Question: "Do we still get 200 vengeance points for hitting bases below our tier?"
   Response: Yes, but we’re considering not allowing this in the future.
   
   
6. Question: "If you 3-star victory a base below your tier, does damage get registered and the base given a bubble”
   Response: Yes (Though no base damage is recorded during Vengeance).
   
   
7. Question: “What are your plans for dealing with mine build times and guard fleets?”
   Response: These are on our radar, but nothing solid has been planned yet.
   
   
8. Question: "Are bubble timers changing? And will there be a difference depending on the level of victory achieved?"
   Response: This vengeance blue bubbles will be one hour like before, and based on feedback we’ll try 8 hour blue bubbles inside and outside of Vengeance for the first season. They will not vary based on level of victory.
   
   
9. Question: "Does each individual warehouse count as a separate objective? Or do all of them collectively count as 1 objective? Basically, I am trying to figure out if my base has 4 objectives or 8."
   Response: A base has 4 objectives - the warehouses must all be destroyed to complete that objective.