Stadia’s Orcs Must Die 3 improves online matchmaking, weekly challenges in latest update

Ben Schoon | Sep 7 2020 - 7:48 am PT

One of Google Stadia’s best exclusives right now is Robot Entertainment’s Orcs Must Die 3. That game has picked up a couple of updates since its launch and, now, it’s getting another. Orcs Must Die 3 is picking up improved online matchmaking, better weekly challenges, and more.

In an update set to launch tomorrow, September 8th, Robot Entertainment is including two major updates and a plethora of tweaks and bug fixes for Orcs Must Die 3.

First on the major updates, weekly challenges. This new game mode first debuted just a few weeks ago to help keep the game fresh and, now, it’s adding four new challenges to its roster. “Mom’s Spaghetti” leaves players with just a single rift point and a huge wave of speedy runners, but with a limited loadout of weapons and traps. “Evil Power Within” sees players as Gabriella with a complete loadout and fully upgraded traps on the Coastal Hallways level and difficulty set to maximum. “Trolls Love Dogs” sees Mountain Trolls incoming and players with minimal loadout and upgraded mana. Finally, “Spin to Win” takes Kelsey to Hidden Docks with only the Dwarven Hammer, Haymakers, and Dart Spitters.

The bigger update here, though, is to online matchmaking for Orcs Must Die 3. The feature which allows random Stadia players to co-op on a level together was previously tough to find other matches on, but now it should be a lot easier to find who’s hosting. Instead of requiring players to filter by both level and map, the game can now find all matches on either setting. With this, there’s also a way to find all matches currently being hosted on the game.

There will now be an option to search for ‘any’ map and ‘any’ difficulty. This will allow a player to perform one or two searches, rather than one per level as it exists currently. A few examples:

‘any’ map on ‘Warmage’ difficulty will show all games hosted that have ‘Warmage’ as their difficulty, regardless of the level.

Order Temple on ‘any’ difficulty will show any Order Temple game on Apprentice, Warmage, or Rift Lord difficulty.

‘any’ map with ‘any’ difficulty shows all games hosted currently.

Rounding out this update are various bug fixes and tweaks to enemies, traps, and weapons to make the gameplay a bit better. Some highlights include barricade health being reduced, endless levels including more enemies that target barricades, higher damage for Dynamite Archers, and more. There are also a few improvements listed to the online co-op gameplay for Orcs Must Die 3. The full changelog can be read below or on Robot Entertainment’s website.

Orcs Must Die 3 version 1.0.53198.10 with its improved online matchmaking goes live on Stadia tomorrow, September 8th.

Game Improvements:

Weekly Challenges:

You will see four new weekly challenges in the playlist:

Mom’s Spaghetti – You have one Rift Point and one wave to survive. Capture the victory without letting any of the runners slip by. Your load-out is minimal but fully upgraded including exploding death head-shots on the crossbow and longer Rift protection on the Scroll of Empty Rift.

Evil Power Within – This challenge takes place on Coastal Hallways using the Rift Lord Difficulty onslaught. As Gabriella you have a complete loadout with full upgrades for your traps and weapon. Show these other Warmages how to defeat these enemies with style.

Trolls Love Dogs – With their hit points increased, mountain trolls are letting their dogs run in this challenge. Your loadout is small but your mana pool is increased. Use it effectively to defeat the hordes of kobolds escorting the trolls to the rift.

Spin to Win – Kelsey must defeat the enemies of the Hidden Docks using a Dwarven Hammer, Haymakers, and Dart Spitters. Only the Dwarven Hammer has been upgraded to spin longer.

Matchmaking:

There will now be an option to search for ‘any’ map and ‘any’ difficulty. This will allow a player to perform one or two searches, rather than one per level as it exists currently. A few examples:

‘any’ map on ‘Warmage’ difficulty will show all games hosted that have ‘Warmage’ as their difficulty, regardless of the level.

Order Temple on ‘any’ difficulty will show any Order Temple game on Apprentice, Warmage, or Rift Lord difficulty.

‘any’ map with ‘any’ difficulty shows all games hosted currently.

Balance Changes:

Barricade health has been reduced.

The Ice Amulet’s primary and secondary attacks will now use more mana.

The Ice Amulet’s secondary freeze duration has been reduced. The unique upgrade that extends this duration has also had its effect reduced.

The Flame Bracer’s primary attack now does more damage and applies a longer lasting burn effect.

The Auto Ballista has had its cooldown increased and damage decreased.

The Elven Shortswords’ secondary attack will now cause enemies to flinch.

The Elven Shortswords’ secondary attack projectile damage has been increased. The unique upgrade that adds bleeding to this projectile has also had its damage increased.

The Decoy’s Unique Upgrade that causes it to inflict bleeding has had its damage increased.

The environmental Lava Pot trap has had its damage increased.

All Endless levels will now spawn more enemies who target barricades.

Gnoll Grenadiers and Dynamite Archers will now deal more damage.

Firelings now have less health.

Bug Fixes:

Entries marked by a ‘*‘ were frequently reported issues by the community.

Gameplay:

The Rapid-Fire Ballista will no longer stun cooperative partners. *

The Elven Shortswords’ and Lightning Staff’s projectiles should fire over barricades more reliably.

Large minions will no longer be affected by the Gravity Pillar while ragdolled. *

Weekly Challenges will no longer affect the last used loadout for other gamemodes.

Fixed an issue with minions not attacking barricades on Order Temple (Scenario 18). *

Rift-focused enemies will now pass through decoys that are blocking their path.

Dynamite Archers no longer pass through other units. *

Kills in Endless mode will now always award a minimum of 1 coin. *

Graphical:

Guardian Archers will no longer leave a regeneration effect after they die and respawn.

The Guardian Archer’s base stand is now colored to reflect their active upgrades.

Empty rift visual effects now persist for the correct duration when the Empty Rift Scroll has been upgraded.

Minimap outline should now correctly display the southern portion of Dragon Boneyard.

Settings:

Added a mute button next to the volume sliders. *