The October 21 update brings a new Mythic + champion, Superman Death Metal, and the themed event you unlock him from, Dark Genesis. His legacy piece, Arm of Apokolips, is in the House of Secrets. The event opens in stages from October 22, so here's what he does, when each part of the event starts, and what else changed.
Superman Death Metal
Mythic + · Warrior · Physical DMG · Justice League, Superman Family
His whole kit is built around the Ultimate kill. Land the killing blow and he hits the entire enemy team. If he goes down first, he gets a second life that heals him and hits everyone again when he wakes up. Values below are at max rank.
- Solar Punch (Ultimate): up to 3,000% of his ATK as physical damage to one enemy. If the Ultimate or a follow-up it triggers defeats an enemy, he immediately hits all enemies for up to 1,500% ATK. The follow-up counts as Ultimate damage.
- Cold Breath: up to 1,000% ATK to one enemy, plus Freeze for up to 3s and Vulnerability for 8s (takes up to 40% more physical damage).
- Inspiration: up to +100% Max HP. At the start of battle all allies get Steadfast (immune to forced movement) for 20s, and every other Superman Family ally gains up to +50% Max HP.
- Second Wind: the first time he would take lethal damage, he enters Hibernation for 5s. He can't act, but he's immune to debuffs and turns up to 100% of incoming damage into healing. When it ends (or he's back to full HP) he hits all enemies for up to 800% ATK and gains up to 60 Energy. This also counts as Ultimate damage.
- Global Skill: up to +5% ATK for all champions and +10% Physical DEF for Warriors.
The game's own guide for him recommends ATK, Crit Rate and Physical PEN, and pairs him with Superboy, Krypto and The Flash in a Superman Family lineup.
How to get him
You unlock him through the Dark Genesis event. His Shards are in the Occult Curiosa exchange, paid for with Madame Xanadu's Tarot Cards from Unchained Payback. Occult Curiosa opens on October 25.
Arm of Apokolips
Unique to Superman Death Metal · Warrior / Guardian · House of Secrets
- Gear Effects at 5★ Red: +400 ATK, +48% ATK and +36% Crit Rate.
- Neverending Battle (Superman Death Metal only): up to +100% Ultimate damage. If his Ultimate doesn't defeat an enemy, he still follows up on all enemies for up to 1,000% ATK. That follow-up can't trigger another one.
- Anti-Life Resonance (any wearer): at the start of battle, up to +50% ATK and +50% Spiritual RES for 25s.
Neverending Battle is the important part: it removes the condition on his follow-up, so he hits the whole team even when the Ultimate doesn't get a kill. The in-game guide lists Promethium Claws, Not So Huge Hammer and Razor Rib Umbrella as other options.
Dark Genesis Schedule
Dark Genesis needs War Room Lv. 10. Superman Death Metal is held prisoner by Darkfather, and you're helping Constantine and Zatanna open a portal through the Realm of the Dead to get him out. It has four parts, and they don't all start on the same day:
- October 22, Mystic Search: send Champions out on tasks and claim rewards when the timer ends. The more dispatches you do, the more patrol slots and Collection stories you unlock.
- October 22, Solar Sonar: hand Disks of Ra to Constantine for milestone rewards and a special skill for Unchained Payback that defeats the enemy instantly.
- October 23, Mystic Alignment: complete event tasks to unlock tiles on a board, with rewards for each full row or column and a grand prize for clearing it. It starts a day late but still ends on the original date.
- October 25, Unchained Payback: spend Sun Tarot Cards to attack. Each attack charges Superman Death Metal, and at full charge he breaks free for a big strike and opens the other two sealed slots. Batman Death Metal or Wonder Woman Death Metal can step in with a bonus effect on your next attack.
Rewards across the event include The Bottle City of Kandor Base skin, the Dark Genesis Frame, Magic Eyes and World Anvil Fragments.
Everything Else in the Patch
- Champion Zone limited-time event (October 22): Champion Zone purchases add Planet Coins to a vault, and dice from daily and team tasks let you win them. You keep everything you win when the event ends. The Champion Zone isn't on PC yet, so use the mobile version.
- Forge Breach: level difficulty adjusted and enemy squads take longer to revive. Clearing a level now gives double participation rewards. There's also a new opening story and a better league rankings display, and two Power display bugs are fixed.
- Guard the Batcave: scheduled hordes now scale their Power to each Commander's progress.
- Nemesis Takedown: Gorilla Grodd is announced as a new boss, marked coming soon. That's an announcement, not a release.
- Smaller changes: better Base bubble logic, the blocklist limit is up to 100, and a fix for setting mementos as wishes.
My Take
Superman Death Metal's kit and legacy piece both look appealing assuming his stats scale well. We will analyze that as soon as there is data available. Ultimately, I think he's going to be worth building for the spenders out there. One note for non-spenders is that they removed the gift giving for this event, the same way they did for Batman Death Metal. We are analyzing whether this ends up being good or bad for F2P but at the moment, it does seem that you can still earn a lot of rewards just from dispatching squads, so make sure you're doing that in the leadup to the main event.
Final Thoughts
Once they're ranked, Superman Death Metal will be on the champion tier list and Arm of Apokolips on the legacy tier list. Check both before you decide how far to push the event.