Character Mastery Updates Coming in Patch 53.x

With Snap’s big patch on the 19th brings a much needed overhaul to Character Mastery. Here’s an early look at all the changes and what it means for players.

This patch includes several improvements aimed at making Character Mastery feel better for existing players: increased Mastery XP from new splits and variants, a cleaner Infinity Split pool, improved rarity weighting as your Mastery level rises, and doubled Boosters earned from matches.

These updates are focused on improving Character Mastery progress moving forward, so the new XP values will apply to splits and variants earned after the patch goes live.

Let’s get into what’s changing and what it means for your favorite characters.

CHARACTER MASTERY XP IS INCREASING

We’ve increased the Character Mastery XP you earn from splits and variants while keeping the XP required for each Mastery level the same.

That means new splits and newly acquired variants will give more Mastery XP after the patch, helping your favorite characters level faster as you continue investing in them.

Character Mastery XP updates:

• Splits: 15 → 50
• Rare variants: 25 → 75
• Super Rare variants: 75 → 150
• Season Pass, Bundle, Limited Time Game Mode, Album, and Conquest variants: 125 → 200
• Spotlight variants: 125 → 400
• Ultimate variants: 250 → 600

Because these XP values are changing as part of the 53.x update, they’ll apply to new splits and newly acquired variants after the patch is live rather than recalculating previous collection history. We know many players have already invested heavily in their favorite characters, which is why this update is aimed at making every new split and variant feel more rewarding from here forward.

INFINITY SPLIT POOLS ARE GETTING CLEANER

Every time you upgrade a card to Infinity and split it, you earn a new Finish and Flare combo that can be equipped through Custom Card. As you continue splitting that character, more possibilities unlock over time, including additional Finish and Flare options from Character Mastery.

With Patch 53.x, we’re making some adjustments to keep that pool cleaner and easier to chase as Character Mastery continues to grow.

We’re removing the following Finishes and Flares from each card’s Infinity Split pool:

Finishes:

• Rays, all colors, and Frosted Glass
  Flares:
• Rainbow Confetti

You’ll still be able to earn these as rewards from the Mastery track for now if you don’t already have them, but they will no longer enter your split pool. Any previous splits with these Finishes and Flares will be kept.

The goal is to make sure Character Mastery adds exciting rewards without overcrowding the Infinity Split chase. Some Mastery rewards are designed to be earned and equipped through the Mastery track, while others can also become part of a character’s future Infinity Split possibilities. By keeping certain rewards track-only, we can preserve more focused split outcomes while still giving players more ways to customize their favorite characters.

HIGHER MASTERY MEANS BETTER RARITY WEIGHTING

This is where the chase gets a lot more exciting: as your Character Mastery level rises, Infinity Split outcomes will lean more toward higher-rarity cosmetic rewards.

At Mastery Level 1, Rare Finishes make up 60% of the Finish weighting. By Mastery Level 30, that drops to 16%, while Ultimate Finishes rise to 52%. Super Rare Finishes also become part of the table as you progress, reaching 32% by Mastery Level 30.

Flares see a similar shift. Rare Flare weighting drops from 24% at Mastery Level 1 to 7% at Mastery Level 30, while Ultimate Flares rise to 42% at Mastery Level 30. Super Rare Flares also remain a major part of the chase, reaching as high as 69% at Mastery Level 20.

The short version: the deeper you go with a character, the better the chase gets. Character Mastery is meant to reward long-term investment, and these updated rarity weights should make continued splitting feel more exciting as your favorite characters climb higher.

BOOSTERS EARNED FROM MATCHES ARE DOUBLING

Going forward, Boosters earned at the end of matches will be doubled.

This impacts any game mode that gives Boosters at the end of a match, and it works with locations like Fogwell’s Gym, Limbo, and any match above 7 turns.

Booster updates:

• Turn 1: 1 → 2
• Turn 2: 2 → 4
• Turn 3: 3 → 6
• Turn 4: 4 → 8
• Turn 5: 5 → 10
• Turn 6: 6 → 12

For players actively upgrading and splitting cards, this should make the path toward future splits feel noticeably faster. More Boosters means more upgrades, more chances to reach Infinity, and more opportunities to keep building Mastery progress on the characters you care about most.

MORE CHARACTER MASTERY IMPROVEMENTS ARE COMING

This is the first set of Character Mastery improvements, not the last.

Other improvements are already in active development, including:

• Wild Boosters
• Re-rolling Finishes and Flares

We’re also exploring additional improvements that are still in the concept and design phase.

Character Mastery is a long-term system, and we want to keep making it better over time. Patch 53.x should make progress feel better right away, while setting up more improvements down the road.

Thanks for continuing to share feedback with us, and we’ll see you out there.

Happy Snapping!

Is This an Actual Improvement?

The short answer here is yes, but don’t just take my word for it. Obviously higher xp payouts are better, so what we are looking at is the average time to get mastery before and after these changes. Let’s start with the basic split values: upgrading from 15 xp per split to 50 xp per split (a 3.3x improvement).

Using some rough math, let’s assume you are a free to play player that does every mission, and gets every bonus credit option (webshop, weekend missions, LTGM rewards, and season pass credits. It averages out to at least 6,000 credits weekly, which equates to 4 full splits.

Previously it took 87 splits to take a card from level 0 to level 30 (max). This is purely splits with no variants unlocked. If you can get 4 splits in a week, it would take you about 21 weeks to get 1 card to level 30! With the new values, 0 to 30 mastery with splits drops from 87 to 26. At 4 splits per week, this gets you to level 30 in about 6 weeks!

Now with the basics out of the way, we can speed through the rest:

• Rare variants from 25 xp to 75 xp: 3x improvement
• Super Rare variants from 75 xp to 150 xp: 2x improvement
• “Collectable/exclusive” variants from 125 xp to 200 xp: 1.6x improvement
• Spotlight variants from 125 xp to 400 xp: 3.2x improvement
• Ultimate variants from 250 xp to 600 xp: 2.4x improvement

Basically, mastery should be a out 3 times easier on average now. If worst case scenario takes you 6 weeks to get mastery, getting even a couple of variants makes it very feasible to get 1 mastery every month.

Also note: These changes will not be retroactive, so don’t expect to see your collection suddenly full of maxed out card mysteries. Instead, these changes will be the new standard going forward.