"Golden Shovel Battle" "Power of Nature" Season: Every Match Is Tailored Just for You

"Golden Shovel Battle" is turning five this year.

It feels like just yesterday when the game first launched and I stayed up all night with friends playing the Bounty Season, blocking our opponents’ moves in the final circle while marveling at just how captivating Auto Chess could be. Today, the mobile gaming market is becoming increasingly saturated, and the competition to capture players’ dwindling free time is getting fiercer than ever—yet I still make room for it on my phone.

The “Star Gods” season and the “League of Legends Legends” season each have their own unique charm. Now that the latter has become a permanent mode, I can’t help but play a couple more games as Xoth.When the “Power of Nature” content was revealed, I noticed it brought back the “Random Rod” mechanic from the “Magic Brawl” season—which I personally loved—and this time it’s been renamed “Nature Spirits.”

Last week, I had the privilege of visiting Tencent’s headquarters in Shenzhen with fellow media professionals, where we got an early hands-on look at the “Force of Nature” season and discussed this season’s content design with Matthew Wittrock, Lead Game Designer at Riot Games, and Tim Jiang, Senior Game Designer at Riot Games.

After trying it out, I found that “Nature Spirits” doesn’t simply bring back the mechanics from the “Magic Brawl” season as-is; instead, drawing on past experience, it intentionally amplifies their impact on the overall gameplay dynamics.In my two test matches—one where I finished first and one where I came in eighth—these two extreme outcomes gave me a clearer, more intuitive understanding of the design trade-offs made this season regarding synergy strength curves and resource pacing.

01

Just for You

This season’s theme is built around a fantastical natural forest.Matthew Wittrock, Lead Game Designer at Riot Games, told us that the team drew inspiration from the thematic style of the “Rise of the Elements” season. “We wanted to explore more possibilities within the ‘Power of Nature’ theme for this season—creating a stronger sense of theme, introducing more creatures, and expanding the roster of champions and units,” he said."To that end, they deliberately diversified the composition of the units, "adding more humanoid and non-humanoid champions—such as monsters and forest spirits—to make the 'Power of Nature' champion roster richer, more playable, and more fun."

During the "Magic Brawl" season, fans of the staff mechanic appreciate its high level of randomness and significant potential, noting that occasionally drawing a powerful effect that can turn the tide of battle makes matches more dramatic and entertaining; those who dislike it feel that it takes up shop slots, disrupts the rhythm of drawing cards and adjusting strategies, and forces players to use whatever they draw, resulting in a relatively limited sense of strategic decision-making.

Tim Jiang, a senior game designer at Riot Games, gave a fairly candid answer: When we designed “Nature Spirits” for this season, we drew on our experience from the “Magic Brawl” season.The reason the “Staff Mechanic” in the “Magic Brawl” season felt relatively lackluster to players was that when players obtained a staff, they generally didn’t alter their gameplay strategy because of it—and that’s exactly what we wanted to avoid in the “Power of Nature” season.

Tim Jiang continued, “Our goal for this season is that when players see the ‘Nature’s Spirit’ from the ‘Power of Nature’ season, they can immediately understand how this ‘Nature’s Spirit’ affects their playstyle and current team composition, allowing them to adjust their strategies accordingly.So when designing the synergies for this season, we made sure many of them interact with the ‘Nature Spirit’—for example, the ‘Hellfire’ and ‘Rift Monsters’ synergies are tied to the ‘Staff Power’ aspect of the ‘Nature Spirit’;and major synergies like “Soul Lotus” are designed entirely around the “Nature Spirit” mechanics.”

The season design team has certainly learned from past experience. This season not only features over 200 different types of Nature Spirits, but we’ve also made every effort to ensure that each team composition has a corresponding “Nature Spirit” to utilize. Our hope is that these spirits will not only provide players with a buff but also influence their actual in-game strategic decisions.

As I mentioned at the beginning, after playing two matches—one where I came in first and one where I came in eighth—I really felt this change.

First, I played the Rift Monsters, one of the largest vertical synergies this season, featuring a total of 10 units. Upon activating the 3-Rift Monster synergy, you gain the "Alpha Mark," which designates one unit to have its unique effect enhanced. At 5-synergy, the shop refreshes every three battles with a purchase section containing only Canyon Wilds units, so overall, it’s a synergy geared toward the early to mid-game.However, thanks to the “Nature Spirit” that provides combat power bonuses, I managed to stay alive throughout the mid-game with just a single 2-star, 1-cost Spirit, and no one on the battlefield could figure out where its damage was coming from.Finally, after unlocking the 10 Canyon Monsters synergy, its effect granted two additional population slots. By this point, however, my combat power had fallen below that of a small team that had reached the 95% mark. By refreshing the "Nature Spirits," I obtained a Hero Cloner and successfully crafted a 2-star Great Dragon. I seized the opportunity to clinch the victory in one fell swoop while the opponent was busy reorganizing their formation and had no chance to observe my moves.

According to Tim Jiang, the 10-unit Rift Jungler composition is easier to build than other 10-unit synergies and reaches its peak power sooner."In terms of pace, you’ll likely have the lead over other players in the early game, but in the late game, when others fill their boards with powerful 4-cost and 5-cost units and better synergy combinations, you need to be prepared for the quality of your Canyon Beasts to start declining."It’s easy to take the lead early on, but in the late game, you’ll need to rely on health and economic advantages to hold on. If you draw the right Immortals, they can go a long way toward compensating for this slump. Major synergies aren’t mindlessly powerful—they have their own ceiling and a specific window of opportunity."

For my second choice, I selected "Soul Lotus." This synergy is a major one deeply tied to "Nature Immortals" this season; activating the 3-Soul Lotus synergy enhances the effects of "Nature Immortals." I chose it specifically to verify Tim Jiang’s claim that "Soul Lotus and 'Nature Immortals' have a synergy."

The "Soul Lotus" build takes a relatively long time to fully develop; generally, unlocking the 5-Lotus effect requires a 4-cost unit, which means this strategy really comes into its own in the mid-to-late game. Therefore, in the early-to-mid game—when your lineup isn’t yet fully formed—you can consider combining it with "Nature Spirits" to create a reasonable transition strategy.I’ve actually drawn many powerful Nature Spirit effects, such as the one I got at 4-1: “Each time you kill an enemy, you have a 65% chance to get a free shop refresh; if you win, that chance increases by 1,”If you win, you can essentially create over ten units’ worth of value for just three units. You also have a higher chance of drawing a Hero Cloner that trades a few health points for a copy of a hero. If your early-game transition goes relatively smoothly, these Immortals can even transform the Soul Lotus into a fun synergy-based playstyle in the mid-to-late game.

A teacher of media studies sitting next to me also tried out this season’s “Witch” fun synergy. The more layers you stack, the more generous the mystery rewards you unlock, and there are exclusive enhancement runes that convert the number of consecutive losses into ability power. It’s a fairly standard power-oriented fun synergy, but that doesn’t mean this season lacks entertainment value.

When asked how to balance entertainment and competitiveness this season, Tim Jiang said, “When we designed the ‘Nature Spirits’ mechanic, our goal was to offer players a high-risk, high-reward experience—or one where risk and reward are proportional. We wanted every player to have their own path to victory, while avoiding a situation where very experienced, long-time players could instantly win the game after obtaining ‘Nature Spirits,’ leaving relatively new or novice players completely unsure of how to get started.”

As a result, most Natural Spirits are designed to be relatively simple and easy to understand, so that new players can grasp and use them right away.At the same time, there are spirits like the advanced transformation spell—a favorite among many players in the “Magic Brawl” season (where a 4-cost piece is permanently transformed into a 5-cost piece)—that offer both a sense of satisfaction and a certain level of competitiveness. These spirits require some game understanding but have a low drop rate, and they can be said to meet the needs of most players.

02

On the Chessboard

In addition to the strategic changes introduced by the natural spirits, a great deal of thought has gone into the design of the game pieces this season.

Take Ornn, for example. In previous seasons, Ornn was mostly a 4- or 5-cost card, but this time, as a 1-cost card, he has a special mechanic: if he blocks enough damage, he can forge an artifact. If he reaches three stars early in the match, he might even earn the income from two additional artifacts throughout the entire game.

As well as the two champions mentioned by Matthew Wittrock—Rengar and Kha'Zix—whose synergy design proved particularly challenging. "The mechanics of these two champions are somewhat similar in certain respects, so the challenge was how to make each one distinct without making it seem like the same set of mechanics was applied to both champions.""The final solution was to have both champions use a 'stack-based kill' progression mechanic—the more kills they get, the faster they accumulate progress, and killing each other grants additional progress."This is designed to perfectly align with the progression experience of 'playing a fully-powered Renekton or a fully-powered Kha'Zix': when players use these two champions, they should feel like true assassins, experiencing their power snowballing with every kill."

Overall, the interaction between piece abilities and the board this season is noticeably deeper than in previous seasons.

The 5-cost card Aion grants special bonuses to units on specific squares on the board, while Eternal Forest can even summon plants directly onto the board.Matthew Wittrock believes this is a key direction for amplifying the unique characteristics of the auto-battler genre: “When you enter a match and face off against an opponent, even if you’re using exactly the same heroes, the positioning of your units and the board-space buffs will vary, so you’ll feel that your opponent’s strategy is distinctly different from yours and from everyone else’s.We want players to think more strategically and make decisions based on the board’s tiles, rather than just placing units randomly.”

Natural Spirits require additional in-game currency to purchase, and players can sometimes earn rewards through them. Therefore, on the economic front, Tim Jiang also addressed concerns about “whether there would be inflation.” The team had the data team re-examine this season’s economic model in advance and deliberately balanced economic-type and combat-type Spirits.The current conclusion is that the overall economic level is similar to that of the past few seasons, and no significant inflation has occurred due to Natural Spirits. However, he also acknowledged that the additional resources available in the early game may make it easier for low-cost lineups to gain an advantage, leading players to engage in direct confrontations earlier and resulting in fewer late-game matches—an issue that will be a key focus in future balance adjustments.

There is still room for improvement in the gameplay experience. For example, when playing a “Witch” composition—which requires stacking layers to collect resources—there is virtually no margin for error by the mid-to-late game. Players must simultaneously manage multiple tasks, such as refreshing the shop, selecting Nature Spirits, purchasing pieces, rearranging formations, and monitoring opponents’ boards—a high-intensity challenge even for veteran players.While it may be difficult to completely resolve these issues in the short term, this season has at least marked a significant step forward in terms of the relationship between game mechanics and team compositions.

Therefore, “Natural Spirits” does not simply bring back the Random Staff mechanic as-is. It optimizes the previous system—which suffered from lackluster team synergy and limited strategic impact—so that random rewards can influence players’ decisions and the overall direction of the game, while still preserving those heart-pounding moments.This is also why the team chose to continue and refine this system in the “Power of Nature” season—drawing on past experience and incorporating player feedback into the design priorities for the new season.

Conclusion

Therefore, whether in terms of content or design philosophy, my overall impression of the “Power of Nature” season is that the team is not only listening carefully to player feedback but also continuously reflecting on the lessons learned from previous seasons. This ability to heed feedback and implement changes is just as worthy of players’ attention as the unique innovations introduced in each season.