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Egg decorating, flowers blooming, water splashing, Blackfeather crooning under maidens’ windows — Halcyon Days are upon us!

Celebrate Halcyon Days like the Carnies do with a Vainglory Water Party!

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• ‘Summer Party’ Krul: 250 Opals NOW 199 Opals
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• ‘Summer Party’ Kestrel: 250 Opals NOW 199 Opals
• Get ALL THREE ‘Summer Party’ skins for just 597 Opals!

Don’t miss Skaarf’s Halcyon Days Egg Art Contest and watch the app for upcoming Halcyon Days promotions!

ALL THE HALCYON DAYS

The titanback barge glides through the choppy water at dawn, the Halcyon Fold a shadow in the distance. Joule and Skye sit by the mech parking area eating sunflower seeds. Glaive and Ringo play the Hand Slaps game… well, Hand and Paw Slaps. Rona sits cross-legged, sharpening an axe, Fortress’ big head resting on her leg. Koshka holds Skaarf’s tail so he won’t jump into the water. Petal and her munions glare at the seed-eaters. Ozo surfs on the titanback’s tail. The corner where Phinn stands dips lower than the others; Blackfeather strums a mandolin.

“Almost herring funeral season,” muses Phinn.

“What are you talking about?” sings Blackfeather.

“You know, Halcyon Days, when you have the herring funeral.”

“Ah, Halcyon Days,” trills Blackfeather. “Snow melting, flowers blooming, days growing longer and warmer, and of course: the kissing contest.”

“The what now?” says Joule.

“The kissing contest, where the men line up to kiss the lady judges, and the winner is the year’s Kiss King. Of course,” brags Blackfeather, “I have held the title of Kiss King five years in a row.”

Joule spits a shell out over the edge. “Ain’t no kissing contests in the Lower Quarter,” she says. “For Halcyon Days, we build robots! Then we have a robot parade, and on the last day, we fight them.”

“Doesn’t that break the robots?”

Joule spins around, dropping her handful of seeds. “Who said that?”

“Over here.” Taka’s fluffy tail appears from under a box. He peeks out, grinning.

“Oh! Well, yeah, the robots break. Fighting breaks things. But we build all new ones the next year.”

“Where I’m from, we do spring cleaning and we get haircuts,” says Taka, and crawls out of the box to reveal a freshly trimmed tail. “The Halcyon Days start when the first cherry blossom appears. The rest bloom soon after, and we all go to the orchards to have picnics under the trees.”

“We hunt for eggs,” pipes up Rona.

“Do eggs hide where you’re from?” asks Glaive, whipping one huge paw over to slam Ringo’s knuckles.

Rona sticks out her tongue. “After the Long Dark, we get a few days of thaw. We dye them bright colors and the Halcyon Skvader hides the eggs in the longhouses…”

“Skuv-what?” says Joule.

“…and the children search for them.”

One of Fortress’ legs kicks in his sleep.

Glaive slams Ringo’s hand again. “During the Halcyon Days festival, Grangor kits team up to test themselves on the War Path. They may not leave the Path until one team is beaten all the way back. It is a good warmup after months of being stuck in our caves during storms.”

“FLAGGR VTHR BARF,” says Skaarf.

“True,” says Koshka, patting Skaarf’s head. “Those kids do sound scary.”

Glaive grins. “Well. It’s not just fighting. We also have a kissing contest.”

“Really?” cries Blackfeather, the mandolin music stopping short.

“No,” says Glaive.

Ringo shakes out his hand, all red and scratched from losing. “You all have tame Halcyon Days celebrations. Haircuts? Eggs? Carnies go crazy for Halcyon Days. We have singing, dancing…”

“And a Water Party!” calls Ozo, swinging up from the tail to land on Ringo’s shoulders. “We throw water at each other all day until we’re sopping wet as spring flowers.”

“Drenched buffoons will never be as pretty as spring flowers!” yells Petal, her leafy fist pumping. “For Halcyon Days, us plants play Explode The Munions!”

“What kind of a celebration is that?” asks Skye.

“A crazy one,” mutters Ringo.

“Rude,” says Petal. “It’s to ensure a lucky harvest. Here, I’ll show you…”

“No!” the other heroes shout, scattering away from her.

“GBBBBL!” blurts Skaarf.

“Those seem like very nice celebrations,” says Skye, distracting Petal from her spring party trick, “but where I’m from, we eat sweet rice cakes, play games, give gifts to the elderly, and the Butterfly Keepers tell our fortunes.”

“How do you tell a fortune with a butterfly?” asks Joule.

“The Butterfly Keepers have gardens enclosed with netting,” says Skye, her arms arcing overhead. “You stand in the center, and whatever butterfly lands on your nose first has a meaning. If it’s red, you will fall in love. Yellow means fortune. Blue means bad luck. White means death. Black means life will change.”

“I knew that butterflies had powers,” whispers Koshka.

“But wait!” cries Blackfeather. “We never discovered why Phinn’s… people, shall we say, hold funerals for herrings.”

Phinn chews on his bubble pipe as all eyes rest on him. “I don’t remember. ‘Tis the end of herring season, so maybe we’re just glad it’s over.”

The titanback claws its way onshore. Morning fog lifts off of the Halcyon Fold; flowers burst open all over the jungle and baby birds screech for food in the trees. The heroes disembark and wish one another luck.

Most heroes have to flee powerful crowd control abilities. Most heroes live in fear of being stunned, silenced or otherwise slowed. But not Gwen. Gwen can shake off negative effects, turning the tables in her favor due to her powerful Skedaddle ability. This “get out of jail” free card gives her a way to slip away from slows, roots, stuns and silences that no other hero possesses. Plus, her two blazing guns provide a perfect complement to her hit-and-run tactics. With her Buckshot Bonanza, she has one of the most reliable damage-dealing abilities in the game that also slows opponents — perfect for setting up the kill or ensuring her own escape. While not possessing the greatest range, Gwen has an intriguing mix of mobility and power. Read on to learn how to master this slippery sniper…

HERO ABILITIES

BOOMSTICK (HEROIC PERK)

After not attacking for 1.6 seconds, Gwen’s next basic attack deals 30-115 + (50% bonus weapon power) additional damage. Attack speed reduces the time before this empowered attack becomes available.

BUCKSHOT BONANZA (A)

Gwen blasts enemies in the target direction, damaging all targets in a cone. Enemies hit by this ability are slowed and revealed for 2 seconds

SKEDADDLE (B)

When activated, Gwen instantly removes negative effects from herself and blocks further effects for a short time. Additionally, she gains a temporary burst of bonus move speed.

Passive: Gwen gains bonus move speed. This effect is disabled for a few seconds upon taking damage from an enemy hero, but it is otherwise permanent.

ACES HIGH (ULTIMATE)

Gwen pulls an ace from up her sleeve and flings it in the target direction. The card deals damage to everything it passes through. The ace impacts and stuns the first enemy hero in its path.

DUELING

While Boomstick is a great heroic perk, when engaging with enemy heroes 1v1, you’ll actually do more damage stutter stepping. But, if you find yourself on the losing end of a battle, don’t stutter step in your retreat. Instead, wait for Boomstick to cool down, fire — and then run.

Her Buckshot Bonanza is one of the most reliable abilities in the game because of its large area of effect and guaranteed damage. But her range is somewhat limited. When you initiate against an enemy hero, you should get in range and attack with Buckshot Bonanza, which both damages and slows enemies. Then, Gwen should hit with her Aces High while the enemies are still slowed. While a powerful ability, Aces High is a slow-travelling projectile and therefore dodgeable. Combined with the slowing effects of the Bonanza, however, you increase the odds of actually hitting with Aces High.

Skedaddle is fantastic for getting a player out of bad situations by clearing CC debuffs and granting her a half-second immunity from further crowd controls (being rooted, slowed or silenced). She can also use Skedaddle to chase down enemies in order to finish them off. But be careful not to use Skedaddle and leave yourself in a vulnerable position. Without an escape route, Gwen can become a sitting duck.

TEAMFIGHTS

Gwen is a fragile character who prefers to be on the edge of a fight. Her Skedaddle has a long cooldown so it should really only be used in emergencies and to deal with major enemy crowd control.

Similar to her dueling strategy, Gwen players should use her Buckshot Bonanza + Aces High combo to secure a kill on the enemy carry. Alternatively, you can use this combo to peel for yourself. If you need to do more damage, you should stutter step. But if you need to be more mobile, utilize your Boomstick perk. If you’re using this latter strategy, then it’s recommended that you buy as much weapon damage as possible; stutter stepping will give you more constant damage output but being able to unleash a more potent attack every few seconds does have its benefits.

Let’s say you’re in a 1v2 situation not in your favor. This is a great opportunity to take advantage of your heroic perk. Stay mobile and fire back once the perk is ready. Once they’ve utilized a crowd control move on you, use your Skedaddle to escape. Alternatively, if you have vision, you can avoid an unfavorable fight entirely by using Skedaddle and heading back toward your turret.

If you’re part of a 2v1 scenario in your favor, then the same basic-attack principles for dueling and teamfighting apply: Use your Buckshot Bonanza to slow, your Aces High to stun and your Skedaddle to negate any slowing effects an escaping hero may throw at you.

While not recommended, Gwen can also build crystal items. Crystal items give her longer range but also a much slower rate of attack. Crystal Gwen strategies take advantage of her high movement speed and — through purchasing items such as Clockwork — the low cooldowns on her abilities. Essentially, Gwen’s approach to teamfighting is to stay far out and then run in and use her Bonanza to catch as many enemies as possible. After that, a Crystal Gwen should use her Aces High, and then Skedaddle away and out of range of retaliation. The benefits of this strategy is how well this utilizes her speed bonuses and the reliable and long-range damage-dealing abilities of her kit. The downside is that Gwen will be much less effective in sustained fights, so if she gets caught by Phinn’s anchor or some other enemy-slowing effect, she’s dead meat. Also, her heroic perk, arguably one of her best attributes, scales with weapon. It’s useful for last-hitting minions but with a CP build, it’s not going to help in the late game.

WEAPON BUILDS

Sorrowblade: A great pick for Gwen because it increases her base damage and scales with her perk.

Breaking Point: An item that offers more weapon damage over time and grants Gwen more attack speed. Plus, Buckshot Bonanza does weapon damage which gives you easy Breaking Point stacks.

Tyrant’s Monocle: Want more damage per second? Then look no further than Tyrant’s Monocle. If you critical hit with your initial hit, you’ll have a very strong burst opening. Unfortunately, perk damage is not being amplified by critical damage.

Bonesaw: If your enemy has a lot of armor, Bonesaw is a great choice. Plus, it will lower the cooldown on your heroic perk.

Aegis: Since Gwen is fragile, having a reflex block is exceptionally useful.

STRONG VERSUS

Ardan: Ardan’s ultimate is easily countered by Gwen’s Skedaddle, letting you walk through the gauntlet.

Krul: Gwen can get away from his heroic perk or his ultimate but not necessarily both. With her Buckshot Bonanza, she can also slow him.

Catherine: Gwen’s Skedaddle ensures she can’t be held down by Catherine’s silence or stun.

WEAK VERSUS

Ozo: Ozo has too many ways to close the gap between him and Gwen. He also has no abilities that her Skedaddle counters.

Reim: Reim’s abilities at maximum rank have too much range for her to contend with. Baron, similarly, has too much range for her to handle.

PRO TIPS

• Skedaddle gives you a move speed boost so long as you’re not being hit by enemies. So, you can use it to move to objectives faster.
• Her Buckshot Bonanza ability will reveal stealth. If you want to check bushes, why not fire and see what stumbles out?
• Hitting multiple heroes with Buckshot Bonanza will give you multiple Breaking Point stacks. So Breaking Point should be a high priority for nearly all Gwen builds.