Honor of Kings is shaking up its usual 5v5 formula with a September 23 update that expands the Flowborn roster, introduces a compact battle royale mode and gives ranked players more reasons to keep climbing.
The most noticeable addition is Honor Royale Beta, a 2v2v2v2 mode built around matches lasting just three minutes. Four teams enter from different corners of a shrinking battlefield, with the final surviving duo taking the win. It is a considerable change of pace for a game primarily associated with traditional MOBA matches, trading longer tactical engagements for something designed around immediate combat.
Honor Royale still borrows familiar progression ideas. Monsters and chests provide Runes that strengthen characters while restoring Health and Energy, while defeated players drop two Runes. Getting knocked out also isn’t necessarily permanent: players can respawn beside a surviving teammate after 10 seconds, and a squad only leaves the match when both members are eliminated.
At the 90-second mark, a Boss appears in the centre. Defeating it grants a shield and adds a lightning effect to attacks, potentially making the objective particularly important during the closing stages. Random events are also intended to stop rounds from playing out identically.
The update simultaneously brings Honor of Kings’ five Flowborn classes together for the first time. Flowborn Assassin and Flowborn Roamer are available free from September 23, joining the previously introduced classes.
A new mid-lane hero, Wang Wei, follows on October 8. Wang Wei will cost 13,888 Gold or 588 Vouchers, with the Voucher price discounted by 50% during the first week.
Another potentially significant gameplay addition is Flow State, a new Summoner Skill with a 100-second cooldown. Activating it halves the cooldown of a hero’s skills and summons a weapon determined by their primary role. Its effects range from healing and magic damage to knock-ups, knockbacks and an Assassin attack dealing true damage based partly on the target’s missing health.
Ranked progression is getting attention too. Path to Honor adds prestige rewards at every 10-star milestone between 10 and 50 stars in Grandmaster, while Weekly Hero Challenge generates three missions of varying difficulty each week. Completing them with assigned heroes in ranked matches awards additional tier points, with harder challenges requiring victories.
Honor Royale is arguably the update’s biggest experiment. Three-minute battle royale matches sit well outside Honor of Kings’ conventional structure, and the beta should reveal whether its combat translates successfully into a format designed for quick, repeatable sessions.
