So, we got our game up to the first release. We cheered, we celebrated, we got a mental breakdown, we cried, and then, we got back to work.

But this time, the app checklist is empty. At least the immediate one. Still, some stuff needed our attention.

So, we started immediately, and here’s the first delivery.

New rare avatars enter Cariñoland

Some ideas don’t die. They hide.

A while ago we had one of those slightly crazy concepts that stick to a neuron and refuse to leave. It slept quietly in the Cariñoland archives… until a couple of nights ago.

One of our team members was browsing old files, stumbled upon a forgotten image, and the spark came back instantly. A few intense hours later: drafts, iterations, ChatGPT-assisted brainstorming, and careful Photoshop retouching. Four new characters stepped into the light.

Meet:

Buff L. Blobson
Buff Spark
Buff El_Pato
Buff Negapato

Massively muscular. Intensely upgraded. Stronger versions -in every sense- of their original counterparts. Well… some of them.

While defining their profiles, something unexpected happened. A narrative thread started forming. Our writer grabbed it, and suddenly a whole new storybook began taking shape.

That storybook will have to wait.

For now, the Buff variants are live.

How to get them

These rare avatar cards have been added to Cariñoland’s "Neon Mix" normal boards (6, 10, and 12 card decks) inside the Training Zone, available exclusively on Normal difficulty bots.

When you play on these boards, there’s a small chance one (or more) of them appears in the bot’s hand.

They are rare.
They have low spawn odds.
And if you see one… you know what to do.

Win the match. Claim the card.

Requirement

Yeah, this is the annoying part.

To unlock their appearance, your deck must average Level 15 or higher.

This ensures they remain within Cariñoland’s intended power range and keeps the ecosystem balanced for advanced play.

If your deck is strong enough, they may start showing up.

If not… time to train.

Our backend got two great upgrades

While the Buff crew was hitting the gym (not really… the only exercise they do is juggling with their fingers on the keyboard), our DevOps staff was lifting weights — metaphorically speaking.

We pushed two major upgrades to our servers:

• One makes your inventory, stash, and farm load dramatically faster.
• The other rebuilds how arrows are generated on newly created cards, making layouts feel more balanced and satisfying.

No gameplay rules were changed. No client update was required.

Just smarter systems working quietly in the background — so everything feels smoother and rolls feel better.

Faster inventory load times

For a while now, some inventories have felt… heavy.

If you owned a large collection -especially after participating in events- opening your inventory, stash, or farm could take far longer than it should. In extreme cases, loading dozens of cards meant waiting close to a minute. Or even more.

That wasn’t acceptable.

After reviewing how card data was being assembled behind the scenes, we identified a bottleneck in the composition process. Each card required multiple data pieces to be gathered and prepared before being delivered to the client. Multiply that by dozens (or hundreds) of cards, and the delay stacked up quickly.

We redesigned that layer and introduced a dedicated data caching system for inventory-related views.

The result:

• Large inventories that previously took close to a minute now load in a fraction of that time.
• Mid-sized collections (1–2 dozen cards) build in just a couple of seconds.
• Inventory, Stash, and Farm views all benefit from the upgrade.

This change affects server-side performance only. No gameplay mechanics were altered, and battle systems remain untouched.

In short: same cards, same rules, and much faster access.

Arrow generation reforged

If you’ve opened enough card packs, you’ve probably seen it happen.

A great card rolls… and all its arrows decide to throw a party on the same side.

Technically valid? Yes.
Visually satisfying? Questionable.
Strategically spicy? Sometimes.

We’ve seen the screenshots. We’ve read the forum comments. So, we went back to the generator and gave it… half a neuron.

Previously, arrows were selected with pure uniform randomness. Every direction had equal probability, which meant clustered layouts could -and absolutely did- happen.

Now, generation is still random, but it’s no longer clueless.

We rebuilt the system, so it gently favors layouts that tend to feel better and play better without removing true randomness.

Newly created cards can now more often roll patterns such as:

• Opposite directions (Up + Down, Left + Right, diagonal opposites)
• Same-side diagonal pairs (forming a defensive "wall")
• Quadrant spreads (three arrows covering one board corner)
• Balanced 4-way cross (Up, Right, Down, Left)
• Balanced diagonal cross (all four diagonals)
• Mixed, well-spread combinations
• Fully random layouts (still possible — chaos is part of the charm)

Additional improvements include:

• Reduced clustering on the same side
• Lower chance of identical layouts repeating within the same pack
• Weighted selection without determinism (true randomness remains)

Under the hood, the generator now “thinks” about things like spread awareness, opposite rewards, quadrant incentives, ring balance, side-diagonal archetypes, pack-level repeat control, and soft Top‑K randomness smoothing.

No hard rules. No fixed templates. Just soft bias instead of blind chaos.

All of this serves one simple purpose:

To make users happy when they buy card packs.

Same unpredictability.
Fewer "why are all my arrows there?" moments.
More satisfying rolls.