As we mentioned in the recent Champion Roadmap, Dr. Mundo is up next for a VGU in 2021. We shared a lot of work-in-progress during Fiddle’s and Voli’s VGU, and we plan to do the same for Mundo. Our hope is that by showing the direction and plans for VGUs early, we can get more feedback from you all about what’s working well and what we can improve on. This approach has gone well so far—both in regards to the feedback we’ve received and the reception from you all—so today we want to share an early look at our work on Mundo’s update.
Riot Games talk about Mundo rework
Let’s start by talking a little bit about why we chose Dr. Mundo for a VGU and what our goals are.
Honestly, one of the main reasons we wanted to update Dr. Mundo is because of how dated his visuals have become—Mundo sticks out like a sore thumb in the current roster of champions. We felt like there was a lot of potential to really upgrade Mundo’s visuals and theme to not only look better, but to fit in better with how League’s visual style has evolved over the years.
We also think there’s room for gameplay improvements to Mundo’s kit. He has a lot that currently works well for him, like his super-tank regeneration and the ability to constantly chuck cleavers—both of which you can expect to stay, in some form or another, after his update.
Another major goal for Mundo’s gameplay is to keep him a very simple champion. We want to build more mastery into his kit, but not the kind of mastery that will suddenly require you to have lightning fast reflexes, so expect his kit complexity to stay pretty similar.
With these goals in mind, let’s hear what Dr. Mundo’s lead gameplay designer, concept artist, and narrative writer have been exploring so far.
A Medical License to Kill
Most League players probably have a memory (or several) of blasting outrageous amounts of damage into a Dr. Mundo, then watching as he goes on to kill your carry and walk out with more health than he started.
The extreme tankiness and regeneration are definitely things we believe are core to the Doctor’s identity, and ultimately when you play him you should feel like taking damage is a problem for other champions. This early in the process, we wanted to explore a variety of things we could do to ham up this experience even more.
Our main goals are to
- give opponents more counterplay options against Mundo,
- increase Mundo’s gameplay variance beyond landing cleavers, and
- bring Mundo into the modern era of League without sacrificing his overall simplicity. We haven’t landed on the final direction for his kit yet, but here’s a few of the things we’ve tried so far.
The first iteration we tested had Dr. Mundo gain one max health every time he was hit, and we soon after tried other versions of Mundo gaining max health by welcoming incoming damage. After a number of tests, it became clear that this was too much of an incentive for bad decision making.
Players would often overcommit, intentionally position poorly, or seek out really bad trades, so we pivoted slightly to Mundo converting his defensive stats into, you guessed it, more health.
After a couple items his health bar became… an absolute unit.
However, with such a ridiculous amount of health, the champions and items that were strong against Mundo became even stronger, and those that were weak became even weaker. This created even more polarized games than current Dr. Mundo, so ultimately we decided to stop pursuing this route.
Also, let me explain that little line, because it’s not the execute threshold for Elder Dragon buff. We also tried giving Dr. Mundo really high health regeneration all the time, but some of the damage he took would lower his max health. The line is showing his “current” maximum health, which would only recover on fountain or on death.
However, this contradicted the regeneration fantasy by making players feel punished for taking poke damage instead of protected from it, which is not a feeling we want for a masochistic tank. It also led to some stress and confusion around when to fight, when to recall, and generally managing your max health. Overall it was too much for poor Mundo’s brain to think about, so we moved on to some simpler abilities.
Outside of giga health regeneration, we thought about other tools you’d expect from a Zaunite mutant-freak. We tried a few things (like not-so-surgical embedding and ripping out his cleavers), but the one that we tested the most was a chain-reacting corpse explosion.
While fun, ultimately this ability felt too zoning-oriented and overall “magey” for what you’d expect from a ripped melee top laner. Mundo having multiple tools to avoid going into melee didn’t fit the character that he is visually, nor did it really encourage the type of gameplay we want Mundo to have.
We’re still in a phase where everything is super crazy and experimental… kind of like Mundo. While none of these early explorations have felt quite right, our muscly purple MD will still be one of League’s marquee megatanks. We’re super excited to share these early explorations with you, to see where his gameplay goes, and about all the totally legitimate medical knowledge we’ll pick up along the way.
Throwing Cleavers against a Wall
Like Fiddlesticks, Dr. Mundo was one of my first loves in League (a trend is emerging). There’s nothing quite like the rush of wading through your foes without a care in the world as their carries cry for someone to save them.
We started out with a big exploration, plumbing the depths of Zaun for directions revolving around what Mundo is and what Mundo could be. This is my favourite part of design because we aren’t yet focused on answering questions, only to ask, and even though this kind of wild dreaming isn’t always practical, it can lead to unexpected sparks that inspire a brighter future.
Ultimately the visual fantasies that are at his core are clear: DOCTOR and… MUNDO. The “Doctor” theme could be approached in many ways and all of them would be an improvement, so I’m really excited there. “Mundo,” on the other hand, is that quality of just beingMundo. Some would say it’s indescribable, others pure purple, but I’d eyeball it as being an unkillable regenerating freak-machine that maybe doesn’t have the cleanest grip on reality.
Tone is something we are discussing a lot. Some say Mundo is a horrific serial killer, others a lovable dope, some even tell me he’s quite handsome. We think finding the right juxtaposition between the comedy and the menace of Mundo will be key. It’s going to be a wild ride, and I’m sure the design will go exactly where it wants to.
Doctor? Mundo
Reworking Mundo has been a unique experience from the start. Often when we rework old champs, they’re in such bad shape that some of our changes end up being pretty drastic. On day one of this rework, we all kind of agreed that we like Mundo.
So does much of the world. Obviously that didn’t mean he couldn’t be improved (especially visually), but everyone in the room felt he filled a unique space in our champ roster—one that we didn’t want to abandon entirely. The idea of an unstoppable psycho who can’t be hurt, combined with the whole “doctor” angle, is a goldmine that we wanted to dig into.
SO THE QUESTION THEN BECAME, “HOW DO WE MAKE HIM MORE SUCCESSFUL AT FULFILLING THE FANTASY OF BEING AN UNKILLABLE PSYCHO DOCTOR?”
The next question I asked was, “Exactly how stupid do we want him to be?” We thought about making him an actual doctor, perhaps someone who went mad through his own medicine, but that put him in the same crazy scientist space as Singed.
Riot Games is about to rework Mundo and release new champs
So we began to experiment with his role as a man who is not a doctor at all, but someone who thinks he’s a doctor and is too stupid to know he isn’t. We realized that while we have no shortage of crazy champs—Ziggs, Jinx, and Kled, to name a few—how many do we really have who are flat-out dumb? Maybe Trundle? (And even he’s supposed to be smart for a troll.) We also realized the dumb thing works really well for a guy who’s supposedly unaware of what is happening to his own body.
No matter where Mundo goes, it’s been fun exploring the different potential avenues for his character.
We’re planning to release Dr. Mundo in 2021, so you can expect the next /dev blog towards the end of the year, once we enter full production.
As always, let us know what you think: What excites you? What terrifies you? Why is Mundo the handsomest purple doctor of all time? We’ll be reading through your thoughts and feedback, as we want all of you to help us make the best Mundo possible.