Merge Tactics Season 11: Supers, Orbs and Every Big Change

Season 11 Supers And Changes

Merge Tactics Season 11 is live, and it is not a small patch. Every player now starts with a personal Super Troop, Supers are the only 5 Elixir cards left in the pool, quest orbs arrive far faster, and a pile of familiar Troops have brand new Elixir costs. If you sit down expecting last season's habits to work, the shop will punish you inside two rounds.

This guide is built entirely on Ricky Royale's Season 11 update video, where he plays three fresh games to test the changes live. It covers how Supers work, what the new Modifier and orb rewards give you, the cost and balance changes he confirms on screen, the comps that still perform, and the Ram Rider positioning tech he stumbles into mid-game.

How Supers Work Now

The headline feature of Season 11 is the Super: a special Troop you are handed at the start of the match. Ricky Royale opens his three games with the Hog Rider, the Ram Rider and the Dark Prince, and the pattern becomes clear fast.

One Super per player. He observes that every player in the lobby appears to get a different Super, and assumes duplicates are not possible, which makes your Super effectively uncontested.
Supers are the only 5 Elixir Troops. Every other 5 Elixir slot in the shop is gone, something he flags as a habit that will take real getting used to.
You can always max your own Super. Because nobody is fighting you for copies, you always have one Troop you can reliably push up in star level. He likes the concept, while admitting the copies still refuse to show up when you want them.
You can sell your Super for Elixir. He describes it as roughly a free 4 Elixir sitting on your bench, which can matter in the early game if you need tempo.
Champions are all 4 Elixir now. With Supers occupying the top slot, the Champion tier sits a rung lower in cost.

Key insight: treat your Super as a guaranteed long-term investment. It is the one card in your build no opponent can steal, so plan your merges around it instead of gambling on contested units.

Four-Star Super Abilities

The real payoff sits at the top end. Ricky Royale spends most of game three chasing a four-star Super, because that star level unlocks entirely new abilities rather than just bigger numbers.

Dark Prince at four stars gains damage reflection plus immunity to stun, slow and other crowd control effects, which he reads off directly in game.
The last quest orb can hand you a four-star Super. He confirms the final orb reward can deliver a four-star copy, which is exactly why he burns the whole game hunting merges.
Boss Bandit at four stars is the one he actually lands, and he treats it as an instant win condition: "how is a four-star Boss Bandit going to lose right now?"
The orb can stack rewards. He pulls the four-star Super and plus one team size in the same run, and is audibly stunned by it.

⚠️ The orb does not always give you the Super you are holding. He benches the Dark Prince hoping to upgrade it and gets a Boss Bandit instead, so never build your whole board around a specific hit.

The New Modifier And Orbs

Season 11 also brings a new Modifier into rotation, which Ricky Royale plays across his first two games. It leans on equipment and orb rewards, and he calls it genuinely fun and unusually beginner-friendly because it introduces new players to equipment concepts quickly.

Quest orbs arrive immediately. Playing as Spirit Empress, he receives orbs the moment he qualifies instead of waiting, and calls the old delay unnecessary. He is not sure whether the speed-up comes from the Ruler or the Modifier.
Merge counts drive the rewards. He is chasing 60 merges for his final orb across multiple games, so aggressive cycling and buying cheap is rewarded.
Equipment rolls matter. He picks up the Queen's Cloak and the Ranger's Crossbow, and mentions the Maiden Shield and the Superstar Ring, the latter now doing something meaningful even on a card like the Princess.
Plus one team size appears as an orb reward alongside the four-star Super.

⚠️ Equipment no longer auto-assigns. He forgets to attach a piece and it simply sits unused, so check your gear before every round.

Pro tip: when the orb track is live, prioritize cheap Troops and constant merges over hoarding Elixir. He misses his third orb more than once purely because he stopped cycling.

Cost And Balance Changes

A large chunk of the video is Ricky Royale relearning prices in real time. His own words: "I keep thinking things cost a certain amount and they don't." These are the changes he confirms on screen.

Baby Dragon now costs 3 Elixir, one of the first price shifts he reacts to.
Royal Ghost now costs 2 Elixir, making it dirt-cheap Undead filler.
Champions are 4 Elixir across the board.
Nobles were nerfed. He checks the tooltip mid-game and confirms the bonus reads 30% and is not the value it used to be. His verdict: Nobles are still good, just no longer absurd.
Banish now costs 3 Elixir on the Boss Bandit, which he flags as a real nerf because her dashes are far harder to fuel.
Goblin Cage pulls units in: his Dark Prince gets sucked straight into one, so account for it when you position.

⚠️ He also notes the Dark Prince looks buggy and "beta" in its current state, so expect follow-up patches.

Comps And Positioning Tech

Across three games Ricky Royale tests three different directions, and the results give a rough early read on the meta.

Clan

Game one goes Clan, and his summary is blunt: "Clan just seems broken as usual." He hits a three-star Giant early, adds the Archer to reach four Clan, and rates the near-constant access to the Giant as the trait's core strength. A three-star Queen with the Queen's Cloak holds the rest of the board together.

Nobles

Game two builds Nobles around the GK, the Royal Giant and the Musketeer, with the Maiden Shield letting the GK sit front row. Even after the 30% nerf the trait floods him with Elixir, though he runs into opponents stacking five Nobles too, which makes contesting brutal.

Undead

Game three goes Undead with the Witch, Royal Ghost and Dark Prince. He admits it is not the most optimal comp, but nobody else was touching the trait, which made it free to force while he chased merges.

The Ram Rider Dash Tech

This is the most transferable trick in the video. The Ram Rider leaves a trail of buff tiles behind her as she charges, and he rates her the best Super so far purely because that trail is the biggest.

Place a body like the GK in the front row so the Ram Rider starts behind it.
She then dashes in a straight line toward the enemy backline, so you can predict exactly which tiles she will buff.
Line your own units up on that path so they end up standing on the buffed tiles.
⚠️ Units placed to catch the buff, like the Boss Bandit, take the tile bonus but do not get an initial dash of their own, so weigh whether the trade is worth it.

Pro tip: the Ram Rider only hits for around 225 damage in his test. She is a buff engine and a clutch finisher, not your primary carry.

Is Season 11 Any Good

Strengths

✅ Guaranteed progression. One Super nobody can contest gives every game a reliable build-around piece.
✅ Four-star payoffs end games. A four-star Boss Bandit closed out his third match on the spot.
✅ Faster orbs. Getting quest orbs immediately removes a lot of dead waiting time.
✅ More variety. His read is that the season "feels pretty good" with a lot of potential for different builds.
✅ Beginner-friendly Modifier. The new Modifier teaches equipment and orb mechanics naturally.

Weaknesses

❌ Nobles took a real hit at 30%, so the old autopilot Elixir engine is weaker.
❌ Boss Bandit's Banish at 3 Elixir makes her dash pattern much harder to fuel.
❌ Rough polish. The Dark Prince in particular reads as buggy right now.
⚠️ Low trophy lobbies are stale. At around 200 trophies in Bronze he says it is "all just Goblin Queens," so expect the Goblin Queen everywhere while players relearn the patch.

Key Units & Traits

Ram Rider: Ricky Royale's pick for best Super: leaves the biggest buff trail behind her dash, but only hits for about 225.
Dark Prince: At four stars he reflects damage and shrugs off stun, slow and other crowd control effects.
Boss Bandit: A four-star Boss Bandit closes games outright, though Banish now costs 3 Elixir.
Hog Rider: His opening Super in game one, and it seems to charge fine even opposite a Dark Prince.
Spirit Empress: Ruler that hands you quest orbs immediately instead of making you wait.
Clan: Still one of the strongest traits: near-constant Giant access and easy three-star units.
Nobles: Nerfed to a 30% bonus but still a strong Elixir engine around the GK and Royal Giant.
Undead: Witch, Royal Ghost and Dark Prince: cheap and often completely uncontested this patch.

TL;DR

✅ Every player starts with a Super, and Supers are now the only 5 Elixir Troops in the pool.
✅ Your Super is never contested, so you can always merge it up: or sell it for a quick 4 Elixir.
✅ A four-star Super unlocks brand new abilities, and the final quest orb can hand you one.
✅ Quest orbs now arrive immediately as Spirit Empress, and rewards include plus one team size.
✅ Relearn the prices: Baby Dragon 3, Royal Ghost 2, all Champions 4.
⚠️ Nobles were nerfed to 30% and Banish now costs 3 Elixir on the Boss Bandit.
⚠️ Equipment no longer auto-assigns, so attach your Queen's Cloak or Ranger's Crossbow manually every round.

Season 11 is the biggest shake-up Merge Tactics has had in a while, and on Ricky Royale's evidence it lands well. The Super system gives every game a guaranteed build-around piece, the four-star ability unlocks are worth chasing, and faster orbs keep the pace high. The rough edges are real: the Dark Prince still looks unfinished, the Boss Bandit got meaningfully worse, and low trophy lobbies are drowning in Goblin Queen while everyone relearns the patch. If you are willing to relearn Elixir costs and cycle hard for merges, this is a great season to jump in: just do not expect your old Nobles autopilot to carry you anymore.