In Brief:
- Illuvium’s new Arena update, 1.18.3, gives the Fighter, Bulwark, Empath/Psion and Rogue classes their own way of scaling Hyper.
- The patch links Earth to Physical Resist and Air to Energy Resist. Bulwark’s Hyper now scales Max Health.
- Composites are limited to three and Composite chips have been removed. Together these changes partly undo the uniform Hyper design that went to mainnet in 1.8.0.
Update 1.18.3 for Illuvium Arena is now live. With it, Hyper once more behaves differently depending on a unit’s class.
Illuvium announced the release on X, writing that “Hyper finally carries class identity.” According to the studio, Fighter, Bulwark, Empath/Psion and Rogue “each scale differently” under the reworked system.
Illuvium Arena (official site) 1.18.3 is live.
Hyper finally carries class identity: Fighter, Bulwark, Empath/Psion, Rogue each scale differently.
Earth → Physical Resist.
Air → Energy Resist.
Bulwark → Max Health.
Composites capped at 3.
Composite chips gone.@IlluviumView on X ↗
What changed
The patch hands out defensive stats by affinity and by class. Earth now feeds Physical Resist and Air feeds Energy Resist, while Bulwark’s scaling goes into Max Health.
The announcement did not include numbers for each class. The complete notes sit in the patch notes section of the Illuvium Portal, which dates the update to Sept. 16, 2026.
Composites change too. They are now limited to three, and Composite chips are no longer in the game.
A partial reversal
This update rolls back one of the bigger design choices Arena has made recently.
Hyper was originally built around class. In the 0.3.6 Ascendant Arena build, a unit’s Hyper bonuses grew as its hyperactive bar filled, and the effects depended on its dominant class. Once fully charged, the unit became hyperactive and received an additional boost.
Illuvium abandoned that model in a Hyper rework that showed up in the 1.6.0 patch notes. Those notes stated: “Class-specific Hyper bonuses have been removed and replaced with a single, impactful effect.” The studio presented the change as a way to make the experience more consistent.
In that version, the charge-up range grew from 70 to 150 hex-radius. Units that were charging gained 0.5% attack speed per 1% of Hyper charge, up to a maximum attack speed bonus of 50%. At full Hyper, every unit received +10% Damage Amplification and +10% Damage Reduction, no matter its class.
The 1.6.0 notes also promised more varied effects in later updates. The rework went to mainnet in 1.8.0, a build Illuvium said had been fine-tuned after extensive testnet play.
Bulwark and Rogue history
Two of the classes named in 1.18.3 have been rebalanced before. Patch 1.8.0 lowered Rogue Crit Chance and Crit Amp, and it fine-tuned the damage output of Bulwark’s max threshold effect.
The same patch adjusted the bonus stats Leviathans receive from traits and level. It also rebalanced the Revenant, Phantom, Predator and Vanguard synergies, aiming for what the notes called “More controlled scaling.”
Release cadence
Updates in the 1.18 branch have come quickly. Version 1.18 was released Aug. 26, and 1.18.1 followed on Sept. 1. The portal’s patch list has no 1.18.2. Version 1.18.3 arrived three weeks after 1.18.
The last update before the 1.18 line was 1.17.12, published Aug. 3.
Illuvium ended its list of changes in the X post with a short line: “Composite chips gone.”