Two weeks ago I wrote about reaching 100 players. This week we passed 500. Thank you to everyone who opened a pack, sold a card, sent a bug report or left a review. Many of the changes below came from your messages.

A week to celebrate: free packs x2 and free Arena!

From Monday, October 26 to Monday, November 2 (00:00 UTC, 1 a.m. in Paris), you get a free pack every 1 min 30 instead of every 3 minutes, even with the game closed. The stock still holds 10. The Arena ticket costs nothing for the whole week, so you can try the new mode without spending credits. A green banner in the Shop shows the time left.

The Arena is the biggest addition since launch. You'll find it in the Games tab.

You build a team of 5 cards by picking 1 card out of 3, five times. The game lends you those cards for the run: your collection stays as it is, and everyone starts from the same pool. Your team then fights a series of opponents, each a bit stronger than the last. A run ends at 7 wins or 3 losses. Each win raises your reward, up to 500 credits, and 7 wins add a Champion pack. The ticket costs 150 credits, free this week.

Every genre on a card counts. Two cards of the same genre unlock its bonus, and four cards make it stronger. Action adds damage, RPG adds health, Strategy cards strike first, Indie makes your Commons and Uncommons tougher, and Simulation heals a card after it wins a duel. A Legendary also hits the enemy's front card as the fight starts. Each genre has its own icon and colour on the cards, and the chips under your team take that colour once you activate a synergy. Racing, Sports and Early Access need only 2 cards. Free to Play grows with each card you add, up to 5.

After each fight, the game offers you 3 new cards. You keep your team or swap one card. Before you swap, you see which synergies each replacement would strengthen or weaken, and which cards you can drop without losing anything.

Before each fight you set the order of your team. Your first card fights until someone knocks it out, then the next one steps in, so a tough card up front can carry a whole run.

Your profile statistics now list your best run and how many runs you've played.

You asked for this one a lot: you can now trade cards with other players.

Open a player's profile from the leaderboard, the Shop feed or an auction, and click Trade. You put up to 10 of your cards and some credits on your side, choose up to 10 of theirs, and send the offer. They have 3 days to accept, refuse or send a counter-offer. Shiny cards can go in a trade too. Once both sides agree, each player sees a short reveal of the cards they received. You and the other player both need level 6 to trade.

You can also let other players come to you. Open a card's sheet and click "Put up for trade". The card goes on the Open offers board in the Market, other players send you offers for it, and you accept the one you like best. You can list up to 5 cards at a time, each for 3 days. Tick "Only the ones I don't have" to hide the cards you already own.

The top bar has a new Achievements tab with 15 achievements to start: opening your first pack, owning 100, 1,000 and 2,500 different cards, pulling your first Legendary and your first shiny card, completing a set, reaching levels 10 and 25, finishing in the weekly top 10, and a few more. Each one pays credits, from 100 for your first pack to 20,000 for owning all 5,000 cards. Your past progress counts, so open the tab and claim what you've already earned.

I'll add more achievements later, including some for the Arena and for trading.

You see the pack opening more than any other screen, so I spent a lot of time on it.

- The pack has a new tear: the top strip flies off and the pack drops away.
- The cards rise from the bottom one after another and settle into a fan with a small bounce.
- Your best card sits on the right, slightly bigger than the others.
- A new card that belongs to a set gets a green "+1 FromSoftware card" banner with the name of its set, and the banner tells you if you've reached a new set tier.
- In a batch opening, the count of new cards waits until the last card turns, so you don't get spoiled.

Each card in the game tilts in 3D toward your cursor, with a soft glare under it. You'll see it in the album, the Arena, trades, your profile and the pack opening.

Shiny cards now carry a pastel foil that slides as the card tilts, with small twinkling stars on top.

- Your profile shows your Arena runs and your best Arena run.
- I removed the "Reveal all" button from batch openings. The cards turn on their own in a few seconds, and a click skips to the end.
- On Legendary cards, the rainbow over the art holds still. On a tilted card it looked like running paint.
- Credit amounts on red buttons are now white, which reads better.
- Player names no longer bounce when you click them to open a profile.

I've wanted to let you play against other players since day one, and the Arena is a first step. I'm working out how real-time duels could fit into the game, and I'll share more once I have something solid. More achievements are coming in the meantime. If you have ideas or run into a bug, leave a review or a comment. I read all of them.

Thanks again for 500. See you in the Arena!