SWGOH: Galactic Legend Pirate King Hondo Update

A dev post clarifies unexpected Galactic Legend Pirate King Hondo changes some players have seen in-game.

From the conception of Pirate King Hondo Ohnaka's kit, he was intended to interact with and Steal certain locked buffs, both for the gameplay opportunities and the thematic idea of Hondo bending the rules around what could be taken from an opponent. This interaction was not functioning correctly when Hondo was released, and a solution was being worked on but released earlier than intended.

Hondo Stealing locked buffs highlighted a clarity issue: not every locked buff is eligible to be Stolen, and there is currently no good way to communicate which buffs are valid targets. Because asking players to build counterplay around information they cannot reasonably access is not acceptable, Hondo's ability to Steal locked buffs will be reverted in an upcoming release.

The underlying issue also reached beyond Hondo's Steal and affected several other characters. These fixes are functioning as intended and will not be reverted:

• Pirate King Hondo Ohnaka (Basic ability): was not correctly counting locked buffs and debuffs on Jedi and Sith enemies when removing Turn Meter.
• Cassian Undercover (Unique ability): enemies who should have been inflicted with Undermine were not being inflicted with it when their allies granted them a locked buff.
• Cobb Vanth (Special 2 ability): Defense Up was not correctly tagged as a locked buff.
• Kelleran Beq (Unique ability): Second Wind was not correctly tagged as a locked buff.
• Kleya (Special 2 ability): both Ability Block and Rebel Network granted by "This Is Do or Die" were not correctly tagged as locked debuffs or buffs.
• KX Security Droid (Unique ability): Endure gained from its Omicron was not correctly tagged as a locked buff.
• Satele Shan (Leader ability): was not correctly applying Speed Down on enemies inflicted with a locked debuff.
• Scorch (Special 2 ability): Bulwark was not correctly tagged as a locked buff.
• Wrecker (Mercenary) (Unique ability): was not correctly losing stacks of Soldier of Fortune when inflicted with a locked debuff.
• Rogue One (Unique ability): Breach Immunity was not correctly tagged as a locked buff.
• Unstable Energy Modifier (Ben Solo Proving Grounds Event): was not correctly counting locked buffs towards gaining stacks of Unstable Energy.

Because this removal affects some matchups where the issue coincided on characters that were not correctly tagged, Hondo will not be able to Steal the small number of locked buffs that he used to. This will continue to be monitored, with further adjustments considered if necessary.