Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel was released unexpectedly earlier this year, and duelists have been building powerful decks and battling other players to prove their skills and climb through the ranks in competitive Ranked Mode. Each time players reach a new Tier during the open Season, Master Duel rewards them with in-game Gems that can be used to purchase more decks and card packs. However, the initial Ranked Reward system left many players disappointed after the first season came to an end, and Konami has since issued a statement promising to improve Ranked Rewards moving forward.
Currently, there are five Ranks in Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel, including Rookie, Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. With the exception of the Rookie Rank, each Rank consists of five Tiers that players must battle through before leveling up to the next Rank, starting with Tier V and ending with Tier I. Rookie Rank only has two Tiers, and players can level through these with any of Master Duel's starting Structure Decks regardless of whether they win or lose their duels. However, once players reach Bronze Rank and higher, they will have to win their duels in order to continue leveling up.
Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel players who have reached Gold or Platinum Rank risk falling to a lower Tier if they lose too many duels, so they’ll have to build a strong deck and win consistently to continue rising through the Ranks. Rookie, Bronze, and Silver Rank players, on the other hand, will not be demoted for losses during the season, but each win will bring them closer to the next Rank. Players who manage to reach the highest Tier of Platinum Rank, Platinum I, are also not demoted for losses and will remain at the top Tier until the Season ends, giving them the chance to test new competitive meta decks and strategies against the world’s top players without risking their Rank. The amount of wins players need to rank up is displayed on the Ranked Duels screen below their current Rank, along with their current win streak. Players can also check which Ranked Rewards in Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel they have already earned and which they have yet to claim in the “Rewards List” tab of the Ranked Duels page.
How To Earn Ranked Rewards In Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel
Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel players will earn Ranked Rewards each time they reach a new Tier in Ranked Mode. All duelists start the game at Rookie Tier II, but they’ll quickly reach Rookie Tier I by playing one duel regardless of whether they win or lose, and this first easy Master Duel rank-up will earn them 300 Gems. After that, duelists earn another 100 Gems each time they level up to a new Tier, and reaching a higher Rank will reward players with 200 Gems. Players can only earn these Ranked Rewards the first time they level up, and rising back through the Ranks after a demotion will not reward players with any more Gems during the same Season.
Duelists can increase their Rank and earn Ranked Rewards in Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel by dueling in Ranked Mode during an open Season. It seems that each season will last for about a month and end a few hours before the next season begins at the start of the following month. With these relatively short seasons and no way to rise through multiple Ranks at once after the patch, Master Duel players should build a strong deck to advance through the Ranks and reach the coveted Platinum Tier I before the end of each Season.
At the start of each new Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel Season, every player will return to the lowest Tier of the Rank below whichever Rank they were at when the previous season ended. For example, Platinum Rank players will drop to Gold V, Gold Rank players will drop to Silver V, and Silver Rank players will drop to Bronze V. Once the new Season begins, the Ranked Rewards reset, and players can start climbing back through the Ranks and earning Gems for each Tier they reach.
However, Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel’s Duel Pass is not connected to the competitive Seasons and operates on its own schedule, and players can continue earning rewards from leveling up their Duel Pass regardless of whether or not a Season is currently open. In addition to Gems, the Duel Pass rewards players with Crafting Points and cosmetic items that can’t be earned from the Ranked Reward system. Players can also earn bonus rewards by participating in Event Duels, but these special limited-time events do not affect the player’s competitive Rank and offer unique rewards in addition to Gems.
Why The Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel Ranked Rewards System Is Changing
After the first season of Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel ended on January 31, many duelists were disappointed by the game’s seasonal demotion system since it prevented players who had achieved a high Rank in the previous Season from earning Ranked Rewards from the lower Ranks. If players were in Platinum Rank when the Season ended, they would only drop to Gold V, making the Bronze and Silver Ranked Rewards in this free-to-play dueling simulator completely unavailable to them. With this system, players who did better in the previous Season were offered less rewards than those who didn’t make it as far in the Ranks.
Players were quick to point out that this was an unfair Rewards system as a result. Some competitive players even intentionally lost duels in order to demote themselves back to a lower Rank so they’d be able to claim future Ranked Rewards when the next Season started. Konami was quick to respond to players’ feedback about Ranked Rewards and put out an official statement promising to improve the Ranked Duel system in the future.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel players were also compensated with any Gems they would have missed from leveling up to the Rank they were when the new season began. It’s unclear how Konami will change the Ranked Duel system moving forward and whether or not the Ranked Rewards will be the same in the future, but it’s possible that seasonal demotions will be different in the upcoming competitive Seasons of Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel.