I think adding an Easy level without fragments as rewards makes more sense than changing existing difficulty. Also, leave it at same number of heads just much lower stats.  As with the rest of the game, gear is the biggest problem. 

Add time saving rewards for different milestones achieved each week.  They would only be good for 1 week, so you would have to do hydra every week.

Possibile milestone rewards:

Enable super raids for Mino

Enable 3x/4x super raids

50% GH medal bonus for Classic Arena 

Failure rate reduction for Artifact Upgrades 

Also, allow completed keys to be replayed with same team and improve score.

I think this is spot on. The problem isn't Hydra in and of itself. The problem is that the rest of the game takes too much time, which doesn't leave enough to do Hydra.

Or even extend mino to 20 and make 20 much more difficult but drop much more scrolls

The rest would be great too, but i think plarium have reasons for limiting time saving features.

I doubt they will increase mino as that's an area they profit in, as you can spend gems to get your masteries so folk who ptp will buy gems for this rather than grind masteries

I would agree you're right in your statement about time saving features, there appears to be no other reason when they can, but won't put 2X on all dungeons permanantly, or give us the option for 2X, 5X, 7X, 10X super raids

My 2 cents...

I ignore Hydra unless I'm really bored.  In which case, it frustrates me...again...so I go on ignoring it.  Some rotations I don't even go in at all.

It's just a really crummy boss that is very not fun...and the rewards are awful.  Gear requirements are also really high and it makes for a frustrating experience when you add the insane RNG of the boss.

I still think Hydra requires a bit of getting used to. Some of the CC I watch have worse gear than I do, yet deal 10X more damage, so obviously I'm doing it wrong. But now that I have a high RES Shamael I think it will improve my score. 

Still, just by one-keying normal and getting the lowest chest on hard, I got 90% of the fragments, so that is huge comfort lol

This.

I can 1 key unm, nm, brutal. All affinities except spirit.

This didn't happen overnight or with my first team comp. It took a long time playing all areas of the game to finally be able to do this.

I was joking earlier when I said I failed NORMAL last week. I'm not saying my account is so insane and stacked but at my level, with my champion pool, and gear something like normal should be a absolute joke.

Sure I can spend 20-30mil silver each month ruining champions to be able to 1 key hard lol, brutal forget it. Plarium intends to add another level and another head even?

There is zero reason for players with accounts similar to mine in progression to be struggling in normal, hard, or brutal, but this fight is just terrible terrible mechanics packed ontop or terrible rng.

I'm a couple weeks away from mithrala and I intend to never do anything other than dump a key or 2 into normal as this fight is a failure in my eyes, and I was psyched when it was released. I instantly built out 2 Lucian's on release week, and would put in the effort if there was a similar goal in getting teams similar in working like my current and old cb teams.

Its because if they add too many time saving features you will have spare time to try other games

And if you have spare time to try other games, you might spend your gaming budget there instead of here

Can't phone edit ... wasnt joking about failing normal.

I am a clan member of an average clan. In CvC we are either in Tier 2 or Tier 3 and we have only two members who have been able to clear one rotation of Doom Tower hard.

Clan view

Depending on the Hydra rotation we are able to clear normal difficulty. Almost none of us is trying hard difficulty.

I would say approximately 70% of all clan members are using their keys on a weekly basis. Roughly ten members are able to get top chest from normal difficulty. Only 3 to 5 members are able to one key normal.

All members using their keys want Mithrala and I doubt anyone will hit Hydra after receiving the last piece of fragment. One member received the final fragment today so I am curious if he will use the Hydra keys or not.

Many clan members are annoyed to do Hydra on weekly basis and some of them are using their keys shortly for reset. I have to emphasize that some clan members hate Hydra. 

The rewards are preceived as underwelming by the clan members. Except for Mithrala there is almost no incentive to battle Hydra.

My view

I have to admit that Hydra is real struggle for me. Some weeks ago I was very frustated and was close not to use my keys anymore.

In the meanwhile I slowly (one step forward two steps backward) get better at Hydra. This due to better gearing and also I am getting better to create sucessful and consistent teams. It is really hard to get the proper gear for 18 champions (even more champions if you consider all the rotations).  

I have to agree that the rewards for battling Hydra are not great. Hydra is a lot harder but you get better rewards from Demonlord.

At the moment I am unsure, if I will battle Hydra after receiving Mithrala. It could be that I do so, because I need better Stoneskin gear (or getting good Stoneskin gear at all). This is a strong incentive for me and I do now more research on Hydra and what teams can be sucessful.

However, their is one significant drawback. Last week I had an extremly sucessful run with over 21mn damage (normal difficulty). The fight endured almost 30min and it was intensive. If I am imagine that this is the miminum fighting time for higher difficulties than I do not know if should go in that direction. This is a significant time investment and I am unsure, if I have enough spare capacitiy on a weekly basis to do so. For other parts in the game I can use auto-runs, but this is currently no possibility for Hydra. So therefore, I really need to play highly concentrated for a very long time.

I would start a Hydra team but I have no idea how.   Ayumilove doesnt have much information.  Can I just throw some high level champs in there?

You can, yeah. But I'll be honest with you - given the last time we looked at your champs, you were struggling with FK20, I am doubtful you'll have much success.

That said - there's no harm in trying, and you can use the "free regroup" feature to avoid losing keys, provided you don't get wiped out completely.

What Kram said. 

As long as you're fine with the time investment and knowing you may be on tilt after, there's no harm in trying really. 

My current clan couldn't care less.  But that's b/c I dropped into the most laid back clan in my cluster.  We have around 14 clans and several of them are all over hydra.  Personally I just dropped down b/c of time constraints.  That's the best thing about this clusther... I want more, just put in for a higher clan in the cluster; need time off, just step down for a while.  Unfortunan't I don't see how all 10 of u could fit in one suitable clan.  Always welcome to PM me though.

Ha,  it's  b/c  pop  ups  are  every  30  sec.   so  saving  u  time  is  less  touches.

I think that these are rather creative ideas. Some of them soubnd interesting but the more I think about it, the more I dislike some of them.

In fact, you would have to play a game mode everybody hates (Hydra) to more efficiently play game modes which are progressing your account (Minotaur, super raids. GH medal bonus).

If they include these new game modes, my first question would be: Why can't I play the game modes I like or need with the same time/rewards concept independantlsy from Hydra. 

If the entrance to these efficiency boosters would be Hydra, it would be like forcing you to do hated things. I would not like this system.

 Thats what good businesses do. Entice you to try something new.  

So spend 30 minutes a day 3x a week to save an hour plus every day seems like a fair trade to me. Its optional, you are still free to ignore hydra. Quinn asked for real suggestions that are worth taking to plarium. I think this is reasonable.

Make hydra easier (less rng, less heads, ....) not going to happen 

Add books/shards: Not going to happen unless you want reduced CB drops? Or removal from quests/events.  Be careful what you ask for. It will be the complaining of losing monthly sacred/chicken while Plarium was actually increasing "f2p compensation " in aggregate. The perception was the opposite, but that is just due to general lack of intelligence in the population  :)

The more I think about it, the ability to replay/improve a spent key would really be nice. The frustration factor of not killing a run in time and wasting 30 minutes sucks.  You would love the opportunity to waste another 30 minutes, right? 😆 🤣 

I really appreciate everyone's feedback in this thread. <3

I agree with the time sink of Hydra. I agree with how onerous it is.

I have taken all of these ideas and thoughts back to Plarium.

hydra sucks, in my clan we do hydra by obligation and even those who want it and very often we do our 3 car keys to get rid of this chore.
hydra is too hard in normal.
the rewards are bad in general.
I think that once the fragments are recovered, no one will care. 

hydra est nul ,dans mon clan on fais hydra par obligation et encore ceux qui le desirent  et tres souvent on fais nos 3 cles en auto pour etre debarrasser de cette corvée.

hydra est trop dur en normal.

les recompenses sont mauvaise en general.

je pense que une fois les fragments recuperés plus personne ne s'en preocupera .