Hey everyone!
I think one of the most underrated Hive games, despite having huge potential, is Deathrun. With 75 levels, it’s a game played by only 300–400 people, even though it could attract many more players and really deserves a major update.
In this post, I will suggest to Hive 3 ideas to add for a major Deathrun update.
Feel free to give your ideas or feedback below this post, or vote if you like the suggestion.
Why update Deathrun?
Although Deathrun doesn’t have a very high player count compared to BedWars or Build Battle, Deathrun is one of the biggest games in terms of level progression and grind. Many players who have already reached the maximum level continue playing for wins, because the game is chill and enjoyable.
The game is one of Hive’s oldest, but also one of the last to receive an update. The last major update dates back to August 19th, 2022, which is 4 years ago. Refreshing the gameplay would be ideal, especially since Hive has started expanding micro-hub updates to other minigames like Hide and Seek and Murder Mystery. I think the next minigames to receive a micro-hub would be CTF, Survival Games, and Deathrun. And I have a few ideas for Deathrun to present:
The main update for Deathrun:
Add a micro-hub, with courses and challenges:
Deathrun should receive its own micro-hub, including lots of jumps and parkour courses (since that’s the core of Deathrun), which would allow players to earn some cosmetics once completed, just like in the main hub where you could obtain the “HARDCORE PARKOUR!” hub title by completing the hub course before August 2023. This would add fun and give the micro-hub a purpose.
In this micro-hub, an NPC offering challenges should be placed, with a reward board where you could buy cosmetics using challenge medals. (Kills tracker hub title, new runner cape, new death skin, etc.)
The main challenges could be:
Finish 20 times top 3: 500XP
Kill 14 players in one trap: 500XP
Activate 30 traps: 500XP
Finish 3 times top 1: 500XP
And daily challenges like:
Kill 10 players in a single game: 100XP
Use 15 vaults: 100XP
These are just a few examples, of course not mandatory.
This would help players grind the mode more easily while adding objectives and cosmetics.
In this micro-hub update:
Add 25 new levels (75 → 100) and then prestiges some time after. The new levels would give a grind objective to players who already maxed the game, and allow the most motivated ones to prestige later on. If you have ideas for items to unlock per level, I’m open to them and will credit you.
Change the XP distribution?
For this update, maybe XP per checkpoint should be increased to make grinding easier, and XP per kill could go from 2XP to 4XP, especially if prestiges are added later.
New maps to diversify:
I have two or three map ideas but didn’t have the motivation or energy to represent them schematically, so I’ll just present the titles and the general concepts:
Map 1: Pirates
A course outdoors, going from island to island and ship to ship, with traps inside the ships and traps in the water, all in a pirate theme. I think this would be a good innovation.
Map 2: Skyfall
A course, as the name suggests, in the sky. Similar to Pirates, this map would be in the sky (not on water). A course from floating island to floating island with traps, jumps on islands all different from each other, with a stormy sky for an apocalyptic and intense theme.
Potential LTM idea for this update (or permanent mode if it works):
This idea is an extra one, not mandatory, it just came to mind so I’m putting it here:
Deathrun: Backline
Backline would be a temporary special mode of Deathrun where the race becomes even more intense. In addition to the traps on the course, a deadly barrier would advance behind the players. If it catches you, you’re eliminated. You can’t slow down anymore: run, dodge, survive. There would be checkpoints, but beware: if the barrier catches you, you’re eliminated. There would be no deaths activating traps, only 16 runners. The only way to win would be to reach the end of the course. If you reach the end and you’re the only survivor, XP is doubled! The barrier would start moving fairly slowly (but not too slow), then with each elimination it would advance slightly faster.
This is just an LTM idea that I like, but not necessarily tied to the main update. If you liked this suggestion and have feedback, feel free to share it 
Additionnal ideas :
Mirrored maps (@DaWhadurMonz) : it’s a small thing that wouldn’t take up too much time, but allows the game to stay less repetitive longer. Mirror mode doesn’t require any map changes besides them selecting the corners of the map and doing //flip, so it should take less time than the map variants they added to hide a bit ago. It makes left turns into rights, and rights into lefts. It keeps you paying attention better and can mess you up slightly if you weren’t paying attention.