Empires & Puzzles' latest event, League of Villains, is now underway and introduces ten new characters

Small Giant Games, a subsidiary of Zynga Inc, has kicked off a new event in their popular puzzler Empires & Puzzles. It's set to run from today until February 15th and will introduce a bunch of new heroes for players to collect during this time.

There will be ten new villains in total, including a mixture of five star, four-star and three-star heroes who can be summoned exclusively during this limited-time challenge. It sees the return of the Dark Lord from season one in addition to new characters such as Toxicandra and Asterius.

These new villains will receive increased stats whenever they are used during a battle in any of the new stages. There will be 30 of those in total and they will be made up of Rare, Epic and Legendary stages. Plenty for fans of Empires & Puzzles to tuck into then.

Discussing the event, Jose Saarniniemi, Managing Director of Small Giant Games said: “I’m excited that the main villain, Dark Lord, from the first season of Empires & Puzzles is making a comeback - this time as a hero you can summon and use!”

They added: “There's something fun about playing as a villain and stepping into the dark side. With this event we wanted to create something unique to the roster, while providing players with a fresh take on our game that will keep them engaged and entertained throughout the challenge.”

If you're unfamiliar with Empires & Puzzles, it's a match-3 that looks to incorporate RPG elements as well. It's proven to be exceptionally popular since it first launched with over 50 million downloads on Google Play alone.

Empires & Puzzles is available now over on the App Store and Google Play. It's a free-to-play game with in-app purchases.