Design Notes

April 29, 2022

Darkon's Saga: FA-natical Boss Battle

Take on Fa in the Garden for new reward gear

This weekend, log in and return to Darkon's Garden for an all-new boss battle against the fan-favorite NPC:Fa! Try to avoid getting your head lopped off by her GIANT scythe (that VR headset is great for gaming... not so great for visibility.) Talk to Mi for more in the /garden for more details and her shops.

FA-ntastic New Reward Gear

Truth. Madness. You’ll find both in the Garden… along with a host of new reward gear! Battle Fa to unlock her armor, helms, and new house items, then talk to Mi to find new gear in the Garden merge shop.

Monster drops:

Fa's Sleeveless Armor
2 helms
Drumsticks + Pizza weapons
6 house items
Fa's Gamer Fuel (merge shop resource)

Merge shop:

Astravian Adept armor set
Shadow Astravian Adept armor set
Fa's VR Headset helm
Fa's Gauntlets

Featured Gear: Elegaic Mage Set

From out of the darkness, you hear a whispered chant rise, and fear floods your heart and mind. The Elegaic Mage's power surrounds its victims in the sounds of terror. Find the rare pieces of the Elegaic Mage armor set available in your game menu until May 27th. Select items from the set will be permanently available in Mi's AC shop in the /garden.

Elegaic Mage Rares:

Elegaic Mage armor
Inverted Elegaic Mage armor (reversed gender)
16 helms
Elegaic Mage's Monstrous Hat + Broom Staff
Voracious Gauntlets

Mi's Garden Gear shop items

Elegaic Hair / Locks + Morphs
Elegaic Chibi helms
Elegaic Rune capes
Mystical Elegy Staff
Magical Creatures of Madness cape
Summoning Ring of Madness ground item

Leaving Soon: mark your calendars

Our month of Madness continues! Check out the April release calendar to see what's happening and when things leave so you don't miss a moment, a battle, or a limited time reward.

Saturday, April 30:

Rare daily login gifts from April 1 - 17
April National Day drops

Leaving in May

Sunday, May 1: April Seasonal Set: BioWar Cultist
Friday, May 6: Featured Rare Sets: Sneevil Pilot, Golden Glory, ShroomKnight
Friday, May 13: Featured Rare Sets: Sweet Spring Mage, Rabid Ronin, Grenwog Guardian
Sunday, May 16: rare Daily Gifts released from April 18 - 30
Friday, May 20: Featured Rare Sets: Seraphic Surveillance + Blossom Kimono
Friday, May 27: May the 4th, Cinco de Mayo, Featured Rare Set: Elegaic Mage

Daily Gift Schedule

2022 has been a CRAZY year so far... and it's only April! To help keep a Spring in your step, we've got something new for you every day of the week. Log in each day for a new server-wide reward item, boost, or drop rate increase. Bookmark this page to keep up to date with all of daily gifts! And don't miss the rest of this month's update. See the full release lineup here: AdventureQuest Worlds calendar.

Flash is Dead. AQWorlds lives on with the Artix Games Launcher!

Adobe, the maker of the Flash Player plug-in, has stopped supporting Flash. But never fear! We built the Artix Games Launcher so you can continue playing AdventureQuest Worlds and your other favorite Artix Entertainment games. Download the Artix Games Launcher at artix.com/launcher and you'll be able to continue playing all your favorite Artix games right from your computer. No Flash Player or web browser needed.

Download the Artix Games Launcher at artix.com/launcher and you'll be able to continue playing all your favorite Artix games right from your computer. No Flash Player or web browser needed.

Tags: Alina,

April 28, 2022

Coming Soon: Class Test Realm Server

The Class Team Wants YOUR Feedback

We’d like to hear YOUR feedback on classes as we develop and balance them. So, we’re starting an experimental program, one where you’ll be able to try out classes as we create them, and get an exclusive peek along the way.

In the coming weeks, we’ll be opening up a Class Testing Realm server- a special game server where you’ll be able to use classes that are still in development and give us feedback on how you feel about them.

Class Testing Realm Server details:

Requires level 40+ and a confirmed email to join
Monsters will not drop any items
Login location will be in /classtesthub, not Battleon

CTR Classes

When you log into the Class Test Realm server, you’ll be greeted by Arlen, the Class Loremaster. From him, you can find the CTR Aegis and CTR Zodiac classes, which will house the in-testing classes.

Testing Class details:

CTR Aegis and CTR Zodiac classes
Will constantly change to use whatever class/skills we are testing at the time
Will not work outside of this game server

Feedback Channels

On Arlen as well, you can find information about providing feedback. He'll have important info and links to where you can send the team feedback:

#AQW-Class-Testing channel on the official Artix Games Discord server
Official AQWClass Twitter account
Information on how to give more detailed feedback directly to the Class Team on the dedicated Class Testing server

#AQW-Class-Testing channel

The official Artix Games Discord, where you can find the #aqw-class-testing channel. Discuss the in-progress classes and changes with your fellow players, and find a form to submit dedicated feedback straight to our developers.

Class Testing Realm Discord

For those that are interested in having a more direct dialogue with the Class team, you can also find a form pinned in the Artix Games Discord to apply to join a Class Testing Realm Discord server, where you can directly give detailed and meticulous feedback and testing information to them. Anyone is allowed to apply to join this Discord.

Applications for the server are rolling, and there is no deadline for applications. They will be considered as they are received (although it may take some time to hear back). You may send in multiple applications, but please allow a 3 month wait between submissions.

Entry to this Discord is NOT a staff position, and no responsibilities are attached to joining it. We’re looking for dedicated players passionate about classes and combat in AQW to share their thoughts directly with us. Both the open feedback form and the Class Test Realm Discord will be regularly checked, and all feedback will be considered.

AQW Class Team?

AdventureQuest Worlds Class Team members are another division of our quality assurance testers. They’re skilled, experienced, and well rounded players who have joined the ranks of our creative contributors! Their love and enthusiasm of the game is what drives all of the combat-related content we bring you. Members of the Class Team - both testers and developers - will be carefully looking through all of the feedback provided by you as we develop all of our future classes.

Tags: Alina,

April 25, 2022

Darkon's Madness VIII Dev Blog

Darkon's Thoughts on Chapter VIII

Often, Cylisse (the writer for Darkon's Saga) will do "story threads" on Twitter. We're going to start posting those here, so everyone can enjoy them. But today... we've got a special thread from Darkon, sharing his thoughts on where the story is at, his thought processes on its development, and what this update means to him!

Happy Monday! I usually don't make a twitter thread for Darkon Saga, but part 8 is special to me, and judging from the reactions, to many of you as well, so here is my small thread!

I've first actually planned out the whole saga after the first Garden event, and that's when I have a better idea on what I'd like to do. One of the first things that came to mind was this particular moment between Darkon and Suki at the end of the third cutscene, where they have a conversation about the sun rising, and Darkon wishing to stay in that moment with Suki forever, not wishing for morning to come. Working with that idea in mind as the goal leads to the creation of the Eridani event, where the villagers are stuck in one long night that lasts forever.

As Darkon is stuck in the Garden where time flows unnaturally, he affects others with the same condition as well, but that’s a result of his own emotion, combined with other reasons that will be explored in part 9 (coming out on May the 27th!)

Though the creation of this event goes back further than 2 years. The portal room is a recreation of my first Darkon's map concept I drew in 2011, making this more than 10 years old already. Though the story's changed a lot, I'm still glad I'm able to reuse it.

Writing out the outline for part 7 and 8 at the same time, I noticed that part 8 final cutscene is going to be very heavy, so there are some changes I have to made. Like giving Drago his scar off-screen in part 7, and move some dialogues into NPC popup.

Working on part 7 and 8, I usually have ideas that come to my mind at the most unusual time, mostly at 3-5AM, where I have to open up my phone and note down those ideas before I go to sleep. Examples of those ideas include “Drago tosses Suki’s emblem to Darkon” and ``during Alprecha explaining the cycle, show storybook flashback” and these ideas lead to what you’ve experienced in the final cutscene.

The storybook section has been repeated 2 times before in the previous 2 events, which I hope adds to the revelation of the truth behind those lies when you hear the true story from Alprecha in this event! With so many heavy revelations, I’ve tried to place them in separate cutscenes in each event, while choosing to end each event with a cliffhanger (deciding on a cliffhanger for each event might be the most fun part for me, as that adds to the anticipation for the next event.

There are many storytelling methods we can do in AQW, from cutscenes, quests, and NPC dialogues, but another option I’m interested in is through the NPC arts. As the saga goes through a long period of time in the story, the NPC should also reflect those changes in the way they dress. The best example would be Darkon and Suki, as you see their relationship progress, Suki is adapting to become a part of the Astravians, while also holding onto her Seraphic Paladin root. The question remains, what happens to Darkon for him to get his current form?

But the final result is amazing! Everyone on the team has done such an amazing job. Couldn't have this possible without them. From Ghost's perfect timing on the final moment of the last cutscene, Cylisse's emotional dialogues, and Jongaar's amazing map music.

And most of all, thank you to every players who've played it and shared your emotions with us! I love hearing all your thoughts (and tears.) We will work hard from here on as well! Special thanks to Dove for lending me songs from DF to use. I love DF songs so much!

Tags: Alina,

April 22, 2022

Darkon's Saga VIII: Operatic Fall

This weekend: Darkon's Elegy of Madness continues

This weekend, return to Darkon's Elegy of Madness saga. Log in and battle through his recollection of the Trial of the First Observatory. Discover secrets that transcend the boundaries of space & time as the full truth of Astravia's origins are revealed.

Darkon crafted a series of wicked new rewards to help you fully embrace the insanity. Talk to Drago after completing this weekend's story update in /firstobservatory. Log in and battle to collect Aurola and Suki's gear this weekend!

Monster drops:

Ancient Creature armor, helms, and tail
7 Boss-themed house items (no spoilers!)

Merge shop:

Aurola's Armor
Aurola's Coat cape
Princess Suki's Armor
Princess Suki's helms + Gauntlets

Featured Rares: Sakura Blossom + Seraphic Surveillance Sets

Madness awaits in our story update, but the Featured Gear Shop's additions will soothe your spirit. Find the Spring-themed Sakura Blossom Kimono and Seraphic Surveillance sets available in your game menu until May 20th.

Class + Guardian Tower + Server Updates

Thanks to your Gold donations, the Battleon town Guardian Tower has been rebuilt + restored! The new art is up and the /tower map has returned!

Class Changes

Health of the dummies in /classhall have been rounded off, they now do small amounts to damage to interact better with mana regen, and have monster types
Fire Dragon Scales quest in /firewar has been increased to 2500 gold and xp, and mobs now drop x1 Fire Dragon Scale at 100%. The full explanation for this change can be found in this Design Notes post.

Plus, Captain Rhubarb rolled out a few new updates to the game servers:

Fishing tradeskill bug fixes
Mod reports will remain even after players log out (that means players can't evade reports just by logging out anymore)

Leaving Soon: mark your calendars

Our month of Madness continues! Check out the April release calendar to see what's happening and when things leave so you don't miss a moment, a battle, or a limited time reward.

Friday, April 29:

April Fools, Grenwog + Earth Day event rares leave

Saturday, April 30:

Rare daily login gifts from April 1 - 17
April National Day drops

Sunday, May 1:

April Seasonal Set

Friday, May 6:

April Fools rare gear + April 8th Featured Gear: Sneevil Pilot, Black + Gold Gear, ShroomKnight set

Daily Gift Schedule

Log in for Yoshino's next limited-time live event this Tuesday, April 26th! The "live" portion begins just after midnight and will last as long as they can... but we'll leave the map available for 2-3 days so more people have a chance to enjoy it!

Flash is Dead. AQWorlds lives on with the Artix Games Launcher!

Download the Artix Games Launcher at artix.com/launcher and you'll be able to continue playing all your favorite Artix games right from your computer. No Flash Player or web browser needed.

Tags: Alina,

April 22, 2022

Class and Combat Dev Blog #3

Meateors, Merits, and Motivations

Making and creating new forms of gameplay and new mechanics can be a tough but rewarding journey. Despite being filled with seemingly infinite amounts of work and pitfalls, we still always strive to produce the best experience for all of our players.

The April Fools Meateor event is an example of new gameplay, mechanics, and even potentially new game modes. For our Dev Blog #3, I’d like to discuss our approach, mentality, principles, and how we put together this event.

Intentions Behind the Design

In reality, the Meateor event breaks down into several smaller events.

The gold donation drive that funded the rebuild of Battleon town and new features.
The World Boss Chickencow- a novel mechanic in AdventureQuest Worlds*.
The rolling narrative that slowly built up anticipation to the event, and ties all of the game mechanics together.

As this is a combat-oriented dev blog, we’ll focus on the first two.

Gold Donation
This drive was fairly simple: built on the bones of the AdventureCoin gifting event we ran over the winter holiday, this was a good opportunity for us to put together a community-driven experience with rewards and real cooperative goals that everyone could work towards.

Gold farming methods have been rapidly evolving, but ways to use and spend gold have been lagging behind in comparison. We’re still working on more meaningful ways to spend gold throughout the game, but saw this as a good opportunity for everyone to make a real, impactful difference to the game by spending gold they’ve been saved throughout the years.

Truthfully, the plan was always for the highest tier of rewards to be achieved; they were all carefully planned within the community's abilities (and the stashes of gold you all had stored away!). And you’ve proved us right, smashing right through the ONE TRILLION GOLD target in a week and a half!

World Boss
The second part of this event was creating a World Boss for everyone to fight at once. The days leading up to the creation of this boss were... let's just say... very hectic. Our original plans were to create a war with only one enemy, and over time (and several brainstorm meetings), that idea refined into creating a single monster that everybody could fight at the same time. BUT...

and this is a BIG BUT....

This meant that we had to create something that we had never done before.

The idea for adding World Bosses came about simply as the natural conclusion of having large scale boss fights and a single enemy war. The way for World Bosses to exist was paved by the Live Event test bosses that Yoshino** appeared in the last month.

While we didn’t plan for those to lead to World Bosses at first, your feedback to them let us know that you really enjoyed this sort of event. That gave us the confidence to put the time and effort into fleshing the idea out more.

The development of this was an all-hands-on-deck approach, giving us a crazy and work-filled week, and couldn’t have been done without the help of all of our developers. But what we created was something really special that we've never done before in this way, and the very positive responses we saw from you guys made all the effort worth it.

Your continued support and vocal feedback events like this gives us the push to know we should keep doing events like this in the future!

*An event similar to this was done many years ago, but it was mostly manually orchestrated.
** Reens' right-hand general, the dev responsible for all of the item set-up plus some of the map-building, bug fixes, and GOOD chaos happening in-game.

Problems and Solutions

Creating this boss gave us a new event type that acted as a massive community-oriented activity: everyone would fight the boss at once, and everyone would receive a reward at the end of it. This paired very nicely with the community-focused gold drive.

But it also presented a very large question: there was a good reason for EVERYONE to participate in the event as a community, but why would ANYONE participate in the event as an individual?

We didn’t want you to log in to the game, play, then log out feeling like you hadn’t achieved anything tangible in your play session.

Our solution was to break the event into multiple parts: two events each having two motivational categories, one for personal motivation and one for community motivation.

The Gold donation Drive:

Personal motivation: the donation amount badge
Community goal: the battleon renovations

The World Boss:

Personal motivation: the gold, exp, and item farming from feathers dropped during combat
Community goal: the victory badge

This proved very successful in setting up a reason for anyone to participate in the event, and a reason for everyone to participate in the event.

Gold Donation Stats:

Out of all of the donations in the gold drive...

About 60% of you donated exactly 15 million gold
About 10% of you donated 100 million or more.

After the defeat of the World Boss, there were numerous requests for the boss to return, or a new way to farm Feathers to appear. Using these personal factors to drive the community targets ensured participation across the whole event.

Evolving Gameplay

When we're creating new gameplay and mechanics in a game as established as AQWorlds is, one of the challenges we face is accounting for how the existing community plays the game. That might sound strange, but building habits and patterns and routines are a part of playing any game, and when we introduce something new, it can take a bit of time to get used to.

To help with that, we often borrow ideas from context-sensitive design to assist us in deciding how best to proceed. That means we take into account:

how you and other existing players feel feel about something
how the existing game mechanics interplay with something
and how the new designs will feel in the already existing game before we deliver it to you

Put simply, the goal is to slowly evolve gameplay elements to match what we envision, rather than simply dropping it into the game.

For the Giant Chickencow, this meant we wanted to borrow as many existing elements and mechanics as we could to make the addition of World Bosses as smooth as possible.

How did we do that? We presented the World Boss system as an evolution of our existing war system. We reused visual elements that already existed and were well understood, like the war meter as a boss health representation, instead of creating completely new visual elements to show it.

However, this doesn’t come without its potential pitfalls. Borrowing existing elements helps everyone understand new mechanics. But it also means they bring any knowledge or misunderstandings they already have.

To solve this, we had to figure out an effective way to communicate that this was a completely new mechanic, while still borrowing existing knowledge to make understanding it easier.

The answer? Communication, communication, communication! We put explanations for the mechanics in a variety of places including:

the event NPC you accepted the quest from
the Design Notes,
and a new drop-during-combat system to make it more apparent that you weren’t intended to defeat the boss in one sitting

Classes, Chaos, Live Events, and More

So what does this mean for the game, and where are we going next?

Based on the extremely positive response from all of the class changes earlier this year (where we focused on more detailed changes and quality of life adjustments), we plan to continue this trend, and will add in more soon.

This next batch won’t be as rigid as the first, and we’ll be deciding what classes we edit as we review them. We already know we'll be starting with:

DragonLord
Dark Metal Necro variants***
Pyromancer
Cryomancer
Elemental Warrior

These edits will likely come slower than the first batch, as there’s other ongoing work.

As mentioned in the previous blog, these aren’t all necessarily buffs; some may be, but the primary focus is to make the classes more usable and feel better to use, especially relative to when you’re expected to obtain them.

Alongside these, we will continue our minor edits to Non-OP pvp classes. These were previously put on hold to wait for fixes to PvP bugs. The edits will be very light, and made on duplicated classes that only function within PvP areas.

Also on the list of plans:

Housing system updates from Captain Rhubarb and Spider (very soon!)
continuing to adjust rewards from earlier chaos sagas (which was put on hold because of the unexpected amount of work generated by the more in-depth class edits)
Quality of life changes to some of the more repetitive farms
/Classhall updates later in the year

An exciting way to get you all a deeper look into the class balancing process will be coming soon as well, so you can look forward to news about it in the upcoming weeks.

Next Tuesday, you can expect to see the first in a new series of official live events, hosted by Yoshino. Keep an eye on his Twitter account for more information and previews.

BlackSmithing: this is another big question on everyone’s minds. We’re shooting for a summer release. The goal is for them to function similarly to awe enhancements, activating an ability under certain conditions.

Unlike the awe enhancements, however, we can make these more interesting, activating off of skills other than the autoattack, and using a cooldown instead of a chance activation system.

The details for this are still in development, and plans are still being formulated. BUT you can expect them to be unlocked in a similar fashion to awe enhancements, involving some quests based on your blacksmithing reputation and then being accessible to purchase.

We may try some more unique mechanics with these, as well. We're planning on effects like reduction of enemy dodge, immediate damage, primary stat supplements, and more. All of this is still being worked on, though, so everything listed here is subject to change.

So.... what did you think of this dev blog post?

Tell us on Twitter at @AqwClass and @Alina_AE, or join the official Artix Games Discord Server to share your feedback with us directly, and discuss it with other players!
~ Eht

*** The team has tentative plans to return the class later this year.

Tags: Alina,

April 18, 2022

Monday Updates + Reminders

Monday Balance update: Fire Dragon Scale

As we continue adding in new quality of life updates to the game, we've found some of them have had an unexpected impact on game balance, the flow of older content, and in some cases, have caused additional server strain. Today's change: Fire Dragon Scale drop per mob changed to x1 (on the "Fire Dragon Scales" quest from the /firewar map)

The recent QoL change -- being able to turn in quests during combat --made several quests significantly faster to farm. This is adding an unexpected amount of strain on the server and creating some unintentionally-overpowered farming spots. (Firewar, in particular, was affected by this because of its set-up.)

We'll be monitoring this change for a day or two to see the impact it has on the server + balance. The next adjustment, planned for later this week, is a buff to the gold rewards.

Additional changes to /firewar and other areas may be needed going forward as we continue seeing how the QoL changes impact those older areas. As always, we're watching for your feedback and will make adjustments as necessary based on your feedback and what we see from the data in-game.

TRIPLE Dark Spirit Orbs + Void Aura Boosts End tonight

Last call for TRIPLE Dark Spirit Orbs and Void Aura boosted drop rates! We extended it through 11:59 PM EST tonight so everyone could make the most of the double resource reward boost. Only a few hours left...

Tags: Alina,

April 14, 2022

Triple Update Weekend

New + Returning Spring Holiday Events

I hope you're hungry, because this weekend's release is EXTRA-meaty! We've got three seasonal holiday release updates heading your way, so gear up and get ready to battle on!

This weekend, battle through new and returning seasonal events in:

meateorhunt
grenwog
grenstory
pollution
totengeld

This weekend's events + releases

Meateor Hunt: our April Fowls event continues as Cysero, Lim, and Warlic ask for your help to hunt down fragments of the Meateor for... reasons. GOOD reasons. Really. O_O

Grenwog returns: our seasonal spring event boss + rewards are back! This year, the Grenwog's gotten into the spirit of our fowl joke and mutated into the ultimate abomination: the Chickrenwog

Earth Day is back: Talk to Captain Lore in /pollution to complete the story evevent, then find new reward drops from Ozone + General Pollution

Evil Faction Rewards: Find Dage's DeathKnight Helm in the /darkwarlegion merge shop and the Wrath of Nulgath Blade in the /darkwarnation merge shop.

Spring Featured Rare Gear: Check out the Sweet Spring Mage, Rabid Ronin, and Grenwog Guardian Warrior sets in your Featured Gear shop in the game menu until April 29th.

Wheel of Doom Merge Set: Find the Rabid Spring Rockstar in the Wheel of Doom Merge shop! Spin the Wheel to collect Fortune Tickets and redeem them for a wicked, rockin' rabbit-themed set.

TRIPLE Void Aura Boost: we're starting tomorrow's Void Aura Boost a litttttle early! Log in now for a TRIPLE Drop boost on Void Aura quest rewards! (Get 6, 15, or 30 Void Auras instead of 2, 5, or 10)

Curio Shop Update: the latest Battleontown Gold Donation reward is ready! /join Curio to check out Vinara's updated shop.*

100 Million Gold Donation Badge: Unlock the Battleontown Philanthropist character page badge by donating 100 million gold during our April Fowls 2022 event!**

Class Updates

ShadowWalker of Time / ShadowWeaver of Time / ShadowStalker of Time skill descriptions updated for clarity and accuracy
Darkside / Dark Lord Blinding Pain description updates for clarity

April Fowls 2022: Meateor Hunt

Earlier this month, a giant meateor from the Plane of Breakfast crashed into Battleontown. But from the looks (and smell!) of it, there was more to it just a giant egg: a few bits broke away while it was entered the atmosphere. This weekend, /join meateorhunt and talk to Cysero the Mad Weaponsmith, Lim the Sanest Scientist, and Warlic the ArchMage need your help to hunt them all down. For... reasons O_O.

New Featured Spring Armor sets

We've got a basketful of new Grenwog gear to get you hoppin'! Check out the color-customizable Sweet Spring Mage, Rabid Ronin, and Grenwog Guardian Warrior sets in your Featured Gear shop in the game menu until April 29th.

Grenwog Boss Battle + the Battleon Egg Hunt return

Every year, heroes hunt around Battleon for eggs and prizes, and battle the deadly, egg-sucking Grenwog as we celebrate the return of Spring! This weekend talk to Cabdury (the friendliest, most inedible bunny in town) to begin this year's Egg Hunt quests in Battleon.

Collect the eggs hidden around BattleOn and the rest of the town to unlock the Backpack of Eggs and the Vorpal Bunny pet! (Note: Any Vorpal Bunny will be able to access the quests to get this year's regular Berserker Bunny items. Enjoy!)

Springtastic Rewards

Grenwog gear, collect it all! (Or as much as you can carry) New this year: the Classy Bunny armor set drops from the Grenwog boss. The Eggceptional Bunny armor set drops from the Rabid Lupus!

Cyberpunk Grenwog pet
Evolved Berserker Bunny set
Berserker Bunny armor, helm, and longsword
Daisy on your back cape
Mayflower and Marshmallow Cheep pets
Fire Egg Staff, Carrotine Cutter, ChickenCow Club
And much more!

Cross-Lore Egg Hunt

After whetting your detection skills in BattleOn, TRUE eggsplorers can talk to Cabdury and decipher his clues to find the pink, green, blue, purple, or multicolored eggs hidden around the rest of Lore to unlock all-new rewards: the Steampunk Eggsplorer set!

Pink Eggs: Cape
Green Eggs: Helm
Blue Eggs: Weapon
Purple Eggs: Armor
Multicolored Eggs: Magical Shifting Grenwog Egg House

Once you've collected all those, why not try Cabdury's Treat Hunt to unlock the Evolved Berserker Bunny set? The merge items will drop from the bosses in Greenguard Forest. With an Armor, a Helm, a Spear, and a Long-sword, you'll have a bun-tiful amount of items to choose from! The Evolved Berserker Bunny Armor also requires the drop from the final Vorpal Bunny quest.

Battle the Grenwogs

The legendary Grenwog is one of the fiercest beasts on Lore. Each spring, it awakens with one thing on its mind -- FOOD. And its favorite snack is, of course, eggs! (And the heroes who try to steal them. So beware!) Last year's Jurassic Grenwog adventure will return, along with the seasonal boss battle in the /grenwog map!

Grenwog gear, collect it all! (Or as much as you can carry):

Cyberpunk Grenwog pet
Evolved Berserker Bunny set
Berserker Bunny armor, helm, and longsword
Daisy on your back cape
Mayflower and Marshmallow Cheep pets
Fire Egg Staff, Carrotine Cutter, ChickenCow Club
And much more!

Celebrate Earth Day this Weekend!

Be a hero, join the clean-up crew to save the world from the evils of pollution! Captain Lore is back and he needs your help again! /Join pollution to help Captain Lore battle General Pollution, the foulest villain around, free his eco-friendly energy platform from the chaotic clutches of General Pollution! Reduce, reuse, and recycle as many elementals as you can to unlock Captain Lore's shop and gain access to the greenest gear in the game!

General Pollution’s evil knows no bounds. He has moved beyond polluting our world and is now using a new ally to pour his filthy lies into the minds of the good people of Lore. His scientists have created Commodore Core… a super-villain leading the push for deep-lore drilling straight into the heart of Lore’s core under the guise of finding newer, cleaner sources of energy.

Need help battling through the Earth Day seasonal event? Check out the event guide in the Lorepedia

Tags: Alina,

April 14, 2022

Dage's 2022 Birthday Leaves Tomorrow

Don't miss out on this year's dark + deadly gear

LAST CALL! Dage's 2022 seasonal birthday event maps + rare collection chest leave with tomorrow night's update! Don't miss out on this year's dark and deadly gear. Log in and battle through all of Dage the Evil's returning birthday zones, take on wicked bosses, and check out his seasonal birthday gear shop.

Log in and battle through the following zones to get wicked reward drops:

/darkbirthday
/undervoid
/futurewar
/futurelegion
/futurewardage
/legionarena
/dage
/ultradage

Who is Dage the Evil?

If you're just joining us, you might not know who Dage the Evil is. In-game, Dage the Evil is the leader of the Undead Legion, ruler of the Underworld, and the Dark Weaponsmith. Many years ago, in the real world, the artist behind the NPC started releasing more and more rewards for his birthday until it became an annual, fan-favorite holiday.

Members of the Undead Legion will also be able to craft items for gear exclusive to Dage the Evil's most loyal followers. If you're not a member of the Undead Legion, never fear! You, too, can sell your soul to Dage the Evil and become a part of his immortal army.

Dark Caster Class Series

The Undead Legion is made up of Lore's finest undead (and not-undead-yet) warriors. Each class is available from Dage's Dark Birthday Shop for 2,000 ACs and will return each year for his birthday.

Infinite Dark Caster Class uses the Evolved DC class skills
Timeless Dark Caster Class uses the Arcane DC class skills
Immortal Dark Caster Class uses the original DC class skills

2022 Dark Birthday Collection Chest

Last chance to celebrate darkness, destruction, and Dage the Evil's 2022 birthday event! Unlock over the 150+ event rare items: including 11 armors, a quest pet, and a rare exclusive character page badge for 10,000 ACs! (Over 45,000 ACs worth of gear)

Get the full collection for 10,000 ACs and unlock over 45,000 ACs worth of gear or
Check the Dark Birthday shop shop in your game menu to buy individual items from the collection

The collection includes:

Underworld Legacy 2022 Collection Chest (unlocks the full collection shop)
Dage's Dark Knight of the Underworld set
Underworld SoulReaper set
Underworld DeathFiend set
Underworld Malevolence set
Nation Vampire set
Legion Evocatus set*
Havoc and Combat Sage sets
ElectroMage, Enchanted ElectroMage, and Enchanted Dark Electromage sets
BonaFiend Manslayer set
Dark Artist armor + accessories
Legion Devourer set
Underworld Cryomancer set
Underworld Warden capes**
Void Recruit's Rune (ground item)
Fiendish Fury, Underworld Legion, Dage's Dark Eternal Flame capes
Dark Knight's Burning Skull pet (with quest for exclusive character page badge)

Just want a couple of the items listed above? Apart from the exclusive Underworld Legacy Collection Chest pet itself, all of the gear contained inside the Collection Chest will also be available individually in his Birthday Shop.

Tags: Alina,

April 08, 2022

Build Back Battleon... But Better

Battling together, we triumph yet again!

After the Giant Chickencow's Meateor crashed into Battleon, the heroes of Lore banded together to defeat our first-ever world boss. This weekend, log in at https://www.AQ.com and /join meateortown to battle a seasonal event version of the boss & create all-new reward gear!

/join meateortown to battle through a seasonal version of our April 2022 holiday event!
The Giant ChickenCow now has only 500,000 HP.
Collect the Silver Defender of Battleon gear to create golden versions of it in Cysero's Meateor Merge Shop!

Other gear in the merge shop includes:

ChickCow + UnFowled BeastMaster sets
Pocky ManSlayers + Burgers of Destiny
Caladboard
Sweetie Cow Pet
Golden Savior of Battleon set

Meateor monster drops:

Silver Defender of Battleon set
Golden Healer, Rogue, Mage, Warrior armors
Altar of Caladbacon*
Chocoblade of Doom*
Slice of Awe*
Pocky ManSlayer
Skull with Stick
Burger of Destiny
Yulgar's Diner House (fully furnished member house)
Yulgar's 50s Inn (non-member house)
and more!

* These items were originally rewards from the Flaming Feathers quest. The rewards are now very VERY low drop rate monster drops. We're talking between .6% - 2.5% to keep it fair for the heroes who farmed last week.

Battleontown Restoration, Phase 1

The meateor DESTROYED town last week, so we asked the heroes of Lore to help raise gold to rebuild... and WOW, did you come through! Log in for the 1st round of updates: Yulgar's cap increase to 20, new interior art in several buildings, and more!

Battleontown Restored, Phase I

Yulgar's Inn

Room cap raised to 20
Dart Board game returned
Customization room made more accessible

Interior Art Updates

Yulgars inn-terior update
Bank interior update
Trainers interior update
BASE Camp (formerly the Guild Hall)

BASE Camp

The Guild Hall has been replaced by the BASE Camp, headquarters of the Battleon Adventurers, Seekers, and Explorers Guild! There are so many adventures, quests, areas, and challenges in the world that it can be hard to keep track of them all. That’s why you can talk to Treasure Hunter Z and browse the Explorer's Guide Book if you’re looking for something new to do.

Got a favorite adventure that you'd like more players to know about? Tell us what else you'd like to see added to the Guide Book!

Still to come:

An easier-to-use Curio Shop (ETA is next week, unless something explodes)**
New Guardian Tower interior (ditto)***
New art for the Trainer NPCs
A few adjustments to this week's updates based on your early feedback
Badge for donating 100 million gold
The 1 Trillion Gold goal... IF you unlock it. (Gold donation is still available and will remain so through next week at least.)

The exterior of the town has not been redone for two main reasons: 1) to keep it as consistent as possible with AQ:Mobile and 2) the townspeople like it that way. But in all reality... if you're REALLY eager for some new gardens or landscaping, share your thoughts and we may update more in a future release.

** Given the crazy week its been... this is likely! O_O
*** Double ditto.

APRIL FOWLS DAY Rare Gear

We build silly things. Often. But never quite like we do during our April Fools events! This weekend, find even more shiny golden gear, the uber-punny ShroomKnight, the Caladbacon Blade, and the Sneevil Pilot mount armor in your Featured Rares Shop in the game menu.

Tags: Alina,

April 05, 2022

April 2022 Calendar

Upcoming Game Events: April 2022

The month of Madness begins now! Log in all month long for new seasonal and story events, wicked rewards, and a double dose of Darkon's Saga!

Schedule

April 1

April Seasonal Set returns
Completely normal release
NecroStorm upgrade bonus pack arrives

April 8 Battleontown Rebuilt + New Reward Drops (thanks for donating all that gold!)

April 15 Grenwog + Earth Day return + Cysero's Meateor Fragment Hunt

April 22 Darkon's Saga of Madness, Chapter VIII

April 29 Darkon's Saga of Madness: Return to the Garden Boss Reward Farm

Leaving

April 1 Lucky Day Rares + March seasonal set

April 5 25% Spring AdventureCoin Bonus ends at 11:59 PM EST

April 8 Featured Gear Shop: Dark Astravian General Set leaves

April 15 Dage's Birthday Event Rares + Collection Chest leave

April 17 Rare daily login gifts from March 26 + 27

April 29 Grenwog + Earth Day event rares leave

April 30 Rare daily login gifts from April 1 + 17 + April National Day drops

April 5, 2022 Updates

Delayed gear added: last week's Unfowled ChickenCow BeastMaster and Enchanted Unfowled ChickenCow BeastMaster armor are now available in the Meateor Merge and Featured Gear Shops

Clarification on a "silent after-hours" Design Notes update

In last week's Battleontown Gold Donation goals post, we originally listed the 1 Trillion Gold rewards as:

Blacksmithing rep that unlocks blueprints to apply damage bonus FX to any weapon
House item that opens up Awe Enhancements shop

The original wording was unclear, and we saw it was being misinterpreted. To avoid further misinformation, it was clarified in the middle of the night, but without giving the extra information about WHY the change was made.

The updated Design Notes post read:

Blacksmithing rep and quests that unlock enhancements that apply additional combat effects
House item that opens up Awe Enhancements shop

TL;DR + important information:

The plan for blacksmithing is to create new enhancements that function similarly to awe enhancements, and quests to unlock these
These enhancement effects will be designed to give you more interesting ways to build and play
The plan has always been for this- we mistakenly wrote it in an ambiguous way, leaving it too open for interpretation
We changed the wording in the design notes to be more clear about this, so players don't get the wrong idea
The unannounced DN post change lead to even more confusion. We've taken steps to avoid these late-night "silent" Design Notes updates in the future.

Tags: Alina,

April 02, 2022

EGG-Cellent Victory

THE CHICKENCOW IS FRIED!

OMG you guys! You took down the 500 BILLION HP boss in only 27 hours. O_O We expected this to take at least a day or two longer, but you guys are INSANE. You all finished this SO FAST that we didn't have time to add the Savior of Battleon reward sets. Those will arrive next week, and will require Meateor Shards + other resources... so save up!

The boss fight has now been so more heroes can farm it + experience the event.
The character page badge requirements have been changed. Talk to Cysero at any point during the event. All you need to complete it and unlock the badge is 1 Feather drop from the ChickenCow.
A NEW badge will be added this coming week for anyone donating at least 100,000,000 (100 million) gold to help rebuild Battleontown
Battleontown room cap increased to 20

Tags: Alina,

April 01, 2022

April Fowls: The Chicken Cow Egg-vasion!

Beak-ing News!

For several weeks, a mysteriously egg-shaped meteor has been flying closer and closer to Battleon… and today it CRASHED into Battleon*, wiping out much of the town. Upon impact, the meteor… hatched?!?!... into a terrifyingly titan-sized, fowl beast: A GIANT CHICKENCOW?! O_O

This weekend, we need all the heroes of Lore to band together as we bring you a fearsomely-fowl event filled with Meateor puns and delicious rewards! Talk to Cysero and Warlic in Battleon to begin!

Battle the ChickenCow WORLD BOSS – all attacks across all servers will impact the same health meter.
Donate gold to help fund the re-building of Battleon
The more gold we raise, the more new features we’ll unlock in town
Unlock two new event character page badges

* There was no MOO-ving town this time! So many heroes have been busy down in the Underworld fighting for Evil, there was almost no one looking UP at the sky to notice it.

Meatier Meateor Rares + Rewards

We build silly things. Often. But never quite like we do during our April Fools events! This weekend, log in milk the the Giant ChickenCow for all its worth! (... Ew.)

25 new rare items in your Featured Gear Shop
16 new rewards from Cysero's Fiery Feathers boss farm quest
9 new rewards from the Meateor Shard merge shop

April Fowls Rare Gear

DragonRider Twilly armor
5 Twilly Morph helms (Gleeful, Goggle helms, Dragon Mask + Morph)
Flying Chocolate Eggs cape
DragonMog Twilly Pet
Fiery DragonClaws Gauntlet
DracolichRider Zorbak armor
5 Zorbak Morph helms (Gleeful, Goggle helms, Dracolich Mask + Morph)
Flying Dracolich Eyes cape
DracolichMog Zorbak Pet
Shadowy Dragon Claws Gauntlet
Enchanted ChickenCow BeastMaster armor + Helm (fully color-customizable)

Cysero's Fiery Feathers boss farm quest

Boxadin Set
Choco Blade of Doom
Slice of Awe
Taro's Pocky ManSlayer
Burger of Destiny Axe
Cardboard of Awe Blade
4 deliciously stylish helms
Altar of Caladbacon O_O******
Apple Trobble (goes great with scrambled ChickenCow Eggs!)

Meateor Merge Shop

ChickenCow BeastMaster armor + helm
Taro's Pocky ManSlayer daggers
Burgers of Destiny
Overboard Blade of Boxgath
Caladboard Blade
Egg-shaped Trobble
Blinding Box of Destiny

****** The AC rare Caladbacon Blade arrives next week in your Featured Gear Shop

Our 1st Fowl World Boss O_O

For those of you familiar with MMOs, this is familiar territory. But AQWorlds has never had a world boss done quite like this.**

Every player in the entire world is attacking the SAME world boss
It is a single boss monster with a health bar that spans every server and every instance

BONUS: normally, rewards drop when a monster dies. But THIS big boy has 500,000,000,000 (that's 500 BILLION) hit points, so it would have taken quite a while to get your loot.

To keep your battle-frenzy focused, Captain Rhubarb, Spider, and Eht (one of our game designers + balancers) worked together to come up with a new system:

Every time you hit the Giant Chickencow, there's a chance you'll get a Fiery Feather drop. NEAT! Save these up to complete Cysero's quest to collect merge shop resources.

Once the Giant ChickenCow dies, complete Cysero's quest to unlock the Fowl Victory character page badge!

Note: Since this is an April Fools event, we can break ALL the rules. That means once the event is over, we're going to reset the world boss health meter so heroes who couldn't log in this weekend can have a chance to take it down + collect the Fiery Feathers.

** It is a lot like a war, but instead of all your attacks -- and the attacks of other heroes -- helping to RAISE a war meter, we're all helping to take DOW the HP meter of the boss.

Gold Donations Needed for New Battleontown

It’s going to take a lot to fund the repairs, but we ALWAYS come back better than before, and with your help, we'll do it again! Talk to Cysero to help fund the rebuilding of Battleontown.

Buy building supplies in his shop to increase the reconstruction fund meter.
The more you buy****, the more new features we can unlock as we rebuild town next week
Donate 15 Million Gold worth of supplies to unlock an exclusive character page badge I'll even give you a swanky badge!

We really need the help, because Battleontown got WRECKED. While we are raising funds to restore Battleontown, the following zones will not be accessible, due to Health and Safety Violations put in place by the Battleon Town Council.

Museum
Yulgars
Bank
Trainers
Petshop
Curio
Guardiantower
Librarium

These maps will re-open next Friday, April 8th.

Battleontown Reconstruction Fund

All good charity drives come with a goal board... and rewards for reaching them. We're no different! Donate building supplies to Cysero to increase the Reconstruction Meter and unlock new rewards when we begin repairing Battleontown's buildings***** next week.

75 Billion Gold: Bank interior remodel

150 Billion Gold: Trainers Hall interior remodel

250 Billion Gold: Curio Building interior remodel, new Artifact Catalog interface to help you find rewards more easily

400 Billion Gold: Explorer's Guild replaces Guild Hall

New hub for all the random encounters and single-instance adventures spread across the game
New hub for the Daily Quests board tracking all of the available daily quests in the game

700 Billion Gold: Yulgar's Inn interior remodel + expansion

Additional room/s added
Character customization room moved to the first floor
Room cap increase

1 Trillion Gold: Forge remodel + expansion this Summer

Blacksmithing rep and quests that unlock enhancements that apply additional combat effects
House item that opens up Awe Enhancements shop

*** Buying building supplies beats direct donations.
**** These supplies will not take up any inventory spaces. They’ll go straight to the Construction Sneevils and will increase the Reconstruction Meter at the top of your screen.
***** Most of the exterior areas of town will remain the same. We're focusing on building interiors + new features next week!

Even MOO-RE ChickenCow Events

A high-steaks Chickencow Egg-vasion is happening now across 5 Artix Entertainment video games. Have you herd about the meat-eor!? That comet moooving through the sky has crashed... and its actually a legen-dairy egg! MooTube videos from Unrelia-bull sources show it crashed in 5 different games. "COW-BOOM!" The big egg-splosion unleashed... The Chicken Cow Egg-Vasion!

Stop the Apo-COW-lypse in 5 games O_O

It is udder madness...

Happy April Fowl's Day, heroes!

Tags: Alina,

April 01, 2022

Now available: NecroStorm Summoner Pack

Upgrade to unlock the exclusive armor sets

Channeling elemental energy siphoned from the storms that tear through the peaks of Thunderfang Spire, the Lightning Necromancers that rule there terrify all who oppose them. Their threat? Unleashing the NecroStorm! Get the NecroStorm Summoner upgrade bonus pack when you buy any AdventureCoin or Membership package of $10 USD or more and unlock 19 color custom armors and a character page badge.

After you purchase an account upgrade, select a bonus set of your choice from a list of options in your Account Manager.

Pack Details

Choose the NecroStorm Summoner Bonus Pack to unlock the full pack of color customizable gear.

NecroStorm Lich armor (dark bone variant)
3 NecroStorm Lich helms
2 NecroStorm Lich capes
3 NecroStorm Lich weapons
Lightning Necromancer armor (light bone variant)
3 Lightning Necromancer helms
2 Lightning Necromancer capes
3 Lightning Necromancer weapons
NecroStorm Resurrection ground item (hands are holding lightning)
NecroStorm Victim ground item (shown below, hands not holding lightning)
An exclusive character page badge

Once you've chosen the NecroStorm Summoner Bonus Pack on the Account Manager page, log in and find the set's shop in the Other Achievements tab in your Book of Lore.

12000 AC or 12 month membership package rewards:

ALL the NecroStorm Summoner gear
7 Rep/XP/Gold/Class Points boosts
10 Wheel of Doom Tickets (worth 2,000 ACs!)
and a character page badge

Boosts and Doom Tickets will be added directly to your inventory.

2k and 5k AC or 1, 3, or 6 month membership package rewards:

ALL the NecroStorm Summoner gear
5 Rep/XP/Gold/Class Points boosts
and a character page badge

FINAL WEEKEND to get 25% more free bonus ACs

Get 25% more FREE bonus AdventureCoins with any AdventureCoin or Membership package you buy during our Spring AdventureCoins bonus, but remember: the bonus ends this Tuesday, April 5th. If you want to make the most out of all our Spring holiday events and the featured rare Darkon's Saga gear sets, this is the best time to top up your ACs before our April releases begin!

Wait...AdventureCoin Bonus?!

That's right! Several times each year, we have bonus AdventureCoin offers (example: Summer, Back to School, and during the holidays). Bonus amounts and dates may change from year to year, so keep an eye on the Design Notes and social media for more news of future bonuses.

Mythic Item of Digital Awesomeness?!

The Mythic Item of Digital Awesomeness (or MIoDA for short) is a miscellaneous item you will get by purchasing the 40k AdventureCoin pakage. Like the other IoDA items, it allows you to choose any item in the game when you redeem it through your Account Manager.

How to Claim your MIoDA Prize

Make sure you have a confirmed email address attached to your game account, and then follow these steps:

Decide on the item you want
Log into your Account Manager
Click on the "Awesome Prizes" link on the sidebar
You'll see a list of the IoDA tokens you have available
Choose from a list of ALL the eligible item rewards
You'll be taken to a verification page to confirm your choice

Note: If you purchased any AC or membership package on February 28th, later today Captain Rhubarb will be retroactively awarding you the bonus ACs, too.

Tags: Alina,